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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh in San Francisco (now), Joan E Greve in Washington and Martin Belam (earlier)

Sanders shifts focus to Michigan as Warren drops out – as it happened

Bernie Sanders speaks in Vermont on Wednesday.
Bernie Sanders speaks in Vermont on Wednesday. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Live politics reporting continues on Friday’s blog:

Summary

  • A federal judge ordered the DOJ to hand over the unredacted Mueller Report. In a ruling that questioned attorney general William Barr’s “credibility”, the judge indicated that the court would review the report and consider what additional portions can be released to the public.
  • Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the presidential race. She has declined to endorse either Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden.
  • Bernie Sanders refocused his efforts on Michigan, leaving the south to Joe Biden. Though he was the frontrunner before Super Tuesday, Sanders is scrambling to catch up after moderates consolidated behind Biden.
  • The Senate approved an $8bn bill to address the coronavirus outbreak in the US. Mike Pence headed to Washington, where there have been more reported coronavirus cases than in any other state.
  • Donald Trump answered questions in a Fox News town hall held in Biden’s home town Scranton, Pennsylvania. The president said he expects to face off against Biden, not Sanders, in November.


    • Updated

    Washington state Governor Jay Inslee greeted Mike Pence with an elbow bump, welcoming the vice president and other coronavirus task force members to the state’s emergency operations centers.

    Pence and Inslee spoke to state health officials amidst a serious outbreak in the state, where there have been reported 70 cases and 11 deaths.

    Opinion: I’m sad to see Warren go, but now she has a choice to make

    Warren with husband Bruce Mann, leaving their home before Warren announced that she is dropping out of the presidential race.
    Warren with husband Bruce Mann, leaving their home before Warren announced that she is dropping out of the presidential race. Photograph: Scott Eisen/Getty Images

    The Guardian’s Derecka Purnell writes:

    Senator Warren was my second choice candidate. Not because she was a woman and I am concerned about electability. Not because I am waiting for the perfect woman to run, or that the budding octogenarian that I support is a savior. But because I truly believe that social movements and political revolution transform people, communities, and the planet - not just one built around a singular candidate. I did not want Warren to leave the race before anyone else. Naively, perhaps, I assumed that the United States had shifted significantly towards an exciting future, and the candidates would wither down to Bernie or Elizabeth. I was wrong. After Super Tuesday, I realized that many voters desperately want this country to return to normal, even though “normal” is oppressive for so many of us. The biggest threat to Warren and Sanders supporters was never each other.

    With this in mind, Senator Warren has a choice to make. She was one of the most innovative Democratic candidates for president in this current race, and possibly in American history. Her plans for universal childcare, significant Social Security expansion, and building a green economy would have certainly improved the lives of millions of peoples across the country. Does she believe in her vision enough to support and rally her base around Senator Sanders - the only candidate whose policies dream big about what we must make possible in this country? She absolutely must. Her, and our collective future, requires it.

    Read the full piece here:

    Updated

    Speaking at the Fox News town hall in Scranton, Trump said he expects to be running against Joe Biden.

    “Mentally, I’m all set for Bernie,” he said. But after Super Tuesday, “You know, I don’t think I’m running against Bernie,” Trump added. “I think it’s going to be very hard for him to come back.”

    He also said that Elizabeth Warren should have dropped out earlier, echoing what some Sanders supporters had said. “Look if she’s a true progressive, which probably she is, she should have dropped out three days ago,” Trump said.

    Now that Elizabeth Warren has dropped out of the presidential race, we may be seeing less of her most effective surrogate: her golden retriever Bailey.

    But it seems that Bailey is enjoying a break, and he’s already starting to let loose now that the pressure’s off. It’s ruff always having to be a good boy!

    Following Warren’s public address announcing the end of her campaign, it seems Bailey helped himself to a large burrito and gulped down a good portion of it before several people lunged into action to try to remove the remnants from his mouth. Burritos, of course, are generally considered human food not meant for doggos.

    Still, after a hard-fought campaign, who’s to say he didn’t deserve it.

    Updated

    At the Scranton town hall, in response to a supporter who asked him to tone down his rhetoric, Donald Trump said it was important to “hit back”.

    “When they hit us, we have to hit back. I really feel that,” he said. “You can’t turn your cheek”

    He also provided a positive spin on the coronavirus outbreak: “I have to say, people are now staying in the United States, spending their money in the US— and I like that,” he said.

    Updated

    Trump arrives at Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport.
    Trump arrives at Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport. Photograph: Leah Millis/Reuters

    Donald Trump, meanwhile, is in Joe Biden’s hometown of Scranton, Pennsylvania, for a town hall hosted by Fox News.

    This will be his first TV town hall the 2020 elections, and a rare instance where Trump will be taking questions from the public — albeit in a friendly venue set up by his favorite network. This is also Trump’s first visit this year to Pennsylvania, a swing state that he won by just 44,000 votes in 2016.

    Updated

    Sanders focuses efforts on Michigan

    Bernie Sanders has canceled a trip to Mississippi, choosing to focus his efforts in Michigan and essentially leaving the south to Joe Biden.

    Sanders was supposed to campaign Jackson, Mississippi, along Mayor Chokwe Lumumba, on Friday. Instead, Sanders will head to Detroit for a rally tomorrow, and Grand Rapids for another event on Sunday.

