At Tuesday's coronavirus press briefing, President Donald Trump touted his temporary immigration ban, claiming that it will benefit Americans who have been laid off from their jobs.
Commenters on social media did not buy the president's explanation, pointing out that it didn't make any sense.
The US state of Missouri on Tuesday sued China's leadership over the COVID-19 coronavirus, seeking damages over what it described as deliberate deception and insufficient action to stop the pandemic.
The first-of-a-kind state lawsuit comes amid calls in Congress to punish China and a campaign by President Donald Trump to focus on Beijing's role, amid criticism of his own handling of the crisis.
Missouri, led by Trump's Republican Party, filed a lawsuit in a federal court seeking an unspecified amount in damages and an injunction on continuing actions by China that are alleged to include hoarding of protective equipment.
"The Chinese government lied to the world about the danger and contagious nature of COVID-19, silenced whistleblowers and did little to stop the spread of the disease," Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt said.
"They must be held accountable for their actions," he said.
The lawsuit's chances of success are far from certain as US law, under the principle of sovereign immunity, generally forbids court action against foreign governments.
Missouri addressed the issue by suing the ruling Communist Party, arguing that it is not formally an organ of the Chinese state.
Citing an estimate that Missouri may lose tens of billions of dollars due to the virus and action to prevent it, the lawsuit accused the Chinese Communist Party of being in "knowing, willful and in reckless disregard of the rights of the state and its residents."
The lawsuit pointed to Chinese authorities' early suppression of news of the virus when it broke out in Wuhan, including detentions of whistleblowers.
It also noted that China initially said there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission.
Despite Trump's heavy criticism of China, his administration has been lukewarm about efforts to take action against Beijing, mindful that the Asian power is a major source of masks and other medical supplies desperately needed by the United States.
Under its conservative leadership, Missouri has imposed fewer COVID-19 restrictions than most US states, including allowing businesses to remain open as long as they limit the number of people present and ensure space between them.
Missouri as of Tuesday had reported 189 COVID-19 deaths, half of them in St. Louis.
© 2020 AFP
At Tuesday's White House coronavirus press briefing, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was asked about the large corporations that dipped into the Paycheck Protection Act, taking funds that were intended for small businesses and leaving businesses in critical need with nothing.
Mnuchin's response was to praise companies like Shake Shack that voluntarily agreed to return the money — and he said he will be "putting up some FAQs" that will instruct big corporations not to take funds from the program.
Watch below:
Far-right Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has been inundated with criticism for his recent assertion that if more coronavirus deaths is the price that the U.S. has to pay for reopening its economy, so be it. And instead of walking back that assertion, Patrick doubled down on it during an appearance on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program.
Social distancing, Patrick stressed to Carlson, is crushing the U.S. economy — and saving lives, Patrick insisted, isn’t the only thing to be concerned about.
Patrick told Carlson, “When you start shutting down society and people start losing their paychecks and businesses can’t open and governments aren’t getting revenues…. I’m sorry to say, I was right on this. And I’m thankful that we are now, Tucker, beginning to open up Texas and other states because it’s been long overdue.”
The Texas Republican went on to say, “There are more important things than living, and that’s saving this country for my children and my grandchildren — and saving this country for all of us. And I don’t want to die. Nobody wants to die. But maybe we’ve got to take some risks and get back in the game — and get this country back up and running.”
Media Matters’ Andrew Lawrence tweeted a clip of Patrick making those assertions, and plenty of Twitter users have been slamming the Texas lieutenant governor.
@EdKamen posted, “Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick said, ‘There are more important things than living.’ Uh … what are they?” And @RogueSNRadvisor wrote, “Yeah he wants everyone else to take the risks.”
Australia-based Twitter user Suzie Calalesina, @SuzieGabriella, cited Patrick as a prime example of why so many people around the world view U.S. politics as a mess.
“Is this for real???,” Calalesina posted. “In Australia we went into lockdown in March and if our politicians spoke like this they would gone!!! I’m sorry but the US is in worse shape than is thought globally.”
