(CHESTERFIELD, Mo.) — Dr. Steven Brown is on the front line of the battle against the surge of COVID-19 cases. But for him, the front line is also the home front.
Working overnights, the 66-year-old critical care specialist manages hundreds of intensive care unit patients in hospitals across the Midwest, more than half of them COVID cases, many on ventilators. And he does it from his living room in suburban St. Louis.
Sitting before an array of four large computer screens and two laptops, he compares his work to that of an air traffic controller. He can read charts, scans, X-rays and even look in on patients with the help of sophisticated cameras in the ICUs.
“Each room has its own camera in it and I’m remotely operating it,” he told ABC News.
So despite being distant from his patients, his care is intimate. “I can look in a throat. I can look at how they’re using their muscles of respiration and whether they have disordered breathing. I’m able to do extreme fine-tuning of the ventilator settings for patients.”
And lately, more and more of his cases are COVID patients on ventilators. On his regular 12-hour shifts, he reports that the “amount of disease I am seeing is amplified. While some critical care doctors on a night shift might be managing eight or 10 patients with COVID-19 who are on ventilators for their shift, I’m managing 10 times as many because I’m managing patients in multiple sites.”
Remote care is not new for Brown, who had been working that way alongside colleagues at Mercy Virtual Care Center for more than 12 years. However, age and other factors put him at higher risk for COVID-19. So, when the pandemic struck, he got installed in his home the equipment needed to continue working there and has done so now for more than a year and a half.
“There are a lot of telemedicine physicians and providers and vendors out there,” Bethany Pope, spokesperson for Mercy Virtual, told ABC News. “There are likely very few who are doing critical care medicine from home.”
Working from home, however, does not mean working less. Brown forecasts that the surge in the disease will mean a surge in his already grueling work schedule, from 10 straight days of 7 p.m. to 7 a.m shifts to 12 days in a row or more.
But while the current situation is grim, he thinks a good outcome is still possible, perhaps even a Hollywood ending. “Initially this felt, at the end of 2020, as being like the end of the first original Star Wars movie,” he said. “We’re in the ‘Empire Strikes Back’ right now with the delta variant. And we’re going to have a happy sequel, but there’s a lot of work ahead for us.”
(NEW YORK) — Teachers are gathering in more than 115 cities this weekend to “teach truth” in protest of the anti-race education and anti-critical race theory legislation being proposed across the country.
In Philadelphia, teachers, students and activists are gathering at the home of George Washington to tell the stories of enslaved people who played a role in the creation of the nation. Specifically, they’ll discuss the people that the first U.S. president kept as slaves.
Nine slaves served him at the executive mansion, according to the National Park Service. At the time of his death, Washington enslaved more than 100 people.
In Kansas City, Missouri, demonstrators will march from Lincoln College Preparatory Academy — one of the first schools for Black students — to the Black Archives of Mid-America, a museum that documents the social, economic, political and cultural history of Black Americans.
These lessons, among others, may soon be banned from being taught in classrooms.
“It’s really important as educators that we don’t allow these bills to put us on the defensive, and instead we use the opportunity to take these actions to highlight the racist path of our country, of our states, of our cities, that needs to be reckoned with,” said Adam Sanchez, a history teacher in Philadelphia.
Lawmakers in at least 27 states have introduced or implemented legislation that would require teachers to remove certain lessons about the role of racism, sexism and oppression in U.S. history.
Many of the bills, which have almost identical texts, state that teachers are banned from teaching that “one race or sex is inherently superior to another race or sex,” or that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously.”
It also bars teachers from discussing whether “a meritocracy is inherently racist or sexist, or designed by a particular race or sex to oppress members of another race or sex.” Classroom discussions are also barred from touching on whether “the United States is fundamentally or irredeemably racist or sexist.”
The Days of Action, from Aug. 27 to 29, is part of the Teach Truth pledge, which has been signed by more than 6,600 teachers nationwide. “We, the undersigned educators, refuse to lie to young people about U.S. history and current events,” the pledge reads.
The Day of Action and Teach Truth Pledge are hosted by the Zinn Education Project, a collaboration between education advocacy groups Rethinking Schools and Teaching For Change.
