theguardian--2020-05-08--Four causes for alarm in the US jobs figures – and one possible reason for hope

Friday was a dark day for the US economy .
The labor department announced more than 20 million people lost their jobs in April as the coronavirus shut down much of the economy .
Here are five key takeaways from a report that will enter the history books as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s .
1 ) The headline figures are bad – but what lies beneath is worse About 20.5m jobs were lost in the month and the unemployment rate shot up to 14.7 % .
The numbers are probably deflated , since a huge @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the workforce , so they are not counted in the unemployment numbers .
About 6.5 million more people filed for unemployment since the mid-April reference week Friday ’ s numbers are based on .
About 6 million people left the workforce over the month , and therefore are not being counted .
Leisure and hospitality lost 7.7m jobs .
That industry has been devastated by Covid-19 closures .
But the shutdown has hit industries across the country .
Manufacturing lost 1.3m jobs , construction employment fell by 975,000 .
In healthcare , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by losses in dentist ’ s offices ( down 503,000 ) .
The unemployment rate was highest for Hispanic Americans ( 18.9 % ) , followed by black Americans ( 16.7 % ) .
Although unemployment shot up for white Americans as well ( from 4 % to 14.2 % over the month ) , that is probably because black workers are more likely to be working in essential jobs .
4 ) Things are likely to get worse and we don ’ t know for how long This week ’ s jobs @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but there are signs of more trouble ahead .
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is still having problems misclassifying absent workers .
According to Capital Economics , without that distortion the unemployment rate would have been close to 20 % last month .
Another 3.2 million people filed for unemployment last week , after the survey was completed .
And there was a 4.6m rise in “ continuing claims ” in the week ending 25 April – suggesting few of those recently laid off had returned to work .
As Jared Bernstein , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and former chief economic adviser to Vice-President Joe Biden , noted 18 million people are on temporary layoff .
The economy is opening up again in parts of the US , so maybe many of those people will soon return to work .
But with no vaccine for the coronavirus in sight , and cases still rising in the US , that ’ s a big “ maybe ” – certainly not enough to justify a widely ridiculed tweet from White House council of economic advisers extolling the virtues of the pre-Covid 19 @ @

Friday was a dark day for the US economy. The labor department announced more than 20 million people lost their jobs in April as the coronavirus shut down much of the economy.
Here are five key takeaways from a report that will enter the history books as the worst since the Great Depression of the 1930s.
1) The headline figures are bad – but what lies beneath is worse
About 20.5m jobs were lost in the month and the unemployment rate shot up to 14.7%. The numbers are probably deflated, since a huge chunk of people have considered themselves out of the workforce, so they are not counted in the unemployment numbers.
About 6.5 million more people filed for unemployment since the mid-April reference week Friday’s numbers are based on.
About 6 million people left the workforce over the month, and therefore are not being counted.
2) The damage is widespread
Some 95% of industries lost jobs.
Leisure and hospitality lost 7.7m jobs. That industry has been devastated by Covid-19 closures. But the shutdown has hit industries across the country. Manufacturing lost 1.3m jobs, construction employment fell by 975,000. In healthcare, employment declined by 1.4 million, led by losses in dentist’s offices (down 503,000).
3) The report has highlighted racial inequality
The unemployment rate was highest for Hispanic Americans (18.9%), followed by black Americans (16.7%).
Although unemployment shot up for white Americans as well (from 4% to 14.2% over the month), that is probably because black workers are more likely to be working in essential jobs.
This was the #JobsReport everyone was fearing & for good reason: 20M jobs lost. For African Americans unemployment rose to 16.7% & a similar jump for Whites to 14.2%.
This gives a historically low ratio of 1.3. Of course that means it took a pandemic to get these rates closer. pic.twitter.com/XPIG57BpJi — Gbenga Ajilore 🏃🏾♂ (@gbenga_ajilore) May 8, 2020
4) Things are likely to get worse and we don’t know for how long
This week’s jobs report may be the low point – but there are signs of more trouble ahead.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is still having problems misclassifying absent workers. According to Capital Economics, without that distortion the unemployment rate would have been close to 20% last month.
Another 3.2 million people filed for unemployment last week, after the survey was completed. And there was a 4.6m rise in “continuing claims” in the week ending 25 April – suggesting few of those recently laid off had returned to work.
5) One good thing – maybe?
As Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the Center On Budget and former chief economic adviser to Vice-President Joe Biden, noted 18 million people are on temporary layoff. The economy is opening up again in parts of the US, so maybe many of those people will soon return to work. But with no vaccine for the coronavirus in sight, and cases still rising in the US, that’s a big “maybe” – certainly not enough to justify a widely ridiculed tweet from White House council of economic advisers extolling the virtues of the pre-Covid 19 economy.


theguardian--2020-05-08--For Trump, l'etat, c'est moi. Attorney General Barr does whatever he wants | Lloyd Green

Welcome to law and order in the age of William Barr .
Against the tableau of a raging pandemic and job market in freefall , on Thursday the justice department announced that it would be dropping its case against Michael Flynn , the president ’ s short-tenured national security adviser .
The fact that Flynn had pleaded guilty and Donald Trump had previously accused him of lying to the vice-president no longer mattered .
These days , Trump was claiming that Flynn had been exonerated and , after all , Barr was the president ’ s obedient servant .
His @ @ @ @ @ @ @ To be sure , Barr had already been there before with Trump and decades earlier with George HW Bush .
Little more than a year ago , after Robert Mueller had relayed his conclusions to the justice department , Barr issued a summary that distorted the special counsel ’ s report and turned them into a wholesale vindication of the president .
When Mueller complained in writing of Barr ’ s deceit , Barr became “ pissed ” , thought Mueller ’ s letter “ nasty ” and felt personally “ betrayed ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been friends .
But that wasn ’ t the end of his story .
This past March , Barr also earned the ire of Reggie Walton , a George W Bush appointee to the federal bench .
The judge “ seriously ” questioned Barr ’ s integrity and credibility .
The court ’ s March 2020 opinion deployed words like “ distorted ” and “ misleading ” to drive the point home , not the language generally used to describe the nation ’ s chief law enforcement officer .
To be sure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s fealty to Trump .
In February , Barr put his finger on the scale when it came to the sentencing of Roger Stone and overrode the recommendations of career prosecutors .
For his valor , Barr won the president ’ s admiration .
In a pre-8am tweet , Trump congratulated his attorney general and trashed Mueller , accusing him of lying to Congress .
Like Roy Cohn , Trump ’ s personal lawyer of yore , Barr had attended Horace Mann and Columbia .
History can repeat itself , in more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1990s , when Barr was George HW Bush ’ s attorney general he repeatedly ran political interference for the man who hired him .
Confronted with congressional demands for copies of classified documents and that Barr appoint an independent counsel to investigate Iraqgate , the extension of government credits to Saddam Hussein ’ s regime before its invasion of Kuwait , Barr pushed back hard .
In a rebuke to congressional oversight , Barr refused to turn over the information .
In a separate letter to the House judiciary committee , Barr denied @ @ @ @ @ @ @ independent counsel , tossing around such phrases as “ not a crime ” , “ simply not criminal in any way ” , “ nothing illegal ” , and “ far from being a crime ” .
In essence , Republican presidents were legally off-limits , ditto their appointees .
But that wasn ’ t the end of Barr running interference for the elder Bush .
After he lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton , Barr successfully argued for the pardon of Caspar Weinberger , Ronald Reagan ’ s defense secretary , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Iran-Contra scandal .
Then as now , Barr was attorney general : “ I favored the broadest pardon authority , ” said Barr .
He added , “ There were some people just arguing just for Weinberger .
I said , ‘ No – in for a penny , in for a pound.
’ ” Not every attorney general is the president ’ s handmaiden .
Likewise , not every president is determined to ride roughshod over DoJ .
John Ashcroft , attorney general to George W Bush , refused to be steamrolled @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reauthorize “ Stellar Wind ” , a domestic surveillance program .
At the time , Ashcroft was in a hospital intensive care unit .
The fact that the president ’ s counsel and the White House chief of staff were hovering over his bed did not alter the outcome .
Indeed , unlike Bill Clinton and Donald Trump , the younger Bush recognized that presidential pardons were not baubles .
Bush commuted the prison sentence meted out to Scooter Libby , Dick Cheney ’ s chief of staff , after a jury had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ perjury in connection with an investigation of unauthorized leaks of the identity of Valerie Plame , a CIA officer .
But despite Cheney ’ s repeated requests for a pardon he was rebuffed .
At the time , Bill Burck , the deputy White House counsel , told the president : “ You have to follow the law , and the law says if you say something that is untrue , knowingly , to a federal official in the context of a grand jury investigation and it is material to their investigation , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ favoritism and unfairness of the process “ frustrated ” Bush .
Ultimately , the relationship between Bush and his vice-president took a permanent hit .
As history would have it , Libby had represented Marc Rich , whose pardon further tarnished Clinton ’ s legacy There is a coda .
Trump subsequently pardoned Libby just as he pardoned Joe Arpaio , the Arizona sheriff found to be in contempt of court .
For Trump , l ’ état , c ’ est moi , and for Barr it ’ s pretty much what @ @ @ @ @ @ @

