When
Christine Blasey Ford publicly accused Supreme Court Associate Justice
Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault in a September 2018 interview
with The Washington Post, prominent Democrats and media organizations
rushed to the story -- demanding answers and, in many cases, the end of
Kavanaugh's career. In the weeks after Tara Reade publicly charged in a podcast
released March 25 that Joe Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993,
however, those same politicians and outlets have become either silent or
equivocal -- even as mounting video and testimonial evidence corroborates Reade's claim, where Ford presented no contemporaneous support for her allegations. A
Fox News chronology, beginning the day of each accusation, shows the
extent to which Reade's claims have been handled differently from
Ford's. Fox News has reached out to Democratic lawmakers for
comment about Reade, but has not heard back. Similarly, not a single
Democratic senator responded when The Daily Caller gave each lawmaker 24 hours to provide comment on Reade's allegations.
Day 1
SEPT. 16, 2018 Within
minutes of The Washington Post's story outlining Ford's claim that
Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her at a high school party more than three
decades earlier, The New York Times immediately publishes
a story stating that Kavanaugh's nomination was "in turmoil." Ford
presents no independently verifiable evidence that she had ever met
Kavanaugh. CNN also reports the news immediately with an article. And another (likening the news to the Anita Hill testimony). And another (describing the White House as mounting an "intense" effort to squash the accusation.) And another (describing a senator's assessments of how Kavanaugh's nomination would go forward). And another (describing how Democrats would push for a delay in Kavanaugh's confirmation vote.) Sen.
Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., announces her opposition to Kavanaugh.
“Supreme Court justices should not be an extension of the Republican
Party," she says. "They must also have unquestionable character and
integrity, and serious questions remain about Judge Kavanaugh in
this regard, as indicated in information I referred to the FBI.”
(Feinstein had first received Ford's accusations weeks earlier, but
chose not to release them until after Kavanaugh's initial
confirmation hearings had concluded.) Other Democratic lawmakers follow Feinstein's lead. MARCH 25, 2020 “It happened all at once, and then … his hands were on me and underneath my clothes,” Reade tells podcast host Katie Halper.
“He said ‘come on, man, I heard you liked me. For me, it was like,
everything shattered … I wanted to be a senator; I didn’t want to sleep
with one.” Reade was a Senate staffer for Biden at the time. Reade says she
told her brother, Collin Moulton, as well as her mother and a friend
about the incident at the time. Both Moulton and the friend confirmed
Reade's account in interviews with The Intercept.
(Reade's mother has died, but footage has emerged showing her calling
into CNN at the time with a story about her daughter's problems with a
prominent senator.) Meanwhile, CNN wonders, "Why
is Bernie Sanders still running for president?" The Reade claim is not
mentioned on the network, either on-air or online. The New York Times publishes a story
explaining that Biden was growing "impatient" with the idea of more
debates with Bernie Sanders. The Reade claim is not mentioned anywhere
in the paper, which had slammed Republicans in August 2018 for "covering up" Kavanaugh's "past." The Intercept reports that
a darling of the "Me Too" movement, the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund,
refused to help Reade with legal expenses, citing Biden's presidential
run and its nonprofit status.
Christine Blasey Ford is sworn in before the Senate Judiciary
Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday, Sept. 27, 2018.
(Win McNamee/Pool Photo via AP)
Day 2
SEPT. 17, 2018 Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., calls for
an FBI background investigation into the claims against Kavanaugh. "We
need the FBI to step forward to ensure that the Senate and American
public have complete information about this troubling alleged incident
before a hearing is held,” Schumer says. CNN calls the Ford accusation a "watershed moment for the GOP." The Huffington Post runs a story
quoting Biden as saying, "Women’s Claims Of Sexual Assault Should Be
Presumed To Be True." Biden remarks: "For a woman to come forward in the
glaring lights of focus, nationally, you’ve got to start off with the
presumption that at least the essence of what she’s talking about is
real, whether or not she forgets facts, whether or not it’s been made
worse or better over time. ... But nobody fails to understand that this
is like jumping into a cauldron.” MARCH 26, 2020 Jimmy Kimmel interviews Biden, and the two discuss "Where's Waldo?" Kimmel does not ask Biden about Reade's accusation. Schumer, speaking on the Senate floor, touts a "Green New Deal." He accuses Republicans of "refusing to admit" that "climate change is real." CNN teases an upcoming CNN town hall with Joe Biden. The Reade accusations are not discussed on-air in the network's preview coverage.
Day 3
SEPT. 18, 2018 Kavanaugh's nomination officially "descends into chaos," CNN reports. The New York Times publishes an op-ed
from Anita Hill, who argues: "With the current heightened awareness of
sexual violence comes heightened accountability for our
representatives." Sen. Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, tells all men to "shut up" -- and suggests Kavanaugh doesn't deserve due process because of rulings that she perceives as pro-life. MARCH 27, 2020 CNN's Anderson Cooper does not ask Biden about Reade's claims in a lengthy virtual town hall. In its writeup of the event, CNN assures readers, "Joe Biden: He's just like the rest of us." "We
sit on our back porch and they sit out on the lawn with two chairs,"
the network says of Biden and his wife Jill. "They talk through
everything that's happened during their day now that they are home from
school, who's driving who crazy." The Huffington Post covers Reade's claim. The outlet notes, "Last April, Reade was one of eight women to accuse
the former vice president of inappropriate touching." The articles goes
on to observe, however, that when she first accused Biden of
inappropriate touching, Reade was "accused of being politically
motivated and called a Russian operative after a Medium post in which
she praised Russia and its president Vladimir Putin resurfaced." Reade
has said she did not initially outline the full extent of Biden's
alleged sexual assault, including digital penetration, out of
embarrassment.
