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      Jury deliberates on Oath Keepers’ January 6 role in seditious conspiracy trial – live

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      The Oath Keepers don’t dispute that some of their members were around the Capitol on January 6, but jurors need to believe they entered the building in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win. Whether prosecutors have succeeded at this will be key to determining if they win a conviction in the seditious conspiracy case. Here’s more from the Associated Press on what’s come out of the trial so far:As angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol, ready to smash through windows and beat police officers, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes extolled them as patriots and harked back to the battle that kicked off the American revolutionary war.“Next comes our Lexington,” Rhodes told his fellow far-right extremists in a message on 6 January 2021. “It’s coming.”Jurors will begin weighing his words and actions on Tuesday, after nearly two months of testimony and argument in the criminal trial of Rhodes and four codefendants. Final defense arguments wrapped up late Monday. Hundreds of people have been convicted in the attack that left dozens of officers injured, sent lawmakers running for their lives and shook the foundations of American democracy. Now jurors in the case against Rhodes and four associates will decide, for the first time, whether the actions of any January 6 defendants amount to seditious conspiracy – a rarely used charge that carries both significant prison time and political weight.The jury’s verdict may well address the false notion that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, coming soon after 2022 midterm results in which voters rejected Trump’s chosen Republican candidates who supported his baseless claims of fraud. The outcome could also shape the future of the justice department’s massive and costly prosecution of the insurrection that some conservatives have sought to portray as politically motivated.Failure to secure a seditious conspiracy conviction could spell trouble for another high-profile trial beginning next month of former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and other leaders of that extremist group. The justice department’s January 6 probe has also expanded beyond those who attacked the Capitol to focus on others linked to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.In the Oath Keepers trial, prosecutors built their case using dozens of encrypted messages sent in the weeks leading up to January 6. They show Rhodes rallying his followers to fight to defend Trump and warning they might need to “rise up in insurrection”.“We aren’t getting through this without a civil war. Prepare your mind, body and spirit,” he wrote shortly after the 2020 election.Jury deliberations begin in January 6 sedition trial of Oath Keepers founderRead moreDemocratic incumbent Raphael Warnock has a slight lead over his Republican challenger Herschel Walker ahead of the 6 December run-off election for Georgia’s Senate seat, a poll released today finds.The survey by AARP Georgia finds Warnock has 51% support over Walker’s 47%. The Democrat has an edge among young voters, while Walker is more popular among people older than 50, which are a large part of the electorate.Walker and Warnock are battling for a Senate seat that Democrats took control of only last year in a special election. While Joe Biden’s allies have secured a majority in Congress’s upper chamber for another two years, a victory by Warnock would pad their margin of control. Republicans, meanwhile, hope Walker’s victory would put them in a better position to retake the chamber in the next elections set for 2024.Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy will make a “major” announcement about homeland security secretary Alejandro Mayorkas today, Fox News reports:NEW: GOP Minority Leader/Speaker elect Kevin McCarthy tells me he will be making a “major” announcement regarding DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas at a press conference in El Paso, TX this afternoon. McCarthy is here w/ a GOP delegation touring the border & meeting w/ BP agents.— Bill Melugin (@BillFOXLA) November 22, 2022
