Follow the latest in US politics with Friday’s blog:
Evening Summary
A quick look back at news of the day before we close out the blog for the afternoon:
- Speaking at an afternoon press conference, Donald Trump tried to assure the public the US is “very prepared” to combat the spread of the Coronavirus and placed vice president Mike Pence in charge of the US response to the unfolding outbreak. Reporter Amanda Holpuch has more.
- Barack Obama called on TV stations in South Carolina to pull an ad by a pro-Trump super PAC, saying that it takes Obama’s words out of context to create a misleading attack on Joe Biden.
- Donald Trump’s re-election campaign filed a libel lawsuit against the New York Times, accusing the newspaper of intentionally publishing a false article related to the investigation into Russian election interference in 2016.
- A federal appeals court in New York ruled that the Trump administration can withhold millions of dollars from law enforcement agencies in so-called sanctuary cities that don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement agencies, reported the New York Times. New York City mayor Bill de Blasio blasted the decision, saying that the ruling, if implemented, would strip local law enforcement of resources and make it more difficult for them to maintain public safety.
Court rules administration can withhold millions from 'sanctuary cities'
On Wednesday a federal appeals court ruled that the Trump administration can withhold millions of dollars from law enforcement agencies in so-called sanctuary cities that don’t cooperate with immigration enforcement agencies.
The New York Times reports that the decision by United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan makes it the first to side with the administration on whether it can withhold money to enforce cooperation.
New York City mayor Bill de Blasio blasted the decision, saying in a statement:
“President Trump’s latest retaliation against his hometown takes away security funding from the number one terrorist target in America, all because we refuse to play by his arbitrary rules,” he said, adding “We’ll see President Trump back in court. And we will win.”
Immigrant rights advocates argue that such cooperation between local police and immigration enforcement agencies make communities less safe because they discourage immigrants from reporting crimes to law enforcement out of fear they’ll face deportation or other sanctions. Cutting funds could further jeopardize police efforts, they say.
Trump on the other hand, has taken aim at sanctuary cities, arguing that they flout the rule of law and jeopardize public safety by releasing dangerous criminals into the community, despite evidence showing that sanctuary laws do not make communities less safe.
While today’s decision breaks new ground, immigration enforcement and local police have worked together with a wink and a nod, even in jurisdictions associated with sanctuary polices.
This week a jury in New York toppled Harvey Weinstein when it convicted the former movie titan of rape.
A jury of 12 at the New York supreme court took five days to reach their verdict: guilty of a criminal sex act in the first degree for forcing oral sex on the former Project Runway production assistant Miriam Haley in 2006.
The verdict was welcome news to his many accusers. It was also closely watched by Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., who’s faced criticism for not bringing charges against the film mogul long ago.
Reports the New York Times:
Mr. Vance, who leads one of the most storied district attorney’s offices in the country, was the first prosecutor to bring charges against Mr. Weinstein, and the verdict marked a triumphant moment in the career of a liberal who first ran as a champion on women’s issues.
Yet, as much as the prosecutor wanted to turn the page, he remained embattled, still struggling to regain the support of feminists and victims’ advocates who have faulted his office’s handling of sex crimes.
In an interview with the Times, Vance expressed regret to survivors of sexual assault who left his office feeling “not listened to.”
Obama to South Carolina TV stations: Pull the ad
Former president Barack Obama asked TV stations in South Carolina to pull an ad by a pro-Trump super PAC, saying that it takes Obama’s words out of context to create a misleading attack on Joe Biden.
The Washington Post reported Wednesday that The Committee to Defend the President reported to the Federal Election Commission that it had spent more than $250,000 in South Carolina to oppose Biden. The paper writes that the ad falsely suggests that Obama’s voice in the narration refer to Biden.
Katie Hill, Obama’s communications director, told the Post in a statement:
This despicable ad is straight out of the Republican disinformation playbook, and it’s clearly designed to suppress turnout among minority voters in South Carolina by taking President Obama’s voice out of context and twisting his words to mislead viewers.
In the interest of truth in advertising, we are calling on TV stations to take this ad down and stop playing into the hands of bad actors who seek to sow division and confusion among the electorate.
The day before in-person voting is set to begin in California, the nation’s most populous state where 415 delegates are at stake, Joe Biden’s East Los Angeles field office is quiet, writes the New York Times. It could be a sign of things to come for Biden, even as he looks for a win in the South Carolina primary to boost his chances against Bernie Sanders.
Biden’s ground-game in the Golden State is dwarfed by those of Sanders and Mike Bloomberg.
“Interviews with party leaders in half a dozen Super Tuesday states suggest that the same vulnerabilities that plagued Mr. Biden beginning in Iowa — subpar organization, limited outreach to local Democrats and a late start to campaigning — are holding him back in the states that next week will dole out a third of the total delegates in the Democratic primary,” writes the New York Times.
Read more on Biden’s chances in California and what that could mean for his campaign.
Multiple people have been killed in Milwaukee after a shooter stormed the campus of Molson Coors, an industrial pocket located in the city’s near northwest side. Early reports indicate at least five are dead, including the shooter.
