text
stringlengths 376
1.26M
| label
int64 0
2
|
|---|---|
Shortly after the shooting of Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise and three others in Alexandria Wednesday morning, Capitol Hill came together in a rare show of solidarity. “We are united in our anguish,” Speaker Paul Ryan said on the House floor. “An attack on one of us is an attack on all of us.” “You're going to hear me say something you've never heard me say before: I identify myself with the remarks of the speaker,” his rival Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi added after Ryan’s speech. “They are beautiful remarks, Mr. Speaker, thank you so much.” But it didn’t take long for an angrier narrative to take hold on right-wing news outlets. Upon learning that the shooter was reportedly a Bernie Sanders supporter, conservative pundits immediately pointed fingers at liberals for promoting a “culture of violence.”
The Daily Caller described the attack as “just the latest in an escalating pattern of violence and intimidation against Republicans,” complaining that politicians on the right were victims of “an increasingly hostile political climate where left-wingers portrayed them as ‘fascists.’”
According to LifeZette, the website of conservative provocateur Laura Ingraham, Wednesday’s shooting “quickly drew attention to the American Left’s escalating anti-Republican rhetoric, which demonizes and dehumanizes conservatives and their beliefs.” Predictably, the shrillest denunciations came from the right-wing conspiracy website Infowars. “We have been warning for months that the mainstream media’s hysterical anti-Trump narrative … will radicalize demented social justice warriors and prompt them to lash out with violence,” alt-right pundit Paul Joseph Watson wrote. “It looks like that’s exactly what happened today. The blood is on their hands.” Kathy Griffin, the comedian who recently came under fire for a picture of her holding a bloodied model of Donald Trump’s head, was frequently brought up as an example of intolerable liberal rhetoric. So was the New York Public Theater’s controversial production of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, which portrays the murdered Caesar as a Trump-like figure with a red tie and golden hair. “Events like today are EXACTLY why we took issue with NY elites glorifying the assassination of our President,” conservative pundit Harlan Hill said in a tweet that was highlighted by Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. LifeZette complained that Democrats and the mainstream media had taken it too far with their claims that Republicans’ Obamacare replacement would kill people (it probably would). “Trump's most controversial comments pale in comparison to the sort of hyperbole that liberals regularly employ to describe Republicans and their policies,” LifeZette’s Edmund Kozak scolded. The shooter, whom police have identified as 66-year-old James T. Hodgkinson of Illinois, had criticized President Donald Trump and the GOP on social media. But there was no evidence that he was incited to violence by the left’s rhetoric.
And that was what cooler heads on the right emphasized on Wednesday afternoon. “I don't want to blame people on the left for what this person did today,” said Republican Rep. Pete King of New York to Fox News. “He was acting on his own. I’ve been around long enough to know we have these types on both sides.” When Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords was shot in the head by anti-government conspiracy theorist Jared Loughner in 2011, people on the left were making mirror-opposite complaints about the right’s “climate of hate.” New York Times columnist Paul Krugman blasted conservative pundits such as Glenn Beck and Bill O’Reilly for making violent jokes — sometimes referencing gun violence — about the left:
Where’s that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let’s not make a false pretense of balance: it’s coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It’s hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be “armed and dangerous” without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.
Since the election, there have been plenty of examples of apparent hate crimes, including the murder of two men in Portland who had stood up to a white supremacist, and the shooting of two Indian-American engineers in Kansas. But there is a simmering belief among parts of the right that the mainstream media unfairly highlights violence perpetrated by Trump supporters. On Wednesday, for instance, some politicians took the shooting as an opportunity to complain about the increasingly rowdy participants at their town halls. "I can only hope that the Democrats do tone down the rhetoric," said New York Rep. Chris Collins to local radio station WBEN. “The rhetoric has been outrageous. The finger pointing, just the tone and the angst and the anger directed at Donald Trump, his supporters. ... Some people react to things like that. They get angry as well. And then you fuel the fires."
Collins told WBEN that he would start carrying a pistol “in my pocket from this day forward.” | 0 |
The escalating feud between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz has expanded into a fight for the backing of the GOP’s anti-establishment establishment, with both seeking validation from figures with immense influence on the right. Trump unfurled a highly anticipated endorsement from former Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin while campaigning in Iowa on Tuesday, giving him a jolt among the party’s restless base. Palin’s endorsement came a day after Trump received the effusive praise of evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr., whose views could help Trump among religious voters. But other conservative voices, many of whom had cheered Trump in recent months, have rallied to Cruz’s side. On talk radio, Mark Levin and Glenn Beck have fumed over Trump’s recent questions about Cruz’s Canadian birth. In Cruz, they see a movement leader who champions their values, whereas they say Trump is an interloper who lacks an ideological core. The frenzied courting of conservatives is testament to their power in shaping a contest that is being dominated by two Washington outsiders. Neither has won the backing of a single governor or senator — and it’s unclear that either man even wants to. In this race, it is the media titans, personalities and activists who have long stood on the GOP’s fringe who now have all the cachet. “You need a scorecard to keep track,” said Craig Shirley, a conservative historian. “Talk radio and bloggers — anyone outside of the system is at the center of the party, and we’re witnessing in real time the shift away from the Republican establishment in deciding who the nominee will be.” Former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin endorsed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Ames, Iowa. (Reuters) Palin on Tuesday described Trump as someone who could change the status quo in American politics, and she praised his values as a father and community leader. “He builds big things, things that touch the sky,” she said as Trump looked on, glowingly. “He has spent his life looking up.” Of the GOP leadership and critics of Trump, she said: “They are so busted. . . . What the heck would the establishment know about conservatism?” After Palin finished, Trump waved and put his arm around her. “We’re going to give them hell,” he said as the crowd roared. The value of Palin’s endorsement was hotly debated Tuesday, with Trump supporters saying her popularity in Iowa will give the reality-TV star a significant lift and Cruz backers playing down her impact. Barry Bennett, Ben Carson’s former campaign manager, sided with those who thought it was consequential. “I think Sarah Palin actually helps Trump a lot because she’s showing them that it’s