    Speaking to reporters from his campaign headquarters in Vermont yesterday, Sanders said that Michigan would be “where we will spend a bit of our time,” and noted that it was critical in his path to the Democratic nomination.

    Though Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Michigan primary, he appears to be nearly 7 points behind Biden in a Detroit News/WDIV-TV poll of likely Michigan Democratic primary voters released Tuesday.

    Today, Michigan’s governor Gretchen Whitmer endorsed Biden. “All roads to the White House lead through my state, and I want to make sure that we’ve got a strong ability to help impact where we are headed as a nation,” she said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.

    Sanders campaigned Whitmer’s primary challenger in 2018.

    Updated

    Another judge from the same court as Judge Walton recently sentenced Roger Stone — a friend of Trump — for interfering in a congressional investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Amy Berman Jackson of the Washington district court sentenced Stone to more than three years in prison following disagreements between Barr and career prosecutors over how harsh the sentence should be.

    Questioning Barr's 'credibility', federal judge requests unredacted Mueller report

    The Department of Justice has been ordered to turn over an unredacted copy of the Mueller report by 30 March, so a judge can assess what can be further released publicly.

    The ruling accuses the attorney general, William Barr, of misrepresenting the findings of the report before handing it over to Congress.

    The court decision is the result of a BuzzFeed News lawsuit seeking to reveal the contents of the report, which details the special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

    In his opinion explaining the ruling, the federal judge Reggie Walton wrote that Barr’s public comments in April 2019 about the report didn’t fit with the actual findings and were misleading to the public.

    “The inconsistencies between Attorney General Barr’s statements made at a time when the public did not have access to the redacted version of the Mueller Report to assess the veracity of his statements, and portions of the redacted version of the Mueller Report that conflict with those statements cause the Court to seriously question whether Attorney General Barr made a calculated attempt to influence public discourse about the Mueller Report in favor of President Trump despite certain findings in the redacted version of the Mueller Report to the contrary,” Walton said.

    Walton, who was appointed by George W Bush, also delivered a hard condemnation of Barr. “These circumstances generally, and Attorney General Barr’s lack of candor specifically, call into question Attorney General Barr’s credibility,” he wrote in the legal opinion.

    Updated

    Facebook says it will remove misleading Trump ads that present a survey on the president’s reelection campaign website as an “official” 2020 census survey.

    Kevin Collier reports for The Guardian:

    The Trump Make America Great Committee posted 2,000 iterations of an ad this week, asking users to respond to the “Official Congressional District Census”. Instead of information at the Census Bureau, however, the posts linked to a push-poll survey on the GOP fundraising site action.donaldjtrump.com, which also requests personal information for the campaign.

    Advocates said this could interfere with the actual census, which begins for most Americans with mailers in mid-March. A census is a once-in-a-decade event that seeks to count every person in the country, with drastic consequences for resource allocation and government representation nationwide.

    Updated

    Hi, there! It’s Maanvi — writing from the West Coast.

    Now that Elizabeth Warren has dropped out of the race, where do her supporters go? Second choice polling data from Moning Consult suggests that her supporters may split between Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden.

    Forty-three percent of Warren supporters said they’d shift support to Sanders , and 36 percent said they’d go with Biden. Of course, that could change if Warren ultimately choses to endorse Sanders. As Sanders pointed out, her politics and policies align much more closely with his than Biden’s. For now, Warren has held off — perhaps strategically choosing to maintain leverage and push the remaining candidates’ policies.

    In 2016, she declined to choose between Sanders and Hillary Clinton, frustrating supporters of both candidates.

    Updated

    Today so far

    That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

    Here’s where the day stands so far:

    • Elizabeth Warren dropped out of the presidential race after a disappointing Super Tuesday performance. The Massachusetts senator declined to endorse Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders today, and she said she had “no regrets” about her campaign.
    • The $8 billion bill aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus passed the Senate. The proposal is now headed to Trump’s desk for his signature.
    • Markets slumped again amid growing fears about coronavirus. The Dow dropped 970 points, wiping out almost all of yesterday’s gains after Biden’s strong showing on Super Tuesday.
    • Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said he misspoke in his comments directed at two Supreme Court justices. The New York Democrat said yesterday that Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the two justices nominated by Trump, would “pay the price” for their decision in an abortion rights case.
    • Mike Bloomberg is reportedly starting a new group aimed at defeating Trump in November. The former New York mayor suspended his presidential campaign yesterday and endorsed Biden, but Bloomberg made clear he would still work to elect the eventual Democratic nominee.

    Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

    Freshman congresswoman Elissa Slotkin has endorsed Joe Biden days before her home state of Michigan holds its primary.

    “Today, I filled out my absentee ballot for Joe Biden,” Slotkin said in a statement. “I did so for a host of reasons, but most importantly because I hear from my constituents every day that they want an end to the all-or-nothing politics that have so polarized our country.”

    Slotkin is one of the freshman House Democrats who flipped Republican districts in 2018, and she faces a difficult reelection in November.

    Her endorsement of Biden is unsurprising, considering a number of moderate Democrats have sought to distance themselves from Bernie Sanders.

    But the timing of the Michigan congresswoman’s endorsement could be crucial, considering the state will award 125 delegates on Tuesday.

    Markets slump amid coronavirus fears

    The US markets dropped again today amid growing fears about the spread of coronavirus.

    The Dow dropped 970 points, or over 3.5%, erasing much of yesterday’s gains.

