Summary
- Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden canceled rallies in Ohio due to the coronavirus.
- The two frontrunners in the Democratic presidential primaries are facing off in Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Idaho, North Dakota and Washington state today.
- Election officials are rushing to address coronavirus concerns.
- The Trump administration has announced that it has made 4m additional tests for the coronavirus available, as it announces plans for a payroll tax cut and other measures to address the economic fallout from the public health crisis.
- The US justice department has been ordered to turn over secret Mueller grand jury evidence.
The Guardian’s Joan E Greve will be liveblogging the election results as they roll in. Follow along:
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Virginia representative Don Beyer said he and his wife will “self-quarantine” after interacting with a friend who tested positive for the coronavirus.
This afternoon my wife Megan and I were contacted by the Virginia Department of Health about the illness of a friend who tested positive for COVID-19 after dining with us. They told us the timeline of his infection began shortly after our contact on February 28. 1/ pic.twitter.com/ct37gVii1w
— Rep. Don Beyer (@RepDonBeyer) March 10, 2020
Beyer, a Democrat, will join seven representatives who have already taken precautions after potential exposure to the virus.
The Progressive Change Campaign Committee, which had backed Elizabeth Warren before she dropped out and encouraged voters to support Bernie Sanders, said that Sanders should stay in the race “until the March 15th debate at the earliest”.
A new statement from @BoldProgressive, which backed Warren and has encouraged Michigan voters to support Sanders, urges Sanders to stay in the race whatever happens tonight: "Win or lose tonight, Bernie should stay in the race until the March 15th debate at the earliest."
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) March 10, 2020
Regardless of how Sanders tonight, the group indicated it doesn’t want a “quick Biden coronation”. Sanders and Biden are scheduled to face off during a televised debate in Phoenix on Saturday. The event, which will take place before a live audience, will continue as planned despite speculation that it would be derailed by efforts to stop the spread of coronavirus.
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A primer on the primaries today
Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Idaho, North Dakota and Washington state all hosting primaries today. Here’s what you need to know as voters cast their ballots:
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Asked whether Trump — a self-described germaphobe — would continue to shake hands with people amidst the spread of coronavirus, the vice president said he expects so.
“Well, look as the president has said, in our line of work, you shake hands when someone wants to shake your hand,” Pence told reporters. “I expect the president will continue to do that”
Where will Trump get $1tn to cover a payroll tax cut? The White House economic advisor Larry Kudlow was short on details. Speaking to press at the White House, he said, “Let us put the proposal out and flush that out in concrete details.”
Kudlow said the tax relief package under consideration includes a payroll tax “holiday”. Asked about whether Trump wants the tax eliminated completely, Kudlow responded that Trump makes “bold” moves. It’s unclear how the administration would make up the revenue from the elimination of the 12.4% payroll tax, which is split evenly by workers and their employers and used to fund Medicare and Social Security.
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Speaking at the White House, Pence said the question of whether Donald Trump will cancel rallies will “be a decision that’s made literally on a day-to-day basis.” He said he’s “very confident” the Trump campaign will make the “best decisions”.
Mike Pence said there will be 4m more coronavirus tests made available by the end of the week.
Top health insurance companies have joined Medicare and Medicaid and agreed “to waive all copays, cover the cost of all treatment for those who contract the coronavirus,” Pence said.
Tony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the number of cases is “guaranteed” go up.
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Although both Sanders and Biden’s have canceled campaign events, they are still planning to attend the debate on Sunday in Phoenix, Arizona.
The network still plans to hold the debate, as planned, in front of a live audience despite speculation that the coronavirus threat would derail the event.
The debate, which will begin at 8 p.m. Eastern will resemble a town hall, with each candidate answering questions from voters. Sanders and Biden will face off one-on-one before the votes are cast in Arizona, as well as Florida, Illinois and Ohio.
The Michigan secretary of state has said that election results won’t be available until Wednesday, due to high voter turnout.
“Michigan clerks and their teams will have significantly more work to do today than on previous election days, and that the results of today’s elections may not be known until well into Wednesday,” Jocelyn Benson wrote in an op-ed for USA Today.
Since the 2018 elections, the state has made it easier for more people to vote, expanding vote by mail and allowing voters to register up to and on Election Day.
“It is a new day for democracy in our state, with new rights for voters and greater security measures in place than ever before,” Benson wrote.
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Hi there, it’s Maanvi Singh taking over from the West Coast.
Whereas Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders’ cancellation of events in Ohio is the first major sign of campaigns adjusting amidst the coronavirus threat, the disease has also affected how and where people will be able to vote. The Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine writes:
Election officials around the country are rushing to make last-minute changes to address coronavirus concerns – seeking to avoid panic, staff shortages and delays that could impose additional hurdles for primary voters on election day.
