The Commentariat -- March 1, 2020

Afternoon Update:

News Flash! Gail Collins Hopes Millions Will Die & Make Trump Look Bad. Zack Budryk of the Hill: "NBC's Chuck Todd in an interview broadcast Sunday pressed Vice President Pence on his condemnation of 'irresponsible rhetoric' from Democrats on the coronavirus, asking him to cite specific examples. Todd played a series of clips from conservative commentators, including talk radio host Rush Limbaugh, who accused Democrats of having 'weaponized' the virus, and Donald Trump Jr., who said his father's opponents were trying to 'take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump's streak of winning.' 'None of this seems to match the facts. What facts are there that Democrats are doing this?... ' Todd said. 'Well, I will tell you, there's been a lot of irresponsible rhetoric among Democrats and commentators on the left,' Pence ... said. 'Name some names, sir. Because it just feels like gaslighting...,' Todd responded. Pence eventually cited a New York Times column by Gail Collins, whom he did not name, with the headline 'Let's Call It Trumpvirus,' demurring when Todd asked if that applies 'to all people.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mediaite has video here (begins at about 45 sec. in). Mrs. McCrabbie: If pence had actually read Collins' column, he would find that nowhere in the column does she suggest that the coronavirus needs a new name. Rather, the column cites example after example -- all culled from the news/those nasty little things called facts -- of how Trump & the gang are downplaying the seriousness of the epidemic and mismanaging mitigation. Or are just plain clueless. But still. In her heart, I'll bet Gail -- whom Trump once criticized for having "The Face of a Dog!" -- wants to kill off a sizable chunk of the population so Donald Trump won't enjoy so much winning.

David Sanger of the New York Times takes a sober look at Trump's Afghan "peace deal": "President Trump has left no doubt that his first priority in Afghanistan is a peace treaty that would enable him to claim that he is fulfilling his vow to withdraw American troops. But a parade of his former national security aides say he is far less interested in an actual Afghan peace. And that creates an enormous risk for Mr. Trump and for Afghanistan: that, like President Richard M. Nixon's peace deal with North Vietnam in January 1973, the accord signed Saturday will speed an American exit and do little to stabilize an allied government.... The accord signed on Saturday -- with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo overseeing the moment but not actually signing it himself -- will initially bring down American troop levels to about 8,600 from about 12,000 now. That is almost exactly where they were three years ago, at the end of Mr. Obama's term."

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Biden Blowout

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Joseph R. Biden Jr. scored a decisive victory in the South Carolina primary on Saturday, reviving his listing campaign and establishing himself as the leading candidate to slow Senator Bernie Sanders as the turbulent Democratic race turns to a slew of coast-to-coast contests on Tuesday. Propelled by an outpouring of support from South Carolina's African-American voters, Mr. Biden easily overcame a late effort by Mr. Sanders to upset the former vice-president in a state he has long seen as his firewall. His victory will vault Mr. Biden into Super Tuesday, where polls open in just over 48 hours, as the clear alternative to Mr. Sanders for establishment-aligned Democrats." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' South Carolina primary vote count is here. Networks called the win for Biden as soon as the polls closed. Both the NYT & WashPo are currently posting some results on their front pages. A related Guardian story is here. Mrs. McC: Biden won an astounding 48.4 percent of the vote, with 100 percent reporting, and Sanders -- his next closest rival -- got nearly 20 percent. Only Biden & Sanders will get convention delegates from South Carolina.

Cleve Wootson & Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Former vice president Joe Biden decisively won the South Carolina primary Saturday, as the first Southern primary contest reshaped the race and dealt a blow to the surging candidacy of Sen. Bernie Sanders. The win pumped new life into Biden's struggling campaign, as he became the first candidate to score a clear-cut victory against Sanders this year, boosting his efforts to become the major alternative to the liberal senator. Still, Sanders (I-Vt.) is polling strongly in several of the Super Tuesday states that vote this week, and it could yet prove difficult for any of his competitors to catch up."

Jonathan Chait argues that Joe Biden is now the only plausible candidate who can best Bernie Sanders.

Adam Edelman, et al., of NBC News: "Tom Steyer, the California activist billionaire who has largely been a nonfactor in the Democratic primary campaign, dropped out of the race on Saturday night. Steyer's departure came after a disappointing finish in the South Carolina Democratic primary. With 70 percent of the vote in, Steyer had just 11.5 percent of the vote -- despite spending millions of dollars on campaigning there.... His exit came after he'd spent a total of $158 million on television and radio ads, according to Advertising Analytics. In South Carolina alone, Steyer had spent nearly $21 million as of Tuesday, the firm said." Mrs. McC: The only people sad about this are owners of local TV franchises in upcoming primary states.

Justin Wise of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) raised more than $46 million from approximately 2.2 million donations in February, his 2020 presidential campaign announced Sunday."

Olivia Rubin of ABC: "For nearly 20 years as an up and coming politician,Bernie Sanders supported ideas on what causes cancer outside of the mainstream, such as sexual inactivity as a cause of breast cancer.... [In an] essay published in The Vermont Freeman and previously reported, [Sanders] extensively and approvingly cites studies suggesting a relationship between 'inhibited sexuality' and cancer risks.... One study he cited in the 1969 piece found that women who achieve orgasm less frequently during intercourse were more likely to contract cervical cancer. Another found that women who achieve fewer orgasms were 'biologically weakened' and are therefore 'highly susceptible to cancer producing stimuli' more generally." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not so sure how nutty these ideas are. I recall reading, in that same time frame, a study whose results were republished in some mainstream news outlet, that nuns -- so presumbly virgins -- were statistically less likely to get cervical cancer than were women in the general population. That's at odds with Sanders' suggestions, of course, but the point is that it wasn't insane to examine links between sexual activity & some kinds of cancer.

"The Pied Pipers of the Dirtbag Left Want to Lead Everyone to Bernie Sanders." Nellie Bowles of the New York Times: "As Mr. Sanders rises in the polls and claims strong showings in early states, a new set of media stars is on the rise, too.... They are on their way to becoming the socialist's answer to right-wing shock jock radio. Their primary targets, in evidence at that show in Iowa, are not the Republican Party or even Mr. Trump but rather centrist liberals, whom they see as the major obstacle to a workers' revolution. In blurring occasionally violent humor, jovial community meetups and radical politics, they are the Tea Party reborn for progressives, and for their fans the appeal is in a bawdy offensive balance to cautious mainstream liberal politics." (Also linked yesterday.)

Coming to a Neighborhood Near You. Benjamin Siegel & Armando Garcia of ABC News: "... Mike Bloomberg's campaign on Saturday will begin a massive voter outreach push, with plans to hold more than 2,400 events across 30 states ahead of Super Tuesday, ABC News has learned. The mobilization drive, beginning as the rest of the Democratic field remained focused on the South Carolina primary, is a show of force meant to highlight the scale of Bloomberg's nationwide operation." Mrs. McC: I see this as less of a "show of force" than of a project that will be a boon to all Democratic candidates. This is where Bloomberg's utility to Democrats always has been. His candidacy per se is, at best, superfluous, and at worst, harmful to candidates who could oust Trump. (Also linked yesterday.)

Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast (Feb. 28): "Days after MSNBC host Chris Matthews came under fire for his sexist run-in with Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), columnist Laura Bassett claimed in a piece for GQ that the veteran MSNBC personality sexually harassed her in 2016 -- something she had previously written about in 2017 without revealing Matthews' name. According to Bassett, the married MSNBC host approached her when she was in a make-up chair prior to appearing on his show to talk about -- ironically enough -- the sexual-assault allegations made against then-nominee Donald Trump.... It was reported in late 2017 that NBC had paid separation compensation to a producer who accused Matthews of sexually harassing her. The network claimed at the time that the host had been 'formally reprimanded' over the incident. Besides that incident, Matthews has a history of both objectifying women on-air ... or expressing contempt for women he thinks are acting 'witchy' or 'anti-male.'" Bassett's GQ story is here. A Daily Beast account of his exchange with Warren is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "A day after he was accused of sexual harassment by a journalist, MSNBC decided to keep host Chris Matthews off its airwaves during coverage of the South Carolina primary results. Matthews is normally a fixture of election night coverage, which made his absence on Saturday all the more notable." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you want to know how seriously NBC suits take repeated incidents of (alleged) sexual harassment, there's this. A person who co-anchored last night's MSNBC coverage of the South Carolina primary was Brian Williams. In 2015, NBC News suspended Williams -- then the managing editor & anchor of "Nightly News" -- for six months without pay for exaggerating an Iraq war story which he witnessed. The network then sent him down to the minors: an 11 pm daily show on MSNBC, no doubt at exponentially less pay than his former top news job garnered. Matthews? MSNBC gave him Saturday night off. ~~~

     ~~~ AND, uh, all black men look alike? ~~~

~~~ Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "MSNBC host Chris Matthews has really been on a roll lately. As he was interviewing Jaime Harrison, a Democratic candidate who seeks to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), on Friday night, Matthews saw live footage of Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) with Graham at President Donald Trump's campaign rally in South Carolina and somehow believed the man he was talking to in real time was the same person he was seeing at that rally. 'Jaime, I see you next to the guy you're going to beat right there, maybe, maybe, maybe, Lindsey Graham,' Matthews said to Harrison, who was being interviewed remotely..." --s

Darlene Superville & Zeke Miller of the AP: "The U.S. is banning travel to Iran in response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus and elevating travel warnings to regions of Italy and South Korea. Vice President Mike Pence announced the new restrictions and warnings as ... Donald Trump said 22 people in the U.S. have been stricken by the new coronavirus, of whom one has died and four are deemed 'very ill' and that additional cases are 'likely.'... Trump spoke a day after he denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a 'hoax' cooked up by his political enemies. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina he accused Democrats of 'politicizing' the coronavirus threat.... 'They tried the impeachment hoax. ... This is their new hoax,' Trump said of Democratic denunciations of his administration's coronavirus response. Trump said Saturday he was not trying to minimize the threat of the virus. 'Again, the hoax was used in respect to Democrats and what they were saying,' he said'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ William Wan, et al., of the Washington Post: "At the hastily convened news conference, Trump described the patient who died as a 'wonderful woman' in her late 50s. CDC later issued a statement saying it had mistakenly described the patient's gender in a briefing to Trump and Vice President Pence, and local health officials clarified the deceased patient was a man." ~~~

It's complete chaos. Everyone is just trying to get a handle on what the [fuck] is going on. -- Senior Administration Official, on Trump admin's response to coronavirus crisis ~~~

~~~ Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "Minutes before President Trump was preparing Wednesday to reassure a skittish nation about the coronavirus threat, he received a piece of crucial information: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had identified in California the first U.S. case of the illness not tied to foreign travel, a sign that the virus's spread in the United States was likely to explode. But when Trump took to the lectern for a news conference intended to bring transparency to the spiraling global crisis, he made no explicit mention of the California case and its implications -- and falsely suggested the virus might soon be eradicated in the United States. Trump's playing down of the California patient at his news conference underscores the administration's slapdash and often misleading attempts to contain not just the virus, but also potential political damage from the outbreak.... By the time he landed at Joint Base Andrews [after his visit to India], Trump was already over what he considered an alarmist response by his administration and also thought he was being treated unfairly by the media."

Time Out for CPAC. Rachel Chason & Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "President Trump sought to assure his supporters Saturday that the coronavirus is under control after earlier confirming the first U.S. death attributed to the infection and boasted of the country's great economic comeback after Wall Street's worst week since the 2008 financial crisis. Rallying conservatives eights months before the election, Trump mocked the height of Democratic candidate and former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg, crouching at the lectern for dramatic effect, called Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) a 'lowlife' for his vote to convict the president on an article of impeachment and described Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) as a 'crazy professor.' Against the backdrop of a growing global virus and the South Carolina Democratic primary, Trump delivered a 90-minute speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in which he crowed about his political success in 2016, lashed out at his preferred targets -- Democrats and the news media -- and polled the audience on which of his rivals would be easier to beat in November." ~~~

     ~~~ Tina Nguyen of Politico: "But Trump's remarks [at CPAC] were ... more subdued than his appearance the night before at a campaign event in South Carolina, where he whipped up the crowd by suggesting his political opponents were weaponizing the virus as a 'new hoax' against his presidency. Trump reassured supporters that those who had been infected were doing well, and that everything would turn out for the best, though he did not acknowledge the first death from the fast-spreading virus.... Trump didn't linger on the coronavirus, and he soon deployed a familiar arsenal against his enemies, hitting on several topics that he often mentions in campaign speeches."

American Oversight: "Senior members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and then-National Security Adviser John Bolton had agreed that U.S. security assistance funding to Ukraine should 'continue as planned,' according to a new email from August released by the Department of Defense on Friday to American Oversight. The August 26, 2019, email from a senior career Pentagon official states that there was 'no ongoing interagency review process with respect to USAI [Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative],' and states clearly: 'Final decision rests with POTUS.'... Critically, the email appears to contradict the White House budget office's stated rationale for withholding the aid. In emails and formal apportionment 'footnotes' beginning on July 25, 2019, Office of Management and Budget officials repeatedly told the Defense Department that the Ukraine aid freeze was necessary to allow for an 'interagency process to determine the best use of such funds.' Administration officials had also been instructed to tell Congress that this was the reason for the delay of funding." (Also linked yesterday.)

