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Vivian Ho in San Francisco (now) and Kenya Evelyn in New York and Martin Belam (earlier)

'Unity, unity, unity': Pelosi insists Democrats will support nominee amid Sanders surge – as it happened

Nancy Pelosi said: ‘Whoever the nominee is of our party, we’ll wholeheartedly support.’
Nancy Pelosi said: ‘Whoever the nominee is of our party, we’ll wholeheartedly support.’ Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Evening Summary

Report: Bloomberg seeking Yang endorsement, possible VP

Mike Bloomberg and his campaign have been seeking an endorsement from the election’s former dark horse Andrew Yang, floating the possibility of having Yang on as his running mate, the Wall Street Journal is reporting.

Yang, who dropped out of the race earlier this month, entered the scene with no political background, but quickly rallied a passionate base known as the Yang Gang. He ran what he called “the nerdiest presidential campaign in history”, with his signature policy a promise to provide every American with a universal basic income of $1,000 a month.

Just in time for the 2020 election to get really interesting: Hillary Clinton is getting a podcast, set to launch in late spring.

Some of the 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls are out in force in South Carolina now, and they have a celebrity brigade behind them.

Stumping for Joe Biden is actress Vivica A. Fox:

And Tom Steyer has a packed rally planned for tomorrow night:

Elizabeth Warren had musician John Legend with her yesterday:

Meanwhile, Amy Klobuchar is in North Carolina with American Idol’s Clay Aiken.

Trump says if it were not for him, coronavirus would be worse in the US

In more Donald Trump news, the president called the press pool for an unscheduled event, shortly after the Dow Jones index suffered its biggest points fall in history amid coronavirus fears. The president planned to discuss his “success in empowering members of the African-American community”, and included guests such as conservative commentator Candace Owens and media personalities Diamond and Silk.

The event turned into an impromptu press conference, and Trump started to talk about the coronavirus outbreak.

Updated

Donald Trump spent 45 minutes today meeting with the lead actors in a conservative play about “the Deep State”, the Daily Beast reports.

The play, FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers, is based on congressional testimony and text messages between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who discussed the FBI’s investigation into Trump’s campaign and Russia while having an affair.

Trump and his allies have repeatedly pointed to Strzok and this affair as proof for their claim that the investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election is a “witch-hunt”.

On Thursday, Trump hosted the play’s leads, Superman actor Dean Cain and former Buffy the Vampire Slayer actress Kristy Swanson, along with playwright Phelim McAleer and producer Ann McElhinney in the Oval Office.

The meeting was supposed to last 15 minutes, McAleer told the Daily Beast. “We went for a 15 minute meeting that took 45 minutes,” McAleer said. “We were there for 45 minutes in the Oval Office, and he loves it, he loves the play.”

Speaking of Mike Bloomberg, here he is telling Kasie Hunt that he’s “in it to win it”. “Why would I spend all this money and all this time out of my life and all this wear and tear?” he asked.

“I’m running a race and I’m behind with one lap to go, what am I’m going to do, quit?” Bloomberg said. “No, you run harder.”

Mike Bloomberg had to apologize for his legacy of ‘stop-and-frisk’ as New York mayor before he launched his campaign in November. Now, with just days to go to Super Tuesday, he’s apologizing again, this time for referring to transgender people as “he, she, or it” and “some guy in a dress” who enters girls locker rooms.

“It was a poor attempt to describe how some who oppose transgender equality think about this issue—and those words do not reflect my unwavering support for equality for transgender Americans,” Bloomberg said in an exclusive statement to NewNowNext. “I want to offer my sincerest apologies to the members of the transgender community.”

He purportedly spoke to some transgender leaders on a private call Thursday as well, but his campaign declined to name who those leaders were.

Hi all, Vivian Ho on the west coast here, taking over for Kenya Evelyn. Politics are happening.

Bernie Sanders appears to have had an impressive past two days in fundraising, according to his campaign.

Updated

Elizabeth Warren announces plan for clemency board

In a tweet thread Thursday, Massachusetts senator and presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren unveiled a plans to form a presidential clemency board “that will prioritize cases of older Americans incarcerated for unduly long sentences and establish a presumption of release.”

