Are we about to witness a resurgence of President Trump's brutal Twitter attacks against former Florida Governor Jeb Bush?
Bush, one of Trump's opponents during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, backed the idea of a Republican challenger to Trump in 2020 during an appearance on the Axe Files podcast, CNN reports, saying that members of the party "ought to be given a choice."
The former governor didn't sound optimistic that a primary challenger would be successful, though, noting that Trump has a loyal base and that it's "hard to beat a sitting president." Still, Bush said it's "important" for Republicans to have "a conversation about what it is to be a conservative," adding that "our country needs to have competing ideologies."
The feud between Bush and Trump, of course, was among the most bitter of the 2016 election cycle, and after dropping out of the race, Bush announced he would not vote for Trump in the general election, nor would he vote for Hillary Clinton.
One person who could challenge Trump from the right is Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), and Bush said on the podcast that when he listened to Hogan deliver a recent speech, "I kind of got a sense that maybe this was an opening," per CNN. But even if Hogan doesn't run, Bush may get his wish sooner rather than later, as former Massachusetts Governor Bill Weld in February launched an exploratory committee ahead of possibly seeking the Republican nomination, saying that Republicans who support Trump "exhibit all the symptoms of Stockholm Syndrome." Brendan Morrow
The White House sent a letter to congressional leaders on Monday night, asking for $1.8 billion to spend on its response to the global coronavirus outbreak.
The White House is requesting $1.25 billion in new funding for the Department of Health and Human Services and $535 million that had been set aside to fight Ebola, The Washington Post reports. In the letter, White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought wrote, "To this point, no agency has been inhibited in response efforts due to resources or authorities. However, much is still unknown about this virus and the disease it causes. The administration believes additional federal resources are necessary to take steps to prepare for a potential worsening of the situation in the United States."
In response, House Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) said the request was "woefully insufficient." The White House had previously said it did not think it needed any additional funding to fight coronavirus. There are now more than 50 cases in the United States, and organizations representing state and local public health officials have asked for money to buy protective equipment, expand outreach to the public, and fund mobile home-testing teams, the Post reports. Catherine Garcia
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is expected to soon launch a clinical trial of an experimental coronavirus vaccine.
The vaccine was developed by the drugmaker Moderna, and researchers hope to begin testing it on humans in late April. The first trial will involve 20 to 25 healthy volunteers, with results expected by July or August. If that round is successful, a second trial will include hundreds or thousands of subjects. The vaccine was created after the coronavirus' genetic sequence was determined in January.
"Going into a Phase One trial within three months of getting the sequence is unquestionably the world indoor record," NIAID Director Anthony Fauci told The Wall Street Journal on Monday. "Nothing has ever gone that fast."
Gene-based technology has yet to result in an approved vaccine for humans, the Journal reports. If this vaccine does work, it will still have to go through regulatory measures, and likely won't be widely available until 2021. Fauci said the virus might not spread as quickly in the summer due to the heat, but could roar back in the winter. More than 2,600 people have died in this coronavirus outbreak, and there are more than 79,000 confirmed cases worldwide, with most in China. Catherine Garcia
If you're one of President Trump's former national security advisers, you're doing a lot of waiting these days — either for your book to be published or for your prison sentence to be decided.
Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster was Trump's second national security adviser, serving from March 2017 to April 2018. He came on board after Trump's first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, resigned; Flynn later pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his interactions with the former Russian ambassador to the United States.
McMaster has written a book, Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World, set to be published on April 28. HarperCollins says it is a "groundbreaking reassessment of America's place in the world, drawing from McMaster's long engagement with these issues, including 34 years of service in the U.S. Army with multiple tours of duty in battlegrounds overseas." It will also include information on McMaster's "13 months as national security adviser in the Trump White House."
Unlike other former members of the administration, McMaster, now a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, has not given many interviews about his experience with Trump. One of his aides was quoted in the book A Very Stable Genius as saying, "The president doesn't fire people. He just tortures them until they're willing to quit."
Trump's third national security adviser, John Bolton, finished writing his book, The Room Where It Happened, last year. It is supposed to come out in March, but the White House is reportedly trying to block its release. Bolton, who served from April 2018 to September 2019, is said to have included damaging information in the book, including that Trump attempted to get him to engage in a quid pro quo with Ukraine. Catherine Garcia