Donald Trump, speaking at a press conference on the US response to the Coronavirus outbreak, called the shooter a “wicked murderer” and said “Our hearts break for them and their loved ones.”
Former politician and current gun control advocate Gabrielle Giffords, who survived an assassination attempt by a gunman in Tucson, condemned the attack on Twitter.
People are dead. Families are terrified. An entire community is on edge.
— Gabrielle Giffords (@GabbyGiffords) February 26, 2020
I’m absolutely heartbroken for these Milwaukee families and coworkers.
And I’m fed up this keeps happening when we know there are laws that would save lives. https://t.co/ab9M6etXSS
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is on the ground monitoring the situation. More news to come.
A family staging area for employees of Molson Coors is set up in the Harley-Davidson parking lot at North 35th Street and West Juneau Avenue. Live updates: What we know about the Molson Coors shooting https://t.co/m5GaXoJsYN via @journalsentinel
— George Stanley (@geostanley) February 26, 2020
Updated
Donald Trump is scheduled to start speaking in the next several minutes on the US government’s response to the Coronavirus outbreak.
Tune in to the Guardian’s liveblog on the topic to hear the latest.
A US district judge has denied a motion by the Miami Herald and reporter Julie K. Brown that asked her to reconsider her ruling that a large cache of files related to Jeffrey Epstein be released.
NEW: Judge Preska DENIES a motion by @jkbjournalist and the @MiamiHerald to reconsider her ruling that a large trove of Jeffrey Epstein-related files are not entitled to the presumption of public access. cc: @CourthouseNews
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) February 26, 2020
Doc: https://t.co/0lXCJX4UsY
Courthouse News reporter Adam Klasfeld Tweeted that the news is a setback to those looking to unseal the files but that there should be future opportunities to do so.
This is certainly a big setback in making a large trove of Epstein-related files public, but there will still be future opportunities to unseal the files, according to the original ruling from January. https://t.co/cHhzJBrm2c
— Adam Klasfeld (@KlasfeldReports) February 26, 2020
A bill to make lynching a hate crime under federal law passed the House on Wednesday.
The Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act is a nod to Emmett Till, who was 14 when a group of white men beat him with a gun, shot him and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River with a cotton-gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. An all-white, all-male jury later acquitted two of the suspected murderers.
JUST IN: The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passes the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, voting 410-4. The bill makes lynching a hate crime under federal law, the first time in U.S. history. https://t.co/9KNw10gRL2 pic.twitter.com/lhhT1OR9S6
— ABC News (@ABC) February 26, 2020
The bill passed by a wide margin, 410-4. For some, just as newsworthy as the results is the fact that four voted “no” on the bill.
imagine being one of the four "no" votes on making lynching a federal crime!!!!!! https://t.co/30Vd4dZlW2
— Bridget Todd 💁🏿 (@BridgetMarie) February 26, 2020
As US health officials warn that the Coronavirus outbreak has entered a new phase, Donald Trump is expected to address the public tonight at 6:30 ET, speaking to questions on the US government’s response to it.
So far Trump has issued messages that downplay the scope and spread of the disease despite warnings from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the respiratory illness is likely to cause “severe disruption” to the lives of ordinary Americans.
Guardian reporter Amanda Holpuch has five things to watch for in Trump’s upcoming address:
How the US is monitoring the outbreak
While South Korea has tested more than 35,000 people for coronavirus, the US has tested 426 people, excluding those returned on evacuation flights, Holpuch writes.
Who’s in charge
The White House says the coronavirus response is in the hands of the health secretary, Alex Azar. But Ronald Klain, who held monitored the Ebola outbreak under Obama, told the New York Times that Azar is not enough: “One cabinet secretary cannot run an interagency response. Azar has the biggest civilian job in the American government. Is he doing this in his spare time?”
How much money is available
Now, the White House has requested $1.25bn in new emergency funding and to divert another $1.25bn from existing federal programs, Holpuch reports. The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, a critic of the administration’s response to coronavirus, on Wednesday requested more than three times that amount.
Whether the US has enough equipment
Azar told a Senate panel on Tuesday that the federal government had a stockpile of 30m masks. It could need as many as 300m for health workers.
Can the president instill confidence?
It will be interesting to see if and when messages from Trump and the CDC align.
Mario Koran here on the west coast, picking up the blog from Adam in New York.
M. Saad Ejaz in New York has the post:
During Tuesday night’s fiery democratic debate, Bernie Sanders criticized Michael Bloomberg for having no supporters except other billionaires. To Sanders’ visible surprise, the audience at the debate booed him.
“Oh dear,” the Vermont Senator replied as he pointed his finger back and forth.
Commentators and analysts have since asked whether candidates shelled out thousands of dollars to crowd the expensive seats with their own supporters. “Bloomberg literally packed the audience for cheers for himself,” said Kyle Kulinski, host of the Kyle Kulinski show, “This is the most pathetic thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Most working people that I know don’t spend $1,700 to get a ticket to a debate and that’s problematic,” Sanders said after the debate. “That’s what the DNC did,” he added, referring to the Democratic National Committee.
