In an interview with Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, House Intelligence Committee chair Rep. Adam Schiff says that his staff is now working on a "discussion draft" for creating an independent commission to investigate the failures of the United States in preparing for the COVID-19 pandemic. The commission would be modeled after the 9/11 Commission, created to investigate the events leading up to the 2001 terrorist attacks on New York City and the Pentagon.
Schiff told Ignatius that that would be delayed "until the crisis has abated to ensure it does not interfere with" agencies' ongoing response efforts.
The most obvious concern, of course, is whether Trump and surrounding loyalists ignored warnings about the rapidly spreading virus due to Trump's obsession over his own self-interests. Ignatius reports that intelligence officials are already concerned that new acting Director of National Intelligence Richard Grenell, a partisan Trump loyalist, is "trying to shape intelligence that might challenge or embarrass Trump."
If this is the case, and there is absolutely no reason to believe Grenell would not act in such a fashion, an investigation of administration actions cannot be delayed for long. The Trump administration has already been caught once engaging in criminal conduct intended solely to benefit Trump's own reelection, resulting in impeachment; there is no question that Trump's team, having been immunized from consequences for those acts by a similarly corrupt Republican-held Senate, may engage in more.
On Monday, Democratic Congresswoman Maxine Waters went on a social media rant against President Donald Trump over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, calling him an “incompetent idiot” who needs to “pray for forgiveness.”
‘Your ignorance & incompetence are appalling’
“Trump, stop congratulating yourself! You’re a failure & you’ve mishandled this #COVID19 disaster! You’re not knowledgeable & you don’t know more than experts & generals,” Waters wrote on Twitter. “Your ignorance & incompetence are appalling & you continue to demonstrate that every time you open your mouth!”
Trump, stop congratulating yourself! You’re a failure & you've mishandled this #COVID19 disaster! You're not knowledgeable & you don’t know more than experts & generals. Your ignorance & incompetence are appalling & you continue to demonstrate that every time you open your mouth!
“Trump, you incompetent idiot!,” she tweeted. “You sent 18 tons of PPE to China early but ignored warnings & called COVID19 concerns a hoax. You’ve endangered doctors, nurses, aids, [sic] orderlies, & janitors – all risking their lives to save ours. Pray 4 forgiveness for the harm that you’re causing!”
Trump, you incompetent idiot! You sent 18 tons of PPE to China early but ignored warnings & called COVID19 concerns a hoax. You've endangered doctors, nurses, aids, orderlies, & janitors – all risking their lives to save ours. Pray 4 forgiveness for the harm that you're causing!
Waters had accused President Trump on Sunday of ignoring the pandemic early on.
“As you know, we had an office of pandemic affairs basically in the office of the president that was shut down, closed down, not funded by the president of the United States,” Waters told MSNBC host Joy Reid. “That’s the kind of office that does the planning, that anticipates, that makes sure that supplies and everything that’s needed can be readily available when you have this kind of disaster. And so even though we didn’t have that kind of planning in addition to that, the early notifications I’m told were ignored.”
Maxine Waters takes Trump to the woodshed: "Trump, you incompetent idiot! You sent 18 tons of PPE to China early but ignored warnings & called COVID19 concerns a hoax," she tweeted https://t.co/JYFI20qKKE
Waters Wants Trump to Address Crisis But Also… Shut His Mouth About It?!?
Strangely, while Waters accused Trump of ignoring the crisis in its early stages, she also believes he should “shut his mouth” about it.
Rep. Maxine Waters: "The President of the United States cannot be relied upon. Someone said he needs to be quiet, he needs to shut his mouth." pic.twitter.com/OZIAKlhJXa
“It’s been said over and over again that you cannot trust this president,” Waters told Reid. “Not only is he a liar, he does not believe in anything scientific.”
“So the President of the United States cannot be relied upon,” she added. “Someone said he needs to be quiet, he needs to shut his mouth.”
Despite Waters’ random and often nonsensical grumblings, the Trump administration continues to make strides in implementing testing nationwide, mask production and financial and other relief crucial to Americans during this crisis.
The new Daily Kos/Civiqs poll is chock-full of important and astounding information about how the American public is handling the COVID-19 pandemic. In and amongst that data is the suffering, and the reason why Congress still has a lot of work to do to get us through this crisis. Through March 30, one in FIVE Americans who were working before the outbreak say that they have been laid off or furloughed from their position. Nearly 40%—fully 39%—of households have lost income. More than a quarter, 26%, has already been affected by a layoff, furlough, or cut hours and another 15% feel extremely concerned that it will happen to them. Another 28% are moderately or slightly concerned they'll lose income because of the disease and its economic impact.
