US Politics

Andrew CuomoAide who accused Cuomo of groping says: ‘What he did to me was a crime’Brittany Commisso, a former aide, identified herself publicly and is one of 11 women who have accused Cuomo of sexual harassment Edward HelmoreSun 8 Aug 2021 14.46 EDTLast modified on Sun 8 Aug 2021 17.35 EDTA former executive assistant who filed a criminal complaint against New York governor Andrew Cuomo last week for allegedly groping her has said he “needs to be held accountable”.Brittany Commisso is one of 11 women Cuomo is accused of sexually harassing, according to a devastating investigative report released by the state attorney general’s office last week.Sheriff hails courage of woman accusing Andrew Cuomo of sexual misconductRead moreThe former aide identified herself publicly in an interview with CBS which is set to be broadcast in full on Monday morning.“What he did to me was a crime. He broke the law,” Commisso said in an excerpt released ahead of its broadcast. Coming forward, she said, was “the right thing to do. The governor needs to be held accountable.”Commisso, identified only as “executive assistant no.1” in the report, told state investigators that Cuomo fondled her breast on one occasion. She also said he rubbed her backside while taking a photo. She has said the alleged incident took place at the governor’s mansion in Albany.Albany county sheriff Craig Apple told reporters on Saturday that Cuomo could face a possible misdemeanor charge. Apple said the investigation is in its “infant stages” and the complaint made against Cuomo is “criminal in nature” and the alleged conduct was “sexual in nature”.When asked what possible charge the governor could face, the sheriff said: “From what I’ve read so far I can say we’re floating around a misdemeanor, but again, that’s just from the attorney general report.”Cuomo, facing impeachment and removal from office by state lawmakers, has denied the allegations and resisted widespread calls for his resignation, including from fellow Democrats, including Joe Biden.His lawyer, Rita Glavin, has described Commisso’s account as fabricated, citing emails and other documentary evidence she said undermines her story. “There has been no open minded fact-finding … the investigators acted as prosecutors, judge and jury,” Glavin said. TopicsAndrew CuomoSexual harassmentUS politicsNew YorknewsReuse this content More

US SenateSenate resumes infrastructure debate as Trump threatens Republicans who back billTrump says it ‘will be very hard for me to endorse anyone foolish enough to vote in favor of this deal’ as session to resume at noon01:21Edward HelmoreSun 8 Aug 2021 13.59 EDTFirst published on Sun 8 Aug 2021 09.09 EDTSenators resumed a weekend session toward passage of a $1tn bipartisan infrastructure package on Sunday amid threats from former president Donald Trump who raged against any Republicans who support the measure.Majority leader Chuck Schumer stressed to colleagues that they could proceed the “easy way or the hard way”, while a few Republican senators appeared determined to run out the clock for days. “We’ll keep proceeding until we get this bill done,” Schumer said.The bill would provide what Joe Biden has called a “historic investment” in public works programs, from roads and bridges to broadband internet access, drinking water and more. It was expected to pass on Saturday – before it heads to the House – but ran into Republican procedural delays, forcing yet another day of debate.Trump, who maintains a strong grip on the party and intense popularity with much of its base, also throw a spanner in the works by attacking any of his party who back the bill.“Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill is a disgrace,” he said in a statement and then added that it “…will be very hard for me to endorse anyone foolish enough to vote in favor of this deal.”In a rare stroke of bipartisanship, Republicans joined Democrats to advance the measure and more votes are expected Sunday. If approved, the bill would go to the House, where it might face changes and – if it does – it could return to the Senate for another vote before heading to Biden’s desk.Despite the overwhelming support, momentum has dragged as a few Republican senators refused to yield 30 hours of required debate before the next set of procedural votes, which could delay swift passage of the package and result in a dayslong slog.Senators were meeting for the second consecutive weekend to work on the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which is the first of Biden’s two infrastructure packages.Once voting wraps up, senators immediately will turn to the next item on Biden’s agenda, the budget outline for a $3.5tn package of child care, elder care and other programs that is a much more partisan undertaking and expected to draw only Democratic support.Schumer has vowed to keep senators in session until they finish up the bipartisan bill and start the initial votes on the next big package.For some Republican senators, the back-to-back voting on Biden’s big priorities is what they are trying to delay, hoping to slow or halt what appears to be a steady march to achieve the president’s infrastructure goals.Senator Bill Hagerty of Tennessee, an ally of Donald Trump and the former president’s ambassador to Japan, was among those leading the effort for the Senate to take as much time as needed to debate and amend the bill.“There’s absolutely no reason to rush,” Hagerty said during a floor speech Saturday. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky has so far allowed the bill to progress and backed it, despite the broadsides and name-calling coming from Trump. “This is a compromise,” McConnell said.Senators have spent the past week processing nearly two dozen amendments to the 2,700-page package, but so far none has substantially changed its framework.More amendments could be debated Sunday with senators considering revisions to a section on cryptocurrency, a long-shot effort by defense hawks to add $50bn for defense-related infrastructure and a bipartisan amendment to repurpose a portion of the untapped Covid-19 relief aid that had been sent to the states.TopicsUS SenateBiden administrationJoe BidenDonald TrumpRepublicansUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

