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Trump ignores recent calamities in his push to open schools – CNN

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The coronavirus pandemic is again rearing out of control, rising in a majority of states as a new warning comes that more than 200,000 Americans could be dead by Election Day. The United States on Tuesday recorded 60,021 new cases of the virus, a new single day record.
But Trump barreled forward anyway, failing to offer detailed proposals or planning on the imminent question of how schools could open safely as soon as next month even as he admitted he intended to crank up pressure on governors to do what he wants.
“I would say that when we talk about the fall, that seems like a long time. It’s a long time,” Trump said in an interview Tuesday with Nexstar Media Group.
Trump on Wednesday tried to point to some other countries’ ability to open their schools as evidence the US must do the same, but he is neglecting the fact that they all wrangled the pandemic through public health measures he’s not pushing.
Fact-checking Trump's claims that US coronavirus death rate is the lowest worldwide
“In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!” he tweeted.
All those countries have suppressed the virus in one way or the other, whereas the US is rocketing up at record levels — making it harder and less safe to open the schools.
The President then tweeted his disagreement with the US Centers from Disease Control and Prevention guidelines for safely reopening schools, calling their recommendations “very tough” and “expensive.”
His attitude on education mirrors the way that the President disregarded details on another vital issue: the reopening of the economy. From April onwards, Trump pressured states to open up, often when cases were rising in many regions and his own government’s recommendations on how to safely reopen were not being observed.
The President also delivered a fresh rebuke to his government’s top infectious disease specialist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who had dismissed the President’s discredited claims that the US has the world’s lowest mortality rate.
And Trump conjured another wishful prediction: that the worsening battle against the virus, which has already killed 130,000 Americans and infected 3 million, would be far less serious within weeks. This all came a few days after another discredited claim, that 99% of cases of the virus are harmless.
“We’ve done a good job. I think we are going to be in two, three, four weeks … I think we’re going to be in very good shape,” Trump told Gray Television’s Greta Van Susteren on Tuesday, referring to raging outbreaks in parts of the country as mere “fires” that would be put out after earlier insisting at the White House that “we are not closing.”
Texas and other US states surpass grim milestones amid soaring coronavirus pandemicTexas and other US states surpass grim milestones amid soaring coronavirus pandemic
Fresh evidence of Trump’s negligence came on the same day that a new University of Washington model forecast that 208,255 people may die from the virus in the US by November 1. But experts at the university’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation also said that if 95% of the population wore masks in public — a step Trump has often maligned — that number would dip to 162,808.
“It is an inferno in some parts of this country,” Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a renowned cardiologist at George Washington University, said on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
“The President has been trying to make this go away with magical thinking for a long time. He was desperate to open the country in April, and his urgency to open the country is really one of the prime reasons we are where we are now,” he added.
And Fauci warned Tuesday about misleading metrics.
“It’s a false narrative to take comfort in a lower rate of death,” he said during a news conference. “There’s so many other things that are very dangerous and bad about this virus. Don’t get yourself into false complacency.”
Record rates of new infections are occurring as other major industrialized nations — that shut down their economies earlier and stayed locked down for longer — have done far better. The virus is rampant in Southern states such as Florida, Arizona and Texas, and hospital intensive care units are coming under severe pressure, leading some state and local leaders to halt or roll back state reopening plans.
“We did not have to be here right now,” said Dr. Leana Wen, of the John Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
“When we look at other countries, they have successfully crushed their curve … and they were able to suppress their level of Covid-19 infections in a way that we just did not do in this country,” Wen told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer.

