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Joe Biden Expected to Face Questions About Sexual Assault Allegation on Friday

(WASHINGTON) — A sexual assault allegation is Joe Biden’s first big challenge as the Democrats’ presidential nominee, fueling Republican attacks and leaving many in his own party in an uncomfortable bind.

Biden’s campaign has denied the allegation from his former Senate staffer Tara Reade, who has said Biden assaulted her in the basement of a Capitol Hill office building in the 1990s. But the story garnered fresh attention this week after two of Reade’s associates said she previously told them about elements of her allegations.

Republicans worried about President Donald Trump’s increasingly precarious political standing are seizing on the allegation to portray Democrats as hypocrites who only defend women who allege wrongdoing against conservatives. They are digging in despite the fact that it could renew attention on the multiple sexual assault allegations lodged against Trump.

Democrats, meanwhile, are in an awkward position of vigorously validating women who come forward with their stories while defending the man who will be their standard-bearer in what many in the party consider the most important election of their lifetimes.

The tension is heightened because Biden himself has said nothing about the allegation.

Like many Americans, he has spent the past several weeks at home to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Biden has participated in a handful of local and national interviews, during which he wasn’t asked about the allegation. He will be interviewed Friday morning on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and is expected to face questions about the accusations.

Ahead of that appearance, Democrats urged a more forceful response.

“The campaign has issued statements, but he hasn’t issued any statements in his own voice,” said former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile. “It’s not helping, it’s just damaging — not only to the person who has come forward, but it’s also damaging the candidate.”

Lis Smith, a top strategist on Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign, also called on the Biden campaign to speak up.

“These accusations have not been found to be credible, so it’s in the Biden campaign’s interest to nip this in the bud directly and do it quickly,” she said.

The November contest between Biden and Trump will be the first presidential race of the #MeToo era, which has led numerous women to come forward with allegations of sexual assault. Trump has been accused of assault and unwanted touching by numerous women, allegations he denies.

Women are a core constituency for Democrats, and Biden has a mixed history. While he wrote the Violence Against Women Act as a senator, he also came under heavy criticism for his handling of Anita Hill’s Senate testimony in the 1990s. Just before he launched his 2020 campaign, several women accused him of unwanted touching, behavior for which he apologized.

Biden has pledged to pick a woman as a running mate, and the allegation has left those thought to be in contention in a tough spot.

Stacey Abrams, the former Georgia Democratic governor candidate, said, “I believe Joe Biden,” citing a New York Times investigation that she said exonerated him.

“Women deserve to be heard,” she said, “but I also believe that those allegations have to be investigated by credible sources.”

That echoed talking points issued by the Biden campaign to surrogates last week that were obtained by The Associated Press. They pointed to investigations by The New York Times, The Washington Post and the AP that found no other allegation of sexual assault and no pattern of sexual misconduct.

On Thursday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also defended Biden. Speaking on CNN, she said she was “satisfied with how he has responded,” even as she acknowledged “it’s a matter that he has to deal with.”

Some Democratic donors and fundraisers say the issue has not come up in calls with party financiers. Others worry that it could be used against Biden, much as Hillary Clinton’s private email server and the activities of the Clinton Foundation were wielded against her by Trump.

Some, most notably women, say they are paying close attention to the allegations, which gave them pause.

Alex Sink, a donor and former Democratic nominee for governor of Florida, said she was “not happy” to read about the allegations against Biden. While she still plans to vote for him, she worried his campaign was too quick to categorically deny Reade’s story.

“They put themselves immediately out on a limb by saying, ‘It didn’t happen, we categorically deny it, it’s not true,’” Sink said.

Some female Democratic operatives expressed concerns the allegation is particularly damaging because it’s an indictment of Biden’s central campaign rationale: that he provides a moral counter to Trump and that the election is a “battle for the soul of America.”

“The stakes could not be higher for defeating Donald Trump — but at the same time, I think we have to apply a consistent standard for how we treat allegations of sexual assault, and also be clear-eyed about how Donald Trump will use these allegations in the general election campaign,” said Claire Sandberg, who worked as Bernie Sanders’ organizing director.

The silence from the Biden campaign has given Republicans an opening on an issue that was, in 2016, more fraught for the GOP, when Trump was asked to answer for the more than two dozen women who alleged varying levels of sexual assault and harassment. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Fox News on Thursday that Biden will “have to participate in releasing all the information related to” the allegation, a stance he didn’t take when Trump faced misconduct accusations.

The GOP argues Democrats aren’t being consistent, pointing to aggressive questioning and coverage of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh when he faced an allegation of sexual assault.

Speaking about the allegation for the first time on Friday, Trump said Biden “should respond” before proceeding to criticize the treatment of Kavanaugh as “an absolute disgrace to our country.”

