POLITICO
WHITE HOUSE
‘This is the equivalent of war’: Pence faces the toughest test of the Trump era
Trump assigned his right-hand man to a role that could shape the president’s fate in an election year. His style is much different than Trump’s.
By GABBY ORR
03/02/2020 08:07 PM EST
Behind Vice President Mike Pence’s steady demeanor and steely look since taking charge of the U.S. government response to coronavirus is a cruel truth: He will emerge either as the architect of a successful containment strategy — boosting his own resumé and President Donald Trump’s reelection odds — or deal a potentially fatal blow to his political aspirations.
In the days since Trump tapped his right-hand man to lead the administration’s coronavirus task force, people in Pence’s orbit have been warning him of the gravity of this moment. Some have offered encouragement and advice from afar. Others have used Twitter and TV appearances to tamp down concerns about public health risks and economic disruptions.
Yet few have tried to downplay the pressure Pence faces as the point person for a new viral epidemic — one that has thrust global markets into violent swings and threatens to knock the U.S. economy into recession — under a famously mercurial president.
“This is the equivalent of war. This is a big deal and people are going to die, and so you can’t afford to make mistakes,” said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Gingrich sent a note to Pence on Sunday praising the “discipline” he showed during a tough Sunday show interview about the virus, and he insists the vice president’s primary focus is on public safety. But Gingrich also conceded the tremendous political risks for Pence, whose own presidential ambitions are widely known.
“If he does this well, he comes out of this as a very big national figure. If he does this badly, he comes out as a dramatically diminished figure. He knows that. His team knows that,” Gingrich said.
Following an influx of cases on both coasts over the weekend, Pence took steps Monday to underscore the government’s response and continue coordinating with state and local officials. The vice president led a Situation Room teleconference with governors in the afternoon, convened a meeting of the administration’s coronavirus task force and cancelled plans to join Trump at a campaign rally in North Carolina.
“This is the equivalent of war. This is a big deal and people are going to die, and so you can’t afford to make mistakes."
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.
Instead, Pence stayed behind to hold a nationally televised press conference to try reassuring Americans. His appearance came just hours after it was revealed that four more Americans had died from coronavirus, raising the overall total of deaths in the country to six at the time.
“Despite today’s sad news, let’s be clear: The risk to the American people of the coronavirus remains low, according to all of the experts that we’re working with across the government,” Pence said. “This president has said we’re ready for anything. But this is an all-hands-on-deck effort.
And on Tuesday, Pence will make a rare bipartisan trip to Capitol Hill to brief both Republican and Democratic senators at their weekly lunches.
“Everybody needs to go into this knowing there are definitely things that will be beyond the government’s or Mike Pence’s control, but as long as they’re being transparent with the public, with Congress and with fellow governors, I think there’s much less political risk,” said a former White House official.
Transparency has already become an issue since Pence took the reins of the administration’s coronavirus reponse, according to critics who have accused the vice president of muzzling public health officials by requiring that they coordinate with his office prior to issuing their own statements. The New York Times reported Thursday that Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had told others “the White House had instructed him not to say anything else [about the coronavirus outbreak] without clearance.” (Fauci later said at a press conference that he’s “never been muzzled” and claimed the story contained “a real misrepresentation of what happened.”)
In some ways, Pence has borrowed a page from his gubernatorial playbook by attempting to control government messaging as it relates to coronavirus. As of now, Pence spokeswoman Katie Miller has been tasked with fielding internal queries related to coronavirus and approving public statements.
But back before Pence had the weight of the vice presidency behind him, as governor of Indiana he attempted to create a state-run news outlet that would have featured an editorial board comprised of his own communications staff. The proposed news site, which Pence unveiled at the height of Indiana’s HIV outbreak in 2015, was compared to the Soviet Union’s Pravda and never came to fruition.
Two people familiar with the administration’s plans said the vice president’s office is expected to expand its communications staff in the coming days with loaned-out staffers from several agencies who can then streamline coronavirus messaging with their regular departments. The move would build on Pence’s efforts to consolidate messaging after Trump spent much of last week directly contradicting top U.S. officials who warned of potentially severe disruptions as more Americans contract coronavirus.
