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Abrams garners praise from Democrats on the verge of achieving a long-held dream: Flipping Georgia

InternationalNov 07. 2020On Election Day in Georgia’s DeKalb County, Stacey Abrams led an event with voters at the Coan Recreation Center in Atlanta. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Melina Mara 

By The Washington Post · Vanessa Williams, Reis Thebault · NATIONAL, POLITICS, RACE

Stacey Abrams did not deny her anger when Republican Brian Kemp was declared the winner of the Georgia governor’s race two years ago, after a bitter contest marred by widespread irregularities and allegations of voter suppression.

Instead, she channeled that anger into the work she had started years before to organize and mobilize an army of voters to break the Republican Party’s lock on state politics and create a government that looked more like the new Georgia.

That army, anchored in metro Atlanta and in smaller pockets of predominantly black cities and counties, helped to push former vice president Joe Biden ahead of President Donald Trump in Georgia this week. Democrats are on the verge of achieving a long-held dream: flipping Georgia, which hasn’t voted for a presidential nominee of that party since 1992.

That optimism is giving further hope to the party that its Senate candidates have a fighting chance in two runoff elections expected to unfold in January.

Abrams, 46, who was the first black woman to win a major-party gubernatorial nomination, was roundly applauded by Democratic political leaders and activists on social media and elsewhere Friday after Biden overtook Trump in ballots counted in Georgia. The state is continuing to tally overseas and military ballots and plans to conduct a recount.

The accolades often mentioned the overall work of Black women, among the most engaged and active segments of the Democratic electorate – both as voters and as activists like Abrams, who register voters, rally them to the polls and, more and more, run for office.

Throughout the 2018 governor’s race, Abrams criticized Kemp for refusing to step down as secretary of state, whose office oversees elections, while he was running for governor. She also called him the “architect of voter suppression.”

When the contest ended with Abrams trailing by 55,000 votes, she refused to concede to Kemp – a decision that conservatives and Republicans have criticized. Instead, she filed a lawsuit against the state for “gross negligence” in managing the election and formed a political group called Fair Fight Action, focused on battling restrictive laws and educating people on how to protect their right to vote.

Abrams has said she thought it was important not to just walk away from 1.9 million voters who backed her candidacy, many of them new voters or those who hadn’t cast ballots in recent elections because they didn’t think it would make a difference.

National party leaders lobbied her heavily to run for the Senate this year, and Biden considered her during his search for a running mate. She became a sought-after speaker at political and issues conferences, on news shows, and on late-night talk shows, sounding the alarm about what she said was an assault on the rights of young, liberal and multiracial voters by the Republican Party. Fair Fight Action raised tens of millions of dollars to finance voter education and protection initiatives in battleground states around the country.

Friday morning, Abrams posted a tweet thanking organizations and activists who also have worked to increase the numbers and participation of liberal voters. Dozens responded with praise for Abrams, including Hillary Clinton, actress Viola Davis and basketball star LeBron James.

Abrams’s spokesman said she had no further comment Friday, but in remarks to a coalition of liberal activists Wednesday, she talked about her approach to change, which she said relies on hard work, patience and picking up after setbacks.

“What matters is that we tried and we made progress. That’s what we’ve done in Georgia. Election after election, year after year, when people compared us to Lucy and the football with Charile Brown. Why bother because it’s never going to happen? Well, we made the possible happen, and we can do it across this country, we can do it in every community, and we can do it on every issue because we will not stop. We will not give in, we will not give up, but more importantly, we will dream bigger than they think our imaginations can contain.”

Since 2018, Abrams said, 800,000 new voters have been added to Georgia’s voting rolls, 49% of whom are younger than 30 and 4% of whom are people of color, both groups more likely to vote Democratic.

On Friday, Democratic Senate candidate Jon Ossoff held a rally where he praised Abrams for leading efforts to register and turn out voters – without whom Ossoff would not be headed to a runoff against Republican Sen. David Perdue. Georgia’s other Republican senator, Kelly Loeffler, in a separate runoff will face Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock, who was the top vote-getter in a special election also held Tuesday. Abrams has said she will work to elect both Democrats.

“We are now seeing that change has come to Georgia, and Georgia is part of the change that’s coming to America,” Ossoff said. Abrams and her fellow organizers capitalized on the state’s changing demographics, he said, and transformed Georgia into one of the most competitive battleground states in the country.

“Georgia has become younger and more diverse every day of the last decade,” Ossoff said. “The effort that has gone into registering voters and empowering voters is unmatched anywhere in the country.”

Lauren Groh-Wargo, who managed Abrams’s gubernatorial campaign and is now executive director of Fair Fight, said it wasn’t demographics alone that put Georgia in reach for Democrats. “I’m sure you’ve heard Stacey say, ‘Demographics are not destiny, they’re just an opportunity.’ ” People of color, young people, poor people and people in far-flung rural communities are often overlooked and have to be courted like White voters.

“Georgia is really the tip of the spear. It’s what is happening to our country, in terms of the demographics,” Groh-Wargo said in an interview a week before Election Day. “Overall, whichever party is building the multiracial, multiethnic coalition is going to be the party that will ascend in Georgia.”

Stefanie Brown James, co-founder of the Collective, a political action committee working to elect liberal Black candidates, was among the first to support Abrams when she began putting together her gubernatorial campaign. She said she respected Abrams’s roots as an organizer and state legislator.

“Stacey is really the standard-bearer when it comes to what a leader looks like. I think her [gubernatorial] run also was able to really show a lot of people, especially Black women, that you can be of service to your community and run for office. Some of the best public servants are the ones who work at the PTA or have been a community organizer or a schoolteacher.”

“I’m so glad to see her getting her flowers now. I’m so used to seeing people’s pictures all over social media because they’ve passed away” – but images of Abrams celebrate her political leadership. “Yes, give his lady her flowers now and help her continue to build.”

Deborah Scott, who has been working to register voters and mobilize them through the Black Women’s Roundtable, a national civic engagement group, said many of Abrams’s supporters thought she was cheated out of the governorship. Critics of Abrams say she has fanned that impression, and some have used it to defend Trump’s refusal to say he will concede if Biden wins.

But Scott said the obstacles that Abrams and voters faced in the election were a reminder of Georgia’s racist history of slavery and Jim Crow segregation, which openly denied Black people the vote.

“It made people understand that this was still happening in 2020,” she said. “Stacey was very courageous. She did not sit on the sidelines. Instead she got involved and said, ‘This will never happen again.’ I think it galvanized people.”

Scott, also executive director of a group called Georgia Stand-Up, said dozens of social change groups have begun to work together to educate and motivate residents to be more active in voting, focusing on issues important to their everyday lives. She also said young people had become more engaged as a result of racial justice protests over the summer. All of those factors converged to create a climate for change, Scott said.