Welcome to law and order in the age of William Barr. Against the tableau of a raging pandemic and job market in freefall, on Thursday the justice department announced that it would be dropping its case against Michael Flynn, the president’s short-tenured national security adviser.
The fact that Flynn had pleaded guilty and Donald Trump had previously accused him of lying to the vice-president no longer mattered. These days, Trump was claiming that Flynn had been exonerated and, after all, Barr was the president’s obedient servant. His tweets were Barr’s commands.
To be sure, Barr had already been there before with Trump and decades earlier with George HW Bush.
Little more than a year ago, after Robert Mueller had relayed his conclusions to the justice department, Barr issued a summary that distorted the special counsel’s report and turned them into a wholesale vindication of the president. When Mueller complained in writing of Barr’s deceit, Barr became “pissed”, thought Mueller’s letter “nasty” and felt personally “betrayed”. Supposedly, the two men had been friends.
But that wasn’t the end of his story. This past March, Barr also earned the ire of Reggie Walton, a George W Bush appointee to the federal bench. The judge “seriously” questioned Barr’s integrity and credibility. The court’s March 2020 opinion deployed words like “distorted” and “misleading” to drive the point home, not the language generally used to describe the nation’s chief law enforcement officer.
To be sure, that was just another episode of Barr’s fealty to Trump. In February, Barr put his finger on the scale when it came to the sentencing of Roger Stone and overrode the recommendations of career prosecutors. For his valor, Barr won the president’s admiration. In a pre-8am tweet, Trump congratulated his attorney general and trashed Mueller, accusing him of lying to Congress.
Like Roy Cohn, Trump’s personal lawyer of yore, Barr had attended Horace Mann and Columbia. History can repeat itself, in more ways than one.
In the early 1990s, when Barr was George HW Bush’s attorney general he repeatedly ran political interference for the man who hired him. Confronted with congressional demands for copies of classified documents and that Barr appoint an independent counsel to investigate Iraqgate, the extension of government credits to Saddam Hussein’s regime before its invasion of Kuwait, Barr pushed back hard.
In a rebuke to congressional oversight, Barr refused to turn over the information. In a separate letter to the House judiciary committee, Barr denied the committee’s request for an independent counsel, tossing around such phrases as “not a crime”, “simply not criminal in any way”, “nothing illegal”, and “far from being a crime”. In essence, Republican presidents were legally off-limits, ditto their appointees.
But that wasn’t the end of Barr running interference for the elder Bush. After he lost his re-election bid to Bill Clinton, Barr successfully argued for the pardon of Caspar Weinberger, Ronald Reagan’s defense secretary, and others in the aftermath of the Iran-Contra scandal.
Then as now, Barr was attorney general: “I favored the broadest pardon authority,” said Barr. He added, “There were some people just arguing just for Weinberger. I said, ‘No – in for a penny, in for a pound.’”
Not every attorney general is the president’s handmaiden. Likewise, not every president is determined to ride roughshod over DoJ.
John Ashcroft, attorney general to George W Bush, refused to be steamrolled by the White House and declined to reauthorize “Stellar Wind”, a domestic surveillance program. At the time, Ashcroft was in a hospital intensive care unit. The fact that the president’s counsel and the White House chief of staff were hovering over his bed did not alter the outcome.
Indeed, unlike Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, the younger Bush recognized that presidential pardons were not baubles. Bush commuted the prison sentence meted out to Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, after a jury had convicted Libby of obstruction of justice and perjury in connection with an investigation of unauthorized leaks of the identity of Valerie Plame, a CIA officer. But despite Cheney’s repeated requests for a pardon he was rebuffed.
At the time, Bill Burck, the deputy White House counsel, told the president: “You have to follow the law, and the law says if you say something that is untrue, knowingly, to a federal official in the context of a grand jury investigation and it is material to their investigation, that’s a crime.”
The favoritism and unfairness of the process “frustrated” Bush. Ultimately, the relationship between Bush and his vice-president took a permanent hit. As history would have it, Libby had represented Marc Rich, whose pardon further tarnished Clinton’s legacy
There is a coda. Trump subsequently pardoned Libby just as he pardoned Joe Arpaio, the Arizona sheriff found to be in contempt of court.
For Trump, l’état, c’est moi, and for Barr it’s pretty much what a Republican president says it is.


theguardian--2020-05-08--Mothers will be hardest hit if the economy reopens too fast | Jessica Zucker

ill some people be affected badly ?
Yes , ” Donald Trump said on Tuesday , during an ABC News interview .
He admitted that reopening the country would lead to more Americans unnecessarily getting sick and possibly dying .
“ But , ” he said , “ we have to get our country open.
” More than 70,000 Americans have died from Covid-19 .
Yet Trump has insisted – against the advice of many medical and scientific professionals – that non-essential businesses reopen early and people go back to work .
But if Trump were a mom ( or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ involved parent ) , and not , say , someone who at one point said of involved dads , “ There ’ s a lot of women out there that demand that the husband act like the wife and you know there ’ s a lot of husbands that listen to that , ” he would know that reopening America before experts recommend will not only pose a continued threat to public health , but will result in more lost jobs for working moms and other caregivers .
A reported 26m jobs have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a result of the coronavirus lockdowns , and 60 % of the people who have lost their job are women .
Moms have long been the primary caregivers of their children , and even though more moms are working outside the home and fathers are more involved in their kids ’ lives than ever before , moms are still shouldering the majority of the parenting responsibilities .
With nine in 10 children out of school , and daycares across the country closed , it is moms who will likely be forced to stay @ @ @ @ @ @ @ their jobs resume .
Historically , even in non-pandemic times , it is moms who end up adjusting their jobs for the sake of their families , not dads .
Now , arguably more than ever , we need more moms in positions of power .
If more moms were in charge , elected officials and other leaders would know that to open up the country without also opening up schools and daycares is to put millions of women out of a job .
It also means putting additional strain on low-income families @ @ @ @ @ @ @ color , who are already disproportionately affected by Covid-19 – and will continue to harm the mental health of parents , whoare reportedly experiencing insomnia , stress , anxiety , depression , anger , emotional exhaustion and PTSD symptoms as a result of quarantine and its implications .
It ’ s no wonder that Nancy Pelosi , a mother of five and grandmother of nine , has called Trump ’ s plan to reopen the country “ almost sinful ” .
Or that the House Democrats – whose ranks , after the 2018 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ number of moms – have argued that “ reopening the country without nationwide access to testing is dangerous ” .
The women , and especially the moms , who have managed to find a seat at the proverbial political table know what the president either refuses to acknowledge or is simply too stubborn to admit : it will be women , mothers and caregivers who will be most at risk if the country reopens prematurely .
It ’ s House Democrats who proposed a monthly stimulus check to support families while they shelter-in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1,200 payment , argued for increasing food assistance ( Snap ) benefits , and fought for millions of dollars in aid to hospitals in the $ 484bn relief package passed in April .
Meanwhile , in Ohio – led by the Republican governor , Mike DeWine – the department of job and family services is asking businesses to report employees who refuse to return to work during a deadly global pandemic .
.
More than half the country is now reopening in some form .
Seventy-seven per cent of healthcare workers are women @ @ @ @ @ @ @ therapists and nursing assistants are women .
Fifty-three per cent of critical retail workers are women .
In fact , women make up 52 % of all essential workers , and 73 % of the healthcare workers who have been infected with Covid-19 .
And it will be women that Trump and other Republican leaders will continue to sacrifice on the altar of consumerism if they maintain their heartless calls to reopen the country before it is safe to do so .
Moms will lose their jobs , financial independence and freedom , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ workers outside the home .
We need more women – especially moms , who currently feel as if they ’ re working “ five jobs ” to maintain a semblance of normalcy – in leadership positions to help this country navigate such an unparalleled moment in world history .
We could have had a mom in the White House after the 2016 presidential election .
We could have had a mom in the White House in January 2021 .
But the absence of both those possibilities , coupled with the tragedy we ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cold indifference of the men in charge , should serve as a reminder that this country would be better off , in more ways than one , if it was led by a mom .

