Trump says Buttigieg's exit a sign Dems trying to stop Bernie Sanders

Moments after former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg told supporters he's ending his presidential campaign Sunday, President Trump said it reflected the growing pressure among more moderate Democrats to consolidate in order to blunt the rise of progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.
Trump tweeted: "Pete Buttigieg is OUT. All of his SuperTuesday votes will to Sleepy Joe Biden. Great timing. This is the REAL beginning of the Dems taking Bernie out of play - NO NOMINATION, AGAIN!"
Buttigieg previously had said Sanders was too liberal to be elected.
Buttigieg's withdrawal came just days before voters in 14 states are set to head to the polls on Super Tuesday, where one-third of all delegates for the nomination will be at stake.
His exit likely will harm frontrunner Sanders by providing a coalescing boost to more moderate candidates, as Buttigieg had gone on the offensive against the Vermont senator and sought to appeal to the centrist base of the party.
Sanders’ delegate lead over Joe Biden has shrunk from 30 to 8 after Biden’s big win in the South Carolina primary.
With 54 delegates at stake in South Carolina, the former vice president picked up 35 to Sanders’ 13, according to The Associated Press' delegate count. Six delegates remained to be allocated pending final vote totals.
Heading into key Super Tuesday contests, Sanders has led the overall race for delegates with 58 while Biden had 50. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., had 8 and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., had 7. It takes 1,991 delegates to win.
Buttigieg, the first openly gay candidate to seriously contend for the presidency, tried to make the case that his party thrived when it embraced candidates who offered generational change.
But, the 38-year-old Afghanistan war veteran ended up being more successful at winning older voters while Sanders, 78, captured the energy of younger voters.
"He's not going anywhere," Trump said in January. "He was a lousy mayor of a place that is not doing well -- [but] Indiana is doing unbelievably well."
He called South Bend, a city of more than 100,000 people a few miles south of the Michigan line, "badly run" under Buttigieg, while the Hoosier State on the whole had "the best year they've ever had" in 2019.
Last year, the president, known for bullying schoolyard nicknames for his political rivals, compared Buttigieg to the longtime mascot for Mad magazine.
“Alfred E. Neuman cannot become president of the United States,” the president said, referring to the decades-old Mad character.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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Trump, on 1st death from virus in US: ’No reason to panic”

WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to reassure the American public, President Donald Trump said there was “no reason to panic” as the new coronavirus claimed its first victim inside the U.S. The White House also announced new restrictions on international travel to prevent its spread.

Trump, speaking Saturday only moments after the death in Washington state was announced, took a more measured approach a day after he complained that the virus threat was being overblown and that his political enemies were perpetuating a “hoax.”

“This is very serious stuff,” he said, but still insisted the criticism of his administration’s handling of the virus outbreak was a hoax.

Trump appeared at a hastily called news conference in the White House briefing room with Vice President Mike Pence and top public health officials to announce that the U.S. was banning travel to Iran and urging Americans not to travel to regions of Italy and South Korea where the virus has been prevalent.

He said 22 people in the U.S. had been stricken by the new coronavirus, of whom one had died while four were deemed “very ill.” Additional cases were “likely,” he added.

Trump said he was considering additional restrictions, including closing the U.S. border with Mexico in response to the virus’ spread, but later added: “This is not a border that seems to be much of a problem right now.”

“We’re thinking about all borders,” he said.

Travel to Iran is already quite limited, though some families are allowed to travel there on a visa. It is one of the seven initial countries on Trump’s travel ban list, which means travel from Iran also is already severely restricted.

Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said there was “no evidence of link to travel” abroad in the case of the man who died. The patient was described as being in his late 50s and having a high health risk before contracting the virus. Redfield said the CDC mistakenly told Trump in an earlier briefing that the victim was a woman.

On Friday, health officials confirmed a third case of coronavirus in the U.S. in a person who hadn’t traveled internationally or had close contact with anyone who was known to have the virus. The U.S. has about 60 confirmed cases. Trump’s tally appeared to exclude cases of Americans repatriated from China or evacuated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

The Washington case was the first death in U.S. but not first American to die: A 60-year-old U.S. citizen died in Wuhan in early February.

Trump said healthy Americans should be able to recover if they contract the new virus, as he tried to reassure Americans and global markets spooked by the virus threat.