Day 4
SEPT. 19, 2018 The Guardian reports
that Christine Ford's life has been "turned upside down" by her
accusation, noting that she has received threats. The paper does not
note that Kavanaugh and his family, as well as Republican senators, also
had received threats to their lives. MARCH 28, 2020 The Guardian laments:
"It hugely frustrating to see conservatives, who couldn’t give a damn
about the multiple sexual assault allegations against Donald Trump,
weaponize the accusations against Biden. However, it’s also frustrating
to see so many liberals turning a blind eye. The accusations against the
former vice-president are serious; why aren’t they being taken
seriously?"
LGBT supporters gather in front of the U.S. Supreme Court,
Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019, in Washington. The Supreme Court is set to hear
arguments in its first cases on LGBT rights since the retirement of
Justice Anthony Kennedy. Kennedy was a voice for gay rights while his
successor, Brett Kavanaugh, is regarded as more conservative. (AP
Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
Day 12
SEPT. 27, 2018 South
Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham erupts, accusing Democrats of
orchestrating "the most unethical sham since I’ve been in politics." “What
you want to do is destroy this guy's life, hold this seat open, and
hope you win in 2020,” Graham says, before turning to Kavanaugh. "Are you a gang rapist?" Graham asks sarcastically, referring to an unsubstantiated accusation by Michael Avenatti client Julie Swetnick. The New York Times describes Kavanaugh and Graham's behavior as a typical display of "white male anger." (Guy
Benson, a Townhall.com political editor and Fox News contributor,
tweeted this week that a "non-conservative" contact in the media had
messaged him to belatedly praise Graham's comments. "I thought he was a
loon" to say the Kavanaugh hearings were all about power, the source
said. "In reality he was right all along.") APRIL 5, 2020 A self-described movie enthusiast posts a transcript of Reade's claims on a message board. CNN and The New York Times have not yet mentioned Reade's story. Alyssa Milano suddenly embraces due process.
Day 16
OCT. 1, 2018 The New York Times embarks on a deep dive,
reporting that Kavanaugh was once questioned by police after a bar
fight in 1985. A police report even said Kavanaugh "threw ice at another
patron." Meanwhile, the ex-boyfriend of Julie Swetnick, the third woman to make uncorroborated, lurid allegations of
sexual misconduct against Kavanaugh, tells Fox News exclusively that
she had threatened to kill his unborn child and at times even bizarrely
asked him to hit her. "Right after I broke up with her, she basically
called me many times and at one point she basically said, 'You will
never, ever see your unborn child alive,'" Richard Vinneccy says on "The
Ingraham Angle." According to Vinneccy, Swetnick told him at the time, 'I'm just going to go over there and kill you guys.'" APRIL 9, 2020 Reade files a criminal complaint with the Washington, D.C. police, alleging that she was sexually assaulted in 1993.
Day 18
OCT. 3, 2018 It
is widely reported that Leland Keyser, Ford's lifelong friend and a
supposed witness at the party in which Kavanaugh allegedly assaulted
Ford, doesn't back Ford's account. Later, Keyser would say
that much of Ford's account didn't make "any sense," including how Ford
couldn't remember how she got home from the party. Keyser would also
say she was pressured by Ford associates at the time to change her story
to corroborate Ford's account. “I was told behind the scenes that
certain things could be spread about me if I didn’t comply,” Keyser
told The New York Times. “I don’t have any confidence in the story." With Keyser's statement, it becomes clear that no one can contemporaneously corrobotate Ford's story. Meanwhile, protesters let out a collective "STOP KAVANAUGH" scream at a protest in Brooklyn. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif, assures demonstrators in Washington: "This isn’t about politics or anything else." A Democratic aide is arrested, and would later be convicted, in a scheme to dox Republican lawmakers who support Kavanaugh by revealing their personal information online. APRIL 12, 2020 The Times covers Reade's
accusations, and makes sure to note that Reade could face criminal
penalties if she filed a false police report. Attempting to explain why
the Times waited so much longer to report on Reade's accusation, Times
executive editor Dean Baquet claims that
"Kavanaugh was already in a public forum in a large way" -- although he
does not explain why that logic did not apply to Biden, who was sealing
up the Democratic Party's nomination for president when Reade went
public with her claim. The Times piece focuses on unrelated sexual
misconduct accusations against President Trump, and largely dismisses
Reade's allegations as uncorroborated by her co-workers -- even though
the Times notes later in its piece that Reade's claim was
contemporaneously corroborated by two of Reade's friends. Baquet would also admit the
story was edited after publication at the request of the Biden campaign
to remove a reference to Biden's past history of inappropriate
touching. No notation in the story indicates that it was edited. According to a copy of the Times' article saved
by the Internet archive Wayback Machine, the Times originally reported:
"No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of
reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any
details of Ms. Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual
misconduct by Mr. Biden, beyond the hugs, kisses and touching that women
previously said made them uncomfortable." After the Biden campaign's request, the paragraph now reads:
"No other allegation about sexual assault surfaced in the course of
reporting, nor did any former Biden staff members corroborate any
details of Ms. Reade’s allegation. The Times found no pattern of sexual
misconduct by Mr. Biden." "Another good day not to be the NYT public editor," muses the paper's former public editor, Margaret Sullivan. Later in the day, The Washington Post also covers Reade's claims for the first time. Both the Post and the Times mention accusations against President Trump. Actress-turned-activist Rose McGowan quickly slams the Washington Post, saying its article was “not journalism” and constituted “victim shaming.” ABC and CBS News, among other networks, mention Reade's claims shortly afterward, also for the first time.