Yet the DNC has stated that tickets were distributed equitably. “This is the most diverse audience,” tweeted Xochitl Hinojosa, a spokesperson for the DNC.
Over a thousand spots were available at the debate, according to Green Schneider, the communications director at the South Carolina Democratic Party (SCDP). Almost 400 of these went to the SCDP itself, and these were distributed among activists, party leaders, and elected officials, she said. Fifteen were given to each campaign.
As for the remaining 600 or so, some were sold to sponsors who contributed between $1,750 and $3,200 to the event and related gatherings, according to a local news station, WCSC. “This is something that the average person doesn’t usually get to go to,” one official said on local television. “These kinds of events really are set up for sponsors and things like that.”
Were these tickets bought up by Bloomberg and others? Although a local Democratic Party web site said that the “only guaranteed way to get a ticket is to become a sponsor of the debate”, this page was later deleted. And confusingly, Schneider of the SCDP said that while sponsors received access to dinners and other events, they did not receive a ticket to the debate itself.
The mystery remains.
Summary
•Donald Trump’s re-election campaign filed a libel lawsuit against the New York Times, over an article related to the investigation into Russian election interference in 2016. Trump’s staff say the article’s assertion that Trump had an “overarching deal” with “Vladimir Putin’s oligarchy” is untrue.
•Joe Biden picked up a boost when he was endorsed by South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn, ahead of the state’s primary on Saturday. Clyburn, the third-ranking Democrat in the House, represents predominantly African American neighborhoods in and around Charleston and Columbia. He said Biden “has stood for the hard-working people of South Carolina”.
•Bernie Sanders is targeting Amy Klobuchar’s home state of Minnesota ahead of Super Tuesday. Sanders’ campaign said he would hold an event in Minnesota on Monday. The Vermont senator is holding rallies on Friday and Saturday in Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren’s home state.
•Trump pushed back against criticism that his administration isn’t doing enough to meet the coronavirus threat, as lawmakers said disease fighters need far more than the $2.5bn the White House has requested. Trump is due to hold a press conference addressing the coronavirus at 6pm ET.
Bernie Sanders has accused Donald Trump of “taking a page from his dictator friends” after the president announced he was suing the New York Times.
“Let’s be clear: we have a president who believes he is above the law and can do and say whatever he wants without consequences,” Sanders said in a statement.
Donald Trump has ignored the Constitution, disregarded the will of Congress, and attacked the judiciary. Trump has called the press the ‘enemy of the people,’ and now – taking a page from his dictator friends around the world – is trying to dismantle the right to a free press in the First Amendment by suing the New York Times for publishing an opinion column about his dangerous relationship with Russia.
Enough. Donald Trump is the most dangerous president in modern history, and this November we will defeat him, restore the rule of law, and protect our constitutional rights.
Lawmakers from both parties have warned that the Defense Department is undermining its own efforts to get military money, by diverting billions of dollars for the construction of President Donald Trump’s US-Mexico border wall, according to Associated Press:
The chairman of the House Armed services committee and the committee’s top Republican told Defense Secretary Mark Esper on Wednesday that overturning congressional funding decisions to shift money for the wall is an enormous problem that will have consequences.
The plan to shift money has triggered rare Republican opposition to one of Trump’s priorities.
Rep Mac Thornberry, Republican from Texas, said the result may be that Congress will place greater restrictions on the Pentagon’s ability to move money around to meet military needs. The chairman, Democratic Rep Adam Smith of Washington, said the money transfer is “very, very damaging to the Pentagon.”
“The message it sends is the Pentagon has plenty of money,” said Smith, adding that it “undercuts any arguments for any need for resources.”
The Pentagon announced this month that it was slashing billions of dollars in funding for Navy and Air Force aircraft and other military programs to free up money for the construction of the wall.
Updated
Bernie Sanders’ New Year’s resolution, more than three decades ago: “In 1978, as in other years, I hope to play some role in making working people aware that the present day reality of poverty, wage slavery and mind-destroying media and schools is not the only reality – but simply a pathetic presentation brought to us by a handful of power-hungry individuals who own and control our economy.”
The Rutland Herald in 1978 went around asking people their New Year's resolutions. And everyone's was like 'I want to quit smoking' and 'finish high school' and Bernie Sanders' was I want to make people wake up to the radical change need in society. pic.twitter.com/JSekgF4RaQ
— andrew kaczynski🤔 (@KFILE) February 26, 2020
Bernie Sanders is “taking aim” at Amy Klobuchar’s home state of Minnesota, according to Associated Press.
Sanders’ campaign announced earlier that he will hold a rally on Monday in St. Paul, the day before Minnesotan Democrats go to the polls in the “Super Tuesday” extravaganza.
“It comes after Sanders already announced rallies Friday night and Saturday in Elizabeth Warren’s home state of Massachusetts,” AP reports.
Klobuchar is averaging 5.4% in national polls, but seems unlikely to drop out before Tuesday’s vote.
A total of 14 states, plus American Samoa, vote on Tuesday, coughing up 1,357 delegates. Candidates need 1,991 delegates to win the nomination.
