Skip to main contentSkip to navigationSkip to key eventsSkip to navigation

Trump has 'no plans' for coronavirus test despite contact with infected Bolsonaro aide – as it happened

This article is more than 4 years old
 Updated 
Thu 12 Mar 2020 21.07 EDTFirst published on Thu 12 Mar 2020 06.40 EDT
Key events
Donald Trump on EU travel ban: 'We're in great shape and want to keep it that way' – video

Live feed

Key events

Evening summary

We’re wrapping up our live US politics coverage for the evening, but my colleague Helen Sullivan in Australia is running our global liveblog on the coronavirus pandemic, if you’re looking for continued live news updates.

Major events today:

  • There is growing public anger, frustration, and fear over the United States’ failure to test for coronavirus on a scale that could contain the outbreak and mitigate its most devastating impacts. My colleague Ed Pilkington has the full story.
  • The White House said Donald Trump still has “no plans” to take a coronavirus test even though he’s come into contact with a Brazilian government aide who’s tested positive. Others political figures who were exposed during Jair Bolsonaro’s visit to Florida, including two Republican senators, two Florida mayors, and the Miami motorcycle police officers who helped provide security for Bolsonaro, are now in voluntary quarantine.
  • A federal judge ordered Chelsea Manning released from jail in Virginia, where the former army analyst has been held since May last year for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating Wikileaks. On Wednesday, representing Manning said she had attempted suicide.
  • There has been a series of yet more cancellations of major events, from Trump campaign rallies to Broadway shows to the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association.
  • The U.S. launched airstrikes in Iraq targeting the Iranian-backed Shia militia members believed responsible for a rocket attack that killed British and American troops, the Pentagon said.

National Rifle Association cancels annual meeting for members

The National Rifle Association announced that it is cancelling its annual meeting for members, which was scheduled for April 16 through 19 in Nashville.

This includes a cancellation of the meeting’s annual political forum, which typically features speeches from major conservative political figures, including, in recent years, President Trump.

Important Update: @NRA Annual Meeting pic.twitter.com/3NeDOELRrk

— NRA (@NRA) March 12, 2020

The NRA’s annual meeting, which the group estimates has attracted 70,000 or more attendees in recent years, attracts gun rights supporters of all ages, but the weekend-long event always includes large numbers of older men and elderly couples--people at particular risk for Coronavirus.

In announcing the cancellation, the NRA cited the fact that “earlier today, a state of emergency was declared in Tennessee.”

The NRA, long seen as an untouchably dominant group on the American right, has been beset by financial and political difficulties in the past year.

Share
Updated at 

White House officials said there were no plans to test President Donald Trump for coronavirus, even though he was photographed standing next to an aide to the Brazilian president who tested positive for the virus this week.

But many other people who met with President Jair Bolsonaro and his communications secretary, Fabio Wajngarten, who tested positive, have already announced they will be self-quarantining as a precautionary measure.

19 times Trump downplayed the Coronavirus

The Washington Post has a new timeline, and video, of 19 times Trump downplayed the threat of Coronavirus.

19 times Trump downplayed the coronavirushttps://t.co/fswjvFlRoS pic.twitter.com/ucwyEvoVCg

— The Fix (@thefix) March 12, 2020

Among the entries:

Jan. 22: “We have it totally under control.”

Jan. 24: “It will all work out well.”

Feb. 24: “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA. … Stock Market starting to look very good to me!”

March 11 (yesterday): “I think we’re going to get through it very well.”

When it comes to arts and culture, ‘Basically everything is cancelled’

In New York, Broadway has been shut down. And in the San Francisco Bay Area, “basically everything everywhere is canceled.”

Alright y'all.

I've been chronicling Bay Area events for six days straight and I can say with authority that basically everything everywhere is canceled.

I'll add some of the big ones in a thread below. 👇🏼

Over 100 canceled events listed here:https://t.co/vqnIjhfYOa

— Gabe Meline (@gmeline) March 12, 2020

That’s the latest evaluation from Gabe Meline, senior editor for Arts & Culture at KQED Public Radio, who has tracked the cancellation of more than 100 local events.

