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Wednesday, April 15, 2020





APRIL 13 AND 14, 2020

PROGRESSIVE OPINION AND NEWS


COVID-19 NEWS

GOVERNORS ARE FORMING ALLIANCES ON BOTH COASTS TO WORK TOGETHER ON THE PANDEMIC AND ITS’ EFFECTS. THAT SOUNDS EMINENTLY INTELLIGENT AND PRODUCTIVE TO ME, BUT TRUMP CALLS IT “MUTINY.” I CALL IT DEMOCRACY, AND SO APPARENTLY DO THE GOVERNORS. GOVERNOR CUOMO SAID: “WE DON’T HAVE A KING; WE HAVE A PRESIDENT,” AND WARNED OF A CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS LIKE WE HAVEN’T HAD IN DECADES IF THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TRIES TO FORCE STATES TO OPEN UP SOONER THAN THEY DEEM SAFE.

Coronavirus Live Updates: Governors Push Back at Trump Over Authority to Reopen
Governors on the East and West Coasts formed alliances to coordinate future action, prompting President Trump to compare the move to a “mutiny.” The I.M.F. issued a stark warning about economic fallout.
Updated April 14, 2020, 1:23 p.m. ET

RIGHT NOW -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said that 778 more people had died in the state, a number that was “basically flat at a devastating level.” The total number of deaths in the state is 10,834.

Video   1:21 Min. -- ‘That Is Not an Accurate Statement’: Cuomo Pushes Back Against Trump

VIDEO CAPTION -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York cautioned against easing protective measures too quickly and challenged President Trump’s claim that the decision to reopen states for business was his alone. CreditCredit...Gabby Jones for The New York Times

Here’s what you need to know:

*Governors push back on Trump’s claim that he “calls the shots.”
*The I.M.F. predicts the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
*The one-day virus death toll in New York State rose again after two days of deaths falling.
*U.S. officials and executives wrestle with issues over buying medical equipment or taking donations from China.
*An appeals court allows medication abortions in Texas again — for now.
*Obama endorses Biden for president as Democrats turn to unifying the party.
*Jailed youths are seeking to be released as the virus spreads.
*Sign up to receive an email alert when we update our live coronavirus coverage.

PHOTOGRAPH -- A pedestrian walks passed closed businesses in The Bronx on Tuesday. Credit...Desiree Rios for The New York Times 

Governors push back on Trump’s claim that he “calls the shots.”

Governors responded scornfully Tuesday to President Trump’s insistence — widely challenged by legal scholars — that he has the authority to direct the reopening of the American economy by himself.

“We don’t have a king; we have a president,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said Tuesday on NBC’s “Today.” In a separate appearance on MSNBC, he warned that if Mr. Trump tried to force an economic reopening on the states, it could lead to “a constitutional crisis like you haven’t seen in decades, where states tell the federal government, ‘We’re not going to follow your order.’”

One of Mr. Cuomo’s partners in the coordinated effort to reopen the Northeast, Gov. Ned Lamont, Democrat of Connecticut, told CNN that “verbal hand grenades” from Mr. Trump should not “distract from a lot of other good work that’s going on.”

And Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican who is the chairman of the National Governors Association, pushed back after Mr. Trump opined on Twitter that the decision to reopen states rested with him, and not with governors.

“It’s not my understanding of the Constitution,” Mr. Hogan said in an interview Monday on CNN, taking pains to praise the cooperation of the federal government while making it clear that he believes the ultimate authority will lie with the states and their governors.

“Governors made decisions to take various actions in their states, based on what they thought was right for their state, based on the facts on the ground, talking with doctors and scientists,” Mr. Hogan said in the interview. “And I think individual governors who made those decisions will have the ultimate decision about what to do with their states.”

The governors have been reacting to Mr. Trump’s signals in recent days — which culminated in an extraordinary briefing at the White House on Monday evening — that he alone had the ultimate power to make the decision of when to ease the stay-at-home orders and other restrictions that governors across the country enacted to slow the spread of the virus. In the White House briefing Mr. Trump claimed that “numerous provisions” in the Constitution, which he did not name, gave him the authority to override the states if they wanted to remain closed. Legal experts say presidents have no such power.“The president of the United States calls the shots,” Mr. Trump said. “They can’t do anything without the approval of the president of the United States.”

His position — a reversal of his earlier arguments that states were largely in charge of fighting the pandemic — raised profound constitutional questions about presidential power and set him once again on a potential collision course with the states.

And after groups of governors on the East and West Coasts announced Monday that they planned to work together in regional groups to decided when and how to reopen business, Mr. Trump compared them in a Twitter post to mutineers who took over a ship from a captain they believed was abusing his crew.

Although Mr. Cuomo excoriated Mr. Trump in interview after interview on Tuesday, he adopted a more conciliatory tone by late morning, when he held a news conference in Albany.

“I am not going to fight with him,” Mr. Cuomo said of the president, adding that, “This is no time for any division between the federal government and the state government.” He allowed, though, that he believed Mr. Trump was “clearly spoiling for a fight on this issue.”

Beyond Democratic governors and legal scholars, some of Mr. Trump’s Republican allies have also questioned the president’s sweeping claim of executive power. Representative Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming and a daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, posted the text of the Tenth Amendment on Twitter.


Liz Cheney
@Liz_Cheney
The federal government does not have absolute power.

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” United States Constitution, Amendment X

37.4K
7:42 PM - Apr 13, 2020
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15.9K people are talking about this

RELATED ARTICLE -- “TOTAL” AUTHORITY Read the full analysis of Mr. Trump’s broad assertion of presidential power.



THE UNITARY EXECUTIVE THEORY AS ESPOUSED BY GEORGE W BUSH (SEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unitary_executive_theory) IS BEING PUSHED DAY BY DAY BY DONALD TRUMP TO ITS LIMITS, IF THERE ARE ANY. IT APPEARS TO ME THAT OUR DEMOCRATIC SOCIETY IS CRUMBLING AND HAS BEEN FOR DECADES. DONALD TRUMP AND HIS BEHAVIOR ARE A RESULT AND NOT THE ORIGIN. THE ORIGIN IS PUBLIC PASSIVITY, OFTEN BECAUSE THEY DON’T FEEL EMPOWERED ENOUGH TO PUT UP A REAL STRUGGLE. THAT NEEDS TO CHANGE. SEE THE REPORTS BELOW ON A SERIES OF PROGRESSIVE YOUNGER VOTER GROUPS ON THE SUBJECT.

FACT CHECK
Trump Falsely Claims ‘Ultimate Authority’ to Override States’ Virus Measures
Constitutional experts, government agencies and Republican governors all say otherwise.
PHOTOGRAPH -- Linda Qiu
By Linda Qiu
April 14, 2020, Updated 8:24 a.m. ET

President Trump, in a combative news conference on Monday, falsely and repeatedly asserted that he had the unilateral power to compel states to lift stay-at-home orders and businesses to open. Here’s a fact check of that and other claims.

WHAT WAS SAID

Reporter: “There’s a debate over what authority you have to order the country reopened. What authority do you have on this one?”
Mr. Trump: “Well, I have the ultimate authority.”

False. He does not have the authority to override stay-at-home or shelter-in-place orders from governors, or “total” authority in general.

“I don’t know of anything that would allow him to do this,” said Chris Edelson, a professor of government at American University. “We live in a constitutional system with checks and balances. Nobody has total authority.”

“The President has no formal legal authority to categorically override local or state shelter-in-place orders or to reopen schools and small businesses,” Stephen I. Vladeck, a professor at the University of Texas School of Law, said on Twitter. “No statute delegates to him such power; no constitutional provision invests him with such authority.”

At his news briefing, Mr. Trump repeated his position a number of times.

“The president of the United States calls the shots,” he said. “They can’t do anything without the approval of the president of the United States.”

Asked what provisions of the Constitution gave him such authority over the states, he replied, “Numerous provisions,” without naming any. “When somebody’s the president of the United States, the authority is total.”

Latest Updates: Coronavirus Outbreak in the U.S.
Governors push back on Trump’s claim that he “calls the shots.”
The I.M.F. predicts the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
The one-day virus death toll in New York State rose again after two days of deaths falling.
See more updates
Updated 1m ago
More live coverage: Global Markets New York

Even the emergency powers granted to the federal government come with limits and “none of these authorities says the president can do anything that he wants,” said Elizabeth Goitein, who directs the Brennan Center for Justice’s Liberty & National Security Program.

“The framers of the Constitution did not come up with a system” without limits on executive power, she added. “They were kind of trying to do the opposite of that.”

While the federal government has authority over interstate and foreign quarantine measures, states have the primary authority to impose and enforce quarantine and isolation measures within their own borders, as part of the police powers conferred to states by the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, according to the Congressional Research Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, in batting down untrue rumors on its website, noted that “states and cities are responsible for announcing curfews, shelters in place, or other restrictions and safety measures.” Mr. Trump’s claims were also contradicted by Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland and Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, both Republicans, who said on Monday that the decision to lift measures was up to the states.

“Just last week, we were asking: Why no national lockdown? The answer is that state governors are responsible for the health of their populations, as Trump himself has said,” said Polly J. Price, a professor of global health and law at Emory University. “Is Trump’s next step to nationalize the manicure industry? Because unless he is going to nationalize specific businesses, like wartime industry, this is a state matter.”

Even in a hypothetical scenario, Mr. Trump would be limited in how he can act. Congress could conceivably pass a law on interstate commerce that would effectively compel states to rescind their stay-at-home orders, but the president could not unilaterally act to do so. Similarly, while it’s possible that classified draft documents or the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel have argued for an expansion of executive power including authority to override governors, such powers have yet to be invoked and could still be challenged in court.

