thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-02--Barron Trump's Elite School Getting Taxpayer Stimulus Money; Steve Mnuchin Wants It Back

The Brentwood School in Los Angeles , attended by Mnuchin ’ s own children , is also collecting public funds as part of the administration small business stimulus program meant to help mitigate the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic , the Los Angeles Times reported .
Revelations of the funds to the institutions even as Republicans threaten to let states — and their public schools — go bankrupt is fueling mounting fury over a massive taxpayer giveaway to wealthy operations .
Struggling small businesses , meanwhile , are being squeezed out of much-needed funds from the Paycheck Protection Program @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the money is used continue to pay wages and rent .
Mnuchin is demanding private schools with significant endowments return the taxpayer funds intended to help struggling small businesses .
“ It has come to our attention that some private schools with significant endowments have taken # PPP loans .
They should return them , ” Mnuchin tweeted Friday .
An aide to the president said that Trump , too , believes the funds to wealthy schools should be returned — even though his administration and Republican lawmakers spearheaded the stimulus package that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by the institutions .
″The president has made it clear that he does not believe private schools with significant endowments should be receiving PPP money , and those that have should consider returning it , ” Trump spokesperson Judd Deere told Politico as he responded to a question about St. Andrew ’ s Episcopal School , where the president ’ s son is a student .
Despite having an endowment of more than $ 8 million , according to a 2017 tax filing , St. Andrew ’ s plans to keep its taxpayer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it applied for the funds to “ ensure retention of our full faculty and staff ... during this very challenging and uncertain time.
” It did not reveal the amount of public funds it ’ s collecting through the Paycheck Protection Program .
Brentwood , which also did not reveal the amount of its stimulus aid , said in a letter to parents that the money will “ help us enormously as we move forward into a financially ambiguous future ” created by the COVID-19 crisis , the Times reported .
Its endowment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to IRS records , the newspaper noted .
Tuition at Brentwood ranges from $ 37,500 annually for K-5 students to $ 44,000 for sixth through 12th grades .
Sidwell Friends in Washington , where Chelsea Clinton and Malia and Sasha Obama attended , also plans to keep its $ 5.2 million in stimulus funds , The New York Times reported .
Sidwell has an endowment of more than $ 53 million .
The Payment Protection Program , administered by the Small Business Administration , is part of the $ 2.2 trillion economic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to support businesses and workers during the pandemic .
The first round of funds in the program ran out quickly as about 300 publicly traded corporations grabbed $ 1 billion in aid that the public was led to believe would help small businesses .

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The elite Maryland private school attended by Donald Trump’s son Barron is collecting taxpayer stimulus aid — and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is demanding that money to wealthy schools be returned.
The Brentwood School in Los Angeles, attended by Mnuchin’s own children, is also collecting public funds as part of the administration small business stimulus program meant to help mitigate the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic, the Los Angeles Times reported.
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Neither school plans to return the money.
Revelations of the funds to the institutions even as Republicans threaten to let states — and their public schools — go bankrupt is fueling mounting fury over a massive taxpayer giveaway to wealthy operations.
Struggling small businesses, meanwhile, are being squeezed out of much-needed funds from the Paycheck Protection Program. The loans can become grants if the money is used continue to pay wages and rent.
Mnuchin is demanding private schools with significant endowments return the taxpayer funds intended to help struggling small businesses. “It has come to our attention that some private schools with significant endowments have taken #PPP loans. They should return them,” Mnuchin tweeted Friday.
It has come to our attention that some private schools with significant endowments have taken #PPP loans. They should return them. @SBAgov #CARESAct #PPPLoans — Steven Mnuchin (@stevenmnuchin1) May 1, 2020
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An aide to the president said that Trump, too, believes the funds to wealthy schools should be returned — even though his administration and Republican lawmakers spearheaded the stimulus package that’s now being taken advantage of by the institutions.
″The president has made it clear that he does not believe private schools with significant endowments should be receiving PPP money, and those that have should consider returning it,” Trump spokesperson Judd Deere told Politico as he responded to a question about St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, where the president’s son is a student.
Despite having an endowment of more than $8 million, according to a 2017 tax filing, St. Andrew’s plans to keep its taxpayer handout. The school told CNN that it applied for the funds to “ensure retention of our full faculty and staff ... during this very challenging and uncertain time.” It did not reveal the amount of public funds it’s collecting through the Paycheck Protection Program.
Brentwood, which also did not reveal the amount of its stimulus aid, said in a letter to parents that the money will “help us enormously as we move forward into a financially ambiguous future” created by the COVID-19 crisis, the Times reported. Its endowment in 2017 was $17.4 million, according to IRS records, the newspaper noted. Tuition at Brentwood ranges from $37,500 annually for K-5 students to $44,000 for sixth through 12th grades.
Sidwell Friends in Washington, where Chelsea Clinton and Malia and Sasha Obama attended, also plans to keep its $5.2 million in stimulus funds, The New York Times reported. Sidwell has an endowment of more than $53 million.
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The Payment Protection Program, administered by the Small Business Administration, is part of the $2.2 trillion economic stimulus package called the CARES Act intended to support businesses and workers during the pandemic.
The first round of funds in the program ran out quickly as about 300 publicly traded corporations grabbed $1 billion in aid that the public was led to believe would help small businesses.
A second round of payouts is now available.
A HuffPost Guide To Coronavirus


thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-01--Trump Plans To Attend Mount Rushmore's July 4th Fireworks Show

President Donald Trump is planning to attend Mount Rushmore ’ s annual Independence Day celebration to watch the newly reinstated fireworks show that will be held on July 3 .
Trump told conservative radio host Dan Bongino on Friday that he was planning to see the fireworks show , which hasn ’ t been held at South Dakota ’ s Mount Rushmore National Memorial since 2009 .
“ For 20 years or something , it hasn ’ t been allowed for environmental reasons , ” Trump told Bongino .
“ You believe that one ?
It ’ s all stone.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the element at risk from a fireworks show ; the surrounding forest is .
The Black Hills forest , which surrounds Mount Rushmore , is susceptible to severe wildfires , especially in summer months .
Memorial officials carried out a prescribed burn in the forest on Wednesday in order to prevent high-risk fires from spreading out of control .
Trump resurrected plans for the fireworks show in May 2019 , nearly 10 years after the annual event was scratched .
In his interview with Bongino , Trump cast doubt on whether fireworks would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about his plans to attend a large Fourth of July gathering even as states are deciding how to cautiously reopen their economies and lift stay-at-home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic .
Health experts warn that lifting quarantine orders too soon may cause the spread of the coronavirus to accelerate again .
I am pleased to inform you that THE BIG FIREWORKS , after many years of not having any , are coming back to beautiful Mount Rushmore in South Dakota .
Great work @ GovKristiNoem and @ SecBernhardt !
# MAGA — Donald @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 8 , 2019 National park officials canceled the annual Fourth of July fireworks display at the Mount Rushmore monument in 2010 , citing the wildfire threat to the 1,200-acre forest .
The Black Hills forest had been plagued by a pine beetle epidemic that has killed thousands of acres of ponderosa pines .
Trees that have been infested by the beetles are more combustible , and a wildfire could devastate the fragile forest , a National Park ranger told NPR in 2010 .
“ Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities , ” ranger Bruce Weisman , who has been fighting against the spread of these beetles , told NPR .
In 2010 , Mount Rushmore ’ s chief of interpretation and education , Navnit Singh , said the decision to close the show was “ approved at the highest levels of the National Park Service.
” “ The risk is unacceptable , given the current condition of the national forest in and around Mount Rushmore , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Kristi Noem , a Republican , thanked Trump for bringing the fireworks show back to the park and welcomed him to the memorial for the Fourth of July weekend celebration .
This year , we 're bringing fireworks back to Mt .
Rushmore to celebrate Independence Day .
Great news : @ realDonaldTrump is coming to enjoy the show with us !
Thank you @ POTUS for working with us to make this a reality .
There 's truly no better place to celebrate America 's birthday .
https : //t.co/pMhS2XihEe — Governor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1 , 2020

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President Donald Trump is planning to attend Mount Rushmore’s annual Independence Day celebration to watch the newly reinstated fireworks show that will be held on July 3.
Trump told conservative radio host Dan Bongino on Friday that he was planning to see the fireworks show, which hasn’t been held at South Dakota’s Mount Rushmore National Memorial since 2009.
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“For 20 years or something, it hasn’t been allowed for environmental reasons,” Trump told Bongino. “You believe that one? It’s all stone.”
The stone monument isn’t the element at risk from a fireworks show; the surrounding forest is. The Black Hills forest, which surrounds Mount Rushmore, is susceptible to severe wildfires, especially in summer months.
Memorial officials carried out a prescribed burn in the forest on Wednesday in order to prevent high-risk fires from spreading out of control.
Trump resurrected plans for the fireworks show in May 2019, nearly 10 years after the annual event was scratched. In his interview with Bongino, Trump cast doubt on whether fireworks would pose any risk.
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Trump has talked about his plans to attend a large Fourth of July gathering even as states are deciding how to cautiously reopen their economies and lift stay-at-home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. Health experts warn that lifting quarantine orders too soon may cause the spread of the coronavirus to accelerate again.
I am pleased to inform you that THE BIG FIREWORKS, after many years of not having any, are coming back to beautiful Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. Great work @GovKristiNoem and @SecBernhardt! #MAGA — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019
National park officials canceled the annual Fourth of July fireworks display at the Mount Rushmore monument in 2010, citing the wildfire threat to the 1,200-acre forest.
The Black Hills forest had been plagued by a pine beetle epidemic that has killed thousands of acres of ponderosa pines. Trees that have been infested by the beetles are more combustible, and a wildfire could devastate the fragile forest, a National Park ranger told NPR in 2010.
“Our fuel loads would be so tremendous that [a] catastrophic firestorm would sweep right over the top of the memorial and it would be a catastrophic loss of all facilities,” ranger Bruce Weisman, who has been fighting against the spread of these beetles, told NPR.
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In 2010, Mount Rushmore’s chief of interpretation and education, Navnit Singh, said the decision to close the show was “approved at the highest levels of the National Park Service.”
“The risk is unacceptable, given the current condition of the national forest in and around Mount Rushmore,” Singh said.
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, thanked Trump for bringing the fireworks show back to the park and welcomed him to the memorial for the Fourth of July weekend celebration.
This year, we're bringing fireworks back to Mt. Rushmore to celebrate Independence Day. Great news: @realDonaldTrump is coming to enjoy the show with us!
Thank you @POTUS for working with us to make this a reality. There's truly no better place to celebrate America's birthday. https://t.co/pMhS2XihEe — Governor Kristi Noem (@govkristinoem) May 1, 2020


thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-02--Rep. Ted Lieu Lays It On The Line For Anti-Lockdown Protesters With Ominous Prediction

