Trump nominates John Ratcliffe for top intelligence officer post – as it happened

Trump is ad-libbing on the coronavirus at his rally in South Carolina, Oliver Laughland reports.

The president is using the epidemic to justify his anti-immigration policy – and attack Democrats:

We are doing everything in our power to keep the infection and those carrying the infection from entering the country. We have no choice. Whether it’s the virus that we’re talking about, or the many other public health threats, the Democrat policy of open borders is a direct threat to the health and wellbeing of all Americans.

Now you see it with the coronavirus… when you have this virus, or any other virus, or any other problem coming in, it’s not the only thing that comes in through the border… and we’re setting records at the border, we’re setting records, and now, just using this, important, so important.

For factual information about the coronavirus, please see our rolling coverage here.

Another assault on reproductive rights (and the US constitution) just passed the state senate in Utah.

The proposed law, Senate Bill 174, is unconstitutional. It would outlaw all elective abortions, with exceptions only for cases of rape, incest and danger to the mother’s health. Abortion is legal under current Supreme Court precedent.

Many states have passed similarly unconstitutional laws in recent years. If enacted, the laws are generally struck down quickly by federal courts.

Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence committee, also has harsh criticism for Trump’s re-nomination of John Ratcliffe as DNI.

Guardian US reporters are out and about in South Carolina on the eve of the “first in the south” primary.

Joan Greve is in Columbia, where voters are line-dancing ahead of a Tom Steyer rally.

Meanwhile, Oliver Laughland and Daniel Strauss are keeping an eye on the 22nd Amendment of the US constitution at the Trump rally in North Charleston.

Lest you thought Senate Democrats would forget that they did not want John Ratcliffe appointed director of national intelligence, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer just came out with a strong statement opposing the nomination:

Speaking of intelligence chiefs ...

Leon Panetta, whose long career in government includes stints as CIA director and secretary of defense during the Obama administration, just endorsed Joe Biden in the Democratic presidential primary.

If the announcement of John Ratcliffe as Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence gives you a feeling of déjà vu, it’s because we were here – literally – just seven months ago.

My colleague Julian Borger wrote about some of the concerns over Ratcliffe’s – “an inexperienced but loyal partisan” – at the time.

“Trump is consolidating his personal control over the intelligence community,” said Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former CIA intelligence officer. He said the current directors of the CIA and FBI have found their hands tied increasingly when it comes to accurate intelligence assessment, by risk of being fired for something at odds with Trump’s views.

“I fear that there is a slow takeover of the norms and procedures of governance by this president, amassing unprecedented executive power,” Mowatt-Larssen, now at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, added. “To do that he needs to neutralise or at least silence the intelligence community. He has been doing that for three years, but this takes it to the new level.”

You can read Julian’s full report here.

Farage barrage

Nigel Farage, dubbed “the Godfather of Brexit” in the official CPAC programme, urged attendees of the conservative event to help Bernie Sanders win the Democratic nomination – and thus, in his view, guarantee a landslide victory for his “friend” Donald Trump in the November 2020 election.

Farage, always a popular turn at CPAC, said of the recent British general election: “One of the things that made it easier for Boris [Johnson] was a man called Jeremy Corbyn. The British Labour party had been hijacked by hard left, unpatriotic socialism.”

US Democrats will suffer the same fate under democratic socialist Sanders, he suggested. “You should be backing Bernie Sanders. You should be campaigning for Bernie Sanders. You should be donating money to Bernie Sanders.”

Farage, who waved a small Union flag on stage, added: “I think with Bernie, you won’t just get Trump. I think with Bernie, you can retake the House too.”

The crowd at this year’s CPAC event, in Oxon Hill, Maryland, burst into chants of “USA! USA!”

Environmental gaslighting

Donald Trump’s environment chief, in a panel discussion at the high-profile Conservative Political Action Committee event near Washington, earlier today claimed that “our environment is cleaner today than it has ever been,” my colleague Emily Holden writes, from the CPAC event.

