Austin-area medical professionals and health authorities warned that local hospitals could be overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients in the next several weeks as the number of cases in Central Texas has surged.
“If we do not make significant change right now then we are going to be in a situation within the next week to two weeks where I’m going to have to make the recommendation to the mayor and judge that we shut down,” Austin Public Health interim Medical Director Dr. Mark Escott said at a news conference Wednesday.
Escott said area hospitals can handle siphoning up to 1,500 beds for coronavirus patients; while he couldn’t say how many beds are currently taken up, Travis County’s weekly average for new daily hospital admissions Tuesday was 40.
Escott said there could be as many as 50 new patients hospitalized because of the virus Wednesday.
New models from researchers at UT predict that if nothing in the Austin area changes, local hospitals could exceed their capacity by mid-July.
“Unlike hurricanes, we have the ability to change this storm, to downgrade this storm,” Escott said.
Medical professionals joined the press conference Wednesday to urge people to wear masks in public and to minimize trips away from home.
“During the lockdown we did something amazing,” Dr. John Abikhaled, president of the Travis County Medical Society, said. “We proved that we can control the virus and flatten the curve. … But then we got tired. We got a little stir crazy and we lowered our guard.”
Escott asked business owners to limit occupancy beyond what the state’s orders currently allow.
“If your ceiling is 50% and you can stay in business at 25%, make the cut now,” he said.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler said he is planning to issue a new order before the weekend that would restrict outdoor gatherings to less than 100 people, something Gov. Greg Abbott allowed municipalities to do Monday.
But Adler said he may try to restrict gatherings further: “I don’t want us to be in groups of 10,” he told KUT.
According to Austin Public Health, roughly 70% of new COVID-19 cases have been in people in their 20s and 30s.
Dr. Kirsten Nieto, a professor of internal medicine at Dell Medical School, said she’s seen a demographic change in patients; it’s gone from people who contracted the virus because they had to leave their home for work to people who attended parties and other gatherings.
“The new cases that we’re seeing in our community are because people are actively choosing to congregate,” she said.
If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it. Your gift pays for everything you find on KUT.org. Thanks for donating today.
TALLAHASSEE — Democrats have opened up a 302,000-voter advantage over Republicans in vote-by-mail enrollment, an edge that could pay big dividends in President Donald Trump’s newly adopted must-win state.
Five months before Election Day, more than 1.46 million Democrats have signed up to vote by mail compared to 1.16 million Republicans, according to an analysis of state Division of Election data released Friday. By comparison, in 2016, Democrats held an advantage of about 8,800 in vote-by-mail enrollment.
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The reason for the success is twofold. Democrats have put heightened emphasis on getting more people to cast ballots from home, an effort that preceded the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. And Trump has demonized this type of voting so much that Republicans, who once dominated mail-in ballots, are souring on it.
Florida’s vote-by-mail enrollment gap is among a number of warning signs for Trump, who carried the state by fewer than 113,000 votes, or 1.19 percentage points, four years ago.
Trump’s Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, has led in every public poll in the state over the past two months by an average of 4.6 points, similar to Hillary Clinton’s margin over Trump in 2016 during the same period. Democrats have a 2-point lead over Republicans in the number of registered voters as of April 30, state data show.
Juan Peñalosa, executive director for the Florida Democratic Party, called the vote-by-mail numbers “striking.” In a memo, he pointed out their importance in a state where elections often are won in the margins.
Peñalosa marveled at Trump’s “insane” success in dampening GOP enthusiasm for mail-in voting because it has worked so well for Florida Republicans.
“They’re going to have to turn out more people — maybe 300,000 more voters — on Election Day,” Peñalosa said in an interview. “They haven’t had to turn out that many more voters in one day in more than a decade that I’ve been in Florida.”
Any registered voter in Florida can request a mail-in ballot up until 10 days before an election, a policy put in place nearly 20 years ago in the wake of the chaotic 2000 presidential recount.
Signing up for a mail-in ballot doesn’t guarantee that a voter will send it in. But more than 90 percent of Republicans who asked for a ballot in 2016 returned it, compared to 87 percent for Democrats, according to GOP pollster Ryan Tyson.
