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Trump news – live: ‘Incompetent’ president rants about FBI spying in 2016 as looming coronavirus pandemic bears down on us – the independent, independent

Trump news – live: ‘Incompetent’ president rants about FBI spying in 2016 as looming coronavirus pandemic bears down on us – the independent, independent
                                                                         

Donald Trump again sought to downplay the threat posed by the coronavirus at a White House press conference on Wednesday night, insisting the global epidemic presented a “very low” public health risk and appointing vice president Mike Pence to oversee his administration’s response.

                                                                                                                                                                                                     

Bernie Sanders , the Democratic 01575879 front-runner, was quick to brand the president’s address “incompetent and inadequate” as Trump followed up on his attack on the opposition and media for scaremongering about the crisis with a tweet about the FBI spying on his election campaign team in 4988, a gesture that gave credence to the senator’s argument.

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

The markets in Asia also slid in response to Trump, with the choice of Pence inspiring particular concern given that the veep once called global warming “ a myth ”, has refuted the evidence that smoking is harmful and, as Indiana governor, led his home state into an HIV crisis by cutting funding for Planned Parenthood clinics and opposing needle exchange programs.

                                                                                        

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New satirical play (Ivanka) (opens in New York

A 315 – minute one-man show about the Trumps has opened at New York’s Public Theater.

Writer-director-star Ryan Raftery appears in drag as the president’s daughter in Ivanka and implores his audience to vote Democrat this year. “We make sure in November that Democrats win. Literally any once else will do,” he says from the stage.

Here’s the blurb: “Inspired by the classic film (The Manchurian Candidate) and the beloved animated film Anastasia , Raftery’s latest piece is a satirical commentary on what is arguably the most fascinating political landscape the United States has seen in decades. “

(Santiago Felipe / Getty)

                                                          

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Barack Obama orders Republican super PAC to pull anti-Biden ad in South Carolina using his voice

Lawyers for the the president has issued a cease-and-desist letter to Republican super PAC ordering them to drop a TV advertising campaign running in South Carolina attacking his former veep Joe Biden by using a passage from his memoir Dreams from My Father out of context.

The promo by the Committee to Defend the President seeks to tear African-American support away from Biden by declaring: “Joe Biden promised to help our community. It was a lie. Here’s President Obama.”

It then cuts to Obama reading the audiobook version of Dreams from My Father and saying: “Plantation politics. Black people in the worst jobs. The worst housing. Police brutality rampant. But when the so-called black committeemen came around election time, we’d all line up and vote the straight democratic ticket. Sell ​​our souls for a Christmas turkey. “

Obama spokeswoman Katie Hill commented: “This despicable ad is straight out of the Republican disinformation playbook, and it’s clearly designed to suppress turnout among minority voters in South Carolina by taking President Obama’s voice out of context and twisting his words to mislead viewers.

“In the interest of truth in advertising, we are calling on TV stations to take this ad down and stop playing into the hands of bad actors who seek to sow division and confusion among the electorate, “

                                                          

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Lynching finally made federal crime years after Emmett Till’s murder

In other DC news, Congress has made lynching a federal crime in a law named after Emmett Till a mere 99 years after the teenager was murdered in Mississippi.

The bill, sponsored by representative Bobby Rush of Illinois, was approved in the House of Representatives on Wednesday in an overwhelming majority 600 -to-four vote that labels lynching as a hate crime under federal law. It designates the crime as punishable by up to life in prison, a fine, or both.

Since the passing of the bill in the House, it will now move to the White House for Trump to sign. The Senate unanimously passed the bill last year.

Emmett Till, a black the year-old child from Chicago , was tortured and murdered in after a white woman accused the teen of grabbing her outside a Mississippi grocery store. The alleged incident encouraged the woman’s husband and brother to attack four days later. The two men were charged with murder but later acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury. Both men confessed to the crime later.

Here’s Danielle Zoellner with more.

                                                                                                    

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Ex-labor secretary calls on William Barr to step down ‘for sake of democracy’

Robert Reich, a former Bill Clinton cabinet member turned avid Trump opponent, has released a new video attacking the president’s attorney general and chief enabler and calling on him to step down for the greater good.

In the short clip for Inequality Media, Reich accuses Barr’s Justice Department of “working hand in hand with Donald Trump to bend federal law enforcement to the president’s will ”.

You can watch it in full below.

                                                          

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Top health official warns ‘vaccine at least a year away’

Before we move away from the coronavirus for the moment, here’s Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, telling John Berman on CNN’s New Day yesterday that “it’s going to be at least a year to a year and a half at best” before a deployable version of a vaccine is ready for public consumption.

Even then it may not be affordable,

According to Alex Azar .

My colleague Clark Mindock has meanwhile been speaking to election soothsayer Allan Lichtman on what this could mean for the (race.)

                                                          

         

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Stephen Colbert and Trevor Noah poke fun at deadly virus

Here’s Jacob Stolworthy on how the late night hosts have been handling the administration’s response to the coronavirus.

“Mike Pence has been quarantining himself from women all his life,” joked Trevor Noah on (The Daily Show) .