Justin Wingerter of The Denver Post: "Three weeks after becoming the first U.S. senator in history to vote to convict a president of his own party, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah stopped in Denver on Friday night to discuss the state of democracies around the world. Romney was joined by Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the former prime minister of Denmark.... 'I am so honored to be on stage with what I would say is a true profile in courage,' Rasmussen said of Romney during his opening remarks, prompting a standing ovation from the crowd of about 300 people in a packed university auditorium." --s

Way Beyond the Beltway

BBC News: "Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his partner Carrie Symonds are engaged and are expecting a baby in early summer, the couple have announced.... Mr Johnson, 55, and Ms Symonds, 31, became the first unmarried couple to occupy Downing Street when they moved in last year. Ms Symonds is also the youngest partner of a prime minister in 174 years. In a post on her private Instagram account, she wrote: 'Many of you already know but for my friends that still don't, we got engaged at the end of last year... and we've got a baby hatching early summer. Feel incredibly blessed.'" Mrs. McC: I hope you're all ever-so-happy for the lucky couple.

News Ledes

New York Times: "Researchers who have examined the genomes of two coronavirus infections in Washington State say the similarities between the cases suggest that the virus may have been spreading in the state for weeks. Washington had the United States' first confirmed case of coronavirus, announced by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Jan. 20. Based on an analysis of the virus's genetic sequence, another case that surfaced in the state and was announced on Friday probably was descended from that first case. The two people live in the same county, but are not known to have had contact with one another, and the second case occurred well after the first would no longer be expected to be contagious. So the genetic findings suggest that the virus has been spreading through other people in the community for close to six weeks, according to one of the scientists who compared the sequences, Trevor Bedford, an associate professor at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center...."

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.

Leap Day 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Darlene Superville & Zeke Miller of the AP: "The U.S. is banning travel to Iran in response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus and elevating travel warnings to regions of Italy and South Korea. Vice President Mike Pence announced the new restrictions and warnings as ... Donald Trump said 22 people in the U.S. have been stricken by the new coronavirus, of whom one has died and four are deemed 'very ill' and that additional cases are 'likely.'... Trump spoke a day after he denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a 'hoax' cooked up by his political enemies. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina he accused Democrats of 'politicizing' the coronavirus threat.... 'They tried the impeachment hoax. ... This is their new hoax,' Trump said of Democratic denunciations of his administration's coronavirus response. Trump said Saturday he was not trying to minimize the threat of the virus. 'Again, the hoax was used in respect to Democrats and what they were saying,' he said'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: @1:45 pm ET, Trump is to speak momentarily, after the death of a coronoavirus victim in Washington state. Let's see if he can get serious now & quit spouting insane conspiracy theories.

American Oversight: "Senior members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and then-National Security Adviser John Bolton had agreed that U.S. security assistance funding to Ukraine should 'continue as planned,' according to a new email from August released by the Department of Defense on Friday to American Oversight. The August 26, 2019, email from a senior career Pentagon official states that there was 'no ongoing interagency review process with respect to USAI [Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative],' and states clearly: 'Final decision rests with POTUS.'... Critically, the email appears to contradict the White House budget office's stated rationale for withholding the aid. In emails and formal apportionment 'footnotes' beginning on July 25, 2019, Office of Management and Budget officials repeatedly told the Defense Department that the Ukraine aid freeze was necessary to allow for an 'interagency process to determine the best use of such funds.' Administration officials had also been instructed to tell Congress that this was the reason for the delay of funding."

"The Pied Pipers of the Dirtbag Left Want to Lead Everyone to Bernie Sanders." Nellie Bowles of the New York Times: "As Mr. Sanders rises in the polls and claims strong showings in early states, a new set of media stars is on the rise, too.... They are on their way to becoming the socialist's answer to right-wing shock jock radio. Their primary targets, in evidence at that show in Iowa, are not the Republican Party or even Mr. Trump but rather centrist liberals, whom they see as the major obstacle to a workers' revolution. In blurring occasionally violent humor, jovial community meetups and radical politics, they are the Tea Party reborn for progressives, and for their fans the appeal is in a bawdy offensive balance to cautious mainstream liberal politics."

Coming to a Neighborhood Near You. Benjamin Siegel & Armando Garcia of ABC News: "... Mike Bloomberg's campaign on Saturday will begin a massive voter outreach push, with plans to hold more than 2,400 events across 30 states ahead of Super Tuesday, ABC News has learned. The mobilization drive, beginning as the rest of the Democratic field remained focused on the South Carolina primary, is a show of force meant to highlight the scale of Bloomberg's nationwide operation." Mrs. McC: I see this as less of a "show of force" than of a project that will be a boon to all Democratic candidates. This is where Bloomberg's utility to Democrats always has been. His candidacy per se is, at best, superfluous, and at worst, harmful to candidates who could oust Trump.

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New York Times: ";Stocks tumbled for a seventh consecutive day on Friday, with the S&P 500 index falling about 0.8 percent, bringing its loss for the week to more than 11 percent. It was the worst weekly decline for stocks since the 2008 financial crisis. In early October that year, the S&P 500 fell about 18 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 1 percent on Friday. The sell-off was fueled mostly by worry that measures to contain the virus would hamper corporate profits and economic growth, and fears that the outbreak could get worse. The selling has in a matter of days dragged stock benchmarks around the world into a correction -- a drop of 10 percent or more that is taken as a measure of extreme pessimism.... The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, moved to soothe investors on Friday, issuing a statement reaffirming that the central bank will use its tools and 'act as appropriate to support the economy.'" An updated CNBC report, an earlier version of which was linked yesterday afternoon, is here. ~~~

~~~ "The Party of Ideas" (TM Lemieux). Jeff Stein & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "Trump administration officials are holding preliminary conversations about economic responses to the coronavirus, as the stock market fell sharply again on Friday amid international fears about the outbreak, according to five people with knowledge of the planning. Among the options being considered are pursuing a targeted tax cut package, these people said. They have also discussed whether the White House should lean even harder on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, though the central bank on Friday afternoon said it would step in if necessary. No decisions at the White House have been reached on these options, and officials stressed conversations remained preliminary and extremely fluid." Mrs. McC: Huh. Not much about maybe fighting the virus itself. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "... people getting sick and dying is something that can't be easily propagandized away, and markets are not going to be reassured unless the Trump administration demonstrates some actual ability to address the pandemic. Needless to say, this is impossible because the administration is not merely devoid of but actively opposed to administrative competence and expertise, so here we are."

Nancy Cook & Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday night tried to cast the global outbreak of the coronavirus as a liberal conspiracy intended to undermine his first term, lumping it alongside impeachment and the Mueller investigation. He blamed the press for acting hysterically about the virus, which has now spread to China, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Italy and the U.S, and he downplayed its dangers, saying against expert opinion it was on par with the flu. 'The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. They're politicizing it,' he said. 'They don't have any clue. They can't even count their votes in Iowa. No, they can't. They can't count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, "Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia." That did not work out too well. They could not do it. They tried the impeachment hoax.' Then Trump called the coronavirus 'their new hoax.'... By undermining the news reporting on the virus and by trying to hold liberals responsible for a potential public health crisis that has little to do with politics, Trump did what he often does best: He sought to deflect blame at a time when many Americans sought leadership and scientific facts. After Trump had downplayed the risks of coronavirus, he reassured supporters that the White House was 'magnificently organized' in fighting it. In fact, Trump's administration spent the week jockeying among themselves to lead the response, while the stock market tumbled with losses not seen since the global financial crisis in 2008." ~~~

~~~ Will Steakin of ABC News: "... Donald Trump attacked Democrats at a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, on the eve of the state's crucial primary -- all while his administration works to tackle the growing fear surrounding the novel coronavirus. The president defended his administration's response to the coronavirus threat, blasting Democrats for 'politicizing' the issue and calling it 'their new hoax' -- adding that 'they can't even count the votes in Iowa.' The president also compared annual flu deaths to the coronavirus, saying 'the press is in hysteria mode.'" Mrs. McC: This would be just another round of Trump lies if it weren't for the fact that his disinformation campaign poses an epic health hazard. Some of those people laughing at the "hoax" will die. And they might kill you and me, too.

