The CIA, in partnership with West German intelligence, secretly owned a Swiss company, Crypto AG, that sold rigged encryption devices to more than 120 countries, including Iran, Libya and Argentina as well as NATO allies Spain, Italy, Greece and Turkey.
The decades-long arrangement was among the most closely guarded secrets of the Cold War. Read the story at: http://wapo.st/crypto.
In this video, Marc Simons, co-founder of cryptomuseum.com, explains how secret messages were created using the Hagelin CX-52.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joins Ed Henry and Sandra Smith on ‘America’s Newsroom’ as voters head to the polls in New Hampshire. #FoxNews
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‘The Populist’s Guide to 2020’ author Krystal Ball breaks down the ongoing civil war within the Democratic Party.
Former Vice President Joe Biden declared on Tuesday that Mickey Mouse would have a shot against President Trump in the general election, so voters shouldn’t worry about Bernie Sanders winning the nomination.
Biden, 77, appeared on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” from New Hampshire and namesake co-host Joe Scarborough asked the 2020 presidential hopeful about the importance of winning Senate seats.
Joe Biden said Democrats “could run Mickey Mouse” against President Trump and have a chance.
“As intense as Democrats are about beating Donald Trump, getting Mitch McConnell out of the position as majority leader of the Senate, not that far behind,” Scarborough said. “Would a Bernie Sanders at the top of the ticket make it more likely that Democrats would lose important swing states and Mitch McConnell would become the majority leader again?”
Biden called Sanders a “decent guy” who “labeled himself a democratic socialist,” which he doesn’t feel will help in certain states, particularly the South.
“Talk about baggage, man, you know, you’re going into all the states as a democratic socialist,” Biden said. “How does somebody run and not have that label attached to them?”
Co-host Willie Geist said that some influential Democrats don’t think Sanders is electable as a result of the socialism tag, but Biden disagreed.
“I refuse to suggest any Democrat can lose. I think we could run Mickey Mouse against this president and have a shot.”
“I refuse to suggest any Democrat can lose. I think we could run Mickey Mouse against this president and have a shot,” Biden said.
Co-host Mika Brzezinski responded, “Wow,” as the New Hampshire crowd applauded.
Biden has been quite the quote machine lately and recently made headlines for calling a college student a “lying, dog-faced pony soldier” during a campaign event. He has gone on the offensive following his disappointing fourth-place finish in last week’s disastrous Iowa caucuses, well behind rivals Sanders, Pete Buttigieg and Elizabeth Warren.
This past December in Iowa, Biden slammed a voter who questioned Hunter Biden’s business dealings as a “damn liar” who needed to take an “IQ test.”
The former vice president then seemingly called the man “fat” after deriding him for his self-professed sedentary lifestyle, although the Biden campaign said there was a misunderstanding.
China reported its highest daily coronavirus death toll Tuesday, the 103 additional fatalities pushing the total past 1,000 and providing a somber warning that the epidemic represents “a very grave threat to the rest of the world.”
All but two of the 1,018 deaths attributed to the outbreak that emerged in December have taken place in mainland China. The virus is continuing to spread into other countries, with almost 500 of the 43,138 confirmed cases elsewhere. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this week reported the 13th case in the U.S.
The 103 deaths broke the daily record set one day earlier, when 97 deaths were reported.
“The rise in mortality cases is concerning,” Ogbonnaya Omenka, an assistant professor and public health specialist at Butler University’s College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, told USA TODAY. “In China, health workers are overstretched, and diagnostic processes are not keeping up with the cases.”
Omenka said testing and confirming cases takes longer due to a shortage of diagnostic tools. And supportive treatment is not available for many cases due to the shortage of facilities and health workers, he said.
A team from the World Health Organization arrived in China this week to “lay the groundwork for a larger international team” that will aid the Chinese effort while learning traits of the outbreak that could aid global efforts, said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
“With 99% of cases in China, this remains very much an emergency for that country, but one that holds a very grave threat for the rest of the world,” Tedros said. “It’s hard to believe that just two months ago, this virus – which has come to captivate the attention of media, financial markets and political leaders – was completely unknown to us.”
Almost 200 people evacuated from Wuhan, China, on the first charter flight from the country were being released Tuesday, said Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She said the 195 people had been monitored for symptoms of the respiratory virus for the past 14 days, the maximum incubation time. None had common symptoms such as fever or coughing.
Of the 800 people evacuated on five separate charter flights, only one person has been confirmed with coronavirus, Schuchat said.
US workers at Hong Kong consulate given OK to leave
The State Department has authorized the voluntary departure of non-emergency employees at the U.S. Consulate General in Hong Kong. One death and 49 coronavirus cases have been reported in the administrative region of China. The decision to allow employees and their families the option of leaving was made “out of an abundance of caution,” a department spokesperson said in a statement. The status will be reviewed in 30 days, the statement said.
WHO announced a formal name for the coronavirus – COVID-19. Tedros said officials needed a name that did not refer to a geographical location, an animal, an individual or group of people. It also had to be pronounceable and related to the disease, he said.
“Having a name matters, to prevent the use of other names that can be inaccurate or stigmatizing,” he said. “It also gives us a standard format to use for any future coronavirus outbreaks.”
The CDC confirmed the 13th coronavirus case Monday. The case, detected in California, involved a patient under a federal quarantine order at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar near San Diego after recently returning from Wuhan, China.
Wuhan and Hubei province are where the outbreak of respiratory illness caused by the virus was discovered in December 2019.
