I Forgot

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday deflected blame for his administration's lagging ability to test Americans for the coronavirus outbreak, insisting instead -- without offering evidence -- that fault lies with his predecessor, Barack Obama. 'I don't take responsibility at all,' Trump said defiantly, pointing to an unspecified 'set of circumstances' and 'rules, regulations and specifications from a different time.'... Trump later got testy with another reporter who pressed him on whether he bore any responsibility for the surge in cases, noting that he'd disbanded the White House's pandemic office."

Washington Post (live update): "When pressed by Yamiche Alcindor, the White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, about the White House dismantling the office on pandemics, he called the question 'nasty' and suggested that Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, knew something he didn't. 'I didn't do it,' [Trump] said. 'I could perhaps ask Tony about that because I don't know anything about it. I mean you say we did that but I don't know anything about it.' Fauci, who works under the National Institutes of Health, does not have purview over the National Security Council, which the team worked for."

Trump's full exchange with Alcindor is pretty remarkable. And of course he called her question "nasty." She's a black woman, for Pete's sake. Alcindor said later on MSNBC that she had a follow-up response/question for Trump, but the White House had cut her mic.

What's more remarkable is that Trump tried to deflect a question about the National Security Council to Fauci, who is not on the NSC. Trump, on the other hand, is chair of the NSC. He's the guy. "I didn't do it, ask Tony" is an insane response. Alcindor asked the right question of the right guy.

As Lena Sun of the Washington Post reported in May 2018, "The top White House official responsible for leading the U.S. response in the event of a deadly pandemic has left the administration, and the global health security team he oversaw has been disbanded under a reorganization by national security adviser John Bolton. The abrupt departure of Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer from the National Security Council means no senior administration official is now focused solely on global health security. Ziemer's departure, along with the breakup of his team, comes at a time when many experts say the country is already underprepared for the increasing risks of a pandemic or bioterrorism attack."

As it turns out, Trump has been asked this same question before, and recently. Then he had very different answers, answers that suggest he knew damned well his office had disbanded the global pandemic team.

"Who would have thought?" Who could have known getting rid of advisors responsible for monitoring, reporting & coordinating response to an international pandemic would be a problem? Way last week (March 7), Trump himself explained that this whole "foreign virus" thing was a big surprise. A reporter asked him if he would rethink having an office of pandemic preparation in the White House. Trump's response: "I just think this is something, Peter, that you can never really think is going to happen.... I think we're doing a really good job in this country at keeping it down. We've really been very vigilant, and we've done a tremendous job at keeping to down. But who would have thought? Look, how long ago is it? Six, seven, eight weeks ago -- who would have thought we would even be having the subject? We were going to hit 30,000 on the Dow like it was clockwork. Right? It was all going -- it was right up, and then all of a sudden, this came out.... And the thing is, you never really know when something like this is going to strike and what it's going to be. This is different than something else. This is a very different thing than something else."

So Trump seemed to know -- less than a week before -- that he had disbanded the global health security office. He knew he did it because he figured he would get lucky and there would be no pandemics on his watch. I mean, nobody can predict the future; nobody can predict a thing that's "very different than something else."

Besides, as he had already explained, getting rid of the global health team was a good business decision. And it would never be a problem. He could reassemble the team "very quickly":

On February 26, a reporter asked Trump if his "enormous cuts to the CDC, the NIH, and the WHO' gave him pause now that the country was confronted by a major health crisis. Trump's response: "No, because we -- we can get money and we can increase staff. We know all the people. We know all the good people. It's a question I asked the doctors before. Some of the people we cut, they haven't been used for many, many years. And if -- if we have a need, we can get them very quickly. And rather than spending the money -- and I'm a business person -- I don't like having thousands of people around when you don't need them. When we need them, we can get them back very quickly."

This isn't true. Beth Reinhard & others of the Washington Post reported (Feb. 27), "Former USAID official Jeremy Konyndyk, who helped lead the U.S. response to the Ebola outbreak and other international disasters during the Obama administration, said recruiting people with the specialized skills to handle an infectious-disease crisis is difficult.... Cyrus Shahpar, a physician who served at the CDC under Obama and worked on the agency's global rapid-response team during the first year of the Trump administration..., [said] it is not easy to persuade a lot of people with specialized skills to suddenly shift to federal service to help respond to a threat.... 'They have stable jobs with retirement plans,' he said. 'They are not going to quit their job at the university or quit their job in the local government to go join the U.S. federal government for six months because of coronavirus. It doesn't work like that.' In November 2019, a commission on health security that included Republican and Democratic members of Congress warned that 'the American people are far from safe.'"

So a week ago, and two weeks ago, Trump not only knew he had axed the global health security team, he produced a number of "reasons" as to why that was a smart idea: nobody can predict a pandemic, the team was just sitting around doing nothing but collecting paychecks, they would come right back to work if he called them. But by Friday, he forgot all that. By Friday, his past decisions were another excuse to insult a black woman.

