- President tweets Gretchen Whitmer should ‘give a little’
- Armed protesters demonstrate against Covid-19 lockdown in Michigan
- Covid-19 cases above 1m as White House blames China
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Updated
Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images
11:05
New test could identify pre-infectious Covid-19 carriers
09:02
Trump says Michigan governor should ‘make a deal’ with protesters
08:03
Biden on assault allegation: ‘They aren’t true. This never happened.’
07:59
Good morning …
11:05
New test could identify pre-infectious Covid-19 carriers
Giles Tremlett
Scientists working for the US military have designed a new Covid-19 test that could potentially identify carriers before they become infectious and spread the disease, the Guardian has learned.
In what could be a significant breakthrough, project coordinators hope the blood-based test will be able to detect the virus’s presence as early as 24 hours after infection – before people show symptoms and several days before a carrier is considered capable of spreading it to other people. That is also around four days before current tests can detect the virus.
The test has emerged from a project set up by the US military’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) aimed at rapid diagnosis of germ or chemical warfare poisoning. It was hurriedly repurposed when the pandemic broke out and the new test is expected to be put forward for emergency use approval (EUA) by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) within a week.
“The concept fills a diagnostic gap worldwide,” the head of Darpa’s biological technologies office, Dr Brad Ringeisen, told the Guardian, since it should also fill in testing gaps at later stages of the infection. If given FDA approval, he said, it had the potential to be “absolutely a gamechanger”.
10:44
The nation’s largest anti-sexual assault organization has also issued a statement about Tara Reade’s allegation against Joe Biden.
After the presumptive Democratic nominee denied sexually assaulting Reade 27 years ago, the group RAINN called for a “rigorous investigation” of the allegation.
“We appreciate Vice President Biden finally addressing Tara Reade’s allegations,” RAINN’s vice president of communications said in the statement.
“These allegations deserve a rigorous investigation, and we urge Vice President Biden to release any and all records that may be relevant, including those housed at the University of Delaware, in addition to any Senate records housed at the National Archives. We urge him, his campaign, and former staff to cooperate fully and provide complete transparency.”
But the University of Delaware has said officials are still curating the collection of Biden’s papers and the documents will not be publicly available until next year, after the presidential election.
10:32
The president and CEO of TIME’S UP Now has issued a statement in response to Joe Biden’s interview about Tara Reade’s allegation of sexual assault.
Tina Tchen, who leads the anti-sexual harassment group, applauded Biden for directly addressing the allegation, unlike Trump, and called for “complete transparency” into Reade’s claim.
“Today, Vice President Joe Biden sat down and directly addressed the allegation against him with the seriousness it deserves, something that the current president has never done,” Tchen said in the statement.
“Vice President Joe Biden needed to address Tara Reade’s allegation today. We call for complete transparency into this claim and the multiple claims against President Donald Trump. As we go forward, American voters are entitled to a full understanding of all allegations of this nature. Women should be heard, treated respectfully, and their allegations taken seriously.”
Tchen’s statement underscores the difficult spot that Democratic women are in as they address Reade’s allegation. The Democratic party has prided itself on taking allegations of sexual misconduct seriously since several women accused Trump of inappropriate touching. Now Reade is asking those same Democrats who rallied around Trump’s accusers to grant her the same treatment.
10:14
Senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway criticized Joe Biden’s response to Tara Reade’s sexual assault allegation.
After Biden denied Reade’s allegation in an interview this morning, Conway accused the presumptive Democratic nominee of applying a different standard to himself than he has to other politicians accused of sexual misconduct. “Believe all women means all women — you don’t get to choose,” Conway said.
Aaron Rupar
(@atrupar)A spokesperson for the first president in modern history to refuse to release his tax returns and who demanded that numerous women sign non-disclosure agreements making a case for Joe Biden to be more transparent is pretty rich pic.twitter.com/jioCgC1zGs
May 1, 2020
The White House adviser also called on Biden to unseal any records related to Reade’s allegation. “You should unseal them anyway if you want to run for president,” Conway said.
Commentators were quick to point out that Trump has not released his tax returns, making him the first president not to do so, raising some questions about Conway’s demand for transparency.
09:47
Martin Pengelly
There is a 2pm ET press briefing on the White House schedule – not from Donald Trump, who has other events today at which he may speak about the coronavirus pandemic, but by the new press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany.