Trump blames politics — not the virus

Trump says he will pressure governors over school reopenings even as virus surgesTrump says he will pressure governors over school reopenings even as virus surges
On Tuesday, Trump gave no quarter to the fast-worsening situation with his push to reopen schools.
“We’re very much going to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools, to get them open,” the President said. “We don’t want people to make political statements or do it for political reasons. They think it’s going to be good for them politically, so they keep the schools closed.”
The thorny task of reopening America’s schools, amid fears of a lost generation of school kids unless lessons resume, is a microcosm of the administration’s slapdash approach. While demanding a return to normal — in business, education, leisure and even sports — the White House has rarely provided guidance on how such steps can be taken safely. It has left it to states, cities and individuals to fend their own battles in adopting a hard-core definition of federalism that rejects any traditional notion of presidential duty.
Trump’s self-serving implication that his opponents want to keep schools closed to hurt him politically ignores the complicated concerns that administrators, teachers and parents harbor over the prospect of schools staying closed — and the dangers that are inherent in getting classes up and running again.
And his failure to offer any specifics, beyond vague demands for opening with a new school year due to begin next month in many states, added to the impression that he was making a purely political move.
Asked by Nexstar whether there would be a national testing strategy and recommendations for school officials, the President waffled. “It may be. We’re going to see. Well, we have a long time to think about the school stuff. … But we want to have the schools open,” Trump said.
Apart from growing educational damage, the mental and emotional impact on children kept out of class since March is considerable. Online classes hurriedly pulled together when the pandemic struck are nowhere near as good as real lessons. Closed schools also impose a significant burden on families struggling to figure out how to balance work and child care. Less well-off kids, meanwhile, often get their only nutritious meals of the day at school.
The President’s push to reopen schools come what may also ignores the deep concerns about a return to class next month that are shared by parents, children and college students. There is anxiety about sending kids into environments that are germ-laden at the best of times with the virus still running rampant. While Trump says most children don’t get seriously sick with the virus, he’s offered no answers to teachers, who are at far higher risk of serious complications.
The White House promised new guidelines on Tuesday to ensure that schools can reopen safely. But such material is unlikely to ease many concerns. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drew up similar best practices for states to open up their economies, but Trump goaded sympathetic governors into ignoring them with his incessant demands for a return to normal life — which were based on a desire to reopen and the populace’s waning patience with shutdowns, rather than on any scientific evidence that it was safe to do soon.

The pandemic toll grows

Fauci warns against 'false complacency' as Trump touts falling coronavirus death rateFauci warns against 'false complacency' as Trump touts falling coronavirus death rate
The lessons of foreign nations and states that have prevailed, at least for now, over the virus is that social distancing, the wearing of masks, aggressive testing and contract tracing, and staying shut down until infections are suppressed is the way to get it under control.
This involves damaging economic consequences. The US economy is now threatened by a second slump if the virus gets so bad that states and cities are forced back into lockdown. Trump’s administration falls short on all those key strategies and even now is ignoring best practices and the evidence of what worked elsewhere in a bid to crank up the economy, deemed vital to the President’s reelection hopes.
The result is that the nation appears doomed to a long fight against the disease that will continue to exert a heavy human toll and frustrate efforts to resume a semblance of normal life until there is a change of tack by the government and a serious effort to take steps that are proven to work in slowing the pandemic.
The price of ignoring the science is becoming clear. Day after day, the US is piling up record new infection counts, around 50,000 a day.
Ohio GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, who has been lauded for his handling of the pandemic, warned of a “huge, imminent crisis” in seven “red hot” counties and issued an order requiring people in the affected areas to wear masks.
Florida piled up more than 7,000 new cases of the disease on Tuesday as its positive rate in testing topped 16% for the first time, a figure that suggests the virus is far more prevalent in the community than is being revealed by current testing.
Texas said its daily new coronavirus infection rates surged by a record 10,000 cases.
“I do think Texas reopened too fast,” Mark McClellan, a former US Food and Drug Administration commissioner, told CNN on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, Fauci, who is on the outs with the President because of his unvarnished statements about the virus, is warning that the US is still “knee-deep” in the crisis.
Trump didn’t take kindly to the new dose of truth, in a remark that encapsulated his staggering state of denial.
“Well, I think we are in a good place. I disagree with him,” the President told Van Susteren.
This story has been updated to include additional comments by Trump.

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump – CNN

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Larry David shares how he feels about Trump

“Curb Your Enthusiasm” star Larry David shares how he feels about former President Donald Trump and the 2020 election. Watch the full episode of “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace,” streaming March 29 on Max.


03:21

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Trump's claims on crime rates clash with police data – NBC News

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Surging crime levels, out-of-control Democratic cities and “migrant crime.”

Former President Donald Trump regularly cites all three at his campaign rallies, in news releases and on Truth Social, often saying President Joe Biden and Democrats are to blame.

