Biden exudes a new sense of urgency as he makes what could be his last stand ahead of Saturday’s primary, in which the majority of voters will be black. “When we were president – when Barack was president, and I was vice president – we went to HBCUs,” Biden said, referring to historically black colleges and universities.

AD

He said stricter gun laws would have prevented the massacre of nine African American parishioners during a Bible study in 2015 at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church a few blocks away. “I went there with Barack,” he said, referring to the memorial service when Obama sang “Amazing Grace.” “We met with all the families.”

AD

Biden’s extended bear hug of his former running mate came a few hours after his campaign launched a new attack ad against Sanders for mulling a primary challenge in 2012 against “our first African American president.”

The 60-second digital spot features audio from a 2011 radio interview in which the independent senator from Vermont said, “I think it would be a good idea if President Obama faced some primary opposition.” The spot ends with a narrator saying: “When it comes to building on President Obama's legacy, Bernie Sanders just can't be trusted.” The campaign said this is part of a $600,000 digital buy in South Carolina that will play on YouTube, Facebook and Instagram.

Obama has not endorsed anyone, and he’s kept his head down as the primary has heated up. Some allies of the former president speculate privately that he wants to maintain credibility with all the factions of the party if there’s a contested convention so that he could help mediate. He’s previously signaled unease with Sanders’s style of radical politics, but Obama’s shown no inclination to forcefully or publicly articulate such concerns.

AD

AD

Responding to Biden’s attack, Sanders categorically denied that he ever considered a primary challenge against Obama. The Atlantic reported last week that the president’s 2012 reelection campaign was panicked about the possibility after being tipped off by Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) that Sanders was seriously considering it, and they took it seriously enough that then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) was enlisted to dissuade Sanders from running.

“Not true at all,” Sanders said during a town hall in Charleston that aired on CNN last night. “I'm the senator from a small state, and I did not give any consideration to running for president of the United States until 2015.” He added that he was “very busy running for reelection” in 2012. “In fact, I ended up campaigning for Obama, and I'm a strong supporter of all that Barack Obama has accomplished,” he said. “Joe is a friend of mine. I've known him for many years. But you know what happens in campaigns? At the end of the season, it's called silly season. People say things they should not say.”

The former vice president has leaned on his eight years of service in what he likes to call “the Obama-Biden administration” since announcing his candidacy for the Democratic nomination last spring, but he’s becoming as explicit about it as ever. Biden’s staff set up teleprompters last night next to a podium in a gymnasium at the College of Charleston, but he ignored those accoutrements and paced with a wireless microphone. He claimed the 2009 stimulus package wouldn’t have passed without him. “The president asked me to handle it,” he said, referring to Obama. “The president said … ‘Sheriff Joe will do it.’” Biden also touted the Affordable Care Act. “Five Democratic presidents tried to get Obamacare or something like it passed,” he said. “We got it passed.”

AD

AD

Biden has started going after Sanders directly almost every chance he gets. “We’ve just had significant disagreements with Bernie, but the way he talks about it, you’d think he and Barack were close buddies,” he said Sunday night on MSNBC. “I know they were not.”

A fresh NBC News-Marist University poll helps explain why: Biden leads Sanders 27 percent to 23 percent among likely Democratic primary voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percent. Steyer places third with 15 percent. No one else breaks into double digits, but 27 percent of likely voters say they remain persuadable.

Biden is laser focused on the Palmetto State because he recognizes that failing here would functionally end his campaign. He hopes to ride momentum from a victory on Saturday to success in the other Southern states with large African American populations that vote one week from today on Super Tuesday. Reflecting his limited financial resources, Biden is not airing television ads in any of the states that vote next week.

AD

AD

In fact, Biden came to his Charleston rally from a fundraiser in Mount Pleasant at the home of a prominent local lawyer on the banks of Hobcaw Creek. State Sen. Marlon Kimpson (D), who is black, led the donors in a reprise of the “Fired up, ready to go” chant that was common during Obama rallies. “On the most fundamental decision that President Barack Obama had to make, and that is choosing a vice president, he chose Joe Biden and he has said, the president has said, that’s the best damn decision he has ever made,” Kimpson said at the fundraiser. “Don’t be confused by the fantasyland nirvana proposals. It ain’t going nowhere. Senator Sanders has spent more than 30 years up on Capitol Hill talking about the same thing, and nothing has passed. Let's not get it confused.”