Although the White House coronavirus task force has regularly held briefings in recent weeks, it’s been more than a year since the Trump’s press secretary held such a formal briefing.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Trump’s second press secretary, dropped the practice which made her predecessor Sean Spicer (in)famous and her successor, Stephanie Grisham, never held one.
So that’ll be something else to watch today…
09:31
Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer extended her state’s coronavirus emergency declaration yesterday after the Republican-led legislature moved to end the declaration.
As anti-stay-at-home protesters swarmed the state capitol, Michigan’s Republican legislators pushed to not only end the declaration but also empower the chambers’ leaders to sue Whitmer if she extended the order.
Despite those efforts, Whitmer chose to sign an executive order ending the original declaration and then issue another order that established a state of emergency until May 28. Those orders come a week after Whitmer extended the state’s stay-at-home order until at least May 15.
The clash between the Democratic governor and the Republican legislators could lead to an intense legal battle over how the state responds to the pandemic.
09:12
Trump received criticism last month after he called to “liberate” three states that are currently under stay-at-home orders, including Michigan, echoing messaging from far-right protesters.
In one tweet about the stay-at-home orders, Trump wrote, “LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!”
Many of the president’s critics accused the president of inciting violence against Democratic governors and lawmakers, and tweets about a potential armed conflict against the government skyrocketed in the hours after Trump’s “liberate” tweets were sent.
Now the president has weighed in on the protests again, suggesting Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer should “make a deal” with the demonstrators, even though health experts have warned states could see a surge in coronavirus cases if stay-at-home orders are relaxed too quickly.
Michigan has been particularly hard hit by the virus, which has already claimed more than 3,000 lives in the state.
09:02
Trump says Michigan governor should ‘make a deal’ with protesters
Trump is once again weighing in on the anti-stay-at-home protests that have been popping up across the country, suggesting Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer should “make a deal” with the demonstrators.
“The Governor of Michigan should give a little, and put out the fire,” Trump wrote in a tweet. “These are very good people, but they are angry. They want their lives back again, safely! See them, talk to them, make a deal.”
The president’s tweet comes one day after protesters descended on the Michigan capitol in Lansing to rail against Whitmer’s stay-at-home order. A number of the demonstrators were photographed carrying assault rifles, causing alarm among the legislators who were at the Capitol.
Senator Dayna Polehanki
(@SenPolehanki)Directly above me, men with rifles yelling at us. Some of my colleagues who own bullet proof vests are wearing them. I have never appreciated our Sergeants-at-Arms more than today. #mileg pic.twitter.com/voOZpPYWOs
April 30, 2020
08:51
This is Joan Greve, taking over for Lauren Gambino and Martin Pengelly.
The United States’ coronavirus testing capacity is so low that even the Capitol’s attending physician reportedly doesn’t have enough tests for all US senators, who are scheduled to return to Washington on Monday.
Politico reports:
The Capitol’s attending physician said Thursday that coronavirus tests will be available for staffers and senators who are ill, but not enough to proactively test all 100 senators as the chamber comes back in session, according to two people familiar with the matter.
In a conference call with top GOP officials, Dr. Brian Monahan said there is not sufficient capacity to quickly test senators for coronavirus — a contrast with the White House, where any people meeting with President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence are tested for the disease. Monahan said test results in the Senate will take two or more days, while the White House has rapid testing.
The inability to proactively test all senators will only intensify fears about the chamber returning to work on Monday, which has already caused alarm.
About half of all US senators are over 65, putting them at a higher risk of becoming seriously ill from coronavirus, and a number of congressional staffers and other Capitol employees have expressed anxiety about reporting to work as the number of coronavirus cases in the Washington metropolitan region continues to rise.
08:39
Here is what Biden has previously said about Christine Blasey Ford and women coming forward with sexual assault and harassment claims.
“[Ford] deserves to be treated with dignity. It takes enormous courage for a woman to come forward, under the bright lights of millions of people watching, and relive something that happened to her, assert that something happened to her. And she should be treated with respect … [She] should be given the benefit of the doubt and not be, you know, abused again by the system. [Time Magazine]
He also said:
For a woman to come forward in the glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or not it’s been made worse or better over time. But nobody fails to understand that this is like jumping into a cauldron.” [Washington Post.]
08:38
The Morning Joe interview ends with a request for Biden to address the nation’s public health care workers, which he happily obliges before signing off.
08:34
Biden was asked what he meant by his comments and a fundraiser on Thursday night, that he views himself as a “transition candidate”.