Steve Guest, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee, said “the left, and their media allies, has one standard for Republicans and another standard for Democrats like Joe Biden.”

“The double standard,” he said, “is appalling.”

___

Associated Press writers Brian Slodysko in Washington and Bill Barrow in Atlanta contributed to this report.

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Of Course People Are Streaming Movies Right Now—That Doesn’t Mean It’s the New Normal

Which is better, watching a movie in the comfort of your own home—with no noisy cellphones, smelly snacks or, worst of all, obnoxious fellow human beings—or going out to the theater, where you get to see a movie on the big screen but are also subject to all the vagaries of actual people, in all their terrible glory?

Yesterday, the CEO of the world’s largest theater chain and the head of NBCUniversal flared their gills at one another, fighting-fish-style, in an altercation that, if nothing else, might help frame the future debate over how much the presence of other human beings matters in the moviegoing experience. In an obvious huff, Adam Aron, the CEO of AMC Theatres, banned Universal releases from the chain’s theaters in reaction to a quote that NBCUniversal CEO Jeff Shell gave to the Wall Street Journal: Trumpeting the streaming success of Trolls: World Tour—which earned more than $100 million in rental fees since April 10, when it was released digitally—Shell appeared, in AMC’s estimation, to have decided his company no longer had much use for old-fashioned theatrical distribution. “As soon as theaters reopen,” Shell said, “we expect to release movies on both formats.”

Aron announced the ban in a letter written to Universal chairman Donna Langley, which was also released publicly. A spokesperson for Universal responded to the letter by saying the company “absolutely” believes in the theatrical experience. Trolls: World Tour was slated for a theatrical release before the COVID-19 crisis. After widespread stay-at-home orders, the company decided to release the film on demand. No one should be surprised that it made money: Parents sheltering at home with little kids, desperate to keep them amused for a few hours, were happy to shell out. Streaming is up overall, which is great news for services like Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus. It also means that beard-strokers everywhere have decided, unequivocally, that this is the end of the big-screen experience.

Because most people in the United States have been stuck at home for more than a month—and those in other parts of the world for longer than that—we suddenly think we know everything about what humans want and need. Centuries’ worth of problems, solved instantaneously! We need the human touch, even the unpredictability of human interaction, but we also want to watch movies without ever leaving the house. We love action movies, but it’s OK if they’re substandard Netflix products like Extraction, because, really, we can no longer tell the difference. Trolls: World Tour was a huge hit, without ever playing in a movie theater—clearly, this is proof that no one wants to go back to movie theaters ever again.

The world has gone mad—and not just because cautioning against the idea of injecting Clorox is a conversation we apparently need to be having.

If there were ever a time not to make proclamations about the future of theatrical distribution, it’s now. Which is not to say that our re-emergence into the world of movies, whatever form that takes, won’t have its share of problems, because some of the old problems will follow us. Even before the pandemic drove us all indoors, the big theater chains were expecting a significant drop in earnings for 2020. They’ll have to find a way to keep afloat, even as the industry that churns out the very products they show has come to standstill. And there’s no doubt that smaller, independent theaters are in grave danger. Their future is the real wild card in this equation: If too many of them die off, the loss to people who love movies, in communities big and small, will be incalculable.

But to make decisions about human desire based on the current reality is a mistake. People are streaming like mad today not because streaming is our inescapable future, but because there’s nothing else to do. How can we know what we’ll want tomorrow, when all the things we took for granted yesterday have suddenly been taken away from us? Going out to see a movie, compared with the cost of a monthly streaming subscription, is relatively costly. That ticket cost also introduces an element of chance: If you don’t like the film you’re watching in a theater, you can obviously walk out—but your money is gone forever.

And yet, even that is a more inherently dramatic gesture than just turning off the TV. And who doesn’t need a little controlled drama in life? The element of chance also confers the possibility of surprise. When critics saw Parasite at the Cannes Film Festival last year, their acclaim for it piqued some audience curiosity; that curiosity increased in the lead-up to awards season, maybe partly because people had to wait to see the film. The same could be said for another terrific movie from last year, one that didn’t have Parasite‘s explosive success but which nonetheless captivated many who saw it, Portrait of a Lady on Fire. I doubt either of those films—both of them theatrically released, and available to stream later—would have had the same cultural impact if they had merely spilled out via a streaming service one week, only to be almost completely forgotten the next. (It’s worth noting that Parasite’s director, Bong Joon Ho, made a Netflix Original movie in 2017, Okja, a more scattershot film than Parasite. While Okja may have introduced Bong, a longtime arthouse favorite, to a new audience, it’s not the film for which people will remember him.)

