And being favored by millionaires could be a negative for Democratic candidates, who are running on populist, antiwealth platforms. Biden is already being attacked by his opponents for being too cozy with wealthy donors and corporate lobbyists.
Yet given how much wealthy investors have prospered under the Trump presidency — from lower taxes and surging stock prices and cash buybacks — millionaire support for Biden suggests that economic issues may not be their primary concern.
“I think what it tells us is that millionaires think that Biden is better against Trump than the other candidates,” said George Walper, president of Spectrem Group, which conducts the survey. To be included in the poll, respondents had to have investable assets of $1 million or more. Of the 750 respondents, 261 were Republicans, 218 were Democrats and 261 identified as Independent.
Walper said that just as in 2016, millionaire voters may be underreporting their support for Trump.
“People’s underlying opinions may not be expressed here,” he said. “When it comes down to who they actually vote for, that gap may narrow.”
Wealthy voters are also large donors, which could help Biden. Nearly half of Democratic millionaires plan to donate to the 2020 campaign or have already donated, according to the survey, that compares with less than a third of Republicans.
The State Department on Sunday warned Americans to stay off cruises amid the coronavirus outbreak — after hundreds of Americans were sickened on at least two recent cruises last month.
“U.S. citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship,” the State Dept. said in a statement. “CDC notes that older adults and travelers with underlying health issues should avoid situations that put them at increased risk for more severe disease.”
There’s an increased risk of catching the potentially deadly disease on a cruise ship, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
To curb the spread of COVID-19, many countries have denied entry to ships and prevented passengers from disembarking. In some cases, passengers were allowed to get off ships, but were placed under strict quarantine procedures.
The US government last month evacuated about 300 passengers from a quarantined Diamond Princess cruise in Japan, but the State Dept. said that “repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for US citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities.”
The United States and North Korea have yet to agree on what “complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula” entails.
Washington wants the “final, fully verifiable” dismantlement of all of North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, fissile materials and production facilities. But North Korea has indicated, at times, that it will not give up its nuclear deterrent until the United States removes its 28,500 troops from South Korea and keeps its long-range bombers, aircraft carriers and other nuclear-capable military assets away from the peninsula.
How quickly would the deal take effect?
The Singapore agreement was not the first time North Korea had committed to denuclearization and then dragged its feet. This time, Washington wants the North to commit to a specific timeline so that it won’t string out the process indefinitely.
What comes first, American concessions or the North’s disarmament?
Both sides have exchanged lists of what they expect the other to do to implement the Singapore deal. The North’s list is long. It wants the United States to lift sanctions; replace the 1953 armistice that halted the Korean War with a peace treaty; normalize diplomatic ties; provide economic aid; and, possibly, withdraw its troops from South Korea.
The real difficulty comes in figuring out what actions and rewards are mutually acceptable and the order in which they should be deployed. North Korea insists on moving “in phases” toward complete denuclearization to ensure that Washington delivers “action-for-action” steps to keep its end of the bargain.
How would the North be kept honest?
Washington has demanded that North Korea declare the locations and other details of its entire nuclear inventory and allow for international inspections. North Korea has said it will not do that until it knows it can trust the Americans. Past talks between the two sides collapsed over this difference.
Cutting a deal
Analysts say North Korea would never give up its nuclear arsenal in a quick, one-shot deal, but would instead insist on a series of concessions.
What to know about the Presidential race: Who actually votes, and who do they vote for? Explore how shifts in turnout and voting patterns for key demographic groups could affect the presidential race.
U.S. Capitol Police and loved ones of officers who died after the Jan. 6 riot watched graphic video footage of the attack in the hearing room Thursday night with their arms around each other.
Officer Harry Dunn, who testified under oath at a previous hearing, could be seen comforting Sandra Garza, the long-time partner of Capitol Hill Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died shortly after the riot.
Also in the audience of the hearing Thursday is a group of Democratic lawmakers who call themselves the “gallery group.”
These lawmakers were briefly trapped in the gallery of the House chamber when the Capitol was breached and the doors in the chamber were locked. They crawled over bannisters and helped each other to get to an unlocked door and escape.
