Nancy Pelosi Blocks Additional Small Business Relief Funds; Pelosi Presses Mnuchin on $500B Coronavirus ‘Interim’ Package

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By The Conservative Treehouse. The initial coronavirus relief funding package (CARES Act) included $380 billion targeted to small businesses as part of the larger congressional relief package. Within the SBA section small and medium businesses can apply for loans to cover payroll (75%), called payroll protection plan (ppp); and expenses (25%). If the PPP funding is used to keep employees on payroll the loan is forgiven. Thousands of businesses have applied. . .

Senator McConnell framed a bill to provide the additional funds and asked for unanimous consent to advance the legislation. However, speaker Pelosi doesn’t want to miss an opportunity to add pet project (constituent funding) to the bill. Speaker Pelosi instructed Senator Ben Cardin to object to the unanimous consent request and block the funds. (Read more from “Pelosi Blocks Additional Small Business Relief Funds” HERE)

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Pelosi Presses Mnuchin on $500B Coronavirus ‘Interim’ Package

By The Hill. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday pressed the Trump administration to boost funding for states and hospitals in the next round of coronavirus relief, which stalled in the Senate a day earlier.

In a phone call with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Pelosi said that while Democrats support an additional $250 billion for small businesses, as the administration and congressional Republicans have proposed, they’ll also insist on language ensuring that businesses owned by minorities, and those operating in rural areas, are able to access the funds quickly, according to Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill. . .

“[Pelosi] reiterated Democrats’ position that the initiative must not solidify the disparity in access to capital faced by many small businesses in underserved areas,” Hammill said in an email. . .

Democrats also want an additional $150 billion for state and local governments, to help facilitate the emergency response, and $100 billion more for hospitals and community health centers providing front-line care in the coronavirus fight. Those requests come on top of the $150 billion for states, and roughly $120 billion for hospitals, already adopted late last month in the $2.2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act. (Read more from “Pelosi Presses Mnuchin on $500B Coronavirus ‘Interim’ Package” HERE)

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Barr Says Evidence From Durham Investigation Is ‘Far More Troubling’ Than Mistakes or Sloppiness; AG Says Investigation Was to ‘Sabotage’ President Trump

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By Washington Examiner. Attorney General William Barr shed new light on U.S. Attorney John Durham’s review of the Russia investigation.

He told Fox News host Laura Ingraham that Connecticut’s top federal prosecutor is unearthing troubling evidence and vowed prosecutions if laws were broken and a case can be made.

“My own view is that the evidence shows that we’re not dealing with just mistakes or sloppiness. There is something far more troubling here, and we’re going to get to the bottom of it. And if people broke the law, and we can establish that with the evidence, they will be prosecuted,” Barr said in the segment of the interview that aired Thursday evening.

Durham was appointed last year by Barr to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation and to review possible misconduct by federal law enforcement and intelligence officials. The review upgraded into a criminal investigation in the fall, giving the prosecutor the power to impanel a grand jury and hand down indictments. The attorney general told Durham to focus just as much on the time period after the 2016 election as before it.

“He is looking to bring to justice people who are engaged in abuses if he can show that they were criminal violations, and that’s what the focus is on,” Barr said. “And as you know, being a lawyer you yourself, building these cases — especially the kinds of sprawling case we have between us that went on for two or three years here — it takes some time — it takes some time to build the case. So, he’s diligently pursuing it.” (Read more from “Barr Says Evidence From Durham Investigation Is ‘Far More Troubling’ Than Mistakes or Sloppiness” HERE)

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Barr Claims Trump-Russia Investigation Was FBI Attempt to ‘Sabotage’ the President

By The Guardian. William Barr has said without evidence that he believes the Russia investigation that shadowed Donald Trump for the first two years of his administration was started without any basis and amounted to an effort to “sabotage the presidency”, he said in an interview with Fox News Channel that aired on Thursday.

The attorney general offered no support for his assertion that the FBI lacked a basis for opening the investigation and made no mention of the fact that the bureau began its investigation after a Trump campaign adviser purported to have early knowledge that Russia had dirt on his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton.

Barr, who has appointed a US attorney to scrutinize the origins of the Russia investigation, said the justice department has evidence there was “something far more troubling” than just mistakes during the investigation that was eventually taken over by special counsel Robert Mueller. (Read more from “Barr Claims Trump-Russia Investigation Was FBI Attempt to ‘Sabotage’ the President” HERE)

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Saudi Arabia and Russia Reach Deal to End Oil Price War

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Saudi Arabia and Russia ended their price war and are poised to deliver the oil production cut President Trump has been demanding in order to raise historically low prices that have damaged the U.S. shale industry.

