Updated 6:01 PM ET, Wed November 18, 2020
In less than 10 months, Covid-19 has killed more people than strokes, suicides and car crashes typically do in a full year — combined.
Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/18/health/covid-19-deaths-us-250k-trnd/index.html
Michigan attorney general targets conservative editors
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel targets conservative editors; Tucker Carlson reacts.
A meeting scheduled for Wednesday afternoon in Lansing, Mich., that would have given the public the chance to ask questions about the 2020 election count has been canceled, and the state’s certification board will meet on Monday to finalize the results.
Wednesday’s meeting between the four members of the Michigan Board of State Canvassers, consisting of two Democrats and two Republicans, was initially postponed from 9 a.m. EST to 1:30 p.m. EST before being canceled due to all counties in the state having certified their election results.
President-elect Joe Biden won 2.796 million votes, or 50.6%, compared with 2.65 million, or 47.9%, for President Trump, who has filed lawsuits alleging irregularities.
GEORGIA ELECTION AUDIT FINDS 3,039 MORE UNCOUNTED BALLOTS IN 2 COUNTIES
The decision to cancel Wednesday’s meeting comes less than 24 hours after the Wayne County Board of Canvassers suddenly reversed its 2-2 deadlock that prevented the county’s results from being certified following allegations of racism. Wayne County is home to Detroit, the state’s most populated city.
The board also approved a resolution calling on Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson to “conduct an independent comprehensive audit of all of the precincts in the county that recorded unexplained discrepancies between the number of ballots recorded as cast and the number of ballots counted.”
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Several precincts in the county showed a discrepancy between the number of ballots cast and counted. Such an instance is not grounds for a recount under state law, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The so-called poll book imbalance, which occurred in Detroit, Livonia, Inkster and elsewhere, did not go unnoticed by Trump, who tweeted that the “Democrats cheated big time, and got caught.”
Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/michigan-election-officials-cancel-meeting-wayne-certification-vote
WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team has intensified its criticism of President Trump’s refusal to engage in the orderly transfer of power, citing the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as an example of what happens when an incoming administration does not receive full cooperation from the outgoing one.
“It’s important for the transition team to be able to meet with the government officials who are handling the pandemic response as COVID-19 is spiking across our country,” a senior transition official told Yahoo News. “With every day that passes, it is even more vital that the team has all of the information necessary to prepare to govern.”
So far, the Trump administration has offered no formal help on two of Biden’s top coronavirus priorities: distributing a vaccine and making testing “widely available,” as his campaign plan to combat the pandemic put it.
The president-elect also wants the White House and federal agencies to share more information about daily tests performed, hospital beds available and other metrics. So far, he does not have any access to the agencies that gather, or could gather, such data. People close to the transition say informal contacts have taken place, but such communications cannot compensate for the absence of a formal transition process.
With Trump still fighting a desperate battle to overturn the results of the election, the General Services Administration has refused to take the pro forma step of ascertaining the results. Until it does so, the president-elect will remain frozen out of the federal government he is set to command starting Jan. 20.
The silence has been a source of consternation to Biden, who sees Trump as neither willing to address the pandemic himself nor willing to allow him to do so.
The official who spoke to Yahoo News about the stalled transition pointed out that “the 9/11 Commission Report found that the delayed 2000 transition significantly hampered the incoming administration’s ability to fill key appointments, including national security personnel, and left the country less prepared for a crisis.”
In that case, the crisis was a terrorist attack launched by al-Qaida. In this instance, it is a global pandemic that has taken the lives of thousands and the jobs of millions.
Even some allies of the president have urged him to take the urgent steps necessary to prepare for coronavirus-related aspects of the transition. “Fox & Friends” host Brian Kilmeade said Wednesday that it is “in the country’s best interest if [Trump] starts coordinating on the virus and starts coordinating on security with the Biden team, and just brief him.” Trump is known to be an avid viewer of the morning program.
The onset of winter, and continued resistance from some elected officials, especially Republican governors in hard-hit Western states, imply that the situation could become especially grave in late January, just when Biden will take office.
The dangers of a delay are obvious to public health experts. Speaking at a New York Times event on Tuesday, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Dr. Anthony Fauci, a highly trusted member of the president’s coronavirus task force, urged that the transition pick up the pace, citing his own work in the federal government since the early days of the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
“I’ve been through five transitions,” Fauci said. “I can say that transitions are extremely important to the smooth continuity of whatever you’re doing.”
Last weekend saw a few hints from the president that he knows the election is lost. Those hints, however, are far from the kind of unambiguous concession that would allow the transition to begin in earnest.
The senior Biden transition official, who would speak to Yahoo News only under the condition of anonymity, said that “it is in America’s national security interest for an incoming Administration to have access to intelligence briefings, information about the development of vaccines and distribution plans, threat assessments, and all of the data gathered by civil servants on the threats we face.”
Two vaccines are nearly ready for distribution: one manufactured by Pfizer and the other by Moderna. Trump has been furious that the announcement of the vaccines’ highly successful trials came right after, not before, the presidential election. The grievance reflects his obsession with a (fictitious) “deep state” of bureaucrats, in this instance in league with pharmaceutical companies, intent on undermining his administration and thwarting his reelection.
Trump’s irritation at the timing of the vaccine trial results makes it less likely that he will cooperate with Biden in making sure the new president is able to quickly and successfully distribute a vaccine. Apart from last Friday’s Rose Garden remarks on the forthcoming vaccination effort, Trump has shown little interest in the pandemic in recent months, after a brief period last spring when he attended almost daily briefings of his coronavirus task force. That ended around the time he drew international ridicule for suggesting that bleach or ultraviolet light could act as a coronavirus treatment.
Nothing prevents Biden officials from engaging with private corporations, but those corporations have signed on to distribute the vaccine through Operation Warp Speed, a Trump program. That could limit the scope of such interactions until the transition officially begins.
“We are in regular communication with all relevant stakeholders at the federal and state levels, and from both sides of the aisle, to make sure they are informed on a timely manner of our progress,” said Pfizer spokesperson Sharon J. Castillo. “We are not going to comment on the specifics of any of these private conversations.”
White House spokesperson Brian Morganstern praised the president’s work on the pandemic but refused to say whether any effort had been made to reach out to Biden and brief him on the pandemic. Instead, he pointed to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s “playbook” on vaccine distribution and to individual governors’ distribution plans. The implication appeared to be that outside those publicly available documents, Biden could not expect any help from Trump.