      The announcement will come during McCarthy’s visit to El Paso, Texas, where he will probably draw attention to the surge in migrant arrivals at the US-Mexico border since Joe Biden took office. Republicans have criticized the White House for its handling of the situation, and rightwing lawmakers in Congress have reportedly called for impeachment proceedings against Mayorkas, a rare step to take against a sitting cabinet secretary.McCarthy is hoping to be elected speaker of the House when Republicans take control next year, after winning a majority of seats in the 8 November midterms. But he is scrambling to find the votes after several of the chamber’s most conservative lawmakers said they would not support him.Republican Senator Lindsey Graham will today appear before a special grand jury investigating efforts by Donald Trump’s allies to meddle with Georgia’s election result, Fox 5 Atlanta reports.Graham has fought the subpoena from Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis for months, but exhausted his legal options when the supreme court turned down his challenge earlier this month. The South Carolina lawmaker’s appearance before jurors in an Atlanta courthouse will not be public, but Willis could use evidence he provides to bring charges in the case.The district attorney has said she wants to ask Graham about two calls he made to Georgia’s secretary of state Brad Raffensperger and his officials following the 2020 election, in which he alleged voter fraud in the state and asked about the possibility of “reexamining certain absentee ballots,” Fox 5 reports. Georgia was one of several states whose votes for Joe Biden proved crucial to his election victory two years ago.The Oath Keepers don’t dispute that some of their members were around the Capitol on January 6, but jurors need to believe they entered the building in an attempt to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s election win. Whether prosecutors have succeeded at this will be key to determining if they win a conviction in the seditious conspiracy case. Here’s more from the Associated Press on what’s come out of the trial so far:As angry supporters of President Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol, ready to smash through windows and beat police officers, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes extolled them as patriots and harked back to the battle that kicked off the American revolutionary war.“Next comes our Lexington,” Rhodes told his fellow far-right extremists in a message on 6 January 2021. “It’s coming.”Jurors will begin weighing his words and actions on Tuesday, after nearly two months of testimony and argument in the criminal trial of Rhodes and four codefendants. Final defense arguments wrapped up late Monday. Hundreds of people have been convicted in the attack that left dozens of officers injured, sent lawmakers running for their lives and shook the foundations of American democracy. Now jurors in the case against Rhodes and four associates will decide, for the first time, whether the actions of any January 6 defendants amount to seditious conspiracy – a rarely used charge that carries both significant prison time and political weight.The jury’s verdict may well address the false notion that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, coming soon after 2022 midterm results in which voters rejected Trump’s chosen Republican candidates who supported his baseless claims of fraud. The outcome could also shape the future of the justice department’s massive and costly prosecution of the insurrection that some conservatives have sought to portray as politically motivated.Failure to secure a seditious conspiracy conviction could spell trouble for another high-profile trial beginning next month of former Proud Boys national chairman Enrique Tarrio and other leaders of that extremist group. The justice department’s January 6 probe has also expanded beyond those who attacked the Capitol to focus on others linked to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election.In the Oath Keepers trial, prosecutors built their case using dozens of encrypted messages sent in the weeks leading up to January 6. They show Rhodes rallying his followers to fight to defend Trump and warning they might need to “rise up in insurrection”.“We aren’t getting through this without a civil war. Prepare your mind, body and spirit,” he wrote shortly after the 2020 election.Jury deliberations begin in January 6 sedition trial of Oath Keepers founderRead moreGood morning, US politics blog readers. A Washington federal jury is starting deliberations in the trial of five members of the Oath Keepers militia, including its founder Stewart Rhodes. The group stands accused of seditious conspiracy, a rarely used charge that prosecutors say is an appropriate way to describe the alleged plot they attempted to carry out on January 6 to stop Joe Biden from taking office. The trial will be an important indicator of if the government can win convictions against the most violent actors in the insurrection, and a verdict could come at any time.Here’s what else is happening today:
      Top House Republican Kevin McCarthy is visiting border patrol personnel in El Paso, Texas. Expect him to talk up the GOP’s plan to address the surge of migrant arrivals at the US-Mexico border when they take control of the House next year, and criticize Joe Biden’s handling of the situation.
      Biden is heading to Nantucket, Massachusetts, this afternoon for the Thanksgiving holiday.