“Will some people be affected badly? Yes,” Donald Trump said on Tuesday, during an ABC News interview. He admitted that reopening the country would lead to more Americans unnecessarily getting sick and possibly dying. “But,” he said, “we have to get our country open.”
More than 70,000 Americans have died from Covid-19. Yet Trump has insisted – against the advice of many medical and scientific professionals – that non-essential businesses reopen early and people go back to work.
But if Trump were a mom (or, at the very least, an involved parent), and not, say, someone who at one point said of involved dads, “There’s a lot of women out there that demand that the husband act like the wife and you know there’s a lot of husbands that listen to that,” he would know that reopening America before experts recommend will not only pose a continued threat to public health, but will result in more lost jobs for working moms and other caregivers.
A reported 26m jobs have been lost in just five weeks as a result of the coronavirus lockdowns, and 60% of the people who have lost their job are women. Moms have long been the primary caregivers of their children, and even though more moms are working outside the home and fathers are more involved in their kids’ lives than ever before, moms are still shouldering the majority of the parenting responsibilities.
With nine in 10 children out of school, and daycares across the country closed, it is moms who will likely be forced to stay home even if, and when, their jobs resume. Historically, even in non-pandemic times, it is moms who end up adjusting their jobs for the sake of their families, not dads.
Now, arguably more than ever, we need more moms in positions of power.
If more moms were in charge, elected officials and other leaders would know that to open up the country without also opening up schools and daycares is to put millions of women out of a job. It also means putting additional strain on low-income families – especially black families and families of color, who are already disproportionately affected by Covid-19 – and will continue to harm the mental health of parents, whoare reportedly experiencing insomnia, stress, anxiety, depression, anger, emotional exhaustion and PTSD symptoms as a result of quarantine and its implications.
It’s no wonder that Nancy Pelosi, a mother of five and grandmother of nine, has called Trump’s plan to reopen the country “almost sinful”. Or that the House Democrats – whose ranks, after the 2018 midterm elections, now include a record number of moms – have argued that “reopening the country without nationwide access to testing is dangerous”. The women, and especially the moms, who have managed to find a seat at the proverbial political table know what the president either refuses to acknowledge or is simply too stubborn to admit: it will be women, mothers and caregivers who will be most at risk if the country reopens prematurely. It’s House Democrats who proposed a monthly stimulus check to support families while they shelter-in place, instead of a one-time $1,200 payment, argued for increasing food assistance (Snap) benefits, and fought for millions of dollars in aid to hospitals in the $484bn relief package passed in April.
Meanwhile, in Ohio – led by the Republican governor, Mike DeWine – the department of job and family services is asking businesses to report employees who refuse to return to work during a deadly global pandemic. . More than half the country is now reopening in some form.
Seventy-seven per cent of healthcare workers are women. Nine in 10 nurses, respiratory therapists and nursing assistants are women. Fifty-three per cent of critical retail workers are women. In fact, women make up 52% of all essential workers, and 73% of the healthcare workers who have been infected with Covid-19. And it will be women that Trump and other Republican leaders will continue to sacrifice on the altar of consumerism if they maintain their heartless calls to reopen the country before it is safe to do so. Moms will lose their jobs, financial independence and freedom, and the gains they have made as workers outside the home.
We need more women – especially moms, who currently feel as if they’re working “five jobs” to maintain a semblance of normalcy – in leadership positions to help this country navigate such an unparalleled moment in world history. We could have had a mom in the White House after the 2016 presidential election. We could have had a mom in the White House in January 2021. But the absence of both those possibilities, coupled with the tragedy we’re all enduring and the cruelty and cold indifference of the men in charge, should serve as a reminder that this country would be better off, in more ways than one, if it was led by a mom.


theguardian--2020-05-09--Biden's lead over Trump widens – but strain on his virtual campaign grows

The Tampa , Florida , rally for Joe Biden on Thursday evening began as it normally might have , before a once-in-a-century pandemic transformed all aspects of American life , including the presidential campaign .
A local high school student recited the pledge of allegiance , a campaign organizer pleaded with supporters to volunteer and a local DJ spun R & B music between speakers .
But in a sign of how profoundly the coronavirus crisis has reshaped American politics , that was where the similarities ended .
With much of the US still in lockdown , the presumptive Democratic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his campaign to unseat Donald Trump online .
It has not always been easy .
His campaign ’ s first attempt to recreate a traditional rally – part of a virtual swing through the battleground state of Florida – was later described by his opponents as an “ unmitigated technological failure ” .
The video stream was glitchy and pixelated .
The audio was choppy , rendering some remarks nearly incomprehensible .
And there were lengthy delays between speakers and at one point , the feed went dark for several minutes .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , beaming into the telecast from his home in Wilmington , Delaware , where he has been isolated since the middle of March .
An off-camera voice replied that he was .
Biden removed a pair of aviator sunglasses as he walked toward the camera .
“ Good evening , Tampa .
Thanks so much for tuning in , ” he continued , a hint of irritation in his voice .
“ I wish we could have done this together – and it had gone a little more smoothly.
” For nearly two @ @ @ @ @ @ @ subject in a novel political experiment : running for president in the age of Covid-19 .
Social distancing restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the virus have already starved the campaign of a victory tour to mark his ascent to the Democratic nomination .
It may well deny Democrats the chance to formally nominate him in person at the party ’ s national convention this summer .
Endorsements from former rivals and party leaders occur online to varying degrees of fanfare .
.
The remote set-up , anathema to Biden ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has left the candidate walled off from voters and competing for visibility .
Yet , technical difficulties aside , his campaign of confinement seems to be working .
In recent weeks , Biden has widened his lead over Trump as the president ’ s support slips amid growing disapproval of his response to the pandemic .
Surveys from Pennsylvania , Michigan , Wisconsin , Florida , North Carolina and Arizona – key battlegrounds that Trump won in 2016 – show Biden ahead .
At a recent virtual fundraiser last week , Jennifer O @ @ @ @ @ @ @ manager , expressed optimism about Biden ’ s prospects in Florida and Arizona .
“ The natural state of this race is to be a referendum on Donald Trump and every time Donald Trump steps to the microphone he hurts himself , ” said Mark Mellman , a veteran Democratic pollster .
“ That ’ s a pretty good position for Joe Biden to be in.
” Biden initially struggled to adapt to his cloistered reality .
In March , the campaign turned a recreation room in the basement of his home into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for his critics , who launched a “ Where ’ s Joe ” campaign to mark the candidate ’ s relative disappearance from the national stage .
But since then , Biden has been busy .
Nearly every day he makes appearances on local TV news channels or national talkshows .
He launched a podcast , where he has hosted conversations with prominent Democratic governors and potential vice-presidential candidates .
He spends time each day speaking with a voter – a frontline worker , campaign volunteers – and he participated in what the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ line ” .
“ So what ’ s up ?
” he said to Ashley Ruiz of Fort Lauderdale , Florida , one of several voters on the rope line .
“ Tell me about your situation , Ash.
” Biden ’ s rise in the polls comes as he contends with an allegation from Tara Reade , a former aide in his Senate office who accused him of sexual assault in 1993 .
In an interview this week with Megyn Kelly , the former Fox News and NBC television host , Reade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ race .
Biden has forcefully denied the allegation .
“ It ’ s not true , I am saying unequivocally .
It never , never happened , ” he said last week , in an interview addressing her claim for the first time publicly .
Publicly , Democrats , including prominent # MeToo advocates , have rallied around Biden , though privately some in the party have expressed concern about the continuous drip of reporting on the matter .
So far the allegation appears to have marginally dented his reputation , but not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ % – are aware of the allegation , according to a Monmouth poll , which found the electorate divided over whether they viewed the claim as credible .
At the same time , the poll showed Biden nine points ahead of Trump .
Despite Trump ’ s falling electoral fortunes , many Democrats remain anxious about Biden ’ s position – and his strategy .
David Axelrod and David Plouffe , two of Barack Obama ’ s top campaign strategists , implored Biden ’ s campaign to expand its digital footprint in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the atmospherics of the candidate ’ s home videos to “ an astronaut beaming back to earth from the International Space Station ” .
“ Online speeches from his basement won ’ t cut it , ” they wrote .
Lis Smith , the former top adviser to Pete Buttigieg ’ s presidential campaign , followed with an op-ed on Thursday that offered a blueprint for turning Biden into the “ hottest bad boy and disrupter in the media game ” .
She suggested his campaign use TV appearances and digital content to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trait even supporters say the president has lacked in response to the rising coronavirus death toll .
Part of the campaign ’ s evolving digital strategy includes partnering with groups that already have an online presence , like JoeMamas2020 , a national coalition of “ moms , caregivers , moms to be , aunts & all the parental figures in between ” with about 27,000 Facebook and 1,200 Twitter followers .
The group has helped amplify Biden ’ s appearances and policy proposals while spreading the word about upcoming events .
Julie Zebrak @ @ @ @ @ @ @ said the online army is growing with women energized to help elect a candidate who would end the Twitter presidency .
“ We are all extremely enthusiastic for Joe Biden to beat Donald Trump , ” she said .
Yet the same traits that endear Biden to a growing coalition of suburban women and Never Trump Republicans have largely failed to excite younger , progressive voters .
It ’ s not that they prefer Trump – they don ’ t – but a lack of enthusiasm among those voters could spell trouble in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a third-party candidate .
The campaign has also ramped up its outreach to young people , who overwhelmingly supported Biden ’ s rival Bernie Sanders .
On Friday , Biden presented his economic pitch in an appearance on NowThis , a social-media-heavy news outlet with a young , progressive audience .
“ This crisis hit harder and will last longer because Donald Trump spent the last three years undermining the core pillars of our economic strength , ” Biden said in remarks that attacked Trump ’ s stimulus efforts a kind of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Before he began speaking , Biden removed a face mask , a pointed rebuke of the president who had refused to wear one .
Still , new research conducted on behalf of NextGen America found many young people weren ’ t convinced Biden ’ s policies meet the scale of the challenges bearing down on their generation .
This makes the efforts of groups like Progressive Turnout Project , which endorsed him this week , all the more important .
In the coming months , the group is investing more than $ 52m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ including young people and people of color – in 17 key battleground states .
“ The best thing we can do is go and knock on doors and have face-to-face conversations with voters , ” said Alex Morgan , the group ’ s executive director .
“ We are still looking to do that .
But it ’ ll be knocking on that door and then taking a few big steps back and having a more distant conversation.
” Biden ’ s campaign also faces another looming threat .
The Michigan congressman Justin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ last year after voting to impeach Trump , recently announced that he would seek the Libertarian party nomination .
His entrance has alarmed Democrats , who fear he could siphon off Never Trump voters who might otherwise back Biden , particularly in Amash ’ s home state of Michigan , where third-party candidates pulled away a combined 5 % of the vote share in 2016 .
Hillary Clinton lost the state by just 10,704 votes , less than 0.25 % .
Many Democrats believe Biden ’ s fate may well rest on his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ vote .
“ Trump has shown no desire or ability to moderate for those swing voters in this election , ” said Addisu Demissie , who served as Cory Booker ’ s presidential campaign manager .
“ So those voters are now likely going to end up either Biden voters or non-voters or third-party voters , and that ’ s the competition.
” This week , Trump traveled to the battleground state of Arizona , where he toured a medical mask facility without wearing one himself .
The visit was a symbolic show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reopen the US economy but there were unmistakable elements of his signature campaign rallies , including the music that played when Trump finished his remarks ( the Rolling Stones ’ You Can ’ t Always Get What You Want ) .
Trump ’ s cross-country venture stood in striking contrast to Biden ’ s virtual swing through Florida – which included a rally , a roundtable in Jacksonville and an appearance on the local news in Tampa .
The technical glitches only further highlighted the limitations of his confinement .
But the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , erasing the booming economy he has made a centerpiece of his re-election campaign .
In recent weeks , his campaign has all but abandoned championing the president ’ s leadership , instead focusing its efforts on diminishing Biden .
Trump ’ s campaign manager , Brad Parscale , previewed the onslaught on Twitter this week , comparing the Trump re-election juggernaut to the Death Star from the Star Wars movies .
“ In a few days we start pressing FIRE for the first time , ” he wrote .
As Trump prepares @ @ @ @ @ @ @ advantages of incumbency , Biden faces his biggest test yet .
Can he really lead a Rebel Alliance from his basement ?