There has been a heightened interest in vote by mail due to the coronavirus pandemic as Democrats have backed it as an alternative to standing in line at polling places. A Democratic-aligned super PAC and other left-leaning groups have filed a federal lawsuit demanding the state make it easier to vote by mail.
With 29 electoral votes at stake in Florida and the presidential battle spreading into states once considered GOP leaning, Trump needs to hold onto Florida in order to win a second term. He has increasingly railed against vote-by-mail, calling it rife with fraud. But while voter fraud does occur, it is exceedingly rare and has never been shown to be so big as to sway a statewide or nationwide election.
“My biggest risk in this election is mail-in voting,” Trump told POLITICO in an interview last week. “We have many lawsuits going all over. And if we don’t win those lawsuits, I think — I think it puts the election at risk.”
Trump, his White House spokesperson and his Commerce secretary have cast mail-in votes in Florida.
Of the new people Democrats have enrolled to vote by mail, about a third are classified as sporadic or inactive voters, only about 25 percent of whom can be expected to turn out at the polls, Peñalosa wrote in his June 23 memo. But 40 percent of these infrequent voters cast ballots in 2018 when they signed up to vote by mail.
Trump Victory spokesperson Emma Vaughn said the gap in mail-in ballots doesn’t mean Democrats have an advantage. The Trump campaign has more than 155 staffers in Florida and has reached 8.5 million voters in one form or another.
“Republicans never left the Sunshine State after 2016,” Vaughn said in a written statement, and the president’s agenda “coupled with our unmatched, data-driven ground game, will ensure another victory for President Trump and Republicans up and down the ballot come November.”
But Trump’s rhetoric appears to be dampening Republican enthusiasm for voting by mail.
In Florida, the number of Republicans signed up to cast vote-by-mail ballots has declined by 186,000 since 2018, while Democrats have increased their numbers by 69,000, according to the latest state data. It’s a stark turnaround for a party that famously won a 1988 U.S. Senate race thanks to mailed-in ballots.
The margin has increased since the March 17 presidential primary, when Democrats had an advantage in of 47,000 people enrolled to vote by mail.
Trump’s close ally, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, has not responded to requests that mail-in ballot request forms be mailed statewide to every voter. The Florida Democratic Party has petitioned local officials to take the initiative and 18 counties have ramped up plans to do so. Many of them are large and mid-sized counties where Democrats tend to live.
It’s not just Florida where the vote-by-mail gap has widened between the two parties.
In swing-state Michigan, Republicans this month burned mail-in ballot signup forms in protest. In Texas, Rice University political science professor Bob Stein said support for mail-in voting dropped in real time among Republican voters in Harris County as he conducted a survey that gauged attitudes about voting methods while Trump criticized vote-by-mail.
The partisan divide was laid bare in a POLITICO/Morning Consult poll of voters nationwide that showed Republicans were less concerned than Democrats about voting in person during a pandemic but were more concerned about election security due to mail-in ballots.
In Florida, a June poll from Tyson showed a growing number of Republican voters plan to vote in person on Election Day while Democrats say they plan to cast their ballots by mail.
Tyson is skeptical that the 300,000 vote-by-mail gap is a significant advantage for Democrats and predicted that those who have voted by mail in the past will do so again. He said Republicans have increasingly taken advantage of in-person early voting before Election Day.
Democrats need to enroll people because the “inconvenient fact” is that their voters are becoming less willing to vote in person, he said, and the party is going to have to work to get these new voters to actually turn in ballots.
Apple last week re-closed stores in Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Arizona for similar reasons, saying at the time: “We take this step with an abundance of caution as we closely monitor the situation and we look forward to having our teams and customers back as soon as possible.”
Apple Store locations tend to be in important shopping centers and malls, and can be seen as an indicator of how smoothly retail operations can re-open in the United States.
Apple has now re-closed 18 stores in the United States.
Apple was one of the first companies to shut its stores around the world in March in response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and the company says it is closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation on a region-by-region basis to make sure its safe to operate its stores.