Annie Karni of the New York Times: Speaking at CPAC, "Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Friday blamed the media for exaggerating the seriousness of coronavirus because 'they think this will bring down the president, that's what this is all about.'... The news media has [have!] been covering the global spread of coronavirus for months. But Mr. Mulvaney claimed that the news media was too preoccupied covering impeachment, he said, 'because they thought it would bring down the president.'" Mulvaney also complained that the press wasn't covering Trump's great relationship with his youngest son, even those Melania Trump has jealously guarded the child's privacy. Here's a Hill story. (Also linked yesterday.)

But for [Democrats] to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump's streak of winning, is a new level of sickness. You know, I don't know if this is coronavirus or Trump derangement syndrome, but these people are infected badly. -- Donald Trump, Jr., on "Fox & Friends," Friday

I don't have to tell you that there is no Democratic official anywhere who has expressed the hope that a pandemic kills millions of people. Junior should be held to account. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Democratic lawmakers expressed frustration Friday with the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus, saying they left a closed-door briefing by top health officials with many unanswered questions." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Adam Cancryn & David Liu of Politico: "Several House Republicans walked out of a closed-door coronavirus briefing Friday with Trump health officials in protest after a senior Democrat blasted the Trump administration's handling of the response effort. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) kicked off the briefing sharply criticizing the administration as disorganized and lacking urgency in combating the coronavirus, lawmakers said. Her speech frustrated Republicans and some Democrats assembled to hear from the slate of officials from the CDC, NIH and State Department.... [Dr. Tony] Fauci emphatically denied reports that the White House is preventing him from speaking publicly about the virus. Vice President Mike Pence's office had asked him to delay pre-scheduled television hits and seek renewed clearance to do the appearances in the wake of Pence's appointment as response leader, he said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ A Muzzle by Any Other Name.... Joe Concha of the Hill: "Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) on Friday said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was told to 'stand down' and not appear on five Sunday morning talk shows to discuss the coronavirus. Garamendi told MSNBC's Hallie Jackson that Anthony Fauci was scheduled to do all five major Sunday talk shows, but says Fauci canceled the appearances after Vice President Pence took over the administration's response to the disease. Trump on Wednesday named Pence as the official overseeing the government's response. 'I can repeat what he said, he said, "I was not muzzled. However, I was to go on the Sunday talk shows five of them. The vice president's office then took over the control of this situation, and told me to stand down, not to do those shows,'" Garamendi said, quoting Fauci. 'Now, you can draw your own conclusions whether he was muzzled or not, but clearly he was scheduled to do Sunday talk shows and he was not to proceed with that,' the congressman added." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Rep. Ted Lieu, speaking on CNN, said he asked mike pence if pence thought the virus was a "hoax," and pence refused to answer. pence is so afraid of angering his lord & master that every federal professional must get pence's approval before saying "coronavirus," yet pence also is so petrified that he can't say one definitive thing about the virus. There's your government's "response." ~~~

~~~ In case you're wondering what-all mike has been doing since he took a break from overseeing the coronavirus crisis to headline a Florida Republican fundraiser: ~~~

~~~ Eric Kleefeld of Media Matters: "Vice President Mike Pence, who ... Donald Trump has placed in charge of overseeing the government's response to the coronavirus outbreak, appeared Friday afternoon on The Rush Limbaugh Show -- which has been the source of a mixture of conspiracy theories, denialism, and other misinformation about the virus.... Kicking off the week on Monday, Limbaugh falsely claimed that the novel coronavirus strain known as COVID-19 is actually just' the common cold,' but added that it 'probably is a [Chinese Communist] laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized' as part of 'an effort to bring down Trump' through negative media coverage. Limbaugh then only dug in further on Tuesday, downplaying the potential impact of coronavirus in the U.S.... He later went on to claim that the ... media was only hoping for [the virus] to sufficiently evolve to become [a major threat]: '... They would love for the coronavirus to be this deadly strain that wipes everybody out, so they could blame Trump for it.' Limbaugh did not repeat or even acknowledge any of these conspiracy theories during the interview with Pence -- nor did Pence mention that Limbaugh had been spreading them." ~~~

~~~ But Wait! mike has a great new helper: ~~~

~~~ Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary Katie Miller was placed in charge of all government communications regarding coronavirus. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney sent out a government-wide email ordering all official communications to go through Miller, who recently married White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, reported CNN.... Jessica Ditto, [Pence's] deputy director of communications, had initially been handling government messaging." Mrs. McC: Waldman Miller is 28 years old; her professional experience is as a flack. In her new job, she will be telling experts on the virus what they can share with the public (maybe her undergrad degree in ag econ will help, I don't know). I'm sure when mike appointed her to scrub their public reports & statements, he was being true to his prom'se "to let the health care experts lead" uppermost in his mind, as he told Rushbo.

AND Corona beer takes a hit.

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Friday that he intended to nominate Representative John Ratcliffe, Republican of Texas, as his director of national intelligence, choosing someone he considered last summer before senior Republicans in Congress deemed him unqualified for the job. Mr. Ratcliffe is a vocal supporter of the president who serves on the House Intelligence Committee. If confirmed, he would replace Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump put in charge of American intelligence agencies this month on an acting basis. The job has been vacant since Dan Coats stepped down on Aug. 15.... It is unclear whether Mr. Ratcliffe could be confirmed by the Senate. When Mr. Trump floated his name last summer, some Republicans, including Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told White House officials that Mr. Ratcliffe was too partisan for the position, according to people familiar with the discussions." em> Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So maybe Trump tapped Grenell -- a totally inappropriate choice -- to inoculate Ratcliffe, a completely inappropriate choice. What's the difference between "totally" and "completely"? Nothing.

