| U.S. killed a top al-Qaida leader in Yemen, reports say Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:55 PM PST  Reports indicate a top al-Qaida leader was killed by a U.S. strike in Yemen.
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| Trump trashes Bloomberg in pre-Super Bowl interview Posted: 02 Feb 2020 07:23 AM PST  President Trump seems to have former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg on his mind at the moment and has repeatedly attacked him leading up to the Super Bowl, where they're both running ads.
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| China's isolation grows as virus toll reaches 259 Posted: 01 Feb 2020 01:36 PM PST  China faced deepening isolation over its coronavirus epidemic on Sunday as the death toll soared to 259, with the United States and Australia leading a growing list of nations to impose extraordinary Chinese travel bans. China toughened its own quarantine measures at the centre of the outbreak in Hubei province, a day after the United States temporarily barred entry to foreigners who had been in China within the past two weeks. "Foreign nationals, other than immediate family of US citizens and permanent residents... will be denied entry into the United States," Health Secretary Alex Azar said.
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| Tests for suspected coronavirus patients in the US don't always work, the head of the CDC said Posted: 31 Jan 2020 05:57 PM PST  "We don't know the accuracy of this test. People who came in were negative, then all of a sudden they were positive," one official said.
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| Forget Trump: Meet the 5 Worst Presidents In American History Posted: 02 Feb 2020 08:15 AM PST  Can you guess who?
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| ‘Jesus, Mary and Joseph!’: Biden targets Iowa Catholics Posted: 01 Feb 2020 02:51 PM PST !['Jesus, Mary and Joseph!': Biden targets Iowa Catholics]( "'Jesus, Mary and Joseph!': Biden targets Iowa Catholics") Biden's pitch is as much about culture as it is religion — especially to older voters.
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| Australian koalas named for American firefighters killed in fires Posted: 31 Jan 2020 11:47 PM PST  The brave firefighters and U.S. military veterans were killed in a plane crash while fighting the devastating fires in New South Wales last week.
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| Mississippi inmate tries to hang self in cell, attorney says Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:48 PM PST  An inmate tried to hang himself at a troubled Mississippi prison and was taken down by a state trooper, an attorney said in court papers filed Saturday. Casey L. Austin is one of the attorneys representing inmates in a federal lawsuit against Mississippi over conditions in the state's prisons. The lawsuit over prison conditions is funded by Team Roc, a philanthropic group connected to entertainment mogul Jay-Z's company, Roc Nation.
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| Coronavirus is spreading. And so is anti-Chinese sentiment and xenophobia Posted: 31 Jan 2020 04:14 PM PST  Coronavirus is spreading. And so is anti-Chinese sentiment and xenophobia
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| Schiff calls out Trump lawyer Cipollone after Bolton places him 'in the loop' on Ukraine Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:47 PM PST  House impeachment manager Adam Schiff called out President Trump's defense team lawyer Pat Cipollone Friday, saying he was "in the loop" in the effort to persuade Ukrainian officials to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden.
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| China just completed work on the emergency hospital it set up to tackle the Wuhan coronavirus, and it took just 9 days to do it Posted: 02 Feb 2020 02:16 AM PST  When work started on Huoshenshan hospital 26 people had died from Wuhan coronavirus, when it finished on Sunday, the number was past 300.
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| Israeli warplanes hit Hamas in Gaza after border fire Posted: 01 Feb 2020 12:26 AM PST  Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza Strip's Islamist rulers Hamas on Saturday after cross-border mortar fire by Palestinian militants, the Israeli army said. Fighter aircraft hit "Hamas terror targets in the northern Gaza Strip," an army statement said.
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| What Will North Korea Do If Coronavirus Comes to Its Shores? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:25 AM PST  Pyongyang has neither the resources nor the administrative culture – transparency, empiricism divorced from ideology, technocracy – to respond to a genuine epidemic. Sustained foreign assistance and, failing that, brutal repression would almost certainly be necessary to prevent a local plague.
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| Klobuchar denies Iowa caucus pact with Biden Posted: 02 Feb 2020 07:25 AM PST  "He said no. We said no. There is no deal," the Minnesota Democrat said.