The CDC said it was conducting a thorough “contact investigation” of the person who has tested positive to determine whether friends, relatives or others are should be deemed high-risk.
About 800 Americans evacuated from Wuhan remain under quarantine.
World coronavirus summit underway
WHO, which declared a global emergency two weeks ago, on Tuesday convened a two-day global forum to encourage international action and fast track new tests, treatments and vaccines aimed at curtailing the outbreak. The forum, meeting in Geneva with some experts attending remotely, includes scientists, researchers from public health agencies, regulatory experts and bioethicists with expertise in research emergencies.
“We want you to know that we stand with you in solidarity and we wish you courage, patience, success and good health in these extremely trying circumstances,” Tedros told participants.
Japan may let elderly exit quarantined cruise ship
The Japanese government is considering a plan to release some elderly passengers with chronic illnesses from a cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama over coronavirus infection fears, multiple media outlets in Japan report.
A total of 135 of the 3,700 people aboard have tested positive for the virus.
The government had asked about 3,600 passengers and crew members to stay on board during the two-week isolation period through Feb. 19 in an effort to contain the spread of the pneumonia-causing disease. Many passengers have struggled with their prolonged isolation on the ship. About 80% of the 2,666 passengers are 60 or older, with 215 in their 80s and 11 in their 90s, authorities say.
Masahiro Kami, head of the nonprofit Medical Governance Research Institute, said that elderly people with chronic illnesses could suffer rapid aggravations of their health conditions due to stress if confined to cramped cabins.
“They will be susceptible to virus infection and risk their lives,” Kami told Kyodo News.
Debris and rubble are seen at the site where an Iranian missile struck Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq’s Anbar province in January. The U.S. has repeatedly raised its injury report from the strike; it now says 109 personnel suffered brain injuries.
John Davison/Reuters
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Debris and rubble are seen at the site where an Iranian missile struck Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq’s Anbar province in January. The U.S. has repeatedly raised its injury report from the strike; it now says 109 personnel suffered brain injuries.
John Davison/Reuters
The Defense Department says 45 more U.S. service members have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries after Iran’s attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq last month — raising the total number of troops injured in the ballistic missile strike to 109.
Of those who were injured, 76 have returned to duty. A Pentagon statement about the injuries did not include details about the service members, such as their age, rank or military unit.
Monday’s update is at least the fifth time the U.S. has revised the number of personnel injured during the Iranian attack.
President Trump initially reported no U.S. troops were injured. “No Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime,” Trump said shortly after the strike. He added, “We suffered no casualties.”
But the Pentagon later said that 11 people had suffered TBI. And on Jan. 24, the number jumped to 34. Nearly a week later, the Pentagon said 50 personnel were injured, only to revise the figure days later to 64.
Discussing the increased injury toll given late last month, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that TBI often “takes some time to manifest itself.”
Milley has also said the military will take good care of the service members who suffered traumatic brain injuries in Iraq, saying they will be monitored for “the rest of their lives” and receive any treatment they need.
According to the Pentagon’s breakdown of the 109 military personnel’s status. (Some service members are listed in more than one category.)
75 returned to duty after being treated in Iraq
1 returned to duty in Iraq after being treated in Germany
27 were transported from Iraq to U.S. medical facilities in Germany
21 were transported from Germany to the U.S. for treatment
7 are currently en route from Iraq to Germany
5 are still being evaluated.
The Iranian attack targeted at least two Iraqi military bases housing U.S. personnel, including Ain al-Asad. Iran’s action was in retaliation for the U.S. drone strike that killed one of its most prominent military commanders, Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
Trump recently seemed to downplay the service members’ condition, saying in late January, “I heard that they had headaches and a couple of other things, but I would say, and I can report, it is not very serious.”
The president reiterated that stance in an interview with Fox Business on Monday night. And he described how he was initially impressed that no one was killed in the Iranian missile barrage.
“And then a couple of weeks later, I started hearing about people having to do with trauma — head trauma,” Trump said. “And that exists, but it’s, you know, I viewed it a little bit differently than most, and I won’t be changing my mind on that.”
An expert on combat-related brain injuries such as TBI, David Cifu of Virginia Commonwealth University, recently told NPR: “All concussions, all brain injuries are serious. So they’re serious.”
Cifu added, “The good news is that 95% to 98% of people with concussions who are diagnosed early on, who are managed in a comprehensive way, which the military knows how to do, are going to do well, are going to have wonderful short- and long-term outcomes.”
But the doctor, who leads a national team researching brain injuries, said that if concussions, TBI and similar conditions aren’t diagnosed and treated early, patients face a higher risk of additional problems or symptoms.
Cifu noted that among civilians, concussions aren’t diagnosed 50% of the time and said that in regard to U.S. military personnel injured at Ain al-Asad, “the important thing is it’s diagnosed now and they’re acting on it.”
The Defense Department is committed to providing “the best possible outcomes for our service members,” Alyssa Farah, the Pentagon press secretary, said in the statement about the latest injury report.
“We are grateful to the efforts of our medical professionals who have worked diligently to ensure the appropriate level of care for our service members,” Farah said, “which has enabled nearly 70 percent of those diagnosed to return to duty.”
The Department of Justice will force federal prosecutors to cut their recommended prison sentence for Republican political operative Roger Stone — a longtime ally of President Donald Trump — from the term of seven to nine years that they first suggested Monday night.
