Biden touts landslide victory in South Carolina, swipes at Sanders 'revolution'

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A euphoric Joe Biden thanked South Carolina for a landslide primary victory on Saturday that boosted his flagging presidential campaign.
The former vice president – pointing to next week, when 14 states across the country hold primaries on Super Tuesday.
“This is the moment to choose the path forward for our party,” Biden said.
Biden also took aim at rival Sen. Bernie Sanders’ calls for a political revolution.
"Most Americans don’t want [the] promise of revolution. More than promises, they want results,” he said.
Biden – speaking in front of a large and enthusiastic crowd at his victory celebration in South Carolina’s capital city – took to the podium to celebrate his first victory in the presidential nomination calendar. After poor fourth- and fifth-place finishes in Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary, followed by a distant second-place showing last weekend in Nevada’s caucuses behind Sanders, Biden won – and won big in South Carolina.

With most precincts reporting, Biden held a nearly 30-percentage-point lead over Sanders, the populist senator from Vermont who’s making his second straight White House run.
Biden was fighting for his political life in South Carolina, where a loss likely would have meant the end of his third bid for the presidency.
“For all of those of you who’ve been knocked down, counted out, left behind, this is your campaign,” Biden told the crowd. “Just days ago the press and the pundits declared this candidacy dead. Now, thanks to all of you, the heart of the Democratic Party, we just won and we won big. We are very much alive.”
Biden and his campaign are hoping the strong finish in South Carolina will give him momentum going into Super Tuesday, when a third of all Democratic presidential nomination delegates are up for grabs.
“As we celebrate tonight here in Columbia, I want to talk to Democrats across the country, especially those who will be voting on Super Tuesday. This is the moment to choose the path forward for our party. This is the moment and it’s arrived,” Biden highlighted. “The decisions Democrats make in the next few days will determine what this party stands for, what we believe and what we’ll get done.”
He added, “if Democrats nominate me, I believe we can beat Donald Trump, keep Nancy Pelosi in the House of Representatives as speaker and take back the United States Senate.”
Taking aim at Sanders – who was the clear front-runner heading into Saturday’s contest, thanks to a virtual tie with former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg in Iowa, an outright victory in New Hampshire, and a shellacking of his rivals in Nevada – Biden said: “Democrats want to nominate someone who will build on ObamaCare and not scrap it.”
That was a jab at Sanders, who wants to create a government-run single-payer "Medicare-for-all" health care system.
And knocking Sanders – an independent who calls himself a democratic socialist – the man who served as vice president under President Barack Obama for eight years declared to thunderous applause that “Democrats want a nominee who’s a Democrat, a proud Democrat, a Obama-Biden Democrat.”
Biden had long looked to the Palmetto State – where black voters made up 55 percent of the Democratic presidential primary electorate, according to exit polls – as his firewall. Thanks to his eight years as Obama’s right-hand man, Biden remains very popular with African-American voters.
Biden also thanked the man standing next to him on the podium -- longtime Rep. Jim Clyburn of South Carolina – the most senior black House Democrat, whose endorsement Wednesday gave Biden a big boost. Speaking to Clyburn and to the army of his supporters in the crowd -- many of whom were black -- Biden stressed he and his family “will never forget what you’ve done for us.”
Moses Brown, a black voter and a native of Columbia, was at the Biden South Carolina celebration event.
“I’m kind of surprised they called it at 7 p.m, but I’m not surprised that he won and won big. I thought that he would do well here,” Brown told Fox News. “I’ve been a Joe Biden guy from the beginning. I was a big fan of Barack Obama.”
Columbia resident Patricia McGovern, also in the crowd, said: “I’m surprised by the margin. I was hoping he was going to win. I’m grateful for the margin of victory. It’s great.”
Pointing to Biden’s resounding win, McGovern noted that when it comes to Democratic Party politics, “South Carolina’s traditionally a conservative Democratic state and I don’t think people believe Bernie’s going to win it.”
Biden’s victory in South Carolina was already paying immediate dividends in at least one Super Tuesday state.
Minutes after he was projected the winner, former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe -- who was co-chairman of Hillary Clinton's 2008 presidential run -- endorsed Biden.
“It’s time to unite behind the candidate who can beat Trump. @joebiden has the experience, character, and broad appeal to win Virginia and the White House in 2020,” McAuliffe tweeted.
McAuliffe’s backing comes a day after Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia -- who was Hillary Clinton's running mate in 2016 -- also endorsed Biden.
Virginia is the fourth-biggest of the Super Tuesday states and the latest live telephone operator poll of likely Democratic primary voters there indicates Biden in the lead, with a 5-percentage-point advantage over Sanders and 9 points ahead of former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, a fellow moderate candidate.
Fox News' Madeleine Rivera contributed to this report.

