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11 November 20
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Michael Moore | An Open Letter to Joe Biden
Michael Moore, Michael Moore's Facebook Page
Moore writes: "First of all, congratulations! YOU did it. WE did it! You stopped the madness."
READ MORE
A man makes signs as a handful of supporters of President Donald Trump continue to protest outside the Pennsylvania Convention Center, in Philadelphia on Nov. 10, 2020. (photo: Rebecca Blackwell/AP)
Pennsylvania Republicans Plan 'Extraordinary Measures' to Delay Election Results
Jon Ward, Yahoo News
Ward writes: "Republicans in the Pennsylvania state legislature on Tuesday said they would take 'extraordinary measures' to find out whether the election in their state was fair, despite having no evidence of any wrongdoing."
State Rep. Dawn Keefer, a Republican from York County, announced that Republicans in the state legislature would move to conduct an audit of the election, and that the state should not certify the election results, or select electors to the Electoral College, until it is completed.
“The General Assembly needs to take extraordinary measures to answer these extraordinary questions,” Keefer said while speaking in front of a group of a dozen or so House Republicans.
But Keefer admitted that she and the Pennsylvania GOP do not have anything more than questions. There is no evidence of anything resembling coordinated cheating in the election.
“We've just gotten a lot of allegations,” Keefer said, referring to what she said was a flurry of calls and e-mails from voters “who are concerned and outraged by the circumstances surrounding this election.”
Of course, the only circumstances that would lead any voter to believe there might have been cheating has been the evidence-free complaints from President Trump that such cheating did occur, and that Democrats are trying to cheat.
“Pennsylvania had a free, fair, and secure election,” said Wanda Murren, a spokesperson for Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar, a Democrat.
“Allegations of fraud and illegal activity have been repeatedly debunked and dismissed by the courts. Those attacks against the core values of Americans are intended to undermine our democracy, and we must reject them,” Murren said in an e-mailed statement.
The delaying of certifying the election, and of choosing electors, raised concerns that the Republican Party might be in fact trying to use baseless claims of cheating to throw out the popular vote result in Pennsylvania, where Democratic President-Elect Joe Biden leads President Trump by about 47,000 votes, with analysts projecting that his lead will be closer to 100,000 once all votes are counted.
The deadline to certify the election is Nov. 23 and the deadline to certify electors for the Electoral College is Dec. 8.
Under the law in Pennsylvania, the governor appoints electors, in accordance with the state’s popular vote returns. But the Pennsylvania Republican Party has come under scrutiny for the last two months, since The Atlantic first published a report in September that Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman was making plans to potentially have the state legislature send a competing slate of representatives to the Electoral College who would cast the state’s 20 electoral votes for Trump.
Corman later distanced himself from the idea, and such a scenario seems unlikely, given that Biden seems poised to carry the state by double the margin by which Trump won in 2016.
Moreover, such a move would almost certainly be illegal. The Constitution empowers legislatures to decide how their state will choose electors. Pennsylvania, like every other state, now chooses its electors by popular vote. It could change that before the next presidential election.
But Congress, also according to the Constitution, sets the date when electors are to be chosen — i.e., Election Day, which was Nov. 3.
Constitutional scholars agree that no state legislature can now retroactively decide to override its own state’s procedures.
But there is no question that the Trump campaign and the Republican party are taking steps that could move them closer to an attempt to override the popular vote, claiming that it was compromised by cheating, even though the top Republican experts on voting have repeatedly said such a rigged election is not even possible in the era of modern elections.
“The idea that a massive conspiracy could be undertaken that could actually change the result of a governor’s race or US Senate race — or certainly a presidential race — is a very far-fetched idea & beyond, really, the realm of possibility,” Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, told Yahoo News in late August.
The point made by LaRose and other Republican experts is that even isolated examples of cheating, which do happen, do not add up to a conspiracy. To manipulate tens of thousands of votes without detection is not possible given the multiple layers of security and accountability involved in running elections, experts say.
One of those layers is the post-election audit that Boockvar’s office, which oversees elections, is conducting.
And Biden’s margin of victory in states like Pennsylvania, and Michigan, where he leads by almost 150,000 votes, leaves no room for the potential that the kind of small-scale malfeasance or cheating that sometimes happens in elections would make a difference.