Lieu warned on Twitter that the demonstrators had “ undoubtedly spread the virus even more ” due to the “ highly contagious ” nature of COVID-19 , the disease caused by the contagion that ’ s killed upwards of 64,000 people in the U.S. alone .
“ There were over 30,000 new US cases reported yesterday & over 34,000 today , ” added Lieu , noting how around 15 % of people who contract the virus end up requiring hospital treatment .
There were over 30,000 new US cases reported yesterday & over 34,000 today .
# COVID__19 is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Huntington Beach undoubtedly spread the virus even more .
And Dr. Fauci said 15 % of those who get the virus get so sick they need hospitalization .
https : //t.co/stBL6W94fR — Ted Lieu ( @ tedlieu ) May 1 , 2020 The majority of protesters criticized California Gov .
Gavin Newsom ’ s ( D ) statewide mandate that is aimed at slowing the spread of the virus .
Others railed against Newsom ’ s decision this week to close state and local beaches in Orange County , following gatherings on some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Country Register .
Some carried pro-President Donald Trump signs .
Many did not wear face masks and , as the photographs below show , did not adhere to social distancing measures .
No one was arrested or cited at Friday ’ s protest , Huntington Beach police Chief Robert Handy told the newspaper .
Newsom on Friday claimed California is “ days , not weeks ” away from easing restrictions .
“ If we can hold the line and continue to do good work and just avoid the temptation to get back and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can see an increase in the spread , we ’ ll get there much sooner than many people perhaps think , ” he said .

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Lieu warned on Twitter that the demonstrators had “undoubtedly spread the virus even more” due to the “highly contagious” nature of COVID-19, the disease caused by the contagion that’s killed upwards of 64,000 people in the U.S. alone.
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“There were over 30,000 new US cases reported yesterday & over 34,000 today,” added Lieu, noting how around 15% of people who contract the virus end up requiring hospital treatment.
There were over 30,000 new US cases reported yesterday & over 34,000 today. #COVID__19 is a highly contagious virus. These folks at Huntington Beach undoubtedly spread the virus even more.
And Dr. Fauci said 15% of those who get the virus get so sick they need hospitalization. https://t.co/stBL6W94fR — Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) May 1, 2020
The majority of protesters criticized California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s (D) statewide mandate aimed at slowing the spread of the virus.
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Some carried pro-President Donald Trump signs. Many did not wear face masks and, as the photographs below show, did not adhere to social distancing measures.
No one was arrested or cited at Friday’s protest, Huntington Beach Chief of Police Robert Handy told the newspaper.
David McNew via Getty Images
MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images via Getty Images
Apu Gomes via Getty Images
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Apu Gomes via Getty Images
Apu Gomes via Getty Images
Apu Gomes via Getty Images
MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images via Getty Images
MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images via Getty Images
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-02--Republican Group's Ad Campaign Demands Life-Saving Mail-In Ballots For Voters

“ We shouldn ’ t have to put ourselves in danger to vote for you , ” a Pennsylvania woman tells candidates in a jolting new ad campaign being launched Republicans for the Rule of Law .
The ad is part of the organization ’ s push to promote expanded voting options in November to protect voters from COVID-19 — and for Congress to provide states with the resources to create a solid absentee-ballot system .
It features actual voters talking about their fears turning up to vote in person amid the coronavirus pandemic .
“ Seventy percent of Americans @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to vote by mail or absentee this fall ; it ’ s the only logical way to protect our democracy during the pandemic , ” said Sarah Longwell , spokeswoman for the Republicans for the Rule of Law .
But states need congressional support to conduct a “ safe and secure election ” in November , she added .
“ We ’ ve lost enough to the coronavirus .
We can ’ t lose our democracy , too.
” PREVIEW : This ad from Republicans for the Rule of Law will air on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ town hall .
In it , Republican voters tell Congress to help states ensure a fair , safe , and secure election .
`` We should n't have to put ourselves in danger to vote for you . ''
pic.twitter.com/HyUV5toYQd — Bill Kristol ( @ BillKristol ) May 1 , 2020 A Democrat who last month won a hotly contested Wisconsin state Supreme Court judgeship called her election victory “ bittersweet ” because of rising COVID-19 cases linked to forced in-person voting .
The GOP ( not Republicans for the Rule of Law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gov .
Tony Evers ’ bid for more time to organize mail-in ballots so people wouldn ’ t have to risk COVID-19 contagion to vote .
“ I find it unconscionable that Wisconsin voters were forced to choose between their safety and having their voices heard in our democracy , ” wrote Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Jill Karofsky in an op-ed in The New York Times Monday .
As of Thursday , 52 people who worked at polling stations or voted in the Wisconsin election tested positive for COVID-19 .

“We shouldn’t have to put ourselves in danger to vote for you,” a Pennsylvania woman tells candidates in a jolting new ad campaign being launched by Republicans for the Rule of Law.
The ad is part of the organization’s push to promote expanded voting options in November to protect voters from COVID-19 — and for Congress to provide states with the resources to create a solid absentee-ballot system.
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The kick-off ad will air nationally during Donald Trump’s Fox News town hall meeting Sunday.
It features actual voters discussing their fears about turning up to vote in person amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“Seventy percent of Americans agree that voters should have the option to vote by mail or absentee this fall; it’s the only logical way to protect our democracy during the pandemic,” said Sarah Longwell, spokeswoman for the Republicans for the Rule of Law.
But states need congressional support to conduct a “safe and secure election” in November, she added. “We’ve lost enough to the coronavirus. We can’t lose our democracy, too.”
PREVIEW: This ad from Republicans for the Rule of Law will air on Fox Sunday night during President Trump's town hall. In it, Republican voters tell Congress to help states ensure a fair, safe, and secure election. "We shouldn't have to put ourselves in danger to vote for you." pic.twitter.com/HyUV5toYQd — Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) May 1, 2020
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A Democrat who last month won a hotly contested Wisconsin state Supreme Court judgeship called her election victory “bittersweet” because of rising COVID-19 cases linked to forced in-person voting. The GOP (not Republicans for the Rule of Law) won court battles to scuttle Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers’ bid for more time to organize mail-in ballots so people wouldn’t have to risk exposure to COVID-19 contagion to vote.
“I find it unconscionable that Wisconsin voters were forced to choose between their safety and having their voices heard in our democracy,” wrote Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Jill Karofsky in an op-ed in The New York Times on Monday.
As of Thursday, 52 people who worked at polling stations or voted in the Wisconsin election tested positive for COVID-19.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-02--Florida Officials Won't Release Coronavirus Death Toll Data, Report Says

Florida state officials have blocked medical examiners from releasing coronavirus death totals after it was found the examiners ’ death count was 10 % higher than the state said it was .
The list of deaths , which had been released in real time by the state ’ s Medical Examiners Commission , is no longer being published after the Florida Department of Health intervened , the Tampa Bay Times reported .
The vital data , which includes demographic information and probable cause of death , has now been withheld for the last 11 days .
A spokesman for the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ had been discussions within government agencies about “ privacy concerns ” for the dead .
But while the state ’ s 22 medical examiner officers are tasked with releasing information including a person ’ s medical history , they don ’ t release the names of those who have died .
Last month , the health department attempted to convince a medical examiner ’ s office in Miami-Dade County to restrict access to death records , the Miami Herald reported .
Meanwhile , Gov .
Ron DeSantis ( R ) has painted a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the coronavirus death toll .
“ Generally ... there ’ s more data put out on a daily basis by Florida ’ s Department of Health than anywhere , ” DeSantis at a press conference in April .
Florida has more than 35,000 reported cases of the virus , with more than 1,300 reported deaths .
That number is likely higher .