    The markets saw an uptick yesterday as investors appeared to breathe a sigh of relief about Bernie Sanders’ sinking political fortunes after Joe Biden’s strong Super Tuesday performance.

    For more updates and analysis, follow the Guardian’s business live blog:

    Post-Super Tuesday poll shows Biden leading

    A national poll shows Joe Biden leading Bernie Sanders by double digits after his strong performance on Super Tuesday.

    According to the Reuters/Ipsos poll, Biden stands at 55% nationally, while Sanders is 10 points behind at 45%.

    Of course, the more important polls now are those taken in states that will hold primaries later this month.

    On that metric, Biden also appears to be enjoying an advantage over Sanders.

    A poll from Michigan, which will vote on Tuesday, showed Biden leading by more than 6 points, and a new Florida poll, which will award 219 delegates on March 17, found Biden holding an astounding 49-point advantage.

    House speaker Nancy Pelosi held a signing ceremony for the coronavirus bill, which is now headed to Trump’s desk after its passage in the Senate today.

    Pelosi acknowledged the $8 billion package may only mark the beginning of the US response to the health threat.

    “We have no idea what the scope will be,” Pelosi said. “We do recognize this may be a first step.”

    Asked by a reporter about whether there are coronavirus test kits at the Capitol, Pelosi said she did not believe the government had the capacity for such testing.

    Joe Biden has picked up another endorsement from a former Obama administration official: former health and human services secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

    “At this time of an emerging health crisis, it’s more important than ever to have an experienced leader as president who listens to the scientists, believes in health care for all, and can bring the country together to deal with the challenges ahead,” Sebelius said in a statement released by the Biden campaign.

    “That leader is Joe Biden, and I hope you’ll join me in fighting for him.”

    Sebelius served as the governor of Kansas from 2003 to 2009, and her endorsement is seen as a huge boost in the state, which will hold its presidential primary on May 2.

    Some of Elizabeth Warren’s supporters are continuing their fight for other progressive candidates after the Massachusetts senator suspended her campaign today.

    The New York Times reports:

    Ms. Warren’s supporters never turned on their candidate, or the party that rejected her candidacy. In Illinois, where Ms. Warren’s campaign was scheduled to hold a post-Super Tuesday phone banking session, staff and supporters refused to cancel. They decided to use their time to support Marie Newman, the Illinois congressional candidate running against an incumbent Democrat opposed to abortion rights.

    Newman is challenging incumbent Democratic congressman Dan Lipinski, who she narrowly lost to in 2018.

    Bloomberg reportedly starting new group aimed at defeating Trump

    After suspending his presidential campaign, Mike Bloomberg is reportedly starting a new group aimed at defeating Trump in November.

    The Washington Post reports:

    Bloomberg has decided to form a new independent expenditure campaign that will absorb hundreds of his presidential campaign staff in six swing states to work to elect the Democratic nominee this fall.

    The new group, with a name that is still undisclosed because its trademark application is in process, would also be a vehicle for Bloomberg to spend money on advertising to attack President Trump and support the Democratic nominee, according to a person familiar with the discussions, who requested anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. ...

    The new group, operating with the same potentially limitless bankroll that funded Bloomberg’s campaign, could play a mayor role in shaping the race this fall. Bloomberg, who is worth more than $50 billion, has also not ruled out using the group to spend money to support Vice President Joe Biden during his primary fight against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

    Bloomberg dropped out of the race yesterday after a disappointing performance on Super Tuesday and immediately endorsed Joe Biden.

    Even though he’s out of the Democratic primary, Bloomberg has continued to taunt Trump, releasing a new video today that mocks the president as a “disaster” for the country.

    Updated

    Jordan Frias reports from outside Elizabeth Warren’s home in Cambridge, Massachusetts:

    Elizabeth Warren supporters who came to see the former candidate’s press conference today included college students and neighbors, many of whom said they were too sad to speak to the media, while others wouldn’t be drawn on who they might support now. Pat David, 73, came with her 2-year-old granddaughter in her stroller.

    “I’m not sure I want her to endorse [Bernie Sanders],” she said. “I just don’t know who can beat this idiot in the White House ... I don’t think she should necessarily endorse anyone, I think she should stay out of that sort of thing until someone decides to try to draft her in.”

    Sarah Taylor, a neighbor of Warren’s, came with her dog and a sign reading, “We are proud of you, thank you”. She too is not ready to see the liberal progressive back anyone.

    “I will support whoever the Democratic Party nominates, and I think [Sanders] has many gifts” Taylor said, “But I think that the temperament that I’m looking for in the president is one like Elizabeth’s, and one that’s more in line with [Joe Biden].”

    Schumer says he misspoke in comments about Supreme Court justices

    In case you missed it amid the flurry of news this morning: Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said he misspoke when he warned two conservative Supreme Court justices would “pay the price” for their decision in an abortion rights case.

    “I should not have used the words I used yesterday. They didn’t come out the way I intended them to,” Schumer said in a Senate floor speech this morning.

    “I’m from Brooklyn. We speak in strong language. I shouldn’t have used the words I did, but in no way was I making a threat. I never — never — would do such a thing.”

    Speaking to abortion rights supporters yesterday as the Supreme Court hears a case about a Louisiana law restricting access to the procedure, Schumer directed a warning at Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, the two justices nominated by Trump.

    “I want to tell you, Gorsuch; I want to tell you, Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price,” Schumer said. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

    Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell then accused Schumer of trying to “bully our nation’s independent judiciary.”