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Biden looks for first 2020 victory in South Carolina primary

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The Democrats’ 2020 nominating fight turned to South Carolina on Saturday for the first-in-the-South primary, with Joe Biden confident that his popularity with black voters will seal him a victory and help blunt some of front-runner Bernie Sanders’ momentum.

The primary stands as the first marker on a critical four-day stretch that will help determine whether the party rallies behind Sanders or embraces a longer and uglier slog that could carry on until the national convention.

“Only two things are going to happen: either Bernie or brokered,” said James Carville, a veteran Democratic strategist.

Carville is uncomfortable with a Sanders nomination but fears that a brokered convention — in which party bosses or delegates in floor fights and negotiations decide the nominee after no candidate amasses enough delegates in the primary — would inflict serious damage on the party, as well. “It’s just hard for me to see beyond the two options,” he said.

In Saturday’s primary, Biden and his establishment allies hope to slow Sanders’ rise — and change the trajectory of the race — with a convincing victory demonstrating his strength among African Americans. But just three days later, Sanders believes he’s positioned to seize a major delegate advantage when 14 states and one U.S. territory vote on “Super Tuesday.”

After two consecutive victories and a tie for the lead in Iowa, the 78-year-old Vermont senator’s confidence is surging.

Sanders will spend the lead-up to Super Tuesday campaigning in the home states of two major Democratic rivals, betting he can score a double knockout blow — or at least limit the size of their victories.

In a power play, Sanders will host a midday rally Saturday in downtown Boston, campaigning in the heart of progressive ally Elizabeth Warren’s political turf. And on the eve of Super Tuesday, Sanders will host a concert in Minnesota, where home-state Sen. Amy Klobuchar is looking for her first win.

Senior adviser Jeff Weaver said Sanders is aggressively hunting for delegates, noting that their campaign’s experience during the 2016 primary against Hillary Clinton taught them that any candidate who finishes Super Tuesday with a significant delegate advantage will be difficult to catch.

“I’m confident we’re going to do very, very well across the country,” Weaver said of the coming four days. He also sought to downplay the importance of South Carolina, where “Biden is expected to win.”

“Expectations can be broken,” Weaver added. ”But for the vice president, he needs an extraordinarily large win in South Carolina in order to convince folks he’s going to be able to go the distance.”

At a rally in North Charleston on Friday, Trump asked the crowd whether Biden or Sanders would be the better Democratic opponent for him.

“I think Bernie’s easier to beat,” Trump said.

The audience seemed to agree, cheering the mention of Sanders and booing the mention of Biden. Some state GOP leaders have even urged Republican voters to participate in Saturday’s Democratic primary and vote for Sanders.

Yet the Democrats’ 2020 primary election is far from a two-person race.

In South Carolina, billionaire activist Tom Steyer has spent more than $19 million on television advertising — more than all the other candidates combined — in his quest for his first top finish in four contests. Not ceding anything, Pete Buttigieg is fighting to prove he can build a multiracial coalition. And with the help of super PACs, Warren and Klobuchar have vowed to keep pushing forward no matter how they finish on Saturday.

New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg is not competing in South Carolina, yet he has shattered spending records after investing hundreds of millions of dollars in Super Tuesday advertising backed by a horde of paid staff in virtually every state in the nation. He could emerge as the strongest Sanders alternative in the coming days, or he could unintentionally help Sanders by splitting up the anti-Sanders vote.

