A plant that makes peanut butter paste for severely malnourished children got contract termination letters from USAID yesterday.

MANA's CEO tells me he has 400,000 boxes for USAID sitting in his warehouse; he's ordered workers to stop using USAID labels.
cnn.com/2025/02/27/pol… “Every one of those packets has printing on it that says, ‘From the American people. USAID.’ And if… I don’t deliver it through USAID contracts, it’s trash. I can’t distribute it."

On top of that, MANA was already waiting on millions of $ in reimbursements from USAID.

New: Kamala Harris campaign has just accepted in a letter to ABC News the rules of next week's debate against Donald trump, including mics being muted when it's not a candidate's turn to speak, per person familiar with debate negotiations.

That had been the final hang-up. In their letter to ABC News, Harris campaign wrote in part:

"Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President."

New: Nancy Pelosi privately told Biden in a recent conversation that polling shows that the president cannot defeat Trump and that Biden could destroy Democrats’ chances of winning the House in November if he continues seeking a 2nd term, sources tell me @jamiegangel @jeffzeleny Biden responded by pushing back and being defensive about the polls, telling Pelosi he has seen polls that indicate he can win. At one point, Pelosi asked Mike Donilon, Biden’s longtime adviser, to get on the line to talk over the data.

President Biden’s comment this afternoon that he didn’t become aware of how bad the baby formula problem was until April raises many questions.

The White House has said they’ve been working around the clock since February to address the issue. Obviously both can be true — and that would mean the administration was acting around the clock, with urgency, to address the baby formula shortage, for weeks, while the President himself was unaware of the gravity of the issue.

Multiple baby formula manufacturer reps have now told President Biden at ongoing meeting at the White House that as soon as Abbott baby formula recalls happened, they recognized it would be hugely problematic “We knew from the very beginning this would be a very serious event.”

https://twitter.com/kaitlancollins/status/1532079852764942338

BTS members talking about this being the final day of AAPI Heritage Month. They said as hate crimes against Asian Americans are on the rise, they wanted to help by using their voice.

New from me and @MarkMorales51: Cuomo said 'he can destroy me': NY assemblyman alleges governor threatened him over nursing homes scandal cnn.com/2021/02/17/pol… @MarkMorales51 Democratic NY Assemblyman Ron Kim told CNN that Gov. Cuomo called last Thursday to “threaten my career if I did not cover up for Melissa [DeRosa] and what she said.” Cuomo also said “I hadn't seen his wrath and that he can destroy me,” according to Kim. cnn.com/2021/02/17/pol…

Very stark words from Joe Biden this afternoon about President Trump:

"The incumbent president is incapable of telling us the truth, incapable of facing the facts. Incapable of healing." Trump, Biden says, is "stoking violence in our cities."

Joe Biden says he spoke to a number of women in the VP selection process, all of them qualified and impressive. He thanked them all for speaking to him. After all that, Biden says he now has “no doubt” that Kamala Harris was the right choice to be his running mate.

“She’s a proven fighter for the backbone of this country.”

“She’s ready time do this job on day one.”

Kimchi is not “for snacking” like American pickles are!!!!

https://twitter.com/alisoneroman/status/1238186814487363585

May I share what this is actually about for me? There are relatively few prominent Asian women in the food/cooking world — even as Asian cuisines have obviously become more mainstream. But how often do you see a face that looks like mine on say, the Food Network?

Asked why he keeps referring to the coronavirus as the Chinese virus, Trump says:

"It's not racist at all, not at all. It comes from China. That's why. It comes from China." In asking her question, @CeciliaVega very importantly noted that there are many examples right now of discrimination against Chinese Americans because of this kind of rhetoric.

"I have no tolerance for the kind of behavior that the Me Too movement has exposed," Bloomberg says when asked about former employees who have accused him of sexist and misogynistic behavior. Read about those allegations against Bloomberg here:

cnn.com/2020/02/19/pol…

What we just broke on air @CNN: Bernie Sanders told Elizabeth Warren in a private meeting in December 2018 that he did not believe a woman could win, according to four sources.

Full story here, including Sanders' aggressive on-the-record pushback: cnn.com/2020/01/13/pol… @CNN Sanders and Warren met at her DC apartment. Both agreed that should they become 2020 rivals, they should remain civil and avoid attacking one another, so as not to hurt the progressive movement.

(Hello "non-agression pact" we've been discussing all year) cnn.com/2020/01/13/pol…

New from me: Inside the network of foreign policy veterans quietly advising Elizabeth Warren's campaign.

How a candidate focused on domestic challenges and the economy is confronting a national security test.
cnn.com/2020/01/10/pol… The advisers working w/ Warren's foreign policy team, led by Sasha Baker, includes @JarrettBlanc, @ilangoldenberg @LorenRaeDeJ Robert Ford, Dave Rank and others.

I spoke with them about what they see as the "Warren Doctrine" cnn.com/2020/01/10/pol…

Elizabeth Warren is about to take the stage here in Exeter, NH, minutes after a new Quinnipiac poll showed Biden with 20% support, Warren with 16%, Buttigieg with 15% and Sanders with 14% in the state. This is the third Warren event I'm seeing in NH in less than two weeks.

Of the more than a dozen voters I spoke with at these events, the majority were somewhere between firmly and probably decided on supporting Warren at this point.

What do you say to Democrats who say "this is not the time" for impeachment proceedings?

Warren: "There is no political inconvenience exception to the United States Constitution." #WarrenTownHall Warren says when she got to the end of reading the entire Mueller report, 3 things stood out.

1. A hostile foreign government attacked out 2016 election in order to help Donald Trump. #WarrenTownHall

NEW: Details of Elizabeth Warren's universal child care policy being released tomorrow -- it would guarantee child care from birth until the time children enter school, and be paid for by Warren's proposed "wealth tax." Warren's proposal would create a federal program that establishes a network of public and family-run centers. The care would be free for families with incomes below 200% of the poverty level – about $51,500 for a family of four.

Aspiring actress Mareli Miniutti was granted a restraining order against Michael Avenatti, and accused him of physical and verbal violence including hitting her face with pillows, calling her an "ungrateful bitch" and dragging her across the floor. cnn.com/2018/11/20/pol… In a declaration filed as part of the request for a restraining order in Los Angeles Superior Court, Miniutti described an altercation last week in which she said she and Avenatti started fighting about money.

Some sexual harassment news from the Hill today: House Ethics Committee says Rep. Mark Meadows’ showed “failure to take prompt and decisive action to deal with the alleged sexual harassment in his congressional office." House Ethics investigated allegations of sexual harassment involving Meadows' former chief of staff, Kenny West. According to its review, West’s behavior toward female staff was “inappropriate in every sense of the word,” committee said.

TMZ initially reported that Michale Avenatti was arrested for an incident involving his estranged wife. The story's been updated to remove reference of wife -- now just says "a woman." (No correction note) I spoke with Avenatti's wife on the phone. “I haven’t see Michael in months. It’s a complete fabrication," she said. “Bruises on my face? It is insanity. He wouldn’t hit anybody. Especially a woman. He’s got two daughters.”

We'll be on the lookout all day for issues across the country related to voter suppression & voter access. There's already plenty of buzz about potential spread of misinformation, as well as issues falling in the category of unforeseen events, non-functioning machines, etc. A polling place in Brooklyn, NY, was delayed in opening this morning for about 90 minutes because poll workers could not open an electronic lock on the building, via my colleague @gregorywallace