That's a lot of economic uncertainty that a one-time check for $1,200 isn't likely to allay. The enhanced unemployment benefits that were included in the third coronavirus stimulus bill will help a lot of people, but it won't help everyone including all those people still working but with fewer hours. There's still so much work to be done to get the country through this, and with money practically free to borrow now, yes, Congress should be "tossing money out of helicopters" to answer it, since the Fed is unlikely to do it. Give everyone money, and while you're at it, all the things Speaker Nancy Pelosi is talking about, especially what was in the House bill that didn't make it into the Senate's bill.
In an interview in The New York Times Pelosi "emphasized the need to secure more equipment for health workers on the front lines, known as personal protective equipment, and ventilators for hospitals" and House Democrats would make another "push to bolster pensions and medical leave provisions, and would work to ensure that other aspects of treatment for the coronavirus, beyond the initial test, would be covered by the government." She also talked about more direct aid to families, including "a possible retroactive rollback of the limit on the state and local tax deduction, a change that hurt high earners in states like New York and California." Fine, if that's what it takes to get Republican support, but that's not a sword to die on.
The sword to die on is health care for everyone infected by this disease. It's food security for everyone. It's making sure that the nation's millions of incarcerated people aren't left to die locked up. It's making sure that the gig workers and minimum-wage workers and the undocumented workers who are securing our food supply have the protections they need on the job and in society. It means at least $2 billion to secure this year's elections AND saving the U.S. Postal Service to conduct the necessary vote-by-mail elections.
It means not just postponing student loan payments, but cancelling student loan debts. It needs to have Housing Security, including a moratorium on evictions, a national mortgage and rent holiday, and at least $200 billion to keep housing stable.
It could also have the infrastructure Donald Trump endorsed in a tweet Tuesday: "Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4." Whatever, if that gets Trump on board, as long as it's green, sustainable infrastructure. That, by the way, should include broadband infrastructure—the entire nation needs to have access to reliable, high-speed internet. That's one thing this crisis has demonstrated in spades; the technology gap can cripple communities. Earmarking those trillions now would be great for getting people to work on infrastructure right out of the gate when it's safe for people to be out in the world again.
So yes, Phase 4 or whatever Donald Trump wants to call it, provided he gets Republicans in Congress—who are so far rejecting the notion that more has to be done—on board. They're not going to have much choice, realistically. It's not going to take very long for the pressure to build on them to realize that they haven't done nearly enough to get us out of this thing standing.
Rep. Maxine Waters accused President Trump of ignoring early coronavirus warnings and suggested he’s “gotten away with a lot of lying.”
The fact that the first part of that sentence is a complete lie is an irony that apparently escapes the California Democrat.
“The early notifications I’m told were ignored,” Waters said during a weekend interview with MSNBC.
Accuses Trump of Lying
Waters then accused the President of lying regarding his implementation of the Defense Production Act.
“I know that the president has gotten away with a lot of lying about what is going to happen with the Defense Act, and he said that he was going to, first of all, invoke it. He did not,” she claimed.
“He waited until the heat was on him, and then he lied on some of the big businesses that he said he had an agreement with that he really didn’t have.”
These are the same people who couldn’t stomach the thought of the President invoking various war powers acts for the last three years, now demanding he does just that.
Trump invoked the Defense Production Act on Friday, compelling General Motors to start making ventilators.
Waters’ comments are in line with those she made weeks ago when she called the President of the United States a “liar” and suggested he should shut his mouth on the coronavirus crisis.
“It’s been said over and over again that you cannot trust this president. Not only is he a liar, he does not believe in anything scientific,” she claimed without evidence. “So the President of the United States cannot be relied upon. Someone said he needs to be quiet, he needs to shut his mouth.”
First, she says he needs to keep his mouth shut, then complains that he hasn’t said or done enough.
Rep. Maxine Waters: “The President of the United States cannot be relied upon. Someone said he needs to be quiet, he needs to shut his mouth.” pic.twitter.com/OZIAKlhJXa
It’s never a good idea to accuse somebody of lying while simultaneously doing the same thing.