"Two Very Big Words"

Following are links to reports about Donald Trump's declaration that the coronavirus pandemic was a national emergency.

New York Times (from the live updates on coronavirus): "President Trump on Friday afternoon officially declared a national emergency that he said would give states and territories access to up to $50 billion in federal funds to combat the spreading coronavirus epidemic. In a live address in the White House Rose Garden, he also gave broad new authority to the health secretary, Alex Azar, who he said would now be able to waive regulations, giving doctors and hospitals more flexibility to respond to the virus, including making it easier to treat people remotely. 'I am officially declaring a national emergency, two very big words,' he said. 'I'm urging every state to set up emergency operations centers effective immediately,' he added. Mr. Trump said he was waiving interest on student loans, and that with oil prices low, the government would buy large quantities of crude oil for the nation's strategic reserve. His comments marked the first time he has addressed the coronavirus as a problem within the country's borders, not just something that needed to be kept out with travel restrictions. But the optics of the address offered a contrast to the social distancing that many experts recommend: Mr. Trump and the top advisers he invited to speak crowded together around the lectern and shared a microphone. Mr. Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both lauded the administration's efforts, and the president particularly praised his own measures to keep the virus from entering the country. However, some Americans returning from coronavirus hot spots say they are not being screened for symptoms." Emphasis added.

"He said that millions of virus testing kits would become available, but added that he did not think so many would be needed. 'We don't want everybody taking this test,' he said. 'It's totally unnecessary.' 'This will pass, this will pass through, and we will be even stronger for it,' the president said. Asked if he would be tested for the coronavirus because of his contact at his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, with an infected Brazilian official, he said, 'most likely, yeah,' countering earlier White House statements that he would not be tested. 'I think I will do it anyway. Fairly soon,' he said. Even as he spoke, news emerged that a second person who was at Mar-a-Lago had been found to have the coronavirus." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: "... around midnight [Friday, Trump's] physician, Sean P. Conley, said testing [Trump for the coronavirus] was 'not currently indicated.'" ~~~

~~~ Washington Post (from the live updates): "President Trump declared a national emergency over the coronavirus pandemic Friday as public life in America continued to grind to a halt. Trump's announcement sent the Dow soaring nearly 2,000 points.... When pressed by Yamiche Alcindor, the White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, about the White House dismantling the office on pandemics, he called the question 'nasty' and suggested that Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, knew something he didn't. 'I didn't do it,' he said. 'I could perhaps ask Tony about that because I don't know anything about it. I mean you say we did that but I don't know anything about it.' Fauci, who works under the National Institutes of Health, does not have purview over the National Security Council, which the team worked for.... In May 2018, after John Bolton became national security adviser..., a team working on global health security under him was disbanded, The Post reported at the time. Beth Cameron, the former senior director for global health security..., said in a Washington Post editorial Friday that the decision most likely slowed the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic."