      Anthony Fauci and Covid-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha will appear at the daily White House press briefing at 11.30am eastern time, where they’ll likely talk about the threat of coronavirus during the holiday season. More

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      The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s chilling warning for US democracy

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      The Trump Tapes: Bob Woodward’s chilling warning for US democracy The Washington Post Watergate veteran’s 20 interviews with the now former president prove to be must-listen materialBob Woodward has witnessed more than 50 years of depredation on the Potomac. Together with Carl Bernstein, he helped push Richard Nixon out the door. Only one president, however, left the veteran Washington Post reporter fearing for the future of the republic and democracy.‘A nutso proposition’: Robert Draper on Trump, Republicans and January 6 Read moreHis latest endeavor, subtitled “Bob Woodward’s Twenty Interviews with President Donald Trump”, is a passport to the heart of darkness. In June 2020, Trump confided: “I get people, they come up with ideas. But the ideas are mine, Bob. Want to know something? Everything is mine.” So much for the 24th Psalm: “The earth is the Lord’s.”Trump whispered and sought to draw Woodward close. The author questions, pokes and curates. But in the end, his subject is left unbowed.The Trump Tapes, an audiobook, is disturbingly relevant, an unplanned coda to Woodward’s print Trump trilogy. We hear Trump ladle out praise for Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin. Kim Jong-un is dear to his heart. Trump praises them for smarts, cunning and ruthlessness. He envies autocrats, seemingly wishes to join their ranks. A second term as president would provide that opportunity, Woodward argues.The tapes convincingly demonstrate that Trump knew in early 2020 that Covid posed a mortal danger to the US, but balked at telling the whole truth. His re-election hung in the balance.By the time Trump delivered his State of the Union address to Congress in February 2020, his national security team had delivered a stark warning. Yet Trump soft-pedaled the danger until his final months in office. Covid deaths in Republican America grew to outpace fatalities in Democratic states.Robert O’Brien, Trump’s national security adviser, and Matthew Pottinger, his deputy, confirmed to Woodward that they warned Trump the coronavirus would be “the biggest national security threat you face in your presidency”. They expected the devastation to be brutal, akin to the flu epidemic of 1918.Trump tacitly acknowledges receiving their message but does not dwell on Covid’s downside. He did not see it as his primary responsibility.In February 2020, Trump assured Woodward that everything was OK in the US, adding “now we got a little bit of a setback with the China virus”. He added that Covid would “go away in a couple of months with the heat”. In summer 2020, asked if this were “the leadership test of a lifetime”, Trump offered an emphatic “no”.He bragged of the US nuclear arsenal. “I have built a weapon system that nobody’s ever had in this country before,” Trump said. “We have stuff that Putin and Xi have never heard about before.”The tapes again demonstrate that Trump holds the press in contempt but yearns for its approval. Trump flatters his interviewer as “a great historian” and “the great Bob Woodward”. His tropism toward Woodward and Maggie Haberman is of the same piece. Woodward doubled as de facto White House stenographer and chronicler, Haberman as psychiatrist. Trump would call without warning. Woodward scattered devices around his home, to record such conversations.In the end, Trump smashed history’s clock. The US stands changed, possibly forever.“There is no turning back for American politics,” Woodward observes. “Trump was and still is a huge force and indelible presence, with the most powerful political machine in the country. He has the largest group of followers, loyalists and fundraisers, exceeding that of even President Biden.”Our divisions are unlikely to recede, Woodward worries. Trump better intuited where America stood in 2016 than any of his rivals. He grasped the impact of free trade, opioids and death by despair. He validated his base and relished his capacity to enrage. In the process, he obliterated the Republican legacy as the party of Abraham Lincoln and made the GOP his own.Woodward acknowledges the power of Trump’s instincts. On tape, Trump places himself on par with the 16th president and claims to have outshone Lyndon Johnson and the civil rights legislation of the 1960s.