Biden then ripped into Sanders for supporting a bill to limit liability for gun manufacturers. “Bernie’s a good guy,” said Biden. “He talks about how we all make mistakes. Well, he didn’t tell you he voted five times against the Brady Bill and the waiting period. He voted against allowing us to go up and sue the companies that created this havoc.”

The odds seem good that Sanders's purported flirtation with primarying Obama will come up during tonight’s debate, which begins at 8 p.m. Eastern and will air on CBS. The six other candidates onstage have each realized, to varying degrees, that Sanders could build an insurmountable lead in the hunt for delegates next Tuesday if nothing is done to bludgeon his momentum. The collective action problem complicates efforts to stop Sanders: Everyone wants to promote their own candidacy more than they want to stop Sanders. Going too negative could generate backlash and ill will from party activists. On the other hand, with the field still so fragmented, there are new incentives to try to emerge as Sanders’s chief detractor. That’s certainly the role that Mike Bloomberg wants to play. Bloomberg, who spent Monday cloistered at the Four Seasons in Orlando for debate prep, reportedly plans to go after Sanders for his gun-related votes.

AD

AD

For his part, Sanders is telegraphing a more conciliatory approach. Before his town hall on CNN, Sanders spoke last night at a dinner hosted by the South Carolina Democratic Party. Biden, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Pete Buttigieg and Steyer also delivered remarks at the Charleston Marriott. The Sanders campaign distributed the prepared text of his speech in advance. The senator was slated to criticize “the political establishment and some of my opponents.” But Sanders tossed these comments and instead emphasized his own electability. “I know you’re hearing a lot on TV, ‘Bernie can’t win,’” Sanders said. “Don’t believe everything you hear on TV.”

All of the voters I spoke with at Biden’s rally said his background as Obama’s wingman is an important asset weighing in his favor. Since Iowa, though, you hear much less from attendees at his events about electability and much more about likeability. Allison Pryor, 57, a retired probation and parole officer who lives in Charleston and is African American, said she’ll vote for Biden because he seems so relatable. She appreciated his perseverance after his wife died in a car crash and his son died of brain cancer. “He rode the train, and he’s always been like a cup of coffee: Regular Old Joe,” said Pryor. “Yes, it’s good to know he’d be a continuation of the Obama administration. But I think he can also stand on his own merits.”

A national poll conducted by Fox News in August found that 60 percent of Americans held a favorable impression of Obama, including 95 percent of both Democrats and African Americans, as well as 56 percent of independents. Among Democrats, 78 percent felt “strongly favorable” toward the former president and 17 percent were “somewhat favorable.”

AD

AD

But several voters I’ve interviewed around South Carolina have wondered why Obama’s not endorsing Biden if they’re so close. Biden claimed last April, dubiously, that he asked Obama “not to endorse” him so that the president could stay neutral. Others said they’ve seen ads online from Bloomberg highlighting how close he was with Obama as New York’s mayor.

“This is going to be Biden’s last stand because he thinks that black people are going to support him just because of Barack Obama,” said Connie Breeden, an attorney in Columbia who is African American. “He’s tooting that horn all the way to the bank. But people are savvier than that. He hasn’t done anything. What has he actually done for us? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. I’m leaning toward Steyer because he’s really put his money where his mouth is.”

Biden has also been invoking Obama as he steps up his attacks on Steyer, the X factor in this primary.The former V.P. blasted the billionaire from San Francisco over the weekend for investing in private prisons while he and Obama were in the White House trying to get rid of private prisons.

AD

AD

Steyer defended himself during his own CNN town hall last night. “I thought it was the right thing, I decided it was the wrong thing and, 15 years ago, I sold it for moral reasons,” he said. “I came to the conclusion that everyone has come to conclude now, that this isn't a place to make money.” Steyer added that he’s sought to atone for his past investment by funding initiatives in California to get rid of private prisons. “When I make a mistake, I correct it,” he said.

