The UFC will have stricter coronavirus testing measures in place as the promotion gets set for its return to Las Vegas this weekend.

Phase 2 of the NHL's return to play allows for a maximum of six players at one time for voluntary training at team facilities, with a target start of early June.

Former Miami athletes Dwyane Wade, Ricky Williams and Joe Rose weigh in on the rookie quarterback's arrival that is being defined by hope and hype.

Tiger Woods, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady and Phil Mickelson put on a good show, with the help of some antics, Justin Thomas' debut as an announcer and the possibility that this is just the beginning.

A struggling Tom Brady made birdie on the seventh hole during Sunday's The Match, earning an extra $100,000 for charity from Brooks Koepka.

Kentucky offensive line coach John Schlarman and linebacker Josh Paschal found out they had cancer within days of each other in 2018. Ever since, they've helped each other fight.

Teams are using baseball's unprecedented shutdown to revamp their social media strategy. For MLB, that could long outlast the pandemic.

The future of baseball depends on owners and players coming together on terms to play this summer very soon. But do the two sides trust each other enough to get it done?

Steelers coach Mike Tomlin passed on the chance to tie with seconds to go and instead put the game in the hands of his star running back.

Celebrate Brother's Day with some old-school photos of some of sports' most famous brothers.

It appeared that Chase Elliott would race to victory in the NASCAR Crown Jewel event that eluded his father, Bill, until a late caution allowed Brad Keselowski to take the checkered flag in overtime.

The anniversaries of two epic Champions League final comebacks -- Man United in 1999, Liverpool in 2005 -- arrive this week. But which was better?

Tani Adewumi and his family fled Nigeria and Boko Haram before settling in a New York City homeless shelter. They never could have guessed that chess would open doors -- for their family and others -- in the United States.

The NC Dinos continue to terrorize the KBO as we look at the week that was and the must-see matchup of the week ahead.

Bay Area Republican leaders have confirmed that the party is suing California over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to send every registered voter a mail-in ballot, claiming that the system opens itself up to inaccuracy and fraudulent voting.

“CA’s voting system is already burdened with serious issues,” tweeted the CAGOP.

The lawsuit was filed in United States District Court for the Eastern District of California. It claims that the state’s order is unlawful because it deprives residents of their constitutional right to vote by making voter fraud inevitable.

Jesse Melgar, Newsom’s press secretary, responded to the lawsuit by saying that vote-by-mail will actually expand people’s right to vote.

“California will continue to defend Californians’ right to vote, including their right to vote by mail, and the right to hold an election that is safe, secure, and accessible,” Melgar said. “Voters shouldn’t have to choose between their health and their right to vote.”

California Secretary of State Alex Padilla said in a tweet that vote-by-mail is not a partisan issue, but a “moral imperative to protect voting rights.”

He called the move by Republicans a “smear campaign” against California’s plan, suggesting that the virus was being “exploited” for voter suppression.

In a May 8 tweet announcing California’s vote-by-mail plan, Padilla said that the state would do its best to keep polling places open and safe, if possible.

California joins a growing list of states considering mail-in voting as an alternative to in-person voting during the coronavirus pandemic.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Sunday he wouldn’t fire his chief aide for allegedly violating the national lockdown rules that he helped to create by driving the length of England to his parents’ house while he was infected with the coronavirus.

Defying a growing clamor from public and politicians, Johnson said Dominic Cummings had acted “responsibly, legally and with integrity” when he drove 250 miles (400 kilometers) from London to Durham, in northeast England, with his wife and son at the end of March.

Britain’s lockdown, which began March 23, stipulated that people should remain at their primary residence, leaving only for essential local errands and exercise. Anyone with coronavirus symptoms was told to completely isolate themselves.

Cummings says he traveled to be near extended family because his wife was showing COVID-19 symptoms, he correctly thought he was also infected and he wanted to ensure that his 4-year-old son was looked after.

Johnson told a news conference that Cummings had “followed the instincts of every father and every parent.” He said Cummings, his wife and son followed the rules by self-isolating for 14 days once they reached Durham.

But critics of the government expressed outrage that Cummings had broken strict rules that for two months have prevented Britons from visiting elderly relatives, comforting dying friends or even attending the funerals of loved ones. The opposition Labour Party has called for an official investigation.

Labour leader Keir Starmer said Johnson’s defense of Cummings was “an insult to sacrifices made by the British people.”

“The prime minister’s actions have undermined confidence in his own public health message at this crucial time,” he said .

Former Labour lawmaker Helen Goodman, whose father died in a nursing home during the outbreak, said Cummings’ behavior was “repellent.”

“What was the point of the sacrifice that we all made? What was the point of the miserable, lonely death that my father had?” she told the BBC.

Speaking inside the prime minister’s 10 Downing St. residence, Johnson said “I can totally get why people might feel so confused and … so offended by the idea that it was one thing for the people here and one thing for others.”

But he said Cumming’s “particular childcare needs” left him “no alternative” but to make the 250-mile trip.

Government ministers have denied a claim that Cummings was spotted again in Durham on April 19, after he had recovered and returned to work in London. But they have not confirmed or denied report that Cummings visited a scenic area 30 miles (50 kilometers) from Durham on April 12.

Cummings is a key but contentious figure in Johnson’s administration. A self-styled political disrupter who disdains the media and civil service, he was one of the architects of the successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union, and orchestrated the Conservatives’ decisive election victory in December.

The coronavirus cut a swath through the top ranks of Britain’s government in March and April, infecting people including Cummings, Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Johnson himself, who has said that the medical staff at a London hospital saved his life.

Despite the government’s support for Cummings, several lawmakers from Johnson’s Conservative Party joined the opposition in calling for the aide to be sacked.

“Dominic Cummings has a track record of believing that the rules don’t apply to him and treating the scrutiny that should come to anyone in a position of authority with contempt,” tweeted Conservative lawmaker Damian Collins. “The government would be better without him.”

Another Tory legislator, Steve Baker, said Cummings must resign for not “abiding by the spirit, at least, of the slogans which he has enforced on the rest of the country.”

Johnson’s governmentis already facing criticism for its response to a pandemic that has hit Britain harder than any other European country. Britain’s official coronavirus death toll stands at 36,793, the second-highest confirmed total in the world after the United States. Statistics that include suspected as well as confirmed virus cases put the toll well over 40,000.

The U.K. is gradually easing its lockdown, allowing more outdoor recreation and letting some shops and businesses reopen.

Johnson confirmed Sunday that primary schools can start reopening in June, though many parents and teachers worry that it isn’t yet safe to do so.

Johnson said the government was still aiming to have pupils in the first and final years of primary school back in classrooms on June 1, though he acknowledged that “may not be possible for all schools.”

Cummings is one of several senior U.K. officials to be accused of flouting the lockdown rules.

Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson stepped down as government scientific adviser earlier this month after a newspaper disclosed that his girlfriend had crossed London to stay with him during the lockdown. In April, Catherine Calderwood resigned as Scotland’s chief medical officer after twice traveling from Edinburgh to her second home.

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President Donald Trump has a new pitch to voters for this fall: Trust me.

As the economy faces a once-in-a-century recession, with more than 38 million people out of work, Trump is increasingly talking up a future recovery that probably won’t materialize until after the November election. He’s asking voters to look past the pain being felt across the nation and give him another four-year term on the promise of an economic comeback in 2021.

“It’s a transition to greatness,” Trump says over and over, predicting a burgeoning economy come the fall. “You’re going to see some great numbers in the fourth quarter, and you’re going to end up doing a great year next year.”

His chief economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, echoes the wait-until-next-year sentiment, holding out hope for a “big bang 2021.”

It’s a delayed-reward tactic Trump was using long before the global pandemic gut-punched the country. He has turned to it with new urgency as the coronavirus has robbed him of the booming economy that was to be the core of his reelection message.

Trump had already pledged to finally release a Republican health care plan after the polls closed — despite having served more than three years in office — along with a postelection tax cut and a “Phase 2” trade deal with China.

Now, Trump is making the case to voters that if he helped bolster the economy once, he can do it again.

“We built the greatest economy in the world,” Trump says frequently. “I’ll do it a second time.”

It’s not just next year that will be a mystery to voters on Election Day. Trump and his team have been talking up the fourth quarter — October through December — but economic reports on that period won’t be released until 2021. Preliminary figures for the third quarter will be released Oct. 29, days before the Nov. 3 election.

Still, Trump and his campaign are hoping they can convince the public that Trump, not Democrat Joe Biden, is the candidate who can turn things around, even as they push the recovery timeline into next year.

“The president has a clear record of building the economy to unprecedented heights before it was artificially interrupted by the coronavirus, and they know he will build it a second time,” said Trump campaign communications director Tim Murtaugh.

Economists, however, warn that the “snap back” Trump’s advisers have been talking up is unlikely, given the severity of the recession. It will take years for the economy to recover, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Polling data suggests Trump has some work to do to persuade Americans that all will be well next year.

Americans are split on whether they think the economy will improve (41%) or worsen (40%) over the coming year, according to a poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

Their opinions differ based on their politics. A majority of Republicans (62%) think the economy will get better in the coming year, while a majority of Democrats (56%) think it will get worse.

The poll finds that only 49% of Americans now approve of how Trump is handling the economy, compared with 56% in March, though the numbers remain split largely on party lines.

While a majority of Americans in households that lost a job do think it’s at least probable that the job will return, 70% now describe the state of the nation’s economy as poor, versus just 29% who say it’s good — down from 67% in January.

Trump has been encouraging states to begin easing restrictions and reopening their economies. But that doesn’t necessarily mean jobs will return. While most of those who say they got a haircut at least monthly before the outbreak or shopped regularly in person for nonessential items would definitely or probably do so in the next few weeks if they were allowed, Americans may be wary to return to life as normal.

Only about half of those who did so at least monthly before the outbreak say they’d travel, go to bars and restaurants, use public transportation, or exercise at a gym or studio. Just 42% of those who went to concerts, movies, or theater or sporting events at least monthly say they’d do so in the next few weeks if they could.

Still, the poll shows that 66% of Americans continue to say that their personal financial situation is good — a number that has remained steady since before the outbreak began. Americans are also more likely to expect their personal finances to improve than worsen in the next year, 37% to 17%.

In the end, that’s what is going to matter most, said Michael Steel, a Republican political strategist.

“This election will turn on facts more than messages,” he said. “The president is placing a bet by reopening the economy before public health officials believe it is safe. If the economy recovers sharply and infection rates remain steady or go down, then voters will reward his boldness, but if we continue to see massive unemployment and a spike in new infections and deaths, all the political wordsmithery the world will offer won’t help him.”

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AP Director of Public Opinion Research Emily Swanson contributed to this report.

The first of five tankers loaded with gasoline sent from Iran reached Venezuelan waters late Saturday, expected to temporarily ease the South American nation’s fuel crunch while defying Trump administration sanctions targeting the two U.S. foes.

The oil tanker Fortune encountered no immediate signs of U.S. interference as it eased through Caribbean waters toward the Venezuelan coast and Venezuelan officials celebrated the arrival.

“Iran and Venezuela have always supported each other in times of difficulty,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza tweeted. “Today, the first ship with gasoline arrives for our people.”

The tanker and four behind it were finishing a high seas journey amid a burgeoning relationship between Iran and Venezuela, both of which Washington says are ruled by repressive regimes.

Russ Dallen, head of the Miami-based investment firm Caracas Capital Markets, confirmed the Fortune’s location using ship tracking technology. He said the Clavel, the last of the five ships, was about 3 1/2 days behind the lead tanker.

Venezuela sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, but it must import gasoline because production has crashed in the last two decades. Critics blame corruption and mismanagement by the socialist administration amid an economic crisis that has led to huge migration by Venezuelans seeking to escape poverty, shortages of basic goods and crime.

The Iranian tankers hold what analysts estimate to be enough gasoline to supply Venezuela for two to three weeks.

Deep gasoline shortages have plagued Venezuela for years, though the problem had until recently largely spared the capital of Caracas, the largest population center and political seat.

Drivers must wait for days in lines that snake through neighborhood to fill up with government-subsidized gasoline that costs less than a penny for a tank. Wealthier drivers with U.S. dollars turn to the black market, where gas costs up to $12 a gallon. That’s a small fortune in Venezuela, where the monthly minimum wage equals less than $5.

The U.S. accuses Iran and other nations of propping up Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. It’s among nearly 60 nations that back opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s legitimate president, contending that Maduro illegitimately won a 2018 election that banned his most popular opponents.

In a new relationship between Caracas and Tehran, Iran recently also flew shipments of a key chemical needed to help jump start a Venezuelan oil refinery and produce gasoline.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani warned Saturday that the United States should not to interfere with the shipment of oil bound for Venezuela. In a statement, Rouhani said that the U.S. had created “unacceptable conditions” in different parts of the world, but that Iran would “by no means” be the one to initiate conflict.

“If our tankers in the Caribbean or anywhere in the world face any problems caused by the Americans, they will face problems as well,” he added. “We hope the Americans will not make a mistake.”

U.S. officials had announced no plans to try to intercept Iran’s tankers. However, the Trump administration has increased pressure on Maduro, recently offered a $15 million bounty for his arrest after a U.S. court indicted him as a narcotrafficker.

The U.S. also recently deployed a force of ships, including Navy destroyers and other combat ships, to patrol the Caribbean on what U.S. officials call a drug interdiction mission. The Maduro government considers it a direct threat.

Maduro holds on to power with support from Venezuela’s military and his international allies, also including Cuba, Russia, and China. The U.S. says these nations are engaged in “malign activities and meddling” around the world.

“We will not abide by their support of the illegitimate and tyrannical regime of Nicolás Maduro,” the Trump administration said in a statement, citing its “maximum pressure” campaign against the socialist leader. “Will continue until Maduro’s hold on Venezuela is over.”

A defiant Maduro appeared on state TV days ahead of the ships’ arrivals, vowing a tough response to any U.S. aggression against the Iranian tankers. He showed images of soldiers firing antiaircraft missiles streaking across the Caribbean.

“They want to enslave us,” Maduro said Thursday. “If you want peace, you must be prepared to defend it.”

Maduro’s defense minister, Vladimir Padrino López, said Venezuela’s armed forces would welcome the five Iranian tankers, escorting them with ships and planes through the nation’s maritime territory and into port.

Eric Farnsworth, vice president of the Council of the Americas and Americas Society research center, said he didn’t expect the U.S. would act against the Iranian tankers. Such an act could too easily escalate, he said, especially in the Persian Gulf where Iran could retaliate against U.S. ships.

“(That) would needlessly undermine the narrative that Venezuela, with the world’s largest proven oil supply, has to import gasoline from Iran of all places because they have become such an international pariah,” Farnsworth said. “If they don’t, Caracas claims a great victory for the fatherland and tries to portray the U.S. as impotent.”

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Scott Smith on Twitter: @ScottSmithAP

Former U.S. Rep. Allen West of Florida was injured in a motorcycle crash Saturday in Central Texas.

West’s wife wrote on Facebook that his motorcycle was hit outside Waco and he was in the emergency room.

“On my way to hospital now,” Angela Graham-West wrote Saturday evening.

She did not immediately release additional details about his condition.

NBC 5’s media partner The Dallas Morning News reported that West attended a rally Saturday morning at the Texas Capitol that was focused on reopening the state amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Former state Sen. Don Huffines told the newspaper West got in the accident on the way back from the rally.

West, a Republican, moved from Florida to Texas after he left Congress in 2013. He served one term and once called for then-President Barack Obama’s impeachment.

West is running for chair of the Republican Party of Texas.

Joe Biden won the Democratic Party of Hawaii’s party-run presidential primary on Saturday, which was delayed by more than a month because of the coronavirus.

Biden defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders 63% to 37%.

Biden won 16 of Hawaii’s delegates and Sanders will take eight. Biden has a total of 1,566 delegates to the party’s national convention, according to the count by the Associated Press. He needs 1,991 delegates to win the nomination, a threshold he is projected to reach in June.

A total of 35,044 voters cast ballots in the party-run primary. All ballots were cast by mail.

The party had initially planned to hold the primary on April 4 and had expected most party members would vote by mail and some would cast ballots at about 20 in-person polling sites around the state.

It began mailing ballots to registered party members in early March back when Sanders and Biden were the two front-runners and Hawaii Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard was still maintaining her long-shot bid for the nomination.

But concerns about the spread of the coronavirus forced the party to announce on March 20 it would cancel plans for in-person voting and allow only mail ballots. To give those who expected to vote in person on April 4 a chance to cast a ballot, the party said it would mail another round of ballots to members and wait until late May for them to be returned and counted.

Amidst these shifts, Gabbard dropped out and endorsed Biden. Sanders ended his bid and endorsed Biden on April 13.

Voters were instructed to mark their top three choices on paper ballots.

Only candidates receiving at least 15% of the votes cast in a given congressional district were to be allocated delegates. Votes for candidates who didn’t receive at least 15% were redistributed to voters’ second-ranked choices, starting with the candidate who received the lowest number of votes.

Gabbard represents Hawaii’s second congressional district in Congress, and got 4% of the vote in the first round of voting. She was absent from the district during much of the year while she campaigned for the presidency in Iowa and New Hampshire. State Sen. Kai Kahele, a fellow Democrat, fiercely criticized her for neglecting her constituents and mounted a campaign for her seat, which covers suburban Honolulu and the more rural islands of the state. Not long after, Gabbard said she wouldn’t run for reelection and would focus on her presidential bid.

Hawaii Democrats hired a contractor, Merriman River Group, to handle aspects of the election, including designing the vote-by-mail package and safely keeping returned ballots. The company has experience running elections for labor unions and organizations such as the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative, the electric utility on Kauai island.

The Republican Party of Hawaii canceled its presidential caucus after President Donald Trump was the only candidate to declare for the ballot by the Dec. 2 deadline. The party is committing its national convention delegates to Trump.

The British government dug in Saturday to defend Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s top adviser, Dominic Cummings, for traveling more than 250 miles (400 kilometers) to his parents’ house during a nationwide lockdown at a time when he suspected he had the coronavirus.

Opponents demanded Cummings’ resignation after The Guardian and Mirror newspapers revealed he had driven from London to the property in Durham, northeast England, with his wife and son at the end of March. A lockdown that began March 23 stipulated that people should remain at their primary residence, leaving only for essential local errands and exercise, and not visit relatives. Anyone with symptoms was advised told to completely isolate themselves.

Johnson’s office said in a statement that Cummings made the trip because his wife was showing coronavirus symptoms, he correctly thought he was likely to also get sick, and relatives had offered to help look after the couple’s 4-year-old son. It said Cummings stayed in a house “near to but separate from” his extended family.

“The prime minister gives Mr. Cummings his full support,” said a visibly uncomfortable Transport Secretary Grant Shapps, who was peppered with questions about Cummings’ trip during the government’s daily coronavirus news conference.

Shapps said Cummings had followed lockdown rules by “staying in place with his family, which is the right thing to do.”

“This wasn’t visiting a holiday home or going to visit someone,” he said. “This was going to stay put for 14 days, to remain in isolation.”

The two newspapers later reported that Cummings was spotted again in the Durham area on April 19, after he had recovered from the virus and returned to work in London.

Critics of the government expressed outrage that Cummings had broken stringent rules that for two months have prevented Britons from visiting elderly relatives, comforting dying friends or even attending the funerals of loved ones.

The main opposition Labour Party wrote to the head of the civil service to call for an official investigation.

“The British people have made important and painful sacrifices to support the national effort, including being away from family in times of need,” Labour lawmaker Rachel Reeves wrote in the letter. “It is therefore vital that the government can reassure the public that its most senior figures have been adhering to the same rules as everyone else.”