“No, I’ve done more,” he bristles, when pressed.Not surprisingly, Woodward and Trump spar over culture. A son of an Illinois state judge, a graduate of Yale, Woodward asserts that he and Trump are beneficiaries of white privilege. Woodward served in the navy, Trump dodged Vietnam. Trump refuses to have any of it. He says Woodward’s formulation is not part of his worldview.Maggie Haberman on Trump: ‘He’s become a Charles Foster Kane character’Read moreWoodward also focuses on the anger unleashed by the murder of George Floyd. Trump revisits the ensuing riots. From the left, the slogan “Defund the police” is a gift that keeps on giving for Republicans. This election cycle, law and order appears to be the winning message – as it was in 1968, 1972, 1988 and 2016. Latino voters and Asian Americans drift to the GOP.If Trump seeks the 2024 Republican nomination the crown will likely be his, together with excellent odds for re-election. Joe Biden’s ratings lumber. A criminal indictment might even burnish Trump’s allure to the faithful, albeit a conviction would be a wholly different matter.Biden has ignored the cold fact that his election came with a singular mandate: that he not act like his predecessor – nothing more. Instead, the 46th president fashioned himself as FDR 2.0, striving to usher in a second New Deal via razor-thin Democratic margins in Congress.On 8 November 2022, America will deliver a midterm verdict. Weeks later, Biden will turn 80. The country will be watching. So will an eager Trump and a vexed Woodward. No one said democracy was easy.TopicsBooksDonald TrumpAudiobooksCoronavirusUS elections 2020Politics booksUS domestic policyreviewsReuse this content More

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      Covid caused huge shortages in US labor market, study shows

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      Covid caused huge shortages in US labor market, study showsAt least 500,000 people have permanently disappeared from the workforce, analysis says Research into the lingering effects of Covid-19 on the US workforce has confirmed what anybody who has waited an extended time for a delivery – or been unable to get a restaurant table – already knows: the pandemic has caused massive shortages in the labor market.On top of the quarter-million people of working age who have died from coronavirus, at least twice that number across all ages have permanently disappeared from the workforce, the analysis by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows.Other studies have shown the impact on the workforce of long Covid, where symptoms remain months or years after the initial infection has passed. A Brookings Institution study estimated last month that as many as 2.4 million have missed work, are temporarily absent or are working reduced hours because of the lingering effects of the virus.However, this new study focuses more on the apparent effect on labor supply caused by the pandemic and those who have permanently stopped working – through choice or necessity – as a result of their sickness.Among the main reasons are large numbers of working people transitioning straight from illness into retirement, according to the researchers, who looked at federal and state level data on Covid infections as well as deaths to evaluate the probability of workers remaining in the labor force after getting sick.“Our estimates suggest Covid-19 illnesses have reduced the US labor force by approximately 500,000 people,” say the study’s authors, Gopi Shah Goda of Stanford University and Evan Soltas of Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s economics department.“Covid-19 illnesses persistently reduce labor supply. We estimate that workers with week-long work absences are 7% less likely to be in the labor force one year later compared to otherwise-similar workers who do not miss a week of work for health reasons.”The study adds: “Many who fall ill but survive Covid-19 suffer from enduring health problems … approximately 500,000 adults are neither working nor actively looking for work due to the persistent effects of Covid-19 illnesses.”The researchers say that while labor shortages caused by the pandemic are apparent in all corners of industry, it has been a challenge to evaluate their permanence.“Many in government and the media have speculated that such post-acute conditions have reduced labor supply, but data limitations have made it difficult to assess these impacts and the economic costs of Covid-19 illnesses more broadly,” the authors say.The Guardian has reported how some employers around the US are responding to perceived worker shortages by pursuing cheap sources of labor, such as people currently or formerly in prison.The restaurant industry in Michigan, Texas, Ohio and Delaware recently announced a prison work release program for the food service and hospitality industries. And in April, Russell Stover candy production facilities in Iola and Abilene, Kansas, began using prison labor through the Topeka correctional facility in response to staffing issues disrupting production lines.Meanwhile, a waste management conference in Nevada in June heard that a solution to their own industry’s shortage of workers could also be addressed by tapping the less “traditional” talent pool.TopicsUS newsCoronavirusUS economyUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      ‘Tale of two borders’: how a US Covid-era rule shapes fate of migrants