Speaking on “Meet the Press” last Sunday, Biden’s designated chief of staff, Ron Klain, said it was imperative for Biden coronavirus task force members to connect with current Health and Human Services Department officials about the forthcoming vaccination efforts, which will require immense logistical expertise.
“Our experts need to talk to those people as soon as possible so nothing drops in this change of power,” said Klain, who headed the Obama administration’s Ebola response.
In 2000, the presidential transition was hindered by the contested Florida vote recount. The case was eventually decided by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of George W. Bush over Vice President Al Gore.
The report of the 9/11 Commission found that the “dispute over the election and the 36-day delay cut in half the normal transition period. Given that a presidential election in the United States brings wholesale change in personnel, this loss of time hampered the new administration in identifying, recruiting, clearing, and obtaining Senate confirmation of key appointees.”
The coronavirus is now taking a 9/11-like toll roughly every two days, leading some public experts to graphically describe the current situation as a “slaughter.” And, they warn, it could get worse.
Across the federal bureaucracy, many sit and wait. Thomas Skinner, a spokesman for the CDC, could not say whether there had been any communication with members of the Biden coronavirus task force. “I don’t know,” Skinner wrote in an email. “Have not heard one way or the other.” He later clarified that the CDC was “to refer calls about the transition to HHS,” a reference to the Department of Health and Human Services.
For its part, HHS refused to comment.
Federal agencies, including both the CDC and HHS, are waiting on the General Services Administration. Once the head of that agency, Emily Murphy, ascertains the election, current officials will effectively have the green light to begin sharing data with the new administration.
Until then, at least officially, there will be silence. There does appear to be some communication being conducted through informal channels, over private email accounts and encrypted apps. But these do not have the imprimatur of official communications.
An official at the GSA told Yahoo News that Murphy would ascertain the election once Trump’s legal challenges had run their course. Those could continue for weeks to come.
Additional reporting by Brittany Shepherd.
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Source Article from https://news.yahoo.com/biden-aides-cite-911-report-on-the-danger-of-trump-stalling-transition-174654782.html
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday launched a new attack on Democratic demands that any coronavirus stimulus bill includes help for states and localities whose revenues have bottomed out due to the pandemic.
“Democrats still want coronavirus relief for the entire country held hostage over a massive slush fund for their own use,” McConnell said on the Senate floor.
President-elect Joe Biden, though, endorsed federal assistance to states and localities as part of the next stimulus bill.
Biden emerged from a meeting Monday with corporate chief executives and labor union presidents by saying that the group agreed “on the urgent need for funding for states and cities to keep front-line and essential workers on the job and vital public services running — law enforcement officers, educators, first responders.”
When Biden was vice president, federal aid to state governments was a key component of the $787 billion stimulus law enacted in 2009 in response to the Great Recession. It accounted for 42% of the package, or $330 billion, according to the California State Legislature’s fiscal and policy analysis office.
A refusal to support the assistance this time likely would doom any new legislation. Aid to state and local governments, whose tax revenues have plummeted due to the pandemic-induced economic downturn, has been a non-negotiable demand of House and Senate Democrats.
New Jersey lost $1.4 billion in tax revenue in the 2020 fiscal year due to the coronavirus and is projecting a $4.3 billion shortfall in the current fiscal year, according to the state Treasury Department.
The loss wasn’t limited to Democratic-run states. Texas saw a $4.4 billion shortfall in the 2020 fiscal year and a projected $8.8 billion shortfall in 2021, while Florida had a $1.9 billion shortfall in the 2020 fiscal year and a projected $3.4 billion shortfall in 2021, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a progressive research group.
“It’s a joke to claim this is some sort of blue state giveaway,” said Rep. Josh Gottheimer, D-5th Dist. “The whole country is facing a crisis right now.”
CORONAVIRUS RESOURCES: Live map tracker | Newsletter | Homepage
Gottheimer met Tuesday with members of both houses and both parties to discuss a way forward on stimulus, and said congressional leaders needed to make the compromises needed to make a deal.
“People are really hurting,” he told NJ Advance Media. “The idea that we’re going to play games, that either side is going to posture while people are in dire need of help, is to me just pathetic. People have a right to be pissed off.”
“Both sides have to go in there with good faith and understand they’re not going to get everything they want,” he said.
Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer of New York on Tuesday called on McConnell to negotiate a bipartisan stimulus bill. He then joined with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. in sending a letter to McConnell.
“Democrats are eager to sit down and get a bipartisan bill,” Schumer said at a Capitol press conference. “It’s only the Democratic House that has passed a bill. If you want to get something done, we need our Republican senators to tell Leader McConnell to sit down and come up with a fair, comprehensive, bipartisan negotiation.”
McConnell, R-Ky., said last week he would consider including such aid, but on Tuesday blamed Democrats’ insistence on “huge sums of money for state and city governments with no linkage to demonstrated COVID needs” for the current stalemate in passing a new stimulus bill.
He also objected to the provision in the House-passed stimulus bill, known as the HEROES Act, that would waive for one year the Republican tax law’s $10,000 cap on deducting state and local taxes. calling it “a massive tax cut for wealthy people in blue states.”
The House-passed stimulus bill specifically limits the federal aid to “respond to, mitigate, cover costs or replace foregone revenues not projected on January 31, 2020 stemming from the public health emergency, or its negative economic impacts, with respect to the Coronavirus Disease (COVID–19).”
The deduction cap most affected New Jersey and other high-tax states that send billions of dollars more to Washington than they receive in services. While New Jersey received 90 cents for every $1 paid in federal taxes, less than every state but Connecticut, McConnell’s Kentucky got back $2.41, more than any other state, according to the State University of New York’s Rockefeller Institute of Government.
Most of those hurt by the cap in New Jersey were middle-class homeowners, who saw their property values take a hit in addition to losing some of their deduction.
McConnell has tried twice to no avail to pass a $500 billion stimulus package with funds for small businesses and extra unemployment insurance, which Democrats support, but also additional taxpayer subsidies for religious and other private schools and protections against lawsuits for businesses if their customers or employees became infected with COVID-19.
The House Democratic legislation included another round of $1,200 stimulus payments, safety standards for businesses to protect customers and employees from the coronavirus, and $75 billion for a national testing, tracing and treatment program.
Jonathan D. Salant may be reached at jsalant@njadvancemedia.com.