The criticism Pence has already faced for his tightened grip on the administration’s messaging is a sign of the treacherous waters he’s likely to spend the next several months navigating, where every misstep is critiqued in real time and then filed away as potential ammunition if he chooses to seek higher office down the road.
In fact, Pence’s handling of the Indiana HIV outbreak — which critics have cited in recent days amid questions over his ability to handle the coronavirus crisis — illustrates how politicians can incur reputational damage if they mishandle a public health emergency. Though Trump cited the “Indiana model” as a positive reference point during a press conference last week, others have cast Pence’s approach as disastrous.
Back in 2015, then-Gov. Pence waited several months before declaring a public health emergency and authorizing a needle exchange program after local officials reported an explosive increase in HIV cases in Scott County, Ind. A 2018 study by researchers at Yale University concluded that the outbreak could have impacted fewer residents if Pence had acted more swiftly as governor. Pence said he eventually changed his mind about the needle exchange program — which he initially opposed due to his belief that it contributed to drug abuse — after praying about it and soliciting expert opinions.
It’s the same attitude Pence has adopted as he works to tackle coronavirus, according to people close to him, who said he’s eager to punch through bureaucracy. Pence has been in constant contact with governors whose states have seen one or more cases of coronavirus, describing the administration’s working relationships with the states as “seamless” during his press conference.
“Having been a governor and been through these public health crises, he’s learned a lot about it and a key lesson is the importance local and state officials play,” Gingrich said, adding that he’s confident Pence “prays about this every morning” as he tackles the worsening coronavirus outbreak.
One former White House official said Pence was likely chosen to lead the administration’s coronavirus task force not because of his own experience managing a public health crisis, but because he’s one of the only officials inside Trump’s Cabinet whom the president trusts to be “an honest broker among department heads.”
The official said Pence proved to Trump that he can settle disagreements and assuage skeptics after he helped shepherd the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement through Congress earlier this year. The same goes for Pence’s handling of the U.S. Space Force, said Gingrich, noting that the vice president took Trump’s vision for the sixth armed forces branch and quickly actualized it.
“You can feel the speed and the impetus that Pence has brought to the space program on behalf of the president and so I think Trump looks at him and says, ‘Here’s a guy who gets stuff done,'” Gingrich said.
Still, success in the Trump administration doesn’t always translate to job security. Last April, for example, the president went on a firing spree at the Department of Homeland Security following a string of negative news stories about his administration’s efforts to curb illegal immigration — even as officials inside the agency insisted they were doing as much as they could without breaking the law. Even Pence, whose loyalty has never wavered during the countless controversies of Trump’s own making, was left to fend off speculation last fall that the president was preparing to dump him from his 2020 ticket after Trump began asking friends what they thought of his genteel sidekick.
These realities will hang over Pence as he enters his greatest challenge yet: rescuing the Trump presidency — and the president’s shot at a second term — from a viral outbreak of growing proportions. If things go south, the vice president could become a fall guy, jeopardizing not only Trump’s shot at reelection but his own shot at being crowned his successor. But as the U.S. death toll rose on Monday, those close to Pence insisted politics were the last thing on the vice president’s mind.
“The most important thing to Pence is the health and safety of the American people,” said the former White House official. “He wants to do right by the president and he’s not thinking about 2024.”
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TheHill
MEDIA
March 02, 2020 - 04:54 PM EST
CNN’s Begala: Trump will ‘dump Pence’ for Haley on day of Democratic nominee’s acceptance speech
Longtime CNN political analyst Paul Begala predicted on Monday that President Trump is “gonna dump [Vice President] Mike Pence in favor of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley” on July 16 when the Democratic nominee is slated to give his or her acceptance speech.
The former “Crossfire” co-host “guaranteed” Trump will throw Pence “under the bus” because of his handling of the coronavirus, which the president tapped Pence to lead a task force on last week.
“This is not a prediction. It’s a certainty. On Thursday, July 16 - that’s the date the Democrat gives his or her acceptance address - on that day, to interrupt that narrative, Donald Trump will call a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. He’s going to dump Mike Pence and put Nikki Haley on the ticket to try to get those suburban moms,” Begala predicted during a panel discussion at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) conference in Washington, D.C.
“You watch. Guaranteed,” Begala said. “Trump put Pence in charge of coronavirus to throw him under the bus.”