Durham Police said that officers went to a house on March 31 and “explained to the family the guidelines around self-isolation and reiterated the appropriate advice around essential travel.” Police did not mention Cummings by name.

Asked about the trip by reporters outside his house in London on Saturday, Cummings said “I behaved reasonably and legally.”

“It’s a question of doing the right thing. It’s not about what you guys think.” said Cummings, who also berated the journalists for failing to keep 2 meters (6 1/2 feet) apart in line with social distancing rules.

Cummings is a self-styled political disruptor who has expressed contempt for the civil service and much of the media. He was one of the architects of the successful campaign to take Britain out of the European Union, and later was appointed Johnson’s top aide.

He is one of a slew of senior British government figures to contract COVID-19, including the prime minister, who spent three nights in intensive care at a London hospital.

Britain’s official death toll among people with the coronavirus stands at 36,675 after 282 more deaths were reported Saturday. That is the second-highest confirmed total in the world after the United States.

Several senior government ministers defended Cummings’s actions. Cabinet Office Minister Michael Gove tweeted: “Caring for your wife and child is not a crime.” Health Secretary Matt Hancock, who was sick for a week with the coronavirus, said “it was entirely right for Dom Cummings to find childcare for his toddler, when both he and his wife were getting ill.”

Cummings, 48, is one of several senior U.K. officials who have been accused of flouting the lockdown rules that they advocated for the rest of the country.

Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson stepped down as government scientific adviser earlier this month after a newspaper disclosed that his girlfriend had crossed London to stay with him during the lockdown. In April, Catherine Calderwood resigned as Scotland’s chief medical officer after twice traveling from Edinburgh to her second home.

President Donald Trump played golf Saturday for the first time since he declared the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency more than two months ago, leading to the shutdown of much of American society. His return to the course was the latest sign that he wants the country back to pre-outbreak times, even as the U.S. death toll from the virus nears 100,000, twice what he once predicted it would be.

Trump also planned Memorial Day visits to Arlington National Cemetery and the Fort McHenry national monument in Baltimore, followed by a trip to Florida’s coast on Wednesday to watch to U.S. astronauts blast into orbit.

The golf outing came a day after Trump said houses of worship are “essential” and he demanded that governors allow them to reopen during the holiday weekend. It also followed guidance from Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, that it was OK for people to be outdoors this weekend as long as they took appropriate safety precautions.

Trump pulled away from the White House on a sunny morning wearing a white polo shirt, white cap and dark slacks. Photographs that appeared later on Twitter showed him swinging a golf club and driving alone in a cart on the course at his private Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.

The White House had no comment on the president’s activities at the club, but said he and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had discussed the pandemic’s effect on the global economy on Saturday.

The golf trip was the president’s first visit to one of his money-making properties since March 8, when he visited his private golf club in West Palm Beach during a weekend at his Florida home. The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus a global pandemic on March 11, and Trump followed with the national emergency declaration two days later.

Trump is an avid golfer who has been overheard telling his White House guests how much he missed playing the game.

On Friday, Birx said it’s OK for Americans to play golf, tennis or other sports this weekend “if you stay 6 feet (1.8 meters) apart.” She also said the Washington metropolitan area had the highest positivity rate in the country. The capital city’s coronavirus death rate is higher than all but four states: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

The U.S. leads the world with a reported 1.6 million coronavirus cases and more than 96,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Trump has ordered U.S. flags on federal buildings and national monuments to half-staff through Sunday in memory of Americans lost to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

Trump levied frequent criticism of Barack Obama’s regular golf outings when he was president.

“Can you believe that with all of the problems and difficulties facing the U.S., President Obama spent the day playing golf. Worse than Carter,” Trump tweeted in October 2014 during the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, comparing Obama to former President Jimmy Carter.

Time is running out on an arms control treaty that, if it’s allowed to expire, will leave the world with no legal restrictions on U.S. and Russian nuclear weapons for the first time in nearly half a century.

If President Donald Trump doesn’t extend the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty — only remaining U.S.-Russia arms control pact — or succeed in negotiating a replacement treaty, it will expire on Feb. 5. That’s just 16 days after Trump begins a second term or his successor is sworn into office.

Russia has offered to extend New START for up to five years, but Trump is holding out. He thinks China, which is expected to double its stockpile of nuclear weapons in the next decade, should have to sign on to a nuclear arms control accord, too.

The future of New START was further called into question with Trump’s announcement Thursday that the U.S. intends to withdraw from another treaty that permits observation flights over the U.S., Russia and more than 30 other nations.

Trump voiced his desire for a three-way arms control agreement months ago, but that effort is still in the starting blocks.

Marshall Billingslea, who was appointed last month as the president’s special envoy for arms control, said Thursday that he had his first secure phone call with his counterpart in Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. Billingslea said they agreed to meet, talk about their objectives and find a way to begin negotiations.

“Suffice to say, this won’t be easy. It is new,” Billingslea said, adding that the U.S. fully expects Russia to help bring China to the table.

Russian officials and many arms control experts agree that China, as a rising power, should be part of a nuclear arms accord, but they are eyeing the calendar.

“It’s really hard to see how, in the midst of a pandemic that would make actual in-person negotiations quite difficult, you’re going to get something done and ratified and in force before the New START treaty expires on Feb. 5, 2021,” said Alexandra Bell at the Center for Arms Control and Non-proliferation.

They note how Trump’s reelection campaign, the coronavirus pandemic and the economic problems it has created are consuming a lot of time. Negotiating complex nuclear accords can take years, and even the president, who has blamed Beijing for not stopping the spread of the virus, has said he’s doesn’t want to talk to President Xi Jinping right now.

A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Geng Shuang, said in January that China has “no intention to participate” in trilateral arms control negotiations. Billingslea, however, is optimistic that Beijing will want to joint in and be seen as a world power.

New START imposes limits on the number of U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear warheads and launchers. If it were to collapse, it would be the first time in 50 years that the U.S. does not have the ability to inspect Russian nuclear forces, said Rose Gottemoeller, a former undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

“Every time they (the Russians) take a missile out of a silo and take it to a maintenance facility, they have to notify us that that missile’s going to move. … The intelligence community is simply going to have a much harder time knowing what’s going on,” she said.

But Trump has accused Russia of not living up to agreements. He cited Russian violations in his announcement Thursday that the U.S. would withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty. While the U.S. has officially given its required six-month notice of withdrawal, Trump hinted that he may reconsider and stay in the pact.

Trump also blamed Russian violations for his decision last year to pull out of the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that banned production, testing and deployment of intermediate-range land-based cruise and ballistic missiles.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday accused the U.S. of aiming to dismantle security pacts. Withdrawing from the Opens Skies Treaty “fully fits into (the U.S.) line on the destruction of the entire complex of agreements in the field of arms control and confidence-building in the military field,” the ministry said.

Senior U.S. administration officials say Trump’s willingness to withdraw from treaties shows he is serious about compliance and is evidence of how prominently arms control verification and compliance will feature in New START talks.

“We are not in the business of negotiating new agreements, or extending old ones, if we cannot be assured that the other parties will hold up their end of the bargain,” Billingslea said. “When it comes to Russia, we have little reason to be confident. Russia’s track record is, to be frank, abysmal.”

The U.S. and Russia have about 91 percent of the world’s nuclear warheads, according to the Federation of American Scientists. The U.S. has 3,800 in its stockpile and Russia has 4,310. China has 320 nuclear warheads, although the Defense Intelligence Agency predicted last year that China was likely to at least double the size of its stockpile during the next 10 years.

With the U.S. presidential election just five months away, the question is whether Trump has enough time to negotiate a grand, three-way deal, especially given China’s reticence to participate.

Timothy Morrison, an arms control expert and former adviser to Trump on Russia and Europe at the National Security Council, said at a nuclear weapons forum in January that as the months go by, Trump may be “left with a binary question of extend or not extend” New START.

“Time is not on the president’s side,” he said.

Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions stood up to his old boss Friday after President Donald Trump encouraged Alabama voters to reject Sessions in his bid to return to the U.S. Senate, NBCNews reports.

Trump on Friday afternoon once again tweeted his endorsement for Sessions’ rival, college football coach Tommy Tuberville, in the primary contest for the seat Sessions held before joining Trump’s Cabinet.

Trump tweeted, “Alabama, do not trust Jeff Sessions.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com.

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District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser’s cellphone rang earlier this week from an unfamiliar number: It was the White House calling to say President Donald Trump wanted to talk.

The president congratulated Washington’s mayor on $876 million in federal coronavirus relief going to the Washington-area Metro system — money that was welcome but not under the mayor’s jurisdiction, instead going to a regional transportation authority.

Bowser used the moment to remind Trump that the District — a city of 700,000 people that includes more than 150,000 federal workers— got $700 million less in coronavirus relief money than each of the 50 states because it was classified as a territory at Senate Republicans’ insistence in the first round of federal relief passed by Congress.

As a candidate, Trump spoke warmly of the nation’s capital and said he wanted “whatever is best” for its residents. But over the course of his more than three years in office a disconnect between the president and District of Columbia has emerged. The public differences have only become more stark during the pandemic.

“It is very important that the District is made whole, and that the District gets what it’s owed,” Bowser said this week after her talk with Trump.

Aides to the mayor said Trump told Bowser her concerns were on his radar, but he made no commitments. Similarly, Trump told her the issue would be addressed when she initially complained about the matter during a White House conference call with governors in late March.

The White House declined to comment.

The pace of reopening after the coronavirus threat shut down activity around the nation also has been a point of contention between Washington and the White House.

While the Trump administration has been pushing state and local governments to speed up reopening, Bowser insisted until recently that local infection numbers didn’t justify any relaxation of her stay-home order.

The District is easing its stay-at-home order next week, one of the last jurisdictions to begin reopening. But city and public health officials warn that the nation’s capital will likely take months to fully come back to life.

City officials said it remains unclear if students will be able to return to a physical classrooms in the fall. The guarded approach stands in sharp contrast with comments from Trump, who on Friday demanded that state and local leaders allow houses of worship to reopen “right now.”

Hours earlier, Bowser stressed it was crucial for residents to remain vigilant. Houses of worship will be allowed to hold gatherings of up to 10 people in the District’s first phase of the reopening.

And just after Trump spoke, Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said D.C., along with Chicago and Los Angeles, had experienced a long plateau in infections that administration officials were closely monitoring.

The capital city’s coronavirus death rate is higher than all but four states: New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Connecticut.

“There is a disconnect,” said Eleanor Holmes Norton, the District’s non-voting delegate in the U.S. House. “The White House is looking at the economy and the money, and the mayor is looking at the science first.”

Bowser acknowledges the different approaches, but plays down any conflict with the Oval Office.

She stresses that the city’s reopening plan is based in part on White House task force guidelines and Washington has consulted with Dr. Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert. The mayor added that she’s been in contact with administration officials, as have other city representatives.

“We want everything open,” Bowser said. “And the way to get everything open is to have a measured and phased approach.”

It wasn’t too long ago that Trump courted city leaders.

In 2014, as his company was developing a hotel at the historic Old Post Office building leased from the federal government, Trump donated $5,000 to Bowser’s DC Proud Inaugural Committee. Two of Trump’s children — Ivanka and Eric — gave $2,000 each to the mayor’s campaign after she defeated the city’s incumbent mayor in the primary that year.

After emerging as the GOP frontrunner in 2016, Trump said in a “Meet the Press” interview that he’d “certainly look at” a decades-long push by District leaders to gain statehood.

“I would like to do whatever is good for the District of Columbia because I love the people,” Trump said.

But earlier this month, Trump told the New York Post, “D.C. will never be a state.”

“Why? So we can have two more Democratic — Democrat senators and five more congressmen?” added Trump, alluding to the city’s history of voting overwhelmingly for Democrats.

Neither has Trump embraced life in Washington like some of his recent predecessors.

Barack and Michelle Obama enjoyed a string of date nights at city restaurants. Bill Clinton jogged on the National Mall. Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter won over some residents by enrolling their daughter, Amy, at a D.C. public school.

Trump’s outings in the area have centered on dinners at his own hotel and trips to his golf club in Northern Virginia. His infrequent forays elsewhere in the District have courted controversy.

Earlier this month, he decided to hold a Fox News virtual town hall at the Lincoln Memorial.While other presidents have held events on the steps of the memorial, Trump got a federal waiver to sit at the marbled feet of the sixteenth president, generating some grumbling.

In October, Trump attended a World Series game at the Washington Nationals’ stadium. When he appeared on ballpark video screens, the D.C. crowd showered him with boos.

Democrats and District activists also complain that the Trump administration has yet to reimburse the city for more than $7 million in security costs related to the 2017 inauguration and additional costs for Trump’s bulked-up Fourth of July celebration in Washington.

“Whether it’s not paying for the inauguration or his Fourth of July event to shorting D.C. residents in coronavirus relief, he’s been clear in his attitude,” said Bo Shuff, executive director of the statehood advocacy group DC Vote. “He just doesn’t care about the people of D.C.”

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Madhani reported from Chicago.

President Donald Trump’s administration has made a show of donating his quarterly salary since he took office, but Friday’s big reveal went a little too far, NBCNews reports.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany kicked off the press briefing by announcing that Trump would donate $100,000 to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to develop new therapies for treating and preventing coronavirus.

“Here is the check,” she said before holding up what appeared to be a real Capital One check bearing personal details such as his Mar-a-Lago resort address in Florida as well as his accounting and routing numbers.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Friday warned the mayor of Los Angeles and the county’s top health officer that an extension of the coronavirus stay-at-home order may be unlawful.

The vague letter sent to Mayor Eric Garcetti and LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer did not spell out any specific violations, but noted concern about statements both had made publicly that restrictions may be prolonged without a vaccine.

“Reports of your recent public statements indicate that you suggested the possibility of long-term lockdown of the residents in the city and county of Los Angeles, regardless of the legal justification for such restrictions,” Assistant Attorney General Eric Dreiband wrote. “We remain concerned about what may be an arbitrary and heavy-handed approach to continuing stay-at-home requirements.”

Dreiband acknowledged that Garcetti had broad authority to protect residents during the pandemic.

Garcetti said the city would be guided by science and data rather than politics. He said the city’s 7-day average of deaths is holding and he feels confident about measures the city is taking.

“We are not guided by politics,” Garcetti said at a briefing. “There’s no games, there’s nothing else going on, and that’s the way we’re going to continue to safely open.”

“There’s no city in the world that right now doesn’t have some sort of orders and restrictions because we know this virus kills,” Garcetti added.

Even as more of California reopens restaurants and shops, Los Angeles is among a small number of California’s 58 counties that either have not sufficiently contained the virus to reopen more activities and commerce or, in the case of several San Francisco Bay Area counties, have chosen to move more slowly.

The letter came the same day the White House coronavirus response coordinator named the LA region as an area where spread of the virus is a concern. Los Angeles County, with a quarter of the state’s nearly 40 million residents, accounts for nearly half of its COVID-19 cases and about 55% of the state’s more than 3,600 deaths.

Dr. Deborah Birx asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to help look into the source of new cases to help prevent future outbreaks.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, and death.

The Justice Department has recently sided with churches that want to resume services in the face of policies in many states that forbid such gatherings until the spread of the virus is under control. The department has intervened in several court cases challenging stay-at-home orders as a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion.

President Donald Trump on Friday said churches and other houses of worship are “essential” and called on governors across the country to allow them to reopen this weekend.

Earlier this week, Dreiband sent a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom warning that his plan to ease restrictions discriminated against churches by allowing secular businesses, such as restaurants and shops, to reopen under certain guidelines in the second phase of his four-part reopening plan.

“Simply put, there is no pandemic exception to the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights,” the letter said.

He used the same line in the letter to Garcetti and Ferrer but never mentioned religion or any other potential violation of the law.

Newsom said he would likely allow for religious gatherings within weeks, though he said he will offer a plan Monday for churches to reopen.

More than 1,200 California pastors have said they plan to violate his order, if necessary, to resume worship May 31.

The Los Angeles letter mentioned remarks made last week when Ferrer said that absent a COVID-19 vaccine, some form of restrictions would last “the next three months,” and Garcetti said the city would “never be completely open until we have a cure.”

Ferrer later clarified her remarks, saying restrictions would be gradually eased.

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Associated Press reporters Michael Balsamo in Washington, D.C., and Michael R. Blood in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

In announcing that he has been taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19, President Donald Trump made a series of inaccurate, unsubstantiated or misleading statements related to the drug, which remains an unproven treatment against the coronavirus:

• Trump said he started taking hydroxychloroquine because he thinks “it’s good” and has “heard a lot of good stories.” But there is no published data showing that the medication protects against infection with the coronavirus, and experts recommend such use only within clinical trials.
• As part of his justification for taking hydroxychloroquine, the president repeatedly said that “many” frontline workers take the drug for COVID-19 prevention. It’s unclear how many people do take the drug for prevention, or prophylaxis, but several physicians told us they were not aware of the practice at their institutions.
• Trump insisted that there only has been one “bad survey” of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. That’s false. Numerous studies, including the best evidence to date, do not suggest that hydroxychloroquine is beneficial for COVID-19 patients.
• The president called an unpublished study that used Veterans Affairs data and found no benefit to using hydroxychloroquine “phony” and “false,” and accused the authors of being politically motivated. There is no evidence of political bias, and while the study has not been peer-reviewed, its results are consistent with other published papers.
• Trump was also not transparent about the safety risks of hydroxychloroquine, saying “it doesn’t hurt people” and “you’re not going to get sick or die.” While severe side effects of the drug are rare, they have been reported to the Food and Drug Administration.
• Trump claimed Rick Bright, former director of the agency charged with overseeing the production and purchase of drugs to counter public health threats, must have been “a believer at one point” in hydroxychloroquine because he “signed the application” for emergency use of the drug. Bright, however, said he did so under pressure and “didn’t have a choice.”

Analysis

The president has long touted hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug also used to treat lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, as a COVID-19 treatment, despite a lack of evidence that it’s safe and effective for the disease. 

In recent weeks, Trump had backed off his promotion of the drug, as a string of studies have detailed uncommon but potentially serious side effects and failed to find that the medication is doing much for patients.

Guidelines from the National Institutes of Health, last updated on May 12, find “insufficient clinical data to recommend either for or against” the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19, while the FDA has cautioned against the use of the drug for COVID-19 outside of hospitals or clinical trials, given the risk of dangerous heart rhythm problems.

But at the end of a May 18 meeting with representatives of the restaurant industry at the White House, Trump surprised reporters by claiming that he had been taking a hydroxychloroquine pill each day for the last week and a half as a preventive, or prophylactic, measure.

“A couple of weeks ago, I started taking it,” he said. “Because I think it’s good. I’ve heard a lot of good stories. And if it’s not good, I’ll tell you right — you know, I’m not going to get hurt by it.”

When asked if his doctor had recommended it, Trump said he proposed the idea and the White House doctor agreed.

Dr. Sean Conley, the president’s physician, released a memo later that night, noting that two weeks prior, a member of Trump’s support staff tested positive for COVID-19, and that after “numerous discussions” about hydroxychloroquine with the president, the pair “concluded the potential benefit from treatment outweighed the relative risks.” 

The memo did not reveal any details of Trump’s course of prophylaxis, nor did it explicitly state that Conley prescribed hydroxychloroquine for the president.

White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany, however, told CBN News in an interview two days later that Conley prescribed the drug, and Trump had taken it. 

On May 20, Trump said that he would be ending the pills “in a day or two.”