Justice Department officials objected to very stiff recommended prison term for Stone, which was made by prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C.
A new sentencing recommendation is expected to be filed today in U.S. District Court in Washingon. Stone, 67, is due to be sentenced there Feb. 20 for crimes related to lying to Congress about his contacts with WikiLeaks during the 2016 presidential election and his efforts to get an associate, comedian Randy Credico, to cover for his lies.
Trump early Tuesday morning blasted the original recommended sentence for Stone.
Trump called the original sentencing suggestion “disgraceful,” and also tweeted that “this is a horrible and very unfair situation.”
It is highly unusual for the DOJ to reverse a sentencing recommendation after it has been made by prosecutors in a U.S. Attorney’s office that has prosecuted a defendant.
The Justice Department is headed by Trump’s appointee, William Barr.
Grant Smith, an attorney for Stone, told CNBC, “We’ve read with interest the new reporting on Mr. Stone’s case.”
“Our sentencing memorandum stated our position on the recommendation made yesterday made by the government. We look forward to reviewing the government’s supplemental filing,” Smith said.
Stone’s lawyers, in their own sentencing recommendation filed Monday evening, had asked for Judge Amy Berman Jackson for a sentence of just probation, with no time behind bars.
Defense lawyers also said that the sentencing guidelines actually suggested a term of 15 to 21 months.
The DOJ, the Washington U.S. Attorney’s office, and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from CNBC.
The sentence of 87 to 108 months first recommended by the prosecutors in the case for Stone mirrored what they said is recommended by federal sentencing guidelines, which are calculated according to a formula that takes into account the severity of the crime, the type of conduct involved and prior criminal history.
A large fraction of the recommended sentence, as much as 62 months, comes from a so-called enhancement under federal guidelines related to witness tampering.
Prosecutors acknowledged Monday that Jackson could consider the effect of that enhancement when she crafts Stone’s sentence, as well as “Credico’s own acknowledgement at trial that he and Stone routinely exchanged text messages with hyperbolic language and Credico’s post-trial contention that he did not seriously believe that Stone intended to do him physical harm.”
The Washington Post reported Monday evening that the original sentencing filing by prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s office “came after days of intense debate within” that office.
“Front-line prosecutors,” some of whom were previously on the team of special counsel Robert Mueller, who lodged the charges, “argued for a sentence on the higher end for Stone than some of their supervisors were comfortable with, according to two people familiar with the discussions,” The Post reported.
The cook, one of 1,035 crew members aboard the ship, said that his day starts at 6:15 a.m. and that he works all day cooking meals for passengers, who are largely confined to their cabins, with limited opportunities to exercise.
Trump’s proposed budget reduces Medicare spending by 7% over the next ten years, among other cuts to … [+] senior programs.
Getty
Today, President Donald Trump and the White House Office of Management and Budget released a proposed 2021 budget. Trump’s budget includes cuts to key senior programs like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security Disability Insurance. While the proposed budget would slash funding for many programs that seniors rely on, other important areas for seniors, like veterans’ healthcare, would get a boost.
Seniors should think of the proposed budget as President Trump’s “wish list”: not all of his proposals will take effect. Most, but not all, of his proposals would require the cooperation of the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives and the Republican-controlled Senate.
Here are the line items from Trump’s 2021 budget that would have the greatest impact on seniors.
The Budget Would Reduce Medicare Spending
President Trump’s budget would reduce Medicare spending by a total of $756 billion between 2021 and 2030, a decrease of 7%.
Part of this reduction in spending comes from initiatives that the White House says are intended to reduce Medicare fraud. For example, they’ve proposed requiring patients and doctors to ask for prior authorization from Medicare before certain procedures could be performed. And the budget hopes to lower Medicare spending through changes that would encourage more seniors to see nurse practitioners or physician’s assistants as their primary care providers.
Other proposals would cut down on reimbursement rates to healthcare providers, reducing how much doctors, hospitals, and hospices are paid for providing healthcare. Cutting Medicare reimbursement rates is a controversial strategy; in the past, it’s received both support and criticism from Democrats and Republican alike. Some say cutting reimbursement rates saves taxpayers money by cutting into medical industry profits. And the Trump administration’s budgets highlights specific instances where they believe reimbursement rates for doctors are excessive: for example, they cite the fact that doctor’s offices owned by hospitals are often paid more for performing the same procedures than independent physicians.
But cutting reimbursement rates also means that some seniors could lose access to their favorite doctors. Dan Adcock, director of government relations at the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, said of the cuts to Medicare, he was most worried about the lower reimbursement rates. When reimbursement rates decrease, “you start to affect access, because doctors decide they can’t make a decent living,” said Adcock.
“There are areas of wasteful spending in the Medicare program,” says Eliot Fishman, the senior director of health policy at Families USA, a nonpartisan organization that advocates on behalf of patients. But he added there are also major gaps in Medicare. For example, seniors struggle to afford dental care and face high out-of-pocket costs on their prescription drugs. “The Trump administration is violating an explicit commitment he made throughout his campaign not to cut Medicare,” Fishman said. Even if some cuts are justified, Fishman said that given Trump’s campaign promises, the savings should be used within the Medicare system to make healthcare less expensive for seniors.
The Budget Takes Aim At Social Security Disability Insurance
Trump’s proposed budget contains a number of changes to Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI). SSDI is a federal program that protects workers who develop a life-changing disability after having paid into the fund by earning “work credits.”