“By censoring and restricting what teachers can teach, that is censoring what students learn and it’s going to change the trajectory of our country,” said Nelva Williamson, a history teacher in Houston. “We are not doing harm to students by teaching them the history of this country — the good, the bad and the ugly.”
Some teachers said the vague language in these bills blocks them from teaching history and having truthful conversations with their students about inequality and oppression in America.
“This history and the cultures within the history should never be an option to talk about,” said Rozlyn Grady, a paraeducator in Anchorage, Alaska. “We just want our folks, our teachers to not be afraid to teach what they know to be the truth. … That’s what I want all of our teachers to be able to do without fear of retribution or penalty.”
Critical race theory has been blamed for this recent push by Republican legislators. Critical race theory is the study of American institutions and the way in which laws and policies help perpetuate racism.
It also analyzes white privilege, the idea that white people have advantages since they are not affected by race-based discrimination in the legal system.
This academic discipline, typically used in higher education, has been invoked by legislators pushing these bills that limit lessons on oppression, though the vast majority of the bills don’t mention it in their texts.
Some legislators, like Pennsylvania state Reps. Russ Diamond and Barbara Gleim, who introduced a bill in their state, said the teachings can be hurtful to children.
“The manner in which important concepts such as racial and gender equality are taught in our schools could not be more important in defining the type of society we have,” Diamond and Gleim wrote in a legislative memorandum. “Teaching our children that they are inferior or inherently bad based on immutable characteristics such as race and sex can be extremely damaging to their emotional and mental well-being.”
The outcry over critical race theory has placed a harsh spotlight on teachers. Some have been doxxed by anti-critical race theory protestors online and others fear that they’ll be disciplined for teaching events with racialized histories, according to the teacher advocacy group Zinn Education Project.
But that won’t stop teachers and activists who say the legislation erases history and turns back the clock on racial progress.
“These nostalgic narratives that have become what we call American history are incomplete,” said Cornell Ellis, a former teacher and founder of Brothers Liberating Our Communities, a network for Black educators. “They’re calling it critical race theory but we’re calling this accurate and inclusive history in social studies.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 631,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.4 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 60.4% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Thursday. All times Eastern:
Aug 26, 7:45 am
Florida sees record 26,203 new cases in a day
Florida reported 26,203 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Wednesday, setting a new record for the state’s single-day case counts.
Florida’s previous all-time high was 25,957 new cases recorded on Aug. 12, according to data collected by the CDC.
The seven-day moving average of new cases per day in the Sunshine State now stands at 21,604. In total, Florida has reported more than 3.1 million confirmed cases statewide and over 42,000 deaths.
Aug 26, 5:17 am
Japan suspends 1.63 million Moderna doses over contamination concern
Japan has suspended the use of about 1.63 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine due to reported contamination, as the country grapples with surging infections.
Japanese drugmaker Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., which is in charge of distributing the Moderna vaccine in Japan, said in a press release Thursday that it has received reports of foreign substances in some unused vials at multiple inoculation sites. Although some doses might have been administered, Takeda said there have been no reports of safety concerns tied to the affected vials so far.
After consulting with Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labor and Wealth, Takeda said it decided as a safety precaution to stop using doses from three separate lots, manufactured in the same production line as the contaminated vials. The company said it has requested Moderna to conduct an emergency investigation into the issue.
For doses from non-suspended lots, Takeda urged people to check the vials for discolouration, foreign substances or other abnormalities before continuing to use. Meanwhile, the Japanese health ministry said it will work with Takeda to supply alternative doses in an effort to minimize the impact on the country’s vaccination progress.
Moderna told ABC News that it has put the 1.63 million doses on hold in Japan after being notified that some of the vials may have been contaminated. One of the three lots received “several complaints of particulate matter” in its vials, the American drugmaker said, while the two other adjacent lots were put on hold out of “an abundance of caution” and for continued assurance of quality.
According to Moderna, the manufacturing issue may have come from one of the lines used at its contract manufacturing site in Spain. The Massachusetts-based company said it is looking into the contamination reports and “proactively communicating with Japan’s health authorities and its partners as the investigation proceeds.” Moderna added that it remains “committed to working transparently and expeditiously” with its Japanese distribution partner and with regulators to address any potential concerns. No safety or efficacy concerns have been identified so far, the company said.
