Oregon coronavirus patient is grade-school employee; school closed for deep cleaning, officials say

An elementary school in Oregon will remain closed through Wednesday after an employee became the first presumptive case of coronavirus in the state, the Lake Oswego School District confirmed on its website.
The district said its 430-student Forest Hills Elementary School in Lake Oswego, just south of Portland, will be closed so it can be deep-cleaned and so students and staff, who the Oregon Health Authority said may have been exposed to the virus, can be contacted by school officials, FOX 12 of Oregon reported.
"I was honestly both alarmed and surprised. I mean, you hear things like that on the news, but you don’t expect it to just plop right down, essentially on your doorstep," Sam Sewright, a former student of the school, told the station. "I live like five blocks away."

"You hear things like that on the news, but you don’t expect it to just plop right down, essentially on your doorstep."
— Sam Sewright, former student of closed Oregon school

The patient apparently contracted the virus through community transmission, meaning the patient hadn’t traveled to any other country known to have coronavirus cases and was not in contact with anyone with a confirmed case, Oregon Live reported.
The patient’s symptoms started Feb. 19, although those with the virus can be contagious before they exhibit symptoms, FOX 12 reported. The patient on Friday night was in isolation at Kaiser Permanente Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro, Ore., health officials told the station.
The district said Friday that all weekend activities for its schools would be canceled out of an abundance of caution.
"We anticipate all schools to be open on Monday, March 1, except Forest Hills,” the district said in a statement, according to FOX 12. Forest Hills will remain closed through Wednesday, March 3," according to a district statement.
A second “community-spread” coronavirus case was confirmed in California on Friday and later Washington state officials announced two new cases of the virus, including one of unknown origin.
Cases are presumptive until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirm a positive test result.

Stock Market Cartoons

Global stocks fall on virus fears after Wall Street plunge

Global stock markets plunged further Friday on spreading virus fears, deepening a global rout after Wall Street endured its biggest one-day drop in nine years.

Germany’s DAX skidded more than 5%, Tokyo and Shanghai closed 3.7% lower and New York markets looked set for more losses with the futures for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 down 2.3%.

Investors had been growing confident the disease that emerged in China in December might be under control. But outbreaks in Italy, South Korea, Japan and Iran have fueled fears the virus is turning into a global threat that might derail trade and industry.

Anxiety intensified Thursday when the United States reported its first virus case in someone who hadn’t traveled abroad or been in contact with anyone who had.

Virus fears “have become full-blown across the globe as cases outside China climb,” Chang Wei Liang and Eugene Leow of DBS said in a report.

In early trading, London’s FTSE 100 sank 2.8% to 6,602.24 and Frankfurt’s DAX tumbled 5% to 11,750.10. France’s CAC 40 lost 3.9% to 5,274.32.

Markets in China and Hong Kong had been doing relatively well despite virus fears. Mainland markets were flooded with credit by authorities to shore up prices after trading resumed following an extended Lunar New Year holiday. Chinese investor sentiment also has been buoyed by promises of lower interest rates, tax breaks and other aid to help revive manufacturing and other industries.

But now, major companies are issuing profit warnings, saying factory shutdowns in China are disrupting supply chains. They say travel bans and other anti-disease measures are hurting sales in China, an increasingly vital consumer market.

In Asian trading on Friday, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo tumbled 3.7% to 21,142.96 and the Shanghai Composite Index also fell 3.7%, to 2,880.30. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 2.5% to 26,129.93.

The Kospi in Seoul fell 3.3% to 1,987.01 and Sydney’s S&P-ASX 200 sank 3.2% to 6,441.2. India’s Sensex skidded 3.6% to 38,331.87. New Zealand and Southeast Asian markets also retreated.

On Thursday, the S&P 500 fell 4.4% to 2,978.76. The index is down 12% from its all-time high a week ago, putting the market into what traders call a correction.

Some analysts have said that was overdue in a record-setting bull market, though Mizuho Bank noted hitting that status in just six days was “the fastest correction since the Great Depression” in the 1930s.

Investors came into 2020 feeling confident the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates at low levels and the U.S.-China trade war posed less of a threat to company profits after the two sides signed a truce in January.

