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| Coronavirus US live: Trump reportedly knew pandemic was likely in January | Coronavirus US live: Trump reportedly knew pandemic was likely in January |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Memos from trade adviser Peter Navarro, published by Axios, warned Trump of a likely pandemic months ago | Memos from trade adviser Peter Navarro, published by Axios, warned Trump of a likely pandemic months ago |
| Lines are already long at polling places in Wisconsin, with voters saying they are preparing to wait for hours to cast their ballots. | |
| So many poll workers have quit over concerns about coronvairus that only five polling sites are open today in Milwaukee, down from 180. | |
| The confusion and expected drop in turnout in Wisconsin have raised serious concerns about the November general election, particularly if coronavirus makes a return at the end of the year, as many experts have predicted. | |
| The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports: | |
| Congressman John Lewis, a civil rights icon, endorsed former vice president Joe Biden for president on Tuesday morning. | |
| “I’m delighted, very pleased, very happy, and very honored to take the time to endorse a friend, a man of courage, a man of conscience as the Democratic nominee for president of the United States,” Lewis said of backing Biden during a call with reporters. “It is my belief that we need Joe Biden now more than ever before.” | |
| Lewis’s endorsement comes as most Democratic lawmakers and the majority of the party’s voters fall in line behind Biden. Vermont senator Bernie Sanders is still running against Biden in the Democratic primary, but his path is increasingly narrow. | |
| Lewis, in endorsing Biden, urged him to pick a woman as his running mate if the former vice president wins the nomination. | |
| “It would be a good to have a woman of color,” Lewis said. “It would be good to have a woman who looks like the rest of America - smart, gifted, a fighter, a warrior and we have plenty of able women. Some are black, white, Latino, Asian American, Native American. I think the time is long past for making the White House look like the whole of America.” | |
| During a recent debate Biden said if elected president, he would nominate an African American woman to the Supreme Court and would pick a woman as his running mate. | |
| Other influential lawmakers, including South Carolina congressman Jim Clyburn, have said that Biden should pick a woman of color as his running mate. | |
| In an interview with the Financial Times Clyburn name checked California senator Kamala Harris and former Obama administration national security adviser Susan Rice (which he called a “sleeper”) as possible running mates for Biden. | |
| George Conway, a Trump critic who is married to senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, offered his take on the president and his team amid the pandemic. | George Conway, a Trump critic who is married to senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, offered his take on the president and his team amid the pandemic. |
| “He’s 100% insane, and nobody in the administration has the balls to tell him that,” Conway said of Trump and his advisers. | “He’s 100% insane, and nobody in the administration has the balls to tell him that,” Conway said of Trump and his advisers. |
| Conway’s jab follows reports that one of Trump’s top advisers warned the president of the coronavirus outbreak potentially evolving into a pandemic in late January. | Conway’s jab follows reports that one of Trump’s top advisers warned the president of the coronavirus outbreak potentially evolving into a pandemic in late January. |
| Conway has become a vocal critic of the president, even though his wife worked on Trump’s campaign and has been with the administration since his inaugruation. | Conway has become a vocal critic of the president, even though his wife worked on Trump’s campaign and has been with the administration since his inaugruation. |
| This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Pengelly. | This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Pengelly. |
| As Sam Levine reported, thousands of Wisconsin voters are likely to be disenfranchised today after the Democratic governor’s effort to cancel in-person voting failed. | As Sam Levine reported, thousands of Wisconsin voters are likely to be disenfranchised today after the Democratic governor’s effort to cancel in-person voting failed. |
| Because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, more than 100 jurisdictions in Wisconsin reported last week that they don’t have enough poll workers to staff even one voting place, and Milwaukee’s number of polling sites is down from 180 to five. | Because of concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, more than 100 jurisdictions in Wisconsin reported last week that they don’t have enough poll workers to staff even one voting place, and Milwaukee’s number of polling sites is down from 180 to five. |
| A photo from one of those five Milwaukee polling sites showed voters wearing masks and trying to socially distance as they waited to cast their ballots: | A photo from one of those five Milwaukee polling sites showed voters wearing masks and trying to socially distance as they waited to cast their ballots: |
| Here’s a report from Sam Levine, our voting rights reporter, on a dramatic and bizarre day in Wisconsin yesterday and what’s to come today: | Here’s a report from Sam Levine, our voting rights reporter, on a dramatic and bizarre day in Wisconsin yesterday and what’s to come today: |