“My job is to … bring the Mayor Petes of the world into this administration, bring it into the administration, and even if they don’t come in, their ideas come into this administration,” he said. “You got to get more people on the bench that are ready to go in, put me in coach, I’m ready to play. Well, there’s a lot of people that are ready to play, women and men.”
He said he wasn’t implying anything specifically, for example, that it his intention to be a one-term president. But he said he views his job as the presumptive nominee to lift up young people in the party. “We have not given a bench to the younger people in the party.”
08:26
The portion of the interview about the sexual assault allegation has finished. Joe Scarborough has joined the panel – the tough questions were left to Brzezinski – and are asking Biden about Trump’s coronavirus response.
08:20
Again pressed on his comments supporting Blasey Ford and Reade, he said the facts in this case are different. “The facts of this case do not exist. There are so many inconsistencies in this case. I assure you it did not happen. Period. Period.”
Asked if he is “absolutely” sure there is no record of a complaint, Biden qualifies his response. “I know of no one who was aware of any complaint was made,” he said.
Why not approve a search of her name in the University of Delaware records? Biden is adamant personnel records would not be there. “I don’t understand the point you’re trying to make. There are no personnel records by definition.”
He said they are not being made public because those records contain information about his personal, private conversations with world leaders and the president.
08:13
Asked about his apparent discrepancy in his comments on Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault during his Supreme Court nomination hearing, and his denial of Reade’s claims, Biden says women should be believed.
“Women have a right to be heard,” he said. “In any case the truth matters and in this case the truth is the claims are false.”
“I’m not going to question her motive. I don’t know why she is saying this. I don’t know why after 27 years this is being raised. I don’t understand it,” he said.
“Why is it real for Dr. Ford and not for Tara Reade?” Biden is asked.
“I’m not saying she doesn’t have the right to come forward. … But only the truth matters,” she said.
He also says he has “never asked anybody to sign an NDA. There are no NDAs period in my case.”
08:06
Asked by Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe whether the allegation is true, Biden replies: “No it is not true. I’m saying unequivocally, it did not happen and it didn’t.”
Biden says his campaign has not reached out to Reade. He does not answer a question about whether he remembers her. He also says he does not believe a complaint exists but asks the National Archives to look for any such document.
“This is an open book. There’s nothing for me to hide – nothing at all,” he said.
Updated
08:03
Biden on assault allegation: ‘They aren’t true. This never happened.’
Joe Biden has emphatically denied a sexual assault allegation against him, breaking weeks of silence to address the accusation that has roiled his campaign.
“They aren’t true. This never happened,” he said in a statement, released moments before his Friday appearance on Morning Joe.
Tara Reade accused Biden of sexually assaulting her in the basement of an office building on Capitol Hill in 1993, when she was an aide in his Senate office. His campaign refuted the allegation in a statement, but this is Biden’s first public comment on the accusation.
He also calls on the National Archives to release any record of a complaint Reade said she filed.
Here is the statement in its entirety:
April was Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Every year, at this time, we talk about awareness, prevention, and the importance of women feeling they can step forward, say something, and be heard. That belief – that women should be heard – was the underpinning of a law I wrote over 25 years ago. To this day, I am most proud of the Violence Against Women Act. So, each April we are reminded not only of how far we have come in dealing with sexual assault in this country – but how far we still have to go.
When I wrote the bill, few wanted to talk about the issue. It was considered a private matter, a personal matter, a family matter. I didn’t see it that way. To me, freedom from fear, harm, and violence for women was a legal right, a civil right, and a human right. And I knew we had to change not only the law, but the culture.
So, we held hours of hearings and heard from the most incredibly brave women – and we opened the eyes of the Senate and the nation – and passed the law.
In the years that followed, I fought to continually strengthen the law. So, when we took office and President Obama asked me what I wanted, I told him I wanted oversight of the critical appointments in the Office on Violence Against Women at the Department of Justice and I wanted a senior White House Advisor appointing directly to me on the issue. Both of those things happened.
As Vice President, we started the “It’s on Us” campaign on college campuses to send the message loud and clear that dating violence is violence – and against the law.
We had to get men involved. They had to be part of the solution. That’s why I made a point of telling young men this was their problem too – they couldn’t turn a blind eye to what was happening around them – they had a responsibility to speak out. Silence is complicity.
In the 26 years since the law passed, the culture and perceptions have changed but we’re not done yet.
It’s on us, and it’s on me as someone who wants to lead this country. I recognize my responsibility to be a voice, an advocate, and a leader for the change in culture that has begun but is nowhere near finished. So I want to address allegations by a former staffer that I engaged in misconduct 27 years ago.