    But it should be noted Republicans have avoided similar criticism of Trump, who has repeatedly lashed out against judges who deliver decisions that are unfavorable to his policy agenda.

    Even though he has dropped out of the presidential race, Mike Bloomberg is not done bashing Trump.

    The former New York mayor just tweeted a new video that calls Trump a “disaster” for the country and ends with the message, “Dump Trump. Go Joe.”

    Trump and Bloomberg repeatedly exchanged insults about each other’s height and intelligence once the billionaire candidate launched his Democratic presidential campaign in November.

    When Bloomberg dropped out of the race yesterday after a disappointing Super Tuesday perfromance, he endorsed Joe Biden and said he would work to help get him elected.

    Senator Rand Paul had proposed an amendment to offset the cost of the coronavirus bill with cuts to foreign aid.

    When that measure failed, the Kentucky Republican voted against the $8 billion bill, making him the only senator to oppose the proposal.

    The only two House members to vote against the bill yesterday -- Andy Biggs and Ken Buck -- similarly objected to the bill’s cost.

    Senate passes coronavirus bill

    The Senate has passed the $8 billion coronavirus bill on a vote of 96 to 1, with only Republican senator Rand Paul opposing the measure.

    The bill similarly advanced through the House on a resounding vote of 415 to 2.

    The proposal now goes to Trump, who is expected to sign the bill into law after significantly increasing the amount of requested funding to combat the heath threat.

    Bill to combat coronavirus winning support

    An $8.3 billion bill to release emergency funding to combat the coronavirus outbreak has won enough support for passage in the Senate, as voting continues.

    The bill passed in the House yesterday and is receiving bipartisan support. It is a much larger sum than the White House floated late last month and will authorize special funding for government agencies in the front line of dealing with the novel illness, as well as to boost Medicare, the government health insurance for the older population.

    The legislation passed almost unanimously in the House and, Reuters reported, is on its way through the Senate also with strong support.

    Bernie Sanders celebrated Elizabeth Warren as a progressive champion who has “taken on the most powerful corporate interests” after she suspended her presidential campaign.

    Some of Sanders’ allies have called on Warren to endorse her fellow progressive senator, but she told reporters today that she was “not ready” to make an endorsement.

    Joe Biden, the other leading candidate remaining in the presidential primary, similarly praised Warren as “the fiercest of fighters for middle class families.”

    At her weekly press conference, House speaker Nancy Pelosi expressed disappointment that the presidential primary has narrowed to two men.

    “Every time I get introduced as the most powerful woman, I almost cry because I wish that were not true,” Pelosi said. “I still wish that we had a woman president of the United States.”

    Pelosi said she believed there was “an element of misogyny” to the hurdles that women candidates face in politics.

    The speaker also dismissed the idea that Democratic voters were worried a woman candidate could not beat Trump

    “I think anyone can beat President Trump,” Pelosi said.

    Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez mourned the end of Elizabeth Warren’s presidential campaign.

    The progressive congresswoman has been a top surrogate for Bernie Sanders in recent days, but unlike some of Sanders’ allies, Ocasio-Cortez did not call on Warren to drop out after her disappointing Super Tuesday performance.

    Today so far

    Here’s where the day stands so far:

    • Elizabeth Warren has dropped out of the presidential primary, following her disappointing performance on Super Tuesday.
    • Warren told reporters she would wait on endorsing one of her opponents, as many of Bernie Sanders’ supporters call on her to back her fellow progressive senator.
    • Mitch McConnell criticized Chuck Schumer for comments he made about two conservative Supreme Court justices, accusing the Democratic leader of trying to “bully our nation’s independent judiciary.”

    The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

    Elizabeth Warren said she had a theory about the presidential primary that was proven incorrect in recent weeks.

    The Massachusetts senator said she was told there were “two lanes” in the primary: “a progressive lane that Bernie Sanders is the incumbent for and a moderate lane that Joe Biden is the incumbent for.”

    She added, “I thought that wasn’t right but evidently I was wrong.”

    Elizabeth Warren acknowledged that sexism in the presidential primary impacted her campaign.

    “If you say, yeah, there was sexism in this race, everyone says, whiner. And if you say no, there was no sexism, about a bazillion women think, what planet do you live on?” Warren said.

    The Massachusetts senator pledged to speak more about sexism in politics moving forward. “I promise you this: I’ll have a lot more to say on that subject later on,” Warren said.

    Elizabeth Warren expressed pride in being able to vote for herself in Massachusetts’ primary on Tuesady.

    “I stood in that voting booth, and I looked down at my name on the ballot and thought, ‘Wow kiddo, you’re not in Oklahoma anymore,’” Warren said.

    The senator added she was thinking about her late parents and missing them as she cast her ballot.

    Warren says she has 'no regrets' and will wait on endorsement

    Elizabeth Warren addressed reporters at her Cambridge home, explaining her decision to suspend her presidential campaign.

    “I will not be running for president in 2020, but I guarantee I will stay in the fight,” Warren said.

    The Massachusetts senator acknowledged she was disappointed the field has narrowed to two white male candidates (with the exception of Tulsi Gabbard, who has two delegates).

    “One of the hardest parts of this is ... all those little girls who are going to have to wait four more years,” Warren said.

    She added that she would not be endorsing another candidate at the moment. “Not today,” Warren said of her potential endorsement. “I need some space around this.”

