theguardian--2020-07-11--Roger Stone has escaped punishment for his crimes. Trump is sending a signal | Andrew Gawthorpe

At America ’ s birth , when delegates in Virginia were debating whether to ratify the constitution , a politician called George Mason had an objection .
Mason , who was influential over the development of the bill of rights , wondered whether the presidential pardon power was too broad .
Might not the president encourage people who worked for him to commit crimes , and then pardon them ?
If he could , there would be essentially no check on a president ’ s power to break the law .
Given that sort of leeway , an unscrupulous president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ destroy the republic ” .
Mason ’ s objection ought to concern us still today .
Late on Friday , Donald Trump commuted the prison sentence of his longtime associate Roger Stone , all but guaranteeing that Stone will never face justice for crimes he committed while obstructing an investigation into the Trump campaign ’ s links with WikiLeaks and the Russian intelligence agencies who attempted to tip the 2016 election in Trump ’ s favor .
Backlash to the decision has been swift , with Trump ’ s fellow Republican Mitt Romney @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , historic corruption ” .
It is not quite true to say that there is no precedent for Trump ’ s act .
As Mason foresaw , executive clemency has been misused by presidents throughout American history .
George HW Bush pardoned six officials who had been involved in the Iran-Contra scandal – an act which may have been intended to cover up his own wrongdoing .
George W Bush commuted the prison sentence of Lewis “ Scooter ” Libby , who obstructed a federal investigation into the illegal outing of a CIA @ @ @ @ @ @ @ administration .
This history doesn ’ t make Trump ’ s actions any less troubling .
In fact , by revealing how little restraint there is on the use of executive clemency , it ought to make us worry how much further the president – whose disregard for political and constitutional norms truly is without precedent – might go in the future .
Most presidents issue their most controversial pardons furtively , at the end of their terms in office .
But Trump has reveled in his ability to toss aside the principle @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comes to his own allies .
In 2017 he pardoned the former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio , who had violated the constitutional rights of countless Arizonans .
During the Mueller investigation – which exposed evidence that Trump himself may have committed obstruction of justice , a crime for which he could still be charged after leaving office – the president issued a full pardon to Libby , seemingly with the sole purpose of sending the message that he would forgive those – like Stone – who committed obstruction to protect himself .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clemency to forgive violations of constitutional rights and protect himself from the rule of law could become , as Mason foresaw , a monarch .
At the Virginia ratifying convention , James Madison replied to Mason that such a president would surely face impeachment .
But today ’ s Republican party has made it clear that it will protect Trump from impeachment even in the face of overwhelming evidence of his abuses of power .
Instead , by refusing to convict , they licensed Trump to double down .
As America moves towards @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to lose , he is likely to become even less inhibited .
The issuing of pardons and commutations for crimes already committed might pale in comparison with crimes yet to come .
Trump could seek , once again , to sway the outcome of the election , promising pardons to his co-conspirators .
He could order , as he did outside the White House , security forces to be used to disperse protesters who came into the streets in response , then issue pardons for any crimes tried by court martial or in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The fact that Trump has rarely shown the focus , intelligence or competence necessary to pull off such a conspiracy is little comfort .
What he lacks in these qualities he makes up for in brazenness , in loyal subordinates equally willing to subvert the rule of law , and in the possession of a compliant conservative politico-media apparatus that will rationalize any action he takes .
He could do incalculable damage to confidence in American democracy and the rule of law before he is finally wrested from the White House .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ canary in the coal mine .
Trump ’ s ability and willingness to commute his sentence is a reminder that for all its genius , the American founding left behind a structure which can be exploited and abused by an unscrupulous president .
As we live through what are hopefully the dying days of the presidency of the most unscrupulous of them all , we have to remain on our guard .
Partly because of his fears over the pardon power , George Mason ultimately became one of only three of the framers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the final document , believing it created a blueprint for tyranny .
Proving him wrong requires constant vigilance , now and in the future .
• None Andrew Gawthorpe is a historian of the United States at Leiden University

At America’s birth, when delegates in Virginia were debating whether to ratify the constitution, a politician called George Mason had an objection. Mason, who was influential over the development of the bill of rights, wondered whether the presidential pardon power was too broad. Might not the president encourage people who worked for him to commit crimes, and then pardon them? If he could, there would be essentially no check on a president’s power to break the law. Given that sort of leeway, an unscrupulous president could “establish a monarchy, and destroy the republic”.
Mason’s objection ought to concern us still today. Late on Friday, Donald Trump commuted the prison sentence of his longtime associate Roger Stone, all but guaranteeing that Stone will never face justice for crimes he committed while obstructing an investigation into the Trump campaign’s links with WikiLeaks and the Russian intelligence agencies who attempted to tip the 2016 election in Trump’s favor. Backlash to the decision has been swift, with Trump’s fellow Republican Mitt Romney condemning the president’s “unprecedented, historic corruption”.
It is not quite true to say that there is no precedent for Trump’s act. As Mason foresaw, executive clemency has been misused by presidents throughout American history. George HW Bush pardoned six officials who had been involved in the Iran-Contra scandal – an act which may have been intended to cover up his own wrongdoing. George W Bush commuted the prison sentence of Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who obstructed a federal investigation into the illegal outing of a CIA operative who was critical of the Bush administration.
This history doesn’t make Trump’s actions any less troubling. In fact, by revealing how little restraint there is on the use of executive clemency, it ought to make us worry how much further the president – whose disregard for political and constitutional norms truly is without precedent – might go in the future.
Most presidents issue their most controversial pardons furtively, at the end of their terms in office. But Trump has reveled in his ability to toss aside the principle of the rule of law when it comes to his own allies. In 2017 he pardoned the former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio, who had violated the constitutional rights of countless Arizonans. During the Mueller investigation – which exposed evidence that Trump himself may have committed obstruction of justice, a crime for which he could still be charged after leaving office – the president issued a full pardon to Libby, seemingly with the sole purpose of sending the message that he would forgive those – like Stone – who committed obstruction to protect himself.
A president who is willing to use executive clemency to forgive violations of constitutional rights and protect himself from the rule of law could become, as Mason foresaw, a monarch. At the Virginia ratifying convention, James Madison replied to Mason that such a president would surely face impeachment. But today’s Republican party has made it clear that it will protect Trump from impeachment even in the face of overwhelming evidence of his abuses of power. Instead, by refusing to convict, they licensed Trump to double down.
As America moves towards an election which Trump looks on course to lose, he is likely to become even less inhibited. The issuing of pardons and commutations for crimes already committed might pale in comparison with crimes yet to come. Trump could seek, once again, to sway the outcome of the election, promising pardons to his co-conspirators. He could order, as he did outside the White House, security forces to be used to disperse protesters who came into the streets in response, then issue pardons for any crimes tried by court martial or in Washington DC’s highest court.
The fact that Trump has rarely shown the focus, intelligence or competence necessary to pull off such a conspiracy is little comfort. What he lacks in these qualities he makes up for in brazenness, in loyal subordinates equally willing to subvert the rule of law, and in the possession of a compliant conservative politico-media apparatus that will rationalize any action he takes. He could do incalculable damage to confidence in American democracy and the rule of law before he is finally wrested from the White House.
In this sense, Roger Stone is the canary in the coal mine. Trump’s ability and willingness to commute his sentence is a reminder that for all its genius, the American founding left behind a structure which can be exploited and abused by an unscrupulous president. As we live through what are hopefully the dying days of the presidency of the most unscrupulous of them all, we have to remain on our guard. Partly because of his fears over the pardon power, George Mason ultimately became one of only three of the framers of the constitution to refuse to sign the final document, believing it created a blueprint for tyranny. Proving him wrong requires constant vigilance, now and in the future.


theguardian--2020-07-12--'His hatred is infectious': Tucker Carlson, Trump's heir apparent and 2024 candidate?

