Trump administration officials and Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) on Sunday came to President Trump’s defense amid backlash over his disparaging remarks toward fallen soldiers that were first reported in The Atlantic. Continue reading “Trump Admin, Ohio Gov Deny Trump’s ‘Loser’ Remark Amid Silence From Hill GOPers”
Texas Sheriff: Five Boats Sank In Trump Supporter Boat Parade, But No Fatalities
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Five boats sank in a Texas lake during a nautical parade in support of President Donald Trump, but no one was injured or killed, officials said Sunday. Continue reading “Texas Sheriff: Five Boats Sank In Trump Supporter Boat Parade, But No Fatalities”
Election Week, Not Day: Secretaries Of States Forecast Election Results Will Be Slower Roll Than Usual
State election officials signaled during an interview on MSNBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that they expect election results in November to come in slower than usual as more states expand access to mail-in voting in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Continue reading “Election Week, Not Day: Secretaries Of States Forecast Election Results Will Be Slower Roll Than Usual”
Ex-Staffers At DeJoy’s Former Business Say He Reimbursed Them For Donations To GOPers
People who worked for Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s former company were reportedly pressured to make political donations to Republican candidates and were reimbursed with bonus payments for doing so. Continue reading “Ex-Staffers At DeJoy’s Former Business Say He Reimbursed Them For Donations To GOPers”
VA Secretary Swats Down Report On Trump Calling Fallen Soldiers ‘Losers’
Veterans Affairs secretary Robert Wilkie on Sunday hit back at The Atlantic report that quoted President Trump calling slain soldiers in the Battle of Belleau Woods “losers,” but broke from the President’s past criticism of the late Sen. John McCain (R-AZ). Continue reading “VA Secretary Swats Down Report On Trump Calling Fallen Soldiers ‘Losers’”
Harris: ‘Theoretically, Of Course’ Russian Interference Poses Threat To Biden Win
Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) on Sunday expressed that both she and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden are not taking the possibility of Russian interference in the November election lightly. Continue reading “Harris: ‘Theoretically, Of Course’ Russian Interference Poses Threat To Biden Win”
Judge Orders Trump Admin To Temporarily Halt ‘Winding Down’ Census Field Operations
A federal judge in California on Saturday ordered the Trump administration to temporarily halt “winding down or altering any Census field operations” after the Trump administration moved to cut Census collection operations from eight to four months. Continue reading “Judge Orders Trump Admin To Temporarily Halt ‘Winding Down’ Census Field Operations”
Harris Predicts Scientists Will Be ‘Muzzled’ Amid Trump Effort To Push Vaccine Before Election
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris has said she “would not trust” President Donald Trump’s word on the safety of any potential coronavirus vaccine.
“I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump and it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he’s talking about,” Harris said in the clip of a CNN interview with Dana Bash released Saturday. “I will not take his word for it.”
Harris predicted when asked if she thought that public health experts would get the last word on the efficacy of a vaccine that scientists would be “muzzled.”
“If past is prologue that they will not, they’ll be muzzled, they’ll be suppressed, they will be sidelined,” Harris said. She told Bash that the President was grasping in the remaining days leading up to the election “to get whatever he can to pretend he has been a leader on this issue when he is not.”
President Trump has pressured administration health officials to speed up the vaccine so that he can declare a win in response to the coronavirus pandemic that Democratic lawmakers and some prominent Republicans have said he has failed to adequately confront — as the death toll swells to roughly 188,000 since Mach.
The President last month suggested that the FDA had been infiltrated by a “deep state” that was intentionally slowing clinical trials in order to keep him from a vaccine win going into the presidential elections in November.
Several drug companies have since prepared to issue a joint statement pledging that they will not rush to release a vaccine that fails to meet rigorous measures of efficacy and safety.
Chief adviser to Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, told Science in an interview published Thursday that there has been “absolutely no interference” amid concerns of political meddling, adding that he would resign if at any time that became an issue or if he felt pressure from FDA regulators to push a half-baked vaccine out before it had been adequately tested.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany brushed away concerns that the FDA had been subject to undue pressure, saying at a press bringing Thursday that “no one is pressuring the FDA to do anything.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC News in an interview that he trusted that FDA regulators would only approve a vaccine for distribution based on “hard data.”
On Thursday, he told CNN’s Jim Sciutto that he didn’t believe a vaccine would be approved for public use “unless it was indeed both safe and effective.”
He said that if that’s the case he “would not hesitate for a moment to take the vaccine myself and recommend it for my family.”
Drugmakers Expected To Pledge COVID Vaccine Safety In Effort To Diminish Fears
A group of drug companies racing against each other to develop coronavirus vaccines, are planning to release a statement early next week pledging that they will not prematurely release a vaccine amid political pressure to deliver on a presidential election timeline that is now just two months away.
A copy of the companies’ draft statement obtained by the Wall Street Journal says the drugmakers will submit applications for government emergency-use authorization or vaccine licensing based on “substantial evidence of safety and efficacy” from advanced clinical trials conducted under Food and Drug Administration guidance.
The announcement of the pledge comes as concerns mount that a COVID-19 vaccine is being jammed through federal regulation to deliver a Trump campaign victory ahead of the election.
The companies have said they will look at Phase 3 trials, which are designed to demonstrate the efficacy of the shots at reducing rates of symptomatic COVID-19 compared with unvaccinated people.
The manufacturers who have reportedly signed the letter include Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi.
The news comes as doubts swell regarding the safety and efficacy of a vaccine that has faced a sped up timeline. Vaccine development usually takes years, yet Covid-19 shots are progressing at a rapid pace as companies and countries rush to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
Several of the companies have already embarked on large clinical trials that include at least 30,000 people. There was some discussion in recent weeks about possible emergency-use authorization or approval.
Last week, the CDC told state officials that they should prepare to launch COVID-19 vaccination campaigns by November.
The timeline coincides within days of the presidential elections on Nov. 3. Last month, President Donald Trump tweeted a conspiracy meant to pressure and simultaneously undermine the FDA by suggesting that a “deep state” within the agency was intentionally delaying trials for a vaccine to deny him a victory that would likely boost his chances ahead of the election.
Those remarks have intensified concern by lawmakers, with some states even refusing to distribute a vaccine if it is not properly vetted or that appears to cling too closely to Trump’s political schedule.
While the federal government has pledged to deliver 300 million doses by January 2021, the FDA has said it won’t approve a shot for coronavirus unless there is evidence showing it is 50% effective compared with a placebo.
But the credibility of the FDA is in repair, after it recently hastily authorized convalescent plasma to treat Covid-19 patients.
Earlier this summer, the FDA was also forced to revoke the emergency-use authorization of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial touted by Trump following concerns about its safety and efficacy as treatment.
FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn was on the receiving end of Trump’s earlier attack on the vaccine’s slower pace when he offered the glowing review of the treatment — he later apologized for presenting an overzealous picture that raved of the treatment’s effectiveness.
The Weekend Calm Before the Storm
I hope you’re settling into a relaxing long weekend, or as relaxing as anything can be in these unsettled times. We are on the cusp of a vast civic storm unfolding over the next 60 to 90 days. So make the most of the respite.
While you’re here don’t miss our team’s “Is Your State Ready?” series. Josh Kovensky, Kate Riga, Matt Shuham and Tierney Sneed are looking at every state to look at their preparedness for this pandemic election. You can see the first three installments here.
You can also watch my conversation about Benito Mussolini, Italian Fascism and the rising global authoritarian movement with Professor Ruth Ben-Ghiat of New York Univeristy.