Leap Day 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Darlene Superville & Zeke Miller of the AP: "The U.S. is banning travel to Iran in response to the outbreak of the new coronavirus and elevating travel warnings to regions of Italy and South Korea. Vice President Mike Pence announced the new restrictions and warnings as ... Donald Trump said 22 people in the U.S. have been stricken by the new coronavirus, of whom one has died and four are deemed 'very ill' and that additional cases are 'likely.'... Trump spoke a day after he denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a 'hoax' cooked up by his political enemies. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina he accused Democrats of 'politicizing' the coronavirus threat.... 'They tried the impeachment hoax. ... This is their new hoax,' Trump said of Democratic denunciations of his administration's coronavirus response. Trump said Saturday he was not trying to minimize the threat of the virus. 'Again, the hoax was used in respect to Democrats and what they were saying,' he said'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: @1:45 pm ET, Trump is to speak momentarily, after the death of a coronoavirus victim in Washington state. Let's see if he can get serious now & quit spouting insane conspiracy theories.

American Oversight: "Senior members of the Trump administration, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Defense Secretary Mark Esper, and then-National Security Adviser John Bolton had agreed that U.S. security assistance funding to Ukraine should 'continue as planned,' according to a new email from August released by the Department of Defense on Friday to American Oversight. The August 26, 2019, email from a senior career Pentagon official states that there was 'no ongoing interagency review process with respect to USAI [Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative],' and states clearly: 'Final decision rests with POTUS.'... Critically, the email appears to contradict the White House budget office's stated rationale for withholding the aid. In emails and formal apportionment 'footnotes' beginning on July 25, 2019, Office of Management and Budget officials repeatedly told the Defense Department that the Ukraine aid freeze was necessary to allow for an 'interagency process to determine the best use of such funds.' Administration officials had also been instructed to tell Congress that this was the reason for the delay of funding."

"The Pied Pipers of the Dirtbag Left Want to Lead Everyone to Bernie Sanders." Nellie Bowles of the New York Times: "As Mr. Sanders rises in the polls and claims strong showings in early states, a new set of media stars is on the rise, too.... They are on their way to becoming the socialist's answer to right-wing shock jock radio. Their primary targets, in evidence at that show in Iowa, are not the Republican Party or even Mr. Trump but rather centrist liberals, whom they see as the major obstacle to a workers' revolution. In blurring occasionally violent humor, jovial community meetups and radical politics, they are the Tea Party reborn for progressives, and for their fans the appeal is in a bawdy offensive balance to cautious mainstream liberal politics."

Coming to a Neighborhood Near You. Benjamin Siegel & Armando Garcia of ABC News: "... Mike Bloomberg's campaign on Saturday will begin a massive voter outreach push, with plans to hold more than 2,400 events across 30 states ahead of Super Tuesday, ABC News has learned. The mobilization drive, beginning as the rest of the Democratic field remained focused on the South Carolina primary, is a show of force meant to highlight the scale of Bloomberg's nationwide operation." Mrs. McC: I see this as less of a "show of force" than of a project that will be a boon to all Democratic candidates. This is where Bloomberg's utility to Democrats always has been. His candidacy per se is, at best, superfluous, and at worst, harmful to candidates who could oust Trump.

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New York Times: ";Stocks tumbled for a seventh consecutive day on Friday, with the S&P 500 index falling about 0.8 percent, bringing its loss for the week to more than 11 percent. It was the worst weekly decline for stocks since the 2008 financial crisis. In early October that year, the S&P 500 fell about 18 percent. The Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 1 percent on Friday. The sell-off was fueled mostly by worry that measures to contain the virus would hamper corporate profits and economic growth, and fears that the outbreak could get worse. The selling has in a matter of days dragged stock benchmarks around the world into a correction -- a drop of 10 percent or more that is taken as a measure of extreme pessimism.... The Federal Reserve chair, Jerome H. Powell, moved to soothe investors on Friday, issuing a statement reaffirming that the central bank will use its tools and 'act as appropriate to support the economy.'" An updated CNBC report, an earlier version of which was linked yesterday afternoon, is here. ~~~

~~~ "The Party of Ideas" (TM Lemieux). Jeff Stein & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "Trump administration officials are holding preliminary conversations about economic responses to the coronavirus, as the stock market fell sharply again on Friday amid international fears about the outbreak, according to five people with knowledge of the planning. Among the options being considered are pursuing a targeted tax cut package, these people said. They have also discussed whether the White House should lean even harder on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates, though the central bank on Friday afternoon said it would step in if necessary. No decisions at the White House have been reached on these options, and officials stressed conversations remained preliminary and extremely fluid." Mrs. McC: Huh. Not much about maybe fighting the virus itself. ~~~

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "... people getting sick and dying is something that can't be easily propagandized away, and markets are not going to be reassured unless the Trump administration demonstrates some actual ability to address the pandemic. Needless to say, this is impossible because the administration is not merely devoid of but actively opposed to administrative competence and expertise, so here we are."

Nancy Cook & Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday night tried to cast the global outbreak of the coronavirus as a liberal conspiracy intended to undermine his first term, lumping it alongside impeachment and the Mueller investigation. He blamed the press for acting hysterically about the virus, which has now spread to China, Japan, South Korea, Iran, Italy and the U.S, and he downplayed its dangers, saying against expert opinion it was on par with the flu. 'The Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus. They're politicizing it,' he said. 'They don't have any clue. They can't even count their votes in Iowa. No, they can't. They can't count their votes. One of my people came up to me and said, "Mr. President, they tried to beat you on Russia, Russia, Russia." That did not work out too well. They could not do it. They tried the impeachment hoax.' Then Trump called the coronavirus 'their new hoax.'... By undermining the news reporting on the virus and by trying to hold liberals responsible for a potential public health crisis that has little to do with politics, Trump did what he often does best: He sought to deflect blame at a time when many Americans sought leadership and scientific facts. After Trump had downplayed the risks of coronavirus, he reassured supporters that the White House was 'magnificently organized' in fighting it. In fact, Trump's administration spent the week jockeying among themselves to lead the response, while the stock market tumbled with losses not seen since the global financial crisis in 2008." ~~~

~~~ Will Steakin of ABC News: "... Donald Trump attacked Democrats at a rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, on the eve of the state's crucial primary -- all while his administration works to tackle the growing fear surrounding the novel coronavirus. The president defended his administration's response to the coronavirus threat, blasting Democrats for 'politicizing' the issue and calling it 'their new hoax' -- adding that 'they can't even count the votes in Iowa.' The president also compared annual flu deaths to the coronavirus, saying 'the press is in hysteria mode.'" Mrs. McC: This would be just another round of Trump lies if it weren't for the fact that his disinformation campaign poses an epic health hazard. Some of those people laughing at the "hoax" will die. And they might kill you and me, too.

Annie Karni of the New York Times: Speaking at CPAC, "Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Friday blamed the media for exaggerating the seriousness of coronavirus because 'they think this will bring down the president, that's what this is all about.'... The news media has [have!] been covering the global spread of coronavirus for months. But Mr. Mulvaney claimed that the news media was too preoccupied covering impeachment, he said, 'because they thought it would bring down the president.'" Mulvaney also complained that the press wasn't covering Trump's great relationship with his youngest son, even those Melania Trump has jealously guarded the child's privacy. Here's a Hill story. (Also linked yesterday.)

