Tag: Trump White House

Members of Pence’s Inner Circle Test Positive for Coronavirus

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Along with Marc Short, the vice president’s chief of staff, three additional staff members and a Pence adviser have also tested positive, according to people briefed on the developments.

Several members of Vice President Mike Pence’s inner circle, including at least four members of his staff, have tested positive for the coronavirus in the past few days, people briefed on the matter said, raising new questions about the safety protocols at the White House, where masks are not routinely worn.

Devin O’Malley, a spokesman for Mr. Pence, said that the vice president’s chief of staff, Marc Short, had tested positive. A person briefed on the diagnosis said he received it on Saturday.

The vice president’s office said Mr. Pence and his wife, Karen, both tested negative on Saturday and again on Sunday. Continue reading.

White House pivots again on stimulus negotiations after bipartisan backlash

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Trump aides now call for Congress to repurpose unused small-business funding, the latest in a series of approaches to a relief bill

The White House again pivoted its approach to stimulus negotiations on Sunday, with the president’s aides pushing for immediate action on a narrow measure after the administration’s $1.8 trillion proposal was rebuffed by members of both parties.

In a letter to Congress sent Sunday, White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin asked lawmakers to first pass legislation allowing the Trump administration to redirect about $130 billion in unused funding from the Paycheck Protection Program intended for small businesses while negotiations continue on a broader relief effort.

The administration’s latest request is unlikely to advance in the House, where Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has rejected stand-alone legislation in favor of a comprehensive package to address the economic and health consequences of the coronavirus pandemic. The administration’s $1.8 trillion stimulus proposal on Friday came under heavy criticism from lawmakers in both parties over the weekend, making its chances of passing appear remote. Continue reading.

Trump to hold first White House event after coronavirus diagnosis

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President Trump plans to hold an in-person event at the White House on Saturday, two officials confirmed to The Hill, his first public engagement since being diagnosed with the coronavirus last week.

One White House official said that Trump will deliver remarks from the Blue Room Balcony to guests on the South Lawn, suggesting he will not be in close proximity to any of those in attendance.

The event is being coordinated with one organized by conservative activist Candace Owens and Trump’s remarks are expected to focus on “law and order,” according to ABC News, which first reported the plans. It is expected to attract hundreds of attendees, despite the pandemic.  Continue reading.

Contact-tracing efforts scrutinized after COVID-19 outbreak spreads

‘It’s clear there’s not a comprehensive outbreak investigation going on at the White House and it is very concerning,’ public health expert says

Efforts to trace the contacts of officials in Washington should be more intensive, say public health experts who note that practices vary across different government branches.

A number of top officials, including President Donald Trump and three senators, announced their COVID-19 diagnoses in the past week.

The White House and Capitol Hill don’t appear to have the type of contact-tracing plan that would be recommended for such an outbreak, said David Harvey, the executive director of National Coalition of STD Directors, which has experience in tracing the contacts of people infected with diseases. Continue reading.

White House Is Not Tracing Contacts for ‘Super-Spreader’ Rose Garden Event Garden super spreader event, Trump not

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Since President Trump’s Covid diagnosis, numerous associates have tested positive, but the White House has not aggressively investigated the outbreak.

Despite almost daily disclosures of new coronavirus infections among President Trump’s close associates, the White House is making little effort to investigate the scope and source of its outbreak.

The White House has decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members at the Rose Garden celebration 10 days ago for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, where at least eight people, including the president, may have become infected, according to a White House official familiar with the plans.

Instead, it has limited its efforts to notifying people who came in close contact with Mr. Trump in the two days before his Covid diagnosis Thursday evening. It has also cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has the government’s most extensive knowledge and resources for contact tracing, out of the process. Continue reading.

House approves $2.2T COVID-19 relief bill as White House talks stall

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House Democrats on Thursday approved a massive, $2.2 trillion package of coronavirus relief, lending political cover to party centrists in tough races while putting fresh pressure on Senate Republicans to move another round of emergency aid before the coming elections.

The vote arrived only after last-ditch negotiations between Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Thursday failed to yield a bipartisan agreement — and it sent a signal that the prospects for such a deal before Nov. 3 have dimmed considerably.

The bill was approved by a tally of 214 to 207, but to secure passage, Pelosi and her leadership team had to stave off a late revolt from a surprisingly large number of centrists who were furious that Pelosi had staged a vote on a bill with no chance of becoming law. Continue reading.

The White House says Trump will accept election results. Feel better? You shouldn’t.

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IT WOULD have been unthinkable, not long ago, for a White House to have to issue such a clarification. Press secretary Kayleigh McEnany averred Thursday that President Trump “will accept the results of a free and fair election.” Ms. McEnany was not rebutting some kind of fevered left-wing conspiracy theory but the president’s own words. “We’re going to have to see what happens,” Mr. Trump said Wednesday when asked whether he would commit to a peaceful transfer of power. “Get rid of the ballots and you’ll have a very peaceful — there won’t be a transfer, frankly. There will be a continuation,” he said.

Sadly, there’s a limit to how much reassurance Ms. McEnany can provide. Mr. Trump will reserve to himself the right to determine whether the election is “free and fair,” and he has already said the only way he could lose is through fraud. Mr. Trump and Attorney General William P. Barr have pre-spun the results by fanning conspiracy theories about mail-in ballots. “Get rid of the ballots” means curbing the mail-in voting that large numbers of Democrats say they will use this year.

There’s a touch, but only a touch, more reassurance to be had from the mild condemnationsthat Republicans issued following the president’s antidemocratic statement. There is some comfort in the fact that they said anything at all; such things are not guaranteed these days. But it is easy for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) to say that “the winner of the November 3rd election will be inaugurated on January 20th.” It may take more gumption for them to do the right thing after their president has spun a narrative of massive electoral fraud. Continue reading.

Whistleblower on Jared Kushner’s COVID task force says he was told to ‘fudge’ death data model

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A grandson of former Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy told The New Yorker that he was the whistleblower that sounded the alarm on presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner’s coronavirus task force to Congress.

“Americans are facing a crisis of tragic proportions, and there is an urgent need for an effective, efficient and bold response. From my few weeks as a volunteer, I believe we are falling short,” he said in the complaint in April. “I am writing to alert my representatives of these challenges and to ask that they do everything possible to help front-line health-care workers and other Americans in need.”

“I just couldn’t sleep,” Kennedy told Mayer. “I was so distressed and disturbed by what I’d seen.” Continue reading.

Kushner’s Callous Conduct On Covid-19 Panel ’Flabbergasted’ Others Present

When Jared Kushner was grilled by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer earlier this week, the White House senior adviser vigorously defended President Donald Trump on a range of issues — including the president’s widely criticized response to the coronavirus pandemic. Kushner has played a key role in that response: he was put in a charge of a private sector-oriented coronavirus task force that was separate from the White House task force with Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx.

And in a lengthy, in-depth article for Vanity Fair, Katherine Eban revealed some explosive details of Kushner’s coronavirus response, focusing heavily on a meeting on Friday, March 20.

Kushner was present at that meeting, which was attended by “a large group of officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency — people one attendee described as ‘the doers’ — to strategize how best to replenish the nation’s depleted reserves of PPE.” Continue reading.