Moderna noted that the pause in Japan does not impact doses distributed in the United States, or put the American supply at risk in any way.
Aug 25, 8:50 pm
Pediatrician emphasizes importance of getting vaccine during pregnancy
Columbia University pediatrician Dr. Edith Bracho Sanchez spoke with ABC News’ Linsey Davis about the importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccine during pregnancy and while nursing.
Recent health data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that three out of four pregnant women in the U.S. are unvaccinated, and the numbers are lower for Black pregnant women, with nine out of 10 unvaccinated.
Sanchez, who is eight months pregnant and vaccinated, told ABC News that expecting mothers are more vulnerable to diseases and the current data shows the vaccines are safe for them.
“We now know from over close to 40,000 women that there is no increased risk of miscarriage of early delivery of your baby, which are the things that worry a lot of pregnant women,” she said.
Sanchez said she did not hesitate to get her shots once she became eligible.
“I really, really hope that pregnant women out there hear this call and go ahead and get themselves this vaccine and protect themselves, their baby and their pregnancy,” she said.
Aug 25, 8:27 pm
High school football dies from COVID
A high school football player in Louisiana who contracted the coronavirus died Wednesday, ABC affiliate WBRZ reported.
Patrick Sanders, 14, was a freshman at Baker High School.
Baker, Louisiana Mayor Darnell Waites told the station that the teen’s death highlighted the importance of vaccinations.
“If we want to save lives, we have to make the choice to save lives,” Waites told the station. “This wasn’t his fault.”
The rest of the football team is currently quarantining, WBRZ reported.
Aug 25, 8:27 pm
Texas hospital numbers near record high
The Texas Health Department reported Wednesday that 13,928 COVID-19 patients are currently in Texas Hospitals.
This is close to the record 14,218 patients recorded during the January peak.
There are 306 available ICU beds in the state, according to the health department.
Sayed Khodaiberdi Sadat/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Chaos has enveloped Kabul after Afghanistan’s government’s collapsed and the Taliban seized control, all but ending America’s 20-year campaign as it began: under Taliban rule.
The U.S. has evacuated approximately 83,000 people since the effort began on Aug. 14, the White House said Wednesday, while the Pentagon said the military will keep the evacuation mission going until the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.
President Joe Biden sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House last week, the president’s first interview since the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden has also addressed the nation several times since.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Aug 26, 6:31 am
‘Very credible reporting of an imminent attack” at Kabul airport, UK minister warns
U.K. Armed Forces Minister James Heappey warned Thursday morning that there was “very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack” at the main international airport in Kabul, possibly within hours.
“There is now very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack and hence why the Foreign Office advice was changed last night,” Heappey said in interviews with BBC News. “The credibility of the reporting has now reached the stage where we believe that there is a very imminent, highly lethal attack possible within Kabul.”
As thousands race to evacuate Taliban-ruled Afghanistan before the Aug. 31 deadline for the United States to totally withdraw its troops, Heappey acknowledged that people are “desperate” and “there is an appetite by many in the queue to take their chances, but the reporting of this threat is very credible indeed and there is a real imminence to it.”
“There is every chance that as further reporting comes in, we may be able to change the advice again and process people anew but there’s no guarantee of that,” he added.
When asked in an interview with Sky News whether an attack could occur in the next few hours, Heappey replied: “Yes.”
The U.K. Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office released new guidance on Wednesday night telling people not to travel to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
“There is an ongoing and high threat of terrorist attack,” the office said. “If you are in the area of the airport, move away to a safe location and await further advice.”
Also on Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a security alert warning of “security threats outside the gates of Kabul Airport” and advising Americans “to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates,” unless they “receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so.”
“U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately,” the embassy said.
Aug 25, 8:05 pm
US Embassy alert tells people to avoid airport, leave certain gates immediately
The U.S. embassy in Kabul issued another alert, but this one with an urgent warning.
“U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately,” it said.
The alert says U.S. citizens should avoid traveling to the airport and avoid the airport gates “unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so” — the same instructions they have given in recent days.
In a statement later Wednesday, a State Department spokesperson said, “As a general rule, we do not speak to intelligence, but this is a dynamic and volatile security situation on the ground. We take seriously the priority we attach to the safety and security of American citizens.”