In December, Begala predicted that Trump would be impeached again.
“This is not the last impeachment we will cover of Donald J. Trump,” he said during a panel discussion on “Anderson Cooper 360.”
Haley, who was nominated by Trump to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and was confirmed with a 96-4 vote in January 2017, has staunchly denied speculation she could replace Pence on the GOP ticket.
“The vice president and the president are a great ticket together,” Haley told “Fox & Friends” in November. “They’re solid. Solid enough that they’re going to win together. There is no truth whatsoever that I would ever in any way look to get that position. I think Mike is great for that job and I think that he’s the right partner for the president.”
“Mike Pence is a great vice president,” Trump said in November, while noting Haley would “absolutely” be involved in his 2020 campaign.
“She is a friend of mine, she endorsed me with the most beautiful endorsement you’ve ever heard. She did a great job at the U.N.,” Trump added of Haley.
Political virility-viralpolitics??? Whhhhhaaaaaat?
TheHill
MEDIA
March 02, 2020 - 04:54 PM EST
CNN’s Begala: Trump will ‘dump Pence’ for Haley on day of Democratic nominee’s acceptance speech
Longtime CNN political analyst Paul Begala predicted on Monday that President Trump is “gonna dump [Vice President] Mike Pence in favor of former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley” on July 16 when the Democratic nominee is slated to give his or her acceptance speech.
The former “Crossfire” co-host “guaranteed” Trump will throw Pence “under the bus” because of his handling of the coronavirus, which the president tapped Pence to lead a task force on last week.
“This is not a prediction. It’s a certainty. On Thursday, July 16 - that’s the date the Democrat gives his or her acceptance address - on that day, to interrupt that narrative, Donald Trump will call a press conference at Mar-a-Lago. He’s going to dump Mike Pence and put Nikki Haley on the ticket to try to get those suburban moms,” Begala predicted during a panel discussion at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s (AIPAC) conference in Washington, D.C.
“You watch. Guaranteed,” Begala said. “Trump put Pence in charge of coronavirus to throw him under the bus.”
In December, Begala predicted that Trump would be impeached again.
“This is not the last impeachment we will cover of Donald J. Trump,” he said during a panel discussion on “Anderson Cooper 360.”
Haley, who was nominated by Trump to serve as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and was confirmed with a 96-4 vote in January 2017, has staunchly denied speculation she could replace Pence on the GOP ticket.
“The vice president and the president are a great ticket together,” Haley told “Fox & Friends” in November. “They’re solid. Solid enough that they’re going to win together. There is no truth whatsoever that I would ever in any way look to get that position. I think Mike is great for that job and I think that he’s the right partner for the president.”
“Mike Pence is a great vice president,” Trump said in November, while noting Haley would “absolutely” be involved in his 2020 campaign.
“She is a friend of mine, she endorsed me with the most beautiful endorsement you’ve ever heard. She did a great job at the U.N.,” Trump added of Haley.
Zzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzz( sleeps ) zzz zzz ( wakes)
Political virulence?:
The Guardian - Back to home
Super Tuesday: voting under way as Sanders bids to extend lead amid Biden surge – live
Fourteen states vote in Democratic primaries
Joanna Walters in New York (now) and Martin Belam (earlier)
Here’s where things stand
My colleague on the west coast, Maanvi Singh, will take on the blog now as Super Tuesday voting - and related drama - continues. Later, Joan Greve in Washington, DC, will helm the blog as the polls begin to close and the results trickle in tonight.
Here’s what’s happened so far today:
Former FBI director James Comey just endorsed Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination.
Kamala Harris: will she or won’t she? Endorse Biden and, if so, when? Rumors and reports abound.
On the second most important voting day of the 2020 election (after election day itself in November), it’s a fierce battle between Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, with major efforts at disruption of what could become a two-horse race by Elizabeth Warren and Mike Bloomberg.
The Federal Reserve cut interest rates in a rare emergency move, to try to mitigate the economic effects of coronavirus. But it wasn’t enough to satisfy Donald Trump.
US weighs paying for treatment of uninsured coronavirus sufferers - report
The Trump administration is considering using a national disaster program to pay hospitals and doctors for their care of uninsured people infected with the coronavirus.
