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Nov. 15, 2020 02:47PM EST
Fauci says transition delay harmful to public health as COVID-19 cases surge
NIAID Director Anthony Fauci said on CNN's "State of the Union" Sunday that President Trump's refusal to cooperate with President-elect Biden's transition team hurts public health as coronavirus cases surge across the country.
The state of play: As President Trump refuses to concede the election to President-elect Joe Biden, General Services Administration Administrator Emily Murphy has not signed documents declaring Biden the apparent winner, preventing the president-elect's agency review teams from having access to the information they need in order to get to work.
What he's saying: Fauci, who has served for 36 years under six presidents, said the transition process is "like passing a baton in a race."
- "You don't want to stop and then give it to somebody. You want to just essentially keep going and that's what transition is so it certainly would make things more smoothly if we could do that."
- Asked if he would like to start working with Biden's team from a public health perspective, Fauci responded, "Of course, that's obvious. Of course it would be better if we could start working with them."
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Jan. 16, 2021 12:00PM EST
America's recovery is on borrowed time due to the pandemic
Economic recovery will not be linear as the world continues to grapple with the uncertainty of the pandemic.
Why it matters: Despite being propped up by an extraordinary amount of fiscal stimulus and support from central banks, the state of the global economy remains fragile.
Warning signs about that fragility are flashing, as Dion Rabouin writes in his Axios Markets newsletter:
- World Bank president warns of potential defaults by countries that are over-leveraged.
- Goldman Sachs CEO warns of stock market being inflated and detached from reality.
- Lowest bankruptcy filings since 1986, thanks to the government printing money to save the economy from another Great Depression.
- Treasury yield rises above 1% overnight.
- Consumer confidence increases due to government stimulus checks.
The bottom line: America’s economy is operating under the influence of performance-enhancing steroids thanks to unprecedented monetary intervention.
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May. 14, 2021 09:00AM EST
Police under federal oversight see crime jumps, stalling reforms
Most police agencies in recent federally court-ordered reform agreements saw violent crime rates skyrocket immediately, according to an Axios examination of departments under consent decrees since 2012.
Why it matters: The increases in violent crime rates — in one case by 61% — suggest that there can be unintended consequences, at least in the short term, to the policing changes many Americans have demanded in the year since George Floyd's death.
- They've also given police unions another argument in their campaign against reforms.
By the numbers: An Axios review of FBI and Justice Department data on all 12 agencies under consent decrees since 2012 found that seven of them experienced jumps in violent crime rates in two years compared to the two years before they entered into the consent decrees.
Data: FBI Uniform Crime Reports/ DOJ; Chart: Axios Visuals
- Seattle saw a 27% surge in its violent crime during that period following its consent decree in 2012.
- Albuquerque, N.M., a city that saw violent protests in 2014 following the shooting of a white homeless man, later experienced a 36% increase in its violent crime rate. Before its consent decree, the city had seen a 30-year low in crime.
- Los Angeles County, a region of 10 million people, saw a colossal rise of 61% in its violent crime rate following a consent decree with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department — an agency with a troubled history among Latinos and Black residents.
Yes, but: Municipalities with less than 50,000 people that entered into consent decrees saw violent crime rates decline.
- Ferguson, Mo., a city of 21,000 outside of St. Louis that saw heated demonstrations after the police shooting of Michael Brown in 2014, saw its violent crime rate drop by 7% during the same two-year comparison.
- Warren, Ohio, and East Haven, Conn., also experience noticeable declines during the same period following their consent decrees.
- Data for two larger cities under consent decrees — Portland and Newark, N.J. — couldn't be compared since they are missing key crime numbers.
The intrigue: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced last month that the Department of Justice would launch "pattern or practice" investigations into the Minneapolis and Louisville police departments, following the deaths last year of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.
- Depending on the findings, both cities could be forced into consent decrees to overall their departments.
- The investigations come after the Trump administration refused to launch similar investigations into police departments for four years despite pleas from reform advocates.
Between the lines: No one knows why violent crime rates spike after departments enter into consent decrees, according to criminal justice scholars.
- Stephen Rushin, associate professor of law at Loyola University Chicago, says only anecdotal evidence exists that suggests disruptions in department leadership or changes in tactics may contribute to the increases.
- However, the crime surges may be short-lived.Rushin said his study into 31 cities that operated under federal oversight between 1994 and 2016 showed temporary increases in crime, followed by a steady drop.
- "What it does is it suggests that those consent decree measures don't just go away after a year or two. They're normally (in place) pretty long-term. Then crime falls."
But, but, but: That hasn't stopped police unions and police advocates from using the early data to urge cities to pull back from oversight.
- In an upcoming Albuquerque mayoral election and a special election for that district's House seat, conservatives are urging the federal government to end its consent decree and say the city should turn its focus to fighting crime.
- "Right now we are in crisis. Albuquerque is burning, and it seems like politicians are just playing the fiddle. We've got to be able to deal with this criminal element that has taken over the city right now," GOP House candidate Mark Moores told the PBS news show New Mexico in Focus recently.
Even some families of those killed by excessive police force cases say crime in Albuquerque is too high.
- "But you can do both. You can fight crime and train officers better so they don't abuse their power," Stephen Torres, who lost his 27-year-old son, Christopher, in a police shooting, told Axios.
The big question: Will the reform movement inspired by the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor be able to withstand the backlash against rising crime that has halted other changes to police departments?
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Aug. 12, 2021 05:09PM EST
Top Biden adviser Anita Dunn departs White House today
Anita Dunn, one of President Biden's closest advisers during the campaign and as he built his administration, will depart the White House after today but remain a top confidant.
Why it matters: Dunn is one of the small handful of aides in the Oval Office who preps Biden before any major appearance. She helped place women in senior roles throughout the West Wing.
What they're saying: White House communications director Kate Bedingfield told me: "Anita is a backbone of Team Biden and her leadership was critical not just to the campaign but to our first 200 days in the White House."
- "She's someone all of us turn to as a sounding board and for guidance — and although she may wish we’d leave her in peace, that definitely won’t change!"
The big picture: Dunn, whose title is senior adviser, had said from the beginning that she was only coming into the West Wing for a few months. She now returns to SKDK, the powerful Washington firm she helped found.
- After a disappointing early start for Biden in his race for the 2020 Democratic nomination, Dunn was elevated and helped map a tough win in a crowded field.
Dunn was a senior campaign adviser for President Obama and his White House communications director, making her the rare top aide to two different winning presidents.
- She has long been one of the best-known operatives in Democratic politics, and played senior roles for Sens. Tom Daschle, Bill Bradley and Evan Bayh.
Hilary Rosen, SKDK's vice chair, told me: "Anita doesn't only give you lofty thematics. She's also very concrete about what needs to be done. She's therefore very comforting as a strategist, because she has certainty."
- A New York Times article last month said many in the White House "view her departure as a brief moment to breathe before she starts to plan the president’s re-election, which so far he has indicated he intends to wage."
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