But Keefer claimed that an additional audit conducted by Republican politicians in the legislature is needed to “ensure public trust in our electoral system,” even as the Republican party undermines trust in the election by claiming there has been widespread cheating without any proof.
Trump himself has for months claimed, again without evidence, that mail voting was going to lead to a rigged election.
“How can the American people, the people of Pennsylvania, have confidence in a system when they see their elected leaders calling the process into question before it even starts?” said Rep. Kevin Boyle, a Democrat in the Pennsylvania legislature from Philadelphia.
The Trump campaign has also sued to delay certifying the election.
Biden campaign lawyer Bob Bauer told reporters Tuesday that the Trump campaign was engaged in “a procedural maneuver … but it's not going to have any effect on the outcome.”
Dana Remus, the Biden campaign’s general counsel, said they are “fully prepared for continued suits and continued attempts to create confusion and to do everything they possibly can to slow things. But at the end of the day, they have no evidence and thus they will not be able to stop this process.”
But Trump so far is receiving cover from most Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington. Only four Republican senators — Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — have recognized Biden’s victory.
Some Republican senators, such as Ted Cruz of Texas, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and Josh Hawley of Missouri, have spread false information about a lack of access for election observers.
Rescue workers push a strecher with a patient from Zaandam Cruice Ship at Broward Health Medical Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, United States on April 02, 2020. (photo: Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Getty)
The US Reported the Most Single-Day COVID-19 Deaths Since May and Experts Say Pandemic Is Accelerating
Christina Maxouris and Holly Yan, CNN
Excerpt: "The Covid-19 crisis in America is so dire now, international aid workers have arrived to help."
"This is a humanitarian disaster -- probably one of the worst stories I've covered in my career here at CNN," the network's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said Thursday.
Workers from Doctors Without Borders are trying to help the US get a grip on the pandemic, he said. More than 241,000 people have died from coronavirus nationwide -- a number that is rapidly growing every day.
"I mean, this is an organization that typically covers true disasters and medical crises all over the world," Gupta said.
"And when they sort of look at a map right now and say, 'Where do we need to be?' they pointed to the United States. They were in nursing homes in Detroit. They went to Missouri. They're in these different places trying to offer their services. And still, the numbers are what they are."
The numbers are simply staggering. On Wednesday, the US recorded 1,893 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University. The tally would reflect a new high since May, though it may be skewed by an outsized number from Georgia that could include backlogged deaths.
More than 110,000 additional people in the US are projected to die from Covid-19 in just the next two months, according to the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.
The US has also topped 100,000 daily infections at least nine days in a row. Wednesday was the second consecutive day of record numbers of Covid-19 hospitalizations.
And new reports show the pandemic is only ramping up as the country approaches a critical holiday season.
'Accelerating community spread' and 'significant deterioration'
The White House coronavirus task force warned of "accelerating community spread across the top half of the country" in reports distributed to states this week.
The panel, which last week warned of "significant deterioration in the Sunbelt," said that has led to the "most diffuse spread experienced to date."
A separate forecast from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Policy Lab projects conditions will worsen in the West Coast, the Northeast and the mid-Atlantic states over the next several weeks.
Hospitalizations, ICU admissions and ventilator use are rising in every single state, the lab said.
"In every Midwestern state, COVID-19 patients are occupying more than 25% of ICU beds," it reported.
That's as the US reported the highest number of hospitalizations ever on Wednesday -- with more than 65,000 Covid-19 patients nationwide, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
"The nearly universal rise in statewide hospitalization rates, particularly in our colder regions, is a pattern that will grow as we move into the holiday season," the policy lab said.
Some hospitals have reached full capacity and are sending patients away. And doctors are pleading for the public to get more serious about wearing masks, washing hands and physical distancing.
A critical holiday ahead
But experts worry their warnings will fall on deaf ears as some Americans prepare for Thanksgiving -- when gatherings could easily spark new outbreaks.
"On a personal level, the most prudent thing that families can do this holiday season is choose not to gather in person with their older higher-risk relatives. However, this pandemic has taken such an emotional toll, on children and seniors alike, that we suspect many families will likely take the risk of gathering," the policy lab said.
"For those that do, outdoor events are safer than indoors, and conscientious spacing of older vulnerable individuals from the rest of the family will be important," it said. "But even more important is a commitment to quarantine before visiting family."
The holidays also mean many college students will likely return home to spend Thanksgiving with family and could unknowingly bring the virus back with them.