But for [Democrats] to try to take a pandemic and seemingly hope that it comes here, and kills millions of people so that they could end Donald Trump's streak of winning, is a new level of sickness. You know, I don't know if this is coronavirus or Trump derangement syndrome, but these people are infected badly. -- Donald Trump, Jr., on "Fox & Friends," Friday

I don't have to tell you that there is no Democratic official anywhere who has expressed the hope that a pandemic kills millions of people. Junior should be held to account. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Democratic lawmakers expressed frustration Friday with the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus, saying they left a closed-door briefing by top health officials with many unanswered questions." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Adam Cancryn & David Liu of Politico: "Several House Republicans walked out of a closed-door coronavirus briefing Friday with Trump health officials in protest after a senior Democrat blasted the Trump administration's handling of the response effort. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) kicked off the briefing sharply criticizing the administration as disorganized and lacking urgency in combating the coronavirus, lawmakers said. Her speech frustrated Republicans and some Democrats assembled to hear from the slate of officials from the CDC, NIH and State Department.... [Dr. Tony] Fauci emphatically denied reports that the White House is preventing him from speaking publicly about the virus. Vice President Mike Pence's office had asked him to delay pre-scheduled television hits and seek renewed clearance to do the appearances in the wake of Pence's appointment as response leader, he said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ A Muzzle by Any Other Name.... Joe Concha of the Hill: "Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) on Friday said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases was told to 'stand down' and not appear on five Sunday morning talk shows to discuss the coronavirus. Garamendi told MSNBC's Hallie Jackson that Anthony Fauci was scheduled to do all five major Sunday talk shows, but says Fauci canceled the appearances after Vice President Pence took over the administration's response to the disease. Trump on Wednesday named Pence as the official overseeing the government's response. 'I can repeat what he said, he said, "I was not muzzled. However, I was to go on the Sunday talk shows five of them. The vice president's office then took over the control of this situation, and told me to stand down, not to do those shows,'" Garamendi said, quoting Fauci. 'Now, you can draw your own conclusions whether he was muzzled or not, but clearly he was scheduled to do Sunday talk shows and he was not to proceed with that,' the congressman added." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Rep. Ted Lieu, speaking on CNN, said he asked mike pence if pence thought the virus was a "hoax," and pence refused to answer. pence is so afraid of angering his lord & master that every federal professional must get pence's approval before saying "coronavirus," yet pence also is so petrified that he can't say one definitive thing about the virus. There's your government's "response." ~~~

~~~ In case you're wondering what-all mike has been doing since he took a break from overseeing the coronavirus crisis to headline a Florida Republican fundraiser: ~~~

~~~ Eric Kleefeld of Media Matters: "Vice President Mike Pence, who ... Donald Trump has placed in charge of overseeing the government's response to the coronavirus outbreak, appeared Friday afternoon on The Rush Limbaugh Show -- which has been the source of a mixture of conspiracy theories, denialism, and other misinformation about the virus.... Kicking off the week on Monday, Limbaugh falsely claimed that the novel coronavirus strain known as COVID-19 is actually just' the common cold,' but added that it 'probably is a [Chinese Communist] laboratory experiment that is in the process of being weaponized' as part of 'an effort to bring down Trump' through negative media coverage. Limbaugh then only dug in further on Tuesday, downplaying the potential impact of coronavirus in the U.S.... He later went on to claim that the ... media was only hoping for [the virus] to sufficiently evolve to become [a major threat]: '... They would love for the coronavirus to be this deadly strain that wipes everybody out, so they could blame Trump for it.' Limbaugh did not repeat or even acknowledge any of these conspiracy theories during the interview with Pence -- nor did Pence mention that Limbaugh had been spreading them." ~~~

~~~ But Wait! mike has a great new helper: ~~~

~~~ Travis Gettys of the Raw Story: "Vice President Mike Pence's press secretary Katie Miller was placed in charge of all government communications regarding coronavirus. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney sent out a government-wide email ordering all official communications to go through Miller, who recently married White House senior adviser Stephen Miller, reported CNN.... Jessica Ditto, [Pence's] deputy director of communications, had initially been handling government messaging." Mrs. McC: Waldman Miller is 28 years old; her professional experience is as a flack. In her new job, she will be telling experts on the virus what they can share with the public (maybe her undergrad degree in ag econ will help, I don't know). I'm sure when mike appointed her to scrub their public reports & statements, he was being true to his prom'se "to let the health care experts lead" uppermost in his mind, as he told Rushbo.

AND Corona beer takes a hit.

Michael Crowley of the New York Times: "President Trump announced on Friday that he intended to nominate Representative John Ratcliffe, Republican of Texas, as his director of national intelligence, choosing someone he considered last summer before senior Republicans in Congress deemed him unqualified for the job. Mr. Ratcliffe is a vocal supporter of the president who serves on the House Intelligence Committee. If confirmed, he would replace Richard Grenell, whom Mr. Trump put in charge of American intelligence agencies this month on an acting basis. The job has been vacant since Dan Coats stepped down on Aug. 15.... It is unclear whether Mr. Ratcliffe could be confirmed by the Senate. When Mr. Trump floated his name last summer, some Republicans, including Senator Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told White House officials that Mr. Ratcliffe was too partisan for the position, according to people familiar with the discussions." em> Politico's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So maybe Trump tapped Grenell -- a totally inappropriate choice -- to inoculate Ratcliffe, a completely inappropriate choice. What's the difference between "totally" and "completely"? Nothing.

** Maria Sachetti & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court in California halted the Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' immigration policy on Friday, a blow to the president's restrictive immigration agenda that cripples one of the government's approaches to curbing migration across the U.S. southern border. The program -- officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP -- called for pushing asylum seekers back into Mexico to await their U.S. asylum hearings, part of an effort to limit migrant access to U.S. soil and to lessen a record migration surge among Central American families. More than 470,000 parents and children crossed into the United States last fiscal year, and most were quickly freed into the country to await U.S. immigration court hearings after they claimed asylum.... The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold a lower-court's injunction on MPP, saying that the policy 'is invalid in its entirety due to its inconsistency with' federal law, and 'should be enjoined in its entirety.'" An NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has turned down a lawsuit claiming that ... Donald Trump's luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., is unfairly undermining the business of other venues in the city. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday against a lawsuit a D.C. wine bar filed in 2017, claiming it was losing business to the Trump International Hotel because some were seeking to use their dollars to win favor with the president." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ CREW: "President Trump's unprecedented decision to retain his business interests while serving in the White House set the stage for a deluge of conflicts of interests between the government and the Trump Organization. From the beginning of President Trump's administration, CREW has endeavored to track these conflicts, which pit President Trump's personal and financial interests against those of the nation as a whole, and this week, President Trump reached a new, disgraceful milestone: He has racked up 3,000 conflicts of interest during his time in office." --s