No Evidence Hydroxychloroquine Prevents COVID-19

While Trump may believe hydroxychloroquine is “good,” it’s not known if the drug works as a COVID-19 preventive.

“There are no data that pre-exposure prophylaxis is effective to prevent coronavirus,” said University of Minnesota infectious disease specialist Dr. David Boulware in a tweet shortly after Trump’s announcement. “It may be. It may not be. We do not know.” 

He added, “The only way I would recommend taking #hydroxychloroquine is within a clinical trial.”

Boulware is leading a clinical trial that aims to find out if hydroxychloroquine prevents COVID-19 after a person has been exposed, or what’s called post-exposure prophylaxis. Other colleagues are working on prevention prior to exposure, or pre-exposure prophylaxis. 

Boulware told us in an email that there is no published data on hydroxychloroquine for either kind of prophylaxis, although many researchers are looking into it.

“There are approximately a dozen trials planned or active worldwide which are investigating this question,” he said, noting that his university would be the first to report results, with the post-exposure findings coming very soon.

Boulware did not think anyone should take hydroxychloroquine outside of a clinical trial, both for the sake of the trials — so scientists can actually determine whether it works — and for safety reasons.

“The more people participate in a clinical trial, the faster we will know the answer,” he said. “Outside of a clinical trial, there could be groups who are harmed by the medicine, such as those with pre-existing heart conditions.”

Dr. H. Michael Belmont, a rheumatologist running a hydroxychloroquine pre-exposure prophylaxis trial at New York University Langone Health, also said hydroxychloroquine should only be used within a clinical trial.

“We would regret using it in a haphazard way and not being able to conclude whether it had any benefit,” he said. “If you just use it indiscriminately, without a controlled group, you will lose the opportunity to demonstrate, once and for all, whether it did have some benefit or whether it did not.”

Belmont was also concerned that increased interest in hydroxychloroquine outside of a trial could pose problems for his rheumatic disease patients. “I don’t want there to be another run on the drug,” he said, “creating unnecessary shortages for those diseases for which the drug is FDA-approved and clinical trials clearly demonstrate a benefit.”

Belmont said his trial, which is still enrolling health care workers, has 45 to 60 more days to go, plus extra time for data analysis, so the results won’t be known for some time.

Within a month, though, he said he may have some preliminary answers about how protective hydroxychloroquine might be through a different study he’s doing on lupus patients, in which he will assess whether patients who are taking hydroxychloroquine for their disease are any less susceptible to developing COVID-19 than those who aren’t.

Already, he said, it’s clear that hydroxychloroquine isn’t 100% protective, although he stressed there could still be a partial effect.

“We can absolutely confirm at NYU that lupus patients on hydroxychloroquine do develop infection, he said. “Sadly, we’re aware of at least two fatal cases.”

Those results mirror those of the COVID-19 Global Rheumatology Alliance’s patient registry, which we previously reported on when Trump falsely claimed in early April that “people with lupus” who take hydroxychloroquine “aren’t catching this horrible virus.”

The group has since published a paper in Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases reporting that as of April 17, the registry included 80 COVID-19 patients with lupus, 64% of whom were taking hydroxychloroquine or the related drug chloroquine prior to infection, with no difference in hospitalization rates or advanced care, such as ventilation, for those on versus off the drug.

Use of Hydroxychloroquine Among Frontline Workers

One of Trump’s constant refrains surrounding hydroxychloroquine is that the drug is being widely used by doctors and other frontline workers for COVID-19 prevention.

“You’d be surprised at how many people are taking it, especially the frontline workers,” Trump said, just before announcing he was taking it, too. “A lot of doctors take it,” he later said twice.

The following day, Trump claimed in a cabinet meeting that the drug “is used by thousands and thousands of frontline workers,” and in remarks to the press after a policy lunch, Trump went so far as to say, “Many frontline workers won’t go there unless they have the hydroxy.”

We cannot know what all workers are doing, and there are now numerous clinical trials for health care workers to determine if hydroxychloroquine is an effective preventive. But several physicians told us that they did not know of many fellow health care workers who were taking the drug.

Dr. Bob Wachter, the chair of the University of California, San Francisco’s department of medicine, said he didn’t know of “any clinician” taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent COVID-19.

The University of Minnesota’s Boulware also said he didn’t know of “any colleagues” who were taking the drug outside of a clinical trial, although he acknowledged that he was at an academic medical center “where doctors believe in data.”

Dr. Neil Schluger, a pulmonologist and critical care specialist at Columbia University, likewise said he had not heard of workers taking hydroxychloroquine, and that at his medical center, the drug would only be used in a clinical trial.

Belmont said that back in March, when hydroxychloroquine was first being put forward and New York City was experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases, he thought there might be a few physicians seeking out the drug. But he did not believe it could be happening much after New York state instituted an executive order putting restrictions on hydroxychloroquine prescribing.

Not Just One ‘Bad’ Study

In defending hydroxychloroquine, Trump repeatedly claimed there was only one negative study of the drug, despite the fact that the bulk of the current evidence fails to show effectiveness against COVID-19. He also mischaracterized the study and stated, without evidence, that the authors of the paper were politically motivated.

“And if you look at that phony report that was put in, that report on the hydroxy — was given to people that were in extraordinarily bad condition — extraordinarily bad, people that were dying,” Trump said. “The only negative I’ve heard was the study where they gave it — was it the VA? With, you know, people that aren’t big Trump fans gave it,” he added, later calling the study a “very unscientific report.”

The following day, Trump made similar comments, although he didn’t specify the study. “And if you look at the one survey, the only bad survey, they were giving it to people that were in very bad shape. They were very old, almost dead,” he said. “It was a ‘Trump enemy’ statement.”

An hour later, in a cabinet meeting, Trump returned to the same topic, identifying the study as “a phony study put out by the VA.”

Trump, May 19: There was a false study done where they gave it to very sick people — extremely sick people, people that were ready to die. It was given by, obviously, not friends of the administration. And the study came out. The people were ready to die. Everybody was old, had bad problems with hearts, diabetes, and everything else you can imagine. So they gave it.  So, immediately, when it came out, they gave a lot of false information, just so you understand.

Much of the president’s description of the study, which was posted to the preprint server medRxiv on April 21 and has not yet been peer-reviewed, isn’t accurate. But even more important, it’s largely irrelevant because subsequent studies reaching similar conclusions about hydroxychloroquine have been published in highly respected journals.

“The general conclusions of the study are consistent with other larger studies that have gone through peer review and that have been published in very reputable journals,” said Schluger, himself the senior author of one such paper, published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

The preprint Trump singled out analyzed the outcomes of 368 patients hospitalized at VA medical centers for COVID-19, looking back after the fact and comparing what happened to those who took hydroxychloroquine with those not on the drug, as well as those who took hydroxychloroquine together with the antibiotic azithromycin.

After adjusting for as many factors as possible, including existing health conditions — almost none of which were more common in patients receiving hydroxychloroquine — the authors found an association of increased overall mortality in the patients who took hydroxychloroquine alone, and no evidence that hydroxychloroquine, with or without azithromycin, helped patients avoid ventilators.

The authors, who have affiliations at the University of South Carolina and the University of Virginia, were upfront that their study should not be the final word on hydroxychloroquine, writing: “Data from ongoing, randomized controlled studies will prove informative when they emerge. Until then, the findings from this retrospective study suggest caution in using hydroxychloroquine in hospitalized Covid-19 patients.” We reached out to the corresponding authors, but did not hear from them.

While the patients were sick enough to be hospitalized, 80% of all patients survived, Schluger said, “so it’s not like they were all on death’s door and you were giving this medicine all to hopelessly ill patients.” That was also true of his study and of another similar large observational study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, he said.

Those two studies, plus two recent publications in the journal BMJ, Schluger suggested, should be the studies people are paying attention to, although he said the preprint using the VA data “looks like a pretty solid piece of work,” and appeared to be “a straightforward analysis of what they found.”

Schluger’s study assessed more than 1,400 hospitalized patients in New York City, finding “the risk of intubation or death was not significantly higher or lower among patients who received hydroxychloroquine than among those who did not.”

The JAMA study, which included around the same number of patients hospitalized with COVID-19 in New York state, similarly concluded that “treatment with hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, or both was not associated with significantly lower in-hospital mortality.”

“There you have two studies that between them report data on almost 3,000 patients, and concluded that they could find no association between hydroxychloroquine administration and the outcome that was looked at — death, or [the] need to be on a ventilator,” Schluger said.

Additionally, two studies published in BMJ earlier this month do not support the use of hydroxychloroquine for COVID-19. One, a randomized controlled trial of 150 patients hospitalized with mild to moderate disease in China, did not find the drug helped reduce the chance that patients would test positive for the virus within 28 days — and patients receiving hydroxychloroquine reported more side effects, although most were minor. 

The other, an observational study in France of around 180 patients who were admitted to the hospital for COVID-19 pneumonia and required oxygen, found no associated reduction in death or transfer to an intensive care unit with the use of hydroxychloroquine. Eight patients, or 10% of those getting the drug, experienced changes on their electrocardiograms, or EKGs, that required them to discontinue the medication.

Thus, while Trump claims “a lot of good things have come out about the hydroxy,” that’s hardly an accurate representation of the existing literature.

“The overwhelming majority of published studies provides very little evidence or almost no evidence of a beneficial effect of hydroxychloroquine,” said Schluger.

An additional observational study, published on May 22 after Trump’s statements, also did not identify any benefit to using hydroxychloroquine — and instead found use of the drug, either with or without an antibiotic such as azithromycin, to be associated with an increased risk of developing an abnormal heart rhythm and of “in-hospital death with COVID-19.” The paper, which was an analysis of an international registry of more than 96,000 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, appeared in the prestigious British medical journal the Lancet.

To be clear, it has not been proven that hydroxychloroquine provides no benefit to COVID-19 patients. But as Belmont told us, “There’s enough data to argue that if there is a benefit for active treatment, it would be mild or modest at best.”

Large randomized controlled trials, which are underway, will be able to give a definitive answer.

Safety Omissions

When discussing hydroxychloroquine, Trump has repeatedly avoided any mention of potential harms, despite widely disseminated concerns from the FDA and other governmental agencies.

Citing hydroxychloroquine’s long history as a malaria and lupus drug, Trump said on May 18 that even if it doesn’t work for COVID-19, “you’re not going to get sick or die,” and asked, as he has before, “What do you have to lose?”

The following day, the president said hydroxychloroquine “doesn’t hurt people.” And when he was told the FDA has said the drug should not be used outside of a hospital or research study, he replied, “No, that’s not what I was told. No.”

Trump may not have been told, but that is exactly what the FDA has advised. On April 24, the agency released a drug safety communication, saying it is “aware of reports of serious heart rhythm problems in patients with COVID-19 treated with hydroxychloroquine or chloroquine, often in combination with azithromycin,” and that it “cautions against” the use of the drugs “for COVID-19 outside of the hospital setting or a clinical trial.”

Specifically, the FDA said the adverse events “included abnormal heart rhythms such as QT interval prolongation, dangerously rapid heart rate called ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation, and in some cases, death.”

Schluger said the concern is that a potentially lethal arrhythmia that would cause the heart to beat in a way that it doesn’t pump blood. It would present as sudden death — “someone literally would just drop dead,” he said.

It is true that this complication is rare, and most people who take low doses of hydroxychloroquine, such as lupus patients, have no major issues when taking the drug. Belmont, for instance, said that he does not regularly screen his rheumatoid patients for heart rhythm abnormalities with an EKG because the problem is so infrequent. But that doesn’t mean the drug is risk free, as Trump frequently suggests.

Notably, the FDA’s emergency use authorization, or EUA, for hydroxychloroquine only covers hospitalized COVID-19 patients “for whom a clinical trial is not available, or participation is not feasible.” This means that while hydroxychloroquine can still be prescribed off-label by a physician, as it appears was done for Trump, the president would not be eligible to get his tablets from the national stockpile.

Trump’s Attacks on Rick Bright

At a May 14 House hearing, Rick Bright said he was removed as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, because he “resisted efforts to promote and enable broad access to an unproven drug, chloroquine, to the American people without transparent information on the potential health risks.”

Trump has sought to portray the former BARDA director as a hypocrite because Bright signed the emergency use authorization application to allow the use of chloroquine phosphate and hydroxychloroquine sulfate to treat COVID-19 in the United States.

But Bright said he did so only as a compromise measure to avert the much wider use of the controversial drug being vigorously pushed by his superiors in the Trump administration. We asked the White House to respond to Bright’s assertion and his account of what had taken place, and we received no response.

Trump attacked Bright at the May 18 roundtable with restaurant industry leaders at the White House.

Trump, May 18: So you had a phony whistleblower. And this other guy with the hydroxychloroquine — okay? — well, he — he went out and he’s the one that approved the hydroxychloroquine. He’s the one that signed the application.

At the same session, Trump repeated the point.

Trump, May 18: And then we have this crazy whistleblower, this fake whistleblower get out and try and, you know, knock it, who is — who signed the application. He — he did all the — he did the signing. He was a believer at one point, I assume. Otherwise, he shouldn’t have signed it. No matter who told him to, he shouldn’t have signed it.

That same day, the president tweeted: “So the so-called HHS Whistleblower was against HYDROXYCHLOROQUINE. Then why did he make, and sign, an emergency use authorization?”

During a May 17 interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes,” Bright said emphatically that he did not share Trump’s view that hydroxychloroquine could be a “game-changer” in the battle against the novel coronavirus. The vaccine expert said that “the limited data available told us that it could be dangerous. It could have negative side effects. And it could even lead to death.”

Interviewer Norah O’Donnell asked Bright why, given his concerns about the drug, he had signed the EUA application. Referring to his efforts to prevent far wider use than such an order allowed, Bright responded, “I was given a directive. I didn’t have a choice, other than to leave at that time. And I went along and signed that letter knowing that we had contained access to that drug. ”

Bright was transferred April 20 from his position as BARDA director and removed as deputy assistant secretary for preparedness and response. He was given a lesser position at the National Institutes of Health. 

In a statement issued on April 22, Bright said, “I believe this transfer was in response to my insistence that the government invest the billions of dollars allocated by Congress to address the Covid-19 pandemic into safe and scientifically vetted solutions, and not in drugs, vaccines and other technologies that lack scientific merit. I am speaking out because to combat this deadly virus, science — not politics or cronyism — has to lead the way.”

Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar pushed back. Speaking outside the White House before a trip to Pennsylvania on May 14, Trump dismissed Bright as a “really disgruntled, unhappy person.” Azar said: “And on hydroxychloroquine, Dr. Bright literally signed the application for an FDA authorization of it. Literally, he’s the sponsor of it. So, this just — his allegations do not hold water. They do not hold water.”

In a whistleblower complaint, Bright, who has said that the administration was too slow in responding to the pandemic, gave a detailed account of what he said were his efforts to resist massive pressure to greenlight the widespread use of hydroxychloroquine in treating COVID-19.

Bright’s complaint, May 5: Dr. Bright resisted efforts to fall into line with the Administration’s directive to promote the broad use of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine and to award lucrative contracts for these and other drugs even though they lacked scientific merit and had not received prior scientific vetting. Dr. Bright’s refusal to do so, along with his communication with members of Congress, the White House, and the press about these issues,which revealed HHS leadership to be disengaged and dismissive of the emerging threat, proved to be Dr. Bright’s undoing.

In March, Bayer offered to donate 3 million chloroquine pills to the Strategic National Stockpile, Bright said in his complaint. “Unfortunately,” the complaint says, “the scientific evaluations did not support the utility of the Bayer donations ”

On March 23, according to the complaint, “Dr. Bright received an urgent directive from HHS General Counsel Bob Charrow, passed down from the White House, to drop everything and make the chloroquine donated by Bayer widely available to the American public. Mr. Charrow told Dr. Bright that Secretary Azar was directing BARDA to establish a Nationwide Expanded Access Investigational New Drug (IND) protocol for chloroquine, which would provide significantly greater access to the drug than would an EUA.”

The broader measure would allow use of the drug “outside a hospital setting and without close physician supervision,” the complaint said.

The following day, the director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, Dr. Janet Woodcock, called Bright and strongly recommended that BARDA submit an application for an EUA instead of an expanded access protocol. Given the concerns about hydroxychloroquine, that approach would allow closer monitoring of and better protection for patients.

Bright and Woodcock ultimately convinced their colleagues, and the FDA helped BARDA draft an EUA. Bright edited the request letter to clarify that although he was being directed to sign the EUA request, it was not at his or BARDA’s behest, according to the complaint.

At the same roundtable with restaurant industry leaders, Trump suggested that Bright might have partisan motives for his criticism of the administration and hydroxychloroquine.

Trump, May 18: He also happens to be — if you look — see whether or not — I won’t put it on me; I’ll put it on you. See whether or not he was a big contributor to the Democrats. See whether or not he wanted the Democrats to win. 

A search of Federal Election Commission data on OpenSecrets.org showed no evidence that Bright had made any contributions to Democrats.

Update, May 22: We updated this story to include a new study on the impact of hydroxychloroquine treatment in hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

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The Trump administration is not requiring nursing homes to provide data on COVID-19 deaths and cases that occurred prior to May 6, according to a public government document, limiting the accuracy of the federal data collection effort to measure the impact of the pandemic on older Americans.

The government encourages nursing homes to provide the data from before May 6, but does not mandate it. The limitations of the data collection effort were first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

“I think that is outrageous,” said Charlene Harrington, nursing professor emerita from the University of California San Francisco, who said the administration was aiding the nursing home industry by “helping them cover up the death rates.”

“Not only do the high death rates look bad for the nursing home industry,” she said, “but also for the administration.”

Read the full story at NBCNews.com.

It’s been more than six months since President Donald Trump claimed to have started his annual physical at Walter Reed hospital but the White House is declining to explain why he has yet to complete the yearly doctor’s examination.

Senior administration officials did not immediately respond to NBC News’ request for comment about the delay — despite Trump announcing this week he was taking an unproven and potentially dangerous drug after being exposed to an aide who tested positive for coronavirus.

Asked in early March about when he would complete his physical, the president told reporters, “I’m going probably over the next 90 days. I’m so busy, I can’t do it.”

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has ordered an internal review into possible misconduct in the investigation of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, the bureau said Friday.

The after-action review will examine whether any current employees engaged in misconduct during the course of the investigation and evaluate whether any improvements in FBI policies and procedures need to be made.

In announcing the review, the FBI, a frequent target of President Donald Trump’s wrath, is stepping into a case that has become a rallying cry for Trump supporters — and doing so right as the Justice Department pushes back against criticism that its recent decision to dismiss the prosection was a politically motivated effort to do Trump’s bidding.

The announcement adds to the internal scrutiny over one of special counsel Robert Mueller’s signature prosecutions during his investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. It underscores how a case that was seemingly resolved by Flynn’s 2017 guilty plea has instead given way to a protracted, politically charged debate about FBI and Justice Department tactics during that investigation and the Russia probe more broadly.

The unusual review will be led by the bureau’s Inspection Division, which conducts internal investigations into potential employee misconduct. Trump has recently been sharply critical of the FBI, and suggested earlier this month that Wray’s fate as director could be in limbo. An FBI official said Friday that the review had been contemplated for some time and that the FBI has cooperated with multiple Russia-related internal inquiries.

Although the FBI does not have authority on its own to bring a criminal prosecution, the after-action review will look at whether any current employees engaged in misconduct deserving of discipline. The division cannot take disciplinary action against former employees.