Andrew Wheeler, a former fossil fuel lobbyist, has led the administration’s rollbacks of dozens of environmental protections. Wheeler said the media doesn’t tell the story of a cleaner environment.

“You don’t hear that in most news organizations or the newspapers,” he said.
Wheeler frequently cites the statistic that air pollution has declined 74% since 1970. But recent data has shown that after years of improvement, the air has gotten dirtier since 2016.

The Environmental Protection Agency administrator also defended his policy of considering only studies that have publicly-available data, which scientists have said will prevent the government from incorporating the findings of research that involves private health data.

Clean water

“Violated due process”

Judiciary committee chairman and New York Democrat Jerry Nadler (who this morning wrote to attorney general Bill Barr requesting congressional interview with key officials amid concerns over presidential interference in the justice system), has also responded on Twitter to the court ruling blocking Trump’s “Wait in Mexico” border policy.

“From day one, @HouseJudiciary has said the “Remain in Mexico” policy was illegal and violated due process, which is why we launched a comprehensive investigation into its origins. Proud to see the 9th Circuit put a halt to this fatally flawed program,” he said.

Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal said: “The courts agree the Trump admin’s remain in Mexico policy is cruel & inhumane. As a country we should not banish people fleeing persecution to continue to wait in unsafe uncertainty. A clear violation of the law.”

And Texas congressman Filemon Vela said: “Though the 9th Circuit’s decision almost certainly will be appealed, for now it stops the policy nationwide. The Trump admin. had been declaring near-victory in stemming immigration just weeks ago, in part because of MPP’s success. We must #EndMPP for good.”

“Puts asylum seekers in danger”

Current presidential contender Elizabeth Warren has also weighed in on the hammering of Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” border policy.

She tweeted that the news of this morning’s court ruling was excellent.

“Donald Trump’s cruel “Remain in Mexico” policy put asylum seekers in danger. As president, I will reverse the Trump administration’s cruel immigration policies and ensure that asylum seekers are welcomed at our borders,” she said.

New Mexico Senator Tom Udall tweeted that the policy news was a relief.

“We cannot allow the Trump administration to continue punishing asylum seekers with its hateful and dangerous policies. Offering a place for those who need refuge is a bedrock part of what America is all about,” he said.

House foreign affairs committee chairman, Eliot Engel, called the policy heartless, in a tweet.

“I applaud the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling. Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy is heartless for those seeking asylum in our country. The Administration continues to demonize people coming to our country, but they are on the wrong side of history,” he said.

One of the impeachment managers in Trump’s recent Senate impeachment trial, congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, called the policy “inhumane” in her tweet, saying: “‘Remain in Mexico’ is inconsistent w/@DHSgov’s authority & inhumanely forces thousands to wait in dangerous conditions before their asylum claims are heard. It’s a harmful policy & I’m glad the court rejected it.”

“Heartless and unlawful”

Reaction is still coming in to the news that a federal appeals judge in California has blocked the harsh Trump administration policy of forcing asylum seekers who cross the US-Mexico border to wait in Mexico for the duration of their immigration court cases.

New Jersey Senator and former 2020 presidential candidate Cory Booker just tweeted that: “Trump’s war on immigrants is an affront to our values and ideals. I’m glad that this heartless and unlawful policy is suspended. We must treat all people with dignity and respect. Period.”

Biden still working for votes in SC

My Washington colleague Joanie Greve reports from Columbia, South Carolina, that Biden is on the move:

Joan will be back in her usual spot helming this blog tomorrow evening as we await the results of this nail-biting primary, but on location!

Trump statement on Afghanistan:

Here’s the full statement:

Nearly 19 years ago, American service members went to Afghanistan to root out the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks.

In that time, we have made great progress in Afghanistan, but at great cost to our brave service members, to the American taxpayers, and to the people of Afghanistan.

When I ran for office, I promised the American people I would begin to bring our troops home, and seek to end this war. We are making substantial progress on that promise.

