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EXCLUSIVE: House Republicans are demanding answers from the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) onwhether new school reopening guidelines were based on politics and Democratic campaign donations rather than coronavirus science.

GOP leaders on the House Energy and Commerce Committee are raising alarms over newly released emails that show a flurry ofcommunication between CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, her top advisors and teachers union officials. The emails revealed thatthe powerful teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), was making language suggestions for the CDC's latest school reopening guidelines released on Feb. 12.

The emails "raise significant concerns about whether you, as the Director of the CDC, are putting politics over science and Biden-Harris campaign donors over children,"Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., wroteWalensky on Wednesday in a letter obtained first by Fox News.

TOP TEACHERS UNION LOBBIED CDC ON SCHOOL REOPENING

"Such revelations also raise serious questions as to whether you are honoring your pledge to ensure CDC guidance is evidence-based and free from politics."

U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Spokane, who is being challenged by Democrat Lisa Brown, speaks during a debate, Wednesday, Sept. 19, 2018, in Spokane, Wash. McMorris Rodgers is questioning the CDC school reopening guidelines. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren) (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

Rodgers is the top Republican on the Energy and Commerce Committee. She was joined in the letter byMorgan Griffith, R-Va., andBrett Guthrie, R-Ky., who also serve on the committee that has oversight over healthcare matters.

The Republicans tell Walensky that theemails"shed new light on your public about-face" on her stance on whether schools can safely reopen without teachers first beingvaccinated.

Walensky initially said in early February that data suggests schools can safely reopen -- even without teachers needing to be vaccinated. But the White House later underminedWalensky's comment and emails revealed that AFT President RandiWeingarten had a phone conversation withWalensky, too.Afterward,Walensky's public statements changed to encouraging states to give teachers priority in vaccinations, the letter states.

"The AFTs priority is not focused on getting kids back to school, despite studies showing, with appropriate measures in place, in-person learning is safe," the lawmakers wrote. "However, as the Director of the CDC, your decisions should be guided by science, not political interest groups."

The members aredemanding answers on the scope of the communication between the CDC andAmerican Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) and more information on how the powerful teachers unions influenced the union-approved guidelines.

BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS - MARCH 30: CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky speaks to the press after visiting the Hynes Convention Center FEMA Mass Vaccination Site on March 30, 2021 in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Walensky recently said she had a sense of "impending doom" as the rate of coronavirus infection has recently been rising across the U.S. (Photo by Erin Clark-Pool/Getty Images) (Getty Images)

The Republicans also allege"the CDC was not forthcoming"with the Energy and Commerce Committee when members previously asked for names of any stakeholders engaged by the CDC during the preparation of the updated guidance. On March 17, 2021, the CDC sent a response but did not provide information on this item, the letter states.

The emails between the CDC and the teachers unions wereobtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by the conservative watchdog group Americans for Public Trust and provided to The New York Post.

The CDC defended its conversations with the unions asroutine.

COTTON RIPS 'POLITICIZED' CDC GUIDANCE ON SCHOOLS REOPENING: KIDS NEED FULL RETURN TO CLASSROOMS 'NOW'

"As part of long-standing best practices, CDC has traditionally engaged with organizations and groups that are impacted by guidance and recommendations issued by the agency," Jason McDonald, a spokesman for Walensky, told The Post. "We do so to ensure our recommendations are feasible to implement and they adequately address the safety and wellbeing of individuals the guidance is aimed to protect. These informative and helpful interactions often result in beneficial feedback that we consider in our final revisions to ensure clarity and usability."

But Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said the emails between the CDC and the teachers union show politics at play. Teachers unions are major political donors to Democrats, including to President Biden.

"We shouldnt have a politicized public health bureaucracy like the CDC answering at the beck and call of the teachers' unions," Cotton told Fox News earlier this week.

The White House Tuesday defended the CDC conversations with the unions when pressed by Fox News and rejected the notion thatthe health agency is politicized.

Randi Weingarten, president of American Federation of Teachers, speaks, along with Everett Kelley, left, National President of the American Federation of Government Employees, during the "Commitment March: Get Your Knee Off Our Necks" protest against racism and police brutality, on August 28, 2020, in Washington, DC.Weingarten has been in touch with the CDC about school reopening guidelines, emails show.