And even if Democrats don’t flip the state this time, Scott said, “can’t say that we didn’t try.”

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Democrats, nearing a moment of triumph, still feel anxious and divided

InternationalNov 07. 2020Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden dance during a rally headlined by former President Barack Obama in Miami on Nov. 2. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Michael Robinson Chavez 

By The Washington Post · Sean Sullivan · NATIONAL, POLITICS

Democrats charged into the election as a unified party, setting aside deeply felt divisions to maximize Joe Biden’s chances of defeating President Donald Trump.

But as Biden closes in on the presidency, old fissures have resurfaced and new ones are erupting, driven by unexpected losses among Democrats running for the House and Senate and areas where Trump was surprisingly strong. That’s creating an anxiety and strain unusual for a party that stands on the cusp of accomplishing its biggest goal.

Moderates blame liberals for promoting socialism and proposals to “defund the police.” Liberals are warning Biden not to cozy up to Senate Republicans, who might retain their majority. Latino leaders are raising alarms about Biden’s poor performance in some of their communities.

While Democrats were upbeat about Biden’s lead in the presidential race, they were also engaging in soul-searching. Because both Biden and the GOP can claim successes, the outcome defies simple theories about the electorate and potentially leaves Biden without full control of Congress or a unified direction for his party.

“There are lessons,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn. “I’m not sure what they are just yet.”

Republicans portrayed all Democrats including Biden as left-wing radicals, which frustrated party leaders and Biden campaign officials who saw data showing how effective it could be, according to a person with knowledge of the situation. Biden was able to fend off the criticism, but many others were not.

“Joe Biden has his own brand as a moderate, but the Democratic Party brand for much of the country seemed too far left,” said Jim Kessler, executive vice president for policy at Third Way, a center-left organization. “The terms ‘socialism’ and ‘defund the police’ and ‘Green New Deal’ were anchors around the necks of many Democrats.”

That led to results like the one in Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District, Kessler said, where Biden won but Kara Eastman, a liberal Democratic House nominee, lost.

The frictions were illustrated by a hostile conference call between House Democrats on Thursday, when moderate Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., said angrily that liberal Democrats must stop playing into GOP hands by calling themselves “socialists.” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., who identifies as a democratic socialist, tweeted Friday that such Republicans attacks are racial. “You’re not gonna make that go away,” she added.

The Democratic Party has moved left since Trump’s election, embracing such positions as a $15-an-hour minimum wage, which is now part of Biden’s platform. Liberals planned a big push for their agenda during a Biden presidency, but the recriminations suggest they may meet more resistance than expected.

Democrats are also frustrated that Trump held onto support in working-class counties they had eagerly anticipated turning blue, hoping to deliver a clear rejection of Trump’s often-crude populism.

“I’m disappointed that we are not gaining ground in the House, and I’m deeply disappointed that we don’t seem to be taking control of the Senate,” said Rep. Andy Levin, D-Mich., whose district includes part of a county that went for both Barack Obama and Trump twice. “I think that’s largely because Trump drove turnout among his base very strongly.”

Levin argues that Democrats should embrace economic populism of the sort voiced by Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., although she lost in the Democratic presidential primary.

“The way we’re going to win back working-class voters is through a program that drives their economic interests so strongly and so clearly,” Levin added, saying such a message would overcome Republican appeals based on race, religion and social values.

Yet Biden appears to have achieved gains with White working-class voters with an entirely different message, recapturing Michigan and Wisconsin, and leading in Pennsylvania. Biden was also leading in the Sun Belt battlegrounds of Arizona and Georgia, two states that have not gone for a Democratic presidential nominee this century.

But rather than embrace Biden’s moderate message, some Democrats are already arguing that, given the changes in the country and the party, Biden is likely to be the last Democratic nominee of his kind – White, centrist, old-fashioned. His runners-up for the nomination, they note, included a socialist, a fiery liberal woman and a young gay man, and his running mate is a woman of color with immigrant parents.

Democrats need to stop trying to woo centrist voters and White voters without a college degree who lean conservative, these people say, and focus on the young, minority and urban voters who are now the heart of the party.

“It’s unlikely that Joe Biden’s path will be the path for the next candidate,” said Ben Jealous, the former president of the NAACP who ran for governor of Maryland in 2018. “The next standard-bearer for the Democratic Party will need to run toward the base rather than run toward the middle.”

Biden’s attempt to satisfy these various factions on issues like energy and climate change created challenges during the campaign. Rep. Kendra Horn, D-Okla., for example, scrambled to distance herself from Biden’s promise in the final presidential debate that he would “transition from the oil industry.” Horn ended up losing her race, in an area where the oil industry has a significant presence.

On Friday, Ocasio-Cortez, the leader of a youthful liberal movement in the Democratic Party, issued a lengthy rebuttal to the centrists on Twitter, suggesting Friday that moderate Democrats lost not because of the liberals’ positions but because they were bad at online campaigning.

“The whole ‘progressivism is bad’ argument just doesn’t have any compelling evidence that I’ve seen,” Ocasio-Cortez said. She added, “btw I’m happy to cede ground on things that aren’t working in some areas! But finger pointing is not gonna help. There’s real workable & productive paths here if the party is open to us.”

Among the biggest setbacks for Democrats on Tuesday was the limited support they received from Latino voters in some areas. Difficult discussions are underway about how to reach out to these voters, particularly in certain states.

“There were areas of concern, like Miami-Dade and the Rio Grande Valley of Texas,” Julián Castro, former secretary of housing and urban development, said in an interview. “What the party needs to do is a deep dive into both the good and the bad and to understand how it is that we lost support in some geographic areas with Latinos.”

In heavily Democratic Miami-Dade County, Biden won by just seven percentage points, a far cry from Hillary Clinton’s 30-point margin four years ago. The area is home to many Cuban Americans as well as other Latinos, and Republicans spent years courting their vote while local Democrats said the Biden campaign only started investing heavily in September.

Perhaps more shocking for Democrats was Biden’s loss in Zapata County, Texas, which sits on the border with Mexico and voted heavily for Clinton and Obama. Trump also lost nearby Starr County by just five points, after losing it by 60 in 2016.

Biden was weighed down by lingering anger in the Latino community about Obama’s strict deportation policies. And some Latino organizations said Biden and his campaign never put in the face time necessary to bolster confidence in his candidacy.

But the debate over socialism played into the battle for Latino votes as well. Trump’s hard-line policy toward Cuba paid dividends, and his attacks on Democrats as radicals resonated in a community where many fled oppressive leftist regimes.

Some Biden officials attributed their tardiness in Latino outreach to an initial fundraising shortfall that took time to overcome. “People may say we were slow in getting some of that moving,” said former interior secretary Ken Salazar, who co-chaired Biden’s Latino Leadership Committee. “We didn’t have the resources. We had the plan.”