@660Mary tweeted, “I don’t EVER want to hear another conservative Republican claim to be pro-life! EVER! @LtGovTX.” And @Panos_Iliop wrote, “This is, without a doubt, the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard. What are these people on?”
On Tuesday, writing for The New York Times, journalist Ken Vogel documented how far-right groups aligned with the Republican Party have worked behind the scenes to support the anti-lockdown protests popping up all around the country.
"Groups in the loose coalition have tapped their networks to drive up turnout at recent rallies in state capitals, dispatched their lawyers to file lawsuits, and paid for polling and research to undercut the arguments behind restrictions that have closed businesses and limited the movement of most Americans," wrote Vogel. "Among those fighting the orders are populist groups that played pivotal roles in the beginning of Tea Party protests starting more than a decade ago, such as FreedomWorks and Tea Party Patriots. Also involved are a law firm led partly by former Trump White House officials, a network of state-based conservative policy groups, and an ad hoc coalition of conservative leaders known as Save Our Country that has advised the White House on strategies for a tiered reopening of the economy."
"Conditions are hardly ideal for a protest movement related to the virus," wrote Vogel. "In addition to the health risks, demonstrators potentially face legal exposure for violating the very measures they are protesting. Plus, some key Republican leaders have embraced the types of restrictions being targeted, while powerful grass-roots mobilizing groups, including those spearheaded by the billionaire activist Charles Koch, have so far not embraced the protests. Still, the fight has emerged as a galvanizing cause for a vocal element of Mr. Trump’s base and others on the political right."
"The protests mostly appear to have been organized by local residents, and are framed primarily as pushback against what they view as government overreach," wrote Vogel. "But some rallies have prominently featured iconography boosting Mr. Trump and Republicans and denouncing Democrats, as well the occasional Confederate flag and signs promoting conspiracy theories. As was the case with the Tea Party movement, established national groups that generally align with the Republican Party have sought to fuel the protests, harnessing their energy in a manner that can increase their profiles and build their membership base and donor rolls."
For example, "Most of FreedomWorks’s 40 employees are working remotely on the effort, helping to connect local protesters and set up websites for them. The group is considering paid digital advertising to further increase turnout, and has been conducting weekly tracking polls in swing suburban districts that it says show support for reopening parts of country. It is sharing the data with advisers on the president’s economic task force and other conservative allies on Capitol Hill."
You can read more here.
U.S. congressional leaders and the White House agreed on Tuesday on nearly $500 billion more in coronavirus relief for the U.S. economy, bringing to nearly $3 trillion the amount allocated to deal with the crisis.
President Donald Trump urged them to pass it quickly, leaving aid to state and local governments for another bill.
"I welcome this bipartisan agreement and hope the Senate will quickly pass it once members have reviewed the final text," the Senate's Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, said in a statement.
The deal provides $321 billion for a small business lending program, $60 billion for a separate emergency disaster loan program also for small businesses, as well as $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for national coronavirus testing.
The Senate was expected to vote on the plan later on Tuesday, and the House of Representatives later in the week, most likely on Thursday.
Congressional leaders had said they were very close to an agreement on legislation to provide more money to help small businesses, after an initial $350 billion fund was quickly exhausted.
The bill agreed on Tuesday would be the fourth major piece of legislation passed as the federal government seeks to ease the heavy economic and personal toll of a pandemic that has killed more than 42,000 Americans and left more than 22 million people out of work.
Trump said he backed the measure, and urged lawmakers to act quickly. He said talks would begin after its approval on more relief, including funds for state and local governments reeling from steep revenue losses due to the virus, and infrastructure spending that Democrats have been requesting throughout the crisis.
"After I sign this Bill, we will begin discussions on the next Legislative Initiative with fiscal relief to State/Local Governments," as well as infrastructure investments, the Republican president wrote on Twitter.
Partisan divide
Democrats and Republicans have sparred for weeks over how best to address the pandemic, which has killed 42,000 Americans, the highest death toll for any one country. More than 22 million Americans have lost their jobs, as businesses have closed and residents have observed stay-at-home orders intended to minimize the spread of the potentially deadly respiratory illness.