Still, Saturday marks Biden’s last, best chance to shine.

The former vice president’s campaign began the week cautiously optimistic, even as he predicted victory and began lashing out at Sanders more aggressively.

“This nation isn’t looking for a revolution like some folks are talking about,” Biden said Friday in Sumter, slapping at Sanders’ signature call to action. “They’re looking for progress. They’re looking for results.”

After a solid debate performance on Tuesday, the 77-year-old Democrat was more buoyant on the campaign trail and his aides grew more confident backed by new support from elected officials.

Biden has racked up far more endorsements than his rivals have throughout the year, and he added another big name from a Super Tuesday state, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, on Friday. That came two days after he earned the endorsement of South Carolina Rep. James Clyburn.

Summing up the mood, senior Biden adviser Symone Sanders shifted away from calling South Carolina Biden’s “firewall” and instead called it a “springboard,” on par with how the state boosted the presidential aspirations of Barack Obama in 2008 and Clinton in 2016.

Indeed, South Carolina represents much more than the fourth state on the Democrats’ monthslong primary calendar.

It serves as the first major test of the candidates’ strength with African American voters, who will play a critical role in both the general election and the rest of the primary season.

Roughly 3 in 10 people of voting age in South Carolina are black, according to census data.

“South Carolina speaks in a way that these other states have not been able to in terms of who is voting and the diversity of our vote,” said James Smith, South Carolina’s 2018 Democratic nominee for governor.

In the short term, Super Tuesday features a handful of Southern states, like Alabama, Arkansas and North Carolina, where the African American vote will be decisive. And longer term, the ultimate Democratic nominee will struggle to defeat Trump unless he or she generates more enthusiasm among black voters than Clinton did four years ago.

While voting technology was a concern in two of the last three primary contests, South Carolina uses a wide array of voting technology that presents unique challenges.

Saturday’s election in South Carolina marks the first statewide test of its new fleet of electronic voting machines, a $50 million upgrade from an old and vulnerable system that lacked any paper record of individual votes. The new machines produce a paper record that can be verified by the voter and checked after the election to detect any malfunction or manipulation.

Meanwhile, some leading Democrats in South Carolina were concerned that the intensity of the anti-Sanders movement within their own party would undermine their quest to deny Trump a second term.

Gilda Cobb-Hunter, a South Carolina state representative and president of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators, warned Democrats who vehemently oppose Sanders to “stop being stupid.” While she’s on Steyer’s payroll, she said she would “of course” support Sanders if he emerged as the nominee.

Peoples reported from New York. Associated Press writers Will Weissert in Washington and Thomas Beaumont in Charleston, S.C., contributed to this report.

Court halts Trump asylum policy, then suspends its own order

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel voted unanimously Friday to suspend an order it issued earlier in the day to block a central pillar of the Trump administration’s policy requiring asylum seekers to wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. courts.

The three-judge panel told the government to file written arguments by the end of Monday and for the plaintiffs to respond by the end of Tuesday.

The Justice Department said at least 25,000 asylum seekers subject to the policy are currently waiting in Mexico and expressed “massive and irreparable national-security of public-safety concerns.”

Government attorneys said immigration lawyers had begun demanding that asylum seekers be allowed in the United States, with one insisting that 1,000 people be allowed to enter at one location.

“The Court’s reinstatement of the injunction causes the United States public and the government significant and irreparable harms — to border security, public safety, public health, and diplomatic relations,” Justice Department attorneys wrote.

Customs and Border Protection had already begun to stop processing people under the policy.

ACLU attorney Judy Rabinovitz called the suspension of Friday’s order “a temporary step.”

“We will continue working to permanently end this unspeakably cruel policy,” she said.

The government’s setback earlier Friday from the three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals may prove temporary if President Donald Trump’s administration appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has consistently sided with Trump on immigration and border security policies. Chad Wolf, the acting Homeland Security secretary, said he was working with the Justice Department to “expeditiously appeal this inexplicable decision.”

The “Remain in Mexico” policy, known officially as “Migrant Protection Protocols,” took effect in January 2019 in San Diego and gradually spread across the southern border. About 60,000 people have been sent back to wait for hearings, and officials believe it is a big reason why illegal border crossings plummeted about 80% from a 13-year high in May.