Many black voters draw a clear distinction between Obama and Biden. Steven Lykes, 44, a full-time caretaker, is torn between Sanders and Steyer. He backed Hillary Clinton in the primary four years ago, and his favorite candidate had been Elizabeth Warren for much of the past year. Lykes thinks the senator from Massachusetts is an amazing debater and loves her plans, but Warren’s lackluster finishes in the first three states gave him pause.

“Biden has run three different times,” Lykes said in Columbia. “I’m always scared because Donald Trump is a savvy campaigner. You’ve got to have someone who is on their tippy toes and ready to fight back. I don’t think Biden can do that. He has too many gaffes. You can see it in the debates. He’s having a hard enough time just against the candidates we have. But Bernie can stand up to Trump like nobody’s business.”

AD

AD

Obama’s shadow looms large in the minds of black voters in other ways that don’t necessarily help Biden. David Swinton, the former president of Benedict College in Columbia, a historically black liberal arts college, said he and his wife already cast their ballots early for Sanders. “We cannot be concerned about all the pundits who say he can’t win,” said Swinton. “Let’s not worry about that. Let’s vote for what we feel in our heart, rather than who might win. Remember, nobody thought Barack Obama could win. And he did.”

South Carolina does not have partisan voter registration, which means people can vote in whatever primary they want. An open primary means that there will be many moderate voters who may not like Trump but don’t necessarily swoon for Obama. There’s also buzz on the right, for example, that Republicans should vote for Sanders here to elevate his candidacy on the theory that he’d be much easier for Trump to defeat in the fall. This could be a factor in a close race.

Attitudes toward Obama are more complicated among white Democrats. Lifelong Democrat Doug Brafford, a retired lawyer who lives in Mount Pleasant, plans to support Buttigieg after backing Sanders in the primary four years ago. “One of the things that upsets me about Joe Biden is that, as vice president, he repeatedly denigrated Southerners,” said Brafford, 77. “When Obama said that people cling to their guns and religion, Biden didn’t speak out. He picked up where Obama left off. I love Obama with all my heart, but I think he’s divisive – and that matters to me.”

Brafford dislikes Trump, but he worries that his party’s nonstop attacks on the president hurt politically. That’s why he finds Buttigieg’s calls for civility so compelling. “We have been uncivil in this party,” said Brafford. “It may drive some middle-of-the-roaders to stay at home. It has turned some people off.”

It’s about more than personalities, too. Democrats are divided about the best approach to governing. The CBS-YouGov poll published on Sunday, which had Biden up 5 points over Sanders, found that 54 percent of likely Democratic voters in South Carolina think the party should nominate someone who is trying to “return the country to the way it was before Donald Trump took office,” and 46 percent said Democrats should instead “advance a more progressive agenda than the country had under Barack Obama.”

Obama himself left little doubt as to which way he’d answer that CBS poll question during a speech in November in which he urged Democrats running for the White House not to lurch too far left to win the nomination. “This is still a country that is less revolutionary than it is interested in improvement,” the former president said during a meeting of the Democracy Alliance, the powerful network of liberal megadonors, in what was covered at the time as a subtle rebuke of Sandersism. “They like seeing things improved. But the average American doesn’t think that we have to completely tear down the system and remake it. And I think it’s important for us not to lose sight of that.”

To be sure, African American voters in South Carolina revere Obama. Dorothy Hollis, 77, retired nine years ago after 40 years of teaching high school. Now she teaches Sunday school and sings in the choir at First Calvary Baptist Church in Columbia. As Saturday looms, she’s undecided and praying for guidance. “I want President Obama to run again, to be honest,” she said. “He was an outstanding president. Like Abraham Lincoln, those don’t come but every so often. So we have to take the next best thing and accept a flawed person and just go with it. But who is that?”

Hollis thought four years ago that Clinton would be a wonderful president, but she said none of the candidates in 2020 particularly excite her. “Sometimes it takes a devil to catch the Devil. It takes a thief to catch a thief. Sometimes it takes that. And I’m not sure we have that on the platform right now,” she said.