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| China’s isolation from world grows as virus toll reaches 259 Posted: 01 Feb 2020 07:44 AM PST  China faced deepening isolation due to its coronavirus epidemic on Saturday as the death toll soared to 259, with the U.S. and Australia leading a growing list of nations to impose extraordinary bans on Chinese travel.
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| South African Capital’s Mayor to Quit After Sex Tape Scandal Posted: 02 Feb 2020 03:55 AM PST ![South African Capital's Mayor to Quit After Sex Tape Scandal]( "South African Capital's Mayor to Quit After Sex Tape Scandal") (Bloomberg) -- The mayor of South Africa's Tshwane municipality, which includes the capital, Pretoria, said he will resign this month to end political wrangling over his continued presence in office.Stevens Mokgalapa has faced pressure to quit since a leaked audio tape indicated that he allegedly disparaged officials in a conversation with a mayoral council member and engaged in a sexual act with her in the municipality's offices. The two say the tape was tampered with.Mokgalapa is a member of the main opposition Democratic Alliance, which wrested control of Tshwane from the ruling African National Congress in 2016 with the aid of the Economic Freedom Fighters, the third-largest party.The DA placed Mokgalapa on leave in December as it investigated his conduct, while the EFF called for his removal. The ANC meanwhile threatened to place the city under the control of the administration of the central Gauteng province, but backed down after the DA said it would challenge the move in court."I wish to make clear that I have not broken any laws and am confident that I would emerge positively from any assessment of my conduct," Mokgalapa said in an emailed statement. "But in the end, I have concluded that it is best for the city if I stand down as mayor."The scandal has been yet another blow for the DA, which lost support in national elections last year, and has since seen its mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba, and its leader, Mmusi Maimane, quit the party.The DA's Gauteng leader John Moodley thanked Mokgalapa for his service and said the party would initiate the process of finding a replacement.(Updates with opposition comment in last paragraph.)To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Cohen in Cape Town at mcohen21@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: Paul Richardson at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net, Helen Nyambura, James AmottFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Mitt Romney barred from conservative conference after impeachment vote Posted: 01 Feb 2020 09:52 AM PST  Mitt Romney has been barred from a major conservative conference after he voted to hear from additional witnesses in President Trump's impeachment trial.
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| Trump adds six new countries to travel ban list Posted: 31 Jan 2020 04:34 PM PST  Three years after President Trump first signed an executive order barring entry to the U.S. for citizens of seven majority-Muslim countries, he's adding six new countries to the so-called travel ban list.
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| Philippines reports first virus death outside China: WHO Posted: 01 Feb 2020 08:12 PM PST  The Philippines has reported the first death outside China from the coronavirus that has killed over 300 and spread to other countries, the World Health Organization said Sunday. The fatality is a 44-year-old Chinese man from the city of Wuhan, where the virus was first detected, and appears to have been infected before arriving in the Philippines. "This is the first reported death outside China," Rabindra Abeyasinghe, the WHO representative to the Philippines, told reporters.
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| Rashida Tlaib addresses booing Hillary Clinton at Sanders event Posted: 31 Jan 2020 09:14 PM PST  "In this instance, I allowed my disappointment with Secretary Clinton's latest comments about Senator Sanders and his supporters get the best of me."
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| 'A lot of chaos': State Department says it will fly Americans back from Wuhan, but questions remain Posted: 31 Jan 2020 11:00 AM PST  The State Department announcement that more flights would bring back Americans from Wuhan was welcome news, but plenty of questions remain.
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| Coronavirus: Is the Media Over Hyping the Threat? Posted: 01 Feb 2020 11:38 AM PST  A contagion will happen at some point, and it's important we recognize it and react. Unless the coronavirus mutates into something far more dangerous, this isn't it. News and novelty seem to be driving policy.
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| 3 European countries say they will refuse UK extradition requests now Brexit has happened Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:00 AM PST  Austria, Germany, and Slovenia say they will no longer extradite their citizens to the UK if they commit crimes in the country after Brexit.
