theguardian--2020-04-26--Why the DeVos family's backing of the Michigan protests is no surprise

While the anti-coronavirus lockdowns springing up around the US came as a surprise to many , the involvement of the conservative billionaire DeVos family , repeated donors to a slew of dubious rightwing causes , should not .
The family – which includes Betsy DeVos , Trump ’ s education secretary – has been a regular donor to the Michigan Freedom Fund , which helped promote a Michigan protest against the state ’ s stay-at-home orders in mid-April .
That rally , which saw about 3,000 people descend on the state ’ s capitol building , in Lansing , sparked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and an endorsement from Trump .
But the DeVoses ’ donations to the Michigan Freedom Fund – more than half a million dollars over the past four years , including from Betsy DeVos herself – are the tip of an iceberg of support for conservative causes .
The family , which has a net worth of $ 5.6bn accrued through a sprawling business , handed over more than $ 10m to Republican candidates and groups during the 2016 election , and has pushed causes including Christian schools and the opposition of equal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Research Council , an anti-abortion , anti-gay marriage group , has been just one benefactor , while Betsy and Dick DeVos have also given money to Focus on the Family – $ 275,000 between 1999 and 2001 , Mother Jones reported .
In 2005 , Focus on the Family was identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as among “ the most influential anti-gay groups ” , which campaigned against same-sex marriage .
A consistent issue for the DeVoses has been education , and Betsy and Dick DeVos have reportedly given $ 35m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ topic of charter schools .
The couple ’ s giving has been matched by other members of the DeVos family .
Betsy , born Elizabeth Prince , married Dick DeVos in 1979 .
Dick DeVos is the son of Richard DeVos , the co-founder of Amway , a multi-level marketing company who in 2012 was ranked as the 60th wealthiest person in the US with a fortune of $ 5.1bn .
Betsy and Dick DeVos , and Dick ’ s two brothers , have spent decades donating to Republican causes .
Aside from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has contributed to groups advocating small government and for electing more Republicans to office .
According to Vanity Fair , Richard DeVos and his offspring have given “ as much as $ 200m to the GOP ” since the 1970s , championing Republican candidates nationally and in their home state of Michigan .
It was a Michigan organization that has landed DeVos in the news over the past two weeks .
The Michigan Freedom Fund , which “ fights to champion conservative policies on behalf of Michigan taxpayers ” – including lower taxes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against the state ’ s stay-at-home order .
The MFF , which is chaired by Betsy and Dick DeVos ’ longtime political adviser , Greg McNeilly , helped promote , rather than organize , the Michigan rally .
But the MFF exists , in large part , due to the DeVos family ’ s largesse .
The organization has received more than $ 500,000 from a slew of family members .
As well as Betsy DeVos , her husband donated $ 80,000 just last year .
Betsy DeVos ’ brother-in-law Daniel and sister-in-law @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the fund .
While Betsy DeVos has stopped donating to political causes while she serves as education secretary , her family has kept up the flow of cash .
In the 2018 midterm elections , the DeVoses splashed at least $ 7.6m on Republican candidates and committees .
They didn ’ t end up with much to show for their money , as Republicans lost the House of Representatives .
If that was an example of the DeVoses not getting what they wanted , in 1997 , DeVos herself outlined what she @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I have decided , ” she wrote in RollCall , “ to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence .
Now I simply concede the point .
They are right .
We do expect some things in return .
“ We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues .
We expect a return on our investment ; we expect a good and honest government .
Furthermore , we expect the Republican party to use the money to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to win elections .
”

While the anti-coronavirus lockdowns springing up around the US came as a surprise to many, the involvement of the conservative billionaire DeVos family, repeated donors to a slew of dubious rightwing causes, should not.
The family – which includes Betsy DeVos, Trump’s education secretary – has been a regular donor to the Michigan Freedom Fund, which helped promote a Michigan protest against the state’s stay-at-home orders in mid-April.
That rally, which saw about 3,000 people descend on the state’s capitol building, in Lansing, sparked a slew of other protests in states, and an endorsement from Trump.
But the DeVoses’ donations to the Michigan Freedom Fund – more than half a million dollars over the past four years, including from Betsy DeVos herself – are the tip of an iceberg of support for conservative causes.
The family, which has a net worth of $5.6bn accrued through a sprawling business, handed over more than $10m to Republican candidates and groups during the 2016 election, and has pushed causes including Christian schools and the opposition of equal rights for LGBT people.
The Family Research Council, an anti-abortion, anti-gay marriage group, has been just one beneficiary , while Betsy and Dick DeVos have also given money to Focus on the Family – $275,000 between 1999 and 2001, Mother Jones reported.
In 2005, Focus on the Family was identified by the Southern Poverty Law Center as among “the most influential anti-gay groups”, which campaigned against same-sex marriage. A consistent issue for the DeVoses has been education, and Betsy and Dick DeVos have reportedly given $35m to educational causes – frequently around the topic of charter schools.
The couple’s giving has been matched by other members of the DeVos family. Betsy, born Elizabeth Prince, married Dick DeVos in 1979. Dick DeVos is the son of Richard DeVos, the co-founder of Amway, a multi-level marketing company who in 2012 was ranked as the 60th wealthiest person in the US with a fortune of $5.1bn.
Betsy and Dick DeVos, and Dick’s two brothers, have spent decades donating to Republican causes.
Aside from a focus on anti-equality, the family has contributed to groups advocating small government and for electing more Republicans to office. According to Vanity Fair, Richard DeVos and his offspring have given “as much as $200m to the GOP” since the 1970s, championing Republican candidates nationally and in their home state of Michigan.
It was a Michigan organization that has landed DeVos in the news over the past two weeks. The Michigan Freedom Fund, which “fights to champion conservative policies on behalf of Michigan taxpayers” – including lower taxes – helped promote a rally in Michigan against the state’s stay-at-home order.
The MFF, which is chaired by Betsy and Dick DeVos’ longtime political adviser, Greg McNeilly, helped promote, rather than organize, the Michigan rally.
But the MFF exists, in large part, due to the DeVos family’s largesse.
The organization has received more than $500,000 from a slew of family members. As well as Betsy DeVos, her husband donated $80,000 just last year. Betsy DeVos’ brother-in-law Daniel and sister-in-law have also handed over tens of thousands to the fund.
While Betsy DeVos has stopped donating to political causes while she serves as education secretary, her family has kept up the flow of cash. In the 2018 midterm elections, the DeVoses splashed at least $7.6m on Republican candidates and committees.
They didn’t end up with much to show for their money, as Republicans lost the House of Representatives. If that was an example of the DeVoses not getting what they wanted, in 1997, DeVos herself outlined what she did expect to get for her money.
“I have decided,” she wrote in RollCall, “to stop taking offense at the suggestion that we are buying influence. Now I simply concede the point. They are right. We do expect some things in return.
“We expect to foster a conservative governing philosophy consisting of limited government and respect for traditional American virtues. We expect a return on our investment; we expect a good and honest government. Furthermore, we expect the Republican party to use the money to promote these policies, and yes, to win elections.”


theguardian--2020-04-26--Biden searches for his own 'Biden' – a running mate with chemistry