(Photo by Jacquelyn Martin / POOL / AFP) (Photo by JACQUELYN MARTIN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

"Its actually a longstanding best practice for the CDC to engage with organizations and groups that are going to be impacted by guidance and recommendations issued by the agency," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.

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Psaki said the CDC "engaged with around 50 stakeholders" total in advance of the guidance -- not just the unions.

"It doesnt mean they are taking everything they want or even a percentage of what they want," Psaki said. "...They do so to ensure that recommendations are feasible and that they adequately address the safety and wellbeing of the individuals the guidance is aimed toprotect."

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House Republicans demand answers from CDC on seemingly cozy relationship with teachers unions - Fox News

Along with Florida, Republicans are expected to draw themselves more favorable congressional districts in Georgia, where Democrats hold two competitive districts in Atlantas northern suburbs, and Texas, which will add two new seats for the 2022 elections.

Mr. Ryans Democratic district in northeast Ohio is likely to disappear when Ohio Republicans draw a map with one fewer House seat, and Representative Filemon Vela of Texas, whose Rio Grande Valley district became eight percentage points more Republican from 2016 to 2020, chose retirement rather than compete in what was likely to be his first competitive re-election bid.

This is where Democratic underperformance in 2020 really begins to hinder Democrats downballot, said Ken Spain, a veteran of the House Republicans campaign arm. Republicans fared well at the state level last cycle and now theyre going to reap the benefits of many of those red states drawing a disproportionate number of the seats.

Because Republicans hold majorities in more state legislatures, and Democrats and voters in key states such as California, Colorado and Virginia have delegated mapmaking authority to nonpartisan commissions, the redistricting process alone could shift up to five or six seats to Republicans, potentially enough to seize the majority if they don't flip any other Democratic-held seats.

Democrats are expected to press their advantages where they can, particularly in Illinois and New York, states that lost one House district each in last weeks reapportionment. New Yorks new map is certain to take a seat from Republicans in Upstate New York, and one Republican-held seat in Central Illinois may be redrawn to be Democratic while another is eliminated.

For the moment there are more House Republicans, six, not seeking re-election, than the five House Democrats retiring or running for aiming for a promotion to statewide office. But of the Republicans, only Representatives Lee Zeldin and Tom Reed of New York represent districts that are plausibly competitive in 2022.

With Democrats holding supermajority control of the New York State Legislature, Mr. Zeldin, who is running for governor, and Mr. Reed, who retired while apologizing for a past allegation of groping, could both see their districts drawn to become far more competitive for Democrats.

Reid J. Epstein reported from Washington and Patricia Mazzei reported from Miami.

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Why Democratic Departures From the House Have Republicans Salivating - The New York Times

Since Joe Biden became president, several surveys have found a sharp rise in Republican pessimism about the economy.

This might seem surprising considering the national economy which experienced one of its worst downturns thanks to the coronavirus pandemic is now objectively improving. The United States added 916,000 jobs in March, smashing Dow Jones expectations and the unemployment rate is now at its lowest level (6 percent) in over a year. And economic forecasters now predict annual GDP growth in 2021 will soar to levels the country hasnt witnessed in nearly 40 years.

Yet, despite these optimistic economic indicators, most Republicans say the economy is getting worse. On the one hand, this is to be expected, as political scientists have found that how we think about the economy is increasingly rooted in how we identify politically rather than in actual economic conditions.

Take this data from Civiqs daily tracking polls, which has asked Americans about the economy each day since June 2016. Americans perceptions of the national economy have changed wildly depending on whether a Democrat or a Republican is in the White House.

These shifts are particularly striking for Republicans when considering the actual state of the economy. Even after a prolonged period of growth in GDP, household income, employment and the stock market during Barack Obamas presidency, about 70 percent of Republicans consistently thought the economy was getting worse in 2016 nearly the same share who are now pessimistic about the economys trajectory under Biden. (By contrast, fewer than half of Republicans said the economy was getting worse at the height of the coronavirus recession, when the U.S. economy was in its worst shape since the Great Depression.)