Though Mr. Trump said he could provide “a legal brief” on “numerous provisions” in the Constitution that outline his authority to override governors, the White House did not respond when asked for the brief or other evidence of the president’s claims.

WHAT WAS SAID

“Nobody is asking for ventilators.”

False. Several governors continued to speak about existing or impending shortages of ventilators and other supplies.

“Everybody still has tremendous needs on personal protective equipment and ventilators and all of these things that you keep hearing about. Everybody’s fighting to find these things all over the — all over the nation and all over the world,” Mr. Hogan said on ABC's “This Week” on Sunday.

“The White House, over the past number of weeks, has delivered a series of tranches of ventilators and other personal protective equipment. But we continue to be shy on all — all fronts,” Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey said that same day on CBS.

WHAT WAS SAID

“When on January 31, I instituted the ban, Joe Biden went crazy. He said you don’t need the ban … He called me xenophobic. He called me a racist, because he has since apologized and he said I did the right thing.”

This is exaggerated. Mr. Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has generally criticized Mr. Trump for “xenophobia” and “fear-mongering” in his response to the coronavirus. But The Times was unable to find an instance of him using those words to describe the restrictions Mr. Trump imposed on travel from China in January. Mr. Trump later used the phrase “Chinese virus” in describing the outbreak.

In April, the Biden campaign said that Mr. Biden supported the restrictions, as they had the backing of scientists and public health officials. There is no public record of an apology to Mr. Trump.

WHAT WAS SAID

“The United States has conducted three million tests for the virus, three million, the most of any nation.”

This is misleading. Mr. Trump’s figures were in line with estimates from the COVID Tracking Project, which reported about 2.9 million tests, or about 883 tests per 100,000 people, as of Monday night. That is the most in the world in raw numbers, but the United States still lags behind other countries in testing per capita. In comparison, South Korea has conducted 958 tests per 100,000 and Italy more than 1,700 tests per 100,000.

The president noted this distinction moments later when he touted New York’s testing figures in per capita terms.

Curious about the accuracy of a claim? Email factcheck@nytimes.com.

*The President and the Coronavirus Crisis
*Trump’s combative defense of his response.
*Trump Leaps to Call Shots on Reopening Nation, Setting Up Standoff With Governors April 13, 2020
*Trump Turns Daily Coronavirus Briefing Into a Defense of His Record April 13, 2020
*Coronavirus Live Updates: Governors Push Back at Trump Over Authority to Reopen April 14, 2020

Linda Qiu is a fact-check reporter, based in Washington. She came to The Times in 2017 from the fact-checking service PolitiFact. @ylindaqiu 


FACT CHECK
Trump’s Baseless Claim That a Recession Would Be Deadlier Than the Coronavirus
The opposite is more likely to be true, according to research and experts.
By Linda Qiu
March 26, 2020

PHOTOGRAPH -- President Trump during a coronavirus briefing at the White House on Wednesday. Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York Times

President Trump, in saying that he wanted to reopen the economy by Easter, has argued that an economic downturn would be more deadly than the coronavirus.

WHAT WAS SAID

“You have suicides over things like this when you have terrible economies. You have death. Probably — and I mean definitely — would be in far greater numbers than the numbers that we’re talking about with regard to the virus.”
— at a news conference on Monday

“You’re going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression.”
— during a virtual town hall on Fox News on Tuesday

This lacks evidence. Though the question of the overall impact of recessions on mortality remains unsettled, experts disputed Mr. Trump’s claim that an economic downturn would be more deadly than a pandemic. (The White House did not respond when asked for the source of the president’s 

“All these effects of economic expansions or recessions on mortality that can be seen, e.g., during the Great Depression or the Great Recession, are tiny if compared with the mortality effects of a pandemic,” said Dr. José A. Tapia, a professor of public health and economics at Drexel University who has written several studies on the topic.

Latest Updates: Coronavirus Outbreak in the U.S.
A rift between the White House and states threatens a cohesive response.
The I.M.F. predicts the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.
As a recession looms, Democrats call for tougher financial regulation.
See more updates
Updated 12m ago
More live coverage: Global Markets New York

It is difficult to disaggregate the impact of an economic downturn on health and mortality from other factors. Those who become unemployed do tend to have higher levels of depression and bad health. But for the general population, studies have found that death rates from other causes — cardiovascular disease, respiratory diseases, and traffic and industrial injuries — were either unchanged or actually decreased.

For example, a 2012 study found that suicides did increase during the Depression of the 1930s, but the death rate for car accidents decreased and no significant effects were observed for 30 other causes of death in the United States. A 2009 study found that mortality actually decreased across almost all ages during the Depression. Researchers last year also found that mortality rates overall declined from 2005 to 2010, a period that covered the deep recession that ran from late 2007 through mid-2009.

In comparison, projections from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated that deaths from the coronavirus in the United States could range from 200,000 to 1.7 million.

Mr. Trump is right to be concerned about the trend of increased suicides during recessions, said Aaron Reeves, a professor and sociologist at Oxford University and the lead author of a 2012 study that estimated an excess of 4,750 suicides in the United States after 2007, coinciding with the recession. But in a scenario in which workplaces and businesses reopen and social distancing is more limited but people continue to wash their hands, Mr. Reeves said, “my sense is that this virus would almost certainly kill more people under those conditions than suicides would.”

Moreover, it is not inevitable that a recession would lead to excess suicides. In countries and American states with adequate social programs in place, the impact of economic downturns can be reduced.

“There are some choices that governments have about how you potentially offset the consequences of recessions that may come,” Mr. Reeves said, pointing to the $2 trillion economic package passed by the Senate. “Trump could put in place more to protect those people if he’s worried about suicides.”

Experts also warned that the argument about whether to stave off a recession or contain the coronavirus was a somewhat false choice. If efforts to mitigate the coronavirus abate and cases and deaths spiral out of control, the economy would also be affected by self-imposed lockdowns.

The mental health effects of high levels of unemployment during a recession, too, would have its parallels if the United States suffered colossal loss of lives. That would bring about “communal bereavement,” where there is widespread distress and feelings of loss even among those who do not know the deceased, and its associated health risks, said Ralph Catalano, a professor of public health at the University of California at Berkeley.

“I’d rather contain the epidemic first and then take my chances with the recession,” Mr. Catalano said. “Humans control recessions; mindless nature controls epidemics. It’s just bad medicine to mix epidemiology and economics right now.”

Curious about the accuracy of a claim? Email factcheck@nytimes.com.

Linda Qiu is a fact-check reporter, based in Washington. She came to The Times in 2017 from the fact-checking service PolitiFact. @ylindaqiu 


Updated April 13, 2020, 6:34 p.m. ET 2 minutes ago
Coronavirus Live Updates: Governors Weigh Reopening Plans; Trump Lashes Out Over Criticism 
Governors on both coasts and economic policymakers around the world are starting to debate how and when to reopen. Dr. Anthony Fauci clarifies remarks on mitigation strategy. The Census Bureau will request a four-month delay.

PHOTOGRAPH -- President Trump presented a campaign-style video during a coronavirus news briefing on Monday. Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

RIGHT NOW -- President Trump got defensive over his administration’s coronavirus response in his daily briefing, playing a campaign-style video and criticizing the news media.
  
Here’s what you need to know:
*The Census Bureau will seek a four-month delay.
*Governors on both coasts form regional groups to consider when and how to reopen.
*Business leaders and the C.D.C. warn the economy will recover slowly, even as pressure grows to reopen it.
*A major meat plant is closing indefinitely, and a chief executive warns about supply chain.
*A stalemate in Congress over interim emergency aid seems likely to continue.
Fauci seeks to clarify his remarks about Trump’s response as the White House says the president does not intend to fire him.
*Facing testing backlogs, sick patients wait all night in their cars at drive-through sites. Then they wait more. 

The Census Bureau will seek a four-month delay.

Conceding that its effort to count the nation’s population has been hamstrung by the pandemic, the Census Bureau said Monday that it would ask Congress for a four-month delay in delivering the population data used to reapportion the House of Representatives and political districts across the country.

In a news release, the bureau said the new deadline would mean that state legislatures would get final figures for drawing new district maps as late as July 31, 2021. Delivery of that data normally begins in February.

The bureau also said it would extend the deadline for collecting census data, now Aug. 15, to Oct. 31, and would begin reopening its field offices — which have been shuttered since mid-March — sometime after June 1.

Democrats who oversee census operations on the House Oversight and Reform Committee reacted cautiously to the news, which they said was relayed early Monday to a handful of members of Congress in a telephone call with officials from the White House and the Commerce Department. The director of the census, Steven Dillingham, apparently did not participate in the call.

“The Oversight Committee will carefully examine the administration’s request, but we need more information than the administration has been willing to provide,” the committee’s chairwoman, Representative Carolyn B. Maloney of New York, said in a statement. “If the administration is trying to avoid the perception of politicizing the census, preventing the census director from briefing the Committee and then excluding him from a call organized by the White House are not encouraging moves.”

The 2020 head count has been mired in controversy for more than two years, since the administration tried to amend the census questionnaire to add a citizenship query, which was widely seen as an effort to depress participation by immigrant communities in order to give Republicans a political edge in next year’s redistricting.


TO TRACK THE DAILY PROGRESS OF THE INFECTIONS, SEE THIS SITE:


NYT CORONA UPDATES CONTINUE

Governors on both coasts form regional groups to consider when and how to reopen.