Day 21
OCT. 6, 2018 Anti-Kavanaugh protesters bang on the walls of the Supreme Court to protest his confirmation. APRIL 15, 2020 The Washington Post openly struggles with Reade's claims: "What to make of former Joe Biden staffer Tara Reade’s allegations that
the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee sexually assaulted her
in 1993?" writes the paper's deputy editorial page editor, Ruth
Marcus. "This is a difficult and important question — not least for
those who were persuaded by Christine Blasey Ford’s assertion that then-Supreme Court nominee Brett M. Kavanaugh assaulted her when they were high school students in the 1980s." Marcus
goes on to admit that "we all suffer from the inclination, whether
knowing or unknowing, to assess evidence through the lens of preexisting
biases." CNN, two days later, notes that Democrats were "grappling" with the Biden accusations -- a common framing seemingly employed by left-of-center outlets to avoid directly discussing the allegations.
Day 30
OCT. 15, 2018 The Guardian reports that witches are planning to hex Kavanaugh. APRIL 24, 2020 A resurfaced clip of "Larry King Live" from 1993 appears to include the mother of Tara Reade -- who has accused Joe Biden of past sexual assault while in the Senate -- alluding to “problems” her daughter faced while working as a staffer for the then-U.S. senator from Delaware. But
rather than CNN's team of investigative reporters, it was the Media
Research Center’s NewsBusters, a conservative group that seeks to expose
liberal bias, that exhumed the footage from its own vault. NewsBusters
found the clip after The Intercept first reported on a transcript of the
Larry King interview. "I’m wondering what a staffer would do
besides go to the press in Washington?" the caller begins. "My daughter
has just left there, after working for a prominent senator, and could
not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could
have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect
for him." In a telephone interview with Fox News, Reade
confirms that her mother called in to the show -- and it is
independently confirmed that the caller in the show had phoned in from
the same California city where Reade's mother lived at the time. Biden's
presidential campaign has adamantly denied Reade's allegations but the
video could be cited as evidence supporting Reade’s allegation – even
though her late mother, in the clip, does not specifically refer to a
sexual assault claim. CNN would not cover the clip until the following afternoon, well after most other media organizations. The Intercept had reported earlier that Reade said her late mother once called into CNN’s “Larry King Live” to
discuss her daughter’s “experience on Capitol Hill,” where the alleged
encounter with Biden took place. Reade didn’t recall other information,
such as the date or even year, and The Intercept managed to dig up a
transcript of the call but not the video. Meanwhile, aides to former 2020 hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders express their anger. "The
video of Tara Reade's late mother calling into Larry King to blow the
whistle about about [sic] Tara's sexual assault is being met with
relative silence from a cadre of progressives right now and I want you
all to know that I see you," former Sanders senior adviser Winnie Wong
tweets. "We all do." "Progressives didn't make this
happen. Corporate Democrats chose Biden," Briahna Joy Gray, former
Sanders press secretary, tweets. Gray also added: "It's a good time to
note that Bernie's on the ballot." Shortly afterward, ex-Clinton adviser Peter Daou says Biden should withdraw his candidacy. He writes: "If #MeToo means anything, it CANNOT BE APPLIED ON A PARTISAN BASIS."
Day 32
OCT. 17, 2018 The Washington Post speculates about "two ways Democrats can remove Kavanaugh -- without impeaching him." One
of the approaches: A new president could "nominate and the Senate would
confirm by majority vote a justice — in this case Kavanaugh — to a
different post on an intermediate court of appeals (say the D.C.
Circuit, where Kavanaugh formerly served). The justice would, in effect,
be demoted." The Post notes with regret that the move is "admittedly unprecedented at the Supreme Court level." Another
equally unprecedented but "optimal" option: the "creation of a new
vehicle for judicial peer review ... [that would] create a nonpartisan,
procedurally robust device for disciplining judges." "If the
political stars align, something good for our constitutional democracy
might result from their efforts: a better way to discipline errant
federal judges," opines the piece's since-disappointed author,
University of Chicago law professor Aziz Huq. APRIL 26, 2020 The 1993 episode of CNN's "Larry King Live" apparently featuring Reade's mother is discovered missing from the Google Play store. Twitter
user J.L. Hamilton shares a screenshot showing the Aug. 11, 1993,
broadcast of "Larry King Live" is no longer listed in the season three
catalog of the iconic CNN talk show. Mysteriously, though, the Aug. 10
broadcast, which is listed as "Episode 154" is followed by the Aug. 12
broadcast, which is listed as "Episode 155," suggesting that episode and
the ones that follow could be incorrectly listed and off by a number. Fox
News has verified the Aug. 11 episode is not listed on the streaming
service. It is unclear when it was removed from the catalog. Neither
CNN nor Google immediately responded to Fox News' requests for comment.
Fox News also reached out to the representation of Larry King and have
not heard a response. Fox News' Joseph Wulfson, Brian Flood, and Andrew O'Reilly contributed to this report.