(DETROIT) — A federal judge in Michigan has ordered sanctions against former Trump attorney Sidney Powell, attorney Lin Wood, and several other lawyers who brought a legal challenge seeking to overturn President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory in the state.
In her ruling Wednesday, Judge Linda Parker described the suit as an “historic and profound abuse of the judicial process.”
“It is one thing to take on the charge of vindicating rights associated with an allegedly fraudulent election,” Parker wrote in a scathing 110-page filing. “It is another to take on the charge of deceiving a federal court and the American people into believing that rights were infringed, without regard to whether any laws or rights were in fact violated. This is what happened here.”
Parker ordered the group of nine attorneys involved in the lawsuit to pay all legal fees incurred by the state of Michigan and the city of Detroit’s attorneys, and mandated that they take legal education courses.
She also referred all nine to the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission for investigation, which could possibly lead to potential suspension or disbarment.
Attorneys representing Powell and the other lawyers in the election suit did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
In her ruling, Parker made note of the oath attorneys must take “to uphold and honor our legal system,” which she accused Powell, Wood and the others of flagrantly violating with their baseless and conspiracy-tinged challenge.
“Despite the haze of confusion, commotion, and chaos counsel intentionally attempted to create by filing this lawsuit, one thing is perfectly clear: Plaintiffs’ attorneys have scorned their oath, flouted the rules, and attempted to undermine the integrity of the judiciary along the way,” Parker wrote.
Parker also took direct aim at the defense offered by Powell that “reasonable people would not accept” her statements about the election until they were tested in the courts.
“It is not acceptable to support a lawsuit with opinions, which counsel herself claims no reasonable person would accept as fact and which were ‘inexact,’ ‘exaggerate[d],’ and ‘hyperbole,’ Parker said. “Nor is it acceptable to use the federal judiciary as a political forum to satisfy one’s political agenda. Such behavior by an attorney in a court of law has consequences.”
Parker also criticized statements made by the attorneys claiming they would still file the same complaints even given the events of Jan. 6, when a mob of Trump supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol incited by false claims of a “stolen” election.
“An attorney who willingly continues to assert claims doomed to fail, and which have incited violence before, must be deemed to be acting with an improper motive,” Parker said.
(ST. LOUIS) — A Missouri mom whose newborn son passed away after she gave birth to him while battling COVID-19 is speaking out in order to urge pregnant women to get vaccinated.
Vanessa Alfermann, a registered nurse from Franklin County, says she was 22 weeks pregnant with her second child when she contracted COVID-19 in November, before the first COVID-19 vaccine received emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
“My husband had symptoms and he tested positive and the next day I also tested positive,” Alfermann, 33, told Good Morning America. “I never had shortness of breath but was just really tired.”
Alfermann said she had more symptoms of COVID-19, like a loss of taste and smell and headaches, but never experienced the more serious complications she sees COVID-infected patients suffer from at the hospital, Missouri Baptist Sullivan, where she works.
Around 10 days after she first tested positive for COVID-19 though, Alfermann began experiencing back pain and cramps and went to see her OBGYN.
“The baby was fine [in an ultrasound] but my white blood cells were really high and they said I had an infection from COVID and gave me an antibiotic and some muscle relaxers to go home with,” she recalled. “The next morning at about 1:30 I got up and realized I was in labor.”
Because her husband was still isolating due to his own COVID-19 diagnosis, Alfermann’s mother-in-law drove her to Mercy Hospital in St. Louis, where she would quickly give birth to her son, whom she named Axel.
“Within a half hour from me getting there and getting up to the [labor and delivery] floor, Axel was born,” said Alfermann. “I didn’t even get to hold him. The NICU people held him and he took his breath with them and then he passed away.”
Alfermann said doctors told her she suffered a placental abruption, a pregnancy complication that happens when the placenta separates from the uterus. In her case, the abruption was caused by blood clots in the placenta due to COVID-19.
“It was mind-blowing because don’t think you’re going to get a blood clot on your placenta. [You think] you’re going to be put on a ventilator because you can’t breathe,” Alfermann said, referring to respiratory problems that were the most well-known COVID-19 complication at the time. “I went through all of these emotions but I also thought if this is what’s coming, what COVID does, it just scared me.”
