Welcome to Tuesday’s Overnight Health Care.

Today, Elizabeth WarrenElizabeth Ann WarrenDemocrats press Carson after HUD hires aide who authored racist blog posts Warren calls on ex-FDA chief to resign from Pfizer board Bernie Sanders raises M in second quarter MORE is calling on the former FDA commissioner to reconsider his decision to join the board of Pfizer. And news on Medicare for All. A new poll finds that people like the proposal if they can keep their doctors. We also took a deeper look at how many 2020 Democrats are reluctant to embrace eliminating private insurance as part of “Medicare for All.” We’ll start there…

 

Nixing private insurance divides ‘Medicare for All’ candidates

Some Democratic presidential candidates who say they support “Medicare for All” are walking a tightrope on whether to fully embrace a key portion of the proposal that calls for eliminating private insurance.

Only a few White House hopefuls raised their hands when asked at last week’s debates if they were willing to abolish private insurers, even though others who were on the stage have publicly backed legislation from Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersBernie Sanders raises M in second quarter Reading the tea leaves on the Democratic nomination contest Trump: 2020 Democratic field looks ‘somewhat easier’ to debate than Clinton MORE (I-Vt.) which would do just that.

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Sen. Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisBernie Sanders raises M in second quarter Reading the tea leaves on the Democratic nomination contest Trump: 2020 Democratic field looks ‘somewhat easier’ to debate than Clinton MORE (Calif.) enthusiastically raised her hand, along with Sens. Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Sanders, and New York Mayor Bill de BlasioBill de BlasioNixing private insurance divides ‘Medicare for All’ candidates Former Sanders aides launch consulting firm De Blasio’s son pens op-ed about ‘the fear’ of police MORE. But Harris later walked it back, saying she misunderstood the question, and said that she does not actually support eliminating private insurance.

So… what’s happening? Democrats are trying to strike a delicate balance. They want to highlight their progressive chops by talking about Medicare for All, even though much of the voting public isn’t ready to give up their private insurance. So the candidates are trying to have it both ways.

Harris has waffled on the issue of private insurance for months, despite being a co-sponsor of Sanders’s legislation. But she isn’t the only candidate in this situation. 

Sens. Cory BookerCory Anthony BookerReading the tea leaves on the Democratic nomination contest Here’s how Republicans can win the climate change debate in 2020 Booker vows to ‘virtually eliminate immigration detention’ if elected president MORE (N.J.) and Kirsten GillibrandKirsten Elizabeth GillibrandNixing private insurance divides ‘Medicare for All’ candidates Lesser-known Democrats attack each other in 2020 race Gender politics and the 2020 Democratic primary: A test case in lessons learned? MORE (N.Y.) are co-sponsors of Sanders’s bill, while Reps. Tulsi GabbardTulsi GabbardNixing private insurance divides ‘Medicare for All’ candidates Sanders: Look at ‘totality’ of candidate instead of focusing on age Tulsi Gabbard rips Florida migrant facility: ‘It’s absolutely despicable’ MORE (Hawaii), Tim RyanTimothy (Tim) John RyanNixing private insurance divides ‘Medicare for All’ candidates Tim Ryan responds to Facebook border patrol group: ‘This is not a F—ING joke’ Tim Ryan calls for mental health counselor in every school as part of education plan MORE (Ohio) and Eric SwalwellEric Michael SwalwellDemocracy reform subtly defines the presidential primary Nixing private insurance divides ‘Medicare for All’ candidates Lesser-known Democrats attack each other in 2020 race MORE (Calif.) are co-sponsors of a similar House bill introduced by Rep. Pramila JayapalPramila JayapalNixing private insurance divides ‘Medicare for All’ candidates Hillicon Valley: Facebook facility evacuated after sarin scare | Warren, Jayapal question FCC over industry influence | 2020 Dems take on election security | Border Patrol to investigate Facebook group with racist, sexist posts Warren, Jayapal question FCC over industry’s influence MORE (D-Wash.), a co-chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus. 

None of those candidates has explicitly endorsed eliminating private insurance. 