Trump campaign sues New York Times
Donald Trump’s re-election campaign has filed a libel lawsuit against the New York Times, accusing the newspaper of intentionally publishing a false article related to the investigation into Russian election interference in 2016.
According to Reuters, the lawsuit was being filed in the New York State Supreme Court, the state’s trial-level court, on Tuesday.
The lawsuit relates to an opinion piece in the New York Times, published in March 2019.
[Trump] campaign officials said the lawsuit was being filed in the New York State Supreme Court, the state’s trial-level court. A statement from the campaign said the aim of the litigation was to “hold the news organization accountable for intentionally publishing false statements against President Trump’s campaign”.
The statements Trump’s campaign alleges are false are, according to a Trump attorney: “That Trump had an ‘overarching deal’ with ‘Vladimir Putin’s oligarchy’ to ‘help the campaign against Hillary Clinton’ in exchange for ‘a new pro-Russian foreign policy, starting with relief from ... economic sanctions’”.
In 2016 USA Today found that Trump had been involved in 3,500 lawsuits over the past three decades.
Updated
There are now 60 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the US, health secretary Alex Azar said this afternoon.
“As of this morning, we still had only 14 cases of the novel coronavirus detected in the United States involved travel to or close contacts with travelers. Coming into this hearing, I was informed that we have a 15th confirmed case, the epidemiology of which we are still discerning,” Azar said.
Three Americans repatriated from Wuhan had already been diagnosed with the coronavirus, along with 42 people evacuees from the cruise ship Diamond Princess, bringing the total to 60.
Warren rallies with John Legend in South Carolina
Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign is deploying musician John Legend to South Carolina, as the Massachusetts senator seeks to shore up support among black voters here.
Legend, in his introductory remarks for Warren today, used some of the same anti-corporate largesse arguments as his chosen candidate.
Speaking in front of a largely black audience at South Carolina State University, a Historically black college and university, Legend pointed out that Warren “supports creating a commission on reparations.”
He also knocked former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Warren’s favorite punching bag of late, over the billionaire’s past positions and comments on housing.
“Unlike Mayor Bloomberg, she knows that housing discrimination through redlining has been a national tragedy,” Legend said.
Much of Legend’s speech was tailor-made to appeal to the audience. He said Warren “knows that racism has been codified in our criminal justice system” and that the country needs “progressive criminal justice reform”.
Warren, during her remarks, didn’t call out Bloomberg by name but did use some of her favorite anti-billionaire lines, like when she was checking off her proposals for reducing inequality.
“You may have heard some billionaires don’t like this. Some of them go on TV and cry,” Warren said. “Some of them run for president,” Warren added, quipping that it isn’t so easy.
Warren has struggled in the first few primary contests. In the Nevada caucuses and New Hampshire primary she placed fourth both times, failing to net any delegates.
South Carolina is a more conservative state than some of the earlier contests, and recent polls have shown Warren trailing her rivals here. A recent Eastern Carolina university survey found Warren trailing former vice-president Joe Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders, and billionaire Tom Steyer.
Warren usually offers a selfie line at her events. At this event, Legend performed instead.
And here’s Legend performing. The crowd is into it. pic.twitter.com/1yl0iroHbg
— Daniel Strauss (@DanielStrauss4) February 26, 2020
Updated
Trump pushing back on coronavirus
Donald Trump pushed back today against criticism that his administration isn’t doing enough to meet the coronavirus threat, as lawmakers called for giving disease fighters much more money than the $2.5 billion the White House has requested.
A day after he sought to minimize fears of the virus spreading widely across the U.S., Trump prepared to hold a White House press conference with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the AP reports.
Meanwhile, two new coronavirus cases have been reported in Americans who had traveled on the Diamond Princess cruise ship, health officials said Wednesday. The new cases bring the US tally to 59.
Trump tweeted Wednesday that the CDC, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and others in the administration are “doing a great job with respect to Coronavirus!” and accused some news outlets of “panicking markets.”
The White House said Wednesday that it had faith in Azar and was not considering appointing a virus czar.
You can follow our global live blog on the coronavirus crisis here.
Updated
Mike Bloomberg is out with a new ad accusing Trump of putting Americans’ health at risk with his handling of coronavirus.
“Managing a crisis is what Mike Bloomberg does,” the ad’s narrator says. “In the aftermath of 9/11, he steadied and rebuilt America’s largest city, oversaw emergency response to natural disasters, upgraded hospital preparedness to manage health crises, and he’s funding cutting edge research to contain epidemics.”
Bloomberg was the first person to mention coronavirus during last night’s Democratic debate, which came after two days of steep stock market losses due to concerns about the spreading health threat.
“The president fired the pandemic specialist in this country two years ago,” Bloomberg said last night. “There’s nobody here to figure out what the hell we should be doing. And he’s defunded the CDC.”
Moderator Gayle King then tried to cut Bloomberg off to return to the topic of his efforts to ban soda in New York, prompting criticism on Twitter. The moderators eventually asked the candidates a question about coronavirus, nearly an hour and a half into the debate.