Soon, at my direction, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will witness the signing of an agreement with representatives of the Taliban, while Secretary of Defense Mark Esper will issue a joint declaration with the government of Afghanistan.

If the Taliban and the government of Afghanistan live up to these commitments, we will have a powerful path forward to end the war in Afghanistan and bring our troops home.

These commitments represent an important step to a lasting peace in a new Afghanistan, free from Al Qaeda, ISIS, and any other terrorist group that would seek to bring us harm.

Ultimately it will be up to the people of Afghanistan to work out their future. We, therefore, urge the Afghan people to seize this opportunity for peace and a new future for their country.

I thank the hundreds of thousands of American warriors who have proudly served in Afghanistan.

We have killed or captured many ISIS and Al Qaeda terrorists. We honor your service and the sacrifices you and your families have made for the American people.

These agreements are a result of the strenuous efforts of those who fought so hard in Afghanistan for the United States of America.

With some more detail, here the Associated Press:

Trump said he’s dispatching the nation’s top diplomat to sign an agreement with the Afghan Taliban aimed at beginning a draw down of thousands of US troops and ending America’s 18-year involvement in the war.

Trump said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo would soon, at his direction, witness the signing of an agreement with the Taliban, an event that will see him stand with leaders of militants, who harbored al-Qaida before the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the US and are responsible for the deaths of thousands of American servicemen and women.

He said defense secretary Mark Esper also will issue a joint declaration with the government of Afghanistan.

Trump did not say where the deal would be signed, but it’s been previously reported that it would occur on Saturday in Doha, Qatar.

Signing the deal comes after a week in which both US-led forces and the Taliban committed to a reduction in violence.

Under the plan being signed, the US is to reduce the number of troops in Afghanistan to 8,600 from about 13,000.

Schumer slams Mulvaney over coronavirus rubbish

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, has fired back at acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney over remarks the Republican made this morning about the coronavirus outbreak, where he blamed concerns as nothing more than a “hoax” by Dems to sway the election and accused the media of stoking fears.

This bearing in mind other countries are closing schools, canceling public events and the US government’s own health advisers have warned of impending disruption to American life as the illness inevitably spreads. You can follow our coronavirus global live blog here.

“For Mick Mulvaney to suggest that Americans turn off their TVs and bury their heads in the sand when they’re worried about a global health pandemic is Orwellian, counterproductive, dangerous, and would be repeating China’s mistake,” Schumer just tweeted.

Oh and the Fed said it might drop interest rates to calm market jitters.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has told the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) today that Donald Trump’s administration has been forced to “correct” the wishful thinking mistakes of its predecessors.

“No policy built on fantasy has worked,” he told attendees. “It’s what we’ve had to correct in our time.”

Past administrations were proud of past agreements, such as the Iran nuclear deal or Paris climate accords, he said, and enjoyed attending signing ceremonies.

“The point is changing behaviour, not signing documents,” Pompeo continued. “President Trump’s a smart business leader. We changed course. We got better deals for each and every one of you.”

The secretary sent a defiant message to critics who said US-Mexico border security could never be strengthened or trade deals could never be renegotiated. Both have been achieved, he claimed.

“They said taking out Qassem Suleimani would lead to world war three and it’s actually made our world far safer,” Pompeo added.

“They said moving our embassy to Jerusalem would set the Middle East alight and that didn’t happen. Our plan represents the best chance for peace in decades.”

“This policy is flatly illegal”

Harvard law professor Larry Tribe has this reaction to the news that a court has blocked Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy that sends asylum seekers crossing into the US back across the border to Mexico, where they find themselves waiting for months and months in often squalid and dangerous conditions for their court hearings in America.

Responding to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit’s ruling, upholding the preliminary injunction halting the Trump administration’s so-called “Remain in Mexico” policy, under which the U government forcibly returns asylum-seekers to Mexico indefinitely while they ask for asylum in the US, Amnesty International USA’s advocacy director for the Americas, Charanya Krishnaswami, said:

“This policy was never designed to work; it was designed solely to deter people from exercising their right to seek asylum.