    Echoing her campaign manager Roger Lau, Warren said, “I have no regrets at all. This has been the honor of a lifetime.”

    Joe Biden applauded Elizabeth Warren after she announced her withdrawal from the presidential primary, calling the Massachusetts senator “the fiercest of fighters for middle class families.”

    After his strong performance on Super Tuesday, Biden is looking like the frontrunner in the race, and some have speculated about what role Warren could serve in his potential administration.

    However, the two candidates have a number of policy differences on a wide range of issues, including healthcare and student debt.

    Tulsi Gabbard, who is now the only woman in the presidential race, has won two delegates from Super Tuesday.

    For comparison, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders each won hundreds of delegates from California and Texas on Tuesday.

    Elizabeth Warren’s remarks to staff announcing her decision to suspend her campaign appear to end on an allusion to Ted Kennedy.

    “Our work continues, the fight goes on, and big dreams never die,” Warren told her staffers.

    When Kennedy ended his own presidential campaign in 1980, he said, “The work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”

    Both Warren and Kennedy, who died in 2009, have represented Massachusetts in the Senate.

    Bernie Sanders told MSNBC it was “too early” to discuss whether Elizabeth Warren could serve as his running mate.

    The Vermont senator added that he looked forward to talking to Warren about what role she may be able to serve in his potential administration.

    In her remarks to staffers, Elizabeth Warren celebrated the campaign’s accomplishments and tenacity.

    “[I]n this campaign, we have been willing to fight, and, when necessary, we left plenty of blood and teeth on the floor,” Warren said. “And I can think of one billionaire who has been denied the chance to buy this election.”

    Warren landed some devastating punches against Mike Bloomberg during the Las Vegas debate, and the billionaire candidate dropped out yesterday, giving Warren bragging rights about outlasting his campaign by a day.

    Updated

    Reporters are gathered outside Elizabeth Warren’s home waiting for the Massachusetts senator’s press conference.

    Warren’s golden retriever Bailey, who has become a fixture on the campaign trail, could be spotted through a window.

    Elizabeth Warren’s campaign has shared her remarks to staff announcing she is dropping out of the presidential primary:

    I love you guys too.

    I want to start with the news. I want all of you to hear it first, and I want you to hear it straight from me: today, I’m suspending our campaign for president.

    I know how hard all of you have worked. I know how you disrupted your lives to be part of this. I know you have families and loved ones you could have spent more time with. You missed them and they missed you. And I know you have sacrificed to be here.

    So from the bottom of my heart, thank you, for everything you have poured into this campaign.

    Warren also shared a story she heard from a supporter as she cast her vote in Massachusetts earlier this week:

    She said she has two small children, and they have a nightly ritual. After the kids have brushed teeth and read books and gotten that last sip of water and done all the other bedtime routines, they do one last thing before the two little ones go to sleep. Mama leans over them and whispers, ‘Dream big.’ And the children together reply, ‘Fight hard.’

    Our work continues, the fight goes on, and big dreams never die.

    Updated

    Elizabeth Warren is scheduled to hold a press conference in about an hour, when she is expected to announce her withdrawal from the presidential primary.

    The Massachusetts senator reportedly informed her staff of her decision on a conference call about 30 minutes ago.

    According to the New York Times, Warren is not expected to endorse Joe Biden or Bernie Sanders at the press conference.

    Elizabeth Warren’s expected withdrawal means there are no major candidates left in the presidential race who are women.

    (Tulsi Gabbard remains a candidate, but she has so far only won one delegate from American Samoa.)

    One NBC News reporter noted that Warren’s gender was often cited as a liability by voters who were nervous about nominating a woman after Hillary Clinton’s 2016 loss:

    Trump has weighed in on Elizabeth Warren’s expected withdrawal, once again using his “Pocahontas” insult against the Massachusetts senator and accusing her of costing Bernie Sanders the nomination.

    Here are some snap verdicts on Elizabeth Warren’s reported withdrawal from the Democratic primary:

    From a Daily Beast reporter:

    From a political science professor at George Mason University:

    From a Washington Post reporter:

    Elizabeth Warren’s departure from the race followed a series of lackluster finishes in the early contests, including a demoralizing third place finish in her home state of Massachusetts.

    After surging to the front of the field last summer with an urgent call for “big structural change”, she began to slide, squeezed from the left by Bernie Sanders and from the center by more moderate alternatives.

    In the final weeks of her campaign, Warren, 70, attempted to reset her campaign this winter by recasting herself as the “unity candidate” best positioned to unify the Democratic party after a competitive primary, but that argument failed to win over many voters.

    Elizabeth Warren briefly led national polls this fall, but her numbers dropped as she was scrutinized over the specifics of her Medicare for all plan.

    As she failed to win states in the past month, a number of Bernie Sanders’ supporters called on Warren to drop out in the hope of consolidating the progressive vote.

    Next week’s primaries will give us our first sense of whether that consolidation has occurred.

    Elizabeth Warren’s expected withdrawal from the presidential primary leaves only three candidates in the race: Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard.

    Considering Gabbard has only won one delegate so far, this is effectively a two-candidate race between Biden and Sanders.

    The next test for Biden and Sanders will come on Tuesday, when six states will hold primaries.

    Warren to reportedly drop out

    Elizabeth Warren reportedly intends to drop out of the Democratic presidential primary.

    The Massachusetts senator was considered one of the frontrunners in the race but has failed to win a single state.