Things are looking up for Joe Biden, in South Carolina at least:
In probability terms, this translates into Biden having a 74% chance to win SC, Bernie 23%, others (mostly Steyer) 3%. So a long way from certain but a reasonably solid edge and events of the past 24 hours (i.e. Clyburn endorsement) probably won't hurt Biden. https://t.co/H8jZBfazQm
— Nate Silver (@NateSilver538) February 26, 2020
The state votes on Saturday.
We haven’t heard much from Donald Trump today. This was him earlier. I have absolutely no idea where he got this from:
“Every poll you look at shows that Black support for President Trump is growing.” @RealCandaceO @MariaBartiromo
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020
On Tuesday an Economist poll found Trump had 11% support among black voters, and last week an NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found he had 14% support.
Georgia’s governor, Brian Kemp, told aides “good work” in 2017, after an Atlanta newspaper exposed problems in the way voters were removed from electoral rolls.
“Good work, this story is so complex folks will not make it all the way through it,” Kemp, then Georgia’s secretary of state, wrote in an email. Kemp was elected governor in 2018.
The email was released by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, which is investigating voter suppression in Georgia, Texas and Kansas.
The 2017 story in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution detailed the way local election officials were inaccurately removing people from the rolls.
It featured one woman whose voter registration was challenged because her name did not show up on water utility records. The story quoted an election official in the secretary of state’s office saying it was “not appropriate” to use a water bill to begin the process of removing a voter.
David Dove, a Kemp aide, wrote back that he agreed not a lot of people would read the story.
“I think she wrote this to appease her folks on the left, but this won’t help draw eyeballs,” he wrote.
Kemp has long faced scrutiny over the way his office has aggressively removed people from the voter rolls. Stacey Abrams, his opponent in the 2018 gubernatorial race, said Kemp won the race because of voter suppression.
The committee also released some information from its probe into voter suppression accusations in Kansas and Texas. You can read the full memo here.
Updated
How about this then:
NEW: Pelosi tells reporters that she is comfortable with Bernie Sanders as a potential nominee and doesn't think he would jeopardize the House majority.
— Geoff Bennett (@GeoffRBennett) February 26, 2020
"I think whoever our nominee is, we will enthusiastically embrace and we will win the White House, the Senate and the House."
FiveThirtyEight’s forecast gives Sanders a 44% chance of winning the Democratic nomination. Party grandees (well, one) appear to be coming to terms with the concept.
(According to FiveThirtyEight the next most likely winner is “no one”.)
In head-to-head polls, pitting Democratic candidates against Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders outperforms every one of his rivals.
RealClearPolitics polling average suggests that the progressive Sanders would defeat Trump, nationally, by 4.4 points, while moderates like Joe Biden and Michael Bloomberg would also triumph by 4.3% and 3.3% – which could allay fears that Sanders is too left-wing to win.
Those numbers could, however, “be a mirage”, according to a new article by Vox.
Vox surveyed 40,000 people in early 2020, asking them to choose between Trump and a Democratic candidate. The results reflected polling that shows Sanders would defeat Trump nationally.
However, according to Vox: “On closer inspection [...] this finding relies on some remarkable assumptions about youth turnout that past elections suggest are questionable.”
Vox found that if Sanders is the nominee, some independents would be driven away from the Democratic party. And yet:
Sanders appears in our survey data to be similarly electable to the moderates, at least at first blush. Why? Mainly because 11 percent of left-leaning young people say they are undecided, would support a third-party candidate, or, most often, just would not vote if a moderate were nominated — but say they would turn out and vote for Sanders if he were nominated.
The large number of young people who say they will only vote if Sanders is nominated is just enough to offset the voters Sanders loses to Trump in the rest of the electorate.
Specifically, one “in six left-leaning young people who otherwise wouldn’t vote would need to turn out because Sanders was nominated”, Vox says, for Sanders to defeat Trump. Vox reckons this surge in young people voting for Sanders is unlikely.
First, people who promise in surveys they will vote often don’t, meaning the turnout estimates that Sanders’s electability case rests upon are probably extremely inaccurate. Second, such a turnout surge is large in comparison to other effects on turnout. For example, Sanders would need to stimulate a youth turnout boost much larger than the turnout boost Barack Obama’s presence on the ballot stimulated among black voters in 2008.
Third, Sanders’s electability case requires this 11 percentage point turnout increase among young voters in 2020 to occur on top of any turnout increase that would otherwise occur if another Democrat were nominated.
Read the Vox piece in full here.
A bipartisan group of 70 former senators have penned a letter to the current US Senate, claiming it is “not fulfilling its constitutional duties”
The former Senators, writing in the Washington Post, include John Kerry; recently ousted Democrats Claire McCaskill and Heidi Heitkamp; and the Republicans Jeff Flake and John Warner.
They appear to suggest – the letter is quite mealy-mouthed – that the Senate, and the House, have handed over too much power to the president in recent years.
Examples of Congress ceding its powers to the executive through the years include the power to regulate international trade, the power to authorize the use of military force in foreign conflicts and, when the president declares national emergencies, the power of the purse.
The solution to this, the former senators believe, is “the creation of a bipartisan caucus of incumbent senators who would be committed to making the Senate function as the framers of the constitution intended”.
