Evening Summary
Wrapping up our live politics coverage for tonight. You can continue to follow our global coronavirus liveblog for updates around the world.
A summary of the key news from today:
- Trump signed a historic $2.2tn emergency relief package into law.
- After delays, the president finally invoked the Defense Production Act to require General Motors to start making ventilators.
- At the daily White House coronavirus briefing, Trump said that in the next 100 days, the United States would try to produce or obtain 100,000 ventilators.
- Trump said that the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, told him today “We need ventilators,” and that if the US made more ventilators than it needed, it would share them with the UK, Italy and other allies.
- Asked if every American who needed a ventilator would have one during this crisis, Trump lashed out against the reporter, calling him a “cutie pie” and “wise guy” and complained about the difficult situation he had inherited.
- The conditions in US immigration detention centers sparked a condemnation from Iran’s foreign minister, who called on the US to release Iranians, including a doctor currently being held in an Ice detention center in Louisiana.
Updated
Hundreds of employees of Bird, a scooter startup based in California, were laid off on Friday as the company grapples with decreased demand amid the coronavirus epidemic.
My friend just got laid off along with 400 other employees by dialing into a pre-recorded Zoom message. Her manager never even called to say goodbye. The virus may be out of your control, but how humanely you handle it is not.
— Julia Black (@mjnblack) March 27, 2020
“The unprecedented Covid-19 crisis has forced our leadership team and the board of directors to make many extremely difficult and painful decisions relating to some of your teammates”, the Bird CEO, Travis VanderZanden, wrote to staffers in a memo obtained by the Guardian.
The layoffs represent about 30% of the workforce of the shared scooter company. Bird confirmed the layoffs and said former employees will receive four weeks of pay and three months of health coverage.
The company disputed reports that layoffs were carried out over a pre-recorded message on Zoom video conferencing. From Bird:
“Bird employees are currently all working from home and the impacted individuals received the news on a web-based call. We purposefully and intentionally did not have any video on to protect privacy as we delivered the news live to individuals. A live speaker delivered the news over the web-based call and a slide was projected outlining additional information including four weeks of pay, three months of medical coverage and an extended timeframe to exercise options. Each individual then received a call or email from Bird’s talent team as a follow up. We are eternally grateful to the impacted individuals and wish that the entire situation could have been avoided.”
Bird’s layoffs come as many shared transportation companies struggle in the face of a global pandemic. Lime scooters have suspended service in the Bay Area in light of health concerns and Gig car share took cars off the streets to clean them this week, before reinstating them on Friday.
Updated
Iranian minister calls for release of Iranian doctor in Ice custody
The current situation in America’s immigration detention centers is sparking international condemnation.
Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, has called on the US to release Iranians jailed on sanctions-related issues as concerns about the spread of coronavirus are dramatically escalating. Citing the Guardian’s reporting on one Iranian scientist’s ongoing detention in an Louisiana, Zarif accused the US of taking “several Iranian scientists hostage” and keeping “innocent men jailed in horrific facilities”:
US has taken several Iranian scientists hostage—without charge or on spurious sanctions charges—& not releasing them; even when its OWN courts reject the absurd charges
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) March 27, 2020
US even refuses medical furlough—amid #covid19—for innocent men jailed in horrific facilities
Release our men pic.twitter.com/XQxDr10sw7
Dr Sirous Asgari, a materials science and engineering professor, was exonerated in a US sanctions trial last year, but remains jailed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice). Speaking by phone from an Ice facility in Louisiana, he told the Guardian this week that the conditions inside were filthy and overcrowded, and officials were doing little to prevent a deadly Covid-19 outbreak:
What it's like right now in one Louisiana ICE detention facility, according to a jailed Iranian scientist inside:
— Sam Levin (@SamTLevin) March 27, 2020
-no hand sanitizer, no regular cleaning of bathrooms. He and other detainees are cleaning when they can, with minimal soap avail. (THREAD) https://t.co/LT9a6M6pYH
Dr. Sirous Asgari: “The way that they have been treating us is absolutely terrifying. I don’t think many people in the US know what is happening inside."
— Sam Levin (@SamTLevin) March 27, 2020
“They are downplaying it in this facility, that it is safe … But coronavirus is a viral bomb waiting to blow up here.” pic.twitter.com/rhVE8DSNuP
After Asgari was acquitted on charges of stealing trade secrets, he tried to “self deport” back to Iran, but Ice has kept him indefinitely detained. Asgari said detainees at his facility have no hand sanitizer and that Ice is not regularly cleaning the bathrooms. For two weeks, he said Ice also refused to let him use a mask he had brought with him even though he has a history of respiratory problems.
In his tweet today, Zarif said the US was jailing Iranians “without charge or on spurious sanctions charges” and refusing to release them even when its OWN courts reject the absurd charges”.
Read more on Dr Asgari’s situation here:
Updated
Dr Fauci goes deep: ‘We’re in uncharted waters’
Authority. Experience. The ability to communicate.
Dr Anthony Fauci has become a trusted figure for many Americans overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.
Today, at the end of another contentious and partially accurate White House coronavirus briefing, a reporter asked Fauci to take a step back and address a more philosophical question. In his years of responding to serious epidemics, had he experienced anything like the past month in the United States?
While the HIV/Aids epidemic was incredibly devastating, the suffering and deaths unfolded more slowly than what people around the world are experiencing now, Fauci said.
“What we’re seeing now, in actual real time, is something that’s unprecedented. This is something we have never seen before, at least in our generation. They’ve seen maybe something like this 100 years ago.”
“We’re really being challenged to not only learn in real time, to be able to respond in a way that’s helpful an effective, we’re also in uncharted waters. That is the thing that I find different...”
“It isn’t as if we have an example of how to do it.”
