Bill banning abortions after 20 weeks fails in Senate – live | US news

Mike Bloomberg to speak at pro-Israel lobby’s conference

Bloomberg will be speaking at the conference for the influential pro-Israel lobby group, the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (Aipac), the group confirmed.

This weekend, Bernie Sanders, who has never attended an Aipac conference, said that the group gives a platform to leaders who “who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights”.

The pro-Israel group has previously run Trun ads targeting the Vermont senator’s campaign in California, Texas and Florida. In response to Sanders’ recent comments, Aipac put out a statement condemning his views as “truly shameful”.

In 2016, all the presidential candidates except Sanders address the conference and in 2012, Barack Obama and all the GOP candidates participated despite the event overlapping with Super Tuesday (as it will this year).

Elizabeth Warren has also said she’s not going, and the other candidates have yet to confirm their attendance.

Reverend Jesse Jackson: ‘Democratic socialism isn’t socialism, it’s democratic’

Ahead of the South Carolina primary, civil rights leader Jesse Jackson has written an op-ed for the Chicago Sun-Times to clarify that Bernie Sanders “isn’t talking about making America into Cuba or Venezuela”.

Sanders is “talking about extending social guarantees like those offered in most other advanced industrial states, invoking Denmark or Sweden. These countries have universal health care at a lower cost, paid family leave, guaranteed paid vacations, higher minimum wages, more generous public retirement programs,” Jackson writes. “They also have vibrant and competitive economies, lower inequality, less poverty, and higher life expectancies.”

The Vermont senator recently drew bipartisan criticism for emphasizing the literacy drives under Fidel Castro and claiming “it’s unfair to simply say everything is bad” about the communist state.

Jackson emphasized that Sanders and Elizabeth Warren are proposing a “modern version of what Franklin D Roosevelt called the Economic Bill of Rights: Medicare for all, tuition-free public education, universal daycare, a Green New Deal to generate jobs while addressing climate change.”

San Francisco declares a state of emergency over coronavirus concerns

Although no coronavirus cases have been confirmed in San Francisco, “the global picture is changing rapidly, and we need to step-up preparedness”, said mayor London Breed. “We see the virus spreading in new parts of the world every day, and we are taking the necessary steps to protect San Franciscans from harm.”

Lawmakers in DC have been arguing over the administration’s plan to stem coronavirus, which Democrats have said isn’t enough.

The extent to which the virus could spread in the US is unclear, though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned that an outbreak could cause “severe disruption” and urged communities to start preparing. “As more and more countries experience community spread, successful containment at our borders becomes harder and harder,” said Nancy Messonnier, the head of immunization at the CDC

Donald Trump, in India earlier today, told journalists that the coronavirus is “very well under control in our country” and “is going to go away”.

Second abortion bill fails in Senate

Another abortion bill, which would have required medical providers to “exercise the proper degree of care” if a child survives an abortion has been blocked in the Senate. Democrats Bob Casey of Pennsylvania, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Doug Jones of Alabama voted with all the Republicans in this case.

Jones, a vulnerable Democratic senator from a red state, has found himself in the difficult position of either alienating his own base of Democrats or anti-choice independents whose votes he needs to keep his seat.

The “born alive” bill in question here plays into misconceptions about late abortions. Doctors do not provide abortions to patients who are in labor. And It is essentially impossible for babies to survive failed abortions, and if a baby did survive the process, it’s would be standard procedure to care for the infant like any other patient.

Here’s everything that’s happened today:

• After coming out with a plan to dedicate $2.5bn to fighting and preventing coronavirus, Donald Trump and Democrats have been in a spat about whether the White House’s measures will be strong enough to prevent an outbreak. Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has been the most vocal critic, saying Trump isn’t taking the issue seriously. In response, Trump said that Schumer would complain if he asked for more.
• Though Roger Stone was sentenced to 40 weeks in prison last week, his trial continues as a judge rules whether the former political operative can have a new trial due to alleged juror misconduct. The judge criticized Trump for tweeting about a juror on the case, while Trump said the judge is biased.
• The Democratic candidates are gearing up for a heated debate tonight, one that will likely see blows dealt to senator Bernie Sanders, who is thought of as the current front-runner in the case. Mike Bloomberg, who was seen as the punching bag of last week’s debate, sent out surrogates today to criticize Sanders. Meanwhile, Bloomberg’s long-term partner Diana Taylor told a reporter in an interview that those who are concerned about allegations against him should “get over it”.

Bill banning abortions after 20 weeks falls in Senate

A bill banning abortion at after 20 weeks failed to get enough votes in the Senate this afternoon. Sixty votes were needed for the bill.