Jessica Gresko & Eric Tucker of the AP: "In a setback for Democrats in Congress, a federal appeals court ruled Friday that judges have no role to play in the subpoena fight between the House and ... Donald Trump over the testimony of high-ranking administration officials. The decision undoes a lower court ruling that would have forced former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before Congress. It is likely to doom efforts to get other high-ranking officials to testify in House investigations of Trump. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued the 2-1 decision. Lawmakers could ask the full appeals court to weigh in or appeal to the Supreme Court." ~~~

~~~ Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: "If that ruling is allowed to stand, it will mean that going forward, disputes between Congress and the White House are to be resolved in favor of the White House.... Under the guise of staying out of it, the appeals court just blessed the White House's claim that it is beyond the reach of Congress -- not just for McGahn's subpoena, but for any future such attempts at oversight.... It bears mentioning that throughout the impeachment trial the president's attorneys insisted that subpoenas for executive branch witnesses should have been handled in court. And the court now claims the disputes are non-justiciable.

Mafia Don Gets His Biden "Investigation". Bermet Talant of the Kyiv Post: "U.S. President Donald Trump failed to make Ukraine investigate his Democratic rival, former U.S. Vice President Joseph Biden. Now, a former Ukrainian prosecutor general [and usual idiot Viktor Shokin], whose allegations underpinned Trump's efforts, has succeeded: He managed to get two criminal probes opened against Biden. He did it through multiple appeals to a Ukrainian court. However, his victory is largely a legal technicality and is unlikely to lead to any serious investigation.... If that wasn't enough, the former prosecutor general claims that Biden could be linked to his alleged poisoning with mercury last year. In an interview with [Rudy] Giuliani, broadcast on the conservative One America News network, Shokin claimed he died twice from the poisoning and was resuscitated." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Bear in mind that a guy who says Joe Biden may have tried to poison him is Rudy's main source for "evidence" that Joe was engaged in corrupt acts in Ukraine.

Mujib Mashal of the New York Times: "The United States is expected to sign a peace deal with the Taliban insurgency on Saturday that for the first time after two decades of grinding warfare would lay out the prospect of a final withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. The signing in Doha, Qatar, is seen as a vital step toward negotiating a more sweeping peace deal that could end the insurgency altogether, after years of unrelenting violence that took the lives of more than 3,500 Americans and coalition troops and tens of thousands of Afghans since the U.S. invasion in 2001." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. New Lede: "The United States signed a deal with the Taliban on Saturday that sets the stage to end America's longest war -- the nearly two-decade-old conflict in Afghanistan that began after the Sept. 11 attacks, killed tens of thousands of people, vexed three White House administrations and left mistrust and uncertainty on all sides." CNN's story is here.

John Hudson of the Washington Post: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo repeatedly clashed Friday with Democratic lawmakers who criticized him for taking weeks to appear before Congress following the killing of Iran's top military commander and then truncating his time on Capitol Hill to speak to a conservative political conference.... 'It is shameful' that 'you are going to talk to a special interest group,' while only giving two hours to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.).... Pompeo conceded Iran has 'enriched [uranium] to a higher level than they did when we took office.' But on the killing of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, Pompeo insisted the decision has made Americans more safe, despite State Department warnings about traveling to Iraq, the addition of thousands of more troops in the Middle East and beefed up security for U.S. diplomats around the world."

AP: "The House judiciary committee is launching a wide-ranging inquiry into the attorney general, William Barr, and the justice department, demanding briefings, documents and interviews with 15 officials as it tries to determine whether there has been improper political interference in federal law enforcement. The committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, on Friday sent Barr a letter listing a series of matters that the committee finds 'deeply troubling', including Barr's involvement in the case of ... Roger Stone.... Nadler is also questioning Barr about his involvement in other cases related to friends and associates of Trump and about internal investigations into department employees who investigated Trump after the 2016 election."

Presidential Race

Reid Epstein & Adriana Ramic of the New York Times: "The fourth state on the Democratic presidential nominating calendar, South Carolina is the first opportunity for a critical mass of black voters to weigh in. For months, as he's struggled elsewhere, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has been pointing to South Carolina as the place his fortunes would turn around."

The New York Times live-updated developments in the Democratic presidential race Friday. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here.

Sally Goldenberg & Erin Durkin of Politico: "Mike Bloomberg espoused a bit of revisionist history over his role in extending city term limits Friday morning. The former New York City mayor blamed the municipal rule-change, which he conceived in 2008 so he could run for a third term, on the City Council during a wide-ranging MSNBC interview.... It was a questionable description for those familiar with the term limits fight in New York. Instead, they recall a pitched battle in which Bloomberg lobbied fiercely for a chance to serve a third term, getting City Council members to back his plan to reverse the well-established two-term ceiling for elected officials, and wooing business and media leaders in the effort. 'It was one of the most profoundly undemocratic things I have ever seen in my many years involved in New York City government,' said Randy Mastro, who represented plaintiffs in a lawsuit that unsuccessfully tried to block the term limits change.... Bloomberg's immense wealth aided the effort, and he enlisted nonprofit groups that received his money to lend their support. One nonprofit had about 20 of its employees testify in favor of letting the mayor run again."

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden admitted Friday that his recent claims of being arrested during a congressional delegation trip to South Africa in the 1970s were false. Biden has faced scrutiny over the claims, made repeatedly over the past few weeks, that he was arrested with former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young 'on the streets of Soweto,' a township in Johannesburg, attempting to see imprisoned anti-apartheid leader Nelson Mandela." In the new version of the story, Biden says officials at a South African airport tried to force him to go through a door marked "whites only," and they detained him when he tried to pass through a different door with black members of the delegation.

Zach Montellaro & Holly Otterbein of Politico: "The Iowa state Democratic Party has completed its partial recount of the Feb. 3 presidential caucuses, and the result hasn't changed: Pete Buttigieg still has a very narrow advantage over Bernie Sanders in state delegate equivalents. The state party announced Thursday evening that it recounted results in 23 precincts that were requested by both campaigns, and Buttigieg leads Sanders by roughly one state delegate equivalent, a difference of about four hundredths of a percentage point." (Also linked yesterday.)

Svea Herbst-Bayliss of Reuters: "Hedge fund Elliott Management Corp has amassed a stake in Twitter Inc ... and is pushing for changes, including removal of the social media company's chief executive, Jack Dorsey, two people familiar with the matter said on Friday.... Elliott, founded by billionaire [rightwing GOP mega donor] Paul Singer, will be seeking to install its own nominees to Twitter's eight-member board when three of the company's directors stand for election at its upcoming annual shareholder meeting, the sources said." --safari: I'm guessing conservatives want Dorsey out because he recently banned political ads from the platform.

Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "Andrew Walz calls himself a 'proven business leader' and a 'passionate advocate for students.' Walz, a Republican from Rhode Island, is running for Congress with the tagline, 'Let's make change in Washington together,' or so his Twitter account claimed. Earlier this month, Walz's account received a coveted blue checkmark from Twitter as part of the company's broader push to verify the authenticity of many Senate, House and gubernatorial candidates currently running for office. Twitter has framed this effort as key to helping Americans find reliable information about politicians in the leadup to the 2020 election. But there's just one problem: Walz does not exist. The candidate is the creation of a 17-year-old high school student from upstate New York...." --s

Beyond the Beltway

Oregon. Matthew Chapman of RawStory: "On Thursday, Democrats in the Oregon House of Representatives voted to subpoena 11 Senate Republican members who walked off their jobs and fled the state capitol in order to block consideration of a carbon pricing bill.... Republicans' absence is due to a quirk in the rules of the legislature. Democrats command majorities in both chambers, but Republicans have enough members that if they walk out, the legislature has no quorum and cannot move forward with debate on anything. Incredibly, this is the second straight term in which Oregon Republicans have employed this tactic to stop climate legislation." --s

News Ledes

Washington Post: "California reported its second case of community transmission of the coronavirus Friday, and Oregon and Washington announced others just hours later, providing fresh evidence that the deadly virus is circulating in the United States." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' latest live updates on developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.

The Commentariat -- February 28, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Annie Karni of the New York Times: Speaking at CPAC, "Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Friday blamed the media for exaggerating the seriousness of coronavirus because 'they think this will bring down the president, that's what this is all about.'... The news media has [have!] been covering the global spread of coronavirus for months. But Mr. Mulvaney claimed that the news media was too preoccupied covering impeachment, he said, 'because they thought it would bring down the president.'" Mulvaney also complained that the press wasn't covering Trump's great relationship with his youngest son, even those Melania Trump has jealously guarded the child's privacy. Here's a Hill story.

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Democratic lawmakers expressed frustration Friday with the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus, saying they left a closed-door briefing by top health officials with many unanswered questions." ~~~

~~~ Adam Cancryn & David Liu of Politico: "Several House Republicans walked out of a closed-door coronavirus briefing Friday with Trump health officials in protest after a senior Democrat blasted the Trump administration's handling of the response effort. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) kicked off the briefing sharply criticizing the administration as disorganized and lacking urgency in combating the coronavirus, lawmakers said. Her speech frustrated Republicans and some Democrats assembled to hear from the slate of officials from the CDC, NIH and State Department.... [Dr. Tony] Fauci emphatically denied reports that the White House is preventing him from speaking publicly about the virus. Vice President Mike Pence's office had asked him to delay pre-scheduled television hits and seek renewed clearance to do the appearances in the wake of Pence's appointment as response leader, he said." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Rep. Ted Lieu, speaking on CNN, said he asked mike pence if pence thought the virus was a "hoax," and pence refused to answer. pence is so afraid of angering his lord & master that every federal professional must get pence's approval before saying "coronavirus," yet pence also is so petrified that he can't say one definitive thing about the virus. There's your government's "response."

Fred Imbert & Eustance Huang of CNBC: "Stocks tumbled once again on Friday, adding to the market's worst week since the financial crisis, as worries over the coronavirus and its impact on the economy continue to rattle investor sentiment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 910 points, or more than 3.5%, to below 25,000. The S&P 500 slid 3.5% while the Nasdaq Composite fell nearly 3%. The major averages were under pressure on Friday in part because investors kept adding to their bond-market exposure and fleeing equities. The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield touched a fresh record low. It was last at 1.18%. Yields move inversely to prices."