Updated
Los Angeles CCs 200 people on Covid-19 testing results email
It appears the city of Los Angeles inadvertently notified more than 200 people about their Covid-19 results in a mass email that included the names of all recipients, according to LA Times reporter Soumya Karlamangla:
apparently the city of LA notified people of their negative covid results in a mass email but didn’t bcc anyone, so all 200+ recipients could see the names of everyone else who got tested, which is a huge privacy violation
— Soumya (@skarlamangla) March 27, 2020
The mass email, which reportedly failed to blind copy the recipients, was informing them of negative results, according to a screenshot posted by Karlamangla, who noted this was a major privacy violation:
this was the email forwarded to me. not including the long list of recipients for obvious reasons pic.twitter.com/HIl21Cxc2B
— Soumya (@skarlamangla) March 27, 2020
The email came from someone listed as a contract specialist for the mayor’s office of public safety, writing on behalf of the health department’s Covid-19 response team. Spokespeople for the mayor’s office did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request for comment this afternoon.
Update, 6:45pm local time in California: A spokesperson for the mayor has responded to the Guardian’s questions, saying staff “accidentally” emailed results to 216 recipients who tested negative without blind copying the addresses, adding: “We apologize for this error, have alerted the recipients of yesterday’s email and have revised the protocols associated with all notifications of this type to protect against any future disclosures.”
Updated
During briefing, Trump feuds with state governors, makes false claims
Two key moments from Trump’s coronavirus briefing today.
Trump tossed out barbs at state governors he said have been insufficiently gracious to him, and said he advised the vice-president, Mike Pence, just not to return their calls. (But added that Pence called them anyway.)
! Trump says he's told Vice President Mike Pence not to call the governors of Washington or Michigan.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 27, 2020
"They don't treat you right, I don't call."
He says Pence is a different type of person and will call anyway.
And asked if his administration’s belated push to manufacture or obtain 100,000 ventilators meant that everyone who needed a ventilator will be able to get one, he lashed out at the reporter asking the question, calling him a “wise guy” and complaining about all the problems he had inherited.
Incredible moment.@jonkarl asks multiple times: Will everyone who needs a ventilator have one?
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 27, 2020
President Trump: “Don’t be a cutie pie. Everyone who needs one?"
Updated
Fact check: transition to online public school classes was not seamless
Besty DeVos, the education secretary, claimed in the White House briefing today that the transition to online classes had been “seamless”.
Fact: around 15% of households with school-age children don’t have internet at home, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of 2015 census data. In addition, 20% of teens told Pew researchers (in a separate survey) that they often or sometimes can’t complete homework assignments because they don’t have reliable access to the internet or a computer. Both reports found that affected students are more likely to be from low-income and minority families.
Angela Siefer, the executive director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance, told City Lab: “The kids whose families do have internet connection are going to have at least some learning continuing during this period, and the kids who don’t won’t.”
Updated
Panera Bread partnering with the USDA to serve meals to kids
One of the country’s fast casual food chains announced a partnership with the department of agriculture and a children’s hunger group to serve fresh, healthy meals to kids across Ohio, and eventually across multiple states.
Fact check: has Trump always taken coronavirus seriously?
Trump today switched from saying that the coronavirus pandemic was unpredictable (see news coverage yesterday), to again claiming he’d always taken it seriously: ‘I was the first one to say to China, when they had the problem, not to come in and that was a long time ago.’
In fact, at the beginning of the coronavirus crisis, Trump repeatedly downplayed the threat, inaccurately comparing it to the flu and told his supporters that growing worry about the coronavirus was a “hoax..
By the time Trump announced travel restrictions from China on 31 January, most major airlines had already suspended flights, following the lead of several major international carriers that had stopped due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Updated
Advocates for students with disabilities are worried
As the education secretary, Besty DeVos, wraps up her briefing, worth reading this important story:
The new federal relief package gives Betsy Devos 30 days to waive additional provisions of the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act to provide schools with "limited flexibility."
— NPR (@NPR) March 27, 2020
This makes disability advocates nervous. https://t.co/SR1xqt0KUn
Updated
The education secretary, Besty DeVos, is now at the podium at the White House briefing giving an update on efforts to support students even as schools are closed.
She also gave a salute to many teachers and other Americans who were doing inspiring things to keep kids learning and on track. In her list: the heroic volunteering efforts of....Karen Pence, the wife of the vice president, Mike Pence.
DeVos says 47 states have requested school testing waivers for 2019-20 academic year and 46 have been approved within 24 hours.
— Andrew Kreighbaum (@kreighbaum) March 27, 2020
Updated
Fact check: No, there will not be enough ventilators for every American
In the White House press conference just now, Trump got testy when a reporter pressed him to answer whether he could say that every American who needed a ventilator would be able to access one. Trump did not answer. Instead, he complained that he had inherited a broken and unprepared country.
The real answer to the question: no.
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine published on Wednesday 25 March categorically concluded that the US does not have enough ventilators to treat patients with Covid-19 in the coming months.
The authors, American public health experts, wrote:
“There is a broad range of estimates of the number of ventilators we will need to care for U.S. patients with Covid-19, from several hundred thousand to as many as a million. The estimates vary depending on the number, speed, and severity of infections, of course, but even the availability of testing affects the number of ventilators needed.... current estimates of the number of ventilators in the United States range from 60,000 to 160,000, depending on whether those that have only partial functionality are included. The national strategic reserve of ventilators is small and far from sufficient for the projected gap. No matter which estimate we use, there are not enough ventilators for patients with Covid-19 in the upcoming months.”
Updated
Trump says of coronavirus ‘I’m not sure people know what it is’
“You can call it a germ, a flu, a virus, you can call it many things. I’m not sure people know what it is.”
