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Rep. Smith disappointed by Obama’s executive order “threats”

WASHINGTON – Rep. Lamar Smith, R-San Antonio, admonished President Obama today for planning to issue an executive order on immigration.

Speaking on Bloomberg TV, Smith said it was disappointing “that the president is threatening Congress and threatening the American people with these executive orders.”

“He shouldn’t go it alone. He should work with Congress and then we can come up with a good product,” Smith said.

Obama said that he would likely issue an executive order on immigration before the end of the year. He has not outlined exactly what such an order would do, but Smith claimed it would “give amnesty to millions of people.”

Congress’ attempts to enact immigration reform have failed. Last year, House Speaker John Boehner refused to take up a bipartisan Senate bill that would have offered illegal immigrants a pathway to citizenship, and beefed up security along the southern border.

Smith said the Senate bill lacks sufficient border security measures, and it would entice more people to immigrate illegally.

“We’re opposed to that bill because it is massive amnesty, and it never really secures the border,” he said.

The president said yesterday that he would rather that Congress pass an immigration bill than issue an executive order himself. Such a bill would replace whatever action he took.

But he also added that “before the end of the year, we’re going to take whatever lawful actions that I can take, that I believe will improve the functioning of our immigration system.”

According to Smith, Republicans wouldn’t let that slide. He said they would try to block the order by defunding its programs or filing a lawsuit.

Smith said that an executive order on immigration would make it difficult to work with Obama on other legislation.

“When he does this he’s going to frankly poison the barrel and make it awfully hard to work with him on other issues,” Smith said. “If he wants to accomplish anything lasting on immigration, he’s going to have to work with Congress and not just issue these executive orders.”

Obama holds phone conference for Wendy Davis and Texas Democrats

Wendy Davis was flanked by her father and her daughters during her 2012 victory speech in Fort Worth.

Wendy Davis was flanked by her father and her daughters during her 2012 victory speech in Fort Worth. (File 2012)

President Barack Obama participated in a tele-conference call this morning with thousands of Texas Democrats, joined by governor nominee Wendy Davis and lieutenant governor nominee Leticia Van de Putte.

The president urged participants to get out and vote, warning Democratic apathy would leave Republicans dominating statewide offices.

Republican Greg Abbott, whose campaign ads have tried to link the unpopular president directly to Davis, jumped on the connection.

“In the final hours of the election, President Obama is going all in for Sen. Davis, making a personal appeal to push their shared agenda of bigger government, more regulations, higher taxes and fewer jobs,” said Abbott spokesman Matt Hirsch.

The Abbott campaign has been running statewide TV ads for weeks that portray Obama as governor in the event Davis won the office. The two have not appeared together in public.

On the phone call, billed as a electronic town hall meeting, were also former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk and Houston Sen. Rodney Ellis.

The phone call was a motivator for Democrats to get out and vote, said Davis spokesman Zac Petkanas.

“The goal in an election is to get more of your supporters out to the polls than the other guy’s,” said Petkanas. “That’s what this call was desigend to do and we trust it will.”

Dr. Brantly joins Obama to encourage Ebola volunteers in West Africa, tamp down calls for quarantines and travel bans

Medical professionals in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea "have fought a valiant effort against this menace," Dr. Kent Brantly said, but more are "desperately needed."

Medical professionals in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea "have fought with valiant effort against this menace," Dr. Kent Brantly said, but more are "desperately needed." (Olivier Douliery/Abaca Press)

updated with comments from NJ Gov. Chris Christie

WASHINGTON – Dr. Kent Brantly, the Fort Worth doctor who became the first American to contract Ebola in treating patients in West Africa, starred at a White House event meant to put a spotlight on the need for health care workers to volunteer to fight the outbreak.

The medical professionals of the three nations battling Ebola – Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea – “have fought with valiant effort against this menace,” Brantly said, introducing President Obama. “More medical professional are desperately needed.”

