The post Joe Scarborough demands Andrew Cuomo apologize for ‘out of bounds’ Trump comments appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>MSNBC co-host Joe Scarborough ripped New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo as “out of bounds” for his recent comments about President Trump that some interpreted as threatening.
“Governor Cuomo’s statement on Trump was inappropriate and out of bounds,” the “Morning Joe” co-host tweeted to his 2.7 million followers Thursday night. “He should apologize and walk back his statement immediately.”
Mr. Cuomo slammed Mr. Trump on Wednesday after the president signed a memo ordering the Justice Department to provide a list of cities that have allowed looting and rioting to persist and for his budget director to try to figure out ways to pull some federal money from those places, specifically New York City, D.C., Seattle and Portland, Oregon.
Mr. Cuomo said that the memo was “illegal” and another attempt to “punish” New York City.
“He can’t have enough bodyguards to walk through New York City,” the governor said Wednesday night. “Forget bodyguards, he better have an army if he thinks he’s going to walk down the streets in New York.
“He is persona non grata in New York City, and I think he knows that, and he’ll never come back to New York, because New Yorkers will never forget how gratuitously mean he has been,” he said.
A gubernatorial spokesperson later clarified Mr. Cuomo did not mean the president faced potential harm in the city, but was simply illustrating how unwelcome he would be if he came back, Politico reported.
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]]>The post Biden demands Trump let coronavirus vaccine process happen ‘free of political pressure’ appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Former Vice President Joe Biden said Monday that President Donald Trump must allow the coronavirus vaccine development process to play out “free of political pressure” and called on the president to adhere to three rules as scientists rush to develop one.
Dubbing them the “three principles of integrity” in developing a vaccine, Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, demanded that Trump allow scientists and public health experts to make decisions on safety and efficacy — not politicians.
Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak
“As we enter the height of election season, President Trump should assure us all that the White House will respect the independent authority of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to decide, free from political pressure, if the vaccine is safe and effective,” Biden said in a statement.
“The White House should not weigh in on these matters or push the FDA to provide emergency authorizations prematurely, as it did for hydroxychloroquine,” Biden said. “The President should not ‘hype’ treatments or vaccines, overstate their results, or undermine confidence in scientific findings.”
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Trump repeatedly promoted the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine this year as a preventive or curative treatment for the coronavirus, even as evidence piled up that the drug may cause more harm than good. Trump said he had completed a two-week course of the drug, even as the FDA warned against using the drug for COVID-19 outside hospital settings because of a risk of serious heart problems.
Trump also at one point suggested exploring disinfectants as a possible treatment for coronavirus infections — an extremely dangerous proposition that medical experts warned could kill people.
Biden, who said he would follow his guidelines if elected, said that any clinical data for a vaccine approved by the FDA must be made available to the public “for independent expert review” and that the FDA should convene the Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee for public session before any final FDA decisions.
In addition, Biden asked Trump for “full transparency on recommendations by career staff.”
“The career staff in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research should be authorized to write a written report for public review. If the FDA Commissioner decides to reverse the career staff’s findings, he must explain the basis of the decision in a public report,” Biden said.
Biden added that “senior career scientists and public health experts should be allowed to make public, uncensored statements and appear before Congress unconstrained to speak the truth.”
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A top official at the Department of Health and Human Services who says he was ousted from a key pandemic response job for pushing back against demands to sign off on the hydroxychloroquine treatment said last month that he had been retaliated against by the head of the department.
Moderna Therapeutics, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based biotech company, began the first phase 3 trial of a COVID-19 vaccine candidate in the U.S. on Monday.
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]]>The post Trump demands payroll tax cut while GOP eyes benefit cuts for unemployed appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>President Trump sought to draw a hard line on the coronavirus relief bill Sunday, saying it must include a payroll tax cut and liability protections for businesses, as lawmakers prepare to plunge into negotiations over unemployment benefits and other key provisions in coming days.
“I would consider not signing it if we don’t have a payroll tax cut,” Trump said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” Democrats strongly oppose a payroll tax cut, and some Republicans have been cool to it, but Trump said “a lot of Republicans like it.”
Trump also said “we do need some kind of immunity” in the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has repeatedly insisted the legislation must include liability protections for businesses, health-care providers, schools and others. Democrats oppose this, too.