** Maria Sachetti & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court in California halted the Trump administration's 'Remain in Mexico' immigration policy on Friday, a blow to the president's restrictive immigration agenda that cripples one of the government's approaches to curbing migration across the U.S. southern border. The program -- officially known as the Migrant Protection Protocols, or MPP -- called for pushing asylum seekers back into Mexico to await their U.S. asylum hearings, part of an effort to limit migrant access to U.S. soil and to lessen a record migration surge among Central American families. More than 470,000 parents and children crossed into the United States last fiscal year, and most were quickly freed into the country to await U.S. immigration court hearings.... The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 to uphold a lower-court's injunction on MPP, saying that the policy 'is invalid in its entirety due to its inconsistency with' federal law, and 'should be enjoined in its entirety.'" An NBC News story is here.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has turned down a lawsuit claiming that ... Donald Trump's luxury hotel in Washington, D.C., is unfairly undermining the business of other venues in the city. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday against a lawsuit a D.C. wine bar filed in 2017, claiming it was losing business to the Trump International Hotel because some customers were seeking to use their dollars to win favor with the president."

Zach Montellaro & Holly Otterbein of Politico: "The Iowa state Democratic Party has completed its partial recount of the Feb. 3 presidential caucuses, and the result hasn't changed: Pete Buttigieg still has a very narrow advantage over Bernie Sanders in state delegate equivalents. The state party announced Thursday evening that it recounted results in 23 precincts that were requested by both campaigns, and Buttigieg leads Sanders by roughly one state delegate equivalent, a difference of about four hundredths of a percentage point."