The Tampa, Florida, rally for Joe Biden on Thursday evening began as it normally might have, before a once-in-a-century pandemic transformed all aspects of American life, including the presidential campaign. A local high school student recited the pledge of allegiance, a campaign organizer pleaded with supporters to volunteer and a local DJ spun R&B music between speakers.
But in a sign of how profoundly the coronavirus crisis has reshaped American politics, that was where the similarities ended.
With much of the US still in lockdown, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has been forced to take his campaign to unseat Donald Trump online. It has not always been easy.
His campaign’s first attempt to recreate a traditional rally – part of a virtual swing through the battleground state of Florida – was later described by his opponents as an “unmitigated technological failure”. The video stream was glitchy and pixelated. The audio was choppy, rendering some remarks nearly incomprehensible. And there were lengthy delays between speakers and at one point, the feed went dark for several minutes.
“Am I on?” asked Biden, beaming into the telecast from his home in Wilmington, Delaware, where he has been isolated since the middle of March. An off-camera voice replied that he was. Biden removed a pair of aviator sunglasses as he walked toward the camera.
“Good evening, Tampa. Thanks so much for tuning in,” he continued, a hint of irritation in his voice. “I wish we could have done this together – and it had gone a little more smoothly.”
For nearly two months, Biden has been the test subject in a novel political experiment: running for president in the age of Covid-19.
Social distancing restrictions imposed to stop the spread of the virus have already starved the campaign of a victory tour to mark his ascent to the Democratic nomination. It may well deny Democrats the chance to formally nominate him in person at the party’s national convention this summer. Endorsements from former rivals and party leaders occur online to varying degrees of fanfare. . The remote set-up, anathema to Biden’s back-slapping, glad-handing approach to politics, has left the candidate walled off from voters and competing for visibility.
Yet, technical difficulties aside, his campaign of confinement seems to be working.
Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton at a virtual town hall during which she endorsed him last month. Photograph: Joe Biden Presidential Campaign HANDOUT/EPA
In recent weeks, Biden has widened his lead over Trump as the president’s support slips amid growing disapproval of his response to the pandemic. Surveys from Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, North Carolina and Arizona – key battlegrounds that Trump won in 2016 – show Biden ahead. At a recent virtual fundraiser last week, Jennifer O’Malley Dillon, his new campaign manager, expressed optimism about Biden’s prospects in Florida and Arizona.
“The natural state of this race is to be a referendum on Donald Trump and every time Donald Trump steps to the microphone he hurts himself,” said Mark Mellman, a veteran Democratic pollster. “That’s a pretty good position for Joe Biden to be in.”
Biden initially struggled to adapt to his cloistered reality. In March, the campaign turned a recreation room in the basement of his home into a studio, though not fast enough for his critics, who launched a “Where’s Joe” campaign to mark the candidate’s relative disappearance from the national stage.
But since then, Biden has been busy. Nearly every day he makes appearances on local TV news channels or national talkshows. He launched a podcast, where he has hosted conversations with prominent Democratic governors and potential vice-presidential candidates. He spends time each day speaking with a voter – a frontline worker, campaign volunteers – and he participated in what the campaign billed as a “virtual rope line”.
“So what’s up?” he said to Ashley Ruiz of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, one of several voters on the rope line. “Tell me about your situation, Ash.”
Biden’s rise in the polls comes as he contends with an allegation from Tara Reade, a former aide in his Senate office who accused him of sexual assault in 1993. In an interview this week with Megyn Kelly, the former Fox News and NBC television host, Reade said he should withdraw from the presidential race.
Biden has forcefully denied the allegation. “It’s not true, I am saying unequivocally. It never, never happened,” he said last week, in an interview addressing her claim for the first time publicly.
Publicly, Democrats, including prominent #MeToo advocates, have rallied around Biden, though privately some in the party have expressed concern about the continuous drip of reporting on the matter.
So far the allegation appears to have marginally dented his reputation, but not his lead. Most voters – 86% – are aware of the allegation, according to a Monmouth poll, which found the electorate divided over whether they viewed the claim as credible. At the same time, the poll showed Biden nine points ahead of Trump.
Despite Trump’s falling electoral fortunes, many Democrats remain anxious about Biden’s position – and his strategy.
David Axelrod and David Plouffe, two of Barack Obama’s top campaign strategists, implored Biden’s campaign to expand its digital footprint in a joint New York Times op-ed that compared the atmospherics of the candidate’s home videos to “an astronaut beaming back to earth from the International Space Station”.
“Online speeches from his basement won’t cut it,” they wrote.
Lis Smith, the former top adviser to Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, followed with an op-ed on Thursday that offered a blueprint for turning Biden into the “hottest bad boy and disrupter in the media game”. She suggested his campaign use TV appearances and digital content to highlight Biden’s empathy, a trait even supporters say the president has lacked in response to the rising coronavirus death toll.
Part of the campaign’s evolving digital strategy includes partnering with groups that already have an online presence, like JoeMamas2020, a national coalition of “moms, caregivers, moms to be, aunts & all the parental figures in between” with about 27,000 Facebook and 1,200 Twitter followers. The group has helped amplify Biden’s appearances and policy proposals while spreading the word about upcoming events.
Julie Zebrak, the group’s co-founder, said the online army is growing with women energized to help elect a candidate who promises to restore stability and calm after four years of what Trump’s critics view as chaos and controversy.
“We are all extremely enthusiastic for Joe Biden to beat Donald Trump,” she said.
Yet the same traits that endear Biden to a growing coalition of suburban women and Never Trump Republicans have largely failed to excite younger, progressive voters. It’s not that they prefer Trump – they don’t – but a lack of enthusiasm among those voters could spell trouble in November if they stay home or vote for a third-party candidate.
The campaign has also ramped up its outreach to young people, who overwhelmingly supported Biden’s rival Bernie Sanders. On Friday, Biden presented his economic pitch in an appearance on NowThis, a social-media-heavy news outlet with a young, progressive audience.
“This crisis hit harder and will last longer because Donald Trump spent the last three years undermining the core pillars of our economic strength,” Biden said in remarks that attacked Trump’s stimulus efforts a kind of “cronyism” and corporate welfare. Before he began speaking, Biden removed a face mask, a pointed rebuke of the president who had refused to wear one.
Still, new research conducted on behalf of NextGen America found many young people weren’t convinced Biden’s policies meet the scale of the challenges bearing down on their generation.
This makes the efforts of groups like Progressive Turnout Project, which endorsed him this week, all the more important. In the coming months, the group is investing more than $52m to turn out low-propensity Democratic voters – including young people and people of color – in 17 key battleground states.
“The best thing we can do is go and knock on doors and have face-to-face conversations with voters,” said Alex Morgan, the group’s executive director. “We are still looking to do that. But it’ll be knocking on that door and then taking a few big steps back and having a more distant conversation.”
Biden’s campaign also faces another looming threat. The Michigan congressman Justin Amash, who left the Republican party last year after voting to impeach Trump, recently announced that he would seek the Libertarian party nomination.
His entrance has alarmed Democrats, who fear he could siphon off Never Trump voters who might otherwise back Biden, particularly in Amash’s home state of Michigan, where third-party candidates pulled away a combined 5% of the vote share in 2016. Hillary Clinton lost the state by just 10,704 votes, less than 0.25%.
Barack Obama endorses Biden via video message in mid-April. Photograph: Brian Cahn/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Many Democrats believe Biden’s fate may well rest on his ability to persuade their own side to vote.
“Trump has shown no desire or ability to moderate for those swing voters in this election,” said Addisu Demissie, who served as Cory Booker’s presidential campaign manager. “So those voters are now likely going to end up either Biden voters or non-voters or third-party voters, and that’s the competition.”
This week, Trump traveled to the battleground state of Arizona, where he toured a medical mask facility without wearing one himself. The visit was a symbolic show of his administration’s push to reopen the US economy but there were unmistakable elements of his signature campaign rallies, including the music that played when Trump finished his remarks (the Rolling Stones’ You Can’t Always Get What You Want).
Trump’s cross-country venture stood in striking contrast to Biden’s virtual swing through Florida – which included a rally, a roundtable in Jacksonville and an appearance on the local news in Tampa. The technical glitches only further highlighted the limitations of his confinement.
But the coronavirus has also upended Trump’s strategy, erasing the booming economy he has made a centerpiece of his re-election campaign. In recent weeks, his campaign has all but abandoned championing the president’s leadership, instead focusing its efforts on diminishing Biden.
Trump’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, previewed the onslaught on Twitter this week, comparing the Trump re-election juggernaut to the Death Star from the Star Wars movies. “In a few days we start pressing FIRE for the first time,” he wrote.
As Trump prepares to make even greater use of the advantages of incumbency, Biden faces his biggest test yet. Can he really lead a Rebel Alliance from his basement?