okay,” Bennett said. “Whatever lack of credentials he has, he’s making some inroads into places where we didn’t think he’d play.” One key Cruz ally said Palin could help Trump win over women. “He’s a thrice-married, non-churchgoing billionaire, and she gives him credibility with conservative women,” said Kellyanne Conway, who manages a Cruz super PAC. “It’s a net positive.” Ted Cruz said on the campaign trail on Jan. 19 that "Sarah Palin is fantastic," despite her endorsement on Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. (Dalton Bennett/The Washington Post) Palin’s move came as a surprise to some in her orbit, given her friendly rapport with both Trump and Cruz. In 2011, she dined with Trump at a pizza shop in New York as she mulled her own White House bid, and, according to Republicans familiar with her thinking, she has been increasingly enthusiastic about Trump as he has surged in the current race. Their circles also overlap: Trump’s political director, Michael Glassner, is a former Palin aide. Aside from Palin, Trump’s campaign is backed by prominent conservatives such as activist Phyllis Schlafly and radio host Michael Savage. Willie Robertson, a star of the “Duck Dynasty” reality-TV show, is with Trump, too. Last week, it was Cruz who won the support of another “Duck Dynasty” star, when Phil Robertson signed on. The senator from Texas is also backed by longtime activists such as L. Brent Bozell III and Richard Viguerie, social conservative leader James Dobson, and actor James Woods. It is on talk radio, especially, where Cruz has built support, which has proved critical now that Trump has taken to attacking him relentlessly. Most of these drive-time and lunch-hour heroes to rank-and-file Republicans were initially complimentary of Trump’s focus on illegal immigration last year, but they have since soured. “I’m sick and tired of stupid talk!” Levin said Monday on his program. “This is why I’m sick and tired of stupid issues! I didn’t spend 40 years of my life — 45 to be exact — to reach a point where we actually might take back the White House with somebody who is conservative, whomever that is, to be discussing birther issues!” On Saturday, Beck will appear in Waterloo, Iowa, at a rally hosted by a pro-Cruz super PAC. Those who are planning to be with Beck onstage attest to Cruz’s strength on the right in the state: Rep. Steve King, conservative author David Barton and Christian organizer Bob Vander Plaats. Cruz is banking on that deep goodwill, carefully built up over the course of the 2013 government shutdown and the 2014 elections, to sustain him. Trump and Cruz had spent most of the campaign praising each other, but they have switched to attack mode ahead of the Iowa caucuses on Feb. 1. Trump’s case against Cruz is more temperamental than ideological. He has called the Texan “nasty” and disliked by his Senate colleagues, and has wondered aloud, repeatedly, whether Cruz’s birth in Canada leaves him vulnerable to lawsuits over his citizenship. “When you talk about temperament, Ted has got a rough temperament,” Trump said Tuesday in Winterset, Iowa, ahead of the Palin event. “You can’t call people liars on the Senate floor, when they are your leader.” Cruz has a more understated approach. He mostly avoids taking personal shots at Trump and keeps his emphasis on the policy differences between them, pointing out where the businessman has sided with Democrats, in particular. “If you’re looking for someone who’s a dealmaker, who will capitulate even more to the Democrats and give in to Chuck Schumer and Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi, then perhaps Donald Trump is your man,” Cruz told reporters Tuesday at a stop in Barnstead, N.H. Palin’s endorsement, which came after days of teasing by Trump’s campaign and widespread speculation on cable TV, riled the right in the hours before it was made official. Appearing Tuesday morning on CNN, Cruz spokesman Rick Tyler called Palin’s expected nod a “blow” to her reputation because “she would be endorsing someone who’s held progressive views all their life.” “I think if it was Sarah Palin — let me just say, I’d be deeply disappointed,” he said. Supporters of Palin and Trump responded with fury. In a blog post, Palin’s eldest daughter, Bristol, wrote that Tyler’s remark “makes me hope my mom does endorse Trump.” By the afternoon, after Sarah Palin’s endorsement, Cruz felt compelled to clarify that Tyler’s view did not reflect his own. “I love Sarah Palin. Sarah Palin is fantastic,” he told reporters. “I will always remain a big, big fan of Sarah Palin’s.” The drama Tuesday was not limited to the right. Fault lines were beginning to be drawn by members of the GOP leadership as they grappled with the possibility of having the race come down to Trump or Cruz, rather than a candidate who is a more natural fit with donors and party brass. Speaking at an Iowa energy summit, Gov. Terry Branstad (R) called Cruz an “opponent of renewable fuels” who should be defeated. Trump reacted gleefully on Twitter: “Wow, the highly respected Governor of Iowa just stated that ‘Ted Cruz must be defeated.’ Big shocker! People do not like Ted.” Branstad’s position reflects a broader unease with Cruz among Republican leaders. In Trump, most party leaders see a candidate who is unpredictable and controversial, but far less ideological than Cruz and, therefore, more likely to work with them. Several have reached out to Trump in recent weeks as their preferred candidates have stalled in the polls. Cruz was dismissive of Branstad and said the development signals his own stature as the race’s only true conservative outsider. “It is no surprise that the establishment is in full panic mode,” Cruz told reporters Tuesday. Rush Limbaugh, who has not picked a side in the Trump-Cruz standoff, said on his program Tuesday that “Trump is trying to position Cruz as angry, unstable, can’t get along with anybody, and thus will not be able to do deals. . . . Cruz is trying to highlight Trump’s past liberalism, ‘New York values,’ what have you. . . . Now, we’ll see if this works.” Jenna Johnson and Jose DelReal in Iowa, and Philip Rucker, David Weigel and Katie Zezima in New Hampshire contributed to this report. | 0 |
VideoThe Times’s Jonathan Weisman on which Democrats to watch as Eric Holder faces increasing criticism for his job performance as attorney general.CreditCredit... Kevin Lamarque/ReutersMay 29, 2013WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., a lightning rod of Republican attacks during President Obama’s first term, is now contending with a new round of criticism over the Justice Department’s campaign against leaks to the news media.This time it is the news media and even some Democrats who are upset with Mr. Holder, who in recent days has taken steps seemingly aimed at assuaging them. He endorsed the enactment of a “media shield” law and invited leaders of news organizations to meet with him Thursday to discuss tightening rules on warrants and subpoenas for reporters’ records as part of leak investigations.Even as Mr. Holder has sought to regain his footing, Republicans have resumed their criticism, accusing him of misleading Congress in testimony over whether the Justice Department has considered prosecuting journalists under the Espionage Act for publishing government secrets.In a letter Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Representative Robert W. Goodlatte of Virginia, and a Republican colleague, Representative Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, expressed “great concern” about Mr. Holder’s testimony before the committee this month, saying it “appeared to be at odds” with court documents that have come to light involving a warrant for e-mails of James Rosen, a Fox News reporter.The prospect of a new round of perjury accusations from Congress has underscored that the furor over the leak investigations might pose a new threat to Mr. Holder, who surprised many Democrats by choosing to stay on after Mr. Obama’s re-election. For now, Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are standing by Mr. Holder, even though the ranking member, Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, pronounced himself “deeply troubled” by some of the investigative tactics used in recent leak cases.