Rep. Dean Phillips (D., Minn.) tweeted a photo of the ones in attendance.
“It’s just shocking and infuriating, a year and a half later,” said Mr. Phillips, during a break in the hearing.
He praised Republican Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice chair of the committee, for her opening statement, calling her a “national savior.”
“The narrative that she just presented was crisp and clear, and unambiguous, and extremely courageous,” he said.
Mr. Phillips said he hoped Americans were paying attention. “God I hope so,” he said.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D., Wash.) broke down in tears when reporters asked her how it felt to watch the video after being trapped with other lawmakers in the House gallery as the mob tried to break in.
“I never imagined that in doing our jobs, that we would not be safe to do our jobs, and that we would feel so helpless in that moment to protect our democracy,” Ms. Jayapal said, her voice shaking.
Wide social protests forced the Eiffel Tower to be closed in Paris on Thursday, as demonstrators mounted a strike against the government’s plans for a pension system that critics say will force millions of people to work longer.
Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
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Wide social protests forced the Eiffel Tower to be closed in Paris on Thursday, as demonstrators mounted a strike against the government’s plans for a pension system that critics say will force millions of people to work longer.
Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Thousands of people are marching in the streets of Paris, Lyon, Marseilles and other French cities Thursday, as more than 30 unions launch a massive workers’ strike that’s meant to shut down the country and force President Emmanuel Macron to reevaluate his plans for pension reform.
The strike is being compared to the crippling protests of 1995, which were also triggered by a retirement reform effort and which unraveled the career of former Prime Minister Alain Juppé.
The Eiffel Tower is shut down; so are most of the light rail lines in Paris. And some of the city’s busiest streets were quiet, as commuters either took part in the general strike or made plans to avoid travel disruptions.
More than 280,000 people demonstrated in about 40 cities — excluding Paris and Lyon, where estimates were not yet available — according to Le Parisien, which cites the AFP news agency.
A protester walks through a cloud of tear gas during a demonstration against national pension changes in Nantes, France, on Thursday.
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A protester walks through a cloud of tear gas during a demonstration against national pension changes in Nantes, France, on Thursday.
Sebastien Salon-Gomis/AFP via Getty Images
Faced with severe air travel disruptions, France’s civil aviation directorate says that on Friday, 20% of all flights going in and out of Paris and other large cities will be canceled.
While many of the demonstrations took place peacefully, police deployed canisters of tear gas in Bordeaux after a brief but tense standoff at the Place des Quinconces, a huge city square where the march was slated to end. The government estimates some 20,000 people were in the street, as news site 20 minutes reports.
A similar scene played out in Nantes, where journalist Christian Meas described the police playing a game of chat et souris (cat and mouse) with protesters.
France’s national railway company, SNCF, says that on average, only 1 in 10 trains is running on its most popular lines, including the high-speed TGV train.
Demonstrations and severe disruptions are expected to last at least through Monday — the date being mentioned by both the SNCF and key transport unions.
In Paris, NPR’s Eleanor Beardsley reports the streets were eerily calm early Thursday, feeling more like a Sunday morning than a weekday.
Transport workers, hospital employees, firefighters, teachers and others who play key roles in society are taking part in the strike, sending a warning to Macron to preserve their pensions under France’s national system despite growing economic challenges.
“People are living longer, and there are fewer workers supporting each retiree,” Beardsley says on Morning Edition. “It needs reforming. People know this, but they say his reform is bad and unfair. He wants people to work longer — people do not want to have to work longer.”
France’s official retirement age is 62, having risen from 60 in the past decade. But the government hopes to install a new universal points-based pension system, which would change how pensions are calculated and effectively give full pension benefits only to workers who retire at age 64.
But beyond the push to preserve current pension terms, the protests also reflect “an anger and a dislike of Macron in society,” Beardsley says, noting the criticisms the president has faced in the wake of the Yellow Vest cost-of-living protests of last autumn.
People hold a banner reading “Pension by points: we all lose. Retirement at 60: we all win” during a demonstration against a plan to overhaul national pensions in Paris.
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People hold a banner reading “Pension by points: we all lose. Retirement at 60: we all win” during a demonstration against a plan to overhaul national pensions in Paris.
Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images
While thousands of police were deployed to secure areas around the protests, Le Figaro journalist Jean-Baptiste de la Torre spoke to three policemen who said they had turned out to show what support they could.
“We are here for our children,” one officer said. While acknowledging orders against joining the strike and march, the officer added, “We wanted to support our women who are teachers.”
Empieza la semana con muchas noticias ligadas a temas políticos. Cruces entre personajes y otros hechos se destacaron en esta jornada. Te los resumimos a continuación:
2. Terminó el escrutinio y dio ganadora a Cristina Kirchner, que relanza su campaña en La Plata. El resultado oficial se anunciaría el miércoles, pero ya se informó a los apoderados de los partidos. La expresidenta encabezará un acto el martes a las 17 para con miras a las elecciones de octubre.
3. Hebe de Bonafini, presidenta de Madres de Plaza de Mayo, sostuvo que el desaparecido Jorge Julio López “era un guardiacárcel”, aunque “igualmente no tiene que estar desaparecido”, y pidió no compararlo con el caso Maldonado. La respuesta del hijo de López.
4. La morocha Natacha Jaitt reavivó un incidente que Yanina Latorre vivió a los 19 años, y que la tuvo procesada y al borde de la cárcel. Los detalles.
Former congressman and Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz reacts to attempt to dissolve NRA.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has a “political agenda” against the National Rifle Association (NRA) former Utah congressman and Fox News contributor Jason Chaffetz told “The Story” Thursday.
James announced earlier Thursday that her office has filed a lawsuit against the NRA and its leadership, including Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, with the aim of dissolving the organization. She accused the NRA of “a culture of self-dealing,” taking millions of dollars for personal use and granting contracts that benefited leaders’ family and associates.
“I don’t hear anything new,” Chaffetz said of James’ claims. “These allegations have been out there for a long time, and I haven’t seen anything come of it, but one of the reasons Democrats keep going after the NRA is they’re highly effective … This is a simple, easy argument for the overwhelming majority of Americans. You have a Constitutional right to bear arms.”
The NRA submitted its own civil suit against James, accusing her of defamation and violating its right to free speech.
The group says James “made the political prosecution of the NRA a central campaign theme” when she was running for state attorney general in 2018, and has not treated the association fairly since.
“The Democrats don’t go after the people that actually go out and break the law …,” Chaffetz remarked. “That’s what’s amazing about this argument, is they want to redirect and defund the police departments who actually go out and enforce these types of [gun] laws.”
The former House Oversight Committee chairman told Smith that James’ actions will serve to boost gun sales.
“I mean, they’re smashing records,” he said. “Millions of people [are] going out and filing applications and doing background checks because they know that if Joe Biden, heaven forbid, actually gets elected, their guns are going to be under assault, and that is not something people want to see.”
Fox News’ Stephanie Pagones and Ronn Blitzer contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden declared that “America is rising anew” as he called for an expansion of federal programs to drive the economy past the coronavirus pandemic and broadly extend the social safety net on a scale not seen in decades.
Biden’s nationally televised address to Congress, his first, raised the stakes for his ability to sell his plans to voters of both parties, even if Republican lawmakers prove resistant. The Democratic president is following Wednesday night’s speech by pushing his plans in person, beginning in Georgia on Thursday and then on to Pennsylvania and Virginia in the days ahead.
In the address, Biden pointed optimistically to the nation’s emergence from the coronavirus scourge as a moment for America to prove that its democracy can still work and maintain primacy in the world.
Speaking in highly personal terms while demanding massive structural changes, the president marked his first 100 days in office by proposing a $1.8 trillion investment in children, families and education to help rebuild an economy devastated by the virus and compete with rising global competitors.
His speech represented both an audacious vision and a considerable gamble. He is governing with the most slender of majorities in Congress, and even some in his own party have blanched at the price tag of his proposals.
At the same time, the speech highlighted Biden’s fundamental belief in the power of government as a force for good, even at a time when it is so often the object of scorn.
“I can report to the nation: America is on the move again,” he said. “Turning peril into possibility. Crisis into opportunity. Setback into strength.”
