Donald Trump lashed out at Dr Rick Bright, who blew the whistle on the president’s efforts to promote an unproven anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a remedy for coronavirus, ahead of his appearance before Congress on Thursday as the number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits because of the shutdown climbed to 36m.
Those developments followed the president calling on the states to reopen their schools as soon as possible as part of lockdown-ending measures, contradicting the advice of top expert Dr Anthony Fauci on the highly dubious basis that coronavirus has “very little impact on young people”.
His remarks following more than 1.4m cases of Covid-19 and a death toll of more than 84,500 and as New York and 14 other states began investigating the possible outbreak of a coronavirus-related illness impacting children, some fatally.
The global death toll reached more than 300,000 on Thursday, with deaths in the US accounting for nearly a third of that towering figure.
After his whistle-blower complaint revealed the administration's attempts to dismiss warnings and award lucrative pharmaceutical contracts to White House connections, Dr Bright's testimony warned Americans that a "window" for an effective response against the pandemic is beginning to close as he urged Congress and the administration to lead with science and adapt a national testing strategy as nearly every state begins to ease quarantine efforts.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has dismissed allegations in the complaint, and the president claims he doesn't know Dr Bright, who was charged with the relatively important task of vaccine development, though the president called him a "disgruntled employee".
The president meanwhile stopped in Allentown, Pennsylvania, for another White House-sponsored campaign stop in which he attacked his political rival Joe Biden, talked about "globalists" and claimed "it's a beautiful thing to see" health workers "running into death just like soldiers running into bullets".
He also claimed that coronavirus testing "is, frankly, overrated" while also claiming that the US has the best testing "in the world".
The president told a workers at a medical supply distribution centre: "When you test, you have a case. When you test you find something is wrong with people. If we didn't do any testing, we would have very few cases."
He also called on his Republican ally Senator Lindsey Graham to call Barack Obama to testify in his fishing-expedition "Obamagate" conspiracy. The senator said "that would open up a can of worms".
"I think it would be a bad precedent to compel a former president to come before the Congress," he said. "For a variety of reasons, I don't think that's a good idea."
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Trump calls for schools to reopen and rebukes Dr Fauci
Donald Trump has called on the states to reopen their schools as soon as possible as part of lockdown-ending measures, contradicting the advice of top expert Dr Anthony Fauci on the highly dubious basis that coronavirus has “very little impact on young people”.
“I think they should open the schools, absolutely. I think they should,” the president told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “Our country’s got to get back and it’s got to get back as soon as possible. And I don’t consider our country coming back if the schools are closed.”
Donald Trump has called on the states to reopen their schools as soon as possible as part of lockdown-ending measures, contradicting the advice of top expert Dr Anthony Fauci on the highly dubious basis that coronavirus has “very little impact on young people”.
“I think they should open the schools, absolutely. I think they should,” the president told reporters at the White House on Wednesday. “Our country’s got to get back and it’s got to get back as soon as possible. And I don’t consider our country coming back if the schools are closed.”
Dr Fauci had urged caution in his testimony before the Senate on Tuesday, although he made clear that he believes reopening decisions will likely differ from one region to the next.
"We don't know everything about this virus and we really better be pretty careful, particularly when it comes to children," he said.
But the good doctor also cautioned that "the idea of having treatments available or a vaccine to facilitate the re-entry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far."
Dr Fauci later clarified that he was not implying students should be barred from returning to class until a Covid-19 vaccine is developed.
But his comments were nonetheless seized on by conservative commentators, as well as the president.
"To me, it's not an acceptable answer," Trump said in the Cabinet Room on Wednesday, going on to accuse the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of wanting "to play all sides of the equation".
Here are the Cuomo Brothers to field that one for us:
Trump also used yesterday's press session to deflect a question on the pursuit of his long-withheld tax returns, their fate currently in the hands of the Supreme Court.
"You have a situation where a president has to be able to focus on this," he said, appealing for a let-up on the issue.
John T Bennett has this report."We don't know everything about this virus and we really better be pretty careful, particularly when it comes to children," he said.
But the good doctor also cautioned that "the idea of having treatments available or a vaccine to facilitate the re-entry of students into the fall term would be something that would be a bit of a bridge too far."
Dr Fauci later clarified that he was not implying students should be barred from returning to class until a Covid-19 vaccine is developed.