McConnell's statement announcing the bipartisan legislation was laced with criticism of Democrats.
The deal ended the stalemate over how to replenish the small-business loan program. Congress set up the $350 billion scheme last month as part of a $2.3 trillion coronavirus economic relief plan, but it quickly ran out of money.
Critics of the program said too much of the money had gone to larger, better-connected businesses. To combat that, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said, $125 billion of small business funds in the latest package would go to "mom and pop" and minority-owned stores.
Anticipating the deal, House leaders asked members to return to Washington for a vote on Thursday, the chamber's No. 2 Democrat, Steny Hoyer, told reporters. He expects more than half the House to attend, and the bill to pass with support from both Democrats and Republicans.
Hoyer: Expect vote to allow proxy voting
Hoyer also told members to expect to vote on a rule change allowing proxy voting when necessary. This would mean not all of the House's 429 current members would have to be present for votes, reducing the threat of spreading the coronavirus.
But Hoyer said he thinks lawmakers should go further and consider using remote technologies such as FaceTime for votes, as well as committee work as needed. Some Republicans - echoing Trump's calls for the country to reopen - have balked at taking the proxy voting step.
"I think it's a terrible idea," Representative Jim Jordan told reporters in the Capitol. "What is it, 200 plus years. ... Congress has been meeting, and you meet in person and debate in person. So, I think, it’s that fundamental."
(REUTERS)
In an op-ed for The Atlantic this Tuesday, Peter Wehner writes that despite that the proven life-saving results of social distancing, President Trump nevertheless took to Twitter and encouraged protest movements across the country that defied those very same directives, making the protests a "rallying point for the right, encouraged by talk-radio and Fox News personalities such as Laura Ingraham, Jeanine Pirro, Tucker Carlson, and Brian Kilmeade. The anti-social-distancing rallies are drawing comparisons to the early days of the Tea Party movement."
According to Wehner, the protesters are not forming a coherent narrative. Instead, they're "lashing out in frustration and in anger, frustration and anger that is being incited by the president and many—although not all—of his acolytes on the right."
Trump has always utilized the tactic of inflaming his base, but it's especially disheartening this time around since Americans are looking for solidarity in the midst of a pandemic.
"They may yet achieve it, but if they do, it will be in spite of this president, not because of him," Wehner writes. "Trump is doing everything in his power to divide us, to keep people on edge, mistrustful and at one another’s throats. To that end, he will even cheer on people who are violating his own administration’s social-distancing guidelines."
Read his full op-ed over at The Atlantic.
This is developing story... stay tuned for updates...
Progressives exploded in frustration Tuesday as the Senate prepared to pass an interim funding bill for coronavirus relief that once again included no funding for the Post Office, food banks, or election security, and provided no bailout oversight and no funding for states and cities—leading critics to wonder why Democratic lawmakers refused to use their leverage and hold up the bill.
"This isn't good," tweeted The Nation's national affairs correspondent Jeet Heer. "It's imperative to get money out the door fast but these are one sided agreements."
According to Politico, a deal on the legislation was reached Tuesday afternoon after negotiations between Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), and the White House yielded a bill that all parties were happy with. President Donald Trump has indicated he will sign the legislation.
As Politico reported:
Aides in both parties said they were still finalizing the legislation throughout the day and making sure it could pass unanimously. Schumer said staffers were working out the specifics of the massive $484 billion package, which will mark Congress' fourth major infusion of coronavirus aid.
The bill does include $321 billion for small businesses, $75 billion for hospitals, and $25 billion for coronavirus testing. But to Center on Budget and Policy Priorities president Robert Greenstein, that's not enough.
"While providing needed support to small businesses and hospitals, the new COVID-19 package announced today falls short even as an interim measure, failing to deliver crucial state and local fiscal relief and food assistance," Greenstein said in a statement Tuesday.
Critics of the bill pointed out that House Democrats could have moved to pass their own bill addressing issues important to progressives.