But the crime picture Trump paints contrasts sharply with years of police and government data at both the local and national levels.

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FBI statistics released this year suggested a steep drop in crime across the country last year. It’s a similar story across major cities, with violent crime down year over year in Chicago, New York and Washington, D.C.

NBC News analyzed crime data to evaluate Trump’s assertions about the topic.

U.S. and big city crime rates

Trump’s campaign often refers to crime levels, regularly pointing the finger at Biden.

“On Joe Biden’s watch, violent crime has skyrocketed in virtually every American city,” the campaign said in a news release published this month on its site.

Trump himself has made similar remarks.

“Four years ago, I told you that if crooked Joe Biden got to the White House, our borders would be abolished, our middle class would be decimated and our communities would be plagued by bloodshed, chaos and violent crime,” Trump said in a speech last month at the Conservative Political Action Conference. “We were right about everything.”

Government figures don’t support that characterization.

Reported violent crime dropped 6% across the board when comparing the last three months of 2022 to the same period in 2023, the FBI reported.

The reported drops were especially pronounced in the big cities that Trump often assails, many of which have Democratic mayors. Violent crime dropped by 11% in cities with populations of 1 million or more, according to FBI data, while murders dropped by 20%, rape was down 16%, and aggravated assault fell by 11%.

Reached for comment, the Trump campaign pointed to other reports indicating that certain types of crimes increased in specific cities.

At the national level, the reported rate of violent crime in 2022, the most recent full year with comprehensive FBI data, was 380.7 offenses per 100,000 people. That’s lower than the overall reported violent crime rate from 2020 — the last full year Trump was in office — when the figure was at 398.5.

The lowest reported violent crime rate of Trump’s presidency was in 2019, when the metric was at 380.8 — in line with the 2022 rate.

The FBI said it will release more comprehensive 2023 crime data in October, just before the election.

The Trump campaign, reached for comment, cited certain categories of violent crime, such as motor vehicle theft, as having increased during the Biden administration, according to FBI figures.

“Joe Biden is trying to convince Americans not to believe their own eyes,” campaign press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement, adding that “Democrats have turned great American cities into cesspools of bloodshed and crime.”

New York City crime

Trump, who was born and raised in New York but now lives in Florida, often rails against what he portrays as an increasing crime rate in his former hometown.

Those references to soaring violence have only increased as he faces criminal charges in New York accusing him of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Trump, who has pleaded not guilty in that case, must also post a $175 million bond to prevent state Attorney General Letitia James from collecting the judgment from a New York civil fraud case.

“I did nothing wrong, and New York should never be put in a position like this again,” Trump posted on Truth Social about the civil judgment in all capital letters. “Businesses are fleeing, violent crime is flourishing, and it is very important that this be resolved in its totality as soon as possible.”

In a separate post, he claimed that “murders & violent crime hit unimaginable records” in the city.

However, major crimes in New York City are down this year by 2.3%, according to police department data comparing year-to-date figures to the same period in 2023.

Those figures for last year were also far below the highs from recent decades. In 1990, more than 527,000 major crimes were reported, compared to more than 126,000 last year, according to New York police data — a drop of more than 75%.

In 2001, more than 162,000 major crimes were reported in New York. The figure dropped by more than 20% over the next two decades.

At the same time, New York City data indicates that the number of major crimes increased in the past few years, though reported violent crimes like murder and rape were down last year from previous years.

‘Migrant crime’

Trump’s dehumanizing language about migrants has become a mainstay of his political speeches since he first sought office in 2015.

In a news release this month, his campaign said the “border Crisis has created a tragic surge in violent crime against innocent American citizens at the hands of some of the world’s most violent criminals.”

Trump has also focused his energy on high-profile cases such as the death of Laken Riley, who was killed in Georgia while jogging. The suspect is a Venezuelan citizen who entered the U.S. illegally in 2022.

“Every day, innocent citizens are being killed, stabbed, shot, raped and murdered because of Biden migrant crime,” Trump said in a video posted to his campaign’s X account last week.

However, there is no evidence of a migrant-driven crime wave in the U.S., according to local police department data.

Crime reports have decreased in several major cities targeted by Texas’ Operation Lone Star, a program backed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott that flies or buses migrants from the state to Democratic-run cities across the U.S.

