Democrat George Soros Cartoons

HSBC cuts headcount by 35,000 in next three years.

FILE - In this May 4, 2018, file photo, a man walks past a branch of HSBC bank in Hong Kong. Europe's biggest bank has reported that its net profit fell 53% in 2019 to $6 billion. London-based HSBC, whose profit is mainly from Asia, said it plans to revamp its U.S. and European business and shed $100 billion in assets to improve its profitability. (AP Photo/Kin Cheung, File)

HSBC bank said Tuesday it will shed some 35,000 jobs as part of a deep overhaul to focus on faster-growing markets in Asia and better cope with a slew of global uncertainties.

The interim chief executive, Noel Quinn, said the number of people employed by the bank would fall from 235,000 to 200,000 in the next three years. But he said that some of the reductions would come from attrition as opposed to outright cuts.

Quinn said his team is already carrying out his plans. The restructure involves “consolidating” of some parts of the business and “reorganising the global functions and head office.’’

In August, the company announced 4,700 job cuts from a workforce of 238,000 at the time.

The bank, which is headquartered in London but makes most of its money in Asia, reported that its net profit fell 53% in 2019 to $6 billion.

It said that it plans to revamp its U.S. and European business and shed $100 billion in assets to improve its profitability.

The bank said the virus outbreak that began in China has caused a “significant disruption” for its staff, suppliers and customers, especially in the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong.

“Depending on how the situation develops, there is the potential for any associated economic slowdown to impact our expected credit losses in Hong Kong and mainland China,” the bank said in a statement. “Longer term, it is also possible that we may see revenue reductions from lower lending and transaction volumes, and further credit losses stemming from disruption to customer supply chains. We continue to monitor the situation closely,” it said.

HSBC’s revenue rose 5.9% in 2019 to $55.4 billion.

The sharp drop in 2019 profit reflected slower economic activity but also a $7.3 billion write-down for HSBC’s Global Banking and Markets and Commercial Banking divisions in Europe. Pretax profit fell 33%, to $13.3 billion. HSBC reported $12.6 billion in net profit in 2018.

HSBC said months’ long protests in Hong Kong also weighed on the local economy and caused disruptions to the bank’s business.

The bank has been carrying out a corporate overhaul designed to boost profitability by focusing on high-growth markets in Asia while shedding businesses and workers in other countries.

“Our immediate aims are to increase returns, create the capacity to invest in the future, and build a platform for sustainable growth,” the bank’s group CEO, Noel Quinn, said in the statement.

The bank said it would shrink its sales and trading and equity research in Europe and shift resources to Asia. In the U.S., HSBC plans to grow its international-client corporate banking business.

The restructuring is expected to cost $6 billion, with another $1.2 billion for asset sales, mainly in 2020 and 2021, the bank said.

Karen Pence adds campaigning for Trump to busy to-do list

WASHINGTON (AP) — Karen Pence has no shortage of projects.

The wife of Vice President Mike Pence promotes the healing power of art therapy and help for military spouses. She’s into honeybees and supports sister cities. She’s a watercolorist who designs the family’s annual Christmas card and teaches art at a religious elementary school.

Now, she’s beginning to campaign on her own to help win a second term for President Donald Trump and her husband. And with first lady Melania Trump largely avoiding the political scene, the campaign sees Mrs. Pence as an asset in one of the areas where they most need help — with suburban woman.

“I just feel like I want to do my part,” Mrs. Pence told The Associated Press in an interview shortly before she took a solo trip home to Indianapolis to add the Trump-Pence ticket to the ballot for the state’s Republican presidential primary in May. Mike Pence is a former Indiana governor.

“This is so exciting for me,” she told supporters at the Indiana Statehouse. “Under the leadership of President Trump and Vice President Pence — I have to put his name in there, too — we are getting things done.”

Her pitch includes highlighting economic gains under Trump, including historically low unemployment, along with tax cuts, the creation of “opportunity zones” to lure investment to low-income neighborhoods across the U.S., deregulation and trade policy.

Mrs. Pence told AP she sees her role as “telling the story. Promises made, promises kept.”

Over the past several months, she’s told that story at a “Latinos for Trump” event in Las Vegas and a “Women for Trump” gathering in St. Paul, Minnesota. Trump narrowly lost Nevada and Minnesota in 2016.