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| Firefights, blocked roads in Mexican city after senior cartel leader detained Posted: 31 Jan 2020 01:36 PM PST ![Firefights, blocked roads in Mexican city after senior cartel leader detained]( "Firefights, blocked roads in Mexican city after senior cartel leader detained") Armed men blocked roads, burned cars and there were reports of shootouts in the city of Uruapan in western Mexico after a senior leader of the Los Viagras cartel was detained, local media and a source from the prosecutor's office said. Luis Felipe, also known as "El Vocho", was captured earlier in the day in the western state of Michoacan, which has long been convulsed by turf wars between drug gangs and where unrest is not uncommon after the detention of senior cartel figures. Michoacan's state security services, without giving names, said on Twitter that three people have been detained.
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| Japan destroyer heads to Middle East as Iran-US tension lingers Posted: 01 Feb 2020 09:45 PM PST  Japan sent a naval destroyer to the Middle East on Sunday for a rare overseas mission to ensure the safety of its ships amid lingering tension between Iran and the US. The vessel left the Yokosuka naval base, south of Tokyo, for an information gathering mission in the Gulf of Oman, northern parts of the Arabian Sea and parts of the Gulf of Aden. Japan earlier decided not to take part in the US-led Operation Sentinel to protect shipping routes in the region.
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| Poll: Support for Trump's removal remains steady Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:01 AM PST ![Poll: Support for Trump's removal remains steady]( "Poll: Support for Trump's removal remains steady") The new poll released Saturday shows minimal change in public opinion about the trial.
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| The Coronavirus: How Bad Will the Crisis Get? Posted: 02 Feb 2020 08:52 AM PST  As the coronavirus outbreak continues to spread across China, a flurry of early research is drawing a clearer picture of how the pathogen behaves and the key factors that will determine whether it can be contained. While the virus is a serious public health concern, the risk to most people outside China remains very low, and seasonal flu is a more immediate threat. To avoid any viral illness, experts advise washing your hands frequently and avoiding your office or school when you're sick. Most healthy people don't need masks, and hoarding them may contribute to shortages for health workers who do need them, experts said.-- How contagious is the virus?The scale of an outbreak depends on how quickly and easily a virus is transmitted from person to person. While research has just begun, scientists have estimated that each person with the new coronavirus could infect somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 people without effective containment measures.That would make the virus roughly as contagious as SARS, another coronavirus that circulated in China in 2003 and was contained after it sickened 8,098 people and killed 774. Respiratory viruses like these can travel through the air, enveloped in tiny droplets that are produced when a sick person breathes, talks, coughs or sneezes.These droplets fall to the ground within a few feet. That makes the virus harder to get than pathogens like measles, chickenpox and tuberculosis, which can travel a hundred feet through the air. But it is easier to catch than HIV or hepatitis, which spread only through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person.If each person infected with the new coronavirus infects two to three others, that may be enough to sustain and accelerate an outbreak if nothing is done to reduce it.Compare that with a less contagious virus, like the seasonal flu. People with the flu tend to infect 1.3 other individuals, on average.But the transmission numbers of any disease aren't set in stone. They can be reduced by effective public health measures, such as isolating sick people and tracking individuals they've had contact with. When global health authorities methodically tracked and isolated people infected with SARS in 2003, they were able to bring the average number each sick person infected down to 0.4, enough to stop the outbreak.Health authorities around the world are expending enormous effort trying to repeat that.So far, the number of cases outside China has been small. But in recent days, cases have turned up in several countries, including the United States, with people who have not visited China. And the number of cases within China has accelerated, far surpassing the rate of new SARS cases in 2003.