Placental abruption can be a deadly complication for the mother. Alfermann said she is thankful she survived and is able to still be here for her family, including her husband, son and stepdaughter.
As she continues to walk through the grief of losing a child, Alfermann said she is sharing her story to help encourage pregnant people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“There’s so much misinformation out there that’s killing people and it’s frustrating,” she said. “I speak out about this for Axel’s legacy … because there shouldn’t be another Vanessa or Axel.”
Alfermann, who was vaccinated against COVID-19 in December, said she thinks about how her life may be different if the vaccine had been available during her pregnancy.
Describing the moment she received her first vaccine shot in December, Alfermann said, “I was so happy because I was protecting everybody else but I went upstairs to our bathroom and just cried because I thought ‘what if.’ What if five or six weeks earlier I could have gotten the shot? I could still be waiting to have my baby boy.”
“It’s very bittersweet,” she said.
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) strengthened its recommendation for COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy, stating that all women who are pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to get pregnant now or might become pregnant in the future should get a COVID-19 vaccine.
Still, 3 out of 4 four pregnant women in the U.S. have not yet received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to new data from the CDC.
The low vaccination rate among pregnant women combined with the more infectious delta variant spreading in the U.S. has led to an increase in hospitalizations among pregnant women, including in the St. Louis-based healthcare system where Alfermann works.
“We’re getting pretty desperate,” said Dr. Jeannie Kelly, a Washington University obstetrician at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, part of the BJC HealthCare system. “We have had to say no to transfers because we are completely full and that in my eyes is just unacceptable for American medicine in 2021 and it’s infuriating that we’re here at this point.”
“I think all of us who are taking care of pregnant patients at this point are really worried, are really concerned and are really scared,” she said. “It’s a really hard situation for a pregnant person who is in the ICU with a baby who is also sick because mom is so sick.”
Dr. Laura Vricella, a maternal fetal medicine physician at Mercy Hospital, where Alfermann was treated, said the hospital is also seeing record number of COVID-positive pregnant patients.
“In the past month we have seen the largest amount of pregnant people being hospitalized with COVID, and be critically ill with COVID, than we did at any time last year, said Vricella. “We have eight [pregnant people with COVID-19] in the hospital now, five are critically ill and virtually all are unvaccinated.”
Vricella, who was not involved in Alfermann’s care, said doctors and researchers are learning more and more now, as the pandemic continues, about the negative effects COVID may have on pregnant people.
“What we’re seeing right now is that COVID-19 seems to be much more dangerous for pregnant people than what we were seeing in the spring,” she said. “This is why the three national bodies [the CDC, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) and the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine (SMFM)] are now recommending the vaccine in pregnancy regardless of timing.”
COVID-19 is especially dangerous in pregnant people because their immune systems are already less active in order to support their growing fetus and their hearts and kidneys are already working harder during pregnancy to support the fetus, according to Vricella.
Pregnant people must also keep their oxygen levels higher in general to support their fetus, which can be a herculean task to do when COVID-19 is in the body, according to Vricella.
And in addition to pregnant people with COVID-19 being more likely to deliver prematurely, Vricella said her hospital is also seeing more COVID-positive pregnant patients deliver stillbirths, even with mild COVID cases.
“COVID-19 begins as a respiratory illness but can affect the entire body and also seems to increase the risk of thrombosis or blood clots,” she said. “We suspect that this decreased oxygen to the fetus may be responsible for the stillbirths that we are seeing, though we need further research.”
Just as doctors are learning more about the complications of COVID-19 in pregnant women, they are also seeing more data about the safety of the vaccines, according to Vricella.
“The risks of COVID are much, much greater than the theoretical risks of the vaccine,” she said. “The overwhelming evidence indicates that the vaccine is safe.”
When the CDC strengthened its recommendation for COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy this month, it did so citing new evidence of safety with the vaccines, a point that Kelly also stressed.
“I tell my patients that at this point, the [COVID-19] vaccine is one of the most studied medications, or interventions, during pregnancy,” said Kelly, noting that over 140,000 pregnant people have been vaccinated and doctors now have nearly nine months of data pointing to the vaccine’s success. “During pregnancy, we’re pretty excited when we see a study come out with a couple thousand women enrolled in it, and now we’re talking so many more numbers than we typically see for any other type of research in pregnancy.”