But his comments were nonetheless seized on by conservative commentators, as well as the president.
"To me, it's not an acceptable answer," Trump said in the Cabinet Room on Wednesday, going on to accuse the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of wanting "to play all sides of the equation".
Here are the Cuomo Brothers to field that one for us:
Trump also used yesterday's press session to deflect a question on the pursuit of his long-withheld tax returns, their fate currently in the hands of the Supreme Court.
"You have a situation where a president has to be able to focus on this," he said, appealing for a let-up on the issue.
States investigating new coronavirus-related disease targeting children
Trump’s ill-timed remarks came with the US suffering 1.4m cases of Covid-19 and a death toll of more than 84,500 and as New York and 14 other states began investigating the possible outbreak of a new corona-related illness attacking children.
The new sickness could be linked to Kawasaki disease – a rare inflammatory condition that often impacts children aged five years or younger – and toxic shock syndrome, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said during his daily press briefing on Wednesday.
New York has discovered 102 cases in children that show symptoms similar to the rare disease and are now looking to see if there is a connection with Covid-19.
The condition provokes an inflammatory response in the body’s immune system, prompting blood vessels to swell. Symptoms include a fever, rash, red eyes and lips and redness on the palms and soles of the feet.
Here’s Danielle Zoellner on this alarming new development.
President attacks Joe Biden over Michael Flynn probe denial
Back to Trump, who also used his Cabinet Room press session on Wednesday to accuse Joe Biden of lying over his denial of foreknowledge about the Michael Flynn scandal, which saw the president's first national security adviser removed from office in 2017 after just 24 days having admitted to lying to the FBI over his contacts with the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
Attorney general William Barr has since moved to have the criminal case against the disgraced general dropped but the presiding judge tasked with hearing the matter seems in no rush to oblige.
Republicans ramp up 'Obamagate' controversy with document dump
Biden, former FBI director James Comey, ex-CIA director John Brennan and more than a dozen other Obama administration officials all sought the "unmasking" of a person who was on the other end of wiretapped phone calls with the aforementioned Kislyak between December 2016 and early January 2017, key Republican senators alleged on Wednesday as they unleashed a deluge of questionable paperwork on the matter.
That man would ultimately turn out to be General Flynn, of course.
The accusation that the preceding administration was out to thwart Trump before his inauguration had even taken place is seemingly part of a larger plan among GOP legislators to lean into the president's "Obamagate" conspiracy theory, which maintains that his predecessor and top intelligence chiefs worked to entrap incoming officials in legal controversy to kneecap the new presidency from the start.
Another man joining in with this Mad Hatter's tea party is Trump's former White House doctor Ronny Jackson, who here says Obama "weaponised the highest levels of goverment to spy" on his former patient and concludes, melodramatically: "Every Deep State traitor deserves to be brough to justice for their heinous actions."
Griffin Connolly has the latest on this exhausting business.
Another man joining in with this Mad Hatter's tea party is Trump's former White House doctor Ronny Jackson, who here says Obama "weaponised the highest levels of goverment to spy" on his former patient and concludes, melodramatically: "Every Deep State traitor deserves to be brough to justice for their heinous actions."
Griffin Connolly has the latest on this exhausting business.
Steve Mnuchin says country will reopen 'slowly' as states drop stay-at-home orders
Trump’s treasury secretary told Fox News yesterday the economy will be reopened slowly but cautioned that waiting too long risked severe economic damage.
"We're going to slowly open the economy," he said. "But there is also a risk that we wait too long, there is a risk of destroying the US economy and the health impact that that creates."
Mnuchin said he expected the second quarter to be "pretty bad" but if the economy is reopened safely then subsequent quarters will be better and next year "we'll be back to having a great economy."
Democrats in the House of Representatives are meanwhile proposing a $3trn (£2.4trn)-plus coronavirus relief package, which would more than double Congress' financial response to the economic toll of the virus.
But Mnuchin said the legislation, which includes nearly $1trn (818bn) in assistance for state and local governments and could be voted on this week, is "very partisan."
"This is not in the spirit of anything that's been bipartisan, and I can't see that moving forward in its current framework in any event," he said.
Mnuchin said the Trump administration was open to spending more money in the future but "we're not in a rush to do that this week or next week. We're going to take our time."
Trump himself said earlier on Wednesday that new relief package was dead on arrival.