Clyburn has represented South Carolina in the House since 1993, and currently serves as the House majority whip.
His congressional district includes predominantly African American neighborhoods in and around Charleston and Columbia, and as the third-ranking Democrat in the House, Clyburn holds huge sway in South Carolina.
Black voters made up 55% of ballots in the 2008 South Carolina primary, and 61% in 2016. Biden’s lead in the state has been narrowing, but the former vice-president will hope that with Clyburn’s backing he can finally notch his first victory.
Influential South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn endorses Biden
Jim Clyburn has endorsed Joe Biden for president, a crucial boost ahead of the Democratic primary in South Carolina.
Clyburn is seen as a key backer given his support and influence among South Carolina’s African American community.
Here’s Clyburn’s statement, posted on Twitter:
“I know Joe Biden.
I know his character, his heart, and his record.
Joe Biden has stood for the hard-working people of South Carolina.
We know Joe. But more importantly, he knows us.
In South Carolina, we choose presidents.
I’m calling on you to stand with
@JoeBiden.
I know Joe Biden.
— Jim Clyburn SC-06 (@ClyburnSC06) February 26, 2020
I know his character, his heart, and his record.
Joe Biden has stood for the hard-working people of South Carolina.
We know Joe. But more importantly, he knows us.
In South Carolina, we choose presidents.
I’m calling on you to stand with @JoeBiden.
Most of the Democratic frontrunners are attending a National Action Network breakfast in South Carolina this morning.
All eyes are on Jim Clyburn, the state’s influential congressman whose endorsement could be crucial as candidates hope to boost their support among African American voters.
Clyburn is expected to endorse Joe Biden... but he hasn’t done it yet, according to our man Oliver Laughland.
The influential S.C. Congressman Jim Clyburn just wrapped up a speech at the @NationalAction breakfast in North Charleston. He’s expected to make an endorsement today, but didn’t do so during these short remarks. Joe Biden was sat right behind him. pic.twitter.com/OYPLTNiivG
— Oliver Laughland (@oliverlaughland) February 26, 2020
Updated
CNN are reporting that Senate Democrats are preparing to request $8.5 billion to combat the coronavirus. The Trump administration has only asked for $2.5 billion so far, not all of which is new funding.
There are only 57 cases of coronavirus in the US of the illness that has affected over 80,000 people globally - but officials have already said they expect it to spread further domestically. [See 13:10]
President Trump is holding a news conference about the outbreak at 6pm.
The Los Angeles Times is reporting more pressure being applied to Elizabeth Warren over her past claims of Native American heritage.
Warren has been sent an open letter from over 200 citizens of the Cherokee nation and other Native American groups, which opens:
Senator Warren, as you seek the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, your history of false claims to American Indian identity and the defense of these claims with a highly publicized DNA test continue to dog your political career. For Native Americans, this moment is more than an annoyance; it represents the most public debate about our identity in a generation. In a country where Indigenous people are mostly invisible, what Americans conclude from this debate will impact Native rights for years to come.
Warren apologised for her claims back in February 2019.
The continued relevance of the issue centres around an LA Times investigation that found “more than $800 million in government contracts reserved for minorities instead went to companies set up by members of groups with dubious claims to being Cherokee and Creek Indian tribes” - claims often fuelled by commercial DNA tests.
The open letter cites the investigation, and concludes:
You have done some good things for Indian Country during your time in political service. You have also done real harm. Right now, you have the platform and the opportunity to stand firmly on the side of justice. This is not about politics or your career. This is about the well-being of our nations. The time has come for you to show true leadership and make this right.
You can read the open letter in full here.
Boston Globe endorses Warren
Struggling Democratic candidate Elizabeth Warren will be buoyed somewhat by the endorsement of the Boston Globe today.
Despite a so-so performance at the debate last night in South Carolina and having been eclipsed on the progressive wing by Bernie Sanders in recent weeks, as he moved into position as the frontrunner for the nomination, the Globe reminds everyone it’s far from over and its local US Senator is the one to pick.
Despite the undeniable momentum Senator Bernie Sanders has gained in recent weeks, the party’s presidential nominee is in no way a foregone conclusion. Only three states have voted, and 97 percent of delegates are still up for grabs. The time is right to back the best candidate in the race.
The publication praises the top six candidates still in the race and says each would make a way better president than Donald Trump.
But it adds:
One candidate stands out as a leader with the qualifications, the track record, and the tenacity to defend the principles of democracy, bring fairness to an economy that is excluding too many Americans, and advance a progressive agenda. She would fight the corruption and corporate influence that distort our politics, lift up working families, and combat gun violence and climate change. That candidate is Elizabeth Warren…
Fearless and brilliant on her feet, Warren has the greatest potential among the candidates to lay bare Trump’s weaknesses on a debate stage.
Our senator brings her heart and her head to an election where so much, including the future of our neighborhoods, the justice system, and the planet is at stake. On that score, there can be no doubt: Elizabeth Warren will fight for the integrity of our democracy and for our society’s most vulnerable. Massachusetts — and for that matter, South Carolina and other Super Tuesday states — should give her the chance to keep doing it.