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines also use mRNA technology, which doesn’t enter the nucleus of the cells and doesn’t alter human DNA. The two COVID-19 vaccines are the first mRNA vaccines, which are theoretically safe during pregnancy, because they do not contain a live virus.
“It’s never too late and it’s never too early,” Vricella said of when pregnant women should get vaccinated. “I think the fall could be a really terrifying time for pregnant people if we don’t increase their vaccination rates quickly.”
(NEW YORK) — Dozens of wildfires blazing through the Western U.S. are continuing to shroud surrounding areas in smoke and haze.
At least 92 large wildfires are continuing to burn in the West, mostly in California, Oregon and Washington. Evacuation orders are in effect for 17 of the active fires.
The Caldor Fire in Grizzly Flats, California, about 100 miles east of Sacramento, continues to spread, having burned through 126,566 acres by Wednesday evening and remains just 12% contained.
Smoke from the wildfires is continuing to bring poor air quality to much of the West, especially across the Northwest and northern Rockies. Seven states, from California to Colorado, are under air quality alerts on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, Nevada recorded its worst air quality in history due to the wildfires. The air quality is so bad in some areas that it prompted school closures.
Scorching temperatures could possibly fuel the flames. Twenty-two states in the U.S. — from California to New York — are under heat alerts Wednesday.
Excessive heat warnings are in effect for the Southwest, where temperatures will top 110 degrees in some regions. And heat is expected to spread north to Central and Northern California through the end of the week — with temperatures expected to surpass 100 degrees in Sacramento, making it difficult for firefighters to contain the blazes.
Red flag warnings have also been issued for Colorado and Wyoming, where strong, erratic and gusty winds, along with low humidity, could present dangerous fire conditions.
David John Griffin/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images
(ATLANTA) — After months of speculation, fueled in part by public urging from former President Donald Trump, former NFL star and Heisman Trophy winner Herschel Walker has officially launched his campaign for Georgia’s 2022 Senate race against Sen. Raphael Warnock.
“Our country is at a crossroads, and I can’t sit on the sidelines anymore. America is the greatest country in the world, but too many politicians in Washington are afraid to say that. … I have lived the American Dream, but I am concerned it is slipping away for many people,” Walker said in a statement Wednesday, pledging to “stand up for conservative values” if elected to the U.S. Senate.
Walker’s entry into the race marks a new phase in the Republican primary for what is set to be one of the most competitive races of the midterms and a top pick-up opportunity for Republicans. As the first electoral test since the state flipped for President Joe Biden in November and gave Democrats the slimmest of Senate majorities in January by electing Warnock and Jon Ossoff, Republicans are eager to show that Georgia is not a blue state.
In response to Walker filing his candidacy with the Federal Election Commission Tuesday, the Democratic Party of Georgia released a statement calling Walker’s entrance “the nightmare scenario” for the GOP.
“Walker’s entrance into Georgia’s chaotic GOP Senate primary is the nightmare scenario that Republicans have spent the entire cycle trying to avoid. By the end of this long, divisive, and expensive intra-party fight, it’ll be clear that none of these candidates are focused on the issues that matter most to Georgians,” state party spokesperson Dan Gottlieb said in a statement.
While three other candidates have already launched bids, the race has been at somewhat of a standstill while Walker mulled a run.
None of the candidates on the GOP side has the national name recognition or profile that Walker brings with him, but one competitor — Agriculture Commissioner Gary Black — has already been elected to statewide office, a position he’s been elected to three times. He also has the endorsement of former Republican Gov. Nathan Deal.
Black has worked to solidify himself as the front-runner before Walker entered the race. He took on Walker before he announced his campaign, contrasting himself with the longtime Texas resident by touting his lifelong Georgian credentials.
“Welcome back to Georgia. Welcome to the U.S. Senate race. You know, I’ve been a big fan of yours since we were in college together before you moved away,” Black quipped in a video response to Walker filing his candidacy on Tuesday. Black was a student at University of Georgia when Walker was a freshman.