Meanwhile, the governors of states like Minnesota, Maryland and Wyoming are preparing to let stay-at-home orders expire - while urging people not to abuse the privilege as they make a cautious return to restaurants and bars - as Los Angeles County prepares to reopen its beaches.
They’re right to preach a gradual return to normality and should be prepared for lockdown measures to be reinstated should a second wave of infectious spread.
Just look at Texas, which has just reported 1,000 new coronavirus cases for the fifth day in a row. Governor Greg Abbott allowed some local businesses to reopen on 1 May but may now have to think again.
Federal Reserve chairman warns of economic hit ‘without modern precedent’
With the US unemployment rate currently at 14.7 per cent because of the coronavirus, Fed chief Jerome Powell - a regular Twitter target of Trump - yesterday gave his assessment on the economy to the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
"There is a growing sense that the recovery will come more slowly than we would like, but it will come and that may mean that it is necessary for us to do more," he told the video conference.
Powell cautioned that numerous bankruptcies among small businesses and extended unemployment for many people remain a serious risk. "We ought to do what we can to avoid these outcomes," he said.
Additional rescue aid from government spending or tax policies, though costly, would be "worth it if it helps avoid long-term economic damage and leaves us with a stronger recovery," he added, remarks placing him at odds with the likes of Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, who insists there is “no urgency” in agreeing a new bailout like Pelosi’s new $3trn package.
"We know that long periods of unemployment leave a shadow… We also know that waves of bankruptcies can weigh on economic activity for years," Powell continued.
"Now, when we are facing the biggest shock that the economy has had in modern times, is, for me, not the time to prioritise considerations like that.
"I do think that we can come back to them fairly quickly, which is to say a few years down the road when the economy is well and truly recovered, or at least recovering."
Powell said the Fed would "continue to use our tools to their fullest" until the viral outbreak subsides but gave no hint of what its next steps might be.
He repeated his previous warnings that the Fed can lend money to solvent companies to help carry them through the crisis but that a longer downturn would likely bankrupt some previously healthy companies without more help from the government.
The chairman meanwhile underscored some of the painful consequences of the recession. Among people who had been working in February, nearly 40 per cent of households earning less than $40,000 (£33,000) a year lost a job in March, he said.
Secretary Mnuchin used his interview with Martha MacCallum yesterday to firefight those comments:
Coronavirus whistleblower to warn Congress US facing 'darkest winter in modern history'
The US will face "unprecedented illness and fatalities" from Covid-19 without a dramatically ramped-up supply of protective medical gear and a science-based response to the pandemic, according to prepared congressional testimony from a federal scientist who filed an explosive whistleblower complaint alleging dangerous, systemic dysfunction and cronyism within Trump's administration.
Dr Rick Bright, who says he was removed from his position leading a key federal health agency after sounding the alarm over a controversial anti-malaria drug pushed by the president, is expected to testify to Congress today following the release of an 89-page whistleblower report that chronicles his clashes with administration officials.
His report alleges pressure from White House officials to award lucrative medical contracts to the president's allies and details through emails and other statements how officials frequently downplayed and dismissed the dangers both the spread of Covid-19 and unproven drugs being pushed to treat it.
He says officials launched a "baseless smear campaign" against him and made "demonstrably false allegations about his performance in an attempt to justify what was clearly a retaliatory demotion" following his opposition to the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine.
Alex Woodward has this report.
Alex Woodward has this report.
Biden leads Trump nationally but not in battleground states, poll shows
Andrew Naughtie has the latest polling news from this strangest of election cycles, in which neither candidate can leave their home to campaign in person.
Public approval of Trump's handling of coronavirus slumps another five points in new survey
Speaking of polls, the president will not like this one...
Speaking of polls, the president will not like this one...
Republican senator accused of insider trading as coronavirus hit economy ‘has phone seized by FBI’
The G-Men have upped the ante on Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr after he was accused of using advanced knowledge of the coming Covid-19 storm back in January to dump stock and enrich himself - a charge also levelled at fellow GOP senator Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Dianne Feinstein, among others.
Gino Spocchia has more on this.
The G-Men have upped the ante on Senate Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Burr after he was accused of using advanced knowledge of the coming Covid-19 storm back in January to dump stock and enrich himself - a charge also levelled at fellow GOP senator Kelly Loeffler and Democrat Dianne Feinstein, among others.
Gino Spocchia has more on this.