What’s the downside? Medicare for All as an idea polls well — but most of the public still doesn’t seem to understand what it actually means. Once people are made aware that the bills currently introduced would mean the end of private health insurance, Medicare for All’s popularity goes down. And endorsing the elimination of private insurance opens candidates up to GOP attacks. Moderate candidates are wary of giving President TrumpDonald John TrumpGOP senators press Pompeo on Boeing satellite sales to China Trump touts low black unemployment, criminal justice reform on anniversary of Civil Rights Act Trump says Mueller ‘must’ stick to report’s findings during testimony MORE and Republicans an opening to accuse Democrats of pushing for a “socialist” takeover of health care.  

More on how the candidate are navigating the issue here.

 

Poll: Most favor ‘Medicare for All’ if they can keep their doctors

A new Morning Consult/Politico poll sheds some light on the “Medicare for All” debate: 

• 46 percent of voters support Medicare for all when told it would diminish the role of private insurers 
• That rises to 55 percent of voters when told it would diminish the role of private insurers but that people could keep their doctors. 
• Overall, when people aren’t told anything about insurers or doctors, support lies at 53 percent. 

Reaction: Medicare for All backers touted the poll to show that when people are informed about the facts of Medicare for All (that they won’t lose their doctors), the policy is more popular. 

“Would you look at that. Medicare for All is wildly popular when you tell people what it would actually do,” tweeted Josh Miller-Lewis, a spokesman for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Read more here. 

 

Warren calls on ex-FDA chief to resign from Pfizer board

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Tuesday called for the former head of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Scott Gottlieb, to reconsider his decision to join Pfizer’s board of directors.

Warren, a 2020 White House hopeful, praised Gottlieb’s work during his tenure at FDA, but said his decision to join the board of a company he used to regulate “smacks of corruption.”

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“This kind of revolving door influence-peddling smacks of corruption, and makes the American people rightly cynical and distrustful about whether high-level Trump administration officials are working for them, or for their future corporate employers,” Warren wrote in a letter to Gottlieb dated Monday.

Gottlieb did not respond to a request for comment but said on Twitter that he would respond to Warren privately.

“While I was at FDA, I had a productive relationship with Senator Warren, working together to advance shared public health goals. I respect the Senator, and I will respond to her letter that I received today from reporters promptly, directly, and privately,” Gottlieb tweeted. 

Read more here.

 

Facebook seeks to limit circulation of debunked medical claims

Facebook on Tuesday announced it is seeking to limit the circulation of debunked medical claims after multiple reports found that bogus cancer cures are rampant on the platform.

Last month, the company started down-ranking posts promoting “exaggerated or sensational health claims,” meaning they now show up lower in the News Feed and Facebook won’t surface them, according to a Tuesday blog post from the company.

And it is taking the same action against posts promoting products or services purportedly based on medical claims, like pills to help someone lose weight, Facebook said.

“In order to help people get accurate health information and the support they need, it’s imperative that we minimize health content that is sensational or misleading,” the blog post reads.

Facebook’s update does not explicitly mention what it is doing about groups dedicated to promoting “exaggerated or sensational health claims.” Most of the announcement focuses on down-ranking posts in the News Feed and predicts some pages will be affected.

Facebook and other top social media websites have been working to crack down on the issue of medical misinformation, an effort that has picked up steam as the U.S. faces the worst measles outbreak it has seen in over a decade. But critics have said Facebook, and its image-sharing platform Instagram, are hotbeds for people promoting medical conspiracy theories. And Instagram, in particular, continues to surface popular hashtags and accounts that promote anti-vaccine theories that have been identified as false by medical experts.

Read more on the move here.

 

What we’re reading:

Trump advisers pursue Democratic drug-price ideas as campaign looms (The Washington Post)

HHS gets a new HIV prevention patent, but will the agency demand royalties from Gilead? (Stat)

Buyer beware: When religion, politics, health care and money collide (Houston Chronicle)

 

State by state:

California broadens investigation of doctors for issuing questionable vaccination exemptions (Kaiser Health News)

Florida is the latest Republican-led state to adopt clean needle exchanges (WLRN)

More states are targeting teen vaping, but health advocates say it’s not enough to curb use (The Washington Post)

Kentucky group gives out emergency contraception as abortion access tightens (WFPL)

Senate Republicans raised concerns about a White House offer to use a one-year stopgap funding bill to avoid a government shutdown starting in October if negotiators fail to reach a larger budget deal. 