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Trump to give news conference on coronavirus outbreak today
The president has confirmed he will be giving a news conference today about the coronavirus outbreak. Along the way he couldn’t resist having a swipe at the media and the opposition.
Low Ratings Fake News MSDNC (Comcast) & @CNN are doing everything possible to make the Caronavirus look as bad as possible, including panicking markets, if possible. Likewise their incompetent Do Nothing Democrat comrades are all talk, no action. USA in great shape! @CDCgov.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020
I will be having a News Conference at the White House, on this subject, today at 6:00 P.M. CDC representatives, and others, will be there. Thank you!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020
As of Tuesday, officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) confirmed the number of cases in the United States has risen to 57.
Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, has said that “We expect we will see community spread in this country. It’s not so much a question of if this will happen anymore, but rather more a question of exactly when this will happen and how many people in this country will have severe illness.”
Trump has faced criticism for the way the administration is handling the crisis, with Chuck Schumer being one of the most vocal.
What Pres. Trump needs to do on Coronavirus:
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) February 26, 2020
-Reverse CDC cuts
-Appoint global health expert to coordinate response
-Increase emergency request with no Ebola funding cuts
-Expedite diagnostic testing kits
-Stop proliferation of junk insurance plans not covering Coronavirus tests pic.twitter.com/EnBVDChy5R
Bernie Sanders was also scathing during the Democrat debate last night, saying: “In the White House today, we have a self-described ‘great genius’, and this ‘great genius’ has told us that this Coronavirus is going to end in two months. April is the magical day that this great scientist we have in the White House has determined.”
Joe Biden also criticised Trump, comparing his handling of coronavirus with the way the Obama administration tackled the threat of Ebola, and how the current president has dismantled that operation: “What we did with Ebola -- I was part of making sure that pandemic did not get to the United States, saved millions of lives. We set upthat office in the presidency on diseases that are pandemic diseases. We increased the budget of the CDC. We increased the NIH budget. And our president today - he’s wiped all that out.”
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CBS have published a full transcript of last night’s debate if you want to pick over the bones of it.
There’s also an interesting - if slightly unwieldy - set of fact checks from the New York Times on some of the claims made last night by the candidates.
Perhaps most damaging of these findings are the suggestion that Bernie Sanders mischaracterised studies of the costs of his health care plan, falsely stating that they all say it will save money.
Joe Biden was also found to be ‘mostly false’ when said that the Obama administration did not know about Russian involvement in subverting American elections until the end.
Joe Biden keeps on piling up support from the rest of the Democrat party, with the news this morning that former Gov. Pat Quinn and more than 80 other top Illinois Democrats are endorsing him for president.
The new endorsements include former Chicago Deputy Mayor Andrea Zopp, state Sen. and Assistant Majority Leader Iris Martinez and Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering.
One concern for Biden though - Illinois doesn’t vote until 17 March, by which time Bernie Sanders may have already nearly gained an unassailable lead in the delegate count.
We’ve got a couple of pieces looking at how the digital Democrat campaign is going.
First up is a piece co-published with The Markup looking at the effectiveness of candidate emails at actually reaching your inbox. They found that Pete Buttigieg is doing best, with Elizabeth Warren doing worst.
There’s two elements to the story though.
Firstly, of course, some of it is down to the way that the campaigns themselves are formatting and sending out email. But there’s another aspect.
We know that Facebook and Twitter customise and personalise your news feed to show you things it thinks you might be interested in - but we don’t often think about how this also happens with the email we see. It’s a fascinating look at the topic.
The second piece is from my colleague Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco. She writes:
Mike Bloomberg’s campaign has spent the last month unapologetically performing the digital equivalent of dumping buckets of fresh garbage into the trash fire that is internet discourse in 2020, apparently with little or no concern for the toxic side effects.
She takes on the Bloomberg campaign’s decision in recent days to publish misleadingly edited video and deliberately fabricate quotes from his opponents.
One battle for the Trump administration over the next couple of weeks is their bid to reauthorise some of the expiring provisions under the USA Freedom Act. These include the highly controversial phone records programme known as Section 215
This is the process by which the National Security Agency (NSA) can record the metadata on all incoming or outgoing calls to a specific number. While it doesn’t give the agency access to the contents of the calls, many privacy advocates argue that it gives the state too much intrusive power. The existence of the programme was only made public after the Edward Snowden leaks of classified information.
Jordain Carney has a good look at this issue for The Hill this morning. Although the NSA stopped using the system in 2015, they are asking for it to continue to be available to them. There seems to be bipartisan dissent in Congress against the idea. The deadline for reauthorisation is 15 March.
Read more - The Hill: Congress eyes killing controversial surveillance program
Back to the fall-out from last night’s Democratic debate. With a crowded field it was the last TV opportunity for one of the candidates who isn’t Bernie Sanders to have a break-out moment that could propel them towards next week’s Super Tuesday.
That, according to Ryan Lizza in Politico, is not what happened.
By the end, it was clear that there was no Bernie slayer at the lecterns in Charleston, someone who alone had the time and skills to convince Democratic voters that the democratic socialist was a radical whose nomination would forfeit the party’s chance to defeat Trump.