Her faith comforts her in what she sees as a perilous moment for the country. Hollis said she was “just so tickled” when heavy winds blew down a section of Trump’s border wall a few weeks ago before the cement hardened. To her, it was a sign. “God is good,” Hollis said. “To me, that was a warning. Those little things, those are warnings. You can’t fight against the powers that be. That wall is going to come down one way or another. Just ask Joshua.”

In the Book of Joshua, the walls of Jericho fall after the Israelites blow their trumpets. “If we don’t get anybody genuine to deal with this world, we’re going to all just perish,” she said. “The one will come.”

Welcome to The Daily 202, PowerPost’s essential briefing for decision makers.



More on 2020

Sanders's Cold War travels face fresh scrutiny.

Buttigieg and Bloomberg attacked the senator for his comments about Fidel Castro’s Cuba in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday night. Sanders said Castro deserved praise where it was due, including for a “massive literacy program.” “During the dying days of the Cold War, Sanders indulged a fascination with far more disruptive and divisive strains of a socialist ideology he has embraced throughout his adult life," Griff Witte reports. “Returning home from visits to some of the United States’ most avowed enemies, Sanders offered some criticism but also plenty of praise in Vermont community television recordings. … Now, Sanders’s comments are coming back to life as opponents say his warm feelings toward his hosts decades ago make him vulnerable to attack and reveal a soft spot for left-wing despots.”

Sanders defended his Castro comments during last night's CNN town hall. “You know what? I think teaching people to read and write is a good thing,” he said. “I have been extremely consistent and critical of all authoritarian regimes all over the world — including Cuba, including Nicaragua, including Saudi Arabia, including China, including Russia. I happen to believe in democracy, not authoritarianism. … But can anyone deny — I mean, the facts are clear — that [China has] taken more people out of extreme poverty than any country in history?" When pressed on Castro’s legacy, he responded, “Truth is truth. All right?”

Democrats fret this could cost them Florida in the general. Terrie Rizzo, the chair of the Florida Democratic Party, didn’t mention Sanders by name but released a statement saying Democrats in her state “stand in solidarity with the thousands of people who have fled violent dictatorships in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.” Two Democratic congresswomen from Florida – Debbie Mucarsel-Powell and Donna Shalala – took issue with the comments as well, with Shalala saying she hopes that Sanders “will take time to speak to some of my constituents before he decides to sing the praises of a murderous tyrant like Fidel Castro.” Sen. Robert Menendez (N.J.), the only Cuban American Democratic senator, also denounced Sanders’s comments.

Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) paused for 17 seconds last night when Paul Kane asked him if Sanders can win the general election. “I’m not sure I’m the right person to ask about winning a Democratic primary, but I think winning a primary election and winning a general election are two different things,” said Bennet, who dropped out of the presidential race after garnering less than 1 percent of the vote in New Hampshire. Bennet expressed concern that Sanders could make it harder for John Hickenlooper, the former governor of his state, to defeat Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.). Bennet, the former chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said he believes Democrats “need to nominate somebody in this process who is going to be able to win purple states like Colorado and lead us to a 55-senator majority in the Senate. That could be challenging.”

Biden claimed he was arrested trying to see Nelson Mandela. There’s no evidence of that.

“Biden, as a senator, was active in the anti-apartheid movement, helping pass sanctions on companies doing business in South Africa over President Ronald Reagan’s veto. But there is no evidence that Biden was ever arrested trying to see the imprisoned future president of a democratic South Africa,” fact checker Glenn Kessler writes. “As far as we can tell, Biden never mentioned this arrest before; neither can we locate any news accounts of him being arrested.”

A Sanders staffer was fired for mocking Warren’s looks and Buttigieg’s sexuality on Twitter.

“Using the account @perma_ben, Ben Mora, a regional field director for Sanders’ campaign based in Michigan, has attacked other Democrats in the field—as well as their family members, surrogates, journalists, and politically active celebrities—in deeply personal terms, mocking their physical appearance, gender, and sexuality, among other things,” the Daily Beast reports. “Mora, the Sanders campaign confirmed, has been fired.”

Sanders and his campaign have stepped up criticism of MSNBC.