They aren’t true. This never happened.
While the details of these allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault are complicated, two things are not complicated. One is that women deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, and when they step forward they should be heard, not silenced. The second is that their stories should be subject to appropriate inquiry and scrutiny.
Responsible news organizations should examine and evaluate the full and growing record of inconsistencies in her story, which has changed repeatedly in both small and big ways.
But this much bears emphasizing.
She has said she raised some of these issues with her supervisor and senior staffers from my office at the time. They – both men and a woman – have said, unequivocally, that she never came to them and complained or raised issues. News organizations that have talked with literally dozens of former staffers have not found one – not one – who corroborated her allegations in any way. Indeed, many of them spoke to the culture of an office that would not have tolerated harassment in any way – as indeed I would not have.
There is a clear, critical part of this story that can be verified. The former staffer has said she filed a complaint back in 1993. But she does not have a record of this alleged complaint. The papers from my Senate years that I donated to the University of Delaware do not contain personnel files. It is the practice of Senators to establish a library of personal papers that document their public record: speeches, policy proposals, positions taken, and the writing of bills.
There is only one place a complaint of this kind could be – the National Archives. The National Archives is where the records are kept at what was then called the Office of Fair Employment Practices. I am requesting that the Secretary of the Senate ask the Archives to identify any record of the complaint she alleges she filed and make available to the press any such document. If there was ever any such complaint, the record will be there.
As a Presidential candidate, I’m accountable to the American people. We have lived long enough with a President who doesn’t think he is accountable to anyone, and takes responsibility for nothing. That’s not me. I believe being accountable means having the difficult conversations, even when they are uncomfortable. People need to hear the truth.
I have spent my career learning from women the ways in which we as individuals and as policy makers need to step up to make their hard jobs easier, with equal pay, equal opportunity, and workplaces and homes free from violence and harassment. I know how critical women’s health issues and basic women’s rights are. That has been a constant through my career, and as President, that work will continue. And I will continue to learn from women, to listen to women, to support women, and yes, to make sure women’s voices are heard.
We have a lot of work to do. From confronting online harassment, abuse, and stalking, to ending the rape kit backlog, to addressing the deadly combination of guns and domestic violence.
We need to protect and empower the most marginalized communities, including immigrant and indigenous women, trans women, and women of color.
We need to make putting an end to gender-based violence in both the United States and around the world a top priority.
I started my work over 25 years ago with the passage of the Violence Against Women Act. As president, I’m committed to finishing the job.
Read it here:
Updated
07:59
Good morning …
…and welcome to another day of coverage of the coronavirus outbreak – and politics, both concerning the pandemic and tilted towards the election in November – in the US.
The main news of the morning is that Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, will appear on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to answer questions for the first time about an allegation of sexual assault against him.
In advance of the interview, Biden issued a statement:
I recognize my responsibility to be a voice, an advocate, and a leader for the change in culture that has begun but is nowhere near finished. So I want to address allegations by a former staffer that I engaged in misconduct 27 years ago: They aren’t true. This never happened.
In the statement, Biden asks the National Archives to release and make public any record of a complaint that Reade says she filed at the time. Biden said the record of the document would be kept at the National Archives, and not at the University of Delaware, where his Senate papers are housed and not open to the public.
Biden has faced mounting calls from some Democrats to make a public statement, even as the party’s leadership stands behind him. Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, on Thursday stressed her support for Biden’s nomination while Republicans seized the opportunity to attack Biden and his record ahead of a general election against Donald Trump, who has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by more than a dozen women, all of which he has denied.
“We need to make putting an end to gender-based violence in both the United States and around the world a top priority,” Biden said. “I started my work over 25 years ago with the passage of the Violence Against Women Act. As president, I’m committed to finishing the job.”
In terms of the coronavirus outbreak, here are the latest figures from researchers at Johns Hopkins University:
- US cases: 1,069,866
- US deaths: 63,014
- New York cases: 304,372
- New York deaths: 23,587
New York is of course the US hotspot but other states have been hit terribly hard too. More than 7,000 people have died in New Jersey, Michigan and Massachusetts are approaching 4,000 deaths.
The total death toll passed that of Americans in the Vietnam war this week, a fact widely remarked, only for the White House to trumpet its success, attack China and continue to seek to prepare the country to open back up.
Here’s some first further reading:
Source: Elections - theguardian.com