theguardian--2020-05-09--James Monroe review: a timely reminder of the Era of Good Feelings

Why read a biography of James Monroe , the fifth American president ?
Not , for British readers , merely because Tim McGrath begins with the sacking of Washington in 1814 , which led to Monroe ’ s appointment as secretary of war and eventual election as president .
Nor simply because Monroe had a fascinating career , crossing the Delaware with Washington on Christmas Day 1776 and being seriously wounded at Trenton the next day ; serving as governor and senator of Virginia ; twice being minister to France and once to Britain ; being elected president twice ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the nation ’ s 55th birthday .
This last of the founding generation to be president bridged the Revolution – Jefferson was his teacher , friend and neighbor , James Madison a lifelong friend and sometime rival – with the first sectional conflicts of the Antebellum era .
This is more than an accident of dates : once the country ’ s independence was truly secure following the War of 1812 , it could look to the new territories of “ Louisiana ” for expansion and an emerging presence on the world stage @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a unique generation .
As the Virginia lawyer Francis Gilmer commented , “ Monticello is most interesting on a summer night … Jefferson ’ s mind is the most capacious , Madison ’ s the most rapid , Monroe ’ s the most sure .
One has most learning , another most brilliancy , a third [ the ] most judgment .
Mr Jefferson surpasses in the management of bodies of men & Monroe of individuals.
” McGrath writes of the “ calling of honorable public service that echoes throughout Monroe ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ friend Madison for Congress to reaffirm a principle , “ a heartfelt belief that a new American government was not American without safeguarding the rights of its citizens .
Politicians rarely think this way now or in 1788 , but Monroe did.
” Aspects of Monroe ’ s presidency are surprisingly modern .
He began by following Washington ’ s example of making a tour of the country , garnering political capital for the changes in national policy he sought , seeking ( and mostly succeeding , for a time ) to unite @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
His first term was known , not without reason , as the “ Era of Good Feelings ” .
Monroe wanted Congress to fund roads and canals as “ internal improvements ” to aid economic growth .
It did not .
In the aftermath of the Panic of 1819 , he proposed relief for land purchasers , as “ the purchases were made when the price of every article had risen to its greatest height , and that the installments are due at a period of great depression.
” He championed defence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of international relief , requesting $ 50,000 from Congress to send to Caracas after an earthquake .
There are more direct parallels with our own day .
This , from Monroe ’ s remarks against ratification of the constitution in 1788 , could have served as a frontispiece for the Mueller Report : As McGrath comments , “ The thought that a foreign power could hold such sway within the president ’ s own circle haunted Monroe … ‘ Foreign nations , by their intrigues , have great influence in each state , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” Monroe opposed forcible removal of Native Americans as “ revolting to humanity , and to the honor of the nation ” , but his policy of voluntary removal combined with efforts at assimilation through education and agriculture was doomed when Andrew Jackson came to power .
Divisions over slavery were most pronounced in the controversy in 1820 about the admission to the union of Missouri and Maine , which resulted in the Missouri Compromise .
Monroe embodied the contradictions of slavery , seeing its dangers and opposing it in principle even as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ governor of Virginia he recommended some clemency after a slave revolt , but he concluded that to end slavery was too great a step , which he could not accomplish alone .
As McGrath writes , “ Perhaps it is caution , not conscience , that makes cowards of us all.
” Monroe ’ s deliberative decision-making led to many wise actions , particularly in foreign policy .
In partnership with his secretary of state , John Quincy Adams , he was able to forge a pact with Britain against the slave trade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , negotiate a treaty with Spain that put the United States on the Pacific coast , and begin recognizing the Latin American republics that had revolted from Spanish rule .
Monroe ’ s famous doctrine , designed to forestall any attempt by European powers to re-establish colonies in South America , declared the era of colonization in the western hemisphere over and declared that an attack on the new republics would be considered “ as an attack on ourselves ” .
It was armed neutrality and protection rather than collective defence , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a bedrock principle of US foreign policy .
The doctrine was fiercely opposed by , among others , Metternich , who called it “ no less dangerous ” than the American Revolution .
It was – to monarchies , exactly as Monroe intended .
Like Harry Truman , another quintessentially American president beset by money and farming troubles throughout his life , Monroe was not immune from the temptations of partisanship but sought to rise above it and to serve honorably , doing the right thing for the country by his lights .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of his work endures .
Before Monroe left for France to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase , Jefferson and Madison gave him a dinner .
After a hearty meal and “ some tolerable Singing ” , Monroe made a toast to “ the union of the United States – may political discussion only tend to cement it ” .
America could use another Era of Good Feelings .

Why read a biography of James Monroe, the fifth American president?
Not, for British readers, merely because Tim McGrath begins with the sacking of Washington in 1814, which led to Monroe’s appointment as secretary of war and eventual election as president.
Nor simply because Monroe had a fascinating career, crossing the Delaware with Washington on Christmas Day 1776 and being seriously wounded at Trenton the next day; serving as governor and senator of Virginia; twice being minister to France and once to Britain; being elected president twice; and dying on 4 July 1831, the nation’s 55th birthday.
This last of the founding generation to be president bridged the Revolution – Jefferson was his teacher, friend and neighbor, James Madison a lifelong friend and sometime rival – with the first sectional conflicts of the Antebellum era. This is more than an accident of dates: once the country’s independence was truly secure following the War of 1812, it could look to the new territories of “Louisiana” for expansion and an emerging presence on the world stage.
We see here the twilight of a unique generation. As the Virginia lawyer Francis Gilmer commented, “Monticello is most interesting on a summer night … Jefferson’s mind is the most capacious, Madison’s the most rapid, Monroe’s the most sure. One has most learning, another most brilliancy, a third [the] most judgment. Mr Jefferson surpasses in the management of bodies of men & Monroe of individuals.”
If the president can escape punishment with so much felicity, what a delightful prospect must it be to a foreign nation James Monroe
McGrath writes of the “calling of honorable public service that echoes throughout Monroe’s life”. He ran against his friend Madison for Congress to reaffirm a principle, “a heartfelt belief that a new American government was not American without safeguarding the rights of its citizens. Politicians rarely think this way now or in 1788, but Monroe did.”
Aspects of Monroe’s presidency are surprisingly modern. He began by following Washington’s example of making a tour of the country, garnering political capital for the changes in national policy he sought, seeking (and mostly succeeding, for a time) to unite Republicans and Federalists in a common cause. His first term was known, not without reason, as the “Era of Good Feelings”.
Monroe wanted Congress to fund roads and canals as “internal improvements” to aid economic growth. It did not. In the aftermath of the Panic of 1819, he proposed relief for land purchasers, as “the purchases were made when the price of every article had risen to its greatest height, and that the installments are due at a period of great depression.” He championed defence, military preparedness and even the beginnings of international relief, requesting $50,000 from Congress to send to Caracas after an earthquake.
There are more direct parallels with our own day. This, from Monroe’s remarks against ratification of the constitution in 1788, could have served as a frontispiece for the Mueller Report:
If [the president] and his counselors can escape punishment with so much felicity, what a delightful prospect must it be to a foreign nation, which is desirous of gaining territorial or commercial advantages over us to practice on them? The certainty of success would be equal to the impunity.
As McGrath comments, “The thought that a foreign power could hold such sway within the president’s own circle haunted Monroe … ‘Foreign nations, by their intrigues, have great influence in each state, in the election of the president.’”
Monroe opposed forcible removal of Native Americans as “revolting to humanity, and to the honor of the nation”, but his policy of voluntary removal combined with efforts at assimilation through education and agriculture was doomed when Andrew Jackson came to power.
Divisions over slavery were most pronounced in the controversy in 1820 about the admission to the union of Missouri and Maine, which resulted in the Missouri Compromise. Monroe embodied the contradictions of slavery, seeing its dangers and opposing it in principle even as he was himself a slaveholder. As governor of Virginia he recommended some clemency after a slave revolt, but he concluded that to end slavery was too great a step, which he could not accomplish alone.
As McGrath writes, “Perhaps it is caution, not conscience, that makes cowards of us all.”
The capture and burning of Washington by the British in 1814. Photograph: North Wind Picture Archives/Alamy
Monroe’s deliberative decision-making led to many wise actions, particularly in foreign policy. In partnership with his secretary of state, John Quincy Adams, he was able to forge a pact with Britain against the slave trade, resolve a boundary issue with Russia, negotiate a treaty with Spain that put the United States on the Pacific coast, and begin recognizing the Latin American republics that had revolted from Spanish rule.
Monroe’s famous doctrine, designed to forestall any attempt by European powers to re-establish colonies in South America, declared the era of colonization in the western hemisphere over and declared that an attack on the new republics would be considered “as an attack on ourselves”.
It was armed neutrality and protection rather than collective defence, but it has endured for two centuries as a bedrock principle of US foreign policy. The doctrine was fiercely opposed by, among others, Metternich, who called it “no less dangerous” than the American Revolution. It was – to monarchies, exactly as Monroe intended.
Like Harry Truman, another quintessentially American president beset by money and farming troubles throughout his life, Monroe was not immune from the temptations of partisanship but sought to rise above it and to serve honorably, doing the right thing for the country by his lights. As with Truman, a surprising amount of his work endures.
Before Monroe left for France to negotiate the Louisiana Purchase, Jefferson and Madison gave him a dinner. After a hearty meal and “some tolerable Singing”, Monroe made a toast to “the union of the United States – may political discussion only tend to cement it”.
America could use another Era of Good Feelings.