The day after the Indiana stop, she flew to New Hampshire to help rev up Trump supporters before the president arrived a few days later for a campaign rally on the eve of the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary.

“Whatever you’re doing, we need you to do more, and whatever you’re giving, we need you to give more,” she told the crowd at a Nashua hotel. “We need four more years of President Donald Trump.”

Karen Pence is no stranger to the campaign trail. Mike Pence represented Indiana in the U.S. House for six terms before he was elected governor and later joined Trump’s ticket.

But the 63-year-old mother of three did little campaigning for Trump after he brought Mike Pence onto the ticket. An evangelical Christian, she was said to have been turned off by Trump’s past personal behavior, including hearing him talk on a years-old audiotape that surfaced before the November 2016 election about grabbing women by their private parts.

Aides say Mrs. Pence supports Trump, and that claims suggesting otherwise are false.

Mike Pence, meanwhile, is seen as harboring ambitions to succeed Trump as the GOP presidential nominee in 2024, and having his wife, who is also one of his closest advisers, publicly advocate for him could aid in such efforts. It could help boost her profile, too.

“The only time that she gets much attention nationally is in reference to her husband and their relationship,” said Tammy Vigil, a Boston University communications professor who studies women as political communicators. “She could definitely improve her image by being active and going on her own.”

Mrs. Pence drew some criticism last year after she resumed teaching art part-time at a Christian school that bars lesbian and gay students and teachers. She had taught at the Northern Virginia school when Mike Pence was a member of Congress. Her husband pushed back against the critics by saying that “attacking Christian education” was offensive.

The Trump campaign calls Mrs. Pence a “tremendous asset.”

“She knows how to appeal to key conservative and suburban voters, relates closely to the Midwestern voting bloc that Republicans need to win the race, and is eager to explain why the president and vice president deserve reelection,” said campaign spokesman Jon Thompson.

Mrs. Pence is also deeply involved in another campaign, one to help educate military spouses about resources to help them cope with lengthy deployments, frequent moves or other issues specific to their experiences.

She and Leah Esper, the wife of Defense Secretary Mark Esper, have begun monthly visits to military bases to meet with spouses. Their first stop was North Carolina’s Camp Lejeune in January.

“I think for them to see both of us, it was really special,” Karen Pence told AP in her second-floor office in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House grounds.

She has personal experience with military spouse issues. Her son, Michael, is a Marine Corps pilot. His wife, Sarah, accompanied Mike and Karen Pence on a recent trip to Israel and Rome.

Karen Pence is carrying out her myriad responsibilities with a slightly updated image.

Below-the-shoulder locks have replaced the tight bob and bangs she sported at the dawn of the administration. She’s noticeably thinner, too, with credit going to an exercise regimen that includes using weights and pulleys, along with apps to aid calorie counting.

She hasn’t cut anything out of her diet. “I just have cut back,” she said.

So exactly how many pounds did Karen Pence drop from her 5-foot-2 frame? She said only that it took her six months to a year to shed it.

“I would say that I’ve kept 10 off,” she added. “Let’s put it that way.”

___

Associated Press writer Tom Davies in Indianapolis contributed to this report.