Christopher Landau, the U.S. ambassador to Mexico, said in a court filing that halting the policy creates “substantial risk of immediate chaos on the border.”

The ambassador said the policy is critical to deterring “uncontrolled of third-country migrants through Mexico to the United States” and that halting it would encourage more asylum-seekers to come and “obliterate the substantial progress that both countries have made over the last year.”

Reaction to the decision blocking the policy was swift among immigration lawyers and advocates who have spent months fighting with the administration over a program they see as a humanitarian disaster, subjecting hundreds of migrants to violence, kidnapping and extortion in dangerous Mexican border cities. Hundreds more have been living in squalid encampments just across the border, as they wait for their next court date.

Advocates planned to have immigrants immediately cross the border and present the court decision to authorities Friday, with group Human Rights First hand-delivering a copy to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers at a bridge connecting Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico. Lawyers were hoping to get their clients before U.S. immigration court judges.

The decision interrupted some court cases. Immigration Judge Philip Law in San Diego delayed a final hearing on a Honduran man’s asylum case to April 17 after a government attorney couldn’t answer his questions about the effect of ruling, which temporarily halts the policy during legal challenges. The government attorney said she asked her supervisor how to address the ruling and that he didn’t know what to do either.

In El Paso, an administrator came to tell a judge of the ruling as he heard the case of a Central American mother and her partner. The couple cried when they learned they could get into the U.S. with restrictions. The couple and their two young children will be put into government detention to wait and they won’t have to return to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.

“Do you guys understand that?” Herbert asked through an interpreter. “There was a pretty significant change in the law in the middle of your testimony.”

The Justice Department sharply criticized the ruling, saying it “not only ignores the constitutional authority of Congress and the administration for a policy in effect for over a year, but also extends relief beyond the parties before the court.” Wolf, the acting Homeland Security secretary, called the decision “grave and reckless.”

Judge William Fletcher, writing the majority, sided with the American Civil Liberties Union and other advocacy groups who argued the policy violates international treaty obligations against sending people back to a country where they are likely to be persecuted or tortured on the grounds of race, religion, ethnicity, political beliefs or membership in a particular social group.

Fletcher agreed the government set the bar too high for asylum-seekers to persuade officers that they should be exempt from the policy and didn’t provide enough time for them to prepare for interviews or consult lawyers. The judges said the government also erred by requiring asylum-seekers to express fear of returning to Mexico to be considered for an exemption, instead of asking them unprompted.

Fletcher quoted at length asylum-seekers who reported being assaulted and victimized in Mexico, saying it was “enough — indeed, far more than enough” to undercut the government’s arguments.

Fletcher was joined by Judge Richard Paez, who were both appointed to the bench by President Bill Clinton. Judge Ferdinand Fernandez, an appointee of President George H.W. Bush, dissented.

“The court forcefully rejected the Trump administration’s assertion that it could strand asylum-seekers in Mexico and subject them to grave danger,“Rabinovitz, the ACLU attorney, said. “It’s time for the administration to follow the law and stop putting asylum-seekers in harm’s way.”

Rabinovitz said Justice Department officials informed the ACLU that they will ask the Supreme Court to reinstate the policy and that the nation’s highest court could step in “very soon.” Until then, she said, no one can be returned to Mexico under the policy. It was unclear when those in Mexico with pending cases may return to the U.S. but it may be when they cross for their next hearings.

The appeals court in San Francisco also decided to keep another major Trump policy on hold, one that denies asylum to anyone who enters the U.S. illegally from Mexico.

The Supreme Court, however, has allowed Trump to divert Defense Department money to border wall construction, backed rules disqualifying more people from green cards if they use government benefits and upheld a travel ban affecting several Muslim-majority countries.

The ruling’s impact will also be at least partially blunted by other policies introduced in response to unprecedented surge of asylum-seeking families that peaked last year, many of them from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador.