The Internal Revenue Service has made an update to its "Get My Payment" tool to help Americans track their coronavirus-prompted stimulus payments. The
enhancements, which started last week and continued through the
weekend, adjusted several items related to the online tool, which
debuted on April 15. The
changes were implemented to help millions of additional taxpayers with
new or expanded information and access to adding direct deposit
information. “We delivered Get My Payment with new capabilities
that did not exist during any similar relief program, including the
ability to receive direct deposit information that accelerates payments
to millions of people,” said IRS Commissioner Chuck Rettig. “These
further enhancements will help even more taxpayers. We urge people who
haven’t received a payment date yet to visit Get My Payment again for
the latest information." The IRS stimulus tool, which also allows
people to provide their direct deposit information if necessary, has
frustrated taxpayers with a “Payment Status Not Available” if “the
application doesn’t yet have your data or you are not eligible for a
payment.” The error message could occur for other reasons, too,
like if the IRS has not finished processing your 2019 return or you’re
expecting a direct deposit but didn’t file a tax return. The "Get
My Payment" tool can be accessed through IRS.gov. Taxpayers need a few
pieces of information to obtain the status of their payment and where
needed, provide their bank account information. Having a copy of their
most recent tax return can help speed the process. As part of President Trump’s $2 million CARES Act to stimulate the economy, the IRS sent $1,200 payments to those with adjusted gross income below $75,000 and $2,400 to married couples filing taxes jointly who earn under $150,000. FOX Business' Shawn M. Carter contributed to this article.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., was criticized in an editorial Sunday that called her decision to vote against the $484 billion coronavirus relief package “terribly wrong.” The
New York Daily News’ editorial, “Enemy of the Good: Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez Makes the Wrong Choice,” pointed out that the rising star
from New York’s 14th Congressional District was the sole Democrat who
voted against the bill. “Not the kind of distinction a rising star legislator should be proud of,” the paper wrote. The editors took issue with her claim that the bill did not go far enough. The
progressive lawmaker said the bill left out any real aid for Americans
struggling to pay rent or purchase necessities including food after
being left jobless or stranded due to the virus. "My concern is
that we are giving away the farm," Ocasio-Cortez said. "I cannot go back
to my communities and tell them to just wait for CARES four because we
have now passed three, four pieces of legislation that's related to
coronavirus. And every time it's the next one, the next one, the next
one, and my constituents are dying." The paper found the argument unsound. “Yeah:
The first aid bill didn’t go far enough,” the editorial read. “Nor did
the second. Nor did the third. The fourth didn’t get there either, but
the response to crises happen in steps. If everyone said no to each
massive package because it didn’t go all the way, we’d all be even
deader in the water.”
The coronavirus pandemic brought to light the critical importance of
securing U.S. supply chains to eliminate the long-time reliance on
foreign governments, White House senior advisor Jared Kushner said
during a rare appearance on "The Next Revolution" Sunday. "I
think the campaign platform that President Trump ran on in 2016 which
was basically 'you have to secure your borders and you have to control
your own manufacturing as a national security issue.' I think those have
been totally vindicated positions from the virus and I doubt it will
be easy for people to argue against them in the future," Kushner said. Kushner
has been a key figure in the federal effort to manage the flow of U.S.
supply chains and ensure hospitals in need are properly equipped with
ventilators and other life-saving medical equipment.
"We can take all the learnings from this virus and figure out how we can be more prepared for the future." — Jared Kushner, 'The Next Revolution'
His
team, which has worked together with the coronavirus task force lead by
Vice President Mike Pence, is now focussed on solving the issue of
insufficient testing at the center of the coronavirus crisis in the U.S. "We figured
out how to really stimulate that supply," Kushner said. "We believe by
the month of April we will have close to five million tests that will be
performed. We're anticipating for the month of May, the number we were
originally asked to do, we can exceed it...we think we can double that
number and we should have more than ample amount of tests in the
market for the month of May," he explained. Kushner
said the White House, in collaboration with the Department of Health
and Human Services, has spent the weekend communicating with governors
to effectively develop their own testing strategy on a local level. At
the end of the day, Kushner explained, "the limiting factor is not
going to be swabs or reagents or transport media, it's going to be the
different states' ability to collect the samples and do it in an
efficient way." "We feel really good," he added. "We’ve eliminated
a lot of problems when it comes to testing and I think we will continue
to see it do better and better over the coming weeks." Kushner
also announced a federal effort to supply nursing homes and other
vulnerable communities with additional test kits and personal protective
equipment. "I don't want to get ahead of any specific
announcements," he said, but Adm. John Polowczyk, supply chain task
force lead at FEMA has "been focused very much on getting stuff to
the different places that need it and nursing homes in different areas
where people are vulnerable has been a place where we really tried
to surge," Kushner explained. Kusher said he is also focussed on
"the inner cities and indigenous populations" and has "been working very
hard to make sure they have adequate testing and PPE disproportionate
to where vulnerable populations are to where there are less vulnerable
populations." As
many parts of the country look towards a phased reopening, Kushner
urged Americans to "take all the learnings from this virus and figure
out how we can be more prepared for the future." "Now, the goal is
not to make this a political issue and figure out how we can
come together to really onshore," he said. "What we've been doing at
the federal government is figuring out how do we aggregate a lot of the
different demand in different key industries that are critical for our
national security. We're thinking of ways right now to redo our
stockpile given the nature of the hospital system and the medical
distribution system and figure out how we can take all the learnings
from this virus and figure out how we can be more prepared for
the future." Kushner said he found a renewed desire in various
industries who "want to move manufacturing onshore" amid the coronavirus
and echoed President Trump's commitment to make the United States a
"leader in advanced manufacturing." "If you look at why it
went overseas before, it's because people were a big cost
of manufacturing. Now, it's really robots... the personnel component of
manufacturing has actually gone down but we've lost a lot of the
capability here in America to be the leader in advanced manufacturing
and President Trump is very committed to making sure that over the
next couple of years, America regains their ability to be the leading
global advanced manufacturer." "I think," Kushner predicted, "we will see a lot of that happening." In his final remarks, the president's son-in-law imparted a message of hope as the country looks towards the future. "By
slowing the spread and flattening the curve, that has given us time to
really develop search hospital capacity plans, we have
enough ventilators, we have a ton of spare hospital capacity and
in addition, we have a lot of PPE," Kushner said. "We're onshoring
a lot of these industries, working to make sure we're never reliant on
foreign supplies again, and the doctors have learned more about how
to treat this." He
concluded, "I would say the most important thing is the
behavioral changes. People are washing their hands and wearing masks and
I think we're learning how to live with this in a much better way which
will enable us, at least the people who are not high-risk to start
going back to work in a phased and responsible approach."