Obama's Ebola czar hits back at claims Trump was not left a pandemic playbook: 'Here's the cover'
Ron Klain has knocked back Mitch McConnell's claim the previous administration did not leave behind an outbreak "game plan" for the government in spectacular style:
Here's Oliver O'Connell with mroe detail.
US has only accepted two refugees since March under Trump's new border rules
The president bragged about cracking down on illegal border crossings from Mexico at his contentious Rose Garden briefing on Monday, indicating he hopes to capitalise on the coronavirus outbreak to distort the statistics and again make the issue a central concern of the election campaign.
But, as that earlier poll suggests, it's looking much more like being a referendum on his handling of the virus - a framing decidedly not to Trump's advantage as things stand.
The president bragged about cracking down on illegal border crossings from Mexico at his contentious Rose Garden briefing on Monday, indicating he hopes to capitalise on the coronavirus outbreak to distort the statistics and again make the issue a central concern of the election campaign.
But, as that earlier poll suggests, it's looking much more like being a referendum on his handling of the virus - a framing decidedly not to Trump's advantage as things stand.
Shutdown sees US unemployment claims rise another 3m to top 36m
Here's Chris Riotta with the latest alarming unemployment update from the US.
Here's Chris Riotta with the latest alarming unemployment update from the US.
Trump lashes out at whistleblower and crows over Republican special election victories
The president begins his day by smearing Dr Rick Bright on Twitter ahead of his testimony before Congress today, insisting he is "a disgruntled employee, not liked or respected by people I spoke to".
He has also been taking credit for Tom Tiffany and Mike Garcia's wins in Wisconsin and California respectively this week - and using the former as an occasion to pressure the state's Democratic governor Tony Evers into reopening, in spite of the lack of let-up in the ongoing public health crisis.
He follows that with more positive bluster - it's surely too early to say whether reopening can be considered safe and a success and what about the 84,000+ dead?
The president begins his day by smearing Dr Rick Bright on Twitter ahead of his testimony before Congress today, insisting he is "a disgruntled employee, not liked or respected by people I spoke to".
He has also been taking credit for Tom Tiffany and Mike Garcia's wins in Wisconsin and California respectively this week - and using the former as an occasion to pressure the state's Democratic governor Tony Evers into reopening, in spite of the lack of let-up in the ongoing public health crisis.
He follows that with more positive bluster - it's surely too early to say whether reopening can be considered safe and a success and what about the 84,000+ dead?
Virus spikes could emerge weeks after US economic reopenings
US states are beginning to restart their economies after months of paralysing coronavirus lockdowns, but it could take weeks until it becomes clear whether those reopenings will cause a spike in Covid-19 cases, experts said Wednesday.
The outbreak's trajectory varies wildly across the country, with steep increases in cases in some places, decreases in others and infection rates that can shift dramatically from neighborhood to neighbourhood.
"Part of the challenge is although we are focused on the top-line national numbers in terms of our attention, what we are seeing is 50 different curves and 50 different stories playing out," said Thomas Tsai, assistant professor at the Harvard Global Health Institute. "And what we have seen about Covid-19 is that the story and the effect is often very local."
As we’ve seen, a handful of states started easing their lockdowns about two weeks ago, allowing reopenings by establishments ranging from shopping malls in Texas to beach hotels in South Carolina to gyms in Wyoming.
Sparsely populated Wyoming, which has some of the lowest infection numbers in the United States, plans to reopen bars and restaurants on Friday. Georgia was one of the first states where some businesses were allowed to open their doors again, starting on 24 April with barber shops, hair salons, gyms, bowling alleys and tattoo parlours.
Sparsely populated Wyoming, which has some of the lowest infection numbers in the United States, plans to reopen bars and restaurants on Friday. Georgia was one of the first states where some businesses were allowed to open their doors again, starting on 24 April with barber shops, hair salons, gyms, bowling alleys and tattoo parlours.
But it may be five to six weeks from then before the effects are known, said Crystal Watson of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
"As we saw early in the year, epidemics of Covid-19 start slow and take some time to build and become evident," Watson told the AP in an email.
In Geneva, Switzerland, meanwhile, a top World Health Organisation official warned that it's possible the new coronavirus may be here to stay.
"This virus may never go away," Dr Michael Ryan said at a press briefing. Without a vaccine, he said, it could take years for the global population to build up sufficient levels of immunity.