Long before Joe Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee , he was welcoming recommendations for his vice-presidential running mate .
At campaign rallies , town halls and , more recently , virtual fundraisers , Biden has gamely engaged the subject , answering questions about his search , naming potential contenders and describing in detail what he is looking for in a partner , and , potentially , a successor .
His approach is unusual .
The process of selecting a running mate is typically shrouded in deep secrecy .
But , as Biden likes to remind voters , it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Having served two terms as Barack Obama ’ s vice-president , this is a decision he believes will shape not only his campaign , but also his presidency .
“ The first and most important quality is someone who , if I were to walk away immediately from the office for whatever reason , that they can be president and the public could look at that person and say : ‘ She is capable of being president of the United States tomorrow , ’ ” Biden said last week in an appearance on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with James Corden .
Though Biden is still in the early stages of the selection process – he insists he ’ s months away from making a final decision – his public dialogue has provided real-time insight into what past nominees have christened their “ first presidential act ” .
The decision – typically the result of an extensive vetting process that takes into account biography and geography , personal chemistry and governing experience – has been further complicated by the coronavirus pandemic , which has decimated the economy and killed more than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we will likely be in some form of economic crisis or recovery and the vice-president will be Joe Biden ’ s partner in charting a path forward for the county , ” said Karen Finney , a Democratic strategist who was a senior adviser for Hillary Clinton ’ s 2016 presidential campaign .
Breaking with precedent , Biden has committed to picking a woman as his running mate .
There is a strong political argument for putting a woman on the ticket .
Women are among Donald Trump ’ s most vocal opponents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden leading the president by 30 percentage points among women .
And during his presidency , Democratic women have voted , organized and run for office in historic numbers .
Biden ’ s pledge to choose a woman also reflects a frustration that the most diverse field of presidential candidates in American history yielded a 77-year-old white man as its nominee .
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that 41 % of Democratic registered voters say they are bothered that the likely Democratic nominee for the 2020 election is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Biden has acknowledged his age is a factor .
He would be the oldest president ever inaugurated , at 78 , and has said he will choose a younger running mate .
Stressing the importance of governing experience and leadership , Biden has also said he wants someone who is prepared to step into the presidency on “ Day One ” in the event that his health deteriorates or , in his words , “ lightning strikes and I die ” .
He plans to announce an advisory panel to oversee his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will likely narrow the pool to between two and five candidates , he has said .
Though Biden has been coy about his preferences , he has been consistent in his requirement that his running mate be someone he “ completely trusts ” to carry out his agenda yet is unafraid to challenge him on major decisions .
In an interview last week , Biden told a Pittsburgh radio station that he would select Michelle Obama as his running mate “ in a heartbeat ” but suspected that she has no “ desire @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” .
Among those repeatedly mentioned as possibilities are his former rivals : Senators Kamala Harris of California , Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts .
Also rumored to be in contention are Michigan ’ s governor , Gretchen Whitmer , who Biden said “ made my list ” months before she became a prominent national leader confronting the coronavirus , and Stacey Abrams , the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia .
Biden is facing intensifying pressure , including from some of his most prominent allies , to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is a particularly strong push for him to choose a black woman to energize African American voters in November and demonstrate that the party does not take for granted its most reliable constituency .
The South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn , whose endorsement ahead of the state ’ s primary revived Biden ’ s lagging campaign , has encouraged him to choose an African American woman , even supplying a list of possible candidates , among them Atlanta ’ s mayor , Keisha Lance Bottoms .
Abrams , who has been remarkably forward @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said recently she would have “ concerns ” if Biden didn ’ t choose a woman of color to be his running mate .
But Biden is also heeding calls from the left wing of the party to select a more liberal running mate , like Warren , who they believe would help him appeal to progressives and younger voters skeptical of his candidacy .
Still others believe he should choose a candidate with roots in the industrial Midwest , a region critically important to winning the Electoral College .
Yet there is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that vice-presidential candidates influence general election outcomes in a significant way .
Selecting a female running mate did not affect how women voted in 2008 , when the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin was the vice-presidential nominee , according to an analysis by Chris Devine of the University of Dayton and Kyle Kopko of Elizabethtown College , authors of Do Running Mates Matter ?
Similarly , their research found that Mike Pence did not make conservatives or evangelical Christians any more likely to vote for Trump in 2016 .
Still , a candidate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ matter , said Devine , by “ shaping perceptions of the presidential nominee ” .
He pointed to 2008 , when Obama , then a young , first-term Illinois senator , faced John McCain , the senior Arizona senator and war hero .
“ Obama increased perceptions of his readiness to be president by picking Joe Biden whereas McCain hurt himself by picking Sarah Palin , ” Devine said , adding : “ You can really hurt yourself as a presidential candidate by picking someone who is not clearly qualified.
” Stephanie Cutter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ John Kerry ’ s presidential campaign in 2004 , emphasized the importance of personal chemistry .
She recalled Kerry ’ s decision to pick North Carolina senator John Edwards over Missouri congressman Dick Gephardt .
Kerry liked Gephardt but he worried the congressman would not excite voters – and that he was unlikely to carry his home state .
“ In the end you could tell there was no chemistry , ” Cutter said .
“ That mattered to the performance of the ticket .
And I don ’ t think that ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have that chemistry with Barack Obama.
” In Biden ’ s search for his own “ Biden ” , he has repeatedly cited his close relationship with Obama as a model .
The governing partnership between Obama and Biden was a “ marriage made in political heaven ” , said Jules Witcover , a historian who has written extensively about the vice-presidency and is the author of the biography Joe Biden : A Life of Trial and Redemption .
“ Instead of creating a record for himself , Biden devoted himself to supporting @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
“ In return , Obama made him as full a governing partner as possible.
” Witcover noted that Obama charged Biden with overseeing the administration ’ s 2009 effort to rescue the country from what was then the largest economic collapse since the Great Depression .
Biden believes the scale of the economic crisis he may inherit in January 2021 could rival what Franklin Roosevelt faced in 1933 .
As such , he has made clear that he is looking for a running mate whom he can trust to carry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ You ’ ve got to be able to turn and say to your vice-president : ‘ This is your responsibility , ’ ” Biden said last year .
“ Because the job is too big any more for any one man or woman .
”

Long before Joe Biden became the presumptive Democratic nominee, he was welcoming recommendations for his vice-presidential running mate. At campaign rallies, town halls and, more recently, virtual fundraisers, Biden has gamely engaged the subject, answering questions about his search, naming potential contenders and describing in detail what he is looking for in a partner, and, potentially, a successor.
His approach is unusual. The process of selecting a running mate is typically shrouded in deep secrecy. But, as Biden likes to remind voters, it’s a role he knows intimately. Having served two terms as Barack Obama’s vice-president, this is a decision he believes will shape not only his campaign, but also his presidency.
“The first and most important quality is someone who, if I were to walk away immediately from the office for whatever reason, that they can be president and the public could look at that person and say: ‘She is capable of being president of the United States tomorrow,’” Biden said last week in an appearance on CBS’s The Late Late Show with James Corden.
Though Biden is still in the early stages of the selection process – he insists he’s months away from making a final decision – his public dialogue has provided real-time insight into what past nominees have christened their “first presidential act”.
The decision – typically the result of an extensive vetting process that takes into account biography and geography, personal chemistry and governing experience – has been further complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, which has decimated the economy and killed more than 53,000 Americans.
“By then, we will likely be in some form of economic crisis or recovery and the vice-president will be Joe Biden’s partner in charting a path forward for the county,” said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist who was a senior adviser for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign.
Breaking with precedent, Biden has committed to picking a woman as his running mate.
05:15 Who will be Joe Biden's running mate? – video
There is a strong political argument for putting a woman on the ticket. Women are among Donald Trump’s most vocal opponents. A CNN poll this month found Biden leading the president by 30 percentage points among women. And during his presidency, Democratic women have voted, organized and run for office in historic numbers.
Biden’s pledge to choose a woman also reflects a frustration that the most diverse field of presidential candidates in American history yielded a 77-year-old white man as its nominee. A recent survey by the Pew Research Center found that 41% of Democratic registered voters say they are bothered that the likely Democratic nominee for the 2020 election is a “white man in his 70s”.
A volunteer hangs campaign signs ahead of an event in Maquoketa, Iowa, on 30 October 2019. Photograph: Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Biden has acknowledged his age is a factor. He would be the oldest president ever inaugurated, at 78, and has said he will choose a younger running mate.
Stressing the importance of governing experience and leadership, Biden has also said he wants someone who is prepared to step into the presidency on “Day One” in the event that his health deteriorates or, in his words, “lightning strikes and I die”.
He plans to announce an advisory panel to oversee his search by 1 May. That team will likely narrow the pool to between two and five candidates, he has said.
Though Biden has been coy about his preferences, he has been consistent in his requirement that his running mate be someone he “completely trusts” to carry out his agenda yet is unafraid to challenge him on major decisions.
In an interview last week, Biden told a Pittsburgh radio station that he would select Michelle Obama as his running mate “in a heartbeat” but suspected that she has no “desire to live near the White House again”.
Among those repeatedly mentioned as possibilities are his former rivals: Senators Kamala Harris of California, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts. Also rumored to be in contention are Michigan’s governor, Gretchen Whitmer, who Biden said “made my list” months before she became a prominent national leader confronting the coronavirus, and Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic nominee for governor in Georgia.
Kamala Harris endorses Joe Biden during a campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan, on 9 March. Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
Biden is facing intensifying pressure, including from some of his most prominent allies, to choose a woman of color. There is a particularly strong push for him to choose a black woman to energize African American voters in November and demonstrate that the party does not take for granted its most reliable constituency.
The South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn, whose endorsement ahead of the state’s primary revived Biden’s lagging campaign, has encouraged him to choose an African American woman, even supplying a list of possible candidates, among them Atlanta’s mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. Abrams, who has been remarkably forward about her interest in the job, said recently she would have “concerns” if Biden didn’t choose a woman of color to be his running mate.
But Biden is also heeding calls from the left wing of the party to select a more liberal running mate, like Warren, who they believe would help him appeal to progressives and younger voters skeptical of his candidacy.
Still others believe he should choose a candidate with roots in the industrial Midwest, a region critically important to winning the Electoral College.
Yet there is little evidence to support the conventional wisdom that vice-presidential candidates influence general election outcomes in a significant way.
Selecting a female running mate did not affect how women voted in 2008, when the former Alaska governor Sarah Palin was the vice-presidential nominee, according to an analysis by Chris Devine of the University of Dayton and Kyle Kopko of Elizabethtown College, authors of Do Running Mates Matter? Similarly, their research found that Mike Pence did not make conservatives or evangelical Christians any more likely to vote for Trump in 2016.
Still, a candidate’s choice of running mate does matter, said Devine, by “shaping perceptions of the presidential nominee”. He pointed to 2008, when Obama, then a young, first-term Illinois senator, faced John McCain, the senior Arizona senator and war hero.
Barack Obama and Joe Biden at the White House in Washington DC on 21 January 2010. Photograph: Jason Reed/Reuters
“Obama increased perceptions of his readiness to be president by picking Joe Biden whereas McCain hurt himself by picking Sarah Palin,” Devine said, adding: “You can really hurt yourself as a presidential candidate by picking someone who is not clearly qualified.”
Stephanie Cutter, a Democratic strategist who worked on John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004, emphasized the importance of personal chemistry.
She recalled Kerry’s decision to pick North Carolina senator John Edwards over Missouri congressman Dick Gephardt. Kerry liked Gephardt but he worried the congressman would not excite voters – and that he was unlikely to carry his home state.
“In the end you could tell there was no chemistry,” Cutter said. “That mattered to the performance of the ticket. And I don’t think that’s lost on Biden because he did have that chemistry with Barack Obama.”
In Biden’s search for his own “Biden”, he has repeatedly cited his close relationship with Obama as a model.
The governing partnership between Obama and Biden was a “marriage made in political heaven”, said Jules Witcover, a historian who has written extensively about the vice-presidency and is the author of the biography Joe Biden: A Life of Trial and Redemption.
Instead of creating a record for himself, Biden devoted himself to supporting the agenda of President Obama Jules Witcover
“Instead of creating a record for himself, Biden devoted himself to supporting the agenda of President Obama,” he said. “In return, Obama made him as full a governing partner as possible.”
Witcover noted that Obama charged Biden with overseeing the administration’s 2009 effort to rescue the country from what was then the largest economic collapse since the Great Depression.
Biden believes the scale of the economic crisis he may inherit in January 2021 could rival what Franklin Roosevelt faced in 1933. As such, he has made clear that he is looking for a running mate whom he can trust to carry out major pieces of his presidential agenda.
“You’ve got to be able to turn and say to your vice-president: ‘This is your responsibility,’” Biden said last year. “Because the job is too big any more for any one man or woman.”