It is not clear how many officials involved in the Flynn investigation remain with the FBI. Several prominent officials — including former Director James Comey, former Deputy Director Andrew McCabe and former agent Peter Strzok, who interviewed Flynn — have either been fired or have otherwise left the bureau.

The FBI did not say what sort of potential misconduct it was looking for in the investigation of Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to agents about conversations with the Russian ambassador during the presidential transition period. But the case has long been a subject of outrage for Trump and his allies, who have alleged that Flynn was effectively set up to lie when the FBI questioned him at the White House in January 2017.

Those concerns were given new life earlier this month when the Justice Department moved to dismiss the case and identified a series of what it says were problems in the way Flynn was investigated.

The department’s motion to dismiss alleged that agents had insufficient basis to interview Flynn in the first place, especially since the FBI was prepared earlier in the month to close out its investigation into Flynn after finding no crime. It says any imperfect statements he may have made during the interview were not material to the underlying investigation into ties between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.

Attorney General William Barr, who earlier this year overruled the sentencing recommendation of prosecutors in the case of Trump associate Roger Stone, defended the Flynn decision and said in a television interview that he was doing the “law’s bidding” and correcting what he felt was an injustice.

The Justice Department noted that he was acting on the recommendation of U.S. Attorney Jeff Jensen of St. Louis, who was assigned by Barr to review the Flynn case.

But the move outraged former law enforcement officials involved in the case, who said the Justice Department had ignored the seriousness of the false statements that Flynn admitted making, as well as the gravity of their national security concerns about Flynn’s interactions with the ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

Flynn admitted in his guilty plea that he lied about having asked Kislyak to refrain from escalating the situation in response to sanctions imposed against Russia by the Obama administration for election interference. Obama administration Justice Department officials subsequently warned the Trump White House about that conversation, saying public misrepresentations about it left Flynn vulnerable to being blackmailed by Russia.

The request to dismiss the case has triggered its own internal back-and-forth in the courts.

U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan has assigned a retired judge to argue against the Justice Department’s position. Flynn’s attorneys have asked a federal appeals court to order Sullivan to dismiss the case, and to reassign any future court proceedings to another judge. An appeals court panel, meanwhile, has asked Sullivan to respond to the defense request.

The FBI said that in addition to its own internal review, it has cooperated and been transparent with multiple inquiries assigned by Barr, including lending its own agents to the Jensen probe. The FBI has also cooperated with an investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, led by U.S. Attorney John Durham of Connecticut.

“Director Wray authorized this additional level of review now that the Department of Justice, through Mr. Jensen’s work, has developed sufficient information to determine how to proceed in the Flynn case,” the FBI statement said. “However, Mr. Jensen’s work will continue to take priority, and the Director has further ordered the Inspection Division to coordinate closely with Mr. Jensen and ensure that the review does not interfere with or impede his efforts.”

_____

Follow Eric Tucker on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/etuckerAP

Citing NBC News reporting, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee has asked the Department of Homeland Security to answer questions about the scope of fraud in a U.S. student visa program.

A joint investigation by NBC News and NBC Bay Area found that the F-1 visa program, which lets international students work at firms in the U.S. after graduation, appears to have been exploited by fake companies providing false employment verifications.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said in a letter sent Thursday to Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf that he wanted to know the scope of fraud in the Optional Practical Training program, in which U.S. firms employ F-1 visa holders, over the past five years.

“How many companies currently provide employment to F-1 visa holders under the OPT and STEM OPT programs?” asked Grassley. “How many companies were identified as being engaged in fraudulent or potentially fraudulent activities?”

Grassley said he had previously inquired about fraud in the OPT component of the F-1 program in 2018, but that “recent news reports have shed light on additional types of fraud involving these programs.” He cited the joint NBC News investigation, and the case of Findream, LLC and Weiyun “Kelly” Huang.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

President Donald Trump on Friday labeled churches and other houses of worship as “essential” and called on governors nationwide to let them reopen this weekend even though some areas remain under coronavirus lockdown.

The president threatened to “override” governors who defy him, but it was unclear what authority he has to do so.

“Governors need to do the right thing and allow these very important essential places of faith to open right now — for this weekend,” Trump said at a hastily arranged press conference at the White House. Asked what authority Trump might have to supersede governors, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said she wouldn’t answer a theoretical question.

Trump has been pushing for the country to reopen as he tries to reverse an economic free fall playing out months before he faces reelection. White evangelical Christians have been among the president’s most loyal supporters, and the White House has been careful to attend to their concerns throughout the crisis.

Following Trump’s announcement, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released new guidelines for communities of faith on how to safely reopen, including recommendations to limit the size of gatherings and consider holding services outdoors or in large, well-ventilated areas.

Public health agencies have generally advised people to avoid gatherings of more than 10 people and encouraged Americans to remain 6 feet (1.8 meters) away from others when possible. Some parts of the country remain under some version of remain-at-home orders.

In-person religious services have been vectors for transmission of the virus. A person who attended a Mother’s Day service at a church in Northern California that defied the governor’s closure orders later tested positive, exposing more than 180 churchgoers. And a choir practice at a church in Washington state was labeled by the CDC as an early “superspreading” event.

But Trump on Friday stressed the importance of churches in many communities and said he was “identifying houses of worship — churches, synagogues and mosques — as essential places that provide essential services.”

“Some governors have deemed liquor stores and abortion clinics as essential” but not churches, he said. “It’s not right. So I’m correcting this injustice and calling houses of worship essential.”

“These are places that hold our society together and keep our people united,” he added.

Dr. Deborah Birx, coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force, said faith leaders should be in touch with local health departments and can take steps to mitigate risks, including making sure those who are at high risk of severe complications remain protected.

“There’s a way for us to work together to have social distancing and safety for people so we decrease the amount of exposure that anyone would have to an asymptomatic,” she said.

A person familiar with the White House’s thinking who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations said Trump had called the news conference, which had not been on his public schedule, because he wanted to be the face of church reopenings, knowing how well it would play with his political base.

Churches around the country have filed legal challenges opposing virus closures. In Minnesota, after Democratic Gov. Tim Walz this week declined to lift restrictions on churches, Roman Catholic and some Lutheran leaders said they would defy his ban and resume worship services. They called the restrictions unconstitutional and unfair since restaurants, malls and bars were allowed limited reopening.

Some hailed the president’s move, including Kelly Shackelford, president of the conservative First Liberty Institute.

“The discrimination that has been occurring against churches and houses of worship has been shocking,” he said in a statement. “Americans are going to malls and restaurants. They need to be able to go to their houses of worship.”

But Rabbi Jack Moline, president of Interfaith Alliance, said it was “completely irresponsible” for Trump to call for a mass reopening of houses of worship.

“Faith is essential and community is necessary; however, neither requires endangering the people who seek to participate in them,” he said. “The virus does not discriminate between types of gatherings, and neither should the president.”

Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, a Democrat, made clear that churches and other houses of worship will not resume in-person services in her state until at least next weekend and said she was skeptical Trump had the authority to impose such a requirement.

“It’s reckless to force them to reopen this weekend. They’re not ready,” she said. “We’ve got a good plan. I’m going to stick with it.”

New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu, a Republican, said he would review the federal guidance, while maintaining a decision rests with him.

“Obviously we’d love to get to the point where we can get those open, but we’ll look at the guidance documents and try to make some decisions rather quickly, depending on what it might say,” he said. “It’s the governor’s decision, of course.”

The CDC more than a month ago sent the Trump administration documents the agency had drafted outlining specific steps various kinds of organizations, including houses of worship, could follow as they worked to reopen safely. But the White House dragged its feet, concerned that the recommendations were too specific and could give the impression the administration was interfering in church operations.

The guidance posted Friday contains most of the same advice as the draft guidance. It calls for the use of face coverings and recommends keeping worshippers 6 feet from one another and cutting down on singing, which can spread aerosolized drops that carry the virus.

But there are some differences.

The draft guidance discussed reopening in steps. A first phase would have limited gatherings to video streaming and drive-in services. Later phases allow in-person gatherings of limited size and only when social distancing precautions could be followed. The new guidance has no discussion of such phases.

Another difference: The draft guidance said everyone who attends a service should wear a face covering, while the new guidance says masks should be used when social distancing cannot be maintained.

___

Associated Press writers Mike Stobbe and Jonathan Lemire in New York, Philip Marcelo in Boston and Holly Ramer in Concord, N.H., contributed to this report.

Joe Biden declared he “should not have been so cavalier” on Friday after he told a prominent black radio host that African Americans who back President Donald Trump “ain’t black.”

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee quickly moved to address the fallout from his remark, which was interpreted by some as presuming black Americans would vote for him. In a call with the U.S. Black Chamber of Commerce that was added to his public schedule, Biden said he would never “take the African American community for granted.”

“I shouldn’t have been such a wise guy,” Biden said. “No one should have to vote for any party based on their race or religion or background.”

That was an acknowledgement of the stinging criticism he received in response to his comments, which he made earlier in the day on “The Breakfast Club,” a radio program that is popular in the black community.

The rebukes included allies of Trump’s reelection campaign — anxious to go on the offense after weeks of defending the Republican president’s response to the coronavirus pandemic — and some activists who warned that Biden must still court black voters, even if African Americans overwhelmingly oppose the president.

“None of us can afford for the party or for this campaign to mess this election up, and comments like these are the kinds that frankly either make black voters feel like we’re not really valued and people don’t care if we show up or not,” said Alicia Garza, a Black Lives Matter co-founder and principal of Black Futures Lab.

Near the end of Biden’s appearance on the radio program, host Charlamagne Tha God pressed him on reports that he is considering Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who is white, to be his vice presidential running mate. The host told Biden that black voters “saved your political life in the primaries” and “have things they want from you.”

Biden said that “I guarantee you there are multiple black women being considered. Multiple.”

A Biden aide then sought to end the interview, prompting the host to say, “You can’t do that to black media.”

Biden responded, “I do that to black media and white media,” and said his wife needed to use the television studio.

He then added: “If you’ve got a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or for Trump, then you ain’t black.”

Trump’s campaign and his allies immediately seized on Biden’s comments. South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, a Trump supporter and the Senate’s sole black Republican, said he was “shocked and surprised” by Biden’s remarks.

“I was struck by the condescension and the arrogance in his comments,” Scott said in a conference call arranged by the Trump campaign. “I could not believe my ears that he would stoop so low to tell folks what they should do, how they should think and what it means to be black.”

Charlamagne Tha God later said on CNN, “A black woman running mate is necessary, especially after today.” He added that the question of “what makes somebody black” is a discussion for black people, not for “a white man.”

Trump himself has a history of incendiary rhetoric related to race.

When he launched his presidential campaign in 2015, Trump called many Mexican immigrants “rapists.” Campaigning in 2016, he asked black voters, “What the hell do you have to lose?”

In 2017, he said there are good people on “both sides” of the clash in Charlottesville, Virginia, between white supremacists and anti-racist demonstrators that left one counterprotester dead.

In 2018, during a private White House meeting on immigration, Trump wondered why the United States was admitting so many immigrants from “shithole countries” like African nations. He also blasted four Democratic congresswomen of color, saying they hate America and should “go back” to where they come from, even though all are U.S. citizens and three were born in the U.S.

Black voters helped resurrect Biden’s campaign in this year’s primaries with a second-place finish in the Nevada caucuses and a resounding win in the South Carolina primary after he’d started with embarrassing finishes in overwhelmingly white Iowa and New Hampshire. Sixty-one percent of black voters supported Biden during the primary season, according to AP VoteCast surveys across 17 states that voted in February and March.

Biden is now seeking to maintain his standing with black voters while building the type of multiracial and multigenerational coalition that twice elected Barack Obama, whom he served as vice president. He has already committed to picking a woman as his running mate and is considering several African American contenders who could energize black voters. But Biden is also considering candidates such as Klobuchar, who could appeal to white moderates.

There is little chance of a sudden shift in support for Trump among black voters. A recent Fox News poll shows just 14% of African Americans who are registered to vote have a favorable opinion of Trump, compared with 84% who view him unfavorably.

Seventy-five percent of African American registered voters say they have a favorable view of Biden; 21% hold an unfavorable opinion.

There is a risk, however, of black voters, especially those who are younger, staying home in November, which could complicate Biden’s path to victory in a tight election. The Breakfast Club is a particularly notable venue for Biden’s comments because the program is popular among younger African Americans.

Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, a national organization that works to mobilize black voters, said many black Americans are loyal Biden supporters. But she said his comments make it harder to attract people who are on the fence about voting.

“The first thing I thought about was to what degree did this just turn off those voters and how much more work the rest of us are going to have to do to convince people that it is worth their time and their efforts,” she said.

Biden’s selection of a running mate, along with his pledge to appoint the first black female Supreme Court justice, could help motivate voters. He’s begun vetting vice presidential contenders, a process he’s said will likely last through July.

Several black women are among those under consideration, including California Sen. Kamala Harris, Georgia voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, Florida Rep. Val Demings, Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge and Susan Rice, Obama’s former U.S. ambassador to the U.N.

Former Vice President Joe Biden said Friday that an economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic looks “a long way away.” 

He also condemned President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis, blaming him for lost lives and economic ruin.

In an interview with CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” the apparent Democratic presidential nominee criticized the 2017 Republican tax cuts and questioned how the U.S. could use the lost revenue as it tries to lift a devastated economy. More than 38 million people have filed jobless claims since states started widespread lockdowns to slow the virus, and GDP is expected to go into freefall in the second quarter. 

“Imagine if we had that $2 trillion now as we go into, God willing, a recovery which is a long way away as I see it right now,” Biden told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin.

He spoke during an unprecedented presidential election where the pandemic and economic collapse — and President Donald Trump’s response to them — have overshadowed any other issue. The virus has forced both major party candidates to stop in-person events for more than two months as the incumbent tries to defend a virus response critics such as Biden have called sluggish and inadequate. 

“His slowness is costing lives and costing jobs and costing our ability to rebound,” the former vice president said Friday. 

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment about Biden’s remarks.

The U.S. has reported more than 1.5 million Covid-19 cases, and the disease has led to more than 94,000 deaths nationwide, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The Trump administration’s preparedness for the outbreak and efforts to ramp up testing came under particular scrutiny this spring as cases in America quickly outpaced any other country. 

As states battered by business closures and unemployment start to reopen their economies, some still have not seen their rate of Covid-19 infections decline. In Washington, policymakers have come to a divide over whether to forge ahead with partial restarts while focusing on testing or send more federal relief to states, businesses and individuals while taking a more cautious approach to lifting lockdowns. 

While the president and many of his GOP allies push to restart businesses now to boost growth, Biden said “the way to fix the economy is get the public health response correct.” 

Trump’s rival in the 2020 election condemned the president’s party for its reluctance to send more relief money to state and local governments, some of which could struggle to pay first responders or teachers as they face higher expenses and lost revenue. House Democrats approved nearly $1 trillion in aid to states and municipalities last week, but Senate Republicans have no plans to pass the $3 trillion rescue bill. 

He also contended the government has favored larger over smaller businesses as it doles out the more than $2.5 trillion in taxpayer relief money approved in March and April. 

In detailing the economic policies he would implement if he won the White House, Biden said he would “repeal the $2 trillion tax cut for folks making over a million bucks a year” and hike the corporate tax rate to 28% even during a recovery period. He added that as the U.S. moves closer to rebounding from the crisis, he wants to push for an infrastructure overhaul and other job-creating measures. 

Among his virus response plans, Biden has called for short-time compensation, under which companies would keep workers employed with reduced hours and the government would pay for the difference in wages. He has pushed for better safety standards and a pay boost for employees deemed essential who have to work on-site during the crisis.

Averages of recent polls in swing states such as Florida, Wisconsin, Michigan and Pennsylvania show a tight race with Biden holding a narrow edge. 

This story first appeared on CNBC.com. More from CNBC:

• ‘I think Amazon should start paying their taxes,’ Joe Biden says
• Two French kids reportedly discover gold bars worth over $100,000 during lockdown
• Companies are investing in ways to sanitize PPE, keeping business open and reducing medical waste

One thing is clear in the complicated, sometimes contradictory and often chaotic story of Tara Reade: Her life has not been easy.

Her earliest childhood memory was of being abused by her father, she told her former husband, a man she would later leave after saying he abused her, too.

She was also a child of big dreams, of being an Olympic skier and studying acting at Juilliard, before developing an interest in politics. She was hired in 1992 for a low-level staff job for one of the nation’s highest-profile senators at the time, Joe Biden. Less than a year later, Reade said, she was again the victim of abuse, assaulted by Biden in the hallway of a Senate office building — an allegation he vehemently denies.

That accusation, which Reade made publicly for the first time in March, has revived difficult questions about how to evaluate allegations of assault in the era of #MeToo. It also has thrust Reade’s life story into the 2020 presidential race and, with it, scrutiny of a woman with a winding trail of extreme debt, an unfounded claim of educational attainment and questionable business practices. Along the way, some people who dealt with her found her duplicitous and deceitful, while others found her a heroic survivor.

On Friday, her attorney, Douglas Wigdor, announced he was dropping her as a client. And officials confirmed media reports that she faced an inquiry about whether she was truthful when she testified about her credentials as an expert witness in domestic violence cases, an issue that could serve as grounds for appeal of a number of convictions she had a role in securing.

Reade’s story about the alleged assault by Biden is not a straight line, either. It has changed over the past year, from accusations of uncomfortable, harassing behavior to allegations of assault. Reade came forward publicly with her most serious accusation just as Biden was securing a path to the Democratic presidential nomination.

It is often not possible to conclusively resolve an allegation like the one Reade has made, where there are no witnesses and no timely police report.

So how her claim is evaluated turns largely on her credibility.

By some accounts, Reade is a bright and engaging woman who has tried her best as a single mother to raise her daughter while constantly looking for a fresh start. In others, Reade uses her charm and flair for drama to manipulate those supporting her until their goodwill runs out.

Reade says her critics have her wrong.

“I’m not a lying, manipulative user,” she said in a Wednesday interview with The Associated Press. “I’ve really understood what it’s like to be struggling and poor. I’ve really tried to help people when I could.”

This account of Reade’s life is based on interviews with more than a dozen of her friends, relatives and personal and professional associates, as well as numerous interviews with Reade. The AP also reviewed hundreds of pages of court documents, emails and Reade’s own writings.

CHILDHOOD OF DREAMS, DISAPPOINTMENT

Reade was born Tara Moulton in the coastal town of Monterey, California, and says she spent most of her childhood living on a farm in northern Wisconsin. Her father, Robert Reade Moulton, worked as a sportswriter for the Wausau Daily Herald in the 1960s before taking a public relations job with a defense contractor in Minnesota; Reade said her mother, Jeanette Altimus, was an artist.

Reade has written that she was an accomplished skier who qualified for the Junior Olympics team in downhill skiing at age 12 in Wisconsin and trained for three years before her parents’ divorce prompted a move to Athens, Georgia.

A stepbrother said most people in Wausau skied, mainly at nearby Rib Mountain, but he does not remember Reade being a standout.

“I’m sure Tara did, but I don’t really remember her getting some significant accolades for her performance,” said Scott Thoma, 56, of Mound, Minnesota, who was a year ahead of Reade in middle school, when his mother married her father.

Reade and her brother Collin lived with her mother after her parents’ split, eventually moving to Georgia, while Moulton and his new wife moved to the Minneapolis area.

Another of Reade’s aspirations was to be an actress, performing in “school theatre, community and regional theatre, sprinkled with some radio and television commercials,” according to her blog. She set out for California to pursue acting at age 17 and said she got a referral from a friend to informally train with Robert Reed, an actor best known for his role as the “Brady Bunch” father. She also said she scored an audition in New York for The Juilliard School’s exclusive acting program.