WASHINGTON
(AP) — The New Deal was really a series of new deals, spread out over
more than six years during the Great Depression — a menu of nationally
scaled projects that were one part make-work and many parts lasting
impact. They delivered a broad-shouldered expression of presidential
authority whose overall benefits were both economic and psychological.
Not
all of them worked. Some failed badly. But it was a try-anything moment
by Franklin D. Roosevelt at a time of national despair. And it remade
the role of the federal government in American life.
Men
were hired to plant trees in Oklahoma after the Dust Bowl and to build
roads, bridges and schools. Writers and artists were dispatched to
chronicle the hardship, employing authors like Saul Bellow and Ralph
Ellison. In most every state, you can still see murals or read local
histories or walk into enduring projects like LaGuardia Airport and
Dealey Plaza in Dallas.
These
programs were designed to provide get-by wages in exchange for work.
But others were crafted to remake society. Social Security was
instituted to save the elderly from poverty, federal insurance on banks
to renew trust in the financial system, minimum wage and labor rights to
redistribute the balance of power between employer and employee.
In
this March 26, 1937, file photo, Works Progress Administration (WPA)
workers make copper utensils for a hospital. (AP Photo, File)
Now,
nearly 90 years later, the United States is fighting a disease that
presents the country with wrenching life-and-death challenges. Yet at
the same time, it has served up something else as well: a rare
opportunity to galvanize Americans for change.
And
as the U.S. confronts its most profound financial crisis since the
Depression, brought on by the most deadly pandemic in a century, there
are early soundings of a larger question: What would a “new” New Deal
look like?
For
the historian Doris Kearns Goodwin, whose latest book is “Leadership in
Turbulent Times,” the very act of discussing such a possibility is
productive in itself. “It at least allows you to think of something that
could come out of this that could be positive.”
___
The
New Deal’s legacy still provides support today. Unemployment insurance.
Retirement and disability income. Transparency in the stock markets.
Infrastructure that ensures a steady flow of electricity and supply of
water.
Yet the
coronavirus outbreak has also revealed how ill-equipped the government
was to address the rapidly escalating fallout of 26 million job losses,
overwhelmed hospitals and millions of shuttered businesses only weeks
away from failure.
“We
basically have a 21st-century economy wobbling on a 20th-century
foundation,” said Rahm Emanuel, the former mayor of Chicago and chief of
staff to President Barack Obama. “We need to upgrade the system to have
a 21st-century economy in all respects.”
In
this March 9, 1936, file photo Works Progress Administration (WPA)
workers build a new farm-to-market road along Knob Creek in Tennessee.
(AP Photo, File)
Among the questions at hand:
—How
can Americans have greater access to savings for retirement and
financial emergencies? There are fewer workers than a generation ago,
and many face higher costs for housing and school.
—How
can the government ensure greater resources for medical care in a
crisis? This would mean that mission-critical workers, from nurses to
grocery-store clerks, have stockpiles of equipment to stay safe. It
would mean people could get tested and treated without crippling
hospital bills. And it would mean researchers have incentives to develop
vaccines and bring them to market faster.
President
Donald Trump has talked up infrastructure programs and affordable
healthcare but offered few details. Democratic lawmakers must work with a
president their base of voters distrusts and despises. The likely
consequence: Any mandate for change will come from the ballot boxes this
November.
Just
this past week, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Michael Bennet
(D-Colo.), leaned hard on programs of the New Deal to offer legislation
to create a federal “health force” to employ workers “for future public
health care needs, and build skills for new workers to enter the public
health and health care workforce.” It is unlikely the
Republican-controlled Senate would consider such legislation, but it
also shows what Democrats might have in mind as voters contemplate
upcoming elections.
Both
parties have an uneasy relationship with how states and the federal
government should share their power, and any reprise of the New Deal
would likely enhance Washington’s authority.
Trump
has yet to offer a systemic solution to the crisis. though he has
approved record levels of direct assistance to businesses and
individuals. Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has talked
more about combating the pandemic than he has about reimagining what
kind of country might emerge from it.
So
far, Congress has committed more than $2 trillion to sustaining the
economy during the outbreak. But most economists see that unprecedented
sum as relief, not recovery or reform — just one of the “three Rs” of
the New Deal.
Any
recovery will rely on government programs to catalyze the economy so
that hiring and commerce can flow again. The public will also expect
reforms that make the nation more resilient against future emergencies,
so people feel comfortable enough to take the risks that lead to
innovation and prosperity.
Investing
in infrastructure holds bipartisan appeal. Trump has repeatedly called
for upgrades to roads, bridges and pipelines. Democrats would like to
ensure that internet connectivity, including next-generation 5G, exists
in rural and poorer communities.
But
other options have existed mainly in the white papers of think tanks,
academics and advocacy groups. There is a newfound appetite for them,
which could overpower even the highly polarized politics of this moment.
