Category Archives: Mike Pence

US reaches 3m confirmed Covid-19 cases as Pence pushes for schools to reopen – live

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Nine in 10 Americans believe that racism and police violence are problems in the country, a Guardian/Opinium Research poll has found, a sign that public opinion is shifting away from the views put forward by Donald Trump.

The US president has been criticised for relentlessly stoking white fear and grievance in recent weeks, putting him at odds with Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests that have swept the nation following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis in May.

Related: Nine out of 10 Americans say racism and police brutality are problems, poll finds

Donald Trump, who has villanized and denigrated Mexican migrants and threatened Mexico with tariffs, took a different tone with Obrador today.

During the meeting, when two protectionist presidents were ironically touting a trade deal, celebrating the US-Mexico-Canada trade deal, both leaders had cordial words for each other.

Trump launched his 2016 campaign by calling Mexicans rapists.

He's spread racism against our Latino community ever since.

We need to work in partnership with Mexico.

We need to restore dignity and humanity to our immigration system.

That's what I'll do as President.

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Azar says ‘window closing’ to halt US coronavirus spread as Pence urges people to wear masks – video

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As confirmed coronavirus cases in the US surpass 2.5m, US health secretary Alex Azar warns 'the window is closing' on halting its spread. The US has suffered a recent surge in infections, with states across the west and south among the hardest hit. Speaking in Texas, the vice president Mike Pence says wearing mask is 'a good idea' when social distancing cannot be maintained, and also notes there is a spike in cases among younger Americans

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Mike Pence hails ‘truly remarkable progress’ as US sees record new coronavirus cases – video

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Amid the surge of new cases in the United States, the White House coronavirus task force, led by Mike Pence, held its first briefing in nearly two months, signalling a recognition that the administration can't ignore the alarming increases. The vice president took the opportunity to hail the 'remarkable progress' the Trump administration has had in dealing with the coronavirus outbreak as a surge across the South and West sent the number of confirmed new infections per day to an all-time high of 40,000

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Pence claims ‘remarkable progress’ as Covid-19 cases hit new record in US

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US reports 40,000 new coronavirus cases in previous 24 hours, the highest daily total of the pandemic

Mike Pence on Friday hailed “truly remarkable progress” in America’s battle with the coronavirus pandemic, despite the US reporting a record 40,000 new cases in the previous 24 hours, the highest daily total of the outbreak.

With new cases rising in a majority of states in the last few days after swift moves to reopen for business, especially across the south and west, the vice-president sought to deliver encouraging news as the head of the White House coronavirus taskforce as the body offered its first public briefing in two months.

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European Union reportedly set to ban US travelers over Covid-19 concerns – as it happened

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We’re ending our live coverage for the day, thanks for following along. A summary of some key events:

California’s governor has granted clemency to 21 prisoners as Covid-19 outbreaks have continued to infect thousands behind bars in an escalating public health crisis.

Gavin Newsom, who has faced mounting pressure to release people en masse from state prisons, announced Friday that he is granting commutations to 21 people, a move that reduces their sentences and creates a potential path for their release. He also announced pardon grants for 13 people, a step that restores some rights for those who have already served sentences.

There's growing pressure on @GavinNewsom to grant clemency to elderly + vulnerable women who are domestic violence survivors and at high risk of death in prison.

I spoke directly with some of them. LISTEN to their own words ⬇️ (thread):https://t.co/btI8Ns7wMw #SixNineteen

Patricia Wright has terminal liver cancer, is currently in chemotherapy and likely has months to live. She told me she just wants to see her children and grandchildren before she dies: pic.twitter.com/0ydwwgCem1

Related: California governor grants clemency to 21 prisoners as thousands infected with Covid-19

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Monsters are heinous, but they need collaborators to do their dirty work | Suzanne Moore

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Mouths to feed, rent to pay: there’s always an excuse if you’re tempted to do the wrong thing

Where is Ghislaine Maxwell? Where? I sat through the four episodes of Filthy Rich, the Netflix documentary on Jeffrey Epstein. I had to force myself, not because it was so upsetting – which, of course, it also was – but because the tales of his sexual abuse were so monotonous. Brave and defiant, his victims had to numb themselves slightly to tell and retell what happened to them when they were as young as 14. The interviews with the monster himself, as always, were disappointingly banal. Monsters often are tediously ordinary. The magnetic charm, the immense intellect, is one of the biggest delusions of “true crime”. See also Ted Bundy.