That’s the extraordinary comment that Trump made about coronavirus, in an off-hand way, as he riffed on his answer to a question about what he would tell American schoolchildren right now.
Fact check: people know what it is: coronavirus disease (Covid-19) is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus called Sars-CoV-2.
Updated
Asked if everyone who needs a ventilator will get one, Trump says 'don't be a cutie pie'
Can you promise that everyone who needs a ventilator get one? a reporter just asked Trump at the White House briefing.
“I think we’re in really good shape,” Trump said. “I think we’re in great shape.”
“We’ve distributed vast numbers of ventilators and we’re prepared to do vast numbers.”
The reporter pressed Trump again: Will everyone who needs a ventilator get one?
“Don’t be a cutie pie,” Trump told the reporter, repeating, mockingly, “‘Everyone who needs one.’”
“Nobody’s ever done what we’ve done,” Trump went on. He complained the country “was a mess” when he took over. “It was a broken country in so many ways. We had a bad testing system. We hd a bad stockpiling system.”
By asking the question about whether every American who needs a ventilator will get one, Trump said, the reporter was “being a wise guy.”
Fact check: ‘We have the smartest people in the world’
Reassuring Americans that the coronavirus pandemic is very much under control in the United States, Trump said ‘we [the US] have the smartest people in the world.’
Should you want to fact check that claim:
Research by Vouchercloud quantifies intelligence to include the number of Nobel Prizes each nation has won to represent historic intelligence, the current average IQ and ‘education attainment’ to represent the potential intelligence of the next generation.
According to that study, the US ranks fourth behind Japan, Switzerland and China.
Trump’s message to school kids stuck at home
Many American kids are stuck at home, frustrated, stir-crazy, and doing some school classes online, which is a poor substitute for actually learning in school, one White House reporter told Trump. What message does the president have for them?
“You are a citizen of the greatest country in the world and we were attacked,” Trump said.
“We’re winning the battle and we’re going to win the war and it’s not going to take hopefully that much longer.”
“They have a duty to sit back, watch, behave, wash their hands, stay in the apartment with mom and dad and just learn form it.”
“Some of them are really happy not to go to school,” Trump added.
Then, back on message: “They should sit back and be very proud of our country, because we’re doing it for them.”
Updated
Fact check: has the federal government built hospitals in Washington?
Trump said most governors were very grateful to him and the federal government, but once again picked on a handful of governors including Jay Inslee of Washington state, who he referred to as a failed presidential candidate who’s always complaining.
“We’ve built hospitals in Washington,” Trump said.
Fact: makeshift field hospitals are springing up in Washington thanks to local authorities and the Lummi nation. Trump has promised to build a new “medical station” in Washington, but that has not happened yet.
Updated
Trump says he’s impressed by people complying with social distancing
Trump said he was astonished to see so few people on the streets, and how well people were complying with social distancing measures even though there was not “a law” to make them comply.
There were two reasons for that, he said.
“They are afraid,” he said, but also, “they really are wanting to win this thing.”
Trump less bullish on reopening the economy immediately
After spending the early part of this week pledging that he wanted to end restrictive public health measures in weeks, possibly by Easter Sunday, Trump is now striking a more moderate tone, and suggesting public health guidelines might stay in place longer.
Q: How long will Americans have to social distance?
— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) March 27, 2020
Pres Trump: "It depends. We do want to flatten the curve...I certainly want to get it (govt) open as soon as possible...but we also want it to open safe."
He said he "hopes" it won't be months before guidelines are eased.
Fact check: is the US testing more people than any country in the world?
Claim: Trump said the US is now testing 100,000 people a day, more than any other country in the world.
Fact: about 65,000 coronavirus tests a day are currently being done on Americans – a massive rise from 10 days ago but still 35,000 short of Trump’s claim. Public health experts reckon 150,000 tests are needed every day so that infected patients can be identified quickly, traced and quarantined.
The US has overtaken South Korea in total numbers of coronavirus tests administered, but, it has conducted far fewer tests per capita. As of Friday, the United States, with a population of 329 million, had administered at least 540,718, according to the Covid Tracking Project, a group led by Alexis Madrigal, a staff writer for the Atlantic magazine, with more than 100 volunteers, that compiles coronavirus testing data from states.
This equates to 175 tests per 100,000 people in the US (with huge variations depending on the county, city and state) compared to 709 per 100,000 in South Korea and 600 per 100,000 in Italy.
Updated
Trump: UK prime minister told him 'We Need Ventilators'
Trump said that the UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, who has tested positive for coronavirus, spoke with him today, and “The first thing he said to me is: ‘We need ventilators.’”
Trump said that it was unfortunate that Johnson had tested positive, but that he was going to be fine.
Trump mentioned Johnson “asking for ventilators today” twice, once in the context of a question about why Trump had gone from dismissing New York’s needed for 30,000 ventilators yesterday on Fox News to announcing the US would try to obtain or manufacture 100,000 ventilators in the next few months, and would share them with other countries if they were not needed in the United States.
Updated
Fact check
Trump said the federal government had ‘delivered thousands [of ventilators] to New York and they didn’t know they got them.’
Fact: Governor Andrew Cuomo says New York had 4,000 ventilators when the crisis began and has since bought another 7,000, but needs 30,000 more ventilators. In the past few days, the federal government has pledged a total of 4,000 ventilators to New York; this is additional to 400 that Fema has already sent.
In an interview on Fox TV on Thursday, Trump said: he doesn’t believe New York needs that many. “I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they’re going to be,” Trump said. “I don’t believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators. You go into major hospitals sometimes, and they’ll have two ventilators. And now all of a sudden they’re saying, ‘Can we order 30,000 ventilators?’”