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Florida state officials have blocked medical examiners from releasing coronavirus death totals after it was found the examiners’ death count was 10% higher than the state said it was.
The list of deaths, which had been released in real time by the state’s Medical Examiners Commission, is no longer being published after the Florida Department of Health intervened, the Tampa Bay Times reported. The vital data, which includes demographic information and probable cause of death, has now been withheld for the last 11 days.
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A spokesman for the health department told the Times that there had been discussions within government agencies about “privacy concerns” for the dead. But while the state’s 22 medical examiner officers are tasked with releasing information including a person’s medical history, they don’t release the names of those who have died.
Last month, the health department attempted to convince a medical examiner’s office in Miami-Dade County to restrict access to death records, the Miami Herald reported.
Meanwhile, Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) has painted a picture of a transparent government staying up-to-date on the coronavirus death toll.
“Generally ... there’s more data put out on a daily basis by Florida’s Department of Health than anywhere,” DeSantis at a press conference in April.
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Florida has more than 35,000 reported cases of the virus, with more than 1,300 reported deaths. That number is likely higher.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-02--Tara Reade Says She Filed A Limited Report On Alleged Biden Assault

Editor ’ s Note : On Saturday , in response to an Associated Press tweet about this story that read , “ Tara Reade says a Senate report she filed against Joe Biden didn ’ t refer to sexual harassment or assault , ” Reade tweeted , without elaborating , “ This is false.
” When asked by HuffPost to clarify , she said , “ The headline is false.
” “ I remember talking about him wanting me to serve drinks because he liked my legs and thought I was pretty and it made me uncomfortable , ” Reade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Associated Press .
“ I know that I was too scared to write about the sexual assault.
” Reade described the report after the AP discovered additional transcripts and notes from its interviews with Reade last year in which she says she “ chickened out ” after going to the Senate personnel office .
The AP interviewed Reade in 2019 after she accused Biden of uncomfortable and inappropriate touching .
She did not raise allegations of sexual assault against Biden until this year , around the time he became the presumptive Democratic presidential @ @ @ @ @ @ @ report has become a key element of the accusations against Biden , which he has flatly denied .
Reade says she doesn ’ t have a copy of the report , and Biden said Friday that he is not aware that any complaint against him exists .
He asked the Senate and the National Archives to search their records to try to locate a complaint from Reade .
According to a transcript of her 2019 interview with the AP , Reade said : “ They have this counseling office or something , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , but then I chickened out.
” She made a similar statement in a second interview with AP that same day , according to written notes from the interview .
On Friday , Reade said she was referring to having “ chickened out ” by not filing full harassment or assault allegations against Biden .
In multiple interviews with the AP on Friday , Reade insisted she filed an “ intake form ” at the Senate personnel office , which included her contact information , the office she worked for and some broad @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Reade was one of eight women who came forward last year with allegations that Biden made them feel uncomfortable with inappropriate displays of affection .
Biden acknowledged the complaints and promised to be “ more mindful about respecting personal space in the future.
” During one of the April 2019 interviews with the AP , she said Biden rubbed her shoulders and neck and played with her hair .
She said she was asked by an aide in Biden ’ s Senate office to dress more conservatively and told “ don ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one of the interviews was deleted before Reade emerged in 2020 with new allegations against Biden , in keeping with the reporter ’ s standard practice for disposing of old interviews .
A portion of that interview was also recorded on video , but not the part in which she spoke of having “ chickened out.
” In recent weeks , Reade told the AP and other news organizations that Biden sexually assaulted her , pushing her against a wall in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in 1993 , groping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
She says she was fired from Biden ’ s office after filing a complaint with the Senate alleging harassment .
The accusation has roiled Biden ’ s presidential campaign , sparking anxiety among Democrats .
Republicans have accused Biden backers of hypocrisy , arguing that they have been quick to believe women who have accused President Donald Trump and other conservatives of assault .
Trump has faced multiple accusations of assault and harassment , all of which he denies .
Reade says she was reluctant to share details of the assault during @ @ @ @ @ @ @ year ago because she was scared of backlash , and was still coming to terms with what happened to her .
Two of Reade ’ s associates said publicly this past week that Reade had conversations with them that they said corroborated aspects of her allegation .
One , a former neighbor , said Reade told her about the alleged assault a few years after Reade said it happened .
The other , a former coworker , said Reade told her she had been sexually harassed by her boss during her previous job @ @ @

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Editor’s Note: On Saturday, in response to an Associated Press tweet about this story that read, “Tara Reade says a Senate report she filed against Joe Biden didn’t refer to sexual harassment or assault,” Reade tweeted, without elaborating, “This is false.” When asked by HuffPost to clarify, she said, “The headline is false.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tara Reade, the former Senate staffer who alleges Joe Biden sexually assaulted her 27 years ago, says she filed a limited report with a congressional personnel office that did not explicitly accuse him of sexual assault or harassment.
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“I remember talking about him wanting me to serve drinks because he liked my legs and thought I was pretty and it made me uncomfortable,” Reade said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. “I know that I was too scared to write about the sexual assault.”
Reade said she described her issues with Biden but “the main word I used — and I know I didn’t use sexual harassment — I used ‘uncomfortable.’ And I remember ‘retaliation.’”
Reade described the report after the AP discovered additional transcripts and notes from its interviews with Reade last year in which she says she “chickened out” after going to the Senate personnel office. The AP interviewed Reade in 2019 after she accused Biden of uncomfortable and inappropriate touching. She did not raise allegations of sexual assault against Biden until this year, around the time he became the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.
The existence of the Senate report has become a key element of the accusations against Biden, which he has flatly denied. Reade says she doesn’t have a copy of the report, and Biden said Friday that he is not aware that any complaint against him exists. He asked the Senate and the National Archives to search their records to try to locate a complaint from Reade.
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But Reade is suggesting that even if the report surfaces, it would not corroborate her assault allegations because she chose not to detail them at the time.
According to a transcript of her 2019 interview with the AP, Reade said: “They have this counseling office or something, and I think I walked in there once, but then I chickened out.” She made a similar statement in a second interview with AP that same day, according to written notes from the interview.
On Friday, Reade said she was referring to having “chickened out” by not filing full harassment or assault allegations against Biden. In multiple interviews with the AP on Friday, Reade insisted she filed an “intake form” at the Senate personnel office, which included her contact information, the office she worked for and some broad details of her issues with Biden.
Reade was one of eight women who came forward last year with allegations that Biden made them feel uncomfortable with inappropriate displays of affection. Biden acknowledged the complaints and promised to be “more mindful about respecting personal space in the future.”
During one of the April 2019 interviews with the AP, she said Biden rubbed her shoulders and neck and played with her hair. She said she was asked by an aide in Biden’s Senate office to dress more conservatively and told “don’t be so sexy.”
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She said of Biden: “I wasn’t scared of him, that he was going to take me in a room or anything. It wasn’t that kind of vibe.”
The AP reviewed notes of its 2019 interviews with Reade after she came forward in March with allegations of sexual assault against Biden. But reporters discovered an additional transcript and notes from those interviews on Friday.
A recording of one of the interviews was deleted before Reade emerged in 2020 with new allegations against Biden, in keeping with the reporter’s standard practice for disposing of old interviews. A portion of that interview was also recorded on video, but not the part in which she spoke of having “chickened out.”
The AP declined to publish details of the 2019 interviews at the time because reporters were unable to corroborate her allegations, and aspects of her story contradicted other reporting.
In recent weeks, Reade told the AP and other news organizations that Biden sexually assaulted her, pushing her against a wall in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in 1993, groping her and penetrating her with his fingers. She says she was fired from Biden’s office after filing a complaint with the Senate alleging harassment.
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The accusation has roiled Biden’s presidential campaign, sparking anxiety among Democrats. Republicans have accused Biden backers of hypocrisy, arguing that they have been quick to believe women who have accused President Donald Trump and other conservatives of assault. Trump has faced multiple accusations of assault and harassment, all of which he denies.
Reade says she was reluctant to share details of the assault during her initial conversations with reporters over a year ago because she was scared of backlash, and was still coming to terms with what happened to her.
Two of Reade’s associates said publicly this past week that Reade had conversations with them that they said corroborated aspects of her allegation. One, a former neighbor, said Reade told her about the alleged assault a few years after Reade said it happened. The other, a former coworker, said Reade told her she had been sexually harassed by her boss during her previous job in Washington.
The AP has also spoken to two additional people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their families’ privacy, who said Reade had told them about aspects of her allegations against Biden years ago.
One friend, who knew Reade in 1993, said Reade told them about the alleged assault when it happened. The second friend met Reade more than a decade after the alleged incident and confirmed that Reade had a conversation with the friend in 2007 or 2008 about experiencing sexual harassment from Biden while working in his Senate office.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-02--Trump Chooses Replacement For Top HHS Official Who Embarrassed Him

President Donald Trump moved to replace the Department of Health and Human Services ’ watchdog Friday evening , nearly a month after publicly blasting her at a press conference after she released a report on nationwide medical supply shortages .
Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi Grimm , a career official , determined in early April that U.S. hospitals were alarmingly underprepared for the coronavirus crisis ― an assessment based on interviews with administrators for 323 hospitals across 46 states , Washington , D.C. , and Puerto Rico conducted between March 23 and 27 .
Hospitals were struggling to obtain enough @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to take their temperatures , in addition to ventilators , IV poles and beds for patients .
“ It ’ s just wrong , ” Trump said of the report at an April 6 coronavirus task force briefing .
He quickly pivoted to attack the source of the report , asking , “ Where did he come from , the inspector general ?
What ’ s his name ?
No , what ’ s his name ?
What ’ s his name ?
” Later , after learning the inspector was a woman @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could be her opinion .
When was she appointed ?
Do me a favor and let me know .
Let me know now .
I have to know.
” Grimm began her career at the inspector general ’ s office in 1999 and assumed her current role in January .
After the news conference , former HHS Inspector General Dan Levinson defended her , saying she “ is a highly respected career senior executive.
” Trump also attacked Grimm in a tweet , due to the fact that her two-decades-long career meant she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The president declared her report politically biased and suggested Grimm should have talked to “ the Admirals , Generals , V.P .
& others in charge ” instead of people working at hospitals across the country .
Why didn ’ t the I.G.
, who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration ( Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died ? )
, want to talk to the Admirals , Generals , V.P .
& others in charge , before doing her report .
Another Fake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ realDonaldTrump ) April 7 , 2020 Jason Weida , an assistant U.S. attorney in Boston , will replace Grimm if he is confirmed by the Senate .
According to the release , Weida has “ overseen numerous complex investigations in healthcare and other sectors .
”