“Now that the Ninth Circuit has halted this unconscionable policy, the tens of thousands of asylum-seekers already subjected to it must immediately be given the chance to make their asylum claims from within the United States - a chance they should have all along.

“Rather than appealing this decision, the U.S. government should instead seek to reverse the harm this policy has wrought upon people seeking safety and restore its commitment to the right to seek asylum at the US border.”

Reaction is coming in to the news that a federal appeals court has immediately blocked the Trump administration’s policy that forces asylum seeking migrants crossing the US-Mexico border to return to Mexico and remain there indefinitely while their asylum applications are processed in the United States, which can drag on indefinitely.

The American Civil Liberties Union, the Center for Gender & Refugee Studies, and Southern Poverty Law Center are challenging the policy and presented arguments in October 2019 to the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

The groups won a preliminary injunction in April, and in May the Ninth Circuit temporarily allowed the policy to take effect as the government appealed the injunction.

ACLU attorney Judy Rabinovitz, who argued the appeal, said this afternoon:

“The court forcefully rejected the Trump administration’s assertion that it could strand asylum seekers in Mexico and subject them to grave danger. It’s time for the administration to follow the law and stop putting asylum seekers in harm’s way.”

The case, Innovation Law Lab v. Wolf, was brought on behalf of 11 individual asylum seekers who were forced to return to Mexico to wait, and organizational plaintiffs Innovation Law Lab, the Central American Resource Center of Northern California, Centro Legal de la Raza, the University of San Francisco School of Law Immigration and Deportation Defense Clinic, Al Otro Lado, and the Tahirih Justice Center.

Bill “let me do my job” Barr

Attorney general William Barr has made efforts in recent days to beat back critics’ concerns that he was doing the president’s political bidding, by urging Donald Trump to stop tweeting about criminal cases - after Trump intervened in the Roger Stone case ahead of sentencing - because his comments were undercutting his ability to do his job.

Trump had intervened in the form of a tweet calling prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation “a horrible and very unfair situation”. Barr then caused the recommendation to be changed, prompting a call for the attorney general’s resignation from more than 2,600 former justice department officials, my colleague Tom McCarthy wrote last week.

Barr’s public plea for Trump to back off was characterized by former US attorney and Trump foil Preet Bharara thusly in a tweet: “I think Bill Barr is shrewd, deliberate, smart, calculating, careful, and full of it,” tweeted the former US attorney Preet Bharara.

Amid this scandal, Trump also abruptly withdrew the nomination of Jessie Liu, the former US attorney for the District of Columbia, who oversaw the Roger Stone case, for a new top post at the Treasury Department overseeing economic sanctions, the AP writes today.

Judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler, in his letter to Barr this morning, said he also wants to interview Liu, as well as Tim Shea, the current interim US attorney for the District of Columbia whom Barr appointed to replace Liu.

Despite Barr’s pleas, Trump has nevertheless continued tweeting and has attacked the judge, jurors and prosecutors involved in the Stone case.

At Stone’s sentencing last week, US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Trump’s tweets were inappropriate and would have no bearing on her decision-making.
A Justice Department spokeswoman could not be immediately reached for comment on the committee’s request.

Trump aggrieved over Fox poll

Yes indeed. Here’s the tweet (bearing in mind America’s federal disease prevention agency is warning of impending disruption in the US caused by the coronavirus, while Trump is tweeting only about himself this morning):

And here’s a story on the new Fox News poll from last night. It shows the six leading Democratic candidates, from Amy Klobuchar up to Joe Biden, beating Trump in a match-up in November’s election. Biden and Mike Bloomberg would beat Trump by eight points, according to the poll, Sanders by seven points, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg by three and Klobuchar by one point.