College campuses in all 50 states have reported Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began.
Syracuse University said it's moving to completely online learning after an "an increase in COVID-19 cases among our student population."
And the University of Maryland's football program said it's pausing all team-related activities after "an elevated number of COVID-19 cases within the Terrapin's program."
Poll says most Americans wouldn't comply with another shutdown
Fewer than half of Americans say are very likely to comply with another lockdown, according to a new Gallup poll.
About 49% of Americans surveyed between October 19 and November 1 said they would be very likely to stay home for a month if health officials recommend it following a coronavirus outbreak in their community. That's down from 67% in the spring.
While 18% said they were somewhat likely to comply, a third of people said they would be unlikely to comply with lockdown orders, the results showed.
While Americans are less willing to stay at home, the results show they're actually more worried about the pandemic -- with 61% saying they believe the situation is getting worse, compared to 40% in April.
The results show a political divide in those willing to stay home. About 40% of Republicans polled said they were willing to comply with a stay-at-home order, down from 74% in the spring.
By contrast, 87% of Democrats said they would likely comply, a slight drop from 91% in March and April.
Health experts have said mask use could significantly reduce the need for more shutdowns.
Safety measures aren't going away any time soon
Even with good news about Covid-19 vaccines, a top global health official said it's important to manage expectations.
For example, preventive measures -- like wearing masks and social distancing -- need to be kept up.
"While we hope we'll get more good news about vaccines, it's going to take time to scale up production to get them out to all the countries and then get enough people vaccinated so life goes back to pre-Covid days," World Health Organization Chief Scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan said Wednesday.
And even when a vaccine arrives, people may need booster shots in the future, said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
"I don't think it's going to be one and done, as they say," Fauci told the Financial Times on Wednesday.
But a vaccine will likely suppress the spread of the virus below pandemic and epidemic levels. But "as people who were immune lose their immunity, they may become re- susceptible," Fauci said.
"Traditionally, if you look back at common cold coronaviruses and the experience we have, it is not the kind of virus that usually gives lifelong immunity."
A group of Republican Senators have asked the Trump Administration to start the transition process. (photo: Getty)
A Growing Chorus of GOP Senators Wants Trump to Allow the Biden Transition to Start
Peter Weber, The Week
Weber writes: "Only a handful of Senate Republicans have publicly congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory, but a larger group is starting to get uncomfortable with the Trump administration's refusal to start the legal transition process, including giving Biden access to government officials and documents and allowing him to receive the classified President's Daily Brief intelligence report."
WITH LINKS:
nly a handful of Senate Republicans have publicly congratulated President-elect Joe Biden on his victory, but a larger group is starting to get uncomfortable with the Trump administration's refusal to start the legal transition process, including giving Biden access to government officials and documents and allowing him to receive the classified President's Daily Brief intelligence report. "If that's not occurring by Friday, I will step in," Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) told KRMG radio in Tulsa on Wednesday.
Lankford said he has "already started engaging in this area" and predicted General Services Administration head Emily Murphy will soon sign off on the transition process. If not, he added, he will "push them and say, 'This needs to occur,' so that regardless of the outcome of the election, whichever way that it goes, people can be ready for that actual task."
Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) told Pittsburgh's Action News 4 on Monday that "we're on a path it looks likely Joe Biden is going to be the next president of the United States," adding that "it's not 100% certain but it is quite likely" and "so I think a transition process ought to begin." Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Tuesday that Trump can continue his legal challenge but we "need to have that contingency in place," and Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) said the transition process should "move forward." Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who has congratulated Biden on his win, told NBC News "it's very much in our national interest, in our foreign policy interest, national security interest," to have a smooth transition transfer of power.
While Trump "ponders his options," The Associated Press reports, "his involvement in the day-to-day governing of the nation has nearly stopped: According to his schedule, he has not attended an intelligence briefing in weeks, and the White House has done little of late to manage the pandemic that has surged to record highs in many states."
Stacey Abrams, a former candidate for governor of Georgia, at a campaign event for Raphael Warnock, a Democratic candidate for the Senate, near Coan Park in Atlanta on Nov. 3. (photo: Tom Williams/Getty)
Stacey Abrams Turns Her Attention to Helping Democrats Win Georgia Runoffs
Marty Johnson, The Hill
Johnson writes: "Stacey Abrams is getting heaps of praise for President-elect Joe Biden's apparent narrow victory in Georgia, a state Democrats have long dreamed of winning."