~~~ Anita Kumar of Politico: "... Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday to offset lagging coronavirus testing and unlock billions of dollars -- accelerating a response plan that has faced weeks of criticism. Trump touted partnerships with private companies that he claimed would allow patients to learn if they need to be tested and locate a testing site, some of which will be drive-thru facilities at big box retailers across the country.... Trump insisted the move would eradicate the testing shortcomings that health experts say hindered the country's ability to contain the virus when it first appeared on American shores. Yet even as Trump unleashed $50 billion in government funding, the announcement had a distinct market-first flavor. Trump outlined a series of agreements with private companies, including Google, Target and Walmart, to facilitate swifter coronavirus testing for Americans. Target and Walmart said they will set aside parking lot space for testing sites, while Google pledged to set up a website to determine whether a person needs a test, and where one is available.... 'I don't take responsibility at all,' Trump said of the government' struggles to produce enough tests, blaming existing rules set by prior administration for limiting his options."

~~~ Marina Fang of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but spent much of the announcement refusing to take responsibility for testing delays and praising his own inadequate response that helped let the coronavirus spread rapidly throughout much of the country.... Trump opened his press conference Friday by praising his response to the pandemic, claiming it was better 'when compared to other places around the world,' touting 'our closing of the borders' and claiming experts told him his ban on travel from China 'saved a lot of lives.' He also invited Vice President Mike Pence to speak, who praised Trump's 'decisive action.' When asked about his demolition of President Barack Obama's pandemic response team, Trump called it 'a nasty question.' In announcing the increase in tests, Trump still appeared to downplay the public health crisis. He said that five million tests would be available 'within a month,' before adding: 'I doubt we'll need that.'"

If you'd like a better sense of the "atmospherics" of Trump's announcement, without actually having to watch, Akhilleus has done the honors: ~~~

By Akhilleus:

Just listened, slack-jawed, to the latest abomination of a press conference, brought to you by Fatty Productions. It was like some kind of weird pep rally unreality show. Lots of vague promises, peppered, comme d'habitude, with the usual yuuuuge pats on the back for his own amazing wonderfulness, and interrupted, just like a TV show, for commercials for huge corporations.

Representatives of giant private sector businesses were trotted out (Fatty having basically farmed out the work of the federal government to for-profit operations) to take a bow and kiss Trump's ass. "Hey, let's bring up Joe Blow from CVS, Joe's been a great friend for a long time [three hours] and he'll be blah, blah, blah. C'mon up Joe. Say a few words." "Well, thank you Mr. President. I'd like to suck your dick for the rest of my time on stage, but I see that there's a line up of other CEO's waiting to do that." "Well, thank you, Joe. You can blow me later. Let's hear from Google. They're doing blah, blah, blah, and it will be the greatest blah, blah, in the history of the world. Of course, I invented it all."

No word about when Google's greatest blah, blah, blah will be available or even what it will do, but hey, that would only interrupt the Giant Trump Jerk Off.

And on and on. One woman (didn't get her name) went waaaay out on a limb in offering her unearned encomiums to Fatty, lying that "The president realized that the old fashioned (read: Obama) way was not up to the present situation so he personally directed us to blah, blah, blah..."

Directed you to what? Make sure he doesn't continue to look like a fucking schmuck who couldn't find a communicable disease in the Black Hole of Calcutta. That's what.

It was disgusting. A smoke and mirrors Trump pep rally where he got to do things he loves to do....praise himself for being wonderful, declare a National Emergency where I Trump will save everyone! At one point, he slid into his trademarked form of self praise about how he has personally created the situation for the US energy self-sufficiency. (How did we get to energy while talking about a medical emergency??) "They all said it couldn't be done, but I did it in six days. No one else in the history of the world could do it, but I did it."

Did what? Oil prices are at rock bottom because of a pissing contest between two dictators on the other side of the world. Trump had NOTHING to do with anything. But somehow that gets translated into "energy sufficiency" created personally by the Orange Menace. Just incredible.

There were zero details. Lots of bullshit. The half-pence was led out on his leash (embroidered by Mother, no doubt) to announce that there would be hundreds of thousands of testing kits available. At some point. Soon. Sometime soon. Maybe. Hundreds of thousands? How about tens of millions? This is a huge step forward? Hell no. This is something that should have been accomplished a fucking month ago. This is a FIRST STEP, not the final solution for which they should all be crowned with laurel wreaths. "Oh look at how wonderful we all are!" It's like telling troops going into battle that a tenth of them will have a weapon. Soon. And they might even get ammunition! So, good luck. And don't forget to thank us.

Ronald Reagan had it half right. Government IS the problem. Government run by Republicans, that is.

Appalling.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you have some masochistic desire to see the annoucement, here's a less-then-10-minute YouTube video of an ABC News report. It doesn't include the Q&A. For the whole thing, which runs more than an hour, here's another YouTube video.

More on Trump's press conference in Saturday's Commentariat below.

The Commentariat -- March 14, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' coronavirus live updates for Saturday are here. The page is open to nonsubscribers. Among the highlights: "Spain and France announced drastic, countrywide restrictions on Saturday to contain the spread of the coronavirus.... The virus has been reported in more than 2,100 people in 49 [U.S.] states, as well as Washington and Puerto Rico, and has killed at least 48.... It was unclear if Mr. Pence, who interacted with some of the infected Mar-a-Lago visitors, had known that the president was tested. Answering a reporter's question about his own status, Mr. Pence said, 'I'm going to speak immediately after this news conference with the White House physician's office,' which he said had previously advised him that neither he nor his wife needed to be tested.... Despite being pressed repeatedly at the White House news conference on Saturday, Mr. Pence did not share substantive new details about Mr. Trump's earlier claim that Google was developing a website to help people decide whether a test for the coronavirus was warranted and where they could get one.... As thousands of Americans flee from Europe and other centers of the coronavirus outbreak, many travelers are reporting no health screenings upon departure and few impediments at U.S. airports."

Jessie Hellmann & Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump has ordered for travel to be suspended from the United Kingdom and Ireland as the United States seeks to stem the spread of the coronavirus domestically. The restrictions, which take effect Monday night at midnight, don't apply to American travelers returning to the U.S., Vice President Pence said during a White House briefing on Saturday.... Trump said Saturday his administration is also considering domestic travel restrictions. 'If you don't have to travel, I wouldn't do it. We want this thing to end. We don't want a lot of people getting infected,' he said." ~~~

~~~ Trump Unaware of His Own "Decisions." Here's Trump saying that "we're looking very seriously at" extending the European travel ban to the U.K. & Ireland (begins about 34 sec. in):