 

Sen. Dave Perdue (R-Ga.) spearheaded a letter from 16 Republican senators Wednesday warning that a one-year continuing resolution (CR) would include “draconian conditions” for the military. 

 

“As the world continues to become more dangerous, the American people rightfully expect their representatives in Washington to put aside political differences and do their jobs. Simply put, our adversaries do not handcuff their militaries with funding gimmicks like continuing resolutions—nor should we,” the senators wrote. 

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The letter was sent to Treasury Secretary Steven MnuchinSteven Terner MnuchinThe Hill’s Morning Report – Sanders falters as rivals rise On The Money: House Democrats sue Treasury for Trump tax returns | Trump announces Fed board nominees | Dems press Carson over HUD hire who authored controversial posts on race | Consumer groups look to block Facebook cryptocurrency The Hill’s 12:30 Report: Democrats take Trump tax return fight to the courts MORE, acting chief of staff Mick MulvaneyJohn (Mick) Michael MulvaneyHouse Democrats slam White House’s ‘complete refusal’ to turn over hurricane probe documents Democrats press Carson after HUD hires aide who authored racist blog posts The Hill’s Morning Report – Trump touts handshake with Kim, tariff freeze with Xi MORE and acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, who have led the budget talks for the White House.

 

Negotiators hope to reach a deal to raise the caps for defense and nondefense spending. But as a Plan B, Mnuchin has offered linking a debt ceiling increase to a one-year CR, which would freeze spending at fiscal 2019 levels. 

 

But Republican senators wrote in the letter that “must be avoided” because it would leave the Defense Department “incapable of increasing readiness, recapitalizing our force, or rationalizing funding to align with the National Defense Strategy.” 

 

In addition to Perdue, Republican Sens. Marsha BlackburnMarsha Blackburn 2020 Democrats accelerate push for action to secure elections House passes sweeping Democrat-backed election security bill Pelosi: Congress will receive election security briefing in July MORE (Tenn.), Bill CassidyWilliam (Bill) Morgan CassidyLaura Ingraham says her family won’t wear Nike again after ‘Betsy Ross flag’ sneaker canceled GOP sen: Democrats talking about ‘Medicare for All’ shows they’re unhappy with ObamaCare The Hill’s Morning Report – Democratic debates: Miami nice or spice? MORE (La.), John CornynJohn CornynGOP senator threatens to change banks after Bank of America cuts ties with detention centers Political interference at DOJ threatens the rule of law, and Congress needs to act Democrats plot strategy to win back Senate MORE (Texas), Kevin CramerKevin John CramerTrump urged to quickly fill Pentagon post amid Iran tensions The Hill’s Morning Report — Trump pushes Mexico for ‘significantly more’ as tariffs loom Overnight Health Care: Liberals rip Democratic leaders for writing drug pricing bill in secret | Dems demand answers from company that shelters migrant kids | Measles cases top 1,000 MORE (N.D.), Mike CrapoMichael (Mike) Dean CrapoDemocrats leery of Sanders plan to cancel student loan debt Senate Finance leaders in talks on deal to limit drug price increases House panel to hold hearing on Facebook cryptocurrency project MORE (Idaho), Joni ErnstJoni Kay ErnstHillicon Valley: Trump gets pushback after reversing course on Huawei | China installing surveillance apps on visitors’ phones | Internet provider Cloudflare suffers outage | Consumer groups look to stop Facebook cryptocurrency Ernst’s Democratic challenger raises more than 5K in under a month GOP senators press Pompeo on Boeing satellite sales to Chinese firms MORE (Iowa), James InhofeJames (Jim) Mountain InhofeWhite House faces time crunch with Trump’s top Pentagon pick Trump’s pick for Pentagon chief wins allies on Capitol Hill Senate rejects attempt to curb Trump’s Iran war powers MORE (Okla.), Johnny IsaksonJohn (Johnny) Hardy IsaksonVA chief pressed on efforts to prevent veteran suicides Senators revive effort to create McCain human rights commission Senate passes disaster aid bill after deal with Trump MORE (Ga.), James LankfordJames Paul LankfordThe Hill’s Morning Report – Trump touts handshake with Kim, tariff freeze with Xi 2020 Democrats accelerate push for action to secure elections House passes sweeping Democrat-backed election security bill MORE (Okla.), Jerry MoranGerald (Jerry) MoranTrade truce puts focus on next steps in US-China talks Overnight Defense: Senate rejects effort to restrict Trump on Iran | Democrats at debate vow to shore up NATO | Senate confirms chief of Space Command On The Money: Anticipation builds for Trump, Xi sitdown | Pressure on Trump for trade breakthrough | Democrats at debate rip Trump approach to China MORE (Kan.), Lisa MurkowskiLisa Ann MurkowskiHouse bill targets use of Pentagon networks for child pornography Internal cracks emerge in GOP strategy to avoid shutdown What’s Putin up to in the Arctic? MORE (Alaska), Pat RobertsCharles (Pat) Patrick RobertsFormer US attorney announces Senate bid in Kansas GOP lawmakers press Trump to cut deal with China at G-20 EPA exempts farms from reporting pollution tied to animal waste MORE (Kan.), Mike RoundsMarion (Mike) Michael RoundsHillicon Valley: Harris spikes in Google searches after debate clash with Biden | Second US city blocks facial recognition | Apple said to be moving Mac Pro production from US to China | Bipartisan Senate bill takes aim at ‘deepfake’ videos Senators unveil bipartisan bill to target ‘deepfake’ video threat Senate set to vote on Trump’s power to attack Iran MORE (S.D.), Thom TillisThomas (Thom) Roland TillisTrump to hold campaign rally on day of Mueller testimony The Hill’s Campaign Report: Debate puts Biden on the defensive Democrats plot strategy to win back Senate MORE (N.C.) and Roger WickerRoger Frederick WickerHillicon Valley: Democratic state AGs sue to block T-Mobile-Sprint merger | House kicks off tech antitrust probe | Maine law shakes up privacy debate | Senators ask McConnell to bring net neutrality to a vote Lawmakers demand answers on Border Patrol data breach Senators call on McConnell to bring net neutrality rules to a vote MORE (Miss) signed the letter. 