Reporter's Notebook: How the war-powers fight has stretched back decades

Let’s start with Operation Ajax.
It was 1953. The United States, working with British intelligence, overthrew democratically-elected Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh in favor of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the “Shah of Iran.”
The CIA-engineered coupe d’état marked the first time the U.S. used covert means to undercut the leadership of another country. U.S. intelligence services dubbed the mission “Operation Ajax.”
It should surprise no one that the American encroachment had a lot to do with oil.
Toppling Pahlavi came back to bite the U.S. during the 1979 Revolution in Iran. Iranians ran the Shah off, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and took 52 Americans hostage for 444 days. Things haven’t gone well for the U.S. with Iran since.
The expression “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” comes to mind as the U.S. backed Iraq in a lengthy war it waged with Iran in the 1980s. The U.S. and other western nations sent significant monetary support to Baghdad to fuel the fight against Iran. The west also dispatched guns, helicopters and missiles. U.S. intelligence services helped bolster Iraq track Iranian troops.
President Reagan boasted that the U.S. “would do whatever was necessary to prevent Iraq from losing” to Iran.
Tensions between the U.S. and Iran escalated in 1987 and 1988. The U.S. began reflagging Kuwaiti tankers navigating the Persian Gulf and Straits of Hormuz. The U.S. Navy escorted the ships to protect them from attacks by Iranian forces. The U.S. skirmished with the Iranian military on several occasions – leading to the deployment of the U.S.S. Vincennes in the spring of 1988. That July, the Vincennes mistook the flight of a passenger jet for an Iranian F-14 Tomcat. As a result, the Vincennes fired two missiles at the airliner, killing nearly 300 passengers and crew on board.
The U.S. has been involved in formal wars in the Persian Gulf and nearby neighborhoods since 1991. It started with Congressional authorization for the Gulf War. Congress approved a broader “Authorization for Use of Military Force” (AUMF) in 2001, shortly after 9/11. That measure greenlighted the deployment of U.S. military personnel to Afghanistan and elsewhere to wage “the war on terror.” Then came a 2002 Congressional blessing for the 2003 war in Iraq. The U.S. is still fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan – and all over the world - as a result of the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs. But Congress has never specifically authorized any attack against Iran. Things got murkier earlier this winter when President Trump ordered a strike to kill Iranian General Qassem Soleimani – in Iraq.
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., has tried for years to revamp the 2001 and 2002 authorizations which the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump used to rationalize military intervention in a host of locales. Kaine and lawmakers from both parties contend the old authorizations are outmoded. Concern about the calcified authorizations grew after Trump called in the Soleimani strike. After that operation, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, trashed the administration for delivering what he characterized as the “worst” briefing he’d witnessed since coming to Washington.
“They were in the process of telling us that we need to be good little boys and girls and run along and not debate this in public,” excoriated Lee. “I find that absolutely insane. I think it’s unacceptable.”
Lee pressed Trump Administration officials for what they would see as a circumstance where they would have to ask Congress for a war declaration or an AUMF for Iran.
“’I’m sure we can think of something,’” one of the briefers told inquisitive lawmakers, according to Lee.
Over time, various administration officials and President Trump said the U.S. was justified in killing Soleimani because he posed an imminent threat. Late last week, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., blasted the administration for sending a report to Congress accounting for the legal justifications for knocking off Soleimani. But Engel said “the administration’s explanation in this report makes no mention of any imminent threat.” Engel called the Trump Administration’s accounting of the episode “spurious” and asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to testify on Feb. 28 “about war powers.”
As this unfolded, Kaine and others prepared a war powers resolution regarding Iran. Kaine’s measure would specifically limit potential U.S. military engagement in Iran to a month – unless Congress expressly signs off on additional fighting. The Senate approved the package late last week 55-45. All 47 Senate Democrats voted aye, joined by eight GOP senators: Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Rand Paul, R-Ky., Jerry Moran, R-Kan., Lisa Murkowski, R-Ark., Bill Cassidy, R-La., Todd Young, R-Ind., Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Lee.
“Clearly the resolution is not ready for prime time,” chastised Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., describing it as “deeply flawed on a number of levels.”
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said proponents of Kaine’s plan hoped to curb a war scenario with Iran. But Rubio believed adoption of the measure “potentially increases the chances of war.”
Rubio said he didn’t question the motives of Kaine and other senators who supported the resolution.
“The problem is that their intentions and how this will be perceived,” said Rubio. He said that Iran would interpret the resolution as hemming in President Trump at a time of anxiety in the region. Florida’s senior senator worried about the Senate undercutting the chief executive.
Still, the Senate adopted Kaine’s resolution, which some characterized as a bipartisan rebuke of the president. The measure now goes to the House. Lawmakers there likely will approve the package as well.
“Congress has a role to play,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., when it comes to war and peace. “We want to do it in a way that does not eliminate the power of declaring war from the Congress of the United States.”
But neither the House nor Senate have two-thirds to override a potential veto by the president.
Even so, supporters of the plan note that President Trump has said repeatedly he wants to end U.S. involvement in “endless wars.”
Shortly after the Senate closed the war powers vote, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said the resolution showed that “no president can sidestep Congress.” He added that presidents “cannot plunge the United States into an endless conflict in the Middle East.”
The U.S. is technically not engaged in hostilities with Iran. But the United States and Iran have waged a sort of “cold” war against one another since Operation Ajax. By the same token, the U.S. has fought in the Middle East, Iraq and Afghanistan for decades. It’s unfurled Congressional justifications for doing so which date back years. The circumvention of Congress continues. And, despite the vote, presidents can still plunge “the United States into an endless conflict in the Middle East.” The U.S. is already there. Things aren’t changing any time soon.
This is ironic. At the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia in 1787, the Founders ultimately decided to award the power “to declare war” to Congress. The thinking was that it should be hard to get into war – but easier to make peace.
But here, the opposite appears to be true.