Updated
Trump says US could share ventilators with Italy, UK, other 'friends'
Just last night, Donald Trump was on Fox News saying that he was skeptical that New York needed 30,000 or 40,000 ventilators.
Today, he’s invoked the Defense Production Act to mandate that General Motors manufacture ventilators, and is saying at a White House press briefing that the US will be manufacturing or obtaining 100,000 ventilators, not just for American hospitals but also for other countries that might need them.
Asked by a reporter about about his claim last night that these ventilators were not needed, Trump said, “Well, I think that there’s a very good chance we won’t need that many.”
“But you know, there’s a lot of other countries that are going to need them. There are countries all over the world who are friends of ours.”
“We can make them, and if we don’t need them...that’s OK. We can help Italy. We can help UK.”
“All over the world they want them, and we’re in the position to make them, and others aren’t.”
Updated
A new fact-check of the claims Trump is making in this press conference.
Trump said that the United States had been building new hospitals in two or three days, and “that’s never been done before”.
Fact: the army corps of engineers has set-up field hospitals in countries across the world within days, but so far, the first is yet to open in the US to treat Covid-19 patients. The corps is currently assessing 114 different facilities in 50 states and five territories, according to Lieutenant General Todd Semonite. He said the corps had assessed 81 of the facilities so far, and hoped to have 2,910 rooms ready at the Javits Center in New York by Monday.
Updated
Trump said that in the next hundred days the US will produce 100,000 ventilators, which he said was three times the number of ventilators made “during a regular year in the United States”.
With new contracts, Trump says, ventilator production will increase substantially.
— Jonathan Cohn (@CitizenCohn) March 27, 2020
Normal annual output, Trump says, is 29,000. Plan for next few months: 100,000.
Maggie Haberman, the New York Times White House correspondent, added some context:
For context, this is a staggering amount that would likely require more than a dozen companies to be working constantly to produce them. https://t.co/6Wds74TP6S
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 27, 2020
Updated
After many delays, and then a series of tweets earlier today, Donald Trump is invoking the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to built ventilators for hospitals, he announced at the White House’s daily coronavirus briefing, he announced at a White House briefing.
The Defense Production Act gives the president powers to direct domestic industrial production to provide essential materials and goods needed in a national security crisis.
It allows the president to require businesses and corporations to prioritize and accept contracts for required materials and services.
While Trump likes to work cooperatively with the private sector, he said, “Where an emergency exists and it’s very important that we get to the bottom line and quickly, we will do what we have to do.”
“It’s been a brutal pandemic,” Trump said at the beginning of the briefing.
Updated
The White House coronavirus briefing is about to begin....stand by.
National Rifle Association sues California officials over gun store closures
Lois Beckett here taking over our live politics coverage here from our California bureau.
We’re expecting a White House coronavirus press briefing shortly.
Meanwhile, a new front in the battle by American gun rights activists to ensure that gun and ammunition sellers must be deemed “essential businesses” that cannot be shut down, even during a public health crisis: the National Rifle Association and other groups have filed a lawsuit against the California governor, Gavin Newsom, the Los Angeles county sheriff, and other state and local officials.
Yesterday, the Los Angeles county sheriff, Alex Villanueva, once again ordered gun shops to close during the coronavirus crisis, citing public health concerns over long lines at gun stores due to panic buying of guns and ammunition.
A county legal counsel had advised that gun stores were essential businesses and should remain open.
California officials are exploiting the Coronavirus to close gun stores. Today, the @NRA filed suit.
— NRA (@NRA) March 27, 2020
To those officials who are infringing upon the rights of gun owners and retailers, we’ll see you in court.
Thanks to @2AFDN, @CGFgunrights, & @gunpolicy for joining this suit. pic.twitter.com/MZNs5s1NP8
Updated
Trump signs stimulus package into law
Trump just signed the $2.2tn stimulus package into law. The bill, named the Cares Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act), gives aid to corporation, businesses and taxpayers and eventually received bipartisan report after a tumultuous week in Congress.
Updated
Navy hospital ship docked in Los Angeles
The Mercy hospital ship docked at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday, ready to help California meet an expected surge on hospital beds and provide space to treat patients.
Docked ships serve as a backdrop as California governor Gavin Newsom joined Los Angeles mayor Eric Garcetti to host an afternoon press conference in front of docked ships, underway now.
The Mercy, a Navy hospital ship, has about 800 medical staffers, 1,000 hospital beds and 12 operating rooms.
The ship will be used to provide care for patients who don’t have Covid-19 so space in hospitals can be used for patients battling the virus.
California Governor Gavin Newsom said earlier this week the state will need to add 50,000 hospital beds to help the state prevent a surge on hospitals, like the one now overwhelming New York hospitals.
Newsom also announced Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday announced a temporary ban on evictions statewide for those affected by the coronavirus. The order prevents landlords from evicting tenants for not paying, and extends through May 31 and covers those who’ve lost work due to the outbreak.
Updated
Fourth US representative tests positive for Covid-19
A fourth member of the US House of Representatives has been tested positive for Covid-19. US representative Mike Kelly, a Republican from Pennsylvania, says that he tested positive and is experience mild flu-like symptoms. Kelly is at his home in Pennsylvania.
Kelly is the fourth member of the House, and the fifth member of Congress, to test positive for Covid-19.
Today I received word that I tested positive for COVID-19. My symptoms are mild, and I will continue serving Pennsylvania's 16th District from home until I fully recover.
— Rep. Mike Kelly (@MikeKellyPA) March 27, 2020
Read my full statement here: ⬇️https://t.co/63g1zGHK9L
Louisiana reports 119 dead from Covid-19
Louisiana governor John Bel Edwards has just concluded his daily press briefing and reported the state’s largest day-on-day death toll increase.
119 people have now died from Covid-19, an increase of 39 in 24 hours.