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Too busy to read today's synopsis of the top stories? No problem. Read Akhilleus's synopsis of the synopsis at the top of today's Comments. P.S. If you're wheezy or raspy, better stay home, call the doc & pray with mike. Update: Here's an even briefer, if not as humorous, summary of the last couple of days of Trumpandemic news: ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman: "So, here's the response of the Trump team and its allies to the coronavirus, at least so far: It's actually good for America. Also, it's a hoax perpetrated by the news media and the Democrats. Besides, it's no big deal, and people should buy stocks. Anyway, we'll get it all under control under the leadership of a man who doesn't believe in science." But do read on. ~~~

~~~ Trump Expects "Miracle" to Make Coronavirus Epidemic "Disappear." Summer Concepcion of TPM: "... President Trump again touted his administration's response to the [coronavirus] outbreak [Thursday].... Trump also seemed to suggest that the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. would be worse if it hadn't been for him. '15 people is almost, I would say, a miracle,' Trump said, referring to the amount of confirmed cases in the U.S.... However, Trump added that the coronavirus outbreak could worsen before getting better. 'It's going to disappear. One day it's like a miracle, it disappear. And from our shores, you know, it could get worse before it gets better,' Trump said. 'It could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows. The fact is the greatest experts I've spoken to them all, nobody really knows.'" Mrs. McC: Now, that's leadership! ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Will Sommer & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump spent 45 minutes [Thursday] talking to the lead actors of a low-budget conservative play about the so-called Deep State. Phelim McAleer, the playwright behind the play FBI Lovebirds: Undercovers, told The Daily Beast that the meeting with Trump had originally been scheduled for just 15 minutes but went 30 minutes longer than that.... Trump hasn't seen the play, according to McAleer, but praised its concept: a script based entirely on congressional testimony and the text messages between former FBI agent Peter Strzok and former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, who discussed the FBI's investigation into Trump's campaign and Russia while having an affair." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Steve Contorno of the Tampa Bay Times: "The country's new point man on coronavirus response, Vice President Mike Pence, is expected to travel to ... the moneyed barrier island town of Longboat Key, [Florida,] where he'll be the main attraction for Congressional Republicans in one of their biggest fundraisers of the year. It's $2,500 to get in the door and $5,000 to take a picture with the vice president, according to an invite obtained by the Tampa Bay Times. And $25,000 buys dinner with him, too.... The event, hosted by the Florida Republican congressional delegation, benefits the National Republican Congressional Committee, according to the invite."

Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Global markets tumbled for a sixth consecutive day on Thursday, dragging down the S&P 500 more than 10 percent in just a week, reflecting rising fears over the coronavirus that is spreading quickly around the world. The S&P 500 fell 4.4 percent on Thursday, the worst single day slide for the market since August 2011. The index is on pace for its worst weekly performance since the 2008 financial crisis. Stocks in Europe and Asia were also hard hit on Thursday. The sell-off came after public health officials in the United States and Germany said new patients in each country had no known connection to others with the illness, a development that could complicate efforts to track the virus." The CNBC story is here. Mrs. McC: Wow! Democrats really upset traders. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Emily Cochrane, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal health employees interacted with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to the coronavirus without proper medical training or protective gear, then scattered into the general population, according to a government whistle-blower. In a portion of a complaint filing obtained by The New York Times that has been submitted to the Office of the Special Counsel, the whistle-blower, described as a senior leader at the health agency, said the team was 'improperly deployed' to two military bases in California to assist the processing of Americans who had been evacuated from coronavirus hot zones in China and elsewhere. The staff members were sent to Travis Air Force Base and March Air Reserve Base and were ordered to enter quarantined areas, including a hangar where coronavirus evacuees were being received. They were not provided training in safety protocols until five days later, the person said. Without proper training or equipment, some of the exposed staff members moved freely around and off the bases, with at least one person staying in a nearby hotel and leaving California on a commercial flight." The Washington Post story is here. The Hill has a summary report here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Stifling the Experts. Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: “The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.... Mr. Pence said Thursday that he had selected Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the director of the United States effort to combat H.I.V. and AIDS, to serve as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House.... With Mr. Pence's announcement, Dr. Birx becomes the third person to be designated as the administration's primary coronavirus official. Mr. Trump said that 'Mike is going to be in charge, and Mike will report back to me.' Mr. Pence said it will be Dr. Birx. Meanwhile, Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, remains the chairman of the government's coronavirus task force.... Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, one of the country's leading experts on viruses and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Trump's plan for the coronavirus so far: -Cut winter heating assistance for the poor -Have VP Pence, who wanted to 'pray away' HIV epidemic, oversee the response -Let ex-pharma lobbyist Alex Azar refuse to guarantee affordable vaccines to all' -Disgusting. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a tweet yesterday evening

Related Hill story here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matt Gertz of Media Matters: "The Centers for Disease Control is warning that it expects to see an expanded outbreak [of coronavirus] in the United States and is planning for a worldwide pandemic.... But at this delicate moment, the feedback loop between Fox News and President Donald Trump is powering the president's response. The network hosts who influence Trump the most are fixating his attention on Democrats and the media, who they claim are deliberately politicizing coronavirus in order to damage his reelection campaign. And Trump is apparently listening to them and is spouting the same talking points.... Fox ... hosts and personalities targeted the media and Democrats for their treatment of coronavirus throughout Wednesday night and Thursday morning." --s

Dan Diamond of Politico (Feb. 26): "Hundreds of Americans were left stuck on a cruise ship that later became the single biggest source of U.S. coronavirus cases -- a CDC decision. Dozens of public health labs are still waiting for tests that will allow them to diagnose coronavirus -- a CDC responsibility. One of [CDC Director Robert] Redfield's deputies on Monday urged businesses and schools to start preparing for the disease's inevitable spread -- stamping the CDC's imprint on public fears and irking White House officials who worry about panicking Americans and driving down financial markets.... 'CDC's stumbled,' said one official, referencing the agency's lab-testing failures. 'It's too early to tell if those stumbles will mean we miss an outbreak ... It's a pray-and-see situation.'... Inside the health department, officials have complained that Redfield and CDC have been slow to resolve essential problems, like clarifying whether dozens of public health labs around the nation will soon have diagnostics capable of testing for coronavirus."

Martyn McLaughlin of the Scotsman: "Patrick Harvie MSP, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that the US president, or people he is connected with, 'have been involved in serious crime.' He has called on ministers to apply to the Court of Session to seek answers as to how Mr Trump's bankrolled his multimillion acquisitions of land and property in his mother's homeland. Responding at First Minister's Questions, Nicola Sturgeon stressed she was 'no defender' of Mr Trump, but said any allegations of criminality were a matter for Police Scotland and the Crown Office." Harvie asked the government to investigate via an "unexplained wealth order," a rarely-used tool designed "to target suspected corrupt foreign officials who have potentially laundered stolen money through the UK." (Also linked yesterday.)

Lisa Rein of the Washington Post: "The Department of Veterans Affairs' inspector general has opened an investigation into allegations that Secretary Robert Wilkie tried to dig up dirt on an aide to a top Democrat in Congress after she said she was sexually assaulted at the agency's Washington hospital. Inspector General Michael J. Missal, after a preliminary review of Wilkie's conduct following the woman's report last fall, told lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Thursday that he has decided to move forward with a full-blown inquiry."

Robert Reich in the American Prospect: "William Barr was installed as attorney general specifically to turn the Department of Justice into an arm of the Trump Cover-Up. And we've seen him do exactly that. Barr has corrupted and politicized the Department of Justice, working hand in hand with Donald Trump to bend federal law enforcement to the president's will. Here are some of the ways Barr is helping Trump turn our democracy into a dictatorship: 1. He intervened in the sentencing of Roger Stone.... 2. Barr has green-lit an 'intake process' for any information that ... Rudy Giuliani may dig up about Ukraine and the elections.... 3. Barr misled the public about the contents of the Mueller report.... 4. Barr refused to accept the findings of the inspector general report investigating the origins of the Russia probe.... 5. Barr buried the whistleblower complaint that kick-started the impeachment inquiry and tried to keep it from reaching Congress."

Ryan Mac, et al. of BuzzFeed News: "The United States' main immigration enforcement agency [ICE], the Department of Justice, retailers including Best Buy and Macy's, and a sovereign wealth fund in the United Arab Emirates are among the thousands of government entities and private businesses around the world listed as clients of the controversial facial recognition startup with a database of billions of photos scraped from social media and the web. The startup, Clearview AI, is facing legal threats from Facebook, Google, and Twitter, as well as calls for regulation and scrutiny in the US. But new documents reviewed by BuzzFeed News reveal that it has already shared or sold its technology to thousands of organizations around the world.... Clearview's software ... has been used by people in more than 2,200 law enforcement departments, government agencies, and companies across 27 countries, according to the documents.... Clearview AI's facial recognition has been deployed at every level of American society and is making its way around the world." --s

Impotent Dems, Ctd. Josh Lederman & Anna Schecter of NBC: "A House committee investigating potential surveillance of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, is struggling to get records and text messages from Robert Hyde, the GOP congressional candidate who claimed to have her under surveillance, according to emails obtained by NBC News. Hyde, in response, is accusing the House Foreign Affairs Committee of 'trying to set me up.'" --s

Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "The top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee has privately expressed concerns about his colleagues' corruption investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden, further exposing divisions within the GOP over whether to continue pursuing an effort that led in part to President Donald Trump's impeachment. In a Dec. 5 meeting, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) told the leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Finance committees -- Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Chuck Grassley of Iowa, respectively -- that their probe targeting Biden could aid Russian efforts to sow chaos and distrust in the U.S. political system, according to two congressional sources familiar with the meeting.... Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has hinted at similar unease with the Biden investigation, and he has said that some of those concerns were relayed to him by Burr...."

Frank Rich is particularly Rich today, with ruminations on Trump the Virus King, the Democratic presidential primary (so depressing), & MSNBC's attempt to mirror Fox "News."

Presidential Race

Sheryl Stolberg & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi, facing deep alarm among moderate Democrats who worry that Senator Bernie Sanders will win their party's presidential nomination only to cost them control of the House, has begun distancing her caucus from the race for the White House in an effort to insulate her rank and file and preserve the party's majority. Ms. Pelosi, the highest-ranking Democrat and the de facto leader of her party, insisted in public and in private on Thursday that Democrats would be united around their nominee no matter who it was -- even as she pointedly refused to embrace Mr. Sanders's agenda, especially Medicare for All, which lacks the votes to pass the House."

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "The Boston Globe Editorial Board on Wednesday endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld's long-shot primary challenge to President Trump. 'Although sometimes dismissed as a gadfly because of his Libertarian Party vice presidential bid in 2016, Weld is a solid, substantive, hyper-smart figure. As governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997, he demonstrated an ability to work with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature to produce impressive results,' the Globe said." The Globe's editorial is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Hannah Dreier of ProPublica: "Previously undisclosed emails, including some filed in lawsuits against Purdue [Pharma] and others provided by sources, reveal a little-known relationship, forged in part by mutual philanthropic interests, between the Sacklers [of OxyContin infamy] and Michael Bloomberg. They show that when the Sacklers were facing critical media coverage, they looked to Bloomberg and his news and philanthropic organizations for help. Bloomberg advised Mortimer Sackler on how to handle negative coverage in 2017, and steered the family to a crisis communications specialist who had been his mayoral press secretary. In 2018, Bloomberg Philanthropies staff met with Sackler to discuss launching a joint initiative to combat the opioid crisis."

Courts Offer Small Favors

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "A federal judge in Idaho ruled Thursday that a Trump administration policy limiting public input on oil and gas leasing decisions was 'arbitrary and capricious,' overturning the 2018 directive and voiding nearly 1 million acres of leases out West as a result. The ruling by U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Ronald E. Bush represented a win for environmentalists, who challenged the leasing policy as part of a broader effort to block drilling in habitat for the imperiled greater sage-grouse. The contested area spans 67 million acres across 11 Western states." Mrs. McC: The accompanying photo of a couple of horny sage-grouse is awesome.

Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court has rejected former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's bid to wipe out a judge's guilty finding that preceded ... Donald Trump's pardon of Arpaio in 2017. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday that Arpaio is not entitled to have the guilty verdict on a misdemeanor contempt-of-court charge vacated because it has no legal significance in the wake of Trump's pardon."

Rachel Bitecofer in the New Republic has a long piece on how 'negative partisanship' is going to be a main driver in the 2020 election. --s

Beyond the Beltway

Alabama. American "Democracy". Sam Levine of the Guardian: "In 2018, with the midterm elections approaching, Alfonzo Tucker Jr [an African American] was particularly eager to vote. The mayor of Tuscaloosa, Alabama, Tucker's hometown, was running for governor, and the year before he had canvassed for Doug Jones, a Democrat running in a closely watched US Senate race. But Tucker wasn't able to cast a ballot -- state officials refused to even let him register. It wasn't until weeks later that he learned why he had been deprived of the right to vote. He owed the state $4." --s

Maryland. Luke Broadwater, et al., of the Baltimore Sun: “Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who held elected offices in Baltimore for two decades and was elevated by voters to lead the city following the upheaval of 2015, was sentenced to three years in federal prison Thursday for a fraud scheme involving a children's book series.... 'I have yet frankly to hear any explanation that makes sense,' the judge said. 'This was not a tiny mistake, lapse of judgment. This became a very large fraud. The nature and circumstances of this offense clearly I think are extremely, extremely serious.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Way Beyond

Turkey, Syria, Russia. Carlotta Gall of the New York Times: "The Turkish Army suffered mass casualties in an airstrike in northwest Syria late Thursday, an attack that could dramatically change the course of the Syrian war as fears grow of a direct conflict between Russia and Turkey, a NATO member. At least 33 Turkish soldiers were killed and more than 30 wounded, said Rahmi Dogan, the Turkish governor of the southern province of Hatay, where the Turkish casualties were arriving. Turkish officials said the strike had been carried out by Syrian government forces, but Russian jets have been conducting most of the airstrikes in the area in recent weeks. Turkish protesters in Istanbul converged on the Russian Consulate there early Friday, chanting 'Murderer Russia! Murderer Putin!'" ~~~

~~~ Plus Europe. Orhan Coskun & Ezgi Erkoyun of Reuters: "Turkey will no longer stop Syrian refugees from reaching Europe, a senior Turkish official said, as Ankara responded on Friday to the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in an air strike by Syrian government forces in Syria's northwestern Idlib region.... Some one million civilians have been displaced near the Turkish border since December as Russia-backed Syrian government forces seized territory from Turkey-backed Syrian rebels, marking the worst humanitarian crisis in the nine-year war.... The threat to open the way for refugees to Europe would, if executed, reverse a pledge Turkey made to the European Union in 2016 and could quickly draw Western powers into the standoff over Idlib and stalled negotiations between Ankara and Moscow.... Turkey hosts some 3.7 million Syrian refugees[.]" --s

U.K. Thomas Colson of Business Insider: "Brexit is set to have cost the UK more than £200 billion in lost economic growth by the end of this year -- a figure that almost eclipses the total amount the UK has paid the European Union budget over the past 47 years. According to research by Bloomberg Economics, the cost of the UK's vote to leave has already reached £130 billion, with a further £70 billion likely to be added by the end of 2020.... [T]he British economy is 3% smaller than it might have been if the UK had not voted to leave the EU." --s

News Ledes

The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.