Several of those cities — New York, Chicago, Washington and Philadelphia — have had decreases in year-to-date reported crime totals compared to the same period last year.


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Federal government promising a 'renters' bill of rights' in upcoming budget – CBC.ca

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that his government will introduce new measures — including a new “bill of rights” — that he says will help protect those who rent their homes as part of the upcoming budget.

Trudeau said the new measures are specifically geared toward younger people, who are renting more than previous generations.

“It’s about changing the rules of the game in a way that meets young people where they are,” he said on Wednesday.

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Ottawa will work with provinces and territories to develop a “renters’ bill of rights” that would introduce a national standard lease agreement and implement requirements for landlords to disclose an apartment’s pricing history to allow tenants to negotiate their rent.

The new measures will also include a $15-million fund for provincial legal aid organizations that help tenants fight against “renovictions” and landlord abuse.

The Liberals are also proposing to change federal rules so that making rental payments on time will count toward someone’s credit scores, something Trudeau said is meant to help renters looking to one day buy a house.

“If you look at someone who pays a $2,000 [per month] mortgage, they’re getting recognition and credit for that from their bank as part of their credit score,” the prime minister said.

“But if you’re paying $2,000 a month on rent, you get no kudos.”

Typically the government doesn’t discuss what is in an annual budget until it is introduced in the House of Commons. But the announcement was made weeks prior to the release of the Liberals’ next budget, which is slated to drop on April 16.

Releasing tidbits from the budget ahead of time is part of a new communications strategy for the Liberals, sources told CBC News. Trudeau and his ministers are expected to make a number of similar announcements in the run-up to the budget, the sources said.

WATCH | Trudeau says new measures aim to help tenants: 

Liberals promise ‘renters’ bill of rights’ to fight housing crisis

5 hours ago

Duration 2:07

The Liberals are looking to create a ‘renters’ bill of rights’ to help deal with Canada’s housing crisis. Justin Trudeau says the plan is geared toward younger people suffering from a rising cost of living. The Conservatives call the measures meaningless.

Before revealing the planned rental measures on Wednesday, Trudeau took a moment to plug the April 16 fiscal plan, saying that the budget will be about “fairness.”

“For Canada to succeed, we need everyone to succeed,” he said.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland joined Trudeau for his announcement and hinted about further announcements ahead of budget day.

“Over the coming days and in the April budget, we are going to launch a no-holds-barred plan to wrestle down the cost of owning and renting a home,” she said.

Wednesday’s announcements came on the same day that the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation released a report that found a surge in new apartment construction drove housing start increases in several major Canadian cities last year.

But the report also cautions that demand continues to outweigh supply.

The opposition Conservatives, who have enjoyed a healthy lead in recent polls, have made housing — and other cost-of-living issues — a key point of attack against the governing Liberals.

Following his announcement, Trudeau was asked whether he thinks he bears any responsibility for people feeling left behind in the current economy and whether the new measures would be enough to convince younger people to support him in the next election.

In response, Trudeau suggested that a recent rise in the cost of living is not unique to Canada.

“Young people who are key to our present, and obviously key to our future, are seeing a system that is stacked against them. That’s true in Canada but also true elsewhere around the world,” he said. “What we’re focused on now is making sure that young people can see their success in the economy.”

Opposition parties criticize Liberal announcement

Scott Aitchison, the Conservative housing critic, said Wednesday’s announcement was Liberal posturing that won’t get results.

“Today’s photo op is just another set of meaningless measures that won’t result in building the homes Canadians need,” he said in a statement.

NDP housing critic Jenny Kwan criticized the announcement for not going far enough.

“The Liberals are so out of touch with what Canadian renters are experiencing that they keep offering half-measures instead of a real action,” Kwan said in a statement.

The NDP is calling on the government to invest more in affordable housing while temporarily preventing for-profit firms from buying designated affordable-housing spaces.

WATCH | Liberal government promises better protections for renters in upcoming budget: 

Liberal government promises better protections for renters in upcoming budget

9 hours ago

Duration 11:39

The Liberal government unveiled three new proposals Wednesday to better protect renters in Canada. Power & Politics speaks to Marci Ien, minister of women, gender equality and youth, about the proposed protections.

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