Dershowitz: 'Obama personally asked the FBI to investigate somebody on behalf of George Soros'

Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz said Sunday he has proof that former President Barack Obama "personally asked" the FBI to investigate someone "on behalf of George Soros," the liberal billionaire megadonor. 
Dershowitz's claim came soon after Attorney General Bill Barr openly asked President Trump to stop tweeting about ongoing Justice Department matters, saying it made it "impossible" to do his job. Barr, who also maintained that Trump never personally intervened in a criminal matter, was hit last week by a letter from former DOJ officials organized by a leftwing group demanding his resignation.
"There was a lot of White House control of the Justice Department during the Kennedy administration and I don't think we saw very many liberal professors arguing against that," Dershowitz said in an interview with Breitbart News that aired Sunday on SiriusXM. "I have some information as well about the Obama administration – which will be disclosed in a lawsuit at some point, but I'm not prepared to disclose it now – about how President Obama personally asked the FBI to investigate somebody on behalf of George Soros, who was a close ally of his." He did not say specifically who the target might have been.
Dershowitz added: "We've seen this kind of White House influence on the Justice Department virtually in every Justice Department. The difference: This president is much more overt about it, he tweets about it. President Obama whispered to the Justice Department about it. And, I don't think these 1,000 former Justice Department officials would pass the shoe-on-the-other-foot test. Maybe some of them would, but a good many of them wouldn't."
Constitutionally, Dershowitz said, the president "could make a decision to really control the Justice Department" and decide specifically whom to prosecute and not to prosecute. The former member of Trump's impeachment defense team clarified, however, that it wouldn't be a good move.
"He shouldn't do it; it hasn't been done since Thomas Jefferson," Dershowitz said. "Thomas Jefferson did do it. We've seen this throughout our history."
Pressed on the claim that Obama pressed for an FBI probe, Dershowitz responded: "That's going to come out in a lawsuit in the near future, yeah. That is not unusual. People whisper to presidents all the time; presidents whisper to the Justice Department all the time. It's very common; it's wrong, whoever does it -- but it's common, and we shouldn't think it's unique to any particular president. I have in my possession the actual 302 [witness report] form which documents this issue and it will at the right time come out, but I'm not free to disclose it now because it's a case that's not yet been filed."
Many Democrats, meanwhile, have floated the idea of impeaching Barr. The Washington Post ran an op-ed slamming Barr for acting as Trump's "wingman" -- even though former Attorney General Eric Holder explicitly identified himself as Obama's "wingman."

Feel the Bernie Cartoons

Trump takes Daytona 500 warmup lap in presidential limousine

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump gave an election-year embrace to NASCAR and its fans Sunday when he became the second president ever to attend the Daytona 500. The presidential motorcade took to the track to join in a warm-up lap after he had told the crowd that the racers and their teams were competing “for pure American glory.”

Following a recitation of the opening command, “Gentleman, start your engines,″ Trump got into his black limousine for a ceremonial spin around Daytona International Speedway. He had joked moments earlier in a Fox interview that while as president, he was not allowed to drive his own car, ” I’m going to hop into one of these cars and I’m going to get into this race if possible. I love the idea.’’

Given the honor of grand marshal for the race, Trump gave thousands of fans a flyover of Air Force One and then rode onto the track in the presidential motorcade as the audience roared with delight. The motorcade took roughly a quarter lap before pulling aside in an infield staging area.

