Coronavirus US live: protesters chant 'lock her up' against Michigan governor following Trump criticism

In opening remarks today, Trump said “it is clear our aggressive strategy is working”, citing numbers of new coronavirus cases in New York and Detroit falling.

“Data suggests we have passed the peak in new cases”, Trump said.

He added that in a news conference on Thursday the administration will be announcing guidelines for reopening the United States.

The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani reports:

Utility shutoffs are in the spotlight again, with 113 lawmakers calling for a suspension of all utility shut-offs – water, gas, electricity and internet – to be included in the next Covid-19 stimulus package.

In a letter addressed to House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, and minority leaders Kevin McCarthy and Chuck Schumer, the signatories call for a nationwide moratorium to protect the most vulnerable Americans until the pandemic threat has passed and the country’s economy has stabilized.

It says: “Utility services are especially critical for public health and safety during the COVID-19 pandemic. Water service ensures that Americans can handwash and disinfect surfaces necessary to slow and stop the coronavirus outbreak. Electricity is necessary for families to turn on the lights and have refrigerated food to eat. Internet access is essential for many employees to be able to work from home and for children who are out of school to access educational resources. …

“Utility insecurity is felt by low-wealth Americans, rural and tribal communities and people of color. Newly unemployed Americans are facing disconnection because of loss of income. … These are the communities that need congressional protections the most.”

Signatories include several former presidential candidates – Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Tulsi Gabbard, Amy Klobuchar and Cory Booker – as well as the four congresswomen of color collectively known as “the Squad” – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley and Rashida Tlaib.

Today’s letter comes after a similar letter from 830 advocacy groups was sent to Congress on Monday, and a federal bill, the Emergency Water is a Human Right Act, was introduced by congresswomen Rashida Tlaib and Debbie Dingell last week.

Amid growing public outcry, a growing number of water and energy utilities have suspended shutoffs, with a small proportion agreeing to reconnect services. But millions of Americans are still without water or face the threat of taps being turned off if they can’t keep up with bills. Read more here:

We are awaiting the White House presser on coronavirus response, scheduled for 5:30 pm ET/2:30 pm PST. Stay tuned.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

Texas voters can’t request a mail-in ballot for upcoming elections if they fear contracting Covid-19 and groups that encourage them to do so could face criminal consequences, the state attorney general’s office said Wednesday.

Texas tightly regulates the use of mail-in ballots, only allowing people 65 or older, with disabilities, and those out of their county during an election to use them. Many states are loosening their requirements for requesting an absentee ballot, but the Wednesday letter from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican, makes it clear the state will remain inflexible on its policy.

“Fear of contracting Covid-19 unaccompanied by a qualifying sickness or physical condition does not constitute a disability under the Election Code for purposes of receiving a ballot by mail,” Ryan Vassar, an attorney in the attorney general’s office, wrote to the legislature. “To the extent that third parties advise voters to apply for a mail-in ballot based solely on fear of contracting Covid-19, such activity could subject those third parties to criminal sanctions.”

The letter came on the same day that a judge in Travis County, home of Austin, heard arguments in a lawsuit seeking to allow every Texan to vote by mail. The judge said he was “inclined” to grant the request.

Texas held its presidential primary in March, but the state has upcoming local elections on May 2.

Hello readers, Kari Paul here taking over for the next few hours from San Francisco. Stay tuned for more news.

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer responded to protests at the state capital regarding her stay-at-home order.

Whitmer expressed sadness that the thousands of people who attended the protest may have jeopardized their own health by participating.

“We know this demonstration is going to come at a cost to people’s health,” Whitmer said. “That’s how Covid-19 spreads.”

The Democratic governor added that ignoring the social distancing guidelines will likely only serve to extend the stay-at-home order.

“The sad irony here was the protest is they don’t like being in this stay at home order and they may have just caused a need to lengthen it,” Whitmer said.

The Guardian’s Vivian Ho reports on the latest from California:

California contributed $75m of the $125m disaster relief fund for undocumented immigrants, with philanthropic groups such as the Emerson Collective, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the James Irvine Foundation, Blue Shield of California Foundation and the California Endowment providing the additional $50m.

The amount should allow for $500 to $1,000 in household assistance, which governor Gavin Newsom acknowledged barely scratched the surface in a state with as high a cost of living as California. “I’m not here to suggest that $125m is enough, but I am here to suggest that it’s a good start and I am very proud that it is starting here in the state of California,” he said.

“I recognize that we still have more to do in this space,” Newsom said. “We will endeavor to find more areas of support in the next days and weeks and over the next year as we transition back to some version of normalcy.”

The relief fund comes as the number of Californians filing for unemployment insurance tops 2.7 million, Newsom said. The need for unemployment assistance has risen to a point that the governor signed an executive order launching a new call center to run 12 hours a day, seven days a week to handle the influx.

There were 24,421 positive cases reported in California on Wednesday, with 821 deaths.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi released a statement reiterating Democrats’ demands for the next coronavirus relief bill.

Pelosi said the bill must not only grant additional funds to the Paycheck Protection Program, the small business loan program created by the stimulus package, but also give more money to hospitals and state and local governments.

“As has been clear since last week, Republicans’ bill which fails to address these critical issues cannot get unanimous consent in the House,” Pelosi said.

Last week, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell tried to pass a bill that would grant $250 billion in additional funding to PPP by unanimous consent, but Democrats objected, demanding more money for hospitals and state and local governments.

Congressional leaders have been negotiating to craft a compromise bill, but Pelosi’s statement indicates lawmakers remain at a stalemate, a frightening prospect considering PPP is expected to run out of funds in the next couple of days.