“Certainly, it is fair to ask additional questions about the Rosen investigation, and any role the attorney general may have played in it, but I do not believe it credible to level charges that he may have intentionally misled the committee on this matter before we know the facts of the case in question,” Mr. Conyers said.In his only recent interview, Mr. Holder told The Daily Beast that the investigations obeyed existing laws and guidelines, but he also said the rules “need to be updated.” He called the furor “an opportunity for the department to consider how we strike the right balance between the interests of law enforcement and freedom of the press.” The Daily Beast article also paraphrased unnamed aides as saying Mr. Holder was “also beginning to feel a creeping sense of personal remorse.” Reid Weingarten, a lawyer who has been a friend of Mr. Holder’s for three decades, said Mr. Holder had discussed no such feelings with him. Rather, Mr. Weingarten said, the disclosure to Fox News of the existence of a rare intelligence source in North Korea was “a horrible leak and he was charged with the responsibility to get at it.” That raised what he said Mr. Holder described to him as a trade-off between press freedoms and the need to identify leakers — a problem for which there are no easy answers because it pits “two laudable goals” against each other. “He’s not immune from the criticism, but I think he sees this First Amendment-security conflict as almost impossibly difficult,” Mr. Weingarten said, adding: “He hasn’t confessed or cried to me, that’s for sure. What I sense in conversations with him is how horribly difficult the dilemma is when you have this situation. It’s important to get it right, and if we didn’t get it right — and that’s a big if — let’s button up the process now.”ImageCredit...Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated PressMatthew Miller, a friend and former top aide to Mr. Holder, portrayed the attorney general’s proposal to tighten laws and guidelines on when news media records may be obtained as coming out of a realization that one cannot expect law enforcement officials to do anything less than what the rules permit when pursuing a particular case.Meanwhile, Mr. Holder has invited representatives from several major news organizations to discuss whether and how the Justice Department’s regulations for leak investigations should be modified. Some news organizations, including The New York Times, declined. “We will not be attending the session at D.O.J.,” said Jill Abramson, its executive editor. “It isn’t appropriate for us to attend an off-the-record meeting with the attorney general. Our Washington bureau is aggressively covering the department’s handling of leak investigations at this time. Evidently, there will be a future session with department officials on the substance of how the law should be applied in leak cases and I am hopeful that our counsel, David McCraw, will be able to participate.”However, Martin Baron, the executive editor of The Washington Post, said that while he would prefer the meeting be on the record, he would go “in order to represent our interests as journalists and to raise our concerns. I’ll also listen to what the attorney general has to say. I trust that our journalists will report on this as vigorously as they would any other subject.” A representative of The Associated Press said the executive editor, Kathleen Carroll, would attend only if the session was on the record. Mr. Holder at first appeared to sidestep the furor over leaks. It began on May 13 with a disclosure by The Associated Press that the Justice Department had obtained calling logs for its reporters’ phone lines in connection with a 2012 leak involving a foiled bomb plot in Yemen. The subpoena was controversial because the department did not provide any advance notice to The A.P., which would have allowed it to negotiate or challenge it in court.But Mr. Holder quickly revealed that he had recused himself from overseeing that investigation and so it was his deputy, James M. Cole, who had approved the subpoena.In testimony on May 15, Mr. Holder also distanced himself from the notion that reporters who write about national security secrets should be indicted under the Espionage Act, saying: “With regard to the potential prosecution of the press for the disclosure of material, that is not something that I’ve ever been involved in, heard of or would think would be a wise policy.”Since then, however, a 2010 search warrant for e-mails of Mr. Rosen, the Fox News reporter, came to light in connection with a leak investigation into a State Department analyst. An affidavit says there was probable cause to believe Mr. Rosen had violated the Espionage Act. Mr. Holder approved the warrant.Law enforcement officials said the affidavit included that language to invoke an exception to a law that otherwise bars search warrants for reporters’ work product, and noted that while the analyst accused of leaking, Stephen Kim, was indicted in August 2010, Mr. Rosen was not charged.On Wednesday, a Justice Department official said that Mr. Holder’s “testimony concerning the potential prosecution of the press was consistent with the underlying facts with respect to the investigation and ultimate prosecution of Mr. Kim.” | 0 |
WASHINGTON — The House Judiciary Committee seems poised to approve two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump after a full day of debate from both sides on amendments that left members in a recess until Friday.Committee members debated for more than 14 hours over the abuse of power and obstruction of Congress articles, which allege the president used the power of his office to pressure Ukraine to open an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden that would benefit his 2020 campaign, and that he blocked Congress from pursuing its impeachment investigation. Here are takeaways from Thursday's voting session:First, that surprise twist ending Ending a grueling day of proceedings, Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler called a recess until 10 a.m. Friday to give lawmakers time to "search their conscience" until they voted on the articles of impeachment. Republican lawmakers were furious at the delay. "There was no discussion about time," said Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the Committee. The delay "shows that Chairman Nadler's integrity is zero," he said. 'That was the most bush league play I've seen in my life.'Republicans continue attack on process, Democrats fend off attempts to derail articlesNeither side of the Judiciary Committee stood down in Thursday's session, as Democrats hammered on the evidence they say backs up allegations of wrongdoing, and Republicans accused the majority party of abusing its own power through the inquiry process.GOP members said this impeachment process marks a turning point for the rights of the minority party. Georgia Rep. Doug Collins, the top Republican on the committee, accused Democrats of denying the right to a full day of hearing from GOP witnesses.“This committee has sounded the death knell for minority rights. This committee is nothing but a rubber stamp," Collins said.Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., pushed back, saying the committee did hear from several GOP witnesses during the nearly two weeks of hearings and that the rules don’t guarantee a full day for minority witnesses.Nadler introduced an amendment that would change references to "Donald J. Trump" to "Donald John Trump," and Republicans soon began proposing amendments that undercut the premises of the articles. GOP amendments aim high in Democratic-led bodyRight off the bat, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan, Ohio, moved to strike the entire first article of impeachment—abuse of power—on the grounds that it "ignores the truth" about Trump's dealings with Ukraine.“Article one in this resolution ignores the truth, it ignores the facts, it ignores what happened and what was laid out for the American people over the last three weeks,” Jordan said. “I hope this committee will come to its senses.”Another prominent committee Republican and Trump ally, Matt Gaetz of Florida, presented an amendment that would replace a reference to investigations into Joe Biden with "the true topic of the investigation, Burisma and Hunter Biden."Gaetz argued that because there was justification for Trump to pursue investigations into "a well-known corrupt company, Burisma, and its corrupt hiring of Hunter Biden," abuse of power did not hold up as an article.“We have the ability to show that Burisma is corrupt,” Gaetz said. “We have the ability to show that Hunter Biden is corrupt. That totally exculpates the president.”Arizona Republican Rep. Andy Biggs had the third amendment, to introduce language acknowledging that aid money was released once Trump was assured it would not be going toward corrupt purposes. This diverges from Democrats' view, which is that Trump only released the aid money once knowledge of the anonymous whistleblower complaint began surfacing."The bottom line is the aid was lawfully delayed and lawfully delivered, and that means this entire process has been a sham," Biggs said.“The administration never intended to or actually violated the law,” Biggs said, adding the aid’s release “destroys Democrats’ case for impeachment.”Rep. Guy Reschenthaler, R-Pa., proposed another amendment to remove the article accusing Trump of obstructing Congress.Reschenthaler said there are three branches of government for a reason. The legislative and executive branches must reach compromises on oversight, with the judicial branch resolving disputes.“The facts simply do not align with Democrats’ claims of obstruction,” Reschenthaler said. "Democrats have not afforded the president basic procedural protections."Republicans' fifth amendment was also introduced by Jordan. It attempted to delete the sections of the articles that conclude Trump's actions warrant impeachment in removal from office.And though the Republicans failed to pass their amendments, they were able to draw out the process, and relitigate what they see as the unfairness of the process and misreading of the facts.Arguments on the substance of claims show disagreement on the factsAs the stakes got higher with a looming vote, Republicans also stood in strong defense of the president's actions, highlighting fundamental disagreements along party lines over the evidence.Ohio Republican Rep. Steve Chabot laid out the core of his party's defense of Trump: "First, there was no quid pro quo. Second, it’s a widely known fact that Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries on the planet... Third, Ukraine actually received the aid after the president was satisfied that Ukraine had taken meaningful steps to address corruption."Republicans have repeatedly pointed to the White House's released summary of the July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as exoneration of the charge he established a quid pro quo.But Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, said the call record indicated otherwise: "I beg to differ with my friends." Jackson Lee described how Zelensky expressed interest in military equipment from the United States."The very next sentence is not, 'Yes, let's get with the Department of Defense. Let's review your request,'" Jackson Lee said. "The very next sentence: 'I would like you to do a favor though.'"And, Republicans argued, the president's actions did not violate any laws, making the "abuse of power" charge vague. When Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., made the case that Trump's request of Ukraine could be considered criminal bribery, Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, questioned why specific crimes weren't alleged in the articles."Well then why aren't they in this impeachment document?" he said. "It's because they don't exist."Echoes of past impeachments appear in debateReferences to previous impeachment inquiries emerged as a recurring theme in the hearing Thursday, as the battle over established processes waged on between parties. Republicans accuse Democrats of producing weak articles of impeachment, noting that "abuse of power" charges were "tacked on" to other articles in past impeachments.Chabot said they were "far or less important in those cases than the actual high crimes charged against both of them. Here, it's the main thrust of the House Democrats' entire case."Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif., who was in the House during the 1998 impeachment of Bill Clinton, accused Republicans of being unreasonable for thinking Clinton’s conduct with White House intern Monica Lewinsky was an impeachable offense, but Trump’s pressuring a foreign government for help in an election is not.Republicans said Clinton's impeachment focused on the crime of perjury.“If it’s lying about sex, we could put Stormy Daniels’ case ahead of us,” she said, . “We don’t believe that’s a high crime and misdemeanor. And it isn’t before us. And it should not be before us because it’s not an abuse of presidential power.”'I have not heard a new point or original thought from either side'Members of Congress appeared to be getting tired of the proceedings after hours of debate. Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., quipped, "Dare I state the obvious: I have not heard a new point or an original thought from either side in the last three hours."“Repeating a fact over and over doesn’t make it true, and denying a fact over and over doesn’t make it false,” he said.McClintock offered a “modest suggestion” to his fellow members of Congress – to wrap things up. Proceedings started at 9 a.m. Thursday. “That point is well taken,” said Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., who was then overseeing proceedings.Contributing: Ledyard King, Bart Jansen, Nicholas Wu and Courtney Subramanian, USA TODAY | 0 |
Children are sleeping shoulder to shoulder in the overcrowded facility at Donna, Texas, which is now housing more than 4,000 migrants amid a new surge on the border.Credit...Pool photo by Dario Lopez-MillsMarch 30, 2021Migrant children and families are sleeping shoulder to shoulder on mats in a Texas border facility designed for 250 people that is now holding more than 4,100, according to some of the first photographs to emerge from the crowded camp that has become a focal point of the Biden administration’s struggles to absorb thousands of new arrivals on the southwestern border.Young children were being cared for by older siblings in a playpen area in the border processing facility at Donna, Texas, where a small group of reporters were allowed to enter for the first time on Tuesday to observe conditions at the camp, which U.S. officials admit has been overwhelmed by the growing numbers in recent weeks.“As I have said repeatedly, a Border Patrol facility is no place for a child,” Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of homeland security, said in a statement. He said border agents were “working around the clock” to move migrant children out of overcrowded border facilities like the one in Donna and into government shelters before they were placed with family members or other sponsors.Oscar Escamilla, the acting executive officer of the U.S. Border Patrol in the Rio Grande Valley, said “it would be better for everybody” if there were room to move the migrant children into government shelters.