Asked what it was about NASCAR that he most enjoyed, the president said, ``I think it’s really the bravery of these people. ... it takes great courage.’’

President George W. Bush appeared at the race during his reelection year.

“For 500 heart-pounding miles these fierce competitors will chase the checkered flag ... and make their play for pure American glory, and that’s what it is, pure American glory,’’ Trump said before the race.

He said the Daytona 500 was ``a legendary display of roaring engines, soaring spirits and the American skill, speed and power that we’ve been hearing about for so many years. The tens of thousands of patriots here today have come for the fast cars and the world-class motorsports. But NASCAR fans never forget that no matter who wins the race, what matters most is God, family and country.’’

Trump’s reelection campaign planned to run an ad during the Fox broadcast of the race and fly an aerial banner near the speedway. About 100,000 people were expected to attend this year’s race while millions more watched on television. About 9 million people took in last year’s race on television.

Trump tweeted Sunday morning: “Getting ready to go to the Daytona 500. Will be GREAT!”

Trump left at about 3:40 p.m. and returned to Washington. The race was postponed after two lengthy rain delays totaling more than three hours. The race will now begin at 4 p.m. Monday.

After his return Sunday evening to Washington, Trump will embark later this coming week on a Western state swing that will take him to rallies in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Colorado Springs, Colorado. His Western trip begins Tuesday in California, where he’ll attend a fundraiser in Beverly Hills.

The trip is another demonstration of Trump’s willingness to campaign not just in conservative strongholds but in states that lean Democratic, particularly Colorado, where Republican Sen. Cory Gardner faces a tough reelection battle. Arizona is expected to be a key swing state in the presidential election with its growing population of Hispanic voters.

Rival Democrats accuse Bloomberg of trying to ‘buy’ election

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — With the Nevada caucuses less than a week away, Democratic presidential candidates campaigning this weekend were fixated on a rival who wasn’t contesting the state.

Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg all targeted billionaire Mike Bloomberg, accusing him of buying his way into the election and making clear they were eager to take him on in a debate.

“He thinks he can buy this election,” Sanders said of the former New York mayor at a Sunday rally in Carson City, Nevada. “Well, I’ve got news for Mr. Bloomberg — the American people are sick and tired of billionaires buying elections!”

Their attacks are a sign of how seriously the field is starting to take Bloomberg as he gains traction in the race and is on the cusp of qualifying for Wednesday’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas. Bloomberg has bypassed the traditional early voting states including Nevada, focusing instead on the 14 states that vote in the Super Tuesday primary on March 3. He has spent more than $417 million of his own multibillion-dollar fortune on advertising nationwide, an unprecedented sum for any candidate in a primary.

The focus on Bloomberg comes amid anxiety among many establishment-aligned Democrats over the early strength of Sanders, who won last week’s New Hampshire primary and essentially tied for first place in Iowa with Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Sanders is hoping to notch a victory in Nevada on Saturday as moderates struggle to unite behind a candidate who could serve as a counter to the Vermont senator, who has long identified as a democratic socialist.

The hundreds of millions of dollars that Bloomberg has pumped into the Super Tuesday states has only heightened the sense of uncertainty surrounding the Democratic race.

At Sanders’ rally, the crowded cheered as the Vermont senator joked that Bloomberg is “struggling, he’s down to his last $60 billion” and derided him for skipping the early primary states.

It marked an escalation of the salvo Sanders launched Saturday against the former mayor, when he ticked off a litany of conservative positions Bloomberg has taken in the past, including opposing a minimum wage hike and his opposition to a number of Barack Obama’s policies while president. On Saturday, Sanders suggested the former mayor’s past conservatism and controversial comments make him a weak candidate against President Donald Trump, charging that Bloomberg, “with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need” to beat Trump.

And on Sunday, he was joined by the current mayor of New York, Bill de Blasio, who just this week endorsed Sanders. De Blasio introduced Sanders with an attack of his own on his predecessor, telling the crowd, “I’m sorry to report to you the chief proponent of stop and frisk is now running for president.”

Klobuchar, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” accused Bloomberg of avoiding scrutiny by blanketing the airwaves and sidestepping debates or tough televised interviews.

“I think he cannot hide behind the airwaves and the money,” she said. “I think he has to come on the shows. And I personally think he should be on the debate stage.”