As I’ve written previously, disabilities often emerge during middle age or late-in-life, after decades of (and sometimes as a direct result of) hard work. As a result, SSDI is especially important for seniors nearing the full retirement age of 67. According to data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Americans between the ages of 60 and 66 are 14 times as likely to currently be on the SSDI rolls as Americans between the ages of 30 and 34.
Trump’s budget calls for a $75 billion decrease to spending on the two federal disability programs, SSDI and SSI, over the next ten years. $10 billion of this reduction comes from reducing the amount of retroactive benefits someone can receive after they’ve been found to be disabled.
As Kathleen Romig of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, when workers first experience a disabling injury or illness that forces them from their job, they often hope their condition will improve, allowing them to get back to work. In these cases, they may wait until their savings are fully depleted or until they’ve lost hope of recovery to apply for SSDI. Today, a worker can wait for up to a year after the start of her disability and still receive retroactive benefits for the whole period where she was unable to work; under Trump’s proposal, she could only wait six months.
But Trump also promises to make other cuts to SSDI without explaining where he’ll find the money. 60% of the spending reduction from federal disability programs — $47 billion over the next ten years — come from a proposal that the Office of Management and Budget says is to “test new approaches to labor force participation.” As Romig explains, the White House is hoping that by spending $100 million per year over the next five years on experimenting, they’ll come up with a “magical policy” that reduces the number of people on disability programs by 5%. “But they don’t explain how they’ll do it,” said Romig.
In looking for such substantial cuts to our disability programs, the White House “appears to be working off a mistaken assumption about who receives Social Security Disability Insurance,” said Adcock. “The vast majority will never be able to return to work,” he said, because their conditions are so severe. The Social Security Administration itself admits that the federal government “defines disability so strictly, Social Security disability beneficiaries are among the most severely impaired in the country […] Among those who start receiving disability benefits at the age of 55, 1-in-6 men and 1-in-8 women die within five years of the onset of their disabilities.”
More than giving us a specific roadmap of what changes to expect to Social Security Disability Insurance, this budget gives us a clearer picture of the magnitude of cuts the Trump administration would like to make.
Less Money May Be Available for Nursing Homes, Long-Term Care, and Other Senior Health Costs Covered by Medicaid
This budget builds on other proposals President Trump has made to reduce Medicaid spending, the primary program in the United States that helps low-income seniors cover their long-term care expenses. Long-term care expenses are not covered by Medicare, but Medicaid kicks in once seniors have depleted most of their assets, by paying for a nursing home or in-home care.
The budget reduces Medicaid spending over the next ten years by 16%. It calls for “Medicaid reform [that] will restore balance, flexibility, integrity, and accountability to the State-Federal partnership.” Although the budget lacks some specifics with respect to Medicaid spending, this language appears to be alluding to Trump’s previous proposals that would transform Medicaid from an “entitlement” program to a “block grant” program. Today, states have the ability to set the eligibility criteria for Medicaid, within certain limits, and the federal government reimburses the states for a percentage of their spending, subject to various rules. Under a block grant proposal, states would receive less funding, but state governments would have more choice on what to spend it on. But “flexibility” sometimes just means it’s up to states to decide what’s on the chopping block: states could raise copays, reduce program eligibility, or make other changes, including making cuts to long-term care coverage.
The budget would also force states to take away Medicaid and food stamps from adults who don’t meet work requirements. This can cause a particular hardship for Americans in their early 60s who often have to cut back on work due to debilitating health conditions, or who have a harder time finding work after a layoff, but don’t yet qualify for Medicare. Although these work proposals contain exceptions for people with disabilities, it can take anywhere from 30 days to two years to receive a government finding of disability, particularly because more than a third of people who are eventually approved for federal disability insurance aren’t approved until after an appeal.
Trump Wants To Tackle High Prescription Drug Prices
Many seniors struggle with the high cost of prescription drugs. In September 2019, Financial Timesreported Americans are crossing the border to Canada in Insulin4All “caravans” to purchase insulin at one-tenth of the cost they’d pay in the United States. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Americans often pay at least twice as much for brand-name prescription drugs as our counterparts pay in other developed countries.
President Trump’s budget calls on Congress to enact “comprehensive drug pricing reform,” saying that it would reduce the federal deficit by $135 billion over the next ten years. This estimate includes the savings to programs like Medicaid and Medicare if the federal government can pay less for prescription drugs, although seniors themselves might also pay lower out-of-pocket costs for their medicine if Congress and the White House can align on a proposal.
Cutting prescription drug prices is tremendously popular with voters across the political spectrum. A 2018 survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation found that 71% of registered voters said they would favor a candidate that supported lowering drug costs.
Congress has been considering multiple proposals to lower prescription drug costs. The Senate Finance Committee approved a bipartisan bill called the Prescription Drug Pricing Reduction Act (PDPRA) in July 2019, and Adcock pointed out that the dollar savings on prescription drugs outlined in Trump’s budget align closely with the savings that would be created by the PDPRA. Although Trump has previously expressed some support for the PDPRA on Twitter, Adcock says that Trump should make a stronger endorsement of either the Senate bill or the House’s proposal if he’d like it to reach his desk. “Unless [Trump] really gets on board,” said Adcock, “it’s not going to happen.”
Cuts to Meals on Wheels, Utilities Assistance, Senior Jobs Programs, and Attorneys for Seniors
Like previous budgets proposed by Trump, his 2021 budget recommends the elimination of several federal grant programs, including the Community Development Block Grant, which is used to partially fund Meals on Wheels. And the budget proposes the elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps low-income people, especially seniors, keep their heat on in the winter.