About 15 minutes later, in the same press briefing, mike pence said, "The President* has made a decision to suspend and travel to the United Kingdom & Ireland":

Susannah Luthi of Politico: "... Donald Trump said on Saturday that he has been tested for coronavirus after being questioned about it Friday. 'I also took the test last night,' Trump said during a briefing at the White House. 'And I decided I should, based on the press conference yesterday. People were asking, "Did I take the test?"' Asked when test results would be returned, he said: 'A day, two days. They send it to a lab.'... Late Friday, press secretary Stephanie Grisham released a memo from the White House physician saying Trump had dined at Mar-a-Lago with a person who has since tested positive for coronavirus. However, Navy Cdr. Sean Conley did not recommend testing the president as a necessity." Mrs. McC: So testing an old man who has been around three known virus carriers is unnecessary? I don't get it. It's almost as if you can't believe a single word that comes out of this White House.

Spitballing a National Crisis. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The administration's struggle to mitigate the coronavirus outbreak has been marked by infighting and blame-shifting, misinformation and missteps, and a slow recognition of the danger. Warring factions have wrestled for control internally and for approval from a president who has been preoccupied with the beating his image is taking.... Jared Kushner ... -- who has zero expertise in infectious diseases and little experience marshaling the full bureaucracy behind a cause -- saw the administration floundering and inserted himself at the helm, believing he could break the logjam of internal dysfunction.... 'People just show up in the Oval and spout off ideas,' said a former senior administration official briefed on the coronavirus discussions. 'He'll either shoot down ideas or embrace ideas quickly. It's an ad hoc free-for-all with different advisers just spitballing.'"

Maureen Dowd: Trump "can't cover up his lack of empathy, his instinct to mislead, his refusal to do his homework and his blame-shifting.... Even when the president stopped being so blithe about the virus, even after his error-ridden national address and his press conference Friday declaring a national emergency -- 'two very big words' -- his attempt at maturity was crystallized in one sound bite. 'No, I don't take responsibility at all,' Trump said, when asked about the egregious lag in testing. It was far from his tweet in 2013, when he loved trolling Obama: 'Leadership: Whatever happens, you're responsible. If it doesn't happen, you're responsible.'"

AP: "The U.S. Defense Department is planning to halt all domestic travel for military members after ... Donald Trump declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency. The Pentagon says Deputy Defense Secretary David Norquist has approved new travel restrictions on service members and Defense Department civilians assigned to military installations and surrounding areas within the United States and its territories." Mrs. McC: Could be partly because "a financial document obtained by The Daily Beast found massive shortfalls for detecting, treating, and preventing COVID-19 from spreading throughout 1.2 million soldiers and Army employees, as well as roughly 3 million dependent family members." (Daily Beast story linked below.)

Linda Qiu of the New York Times lists the major false claims Trump made during his news conference yesterday & summarizes the actual facts: "I don't take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time." "If you go back to the swine flu, it was nothing like this. They didn't do testing like this, and actually they lost approximately 14,000 people, and they didn't do the testing. They started thinking about testing when it was far too late." This is blatantly wrong. Diagnostic tests for the swine flu were approved and shipped out less than two weeks after the H1N1 virus was identified and a day before the first death in the United States. "... Google is helping to develop a website, it's going to be very quickly done, unlike websites of the past, to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location." "As you know, Europe was just designated as the hot spot right now and we closed that border a while ago." "This includes the following critical authorities -- the ability to waive laws to enable telehealth, a fairly new and incredible thing that has happened in the not-so-distant past." It's been used for decades. "When you say me, I didn't do it [disband the White House's pandemic team]. We have a group of people I could ask -- perhaps my administration -- but I could perhaps ask Tony about that because I don't know anything about it." "To help our students and their families, I have waived interest that all student loans held by federal government agencies, and that will be until further notice." This needs context. Mrs. McC: Quite a list.

Grace Panetta & Lauren Frias of Business Insider: "A third person who visited Mar-a-Lago ... has tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Friday. 'Brazil's Chargé d'Affaires Ambassador Nestor Forster has learned tonight that he has tested positive for Covid-19,' the Brazilian embassy in the US announced Friday. 'Following medical advice, Amb. Forster will extend his self-quarantine, which he had already placed himself into as a precautionary measure, for another two weeks.' The Washington Post reported that the second infected person was present at a Sunday fundraising lunch 'hosted by Trump Victory, a committee that raises money for the Trump campaign and the Republican Party.'"

Joanne Kenen of Politico: "Local officials from around the country are worried about the readiness of the U.S. public health system, citing a sharply limited number of ventilators to help some of the sickest coronavirus patients and an inadequate supply of critical care beds in a hospital industry that has gone through years of cutbacks in inpatient beds. As they prepare for an expected influx of patients, local public health officials painted a picture of a system with only a limited 'surge' capacity, and stressed the importance of social distancing as a crucial way to keep the numbers of patients at a level the system can handle."