The conservative television star Tucker Carlson , whose Fox News program last month became the highest-rated show in the history of cable television , is known to most Americans simply as “ Tucker ” .
But not everyone calls him that .
On the strength of his regular , sneering rants about the danger of immigrants and refugees , the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has dubbed Carlson a “ white supremacist sympathizer ” .
Her colleague Ilhan Omar prefers “ racist fool ” .
The Nazi website Stormfront has called Carlson “ literally our greatest ally ” .
And @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have topped previous records , new labels have been mooted for Carlson : heir apparent to Donald Trump , leader of the Republican party and future president .
On his show , Tucker Carlson Tonight , which mixes news with heavy doses of commentary , Carlson , 51 , often draws viewers into fantasies about confrontations with liberal offenders that end with Carlson and viewers “ laughing in their faces ” .
Judging by the numbers – Carlson attracts more than 4.3 million viewers a night – the program is a reliable pleasure @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fox News programs skews white and male , although Carlson draws an unusual number of younger viewers .
But the fantasy that now has risen up around Carlson goes far beyond imaginary ideological fisticuffs .
The new scenario has Carlson shifting , as Trump did , from the television studio to the halls of official power .
If Trump loses re-election in November , some Republicans now openly speculate , Carlson could swoop in to pick up the pieces by running in 2024 .
“ If I was in an opposing campaign I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said Sam Nunberg , a Republican political consultant who advised Trump for years .
“ The reality is that the Republican nomination is Tucker Carlson ’ s oyster.
” Unforeseen developments could yet dull Carlson ’ s lustre .
His show was thrown into sudden crisis on Friday night with the departure of his “ top writer ” , Blake Neff , on the back of a CNN report that Neff was behind a string of racist and sexist comments posted anonymously online in 2018 .
“ Black doods staying inside playing Call @ @ @ @ @ @ @ biggest factors keeping crime down , ” Neff wrote in a “ dark web ” online forum , referring to a popular video game , according to CNN .
Later Neff commented , “ Honestly given how tired black people always claim to be , maybe the real crisis is their lack of sleep.
” “ Blake Neff has resigned , ” a Fox News spokesperson said on Friday night .
The sudden enthusiasm about Carlson as a candidate may betray a certain awareness on the right of lean political days ahead .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the party has careened down a dead-end street , with a base too small and a message too extreme .
But now , with the prospect of Carlson as standard-bearer , the party appears to be flirting with a giddy alternative strategy : grip the wheel and hit the gas .
“ While voters may push away from Trump if he loses , it ’ s not that they didn ’ t like his agenda , ” said Nunberg .
“ They won ’ t like that he failed in implementing it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Carlson Tonight runs for one hour in the heart of primetime , kicking off on the east coast at 8pm .
At times , Carlson has won praise for practicing a moderating influence on Trump , who frequently retweets content from Carlson ’ s show and echoes the host ’ s policy prescriptions .
Carlson has been credited with personally talking Trump out of a military strike on Iran , and with convincing the president , at least temporarily , to take the coronavirus threat more seriously .
“ He doesn ’ t @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spread in terms of expectations , ” said Angelo Carusone , president of the progressive Media Matters for America .
“ You mean because he said coronavirus was real , we should be having a parade for the guy ?
” Carlson has on-air guests , but more than what the guests have to say , the show is about how Carlson reacts to what his guests say .
He often wears a baleful expression , a kind of hostile befuddlement , and he is quick to anger .
Accused by the Dutch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ immigrants , Carlson exploded , in leaked footage that Fox News has declined to air : “ Why don ’ t you go fuck yourself , you tiny brain !
” But the heart of Tucker Carlson Tonight is a nightly monologue by the host , in which Carlson picks an outrage from the daily news and emotes about it , inviting his audience to share his anger , and to see themselves as also under attack – from immigrants , from the left , from the media , from Democrats , from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recent monologue , Carlson attacked the Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth , who lost both legs in combat in Iraq , for calling for dialogue about removing monuments and renaming military bases named for Confederate leaders .
Calling her “ a deeply silly and unimpressive person ” , Carlson furiously grouped Duckworth with people who “ actually hate America ” .
“ What a coward , ” he added later .
Duckworth , a former helicopter pilot who uses a wheelchair in the Capitol , tweeted in reply : “ Does @ TuckerCarlson want @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and then tell me whether or not I love America ?
” The political classes interpreted Carlson ’ s attack on Duckworth , who is under consideration as a potential Joe Biden running mate , as another sign of his desire to flex political muscle .
But the episode also had a much more disturbing resonance .
In his diatribe against Duckworth , who is Asian American , Carlson also attacked Omar , a Somali American congresswoman from Minnesota , and broadcast a picture of the two captioned : “ We have to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” It was clear that the “ heritage ” he was talking about did not have room for the two non-white female leaders pictured .
And for veteran Carlson watchers , the echo in that caption of the infamous white supremacist “ 14 words ” slogan – “ We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children ” – was no accident .
“ Tucker Carlson appears to be playing at least a verbal footsie with white nationalists , ” said Eric Ward , executive director of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ extremist movements .
“ We live in a society where in 2018 , 50 Americans were killed by white nationalists , ” Ward said .
“ In 2019 , 90 % of all extremist violence in the US was at the hands of white nationalists .
“ And Tucker Carlson , whether that is his intent or not , is fueling that extremism through his irresponsible rhetoric .
And Fox must hold him responsible.
” A Fox News spokesperson did not respond to a request for reply .
For years , Carlson has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and fears of his largely white male audience .
He has called white supremacy “ not a real problem ” and a “ hoax ” and attacked the idea that diversity is a strength .
He has called Omar a “ living fire alarm ” and “ living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country ” .
He has fretted that Muslims are transforming Europe , and he has given Steve King , the congressman rejected by Republicans for his racist views , airtime to describe the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
In December 2018 , Carlson said that admitting Central American immigrants “ makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided ” .
The last assertion cost Carlson dozens of sponsors .
But the more damaging sponsor exodus may have come just last month , following an attack by Carlson on the Black Lives Matter movement and protests after the murder of George Floyd .
“ This may be a lot of things , this moment we are living through , ” Carlson said .
“ But it is not about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they come for you .
And at this rate , they will.
” Fox News later claimed that when Carlson said “ they ” he meant “ Democratic leaders ” .
But Disney , the pizza chain Papa John ’ s , the online retail site Poshmark and telecom giant T-Mobile heard something different , and withdrew advertising from the show .
“ His bigotry and hatred are infectious , ” said Ward .
“ They are as dangerous of a virus as Covid-19 .
And rather than making people sick , it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Unlike other Fox News hosts , Carlson ’ s video clips regularly find traction on the far-right internet .
A study of hate speech on six online forums including 4Chan ’ s /pol/ , the Nazi Daily Stormer and the far-right social media platform Gab found “ dozens of mentions of Carlson ” that were “ overwhelmingly positive ” , according to the non-profit Center for Investigative Reporting .
“ When you have all these white nationalists celebrating Tucker ’ s show , you think , ‘ What ’ s going on here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ group has exhaustively documented Carlson ’ s rhetoric on the subject .
“ Then you look at the content , and it starts to become clear that what he ’ s saying is white nationalist tropes , he ’ s reinforcing this stuff.
” Contacted by the Guardian , Fox News did not offer a direct reply to the charges against Carlson .
But the host has made statements on his show in the past that would not fit on any racist forum .
In one segment , he called for “ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ The alternative to that is disaster , ” Carlson said .
“ Slavery and Jim Crow were immoral because they punished people for how they were born .
Any system that punishes people for how they were born is immoral , always.
” Carlson grew up in San Francisco , his father a conservative media executive and his mother an artist who left the family when Carlson was six reportedly to live in France .
“ Totally bizarre situation – which I never talk about , because it was actually not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” Carlson told the New Yorker in 2017 about his mother ’ s departure .
In his early career , Carlson was a journalist and a writer of some distinction , admired by Christopher Hitchens .
He was the youngest host on CNN with the program Crossfire , but the gig came crashing down in an infamous on-air confrontation in 2004 with the Daily Show host Jon Stewart , who accused Carlson of “ hurting America ” and called him a “ dick ” .
What followed was a bit of a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , soon cancelled , and appeared on Dancing With the Stars , losing immediately .
Then , in 2010 , he launched the Daily Caller , a conservative media site , and began filling late-night air time at Fox News .
None of which augured the success that lay ahead .
At Fox , Carlson became a weekend host , then got his own show in 2016 , then a year later replaced the former conservative titan Bill O ’ Reilly , whose show was canceled amid a sexual harassment scandal .
Carlson @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Fox , according to published figures .
He lives in Washington DC and has four children in private school and college .
People who have known Carlson for a long time confess some perplexity over his current TV incarnation .
One former colleague described him as bright and hard-working but also complex and enigmatic .
“ I think people like Tucker Carlson will say anything in order to drive their ratings up , ” said Ward .
“ And I would hate to break it to white America , but he ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ – he is using white men in order to drive his ratings up.
” The question of where Carlson ’ s heart lies resurfaced last year with the release of tapes from a mid-2000s radio call-in program on which Carlson , then in his late 30s , was a frequent guest .
On the tapes , Carlson makes a stream of racist statements , saying Iraq is a “ crappy place filled with a bunch of , you know , semiliterate primitive monkeys ” who “ don ’ t use toilet paper or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to “ view the world principally through the lens of race.
” .
“ Regardless of how refined he may have gotten in his articulation , ” said Carusone , “ his worldview now is more entrenched than it has ever been .
He does and says it too many times for it to be not intentional.
” Even if Republicans try to draft Carlson as a political candidate , it ’ s unclear whether Carlson is really lined up for a political career , or even truly interested .
But he would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ The beauty of Tucker Carlson as a candidate , and it was the beauty of Donald Trump too as a candidate early on , was the more the cancel culture attacks him , the more they try to go after him , take food out of his family ’ s mouth , the stronger he becomes with voters , ” said Nunberg .
In his early writing , Carlson occasionally became self-reflective , as when he mused on race in an essay about accompanying the civil rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton @ @ @ @ @ @

The conservative television star Tucker Carlson, whose Fox News program last month became the highest-rated show in the history of cable television, is known to most Americans simply as “Tucker”.
But not everyone calls him that. On the strength of his regular, sneering rants about the danger of immigrants and refugees, the New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has dubbed Carlson a “white supremacist sympathizer”. Her colleague Ilhan Omar prefers “racist fool”. The Nazi website Stormfront has called Carlson “literally our greatest ally”.
And in recent weeks, as his ratings have topped previous records, new labels have been mooted for Carlson: heir apparent to Donald Trump, leader of the Republican party and future president.
On his show, Tucker Carlson Tonight, which mixes news with heavy doses of commentary, Carlson, 51, often draws viewers into fantasies about confrontations with liberal offenders that end with Carlson and viewers “laughing in their faces”.
Judging by the numbers – Carlson attracts more than 4.3 million viewers a night – the program is a reliable pleasure for its audience, which like other Fox News programs skews white and male, although Carlson draws an unusual number of younger viewers.
But the fantasy that now has risen up around Carlson goes far beyond imaginary ideological fisticuffs. The new scenario has Carlson shifting, as Trump did, from the television studio to the halls of official power.
If Trump loses re-election in November, some Republicans now openly speculate, Carlson could swoop in to pick up the pieces by running in 2024.
“If I was in an opposing campaign I’d be very worried,” said Sam Nunberg, a Republican political consultant who advised Trump for years. “The reality is that the Republican nomination is Tucker Carlson’s oyster.”
Unforeseen developments could yet dull Carlson’s lustre. His show was thrown into sudden crisis on Friday night with the departure of his “top writer”, Blake Neff, on the back of a CNN report that Neff was behind a string of racist and sexist comments posted anonymously online in 2018.
“Black doods staying inside playing Call of Duty is probably one of the biggest factors keeping crime down,” Neff wrote in a “dark web” online forum, referring to a popular video game, according to CNN. Later Neff commented, “Honestly given how tired black people always claim to be, maybe the real crisis is their lack of sleep.”
In an internal memo, Fox News executives condemned Neff’s “horrific racist, misogynistic and homophobic behavior” and said Carlson would address the issue on his show Monday night. A Fox spokesperson did not reply to a question about whether executives believe Neff’s views were reflected on the show he wrote.
The sudden enthusiasm about Carlson as a candidate may betray a certain awareness on the right of lean political days ahead. Some Republicans have warned that with Trump, the party has careened down a dead-end street, with a base too small and a message too extreme.
But now, with the prospect of Carlson as standard-bearer, the party appears to be flirting with a giddy alternative strategy: grip the wheel and hit the gas.
“While voters may push away from Trump if he loses, it’s not that they didn’t like his agenda,” said Nunberg. “They won’t like that he failed in implementing it and failed at getting re-elected.”
Images of Fox News personalities including Tucker Carlson adorn the front of the News Corporation building in New York in March 2019. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Tucker Carlson Tonight runs for one hour in the heart of primetime, kicking off on the east coast at 8pm. At times, Carlson has won praise for practicing a moderating influence on Trump, who frequently retweets content from Carlson’s show and echoes the host’s policy prescriptions.
Carlson has been credited with personally talking Trump out of a military strike on Iran, and with convincing the president, at least temporarily, to take the coronavirus threat more seriously.
He doesn’t have to do much to beat the spread in terms of expectations Angelo Carusone
“He doesn’t have to do much to beat the spread in terms of expectations,” said Angelo Carusone, president of the progressive Media Matters for America. “You mean because he said coronavirus was real, we should be having a parade for the guy?”
Carlson has on-air guests, but more than what the guests have to say, the show is about how Carlson reacts to what his guests say. He often wears a baleful expression, a kind of hostile befuddlement, and he is quick to anger. Accused by the Dutch historian Rutger Bregman in 2019 of scapegoating immigrants, Carlson exploded, in leaked footage that Fox News has declined to air: “Why don’t you go fuck yourself, you tiny brain!”
“You can’t handle the criticism, can you?” Bregman coolly replied.
But the heart of Tucker Carlson Tonight is a nightly monologue by the host, in which Carlson picks an outrage from the daily news and emotes about it, inviting his audience to share his anger, and to see themselves as also under attack – from immigrants, from the left, from the media, from Democrats, from an unseen malignant conspiracy.
In a recent monologue, Carlson attacked the Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs in combat in Iraq, for calling for dialogue about removing monuments and renaming military bases named for Confederate leaders.
Calling her “a deeply silly and unimpressive person”, Carlson furiously grouped Duckworth with people who “actually hate America”. “What a coward,” he added later.
Duckworth, a former helicopter pilot who uses a wheelchair in the Capitol, tweeted in reply: “Does @TuckerCarlson want to walk a mile in my legs and then tell me whether or not I love America?”
Senator Tammy Duckworth, who Tucker Carlson called a coward. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP
The political classes interpreted Carlson’s attack on Duckworth, who is under consideration as a potential Joe Biden running mate, as another sign of his desire to flex political muscle.
But the episode also had a much more disturbing resonance.
In his diatribe against Duckworth, who is Asian American, Carlson also attacked Omar, a Somali American congresswoman from Minnesota, and broadcast a picture of the two captioned: “We have to fight to preserve our nation & heritage.”
It was clear that the “heritage” he was talking about did not have room for the two non-white female leaders pictured. And for veteran Carlson watchers, the echo in that caption of the infamous white supremacist “14 words” slogan – “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children” – was no accident.
“Tucker Carlson appears to be playing at least a verbal footsie with white nationalists,” said Eric Ward, executive director of the Western States Center, which tracks racial extremist movements.
“We live in a society where in 2018, 50 Americans were killed by white nationalists,” Ward said. “In 2019, 90% of all extremist violence in the US was at the hands of white nationalists.
“And Tucker Carlson, whether that is his intent or not, is fueling that extremism through his irresponsible rhetoric. And Fox must hold him responsible.”
A Fox News spokesperson did not respond to a request for reply.
For years, Carlson has been criticized for stoking the racial anxieties and fears of his largely white male audience. He has called white supremacy “not a real problem” and a “hoax” and attacked the idea that diversity is a strength. He has called Omar a “living fire alarm” and “living proof that the way we practice immigration has become dangerous to this country”. He has fretted that Muslims are transforming Europe, and he has given Steve King, the congressman rejected by Republicans for his racist views, airtime to describe the importance of protecting “western civilization”. In December 2018, Carlson said that admitting Central American immigrants “makes our own country poorer and dirtier and more divided”.
Tucker Carlson appears to be playing at least a verbal footsie with white nationalists Eric Ward
The last assertion cost Carlson dozens of sponsors. But the more damaging sponsor exodus may have come just last month, following an attack by Carlson on the Black Lives Matter movement and protests after the murder of George Floyd.
“This may be a lot of things, this moment we are living through,” Carlson said. “But it is not about black lives, and remember that when they come for you. And at this rate, they will.”
Fox News later claimed that when Carlson said “they” he meant “Democratic leaders”. But Disney, the pizza chain Papa John’s, the online retail site Poshmark and telecom giant T-Mobile heard something different, and withdrew advertising from the show.
“His bigotry and hatred are infectious,” said Ward. “They are as dangerous of a virus as Covid-19. And rather than making people sick, it makes Americans turn on one another.”
Protesters rally against Fox News outside its headquarters in New York on 13 March 2019. Photograph: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Unlike other Fox News hosts, Carlson’s video clips regularly find traction on the far-right internet. A study of hate speech on six online forums including 4Chan’s /pol/, the Nazi Daily Stormer and the far-right social media platform Gab found “dozens of mentions of Carlson” that were “overwhelmingly positive”, according to the non-profit Center for Investigative Reporting.
“When you have all these white nationalists celebrating Tucker’s show, you think, ‘What’s going on here?’” said Carusone, whose group has exhaustively documented Carlson’s rhetoric on the subject. “Then you look at the content, and it starts to become clear that what he’s saying is white nationalist tropes, he’s reinforcing this stuff.”
Contacted by the Guardian, Fox News did not offer a direct reply to the charges against Carlson. But the host has made statements on his show in the past that would not fit on any racist forum. In one segment, he called for “a colorblind meritocracy” in the United States.
“The alternative to that is disaster,” Carlson said. “Slavery and Jim Crow were immoral because they punished people for how they were born. Any system that punishes people for how they were born is immoral, always.”
Carlson grew up in San Francisco, his father a conservative media executive and his mother an artist who left the family when Carlson was six reportedly to live in France.
“Totally bizarre situation – which I never talk about, because it was actually not really part of my life at all,” Carlson told the New Yorker in 2017 about his mother’s departure.
In his early career, Carlson was a journalist and a writer of some distinction, admired by Christopher Hitchens. He was the youngest host on CNN with the program Crossfire, but the gig came crashing down in an infamous on-air confrontation in 2004 with the Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who accused Carlson of “hurting America” and called him a “dick”.
What followed was a bit of a trudge. Carlson helmed another cable program, soon cancelled, and appeared on Dancing With the Stars, losing immediately. Then, in 2010, he launched the Daily Caller, a conservative media site, and began filling late-night air time at Fox News.
Tucker Carlson talks with Jon Ward in the Daily Caller’s offices in Washington DC on 6 January 2010. Photograph: Jahi Chikwendiu/The Washington Post/Getty Images
None of which augured the success that lay ahead. At Fox, Carlson became a weekend host, then got his own show in 2016, then a year later replaced the former conservative titan Bill O’Reilly, whose show was canceled amid a sexual harassment scandal.
Carlson now makes a $6m salary at Fox, according to published figures. He lives in Washington DC and has four children in private school and college.
People who have known Carlson for a long time confess some perplexity over his current TV incarnation. One former colleague described him as bright and hard-working but also complex and enigmatic.
“I think people like Tucker Carlson will say anything in order to drive their ratings up,” said Ward. “And I would hate to break it to white America, but he’s not speaking on behalf of white men – he is using white men in order to drive his ratings up.”
The question of where Carlson’s heart lies resurfaced last year with the release of tapes from a mid-2000s radio call-in program on which Carlson, then in his late 30s, was a frequent guest. On the tapes, Carlson makes a stream of racist statements, saying Iraq is a “crappy place filled with a bunch of, you know, semiliterate primitive monkeys” who “don’t use toilet paper or forks”.
Carusone said Carlson seemed to “view the world principally through the lens of race.”.
“Regardless of how refined he may have gotten in his articulation,” said Carusone, “his worldview now is more entrenched than it has ever been. He does and says it too many times for it to be not intentional.”
Even if Republicans try to draft Carlson as a political candidate, it’s unclear whether Carlson is really lined up for a political career, or even truly interested. But he would come with an enormous built-in popularity.
“The beauty of Tucker Carlson as a candidate, and it was the beauty of Donald Trump too as a candidate early on, was the more the cancel culture attacks him, the more they try to go after him, take food out of his family’s mouth, the stronger he becomes with voters,” said Nunberg.
In his early writing, Carlson occasionally became self-reflective, as when he mused on race in an essay about accompanying the civil rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton on a trip to Africa.
“Ultimately,” Carlson concluded, “I’m just not a guilty white person.”


theguardian--2020-07-12--Too Much and Never Enough review: Mary Trump thumps Donald