As concerns rise over costs of treating some of the 27 million Americans without health coverage, the government is looking for news ways to step in, a person familiar with the conversations told the Wall Street Journal. This would certainly be unexpected.
The WSJ reports that:
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has been in discussions about using that program to pay providers who treat uninsured patients with coronavirus, the person said.
Dr. Robert Kadlec, who is the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, also said Tuesday at a congressional hearing that discussions are being held about using the National Disaster Medical System reimbursement program.
About 2% of people infected with coronavirus have died and about 5% have developed serious infections that may require oxygen therapy or ventilators, based on research on cases in China.
In the U.S., there are more than 100 coronavirus cases, Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said at the congressional hearing Tuesday that “we are seeing community transmission in a few places.”
The administration is focusing on the costs of caring for uninsured people because individuals otherwise would have coverage through Medicaid, employers, or through private insurance purchased on the individual market, according to the person familiar with the conversations. No final decision has been made.
Meanwhile, the Guardian reports on the unpreparedness of the US health system.
Coronavirus: health experts concerned US hospitals are not prepared
Comey endorses Biden
Just what Joe was looking for, obviously. Kamala? No Comey, James Comey. The former FBI director just endorsed Joe Biden.
Comey was fired by Trump in 2017 when, effectively, the FBI director refused to pledge loyalty to the president and extricate him from the Trump-Russia investigation that Comey was in charge of. The move triggered the appointment of special counsel Robert Mueller to take over the inquiry.
Comey has been very outspoken against Trump ever since, but has flaws of his own, having misjudged in the later stages of the 2016 election the situation where the FBI kept secret the fact that they were investigating Trump in what was undoubtedly a huge international scandal - while disclosing a last-minute probe into Hillary Clinton’s emails on Anthony Weiner’s computer (the disgraced ex-congressman then married to Hillary Clinton’s right-hand aide Huma Abedin).
The emails turned out to be harmless, in the sense of whether they were a threat to national security, but the very disclosure of the probe at that sensitive time was a serious blow to Clinton.
Comey also admitted in December “real sloppiness” over the handling of surveillance of a Trump campaign adviser.
California governor votes on Super Tuesday
Gavin Newsom’s a fan of Kamala Harris and since the California senator dropped out of the presidential race in early December, it’s been and remains unclear who the governor is backing for the Democratic nomination.
Apparently we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out.
Looks like the guv is keeping his vote between him and the booth. https://t.co/Jzh0SYIGEZ
Regardless of what the next few hours bring in the “will she, won’t she” endorse Biden cliffhanger, surely no-one will think of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris today without their minds flicking immediately back to that pivotal moment in the second Democratic debate last June, in Miami, when Harris scored a bullseye against Biden and her campaign took off like a rocket (until she fell to Earth in December).
My politics colleague Lauren Gambino wrote at the time:
It was the most dramatic moment of the evening and came in response to a question about race and policing, when Harris interjected, saying that she had a right to respond as the only black candidate on stage. The California senator and former prosecutor then directed her comments to Biden, denouncing his record on race.
“I do not believe you are a racist,” Harris said, looking directly at the former vice-president. “But,” she continued, “it is personal. And it was actually hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.”
She accused Biden of supporting policies that would have prevented young minority students like herself from attending school in majority-white districts. She said when he opposed bussing, there was a little black girl in Oakland, California, who was being bussed to a better school.
“There was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day,” she said. “And that little girl was me.”
Growing visibly upset, Biden looked away. “That is a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true,” he said.
Harris attacks Biden’s record on race in Democratic debate’s key moment
Harris to endorse Biden - reports
California Senator Kamala Harris, who dropped out of the presidential race in early December, may be ready to endorse Joe Biden…
That would be a huge fillip for Biden, not least in California, where he is extremely keen to spoil a Sanders primary landslide. But it will be a big bonus nationwide as Super Tuesday voters stream to the polls, a terrific last-minute boost for the former VP in his dramatic comeback.
Breaking: what we suspected last night appears to be so: #KamalaHarris will join #JoeBiden at this morning’s rally in Jack London Square and endorse him for the Democratic nomination for president. Still working to confirm this independently https://t.co/uWeJybTnty
All of the Democrats running for president have pitched substantial climate plans - responding to voters’ increasing concerns about rising temperatures and their widespread effects.