Trump downplayed the spikes in coronavirus infections nationwide, arguing they are because of high levels of testing, something health experts in his own administration dispute. He also argued the economy is “expanding and growing beautifully,” blaming Democratic governors for shutdowns he insisted were designed to hurt him in November.
Trump’s comments come as Senate Republicans are exploring new limits on emergency unemployment benefits for people who were high earners before losing their jobs, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of internal planning.
If the White House and Senate GOP priorities make it into the bill, the legislation would effectively cut taxes for people who have jobs while cutting benefits for the unemployed.
McConnell is expected to introduce an approximately $1 trillion stimulus bill in coming days that will include a limited extension of the federal unemployment benefits approved by Congress in March. Those benefits are set to expire as soon as this week.
Republicans are seeking to curb the current infusion of federal spending on unemployment benefits as they try to constrain the overall cost of the relief package, which is likely to include expensive priorities such as state aid and school funding, among other urgent policies to deal with the pandemic.
With a substantial number of conservative Republicans wary of spending too much additional federal money, GOP lawmakers have discussed proposing the federal benefit be cut from an additional $600 per week to between $200 per week and $400 per week. The lower number is viewed as the likelier outcome in their bill, although aides cautioned negotiations are fluid and details remain in flux. McConnell is expected to release the legislation this coming week.
House Democrats passed a bill in May that would extend the $600-per-week threshold through January 2021. That bill would increase spending by roughly $3 trillion, and Trump threatened to veto it.
White House officials and GOP lawmakers have argued the current benefit creates a disincentive to work and must be phased out because they say Americans could make more money while collecting unemployment than in the workforce. Democrats and many economists have called for extending the $600-per-week increase to pump money into the economy and provide a financial lifeline for more than 30 million households.
Unemployment benefits are typically paid by states, but Congress has stepped in during severe economic downturns to add another layer of temporary aid paid by the federal government. There is often a debate over how and when to let these benefits expire. The unemployment rate in June was 11.1 percent, down from a recent peak in April but still higher than at any other point in recent history.
One idea discussed by Republican policymakers is to eliminate or curb the amount of additional federal unemployment benefits allocated to people who earned above a certain income threshold before losing their jobs. Exactly what that number could be remains unclear. Republicans are exploring similar measures to target another round of $1,200 stimulus payments for those toward the bottom of the income distribution, although it’s unclear how that would combine with Trump’s insistence on a payroll tax cut.
Limiting unemployment benefits to those further down the income distribution would help the GOP bring down the overall price tag of their bill. It could also raise new complications for the state unemployment offices that have already been overwhelmed by the complexity of getting funding out to an unprecedented surge of jobless Americans.
Andrew Stettner, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, has estimated only 18.8 million of 33 million claims had been paid nationwide by the end of May. One person in communication with GOP offices, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations, predicted the idea would ultimately have to be abandoned because of the administrative complexity the arrangement would create for state unemployment offices.
“State unemployment systems have struggled to handle the modest changes from the Cares Act,” said Adam Ozimek, chief economist at Upwork. “Given the backlogs and problems we have seen so far, we should be very hesitant to add the complexity of means-testing.”
The weekly payment to workers will depend on the overall amount devoted to unemployment benefits in the bill. GOP lawmakers have considered spending between $200 billion and $300 billion toward unemployment benefits through the end of the year in the coming stimulus package, according to one of the people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details of private negotiations. That money would help prop up consumer demand compared to allowing the benefit to expire altogether. It is substantially less than the $400 billion for the rest of the year that the U.S. would spend on additional unemployment benefits if the original increase were extended in full, depending on how the unemployment rate changes, according to Ernie Tedeschi, who served as an economist at the Treasury Department in the Obama administration.
The fate of unemployment benefits is likely to prove one of the key sticking points in congressional negotiations, with tens of millions of Americans financially dependent on the outcome. Senior White House officials have in recent days sought to limit the extension while also denying they are seeking to end federal unemployment benefits. Larry Kudlow, the president’s senior economic adviser, disputed Friday that the administration wants to dismantle the program.