    The results of Super Tuesday indicated Warren’s support lagged far behind that of Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.

    McConnell criticizes Schumer over Supreme Court comments

    Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has taken to the Senate floor to criticize Democratic minority leader Chuck Schumer for his comments about two conservative Supreme Court justices.

    McConnell accused Schumer of attempting to “bully our nation’s independent judiciary.” “I fully anticipate our colleague would quickly withdraw his comment and apologize,” McConnell said.

    Schumer also received a rare rebuke from Supreme Court chief justice John Roberts yesterday over comments he directed at the two Trump-appointed justices, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch, in response to a case focused on abortion access in Louisiana.

    “I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price.” Schumer said. “You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

    Updated

    CNN has announced the moderators for the next debate, which will take place in Arizona on March 15.

    CNN’s Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, along with Univision’s Jorge Ramos, will moderate the 11th Democratic debate.

    Only four candidates remain in the race -- Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Tulsi Gabbard -- and Gabbard is unlikely to qualify.

    If Warren drops out of the race in the next week, which is possible but not certain at this point, the debate could be a two-candidate event featuring only Biden and Sanders.

    Trump is once again denying saying somthing he did indeed say, and this time it’s something about coronavirus.

    Appearing on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show last night, Trump said of coronavirus, “Because a lot of people will have this and it’s very mild. ... So if, you know, we have thousands or hundreds of thousands of people that get better, just by you know, sitting around and even going to work, some of them go to work, but they get better.”

    This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

    The Senate will vote later today on the $8bn bill aimed at limiting the spread of coronavirus, which passed the House yesterday.

    The bill is expected to easily pass the Senate and advance to Trump’s desk, considering it passed the House on a vote of 415 to 2.

    Updated

    Biden says protection for candidates may be needed after stage invasion

    The Today show have just posted up the full six-and-a-half minute interview with Joe Biden this morning on their social channels.

    In the clip Biden talks about winning well on Super Tuesday without an Obama endorsement, and the kind of support he can expect from Mike Bloomberg.

    He also addresses the security concerns after the incident where his wife Jill Biden and senior adviser Symone Sanders protected him from two protesters who stormed the stage.

    Biden says it might be time for him to have Secret Service protection.

    “Well, I think that’s something that has to be considered, the more outrageous some of this becomes. I wasn’t scared for me, I was worried about for Jill.”

    “The idea of jumping on a stage is just not permissible,” Biden said. “The last thing we need is anybody hurt.”

    The Secret Service, by statute, protects the president, the vice president and their families as well as some other senior government officials. It is also authorized to protect major party presidential candidates, an authority granted after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968.

    We can expect the latest developments with the coronavirus outbreak in the US to be pretty high on the agenda today. The death toll from coronavirus climbed to 11 yesterday as California reported its first fatality, and the House of Representatives passed an $8.3bn bill to help fund containment efforts.

    Hallie Golden has been out and about in Seattle looking at what life is like in the Washington city at the centre of America’s outbreak. The state has seen 39 cases of the virus, with a total of 10 deaths.

    In the city’s downtown area on Wednesday, residents reported fewer people walking around, while some shops turned to cutting back on staffing in response to slow business. Local grocery stores have seen some of their shelves emptied, as residents look to stock up on essentials. In a QFC (Quality Food Centers) in downtown Kirkland, several shelves where disinfectants, bottled water and bread would normally be were almost bare.

    Read it here - Life in the Washington city at the center of America’s coronavirus outbreak

    There’s going to be a House Science, Space, and Technology Committee session on coronavirus this morning, starting at 9am ET. There will be some experts from the Smithsonian and Harvard among the witnesses in a session titled “Understanding the spread of infectious diseases and mobilizing innovative solutions”

    Watch it here - House Science, Space, and Technology Committee coronavirus hearing

    House Science, Space, and Technology Committee
    hearing into coronavirus

    Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is backing Joe Biden

    The AP is reporting another endorsement for Joe Biden - this time Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.

    Whitmer, who had not been planning to endorse a 2020 candidate, says Biden “has our backs.” She cited his work with President Barack Obama to add health coverage for millions of people and to rescue two of the Detroit Three automakers, General Motors and Chrysler, from financial ruin.

    “He showed up for the people of Michigan when our health care and our auto industry were on the line,” the first-term governor said in a statement released Thursday to the Associated Press. “He helped us pick ourselves up and get back to work. I know he’ll do the same as president.”

    Of the six states voting next Tuesday, Michigan is the biggest prize with 125 pledged delegates at stake.

    “Joe Biden is the candidate we need to defeat Donald Trump in November,” Whitmer said a day after hinting that she might deliver an endorsement because “a lot of things have changed in the last 72 hours.” She said she decided to publicly support a candidate now because “we need our party to be united” to beat the Republican president.

    On Twitter, Whitmer confirmed she would be will be joining Biden’s campaign as a co-chair.

    FiveThirtyEight have an endorsement tracker, which shows just how far out in front Biden is on that score.

    Updated

    Most Democrats believe that one of the key things to defeating Donald Trump in November’s election will be getting the black vote out and turning up for whoever is nominated. There is sometimes a tendency to treat that vote as a bit of a monolith, and perhaps take for granted that it will come out and swing behind whoever the Democrats pick.

    Kenya Evelyn in Washington has been looking at what Super Tuesday’s results tell us about the black vote.