Biden won Latino voters nationally and performed better among Latino voters in other regions, with strong support among Mexican Americans in Arizona, for example. That gave him a small lead in the state as votes were still being tallied.

Many Democrats were jarred by their struggles with Latinos, since Trump has frequently used anti-immigrant rhetoric and kicked off his 2016 campaign suggesting that many Mexican immigrants are “rapists.” Latinos made up about 13% of the electorate, according to exit polls, and Democrats say they need to correct this year’s problems before the 2022 midterm elections.

More immediately, various factions are trying to influence who Biden would appoint to his cabinet and what his agenda will look like.

Biden has talked of a sweeping Franklin D. Roosevelt-style presidency. But he also campaigned aggressively on unity and touted his ability to work with Republicans. Now that the GOP might keep the Senate, liberals worry that Biden will orient his strategy toward working with them, and have begun plotting ways to assure that doesn’t happen.

“There are a lot of progressives who have, let’s say, been on their best behavior over the course of the last many months who are willing to now turn and begin the work of holding him to account,” said David Segal, the co-founder of Demand Progress, a liberal group. He said activists are already drawing up plans for a pressure campaign that will involve phone calls, emails and op-eds.

The election reflected a country that is not so much polarized between two ideologies as fractured among numerous communities, defined by geography, race, class, religion and a host of other factors. That’s also prompted a renewed discussion about social issues, with centrists arguing that Democrats have lost the ability to talk to rural voters.

“The Republican Party, I think, very adroitly adopted cultural issues as part of their main theme, whether you’re talking guns or issues surrounding the right to abortion in this country or things like gay marriage,” former senator Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., told MSNBC. “As we, you know, circled these issues, we left some voters behind – and Republicans dove in with a vengeance and grabbed those voters.”

To some Democrats, such comments minimize the values of the party’s base of liberal and minority voters. Ocasio-Cortez noted derisively that McCaskill lost her own Senate race in 2018.

But if some Democrats see social values at the heart of Democratic challenge, many see race, particularly in the wake of a national reckoning over police violence and racism.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn, D-S.C., a Biden ally, said the party “has not done a particularly good job of getting candidates across the finish line because so often – and the party gets nervous when I talk about this – but we tend to be afraid of discussing racial stuff.”

He added, “When the race stuff comes up, we tend to run away from it. People want to deny that it exists . . . This country is divided by race. People don’t want to say it, but that’s what it is.”

Some Democrats warn that Trump’s influence on the political landscape will not disappear regardless of the election’s outcome. In their view, that means the party must learn more about how to counteract his influence and that of others who campaign in his mold.

“There are neighborhoods and towns and cities that voted for Trump where their interests really should be with Biden – lower-middle class or middle-class families in hard-working areas that we need to reach,” said Blumenthal, arguing that the party can improve outreach to such communities while staying true to its base. “That’s the challenge. We have somehow been missing those folks.”

Jane Sanders, whose husband is Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., expressed a similar sentiment.

“We worked together to expand the electorate. Now @JoeBiden has received more votes than any president in the last century & is on his way to a win,” she tweeted on Wednesday. “But Trump held onto his 2016 vote & added to it. We need to think critically & analyze why, rejecting pundit’s shallow assumptions.”

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Under pressure, some in GOP echo Trump’s claims of vast electoral fraud

InternationalNov 07. 2020House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.,. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford 

By The Washington Post · Rachael Bade, Paul Kane · NATIONAL, POLITICS, COURTSLAW, CONGRESS

WASHINGTON – A vocal contingent of Republicans, from Congress to state capitals, fell in line Friday after pressure from President Donald Trump’s sons and allies to echo the president’s claims of a “rigged” election and voter fraud, an early sign that Trumpism will continue to have a hold on the party even if he loses reelection.

Signaling their willingness to go to the mat for the president, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., declared falsely on Fox News Thursday night that “President Trump won this election,” while Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., donated to a new Trump legal fund and parroted Trump’s dangerous claims of foul play at the polls while providing no evidence whatsoever.

Even some Trump supporters are battling among themselves about how hard they are fighting for the president to reverse the vote counts in states like Pennsylvania and Georgia, which flipped to Joe Biden early Friday. Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, tweeted in agreement with Trump’s claims that “irregularities have been flagrant” in the vote counting but opened the door slightly to a concession, suggesting that Republicans “must accept the final results” if they eventually consider it a fair review process.

He was immediately denounced by Rep.-elect Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., a supporter of the QAnon conspiracy movement, who told Crenshaw to “STAND UP” for Trump.

“This loser mind-set is how Democrats win,” she tweeted at Crenshaw, who received two Bronze Stars as a Navy SEAL.

A small faction of anti-Trump Republicans have pined for a soul-searching moment, hoping that once Trump is defeated, the party will shun his divisive rhetoric and return to its traditional conservative roots in line with the more hopeful tones of Ronald Reagan and the Bush presidents.

But the president fared far better on Election Day than even many Republicans had predicted, boosting Trump loyalists hoping to build on the president’s populist and combative style. Instead of shunning him, many are doubling down on Trumpism, in part by supporting his election-conspiracy theories.

Sen.-elect Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., the former college football coach endorsed by the president, said on Twitter that “the election results are out of control.”

“It’s like the whistle has blown, the game is over, and the players have gone home, but the referees are suddenly adding touchdowns to the other team’s side of the scoreboard,” he wrote.

Republicans repeating the president’s evidence-free claims focused on some of the same states – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan – that delivered the presidency to Trump in 2016. Four years ago, none of these Republicans challenged the integrity of the election results.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R, who won reelection in Wisconsin in 2016, told WTMJ-AM in Milwaukee Friday, “I’m not alleging anything because I have no proof. All I’m saying is there are enough irregularities.”

Standing in the middle, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who will become the de facto party leader should Trump lose, has been walking a fine line. In a Friday morning tweet, McConnell wrote that “every legal vote should be counted” and “any illegally-submitted ballots must not.”

“All sides must get to observe the process,” he tweeted. “And the courts are here to apply the laws & resolve disputes. That’s how Americans’ votes decide the result.”

At a news conference in Kentucky, McConnell directed reporters to his tweet and would not address any questions about the transfer of power.

“I’m not going to answer any hypothetical about where we go from here,” he said.

A small faction of senior Republicans, as well as GOP governors, is signaling discomfort with adopting Trump’s position. Sen. Patrick Toomey, a retiring Pennsylvania Republican, for example, defended his state’s election authorities.

“The president’s speech last night was very disturbing to me because he made very, very serious allegations without any evidence to support it,” Toomey said on “CBS This Morning.” “I am not aware of any significant fraud, any significant wrongdoing. If it’s happened, then the evidence needs to come out, we need to go to court, we need to punish the wrongdoers, we need to redress whatever went wrong. But I’m not aware of any such evidence.”