Hill: "Health authorities in California have confirmed a second coronavirus case in a person who had no previous connection to anyone else with the disease. According to Santa Clara County officials, the person is an adult woman with chronic health conditions who has no known history of travel to countries hit by the outbreak. The Washington Post reported that she is 65 years old."

Forbes: "On Friday morning, U.K. authorities reported the first death of a British citizen from COVID-19, the disease caused by the now-worldwide SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus outbreak. The man who has not currently been named was a passenger on board the Diamond Princess Cruise ship and was made to stay in Japan for treatment after testing positive for the virus, as many other British passengers were evacuated last week. The other five fatalities from the ship so far are Japanese citizens. 705 people from the ship containing 3,711 people have now contracted COVID-19, with it becoming increasingly apparent that the quarantine protocols on the ship were poorly enforced and wholly inadequate to protect passengers. The 705 cases are thought to stem from just one man from Hong Kong who was a passenger on the ship in late January and later tested positive for the virus after returning home."

The Commentariat -- February 27, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Matt Phillips of the New York Times: "Global markets tumbled for a sixth consecutive day on Thursday, dragging down the S&P 500 more than 10 percent in just a week, reflecting rising fears over the coronavirus that is spreading quickly around the world. The S&P 500 fell 4.4 percent on Thursday, the worst single day slide for the market since August 2011. The index is on pace for its worst weekly performance since the 2008 financial crisis. Stocks in Europe and Asia were also hard hit on Thursday. The sell-off came after public health officials in the United States and Germany said new patients in each country had no known connection to others with the illness, a development that could complicate efforts to track the virus." The CNBC story is here. Mrs. McC: Wow! Democrats really upset traders.

Emily Cochrane, et al., of the New York Times: "Federal health employees interacted with Americans quarantined for possible exposure to the coronavirus without proper medical training or protective gear, then scattered into the general population, according to a government whistle-blower. In a portion of a complaint filing obtained by The New York Times that has been submitted to the Office of the Special Counsel, the whistle-blower, described as a senior leader at the health agency, said the team was 'improperly deployed' to two military bases in California to assist the processing of Americans who had been evacuated from coronavirus hot zones in China and elsewhere. The staff members were sent to Travis Air Force Base and March Air Reserve Base and were ordered to enter quarantined areas, including a hangar where coronavirus evacuees were being received. They were not provided training in safety protocols until five days later, the person said. Without proper training or equipment, some of the exposed staff members moved freely around and off the bases, with at least one person staying in a nearby hotel and leaving California on a commercial flight." The Washington Post story is here. The Hill has a summary report here.

Stifling the Experts. Michael Shear & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The White House moved on Thursday to tighten control of coronavirus messaging by government health officials and scientists, directing them to coordinate all statements and public appearance with the office of Vice President Mike Pence, according to several officials familiar with the new approach.... Mr. Pence said Thursday that he had selected Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the director of the United States effort to combat H.I.V. and AIDS, to serve as the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the White House.... With Mr. Pence's announcement, Dr. Birx becomes the third person to be designated as the administration's primary coronavirus official. Mr. Trump said that 'Mike is going to be in charge, and Mike will report back to me.' Mr. Pence said it will be Dr. Birx. Meanwhile, Alex M. Azar II, the health and human services secretary, remains the chairman of the government's coronavirus task force.... Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, one of the country's leading experts on viruses and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infections Diseases, told associates that the White House had instructed him not to say anything else without clearance." ~~~

Trump's plan for the coronavirus so far: -Cut winter heating assistance for the poor -Have VP Pence, who wanted to 'pray away' HIV epidemic, oversee the response -Let ex-pharma lobbyist Alex Azar refuse to guarantee affordable vaccines to all' -Disgusting. -- Sen. Bernie Sanders, in a tweet yesterday evening

Related Hill story here.

Martyn McLaughlin of the Scotsman: "Patrick Harvie MSP, co-leader of the Scottish Greens, said there were reasonable grounds for suspecting that the US president, or people he is connected with, 'have been involved in serious crime.' He has called on ministers to apply to the Court of Session to seek answers as to how Mr Trump's bankrolled his multimillion acquisitions of land and property in his mother's homeland. Responding at First Minister's Questions, Nicola Sturgeon stressed she was 'no defender' of Mr Trump, but said any allegations of criminality were a matter for Police Scotland and the Crown Office." Harvie asked the goverment to investigate via an "unexplained wealth order," a rarely-used tool designed "to target suspected corrupt foreign officials who have potentially laundered stolen money through the UK."

Senator Warren gets pointers about South Carolina from a native son. Thanks to PD Pepe for the link:

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "The Boston Globe Editorial Board on Wednesday endorsed former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld's long-shot primary challenge to President Trump. 'Although sometimes dismissed as a gadfly because of his Libertarian Party vice presidential bid in 2016, Weld is a solid, substantive, hyper-smart figure. As governor of Massachusetts from 1991 to 1997, he demonstrated an ability to work with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature to produce impressive results,' the Globe said." The Globe's editorial is here.

Luke Broadwater, et al., of the Baltimore Sun: "Former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh, who held elected offices in Baltimore for two decades and was elevated by voters to lead the city following the upheaval of 2015, was sentenced to three years in federal prison Thursday for a fraud scheme involving a children's book series.... 'I have yet frankly to hear any explanation that makes sense,' the judge said. 'This was not a tiny mistake, lapse of judgment. This became a very large fraud. The nature and circumstances of this offense clearly I think are extremely, extremely serious.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump named Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday to coordinate the government's response to the coronavirus, even as he repeatedly played down the danger to the United States of a widespread domestic outbreak. The president's announcement, at a White House news conference, followed mounting bipartisan criticism that the administration's response had been sluggish and came after two days of contradictory messages about the virus, which has infected more than 81,000 people globally, killing nearly 3,000. The announcement also came on a day when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a person with no known risk factors had been infected in Northern California. 'The risk to the American people remains very low,' said Mr. Trump, flanked by top health officials from several government agencies. 'We have the greatest experts, really in the world, right here.'... Several top health care experts at the news conference echoed Mr. Trump's optimism but also offered a more sober assessment of the future risks. Dr. Anne Schuchat, the principal deputy director of the C.D.C., warned Americans that there would be more infections.... About a half-hour later, Mr. Trump contradicted Ms. Schuchat's assessment, telling reporters that 'I don't think it's inevitable.' He left the door open to travel restrictions beyond China, to other hard-hit countries like South Korea and Italy, and said his early decision to stop flights from China had held the virus at bay." ~~~

~~~ Nisky Guy translation of Trump's remarks: I ignore the greatest experts in the world.

     ~~~ CNN's story, by Maegan Vasquez & others, is here. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: So it's Wednesday evening, & Trump is giving a rambling, disjointed speech about the coronavirus threat. Naturally, he occasionally contradicts himself, which should give you a lot of confidence he knows what he's talking about. It doesn't help that he's sniffing constantly, as if he caught the virus while he was in India. He says he put mike pence in charge of the federal government's response to the epidemic, so thank God we know we have someone praying for us. Now HHS Secretary Alex Azar is thanking Trump for his great leadership on the matter. I'm waiting for him to tell us to buy duct tape. IOW, we're screwed. BTW, I had to go to a couple of pharmacies today, so while I was there I asked if they sold surgical masks: yes, but sold out in both places. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Trump claimed during the presser that a vaccine would be developed "fairly quickly." Later in the presser, Dr. Tony Fauci of NIH explained why, in the most optimistic scenario, it would take a minimum of a year for a vaccine to be made available to the public. ~~~