| Oddly enough, Donald Trump has a recommendation for Wisconsin conservatives: | Oddly enough, Donald Trump has a recommendation for Wisconsin conservatives: |
| Here’s more key reading from Sam, on Wisconsin and threats to the right to vote: | Here’s more key reading from Sam, on Wisconsin and threats to the right to vote: |
| Here’s a tweet thread that Donald Trump may not like too much. It’s about Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic governor of Michigan, a state in which more than 17,000 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed and 727 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins figures. | Here’s a tweet thread that Donald Trump may not like too much. It’s about Gretchen Whitmer, Democratic governor of Michigan, a state in which more than 17,000 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed and 727 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins figures. |
| Trump’s distaste for Whitmer is well-known – he called her “that woman from Michigan” at one White House briefing. Detroit journalist Chad Livengood is following her interview on 1320 WILS-AM, “Lansing’s More Compelling Talk Radio”. It’s fascinating reading. | Trump’s distaste for Whitmer is well-known – he called her “that woman from Michigan” at one White House briefing. Detroit journalist Chad Livengood is following her interview on 1320 WILS-AM, “Lansing’s More Compelling Talk Radio”. It’s fascinating reading. |
| “Whitmer cites [University of Michigan] modeling that Michigan’s coronavirus outbreak won’t peak until late April,” Livengood writes. “She was asked about what plans there are to restart the economy: ‘It is too early to start implementing anything. We know yesterday we had 110 Michiganders lose their battle with Covid-19.’” | “Whitmer cites [University of Michigan] modeling that Michigan’s coronavirus outbreak won’t peak until late April,” Livengood writes. “She was asked about what plans there are to restart the economy: ‘It is too early to start implementing anything. We know yesterday we had 110 Michiganders lose their battle with Covid-19.’” |
| Donald Trump was warned at the end of January by one of his top White House advisers that coronavirus had the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and derail the US economy, unless tough action were taken immediately, new memos have revealed. | Donald Trump was warned at the end of January by one of his top White House advisers that coronavirus had the potential to kill hundreds of thousands of Americans and derail the US economy, unless tough action were taken immediately, new memos have revealed. |
| The memos were written by Trump’s economic adviser Peter Navarro and circulated via the National Security Council widely around the White House and federal agencies. They show that even within the Trump administration alarm bells were ringing loudly by late January, at a time when the president was consistently downplaying the threat of Covid-19. | The memos were written by Trump’s economic adviser Peter Navarro and circulated via the National Security Council widely around the White House and federal agencies. They show that even within the Trump administration alarm bells were ringing loudly by late January, at a time when the president was consistently downplaying the threat of Covid-19. |
| The memos, first reported by the New York Times and Axios, were written by Navarro on 29 January and 23 February. The first memo, composed on the day Trump set up a White House coronavirus task force, gave a worst-case scenario of the virus killing more than half a million Americans. | The memos, first reported by the New York Times and Axios, were written by Navarro on 29 January and 23 February. The first memo, composed on the day Trump set up a White House coronavirus task force, gave a worst-case scenario of the virus killing more than half a million Americans. |
| According to the Times, it said: “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil. This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” | According to the Times, it said: “The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on US soil. This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans.” |
| The second memo went even further, predicting that a Covid-19 pandemic, left unchecked, could kill 1.2m Americans and infect as many as 100m. | The second memo went even further, predicting that a Covid-19 pandemic, left unchecked, could kill 1.2m Americans and infect as many as 100m. |
| This was not the first time Trump and his White House team were warned that the virus had the potential to devastate the US and needed to be dealt with quickly and firmly. Senior scientists, epidemiologists, and health emergency experts in the US and around the world delivered that message clearly early on in the crisis, only for Trump to continue belittling the scale of the threat which he compared falsely to the dangers of seasonal flu. | This was not the first time Trump and his White House team were warned that the virus had the potential to devastate the US and needed to be dealt with quickly and firmly. Senior scientists, epidemiologists, and health emergency experts in the US and around the world delivered that message clearly early on in the crisis, only for Trump to continue belittling the scale of the threat which he compared falsely to the dangers of seasonal flu. |