Two in three registered voters (66%) are worried about global warming, according to Yale’s climate change communication program. That includes 84% of liberal Democrats, 72% of moderate/conservative Democrats, and about half of liberal/moderate Republicans, but only a quarter of conservative Republicans.
In one Super Tuesday state, Texas, two-thirds of voters want to develop more renewable energy.
But presidential contenders, particularly the more moderate ones, are cautiously navigating climate politics.
Both Joe Biden and Mike Bloomberg have refused to commit to banning fracking, which will likely give them an edge in oil and gas states.
Oil and gas firms ‘have had far worse climate impact than thought’
Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren would ban the method of extracting oil and gas, which would drastically reduce drilling in the US. Banning fracking, however, would require action from Congress, which seems politically untenable.
Supporters of Biden and Bloomberg say they are focused on the actions they can achieve with executive authority.
Republicans are making noises on climate action. Some say it’s just greenwashing
The candidates also split over nuclear power - which provides more than half of zero-carbon electricity in the US. Many experts argue that climate plans that don’t include nuclear aren’t serious.
Sanders would prohibit the construction of new nuclear plants and stop renewing licenses for existing ones.
Warren said she opposed new nuclear plants and would phase out existing ones, but she has since backtracked. California has already shut down its nuclear plants.
We have 12 years to limit climate change catastrophe, warns UN
It was a scene that was hard to imagine just one week ago. Joe Biden, 77, and until Sunday his rival for the Democratic presidential nomination Pete Buttigieg, 38, appeared together before a tiny crowd in the Chicken Scratch restaurant in Dallas, Texas, where Buttigieg endorsed the former vice president, Reuters writes.
Fighting back tears, Biden compared the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, to his late son Beau, saying it was the highest compliment he could offer any person.
Having ditched his own bid for the nomination, Buttigieg, who had spent months calling for generational change, said Biden would “bring back dignity to the White House.”
Buttigieg’s endorsement was the most eye-catching among over 100 that flooded in for Biden from mostly moderate Democrats after his dominant South Carolina win on Saturday, narrowly preceded by Amy Klobuchar’s endorsement and followed by former candidate Beto O’Rourke’s last night.
Biden’s comeback in South Carolina, after poor showings in other early voting states, was exactly the kind of a victory that Democratic Party officials, alarmed that front-runner Bernie Sanders is far too liberal to beat Trump, had been craving, according to more than two dozen people who either gave their endorsements or were involved behind the scenes.
“I hadn’t planned on endorsing anybody, but then I started getting worried that Bernie Sanders would become the nominee,” said former Senator Barbara Boxer of California, a longtime Senate colleague of both Biden and Sanders.
On the eve of the South Carolina primary, she called longtime Biden aide Steve Ricchetti, telling him she would endorse Biden if he won the race.
People both inside and outside the Biden campaign said that while the effort to garner endorsements involved calls from Biden aides asking for help, most decided on their own.
“People woke up and got a sense of urgency,” said one person close to Biden.
Buttigieg’s endorsement, in particular, surprised Biden.
Biden did not ask Buttigieg for his endorsement nor did the former mayor say he was going to announce support, Biden said at the Texas chicken restaurant event.
The event, which lasted only a few minutes and involved a small crowd of press, campaign supporters and people who just happened to be at the restaurant, was hastily arranged to accommodate a quick, last-minute announcement, said one person familiar with the matter.
Pete Buttigieg endorses Joe Biden during an event at the Chicken Scratch restaurant in Dallas last night. Photograph: Juan Figueroa/AP
Virginia is the fourth-largest prize on Super Tuesday, awarding 99 pledged delegates, ranking behind California (415), Texas (228) and North Carolina (110), the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.
It’s a huge day in this increasingly-blue swing state and will be a useful early indicator of how things are going for the leading candidates Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Mike Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren when polls close at 7pm ET. Meanwhile, WDBJ7, the CBS-affiliated television station licensed to Roanoke, Va, reports:
Virginia Tech Professor and WDBJ7 Political Analyst, Bob Denton, said Virginia’s primary will likely come down to a three-way race among Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Mike Bloomberg.
Elizabeth Warren remains in the race, but in the last 48 hours, Tom Steyer, Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar have ended their campaigns.