-- How long does it take to show symptoms?The time it takes for symptoms to appear after a person is infected can be vital for prevention and control. Known as the incubation period, this time can allow health officials to quarantine or observe people who may have been exposed to the virus. But if the incubation period is too long or too short, these measures may be difficult to implement.Some illnesses, like influenza, have a short incubation period of two or three days. SARS, however, had an incubation period of about five days. In addition, it took four or five days after symptoms started before sick people could transmit the virus. That gave officials time to stop the virus and effectively contain the outbreak, said Dr. Allison McGeer, an infectious disease specialist at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, who was at the front lines of the Canadian response to SARS.Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that the new coronavirus has an incubation period of 2 to 14 days. But it is still not clear whether a person can spread the virus before symptoms develop or whether the severity of the illness affects how easily a patient can spread the virus."That concerns me because it means the infection could elude detection," said Dr. Mark Denison, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee.-- How deadly is the virus?This is one of the most important factors in how damaging the outbreak will be, and one of the least understood.It's tough to assess the lethality of a new virus. The worst cases are usually detected first, which can skew our understanding of how likely patients are to die. About one-third of the first 41 patients reported in Wuhan had to be treated in an ICU, many with symptoms of fever, severe cough, shortness of breath and pneumonia. But people with mild cases may never visit a doctor. So there may be more cases than we know, and the death rate may be lower than we initially thought.At the same time, deaths from the virus may be underreported. The Chinese cities at the center of the outbreak face a shortage of testing kits and hospital beds, and many sick people have not been able to see a doctor."There's still a lot of uncertainty about what this virus is like and what it is doing," said McGeer, of Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto.Early indications suggest the fatality rate for this virus is considerably less than another coronavirus, MERS, which kills about 1 in 3 people who become infected, and SARS, which kills about 1 in 10. All of the diseases appear to latch onto proteins on the surface of lung cells, but MERS and SARS seem to be more destructive to lung tissue. As of Jan. 31, fewer than 1 in 40 of the people with confirmed infections had died. Many of those who died were older men with underlying health problems.Pathogens can still be very dangerous even if their fatality rate is low, McGeer said. For instance, even though influenza has a case fatality rate below 1 per 1,000, roughly 200,000 people end up hospitalized with the virus each year in the United States, and about 35,000 people die.-- How effective will the response be?In addition to closing off transportation, officials shut down a market in Wuhan selling live poultry, seafood and wild animals, which was thought to be the origin of the coronavirus, and later suspended the trade of wild animals nationwide. Schools have been closed, Beijing's Great Wall is off-limits, and tourist packages from China have been halted. World Health Organization officials have praised China's aggressive response to the virus.But the measures have also had unintended effects. Residents in Wuhan who are unwell must walk or cycle for miles to get to hospitals. There, many complain that they are being turned away because of shortages of hospital beds, staff and supplies that have been made worse by the lockdown.And during the critical first days of the outbreak, Chinese authorities favored secrecy and order over openly confronting the crisis, silencing medical professionals who raised red flags. The reluctance to go public delayed a concerted public health response.On Thursday, the WHO declared the outbreak a global health emergency, acknowledging that the disease represents a risk beyond China.The United States and Australia are temporarily denying entry to noncitizens who recently traveled to China, and several major airlines said they expect to halt direct service to mainland China for months. Other countries -- including Kazakhstan, Russia and Vietnam -- have temporarily restricted travel and visas. But critics fear that these measures will not be enough.-- How much have infected people traveled?Wuhan is a difficult place to contain an outbreak. It has 11 million people, more than New York City. On an average day, 3,500 passengers take direct flights from Wuhan to cities in other countries. These cities were among the first to report cases of the virus outside China.Wuhan is also a major transportation hub within China, linked to Beijing, Shanghai and other major cities by high-speed railways and domestic airlines. In October and November of last year, close to 2 million people flew from Wuhan to other places within China.China was not nearly as well connected in 2003 during the SARS outbreak. Large numbers of migrant workers now travel domestically and internationally -- to Africa, other parts of Asia and Latin America, where China is making an enormous infrastructure push with its Belt and Road Initiative.Overall, China has about four times as many train and air passengers as it did during the SARS outbreak.China has taken the unprecedented step of imposing travel restrictions on tens of millions of people living in Wuhan and nearby cities. But experts warned that the lockdown may have come too late. Wuhan's mayor acknowledged that 5 million people had left the city before the restrictions began."You can't board up a germ. A novel infection will spread," said Lawrence Gostin, a law professor at Georgetown University and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law. "It will get out; it always does."