And this disconnect underscores a key point that political scientists John Sides, Lynn Vavreck, and I have repeatedly made about the 2016 election: Despite a media narrative that attributed Trumps political rise to widespread economic dissatisfaction and anxiety, it was partisan and race-based opposition to Obamas presidency that drove public opinion about the economy.

Thats confirmed by several studies showing economic distress was a weak predictor of support for Trump in the 2016 general election and understanding who switched from supporting Obama in 2012 to voting for Trump in 2016. To the extent that economic anxiety mattered in Trumps rise, it tended to take the form of what we have called racialized economics or the belief that undeserving minority groups are getting ahead while hardworking white people are being left behind. This attitude more than economic discontent pushed voters toward Trump, too.

But this didnt stop the media from explaining away Trumps support with stories about his voters apparent economic grievances. As The Washington Post reported, use of the phrase economic anxiety in American news coverage peaked in November 2016 even prominent Democrats such as Sen. Bernie Sanders and Biden put forth economic reasons to explain Trumps victory. This focus on the ostensible economic underpinnings of Trumps election was so widespread, in fact, that cable news actually devoted far more coverage to economic anxiety during the 2016 presidential campaign than they did during the 2020 election, when there was actually a global downturn in the economy.

The economic anxiety explanation for Trumpism has been persistent, too. So much so that when political scientist Robert Pape began exploring the factors contributing to the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, he expected to find that rioters were driven to violence by the lingering effects of the 2008 recession. [I]nstead, The New York Times reported, he found something very different: Most of the people who took part in the assault came from places that were awash in fears that the rights of minorities and immigrants were crowding out the rights of white people in American politics and culture.

While Papes statistical methods have been criticized, and his findings appear obvious to many, his expectation that Trumps strongest supporters were still somehow motivated by the 2008 recession in 2021 underscores just how difficult it has been to dislodge unsubstantiated economic explanations for Trumpism. And with Republicans renewed economic anxiety likely here to stay throughout Bidens time in the White House, it also raises an important question: Will we, as a nation, fall for the same trick once again?

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Republicans Pessimistic Views On The Economy Have Little To Do With The Economy - FiveThirtyEight

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) Lawmakers punted a bill that stiffens penalties against protesters who block highways and streets.

The bill would also have given drivers who feared for their life immunity if they injure or kill someone.

Every protest where theres cars revving their engines threatening to run people over this bill is a license to hunt and a license to kill, said Justin Jones, a community organizer.

The impassioned debate extended on both sides the Senate bills sponsor said its about protection.

This in my opinion strengthens the ability for that person to be immune to protect their own life and the life of the person theyre in the vehicle with, said Republican Sen. Paul Rose said.

The amended bill calls for the first offense to be a class A misdemeanor and a fine.

Within a year if another violation happens the penalty for protesting in the street would increase to a class E felony and fine.

In your mind your intention is not to harm someone your intention is to protect your family of those occupants in your car or maybe even yourself, Rose said.

Democrats on the committee highlighted former Tennessee Senator Thelma Harpers previous protestwhen she stood in front of garbage trucks heading to dump in her district.

Had she been stopped back then and this law was in effect, look at all the good work we wouldve missed out on, Sen. Sara Kyle, a Memphis Democrat said.

Demonstrators at the hearing say lawmakers are encouraging violence against them.

What is violent is a bill that will encourage cars to run over protesters, what is violent is making it a felony and taking away somebodys voting right because theyre exercising their first amendment rights, Jones said.

The bill ultimately was sent to Summer Study. A way to kill the bill for the legislative session.

The bill would have also increased penalties against rioters.

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Republican-led bill giving immunity to some drivers who hit protesters shelved for now - WATE 6 On Your Side

BARONE

BY MICHAEL BARONE

The COVID-delayed results of the 2020 census are finally in, with totals for the 50 states and the District of Columbia at nearly one-third of a billion - 331,449,281 - and with surprises having to do with the short run and what French historians call the "longue duree."

The short-term news revolves around the function for which the framers of the Constitution mandated the world's first regularly scheduled census: the reapportionment of seats of the House of Representatives among the states. That's done according to a 1941 statutory formula that the Census Bureau conveniently applies.