Stores in the U.S. started to re-open in recent weeks with increased safety measures including mandatory masking, space for social distancing, and temperature checks. Many locations are only open for curbside pickup or service by appointment.
“Mitch McConnell has a way of trying to bully us around and he thinks he can get his way, and if past is prologue… our caucus held together and each time he came back,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) after the vote. “The Republican Party sees the handwriting on the wall, they see what the American people feel.”
Prior to the vote, McConnell defended Scott’s proposal and accused Democrats of giving a “last-minute ultimatum” by turning “this routine step into a partisan impasse.”
McConnell also demurred when asked when he would bring the bill back up after Democrats filibustered it. “Well, we will let you know. It can be done under a motion to reconsider at any point,” he told reporters. McConnell took procedural steps to bring the bill up quickly on the floor anytime this year if he wants.
Senate Republicans argued that Wednesday’s vote was a way to begin the police reform debate and that the process would allow for consideration of amendments. Democrats said there’s no point in voting to advance a bill they see as fatally flawed and that won’t have the 60 votes needed to pass the Senate.
Instead, Democrats called on Republicans to come back to the negotiating table to come up with a bipartisan solution that the Senate could then vote on. The Senate minority is particularly frustrated that GOP leaders put the bill on the floor before holding any talks to craft the plan or consider it in committee.
Democrats say Scott’s bill is a non-starter, and highlighted opposition from key civil rights groups, including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
President Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the bill’s failure Wednesday, saying they “don’t want to do it because they want to weaken our police.”
Following the vote, Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) thanked the Democratic caucus for mostly staying united.
“It’s of note that there’s a great diversity within our caucus… but there was an incredible consensus around this issue,” Harris said. “Let the beginning be today of a real conversation where the United States Congress will do its job in meeting the moment, in responding to the demands of the people and doing what is well within our grasp, take us at least one step closer to that ideal of equal justice under the law.”
Manchin was one of the few Democrats to buck his party.
“I know there’s a lot of skepticism whether McConnell could actually have amendments,” Manchin said. “And we can vote however on proceeding from there, cloture and all that. If he doesn’t, we’ll [stop it], I’ve talked to Tim Scott, Booker and everybody. And I just said guys there are some things we agree on, we’re not that far apart.”
The GOP bill requires additional disclosures about the use of force, codifies reporting requirements on the use of “no knock warrants,” provides incentives for chokehold bans and makes lynching a federal crime.
The Democratic proposal, led in the Senate by Booker and Harris, would ban chokeholds and no knock warrants in federal drug cases. It would also limit qualified immunity for police officers to make it easier to sue police — something Democrats argue is key to holding police officers accountable for misconduct, but which most Republicans won’t consider. The House is set to pass a sweeping Democratic police reform proposal Thursday.
Senate Republicans are accusing Democrats of wanting to campaign on the issue and say that if they want to improve the bill, they can do so through the amendment process. In his floor remarks following the vote, which McConnell and other Senate colleagues stayed to watch, Scott chastised Democrats for being unwilling to compromise and emphasized that he told his Democratic colleagues the bill could be amended.
“We’re failing at politics,” Scott said. “The actual problem is not what is being offered. It is who is offering it. Took me a long time to figure out the most obvious thing in the room. It’s not the what. “
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The testimony of the nation’s top infectious disease expert countered President Trump’s upbeat assessment, describing a “mixed bag” of some bright spots amid worrying trends and unknowns.
Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, testifying on Tuesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.Credit…Pool photo by Kevin Dietsch
WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony S. Fauci told Congress on Tuesday that he was seeing a “disturbing surge” of infections in some parts of the country, as Americans ignore social distancing guidelines and states reopen without adequate plans for testing and tracing the contacts of those who get sick.
Dr. Fauci’s assessment, delivered during a lengthy hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, painted a much grimmer picture of the coronavirus threat than the one given by President Trump, who claimed last week that the virus that had infected more than two million Americans and killed more than 121,000 would just “fade away.”
“The virus is not going to disappear,” said Dr. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who testified that the virus was not yet under control in the United States.