 

Inhofe is the chairman of the Armed Services Committee, the Senate panel with primary jurisdiction of the military. Ernst, Cornyn and Tillis, like Perdue, are each up for reelection next year in closely watched Senate races. 

 

The letter is the latest sign of division about what the party’s back up plan should be as budget negotiations drag on. 

 

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellMcConnell urges Nike to release ‘Betsy Ross’ shoes: ‘I’ll make the first order’ GOP sees potent Trump attack line: health care for immigrants Democratic group raises more than .1 million against McConnell MORE (R-Ky.) told reporters before the July 4 recess that a one-year continuing resolution was “unacceptable,” while Sen. John ThuneJohn Randolph ThuneInternal cracks emerge in GOP strategy to avoid shutdown GOP lawmakers press Trump to cut deal with China at G-20 Senate rejects attempt to curb Trump’s Iran war powers MORE (S.D.), the No. 2 Republican senator, told The Hill that a CR was an outcome that he didn’t think “anybody wants to see that happen.”

 

Perdue told The Hill on Friday that he had discussed funding the government with Trump, who he characterized as “concerned about it as well.” Perdue said that he plans to speak again to the president to outline his concerns about a one-year CR. 

 

Republicans blame a stalemate between Democrats and the White House for the holdup in getting a budget deal. 

 

Without an agreement, Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard ShelbyRichard Craig ShelbyBorder aid fallout tests Pelosi-Schumer relationship The Hill’s Morning Report – Trump touts handshake with Kim, tariff freeze with Xi Internal cracks emerge in GOP strategy to avoid shutdown MORE (R-Ala.) wants to start moving funding bills that are based off a Senate-only agreement, though the legislation would need to be adjusted if they get a deal. 

 

But McConnell appeared to pour cold water on that option last week, saying he wants to write funding bills based off numbers he knows the president will support. 

 

“I support getting some kind of deal that can tell us how much we can spend so we can go forward. The only thing, however, that strikes me that give us a real number to mark to is one that we know the president will sign,” McConnell told reporters during a press conference.

Brazilian deforestation spiked more than 88 percent under President Jair Bolsonaro, who has called for development of the country’s portion of the Amazon rainforest, Reuters reported Thursday. 

The rate of deforestation in the region, the world’s largest tropical rainforest at 355 square miles, is 88.4 percent higher this June compared to last year’s under Bolsonaro, according to the report. 