Saudi-led OPEC and its allies agreed in principle to a deal during an unprecedented emergency remote video meeting Thursday to cut production by 10 million barrels per day beginning in May.

The agreement for that level of cuts would last for two months, with reductions subsequently leveling off through April 2022 depending on progress in containing the coronavirus outbreak. Trump spoke Thursday night with Russian President Vladimir Putin and King Salman of Saudi Arabia to discuss finalizing the oil production cut deal.

After the call, Trump said at his daily press conference that “they are getting close to a deal.” . . .

Trump has been pushing Saudi Arabia and Russia to cut output in the hopes that less crude on the market will raise oil prices, which have fallen by two-thirds since the start of the year and reached a 18-year low last month. (Read more from “Saudi Arabia and Russia Reach Deal to End Oil Price War” HERE)

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WATCH: Trump Coronavirus Campaign Ad Features Joe Biden Cheerleading for China; Joe Biden Is China’s Choice for President

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By Breitbart. President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign released a new ad on Thursday attacking former Vice President Joe Biden for his past support of China.

“During America’s crisis, Biden protected China’s feelings,” the text of the ad reads.

The ad features Biden’s past positive comments about China, as more Americans suffer from the coronavirus that first came from China.

(Read more from “Trump Coronavirus Campaign Ad Features Joe Biden Cheerleading for China” HERE)

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Joe Biden Is China’s Choice for President

By National Review. The Democratic Party has always been weak on national security when it comes to China. But some credit is due when it comes to China’s atrocious human-rights record and its theft of American jobs. For a generation, prominent Democrats loudly criticized Beijing on these fronts, well before Donald Trump helped form a new national consensus on China. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have been longstanding China trade hawks, for instance. Even a socialist like Bernie Sanders has been a reliable critic.

And Joe Biden? Well, he’s on China’s side — not yours.

Despite the occasional box-checking, wishy-washy comment slapping Beijing on the wrist for the worst of its abuses, the reality is that the former vice president’s support of the People’s Republic of China is deep and longstanding. In the critical fight over whether to grant most-favored-nation trade status and World Trade Organization membership to China in the 1990s — a fight in which, again, many of his party’s leaders in Congress were on the right side — Biden carefully shepherded China through the process from his powerful perch as the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Wherever a brake might have been applied — by placing human-rights or labor conditions on most-favored-nation status, for example — Biden voted the measures down and lobbied other senators for Beijing. Unfortunately, China and Biden got their way, and American workers are still suffering from it.

It should have been a warning on more fronts than one when President Obama recruited Biden to his ticket to buttress his credibility on foreign policy; unsurprisingly, there was no about-face on Beijing. As the Chinese Communist Party gained strength and Xi Jinping seized absolute power, Biden continued to push for closer ties and even more trade. As for American workers? In February 2012, in friendly remarks with Xi standing next to him, Biden praised Beijing as a “new partner” that would help to meet “global challenges,” and said Americans “welcome this competition. . . . It pushes our companies to develop better products and services and our government to craft better policies.” Millions of American jobs were disappearing as he spoke, and the militarization of the South China Sea was just around the corner. (Read more from “Joe Biden Is China’s Choice for President” HERE)

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Graham: Senate Should Punish China ‘Severely’ for Causing Pandemic; WHO Head Cries Racism to Cover for His Enabling of China’s Lies About Coronavirus

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By Breitbart. Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said the Chinese government is to blame for the coronavirus pandemic, which caused American deaths and record unemployment.

Graham said, “The first thing I want to do is get the United States Senate on the record where we, we don’t blame Trump, we blame China. The Chinese government is responsible for 16,000 American deaths and 17 million Americans being unemployed. It’s the Chinese government and the way they behave that led to this pandemic. This is the third one to come out of China. I want to make our response to this so overwhelming that China will change its behavior.” (Read more from “Graham: Senate Should Punish China ‘Severely’ for Causing Pandemic” HERE)

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WHO Head Cries Racism to Cover for His Enabling of China’s Lies About Coronavirus

By New York Post. In answer to global complaints that he helped China lie about the coronavirus threat in the crucial early days of the pandemic, the World Health Organization’s top dog has opted to play the race card.

That’s right: WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus is complaining that Taiwan is fostering supposedly racist attacks against him, and even death threats.

But he can’t even offer details beyond saying he’s been called names, “black or negro.”

In reality, the whole world has legitimate gripes about TAG’s blatant and loathsome loyalty to Beijing — apparent payback for China’s role in installing him as WHO’s boss.