His testimony came as more than half of the country was seeing an uptick in cases, with officials in some states slowing their return-to-work plans or even imposing new restrictions. Dr. Fauci and three other leaders of the government’s coronavirus response who testified on Tuesday cast a cloud over the sunny accounts offered by the president as he has portrayed the United States as a nation bouncing back from the brink.
“I am very cautious and I don’t — still don’t sleep well at night,” said Adm. Brett P. Giroir, the assistant secretary for public health, “because we have a long way to go.”
More than three months after Mr. Trump declared an emergency because of the virus, Dr. Fauci said the picture was a “mixed bag,” with some bright spots, but also some dark ones and many unknowns. Some states like New York are “doing very well” in controlling the spread of the virus, but the surge in other states is “very troublesome to me,” he said.
“The next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges that we are seeing in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona and other states,” Dr. Fauci added.
Both he and Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned of a dangerous situation looming this winter, when the regular flu season will intersect with the coronavirus, producing what Dr. Fauci described as “two respiratory-borne infections simultaneously confounding each other.”
The hearing came as the nation was still facing steep challenges in dealing with the virus. There is not nearly enough testing, and the United States lacks sufficient contact tracers to track down and isolate those who have come into contact with infected people — a critical step in controlling the virus’s spread, the experts agreed. Admiral Giroir conceded that even the 500,000 tests the country was conducting daily were insufficient. And Dr. Redfield said that the country had 28,000 contract tracers, a fraction of the 100,000 he had previously said it would need.
A coronavirus vaccine will not be ready until at least the end of this year or early 2021, Dr. Fauci said, reiterating the timetable he has given in the past. He said he was “cautiously optimistic” about meeting it.
He also pledged to lawmakers that he would not allow any vaccine to go to market until it was proved both safe and effective. And even then, there may be different vaccines for different populations, and some may require booster shots.
In the meantime, the witnesses said it was imperative for the nation to stock up on masks and other supplies.
The wide-ranging hearing, which also featured Dr. Stephen Hahn, the commissioner of food and drugs, lasted more than five hours. It veered from questions about how universities and public schools should handle reopening — each school or district should make its own assessment based on the severity of its outbreak, Dr. Fauci testified — to the mysterious cancellation of a $3 million research grant for a group that was studying the coronavirus in bats in Wuhan, China, where the outbreak originated.
“It was canceled because the N.I.H. was told to cancel it,” Dr. Fauci said, referring to the National Institutes of Health, without further elaboration. “I don’t know the reason, but we were told to cancel it.”
Political posturing abounded, as lawmakers of both parties tried to prod the witnesses and especially Dr. Fauci — the only witness who is not a political appointee of the president’s — into making a remark that might help or hurt Mr. Trump. After mass protests for racial justice that have drawn huge crowds and a campaign rally that Mr. Trump held in Tulsa, Okla., last weekend despite public health warnings, he gently suggested that Americans needed to do a better job of taking precautions to reduce the virus’s spread.
“Plan A: Don’t go in a crowd,” he said. “Plan B: If you do, make sure you wear a mask.”
Shortly before the hearing began, Mr. Trump used Twitter to complain that he was not getting credit for his response to the virus, noting that Dr. Fauci, “who is with us in all ways,” has “a very high 72% Approval rating” — much higher than the president’s, which stands around 41 percent.
In somber tones, all four of the doctors testifying on Tuesday made clear that the United States was hardly out of danger. Despite talk of a so-called second wave of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci said the nation was still in the middle of the first wave. Dr. Redfield said the crisis had “brought this nation to its knees,” cautioning that when it coincides with flu season this year, hospitals and health workers would face a tremendous strain. Getting a flu shot, he said, would be imperative.
“This single act will save lives,” Dr. Redfield said.
Much of the talk during the House hearing was about testing. All four doctors contradicted the president’s claim at his rally in Tulsa that he had asked “my people” to “slow the testing down” because increased screening was revealing more infections, making the country look bad. Each said he knew of no such request.
“We are proceeding in just the opposite — we want to do more testing and of higher quality,” said Admiral Giroir, who has been designated the “testing czar” by the president. “The only way that we will be able to understand who has the disease, who is infected, and can pass it, and to do appropriate contact tracing is to test appropriately, smartly — and as many people as we can.”