As we’ve noted, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has repeatedly credited President Trump with saving countless lives through swift action at the very beginning.
Travel restrictions implemented by the administration in late January helped limit the spread of the virus.
What were Waters and her fellow Democrats focused on at that time? The impeachment sham.
Aside from that, she also blamed President Trump for a lack of respirators.
Our hospitals are out of gloves, masks, gowns, respirators, protective shoe coverings, and basic supplies! What the hell more is Trump waiting for? Hey stupid, this is the worst case scenario!
The reality, however, is that it was the Obama-Biden administration that failed to replenish those supplies.
In 2009, the H1N1 swine flu pandemic triggered a massive deployment of respirators and masks.
But the Obama administration never set about replenishing the stockpile, despite warnings from multiple experts and a 2010 report funded by the federal government recommending the repository of masks be restocked for a future pandemic.
“In hindsight, it appears to be shortsighted,” said the senior director of public health preparedness for the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
Just two months ago, the House impeachment and subsequent Senate acquittal of Donald Trump was the talk of Washington. Throughout the fall, GOP-aligned groups had blasted House Democrats with ads attacking their votes to impeach Trump. The conservative American Action Network had already dumped $11 million into targeting Democrats over impeachment, but by early February all those ads had been pulled, according to Politico.
Now everyone's reassessing. After a political year that featured a record-setting government shutdown, the conclusion of the Mueller investigation, and a historic impeachment vote, the coronavirus has shifted the political calculus all over again—and likely for the long haul.
“This is just going to dominate American life through Election Day,” one Democratic strategist who tracks House campaigns told Politico. This week, a Democratic super PAC said it was making its first calculated foray into messaging on the coronavirus—a $5 million digital ad buy criticizing Trump’s response to the pandemic. But for the most part, strategists in both parties are trying to figure out how to calibrate both their messaging and fundraising so as not to be seen as capitalizing on a national tragedy that is also wreaking havoc around the world.
One group of lawmakers breathing a sigh of relief in particular is freshman Democrats who flipped conservative seats blue in 2018. Republicans had tagged that bloc for special treatment after House Democrats voted to impeach Trump last fall. Now, however, that vote doesn't carry the baggage Republicans had hoped it would. In fact, Trump's supremely dismal leadership has put that vote in a whole new light, even for the Democrats who took it.
“Some of his reaction and what he says — ‘I didn’t want the people off that boat because I like the numbers where we are’ — that reminds me of the president we impeached. Because, again, it’s about thinking of the self-interest ahead of the nation," said New Jersey Rep. Tom Malinowski, a freshman Democrat who flipped a Republican-held seat in 2018.
Democrats will have plenty of chances moving forward to skewer Trump’s leadership in the critical early stages of this epidemic using his own words. In fact, Trump’s repeated assertions that the virus was “under control” when it was clearly spiraling out of control, and his persistent failure to take responsibility during the crisis will continue to compromise the position of Republican lawmakers straight through November.
The situation in Italy is spiraling out of control, with infections and deaths spiking by the hour.
BREAKING: Another HUGE increase in #CoronaVirus infections in Italy ðÂ�Â�®ðÂ�Â�¹ 3 590 infected and 368 dead today alone. - 24 747 infected. - 1 809 dead. - 7.3% death rate. This is a human tragedy ðÂ�Â�Â
The United States is on track to emulate Italy, both in the reach and severity of the human and economic toll. One party is doing its best to save lives. Unfortunately, it’s not the party in control of the White House, Senate, or wide swaths of the media. And those Republican efforts to confuse, obfuscate, and obstruct a real response are dismayingly effective. Let us count the ways.
Impeached President Donald Trump
From disbanding the White House pandemic preparedness task force to refusing to let the U.S. use the World Health Organization COVID-19 test, to his daily lies, it’s obvious that the rot starts at the very top. What did people think was going to happen when they put a bigoted, serial sexual harasser reality TV star in charge of the country? Those who vote on racial animus and misogyny are getting a daily reminder of what that costs our country. And ironically, or perhaps not so much so, they are the ones who will bear the brunt of the coming pandemic.
Meanwhile, Trump continues to model poor behavior; he shows on a daily basis that he is the single biggest impediment to the kind of national behavioral changes we need to see to arrest this disease with the least amount of damage possible.