He encouraged Americans not to alter their daily routines, saying the country is “super prepared” for a wider outbreak, adding “there’s no reason to panic at all.”

He added he wasn’t altering his own routine either. “You’re talking about 22 people right now in this whole very vast country. I think we’ll be in very good shape.”

The president also said he would be meeting with pharmaceutical companies at the White House on Monday to discuss efforts to develop a vaccine to counter the virus.

Trump spoke a day after he had denounced criticism of his response to the threat as a “hoax” cooked up by his political enemies. Speaking at a rally in South Carolina he accused Democrats of “politicizing” the coronavirus threat and boasted about preventive steps he’s ordered in an attempt to keep the virus that originated in China from spreading across the United States. Those steps include barring entry by most foreign nationals who had recently visited China.

“They tried the impeachment hoax. ... This is their new hoax,” Trump said of Democratic denunciations of his administration’s coronavirus response.

Trump said Saturday he was not trying to minimize the threat of the virus.

“Again, the hoax was used in respect to Democrats and what they were saying,” he said.

Some Democrats have said Trump should have acted sooner to bolster the U.S. response to the virus. Democratic and Republican lawmakers also have said his request for an additional $2.5 billion to defend against the virus isn’t enough. They’ve signaled they will provide substantially more funding.

Trump said Democrats want him to fail and argued that steps he’s taken so far have kept cases to a minimum and prevented virus deaths in the U.S.

But Trump defended his language and emphasized he was not referring to the virus as a hoax, saying that his description referred to “the action that they take to try and pin this on somebody because we’ve done such a good job.”

As global markets plunged this week, Trump predicted they will come back, and encouraged the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates.

“The markets will all come back,” he said. “I think the Fed has a very important role, especially psychological. If you look at it, the Fed has a massive impact.”

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Miller reported from Mountain Lake, Florida. Associated Press writer Kevin Freking contributed to this report.

Tom Steyer ends campaign after Biden wins South Carolina primary

Billionaire and environmental activist Tom Steyer ended his presidential bid Saturday, after what appeared to be a third-place finish in South Carolina's Democratic presidential primary.
Steyer made the announcement during his post-primary rally in South Carolina and told voters he no longer sees a viable path forward to winning the White House.
"We were disappointed with where we came out. I think we got one or two delegates from congressional districts, which I thank South Carolina for," he said. "But I said if I didn't see a path to winning, that I'd suspend my campaign. And honestly, I can't see a path where I can win the presidency."
Steyer promised to remain involved in political issues across the country and said any one of the Democratic candidates for president would be better than President Trump. He also took a shot at Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina.
"Every Democrat is a million times better than Trump," he added. "Trump is a disaster. ... Lindsey Graham's a disaster. He's a disaster for the people here."
President Trump later responded on Twitter, mocking Steyer who, before he announced his candidacy, had spent millions on an effort to have Trump impeached -- only to see the president acquitted Feb. 5.
"Tom Steyer who, other than Mini Mike Bloomberg, spent more dollars for NOTHING than any candidate in history, quit the race today proclaiming how thrilled he was to be a part of the Democrat Clown Show," Trump wrote. "Go away Tom and save whatever little money you have left!"
Steyer's withdrawal came shortly after former Vice President Joe Biden won the South Carolina Democratic presidential primary. Fox News projected Sen. Bernie Sanders would finish in second place, with Steyer in third.
Steyer, who reportedly spent over $250 million on his campaign, has put much of his energy into a good performance in the Palmetto State. He had told supporters and volunteers gathered at his South Carolina campaign headquarters Saturday that “there is an old saying when you run a race, which is that you don’t run to the end, you run through the tape. And that is exactly where we are today.”
Steyer had a string of lackluster single-digit finishes in the Iowa caucuses Feb. 3, the New Hampshire primary Feb. 10, and the Nevada caucuses Feb. 22. But he heavily courted black voters and was optimistic things would be different Saturday in South Carolina, where African-Americans were expected to make up roughly 60 percent of the Democratic presidential primary electorate.
"We have a very good team here. I’ve spent a lot of time on the ground and I’m talking straightforwardly about issues," he said. "This is a heavily African-American state. I talk very straightforwardly about race. I’m the only person talking about reparations for slavery. I think I’ve been here the most and looked most people in the eye and talked most straightforwardly and I think that’s why.”
Fox News' Patrick Ward and Paul Steinhauser contributed to this report.