While the ceremonial setting of the Capitol was the same as usual, the visual images were unlike any previous presidential address. Members of Congress wore masks and were seated apart because of pandemic restrictions. Outside the grounds were still surrounded by fencing after insurrectionists in January protesting Biden’s election stormed to the doors of the House chamber where he gave his address.
“America is ready for takeoff. We are working again. Dreaming again. Discovering again. Leading the world again. We have shown each other and the world: There is no quit in America,” Biden said.
This year’s scene at the front of the House chamber also had a historic look: For the first time, a female vice president, Kamala Harris, was seated behind the chief executive. And she was next to another woman, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
The first ovation came as Biden greeted “Madam Vice President.” He added, “No president has ever said those words from this podium, and it’s about time.”
The chamber was so sparsely populated that individual claps could be heard echoing off the walls.
Yet Biden said, “I have never been more confident or more optimistic about America. We have stared into an abyss of insurrection and autocracy — of pandemic and pain — and ‘We the People’ did not flinch.”
At times, the president plainly made his case for democracy itself.
Biden demanded that the government take care of its own as a powerful symbol to the world of an America willing to forcefully follow its ideals and people. He confronted an issue rarely faced by an American president, namely that in order to compete with autocracies like China, the nation needs “to prove that democracy still works” after his predecessor’s baseless claims of election fraud and the ensuing attack on the U.S. Capitol.
“Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate and fears that have pulled us apart?” he asked. “America’s adversaries – the autocrats of the world – are betting it can’t. They believe we are too full of anger and division and rage. They look at the images of the mob that assaulted this Capitol as proof that the sun is setting on American democracy. They are wrong. And we have to prove them wrong.”
Biden repeatedly hammered home that his plans would put Americans back to work, restoring the millions of jobs lost to the virus. He laid out an extensive proposal for universal preschool, two years of free community college, $225 billion for child care and monthly payments of at least $250 to parents. His ideas target frailties that were uncovered by the pandemic, and he argues that economic growth will best come from taxing the rich to help the middle class and the poor.
Biden’s speech also provided an update on combating the COVID-19 crisis he was elected to tame, showcasing hundreds of millions of vaccinations and relief checks delivered to help offset the devastation wrought by a virus that has killed more than 573,000 people in the United States. He also championed his $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, a staggering figure to be financed by higher taxes on corporations.
His appeals were often emotive and personal, talking about Americans needing food and rental assistance. He also spoke to members of Congress as a peer as much as a president, singling out Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republicans’ leader, to praise him and speaking as one at a professional homecoming.
The GOP members in the chamber largely stayed silent, even refusing to clap for seemingly universal goals like reducing childhood poverty. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said, in the Republicans’ designated response, that Biden was more rhetoric than action.
“Our president seems like a good man,” Scott said. “But our nation is starving for more than empty platitudes.”
President Donald Trump criticized Biden on Fox Business on Thursday, saying he failed to adequately address the steep increase in immigration at the border.
“It’s like the subject they’re not discussing, and that will be ruinous to this country,” Trump, who aggressively limited legal and illegal immigration during his tenure.
Biden spoke against a backdrop of the weakening but still lethal pandemic, staggering unemployment and a roiling debate about police violence against Blacks. He also used his address to touch on the broader national reckoning over race in America, urging legislation be passed by the anniversary of George Floyd’s death next month, and to call on Congress to act on the thorny issues of prescription drug pricing, gun control and modernizing the nation’s immigration system.
In his first three months in office, Biden has signed a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill — passed without a single GOP vote — and has shepherded direct payments of $1,400 per person to more than 160 million households. Hundreds of billions of dollars in aid will soon arrive for state and local governments, enough money that overall U.S. growth this year could eclipse 6% — a level not seen since 1984. Administration officials are betting that it will be enough to bring back all 8.4 million jobs lost to the pandemic by next year.
A significant amount proposed just Wednesday would ensure that eligible families receive at least $250 monthly per child through 2025, extending the enhanced tax credit that was part of Biden’s COVID-19 aid. There would be more than $400 billion for subsidized child care and free preschool for all 3- and 4-year-olds.