Obama warned that the United States “can’t hermetically seal ourselves off” from the rest of the world. He urged the public and state leaders to set aside fear — a term he invoked four times in 15 minutes, in pointed remarks aimed at displaying displeasure with state-level efforts to quarantine nurses and doctors returning from the Ebola hot zone.

“If we’re discouraging our health care workers who are prepared to make these sacrifices … then we’re not doing our job” in terms of protecting Americans, Obama asserted. “What we need right now is these shock troops who are out there leading globally. We can’t discourage that. We’ve got to encourage it and applaud it.”

Behind the scenes, the White House pressured governors in New Jersey and New York to ease policies regarding returning health care workers.

Several hundred guests filled seats in the ornate East Room of the White House.

Obama warned against reacting to fear, hysteria or misinformation. One reason the world looks to America, he said, is because of its cool- headed response to a crisis.

The president was flanked by doctors and other health workers, many in white lab coats.

Brantly’s wife, Amber, sat in the front row, and Obama joked that her husband had gained some weight since the last time he was at the White House more than a month ago, shortly after recovering from his own bout with Ebola.

“Each of you studied medicine because you wanted to save lives. The world needs you more than ever,” the president said.

The health care workers serving in Africa, Obama said, are a “shining example” to the world. And he vowed that with ongoing efforts, international efforts will “contain and ultimately snuff out this outbreak of Ebola.”

“I know that with all the headlines and all the news, that people are scared. … But the reason I’m so proud of this country is because when there are times for us to step up and do the right thing, we do the right thing,” Obama said,

With indirect language, he needled and mocked critics — including many political conservatives — who speak of “exceptionalism” but then promote policies such as travel bans and quarantines. These, he said, amount, to pretending the problem will go away.

“When I hear people talking about American leadership, and then are promoting policies that would avoid leadership and have us running in the opposite direction and hiding under the covers, it makes me a little frustrated,” he said.

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie, head of the Republican Governors Association and a possible 2016 White House contender, blasted Obama for issuing “lectures.”

He called it “common sense” to isolate health workers returning from working with Ebola patients in West Africa for the full 21-day incubation period.

“This is our policy. It will be our policy as long as this crisis is going on,” he told reporters. “I don’t know when the White House is going to get around to admitting that and not giving us seven-minute lectures from the South Lawn.”

And he took issue with the idea that quarantines will discourage volunteers.

“It’s part of the sacrifice. I’m sure none of these folks want to come home and get anybody else sick… Folks should understand. Part of the sacrifice is going over there and the remainder of the sacrifice is when you come home,” remaining quarantined for three weeks, Christie said.

Brantly is medical missions director for Samaritan’s Purse. He contracted Ebola while working in Liberia, and was the first person treated for Ebola in the United States. He has donated blood plasma to other patients since being cured at Emory University Hospital.

The group behind the president included doctors and others who either have worked against Ebola in West Africa or plan to travel there soon. Doctors and nurses who treated Dallas nurse Nina Pham at NIH were also on stage and in the audience, along with healthcare workers from a variety of nonprofit groups and others.

The president’s new “Ebola czar,” Ron Klain, was on hand, along with a Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health and a number of top White House aides, including homeland security adviser Lisa Monaco, Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell and National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

Now Ebola-free, Pham gets a hug from Obama at the White House

President Obama gives a hug to Dallas nurse Nina Pham in the Oval Office on Oct. 24. (Photo by Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — Hours after being declared Ebola-free, Dallas nurse Nina Pham got a hug from President Barack Obama in the Oval Office.

Pham met with Obama on Friday afternoon and is scheduled to return to Dallas later today. This morning, she was discharged from the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., where she has been in isolation since Oct. 16.

“I feel fortunate and blessed to be standing here today,” Pham told reporters at NIH, flanked by her sister and mother.

Pham walks alongside Anthony Fauci of the NIH at the White House. (Kimberly Railey/The Dallas Morning News)

Her sister, Catherine, and mother, Diana, joined her at the White House. They sat next to Pham on a couch in the Oval Office, across from Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at NIH.