Klobuchar said she’s raised $12 million since her better-than-expected finish in third place in New Hampshire. She’s maintained her campaign through a series of strong debate performances and argued that Bloomberg being on stage with his rivals would level the playing field.

“I’m never going to beat him on the airwaves, but I can beat him on the debate stage,” she said.

Biden, speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” suggested that Bloomberg will face increased scrutiny as the race continues, pointing to his record on issues relating to race.

“$60 billion can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can’t erase your record,” he said.

Biden knocked Bloomberg’s past support of stop-and-frisk policing policies and his comments suggesting cracking down on racist mortgage lending practices, known as “redlining,” contributed to the financial crisis, as well as his 2008 refusal to endorse Barack Obama for president. Bloomberg has been airing ads that tie him closely to Obama on issues like gun control and climate change.

When asked on MSNBC about whether Bloomberg shares the values of the Democratic Party, Warren also went after the former mayor over his comments on redlining, declaring that “anyone who is out there trying to blame African Americans for the financial crash of 2008...is not someone who should be representing our party.”

Buttigieg likened Bloomberg to Trump when asked about reports that Bloomberg made sexist comments towards women and fostered a culture of sexism at his company.

“I think he’s going to have to answer for that and speak to it,” Buttigieg said.

He later added: “Look, this is a time where voters are looking for a president who can lead us out of the days when it was just commonplace or accepted to have these kinds of sexist and discriminatory attitudes. Right now, this is our chance to do something different.”

But even as the front-running candidates kept one eye on their Super Tuesday showdown with Bloomberg, they also focused on the more immediate task of winning over minority voters, who will play a pivotal role in the contests in Nevada and South Carolina.

Biden reminded older parishioners at the First African Methodist Episcopal Church in North Las Vegas of 1960s television footage of black protesters in Birmingham, Alabama, being attacked by police dogs and sprayed with fire hoses on the orders of city official Bull Connor.

Biden said today’s racists are not “Bull Connors, not out in overalls. They’re wearing fine suits, and they’re living in the White House.”

The former vice president is relying on his strength among black voters and an explicit appeal to Latinos and other minorities to deliver him a strong showing in the coming contests after posting disappointing finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, which both feature electorates that are whiter on average than the national population.

Biden has been hammering home the need for any Democratic candidate to appeal to voters of color. On Sunday, he told black lawmakers and other political figures at the Nevada Black Legislative Caucus’s Black History Month observance that “the black community has in its power to determine who the next president of the United States is going to be.”

Nevada and South Carolina are also a key test for Buttigieg and Klobuchar, who have thus far ridden on momentum from stronger-than-expected finishes in Iowa and New Hampshire, respectively, but have both faced questions about their appeal to minority voters.

On Sunday, when asked to name a mistake he had made as mayor, Buttigieg acknowledged that he failed to recognize the pain that his decisions made, particularly for communities of color.

“I was laser-focused on making sure we did the right thing legally ... I didn’t always hear the voices who were talking about the story behind the story,” Buttigieg said. “I was a data guy.”

Later that day, at a luncheon for the Nevada Legislative Black Caucus, Buttigieg said he was proud of his work with black leaders in his city to deliver affordable housing and improve the black unemployment rate, but he said he was “humbled by the work left to do.”

___

Jaffe reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Jonathan Cooper and Bill Barrow in Las Vegas contributed to this report.

One thing unites establishment Democrats: Fear of Sanders

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A growing number of Democratic lawmakers, union officials, state leaders and party strategists agree that Bernie Sanders is a risky nominee to put up against President Donald Trump. There’s less agreement about whether — and how — to stop him.

Critics of the Vermont senator, who has long identified as a democratic socialist, are further than they’ve ever been from unifying behind a moderate alternative. None of the viable centrists in the race is eager to exit the campaign to clear a path for a candidate to become a clear counter to Sanders. And Sanders is looking to Saturday’s Nevada caucuses to post another win that would further his status as an early front-runner.

With fear and frustration rising in the party’s establishment wing, a high-stakes math problem is emerging. It could be impossible to blunt Sanders as long as a trio of moderate candidates — former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, former Vice President Joe Biden and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar — stay in the race. And with former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg pumping hundreds of millions of dollars into the swath of states that vote on Super Tuesday, March 3, the effort to stop Sanders will become even more challenging when the campaign goes national next month.