Senator Kamala Harris said she has not given much thought to whether Joe Biden will ask her to join his ticket, offering the classic politician’s dodge on the running mate question.

“I have to be very honest with you: I am not thinking about that. I really am not,” the California senator told the 19th.

“I’m talking on almost a daily basis with one or another mayor of my state — if not my governor — about the fact that today and tomorrow, they’re running out of masks. People are standing in food lines for hours. Literally, this is so real, it is so present, and this is my focus.”

Even though Harris harshly criticized Biden in the first Democratic debate, she has since endorsed the presumptive nominee, and she is included on essentially every list of potential running mates.

Trump was reportedly told by his newly formed business council that coronavirus testing must substantially expand before the economy can reopen, echoing arguments made by many public health experts in recent weeks.

CNN reports:

In the first phone call convened between President Donald Trump and some members of his newly formed business council, industry leaders reiterated to the President what public health experts and governors have been telling him for weeks: that there would need to be guarantees of ramped-up coronavirus testing before people return to work, according to one person briefed on the discussions.

The call, one of a series with various sectors on Wednesday, was the first task force teleconference aimed at devising a strategy for reopening the country. The call lasted for about an hour and had dozens of participants from the banking, food, hospitality and retail sectors, many of whom lauded the President and his administration for their efforts to combat coronavirus and jump-start the economy, this person said.

Trump has expressed hope that the economy can start reopening by the end of the month, but today, several state and local leaders announced they were extending their stay-at-home orders at least through the rest of April.

The director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr Robert Redfield, said earlier today that some states with low numbers of coronavirus cases may be able to reopen by May 1. However, those states will likely have to prepare for a potential surge in cases, which would also require expanding testing capacity.

Former president Jimmy Carter criticized Trump for halting US funding to the World Health Organization in the middle of a pandemic.

In a newly released statement, Carter said he was “distressed” by Trump’s decision. “WHO is the only international organization capable of leading the effort to control this virus,” Carter said.

The former president joins a number of world leaders and congressional Democrats, including House speaker Nancy Pelosi, in criticizing the move, which Trump announced at his press conference yesterday.

The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:

A Michigan effort to rein in excessive partisan gerrymandering survived another GOP attack on Wednesday.

A federal appeals court declined to step in and halt a process already underway in Michigan to create an independent commission to draw electoral districts, a loss for Republicans challenging it.

Michigan Republicans filed two lawsuits challenging the commission in 2019, saying it unfairly discriminated against them because it bars anyone with political ties from serving on it. A federal judge ruled in November that argument was unlikely to ultimately succeed in court. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th circuit upheld the ruling on Wednesday.

Michigan voters approved creating the commission through a referendum — organized by political novices — in 2018 to limit gerrymandering in the state. It will draw district lines for the first time next year and is expected to produce districts that are fairer than the ones currently in place.

Republicans controlled the redistricting process in Michigan in 2011 and drew districts that gave them a severe advantage throughout the decade.

Stacey Abrams made clear in a new Elle interview that she would like to serve as Joe Biden’s running mate now that the former vice president has secured the presidential nomination.

“I would be an excellent running mate,” Abrams told Elle magazine. Abrams, who narrowly lost the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race to Brian Kemp amid accusations of voter suppression, rattled off a list of her qualifications in the interview.

“I have the capacity to attract voters by motivating typically ignored communities,” Abrams said. “I have a strong history of executive and management experience in the private, public, and nonprofit sectors. I’ve spent 25 years in independent study of foreign policy. I am ready to help advance an agenda of restoring America’s place in the world. If I am selected, I am prepared and excited to serve.”

Abrams has been frequently cited as a potential running mate to Biden, especially after the candidate explictly said last month that he would choose a woman to join his ticket. Senators Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar, as well as Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer, are also frequently named as possible running mates.

The Supreme Court has announced it will hear two cases on disclosures of Trump’s financial records on May 12.

The court announced Monday it would start holding hearings via teleconference next month after delaying hearings that were originally scheduled for March and April.

Trump is seeking to block his financial records from being shared with New York prosectuors and congressional Democrats, who both subpoenaed the records for investigations of the president.

The blockbuster cases were originally set to be heard in late March and early April, but the court said in a statement that oral arguments would now take place on May 12.

Trump considered starting a talk radio show as coronavirus started to spread across the country last month, according to a report from the New York Times.

The president quickly abandoned the idea because he didn’t want to compete with right-wing radio personality Rush Limbaugh, who recently (and controversially) received a presidential medal of freedom from Trump.

The Times reports:

On a Saturday in early March, Donald J. Trump, clad in a baseball cap, strode into the Situation Room for a meeting with the coronavirus task force. He didn’t stop by the group’s daily meetings often, but he had an idea he was eager to share: He wanted to start a White House talk radio show.

At the time, the virus was rapidly spreading across the country, and Mr. Trump would soon announce a ban on European travel. A talk radio show, Mr. Trump excitedly explained, would allow him to quell Americans’ fears and answer their questions about the pandemic directly, according to three White House officials who heard the pitch. There would be no screening, he said, just an open line for people to call and engage one-on-one with the president.

But that Saturday, almost as suddenly as he proposed it, the president outlined one reason he would not be moving forward with it: He did not want to compete with Rush Limbaugh.

No one in the room was sure how to respond, two of the officials said. Someone suggested hosting the show in the mornings or on weekends, to steer clear of the conservative radio host’s schedule. But Mr. Trump shook his head, saying he envisioned his show as two hours a day, every day. And were it not for Mr. Limbaugh, and the risk of encroaching on his territory, he reiterated, he would do it.

If Trump had gone through with the idea, it’s likely he would have faced severe criticism for spending two hours a day hosting a call-in show as the country struggled through a growing pandemic.