** Maria Sachetti & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court in California halted the Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' immigration policy on Friday, a blow to the president's restrictive immigration agenda that cripples one of the government's approaches to curbing migration across the U.S. southern border. The program -- officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP -- called for pushing asylum seekers back into Mexico to await their U.S. asylum hearings, part of an effort to limit migrant access to U.S. soil and to lessen a record migration surge among Central American families. More than 470,000 parents and children crossed into the United States last fiscal year, and most were quickly freed into the country to await U.S. immigration court hearings after they claimed asylum.... The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold a lower-court's injunction on MPP, saying that the policy 'is invalid in its entirety due to its inconsistency with' federal law, and 'should be enjoined in its entirety.'" An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has turned down a lawsuit claiming that ... Donald Trump's luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., is unfairly undermining the business of other venues in the city. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday against a lawsuit a D.C. wine bar filed in 2017, claiming it was losing business to the Trump International Hotel because some were seeking to use their dollars to win favor with the president." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ CREW: "President Trump's unprecedented decision to retain his business interests while serving in the White House set the stage for a deluge of conflicts of interests between the government and the Trump Organization. From the beginning of President Trump's administration, CREW has endeavored to track these conflicts, which pit President Trump's personal and financial interests against those of the nation as a whole, and this week, President Trump reached a new, disgraceful milestone: He has racked up 3,000 conflicts of interest during his time in office." --s

Jessica Gresko & Eric Tucker of the AP: "In a setback for Democrats in Congress, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that judges have no role to play in the subpoena fight between the House and ... Donald Trump over the testimony of high-ranking administration officials. The decision undoes a lower court ruling that would have forced former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before Congress. It is likely to doom efforts to get other high-ranking officials to testify in House investigations of Trump. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the 2-1 decision. Lawmakers could ask the full appeals court to weigh in or appeal to the Supreme Court." ~~~

~~~ Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "If that ruling is allowed to stand, it will mean that going forward, disputes between Congress and the White House are to be resolved in favor of the White House.... Under the guise of staying out of it, the appeals court just blessed the White House's claim that it is beyond the reach of Congress -- not just for McGahn's subpoena, but for any future such attempts at oversight.... It bears mentioning that throughout the impeachment trial the president's attorneys insisted that subpoenas for executive branch witnesses should have been handled in court. And the court now claims the disputes are non-justiciable.

Mafia Don Gets His Biden "Investigation". Bermet Talant of the Kyiv Post: "U.S. President Donald Trump failed to make Ukraine investigate his Democratic rival, former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden. Now, a former Ukrainian prosecutor general [and usual idiot Viktor Shokin], whose allegations underpinned Trump's efforts, has succeeded: He managed to get two criminal probes opened against Biden. He did it through multiple appeals to a Ukrainian court. However, his victory is largely a legal technicality and is unlikely to lead to any serious investigation.... If that wasn't enough, the former prosecutor general claims that Biden could be linked to his alleged poisoning with mercury last year. In an interview with [Rudy] Giuliani, broadcast on the conservative One America News network, Shokin claimed he died twice from the poisoning and was resuscitated." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Bear in mind that a guy who says Joe Biden may have tried to poison him is Rudy's main source for "evidence" that Joe was engaged in corrupt acts in Ukraine.

Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "The United States is expected to sign a peace deal with the Taliban insurgency on Saturday that for the first time after two decades of grinding warfare would lay out the prospect of a final withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. The signing in Doha, Qatar, is seen as a vital step toward negotiating a more sweeping peace deal that could end the insurgency altogether, after years of unrelenting violence that took the lives of more than 3,500 Americans and coalition troops and tens of thousands of Afghans since the U.S. invasion in 2001." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. New Lede: "The United States signed a deal with the Taliban on Saturday that sets the stage to end America's longest war -- the nearly two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, killed tens of thousands of people, vexed three White House administrations and left mistrust and uncertainty on all sides." CNN's story is here.

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeatedly clashed Friday with Democratic lawmakers who criticized him for taking weeks to appear before Congress following the killing of Iran's top military commander and then truncating his time on Capitol Hill to speak to a conservative political conference.... 'It is shameful' that 'you are going to talk to a special interest group,' while only giving two hours to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.).... Pompeo conceded Iran has 'enriched [uranium] to a higher level than they did when we took office.' But on the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Pompeo insisted the decision has made Americans more safe, despite State Department warnings about traveling to Iraq, the addition of thousands of more troops in the Middle East and beefed up security for U.S. diplomats around the world."

AP: "The House judiciary committee is launching a wide-ranging inquiry into the attorney general, William Barr, and the justice department, demanding briefings, documents and interviews with 15 officials as it tries to determine whether there has been improper political interference in federal law enforcement. The committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, on Friday sent Barr a letter listing a series of matters that the committee finds 'deeply troubling', including Barr's involvement in the case of ... Roger Stone.... Nadler is also questioning Barr about his involvement in other cases related to friends and associates of Trump and about internal investigations into department employees who investigated Trump after the 2016 election."

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein & Adriana Ramic of the New York Times: "The fourth state on the Democratic presidential nominating calendar, South Carolina is the first opportunity for a critical mass of black voters to weigh in. For months, as he's struggled elsewhere, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been pointing to South Carolina as the place his fortunes would turn around."

The New York Times live-updated developments in the Democratic presidential race Friday. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here.

Sally Goldenberg & Erin Durkin of Politico: "Mike Bloomberg espoused a bit of revisionist history over his role in extending city term limits Friday morning. The former New York City mayor blamed the municipal rule-change, which he conceived in 2008 so he could run for a third term, on the City Council during a wide-ranging MSNBC interview.... It was a questionable description for those familiar with the term limits fight in New York. Instead, they recall a pitched battle in which Bloomberg lobbied fiercely for a chance to serve a third term, getting City Council members to back his plan to reverse the well-established two-term ceiling for elected officials, and wooing business and media leaders in the effort. 'It was one of the most profoundly undemocratic things I have ever seen in my many years involved in New York City government,' said Randy Mastro, who represented plaintiffs in a lawsuit that unsuccessfully tried to block the term limits change.... Bloomberg's immense wealth aided the effort, and he enlisted nonprofit groups that received his money to lend their support. One nonprofit had about 20 of its employees testify in favor of letting the mayor run again."

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted Friday that his recent claims of being arrested during a congressional delegation trip to South Africa in the 1970s were false. Biden has faced scrutiny over the claims, made repeatedly over the past few weeks, that he was arrested with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young 'on the streets of Soweto,' a township in Johannesburg, attempting to see imprisoned anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela." In the new version of the story, Biden says officials at a South African airport tried to force him to go through a door marked "whites only," and they detained him when he tried to pass through a different door with black members of the delegation.

Zach Montellaro & Holly Otterbein of Politico: "The Iowa state Democratic Party has completed its partial recount of the Feb. 3 presidential caucuses, and the result hasn't changed: Pete Buttigieg still has a very narrow advantage over Bernie Sanders in state delegate equivalents. The state party announced Thursday evening that it recounted results in 23 precincts that were requested by both campaigns, and Buttigieg leads Sanders by roughly one state delegate equivalent, a difference of about four hundredths of a percentage point." (Also linked yesterday.)

Svea Herbst-Bayliss of Reuters: "Hedge fund Elliott Management Corp has amassed a stake in Twitter Inc ... and is pushing for changes, including removal of the social media company's chief executive, Jack Dorsey, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday.... Elliott, founded by billionaire [rightwing GOP mega donor] Paul Singer, will be seeking to install its own nominees to Twitter's eight-member board when three of the company's directors stand for election at its upcoming annual shareholder meeting, the sources said." --safari: I'm guessing conservatives want Dorsey out because he recently banned political ads from the platform.

Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "Andrew Walz calls himself a 'proven business leader' and a 'passionate advocate for students.' Walz, a Republican from Rhode Island, is running for Congress with the tagline, 'Let's make change in Washington together,' or so his Twitter account claimed. Earlier this month, Walz's account received a coveted blue checkmark from Twitter as part of the company's broader push to verify the authenticity of many Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates currently running for office. Twitter has framed this effort as key to helping Americans find reliable information about politicians in the leadup to the 2020 election. But there's just one problem: Walz does not exist. The candidate is the creation of a 17-year-old high school student from upstate New York...." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Oregon. Matthew Chapman of RawStory: "On Thursday, Democrats in the Oregon House of Representatives voted to subpoena 11 Senate Republican members who walked off their jobs and fled the state capitol in order to block consideration of a carbon pricing bill.... Republicans' absence is due to a quirk in the rules of the legislature. Democrats command majorities in both chambers, but Republicans have enough members that if they walk out, the legislature has no quorum and cannot move forward with debate on anything. Incredibly, this is the second straight term in which Oregon Republicans have employed this tactic to stop climate legislation." --s

News Ledes

Washington Post: "California reported its second case of community transmission of the coronavirus Friday, and Oregon and Washington announced others just hours later, providing fresh evidence that the deadly virus is circulating in the United States." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' latest live updates on developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.

The Commentariat -- February 28, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Annie Karni of the New York Times: Speaking at CPAC, "Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Friday blamed the media for exaggerating the seriousness of coronavirus because 'they think this will bring down the president, that's what this is all about.'... The news media has [have!] been covering the global spread of coronavirus for months. But Mr. Mulvaney claimed that the news media was too preoccupied covering impeachment, he said, 'because they thought it would bring down the president.'" Mulvaney also complained that the press wasn't covering Trump's great relationship with his youngest son, even those Melania Trump has jealously guarded the child's privacy. Here's a Hill story.

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Democratic lawmakers expressed frustration Friday with the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus, saying they left a closed-door briefing by top health officials with many unanswered questions." ~~~