“The
question people always ask is, what would it take to break through that
extreme partisanship?” Goodwin said. “It takes a crisis. This is what
happens during wars.”
After 9/11, much of the criticism of the federal government focused on a collective “failure of imagination.”
Nineteen
years later, that phrase has a new context as Washington tries to
fashion a response to the coronavirus. It’s a challenge at a scale the
nation has not seen since 1932, when Roosevelt, a Democrat, defeated
Republican President Herbert Hoover with a promise of better days ahead —
a “new deal” for the “forgotten man.”
When
New Deal programs were unveiled, no one definitively knew what had
caused the U.S. economy to collapse, unlike now, when the culprit and
the vulnerabilities are clearer.
The
political climate was fundamentally different then. Roosevelt,
celebrated for his optimism and empathy, had muscular Democratic
majorities in Congress. But he also sought to unite the country. His
first radio “fireside chat” in 1933 was devoted to asking Americans to
trust the banking system again. “He promised them that they could get
their money back,” Goodwin said. The next fireside chat called for
systemic change that Roosevelt argued would regulate capitalism’s
extremes and provide a safety net.
“Roosevelt
was very concerned with the idea of one body politic,” said Allan
Winkler, a professor emeritus at Miami University of Ohio, who testified
before Congress about the New Deal in 2009 during the height of the
financial crisis. “I worry about that in the current situation, that we
don’t have a willingness to work together.”
But
the New Deal programs stemmed from bold visions that could be
implemented by political leaders, he cautioned. “In our fragmented body
politic, it would take an extraordinary politician to do what is
necessary.”
In this Oct. 2, 1936, file photo, President Franklin Roosevelt at the
new 21-story medical unit which he dedicated in Jersey City, N.J.,
assuring the medical profession that the New Deal contemplated no action
detrimental to it in carrying out the Social Security Act. (AP Photo,
File)
This
is why a debate is starting among policy thinkers about the components
needed for recovery and reform: so that leaders can feel empowered to
take action.
Emanuel sees two needed chapters — one to provide immediate aid and a second with more lasting change.
“We
need another bill to jump start the economy,” Emanuel said. He says it
should be followed by investments in infrastructure to improve online
connectivity so that learning, medicine and work can get through
stay-at-home orders.
The
case for a major rebuilding may become clear if dire forecasts of a
second-quarter decline in annual economic output ranging from 30% to 50%
come true.
“I
think we are going to see an epic lockup in the mortgage markets as
people are going to be unable to make their payments,” said Louis Hyman,
a historian at Cornell University.
This
same cascade of defaults existed in the Great Depression. The New Deal
swung to the rescue with the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation, which bought
past-due mortgages with government bonds and blocked a wave of
foreclosures. Government officials also developed what would become
30-year mortgages. The loan’s stable interest rates helped spur new
construction.
But
now, Hyman says, there’s a “painful truth”: The bulk of most people’s
wealth is tied up in their homes — and inaccessible in a crisis.
“The
policy that would undo that is to enable people to accumulate wealth in
other ways,” he wrote in an email. Those include better pay, capital
market investment incentives and, especially, “building lots of houses
for the under-housed.”
Any attempt at updating a New Deal will reflect ideological differences between Democrats and Republicans.
Framing
this divide is a simple choice: Is it better to establish a government
firewall that can protect the economy during future downturns? Or should
the tax code and regulations be re-engineered so that private companies
and individuals can more easily adapt to pandemics?
Heather
Boushey, president of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, says
allowing government aid to automatically increase as the economy began
to fall would have been one of “our best defenses so that the
coronavirus recession does not turn into a full-scale economic
depression.”
“Responding
to the crisis without also making our economy more resilient against
future shocks would be a mistake,” she said. Automatic triggers for
expanded jobless benefits, increased medical aid and new construction
spending would ease the pain of a downturn and speed recovery.
More conservative economists believe adjustments to the tax code and regulations will improve growth and resilience.
“This
is not one of those things where if you send checks you can jump-start
the economy,” said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, a former Congressional Budget
Office director and economic adviser to Republicans.
Price
Fishback, an economist at the University of Arizona known for his work
studying the Depression era, proposes another, more abstract notion as a
key to fashioning a New Deal for the 21st century: humility.
Even
New Deal programs that improved lives did not insulate the American
people. There was stagflation in the 1970s. Untamed financial markets
fueled a housing bubble during the 2000s. And at the end of 2019, no
major economist forecasting this year envisioned that a pandemic would
throw the world into turmoil.
This
Aug. 26, 2010, file photo shows the Timberline Lodge in Timberline
Lodge, Ore. The Lodge, a National Historic Landmark, was built as a
Works Progress Administration (WPA) project during the Great Depression.
(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)
The
United States would be stronger with improved internet connectivity,
more housing, government programs that can cushion a downturn and a
health care system that can handle crises and emergencies. Life would be
better. But the nation would be far from impervious.
So stay humble, Fishback urges.
“Once we think we got it licked,” he says, “we get slammed in the face again.”
___
Michael
Tackett is deputy Washington bureau chief for The Associated Press, and
Josh Boak covers the U.S. economy and voters. Follow Tackett on Twitter
at http://twitter.com/tackettDC and Boak at http://twitter.com/joshboak.
WASHINGTON
(AP) — They long for what’s being lost: the ability to publicly
question officials at committee hearings, to chat across the aisle, to
speak from the House and Senate floor for all of America, and history,
to hear.
Congress wants its voice back.