Many of the changes have to do with protecting older people, the demographic most at risk for having serious complications from the virus.
In Ohio Frank LaRose, the secretary of state, ordered all polling stations located in senior centers and nursing homes to be moved. The change is expected to affect 128 of the state’s polling locations for its 17 March primary, and local officials are identifying alternative sites. Election officials in Chicago, also holding its primary next week, announced the city was relocating polling stations out of nursing homes.
It’s not just voters, however, who are at risk. In 2016, about 56% of poll workers across the country were over 61 years old, according to the US Election Assistance Commission, which collected data from about half of the workers that year. Tammy Patrick, a former election official in Arizona, said administrators should consider hiring youth poll workers and overstaff to prepare for cancellations.
The county clerk in Travis county, Texas, said election day last week got off to a “rocky start” with long lines at the polls, in part because poll workers didn’t show up for work in an attempt to avoid exposure to coronavirus. Reductions in public transit and dial-a-ride services could also create additional obstacles to people getting to the polls, said Patrick.
It's the afternoon rush. Here is what you may have missed.
- Trump insisted he doesn’t need a coronavirus test.
- New York state is imposing a containment area around the city of New Rochelle
- The US justice dept. must turn over secret Mueller grand jury evidence
- Bernie Sanders canceled his Ohio rally
- Shortly after, Joe Biden did too.
Enjoy your evening and be sure to keep up-to-date with the latest from caucuses and primaries in Mississippi, Missouri, Washington, North Dakota, Idaho, and Michigan as results trickle in throughout the night.
Happy Not-Quite-Super Tuesday!
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Update: Joe Biden's Ohio rally now cancelled as well
Shortly after the Bernie Sanders campaign announced they are cancelling tonight’s planned rally due to the coronavirus, staffers for Joe Biden have followed suit:
Bernie Sanders cancels rally in Cleveland over coronavirus concerns
The Bernie Sanders campaign announced they are “heeding the public warnings from Ohio state officials” and are not holding their scheduled rally Tuesday night. The cancellation came via a statement shared online.
“Out of concern for public health and safety, we are canceling tonight’s rally in Cleveland,” the statement read. “Sen. Sanders would like to express his regret to the thousands of Ohioans who had planned to attend the event tonight.”
From The Guardian reporter Lauren Gambino:
The announcement comes are more states implement emergency measures to combat the deadly coronavirus.
The rally marks the first time a presidential campaign has canceled an event because of the outbreak. It comes hours after Ohio governor MIke DeWine recommended people stay away from large gatherings, including large campaign events.
Joe Biden is also due to hold an election night rally in Cleveland, which has yet to be canceled.
On Monday, Sanders convened a roundtable discussion with public health experts in Detroit about the coronavirus. A reporter asked Sanders then whether he planned to scale back any of his events due to the size of his rallies.
The reporter noted that he often holds rallies with “more than 10,000 people.”
“15,000,” Sanders corrected him. Realizing his boast, he quickly added: “We do not go forward without consultation with local health officials.”
Bernie Sanders campaign just canceled a rally in Cleveland tonight bc of public health concerns over #COVID2019 pic.twitter.com/MyK6eYauvV
— Jon Ward (@jonward11) March 10, 2020
As the LA Times national correspondent Matt Pearce explained, this isn’t the first time.
Remember, there is precedent for this: Spanish flu essentially shut down campaigning in the 1918 midterms because officials had mandated social-distancing.
— Matt Pearce 🦅 (@mattdpearce) March 10, 2020
So far, the Trump campaign has not moved forward with a planned Tuesday announcement of an upcoming campaign rally.
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Tom Perkins checks in with us again from Michigan:
Though traffic at Michigan polling stations generally seems to be light, local outlets are reporting long lines for same day registration at city clerks’ offices, especially in college towns across the state.
Michigan voters in 2018 approved a voting reform package that made it easier to vote. Among the changes is same day registration, and this is the first election in which it has been in place. Apparently some city clerks didn’t anticipate this level of interest.
It largely seems to be young people who are showing up to register last minute, and that’s a clear advantage for Sanders. He won voters under 40 years old by a wide margin in 2016 in Michigan, and he focused heavily on the same group during his get out the vote campaign in the days leading up to the election.
However, Biden appears to have the advantage heading into Tuesday — one state pollster estimated the former vice president tallied a 150,000-vote cushion in absentee and early voting ballots.
Appeals Court: Justice Dept. must turn over must secret Mueller grand jury evidence
A federal appeals court ruled the US department of justice must turn over secret grand jury evidence to Democratic lawmakers investigating President Donald Trump.