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      ‘Tale of two borders’: how a US Covid-era rule shapes fate of migrants Title 42 bans all migrants from entering the country over spread of Covid – but the rule is largely enforced against Mexicans and people from Guatemala, Honduras and El SalvadorAs hundreds of migrants line up along an Arizona border barrier at about 4am, agents try to separate them by nationality.“Anyone from Russia or Bangladesh? I need somebody else from Russia here,” an agent shouts. Then, quietly, almost to himself, he says: “These are Romanian.”It’s a routine task for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) in this flat expanse of desert where the wall ends. People from at least 115 countries have been stopped here during the past year, with entire families from Venezuela, Colombia, Haiti, Cuba, Brazil, India and Cameroon among those arriving in Yuma, south-west Arizona after wading through the perilous knee-deep Colorado River.It marks a dramatic shift away from the recent past, when migrants were predominantly from Mexico and Central America’s Northern Triangle countries – Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, escaping a mix of state sponsored and criminal violence, corruption and extreme poverty.People not from Mexico and the Northern Triangle accounted for 41% of detentions on the border from October to July – up from only 12% three years earlier, according to official figures. Meanwhile, Mexicans made up 35% of all border encounters – higher than three years ago but well below the 85% reported in 2011 and the 95% at the turn of the century.The changing demographics reflects how a controversial pandemic-era rule still shapes the fate of some migrants, even though much of the US has moved on from Covid.Migrants risk death crossing treacherous Rio Grande river for ‘American dream’ Read moreThe impact of Title 42, a Trump-era mandate barring migrants and asylum seekers from entering the country at land borders, is especially stark at some of the busiest crossings, such as Yuma and in Eagle Pass, Texas, close to where at least nine people died last week trying to cross the rain-swollen river.The only option for most Mexicans and Central Americans caught up in the Title 42 ban is to try to cross at more isolated and less militarized points, in hope of eluding detention – otherwise they are likely to be summarily expelled, and refused the opportunity to seek asylum.Mexicans still account for seven of every 10 encounters in the Tucson area in southern Arizona, where John Modlin, the CBP sector chief, said smugglers order them to walk at night with black-painted water jugs, camouflage backpacks and boots with carpeted soles to avoid leaving tracks in the sand.“[An] incredibly different tale of two borders, even though they’re within the same state,” said Modlin.In Yuma, migrants from Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East arrive having typically walked a short distance through tribal lands, and surrender to border patrol agents. They come wearing sandals and carrying shopping bags stuffed with belongings over their shoulders, expecting to be released to pursue their immigration cases. Some carry toddlers on their hips. On paper, Title 42 denies people of all nationalities the right to seek asylum on grounds of preventing the spread of Covid. In reality, the rule has been selectively enforced against Mexicans and people from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, who the Mexican government agreed to accept.Most other nationalities have been spared due to the US not wanting to pay for expensive flights and limited diplomatic options.“The challenge is what Mexico can accept,” Modlin said. “That’s always going to be a limiting factor.”So far, the Biden administration’s attempts to wind down Title 42 have been blocked by the courts. Yet its continuing use depends on where people come from and which port of entry they are trying to seek asylum. In Yuma, Title 42 was applied in less than 1% of of 24,424 stops in July, whereas in Tucson, it was used in 71% of detentions.It is unclear why.