VIDEO -- Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York said that some East Coast states would form a working group to develop a plan for reopening the region.CreditCredit...Peter Foley/EPA, via Shutterstock

Two groups of governors, one on the East Coast and one on the West Coast, announced Monday that they were forming regional working groups to help plan when it would be safe to begin to ease coronavirus-related restrictions to reopen their economies.

Their announcements came hours after President Trump, who has expressed impatience to reopen the economy, wrote on Twitter that such a decision lies with the president, not the states.

“Well, seeing as we had the responsibility for closing the state down,” Gov. Tom Wolf of Pennsylvania said, “I think we probably have the primary responsibility for opening it up.”

He joined the governors of Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island on a conference call, where they agreed to create a committee of public health officials, economic development officials and their chiefs of staff to work together as they decide when to ease the restrictions they have put in place to slow the spread of the virus. They said they did not necessarily expect to act together or to create a one-size-fits-all solution, but they stressed the need for regional cooperation.

On the West Coast, the governors of California, Oregon and Washington also announced Monday what they called a Western States Pact to work together on a joint approach to reopening economies. They said that while each state would have its own specific plan, the states would build out a West Coast strategy that would include how to control the virus in the future. “Our states will only be effective by working together,” they said in a joint statement.

Gov. Gavin Newsom of California said on Monday that he had been in discussions with the other governors to coordinate efforts on the West Coast. He said that on Tuesday he would outline the “California-based thinking” on reopening and promised it would be guided by “facts,” “evidence” and “science.”

The stay-at-home orders that have kept a vast majority of Americans indoors were issued state by state, by their governors. The president did issue nonbinding guidelines urging a pause in daily life through the end of the month; in some states that had resisted such measures, including Florida, his input helped spur governors to act. If the federal government were to issue new guidance saying it was safe to relax those measures or outlining a path toward reopening, many states would most likely follow or feel tremendous pressure from their businesses and constituents to relax restrictions.

But Mr. Trump, who said Friday that the decision of when to reopen the country would be the biggest he would ever make, said Monday on Twitter that it was up to the president, not the governors, to decide when to reopen the states.

“A decision by me, in conjunction with the Governors and input from others, will be made shortly!” he wrote.

Still, several of the governors who spoke Monday made it clear that they did not intend to let businesses in their states reopen until experts and data suggested it would be safe to do so. They noted that their fates were bound by geography. “The reality is this virus doesn’t care about state borders, and our response shouldn’t either,” Gov. Gina Raimondo of Rhode Island said.

“We can put together a system that allows our people to get back to work,” Gov. Ned Lamont of Connecticut said. But he warned against reopening too soon and risking a second wave of infections.

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott said Monday that he was working closely with the White House on his plan to reopen the state’s businesses. He called for a staggered approach in which businesses that have a minimal impact on the spread of the virus would open up first.

“This is not going to be a rush-the-gates” situation, said Mr. Abbott, who has been criticized for making Texas one of the last states to issue a statewide stay-at-home order.

Earlier on Monday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo said New York’s known death toll had exceeded 10,000, with 671 people dying on Sunday. Nearly 2,000 more people were hospitalized on Sunday — a vast number, though lower than previous tallies — and there were fewer intubations. But even as he hinted that he believed that “the worst is over,” he warned the situation would worsen if New Yorkers behaved recklessly.

“Not as bad as it has been in the past, but basically flat, and basically flat at a horrific level of pain and grief and sorrow,” Mr. Cuomo said.

There are more than 500,000 confirmed cases in the United States and more than 23,000 people dead, according to a New York Times database. In one case, a sailor assigned to the aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt died of complications stemming from the virus, according to Navy officials. It was the first death for the ship’s crew, which numbers more than 4,800.

Deaths in New York City Are More Than Double the Usual Total
Deaths from all causes have surged, undermining arguments that coronavirus numbers have been overblown.
April 10, 2020

PANDEMIC POLITICS Read the full story on how New York’s top political leaders can’t seem to make peace. And check out our live coverage on New York.
Business leaders and the C.D.C. warn the economy will recover slowly, even as pressure grows to reopen it.

Image -- Empty streets during what would be morning rush hour on Monday in the East Village neighborhood of Manhattan.Credit...Brittainy Newman/The New York Times

Mr. Trump is in a rush to lift restrictions, convinced that the move will rocket the economy out of a deep recession.

Companies say otherwise. So does a wide variety of economic and survey data, which suggests the economy will recover slowly even after the government begins to ease limits on public gatherings and allow certain restaurants and other closed shops to reopen.

U.S. stocks slipped on Monday, a retreat that followed one of Wall Street’s best weeks in decades, as investors weighed the implications of a deal to cut oil production and awaited the release of quarterly earnings reports from corporate America. The S&P 500 fell about 1 percent.


TORNADOES

Tornadoes that have killed at least 29 people add to the woes of the South as it grapples with the virus.

Tornadoes and severe thunderstorms killed at least 29 people in the South after raking across Mississippi and its neighbors on Sunday night, dealing the region another blow as virus infections mount.

Gov. Tate Reeves of Mississippi declared a state of emergency, and parts of Georgia, Tennessee and Arkansas were also hit by tornadoes and severe thunderstorms on Monday, the National Weather Service said.

“This is not how anyone wants to celebrate Easter Sunday,” Mr. Reeves said in a statement. “As we reflect on the death and resurrection on this Easter Sunday, we have faith that we will all rise together.”

The storms struck as the virus ravaged pockets across the South, where public health officials fear potentially devastating effects because of a mix of bad health, poverty and flimsy insurance options for the working poor.

A study involving chloroquine is stopped over concerns of fatal heart complications.

A small study of chloroquine, which is closely related to the hydroxychloroquine drug that Mr. Trump has promoted, was halted in Brazil after virus patients taking a higher dose developed irregular heart rates that increased their risk of a potentially fatal arrhythmia.

The study, which involved 81 hospitalized patients in the city of Manaus, was sponsored by the Brazilian state of Amazonas. Roughly half the participants were prescribed 450 milligrams of chloroquine twice daily for five days, while the rest were prescribed 600 milligrams for 10 days.

Within three days, researchers started noticing heart arrhythmias in patients taking the higher dose. By the sixth day of treatment, 11 patients had died, leading to an immediate end to the high-dose segment of the trial.

The researchers said the study did not have enough patients in the lower-dose trial to conclude whether chloroquine was effective in patients with severe cases of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus.

Patients in the trial were also given the antibiotic azithromycin, which carries the same heart risk. Hospitals in the United States are using azithromycin to treat virus patients, often in combination with hydroxychloroquine.

Mr. Trump has promoted them as a potential treatment for the virus despite little evidence that they work, and despite concerns from health officials. Companies that manufacture both drugs are ramping up production.

Asked Monday whether the World Health Organization would recommend using either chloroquine or hydroxychloroquine to treat virus patients, Dr. Michael Ryan, the executive director of the organization’s health emergencies program, said: “There is no empirical evidence from randomized controlled trials that they have worked, and clinicians have also been cautioned to look out for side effects of the drugs to ensure that first we do no harm. We eagerly await the outcome of clinical trials that are underway.”

Russia has spread disinformation about health for more than a decade.
The pandemic has been accompanied by a dangerous surge of false information — an “infodemic,” according to the World Health Organization. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has played a principal role in the spread of false information as part of his wider effort to discredit the West, analysts say.

An investigation by The New York Times — involving scores of interviews as well as a review of scholarly papers, news reports and Russian documents, tweets and TV shows — found that Mr. Putin has spread misinformation on health issues for more than a decade.

His agents have repeatedly planted and spread the idea that viral epidemics — including flu outbreaks, Ebola and now the coronavirus — were sown by American scientists. The disinformers have also sought to undermine faith in the safety of vaccines, a triumph of public health that Mr. Putin himself promotes at home.

Moscow’s aim, experts say, is to portray American officials as playing down the health alarms and thus posing serious threats to public safety.

“It’s all about seeding lack of trust in government institutions,” Peter Pomerantsev, the author of “Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible,” a 2014 book on Kremlin disinformation, said in an interview.

The State Department recently accused Russia of using thousands of social media accounts to spread coronavirus misinformation, including a conspiracy theory that the United States engineered the pandemic.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in May by phone.
The Supreme Court on Monday outlined its plan for meeting during the pandemic, announcing that it would hear arguments by telephone over six days in May, including cases on subpoenas from prosecutors and Congress seeking the president’s financial records.

“In keeping with public health guidance in response to Covid-19,” a news release from the court said, “the justices and counsel will all participate remotely. The court anticipates providing a live audio feed of these arguments to news media. Details will be shared as they become available.”

The court said arguments would be heard on May 4, 5, 6, 11, 12 and 13, and it listed the 10 sets of arguments it would hear. But it did not say which cases would be heard when. That would depend, the court said, on “the availability of counsel.”

The court said it would also hear arguments over whether members of the Electoral College must cast their votes as they had pledged to do.

The virus contingency plans came as the court was asked to reconsider a decision in light of the pandemic. Three states asked the court to revisit a January ruling that allowed the Trump administration to move forward with plans to deny green cards to immigrants who make even occasional and minor use of public benefits like Medicaid.

New York, Connecticut and Vermont, along with New York City, asked the justices to temporarily suspend the new program in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

“Every person who doesn’t get the health coverage they need today risks infecting another person with the coronavirus tomorrow,” said Letitia James, New York’s attorney general. “Immigrants provide us with health care, care for our elderly, prepare and deliver our food, clean our hospitals and public spaces, and take on so many other essential roles in our society, which is why we should all be working to make testing and health coverage available to every single person in this country, regardless of immigration status.”