There are 2,746 cases of the virus in the state, 441 more than yesterday, marking a 19% increase. This is not the sharpest increase in confirmed cases of the virus in the state, but the governor adds that there was less testing yesterday than the day before.
“We are doing everything within our power to respond to this crisis,” Edwards said. “We remain on the growth curve, the trajectory that we don’t like.”
The state is still on track to reach hospital capacity by the first week of April. “[The] trajectory suggests won’t be able to cope,” Edwards said.
In an indication of the scale of the crisis and the difficulty the state is facing, Edwards says he has requested 12,000 additional ventilators, 5,000 from the national stockpile and the rest from the private sector. He has received just 192.
The state requested federal assistance to create four, 250 bed new hospital units. It was approved for half of those.
Edwards say that to date no state inmates have tested positive for Covid-19. Louisiana has the highest rate of incarceration anywhere in the United States.
The White House just confirmed that it is invoking the Defense Production Act to require General Motors to start making ventilators.
there it is pic.twitter.com/JuKDgpUEuq
— Kate Bennett (@KateBennett_DC) March 27, 2020
United Airlines says layoffs are expected
United Airlines says that it expects to conduct layoffs as a result of the dramatic drop in flights the airline has seen in the last few weeks, according to CNBC. The number of people laid off has yet to be announced.
This is in spite of the stimulus package Congress just passed, and the president will be signing in a few minutes, that will give commercial airline carriers $50bn in loans.
“The global economy has taken a big hit, and we don’t expect travel demand to snap back for some time,” United CEO Oscar Munoz said in a statement. The company said it has had to cut scheduled flights by 60% and they expect planes to fly at 20% full or less.
Donald Trump will be signing the stimulus package at 4pm this afternoon.
The signing will be followed by a news conference at 5pm.
Will be signing the CARE Act in the Oval Office today at 4:00 P.M. Eastern! https://t.co/0WnTNFZPZD
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
Updated
Donald Trump just released an ad called “Hope” that uses sound bytes from various public figures that make it appear they are praising the president for his efforts combating Covid-19.
Reposting - the president, who has accused Democrats of politicizing the coronavirus, is out with an ad using various public statements in misleading ways to highlight his response https://t.co/QwrG5AivMY
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) March 27, 2020
Florida to set up checkpoints to intercept travelers coming from Gulf Coast
At a press conference just now, Florida governor Ron DeSantis announced that the state will be setting up checkpoints at major entryways into the state from the Gulf Coast. The state has been trying to intercept travelers coming from hotspot areas, including New York and Louisiana.
Lots of news coming down from this DeSantis presser. FL’s intercepted 3,400 travelers in the NYC-area travel restriction and DeSantis is adding NOLA/Louisiana to the restriction to help ease some concerns in the Panhandle. Checkpoints will be going up on roads. #coronavirus 1/2
— Renzo Downey (@RenzoDowney) March 27, 2020
DeSantis ordered schools, bars and restaurants closed, but he has been criticized for not ordering nonessential workers to stay at home. Florida has nearly 3,000 cases of the illness with a death toll of 35.
Third House rep tests positive for Covid-19
Joe Cunningham, a Democratic representative from South Carolina, said that he tested positive for Covid-19.
Cunningham, who is in self-quarantine at his home South Carolina, said that he started to lose his sense of smell and taste, which are potential symptoms of the illness.
He is the third member of the House to test positive for Covid-19. Two other representatives, one from Florida and another from Utah, said they tested positive last week.
Joe Cunningham, a freshman Dem from SC, becomes the third House member to test positive for Covid-19. Rand Paul is the only senator to test positive. Here’s Cunningham’s statement. pic.twitter.com/qpZZVlx7Vb
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 27, 2020
Workers at McDonald’s, Waffle House and other fast-food and retail outlets have gone on strike today across Durham and Raleigh in North Carolina in protest against unsafe working conditions, lost hours and pay cuts.
The workers are demanding increased safety protocols and payment for lost hours as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Fast-food companies have been designated as essential services and can remain open, but the strikers say they have treated their workers as anything but essential, failing to protect them against infections and laying them off as soon as they are not needed.
“Frontline workers like us are getting hit the hardest right now,” said Rita Blalock, a McDonald’s cook in Raleigh. “McDonald’s is calling itself an “essential business’ but isn’t providing us with the essential protections we need to be safe at work.”
We wrote about this escalating issue earlier this month. Read our story here:
Four passengers aboard Zaandam cruise ship dead from flu-like symptoms
Four passengers of the Zaandam cruise ship have died from what appears to be Covid-19, according to the Miami Herald. About 150 passengers on the ship, which is awaiting permission to pass through the Panama Canal, with the end destination of Port Everglades in Florida, have developed flu-like symptoms. Carnival Corp. is the owner of the ship.
The captain of the ship announced the deaths to crew members and passengers Friday afternoon and said that healthy passengers would be evacuated onto a nearby sister ship.
Cruise ships have been a hotbed for the spread of Covid-19, starting with the Diamond Princess, which was quarantined off the coast of Japan in early February and saw more than 700 people onboard infected. At least 25 other cruise ships have seen confirmed cases onboard.
Instacart workers plan nationwide strike
Instacart workers are planning a nationwide strike beginning Monday, until the company gives them hazard pay, safety gear and paid leave for sick and at-risk employees.
They want an additional $5 per order and an automatic tip of 10%, and they are asking for hand sanitizer, disinfectant wipes and sprays and soap. They also want workers who are at higher risk because of pre-existing conditions or require self-quarantine to get “an extension and expansion of pay.”
Instacart has offered workers up to two weeks of paid leave if they test positive for Covid-19, but tests are in short supply. The offer lasts only until April 8, according to Vice.