Biden, Denton said, has picked up momentum following a decisive win in South Carolina.
“In a matter of one month he’s gone from a distant third to first in the most recent poll, by three or four points,” Denton said, “so it makes him extremely viable.”
Denton said Sanders has an opportunity to make a statement.
“And if he has a very strong night,” Denton said, “that will certainly send an interesting message indeed for the Democrats.”
And Bloomberg must prove himself in Virginia, after focusing his attention and millions in campaign spending on Super Tuesday, WDBJ7 reports from Blacksburg, Va, the home of Virginia Tech university.
Sanders hopes to ride ‘blue wave’ to victory in Virginia on Super Tuesday
Virginia congresswoman and moderate Democrat Abigail Spanberger, part of the Blue Wave in the 2018 midterms, who flipped her red district in her first ever run for office, mourns the departure of Klobuchar and urges her fellow Virginians to get out and vote in this key primary today.
Rocky in the Rockies?
Will Joe Biden pull back from way behind in Colorado primary voting today and, if making significant progress, how many delegates will he pull in?
Two Colorado polls last week gave Sanders leads of 12 and 14 percentage points over the rest of the field in the purple state, the Denver Post reports.
Those were pre-Biden South Carolina primary landslide, obviously, but the indications had been that Elizabeth Warren could come in second behind Sanders. So will the Biden phoenix-like rise of late make a difference tonight?
State watchers expect a strong voter turn-out in Colorado today and a lot of undecided voters making late decisions - perhaps wise in light of the developments of the last 48 hours.
It’s definitely Bernie’s to lose.
Some voters are dropping their ballots at the Denver Election Center in downtown Denver, Colorado, in a kind of speedy pedal-by today. Photograph: Bob Pearson/EPA
Bernie just voted
He’s in his home state of Vermont today and will be there tonight as the results come rolling in. It could be a long night, especially waiting for a result in California, where the polls don’t close until 8pm local time. Will Bernie Sanders follow his strong performances in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada voting with a good show east and west? Will it be enough to hold off Joe Biden?
If he beats Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts tonight it could be a harbinger for where Warren’s campaign is going to end up. But will it mean the start of a sweep for Sanders, or will Biden capitalize strongly on his South Carolina win - leaving California as a late-night cliffhanger?
The Boston Globe has a handy “everything you need to know on Super Tuesday in Massachusetts” piece, here. The Globe has endorsed Warren for the Democratic nomination.
Biden to finish Super Tuesday night in California
And my senior politics reporter colleague Lauren Gambino will be on the spot when Joe Biden rounds off a hectic day of campaigning in some key Super Tuesday states, with an event in Los Angeles.
Here she shares her thoughts on what to expect from Super Tuesday with the Guardian’s award-winning news podcast Today in Focus. At 29 minutes long it’s the perfect commuter-listen.
Super Tuesday and the arrival of the billionaire Mike Bloomberg – podcast
Fed cut not enough for Trump
Ah, so the president perhaps thinks the Federal Reserve’s emergency rate cut over coronavirus concerns is kinda cute, but Not Enough for Potus’s liking.
The Federal Reserve is cuting but must further ease and, most importantly, come into line with other countries/competitors. We are not playing on a level field. Not fair to USA. It is finally time for the Federal Reserve to LEAD. More easing and cutting!
Follow all the business details on our dedicated live blog out of London.
Federal Reserve makes emergency US rate cut to fight coronavirus risks - business live
© 2020 Guardian News & Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved.
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Dr. Fauci :
POLITICO
HEALTH CARE
‘You don’t want to go to war with a president’
How Dr. Anthony Fauci is navigating the coronavirus outbreak in the Trump era.
Anthony Fauci might be the one person everyone in Washington trusts right now.
But at 79, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is in the thick of one of the biggest battles of 35 years in the role: The race to contain coronavirus when the nation is deeply polarized and misinformation can spread with one tweet — sometimes, from the president himself.
“You should never destroy your own credibility. And you don’t want to go to war with a president,” Fauci, who has been the country’s top infectious diseases expert through a dozen outbreaks and six presidents, told POLITICO in an interview Friday. “But you got to walk the fine balance of making sure you continue to tell the truth.”