A quick reminder that while this blog is focusing on general US politics news today the Guardian also has a terrific live blog dedicated to covering the coronavirus outbreak as well as our regular business live blog that’s keeping an eye on related plunges in the markets, as the Dow nosedives again today. And there are separate extrapolations of all the most important angles in articles on our website, too, of course, such as whether vice president Mike Pence is suitably qualified to helm the Trump administration’s response to the outbreak.

And this is worth noting:

Allegations of political interference in the DoJ by Donald Trump

In his letter to attorney general Bill Barr this morning, House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler expresses the need to interview many Department of Justice officials who have worked on cases involving Trump close associates, such as disgraced national security adviser Michael Flynn (who has yet to be sentenced despite pleading guilty more than two years ago to lying to the FBI about his Russian contacts).

The judiciary committee also wants to interview officials “who were tapped by Barr to review cases Trump has openly criticized”, according to this Politico piece, which continues:

Among the officials Nadler is seeking to interview are John Durham, the US attorney from Connecticut who was picked by Barr to review the origins of the FBI’s probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election; Jeff Jensen, the US attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri, whom Barr selected to review the case of Flynn; Robert Khuzami, the former New York-based prosecutor who oversaw the case against Trump’s former personal lawyer Michael Cohen; and Richard Donoghue, the US attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whom Barr picked to review all matters related to the Ukraine scandal that led to Trump’s impeachment in the House last year.

But the most head-turning in the breakneck speed world of Trump scandals is the request to interview the prosecutors in the Roger Stone case.

Mixed poll news for Biden

It’s a nail-biting, see-sawing kind of day for Joe Biden as he launches into the absolutely crucial five days for his presidential campaign that span the South Carolina primary tomorrow and Super Tuesday voting in more than a dozen states on March 3.

Just hours before he received Senator Tim Kaine’s endorsement, a new ABC-Ipsos poll out this morning asked Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, based on the most recent candidate debates (in Las Vegas and Charleston), who has the best chance of beating Donald Trump in November.

A booming 34% said Bernie Sanders, while only 25% said Biden. In more worries for Elizabeth Warren, she was behind Mike Bloomberg, at 11% support in the “electability” poll in contrast to his 15%.

It looks even more bleak for Amy Klobuchar at 3%, behind Pete Buttigieg at 8%.

But a poll in South Carolina yesterday still had Biden narrowly ahead of Sanders in his chances of winning the primary there.

It is unclear whether the department of justice will cooperate with any part of the new House committee probe that was just revealed.

Donald Trump has previously vowed to block “all” of the subpoenas from Democrats and refused to cooperate with their impeachment inquiry last year.

Still, despite his declarations, many administration officials came forward during the impeachment probe once they were faced with subpoenas, the AP further reports.

Barr has already agreed to testify before the committee on March 31. It will be the first time he has appeared before the panel since he became attorney general a year ago, and the meeting is sure to be contentious.

Since Barr was sworn in, House Democrats have questioned whether he was too close to Trump, criticized his handling of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s 2019 report resulting from the Trump-Russia investigation, and then impeached Trump for his pressure on Ukraine to investigate Democrats, principally his election rival Joe Biden.

The Senate acquitted Trump earlier this month after the historic impeachment trial.
In the letter this morning, Nadler asked for a broad swath of documents related to the committee’s concerns, including communications between Trump and the Justice Department. The committee is unlikely to get any of those documents, as a president’s personal conversations are generally considered privileged by the courts.

Just after the Senate voted to acquit Trump, Barr faced blowback over his decision to overrule the prosecutors in the Stone case. Trump congratulated Barr shortly afterward.
Stone was convicted of lying to Congress, witness tampering and obstructing the House investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia to tip the 2016 election. He was sentenced last week to more than three years in prison.

When Stone was convicted last November, the Guardian detailed how he had been accused of having connections to Wikileaks and being involved in the leaking of US Democratic party emails stolen by the Russians during the 2016 election.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and progressive firebrand congresswoman Ilhan Omar just had a spirited exchange at the foreign affairs committee hearing that is still underway on Iran and Iraq. You can watch the livestream here.