From the Washington Post:
The US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit upheld a lower court order that gives Congress access to certain secret material from Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The Post added, however, that the ruling is likely to be appealed to the Supreme Court. That means there’s no legal demand for the justice department to turn over the report to Congress right away.
New York state to impose 'containment' area to combat coronavirus
In a press conference this morning, New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced he has authorized a containment zone around the city of New Rochelle.
Via ABC News:
BREAKING: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces containment zone around New Rochelle, lasting until 3/25; National Guard to be deployed to assist in food delivery, cleaning.
— ABC News (@ABC) March 10, 2020
"This is the single greatest public health challenge we have in the state right now." https://t.co/waOLY1RvC9 pic.twitter.com/ubq6lFo0yH
Cuomo added that the National Guard will be deployed to assist in food delivery, cleaning until March 25.
To stay up-to-date on all things coronavirus, follow our continued live coverage.
Trump says there's 'no reason' to take a coronavirus test
President Donald Trump continued to downplay the deadly coronavirus virus and its pervasive spread throughout the US. Responding to reporters Tuesday after a meeting with members of the coronavirus task force, Trump told reporters the virus “will go away.”
“Just stay calm,” Trump said. “It’s really working out. And a lot of good things are going to happen.”
What those “things” are remains to be seen. When asked about getting tested himself, Trump insisted there’s no need, despite multiple interactions for those who may have been exposed to the virus.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale:
Asked about getting tested, Trump said a few minutes ago that he's willing but his doctor doesn't see a reason. He said, “I don’t think it’s a big deal. I would do it, I don’t feel any reason -- I feel extremely good."
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) March 10, 2020
Meanwhile, Florida congressman Matt Gaetz has confirmed he tested negative for the virus.
I've just been informed that my COVID-19 lab result was negative.
— Rep. Matt Gaetz (@RepMattGaetz) March 10, 2020
In an abundance of caution, I will remain under self-quarantine at the advice of medical professionals through Thursday at 2pm. I continue to feel fine and show no symptoms.
Gaetz previously self-quarantined over concerns that he was in close contact in the same period with a known carrier. He had close contact with Donald Trump shortly after.
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Reporting from Michigan, here’s another update as voters take to the polls:
In Dearborn, a suburb of Detroit with the world’s largest Lebanese population outside of Lebanon, Hussein, a Lebanese immigrant, said he voted for Sanders.
“He’s more for the people, especially the poor people and the middle class people,” Hussein said. “And the way that he explains himself to the public – I like his explanations.”
Biden, by contrast, “doesn’t have it together”, Hussein said, noting the former vice president’s regular gaffes and alleged cognitive decline.
Four years ago, Hussein didn’t vote for Sanders. What changed since 2016? “Trump,” Hussein said, adding that he believes Sanders is more likely to beat the president than Biden.
Sanders has wide support among Dearborn’s Muslim population, which has built a thriving middle class community here. Hussein said he thinks Sanders can pull it off despite the polling if those in his base – like Dearborn’s Muslim residents – turn out en force. While there weren’t any lines at a Dearborn polling station early Tuesday afternoon, a steady stream of voters stopped in to cast ballots.
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Missouri: why the ‘show me’ state matters for the Democratic primary race
Don’t sleep on Missouri! As the democrats take to the polls for the state’s primary today, many analysts might overlook this long-ago swing state as an automatic win for former vice-president Joe Biden.
But Missouri is a bastion of Democratic voting blocs that can rally behind either Biden or Vermont senator Bernie Sanders: farmers, factory workers, elder black moderates, young progressive activists, conservative evangelicals ... take your pick.
While those distinctions typically only play into the general election, an increasingly tense showdown between supporters of moderate Biden and progressive Sanders could make Missouri more competitive than most analysts predict.
The one debate even more tense: whether it’s pronounced Missouree or Missourah. Ask that and be prepared for a completely different type of fight. Here are two ways Missouri is a unique primary to watch.
Region:
“Is it the midwest, or south?” Both! Or neither, depending on who you ask. Located nearly dead center of the continental US, Missouri boasts a unique state culture that, at times, can reflect deep conservative attitudes of the south, while in other areas more reminiscent of the industrial rust belt.
For the 2016 general election, FiveThirtyEight’s Harry Enten broke down why the ‘show me’ state is such an important political outlier:
Missouri was a key swing state for much of the 20th century. In a country where political divisions have historically been sewn along geographic lines, Missouri includes a bit of a few regions. And political nerds might remember that it voted for the winner in every presidential election from 1904 through 2004, with the exception of 1956, when it voted for Adlai Stevenson.
Race Matters:
Six years ago the state was rocked by the shooting death of 18 year-old Mike Brown in Ferguson, igniting a firestorm of protests the lead to the founding of Black Lives Matter, and countless subsequent social justice movements.