CoronavirusFears as more children falling ill in latest US Covid surge and school approachesNational Institutes of Health director says 1,450 kids in hospital Teachers union shifts, calls for vaccine mandates for teachers Edward HelmoreSun 8 Aug 2021 13.54 EDTLast modified on Sun 8 Aug 2021 13.56 EDTAmid increased fears that children are now both victims and vectors of the latest Covid-19 variant surge, National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins signaled on Sunday that increasing numbers of children are falling ill in the US.His comments also came as one of America’s largest teachers unions appeared to shift its position on mandatory vaccinations for teachers.With around 90 million adult Americans remaining unvaccinated, and vaccines remaining unauthorized for 12 years and under, Collins told ABC News This Week with George Stephanopoulos that “the largest number of children so far in the whole pandemic right now are in the hospital, 1,450 kids in the hospital from Covid-19.”Collins acknowledged that data on pediatric infections was incomplete but he said that he was “hearing from pediatricians that they’re concerned that, this time, the kids who are in the hospital are both more numerous and more seriously ill”.Collins’s comments came as new Covid-19 cases in the US have rebounded to more than 100,000 a day on average, returning to the levels of the winter surge six months ago. But health officials focus on children adds urgency to the situation as the US education system approaches the start of the school year.Collins said his advice to parents of school-age children is to “think about masks in the way that they ought to be thought about”.He added: “This is not a political statement or an invasion of your liberties. This is a life-saving medical device. And asking kids to wear a mask is uncomfortable, but, you know, kids are pretty resilient. We know that kids under 12 are likely to get infected and if we don’t have masks in schools, this virus will spread more widely.”The alternative, he said, “will probably result in outbreaks in schools and kids will have to go back to remote learning which is the one thing we really want to prevent”.Warning that virtual learning that kids have experienced for more than a year is “really bad for their development”, Collins urged that “we ought to be making every effort to make sure they can be back in the classroom. And the best way to do that is to be sure that masks are worn by the students, by the staff, by everybody.”The president of the American Federation of Teachers, Randi Weingarten, went further, calling for vaccine mandates for teachers. “As a matter of personal conscience, I think that we need to be working with our employers, not opposing them, on vaccine mandates,” she told NBC’s Meet The Press.Weingarten’s comments are an advance on the union’s earlier position in which it maintained teachers should be prioritized for the vaccines but stopped short of supporting a mandate. That shift was previewed last week when Weingarten said she would consider supporting vaccine mandates to keep students and staff safe and schools open.Dr Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to Joe Biden, also echoed Weingarten’s comments Sunday, saying the best way to protect children from the virus is to “surround them with those who can be vaccinated, whoever they are. Teachers, personnel in the school, anyone, get them vaccinated.”Dr Scott Gottlieb, former FDA commissioner, also weighed in on the concerns, saying that schools are not “inherently safe” from the Delta variant and that society “can’t expect the same outcome that we saw earlier with respect to the schools where we were largely able to control large outbreaks in the schools with a different set of behaviors.”“The challenge right now is that the infection is going to start to collide with the opening of school. And we have seen that the schools can become sources of community transmission when you’re dealing with more transmissible strains,” Gottleib told CBS’s Face the Nation.TopicsCoronavirusUS politicsSchoolsInfectious diseasesVaccines and immunisationnewsReuse this content More