Pompeo argued that the assassination by the US of Iran’s military top dog, Qassem Suleimani, in Iraq at the beginning of January has made things “far safer” for the American people.

But committee member Omar asked how that could be when, in prior Iranian-backed, storming protests at the US embassy in Baghdad, “the people who were at the US embassy said they were not warned” and yet in the fall-out from the killing of Suleimani, US diplomats, such as Iran specialist Brian Hook, have needed a special “counter assault team” when at public eventsw.

Omar cited special protection measures taken when Hook, special representative for Iran and senior policy adviser to Pompeo, attended an event in Los Angeles where he defended the US strike on Suleimani.

Uncle Sam’s nightmare?

Here’s what the conservative-leaning Economist magazine thinks of the prospect of a Donald Trump vs Bernie Sanders match-up in the 2020 election.

Hello, everyone, the US politics live blog helm now switches from London to (today) New York and we’ll take you through the rest of another action packed day before handing over to our colleagues in Oakland, California for the evening.

Just a reminder that although we may touch here and there on the US political angle of the coronavirus outbreak in this blog, all the main US and global news on this vital story is being covered in our separate, dedicated live blog, here, and in other US-related coronavirus articles.

Although, here’s the next New Yorker cover:

The session has now returned to the discussion of Qassem Suleimani, and the US strike to kill him.

Pompeo said that “He was in the region actively plotting to kill Americans” and that “It was my judgement that this reduced risks to America to take this strike.”

He said it would reduce risks short, medium and long-term.

Texan Republican Michael McCaul spoke to back the strikes. He said “Americans in the region are certainly safer because of this decision. I was in some of these discussions and the president was very clear ‘I do not want to go with war with Iran’. They crossed a red line when they attacked our embassy.”

There have been some sharp words of criticism for Pompeo’s unwillingness to appear at this session - with it being pointed out that it has taken him two months to appear. Brad Sherman asked if it would take two months from now before he would appear to answer questions about coronavirus. Pompeo has only agreed to appear for two hours, and this has been contrasted with the eleven hour session that Hillary Clinton endured when the same committee, with Pompeo as part of it, interrogated her about Benghazi.

Although the theme of the House Foreign Affairs Committee session this morning was due to be Iran and Iraq, discussion has immediately and inevitably pivoted to discussing the coronavirus outbreak.

Rhode Island Democrat David Cicilline attacked the administration, saying that after three years the American people weren’t sure they could trust the government to handle the crisis

Pompeo has criticised Iran for not sharing information about the outbreak in the country, and confirmed that the US had offered to help Iran. He was also a little testy about the change of topic.

California Democrat Ami Bera has suggested that US policy of isolating Iran has hampered Iranian efforts to combat the virus outbreak.

Amy Klobuchar has just tweeted to highlight a negative comparison from Connecticut senator Chris Murphy between the way that president Barack Obama set about preparing for potential medical emergencies, and the de-funding of those plans that has been done by the Trump administration. “Leadership is thinking ahead and thinking farther than the next tweet” she says.

Klobuchar is due to campaign today in Virginia and Tennessee.

Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney is currently talking at CPAC, being interviewed by Stephen Moore. You can watch a video stream of it live. He’s been talking about Congress being “broken”, and has just described his job as “the coolest job in the world”.

He has also revealed that Donald Trump did not sleep on his overnight flight back from India, and that the president texts, emails and calls him from 6am every morning until midnight.

He is now talking about what Donald Trump will do in his second term - suggesting a 1% cut in corporation tax to 20% because the president thinks “it is a better number”.

Yes, it is a crucial primary on Saturday for Joe Biden. But that equally applies to the other candidates vying to be the main rival to early front-runner Bernie Sanders. Surely someone will have to drop out of this crowded field after Super Tuesday, so that the more centrist candidates can unite around one “anti-Sanders” option?