Reade said she learned at the audition that no scholarships were available and returned home brokenhearted when her father said he wouldn’t pay the tuition. The school declined to confirm whether Reade was selected for an audition.

She wrote in January that her father, who died in 2016, was physically and emotionally abusive throughout her childhood.

“Thwarting my college dreams was the mild bit, the rejection and the physical assaults set the stage for how I would walk into the world,” she wrote.

Reade often discussed the issue with her former husband, Ted Dronen, according to Dronen’s account in the couple’s divorce filings.

“She referenced a long history of events dating back to her first memories in which her father would physically and emotionally, and mentally abuse her. She stated also that her mother seemed not to interfere with petitioner’s father’s abuse,” he wrote.

Thoma described Reade’s parents as alcoholics but said he never saw Moulton become angry when he drank, or emotionally or physically abuse Reade or anyone else.

“He got frustrated at her,” said Thoma, adding that Reade started more things than she finished. “He would have to put the kibosh on whatever she wanted. But no, I never saw Bob lay a hand on any of us kids, or Collin and Tara.”

Dronen, in the court documents, described Reade as also having a sometimes tumultuous relationship with her mother, who he said kicked her out of her house during a fall 1994 argument while Reade was in the late stages of a pregnancy.

Reade has said her mother, who also died in 2016, was one of the few people she confided in about Biden’s alleged assault.

Early abuse can inform a victim’s relationships for the rest of his or her life, according to Barbara Ziv, a forensic psychologist and sexual assault expert.

“If you grow up in an abusive household, where your needs, your basic needs aren’t met and you aren’t taught to appropriately identify boundaries or emotions, then that’s going to impact the way that you develop as an adult,” Ziv said.

AN EYE TOWARD POLITICS

There’s little public accounting of the next few years of Reade’s life, after she says her Juilliard dreams were dashed.

She eventually attended Pasadena City College, where she says her strong performance in a political science class helped her land an internship in Washington with then-California Rep. Leon Panetta.

Reade said in the 2019 interview that she then worked as a field manager for Santa Barbara County Supervisor Gloria Ochoa in her campaign against Rep. Michael Huffington, the former husband of Arianna Huffington. A few days after Ochoa’s loss, Reade said, she got a call to interview for a job with Biden — which she described as a dream job. It was unclear how that interview came about.

“I just always wanted to work for Biden. Because at the time, he was the champion of women’s legislation, women’s rights legislation,” she told the AP.

Reade said she traveled to Washington and was interviewed by Biden’s executive assistant, Marianne Baker. During their conversation, she said, Biden walked in and was introduced to the young job prospect.

“He kind of smiled and said, ‘Hire her,’” Reade said. “That was it.”

WORKING FOR BIDEN

Once she was in Washington, multiple friends described Reade as a young woman coming into her own.

Stacey Lentz, a friend at the time who worked in North Dakota Sen. Kent Conrad’s office, said the two would get together for lunch on Capitol Hill, and on days off, they’d peruse antique shops or enjoy a ballgame.

Another close friend of Reade’s, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect her family’s privacy, described her as a laid-back Californian in contrast to her own East Coast conservative upbringing. All three lived in Thompson Markward Hall, a women’s dormitory across the street from the Hart Senate Office Building.

Over the years, Reade spoke favorably about working for Biden.

Margie Estberg, of Aptos, California, said she got to know Reade after hiring her in late 2017 to pet sit. Over a pizza dinner and cocktails in 2018, Estberg said she asked Reade what Biden was like — and whether Biden was one of the “bad guys.”

“I said, ‘Is he a nice guy?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, he is,’” Estberg recently recalled. “I said, ’Oh, good. Because I hate to see somebody who you think is a decent person and somebody shuts them down and says, ‘No, they aren’t.’”

Reade said she didn’t share details of the alleged assault with Estberg because she wasn’t ready to discuss it.

But Reade’s friend, the one who spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity, said Reade told her a much different story about Biden in 1993. That’s when Reade says she was asked to deliver a gym bag to Biden in a Senate office building; when she met him, she says, he kissed her and digitally penetrated her.

The friend said Reade called her a few nights after the assault allegedly occurred, and the friend described in vivid detail feeling “so physically sick” at the disclosure that she ran to the bathroom and threw up in the middle of their conversation.

Reade recommended that the AP interview the friend, and reporters spoke to her multiple times, beginning in 2019. Initially, the friend confirmed Reade’s original, limited account of harassment by Biden. When Reade added assault to her allegation in March of this year, this friend also added those details to her own recollection.

This friend says she counseled Reade not to file a police report, and now expresses deep regret for what she characterized as leading Reade astray in dealing with the situation.

Reade left Washington shortly after the alleged assault. She says she tried to complain about harassment by Biden — but not assault — to a Senate personnel office and the senator’s top advisers, but felt retaliated against and ultimately said she was encouraged to find another job and quit.

The AP spoke with numerous current and former Biden staffers in the course of reporting on Reade’s claims, and none recalled such an incident or a report. Some of Biden’s top aides said they didn’t recall Reade at all.

MARRIAGE, DIVORCE, ABUSE

During her time in Washington, Reade met Ted Dronen, whom she describes in a 2009 essay as “a smiling 6’4” blonde Nordic-looking man” who playfully shot her with a water gun at a party one spring night in 1993.

Facing financial difficulties after leaving Biden’s office, Reade moved in with Dronen and ultimately asked to follow him to North Dakota, where he was working on a campaign that winter, according to his account in court records.

In her divorce filing, Reade described early warning signs that Dronen was explosive and unstable and says she fled North Dakota for California after Dronen became upset that she was pregnant. She soon came back to him, however, and they married in July 1994 and had a daughter that November.

In a domestic violence case filed 15 months later, Dronen admits that he attacked Reade but alleges that Reade got violent with him as well.

“I admit that on February 21, 1996 my wife and I were involved in a heated argument and during that argument that I may have acted out in an inappropriate manner. During our marriage my wife and I had arguments. She has on past occasions struck me; specifically, in the face. That fact, however, does not excuse my conduct on the date in question,” he states.

Dronen did not respond to several requests for comment.

In court documents, he suggested that Reade conflated childhood traumas with her recollections of abuse by him.

“I believe these incidences, in addition to the abuse, harassment and other truamatic (sic) events in Petitioner’s life, color Petitioner’s perception and judgment in the instant case and I believe them to be the underlying psychological reasons that Petitioner is making me out to be some sort of monster,” he said.

During their divorce proceedings, Dronen also told the court that Reade said she was harassed while working in Biden’s office, but made no mention of assault, a detail that was first reported by the San Luis Obispo Tribune.

“On several occasions petitioner related a problem that she was having at work regarding sexual harassment in U.S. Senator Joe Biden’s office,” he wrote. Reade “eventually struck a deal” with Biden’s chief of staff and left the office, and Dronen supported her financially as she looked for work.

Biden’s former chief of staff, Ted Kaufman, has consistently said no such deal was made.

TURBULENT TIMES

The past two decades of Reade’s life have been tumultuous. In her own telling, she had to flee Dronen’s abuse, took shelter in domestic violence safe houses and moved to Washington state, where she changed her name to Alexandra Tara McCabe. She also said she received a new Social Security number to protect her safety, putting her in a “really vulnerable economic situation.”

She said the focus on her financial difficulties since coming forward with her allegation against Biden was “classist” and should have no bearing on the credibility of her accusation.

“How high does your credit score have to be to be believed as a victim of sexual assault?” Reade asked.

Reade’s resume states that she graduated from Antioch University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and later worked at the school’s Seattle campus as an “Ongoing Online Visiting Professor for degree completion.” But school officials said she did not graduate and was never a faculty member, though she was paid to do several hours of administrative work as an independent contractor, a detail first reported by CNN.

Reade disputed this, but could not produce evidence that she graduated. She says the number of school credits that could be applied to her graduation was complicated by her name and social security number change, and that the school’s president at the time stepped in to personally confer a degree.

The school said that no such arrangement was made.

“University officials confirmed with former president Toni Murdock that no special arrangements existed,” university spokeswoman Karen Hamilton said in a statement.

She was accepted to Seattle University Law School through an alternative admissions program and obtained a law degree in 2004, but struggled to keep a job. She was helped by sympathetic strangers drawn to her story of escaping abuse, but often failed to meet financial obligations and was perpetually in debt and frequently entangled in legal battles.

By May 2006, she was back in California, working as a victims’ advocate for the Monterey County YWCA.

There, Reade lodged a series of complaints with the chapter’s board within months of taking the job, alleging that she and others were harassed and discriminated against by managers, which formed the basis of a 2007 lawsuit.

Reade and three co-workers alleged that two managers, who were both black, potentially misspent funds and favored African American employees who were members of their church. One supervisor, the lawsuit alleged, made racist comments. Meanwhile, Reade and her three co-workers, all of whom were white, said they were denied benefits and promotions.

“I find your response to my recent complaint unacceptable. Therefore, I am taking the next step to get some resolution,” Reade wrote in a Nov. 9, 2006, memo to her boss.

She was also upset because someone called her “whitebread,” according to the memo, which was circulated to the board.

Bridgette Allen, the former YWCA chapter president, was among those sued. She said she viewed Reade’s persistent emails as an effort to build a court case.

“I was the first black board president in the history here. You have to look at the dynamics: It was four white women that accused three black women,” Allen said.

But to some of Reade’s co-workers, she was a hero empowered by a difficult past.

“She was such a great example of what I wanted to be as a mom and a woman and an advocate,” said Diane Wegner, a former YWCA employee who was part of the lawsuit, which was settled out of court for an undisclosed sum.

Reade soon found a new job as executive director at the Animal Friends Rescue Project in Pacific Grove.

She also needed a new place to live and, in 2008, turned to Austin Chung, an inexperienced property manager, and inquired about a cottage he was renting out that offered a glimpse of the waves at nearby Monterey Bay.

She told him she was fleeing abuse and had no credit history, explaining her change of name and Social Security number. But she did have a law degree and a job, she told him.

“My heart went out to her right away,” Chung said.

Chung said he had the interior painted and installed new flooring to make the home welcoming.

Within five months, she was behind on rent. Pretty soon, she was out of a job, too, after her management style grated on some employees and supporters of the animal shelter, according to former board members.

“There wasn’t any one big thing that happened. It was just, over time, her not really being competent,” said Carie Broecker, a longtime former board member. Broecker said she remained friends with Reade until Reade recently threatened to sue her because she publicly discussed her tenure at the agency.

Reade said she was proud of her work for the animal shelter.

Chung moved to evict Reade after she fell $3,600 behind on rent; Reade accused him of harassment in an email.

She eventually left behind a house in need of $8,000 in repairs that included carpets so stained by animal waste that they needed to be replaced, according to Chung, who provided emails and video footage of the home’s interior.

In 2011, Reade was again in a relationship that turned violent. Neighbors called Santa Cruz police to her home, and her live-in boyfriend, Edward Walker, was charged with corporal injury and battery against Reade and her daughter.

“Male subject battered live-in girlfriend, causing visible injury. During the altercation, the suspect also battered the victims daughter,” police said in an April 3, 2011 report.

Reade, who had spent years testifying in court as an advocate for domestic violence victims, acknowledged that Walker slapped her daughter at one point. She paid his bail and continued to live with Walker, caring for him after he suffered a stroke in 2012, court records show.

Walker, who could not be reached for comment, pleaded guilty and was given probation. A judge dismissed the charges in 2016.

Financial and legal turmoil followed her as she continued to move around California’s central coast, living in some of the most scenic and affluent parts of the state:

— She sought a restraining order in 2012 against a neighbor whom she accused of harassment and making racist threats against Walker. A judge dismissed the petition, and Reade dropped the matter.

— Months later, Reade was evicted again over $12,750 in unpaid rent. She filed for bankruptcy and listed $406,407 in debts, including nearly $300,000 in unpaid school loans, $1,715 owed to a bail bondsman and $2,100 due to a locally owned grocery store.

— Reade enrolled in an advanced legal degree program through Southwestern Law School. The school sued Reade in 2016 over $22,000 in loans, which remain unpaid, according to an attorney working on the case.

— She launched a charity that aimed to provide pet food to impoverished animal owners. The group’s nonprofit status was revoked in 2017 after Reade failed to submit three years of mandatory tax filings, though she continued to solicit donations. In 2016, Reade tweeted that she was raising money for a nonprofit called Boudicca Rising Legal Assistance, which included a link to a GoFundMe page she created. There is no record of a nonprofit by that name in the IRS database. Reade raised $210 but said she eventually abandoned the effort because it was too difficult to sort out the logistics.

In 2014, Reade started volunteering at a Watsonville, California, nonprofit horse farm called the Pregnant Mare Rescue. She proved to be a dedicated volunteer who excelled at caring for abused horses, but “always had drama and craziness going on in her life,” according to Lynn Hummer, the organization’s founder.

“She was always broke and in a crisis,” Hummer said.

The two had a falling out in 2016 after Reade charged $1,400 in veterinary care for her horse to the Pregnant Mare Rescue, billing records show.

In a June 8, 2016, email to Hummer, Reade acknowledged that she charged the bill to the organization but said that she was poor, that her mother’s health was failing and that she was “disgusted and appalled” that Hummer would “villainize” her poverty.

Reade said that she planned on paying back the money but decided against it after Hummer “started trashing me” on social media.

At the time, Reade had been asking for money to finance a cross-country move to take care of her mother. She also told acquaintances that Dronen, her ex-husband, had reappeared and was harassing her.

According to a letter from a domestic violence advocacy group that Reade shared, Dronen sent her and her daughter “friend requests” via Facebook after 15 years without contact, and the two were scared for their safety. She also inquired about changing her legal name back to Tara Reade, which she goes by now.

Eventually, a man in Seattle raised $3,500 for her through GoFundMe.

FALLOUT

Reade says her decision to go public with her claims against Biden has brought her more hardship. She describes facing death threats online and feeling abused and abandoned by the Democratic Party, which she says she’s supported her whole life. Numerous prominent Democrats have said they believe Biden’s denials.

Inconsistencies in her accounts have also complicated matters. Defense attorneys are now reviewing whether she may have testified falsely about her education credentials in multiple domestic violence cases, the Monterey County Weekly and The New York Times first reported.

Still, Reade, a woman who’s spent her life trying to regain her footing in the face of myriad setbacks, said her decision to come forward has been empowering.

“It’s made my life so difficult in so many ways, but I’m doing this for more of an existential reason, and also for my own justice,” she said. When she first spoke out about the sexual assault allegation, Reade said, “I felt this release, of this burden, this secret that I’ve kept.”

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Jaffe and Slodysko reported from Washington; Dale reported from Philadelphia. Associated Press writers Stephen Braun in Washington and Don Thompson in Sacramento, Calif., and news researchers Monika Mathur, Rhonda Shafner and Jennifer Farrar contributed to this report.

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Catch up on the 2020 election campaign with AP experts on our weekly politics podcast, “Ground Game.”

A growing number of contenders to be Joe Biden’s vice presidential nominee indicated Thursday that they’ve advanced to a round of intense vetting, suggesting that a shortlist for the slot is taking shape, NBC News reports.

Rep. Val Demings, D-Fla., has formally begun interviewing with the Biden campaign for the vice presidential nomination and that the vetting process is underway, a source with direct knowledge told NBC News Thursday.

“We’re definitely on a list,” the source said.

Meanwhile, CBS News reported that Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., was asked by the Biden campaign to undergo a formal vetting for consideration for the veep slot.

Earlier this week, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer disclosed that she has been in touch with Biden’s team. During a “Today” interview Tuesday she said, “it was just an opening conversation.”

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

President Donald Trump is putting forth a false “choice” when he boasts about a program aimed at improving veterans’ health care by steering more patients to the private sector.

Heading toward the Memorial Day weekend, Trump bragged anew that he got the Veterans Choice program passed so veterans now can choose to go to private doctors immediately for care if they have to wait too long for appointments at government-run VA medical facilities.

But the Choice program was achieved by his predecessor. And it is currently restricted because of the coronavirus outbreak.

A look at his statements:

TRUMP: “We’ve done the greatest job maybe of anything in the VA, because I got VA Choice … approved.” — remarks Monday.

THE FACTS: False. He didn’t get Veterans Choice approved; President Barack Obama did in 2014. Trump expanded it, under a 2018 law known as the MISSION Act.

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TRUMP: “So if you have to wait on line for a doctor, you go outside, you have a private doctor, we pay the bill.” — remarks Monday.

THE FACTS: His suggestion that veterans no longer have waits for care because of the Choice program is also false.

Since March, VA actually has halted the program’s key provisions that granted veterans the option to see private doctors if they endured long delays at VA, citing the pandemic. Internal VA emails obtained by The Associated Press reveal that some veterans are being turned away, even when private doctors are available to see them.

The program allows veterans to see a private doctor for primary or mental health care if their VA wait is 20 days (28 for specialty care) or their drive to a VA facility is 30 minutes or more.

But since the program’s expansion in June 2018, the VA has not seen a major increase in veterans seeking private care, partly because wait times in the private sector are typically longer than at the VA. Two months ago, after the coronavirus outbreak, the VA also took the step of restricting veterans’ access to private doctors, citing the added risks of infection and limited capacity at private hospitals.

Under the temporary guidelines, the VA is reviewing referrals for non-emergency care “on a case-by-case basis for immediate clinical need and with regard to the safety of the veteran when being seen in-person, regardless of wait time or drive time eligibility,” according to VA spokeswoman Christina Noel. The department has boosted telehealth appointments and she said VA referrals for private care will be made where it is “deemed safe” and private doctors are available.

Veterans’ organizations and internal VA emails suggest the department is painting an overly rosy picture of health care access.

In a VA call this month involving directors at its medical centers along with hundreds of VA employees and patient advocates, several expressed worry about veterans being needlessly denied care, especially in parts of the U.S. where virus cases were more limited, according to a participant on the call.

“We have community facilities open and able to see patients; however, our Veterans are being denied community care granted under criteria of the MISSION Act,” one VA employee wrote in a follow-up May 14 email to Tammy Czarnecki, an assistant deputy undersecretary for health operations at VA.

The employee works in a rural region that covers Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and Oklahoma, where private doctors are often key to filling gaps in VA care. The person said veterans were being told by their local VAs they may need to wait “well past July, August or September” for private care, according to the email, which was provided to The Associated Press on condition the sender not be identified.

“It breaks our hearts to see so many of our Veterans eligible under the MISSION Act, being turned away for care,” the employee wrote. Czarnecki’s office replied by referring the employee to the VA guidance that set forth the restrictions due to a pandemic.

The VA on Thursday said referrals had increased in the employee’s city during the pandemic. It did not provide figures.

The VA, which announced this week it would start returning to more normal operations, hasn’t said when it will remove its temporary restrictions on Choice.

Chanin Nuntavong, executive director of the American Legion’s Washington office, says many veterans are anxious about getting their medical appointments.

“Care at the VA has been part of their routine — their regular appointments and elective surgeries. What’s VA’s plan for that?” Nuntavong said. “Am I going to get my appointment that I need at VA in a timely manner? Those are their main concerns right now.”

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EDITOR’S NOTE — A look at the veracity of claims by political figures.

Formal charges have been brought against a Carmel Valley doctor who is accused of defrauding thousands of patients by selling them hydroxychloroquine as a “cure” for COVID-19. 

Federal agents indicted Dr. Jennings Staley on one count of felony mail fraud for selling the drug used to treat patients with autoimmune disorders such as Lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and to prevent malaria.