The president ’ s niece follows John Bolton ’ s right hook with a sharp left to the ribs .
Revenge Trump-style is grimly engrossing Mary Trump ’ s tell-all will not make her uncle ’ s re-election bid any easier .
The president ’ s late-night walk of shame is already a classic campaign moment .
His niece ’ s allegation that he paid someone else to take his college entrance exams resonates as true , because of his reported disdain for reading and capacity to inadvertently invent new words like “ swiffian ” .
Adding insult to injury @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s sister , appears to be the key source for this smorgasbord of dysfunction .
She is a retired federal judge who left the bench with an ethics cloud over her head .
Fittingly , as Mary Trump lacerates multiple sets of vital organs , her pen a stiletto , she thanks her aunt “ for all of the enlightening information ” .
It is score-settling time , Trump-style .
Go big or go home .
Few are spared .
Too Much and Never Enough doubles as mesmerizing beach reading and a memorable @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the party conventions .
Think John Bolton-quality revelations , but about Trump ’ s family .
It is the book Michael Wolff , the author of Fire and Fury , likely wishes he had written but isn ’ t kin so he couldn ’ t .
It is salacious , venomous and well-sourced .
Sadly , it is also a book born of tragedy and pain .
The author ’ s father , Fred Trump Jr , died in his early 40s .
He drank hard , was jettisoned by his father and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ tale .
Mary Trump is angry , not self-pitying .
Although she casts her book as a warning to the American public , it is 200-plus pages of revenge served with the benefit of time and distance .
Yet the narrative remains compelling .
Fred Jr found joy in flying and serving his country .
He was a member of the national guard and a TWA pilot .
In most homes , that would be deemed an achievement .
But the Trumps were not most folks .
Fred Sr saw his oldest son @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him , his mother Mary stood by and watched .
As for Fred Jr ’ s military service , Trump père found little value there .
As for Donald , “ bone spurs ” were his path to avoid Vietnam .
When Fred Jr was dying , in 1981 , the future president thought it an opportune time to go to the movies .
Past became prelude .
When Roy Cohn , Trump ’ s friend and consigliere , was dying of Aids a decade later , Trump walked away again .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pisses ice water.
” But it was the aftermath of Fred Sr ’ s death that put Mary Trump and the older generation on a collision course .
Fred Jr ’ s two children were cut out of Fred Sr ’ s will .
Maryanne and her brothers did their best to thwart their claims to an inheritance .
Tensions spiraled , then subsided .
The matter was settled , and the parties filed a stipulation in surrogate ’ s court .
Ostensibly , the agreement barred disclosure regarding Fred Sr and his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the estate .
Ironically , she has emerged as her niece ’ s muse .
The judge leaked like a sieve .
According to Too Much and Never Enough , Trump and Cohn played a pivotal role in Maryanne ’ s elevation to the federal bench .
At the time , she was only an assistant federal prosecutor , an unusual launchpad to a federal judgeship .
Strings were pulled .
When Maryanne had the temerity to tell Trump his presidency was failing , her niece now writes , he reminded her that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Trump brooks no hint of disloyalty .
A New York Times investigation in the origins of Trump ’ s wealth brought the past roaring back .
Questions surrounding the family fortune abounded .
Tax evasion appears as one possibility .
After resisting overtures for assistance from Susanne Craig of the Times , Mary Trump began to cooperate .
In the process , she came to doubt the rationale for her own settlement .
As for Aunt Maryanne ’ s role in the mess , Mary Trump lumps her in with the rest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where the bodies were buried because they buried them together.
” This may be the first time a family member of a sitting president has publicly accused him of paying a surrogate to take the SATs – a claim the alleged surrogate ’ s widow denies .
Looking back , Trump ’ s obsession with Barack Obama ’ s college transcripts appears to have been a fusion of envy , projection and racism .
As an institution of learning , Trump University was truly created in its namesake ’ s image .
Amid @ @ @ @ @ @ @ And as Mary Trump observes , the president hates to be mocked .
Think of Stormy Daniels dishing about Toad and Mario-Kart – an image best forgotten .
The author also stresses that Trump ’ s prejudices mirrored his parents .
Both Trump and his father were sued by Richard Nixon ’ s justice department , for housing discrimination .
Mary Trump also contends that Fred Sr regarded “ Jew ” as a verb and was “ scandalized ” when “ the first Italian American family moved into the neighborhood ” .
Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ derided Elton John as a “ little faggot ” .
The author was in a same-sex relationship at the time .
Trump ’ s nostalgia for all things Confederate approaches the organic .
In his view , hoisting the Confederate battle flag is free speech but Colin Kaepernick taking a knee is blasphemy .
As an election strategy , it doesn ’ t seem to be working .
Below the Mason-Dixon line , Trump trails Joe Biden in Florida and North Carolina and is in a tight fight in Georgia .
In this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ color and repel suburbia .
Trump generally turns off college-educated women .
There ’ s more , of course .
Mary Trump writes that if the president “ can in any way profit from your death , he ’ ll facilitate it , and then ignore the fact that you died ” .
As her book appears , Covid-19 cases are exploding , the pandemic moving to the country ’ s interior .
More than 200,000 Covid-related deaths are projected by election day .
The Grim Reaper ’ s scythe is unsheathed .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the situation is improving and demands schools re-open while his White House looks to numb us into submission .
A modern-day Moloch , the president expects the nation to sacrifice itself .
Not everyone appears willing , least of all his niece .
Too Much and Not Enough : How My Family Created the World ’ s Most Dangerous Man ( Simon and Schuster £20 ) by Mary Trump is available for £17.40 from the Guardian Bookshop .
Delivery charges may apply .

Mary Trump’s tell-all will not make her uncle’s re-election bid any easier. The president’s late-night walk of shame is already a classic campaign moment. His niece’s allegation that he paid someone else to take his college entrance exams resonates as true, because of his reported disdain for reading and capacity to inadvertently invent new words like “swiffian”.
Adding insult to injury, Maryanne Trump Barry, Trump’s sister, appears to be the key source for this smorgasbord of dysfunction. She is a retired federal judge who left the bench with an ethics cloud over her head. Fittingly, as Mary Trump lacerates multiple sets of vital organs, her pen a stiletto, she thanks her aunt “for all of the enlightening information”.
It is score-settling time, Trump-style. Go big or go home. Few are spared.
Too Much and Never Enough doubles as mesmerizing beach reading and a memorable opposition research dump, in time for the party conventions. Think John Bolton-quality revelations, but about Trump’s family. It is the book Michael Wolff, the author of Fire and Fury, likely wishes he had written but isn’t kin so he couldn’t. It is salacious, venomous and well-sourced.
Sadly, it is also a book born of tragedy and pain. The author’s father, Fred Trump Jr, died in his early 40s. He drank hard, was jettisoned by his father and siblings, and treated as a cautionary tale. Mary Trump is angry, not self-pitying. Although she casts her book as a warning to the American public, it is 200-plus pages of revenge served with the benefit of time and distance. Yet the narrative remains compelling.
Fred Jr found joy in flying and serving his country. He was a member of the national guard and a TWA pilot. In most homes, that would be deemed an achievement. But the Trumps were not most folks. Fred Sr saw his oldest son as weak. His brother Donald humiliated him, his mother Mary stood by and watched. As for Fred Jr’s military service, Trump père found little value there. As for Donald, “bone spurs” were his path to avoid Vietnam.
When Fred Jr was dying, in 1981, the future president thought it an opportune time to go to the movies. Past became prelude. When Roy Cohn, Trump’s friend and consigliere, was dying of Aids a decade later, Trump walked away again. A stunned Cohn reportedly remarked: “Donald pisses ice water.”
But it was the aftermath of Fred Sr’s death that put Mary Trump and the older generation on a collision course. Fred Jr’s two children were cut out of Fred Sr’s will. Maryanne and her brothers did their best to thwart their claims to an inheritance.
Tensions spiraled, then subsided. The matter was settled, and the parties filed a stipulation in surrogate’s court. Ostensibly, the agreement barred disclosure regarding Fred Sr and his legacy. Maryanne was an executor of the estate. Ironically, she has emerged as her niece’s muse. The judge leaked like a sieve.
According to Too Much and Never Enough, Trump and Cohn played a pivotal role in Maryanne’s elevation to the federal bench. At the time, she was only an assistant federal prosecutor, an unusual launchpad to a federal judgeship. Strings were pulled. When Maryanne had the temerity to tell Trump his presidency was failing, her niece now writes, he reminded her that he made her. Like Fred Sr, Trump brooks no hint of disloyalty.
A New York Times investigation in the origins of Trump’s wealth brought the past roaring back. Questions surrounding the family fortune abounded. Tax evasion appears as one possibility. After resisting overtures for assistance from Susanne Craig of the Times, Mary Trump began to cooperate. In the process, she came to doubt the rationale for her own settlement.
As for Aunt Maryanne’s role in the mess, Mary Trump lumps her in with the rest of them: “They all knew where the bodies were buried because they buried them together.”
This may be the first time a family member of a sitting president has publicly accused him of paying a surrogate to take the SATs – a claim the alleged surrogate’s widow denies. Looking back, Trump’s obsession with Barack Obama’s college transcripts appears to have been a fusion of envy, projection and racism. As an institution of learning, Trump University was truly created in its namesake’s image.
Amid all this, mockery is unavoidable. And as Mary Trump observes, the president hates to be mocked. Think of Stormy Daniels dishing about Toad and Mario-Kart – an image best forgotten.
Donald Trump and Maryanne Trump Barry stand outside their late mother’s house in Tong on the island of Lewis, in 2009. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
The author also stresses that Trump’s prejudices mirrored his parents’. Both Trump and his father were sued by Richard Nixon’s justice department, for housing discrimination. Mary Trump also contends that Fred Sr regarded “Jew” as a verb and was “scandalized” when “the first Italian American family moved into the neighborhood”. Trump’s mother, she writes, derided Elton John as a “little faggot”. The author was in a same-sex relationship at the time.
Trump’s nostalgia for all things Confederate approaches the organic. In his view, hoisting the Confederate battle flag is free speech but Colin Kaepernick taking a knee is blasphemy. As an election strategy, it doesn’t seem to be working. Below the Mason-Dixon line, Trump trails Joe Biden in Florida and North Carolina and is in a tight fight in Georgia.
In this cycle, race-based appeals energize communities of color and repel suburbia. Trump generally turns off college-educated women.
There’s more, of course. Mary Trump writes that if the president “can in any way profit from your death, he’ll facilitate it, and then ignore the fact that you died”. As her book appears, Covid-19 cases are exploding, the pandemic moving to the country’s interior. More than 200,000 Covid-related deaths are projected by election day. The Grim Reaper’s scythe is unsheathed.
Trump is undeterred. He falsely claims the situation is improving and demands schools re-open while his White House looks to numb us into submission. A modern-day Moloch, the president expects the nation to sacrifice itself. Not everyone appears willing, least of all his niece.
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man (Simon and Schuster £20) by Mary L. Trump is available for £17.40 from the Guardian Bookshop. Delivery charges may apply.