“Some people are asking me, ‘Why are you getting rid of unemployment benefits when you still have a lot of unemployment?’ The answer is, ‘We’re not,’ ” Kudlow told Fox Business on Friday. “We’re not getting rid of unemployment benefits. Now, a couple of things — we are looking at various ways to cap total unemployment benefits — federal and state and local. We’re looking at various ways to do that.”
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]]>The post Pelosi demands Trump administration briefing on Russian bounties appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Since the news reports emerged, Democrats and some Republicans have been demanding details from the administration. Early Monday, congressional aides indicated no briefing had been set up for the House intelligence, armed services or foreign affairs committee. It’s unclear if the Gang of Eight — the leaders of the House and Senate, as well as the intelligence committee — will be briefed, but as of Monday morning there was no meeting scheduled, per a congressional source.
Democrats have long accused Trump of being soft on Russia and its president Vladimir Putin, despite the country’s well-documented attempts to interfere in U.S. elections, its aggression in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea, and its support of Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s brutal civil war. Those allegations were inflamed anew earlier this month with the publication of a memoir by former Trump national security adviser John Bolton, who accused the president of cozying up to autocrats, including Putin, for political gain.
The new allegations — which the New York Times and Washington Post reported may have led to the deaths of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan — have once again brought Trump’s relationship with Russia under scrutiny.
Senior House Democrats were furious with the reports, which first surfaced Saturday. Pelosi told ABC ‘s ‘This Week” on Sunday: “This is as bad as it gets.”
“If reports are true that Russia offered a bounty on U.S. troops in Afghanistan and Trump wasn’t briefed, that’s a problem,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) tweeted Sunday. “What will it take to get Trump to abandon the fiction that Putin is our friend?”
Some Republicans, too, have vowed to investigate the reports. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a close confidant of Trump who spent part of the weekend golfing with the president, called it “imperative” that Congress learn the details.
“I expect the Trump Administration to take such allegations seriously and inform Congress immediately as to the reliability of these news reports,” Graham tweeted.
Trump retweeted Graham’s comment late Sunday to downplay the new reports.
“Intel just reported to me that they did not find this info credible, and therefore did not report it to me or @VP,” Trump said. “Possibly another fabricated Russia Hoax, maybe by the Fake News @nytimesbooks, wanting to make Republicans look bad!!!”
Democrats, however, hammered the president over the bounties.
“It’s sickening that American soldiers have been killed as a result of Russian bounties on their heads, and the Commander in Chief didn’t do a thing to stop it,” said Max Rose (D-N.Y.), a combat veteran who served in Afghanistan.
Heather Caygle and Sarah Ferris contributed to this story.
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]]>The post Trump demands Seattle officials ‘take back’ cop-free protest zone appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>June 11, 2020 | 12:41am | Updated June 11, 2020 | 1:09am
Signs hang on the exterior of the Seattle Police Departments East Precinct on June 9, 2020 in Seattle, Washington.
Getty Images
President Trump on Wednesday night demanded that Seattle officials “take back” what has become a cop-free protest space in the center of the city.
Demonstrators have occupied the roughly six-block Capital Hill area dubbed the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone” or CHAZ.
Inside the zone people congregate as free snacks are reportedly doled out at a “No-Cop Co-op” and films on racial justice are screened at night.
Trump on Twitter slammed Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and Mayor Jenny Durkan for allowing the area to be handed over to protesters he described as “domestic terrorists.”
He also warned that he would take action if they did not shut the demonstration down.
“Radical Left Governor @JayInslee and the Mayor of Seattle are being taunted and played at a level that our great Country has never seen before,” Trump wrote. “Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stooped [sic] IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST!”
Radical Left Governor @JayInslee and the Mayor of Seattle are being taunted and played at a level that our great Country has never seen before. Take back your city NOW. If you don’t do it, I will. This is not a game. These ugly Anarchists must be stooped IMMEDIATELY. MOVE FAST!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2020
Inslee responded on Wednesday night by mocking Trump’s typo.
“A man who is totally incapable of governing should stay out of Washington state’s business. ‘Stoop’ tweeting,” Inslee wrote on Twitter.
The zone was born out of days of violent clashes between cops and the protesters who hoped to push the Seattle Police Department out of their East Precinct building in the area.
Mayor Durkan, who has faced mounting calls from protesters to resign, ordered police to leave the building Monday, explaining the directive on Twitter as a way to “proactively de-escalate interactions between protestors and law enforcement outside the East Precinct.”
