Politics

Trump fires back at Michigan’s Whitmer, claims Dem governor ‘doesn’t have a clue’

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President Trump took aim at Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday night, claiming in a Twitter message that the Democrat was “way in over her head” amid the coronavirus outbreak and “doesn’t have a clue.”

As of late Friday, Michigan had more than 3,600 confirmed cases of the virus, ranking fifth in the nation, and had seen at least two deaths.

“I love Michigan, one of the reasons we are doing such a GREAT job for them during this horrible Pandemic,” the president wrote. “Yet your Governor, Gretchen “Half” Whitmer is way in over her ahead [sic], she doesn’t have a clue. Likes blaming everyone for her own ineptitude! #MAGA”

TRUMP SAYS GOVERNORS HAVE TO GET KEY MEDICAL GEAR THEMSELVES, BUT ‘WE’RE HERE TO HELP THEM’

The Twitter message followed Whitmer’s accusations Friday that medical-supply vendors were being told “not to send stuff here to Michigan” – and her insinuation that the alleged orders were coming from the Trump administration.

It also followed the 48-year-old first-term governor’s previous complaint that Michigan wasn’t receiving “clear directives and guidance” from Washington for handling the outbreak.

Earlier Friday, Trump told reporters during a White House news briefing that he advised Vice President Mike Pence – leader of the president’s Coronavirus Task Force – against communicating with Whitmer, claiming she was among a small group of governors who weren’t being “appreciative” of the Trump administration’s virus response efforts.

“I say, Mike … don’t call the woman in Michigan. I say, if they don’t treat you right, don’t call,” Trump told reporters.

The remark followed previous comments the president made Thursday during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

“We’ve had a big problem with the young, a woman governor,” Trump said. “You know who I’m talking about, from Michigan. We don’t like to see the complaints.”

That Thursday remark from Trump drew a Twitter response from Whitmer.

“Hi, my name is Gretchen Whitmer, and that governor is me,” Whitmer wrote.

“I’ve asked repeatedly and respectfully for help. We need it. No more political attacks, just PPEs, ventilators, N95 masks, test kits. You said you stand with Michigan — prove it.”

Whitmer aired more concerns Friday during an interview with Detroit radio station WWJ-AM, according to Crain’s Detroit Business.

“When the federal government told us that we needed to go it ourselves, we started procuring every item we could get our hands on,” Whitmer told WWJ. “What I’ve gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan. It’s really concerning.”

Whitmer then doubled down on her claim during an appearance on CNN, Crain’s reported.

“We’ve entered into a number of contracts and as we are getting closer to the date when shipments are supposed to come in, they’re getting canceled or they’re getting delayed,” Whitmer said. “We’ve been told they’re going first to the federal government.”

Earlier in the week, Whitmer complained that Michigan wasn’t receiving “clear directives and guidance from the federal government” on how to handle the crisis.

The coronavirus outbreak has sparked tension between Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and President Trump.

“Frankly, a patchwork strategy of each state doing what they can, we’re going to do it if we need to, but it would be nice to have a national strategy,” she said, according to MLive.

Whitmer claimed that if the Trump administration had focused on the pandemic sooner, Michigan and the U.S. would “be in a stronger position right now.”

“Lives will be lost because we weren’t prepared,” she said.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Also on Friday, President Trump signed a more than $2 trillion legislative package intended to provide extensive relief to workers and businesses as they deal with the coronavirus outbreak.

In addition, the president named his trade adviser, Peter Navarro, to direct implementation of the Defense Production Act, which gives the president the authority to direct manufacturers to produce medical supplies such as ventilators.

Bloomberg campaign hit with FEC complaint for $18M transfer to DNC

EXCLUSIVE: A Federal Elections Commission complaint has been filed against former New York City mayor and 2020 presidential hopeful Mike Bloomberg for an $18 million transfer from his defunct campaign to the Democratic National Committee.

At the core of the complaint is the tenuous distinction between Bloomberg’s personal finances and those of his presidential campaign. The complaint is unique because of the nature of Bloomberg’s self-funded campaign. He took no outside donations and maintained complete control over the campaign’s finances, and the complaint argues this weakens the legal distinctions normally found between campaign cash and a candidate’s personal wealth.

“Allowing these kinds of contributions is everything we’ve said no to in 40 years of campaign finance jurisprudence. Never has this been okay at the federal level.”

— Dan Backer, treasurer of the Great America PAC

Bloomberg’s ill-fated foray into the 2020 presidential race saw him spend more than $900 million of his own money, according to FEC filings. After he suspended his campaign and endorsed Joe Biden, Bloomberg announced he’d be transferring $18 million to the DNC and the campaign’s field offices to state Democratic parties. The complaint alleges that both far exceed FEC limits on campaign contributions.

“Allowing these kinds of contributions is everything we’ve said no to in 40 years of campaign finance jurisprudence,” said Dan Backer, the man who filed the complaint through his pro-Trump Great America PAC. “Never has this been okay at the federal level.”

Backer, who has filed several FEC complaints and subsequent lawsuits against prominent Democratic politicians, said he expects the board members to agree with his assessment of Bloomberg’s contribution to the DNC.

“If you allow Bloomberg to do this, you’re giving democracy to a billionaire oligarch,” Backer said. “… Having been unable to buy voters, he’s doing the next best thing and buying the party itself.”

Despite a number of attempts to contact several members of Bloomberg’s campaign team, they declined to provide comment to Fox News.

In response to a detailed list of questions, the DNC referred Fox News to two tweets by their communications director, Xochitl Hinojosa. In one tweet about Bloomberg’s transfer, she said his contribution is different because his candidacy was “in earnest” and that a candidate “moving money just to transfer to a party doesn’t pass the smell test.”