The pandemic, the motion said, had changed the legal calculus and justified loosening the administration’s new requirements for the so-called public charge rule.

‘The player-coaches for the real world.’
As Americans hunker down during the pandemic, free fitness workouts, many of them delightfully low-tech, have multiplied on social media platforms.

Here’s what else is happening in the world.

Reporting was contributed by Tim Arango, Mike Baker, Peter Baker, Alan Blinder, Jonah Engel Bromwich, Emily Cochrane, Michael Cooper, Jason DeParle, Sandra E. Garcia, Thomas Gibbons-Neff, Christine Hauser, Jack Healy, John Ismay, Clifford Krauss, Adam Liptak, Jeffery C. Mays, Jesse McKinley, Aimee Ortiz, Alan Rappeport, Dagny Salas, Marc Santora, Karen Schwartz, Eliza Shapiro, Knvul Sheikh, Eileen Sullivan, Vanessa Swales, Jim Tankersley, Katie Thomas and Michael Wines. 


The Coronavirus Outbreak
Frequently Asked Questions and Advice
Updated April 11, 2020

When will this end?
This is a difficult question, because a lot depends on how well the virus is contained. A better question might be: “How will we know when to reopen the country?” In an American Enterprise Institute report, Scott Gottlieb, Caitlin Rivers, Mark B. McClellan, Lauren Silvis and Crystal Watson staked out four goal posts for recovery: Hospitals in the state must be able to safely treat all patients requiring hospitalization, without resorting to crisis standards of care; the state needs to be able to at least test everyone who has symptoms; the state is able to conduct monitoring of confirmed cases and contacts; and there must be a sustained reduction in cases for at least 14 days.

How can I help?
Charity Navigator, which evaluates charities using a numbers-based system, has a running list of nonprofits working in communities affected by the outbreak. You can give blood through the American Red Cross, and World Central Kitchen has stepped in to distribute meals in major cities. More than 30,000 coronavirus-related GoFundMe fund-raisers have started in the past few weeks. (The sheer number of fund-raisers means more of them are likely to fail to meet their goal, though.)

What should I do if I feel sick?
If you’ve been exposed to the coronavirus or think you have, and have a fever or symptoms like a cough or difficulty breathing, call a doctor. They should give you advice on whether you should be tested, how to get tested, and how to seek medical treatment without potentially infecting or exposing others.

Should I wear a mask?
The C.D.C. has recommended that all Americans wear cloth masks if they go out in public. This is a shift in federal guidance reflecting new concerns that the coronavirus is being spread by infected people who have no symptoms. Until now, the C.D.C., like the W.H.O., has advised that ordinary people don’t need to wear masks unless they are sick and coughing. Part of the reason was to preserve medical-grade masks for health care workers who desperately need them at a time when they are in continuously short supply. Masks don’t replace hand washing and social distancing.

How do I get tested?
If you’re sick and you think you’ve been exposed to the new coronavirus, the C.D.C. recommends that you call your healthcare provider and explain your symptoms and fears. They will decide if you need to be tested. Keep in mind that there’s a chance — because of a lack of testing kits or because you’re asymptomatic, for instance — you won’t be able to get tested.

How does coronavirus spread?
It seems to spread very easily from person to person, especially in homes, hospitals and other confined spaces. The pathogen can be carried on tiny respiratory droplets that fall as they are coughed or sneezed out. It may also be transmitted when we touch a contaminated surface and then touch our face.

Is there a vaccine yet?
No. Clinical trials are underway in the United States, China and Europe. But American officials and pharmaceutical executives have said that a vaccine remains at least 12 to 18 months away.

What makes this outbreak so different?
Unlike the flu, there is no known treatment or vaccine, and little is known about this particular virus so far. It seems to be more lethal than the flu, but the numbers are still uncertain. And it hits the elderly and those with underlying conditions — not just those with respiratory diseases — particularly hard.
. . . .   
The evidence suggests it’s not just stay-at-home orders and other government restrictions that have chilled economic activity in the United States over the last month: It’s also a behavioral response from workers and consumers scared of contracting the virus.

Some government officials have been cautioning that the restart would not happen instantly and equally nationwide.

Dr. Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Monday that he expected the reopening to play out “community by community, county by county,” but that the U.S. would first need to “substantially augment our public health capacity to do early case identification, isolation and contact tracing.”

“There’s no doubt that we have to reopen correctly,” Dr. Redfield said on NBC’s “Today.” “It’s going to be a step-by-step, gradual process. It’s got to be data-driven.”

Even in places without lockdown orders, business has suffered and unemployment has increased because Americans are avoiding restaurants, airports and shopping centers on their own accord to minimize the risk of infection.

Until Americans feel widely confident that the risks of the virus have fallen — either through a testing system that far exceeds what is currently available or ultimately via a vaccine — many economists and business owners say there will be no economic rebound for the country, regardless of government restrictions.

Image -- One member of the Federal Reserve board warned that the process to reopen could take 18 months.

“This could be a long, hard road that we have ahead of us until we get to either an effective therapy or a vaccine,” Neel Kashkari, the president and chief executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, said Sunday on CBS.

The key will be having enough tests to separate those who have had the virus and those who have not, particularly finding people who have the virus but are asymptomatic.

“We should prepare for the worst-case scenario,” Mr. Kashkari said.

Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser who was among the first to warn Mr. Trump about the potential economic damage from the virus, is now warning that a prolonged shutdown could be more detrimental to the U.S. than the virus itself.

“It’s disappointing that so many of the medical experts and pundits pontificating in the press appear tone deaf to the very significant losses of life and blows to American families that may result from an extended economic shutdown,” Mr. Navarro said in an interview.

Business owners like Walter Isenberg are among those who Mr. Trump has in mind when he talks about the need to reopen the economy. Mr. Isenberg’s hotel and restaurant group in Denver has seen its revenues drop to $40,000 a day from $3 million a day last year.

But Mr. Isenberg has no expectation that his company, Sage Hospitality Group, will see the economic boom that Mr. Trump has promised, even after state officials allow his properties to begin hosting customers again.

“It’s just going to be a very long and slow recovery until such time as there is a therapeutic solution or a vaccine,” Mr. Isenberg, who has furloughed more than 5,000 of his 6,000 employees, said in an interview. “I’m not a scientist, but I just don’t see the psyche of people — I don’t see people coming out of this and rushing out to start traveling and having big conventions.”

RELATED ARTICLE -- RESTARTING THE ECONOMY WON’T BE SO EASY Economic pain will persist long after the lockdowns end, evidence suggests.

A major meat plant is closing indefinitely, and a chief executive warns about supply chain.

Image -- Nearly 300 workers tested positive at the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, S.D.Credit...Erin Bormett/The Argus Leader, via Associated Press

Smithfield Foods said Sunday that its plant in Sioux Falls, S.D., one of the nation’s largest pork processing facilities, would remain closed indefinitely at the urging of the governor and mayor after 293 workers tested positive for the virus.

The plant, which employs 3,700 workers and produces about 130 million servings of food per week, is responsible for about half of the state’s total number of cases.

Meat production workers often work elbow to elbow, cleaning and deboning products in large open areas filled with hundreds of people. The closure at Smithfield follows the halting of production at several other poultry and meat plants across the country as workers have fallen ill with Covid-19.

Many meat processing facilities have been hit hard by the virus. Three workers have died at a Tyson Foods poultry plant in Camilla, Ga. Tyson also shut a pork plant in Iowa after an outbreak there among workers. JBS USA, the world’s largest meat processor, confirmed the death of one worker at a Colorado facility and shuttered a plant in Pennsylvania for two weeks.

In a statement announcing the closure, Smithfield’s chief executive warned that the closures were threatening the U.S. meat supply. The shuttered plant produces about 4 percent to 5 percent of the country’s pork, Smithfield said.

The closure of this facility, combined with a growing list of other protein plants that have shuttered across our industry, is pushing our country perilously close to the edge in terms of our meat supply,” Kenneth M. Sullivan, the president and chief executive of Smithfield, warned in a statement.

He continued, “It is impossible to keep our grocery stores stocked if our plants are not running.”

Several meat processing corporations are offering cash bonuses to workers who continue showing up for work amid the pandemic. Workers have said they feel pressured to do so, even if they are feeling unwell. Smithfield said it would continue paying Sioux Falls plant workers for two weeks, “and hopes to keep them from joining the ranks of the tens of millions of unemployed Americans across the country.”

*Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count
A detailed county map shows the extent of the coronavirus outbreak, with tables of the number of cases by county.

A stalemate in Congress over interim emergency aid seems likely to continue.

Image -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Capitol Hill on Thursday.Credit...Anna Moneymaker/The New York Times

Top Democratic leaders on Monday doubled down on their insistence that any infusion of cash for a new loan program to help small businesses affected by the pandemic must include additional funds for state and local governments, hospitals, food assistance and rapid testing.

The demands, reiterated by Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, is likely to further prolong a stalemate between lawmakers over what was intended to be an interim emergency package before another broader stimulus package.

They came as Democratic leaders announced that the House was pushing back its date for returning to Washington by two weeks, to May 4. Representative Steny Hoyer, Democrat of Maryland and the majority leader, said the House would remain in recess until that date, “absent an emergency.”

Democrats on Thursday blocked a bid by Republicans to inject $250 billion of new funding into the loan program, insisting on adding money for other priorities and conditions to ensure the loan money would be distributed to small businesses that typically have trouble obtaining credit. But Republicans refused, arguing that any additional funding or policy proposals should wait until future legislation.