The Twitter Monster is busy this morning touting yesterday's market surge (hmm, nothing about the previous day's plunge), and promising a "full report latter" on his meetings today.

Oh, and today is Pi Day on account of 3/14 -- 3.14.

~~~~~~~~~~

Jim Tankersley & Emily Cochrane of the New York Times: "... early Saturday, the House passed a bill reflecting a deal with [the Trump] administration to provide billions of dollars to help sick workers and to prop up a slumping economy.... The relief deal, whose cost is unclear, would allow for two weeks of paid sick leave and up to three months of family and medical leave for those affected by the crisis. It provides tax credits to help small- and medium-size businesses finance the new benefit. It does not include the payroll tax suspension that Mr. Trump wants. Any such suspension could cost more than $800 billion and would not provide help to workers who lose their jobs or stop drawing salaries in the outbreak." The Hill's story, which is more comprehensive, is here: "The measure ... passed 363-40...." ~~~

~~~ Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House and House Democrats reached agreement Friday on a coronavirus relief package to spend tens of billions of dollars on sick leave, unemployment insurance, food stamps and other measures to address the unfolding crisis. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announced the agreement in a letter to fellow House Democrats.... A vote to pass the legislation was expected later Friday in the House, and in the Senate next week. The development came after a roller-coaster day that started with a deal seeming imminent, beforefcolli it looked like it was unraveling over successive hours. House Republicans indicated concerns and Trump himself voiced opposition, complaining at an afternoon news conference that Democrats were 'not doing what's right for the country.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: MSNBC is reporting that House Republicans are waiting for Trump to tweet about the package before they'll waive the rules to allow for a vote on it. Bear in mind that this is a deal Pelosi worked out with Trump lackey Steve Mnuchin. You might suspect House Republicans can't think for themselves. I could put this more crudely, but so can you. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Sarah Ferris, et al., of Politico: "Key Republicans said Friday that Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke prematurely when she declared an agreement with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on a large-scale coronavirus package, cautioning that there are still lingering issues to resolve. Mnuchin huddled with ... Donald Trump on Friday evening, more than an hour after Pelosi announced to her members that she and the White House had reached an agreement. Senior House Republicans said Trump has not yet given final sign-off on the package, and there are outstanding problems related to the tax credits to help pay for the sick leave provisions." ~~~

     ~~~ Update: Evidently this is the tweet we've been waiting for:

I fully support H.R. 6201: Families First CoronaVirus Response Act, which will be voted on in the House this evening. This Bill will follow my direction for free CoronaVirus tests, and paid sick leave for our impacted American workers. -- Donald Trump, in a tweet, 8:42 pm ET Friday

This is a farcical way to run a government. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

The New York Times, in its live updates on coronavirus, reports on Donald Trump's announcement of a national emergency. Also linked in the page above.

~~~The Washington Post's report, from the live updates, is here. Also linked in the page above.

~~~ Anita Kumar of Politico has a report here. Also linked in the page above. ~~~

~~~ J.M. Rieger of the Washington Post: "Trump shook hands, patted backs and touched the microphone at the White House lectern at least 31 times Friday, the sort of behaviors health experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have advised against to prevent the spread of the virus.... In total, Trump shook hands four times and patted the backs of officials five times.... When the last executive had finished speaking, Trump offered him a handshake. 'We'll practice that,' LHC Group Executive Vice President Bruce Greenstein said, offering Trump an elbow bump instead.... Over the past week, Trump has interacted with or been close to at least three people who were infected with the virus or who themselves interacted with virus-infected individuals." ~~~

I want to thank Google. Google is helping to develop a website. It's gonna be very quickly done -- unlike websites of the past -- to determine whether a test is warranted and to facilitate testing at a nearby convenient location. We have many, many locations behind us, by the way. We cover this country and large parts of the world, by the way. We're not gonna be talking about the world right now, but we cover very, very strongly our country. Stores in virtually every location. Google has 1,700 engineers working on this right now. They have made tremendous progress. -- Donald Trump, during his press conference Friday ~~~