The results were underwhelming. Only seven seats out of 435 were switched from one state to the other. Texas gained two, and Colorado, Florida, Montana, North Carolina and Oregon gained one each. Losing one each were California (for the first time in history), Illinois, Michigan, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

Readers who keep up with these things will recognize that population and representation continue to flow from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West and, generally, from Democratic states to Republican states. But they will also recognize the changes are small, nothing like the censuses in which one state gained eight seats (California in 1960) or another lost five (New York in 1980).

The partisan effects are likely to be small as well, expert forecasters agree. Sean Trende of Real Clear Politics predicts a Republican net gain of four seats. The Cook Political Report's David Wasserman pegs it at 3.5 and Kyle Kondik of Sabato's Crystal Ball at two. Not quite enough to overturn the 222-213 majority Democrats won in November 2020.

All three emphasize that the redistricting processes within the states could produce a wide range of results. According to Wasserman, Republicans control redistricting in states with 187 districts, Democrats in states with 75 districts and theoretically bipartisan commissions in states with 121 districts. Control is split between parties in states with 46 districts, and six states have just one district each.

That's less of an advantage than Republicans had in the 2010 cycle and about the same as they had in the 2000 cycle; it's less than the advantages Democrats had in the 1960, 1970 and 1980 cycles. Democrats' advantages then derived from their majorities in northern metro areas and near monopolies in the South. Republicans' more recent advantages are due mainly to the clustering of Democratic voters in central cities, sympathetic suburbs and university towns, while Republican voters are more evenly spread around the country.

As for the long-term effects, the 2020 census shows less population change and less internal migration than government and private estimators expected, based on models from previous decades. Arizona grew 3.3% less than the census estimate and didn't gain the seat widely forecast, and Texas and Florida each fell a seat short of expected gains.

On the other hand, population outflows were less than expected, especially in New York, New Jersey and Rhode Island. The latter two didn't lose seats as expected, and New York was only 89 people short of not losing a seat for the first time since 1940.

Speaking of which, the picture the census paints of the 2010-20 decade closely resembles that of the long-past decade of 1930-40. In those 10 years, dominated by the Great Depression of 1929-33 and its echo in the Roosevelt Recession of 1937-39, the nation's population increased by only 7.3%.

That's eerily similar to the 7.4% in the decade that just ended, dominated by the sluggish Obama recovery of 2009-16 and the downscale-driven, pre-COVID Trump upturn of 2017-19. These two stand out as the lowest growth intervals in American history; in every other 10-year period, the nation's population has grown by double-digit (rounded off) percentages.

In each case, the previous decade was a poor guide for the one that followed, because the earlier one featured an abrupt decline, almost to zero, in immigration from abroad. That was the intended result of the 1924 Immigration Act. It was the unintended (and largely unnoticed) result of the housing price collapse in 2007, which struck first in markets with heavy Hispanic immigration. New York started gaining House seats after the 1892-1924 Ellis Island immigration ended; California stopped gaining them after the 1982-2007 inflow from Mexico stopped.

The 1930s were a decade when, with the picturesque exception of the Okies fleeing the Dust Bowl in the Great Plains, Americans hunkered down and cultivated their gardens. The 2010s turn out to be a decade when Americans, to a greater extent than appreciated by demographers and forecasters, hunkered down and cultivated their grievances in what The New York Times' Ross Douthat describes as our "decadent society."

By 1940, Americans had settled into a period of partisan parity and gridlock: Democrats won the presidency in four of six elections, from 1940 to 1960, but a coalition of Republicans and conservative Democrats controlled Congress for almost all that time. Partisan parity and gridlock are certainly familiar now: Joe Biden's congressional majorities are almost identical to George W. Bush's 20 years ago.

But some things can change. The census conducted on April 1, 1940, came just weeks before the fall of France and the accession of Winston Churchill. Within months, Depression America became Wartime America, and then, a few years later, it became Postwar America: No more hunkering down. As America emerges from lockdown, are similar changes and challenges ahead?

Michael Barone is a senior political analyst for the Washington Examiner, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and longtime co-author of The Almanac of American Politics.

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Opinion: The 2020 Census: Small Republican gains in a nation hunkered down - Sumter Item