The drug gained national attention in the weeks following the pandemic’s arrival to the United States after President Trump touted it as a potential “game-changer” for the deadly coronavirus strain. The president also says he is now taking hydroxychloroquine despite the fact that the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning of harmful side-effects in COVID-19 patients as numerous studies have found the drug was not effective in treating the coronavirus. 

According to the May 20 indictment, undercover federal agents contacted Dr. Staley, owner and operator of Skinny Beach MedSpa after finding marketing materials advertising the “COVID-19 Concierge Medicine Pack (Family)” for $3,995 through the spa’s website. 

In addition to the hydroxychloroquine, the COVID-19 kits came with a bottle of Viagra and Xanax to help with stress caused by the pandemic. 

In a recorded phone call, an undercover agent posing as a customer said Staley filled them in on the prescription. Staley allegedly told the agent that if someone in the family contracted the virus that he would “activate” the medication by telling them the proper amount to ingest. 

“I will be dosing it. I will activate it,” Staley told the agent, according to the new indictment. “You will own and possess these kits…When someone gets sick, we will start the loading on that person. We will load them and prophylax (sic) all of you.”

In addition, federal investigators say Staley touted the medication as an “amazing cure” for those sick with the deadly viral disease.

“You could be short of breath and coughing at noon today, and if I start your hydroxychloroquine loading dose, you’ll feel 99% better by noon tomorrow,” Staley allegedly told agents during an April 3 call. “It’s preventative and curative. It’s hard to believe, it’s almost too good to be true.” 

In the April 16 criminal complaint, agents said Staley then elaborated on the process of getting the hydroxychloroquine into the country and into San Diego County. He said his “broker” smuggled it in by telling customs officials that the medication was “sweet potato extract.”

The accusation that Staley iintentionally misled U.S. Customs by importing the item as “yam” or “sweet potato extract” was not included in the May 20 indictment.

And yet while Staley allegedly referred to hydroxychloroquine as a “miracle drug,” he made sure to tell agents there were no guarantees. 

The indictment shows the undercover agent asking for confirmation on the effectiveness of the drug to treat COVID-19.  “If I’m hearing you right, if I buy these kits from you, then that’s going to pretty much guarantee that neither my kids, my dad, my wife, any of us get sick, and if we are, it’s going to cure us, right?”

To which Staley responded, “Guaranteed,“ later adding, “Now, there’s always exceptions, your Dad could come here and die of a heart attack. A little red flag goes off when I hear the word guarantee…There are no guarantees in life. There are no guarantees of anything.” 

Coincidentally, several studies have found patients taking hydroxychloroquine have a greater risk of suffering heart rhythm problems, according to the FDA.

Not long after, the COVID-19 Concierge Medical Pack arrived at the FBI’s headquarters. Inside the package, agents said they found marketing material listing the pros and cons of hydroxychloroquine, along with cards advertising for the spa. 

According to the complaint, Staley continued to sell hydroxychloroquine on a separate website, “covid19medkits.com,” even after federal agents conducted a formal interview with him. 

The indictment also shows that U.S. Customs had shipped packages of “yam extract” to Staley’s office throughout the month of April. 

“Dr. Staley did not defraud anyone,” said Staley’s attorney, Patrick Griffin. ‘There is not a single victim in this case. There were around 30 COVID patients, not a single real patient was ever told these medications provided a 100% cure or made any promises.”

Griffin says 30 patients had purchased hydroxychloroquine from Staley and 15 others contacted the office for information but did not move forward. None, says Griffin, complained to law enforcement about Staley’s practice or conduct.

The indictment indicates agents started their investigation of Staley after watching local news reports.

As for the price, Griffin says his client only sold two “family COVID-19 kits,” one of which was to the federal undercover agent. 

“Every patient stated clearly that they were not scammed and they felt there was no fraud. Dr. Staley did not need to push these medications, the President, his executive branch, and the most-watched cable news channel in America were pushing them to tens of millions of people every day.” 

Moreover, Griffin accuses government agents of entrapping Staley and essentially ruining his life. 

“The very same executive branch that was touting these medications for months has now turned around and destroyed the life of an Iraq veteran for doing the same thing. Dr. Staley’s life is now destroyed- he had to sell his medical practice and will never recover from these baseless accusations. Reasonable people can disagree about these medications but that is not a debate for the criminal courtroom. “

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A former judge of elections in South Philadelphia has admitted accepting cash bribes to tamper with the results of the city’s primary elections from 2014-2016, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.

Domenick J. DeMuro, 73, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to deprive voters of their civil rights and violating the Travel Act, U.S. Attorney William M. McSwain said. DeMuro faces up to 15 years in prison when he’s sentenced June 30.

DeMuro admitted that a political consultant — whose name was not revealed by prosecutors — paid him bribes to add fraudulent votes for certain Democratic candidates running for judge positions. McSwain did not name the candidates or say if any of them won their elections.

The consultant took fees from the candidates and used some of that money to pay Election Board officials, including DeMuro, McSwain said.

City Commissioner Al Schmidt posted a redacted investigatory file that identified DeMuro as a former elections judge in the 36th division of the 39th ward. The division includes several city blocks south of Oregon Avenue, east of Broad Street.

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A federal judge on Thursday agreed to impose financial sanctions against the Trump administration for failing to produce hundreds of documents during litigation over whether a citizenship question could be added to the 2020 census.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman said in a ruling that the Trump administration’s failure to produce the documents “may well have been inadvertent, but is nevertheless unacceptable for any litigant, and particularly for the Department of Justice.”

The judge in New York ordered the administration to pay some of the costs and fees of nonprofit advocacy groups that had sought the sanctions.

“To be sure, this was not DOJ’s finest hour,” Furman wrote, referring to the Department of Justice. “At best, DOJ failed to produce more than ten percent of the documents that Defendants were required to produce as part of this litigation.”

The Department of Justice declined to comment.

Last year, Furman ruled against an effort by the Trump administration to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census. That decision was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court which said U.S. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross’ rationale for the citizenship question — to help enforce voting rights — appeared to be contrived.

Nonprofit groups that had sued to block the citizenship question demanded sanctions after new documents surfaced that they say suggested Ross’ motive in adding the citizenship question was for aiding redistricting efforts that could benefit Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.

Lawyers for the Trump administration admitted last fall that they had discovered more than 3,700 pages of documents while responding to a congressional inquiry that had not been shared during the litigation over the citizenship question.

The judge refused a request by the nonprofit groups to grant sanctions for concealing evidence and false testimony from two witnesses. Furman said he was offering no opinion on whether those allegations were true, but even if they were true, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the case.

The Department of Justice had blamed its failure to produce the documents on a technical error during its document-search process. Furman described the error as “a lapse that would make a first-year litigation associate wince.”

A citizenship question is not on the 2020 census, which started in March and will continue through October. But President Donald Trump instead has ordered the Department of Commerce to collect citizenship information through administration records.

The judge’s decision finally ends the two-year litigation over the citizenship question, said Dale Ho, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, one of the advocacy groups that challenged the question.

“The court has reaffirmed that the Trump administration’s ‘official story concealed their true reasons’ for attempting to add a citizenship question to the census,” Ho said in a statement.

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Follow Mike Schneider at http://twitter.com/MikeSchneiderAP.

As the coronavirus pandemic stretches on, Americans’ views of the federal and state government response to the crisis are starting to sour — yet President Donald Trump’s personal approval rating has remained steady.

A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research shows that 41% of Americans approve of the president’s job performance, while 58% disapprove. That’s consistent with opinions of Trump before the pandemic, as well as throughout his more than three years in office.

The survey highlights one of the remarkable features of Trump’s tenure as president: Despite a steady drumbeat of controversies, an impeachment trial and now a historic public health crisis, few Americans have changed their views of him. He’s failed to increase his support in any measurable way, yet he also has retained the approval of his core backers, including the overwhelming majority of Republicans.

“The Trump presidency is a perfect example of the Rorschach test of politics,” said Alice Stewart, a Republican strategist who worked for Sen. Ted Cruz’s 2016 presidential campaign. “People that want to see that the president is doing a good job will see that regardless of where the chips fall. If they want to see that he’s doing a crappy job, they will see that regardless of what happens.”

Less than six months from his Election Day face-off against Democrat Joe Biden, the consistency of Trump’s support appears to leave him with the same narrow path to victory that first propelled him to the White House in 2016, even as the pandemic and resulting economic crisis upend nearly every aspect of American life.

Biden’s campaign believesTrump’s uneven handling of the crisis will ultimately cost him his job in November.

“The scale of the loss is staggering and it’s infuriating,” Biden said this week. “But more than that, it’s heartbreaking to think how much fear, how much loss, how much agony could have been avoided if the president hadn’t wasted so much time and taken responsibility.”

The AP-NORC survey comes as the death toll in the U.S. from COVID-19 nears 100,000 people. Robust testing remains a challenge, and a vaccine is months or years away. Yet the scope of the economic toll— nearly 40 million Americans have filed for unemployment since March — has also increased the urgency in many states to begin reopening businesses.

Overall, the poll shows that 39% of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the virus.

Just 31% of Americans approve of the federal government’s response. Forty-eight percent disapprove, including 20% of Trump’s supporters — suggesting that some view the president apart from the sprawling federal apparatus he oversees.

Approval ratings for the federal government have slipped as the pandemic has stretched on, from 40% approval one month ago to 31% now. State governments continue to get higher marks from the public, though support there is slipping as well. About half of Americans — 51% — say they approve of the job being done by their states, down from 63% in April.

State governments have ultimate control over when and how restrictions on businesses, schools and public transportation are lifted. In hard hit areas like New York City, strict limitations remain in place. In other parts of the country, including Texas and Georgia, restaurants, malls and other businesses have started to welcome back customers.

Majorities of Americans continue to favor stay-at-home orders and other virus restrictions, though that support has ebbed over the last month.

Trump pushed aggressively for states to start reopening businesses almost from the start of the crisis, outraging many Democrats and frustrating even some Republicans who feared he was dismissing the advice of public health experts and struggling to show empathy with those who were sick or had lost loved ones to the virus.

He’s also embraced dangerous and controversial remediesfor combating COVID-19, musing in a televised briefing that drinking bleach could help combat the virus. He announced this week that he was taking the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to ward off COVID-19, despite warnings from the Food and Drug Administration about potentially fatal side effects.

The AP-NORC survey shows that 62% of Americans say Trump isn’t listening to health experts enough as he navigates the pandemic response. Among Democrats, 91% say he is not listening to the experts enough. Three in 10 Republicans also say he isn’t listening enough, while a majority — 59% — think he is doing about right.

“He almost takes pride in doing that,” said Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist. “That is dangerous for everyone.”

The federal government’s handling of the crisis still ranks above that of Congress: Just 23% of Americans approve of the congressional leaders’ response. In March, Congress approved a $2 trillion rescue plan that sent direct payments to millions of Americans and provided loans to both small businesses and large corporations. Work was expected to quickly start on an additional round of rescue money, and the Democratic-led House approved a $3 trillion plan last week. However, the bill faced no prospects of passage in the GOP-controlled Senate, and negotiations on a compromise package appear to be slow-moving.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,056 adults was conducted May 14-18 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.2 percentage points.

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Online:

AP-NORC Center: http://www.apnorc.org/

Pandemic politics shadowed President Donald Trump’s trip to Michigan on Thursday as he highlighted lifesaving medical devices, with the president and officials from the electoral battleground state clashing over federal aid, mail-in ballots and face masks.

Trump visited Ypsilanti, outside Detroit, to tour a Ford Motor Co. factory that had been repurposed to manufacture ventilators, the medical breathing machines governors begged for during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

But his visit came amid a long-running feud with the state’s Democratic governor and a day after the president threatened to withhold federal funds over the state’s expanded vote-by-mail effort. And, again, the president did not publicly wear a face covering despite a warning from the state’s top law enforcement officer that a refusal to do so might lead to a ban on his return.

All of the Ford executives giving Trump the tour were wearings masks, the president standing alone without one. At one point, he did take a White House-branded mask from his pocket and tell reporters he had worn it elsewhere on the tour, out of public view.

“I did not want to give the press the pleasure of seeing it,” Trump said.

For a moment, he also teasingly held up a clear shield in front of his face. A statement from Ford said that Bill Ford, the company’s executive chairman, “encouraged President Trump to wear a mask when he arrived” and said the president wore it during “a private viewing of three Ford GTs from over the years” before removing it.

The United Auto Workers union noted in a statement that “some in his entourage’” declined face masks and said “it is vitally important that our members continue to follow the protocols that have been put in place to safeguard them, their families and their communities.”

The UAW also noted Trump’s statement that he had just been tested for the virus and said it wanted to make sure he understood the wider “need for an economical instant test that can be administered daily to further protect our members — and all Americans.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Trump’s decision “wasn’t surprising but it was disappointing.” Speaking to MSNBC, she added that anyone with a public platform “has a responsiblity to make sure that they model precisely what we’re asking everyone else to do.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said mask wearing isn’t just Ford’s policy — it’s also the law in a state that’s among those hardest hit by the virus. Nessel said that if Trump refused to wear a mask Thursday “he’s going to be asked not to return to any enclosed facilities inside our state” and “we’re going to have to take action” against any company that allows it in the future.

Trump has refused to wear a face mask in public, telling aides he believes it makes him look weak, though it is a practice that federal health authorities say all Americans should adopt to help slow the spread of the virus.

Ford said everyone in its factories must wear personal protective equipment, including masks, and that its policy had been communicated to the White House. At least two people who work in the White House and had been physically close to Trump recently tested positive for the virus.

The Republican president and Whitmer have clashed during the coronavirus outbreak over her criticism of the federal response to the state’s needs for medical equipment, like ventilators, and personal protective gear, such as gloves, masks and gowns. Trump on Thursday criticized Democratic governors, suggesting they were proceeding too slowly in reopening their states’ economies.

“You have a lot of, unfortunately, in this case Democrat governors (who) think it’s good politics to keep it closed,” Trump said. “I think they’re being forced to open, frankly, the people want to get out. You’ll break the country if you don’t.”

The day before, Trump threatened to withhold federal funds from Michigan after its secretary of state mailed absentee ballot applications to millions of voters. Trump first tweeted — falsely — that the Democratic state official had mailed absentee ballots to Michigan voters. He later sent a corrected tweet specifying that applications to request absentee ballots had been mailed and seemed to back off his funding threat.

Trump narrowly won Michigan in 2016. He insists mail-in voting is ripe for fraud, although there is scant evidence of wrongdoing.

“We don’t want them to do mail in ballots because it’s going to lead to total election fraud,” Trump said Thursday. But then he allowed for some exceptions, including for himself.

“Now, if somebody has to mail it in because they’re sick, or by the way because they live in the White House and they have to vote in Florida and they won’t be in Florida. But there’s a reason for it, that’s OK.”

Trying to signal to the nation that life is returning to normal, the president has begun traveling again, with all of his initial trips to states that will be hotly contested in this November’s election. Campaign advisers have grown increasingly worried about Michigan, believing that the president’s attacks on Whitmer have not worked and that the toll the virus has taken in the Detroit area, particularly among African Americans, will prove costly politically.

Trump, at a roundtable with African American supporters in front of a sign with his slogan for reopening the economy, “Transition to Greatness,” noted low minority unemployment numbers before the pandemic and also pointed to his administration’s work on criminal justice reform.

The president’s advisers have become convinced that of the three Rust Belt states that Trump took from Democrats in 2016, Michigan would be much more difficult to win again than Pennsylvania and, especially, Wisconsin.

In the early days of the crisis, Whitmer and other governors and medical workers clamored for ventilators, fearing a shortage of the machines would prove deadly as the virus made breathing difficult for the scores of afflicted patients who were being brought to hospitals.

But the U.S. now has a surplus of the breathing machines, leading Trump to begin describing the nation as the “king of ventilators.”

___

Lemire reported from New York. Associated Press writers David Eggert in Lansing, Michigan, and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed reporting.

___

Follow Darlene Superville on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/dsupervilleap and Lemire at http://twitter.com/@JonLemire

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Russian violations make it untenable for the U.S. to stay in a treaty that permits 30-plus nations to conduct observation flights over each other’s territory, but he hinted it’s possible the U.S. will reconsider the decision to withdraw.

Trump’s announcement comes as the U.S. begins new nuclear arms control talks with the Kremlin aimed at replacing an expiring weapons treaty with a modern and potentially three-way accord that brings China into the fold. Senior administration officials say Trump’s willingness to leave the Open Skies Treaty is evidence of how prominently arms control verification and compliance will feature in the new talks.

The Open Skies Treaty that governs the unarmed overflights was initially set up to promote trust and avert conflict between the U.S. and Russia. The Trump administration informed other members of the treaty that the U.S. plans to pull out in six months — which is after the presidential election — because Russia is violating the pact. The White House also says that imagery collected during the flights can be obtained quickly at less cost from U.S. or commercial satellites.

“Russia didn’t adhere to the treaty. So until they adhere, we will pull out, but there’s a very good chance we’ll make a new agreement or do something to put that agreement back together,” Trump told reporters at the White House before leaving for Michigan.

“So I think what’s going to happen is we’re going to pull out and they (the Russians) are going to come back and want to make a deal,” Trump said. He added: “I think something very positive will work.”

The U.S. announcement that it plans to leave the treaty is expected to upset some members of Congress and European allies, which benefit from the imagery collected by Open Skies flights conducted by the U.S.

“Ending such agreements without anything to replace them could result in destabilizing activities such as a dangerous new arms race leading to possible miscalculations,” said U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

In Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko criticized the U.S. decision.

“Our position is absolutely clear and is invariable: The withdrawal of the US from this treaty will come as yet another blow to the system of military security in Europe, which is already weakened by the previous moves by the administration,” Grushko told state news agency Tass.

Trump’s national security adviser Robert O’Brien said the president has made clear that the United States will not remain a party to international agreements being violated by the other parties and that are no longer in America’s interests. He noted that Russian violations are also what prompted Trump last year to pull out of a 1987 nuclear arms treaty with Russia.

That treaty, signed by President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, banned production, testing and deployment of intermediate-range land-based cruise and ballistic missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometers (310 to 3,410 miles).

New START Treaty, which expires in February shortly after the next presidential inauguration, now is the only remaining treaty constraining the U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals. It imposes limits on the number of U.S. and Russian long-range nuclear warheads and launchers. Russia has offered to extend the treaty, but Trump is holding out in hopes of negotiating a three-way agreement with Russia and China.

“It is our expectation that Russia will help us to bring China to the negotiating table,” Marshall Billingslea, special presidential envoy for arms control, said Thursday during an online event hosted by the Hudson Institute think tank. He said he began talks a few days ago with his Russian counterpart and that negotiations will take place, as soon as possible given the COVID-19 pandemic, in a yet-to-be announced venue in Europe.

President Dwight Eisenhower first proposed the United States and the former Soviet Union allow aerial reconnaissance flights over each other’s territory in July 1955. At first, Moscow rejected the idea, but President George H.W. Bush revived it in May 1989, and the treaty entered into force in January 2002. Thirty-four nations have signed it; Kyrgyzstan has signed but not ratified it.

More than 1,500 flights have been conducted under the treaty, aimed at fostering transparency about military activity and helping monitor arms control and other agreements. Each nation in the treaty agrees to make all its territory available for surveillance flights and share all the imagery collected, yet Russia has restricted flights over certain areas.

Alexandra Bell, a former State Department official and currently the senior policy director at the nonpartisan nonprofit Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, said withdrawal from Open Skies will rub allies the wrong way.