The market’s sharp drop this week partly reflects increasing fears among many economists that the U.S. and global economies could take a bigger hit from the coronavirus than previously thought, weakening consumer confidence and depressing spending.

The Dow shed 1,190.95 points on Thursday, its largest one-day point drop in history, bringing its loss for the week to 3,225.77 points, or 11.1%. To put that in perspective, the Dow’s 508-point loss on Oct. 19, 1987, was equal to 22.6%.

“It is a race to the bottom for U.S. indices,” Jingyi Pan of IG said in a report. “It may still be too early to call a bottom given the uncertainty around the matter of the coronavirus impact.”

U.S. bond prices soared Thursday as investors fled to safe investments. The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note, or the difference between the market price and what an investor will be paid if the bond is held to maturity, fell to a record low of 1.16%.

A shrinking yield caused by investors shifting money into the relative safety of bonds and pushing up their market price is a sign of weakening confidence in the economy.

Most access to the city of Wuhan, a manufacturing hub of 11 million people at the center of the outbreak, was suspended Jan. 23. The Lunar New Year holiday was extended to keep factories and offices closed. The government told the public to stay home.

China has begun trying to reopen factories and other businesses in areas with low risk after shutting down much of its economy to stem the spread of the infection. Travel controls remain in effect in many areas and elsewhere governments are tightening anti-disease controls as new cases mount.

Japan is preparing to close schools nationwide and officials on the northern island of Hokkaido, where there are more than 60 confirmed cases of the virus, declared a state of emergency and asked residents to stay home over the weekend if possible. Saudi Arabia has banned foreign pilgrims from entering the kingdom to visit Islam’s holiest sites. Italy has become the center of the outbreak in Europe.

“The more countries that are faced with fighting a pandemic, the wider the potential for economic disruption and potential for increased recessionary risks,” said Tai Hui of J.P. Morgan Asset Management in a report.

In energy markets Friday, benchmark U.S. crude fell $2.09 to $45.00 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract lost $1.64 on Thursday to settle at $47.09. Brent crude oil, used to price international oils, sank $2.05 to $49.68 per barrel in London. It declined $1.25 the previous session to $52.18 a barrel.

The dollar declined to 108.57 yen from Thursday’s 109.58 yen. The euro gained to $1.1054 from $1.0998.

Adam Schiff neglecting his district’s homeless crisis, GOP challenger says

While U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff has been trying to impeach President Trump, the homeless crisis in his California congressional district has remained unaddressed, a candidate looking to replace Schiff said this week.
Eric Early, a Republican hoping to represent the state’s 28th Congressional District in the next Congress, talked about the area’s problems while touring the district with a reporter from FOX 11 of Los Angeles.
The challenger accused Schiff – who drew national media attention last year as the face of House Democrats’ efforts to remove Trump from office – of being too focused on Capitol Hill politics instead of the daily wellbeing of people he was elected to represent.
“He’s spent too much time in Washington seeking the limelight,” Early, a Los Angeles-area attorney, said of Schiff. “It’s time for a congressman to be here who actually cares about our district.”

“He’s spent too much time in Washington seeking the limelight. It’s time for a congressman to be here who actually cares about our district.”
— Eric Early, GOP candidate for Adam Schiff's U.S. House seat

Some have accused Schiff of trying to position himself to eventually run for the U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who will turn 87 in June.
During the tour of streets north of downtown L.A., Early showed FOX 11 examples of drug use, mental health problems and other social ills that Schiff’s constituents grapple with every day.
One homeless man told Early he couldn’t afford to pay for colon cancer treatment, while a young woman said her mother was fighting drug addiction and her father was in prison.
“It’s a mess out here, it’s terrible,” Early said, accusing Schiff of being unresponsive to the community’s needs.
“He’s done nothing, or virtually nothing, for our district,” Early said. “Certainly not a darn thing for homelessness.”
With a University of Southern California poll showing the homelessness issue to be the No. 1 concern of the district’s voters, Early said he plans to draw attention to the problem as he works to block Schiff’s reelection.
Schiff’s team pushed back against Early’s accusations, however. They noted that the longtime congressman – a native of Massachusetts who later lived in Arizona before moving to California -- recently participated in a roundtable discussion on affordable housing for the district and has introduced bills in Congress to address homelessness.

