Manufacture doctors

‘You can’t really manufacture doctors and nurses that don’t exist’

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said his state is trying everything it can to ensure it has enough health care workers.

By DAVID COHEN

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan said the surge in Covid-19 cases is pushing his state’s health care system to the limit as it heads toward what he predicted will “be a terrible point in the crisis.“

“We have been talking about this problem for nearly a month and preparing for it,“ Hogan told host Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union,” “but you can't really manufacture doctors and nurses that don't exist.“

Noting the rise in cases attributed to the Omicron variant, the Republican governor said his state was trying a wide range of strategies to ensure there were enough health care workers to deal with the expected rise in hospitalizations in coming weeks.

“We put $100 million of emergency funding into our hospitals and our nursing homes,“ Hogan said. “We waived requirements for out-of-state nurses and doctors and health care workers. We have sped up the graduation of our nursing students, so they can get out early and get out to help. We have called up the Maryland National Guard. And we're continuing to take actions every day, nearly every — everything that anyone can think of to help us get through this.

“Look,“ he told Bash, “we believe that the next four to six weeks are really going to be a terrible point in this crisis. And it's potentially going to be the worst part of the whole two-year fight.“

Hogan, who said he had a mild case of Covid in December, touted his state’s vaccination rate (92 percent) and said the vaccines continue to be the best defense against severe cases.

“Eight percent of the population who has not been vaccinated is responsible for 75 percent of all the people that are filling up our Covid beds in the hospital,” he said.

Support for Ukraine

Biden reaffirms support for Ukraine in phone call with president

“President Biden made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine,” the White House said.

By DAVID COHEN

President Joe Biden on Sunday spoke by phone with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, offering fresh support for Ukraine amid a high-stakes dispute with neighboring Russia.

“President Biden made clear that the United States and its allies and partners will respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine,“ according to a statement from White House press secretary Jen Psaki. “The leaders expressed support for diplomatic efforts.”

Psaki’s statement also said of Biden: “He reaffirmed the United States’ commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.“

Zelenskyy tweeted about his conversation with Biden. “The first international talk of the year with @POTUS proves the special nature of our relations,” he said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not been shy about suggesting that Russian military action might be needed to resolve ongoing differences with Ukraine.

Once referred to as Russia’s bread basket for its agricultural output, Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union until it was dissolved by President Mikhail Gorbachev in December 1991. As a sovereign nation, Ukraine was soon beset by economic difficulties and rampant corruption.

In 2014, Putin and Russia annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine; that was followed by battles in Donbas, a region in southeastern Ukraine. Russian-backed forces now occupy part of that region.

Biden has responded to the current tensions by indicating that the United States would not accept a Russian invasion of Ukraine, threatening sanctions.

He spoke Thursday with Putin, who doesn’t want Ukraine to be admitted to NATO, the alliance created in 1949 as a counterweight against the Soviet Union in Europe. Since the end of the Cold War, NATO has expanded into Eastern Europe, inviting former enemies to join.

Putin has said that Ukraine’s entry into NATO would leave Russia unprotected from a direct attack from the West.

“They have pushed us to a line that we can’t cross,” Putin said in remarks in late December. “They have taken it to the point where we simply must tell them: ‘Stop!’”

Delay 5G launch

AT&T, Verizon reject Buttigieg's plea to delay 5G launch amid warnings of aviation chaos

The wireless carriers' rebuff is the latest step in weeks of an escalating standoff between the aviation and telecommunication sectors.

By JOHN HENDEL

AT&T and Verizon on Sunday rejected the U.S. Department of Transportation's request that they delay this week's scheduled launch of a new round of 5G wireless service — and instead pledged to take enhanced measures to avoid warned disruptions of air travel.

“With continued COVID crises, it has never been more important that our country’s critical communications infrastructure have the spectrum needed to handle escalating traffic demands from our customers,” AT&T CEO John Stankey and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg wrote in a joint letter to the department.

Escalating concerns: Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and FAA Administrator Steve Dickson had asked the companies on New Year’s Eve to put off Wednesday's launch of the new wireless service for two additional weeks while their agencies address concerns that the new signals could interfere with some types of aircraft equipment.

Unless those issues are resolved, air travelers will face "widespread and unacceptable disruption as airplanes divert to other cities or flights are canceled, causing ripple effects throughout the U.S. air transportation," Buttigieg and Dickson wrote in their letter, reported last week by POLITICO.