Source Article from https://www.masslive.com/police-fire/2020/11/second-stimulus-check-update-mitch-mcconnell-attacks-giving-aid-to-state-governments-a-key-sticking-point-to-passing-relief-bill.html
The mayor set the 3 percent threshold over the summer, when average positivity rates were hovering around 1 percent or below. He has been explicit that the number is less of a strictly scientific measure and more of a symbol intended to reassure parents, educators and the union.
In a recent interview, Michael Mulgrew, the union’s president, said he thought the 3 percent threshold was sound. He cited warnings from experts that even if there was low transmission in schools, infection could still spread from the broader community into schools, increasing the likelihood that students and staff members might carry the virus into their homes and neighborhoods.
Mr. Mulgrew said he was dismayed that schools were closing so soon, and asserted that expressions of frustration about a shutdown from some New Yorkers seemed hypocritical.
“We had a lot of criticism from people when we were opening schools,” he said. “They didn’t want them open. A lot of that came from the very same people who are yelling now that they want them open.”
He also called on New Yorkers to take the virus seriously in order to drive down numbers again. “If we want to keep our schools open, it’s up to everyone else” to take precautions, Mr. Mulgrew said.
While city parents have come to expect contradictory messages about schools from the mayor and governor, Mr. Cuomo said during a recent news conference that he did not plan to intervene in the city’s effort to close schools.
But he said “the problem is not coming from the schools,” and encouraged the city to come up with new metrics for a shutdown once schools reopen. The governor has said the state will force schools to close only if they are in a region where the seven-day positivity rate reaches 9 percent.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/nyregion/nyc-schools-covid.html
An Afghan National Army soldier stands guard at a checkpoint near the Bagram airfield, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, in April.
Rahmat Gul/AP
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An Afghan National Army soldier stands guard at a checkpoint near the Bagram airfield, the largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan, in April.
Rahmat Gul/AP
The lone customer at the Simple Café in Kabul has high hopes for America’s president-elect.
“Biden won’t withdraw American forces from Afghanistan. He’ll stay and fight the Taliban,” says Sakina Hussaini, a 23-year-old arts student.
She gestures to the empty cafe; it used to be a popular hangout. Now, most people are staying home because of an uptick in deadly car bombings, gunfights and other attacks on civilians across the capital and the country.
“Trump was not beneficial for our country,” says Hussaini, who accuses the U.S. president of emboldening the Taliban by overseeing a peace agreement with them, signed in February.
That deal includes provisions for a conditional withdrawal of U.S. forces after nearly two decades at war in Afghanistan. If the deal goes to plan, they will have fully withdrawn by next spring.
But the White House appears to be accelerating its drawdown, creating fresh uncertainty over the situation Joe Biden will inherit on Jan. 20.
On Tuesday, Acting Defense Secretary Christopher Miller announced the number of U.S. troops in Afghanistan will be cut to 2,500 by Jan. 15. There are currently about 4,500 U.S. troops in the country.
President-elect Joe Biden’s record — particularly as vice president to Barack Obama — helps illuminate what his approach may be to Afghanistan after he is sworn in. “Biden was the most senior dissenting voice against a surge in Afghanistan back in 2008 and 2009,” says Andrew Watkins, senior analyst for Afghanistan at the International Crisis Group.
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Andrew Harnik/AP
President-elect Joe Biden’s record — particularly as vice president to Barack Obama — helps illuminate what his approach may be to Afghanistan after he is sworn in. “Biden was the most senior dissenting voice against a surge in Afghanistan back in 2008 and 2009,” says Andrew Watkins, senior analyst for Afghanistan at the International Crisis Group.
Andrew Harnik/AP
Afghan officials warn such a move could plunge their country further into upheaval and serves as a signal to the Taliban that they need not honor their commitments.
“We don’t want the U.S. to stay here forever,” says Javid Faisal, a political adviser to the Afghan National Security Council, “but we also want the withdrawal to be responsible, and don’t expect our ally to burn the house when it leaves.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned in a statement on Tuesday that a hasty withdrawal could risk Afghanistan “becoming once again a platform for international terrorists to plan and organize attacks on our homelands,” saying the Islamic State “could rebuild in Afghanistan the terror caliphate it lost in Syria and Iraq.”
In an apparent message to Washington, he said: “We went into Afghanistan together. And when the time is right, we should leave together in a coordinated and orderly way. I count on all NATO allies to live up to this commitment, for our own security.” NATO has fewer than 12,000 troops in Afghanistan.
As part of the deal the U.S. signed with the Taliban, the insurgents pledged not to harbor terrorists who could attack the U.S. and its allies. They also agreed to negotiate with the Afghan government, something they earlier had refused to do.
But peace talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government have been bogged down in procedural disputes. And attacks — many by the Taliban — against Afghan civilians and security forces have only intensified in recent weeks.
A senior Afghan government negotiator, Nader Nadery, tells NPR that he hopes the incoming Biden administration will reassess the U.S.-Taliban deal, “to look at some of the conditions and realities on the ground and to see how, and if needed, what kind of recalibration of this process may be required.”
But some analysts see little likelihood of any major changes. The president-elect has a clear, years-long record of opposition to America’s sprawling involvement in Afghanistan.
“I think those hopes for a change in direction are likely to be short-lived,” says Elizabeth Threlkeld, the South Asia deputy director at the Washington-based Stimson Center.
“I do expect that we’ll see a change of tone,” she says. It will “become a little bit more multilateral and measured. The process won’t feel perhaps so tentative, quite so up in the air, depending on the tweets of the morning.”
Biden’s own record — particularly as vice president to Barack Obama — helps illuminate how he may act once he is sworn in.
“Biden was the most senior dissenting voice against a surge in Afghanistan back in 2008 and 2009,” says Andrew Watkins, senior analyst for Afghanistan at the International Crisis Group. “He remained insistent throughout the last decade that bringing American troop numbers down to just a few thousand and really only focusing on targeted strikes of the very worst of the very worst threats to regional and American security was the only thing that the U.S. should be doing in Afghanistan.”
Biden has spoken in favor of keeping a small counterterrorism force in Afghanistan. Retaining even a small contingent of troops, though, could unravel the U.S. deal with the Taliban, who insist all foreign forces must leave within the agreed spring 2021 time frame.
In a statement reacting to the U.S. election, the Taliban expressed commitment to “positive future relations” and held up the February agreement “as a powerful basis for solving the Afghan issue,” but warned against “war-mongering circles, individuals and groups that seek to perpetuate the war and to keep America mired in conflict.”
Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/935351710/what-a-joe-biden-presidency-may-mean-for-afghanistan
Minus 112 is so cold rubber shatters, metals can become brittle and exposed skin freezes almost instantly. It’s also the temperature required to store what’s expected to be the first COVID-19 vaccine.