“Sanders reportedly confronted MSNBC president Phil Griffin and another network executive last week before the NBC-sponsored Democratic debate in Las Vegas to complain about its coverage, including disparaging comments made by Chris Matthews and ‘Meet the Press’ host Chuck Todd. MSNBC has not confirmed the encounters took place, though it hasn’t disputed the report either,” Paul Farhi and Jenna Johnson report. “Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, told Vanity Fair last week that MSNBC ‘is constantly undermining the Bernie Sanders campaign.’ He has even said Fox News has been ‘more fair than MSNBC’ …

“The campaign’s ire was raised further by Matthews’s commentary as Sanders swept to an early lead in Nevada on Saturday. Matthews compared Sanders’s performance to Nazi Germany’s shattering military victory over France in the early months of World War II, suggesting Sanders’s path to the Democratic nomination was unstoppable. ‘It’s over,’ said Matthews, referring to a French prime minister’s assessment of the battle and possibly the war. The comparison was flawed in several respects (France was eventually liberated and Germany was crushed by allied forces), but Sanders’s representatives expressed outrage that Matthews had compared Sanders to Hitler’s soldiers, given that Sanders, a Jew, lost family members during the Holocaust. … Matthews apologized to Sanders on his program, ‘Hardball,’ on Monday night. ‘As I watched the one-sided results of Saturday’s Democratic caucus in Nevada, I reached for an historical analogy and used a bad one…,’ he said.”

Quote of the day

“We're going to spend Trump out of office,” Bloomberg campaign manager Kevin Sheekey told Vanity Fair.

In a historically old presidential field, candidates are still refusing to release their health records.

Klobuchar, 59, released four pages of medical documentation last night with recent lab results and a doctor’s letter that said she’s in “very good health.” Buttigieg, 38, has yet to release any medical records despite arguing last week that the candidates should undergo physical exams and disclose the results. Bloomberg, 78, released a single page from his doctor that said he’s in “great physical shape” and that he “plays golf avidly.” Biden, 77, released a three-page letter describing him as “healthy [and] vigorous.” Sanders, 78, released letters from three doctors – including a cardiologist who said he has “the mental and physical stamina” to be president. Warren, 70, released five pages of documents revealing a thyroid condition and a doctor’s letter declaring her in “excellent health.” (Matt Viser and Lenny Bernstein)

A Minneapolis inmate blamed Klobuchar for what he claims was a wrongful conviction.

“She recharged me with first degree murder, never looked into the facts of the case. Never looked into the misconduct that had taken place,” Myon Burrell told ABC News. He was convicted for the 2002 first-degree murder of 11-year-old Tyesha Edwards. Recently, an AP investigation has cast doubt over the murder investigation and the police tactics used. Klobuchar, Burrell said, “never even addressed the misconduct that had taken place and still put the same detective, the same police on my case to go and get more bogus evidence.” In a statement to ABC, Klobuchar once again called for a review of the case.

Presidential candidates are rebranding Rep. Jim Clyburn’s anti-poverty program as reparations.

“Clyburn (D-S.C.), whose district encompasses eight of the state’s poorest counties, has long opposed cash payments to African Americans whose ancestors were enslaved. He believes it would be too difficult to determine who deserves to be compensated. But a race-neutral anti-poverty program he conceived a decade ago is now catching fire among candidates for the Democratic nomination as a way to provide practical restitution for slavery,” Tracy Jan reports. “Several presidential hopefuls, including [Sanders and Klobuchar], have sought to rebrand Clyburn’s program as a vehicle for reparations, which remain politically contentious. Clyburn’s idea, with strong bipartisan support, was originally adopted in 2009 by just one federal agency. But framing the program, which targets federal spending on certain high-poverty areas, as reparations has drawn criticism from African Americans living in poor urban neighborhoods — some in Clyburn’s own district — that do not qualify for the funding, as well as longtime advocates for reparations. The critique underlines the difficulty of finding a solution that would satisfy those demanding redress and also be politically viable.”

The State newspaper in Columbia endorses Buttigieg in today’s edition.

“During the last half-century, the Democratic Party has only won the presidency when it has resisted the temptation to pick status-quo nominees and shown the courage to choose centrist outsiders with fresh, optimistic messages,” the editorial explains. “Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama prevailed in part because they understood the values of real-world America. All three successfully connected with voters by tapping into the sensibilities of average Americans. Buttigieg has gained that needed perspective during his eight years leading South Bend, a Midwestern city that had to reinvent itself and cast aside a Rust Belt image.”