“What we know with absolute certainty is that the smuggling organizations control the flow,” Modlin said. “They decide who goes where, and when they go to the point. It’s almost like air traffic control of moving people around.”In Yuma, groups of up to two dozen or so migrants dropped off by bus or car on a deserted Mexican highway begin arriving in the US shortly after midnight. If English and Spanish fail, agents use Google Translate to question them, under generator-powered lights, take photos and load them on to buses.One recent morning, six Russians said they flew from Istanbul to Tijuana, Mexico, with a stop in Cancun, and hired a driver to take them four hours to the deserted highway where they crossed.A 26-year-old man who had flown from his home in Peru to Tijuana said the most difficult part of the journey was the anxiety about whether he’d make it to his destination in New Jersey.Nelson Munera, 40, said he, his wife and their 17-year-old son got off a bus on the highway and crossed into Yuma because fellow Colombians had taken the same route.Lazaro Lopez, 48, who came with his nine-year-old son from Cuba by flying to Nicaragua and crossing Mexico over land, chose Yuma because that’s where his smuggler guided him.Most will be released on humanitarian parole or with a notice to appear in immigration court.From here, the border patrol drops off hundreds of migrants each day at the Regional Center for Border Health near Yuma, that charters six buses daily to transport them almost 200 miles north-east to Phoenix Sky Harbor international airport. “We have seen families from over 140 countries,” said Amanda Aguirre, the clinic’s chief executive officer. “We haven’t seen one from Mexico, not through our processing.”The shift is also evident on the Mexican side of the border.The Don Chon migrant shelter in nearby San Luis Rio Colorado fills many of its roughly 50 beds with Central Americans expelled under Title 42.Kelvin Zambrano, 33, who arrived in a large group of Hondurans, said he fled threats of extortion and gang violence, but border agents were not interested in hearing his story. “I don’t know why, but they don’t want Hondurans,” he said.TopicsUS immigrationUS-Mexico borderUS politicsCoronavirusfeaturesReuse this content More

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      Trump officials tried to ‘bully’ FDA over Covid treatments, House panel says

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      Trump officials tried to ‘bully’ FDA over Covid treatments, House panel saysCongressional investigation finds new evidence of efforts to override health decisions early in pandemic Officials in the Trump White House tried to pressure health experts to reauthorize a discredited Covid treatment, according to a congressional investigation.A report published on Wednesday by the Democratic-led House select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis contained new evidence of efforts to override Food and Drug Administration (FDA) decisions early in the pandemic.Biden unveils plan to cancel $10,000 in student loan debt for millionsRead moreThe report also shed new light on the role TV personalities played in bringing hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug, to the attention of top White House officials.The FDA authorized the use of hydroxychloroquine in late March 2020, based on small studies suggesting it could have some effectiveness against the coronavirus.At that time, many researchers hoped existing antiviral drugs could be used. But by June 2020 FDA officials had concluded the drug was likely ineffective and could cause potentially dangerous heart complications. Authorization for emergency use was revoked.The report by the House subcommittee focused on pressure on the FDA, which serves as gatekeeper for drugs, vaccines and other counter-measures against Covid.The subcommittee chairman, James Clyburn of South Carolina, said: “As today’s report makes clear, senior Trump administration officials undermined public health experts because they believed doing so would benefit the former president politically.”He also said officials had been “plotting covertly with known conspiracy theorists to dangerously push a disproven coronavirus treatment, bullying FDA to change its vaccine guidance, and advocating for federal investigations into those who stood in their way”.Much of the subcommittee’s information came from an interview with Stephen Hahn, who Trump picked as FDA commissioner in late 2019. Frustrated by the pace of FDA reviews, Trump repeatedly accused Hahn – without evidence – of delaying decisions on Covid drugs and vaccines for political reasons.Although FDA commissioners are politically appointed, agency scientists are expected to conduct reviews free from outside influence. Hahn told investigators he felt pressure due to the “persistence” of the Trump aide Peter Navarro to reauthorize hydroxychloroquine after the decision to pull its emergency use.“We took a different stance at the FDA,” Hahn told investigators. “So that disagreement, which of course ultimately became somewhat public, was a source of pressure.”Much of the report focuses on actions taken by Navarro and Steven Hatfill, a virologist and outside adviser described by the subcommittee as a “full-time volunteer” on Covid for the White House.