"This virus may never go away," Dr Michael Ryan said at a press briefing. Without a vaccine, he said, it could take years for the global population to build up sufficient levels of immunity.
"I think it's important to put this on the table," he said. "This virus may become just another endemic virus in our communities" like other previously novel diseases, such as HIV, which have never disappeared, but for which effective treatments have been developed.
It can take three to five days for someone newly infected with the coronavirus to feel sick, and some infected people won't even have symptoms. Since testing is mostly reserved in the US for those with symptoms, it can take two weeks or so - the time for one group of people to spread the virus to another - to have enough testing data to reflect a surge in cases.
"If you are doing adequate testing, it will take two to three weeks" to spot an increase, Dr Ashish Jha, director of Harvard's Global Health Institute, said on Wednesday as he prepared to speak to a congressional subcommittee on the crisis.
He urged a dramatic increase in testing.
"It was the failure of testing that caused our country to shut down," Jha said. "We need federal leadership on the level of testing, guidance on whom to test and federal help on the sheer capacity, the number of tests that can be done. We still do not have the testing capacity we need to open up safely."
New coronavirus clusters have surfaced around the world as nations struggle to balance restarting their economies and preventing a second wave of infections.
New coronavirus clusters have surfaced around the world as nations struggle to balance restarting their economies and preventing a second wave of infections.
Authorities in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the pandemic first began late last year, reportedly are pressing ahead to test all 11m residents for the virus within 10 days after a handful of new infections were found.
South Korea confirmed 29 more coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours as it battles a spike in infections linked to nightlife spots in Seoul, threatening the country's hard-won progress in the fight against pandemic.
And Lebanese authorities reinstated a nationwide lockdown for four days beginning on Wednesday night after a spike in reported infections and complaints that social distancing rules were being ignored.
AP
AP
Hillary Clinton calls out Jared Kushner for suggesting delaying 2020 election
The defeated 2016 Democratic candidate has rebuked Trump's son-in-law after he appeared to suggest he had some some say in whether or not November's ballot is postponed because of the pandemic.
The defeated 2016 Democratic candidate has rebuked Trump's son-in-law after he appeared to suggest he had some some say in whether or not November's ballot is postponed because of the pandemic.
Trump moves projected coronavirus death toll again and says Obama and Biden should be jailed in latest Fox sitdown
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo has been airing a new interview with the president this morning, in which he revises the projected US death toll from the coronavirus again - we're up to 100,000 now, from zero - says his predecessor and challenger should be in prison, that Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win in 2016 and that Democrats would rather have mass casulaties on their hands than see him serve a second term in the Oval Office.
Wow.
With anyone else, you'd have every right to expect any one of those lines to be a very big deal indeed.
Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo has been airing a new interview with the president this morning, in which he revises the projected US death toll from the coronavirus again - we're up to 100,000 now, from zero - says his predecessor and challenger should be in prison, that Russia wanted Hillary Clinton to win in 2016 and that Democrats would rather have mass casulaties on their hands than see him serve a second term in the Oval Office.
Wow.
With anyone else, you'd have every right to expect any one of those lines to be a very big deal indeed.
'No more Mr Nice Guy!' President urges Lindsey Graham to call Obama to testify before Congress
As Dr Rick Bright appears before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee and its chairman, Democrat Anna Eshoo, gavels the session open by blasting Trump’s “incompetence, denial, delay, and disorganised response" to coronavirus, the president issues another stunning tweet as a distraction.
This one calls on his friend, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, to subpoena the 44th president to take questions on his latest cooked-up conspiracy theory, which would surely be unprecedented:
Here's John T Bennett on this breaking story.
As Dr Rick Bright appears before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee and its chairman, Democrat Anna Eshoo, gavels the session open by blasting Trump’s “incompetence, denial, delay, and disorganised response" to coronavirus, the president issues another stunning tweet as a distraction.
This one calls on his friend, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman, to subpoena the 44th president to take questions on his latest cooked-up conspiracy theory, which would surely be unprecedented:
Here's John T Bennett on this breaking story.
Georgia reports no initial spike in Covid-19 cases after reopening
The word from governor Brian Kemp on one of the first states to return to business-as-usual after lockdown is "so far, so good", says Louise Hall.
The word from governor Brian Kemp on one of the first states to return to business-as-usual after lockdown is "so far, so good", says Louise Hall.