Trump rallies may be replaced with 'virtual town halls'

In place of his trademark in-person rallies, Trump is considering holding “virtual town halls” or “conference calls,” Jonathan Lemire reports for the Associated Press.

The president’s campaign has suspended all rallies, events and fundraisers for at least the next week.

NEW: President Trump is temporarily halting his trademark rallies as campaign bows to the coronavirus outbreak that is rapidly reshaping the nation’s political landscape.

Short term alternatives being considered: virtual town halls and conference calls https://t.co/xyNfuqZFxR

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) March 12, 2020

US launches airstrikes in Iraq, American officials say

The US has launched airstrikes in Iraq targeting the Iranian-backed Shia militia members believed responsible for the rocket attack that killed and wounded American and British troops at a base north of Baghdad, American officials told the Associated Press.

BREAKING: The U.S. has launched airstrikes in Iraq targeting the Iranian-backed Shia militia members believed responsible for a rocket attack Wednesday that killed and wounded American and British troops at a base north of Baghdad. https://t.co/AKqC6dRopl

— The Associated Press (@AP) March 12, 2020

The strikes were a joint operation with the British, one US official said.

Share
Updated at 
Vivian Ho

San Francisco to close public schools for three weeks

San Francisco is closing public schools for the next three weeks in an effort to prevent the spread of coronavirus.

The closure, which affects more than 54,000 students, will go into effect Monday until early April.

The decision came after the city issued a moratorium on large gatherings of 1,000 or more. Today, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, recommended that all gatherings of 250 or more should be canceled or postponed until at least the end of March.

As of Thursday morning, there were 198 positive cases of coronavirus in California, and four coronavirus-related deaths.

Share
Updated at 

The New York subway, empty

An eye-catching photo, posted on Instagram today, shows a completely empty New York City subway car.

Allow Instagram content?

This article includes content provided by Instagram. We ask for your permission before anything is loaded, as they may be using cookies and other technologies. To view this content, click 'Allow and continue'.

As someone who lived in New York City for seven years, and left recently, I can tell you: only once, late at night, for just two or three stops, did I ever ride in a subway car that was otherwise empty.

There are -- or at least, there were -- always other people there.

Share
Updated at 

Fact check: Trump incorrectly said that the insurance industry agreed to waive co-payments for treatment

Insurers agreed to cover the full cost of diagnostic tests to see whether people have Covid-19 - but that doesn’t mean that patients with the illness won’t rack up medical bills. America’s Health Insurance Plans, an insurance industry association, write in their guidelines: “Health insurance providers will cover the tests for their enrollees consistent with the terms of their plans and any emergency plans they have in place.”

“It’s testing not treatments,” that insurers have agreed to cover, AHIP said in a statement to the Guardian.

Share
Updated at 

How has Trump responded to the coronavirus crisis? Not well, writes The Guardian’s Julian Borger:

Trump in a time of coronavirus is a lethal combination. Everything about the president – his reliance on his gut instincts in place of expertise, his overwhelming selfishness, and his unfailing tendency to lash out at others when things go wrong – make him the worst person imaginable to hold the world’s most powerful job in the face of pandemic.

Confronting the threat requires global cooperation, perhaps more than at any time since the second world war. But Trump and his junior imitators around the world have taken a sledgehammer to the very notion of international solidarity.

America’s closest allies were given no notice of his decision on Wednesday night to suspend flights from Europe. The EU mission in Washington only found out about it when journalists started calling.

The president has dealt with coronavirus the same way he approached every other challenge in his administration, first trying denial – and when that failed, blaming outsiders. The disease has slid from a Democratic “hoax” to the “foreign virus”. It came as little surprise that his speech had been written by Stephen Miller, the author of the administration’s cruellest anti-immigration policies.

Read the full analysis here:

Judge orders Chelsea Manning's release from jail

The Guardian’s Martin Pengelly reports:

A federal judge has ordered that Chelsea Manning be released from jail in Virginia.

The former US army analyst who leaked hundreds of thousands of documents to WikiLeaks in 2010 had been held since May last year, when she was taken back into custody for refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating the pro-transparency organisation.

A hearing had been due in the case on Friday. On Wednesday, representatives for Manning said she had attempted suicide.