Dr. Hahn pushed back against the suggestion by Democrats that the White House had pressured the Food and Drug Administration in its handling of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine, which Mr. Trump has promoted as a treatment.
A commentary published this month on the website of the British Journal of Sports Medicine points out that covering your face during exercise “comes with issues of potential breathing restriction and discomfort” and requires “balancing benefits versus possible adverse events.” Masks do alter exercise, says Cedric X. Bryant, the president and chief science officer of the American Council on Exercise, a nonprofit organization that funds exercise research and certifies fitness professionals. “In my personal experience,” he says, “heart rates are higher at the same relative intensity when you wear a mask.” Some people also could experience lightheadedness during familiar workouts while masked, says Len Kravitz, a professor of exercise science at the University of New Mexico.
I’ve heard about a treatment called dexamethasone. Does it work?
The steroid, dexamethasone, is the first treatment shown to reduce mortality in severely ill patients, according to scientists in Britain. The drug appears to reduce inflammation caused by the immune system, protecting the tissues. In the study, dexamethasone reduced deaths of patients on ventilators by one-third, and deaths of patients on oxygen by one-fifth.
What is pandemic paid leave?
The coronavirus emergency relief package gives many American workers paid leave if they need to take time off because of the virus. It gives qualified workers two weeks of paid sick leave if they are ill, quarantined or seeking diagnosis or preventive care for coronavirus, or if they are caring for sick family members. It gives 12 weeks of paid leave to people caring for children whose schools are closed or whose child care provider is unavailable because of the coronavirus. It is the first time the United States has had widespread federally mandated paid leave, and includes people who don’t typically get such benefits, like part-time and gig economy workers. But the measure excludes at least half of private-sector workers, including those at the country’s largest employers, and gives small employers significant leeway to deny leave.
Does asymptomatic transmission of Covid-19 happen?
So far, the evidence seems to show it does. A widely cited paper published in April suggests that people are most infectious about two days before the onset of coronavirus symptoms and estimated that 44 percent of new infections were a result of transmission from people who were not yet showing symptoms. Recently, a top expert at the World Health Organization stated that transmission of the coronavirus by people who did not have symptoms was “very rare,” but she later walked back that statement.
What’s the risk of catching coronavirus from a surface?
Touching contaminated objects and then infecting ourselves with the germs is not typically how the virus spreads. But it can happen. A number of studies of flu, rhinovirus, coronavirus and other microbes have shown that respiratory illnesses, including the new coronavirus, can spread by touching contaminated surfaces, particularly in places like day care centers, offices and hospitals. But a long chain of events has to happen for the disease to spread that way. The best way to protect yourself from coronavirus — whether it’s surface transmission or close human contact — is still social distancing, washing your hands, not touching your face and wearing masks.
How does blood type influence coronavirus?
A study by European scientists is the first to document a strong statistical link between genetic variations and Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Having Type A blood was linked to a 50 percent increase in the likelihood that a patient would need to get oxygen or to go on a ventilator, according to the new study.
How many people have lost their jobs due to coronavirus in the U.S.?
The unemployment rate fell to 13.3 percent in May, the Labor Department said on June 5, an unexpected improvement in the nation’s job market as hiring rebounded faster than economists expected. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate to increase to as much as 20 percent, after it hit 14.7 percent in April, which was the highest since the government began keeping official statistics after World War II. But the unemployment rate dipped instead, with employers adding 2.5 million jobs, after more than 20 million jobs were lost in April.
What are the symptoms of coronavirus?
Common symptoms include fever, a dry cough, fatigue and difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. Some of these symptoms overlap with those of the flu, making detection difficult, but runny noses and stuffy sinuses are less common. The C.D.C. has also added chills, muscle pain, sore throat, headache and a new loss of the sense of taste or smell as symptoms to look out for. Most people fall ill five to seven days after exposure, but symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as many as 14 days.
How can I protect myself while flying?