theguardian--2020-05-09--'You can't ask the virus for a truce': reopening America is Trump's biggest gamble

On Monday the Republican governor of Nebraska , Pete Ricketts , a close ally of Donald Trump and frequent visitor to the White House , opened his daily coronavirus briefing with a big announcement .
“ Today is May 4 , ” he said , “ the first day of loosened restrictions statewide.
” With his declaration , Ricketts placed Nebraska at the vanguard of America ’ s reopening .
Churches can now open their doors to worshippers , wedding bells and funeral dirges will be heard once more , hospitals can reschedule elective surgeries , and most Nebraskans will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , nails manicured , bodies massaged and skin tattooed .
Restaurants are once again serving diners , though at half capacity .
Nebraska Crossing has become one of the first malls in North America to welcome back shoppers .
But the statistics paint a very different picture .
In the last seven days , the state recorded a 57 % leap in the daily number of new cases , to a total of 7,190 .
The death rate too is rising sharply , standing at 90 .
Measured in Covid-19 cases per 100,000 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worst outbreak of the disease outside the early hotspots of New York and the north-east , Louisiana and Illinois , all of which are now seeing the pandemic declining .
Nebraska ’ s lack of preparedness for the challenges involved in reopening is even more alarming .
According to the Covid Exit Strategy , a group of public health and crisis experts with White House and US government experience , Nebraska is 49th out of 50 states in terms of its readiness for rebooting its economy .
It tests about a third the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ By the time it started opening up this week , Nebraska has tested about 19 people per thousand of its population .
Compare that with another jurisdiction with a similarly small population : Iceland .
That country has managed to contain the virus , largely by testing 151 per thousand , eight times as many .
“ Opening up prematurely , which is going on in most states in the US right now , is only going to make matters worse , ” said Eric Topol , professor of molecular medicine at Scripps @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will inevitably lead to more cases of infection , then intensive care patients , then deaths .
Most of the lives we ’ ve lost so far have been unnecessary , so why do we want to add to that toll ?
” Nebraska is not an aberration within the US – at least 42 states have begun easing restrictions .
Many of those states are , like Nebraska , far from having the disease under control and insufficiently prepared to meet the challenges ahead .
Nor is Nebraska ’ s decision to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the direct consequence of policy from the White House .
It is the product of Donald Trump ’ s latest – and arguably most breathtaking – gamble .
He is rolling the dice not only on his own political life ahead of November ’ s election , but also on the lives of tens of thousands of Americans .
A day after Governor Ricketts heralded Nebraska ’ s reopening , Trump praised those states moving quickly to get the economy back up even while the virus rages on .
The president decided not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Honeywell factory in Arizona that makes the very masks that he declined .
In the background , the factory ’ s sound system blasted Live and Let Die .
Trump has been criticized for displaying a failure of empathy in his handling of the coronavirus pandemic , but even by his own standards his remarks at Honeywell were cold-blooded .
“ We have to get our country open , we can ’ t keep our country closed , ” he said .
Asked whether reopening the economy too soon could have a cost @ @ @ @ @ @ @ death .
“ Will some people be affected badly ?
Yes , ” he said .
For the army of epidemiologists , health crisis experts , biostatisticians and other scientists who have hands-on experience of combatting global disease , Trump ’ s insistence on pressing ahead with reopening America while the virus is still ascendant is tantamount to waving the white flag .
“ You don ’ t stop fighting a war in the middle , just because it ’ s gotten expensive or burdensome .
And you can ’ t ask a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Konyndyk , a key player in the US response to Ebola in 2014 , wrote on Twitter .
Trump , he added , was “ surrendering to the virus rather than fighting it ” .
The US now has more than 1.2m confirmed cases of coronavirus and 74,000 deaths – vastly more than anywhere else in the world .
By the end of this month the country is almost certain to pass the grim landmark of 100,000 deaths , and epidemiologists are already talking about 200,000 by late summer .
More disturbingly for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ analysis out this week showed that if you exclude from the data New York – where the number of new cases is now falling – the rest of the US is still on an inexorably upward curve .
Yet there continues to be a lack of urgency within the Trump administration in terms of its response to the crisis .
There is no sign , in particular , of a federal drive for increased testing , without which states like Nebraska will begin to reopen blindfolded .
“ It ’ s hard to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” said Howard Forman , professor of public health at Yale University .
“ Why wouldn ’ t you prioritize the one lever that we know works – central coordination of a massive testing strategy ?
Yet that hasn ’ t been a national strategy in the US.
” Topol is equally bemused by Trump encouraging states to go ahead with easing the lockdown before safety measures are in place .
“ Most of the country went through mitigation for several weeks , with terrible economic consequences .
Why did we do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abandon that strategy in defiance of protecting Americans ?
” Topol ’ s frustration with federal leadership is heightened by what he sees as optimistic signs coming from science .
A study suggests the antiviral drug remdesivir has promise in helping Covid-19 patients recover faster ; experimentation is under way with monoclonal antibodies that might offer scope for treatment and prevention of the virus ; and above all the race to find a vaccine is happening at a hitherto unimaginable speed .
“ Science is moving at an astonishing pace and it ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ buying some time to let the science do its job – instead we are seeing the opposite : lack of leadership , chaos , deaths.
” As state after state scrambles to begin reopening , an especially thorny question has started to rear its head : what is the value of an American life ?
Andrew Cuomo , the governor of New York , expressed the thought most bluntly this week .
“ The fundamental question , which we ’ re not articulating , is how much is a human life worth ?
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the human cost because of more lives lost , ” he said .
Even Dr Anthony Fauci , the infectious disease expert who has been central to the federal Covid-19 response , addressed the subject .
“ How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept ?
” he said , adding that states that lifted restrictions were “ inviting a rebound ” .
One reason that states like Nebraska may choose blithely to reopen , despite the risks , is that the impact will not be visible immediately .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ wave to build , ” said Forman .
“ My guess is that where states reopen we are going to see the build of a wave sometime late in the summer that will start to be more and more scary.
” Topol agreed .
“ In the early days of reopening everybody is feeling great .
The weather is perfect , people are congregating .
Check back in a month and see how it ’ s going.
” There ’ s another reason for complacency about the virus – many people can ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
As the coronavirus crisis deepens in America , evidence is mounting that its impact is concentrated among certain racial and ethnic groups and elder Americans , often behind closed doors .
Though anybody is at risk from the contagion , the virus has rampaged through prisons and nursing homes and exacted an especially heavy toll in African American and other minority communities .
“ It is abundantly clear that this virus has not just exposed , but exacerbated , the deep , structural racial inequities that have been taking the lives and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” the former Democratic presidential candidate Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey told the Guardian .
“ The stunning health disparities we ’ ve seen with Covid-19 will not simply disappear as states begin to reopen – they will remain and get worse .
This means communities of color will continue to face heightened health risks due to the president ’ s reckless and irresponsible guidance.
” The pattern that Booker describes is amply illustrated in Nebraska .
Here , the pandemic is hitting hardest in the center of the state , where @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with largely immigrant workforces .
“ People are afraid , ” said Audrey Lutz , executive director of the Multicultural Coalition , a non-profit working with immigrants in the area .
“ Fear is pervasive .
You have to provide for your family , you know a lot of people who are sick , you are maybe sick yourself , so what do you do ?
” JBS Beef , one of the most stricken meatpacking plants , has had hundreds of confirmed Covid-19 cases but has stayed open after Trump declared meat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Health authorities have struggled to keep a grip on the plant as an incubator of the disease , a job made next to impossible by the dearth of testing in the area .
Lutz said that the national guard was providing 300 tests a day for Hall county and the surrounding health district covering JBS Beef .
At that rate it would take 12 days just to test every employee in the plant , let alone the other 80,000 people in the area .
“ It ’ s devastating , ” Lutz @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are not affected by the decisions that they make .
In our state , those people are white and privileged , while those who have to accept their decisions are minorities and immigrants – and they are paying a terrible price .
”

