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    Biden pledges to pay full cost to rebuild Baltimore bridge after collapse

    Joe Biden pledged that the US federal government will pay the full cost of rebuilding the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, which collapsed before dawn on Tuesday after being struck by a massive cargo ship.“It’s my intention that the federal government will pay for the entire cost of reconstructing that bridge and I expect the Congress to support my effort,” the US president said.Asked why the government should pay and not Grace Ocean, the owners of the Singapore-registered ship, Biden said: “That could be, but we’re not going to wait for that to happen. We’re going to pay for it to get the bridge rebuilt and opened.”Authorities said six people were unaccounted for after the accident, which sent vehicles and eight construction workers into the Patapsco river.Jeffrey Pritzker, a senior executive at Brawner Builders, the employer of the construction workers, said on Tuesday afternoon that they were presumed dead, given the water’s depth and the length of time since the crash.Pritzker said the crew had been working in the middle of the bridge when it came apart. No bodies have been recovered.“This was so completely unforeseen,” Pritzker said. “We don’t know what else to say. We take such great pride in safety, and we have cones and signs and lights and barriers and flaggers. But we never foresaw that the bridge would collapse.”All 22 crewmembers onboard the Dali, the ship that struck the bridge, were reported safe.A reporter from the Baltimore Banner said that the half-dozen missing people were construction workers from El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Mexico who are in their 30s and 40s, with spouses and children.All of them came to the city for a better life, – not necessarily for themselves, but for the loved ones they left behind in their home countries, the Banner’s reporter wrote.“They are all hard-working, humble men.”The White House said Biden had spoken to federal, state and local officials as part of the continuing response to the collapse of the bridge.Those officials included Pete Buttigieg, the US secretary of transportation; Wes Moore, the Democratic governor of Maryland; the two Democratic US senators from Maryland, Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin; and the mayor of Baltimore, Brandon Scott.Moore told reporters the bridge, which was built in 1977, was “fully up to code” before being struck by the ship.Speaking from the Roosevelt Room in the White House, Biden said: “Everything so far indicates that this was a terrible accident. At this time, we have no other indication. No other reason to believe there’s any intentional act here.“I know every minute in that circumstance feels like a lifetime,” Biden added, in remarks aimed at people awaiting word on the missing.The search and rescue operation was “our top priority”, Biden said, adding: “We’re with you. We’re going to stay with you as long as it takes. You’re Maryland tough, you’re Baltimore strong.”Saying, “We’re not leaving until this job is done,” Biden said he would travel to Baltimore “as quickly as I can”.The president then left Washington for a campaign event in Raleigh, North Carolina. Buttigieg was due to travel to Baltimore. More

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    'A bigger tent message': Larry Hogan on Trump and his own White House ambitions

    Whether or not Donald Trump wins re-election in November, Maryland’s governor, Larry Hogan, predicts the Republican party will finally do some soul searching.That’s the core of the thinking behind Hogan, a popular two-term Republican governor in a reliably Democratic state, strongly floating the idea of running for president himself.“A big part of what I’ve been focusing on for six years is a kind of a bigger tent message and avoiding the divisive rhetoric and avoiding the extremes of either party,” Hogan told the Guardian.“That’s why I’ve been so successful as a Republican in one of the bluest states in the country and have had the ability to reach a lot of swing voters and constituencies that Republicans have had a [hard] time reaching.”Hogan considered a White House run this year, but he would have had to beat a Republican president with an iron grip on the party. In 2024, however, Trump will not be a factor.I’ll be one and maybe I’ll be the only one that’ll be arguing for a Republican party that’s going to be more inclusiveHogan is not the only name being floated. The former ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, Senators Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Tom Cotton, Governors Greg Abbott and Ron DeSantis and Vice-President Mike Pence are all in the mix too.But Hogan is the one most eager to highlight his disagreements with the president, openly admitting that Trump’s circle is “not very happy with me at the moment”.As chairman of the bipartisan National Governors Association (NGA), he has issued worried statements about Trump’s handling of coronavirus relief funds. In general, he has criticized Trump’s response to the pandemic.At the same time, he has checked the boxes any statewide politician does ahead of a White House run. He has visited early primary states. He has chaired the NGA. He has reached high approval levels in his state. And he has written a book, laying out his background and knocking the current president. Still Standing comes out on Tuesday. It details how Hogan thought about challenging Trump this year.He does not hesitate to admit that he is open to running in 2024, which is usually as far as any potential candidate goes this far out from an election. But he does keep some distance from other anti-Trump Republicans, such as the increasingly prominent Lincoln Project.Asked about the former Ohio governor John Kasich, a prominent member of the anti-Trump wing of the Republican party who is expected to participate in the Democratic national convention, Hogan demurred.“I’ve got to continue to govern my state in the middle of a pandemic in the middle of the worst economic collapse in our lifetime and I’ve got a job as governor of Maryland until January of 2023,” he said.“So I’m in a different place than John Kasich. I mean, I haven’t spoken to him about it so I don’t know what his position is. But he’s certainly a Republican who’s frustrated with the direction of the party.” More