The wireless carriers' rebuff is the latest step in weeks of an escalating standoff between the aviation and telecommunication sectors — a year after the mobile phone companies spent more than $80 billion to buy licenses for the 5G-friendly C-band airwaves at a Federal Communications Commission auction. The fight over the Trump-era initiative has drawn in multiple agencies and the White House, with airlines pushing for an emergency stay even after the FCC insisted that the wireless companies can safely use the airwaves.

The wireless carriers had originally intended to launch the service on Dec. 5, then postponed it until this week following FAA warnings. They also already agreed to six months of measures meant to limit the signals' potential impact on airplanes and airports.

The FAA on Sunday said it's reviewing the carriers' letter but added, "U.S. aviation safety standards will guide our next actions."

New offer from the wireless industry: Verizon and AT&T told DOT on Sunday that they will embrace even more extensive mitigation measures through July 5. But they outright rejected the idea of postponing the launch of the new 5G service.

“Agreeing to your proposal would not only be an unprecedented and unwarranted circumvention of the due process and checks and balances carefully crafted in the structure of our democracy, but an irresponsible abdication of the operating control required to deploy world-class and globally competitive communications networks that are every bit as essential to our country’s economic vitality, public safety and national interests as the airline industry,” the two companies' CEOs wrote.

They said they want to keep working with the federal government to avoid “escalating” grievances from the airline industry “in other venues.”

The two carriers are proposing to offer “extensive exclusion zones around the runways at certain airports” to cut the power of the 5G service around sensitive areas, along the lines of steps taken in France. They say France’s approach is “one of the most conservative in the world.”

FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel, a Democrat, said late last year that she has confidence in the wireless carriers' proposal to mitigate any concerns and has been in active talks with other federal officials. Meanwhile, Republican FCC Commissioner Brendan Carr attacked the DOT's concerns in a letter on Saturday, saying the aviation industry fears are not rooted in good data.

What's next: The wireless industry suggests the aviation industry may just need to upgrade some of its own flight equipment. Over the six months, the aviation industry should have “ample opportunity to conduct any further studies and remediate any altimeters that might not meet current standards, as was originally recommended by the FCC in February 2020,” the carriers argued.

The long shadow

'It's only gotten worse': The long shadow of the night that broke the House

For most Democrats, the biggest affront wasn't even the violence by Donald Trump's supporters. It was the votes more than 140 of their GOP colleagues took afterward.

By SARAH FERRIS

Rep. Cheri Bustos still remembers her husband’s warning after she and her colleagues were trapped in the House chamber by violent rioters.

“‘It is not going to get better out there,’” the Illinois Democrat recalled her county sheriff spouse telling her. The following year proved him right, Bustos added: “It’s only gotten worse.”

Bustos is one of several retiring Democrats who told POLITICO that the insurrection, and the months of personal vitriol in the House that followed, propelled their decision not to seek reelection next November.

It started before the attack on the Capitol; some cross-aisle relationships began souring far earlier in Donald Trump’s term, while others started to fray amid the 2009 rise of the conservative Tea Party. But interviews with many House Democrats, from senior members to rank and file, point to Jan. 6 as the night that truly broke the House — perhaps for a generation.

And the biggest affront wasn't the violence itself by the former president's supporters, but the votes by more than 140 of their GOP colleagues against certifying Joe Biden as president, hours after rioters threatened them with that same goal. Those votes severely damaged trust among lawmakers. Without trust, it’s become harder to get just about anything done on the House floor.

Tune into our live conversation on Jan. 6

On the anniversary of the Capitol attack, our reporters will break down the last year since the deadly insurrection and what to expect next. Join us on Twitter — and bring your questions.

Bills that once sailed through with bipartisan support, such as government funding or debt limit measures, got next to zero Republican support this year. The ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus has crippled the chamber’s ability to fast-track noncontroversial bills, forcing 30 floor votes in a row at one point last month. A bipartisan infrastructure bill that passed the Senate with Minority Leader Mitch McConnell's vote later led to death threats for the 13 House Republicans who backed it.

That legislative deadlock is due, in large part, to the radioactive personal toxicity in the House, animosity already intensifying during the pandemic that worsened after the riot. While Democrats are chilled by growing riot revisionism within the GOP, Republicans argue Democrats abused their powers in response to both Covid and Jan. 6, from hauling in metal detectors post-insurrection to slapping fines on those who refusing to wear a mask on the floor.