All through January, Tedros and his minions vouched for Chinese authorities’ lies about the coronavirus, misleading other nations’ health authorities into underestimating the threat. (Read more from “Who Head Cries Racism to Cover for His Enabling of China’s Lies About Coronavirus” HERE)

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Columnist: ‘If Biden Is Serious About Winning He Needs to Accuse Trump of Willingness to Kill People’; Joe Biden’s Plan to Win Over Bernie Supporters

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By The Blaze. The Washington Post’s #NeverTrump, self-proclaimed conservative columnist Jennifer Rubin took her constant attacks against President Donald Trump to a whole new level on Thursday, saying that if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden “is serious about winning he needs to accuse Trump of willingness to kill people.” . . .

Rubin shared a headline from The Post’s live COVID-19 updates on Twitter that read, “U.S. death toll climbs, but signs emerge that new coronavirus cases…” before trailing off.

The columnist wrote in her message, “If Biden is serious about winning he needs to accuse Trump of willingness to kill people.”

Rubin’s unsolicited campaign advice to Biden did not go ever well on social media, and she was overwhelmingly criticized for her take.

The writer did not elaborate on her view, but the body of The Post’s update shared by Rubin began, “President Trump on Thursday said mass testing for the coronavirus is not necessary for the United States to get back to normal, contradicting experts who say widespread testing is critical to ease out of social distancing.” (Read more from “Columnist: ‘If Biden Is Serious About Winning He Needs to Accuse Trump of Willingness to Kill People'” HERE)

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Joe Biden’s Plan to Win Over Bernie Supporters

By Medium. Two important steps we can take to help ease the economic burden on working people — and that I will take when I am President. . .

Congress has moved to help with the CARES Act, but they must do more. In addition to funds to keep workers on payroll, the next recovery package will need to provide significant funds to states, to make sure that educators and health care workers and first responders can keep getting paid. It will have to provide hazard pay to frontline workers putting themselves at risk. It will have to provide health care coverage for millions who lose their insurance, by allowing them to stay on their health care plans and covering the cost, as well as reopening enrollment for Obamacare and creating the public option I’ve been calling for. It will have to extend unemployment benefits, and provide further direct cash relief, and take care of the people left out of the CARES Act, through an immediate cancellation of a minimum of $10,000 of student debt per person, as proposed by Senator Warren, and Social Security boosts. And so much more. . .

And that’s just immediate relief. Then comes recovery. Recovery will require long term changes to build a more inclusive and more resilient middle class, and a greener and more resilient economy. We have to think big — as big as the challenges we face. As we start to lay the groundwork for recovery, we have to build back better for the future. . .

So, as the next step in building on the progressive vision for the country that I have laid out across the course of my campaign, today I’m announcing my intention to fight for two new policies that I believe will not only help people right now when they may need the help most, but will also help people find more secure footing in the long term once we have emerged from this crisis. The first is lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60, and the second is forgiving student debt for low-income and middle class people who have attended public colleges and universities. (Read more from “Joe Biden’s Plan to Win Over Bernie Supporters” HERE)

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New York Hospital Discharges Outpace New Admissions for 4th Straight Day

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By The Epoch Times. Hospitals in New York state have discharged more COVID-19 patients than they have added for four days in a row, according to the latest data from the state hit hardest by the CCP virus pandemic.

Hospitals in the state discharged 1,709 COVID-19 patients on April 4, while admitting 574 patients. The number of daily discharges had also surpassed the daily admissions on the three prior days, state data shows.

“Discharge rate is way up and that’s great news,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on April 5.

New York has been the U.S. epicenter for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, also known as the novel coronavirus. While New York City has borne the brunt of the outbreak, there has been an increasing shift to Long Island, which now accounts for 22 percent of the state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations. (Read more from “New York Hospital Discharges Outpace New Admissions for 4th Straight Day” HERE)

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Fauci Says Coronavirus Hospitalizations Are Dropping Because Social Distancing Is Working

By CNN. The number of coronavirus patients in New York and Connecticut is starting to rise at a slower rate and the nation’s top infectious disease official says it’s a sign that social distancing is working.

“At the same time as we’re seeing the increase in deaths, we’re seeing a rather dramatic decrease in the need for hospitalizations,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told reporters at a White House briefing Thursday.

“That means that what we are doing is working and therefore we need to continue to do it,” Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added. (Read more from “Fauci Says Coronavirus Hospitalizations Are Dropping Because Social Distancing Is Working” HERE)

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New Satellites Will Be a Big Step in the Pentagon’s Plan to Link Everything

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. . .The U.S. military’s push to link every object on the battlefield leaped forward Thursday with the release of a request for proposals to build 20 tactical-communications satellites by 2022.