The Schiff campaign characterized Early as someone who was an operative of the Trump administration, taking on one of the president’s most vocal critics.
“These attacks from Eric Early, who is from out of the district and knows little of our community, are characteristic of someone who once described himself as Trump’s biggest supporter in California,” Schiff’s campaign wrote to FOX 11. “They may please Trump, but do not impress our constituents.”
Early, however, countered that he believed more voters would support him because he thinks most of the district’s residents are eager to see the homelessness problem fixed. He said he would improve the current system for dealing with the mentally ill, and support legislation to remove the homeless from the streets if they refuse to accept help.
“We need somebody strong enough to fight and say we are going to forcibly move these people off the streets if they don’t come voluntarily,” Early told FOX 11. “That may not look quote-unquote compassionate but I believe it’s much more compassionate than leaving these folks out here to die.”

Joe Biden under probe in Ukraine for alleged link to top prosecutor’s 2016 ouster: report

Investigators in Ukraine have launched a probe into former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden over allegations that he pressured Ukrainian officials to fire the country’s top prosecutor in 2016, according to a report.
The Ukrainian probe was launched in response to a court order, after the ousted prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, made an appeal for action in the matter, Shokin’s attorney, Oleksandr Teleshetsky, told The Washington Post.
“They need to investigate this. They have no other alternative,” Teleshetsky told the Post. “They are required to do this by the decision of the court. If they don't, then they violate a whole string of procedural norms.”

“They need to investigate this. They have no other alternative. They are required to do this by the decision of the court. If they don't, then they violate a whole string of procedural norms.”
— Oleksandr Teleshetsky, attorney for ousted Ukrainian prosecutor

Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigations confirmed a probe was underway, the Post reported.
Shokin has long objected to his removal, claiming Biden – who’s now running for president -- pushed for his firing because the prosecutor tried to investigate Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian gas company where Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, was a highly paid board member, reportedly receiving $83,000 per month.
Both Bidens have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in connection with Ukraine. Hunter Biden pledged last year to avoid business deals with foreign entities if his father becomes president.
In a video from a Council on Foreign Relations event in 2018, Biden is heard bragging about using his influence to get Shokin fired, including threatening to call back a $1 billion loan from the U.S. government to Ukraine if the firing didn’t happen.
“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden says in the video, referring to a conversation with then-Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko.
“Well, son of a b----, he got fired,” Biden adds. “And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
Shokin’s removal during the Obama era was done in coordination with the U.S. State Department, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, the Post reported.
Last summer, President Trump asked Ukraine’s current president, Volodymyr Zelensky, to launch an investigation into the Bidens regarding their dealings in the country – a request that House Democrats said amounted to a “quid pro quo” arrangement, alleging that Trump had threatened to withhold U.S. aid if Ukraine did not comply with the president’s wishes.
The House Democrats’ allegations became the basis of their impeachment of Trump, on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, in a party-line vote Dec. 18. But the Senate ultimately acquitted the president Feb. 5, again mostly along party lines.
Shokin mentioned Joe Biden by name while making his request for an investigation but case documents prepared by the State Bureau of Investigations refer only to an unnamed U.S. citizen, Teleshetsky told the Post.

Pence tells 'Hannity' risk of coronavirus spread in US 'remains low' thanks to Trump's 'decisive action'