Warren acknowledged there will be some exceptions, including for people deemed a danger to society. She also took the time to thank fellow senator Cory Booker of New Jersey for “leading on criminal justice reform and consistently highlighting this issue,” leading to speculations of a possible Warren-Booker ticket.

Sen. Booker dropped out of the presidential race in last month.

Updated

Dow closes with largest single-day point drop

The Dow Jones Industrial Average ended nearly 1,200 points down Thursday. Investors continue to fear the potential impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the US economy.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he had enlisted vice president Mike Pence to lead the nation’s efforts at combating the highly infectious virus.

But as we reported earlier, those initial efforts appear to be limiting who can speak publicly about it.

Updated

NYT: White House to censor, limit coronavirus

The Trump administration is clamping down on interviews discussing the coronavirus, even directing cabinet officials to go through US vice president Mike Pence.

From the NY Times:

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, one of the country’s leading experts on viruses and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance.”

Pence is one of three people designated as the administration’s primary coronavirus official. Government workers, including health experts and scientists, must coordinate their statements with the vice president’s office.

President Donald Trump garnered immediate backlash for tapping Pence to lead crisis re draw criticism nearly immediately after the press conference. Critics have pointed to Pence record as the governor of Indiana, when he gutted health spending budgets and delayed a rollout of needle exchanges.

It enabled the state’s worst outbreak of HIV.

Updated

Conservatives declare war on socialism in CPAC battle cry

“America vs. Socialism” is the umbrella theme at the biggest annual gathering of conservatives under way at the National Harbor in Maryland. Many attendees are wearing “Make America great again” or “Keep America great” hats.

The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) marketplace is as brash and unapologetic as ever.

T-shirt legends include “God, guns, Trump 2020” and, in a parody of The Terminator film franchise, “Trumpinator. I’ll be back.” There are Trump novelty pens and socks. A blue full length dress proclaims “Make America great again.”

Not invited this year is Utah Senator Mitt Romney, the sole Republican who voted for the president’s conviction at the impeachment trial. A placard with Romney’s face says: “Used Trump for political gain... and then stabs him in the back.”

When Charlie Kirk of the pro-Trump student group Turning Point USA referred to Romney during a speech, the crowd booed and Kirk responded: “Correct. Every time his name is mentioned, you should react that way.”

Once given the cold shoulder himself by CPAC, Donald Trump now enjoys a cult-like status here and is due to speak on Saturday. On Thursday, his deputy, Mike Pence, told the crowd: “I know you’re going to say yes to four more years of President Donald Trump in 2020.”

There were chants of “Four more years!” and “USA! USA!”

Trump won the Democratic debates “in a knockout”, the vice president declared. “The truth is today’s Democratic party has been taken over by radical leftists who want higher taxes, open borders and late term abortions.”

He attacked frontrunner Bernie Sanders in particular but warned that “despite what the media tells you, there are no moderates in this Democratic field”.

During Pence’s speech, a protester dressed as Trump was removed by security.

Updated

Georgia governor mocked impact of voter suppression, US House report reveals

Georgia governor Brian Kemp mocked and dismissed the impact of voter suppression on residents as state officials misled the public about the ability to stop poll site closures, according to a new report by the US House.

Kemp, a Republican, narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams in the 2018 gubernatorial race. Abrams went on to launch a national campaign to combat voter disenfranchisement.

The Georgia Recorder first reported that Kemp, then state secretary, circulated news reports bout “problems with local officials’ attempts to challenge voter registrations.”

Kemp , along with aide David Dove, then responded with crying-laughing emojis.

The report was released by the US House Oversight Committee into voter suppression in minority communities. Officials also uncovered what they called “concerning information about voter suppression in Georgia.”

Documents produced to the Committee show that state election officials claimed in public to lack authority over polling locations, while behind the scenes they were advising counties on closing, moving, and consolidating polling sites.

Baltimore Mayor sentenced to 3 years in federal prison

Former Baltimore mayor Catherine Pugh, 69, was sentenced to three years in federal prison on Thursday.

The disgraced politician pleaded guilty last year to tax evasion and conspiracy for arranging fraudulent sales of her self-published children’s book series to non-profit foundations.