“We have real problems facing this country, and it’s time for the Republicans to quit the political posturing by proposing bills they know will not pass either chamber and get serious and work with us toward a solution,” the Democratic leaders said in a joint statement.

Over the weekend, Republican leaders said they would continue to push for stand-alone funding* for small businesses. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and Representative Kevin McCarthy of California criticized Democrats for what they called a “reckless threat to continue blocking job-saving funding unless we renegotiate unrelated programs which are not in similar peril.”

The congressional standoff comes as administration officials warn that the loan program, known as the Paycheck Protection Program and created as part of the $2 trillion economic stimulus law enacted last month, will soon run out of funds, even as businesses say they have yet to receive a majority of the slated billions. The National Governors Association on Saturday also called on Congress to allocate an additional $500 billion to states and governments to help offset state revenue shortfalls, more than double what Democrats initially demanded.

“In the absence of unrestricted fiscal support of at least $500 billion from the federal government, states will have to confront the prospect of significant reductions to critically important services all across this country, hampering public health, the economic recovery, and — in turn — our collective effort to get people back to work,” the governors association’s chairman, Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican, said in a statement with its vice chairman, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York, a Democrat.

Fauci seeks to clarify his remarks about Trump’s response as the White House says the president does not intend to fire him.

Image -- Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and President Trump during a White House briefing on Monday.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious diseases specialist, said Monday night during the White House briefing that he had been responding to a “hypothetical question” when he said over the weekend that more lives could have been saved had the federal government moved earlier to shut down schools, businesses and other gatherings.

His original comments, in an interview on CNN, were seen by some as a veiled criticism of Mr. Trump, and on Sunday night the president retweeted a message that said, “Time to #FireFauci” — leading the White House to issue a statement on Monday saying that the president had no intention of firing him.

On Monday night Dr. Fauci moved to clean up the controversy. He noted during the White House’s coronavirus task force briefing that he had been responding to a hypothetical question, and “there were interpretations of that response to a hypothetical question” and said that he wanted to clarify what he meant.

Dr. Fauci said that mitigation policies e — limiting [sic] large gatherings, and encouraging social distancing — save lives, and could save more lives the earlier they are put into place. He added that Mr. Trump had taken his advice when he and Dr. Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House task force on the coronavirus, recommended that he issue guidelines asking Americans to stay home.

The unusual White House statement was issued to allay concerns that Mr. Trump might seek to sideline the veteran scientist at the very moment when the president is trying to craft a plan to reopen the country amid the ongoing pandemic, which has killed more than 22,000 Americans.

Dr. Fauci has urged caution about moving too quickly for fear of unleashing a second wave of the virus. Hogan Gidley, a White House spokesman, sought to blame the news media for the confusion over the president’s intentions even though Mr. Trump retweeted a sharply critical Twitter message about Dr. Fauci that ended with the hashtag calling for his dismissal.

“This media chatter is ridiculous — President Trump is not firing Dr. Fauci,” Mr. Gidley said in the statement. He added, “Dr. Fauci has been and remains a trusted adviser to President Trump.”

The president retweeted the #FireFauci message on Sunday shortly after Dr. Fauci gave the CNN interview. Along with the retweet, Mr. Trump wrote on Sunday: “Sorry Fake News, it’s all on tape. I banned China long before people spoke up.

Dr. Fauci was talking about measures that public health experts argued should have come after limiting travel from China, such as aggressive testing and social distancing, neither of which took place until weeks later. “The president’s tweet clearly exposed media attempts to maliciously push a falsehood about his China decision in an attempt to rewrite history,” Mr. Gidley said.

RELATED STORY -- A NEW YORK TIMES EXAMINATION
He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump’s Failure on the Virus

An examination reveals the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response.
April 11, 2020

Facing testing backlogs, sick patients wait all night in their cars at drive-through sites. Then they wait more.

Image -- Nurses administered Covid-19 nasal swab tests at a drive-thru facility at Bergen Community College in New Jersey last week.Credit...Ryan Christopher Jones for The New York Times

The lines start forming the night before, as people with glassy eyes and violent coughs try to get tested before the next day’s supplies run out. In the darkness, they park their cars, cut their engines and try to sleep.

The backlog for virus testing in New Jersey, the state with the second-highest caseload in the country, has been getting worse, not better, officials say.

So far, New Jersey has conducted over 115,000 tests, about one for every 75 residents. In New York City, the epicenter of the crisis, there is about one for every 18. The tests are a critical tool in measuring the disease’s spread and a requirement for certain forms of treatment. Yet they remain hard to get, and many are actively discouraged from trying.

“It’s unequivocally worsening,” Gov. Philip D. Murphy of New Jersey said recently.

Initially, the strain came from a lack of test kits, but now there are not enough nasal swabs or nurses. There is a pileup at the labs themselves and a limited supply of the chemicals needed to identify the virus.

Last Monday, Anita Holmes-Perez felt so sick that she asked her husband to drive her to a testing site at 10:45 p.m. She spent the night constantly adjusting her reclining car seat, lying down until the congestion in her chest forced her to sit up again.

She was battling a fever, a cough, dizziness and a feeling of confusion. “Like you don’t know where you are,” she said.

When medical workers finally took a sample from her the next morning, it would be shipped across the country because the local lab was too full. Three vans would take it part of the way. A plane, sent on a detour by a storm, would take it further. It would be days before she got a result. Until then, Ms. Holmes-Perez waited.

3 Vans, 6 Coolers, a Plane, a Storm and 2 Labs: A Nasal Swab’s JourneyApril 13, 2020

Emails reveal why New Orleans went ahead with Mardi Gras, even as the virus loomed.

Image -- Revelers celebrate Fat Tuesday, the final day of Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, on Feb. 25. Credit...Dan Anderson/EPA, via Shutterstock

Twelve days before thousands gathered in the streets of New Orleans to celebrate Mardi Gras, Sarah A. Babcock, the director of policy and emergency preparedness for the city health department, prepared a list of bullet points about the troubling disease that had already sickened thousands in China but had only infected 13 known patients in the United States.

“The chance of us getting someone with coronavirus is low,” Ms. Babcock advised community health providers, according to internal City of New Orleans emails obtained by Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation and reviewed by The New York Times.

The projection proved to be terribly off-base, as New Orleans would soon erupt into one of the largest hot spots for the virus in the U.S., with one of the nation’s highest death rates. Experts now widely agree that the Mardi Gras festivities likely served to accelerate the spread of the highly contagious disease.

But in the run-up to Mardi Gras Day, on Feb. 25, there were still only 15 confirmed cases of the virus in the country. No major events were being canceled anywhere in the U.S., and “no red flags” had been raised by federal officials, the city’s mayor said in an interview on CNN.

Still, according to the emails, city and state officials were planning both for the celebration and the virus’s eventual arrival, but those preparations were based on a misunderstanding of how the virus was spreading.

As the parades began, things appeared fine. A few days later, the first presumptive virus patient was identified, and reports surfaced of people in other states who had been to Mardi Gras testing positive for the virus.


stand-alone funding*


“A retirement (pension or provident) fund is a legal entity, separate from the employer and service providers. All contributions and investments are held by the fund in the name of the fund.

A stand-alone fund serves just one employer; an umbrella fund combines many employers under one legal structure.”


RELATED STORY -- MARDI GRAS

Why New Orleans Pushed Ahead With Mardi Gras, Even as It Planned for Coronavirus
A cache of internal emails reveals city officials believed chances were “low” that the festivities would help spread the virus, a prediction that proved tragically off base.
By Richard Fausset and Derek Kravitz
April 13, 2020, 2:48 p.m. ET

PHOTOGRAPH -- Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans during Mardi Gras celebrations on Feb. 25. It would be weeks before the city banned mass gatherings. Credit...Dan Anderson/EPA, via Shutterstock

ATLANTA — Twelve days before New Orleans celebrated Mardi Gras Day, the citywide pre-Lenten bash that would pack thousands of visitors onto the streets, Sarah A. Babcock, the director of policy and emergency preparedness for the city health department, prepared a list of bullet points about the troubling disease that had already sickened thousands in China but had only infected 13 known patients in the United States.

“The chance of us getting someone with coronavirus is low,” Ms. Babcock advised community health providers, according to internal emails obtained by Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation and reviewed by The New York Times.

The projection proved to be terribly off base, as New Orleans would soon erupt into one of the largest hot spots for the coronavirus in the U.S., with one of the nation’s highest death rates. Experts now believe that the multiweek Mardi Gras festivities likely served to accelerate the spread of the highly contagious disease in the New Orleans area.

In recent days, city officials, including Mayor LaToya Cantrell, have pushed back forcefully against any suggestion that they had erred by not canceling the celebrations. And they have found support among public health experts, who note that no major events were being canceled around the country in the run-up to Mardi Gras Day, on Feb. 25, when there were still only 15 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in the country.

“I think we all were thinking that this was not going to be a huge issue, quite frankly, and then exponential growth started,” said Dr. Carlos del Rio, Chair of the Hubert Department of Global Health at the Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University.

At the time, he added, “I think the mayor would have been executed if she would have said, ‘Let’s cancel Mardi Gras.’”

Still, the emails, more than 2,200 pages in all, offer insight into how one major American city began planning in mid-January for the virus’s eventual arrival, even as it continued to prepare for its signature annual party.

The plans were predicated on a misunderstanding — one seen not just in New Orleans — of how widely the virus had potentially already spread in the city and across the country.

TO VIEW THE EMAILS, GO TO WEBSITE.