On the police station now hangs a banner reading, “THIS SPACE IS NOW PROPERTY OF THE SEATTLE PEOPLE.”
“Right now at CHAZ there is food, security, bathrooms, art, love, public discourse, action, education, film viewing, and much needed community building,” tweeted one protester.
The zone has no singular leader and is premised on defunding and abolishing the city’s police force.
The protesters who have claimed the space published a letter Tuesday listing demands, including the dismantling of the police force and the end of the use of armed force, including guns, batons and riot shields.
“We demand that the City Council and the Mayor, whoever that may be, implement these policy changes for the cultural and historic advancement of the City of Seattle, and to ease the struggles of its people,” reads the letter.
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]]>The post US demands Britain hands over Prince Andrew to be quizzed over Epstein link, as he says he offered help three times appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]>Read More
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]]>The post Biden demands justice for black jogger’s killing appeared first on Virus Reports.
]]> 
Image copyright
Reuters
Joe Biden: “The video is clear: Ahmaud Arbery was killed in cold blood”
The Democrats’ likely presidential candidate Joe Biden has demanded justice over the killing of an unarmed black man in the US state of Georgia.
Mr Biden said his heart went out to the family of Ahmaud Arbery.
Mr Arbery, 25, was jogging in February when confronted by an ex-policeman and his son. Video purported to show the shooting emerged online on Tuesday.
A district attorney in Georgia has now ruled that a grand jury should decide whether charges should be brought.
An earlier decision by a prosecutor in the Brunswick jurisdiction argued there was no probable cause to arrest Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son Travis, 34, the New York Times has reported.
How did Arbery die?
Mr Arbery was out running in the Satilla Shores neighbourhood of Brunswick in Georgia’s Glynn County early in the afternoon on 23 February.
In a police report, Gregory McMichael says he saw Mr Arbery and believed he resembled the suspect in a series of break-ins.
He and his son armed themselves and pursued him in a pick-up truck.
In the police report, Gregory McMichael says he and his son had said “stop, stop, we want to talk to you” and that Mr Arbery had attacked his son. Shots were fired, with Mr Arbery falling to the street.
Mr Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper, said police told her her son had been involved in a burglary before the incident, but the family say they do not believe the keen jogger had committed a crime and he was unarmed.
What does the video show?
It was initially posted on a local radio station website but was then taken down.
But CNN included the video in its report of the story.
However, it said it did not know who recorded the footage and could not independently confirm its authenticity.
The 36-second video is shot from a vehicle following the pick-up truck said to be involved in the incident.
It shows a man jogging and then approaching the stationary pick-up from behind. He tries to bypass the truck and then is seen struggling with a man carrying a shotgun. There is muffled shouting and shotgun shots are heard.
A second man is standing in the bed of the pick-up. The second man is then shown with a pistol standing alongside the other armed man with the jogger no longer in view.
Although not shown in its video, CNN says that after a third gunshot the jogger recoils and blood appears on his T-shirt below his ribcage.
What have Mr Biden and other officials said?
Joe Biden sent out a tweet saying: “The video is clear: Ahmaud Arbery was killed in cold blood. My heart goes out to his family, who deserve justice and deserve it now. It is time for a swift, full, and transparent investigation into his murder.”
A statement from Lee Merritt, a lawyer for Mr Arbery’s family, said: “This is murder. The series of events captured in this video confirm what all the evidence indicated prior to its release.”
Image copyright
EPA
Governor Brian Kemp tweeted that “Georgians deserve answers”
Tom Durden, the district attorney for the Atlantic Judicial Circuit, decided on Tuesday that a grand jury should be involved.
“After careful review of the evidence,” he wrote in a statement, “I am of the opinion that the case should be presented to the grand jury of Glynn County for consideration of criminal charges.”
Governor Brian Kemp tweeted that “Georgians deserve answers”.
The McMichaels have not been charged and have not so far responded to the video. CNN said Gregory McMichael had earlier told it he would not be commenting.
The New York Times said it had obtained a letter in which a prosecutor had earlier argued there was not sufficient probable cause for arrest because the pursuers were legally carrying firearms, were within their rights to follow “a burglary suspect” and were able as private persons to “arrest an offender if the offence is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge”.
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