With no real plan to reopen Capitol Hill any time soon, the coronavirus shutdown poses an existential crisis that’s pushing Congress ever so reluctantly toward the 21st century option of remote legislating from home.
“It’s the ability to be an equal branch of government,” said Rep. Katie Porter, a freshman Democrat from California.
Divisions
are fierce, but so too is the sense of what is being lost. Every day
lawmakers shelter at home, their public role is being visibly
diminished. While they are approving record sums of virus aid, they are
ceding authority to oversee the effort and tackle next steps.
It’s an imbalance of power for all to see: President Donald Trump’s daily public briefings
without a robust response from Capitol Hill, though there have been
discussions within the White House about changing the format of the
briefings to curtail his role.
“This
is a time where oversight is really important,” said Rep. Derek Kilmer,
D-Wash., a leader of the moderate New Democrats caucus.
The pandemic “begs for Congress’s engagement, virtual or otherwise,” he said.
Changing
the rules to allow lawmakers to cast votes or hold hearings from home
would be unprecedented in House and Senate history. The Constitution
requires lawmakers be “present” for most action.
The
simmering debate cuts across political fault lines. Some lawmakers want
to stick with tradition; others are tech-savvy and ready for change. A
vocal band of conservatives insists Congress must reopen now, despite
public health warnings, echoing Trump’s push to end the shutdown. Others
have no interest in returning to the crowded Capitol complex until it’s
safe.
House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., shelved a proposal for proxy voting this
past week after Republicans objected. Once resistant to what she called
“Congress by Zoom” meeting, she tapped a bipartisan task force to
present fresh ideas.
In
the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., rejected a GOP
remote vote proposal. He expects Congress to return May 4, as planned.
The reluctance to change is leaving the legislative branch behind after even the tradition-bound Supreme Court announced it would hear oral arguments by teleconference as stay-home rules reorder civic life.
“It’s a huge can of worms,” said Sarah Binder, a professor at George Washington University.
She
said the pandemic provokes a set of issues far beyond the logistics of
working remotely. Among them: Is it safe to return to Capitol Hill? Can
you be “present” if you appear on a computer screen?
But she said, “They need a solution if they’re not going to be able to come back.”
Lawmakers
say they can only do so much on conference calls and virtual town hall
meetings as they assess $3 trillion in coronavirus aid and consider
annual spending, defense and other bills.
While
the 100 senators can usually command attention on their own, the 435
rank-and-file House members have a harder time being heard.
One prime opportunity is time allotted to lawmakers at committee hearings.
It
may be just five minutes on C-SPAN. But for members of Congress, the
committee means everything. It’s their chance to make a difference.
Porter knows firsthand what’s being lost with Congress away.
As
the pandemic emerged, she wrote a letter asking the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention to provide free virus testing as country
scrambled to slow the spread of COVID-19.
“They blew us off,” she said.
But when CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield appeared before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, Porter had her moment.
In
a video that went viral, she grilled Redfield on whether he would
commit to invoking authority under federal law to declare pandemic
testing free.
He said yes.
“It
wasn’t until we got Dr. Redfield in front on me, and I had my five
minutes with the cameras on him, in front of the American people, that I
was able to get an answer,” she said.
But
under House rules, committees usually need members to be physically
present to meet. While several committees have been conducting briefing
calls with key administration officials, it’s mostly out of public view.
The
House Small Business Committee confirmed a private call this past week
with the head of the Small Business Administration running the
coronavirus paycheck program. The Appropriations Committee held one with
Agricultural Secretary Sonny Perdue. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin
has had calls with other committees.
The
House Oversight and Reform Committee was set for a briefing with the
Census Bureau’s director about curtailing the 2020 population count
during the pandemic. It’s a crucial conversation with billions of
federal dollars at stake. But the public could not watch.
Still,
some say the only way for Congress to act is for lawmakers to return to
Washington during the pandemic. Conservative House Freedom Caucus
members rallied this past week to reopen the Capitol. Key GOP senators
agree.
“If
COVID-19 requires Congress to act, then it requires Congress to
convene,” said Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, who self-quarantined last month
after sitting near another GOP senator who tested positive for the
virus.
As the
House considers options, one advocate for remote legislating is Majority
Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., who enjoys FaceTime with his grandkids and
suggests Congress could do the same.
Opening
committees is the priority, he told reporters after the task force met.
“We need committees to act,” he said. “Even if they can’t come to
Washington.”
Hoyer
acknowledged how difficult it is for Congress to change. Even during
the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak, the House convened to vote. But this is
an “extraordinary circumstance,” he said. He expects an update this
coming week.
Porter
warns that without changes the 535-member legislative branch is being
distilled to its most visible leaders — “a four person Congress,” she
said.
“Technology is not disruptive to the Founders’ idea,” she said.
“It’s
limiting the technology that is consolidating power in a small number
of people,” she said, “which is what they were worried about when they
created the House of Representatives.”
LONDON
(AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is returning to work after
recovering from a coronavirus infection that put him in intensive care,
with his government facing growing criticism over the deaths and
disruption the virus has caused.
Johnson’s
office said he would be back at his desk in 10 Downing St. on Monday,
two weeks after he was released from a London hospital. Foreign
Secretary Dominic Raab, who has been standing in for the prime minister,
said Sunday that Johnson was “raring to go.”
Britain
has recorded more than 20,000 deaths among people hospitalized with
COVID-19, the fifth country in the world to reach that total. Thousands
more are thought to have died in nursing homes.