“Dr Hatfill and Mr Navarro devised multiple pressure schemes targeting FDA and federal officials who they contended were wrongly impeding widespread access to hydroxychloroquine,” the report said.The report found that Hatfill and Navarro attempted to gain outside support for hydroxychloroquine by engaging “known extremists and prolific conspiracists like former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, Jerome Corsi, and the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons” (AAPS).The report found that Hatfill, under Navarro’s supervision, coordinated with the AAPS executive director, Jane Orient, and Bannon to gather support for a petition to “keep pressure on the FDA and the new emergency use authorization request”.According to the report, Hatfill also “courted researchers to pursue a study to show the purported benefits of hydroxychloroquine by dangling millions of taxpayer dollars in promised funding – doing so after the drug was shown to be ineffective and potentially dangerous for certain patients”.Responding, Hatfill said: “We never wrongly pressured anyone. We simply followed the science and the overwhelming evidence as detailed in several studies available at the time.”Navarro said the subcommittee was “wrongly” claiming hydroxychloroquine to be “somehow dangerous”.There is no evidence White House efforts changed FDA decisions on hydroxychloroquine or any other therapies.In fall 2020, the focus of FDA and White House officials turned to the authorization of the first Covid vaccines, from Pfizer and Moderna.As previously reported, the White House objected to an FDA requirement that vaccine makers gather two months of safety data before filing applications, contending it would delay launch of the shots. Trump repeatedly said shots would be authorized before election day, despite government scientists signaling that was unlikely.The House report suggested that FDA guidance for vaccine manufacturers was delayed more than three weeks from mid-September until early October, due to White House concerns.Hahn told investigators the agency faced “pushback about the issue” from officials including Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who told Hahn on 23 September 2020 that the White House would not sign off on the two-month requirement.On 6 October, the FDA published its vaccine guidelines as part of a larger set of documents for drugmakers. After the materials posted online, Hahn said Meadows called him to indicate that the guidelines were approved. The online publication drew fury from Trump on Twitter.“New FDA rules make it more difficult for them to speed up vaccines for approval before election day,” Trump tweeted at Hahn. “Just another political hit job!”TopicsCoronavirusDonald TrumpUS politicsnewsReuse this content More

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      Fauci to step down in December to ‘pursue next chapter’ of career

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      Fauci to step down in December to ‘pursue next chapter’ of careerExpert, 81, who has led National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984, clashed with Trump over Covid response Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci plans to step down from his post in December to “pursue the next chapter” of his career, he announced in a statement on Monday.Fauci, 81, has led the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (Niaid) since 1984. He has advised seven presidents, as far back as Ronald Reagan, on emerging infectious disease outbreaks that have plagued the nation, testifying before Congress and the World Health Organization on the HIV/Aids epidemic to Ebola to, most recently, the coronavirus pandemic.In his statement, Fauci stopped short of saying precisely what his plans are. He pledged to pursue a new professional phase while he still had “energy and passion” for his field.“I want to use what I have learned as Niaid director to continue to advance science and public health and to inspire and mentor the next generation of scientific leaders as they help prepare the world to face future infectious disease threats,” he said.In a White House statement, Joe Biden thanked for Fauci for his decades of service. The president also praised Fauci as a “dedicated public servant, and a steady hand with wisdom and insight honed over decades at the forefront of some of our most dangerous and challenging public health crises”.“Because of Dr Fauci’s many contributions to public health, lives here in the United States and around the world have been saved,” Biden said.Under George W Bush, Fauci worked as one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, a global public health initiative launched in 2003 aimed at expanding access to therapies to curtail the HIV/Aids epidemic, long credited as a historic effort that saved millions of lives.He won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2008 for his “determined and aggressive efforts to help others live longer and healthier lives” in the fight against the HIV/Aids epidemic, even as he clashed with activists early on.As the deadly coronavirus spread throughout the world in March 2020, Fauci – whose calm, measured presence drew admiration – emerged as the face of the US’s response to the pandemic. He notably clashed with former president Donald Trump at the start of the crisis, along with congressional Republicans, over what the US response should be. Fauci advocated for more restrictions to suppress the virus, a stark contrast from the Trump administration’s approach to publicly downplay it in hopes of shielding economic markets from being affected.Memorably, earlier this year, Fauci bluntly said he would quit if Trump managed to take the Oval Office back from Biden in the 2024 election. He previously indicated he would stay through Biden’s first term and leave by January 2025.TopicsAnthony FauciUS politicsCoronavirusnewsReuse this content More