Vice President Mike Pence told Fox News' Sean Hannity in an exclusive interview Thursday that "the risk of the spread of coronavirus in the United States of America remains low" and credited what he called "decisive action" by President Trump earlier this year.
"We continue to prepare for whatever may come, but the reality is that because of the actions that President Trump took ... literally, you know, ending travel, closing our borders to people coming in from China, establishing a quarantine process, setting up a task force," Pence said. "I mean if the president hadn’t taken those unprecedented steps we’d be in a very different place today, Sean."
At a news conference Wednesday, Trump announced that Pence was in charge of coordinating the federal government's response to the outbreak, nearly one month after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared the coronavirus to be a public health emergency on Jan. 31.
"When we first received word of the outbreak of the coronavirus shortly after the first of the year, " Pence recounted. "The -- the health team came in. I was there in the Oval Office, and they said to the president, 'Look ... what we ought to do is we ought to end air travel, we ought to close our border and we ought to establish a quarantining process for any American citizens that we allow back in.'
"And they said, 'No president has ever done this before, but we’re recommending out of an abundance of caution that you do it.' And President Trump didn’t hesitate for one second. He said, 'Do it.' ... our health experts told me again yesterday when we huddled right after that [Wednesday] press briefing for the first time -- they said we would be in a very different place today if President Trump hadn’t taken the decisive action that we had.
"And today, we haven’t had a new case for the last two weeks until the word that reached the public in the last 24 hours," Pence added. "We’ve had 15 cases in this country. People are being treated and -- and doing well."
Pence also said the White House is hopeful that Republicans and Democrats will put politics aside to deal with the outbreak, saying that both parties can do what the American people want them to do on the issue.
"We continue to hope that we’ll see, not just Republicans, but Democrats dial down the rhetoric and -- and come alongside the president as we work the problem. That’s going to be our objective," Pence told host Sean Hannity. "We have an opportunity to do exactly what the American people want us to do and -- and that is [to] keep the politics out of this, follow the facts, follow the science and work the problem."
The vice president said Trump asked him to reach out to Democratic leaders in Congress, particularly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. about efforts to counter the in an effort to "push politics aside." Pence told Hannity he had "good conversations" with both leaders.
"Look, the President said to me, 'Look I want you to reach out to the Republican and Democrat leadership,'" Pence said, "Because we want to push politics aside, we want to make sure we get the resources that we need to respond to this to make sure that the CDC, all of our agencies, have the support that they need."
CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE  CORONAVIRUS COVERAGE
Pelosi criticized the White House’s emergency planning as “inadequate" Monday while Schumer said the administration's response was "towering and dangerous incompetence" on the Senate floor Tuesday.
At Wednesday's press briefing, Trump accused Pelosi and Schumer of politicizing the coronavirus issue, calling Pelosi "incompetent" and accusing her of trying to cause panic.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told a congressional subcommittee on Wednesday that the risk of contracting the coronavirus in the United States remains low, but warned that the country will most likely see more cases as the outbreak spreads globally.
Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.

Labor Union Cartoons

Labor union unveils $150M campaign to help defeat Trump

President Donald Trump with members of the president's coronavirus task force speaks during a news conference at the Brady press briefing room of the White House, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the nation’s largest labor unions is unveiling plans to invest $150 million in a nationwide campaign to help defeat President Donald Trump, a sweeping effort focused on eight battleground states and voters of color who typically don’t vote.

The investment marks the largest voter engagement and turnout operation in the history of the Service Employees International Union, which claims nearly 2 million members. The scope of the campaign, which quietly launched last month and will run through November’s general election, reflects the urgency of what union president Mary Kay Henry calls “a make-or-break” moment for working people in America under Trump’s leadership.

“He’s systematically unwinding and attacking unions. Federal workers rights have been totally eviscerated under his watch,” Henry said in an interview. “We are on fire about the rules being rigged against us and needing to elect people that are going to stand with workers.”

The union’s campaign will span 40 states and target 6 million voters focused largely in Colorado, Florida, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin, according to details of the plan shared with The Associated Press. The union and its local members will pay particular attention to two key urban battlegrounds they believe will play a defining role in the 2020 general election: Detroit and Milwaukee. There may be some television advertising, but the investment will focus primarily on direct contact and online advertising targeting minority men and women who typically don’t vote.

Few groups of voters will be more important in the 2020 general election. Trump won the presidency four years ago largely because of his popularity with working-class whites and a drop-off in turnout from minority voters.

The union’s political director, Maria Peralta, noted that Trump’s campaign has been working effectively in recent months to win over some minority voters, particularly men, who have traditionally voted Democratic.

“He’s going after our communities in ways that are pervasive. We’re deeply aware of that,” Peralta said. “They’re talking about the strength of the economy.”