Anyway Ghislaine, accused of procuring underage girls for Epstein, is said to be a free woman in Paris, living in the swanky 8th arrondisement. French law prevents her extradition. Many of those implicated in Epstein’s world of obscene exploitation, including all the art world and socialite scum, must have a clue where she is. Alleged scum, I should say. They love their children just like we do. Sure.

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Coronavirus US live: Trump abruptly leaves press conference after clash with reporters

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Trump ends the briefing on a very abrupt and sour note.

Asked by CBS White House Correspondent Weijia Jiang why he is so fixated on comparing the US’ testing capability to other countries as opposed to focusing on the lag that still exists here, Trump snapped: “Maybe that’s a question you should ask China. Don’t ask me, ask China that question, okay?”

Trump throws a fit when @kaitlancollins of CNN tries to ask him a question and abruptly ends the press conference pic.twitter.com/58AVZ9CABl

Trump walked out of his own news conference after accusing @weijia of asking a "nasty question" and refusing to take @kaitlancollins's questions after calling on her.

Trump spent Mother’s Day sending conspiratorial tweets about his predecessor. In one tweet he accused Obama of committing the “biggest political crime in American history, by far!” Trump.

Asked to name the crime he is accusing Obama of committing, Trump replied: “Obamagate. it’s been going on for a long time it’s been going on before I even got elected.”

Related: Trump charges Obama with 'biggest political crime in American history'

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Coronavirus live news: Putin to ease Russia lockdown despite record number of new infections

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UK and WHO to lead global Covid-19 information campaign; Aden declared an ‘infested’ city

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported 985 more deaths and 23,792 more confirmed cases since the weekend’s update, taking the overall totals to 79,756 and 1,324,488.

The CDC said the weekend’s numbers were preliminary and had not been confirmed by individual states.

The Guardian has published its editorial on the prime minister’s message to the country as it moves into a dangerous new phase of the epidemic.

For more than 30 years, the term “consensus politics” fell out of fashion in Britain. For generations of Conservative politicians schooled in the dogmas of Thatcherism, the phrase came to connote unpleasant images of sandwiches with union leaders in No 10 and weak government.

Boris Johnson urgently needs to discover the virtues of consensus-building now, after a chaotic few days of mixed messages and confused assertions.

Related: The Guardian view on 'stay alert': a divisive muddle | Editorial

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California to reopen some businesses this week as lockdowns ease across US – as it happened

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That’s all for today, thanks for following along. A recap of the day:

Senator Elizabeth Warren said today she believed Joe Biden’s comments on the sexual assault allegation were “credible and convincing”.

“I saw the reports of what Ms [Tara] Reade said, I saw an interview with vice-president Biden. I appreciate that the vice-president took a lot of questions, tough questions. And he answered them directly and respectfully. The vice-president’s answers were credible and convincing,” the senator and former presidential candidate said, according to a CNN reporter.

Related: Senate rejects Joe Biden's request to search for records on Tara Reade

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Mike Pence shuns coronavirus mask rule on Mayo Clinic visit – video

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Mike Pence triggered a storm of controversy on Tuesday by failing to wear a face mask on a visit to the Mayo Clinic’s facilities in Minnesota. Pence leads the US government’s coronavirus taskforce, but his staff have claimed he does not need to wear the protective covering because he is regularly tested for the coronavirus.

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Coronavirus in America: why the US has struggled to tackle a growing crisis

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A lack of preparation, deep-rooted dysfunction and a reckless president – now the US faces being the center of the pandemic

Exactly a month after Donald Trump tweeted that the US had the coronavirus outbreak “very much under control”, the World Health Organization delivered a stark and jarring reality check: America faces being the centre of a pandemic that has paralysed much of the world.

Related: Trump's staff cuts have undermined Covid-19 containment efforts, watchdog finds

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Strangely competent Mike Pence finds his 9/11 moment in coronavirus crisis

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Critics flagged up his anti-science background and questionable record as governor but the vice-president has won praise as the Covid-19 taskforce head

His past record made him seem an odd choice. He remains as servile to Donald Trump as ever. But Mike Pence, the US vice-president, is said to be having “a good war” against the coronavirus outbreak.

Related: Coronavirus travel updates: which countries have restrictions and FCO warnings in place?