theguardian--2020-07-12--Trump and McConnell are the twin tribunes of America's ruin – vote them out | Robert Reich

Fate has been unkind to the United States .
The nation is grappling simultaneously with a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 130,000 ; the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression ; and mind-numbing police brutality , which has generated the largest outpouring of grief and anger against systemic racism in memory .
Perhaps America ’ s greatest misfortune is that these crises have emerged at a time when its leadership is too incompetent to respond to them , if not maliciously dedicated to worsening them .
Donald Trump has not only refused to contain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ harm ’ s way , demanding the nation “ reopen ” while cases and deaths continue to rise .
Meanwhile , he ’ s siphoning federal money intended to dampen the economic crisis into the pockets of his cronies and family .
And he is deliberately stoking racial tensions to energize his “ base ” for the upcoming election .
As if this weren ’ t enough , Trump continues to attack the rule of law , on which a democracy depends in order to deal with these and all other challenges .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ feats alone .
Senate Republicans are either cheering him on or maintaining a shameful silence .
Trump ’ s biggest enabler is the Senate majority leader , Mitch McConnell .
McConnell ’ s response to Trump ’ s overt appeals to racism ?
“ He is not a racist , ” says McConnell .
His reaction to Trump ’ s failure to contain Covid-19 ?
“ President Obama should have kept his mouth shut ” rather than criticize Trump .
McConnell ’ s take on Trump ’ s multiple attacks on the rule @ @ @ @ @ @ @ commutation of former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone ’ s prison sentence ?
Utter silence .
But McConnell has been a vocal opponent of the Heroes Act – passed by the House in early May to help Americans survive the pandemic and fortify the upcoming election – calling it a “ liberal wishlist ” .
In fact , it ’ s a necessary list .
McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans don ’ t want to extend the bill ’ s extra- $ 600-a-week unemployment benefits , enacted in March but due to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the benefits are higher than what low-income workers are likely to earn on the job , so the money is a disincentive to work .
Baloney .
Few jobs are available to low-income workers , and most are in so-called “ essential ” work rife with Covid-19 .
Besides , the US economy can ’ t be revived unless people have extra money in their pockets to buy goods and services .
Even before the pandemic , nearly 80 % of Americans lived paycheck to paycheck .
Now many are desperate , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ delinquencies in rent payments .
Yet McConnell and his ilk are happy to give away trillions of dollars in bailouts to Wall Street bankers and corporate executives , on the dubious premise that the rich will work harder if they receive more money while people of modest means work harder if they receive less .
In reality , the rich contribute more to Republican campaigns when they get bailed out .
McConnell and Senate Republicans quietly inserted into the last Covid relief bill a $ 170bn windfall to Jared Kushner and other real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to backing up a Federal Reserve program that benefits big business by buying up debt .
And although that bill was also intended to help small businesses , lobbyists connected to Trump – including current donors and fundraisers for his re-election – helped their clients rake in more than $ 10bn , while an estimated 90 % of small businesses owned by people of color and women got nothing .
McConnell ’ s response ?
He ’ s willing to consider more aid to “ small business ” .
But McConnell urges lawmakers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that “ the amount of debt that we ’ re adding up is a matter of genuine concern ” .
He seems to forget the $ 1.9tn tax cut he engineered in December 2017 for big corporations and the super rich .
Is he willing to roll it back to provide more funding for Americans in need ?
The inept and overwhelmingly corrupt reign of Trump and McConnell will come to an end next January if enough Americans vote this November .
Trump ’ s polls are plummeting and Senate Republicans seem likely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thereby flipping the Senate to Democrats and consigning McConnell to the dustbin of Capitol Hill .
But will enough people vote during a pandemic ?
The Heroes Act provides $ 3.6bn for states to expand mail-in and early voting but McConnell isn ’ t interested .
He ’ s well aware that more voters increase the likelihood Republicans will be booted out .
( Which is also why Trump is claiming , with no evidence , that voting by mail will cause widespread voter fraud . )
If there is another coronavirus bill @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will have to be resolved within two weeks after Congress returns from recess on 20 July .
McConnell says his priority will be to shield businesses from Covid-related lawsuits by customers and employees who have contracted the virus .
If he had an ounce of concern for the nation , his priority would be to shield Americans from the ravages of Covid and American democracy from the ravages of Trump .
• None Robert Reich , a former US secretary of labor , is professor of public policy at the University of California @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Capitalism : For the Many , Not the Few and The Common Good .
His new book , The System : Who Rigged It , How We Fix It , is out now .
He is a columnist for Guardian US

Fate has been unkind to the United States. The nation is grappling simultaneously with a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 130,000; the most severe economic downturn since the Great Depression; and mind-numbing police brutality, which has generated the largest outpouring of grief and anger against systemic racism in memory.
Perhaps America’s greatest misfortune is that these crises have emerged at a time when its leadership is too incompetent to respond to them, if not maliciously dedicated to worsening them.
Donald Trump has not only refused to contain Covid-19 but is actively pushing Americans into harm’s way, demanding the nation “reopen” while cases and deaths continue to rise. Meanwhile, he’s siphoning federal money intended to dampen the economic crisis into the pockets of his cronies and family. And he is deliberately stoking racial tensions to energize his “base” for the upcoming election.
As if this weren’t enough, Trump continues to attack the rule of law, on which a democracy depends in order to deal with these and all other challenges.
But he could not accomplish these abhorrent feats alone. Senate Republicans are either cheering him on or maintaining a shameful silence. Trump’s biggest enabler is the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell.
Senate Republicans either cheer Trump on or maintain a shameful silence
McConnell’s response to Trump’s overt appeals to racism? “He is not a racist,” says McConnell. His reaction to Trump’s failure to contain Covid-19? “President Obama should have kept his mouth shut” rather than criticize Trump. McConnell’s take on Trump’s multiple attacks on the rule of law, including Friday’s commutation of former Trump campaign aide Roger Stone’s prison sentence? Utter silence.
But McConnell has been a vocal opponent of the Heroes Act – passed by the House in early May to help Americans survive the pandemic and fortify the upcoming election – calling it a “liberal wishlist”. In fact, it’s a necessary list.
McConnell and his fellow Senate Republicans don’t want to extend the bill’s extra-$600-a-week unemployment benefits, enacted in March but due to expire on 31 July. They argue the benefits are higher than what low-income workers are likely to earn on the job, so the money is a disincentive to work.
Baloney. Few jobs are available to low-income workers, and most are in so-called “essential” work rife with Covid-19. Besides, the US economy can’t be revived unless people have extra money in their pockets to buy goods and services. Even before the pandemic, nearly 80% of Americans lived paycheck to paycheck. Now many are desperate, as revealed by lengthening food lines and growing delinquencies in rent payments.
Yet McConnell and his ilk are happy to give away trillions of dollars in bailouts to Wall Street bankers and corporate executives, on the dubious premise that the rich will work harder if they receive more money while people of modest means work harder if they receive less. In reality, the rich contribute more to Republican campaigns when they get bailed out.
McConnell and Senate Republicans quietly inserted into the last Covid relief bill a $170bn windfall to Jared Kushner and other real estate moguls. Another $454bn went to backing up a Federal Reserve program that benefits big business by buying up debt.
And although that bill was also intended to help small businesses, lobbyists connected to Trump – including current donors and fundraisers for his re-election – helped their clients rake in more than $10bn, while an estimated 90% of small businesses owned by people of color and women got nothing.
McConnell’s response? He’s willing to consider more aid to “small business”.
But McConnell urges lawmakers to be “cautious”, warning that “the amount of debt that we’re adding up is a matter of genuine concern”. He seems to forget the $1.9tn tax cut he engineered in December 2017 for big corporations and the super rich. Is he willing to roll it back to provide more funding for Americans in need?
The inept and overwhelmingly corrupt reign of Trump and McConnell will come to an end next January if enough Americans vote this November. Trump’s polls are plummeting and Senate Republicans seem likely to lose at least four seats, thereby flipping the Senate to Democrats and consigning McConnell to the dustbin of Capitol Hill.
But will enough people vote during a pandemic? The Heroes Act provides $3.6bn for states to expand mail-in and early voting but McConnell isn’t interested. He’s well aware that more voters increase the likelihood Republicans will be booted out. (Which is also why Trump is claiming, with no evidence, that voting by mail will cause widespread voter fraud.)
If there is another coronavirus bill, differences between McConnell and the House will have to be resolved within two weeks after Congress returns from recess on 20 July. McConnell says his priority will be to shield businesses from Covid-related lawsuits by customers and employees who have contracted the virus.
If he had an ounce of concern for the nation, his priority would be to shield Americans from the ravages of Covid and American democracy from the ravages of Trump.


theguardian--2020-07-12--Donald Trump publicly wears face mask for first time during hospital visit – video

Donald Trump wore a face mask in public for the first time during a visit to a military hospital on @ @ @ @ @ ’ re in a hospital , especially … I think it ’ s expected to @ @ @ @ @ the US president said as he left the White House in a helicopter to visit @ @ @ @ @ medical centre in suburban Washington DC to meet wounded service members and healthcare providers caring @ @ @ @ @ cases have surged to record levels in the US , with guidelines recommending the wearing @ @ @ @ @ circumstances to stop the spread of the virus • Donald Trump wears mask in public @ @ @ @ @ pandemic

Donald Trump wore a face mask in public for the first time during a visit to a military hospital on Saturday evening.
'When you’re in a hospital, especially … I think it’s expected to wear a mask,' the US president said as he left the White House in a helicopter to visit the Walter Reed national military medical centre in suburban Washington DC to meet wounded service members and healthcare providers caring for Covid-19 patients.
Coronavirus cases have surged to record levels in the US, with guidelines recommending the wearing of face masks in certain circumstances to stop the spread of the virus


theguardian--2020-07-12--Mueller castigates Trump's decision to commute Roger Stone's sentence – as it happened