Neighboring St Louis is currently embroiled in a racial scandal of its own. In January, a top prosecutor filed a federal lawsuit against the city and its police union for conspiracy to thwart her racial justice reforms, citing a nearly 150-year-old law used to combat the Ku Klux Klan white supremacist group.
Missouri, along with Mississippi, are two states voting today that have significant black populations, representing nearly one-fifth and three-fourths of the Democratic electorate, respectively.
As most pundits predict, whoever wins the black vote, a near demographic split between older moderates and young progressives, may that momentum into the convention in July.
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Traffic was light at a polling station on Detroit’s east side where no one showed up for at least 10 minutes. The station is in one of the city’s poorest neighborhoods and is likely near 100% African American. That doesn’t bode well for Democrats. The low turnout among black voters in Detroit was a big part of why Hillary Clinton lost in the primary and general.
However, several miles away, still on Detroit’s east side, a steady number of voters stopped in a precinct in another economically struggling neighborhood. The station is within sight of about 10 vacant homes. Charles, a young African American voter, said he cast his ballot for Bernie Sanders.
“We’ve never had a president that’s going to do the things he’s going to do – he’s something different,” Charles said. “Joe Biden just seems like the Democratic version of Donald Trump. You know, what do we have to lose?”
Charles said he sees the vote in Detroit breaking down along generational lines. His older friends and family support Biden because he was Obama’s vice-president and they know and trust him. His younger friends and family support Sanders. Several other older voters who stopped in the station ahead of Charles said they planned to vote for Biden, but declined to discuss why.
Though he cast his ballot for Sanders, Charles doesn’t believe the progressive candidate is better suited than Biden to beat Trump. He said he isn’t sure about who would win in a match up between Trump and Sanders, but added: “I’m going to do my part. Anything can happen.” Are there enough Sanders supporters in Detroit doing their part for the Vermont senator to repeat his 2016 upset of Clinton? Charles said he believes there are.
“He won it the last time, so I think he’s going to get a good turnout this time around,” he said.
Updated
Lunchtime! Let's wrap the morning shall we?
- Donald Trump retweeted a false claim blaming Barack Obama for delays during the swine flu epidemic
- Mark Meadows joined the growing list of CPAC attendees in self-quarantine
- A coronavirus scare temporarily closed Washington HQ of Securities and Exchange Commission
- Joe Biden told a Detroit autoworker that he’s “full of shit.”
- Donald Trump awarded another closed friend with a presidential honor
Enjoy the midday reprieve. We’ll have updates from primaries and caucuses across the country and more news after the break. Stay tuned.
Updated
Donald Trump honors retired general Jack Keane with presidential medal of freedom
Donald Trump has paid tribute to Jack Keane, the retired general whom he will today award the presidential medal of freedom – the highest US honour which Trump recently gave to the rightwing shock jock Rush Limbaugh and will soon bestow upon two leading golfers. Retweeting Keane’s thoughts on the ceremony, Trump said the honour was “well deserved”.
Keane and Trump go back a long way, the four-star general and Fox News analyst, another New Yorker, having twice turned down offers to be Trump’s secretary of defense but having served as an informal adviser.
Keane is a named source for Trump and his Generals, a recent book by Peter Bergen, who writes that the general became “almost a shadow national security adviser” to Trump at a time when the president was notably failing to get on with HR McMaster, the general who officially filled that role.
Bergen, a CNN analyst, recounts Keane telling Trump one way to signal to North Korea he was serious about possible military action over its nuclear weapons programme would be “to stop sending military families to South Korea”. Trump, Bergen writes, subsequently ordered an evacuation of US civilians, sending official aides into a panic.
The order never went through.
Bergen also writes that Keane has not only offered Trump only positive advice. Keane blasted Trump’s infamous summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki in July 2018 as “stunning and disapponting”; supported the maintenance of a small US force in Afghanistan, against the president’s wishes; and stood against Trump’s urge to pull US troops out of Syria.
Keane seems to have been of more use to Trump than another retired general the president has liked to have around. Keith Kellogg joined the national security council but, according to Bergen, was found to be “lazy, uninformed and not smart”, more likely to be found taking a nap or watching Fox News than doing any foreign policy work.
Should Trump read Bergen’s book, which would admittedly seem unlikely, he might not like one paragraph in particular:
“In the end,” Bergen writes, “the real ‘Deep State’ – retired senior generals such as Keane and officials at the Pentagon and state department – managed to keep many hundreds of American soldiers in Syria.”
The Deep State theory holds that unelected officials are working in concert to thwart Trump’s agenda. Aides to the president and supporters in the media regularly refer to it and it is reportedly one motivation for an attempted political purgeof the federal government.