With last week’s news that the vaccine candidate from Pfizer and its collaborator BioNTechwas more than 90% effective and could be approved within a month, the reality of moving and storing the life-saving vials came into sharp focus.
Dry ice orders are spiking and the backlog to buy some $15,000 medical-grade ultracold freezers is up to six weeks.
“Sales are up 250% from the first quarter,” said Dusty Tenney, CEO of Stirling Ultracold, an Athens, Ohio, company that makes laboratory-grade ultracold freezers.
Monday’s announcement that Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine was 94.5% effective, is stable at regular refrigerator temperatures for 30 days and is able to be held at room temperature for up to 12 hours took the edge off the urgency.
But the United States will need all the vaccines it can get. Development of Moderna’s vaccine is slightly behind Pfizer, and its manufacturing capacity is not as robust, making the Pfizer-required cold chain an issue local health departments will be grappling with for months.
USA TODAY Editorial Board:Don’t inject politics into vaccine policy
In Akron, fifth-generation ice man Harry Gehm is getting calls from across the region.
“The Ohio health department called for 15,000 pounds of dry ice a week,” he said from the offices of Gehm & Sons, founded in the 1880s. “The hospitals and Giant Eagle (a grocery and pharmacy chain) have been calling to make sure I have the capacity.”
States have known for months the Pfizer vaccine required an extreme cold chain distribution, and have been working to create the infrastructure necessary to deliver and store it. Now they’ve got to finalize their plans.
Of the four COVID-19 vaccines currently in Phase 3 clinical trials in the United States, Pfizer’s is both the furthest along and the only one that requires such a low temperature.
Pfizer expects to produce up to 50 million vaccine doses by the end of the year, and up to 1.3 billion doses in 2021. If the vaccine is approved, the doses available this year will be allocated proportionally across countries that have supply agreements, the company said. Each person will need two doses, given 21 days apart.
As part of an agreement signed this summer with the U.S. government, Pfizer will deliver 100 million doses following the vaccine’s successful manufacture and approval, with the option to acquire an additional 500 million doses.
I volunteered for Moderna’s COVID vaccine trial:Here’s why I think I got the vaccine, not a placebo
The Pfizer candidate vaccine is composed of messenger RNA that tells the body to produce a protein from the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19. That protein tells the immune system to make antibodies against the virus, protecting it from infection.
The proteins are encased in tiny fat globules and very fragile. “It just sort of disintegrates,” said Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and a professor of vaccinology at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
To keep the molecule stable, the vaccine must be stored at ultracold temperatures, between minus 112 and minus 76. Generally, the guidance is minus 94 and below. At those temperatures, it is stable for up to six months.
Once the vaccine arrives at a hospital or clinic, it can be held at regular refrigerator temperatures of between 35 to 46 degrees for up to five days before it must be discarded.
That’s no mean feat. At minus 22, sap in trees freezes. At minus 58, some steel alloys become brittle. At minus 76, car batteries freeze. At minus 97, tires can shatter, said Tonya Kuhl, chair of the chemical engineering department at the University of California, Davis. Keeping anything that cold requires specialized equipment – or lots and lots of dry ice.
“In the science world, it’s not that cold,” Kuhl said. “But in the regular world, it certainly is. That temperature is really important in storage to keep things stable.”
Ultra-cold needs special equipment
Medical-grade ultracold freezers are not cheap. An upright model the size of a large home refrigerator can run about $25,000. An under-counter freezer the size of a dorm fridge is about $10,000. And a model on wheels about the size of a beach cooler runs $7,000.
Pharmacies, clinics, hospitals and doctors’ offices have been snapping them up as fast as they can build them. Stirling Ultracold has increased hours on its factory floor and is working six days a week to meet demand. Even so, they’re back-ordered for at least a month, Tenney said.
Opening such a freezer is not like rummaging around in the fridge for a snack. Once the door is open, a wave of fog swirls out as the cold hits the moisture in the room air. Gloves and long sleeves must be worn to keep from getting freezer burns from the unit itself or the items inside.
The good news, say administrators, is that many hospitals and academic medical centers already had ultracold freezers because they’re used to store blood products, lab diagnostic materials and biological samples.
“More than 50% of our members already had them on hand,” said Azra Behlim, senior director of pharmacy sourcing at Vizient, a purchasing and support network for non-profit health systems. Vizient works with more than 60% of all hospitals in the United States.
Even so, some are buying the freezers “just to make things easier” when the vaccine starts shipping, she said.
But with the expectation that more vaccines will soon become available that can be stored at regular refrigerator temperatures, other medical systems are holding off.
“They’re wondering if they should jump through all these logistical hoops” when it might not be necessary, Behlim said. The first vaccines will be going to frontline health care workers, most of whom can be readily supplied at large hospitals that already have ultracold infrastructure.
Dry ice is key for Pfizer vaccine delivery
Dry ice looms large in the Pfizer vaccine delivery system. The Pfizer vaccine is being shipped in specially designed, insulated containers about the size of a carry-on suitcase.
The vaccine is stored in flat, pizza box-sized compartments, each able to hold 195 vials. There are five doses per vial, so each tray holds 975 doses. The thermal container boxes, which are reusable, can hold up to five of the trays for a grand total of 4,875 doses per fully-loaded container, weighing about 70 pounds.
More:Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate shown to be 90% effective in early findings
These “shippers,” as Pfizer calls them, have space at the top for a bag of dry ice. The dry ice can keep the vaccine at the necessary temperature for 10 days if unopened, or five days as long as it’s opened no more than twice a day for very short periods of time, said Bob Swanson, the Immunization Program Director at the Michigan Department of Community Health.
Dry ice, as opposed to water-based “wet ice,” is the solid form of carbon dioxide when it’s cooled to minus 78.5 degrees.
The shipping containers require about 25 pounds of dry ice to be refilled. Gehm,the ice man, says he’s getting calls from small hospitals across Ohio that want to order 25 pounds a week.
“I can make 3,000 pounds an hour, so we’re good there,” he said.
Most dry ice in the United States is made in the Midwest near large ethanol gas plants, which produce carbon dioxide as a byproduct, said Gehm.
The carbon dioxide is transported in tankers and forced into a sealed chamber where it’s put under pressure to cool it.
“It runs about 2.3 pounds of liquid to make one pound of dry ice,” Gehm said. A 3-foot cube of dry ice weighs about 1,500 pounds.