Hinojosa also said the money would help the party to scale up its Battleground Build-Up 2020 initiative and hire more organizers. Both of which are explicitly mentioned in Bloomberg’s March 20 memo to DNC Chairman Tom Perez.

“We hope this investment will dramatically expand the DNC’s Battleground Build-Up 2020 efforts across battleground states, drawing in part from our own incredibly experienced and talented organizing staff,” the memo read.

FILE – In this Nov. 20, 2019 file photo, Chair of the Democratic National Committee, Tom Perez, speaks before a Democratic presidential primary debate in Atlanta. Perez is calling for a “recanvass” of the results of Monday’s Iowa caucus. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

By deciding to transfer the $18 million to the DNC, Bloomberg reneged on a plan to employ his campaign organizers through November by forming a Super PAC. Former field organizers have filed two class-action lawsuits in a federal New York City court against the campaign earlier this week, alleging that thousands were tricked into taking the jobs under false pretenses.

Campaign contribution limits exist to dissuade actual and purported political corruption. Even if Bloomberg attached no conditions to his contribution, the appearance of an agreement is there.

“Even if we want to pretend he’s not corrupting Tom Perez, it sure as hell looks like he is,” Backer said.

The DNC likely would have control over how they spent the money, regardless of the insinuations in Bloomberg’s memo, said former FEC Commissioner Hans von Spakovsky. He added that the complaint is filed on “substantive legal ground.”

“It does appear that he is using the campaign to launder a contribution to the DNC that is a massive violation of the contribution limits to those political parties,” von Spakovsky said.

If Bloomberg’s proposed transaction is allowed by the FEC, it could open the door to millionaires across the country pulling similar stunts to advance their political ends. Bloomberg is exceptionally wealthy, but it doesn’t take a billion dollars to exceed the FEC’s $35,500 annual limit on contributions to national political parties.

“I think if the FEC does not go after Bloomberg, it will open up a huge loophole in the law.”

— Hans von Spakovsky, former FEC commissioner.

“I think if the FEC does not go after Bloomberg, it will open up a huge loophole in the law,” von Spakovsky said. “All any rich individual would have to do is file one form with the FEC declaring their candidacy, open up a campaign account, file one report with the FEC, and then withdraw as a candidate.”

Establishing a precedent that keeps this from happening is what Backer wants. He said an FEC fine wouldn’t hurt the former candidate’s bank account, but that it was important to close this potential loophole before it was exploited.

Keeping politics as level a playing field as possible between moneyed interests and voters is a balancing act, one that could be made more difficult for the everyman if Bloomberg’s transfer goes through.

“Bloomberg is entitled to spend as much of his own money on his candidacy as he wants, but that’s an expenditure and not a contribution,” Backer said. “Federal election law understands the difference, and whatever money he put into his campaign is still an expenditure — not a contribution.”

Trump appoints Navarro to lead Defense Production Act efforts after forcing GM to make ventilators

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President Trump announced Friday he is appointing his trade adviser Peter Navarro to serve as his national Defense Production Act policy coordinator after using the act to force General Motors to begin making ventilators to treat coronavirus patients.

“He’s a tremendous guy and he will do a fantastic job,” the president said during a press briefing with his coronavirus taskforce at the White House. He said Navarro will serve as the national Defense Production Act coordinator for the federal government.

Also during the press conference, Trump pushed back against Democratic governors – like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Washington Gov. Jay Inslee — who have criticized the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic. “I want them to be appreciative,” Trump said.

And he defended his decision to travel to Norfolk, Va., on Saturday to send off a Navy hospital ship headed to the New York City harbor to help hospitals in the country’s largest city deal with the crush of patients impacted by the coronavirus pandemic. A reporter pressed him on whether it was wise to travel as his administration encourages people to stay home to avoid spreading the virus.

“I’m not going to be jumping around in a huddle,” Trump said, adding he’s going because he has “spirit for this country.”

Earlier Friday, Trump said he had directed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to require General Motors to begin making ventilators under the Defense Production Act to combat the coronavirus pandemic after negotiations with the automaker stalled.

TRUMP INVOKES DEFENSE PRODUCTION ACT: WHAT IS IT?

“Our negotiations with GM regarding its ability to supply ventilators have been productive, but out fight against the virus is too great to allow the give-and-take of the contracting process to continue to run its normal course,” Trump said in a statement, adding: “GM was wasting time.”

Experts say the U.S. is hundreds of thousands of breathing machines short of what it likely will need to treat a rapidly rising number of COVID-19 patients. New York, Michigan, Louisiana and the state of Washington have been singled out as virus hot spots in the U.S.

After Trump invoked the act, GM said in a statement that it has been working around the clock for more than a week with Ventec and parts suppliers to build more ventilators. The company said its commitment to build Ventec’s ventilators “has never wavered.”

Trump on Friday also signed a more than $2 trillion legislative package to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The legislation sends economic relief to workers and businesses squeezed by restrictions meant to stop the outbreak’s spread after the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the legislation earlier in the day.

TRUMP SIGNS $2T STIMULUS BILL AFTER HOUSE APPROVES HISTORIC CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE

The legislation, approved by voice vote despite 11th-hour drama arising from a GOP lawmaker’s objections, amounts to the costliest stimulus plan in U.S. history. It includes checks for most Americans, boosted unemployment aid, help for small business as well as a massive loan fund for corporations – at a time when unemployment is surging at a record pace, a consequence of businesses closing in compliance with social distancing guidelines.

The bill finances a response with a price tag that equals half the size of the entire $4 trillion-plus annual federal budget. The $2.2 trillion estimate is the White House’s best guess of the spending it contains.