Silicon Valley asked Warren for help with a fundraiser. Her campaign considered it.

“Warren’s team in recent weeks explored ways to raise money from Silicon Valley donors without violating her ironclad fundraising pledge to not ‘sell access to my time,’” Recode reports. “The Democratic presidential campaign considered an inbound request to have a campaign representative — such as an endorser, a staff member, or a high-level volunteer leader — attend a now-canceled high-dollar event in the Bay Area, according to several people familiar with the discussions.”

Trump’s former doctor thought he had a ticket to Congress. It might not be that easy.

Ronny Jackson is one of 15 candidates in a crowded Republican primary in Texas, and the White House hasn’t gone out of its way to help, the New York Times reports. “Jackson left the West Wing in December after rising from Trump’s physician to his unlikely pick to lead the Department of Veterans Affairs to Trump administration roadkill when he was forced to withdraw his name from consideration amid allegations related to his professional conduct. Now he’s running for Congress in Texas’ 13th District, one of the most conservative in the country, and his argument is simple… Jackson is betting his personal connection with the president is enough to win the Republican nomination tantamount to election. … But it is not clear if that connection, combined with his background as a Navy rear admiral, will be enough to help Dr. Jackson overcome some rookie mistakes as a candidate.”

The new world order

Trump said the U.S.-India relationship has “never been as good” as it is now.

The president and “Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailed the growing defense ties between the world’s two largest democracies even as they acknowledged that a trade deal between them remains distant. During his second day in India, Trump is holding formal meetings with the Indian leadership, making a visit to the U.S. Embassy and attending a state banquet in New Delhi,” Joanna Slater reports. “Trump began Tuesday by participating in a grand ceremonial welcome and visiting a memorial to Mohandas Gandhi … There will be no huge crowds or tourism for the president today.

“On Monday, as Trump arrived in India, violence broke out in Delhi between supporters and opponents of [Modi’s] controversial new citizenship law. Critics say the law is unconstitutional and discriminates against Muslims. … [Violence continued today], police told local media that the death toll from Monday’s violence had climbed to seven, including one police officer. More than 100 people were injured, according to media reports. Heavy police presence in the affected areas failed to stem the violence. … Home Minister Amit Shah, Modi’s second-in-command, chaired a meeting with top officials and the Delhi state leadership. The government ruled out calling the army for assistance and said there were adequate security forces on the ground. …

“First lady Melania Trump visited a public school in New Delhi to attend a ‘happiness class,’ part of a special curriculum introduced across India’s capital in 2018 to emphasize well-being alongside academic achievement. … [Meanwhile], Trump and Modi claimed progress Tuesday toward a comprehensive trade deal, but a chummy atmosphere between the two leaders during Trump’s state visit could not mask frustration that the long-delayed pact is still in limbo. Trump predicted that a successful deal is in the offing but gave no deadline. The United States had once hoped to have the agreement ready in September, when Modi visited the United States.”

Trump’s acting director of national intelligence worked for a nonprofit group funded mostly by Hungary.

“[Richard] Grenell’s public relations firm was paid to do work for a U.S. nonprofit funded almost entirely by the Hungarian government led by far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban,” Emma Brown, Beth Reinhard and Dalton Bennett report. Individuals who have served as acting directors of national intelligence “typically have been nonpartisan national security professionals whose experience has included leading intelligence agencies or service in the military. Now that promotion is drawing fresh scrutiny to Grenell’s past, including his foreign affairs commentary and consulting work after he served as U.S. spokesman at the United Nations during the George W. Bush administration. His work for the Hungarian-funded nonprofit is the type of activity that, in other cases, has drawn the attention of Justice Department investigators tasked with enforcing the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA).”

The White House asked Congress for an emergency $1.8 billion to bolster the response.