In November, the administration began sending asylum-seekers from Honduras and El Salvador to Guatemala, denying them a chance to seek refuge in the U.S. and instead inviting them to apply in the strife-torn Central American nation. Similar agreements with Honduras and El Salvador are set to take effect soon.

Another policy leads Mexicans and Central Americans who fail an initial screening to be rapidly deported without leaving Border Patrol stations. The screening interview is designed to take place in one day and any appeals to an immigration judge within 10 days. Asylum-seekers are given up to 90 minutes to contact a lawyer.

The other measure with far-reaching consequences denies asylum to anyone who passes through another country on the way to the U.S.-Mexico border without seeking protection there first. It took effect in September and is being challenged in a separate lawsuit.

Supporters of the “Remain in Mexico” policy note it has prevented asylum-seekers from being released in the United States with notices to appear in court, which they consider a major incentive for people to come.

Mexicans and unaccompanied children are exempt.

Asylum has been granted in less than 1% of the roughly 35,000 Remain in Mexico cases that have been decided. Only 5% are represented by attorneys, many of whom are reluctant to visit clients in Mexico.

___

This story has been corrected to show that Judge Ferdinand Fernandez was appointed by President George H.W. Bush, not President Ronald Reagan.

Trump accuses Dems of ‘politicizing’ coronavirus, tells South Carolina rally 'we are totally prepared’

President Trump accused his Democratic critics of "politicizing" the coronavirus outbreak Friday as he rallied supporters in North Charleston a day before the Democratic primary in South Carolina.
Speaking at the North Charleston Coliseum for more than an hour, Trump dismissed the complaints from Democrats about his handling of the virus as “their new hoax” and insisted “we are totally prepared.” He also mocked the party for its chaotic efforts to determine the result of this month's Iowa caucuses.
“Now the Democrats are politicizing the coronavirus,” Trump said, adding: “They can’t even count their votes.”
Speaking at length about the virus, Trump said it “starts in China, bleeds its way into various countries around the world, doesn’t spread widely at all in the United States because of the early actions” of his administration. But still, Trump argued, the Democrats are claiming that “it’s Donald Trump’s fault.”
Turning to the 2020 race, Trump took an informal poll of the crowd of who they would prefer he run against in November. The president argued that despite the many candidates still in the race, the fight for the Democratic nomination is really a two-man race between Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
"Who the hell is easier to beat?” Trump asked the crowd, going on to use nicknames "Crazy Bernie" for Sanders and "Sleepy Joe” for Biden.
"I don't know, I think Crazy Bernie has it," he said.
As he left the White House on Friday afternoon, the president said of the Democratic contest: “It’ll be very interesting to see what happens tomorrow.” Trump then referenced the Super Tuesday contests on March 3, saying: "On Tuesday, you have a very big day."
While en route to South Carolina, Trump tweeted an announcement that he is nominating Texas Rep. John Ratcliffe to serve as Director of National Intelligence (DNI), months after the Republican lawmaker abruptly withdrew his name from consideration for the post.
Trump has held rallies in each of the four early voting states for the presidential nomination. He went to Nevada last week, even though Republicans had canceled their presidential caucus to show allegiance to the president. Likewise, South Carolina GOP officials opted not to hold a primary this year.
But that's not stopping Trump, who has reveled in poking his challengers in the run-up to their contests.
"Some people say I'm trolling the Democrats and maybe I am," Trump said at the White House.
Unlike the three earlier voting states, South Carolina is not considered a swing state. Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by more than 14 percentage points there in 2016.
Following Saturday's contest, more than a dozen states vote in the Super Tuesday contests.
Trump arrived in South Carolina following a brutal week for the stock market. Stocks dropped another 357 points Friday, extending a rout that handed the market its worst week since October 2008, at the height of the financial crisis.
Analysts worry that the stock swoon could cause consumer spending to contract. Such spending makes up some 70 percent of the economy and has played a huge role in keeping the U.S. economic expansion going.
Trump has linked his presidency to the markets through tweets and speeches, often taking credit for each new high in the indices. Now, Trump is trying to reassure Americans that the economy is still strong while also theorizing that the Democratic candidates' debate performances have spooked investors.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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.

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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.