Category: National Issues

Matt Gaetz Is Said to Face Justice Dept. Inquiry Over Sex With an Underage Girl

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An inquiry into the Florida congressman was opened in the final months of the Trump administration, people briefed on it said.

Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida and a close ally of former President Donald J. Trump, is being investigated by the Justice Department over whether he had a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old and paid for her to travel with him, according to three people briefed on the matter.

Investigators are examining whether Mr. Gaetz violated federal sex trafficking laws, the people said. A variety of federal statutes make it illegal to induce someone under 18 to travel over state lines to engage in sex in exchange for money or something of value. The Justice Department regularly prosecutes such cases, and offenders often receive severe sentences.

It was not clear how Mr. Gaetz met the girl, believed to be 17 at the time of encounters about two years ago that investigators are scrutinizing, according to two of the people. Continue reading.

Feuds, fibs and finger-pointing: Trump officials say coronavirus response was worse than known

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‘That’s what bothers me every day’: Birx and others admit failures that hampered the White House response

Several top doctors in the Trump administration offered their most pointed and direct criticism of the government response to the coronavirus last year, with one of them arguing that hundreds of thousands of covid-19 deaths could have been prevented.

They also admitted their own missteps as part of a CNN special that aired Sunday night, saying that some Trump administration statements the White House fiercely defended last year were misleading or outright falsehoods.

“When we said there were millions of tests available, there weren’t, right?” said Brett Giroir, who served as the nation’s coronavirus testing czar, referencing the administration’s repeated claims in March 2020 that anyone who sought a coronavirus test could get one. “There were components of the test available, but not the full meal deal.” Continue reading.

The Memo: Biden seeks a secret weapon — GOP voters

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President Biden says he is winning over Republican voters even as he runs into a wall of GOP opposition on Capitol Hill.

The president has a strong case to make on the COVID-19 relief bill, which scores very highly in opinion polls. But whether Biden can replicate that level of support as he moves onto other issues is much more doubtful.

The White House believes he can.  Continue reading.

Pfizer, Moderna vaccines are 90% effective after two doses in study of real-life conditions, CDC confirms

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Report on essential workers is one of the first to estimate protection against any infection, regardless of symptoms

The Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines being deployed to fight the coronavirus pandemic are robustly effective in preventing infections in real-life conditions, according to a federal study released Monday that provides reassurance of protection for front-line workers in the United States.

In a study of about 4,000 health-care personnel, police, firefighters and other essential workers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the vaccines reduced the risk of infection by 80 percent after one shot. Protection increased to 90 percent following the second dose. The findings are consistent with clinical trial results and studies showing strong effectiveness in Israel and the United Kingdom, and in initial studies of health-care workers at the UT Southwestern Medical Center and in Southern California.

The CDC report is significant, experts said, because it analyzed how well the vaccines worked among a diverse group of front-line working-age adults whose jobs make them more likely to be exposed to the virus and to spread it. Continue reading.

Schumer eyes bypassing filibuster for third bill

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Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is looking at whether he could pass a third bill this year through reconciliation, an arcane budget process that lets Democrats avoid the legislative filibuster.

Schumer’s staff recently argued to the parliamentarian that they could use Section 304 of the Congressional Budget Act, which greenlights the use of reconciliation, to tee up passing at least a third bill this year by a simple majority, an aide for the New York Democrat confirmed.

“Schumer wants to maximize his options to allow Senate Democrats multiple pathways to advance President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda if Senate Republicans try to obstruct or water down a bipartisan agreement,” the Schumer aide added. Continue reading.

Can GOP Autocracy Outlaw American Democracy?

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Hey, you, get away from those polling places! No trespassing! We don’t want your kind here! Scram!

How’s that for a winning political message? It is stupid, shameful and ultimately self-defeating, yet being blatantly anti-democratic and anti-voter is the official electoral strategy being enthusiastically embraced nationwide by Republican officials and operatives. Admitting that they can’t get majorities to vote for their collection of corporate lackeys, conspiracy theorists and bigoted old white guys, the GOP hierarchy’s Great Hope is crude repression — rigging the rules to shove as many Democratic voters as possible out of our elections.

They’re banking on a blitz of bureaucratic bills they’re now trying to ram through nearly every state legislature, using government red tape and the iron fist of government autocracy to intimidate, divert and otherwise deny eligible voters the ability to exercise their most fundament democratic right. The main targets of the GOP’s vote thieves are people of color, but they’re also pushing measures to keep students, senior citizens, union households and poor communities from voting. Continue reading.

New U.S. coronavirus cases rise by 12 percent; nation braces for fourth pandemic wave

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NOTE: This article is provided free to all to read by The Washington Post.

New coronavirus cases in the United States continued to rise in the past week, jumping by as much as 12 percent nationwide, as senior officials implored Americans to stick to public health measures to help reverse the trend.

The seven-day average of new cases topped 63,000 for the first time in nearly a month, according to data compiled by The Washington Post, while states such as Michigan, Vermont and North Dakota reported substantial spikes in new infections. The nation appeared poised for a fourth wave of illness even as vaccine eligibility is expanding in many states.

Michigan led the nation in new cases with a 57 percent rise over the past week. The state, which relaxed covid-related restrictions earlier this month, also reported the largest increase in coronavirus hospitalizations, which grew by more than 47 percent. Continue reading.

‘Breathtaking’ interviews show Trump was ‘impervious’ to pleas to take pandemic seriously: NYT’s Haberman

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New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman on Monday described recent CNN interviews with former Trump public health officials as “breathtaking,” and said it showed how many of them were frustrated by their inability to get former President Donald Trump to take the coronavirus pandemic seriously.

While appearing on CNN, Haberman said that Dr. Deborah Birx and other former Trump health officials were now speaking freely after being muzzled for much of the past year.

“I think they wanted to peel off the muzzle,” she said. “I think it spoke to their frustration about what happened, spoke to their feelings on their own part, could they have done more, was there something else that could have been done… It’s breathtaking how quickly this happened.” Continue reading.

Biden to unveil major new spending plans as Democrats eye bigger role for government

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The president is set to tout key components of an infrastructure overhaul and the early contours of his 2022 budget

President Biden this week is set to begin sketching out his plan to commit trillions of dollars toward upgrading the country’s ailing infrastructure, fighting climate change and bolstering federal safety net programs, as Democrats try to usher in a new era of bigger government — and spending — in the aftermath of the coronavirus.

The forthcoming proposals reflect a broader political shift underway in Washington, where Democratic leaders have sought to capitalize on their 2020 election victories to advance once dormant policy priorities and unwind years of budget cuts under administrations past.

But Biden’s aggressive agenda also may test his stated support for bipartisanship — after passing his $1.9 trillion stimulus plan without any Republican support — as well as the public’s willingness to embrace the sizable tax increases on wealthy families and profitable companies that may be necessary to help finance the burst in federal spending. Continue reading.

Ted Cruz melts down over voting rights bill because people on ‘welfare’ might vote

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Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) answered questions about the border and voting rights on Sunday by repeatedly accusing Democrats of enabling child rape. 

Cruz made the remarks on Fox News after host Maria Bartiromo asked him about his recent trip to the U.S-Mexico border to highlight the seasonal surge in migrants.

“The problem for Democrats, they start from a premise the more illegal immigration the better,” Cruz insisted. “Because they believe if you let all the illegal immigrants in and then you make them all citizens that they will eventually vote Democrat and keep Democrats in power.” Continue reading.