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Michigan’s Democratic secretary of state, Jocelyn Benson, was on the front lines of the protests and election disinformation fueled by Trump’s “Big Lie” about election fraud as the battleground state’s chief election official.
In a new interview with the Associated Press, Benson warns that the ongoing disputes and conspiracy theories around the 2020 election are only the beginning of what she sees as a sustained attack on American democracy that will culminate in a renewed attack on election legitimacy in 2024.
AP: Across the country, we are seeing several GOP-controlled legislatures seeking to exert more control over election officials. How concerned are you that we could end up seeing more of these outside ballot reviews like in Arizona or even takeovers of local election offices?
BENSON: I feel very strongly that the battles that we saw around 2020’s election ... was just the beginning of what is clearly turning out to be a multi-year, strategic, nationally coordinated, partisan assault on the vote in our country and on our democracy. And we will see another battle in the 2022 elections around that truth and around the security of the vote, around access to the vote. But it’s also all going to culminate, I believe, in an effort to try again in 2024 what those democracy deniers attempted to do in 2020 but failed. And in 2024, the bad actors, I believe, will be more coordinated, more strategic, better funded and will have the benefit of doing this work for a number of years. I’m deeply concerned about the future health of our democracy.
Democrats Move to Fulfill Biden’s Election Promise on Healthcare ‘Public Option’
Two Congressional Democrats are pushing to create a “public option” for healthcare coverage to compete with private health insurance plans, and aim to introduce legislation by the end of the year, NBC News reports.
A federal public option will help lower health care costs and guarantee that health care is a right not a privilege.@FrankPallone and I plan to work with our colleagues to craft comprehensive legislation to create a federal public option. https://t.co/Df0YmgEN35
Unlike 2009, @JoeLieberman isn't around to kill the public option. But now Democrats have thinner majorities, no hope of Republican support and are guaranteed to face an assault from health industry groups who are prepared to fight this. https://t.co/nMXYoQzPhG
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Madam Speaker review: how Nancy Pelosi outwitted Bush and Trump
John Boehner calls the Democrat the most powerful House speaker ever. Susan Page’s authoritative biography shows why
John Boehner, a Republican predecessor, concedes that Nancy Pelosi may be the most powerful House speaker in history. Pelosi provided George W Bush with the votes he needed to prevent a depression, as Republicans balked. She helped make Obamacare the law of the land.
Related: On the House review: John Boehner’s lament for pre-Trump Republicans
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Fauci hits back at rightwing criticism and says attacks on him ‘bizarre’
Scientist forced to defend himself from attacks by Trump allies and says ‘I can’t be bothered with getting distracted’
Anthony Fauci has described attacks on him from Republicans as “bizarre”, after a barrage of criticism from senior GOP figures.
Related: ‘There is a solution’: a Covid survivor’s life-or-death battle for Medicare for All
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Covid cases fall over 80% among US nursing home staff and residents
Despite vaccine hesitancy, figures show a big drop in infections – giving hope that, after a brutal year, an end is in sight
Joan Phillips, a certified nursing assistant in a Florida nursing home, loved her job but dreaded the danger of going to work in the pandemic. When vaccines became available in December, she jumped at the chance to get one.
Months later, it appears that danger has faded. After the rollout of Covid vaccines, the number of new Covid cases among nursing home...
Coronavirus live news: at least 3,000 nurses have died in year since WHO declared Covid pandemic
3,000 nurses dead, Covid exodus looming warns global federation; Brazil again suffers record deaths; five countries suspend use of AstraZeneca vaccine
- Israel says 600 children given Covid jab had no serious side-effects
- Russia’s Sputnik V Covid vaccine gaining acceptance in Europe
- Greece hopes to open to vaccinated or tested tourists from 14 May
- UK summons EU official as anger grows over vaccine export claims
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Interim data from a late-stage study of their experimental Covid antibody therapy showed an 85% reduction in hospitalisation or death in patients, Vir Biotechnology Inc and GlaxoSmithKline Plc said on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Following the data an independent panel has recommended stopping the trial, the two companies said, adding they were planning to submit an emergency use authorisation application to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for the treatment.
US nursing home residents vaccinated against Covid can get hugs again from their loved ones, and all residents may enjoy more indoor visits, the government said Wednesday in a step toward pre-pandemic normalcy.
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AP: The policy guidance from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, comes as coronavirus cases and deaths among nursing home residents have plummeted in recent weeks at the same time that vaccination accelerated. People living in long-term care facilities have borne a cruel toll from the pandemic. They represent about 1% of the US population, but account for 1 in 3 deaths, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
Government officials acknowledged that isolation deepened the misery for residents as long-term care facilities remained locked down much of last year. Loneliness contributed to physical as well as mental decline. The ban on visits went into effect almost one year ago and only in the fall were facilities allowed to begin socially distanced outdoor visits and limited indoor ones.