theguardian--2020-04-26--Donald Trump set to fall back on xenophobia with re-election plan in tatters

Donald Trump had been intending to run a re-election campaign based on a strong economy and a socialist opponent .
Both have vanished in the past month .
But the US president still has his ultimate weapon : xenophobia .
Trump this week announced in a late-night tweet that he would “ temporarily suspend immigration ” into America .
Two days later , when he signed an executive order , it only applied to people seeking green cards to move to the country permanently , not to temporary workers , and there were plenty of loopholes .
But by then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outrage expressed and the objective achieved : Trump was cracking down on immigration again because , he claimed , he was putting America and its workers first .
The exercise was arguably less about policy than politics .
A nativist , populist message helped him win the presidency in 2016 .
He tried it again in the 2018 midterm elections for Congress with mixed results .
Now , with his handling of a deadly pandemic under scrutiny and the economy in freefall , critics say he is ready to bet the White House @ @ @ @ @ @ @ racist sentiment with little subtlety .
“ This is a president who doesn ’ t use the dog whistle of Republicans in the past , and even Democrats in the past who used dog whistle politics to talk about race in code , ” said Juan Cartagena , president and general counsel of Latino Justice , a civil rights organisation .
“ This guy talks about it openly .
Under normal circumstances he would have been a one-term president , but his base is pretty loyal and we ’ re still talking about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ large turnout numbers.
” Apart from antipathy towards globalised trade , Trump is said to be a man of few core political beliefs and little ideology .
But when he descended an escalator at Trump Tower in New York in June 2015 to declare his long-shot candidacy for president , he started as he meant to go on .
Mexico , he complained , was not sending its best people across the border .
“ They ’ re bringing drugs .
They ’ re bringing crime .
They ’ re rapists.
” Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I would build a great wall , and nobody builds walls better than me , believe me , and I ’ ll build them very inexpensively , I will build a great , great wall on our southern border .
And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.
” There followed an incendiary , taboo-busting election campaign in which “ Build that wall !
” became a familiar chant at Trump rallies , where he railed against the presidency of Barack Obama and threw red meat to his base .
He lashed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a Muslim whose son died fighting for the US in Iraq .
He threatened to ban Muslims from the country .
He promised “ America first ” .
And he won .
Two years later , campaigning on behalf of senators and representatives , Trump used rallies to stoke fears that “ caravans ” of undocumented immigrants from Guatemala , Honduras and El Salvador were set to pour into the US from Mexico .
To the frustration of Republicans who wanted him to focus on economic achievements , he used vivid language @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and put victims ’ families on public display .
This time , the strategy was only partially successful : Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate but lost 40 seats in the House of Representatives , where the new Democratic majority went on to impeach Trump .
Early in 2020 , the Trump re-election campaign appeared to be built on firm foundations .
There were economic talking points – unemployment at its lowest for half a century , the stock market at record highs – even if it did not always feel that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senator Bernie Sanders , a democratic socialist , was leading the Democratic presidential primary race , prompting Trump and allies to warn darkly of the radical left .
These scripts have been torn up .
The coronavirus pandemic has killed about 50,000 Americans and is likely to surpass US losses in the entire Vietnam war .
Since the outbreak also put the economy into a coma : at least 26 million people have requested unemployment benefits , wiping out all the job gains since the great recession of 2008 .
Rick Wilson , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Against the Devil , an analysis of how the 2020 election could play out , said : “ The predicates of Donald Trump ’ s campaign were fundamentally : ‘ The economy is great and I made the economy great and also , by the way , this is my great economy .
Have you noticed my great economy ?
’ That ’ s gone .
If you claim you have sole control and credit for something , then when it goes wrong , the shoe gets placed on the other foot rather @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Democratic primary , meanwhile , Sanders quickly fell away against former vice-president Joe Biden , a moderate who served under Obama and will be much harder to caricature as a socialist menace .
Short of ammunition , his record in tatters , Trump can still fall back on the politics of division and made-for-TV partisan outrage .
His daily White House coronavirus taskforce briefings have become a substitute for campaign rallies and regularly include progress reports on the border wall .
The executive order on immigration , probably bearing the fingerprints of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a way to ensure that American workers take priority over foreigners in any economic recovery .
It has struck a chord with some of Trump ’ s supporters .
Douglas Collins , 86 , a neurologist from Pensacola , Florida , said : “ We ’ ve got to get the economy up and running , and people who live pay cheque to pay cheque and are American have to be the first consideration .
Is prejudice a major factor ?
I don ’ t think so.
” Doug Peltier , 69 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said : “ It ’ s a valid position to be concerned about the economy and immigrants coming and taking jobs from Americans .
I ’ m not a bigot , I ’ m not against immigrants , I have a great deal of respect for Mexicans and blacks .
I do believe Americans should come first .
I guess you could call me a nationalist.
” Peltier , a retired school administrator who attended a Trump rally in Minneapolis last year , added : “ I think Trump has more support than @ @ @ @ @ @ @ don ’ t boast ; we tend to be more silent .
I would never put a Donald Trump sticker on my car because I know it would get keyed.
” But opponents see something else : a president whose world collapsed around him , suddenly flailing in strange surroundings and grabbing on to a familiar lifeline .
Wilson , the political strategist , argues that bigotry , hatred and prejudice “ aren ’ t a bug of the Trump program – those are a feature .
“ He will pursue what he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ effective for him in the last campaign and that is a racially and ethnically inflected campaign that tries to tell Republican voters in particular that all of their problems and concerns and issues come from the brown people.
” Already Trump and Republican allies have hardened their line on China , fuelling a theory that the coronavirus might have accidentally escaped a laboratory in Wuhan and condemning the country for not raising the alarm earlier .
They hope to couple this with an attack on Biden , dubbing him “ Beijing Biden ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with China in the past .
Wilson , who is co-founder of the Lincoln Project , a political action committee aiming to prevent Trump ’ s re-election , added : “ What you will absolutely see this fall is that Donald Trump will come out and he will make up a story and it will be something like , ‘ There ’ s boats full of diseased Chinamen coming our way , bar the door ’ .
” Democrats are braced for another bitter fight with a president who looks certain to lose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ squeeze by in a few battleground states that decide the electoral college .
Neil Sroka , communications director for the progressive group Democracy for America , added : “ What we should expect in 2020 is , because of the economic implosion , because of his massive mishandling of this crisis , he will pursue a xenophobic campaign that makes the 2016 effort look like patty cake .
”