~~~ Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Caroline Kelly of CNN: "Health and Human Services Secretary Alexander Azar stressed that he was still in charge of the task force addressing the novel coronavirus following ... Donald Trump's announcement that Vice President Mike Pence would lead US efforts to battle the outbreak.... Azar's post-news conference statements muddled the message on who is in charge of the administration's response to the crisis, which was perhaps the biggest news to come out of Trump's meandering news conference on the virus Wednesday evening.... When asked whether he felt he [was] being replaced, Azar relied, 'Not in the least.... When this was mentioned to me, I was delighted that I'd get to have the vice president helping me -- delighted, absolutely,' he continued. Azar also said the coronavirus poses a low risk to the American public, despite warnings from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to the contrary." Mrs. McC: According to MSNBC, pence's appointment was first "mentioned to Azar" at the press conference, surprising Azar. ~~~

~~~ Erin Banco & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "The president's decision to put Pence in charge was seen by some as further evidence that he is not taking the threat of coronavirus seriously. Over the decades, Pence has amassed a public record that his critics have often bashed as anti-science. On matters of public health, for instance, he has made wild claims in the past. 'Despite the hysteria from the political class and the media, smoking doesn't kill. In fact, two out of every three smokers does not die from a smoking-related illness and nine out of 10 smokers do not contract lung cancer,' Pence said in 2000. Additionally, Pence has advocated teaching creationism in American public schools.... While top health agencies have warned that it is merely a matter of time before the virus spreads in the United States, Trump has seemed focused on controlling the narrative to prevent a financial crisis from getting in the way of his re-election campaign."

~~~ Lauran Neergaard & Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar of NBC Miami & the AP: "Rep. Bennie Thompson [D-Miss.]..., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee..., [said] that putting Pence, 'someone with no public health expertise, in charge of the response will not instill confidence with the American people and raises questions about the administration's ability to coordinate an effective response to a complex public health threat.' During his time as Indiana's governor, Pence faced criticism for his response to a public health crisis in the southern part of the state. In 2015, Scott County saw the number of people infected with HIV skyrocket.... Indiana law at the time prohibited needle exchanges, exacerbating the outbreak, which primarily infected intravenous users of the painkiller Opana. Pence had long opposed needle exchanges but was eventually persuaded to issue an executive order allowing one in Scott County. Despite his own misgivings -- Pence said he didn't support the exchanges as an 'anti-drug policy' -- he signed a law allowing the state government to approve them on a case-by-case basis." ~~~

~~~ Gail Collins of the New York Times: "The run-up to the Pence unveiling had not been exactly calming for citizens who wanted to have faith in competent White House oversight. Barack Obama used to have special epidemic-watching groups just in case this kind of crisis developed. One was headed by the highly regarded Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer, who got sent packing by John Bolton. Another infectious disease expert, Tom Bossert, suddenly vanished from the Department of Homeland Security in 2018, presumably also at the hand of John You-know-who.... [Trump has] come up with a totally new explanation for the stock market skid. It turns out investors were not frightened so much by the pandemic as the Democratic debate. 'I think the financial markets are very upset when they look at the Democrat candidates standing on that stage making fools out of themselves,' Trump told reporters. Plus that virus thing is ... not necessarily a big deal. What really 'shocked' him, Trump said, was his discovery that 'the flu in our country kills 25,000 people to 69,000 people a year.' So the problems are the Democrats and the flu. The answers are Mike Pence and ... reminding the public once again that Nancy Pelosi's district has a big homeless problem." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It is worth noting here that the markets crashed Monday & Tuesday. The Democratic debate was Tuesday night. So evidently the markets crashed because traders anticipated the candidates would "stand on that stage & make fools of themselves."

From the Washington Post's live updates on coronavirus developments @4:30 pm ET Wednesday: "Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) who served as the health and human services secretary in Bill Clinton's administration, chastised Trump over his planned news briefing this evening, arguing that only medical professionals and scientists should be speaking to the public about the coronavirus. Shalala said during an appearance on MSNBC that this was especially so when it comes to Trump. 'This is an anti-science administration,' she said. 'The last person the American people trust is the president of the United States talking about science.'" Mrs. McC: Sorry, the link no longer works, & I can't retrieve the text. ~~~

President Trump responds to coronavirus w/acting WH chief of staff, acting intel director, acting Homeland Security sec'y; he has launched a loyalty purge; he wants to cut CDC and NIH budgets; he eliminated NSC post to safeguard against global pandemics -- John Harwood of CNN, in a tweet Wednesday morning

~~~ Trump to Hold Presser to Misinform Public about Health Crisis. Noal Weiland & Emily Chocrane of the New York Times: "President Trump blamed the media on Wednesday for 'doing everything possible' to make the coronavirus 'look as bad as possible,' even as he said his administration was 'doing a great job' with a virus that the Centers for Disease Control said would inevitably hit American shores. Mr. Trump set a 6 p.m. White House news conference to discuss the virus with officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But reassurances have not global markets, which were down sharply overseas Wednesday morning. A day after its worst one-day slide in two years, the S&P 500 closed down 3 percent on Tuesday, a decline that put the index deeper in the red for 2020. With cabinet secretaries fanning out on Capitol Hill, Wednesday promised more sharp questioning about the administration's preparedness for a virus that has now infected more than 81,000 people globally and killed more than 2,700." A Hill report is here. Mrs. McC: Maybe McQuack will be arrested for practicing medicine without a license. Meanwhile, shame on news media for reporting news. (Also linked yesterday.)

Intel Community to Mislead and/or STFU. Natasha Bertrand & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "... Donald Trump is tightening his grip on the intelligence community as part of a post-acquittal purge of career officials and political appointees deemed insufficiently loyal, and the abrupt firing of his last intel chief is only the tip of the iceberg, current and former intelligence officials say.... But it also revealed a deeper trend: namely, the steps Trump has taken to shield the public from intelligence that could be politically damaging for him, and keep the flow of information coming out of the agencies firmly under his control.... The NSA, CIA, and Pentagon have been urged by the White House not to share information about Russia and Ukraine with lawmakers, while the 'Gang of Eight' senior members of Congress were bypassed leading up to at least one major intelligence operation. And intelligence community leaders have backed out of the public portion of the annual worldwide threats hearing, fearing Trump's wrath if their assessments don't align with his." (Also linked yesterday.)

Justin Wise of the Hill: "The Marine Corps is calling for all paraphernalia related to the Confederacy to be removed from its bases around the world. Commandant Gen. David Berger made the directive in a memo to senior staff that included a list of initiatives that he is 'prioritizing for immediate execution,' according to a copy obtained by Military.com.... More than a third of all active-duty troops say they have personally witnessed an example of white nationalism or ideologically driven racism from another person within their ranks in recent months, according to survey conducted by The Military Times."

Aw, Sad. Chris Sommerfeldt of the New York Daily News: "Rudy Giuliani ... forgot to hang up on a Daily News reporter Wednesday and, thinking he was off the line, started trash-talking ex-Gov. George Pataki while complaining he only has 'five friends left.'" Read on for Rudy's beef with Pataki, which relates to Rudy's asking the then-governor to cancel NYC's 2001 mayoral election & leave him in office right after the 9/11 attack. Pataki put the story in a book he's hawking; Giuliani claims the conversation never happened.