The legislation would provide one-time direct payments to Americans of $1,200 per adult making up to $75,000 a year and $2,400 to a married couple making up to $150,000, with $500 payments per child.

Unemployment insurance would be made far more generous, with $600 per week tacked onto regular state jobless payments through the end of July. States and local governments would receive $150 billion in supplemental funding to help them provide basic and emergency services during the crisis.

The legislation also establishes a $454 billion program for guaranteed, subsidized loans to larger industries in hopes of leveraging up to $4.5 trillion in lending to distressed businesses, states, and municipalities. All would be up to the Treasury Department’s discretion, though businesses controlled by Trump or immediate family members and by members of Congress would be ineligible.

There was also $150 billion devoted to the health care system, including $100 billion for grants to hospitals and other health care providers buckling under the strain of COVID-19 caseloads.

Fox News’ Marisa Schultz, Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Coronavirus relief bill contains nearly $12 billion in questionable spending

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President Trump signed the more than $2 trillion coronavirus relief package on Friday and said it would help American workers across the country — but the bill also includes millions for items unrelated to the pandemic.

Fox News counted them up and found nearly $12 billion in spending that has a tenuous or disputed connection to the emergency.

The final bill includes:

$10,804,687,000 for international development
$350,000,000 for refugee resettlement
$93,000,000 Congress ($25 million of which is for “salaries and expenses”)
$75,000,000 for PBS stations
$75,000,000 for the National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities
$75,000,000 National Endowment for the Humanities
$50,000,000 for the Institute of Museum and Library Services
$25,000,000 for the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts
$7,500,000 for the Smithsonian Institution

Critics slammed those provisions of the bill.

“It shouldn’t be stuffed full of Nancy Pelosi’s pork — including $25 million for the Kennedy Center, grants for the National Endowment for the Humanities and Arts, and millions more for other measures that have no direct relation to the Coronavirus Pandemic,” tweeted Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., the lone congressman who tried to force a roll call vote that would have delayed the bill.

TRUMP SIGNS $2T STIMULUS BILL AFTER HOUSE APPROVES HISTORIC CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE

The questionably-relevant spending items come alongside stimulus that gives $1,200 payments ($2,400 for married couples) to individuals and hundreds of billions in loans and aid to businesses.

Backers of the bill say some questionable items are not as ridiculous as they may sound.

On Wednesday, Trump was asked about the $25 million allocated to the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts in D.C.

“The Kennedy Center has suffered greatly because nobody can go there,” Trump responded. “It’s essentially closed, and they do need some funding. And I said, ‘look’ — that was a Democrat request. That was not my request. But you got to give them something. It’s something that they wanted. You know, it works that way.”

Trump added that the money for the center was negotiated down from $35 billion to $25 billion, while noting that the reduction was less impressive than he’d like.

“That’s not a good soundbite. But that’s the way life works,” Trump said.

Supporters of the president say the provisions are a necessary evil.

“President Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic has been bold, exceptional and so far successful, but it is also clear that he is still forced to function within many of the swamp’s long-standing, dysfunctional practices,” Michael Johns, a co-founder of the national Tea Party movement and a former White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush, told Fox News.

“Most of the funds and resources allocated under the stimulus bill are absolutely essential,” he said.

More than 99 percent of the bill’s funding goes to provisions directly tied to economic or emergency support.

Advocates of the much-criticized spending carve-outs say there are reasons for them.

Local PBS stations say the money is needed because it’s harder for them to find the donations they depend on.

“How do you fundraise in the middle of a pandemic?” Mike Wall, of the public broadcasting outfit in Kodiak, Alaska, told The Washington Post. “I don’t want to be the guy going on the air in the middle of the virus saying, ‘Hey, by the way, now give us some dough.’”

Other advocates for public broadcasting said they needed even more funding that the bill provides.

“Seventy-five million is good but it’s really not enough,” Viktorya Vilk, program director for digital safety and free expression at PEN America, told The Post.

Other lines in the emergency bill have their own supporters.

Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar defended the $350 million for refugee resettlement, tweeting: “Immigrants and refugees, are Americans/pay taxes and as vulnerable communities need the resources ‘..to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.’”

As for the billions going to overseas aid in the developing world, the international development aid news outlet Devex reported that lobbyists were disappointed they didn’t get even more money.

“Global health and development advocates had lobbied for more international funding to be included in the package but told Devex that while the relative lack of funding is disappointing so far, it is not surprising U.S. lawmakers are currently focused on domestic response and recovery,” according to Devex.

Several widely-reported provisions in the bill that was first proposed by the House of Representatives also did not make it to the final bill, including emissions limits on airlines.

CORONAVIRUS: WHAT TO KNOW

The final bill does give $400 million to states for “Election Security Grants” but does not say that the money must go to create mail-in ballot systems, which critics had said would raise additional election security problems.

Many economists say the bill, even with irrelevant spending, is necessary.

“It’s the political reality that unrelated things get attached all the time to “must-pass” legislation. Is this desirable? No. But the American people needed relief yesterday. This had to pass right away, even if it’s far from perfect,” Texas-based economist and political consultant Abby McCloskey told Fox News.

Trump and nearly all Republican members of the House and Senate ultimately decided that emergency relief trumped concerns about needless spending.

“I’m profoundly grateful that both parties came together to provide relief for American workers and families in this hour of need,” Trump said Thursday.

Maxim Lott is Executive Producer of Stossel TV and creator of ElectionBettingOdds.com. He can be reached on Twitter at @MaximLott.

Fox News Poll: Biden leads Trump, wins high marks for female VP pledge

Former Vice President Joe Biden bests President Donald Trump by nine points in a 2020 ballot test, in the first Fox News Poll since Biden became the de facto Democratic nominee.