“I’m a Border Patrol agent. I didn’t sign up for this,” Mr. Escamilla said as he looked at some of the younger children, many of them under 12, being housed at the facility.He said the youngest children were sleeping in playpens, rather than in the large pods where older children were stretched out on mats.“It’s so crowded in those pods that I can’t possibly put these young kids in those pods because they’re going to get hurt,” he said.In one case, a 17-year-old migrant was caring for a newborn.The tent structure at Donna was erected to help alleviate pressure on Border Patrol stations, where migrants must be processed before being released or transferred to other facilities. But new photos taken by Associated Press reporters and a camera crew allowed to enter on Tuesday painted a grim picture of conditions that were likely to worsen during a surge that shows no signs of abating.ImageCredit...Pool photo by Dario Lopez-MillsChildren, jammed hundreds to a single pod intended for fewer than 50, were lying down shoulder to shoulder across the 3,200-square-foot space, crumpled aluminum blankets covering some of them. Many of the pods held more than 500 children. In a playpen area, a 3-year-old girl was being tended to by her brother, 11.About 3,300 of the migrants being housed at the soft-sided structure are children who have crossed the border without parents or other guardians in recent months. While most arrive with the name and telephone number of a family member whom they hope to join, U.S. authorities must process them at the border and then send them to a government shelter.Transfers from the border are not keeping up with the pace of arrivals — children have been entering the country at the rate of 500 a day — which two shelter operators this week said was without any recent precedent.In February alone, more than 9,400 minors, ranging from young children to teenagers, arrived without parents, a nearly threefold increase over the same period last year.The Biden administration has established temporary facilities for the young migrants at convention centers in San Diego and Dallas, a coliseum and expo center in San Antonio, a former oil camp in Midland, Texas, and at Fort Bliss, Texas.But it is still failing to quickly transfer the minors to the shelters, which are supposed to come with education programming and recreational space, unlike the sites managed by the Border Patrol.More than 4,000 minors were stuck in such detention facilities for more than the maximum of 72 hours allowed under federal law, according to internal government documents.The United States currently has more than 17,600 beds for the minors in tent camps, emergency facilities and shelters, according to the internal documents. The administration is projecting it will need more than 35,500 beds by the end of May.ImageCredit...Pool photo by Dario Lopez-MillsAdditional facilities to shelter the minors are being scouted, including a Crowne Plaza hotel in Dallas, a convention center in Orange County, Fla., and a church hall in Houston.The shelter system, which normally has a 14,000-bed capacity, has been struggling to expand after the coronavirus pandemic limited how many children it could house. The administration is releasing roughly 250 minors a day to sponsors, organizations and foster homes, according to a document obtained by The New York Times.There are more than 12,000 migrant children presently in government shelters. Another 5,160 are stranded in Border Patrol processing facilities like the one at Donna because there are not enough vacant beds to accommodate them all, and children already in roomier shelters operated by the Department of Health and Human Services are not being released quickly enough to make room for hundreds more crossing the border every day.They are released from government custody after a guardian provides dozens of pages of documents and is screened, to ensure that the children are not being trafficked and will be safe.“There’s a pull factor. They know that we’re releasing them,” Mr. Escamilla told reporters in Donna. “They know that right now there’s nothing stopping them. We’re not going to deport them back to their country so they keep coming.”He said that 250 to 300 children were entering the Donna facility each day — and far fewer were departing. The remainder of the migrants housed at the camp — a total of about 700 — are adults and children traveling together as families.The children are not tested for the coronavirus by the Border Patrol unless they exhibit symptoms. Mr. Escamilla said that 14 percent of the children had tested positive when they were later transferred to shelters.The tent facility at Donna, erected in February, is the biggest emergency processing center on the border. Mr. Escamilla said it was costing $16 million a month to run, not including medical care and personnel contracts.Nurses were on hand to perform physical and mental health assessments. They checked the children for lice, scabies and fever and asked if they had suicidal thoughts. The children were fitted with bracelets with a bar code that kept track of when they had showered and any medical conditions.As part of the processing, children age 14 and older were fingerprinted. During the intake process, Border Patrol agents issued them notices to appear in court, where they will be considered for deportation or asylum.More than 2,000 of the children have been held for more than 72 hours, according to Mr. Escamilla, in violation of the law.On average, he said, the minors were spending 133 hours in the facility before being transferred to a shelter. Among them, 39 had been there for at least 15 days. One child had been in the tent center 20 days.Finding suitable housing has been a challenge for previous administrations as well. The Obama administration struggled to house thousands of children and families who began crossing the border in large numbers in 2013, and the Trump administration was criticized for processing families under a road overpass and placing migrant children in a filthy, overcrowded facility in Clint, Texas.Amy Cohen, a psychiatrist who works with migrant children and families, said the photographs from Donna were reminiscent of those depicting conditions in Clint, which drew widespread condemnation from physician and child-welfare groups.“The conditions are antithetical to the well-being of children, particularly vulnerable minors,” said Dr. Cohen, who runs an organization called Every Last One that assists migrants.Zolan Kanno-Youngs contributed reporting. | 0 |
Dec 6, 2018, 11:55 am CUERNAVACA, MEXICO: A worker paints a mask of U.S President Donald Trump during the finishing process of latex masks manufacturing at REV Latex Mask factory on April 27, 2018 in Cuernavaca, Mexico. (CREDIT: Carlos Tischler/Getty Images) As a candidate, Donald Trump promised “brilliant trade” policies that would drop the national trade deficit “like you’ve never seen before.”
Two years after he was elected, despite his singular focus on trade, America is importing more goods, while exporting less, than it ever has.
The federal government announced Thursday that America’s trade deficit hit $55.5 billion in October, rising almost a billion dollars from September. This is a ten-year high.
Rising imports for goods were the main driver. America’s global seasonally-adjusted trade deficit in goods hit $76.9 billion in October, the highest it’s ever been. It was $66.5 billion in January 2017. The trade surplus in services decreased by $0.1 billion from September to October, to $22.6 billion, which, combined with the deficit in goods, brings the total trade deficit to $55.5 billion.
These are not the numbers Trump had in mind when he was interviewing for the job.