“I absolutely cannot see a single upside to abandoning this treaty against the advice and wishes of our allies, other than for the people who never liked this treaty and don’t like the idea of the transparency and openness the treaty provides,” Bell said.

The U.S. has been working on a proposal to share with partners and allies imagery the U.S. would have shared from its Open Skies flights, said senior administration officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to explain Trump’s decision.

Last month, top Democrats on the Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees in the House and the Senate wrote to Trump accusing him of “ramming” a withdrawal from the treaty as the world grapples with COVID-19.

This month, 16 former senior European military and defense officials signed a statement supporting the treaty, saying a U.S. withdrawal would be a blow to global security and further undermine the international arms control agreements.

If the U.S. and Russia exit, all U.S. and Russian territory would be off limits to the overflights. That prompts arms control experts like Steve Pifer at the Brookings Institution to ask “What would be the point?’” On the other hand, he said, Moscow could opt to stay in the treaty, which would at least allow it to continue overflights of American facilities in Europe.

Senior administration officials said Russian violations include restricting flights over Moscow and Chechnya and near Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Russian restrictions also make it difficult to conduct observations in Kaliningrad, a Russian exclave sandwiched between Lithuania and Poland that is home to Russia’s Baltic fleet, they said.

Russia uses illegal overflight restrictions along the Georgian border in support of its propaganda narrative that the Russian-occupied enclaves of Georgia are independent countries. Moreover, the senior administration officials said Russia is using Open Skies flights to gather information on critical civilian infrastructure in both the U.S. and Europe, but declined to offer additional details.

___

Associated Press Diplomatic Writer Matthew Lee and AP National Security Writer Robert Burns in Washington, Edith Lederer at the United Nations and James Heintz in Moscow contributed to this report.

As President Donald Trump makes his third coronavirus-themed trip to a battleground state in as many weeks, some experts are expressing concern that the visits could put communities at risk during the COVID-19 outbreak.

Even though additional precautions have been undertaken by the White House, public health experts and aides in previous administrations warn that it is nearly impossible to eliminate all risk of exposure during such trips. Those who have planned similar trips for past presidents also warn of the massive footprints the swings cover and the huge burden they place on local governments, many of which are already stretched thin because of the pandemic.

“The White House is a potential hot zone for COVID — aides and valets close to the president are diagnosing positive,” said Dr. Vin Gupta, a pulmonologist and global health policy expert who is an NBC News and MSNBC contributor.

Any trip outside the Washington area involves hundreds of traveling advisers, security staff members, logistical experts and journalists. Typically, advance staffers arrive several days early to prepare, often staying in local hotels and eating at local restaurants.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

Guidance on reopening houses of worship has been put on hold after a disagreement between the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the White House, a senior administration official confirmed.

The news was first reported by The Washington Post, which stated that the White House was resistant to putting limits on religious institutions.

“The CDC sometimes views things in an overly bureaucratic way. What we are trying to do is encourage a more federalist approach where each state is able to make decisions based on their own circumstances and individually tailored needs,” the senior administration official told NBC News.

There has been an ongoing struggle between the CDC and the White House over guidelines for reopening, with the White House expressing concerns that the CDC’s guidelines are too restrictive.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

Defending his decision to fire a fourth inspector general this year, President Donald Trump has misleadingly compared his record to past presidents, claiming, “I think every president has gotten rid of probably more than I have.”

According to a recently released Congressional Research Service report, since 2000, Barack Obama was the only president to remove an inspector general, and he removed one. Trump has now removed four in less than two months.

Taking questions from reporters after a roundtable with restaurant executives on May 18, Trump was asked about his decision to fire State Department Inspector General Steve Linick. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on May 15, Trump said only, “It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as Inspectors General. That is no longer the case with regard to this Inspector General.”

It was the latest in a series of inspector general removals since the beginning of April.

On April 3, Trump announced the removal of Michael Atkinson, the inspector general of the intelligence community. It was Atkinson who sent a letter to the House intelligence committee about the whistleblower’s complaint that ultimately led to impeachment proceedings against Trump.

Defending his decision to remove Atkinson, Trump claimed Atkinson, “took a fake report and he brought it to Congress.” (In fact, a White House memo of Trump’s phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last summer — in which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter — corroborated the whistleblower’s three main points about the call. Trump’s repeated claim that the whistleblower’s complaint misrepresented the call ended up on our “Whoppers of 2019” list.) 

Within a week of firing Atkinson, Trump removed Gen. Glenn Fine from his role as acting Defense Department inspector general. And in early May, Trump replaced Christi Grimm, who was acting as the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Grimm’s removal came about a month after she released, and Trump criticized, a report on the results of a survey of hospitals, in which hospitals reported facing challenges with testing supplies and wait times for COVID-19.

Speaking to reporters on May 18, Trump said his decision to remove Linick came at the request of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Linick was reportedly spearheading at least two investigations that involved Pompeo: one involving Pompeo’s efforts to fast-track emergency arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and another into whether Pompeo used a State Department staffer to run personal errands for him.

Questioned about whether Linick’s removal was part of a pattern by the administration to avoid accountability, Trump said, “I think we’ve been treated very unfairly by inspector generals.” As for Linick specifically, Trump said he had never heard of him until Pompeo requested he be removed.

Trump, May 18: I never even heard of him, but I was asked to by the State Department, by Mike. I offered — most of my people, almost all of them — I said, “You know, these are Obama appointees. And if you’d like to let him go, I think you should let them go, but that’s up to you.” …

I’ve gotten rid of a lot of inspector generals; every president has. I think every president has gotten rid of probably more than I have. A lot of our people kept the Obama inspector general, and I think, generally speaking, that’s not a good thing to do, but they’ve kept them. But I told them — for three years I said, “Anybody who wants to get rid of their inspector generals because they were appointed by President Obama, I think you should do so.” Some of them didn’t, but now they’re doing — a couple of them are doing it now.

That comment doesn’t square with a Congressional Research Service report on “Removal of Inspectors General: Rules, Practice, and Considerations for Congress,” published on May 12.

“One of President Reagan’s first official acts upon his inauguration on January 20, 1981, was to remove all 15 confirmed and acting inspectors general then working across the executive branch,” the CRS report states. The report notes that the move caused “bipartisan concern,” which was alleviated some when Reagan renominated five of the former inspectors general and because the administration “made other commitments to support the inspector general system.”

Since then, however, no incoming president has removed inspectors general immediately upon taking office.

As for Trump’s speculation that “every president has gotten rid of probably more than I have,” that’s not accurate according to the CRS report.

According to the CRS report, between 2000 and 2020, there was only one instance of a president removing an inspector general. That was Obama’s removal of Gerald Walpin, the inspector general of the Corporation for National Community Service. In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on June 11, 2009, Obama wrote that he no longer had the “fullest confidence” in Walpin (language later used by Trump for his firings).

A week later, the White House provided the Senate a letter with more detail about the reasons for Walpin’s firing, saying he was removed “after a review was requested by the bi-partisan Board of the Corporation.” At the time, there was speculation that Walpin’s firing was related to an investigation he led looking into misuse of federal grants by a nonprofit group headed by Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, a former NBA star and an Obama supporter.

That was the only case highlighted by the CRS report between 2000 and April 2020, when Trump removed Atkinson.

The report added the caveat: “It may be the case that other inspectors general have resigned under threat of removal. Because it is not possible to identify these cases with certainty from publicly available materials, they are not discussed here.”

For example, in 2002 during the George W. Bush administration, the Washington Post reported that Luise S. Jordan, the IG at the Corporation for National and Community Service, and Roberta L. Gross, the IG at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, officially resigned in February of that year. But according to the Post, “their departures were far from voluntary.”

In 2013, during the Obama administration, Charles K. Edwards, the acting inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security resigned three days before he was scheduled to appear at a Senate hearing to answer to allegations that he compromised his independence in his role as the agency’s top watchdog. A Senate panel later concluded that Edwards inappropriately had personal relationships with senior DHS officials and that he “altered or delayed” reports to “accommodate senior DHS officials.”

And in 2015, Gen. Richard Griffin, deputy inspector general for the Department of Veterans Affairs announced his retirement amid criticism of his handling of whistleblower complaints about VA operations. But neither of those involved Obama taking steps seeking formal removal.

McEnany Also Wrong

In an interview on “Fox & Friends” on May 19, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Trump is only doing what Obama also did, and that “no one seemed to care then.”

McEnany, May 19: The president said yesterday that he told various departments who have Obama IG officials that it’s their decision whether to let that individual go. Secretary Pompeo made that recommendation and the president agreed with it. I would just note that when President Obama did the very same thing, when he fired IGs, when several IGs came together and wrote a letter saying, “President Obama you’re inhibiting our investigations.” You know, no one seemed to care then. But all of a sudden, when President Trump does what’s in his lawful authority, people are very upset about it.

But McEnany is mixing up some facts. As we noted earlier, Obama did fire an inspector general, Walpin — but that’s one, not plural “IGs,” as McEnany said.

And it wasn’t Walpin’s firing that prompted more than half of the inspectors general to write the letter cited by McEnany. Rather, the inspectors general were complaining about three federal agencies in the Obama administration that limited their access to records.

In the 2014 letter, the inspectors general said the Obama administration’s position that the records were privileged information creates “potentially serious challenges to the authority of every Inspector General and our ability to conduct our work thoroughly, independently, and in a timely manner.”

McEnany is wrong that “no one seemed to care” about the inspectors general’s letter critical of Obama. In September 2015, 12 senators — eight Republicans and four Democrats — introduced legislation to require agencies to provide “all records” requested by an inspector general. But a larger bill that included the provision never came up for a floor vote in the Republican-controlled Senate.

As the CRS report notes, one of the most commonly discussed options to fortify the independence of inspectors general is legislation that would allow for the removal of IGs “only for reasons that fall within a provided definition of good cause.”

For example, the version of the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008 that passed the House would have established inspectors general for fixed seven-year terms and allowed for removal “only on the grounds of permanent incapacity, inefficiency, neglect of duty, malfeasance, conviction of a felony or conduct involving moral turpitude, knowing violation of a law, gross mismanagement or waste of funds, or abuse of authority.”

According to CRS, “The Senate elected not to adopt this language based on the results of a comptroller general’s panel that identified concerns regarding for–cause removal for inspectors general.”

Trump and McEnany are right that presidents have the authority to remove inspectors general, but they’re wrong when comparing Trump’s firings of IGs to Obama’s or past president’s actions.

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South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Wednesday she is appealing to President Donald Trump’s administration in her standoff with two American Indian tribes over coronavirus checkpoints they set up on federal and state highways.

Noem said at her daily briefing that she has sent affidavits and video to the White House, the Department of Justice, the Interior Department and her state’s congressional delegation, asking for help resolving the dispute.

“This is not taking sides. This is simply upholding the law,” the Republican governor said.

The tribes set up the checkpoints last month to keep unnecessary visitors off the reservations.

Earlier this month, Noem threatened to sue the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and the Oglala Sioux Tribe if they did not remove highway stops within 48 hours. She backed away from that plan last week, offering to negotiate on the issue if they would take them off of U.S. and state highways.

“I know there are questions out there about respecting (tribal) sovereignty,” Noem said Wednesday. But she contends the checkpoints cannot legally be on those highways.

Harold Frazier, the chairman of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, told Noem in a letter last week that the tribe would consider her request to restrict checkpoints to tribal roads. But he made it clearto The Associated Press that he believes the tribe’s sovereignty allows it to operate checkpoints anywhere on the Cheyenne River Indian Reservation, in northern South Dakota. He said the checkpoints are essential to protecting the health of the people on the reservation.

Remi Bald Eagle, a spokesman for the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said Wednesday he would seek Frazier’s reaction to Noem going to the White House in the dispute.

Oglala Sioux president Julian Bear Runner, whose tribe is in the southwest corner of the state, did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday.

President Donald Trump’s longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen was released from federal prison Thursday morning and will serve the remainder of his sentence at home, a law enforcement official tells NBC News.

His lawyer, Jeffrey Levine, told The Washington Post that Cohen would likely issue a statement later in the day.

Cohen had been serving a federal prison sentence at FCI Otisville in New York after pleading guilty to numerous charges, including campaign finance fraud and lying to Congress.

Cohen, 53, began serving his sentence last May and was scheduled to be released from prison in November 2021.

Prison advocates and congressional leaders have been pressing the Justice Department for weeks to release at-risk inmates ahead of a potential outbreak, arguing that the public health guidance to stay 6 feet (1.8 meters) away from other people is nearly impossible behind bars.

Attorney General William Barr ordered the Bureau of Prisons in March and April to increase the use of home confinement and expedite the release of eligible high-risk inmates, beginning at three prisons identified as coronavirus hot spots. Otisville is not one of those facilities.

Cohen was told last month he would be released to serve the rest of his three-year sentence at home in response to concerns about coronavirus. He had told associates he was expecting to be released earlier this month.

The Bureau of Prisons has placed him on furlough as it processed a move to home confinement, a person familiar with the matter told the AP. The agency has the authority to release inmates on furlough for up to 30 days and has been doing so to make sure suitable inmates, who are expected to transition to home confinement, can be moved out of correctional facilities sooner, the person said.

A federal judge had denied Cohen’s attempt for an early release to home confinement after serving 10 months in prison and said in a ruling earlier this month that it “appears to be just another effort to inject himself into the news cycle.” But the Bureau of Prisons can take action to move him to home confinement without a judicial order.

The Bureau of Prisons said last week that more than 2,400 inmates had been moved to home confinement since Barr first issued his memo on home confinement in late March, and 1,200 others had been approved and were expected to be released in the coming weeks.

Other high-profile inmates have also been released as the number of coronavirus cases soars in the federal prison system. Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort was released on home confinement last week. Michael Avenatti, the attorney who rose to fame representing porn star Stormy Daniels in lawsuits against Trump, was temporarily freed from a federal jail in New York City and is staying at a friend’s house in Los Angeles.

Former New York state Senate leader Dean Skelos, 72, who was also serving a sentence at Otisville, was released on home confinement after testing positive for the coronavirus.

Farmers across the nation leaned more heavily upon the federal government last year to finance their agricultural operations amid low commodity prices and trade disputes, and more of the money they borrowed is now delinquent.

Although the U.S. Agriculture Department said it has not seen a significant change in loan delinquency rates because of the coronavirus pandemic, it expects an impact if the economic fallout continues.

Farm foreclosures have not increased, and the department has taken a number of measures to forestall them — including more flexibility for borrowers to extend repayments for annual operating loans.

The department said in an email that it also temporarily suspended loan accelerations and non-judicial foreclosures as well as stopped referring new foreclosures to the Justice Department. U.S. attorney’s offices will determine whether to stop foreclosures and evictions on delinquent accounts they were already handling.

Nathan Kauffman, vice president and Omaha branch executive of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, said he does not expect COVID-19 to have an immediate impact on farm loans in part because of the timing of the pandemic.

“It really started to intensify toward the later part of March, but that is a time of year when a lot of the major planting decisions and financing decisions … had already happened. So a lot of things had already been set in motion prior to the crisis,” Kauffman said, adding that if the crisis continues for a few more months borrowers are going to start thinking about those things again.

A state-by-state breakdown for the last two years of delinquent direct and government-backed loans that The Associated Press obtained through an open records request from the USDA’s Farm Service Agency offers a glimpse into financial difficulties faced by producers that varies widely by geography and industry.

Most vulnerable are beginning farmers and smaller agricultural operations that typically get their financing through the agency’s direct loan program. Those are typically the riskiest borrowers who cannot get financing elsewhere.

The agency directly lent those farmers more than $12.7 billion dollars, and more than $639.4 million of that amount was delinquent as of April 30. That represents an increase of $1.26 billion in direct loans under that program and a jump of more than $8 million in delinquencies compared with the same date a year ago. Nationwide, 18.76% of government direct loans were delinquent.

“It is just a precarious time for the producers,” said Allen Featherstone, an agribusiness professor at Kansas State University. “Overall you would like to see the total volume going down, but we are adding volume that is ultimately backed by the federal government.”

Delinquency rates topped 30% for direct government farm loans issued in several states, including Florida, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island and Texas. Thirteen other states have farm delinquency rates exceeding 20%. Hurricane-battered Puerto Rico was an outlier with a farm loan delinquency rate of more than 67%.

Just six states — Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Hawaii — had direct farm loan delinquency rates in the single digits at the end of April.

A separate program in which the federal government guarantees that farmers will make payments on the loans they borrow from banks and other commercial lenders also was more heavily used. The government backed $16.58 billion of those loans, and $270.65 million of it was delinquent on April 30. That is a delinquency rate of 3.23%.

States heavily dependent on the troubled dairy industry — such as Maryland, Michigan, New Mexico and Wisconsin — all saw delinquencies rise on government-guaranteed loans, Featherstone noted.

The U.S. Agriculture Department said it will begin accepting applications May 26 under the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program, which will provide up to $16 billion in direct payments to farmers and ranchers impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily prevented the House of Representatives from obtaining secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.

The court’s unsigned order granted the Trump administration’s request to keep previously undisclosed details from the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election out of the hands of Democratic lawmakers, at least until early summer.

The court will decide then whether to extend its hold and schedule the case for arguments in the fall. If it does, it’s likely the administration will be able to put off the release of any materials until after Election Day. Arguments themselves might not even take place before Americans decide whether to give President Donald Trump a second term.

For justices eager to avoid a definitive ruling, the delay could mean never having to decide the case, if either Trump loses or Republicans regain control of the House next year. It’s hard to imagine the Biden administration would object to turning over the Mueller documents or House Republicans would continue to press for them.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi objected to the high court’s decision in a statement Wednesday evening. “The House’s long-standing right to obtain grand jury information pursuant to the House’s impeachment power has now been upheld by the lower courts twice,” Pelosi said. “These rulings are supported by decades of precedent and should be permitted to proceed.”

The federal appeals court in Washington ruled in March that the documents should be turned over because the House Judiciary Committee’s need for the material in its investigation of Trump outweighed the Justice Department’s interests in keeping the testimony secret.

Mueller’s 448-page report, issued in April 2019, “stopped short” of reaching conclusions about Trump’s conduct, including whether he obstructed justice, to avoid stepping on the House’s impeachment power, the appeals court said.

The committee was able to persuasively argue that it needed access to the underlying grand jury material to make its own determinations about the president’s actions, the court said.

The materials initially were sought last summer, but by the time the appeals court ruled in March, Trump had been impeached by the House and acquitted by the Senate.

The Justice Department said in its Supreme Court filings that the court’s action was needed in part because the House hasn’t given any indication it “urgently needs these materials for any ongoing impeachment investigation.”

The House had opposed the delay on the grounds that its investigation of Trump was continuing, and that time is of the essence because of the approaching election. The current session of the House will end Jan. 3, and lawmakers elected in November will take their seats.

The committee investigation “continues today and has further developed in light of recent events,” the House told the justices, citing the “possible exercise of improper political influence” on decisions to seek a shorter prison term for Trump confidant Roger Stone and end the prosecution of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, despite his two guilty pleas.

Pelosi said Wednesday: “The Justice Department’s continued delay is part of a pattern of the Administration hiding the truth from the public. The American people deserve the truth.”

The case is one of several ongoing court disputes between the Trump administration and Congress.

The Supreme Court heard arguments last week over whether Trump’s accountants and banks must turn over financial records to House committees. The administration is not a party to the case, but is backing the president.

The appeals court also is weighing whether former White House counsel Don McGahn must appear before the committee to answer questions related to the Mueller investigation. And the Justice Department has said it will ask the Supreme Court to step in and kill a lawsuit alleging that Trump is illegally profiting off the presidency through his luxury Washington hotel.