Donald Trump had been intending to run a re-election campaign based on a strong economy and a socialist opponent. Both have vanished in the past month. But the US president still has his ultimate weapon: xenophobia.
Trump this week announced in a late-night tweet that he would “temporarily suspend immigration” into America. Two days later, when he signed an executive order, it only applied to people seeking green cards to move to the country permanently, not to temporary workers, and there were plenty of loopholes.
But by then the headlines had been written, the outrage expressed and the objective achieved: Trump was cracking down on immigration again because, he claimed, he was putting America and its workers first. The exercise was arguably less about policy than politics.
A nativist, populist message helped him win the presidency in 2016. He tried it again in the 2018 midterm elections for Congress with mixed results. Now, with his handling of a deadly pandemic under scrutiny and the economy in freefall, critics say he is ready to bet the White House on his ability to stir nationalist and racist sentiment with little subtlety.
“This is a president who doesn’t use the dog whistle of Republicans in the past, and even Democrats in the past who used dog whistle politics to talk about race in code,” said Juan Cartagena, president and general counsel of Latino Justice, a civil rights organisation. “This guy talks about it openly. Under normal circumstances he would have been a one-term president, but his base is pretty loyal and we’re still talking about a country that barely comes out in large turnout numbers.”
Apart from antipathy to globalised trade, Trump is said to be a man of few core political beliefs and little ideology
Apart from antipathy towards globalised trade, Trump is said to be a man of few core political beliefs and little ideology. But when he descended an escalator at Trump Tower in New York in June 2015 to declare his long-shot candidacy for president, he started as he meant to go on. Mexico, he complained, was not sending its best people across the border. “They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists.”
Trump also announced his signature issue: “I would build a great wall, and nobody builds walls better than me, believe me, and I’ll build them very inexpensively, I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.”
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Charlotte, North Carolina, in October 2016. A nativist, populist message helped him win the presidency that year. Photograph: Erik S. Lesser/EPA
There followed an incendiary, taboo-busting election campaign in which “Build that wall!” became a familiar chant at Trump rallies, where he railed against the presidency of Barack Obama and threw red meat to his base. He lashed out at a judge of Mexican ancestry and a Muslim whose son died fighting for the US in Iraq. He threatened to ban Muslims from the country. He promised “America first”. And he won.
Two years later, campaigning on behalf of senators and representatives, Trump used rallies to stoke fears that “caravans” of undocumented immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador were set to pour into the US from Mexico. To the frustration of Republicans who wanted him to focus on economic achievements, he used vivid language to demonise criminal gangs and human traffickers and put victims’ families on public display.
What you will absolutely see this fall is that Donald Trump will come out and he will make up a story Rick Wilson
This time, the strategy was only partially successful: Republicans expanded their majority in the Senate but lost 40 seats in the House of Representatives, where the new Democratic majority went on to impeach Trump.
Early in 2020, the Trump re-election campaign appeared to be built on firm foundations. There were economic talking points – unemployment at its lowest for half a century, the stock market at record highs – even if it did not always feel that way on the ground. Meanwhile, Senator Bernie Sanders, a democratic socialist, was leading the Democratic presidential primary race, prompting Trump and allies to warn darkly of the radical left.
These scripts have been torn up. The coronavirus pandemic has killed about 50,000 Americans and is likely to surpass US losses in the entire Vietnam war. Since the outbreak also put the economy into a coma: at least 26 million people have requested unemployment benefits, wiping out all the job gains since the great recession of 2008.
People wait in line for help with unemployment benefits at the One-Stop Career Center in Las Vegas on 17 March. More than 26 million Americans have lost their jobs during the coronavirus crisis. Photograph: John Locher/AP
Rick Wilson, a political strategist and author of Running Against the Devil, an analysis of how the 2020 election could play out, said: “The predicates of Donald Trump’s campaign were fundamentally: ‘The economy is great and I made the economy great and also, by the way, this is my great economy. Have you noticed my great economy?’ That’s gone. If you claim you have sole control and credit for something, then when it goes wrong, the shoe gets placed on the other foot rather quickly, and it has.”
In the Democratic primary, meanwhile, Sanders quickly fell away against former vice-president Joe Biden, a moderate who served under Obama and will be much harder to caricature as a socialist menace.
Short of ammunition, his record in tatters, Trump can still fall back on the politics of division and made-for-TV partisan outrage. His daily White House coronavirus taskforce briefings have become a substitute for campaign rallies and regularly include progress reports on the border wall. The executive order on immigration, probably bearing the fingerprints of senior adviser Stephen Miller, was billed as a way to ensure that American workers take priority over foreigners in any economic recovery.
It has struck a chord with some of Trump’s supporters. Douglas Collins, 86, a neurologist from Pensacola, Florida, said: “We’ve got to get the economy up and running, and people who live pay cheque to pay cheque and are American have to be the first consideration. Is prejudice a major factor? I don’t think so.”
Doug Peltier, 69, from Forest Lake, Minnesota, said: “It’s a valid position to be concerned about the economy and immigrants coming and taking jobs from Americans. I’m not a bigot, I’m not against immigrants, I have a great deal of respect for Mexicans and blacks. I do believe Americans should come first. I guess you could call me a nationalist.”
Donald Trump takes a question during a news conference in the Rose Garden of the White House on 13 March. His freewheeling coronavirus briefings have taken the place of campaign rallies. Photograph: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Peltier, a retired school administrator who attended a Trump rally in Minneapolis last year, added: “I think Trump has more support than a lot of people believe. We don’t boast; we tend to be more silent. I would never put a Donald Trump sticker on my car because I know it would get keyed.”
But opponents see something else: a president whose world collapsed around him, suddenly flailing in strange surroundings and grabbing on to a familiar lifeline. Wilson, the political strategist, argues that bigotry, hatred and prejudice “aren’t a bug of the Trump program – those are a feature.
“He will pursue what he looks at as something that was highly effective for him in the last campaign and that is a racially and ethnically inflected campaign that tries to tell Republican voters in particular that all of their problems and concerns and issues come from the brown people.”
Already Trump and Republican allies have hardened their line on China, fuelling a theory that the coronavirus might have accidentally escaped a laboratory in Wuhan and condemning the country for not raising the alarm earlier. They hope to couple this with an attack on Biden, dubbing him “Beijing Biden” and claiming he had a cosy relationship with China in the past.
Joe Biden thanks frontline workers from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, on 19 April. The former vice-president is hard for Trump to paint as a socialist. Photograph: Brian Cahn/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Wilson, who is co-founder of the Lincoln Project, a political action committee aiming to prevent Trump’s re-election, added: “What you will absolutely see this fall is that Donald Trump will come out and he will make up a story and it will be something like, ‘There’s boats full of diseased Chinamen coming our way, bar the door’.”
Democrats are braced for another bitter fight with a president who looks certain to lose the popular vote again but hopes to squeeze by in a few battleground states that decide the electoral college.
Neil Sroka, communications director for the progressive group Democracy for America, added: “What we should expect in 2020 is, because of the economic implosion, because of his massive mishandling of this crisis, he will pursue a xenophobic campaign that makes the 2016 effort look like patty cake.”


theguardian--2020-04-26--In Deep review: Trump v intelligence – and Obama vs the people