Though abortion is a highly partisan issue in Washington, two people from each party crossed party lines. Democrats Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Joe Manchin of West Virginia voted in favor of the bill, while Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted against it.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell likely brought the bill, and a second anti-abortion bill that requires medical providers to “exercise the proper degree of care” if a child survives an abortion or attempted abortion, to spark energy around the issue amongst conservatives.

DHS secretary grilled over coronavirus preparedness

Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, was grilled earlier today by a Republican senator about coronavirus and the US preparedness against the spread of the illness. The department has been put in charge of coordinating efforts to taper the spread of coronavirus.

“You’re head of homeland security, do we have enough respirators or not?” asked Republican Senator John Neely Kennedy.

“I would refer you to [Health and Human Services] for that,” Wolf said. “Secretary, you’re supposed to keep us safe,” Kennedy said in response.

In a Tweet reply, a DHS spokesperson said: “The Senator should direct medical questions to HHS and CDC. DHS’s role is primarily related to air, land and sea ports.”

Tweeting while aboard Air Force One on his way back from India, Donald Trump just doubled down on his attack against the jury foreman in the case of Roger Stone, long-time GOP political operative and former Trump confidant, and said the judge in the case is also biased against him.

This afternoon, the judge on the case, Amy Berman Jackson, criticized Trump’s original tweet attacking Tomeka Hart, who revealed herself to by the jury foreman on the case earlier this month. Trump said that the “fore person in the jury, in the Roger Stone case, had significant bias” and criticized the justice department for its handling of the case.

Jackson rebuked Trump for attacking Hart, who he did not mention by name, in a public matter. “In a highly publicized political climate… the risk of harassment and intimidation of any juror” is high, she said.

While Jackson sentenced Stone to 40 months in prison for seven felony charges, including lying to Congress and tampering with a witness, Stone has not been sent to prison. He is currently waiting on a request to have a new trial, which his team is trying to get by alleging juror misconduct.

That Trump said in his Tweet this afternoon that he believes Jackson is biased against him furthers a rift between Trump and his attorney general, Bill Barr, who heads the justice department.

In an interview with ABC News, Barr said that “public statements and tweets made about the department… about cases pending in the department and about the judges before whom we have cases make it impossible for me to do my job and to assure the courts and the department that we’re doing our work with integrity.”

He also said, “I think it’s time to stop tweeting about Department of Justice criminal cases” — advice that Trump has clearly not heeded.

Back to the 2020 election: Comments made by Diana Taylor, Mike Bloomberg’s long-time partner, on the reported nondisclosure agreements with women who accused his company of discrimination and harassment is giving ammunition to his critics.

In an interview with CBS News, Taylor said that none of the nondisclosure agreements accuse Bloomberg of “saying something nasty to a woman”. “That’s not who he is. Life has changed. I grew up in that world. It was bro culture,” Taylor said.

When asked what she would say to people who have concerns about the allegations. “It was 30 years ago, get over it!” she said.

In a later statement, a spokesperson for Taylor said that she “offered her personal view from her forty years working in finance, not the view of the campaign.”

Mitt Romney: US is ‘substantially underinvesting’ in preventing coronavirus outbreak

Senator Mitt Romney, who recently made headlines for being the sole GOP senator to vote for Donald Trump’s removal from office, said that the US is “substantially underinvesting” in preventing an outbreak, according to The Hill.

“I’m very disappointed in the degree to which we’ve prepared for a pandemic both in terms of protective equipment and would help people once they are infected,” Romney said.

Romney’s fellow Republicans have indicated they are happy with the president’s response to the illness. “It’s $2.5bn. If it’s not enough, we’ll appropriate more. We have to have a balance here,” said senator Lamar Alexander, chair of the Senate’s Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, earlier today.

Senator Chuck Schumer took his criticisms of Donald Trump’s response to coronavirus to the Senate floor this afternoon, saying that the administration’s response to the virus has been tainted with “towering and dangerous incompetence”.

“The Trump administration has no plan to deal with the coronavirus, no plan and seemingly no urgency to develop one,” Schumer said.

“The Trump administration is trying to build an airplane while already mid-flight.”

Earlier this morning, Trump tweeted that “Cryin’ Chuck Schumer” is “incompetent” and would complain if Trump asked for more funding.

The political battle over the US response to coronavirus began yesterday when the White House announced they are requesting Congress approve $2.5bn to address a potential outbreak, with $1.25m coming from new funding and the rest coming from other areas within the Department of Health and Human Services budget. Republicans have indicated they are happy with this plan, while Democrats have said it’s not enough.

Earlier this afternoon, officials from the US Center for Disease Control warned in a press conference that an outbreak could cause “severe disruption” in the lives of ordinary Americans. “It’s not so much a question of if this will happen any more, but rather more exactly when this will happen,” an official said about the potential spread of the illness.