As another author, James B Stewart, recently wrote, former White House counsellor and Trump campaign chief Steve Bannon, a prime mover in the invention and propagation of the Deep State line, says it is “a conspiracy theory for nut cases”.
Updated
Biden gets into heated debate with auto worker
During a visit to an auto plant, currently under construction in Detroit, Joe Biden rejected a worker’s claim that the Democratic presidential hopeful is “actively trying to end [the country’s] second amendment right”.
In a sharp retort, Biden told the worker: “You’re full of shit.”
“I support the second amendment,” Biden added.
WATCH: "You’re full of sh*t," @JoeBiden tells a man who accused him of "actively trying to end our Second Amendment right."
— Bo Erickson CBS (@BoKnowsNews) March 10, 2020
"I support the Second Amendment," Biden adds while vising under-construction auto plant in Detroit. @CBSNews pic.twitter.com/sueOSBaY9P
After a bit of back and forth, the plant worker was then jeered and dismissed by colleagues, who told him let it go. Not before the vice president could tell the man not to “be such a horse’s ass”, of course.
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“#BidensCognitiveDecline”: opponents take aim at Biden’s vitality
It the latest (perhaps ageist/ableist) attempt to thwart Joe Biden’s surging poll numbers and mounting endorsements, both progressives and Republicans are ramping up their criticism of the democratic frontrunner’s cognition.
On Twitter, some progressives, including former 2016 third-party candidate Jill Stein took aim at the former vice-president’s many gaffes. Stein went as far as to question why Biden’s team limits his availability and scheduling.
We deserve real choices, not a manufactured contest between #BidensCognitiveDecline & #TrumpsDangerousDemagoguery.
— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) March 10, 2020
We have an incredibly momentous decision to make w/ huge consequences for human survival. Media MUST stop hiding reality of Biden’s cognitive challenges from voters. https://t.co/5XvTqFzARo
The attacks come from all sides as the Trump campaign and RNC ramped up their own mockery of Biden.
From Politico:
Trump walked the donors through a list of Biden’s recent verbal stumbles, such as his recent declaration that he was running for Senate and his assertion that 150 million Americans had been killed by gun violence since 2007. Trump questioned whether the former vice president had the mental stamina to sustain the rigors of a general election campaign.
The president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr. later joined in the ridicule with an offensive* tweet alluding to Biden possibly having Alzheimers or dementia.
*Side note: As someone whose parent-in-law just passed away from a 10-year-battle, it’s fair to assume that Biden likely doesn’t have the disease. At 77, a person with dementia/Alzheimers would most likely have already begun losing motor functions.
From the Alzheimers association webpage
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) March 10, 2020
"Aggressive or angry behaviors may occur in people with Alzheimer's or other dementias"
A 50 year career politician doesn't snap back this way to a blue collar guy asking him a reasonable question given his parties stance on the issue. https://t.co/A6ZOee6TkM
Supporters don’t appear concerned, however. Biden continues to do well among early caucuses and primaries and is expected to increase his delegate lead after tonight’s races.
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Andrew Cuomo criticized by justice groups for sanitizers made with prison labor
New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, is getting pushback for the state’s plan to produce more than 100,000 hand sanitizers in response the coronavirus update.
Organizations including Citizen Action of New York, Release Ageing People in Prison Campaign, and the Parole Preparation Project excoriated the governor for what they called a treatment of “incarcerated people with complete disdain”.
“We are disgusted at Governor Cuomo’s decision to exploit prison labor to push back the imminent public health crisis presented by Covid-19 while doing absolutely nothing for incarcerated people across the state,” the groups said in a joint statement released late Monday.
The governor announced in a press conference Monday that the production of the hand sanitizer is in response to price gauging from major producers. New York state is the country’s current center of the novel coronavirus, with more than 100 confirmed cases and 4,000 people under strict quarantine.
The groups also noted that while prisoners will manufacture the hand sanitizer, it would likely be considered contraband for incarcerated people to use.
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Election officials across Washington are instructing staff to wash their hands frequently and cough into tissues as they work to limit the spread of coronavirus in the state at the epicenter of the US outbreak, Hallie Golden reports from Seattle.
Anyone handling ballots is being told to wear gloves and masks too, and voters have been warned not to lick the envelopes on their postal ballots. The state is holding its primary elections on Tuesday, and is the second most delegate-rich state at stake.
Washington now votes by mail for the Democratic primary instead of holding a caucus, which Tina Podlodowski, the chair of the Washington state Democrats, said is extremely positive given the outbreak, and should help prevent disruption.
“Folks don’t have to worry,” she said. “Folks who are older don’t have to worry, they don’t have to be waiting in line for hours and hours.”
She said they have already seen good voter turnout. As of Monday, 1.5 million people had voted, which is already higher than the 2016 Republican primary.