Another combined $425 billion would go to permanently reduce health insurance premiums for people who receive coverage through the Affordable Care Act, as well a national paid family and medical leave program. Further spending would be directed toward Pell Grants, historically Black and tribal institutions and to allow people to attend community college tuition-free for two years.
Funding all of this would be a series of tax increases on the wealthy that would raise about $1.5 trillion over a decade. Republican lawmakers in Congress so far have balked at the price tags of Biden’s plans, complicating the chances of passage in a deeply divided Washington.
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Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON, Feb 8 (Reuters) – Top U.S. Senate Republican Mitch McConnell on Tuesday criticized his party’s censure of two prominent Republican critics of Donald Trump, joining an intra-party battle that could upend his efforts to project an image of party moderation in this year’s midterm elections.
Last week, the Republican National Committee censured Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, the only two Republicans serving on the House of Representatives select committee investigating the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when supporters of then-President Trump stormed the Capitol in a failed attempt to prevent Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
“The issue is whether or not the RNC should be sort of singling out members of our party who may have different views from the majority. That’s not the job of the RNC,” McConnell told a news conference.
The RNC took its action on Friday, calling the Democratic-led committee’s inquiry an attack on “legitimate political discourse.”
McConnell rejected that description, saying, “We saw what happened. It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transfer of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next. That’s what it was.”
The controversy comes as Republicans are hoping to regain majorities in the House and Senate in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
McConnell, the Senate minority leader and one of his party’s most wily political tacticians, has been trying to paint Biden as a former moderate radicalized by the Democratic Party’s left wing. Projecting an image of moderation for the Republicans could help the party’s Senate candidates in key states.
Lawmakers close to McConnell have found themselves on the defensive about the RNC censure resolution.
“They said, in the resolution, they wanted Republicans to be unified. That was not a unifying action,” said Senator John Cornyn of Texas.
Senate Republican leaders were quick to acknowledge the trouble that party divisions might pose for Republican Senate candidates.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) arrives at the U.S. Capitol after a Senate Republican caucus luncheon in Washington, U.S. January 12, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst/File Photo
“If we want to win the elections in November, there are better things for us to be focused on,” said Senator John Thune, the chamber’s No. 2 Republican after McConnell.
“The focus right now needs to be forward, not backward. If we want to get majorities in the fall, then it’s better to turn our fire on Democrats and not on each other,” Thune added.
Others pointed to Senate Republican criticism of the RNC as a problem for candidates in some states.
“Whatever you think about the RNC vote, it reflects the view of most Republicans,” said Senator Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican who objected to 2020 election results on Jan. 6.
“In my state, it’s not helpful to have a bunch of D.C. Republicans commenting on the RNC… super unhelpful,” he said.
Democrats may be vulnerable in November, particularly considering Biden’s falling public approval numbers in opinion polls. The party of sitting presidents typically loses congressional seats in the first midterm elections after winning the White House.
McConnell has sought to cast Biden and his pricy “Build Back Better” social spending plan that is stalled in the Senate as creatures of the Democratic Party’s left wing. McConnell has accused Biden of ignoring troubles facing American families such as inflation, including higher energy costs.
“If the president starts acting like a moderate, like he campaigned, we can do business,” McConnell told Fox News last month.
While McConnell is calling for bipartisanship, he often has been a partisan warrior himself. As majority leader, he refused to consider Democratic President Barack Obama’s nominee to fill a Supreme Court vacancy and last year said he might block Biden’s nominees to the high court if Republicans gain Senate control. He also has used the Senate’s filibuster rule to thwart parts of Biden’s legislative agenda, including voting rights.
McConnell did deliver critical Republican votes last year for two bipartisan priorities – a $1 trillion infrastructure bill and a deal to avert a default on the federal government’s debt. Both prompted enraged statements from Trump, who has called for McConnell’s ouster from his Senate leadership post.
With Mississippi’s Pearl River now expected to crest earlier than originally forecast, threatening to flood streets and creep into homes within the next 48 hours, some Jackson residents are being told to flee.
Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba urged residents to “get out now,” during a news conference Saturday.