“There is no substitute for physical contact, such as the warm embrace between a resident and their loved one,” CMS said in its new guidance, “Therefore, if the resident is fully vaccinated, they can choose to have close contact (including touch) with their visitor while wearing a well-fitting face mask and performing hand-hygiene before and after.”
So while hugs are OK again for residents who have completed their vaccination, precautions such as wearing masks and using hand sanitiser remain in place as a counterbalance to risk. CMS also underscored that maintaining 6 feet of separation is still the safest policy, and outdoor visits are preferable even when residents and visitors have been vaccinated.
Republicans want to make it harder to pass ballot initiatives. That should alarm us | David Daley
State legislators are trying to make it more difficult for citizens to take action when their own representatives won’t
They walked through Michigan college football games dressed as gerrymandered districts. They crisscrossed Idaho in a decades-old RV dubbed the Medicaid Express. In Florida, they united black and white, left and right, Trump-loving “deplorables” and radical criminal justice reformers into a mighty moral movement to end an ugly vestige of Jim Crow.
Related: The...
Biden to set out his foreign policy in state dept speech – live updates
President has promised US will re-engage globally after isolationist Trump era
- No Republican action against Cheney or extremist Greene after vote
- Indigenous Americans dying from Covid at twice rate of white Americans
- Canada designates Proud Boys as terrorist organization
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A Texas county judge has temporarily blocked the state’s efforts to remove Planned Parenthood from Medicaid, report CNN. Caroline Kelly writes:
A slew of Texas Planned Parenthood affiliates asserted in a lawsuit filed Wednesday that the Texas Health and Human Services Commission failed to issue “a proper notice of termination” from the program. The state had promised to remove the groups from the Medicaid program Thursday.
The chief press officer for the Texas Health & Human Services Commission, Christine Mann, declined to comment on the case citing pending litigation.
Sam Baker and Andrew Witherspoon have a relatively upbeat analysis of the coronavirus situation across the US today for Axios. They write:
New coronavirus infections slowed by nearly 16% over the past week, continuing a trend of rapid improvement. The US still has a ton of coronavirus, and there’s still the potential for dark days ahead. But this is progress, and the improvement is significant. If this trend keeps going, the country will be in a far better and safer position as vaccines continue to roll out.
Nationwide, the US is averaging about 139,000 new cases per day — a 16% improvement over last week, which was a 16% improvement over the week before. The number of new hospitalizations was also down last week, by just over 26%. And deaths fell by about 6%, to an average of 3,097 deaths per day.
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Don’t swerve the culture war – that’s the lesson from Joe Biden to UK progressives | Owen Jones
The Democrats’ victory involved working with minorities and helping the working class. Keir Starmer, take heed
“Culture war” used to be a term inextricably linked with the maelstrom of US politics. Popularised by American sociologist James Davison Hunter in his 1991 book Culture Wars: The Struggle to Define America, it described how socially progressive and conservative coalitions were locked in a seemingly eternal conflict. It could make for surprising alliances, he noted, citing Pr...
US detects two cases of South Africa Covid variant as Biden aims to expand healthcare – live
- Two unconnected cases of variant identified in South Carolina
- US economy shrank by 3.5% in 2020, worst year since second world war
- Biden to reopen Obamacare markets for special Covid coverage
- US death toll predicted to hit 500,000 by February
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South Carolina state health officials said Thursday that two cases of the coronavirus variant identified in South Africa had been detected in the state- the first time the variant has been found in the US.
South Carolina’s department of health and environmental control said the two cases don’t appear to be connected and the two people affected did not have a history of recent travel. One was detected by the state’s public health lab and the other by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Survivors of the 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, asked congressional Republicans to publicly censure Marjorie Taylor Greene for suggesting the school shooting was a “false flag” and for harassing a teenage survivor on Capitol Hill in 2019.
House Republicans this week announced that Greene, a newly elected Georgia congresswoman, had been appointed to the House Education and Labor Committee.
House EdLabor committee chair @BobbyScott on Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s appointment to the committee:
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“House Republicans have appointed someone to this Committee who claimed that the killing of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook... was a hoax” pic.twitter.com/VoPgJ3tSLF
Georgia to uphold Biden’s win as Birx says states abandoned prevention tactics – live
- Raffensperger: ‘We counted three times and results remain unchanged’
- Sunday saw 175,663 new US Covid cases and 1,113 deaths
- Biden prepares for Republicans try to block cabinet picks
- Trump: Rudy Giuliani has coronavirus
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Donald Trump once again lashed out against Georgia’s Republican governor, as the state prepares to recertify Joe Biden’s victory there.
“The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?” Trump said in a tweet.
The Republican Governor of Georgia refuses to do signature verification, which would give us an easy win. What’s wrong with this guy? What is he hiding?
Xavier Becerra pledged to ensure Americans’ access to quality health care if he is approved as secretary of health and human services.
In Congress, I helped pass the Affordable Care Act. As California's Attorney General, I defended it. As Secretary of Health and Human Services, I will build on our progress and ensure every American has access to quality, affordable health care—through this pandemic and beyond.
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