In addition to Black, also in the race to take on Warnock are Kelvin King, an Air Force veteran and owner of a metro-Atlanta construction firm, and Latham Saddler, a former Navy SEAL and National Security Council director of intelligence programs in the Trump administration.
Like King and Saddler, Walker has never been elected to office, but he enters the race as a front-runner — a status that could be solidified quickly with an endorsement from his longtime friend, the former president.
While he’d been living in Texas for decades before exploring a run in Georgia, and only re-registered to vote in the state last week, 59-year-old Walker grew up in the Peach State and played for the University of Georgia Bulldogs. The Bulldogs won the national title his freshman year and Walker came up just shy of winning the coveted college football trophy that year, placing third for the Heisman, but going on to win it his junior year.
Walker’s allegiance to Trump was evident throughout the 2020 campaign, while he acted as a surrogate for the former president. He appeared by video at the Republican National Convention in August to commend Trump’s character and dispute allegations he is racist. Last September, he participated in a radio ad touting Trump’s record of “fighting to improve the lives of Black Americans.”
But winning the primary is one thing; winning the general election is another — and having Trump’s “complete and total endorsement” — should he officially get it, as expected — could be a liability come November 2022, when the candidate will need to appeal to more than just base voters to come out on top.
Should he win the primary, he’ll also be up against a fundraising powerhouse. Coming in behind Ossoff and now-Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, Warnock raised the third-most money of any Senate candidate in the 2020 cycle. As of the end of June, the most recent campaign finance filing candidates have had to submit, the Georgia senator had over $10.5 million in the bank and received over $6 million in contributions in the second three-month period of 2021. He’s also the top fundraiser so far for the 2022 cycle, according to the FEC.
While senators serve six-year terms, Warnock, the first Black senator elected to represent Georgia, is facing voters again after just two years because he won a special election to finish out retired Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term. But in the twin January runoffs, Warnock bested Biden’s November margin over Trump by nearly eight-fold and earned about 19,000 more votes than Ossoff did against former GOP Sen. David Perdue.
(ALBANY, N.Y.) — Newly sworn-in New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said she’s cleaned house and removed individuals who allegedly contributed to a culture that allowed for sexual harassment under her predecessor, Andrew Cuomo.
Cuomo officially left office this week after a report by the New York Attorney General’s Office released earlier this month alleged he sexually harassed 11 women. Cuomo has repeatedly denied claims of sexual harassment and said he was resigning to prevent the distraction of an impeachment trial, though he was certain he would win.
The staffers implicated in the report “are no longer part of this administration,” she said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” Wednesday morning.
The day after he announced he’d resign, she vowed to fire anyone connected to the report who contributed to the culture of sexual harassment.
“It’s over. None of this is going to be accepted. I’ve surrounded myself with talented, young women and I want them to be the role models to others,” she said. “It’s a culture where they’re going to be OK. You don’t have to look over your shoulder. You don’t have to worry about harassment.”
Several Cuomo aides and staffers implicated in the report, including former secretary Melissa DeRosa and former Financial Services Superintendent Linda Lacewell, had already left state government. DeRosa, considered one of Cuomo’s top confidantes, stepped down just days before the governor announced his resignation. Lacewell left her position on Tuesday, the same day as Cuomo.
A number of state legislators had demanded that officials close to Cuomo and his scandals be removed as Albany moved forward under new leadership.
New York Republican Sen. Robert Ortt demanded a “clean slate,” adding in a statement earlier this month, “I am calling for the immediate resignation of state agency officials with direct ties to the soon-to-be former Governor and the many scandals that have plagued state government.”
When asked how the culture will change now that she’s at the helm, Hochul told MSNBC, “Anyone who crosses the line will be addressed by me.”
She said she’ll require in-person sexual harassment and ethics training for all state government employees.
Basil Smikle, a political strategist and lecturer at Columbia’s School of International Public Affairs, told ABC News her decision to remove those staffers “sends a message to voters that the era of Andrew Cuomo is over.”
“It was a clear intent on her part. She talked a lot about accountability and transparency. The act itself is a follow through,” he said.
However, it may be a bigger challenge to change the culture in Albany as a whole.