On Monday the Republican governor of Nebraska, Pete Ricketts, a close ally of Donald Trump and frequent visitor to the White House, opened his daily coronavirus briefing with a big announcement. “Today is May 4,” he said, “the first day of loosened restrictions statewide.”
With his declaration, Ricketts placed Nebraska at the vanguard of America’s reopening. Churches can now open their doors to worshippers, wedding bells and funeral dirges will be heard once more, hospitals can reschedule elective surgeries, and most Nebraskans will be able to resumehaving their hair cut, nails manicured, bodies massaged and skin tattooed.
Restaurants are once again serving diners, though at half capacity. Nebraska Crossing has become one of the first malls in North America to welcome back shoppers.
It’s a happy day in sunny Nebraska.
But the statistics paint a very different picture. In the last seven days, the state recorded a 57% leap in the daily number of new cases, to a total of 7,190. The death rate too is rising sharply, standing at 90.
A person wearing a protective mask and gloves cleans a door handle at a store in downtown Lexington, Nebraska, in April. Photograph: Dan Brouillette/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Measured in Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population, Nebraska is wrestling with the worst outbreak of the disease outside the early hotspots of New York and the north-east, Louisiana and Illinois, all of which are now seeing the pandemic declining.
Nebraska’s lack of preparedness for the challenges involved in reopening is even more alarming. According to the Covid Exit Strategy, a group of public health and crisis experts with White House and US government experience, Nebraska is 49th out of 50 states in terms of its readiness for rebooting its economy.
We have to get our country open. We can’t keep our country closed Donald Trump
It tests about a third the rate per capita of New York. By the time it started opening up this week, Nebraska has tested about 19 people per thousand of its population. Compare that with another jurisdiction with a similarly small population: Iceland.
That country has managed to contain the virus, largely by testing 151 per thousand, eight times as many.
“Opening up prematurely, which is going on in most states in the US right now, is only going to make matters worse,” said Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research in San Diego. “It will inevitably lead to more cases of infection, then intensive care patients, then deaths. Most of the lives we’ve lost so far have been unnecessary, so why do we want to add to that toll?”
Nebraska is not an aberration within the US – at least 42 states have begun easing restrictions. Many of those states are, like Nebraska, far from having the disease under control and insufficiently prepared to meet the challenges ahead.
Nor is Nebraska’s decision to reopen random or coincidental. It is the direct consequence of policy from the White House.
People visit Clearwater Beach after Governor Ron DeSantis opened the beaches on 4 May in Clearwater, Florida. Photograph: Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images
It is the product of Donald Trump’s latest – and arguably most breathtaking – gamble. He is rolling the dice not only on his own political life ahead of November’s election, but also on the lives of tens of thousands of Americans.
A day after Governor Ricketts heralded Nebraska’s reopening, Trump praised those states moving quickly to get the economy back up even while the virus rages on. The president decided not to wear a mask while touring a Honeywell factory in Arizona that makes the very masks that he declined.
In the background, the factory’s sound system blasted Live and Let Die.
Trump has been criticized for displaying a failure of empathy in his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, but even by his own standards his remarks at Honeywell were cold-blooded. “We have to get our country open, we can’t keep our country closed,” he said.
Asked whether reopening the economy too soon could have a cost, he replied with a euphemism for death. “Will some people be affected badly? Yes,” he said.
You don’t stop fighting a war in the middle, just because it’s gotten burdensome. You can’t ask a virus for a truce Jeremy Konyndyk, key player in Ebola response
For the army of epidemiologists, health crisis experts, biostatisticians and other scientists who have hands-on experience of combatting global disease, Trump’s insistence on pressing ahead with reopening America while the virus is still ascendant is tantamount to waving the white flag.
“You don’t stop fighting a war in the middle, just because it’s gotten expensive or burdensome. And you can’t ask a virus for a truce,” Jeremy Konyndyk, a key player in the US response to Ebola in 2014, wrote on Twitter. Trump, he added, was “surrendering to the virus rather than fighting it”.
The US now has more than 1.2m confirmed cases of coronavirus and 74,000 deaths – vastly more than anywhere else in the world. By the end of this month the country is almost certain to pass the grim landmark of 100,000 deaths, and epidemiologists are already talking about 200,000 by late summer.
More disturbingly for those states now lifting restrictions, new analysis out this week showed that if you exclude from the data New York – where the number of new cases is now falling – the rest of the US is still on an inexorably upward curve.
Kim Reynolds, governor of Iowa, Donald Trump and Mike Pence during an Oval Office meeting. Photograph: Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Yet there continues to be a lack of urgency within the Trump administration in terms of its response to the crisis. There is no sign, in particular, of a federal drive for increased testing, without which states like Nebraska will begin to reopen blindfolded.
“It’s hard to understand the politics from the White House,” said Howard Forman, professor of public health at Yale University. “Why wouldn’t you prioritize the one lever that we know works – central coordination of a massive testing strategy? Yet that hasn’t been a national strategy in the US.”
We should be buying some time to let the science do its job – instead we are seeing the opposite: lack of leadership, chaos, deaths Eric Topol, Scripps Research
Topol is equally bemused by Trump encouraging states to go ahead with easing the lockdown before safety measures are in place. “Most of the country went through mitigation for several weeks, with terrible economic consequences. Why did we do that if we are just going to abandon that strategy in defiance of protecting Americans?”
Topol’s frustration with federal leadership is heightened by what he sees as optimistic signs coming from science. A study suggests the antiviral drug remdesivir has promise in helping Covid-19 patients recover faster; experimentation is under way with monoclonal antibodies that might offer scope for treatment and prevention of the virus; and above all the race to find a vaccine is happening at a hitherto unimaginable speed.
“Science is moving at an astonishing pace and it’s all positive. We should be buying some time to let the science do its job – instead we are seeing the opposite: lack of leadership, chaos, deaths.”
As state after state scrambles to begin reopening, an especially thorny question has started to rear its head: what is the value of an American life? Andrew Cuomo, the governor of New York, expressed the thought most bluntly this week.
A train passes an I Want You To Stay Home billboard in Chicago on 7 May. Photograph: Christopher Dilts/Bloomberg via Getty Images
“The fundamental question, which we’re not articulating, is how much is a human life worth? The faster we reopen, the higher the human cost because of more lives lost,” he said.
Even Dr Anthony Fauci, the infectious disease expert who has been central to the federal Covid-19 response, addressed the subject. “How many deaths and how much suffering are you willing to accept?” he said, adding that states that lifted restrictions were “inviting a rebound”.
One reason that states like Nebraska may choose blithely to reopen, despite the risks, is that the impact will not be visible immediately. “It takes a while for a wave to build,” said Forman. “My guess is that where states reopen we are going to see the build of a wave sometime late in the summer that will start to be more and more scary.”
Topol agreed. “In the early days of reopening everybody is feeling great. The weather is perfect, people are congregating. Check back in a month and see how it’s going.”
This virus has not just exposed but exacerbated the deep, structural racial inequities that have taken the lives of people of color for generations Senator Cory Booker
There’s another reason for complacency about the virus – many people can’t see its ravages where they live. As the coronavirus crisis deepens in America, evidence is mounting that its impact is concentrated among certain racial and ethnic groups and elder Americans, often behind closed doors.
Though anybody is at risk from the contagion, the virus has rampaged through prisons and nursing homes and exacted an especially heavy toll in African American and other minority communities. “It is abundantly clear that this virus has not just exposed, but exacerbated, the deep, structural racial inequities that have been taking the lives and livelihoods people of color for generations,” the former Democratic presidential candidate Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey told the Guardian.
“The stunning health disparities we’ve seen with Covid-19 will not simply disappear as states begin to reopen – they will remain and get worse. This means communities of color will continue to face heightened health risks due to the president’s reckless and irresponsible guidance.”
The pattern that Booker describes is amply illustrated in Nebraska. Here, the pandemic is hitting hardest in the center of the state, where there is a concentration of meatpacking plants with largely immigrant workforces.
“People are afraid,” said Audrey Lutz, executive director of the Multicultural Coalition, a non-profit working with immigrants in the area. “Fear is pervasive. You have to provide for your family, you know a lot of people who are sick, you are maybe sick yourself, so what do you do?”
A worker wearing a protective mask disinfects the hand rails on an escalator at NorthPark Center mall in Dallas on 1 May. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images
JBS Beef, one of the most stricken meatpacking plants, has had hundreds of confirmed Covid-19 cases but has stayed open after Trump declared meat plants to be “critical infrastructure”. Health authorities have struggled to keep a grip on the plant as an incubator of the disease, a job made next to impossible by the dearth of testing in the area.
Lutz said that the national guard was providing 300 tests a day for Hall county and the surrounding health district covering JBS Beef. At that rate it would take 12 days just to test every employee in the plant, let alone the other 80,000 people in the area.
“It’s devastating,” Lutz said. “The people in power are not affected by the decisions that they make. In our state, those people are white and privileged, while those who have to accept their decisions are minorities and immigrants – and they are paying a terrible price.”