Candidate Trump promised a massive drop in the nation’s trade deficit. “The trade deficit was only $84 billion when Bill Clinton was first inaugurated. So, we’ve taken from $84 billion, which is a lot of money, to now $800 billion,” he told a crowd in Manchester, New Hampshire in June 2016. “And going up, going fast unless I become president. You will see a drop like you’ve never seen before. You have never seen before.”
He promised he would negotiate, “fair trade, smart trade, I even like to say brilliant trade.”
China is America’s biggest trading partner. America’s trade deficit with China hit $43.1 billion in October, which is far higher than it’s ever been. The first time that number hit $40 billion was in September. Trump identified trade with China as the biggest priority for his trade policy during the campaign and as president. He promised he could shrink the trade deficit with China.
“In China, think of this, we have a trade imbalance of almost $400 billion a year,” Trump told a crowd in 2015. “Can you imagine if we could straighten it out? Could you imagine if I could get that down to, and I promise I’ll do better than this, but could you imagine if I could get it down to $100 billion a year in losses?”
In 2016, America’s trade deficit with China was $347 billion; in 2017, it was $376 billion. Through the first ten months of 2018, it was $344.5 billion — each month so far this year the trade deficit has been hundreds of millions or billions higher than it was.
The stock market, which has risen since Trump was elected, has not been reacting well to the drama surrounding the president’s supposed trade deal with China. The Dow and S&P 500 are having their worst quarter in seven years, and have eliminated all gains from the year. | 0 |
VideotranscripttranscriptClinton Speaks After Primary WinsHillary Clinton told supporters in Philadelphia that with their help she would return there for the Democratic convention with the most votes and pledged delegates.RESTRICTION SUMMARY: AP CLIENTS ONLY
POOL - AP CLIENTS ONLY
Philadelphia - 26 April 2016
1. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton arriving, shaking hands with supporters and arriving on stage
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Hillary Clinton, Democratic presidential candidate:
“With your help, we’re going to come back to Philadelphia for the Democratic national convention with the most votes and the most pledged delegates.”Hillary Clinton told supporters in Philadelphia that with their help she would return there for the Democratic convention with the most votes and pledged delegates.CreditCredit...Eric Thayer for The New York TimesApril 26, 2016PHILADELPHIA — After months of trying to sideline an unexpectedly deft and well-financed liberal opponent, Hillary Clinton on Tuesday won a series of primaries that freed her to present herself as the de facto victor of the Democratic nominating fight and gave her the impetus to shift focus decisively toward the November election.Now all but certain to clinch her party’s nomination, Mrs. Clinton will continue to face the criticism of her party rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But she is expected to move swiftly to claim an early advantage against the leading Republican candidate, Donald J. Trump. Her advisers and allies say she will spend the coming weeks honing her message for the general election, and stepping up fund-raising that has lagged in the face of Mr. Sanders’s challenge.“With your help, we’re going to come back to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention with the most votes and the most pledged delegates,” Mrs. Clinton told a crowd of 1,300 here after she took the stage to “Eye of the Tiger.” “And we will unify our party to win this election and build an America where we can all rise together.”After a landslide win in New York last week, Mrs. Clinton had already begun to treat Mr. Sanders as a greatly diminished threat, concentrating her fire on Mr. Trump and, to a lesser degree, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas. Her victories in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware on Tuesday will only accelerate that shift.ImageCredit...Mark Makela for The New York TimesIn recent days, she has sharpened her pitch about the general election’s stakes, heading off Republican attacks on her record as secretary of state under President Obama and delivering a more forceful message about the economy and the need to create jobs and lift wages.“Imagine a tomorrow where hard work is honored, families are supported, streets are safe and communities are strong, and where love trumps hate,” Mrs. Clinton said Tuesday night, drawing applause at her play on Mr. Trump’s name.Mrs. Clinton is not expected to publicly pressure Mr. Sanders to quit the race. Clinton advisers say any efforts to muscle him out could backfire, angering his supporters and Mr. Sanders, both of which Mrs. Clinton praised Tuesday night “for challenging us to get unaccountable money out of our politics.”But a “super PAC” supporting Mrs. Clinton’s candidacy, Priorities USA Action, may start running general election ads even before the nominating contest ends.Guy Cecil, the group’s chief strategist, said the group might run ads against Mr. Trump or Mr. Cruz, “depending on how the Republican primary develops and whether they decide to launch attacks against Hillary.”In coming weeks, Mrs. Clinton will campaign in states with looming primaries, but she will also recharge and spend time in New York plotting a general-election strategy with advisers.“She needs to be smart and calculated and prepare herself for a tough general election, and knowing her, she will be,” said Thomas R. Nides, a friend and adviser who worked for Mrs. Clinton at the State Department.After months of focus on the 2,383 delegates needed for the Democratic Party nomination, her campaign has begun to analyze the Electoral College, working out potential races against Mr. Trump and Mr. Cruz. And the campaign will begin polling in traditional battleground states like Ohio and Florida.But it will also pore over data in traditionally Republican states like Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia that could be in play, particularly if Mr. Trump is the nominee, and focus on demographics beyond the Democratic primary electorate.“Realistically, the most important part in all of this are white working-class women,” said Geoff Garin, a pollster and strategist on Mrs. Clinton’s 2008 campaign who is now advising Priorities, citing Mrs. Clinton’s emphasis on issues like equal pay for women and an increase in the minimum wage.Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut, who campaigned alongside Mrs. Clinton in his state, said she must focus on how best to connect to a broader electorate that is in what he called a “revolutionary mood,” alluding to how Mr. Sanders has energized supporters. “You are not going to win this general election by proposing incremental changes,” Mr. Murphy said, adding that he hoped Mrs. Clinton “doesn’t shy away from proposing some big ideas to try to reorder the country, to the benefit of those that are hurting.”Mr. Sanders’s campaign vowed Tuesday to remain in the fight through the California primary on June 7, and perhaps until the party’s convention in July. As word of Mrs. Clinton’s victories rolled in on Tuesday night, he gave a defiant speech in West Virginia, predicting he would win the state when it votes May 10.Mrs. Clinton, who doggedly remained in the 2008 primary contest against Barack Obama until June despite his insurmountable delegate lead and Democratic calls for her to bow out, has said she will not call on Mr. Sanders to withdraw, but she has bristled at the implication that he could overcome her big leads in both pledged delegates and the popular vote.Mrs. Clinton’s aides and allies are pressuring Mr. Sanders to run on issues rather than continuing to attack Mrs. Clinton’s ties to Wall Street or her previous support for global trade deals — attacks that Republicans are likely to use in the fall.