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President Donald Trump moved to replace the Department of Health and Human Services’ watchdog Friday evening, nearly a month after publicly blasting her at a press conference after she released a report on nationwide medical supply shortages.
Principal Deputy Inspector General Christi Grimm, a career official, determined in early April that U.S. hospitals were alarmingly underprepared for the coronavirus crisis ― an assessment based on interviews with administrators for 323 hospitals across 46 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico conducted between March 23 and 27.
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Hospitals were struggling to obtain enough protective equipment for staff, including thermometers to take their temperatures, in addition to ventilators, IV poles and beds for patients.
“It’s just wrong,” Trump said of the report at an April 6 coronavirus task force briefing. He quickly pivoted to attack the source of the report, asking, “Where did he come from, the inspector general? What’s his name? No, what’s his name? What’s his name?”
Later, after learning the inspector was a woman, Trump said: “It still could be her opinion. When was she appointed? Do me a favor and let me know. Let me know now. I have to know.”
Grimm began her career at the inspector general’s office in 1999 and assumed her current role in January. After the news conference, former HHS Inspector General Dan Levinson defended her, saying she “is a highly respected career senior executive.”
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“Nothing in her longstanding career of public service would suggest otherwise,” Levinson said.
Trump also attacked Grimm in a tweet, due to the fact that her two-decades-long career meant she had served under the Obama administration. The president declared her report politically biased and suggested Grimm should have talked to “the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge” instead of people working at hospitals across the country.
Why didn’t the I.G., who spent 8 years with the Obama Administration (Did she Report on the failed H1N1 Swine Flu debacle where 17,000 people died?), want to talk to the Admirals, Generals, V.P. & others in charge, before doing her report. Another Fake Dossier! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 7, 2020
The White House announced Trump’s chosen replacement in a news release after business hours on Friday.
Jason Weida, an assistant U.S. attorney in Boston, will replace Grimm if he is confirmed by the Senate.
According to the release, Weida has “overseen numerous complex investigations in healthcare and other sectors.”


thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-02--Ex-Obama Photographer Lifts The Lid On That Iconic Osama Bin Laden Raid Picture

Former White House photographer Pete Souza has broken down how he came to take one of the most iconic images of Barack Obama ’ s presidency .
Souza explained the backstory to his picture that ’ s now known as “ The Situation Room Photograph ” — showing Obama , then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others watching the 2011 raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ― in a 21-minute video that he shared on Instagram on Friday , the ninth anniversary of the mission .
Souza , who in recent years has used his public profile @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump and his administration , recalled being told in late April 2011 that “ something was brewing ” and that he should be ready to work that weekend .
But he didn ’ t know exactly what was happening , nor when .
“ Holy shit , we ’ re going after Bin Laden , ” he said he thought to himself after finally finding out about the special ops mission while photographing a meeting between Obama and his national security team on the day of the raid .
Souza remembered not being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ alert , knowing that on this day of all days I was the visual recorder of history.
” Former White House photographer Pete Souza has broken down how he came to take one of the most iconic images of Barack Obama ’ s presidency .
He recalled choosing his vantage point as Obama , Clinton and others piled into the room as the mission was underway .
Unable to really move around and pushed against a printer , he used his two cameras selectively to not disturb proceedings .
Souza hinted at what @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took the picture , one of 1,003 he took that day and which had to be partially blurred in order to hide a classified document that was in front of Clinton : All I can tell you is this .
From a public timeline we know that the raid began at around 3:30 p.m. East Coast Time and that the raid lasted a little over 40 minutes .
This picture is time-stamped on my camera at 4:05 Eastern Time .
So , really , until a minute-by-minute timeline of the mission is declassified @ @ @ @ @ @ @ say .
“ I ’ m convinced that I chose the best one , that this is the best picture from the room , ” Souza concluded .

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Former White House photographer Pete Souza has broken down how he came to take one of the most iconic images of Barack Obama’s presidency.
Souza explained the backstory to his picture that’s now known as “The Situation Room Photograph” — showing Obama, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others watching the 2011 raid that killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden ― in a 21-minute video that he shared on Instagram on Friday, the ninth anniversary of the mission.
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Souza, who in recent years has used his public profile to mock and call out President Donald Trump and his administration, recalled being told in late April 2011 that “something was brewing” and that he should be ready to work that weekend.
But he didn’t know exactly what was happening, nor when.
“Holy shit, we’re going after Bin Laden,” he said he thought to himself after finally finding out about the special ops mission while photographing a meeting between Obama and his national security team on the day of the raid.
Souza remembered not being nervous but “definitely on doubly high alert, knowing that on this day of all days I was the visual recorder of history.”
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Former White House photographer Pete Souza has broken down how he came to take one of the most iconic images of Barack Obama’s presidency. ASSOCIATED PRESS
He recalled choosing his vantage point as Obama, Clinton and others piled into the room as the mission was underway. Unable to really move around and pushed against a printer, he used his two cameras selectively to not disturb proceedings.
“The mood was tense,” he noted.
Souza hinted at what was happening at the precise moment he took the picture, one of 1,003 he took that day and which had to be partially blurred in order to hide a classified document that was in front of Clinton:
All I can tell you is this. From a public timeline we know that the raid began at around 3:30 p.m. East Coast Time and that the raid lasted a little over 40 minutes. This picture is time-stamped on my camera at 4:05 Eastern Time. So, really, until a minute-by-minute timeline of the mission is declassified, that’s all I can say.
“I’m convinced that I chose the best one, that this is the best picture from the room,” Souza concluded.
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thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-02--Promises Made, Promises Broken: Four Trump Doozies On COVID-19 Response

By Wednesday of this week , more than 1 million Americans had tested positive for COVID-19 , the disease caused by the novel coronavirus , and nearly 60,000 had died ― more than the U.S. death toll during the 20-year Vietnam War .
The number of people who applied for unemployment surpassed 26 million , and a resumption of normal activity was still months away for much of the country .
The claim was as absurd as it was out of touch , the latest in the Trump administration ’ s weekslong effort to first downplay the pandemic and later @ @ @ @ @ @ @ revisionist history .
Along the way , the president and his team have told a slew of lies and made sweeping promises that it has proven unable to keep .
A month ago , as the pandemic swept the nation , Trump cited worst-case death toll projections in a clear attempt to set himself up for success .
During a White House briefing March 29 in the Rose Garden , he referenced modeling that found there could be between 1.6 million and 2.2 million fatalities in the U.S. if no containment measures were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that down , as we ’ re saying , to 100,000 — it ’ s a horrible number , maybe even less — but to 100,000 , so we have between 100 and 200,000 , we all together have done a very good job , ” he said “ When you have 15 people , and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero , that ’ s a pretty good job we ’ ve done , ” he said at a White House press @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a bit lower than 60,000 or 2.2 million .
That didn ’ t stop Trump from repeatedly restating his wildly false assertion that the virus would soon magically go away , most recently on Tuesday .
‘ We ’ ve Tested More Than Every Country Combined.
’ Verily did launch a website , but screenings remain limited to people in select cities in nine states .
Meanwhile , the retailers Trump mentioned during his March 13 address have been slow to get drive-through testing up and running .
As of Monday , Walmart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Rite Aid and Target were operating a total of approximately 100 testing sites around the country , CNBC reported .
And companies have warned that the ability to ramp up testing is dependent on the availability of supplies and labs to process tests .
As has become the norm , Trump was quickly contradicted by his own health experts .
“ There is absolutely no way on Earth , on this planet or any other planet , that we can do 20 million tests a day , or even 5 million tests a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Brett Giroir , who is in charge of the government ’ s COVID-19 testing response , told Time magazine .
The U.S. has conducted a total 6.2 million COVID-19 tests , with an average 171,000 new tests per day during the month of April , according to The Atlantic ’ s COVID Tracking Project .
While Trump likes to point out that the U.S. has conducted more total tests than any other country , we lag behind several countries in terms of testing per capita ― a far more important benchmark .
There @ @ @ @ @ @ @ there are shortages .
In hard-hit locations like New York , health care workers have resorted to wearing trash bags or Yankees rain ponchos as gowns .
In many places , doctors , nurses and other workers have to reuse masks that are supposed to be thrown away after a single use .
In others , personnel are forced to use substandard equipment , like surgical masks that provide little protection compared to N95 masks .
Health care workers are even staging GoFundMe campaigns to buy the supplies their employers aren ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been fired for speaking out against unsafe working conditions .