Not everyone lives within easy transport distance of a dry ice manufacturer, however. North Dakota has so few, the state Department of Health is considering buying a small maker to produce its own, said state Immunization Program Manager Molly Howell.
If a medical center can be assured of getting dry ice, an expensive ultracold freezer may not be necessary because the packages are designed to be re-iced with dry ice.
“Really, you have up to 15 days,” said Swanson, with Michigan’s health department. Once the vaccine container arrives at the site, it will be refilled with dry ice within 24 hours, he said.
“As long as you don’t open the container more than twice a day, you can refresh it with more dry ice five days out and then 10 days out. So it creates a 15-day window,” he said.
When it’s time to use the vaccine, it’s thawed to refrigerator temperature, which is between 35 and 46 degrees. It’s then mixed with a saline solution shipped separately.
Once that’s done, the five-dose vial can be stored for up to six hours in a refrigerator. If all the vaccine isn’t used by then, it would need to be discarded.
It’s the possibility of having to discard vaccine that keeps doctors up at night. After more than $10 billion in taxpayer money spent to create COVID-19 vaccines and in the midst of a frightening surge in cases, they don’t want any to go to waste.
“There’s going to be a lot of tripping and falling,” said vaccine expert Offit. “We’re going to learn a lot over the next few months about how we probably could have done this differently.”
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/11/18/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-dry-ice-sales-storage/6281859002/
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at a news conference. | Daniel Kim/The Sacramento Bee via AP, Pool, File
OAKLAND — California Medical Association officials were among the guests seated next to Gov. Gavin Newsom at a top California political operative’s opulent birthday dinner at the French Laundry restaurant this month.
CEO Dustin Corcoran and top CMA lobbyist Janus Norman both joined the dinner at the French Laundry, an elite Napa fine dining restaurant, to celebrate the 50th birthday of lobbyist and longtime Newsom adviser Jason Kinney, a representative of the powerful interest group confirmed Wednesday morning.
Both Norman and Corcoran are friends of Kinney, as is Newsom, who referred this week to his 20-year friendship with Kinney. In a photo obtained by Fox LA, Norman is clearly visible seated to Newsom’s left.
The presence of CMA brass could amplify criticisms of the dinner occurring despite coronavirus restrictions that have limited Californians’ movements and constrained businesses. While Newsom and Kinney’s lobbying firm have said the meal abided by public health rules, it has struck a chord with Californians who have assailed the upscale soiree as hypocritical as coronavirus cases surge.
The state has issued guidelines prohibiting more than three households from gathering privately — a limit clearly exceeded by the French Laundry dinner. However, the state has intentionally allowed restaurants to seat people from more than three households together.
Doctors and other health care workers have been vigilant since the pandemic began in asking Califorians to stay at home — a call that has ramped up in recent weeks as hospitals across the nation fill to capacity.
A spokesperson for the CMA, Anthony York, said in a statement that “the dinner was held in accordance with state and county guidelines.”
The photos suggest that the dinner was held in what amounts to a fancy garage, with walls on three sides and a roof. Newsom and Kinney’s lobbying firm, Axiom Advisors, has insisted that it was an outdoor dinner. It is unclear whether that counts as outdoor dining under state guidelines, though Napa County restaurants were allowed to serve patrons inside at the time of the Nov. 6 event.
The CMA has long been a powerful presence in the state Capitol, and its Sacramento officials are longtime friends with Kinney. The group spent $2.1 million last year lobbying state leaders.
The doctors’ lobby this year successfully convinced Newsom and state lawmakers not to slash Medi-Cal reimbursement rates that were funded by a tobacco tax that CMA spearheaded in 2016. Besides listing dozens of bills, CMA also reported lobbying the Newsom administration on Covid-19 screening and testing rules.
But the group isn’t always successful with Newsom. He signed legislation in September that will give nurse practitioners more authority to work without physician oversight, a bill that CMA opposed.
Source Article from https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2020/11/18/california-medical-association-brass-attended-french-laundry-dinner-with-newsom-kinney-1336924
Investigators have attributed the crashes to a range of problems, including engineering flaws, mismanagement and a lack of federal oversight. At the root was software known as MCAS, which was designed to automatically push the plane’s nose down in certain situations and has been blamed for both crashes.
In August, the F.A.A. determined that a series of proposals by Boeing — including changes to MCAS, flight crew training and the jet’s design — “effectively mitigate” its safety concerns. Mr. Dickson, a former Delta Air Lines pilot, took the controls on a test flight in September, saying he liked what he saw.
In a news conference on Tuesday in anticipation of the F.A.A. announcement, relatives of victims on the second plane that crashed, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302, questioned whether Boeing had done enough to address safety concerns with the plane.
“Aviation should not be a trial-and-error process; it should be about safety,” said Naoise Ryan, whose husband, Mick, was aboard that flight on March 10, 2019. “If safety is not prioritized, then these companies should not be in business.”
In a letter to employees, Boeing’s chief executive, David Calhoun, welcomed the lifting of the ban, promising to proceed deliberately with the plane’s return to service and to “never forget” the victims of the crashes.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/18/business/boeing-737-max-faa.html
Hannity: ‘What the hell is happening in our country?’
Georgia unearths more than 2,600 uncounted ballots; ‘Hannity’ host Sean Hannity reacts
Sean Hannity took aim at the state of Georgia Tuesday night after more than 2,700 ballots that have not been tallied “turned up out of thin air” during a recount in the state for the 2020 presidential election.
“Moments ago, the state of Georgia hand recount magically– how many days after Election Day– uncovered yet another 2,700 uncounted ballots, the majority of which shockingly cast for President Trump,” the “Hannity” host said in his opening monologue Tuesday.
GEORGIA RECOUNT UNEARTHS 2,600 UNCOUNTED BALLOTS
” Last night, same story, another 2,600 uncounted ballots were discovered and again, most of those ballots in favor of the president.
Hannity continued, “What the hell is happening in Georgia, in our country? Why are we still finding thousands of ballots weeks after the election?”
Georgia began recounting its nearly 5 million ballots by hand on Friday after President Donald Trump and the Republican Party requested a statewide audit.
Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger blamed the problem on election officials failing to upload votes from a memory card in a ballot-scanning machine.
MAJOR GOP NAMES TO HELP PERDUE, LOEFFLER RAISE BIG BUCKS IN GEORGIA SENATE RUNOFFS
“Maybe this is a dumb question,” Hannity responded, but “why would we ever be using them in the first place this is the USA, the home of Apple, the home of Microsoft, the home of Silicon Valley? Are we saying we can’t do better than this?”