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US expands travel ban to UK and Ireland amid Coronavirus outbreak – video

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All travel between the United States and the UK and Ireland will be suspended from midnight EST on Monday. Vice-president Mike Pence announced the new measure at a coronavirus task force news briefing on Saturday.

A top medical official Anthony Fauci said the move could change the course of coronavirus's spread across the country, which he said 'has not yet reached its peak'.

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Mike Pence presents US plans to tackle coronavirus – video

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Vice-president Mike Pence has outlined the White House's plan to tackle the economic and health consequences of the Covid-19 outbreak. The Trump administration has pledged to increase testing and help blue-collar workers

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Ted Cruz tried to mock AOC’s scientific knowledge – it didn’t end well

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The Texas senator tried to pick a fight after Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez called out Mike Pence’s coronavirus credentials

If you were in search of a scientifically minded, steadying presence to guide the country through the potential fallout of the coronavirus, you could not do much worse than Vice-President Mike Pence. This being the Donald Trump administration, however, where qualifications and expertise are often seen as prohibitive factors for top jobs, that’s exactly who we’ve been given.

Cutting to the heart of the matter with her characteristic bluntness, Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez this week pointed out the absurdity of placing Pence in charge of a potentially looming health crisis.

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Self-belief surges as Trump’s conservative faithful plan four more years

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At the annual CPAC conference in Maryland, Republicans were in buoyant mood about the president’s re-election prospects

“Four more years!” the crowd chanted at Mike Pence, the vice-president. “Four more years!”

Not so long ago, under the shadow of investigations, impeachment and dismal approval ratings, Donald Trump’s re-election seemed a long shot. But at the biggest annual gathering of grassroots conservatives on Thursday, self-belief was surging and some were already looking ahead to what a second term might bring.

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Obama takes legal action over ‘misleading’ Republican attack ad on Joe Biden – live updates

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  • Vice-President Pence to take charge of US response to coronavirus
  • Poll shows widespread concerns about election security and integrity
  • UN chief Michelle Bachelet criticises Trump’s weakened environmental protection standards
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The US Dept. of Justice announced it had created a division tasked with denaturalizing immigrants.

The Denaturalization Section “underscores the department’s commitment to bring justice to terrorists, war criminals, sex offenders and other fraudsters who illegally obtained naturalization” officials said in a statement.

Denaturalizations have ramped up under the Trump administration: Of the 228 denaturalization cases that the department has filed since 2008, about 40 percent of them were filed since 2017, according to official department numbers.

According to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, actor Steven Seagal allegedly failed to disclose a promotional agreement related to cryptocurrencies.

The SEC alleges Seagal accepted $250,000 in cash and $750,000 worth of Bitcoiin2Gen (B2G) tokens in exchange for online promotion of the currency, including “posts on his public social media accounts encouraging the public not to ‘miss out’”.

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Trump says coronavirus spread not ‘inevitable’ – video

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Donald Trump has sought to play down the threat from coronavirus, saying the danger to Americans ‘remains very low’ and predicting that the number of cases diagnosed in the country, currently on 15, could fall to zero in a ‘few days’. In a press conference in Washington, the US president also announced he was placing the vice-president, Mike Pence, in charge of coordinating the US response to the coronavirus outbreak

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Trump team begins argument president broke no laws at impeachment trial

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Donald Trump’s lawyers began making their case Saturday, with a longer, more meaningful session expected for Monday

Donald Trump’s legal team on Saturday argued that Donald Trump broke no laws and Democrats’ move to impeach him was simply an attempt to delegitimize Trump’s presidency.

Related: The key takeaways from day three of the impeachment trial

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Donald Trump invites Israeli leaders to Washington to hear peace plan details

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  • ‘Ultimate deal’ reported to be extremely favourable to Israel
  • Benjamin Netanyahu and opposition leader to visit next week

Donald Trump has invited Israel’s prime minister and leader of the opposition to Washington for talks on the “prospects of peace”, signalling that the White House was preparing to share details of its long-awaited “ultimate deal” for Israelis and Palestinians.

Mike Pence, the US vice-president who is visiting Jerusalem for a Holocaust remembrance forum, said after a meeting with Benjamin Netanyahu that he had asked the leader to fly to Washington next week.

“President Trump asked me to extend an invitation to Prime Minister Netanyahu to come to the White House next week to discuss regional issues as well as the prospect of peace here in the Holy Land,” he said. Opposition leader Benny Gantz would also visit, he added, although it was not clear if at the same time.

No Palestinian representatives appeared to have been invited.

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