Authorities earlier predicted the Pearl River to reach 36 feet and crest by Tuesday after record-setting rainfall in recent days, however the river is now expected to crest late Sunday through Monday evening before slowly lowering.
A flood stage is considered “major” at 26 feet. The current flood warning says dozens of additional streets in downtown Jackson will flood at 34 feet, with water close to entering homes in Northeast Jackson at 35.8 feet.
“We are expecting waters to begin to impact neighborhoods as early as Sunday evening,” Lumumba said, adding as many as 150 homes are expected to be affected by the flooding.
Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves declared a state of emergency Saturday due to the rising river waters and urged residents to remain calm. The state has already begun assessing water levels along the river using drones and deployed more than 100,000 sandbags, according to the declaration.
“The state of Mississippi is as prepared as possible for this flooding,” Reeves said. “My administration, including (Mississippi Emergency Management Agency), is monitoring this situation closely, and actively working to respond as quickly as possible to ongoing developments with flooding.”
It wouldn’t be the first time the river reached such a high level. Several neighborhoods in northeast and downtown Jackson were flooded and the Pearl River reached its third highest crest on record at 36.7 feet during a significant flooding event in February 2020.
Authorities are warning that communities affected by the flood in 2020 face a high probability of being impacted again. “Residents in those impacted areas should be ready to leave within 48 hours,” Lumumba said Saturday.
The mayor warned residents that flood waters may remain on the ground for several days, and residents should be prepared to be away from their homes for up to two weeks.
A flood warning remains in effect in parts of Mississippi, including in Jackson around the Pearl River, until further notice, the National Weather Service said.
In Ridgeland, Mississippi, just north of Jackson, residents who had to evacuate during 2020’s floods found themselves packing their bags again.
“Hopefully it won’t get bad. That’s all we’re praying for,” Ridgeland resident Krystal Ferguson told CNN affiliate WAPT. She said her family ended up staying in a hotel for five days during the flooding in 2020.
Mayor: Don’t put yourself in harm’s way
This week, a slow-moving weather system drenched parts of the South, triggering flash floods in Mississippi that forced evacuations, washed away roads, derailed a train, crept into homes and prompted numerous rescues.
On Saturday morning, after heavy rainfall, the Pearl River Valley Water Supply District increased the discharge from Barnett Reservoir to 60,000 cubic feet per second, a move the district warned will put water on Jackson streets.
“Water will be in several streets in Jackson and could begin approaching some homes and businesses,” water district officials said in a news release Saturday morning. “It is likely that the discharge could be increased again during the next 24 hours, which could result in water entering homes.”
The threat of flooding will be limited to localized areas Sunday as slow-moving thunderstorms reform during the day, according to CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam. Scattered thundershowers could produce an additional 1-2 inches of rain by Sunday night, mainly south of Interstate 20.
Hot and humid conditions will persist, with highs in the middle to upper 80s.
Jackson’s mayor urged residents to stay away from flooded areas.
“We do not need sightseers, and we do not need you putting yourself or those that are helping with rescue efforts in harm’s way,” Lumumba said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former top officials of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration are assailing the agency for undermining its weather forecasters as it defends President Donald Trump’s statement from days ago that Hurricane Dorian threatened Alabama.
They say NOAA’s action risks the credibility of the nation’s weather and science agency and may even risk lives.
Dismay came those who served under Republican and Democratic presidents alike as leaders in meteorology and disaster response sized up a sustained effort by Trump and his aides to justify his warning that Alabama, among other states, was “most likely” to be hit hard by Dorian, contrary to forecasts showing Alabama was clear.
That effort led NOAA to repudiate a tweet from the National Weather Service the previous weekend assuring Alabamans — accurately — that they had nothing to fear from the hurricane. The weather service is part of NOAA and the tweet came from its Birmingham, Alabama, office.
RELATED: Hurricane Dorian
President Donald Trump, left, listens as Kenneth Graham, director of NOAA’s National Hurricane Center, on screen, gives an update during a briefing about Hurricane Dorian at the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Sunday, Sept. 1, 2019, in Washington, at right of Trump is Acting Administrator Pete Gaynor, Federal Emergency Management Agency, and acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler, and Neil Jacobs, Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Environmental Observation and Prediction. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
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“This rewriting history to satisfy an ego diminishes NOAA,” Elbert “Joe” Friday, former Republican-appointed director of the National Weather Service, said on Facebook. He told The Associated Press on Saturday: “We don’t want to get the point where science is determined by politics rather than science and facts. And I’m afraid this is an example where this is beginning to occur.”