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      Jill Biden tests negative for Covid and will end isolation in South Carolina

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      Jill Biden tests negative for Covid and will end isolation in South CarolinaFirst lady will travel to Delaware to rejoin the president after getting negative results from two consecutive tests First lady Jill Biden has tested negative for Covid-19 and will leave South Carolina – where she had isolated since vacationing with Joe Biden – and rejoin the president at their Delaware beach home, her office said Sunday.The White House announced on Tuesday that the first lady, 71, who like her husband has been twice-vaccinated and twice-boosted with the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine, had tested positive for the coronavirus. She first had symptoms on Monday.The president, 79, recovered from a rebound case of the virus on 7 August.Jill Biden was prescribed the antiviral drug Paxlovid and isolated at the Kiawah Island vacation home for five days before receiving negative results from two consecutive Covid-19 tests, spokesperson Elizabeth Alexander said. Jill Biden planned to travel to Delaware later Sunday.TopicsJill BidenJoe BidenUS politicsCoronavirusInfectious diseasesnewsReuse this content More

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      Biden under ‘strict isolation measures’ as he continues to test positive for Covid

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      Biden under ‘strict isolation measures’ as he continues to test positive for CovidPresident feels well, White House says, after he tests positive only days after he tested negative Joe Biden continued to test positive for coronavirus on Sunday and will “continue his strict isolation measures” his physician said.The US president feels well, the White House said. Biden tweeted about the economy and about regretting being unable to meet in person to commiserate with military veterans and their families visiting Capitol Hill in support of a long-awaited bipartisan bill that would expand healthcare access for those exposed to toxic burn pits.Some Republican senators had reversed their support for the legislation at the last minute.Biden tweeted a video of himself sitting outside at the White House on a green sofa, wearing an open-necked blue shirt and a baseball cap with the presidential seal as he video-chatted with the families gathered on the steps leading up to the US Congress and had pizza sent to them.I’d planned to stop by the Capitol and visit families fighting to pass burn pits legislation. COVID got in the way, so I FaceTimed them and sent some pizza. It’s our sacred obligation to care for our veterans. I won’t stop fighting alongside them to get this bill passed. pic.twitter.com/6vURnVSuC9— President Biden (@POTUS) July 31, 2022
      The president on Saturday tested positive for Covid-19 only days after testing negative and having apparently largely shrugged off an infection with the virus.His physician, Kevin O’Connor, said on Sunday that Biden is being monitored daily and his positive test that morning was unsurprising.The president had originally contracted Covid and tested positive on July 21, then apparently recovered.But Biden had been taking the anti-viral medication Paxlovid, which has reported numerous cases of effectively reducing the viral load of Covid only for it to return once the medication is stopped.In accordance with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, on Saturday Biden, 79, had re-entered isolation for at least five days. The agency says most “rebound” cases remain mild and that severe disease during that period has not been reported.Paxlovid has been proven to significantly reduce severe disease and death among those most vulnerable to severe Covid.Biden is fully vaccinated, after getting two doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine shortly before taking office, a first booster shot in September and an additional dose 30 March.The weekend positive tests jeopardize a Tuesday trip Biden had planned to Michigan, which is holding its fiercely-contested primary elections that day.TopicsJoe BidenOmicron variantCoronavirusUS politicsnewsReuse this content More