Top officials in Houston are calling for America ’ s fourth largest city to lock back down as area hospitals strain to accommodate the rapid influx of patients .
Coronavirus infections in Texas rose by 8,196 to 258,658 in total on Sunday , the state health department said .
The US state recorded a further 80 deaths from Covid-19 , bringing the overall death toll in Texas to 3,192 .
Current hospitalizations in Texas rose by 327 to a new high of 10,410 , a record high for the 14th day in a row .
Houston mayor Sylvester Turner and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weekend that a stay-at-home order is needed for to cope with the surge of Covid-19 cases .
“ We have to acknowledge the fact that we opened too quickly , too soon , ” Turner said on Saturday .
“ We have to acknowledge the fact that the numbers are continuing to rise .
We have to recognize the fact that not everybody is going to put on this mask .
Let ’ s just be real , even with the requirement .
Knowing all of that and knowing what works , you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ echoed those sentiments on Sunday , saying : “ Not only do we need a stay home order now , but we need to stick with it this time until the hospitalization curve comes down , not just flattens .
Many communities that persevered in that way are reopening for the long haul .
Let ’ s learn from that & not make the same mistake twice.
” The true number of cases is likely far higher because many people have not been tested , and studies suggest people can be infected and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Abbott , who has the final say over a lockdown but has resisted the measure so far , announced on Sunday that the US Department for Health and Human Services had extended federal support for community-based testing sites in Dallas and Houston until the end of the month .

Bryan Armen Graham (now) and Tom Lutz (earlier) in New York

12 Jul 2020 22.40 BST The AP reports that 11 people suffered minor injuries on Sunday after an explosion and fire on board a ship at a naval base in San Diego. The blaze was reported shortly before 9am on USS Bonhomme Richard said Krishna Jackson, the base’s public information officer. Eleven people were treated for “non-life threatening injuries,” Jackson said. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Jackson did not say where on the 840ft vessel the explosion and fire occurred. San Diego is the Bonhomme Richard’s home port and it was undergoing routine maintenance at the time of the fire. The flames sent up a huge plume of dark smoke visible around San Diego. 11 people injured after explosion on ship at US naval base Read more
Updated at 22.41 BST
12 Jul 2020 22.14 BST Texas hospitalizations reach record high for 14th day in a row Top officials in Houston are calling for America’s fourth largest city to lock back down as area hospitals strain to accommodate the rapid influx of patients. Coronavirus infections in Texas rose by 8,196 to 258,658 in total on Sunday, the state health department said. The US state recorded a further 80 deaths from Covid-19, bringing the overall death toll in Texas to 3,192. Current hospitalizations in Texas rose by 327 to a new high of 10,410, a record high for the 14th day in a row. Houston mayor Sylvester Turner and Harris County judge Lina Hidalgo said this weekend that a stay-at-home order is needed for to cope with the surge of Covid-19 cases. “We have to acknowledge the fact that we opened too quickly, too soon,” Turner said on Saturday. “We have to acknowledge the fact that the numbers are continuing to rise. We have to recognize the fact that not everybody is going to put on this mask. Let’s just be real, even with the requirement. Knowing all of that and knowing what works, you’ve got to recalibrate.” Hidalgo echoed those sentiments on Sunday, saying: “Not only do we need a stay home order now, but we need to stick with it this time until the hospitalization curve comes down, not just flattens. Many communities that persevered in that way are reopening for the long haul. Let’s learn from that & not make the same mistake twice.” Not only do we need a stay home order now, but we need to stick with it this time until the hospitalization curve comes down, not just flattens. Many communities that persevered in that way are reopening for the long haul. Let’s learn from that & not make the same mistake twice. https://t.co/Y5SITeamFP — Lina Hidalgo (@LinaHidalgoTX) July 12, 2020 The true number of cases is likely far higher because many people have not been tested, and studies suggest people can be infected and not feel sick.
Texas governor Greg Abbott, who has the final say over a lockdown but has resisted the measure so far, announced on Sunday that the US Department for Health and Human Services had extended federal support for community-based testing sites in Dallas and Houston until the end of the month.
Updated at 22.41 BST
12 Jul 2020 21.58 BST NBC News has followed up on swirling reports that Donald Trump’s administration is working to “discredit” and “marginalize” Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, amid his dire assessment of the nation’s coronavirus response. A White House official told NBC News that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things.” The official provided NBC News with a lengthy list of past comments by Fauci earlier in the pandemic, including Fauci saying in January that coronavirus was “not a major threat” and “not driven by asymptomatic carriers” and Fauci’s comment in March that “people should not be walking around with masks.” Many of the past statements the White House is criticizing Fauci for are ones that were based on the best available data at the time and were widely echoed by Trump, other members of the task force and senior White House officials. As Surgeon General Jerome Adams told CBS News on Sunday, “When you learn more, you change those recommendations. Our recommendations have changed.” The attacks on Fauci come as coronavirus surges nationwide, which Trump has repeatedly downplayed as a result of increased testing rather than increased infections. Florida on Sunday reported over 15,000 new cases, the most any state has reported in a single day since the pandemic began. The U.S. on Friday also surpassed 70,000 new coronavirus cases nationwide for the first time ever. The list circulated by the White House bears striking resemblance to the opposition research that political candidates often circulate to the media about their opponents. The White House on Sunday declined to provide further comment about Fauci. White House spokesman Kayleigh McEnany on Thursday declined to say whether Trump still has confidence in Fauci. Fauci did not immediately return a request for comment on Sunday. Admiral Brett P Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, addressed the reports by CNN and the Washington Post that Fauci has been benched on NBC’s Meet the Press earlier Sunday. “There is complete, open, honest discussion within the task force ... Believe me, if there’s a public health opinion that needs to be said, that needs to be it,” Giroir said. “And I respect Dr Fauci a lot, but Dr Fauci is not 100% right and he also doesn’t necessarily, he admits that, have the whole national interest in mind. He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view. “But let me just say, there is absolutely open discourse. I feel absolutely free saying anything to the vice president within those rooms. ... It’s got to be science driving the policy. And that’s the way it is.”
12 Jul 2020 21.35 BST Maryland’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, said the GOP needs to be a “bigger tent party” after Donald Trump leaves office. Hogan, who last year flirted with a primary challenge to Trump in 2020, speaking in early voting states and seemingly seeking to bait the notoriously volatile president, told NBC’s Meet the Press that he doesn’t “know what the future holds in November”. “I’m a lifelong Republican who has not been afraid to stand up and disagree with the president on any number of issues,” Hogan said. “I don’t know what the future holds in November, but I know that the Republican party is going to be looking at what happens after President Trump and whether that’s in four months or four years. And I think they’re going to be looking to, ‘How do we go about becoming a bigger tent party?’ “You know in Maryland – I’m in the bluest state in America and just was reelected overwhelmingly in 2018 by reaching out, by trying to find that middle ground where people can stand together and by avoiding divisive rhetoric and winning suburban women, winning over Democrats and Independents and winning with minority votes. And I think that’s something the Republican party’s going to have to look to. We’re going to have to find a way to appeal to more people and have a bigger tent.” Hogan, a second-term governor who serves as the chairman of the National Governors Association, did not rule out voting for Democratic candidate Joe Biden in November’s general election. In 2016, Hogan wrote in the name of his father, a former Republican congressman from Maryland. “It’s a difficult choice,” he said. “I think most people would like to see something different, and maybe we’ll figure that out in 2024.” The 64-year-old also turned a leery eye to Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of his longtime friend and notorious Republican fixer Roger Stone. “There’s no question that’s the appearance (of a double standard) and it’s a problem,” he said. “And look, Roger Stone is convicted of seven felonies. Look, the president does have the right by law to take the action he took. That doesn’t mean he should have. And we’ve got a guy whose convicted of seven felonies, a couple months before an election, for the president to take this action, it’s certainly going to hurt politically.”
12 Jul 2020 21.16 BST A staff member involved in the preparation of the first executions of US federal prisoners in 17 years has tested positive for coronavirus, the Bureau of Prisons said on Sunday.
In a court filing, the bureau said the employee based at the Justice Department’s execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana, attended a meeting with outside law enforcement in preparation for the scheduled executions and another meeting on how to handle any demonstrators.
He did not come into contact with members of the execution protocol team, the bureau said.
The news comes two days after a US federal judge blocked the first execution, due to be carried out on Monday, after some of the victims’ relatives sued, saying they feared that attending could expose them to Covid-19, the respiratory disease caused by the virus.
Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ordered the Justice Department to delay the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee until it could show it was upholding the right of victims’ relatives to attend without risking their health.
The Justice Department said it would appeal, Reuters reports.
Another prisons employee had previously tested positive for the virus, and has since recovered.
Lee’s scheduled death by lethal injection is one of four executions that had been scheduled for July and August. All four men had been convicted of killing children.
Wesley Purkey’s execution was scheduled for Wednesday, but a federal appeals court issued a temporary stay this month and it was not clear whether it would proceed.
Dustin Honken’s is set for Friday.
12 Jul 2020 20.56 BST Three weeks after TikTok users were credited with spoiling Donald Trump’s comeback rally in Oklahoma through a coordinated effort that helped to leave hundreds of seats empty in a 19,000-capacity venue, it appears the Zoomers are back in the fray. Thousands of users have flooded Apple’s App Store over the past few days to slam Trump’s official campaign app with negative feedback. As of Sunday afternoon, the vast majority of the nearly 260,000 reviews for the Official Trump 2020 App included the lowest possible rating. TikTok is at it again. They had people go give trump’s app a 1 star rating and look how many people participated 😂 pic.twitter.com/oueC4RqMSC — Hunter (@ihunbun) July 12, 2020 The scheme appears to stem from this week’s news that Trump’s administration is considering a ban of the popular video-sharing app over security concerns. US secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Monday those who download TikTok are handing over “private information in the hands of the Chinese Communist Party”. “For Gen Z and millennials, TikTok is our clubhouse, and Trump threatened it,” Yori Blacc, a 19-year-old from California, told Time magazine. “If you’re going to mess with us, we will mess with you.” omg guys.. it would be so bad if we got the app store to delete trumps app definitely do NOT leave a one star review that would be so bad could u imagine pic.twitter.com/kHcidOR1H8 — 𝙜𝙞𝙖⁷ (@FL0WERH0YA) July 9, 2020 Trump himself confirmed the possible ban on Tuesday when asked about Pompeo’s comments in an interview with Gray Television’s Greta Van Susteren. “It’s a big business,” Trump said. “Look, what happened with China with this virus, what they’ve done to this country and to the entire world is disgraceful.” TikTok is owned by Chinese tech company ByteDance, headquartered in Beijing.
Updated at 20.57 BST
12 Jul 2020 20.31 BST The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 3,236,130 cases of coronavirus on Sunday, an increase of 62,918 from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 906 to 134,572.
The CDC reported its tally as of 4pm ET on 11 July versus its previous report a day earlier.