The preliminary data indicates the country is on track to surpass last year’s figures, Reuters reports. Deforestation already reached 1,762 square miles, 15 more more than the previous year, in the first 11 months. 

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“Bolsonaro has aggravated the situation. … He has made a strong rhetorical attack,” Paulo Barreto, a researcher at Brazilian nongovernment organization Imazon, told Reuters. 

The data comes as Brazil faces growing pressure to enforce environmental protection under free trade deal terms agreed to last week between the European Union and South American block Mercosur, Reuters reports. 

Brazil’s agriculture minister reportedly said Wednesday the country will take action if deforestation concerns are confirmed.  

June 2019 was the hottest June on record, according to new global data released by Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) on Tuesday.

The global-average temperature was about 0.1°C (0.18°F) higher than the previous record for that month, in 2016.

Scientists at C3S, working on behalf of the European Union, attributed last month’s high to a strong El Niño event.

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The spike was particularly pronounced in Europe, where average temperatures were more than 2°C (3.6°F) above normal, driven by a mass of hot air coming from the Sahara Desert.

Researchers said that while it is difficult to directly attribute the heat spike to climate change, “such extreme weather events are expected to become more common as the planet continues to warm under increasing greenhouse gas concentrations.”

“Although this was exceptional, we are likely to see more of these events in the future due to climate change,” Jean-Noël Thépaut, head of C3S, said in a statement.

Researchers combined satellite data with historic temperature charts to make their determination.

Three major U.S. stock indexes closed with record highs Wednesday, extending another stretch of rampant gains for Wall Street despite a dimming global outlook.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq composite all set new highs in a shortened trading session ahead of Independence Day.

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The Dow closed with a 179-point gain, rising 0.67 percent to a record high of 26,966 points. The S&P rose 0.77 percent, gaining almost 23 points to close at a record 2,996 points. And the Nasdaq rose 0.75 percent to gain 61 points, closing with a record 8,170 points.

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Trading ended at 1 p.m eastern Wednesday, three hours earlier than the typical closing bell, ahead of a long holiday weekend for many U.S. businesses.

U.S. stocks have blown through records in the second quarter of 2019 despite the growing costs of global trade tensions, the volatile U.S.-China trade war and several geopolitical risks with economic implications, including Brexit.

Wall Street has also rallied as the Federal Reserve moves closer to cutting interest rates. 

Analysts attributed some of Wednesday’s stock gains to a disappointing monthly jobs report from ADP and Moody’s Analytics. The firms reported on Wednesday a private payrolls gain of 102,000 in June, falling short of the 135,000 jobs economists predicted.

Weakness in the job market would likely move the Fed toward a rate cut, and lower interest rates tend to boost investment in stocks. 

The federal monthly jobs report will be released Friday at 8:30 a.m.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump appears to contradict officials, calls reports on 2020 census ‘fake’ Fox’s July 4 coverage to highlight charity for families of wounded, fallen service members Why Kim gets Trump’s love and Khamenei doesn’t MORE on Wednesday warned Iranian President Hassan Rouhani against making threats after Rouhani said his country will take steps toward expanding its uranium stockpile even further beyond limits set under the 2015 nuclear deal. 

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“Iran has just issued a New Warning. Rouhani says that they will Enrich Uranium to ‘any amount we want’ if there is no new Nuclear Deal. Be careful with the threats, Iran. They can come back to bite you like nobody has been bitten before!” Trump tweeted.  

The president’s barb — coupled with Iran’s pledge to enrich more uranium — is the latest sign of escalating tensions between the two nations over the Obama-era nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew the U.S. last year. 

Iran on Monday announced its low-enriched uranium stockpile had exceeded limits set in the deal, which was designed to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief. 

The move was a bid to persuade Europe, Russia and China to follow through on sanctions relief, but the Trump administration responded by saying its “maximum pressure” campaign would remain.

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David Marcus, the head of Facebook’s cryptocurrency project Libra, in a blog post on Wednesday vowed to work closely with regulators, lawmakers and banks as the company seeks to unveil its controversial digital currency.

Marcus, who is set to testify before the Senate Banking and House Financial Services committees over the next few weeks, wrote that he hopes to “provide answers and add clarity” amid a storm of sharp criticism and raised eyebrows from lawmakers on Capitol Hill.