In a statement, Manning’s representatives said she “has previously indicated that she will not betray her principles, even at risk of grave harm to herself.

“Her actions today evidence the strength of her convictions, as well as the profound harm she continues to suffer as a result of her ‘civil’ confinement.”

Maanvi Singh and Lois Beckett here, on the west coast.

First up, our colleague in DC brings us this: an internal Biden campaign memo says that all staff in the Philadelphia headquarters and in field offices across the country will work from home.

Wow. A new internal Biden campaign staff memo from Anita Dunn and Jen O'Malley Dillon says: "Starting Saturday, March 14, all Biden for President employees both in our Philadelphia headquarters and in field offices across the country will work from home."

— Daniel Strauss (@DanielStrauss4) March 12, 2020

The coronavirus crisis will test the campaigns’ ability to reach voters virtually.

Share
Updated at 

The Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine reports:

Election officials in Ohio are scrambling to find poll workers for its March 17 primary as a significant number of people scheduled to work cancel amid concerns over the coronavirus, the Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday.

Franklin County, home of Columbus, is losing three poll workers for each one it gains, the paper reported.

The county has lost 223 poll workers in the last two days and is 291 people short of being fully staffed. Warren County, just north of Cincinnati, is 100 poll workers short.

Finding poll workers is a significant concern for election workers as they prepare or elections amid the coronavirus pandemic. Poll workers tend to be older Americans -- the demographic most likely to be significantly impacted by the virus.

Earlier this week, Ohio’s top election official ordered all polling locations in nursing homes or assisted living facilities to be relocated. The move is expected to affect 128 locations in the state.

The political day is far from over, so stay tuned, after this summary

It’s been a very eventful Thursday, handing the live blog to my Guardian west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, who will take you through the coming hours.

Here are the main events this afternoon:

  • The Trump 2020 campaign slammed Bernie Sanders after the diehard left-winger called on the president to declare a national emergency and called on the nation to come together. Sanders said: “If there ever was a time in the modern history of our country when we are all in this together,” he said, “this is that moment.”
  • The White House said Donald Trump still has “no plans” to take a coronavirus test even though he’s come into contact with a Brazilian government aide who’s tested positive, and some Republicans who are in voluntary quarantine.
  • There are contrasting reports coming out of Brazil over whether president Jair Bolsonaro has caught coronavirus, though most reliable understanding this hour is that he has not tested positive for Covid-19 despite his press secretary’s diagnosis.
  • Leading Democrats Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Nancy Pelosi have all today addressed the Trump administration’s response so far to coronavirus and been singularly unimpressed/outraged at the incompetence coming out of the White House.
Martin Pengelly
Martin Pengelly

Two senators, both Trump allies, have announced self-quarantine measures after being at Mar-a-Lago with the president and his Brazilian visitors last weekend.

Lindsey Graham and Donald Trump in Charlotte, North Carolina earlier this month. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Rick Scott of Florida was first and now Lindsey Graham of South Carolina has followed. According to a statement, Graham “has no recollection of direct contact with the president of Brazil, who is awaiting the results of a coronavirus test, or his spokesman who tested positive”.

But on the advice of his doctor and out of the usually cited abundance of caution, Graham will now work from home.

Trump’s office is of course also his home so he’s working from there too, the White House having said today there are no plans for the president to be tested like his Brazilian counterpart.

Here’s our report:

Dom Phillips reports from Rio de Janeiro:

Spanish-language twitter feeds have been reporting that Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for coronavirus after his press secretary was found to have the disease following a trip to the US – but the reports are being discredited as fake news and none of Brazil’s main media sites have confirmed them.

Bolsonaro at Mar-a-Lago. Photograph: Alan Santos/BRAZILIAN PRESIDENCY/AFP via Getty Images

Bolsonaro has taken a test, however, according to local media, and results will be ready on Friday. His son Eduardo Bolsonaro, a congressman who was also on the trip, tweeted that his father “is not exhibiting any signs of the disease.”