Few Republicans pushed back on Trump’s claims as forcefully as Toomey did, and most have been from the typical Trump-critic crowd, including Sens. Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and Ben Sasse of Nebraska.

This group urged Trump to engage the existing process in the states for doing a standard canvass of votes and recounts where warranted, saying his lawyers should handle the legal process.

Romney, who voted to convict Trump during his impeachment trial, wrote that while Trump is “within his rights” to ask for recounts or investigations into any voting irregularities, “he was wrong to say that the election was rigged, corrupt or stolen.”

“Doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world,” he said in a statement.

Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo., who once oversaw Missouri’s elections as secretary of state, told reporters that so many states are so close that Trump’s team has an understandable right to examine those outcomes. “I think the president should turn this discussion over to his lawyers. And if they have a case to make, there’s a process where they make that and that process is timely,” he said.

With Trump potentially out, Republicans realize the party will be looking for its next standard-bearer. Many Republicans speculate that only a GOP leader who stands by the president can succeed him – not someone who could be accused of being a “Never Trumper” or frequent critic.

Many Republicans with 2024 presidential ambitions have tried to walk a careful line in recent years. They know they need the support of Trump’s base if they are to rise in the ranks, but they also want to be careful about not following in his controversial footsteps.

This week, however, Trump’s allies have pressured those interested in leading the party to prove their loyalty as Trump faces the prospect of losing. Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump have made the loudest demands, with the former tweeting Thursday afternoon that “the total lack of action from virtually all of the ‘2024 GOP hopefuls’ is pretty amazing.”

“They have a perfect platform to show that they’re willing & able to fight but they will cower to the media mob instead,” Donald Trump Jr. said Thursday night.

On cue, the pile-on began. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, who lost the nomination to Trump in 2016, called for a Justice Department investigation. On Fox’s Sean Hannity show Thursday night, Graham declared that “Philadelphia elections are crooked as a snake.”

“Why are they shutting people out?” he said, echoing Trump’s unfounded allegation that vote-counting observers were being denied access when in fact they were watching the proceedings. “Because they don’t want people to see what they’re doing.”

McCarthy, whom Trump has dubbed “My Kevin” for his unwavering loyalty, went on Laura Ingraham’s show on Fox and made a plea for Republicans to mobilize.

“So everyone who is listening, do not be quiet, do not be silent about this,” McCarthy said in a chilling call to action. “We cannot allow this to happen before our very eyes.”

During a conference call of House Republicans on Friday, Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., spoke up against McCarthy’s comments on Fox the previous night, along with a few other Republicans, who said that members of leadership should not embrace unfounded conspiracies in TV appearances, according to a GOP aide familiar with the private call who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The issue dominated the call, with some Republicans urging restraint and others clamoring for the party to fight.

And Friday morning, Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., an early Trump supporter who remains one of his most aggressive defenders, asked her constituents to donate to Trump’s legal defense fund to contest the election in court.

“It’s a shame that we have to fight for a fair election in the greatest democracy the world has ever known, but we do,” she said in a statement. “President Donald Trump has always had our backs, and now, Tennesseans need to have his to make sure every single legally cast ballot is counted.”

In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott, R, chimed in Friday, writing on Twitter that his state ensures that poll watchers from both parties have access to the vote counting process but said that “what is happening in some states undermines trust in elections.”

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, R, who did not vote for Trump, rejected Abbott’s claims and said there was “no defense” for the president’s misleading speech claiming victory.

“No election or person is more important than our democracy,” he tweeted.

Meanwhile, some Republicans who have set themselves up to lead the party in a different direction have remained quiet, suggesting that the Trump wing may win the battle for the future – at least in the short term. Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who has criticized Trump on national security policies, retweeted McConnell’s missive about ensuring that all votes are counted. She declined a request for an interview.

In Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp, R, a Trump supporter, also appeared to be carefully considering his next steps. His office has declined to comment on Trump’s allegations of fraudulent voter activity after news that Biden surpassed the president in votes. Kemp, who is up for reelection in 2022, said in a statement Friday that the election is “far from over,” vowing to send lawyers to eight counties to “ensure that the process is fair and transparent.”

“There are ballots left to be counted, and we must protect the integrity of Georgia elections,” he said.

It is unclear how far the pro-Trump wing of the party will go. The president has suggested he would welcome GOP state legislators trying to overturn the will of the voters in states such as Pennsylvania and instead pick their own slate of pro-Trump electors for the electoral college to make him president instead of Biden.

However, Cruz, while defending Trump, appeared to hesitate when Hannity asked him about that idea specifically – or even the possibility of holding a “do-over” election.

“Now, that’s a big cannon to use,” Cruz said, noting that when he helped litigate the Bush v. Gore election recount in Florida in 2000, “we were having very explicit conversations about that.”

“The answer that I want to see, the outcome that I want to see, is to count every vote that was legally cast and for the president to win,” Cruz said.

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Biden inches closer to presidential victory

InternationalNov 07. 2020President Trump departs after speaking in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Thursday. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Jabin Botsford, 

By The Washington Post · Toluse Olorunnipa · NATIONAL, POLITICS

WASHINGTON – Former vice president Joe Biden appeared to be on a clear path to being elected the 46th president of the United States, after updated vote counts on Friday put him ahead in several key states and seemed to all but close off President Donald Trump’s already dwindling chances of remaining in office.

Former vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, addresses reporters on Nov. 5 in Wilmington, Del. MUST CREDIT: WashingtonPost photo by Demetrius Freeman

Although no winner had been projected in the presidential race, Biden’s strong showing as mail-in votes were counted in key cities had him leading Trump in Arizona, Nevada and Pennsylvania and – very narrowly – Georgia.

After securing 253 electoral votes since Election Day on Tuesday, Biden was on the cusp of being declared the winner as the remaining states neared the end of the ballot-counting process.

President Donald Trump is seen after speaking in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on Nov. 5. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo byJabin Botsford

Trump and his campaign continued to make unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud while disputing the election results in multiple states. The Trump campaign pushed for a recount in Georgia, which state officials said was a given, considering the narrow margin in the race.

In a statement that was less defiant but more sweeping than his previous baseless assertions that Democrats were attempting to steal the election in specific states, Trump said Friday that his complaints were “no longer about any single election” but “about the integrity of our entire election process.”

“From the beginning, we have said that all legal ballots must be counted and all illegal ballots should not be counted, yet we have met resistance to this basic principle by Democrats at every turn,” he said, falsely characterizing the Democratic position in the statement released by his campaign. “We will pursue this process through every aspect of the law to guarantee that the American people have confidence in our government. I will never give up fighting for you and our nation.”

In a separate statement released after updated vote counts showed Biden ahead of Trump in the critical state of Pennsylvania, the campaign asserted that “this election is not over.”