“Things really haven't quite recovered after Jan. 6, and that's a reality,” said Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), who co-leads the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus. The centrist has faced threats to his own life from outside the Capitol this year.

“Anytime somebody gets attacked, the natural human instinct is to counter-punch, and then it just kind of devolves downward. There's been more attacking, sometimes personal attacks,” Fitzpatrick said.

So far, 23 House Democrats have announced they’ll pass on a reelection bid this year as the party grapples with historically long odds to hold on to the chamber. It's more than the wilderness of the minority driving those retirements, though: Rep. Stephanie Murphy (D-Fla.), who stunned the party by announcing her exit at age 43 after just three terms, made her choice in part because she is tired of the noxious House culture, according to people close to her. Murphy, a member of the House panel investigating Jan. 6, has also faced a barrage of threats.

Other Democrats privately worry the hostility will only worsen if Republicans take back power, unless leaders of both parties do more to lower the temperature.

The question on most Democrats' minds: Is the House broken for good? Not all of them want to stick around and find out.

“I think that’s a huge factor. There are several more I know who are right now on the edge of trying to decide whether to go,” House Budget Chair John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who will retire next year, said in an interview last month.

“It’s kind of tough to come out here and be serious when you've got" rising bitterness and death threats against colleagues, added Rep. Ron Kind (D-Wis.), who’s retiring after 24 years in office. "It’s sad, but it’s all too true.”

As proof of how badly the House floor environment has frayed, Democrats point to the final day of session in 2021. Conservative Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) derailed floor debate on Islamophobia legislation when he falsely accused Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), the bill’s sponsor, of having ties to terrorist groups. The remarks were deemed a flagrant enough violation of decorum to be struck from the congressional record and to earn Perry a ban from speaking on the floor for the rest of the night.

The halls of Congress have rung with recriminations in the past, of course — from 1856, when pro-slavery Rep. Preston Brooks (D-S.C.) physically attacked anti-slavery Sen. Charles Sumner (R-Mass.), to the 2009 flap over Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) shouting "You lie" at then-President Barack Obama during the State of the Union address.

Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) recalled his own much more minor brush call with the rules of decorum more than a decade ago, when he delivered a fiery floor speech about then-President George W. Bush’s handling of Iraq.

Welch admitted he's forgotten his precise words, saying only that he “got overheated.” But instead of delivering a rebuke, the Republican leading debate that day, then-Illinois Rep. Ray LaHood, offered Welch a re-do "in a very gentle way." And then the Democrat apologized.

Welch, who's running for Senate, is one of roughly three dozen members of both parties who won’t return to the House in 2023. Another is Transportation Chair Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.), who’s been plenty outspoken about what he sees as the erosion of regular order during his 34 years in office.

That includes the conservative backlash against the 13 GOP lawmakers who backed Biden’s infrastructure deal this year, which DeFazio lamented is "just nuts." Asked if he believed any House Republican leader could cool the mood after the midterms, DeFazio responded: “No, I don’t see anybody on their side in leadership who is going to challenge that.”

“Unfortunately, they’re all infected, particularly the leadership over there, by Trump,” DeFazio said.

The decaying personal dynamic has begun to creep into the typically-cooperative area of appropriations, said Rep. David Price (D-N.C.), a senior spending leader who’s retiring next year after three decades in the House: “There is a corrosive effect underway, there’s no question about that.”

But Republicans argue that Democrats haven’t exactly sought to deescalate, either. They point to party leaders’ decisions to increase security in the chamber itself — with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats alleging threats to Congress were “from within.”

“I've never seen it so bad when it comes to hyperpartisanship,” said Rep. Rodney Davis (R-Ill.), arguing that Democrats’ addition of metal detectors outside the chamber doors wasn’t warranted. He also pointed to several Democrats accusing GOP lawmakers of aiding the Jan. 6 rioters, despite zero evidence that any sitting members were involved.

Democrats investigating Jan. 6 are seeking information from several House Republicans about their communications with Trump and his allies, though none have been accused of abetting the rioters. Then there’s Democrats' move to strip Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) of committee spots for social media posts that portrayed or peddled violence toward colleagues across the aisle.