From the Baltimore Sun:

Pugh’s political fall began in March when The Baltimore Sun revealed she had entered into a no-bid deal with the University of Maryland Medical System, where Pugh sat on the board of directors, to buy 100,000 copies of her sloppily self-published “Healthy Holly” books for $500,000. She later resigned from the board and as mayor amid multiple investigations into her finances and the book sales. In total, she netted more than $850,000, prosecutors say.

She initially faced a possible 4-5 years sentence. Attorneys for the former mayor called the judge’s ruling “very fair.”

And those children’s books? Rather than donating them to local schools, prosecutors and Pugh agreed to destroy all those currently in government custody.

Updated

Mike Pence breaks Reagan record for CPAC appearances

Vice President Mike Pence is making his 14th appearance at the the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the National Harbor near Washington, breaking former president Ronald Reagan’s record.

Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, introduced Pence by asking: “Can you imagine being to the right of Dick Cheney? Well, that’s our vice president.”

Pence, put in charge of the US response to the coronavirus, said 15 cases have been detected in America so far. “While the risk to the American public remains low, as the president said yesterday, we’re ready. We’re ready for anything.”

He added: “I promise you, we will continue to bring the full resources of the federal government to bear to protect the American people.”

In a swipe at Democratic critics, Pence said: “This is not the time for partisanship. The American people expect us to work together.”

A new poll found Joe Biden 20 points up over Bernie Sanders in South Carolina, which will hold its primary on Saturday.

According to Monmouth University, Biden is capturing the support of 36% of likely primary voters in the Palmetto state, compared to 16% for Sanders and 13% for Tom Steyer.

Biden is relying on a decisive victory in South Carolina to reinvigorate his campaign after dismal performances in Iowa and New Hampshire and a distant second-place finish in Nevada.

If Biden were to secure a 20-point victory, he will likely declare himself the dominant moderate candidate in the race in the hope of mitigating Sanders’ expected Super Tuesday delegate gains.

But Biden still faces the test of Mike Bloomberg’s $500 million campaign machine in Super Tuesday states, so his own path to the nomination faces numerous challenges.

Stop Sanders movement within party?

Here’s what one team of journalists at the NYT found:

Bernie Sanders rallying in North Carolina today, a Super Tuesday voting state.

Bernie Sanders marches with student supporters to an on-campus polling place for early voting at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, earlier today
Bernie Sanders marches with student supporters to an on-campus polling place for early voting at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, earlier today Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Nancy Pelosi as a white knight. Innnnnteresting.....

Nancy Pelosi this morning
Nancy Pelosi this morning Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP

Let's recap the morning:

It’s been a whirlwind of a morning as Democrats head into South Carolina primary. Black voters may be ‘Feeling the Bern’ more than many analysts thought and the Trump campaign is even taking notice. Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says the party will support whoever wins.

More on South Carolina, including latest polls, in the afternoon. Stay tuned!

Updated

Nancy Pelosi insists Democrats are all about ‘unity’

“Unity, unity, unity” is what US House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi reiterated in a press conference today, telling reporters that Democrats are focused on winning back the White House and Senate, not infighting ahead of the 2020 US presidential race.

“Contrary to what you may be hearing or writing, we are all unified,” she said. “Whoever the nominee is of our party, we’ll wholeheartedly support.”

But when asked about her thoughts on the fight over superdelegates totals in winning the nomination, Pelosi remained mum.

“That’s not the issue, the person who will be nominated will be the person who wins the majority-plus-one,” she said, adding that “that may happen before we even get to the convention but we’ll see.”

Updated

Maine Newspaper rips Warren and Sanders, endorses Klobuchar

The Bangor Daily News is praising pragmatism. Maine’s only independently run paper officially endorsed Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar’s bid for the White House calling her “a centrist who earns praise from Republicans.”

“This should be seen as a benefit, not a drawback at a time when both political parties too often move to their extremes and gridlock is a hallmark in Washington,” staff editors wrote.

Perhaps more notable, however, is who the paper is staunchly against. Editors excoriated fellow New Englanders, senators Bernie Sanders from Vermont and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, calling them “too liberal to gain the needed support to become reality.”

Klobuchar was also the only candidate who agreed to speak the paper’s editorial board. Coincidence?

Updated

Trump administration created office to denaturalize immigrants

The US Dept. of Justice announced it had created a division tasked with denaturalizing immigrants.

The Denaturalization Section “underscores the department’s commitment to bring justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization” officials said in a statement.