The budget would also eliminate funding for the Senior Community Service Employment Program, which helps seniors who can’t afford to live on Social Security alone find part-time work.
And like previous Trump budgets, the 2021 proposal would eliminate funding for the Legal Services Corporation. Legal Services funding is used to provide attorneys for low-income seniors facing civil legal issues, including foreclosure, eviction, elder abuse, and estate planning. Other than private donations, LSC funding is the main source of civil legal assistance for seniors.
Veterans’ Issues Are a Bright Spot
Trump’s proposed budget recommends a double-digit increase in spending for the Department of Veterans Affairs. $90 billion is allocated in new spending to expand veterans’ access to healthcare, helping to address long-recognized funding gaps. And the budget recommends expanding a stipend program for the caregivers of veterans with disabilities. The budget reflects a 2019 statement by President Trump in which he said, “My administration is committed to taking care of every warrior that returns home as a veteran.”
Broken Promises to Protect Seniors
Kevin Prindiville, the executive director of Justice in Aging said, “This budget demonstrates the lack of commitment to the safety, security and needs of older adults in our community.”
Instead of prioritizing senior issues, the proposed budget recommends shelling out serious cash on new space expeditions to Mars, increases to military spending, and maintaining expensive tax breaks for corporations.
“President Trump has repeatedly promised to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. His budget is further proof that those claims are, at best, bold-faced lies,” said Senator Bob Casey (D-PA), Ranking Member of the Special Committee on Aging. “Older Americans should take note.”
Buttigieg tries to hold on to Iowa momentum; Matt Finn reports from Milford, New Hampshire.
The conversation driving the Democratic primary has been about the ongoing battle between the progressive and the moderate wings of the Democratic Party, but the Washington Post editorial board declared that the so-called “centrist” frontrunners, like former Vice President Joe Biden and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, aren’t actually how they’ve been described.
In an editorial published on Saturday, the Washington Post determined that it has been an “unchecked assumption” that the ideological war between the “left” and “center” among the candidates, a narrative the paper deemed was “false.”
The piece laid out prominent policy proposals of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. such as Medicare-for-all and free college, but pointed to Buttigieg’s proposals “to make college free for pretty much everyone — just not for the wealthiest families” and how his health care plan would “eventually drive private insurance companies out of business.” It went on to say out Biden may not back the Green New Deal but “wants to spend a whopping $1.7 trillion to enable the country to eliminate net carbon emissions by 2050.”
The Post also invokes legalizing marijuana and the $650 billion federal spending proposals Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. and hefty tax hike proposal from former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
“Then there are the policy moves that practically all Democrats agree on: giving legal safe harbor to the young immigrants known as ‘dreamers’; reviving and expanding President Barack Obama’s climate regulations; reengaging with Iran; raising the minimum wage; keeping abortion legal; cracking down on guns. In fact, every major Democratic candidate is running on an agenda to the left of Mr. Obama’s,” the Post editorial board wrote.
It continued, “Campaigning in Iowa, Mr. Buttigieg expressed sympathy for Mr. Sanders’s ‘goals.’ But, he added, Mr. Sanders ‘makes it feel like you’re either for a revolution or you’ve got to be for the status quo, and there’s nothing in between.’ The Democratic race does not present such a choice, and observers should stop advancing the myth that it does.”
Media Research Center vice president Dan Gainor applauded the Post for “admitting” that the Democrats don’t have moderates running for president.
“It’s amazing that The Washington Post is willing to admit that the Democrats are left, lefter and leftist,” Gainor told Fox News. The problem is, you can’t find this correct view hardly anywhere else in the press… Journalists have been calling the top Democrats, ‘moderate’ or ‘centrist’ as a way of pretending the party hasn’t made a huge left turn.”
Candidates make final push ahead of primary; Jacqui Heinrich reports from Hudson, New Hampshire.
MANCHESTER, NH – New Hampshire’s presidential primary kicked off at midnight – as voters in three tiny townships in the state’s North Country and White Mountains cast the first ballots in the first primary in the White House race.
Dixville Notch – which has held the midnight voting tradition for 60 years – as well as nearby Millsfield and Hart’s Location – grab the national spotlight every four years as they report the first results in New Hampshire.
On the final day before the before primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders emphasized to supporters that “what happens here in New Hampshire is enormously important…the whole country is not only looking at New Hampshire – in fact the whole world is looking at New Hampshire.”
The populist senator from Vermont who’s making his second straight White House run is in the driver’s seat – is sitting atop the final public opinion polls, drawing large and energetic crowds in the closing days, and sporting arguably the largest grassroots get-out-the-vote operation in the Granite State.
After getting out of Iowa’s caucuses with essentially a tie with 2020 nomination rival Pete Buttigieg, expectations are high for Sanders in a state where he shares home-field advantage with fellow progressive standard-bearer Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts.
As he did in Iowa, Sanders is stressing to his supporters that “if we have the highest voter turnout in New Hampshire primary history, I am confident that we are going to win here in New Hampshire and if we win here in New Hampshire, we’re going to set the pace to win Nevada and South Carolina and California.” But meeting expectations in a state where he crushed eventual nominee Hillary Clinton four years ago is crucial for Sanders.
Sanders closed out his bid in the first primary state with a massive rally and concert that drew over 7,500 to the University of New Hampshire at Durham – which was by far the largest crowd for any Democratic presidential candidate in New Hampshire this cycle.