House Republicans in both the right and center wings of the conference decry the sanctions, with some warning of partisan tit-for-tat under a GOP majority in 2023. Democrats insist they were forced to take disciplinary action after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said he wouldn’t. Because in a year like 2021, they said, the possibility of violence stopped being hypothetical.

“That was a last straw for them,” Bustos, the retiring Illinoisan, said of her husband and three sons. “I wish I could say that Jan. 6 was a culmination of all this. But unfortunately, it continues to grow.”

A group of Deplorables who need to go to prison...

They resigned in protest over Jan. 6 — then never went after Trump again

The administration officials who defected from the administration over the riots have almost all receded from public view even as Trump’s stayed put.

By MERIDITH MCGRAW and DANIEL LIPPMAN

In the hours after a mob of angry Donald Trump supporters stormed Capitol Hill on Jan. 6, a number of prominent Trump administration officials and Republicans decided that they’d had enough.

With a mix of anger and outrage, they condemned Trump for either stoking the riots or doing next-to-nothing to stop them. Cabinet officials submitted letters of resignation. Golf buddies and top donors broke their alliances. Top advisers said they’d been let down by Trump.

It was a notable moment of public dissent after four years marked mostly by fidelity. But its impact has proved minimal.

One year after the Jan. 6 riot, the voices of those who broke with Trump over that day have mostly been muted, moved on, or, in certain instances, come to embrace Trump all over again. POLITICO contacted eighteen Trump administration officials who stepped down as a result of Jan. 6 or whose resignation seemed timed to it. Only one agreed to speak on the record about their decision that day.

“I think it’s about survival,” said Stephanie Grisham, who resigned on Jan. 6 as chief of staff to first lady Melania Trump and recently published a book that criticized the president’s and first lady’s handling of the riots. “If you stand up then you’re going to be out there alone.”

Twelve months ago, the outgoing president’s political future appeared to be in serious jeopardy. Not only had he lost his reelection bid, but his post-election conduct — including the peddling of baseless lies about the integrity of Joe Biden’s victory— and his encouragement of a D.C. gathering timed with Congress’ certification of the vote, had created the kindling that led to the riots.

When those rioters stormed the capitol and Trump offered only a milquetoast response, the condemnation was swift.

On the House floor that day, Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said Trump “bears responsibility” for the “attack on Congress by mob rioters” and advised Congress to censure the president. “Count me out,” said Trump’s closest confidante in the Senate and favorite golf partner, Sen. Lindsey Graham. “Enough is enough.”

Former attorney general William Barr called Trump’s behavior “a betrayal of his office and supporters.” Republicans in Congress encouraged articles of impeachment brought against the president. Twitter and Facebook suspended Trump.

Some TV talking heads speculated that Trump might fade away into a retired life of buffets and golf at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. It appeared, at least for a moment, that Trump could become persona non grata in national politics.

Yet over the course of the past year, Trump’s grip on the party hasn’t diminished. Instead, in critical ways, it remains firm.

Trump holds court in Palm Beach where a steady stream of Republican candidates and operatives travel to gain his approval and, they hope, endorsement. Lawmakers still answer phone calls from the former president and some, like McCarthy and Graham, have flocked to his compound for a meeting and to pose for a photo, too. Trump has held MAGA rallies, does interviews with conservative media, and went on tour with former Fox News host Bill O’Reilly. His 2021 Christmas picture book sold thousands of copies. It is considered a fait accompli in certain corners that Trump won’t just run again for office but that he will easily become the Republican Party’s nominee.

“You’ve got two camps right now of people who should speak out and haven’t. The first camp knows Trump is a dangerous and vindictive man but doesn’t want to upend their lives by provoking his ire. The second camp is more nakedly transactional,” said Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security in the Trump administration who was revealed to be the author of “Anonymous,” an anti-Trump tell-all. “They see that the GOP is still drunk on the MAGA Kool Aid, and they don’t want to get left behind.”

A spokesperson for Trump did not respond to a request for comment.

Tune into our live conversation on Jan. 6

On the anniversary of the Capitol attack, our reporters will break down the last year since the deadly insurrection and what to expect next. Join us on Twitter — and bring your questions.

As Trump has sought to reclaim his throne, those who resigned in protest have scampered from public view — rarely, if ever, talking about that day. David Shulkin, who was fired by tweet by Trump as the secretary of Veterans Affairs, said he was not surprised. “We have seen countless times of people who have spoken out” against the former president have “paid the price with personal attacks against them,” he noted. He said his philosophy was to speak out against Trump only on matters of substance.