~~~ Frederic Lardinois of Tech Crunch: "In a press conference at the White House, President Trump [Friday] announced that 1,700 Google engineers were working on a coronavirus screening site. That site was supposedly the first step in a new screening process that would lead people from figuring out if their symptoms warranted more testing to the location of new 'drive through' testing stations. But Trump was wrong. This screening site isn't being developed by Google. Instead, it's being built by Verily, Alphabet's life science division -- and it's not ready to launch yet either. While both share the same parent company in Alphabet, these are two very different companies. In addition, as Verily noted in a statement it provided almost three hours after Trump made the announcement, this site isn't quite ready yet. 'Verily is developing a tool to help triage individuals for COVID-19 testing. We are in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time,' the company said in its statement. 'We appreciate the support of government officials and industry partners and thank the Google engineers who have volunteered to be part of this effort.'" ~~~

~~~ Dieter Bohn of the Verge: "Google is not working with the US government in building a nationwide website to help people determine whether and how to get a novel coronavirus test, despite what ... Donald Trump said in the course of issuing an emergency declaration for the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, a much smaller trial website made by another division of Alphabet, Google's parent company, is going up. It will only be able to direct people to testing facilities in the Bay Area.... Carolyn Wang, communications lead for Verily, told The Verge that the 'triage website' was initially only going to be made available to health care workers instead of the general public. Now that it has been announced the way it was, however, anybody will be able to visit it, she said. But the tool will only be able to direct people to 'pilot sites' for testing in the Bay Area, though Wang says Verily hopes to expand it beyond California 'over time.'" ~~~

~~~ Brian Barrett & Louise Matsakis of Wired: "There is no nationwide site like the one Trump described. And Google had no idea the president was going to mention one.... That the White House is finally treating testing with any kind of urgency is a welcome if belated push. But the apparent miscommunication -- or outright misrepresentation -- may bode poorly for the administration's broader efforts."

Fred Imbert, et al., of CNBC: "Stocks soared Friday as Wall Street rebounded from the sharp losses suffered in the previous session -- the worst since the 'Black Monday' market crash in 1987. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 1,985 points higher, or 9.4%, at 23,185.62. Friday marked the Dow's biggest-ever point gain. The S&P 500 climbed 9.2% to 2,711.02 while the Nasdaq Composite surged 9.3% to 7,874.23. The averages posted their biggest one-day gain since October 2008.... Equities rallied to their session highs into the close after ... Donald Trump also said 50,000 new coronavirus tests will be available next week. Trump also said he asked the Energy Department to purchase oil for the U.S. strategic petroleum reserve, boosting crude prices.... House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said U.S. lawmakers and the White House were close to a deal on economic relief amid the coronavirus outbreak. 'We've resolved most of our differences,' Pelosi told reporters Thursday evening, noting it's about 'testing, testing, testing.'" (An earlier version of this report was linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maggie Haberman & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "President Trump on Friday again [falsely] claimed that his response to the coronavirus was hindered by the Obama administration, which left office three years ago. Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Obama, who served with Mr. Trump's likely Democratic challenger, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., in two posts on Twitter. 'For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it,' Mr. Trump wrote. 'It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped. President Obama made changes that only complicated things further. Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now,' he continued. 'The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!' he wrote. Mr. Trump was not specific about what changes President Barack Obama made to 'complicate things further.'... The F.D.A. took the position that during a public health emergency, nongovernment labs should come to it before doing tests. But at any time, the agency was prepared to suspend that practice, as it did in recently when it gave laboratories and hospitals around the country the go-ahead to conduct tests that had been limited to those analyzed by the C.D.C." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Weirdly, the report never specifically uses the word "falsely" or a word like it, yet the headline is "Trump Falsely Tries to Tie Obama to C.D.C.'s 'Inadequate' Testing System." ~~~

~~~ Lauran Neergaard & Calvin Woodward of the AP: "One day..., Donald Trump boasted of 'smooth' coronavirus testing across the country. The next day, he pronounced the testing system inadequate, and assailed the public-health bureaucracy, Barack Obama and Joe Biden for not fixing it before he became president. But nothing changed in that system over those two days -- Thursday and Friday -- except Trump's stated opinion of it. Trump has been saying inaccurately for days that the public health system was up and ready to give access to diagnostic tests for COVID-19 for everyone who needed them. He said a week ago the 'beautiful' tests were there for all in need. That's not true. But after the government's top infection expert told lawmakers Thursday that the testing system has been a failure, Trump's boasts about preparedness became even less tenable. In tweets Friday, he switched to blaming the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Obama administration, and seemed to hold them responsible for needless deaths in another pandemic. His account is inaccurate." Read on for the explanation.

Another Czar. Jake Sherman & Lauren Morello of Politico: "The administration ... tapped a new 'czar' housed at the Department of Health and Human Services, putting Adm. Brett Giroir in charge of coordinating testing efforts among public health service agencies. Giroir, a medical doctor, is the assistant secretary for health and head of the Public Health Service within HHS and briefly served as acting chief of the FDA last year. HHS Secretary Alex Azar has specifically tasked Giroir with improving coordination between the CDC and the FDA, 'as well as state and local public health authorities and private or public clinical laboratories,' according to an HHS official."

Spencer Ackerman & James LaPorta of the Daily Beast: "As the novel coronavirus threatens to overwhelm the U.S. public health systems, the Pentagon is withholding more than $104 million from the military's most important chemical and biological research facilities -- including a lab that conducts cutting-edge work on infectious diseases -- according to a senior Pentagon official. And that's only one aspect of the military's financial shortfall in the unfolding crisis. A document briefed to the top brass of the Army on Thursday and obtained by The Daily Beast from a second Defense Department official reveals that the service's response to the coronavirus outbreak is short of funding by almost $1 billion.... For the Army more broadly, a financial document obtained by The Daily Beast found massive shortfalls for detecting, treating, and preventing COVID-19 from spreading throughout 1.2 million soldiers and Army employees, as well as roughly 3 million dependent family members."

David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "In one televised event [-- Friday's press conference --], Trump seemed to defy two basic practices that the rest of his government has been urging Americans to follow to prevent the spread of the virus. People who were exposed to an infected person are urged to quarantine themselves and seek testing. And everyone -- exposed or not -- should stop shaking hands.... Trump also said he will not self-quarantine, as members of Congress and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau have chosen to do after known exposures. 'No. We have no symptoms whatsoever,' Trump said.... Late Friday, the White House issued a memo from Trump's White House physician, Navy Cmdr. Sean P. Conley, that said the president does not need to be either tested or quarantined.... It was not clear early Saturday whether than meant that Trump had decided not to be tested after all. Trump's words and behavior seemed to signal that he still may be underestimating the diseases's threat to the country -- and even to his own health." ~~~