He was joined by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a bunch of other high profile surrogates.
“New Hampshire remains Bernie’s to lose. He dominated in 2016 and his coalition seems confident again. That said, if he doesn’t win, it’s a huge hit to the Sanders path,” emphasized longtime Democratic strategist Sean Downey, a national adviser on Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey’s now defunct 2020 presidential bid and a veteran of numerous political campaigns in New Hampshire.’
Sanders declared victory in Iowa – where the results dribbled in for days after a reporting debacle on caucus night – by pointing to his lead in the raw vote totals coming out of the caucus precinct sites.
Buttigieg -the former South Bend, Indiana mayor – also claimed victory, spotlighting his narrow edge in the percentage of state delegates won. And for Buttigieg – like Sanders – a strong finish in New Hampshire is vital for his hopes of capturing the nomination.
Buttigieg was also stressing the importance of the primary, telling supporters the eve of the primary that Tuesday will be a “historic night that will set the course for the party and the rest of the world. We are lucky and unlucky enough to be in a point of history where it will be recorded what we did.”
The 38-year old candidate – the youngest in the field – told supporters on the primary eve that Tuesday will be a “historic night that will set the course for the party and the rest of the world.”
Buttigieg closed in on Sanders in the polls in the days after the Iowa caucuses. But one of the two tracking polls suggested that the candidate saw his numbers drop over the weekend. That wasn’t reflected on the campaign trail, as Buttigieg drew more than 5,000 people to his events on Sunday.
Buttigieg has struggled to resonate with African American and Latino voters. And with the White House race moving next to Nevada and South Carolina – which have much more diverse electorates – a strong finish in New Hampshire is paramount for Buttigieg.
Pointing to the calendar ahead, Downey emphasized that “Mayor Pete’s situation here is urgent given his real lack of traction in the south and out west.”
Illustrating the tension between the top two contenders, Buttigieg once again took aim at Sanders on Monday, saying that “at a moment when our country is so divided we can’t risk further polarizing the American people. That’s why I’m very concerned about the suggestion that either you got to be for revolution, or you must be for the status quo, because that vision of politics as all or nothing is a vision that most of us can’t see where we fit in.”
Sanders – who’s funding his massive campaign war chest through small dollar grassroots donation – took jabs at Buttigieg and former Vice President Joe Biden – saying they “have dozens and dozens of billionaires contributing to their campaigns.”
The former vice president’s message on Monday night to his supporters: “stick with me 24 hours and we’re going to be just fine. We’re going to win this nomination.”
Biden’s said he’s not “writing off” New Hampshire– but it sure looks like he’s lowering expectations.
“I took a hit in Iowa and I’m probably going to take a hit here,” Biden said in a striking moment at the top of Friday night’s prime-time Democratic presidential nomination debate.
Asked the next day by Fox News if he was writing off the Granite State, the former vice president fired back, saying, “I’m not writing off New Hampshire. I’m going to campaign like hell here in New Hampshire, as I’m going to do in Nevada, in South Carolina and beyond. Look, this is just getting going here. This is a marathon.”
For Biden, however, at least a third-place finish here could be critical, if only to prevent an exodus of donors and the possible erosion of his so-called “firewall” of support in the looming South Carolina contest. With the race for first increasingly looking to be between Sanders and Buttigieg, Biden’s essentially battling with Warren and Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota for a top-three ticket out of the Granite State.
It’s a stunning predicament for the candidate who was once the unrivaled front-runner for the nomination. He’s long made electability central to his campaign pitch. But University of New Hampshire pollster Andrew Smith highlighted that the final UNH tracking poll for CNN – conducted after Biden’s lackluster fourth-place finish in the Iowa caucuses, indicate that “Bernie Sanders is seen as the most electable candidate” to take on Republican President Donald Trump in November’s general election.
“If your candidacy is based on electability, once you don’t win elections, that electability argument dissipates very rapidly,” Smith explained, “If Biden does very poorly in New Hampshire, going forward those voters in Nevada and South Carolina are going to look at that electability argument in a very different light because to be electable, you need to win elections.”
Warren – once a co-frontrunner in the nomination race – is also under the spotlight. She faced a deluge of questions the past couple of days from reporters asking how crucial a strong finish in New Hampshire is to her White House bid
“I didn’t start by doing polls a year ago, and I still don’t do polls,” responded the senator, who famously avoids all talk of her position in the polls.
Warren – who’s repeatedly avoided saying New Hampshire’s a “must-win” state, has emphasized that “the way I see this is it’s going to be a long campaign…we’ve built a campaign to go the distance.”
Talking to reporters on her campaign’s press bus on Monday, the candidate told reporters “I’ve been counted down and out for much of my life.”
But she emphasized that “you get knocked down, you get back up. And you keep fighting because it’s not about me, it’s about the people who are counting on me.”
Downey noted that “with a full field, the difference between third and fourth could be a few points and I’d look to strong organizing game and surrogate operations from Warren and Biden to make things interesting.”
But thanks to a last-minute surge, add Klobuchar to the mix in the fight for third place.
Klobuchar touted on Monday that “as you probably heard we’re on a bit of a surge. I woke up this morning to find out that we are third in two polls.”
One of the two final surveys – a Suffolk University tracking poll for the Boston Globe and WBZ – suggested that Klobuchar soared nine percentage points over the past two days.
But the big question is whether Klobuchar can capitalize on her late tide of momentum.