Chris Matthews absent from MSNBC's primary coverage after sexism allegations, on-air slip-ups

MSNBC’s Chris Matthews was noticebaly absent from the network’s South Carolina primary coverage Saturday evening, one day after being accused of “sexist” behavior by a former network contributor -- and then later misidentifying a politician while on the air.
Earlier in the week, Matthews had issued an on-air apology after drawing backlash for comparing the Nevada caucus victory of Sen. Bernie Sanders to the 1940 invasion of France by the Nazis.
In an op-ed for GQ on Friday, journalist Laura Bassett claimed Matthews had used sexist language when she would visit the MSNBC studio to appear on his show as a guest.
She recalled Matthews looking at her in an adjacent makeup chair before an appearance in 2016 and asking: 'Why haven’t I fallen in love with you yet?'" Bassett said she laughed nervously but Matthews kept making comments to the makeup artist. “Keep putting makeup on her, I’ll fall in love with her," Matthews allegedly said.
She said he made another comment about her makeup during a separate appearance. "Make sure you wipe this off her face after the show,” she wrote he said to the makeup artist. “We don’t make her up so some guy at a bar can look at her like this.”
Bassett said she decided to write the op-ed because of a “sexist” interview Matthews did with Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., after the last debate in which he pressed her about her accusation that former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg has once told a woman at his company to “kill” her unborn baby. Bloomberg denies he said it.
A feminist group has called for Matthews' firing over the interview.
Bassett said she wrote a similar op-ed in 2017 without naming Matthews because she was afraid to publicly accuse him at the time, but wrote many women reached out to her saying they knew who she was talking about.
She said while she didn't think Matthews' behavior rose to the level of criminal sexual harassment, it undermined her ability to do her job.
In 2017, it was reported that NBC paid $40,000 to a producer on Matthews’ show who claimed he sexually harassed her.
MSNBC has not confirmed the amount paid to the woman, nor has the network said whether the payment was made to settle a harassment claim.
An MSNBC spokesperson said at the time that executives were told that Matthews made inappropriate jokes and comments about the woman in front of others, that the matter was reviewed and it was determined the comments were inappropriate and made in poor taste but were never meant as propositions.
NBC did not immediately respond to Fox News' after-hours request for comment.

'Mistaken identity'

Then during his "Hardball" broadcast Friday, Matthews mistook Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., for Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jaime Harrison, chalking it up as a case of "mistaken identity."
Harrison was appearing on "Hardball" to discuss his campaign to unseat Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., but the interview went off the rails when Matthews ran a clip of Scott standing beside Graham at that evening's Trump rally in North Charleston and assumed it was Harrison.
Both Scott and Harrison are African-American.
"Jaime, I see you standing next to the guy you're going to beat right there, maybe," he said. "Maybe? Maybe, maybe? Lindsey Graham?"
Soon Matthews realized his error and apologized to Harrison.
"What am I saying? Big mistake. Mistaken identity, sir. Sorry," Matthews said.
Harrison appeared to roll his eyes and looked shocked, but kept a smile on his face and answered Matthews' question.

'I will strive to do a better job'

Matthews also took fire for a comment he made about Sanders’ decisive victory in Nevada last weekend, comparing the candidate to the Nazis' defeat of France during World War II.
“I'm reading last night about the fall of France in the summer of 1940," Matthews said during the network's Nevada coverage. "And the general calls up Churchill and says, ‘It’s over,’ and Churchill says, ‘How can it be? You got the greatest army in Europe. How can it be over?’ He said, ‘It's over.’”
But many viewers were outraged by the comments -- and Matthews apologized Monday.
"Senator Sanders, I'm sorry for comparing anything from that tragic era in which so many suffered, especially the Jewish people, to an electorate result in which you were the well-deserved winner," Matthews said. "This is going to be a hard-fought, heated campaign of ideas. In the days and weeks and months ahead, I will strive to do a better job myself of elevating the political discussion. Congratulations, by the way, to you, Senator Sanders, and to your supporters on a tremendous win down in Nevada."
Fox News' Sam Dorman, Nick Givas and Joseph Wulfsohn contributed to this story.

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.

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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.