Chuck Schumer warned that coming to a bipartisan compromise could be ‘hard’ as Republicans joined Democrats to advance a $1tn infrastructure bill in the US Senate, remaining in session over the weekend.
The bill represents the biggest spending in decades on American infrastructure including roads, bridges, airports and waterways, in what Joe Biden has called a ‘historic investment’ in public works.

Senate to resume infrastructure debate as Trump threatens Republicans who back bill More

US newsRightwing radio host and anti-vaxxer dies of CovidDick Farrel was a vociferous critic of Dr Anthony Fauci and urged people not to get vaccinated Edward HelmoreSun 8 Aug 2021 11.09 EDTLast modified on Sun 8 Aug 2021 14.35 EDTA rightwing TV and radio host who was a vociferous critic of Dr Anthony Fauci and who urged his listeners not to get vaccinated against Covid-19 has died after contracting the virus.Dick Farrel, who had described Fauci as a “power-tripping lying freak” who conspired with “power trip libb loons”, had urged people not to get vaccinated as recently as June.He reportedly changed his opinion about vaccines after falling ill and later being admitted to hospital before passing away on 4 August aged 65. “He texted me and told me to ‘Get it!’ He told me this virus is no joke and he said, “I wish I had gotten [the vaccine]!” close friend Amy Leigh Hair wrote on Facebook.Farrel, a native of Queens, New York, anchored radio shows in Florida and also acted as a stand-in anchor for the rightwing news outlet Newsmax, was described as a pioneer “shock talk” host.His partner, Kit Farley, said: “He was known as the other Rush Limbaugh. With a heavy heart, I can only say this was so unexpected. He will be missed.”Described as an ardent supporter of Donald Trump, Farrel went all-in on unsubstantiated 2020 election fraud conspiracy theories about election fraud and questioned the efficacy of coronavirus vaccines.Hair told WPTV: “I was one of one the people like him who didn’t trust the vaccine. I trusted my immune system. I just became more afraid of getting Covid-19 than I was of any possible side effects of the vaccine. I’m glad I got vaccinated.”TopicsUS newsUS politicsThe far rightCoronavirusVaccines and immunisationnewsReuse this content More