The 2016 election left the US gaping at a brewing battle between the president-elect and the most senior members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities .
Into the conflagration jumped Virgil , a pseudonymous contributor to Breitbart , who wrote of a “ deep state ” within the US government , bolstered by the mainstream media and a “ galaxy of contractors , profiteers , supporters ” , all purportedly intent on destroying Donald Trump .
His near-4,000 word essay appeared weeks before the FBI director , James Comey , briefed the president-elect about the Steele dossier , on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ when Trump compared America ’ s intelligence agencies to Adolf Hitler ’ s Gestapo .
For Trump and his minions , Virgil ’ s take became a touchstone .
Enter the New Yorker ’ s David Rohde .
Under the subtitle “ The FBI , the CIA , and the Truth About America ’ s ‘ Deep State ’ ” , the two-time Pulitzer-winner rejects the nomenclature of conspiracy theorists .
In doing so he relies in part on Will Hurd , a moderate Republican congressman from Texas who served overseas with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seeking re-election .
But Rohde does little to dispel the notion that government is riddled with entrenched interests , and that career officials can find themselves at odds with incumbent presidents and vice versa .
In Rohde ’ s view , civil servants are part of “ ‘ institutional government ’ ” , a relatively benign term that masks turf fights , budget battles , policy skirmishes , built-in biases and well-formed points of view .
The left has frequently derided the military industrial complex .
Name-calling plays both ways .
Rohde acknowledges @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” , but says the US imposes greater political control over its employees and the resultant process .
Even so , campaign finance records reflect that the federal bureaucracy is not a Republican bastion .
Going back in time , in 2012 Internal Revenue Service employees donated to Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by a 4–1 ratio while lawyers at the National Labor Relations Board and the education department shut out Romney completely .
In 2020 , Joe Biden is outpacing Trump at the IRS and the justice department , as Hillary Clinton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who joins the federal government is not necessarily in sync with who prevails on election day .
But the Trump presidency appears unique and disheartening .
The fight between the president and law enforcement and intelligence was an avoidable consequence of Russia ’ s “ active measures ” in support of the Trump campaign , and a candidate all too willing to accept the sordid bounty .
“ I love WikiLeaks ” was bound to gain attention .
And as Rohde makes clear , Trump has waged a persistent assault upon the rule @ @ @ @ @ @ @ justice department removed from politics and the concept of an intelligence community loyal to the country rather than the man in the Oval Office .
A recent Senate intelligence committee report observed that the intelligence community has “ present [ ed ] a coherent and well-constructed intelligence basis for the case of unprecedented Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election ” .
As Robert Mueller reminded us , absence of indictment was not akin to prosecutorial absolution , despite what the attorney general , William Barr , may have thought and said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ opinion issued last month Reggie Walton , a George W Bush appointee to the federal bench , “ seriously ” questioned Barr ’ s integrity and credibility , using words like “ distorted ” and “ misleading ” to drive the point home .
Suffice to say , all this is coming with a steep cost to our democracy and our post-Watergate system , which sought to make law enforcement something other than the handmaiden of the White House .
Trump placing his hand on the shoulder of an FBI director and whispering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Martin Scorsese ’ s films .
“ Lock her up ” is chant befitting a democracy in decay – or worse .
Rohde , however , reminds us that Trump ’ s predecessor was by no means angelic when it came to encroachment on civil liberties , despite stints on the Harvard Law Review and as a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago .
Under Obama the Pentagon regarded leaking non-classified information as “ tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States ” .
Rohde recalls how the intelligence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ committee , misled Congress about spying on Americans and expanded the use of drone warfare .
He offers granular detail on how James Clapper , Obama ’ s director of national intelligence , obfuscated before the Senate intelligence committee on data collection and surveillance of US citizens .
Years later , Clapper would accuse Trump and his administration of an “ assault on truth ” and posit that Trump might be a “ witting or unwitting ” Russian asset .
Regardless of the validity of the charges , Rohde voices discomfort with intelligence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ clashes with the administration .
In Deep also pays attention to the Trump administration ’ s privatization of foreign policy .
Among other things , Rohde describes at length how the efforts in Ukraine of Trump ’ s personal lawyer , Rudy Giuliani , helped lead to Trump ’ s impeachment .
Not surprisingly , Republican stalwarts have failed to thunder paroxysms of outrage over this dubious practice as they do over the supposed deep state .
As Rohde repeatedly reminds us , negative partisanship increasingly drives our politics .
With social chasms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ t expect it to disappear anytime soon .
In our cold civil war , elections have morphed into safety valves and battlefields .
Wisconsin ’ s potentially lethal conflict over mail-in ballots is just the latest reminder .
In assessing the existence of a deep state , or otherwise , it is worth remembering what Steve Bannon had to say about it – the same Steve Bannon who skippered Trump ’ s upset victory and signed Virgil ’ s paycheck back in his Breitbart days .
As Bannon admitted to James Stewart @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ deep state conspiracy theory is for nut cases ” , because “ America isn ’ t Turkey or Egypt ” .
True enough , but our freedom and trust continue to erode with no end in sight .

The 2016 election left the US gaping at a brewing battle between the president-elect and the most senior members of the law enforcement and intelligence communities.
Into the conflagration jumped Virgil, a pseudonymous contributor to Breitbart, who wrote of a “deep state” within the US government, bolstered by the mainstream media and a “galaxy of contractors, profiteers, supporters”, all purportedly intent on destroying Donald Trump.
His near-4,000 word essay appeared weeks before the FBI director, James Comey, briefed the president-elect about the Steele dossier, on 5 January 2017, before 11 January when Trump compared America’s intelligence agencies to Adolf Hitler’s Gestapo. For Trump and his minions, Virgil’s take became a touchstone.
Enter the New Yorker’s David Rohde. Under the subtitle “The FBI, the CIA, and the Truth About America’s ‘Deep State’”, the two-time Pulitzer-winner rejects the nomenclature of conspiracy theorists. In doing so he relies in part on Will Hurd, a moderate Republican congressman from Texas who served overseas with the CIA, opposed impeachment and is not seeking re-election.
Trump placing his hand on the shoulder of an FBI director and whispering into his ear is the stuff of Scorsese’s films
But Rohde does little to dispel the notion that government is riddled with entrenched interests, and that career officials can find themselves at odds with incumbent presidents and vice versa. In Rohde’s view, civil servants are part of “‘institutional government’”, a relatively benign term that masks turf fights, budget battles, policy skirmishes, built-in biases and well-formed points of view. The left has frequently derided the military industrial complex. Name-calling plays both ways.
Rohde acknowledges that “all countries have permanent governments”, but says the US imposes greater political control over its employees and the resultant process. Even so, campaign finance records reflect that the federal bureaucracy is not a Republican bastion.
Going back in time, in 2012 Internal Revenue Service employees donated to Barack Obama over Mitt Romney by a 4–1 ratio while lawyers at the National Labor Relations Board and the education department shut out Romney completely. In 2020, Joe Biden is outpacing Trump at the IRS and the justice department, as Hillary Clinton did in 2016.
Of course, who joins the federal government is not necessarily in sync with who prevails on election day. But the Trump presidency appears unique and disheartening. The fight between the president and law enforcement and intelligence was an avoidable consequence of Russia’s “active measures” in support of the Trump campaign, and a candidate all too willing to accept the sordid bounty.
“I love WikiLeaks” was bound to gain attention. And as Rohde makes clear, Trump has waged a persistent assault upon the rule of law, the ideal of a justice department removed from politics and the concept of an intelligence community loyal to the country rather than the man in the Oval Office.
A recent Senate intelligence committee report observed that the intelligence community has “present[ed] a coherent and well-constructed intelligence basis for the case of unprecedented Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election”. As Robert Mueller reminded us, absence of indictment was not akin to prosecutorial absolution, despite what the attorney general, William Barr, may have thought and said.
On that score, in an opinion issued last month Reggie Walton, a George W Bush appointee to the federal bench, “seriously” questioned Barr’s integrity and credibility, using words like “distorted” and “misleading” to drive the point home.
Suffice to say, all this is coming with a steep cost to our democracy and our post-Watergate system, which sought to make law enforcement something other than the handmaiden of the White House. Trump placing his hand on the shoulder of an FBI director and whispering into his ear is the stuff of Martin Scorsese’s films. “Lock her up” is chant befitting a democracy in decay – or worse.
In Deep also pays attention to the Trump administration’s privatization of foreign policy
Rohde, however, reminds us that Trump’s predecessor was by no means angelic when it came to encroachment on civil liberties, despite stints on the Harvard Law Review and as a professor of constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Under Obama the Pentagon regarded leaking non-classified information as “tantamount to aiding the enemies of the United States”.
Rohde recalls how the intelligence community under Obama spied on a Senate committee, misled Congress about spying on Americans and expanded the use of drone warfare. He offers granular detail on how James Clapper, Obama’s director of national intelligence, obfuscated before the Senate intelligence committee on data collection and surveillance of US citizens.
Years later, Clapper would accuse Trump and his administration of an “assault on truth” and posit that Trump might be a “witting or unwitting” Russian asset. Regardless of the validity of the charges, Rohde voices discomfort with intelligence community alumni playing an outsized role in clashes with the administration.
Rudy Giuliani delivers remarks before Donald Trump rallies with supporters in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 2016. Photograph: Jonathan Ernst/Reuters
In Deep also pays attention to the Trump administration’s privatization of foreign policy. Among other things, Rohde describes at length how the efforts in Ukraine of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, helped lead to Trump’s impeachment. Not surprisingly, Republican stalwarts have failed to thunder paroxysms of outrage over this dubious practice as they do over the supposed deep state.
As Rohde repeatedly reminds us, negative partisanship increasingly drives our politics. With social chasms underlying most of the divide, don’t expect it to disappear anytime soon. In our cold civil war, elections have morphed into safety valves and battlefields. Wisconsin’s potentially lethal conflict over mail-in ballots is just the latest reminder.
In assessing the existence of a deep state, or otherwise, it is worth remembering what Steve Bannon had to say about it – the same Steve Bannon who skippered Trump’s upset victory and signed Virgil’s paycheck back in his Breitbart days. As Bannon admitted to James Stewart of the New York Times, the “deep state conspiracy theory is for nut cases”, because “America isn’t Turkey or Egypt”.
True enough, but our freedom and trust continue to erode with no end in sight.