If air travel is unavoidable, there are some steps you can take to protect yourself. Most important: Wash your hands often, and stop touching your face. If possible, choose a window seat. A study from Emory University found that during flu season, the safest place to sit on a plane is by a window, as people sitting in window seats had less contact with potentially sick people. Disinfect hard surfaces. When you get to your seat and your hands are clean, use disinfecting wipes to clean the hard surfaces at your seat like the head and arm rest, the seatbelt buckle, the remote, screen, seat back pocket and the tray table. If the seat is hard and nonporous or leather or pleather, you can wipe that down, too. (Using wipes on upholstered seats could lead to a wet seat and spreading of germs rather than killing them.)
What should I do if I feel sick?
If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.
“I can tell you that I have not felt political pressure, nor has the F.D.A., to make any decision in any specific direction,” Dr. Hahn said.
The officials and lawmakers also repeatedly returned to the question of test positivity rates, an indicator that reveals the severity of outbreaks more than a tally of positive tests.
Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have both promoted an increase in testing as a reason for the rising numbers around the country, but Dr. Fauci at one point on Tuesday said it was more complicated than that. Referring to recent increasing in positivity rates in North Carolina and Arizona, he said that they were a clear indication of “additional infections that are responsible for those increases.”
And both Dr. Fauci and Dr. Redfield expressed concern about Mr. Trump’s decision late last month to withdraw from the World Health Organization, saying that they had maintained longstanding relationships with the W.H.O. even as the White House moved to punish it over its relationship with China.
Pressed by Congress to develop a plan to address the disproportionate effect of the virus on racial minorities, the administration announced it had created an initiative to do so. Admiral Giroir said that the Department of Health and Human Services had started a $40 million initiative at Morehouse School of Medicine, a historically black college in Atlanta, to educate Americans in underserved communities — including Native American tribes — about the coronavirus threat so that they could have better access to testing and treatment.
For the most part, the hearing was calm and polite. But Dr. Fauci grew testy when Representative David B. McKinley, Republican of West Virginia, asked him if he thought the news media had treated Mr. Trump unfairly — Dr. Fauci declined to answer — and whether he regretted not advising people more forcefully to wear masks earlier in the pandemic.
“OK, we’re going to play that game,” Dr. Fauci said, seemingly irked. Mr. McKinley said it was a yes-or-no question.
“There is more than a yes or no, by the tone of your question,” Dr. Fauci shot back. “I do not regret that. Let me explain to you what happened. At that time, there was a paucity of equipment that our health care providers needed who put themselves daily in harm’s way of taking care of people who are ill.”
Dr. Fauci himself brought two masks to the hearing, a black one that he wore for the first few hours and a red one emblazoned with logos of the Washington Nationals baseball team, of which he told the panel he was “an avid fan.”
Questioned about Mr. Trump’s refusal to wear a mask, Dr. Fauci did not directly criticize the president, but he delivered a veiled rebuke, telling lawmakers that it was important for public officials like him to wear face masks, “not only because I want to protect others and to protect myself, but also to set an example.”
BET founder Robert Johnson, in an interview Wednesday with Fox News, blasted those who are toppling Confederate and other statues across the nation as “borderline anarchists” — while challenging the notion that black Americans support this.
People tearing down statues “have the mistaken assumption that black people are sitting around cheering for them saying ‘Oh, my God, look at these white people. They’re doing something so important to us. They’re taking down the statue of a Civil War general who fought for the South,” Johnson said. “You know, black people, in my opinion, black people laugh at white people who do this the same way we laugh at white people who say we got to take off the TV shows.”
Johnson, who became the country’s first black billionaire in 2001, has made a $14 trillion pitch for reparations to descendants of slavery. But he said the movement to take down statues, cancel TV shows and fire professors does nothing to close the wealth gap that has persisted since slavery.
It’s “tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs on a racial titanic,” Johnson told Fox News. “It absolutely means nothing.”
Johnson argued that the statue destruction that has swept the nation is meaningless to black Americans who could benefit much more from structural changes like economic equality.
“Look, the people who are basically tearing down statues, trying to make a statement are basically borderline anarchists, the way I look at it. They really have no agenda other than the idea we’re going to topple a statue,” Johnson said. “It’s not going to give a kid whose parents can’t afford college money to go to college. It’s not going to close the labor gap between what white workers are paid and what black workers are paid. And it’s not going to take people off welfare or food stamps.”