The Instacart Shoppers and Gig Workers Collective said their requests have so far been ignored.
“Instacart has turned this pandemic into a PR campaign, portraying itself the hero of families that are sheltered-in-place, isolated, or quarantined,” a Medium post from organizers said. “Instacart has still not provided essential protections to Shoppers on the front lines that could prevent them from becoming carriers, falling ill themselves, or worse. Instacart’s promise to pay Shoppers up to 14 days of pay if diagnosed or placed in mandatory quarantine not only falls short, but isn’t even being honored.”
Instacart is currently trying to hire 300,000 additional workers to meet higher demand.
The company just posted what appears to be a response to news of the strike on Medium, emphasizing the measures the company has taken in response to Covid-19.
“Communities across North America are facing challenges brought by this uncertain time, and we’re immensely grateful for all that you do to support families and people in need by delivering their groceries and everyday goods,” Instacart said in its statement.
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The bill – the largest stimulus package in US history – went through a tumultuous journey through Congress, though it is expected to go into law once Donald Trump signs it.
Senate Republicans drafted the bill last week and went through around-the-clock negotiations with Senate Democrats and the White House to get everyone on the same page.
There was a lot of disagreement over how much money to give corporations and what kind of oversight would be given for federal loans. Democrats also called for more aid to hospitals and state and local governments whose budgets have been wrecked by coronavirus response. The Senate managed to pass the bill on Wednesday.
But just yesterday, Thomas Massie, a Republican representative from Kentucky, threatened to hold up the voting of the bill by calling for a recorded tally of votes for the bill in the House.
That would require representatives to go back to Congress, though many have left the Hill because of the quick spread of Covid-19.
Massie was sharply criticized by his Republican and Democratic colleagues who were eager to get the bill passed as quickly as possible.
When Massie voiced his desire to hold a vote, Anthony Brown, the presiding officer, ruled that Massie did not have enough support for
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Quick recap of what’s in the stimulus package: It’s worth over $2tn and provides various aids to corporations, businesses and individuals. The main components are:
- Direct payment to most Americans – up to $1,200 per taxpayer.
- $250bn to bolster unemployment insurance.
- Over $350bn in loans for small businesses that may be forgiven if firms use them to keep workers on payroll.
- $500bn in aid for hard-hit industries and states and $50bn for airlines.
- $130bn in aid to hospitals.
- $150bn to help state and local governments
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House passes record $2.2tn coronavirus relief bill
The House just passed the $2.2tn stimulus package after a Republican representative threatened to delay the vote this morning.
The bill will now go to Donald Trump, who has voiced his approval of the bill.
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New York governor warns "it's the worst news"
New York governor Andrew Cuomo held his daily public briefing on Friday with not just press and a television audience but soldiers brought up from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, to assist the state’s response to the coronavirus outbreak.
The briefing was held at the Jacob Javits conference center on the far west side of midtown Manhattan, where a field hospital with more than 1,000 beds is being prepared.
We covered some of Cuomo’s conference earlier, and a lot of news has broken since then. But in summary, he warned that the situation will worsen in New York, especially in the city.
Cuomo expects the apex of cases to be reached in 21 days’ time.
He said the death toll had surged, up to 519 on Friday morning from 280 on Wednesday, because coronavirus patients in acute condition who had been on ventilators for the last three weeks hadn’t survived.
“The longer you are on a ventilator the less likely that you are goin got come off that ventilator,” he said.
Warning that the death toll in the state, but especially the city, will rise, Cuomo said: “It’s bad news, it’s tragic news, it’s the worst news.”
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Aide in Washington DC government dies of coronavirus
A senior member of the city government in Washington, DC, has died from the coronavirus.
The capital’s mayor, Muriel Bowser, announced Friday that George Valentine, deputy director of the mayor’s office of legal counsel, had died that morning, The Associated Press writes.
Bowser said Valentine’s death was “devastating for everybody” and that contact tracing was in progress to determine who Valentine may have come into contact with and who might have been exposed to him.
According to his LinkedIn page, Valentine came to the mayor’s office just over a year ago after spending more than 15 years with the Washington, DC, Attorney General’s office.
Bowser said he was admitted to a hospital and diagnosed with Covid-19 on Wednesday.
Here’s a summary of this morning’s happenings as I hand off to Lauren Aratani for the afternoon:
- Kentucky representative’s move to delay passage of $2.2tn relief package thwarted. The attempt by maverick congressman Thomas Massie to demand a roll call vote and hold up passage of until most lawmakers return to Washington has apparently been spoiled with a quorum having reported to the House chamber for a vote on Friday afternoon.
- Andrew Cuomo says New York schools will be closed another two weeks. The New York governor said in Friday’s daily briefing that schools in the state will be open no earlier than 15 April and warned the demand for hospitalization will peak in 21 days and the state is creating a stockpile of medical equipment in preparation for that “apex” accordingly.
- Boris Johnson says he’s tested positive for coronavirus. The UK prime minister and health secretary say they have mild symptoms and will continue to lead Covid-19 response in isolation.
- Trump invokes Defense Production Act in urging GM to manufacture ventilators. The US has invoked the Defense Production Act in a series of tweets urging General Motors to take the lead in manufacturing ventilators.
Congresspeople have occupied spaces in the public gallery above the House chamber floor to maintain social distancing while establishing the quorum of 216 members necessary to vote for the $2.2tn coronavirus relief bill.
A notice has just gone out to House members saying that enough members are present and a vote is likely to be requested within the hour.
A notice just went out to House members to go to the House chamber so there is a quorum present. Bc of Coronavirus/social distancing, mbrs will sit on the floor AND up in the galleries above. Hoyer’s office says a recorded vote is likely to be REQUESTED approx between 12:45-1pm.
— Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) March 27, 2020
People who can’t afford April’s or May’s rent thanks to Covid-19 crisis unemployment are being asked to hang a white sheet outside their homes to demand a rent strike.
The protest movement, which started in Montreal last week and has already spread across Canada and the US, demands governments pause housing payments while the pandemic ravages people’s ability to earn income.
“We want landlords and tenants to come together in asking the government for cancellation of rent payments and cancellation of mortgage payments, including interest, for the duration of the health emergency,” said Sunny Doyle, one of the organizers of White Sheets For the Rent Strike.
“We can’t be putting people in individualized fights with their landlords, where the power relations aren’t equal.”
Doyle said her landlady hung a huge white sheet off the side of the triplex they share. She said even those who can afford their rent are invited to hang a sheet in support.
With many provinces now under lockdown, Canada anticipates it will see four million jobless claims by the time the Covid-19 crisis is over.
This week, the Canadian government announced a $2,000 monthly benefit for citizens put out of work by the virus.
It’s official: Kentucky congressman Thomas Massie will hold up the $2.2tn relief bill, refusing to back down in spite of backlash from Donald Trump.
Massie will force the house to take a recorded vote on the stimulus plan, a move that will prolong but ultimately not stop the rescue package from passing.
In a series of 11 tweets, Massie outlined his rationale for making his colleagues returning to Washington in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic.
The bill has the votes to pass and the president has said he would sign it. Trump tried to dissuade the Massie from holding up the vote.
In a series of tweets on Friday morning, he assailed Massie as a “third rate Grandstander” and “a disaster for America, and for the Great State of Kentucky!” Trump also suggested Republicans should “throw Massie out” of the party.
Massie’s statement reads in full:
I swore an oath to uphold the constitution, and I take that oath seriously. In a few moments I will request a vote on the CARES Act which means members of Congress will vote on it by pushing “yes” or “no” or “present.”
The Constitution requires that a quorum of members be present to conduct business in the House. Right now, millions of essential, working-class Americans are still required to go to work during this pandemic such as manufacturing line workers, healthcare professionals, pilots, grocery clerks, cooks/chefs, delivery drivers, auto mechanics, and janitors (to name just a few). Is it too much to ask that the House do its job, just like the Senate did?
I am not delaying the bill like Nancy Pelosi did last week. The bill that was worked on in the Senate late last week was much better before Speaker Pelosi showed up to destroy it and add days and days to the process.
This bill should have been voted on much sooner in both the Senate and House and it shouldn’t be stuffed full of Nancy Pelosi’s pork – including $25 million for the Kennedy Center, grants for the National Endowment for the Humanities and Arts, and millions more other measures that have no direct relation to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
That $25 million, for example, should go directly to purchasing test kits. The number one priority of this bill should have been to expand testing availability and creation of tests so that every American, not just the wealthy and privileged, have access to testing. We have shut down the world’s economy without adequate data. Everyone, even those with no symptoms, needs immediate access to a test. This bill creates even more secrecy around a Federal Reserve that still refuses to be audited. It allows the Federal Reserve to make decisions about who gets what, how much money we’ll print. With no transparency.
If getting us into $6 trillion more debt doesn’t matter, then why are we not getting $350 trillion more in debt so that we can give a check of $1 million to every person in the country?
This stimulus should go straight to the people rather than being funneled through banks and corporations like this bill is doing. 2 trillion divided by 150 million workers is about $13,333.00 per person. That’s much more than the $1,200 per person check authorized by this bill.
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Trump invokes Defense Production Act in urging GM to manufacture ventilators
Donald Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act in a series of tweets urging General Motors to take the lead in manufacturing ventilators.
General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! @GeneralMotors @Ford
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
As usual with “this” General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, “very quickly”. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke “P”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
Invoke “P” means Defense Production Act!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
The Defense Production Act gives the president powers to direct domestic industrial production to provide essential materials and goods needed in a national security crisis.
It allows the president to require businesses and corporations to prioritise and accept contracts for required materials and services. It also allows the president to provide incentives for the domestic industrial base to expand the production and supply of critical materials and goods, according to a 2 March report by the Congressional Research Service.
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Cuomo says New York will require 140,000 hospital beds and 40,000 intensive care unit beds with ventilators at the apex. Currently, the state has 53,000 regular hospital beds and 3,000 ICU beds.
To meet the need, Cuomo says they will seek to build another four temporary hospitals working with the US army corps of engineers.
New York governor says schools will be closed at least another two weeks
New York governor Andrew Cuomo’s daily briefing is under way from the Javits Center on Manhattan’s West Side, which has been temporarily repurposed as a hospital for Covid-19 patients.
Cuomo says New York City schools will stay closed for at least another two weeks until at least 15 April.
He adds that he expects the demand for hospitalization to peak in 21 days and the state is creating a stockpile of medical equipment in preparation for that “apex” accordingly.
“We collect, it we hold, if a hospital needs, a region needs it, then we deploy it,” he says.
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California lawmaker Adam Schiff, chairman of the intelligence committee, voiced support for the $2tn package on Friday morning, telling CNN that he emerged from self-isolation to do so.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff told me he went into quarantine out of precaution after former aide Dan Goldman testified positive for the novel coronavirus. He’s been in DC so didn’t need to travel back and came out of quarantine “a few days ago.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 27, 2020
“We cannot see what course this virus will take,” Schiff said as the debate continued on the House floor. “Many months of sacrifice and self-discipline will lie ahead for the American people. We will be tested. And we will prevail.”
Former US secretary of state John Kerry has unloaded on Kentucky lawmaker Thomas Massie for his role in holding up the relief bill, finding rare common ground with Donald Trump along the way.