Mueller’s report detailed multiple interactions between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russia, and examined several episodes involving the president for potential obstruction of justice. Mueller said his team did not find sufficient evidence to establish a criminal conspiracy between the campaign and the Kremlin to tip the election, though pointedly noted that he could not exonerate the president for obstruction.

Portions of the report were blacked out, including grand jury testimony and material that Mueller said could harm ongoing investigations or infringe on the privacy of third parties.

Grand jury testimony is typically treated as secret, in part to protect the privacy of people who are not charged or are considered peripheral to a criminal investigation. But several exceptions allow for the material to be turned over, including if it is in connection with a judicial proceeding.

Lower courts agreed with lawmakers that impeachment is considered a judicial proceeding, rejecting Justice Department arguments to the contrary.

The White House is expected to make its China Strategy public as early as Wednesday, laying out various actions by Beijing that the Trump administration argues threaten American economic interests, security and values.

The strategy report was delivered to Congress on Wednesday after President Donald Trump signed it Tuesday, according to three U.S. officials familiar with the report.

The China Strategy is not focused on COVID-19, but the officials say it cites the pandemic as an example of China’s lack of transparency and the need for continued United States competition with Beijing.

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

Joe Biden is warning that those “tasked with enforcing the law are abusing their powers,” offering a measured critique of the Trump administration a day after he declined to respond to President Donald Trump’s attacks directly.

Speaking Wednesday to Columbia University Law School graduates via video, Biden urged them to “protect the very foundations of democracy.”

“Trust in self-governance. Because right now, it’s under attack,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said. “The very people tasked with enforcing the rule of law are abusing their powers, protecting their friends, weakening the very principles that make our country work.”

His comments come amid escalating rhetoric from Trump and his allies pushing conspiracy theories and alleging improper behavior during the Obama administration.

Asked on Tuesday night how he’d respond to the allegations, Biden said, “I don’t want to get down in the mud with these guys.”

Speaking at a Yahoo News virtual town hall on Tuesday, Biden said Trump was trying to distract voters from his inadequate response to the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 90,000 Americans. Trump has said the virus will disappear “like a miracle.”

Broadly dubbing his allegations “Obamagate,” Trump has pointed to the legal case of his former national security adviser Michael Flynn, suggesting that the “unmasking” of Flynn’s name as part of legal U.S. surveillance of foreign targets was criminal and motivated by partisan politics.

There is no evidence of that, and Trump’s accusations misrepresent the facts of the case. The “unmasking” of people in surveillance reports is a routine, legal activity in government — the Trump administration made 10,012 such requests in 2019.

But they don’t often become public, and in the Flynn case, Trump supporters point to it as evidence that Obama loyalists were out to undermine Trump from the start. The president himself has called it the “biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA.”

“This is his pattern. Diversion, diversion, diversion, diversion,” Biden said Tuesday. “The greatest crime? I mean, my Lord.”

Trump’s cries of scandal come as the president and many top Republicans have used increasingly harsh rhetoric against Biden — hoping to foment doubt in voters’ minds as election season beings to heat up.

On Wednesday, a Senate committee led by Wisconsin Republican Ron Johnson will vote on whether to issue a subpoena as part of an investigation into Biden’s son Hunter and his work for a Ukrainian natural gas company that grew out of Trump’s impeachment earlier this year.

Over the weekend, Trump’s two adult sons appeared to spread baseless, online conspiracy theories suggesting other criminal activity by Biden. Asked about that Tuesday, Biden called online posts about the matter “sick.”

“People know me. The good news is the bad news. They know me. They know my faults, they know my talents,” Biden said.

Pointing to his decades in the Senate and eight years as vice president, he continued, “It’s hard to lay on me some of the things that are just totally out of sync with anything in my whole life that anyone has ever said about me.”

Also Tuesday, Biden was asked about Trump’s firing of Steve Linick as the State Department’s inspector general. Some Republicans have defended the move, arguing that it was within the president’s rights, but Biden and other Democrats say it is part of a larger White House effort to undermine government oversight.

Biden promised not to fire any inspector general should he be elected, saying those positions were “designed to make government honest.”

It sounded like a great deal: The White House coronavirus task force would buy a defense company’s new cleaning machines to allow critical protective masks to be reused up to 20 times. And at $60 million for 60 machines on April 3, the price was right.

But over just a few days, the potential cost to taxpayers exploded to $413 million, according to notes of a coronavirus task force meeting obtained by NBC News. By May 1, the Pentagon pegged the ceiling at $600 million in a justification for awarding the deal without an open bidding process or an actual contract. Even worse, scientists and nurses say the recycled masks treated by these machines begin to degrade after two or three treatments, not 20, and the company says its own recent field testing has only confirmed the integrity of the masks for four cycles of use and decontamination.

Nurses in several places across the country now say they are afraid of being at greater risk of acquiring COVID-19 while using N95 masks, which they say often don’t fit correctly after just a few spins through a cleaning system that uses vapor phase hydrogen peroxide to disinfect them.

The nurses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retribution from their employers or the government, said they believe the machines, which are made by the Battelle Memorial Institute and have been promoted by President Donald Trump, were rushed into service as a shortcut to acquiring and manufacturing protective equipment.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday adamantly denied that he recommended firing the State Department’s independent watchdog in retaliation for investigations into Pompeo’s conduct as America’s top diplomat. But Pompeo again declined to provide specific reasons for Steve Linick’s dismissal as inspector general.

Pompeo took an unusually harsh shot at the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez. Pompeo accused the senator’s office of being behind allegations that Linick’s ouster was motivated by revenge. Pompeo said he would not take ethics lessons from Menendez, who was once prosecuted by the Justice Department on corruption charges, but his trial ended in a hung jury and prosecutors decided in early 2018 not to retry him.

“I don’t get my ethics advice from Sen. Menendez,” he said.

Menendez responded by saying Pompeo’s use of “diversion tactics by attempting to smear me is as predictable as it is shameful.”

He said in a statement that Pompeo faced an investigation “into this improper firing and into his attempt to cover up his inappropriate and possibly illegal actions,” and that it was no surprise Pompeo was lashing out against lawmakers for their congressional oversight.

Pompeo told reporters that he was unaware of any investigation into allegations that he may have mistreated staffers by instructing them to run personal errands for him and his wife such as walking his dog and picking up dry cleaning and takeout food. Thus, Pompeo said, it would have been impossible for retaliation to have been the motive behind his recommendation to President Donald Trump to dismiss Linick.

“It’s patently false,” he said. “I have no sense of what investigations were taking place inside the inspector general’s office. I couldn’t possibly have retaliated for all the things. I’ve seen the various stories that like, someone was walking my dog to sell arms to my dry cleaner. I mean, it’s all just crazy. It’s all crazy stuff.”

Pompeo did acknowledge that he was aware of an investigation into his decision last year to bypass congressional objections to approve a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia because he had answered written questions about it posed by Linick’s office, But Pompeo maintained he did not know the scope or scale of the investigation.

Trump fired Linick late on Friday in what congressional aides have suggested was a move to preempt investigations into Pompeo’s personal conduct or possible impropriety in the Saudi arms sale. Pompeo, who previously told The Washington Post that Linick had been “undermining” the State Department’s work, said he had recommended Linick’s removal, but refused to cite specific reasons.

Pompeo said he had been concerned about the inspector general’s work for some time and that he regretted not calling for his dismissal earlier. “I recommended to the president that Steve Linick be terminated,” he said. “I frankly should have done it some time ago.”

Linick is one of several inspectors general that Trump has removed from office, sparking outrage among Democrats who say the administration is waging war on accountability. Democrats and some Republicans have questioned the firings, saying the watchdogs can only be removed for cause and that Trump’s explanation that he has lost confidence in them is not enough.

Linick was an Obama administration appointee whose office was critical of what it saw as political bias in the State Department’s current management but had also taken issue with Democratic appointees. He also played a minor role in the Ukraine impeachment investigation into Trump.

In October, Linick turned over documents to House investigators that he had received from a State Department counselor, T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, a close Pompeo associate. The material contained information from debunked conspiracy theories about Ukraine’s role in the 2016 U.S. election.

Menendez and Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel of New York, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, have initiated an investigation into Linick’s firing. They demanded that administration officials preserve and turn over all records related to Linick’s dismissal and provide them to the committees by Friday.

Pompeo did not respond to a question about whether the State Department would comply with the demand, an omission that Engel lamented in a statement.

“It’s disappointing that Secretary Pompeo didn’t seize the opportunity to clear up the questions surrounding his recommendation to fire Inspector General Linick, or to commit to fulfilling the records request I made with Senator Menendez,” Engel said. “Our investigation will go forward and we still hope for the Secretary’s cooperation.”

President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to hold up federal funds for two election battleground states that are trying to make it easier and safer to vote during the coronavirus pandemic.He backed away from that threat but stuck with his unsupported claim that widespread voting by mail promotes “a lot of illegality.”

The president targeted Michigan with an inaccurate tweet on its voting plans and also went after Nevada in the latest — and the most confused — episode in his campaign against mail-in voting.

As states have shifted to remote voting, following health officials recommendations on safety, Trump has denigrated the practice and sought to limit access. He has said repeatedly, without evidence, that mailed ballots allow widespread fraud and has worried publicly that wide availability could lead so many people to vote that Republicans would lose in November. His GOP allies, meanwhile, have fought changes to voting in court and opposed funding to expand mail-in voting in Congress.

Wednesday marked the first time Trump has tried to use federal aid money to beat it back.

Trump began by going after Michigan, misstating Democratic Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson’s announcement that she would send applications for absentee ballots to every voter in the state. Though Republican secretaries of state have taken this step elsewhere, Trump pounced on the move in a state key to his reelection hopes.

“Michigan sends absentee ballots to 7.7 million people ahead of Primaries and the General Election,” Trump tweeted Wednesday morning. That brought strong criticism from Democrats in Michigan and elsewhere, pointing out that the state was sending applications, not actual ballots, an error the president corrected in a subsequent tweet six hours later. He stuck with the rest of his tweet: “This was done illegally and without authorization by a rogue Secretary of State. I will ask to hold up funding to Michigan if they want to go down this Voter Fraud path!”

Trump later tweeted a similar threat to pull back funds from Nevada, which has sent ballots to voters for its June 9 state primary. A federal judge recently cleared Nevada’s decision to mail ballots, which were sent by the Republican secretary of state.

It was not clear exactly what funds Trump was referencing, but the states are paying for the voting changes with federal aid intended to support elections during the pandemic. By Wednesday evening, Trump told reporters he had spoken with Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and did not think funding would have to be cut.

“I don’t think it’s going to be necessary,” he said, adding that he stood by his opposition to mail voting. “Voting is an honor. It shouldn’t be something where they send you a pile of stuff and you send it back.”

Trump himself has requested an absentee ballot to vote in Florida.

Trump’s tweets and statements came the day before he is slated to visit Michigan to tour Ford’s ventilator assembly plant in Ypsilanti. The state is one of three Rust Belt states that helped deliver his 2016 victory. In recent months, it has become a national hot spot for the coronavirus and watched its economy collapse, both factors contributing to what T rump’s advisers see as a shift toward Democrats.

The president’s comments appeared to reflect growing GOP concernsthat Democrats’ swift embrace of mail-in voting will give them an edge in November. Some key Democratic areas have moved to make it easier for voters to request ballots, while Republican areas have not. And even though Trump’s campaign encourages absentee voting, along with several state Republican Party officials, GOP voters, like Trump, have expressed growing skepticism.

Democrats noted Trump seems more concerned about mail-in voting in battleground states and has not threatened Republican-dominated states that are doing the same thing as Michigan. West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice, an ally of the president, noted Wednesday he’s concerned about Trump’s threats even though his administration approved mailing absentee ballot applications to all registered voters in the state.

“I can’t imagine that the president is going to withhold funding in any way to West Virginia; that’s not going to happen,” Justice told reporters.

On Monday, before Trump’s Twitter threat, the Republican National Committee sought to clarify its position on vote by mail, arguing that the party opposes mailing ballots to every voter, as Nevada has done, but does not oppose mailing applications, as Michigan did.

“I don’t really have an issue with absentee requests forms being sent to voters,” RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel said.

On Wednesday, Trump’s threats scrambled that distinction.

Republicans’ claims that mailing ballots to all voters creates widespread fraud is not backed up by evidence from the five states that use this method. None has had significant voter fraud cases.

The White House referred questions about the president’s tweets to Trump’s reelection campaign. Trump campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh asserted “there is no statutory authority for the secretary of state in Michigan to send absentee ballot applications to all voters” — an argument some Michigan Republicans have also made. Murtaugh did not address whether Republican secretaries of state elsewhere were similarly constrained.

The GOP-controlled U.S. Senate has so far stopped Democrats from mandating expanded mail and early voting as part of coronavirus relief bills, arguing that states should make decisions on their own election systems. The battle has largely moved to the courts, with Democrats filing at least 17 lawsuits to force states to expand their programs.

Hours after Trump tweeted Wednesday, he sent another message to Michigan. The state is grappling with severe flooding in one county after two dams failed, forcing thousands to evacuate.

Three hours after threatening to hold up federal funding to the state, Trump tweeted: “My team is closely monitoring the flooding in Central Michigan – Stay SAFE and listen to local officials. Our brave First Responders are once again stepping up to serve their fellow citizens, THANK YOU!”

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Riccardi reported from Denver. Associated Press writers David Eggert in Lansing, Mich., and Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

As countries around the world loosen their coronavirus restrictions, people are discovering that the return to normal is anything but — and it’s becoming clear the economic pain and social disruption could be long-lasting.

Schools, offices, public transportation, bars and restaurants are now on the front lines of post-lockdown life — back in business, in many cases, but not business as usual.

How each of those key sectors manages social distancing and helps prevent new outbreaks will determine the shape of daily life for millions as researchers race to develop a vaccine that is still probably months, if not years, away from being available to all.

What a return to normal looks like varies widely. In Spain, it’s a new government order to wear masks outside even as some businesses reopen. For people in Connecticut, restaurants are back in business, but for outdoor dining only. For wealthy shoppers, it’s returning to the newly reopened boutiques of Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, California.

In Italy, where good food is an essential part of life, once-packed restaurants and cafes are facing a huge financial hit as they reopen with strict social distancing rules after a 10-week shutdown. Experts warn that as many as one-third of the country’s restaurants and bars could go out of business, up to 300,000 jobs in the sector could vanish, and losses could reach 30 billion euros ($32 billion) this year.

“We have to turn upside down all the activity that we did before,” lamented chef Raffaele di Cristo, who now must wear a mask and latex gloves as he prepares food at the popular Corsi Trattoria in Rome. “Everything is changed. Slowly, slowly, we will try to understand and to adapt to this coronavirus.”

Corsi reopened for business Monday with half its tables removed to ensure the mandated 1-meter (3-foot) spacing between tables. Hand sanitizing gel was placed at the entrance, and a new ordering system was installed so customers could read the menu on their phones.

The head of the Dutch hospitality industry welcomed a decision to allow bars and restaurants to reopen on June 1 but warned about the impact of mandatory social distancing rules.

“The restrictions are unfortunately unworkable” for many businesses, said Rober Willemsen of Royal Hospitality Netherlands, adding that more government support is needed to ensure the survival of many bars and restaurants.

Education, in many places, is facing radical changes.

Cambridge became the first university in Britain to cancel all face-to-face lectures for the upcoming school year, saying they will be held virtually and streamed online until the summer of 2021.

Other institutions have taken different tacks. The University of Notre Dame in Indiana will bring students back to campus but redesigned its calendar to start the semester early in August and end before Thanksgiving, along with ordering masks, testing and contact tracing.

In South Korea, hundreds of thousands of high school seniors had their temperatures checked and used hand sanitizers as they returned Wednesday, many for the first time since late last year. Students and teachers were required wear masks, and some schools installed plastic partitions around desks.

France is limiting spaces in its primary schools, giving priority to the children of essential workers and those in need. Some younger students even go on alternating days, while high schools remain closed.

In the new normal, people’s gratitude at being able to shop or eat out again is mingling with worries about job security.

Business was slow Wednesday at a Paris farmer’s market with a mixed mood among the masked, gloved vendors. A man selling peonies and petunias said he was glad to get out and see shoppers again, while a woman selling asparagus and tomatoes behind a makeshift plastic screen grumbled that her customers were buying less than usual.

Aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce announced plans Wednesday to cut 9,000 workers as it grapples with the collapse in air travel. In general, those jobs come with good pay and benefits, and losing them is a sharp blow to local communities.

Some businesses are adapting quickly to new realities. In Kenya, safari operators have resorted to sharing live broadcasts on social media in hopes that attention to endangered and other species doesn’t fade.

While infection rates have been falling in Asia and much of Europe, the pandemic is still spiking in Latin America. Brazil this week became the world’s third worst-hit country with more than 250,000 confirmed cases despite limited testing. In Lima, the capital of Peru, coronavirus patients are filling up the city’s intensive care beds.

More than 4.9 million people worldwide have been confirmed infected by the virus, and over 320,000 deaths have been recorded, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University that experts believe is too low for reasons that differ country by country. The United States has seen about 92,000 deaths and Europe has had around 165,000.

Russia and Brazil are now behind only the United States in the number of reported infections, and cases are also spiking in India, South Africa and Mexico. Russia announced Wednesday that its coronavirus caseload has surpassed 300,000, with the death toll reaching almost 3,000.

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Winfield reported from Rome and Corder from the Hague. Associated Press writers around the world contributed to this report.

Republican voters in Oregon’s vast 2nd Congressional District on Tuesday elected a former state senator to be their candidate to replace Rep. Greg Walden, who didn’t run for a 12th term in the conservative region covering the rural eastern and central part of the state.

Cliff Bentz bested former state legislators Jason Atkinson and Knute Buehler. Buehler also ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2018 as the GOP nominee.

Bentz will have the advantage in the November election in the predominantly Republican part of the state. His opponent is unclear with a victor not yet declared on the Democratic side. The 2nd is the only Oregon U.S. House District represented by a Republican. Oregon’s four Democratic U.S. House members all won their primaries.

The mail-in primary was complicated by the coronavirus pandemic, as election workers kept social distancing in county offices while staffing levels were down. Election workers received instructions on handling ballots along with protective equipment from the Oregon National Guard and others.

Former Vice President Joe Biden won Oregon’s Democratic presidential primary, outpacing Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who both suspended their campaigns earlier in the year.

President Donald Trump, who was unopposed, won the Oregon GOP presidential contest.

In the Republican Senate primary, Jo Rae Perkins won. Perkins will face Democratic incumbent Sen. Jeff Merkley.

Two Democratic state senators were virtually tied in their bid to be their party’s candidate for secretary of state, the second-highest state office in Oregon. Sens. Shemia Fagan and Mark Hass were ahead of Jamie McLeod-Skinner, who ran unsuccessfully against Walden in 2018 as the Democratic candidate.

State Sen. Kim Thatcher appeared headed to an easy win to be the GOP candidate for secretary of state.

One local race is garnering national attention. Voters in metropolitan Portland appeared to be approving taxes on personal income and business profits that would raise $2.5 billion over a decade to fight homelessness.

The ballot measure was planned before the pandemic reduced the U.S. economy to tatters. How voters in the liberal city react amid the pandemic will be instructive for other West Coast cities struggling to address burgeoning homeless populations as other sources of revenue dry up.

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This story has been corrected to show that there are two GOP candidates for secretary of state, not one.