“You see this tremendous angst in the party — ‘What are we going to do?’” said Terry McAuliffe, a former Virginia governor who was also chairman of the Democratic National Committee. “We need to unify as fast as we can.”

The dynamic is complicated because each of the major moderate candidates has glaring vulnerabilities.

Biden began the campaign as a front-runner, but the aura around his operation took a hit after a fourth-place finish in Iowa gave way to a fifth-place finish in New Hampshire. Buttigieg has proved to be the most effective centrist in raising money from the party’s traditional high-dollar donors, which puts him in a strong position to compete in an expensive national contest. But the 38-year-old faces linger questions about his experience and his ability to win support from black and Latino voters, a challenge that could come into greater focus if Buttigieg loses badly in Nevada and South Carolina.

Kloubchar is newly emboldened after a third-place finish in New Hampshire, but she too has little support among minority voters and has largely run a bare-bones campaign operation.

“When you have three or four candidates in that same lane, math becomes a problem,” said Harold Schaitberger, general president of the International Association of Firefighters and a Biden loyalist, who admits being “disappointed” by Biden’s bad performances and Sanders’ rise.

Though the opening contests of the primary have only begun, time may quickly run out for a moderate alternative to emerge.

By the end of Super Tuesday, more than one third of all delegates will be awarded. Should Sanders build a significant delegate lead — and his strength in California alone makes that possible — it would be very difficult for any other candidate to catch him in the slew of state-by-state elections that follow based on the way delegates are apportioned.

“We have a lot of good candidates, but in general we’re incredibly frustrated that the field hasn’t winnowed,” said Robert Wolf, a major fundraiser for Barack Obama, who said he has donated money this cycle to more than a dozen Democrats. Sanders is not one of them.

The situation is similar to the Republican primary in 2016, when several anti-Trump alternatives divided their party’s moderate vote and allowed Trump to become the nominee despite failing to win a majority of the vote in early primary contests.

There is no significant movement in the works to stop Sanders. And so long as there are a half-dozen viable candidates in the race, it may not matter if there were.

Sanders’ team expects his Democratic critics and their allies to intensify their attacks in the coming weeks, although they suggest time may be on their side with Super Tuesday just two weeks away. If Sanders comes out of Super Tuesday with a 100-delegate lead, which is possible based on his popularity in California alone, they believe it would be virtually impossible for anyone to catch up before the party’s national convention in July.

Sanders was showing new signs of confidence as he campaigned over the weekend in Nevada ahead of the state’s caucuses next Saturday. Rallying supporters in Carson City on Sunday, he declared he could win Nevada, then California and the Democratic nomination and highlighted attempts from his rivals in both parties to stop him.

“I’ve been attacked by the media establishment, I’ve been attacked by the corporate establishment, I’ve been attacked by the Republican establishment, I’ve been attacked by the Democratic establishment, and they’re nervous,” Sanders said.

Sanders told The Associated Press last week that he was ramping up his outreach to other lawmakers and party officials who have been skeptical of his White House bid, although he offered no details. The senator has also agreed to host at least two fundraisers for the Democratic National Committee, which he had previously resisted.

Asked about the response he was getting to the establishment outreach, Sanders said: “I think we’re going to do just fine.”

Yet as Sanders’ strength grows in the early voting states, there is no evidence that his standing is improving among the party’s skeptical political class. Several elected officials in recent days have raised concerns about his ability to beat Trump and his impact on other Democrats running for election this fall.

The competition for endorsements helps tell the story of the moderate muddle.

Since Biden’s underwhelming finish in Iowa, Sanders hasn’t received a single congressional endorsement. Buttigieg and Klobuchar, who have shown some strength on the campaign trail, have earned just one congressional endorsement each.

Over that same time, at least seven congressional endorsements have gone to Bloomberg, a 78-year-old former Republican who is threatening to become a top-tier candidate even after skipping all four February primary contests.

Steve Shurtleff, a Biden backer and the speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives, believes Buttigieg and Klobuchar are the new leaders in the party’s moderate wing, while Bloomberg is making a case.