The Service Employees International Union, like the Democratic Party and its allies across the nation, faces significant headwinds in its fight to deny Trump a second term. Voters who may dislike his overall job performance are generally pleased with his leadership on the economy, and unemployment for black Americans has hit record lows in recent months.

At the same time, Trump’s campaign is far ahead of where it was four years ago, when it had little national organization.

On Wednesday, the Trump campaign announced plans to open 15 “Black Voices for Trump Community Centers” in battleground states and major cities, including Michigan and Wisconsin. The offices will feature a line of campaign swag adopting the “woke” label, and videos of prominent Trump surrogates like online stars Diamond and Silk explaining their support for the president and pamphlets outlining the president’s record.

SEIU is the most diverse union in the United States. The union’s membership features those who work in health care, food service, janitorial services and state and local government workers, among others. Half its members are people of color, and more than half make less than $15 an hour.

The 2020 investment is designed to benefit Democrats up and down the ballot this fall, though defeating Trump stands as a primary goal.

That said, SEIU’s political team has determined that a message simply attacking Trump isn’t effective with its target audience, which includes a significant number of conservatives.

“We don’t want to get too caught up in the Trump bashing,” Peralta said. “Data shows people care about wages, and they care about health care across the board.”

The union also determined that it’s particularly effective to highlight Trump’s work to weaken labor unions and conditions for working-class Americans.

After campaigning for a higher minimum wage, Trump has done little to raise the federal minimum wage, which has been stuck at $7.25 for more than a decade. His administration has also taken steps to make it harder for new groups of workers to form unions. And labor officials have decried his appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the Supreme Court, which dealt a huge blow to labor in 2018 by ruling that government workers no longer could be required to pay union fees.

When asked, Henry had little to say about the specific Democratic presidential contenders fighting for the chance to take on Trump. SEIU may endorse a candidate in the coming months, she said, but it has decided to stay out of the messy nomination fight for now.

“We’re trying to figure out, inside our union as we walk through Super Tuesday and through March, what do working people and our members think about the choice in the field,” Henry said.

Baltimore ex-mayor releases apology video ahead of Thursday sentencing: ‘I really messed up’

Catherine Pugh, a former mayor of Baltimore who is scheduled to be sentenced Thursday following her conviction on federal tax evasion and conspiracy charges, apologizes for her crimes in a 13-minute video that went public Wednesday.
“I accept responsibility,” Pugh says in the video, among the public materials being reviewed the judge who will determine her punishment, according to Baltimore’s FOX 45.
“I accept total responsibility. I pled guilty and I’m sorry. I don’t know any other words that could be strong. I am so sorry,” Pugh says.

“I accept total responsibility. I pled guilty and I’m sorry. I don’t know any other words that could be strong. I am so sorry.” 
— Catherine Pugh, former Baltimore mayor

The former mayor, who will turn 70 on March 10, resigned last May after taking an indefinite leave of absence a month earlier, claiming health problems, as pressure mounted on her following allegations that she profited from questionable sales of large quantities of the “Healthy Holly” children’s books she authored.
She was ultimately indicted last November on 11 counts of charges that included tax evasion, conspiracy and fraud, and pleaded guilty to four charges the following day.
The collapse of Pugh’s mayoralty was another black eye for Baltimore, a crime- and poverty-plagued city that saw a previous mayor, Sheila Dixon, resign in 2010 after her conviction on embezzling gift cards intended for poor people.
Dixon later tried to regain the mayor’s office after completing her probation but was defeated by Pugh in the city’s 2016 Democratic primary. The mayor who served between Dixon and Pugh – Stephanie Rawlings-Blake -- decided not to seek re-election in 2016, following a tumultuous term that included criticism for her handling of riots in the city in reaction to the death of Freddie Gray, a black man who died while in police custody.
According to authorities, Pugh received $500,000 from the University of Maryland Medical System, where she was a board member, for 100,000 copies of her books, but there was no contract, and the system described some of the purchases as “grants" in federal filings. She returned her most recent $100,000 payment and described the deal as a “regrettable mistake.”
Health care provider Kaiser Permanente also disclosed that it had paid Pugh's Healthy Holly LLC about $114,000 between 2015 and 2018 for about 20,000 copies of her books. Pugh oversaw Baltimore's spending board in 2017, when the city awarded a $48 million contract to the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan for the Mid-Atlantic States Inc.
“I messed up. I really messed up,” Pugh says in the video, according to The Baltimore Sun.