Trump has decided the entire coronavirus mess is a dastardly plot to deny him a second term. He is incapable of considering the human toll of the disease, or the economic ramifications to everyday Americans. He’s concerned only about how it affects his reelection. And again, his acolytes take their cues from the top, such as the Trish Regan abomination that adorns the top of this post.
Regan did end up losing her prime time show over that segment, showing that at least someone at Fox corporate realizes that killing off their core demographic (their median age is 65). But she’s not the only pushing the theory that this is all one big political ploy to damage Trump. Trump’s very own outgoing chief of staff has been making that case for weeks. “The press was covering their hoax of the day because they thought it would bring down the president,” Mulvaney told attendees at the conservative CPAC conference, at the same time the disease was spreading among its attendees. “The reason you’re seeing so much attention to [the coronavirus] today is that they think this is going to be what brings down the president. That’s what this is all about.”
And of course, let’s not forget Trump:
�They�re trying to scare everybody, from meetings, cancel the meetings, close the schools � you know, destroy the country. And that�s ok, as long as we can win the election,� POTUS told guests at Mar-a-Lago last weekend. https://t.co/UxZb0GumFU
He literally says it’s okay if the country is destroyed as long as he wins reelection. He doesn't give a shit about the economic or human toll of the pandemic and will act only to safeguard his electoral effort. And that’s why we don’t have testing. He thinks a higher number of confirmed cases makes him look bad.
President Trump "did not push to do aggressive additional testing in recent weeks [because] more testing might have led to more cases being discovered of coronavirus outbreak, and the president had made clear the lower the numbers on coronavirus, the better for the president" https://t.co/aa2QHQVbPk
We all knew this. Even Republicans knew this when they acquitted him during the impeachment trial. Yet they didn’t care. So they own this: Every death, every job lost. It’s all on them.
The Trump executive branch
Donald Trump had white nationalist Stephen Miller and idiot-boy Jared Kushner whip up a random-ass “I’m doing stuff” speech just hours before airing, with little regard to any consequences their spur-of-the-moment “proposals” would create. Among them, a complete ban on all travel and commerce between the United States and Europe that single-handedly almost completely crashed the US economy. Embarrassingly, the administration had to walk that back—no, it didn't apply to the cargo. And no, it didn’t apply to Americans. (So … what’s the point? Americans have super awesome immunity powers?) Yet in the panic that situation created, Americans rushed back home and … created these kinds of scenes at US customs points of entry:
#BREAKING: Passengers stuck in long lines for immigration at @DFWAirport tell us there are no offers of hand sanitizer, gloves, or masks from U.S. Customs / Immigration. Travelers say they�ve had no screenings of temp yet and no one following #coronavirus protocols. pic.twitter.com/9viCnWdncz
By supposedly acting to prevent the disease from entering the United States (even though, um, it’s already here), those morons in the executive branch didn’t think “maybe we should bolster staffing at customs checkpoints. Maybe we should create a plan to space out people, so we wouldn’t create the Petri dish we’re supposedly trying to prevent.”
Conservatism
It is in precisely older, rural counties that hospitals are being closed in record numbers. “The hospital closure crisis is most pronounced in states that have declined Medicaid expansion, the policy in the Affordable Care Act that offers coverage for individuals whose income is at or below 138 percent of the federal poverty line,” reported Mother Jones. “Of the 106 rural hospitals that have shut down since 2010, 77 were located in states that hadn’t expanded Medicaid, the study found.” In their zeal to stick it to Obamacare, those older rural areas are losing exactly the one thing that saves the lives of the elderly and those with compromised immune systems once infected—hospital beds.
This novel coronavirus is treatable as long as severely impacted patients can be hooked up to respirators. But given available hospital beds, that becomes impossible once a critical mass of patients is infected, they outstrip the supply of hospital beds, and they are then left to die, gasping for air. That’s why the Italian death toll has climbed so high, with doctors having to perform battlefield-style triage—is this patient too old? Too (otherwise) sick? Do they have small children at home? Even patients who survive initial triage may be unplugged if someone with a greater survival chance shows up. It is beyond nightmarish.
And you know what? The United States has fewer hospital beds, per thousand people, than even Italy.
South Korea: 12.3
China: 4.3
Italy: 3.2
United States: 2.8
South Korea has handled the virus better than anyone else, and guess what, having hospital beds is part of the answer. Meanwhile, thanks to conservative hostility to the Affordable Care Act and its fealty to a for-profit health care system, our number of beds has fallen between 2010 and 2017, despite the population having grown by 16 million in that time frame.