“It would be wrong to assume that these early moves will erase all of the toxicity. She has to undertake a more thorough and sweeping investigation of state agencies, state contracts, even relationships with legislators and center her administrative policies on diversity and on women to really be able to affect the substantial change in the long run,” he added.
Hochul also said Wednesday she’s looking into staffers involved in the controversial handling of nursing home data during the pandemic.
“I need to continue working to identify principles involved in those decisions,” she told “Morning Joe.”
She noted she’s asked for a 45-day period to assemble her team.
“There’s just a lot of things that weren’t happening and I’m going to make them happen,” she said. “Transparency will be a hallmark of my administration.”
(WASHINGTON) — After President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of all U.S. troops by Aug. 31, the U.S. will continue to help U.S. citizens and residents and Afghans who worked with Americans or are otherwise at risk from the Taliban get out of the country, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
But it’s unclear how that will be possible after the U.S. cedes control of the airport to the Taliban and ends evacuation flights — and it will mean leaving thousands of Afghans that the administration had previously said they would help behind.
Biden and Blinken have each said that the U.S. is “on track to complete our mission” before that Aug. 31 deadline, without specifying what the administration considers the scope of that mission — including how many Afghans they will evacuate.
In contrast, Blinken detailed how many Americans the U.S. has evacuated — some 4,500 to date — and how many the administration believes are left behind — 500 with whom the State Department has made contact with and up to 1,000 more who registered with the embassy.
“Let me be crystal clear about this — there is no deadline on our work to help any remaining American citizens who decide they want to leave to do so, along with the many Afghans who have stood by us over these many years and want to leave and have been unable to do so. That effort will continue every day past Aug. 31st,” Blinken told reporters Wednesday.
But starting on Sept. 1, that effort will rely on the Taliban, whose spokesperson said Tuesday they will not let Afghans leave the country.
In contrast, Blinken said, “The Taliban have made public and private commitments to provide and permit safe passage for Americans, for third-country nationals and Afghans at risk going forward past Aug. 31st” and to keep Kabul’s international airport running.
He added the U.S., backed by international allies, will hold them to it, without specifying how beyond using “every diplomatic, economic, political and assistance tool at my disposal (and) working closely with allies and partners who feel very much the same way.”
The U.S. is in discussions already with the international community on how to keep the airport open, according to American officials, including countries like Qatar and Turkey that have closer ties to the Taliban.
Blinken didn’t detail what levers the U.S. could use to hold the Taliban to its promises, but he did say that if it let “people who want to leave Afghanistan” leave, upheld basic rights and prevented its territory from becoming a launching pad for terror attacks, “that’s a government we can work with.”
Pressed on whether the administration was abandoning Afghan allies, including interpreters or translators who weren’t far enough along in the special immigrant visa process, a senior State Department official told ABC News, “We have always said that we are committed to bringing out Americans who wish to be repatriated. We are going to do as much as we can for as many people as we can beyond that.”
But while the administration never specified how many Afghans that applied to, it has said repeatedly it would help those who served the U.S. military and diplomatic missions over the last 20 years.
“Our message to those women and men is clear — there is a home for you in the United States if you so choose, and we will stand with you just as you stood with us,” Biden said on July 8, before the Taliban surprised the administration with the speed with which it took over Afghanistan.
The senior State Department official said that “commitment we have to individuals who may be at risk” has to be weighed against “the safety and security of our diplomats, of our service members, of others who are involved in this operation.” Biden, Blinken and other officials have said the threat from the Islamic State group’s affiliate in Afghanistan remains high, putting U.S. military and diplomatic personnel in danger.
“We’re operating in a hostile environment in a city and country now controlled by the Taliban, with the very real possibility of an ISIS-K attack. We’re taking every precaution, but this is very high-risk,” Blinken said Wednesday.
While the U.S. has been unclear about which Afghan interpreters will be evacuated, Blinken was more explicit about pledging to help those who worked at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. Several staffers have been blocked by Taliban fighters from approaching the Kabul airport and getting their seats on evacuation flights.
“Along with American citizens, nothing is more important to me as secretary of state than to do right by the people who have been working side-by-side with American diplomats in our embassy,” Blinken said. “We are relentlessly focused on getting the locally-employed staff out of Afghanistan and out of harm’s way, and let me leave it at that for now.”