    Biden’s strength among black communities also made the difference in narrowly winning Texas, where African Americans make up about one-fifth of the Democratic primary electorate and Biden won at least three times more of their votes than Sanders did.

    “Those young progressives may be motivated for a movement but it’s the older, moderate aunties and uncles who show up” said Antjuan Seawright, a South Carolina-based Democratic strategist, ahead of Biden’s victory there.

    Read it here - What Super Tuesday revealed about black voters’ power and preferences

    Donald Trump Jr - who you feel is perhaps on somewhat thin ice when throwing out this kind of accusation - has just been tweeting out a Daily Caller ‘exclusive’ from yesterday about Hunter Biden. The son of the US president is suggesting that “It’s almost like the whole Biden family is entity dependent on Joe holding public office?”

    Slightly away from the election, Associated Press this morning have been running a story about visiting a shop selling unofficial President Donald Trump-themed merchandise in a suburban Philadelphia strip mall.

    The Trump Store in Bensalem sells t-shirts, hats, beanies, and mugs with the president’s cartoon face - all designed to appeal to his biggest fans

    Mike Domanico, the shop’s owner, got into the T-shirt business in 2017 and noticed that the 10 or so Trump shirts he offered for sale at car shows sold out fast. He opened a kiosk in a nearby mall before expanding to the store early this year. The shop does about 350 sales a day, with the average customer spending about $60.

    A customer shops at The Trump Store in Bensalem
    A customer shops at The Trump Store in Bensalem Photograph: Matt Slocum/AP

    Among the top sellers is a t-shirt that has the president’s signature in gold above a brick wall and says, Border Wall Construction Co. The phrases “Build the wall” and “Deport them all” are printed underneath. Other t-shirts feature the Confederate flag and reference slavery, alongside one with a gun and a dig at former president Barack Obama.

    Mike Catalini reports that Bucks County, where the shop is located, is the kind of swing area that is going to be crucial in the 2020 race. It swung for the Democrats in the 2016 presidential election, but frequently votes Republican for the House.

    Speaking to people visiting the store, Catalini found Jim Smith, 56, a tractor-trailer driver making his second visit to the shop to stock up on T-shirts. For him, he said, they are a way to grab people’s attention. Smith plans to give them out to people who are sitting on the fence politically. Its a conversation starter, he said.

    Other visitors to the store included Dave Russell, 75, and Ron Soto, 82, both of Levittown, Pennsylvania. Russell, an Air Force veteran who retired from construction, said he came out to buy a Veterans for Trump shirt to show his support. He said Trump was the only president he remembered keeping promises.

    Customers look at t-shirts at The Trump Store in Bensalem
    Customers look at t-shirts at The Trump Store in Bensalem Photograph: Matt Slocum/AP

    Mike Bloomberg’s 53 delegate tally might prove to be the most expensive of all time if you consider how much money the billionaire spent to obtain them. Here’s a video wrap of four issues that hindered his presidential hopes.

    Sanders says he'll drop out if Biden has most delegates going into convention

    Sanders has set himself a high bar for wining the nomination, suggesting last night that if he went into a contested convention still in the race, he would concede to Biden if the former vice president was ahead on delegates, even if Biden had failed to amass a majority.

    Sanders told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show “If Biden walks into the convention, or at the end of the process, has more votes than me, he’s the winner”

    He sounded a note of caution about any process that involved superdelegates opting for somebody who hadn’t won the popular vote though.

    “It would be a real, real disaster for the Democratic party” Sanders said. “People would say ‘the person who won the most votes didn’t get selected.’”

    Sanders also spoke at length how pleased he is that the rules around superdelegates have been modified since his unsuccessful 2016 campaign.

    Watch the clip - Sanders agrees: the person with the most delegates at the convention wins

    Talking about Sanders and 2016, there’s an interesting bit of analysis over here from Zachary Wolf at CNN, which suggests that Sanders is doing better in the race in 2020, but off the back of less support than he had last time around.

    Read it here - CNN: 2020 Bernie Sanders is losing to 2016 Bernie Sanders

    Joe Biden has been on the Today show this morning, and there’s a few interesting nuggets in among the questioning from Savannah Guthrie

    Asked about the missing endorsement from Barack Obama - who has said he won’t endorse anybody at this stage - Biden says: “Imagine had he endorsed me and we won as big as we did, you’d all be saying I won because of Barack. I’m winning because of me. I’m gonna earn this on my own.”

    He was also questioned about what support he could expect from Mike Bloomberg now that the billionaire has pivtoed from running against him to backing Biden. Joe was circumspect about not mentioning the money, saying: “He talked about my character, he talked about why he supported me, and he talked about why he would be enthusiastic about it. That all by itself is a gigantic help.”

    You can watch some of the segment here.

    Florida Rep. Val Demings endorses Joe Biden

    Rep. Val Demings has been on CNN this morning to endorse Joe Biden. It’s a big deal for Joe given the demographic make-up of the crucial swing state. The former police chief is a member of both the intelligence and judiciary committees and was one of the impeachment managers at Trump’s trial.

    At the same time, Mayor of New York City Bill de Blasio appears to have come out in favour of Bernie Sanders.

    Biden easily has more endorsements from Capitol Hill than any other candidate. It is unclear how much effect that has in turning out the popular vote in primaries, but it could certainly come in handy if the race with Sanders stays close and we end up with a contested convention and superdelegates in play.

