Conservative Blogger
Friday, April 17, 2020
Joe Manchin to endorse Joe Biden after saying he could potentially support Trump
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Hypocrite ?Sen. Joe Manchin, the independent-minded West Virginia Democrat who sometimes irks his party by siding with Republicans, intends to back fellow Democat Joe Biden for president, according to a report.
Manchin,
72, who has served in the Senate since 2010 after previously serving as
West Virginia’s governor, was unequivocal about his plans Thursday in
an interview with Politico.
“I will, absolutely,” Manchin said when asked if he will support Biden. In February, he said he might endorse President Trump for reelection - although he voted to remove him from office. Manchin, who is one of the most conservative Democrats in the Senate, told Fox News last fall he wouldn’t support Sen. Bernie Sanders over Trump for president. Joe Manchin, who voted to oust Trump, says he may endorse his reelection He said his endorsement will come with a plan to help save West Virginia jobs. “I’ve been working and talking to different people," he told Politico. "You just can’t leave people behind that did the heavy lifting and that’s worked hard, whether it’s producing coal or producing energy for this country. They just need an opportunity to live their lives and have that opportunity.” He said Biden “understands that.” Manchin is one of many Democrats who have coalesced around Biden since his game-changing February win in South Carolina. Wednesday, former rival Sen. Elizabeth Warren threw her support behind Biden and said she would be his vice president if asked. Sanders dropped out of the race earlier this month and endorsed Biden this week. Fox News' Dom Calicchio contributed to this report |
Michigan Gov. Whitmer defends abortions during pandemic as part of 'life-sustaining' health care
Michigan won't ban abortions during the coronavirus outbreak as other states have done, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Thursday, insisting the procedures were part of maintaining "life-sustaining" health care.
“We stopped elective surgeries here in Michigan, and some people have tried to say that that type of a procedure is considered the same, and that’s ridiculous,” Whitmer, a Democrat, told former Barack Obama political strategist David Alexrod on his podcast when he asked about other states that have sought bans amid the outbreak.
"A woman’s health care ... her ability to decide if and when she starts a family is not an election, it is a fundamental to her life. It is life-sustaining, and it’s something that government should not be getting in the middle of.”Axelrod asked if she thought the pandemic created a “backdoor” way for some states to permanently ban abortion or if the temporary bans elsewhere were a legitimate policy decision to slow the spread of the virus.
— Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
“My gut is it’s the former," she said. "I’m not in Texas, I don’t know all the individuals involved but I do think there is a concerted effort to use every opportunity to take away women’s ability to make our own health care decisions."
Whitmer has been hit with protests and some lawsuits over her stay-at-home order, which some have said is too restrictive. Protesters swarmed Michigan's capital city, Lansing, on Wednesday to protest the policy.
States that have moved to restrict abortion during the crisis include Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The bans are being challenged in court, according to Time magazine.
Texas barred medical abortions – which involves taking pills -- because of the shortage of personal protective equipment and to keep hospital beds open during the outbreak.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals this week ruled to allow medical abortions to continue in the state.
Abortion bans during the crisis could make getting one after the outbreak more difficult if providers are financially destabilized, Time reported.
Lindsey Graham meets Joy Behar's challenge to name three things Trump 'did right' on coronavirus
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., defended President Trump on Thursday as "The View" co-host Joy Behar challenged him to name three things the president "did right" during the coronavirus pandemic.
"The first thing he did," Graham said, "was -- [on], I think January 31st -- stop travel from China. The Chinese are the bad guy here if you're looking for a bad guy."
Graham added that the China travel restriction "probably saved us a lot of heartache," saying that move, along with subsequent restrictions on European travel and declaring a national emergency, "flattened the curve."
Graham admitted that the U.S. was "struggling" with testing, but said that he "can't really blame the president" for that.
LINDSEY GRAHAM: EFFORTS TO DESTROY TRUMP AT ANY COST IS 'GETTING A BIT OLD'
Behar also asked Graham about Trump's decision to halt funding to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Graham, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said he wanted to see a change in leadership as he had lost confidence in the global health agency.