Johnson rejected the backlash against public figures who say “all lives matter” instead of “black lives matter,” and the cancel craze targeting TV shows like “Dukes of Hazzard” and movie classics such as “Gone with the Wind.”
He also mocked white celebrities for apologizing for their race in emotional social media speeches.
“You know, that to me is the silliest expression of white privilege that exists in this country. The notion that a celebrity could get on a Twitter feed and say, ‘oh, my God, I am so sorry that I am white.’ I don’t find any black people getting on Twitter and saying, ‘Oh, I’m so sorry I’m black.’ And we got the worst problems. … My thing is: embrace being white and do the right thing.”
Johnson suggested white Americans need to ask black Americans what they really want.
“White Americans seem to think that if they just do sort of emotionally or drastic things that black people are going to say, ‘Oh my God, white people love us because they took down a statue of Stonewall Jackson.’ Frankly, black people don’t give a damn,” Johnson added.
Michael Flynn’s lawyers said newly uncovered notes from former FBI official Peter Strzok indicate then-FBI Director James Comey appeared to downplay Flynn’s calls during the presidential transition with Russia’s ambassador as “legit” during a meeting where then-President Barack Obama and then-Vice President Joe Biden also weighed in.
The handwritten notes, purportedly penned by Strzok, were submitted by Flynn’s legal team on Wednesday as part of his court case, after acting U.S. Attorney Michael Sherwin and the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia shared them with his attorneys.
Sherwin told Flynn attorneys Sidney Powell and Jesse Binnall on Tuesday that the notes were found as part of the Justice Department’s review of the Flynn case and that they were “taken by former Deputy Assistant Director Peter Strzok.”
“While the page itself is undated; we believe that the notes were taken in early January 2017, possibly between January 3 and January 5,” Sherwin wrote Tuesday.
On Wednesday, after a federal appeals court ordered Flynn’s case be dismissed, Powell filed the notes and claimed they produced “further stunning and exculpatory evidence” that was previously withheld from Flynn.
Powell wrote that the notes show that “Director Comey himself and the highest levels of the Obama Administration had the transcripts of Flynn’s phone calls with officials of other countries and knew General Flynn’s calls were lawful and proper.”
“Strzok’s notes believed to be of January 4, 2017, reveal that former President Obama, James Comey, Sally Yates, Joe Biden, and apparently Susan Rice discussed the transcripts of Flynn’s calls and how to proceed against him,” Powell wrote. “Mr. Obama himself directed that ‘the right people’ investigate General Flynn.”
She added: “This caused former FBI Director Comey to acknowledge the obvious: General Flynn’s phone calls with Ambassador Kislyak ‘appear legit.’”
Powell also wrote that according to the notes “it appears that Vice President Biden personally raised the idea of the Logan Act.”
“That became an admitted pretext to investigate General Flynn,” she added.
Flynn’s legal team attached the notes — a rough, handwritten document which at points is difficult to read and partially redacted and also includes shorthand. The lawyers also submitted their own typed transcription of those notes.
The transcription assumes that in Strzok’s shorthand, “D” represents Director Comey, “VP” represents Vice President Biden, and “P” represents President Obama.
The notes state: “VP: ‘Logan Act,’ P: These are unusual times. VP: I’ve been on intel committee for ten years and I never. P: Make sure you look over things and have the right people on it. P: Is there anything I shouldn’t be telling the transition team? D: Flynn-> Kislyak calls but appear legit.”
It is not clear if the notes were intended to say what Flynn’s lawyers interpreted in their filing. But they essentially argue that Comey described Flynn’s calls with Russia’s ambassador which formed the basis for his fateful interview with the FBI as “legit.” Further, they say the notes show Obama telling them to put the “right people” on the issue, and Biden himself raising the possibility of the “Logan Act,” possible violations of which were cited in bringing Flynn in for the FBI interview.
Biden has previously gone back and forth about what he knew of the Flynn investigation during the transition period.
Last month, in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America,” Biden said he was “aware” at the time of the investigation.