In a head-to-head presidential matchup, Biden is up by 49-40 percent over Trump, a lead that is outside the poll’s margin of sampling error. Another 11 percent would vote for someone else or are undecided. Last month, Biden was ahead by 49-41 percent.

The race remains a nine-point advantage for Biden over Trump when looking only at those voters extremely interested in the election (52-43 percent) and the former vice president has an eight-point edge in battleground states (48-40 percent).

However, Biden’s advantage grows to 25 points, 57-32 percent, in close counties (where Hillary Clinton and Trump were within 10 points in 2016).

CLICK HERE TO READ THE POLL RESULTS

“Since our last poll, Biden has won enough delegates to make him the presumptive Democratic nominee, but the horserace has not budged. This might be a bad sign for Biden since he has received extensive and largely positive news coverage over the last month,” says Democratic pollster Chris Anderson, whose firm conducts the poll with Republican Daron Shaw.

“But there appears to be a modest rallying to the flag effect in response to the pandemic that is rewriting our political and social landscape in still unknown ways.”

In the matchup, Biden is the choice among liberals, non-whites, moderates, suburban women, and voters ages 65 and over.

Trump leads among conservatives, white evangelical Christians, those who attend religious services regularly, white men, and whites without a college degree.

Meanwhile, by a three-to-one margin, voters like Biden’s commitment to choose a woman as his running mate. Overall, 63 percent approve of his promise to pick a female, while 20 percent disapprove (17 percent unsure). There is no gender gap, but voters under age 45 are 10 points more likely than those ages 45 and over to approve (70 vs. 60 percent). Among Democrats, approval climbs to 86 percent.

Vetting of possible Democratic vice presidential candidates will reportedly start soon. The poll asks about the three female senators who also ran for the party’s nomination — Kamala Harris, Amy Klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren.

A Biden-Warren ticket bests Trump-Pence by 10 points and is the only ticket tested that puts the Democrats over the 50 percent threshold, 52-42 percent.

The Trump-Pence ticket also trails both Biden-Klobuchar and Biden-Harris tickets by 8 points (both 50-42 percent). The Democratic edge in all three matchups is outside the poll’s margin of sampling error.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

“The conventional wisdom is that vice-presidential picks don’t have much of an effect on the national vote,” says Shaw. “That seems to hold true in these early ballot tests. What’s less obvious is whether there might be some influence within certain states or whether a specific candidate could deliver a strong convention or debate performance.”

Pollpourri

Both Democrats (80 percent) and Republicans (83 percent) believe the outcome of the November election will be “very” important to the direction of the country.

Overall, 79 percent of voters feel the election will be “very” important. That’s up from 60 percent who felt that way just weeks before the 2014 midterm elections (October 2014), the only other time the question was asked on a Fox News poll.

In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, over half of voters, 53 percent, are “extremely” interested in the presidential election. That is about where interest stood in January and February (both 55 percent extremely interested).

Conducted March 21-24, 2020 under the joint direction of Beacon Research (D) and Shaw & Company (R), this Fox News Poll includes interviews with 1,011 randomly chosen registered voters nationwide who spoke with live interviewers on both landlines and cellphones. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus three percentage points for all registered voters.

Democracy 2020 Digest: Trump faces fresh political attacks on coronavirus response

Two new national polls show the same thing: a majority of Americans approve of the job President Trump’s doing steering the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump stands at 51 percent approval and 46 percent disapproval in a Fox News national poll conducted March 21-24. And the president’s approval rating for his management of the crisis stands at 51-45 percent in an ABC News/Washington Post national survey conducted March 22-25.

THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLING ON THE CORONAVIRUS

But the Fox News poll indicates Americans are also divided on the Republican incumbent’s response to the coronavirus outbreak, with 45 percent saying he reacted appropriately and 46 percent suggesting Trump didn’t take it seriously.

The survey also shows that a majority of Americans – 53 percent – say the spreading of the virus across the country would have been less if the federal government had acted quicker. Just over a third of those questioned disagreed, saying nothing could have prevented the spread of the pandemic from coast to coast.

And 58 percent polled in the ABC News/Washington Post survey said that the president was “initially too slow to take action to address the problem,” with 38 percent saying Trump “acted with the right amount of speed.”

The polling comes as former Vice President Joe Biden and two outside groups supporting his White House bid are heavily criticizing Trump over his coronavirus response.

Biden – the all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee — urged Trump a week ago to “stop saying false things. … People are worried. They are really frightened. And when these things don’t come true, you just exacerbate their concern. Stop saying false things [you] think make you sound like a hero.”

The former vice president also arguing that Trump had repeatedly lied to Americans, saying, “For the first two months of this crisis, President Trump used his public statements to falsely tell us we had nothing to worry about. … Now he’s switched to falsely telling us that he’s taking action he has not taken, promising results he’s not delivered and announcing actions that he not even ordered. And people are scared.”

BIDEN TEMPERS HIS CRITICISM OF TRUMP

Biden tempered his remarks this week, but he continues to take aim at the president’s response to the crisis. And his campaign went up with a brutal video that used comments from the president the past two months downplaying the severity of the outbreak and arguing, “Trump knew. He failed.”

Priorities USA Action – the main super PAC that supported President Obama’s 2012 re-election and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 White House bid – is on the airwaves with a TV commercial that uses audio of the president’s comments and ends with a video clip of Trump saying, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” The ad’s running in key battleground states and the PAC announced on Friday that they’re coming out with a Spanish language version.

Unite the Country, the pro-Biden super PAC, went up this week with a new TV commercial where the narrator says, “Crisis comes to every president. This one failed.” The group says the spot is part of a seven-figure ad buy that will run nationwide on broadcast and cable.