Though President Trump has decried alleged voter fraud, the accounted ballots will likely do little to close the 14,000-vote gap with President-Elect Joe Biden. But, Hannity wondered, “Should anyone ever trust this?
“How many more ballots will they find tomorrow… thousands of missing votes showing up weeks later, that are now just turning up out of thin air?” he asked.
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Hannity noted that the unearthed ballots would have likely gone undiscovered without the Trump campaign’s demand for a recount.
” Think about it, these votes never would have been tallied without a recount,” he said, adding that “now, less than 13,000 votes separate the president and Joe Biden in Georgia.”
Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/media/hannity-what-the-hell-is-happening-in-georgia
A Boeing 737 Max jet, piloted by Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson, flies past parked Boeing jets as it prepares to land at Boeing Field following a test flight in September.
Elaine Thompson/AP
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A Boeing 737 Max jet, piloted by Federal Aviation Administration chief Steve Dickson, flies past parked Boeing jets as it prepares to land at Boeing Field following a test flight in September.
Elaine Thompson/AP
Updated at 8:55 a.m. ET
After 20 months on the tarmac that followed two fatal crashes, Boeing’s troubled 737 Max airliner has been given the green light to resume passenger flights, the Federal Aviation Administration announced Wednesday.
The plane’s return to the skies will not be immediate, however. The FAA is requiring a series of design changes laid out in a 115-page directive. It also put forward training requirements for pilots and maintenance requirements for airlines.
After the FAA announcement, the Air Line Pilots Association released a statement saying it “believes that the engineering fixes to the flight-critical aircraft systems are sound and will be an effective component that leads to the safe return to service of the 737 MAX.”
The FAA and aviation authorities around the world ordered the aircraft type grounded in March 2019, after a 737 Max operated by Ethiopian Airlines crashed, killing all 157 people on board. It occurred less than five months after a 737 Max operated by Lion Air crashed in Indonesia, killing all 189 passengers and crew.
The two crashes were later linked to faulty sensors and a flawed flight control system that repeatedly forced the planes into nose dives that the pilots were unable to control.
Boeing has admitted that it knew about problems with the plane a year before the deadly crashes, but failed to take action. Investigators looking into the cause of the crashes found a “culture of concealment” at the manufacturer. Critics have accused the company of cutting corners in a rush to develop the 737 Max, which was billed to airlines as a new, more efficient version of the venerable medium-haul airframe.
Boeing and the FAA were also widely criticized over the way the 737 Max was first certified. A congressional inquiry found “a disturbing pattern of technical miscalculations and troubling management misjudgments” by the airplane maker and “grossly insufficient oversight by the FAA.”
In September, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson, a former Delta Air Lines pilot and executive, made good on a promise not sign off on recertifying the Max until he flew the plane himself. On Sept. 30, Dickson piloted a 737 Max out of Boeing Field in Seattle, putting it through its paces to test the flight control system.
“I liked what I saw,” he told reporters after landing.
However, families of the victims of the crashes say they don’t believe the plane is safe yet.
Naoise Ryan, whose husband Mick died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash, says neither Boeing nor the FAA has provided enough information about the fixes to convince her.
“We want answers as to why the crash happened and also we want answers to exactly what they’ve done to make sure this never happens again,” Ryan said.
Michael Stumo, whose 24-year-old daughter, Samya Rose Stumo, died on the same flight as Ryan’s husband, urged passengers to avoid flying on the 737 Max.
“They say [to] trust us just like before,” he said. “[But] they don’t meet with us. They meet with each other. And we cannot trust this plane.
That distrust has also tainted the Boeing brand. Although the FAA says it is safe for passengers to fly on 737 Max again, the plane’s image may have suffered irreparable damage. When the aircraft returns to the skies, as planned, some airlines are likely to downplay the “Max” label using the plane’s formal variant names, such as “737 -7” or “737 -8,” Reuters reports, citing industry sources familiar with the branding.
“You will see the MAX name used less frequently,” one of the sources told the news agency.
Last year, Brand Finance estimated that the 737 Max’s problems had caused $7.5 billion in damage to Boeing’s brand.
Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2020/11/18/936080917/faa-gives-boeing-ok-to-resume-737-max-passenger-service
After an initial vote which ended in deadlock, the Wayne County, Michigan Board of Canvassers reversed a decision to block certification on the county’s electoral votes on Twitter.
Originally, the Board of Canvassers had been divided along party lines as to whether or not to certify Wayne County’s election results. Allegations of improprieties surrounded the decision as some areas of the county showed disparities in the numbers of votes cast and the numbers of actual voters.
Both Democrats on the Board voted to certify the votes, but the two Republicans cast their votes against certification. Some Republicans were hoping that the voting disparities would show enough votes for President Donald Trump to pronounce a victory in Michigan. After county residents offered comments during the meeting—many in favor of certifying the election results—the decision was unanimously overturned.
In a statement released before the reversal, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson explained that it was “common for some precincts in Michigan and across the country to be out of balance by a small number of votes, especially when turnout is high. Importantly, this is not an indication that any votes were improperly cast or counted.”
Along with the unanimous decision to certify the county’s presidential votes, the Board called on Benson to conduct an independent audit of the areas in Wayne County that showed voting number discrepancies.
Tasos Katopodis/Getty
In a statement sent to Newsweek on Tuesday, the Michigan Democratic Party (MDP) praised the actions of the Board of Canvassers and Michigan residents that spoke out against the initial decision.
“We applaud the decision and are thrilled that the voices of over 800,000 Wayne County voters have been heard and their votes have been properly counted,” the statement from the MDP read. “We were reminded tonight about the importance of speaking up and speaking out.”
“Our people are amazing,” tweeted Michigan Democratic representative Rashida Tlaib. “Hundreds of Wayne County residents waited hours to give public comment. One after the other demanded our democracy is upheld and the Board of Wayne County Canvassers came back and voted unanimously to certify.”
Our people are amazing. Hundreds of Wayne County residents waited hours to give public comment. One after the other demanded our democracy is upheld and the Board of Wayne County Canvassers came back and voted unanimously to certify.
— Rashida Tlaib (@RashidaTlaib) November 18, 2020
“Had the Board of Canvassers disenfranchised 1.4 million Wayne County voters over partisan politics, it would have been an historically shameful act,” wrote Democratic Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan in a Tuesday statement. “Glad to see common sense prevailed in the end.”