Lizza has a detailed analysis on how Bloomberg, Biden, Warren and the others had different strategies to set themselves up in opposition to Sanders, all without much joy.
Read it here - Politico: A Bernie slayer fails to emerge at Tuesday’s debate
The court hearing in London into the US attempt to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is underway again. Journalist James Doleman is tweeting from the court.
Judge returns to court and proceedings resume.#Assange
— James Doleman (@jamesdoleman) February 26, 2020
My colleague Ben Quinn has also been following proceedings - here is his round-up of what took place yesterday.
The president is back home - and as expected straight on to the topic of the coronavirus outbreak.
Just landed. India was great, trip very successful. Heading to the White House. Meetings and calls scheduled today. @CDCgov, @SecAzar and all doing a great job with respect to Coronavirus! Briefing this afternoon.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020
He also gave his verdict on last night’s TV debate.
Asked if he watched the Democrats debate last night on the flight back, "I did," said the president, offering a quick assessment: "Not too good. Not too good." pic.twitter.com/HBmq2EsS88
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) February 26, 2020
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There’s been talk this week of Donald Trump conducting some kind of ‘deep state’ purge of people he feels are anti-Trump in the administration and the civil service, and even that people have been preparing secret hit-lists of staff to target.
My colleague Tom McCarthy in New York has more on one of the people who would be involved in the hirings and firings, with a profile of the so-called ‘Baby-faced assassin’ - 29 year old Johnny McEntee who was recently named White House director for presidential personnel.
The sudden conferral on the young McEntee of such broad power over thousands of civil service careers is highly unusual in the history of US government, according to public administration experts.
But as Trump winds up his re-election machinery, McEntee’s elevation is only one among dozens of such moves taking place across the executive branch to install Trump loyalists, purge Trump critics and protect the president’s political wellbeing, whatever the cost.
You can read Tom’s full profile of the young man who once went viral on social media for trick shots when he was a college football quarterback.
“I’m hearing my name mentioned a little bit tonight,” Sanders joked during the debate: “I wonder why.”
With a lead going into Saturday’s South Carolina primary, Sanders needed a good debate performance to keep his momentum going under the concentrated fire of the other challengers. Opinion - as you’d expect - is divided as to how he managed.
The Hill have a wrap of their winners and losers on the night, which puts Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders as the winners. Crucially for Biden their verdict was that he “kept his hopes alive” with one of his strongest debate performances as he faces “a moment of truth”.
Read it here - The Hill: Winners and losers from the South Carolina debate”
The Washington Post also had a winners and losers list, but they counted Sanders among the losers. They felt he didn’t cope well with the attacks ranged against - although suggest “the question is whether it’s too little, too late by his opponents.”
Read it here - Washington Post: Winners and losers from the South Carolina Democratic debate
Everybody seems to agree though that the CBS moderators didn’t cover themselves with glory.
“You think the last four years has been chaotic divisive toxic exhausting. Imagine spending the better part of 2020 with Bernie Sanders vs Donald Trump”
Pete Buttigieg seemed to be channelling the thoughts of what Bernie Sanders has dismissed as the ‘Democratic establishment’ with his attack on the Vermont senator at the debate last night.
In an apparent reference to Sanders’ comments about Cuba over the weekend, Buttigieg also said “I am not looking forward to a scenario where it comes down to Donald Trump with his nostalgia for the social order of the 1950s and Bernie Sanders with a nostalgia for the revolutionary politics of the 1960s.”
Like most of the challengers for the nomination, his attacks were focussed on Sanders.
Elizabeth Warren conceded that “Bernie and I agree on a lot of things,” before adding “But I think I would make a better president than Bernie.”
Mike Bloomberg suggested that Russia was interfering in the Democrats selection process in Sanders’ favour in order to engineer a Sanders-Trump election that would see Putin’s preferred candidate re-elected.
And Joe Biden attacked the Sanders record on gun ownership legislation.
You can watch some of the most pointed attacks in this highlights reel from last night.
Good morning.
Will last night’s Democratic debate have helped one of the centrist candidates pull ahead of the others to become the main opponent to Bernie Sanders for the nomination? At the moment this photo from the Charleston event seems to sum up the very definition of a “crowded field” - and it doesn’t even feature Joe Biden, who is polling in first place for Saturday’s primary.
There’s plenty of post-debate analysis to sink your teeth into. Here’s the verdict from our panel:
And here’s the wrap from my colleague Daniel Strauss, who says:
The debate often descended into cross-talk, and even occasional shouting. It was more common for candidates to go over their allotted time than stick to it, and moderators were criticised for their lack of control over proceedings.
You can read his full report here.
You can also re-watch the debate in full on the CBS News YouTube channel - it gets going about an hour into this video
Meanwhile Donald Trump will the early hours in transit from Germany back to the White House after his visit to India. That doesn’t usually stop him commenting on the day’s events, and after some stinging criticism from Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer yesterday, we can probably expect more robust defence from the president on the country’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
“U.S. acted on the Coronavirus very, very quickly.” Gordon Chang @IngrahamAngle
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 26, 2020
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