More than a week after Election Day, the Peach State has yet to be officially be called for either candidate — a by-hand recount is forthcoming — but Biden’s roughly 14,000-vote lead has been lauded by Democrats, with much of the praise being directed towards Abrams.
After coming within 55,000 votes of becoming the state's first Black governor in 2018, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, a nonprofit voting rights group dedicated to fighting voter suppression and promoting voter participation nationwide, but specifically in Georgia.
Over a third of Georgia is Black, and it's believed that Black voters were disproportionately disenfranchised when the state conducted the largest voter purge in U.S. history in 2017, an action that Democrats believe cost Abrams the gubernatorial election the following year.
Groups like Fair Fight Action successfully re-registered thousands of Georgians who were purged, and also registered hundreds of thousands of Georgians who had previously not voted.
At the center of Georgia’s transformation from solidly red to battleground has been relational organizing — an integral part of Abrams’ ethos — something that she does as well as anyone in the country.
Left-leaning Forward Majority’s National Political Director China Dickerson said that the success of Abrams and other voting rights groups stems from building relationships with the voters who they want to elevate.
At the center of Georgia’s transformation from solidly red to battleground has been relational organizing — an integral part of Abrams’ ethos — something that she does as well as anyone in the country.
Left-leaning Forward Majority’s National Political Director China Dickerson said that the success of Abrams and other voting rights groups stems from building relationships with the voters who they want to elevate.
“They want to talk to the voters, and because they talk to the voters, they know the voters,” Dickerson told The Hill. “I think too often, and we saw this cycle … [with] the polling, we do a lot of treating individuals, like machines, like robots.”
Groups like Abrams’ Fair Fight Action and New Georgia Project value the quality of the relationships over quantity, Dickerson explained, noting that it’s an area that the Democratic Party needs to improve.
“They didn’t just do this, this cycle,” Dickerson said. “This has been a relationship building effort that grassroots organizations — including Stacey Abrams — [are] good at doing.”
Marcus Ferrell, who was the former chief of staff for New Georgia Project and former deputy campaign manager for Abrams, called the former gubernatorial candidate a “genius” when it comes to meeting voters where they are.
“Stacey understands that you have to talk to Georgians … in a language that they understand and an authentic manner that they understand.”
Dickerson noted that hiring “people within the community to talk to the people within the community,” has always been a priority for Abrams.
“She fundamentally understands that more than, I think, a lot of Democrats,” Dickerson said.
As a result, Abrams and company not only potentially turned Georgia blue in the general election, but have put both of the state’s Senate seats up for grabs in runoff elections.
Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock will square off against GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler, respectively, on Jan. 5.
A disastrous down-ballot showing for Democrats on Election Day has forced the party to put its hope of having control of the Senate on sweeping the pair of races.
Abrams quickly turned her attention to the runoff races, announcing Monday that she and Fair Fight Action had already raised $6 million for Ossoff and Warnock.
In a tweet, she thanked Georgians saying that “[t]ogether, we have changed the course of our state for the better.”
“But our work is not done,” Abrams added.
Regardless of what happens in the runoffs, it's speculated that Abrams will take a leap forward politically. Possibilities that have been floated include chairing the Democratic National Committee and making another run at Georgia’s governorship.
“I think Stacey will do what she feels like she can do and still maintain her way of doing things,” Dickerson said. “So, if [for example], being DNC chair means that she is not able to continue … relational organizing and grassroots and the being on the ground, she's not going to do it.”
Evo Morales waves during a rally in Chimoré, Cochabamba, Bolivia, on 11 November. (photo: Juan Karita/AP)
'We're in Power Now': Evo Morales Makes Gleeful Return to Town He Fled
Tom Phillips and Dan Collyns, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Tens of thousands of jubilant followers have welcomed Evo Morales back to the coca-growing region from which he fled into exile exactly one year ago after what they branded a racist rightwing coup."
Tens of thousands of supporters greet Bolivian ex-president during his triumphant return to Chimoré
“Evo, Evo, Evo,” chanted the people who had travelled from all over Bolivia to witness their leader’s triumphant return home in the jungle-flanked town of Chimoré.