Johnson,
55, spent a week at St. Thomas’ Hospital, including three nights in
intensive care, where he was given oxygen and watched around the clock
by medical workers. After he was released on April 12, he recorded a
video message thanking staff at the hospital for saving his life.
Johnson has not been seen in public since, as he recovered at Chequers, the prime minister’s country retreat outside London.
Opposition
politicians say Britain’s coronavirus death toll could have been lower
if Johnson’s Conservative government had imposed a nationwide lockdown
sooner. They are also demanding to know when and how the government will ease the restrictions that were imposed March 23 and run to at least May 7.
“Decisions
need to be taken quicker and communication with the public needs to be
clearer,” opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer said in a letter
to Johnson.
“The
British public have made great sacrifices to make the lockdown work,”
he wrote. “They deserve to be part of an adult conversation about what
comes next.”
Despite
the toll, which saw another 813 virus-related deaths announced
Saturday, some in Britain are growing impatient with the restrictions,
which have brought much of the economy
and daily life to a halt. Road traffic has begun to creep up after
plummeting when the lockdown first was imposed, and some businesses have
begun to reopen after implementing social-distancing measures.
Scientists
say the U.K. has reached the peak of the pandemic but is not yet out of
danger. The number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 is declining
and the number of daily deaths peaked on April 8.
But
with hundreds of new deaths announced each day, some health experts say
Britain could eventually have the highest virus death toll in Europe.
As
fears recede that the health system will be overwhelmed, opponents are
criticizing Johnson’s government over shortages of protective equipment
for medical workers and a lack of testing for the virus. More than 100 infected medical workers have died so far.
The government has promised to conduct 100,000 coronavirus tests
a day by the end of the month, but has yet to reach even 30,000 a day.
Increasing testing, so that all people with the virus can be identified
and their contacts traced and isolated, is key to loosening the
lockdown.
The
British government says all health care staff and other essential
workers can be tested if they show symptoms. It is rolling out almost
100 mobile testing sites, staffed by soldiers, to conduct tests at
nursing homes, police stations, prisons and other sites.
In the first two days of expanded testing, however, the online system handling daily demand for the tests had exceeded the supply by early morning.
The woman who has accused Joe Biden of a sexual assault in the early 1990s says she's disappointed that CNN anchor Anderson Cooper
failed to ask the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee about the
allegation when he had the chance -- not once, but twice. Tara
Reade, a former staffer for then-Sen. Biden, told her story about the
former vice president over a month ago with progressive podcast host
Katie Halper. Since then, Biden has done nearly a dozen TV interviews
with news anchors including NBC News' Chuck Todd, ABC News' George
Stephanopoulos, and twice with Cooper -- all of whom failed to ask Biden
about her public claim. "I think it's shocking that this much
time has passed and that he is an actual nominee for president and
they're not asking the questions," Reade told Fox News. "He's been on
'Anderson Cooper' at least twice where he was not asked." "I
guess my question is, if this were Donald Trump, would they treat
it the same way? If this were Brett Kavanaugh, did they treat it the
same way?" Reade said. "In other words, it's politics and political
agenda playing a role in objective reporting and asking the question." Reade believes that the news anchors who have interviewed Biden "don't want to ask him" about her assault allegation. "There
are two things happening at once. [Biden] is not making himself
accessible to be asked the question. And when he does make himself
accessible, they are not asking, those anchors. And so that tells there
may be a political agenda behind that and that's gross. ... I'm a
survivor and I would like the question asked." Reade said her opinions of some journalists and media outlets have shifted in recent weeks based on their coverage of her claim. "I
really would look to [Cooper] for answers and I would never do that
again. I've lost total respect," Reade said, adding that "as a
civilian," it's difficult to know "what news source to trust" since
shows like Cooper's have a "blatant bias." On
Friday evening, a clip from 1993 surfaced showing an anonymous
California resident phoning in to CNN's "Larry King Live" asking the TV
host and his panel about "problems" her daughter had with a "prominent
senator." Reade confirmed to Fox News that the woman heard in the clip was her late mother, Jeanette Altimus. CNN
waited until Saturday afternoon to issue a report on its website and
briefly mentioned on-air, which was the first time the network has
addressed the Biden assault claim since Reade came forward in March. Reade's story first resurfaced in an article in The Intercept on
March 24. Halper then interviewed Reade, who said that in 1993, a more
senior member of Biden's staff asked her to bring the then-senator his
gym bag near the U.S. Capitol building, which led to the encounter in
question. "He greeted me, he remembered my name, and then we were
alone. It was the strangest thing," Reade told Halper. "There was no
like, exchange really. He just had me up against the wall." Reade said that she was wearing “a business skirt,” but “wasn’t wearing stockings — it was a hot day.” She
continued: “His hands were on me and underneath my clothes, and he went
down my skirt and then up inside it and he penetrated me with his
fingers and he was kissing me at the same time and he was saying some
things to me.” Reade claimed Biden first asked if she wanted “to go somewhere else.” “I pulled away, he got finished doing what he was doing,” Reade said. “He said: ‘Come on, man. I heard you liked me.’” Reade
said she tried to share her story last year, but nobody listened to
her. Earlier this month, she filed a criminal complaint against Biden
with police in Washington, D.C. Fox News reached out to the Biden
campaign on Friday for comment. The campaign referred Fox News to a
statement earlier this month from Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate
Bedingfield that said: “What is clear about this claim: it is untrue.
This absolutely did not happen." "Vice President Biden has
dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around
violence against women," Bedingfield said. "He authored and fought for
the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women
Act. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard - and heard
respectfully. Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an
independent press." CNN did not immediately respond to Fox News' request for comment.