"I think they conspired with China to downplay the nature of the virus, that they reported all through January there was no evidence of human-to-human transmission," he said. "... The money that's being suspended will go to other people throughout the world to deal with health issues."
FBI says state hackers have broken into US coronavirus research: report
Foreign government hackers have broken into companies conducting research into COVID-19 treatment and the U.S. healthcare sector, an FBI official reportedly said.
Tonya Ugoretz, the FBI Deputy Assistant Director, told participants in an online panel discussion on Thursday that the bureau has seen state-backed hackers looking at a series of healthcare and research institutions.
She didn't specify what countries backed the hackers or what organizations were targeted.
“We certainly have seen reconnaissance activity, and some intrusions, into some of those institutions, especially those that have publicly identified themselves as working on COVID-related research,” Ugoretz said, according to Reuters.
She said that hackers routinely have their sights set on the biopharmaceutical industry but their activity is usually increased during a crisis like the coronavirus pandemic.
Ugoretz said as institutions publicize certain treatments or vaccines they're working on, it leaves them vulnerable to attacks.
“The sad flipside is that it kind of makes them a mark for other nation-states that are interested in gleaning details about what exactly they’re doing and maybe even stealing proprietary information that those institutions have," she added, according to the news organization.
Bill Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, said, "now is the time" for institutions to be aware of attacks on their research that could be crucial in the battle against COVID-19.
“Medical research organizations and those who work for them should be vigilant against threat actors seeking to steal intellectual property or other sensitive data related to America’s response to the COVID19 pandemic,” he added, according to Reuters.
Global stocks rally Friday on Gilead’s coronavirus treatment and Boeing’s production restart
U.S. stock futures are signaling a strong start to Friday's session adding to the momentum seen on Thursday.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average are up more than 700 points or 3 percent while the S&P 500 was higher by nearly 3 percent and the Nasdaq Composite 2 percent as of 6:00 a.m. ET.
Earlier in the evening, President Trump outlined the early-stage, phase approach as part of the “Opening Up America Again" coronavirus come back plan and there was also positive news on Gilead Sciences.
Its drug Remdesivir, according to Statnews.com, showed effectiveness for treating COVID-19 patients. Shares of Gilead rose over 10 percent in the extended session.
A recent clinical trial of Remdesivir, an antiviral medicine used as a potential treatment for Ebola, found rapid recoveries in coronavirus patients' fever and respiratory symptoms.
The trial, conducted by the University of Chicago Medicine, found nearly all patients who were given daily infusions of Remdesivir were discharged from the hospital in less than a week.
And Dow member Boeing was rising nearly 8 percent in the extended session after announcing plans to resume commercial airplane production in Washington State.
The late-day gains Thursday build on what was a positive day for stocks in the regular session despite more grim unemployment numbers.
In Asian Markets on Friday, Japan's Nikkei rose 3.2 percent, Hong Kong's Hang Seng gained 1.6 percent and China's Shanghai Composite added 0.7 percent.
In Europe, London's FTSE added 3.3 percent, Germany's DAX gained 3.4 percent and France's CAC rose 3.9 percent.
Oil on the other hand, is moving in the other direction. U.S. crude is trading down 7 percent to $18.49.
The Labor Department reported initial jobless claims totaling 5.25 million for the week through April 11, worse than the 5.1 million that economists surveyed by Refinitiv were anticipating. The data raises the number of first-time filings due to disruptions from COVID-19, including stores closing and factories idling, to about 22 million.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 23537.68 | +33.33 | +0.14% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 2799.55 | +16.19 | +0.58% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 8532.362524 | +139.19 | +1.66% |
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AMZN | AMAZON.COM INC. | 2,408.19 | +100.51 | +4.36% |
| NFLX | NETFLIX INC. | 439.17 | +12.42 | +2.91% |
| MSFT | MICROSOFT CORP. | 177.04 | +5.16 | +3.00% |