Breaking news: Congressman Massie has tested positive for being an asshole. He must be quarantined to prevent the spread of his massive stupidity. He's given new meaning to the term #Masshole. (Finally, something the president and I can agree on!) https://t.co/N1CNLPsZjc
— John Kerry (@JohnKerry) March 27, 2020
A bit of history between the pair: Massie infamously attempted to discredit Kerry’s credentials on climate change during a house oversight and reform committee hearing last year.
New York representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, whose district has been devastated by the pandemic, rips into the corporate welfare deeply embedded the $2tn bill on the House floor.
The congresswoman’s district includes Elmhurst Hospital, where at least 13 patients died from coronavirus in a 24-hour span earlier this week.
.@RepAOC @AOC: "Our community's reality is this country's future if we don't do anything. Hospital workers do not have protective equipment. We don't have the necessary ventilators. We have to go into this vote eyes wide open..." pic.twitter.com/PaFGc9ncKM
— CSPAN (@cspan) March 27, 2020
“Our community’s reality is this country’s future if we don’t do anything,” said says. “Hospital workers do not have protective equipment. We don’t have the necessary ventilators. We have to go into this vote eyes wide open. What did the Senate majority fight for? One of the largest corporate bailouts with as few strings as possible in American history. Shameful!”
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California congresswoman Katie Porter, who announced on Wednesday that she was self-quarantining after experiencing symptoms related to Covid-19, says her test came back negative and called the news “a relief”.
At least two members of the House and one US senator have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, while more than a dozen are self-quarantined after brushes with people who have symptoms or have tested positive for the disease.
My COVID-19 test came back negative, which is a relief. I am still staying home, because I have symptoms and need to recover; this means I will not be able to travel to Washington, DC to vote.
— Rep. Katie Porter (@RepKatiePorter) March 27, 2020
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A Los Angeles boy who is believed to be the first teenager in the United States to die from complications due to Covid-19 was denied treatment at an urgent care clinic because he didn’t have health insurance.
“He didn’t have insurance, so they did not treat him,” says R Rex Parris, the mayor of Lancaster, California. “He had been sick for a few days, he had no previous health conditions. On the Friday before he died, he was healthy, he was socializing with his friends.”
Los Angeles County currently has 1,216 Covid-19 cases and 21 deaths, according to the county public health department’s website.
Haley Stevens, a freshman Democratic senator from Michigan whose district has been hit particularly hard by the virus, has been ruled out of order after shouting through the gavel during the House debate on the relief bill.
“To our doctors and nurses, I wear these latex gloves to tell every American: Do not be afraid!” says Stevens, who drove overnight from Michigan for today’s session. “You will see darkness! You will be pushed! Our society needs you to stand together at this time!
Haley Stevens coming in hot on the House floor after driving in overnight from Michigan. pic.twitter.com/FwQ6hxZDsY
— Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) March 27, 2020
Mary Namorato, a New Yorker separated from her daily gym work-out, has filed a lawsuit against New York Sports Clubs, a chain of more than 50 city gyms, for allegedly refusing to refund her membership fees after the coronavirus pandemic forced the company to close earlier this month.
Namorato, who filed the suit on Thursday in Manhattan Federal Court “on behalf of herself and all others similarly situated”, claims New York Sports Clubs (“NYSC”) is “defrauding and stealing from gym members” by continuing to charge gym membership fees to its approximately 605,000 members.
The complaint alleges that the chain’s holding company, Town Sports International Holdings, Inc. (“TSI”), has made “it virtually impossible for members to cancel their memberships and has even refused to honor many members’ cancellation requests,” the complaint says.
“At a time when New Yorkers are using all their efforts to help one another and make sacrifices necessary to meet the daily challenges associated with a the health and economic crisis created by the novel coronavirus are suffering, TSI is defrauding and stealing from customers.”
In contrast, other New York gyms, including Equinox, Planet Fitness and Blink Fitness have announced that gym membership charges have been suspended due to gym closures, Namorato’s legal representataives said.
“We are standing up for all New Yorkers who are being taken advantage of, lied to and stolen from by New York Sports Clubs,” said lawyer David Gottlieb, a partner at Wigdor LLC.
“We specifically ask the New York State attorney general’s office to join us in this fight to send a message not only to NYSC but to all businesses that this form of fraudulent opportunism has no place in our state and will not be tolerated, particularly during a health and economic crisis.”
Representatives of New York Sports Club, and its parent company, Town Sports International LLC, did not return requests for comment.
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Kentucky representative may delay passage of $2.2tn package
Good morning, this is Bryan Armen Graham in New York, covering the latest on the coronavirus in the US and American politics.
The US House of representatives is set to pass a $2.2tn package later Friday to ease the coronavirus pandemic’s devastating toll on the economy and healthcare system following a 96-0 vote in the Senate, though the actions of a single lawmaker could delay proceedings by several hours.
Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, who has voiced his opposition the bill, has threatened to demand a roll call vote, which would hold up passage until most lawmakers return to Washington for a vote, prompting backlash at a time when Americans have been urged to self-quarantine or maintain distance from one another.
“Heading to Washington to vote on pandemic legislation. Because of one Member of Congress refusing to allow emergency action entire Congress must be called back to vote in House,” New York representative Peter King wrote on Twitter. “Risk of infection and risk of legislation being delayed. Disgraceful. Irresponsible.”
Elsewhere, Boris Johnson has tested positive for coronavirus and will have to work leading the government’s efforts to tackle the pandemic in isolation.
In a video posted on Twitter, the prime minister confirmed he had developed mild symptoms – “a temperature and persistent cough” – over the last 24 hours and, on the advice of the chief medical officer, he took a test which returned positive for coronavirus.
Johnson, 55, said he was now self-isolating and working from home. He said thanks to “the wizardry of modern technology” he would continue to lead the national fightback against the virus.
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