Dr. Jennifer Avegno, director of the New Orleans Health Department, said that the city’s focus before Mardi Gras was on visitors who might bring the virus with them. But “there was no way for us to know if we had community spread,” she said, “because we could not test for it.”
  
There was also a tragedy of timing: It was on Mardi Gras Day itself, as floats were rolling through the streets, that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued its starkest warning up to that point that the virus would almost certainly spread in the U.S., and that cities should begin planning social distancing measures.

Ms. Cantrell, in a March 26 interview on CNN, defended the decision not to cancel Mardi Gras, noting that “no red flags” had been raised by federal officials at that point. On the day before Fat Tuesday, in fact, President Trump had tweeted: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA.”

ImageMayor LaToya Cantrell, right, at the start of Mardi Gras, pushed back forcefully against any suggestion that they had erred by not considering canceling the celebrations.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell, right, at the start of Mardi Gras, pushed back forcefully against any suggestion that they had erred by not considering canceling the celebrations.Credit...Max Becherer/The Advocate, via Associated Press
“When it’s not taken seriously at the federal level, it’s very difficult to transcend down to the local level in making these decisions,” Ms. Cantrell told CNN. “But when the experts told me that social gatherings would be an issue, I moved forward with canceling them.”

That was long after the last Mardi Gras floats had passed through the city.

On Friday, the C.D.C. released a report stating that Mardi Gras had occurred at a time when canceling mass gatherings “was not yet common in the United States.” It also described Louisiana’s elevated number of cases and its “temporarily high population density because of an influx of visitors during Mardi Gras celebrations in mid-February.”

The Mardi Gras season officially began this year, as it does every year, 12 nights after Christmas, when a 150-year-old carnival krewe, the Twelfth Night Revelers, held an elegant society ball. The next day, Chinese authorities thousands of miles away announced they had isolated the new coronavirus that had been sickening residents of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei Province in China.

By mid-January, according to the internal New Orleans emails, city and state officials were circulating and digesting the latest updates on the disease from the federal government, which advised them to look out for patients with a fever and symptoms of a lower respiratory illness, like a cough or shortness of breath, as well as a history of traveling from Wuhan.

On Jan. 21, Ms. Babcock circulated a statement among colleagues meant for the news media that said the department’s emergency preparedness team had been monitoring the coronavirus “for the past few weeks and began weekly conference calls with the CDC last week.”

“At this time,” the note continued, “the CDC is only recommending screening at airports that receive flights directly from Wuhan, China.”

On Jan. 23, Chinese authorities closed off Wuhan, and its 11 million residents, in an effort to curb the spread there. Two days later, Dr. Avegno, the head of the New Orleans Health Department, told colleagues that the “uptick in cases” in China was “coming fast and furious.”

From that point, the emails show, the city appeared to go into a more concerted coronavirus preparation mode.

Image -- Gov. John Bel Edwards ordered the closures of bars, gyms and movie theaters on March 16, and he limited restaurants to take-out and delivery service.
Gov. John Bel Edwards ordered the closures of bars, gyms and movie theaters on March 16, and he limited restaurants to take-out and delivery service.Credit...William Widmer for The New York Times

William T. Salmeron, the chief of Emergency Medical Services for the city, told his colleagues that workers should take “routine exposure control precautions” as they would in dealing with any respiratory illness. Those included getting the travel history of anyone with symptoms, giving patients surgical masks, and moving up to gloves, gown, protective eyewear and an N95 mask “if travel history risk factors warrant.”

“At this time the potential risk of infection in the US is LOW,” he wrote.

Collin M. Arnold, director of the city’s homeland security office, sent an email to Dr. Avegno and other city officials on Jan. 27, suggesting they “should probably get together and discuss public safety concerns during Mardi Gras and on the parade route.”

The New Orleans Police Department, he said, had been asking about personal protective equipment “and general concerns (they shake a lot of hands and come in contact with a lot of people on the route every day).” He suggested putting together a “guide sheet for all responders” that would offer them “common sense mitigation tasks.”

That same day, Tyrell Morris, the executive director of the city’s 911 service, told city officials about a questionnaire and worksheet that the International Academies of Emergency Dispatch was suggesting they use for all suspected coronavirus patients.

Dr. Emily Nichols, the medical director for the city’s emergency medical services, suggested they add a question asking suspected carriers whether they had been within six feet of another person thought to be infected with the virus.

In late January, the city health department’s emergency preparedness branch emailed local health care facilities with updates on an active shooter training set for Jan. 30 at Lambeth House, a retirement community in Uptown New Orleans. Lambeth House would eventually emerge as the site of one of the worst outbreaks in the South, with at least 13 residents dying from Covid-19.

The city was alive to the possibility of the virus arriving by air or by sea.

On Jan. 28, Mr. Salmeron proposed a meeting of city, state and airport officials to discuss “emergency response actions to ill passengers” arriving at the local airport. The president of the Louisiana Maritime Association reminded city officials that the Coast Guard would review incoming ships to the port of New Orleans.

A multiagency meeting was scheduled for Feb. 5, with Ms. Babcock telling state health officials that the city was “trying to make sure that everyone is prepared for coronavirus before Mardi Gras.”

The day of the meeting, the mayor’s office posted a news item on the city’s website noting that the federal government had not recommended screening at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, and had begun rerouting all flights with passengers from China to one of 11 other airports where screening was taking place.

“Our public health and health care systems are ready for Mardi Gras,” it said, “and the coronavirus poses a very low risk to the Carnival celebrations.”

In an email sent Feb. 26, the day after Mardi Gras Day, Dr. Avegno made it clear that, while the city was taking the coronavirus threat seriously, officials were not yet planning to call for strict measures to limit its spread.

“I’m a little hesitant to put in the social distancing stuff but since CDC mentioned it, we probably should” she wrote. “I added some words to make it more clear we weren’t going to run around willy-nilly quarantining people, but would be following state/federal guidance.”

Daily “sit reps,” or situation reports, began going out to New Orleans officials beginning March 3. While acknowledging the spread of the virus was a “rapidly evolving situation,” the city did not recommend any closures because the state had no confirmed cases.

IMAGE – PHOTOGRAPH -- A drive-through testing site for Covid-19 in New Orleans on March 27.Credit...Kathleen Flynn/Reuters

A few days later, on March 9, the first presumptive coronavirus patient in Louisiana was identified in New Orleans — a resident of nearby Jefferson Parish who was in a city hospital. Reports began surfacing of people in other states, including Arkansas, Texas and Tennessee, who had been to Mardi Gras and were testing positive for the virus.

The next day, Ms. Cantrell canceled a number of beloved street-level events that have traditionally served as raucous addenda to Mardi Gras — parades celebrating St. Joseph’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, and Super Sunday, in which the city’s Mardi Gras Indian tribes display their beaded and feathered suits.

By March 16, three people had died from complications of Covid-19 in Louisiana and there were 136 confirmed cases in the state. Gov. John Bel Edwards ordered the closures of bars, gyms, and cinemas, and limited restaurants to takeout and delivery service.

Dr. Avegno said city and state officials had moved as quickly as they could once they realized what they were facing.

“We shut down parades, we shut down schools — within a week, completely changing our way of life,” Dr. Avegno said. “I can’t think of anything more drastic than shutting down the bars of New Orleans.”

Over the next several weeks, the virus continued its unabated spread across Louisiana.

By Monday, state officials had reported more than 10,500 coronavirus cases in Orleans Parish and the adjacent suburb of Jefferson Parish. Across the state, at least 840 residents infected with the coronavirus have died.

Richard Fausset reported from Atlanta and Derek Kravitz, a data journalist at Columbia University’s Brown Institute for Media Innovation, from New York.

More on the Coronavirus in the U.S.
The Costly Toll of Not Shutting Down Spring Break EarlierApril 11, 2020


AND NOW, BACK TO GOOD OLD ALL-AMERICAN PARTY POLITICS.

THE FOLLOWING ARTICLES ARE ON THE GENERAL SUBJECT OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY NOMINATING PROCESS AND NOVEMBER ELECTION.

Opinion
It’s Obvious Whom Joe Biden Should Pick as Vice President
He needs a running mate who strengthens the ticket in the areas where he is weakest. One person stands out.
By Steve Phillips
Mr. Phillips is the host of the podcast “Democracy in Color With Steve Phillips.”
April 14, 2020

PHOTOGRAPH -- Stacey Abrams can boost enthusiasm among voters that crosses racial, gender and age demographics — precisely the areas Joe Biden needs to bolster. Credit...Audra Melton for The New York Times

As Joe Biden formally begins his vice-presidential selection process, he needs to find a running mate who strengthens the Democratic ticket in the areas where he is weakest. The nomination contest has highlighted three sizable shortcomings that imperil his quest to defeat President Trump.

First, he has failed to generate nearly any interest, let alone meaningful support, among young people in the presidential primaries. Second, he has consistently lost the Latino vote. And third, he suffers from a well-documented enthusiasm gap that could undermine his candidacy in the same way that Hillary Clinton failed to generate voter excitement, resulting in a drop in voter turnout among key constituencies, particularly African-Americans, whose diminished motivation and engagement resulted in the collapse of the Democratic “Blue Wall” states of Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania.

Mr. Biden’s minuscule levels of support among voters 18 to 29 — the electoral engine of Bernie Sanders’s campaign — has been alarming. In Michigan, a state he won handily over Mr. Sanders, Mr. Biden still secured only 19 percent of the youth vote. Even in South Carolina, the place that transformed the Biden candidacy, he still lost the under-30 vote to Mr. Sanders by 17 points, a margin that was twice as bad as Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 deficit against the same opponent in the same state.