-- How long will it take to develop a vaccine?A coronavirus vaccine could prevent infections and stop the spread of the disease. But vaccines take time.After the SARS outbreak in 2003, it took researchers about 20 months to get a vaccine ready for human trials. (The vaccine was never needed because the disease was eventually contained.) By the Zika outbreak in 2015, researchers had brought the vaccine development timeline down to six months.Now they hope that work from past outbreaks will help cut the timeline even further. Researchers have already studied the genome of the new coronavirus and found the proteins that are crucial for infection. Scientists from the National Institutes of Health, in Australia and at least three companies are working on vaccine candidates."If we don't run into any unforeseen obstacles, we'll be able to get a Phase 1 trial going within the next three months," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Fauci cautioned that it could still take months, even years, after initial trials to conduct extensive testing that can prove a vaccine is safe and effective. In the best case, a vaccine may become available to the public a year from now.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| ‘The haters will shut up when we win’: Rashida Tlaib boos Hillary Clinton at Sanders rally in Iowa Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:49 AM PST  A rally in support of Bernie Sanders erupted in boos when a moderator mentioned Hillary Clinton's name – and even Michigan representative Rashida Tlaib joined in from the stage.It came at the end of a panel discussion between Ms Tlaib and fellow representatives Ilhan Omar and Pramila Jayapal. All three have endorsed Sanders in the 2020 Democratic primary.
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| Locusts boiled, baked or dried? Kuwait serves up a swarm Posted: 02 Feb 2020 01:10 AM PST  Locusts are surprisingly nutritious and considered a delicacy by many in Kuwait but not everyone is enamoured by the crunchy culinary offering. "I sell some 500 bags over the season, which is from January to April," he said.
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| The Wuhan coronavirus is causing increased incidents of racism and xenophobia at college, work, and supermarkets, according to Asian people Posted: 02 Feb 2020 06:00 AM PST  As fears over the deadly coronavirus from China grow, so are racist incidents against Asian communities in places like the US, Canada, and Europe.
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| Digital footprints lead cops to Arizona fugitive in Canada Posted: 01 Feb 2020 12:28 PM PST  A man who pleaded guilty to murder before fleeing Arizona over 16 years ago to avoid being sentenced has been arrested in Canada after police followed digital footprints provided by social media posts of his family and friends, authorities said. The fugitive, 32-year-old Adan Perez Huerta, was arrested in Toronto and returned to Arizona, where he was booked into a jail Thursday. An arrest warrant was issued for Huerta after he pleaded guilty to negligent homicide but didn't appear for his sentencing in 2003.
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| Egypt detains doctor, parents as girl dies after genital cutting Posted: 31 Jan 2020 11:13 AM PST ![Egypt detains doctor, parents as girl dies after genital cutting]( "Egypt detains doctor, parents as girl dies after genital cutting") Egypt has detained a retired doctor after the death of a 12-year-old girl on whom he performed female genital mutilation (FGM) sparked anger among women's rights activists. The victim's parents and aunt took her to a private clinic where she underwent the illegal procedure, also known as female circumcision, the public prosecutor's office said in a statement. Genital cutting of girls was banned in Egypt in 2008, but the practice remains a rite of passage and is often viewed as a way to promote chastity.
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| Bolivia's Morales says he wants to go home, run for Senate Posted: 02 Feb 2020 09:00 AM PST  Exiled former Bolivian president Evo Morales said in an interview published Sunday that he wants to return home and run for senator in May elections. Morales fled the country in December after the army withdrew its support for him amid violent protests over his disputed re-election to a fourth straight term. In an interview with the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, Morales said that the night he left Bolivia, heading first to Mexico, he carried with him a suitcase with some clothes, a bit of food and two or three thousand dollars.