~~~ Rachel Olding of the Daily Beast: "Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who met with several U.S. officials including ... Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence during an official visit over the weekend, has denied that he tested positive for the 2019 novel coronavirus. Brazilian news outlet Jornal O Dia and Fox News, citing Bolsonaro's son Eduardo, reported Friday that Bolsonaro had the flu-like virus. He was tested Thursday after his press secretary Fabio Wajngarten, who was part of the visiting Brazilian delegation, tested positive for the virus in a diagnosis confirmed by the president's office.... Bolsonaro's son, Eduardo, had earlier confirmed his father's test result to Fox News and said secondary testing was being done on Friday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Joey Flechas of the Miami Herald: "Miami Mayor Francis Suarez has tested positive for COVID-19 ... four days after the mayor attended a Miami event with a Brazilian government official who later tested positive for the virus.... The mayor was present at Thursday's commission meeting, seated on the dais between City Attorney Victoria Méndez and City Manager Art Noriega for much of the morning. Top-level city administrators who were in close contact with the mayor have been told to self-isolate. Government workers who do not need to be physically present at city offices are being told to work from home. Suarez was one of several politicians, including Miami-Dade Mayor Carlos Gimenez, Sen. Rick Scott and ... Donald Trump, who interacted with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his staff during a visit to South Florida last week. The mayor went into isolation Thursday after learning that one of Boslonaro's staffers tested positive." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Veronica Stracqualursi & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "Australia's home affairs minister confirmed Friday that he tested positive for the novel coronavirus, less than a week after meeting with Attorney General William Barr, senior White House adviser Ivanka Trump and other White House officials. In a statement, Minister Peter Dutton said that he woke up on Friday morning 'with a temperature and sore throat' and was 'subsequently tested for COVID-19.' Dutton was advised by Queensland Health that his tests returned positive on Friday afternoon. Dutton had met with Trump, Barr, Counselor to the President Kellyanne Conway and Director of the Domestic Policy Council Joe Grogan in the US less than a week ago." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Zahra Hirji & Katie Baker of BuzzFeed News have mapped out the "growing number of people in ... Donald Trump's orbit have been in contact with someone known to be infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus -- with a few testing positive themselves."

Yeah, That Was a Hostage Video. Shannon Pettypiece of NBC News: "As ... Donald Trump jetted back to Washington on Monday after a weekend of golfing and fundraising in Florida, an intervention was awaiting him at the White House. Administration officials, increasingly concerned about the messaging on and response to the coronavirus, had spent the weekend scrambling to craft a strategy to shift the president's response, which had been focused on downplaying the threat and accusing the media of creating undue concern, according to people involved in the effort. So, as Trump stepped off Marine One and walked straight to the West Wing just after 3 p.m. Monday, his top economic and health officials were waiting to make their case for why a more serious fiscal and public health response was urgently needed. Those at the meeting included economic adviser Larry Kudlow, Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin." (Also linked yesterday.)

Collins to Trump: STFU. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said public health officials, not President Trump, should lead the administration's messaging on the coronavirus. Collins, speaking to reporters in Maine, said the president should 'step back' from the administration's public coronavirus messaging, which she characterized as 'inconsistent' so far.... Collins's comments on Friday came before a Rose Garden press conference in which Trump declared a national emergency that allows the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to tap into billions of dollars and mobilize personnel more quickly to help state and local agencies and leaders respond."