Democrats have countered that all the ballots being counted are legal – but that Trump and fellow Republicans were refusing to acknowledge that because the results were not in the president’s favor.

Biden, in brief and confident speeches delivered since Tuesday, has counseled patience and calm as the final ballots are tallied.

Trump has not presented any concrete evidence of the kind of broad-scale vote-rigging he has alleged took place in major cities such as Detroit, Milwaukee and Philadelphia. Biden won Michigan and Wisconsin. And with Biden’s vote lead increasing in Nevada and Pennsylvania, it was unclear whether any of the allegations of voter fraud, if true, would be sufficient to change the results.

Biden reversed Trump’s early lead in Pennsylvania on Friday after mail-in ballots, most from heavily Democratic areas, were counted late Thursday and early Friday. Although the state still had thousands of additional votes to count, Biden’s strong performance among voters who mailed in their ballots suggested that his lead there was likely to grow. Winning Pennsylvania’s 20 electoral votes would put Biden over the threshold of 270 needed to win the presidency.

A similar trend of late-counted mail-in ballots helped expand Biden’s lead in Nevada, which has six electoral votes, as of Friday afternoon. In Georgia – where, as in Pennsylvania, Trump appeared to be leading on Election Day – ballots cast by mail helped boost Biden’s vote total. If his slim lead were to stand, he would secure that state’s 16 electoral votes.

The only state in which the president was gaining ground was Arizona, where he clipped some of Biden’s lead but by Friday was not gaining at a rate that appeared likely to end in victory. The state has 11 electoral votes. Trump has advocated continuing to count votes there even as he has tried to stop the counting in states where he is losing.

Despite his worsening odds, Trump did not appear prepared to concede the race Friday. He instead stayed in the White House and tweeted complaints about the electoral system. His campaign continued to push lawsuits challenging the vote count in multiple states.

A Biden campaign spokesman suggested that there was no concern in the former vice president’s camp about the prospect of Trump refusing to leave office.

“As we said on July 19th, the American people will decide this election,” spokesman Andrew Bates said in a statement that referred to an earlier dust-up over Trump’s refusal to say he would respect the results of the election. “And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

Despite the uncertainties, there was a sense of excitement among top Biden campaign staff members as they began to gather at the Westin hotel in Wilmington, Del., on Friday morning.

“At this point, we’re sort of waiting for there to be enough for networks to feel comfortable enough to make the call,” said one Biden aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

Biden was said to be hoping to speak at some point Friday evening from a stage that has been set up for days at the Chase Center in Wilmington, Del. The aide previewed his message, without confirming the timing of any address.

“Joe Biden, from the day he announced his candidacy, has been about bringing people together and about ending that sort of toxic, chaotic divisive mood of the country,” the aide said, adding that Biden “would want to go out and continue to deliver that message.”

If Biden wins the election, his campaign does not intend to wait for Trump to concede before Biden declares victory. “Donald Trump doesn’t get to decide who wins elections,” the aide said. “The American people do.”

Biden, the aide said, will want to turn to governing.

Some congressional leaders also began to treat a Biden victory as all but assured.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., in her first news briefing since Tuesday’s election, repeatedly called Biden the “president-elect” on Friday and said his election is a mandate.

“This morning, it is clear that the Biden-Harris ticket will win the White House,” Pelosi said, referring to vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris. “President-elect Biden has a strong mandate to lead, and he’ll have a strong Democratic House with him and many Democrats in the Senate. This has been a life-or-death fight for the fate of our democracy, as [Biden] says, ‘the soul of our country.’ “

Referring to internal Democratic complaints about the party’s message leading up to Tuesday’s election, Pelosi said the reason Democrats lost some of the seats they gained in 2018 was they were competing in Trump-won districts with Trump on the same ballot. What matters, she said, is “we have the gavel.”

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., advocated Friday that the election process continue to play out and that courts resolve disputes.

In a tweet, he echoed Trump’s refrain about not counting illegal ballots but was silent about baseless conspiracies that Trump has pushed alleging widespread election fraud.

“Here’s how this must work in our great country: Every legal vote should be counted,” McConnell said. “Any illegally submitted ballots must not. All sides must get to observe the process. And the courts are here to apply the laws & resolve disputes. That’s how Americans’ votes decide the result.”

Pressed by reporters during a subsequent news conference in Kentucky, McConnell repeatedly pointed back to his tweet.

Other Republicans were more forceful in condemning the accusations Trump leveled, including in defiant remarks Thursday night in which he repeated his belief that he had won states he did not win. He offered no evidence then for a blizzard of accusations, including some aimed at election workers who are counting the ballots across several states.

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said the president’s assertion that the election was rigged and is being stolen by Democrats was reckless and dangerous.

“The President is within his rights to request recounts, to call for investigations of alleged voting irregularities where evidence exists, and to exhaust legal remedies – doing these things is consistent with our election process,” Romney said in a statement. “He is wrong to say the election was rigged, corrupt and stolen – doing so damages the cause of freedom here and around the world, weakens the institutions that lie at the foundations of the Republic, and recklessly inflames destructive and dangerous passions.”

Georgia officials said Friday that the state was headed toward a recount for the presidential election as counties wrapped up counting mail-in ballots.

“Right now, Georgia remains too close to call. Out of approximately 5 million votes cast, we’ll have a margin of a few thousand,” said Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, R. “The focus for our office and for the county election officials, for now, remains on making sure that every legal vote is counted and recorded accurately. As we are closing in on a final count, we can begin to look toward our next steps. With a margin that small, there will be a recount in Georgia.”

Biden’s lead in the state was within the vote margin that would allow a candidate to request a recount under Georgia law. A formal recount challenge probably will not be made until later in November. Under state law, candidates can request a recount if the margin is 0.5 percent or below, and they must do so within two business days of the statewide certification of results, set to take place by Nov. 20.

Elsewhere in Georgia, two Senate races appeared headed to runoffs on Jan. 5 after no candidate secured more than 50% of the vote. Democrats probably would need to win both races to seize control of the chamber.

In Arizona, former astronaut Mark Kelly, a Democrat, was projected to win the Senate seat held by Republican Martha McSally, who was appointed to the post after losing the 2018 election for the state’s other Senate seat.

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In a left-leaning capital, cautious hope amid protesters

InternationalNov 07. 2020Ivania Castillo, right, gathers with other demonstrators along H Street NW near the White House on Nov. 6, 2020 in Washington, D.C. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Matt McClain 

By The Washington Post · Marissa J. Lang · NATIONAL, POLITICS

WASHINGTON – There was a new feeling in the air Friday as crowds of protesters descended on downtown Washington, toting homemade signs, flags and stickers: Hope.

A woman hangs a U.S. flag upside down at Black Lives Matter Plaza as the nation waits for the results of the presidential election on Nov. 6, 2020 in Washington, D.C. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Ricky Carioti

For the first time in four years, some said, they believed the end of the Trump era was in sight.