OpinionUS politicsWhile Delta spreads, Republicans deflect and resort to Trump demagogueryRobert ReichTrump Republicans are falling back on their proven method of deflecting attention by blaming immigrants crossing the southern border Sun 8 Aug 2021 08.36 EDTLast modified on Sun 8 Aug 2021 10.03 EDTAs America reaches the milestone of 70% of adults with at least one dose of a vaccine, the highly contagious Delta variant is surging.Public health officials are trying to keep the focus on the urgent need for more vaccinations.But with unvaccinated Americans – notably and conspicuously residents of states and counties that voted overwhelmingly for Trump in 2020 – succumbing to the Delta strain in large numbers, Trump Republicans are falling back on their proven method of deflecting attention by blaming immigrants crossing the southern border.Last week, Trump issued a characteristic charge: “ICYMI: “Thousands of Covid-positive migrants passing through Texas border city,” linking a New York Post article claiming that “nearly 7,000 immigrants who tested positive for Covid-19 have passed through a Texas city that has become the epicenter of the illegal immigration surge.”Trump has employed this racist-nationalist theme before. For years he fixed his ire on Mexicans and Central Americans from “shitholes”, as he has so delicately put it. He began his 2016 campaign by charging that “criminals, drug dealers and rapists” were surging across America’s southern border, and then spent much of the subsequent four years trying to erect a fence to keep them out.Trump acolytes are adopting the same demagoguery.As hospitalizations in Florida surged past 12,000 this week, exceeding a record already shattered last weekend, Florida governor Ron DeSantis accused Joe Biden of facilitating the virus by not reducing immigration through the southern border.“Why don’t you do your job?” DeSantis snapped after Biden suggested DeSantis stop opposing masks. “Why don’t you get this border secure? And until you do that, I don’t want to hear a blip about Covid from you, thank you.”The Trumpist media is quickly falling in line behind this nativist rubbish. In the last week, Fox News’s Sean Hannity has asserted the “biggest super-spreader” is immigrants streaming over the southern border rather than the lack of vaccinations.The National Review claims “Biden’s border crisis merges with his Covid crisis” and asserts that “the federal government is successfully terrifying people about Covid while it is shrugging at the thousands of infectious illegal aliens who are coming into the country and spreading the virus.”A columnist for the Wall Street Journal insists that “if Biden Is Serious About Covid, He’ll Protect the Border.” The Washington Examiner asserts “Biden hypocrisy endangers American lives on southern border.” Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire warns of “Covid-Positive Illegal Immigrants Flooding Across The Border.”Can we please stop for a moment and look at the actual data? The Delta variant is spreading fastest in interior states like Missouri and Arkansas, far away from the Mexican border.It was first detected in India in December, and then moved directly to the United States in March and April according to the CDC.GISAID, a nonprofit organization that tracks the genetic sequencing of viruses, has shown that each of the four variants now circulating in the United States arrived here before spreading to Mexico and Central America. International travel rather than immigration over the southern border brought the viruses to America.Haven’t we had enough demagoguery and deflection? Haven’t Trump and his ilk done enough damage already?The blame game must stop. Let’s be clear: The best way to contain deaths and hospitalizations from Covid is to get more Americans vaccinated. Period.TopicsUS politicsOpinionRepublicansCoronavirusDonald TrumpFloridacommentReuse this content More

HomelessnessInterview‘It was just unconscionable’: Cori Bush on her fight to extend the eviction moratoriumPoppy NoorThe congresswoman’s protest on the Capitol steps may have been unconventional – but she didn’t come to Washington to play by the old rules. @ More