Trump’s reelection campaign is pushing back, repeatedly accusing Biden of trying to politicize the coronavirus crisis.

“By preying upon Americans’ fear amid the coronavirus outbreak, Biden isn’t just playing cheap politics. He’s making the crisis worse. It’s dangerous,” the Trump campaign said. “Biden’s Monday morning quarterbacking is an effort to sow anger and division among Americans.”

Campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh – responding to the super PAC ads — spotlighted that “it used to be that Americans faced national adversity with unity, but Joe Biden and his allies have abandoned that principle in favor of rank, despicable politics.”

“They offer nothing but partisan sniping from the sidelines and seek to undermine the federal response to the crisis by misinforming and frightening people,” he charged.

The Trump campaign – alleging false allegations in both super PAC commercials – unsuccessfully tried to persuade TV stations to refuse to run the spots.

The ads are still running – but could such criticism of Trump backfire on Biden?

Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance noted that “Americans tend to rally around the flag during times of crisis. President Trump, who participates in daily briefings, is clearly the beneficiary of that support.”

But Lesperance – vice president of academic affairs at New England College – pointed to the latest polls to emphasize that Trump isn’t enjoying the bump past leaders received during times of crisis.

“The president’s current support is faint praise when compared to the support other president’s enjoyed in times of national crisis,” Lesperance stressed. “In the aftermath of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait in 1990, President George W. Bush enjoyed an 86 percnet approval rating. Eleven years later, following the attacks on 9/11, his son George W. Bush had approval ratings at 90 percent and above. In both cases, public support for those presidents soared. And while President Trump has better than usual marks for his handling of the COVID-19 crisis, his numbers still fall short of his predecessors.”

He pointed out that “normally, there is some risk associated with attacking a president during a time of crisis because the nation tends to rally around the president.”

But Lesperance explained, “Since this president’s numbers, while more positive than negative, have not been as strong, there appears to be less risk with openly criticizing the president’s handling of the crisis.”

Biden congratulates…Trump?

For the first time, the president on Friday afternoon used the powers granted by the Defense Production Act to compel General Motors to produce ventilators desperately needed by hospitals on the frontlines in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Biden has repeatedly criticized for Trump for not implementing the act since invoking it last week. The Defense Production Act gives the president the authority to mobilize private industry.

But minutes after Trump used the act, Biden gave the president a compliment while on a live virtual roundtable discussion with first responders.

“The good news I just heard about 10 minutes ago … is that president has just finally implemented the act and he’s ordered GM to make ventilators. That’s really good news. Now we were suggesting he do that over a month ago, but the point is he’s done it and I congratulate him for it,” Biden emphasized.

Tight race in crucial state

A new poll in the key general election battleground state of Michigan shows a close contest between Biden and Trump.

The former vice president stands at 44 percent support among those in Michigan likely to vote in November’s presidential election, with Trump at 41 percent, according to a Marketing Resource Group, LLC survey. Biden’s slight 3-point advantage over the president is within the poll’s plus or minus 4 percentage points margin of error.

The survey was conducted March 16-20.

Michigan’s one of three so-called Rust Belt states – along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin – that Trump narrowly flipped from blue to red in 2016, which was instrumental in his winning the White House.

Sanders’ ‘steep road’

Sen. Bernie Sanders admits “it’s going to be a very steep road” to mount a comeback and defeat Biden for the Democratic presidential nomination.

But the populist senator from Vermont, in an interview with NPR that was broadcast Friday morning, said he’s still assessing the future of his presidential campaign.

Read the entire story

Obama admin repeatedly sought millions in CDC funding cuts, despite Biden’s attacks on Trump preparedness

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The Obama administration repeatedly sought to cut hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), yearly budget requests show — seemingly undercutting former Vice President Joe Biden’s repeated attacks on the Trump White House for its pandemic preparedness.

Numerous Democrats, including Biden, have falsely claimed that Trump slashed the CDC budget, and Biden has suggested that he would never pursue similar cuts. The Associated Press has noted that those claims “distort” the facts, with FactCheck.org pointing out that CDC funding has actually increased under the current administration, largely because Congress insisted on maintaining funding levels for both CDC and the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Nevertheless, speaking to ABC News’ “This Week” on March 1, Biden claimed: “They’ve cut the funding for the CDC.” On Friday, Biden stepped up his attacks, writing on Twitter: “Donald Trump’s careless, shortsighted actions left our nation ill-prepared and now Americans are paying the price.”

In its fiscal year 2013 budget, while Biden was vice president, the Obama administration sought a total funding level of $5.9 billion from the CDC, or a $569 million cut from the 2012 budget of $6.46 billion. In fiscal year 2015, the Obama administration wanted a $414 million cut year-over-year, and again in the fiscal year 2017 budget, the Obama administration looked to eliminate $251 million in CDC funding.

The proposed cuts take into account money budgeted for The Prevention and Public Health Fund, which was established under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 to bolster the nation’s health care system. When not including that fund, the Obama administration sought CDC cuts in five of its eight years.

Some of the Obama administration’s cuts specifically took aim at the CDC’s preparedness initiatives.

“Now, President Obama’s 2012 budget calls for paring some of that spending. Funding for a public health emergency preparedness program run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was cut by about $72 million below fiscal 2010 levels in the budget proposal.” The Wall Street Journal reported in 2012.

Those cuts would later intensify. “The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) takes a hit of about $270 million in the Obama administration’s proposed fiscal year 2014 budget, including significant cuts to biodefense and emergency preparedness programs,” according to a 2013 post from the Center For Infectious Disease Research And Policy.