Here’s Moira Donegan with a look at what could happen next for Elizabeth Warren and how her campaign has become energised since that Nevada debate performance.

Perhaps this is why Warren now feels free to be frankly angry: not just because playing nice has stopped working, but because her treatment has been deeply unfair. She is the most qualified, the most intelligent and she has run the best campaign, and yet she is being passed over in favor of candidates who are less honest, less prepared, less capable, less morally committed, or simply male.

And here is Sam Levin in Los Angeles with a look at how Warren has found trans activists rallying behind her:

“Elizabeth is teachable,” said Blossom C Brown, an LA-based activist, who protested the exclusion of black trans women at a candidate forum last year. “We don’t expect her to get it right 100% of the time. But she is the one willing to listen.”

One of the problems facing Joe Biden as he goes into the South Carolina primary is that he is attempting to defy history. Over on Bloomberg Paul Murray has put together a series of charts showing historical polling data for the primaries since 1980. He says of Biden:

He’s not the only perceived frontrunner to falter in recent elections. Biden joins five other candidates since 1988 who lost their national polling lead after the Iowa caucuses; none of the others were able to recover from their decline.

To put it bluntly: “no candidate has held a polling lead going into the first nominating contest, lost that lead and then come back to win the nomination.”

That’s quite some challenge for Biden. You can see the data here.

“It’s the perfect time for businesses, health care systems, universities and schools to look at their pandemic preparedness plans, dust them off, and make sure that they’re ready,” Trump said Wednesday at his White House news conference on the coronavirus.

Accordingly schools across the United States are canceling trips abroad, preparing online lessons and even rethinking their “perfect attendance” awards as they brace for the possibility that Covid-19 could begin spreading in their communities.

There’s also a big question mark about how the healthcare system could cope if there was a sharp increase in the number of cases in the US.

And there’s a specific factor that could make a difference to how the coronavirus might spread - the uninsured. Carl Gibson is one of those 27.5 million people - here are his thoughts on what the impact of the coronavirus could be.

Here is Amanda Holpuch in New York, looking at how it is low-income Americans who are most likely to be at risk.

There’s also a potentially worrying development in terms of how America has been handling the virus. The Washington Post was reporting last night that a whistleblower has come forward to say that officials at the Department of Health and Human Services sent workers to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear. They then wren’t tested to see if they had contracted the new coronavirus themselves.

Good morning - there’s quite a bit on the agenda today.

It is the final full day of campaigning before the South Carolina primary, and Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Tom Steyer are all in the state today. Joe Biden has been considered the frontrunner in the southernmost state to vote so far, but he needs a decisive victory over Sanders if he’s to convince people that his campaign has a chance of eclipsing the leftwing senator and making a strong push for the nomination.

Donald Trump will also be out campaigning in South Carolina. There’s no Republican primary, but nevertheless he’s attending a rally at 7pm EST in North Charleston. Amy Klobuchar, meanwhile, is visiting Virginia and Tennessee with an eye on Super Tuesday.

We can expect a lot of focus on the coronavirus. Much of Trump’s upbeat messaging about the outbreak was designed to keep the markets steady. That approach seems to have failed as Wall Street and markets around the world tanked yesterday on fears about the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have confirmed that two people in the US have the coronavirus from person-to-person transmission, rather than exposure to the disease overseas.

There’s a host of big names appearing at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Fort Washington, Maryland, just outside of Washington DC. Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler, Donald Trump Jr, Candace Owens, Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump and the so-called “Anti-Greta” Naomi Seibt are all appearing today. There are sessions on what the map of Israel should look like, how to fight the left’s “voter fraud machine”, “how the left justifies acts of violence” and the culture war. It should be a lively day. You can see the full line-up here.

And another big draw is that secretary of state Mike Pompeo will be appearing before the House committee on foreign affairs to be grilled on US policy on Iran and Iraq. You’ll be able to watch the session here.