Presidential Race

Lisa Lerer & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "Dozens of interviews with Democratic establishment leaders this week show that they are not just worried about [Sen. Bernie] Sanders's candidacy, but are also willing to risk intraparty damage to stop his nomination at the national convention in July if they get the chance. Since Mr. Sanders's victory in Nevada's caucuses on Saturday, The Times has interviewed 93 party officials -- all of them superdelegates, who could have a say on the nominee at the convention -- and found overwhelming opposition to handing the Vermont senator the nomination if he arrived with the most delegates but fell short of a majority.... The party leaders say they worry that Mr. Sanders, a democratic socialist with passionate but limited support so far, will lose to President Trump, and drag down moderate House and Senate candidates in swing states with his left-wing agenda of 'Medicare for all' and free four-year public college." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If this leaves Democrats with nominee Biden, the party's chances will be far worse than with Sanders as the nominee. In either eventuality, I foresee a loss to Trump. However, there's this: ~~~

~~~ Aris Folley of the Hill: "Sen. Bernie Sanders's (I-Vt.) presidential campaign said this week that he would not accept money from fellow Democratic presidential candidate >Mike Bloomberg if the senator becomes the party's presidential nominee. 'It's a hard no,' Jeff Weaver, a senior advisor for Sanders's 2020 presidential campaign, said of the idea in an interview with NBC News on Tuesday night after the primary debate in Charleston, S.C. 'Bernie has said he's going to fund his presidential campaign with small-dollar contributions, and I think we can do that.'" ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait: "... Democrats should consider the possibility that Sanders is not merely pretending to be a fanatic. He may be prepared to follow his convictions to their logical conclusion, at whatever cost. And the message to Democratic voters is, if you want your nominee to have the tailwind of Bloomberg's billion, nominate anybody but Sanders." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you find yourself in a bind and refuse to take help from someone you despise -- say, your avaricious, hedge-fund-trading brother -- then fine, good for you. But the weight of the free world is not riding on your shoulders. A presidential candidate has a little more responsibility. It isn't that principles are like glass meant for breaking; it's that they must be applied within the context of other considerations. I see this is too much nuance for top Bernie Bro Jeff Weaver to understand, but the candidate himself has a moral obligation to be more pragmatic.

Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Democratic megadonor Bernard Schwartz has started reaching out to party leaders, particularly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, to encourage them to back a candidate for president in order to stop the surge of Sen. Bernie Sanders. Schwartz, the CEO of BLS Investments, told CNBC that in recent days he's been trying to speak with Pelosi and Schumer about making a pick, in the hope that voters will follow their lead and end up denying Sanders the party's presidential nomination. 'We should know who is the best person to beat Donald Trump, and with all due respect, Bernie Sanders cannot beat Trump,' he explained, describing the message he has relayed to the two Democratic leaders."

Caitlin Oprysko & Marc Caputo of Politico: "Rep. James Clyburn, the godfather of South Carolina Democratic politics, swung his support to Joe Biden's presidential campaign Wednesday, giving the former vice president a crucial seal of approval among black voters. 'I've been saying to the media, I've known for a long time who I'm going to vote for. But I had not decided -- well, not to share it with the public,' the House Majority Whip said at a news conference in North Charleston. 'But I want the public to know that I'm voting for Joe Biden. South Carolina should be voting for Joe Biden.'" ~~~

~~~ Joe's Fabulous Arrest. Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "At least three times this month, Joseph R. Biden Jr. has asserted that he was arrested as he sought to visit the anti-apartheid icon Nelson Mandela in prison, even saying that Mr. Mandela later thanked him for going to such an effort. And for a week, Mr. Biden's campaign declined to answer questions seeking comment and clarification on those remarks, which were rebutted by a former United States ambassador to the United Nations in an article in The New York Times.... But on Tuesday, Kate Bedingfield, a deputy campaign manager, said Mr. Biden was referring to an episode in which he was separated from black colleagues in Johannesburg while on a congressional delegation trip to South Africa in the 1970s. It was the campaign's first explanation to date -- but one that still left many questions unanswered and did not square with Mr. Biden's most recent remarks." ~~~

     ~~~ Dan MacGuill of Snopes puts Biden's arrest story to bed with a rating of "false."

Andrew Kaczynski, et al., of CNN: "Mike Bloomberg has vowed as a Democratic candidate for president to 'strengthen entitlement programs.' But when he was mayor of New York City, Bloomberg twice compared Social Security to a 'Ponzi scheme' and repeatedly said cuts to that program as well as Medicare and Medicaid had to be part of any serious solution to reducing the federal deficit.... 'We are giving monies out with the next guy's money coming in and at the end of -- when the music stops -- it's just not gonna be enough chairs for everybody,' Bloomberg said."

Michael Grynbaum & Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "President Trump's re-election campaign sued The New York Times for libel on Wednesday, alleging that an Op-Ed article published by the newspaper falsely asserted a 'quid pro quo' between Russian officials and Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign. Mr. Trump often threatens to sue media organizations but rarely follows through. The lawsuit, filed in New York State court in Manhattan, is the first time his political operation has taken legal action against an American news outlet since he took office. The lawsuit concerns an essay published by the Opinion section of The Times in March 2019. The article, headlined 'The Real Trump-Russia Quid Pro Quo,' was written by Max Frankel, who served as executive editor of The Times from 1986 to 1994. (The Opinion section of The Times operates separately from its newsroom.)... The suit also accuses The Times, without evidence, of harboring 'extreme bias against and animosity toward' Mr. Trump's re-election campaign.... Earlier Wednesday, several media law experts reacted with skepticism about the Trump campaign's chances of succeeding in the suit. 'A publisher cannot be held liable for commentary based on public facts,' said Brian Hauss, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union." A CNBC story is here. ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Michael Scherer & Anu Narayanswamy of the Washington Post: "Former president Barack Obama on Wednesday called on South Carolina television stations to stop running an ad from a super PAC supporting President Trump that uses Obama's words out of context in a misleading attack on former vice president Joe Biden. The Committee to Defend the President, a pro-Trump group, circulated an ad that falsely suggests that words Obama spoke in the narration of his own 1995 book were meant to describe Biden.... The ad repurposes a similar attack the Committee to Defend the President ran last year in several states with many black politicians, including Georgia, Michigan and Louisiana, according to PolitiFact."

Larry Neumeister of the AP: "The Trump administration can withhold millions of dollars in law enforcement grants to force states to cooperate with U.S. immigration enforcement, a federal appeals court in New York ruled Wednesday in a decision that conflicted with three other federal appeals courts. The ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned a lower court's decision ordering the administration to release funding to New York City and seven states -- New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, Washington, Massachusetts, Virginia and Rhode Island." Mrs. McC: Two of the three judges were appointed by Republican presidents, though neither by Trump. The third is a Democratic appointee.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd.

David Bauder of the AP: "ABC News has suspended political reporter David Wright after he was recorded in a barroom conversation calling ... Donald Trump a 'nightmare spouse that you can't win an argument with.' Wright also used a common vulgarity to describe why he didn't like the president in a conversation recorded by Project Veritas, the conservative website that uses hidden cameras and undercover reporters to ensnare journalists in embarrassing conversations.... Wright said voter are poorly informed by the media and that his bosses 'don't see an upside in doing the job we're supposed to do, which is to speak truth to power and hold people to account.' He described himself politically as a socialist who believes in national health insurance. ABC News would not say how long Wright would be suspended. He will be reassigned from political coverage when he returns to avoid any possible appearance of bias."

Justin Baragona & Maxwell Tani of the Daily Beast: "Following MSNBC contributor Dr. Jason Johnson's inflammatory remarks about supporters and campaign staffers of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), the academic has been temporarily benched by the network, sources confirmed to The Daily Beast. In recent months, Johnson -- a fixture of the network's Democratic primary analysis -- has drawn considerable heat for his relentlessly anti-Sanders commentary on MSNBC, which has also come under fire from the left for its skeptical and largely negative coverage of the democratic-socialist senator. During an interview last week on SiriusXM's The Karen Hunter Show, Johnson claimed 'racist white liberals' support Sanders and that the senator has done 'nothing for intersectionality.' The MSNBC contributor then took aim at the women of color who work for Sanders. 'I don't care how many people from the island of misfit black girls you throw out there to defend you,' Johnson exclaimed."

News Ledes

New York Times: "A person in California who was not exposed to anyone known to be infected with the coronavirus, and had not traveled to countries in which the virus is circulating, has tested positive for the infection. It may be the first case of community spread in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday." A CDC report is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Update: New York Times: "A California coronavirus patient had to wait days to be tested because of restrictive federal criteria, despite doctors' suggestions. The patient, who has tested positive, may be the first person to be infected through community spread in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday." ~~~

~~~ This raises the possibility that we only think we have few cases in the US, because we have only tested a few hundred people. -- Ronald Klain, who oversaw the Ebola response, in tweet ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of developments in the coronavirus epidemic are here.