~~~ Adam Cancryn & David Liu of Politico: "Several House Republicans walked out of a closed-door coronavirus briefing Friday with Trump health officials in protest after a senior Democrat blasted the Trump administration's handling of the response effort. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) kicked off the briefing sharply criticizing the administration as disorganized and lacking urgency in combating the coronavirus, lawmakers said. Her speech frustrated Republicans and some Democrats assembled to hear from the slate of officials from the CDC, NIH and State Department.... [Dr. Tony] Fauci emphatically denied reports that the White House is preventing him from speaking publicly about the virus. Vice President Mike Pence's office had asked him to delay pre-scheduled television hits and seek renewed clearance to do the appearances in the wake of Pence's appointment as response leader, he said." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Rep. Ted Lieu, speaking on CNN, said he asked mike pence if pence thought the virus was a "hoax," and pence refused to answer. pence is so afraid of angering his lord & master that every federal professional must get pence's approval before saying "coronavirus," yet pence also is so petrified that he can't say one definitive thing about the virus. There's your government's "response."

Fred Imbert & Eustance Huang of CNBC: "Stocks tumbled once again on Friday, adding to the market's worst week since the financial crisis, as worries over the coronavirus and its impact on the economy continue to rattle investor sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 910 points, or more than 3.5%, to below 25,000. The S&P 500 slid 3.5% while the Nasdaq Composite fell nearly 3%. The major averages were under pressure on Friday in part because investors kept adding to their bond-market exposure and fleeing equities. The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield touched a fresh record low. It was last at 1.18%. Yields move inversely to prices."

** Maria Sachetti & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court in California halted the Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' immigration policy on Friday, a blow to the president's restrictive immigration agenda that cripples one of the government's approaches to curbing migration across the U.S. southern border. The program -- officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP -- called for pushing asylum seekers back into Mexico to await their U.S. asylum hearings, part of an effort to limit migrant access to U.S. soil and to lessen a record migration surge among Central American families. More than 470,000 parents and children crossed into the United States last fiscal year, and most were quickly freed into the country to await U.S. immigration court hearings.... The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold a lower-court's injunction on MPP, saying that the policy 'is invalid in its entirety due to its inconsistency with' federal law, and 'should be enjoined in its entirety.'" An NBC News story is here.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has turned down a lawsuit claiming that ... Donald Trump's luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., is unfairly undermining the business of other venues in the city. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday against a lawsuit a D.C. wine bar filed in 2017, claiming it was losing business to the Trump International Hotel because some customers were seeking to use their dollars to win favor with the president."

Zach Montellaro & Holly Otterbein of Politico: "The Iowa state Democratic Party has completed its partial recount of the Feb. 3 presidential caucuses, and the result hasn't changed: Pete Buttigieg still has a very narrow advantage over Bernie Sanders in state delegate equivalents. The state party announced Thursday evening that it recounted results in 23 precincts that were requested by both campaigns, and Buttigieg leads Sanders by roughly one state delegate equivalent, a difference of about four hundredths of a percentage point."

~~~~~~~~~~

Too busy to read today's synopsis of the top stories? No problem. Read Akhilleus's synopsis of the synopsis at the top of today's Comments. P.S. If you're wheezy or raspy, better stay home, call the doc & pray with mike. Update: Here's an even briefer, if not as humorous, summary of the last couple of days of Trumpandemic news: ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman: "So, here's the response of the Trump team and its allies to the coronavirus, at least so far: It's actually good for America. Also, it's a hoax perpetrated by the news media and the Democrats. Besides, it's no big deal, and people should buy stocks. Anyway, we'll get it all under control under the leadership of a man who doesn't believe in science." But do read on. ~~~

~~~ Trump Expects "Miracle" to Make Coronavirus Epidemic "Disappear." Summer Concepcion of TPM: "... President Trump again touted his administration's response to the [coronavirus] outbreak [Thursday].... Trump also seemed to suggest that the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. would be worse if it hadn't been for him. '15 people is almost, I would say, a miracle,' Trump said, referring to the amount of confirmed cases in the U.S.... However, Trump added that the coronavirus outbreak could worsen before getting better. 'It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it disappear. And from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better,' Trump said. 'It could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows. The fact is the greatest experts I've spoken to them all, nobody really knows.'" Mrs. McC: Now, that's leadership! ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Will Sommer & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump spent 45 minutes [Thursday] talking to the lead actors of a low-budget conservative play about the so-called Deep State. Phelim McAleer, the playwright behind the play FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers, told The Daily Beast that the meeting with Trump had originally been scheduled for just 15 minutes but went 30 minutes longer than that.... Trump hasn't seen the play, according to McAleer, but praised its concept: a script based entirely on congressional testimony and the text messages between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who discussed the FBI's investigation into Trump's campaign and Russia while having an affair." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Steve Contorno of the Tampa Bay Times: "The country's new point man on coronavirus response, Vice President Mike Pence, is expected to travel to ... the moneyed barrier island town of Longboat Key, [Florida,] where he'll be the main attraction for Congressional Republicans in one of their biggest fundraisers of the year. It's $2,500 to get in the door and $5,000 to take a picture with the vice president, according to an invite obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. And $25,000 buys dinner with him, too.... The event, hosted by the Florida Republican congressional delegation, benefits the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to the invite."

Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Global markets tumbled for a sixth consecutive day on Thursday, dragging down the S&P 500 more than 10 percent in just a week, reflecting rising fears over the coronavirus that is spreading quickly around the world. The S&P 500 fell 4.4 percent on Thursday, the worst single day slide for the market since August 2011. The index is on pace for its worst weekly performance since the 2008 financial crisis. Stocks in Europe and Asia were also hard hit on Thursday. The sell-off came after public health officials in the United States and Germany said new patients in each country had no known connection to others with the illness, a development that could complicate efforts to track the virus." The CNBC story is here. Mrs. McC: Wow! Democrats really upset traders. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Emily Cochrane, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal health employees interacted with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to the coronavirus without proper medical training or protective gear, then scattered into the general population, according to a government whistle-blower. In a portion of a complaint filing obtained by The New York Times that has been submitted to the Office of the Special Counsel, the whistle-blower, described as a senior leader at the health agency, said the team was 'improperly deployed' to two military bases in California to assist the processing of Americans who had been evacuated from coronavirus hot zones in China and elsewhere. The staff members were sent to Travis Air Force Base and March Air Reserve Base and were ordered to enter quarantined areas, including a hangar where coronavirus evacuees were being received. They were not provided training in safety protocols until five days later, the person said. Without proper training or equipment, some of the exposed staff members moved freely around and off the bases, with at least one person staying in a nearby hotel and leaving California on a commercial flight." The Washington Post story is here. The Hill has a summary report here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Stifling the Experts. Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.... Mr. Pence said Thursday that he had selected Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the director of the United States effort to combat H.I.V. and AIDS, to serve as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House.... With Mr. Pence's announcement, Dr. Birx becomes the third person to be designated as the administration's primary coronavirus official. Mr. Trump said that 'Mike is going to be in charge, and Mike will report back to me.' Mr. Pence said it will be Dr. Birx. Meanwhile, Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, remains the chairman of the government's coronavirus task force.... Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, one of the country's leading experts on viruses and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Trump's plan for the coronavirus so far: -Cut winter heating assistance for the poor -Have VP Pence, who wanted to 'pray away' HIV epidemic, oversee the response -Let ex-pharma lobbyist Alex Azar refuse to guarantee affordable vaccines to all' -Disgusting. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a tweet yesterday evening

Related Hill story here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "The Centers for Disease Control is warning that it expects to see an expanded outbreak [of coronavirus] in the United States and is planning for a worldwide pandemic.... But at this delicate moment, the feedback loop between Fox News and President Donald Trump is powering the president's response. The network hosts who influence Trump the most are fixating his attention on Democrats and the media, who they claim are deliberately politicizing coronavirus in order to damage his reelection campaign. And Trump is apparently listening to them and is spouting the same talking points.... Fox ... hosts and personalities targeted the media and Democrats for their treatment of coronavirus throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning." --s

Dan Diamond of Politico (Feb. 26): "Hundreds of Americans were left stuck on a cruise ship that later became the single biggest source of U.S. coronavirus cases -- a CDC decision. Dozens of public health labs are still waiting for tests that will allow them to diagnose coronavirus -- a CDC responsibility. One of [CDC Director Robert] Redfield's deputies on Monday urged businesses and schools to start preparing for the disease's inevitable spread -- stamping the CDC's imprint on public fears and irking White House officials who worry about panicking Americans and driving down financial markets.... 'CDC's stumbled,' said one official, referencing the agency's lab-testing failures. 'It's too early to tell if those stumbles will mean we miss an outbreak ... It's a pray-and-see situation.'... Inside the health department, officials have complained that Redfield and CDC have been slow to resolve essential problems, like clarifying whether dozens of public health labs around the nation will soon have diagnostics capable of testing for coronavirus."

Martyn McLaughlin of the Scotsman: "Patrick Harvie MSP, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that the US president, or people he is connected with, 'have been involved in serious crime.' He has called on ministers to apply to the Court of Session to seek answers as to how Mr Trump's bankrolled his multimillion acquisitions of land and property in his mother's homeland. Responding at First Minister's Questions, Nicola Sturgeon stressed she was 'no defender' of Mr Trump, but said any allegations of criminality were a matter for Police Scotland and the Crown Office." Harvie asked the government to investigate via an "unexplained wealth order," a rarely-used tool designed "to target suspected corrupt foreign officials who have potentially laundered stolen money through the UK." (Also linked yesterday.)

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The Department of Veterans Affairs' inspector general has opened an investigation into allegations that Secretary Robert Wilkie tried to dig up dirt on an aide to a top Democrat in Congress after she said she was sexually assaulted at the agency's Washington hospital. Inspector General Michael J. Missal, after a preliminary review of Wilkie's conduct following the woman's report last fall, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday that he has decided to move forward with a full-blown inquiry."

Robert Reich in the American Prospect: "William Barr was installed as attorney general specifically to turn the Department of Justice into an arm of the Trump Cover-Up. And we've seen him do exactly that. Barr has corrupted and politicized the Department of Justice, working hand in hand with Donald Trump to bend federal law enforcement to the president's will. Here are some of the ways Barr is helping Trump turn our democracy into a dictatorship: 1. He intervened in the sentencing of Roger Stone.... 2. Barr has green-lit an 'intake process' for any information that ... Rudy Giuliani may dig up about Ukraine and the elections.... 3. Barr misled the public about the contents of the Mueller report.... 4. Barr refused to accept the findings of the inspector general report investigating the origins of the Russia probe.... 5. Barr buried the whistleblower complaint that kick-started the impeachment inquiry and tried to keep it from reaching Congress."

Ryan Mac, et al. of BuzzFeed News: "The United States' main immigration enforcement agency [ICE], the Department of Justice, retailers including Best Buy and Macy's, and a sovereign wealth fund in the United Arab Emirates are among the thousands of government entities and private businesses around the world listed as clients of the controversial facial recognition startup with a database of billions of photos scraped from social media and the web. The startup, Clearview AI, is facing legal threats from Facebook, Google, and Twitter, as well as calls for regulation and scrutiny in the US. But new documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal that it has already shared or sold its technology to thousands of organizations around the world.... Clearview's software ... has been used by people in more than 2,200 law enforcement departments, government agencies, and companies across 27 countries, according to the documents.... Clearview AI's facial recognition has been deployed at every level of American society and is making its way around the world." --s

Impotent Dems, Ctd. Josh Lederman & Anna Schecter of NBC: "A House committee investigating potential surveillance of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, is struggling to get records and text messages from Robert Hyde, the GOP congressional candidate who claimed to have her under surveillance, according to emails obtained by NBC News. Hyde, in response, is accusing the House Foreign Affairs Committee of 'trying to set me up.'" --s

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee has privately expressed concerns about his colleagues' corruption investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, further exposing divisions within the GOP over whether to continue pursuing an effort that led in part to President Donald Trump's impeachment. In a Dec. 5 meeting, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told the leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Finance committees -- Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, respectively -- that their probe targeting Biden could aid Russian efforts to sow chaos and distrust in the U.S. political system, according to two congressional sources familiar with the meeting.... Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has hinted at similar unease with the Biden investigation, and he has said that some of those concerns were relayed to him by Burr...."