But even the substantive criticisms have been muted. Instead, some Jan. 6 defectors have come to dispute the idea that they ever resigned in protest at all, while others seem content to simply concede that their former boss remains the de facto ringleader of their party. Most, mainly, have resorted to silence.

Here are their stories.

ELAINE CHAO

Former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao.

In the aftermath of the riots, then-Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao was the first cabinet official to resign. In a two-page letter addressed to Trump, she detailed her department’s work and ended by noting—in just two sentences—her plans to depart the Monday after Jan. 6. In a message to Transportation Department colleagues on Twitter, she was more direct with her reason for resigning, calling Jan. 6 “traumatic and entirely avoidable” and saying it “deeply troubled me in a way that I simply cannot set aside.”

Since then, Chao has not publicly spoken out against Trump or the falsehoods he pushed surrounding the 2020 election, even as she and her husband—Trump foe and Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell — continue to be targeted by the ex-president. Indeed, out of office, Trump has sought to rip McConnell from his own leadership perch, pursuing an extremely long-shot effort to strip the Kentucky Republican of his leadership position.

Chao, meanwhile, currently serves on the board of directors for the Kroger Corporation and on the board of trustees for the Reagan Foundation and Institute. Her official biography on her website notes she was appointed to two Presidential cabinet positions and features a photo with former President George W. Bush, but does not mention Trump by name. Chao declined to comment.

BETSY DEVOS

Former U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos submitted her letter of resignation the day after the Jan. 6 riots and wrote to Trump, “There is no mistaking the impact your rhetoric had on the situation, and it is the inflection point for me.”

“Impressionable children are watching all of this, and they are learning from us. I believe we each have a moral obligation to exercise good judgment and model the behavior we hope they would emulate,” DeVos wrote. “They must know from us that America is greater than what transpired yesterday.”

Since leaving Washington, DeVos has been rumored to be considering a run for governor in her home state of Michigan but denied any plans to enter the race. This summer, at the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, she offered veiled criticism of Trump, according to the Detroit Free Press. “Principles have been overtaken by personalities” in the GOP, DeVos said. “Ours is not a movement dependent on any one person.”

After leaving office, DeVos personally donated to just three GOP congressional candidates. One of the three was Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who was one of the over 100 Republican representatives who voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election. DeVos declined to comment.

MICK MULVANEY

Former acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.

After serving as Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney accepted the role of U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland. But following the Jan. 6 riots he announced during a live interview on CNBC he was stepping down. “I called [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo last night to let him know I was resigning from that. I can’t do it. I can’t stay,” Mulvaney told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” Mulvaney said Trump was “not the same as he was eight months ago.”

“The folks who spent time away from our families, put our careers on the line to go work for Donald Trump, and we did have those successes to look back at, but now it will always be, ‘Oh yeah, you work for the guy who tried to overtake the government,’” Mulvaney said. “That legacy is gone as of yesterday and that’s extraordinarily disappointing to those of us who work for him.”

According to a person familiar with their relationship, Mulvaney is on cordial terms now with Trump, but not in regular communication with him. When they do talk, it is about family and golf, not politics or January 6. Mulvaney continues to appear on TV and radio to discuss the economy and politics. He put his hedge fund on hold to be primary caregiver to his father, who died of cancer late last year. He is a senior fellow at the University of Sydney in Australia and has been doing some consulting with a few former colleagues from the Office of Management and Budget and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Mulvaney declined to comment.

MATT POTTINGER

Former deputy national security adviser.

Deputy national security adviser to Trump, Matt Pottinger, resigned on the afternoon of Jan. 6 as the riots unfolded on Capitol Hill. Pottinger took a lead role in orchestrating the administration’s early response to Covid-19 pandemic and spearheaded the administration’s China portfolio.

Pottinger is now a distinguished fellow at the Hoover Institution and since leaving the White House has written op-eds and done interviews on U.S.-China relations. Pottinger declined an interview request.

STEPHANIE GRISHAM

Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham.

Grisham herself has not decided whether or not she will re-enter life in politics – or even if she will find a place for herself back in Washington political circles. After writing a book about her experience serving in the Trump White House, Grisham has spent time with family in Kansas figuring out what is next.