From the Washington Post:

Denaturalizations have ramped up under the Trump administration: Of the 228 denaturalization cases that the department has filed since 2008, about 40 percent of them were filed since 2017, according to official department numbers.

The Justice Dept. did not announce who would be tapped to lead the new section.

Updated

Steven Seagal charged with illegally promoting a cryptocurrency

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, actor Steven Seagal allegedly failed to disclose a promotional agreement related to cryptocurrencies.

The SEC alleges Seagal accepted $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G) tokens in exchange for online promotion of the currency, including “posts on his public social media accounts encouraging the public not to ‘miss out’”.

Seagal violated the anti-touting provisions of the federal securities laws. He’ll pay a $157,000 fine.

The SEC issued a warning to investors to “be wary of celebrity endorsements.”

Updated

Republicans are betting on black voters, too

Democrats aren’t the only ones banking on black voters. The Trump campaign announced they’re also getting in the race to engage African Americans ahead of the 2020 presidential election. How? By opening field offices in key swing states just days before the country’s first primary featuring a majority black electorate.

From NPR:

Campaign officials say the goal is get their message directly to African Americans, getting around what they can the “filter” of the media. Offices will feature promotional videos and pamphlets touting President [Donald] Trump’s record on issues such as African American employment and addressing disparities in the criminal justice system.

It’s an uphill climb though, according to Pew, black voters remaining overwhelmingly Democratic.

Pew research study on party support among ethnic groups.

Some polls have shown increasing black support for Trump. But his approval ratings remain historically low, winning only 8 percent of the black vote in 2016. A Washington Post-Ipsos poll found 8 out of 10 African Americans think Trump is a racist.

Nine out of 10 disapprove of his job performance.

Updated

Good Morning. I’m taking over for the live blog and we’re talking black voters.

A new national poll indicates Bernie Sanders is leading among black voters. According to the Hill/HarrisX survey, Sanders extended his lead after Tuesday night’s debates, including a 9-point advantage among African Americans.

Overall, Sanders saw a 6-point increase from last week’s Hill/HarrisX poll, with 28 percent support among Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent voters. The poll was conducted between February 23 and 24 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 4.5 points.

Despite US vice president Joe Biden’s popularity among them, black voters aren’t a monolith. Last week, I spoke with African American democrats in South Carolina ahead of Saturday’s primary who insisted there’s a progressive movement in the state that is largely ignored.

As Bill Frey of the Brookings Institute noted, black migration from the Northeast and Midwest may be a factor.

Hillary Clinton won early primaries in 2016 largely because of the black vote,” he said. “With most African Americans living in and moving south, those races become more competitive because the range of political ideologies among them widens.

Updated

One row that looks set to run between now and the South Carolina primary on Saturday is the sight of former president Barack Obama taking legal action over what he claims is a misleading TV ad from a Republican super PAC that was due to air in the state.

The lawyers letter makes this objection to the advert, saying that:

This unauthorized use of President Obama’s name, image, likeness, voice and book passage is clearly intended to mislead the target audience of the ad into believing that the passage from the audiobook is a statement that was made by President Barack Obama during his presidency, when it was in fact made by a barber in a completely different context more than 20 years ago.

It is significant that the ad is targeting minority voters in the state, as Biden’s path to winning the primary on Saturday over Bernie Sanders relies on him capturing a significant share of the African American vote.

The Committee to Defend the President super PAC attempting to run the ads started life in 2013 as the Stop Hillary PAC. Earlier this month the same super PAC had a Facebook ad that purported to show a photo of “the Bernie bros” removed for being against Facebook’s ad policies.

The Biden campaign were tweeting last night that they were close to having raised $1 million dollars in a day.

Barack Obama is yet to openly endorse anybody in the race for the Democrat nominations, which some have found surprising, given the extent to which Joe Biden has been using his relationship with Obama and their time spent together in government. Biden himself will be at a campaign event at Conway in South Carolina from 5:30pm EST tonight.

Updated

Poll finds Americans have widespread concerns about 2020 election security and integrity

As much as Donald Trump likes to paint it as a fake news hoax, concerns about foreign interference in US elections are not going to go away, as has been revealed by a new joint poll from the Associated Press and the NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

They have found that Americans have widespread concerns about the security and integrity of elections, with few saying they have high confidence that votes in the 2020 presidential election will be counted accurately.