Of note — and what should be of great concern to the Biden team — is that this weakness with young voters transcends racial lines. A veritable rainbow coalition of young voters have regularly rejected the former vice president in state after state. In November, this weakness will loom large as Generation Z voters, those 18 to 24 years old, will make up twice the percentage of all voters that they did in 2016.

A second priority needs to be targeting Latinos, who are now the largest nonwhite group in America and whose swelling population numbers bolster Democratic prospects in emerging swing states like Arizona and Texas, as well as closely fought Florida. Even in the key Midwestern states, there are hundreds of thousands of Latino voters who could tip the balance in a close contest. In the presidential primaries, Mr. Biden has lost the Latino vote to Mr. Sanders in every state.

More on Joe Biden and the 2020 election
Opinion | Joe Biden
Joe Biden: My Plan to Safely Reopen AmericaApril 12, 2020

Opinion | The Editorial Board
Hey Kids: Get Out There and Vote!April 12, 2020

The Democrats’ biggest challenge lies in the lack of enthusiasm for Mr. Biden among voters, even those who generally support him. The enthusiasm problem is highly problematic across the board — recent polls show Mr. Trump’s supporters are far more enthusiastic than Mr. Biden’s — but it is acutely dangerous with African-Americans, the most reliably Democratic voters.

The greatest potential risk is the same kind of overconfidence and complacency regarding black voters that doomed Mrs. Clinton’s campaign. She dominated among black voters in her primary contest against Mr. Sanders and consequently felt secure enough in her standing with African-Americans that she chose to present an all-white Democratic ticket. The results were cataclysmic, with black voter turnout falling off a cliff and dropping to a 16-year low, enabling Mr. Trump to prevail in critical Midwestern states that tipped the Electoral College.

There is no question that Mr. Biden will win an overwhelming percentage of those African-Americans who cast ballots. But more important, victory or defeat will depend on what percentage of eligible black voters actually turn out.

His search committee is likely to conduct polling designed to determine how particular demographic groups will respond to his potential political partners. At best, polling is predictive, offering educated guesses. However, the analysis need not be left to conjecture: Many of the possible picks have run in statewide elections, the data from which offer actual evidence of the relative strengths and weaknesses of the prospects.

All that Mr. Biden has said on the subject is that he intends to name a woman as his running mate.

Of the people most often mentioned as being on the vice-presidential short list, Stacey Abrams of Georgia, Senator Kamala Harris of California, Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Senator Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada and Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts have all run in statewide elections in which exit polls were conducted. That data offers the chance for an apples-to-apples comparison of relative electoral strength with the key demographic groups needed to strengthen the Democratic ticket.

A close examination of the electoral track records of the possible partners shows that Ms. Abrams best offers what Mr. Biden most needs (to be clear, Ms. Abrams is on the board of the Center for American Progress, where I am a senior fellow, but board members, including Ms. Abrams, have no input on what fellows write). In terms of success with young people, Barack Obama’s political popularity is unquestioned, and therefore his support levels among that demographic offer a valuable measuring stick. Of the potential nominees, only Ms. Abrams outperformed Mr. Obama in her state, winning the 18-to-29-year-old vote in Georgia by nearly 30 points; Mr. Obama lost that group by three points. Only Senator Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, another common name on potential V.P. lists, equaled Mr. Obama’s performance with young voters in her state. The other contenders for whom there is data underperformed Mr. Obama in their most recent competitive race by significant margins.

The available data on popularity among Latinos is more limited, but in the states that do offer such information — Georgia, California, Michigan and Nevada — Ms. Abrams secured the most Latino support, garnering 62 percent of her state’s Latino vote in 2018. Ms. Cortez Masto, who is herself Latina, was also very strong with that demographic.

It is in the realm of African-American voter enthusiasm that Ms. Abrams is without peer. Not only did she win 93 percent of the black vote in her race for governor — a higher percentage than any of the other potential vice-presidential picks won in their statewide races — but few candidates (if any) in the history of this country have increased black turnout in a statewide election to the extent that Ms. Abrams did in 2018. Black voter turnout jumped 40 percent in Georgia in 2018, an astounding level of strength that not only can bring the Midwestern states back into the Democratic fold but also has the potential to expand the map of competitive states to Georgia, North Carolina, Florida and Texas.

Among the other contenders, a recent poll (by Data for Progress for the group Way to Win) found that Ms. Harris ran a close second to Ms. Abrams in terms of support among African-Americans.

Ultimately, Mr. Biden will make a pick based on comfort, fit and fitness for the office, and there is no shortage of talented women he can choose. If he wants to base his decision on the available evidence and proven success in areas where he has failed, then choosing Stacey Abrams is the smartest move.

Steve Phillips (@StevePtweets), the host of the podcast “Democracy in Color With Steve Phillips” and a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, is the author of “Brown Is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority.”

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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READER COMMENTS

Maxy Green
Teslaville2h ago
Times Pick
One name. Happens to be a white male. Andrew Cuomo. Depending how he handles the "re-opening" of NY State and a possible battle with Trump over that, he can help Biden beat Trump. Stacy Abrams, not exactly someone who is in a position to lead anything. Bad timing for her with this virus situation. 

Bill Brasky
USA3h ago
Times Pick
NOT Stacey Abrams!
She has NO executive experience
NO national experience
She couldn't even win a statewide race against a weak candidate.
She's not ready for the big leagues and couldn't even hold her own against Pence. 

Dwntwnatty
LA5h ago
Times Pick
It’s going to be, it has to be Klobuchar.


jrs
hollywood, ca5h ago
Times Pick
How about forgetting polling data and choosing the person who would be the best president should something happen to Joe? 

Iris
NY6h ago
Times Pick
People vote for president, not for vice president. Lots of VP picks have been based on hopes that they would help with this or that constituency, and there is no empirical evidence that it has ever worked. Biden should pick the candidate who would make the best president in the event of his death. His VP pick will not materially affect the election. 

Marni
St. Paul, MN6h ago
Times Pick
One of the drawbacks to selecting Abrams is certainly her limited experience in holding political office.  Let's not forget, however, that Trump was elected to the presidency with ZERO experience.  Trump's lack of experience was exacerbated by his  underwhelming intelligence and inability to lead a cohesive administration.  I believe that Abrams has clearly demonstrated all the necessary characteristics for being an extraordinary leader this country so desperately needs.  Her vision, life experience, and innate ability to reach across all boundaries make her much more prepared for the role of a strong (and empathetic) political leader. 

Dylan
Indiana6h ago
Times Pick
I wonder when we'll get to the point that having the right candidate for minorities will go further than being the right color. When we market our politicians based on their skin tone, does that increase or decrease the speed of progress? That's a fairly abstract question and I doubt there is an answer.

What is less abstract is how silly it is comparing different states demographic data and using that to evaluate how popular individual candidates are nationwide. That seems as far from "apples-to-apples" as anything. We even admit that some states don't have data at all.

Furthermore, do the blacks and latino populations have the same concerns in the south as in the north? Between Michigan and Nevade? I guess since we give them one name they must be a homogeneous group, faceless except for broad, general declarations of their wants and needs. Another dividing line that we have carefully constructed. 

tedb
St. Paul MN6h ago
Times Pick
I'll take a sitting U.S. Senator over a former Georgia state legislator any day. Welcome, Kamala Harris!

This conversation wouldn't even be necessary, were it not for Biden's hasty announcement about guaranteeing a female running mate. Otherwise Andrew Cuomo's addition to the ticket would've reflected the perfect pairing of competence and compassion. 

Mindful
Ohio6h ago
Times Pick
I love Stacey Abrams, but I also agree with other commenters that we need someone with more experience in VP role given Biden’s age. I favor Elizabeth Warren for VP. I think Ms. Abrams would do a great job in President Biden’s cabinet. Perhaps she can repair in Housing and Urban Development what Carson has destroyed, and I can see her fixing the problems made by DeVos in Education. Perhaps we can create a new cabinet level post for elections? She has lots of experience addressing inequities there given her leadership on this issue.

Scarlett
NYC6h ago
Times Pick
@Barbara Escher I agree.  No.  Kamala Harris, Klobuchar or Whitmer are much better choices.  We need someone ready on Day 1.  Abrams has a very promising future but not ready for VP now.  We cant take any chances! 


BARACK OBAMA FINALLY SPEAKS UP. OF COURSE, HIS HIGH ETHICAL SENSE AND PERSONAL RESTRAINT ALLOWED HIM TO HOLD BACK UNTIL NOW. THERE HAVE BEEN RUMBLINGS ABOUT HIS OPPOSITION TO BERNIE SANDERS’ AS A CANDIDATE: “UNABLE TO WIN” AND PERHAPS WORSE, BUT HE DOESN’T MERELY SPEAK WELL OF BERNIE. HE GIVES HIM HIGH PRAISE. 

Barack Obama Endorsed Joe Biden For President And Praised Bernie Sanders' Campaign
"I believe Joe has all of the qualities we need in a president right now," Obama said of his former vice president.
Posted on April 14, 2020, at 1:12 p.m. ET
Ryan Brooks
BuzzFeed News Reporter

PHOTOGRAPH -- Screen capture from the endorsement video.

Barack Obama endorsed his former vice president Joe Biden’s presidential campaign in a nearly 12-minute address uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday morning, while acknowledging the movement that Sen. Bernie Sanders built over the course of his two presidential runs.

“I’m so proud to endorse Joe Biden for president of the United States,” Obama said near the top of his address. “Choosing Joe to be my vice president was one of the best decisions I ever made and he became a close friend. And I believe Joe has all of the qualities we need in a president right now.”