Mother Jones reporter Ari Berman noted that the bill, which contains no election funding, flies in the face of assurances by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that it would.
In the context of the missed opportunities, journalist Jack Mirkinson questioned whether Democrats were in fact "caving" on the legislation.
"Democrats control the House and could have passed their own bill and negotiated from there, so this doesn't seem like a 'cave' so much as a 'choice' from them," said Mirkinson.
Speaking to The Washington Post this Tuesday, CDC Director Robert Redfield said that the coming wave of coronavirus this winter will be much worse than the current outbreak.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Redfield said. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.”
The coronavirus coupled with the regular flu would put a huge strain on the health-care system, he said, adding that health officials need to start preparing for what's coming.
Read his full interview over at The Washington Post.
Three nights of unrest in the French capital’s northern suburbs have stoked fears of a major flare-up in deprived neighborhoods where weeks of lockdown have exacerbated the simmering tensions between restless youths and police.
Six weeks into France’s nationwide lockdown, Zouhair Ech-Chetouani is an increasingly worried man. In more than 20 years of social work, the community leader says the restive northern suburbs of Paris have never felt quite so tense.
According to Ech-Chetouani, the strict confinement rules to halt the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with tough policing enforcing those rules, have mixed up an “explosive cocktail” in areas already blighted by poverty, unemployment and now a worsening health crisis.
“The spark has been lit,” he says, referring to the unrest that has swept through several northern suburbs of Paris in recent nights.
The trouble in Villeneuve-La-Garenne first flared late on Saturday after a motorcyclist collided with the open door of an unmarked police car during a pursuit. Witnesses said the officers had deliberately opened the door into the motorcyclist's path, a claim denied by police.
The skirmishes lasted into the early hours of Sunday before calm was restored but unrest broke out again the following two nights, spreading to other suburbs north of Paris. Police said fireworks were aimed at them and several cars were torched while officers fired tear gas to disperse the troublemakers.
A history of violence
Relations between police and residents have long been a fraught issue in France’s economically poor and ethnically diverse suburbs, where men of African and North African origin complain about being routinely stopped and searched simply because of the colour of their skin.
A study by France's National Centre for Scientific Research has shown that blacks are 11.5 times more likely to be checked by police than whites, and those of Arab origin are seven times more likely.
>> Racism, sex abuse and impunity: French police’s toxic legacy in the suburbs
In what has become a depressing cycle of violence and resentment, such routine checks can lead to violent altercations and eventually riots, a daunting prospect the French government is desperate to avoid as it grapples with a health emergency.
When President Emmanuel Macron imposed a nationwide lockdown starting March 17, police officers privately expressed concerns that tough restrictions on public life could amplify tensions and spark unrest.
In late March, the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchainé, a leading source of investigative journalism, reported that the Interior Ministry had quietly asked police chiefs to adopt a light touch as they seek to enforce the lockdown in restive suburbs so as not to inflame tensions.
However, activists on the ground say the police approach has been anything but light.
Disproportionate force
On the first day of confinement, the Seine-Saint-Denis department northeast of Paris – home to France’s poorest districts – accounted for 10 percent of all fines handed out for breaching the lockdown despite comprising just over 2 percent of the country’s population.
Since then, videos of heavy-handed arrests have circulated widely on French social media, along with calls for revenge.
“You’re much less likely to see police fining and harassing parents who play with their children in the Bois de Boulogne,” says Echi-Chetouani, referring to the park that borders the 16th arrondissement (district) of Paris in the French capital’s affluent west.
The social worker says the situation has considerably worsened since the start of the lockdown, which he argues has only heightened a sense of power and impunity among the police.
“When there are people out in the streets, police abuses are less likely to go unnoticed,” he explains. “But with residents locked up at home, the police have become more violent and arbitrary.”
He adds: “Of course, most officers do their work conscientiously. But it only takes a few bad apples eager to settle scores for things to get out of hand very fast.”