And the truth about coronavirus? “I don’t think that we are going to get out of this completely unscathed,” he said. “I think that this is going to be one of those things we look back on and say boy, that was bad.”
The plainspoken scientist with a heavy Brooklyn accent has navigated outbreaks from HIV to Ebola, Zika and the anthrax scare with an ability to talk frankly yet reassuringly about threats, to explain science, public health and risk to the public in a way few can match.
But in this outbreak, he’s not always the comforting public face amid crisis.
As the Trump administration scrambles to contain the fast-spreading infection and consolidate control under Vice President Mike Pence, Fauci’s visibility has been subject to the vagaries of a president who wants to declare the outbreak under control. Over the weekend, Pence and HHS Secretary Alex Azar made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows, not government doctors or scientists.
Fauci sat down with POLITICO in his office Friday, amid dozens of photos of himself with presidents, politicians and celebrities from Magic Johnson to Barbra Streisand. It was just hours after reports that the White House had ordered Fauci off the airwaves sparked a firestorm of protest from senators, former government officials and public health experts.
Fauci denied being muzzled. He did say that Pence’s office wanted him to run interviews past it for re-clearance once Pence was named the White House’s point person on the virus.
But public health experts and Democrats have slammed President Donald Trump’s repeated reassurances about the disease, which has raced across six continents, created economic disruption — and taken 3,000 lives and counting.
Republicans have countered that the left is overstating the risk, spreading panic and trying to take Trump down.
Fauci has openly tempered expectations for a quick coronavirus vaccine — and an end to the epidemic — on the press conference stage with Trump, even as the president promised everything was under control and a vaccine would be ready soon.
Now even some Republicans are concerned that the president is underselling what some health officials have said is an inevitable worsening U.S. outbreak. And Fauci is who they want to hear from.
HEALTH CARE
The coronavirus: Live updates on the response to the epidemic
BY POLITICO STAFF
"If I’m buying real estate in New York, I’ll listen to the president of the United States. If I’m asking about infectious diseases, I’m going to listen to Tony Fauci,” Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) said recently.
Giving a president advice can be a heady experience. Fauci has done it dozens of times, for four Republicans and two Democrats. “There’s a temptation that you have to fight to tell the president what you think he wants to hear. I’ve seen really good people do that,” says Fauci, who took over the agency in 1984, just a few years after switching his professional focus to a fast-emerging and then-mysterious new illness, HIV/AIDS.
Grappling with the AIDS epidemic and the Reagan administration’s initial slow-go approach that divided Washington, Fauci became the public face of the response at a time when Ronald Reagan did not even broach the issue until his second term. Fauci often brings that up as a White House failure.
But these days are different. Trump fires off tweets about coronavirus, promising a vaccine will arrive “soon” (Fauci says in a best-case scenario it will be a year — and that might be optimistic), or says in press conferences that “we are totally prepared” (Fauci and other health officials warn the risk could change in a moment’s notice). The president also referred to a coronavirus “hoax” in a campaign rally — the night before the first death from the virus was reported in the U.S.
And then there is Congress. Fauci likes to say that he has testified before Congress more than anyone in the nation’s history. Over more than three decades he has been called to the Hill a dozen times a year to explain the threat of Ebola, Zika, anthrax or a pandemic flu.
He remembers the days of lawmakers hurling barbs across party lines about the AIDS response. But today, “the degree of divisiveness is one of almost an emotional dislike of the other person,” he said.
Republicans reportedly stormed out of a recent closed-door briefing on the infection after Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) ripped into the administration’s coronavirus response. Democrats have called for the White House to replace Pence as point person on the virus, arguing he has no public health experience.
The truth, Fauci says, is that Democrats and Republicans alike may not appreciate the range of what could happen now.
“It could be really, really bad. I don’t think it’s gonna be, because I think we’d be able to do the kind of mitigation. It could be mild. I don’t think it’s going to be that mild either. It’s really going to depend on how we mobilize.”
Critics say the administration has already stumbled with a slow rollout of diagnostic tests and narrow guidelines for who uses them, meaning that some patients waited days to find out if they are infected and the virus began spreading. Fauci said that restricted guidance — specifically the idea that someone would not get tested if they had not been in known contact with infected people — was unwise. He predicted more cases would emerge in the coming days — and they have.