theguardian--2020-07-12--Florida reports 15,000 new coronavirus cases, a record single-day total in the US

Florida broke the national record Sunday for the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic , adding more than 15,000 cases as its daily average death toll continued to also rise .
According to state Department of Health statistics , 15,299 people tested positive , for a total of 269,811 cases , and 45 deaths were recorded .
California had the previous record of daily positive cases 11,694 , set on Wednesday .
New York had 11,571 on 15 April .
The numbers come at the end of a grim , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , an average of 73 per day .
Three weeks ago , the state was averaging 30 deaths per day .
Since the pandemic began in March , 4,346 people have died in Florida of Covid-19 , the state says .
As of Sunday , there were more than 3.2 million total confirmed coronavirus cases across the US and 135,066 deaths , according to Johns Hopkins University ’ s tracker .
Arizona – another virus hotspot , which is simultaneously in the grip of a dangerous heat wave - reported 2,537 new cases @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was also reported that three teachers from Arizona who shared a classroom contracted coronavirus , despite social distancing and wearing masks and gloves .
One of the teachers has since died .
In California , the total death toll climbed to more than 7,000 as the infection rate rose to its highest level since April .
Meanwhile , Texas reached 258,000 total cases on Saturday and 3,192 deaths .
A 30-year-old man who thought the coronavirus was a hoax reportedly died in San Antonio after attending a “ Covid party ” .
If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rank fourth in the world for the most new cases in a day behind the United States , Brazil and India , according to a Reuters analysis .
Testing in the state has doubled over the last month , going from about 25,000 per day to almost 50,000 , but the percentage of people testing positive has risen even more dramatically .
A month ago , fewer than 5 % of tests came up positive on a daily average .
Over the past week , the daily average exceeded 19 % .
University @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that about 143,000 tests were reported on Sunday .
“ I still think we need to increase our testing a little bit more , ” she said , adding that the state and local health departments should ramp up their contact tracing .
Prins said that she ’ s still concerned about large crowds , gyms and restaurants as places of mass transmission .
Reports of illegal clubs and raves inouth Florida are also a worry , she said , the Associated Press reported .
“ I really do think we could control @ @ @ @ @ @ @ human element that is so critical .
It should be an effort of our country .
We should be pulling together when we ’ re in a crisis , and we ’ re definitely not doing it , ” she said .
“ I know people want to live their lives .
There have been a lot of other times , people have made those sacrifices in order to benefit our society .
It ’ s almost like a war effort .
That ’ s what we need right now.
” Miami-Dade mayor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his county ’ s hospitals will soon reach capacity but he said more beds can be added , including for intensive care .
“ We still have capacity , but it does cause me a lot of concern , ” he said .
Throughout May and into June , the state reopened much of its economy with some restrictions and the number of positive cases began rising , but it wasn ’ t until the last week that the daily death total began climbing too .
Because of the increase in cases and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a rise in deaths , saying the mortality rate usually increases two to four weeks later as some of those infected get sicker and eventually die .
Health experts are concerned that people are gathering in crowds , and have expressed concern that the Republican National Convention is due to be held in Jacksonville in August .
On Saturday , the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom reopened at Walt Disney World in Orlando , concerning health experts who urge people not to gather in groups .
Guests said that people were wearing masks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ near-empty parks .
The Florida governor , Ron DeSantis , said that even with the rising rates , he still wants schools to reopen as scheduled next month , saying children have not proven to be vectors for the disease in states and countries where campuses are open .
He said while each county will have to come up with procedures , depending on their local infection rate , keeping schools closed would exacerbate the achievement gap between high- and low-performing students .
“ We know there are huge , huge costs for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he said .
“ The risk of corona , fortunately , for students is incredibly low.
” US education secretary Betsy DeVos insisted on Sunday all schools should reopen this autumn , claiming there is no evidence to suggest it would put children in danger .
“ I am urging all schools to open and to be providing their students a full-time education , ” she told CNN ’ s State of the Union .
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued guidelines for school reopening - including @ @ @ @ @ @ @ wearing face masks , the installation of sneeze guards and the closure of communal areas such as dining rooms .
Donald Trump , who wore a mask for the first time publicly on Saturday , has said he disagrees with the guidelines .
DeVos refused to say whether schools should follow the guidelines , instead saying they are “ flexible ” and should be “ applied as appropriate for the situation ” .
House speaker Nancy Pelosi immediately condemned DeVos ’ s claims that schools are safe as “ appalling ” and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
• The Associated Press contributed to this report

Florida broke the national record on Sunday for the largest single-day increase in positive coronavirus cases in any state since the beginning of the pandemic, adding more than 15,000 cases as its daily average death toll continued to also rise.
According to state department of health statistics, 15,299 people tested positive, for a total of 269,811 cases, and 45 deaths were recorded. California had the previous record of daily positive cases 11,694, set on Wednesday. New York had 11,571 on 15 April.
The numbers come at the end of a grim, record-breaking week as Florida reported 514 fatalities, an average of 73 per day. Three weeks ago, the state was averaging 30 deaths a day. Since the pandemic began in March, 4,346 people have died in Florida of Covid-19, the state says.
As of Sunday, there were more than 3.2m total confirmed coronavirus cases across the US and 135,066 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker.
Arizona – another virus hotspot, which is simultaneously in the grip of a dangerous heatwave - reported 2,537 new cases and 86 deaths on Sunday.
It was also reported that three teachers from Arizona who shared a classroom contracted coronavirus, despite social distancing and wearing masks and gloves. One of the teachers has since died.
In California, the total death toll climbed to more than 7,000 as the infection rate rose to its highest level since April.
Meanwhile, Texas reached 258,000 total cases on Saturday and 3,192 deaths. A 30-year-old man who thought the coronavirus was a hoax reportedly died in San Antonio after attending a “Covid party”.
If Florida were a country, it would rank fourth in the world for the most new cases in a day behind the United States, Brazil and India, according to a Reuters analysis.
Testing in the state has doubled over the last month, going from about 25,000 a day to almost 50,000, but the percentage of people testing positive has risen even more dramatically. A month ago, fewer than 5% of tests came up positive on a daily average. Over the past week, the daily average exceeded 19%.
University of Florida epidemiologist Dr Cindy Prins said that about 143,000 tests were reported on Sunday. “I still think we need to increase our testing a little bit more,” she said, adding that the state and local health departments should ramp up their contact tracing.
Prins said she was still concerned about large crowds, gyms and restaurants as places of mass transmission. Reports of illegal clubs and raves inouth Florida are also a worry, she said, the Associated Press reported.
“I really do think we could control this, and it’s the human element that is so critical. It should be an effort of our country. We should be pulling together when we’re in a crisis, and we’re definitely not doing it,” she said. “I know people want to live their lives. There have been a lot of other times, people have made those sacrifices in order to benefit our society. It’s almost like a war effort. That’s what we need right now.”
The Miami-Dade mayor, Carlos Gimenez, told CNN on Sunday that his county’s hospitals will soon reach capacity but he said more beds can be added, including for intensive care.
“We still have capacity, but it does cause me a lot of concern,” he said.
Throughout May and into June, the state reopened much of its economy with some restrictions and the number of positive cases began rising, but it was not until the last week that the daily death total began climbing too.
Because of the increase in cases and the positivity rate, doctors have predicted a rise in deaths, saying the mortality rate usually increases two to four weeks later as some of those infected get sicker and eventually die. Health experts are concerned that people are gathering in crowds, and have expressed concern that the Republican National Convention is due to be held in Jacksonville in August.
On Saturday, the Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom reopened at Walt Disney World in Orlando, concerning health experts who urge people not to gather in groups. Guests said that people were wearing masks and social distancing, and videos showed near-empty parks.
The Florida governor, Ron DeSantis, said that even with the rising rates, he still wants schools to reopen as scheduled next month, saying children have not proven to be vectors for the disease in states and countries where campuses are open. He said while each county will have to come up with procedures, depending on their local infection rate, keeping schools closed would exacerbate the achievement gap between high- and low-performing students.
“We know there are huge, huge costs for not providing the availability of in-person schooling,” he said. “The risk of corona, fortunately, for students is incredibly low.”
All schools should reopen – DeVos
The US education secretary, Betsy DeVos, insisted on Sunday all schools should reopen this autumn, claiming there is no evidence to suggest it would put children in danger.
“I am urging all schools to open and to be providing their students a full-time education,” she told CNN’s State of the Union.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued guidelines for school reopening – including spacing desks six feet apart, children wearing face masks, the installation of sneeze guards and the closure of communal areas such as dining rooms.
Donald Trump, who wore a mask for the first time publicly on Saturday, has said he disagrees with the guidelines.
DeVos refused to say whether schools should follow the guidelines, instead saying they are “flexible” and should be “applied as appropriate for the situation”.
The House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, immediately condemned DeVos’s claims that schools are safe as “appalling” and a “malfeasance and dereliction of duty”.