In late March, a coalition of rights groups including Human Rights Watch released a statement denouncing the police’s “unacceptable”, “illegal” and “sometimes dangerous” practices.
“The current state of sanitary emergency should not be in breach of the rule of law and does not justify discriminatory checks or unjustified and disproportionate force,” the statement read.
Police unions, which did not return FRANCE 24’s requests for comment, have rejected the accusations, noting that officers are constantly targeted and provoked by youths in tense suburbs.
‘All we got was an order to stay home’
Critics of police tactics say they reflect a wider failure to take into account the specificities of the impoverished and densely populated suburbs as they grapple with the twin challenges of a health emergency and home confinement.
While Seine-Saint-Denis was hit by Covid-19 later than other territories, health officials have since declared it one of four French departments suffering from an “exceptional” spike in deaths.
The combination of large families in cramped quarters and the lack of doctors and hospital beds has left the local population particularly exposed to the virus. And while many Parisians fled to countryside homes or switched to working from home, the capital’s poorer suburbs have supplied most of the workers who keep the metropolis running.
“Nurses, cashiers, caregivers, street cleaners, security agents, delivery men… Basically all the people who prop up the country today, all those who hold the front line and put themselves in danger, they come from the working-class districts, from [Seine-Saint-Denis]!” said Stéphane Peu, a local communist lawmaker, in an interview with Le Monde.
The French newspaper notes that several other factors conspire to make the coronavirus lockdown more challenging in banlieue high-rises than elsewhere in France, including the dearth of food outlets. In northern Bondy, for instance, there is just one supermarket for a population of 21,000.
Seine-Saint-Denis is also home to France’s youngest population, with 30% of inhabitants aged under 20.
“By and large, the lockdown is being respected in the suburbs, but there comes a point when restless youths in overcrowded homes need a breath of fresh air,” says Echi-Chetouani, lamenting the authorities’ failure to prepare for lockdown.
“There has simply been no outreach, no attempt to explain to the locals how the virus spreads and why social distancing is important to protect vulnerable family members,” he adds. “All we got was an order to stay home, followed by repression.”
On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) announced that Congress has reached a $320 billion deal to increase funding for the embattled Paycheck Protection Program, the small business loan program enacted in the coronavirus stimulus bill that has been plagued by delays and shortages.
In a significant win for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), McConnell is allowing new funding for hospitals and coronavirus testing into the bill, which was a demand House Democrats put in place to move forward.
This bill is separate from the next round of stimulus, dubbed "CARES 2."
States have been forced to resort to smuggling shipments of personal protective equipment (PPE) after federal officials seized supplies ordered by hospitals without informing officials.
This article was originally published at Salon
Governors have long complained that the Trump administration has left them to bid against each other on the open market for critical supplies for health workers. However, numerous officials recently claimed that the federal government had seized supplies ordered by the states. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, told CNN that the state bought 500 ventilators before they were "swept up" by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker, a Republican, said the Trump administration "confiscated" its order of 3 million masks.
Now, states and hospital officials are concealing shipments of supplies from the federal government in order to avoid detection. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, recently secretly bought millions of masks and gloves from China. He kept the details under wraps, "because we've heard reports of Trump trying to take PPE in China and when it gets to the United States," a source familiar with the situation told the Chicago Sun-Times.
"The governor has clearly outlined the challenges this administration has faced as we've worked around the clock to purchase PPE for our health-care workers and first responders," a spokesperson for Pritzker told the outlet. "The supply chain has been likened to the Wild West, and once you have purchased supplies, ensuring they get to the state is another Herculean feat."
Dr. Andrew Artenstein, the chief physician executive at Baystate Health in Massachusetts, revealed in a letter published in the New England Journal of Medicine that he was questioned by the FBI after the hospital staff worked "around the clock" to secure a shipment of PPE.
"Deals, some bizarre and convoluted, and many involving large sums of money, have dissolved at the last minute when we were outbid or outmuscled, sometimes by the federal government. Then we got lucky, but getting the supplies wasn't easy," he wrote, detailing the measures his supply chain team took to get the equipment.