Other top Trump administration officials – who were rumored to find themselves alienated by the party – have now settled into jobs on Capitol Hill, K Street, Trump-aligned organizations, conservative groups, and even secured corporate board seats.

“Looking back, Donald Trump and our administration was the story of ‘The Emperor Has No Clothes.’ Everyone around him told him what he wanted to hear all the time, true or not and they’re still doing it today,” Grisham said. “A lot of it is about honest to goodness survival. But there is power in numbers and if people could stand together…we could get back on track.”

THE OTHER OFFICIALS

Other officials who resigned over Trump’s behavior on Jan. 6 included one of Trump’s top economic advisers, Tyler Goodspeed; deputy press secretary Sarah Matthews; White House social secretary Rickie Niceta; and John Costello, a deputy assistant secretary of Commerce who now serves in the Biden administration. Goodspeed and Matthews did not respond to a request to comment. Niceta and Costello declined to comment.

Elinore McCance-Katz, who was assistant secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services for mental health and substance use; Eric Dreiband, assistant attorney general in charge of the civil rights division; Ryan Tully, senior director for European and Russian affairs at the National Security Council; and FAA officials Arjun Garg, Brianna Manzelli, Kirk Shaffer, Bailey Edwards and Andrew Giacini also all resigned in the aftermath of Jan. 6. Garg, Manzelli and Giacini declined to comment, while McCance-Katz, Dreiband, Tully, Shaffer and Edwards didn’t respond to a request for comment.

About time...

Twitter bans personal Greene account for Covid misinformation

“Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,” Marjorie Taylor Greene said.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Twitter said Sunday it had banned the personal account of far-right Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for multiple violations of the platform’s Covid-19 misinformation policy, the latest strike against the firebrand whose embrace of conspiracy theories has been called “a cancer” for the GOP and led the House to boot her from committees.

The Georgia Republican’s account was permanently suspended under the “strike” system Twitter launched in March, which uses artificial intelligence to identify posts about the coronavirus that are misleading enough to cause harm to people. Two or three strikes earn a 12-hour account lock. Four strikes prompt a weeklong suspension. Five or more strikes can get someone permanently removed from Twitter.

In a statement on the messaging app Telegram, Greene blasted Twitter’s move as un-American. She wrote that her account was suspended after tweeting statistics from the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, a government database that includes unverified raw data.

“Twitter is an enemy to America and can’t handle the truth,” Greene said. “That’s fine, I’ll show America we don’t need them and it’s time to defeat our enemies.”

Twitter had previously suspended Greene’s personal account for periods ranging from 12 hours to a full week. The ban applies to Greene’s personal account, @mtgreenee, but does not affect her official Twitter account, @RepMTG.

The first-term has repeatedly stirred controversy over inflammatory commentary.

On social media, she has voiced support for racist views, unfounded QAnon pro-Donald Trump conspiracy theories such as the lie that the 2020 election was stolen and calls for violence against Democratic politicians, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Last February, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell called her embrace of conspiracy theories and “loony lies” a “cancer for the Republican Party.” The Democratic-led House that same month tossed her from her two committee assignments, the House Education and Labor Committee as well as the House Budget Committee.

In July, Twitter suspended Greene for a week after President Joe Biden urged tech companies to take stronger action against bogus vaccine claims that are “killing people.” Twitter has defended its efforts to keep dangerous misinformation about Covid-19 off its site, saying it has removed thousands of tweets and challenged millions of accounts worldwide.

Among Greene’s final tweets was one Saturday that falsely referenced “extremely high amounts of covid vaccine deaths,” according to her Telegram account, which appears to mirror her now-banned Twitter feed when compared with Greene tweets stored in the Internet Archive.

Last week, Greene also boasted on Twitter about talking to the former president by phone. She said she had received Trump’s permission to clarify his stance that he is against vaccine mandates though he encourages people to get the vaccine and booster. Trump was booed by some audience members in Dallas on Dec. 19 when he said he had received a Covid-19 booster shot.

On Sunday, the White House’s top medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the U.S. has been seeing almost a “vertical increase” of new Covid-19 cases, now averaging 400,000 cases a day, with hospitalizations also up. The omicron variant of Covid-19 has driven a surge in new cases across the country.