Republican elected officials
The Democratic House passed a coronavirus response bill on Friday. Republican Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell went on vacation over the weekend, adjourning the Senate as a result. He doesn’t plan on checking on that House bill until Tuesday, lunch, at the earliest, even though Trump has signaled that he will sign it.
They just don’t give a shit.
Here’s Oklahoma’s Republican governor Kevin Stitt, Friday night, in a now-deleted tweet:
Of course, it stands to follow that if Trump doesn’t think this is a big deal, then those who blindly follow him will shrug off any attempts to contain the virus, or “flatten the curve.” Flattening the curve is slowing the rate of transmission so that people don’t get sick all at once. The more you can spread it out, the less stress on those limited hospital beds.
Trump’s favorite bootlicker, Rep. Devin Nunes, went on Fox to tell viewers to go out on the town. “One of the things you can do, if you're healthy you and your family, it's a great time to just go out, go to a local restaurant,” he said, dooming who knows how many people to death. “Likely you can get in easily. There's, you know, let's not hurt the working people in this country that are relying on wages and tips to keep their small business going. [...] Go to your local pub.”
In Bucks County, Pennsylvania, Republicans are refusing to postpone an election even though the state’s Democratic governor has ordered a statewide lockdown.
Conservative media
It’s no surprise that most of the irresponsible dismissing of COVID-19 featured above is happening on Fox News. The network has prostrated itself before Trump, effectively becoming like a state-run propaganda arm. They won’t do anything to get on the wrong side of Trump. It’s a feature, not a bug.
On Fox & Friends, Jerry Falwell Jr claims people are "overreacting" to coronavirus, the national response is "their next attempt to get Trump," and the virus itself is a North Korean bioweapon. pic.twitter.com/2JPuNBW7C3
But it obviously goes far beyond Fox News. Just two days ago, Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show, “We’re shutting down our country because of the … cold virus.” The Christian Right and their media machinery are praying away the coronavirus. They’ve been so effective at dismissing the threat that even pastors who take this seriously are dismayed, “One pastor said half of his church is ready to lick the floor, to prove there’s no actual virus,” one pastor toldThe Washington Post. Alex Jones is selling fake coronavirus cures. Idiot #MAGA types on Twitter are having their own, er, fun.
How do #MAGA & #KAG folks have fun during a pandemic? Apparently some like licking airplane toilet seats in a SAD attempt to show the #coronavirus is a hoax. Perhaps to also prove they'll make good tRump supporters!#COVID19 Found at @AwardsDarwinpic.twitter.com/y9jAqRrpbx
— McSpockyâÂ�¢ ðÂ�Â�½ðÂ�Â�Â�ðÂ�Â�Â� #VoteBlue2020 (@mcspocky) March 15, 2020
If you’re sitting here wondering what the hell is wrong with these people, you’re not alone. Trapped in their conservative anti-science media bubble, they’re whipping themselves up into a fervor of denialism and frothy conspiracy theories.
The results
The results are devastating. Republicans simply don’t believe that they should take COVID-19 seriously.
The coronavirus partisan divide is real. Twice as many Democrats (60%) are changing plans or taking precautions than Republicans (31%). 88% of Republicans are satisfied with the government's response. Among Democrats? 11%. Survey report @Civiqs 3/8-11: https://t.co/sGoSTbhEsI
And it’s even worse among Fox News viewers, only 9% of which are “extremely concerned” about the virus. These are the same people who live in mortal fear of an “illegal” coming and murdering them. The big difference? They will definitely end up knowing about someone who died of the novel coronavirus, while those mythical hordes of undocumented murderers only exist in the imagination of the network’s most bigoted hosts. (48% of MSNBC viewers are “extremely concerned,” which is still low. It should be 100%. But that network isn’t sowing misinformation.)
I used to joke that Republicans would come out in favor of cancer if President Barack Obama ever declared his opposition to it publicly. At least, it was supposed to be a joke. Now we find out that a global pandemic killing tens of thousands has become a partisan issue. Not because it is a partisan issue. There is nothing Republican or Democratic or liberal or conservative about a deadly disease. But because Trump’s botched handling of the pandemic makes him “look bad,” and there is no greater sin in the world than making Trump look bad.