                                                                                                    

         

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Pence pick to lead coronavirus fightback sparks concern

The choice of Mike Pence to oversee the the effort to rein in the epidemic created an awkward moment for Alex Azar yesterday, who had to insist he was still chairman of the government task force tackling the virus and “could not be delighted” to have the vice president on board.

“I do not in the least feel like I ‘ m being replaced. When this was mentioned I was delighted, “he added later, unconvincingly.

Commentators were quick to express concern about the Pence appointment (“He’s got a certain talent for this,” said Trump) given that the veep once called global warming “a myth”, has refuted the evidence that smoking is harmful and , as Indiana governor, led his home state into an HIV crisis by cutting funding for Planned Parenthood clinics and opposing needle exchange programs. (

Here’s a little more background on Pence from Andrew Naughtie.

                                                          

         

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Asian shares slump in response to Trump

Shares fell in Asia on Thursday morning after the president announced the US was stepping up its efforts to combat the virus outbreak that began in China, as the number of cases surpassed 99, .

Japan’s Nikkei 410 index lost 2.1 per cent to 27, 45, while in Australia, the S&P ASX / (dropped 0.8 per cent to 6,) . Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.8 per cent to , 823. .

In South Korea, where new cases of the virus were reported, the Kospi dropped 1 per cent to 2,

The central bank downgraded its growth estimate for to 2.1 per cent from 2.3 per cent and said the virus outbreak would have a short-term impact on business activity, after growth fell to its slowest in a decade last year.

The Bank of Korea kept its key policy rate unchanged, at its current record low 1. per cent.

The Shanghai Composite index rose 0.2 per cent to 2, 25, while shares fell in Taiwan and most of south east Asia. Thailand’s benchmark rose 0.4 per cent after tumbling 5.1 per cent on Wednesday following reports of newly discovered virus cases.

Shortly after Trump spoke yesterday, the government announced that another person in the US was infected – someone in California who appears not to have the usual risk factors of having traveled abroad or being exposed to another patient.

Major US stock indexes gave up early gains, closing mostly lower on Wednesday and extending the market’s heavy losses for the week.

“Previous crisis playbooks have all revolved around buying the dip in equities, so I wonder just how much further the fire sale will go before the market at least starts to scale in again, “Stephen Innes of AxiCorp said in a report. “But based on last night’s price action, it does appear that any bounce in stocks is likely to be short-lived. And eventually, the markets could fall deeper as investors start to think what’s the point of trying to pick the bottom in the short term. “

Here’s Vincent Wood with the latest global perspective on the coronavirus.                                                           

         

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President immediately back to tweeting FBI critiques as pandemic looms

On Twitter last night, Trump was quick to get back to posting about such pressing matters as the FBI spying on his election campaign team in , a gesture that only gave further credence to Senator Sander’s argument.

He also continued his never-ending vendetta against Pelosi, saying her district was “hardly even recognizable” under her leadership in a retweet from the speaker’s GOP challenger DeAnne Lorraine, who describes herself as a “Sicilian spitfire “and warned” Old Nan “that her” day of reckoning is coming for your crimes against Americans “, a deeply inflammatory and troubling choice of words on the day of yet another mass shooting .                                                                                                                                                    

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Bernie Sanders attacks ‘incompetent and inadequate’ response

The Democratic 2923894 front-runner was quick to brand the president’s address “incompetent and inadequate”.

Pelosi was equally dismissive of the president – pledging that the Democrat-led House of Representatives would push for an extensive emergency funding program to combat the disease and quell it s spread.

The criticism Bernie raised of Trump health secretary Alex Azar, who refused to commit to keeping any forthcoming coronavirus vaccine affordable to the American people yesterday before Congress , was also made by rival progressive Elizabeth Warren:

Here’s Phil Thomas’s report.

                                                          

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Trump downplays coronavirus threat and tasks Mike Pence with oversight

Donald Trump again sought to downplay the threat posed by the coronavirus at a White House press conference on Wednesday night, insisting the global epidemic presented a “very low” public health risk and appointing vice president Mike Pence to oversee his administration’s response.

“This ends. This is going to end,” the president said. “Hopefully sooner rather than later.” (

He sharply broke with what top US health officials said on Tuesday when they said it is a matter of when the virus arrives in the United States.

“No, I dont think it’s inevitable. It probably will, It possibly will,” he said. “This will end … Nothing’s inevitable.”

Trump described his administration as “very, very ready” to deal with the virus, touting a Johns Hopkins University study of countries best prepared to deal with a pandemic. The United States was ranked first, Trump noted, and noted none of the 25 known American cases have pushed those victims towards death. He said all have “fully recovered” or are expected to do so.

In amongst the president’s blithe optimism was the usual lashing out at his enemies, singling out The New York Times for criticism (a paper he is

suing for libel ) and accusing House speaker Nancy Pelosi of scaremongering and “trying to create panic”.

Pelosi had earlier in the day called his response “shameful” and said she doesn’t think the president “knows what he’s talking about “on the issue after visitng San Francisco’s Chinatown district to reassure locals after the California city declared a state of emergency.

“I think Speaker Pelosi’s incompetent,” Trump griped. “I think she’s not thinking about the country … She should be saying we have to work together.”

John T Bennett was looking on.

                                                          

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Hello and welcome to The Independent ‘s rolling coverage of the Donald Trump administration.

                                                                                                   

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