There are widespread fears about security vulnerabilities, as well as voter suppression and voter fraud. About half of Americans say they are highly concerned that the country’s voting systems might be vulnerable to hackers, and about that many also are strongly concerned about foreign governments interfering by tampering with election results or influencing American attitudes.

But, perhaps unsurprisingly concerns vary significantly by partisanship. Democrats are much more likely than Republicans to express worries about the security of elections - with about 6 in 10 Democrats saying they are very or extremely concerned that voting systems might be vulnerable to hackers. Roughly two-thirds are highly concerned that foreign governments will interfere in 2020, by tampering with results or influencing what Americans think about political candidates.

By contrast, fewer than half of Republicans express significant concern about hackers, and just about a quarter are highly concerned about any form of foreign interference.

The AP-NORC poll of 1,074 adults was conducted between 13 February and 16 February, with a sample designed to be representative of the US population as a whole.

It is fair to say that opinion is divided as to whether Vice-president Mike Pence is the right man to take charge of a potential disease pandemic situation. Shannon Palus at Slate has listed Pence’s horrible history on public health initiatives.

While Donald Trump seems keen to talk down the impact of coronavirus in an attempt to quell any panic about it on Wall Street, high on Pence’s agenda today will be that the US appears to have seen its first human-to-human transmission of Covid-19 to someone who has no track record of contact with anybody who had travelled.

With the news that Japan is planning to close all schools for a month to combat the spread of the coronavirus and other countries taking drastic measures like Saudi Arabia halting pilgrimages, it is clear that the economic disruption caused by a prolonged outbreak in the US could be significant.

Vivian Ho has walked around the San Francisco’s historic Chinatown for us, to see the impact that fear is already having.

There have been no confirmed cases of coronavirus in San Francisco, but even so, Chinatown regulars say the streets are less crowded, and people have begun to worry – not about the virus itself, they said, but on whether their businesses can survive this downturn.

AP is reporting a diplomatic push from Russia to extend their last remaining nuclear treaty with the US.

Vladimir Leontyev, a deputy head of the Russian foreign ministry’s arms control department, said during parliamentary hearings that it’s impossible to modify the New Start treaty that expires in February 2021.

Leontyev said that the US has continued to stonewall Russian offers to extend the pact and recently refused to hold a meeting between experts to discuss legal aspects of its possible extension.

The New Start, which was signed in 2010 by President Barack Obama and then Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, limits each country to no more than 1,550 deployed nuclear warheads and 700 deployed missiles and bombers.

The treaty, which can be extended by another five years, includes a comprehensive verification regime to check compliance, including on-site inspections of each sides nuclear bases. Its expiration on 5 February next year would remove any limits on Russian and US nuclear arsenals for the first time in decades.

Much fuss has been made about Mike Bloomberg’s campaign spending power, but USA Today have just published a piece looking at his ground game in Richmond, Virginia. Their reporter was out and about with 63-year-old retiree Sean Mee, and it is an interesting look at the reaction the billionaire’s campaign is getting on the street.

Another man shouted as Mee walked away, “we’re old and have mortgages” to explain why he and others on his block would be supporting Bloomberg instead of Sanders.

Read it here - USA Today: How billionaire Michael Bloomberg is campaigning for the White House

Bernie Sanders’ comments about Cuba at the weekend during his “60 Minutes” interview have continued to provoke responses throughout the week. Here’s Aaron Hicklin on what Sanders’ words felt like for the LGBTQ movement.

When Bernie Sanders doubled down on his old “not everything was bad” defense of Fidel Castro last weekend, citing things like Castro’s literacy programs, I thought of my fellow students from the early 90s. Although society has transformed since I left college, Sanders’ take on Cuba seemed marooned in the past. Cuba’s record on LGBTQ rights has improved in the last 20 years, but Castro was singularly ruthless in his persecution of gay men, lesbians and transgender people.

United Nations human rights chief Michelle Bachelet has delivered a broadside in Geneva against Donald Trump’s policies on environment and migration, accusing the president of endangering public health and the rights of children.

The former Chilean president criticised recent moves to deregulate the US economy and weaken environmental protection standards.