Also present were Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Pham’s primary doctor Dr. Richard Davey Jr., and Dr. Cliff Lane of the NIH.

Pham beamed when Obama hugged her, as photojournalists captured the moment.

Afterward, Pham was smiling and appeared in good spirits. The 26-year-old was the first American nurse to contract Ebola on U.S. soil.

White House press secretary Josh Earnest said no special precautions were needed or taken, because her doctors had given her a “clean bill of health.”

Wendy Davis denies avoiding President Obama and says she would be “thrilled” if he came to Texas

While some Democrats have avoided President Obama, Democrat Wendy Davis says “I’ve never backed away” from him and would be “thrilled” if he came to Texas to campaign for her gubernatorial bid. Asked today whether she has asked Obama to campaign with her, Davis said no. “I imagine he’s busy doing other things,” she told reporters.

Wendy Davis tells campaign volunteers in Austin early-voting figures look good for Democrats (Wayne Slater)

The issue flared earlier in the campaign when Obama, who is not popular in Texas, came to the state but Davis was campaigning elsewhere. They did meet once in Austin during a 50th anniversary symposium on the Civil Rights Act. But the meeting was private and the media weren’t invited to photograph them together.

In several states, Republican candidates in senate and governor races have sought to link their Democratic opponents to Obama and his policies. Democrats have pushed back, in some cases declining to say even whether they’d voted for him for president. Republican Greg Abbott is running an ad with their pictures side-by-side. Asked about the president, Davis denied she’s tried to avoid him.

“I would be thrilled if he or the Clintons would want to come and help,” she told reporters Wednesday at a campaign event in Austin. “I was pleased that Michelle Obama was willing to record a radio ad for me. And I’m very honored to have their support and the support of so many prominent Democrats across this country.”

Abbott was pressing the message Wednesday that Davis was an Obama acolyte. At a campaign rally in San Antonio with actor Chuck Norris, Abbott told GOP supporters a vote for Davis a vote for Obama policies.

At the Austin event, Davis criticized Abbott for refusing to say whether he would have opposed interracial marriage had he been attorney general years ago when some states banned it. Abbott has said his job as attorney general is to defend the law on the books, not pick and choose what he wanted to defended. Abbott is in court fighting a challenge to the state’s ban on gay marriage. Asked last week if he would have defended the interracial marriage ban in the same away when it was on the books, Abbott refused to answer, saying the question was hypothetical.

Davis: “I was just shocked that in the year 2014, Greg Abbott refused to answer the question of whether he would defend a ban on interracial marriage. We’ve moved decades beyond that. It was a simple question, with a simple answer. And the fact that he won’t answer it raises concerns.”

Ebola: President Obama speaks with Dallas healthcare workers

Cole Edmonson, chief nursing officer at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, speaks to President Obama, who called from The White House to offer words of encouragement and support to a team of caregivers today. (photo courtesy Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas)

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama today spoke with several “frontline healthcare workers” at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, including some who cared for Ebola patients.

“The President thanked the healthcare workers for their unflagging dedication and for their tireless efforts to treat these patients despite the difficult conditions,” according to a White House aide. “More broadly, he also noted that our nation’s doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and other healthcare staff work long hours under stressful conditions, and are absolutely indispensable.”

Two nurses from Presbyterian Hospital are being treated for Ebola, at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Both had treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian who died of Ebola on Oct. 8.

Seen through the window of the Oval Office, President Obama gets an update on Ebola in Dallas from Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell on Oct. 12. (AP/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The president will meet later this afternoon with his new Ebola “czar,” Ron Klain. But meanwhile, he wanted to reach out to Dallas healthcare workers.

“He offered his personal thanks to this group on behalf of a grateful nation,” the aide said.

Obama sends White House aide to Dallas to coordinate Ebola response

White House aide Adrian Saenz

WASHINGTON –The president is dispatching a top aide to Dallas to coordinate Ebola response.

Adrian Saenz, a seasoned political operative from Texas who has worked in Congress and, for the last 13 months, at the White House will serve as the administration’s Dallas-based liaison.