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There have already been scapegoats for the response. CDC Director Robert Redfield took the blame Saturday when Trump misidentified the gender of the first U.S. death. Sources also pointed to CDC on Sunday over concerns about the cleanliness of labs making diagnostic tests, even as some current and former administration officials blamed Azar for the bungled response. CDC’s respiratory disease lead Nancy Messonnier also took heat from administration officials a week earlier after her statement that a U.S. outbreak was inevitable helped send the stock market tumbling.
“It’s really, really tough because you have to be honest with the American public and you don’t want to scare the hell out of them,” Fauci said. “And then other times, in attempts to calm people down, [leaders] have had people be complacent about it. This is particularly problematic in a ‘gotcha” town like Washington.”
And yet, Fauci has not only survived the town for decades but managed to make his priorities those of the presidents, above all HIV. Along with Redfield and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir, Fauci helped engineer getting the president include a pledge to ending HIV transmission in his State of the Union address last year.
But many challenges are still ahead, including sometimes contradicting the president he doesn’t want to “go to war” with. Fauci says it will be OK: he knows that “even if it’s uncomfortable” his years of truth-telling have earned him a backlog of respect.
The 79-year-old also has no plans of retiring anytime soon — not least because one of his top goals, developing an HIV vaccine, remains elusive.
“I feel like I’m 45. And I act like I’m 35,” Fauci said. “When I start to feel like I don’t have the energy to do the job, whatever my age, I’ll walk away and write my book.”
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Fed slashes rates in emergency response to coronavirus
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Ecenomic disaster coming?
Dow Jones Could Crash 40% Over Coronavirus Pandemic: Dr. Doom
Economist Nouriel Roubini reckons the stock market could tank 40% due to coronavirus concerns. He may be right.
Nouriel Roubini, who predicted the 2008 crash correctly, claims global equities could take a 40% hit because of the coronavirus outbreak.
Dow Jones jumped over 5% on Monday, but such volatility is indicative of a bear market rally.
Roubini’s prediction may prove correct as rate cuts will fail to work as a measure to stimulate spending. Investors losing faith in the Federal Reserve’s ability can lead to a brutal stock market crash.
Famed economist Nouriel Roubini is known for making gloomy predictions that often come true. He was warning the markets of an impending recession in 2006, and it came true shortly thereafter in the form of the subprime mortgage crisis.
Labeled Dr. Doom for his melancholy predictions, Roubini is now claiming global equities could plummet 40% due to coronavirus. If his prediction comes true, the Dow Jones could crash to sub-18,000 levels.
Coronavirus Fears Grips The World
Google search trends show coronavirus is the most significant cause of concern around the world. So far, coronavirus has managed to leave all other modern outbreaks behind.
COVID-19 continues to spread fear among the masses.|
The death toll from coronavirus is still less than that of SARS and Ebola, but the infectious nature of the disease has forced governments to take extreme measures to contain the outbreak.
Coronavirus is still spreading rapidly across the globe. The disease has already reached over 70 countries with no signs of stopping. So it’s likely to impact stock markets further.
Dow Jones Rally Is A Plea To The Fed
The Dow and the S&P 500 came roaring back on Monday after experiencing one of the fastest crashes in recorded history.
A swift crash preceded Monday’s rally in the stock market.| Source: Twitter
Monday’s rally was a relief for the bulls, but investors need to remember that rallies this intense are usually indicative of a bear market. Bull market rallies are calmer and consistent.
So it’s possible that Monday’s stock surge could turn out to be a head fake.
One of the most important factors behind the Dow Jones’ rally was the expectation of a rate cut from the Federal Reserve. However, it’s likely that central bank interventions will be useless in this scenario.
Since coronavirus is a biological problem and not a liquidity problem, injecting more money into the financial system is not going to help. Central banks worldwide are adamant on trying it nonetheless.
Over the years, investors have put a lot of faith in the Federal Reserve’s ability to pump the stock market. Coronavirus has rendered the Fed’s powers useless as global trade plummets and consumers think twice about travelling.
Markets will eventually realize that money printing is not going to solve the problem. The psychological change arising from such a situation could lead to a devastating crash that validates Dr. Doom’s forecast.
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