“I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn,” Biden initially said, calling the topic a “diversion” from the coronavirus pandemic.
When pressed on whether he attended an Oval Office meeting on Jan. 5, 2017, where Flynn was discussed, Biden said that he was “aware that there was—that they asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about it and I don’t think anything else.”
Meanwhile, the transcripts of Flynn’s phone calls with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak were declassified and made public by Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe. The transcripts detailed the discussions that would later lead to Flynn’s FBI interview and subsequent charges.
The documents include a key Dec. 29, 2016, conversation in which Flynn repeatedly urged Russia not to dramatically escalate tensions in response to sanctions imposed by the outgoing Obama Administration over election interference.
It has been known that Flynn made such appeals to Russia during the transition period ever since the FBI pressed him for details about that discussion in early 2017. Flynn pleaded guilty in December of that year to a single count of lying to investigators.
Since that charge, Flynn has fought to withdraw his plea and the Justice Department eventually moved to drop the prosecution entirely, maintaining that the FBI’s interview was “conducted without any legitimate investigative basis.”
Flynn was supposedly scrutinized at the time for potentially violating the Logan Act, an obscure law dealing with conversations with foreign adversaries–which Flynn’s legal team now claims was floated by Biden.
But Flynn’s allies have long maintained that his conversations were legitimate and he was lured into a “perjury trap” by the FBI.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia on Wednesday ordered a lower court to allow the case against Flynn to be dismissed, as requested by the Justice Department — likely ending the yearslong legal saga stemming from the Russia investigation.
Fox News’ Alexander Hooper contributed to this report.
NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace tweeted out a statement on Wednesday about the supposed noose found in his garage, saying that he’s “relieved” to know it wasn’t meant for him, but embarrassed by the mixup after the FBI ended its hate crime investigation.
“It’s been an emotional few days. First off, I want to say how relieved I am that the investigation revealed that this wasn’t what we feared it was,” he wrote. “I want to thank my team, NASCAR and the FBI for acting swiftly and treating this as a real threat.
“I think we’ll gladly take a little embarrassment over what the alternatives could have been,” Wallace continued. “Make no mistake, though some will try, this should not detract from the show of unity we had on Monday, and the progress we’ve made as a sport to be a more welcoming environment for all.”
The FBI determined that the noose found in Wallace’s garage at Talladega Superspeedway on Sunday had been there since at least last year, according to the bureau.
A statement issued by U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town on Tuesday said the investigation had concluded and that no federal crime had been committed. This came after the entire NASCAR family showed support for Wallace following the discovery of the rope, with all his fellow drivers and their crews standing behind him before the Geico 500 on Monday.
“The FBI learned that garage number 4, where the noose was found, was assigned to Bubba Wallace last week. The investigation also revealed evidence, including authentic video confirmed by NASCAR, that the noose found in garage number 4 was in that garage as early as October 2019,” the bureau said. “Although the noose is now known to have been in garage number 4 in 2019, nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned to garage number 4 last week.”
Wallace — the only full-time African-American NASCAR driver — has made headlines in recent weeks for his vocal support of Black Lives Matter, following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He’s also publicly supported NASCAR’s banning of the Confederate flag from all association events.
“The FBI has completed its investigation at Talladega Superspeedway and determined that Bubba Wallace was not the target of a hate crime,” NASCAR said in a release after the findings. “The FBI report concludes, and photographic evidence confirms, that the garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose had been positioned there since as early as last fall.”
NASCAR President Steve Phelps responded to allegations circulating on social media about the noose being left there as a publicity stunt, saying that Wallace’s team had nothing to do with it. He added that NASCAR will continue to investigate the matter.
Wallace also addressed the controversy with CNN’s Don Lemon on Tuesday night and said he was convinced the rope was a “straight-up noose.”
“I’ve been racing all of my life,” he said. “We’ve raced out of hundreds of garages that never had garage pulls like that. So people that want to call it a garage pull and put out all the videos and photos of knots being as their evidence, go ahead, but from the evidence that we have – and I have – it’s a straight-up noose.”
Fox News’ Brie Stimson and Gary Gastelu contributed to this report