“Saenz will be on the ground in Dallas and in close coordination with senior White House officials involved in the Ebola response, including Ron Klain, the Ebola Response Coordinator,” a White House aide said.

The deployment helps to “fulfill the president’s pledge that state and local authorities are able to call upon any and all necessary federal resources,” he added.

Saenz joined the White House staff in September 2013 as deputy director of Intergovernmental Affairs, leading a team that works with state and local officials. In the 2012 Obama campaign he served as National Latino Vote Director. He was Texas state director for the Obama campaign during the 2008 primary. In 2006 he was national field director for the Democrats’ U.S. House campaign arm. He was a top immigration strategist at Organizing for America, the group that evolved from the Obama campaign apparatus, before joining the administration.

In Congress, he served as chief of staff to then-Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, D-San Antonio, and in other roles.

In other measures, the White House also is naming a Texas coordinator for Ebola response “to ensure we adequately leverage appropriate state-level assets.” Gov Rick Perry has selected W. Nim Kidd, chief of the Texas Division of Emergency Management and Assistant Director, Texas Department of Public Safety, for that post.

The president also has named a FEMA coordinator, Kevin Hannes, to work with Kidd and ensure adequate federal assistance in Dallas. Hannes currently oversees FEMA operations in North Texas.

Dim views from Texas on Obama’s Ebola czar

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s decision today to name a so-called “Ebola czar” to oversee the federal response is drawing scathing reviews from many Texas Republicans — and some praise.

House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Austin, called it “an important and necessary step to name an Ebola coordinator.” But he said, Ron Klain — a former chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, a job he also held under Vice President Al Gore — isn’t the right person.

McCaul noted that previous administrations had special advisers on biodefense policy with solid scientific and medical backgrounds. “While the president’s pick may have the ear of the White House and experience from the campaign trail, I am concerned he doesn’t have significant relationships in the medical community that are imperative during this current biological emergency,” McCaul said.

Sen. Ted Cruz blasted the choice entirely.

“We don’t need another so-called ‘czar,’ ” he said in statement. “We need presidential leadership. This is a public health crisis, and the answer isn’t another White House political operative. The answer is a commander in chief who stands up and leads, banning flights from Ebola-afflicted nations and acting decisively to secure our southern border.”

There is no evidence that Ebola has entered the United States through Mexico.

Cruz called for an emergency session of Congress to enact a flight ban.

House Energy and Commerce Chairman Fred Upton, R-Mich., echoed McCaul’s view. He wasn’t impressed by a czar without a medical background.

“What has been missing from this administration’s response to Ebola is not a new figurehead; what we need is a strategy to get ahead of this, and restore the public’s faith that they are safe,” he said.

 

 

Obama assures Gov. Perry that Texas will get whatever help it needs

President Obama points toward Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as he speaks about the government’s Ebola response in the Oval Office Thursday night. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON – President Obama said Thursday night that he spoke today with Gov. Rick Perry, assuring him that Texas and Dallas will have the resources needed to deal with Ebola, especially if more cases erupt.

He ruled out a travel ban on West Africa but said he would reconsider if infectious disease experts change their view on the idea.

“I don’t have a philosophical objection … if that is the thing that is going to keep the American public safe,” he told reporters after a lengthy Oval Office meeting with top advisers on the Ebola crisis.

He noted that with Amber Vinson at Emory University Hospital and fellow nurse Nina Pham heading tonight to the National Institutes of Health, “they are getting the best possible care.”

“Our heartfelt concern goes out to the two nurses… They courageously treated Mr. Duncan when he was in Dallas,” he said.

Obama noted that other health care workers at Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas are undergoing “constant monitoring.”

“We remain focused on the situation at Texas Presbyterian in Dallas,” the president said, adding that there “may have been problems in how protective gear was worn or removed” at the hospital.

And he discussed concerns about Vinson’s travel from Dallas to Cleveland and back shortly before her diagnosis. She had a low-grade fever on the flight back to Dallas.