“I messed up. I really messed up.”
— Catherine Pugh, former Baltimore mayor

The video also includes biographical details about Pugh, as well as statements from others who defend Pugh’s character. Among them are the late U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, who made his remarks at Pugh’s mayoral inauguration. (Cummings died last October at age 68.)
Prosecutors have recommended a sentence of five years in prison for Pugh, according to FOX 45.
Fox News’ Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this story.

Hillary Clinton took more cash from Harvey Weinstein than any other Democrat

WASHINGTON — Hillary Clinton raked-in more cash from convicted rapist Harvey Weinstein than any other politician despite brushing off his donations by claiming he gave money to “every” Democrat.
Federal Election Commission filings show the disgraced movie mogul bundled $1.4 million for Clinton during her presidential bid in 2016 and handed her another $73,390 dating back to her 1999 New York Senate seat run.
On Tuesday, the former first lady defended her long relationship with the sex creep, quickly deflecting scrutiny from reporters by noting that Weinstein also raised funds for Barack Obama, John Kerry and Al Gore during their presidential bids.
“He contributed to every Democrat’s campaign,” Clinton said at screening of her new film “Hillary” at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday, one day after Weinstein, 67, was found guilty on rape charges.
“He contributed to Barack Obama’s campaign, and John Kerry’s campaign and Al Gore’s campaign and everybody’s campaign,” Clinton added.

“He contributed to every Democrat’s campaign. He contributed to Barack Obama’s campaign, and John Kerry’s campaign and Al Gore’s campaign and everybody’s campaign.” 
— Hillary Clinton

The Miramax founder raised $72,100 for Obama but only bundled $679,000 for his 2012 reelection bid — half of what he raised for Clinton, the FEC data shows.
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, bundlers are “people with friends in high places who, after bumping against personal contribution limits, turn to those friends, associates, and, well, anyone who’s willing to give, and deliver the checks to the candidate.”
The generous donor also made five-figure contributions to Democrat lawmakers such as Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand, who replaced Clinton as the junior senator for New York, and Chuck Schumer, Cory Booker of New Jersey, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Patrick Leahy of Vermont.
Booker pocketed $17,800, Schumer $14,200, Gillibrand $11,000, Leahy $5,600 and Blumenthal $5,400.
The Democratic National Committee also received $305,149 from Weinstein dating back to 1994. In total, the disgraced movie producer contributed more than $2.3 million to Democrat coffers.

Federal Election Commission filings show Harvey Weinstein bundled $1.4 million for Hillary Clinton during her presidential bid in 2016 and handed her another $73,390 dating back to her 1999 U.S. Senate run in New York.

Facing huge blowback after sexual assault allegations emerged against Weinstein in 2017, Democrats vowed to repay the contributions to women’s charities.
Spokespersons for Schumer and Booker on Wednesday confirmed they had repaid their Weinstein contributions to women’s charities, Booker choosing to give his to the New Jersey Coalition Against Sexual Violence.
In 2017, Gillibrand announced she was giving the $11,500 she accepted from Weinstein to RAINN, the nation’s largest anti-sexual-violence group.
Blumenthal and Leahy also repaid the cash to women’s charities, their spokespeople said. The DNC committed to donating $30,000 to political action groups including pro-choice Emily’s List.
In an interview with CNN in 2017, Clinton said it wasn’t possible to give back all of the money Weinstein donated but would instead contribute $13,000 to a woman’s organization.
Spokespeople for John Kerry and Barack Obama could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
In recent days, Weinstein’s ties to billionaire presidential wannabe Mike Bloomberg have also been thrust into the spotlight — the convicted rapist recording a robocall endorsing Bloomberg during his 2005 mayoral bid.
A Bloomberg spokesman downplayed the relationship, saying Weinstein for known for raising “tens of millions of dollars for 9/11 responders” years before “the truth” about his predatory behavior was known.