Three days after Election Day, whispers of vote margins and electoral college numbers ricocheted through a crowd gathered at McPherson Square, a few blocks from the White House. Protesters approached members of the news media asking for the latest developments.

“They call it yet?” a man asked a photographer.

“No, not yet.”

Small crowds have gathered daily near the White House as ballots are counted in the key battleground states that will determine who lives in the White House next year. Cheers erupted Friday when newly counted ballots brought Biden expanded leads in Nevada, Georgia and Pennsylvania – a state with 20 electoral votes that would put Biden over the 270 threshold needed to win.

Community organizers from nearby swing states told stories of first-time voters and flipped counties.

Chants of “Count every vote! Every vote counts!” and “Trump, Pence out now!” filled the street. A flatbed pulled up, blasting go-go music played by a band on the back.

“I don’t want to jinx it,” a woman said in hushed tones to her companion. “But this is the happiest I’ve felt in a long time.”

Thais Carrero, 29, the Pennsylvania director of Latino advocacy group CASA in Action, told the crowd how she led an effort to turn out thousands of new Latino voters in Pennsylvania.

“We did our job,” she said to rising cheers.

Carrero, a first-time voter herself, still wore her “I voted” sticker, crumpled and peeling, on her sweatshirt.

Many of those assembled in the left-leaning nation’s capital cheered the updated vote counts while promising four more years of protests, activism and resistance. Nearly everyone wore a mask.

“While we celebrate this victory, we must also use it as fuel and inspiration,” Crystal Gong, a trainer with youth-led climate group Sunrise D.C., told the crowd. “I need to see you in the streets.”

Gong shared the story of her parents’ immigration from China: the challenges they had encountered here, the discrimination and fear – particularly over the past four years.

She recently asked them if they ever regretted coming here, Gong said. If they would do it again.

“Of course I would,” her mother told her.

“By coming to the U.S., they gave me a chance to fight for the democracy that they moved for,” she said. “We need to take our time this week to celebrate . . . but Trump is not the end of Trumpism. When this guy leaves office, it is not the end of injustice.”

Sookyung Oh, a community organizer from Nakasec Action Fund, which conducts outreach in Asian American communities, came to the rally dressed as a mailbox. On the front, she glued the words “count every vote,” on the back she wrote the same message in Korean, Vietnamese and Mandarin.

“I don’t know about you, but I just want this . . . to be over so we can start protesting Biden and Harris to get what we want done,” she told the crowd.

“Our problems didn’t start with Trump,” she said later. “With Trump, I felt like we were trying to just get an acknowledgment of our humanity – but with Biden and Harris we probably won’t have to fight as much for that, so now we can get back to the issues.”

The rally brought together supporters from different states and walks of life: climate activists, military veterans, immigrants, longtime protesters and those incensed by what they saw as an attempt by Trump to delegitimize a free and fair election.

Even Gritty, the muppet-like hockey mascot from Philadelphia with a cultlike following, made an appearance.

The rally commenced with a short march to Black Lives Matter Plaza, where other celebrations were underway. International journalists suspended live shots to accommodate the converging crowd.

Protesters stepped over stools and cables, marched past merchants selling Biden-Harris 2020 merchandise and toward the tall metal fence encircling Lafayette Square, across from The White House.

New signs had been added overnight.

“Do the right thing!” one declared.

“You’re fired, Donald!” read another.

As the crowd marched, protesters raised their fists and began to chant: “This is what democracy looks like!”

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Philadelphia police detain two near vote-counting site after tip about armed people traveling to city

InternationalNov 07. 2020

By The Washington Post · Teo Armus, Matt Zapotosky, Mark Berman · NATIONAL, POLITICS, COURTSLAW

Police in Philadelphia arrested two men on firearms charges Thursday night after receiving a tip that an armed group from out of state was headed to the city’s vote-counting center, where final ballots in the presidential election are being tallied.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/video/c/embed/36adece9-05ff-4549-b879-7722044321e9?ptvads=block&playthrough=false

The Philadelphia Police Department said in a statement Friday morning that it received information that people armed with guns were coming to the convention center in a silver Hummer truck. Inside the building, election workers have been tallying remaining ballots that may prove crucial in determining who wins the key state, which remains to be called for either presidential candidate.

Danielle Outlaw, the Philadelphia police commissioner, said Friday that an FBI field office in Norfolk received a tip Thursday about the armed people traveling from Virginia Beach to Philadelphia.

The police department said its officers spotted a silver Hummer with no people inside at 10:20 p.m., and less than 10 minutes later, bike patrol officers spotted two men carrying guns. Neither had a valid Pennsylvania permit to carry firearms, police said, and they were arrested.

The pair acknowledged that the Hummer was theirs, and officers found another gun inside, police said. No one was hurt in the incident.

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner (D) announced Friday that his office had charged the two men – identified as Joshua Macias, 42, and Antonio Lamotta, 61, both of Chesapeake, Va. – with weapons charges.

Both men were charged with carrying concealed firearms without a license, a felony, and carrying a firearm on public streets, a misdemeanor, Krasner said.

During a news briefing Friday afternoon before the men were charged, Krasner said a woman apparently traveling with the men was not arrested.

Krasner declined during the briefing to elaborate on the tip received by authorities. He also sought to tamp down speculation surrounding the incident, saying that “at this time, we do not have indications that the story is bigger than these two individuals.”

Krasner said officials were taking the situation “very seriously,” but added that it “may turn out to be nothing more than two people deciding to come to Philadelphia at a particular time for a somewhat unknown purpose.”

On Friday morning, vote totals in Pennsylvania showed former Vice President Joe Biden overtaking President Donald Trump’s lead, with thousands of votes left to be counted in deep-blue Philadelphia and its suburbs.

A small group of Trump supporters protested Thursday outside the city’s downtown convention center to “stop the vote,” but were heavily outnumbered by a much larger crowd expressing its support for Biden and vote-counting efforts. The Trump campaign, meanwhile, has mounted a legal challenge to stop vote-counting efforts, making unsubstantiated claims of ballot fraud.

Photos captured near the convention center by Philadelphia Inquirer photographer Jessica Griffin showed a Hummer with a Virginia license plate as well as a hat inside bearing an insignia for the far-right conspiracy theory QAnon. The vehicle’s back window featured a decal with an abbreviation of a QAnon rallying cry: “Where we go one, we go all.”

The FBI said in a statement: “The FBI works closely with our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners to identify and stop any potential threats to public safety. It is vital that the FBI, our partners, and the public work together to protect our community. As always, we encourage members of the public to remain vigilant and immediately report any suspicious activity to law enforcement. We have no further information for release and would refer you to the Philadelphia Police Department for any additional guidance at this time.”

If Pennsylvania is called for Biden, the state’s 20 electoral votes will put him over the edge to win the presidency.

Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar (D), who oversees the state’s elections, said that ballot-counting efforts are running ahead of schedule, with almost all votes certain to be tallied before the weekend.

Yet, as Trump has promoted unfounded allegations about voter fraud, conspiracy theories have swirled among his supporters in Philadelphia, even though they have been repeatedly debunked by elections officials.

On Thursday afternoon, a state appeals court granted the Trump campaign a small legal victory by allowing GOP poll watchers to observe the ballot counting from six feet away. That decision is unlikely to impact the vote count, as observers cannot challenge ballots’ validity.

On Thursday evening, The Washington Post reported, a baseless text message circulated in the city’s right-wing circles that called on the president’s supporters to rally outside the convention center.

“Radical Liberals & Dems are trying to steal this election from Trump!” the text read.

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Amazon fires cause Brazil’s CO2 emissions to jump amid pandemic

InternationalNov 07. 2020Smoke rises as a fires burn in the Amazon rainforest in the Candeias do Jamari region of Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, in 2019. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Leonardo Carrato 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Simone Iglesias · WORLD, SCIENCE-ENVIRONMENT, THE-AMERICAS

Forest fires have sent carbon dioxide emissions soaring in Brazil over the past two years, undermining efforts by the government of President Jair Bolsonaro to restore the country’s environmental credentials.

Fire burns in the Amazon rainforest in Porto Velho, Rondonia state, Brazil, on Aug. 24, 2019. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Leonardo Carrato

Emissions jumped 10% in 2019, Bolsonaro’s first year in office, following a decade of small declines or stagnation, according to a report published Friday by Observatorio do Clima, a network of Brazilian environmental organizations. Preliminary data show the new trend accelerating as much as 20% in 2020, even as the pandemic curbs the amount of CO2 being produced by transportation and industrial activity across the globe, the group has warned.

“That’s a considerable increase that has Brazil running against the global trend,” Tasso Azevedo, former chief of the Brazilian Forest Service and now responsible for a system that estimates greenhouse gases emissions for Observatorio do Clima, said in an interview. “That’s basically associated with deforestation; Brazil is getting further away from its Paris agreement goal.”

The environment ministry didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment.

Brazil has faced global outrage in the past two years as a growing number of fires destroyed swaths of the Amazon rainforest and the Pantanal wetlands. In June, a group of prominent institutional investors managing about $3.7 trillion in assets sent a letter to the Brazilian government threatening to withdraw from the country unless environmental metrics improved.

Since then, the government has changed its strategy and is now calling on investors to help the Amazon in unconventional ways, such as sponsoring a plot of the rainforest. Government officials led by Vice President Hamilton Mourao have also stepped up efforts to convince the world that Brazil cares about the environment, visiting the forest this week with a group of diplomats from Europe and Latin America.

Observatorio do Clima’s figures place Brazil among the largest carbon dioxide emitters in the world, after China, U.S., Russia, India and the European Union. Deforestation was responsible for 44% of the country’s emissions last year, followed by agriculture, with 28%.

Brazilians produced 10.4 tons of CO2 per capita in 2019, above the global average of 7.1 tons, according to the organization.

Despite government efforts to change the world’s perception about Brazil’s environmental policies, Bolsonaro has maintained a combative style when talking about the issue. In a speech at the opening of the United Nations General Assembly this year, he downplayed the seriousness of forest fires, saying they are caused by peasants and the indigenous people who “burn their fields in already deforested areas.”

Some members of his cabinet have gone even further. In a 2019 speech, Foreign Affairs Minister Ernesto Araujo said a May cold front he had experienced in Rome was evidence that theories about global warming are wrong.

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China starts talking stimulus exit again as economy recovers

InternationalNov 07. 2020Pedestrians wearing protective masks walk past the People’s Bank of China building in Beijing on March 17, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Qilai Shen. 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · No Author · BUSINESS, WORLD, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS, ASIA-PACIFIC

China’s central bank once again raised the topic of exiting its monetary easing policies, in sharp contrast to the U.S. and Europe, where a resurgence in virus cases has forced governments there to consider more stimulus.

Policymakers globally are discussing the timing of stimulus withdrawal, and the consensus is that it should be done sooner rather than later, Liu Guoqiang, vice governor of the People’s Bank of China, said Friday. “Exit is a matter of time and it is also necessary,” he said. “But the timing and method of exit need to be carefully evaluated, mainly based on the status of economic recovery.”

He added that the “international economy is recovering in general, and China’s overall situation is better than the international economy.”

China’s economy has regained all the losses made in the first half, with the recovery first driven by exports and industrial output and then strengthening as consumption picked up. That’s a rare positive for a global economy still clawing its way out of its worst slump since the Great Depression — and which is now being complicated by the resurgence of covid-19 cases in Europe and the U.S.

“We have done some research recently, and we can see from the trend that our country’s economy is relatively strong, policies are having an effect, and market confidence is recovering,” Liu said in Beijing at a press conference with other financial officials. “But adjustments of policies shouldn’t be rushed, or weaken the effect of serving the real economy, nor can there be a policy cliff.”

Liu didn’t provide any details as to the timing of a pullback in stimulus, while emphasizing that policy measures will be adjusted based on changing conditions and market demand. He said support will be further increased in areas that require long-term assistance.

The PBOC has taken a measured approach to monetary easing this year, lowering interest rates, injecting liquidity and giving businesses loan repayment holidays. Governor Yi Gang has previously told markets to start thinking about an exit from the looser financial policies.

Separately, the central bank also released its Financial Stability Report, which highlighted financial risks stemming from rising indebtedness.

Aside from the pandemic, “the default risks of some companies have increased, which may be transmitted to the financial system,” according to a statement accompanying the report. The central bank said it will seek to manage those risks, resolve gaps in regulation and prevent systemic financial threats.

The PBOC also discussed progress on its digital currency, saying:

– There is no timetable for the official launch of the digital yuan system;

– It will continue to steadily advance the research and development of the digital yuan system, conduct pilot tests, and strengthen relevant research on policies and impact; and

– China will improve its fintech regulatory framework and introduce tools to regulate technology innovation.

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Virtual schooling has largely forced moms, not dads, to quit work – and it will hurt the economy for years

InternationalNov 07. 2020Monica Marling, 37, takes a break in February from her shift as a waitress at Avenue Eats in Wheeling, West Virginia. She has been unable to return to work during the pandemic, partly because her four children are doing most of their schooling from home. MUST CREDIT: Washington Post photo by Heather Long 

By The Washington Post · Heather Long · NATIONAL, BUSINESS, CAREER-WORKPLACE

In late October, Courtney Allen got the call she had been waiting for: A school district asked if she could come back as a substitute teacher. Allen desperately needed the money as she was only getting $125 a week from unemployment benefits. But she had to turn down the job.