“The request includes $1.25 billion in new funding for the Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the ability to transfer an additional $535 million set aside to fight Ebola and use it for the coronavirus response instead,” Erica Werner, Jeff Stein and Lena Sun report. “The request reflects the fast-evolving nature of the crisis confronting the administration, which until recently had insisted that no additional funds were necessary. But Democrats immediately slammed the request as too small, with House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.) calling it ‘woefully insufficient to protect Americans’ and criticizing the administration for trying to ‘raid’ money from other public health accounts.”

The market plunge yesterday underscored the coronavirus’s political risk to Trump.

“The Trump administration’s disjointed handling of the outbreak has faced mounting criticism as the president’s allies have scrambled to take preventive steps while seeking to reassure the public, at times struggling to explain their decisions and offer a consistent message,” Toluse Olorunnipa and Costa report. “For a president who has governed ‘by tweet and circus,’ a potential global health crisis that blunts economic growth could expose one of Trump’s main weaknesses as he prepares to face voters in November, said Russell Riley, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center.”

New virus cases in China and North Korea raised concerns about how long it could take to go back to normal.

“The Chinese government said Tuesday that there had been 508 new confirmed cases by the end of the previous day, along with 74 deaths, bringing the total number of accumulated infections nationwide to 77,658, with 2,663 deaths,” Adam Taylor and Wang Yuan report. “A Chinese official suggested Monday evening that the country needs at least 28 days without new cases to show the virus is not spreading. … The remarks drew thousands of comments on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service, where many wondered how long they would have to wait before normal life resumed. ‘Two months will have 60% of enterprises killed!’ one user wrote.”

A California judge delayed a decision on moving coronavirus-exposed Americans.

“A federal judge on Monday directed federal and state officials to answer the questions of Costa Mesa, Calif., residents about their plans to bring Americans who have tested positive for the coronavirus but show no signs of illness to a closed ­mental-health facility in the city,” Jeff Rowe and Yasmeen Abutaleb report. “District Judge Josephine Staton cautioned that the city — and Orange County if it joins the effort — does not have veto power over state and federal quarantine decisions and faces an uphill battle trying to block the transfer of people from Travis Air Force Base in Northern California.”

Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s autocratic ruler whose power came to an end during the Arab Spring uprisings, died at 91. (Will Englund and T. Rees Shapiro)

Domestic developments that shouldn't be overlooked

Harvey Weinstein was found guilty on two charges of sexual assault.

“The jury determined that Weinstein forced oral sex on former production assistant Mimi Haleyi at his apartment in July 2006 and raped former aspiring actress Jessica Mann at a hotel in 2013,” Shayna Jacobs reports. “He was found not guilty of the most severe charges, of predatory sexual assault, which would have acknowledged a pattern that included forcing sex on actress Annabella Sciorra in 1993 or 1994. Weinstein, 67, faces at least five years and up to 25 on the count of first-degree criminal sex act for his assault on Haleyi, and up to four years on a third-degree rape count for the Mann encounter. The judge can consider running the sentences consecutively, for a maximum of 29 years. Sentencing is scheduled for March 11. After the verdict announcement, Weinstein was handcuffed and taken to jail, and his bail was revoked.

“Weinstein’s lawyers are expected to appeal the conviction on the basis of several concerns, including the amount of media attention on the case and the fact that the three supporting accusers were permitted to testify even though charges were not brought on their behalf. The appeal must be filed after sentencing. … Weinstein lawyer Donna Rotunno told reporters, ‘He took it like a man. He knows this is not over.'"

Advocates hailed the Weinstein conviction as a breakthrough.

“‘This is one of those days when the whole world changes,’ said Jane Manning, a former sex-crimes prosecutor in New York and director of the Women’s Equal Justice Project. ‘A sexual predator who was so powerful that he thought he could never be touched has just been held accountable,’” Caitlin Gibson and Elahe Izadi report. ”Deborah Tuerkheimer, a professor of law at Northwestern University, noted that most sexual assault cases that enter the legal system are more likely to fit the stereotypical ‘stranger rape’ paradigm — involving a woman who is assaulted by someone she doesn’t know, resulting in apparent physical injury and, potentially, DNA evidence. The Weinstein case, in contrast, presented a far more complicated portrait of sexual violence — and the fact that New York prosecutors even filed charges against him is ‘extraordinary,’ she said.”