US WAS BEST-PREPARED COUNTRY IN WORLD TO HANDLE PANDEMICS, JOHNS HOPKINS FOUND

Then, in 2015, President Obama called for $50 million in budget cuts amid a measles outbreak — and White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest’s claims that ObamaCare would pick up the slack were rated false by The Washington Post’s fact-checker.

“Chipping away at 317 funds — even if the majority of cuts are going toward vaccine purchases — jeopardizes the immunization system in general, public-health officials and advocates say. It restricts the ability of local public health departments to prepare for and respond to outbreaks and educate providers, Chris Aldridge, senior director for infectious disease at the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told The Washington Post in 2015.

During the current coronavirus pandemic, money that government disease detectives first tapped to fight the latest outbreak was a congressional fund created for health emergencies. Congress, which has strongly supported the CDC and NIH, rejected a Trump administration budget that might have cut their funding.

BIDEN’S CORONAVIRUS PRESS BLITZ MARRED BY DISTRACTING GAFFES

While some public health experts have said a bigger concern than White House budgets is the steady erosion of a CDC grant program for state and local public health emergency preparedness — the front lines in detecting and battling new disease. But that decline was set in motion by a congressional budget measure that predates Trump.

“The CDC’s response has been excellent, as it has been in the past,” said John Auerbach, president of the nonpartisan Trust for America’s Health, which works with government at all levels to improve the nation’s response to high-risk health crises. Some Democrats have charged that Trump decimated the nation’s public health leadership, but Auerbach said CDC’s top scientific ranks have remained stable the past three years.

And, it emerged this week United States was ranked the best-prepared country in the world to handle a pandemic in late 2019 by the Nuclear Threat Initiative (NTI) and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security (JHCHS) — an assessment seemingly at odds with claims by Democrats that the Trump administration left the country vulnerable to the ongoing coronavirus outbreak.

The Global Health Security Index was “developed with guidance from an international panel of experts from 13 countries, with research by the Economist Intelligence Unit” from 2018 to 2019, The Washington Post reported last year. “More than 100 researchers spent a year collecting and validating publicly available data.”

At the same time, the paper noted that the U.S. score was still not perfect, and that “factors driving down the U.S. score include the risks of social unrest and terrorism, and low public confidence in government.”

SEE THE FULL 2019 GLOBAL HEALTH SECURITY INDEX RANKINGS

Trump’s campaign has argued in recent days that misinformation may be one of the leading causes of that lack of confidence. For example, Trump’s team has pointed to Biden’s claims that “no one on the National Security Council staff was put in charge” of pandemic preparedness, based on a report that in May 2018, then-National Security Adviser John Bolton eliminated the NSC’s Office of Global Health Security and Biodefense in a reorganization effort.

Rear Adm. R. Timothy Ziemer reportedly was ousted as senior director, and no replacement was named. But, FactCheck.org has determined that the matter amounted to a reorganization, and that “some team members [of the NSC pandemic office] were shifted to other groups, and others took over some of [the top official’s] duties.”

Separately, the Biden team has repeatedly argued that the president once referred to coronavirus as a “hoax.” That claim has been refuted by numerous fact-checkers, including the Post’s, which found that Trump was clearly referring to Democrats’ efforts to blame him for the pandemic, not the virus itself. Biden’s advisors nonetheless were repeating the claim on Friday.

Further, a recent report by Reuters that the U.S. had recently terminated a CDC position in China was widely cited by Democrats and reporters as evidence of a lack of preparedness, and formed the basis for a reporter’s question at a recent White House coronavirus briefing.

But, the article itself made clear that experts didn’t think the move had anything to do with the spread of coronavirus in the United States.

“One disease expert told Reuters he was skeptical that the U.S. resident adviser would have been able to get earlier or better information to the Trump administration, given the Chinese government’s suppression of information,” the outlet noted.

“In the end, based on circumstances in China, it probably wouldn’t have made a big difference,” former CDC epidemiologist and Emory University professor Scott McNabb told Reuters.

“The problem was how the Chinese handled it,” McNabb continued. “What should have changed was the Chinese should have acknowledged it earlier and didn’t.”

Governors suspicious of relaxing coronavirus restrictions as Trump floats reopening economy

Many of the governors who have played leading roles in managing the U.S. response to coronavirus are suspicious of the prospect of reopening their economies in the near future even as the Trump administration circulated a memo Thursday that signaled it could soon begin pushing for rolled back social distancing measures.

On a conference call with governors Thursday, Trump stressed the need to reopen businesses and to recognize regional differences in the virus’ impact.

“We all have to get smart,” Trump said on the call, audio of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “We have to open up our country, I’m sorry.”

TRUMP DOWNPLAYS WORST-CASE CORONAVIRUS SCENARIOS: ‘I DON’T BELIEVE YOU NEED 40,000 OR 30,000 VENTILATORS’

Those comments were followed by the release of a memo by the White House teasing possible new guidelines from the federal government on which localities should be implementing strict social distancing efforts and which should ease restrictions on their citizens.

The memo said the administration was “working to publish new guidelines for State and local policymakers to use in making decisions about maintaining, increasing, or relaxing social distancing and other mitigation measures they have put in place.”

“This will incorporate robust surveillance testing, which allows us to monitor the spread of the virus throughout the country,” Trump explained. “Under these data-driven criteria, we will suggest guidelines categorizing counties as high risk, medium risk, or low risk.”

BIDEN CAMPAIGN ADAMANTLY DENIES ALLEGATION OF SEXUAL ASSAULT

Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves thanked Trump on the Thursday phone call with governors for recognizing that the virus has affected states differently and “one size does not fit all.”

“I appreciate you realizing that,” Reeves said.