Frank Rich is particularly Rich today, with ruminations on Trump the Virus King, the Democratic presidential primary (so depressing), & MSNBC's attempt to mirror Fox "News."

Presidential Race

Sheryl Stolberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi, facing deep alarm among moderate Democrats who worry that Senator Bernie Sanders will win their party's presidential nomination only to cost them control of the House, has begun distancing her caucus from the race for the White House in an effort to insulate her rank and file and preserve the party's majority. Ms. Pelosi, the highest-ranking Democrat and the de facto leader of her party, insisted in public and in private on Thursday that Democrats would be united around their nominee no matter who it was -- even as she pointedly refused to embrace Mr. Sanders's agenda, especially Medicare for All, which lacks the votes to pass the House."

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "The Boston Globe Editorial Board on Wednesday endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld's long-shot primary challenge to President Trump. 'Although sometimes dismissed as a gadfly because of his Libertarian Party vice presidential bid in 2016, Weld is a solid, substantive, hyper-smart figure. As governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997, he demonstrated an ability to work with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature to produce impressive results,' the Globe said." The Globe's editorial is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Hannah Dreier of ProPublica: "Previously undisclosed emails, including some filed in lawsuits against Purdue [Pharma] and others provided by sources, reveal a little-known relationship, forged in part by mutual philanthropic interests, between the Sacklers [of OxyContin infamy] and Michael Bloomberg. They show that when the Sacklers were facing critical media coverage, they looked to Bloomberg and his news and philanthropic organizations for help. Bloomberg advised Mortimer Sackler on how to handle negative coverage in 2017, and steered the family to a crisis communications specialist who had been his mayoral press secretary. In 2018, Bloomberg Philanthropies staff met with Sackler to discuss launching a joint initiative to combat the opioid crisis."

Courts Offer Small Favors

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Idaho ruled Thursday that a Trump administration policy limiting public input on oil and gas leasing decisions was 'arbitrary and capricious,' overturning the 2018 directive and voiding nearly 1 million acres of leases out West as a result. The ruling by U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush represented a win for environmentalists, who challenged the leasing policy as part of a broader effort to block drilling in habitat for the imperiled greater sage-grouse. The contested area spans 67 million acres across 11 Western states." Mrs. McC: The accompanying photo of a couple of horny sage-grouse is awesome.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has rejected former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's bid to wipe out a judge's guilty finding that preceded ... Donald Trump's pardon of Arpaio in 2017. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Arpaio is not entitled to have the guilty verdict on a misdemeanor contempt-of-court charge vacated because it has no legal significance in the wake of Trump's pardon."

Rachel Bitecofer in the New Republic has a long piece on how 'negative partisanship' is going to be a main driver in the 2020 election. --s

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. American "Democracy". Sam Levine of the Guardian: "In 2018, with the midterm elections approaching, Alfonzo Tucker Jr [an African American] was particularly eager to vote. The mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Tucker's hometown, was running for governor, and the year before he had canvassed for Doug Jones, a Democrat running in a closely watched US Senate race. But Tucker wasn't able to cast a ballot -- state officials refused to even let him register. It wasn't until weeks later that he learned why he had been deprived of the right to vote. He owed the state $4." --s

Maryland. Luke Broadwater, et al., of the Baltimore Sun: “Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who held elected offices in Baltimore for two decades and was elevated by voters to lead the city following the upheaval of 2015, was sentenced to three years in federal prison Thursday for a fraud scheme involving a children's book series.... 'I have yet frankly to hear any explanation that makes sense,' the judge said. 'This was not a tiny mistake, lapse of judgment. This became a very large fraud. The nature and circumstances of this offense clearly I think are extremely, extremely serious.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Turkey, Syria, Russia. Carlotta Gall of the New York Times: "The Turkish Army suffered mass casualties in an airstrike in northwest Syria late Thursday, an attack that could dramatically change the course of the Syrian war as fears grow of a direct conflict between Russia and Turkey, a NATO member. At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 30 wounded, said Rahmi Dogan, the Turkish governor of the southern province of Hatay, where the Turkish casualties were arriving. Turkish officials said the strike had been carried out by Syrian government forces, but Russian jets have been conducting most of the airstrikes in the area in recent weeks. Turkish protesters in Istanbul converged on the Russian Consulate there early Friday, chanting 'Murderer Russia! Murderer Putin!'" ~~~

~~~ Plus Europe. Orhan Coskun & Ezgi Erkoyun of Reuters: "Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said, as Ankara responded on Friday to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an air strike by Syrian government forces in Syria's northwestern Idlib region.... Some one million civilians have been displaced near the Turkish border since December as Russia-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, marking the worst humanitarian crisis in the nine-year war.... The threat to open the way for refugees to Europe would, if executed, reverse a pledge Turkey made to the European Union in 2016 and could quickly draw Western powers into the standoff over Idlib and stalled negotiations between Ankara and Moscow.... Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees[.]" --s

U.K. Thomas Colson of Business Insider: "Brexit is set to have cost the UK more than £200 billion in lost economic growth by the end of this year -- a figure that almost eclipses the total amount the UK has paid the European Union budget over the past 47 years. According to research by Bloomberg Economics, the cost of the UK's vote to leave has already reached £130 billion, with a further £70 billion likely to be added by the end of 2020.... [T]he British economy is 3% smaller than it might have been if the UK had not voted to leave the EU." --s

News Ledes

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.

Hill: "Health authorities in California have confirmed a second coronavirus case in a person who had no previous connection to anyone else with the disease. According to Santa Clara County officials, the person is an adult woman with chronic health conditions who has no known history of travel to countries hit by the outbreak. The Washington Post reported that she is 65 years old."

Forbes: "On Friday morning, U.K. authorities reported the first death of a British citizen from COVID-19, the disease caused by the now-worldwide SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus outbreak. The man who has not currently been named was a passenger on board the Diamond Princess Cruise ship and was made to stay in Japan for treatment after testing positive for the virus, as many other British passengers were evacuated last week. The other five fatalities from the ship so far are Japanese citizens. 705 people from the ship containing 3,711 people have now contracted COVID-19, with it becoming increasingly apparent that the quarantine protocols on the ship were poorly enforced and wholly inadequate to protect passengers. The 705 cases are thought to stem from just one man from Hong Kong who was a passenger on the ship in late January and later tested positive for the virus after returning home."