Her kindergartner and first grade sons are still at home all day, learning virtually. Allen is part of a wave of women having to make difficult decisions that will impact family finances, as well as the broader U.S. economy for years to come.

The pandemic recession has been dubbed a “SHE-session” because it has hurt women far worse than men. The share of women working or looking for work has fallen to the lowest levels since 1988, wiping out decades of hard fought gains women made in the workplace.

On Friday, the Labor Department jobs report showed the economy has gained back just over half of the jobs lost in March and April, but the situation remains dire for women. There are 2.2 million fewer women working or looking for work now than in January, versus 1.5 million fewer men, according to the labor department data.

Put another way, women have recovered only about 39 percent of the big drop in the labor force they suffered in the spring, while men have recovered 58 percent of their jobs. Much of the difference in these diverging fortunes for men and women boils down to moms having to stop working to take care of kids.

As a single mom, Allen, 32, said she has no good options right now.

“I’m stuck in a bad spot,” said Allen, who spends most of her days helping her sons with homework sheets at the kitchen table, in the home she rents in Malone, New York. “I would pay more for a babysitter than what I would make going back to work.”

When the pandemic first escalated in the spring, women lost more jobs than men because women are more likely to work in restaurants, hair salons, hotels and stores – the industries hardest hit as people rushed to stay home. Over the summer, both men and women saw solid gains as the economy reopened and some jobs returned.

But that changed in September. Just as the school year began, 865,000 women dropped out of the labor force versus only 216,000 men. In October, men gained back all their modest September losses, while only about half of women returned.

“You look down the barrel of an entire school year of remote and hybrid learning and you just want to give up,” said Alicia Sasser Modestino, an economist at Northeastern University. “Women are dropping out of work, up and down the income scale. We’re seeing surgeons dropping out the labor market and epidemiologists drop out during the pandemic. “

Parents, especially mothers, have been forced to chose between their children and their jobs. A Washington Post analysis found an especially large employment dip among mothers of elementary-school aged children. These moms were counting on their children being in school so they could work. They didn’t have other arrangements, and they are finding that their kids can’t handle hours of virtual lessons on their own.

The challenge for the next president is how to deal with this “SHE-session” crisis. For years, policymakers and political leaders have debated how to help blue-collar men who were losing jobs. Now the problem is women.

There are rising calls for the government to prioritize reopening in-person schooling as many other nations around the world, including Canada, have done.

“Priority number one should be kinds back into school,” said Kathryn Anne Edwards, a labor economist at the RAND Corporation who has been studying women’s careers. “The younger the kid, the more of a priority it is because they are less likely to be able to do school on their own.”

When the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention compiled a list of essential industries and workers, educators and child-care providers were notably absent.

Economists have said the best way to help the overall economy is to control the spread of coronavirus. Covid-19 cases have spiked in the United States to more than 100,000 a day. The spike is not only straining the nation’s hospitals, it is also threatens to stall the economic recovery, or cause a backslide as people curb their shopping.

Many of the job gains women made in October were in hospitality and retail. There’s growing concern those jobs could go away again with the rising caseloads.

“Fifty-nine percent of women’s job gains in October came from leisure and hospitality. Will those gains hold if covid cases stay high this winter?” said Michael Madowitz, an economist at the left leaning Center for American Progress who has been tracking women’s labor force participation closely.

Monica Marling of Bellaire, Ohio, has been unable to return to her waitressing job since the pandemic began. In the spring, Avenue Eats in Wheeling, West Virginia, didn’t need her as business was slow. By the fall, Mailing faced a different problem: She has four kids and they all had different versions of virtual and hybrid schooling. She and her husband could not make it work.

“The pandemic didn’t get too stressful for my family until online schooling started. That’s when the stress really kicked in,” Marling said. “I’ve started to take steps to pull my two youngest out of public school to home-school them. The online program is just not working for my family.”

Marling, 37, says she’s making the right choice for her family now. Her husband, a factory millwright, was deemed an essential worker and has had steady employment throughout the crisis, a huge help to the family budget. But they still worry about the loss of her income.

Women who take a year off to care for children have historically had a harder time getting back into the workforce, and they suffer lower earnings and retirement savings throughout their lives compared to workers who don’t. There’s also a hit to the overall U.S. economy, as fewer people working results in less household income available to spend.

Even before the pandemic, the United States lagged behind many other advanced nations in women’s labor force participation including France, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and Japan. Now that gap could be even larger.

Modestino, the economist, moved her third grade daughter from virtual learning in public schools to a private school offering in-person classes. But she is well aware many families can’t afford to do that. She is urging Congress to pursue another round of stimulus checks specifically for families with kids.

“Lot of families can’t even afford to pay someone to supervise their kids, so they can go to work. This a really fixable problem,” she said. “You can cut $1,200 or $2,000 checks for families with kids to be able to keep parents going to work. They can take that money and spend it on a babysitter or an after school program.”

Some employers are also stepping up to help stop parents, especially moms, from having to stop working. Some companies have begun providing backup child-care options or even a special child-care service where parents can drop off kids to have them supervised during the school day.

Allen, the single mom in upstate New York, is desperate for any additional help.

“A lot of people I know are waiting on this stimulus. That would be amazing,” Allen said. “We just need something to get us through until there’s a vaccine.”

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WTO postpones meeting next week to select its new leader

InternationalNov 07. 2020A logo stands on the wall outside the World Trade Organisation headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on 2, 2020. MUST CREDIT: Bloomberg photo by Stefan Wermuth. 

By Syndication Washington Post, Bloomberg · Bryce Baschuk · BUSINESS, WORLD, US-GLOBAL-MARKETS, AFRICA

The World Trade Organization postponed a general council meeting set for Monday where members were expected to review whether to select their next leader, according to a notice circulated Friday.

The decision will delay the WTO’s ability to confirm Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala as the first African and first woman to lead the organization in its 25-year history.

The statement obtained by Bloomberg said that the meeting would be postponed until further notice and that the chairman of the WTO general council will continue to consult with members about selecting the next director-general.

The delay comes a week after the Trump administration said it would oppose Okonjo-Iweala’s bid because the U.S. preferred South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee for the job. Yoo has refused to withdraw from the race and has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

The U.S. unilaterally opposed Okonjo-Iweala despite the fact that the WTO selection committee determined she “clearly carried the largest support by members” and “clearly enjoyed broad support from members from all levels of development and from all geographic regions.”

The Trump administration’s move has disrupted the leadership race because all WTO decisions are made by a consensus of its 164 members, which means a single country can oppose a decision for any reason.

WTO General Council Chairman David Walker issued a separate notice that said: “It has come to my attention that for reasons including the health situation and current events, delegations will not be in a position to take a formal decision on 9 November. I am therefore postponing this meeting until further notice during which period I will continue to undertake consultations with delegations.”