The year-old Space Development Agency, or SDA, hosted an industry day to tell satellite makers about its plans for “transport layer”: essentially, orbiting communications nodes to transfer data related to intelligence, battle management, navigation and timing; and more.

The transport layer won’t replace the military’s existing communications satellites or the commercial ones whose services it rents, SDA director Derek Tournear told reporters. Instead the new layer will focus on “tactical data points that need to be given to a weapon system.” It will ferry very-time-sensitive data from drones, satellites in low Earth orbit, and other sensors. Pentagon officials received $25 million to develop and flight-test the satellites in the 2020 budget, and have asked for just under $100 million in 2021, said Tournear.

A slide from Thursday’s industry day explains how the transport layer would be the middle one in SDA’s plans for a three-tier space architecture. The lowest layer will consist of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance satellites flying about 600 km above the earth. The Pentagon has said that this sensor layer is crucial for tracking future highly maneuverable hypersonic weapons, spotting missile launchers, and noting sudden troop movements. Those satellites will send the data up to the transport layer, which itself will fly beneath a second layer of sensor satellites orbiting at roughly 1,200 km. These would also be able to watch and track the trajectory of hypersonic or other missiles. All of the satellites will work to share timing and navigation data with the ground, essentially serving as an alternative GPS system. (Read more from “New Satellites Will Be a Big Step in the Pentagon’s Plan to Link Everything” HERE)

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‘Here We Go Again’: Pelosi, Schiff Plot New Probe of Trump; Pelosi in No Rush on Next Coronavirus Stimulus Deal

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By Washington Times. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has spent the last three-plus years investigating President Trump, and each time, she’s come up empty. . .

Mrs. Pelosi announced last week that she is setting up a select House committee to “assure that the taxpayer dollars are being wisely and efficiently spent” — but the California Democrat also said she wants to “examine all aspects of the federal response to the coronavirus.” . . .

Meanwhile, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who led the failed impeachment process, on Friday proposed the establishment of a bipartisan commission — also with subpoena power — to investigate the Trump administration’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Mr. Schiff, another California Democrat, wants to set up a “9/11-style commission” of 10 lawmakers to review the administration’s actions and probe the government’s preparedness in advance of the COVID-19 pandemic. . .

Imagine that. Imagine lawmakers calling federal health officials off the front lines and into the House chambers to answer a bunch of biased questions, including “What did Trump know and when did he know it?” (Read more from “‘Here We Go Again’: Pelosi, Schiff Plot New Probe of Trump” HERE)

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Pelosi in No Rush on Next Coronavirus Stimulus Deal

By The Independent. Democrats are in no rush to furnish additional funds for the Treasury Department’s new small business paycheck protection programme (PPP), which received more than $350 billion from Congress last month.

“They still have two-thirds of it left. So we have time to negotiate how or when or where we need money there,” speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the initial funding for PPP, which has already lent out more than $100bn to help small companies deal with the coronavirus pandemic, roughly 30 percent of its initial allotment from Congress.

The last time Ms Pelosi spoke to Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin, who has been the Trump administration’s lead negotiator on coronavirus response legislation, was Tuesday.

“No, I have not spoken to the secretary today,” the speaker said.

Ms Pelosi has acknowledged that Congress’ next bill responding to the health crisis will not include more wide-ranging Democratic priorities such as a sweeping infrastructure package. It may not immediately extend some provisions from the $2.2trn “CARES Act” that will provide direct cash payments of $1,200 to most American taxpayers. Negotiations for those Democratic wish-list items will come down the line. (Read more from “Pelosi in No Rush on Next Coronavirus Stimulus Deal” HERE)

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Democrats Say Voting Is Undemocratic (VIDEO)

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Democrats are livid that Wisconsin held an election on Tuesday. DNC chairman Tom Perez said, “This was a dark day for our democracy.”

The Democrat governor tried to use the COVID-19 panic to postpone the election. Both the Supreme Court and the state Supreme Court ruled against him in different aspects of his attempt to rewrite state election law. . .

Perez is all upset. He said, “This was a dark day for our democracy. In the middle of one of the worst public health emergencies in modern history, the Republican Party forced the people of Wisconsin to choose between their safety and their vote. The craven self-interest of the GOP knows no bounds.”

Rolling Stone called voting in Wisconsin an “aggressive voter disenfranchisement methods during a pandemic that will force citizens to decide between their health and their right to vote.” (Read more from “Democrats Say Voting Is Undemocratic (VIDEO)” HERE)

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