Bolivia’s first indigenous president resigned and abandoned the South American country on 11 November 2019, making his escape on a Mexican air force jet that whisked him out of Chimoré’s airport.
Morales decided to bolt when security forces withdrew their support after later questioned claims of electoral fraud in the presidential election sparked street protests and deadly unrest.
But on Wednesday, two days after re-entering Bolivia at the start of an emotional, politically-charged homecoming, he made a gleeful return to the same town – to a rapturous reception.
In a highly symbolic move, tens of thousands of followers from across the country had gathered on the runway from which Morales took flight.
Addressing them from a stage decked with green, yellow and red balloons, Morales declared: “We knew we were not alone. We knew we would return.”
Wreathed in white flowers and coca leaves, the former coca growers union leader thanked the crowd for its support during his year-long banishment, railed against the US and mocked Jeanine Áñez, the conservative senator who took power after he was forced from office.
Morales, 61, recalled how in January Áñez had urged the Bolivian people to stop “the savages” from regaining power.
“The Bolivian right and the global right should know: the savages are back in government,” he added sarcastically. “We’re in power now.”
Morales decision to return to Bolivia, just weeks after his party reclaimed the presidency in a re-run of last year’s election, has enraged opponents and unnerved some within his own party, the Movement For Socialism (Mas).
Bolivia’s new leftwing president, Luís Arce, has distanced himself from his predecessor and has not taken part in Morales’s caravan to Chapare province.
But Morales is still adored in many parts of the country for the social, economic and racial strides Bolivia made during his three terms in power. There have been scenes of joy this week as the exiled politician crossed Bolivia’s southern border with Argentina and headed north towards the jungle-covered Chapare region where he began his political career in the 1980s.
Before Morales spoke in Chimoré, Justina Choque, 37, had fought her way to the front of the throng. She beamed in anticipation under wide-brimmed hat.
“We will never forget our president Evo. He identifies our roots. He represents the poor, the peasants, and this story will never be forgotten. He will always be our undisputed leader,” said Choque, a coordinator for the Mas party in Cochabamba.
“We have lived through massacres, with dead and wounded,” she said, recalling the shooting of unarmed civilians at the height of last year’s unrest. “But thanks to Luís Arce, we got back our country.”
Nearby, a group held up a banner commemorating Roberth Calisaya, 20, who was killed last year when soldiers opened fire on demonstrators in Santa Cruz.
“When [Evo] left, there was a dictatorship that persecuted our people,” said María Poma, whose sister was wounded in unrest.
“They showed no mercy to my sister, in spite of her being a woman, and they beat and tortured her as if she was a man.
“We want justice for all the victims. We want justice from that damn dictatorship we lived through,” said Mark Frauz, another family member. “It’s a joy for us that Evo has returned.”
Along the road north Morales was serenaded by brass bands and mobbed by devotees shouting words of support or clutching the multicoloured indigenous Wiphala flag that Morales made one of Bolivia’s national standards.
“The fight goes on,” the former cocalero activist proclaimed as his motorcade began its three-day journey back on Monday morning. On Tuesday the former union leader visited his childhood home in Orinoca wearing an Andean poncho.
Addressing the rally in Chimoré on Wednesday, Juan Carlos Huarachi, the head of the Bolivian Workers’ Centre, urged Morales’s champions to celebrate the return of “comrade Evo” and the defeat of the right.
“We did not surrender, carajo! We fought back … The people are responsible for this revolution,” Huarachi said.
“Comrade Evo isn’t just a domestic leader. He’s a Latin American leader and he’s a world leader,” he added. “Thanks to him we have our dignity. Thanks to him, comrades, we have recovered our identity.”
With Modjeska Peak and Santiago Peak as a backdrop, the Silverado Fire continues to burn in the canyons east of the city of Irvine before dawn on Tuesday, October 27, 2020. (photo: Mark Rightmire/Orange County Register
Was a Federal Scientist's Dismissal an 11th-Hour Bid to Give Climate Denial Long-Term Legitimacy?
Marianne LaVelle, Inside Climate News
LaVelle writes: "Why would the Trump administration remove the leader of the program that produces the National Climate Assessment just as the president's time in the White House appears to be ending?"
Before his removal, Michael Kuperberg was spearheading the next National Climate Assessment. His likely replacement? A contrarian who disputes climate science.
The dismissal of scientist Michael Kuperberg from his post as executive director of the U.S. Global Change Research Program makes little sense as a bid to exert control over the government's most comprehensive scientific report on climate risks in the United States. Any changes that promote the denial of climate science are not likely to stick in an incoming Biden administration, which fully supports the science of global warming.
But the Trump administration's lame duck move may cast a cloud over the report that lasts into the future, said Philip Duffy, a physicist and former White House policy adviser who helped coordinate the National Climate Assessment in the Obama administration.
"It suggests further politicization of science and that's not a good thing," said Duffy, executive director of the Woodwell Climate Research Center in Falmouth, Massachusetts. "It erodes the credibility of these agencies, so that even if the politically motivated folks are replaced, it still could have, I think, a long-term effect on the perceived credibility of the report."
He added, "This is the official United States government view of climate change and its effect. It's extremely important that it reflect the best scientific understanding and not be a political document."
On the evening before Democrat Joe Biden was declared winner of the presidential race, Kuperberg, who headed up the climate assessment for the past five years, was notified by email that he was being removed from his post as executive director for the U.S. Global Change Research Program, associates said.
Although his replacement has not yet been announced, sources close to the administration expect it will be David Legates, a vocal skeptic of climate science who was appointed to a top deputy position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration by the Trump administration in September. NOAA is one of 13 agencies that participate in the climate assessment, a review and report on climate science that Congress has mandated the government produce every four years.
"It seems to me they're trying to push this climate denial approach as far as they can, while they can," said Donald Wuebbles, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Illinois who has participated in the National Climate Assessment process in the past. "But it can all be undone and redone after the new administration takes office."
The news of Kuperberg's dismissal comes on the heels of a Trump administration appointment that won praise in the climate science community: Betsy Weatherhead, a senior scientist for the consulting firm Jupiter Intelligence, was named as director of the National Climate Assessment, and would have reported to Kuperberg. She has decades of experience as a climate scientist, including as a co-author of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports on the Arctic. Her appointment was made by White House chief science adviser, Kelvin Droegemaier, who also is a widely respected scientist.
The flurry of personnel moves, which seem to send conflicting signals, shows, if nothing else, that the final weeks of the Trump administration are likely to be as chaotic as the past four years.
The National Climate Assessment, which involves scientists both outside and inside the federal government, is meant to serve as a foundation for future decision-making, not only by Congress but by the states and localities that are experiencing the worst effects of a changing climate. The process of the fifth National Climate Assessment has just begun, with a deadline set for Saturday for the public to provide input to the administration about which scientists should serve as authors of the report and which scientific studies and technical data should be considered in the assessment.
"Since it was first mandated, the National Climate Assessment has been a well-respected gauge of the impacts climate change is having on our planet," said Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, a Texas Democrat who chairs the House Science Committee. "The removal of Dr. Kuperberg appears to be a clear attempt by the defeated Trump Administration in its waning days in office to politicize the assessment during a critical early stage of its development."
Kuperberg, an environmental toxicologist and ecologist who specializes in the study of the carbon cycle and Arctic processes, was detailed to NOAA's Global Change Research Program from the Department of Energy's Office of Science, where he had managed environmental research programs for a decade. He is expected to return to the Energy Department.
Wuebbles, who served as climate adviser in the Obama White House at the same time Kuperberg was managing the National Climate Assessment, said he and Kuperberg are friends, who speak frequently by phone. In an unrelated conversation they had on Saturday, Wuebbles said, Kuperberg broke the news that he would no longer head up the global research program. "We were talking about other things going on in our lives, and he said, 'There's one thing I need to tell you,'" Wuebbles recalled.
Kuperberg could not be reached for comment.
Opponents of action to curb fossil fuel emissions have been pressing the Trump administration to exert more control over the National Climate Assessment.
Even though the administration has relentlessly rolled back climate policy and exited the Paris climate accord, government scientists have continued to produce work that bolsters knowledge on the human contribution to climate change. The fourth National Climate Assessment presented the most dire picture yet of the climate risks facing the United States, its population and its economy. The report gained perhaps even greater attention because of the Trump administration's effort to downplay its findings by releasing the final volume the day after Thanksgiving in 2018.
"One of Kuperberg's greatest achievements was to get the fourth National Climate Assessment released intact under a Trump administration," said Duffy. "I frankly don't know how he managed to do that, and it really was a service to all of us."
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