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“We believe in and are committed to a collaborative process with regulators, central banks, and lawmakers to ensure that Libra helps with the kinds of issues that the existing financial system has been fighting, notably around money laundering, terrorism financing, and more,” Marcus wrote.

His blog post, which addresses some of the top questions Marcus has fielded since Facebook unveiled Libra two weeks ago, comes the day after top Democrats on the House Financial Services Committee called for a temporary pause on the project.

Lawmakers have raised concerns over Facebook, an embattled company with more than 2.3 billion users worldwide, launching its own currency. House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine WatersMaxine Moore WatersHouse Democrats call for Facebook to halt cryptocurrency project On The Money: Senate passes .5B border bill, setting up fight with House | 2020 Democrats spar over socialism before first debate | Ex-Im deal in peril amid Dem backlash Export-Import Bank deal in peril amid Democratic backlash MORE (D-Calif.) in a statement slammed Facebook’s repeated privacy breaches, alleged violation of consumer protection laws and a string of other controversies involving user data.

Sen. Sherrod BrownSherrod Campbell BrownDemocrats press Carson after HUD hires aide who authored racist blog posts Congress moves toward stricter North Korea sanctions House panel to hold hearing on Facebook cryptocurrency project MORE (Ohio), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, said, “Facebook is already too big and too powerful, and it has used that power to exploit users’ data without protecting their privacy.” 

Facebook is already facing scrutiny on Capitol Hill over its market power and mishandling of user data.

Marcus addressed some of those concerns in the blog post.

He noted that Libra will be operated by a nonprofit called the Libra Association, which will be operated out of Switzerland and include “over a hundred members” by the cryptocurrency’s expected launch next year.

“Facebook will not control the network, the currency, or the reserve backing it,” Marcus wrote.

Calibra — a Facebook subsidiary — will operate the wallet. According to Marcus, “while Facebook, Inc. owns and controls Calibra, it won’t see financial data from Calibra.”

The U.S. government is still grappling with how to handle cryptocurrency, with financial regulators taking a variety of approaches to oversight, and Facebook’s entrance into the nascent industry is certain to pose a set of new challenges.

“We’re talking about something new, at scale in a very regulated industry, and if this is not done right, it could definitely present systemic risks no one wants,” Marcus wrote.

Internet network and security provider Cloudflare experienced a massive outage Tuesday morning, with websites around the world unable to load and the cause of the outage not immediately clear.

Cloudflare co-founder and CEO Matthew Prince tweeted that he was “aware of major @Cloudflare issues impacting us network wide. Team is working on getting to the bottom of what’s going on. Will continue to update.”

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Less than a half hour after that tweet, Prince tweeted that “traffic restored. Working now to restore all services globally.”

The outage did not appear to last long, with Cloudflare posting online that it had “implemented a fix for this issue” and that it was “monitoring the results” 23 minutes after it wrote that “we are working to mitigate impact to Internet users.”

The amount of websites impacts was likely in the millions. According to Cloudflare, it hosts over 16 million internet properties, and the company powers internet requests for around 10 percent of the Fortune 1,000 companies and for more than one billion IP addresses every day.

Websites including those for the Drudge Report, The Diplomat, and chat service Discord were not able to load, with users receiving a “502” error message. Several cryptocurrency trading groups such as Circle Invest, and Poloniex Exchange were also briefly down.

While there was some speculation online that the outage was caused by a cyber attack, Prince told The Hill that Cloudflare had found “no evidence” that this was the case, and that the outage was actually caused by a “massive spike in the CPU usage,” or the network processor usage.

“That is a failure scenario that we hadn’t ever seen before, it took us a while to figure out what the cause was, there was a runaway process that looked like it was causing the issue,” Prince said. “We were able to shut down that process and restore all of Cloudflare services within about 30 minutes.”

In terms of why there were more websites reported down in the United States and Europe, Prince said this was “more of a symptom of who was awake” while Cloudflare was down.

Updated at 11:15 a.m.

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The Trump administration said Tuesday it was dropping a citizenship question from the 2020 census, days after the Supreme Court ruled against the question’s inclusion.

President TrumpDonald John TrumpGOP senators press Pompeo on Boeing satellite sales to China Trump touts low black unemployment, criminal justice reform on anniversary of Civil Rights Act Trump says Mueller ‘must’ stick to report’s findings during testimony MORE had initially said that he wanted to delay the decennial census as his administration continued to push for the question to be included in the 2020 survey.

But that effort appears to be over, after a Justice Department lawyer said the decision was made to start printing census materials without the question included.

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“We can confirm that the decision has been made to print the 2020 Decennial Census questionnaire without a citizenship question, and that the printer has been instructed to begin the printing process,” DOJ attorney Kate Bailey wrote in an email sent to groups challenging the question, a copy of which was obtained by The Hill.

Former Obama White House lawyer Daniel Jacobson had first made the revelation in a tweet earlier Tuesday, which included a screenshot of Bailey’s email.

The decision is a significant victory for those opposed to the question’s inclusion on the 2020 survey. It follows the Supreme Court’s ruling last week that dealt a major blow to the administration, which has publicly pushed for the question’s inclusion since 2018.

 

“I respect the Supreme Court but strongly disagree with its ruling regarding my decision to reinstate a citizenship question on the 2020 Census,” Commerce Secretary Wilbur RossWilbur Louis RossReason for optimism in Trump’s ‘Prosper Africa’ policy ‘I alone can fix it,’ Trump said, but has he? The justices hand down a (mostly) commonsense decision on census MORE, who oversees the census, said in a statement Tuesday.

 

“The Census Bureau has started the process of printing the decennial questionnaires without the question,” he continued. “My focus, and that of the bureau and the entire department is to conduct a complete and accurate census.”

 

Critics had pointed to studies, including those produced by the the Trump administration, that showed asking about citizenship would lead to some skipping the question or the census altogether, and cause an inaccurate count of the population.

 

The Trump administration had argued that the question was needed to help the Justice Department enforce the Voting Rights Act.

 

The Supreme Court last week had rejected that rationale behind the question’s inclusion on the 2020 census. However, the justices left a small opening for Trump officials to still add the question to the survey.

 

In the 5-4 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s liberal justices ruled that the reasoning behind adding the citizenship question to next year’s census didn’t match up with the evidence in the case, but sent the matter back to the Commerce Department to provide another reason.

 

Trump had initially seized on that opportunity, saying as recently as Monday that he was looking “very strongly” at delaying the census to try and get the citizenship question included.

“So you can ask other things, but you can’t ask whether or not somebody is a citizen? So we are trying to do that,” Trump told reporters at the White House at the time.

 

Delaying the census would surely trigger a new wave of legal challenges, as the Constitution requires a count of the population every decade.

 

Also at issue was a July 1 printing deadline, which the administration had repeatedly cited in court documents as needing to be met in order to ensure the census was administered on time. The administration had appeared to miss that Monday deadline.

 

Those challenging the question were quick to celebrate the outcome.

“Today’s news is a victory for New York State, for America, and for every single person in this nation,” said New York Attorney General Letitia James (D), whose state led the lawsuit that made its way to the Supreme Court.

 

“While the Trump administration may have attempted to politicize the census and punish cities and states across the nation, justice prevailed, and the census will continue to remain a tool for obtaining an accurate count of our population.”

 

And the ACLU, which also fought the question in court, said that the Supreme Court’s ruling meant that the administration had “no choice” but to move forward without a citizenship question.

 

“Everyone in America counts in the census, and today’s decision means we all will,” Dale Ho, the director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project, said in a statement.

 

The scrutiny over the citizenship question was amplified in recent weeks, when new evidence filed in federal courts in New York and Maryland indicated that the late GOP redistricting strategist Thomas Hofeller was involved in the question’s addition to the 2020 census.

 

The documents showed that Hofeller had conducted an unpublished study in 2015 that found that asking about citizenship on the census would help Republicans and white communities in redistricting, but hurt Democrats and Hispanics.

 

And the evidence suggested that Hofeller was contacted by a Census Bureau staffer as early as 2015 about a potential citizenship question, and that he may have helped in the drafting of a memo used by the Trump administration to argue for the citizenship query’s inclusion.

 

The administration had strongly pushed back against the evidence, denying that Hofeller’s study or potential contacts with Trump officials had any impact.

 

That evidence had played a particularly important role in federal court in Maryland, where a judge had ruled that the evidence raised a “substantial issue” and was set to review whether there was a discriminatory intent behind the question’s addition. That is a different legal challenge than the one presented to the Supreme Court, meaning that the lower judge could block the citizenship question on different grounds.

 

The Justice Department again confirmed that the citizenship question would not be on the 2020 census during a teleconference held Tuesday evening in that Maryland case, Covington and Burling lawyer Shankar Duraiswamy told The Hill. Duraiswamy is the lead counsel in that case against the question. 

 

The question has also been the subject of a congressional investigation, led by House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Elijah CummingsElijah Eugene CummingsHouse Dems slam White House’s ‘complete refusal’ to turnover hurricane probe documents Hillicon Valley: Facebook facility evacuated after sarin scare | Warren, Jayapal question FCC over industry influence | 2020 Dems take on election security | Border Patrol to investigate Facebook group with racist, sexist posts Cummings announces expansion of Oversight panel’s White House personal email probe, citing stonewalling MORE (D-Md.).

 

The committee voted last month, largely along party lines, to hold Ross and Attorney General William BarrWilliam Pelham BarrGohmert calls Mueller an ‘anal opening’ ahead of testimony Justice Dept. offers emergency funding for law enforcement in Alaska Native villages Trump digs in on citizenship question after Supreme Court setback MORE in contempt for failing to comply with congressional subpoenas on the citizenship question’s inclusion.

 

Republicans on the panel, including ranking member Rep. Jim JordanJames (Jim) Daniel JordanTrump digs in on citizenship question after Supreme Court setback House panel votes to subpoena Kellyanne Conway over Hatch Act testimony TSA to send hundreds of workers to southern border to enforce immigration policies MORE (R-Ohio), had cast the contempt vote as an effort to disrupt the Supreme Court’s ruling.

 

But Cummings and other Democrats on the committee argued that the court rulings are separate from the congressional oversight.

 

Updated: 6:05 p.m.

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Sen. Kamala HarrisKamala Devi HarrisDemocrats and Trump are all in on immigration for the 2020 election Trump: Harris ‘given too much credit’ for attack on Biden The Memo: Debates reshape Democratic race MORE (D-Calif.) dominated buzz surrounding the first Democratic presidential debate Thursday night after battling rivals on stage, but as the debate played out, a series of Twitter bots worked to amplify a far-right conspiracy about her online.

During the debate in Miami, apparent bots online amplified conspiracy theories on social media falsely claiming that the California Democrat, who is of Indian and Jamaican descent, is not black and is not a U.S. citizen.

“Kamala Harris is *not* an American Black. She is half Indian and half Jamaican.  I’m so sick of people robbing American Blacks (like myself) of our history. It’s disgusting. Now using it for debate time at #DemDebate2? These are my people not her people. Freaking disgusting,” Ali Alexander, a Trump-world personality, tweeted. 

The tweet was retweeted by Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpDemocrats and Trump are all in on immigration for the 2020 election Trump to allow US companies to sell products to Huawei Trump says he brought up Khashoggi murder with Saudi crown prince MORE Jr., who ultimately removed the message from his page. However, Alexander’s tweet was soon copied word for word by a network of bot accounts researcher Josh Russell had previously identified.

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Social media researcher Caroline Orr noted that a number of “suspect accounts” highlighted similar claims after Harris’s debate appearance.

“A lot of suspect accounts are pushing the ‘Kamala Harris is not Black’ narrative tonight. It’s everywhere and it has all the signs of being a coordinated/artificial operation,” she tweeted after the debate. 

The Harris campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment from The Hill about the Thursday night tweets.

Former President Obama was subjected to racist conspiracy theories throughout his White House tenure that he was born in Kenya, instead of Hawaii. The White House released his long-form birth certificate in 2011 in an effort to combat the conspiracy theories.

“Seeing the tweets declaring that Kamala isn’t black enough because her parents are from Jamaica and India, I had an immediate flashback to the 2008 campaign,” Shauna Daly, a former Obama campaign staffer who led the fight against birtherism claims against him on his campaign, told BuzzFeed News.

Harris has herself acknowledged such conspiracies targeting her in the past, saying in a February radio interview, “This is the same thing they did to Barack, this is not new to us.”

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