theguardian--2020-04-26--Coronavirus US live: Maryland's Republican governor concerned over Trump's 'mixed messages' – as it

Coronavirus US live: Maryland's Republican governor concerned over Trump's 'mixed messages' – as it happened

Donald Trump ’ s suggestion that injecting disinfectant could be used as a treatment for Covid-19 were so outlandish that they ’ re easy to dismiss as the ramblings of a leader unable to handle the demands of a pandemic .
However , on Sunday Maryland ’ s Republican governor , Larry Hogan , told CBS ’ s Face the Nation that his state ’ s Covid-19 hotline had received “ hundreds of calls ” following Trump ’ s comments .
“ [ It ’ s ] hard to imagine that people thought that [ Trump ’ s comment ] @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ ” But what people actually were thinking about this was this something you could do to protect yourself ?
” The president has since said that he was being “ sarcastic ” , although TV footage does not bear that out .
The president has repeatedly given false or misleading information about the coronavirus during his press briefings , and has often found himself at odds with advice given by his own medical experts .
Hogan said that he had raised concerns about “ mixed messaging ” coming from the White House @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president needed to stick to facts during his briefings .
“ It ’ s critical that the president of the United States , when people are really scared and in the middle of this worldwide pandemic , in these press conferences that we really get the facts out there , and unfortunately some of the messaging has not been great , the mixed messaging , ” said Hogan .
Hogan is far from the only person with concerns about Trump ’ s handling of the pandemic .
His own advisers are reported @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were harming his presidential campaign .
He made only a short appearance at Friday ’ s briefing and did not take any any questions from reporters .
On Saturday , there was no briefing at all and Trump instead wrote on Twitter that they are “ not worth the time & effort ” .
“ What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions , & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately , ” he wrote .
“ They get @ @ @ @ @ @ @ get nothing but Fake News .
Not worth the time & effort !
”