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By Wednesday of this week, more than 1 million Americans had tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and nearly 60,000 had died ― more than the U.S. death toll during the 20-year Vietnam War. The number of people who applied for unemployment surpassed 26 million, and a resumption of normal activity was still months away for much of the country.
But in President Donald Trump’s alternate universe, all was well. During an appearance that morning with Trump’s allies at “Fox & Friends,” White House senior adviser Jared Kushner declared victory over the pandemic.
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“The federal government rose to the challenge,” Kushner said on the White House lawn. “This is a great success story.”
The claim was as absurd as it was out of touch, the latest in the Trump administration’s weekslong effort to first downplay the pandemic and later deflect blame and weave a tale of revisionist history. Along the way, the president and his team have told a slew of lies and made sweeping promises that it has proven unable to keep.
Here’s a look at some of Trump’s biggest whoppers:
Maximum Of 60,000 Deaths
A month ago, as the pandemic swept the nation, Trump cited worst-case death toll projections in a clear attempt to set himself up for success. During a White House briefing March 29 in the Rose Garden, he referenced modeling that found there could be between 1.6 million and 2.2 million fatalities in the U.S. if no containment measures were taken.
“If we could hold that down, as we’re saying, to 100,000 — it’s a horrible number, maybe even less — but to 100,000, so we have between 100 and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job,” he said
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Then last week, with the U.S. death toll at 42,000, Trump moved the target again, predicting a maximum of 60,000 Americans would fall victim to the disease and making clear he wants credit.
“We did the right thing, because if we didn’t do it you would have had a million people, a million and a half people, maybe 2 million people dead,” Trump said April 20. “Now, we’re going toward 50, I’m hearing, or 60,000 people.”
The U.S. death toll now stands at 63,019, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. A model the White House often cites projects U.S. deaths from COVID-19 could top 74,000 by August.
"If we lose 65,000 people" -- Trump has moved the goalposts from no deaths to fewer deaths than the Swine Flu to 60,000 deaths & now to 65,000 or 70,000 deaths.
He's positioned himself to proclaim any death toll smaller than 2 million Americans as a reflection of his good work. pic.twitter.com/y0pOhf3iEE — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 29, 2020
As a sign of how much Trump has moved the goalposts, all of those ridiculous claims still pale in comparison to his assessment of the coronavirus outbreak two months ago.
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“When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done,” he said at a White House press conference Feb. 26. Zero is quite a bit lower than 60,000 or 2.2 million. That didn’t stop Trump from repeatedly restating his wildly false assertion that the virus would soon magically go away, most recently on Tuesday.
‘We’ve Tested More Than Every Country Combined.’
A shortage of COVID-19 tests has plagued the Trump administration’s response to the pandemic, ultimately costing the health care system precious time.
In early March, as stories of people being denied tests mounted, Trump declared that “anybody that needs a test gets a test.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House’s coronavirus task force, contradicted the president during a congressional hearing days later, describing the lack of available tests as an ongoing failure.
Trump also promised Americans that drive-through testing would be widespread at Walmart, CVS and other major retailers. “The goal is for individuals to be able to drive up and be swabbed without having to leave your car,” Trump said at a March 13 press conference.
He added that Google was “very quickly” developing a website for checking symptoms and locating testing sites. Verily, a subsidiary of Google’s parent Alphabet, poured cold water on Trump’s claim, issuing a statement that said the website was in “early development” and would be initially tested in the San Francisco Bay area “with the hope of expanding more broadly over time.”
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Verily did launch a website, but screenings remain limited to people in select cities in nine states. Meanwhile, the retailers Trump mentioned during his March 13 address have been slow to get drive-through testing up and running. As of Monday, Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Kroger, Rite Aid and Target were operating a total of approximately 100 testing sites around the country, CNBC reported. And companies have warned that the ability to ramp up testing is dependent on the availability of supplies and labs to process tests.
Without widespread testing, it is impossible to know how the virus is moving throughout the country and where to prioritize resources to slow the spread.
“We had a chance to contain this outbreak, but we didn’t,” Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told ABC News. “And as a result of that testing failure, over 60,000 Americans are dead and our economy has been shut down. It didn’t have to be this way.”
President Donald Trump holds up swabs as he speaks at the daily coronavirus briefing at the White House on April 19. Tasos Katopodis via Getty Images
Trump continues to drastically overstate U.S. testing capabilities. Last week he said “we’ve tested more than every country combined” ― a claim that Politifact found to be “Pants on Fire” false ― and that the U.S. would “very soon” reach 5 million tests per day.
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As has become the norm, Trump was quickly contradicted by his own health experts. “There is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even 5 million tests a day,” assistant health secretary Admiral Brett Giroir, who is in charge of the government’s COVID-19 testing response, told Time magazine.
The U.S. has conducted a total 6.2 million COVID-19 tests, with an average 171,000 new tests per day during the month of April, according to The Atlantic’s COVID Tracking Project. While Trump likes to point out that the U.S. has conducted more total tests than any other country, we lag behind several countries in terms of testing per capita ― a far more important benchmark.
There’s Plenty Of PPE For Health Care Workers
Doctors, nurses and other health care personnel around the country are desperate for vital supplies like N95 masks, gloves, gowns and face shields to protect them from contracting the coronavirus from COVID-19 patients.
There aren’t shortages everywhere, but there are shortages. In hard-hit locations like New York, health care workers have resorted to wearing trash bags or Yankees rain ponchos as gowns. In many places, doctors, nurses and other workers have to reuse masks that are supposed to be thrown away after a single use. In others, personnel are forced to use substandard equipment, like surgical masks that provide little protection compared to N95 masks. Health care workers are even staging GoFundMe campaigns to buy the supplies their employers aren’t providing. Some medical personnel have even been fired for speaking out against unsafe working conditions.
You wouldn’t know that from Trump. “We have masks. We have everything,” he said at a news conference April 10. Pressed by a reporter about widespread accounts from health care workers of personal protective equipment shortages, Trump declared them to be “fake news.”
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There are a lot of dead doctors and nurses that show otherwise.
Public health workers, doctors and nurses protest over lack of sick pay and personal protective equipment (PPE) outside a hospital in the borough of the Bronx on April 17 in New York, NY. Giles Clarke via Getty Images
A Coronavirus Vaccine Is ‘Very Close’
A vaccine to immunize people against the coronavirus is the best hope for a long-term solution to the pandemic. But at this point, it’s still just a hope. Not that you’d know that if you listened to Trump.
“We’re very close to a vaccine,” Trump said on Feb. 25. Two days later, he repeated this patently false claim. “We’re rapidly developing a vaccine,” Trump said on Feb. 26. “The vaccine is coming along well.”
Sure, scientists around the world started working on vaccines as soon as possible. But vaccine development doesn’t happen “rapidly” like in the movies, no matter how much Trump yells at the virus. Vaccines typically take years to develop and test and there’s always a chance that one is never developed. Scientists have been researching vaccines for many diseases, including HIV/AIDS, for decades without success.
As has often been the case in the last few months, it was up to Fauci to dispel the president’s nonsense. A vaccine, he said after Trump’s remarks on Feb, 27, would take at least 18 months.
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On Thursday, Fauci offered a somewhat more optimistic assessment of the progress of developing a coronavirus vaccine: Immunizations could be available as soon as January. Eleven months actually would be a fast deployment for a vaccine preventing a virus that was only discovered last winter, but it wouldn’t meet most people’s common-sense understanding of the word “rapidly.” And there’s still no guarantee that a safe and effective coronavirus vaccine will ever be available.
In fact, we’ve never successfully created a vaccine for other coronaviruses.