    We know that on Super Tuesday California and Texas voters faced hours-long lines, once again calling into question the way that the US organises its elections. Some voters waited several hours or longer to cast their ballots in the vital primaries. And there is still the question of foreign interference in the election process hanging in the air.

    NPR have an interesting piece this morning rounding-up the election security situation. Philip Ewing writes:

    Trump and Sanders both say they want no foreign help winning in 2020. What hostile governments wants is less a certain political outcome than “to cause confusion and create doubt in our system”…Federal, state and local officials are coordinating in a way they never have before. Big Tech platforms say they’re working within their own networks to clamp down on disinformation and agitation. And political campaigns are trying to make themselves harder targets for cyberattacks than before.

    Read it here - NPR: What To Know About The Election Security Situation After Super Tuesday

    Senior ICC judges authorise Afghanistan war crimes inquiry

    As the US wakes up we can expect a lot of reaction to a decision that has come out of the international criminal court (ICC) in the Netherlands this morning. Senior judges have authorised an investigation into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Afghanistan. It also approved that the scope of the investigation should include CIA black sites operated in Poland, Lithuania, and Romania, where detainees were taken.

    This is likely to infuriate Donald Trump and his administration. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo has previously said that Washington would revoke or deny visas to ICC staff seeking to investigate alleged war crimes and other abuses committed by US forces.

    The decision today over-turns a previous ruling that there would not be an investigation because the expectation was that those targeted, including the US, Afghan authorities and the Taliban, would not cooperate.

    Read the full report - Senior ICC judges authorise Afghanistan war crimes inquiry

    Joe Biden might be enjoying a moment in the sunlight back as the front-runner in the race for the Democrat’s nomination, but his other political problems haven’t gone away. In fact, his dominant display on Super Tuesday might bring them back to the public eye.

    The Hill are reporting this morning on Republican efforts on Capitol Hill to ramp up their probe into Hunter Biden and the Ukrainian gas company Burisma.

    “These are questions that Joe Biden has never adequately answered. And if I were a Democrat primary voter, I would want these questions satisfactorily answered before I cast my final vote” said Sen. Ron Johnson.

    Suggesting a purely political motivation to the move, Andrew Bates, a spokesman for the Biden campaign, pushed back forcefully, saying “We already knew that Donald Trump is terrified of facing Joe Biden — because he got himself impeached by trying to force a foreign country to spread lies about the vice president on behalf of his reelection campaign.”

    Read it here - The Hill: As Biden surges, GOP Ukraine probe moves to the forefront

    Less than a week ago, the conventional wisdom among American pundits and pollsters was that the democratic socialist Bernie Sanders was cruising toward the Democratic presidential nomination. Then came Super Tuesday. Joe Biden won critical states such as Texas, Virginia and North Carolina, and finished first in Massachusetts and Minnesota, where a week ago he was projected to finish fifth. Now much of the talking-head consensus is shifting toward proclaiming Biden the favorite. Do the people who pronounce on politics really know any more about what’s going on than the random loudmouth in the pub or coffee shop?

    Director of political studies at the Niskanen Center Geoffrey Kabaservice writes for us, asking if there are more shocks ahead in the primary race.

    Updated

    You feel that Donald Trump will be slightly disappointed that Mike Bloomberg has dropped out of the race this early. He certainly seemed to enjoy needling the billionaire on Twitter. Here’s a reminder of the speech Bloomberg gave to announce that he was now backing Joe Biden

    My colleague Ankita Rao wrote yesterday how ultimately it was Elizabeth Warren’s debate performances that effectively ended Bloomberg’s White House hopes

    It might still be a little too early for obituaries for the Warren campaign, but that isn’t stopping people writing them. The Atlantic have just published five theories about “What Happened to Elizabeth Warren?”

    In the piece, Amy Walter says:

    For voters who were looking for a liberal, Bernie Sanders–like candidate but wanted a new model—somebody who was not as old, not as male, not as crotchety—[Warren] looked like this new great option. And for other voters, especially for a lot of women who wouldn’t put themselves in the “very liberal” category, there was an appeal to her because she seemed more unifying than Bernie Sanders. But both of those sides ultimately felt very unsatisfied

    Read it here - The Atlantic: What Happened to Elizabeth Warren?

    Good morning. It feels like today there’s finally a bit of a lull in the Democrat campaign after the hectic events of the last few days that have seen Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar and now Mike Bloomberg drop out of the race, and Joe Biden re-assert his front-runner status ahead of Bernie Sanders.

    Six states - Idaho, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, North Dakota and Washington - will vote on Tuesday. All eyes will be on Elizabeth Warren in the meantime to see if she will continue to hang on in there.

    Don’t forget you can always check on the latest state of play with our delegate tracker.

    Donald Trump has got a couple of appointments coming up. He will meet with secretary of state Mike Pompeo at 11:45am ET. The latest developments in Afghanistan are sure to be on the agenda. Less than 24 hours after the president said he had a “very good talk” with a top leader, a US military drone targeted the Taliban in retaliation for an uptick in their attacks on Afghan forces.

    Trump is also due to take part in a Fox News campaigning town hall at 6.30pm ET.

    The response to coronavirus has stepped up a gear with California declaring a state of emergency over the viral outbreak. Heading up federal efforts to combat the spread, vice president Mike Pence will be in Wisconsin and Minnesota.

    Education secretary Betsy DeVos will testify to the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on the annual budget at 10am ET. If her track record is anything to go by, it could be quite a lively session.

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