It might be funny or the material for easy partisan points, except people are dying, and a lot more will die before scientists find a vaccine. And while we could be making efforts to mitigate the carnage, both in human and economic terms, we have an entire half of the country’s divide refusing to accept our new reality and demanding we pretend all is well, nothing to see here, please carry on, preferably at your local pub or cruise ship.
It’s staggeringly irresponsible. The final culmination of an ideology so divorced from reality, that it will literally kill, disproportionately, the older and rural people that form its base. And—this is legitimately ironic—it is liberals trying to save their lives.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), who made a name for herself during the House impeachment trial by staunchly defending President Donald Trump, was just viciously harassed and attacked while shopping at a grocery store.
Stefanik, who represents New York’s 21st district, took to Twitter to post a photo of a hateful note that was left on her windshield by a liberal who had recognized her.
“Rot in hell FASCIST PIG,” the note read.
It is truly sad that the radical Far-Left cannot see beyond their vicious hate.
My husband and I went grocery shopping this morning before district events and enjoyed chatting with constituents throughout the store.
“My husband and I went grocery shopping this morning before district events and enjoyed chatting with constituents throughout the store,” Stefanik wrote. “This vile anonymous note was left on our car.”
Republicans have long been warning Democrats that encouraging their followers to target GOP officials in public is a very bad idea. Maxine Waters (D-CA) infamously told her supporters in July of 2018 to confront Trump supporters whenever they see them in public.
“Let’s make sure we show up wherever we have to show up,” Waters said, according to The Blaze. “And if you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd. And you push back on them. And you tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere. We’ve got to get the children connected to their parents.”
Stefanik has asked Tedra Cobb, her Democratic opponent, to condemn the attack against her.
“As an elected official, I understand that respectful & passionate policy disagreements are foundational to our democracy. But this note is just sad hatred,” Stefanik said. “We are praying for the author. This hateful rhetoric should be publicly condemned by my opponent immediately.”
Cobb, however, refused to condemn the attack, only describing the note as “damaging and wrong.”
“I think it’s time you joined me in pledging not to name call in this campaign. I’d love to work with you to set a better example for #NY21,” Cobb said.
Stefanik responded by pointing out that Cobb didn’t condemn the attack.
“One is a policy difference (you have voted numerous times to raise taxes) the other is a vicious, vile, sick attack,” she said. “They are not the same and voters know it.”
Democrats and the mainstream media have vilified conservatives to the point where crazed liberals think it is acceptable to attack them in any way they see fit. Attacks such as this one are only escalating, and if Democrats don’t start condemning them soon, something really bad is likely going to happen to a Republican.
Please keep all Republican lawmakers in your thoughts and prayers.
This piece originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
It is always worth remembering that there are literally hundreds of bills passed by House Democrats now languishing in Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's legislative graveyard. With the Presidents Day recess over, the winter holiday break hangover is being shaken off. Impeachment is done and McConnell's cover-up of Donald Trump's misdeeds effected. Under normal Senate leadership in an election year, the real legislative work would be underway now. But McConnell will not let us have normal anymore; he won't let us have anything good.
Like the bill passed by the House on Dec. 12 last year, which would substantially reduce the costs of prescription drugs (a sustained issue for voters) and strengthen Medicare by allowing it to negotiate drug prices and use the savings to expand Medicare benefits to include hearing, dental, and vision care. That bill is "the most impactful piece of drug legislation" since the Medicare prescription drug program was created nearly 20 years ago, Steve Knievel, an advocate at Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines program, told HuffPost.
It's been one year, Sen. Chris Murphy points out, since the House passed universal background checks for gun purchases, a year in which more than 15,000 people died by gun violence.
Just the week before last, McConnell and his minions once again blocked Democrats from bringing election protection bills to the floor. That's while the intelligence community is being destroyed by Trump for telling the truth to Congress—that Russia is even now interfering to help Trump be re-elected.
What McConnell is bringing to the floor is forced-birth legislation that will never pass in the Senate or be considered in the House. It's a bill in search of a problem—the abortion procedure it would ban doesn't even exist. But McConnell thinks it will help his vulnerable Republicans to take this vote, so that's what the Senate is going to do.
Instead of making the nation healthier. Instead of making the nation safer.