Chasing Safety

The Worst Humanitarian Crisis In The World The Maze Of The Immigration System

Illustration by Patrycja Podkościelny
Osamah Mahyoub wasn’t always a man on the run, or the target of a murderous rebel group. He used to live a comfortable life in Taiz, a city in Yemen with chocolate-brown masonry and some of the finest coffee in the world. He was a happy child who played soccer all day long with his favorite cousins, Abdelsalam and Jamil. Sometimes, if the cousins promised to be good, they were allowed to go to the market with Mahyoub’s uncle, a local imam, to buy mangoes, tomatoes and onions. Soccer, cousins, the market. Happy memories.
When Mahyoub grew up, he studied accounting at a local college and was making a good living at it until his home became the setting of a new story: a bloody, never-ending war.
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Taiz became a city of snipers, and Mahyoub became a target. In March 2015, when Mahyoub was 27 years old, the Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group, captured Taiz. Members of the group demanded that Mahyoub’s uncle give up his home in the mountains so that it could be used as a launch site for their airstrikes. His uncle refused. So the Houthis bombed his uncle’s home, then Mahyoub’s home. If they couldn’t have it, no one could.
Mahyoub and his family survived the bombing and escaped to relatives nearby, but they weren’t safe. Because his uncle had stood up to the rebels, they had enemies. And although the rebels wanted revenge, they also wanted new recruits. They offered Mahyoub a choice: join them in exchange for his and his family’s safety, or die. Without hesitation, he refused their offer, instead participating in peaceful protests and persuading others in the city to reject the rebel group. The rebels threatened to kill him. With nowhere to hide, Mahyoub fled to the nearby country of Djibouti.
But the Houthis caught up with their targets in Yemen. They murdered Mahyoub’s cousin Abdulsalam in June; they found and killed Jamil the following month. More cousins were picked off over the next few months and years. In total, Mahyoub lost seven members of his family, according to death certificates and legal documents reviewed by HuffPost. In 2016, his brother was shot by Houthis and lost his leg to gangrene.
Soon the death threats followed Mahyoub to Djibouti. After living and working there for three years as an accountant, the rebel group found him on Facebook. They knew where he was.
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The Worst Humanitarian Crisis In The World
The United Nations estimates more than 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since the start of the war, but also that that number is likely far higher. More than 24 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance inside Yemen. Families are forced to flee their homes, many with just the clothes on their back, and cross deserts and mountains. Airstrikes have crumbled schools, and more than 130 medical facilities have been attacked. Yemen was one of the world’s poorest countries before the war and largely relied on imports for food and medicine. The war demolished any remaining hope for its people.
There are daily reports of civilian casualties, or of people dying from preventable diseases or not having enough food, said Shabia Mantoo, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Mantoo visited Yemen in 2017 and 2018, seeing firsthand the dire situation inside the country. More than 2 million children under the age of 5 have been classified as acutely malnourished. Poor sanitation and waterborne diseases such as cholera have infected more than a million people and left hundreds of others dead.
Left: Taiz before 2015. Right: Buildings in Taiz demolished after bombings in 2015. Getty Images
More than 3 million Yemenis had been displaced by the ongoing conflict as of last year, and over 65,000 Yemenis had fled the country entirely. Few countries have provided relief for these refugees, including the United States; President Donald Trump signed an executive order in 2017 that barred entry to the U.S. from several Muslim-majority countries, including Yemen. The U.S. closed itself to Yemenis in spite of its own complicity in the war there: It has provided billions of dollars in weaponry and intelligence support to Saudi Arabia, which backs the Yemeni government, further escalating the worst humanitarian disaster in the world. There has been little to no progress to end the war, and international groups including the U.N. have accused both Saudi Arabia and the Houthi rebels of committing war crimes.
People like Mahyoub are paying the price.
Blacklisted Friends
In Djibouti in 2015, Mahyoub met Emad Al-Azabi, a 34-year-old Yemeni national from Taiz. Al-Azabi had also defied the Houthi rule of his home city and had fled to protect himself.
One year before, Al-Azabi had been supposed to graduate college with a degree in English. He and his friends drove over six hours from his hometown to Sana’a, the nation’s capital, for the ceremony. But fighting broke out between government forces and the armed Houthi militia group that day. As the capital burned and the Houthis seized control of the prime minister’s office, the state television channels and the military headquarters, Al-Azabi and his friends headed home, only to discover Taiz had also fallen to the rebels.
HuffPost Visuals
Soldiers were soon in the streets, calling on people to join the armed militia in exchange for money and security. Al-Azabi pleaded with people not to join the group, and just like Mahyoub, he and his family became targets for speaking up. Al-Azabi was forced to flee to Djibouti, where he was able to find work as a translator.
Several members of Al-Azabi’s family were killed in the war. His uncle, a soldier, was killed in August 2015; a cousin, a military peacekeeping member, was killed the following summer. Another cousin, a lieutenant, was killed by shrapnel from an IED bomb a year later. Al-Azabi had been in Djibouti for three years when he thought it was safe to go back to Yemen and visit his mother. But back home, it quickly became clear that the Houthis still wanted him dead.
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Suddenly, both men needed to escape.
Nowhere Safe
The men set their eyes on Ecuador, which allows visa-free entries for nearly any foreign national from any country in the world. Al-Azabi arrived in Quito in 2017, after a brief stop in Egypt. Mahyoub followed him in January 2018.
Life was good in Quito. The men dedicated themselves to making the city their new home. On his second day in the country, Al-Azabi strolled down the streets, hunting for similar faces when he came across two Middle Eastern restaurants, one Egyptian and one Lebanese. There, he met Arabic-speaking nationals, and soon his network grew. In no time, the men secured work at a local Yemeni-owned mini-market, where they found a small hub of other Yemeni refugees. On their days off, they enjoyed the warm weather, swam and played soccer.
Al-Azabi got in touch with his dad and Abdullah, a cousin from New York who visited Ecuador for two weeks in April 2019. Abdullah went sightseeing with Al-Azabi and Mahyoub in Quito and the port city of Manta, which reminded them of Taiz before the war.
“I was so happy for them,” Abdullah told HuffPost. “They were in a safe place.”
But trouble soon followed. Mahyoub was playing pool at a local bar one day in June 2019 when five Yemenis entered. The men, who were Houthi sympathizers, forced Mahyoub out into the streets and began to beat him. Police officers intervened and broke up the fight, but no arrests were made. Mahyoub realized that even in Ecuador, thousands of miles from Taiz, his life was still in danger.
He and Al-Azabi lost their jobs to other workers who accepted lower wages. Money was running out and their tourist visas had expired. Then they heard about a plan for America.
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Abdullah, Emad Al-Azabi's cousin, stands with his nephew on the balcony of his home in Queens, New York City, in April. Demetrius Freeman for HuffPost
The Longest Road
Over the last few years, migration and immigration experts have witnessed the rise of an extraordinary phenomenon called “extra-continental migrants,” a term that refers to individuals who have tried to come to the United States by traveling across multiple continents.
With the lax immigration laws in South America and European countries shutting down their borders, refugees and migrants fleeing the Middle East have been forced to look westward. For many migrants and refugees, it’s arguably cheaper and less dangerous to cross the South American continent to the United States than it is to embark on a risky boat ride across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
Although most migrants apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico borders are from Central America or Mexico — nearly than 700,000 during the 2019 fiscal year — there has been an increase of migrants from other continents. According to the Migration Policy Unit of Mexico, more than 670,000 migrants from Asia entered Mexico through legal ports of entry during 2019 and more than 675,000 did so in 2018. Customs and Border Protection apprehended nearly 7,000 people from India, 1,200 from Bangladesh, and 600 from the Democratic Republic of Congo during the 2019 fiscal year. It apprehended 34 Yemenis that same year.
Migrants and asylum-seekers from these countries face unique challenges. It takes longer to complete their journeys compared to their Central American counterparts, and many face language barriers within Mexico and are forced to rely on smugglers for information. Migrants from the Middle East, India and parts of Africa are a very specific group with very different needs, said Estela Aragon, a researcher at the International Organization for Migration.
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Many do not make it. But for those who do, the challenges don’t end when they arrive in the U.S.
Embarking On Mission Impossible
On a warm July evening in 2019, Mahyoub and Al-Azabi left for the long trip north with about $2,000 in savings and a backpack filled with food. They were joined by four other migrants and refugees ― three Yemenis and one Sudanese. The group mapped out a route that would take them along the Pan-American Highway, the longest road in the world. From Ecuador, Mahyoub and Al-Azabi would go to Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala and Mexico before finally arriving at the U.S. border in Texas.
In Quito, the men had heard of others leaving for the U.S. They heard stories about long journeys ending in safety, that the U.S. would protect them from murderous rebel groups, from being forced to return to a country at war. They heard they could go to the U.S. and start over. Al-Azabi didn’t tell his father in New York that he was making the journey. He didn’t want him to worry.
First, the men embarked on a bus from Quito. Three bus rides and 10 days later, they arrived at the Colombian-Ecuadorian border at dawn. The immigration officers hadn’t arrived at their shifts yet, so the men kept on walking across the border. Getting to Colombia was the easy part, and the most dangerous and longest part of their journey was up next.
Aerial view of the La Penita indigenous village in Panama. Migrants cross the border between Colombia and Panama through the Darien Gap. LUIS ACOSTA via Getty Images
Mahyoub and Al-Azabi knew that trekking through the Darien Gap was going to be difficult, but they had no idea it could kill them. The Gap, which connects the North and South American continents and is mostly used to cross between Colombia and Panama, is over 60 miles of swamps, jungles and mountains, as well as poisonous plants, venomous snakes and other hostile wildlife. It is also the perfect cover for drug smugglers, human traffickers and paramilitary groups that have long claimed this lawless region as a home where anything goes. Yet tens of thousands of desperate refugees and migrants from Cuba, Africa and Asia risk their lives every year to cross it.
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Under the cover of the jungle, the Yemeni men and their group crossed illegally from South America to Central America, paying smugglers often known as coyotes along the way. The men hiked through the thick jungles for seven days straight, 12 hours a day. At night, they usually slept in tents. But if the land was too dangerous, they climbed into the trees and slept in branches to hide from dangerous wildlife and even more dangerous men. Halfway through their week-long trek, gunmen stopped the group and demanded money. Afraid for their lives, Mahyoub and Al-Azabi gave up a few hundred dollars and their cellphones, almost everything they had. In addition to the dangers posed by the jungle and smugglers, the polluted river meant no washing and no drinking. There were no safe stops to rest. No matter how tired, they were forced to keep walking. Mahyoub and Al-Azabi said they saw five corpses along the way. They prayed they would not become one of them.
“If I knew that the trip was going to be what I had experienced, I would have never gone,” Mahyoub said. “I pray that no one ever experiences this.”
Detained In Panama
After surviving the most dangerous part of the trip, Mahyoub and Al-Azabi were immediately apprehended by members of the Panamanian border patrol. Panama’s small size, as well as its established immigration partnerships with Colombia, Costa Rica and the United States, allows it to monitor and control the influx of migrants. Panama’s National Border Service allows 100 migrants to move through its country every day, and shuttles them from its most southern border to the northern border at Costa Rica. Those who don’t make that day’s cut are housed in processing centers until it’s their turn.
Some experts say the processing center wait is a benefit for migrants, as they don’t have to rely on smugglers for that portion of the journey.
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“But it pays off for the Panamanian authorities because they can be sure that migrants aren’t necessarily staying in their country,” said Jessica Bolter, an associate policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute.
Mahyoub and Al-Azabi were detained for 55 days among thousands of other migrants of all races and backgrounds — including women and children — where they received basic services such as food, shelter and medical assistance. The men stayed in outdoor facilities that they described as overcrowded and lacking proper bathrooms and running water. They ate rice and vegetables provided by the authorities. There was not much to do but wait. To pass the time, they took naps in the afternoon, conversed with other Arabic-speaking migrants, and regained their strength for the next leg of their journey.