Terry Gross of NPR interviews Politico reporter Dan Diamond where he reports that the Trump administration knew about the need for testing kits back in January. --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Here's a major report, dated March 7, by Diamond on Trump's mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis: "For six weeks behind the scenes, and now increasingly in public, Trump has undermined his administration's own efforts to fight the coronavirus outbreak -- resisting attempts to plan for worst-case scenarios, overturning a public-health plan upon request from political allies and repeating only the warnings that he chose to hear. Members of Congress have grilled top officials like Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Centers for Disease Control Director Robert Redfield over the government's biggest mistake: failing to secure enough testing to head off a coronavirus outbreak in the United States. But many current and former Trump administration officials say the true management failure was Trump's."(Previously linked in the March 8 Commentariat.)

Now, This Isn't Funny. John Koblin of the New York Times: "'The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,' 'The Late Show With Stephen Colbert' and 'Late Night With Seth Meyers' are all suspending production next week, NBC and CBS said Thursday, making them the biggest daily American television series to go off the air because of concerns surrounding the coronavirus pandemic. The earliest date that the three shows would return with new episodes is March 30, the networks said. 'Saturday Night Live,' which like 'The Tonight Show' and 'Late Night' tapes at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, is on hiatus until March 28. Its immediate future could be in doubt as well." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Jacob Pramuk of CNBC: "Louisiana will postpone its presidential primaries set for next month, becoming the first state to take the step as fears about the coronavirus outbreak spread. The state will push its presidential nominating contests back to June 20 from the planned date of April 4, Secretary of State Kyle Ardoin announced Friday. It has also delayed its municipal elections until July 25." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

John Kruzel of the Hill: "A full federal appeals court bench will reconsider a Democratic bid for the testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn, after a three-judge panel said he could defy a congressional subpoena. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday said a majority of judges had voted to vacate the panel's ruling and hold a rehearing, which will take place April 28. The review by the full bench, a relatively rare procedural allowance, gives the Democratic-led House Judiciary Committee another chance to persuade the court to enforce its subpoena against McGahn, whom lawmakers consider an eyewitness to wrongdoing by Trump."

Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: A former Hawaii state judge, James Dannenberg, has resigned from the prestigious Supreme Court Bar. "On Wednesday, Dannenberg tendered a letter of resignation from the Supreme Court Bar to Chief Justice John Roberts. He has been a member of that bar since 1972. In his letter, reprinted in full below, Dannenberg compares the current Supreme Court, with its boundless solicitude for the rights of the wealthy, the privileged, and the comfortable, to the court that ushered in the Lochner era in the early 20^th century, a period of profound judicial activism that put a heavy thumb on the scale for big business, banking, and insurance interests, and ruled consistently against child labor, fair wages, and labor regulations."

Cristiano Lima of Politico: "Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has stepped down from the company's board of directors to devote more time to his philanthropic projects, the firm announced Friday. Gates, who oversaw the software giant's meteoric rise through the late 20th and early 21st century before stepping back from day-to-day operations, will continue to serve as technology adviser to CEO Satya Nadella and others, Microsoft announced in a press release."

Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "The National Geographic revealed in a story on Friday that what the Museum of the Bible has claimed are fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls are a complete fraud. The museum, founded by Hobby Lobby CEO Steve Green, already faced problems when they were 'forced to forfeit thousands of cuneiform texts from Iraq, and pay a $3 million fine for illicit importation,' reported Politico.... [Re: the fake scroll fragments,] the museum says that they were duped by the collector and Green, as well as biblical scholars. 'The new findings don't cast doubt on the 100,000 real Dead Sea Scroll fragments, most of which lie in the Shrine of the Book, part of the Israel Museum, Jerusalem,' said National Geographic."

Beyond the Beltway

Florida. David Smiley & David Ovalle of the Tampa Bay Times: "Andrew Gillum, who in 2018 came within 34,000 votes of becoming Florida's governor, was discovered by police at a South Beach hotel early Friday morning in a room with bags of possible methamphetamine and in the company of a man who appeared to have overdosed on drugs, according to a Miami Beach police report. Police say they were called to the Mondrian South Beach early Friday morning and found paramedics treating Travis Dyson, a 30-year-old Miami man, for an apparent heart attack. They say two other men were in the room: Aldo Mejias and Gillum. Police say Gillum, who was not arrested, was too intoxicated to answer questions. An offense incident report says that officers found three clear plastic baggies of suspected crystal meth on the bed and floor. Gillum, a former Tallahassee mayor and Democrat, issued a statement Friday afternoon in which he denied using drugs. 'I was in Miami last night for a wedding celebration when first responders were called to assist one of my friends. While I had too much to drink, I want to be clear that I have never used methamphetamines,' he said. 'I apologize to the people of Florida for the distraction this has caused our movement.'"