theguardian--2020-05-09--'It happened all at once': Tara Reade details assault claim against Joe Biden in Megyn Kelly intervi

'It happened all at once': Tara Reade details assault claim against Joe Biden in Megyn Kelly interview

Tara Reade repeated her allegations of sexual assault against Joe Biden in an in-depth interview with Megyn Kelly released on Friday , answering questions on who she shared her story with and why she supported the former vice president publicly in the past .
Reade has accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in 1993 , when she worked as an aide in his Senate office .
She told Kelly , a former Fox News and NBC host who memorably sparred with Trump during the 2016 campaign over his treatment of women , that Biden pushed her against the wall in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ against her will .
“ He had his hands underneath my clothes and it happened all at once , ” she said .
She said Biden pulled back when he saw she wasn ’ t reciprocating .
“ He looked at me and said ‘ C ’ mon man , I heard you liked me ’ , ” Reade said .
“ He pointed his finger at me and said ‘ You ’ re nothing to me ’ , ” she added .
“ It is not true , ” Biden said in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his first public comment since the allegation first emerged in late March .
“ I ’ m saying unequivocally it never , never happened.
” He again denied the allegation in an appearance on a local news channel in Tampa on Thursday , after Kelly published excerpts of Reade ’ s interview .
“ Nothing ever happened with Tara Reade , ” Biden said , adding : “ In this case , the truth is the claims are flat out false.
” In the 42-minute interview , Kelly asked Reade detailed questions about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ says she faced afterwards .
She was also pressed on who she told about the allegations and why she came forward with them now .
Reade was one of eight women who came forward last year to accuse Biden of conduct that made them feel uncomfortable during her employment in his office , which lasted less than a year from 1992 to 1993 .
She first went public with her allegations of sexual abuse on a 25 March podcast , and has repeated her allegations to several media outlets since .
Read said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before , and faced difficulties in getting heard by news outlets .
Reporters of several media organizations , including the New York Times and Vox have investigated Reade ’ s story in the past months .
Reade also told Kelly she thought Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and that the former vice president should not be running for president on his character .
Reade also said she would “ absolutely ” be willing to tell her story under oath and submit to cross-examinations .
But asked if she would take a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I ’ m not a criminal .
Joe Biden should take the polygraph.
” The interview aired in part on Thursday as the San Luis Obispo Tribune unearthed a 1996 court document , which stated that Reade had told to her ex-husband that she had been subject to sexual harassment while working in Biden ’ s Senate office .
It is the first contemporaneous record to corroborate her claim .
According to the document , filed in the California Superior Court and dated 25 March 1996 , Reade ’ s ex-husband , Theodore @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about “ a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment , in US Senator Joe Biden ’ s office.
” The Tribune reported that the document does not state who committed the harassment nor does it mention Reade ’ s more recent allegation of sexual assault .
Dronen wrote that Reade told him she had struck a deal with the chief of staff in Biden ’ s office and “ left her position.
” The experience had a “ very traumatic effect ” on Reade , he added in the court @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her request for a temporary restraining order against him .
Trump ’ s re-election campaign had already sought to weaponize the allegation to attack Biden ’ s character while Republicans have used the accusation to accuse Congressional Democrats who are standing by their nominee of hypocrisy .
Trump has been more circumspect than his campaign about the allegation .
In an hour-long interview with Fox & Friends on Friday , he said he hoped Reade ’ s allegation was “ false ” while comparing Biden ’ s predicament sympathetically to his own .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ and assault by more than a dozen women , charges which he has denied .
He previously advised Biden to “ go out and fight ” the claim .
On Thursday , the law firm of Douglas Wigdor announced that it was representing Reade .
Wigdor , who donated to Trump ’ s 2016 presidential campaign , has previously represented Fox News employees in a race discrimination and harassment lawsuit against the network as well as women who accused movie producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct .
“ Our representation of Tara Reade @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” the firm said in a statement .
Kelly was among the most prominent women at Fox News to accuse the network ’ s chairman , Roger Ailes , of sexual harassment .
Ailes resigned in disgrace in 2016 , and died a year later .
Their decision to publicly expose Ailes was the basis for a feature film last year , Bombshell .

Tara Reade repeated her allegations of sexual assault against Joe Biden in an in-depth interview with Megyn Kelly released on Friday evening, answering questions on who she shared her story with and why she supported the former vice-president publicly in the past.
In her first major appearance since she came forward in March, Reade tearfully recounted the alleged assault, offering new details about three minutes of her life she says she will “never forget”.
Biden has forcefully denied Reade’s allegations.
Reade told Kelly, a former Fox News and NBC host, she was excited when she was hired as a staff assistant in Biden’s Senate office in 1992. Almost immediately, she said, Biden made her uncomfortable with behavior she said included putting his hand on her neck in a meeting.
Reade said she reported Biden’s conduct to superiors and was told to dress more conservatively. All such former Biden staffers have emphatically denied ever being informed of such a complaint.
Not long after this conversation, Reade told Kelly, she was asked to deliver a bag to Biden in the Russell Senate office building. It was then, she said, that Biden pinned her against a wall in a hallway and penetrated her with his fingers, against her will.
“He had his hands underneath my clothes and it happened all at once,” Reade continued. She said Biden asked if she wanted to “go somewhere else” and told her “I want to fuck you”, a detail she has not previously shared.
She said Biden pulled back when he saw she wasn’t reciprocating. “He looked at me and said ‘C’mon man, I heard you liked me’,” Reade said. “He pointed his finger at me and said ‘You’re nothing to me’,” she added.
“It is not true,” Biden told MSNBC last week, his first public comment since the allegation emerged in March. “I’m saying unequivocally it never, never happened.”
He again denied the allegation on a news channel in Tampa on Thursday, after Kelly published excerpts of her interview.
“In this case, the truth is the claims are flat out false,” he said.
In the 42-minute interview, Kelly asked Reade detailed questions about the alleged incident and the repercussions Reade says she faced.
“I don’t really care if people believe it or not,” Reade said. “I‘ve had to live with it and it’s just one of those things that shattered and impacted my life. It changed everything about my life.”
She was also pressed on who she told about the allegations and why she came forward now.
Reade said she did not consider telling her story publicly in 2008, when Biden was chosen as Barack Obama’s running mate, because her daughter was still young. Asked why she voted for Obama and Biden in 2008 and 2012, the lifelong Democrat said: “I wasn’t voting for him. I was voting for Obama.”
Reade was one of eight women who came forward last year to accuse Biden of conduct that made them feel uncomfortable. She went public with her allegation of sexual abuse on a podcast on 25 March.
Several media organizations, including the New York Times, the Associated Press and Vox, have investigated Reade’s story.
Reade told Kelly she thought Biden should withdraw from the presidential race and should not be running on his character.
She said she would “absolutely” be willing to tell her story under oath and submit to cross-examination. Asked if she would take a polygraph test, she said: “I’m not a criminal. Joe Biden should take the polygraph.”
On Thursday, the San Luis Obispo Tribune unearthed a court document which stated that Reade told her ex-husband she had been subject to sexual harassment while working in Biden’s office. It is the first contemporaneous record to emerge.
According to the document filed in the California superior court on 25 March 1996, Theodore Dronen said Reade told him about “a problem she was having at work regarding sexual harassment, in US senator Joe Biden’s office”. The Tribune reported that the document does not state who committed the harassment nor does it mention Reade’s allegation of sexual assault.
Dronen wrote that Reade told him she had struck a deal with the chief of staff and “left her position”. The experience had a “very traumatic effect”, he added. The court declaration was in response to Reade’s request for a temporary restraining order against Dronen.
Donald Trump’s campaign has sought to weaponize the allegation while Republicans have accused Democrats standing by their nominee of hypocrisy. Trump has been more circumspect. In an interview with Fox & Friends on Friday, the president said he hoped Reade’s allegation was “false” and compared Biden’s predicament to his own.
Trump has been accused of sexual misconduct and assault by more than a dozen women, charges he denies. He has advised Biden to “go out and fight” the claim.
On Thursday, the law firm of Douglas Wigdor announced that it was representing Reade. Wigdor, who donated to Trump’s 2016 campaign, has represented Fox News employees in a race discrimination and harassment lawsuit as well as women who accused movie producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct.
“Our representation of Tara Reade has nothing to do with politics,” the firm said.
Kelly, who memorably sparred with Trump in 2016 over his treatment of women, was among prominent women at Fox News to accuse its chairman, Roger Ailes, of sexual harassment. Ailes resigned in 2016 and died a year later. The decision to expose Ailes was the basis for a film last year, Bombshell.