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| Ex-Ukraine ambassador at center of impeachment inquiry reportedly retires from State Department Posted: 01 Feb 2020 05:33 AM PST  Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is retiring from her role in the State Department, sources familiar with her decision confirmed.Yovanovitch enjoyed a 33-year career in the foreign service, but things took a turn for the worse for her under the Trump administration. She recently played a central role in President Trump's impeachment inquiry and provided testimony about Trump's dealings with Ukraine during the House's investigation last year.Yovanovitch accused the Trump administration, namely Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, of launching a smear campaign against her because she disagreed with his efforts to reshape diplomacy with Kyiv through what she described as an "irregular channel." Secretary of State Mike Pompeo maintains Ukraine policy was carried out by the State Department.The ambassador also testified she was told to "watch my back" in the days before she was recalled from her post in May. Giuliani's associate Lev Parnas alleges Trump pushed for her firing on multiple occasions, as well, and Parnas provided Congress documents suggesting Yovanovitch may have been under surveillance at one point, though not from an administration official.Since her ouster, Yovanovitch had remained on State Department payroll as a fellow at Georgetown University. Read more at NPR and The Hill.More stories from theweek.com Mitch McConnell's rare blunder John Bolton just vindicated Nancy Pelosi All the president's turncoats
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| Asylum seekers learn about obstacles ahead in a hearing room on the border Posted: 01 Feb 2020 04:08 AM PST  "DHS will treat you as someone who is attempting to enter against U.S. law," a judge said.
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| Venice shuts down for WWII-era bomb removal Posted: 02 Feb 2020 04:12 AM PST  The operation in the port of Marghera, a mostly industrial area separated from the tourist city by water, required the evacuation of about 3,500 residents beginning in the early morning. Boat, train and bus traffic was all halted during the operation and planes were prohibited from flying to and from Marco Polo Airport from 8:30am (0730GMT) until 12:30 pm. At mid-morning, authorities said the first two phases of the operation - the evacuation of residents, and the process to strip the fuses from the bombs, had been successfully completed.
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| Did Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand Try to Double-Dip on Subsidies? Posted: 02 Feb 2020 12:30 AM PST  They want more for their state.
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| China says Wuhan coronavirus victims who die should be quickly cremated without funerals as death toll rises Posted: 01 Feb 2020 07:55 PM PST  As the Wuhan virus continues to claim lives, Chinese authorities issued regulations banning funerals for victims and requiring immediate cremation.
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| Hong Kong leader rejects calls to close border despite virus fears Posted: 31 Jan 2020 03:29 PM PST  Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam rejected calls from a medical union on Friday to close the border with mainland China to contain the spread of the new coronavirus, and urged health staff not to go through with a threatened strike.
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| U.S. universities set up front-line defenses to keep coronavirus at bay Posted: 02 Feb 2020 04:16 AM PST  The school, with one of the highest percentages of Chinese students among U.S. universities, has suspended academic programs in China for the spring semester and banned students from traveling to the country for academic-related matters. It has advised faculty and staff to follow federal travel advisories that, as of Friday, warned against going to China. "We want to take all of the precautions we can so, in the worst-case scenario, we keep our community healthy," said Robin Kaler, associate chancellor for public affairs at the University of Illinois, 135 miles (217 km) south of Chicago, where the first human-to-human transmission of the disease in the United States was confirmed last week.
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| Thailand sees apparent success treating virus with drug cocktail Posted: 02 Feb 2020 06:06 AM PST  A Chinese woman infected with the new coronavirus showed a dramatic improvement after she was treated with a cocktail of anti-virals used to treat flu and HIV, Thailand's health ministry said Sunday. The 71-year-old patient tested negative for the virus 48 hours after Thai doctors administered the combination, doctor Kriengsak Attipornwanich said during the ministry's daily press briefing. The doctors combined the anti-flu drug oseltamivir with lopinavir and ritonavir, anti-virals used to treat HIV, Kriengsak said, adding the ministry was awaiting research results to prove the findings.