| But the emergence of the memos from such a senior aide within the White House will make it much more difficult for Trump to claim – as he has done on multiple occasions – that nobody was able to predict the severity of the disease. As the pandemic has swept across the country, the president has come under mounting criticism for having done too little, too late in response, leading to mass shortages of diagnostic testing, protective gear for frontline health workers and ventilators for the very sick. | But the emergence of the memos from such a senior aide within the White House will make it much more difficult for Trump to claim – as he has done on multiple occasions – that nobody was able to predict the severity of the disease. As the pandemic has swept across the country, the president has come under mounting criticism for having done too little, too late in response, leading to mass shortages of diagnostic testing, protective gear for frontline health workers and ventilators for the very sick. |
| …and welcome to another day of coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in the US. Figures, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, first: | …and welcome to another day of coverage of the coronavirus outbreak in the US. Figures, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, first: |
| Cases confirmed: 368,036 | Cases confirmed: 368,036 |
| Deaths: 10,982 | Deaths: 10,982 |
| Cases in New York, the worst-hit state: 131,815 | Cases in New York, the worst-hit state: 131,815 |
| Deaths in New York: 4,758 | Deaths in New York: 4,758 |
| Other states are struggling too, of course: there have been more than 1,000 deaths in New Jersey and Michigan, California and Louisiana are also particularly hard hit. And case and death numbers will no doubt increase today. | Other states are struggling too, of course: there have been more than 1,000 deaths in New Jersey and Michigan, California and Louisiana are also particularly hard hit. And case and death numbers will no doubt increase today. |
| There are all sorts of news lines out there of course, perhaps the biggest being British prime minister Boris Johnson’s admission to intensive care. Here’s the latest report from our London office. And here’s the UK live blog with constant updates. | There are all sorts of news lines out there of course, perhaps the biggest being British prime minister Boris Johnson’s admission to intensive care. Here’s the latest report from our London office. And here’s the UK live blog with constant updates. |
| In the US, Julia Carrie Wong has an in-depth look at Donald Trump’s support for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that has not been shown to be safe or effective against Covid-19 but which the president wants Americans to take: | In the US, Julia Carrie Wong has an in-depth look at Donald Trump’s support for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that has not been shown to be safe or effective against Covid-19 but which the president wants Americans to take: |
| The president pushed the drug again at his White House briefing on Monday, a briefing which was also, by the by, attended by Chanel Rion, a correspondent from One America News Network whose presence at briefings and leading questions to Trump have caused consternation in the mainstream media. Here’s Adrian Horton’s write-up of what John Oliver had to say about that and OAN in general on Sunday night. | The president pushed the drug again at his White House briefing on Monday, a briefing which was also, by the by, attended by Chanel Rion, a correspondent from One America News Network whose presence at briefings and leading questions to Trump have caused consternation in the mainstream media. Here’s Adrian Horton’s write-up of what John Oliver had to say about that and OAN in general on Sunday night. |
| We have a lot more this morning, of course, including: | We have a lot more this morning, of course, including: |
| Michael Sainato on Amazon workers who say the company values profit over their safety amid the pandemic. | Michael Sainato on Amazon workers who say the company values profit over their safety amid the pandemic. |
| A devastating report from Oliver Laughland in Reserve, Lousiana, aka Cancer Alley but now home to a new foe. | A devastating report from Oliver Laughland in Reserve, Lousiana, aka Cancer Alley but now home to a new foe. |
| Another dispatch from a frontline nurse: The ER Diaries: ‘I have come to embrace that we’re at war’. | Another dispatch from a frontline nurse: The ER Diaries: ‘I have come to embrace that we’re at war’. |
| The Axios website, meanwhile, is out with a major scoop: Democrats including Nancy Pelosi have consciously echoed the famous Watergate question – What did the president know and when did he know it? – when investigating the White House’s lagging response to the emerging threat of Covid-19. | The Axios website, meanwhile, is out with a major scoop: Democrats including Nancy Pelosi have consciously echoed the famous Watergate question – What did the president know and when did he know it? – when investigating the White House’s lagging response to the emerging threat of Covid-19. |
| On Monday night, Axios published memos from trade adviser Peter Navarro which warned Trump of a likely pandemic in January. Axios’s newsletter headline on Tuesday morning? “POTUS Knew!” | On Monday night, Axios published memos from trade adviser Peter Navarro which warned Trump of a likely pandemic in January. Axios’s newsletter headline on Tuesday morning? “POTUS Knew!” |
| Ed Pilkington will have more on that shortly… | Ed Pilkington will have more on that shortly… |