OpinionDonald TrumpGentleman Joe versus the Maga champion? Machiavelli would die laughing…Simon TisdallThe longer President Biden plays the nice guy, the more harm Donald Trump will do to America’s democracy and international standing Sun 8 Aug 2021 02.10 EDTNine months after the election he comprehensively lost, the spectre of Donald Trump – darkly menacing, subversive and apparently immune from prosecution – continues to cast a shadow over US democracy and America’s global standing, distorting policy and poisoning political life. How can this be? Why is this horror movie still running?Trumpism, like other fascist variants, is a disease, a blight – a noxious far-right populist-nationalist miasma that taints and rots all it touches. Older Europeans share a folk memory of fascism. But too many Americans just don’t get it. The will to stamp out this sickness before it returns in more virulent form is alarmingly lacking.By refusing to confront his crooked predecessor and bring him to justice, Joe Biden feeds delusional Trump’s sense of godlike impunity, and the dread prospect of a blasphemous second coming. To a watching world, his paralysis smacks of weakness. It puzzles friends. It leads foes to hope that he, not Trump, is the blip.Maybe Biden lacks the killer instinct. Yet you don’t have to be Niccolò Machiavelli to know Trump poses an existential threat to democratic norms. There will be no reciprocal forbearance, no forgiveness, if he gets a second chance, only vendettas, score-settling and ever greater abuse of power.For now, Trump skulks at Mar-a-Lago, biding his time and endorsing loyalists for future contests. He claimed a success last week when an arch-sycophant won a congressional race in Ohio. He’s raising money – his war chest already totals over $100m. Polls show he remains easily the most popular presidential choice among Republican voters.Stripped of its social media platforms, his spiteful voice does not carry as it once did – though he found space last week to attack “woke” women soccer players. But this relative quiet is deceptive. There’s a phoney war going on ahead of next year’s midterm election campaign – which Trump views as a warm-up for 2024.Author Michael Wolff last month warned complacent Democrats that Trump was preparing for battle. “Trump [is] always ready to strike back harder than he has been struck, to blame anyone but himself, to take what he believes is his… Sound the alarm,” Wolff wrote. He said he was certain Trump would run again.Who will cure this disease? Who can cleanse this blemish from the face of America? Disqualifying him as criminally unfit for public office is the obvious way to avert more West Wing mayhem. Yet “Gentleman Joe” and his fight-shy attorney general, Merrick Garland, keep pulling their punches. What of the numerous counts of obstruction detailed by Robert Mueller’s Russia inquiry? No action by Garland’s justice department. What about multiple allegations of corruption and tax fraud? No federal prosecution in sight. Or a string of alleged sexual assaults? No criminal charges pending.Asked what he would do about Trump’s crimes, Biden said last August that to pursue his predecessor in court would be “very unusual”. It was “not good for democracy to be talking about prosecuting former presidents”. In short, he’d prefer to ignore the problem.Yet since he spoke, Trump has fomented insurrection – the 6 January assault on Congress – for which hundreds have been charged, though not he. He pushes his mendacious, destabilising “big steal” narrative. It has also emerged he pressured the justice department, as well as state officials, to discredit the election.It’s not “good for democracy” to ignore blatantly unconstitutional wrongdoing by its highest office-holder. Doing so helps Trump dismiss everything as a hoax. It sets a dreadful political and ethical precedent at home. It damages America’s reputation abroad. But still Biden and Garland sit on their hands.Trump blight is meanwhile taking a terrible toll. In deference to him and his base, it seems, cruel anti-migrant policies remain in place, progressive action on racial justice has stalled, and attacks on voting rights advance. The Republicans are now more cult than party.This poisoning of the body politic extends overseas, too. Why, for example, should Tunisia’s president heed US homilies about democratic principles and the rule of law when they go undefended in America itself? Why should China? Why should anyone take Biden’s presidency seriously if the Maga champ can run rings around him from a Florida golf cart?Iran vividly illustrates Trump’s malign influence at work. When he stupidly abandoned the 2015 nuclear pact, he empowered Tehran’s hardliners. Now they have seized Iran’s presidency, exploiting fears of Trump’s return. They warn the US cannot be trusted. It’s a message with legs.The coddling of dictators from Moscow to Manila, the 2020 Taliban talks giveaway in Doha (which led directly to today’s Afghan meltdown), Jared Kushner’s Middle East peace-for-cash scam, and official denial of the climate crisis are all additional products of Trump blight. Biden struggles daily with the toxic fallout.Some argue that Trump disease is exaggerated, that Biden’s bipartisanship is producing results – witness his new infrastructure plan. But if the impression takes hold that he cannot put his own house in order, the world – and American voters – will turn their backs on him.Bottom line: the once and future king’s foreign fiascos continue to bedevil America abroad in the same way his corrosive contempt for democracy, law and common decency divides and debilitates it at home. Surely this situation cannot go on.Trump-backed coal lobbyist wins Republican congressional primary in OhioRead moreWhat other leader in the world would allow serial wrongdoing to go unpunished, would tolerate unceasing acts of subversion and disruption by so prominent and hostile a figure? If he wasn’t already dead, Machiavelli would die laughing.Too-nice Joe must stop being polite, take the gloves off – and neutralise the Trump variant before it hits pandemic levels. Isolation and social distancing would help. So lock him up!TopicsDonald TrumpOpinionJoe BidenUS politicscommentReuse this content More