Anything that involves leaving your living room involves taking a chance, and I can’t be the only one yearning for some unpredictability right now. One of my favorite things about going to the movies—after decades of doing it, even as a professional—is being part of the crowd spilling out afterward. I love hearing the arguments, the passionate defenses and attacks, the comparisons to other things that were better or worse. I love the anxiety of people who have gone to see a movie on a date: It was her choice; did he like it or suffer through it, and how does he let her know? I love it when little kids pour out of a theater, completely excited about having had a day out at the movies, even as I see their parents toting up how much the whole experience cost. As I’ve said countless times, in print and to anyone who will listen, I love seeing faces big, on the largest screen possible. Show me every pore! Also show me the subtlest curve of a smile, or a flash of exasperation or joy or anguish reflected in a giant, projected iris. But also put someone next to me, possibly a stranger who might be getting as much of a thrill out of the experience as I am. Even if he smells bad, I will take him. Though if he tries to use his cellphone, I’ll ask him nicely to put it away—because, buddy, this is not your living room. Nor is it mine, thank God.

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Oklahoma and Utah Criticized Over Spending Millions on Malaria Drugs Touted by President Trump

OKLAHOMA CITY — Republican state leaders in Oklahoma and Utah are facing scrutiny for spending millions of dollars combined to purchase malaria drugs promoted by President Trump to treat COVID-19 patients that many other states obtained for free and that doctors warned shouldn’t be used without more testing.

While governments in at least 20 other states obtained more than 30 million doses of the drug through donations from the federal reserve or private companies, Oklahoma and Utah instead bought them from private pharmaceutical companies.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt on Tuesday defended the state’s $2 million purchase, saying the drug was showing some promise. His health secretary attributed buying the 1.2 million hydroxychloroquine pills to something that happens in the “fog of war.”

Utah Gov. Gary Herbert at first defended the state’s $800,000 purchase of 20,000 packets of hydroxychloroquine compounded with zinc, but has since ordered an investigation of a no-bid contract with a local company that had been promoting the drugs. Herbert, a Republican, also canceled an additional plan to spend $8 million more to buy 200,000 additional treatments from the same company.

A left-leaning nonprofit group in Utah filed a price gouging complaint Tuesday with state regulators, arguing the $40 per pack drug was grossly overpriced.

Oklahoma’s attorney general requested an investigative audit on Tuesday of its Department of Health over spending and warned the agency about retaliating against employees who report wrongful government activities under the state’s Whistleblower Act. A spokesman for Attorney General Mike Hunter declined to comment on whether the request was related to the $2 million spent on the drug.

Doctors can already prescribe the malaria drug to patients with COVID-19, a practice known as off-label prescribing, and many do. But the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday warned doctors against prescribing hydroxychloroquine for treating the coronavirus outside of hospitals or research settings because of reports of serious side effects, including irregular heart rhythms and death among patients.

Preliminary results from a recent study done on coronavirus patients at U.S. veterans hospitals showed no benefit, casting more doubt on the drug’s efficacy during the pandemic.

Those were the latest admonitions against the drug that Trump has regularly promoted in public appearances, touting its potential despite his own health advisors telling him it is unproven.

Oklahoma acquired 1.2 million pills, or about 100,000 doses, on April 4 from FFF Enterprises, a California-based medical supply wholesaler, according to the Oklahoma State Department of Health.

Oklahoma state Rep. Melissa Provenzano, a Democrat from Tulsa, said the state’s purchase shows that Gov. Stitt’s actions don’t follow his claim that he relies on data to drive his decisions.

“Two million dollars is a lot of money to waste, especially when we have unemployment claims approved yet going unpaid, health care professionals without proper protective equipment, and diagnosed cases and deaths continuing to rise,” Provenzano said.

Stitt, a first-term Republican, said hydroxychloroquine was showing some promise as a treatment in early March, and he didn’t want Oklahoma to miss out on an opportunity to acquire it.

“Now there’s some evidence the chloroquine may not be as effective, but I was being proactive to try and protect Oklahomans,” Stitt said Tuesday when asked about the purchase. “That’s always going to be my first instinct, to get the equipment and things we need that I’m seeing in the future would help Oklahomans.”

Oklahoma’s Secretary of Health Jerome Loughridge said several physicians, including some in Oklahoma, were previously optimistic about the drug’s promise in treating COVID-19. He added that the drug is also useful for treating lupus and some other auto-immune diseases, so the state’s supply “will not have gone to waste.”

“When we were battling sort of the fog of war at that point, we certainly acquired it on the potential that it would have utility,” Loughridge said.