Eventually, their turn came and they were put on a bus to Costa Rica.
International Crackdown On Immigration
Once the bus arrived at the border of Costa Rica, Mahyoub and Al-Azabi were shuffled to another immigration facility. Costa Rican officials questioned the men extensively. Then the routine continued: bus ride, followed by an immigration visit and detention stops, paying fees, and then another bus ride to the next country. Ride and repeat.
They passed through Nicaragua, where Mahyoub and Al-Azabi were forced to camp outside in the streets with other migrants waiting for immigration officials to call their names and check their passports. Two days later, they were placed on yet another bus to their next destination: Honduras.
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While passing through transit countries, migrants have to cross into countries with different migration policies. Some borders can be crossed regularly, but others are crossed irregularly by migrants who often rely on smugglers. Mahyoub and Al-Azabi paid smugglers for seats on the bus that would get them through Honduras and Guatemala. Nearly 70% of migrants who cross the Mexico-Guatemala border travel with coyotes.
Osama Mahyoub, bottom left, and Emad Al-Azabi, top left, along with photos from their time living in Ecuador. HuffPost Visuals
When they finally arrived in Mexico in October, the impact of Trump’s changes put a temporary halt on their journey. Just a few months prior, Trump had signed an agreement with Mexico to reduce the flow of migrants. Mexico deployed thousands of guard members at its border crossings with Guatemala in the south and along the U.S. border up north. In the weeks following the deal, the Trump administration announced a 28% drop in individuals detained at the U.S.-Mexico border.
At the same time, the number of Yemeni nationals migrating to or through Mexico was climbing. During the 2019 fiscal year, Mexican authorities apprehended 62 Yemeni nationals either at its borders or inside the country, according to data provided by the Migration Policy Institute, compared to 46 nationals during the 2018 fiscal year and 27 during the 2017 fiscal year. Between 2007 and 2017, by comparison, the largest number of Yemeni nationals apprehended by U.S. authorities at the U.S.-Mexico in any year was three.
Mayhoub and Al-Azabi were stuck. For one month, they waited in Monterrey, Mexico, desperate to make their final crossing into the United States.
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‘America Isn’t Paradise’
It was nearly midnight when Mahyoub and Al-Azabi made it to the U.S. border, but even the night’s darkness could not cloud their excitement. A rush of relief and joy washed over them as they got off their last bus ride in Mexico and walked into Texas. The excitement was brief. Within a few minutes of touching U.S. soil, the men were apprehended by border patrol and taken to the San Antonio detention center. Upon their arrival, they faced a new onslaught of challenges, including navigating complex immigration laws, language barriers and lawsuits.
“I was so happy at first when I entered America, but then I immediately regretted it,” Mahyoub said.
Mahyoub and Al-Azabi have been held by U.S. immigration officials since arriving in the U.S. on Nov. 28, 2019. A migrant can request asylum at either a port of entry or after they enter the U.S. The first step in that process is a meeting with an asylum officer, who determines whether that person has a “credible fear” of persecution or torture back in their country of origin. As they wait for their immigration hearings, individuals are either released on parole or taken to an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center. Asylum officers determined neither Mahyoub nor Al-Azabi had credible fear of returning to their home countries. Their attorneys appealed the decisions, but that was denied in March as well.
A spokesperson for the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services declined to comment, saying it was the agency’s “practice not to comment on individual cases” and that “asylum records are confidential under immigration law.” ICE declined to comment on the possibility of deportation.
Mahyoub and Al-Azabi believe deportation would be a death sentence.
The Maze Of The Immigration System
The U.S. government has acknowledged the danger facing people returned to Yemen. About 1,500 Yemeni nationals who have been living in the U.S. since 2015 are protected by Temporary Protected Status –– a program that allows individuals already living inside the U.S. to receive protection because their home country has been deemed too unsafe to return to, or because it would not be able to adequately take them back.
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The program, which is up for renewal every 18 months and was just renewed earlier this year, excludes thousands of other Yemenis who are at risk for deportation because they entered the U.S. after the cutoff date. Earlier this year, the U.S. deported a Yemeni photographer without warning back to Yemen, still a war zone, prompting widespread concern for other Yemenis inside the country who fear a similar fate.
Since Oct. 1, 2017, the U.S. has accepted only five Yemenis through the refugee resettlement program, in which people are approved to come to the U.S. before they make the journey. (Those who arrive at the border, like Mahyoub, can seek asylum, not refugee status.) In 2018 and 2019, the U.S. hasn’t accepted any Yemeni refugees, primarily due to Trump’s travel ban.
“A lot of Yemeni migrants and refugees are being judged, or there are preconceived misconceptions that Yemenis are terrorists or they pose as a security risk to the United States,” said Assma Ali, a Mississippi-based immigration lawyer who represents Mahyoub.
“Yemenis are being persecuted and there’s evidence of them being persecuted in Yemen, and the U.S. is slamming the door on them and not allowing them to file for protection from the United States,” Ali said. “They are not believing them. There is no way you can disagree, there isn’t a threat to his life.”
Changes implemented by the Trump administration have only made it harder for migrants to receive asylum at the border, including severely limiting access to asylum claims and making it harder for migrants to prove a fear of persecution or torture if returned ― especially when they are not being given the chance to do so in a courtroom. In July 2019, when Mahyoub and Al Azabi were just starting their journey from Quito, the Trump administration also announced another new rule change: Migrants who traveled through another country before reaching the U.S. and did not apply for asylum in those countries could not do so in the U.S.
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A federal judge temporarily blocked this transit ban, the so-called asylum ban 2.0. But in September, the Supreme Court ruled the ban can take effect while a legal challenge against it works its way through the courts. That means that those who do not pass a reasonable fear interview ― people like Mahyoub and Al-Azabi, potentially ― can be swiftly deported. (The preliminary interviews for asylum is called credible fear, whereas asking for the withholding of removal is called reasonable fear. Meeting the criteria for a reasonable fear interview is higher than credible fear.)
“I regret all of it. If I knew this was going to happen to me, I would have never come.” - Osamah Mahyoub
In the current environment, it’s almost impossible for people to convince officers that they’re afraid of being returned to their country, said Kate Richardson, an attorney at the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services.
Those who are allowed to continue the process to seek protections are subjected to a slew of restrictions. They are eligible for only two very limited forms of protection against deportation: withholding of removal, and protection under the Convention Against Torture. Unlike asylum, which is only granted after passing a credible fear interview, the individual can never acquire a green card or become a U.S. citizen. If the conditions of their home country changes, their protections can be terminated.
If granted asylum in a best-case scenario, Mahyoub and Al-Azabi would never get a green card or U.S. citizenship, and their lives would always be in the hands of immigration officials.
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In another win for the Trump administration, in March the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Migrant Protection Protocols, a controversial immigration program that allows U.S. border officers to return non-Mexican asylum-seekers back to Mexico as they wait for their day in U.S. immigration court. Now, more than 66,000 asylum-seekers are stranded in Mexico, forced to wait months or years for their cases to be decided in the US. Less than 0.1% of asylum claims have been granted since the implementation of the program.
Mahyoub and Al-Azabi are in limbo.
Running Out Of Time
Life inside the San Antonio Detention Center was difficult.
Mahyoub and Al-Azabi were housed with nearly 100 people inside the facility. They found comfort with each other’s presence. Al-Azabi, who speaks Arabic, English and Spanish, translated for his friend often. But most of the time, they tried to keep to themselves. Mahyoub said guards at the facility taunted him because of his Muslim faith and Arab background, mocking his name. They called him “Bin Laden.” They also referred to him as “Taliban” whenever they wanted his attention, drawing stares and concerns from fellow detainees.
In February, Mahyoub was separated from Al-Azabi ― his friend, his connection to home, his lifeline. Immigration officials moved him to Adams County Detention Center in Mississippi, where he has been held ever since. He has no one to translate for him, and the detention center has provided no translation services. He broke into tears when he found out about his relocation, afraid of being apart from the only man who really knows him.
“I didn’t expect America to treat us this way,” Mahyoub said. “I can’t go on like this.”
An ICE spokesperson said the agency “does not tolerate any mistreatment including verbal abuse of people in its custody” and provides detainees channels to raise concerns. The agency also noted that it provides interpretation and translation for people with limited English proficiency.
The spread of the coronavirus outbreak threatens both the health and safety of Mahyoub and Al-Azabi in their respective detention facilities. In April, Al-Azabi and the rest of the detainees were given face masks as a precautionary measure in order to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Al-Azabi used to be able to go outside with the other detainees and play soccer, but that one hour of freedom has been taken away because of the pandemic. He is worried an outbreak could happen at any moment and would spread in such tight quarters.
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Al-Azabi’s father, who lives in New York City and wasn’t aware of the journey his son took, was devastated when he found out about his son’s current situation.
“I tell my son America isn’t paradise,” said 59-year-old Abu Emad. HuffPost is withholding Abu Emad’s real name and referring to him with a term that translates to the “father of Emad” because he is an undocumented resident.
Abu Emad said he regrets that his son ever left Ecuador. If he knew Al-Azabi was planning to make the journey, he would have told him not to go. Abu Emad, who is suffering from kidney failure, also tested positive for COVID-19 in April. Without proper care, his condition continues to worsen. Al-Azabi’s cousin, Abdullah, looks after him. They both hope that Al-Azabi will come home to them soon.
“I’m afraid for my son. If they deport him, it will be the end of him,” Abu Emad told HuffPost.
Emad's father posing for a portrait in his neighborhood in Queens, New York City, on April 27. Demetrius Freeman for HuffPost
Al-Azabi is regretful. He said he feels devastated by the rigid immigration system that is failing him.
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“Every day I hear new bad news. A friend who was killed or a relative who was killed. When I call my parents, my mom cries and cries. I can’t handle her calls anymore,” Al-Azabi said from the detention center in a call in April.
For over two months, I have spoken to Mahyoub and Al-Azabi nearly every day. Before the coronavirus pandemic, they were hopeful. They talked about what their new lives would look like in America. They both want to move to New York City, where over 50,000 Yemenis reside. They were eager to find work and start a new life among fellow Arab Muslims, to have a community. We discussed our respective families. They wanted to hear about mine but grew quiet when I asked about theirs. They seemed to feel shame about their current predicament. But mostly, they were deeply sad that they may never see their loved ones again. They are now fasting for Ramadan, a time that usually brings family and community together, and they feel a particular loneliness. Mahyoub told me I am the only person on his call list. He has no one else.
Without Mayhoub, Al-Azabi spends his days writing. He writes about the journey across South America, the things he has seen, and the people he has met. He hopes to publish a memoir one day.
“What I know of America is that it is the country of freedom and justice and the country for everyone, but when I got here I was shocked,” Al-Azabi said.
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Two weeks ago, Mahyoub developed cold-like symptoms; he is gravely worried about a possible coronavirus outbreak where he is. He now wonders if the journey to America was worth it.
“I regret all of it,” he said. “If I knew this was going to happen to me, I would have never come.”
For now, he’s in limbo and praying that the U.S., which is complicit in demolishing his home country, will give him a chance at life. He could be deported any day.
“I can’t return to Yemen because my life is in danger. Where would I go in Yemen? Our homes are destroyed,” Mahyoub said. “If I return, I would be forced to carry arms, and I refuse to carry arms. I reject violence of any kind.”
The idea of returning back to a war zone is unfathomable, he said. He has no home to return to. His family members are barely escaping death, between the daily bombs and the Houthis’ threats. If enduring the war in Yemen, the threats in Djibouti, and the journey across South America has taught him anything, it’s that he has a knack for surviving. He prays God is on his side one more time.