Washington’s universal mail voting could be very helpful amid the coronavirus outbreak. But even though big crowds on Election Day aren’t a problem in WA, the Secretary of State has urged voters not to lick their ballot envelopes to seal them to avoid spreading the virus https://t.co/XDykImfzWe
— Stephen Wolf (@PoliticsWolf) March 9, 2020
For Republicans, Donald Trump, who does not face any serious challengers, is the only candidate to appear on the party’s primary ballot.
For Democrats, however, the primary is a crucial test of support for the two frontrunners, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, though other candidates who have dropped out in recent days, such as the progressive senator Elizabeth Warren, still remain on the ballot.
Kim Wyman, secretary of state of Washington, told the Guardian that if the outbreak does suddenly take a turn on Tuesday and post offices have to close or huge numbers of election staff get sick, officials are ready to respond accordingly by working together.
For example, she said, if a county auditor’s office were to get shut down because an employee is diagnosed with coronavirus, that would impact voting and results being released. In response, officials may need to contact the national guard to have a temporary facility set up or have everyone move to a satellite space at a separate office.
Wyman said it’s important to remember that ballot processing and other work will continue for the next 10 days. So staff will need to be prepared to respond to any potential impacts of coronavirus on counting long after Tuesday.
Updated
Good morning!
Kenya Evelyn here taking over the live blog and right at the top: it’s all about primaries and caucuses in Mississippi, Missouri, Idaho, Michigan and Washington as former US vice-president Joe Biden looks to repeat his strong showing Super Tuesday.
We’re also covering the latest in Washington as the Trump administration faces increasing backlash for its response to the coronavirus.
Stay tuned as we update you throughout the day.
Updated
Coronavirus scare closes Washington HQ of Securities and Exchange Commission
AP are reporting that Securities and Exchange Commission employees have been told to work remotely for the foreseeable future after a coronavirus scare at the agency’s Washington headquarters.
The agency, which oversees the financial markets, said it was informed Monday afternoon that a headquarters employee had received medical treatment for respiratory symptoms earlier in the day. The employee, who was not identified, was informed by a doctor that they may have been infected with the coronavirus and was referred for testing, the SEC said in a statement.
Among other precautions, the agency “is encouraging headquarters employees to telework until further guidance,” it said. The SEC is the first major federal agency to employ teleworking in an effort to contain the virus’ spread.
It said the scattering of headquarters employees to work from their homes or other remote locations will not affect operations. “Even with increased telework, the SEC remains able and committed to fully executing its mission on behalf of investors, including monitoring market function and working closely with other regulators and market participants,” said the agency.
Appealing to individual demographics of voters has been an increasingly important part of election strategy over the last couple of decades as black and Latino voters begin to make up larger proportions of the voter base in key battleground areas.
Holly Otterbein and Laura Barrón-López have been looking at what is described as a Sanders’ “blind spot” for Politico:
No Democrat has won the party’s presidential nomination in the last 30 years without the support of a majority of black voters. And Bernie Sanders won’t either unless he figures out how to win over voters like Travis Gilbert’s mom, Elaine.
They conclude that “Just as in 2016, Sanders’ inability to secure the backing of most African-American voters — particularly those who are middle-aged and older — is suffocating his campaign.”
Read it here - Politico: ‘There’s a blind spot’: Sanders reboots black voter outreach
For another view of how the Democrats are - or aren’t - reaching out to the Elaines of 2020, and how Donald Trump is taking advantage of that, here’s Steve Phillips:
It may be tempting to dismiss Trump’s efforts to make inroads into a community that regularly, overwhelmingly rejects Republicans; that, however, misses the real goal of Trump’s strategy. Its objective is not to win majority support, but rather to bring down the amount of black support for Democrats just enough to tip a close contest.
Phillips, the host of the Democracy in Color podcast, has written for us about how Trump works harder than the Democrats to reach black voters.
A chorus of hate being leveled at the president is nearing a crescendo as Democrats blame him and only him for a virus that originated halfway around the world. This is yet another attempt to impeach the president and sadly it seems they care very little for any of the destruction they are leaving in their wake. Losses in the stock market, all of this, unfortunately just part of the political casualties for them.
Strong words from Fox Business host Trish Regan last night, as my colleague Martin Pengelly in New York reports.
Barry Eichengreen, professor of economics at the University of California, Berkeley has written for us about what the G7 and G20 economies needs to do to combat economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak. We are expecting to hear details on Donald Trump’s plans today. Eichengreen says:
Fed chair Jerome Powell can’t reopen factories shuttered by quarantine, whatever Donald Trump may think. Likewise, monetary policy will not get shoppers back to the malls or travelers back onto airplanes, insofar as their concerns centre on safety, not cost. Rate cuts can’t hurt, given that inflation, already subdued, is headed downward; but not much real economic stimulus should be expected of them.