“It’s very important for us to make sure that we are monitoring and tracking anyone who was in close proximity to this second nurse… to ensure there is not additional spread of the disease,” he said.

He also spoke about the situation with Ohio Gov. John Kasich, he said.

As for the travel ban, he said, the problem is that travelers from West Africa might try to hide their travel history and evade screening.

“We could end up having more cases rather than less,” he said. But he’ll keep demanding refinements in policy from his advisers and “if they come back to me and say that there are some additional things that we need to do, I assure you that we will do it.”

For now, he said, “A flat out travel ban is not the best way to go.”

Obama also said he may appoint a so-called Ebola “czar” to take some pressure off national security and public health aides with other duties.

He offered assurances that while health workers who deal with Ebola patients face escalated risk, the public does not.

“The risks involved remain relatively low – extremely low – for ordinary folks,” he said.

Obama confident the US won’t see “serious outbreak” of Ebola

President Obama speaks to the media about Ebola during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Wednesday. From left: Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Burwell, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker. (AP/Jacquelyn Martin)

WASHINGTON – President Obama vowed a more “aggressive” federal response to the spread of Ebola in the United States. And he offered assurance tonight that a “serious outbreak” remains extremely unlikely.

“I want people to understand that the dangers of you contracting Ebola, the dangers of a serious outbreak, are extraordinarily low,” he said after meeting with Cabinet members and other top aides. “But we are taking this very seriously at the highest levels of government.”

That assurance that a “serious” outbreak is unlikely is markedly less optimistic than the one Obama offered only a week earlier in a call with governors and mayors across the country, when he said that “the chance of an Ebola outbreak in the United States remains extremely low.”

As for health care workers in Dallas, “we understand that many of them are scared,” the president said tonight.

He called it essential to continue fighting the outbreak where it is worst, in Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea, even as the United States girds for spread of the deadly virus at home.

“I am absolutely confident that we can prevent a serious outbreak of the disease here in the United States,” he said, but “the single most important thing that we can do to prevent a more serious Ebola outbreak in this country is making sure that we get what is a raging epidemic right now in West Africa under control.”

The president didn’t directly address escalating demands for a ban on travelers from the afflicted region. But he reiterated that working to control the oubreak in West Africa is a good investment because otherwise, “it will spread globally in an age of frequent travel and the kind of constant interactions that people have across borders.”

Nor did he mention the possibility of a “no fly” list to ensure that people with a known potential exposure – such as the Dallas nurse who flew from Cleveland to Dallas less than two days before confirmation that she had contracted Ebola – stay off commercial flights.

An administration official noted that the Department of Homeland Security has authority to operate a public “Do Not Board” list to bar travelers within, or arriving in or leaving the United States. CDC officials say such a list is under consideration.

Obama acknowledged concern that the second nurse flew a commercial airliner on Monday from Cleveland to Dallas, shortly before she spiked a fever and was confirmed to have Ebola. But he said, “It is not like the flu. It is not airborne.”

The president said he has ordered CDC to provide a rapid response or “Swat team” on the ground within 24 hours, any place Ebola crops up in the United States. That, in part, is a response to shortcomings in Dallas, where Texas Health Systems Presbyterian Hospital initially sent home Thomas Eric Duncan with a high fever; he died Ebola a week ago, and two of his nurses ended up contracting the disease.

Going forward, Obama said, “We are monitoring, supervising, overseeing in a much more aggressive way exactly what’s taken place in Dallas.”

He has ordered a full scale review of how Duncan was treated, “so that we understand where some of the problems may have occurred, and doing a thorough canvass and inventory of anyone involved in caring for Duncan.”

Lessons have been and will be communicated to doctors, nurses, hospitals and clinics across the country, he said.

He said the White House is working closely with the mayor of Dallas, the governor of Texas and others to ensure that anyone with Ebola is cared for “in a way that is consistent with public safety.”

The meeting participants, according to the White House, included Vice President Biden and the heads of eight Cabinet departments and much of the president’s national security team. List follows:

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