thehuffingtonpost--2020-05-02--Lawmaking In The Time Of Coronavirus

Lawmaking In The Time Of Coronavirus

SAUL LOEB via Getty Images Speaker Nancy Pelosi wears a mask to protect herself and others from COVID-19 at her @ @ @ @ @ Off From Critical Avenues Of Influence Raskin went on to say that on a huge @ @ @ @ @ rank-and-file members can only hope to have influence on one or two items , depending @ @ @ @ @ relevant committees or able to form groups or can make noise about an issue .
@ @ @ @ @ things have just become more difficult during this time , ” he said .

Speaker Nancy Pelosi wears a mask to protect herself and others from COVID-19 at her weekly press conference. SAUL LOEB via Getty Images
WASHINGTON ― As the House Democratic leadership keeps members away from Capitol Hill over coronavirus concerns, there’s mounting frustration that it’s also keeping members away from the negotiating table.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told Democrats on a conference call this week that members would return to Washington “when CARES 2 is ready,” referring to the latest bill Congress is preparing in response to coronavirus. The problem for some members is that drafting a bill and then bringing members back means leaving them out of the actual lawmaking process.
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That problem is compounded by all the loose ends in the next piece of legislation. Democrats don’t have much of an idea as to what is actually going in the next bill, largely because it’ll be subject to negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
One member on the Democratic Caucus call complained to HuffPost on Thursday that the legislation “may or may not” include infrastructure funding, “may or may not” include money for the Postal Service or election security, and “may or may not” fix problems with the small business loan program that Congress established more than a month ago.
“They’ll let us know when it’s done and then tell us how to vote,” the member said.
Another Democratic member who also wished to remain anonymous was even blunter about the leadership: “It’s always Nancy’s way,” the member said of the speaker. “Now she just doesn’t have to deal with anyone telling her they have a better way.”
This member said Pelosi was actually weakening her hand by keeping members in the dark and negotiating alone with the Senate and the administration. “Because she could go to McConnell and Mnuchin and say, ‘Look, my members just won’t go for it,’” this Democrat said.
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And yet another Democratic member who asked for anonymity to talk about lawmaking during the age of Covid-19 said the experience had revealed “the basic power relationships that exist.”
“People’s physical distance reveals their marginality when legislation is coming through someone else’s committee,” this Democrat said.
Blaming The Coronavirus Itself
Members with whom HuffPost spoke on the record about the situation also expressed frustration, but they tried to direct their anger toward the coronavirus itself and the challenges it’s presented to Congress.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said the conference-call-lawmaking was not a good replacement for members actually having hearings and face-to-face input on bills. “You just can’t pretend that this is working well,” Huffman said. “I think it’s time to talk about the fact that the emperor has no clothes.”
Huffman added: “We are completely emasculated in terms of our ability to have hearings and move the needle in terms of the institution.”
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Huffman also blamed members — including many Republicans — who are demanding that the House bring back members and reopen the gym are the same ones who are making it more difficult to open anything. He suggested it was a GOP strategy to shut down the majority power of House Democrats.
That theory may be beyond most members, but it speaks to the frustration lawmakers are having in doing their work.
“You just can’t pretend that this is working well. I think it’s time to talk about the fact that the emperor has no clothes.” - —Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.)
“This is a unique situation, right?” Congressional Progressive Caucus co-chair Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) said. “If it was just that they were keeping us away, it would be one thing. But, you know, it’s the attending physician who right now is keeping us away.”
The House seems to be taking guidance from the House doctor on when it’s safe for members to fly back and walk the Capitol halls.
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Meanwhile, McConnell is convening the Senate next week, contrary to Washington shelter-in-place orders and the Senate physician’s saying he doesn’t have enough kits to test all senators for coronavirus.
McConnell may be risking the health of some senators and essential workers in Congress, but he will get his chamber back ― in some capacity ― and allow lawmakers to work on things such as coronavirus response legislation and appropriations bills.
Speaking about Congress’ reduced capacity during the extended recess, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) — true to form — roughly invoked a Woodrow Wilson quote he learned in college: “A Congress in committee is a Congress at work.”
Cut Off From Critical Avenues Of Influence
“The pandemic has cut us off from some of the critical ways that we can have input, because the committees are not meeting in hearings or markups,” Raskin said.
Raskin went on to say that on a huge bill like CARES 2, rank-and-file members can only hope to have influence on one or two items, depending on whether they are on relevant committees or able to form groups or can make noise about an issue. “And all of those things have just become more difficult during this time,” he said.
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Congress has been somewhat slow to adapt to the challenges of remote oversight and lawmaking while being away from the Capitol.
There have been consistent discussions about remote voting, but many lawmakers have resisted the idea, aware of how each party could abuse the process to duck questions during difficult votes (think about Republicans during their 2017 efforts to repeal and replace Obamacare).
And while the House has taken steps to move some official actions online ― members can now submit legislation, new cosponsors and remarks electronically ― committees have struggled to hold hearings, and there has been no replacement for the important role of kibitizing in Congress.
Some members acknowledge that Pelosi has actually made efforts to include them in the lawmaking process.
Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), whose district borders Pelosi’s, said he has had a considerable amount of contact with the speaker and her staff and that Pelosi was taking his perspective, and progressive priorities, into account.
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Democratic leaders also hold regular conference calls with their members and have held sessions for all members in which they can express their concerns about reopening ― or not reopening ― Congress.
Khanna acknowledged the frustration that members were feeling. But he didn’t think it was fair to criticize leadership for not conveying what’s going to be in this next bill ― it’s still a matter of negotiating with McConnell and Mnuchin.
“I mean, everyone wants to be at the table. But you can’t make a table that has 435 chairs very easily.” - —Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.)
“The challenge is you have to be able to negotiate, and you can’t have 200-some members negotiating,” he said.
Pocan made a similar point to HuffPost on Friday, saying there was always going to be frustration from the members who aren’t at the negotiating table.
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“I mean, everyone wants to be at the table. But you can’t make a table that has 435 chairs very easily,” he said.
“Ultimately one person ― Nancy ― goes to sit down with Steve Mnuchin to negotiate what’s going to be in a package,” Pocan added. “And that’s where the natural difficulty occurs.”
The Progressive Caucus co-chair agreed that Pelosi seemed to be incorporating progressive values in the next bill. He thought some funding for the Postal Service and vote-by-mail would be included in the legislation, as well as hazard pay for essential workers such as doctors and nurses.
And he felt confident there would be some state and local government funding ― at least in some form. (Pelosi said this week that Congress may have to provide that aid in stages: first to states, then to local governments and municipalities.)
The Progressive Caucus tried to extract some concessions for this bill during the last coronavirus relief bill, threatening to hold back votes for “Phase 3.5” if state and local government funding weren’t included in the next bill. Ultimately, they got soft assurances from the speaker and voted for the bill, which overwhelmingly passed 388-5.
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Only one Democrat, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), voted no, arguing that the bill didn’t go far enough to help people while supplying plenty of money for the rich and connected.
There’s a risk in voting against these bills. Most members actually want to provide relief to workers struggling with the economic fallout from the coronavirus, and voting no during a time of distinct challenge for people just because you want a better bill can be politically perilous.
But the willingness of members to go along with any bill may actually weaken Pelosi’s hand.
The speaker can’t convincingly argue to McConnell or the administration that legislation is insufficient when it’s garnering massive majorities from both parties. Ultimately, the fact that the House would pass almost any response bill by a huge margin makes it more difficult for Pelosi to demand progressive priorities.
Still, progressives seem to be united on the idea that Pelosi ultimately wants many of the same things they want.
“This isn’t a time where the leadership doesn’t want the progressive values,” Khanna said. “I think this is a question of negotiation.”
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Khanna emphasized that it was easy to “Monday morning quarterback” the deals that Pelosi had cut on previous bills, but it was much more difficult to actually get more from McConnell and the Trump administration.
“You’re not going to convince me that there’s a single person who’s a better negotiator than Nancy Pelosi,” Khanna said.
And when HuffPost raised the point that some members just may not feel like they’re being heard right now, Khanna had simple advice.