On Thursday the Brazilian government confirmed media reports that Bolsonaro’s press secretary Fabio Wajngarten tested positive following the US trip he was also on, along with ministers, congressmen and First Lady Michelle Bolsonaro, as well as Eduardo Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro dined with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday night and videos and photos, including some on Wajngarten’s own Instagram account, showed the press secretary, Bolsonaro and Trump all in close proximity. “I’m not concerned,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.

The Intercept has reported that aside from Wajngarten, three other members of the delegation have also reported feeling flu-like symptoms and been tested, quoting an anonymous source. It did not name the three others.

Meanwhile conservative Brazilians planning pro-Bolsonaro demonstrations across Brazil on Sunday have begun sharing images of people wearing masks – but are insisting the protests, which Bolsonaro has endorsed, will go ahead. Bolsonaro has cancelled an interview for the launch of CNN Brasil due to air the same day, the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper site reported.

Share
Updated at 

Trump campaign slams Sanders

Martin Pengelly
Martin Pengelly

Trump 2020 communications director Tim Murtaugh is back with another statement, this time slamming Bernie Sanders for his remarks on the coronavirus outbreak.

The Vermont senator, still in the running to be the Democratic nominee to face Trump in November, followed frontrunner Joe Biden in speaking about the public health crisis.

In his remarks, delivered from Burlington in his home state, Sanders called on Trump to declare a national emergency and called on the nation to come together.

“If there ever was a time in the modern history of our country when we are all in this together,” he said, “this is that moment.”

Sanders also called for support for the most needy in American society “from a health perspective and an economic perspective” and renewed his call for Medicare for All healthcare reform.

The Trump 2020 response was predictably pugilistic, Murtaugh saying “Sanders is the wrong prescription for fighting an outbreak like the coronavirus” and claiming “a government takeover of healthcare” would leave “America woefully unprepared for public health emergencies”.

Many say the US is woefully unprepared for this emergency thanks to cuts by the Trump administration and a slow and chaotic official response so far.

Murtaugh also sounded a familiar note from a president who has sought to blame the virus on other countries, saying Sanders has “said he would not even consider closing our borders to protect our people, even if it were necessary to control the spread of the virus”.

Trump has banned travel from Europe – though not the UK and Ireland – and has claimed his southern border wall is needed to combat coronavirus, despite the virus having entered the US by other routes entirely.

Murtaugh concluded by saying Sanders was “just another Democrat candidate for president trying to score political points by recklessly provoking anxiety and fear”.

Again, Trump has been widely accused of seeking to use the outbreak to score political points himself.

Sanders’ remarks can be found in full on YouTube:

Donald Trump on Thursday said he may declare the coronavirus pandemic an emergency by invoking a law known as the Stafford Act.

The following from the Associated Press explains how the Stafford Act works and what powers a declaration would unlock:

WHAT IS THE STAFFORD ACT?

The law, enacted in 1988, empowers the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to assist state and local governments during “natural catastrophes” and coordinate the nation’s response.

FEMA, an agency within the US Department of Homeland Security, controls more than $40 billion in federal funding set aside by Congress for disaster relief. FEMA could use that funding to help build medical facilities and transport patients, among other measures.

Only the president can declare a major disaster under the law.

“We have very strong emergency powers under the Stafford Act,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday. “I have it memorized, practically, as to the powers in that act. And if I need to do something, I’ll do it. I have the right to do a lot of things that people don’t even know about.”

Trump has invoked the Stafford Act many times during his presidency, approving major disaster declarations to address flooding in the Midwest and wildfires in California, among other events.

FEMA is commonly associated with natural disaster response but the agency can also address pandemics.

The Guardian’s Steve Bell in, once again, inimitable style. Illustration: Steve Bell/The Guardian

In 2000, former President Bill Clinton used a Stafford Act emergency declaration to pay for mosquito control efforts to address outbreaks of the West Nile virus in New Jersey and New York.

DIDN’T THE US ALREADY DECLARE CORONAVIRUS AN EMERGENCY?

A different government agency, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, declared the coronavirus a public health emergency in late January and has been the lead agency addressing the pandemic.

HHS’s declaration, made under a different law than the Stafford Act, allowed US officials to impose restriction on individuals entering the country from China, among other measures.

Several state governments have declared emergencies.

Share
Updated at 

Most viewed

Most viewed