Flights canceled

2,300 U.S. flights canceled due to storms, virus

A winter storm that hit the Midwest on Saturday made Chicago the worst place in the country for travelers.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wintry weather combined with the pandemic to frustrate air travelers whose return flights home from the holidays were canceled or delayed in the first days of the new year.

By early afternoon Sunday on the East Coast, more than 2,300 U.S. flights and more than 3,900 worldwide had been canceled, according to tracking service FlightAware.

That followed Saturday’s mass cancellations of more than 2,700 U.S. flights, and more than 4,700 worldwide. Saturday’s single-day U.S. toll was the highest since just before Christmas, when airlines began blaming staffing shortages on increasing Covid-19 infections among crews.

A winter storm that hit the Midwest on Saturday made Chicago the worst place in the country for travelers throughout the weekend as the region’s airports continued to recover Sunday morning. About a quarter of all flights at O’Hare Airport were canceled Sunday.

American Airlines said most of Sunday’s canceled flights had been canceled ahead of time to avoid last-minute disruptions at the airport.

Lie in state

Harry Reid to lie in state in Capitol Rotunda

The former Senate majority leader died last Tuesday.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS

The late Sen. Harry Reid, the Nevada Democrat who served as majority leader during a 30-year career in the Senate, will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda next week.

The leaders of Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, said in a statement Sunday night that ceremonies honoring Reid at the Capitol will take place on Jan. 12.

Events will include a formal arrival and departure ceremony. Details were to be announced later. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the ceremony was being limited to invited guests only.

“Few dedicated their life and career to working for and delivering for working families like Harry Reid, and it will be an honor to pay tribute to him in the Capitol next week,” Schumer said. Pelosi said it was her “solemn honor” to pay tribute to “a legendary leader, a great American and my dear friend.”

Reid, 82, died last Tuesday at his home in Henderson, Nevada, after battling pancreatic cancer. A memorial service was planned for Saturday in Las Vegas.

Adams administration

Welcome to the Adams administration

By ERIN DURKIN, ANNA GRONEWOLD and DEANNA GARCIA

Eric Adams is entering day three as mayor of New York City, but without the traditional pomp and circumstance of a mayoral inauguration. His swearing in, after planned festivities were canceled due to the latest Covid-19 surge, underscored the challenges he will face in his first months in office: taking over city government as it battles record-high infections, rising hospitalizations, and new economic disruptions. Adams took the oath just after the ball dropped in Times Square, holding up a photograph of his late mother.

Adams’ first weekend in office featured a crash course in the challenges and emergencies faced by every mayor, including an NYPD officer shot in East Harlem and his first snowstorm briefing. He took the subway from Brooklyn on day one, stopping to call 911 to report a fist fight he witnessed on the street, and biked from Gracie Mansion on day two.

In his first address to New Yorkers as mayor, streamed live from City Hall, Adams declared: “Despite Covid-19 and its persistence, New York is not closed. It is still open and alive because New Yorkers are more resilient than the pandemic.”

Today, he’ll confront the difficulties of putting those words into action as he reopens schools with a new set of protocols in place to cope with the surge, which are drawing their share of criticism. Adams plans to head to a school in the Bronx with his new schools chancellor this morning, and on Sunday urged parents not to fear sending their kids back to the classroom. “The safest place for children, based on the data, is inside a school building,” he said.

And who gives a shit?

Trump endorses Hungary’s Orbán for reelection

“Viktor Orbán of Hungary truly loves his Country and wants safety for his people,” Trump said in a statement.

By QUINT FORGEY

Former President Donald Trump on Monday endorsed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán for reelection — throwing his support behind a far-right, nationalist leader who has defied America’s allies in Europe and moved to consolidate control over his country’s media and judiciary.

“Viktor Orbán of Hungary truly loves his Country and wants safety for his people,” Trump said in a statement. “He has done a powerful and wonderful job in protecting Hungary, stopping illegal immigration, creating jobs, trade, and should be allowed to continue to do so in the upcoming Election. He is a strong leader and respected by all. He has my Complete support and Endorsement for reelection as Prime Minister!”

Trump’s endorsement of Orbán is not the first time the former president has championed the political campaigns of populist foreign leaders who have been accused of eroding democratic norms within their countries. Last October, Trump announced his support for Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s reelection bid.

President Joe Biden, by contrast, has taken a tougher line against Orbán. Ahead of his virtual Summit for Democracy last month, Hungary was the only European Union country to which Biden did not extend an invitation.