theguardian--2020-07-13--Fauci sidelined as Trump's White House steps up briefing campaign

He is the US scientist who became the figurehead of attempts to combat the country ’ s coronavirus epidemic , described in some quarters as “ America ’ s doctor ” .
Now Anthony Fauci appears sidelined by Donald Trump ’ s White House after repeatedly contradicting the president ’ s view about the effectiveness of the government response .
In recent days the 79-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has come under increasing fire from the president and his proxies .
Trump told Fox news interviewers that Fauci had “ made a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” with Fauci ’ s claim that the US was in a bad place in its coronavirus response .
Described as driven and a workaholic , Fauci had found himself in the uncomfortable position of gently correcting Trump ’ s false or misleading statements for months .
As far back as April the president retweeted a call for him to be fired , although that threat appeared to have receded .
In any case , Trump can not fire Fauci , who enjoys support on both sides of Congress and has a public @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 67 % – almost three times that of Trump ’ s .
Instead the strategy appears aimed at damaging his standing while keeping him out of the public eye by cancelling media appearances .
In the latest salvo of a coordinated briefing campaign , a White House official told CNN on Saturday that “ several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr Fauci has been wrong on things ” .
Fauci , who has diplomatically navigated Trump ’ s often chaotic and sometimes bizarre response to the pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rightwing media in the US , where he has been denounced as “ Dr Doom ” or accused of being leftwing .
And having originally been a prominent fixture of Trump ’ s coronavirus press conferences , he is now markedly less visible .
His influence on the White House too appears to be waning .
According to the Washington Post , quoting an unnamed White House official , Fauci last briefed Trump in the first week of June .
Fauci has had a long career in public health , and first came @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In recent weeks he has baldly contradicted Trump ’ s assessments that the US is winning the fight against coronavirus , and criticised the partisan political atmosphere that he suggests has impeded the response .
In an interview for a podcast hosted by the FiveThirtyEight website last week he delivered a damning assessment of the United States ’ s response to the pandemic in comparison to other countries .
Conceding that some cities and states such as New York had responded better than others , Fauci said : “ As a country , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , I don ’ t think you can say we ’ re doing great .
I mean , we ’ re just not.
” He added that it was “ understandable ” why the European Union and others had banned US citizens from entering .
On the role of America ’ s toxic political climate , he said : “ You have to be having blind-folders on and covering your ears to think that we don ’ t live in a very divisive society now , from a political standpoint … So I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the assumption that if there wasn ’ t such divisiveness , that we would have a more coordinated approach.
” Although Fauci has been at odds with Trump publicly before – not least over the president ’ s advocacy for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment – his most recent interventions have strayed from the strictly scientific field to the political .
In doing so he has departed from what he has previously said is his guiding credo that “ you stay completely apolitical and non-ideological , and you stick to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ m a scientist and I ’ m a physician .
And that ’ s it.
” The pushback against Fauci continued on Sunday when Admiral Brett Giroir , the Trump-appointed coronavirus testing tsar , told NBC that Fauci “ is not 100 % right ” and that he doesn ’ t necessarily “ have the whole national interest in mind ” , adding that “ he looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view ” .
Described in a 2012 profile as “ demanding and caustic with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has long given the impression that , as a general rule , he does not suffer fools gladly .
Some of his colleagues told Science magazine in March that his approach to the coronavirus would be to walk a fine line in “ being honest to the public and policymakers but not so openly critical that he loses influence by being ignored or forced to resign ” .
Increasingly it appears that approach has collided with the reality of a president unwilling to brook any criticism or dissent .

He is the US scientist who became the figurehead of attempts to combat the country’s coronavirus epidemic, described in some quarters as “America’s doctor”.
Now Anthony Fauci appears sidelined by Donald Trump’s White House after repeatedly contradicting the president’s view about the effectiveness of the government response.
In recent days the 79-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has come under increasing fire from the president and his proxies. Trump told Fox news interviewers that Fauci had “made a lot of mistakes” and said he “disagreed” with Fauci’s claim that the US was in a bad place in its coronavirus response.
Q&A Coronavirus pandemic: 10 countries of concern Show Brazil 2,859,073 cases, 97,256 deaths President Jair Bolsonaro dismissed the disease as a “little flu” as it rampaged through his country and mocked measures such as wearing masks. Two health ministers have quit and Brazil's outbreak is the second-deadliest in the world.
India 1,964,536 cases, 40,699 deaths India brought in a strict nationwide lockdown in March that slowed the spread of the virus but did not bring it under control. As the country began easing controls, cases surged and it now has the third highest number. Mortality rates are low, but it is unclear if this reflects reporting problems or a relatively resilient population. Iran 317,000 cases, 17,800 deaths Iran had one of the first major outbreaks outside China. A lockdown slowed its spread but after that was eased in April, cases rebounded. Several senior officials have tested positive, and the government has strengthened controls, including making masks obligatory in public places. Israel 78,300 cases, 565 deaths Israel had an early travel ban and strict lockdowns, and in April the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, declared the country an example to the world in controlling Covid-19. But cases that in May were down to just 20 a day, skyrocketed after the country started opening up. Partial controls have been brought back with warnings more could follow. Mexico 456,100 cases, 49,698 deaths President Andrés Manuel López Obrador joined other populists from across the political spectrum in dismissing the threat from coronavirus; when schools closed in March he shared a video of himself hugging fans and kissing a baby. The outbreak is now one of the worst on the continent. Philippines 115,980 cases, 2,123 deaths A strict lockdown from March to June kept the disease under control but shrank the economy for the first time in 20 years. Cases have climbed steadily since the country started coming out of lockdown, and President Rodrigo Duterte has said the country cannot afford to fully reopen because it would be overwhelmed by another spike. Russia 865,000 cases, 14,465 deaths Coronavirus was slow to arrive in Russia, and travel bans and a lockdown initially slowed its spread, but controls were lifted twice for political reasons – a military parade and a referendum on allowing Putin to stay in power longer. Despite having the fourth biggest outbreak in the world, controls are now being eased nationwide. Serbia 27,000 cases, 614 deaths Cases are rising rapidly, hospitals are full and doctors exhausted. But the government has rowed back from plans to bring back lockdown controls, after two days of violent protests. Critics blame the sharp rise in cases on authorities who allowed mass gatherings in May and elections in June. Officials say it is due to a lack of sanitary discipline, especially in nightclubs. South Africa 529,000 cases, 9,200 deaths South Africa has by far the largest outbreak on the African continent, despite one of the strictest lockdowns in the world. Sales of alcohol and cigarettes were even banned. But it began reopening in May, apparently fuelling the recent rise in cases. US 158,000 deaths, 4.8m cases The US ban on travellers from overseas came late, and though most states had lockdowns of some form in spring, they varied in length and strictness. Some places that were among the earliest to lift them are now battling fast-rising outbreaks, and the country has the highest number of confirmed cases and deaths. Opposition to lockdowns and mask-wearing remains widespread. Source: Johns Hopkins CSSE, 6 August Photograph: Mark R Cristino/EPA Was this helpful? Thank you for your feedback.
Described as driven and a workaholic, Fauci had found himself in the uncomfortable position of gently correcting Trump’s false or misleading statements for months. As far back as April the president retweeted a call for him to be fired, although that threat appeared to have receded.
In any case, Trump cannot fire Fauci, who enjoys support on both sides of Congress and has a public approval rating for his coronavirus response of 67% – almost three times that of Trump’s. Instead the strategy appears aimed at damaging his standing while keeping him out of the public eye by cancelling media appearances.
In the latest salvo of a coordinated briefing campaign, a White House official told CNN on Saturday that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr Fauci has been wrong on things”.
Fauci, who has diplomatically navigated Trump’s often chaotic and sometimes bizarre response to the pandemic, has long been the target of pro-Trump rightwing media in the US, where he has been denounced as “Dr Doom” or accused of being leftwing.
And having originally been a prominent fixture of Trump’s coronavirus press conferences, he is now markedly less visible.
His influence on the White House too appears to be waning. According to the Washington Post, quoting an unnamed White House official, Fauci last briefed Trump in the first week of June.
Fauci has had a long career in public health, and first came to prominence during the Aids crisis. In recent weeks he has baldly contradicted Trump’s assessments that the US is winning the fight against coronavirus, and criticised the partisan political atmosphere that he suggests has impeded the response.
In an interview for a podcast hosted by the FiveThirtyEight website last week he delivered a damning assessment of the United States’s response to the pandemic in comparison to other countries.
Conceding that some cities and states such as New York had responded better than others, Fauci said: “As a country, when you compare us to other countries, I don’t think you can say we’re doing great. I mean, we’re just not.” He added that it was “understandable” why the European Union and others had banned US citizens from entering.
On the role of America’s toxic political climate, he said: “You have to be having blind-folders on and covering your ears to think that we don’t live in a very divisive society now, from a political standpoint … So I think you’d have to make the assumption that if there wasn’t such divisiveness, that we would have a more coordinated approach.”
Although Fauci has been at odds with Trump publicly before – not least over the president’s advocacy for the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine as a Covid-19 treatment – his most recent interventions have strayed from the strictly scientific field to the political.
In doing so he has departed from what he has previously said is his guiding credo that “you stay completely apolitical and non-ideological, and you stick to what it is that you do. I’m a scientist and I’m a physician. And that’s it.”
The pushback against Fauci continued on Sunday when Admiral Brett Giroir, the Trump-appointed coronavirus testing tsar, told NBC that Fauci “is not 100% right” and that he doesn’t necessarily “have the whole national interest in mind”, adding that “he looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view”.
Described in a 2012 profile as “demanding and caustic with a dollop of charm”, Fauci has long given the impression that, as a general rule, he does not suffer fools gladly. Some of his colleagues told Science magazine in March that his approach to the coronavirus would be to walk a fine line in “being honest to the public and policymakers but not so openly critical that he loses influence by being ignored or forced to resign”.
Increasingly it appears that approach has collided with the reality of a president unwilling to brook any criticism or dissent.