Trump had praised the decision to not certify Wayne County’s votes on Twitter before the reversal was announced. “Wow!” Trump tweeted. Michigan just refused to certify the election results! Having courage is a beautiful thing. The USA stands proud!”
Benson responded to Trump’s tweet after the board decided to certify the ballots. “Wrong again,” she wrote.
Although the final results have yet to be tabulated, the Associated Press projected President-elect Joe Biden to win Michigan’s 16 electoral votes. Currently, Biden holds 50.6 percent of the popular vote while Trump holds 47.9 percent.
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Source Article from https://www.newsweek.com/democrats-celebrate-michigans-largest-county-certifies-election-results-dramatic-u-turn-1548236
Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/18/politics/biden-transition-trump-delay/index.html
Corrections and clarifications: An earlier version of this story incorrectly described Sen. Chuck Grassley as the oldest member of the Senate. The article has been updated.
WASHINGTON – As rampant nationwide coronavirus spikes force states to reexamine reopening efforts, Congress is still struggling to maneuver around the pandemic as it encroaches on legislative business and endangers its members.
COVID-19 has loomed over Congress for much of the year yet lawmakers are still bickering over wearing face masks and not social distancing. And Congressional leaders have refused to make coronavirus testing mandatory for lawmakers traveling back and forth to their home states.
A rash of recent cases has infected a handful of lawmakers and sent several others into quarantine all while the U.S. Capitol welcomed back more than 500 legislators in the House and Senate this week. Sen. Chuck Grassley, one of the oldest members of the Senate, became the latest senator to announce a positive test Tuesday night.
The batch of new infections on Capitol Hill and continued resistance to everyday changes to acknowledge the virus’ deadly impacts have thrust the spotlight on Congress’ efforts to curtail the pandemic both across the nation and inside its own walls .
New cases, same behavior
In less than a week, six lawmakers announced they had tested positive for COVID-19. Grassley, the 87-year-old Iowa Republican who is third in line to the presidency as president pro tempore of the Senate, spent much of Monday on Capitol Hill. He casted votes, spoke on the Senate floor, and attended a meeting with Senate Republican leadership, which includes Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Grassley announced his diagnosis the following day.
Several other lawmakers announced they were quarantining after coming into contact with someone who had tested positive. It’s unclear whether any senators would quarantine after Grassley’s diagnosis.
Along with Grassley, lawmakers who have announced they tested positive over the last six days include: Reps. Ed Perlmutter, D-Colo.; Don Young, R-Alaska; Cherri Bustos, D-Ill.; Tim Walberg, R-Mich.; and incoming Rep. Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa.
The running list:Which members of Congress have tested positive for COVID-19?
‘I don’t need your instruction’:Sens. Sherrod Brown and Dan Sullivan argue over wearing masks
More:House Democrat’s change new-member dinner to grab-and-go after facing criticism
Young, at 87 years old, is the oldest member of Congress and is frequently seen without a mask. He was particularly hard hit by the virus and was hospitalized for three days.
“I’ve been shot, I’ve been rolled over, I’ve been hit in the head a hundred times, but I’ve never felt as bad as I did” with the virus, Young told The Washington Post. “This is not good.”
Republican senator Rick Scott of Florida and Rep. Mark Pocan, D-Wis., were forced to quarantine after possible exposure to the virus.
The absence of Grassley and Scott in the Senate did not go unnoticed Tuesday, as Republicans did not have the votes necessary to move forward a controversial nominee to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.
Despite the infections and exposures, lawmakers have struggled to make changes inside the Capitol.
Democratic and Republican leadership in the House were broadly excoriated on social media this weekend for planning indoor dinners for newly elected members of Congress, with many noting the dinners set a poor example for the rest of the country.
Both dinners, one Friday for Democrats and the other Sunday for Republicans, were changed to carry-out in response.
Lawmakers have also continued to snipe over mask usage and are routinely seen ignoring social distancing guidelines.
Senators have been seen regularly on the chamber floor exchanging words in close contact. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was seen on Capitol Hill Tuesday without a mask, talking with staff in a hallway for several minutes.
Masks have become a divisive object on Capitol Hill, like many places in the country, with some Republicans questioning their efficiency and railing against mandates while Democrats stress on the need for Americans across the country to wear them.
While most lawmakers wear masks regularly, tensions boiled over on the Senate floor on Monday after Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, asked fellow Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who was presiding over the Senate at the time, if he would wear a mask.
“I’d start by asking the presiding officer to please wear a mask as he speaks,” Brown said, donning his own mask as he made the request.
As Brown began explaining that he knows he can’t tell Sullivan what to do, the Republican cut him off, telling him that “I don’t wear a mask when I’m speaking like most senators … I don’t need your instruction.”
New testing on Capitol Hill
Congress overall does not have any blanket rules for masks or its operations during COVID-19 as each chamber largely manages itself.
The House has mandated masks be worn on the floor and in committee hearings, even threatening that members might not be recognized to speak if they are not wearing a face covering. The chamber, which boasts more than 400 members, passed unprecedented rule changes earlier this year that allowed for members to vote through proxy while lengthening voting periods on the House floor to ensure lawmakers can socially distance.
The Senate has not enacted similar policies. McConnell, R-Ky., has argued members of the chamber have followed public health guidelines and mandates were not needed.
Leaders in both chambers did agree on one thing: widespread testing on Capitol Hill wasn’t feasible.
McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected an offer from the administration in May for rapid tests. They cited concerns about the logistics of testing the thousands of people who work at the Capitol daily and concerns that lawmakers would be given preferential treatment at a moment when many Americans could not get testing.
More:Reports: Capitol physician says he lacks enough tests for all returning senators
More:Speaker Pelosi mandates wearing masks on House floor after Rep. Gohmert tests positive for COVID-19
Congressional efforts to curtail COVID nationally:Coronavirus stimulus negotiations in a ‘lame duck’ session likely to face more deadlock
Their resistance to widespread testing, which is mandated at the White House for all staff and visitors, has continued over months with leaders explaining they were following the guidance of the Capitol’s attending physician, Dr. Brian Monahan
This week there was a shift.
Monahan’s office sent a notice to all staff and members of Congress offering widespread testing as Congress came back into town.
The testing isn’t mandatory, even for members and staff who travel from areas seeing spikes in infections, and came as a result of an order from D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.
Bowser’s order requires those traveling from nearly every state to be tested before coming to Washington and again be tested several days after arriving.