Doctors in Oklahoma have been using the drug to treat patients with COVID-19, often in conjunction with a second drug, azithromiocin, but the results “just are not that promising,” said Dr. Douglas Drevets, chief of infectious diseases at University of Oklahoma Medicine.

FFF Enterprises said it’s the company’s policy not to comment on transactions with customers.

Utah gave a local company called Meds in Motion the $800,000 contract without taking bids from other companies under emergency procurement rules, said Christopher Hughes, director of Utah’s division of purchasing. State officials haven’t explained why they didn’t seek to get the drugs for free.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said Saturday it has sent out 28.6 million tablets of hydroxychloroquine sulfate free of cost to states around the country. Several states including New York, Connecticut and Texas received donations of the medication from a private company based in New Jersey called Amneal Pharmaceutical, according to information compiled by The Associated Press.

Utah taxpayers deserve to know what happened to allow a purchase that seems like a company taking advantage of the early, chaotic days of the pandemic said Chase Thomas, executive director of the group called Alliance for a Better Utah that submitted the price gouging complaint. The complaint alleges Utah paid at least double the common price for the medication.

“Whether they were buying drugs we didn’t need or paying too much for it when they could have gotten them for free, there just needed to be a lot more thought going into this,” Thomas said.

Meds in Motion didn’t answer an email seeking comment about the allegations.

Herbert declined to provide an update Tuesday about the investigation of the purchase. He said Friday the state’s legal counsel would aim to find out what, how and why it happened. He said he believed state officials acted in good faith as they scrambled to slow the spread of coronavirus, but acknowledged a mistake may have been made.

“I have some questions about how it came about,” Herbert said Friday. “Bottom line is, we’re not purchasing any more of this drug.”

___

McCombs and Whitehurst reported from Salt Lake City.

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In Kayleigh McEnany, Trump Taps a Press Fighter for the Coronavirus Era

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The president says he takes no responsibility for a reported spike in calls to emergency hotlines.

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As Fewer People Fly, the Rate of Guns Found by TSA Jumps Sharply

With far fewer people flying because of travel restrictions during the coronavirus pandemic, airport security screeners are naturally finding fewer guns in carry-on baggage.

But the ratio of guns to passengers seeking to board airplanes has jumped sharply.

The Transportation Security Administration said Monday that it found 58 guns at checkpoints from March 22 to April 22, compared with 346 guns over the same stretch last year.

Adjusting for the 95% drop in travelers, that means TSA screeners found one gun for every 80,000 people screened — or 2.7 times the rate of a year ago, when they found one gun for every 216,200 people.

TSA declined to offer an explanation or theory about why the rate of finding guns has gone up this spring.

Jeffrey Price, who teaches aviation security at the Metropolitan State University in Denver, said he thinks there are several reasons behind the higher rate of gun discoveries: a recent spike in gun sales, an “apocalypse mindset” that makes people feel justified carrying a gun on a plane, and shorter TSA lines.

With fewer people to screen, TSA screeners “can take a lot more time with each person and their belongings,” Price said.

Checkpoint screeners use X-ray machines that alert them to take a closer look if something appears unusual in the contents of a bag. In past government-run covert tests, TSA screeners processing pre-pandemic levels of passengers failed to find fake weapons a high percentage of the time, according to published reports.

While the exact numbers remain classified, the inspector general of the Homeland Security Department said in an unclassified summary that a 2017 test found problems with both screener performance and TSA equipment.

Another aviation-security expert, Sheldon Jacobson at the University of Illinois, said the uptick in gun-carrying rates could be because people who are still flying during a pandemic may be different — and more prone to carry a gun. Leisure travelers in particular have mostly stopped flying.

“People who are leisure flyers traveling with their families, they don’t bring guns to checkpoints,” Jacobson said.

One trend has held constant in 2019 and 2020: Most of the guns TSA screeners find in carry-on bags are loaded. The agency said that from Feb. 24 through April 22 its screeners found 317 guns, and 263 were loaded.

It is legal to ship guns on an airline plane if they are unloaded, packed in a locked case and stored in checked baggage that goes in the cargo hold.

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Concerned about coronavirus, Mexican workers are calling for US-owned factories to be closed.

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'I have lost care support because of coronavirus'

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The boy who photographed La Belle Époque of France

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Coronavirus: The US resistance to a continued lockdown

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Jack Ma: The billionaire trying to stop coronavirus (and fix China's reputation)

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Coronavirus: Is it too early to expand our 'social bubbles'?

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Coronavirus: A visual guide to the economic impact

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'He said it was the stupidest idea he had ever seen'

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'I feel like I don't count,' says man with MND

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Anna Wintour Made Condé Nast the Embodiment of Boomer Excess. Can It Change to Meet This Crisis?

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