As for Sanders, Shurtleff noted that most New Hampshire voters supported somebody else. Indeed, Sanders won last week’s primary with just 26% of the vote, a low bar made possible because his moderate alternatives split up the rest of the electorate.

“It’s very crowded in that lane,” Shurtleff said. “It’s really kind of a conundrum.”

Just don’t ask any of Sanders’ rivals to step aside.

An energized Klobuchar said in an interview that her third-place finish in New Hampshire left her “as scrappy as I was when I started.”

She shrugged off any concerns about moderates dividing the vote. And she highlighted her strengths in Nevada, where she and Biden earned the endorsement of the state’s largest newspaper and may benefit from the success of female candidates. Both of the state’s U.S. senators are women and the state legislature is majority female.

“I don’t think it’s as simple as two lanes,” she said in an interview. “Everyone brings something else to this.”

___

Fram reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Nicholas Riccardi in Carson City, Nevada, contributed to this report.

Chartered flights carrying quarantined passengers arrive in US; 14 Americans infected, isolated

Both State Department-chartered flights carrying Americans from the coronavirus-infected Diamond Princess cruise ship arrived in the U.S overnight. The first plane touched down at Travis Air Force Base in California just before 11:30 p.m. local time. The second flight landed at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas roughly 2 1/2 hours later.
Hundreds of American passengers who had been quarantined on the cruise ship left Japan Monday on two planes en route to the United States -- with 14 of the passengers infected and isolated in a "specialized containment area." It's not clear which flight the infected were on.
"During the evacuation process, after passengers had disembarked the ship and initiated transport to the airport, U.S. officials received notice that 14 passengers, who had been tested 2-3 days earlier, had tested positive for COVID-19. These individuals were moved in the most expeditious and safe manner to a specialized containment area on the evacuation aircraft to isolate them in accordance with standard protocols," the U.S. Department of State said in a release.
"After consultation with [Health and Human Services] HHS officials, including experts from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, the State Department made the decision to allow the 14 individuals, who were in isolation, separated from other passengers, and continued to be asymptomatic, to remain on the aircraft to complete the evacuation process," it added.
The 46 Americans who tested positive on the cruise ship were told to remain in Japan to be treated for the virus that has killed an estimated 1,765 people and infected more than 70,000 globally, according to Princess Cruise media relations. Buses had transported U.S passengers -- with the assistance of Japanese troops -- from the ship to Haneda Airport in Tokyo.

 Buses carrying passengers from the quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship leaving a port in Yokohama on Monday. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

Health officials said they screened all passengers prior to boarding the flights and no symptomatic or infected travelers were allowed onboard.
So far, 355 people have tested positive for the virus on the Diamond Princess after doctors found 67 new cases Sunday.

An airplane chartered by the U.S. government taking off at Haneda Airport in Tokyo with U.S. passengers who were aboard the quarantined cruise ship. (Sadayuki Goto/Kyodo News via AP)

About 380 Americans and family members were on the ship when it was quarantined on Feb. 5. It's unclear exactly how many U.S. citizens have tested positive for the virus other than the 46 reportedly infected.
"All travelers on these flights were screened for symptoms prior to departure and will be subject to [the] Centers for Disease Control (CDC) screening, health observation, and monitoring requirements. Only those who were asymptomatic were allowed to board the flights," a State Department spokesperson said.

A bus carrying U.S. passengers who were aboard the quarantined cruise ship the Diamond Princess arriving at Haneda Airport in Tokyo. (Sadayuki Goto/Kyodo News via AP)

Passengers were quarantined for 14 days on the ship, which is considered the virus's incubation period. They are expected to be quarantined for 14 additional days upon arrival at either base.
The bases in California and Texas were selected to ensure facilities were available immediately to treat their medical needs, according to the U.S. Embassy in Toyko.

Buses carrying U.S. passengers who were aboard the quarantined cruise ship the Diamond Princess, seen in the background. (Jun Hirata/Kyodo News via AP)

The chartered flights were the only opportunities for passengers to fly to the U.S until March 4, embassy officials said. The remaining passengers are expected to depart the ship this coming Wednesday.
Fox News' Vicki Choi and Rich Edson contributed to this report.