Lawmakers and staff traveling to Washington are considered essential workers not mandated to follow the order, but the availability of testing on Capitol Hill encourages adherence.
Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2020/11/18/lawmakers-covid-19-infections-put-congress-lax-guidelines-in-spotlight/6324846002/
“The American people know how to protect their health. We’ve dealt with Covid for many months,” she continued. “But it’s Orwellian in a place like Oregon to say, ‘If you gather in numbers more than six, we might come to your house and arrest you, and you get 30 days of jail time.’ That’s not the American way. We don’t lose our freedom in this country. We make responsible health decisions as individuals.”
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced last Friday that the state would enter a two-week “freeze,” suspending in-person dining, shuttering certain businesses such as gyms, and limiting social gatherings to six people. Violations of the order could result in a citation, fine or arrest.
Oregon is one of several states to impose new coronavirus restrictions as the disease has surged across all parts of the country, repeatedly shattering records for new infections and deaths. Public health experts have warned that the colder fall and winter months could be the darkest days of the pandemic, as Americans spread the virus indoors while the country’s health system also grapples with the annual flu season.
The president, for his part, has appeared unfocused on combating the U.S. outbreak in the aftermath of his election defeat two weeks ago, and has made only a handful of public appearances.
At the outset of the pandemic earlier this year, the Trump administration largely delegated the coronavirus response to states and localities — a point Doocy pressed McEnany on as she criticized governors’ guidance. “Ultimately, didn’t the White House say, ‘Do what you want to do?’” Doocy asked.
“Yeah, of course. It’s up to every state to do what they want to do, but there are consequences for those states,” McEnany replied. The American people, she added, “are a freedom-loving people. We can make good decisions. We can wash our hands, wear masks, socially distance. But we can also decide in our own personal domicile, our own home, whether we can have our family members present at any given time. That is the American way. That is freedom.”
The United States surpassed 11 million total coronavirus cases last weekend, and more than 248,000 Americans have died from the disease, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/11/18/kayleigh-mcenany-states-thanksgiving-coronavirus-437495
Mr. Biden said on Monday that the result of a delay in coordinated planning for the distribution of a vaccine was that “more people may die” from the virus. His advisers offered more specifics on Tuesday, saying that the incoming team needs access to information about medical supply chains, data on testing, specifics about therapeutic efforts and other data that will be critical once the Biden administration is in charge of carrying out the Covid response.
“There is valuable information inside the administration that is held by career officials,” said Dr. Vivek Murthy, a chairman of Mr. Biden’s advisory board and a former surgeon general. “We need to talk to those individuals. We need to work together with them.”
But the advisers also said that the positive news about promising vaccines should encourage Americans that closed businesses and mask-wearing will not last forever, though Dr. Kessler said that people should continue to strictly adhere to the health guidelines for several more months.
“For the first time, we can see an end to this epidemic,” he said.
Mr. Biden’s online session with the former national security officials was a partial substitute for official daily briefings, which deliver real-time intelligence and analysis drawn from the federal government’s vast global resources. Like Mr. Biden’s health advisers, his national security team is instead relying on news reports and informal contacts for information about world events and security threats.
The briefers included Mr. Biden’s longtime foreign policy aide, Antony J. Blinken, a former deputy secretary of state and a possible pick to be his national security adviser, and his transition team’s director of foreign policy, Avril Haines, a former deputy at the Central Intelligence Agency. Also in attendance were four retired military generals, including Stanley A. McChrystal, whom President Barack Obama fired in 2010, along with Samantha Power, who served as Mr. Obama’s U.N. ambassador.
“I think we have to renew America’s leadership and put the United States back at the head of the table,” Mr. Biden told the group in his only public remarks. Reflecting his campaign message that America’s standing in the world depends on its strength at home, Mr. Biden said that “we are going to need to reinvigorate our democracy.”
Mr. Biden offered few other details about the conversation, which featured a notably diverse group, especially by the largely white male standards of the national security establishment.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/us/politics/biden-transition-national-security.html
“My message is, ‘I will work with you,’” Mr. Biden said this week of his intention to find ways to compromise with Republicans, even if they have so far refused to accept his victory.
That will be a challenge, especially after an election that has left the Senate almost evenly divided and reduced the Democratic majority in the House. But people close to Mr. Donilon say his long and close relationship with Mr. Biden makes him the perfect person to serve in that role.
“Mike is a brilliant message strategist with a deep understanding of, and loyalty to, Joe Biden,” said David Axelrod, who served in a similar role for President Barack Obama. “His inspiration from the beginning about framing the race as one about character proved out. And he shepherded it with great skill, discipline and even poetry.”
Mr. Axelrod said it was indispensable for someone like Mr. Donilon to have the trust of the president.
“Mike has that with Biden,” he said. “He will be the keeper of the narrative.”
In addition to being by Mr. Biden’s side for years, Mr. Donilon has been at the center of Democratic politics for decades. He has worked on six presidential campaigns, and transition officials said he was part of more than 25 winning campaigns for Senate, House, governor and mayor.
Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/17/us/politics/mike-donilon-biden.html
Sen. Lindsey Graham on Tuesday fist-bumped Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on the Senate floor as he joined Republican colleagues congratulating her despite President Trump’s refusal to concede the race.
Harris, a California Democratic senator, extended her fist — rather than the COVID-19 “chicken wing” elbow salutation preferred by current Vice President Mike Pence — as Graham (R-SC) approached her during a vote on a Federal Reserve nominee.
Graham, a recurrent Trump golfing partner who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, bumped fists with Harris as he passed. It’s unclear if they spoke to each other.
Journalists in the Senate chamber reported hearing many Republican senators congratulate Harris, despite Trump’s insistence that litigation and recounts will earn him a second term.
“Congratulations,” Republican Sen. James Lankford of Oklahoma told Harris, according to CNN congressional reporter Ali Zaslav.
Journalists reported hearing Republican Sens. Tim Scott of South Carolina, Mike Rounds of South Dakota and Ben Sasse of Nebraska also congratulate Harris. Many other Republican senators have declined to say if Biden defeated Trump.
If current vote counts hold, Biden will defeat Trump with 306 Electoral College votes to Trump’s 232 — the same margin as Trump’s 2016 upset over Hillary Clinton.
“I won the Election!” Trump tweeted on Monday. But a raft of lawsuits and recount efforts have not meaningfully altered vote counts in swing states that broke for Biden, including Arizona, Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Source Article from https://nypost.com/2020/11/17/lindsey-graham-fist-bumps-kamala-harris-gop-senators-congratulate-her/