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| Adam Schiff Blasts Republican Senators for Scolding Trump's Ukraine Scheme While Letting Him Slide Posted: 02 Feb 2020 09:12 AM PST  Lead House impeachment manager Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) on Sunday chastised Republican senators who claimed to be bothered by President Donald Trump's Ukrainian actions as they voted against impeachment witnesses, saying it doesn't do justice to the president's behavior to merely call it "inappropriate."Appearing on CBS News' Face the Nation, the House Intelligence Committee chairman was asked what the impeachment trial had accomplished as the Senate is poised to acquit Trump after voting against hearing from witnesses about his actions. "What's remarkable is you now have Republican senators coming out and saying, yes, the House proved its case," Schiff told host Margaret Brennan. "The House proved the corrupt scheme that they charged in the articles of impeachment. The president did withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from an ally to try to coerce that ally into helping him cheat in the next election. That's pretty remarkable when you now have senators on both sides of the aisle admitting the House made its case."Schiff went on to say that the Senate now needs to move to the next step and find the president guilty and remove him from office since he's "threatening to still cheat in the next election by soliciting foreign interference," prompting Brennan to note the votes aren't there for that to happen."As you said, Senators Rubio, Alexander, Portman have all said in some way or another they found the actions of the president inappropriate, but not enough to oust him," she added. "So the bottom line here seems to be that the president will get away with what they're calling inappropriate. What are Democrats going to do? What do you do next?""Well, first of all, to call solicitation, coercion, blackmail of a foreign power, an ally at war, by withholding military aid to get help in cheating in the next election merely inappropriate, doesn't begin to do justice to the gravity of this president's misconduct," Schiff answered. "Misconduct that I think undermined our national security as well as that of our ally and threatens the integrity—the integrity of our elections."The California Democrat further noted that he's "not letting the senators off the hook" for not acting against Trump even though they've acknowledged his behavior was wrong, saying he's still going to make the case Trump needs to be removed."It will be up to the senators to make that final judgment and the senators will be held accountable for it," he stated.To Schiff's point, GOP senators appeared on the Sunday news shows and attempted to have it both ways by arguing that Trump behaved inappropriately with his Ukraine pressure scheme but that it isn't an impeachable offense. Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), who voted against calling additional witnesses last week despite saying Trump made an "error in judgment," told Meet the Press' Chuck Todd that Trump' Shouldn't have done it" and "it was wrong" but that Trump's fate should be left to the ballot box and "the people." The conservative senator also confirmed that he'd vote to acquit the president.On CNN's State of the Union, meanwhile, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) said that the president acted inappropriately but that she would inevitably vote to clear Trump of all charges."He's done it now," she told anchor Jake Tapper. "The president has a lot of latitude to do what he wants to do. Again, not what I have done, but certainly, again, going after corruption, Jake...Maybe not the perfect call."After Tapper wondered aloud what she meant by saying it was something she wouldn't have done, Ernst added: "He did it—he did it maybe in the wrong manner… But I think he could have done it through different channels. Now, this is the argument, is that he should have probably gone to the DOJ. He should have worked through those entities, but he chose to go a different route."Senate Republicans weren't the only ones trying to thread the needle on Sunday regarding the president's Ukrainian actions. Trump defense team member Alan Dershowitz, who argued last week that Trump could engage in a quid pro quo with Ukraine since his re-election is in the "public interest" and he has "mixed motives," conceded on Fox News Sunday that the pressure campaign could be "troubling.""On Election Day as a citizen I will allow that to enter into my decision," he told host Chris Wallace when asked if he was troubled by the allegations. "Of course any citizen would find that troubling if it were proved, troubling is not the criteria for impeachment.""If a president linked aid to an ally to personal benefit that was not in the public interest, that would be wrong, that would be a reason for him not to vote for him," Dershowitz added.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| South Carolina's Confederate Relic Room ponders name change Posted: 01 Feb 2020 06:17 AM PST  South Carolina's military museum covers 250 years of artifacts and stories of brave soldiers fighting for their country, from men with muskets facing the British before the U.S. was even a country to troops who fought the war or terror in Afghanistan. When recently working on renewing its national accreditation, the American Alliance of Museums Accreditation said the museum could make it easier on itself by eliminating "Confederate" from its name.
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