Bryan Armen Graham, Tom Lutz and  Oliver Laughland

26 Apr 2020 22.20 BST According to public health data collected by the independent Covid Tracking Project, coronavirus deaths nationwide have fallen to 1,184 over the last 24-hour span, the lowest level in nearly three weeks. Standard weekend reporting (and single-day) caveats apply, but deaths fell to 1,184, the lowest level since April 6. pic.twitter.com/Yo8Y2sFjYm — The COVID Tracking Project (@COVID19Tracking) April 26, 2020
26 Apr 2020 21.37 BST A church in suburban Indianapolis, which remains under a statewide stay-at-home order until at least 1 May, has resumed in-person services while adhering to a state order barring gatherings of more than 10 people. According to the Indianapolis Star: Services at iTown were slated for every hour between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m. Sunday, and parishioners had to reserve tickets online. Tickets for the first round of in-person services were claimed within a day, and the website is already reporting that tickets for May 2-3 services will be made available on May 1. In addition to being limited to 10 people, attendees will have access to face masks and hand sanitizer and are expected to practice social distancing. Attendees both with and without masks entered the church Sunday. What Sumrall called a “professional hospital cleaning company” will clean between each service. People who are considered high risk or who are ill are asked to not attend. In a Facebook video posted on Thursday, iTown pastor Dave Sumrall said the church consulted with “local government leaders and our lawyers” before making the decision. “We are officially in a situation where your religious freedoms have been removed in the interest of public health,” Sumrall said. “Now listen: I agree that we need to follow the data, we need to listen to our doctors, we need to protect those in our community who are the most vulnerable. But I do not agree with our fundamental rights to worship being revoked. So on one hand the church has been deemed essential, but on the other we’re not allowed to gather. I personally believe this is a fundamental attack on the definition of what the church is.”
26 Apr 2020 20.47 BST With no coronavirus task force briefing on the White House schedule for a second straight day, President Trump broke from his mid-afternoon tweetstorm to take a call with French president Emmanuel Macron. White House aide Judd Deere passes along this readout from their conversation: Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Emmanuel Macron of France. President Trump and President Macron discussed positive developments in combating the coronavirus pandemic and progress toward reopening world economies. The two leaders expressed hope to convene the P5 soon and discuss the UN response to the pandemic. President Trump and President Macron agreed on the need to reform the World Health Organization. The two leaders also discussed critical regional and bilateral issues.
26 Apr 2020 20.19 BST Florida governor Ron DeSantis is holding a press briefing and has said he has no firm date for when the state will reopen. “We are going to do everything in a smart way,” DeSantis said. “I am less concerned about the date and more concerned about getting it right.” He added that he thinks cases from Covid-19 are on a downward trend in Florida. “Our data shows that the cases peaked at the beginning of April, and we think the hospitalizations peaked a few days after that,” he said. As of Sunday morning, 1,075 people have died from the virus in Florida.
26 Apr 2020 19.57 BST Donald Trump attacks 'Noble [sic] Prizes' Donald Trump is on his customary Sunday Twitter tear. After saying on Saturday that his coronavirus press briefings are “not worth the time & effort” due to “hostile questions” from journalists, the president said that the “Noble” [sic] Committee should demand its prizes back from journalists who worked on “Russia, Russia, Russia”. When will all of the “reporters” who have received Noble Prizes for their work on Russia, Russia, Russia, only to have been proven totally wrong (and, in fact, it was the other side who committed the crimes), be turning back their cherished “Nobles” so that they can be given.... — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 26, 2020 “When will all of the “reporters” who have received Noble [sic] Prizes for their work on Russia, Russia, Russia, only to have been proven totally wrong (and, in fact, it was the other side who committed the crimes), be turning back their cherished “Nobles” so that they can be given ....to the REAL REPORTERS & JOURNALISTS who got it right. I can give the Committee a very comprehensive list. When will the Noble Committee DEMAND the Prizes back, especially since they were gotten under fraud,” wrote the president. As is often the case, it’s unclear who the president is talking about. The Nobel Prizes were awarded for Physics, Chemistry, Medicine, Literature, Peace and Economics in 2019. The 2019 prize for literature went to Austria’s Peter Handke “for an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience.” It is unclear what views Handke holds on disinfectant. Trump may well have meant to criticize the Pulitzer Prizes for journalism. Several winners in 2019 have investigated Trump’s regime. Trump also took time out to wish Melania happy birthday.
Updated at 20.01 BST
26 Apr 2020 19.39 BST The White House’s economic adviser, Kevin Hassett, says unemployment levels could approach those seen during the Great Depression. In a sobering interview with ABC’s This Week, Hassett said: “the next couple of months are going to be terrible” for the economy. He added that unemployment could hit 16%. “We see an unemployment rate that approaches rates we saw during the Great Depression,” Hassett told ABC. “During the Great Recession we lost 8.7m jobs in the whole thing. Now we’re losing that many every 10 days, so the lift for economic policy makers is an extraordinary one.” Elsewhere, despite the fact that GDP is forecast to shrink by 5.6% this year, the Treasury Secretary, Steve Mnuchin, told Fox News that he believes the economy will bounce back when the US starts to reopen this summer. “I think as we begin to reopen the economy in May and June you’re going to see the economy really bounce back in July, August, September ... You’re seeing trillions of dollars that’s making its way into the economy and I think this is going to have a significant impact,” Mnuchin said.
26 Apr 2020 19.22 BST Larry Hogan: state hotline received 'hundreds of calls' Donald Trump’s suggestion that injecting disinfectant could be used as a treatment for Covid-19 were so outlandish that they’re easy to dismiss as the ramblings of a leader unable to handle the demands of a pandemic. However, on Sunday Maryland’s Republican governor, Larry Hogan, told CBS’s Face the Nation that his state’s Covid-19 hotline had received “hundreds of calls” following Trump’s comments. “[It’s] hard to imagine that people thought that [Trump’s comment] was serious,” Hogan said. “”But what people actually were thinking about this was this something you could do to protect yourself?” The president has since said that he was being “sarcastic”, although TV footage does not bear that out. The president has repeatedly given false or misleading information about the coronavirus during his press briefings, and has often found himself at odds with advice given by his own medical experts. Hogan said that he had raised concerns about “mixed messaging” coming from the White House during the pandemic, and said that the president needed to stick to facts during his briefings. “It’s critical that the president of the United States, when people are really scared and in the middle of this worldwide pandemic, in these press conferences that we really get the facts out there, and unfortunately some of the messaging has not been great, the mixed messaging,” said Hogan. Hogan is far from the only person with concerns about Trump’s handling of the pandemic. His own advisers are reported to be worried that his press briefings were harming his presidential campaign. He made only a short appearance at Friday’s briefing and did not take any any questions from reporters. On Saturday, there was no briefing at all and Trump instead wrote on Twitter that they are “not worth the time & effort”. What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately. They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 25, 2020 “What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,” he wrote. “They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!”
Updated at 19.39 BST
26 Apr 2020 18.52 BST A Louisiana pastor held services at his church today in defiance of house arrest orders following an assault charge stemming from his decision to hold mass gatherings that flouted public health orders. The Associated Press reports: A livestream from Life Tabernacle Church on Sunday showed Tony Spell walking among more than 100 congregants, often repeating the phrase, “I’ve just got to get to Jesus. ... Come on America, let’s get back to Jesus.” Nearly all parishioners were not wearing face masks, and social distancing was not being practiced. The police department in Central, a suburb Baton Rouge, says on their Facebook page that Spell turned himself into the department last week on charges of aggravated assault and improper backing. Trey Bennett has kept up a one-man demonstration in front of the church since Easter Sunday, when he noticed hundreds of parishioners still attending services in defiance of the state’s stay-at-home mandate, which bans gatherings of more than 10 people. Houses of worship across Louisiana have turned to online services instead. Last Sunday, Spell drove a church bus in reverse in the direction of the sign-holding protester. Spell already faces misdemeanor charges for holding in-person church services despite the ban on gatherings. Dozens of Spell’s parishioners met him at the East Baton Rouge Parish prison, dressed in their Sunday best, arrived in church buses to show support. In a livestream from the church, images including photos from Spell’s arrest, as well as information for a GoFundMe account to help with his legal costs, played over music being performed at the church. Allow Facebook content? This article includes content provided by Facebook. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'. Allow and continue
Updated at 18.52 BST
26 Apr 2020 18.20 BST Cuomo says he is in favor of bringing sports back in some form provided it can generate revenue without ticket sales. “We want to bring sports back, so there’s an activity that people can watch on TV,” he says. “What sports can you do without an audience? What sports can you make work economically where you don’t have to sell a seat in the stadium or in the arena?” He adds: “They have to be creative and they have to think about it.” When pressed on this, Cuomo says he’s spoken with a number of sports owners and companies and encouraged them to “think outside the box, because there is no box”. “If you could make the economics work without the seat sales and you could have teams play without the seat sales but you had televised and you had the television revenue and whatever else went with that?” he says. “You know we’re in a different place. Be creative and try to figure it out. But if players could get paid more than staying home and owners will get some revenue versus total shutdown, why not? I’d love to watch.” Cuomo says he is in favor of bringing sports back in some form as long as it can generate revenue without ticket sales/bringing fans to stadiums and arenas: “Everybody has to think outside the box, because there is no box.” pic.twitter.com/y7bJzbALYf — Bryan Armen Graham (@BryanAGraham) April 26, 2020 He continues: “It would have to be up to them, that they an economic analysis that says some revenue is better than no revenue and my players are willing to negotiate a contract reduction. And if they can do it? Everybody has to think outside the box, because there is no box.”
Updated at 18.23 BST
26 Apr 2020 17.53 BST 01:28 Cuomo wants to 'reimagine' rather than reopen New York after lockdown – video Cuomo says he wants to reimagine rather than just reopen the state. “I don’t want to just reopen,” Cuomo says. “We learned a lot of lessons here. Painfully, but we learned a lot of lessons. And that’s what reimagine means to me. How do we take the lessons we learned, take this pause in life and say, ‘When we reopen we’re going to be better for it, and we’re going to reimagine what our life is, and we’re going to improve for this pause.’ Even on an individual level. You had time to decompress a little bit. I think everybody when through a period where they analyzed their life and when somebody all of sudden pulls the rug out from under you and you wind up in a different place, you just see life differently. And I think that’s true for most people. “After that reflection ... what have we learned, how do we improve and how do we build back better? Because it’s not about return to yesterday. There is no return to yesterday in life. It’s about moving forward. It’s about taking your experience and what you learned and bringing it to a positive effect.”
Updated at 19.53 BST
26 Apr 2020 17.22 BST Cuomo begins to outline his vision for reopening the state. Phase one will focus on “low-risk” construction and manufacturing, while phase two will be more essential businesses that are considered low risk. He says businesses must present a plan to demonstrate how they can reopen safely: “We need them to be creative and think outside the box,” he says. There will be two weeks between phases to carefully monitor the effects. Cuomo adds a major caveat: “You can’t do anything in any region that would increase the number of visitors to that region. You have a whole multi-state region in lockdown here. It’s possible that you open something in Syracuse or you open something in the North Country where you now see license plates coming in from Connecticut, New Jersey, people from downstate, all coming to that area because they’ve been locked down and they’re looking for an activity.”
26 Apr 2020 17.11 BST Governor holds press briefing New York governor Andrew Cuomo starts with “relatively good” news: total hospitalizations in New York are down to levels seen on 31 March, nearly a month ago. There have been 367 deaths statewide in the last day, down from 437 in the previous 24-hour period, Cuomo says. The governor says there have been 16,966 deaths from Covid-19 in New York state overall – a figure that does not include the roughly 5,000 probable deaths in New York state. Cuomo says he agrees with the CDC’s guidance that hospitalization rate must be in decline for 14 days before considering reopening.
Updated at 17.42 BST
26 Apr 2020 16.31 BST Dr Birx also appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press this morning and continued her stance of declining to criticize the president for his dangerous remarks on the use of disinfectant to combat Covid-19 inside the human body. Asked if the president’s remarks undermined the credibility of the administration’s scientific response to the pandemic, Birx replied: I think all of us are very clear and very clear in our discussions with the American people how we’re looking and utilizing data to drive decision making within the task force. Every day, about 2:30 in the morning, I get every single piece of data coming in from every county, where we triangulate where is the virus moving, how are people responding to the virus, are we considering absolutely everything to protect American people? And triangulating that data to come up with that day’s work. Where should PPE go? Where should we be really talking with governors about a recent outbreak? How do we protect individuals that are in essential services? This is the discussion of the task force.
26 Apr 2020 16.03 BST Over the weekend Politico published details of a 57 page Republican party attack memo, which advised GOP candidates to aggressively target China in their public remarks on the coronavirus pandemic. From the report: The memo includes advice on everything from how to tie Democratic candidates to the Chinese government to how to deal with accusations of racism. It stresses three main lines of assault: That China caused the virus “by covering it up,” that Democrats are “soft on China,” and that Republicans will “push for sanctions on China for its role in spreading this pandemic.” The reporting adds to the increasingly clear picture that Republicans will target China throughout election season. A pro-Trump super Pac has already released advertising attacking Joe Biden for his comments on Trump’s decision to ban some travel from the country at the start of the outbreak. More from the report: The document urges candidates to stay relentlessly on message against the country when responding to any questions about the virus. When asked whether the spread of the coronavirus is Trump’s fault, candidates are advised to respond by pivoting to China.


theguardian--2020-04-26--Birx declines to criticise Trump and warns distancing will last months