Mitch McConnell, after months of legislative inactivity, will now force votes on abortion.

“McConnell is about to plunge the Senate into the nation’s culture wars with votes on bills to sharply restrict access to late-term abortions and threaten some doctors who perform them with criminal penalties, signaling that Republicans plan to make curbing a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy a central theme of their re-election campaigns this year,” the Times reports. “After months of shunning legislative activity in favor of confirming [Trump’s] judicial nominees — and a brief detour for the president’s impeachment trial — [McConnell] is expected to bring the bills up for votes on Tuesday. Both lack the necessary 60-vote supermajority to advance, and the Senate has voted previously to reject them. But by putting them on the floor again, Mr. McConnell hopes to energize the social conservatives who helped elect Mr. Trump.”

An appeals court upheld the Trump move to withdraw Title X funding for abortions.

“The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals -- long regarded as a liberal body, though Trump appointees have started to tilt the balance -- lifted preliminary injunctions against the rules issued by lower courts in cases from three different states,” Fox News reports. “Xavier Becerra, attorney general of California, one of the states that sued over the regulations, said the Ninth Circuit's ruling was ‘troubling.’”

Justice Clarence Thomas cited himself in arguing to overturn a decision he authored.

“‘Although I authored Brand X, 'it is never too late to ‘surrende[r] former views to a better considered position,' Thomas wrote in his Monday dissent, quoting himself from a 2018 opinion in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc,” Fox reports. “Thomas has recently been quite vocal in advocating for the court to overturn a variety of precedents, saying in one opinion last year that when ‘faced with a demonstrably erroneous precedent, my rule is simple: We should not follow it.’”

Oregon lawmakers were supposed to vote on a climate change bill. Once again, Republicans walked out.

“For the second time in eight months, Oregon Republicans walked out of the capitol, denying the Democratic supermajority a chance to pass a bill that would limit greenhouse gas emissions. By absconding, the 11 GOP lawmakers prevented the quorum necessary to vote on the legislation and forced Democrats to adjourn for the day,” Reis Thebault reports. “It was the same tactic Republican lawmakers employed in June, when they fled to Idaho to avoid a vote on an earlier version of the same cap-and-trade bill, prompting Oregon’s governor to call in state troopers to track them down and return them to the statehouse."

The TSA froze hiring and overtime pay as the spring travel season nears.

“Hydrick Thomas, the [TSA] union’s president, said agency officials told him last week that the freezes would be in place until April or May,” Ian Duncan reports. “That could leave security checkpoints short-staffed, he said. ‘You’re going to have long lines,’ Thomas said. ‘That’s just the way it works.’”

Vanessa Bryant sued the helicopter operator in the crash that killed her husband and daughter, and 7 others.

“The lawsuit alleges that the helicopter company, Island Express, was ‘vicariously liable’ for any and all actions of pilot Ara George Zobayan, including his ‘negligent and careless piloting,'” Lori Aratani reports.

The suit was filed the same day thousands gathered at the Staples Center to remember the victims. “[Bryant's] public memorial Monday sparked a heartbreaking tribute from his wife, Vanessa; brought Michael Jordan to tears; and led former teammate Shaquille O’Neal to share behind-the-scenes anecdotes during a two-hour ceremony,” Ben Golliver and Cindy Boren report. "NBA Commissioner Adam Silver; Hall of Famers Bill Russell, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar; current stars ­Stephen Curry and Kyrie Irving; and dozens of other prominent athletes and entertainers [attended] the celebration of life."

Social media speed read

Trump shared a video recap of India's welcome:

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner are on the trip, and they posted shots from the Taj Mahal:

Those images of the Trump’s lavish visit clashed jarringly with pictures of protesters, speaking out against Modi’s anti-Muslim policies, being viciously attacked by police:

A member of the president's coronavirus response team struggled to access a publicly available coronavirus map:

The Bloomberg campaign made a Twitter thread calling out vandalism on different campaign offices, including one in Flint, Mich. It backfired. Consider this from the former secretary of labor:

Videos of the day

Stephen Colbert reviewed Trump’s performance in India:

Trevor Noah looked at some of the things India is doing to give Trump a memorable experience: