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Barack Obama, the 44th president of the United States and the first African American president, was elected over Senator John McCain of Arizona on November 4, 2008. Obama, a former senator from Illinois whose campaigns slogan was Change we can believe in and Yes we can, was subsequently elected to a second term over Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney. A winner of the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, Obamas presidency was marked by the passage of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare; the killing of Osama bin Laden by Seal Team Six; the Iran Nuclear Deal and the legalization of gay marriage by the Supreme Court.

Obamas father, also named Barack Hussein Obama, grew up in a small village in Nyanza Province, Kenya, as a member of the Luo ethnicity. He won a scholarship to study economics at the University of Hawaii, where he met and married Ann Dunham, a white woman from Wichita, Kansas, whose father had worked on oil rigs during the Great Depression and fought with the U.S. Army in World War II before moving his family to Hawaii in 1959. Barack and Anns son, Barack Hussein Obama Jr., was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961.

Did you know? Not only was Obama the first African-American president, he was also the first to be born outside the continental United States. Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961.

Obamas parents later separated, and Barack Sr. went back to Kenya. He would see his son only once more before dying in a car accident in 1982. Ann remarried in 1965. She and her new husband, an Indonesian man named Lolo Soetoro, moved with her young son to Jakarta in the late 1960s, where Ann worked at the U.S. embassy. Obamas half-sister, Maya Soetoro Ng, was born in Jakarta in 1970.

At age 10, Obama returned to Hawaii to live with his maternal grandparents. He attended the Punahou School, an elite private school where, as he wrote in his 1995 memoir, Dreams from My Father, he first began to understand the tensions inherent in his mixed racial background. After two years at Occidental College in Los Angeles, he transferred to Columbia University in New York City, from which he graduated in 1983 with a degree in political science.

He graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School in 1991. While at Harvard, he became the first black editor of the prestigious Harvard Law Review.

After a two-year stint working in corporate research and at the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) in New York City, Obama moved to Chicago, where he took a job as a community organizer with a church-based group, the Developing Communities Project. For the next several years, he worked with low-income residents in Chicagos Roseland community and the Altgeld Gardens public housing development on the citys largely black South Side. Obama would later call the experience the best education I ever got, better than anything I got at Harvard Law School, the prestigious institution he entered in 1988.

Obama met his future wifeMichelle LaVaughn Robinson, a fellow Harvard Law School gradwhile working as a summer associate at the Chicago law firm Sidley Austin. He married Michelle Obama at the Trinity United Church of Christ on October 3, 1992.

Obama went on to teach at the University of Chicago Law School from 1992 to 2003.

In 1996, Obama officially launched his own political career, winning election to the Illinois State Senate as a Democrat from the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park. Despite tight Republican control during his years in the state senate, Obama was able to build support among both Democrats and Republicans in drafting legislation on ethics and health care reform. He helped create a state earned-income tax credit that benefited the working poor, promoted subsidies for early childhood education programs and worked with law enforcement officials to require the videotaping of interrogations and confessions in all capital cases.

Re-elected in 1998 and again in 2002, Obama also ran unsuccessfully in the 2000 Democratic primary for the U. S. House of Representatives seat held by the popular four-term incumbent Bobby Rush. As a state senator, Obama notably went on record as an early opponent of President George W. Bushs push to war with Iraq. During a rally at Chicagos Federal Plaza in October 2002, he spoke against a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq: I am not opposed to all wars. Im opposed to dumb warsI know that even a successful war against Iraq will require a U. S. occupation of undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.

When Republican Peter Fitzgerald announced that he would vacate his U.S. Senate seat in 2004 after only one term, Obama decided to run. He won 52 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary, defeating both multimillionaire businessman Blair Hull and Illinois Comptroller Daniel Hynes. After his original Republican opponent in the general election, Jack Ryan, withdrew from the race, the former presidential candidate Alan Keyes stepped in. That July, Obama gave the keynote speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, shooting to national prominence with his eloquent call for unity among red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) states. It put the relatively unknown, young senator in the national spotlight.

In November 2004, Illinois delivered 70 percent of its votes to Obama (versus Keyes 27 percent), sending him to Washington as only the third African American elected to the U.S. Senate since Reconstruction.

During his tenure, Obama notably focused on issues of nuclear non-proliferation and the health threat posed by avian flu. With Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, he created a website that tracks all federal spending, aimed at rebuilding citizens trust in government. He partnered with another Republican, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, on a bill that expanded efforts to destroy weapons of mass destruction in Eastern Europe and Russia. In August 2006, Obama traveled to Kenya, where thousands of people lined the streets to welcome him. He published his second book, The Audacity of Hope, in October 2006.

On February 10, 2007, Obama formally announced his candidacy for president of the United States. A victory in the Iowa primary made him a viable challenger to the early frontrunner, the former first lady and current New York Senator Hillary Clinton, whom he outlasted in a grueling primary campaign to claim the Democratic nomination in early June 2008. Obama chose Joseph R. Biden Jr. as his running mate. Biden had been a U.S. senator from Delaware since 1972, was a one-time Democratic candidate for president and served as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Obamas opponent was long-time Arizona Senator John S. McCain, a Vietnam veteran and former prisoner of war who chose Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. If elected, Palin would have been the nations first-ever female vice-president.

As in the primaries, Obamas campaign worked to build support at the grassroots level and used what supporters saw as the candidates natural charisma, unusual life story and inspiring message of hope and change to draw impressive crowds to Obamas public appearances, both in the U.S. and on a campaign trip abroad. They worked to bring new votersmany of them young or black, both demographics they believed favored Obamato become involved in the election.

A crushing financial crisis in the months leading up to the election shifted the nations focus to economic issues, and both Obama and McCain worked to show they had the best plan for economic improvement. With several weeks remaining, most polls showed Obama as the frontrunner. Sadly, Obamas maternal grandmother, Madelyn Dunham, died after a battle with cancer on November 3, the day before voters went to the polls. She had been a tremendously influential force in her grandsons life and had diligently followed his historic run for office from her home in Honolulu.

On November 4, lines at polling stations around the nation heralded a historic turnout and resulted in a Democratic victory, with Obama capturing some Republican strongholds (Virginia, Indiana) and key battleground states (Florida, Ohio) that had been won by Republicans in recent elections. Taking the stage in Chicagos Grant Park with his wife, Michelle, and their two young daughters, Malia Obama and Sasha Obama, he acknowledged the historic nature of his win while reflecting on the serious challenges that lay ahead. The road ahead will be long, our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even one term, but America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. I promise you, we as a people will get there.

Barack Obama was sworn in as the first black president of the United States on January 20, 2009. Obamas inauguration set an attendance record, with 1.8 million people gathering in the cold to witness it. Obama was sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. with the same Bible President Abraham Lincoln used at his first inaugural.

One of Obamas first acts in office was the signing of The Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act of 2009, which he signed just nine days into office, giving legal protection in the fight for equal pay for women. To address the financial crisis he inherited, he passed a stimulus bill, bailed out the struggling auto industry and Wall Street, and gave working families a tax cut.

In the foreign policy arena, Obama opened up talks with Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela and set a withdrawal date for American troops in Iraq. He was recognized with a 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples, and for his vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.

On March 23, 2010, Obama signed the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as universal healthcare or Obamacare. Its goal was to give every American access to affordable healthcare by requiring everyone to have health insurance, but then providing coverage for people with pre-existing conditions (a group that was previously often denied coverage) and requiring health insurance companies to spend at least 80 percent of premiums on providing actual medical services. It remains one of the Obama administrations most controversial legacies.

Barack Obama was reelected for a second term in 2012, beating out Republican Mitt Romney and his running mate Paul Ryan. The 2014 midterm elections proved challenging, as Republicans gained a majority in both houses of Congress.

His second term was marked by several international events, including the killing of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the September 11 Attacks, by Seal Team Six on May 2, 2011. No Americans were lost in the operation, which gathered evidence about Al-Qaeda. In 2013, Obama came out strongly against the use of chemical weapons on civilians by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, avoiding a direct strike on Syria when al-Assad agreed to accept a Russian proposal that it relinquish its chemical weapons.

Perhaps the defining moment of his international diplomacy was his work on the Iran Nuclear Deal, which allowed inspectors into Iran to ensure it was under the pledged limit of enriched uranium in return for lifting economic sanctions. (Obamas successor, President Donald Trump, would withdraw from the deal in 2018).

Another defining moment of Obamas presidency came when the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage on June 26, 2015. Obama remarked on that day: We are big and vast and diverse; a nation of people with different backgrounds and beliefs, different experiences and stories, but bound by our shared ideal that no matter who you are or what you look like, how you started off, or how and who you love, America is a place where you can write your own destiny.

The president and 24 other members of his administration weigh in on their proudest moments, their regrets and the belief that they left it all on the field.

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Barack Obama - Age, Education & Mother - HISTORY

Former Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes fired backafter President TrumpDonald John TrumpThe Hill's Morning Report - Biden commits to female VP; CDC says no events of 50+ people for 8 weeks This week: Senate balances surveillance fight with growing coronavirus concerns Juan Williams: Trump must be held to account over coronavirus MOREsought toblamehis predecessor for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) slow rollout of coronavirus testing.

On Friday, Trump took aim at the CDC under PresidentObama, sayingon Twitter: For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it. It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped. President Obama made changes that only complicated things further.

Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now,Trump added. The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!

But during an interview on MSNBC on Saturday, Rhodes slammed Trumps comments, adding that what he said about testing was completely false,and pointing to recent fact-checks done since then that he says prove thats not the case.

I think, importantly, what Obama did leave Trump is a global health infrastructure that we had set up informed by the lessons of the Ebola outbreak, Rhodes said before pointing toa National Security Council (NSC) pandemic directorate The Associated Press reports was dismantled by the Trump administration in 2018.

And what we did is set up, in the White House,... an office that was responsible for managing pandemics, managing global health threats that was shut down two years ago by President Trump, Rhodes said.

And when you dont have an office like that, he continued, you dont have dedicated people inside the White House who are ensuring that information is acted upon. When you see an outbreak in a place like Wuhan, China, you want people in the White House who are thinking about what needs to be done right away so that you dont get behind the curve, which is what happened in this White House.

He then went on tonotedifferences between how Trump is currently handling the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S. and how Obama handled the Ebola outbreak during his time in the Oval Office.

You need a president whos willing to hear bad news, willing to understand that theyre going to have to focus on something that they may have not intended to focus on. President trump clearly did not want to hear that bad news when he heard about the outbreak in coronavirus, Rhodes said.

When reflecting on how Obama approached the Ebola outbreak, Rhodes said the former president sidelined officials who were not experts and brought in people like Dr. Anthony Fauci, the current head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and others within the government who had real expertise on how to do deal with this.

Rhodes said the Obama administration designed a very unique response where deployed thousands of U.S. troops to Africa to help set up medical infrastructure to contain the outbreak before it could get to the United States."

By contrast, Rhodes saidTrump instead "again seems to turn his Twitter feed and try to do just enough to get him through the news cycle, while not preparing the nation for what is necessary here.

And now, we kind of see a unique situation and a crisis where state and local officials are kind of taking the lead here because the White House wont do it," he added.

The CDC has come under fire in recent weeks for its lag in coronavirus testing as more cases or reported across the U.S.

As the agency continues to face scrutiny for its response efforts, Trump has sought to distance himself from the pushback, telling reporters on Friday, I dont take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time.

If you go back to the swine flu, it was nothing like this. They didnt do testing like this, and actually they lost approximately 14,000 people, and they didnt do the testing. They started thinking about testing when it was far too late, he said.

His remarks have been called out by fact-checkers over the weekend. The New York Times, for example, labelled his comments false and blatantly wrong.

In her piece on Friday, Times fact-checker Linda Qui noted that an Obama-era guidance Trump appeared to be blaming for the slow rollout in testing was not particularly relevant to emergency situations and was never finalized or generally enforced.

She also pointed out that, despite Trumps claims, the Obama administration had diagnostic testing for H1N1 virus rolled out less than two weeks after the H1N1 virus was identified and a day before the first death in the United States.

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Ex-Obama official fires back: Trump was left with 'global health infrastructure' | TheHill - The Hill

Chalk it up to whatever you want an overly-involved DNC, a belief in his electability, maybe even a passion for his policies whatever the reason, former Vice President Joe BidenJoe BidenThe Hill's Morning Report - Biden commits to female VP; CDC says no events of 50+ people for 8 weeks 5 takeaways from the Democratic debate Media figures praise audience-free debate format MORE had a very good night Tuesday.

What looked like a campaign on the edge of collapse just a few weeks ago now seems to have the privilege of being the one to beat. Michigan, a state that gave Sen. Bernie SandersBernie SandersThe Hill's Morning Report - Biden commits to female VP; CDC says no events of 50+ people for 8 weeks 5 takeaways from the Democratic debate Media figures praise audience-free debate format MORE (I-Vt.) hopes in 2016 and became a big moment for his campaign in 2020, fell into Bidens hands more easily than MSNBC ever could have hoped. As for the other big prizes on the so-called Second Super Tuesday, voters in Mississippi and Missouri absolutely trounced Bernie in favor of the former VP, as Bernie once again failed to match Bidens appeal to African American voters and more moderate white voters outside city centers.

All these happenings have some in the mainstream media pushing their latest narrative that Joe Biden is reassembling the so-called Obama coalition of working-class white and African-American voters that drove the 44thpresident to victory in 2008 and to reelection in 2012.

Its an interesting thought, and one not entirely without grounding. Joe Biden was, after all, President Obamas guy (regardless of his eulogizingSen. Robert Byrd, who was an organizer for the KKK as a young man). One would imagine that, with similar policies, hed appeal to the same general types of voters.

However, something that many in the media tend to miss a lot is the idea of context. No statement, fact, or finding exists independently of the world around it. And here, the context of the Obama coalition support lies in something, I argue, which Biden lacks.

President Obama was able to appeal to a broad swath of the electorate in the midst of the 2008 financial crisis largely because he crafted a narrative that his policy commitments were in the best interests of the working middle class. Even more, his campaign (both times around) was able to successfully align his Republican opponent with the interests of big business that would threaten the stability of noble working-class jobs. This was a president, people thought, who would work against bad policy decisions of the past establishment to bring about a new era of hope and change.

Joe, simply, is not like this.

Trade deals unfair to U.S. workers barely show up in any of Bidens public statements, coherent or otherwise. The commitment to protect struggling American industries like coal mining and steel manufacturing and to enact policies to make them thrive is notably absent from Bidens campaign. Even Joe Biden himself is a product of the establishment, something Bernie voters and Trump voters both understand as abhorrent. With the DNC and candidates for president throwing wholehearted support to Biden before the most important races, its hard to understand this guy as anything less than an establishment puppet.

All of these things, just as they were in 2016 when tied to Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonSanders seeks to move Biden toward his issues at debate Former Pennsylvania governor: Biden nomination will be 'virtually clinched' after next Tuesday Sanders wins Northern Mariana Islands caucus MORE, are stances that the working middle class distrust.

Then-candidate Trump was able to pluck away at components of the Obama coalition with his insistence on doing right by the American worker in trade and industrial policy both at home and abroad. In many ways, he had to buck the GOP establishment to stand for these policies as a Republican and in that, the people saw a leader committed to their well-being over party doctrine: a prime example of the hope and change President Obama had promised.

It is in these broader contexts that coalitions form. In 2016, Donald Trump showed the context of the Obama coalition to be one fundamentally built on the economic security of the working middle class. Around this general policy outlook a commitment to preventing the ravages of globalization from affecting middle class jobs different sets of voters join in supporting a candidate of their common interest. And without this grounding for his campaign, Biden is trying to reuse a script without understanding any of its meaning.

Simply, there is no way Biden will have anywhere close to the pure and enthusiastic support Obama could generate.

But thats what happens when your partys identity is centered around hating Donald Trump.

Maybe theyll learn; maybe not. But if I were to guess, the Obama coalition may soon need to change its name.

Corey R. Lewandowski isPresident Trumps former campaign manager and a senior adviser to the Trump-Pence 2020 campaign. He is a senior adviser to the Great America Committee, Vice PresidentMike Pence's political action committee. He is co-author with David Bossie of Trumps Enemies and of Let Trump Be Trump: The Inside Story of His Rise to the Presidency. Follow him on Twitter@CLewandowski_.

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Biden's 'coalition' is not Obama's | TheHill - The Hill

Pences public schedule, by comparison, consisted of a noon conference call with governors about the outbreak, a medal ceremony, and a meeting with the coronavirus task force he leads along with an on-camera press briefing on the outbreak.

Trump made a last-minute appearance at the White House briefing, where he promised financial assistance to incentivize sick workers to stay at home. He said he would propose a possible temporary payroll tax cut and paid sick leave for hourly workers who get the disease. It is the most concrete step Trump has taken so far to combat the virus' spread.

Reporters peppered Trump with queries on whether he had been tested for coronavirus as he left the briefing. Pence said he himself had not been tested and would check in the evening to see whether Trump had been. Both Pence and Trump used the briefing to laud members of the administration working to combat the diseases spread, as well as private health care and transportation companies for working with the White House to get things under control.

Early Monday afternoon the World Health Organization warned that despite the outbreak not yet reaching the level of a pandemic, such a threat remains very real, though the organizations director general added that it would be the first pandemic in history that could be controlled.

The New York Stock Exchange cratered upon opening Monday morning, with the Dow quickly falling more than 1,800 points and the S&P 500 falling more than 200 points, or 7 percent. And just as the market opened, the Federal Reserve announced a pair of new measures aimed at calming investors' jitters and shielding consumers from economic fallout. The sell-off continued throughout the day, led by a sharp decline in oil prices. The Dow closed down nearly 8 percent more than 2,000 points.

While the market selloff came amid growing fears over the economic impact of the virus, it was also fueled at least in part by a plunge in oil prices triggered by Saudi Arabia and OPEC.

That dip, Trump argued, "and the Fake News, is the reason for the market drop!" Still, he maintained, the drop in oil prices is "Good for the consumer, gasoline prices coming down!"

Those efforts by Trump to minimize the severity of the outbreak came moments after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar declared on TV that nobody is trying to minimize what he called a very serious public health threat.

Azar was one of the first Trump officials to appear Monday morning on TV, promising in an interview on Fox News that the Trump administration has been on this from day one and defending the availability of testing around the country, which he said was quickly ramping up.

Azar also claimed that rapid work is underway on a possible vaccine that should go to clinical trials very soon while a therapeutic treatment is already in clinical trials.

While he said he hadn't spoken to the president about the plunging stock market, he sought to calm fears of a wider economic fallout from the virus' spread.

"His No. 1 concern across the whole of government along with Vice President Pence is leading the public health preparedness and response effort here," Azar said. "Our economic team will work on economic aspects of this, and President Trump, having delivered the best economy in modern history has the tools and knows the tools to keep this economy going but his first focus is public health."

Trump is scheduled to work through some of those tools with his top economic advisers at the White House ahead of a meeting with Wall Street executives on Wednesday.

Paid leave for workers, relief for small businesses and aid to certain sectors that are facing diminished business because of the virus were options floated before Trumps appearance at the Monday evening briefing. Economic officials have also been weighing the idea of providing government-backed relief to specific geographic regions in the country hit hard by the coronavirus.

But despite Azars expression of confidence, after his appearance on Fox, the secretary delivered a brief, roughly one-minute statement mostly focused on the economy to reporters gathered nearby. He then retreated to the West Wing without taking questions.

Trumps off-topic messages on Monday morning also came as a cruise ship carrying nearly two dozen passengers who have tested positive for coronavirus was set to dock at the Port of Oakland in California. The Defense Department announced Monday that it will provide four facilities to support the roughly 3,000 travelers coming off the Grand Princess cruise ship.

At the evening briefing, Pence said that the ship had docked, that all people aboard would be tested and that officials hoped some of the passengers would be taken off the ship by the end of the day.

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), whose congressional district includes the city of Oakland, said in an interview Monday that state and local officials have been working with federal partners to make sure that this becomes the safest and the most high-level public health response that we have seen yet.

Lee also sharply criticized Trump's suggestion on Friday that the infected passengers should remain on board so as not to increase the number of coronavirus cases in the U.S.

"The president, I don't believe he has a clue," she said. "And so I wish that he would allow our health officials and the CDC and all of those who know what they're talking about, who are being transparent, to conduct this response. This is an emergency, and the experts know exactly how to respond. The president of this United States of America does not."

Over the weekend, the number of Americans infected with the virus surpassed 500, with cases popping up in D.C. and its suburbs in Maryland and Virginia.

And at least four congressional Republicans have announced they would self-quarantine out of an abundance of caution after interacting with an attendee at the Conservative Political Action Conference, attended by numerous Trump officials, who tested positive for the virus. One of those members, Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, had accompanied Trump as he visited the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Friday and was present for a White House meeting with top House and Senate Republicans last week before he learned of the CPAC interaction. Another, Florida Rep.Matt Gaetz, was spotted boarding Air Force One earlier Monday before he learned of the contact in midflight. In addition, California Democrat Julia Brownley also announced a self-quarantine Monday after meeting with someone last week who tested positive for coronavirus.

In Maryland, Gov. Larry Hogan announced that two more residents tested positive for the virus, bring the state's cases to five. Hogan said he signed emergency legislation allowing his administration to draw down up to $50 million from the state's rain day fund.

As the president was beginning his day Monday, a church back home in Washington announced that it would temporarily close after its rector tested positive for the virus. Farther up the East Coast, Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York announced that the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, a major transportation hub, had also tested positive for the virus.

And in Florida, five state lawmakers and a staffer are in self-quarantine after attending D.C. events last month where they could have come in contact with people who have tested positive for coronavirus.

In the mid-morning, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham rapped the media, shooting down reports that the White House had issued guidance instructing staff to limit in-person interactions and meetings as completely false.

While we have asked all Americans to exercise common-sense hygiene measures, we are conducting business as usual. I want to remind the media once again to be responsible with all reporting, she said in a statement. White House press pool reports noted that Trump shook hands with supporters and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in defiance of advice from health officials, upon his arrival in Orlando for the days events.

Get the latest on the health care fight, every weekday morning in your inbox.

Despite the White House denying that it had ordered such drastic precautions, that is exactly what played out across at least part of the government on Monday.

At a press briefing at the Pentagon, Defense Department chief spokesperson Jonathan Hoffman said the department is trying to practice common sense measures like so-called social distancing, and held a high-level meeting in the morning that was spread over multiple rooms and linked via video conference rather than cramming officials into the same room. Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and other senior leaders attended, standing six feet apart in accordance with CDC guidelines Hoffman said.

Additionally, the Defense Department is evaluating whether to cancel tours of the Pentagon and limit leadership travel, Hoffman said.

Later Monday, Secretary of the Army Ryan McCarthy disclosed in a statement that the commander of U.S. Army Europe, along with several staff members, may have been exposed to COVID-19 during a recent conference. Out of an abundance of caution and following recommended protocols, the commander and others potentially affected are self-monitoring and working remotely to fulfill their command duties and responsibilities, McCarthy's statement said.

And in Italy, which has emerged as one of the global hotspots for the virus, Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte ordered a nationwide lockdown limiting movement for the countrys 60 million people.

Quint Forgey, Lara Seligman, Dan Goldberg and Matthew Choi contributed to this report.

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While market sinks, Trump tweets on Obama, 'fake news' and the Dem primary - POLITICO

President Donald Trump eating with members of the military in a dining facility during a surprise Thanksgiving Day visit, Thursday, Nov. 28, 2019, at Bagram Air Field, Afghanistan.Photo: Alex Brandon (Associated Press)

The Meglomaniac-In-Chief s continuous war on the poor has hit a snag.

In his quest to Make American Hate Again, President Donald Trump and his administration were planning to make life even worse for food-insecure families when the sought to proceed with measures to remove nearly three-quarters of a million people from Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits program.

But a judge appointed by Forever President Barack Hussein Obama pumped the brakes.

One of the good things to come out of the Coronavirus pandemic was Chief U.S. District Court Judge Beryl A. Howell ruling that the planned strict work requirements were unlawful and blocked the administration from proceeding with them.

Especially now, as a global pandemic poses widespread health risks, guaranteeing that government officials at both the federal and state levels have flexibility to address the nutritional needs of residents and ensure their well-being through programs like SNAP, is essential, Howell wrote in her 84-page ruling.

The decision resulted from a lawsuit brought by 19 states, including Washington D.C. and The Big Apple on Friday, NPR reported.

In December, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced it was adopting the rule change requiring able-bodied adults without children to work at least 20 hours a week in order to qualify for SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps, past three months.

To go one step further with their skullduggery, it wouldve also limited individual states usual ability to waive those requirements depending on economic conditions.

Her honors preliminary injunction will preserve that flexibility.

Howell is the top judge on the Washington, D.C. federal district court and she seems not to mind setting the record straight.

Just last month, the 63-year-old Fort Benning, Georgia native said that the courts sentencing of Trump consigliere Roger Stone would not be swayed by public criticism or pressure.

On Feb. 20, the GOP operative was sentenced to more than three years in prison after a jury found guilty on seven felony counts including lying to authorities, obstructing a congressional investigation and witness intimidation, Politico reported.

Trump has called Stones treatment a miscarriage of justice, raising questions about whether he will grant clemency to his longtime political confidant.

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Obama-Appointed Judge Blocks Donald Trump's Plan to Kick Nearly One Million Americans Off of Food Stamps - The Root