This cannot go on. Three top prosecutors (which may turn into four) in the Roger Stone case have now withdrawn after Attorney General William Barr's Department of Justice ordered them to revise their guideline-based recommendations on Stone's sentencing. This happened the morning after Donald Trump tweeted that he "cannot allow" the prosecutors' recommended sentencing of Stone, an ally and key stonewaller in the Robert Mueller investigation of the Trump campaign's ties to Russian government hacking in the 2016 elections.
It is time to haul Barr to the House to explain himself. Immediately. If he refuses a subpoena, then inherent contempt must be used to force his compliance. The House has broad but almost-never-used powers to compel such testimony: This is precisely the dire occasion they were designed for.
The resignation of three top names from Stone's case signals clearly that the federal prosecutors involved believe Barr has acted with corrupt intent in reaching down to order a reduced sentencing ask. They, too, should be subpoenaed immediately so that they may describe the situation that led to their self-removal. This is an extraordinary situation: Even if a teetering-toward-fascism Republican Party will not so much as pretend at "concern" for Trump and Barr's move, the House can expose it without their assistance.
It must be done. The Department of Justice has within the span of days been turned formally into a tool for "processing" allegations against Trump's political opponents and, now, overriding the sentencing of Trump's criminal allies. Barr will resist, but it must be done regardless.
Sen. Chuck Schumer is calling for the inspector general at the Department of Justice to “open an investigation immediately.” That internal review, however, would be obviously insufficient. Rep. Adam Schiff, chair of the House Intelligence Committee and lead House manager in Trump's Senate-stifled impeachment trial, sent out an initial statement calling the reported Barr-Trump intervention a "blatant abuse of power" and, coupled with Trump's retaliatory firings, "the gravest threat to the rule of law in America in a generation." But it does not yet threaten subpoenas.
Schiff is correct in his diagnosis—and now the House must once again act. It is not optional; it cannot be danced around. Barr has committed an act of corruption so blatant that prosecutors have resigned rather than carry it out; he must explain himself under oath.
House Republican Whip Steve Scalise blasted Speaker Nancy Pelosi for ripping up President Trump’s speech after his address was over on Tuesday night, calling her actions “disgraceful.”
“I thought it was disgraceful. It’s unbecoming of a speaker,” Scalise told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in an interview for “The Takeout” podcast. “Frankly, Speaker Pelosi should apologize as well, because it’s not the image she should want to portray as the speaker of the House.”
Did Pelosi’s Stunt Disrespect the President’s Guests?
When Garrett mentioned to Scalise that Pelosi said she was justified in ripping the speech because she believed it was a “manifesto of mistruths,” Scalise wondered if her stunt actually represented Democrats disrespecting White House guests present at the speech, including a former Tuskegee airman and a soldier who was reunited with his family.
“I think she at a minimum owes a deep apology to the president and the country,” Scalise said.
Scalise said he believes Trump will be reelected by a wide margin in the Electoral College, and that the President could also win the popular vote in 2020, after losing that vote by 3 million votes in 2016.
NEW LOW FOR NANCY PELOSI: She ripped up @realDonaldTrump’s #SOTU speech for the cameras on national TV.
This speech was about American heroes and American workers. She decided THAT was worth literally tearing apart.
“The popular vote’s a different situation, but look, it’s possible,” Scalise said, before downplaying the importance of the popular vote. “Ultimately, it’s like the Super Bowl. You don’t get the trophy for getting more yards than the other team. You get the trophy for getting more points.”
Scalise also voiced his dissatisfaction with Republican senators Lisa Murkowski and Lamar Alexander who voted to acquit President Trump during his impeachment trial, but also believed the president’s behavior had been “inappropriate.” Scalise insisted that Mr. Trump had done nothing inappropriate or wrong when he asked Ukraine’s president to investigate a political rival.
On Wednesday, Scalise tweeted in support of Republican Congresswoamn Kay Granger’s resolution to condemn Pelosi’s actions.
“Ripping up the President’s official State of the Union speech with the nation watching is beneath the dignity of the House of Representatives,” Scalise tweeted. “JUST NOW → @RepKayGranger introduced a resolution to condemn Nancy Pelosi’s disgraceful behavior.”
“She must be held accountable,” he added.
Ripping up the President's official State of the Union speech with the nation watching is beneath the dignity of the House of Representatives.
JUST NOW → @RepKayGranger introduced a resolution to condemn Nancy Pelosi's disgraceful behavior.
NEW LOW FOR NANCY PELOSI: She ripped up