Yesterday Trump said his administration and Congress would be “discussing a possible payroll tax cut or relief, substantial relief, very substantial relief, thats big, thats a big number. We’re also going to be talking about hourly wage earners getting help so that they can be in a position where they’re not going to ever miss a paycheck.”
Read Eichengreen’s argument here - Fighting coronavirus’s economic effects will take more than interest rate cuts
Mark Meadows in self-quarantine ahead of White House role
Incoming White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is among six US lawmakers now in self-quarantine after contact with people carrying the coronavirus. Republicans Meadows, Ted Cruz, Paul Gosar, Doug Collins and Matt Gaetz are all believed to have come into contact with an infected person while attending CPAC last week. Trump named Meadows his new chief of staff on Friday evening, replacing Mick Mulvaney.
Last night Ben Schreckinger wrote for Politico about the criticism CPAC’s organisers have been receiving for the way they have handled the situation.
VIPs have been notified directly even to be told they did not interact with the infected man, while ordinary rank-and-file attendees have by and large been left to wonder, receiving only vaguer information in mass emails. Meanwhile, critics have noted the irony of prominent officials downplaying the outbreak even as the disease may silently have been spreading among the Trump administration’s own members and supporters.
One of those affected, Gaetz, was pictured last week wearing a gas mark in what was widely perceived to be a dig at the way media were reporting the extent of the threat of the virus. Gaetz was also on a flight yesterday with the president.
Separately, Democrat Julia Brownley of California is said to have been in contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid-19, and has accordingly closed her Washington office.
Updated
The mechanics of voting in November always get a lot of attention – long lines can make it seem like more of a chore than a democratic opportunity.
A new campaign is launching, USA Today reports, to make Vote Early Day on 24 October an event that can increase voter participation, especially among young people.
Vote Early Day was started by MTV, and has more than 60 partners on board to help promote it.
Chris McCarthy, president of ViacomCBS’ Entertainment & Youth Brands, told USA Today that young voters are often ignored by politicians. “It was really important for us to begin to build something that ritualizes this around their existing habits and takes advantage of social media so that they feel they can have a moment celebrated with their friends,” he said.
Figures suggest that in the 2016 election nearly 40% of people either voted early, absentee voted or voted by mail.
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Sanders is expected to do well in Idaho and North Dakota, both states with largely white and rural populations, and both states he won in 2016 against Clinton. He is also polling high in Washington state, the last primary to close on Tuesday. But like California, most of Washington votes by mail, so the results may not be known for some time.
So writes Caitlin Conant for CBS News, in an overview of what is at stake today in the six primary contests between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Technically Tulsi Gabbard is also still running, but she is unlikely to secure enough votes anywhere to claim delegates.
It is Michigan that offers the most delegates today - 125 - and it is the state that many people feel Sanders has to win in order to continue to have a serious path to winning the nomination.
It could be a tough ask. Conant reports that “A new poll from Monmouth University released on Monday showed Biden with a commanding lead over Sanders. Fifty-one percent of likely Democratic primary voters said they planned to support Biden compared to 36% for Sanders.”
Read it here - CBS News: What to know about Tuesday’s primaries in 6 states
Trump retweets false claim about Obama delay over swine flu
And Donald Trump is up and tweeting, and its a familiar refrain. He’s just retweeted Charlie Kirk comparing the current president’s response to the coronavirus outbreak with how president Barack Obama responded to swine flu in 2009.
This is your daily reminder that it took Barack Obama until October of 2009 to declare Swine Flu a National Health Emergency
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) March 9, 2020
It began in April of ‘09 but Obama waited until 20,000 people in the US had been hospitalized & 1,000+ had died
Where was the media hysteria then?
🤔
This is a claim that has already been rated as false by Politifact.
Their verdict: “In October 2009, after more than 1,000 people in the United States had died of swine flu, also known as H1N1, Obama declared a national emergency. But six months earlier, his administration declared H1N1 a public health emergency. At that point, no deaths in the United States had occurred.”
With the Democratic nomination down to a two-horse race between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, it has become easier for pollsters to try and tease out what that might mean for November. Newsweek have had a look at what the latest polling figures say about the potential match-ups.
This paragraph gets to the nub of the tactical battle currently going on for the nomination:
Biden and many moderate, vulnerable members of Congress say Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, would hurt down-ballot Democrats. Sanders and his supporters have suggested gaffs and inaccurate claims by the former vice president call into question his mental fitness and makes him susceptible to attacks from Trump and Republicans.
What the polling numbers show overall though, is that although Biden might have a slight edge over Sanders in the head-to-head against Trump, November currently looks like it is going to be a close call.