“Untreated pollutants may now be poured directly into millions of miles of streams and rivers, putting ecosystems, drinking water and human health at risk. Weaker fuel emission standards for vehicles and decreased regulations on the oil and gas industries could also harm human rights”

Michelle Bachelet speaking today at a session of the Human Rights Council at the UN in Geneva
Michelle Bachelet speaking today at a session of the Human Rights Council at the UN in Geneva Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters

Bachelet also criticised US migration policies that she said raised significant human rights concerns.

“Reducing the number of people trying to enter the country should not be done in disregard of asylum and migrant protections. The situation of children in detention is of particular concern,” she said.

Here’s the pick of a few things around the web to have a read of this morning.

Politico’s leading piece on the Democrat race is a closer look at the Bernie Sanders’ relationship with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi.

Despite his anti-establishment rhetoric and a handful of high-profile breaks with his party over 29 years in Congress, the Vermont independent is typically not the headache for his Democratic leadership that Ted Cruz and Rand Paul once were for the GOP. Sanders, it’s often forgotten, actually serves on Schumer’s leadership team.

Read it here - Politico: Inside Bernie’s relationship with Chuck and Nancy

The New York Times opinion section has gone big on making the case for each of the six main challengers for the Democrat presidential nomination. They’ve devoted one essay each to Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, Mike Bloomberg, Joe Biden and Amy Klobuchar.

Read it here - New York Times: Choose your champion

The Hill has an interesting look at just what Donald Trump is up to with his administration’s shake up of the justice department and the intelligence community.

President Trump is challenging two institutions with crucial roles to play in the next election with a controversial appointment to the intelligence community and tweets directed at the Justice Department.

Read it here - The Hill: Trump shakes up Justice Department, intelligence community

AP are reporting that one of the nation’s largest labor unions is unveiling plans to invest $150 million in a nationwide campaign to help defeat president Donald Trump. The campaign will be aimed at eight key states: Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin.

The union and its local members will pay particular attention to two key urban battlegrounds: Detroit and Milwaukee. They believe will play a defining role in the 2020 general election, and the investment will focus primarily on direct contact and online advertising targeting minority men and women who typically don’t vote.

It is the largest voter engagement and turnout operation in the history of the Service Employees International Union, which claims nearly 2 million members.

Union president Mary Kay Henry has called it “a make-or-break” moment for working people in America under Trump’s leadership.

“He’s systematically unwinding and attacking unions. Federal workers rights have been totally eviscerated under his watch,” Henry said in an interview. “We are on fire about the rules being rigged against us and needing to elect people that are going to stand with workers.”

The SEIU has yet to endorse a specific challenger for the Democrat nomination. It is one the most diverse unions in the US. Membership features those who work in health care, food service, janitorial services and state and local government workers, among others. Half its members are people of color, and more than half make less than $15 an hour.

Good morning. It’s a busier in-tray than usual for Vice-President Mike Pence after president Donald Trump put him in charge of the US response to coronavirus.

The administration has been giving mixed signals on the crisis. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have described the further community spread of Covid-19 as inevitable, even while Trump downplays the significance of the spread of the virus.

There’s evidence that for the first time there is a case in the US that involves someone with no known link to foreign travel.

Pence is also due to be speaking at the 2020 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland this morning. Ted Cruz, Kellyanne Conway and Betsy DeVos are also on the bill.

Meanwhile Trump’s lawyers are going to be busy after an escalation of the Republican president’s long-running battle with the news media. His team say they are filing a lawsuit against the New York Times. 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”.

For the Democrats we’ll find out on Saturday whether Joe Biden can get over the line in first place in South Carolina. Frequently described as one of ‘firewall’ states, its a test of his appeal to minority voters. There are fifty-four delegates up for grabs.

But the campaign already seems to have moved on to looking at the states that will vote on Super Tuesday - and in particular Texas. Mike Bloomberg has spent more than $13.5 million on television ads around Houston alone. Elizabeth Warren will be in San Antonio today with its former mayor and her former rival for the nomination, Julian Castro. She visits Houston on Saturday. Pete Buttigieg will be in Dallas on Sunday. Texas will award 228 delegates on Super Tuesday, second only to California.

And if you fancy something a little leftfield and you live in New York, you can sign up for a “Mindfulness for Mike” yoga session with the Bloomberg campaign before volunteering. It starts at 9:15.

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