"Two semi-trailer trucks, cleverly marked as food-service vehicles, met us at the warehouse. When fully loaded, the trucks would take two distinct routes back to Massachusetts to minimize the chances that their contents would be detained or redirected," he recalled. "Before we could send the funds by wire transfer, two Federal Bureau of Investigation agents arrived, showed their badges, and started questioning me. No, this shipment was not headed for resale or the black market. The agents checked my credentials, and I tried to convince them that the shipment of PPE was bound for hospitals. After receiving my assurances and hearing about our health system's urgent needs, the agents let the boxes of equipment be released and loaded into the trucks. But I was soon shocked to learn that the Department of Homeland Security was still considering redirecting our PPE. Only some quick calls leading to intervention by our congressional representative prevented its seizure."
Conservative pundit David Frum said the letter was "like a story from the last days of the Soviet Union."
Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., said he heard about the seizures first-hand from law enforcement and health care workers.
"It has got to stop," he tweeted. "The administration is supposed to be coordinating this, not making the problem worse for our hospitals and first responders."
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and a group of House Democrats called on FEMA to provide any documents related to the seizures.
"Officials and health care providers in California, Florida, Washington, Illinois, Oregon, Alaska and Texas have described similar experiences," the lawmakers said in a letter to FEMA Administrator Peter Gaynor. "FEMA must explain their actions," Nadler added.
The seizures had already come under scrutiny from two other House committees after The New York Times reported that Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner had "surprised" FEMA officials by redirecting supplies. Kushner himself said during a White House coronavirus briefing that he had supplies delivered to New York after Trump got a call "from his friends" about the conditions in the city's hospitals.
Though the FEMA operation is overseen by Gaynor and Navy Rear Adm. John Plowczyk, the logistics chief for the Joint Chief of Staff, Kushner has lead a so-called "shadow" task force staffed with former start-up entrepreneurs, according to The Times. The group has clashed with senior officials, one of whom described the team as a "frat party" that "descended from a UFO and invaded the federal government."
House Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., called on Gaynor to explain "the role of Jared Kushner in managing FEMA's operational efforts to obtain and distribute" supplies.
"It appears that Mr. Kushner is unclear about basic facts regarding the purpose of the Strategic National Stockpile," the lawmakers said, citing Kushner's claim that "our stockpile" is "not supposed to be the state stockpiles that they then use."
The lawmakers were "troubled" that Kushner may be "circumventing protocols that ensure all states' requests are handled appropriately," they wrote. "We are particularly troubled that Mr. Kushner's work may even involve 'directing FEMA and HHS officials to prioritize specific requests from people who are able to get Kushner on the phone.'"
Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) sparked fear and outrage when he announced several high-risk industries would be lifted from lockdown in the state — and local governments would be prohibited from imposing lockdowns of their own.
But there is still one group that can overrule Kemp on whether businesses are ready to open: the businesses themselves. And on CNN Tuesday, Athens-Clarke County Mayor Kelly Girtz suggested many businesses may choose to stay closed in defiance of the governor's order.
"You called for a stay-at-home order in your city, even before the statewide order," said anchor Brianna Keilar. "You've been trying to give feedback to the governor. Has Governor Kemp's office given you any return feedback on what you're telling them?"
"I haven't had any advance notice of this order that was announced yesterday, or any of the coming orders that have been described for next week, potentially," said Girtz. "But early on in this, we communicated several times, the governor and I, as I encouraged him to shut some of these high-contact businesses that are now being discussed as potentially opening."
"So what do you do if you have the governor saying, his guidance overrides local jurisdictions?" asked Keilar. "What do you do to keep your residents safe?"
"Right now, I'm going directly to the public, and so I'm speaking to residents of Athens-Clarke County and business owners, and many of them are saying, just as I feel, we're not going to frequent businesses right now because we don't feel safe," said Girtz. "We're not going to return to work. I've had a number of hair salon owners approach me over just the last day, and say, we're not opening our doors back up because we care about our employees and we care about our clients."
Watch below:
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