Alabama had never been included in hurricane advisories and Trump’s information, based on less authoritative graphics than an official forecast, was outdated even at the time.
In the tempestuous aftermath, some meteorologists spoke on social media of protesting when the acting NOAA chief, Neil Jacobs , is scheduled to speak at a National Weather Association meeting Tuesday — in Huntsville, Alabama.
Former officials saw a political hand at work in NOAA’s statement disavowing the Birmingham tweet. The statement was issued by an anonymous “spokesperson,” a departure from the norm for federal agencies that employ people to speak for them by name.
“This falls into such uncharted territory,” said W. Craig Fugate, who was Florida emergency management chief under Republican Gov. Jeb Bush and director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency under Democratic President Barack Obama. “You have science organizations putting out statements against their own offices. For the life of me I don’t think I would have ever faced this under President Obama or Governor Bush.”
Jane Lubchenco, NOAA administrator during the Obama administration said: “It is truly sad to see political appointees undermining the superb, life-saving work of NOAA’s talented and dedicated career servants. Scientific integrity at a science agency matters.”
The White House declined to comment Saturday when asked if it had directed NOAA to release the statement. The president spent the morning at his Virginia golf club. NOAA officials also didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Retired Adm. David Titley, former NOAA operations chief during the Obama administration and a former meteorology professor at Pennsylvania State University said NOAA’s leadership is showing “moral cowardice” and officials should have resigned instead of issuing the statement chastising the Birmingham office. Joe Friday said he would have quit had he been in top officials’ shoes.
Titley said the episode might feed distrust of forecasts that help people make life-or-death decisions whether to evacuate.
“For people who look for excuses not to take action when their lives or property are threatened … I think this can potentially feed that,” Titley said.
Former NOAA deputy administration Monica Medina, who served in the Obama and Clinton administrations, said “it will make us less safe as a country.”
And Justin Kenney, who headed the agency’s communications in the Obama administration, said “by politicizing weather forecasts, the president … puts more people — including first responders — in harm’s way.”
Bill Read, who became director of the National Hurricane Center director during the Republican George W. Bush administration, said on Facebook the NOAA statement showed either an embarrassing lack of understanding of forecasting or “a lack of courage on their part by not supporting the people in the field who are actually doing the work. Heartbreaking.”
A retired chief of the center’s hurricane forecasting desk, James Franklin, said on Twitter that the NOAA statement had thrown the Birmingham office “under the bus” — a phrase several ex-officials used. He said the Birmingham office’s tweet was “spot-on and an appropriate response to the President’s misleading tweet that morning.”
Last Sunday, Trump tweeted : “In addition to Florida – South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama, will most likely be hit (much) harder than anticipated. Looking like one of the largest hurricanes ever. Already category 5.”
At the time, the hurricane center’s forecast path — including a large cone of uncertainty — did not go farther west than the eastern third of Georgia.
The weather service in Birmingham quickly followed up with its tweet, which one meteorologist there said was prompted by residents’ concerns about what to do. It said: “Alabama will NOT see any impacts from #Dorian. We repeat, no impacts from Hurricane #Dorian will be felt across Alabama. The system will remain too far east.”
NOAA verified that day that the “current forecast path of Dorian does not include Alabama” and an agency spokesman, Christopher Vaccaro, put his name to that.
NOAA’s disavowal of the Birmingham tweet came late Friday. It said its forecasters “spoke in absolute terms that were inconsistent with probabilities from the best forecast products available at the time.”
The highest percentage that tropical force storm winds — not stronger hurricane-force winds — would hit somewhere in Alabama was 11%, according to hurricane center charts, and the chances were briefly between 20% and 30% according to a graphic that was not a forecast and that was outdated by the time of Trump’s warning.
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Associated Press writer Jonathan Lemire contributed to this report.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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