Obama recalled Biden’s work in his administration to come back from crises like the coronavirus pandemic facing America now, specifically highlighting Biden’s roles in creating and implementing programs to recover from the recession at the start of his term and his work in response to the H1N1 and Ebola outbreaks.

“Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery,” Obama said.

The Obama endorsement comes after a primary that saw nearly 30 Democrats seek the party’s presidential nomination and that was interspersed with events that have taken the spotlight off the election, including an impeachment trial and a global pandemic that has now left the general election campaign stuck in a livestreamed purgatory.

“Joe will be a better candidate for having run the gauntlet of primaries and caucuses alongside one of the most impressive Democratic fields ever. Each of our candidates were talented and decent with the track record of accomplishment, smart ideas, and serious visions for the future,” Obama said. “That’s certainly true for the candidate that made it farther than any other — Bernie Sanders.”

“Bernie is an American original,” he added. “A man who has devoted his life to giving voice to working people’s hopes, dreams, and frustrations.” He said that they both know that “nothing is more powerful than millions of voices calling for change” and that the ideas and energy he has inspired is “critical” to move the country forward. 

youtube.com
The praise for Sanders and his movement comes less than a week after the senator ended his own presidential campaign and just a day after he appeared on a surprise livestreamed event with Biden to offer his endorsement.

Biden has moved to embrace policy suggestions from both Sanders' and Warren’s campaigns in an effort to bring their voters his corner. In mid-March, while Sanders was still in the race, Biden announced over a series of tweets that he was adopting a past Sanders proposal to make universities tuition-free for families who make under $125,000 (Sanders now supports free tuition for all). Biden then adopted Warren’s plan to overhaul the consumer bankruptcy system.

Some high-profile Sanders supporters, like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are calling for Biden to do much more.

Biden has also made efforts to directly address Sanders supporters and spoken about their concerns over the course of his livestreamed events since he became the presumptive Democratic nominee.

In his endorsement, Obama specifically called for changing the health care system by creating a public option and expanding Medicare and giving “relief” to people with “crushing student loan debt.”

“The world is different. There’s too much unfinished business for us to just look backwards,” Obama said. “We have to look to the future. Bernie understands that and Joe understands that.”

MORE ON THE 2020 CAMPAIGN
Bernie Sanders Endorsed Joe Biden And Previewed A Big Role In His Campaign
Henry J. Gomez · April 13, 2020 


THIS FOX ARTICLE GIVES MORE DETAIL THAN ONE FROM YESTERDAY ON SANDERS’ WORKERS’ REVOLT, BUT I CAN’T HELP NOTICING THE NUMBER OF TIMES THE WRITER GREG RE COMPLAINED THAT WHILE THE NYT HAD GIVEN BIDEN A BREAK, IT HAD BEEN MUCH HARSHER TOWARD KAVANAUGH. HE WAS MISTREATED, APPARENTLY.

Published 6 hours agoLast Update 2 hours ago, [APRIL 13, 2020]
Sanders campaign reps revolt after Sanders endorses Biden, openly attack former vice president
Gregg Re By Gregg Re | Fox News

Bernie Sanders endorsed Joe Biden for president on Monday, but any illusions that the move would bring an end to long-simmering tensions between the Democratic Party's liberal and moderate wings quickly evaporated in a matter of minutes.

Briahna Joy Gray, who served as Sanders' national press secretary, and prominent Sanders surrogate Shaun King immediately took aim at Biden -- and they made it clear just how much the former vice president's platform differed from Sanders' longstanding policy goals.

"With the utmost respect for Bernie Sanders, who is an incredible human being & a genuine inspiration, I don't endorse Joe Biden," Gray wrote. "I supported Bernie Sanders because he backed ideas like #MedicareForAll, cancelling ALL student debt, & a wealth tax. Biden supports none of those."

Additionally, Gray indicated she agreed that it was "almost insulting" for Biden to suggest lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60, in lieu of adopting universal health coverage.

NEW YORK TIMES STEALTH-EDITS PIECE ON BIDEN SEXUAL HARASSMENT ALLEGATION

Gray had also hammered Biden on Sunday after The New York Times belatedly covered a sexual assault allegation against him on Sunday: "I’m not sure how that line from the NYT’s long-delayed coverage of Tara Reade’s accusation can sit alongside reporting that 7 other women have accused Biden of sexual misconduct," Gray tweeted. (Biden's campaign has denied the accusation.)


Briahna Joy Gray
@briebriejoy
With the utmost respect for Bernie Sanders, who is an incredible human being & a genuine inspiration, I don't endorse Joe Biden.

I supported Bernie Sanders because he backed ideas like #MedicareForAll, cancelling ALL student debt, & a wealth tax. Biden supports none of those.

40.6K
3:03 PM - Apr 13, 2020
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She then noted that Sanders, during the campaign, had "graciously" not mentioned Biden's "credible sexual assault allegations," "pattern of unwanted touching," involvement with Burisma Holdings, or "lying [about his] civil rights record."

Meanwhile, as Sanders and Biden conversed via livestream on Monday, King called the moment an obviously choreographed and embarrassing exercise.

"I can hardly believe what I am watching. In his conversation with @BernieSanders, @JoeBiden  is clearly reading from a TelePrompTer. It's supposed to be a CONVERSATION. I've never seen this happen in my entire life," he said.

Video -- Why Bernie Sanders is staying on Democrat ballot

King posted an article outlining a slew of requirements before he would consider endorsing Biden, including action on "mass incarceration" and a promise to pick a running mate to his satisfaction.

"I've now counted at least 50 times that @JoeBiden blatantly lied about his participation in the Civil Rights Movement from sit-ins he never participated in to marches he was not a part of, to being trained in Black churches as a boy," King wrote. "He must apologize & explain this."

A former Sanders aide told Fox News after the announcement that the senator "always said he was going to fully support the nominee and do everything he could to help them get Trump out of office, so this is just making good on his word which Bernie Sanders always does."


Shaun King
@shaunking
I can hardly believe what I am watching.

In his conversation with @BernieSanders - @JoeBiden is clearly reading from a TelePrompTer.

It's supposed to be a CONVERSATION.

I've never seen this happen in my entire life. https://twitter.com/BernieSanders/status/1249760437853401097 …


Bernie Sanders
@BernieSanders
We must come together to defeat the most dangerous president in modern history. I'm joining @JoeBiden's livestream with a special announcement. https://www.pscp.tv/w/cWNPujMyNzU3OTl8MXZPeHdvQWpRVlZ4Qvbax3QDC0yb4kTtT7-BHtbhgi4RRgnR9qCSW_S160hl …

8,167
2:26 PM - Apr 13, 2020
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3,170 people are talking about this


Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., who is closer ideologically with Sanders, still has not endorsed anybody since suspending her presidential campaign and has not responded to requests for comment on an update.

And, President Trump has also taken to pointing out that Biden still hasn't secured the support of his former boss Barack Obama.

HUNTER BIDEN SCANDALS EXPLAINED: UKRAINE, COCAINE, AND MORE

"I don't know why President Obama hasn't supported Joe Biden a long time ago. There's something he feels is wrong," Trump said last week.

"He knows something that you don't know, that I think I know. But you don't know," he added. "I'm sure he's got to come out at some point because he certainly doesn't want to see me for four more years."

Fox News' Paul Steinhauser, Madeleine Rivera, Allie Raffa, and Andrew Craft contributed to this report.

Gregg Re is a lawyer and editor based in Los Angeles. Follow him on Twitter @gregg_re or email him at gregory.re@foxnews.com. 


HERE ARE BERNIE AND BIDEN TOGETHER ON PROPER GOALS FOR DEMOCRATS AND PROGRESSIVES IN A POSITIVE DISCUSSION ON UNIONS AND MORE. MOST OF BERNIE’S SUBJECTS ARE TOUCHED ON AT LEAST A BIT IN THIS SPEECH, INCLUDING HIS WELL-KNOWN DESCRIPTION OF DONALD TRUMP; AND BERNIE FORMALLY ENDORSES JOE BIDEN, WITH APPARENT WARMTH AND WILLINGNESS. OF COURSE, HE HAS TO BE DISAPPOINTED. HE’S A STRONG PERSON, THOUGH, AND IS BEHAVING LIKE A GENTLEMAN, UNLIKE SOMEONE I CAN THINK OF. YOU CAN HAVE THREE GUESSES, AND THE FIRST TWO DON’T COUNT AS TO WHO THAT MIGHT BE.

I HOPE THIS WILL MAKE ALL OF US BERNIECRATS VOTE FOR BIDEN IN NOVEMBER (IF THE ELECTION HASN’T BEEN PUSHED BACK THAT IS), BECAUSE NOT TO DO SO IS SIMPLY FOOLISH. OF COURSE, THAT DOESN’T MEAN IT WILL HAPPEN, AND IF IT DOESN’T, PREPARE FOR FOUR MORE YEARS OF D.J. TRUMP.

WE MUST DEFEAT DONALD TRUMP
LIVE AT 2:00 PM, APRIL 13, 2020
BERNIE SANDERS
WATCH LIVE: Bernie Sanders endorses Joe Biden during virtual event on economic response to COVID-19
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HERE IS BARACK OBAMA RAZZING THE REPUBLICANS AT THE ANNUAL PRESS CLUB CORRESPONDENTS’ DINNER.

32:37 minutes duration
"Obama out:" President Barack Obama's hilarious final White House correspondents' dinner speech
33,866,139 views • Apr 30, 2016
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