But many other governors, who have ordered schools and businesses closed, implemented “stay-at-home” orders and more, harbored doubts about not just the prospect of reopening the U.S. economy county by county but also about Trump’s idea that the U.S. could see a relaxation of its social distancing procedures by Easter, a comment he made on a Fox News virtual town hall Tuesday.

Maryland Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, who has undertaken aggressive social distancing measures, said that his state is “weeks, if not months,” away from the peak of the coronavirus crisis.

“I’m not sure … putting an artificial deadline of saying we’re going to get everything open by Easter is unrealistic from all the experts and the scientists that we’re talking to,” Hogan said in an interview with ABC News. “This idea of somehow without any real data picking high risk versus low risk — I don’t think that’s really realistic.”

Hogan said that if Trump started calling on states to open up businesses and restart their economies that he wouldn’t take any action without looking at the information himself.

“Just messaging, telling people everything’s okay when it’s not, is not gonna be helpful,” Hogan said of Trump’s public statements. “Certainly we’re not gonna make decisions to send people out if it’s not safe.”

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Monday, May 13, 2019. The chairman National Governors Association, Hogan has taken on a leadership role in the fight against the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Brian Witte)

CUOMO EMPHASIZES NEED FOR VENTILATORS AFTER TRUMP DOWNPLAYS NUMBER NEEDED

Other governors tended to agree with Hogan.

“We are not basing this on hopes or emotions or politics,” Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak, a Democrat, said Thursday, according to the Las Vegas Sun. “It will strictly be based on medical decisions, medical guidance and statistics.”

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, also a Democrat, expressed a similar sentiment earlier this week in response to Trump’s Easter comment.

“We’ve got to be ready to do what it takes to defeat the coronavirus on the very first try,” he said according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. “We are now just seeing the escalation of this virus and to suggest that there is a short duration that we could almost promise people, is not something that we should be doing.”

Several other Democratic governors — including Gavin Newsom of California, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Ned Lamont of Connecticut — panned Trump’s Easter comment this week.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for Pete Ricketts, the Republican governor of Nebraska, told Fox News Friday that the governor appreciated the Trump administration’s emphasis on flexibility for states as they fight the coronavirus.

“Nebraska has developed social distancing limitations in consultation with world-renowned public health professionals that we have implemented,” said Ricketts’ spokesman Taylor Gage. “These limitations also follow federal guidelines outlined by President Trump and the CDC, which give states the flexibility each of us need to wage war against the virus.”

Gage continued: “We have received the letter, and are pleased that the President will continue to give states the flexibility we need to slow the spread of the virus. We expect additional guidance from the federal government shortly, and will consider it as we move forward.”

The White House’s “15 Days to Slow the Spread” guidelines are set to expire on Monday, and the Trump administration has been considering to what extent, if at all, it plans to roll back its social distancing recommendations.

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Trump continued his push to reopen the economy soon in an interview on “Hannity” Thursday night.

“The end result is, we’ve got to get back to work,” Trump told host Sean Hannity. “And I think we can start by opening up certain parts of the country … certain parts of the Midwest, other places” where the outbreak has been less acute.

The president also ruled out canceling the Republican National Convention, which is scheduled for August in Charlotte, N.C.

Fox News’ Brooke Singman, Charles Creitz, Samuel Chamberlain and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump invokes Defense Production Act to force GM to make ventilators after stalled talks

President Trump said Friday that he had directed Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar to require General Motors to begin making ventilators under the Defense Production Act to combat the coronavirus pandemic after negotiations with the automaker had stalled.

Trump said that while the White House activated the act against GM, it may not be needed. “Maybe we won’t even need the full activation. We’ll find out,” Trump said Friday in the Oval office.

The announcement came hours after Trump lashed out at GM and its CEO, Mary Barra, in a series of tweets.

“As usual with ‘this’ General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, ‘very quickly’. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar,” he wrote.

“General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!!” he tweeted.

GM sold the Lordstown plant to a company that wants to make electric commercial vehicles.

Trump criticized Barra, saying: “Always a mess with Mary B.”

The tweets were an apparent response to a New York Times report that a $1 billion deal between the White House and the company was called off. The contract would have allowed the production of 80,000 ventilators.

Trump’s move appears aimed at price and volume negotiations with the government. But it’s Ventec, not GM, that is talking with the government, said Chris Brooks, Ventec’s chief strategy officer.

Ventec ventilators, which are portable and can handle intensive care patients, cost about $18,000 each, Brooks said. That’s much cheaper than the more sophisticated ventilators used by hospitals that can cost up to $50,000, he said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has made multiple requests since Sunday for estimates of how many ventilators it can build at what price, and has not settled on any numbers, according to Brooks. That could slow Ventec’s efforts to ramp up production because it doesn’t know how many breathing machines it must build, he said.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE

Former Vice President Joe Biden praised Trump’s announcement during a virtual roundtable with first responders.

“The good news I just heard about ten minutes ago.. is that president has just finally implemented the act and he’s ordered GM to make ventilators,” Biden said. “That’s really good news. Now we were suggesting he do that over a month ago but the point is he’s done it and I congratulate him for it.”

Fox Business’ Matthew Kazin, Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Usual fiscal hawks muted, muzzled as coronavirus bill poised to swell deficit

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The usually outspoken champions of fiscal discipline were either muted in their concerns — or muzzled by congressional leadership — as the massive $2 trillion coronavirus response bill was approved by Congress on Friday.

The House of Representatives on Friday passed the costliest relief package in U.S. history, aligning with the Senate and sending the measure to President Trump’s desk. The package is poised to swell the deficit and add to a national debt that exceeds $23 trillion.