Smith cautioned that “I don’t think though that Klobuchar’s going to have the organization necessary to take advantage of her debate performance and her performance in Iowa and get those people out to vote. She doesn’t have anywhere near the on-the-ground organization as the other top candidates.”
Adding to the uncertainty ahead of the primary results – the fact that Granite Staters are traditionally late deciders. The final polls illustrate the point – showing that nearly half of those who are currently backing a candidate suggested that they could change their minds before they vote.
Smith gauged that “I would see, easily 15-20% of New Hampshire Democrats making up their mind on primary day.”
And Downey said “I can’t stress this enough. New Hampshire likes underdogs and will decide late. This race isn’t over.”
Fox News’ Kelly Phares, Tara Prindiville, Andrew Craft, Andres del Aguilla, and Madeleine Rivera contributed to this report
Image caption
Mr Trump leaves the White House for New Hampshire on Monday
President Donald Trump’s campaign and his party raised $1m (£775,000) per day online everyday for 10 days before his impeachment acquittal, the Republican chairwoman said.
Contributions totalled $17m during that time, according to Ronna McDaniel of the Republican national party.
News of the fundraising haul comes on the eve of the New Hampshire primary vote.
Democrats there are in a heated contest for a chance to take on Mr Trump.
Voters in the New England state will cast ballots on Tuesday for their nominee, but the fractured field of Democrats are struggling to raise the same funds as the incumbent president.
Though he is certain to win the Republican primary, Mr Trump is holding a rally in New Hampshire on Monday. The state voted Democrat in 2016 by the slimmest of margins, 0.3%.
Mrs McDaniel suggested that a divisive impeachment trial had fueled greater support for Mr Trump.
“We already have 500K volunteers trained and activated,” she tweeted. “Democrats’ sham is helping us grow our grassroots army even more!”
The Republican National Committee (RNC) had previously said that $117m in online fundraising had been raised since 24 September, when Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi first launched the impeachment process.
Meanwhile, the battle between US Democratic presidential hopefuls has heated up following the chaos of last week’s Iowa caucus.
Pete Buttigieg, the 38-year-old former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, has become the subject of most scrutiny after his surprise first place finish in Iowa.
Mr Buttigieg’s success has prompted criticisms from rivals. At the weekend, Joe Biden shared a video mocking Mr Buttigieg’s record as mayor of South Bend, Indiana.
Final results from last Monday’s Iowa caucus, which was beset by technical problems, give Mr Buttigieg victory over Bernie Sanders, with Mr Biden trailing in fourth place.
Mr Buttigieg is projected to get 14 delegates, Mr Sanders 12, Elizabeth Warren eight, Joe Biden six and Amy Klobuchar one.
Media captionButtigieg chokes up as he takes early lead in Iowa result
Mr Biden’s new campaign video, which has been viewed four million times since it was posted on Twitter on Saturday, launched a scathing attack on Mr Buttigieg, comparing his own achievements as vice-president to his opponent’s record as mayor of the city of South Bend.
The video claimed that Mr Buttigieg had fired a black police chief and forced out a black fire chief during his time as mayor.
Ms Warren, the Massachusetts senator, also attacked Mr Buttigieg – a former McKinsey management consultant – for his support from wealthy donors.
Asked about Mr Buttigieg’s supporters, she told ABC: “The coalition of billionaires is not exactly what’s going carry us over the top.”
Earlier, Ms Warren said she is “not running a race that has been shaped by a bunch of consultants.
Mr Sanders criticised Mr Buttigieg, telling an audience in Plymouth that he was taking money from “40 billionaires”.
In response, Mr Buttigieg told CNN that Mr Sanders, who is also a former small town mayor, is “pretty rich. And I would happily accept a contribution from him”.
Media captionBiden, Buttigieg, and Klobuchar: Who has what it takes to beat Trump?
There are now fewer than a dozen candidates left in the race to become the Democratic nominee for the 3 November presidential election.
The nominee is announced in July during the Democratic National Convention, although a clear frontrunner usually emerges before then.
If Mr Buttigieg is victorious, he would be the first openly gay presidential nominee in US history.
He has raised $75m total for his 2020 campaign. Mr Sanders has raised $107m and Ms Warren $81m. Mr Trump has raised $211m this election cycle.
The White House also wants to take a knife to the federal food stamp program, once again calling for reductions in the number of adults who can qualify for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. The 2021 budget proposes cutting SNAP funding by about $15 billion from last year.
The White House hasbeen making changes to the program on its own, raising eligibility requirements and tightening rules to prevent states from obtaining waivers from work requirements. That includes a rule change that goes into effect in April, which will require many adults without children who are able to work to find employment quickly or risk losing their food stamps. The administration estimates nearly 700,000 people across the country would lose access to the program.
The 2021 budget proposesone set of work requirements for adults ages 18 to 65 who are able to work, rather than making a distinction on whether those adults have children or not. All adults who are able to work would have to engage in “at least 20 hours or more” of work or training to qualify for benefits.
Money for low-income housing would also be depleted, as Mr. Trump’s budget proposed a 15.2 percent decrease from last year in gross discretionary funding for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, eliminating several block grant programs and reducing funding for rental assistance for low-income people.
The budget would eliminate the Choice Neighborhoods program, which awards grants to neighborhoods with deteriorating public and federally assisted housing, arguing that states and local governments are better able to revitalize neighborhoods.