Donald Trump ’ s coronavirus response coordinator , Dr Deborah Birx , has cautioned that social distancing measures are likely to stay in place throughout the summer , as she sought to downplay the president ’ s dangerous suggestion that injected disinfectant and ultraviolet light could play a role in the medical treatment of Covid-19 .
Birx made a number of appearances on the Sunday morning TV news shows , where she was asked about Trump ’ s outlandish comments made at a White House briefing on Thursday , which prompted immediate backlash from medical experts and industrial manufacturers who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a process .
Trump has falsely claimed the comments were sarcastic .
Appearing on CNN ’ s State of the Union , Birx was asked if she was bothered by the fallout from the president ’ s remarks .
“ It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle , because I think we ’ re missing the bigger pieces of what we need to be doing as an American people to continue to protect one another , ” Birx said .
“ As a scientist and a public health official @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that we don ’ t get the information to the American people that they need when we continue to bring up something that was from Thursday night.
” In a later appearance on NBC News , Birx also responded to a suggestion from the vice-president , Mike Pence , in which he claimed that the US would “ largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us ” by Memorial Day , on 25 May .
Birx said that while downward trends in infections and deaths in certain locations such as Houston and Detroit “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said “ social distancing will be with us through the summer ” .
She added that the US required a “ breakthrough innovation in testing ” to speed up the reopening , by testing for those who have already had coronavirus but displayed little to no symptoms , in order to track the virus ’ s spread .
The comments came as New York governor Andrew Cuomo said some less affected regions of the state could partially re-open when his statewide shelter in place order expires on 15 May .
New York , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reported a drop in the number of deaths again on Sunday .
Meanwhile , Georgia ’ s governor , the Republican Brian Kemp , has partially lifted social distancing guidelines , meaning restaurants will be allowed to reopen to the public on Monday with other businesses , including gyms and salons already allowed to re-open .
The order has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans because of the state ’ s increasing infection rate and lack of testing .
Birx ’ s cautious wording underlined the difficulties faced by health experts working for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have attempted to balance sound scientific advice without directly contradicting haphazard and sometimes dangerous political rhetoric from political figures , including the president .
Trump ’ s promotion of injected disinfectant was only the latest example of reckless promotion of unfounded or potentially harmful medical advice during the pandemic .
The president had previously touted an unproven antimalarial drug , hydroxychloroquine , which the FDA has now ruled can not be used outside of clinical trials or a hospital settings because of its potential cardiac risks .
On Sunday , Dr Birx told @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” to Trump that injected disinfectant “ was not a treatment ” , but added the president ’ s advocacy on the issue should be viewed as a “ kind of dialogue will happen ” between scientists and politicians .
Although Trump has not specified where the idea of using injected disinfectant as a possible remedy for Covid-19 came from , the Guardian revealed on Friday that a prominent group peddling the use of bleach as a “ miracle cure ” had written to the president earlier in the week .
Trump had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ light on the body as a treatment for coronavirus , pushing research by the Department of Homeland Security exploring how heat and sunlight affect the virus on surfaces .
Experts have also long cautioned against the dangerous , potentially lethal side effects of UV light on the human body .
On Sunday , Birx also sought to distance herself from the president ’ s suggestion , and instead cited research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ( MIT ) that suggested sunlight can affect the aerosolization of the virus outdoors .
The back-and-forth @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of being more forceful in their criticism of Trump ’ s wild claims .
Larry Hogan , the Republican governor of Maryland , told ABC News on Sunday that the state received “ hundreds of calls come into our emergency hotline at our health department asking if it was right to ingest Clorox or alcohol cleaning products – whether that was going to help them fight the virus ” .
The calls forced the governor to issue a warning against doing so .
“ I think when misinformation comes out or you just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , it does send a wrong message , ” Hogan added , with reference to Trump ’ s press conferences .
Trump indicated over the weekend he could halt the daily press briefings that have underpinned his shambolic response to the pandemic , drawing widespread criticism for their similarity to campaign rallies rather than public health briefings .
“ What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions , & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately , ” he tweeted @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the evening that the briefing would have taken place .
“ They get record ratings , & the American people get nothing but Fake News .
Not worth the time & effort !
” There were no reports of a White House briefing on Sunday by the late afternoon .

Donald Trump’s coronavirus response coordinator, Dr Deborah Birx, has cautioned that social distancing measures are likely to stay in place throughout the summer, as she sought to downplay the president’s dangerous suggestion that injected disinfectant and ultraviolet light could play a role in the medical treatment of Covid-19.
Birx made a number of appearances on the Sunday morning TV news shows, where she was asked about Trump’s outlandish comments made at a White House briefing on Thursday, which prompted immediate backlash from medical experts and industrial manufacturers who cited the potentially fatal outcome of such a process. Trump has falsely claimed the comments were sarcastic.
Appearing on CNN’s State of the Union, Birx was asked if she was bothered by the fallout from the president’s remarks.
“It bothers me that this is still in the news cycle, because I think we’re missing the bigger pieces of what we need to be doing as an American people to continue to protect one another,” Birx said. “As a scientist and a public health official and a researcher, sometimes I worry that we don’t get the information to the American people that they need when we continue to bring up something that was from Thursday night.”
In a later appearance on NBC News, Birx also responded to a suggestion from the vice-president, Mike Pence, in which he claimed that the US would “largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us” by Memorial Day, on 25 May.
Birx said that while downward trends in infections and deaths in certain locations such as Houston and Detroit “gives us great hope”, she said “social distancing will be with us through the summer”.
She added that the US required a “breakthrough innovation in testing” to speed up the reopening, by testing for those who have already had coronavirus but displayed little to no symptoms, in order to track the virus’s spread.
The comments came as New York governor Andrew Cuomo said some less affected regions of the state could partially re-open when his statewide shelter in place order expires on 15 May. New York, the worst hit state in America, reported a drop in the number of deaths again on Sunday.
01:28 Cuomo wants to 'reimagine' rather than reopen New York after lockdown – video
Meanwhile, Georgia’s governor, the Republican Brian Kemp, has partially lifted social distancing guidelines, meaning restaurants will be allowed to reopen to the public on Monday with other businesses, including gyms and salons already allowed to re-open. The order has been criticized by Democrats and Republicans because of the state’s increasing infection rate and lack of testing.
Birx’s cautious wording underlined the difficulties faced by health experts working for the administration throughout the pandemic, who have attempted to balance sound scientific advice without directly contradicting haphazard and sometimes dangerous political rhetoric from political figures, including the president.
Trump’s promotion of injected disinfectant was only the latest example of reckless promotion of unfounded or potentially harmful medical advice during the pandemic. The president had previously touted an unproven antimalarial drug, hydroxychloroquine, which the FDA has now ruled cannot be used outside of clinical trials or a hospital settings because of its potential cardiac risks.
On Sunday, Dr Birx told CNN she had “made it clear” to Trump that injected disinfectant “was not a treatment”, but added the president’s advocacy on the issue should be viewed as a “kind of dialogue will happen” between scientists and politicians.
Although Trump has not specified where the idea of using injected disinfectant as a possible remedy for Covid-19 came from, the Guardian revealed on Friday that a prominent group peddling the use of bleach as a “miracle cure” had written to the president earlier in the week.
Trump had also pushed the potential use of ultraviolet light on the body as a treatment for coronavirus, pushing research by the Department of Homeland Security exploring how heat and sunlight affect the virus on surfaces. Experts have also long cautioned against the dangerous, potentially lethal side effects of UV light on the human body.
On Sunday, Birx also sought to distance herself from the president’s suggestion, and instead cited research from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that suggested sunlight can affect the aerosolization of the virus outdoors.
The back-and-forth comes as senior state Republicans showed signs of being more forceful in their criticism of Trump’s wild claims.
Larry Hogan, the Republican governor of Maryland, told ABC News on Sunday that the state received “hundreds of calls come into our emergency hotline at our health department asking if it was right to ingest Clorox or alcohol cleaning products – whether that was going to help them fight the virus”.
The calls forced the governor to issue a warning against doing so.
“I think when misinformation comes out or you just say something that pops in your head, it does send a wrong message,” Hogan added, with reference to Trump’s press conferences.
Trump indicated over the weekend he could halt the daily press briefings that have underpinned his shambolic response to the pandemic, drawing widespread criticism for their similarity to campaign rallies rather than public health briefings.
“What is the purpose of having White House News Conferences when the Lamestream Media asks nothing but hostile questions, & then refuses to report the truth or facts accurately,” he tweeted on Saturday at roughly the same time in the evening that the briefing would have taken place.
“They get record ratings, & the American people get nothing but Fake News. Not worth the time & effort!”
There were no reports of a White House briefing on Sunday by the late afternoon.


theguardian--2020-04-27--'The impossible has already happened': what coronavirus can teach us about hope' – podcast

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In the midst of fear and isolation, we are learning that profound, positive change is possible. By Rebecca Solnit
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