CONGRESS PASSES MASSIVE CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE

The bill, despite 11th-hour drama over process, was approved on a broad, bipartisan basis. Despite concerns over certain items, lawmakers generally made the case that the economic aid is desperately needed by workers and businesses squeezed by restrictions meant to slow the outbreak’s spread. From a fiscal standpoint, there were warnings that the need to prevent an economic collapse, which would also dent the deficit, outweighed all else.

A big component of the package involves federal loans as well as the Federal Reserve. It is possible that this money will be paid back, with interest. But other appropriations, including stimulus checks and extra unemployment aid and funding to states and more, do not necessarily have a funding mechanism attached to them.

The usual conservative voices in Congress have been relatively mum—with the exception of Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Sen. Rand Paul, who before contracting the virus himself put forth an unsuccessful amendment to offset some additional spending.

The purpose of the Paul amendment was “to rescind unobligated balances for certain international programs to offset the amounts appropriated in this bill to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.”

The amendment, though, would not take funding appropriated for global health programs and foreign operations and related programs for Israel.

A spokesman for Paul did not respond to Fox News’ request for comment.

Massie, meanwhile, put up the biggest fight, to the dismay of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. He said Thursday that the coronavirus bill equated to “$60,000 per family of new national debt and dollar devaluation in this stimulus.”

“Not a good deal,” he tweeted.

Massie on Friday tried to force a recorded vote– getting members on the record on the legislation–but was ultimately sidelined in that effort by Capitol Hill leaders.

After the voice vote, Massie accused congressional leaders of trying to shield their members from the political ramifications.

“There’s a big cover-up in there,” Massie said as he exited the Capitol.

“It’s pretty clear now, with enough members here to pass the bill, that Pelosi and McCarthy are still working together to block a recorded vote just to insulate members of Congress from ACCOUNTABILITY,” Massie tweeted.

“Biggest spending bill in the history of mankind, and no recorded vote? #SWAMP,” he added.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., also said he’d oppose the legislation over cost and debt concerns.

“As President Trump said, we cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself,” Buck said.

But Senate Republicans, who helped to draft the legislation that was passed in the upper chamber unanimously on Wednesday, argued that there was no way to pump the brakes on spending and give the Trump administration what it needs to stabilize the economy.

“This gave the administration flexibility,” a Senate GOP aide told Fox News.

Some conservative groups, like The Heritage Foundation, argued that the stimulus package should be “targeted, temporary and directed at aiding public health efforts,” but that “at the same time, any fiscal response should not increase spending permanently.”

The Heritage Foundation said that the stimulus package provides over $200 billion in special assistance to specific industries that they claim will “likely encourage political abuse.”

The group also said that firms “should be able to secure loans only in amounts that are demonstrated to be directly related to their crisis-related losses,” while saying that turning the Treasury Department into an investment bank with “unlimited discretion is a recipe for cronyism, favoritism, poor results, and taxpayer losses.”

Meanwhile, the president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Maya MacGuineas, defended the stimulus and said the “massive debt” facing the U.S. was due to past economic decisions.

“Because of reckless spending and unpaid for tax cuts during the economic expansion, we already faced $1 trillion deficits even before this crisis. However, to stave off a depression, lawmakers had to put near-term deficit concerns aside and act fast to stabilize the economy and control a pandemic,” MacGuineas said in a statement to Fox News Friday.

“This $2 trillion package was necessary, but we’re definitely on a fast track to reach unprecedented levels of debt as share of the economy, and we’ll face hard choices to get our fiscal house in order,” she continued. “Once we get through this deadly pandemic and brutal recession, we will be faced with a challenging recovery complicated by our massive debt, made all the more painful by past years of excessive borrowing.”

Other groups, like Tea Party Patriots and Americans for Prosperity, complained about spending for programs like NASA and “Migration & Refugee Assistance” that was included in the bill, but were not campaigning against the bill itself.

Meanwhile, the Club For Growth said they supported a failed amendment put forth by Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., which would ensure the additional unemployment benefits do not result in an individual receiving compensation worth more than their original wages.

“The federal government should not facilitate additional government dependency on anti-poverty benefit programs but instead should find ways to ensure the workforce returns to normalcy as fast as possible,” the Club for Growth said.

The 880-page coronavirus stimulus package would amount to the largest economic relief bill in the history of the U.S. for individuals, large corporations, and small businesses — and its unanimous passage in the Senate came despite grave concerns on both sides about whether it involved too much spending, or not enough.

Democrats said the package specifically would help replace the salaries of furloughed workers for four months, rather than the three months first proposed. Furloughed workers would get whatever amount a state usually provides for unemployment, plus a $600 per week add-on, with gig workers like Uber drivers covered for the first time.

The package also would give one-time payments of $1,200 per adult and $500 per child directly to the public.

Meanwhile, the massive economic relief package would provide a $367 billion program for small businesses to keep making payroll while workers are forced to stay home. One of the last issues to close concerned $500 billion for guaranteed, subsidized loans to larger industries, including a fight over how generous to be with the airlines, given that Democrats wanted them to abide by new carbon emissions restrictions.

The package comes after the latest unemployment numbers were released Thursday morning, revealing that Americans filing for unemployment benefits surged to 3.28 million last week as the coronavirus pandemic forced businesses around the country to close.

The Labor Department said Thursday that the new number eclipsed the previous record of 695,000, which was set in 1982, and is well above the levels seen during the 2008 financial crisis.

But the White House said Thursday that the latest numbers are no surprise, amid the Trump administration’s coronavirus strategy.

As of Friday afternoon, the U.S. reported more than 97,000 positive cases of COVID-19, and nearly 1,500 deaths.

Fox News’ Chad Pergram, Marisa Schultz, Tyler Olson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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