Mr. Trump also requested less money for rental assistance programs, such as Housing Choice Vouchers, and proposed that tenants who can work contribute 35 percent of their income to rent instead of 30 percent.
Ben Carson, the housing and urban development secretary, made the case that removing people from government programs was healthy for the economy.
The Equifax data breach that compromised the personal data of almost 150 million Americans in 2017 unfolded like a classic robbery.
The criminals identified a flaw in the credit agency’s security system, executed a plan of attack to penetrate it and devised a scheme to cover their tracks on their way out, according to a criminal indictment unsealed Monday.
The breach occurred after Equifax security officials failed to install a software upgrade that had been recommended to seal off digital intruders from obtaining access to the names, birthdates and Social Security numbers of the victims, the indictment says.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced that a federal grand jury in Atlanta delivered a nine-count indictment accusing four hackers and members of China’s People’s Liberation Army – Wu Zhiyong, Wang Qian, Xu Ke and Liu Lei – of serving as masterminds of the hack.
FBI Deputy Director David Bowdich said there’s no evidence the Chinese military used the stolen information for illegal purposes, but the “brazen theft” illustrates that “China is one of the most significant threats to our national security today.”
• Recognized that Equifax failed to install an upgrade to Apache Struts software, which Apache recommended around March 7, 2017. The software underpinned an online portal that allowed consumers to dispute their credit report details.
• Used the flaw to upload programming language to an Equifax server to gain remote access to the system.
• Uncovered Equifax database credentials and “thereby falsely represented that they were authorized users of Equifax’s network.”
• Searched the system about 9,000 times for sensitive personal information while hiding the searches through encryption.
• Stuffed the personal information in temporary files, compressed them and divided them into smaller-sized files to increase their chances of transmitting the stolen data without being noticed.
• Used 34 servers in 20 countries during the breach and employed various other techniques, such as remote-desktop access and encrypted log-ins, to mask the origin of the hack.
• Deleted the compressed files after transferring the data into external storage, then configured settings to wipe out information tracking their activity.
The Apache Foundation – which oversees the widely used open-source software that the hackers exploited to obtain access to Equifax servers – revealed in September 2017 that “the Equifax data compromise was due to (Equifax’s) failure to install the security updates provided in a timely manner.”
Equifax acknowledged that the criminals who gained access to its customer data exploited a website application vulnerability known as Apache Struts CVE-2017-5638.
Equifax CEO Mark Begor said Monday in a statement that the company has made significant investments since the breach to bolster its data protection, including $1.25 billion for “enhanced security and technology” from 2018 to 2020.
“Our industry-leading cloud technology transformation will make us more secure and enable us to innovate and develop solutions. … Today’s announcement is another positive step forward in helping us turn the page on the cybersecurity attack as we continue our focus on being a leader in data security,” he said.
Could a similar hack happen to others?
“The reality is there’s little consequence for companies that are holding onto this information” and who fail to protect it, said Adam Garber, consumer watchdog with the Public Interest Research Group’s Education Fund. “And without those consequences, there’s not a lot of incentive for them to stay on top of the highest data security (protocol) out there.”
John Yanchunis, an attorney at law firm Morgan & Morgan who helped lead negotiations for a $380.5 million settlement with consumers affected by the Equifax breach, said companies need an incentive to take proactive security steps.
“All too often we see companies acting out of consequence instead of conscience,” he said.
Can companies play defense?
But are companies capable of fending off military hacking attempts at all?
“Combating this challenge from well-financed nation-state actors that operate outside the rule of law is increasingly difficult,” Equifax CEO Begor said in a statement. “Fighting this cyberwar will require the type of open cooperation and partnership between government, law enforcement and private business that we have experienced firsthand. These cyber attacks on U.S. companies continue to escalate and are increasingly challenging to defend when well-financed state actors are involved.”
PIRG’s Garber said the fact that state-sponsored actors have significant capabilities doesn’t excuse companies from making a sophisticated effort to protect consumers.
“Is anything ever perfectly secure? Probably not. But they should do everything in their power to make sure that it’s safe,” he said.
Yanchunis said companies can hire ethical hackers to test their systems for vulnerabilities and award them when they find flaws. Companies should also implement early detection systems and conduct breach simulations to better prepare themselves for inevitable attacks, he said.
Consumers have few defenses
But how can consumers prepare themselves as more and more personal information falls into the wrong hands?
You can take steps to protect yourself: stop reusing passwords and get a password manager, deploy two-factor verification, and exercise caution when installing software on your computer or apps on your phone.
Still, it’s nearly impossible to insulate yourself from data breaches like the one at Equifax in which thieves made off with Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and other information which can then be used to impersonate you and wreck your financial record.
If your identity is stolen, it takes time to prove you’re a victim. In the meantime, your credit cards can be denied, collection agencies may harass you and you can get turned down for mortgage applications.
Consumer advocates urge anyone whose data has been breached to monitor your accounts regularly to keep fraudsters from opening credit cards and other loans in your name. You can set up fraud alerts with credit bureaus or freeze your credit. But, advocates say, problems can keep popping up, often for years.
Security experts say corporations across all industries are vulnerable to hacks. Credit reporting agencies by their very nature amass the kind of sensitive personal data that can be used to swipe someone’s identity.
Monday’s indictment does not detract from “vulnerabilities and process deficiencies that we saw in Equifax’s systems and response to the hack,” Senator Mark Warner, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. He has introduced legislation to hold credit reporting agencies including Equifax accountable for such breaches.
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