Read it here - Newsweek: What the polls say about a Donald Trump vs Bernie Sanders election
“Right now we’re in the spaghetti-on-the-wall phase of this conversation” is a colourful way to put, but that’s what David French, senior vice president of government relations at the National Retail Federation has told Bloomberg about the kind of help businesses are looking for from the federal government.
There’s a good breakdown here of some of the measures that industry sectors are looking at, whether it is tax breaks, credit leniency for small and medium-size businesses, or grants to states and municipalities to support tourism.
Read it here - Bloomberg: Business groups to press Trump for virus response to curb damage
We are expecting more today from the Trump administration on their economic package to help the country cope with the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Tax breaks and small loans might be part of the measures. They aren’t going to any help for some people though.
Sam Levin has been out for us in Los Angeles looking at the impact the outbreak could have on homeless communities. Eve Garrow, the homelessness policy analyst with the ACLU of Southern California, told him:
You can tell people to stay home, but the shelters are people’s homes and it’s a dangerous place to be. We have many older adults with compromised immune systems living in the shelters, sharing living spaces, restrooms, showers and eating areas. It’s almost impossible to think this wouldn’t create a reservoir for the transmission of highly infectious viruses.
Read it here - ‘We’re not prepared’: coronavirus could devastate homeless communities
The Associated Press have been having a look at what they describe as the “quirk” of the math in today’s races that make this Tuesday more of a chance to catch up or pull away than any other day of primary and caucus battles.
As the AP explains it, most delegates awarded on Tuesday will be won based on how the candidates perform in individual congressional districts. Think of each district as holding a bucket of delegates. There are also two buckets of delegates in each state awarded based on the overall statewide vote.
On Tuesday, that makes for 51 buckets of delegates across the six states. Party rules say each viable candidate wins a proportion of the delegates in each bucket based on their share of the votes cast for the viable candidates in that bucket. Viable means they have past a 15% support threshold - almost certainly completely putting Tulsi Gabbard out of the equation.
Buckets that have an odd number of delegates are impossible to split evenly, meaning either Sanders or Biden is guaranteed to win at least one more than the other.
Say, for example, there are seven delegates in a bucket, and Sanders gets 51% and Biden gets 49% of the viable votes. In delegates, that’s 3.57 to 3.43 a difference of just 0.14 delegates. But thanks to rounding, Sanders gets four and Biden gets three. If it was an even bucket with six delegates at play, they’d get three each.
Nearly two-thirds of the 352 delegates at stake on Tuesday are in buckets with an odd number of delegates more than on any other night with more than one primary. Getting narrowly ahead in a tight race in those odd buckets is much more rewarding in terms of delegates.
Easy, eh?
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Is it all over for Bernie Sanders if Joe Biden wins in Michigan? That’s the key question that Chris Cillizza, CNN editor-at-large, has been asking this morning. His reasoning:
Sanders beat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 Michigan primary. The electorate - 70%+ white and more than one-third white non-college-educated - should favor Sanders’ demonstrated base of support.
If he can’t get enough of them out to beat Biden today, Cillizza says: “Sanders’ fundraising ability and the loyalty of his core supporters mean he can stay in the race as long as he wants. But hanging on is very different from having a chance to win.”
Read it here - CNN: If Biden wins Michigan, is it all over?
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Good morning, it’s not Super Tuesday, but it could be a super important Tuesday, as six states – including Michigan – hold their primaries. Millions get to vote, and we are set to discover whether Bernie Sanders can haul himself closer to Joe Biden in the race for the Democratic nomination. It is the first time it has been a straight two-horse race between them. Sanders needs to win Michigan, which he did sensationally in 2016, but recent polling suggests Biden is firmly ahead. Washington, Missouri, Mississippi, Idaho and North Dakota are also going to the polls.
Here’s our scene-setter for the day from Daniel Strauss in Washington DC:
Both Sanders – fresh from being endorsed by rocker Neil Young – and Biden will be out campaigning in Ohio, which votes next Tuesday.
It’s going to be a super important day for the administration on the coronavirus too. After the turmoil of yesterday, world markets seem to have rallied. Yesterday the White House promised that testing for the virus would ramp up quickly, and Trump said his administration would ask Congress to pass payroll tax relief and other quick measures to mitigate the economic fall-out.
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) director, Dr Robert Redfield, testifies to Congress this morning. Federal health officials testify on the coronavirus before the House oversight committee this afternoon, and members of the coronavirus taskforce will hold a press briefing at the White House at 5.30pm.
One thing is for sure, Trump probably won’t want to rewatch this clip of Bernie Sanders provoking laughter about the president’s supposed natural ability to understand the coronavirus.
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