“If he tones down the rhetoric and continues to fight, he’ll go out on a very high note with a lot of people, including me, thinking he did a great service to American democracy,” said Edward G. Rendell, a former Pennsylvania governor, who supports Mrs. Clinton. “But if he keeps it up, it could be brutal.”Mr. Sanders, whose sole win on Tuesday came in Rhode Island, did not attack Mrs. Clinton directly in his remarks on Tuesday night, but argued insistently that he would be a superior general-election candidate. As voters went to the polls earlier in the day, the Sanders campaign sent out a fund-raising email with an image of Mrs. Clinton and her husband, Bill Clinton, at Mr. Trump’s 2005 wedding, and accused Clinton allies of being “traitors” in their treatment of Mr. Sanders.Still, Tad Devine, a senior adviser to Mr. Sanders, on Tuesday said that the campaign would not mislead voters about his chances at winning the nomination.“If we are sitting here and there’s no sort of mathematical way to do it, we will be upfront about that,” he said.Democrats supporting Mrs. Clinton have pointed to Senators Harry Reid of Nevada, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Chuck Schumer of New York as potential peacemakers, should the Sanders campaign keep up its pointed attacks on Mrs. Clinton.“I’m going to be optimistic and say it won’t be necessary, but all of us are friends with Bernie and we’d pick up the phone and talk to him at any time,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat from Missouri who is supporting Mrs. Clinton.But Mrs. Clinton would do well to begin “building bridges” to Mr. Sanders, said David Axelrod, a former senior strategist for the Obama campaign.“It seems certain Bernie will run through the last primaries, which is inconvenient and costly,” he said. “Still, when you’re the winner, you can afford to be big and Hillary should.” | 0 |
WASHINGTON — FBI Director James Comey said Friday that investigators had found new emails related to the bureau's previously closed inquiry into Hillary Clinton's handling of classified information, restarting a long-simmering debate over the Democratic nominee's conduct as secretary of State in the closing days of a presidential campaign that Clinton appeared to be putting away.In a letter to senior lawmakers explaining his decision, Comey said "the FBI cannot yet assess" whether the information is "significant" nor could he offer a timetable for how long it will take investigators to make an assessment.But an official familiar with the matter said Friday that the new materials, perhaps thousands of emails, were discovered in the ongoing and separate investigation into sexually charged communications between former New York congressman Anthony Weiner and a 15-year-old girl. Comey was briefed on the findings in recent days, resulting in the director's notification to Congress, said the official who is not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.The emails were discovered in a search of a device or devices used by Weiner, who is separated from longtime Clinton aide Huma Abedin. Abedin also had access to the same device or devices.The official said it was not likely that the FBI's review of the additional emails could be completed by Election Day.How we got here: A timeline of the Clinton email scandalIn a brief news conference in Iowa on Friday evening, Clinton said, "The American people deserve to get the full and complete facts immediately," a position earlier outlined in a statement from her campaign chairman, John Podesta. The Democratic nominee called on the FBI "to release all the information that it has.""As you know I've had plenty of words about the FBI lately, but I give them great credit for having the courage to right this horrible wrong. Justice will prevail," Donald Trump said at a campaign rally in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Thursday night.During a speech in New Hampshire earlier in the day, the Republican presidential nominee gleefully discussed the "breaking news announcement.""Hillary Clinton's corruption is on a scale we have never seen before," Trump said, and her "criminal scheme" should not be allowed in the Oval Office."Perhaps justice will be done," the GOP nominee said of the development.Clinton answers written questions about email serverWikiLeaks release reveals internal concern over handling of Clinton emailsIn his statement, Podesta demanded that the FBI director "provide the American public more information than is contained in the letter'' to lawmakers."Upon completing this investigation more than three months ago, FBI Director Comey declared no reasonable prosecutor would move forward with a case like this and added that it was not even a close call,'' Podesta said. "In the months since, Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been baselessly second-guessing the FBI and, in both public and private, browbeating the career officials there to revisit their conclusion in a desperate attempt to harm Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign.Clinton calls on FBI to 'immediately' release more info on email review"It is extraordinary that we would see something like this just 11 days out from a presidential election," Podesta added.Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One Friday, White House spokesman Eric Schultz said nothing had "surfaced to change the president's opinion and views of Secretary Clinton.''"He's going to be proud to support her from now until Election Day," Schultz said.In July, Comey announced that while Clinton and her aides during her tenure as secretary of State had been "extremely careless" in the way they'd handled classified information, he recommended that no criminal charges be filed.In her press conference Friday, Clinton said she was "confident" whatever is included in the new messages under review "will not change the conclusion reached in July."In July, Comey testified before skeptical Republican lawmakers to explain the bureau's recommendation, which had been adopted by Attorney General Loretta Lynch.“We’re mystified and confused by the fact pattern you laid out and the conclusion you reached," House Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, told Comey.Comey, however, was unequivocal in maintaining that the conclusion of investigators was not a close call.“There is no way anybody would bring a case against John Doe or Hillary Clinton for the second time in 100 years based on those facts," he told the House panel on July 7.Comey faces grilling by House panel over Clinton emailsComey defends Clinton email decision to FBI employeesTrump has cited the closed FBI probe as evidence that the election was "rigged" against him, and at a recent debate the GOP nominee said that, if he's elected president, he would appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Clinton.Following Comey's announcement Friday, Republicans blasted the Democratic presidential nominee."Hillary Clinton has nobody but herself to blame," said House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wisconsin."This decision, long overdue, is the result of her reckless use of a private email server, and her refusal to be forthcoming with federal investigators," Ryan said in a statement, adding that he was again calling for Clinton to no longer receive classified briefings, a traditional courtesy afforded major-party presidential nominees.Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus said the timing of the decision, so soon before the election, demonstrated "how serious this discovery must be."Trump's campaign manager, Kellyanne Conway, wrote on Twitter that "a great day in our campaign just got even better."Meanwhile, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California said in a statement that "without knowing how many emails are involved, who wrote them, when they were written or their subject matter, it’s impossible to make any informed judgment on this development."She added: "The FBI has a history of extreme caution near Election Day so as not to influence the results. Today’s break from that tradition is appalling.”House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi accused Republicans of attempting to "misrepresent'' the FBI's work."Sadly but predictably, Republicans are doing their best to ... warp the FBI’s work to serve their partisan conspiracy-mongering against Hillary Clinton,'' Pelosi said.The uncertainty of what the new FBI review will yield, and when it will be completed, leaves open the question of how much of an impact it will have on the presidential campaign, as Trump looks to mount what would be a historic comeback, as polls show him trailing nationally and in key battleground states."Unless the FBI closes this new investigation one way or the other next week, the likely impact will be to cut into Clinton’s margin, with the bigger effect being on down-ballot races than on the outcome of the presidential election," said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, in an emailed statement.Whatever the long-term impact, the short-term jolt to Trump and his supporters, at least, seemed clear.In his New Hampshire speech, the GOP nominee suggested the rest of his message for the day would no longer matter as much, given the FBI announcement."The rest of my speech is going to be so boring," he joked.Contributing: David Jackson in Manchester, N.H., and Gregory Korte in Washington. | 0 |
VideotranscripttranscriptThousands Across U.S. Protest Separations of Migrant FamiliesMore than 700 demonstrations took place on Saturday across the United States and on the border with Mexico, organizers said.“Say it loud, say it clear: Immigrants are welcome here.” “Deport Stephen Miller.” “This is what democracy looks like.” “I can’t just preach, baby, preach.” “Free our children now.” “No peace, no justice.”More than 700 demonstrations took place on Saturday across the United States and on the border with Mexico, organizers said.CreditCredit...Christopher Lee for The New York TimesJune 30, 2018WASHINGTON — Protesters marched into Lafayette Square opposite the White House on Saturday and chanted “families belong together” to counter President Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policy, and were joined in declaring that message by dozens of other rallies from New York to California. While the occupant of the White House was away for the weekend at his Bedminster, N.J., golf club, images of the rallies were broadcast by cable news networks throughout the day.Animated by what they view as the cruel treatment of migrants seeking refuge in the United States from violence in their home countries, the crowds turned out Saturday bearing homemade signs that read “Abolish ICE” — the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency — and “Zero tolerance for family separation.”For two sisters, Claudia Thomas and Monica Escobar, the sight of immigrant children being taken from their parents hit close to home. When they were young, they immigrated to the United States from Guatemala, one of several Central American countries that is a source of migrants today. They said they were out at Saturday’s protest in the nation’s capital to stand up for “human decency.”“No human being should be going through what they’re going through,” Ms. Escobar said. “God bless those families.”ImageCredit...Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesWhile Washington was the political epicenter of the protests, similar scenes unfolded in cities around the country, including large, border cities like El Paso, state capitals like Salt Lake City and Atlanta, and smaller, interior towns like Redding, Calif. In total, organizers anticipated more than 700 protests, in all 50 states and even internationally.The protests were largely peaceful, though there were a few arrests.In Huntsville, Ala., police said one man was arrested after he got into a scuffle with protesters and pulled out a handgun; no one was injured. In Columbus, Ohio, one person was arrested on a charge of obstructing official business, police said. And the Dallas Police Department said five people were arrested during a protest outside of an ICE building.Otherwise, the protests caused few disturbances as demonstrators descended on statehouses and Immigration and Customs Enforcement buildings, and gathered in plazas and in parks, where they danced, chanted and sang. Many clutched signs in one hand with messages berating Mr. Trump and his immigration policies. And, given the summer heat, many clutched water bottles in the other hand, as they sweltered under temperatures that across much of the United States crept into the 90s.In Chicago, all police stations, fire departments and hospitals opened as cooling stations, and in Washington fire trucks misted attendees with water, to cheers.Celebrities like Kerry Washington, star of the hit ABC series “Scandal,” and the comedian Amy Schumer joined the protests in New York, and politicians like Senator Elizabeth Warren, Democrat of Massachusetts, joined the demonstration in Boston. Lin-Manuel Miranda, the creator of “Hamilton,” and Alicia Keys, the singer, songwriter and pianist, performed in Washington.ImageCredit...Jeenah Moon for The New York TimesMr. Trump signed an executive order on June 20 meant to quell outrage over the separation of families by housing parents and children together, for an indefinite period, in ad hoc detention centers. The order explicitly states that the authorities will continue to criminally prosecute adults who cross the border illegally.Many of the more than 2,300 children separated from their migrant parents remain at makeshift shelters and foster homes. Although a federal judge in San Diego issued an order on Tuesday calling for the reunification of families separated at the border within 30 days, White House officials have said that following the ordered timetable would be difficult.“We don’t want a situation where we’re replacing baby jails with family camps,” said Karthik Ganapathy, a spokesman for MoveOn, a progressive advocacy organization that helped organize the protest.The Washington rally was in many ways a festive affair, a moment of unification under a scorching sun. One protester arrived dressed as Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg; another wore a shirt saying “It’s Mueller time,” a reference to the special counsel leading the inquiry into Russian meddling in the election.Adam Unger, a local software engineer, wore a five-gallon bucket turned into a drum, with a felt covering depicting an American flag with the insignia of the Rebel Alliance from “Star Wars” replacing the stars. “This drum has gotten its use over the last year and a half,” Mr. Unger said. He first used it to protest Mr. Trump’s travel ban on people from several predominantly Muslim countries when it was announced in January 2017.ImageCredit...Al Drago for The New York TimesSome showed up because they said they were angry; others, because they said they had not been angrier sooner. Maggie Mason, a new mother, said that for two weeks she could not go on Facebook because of news stories about children in detention centers, such as the audio published by ProPublica of immigrant children crying after being separated from their parents. Now, with her 7-week-old baby sleeping in the stroller next to her, she said it was time to come out.Over the past month, marches across the country have cropped up, adding to the pressure on the Trump administration to yield to calls to end the practice of splitting up or detaining families.“The idea of kids in cages and asylum seekers in prisons and moms being separated from breast-feeding children, this is just beyond politics, it really is just about right and wrong,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington State. On Thursday, she was arrested with more than 500 other women who occupied a Senate office building as part of a Women’s March protest against Mr. Trump’s immigration policy.Ms. Jayapal said she has visited a federal prison just south of Seattle and met with 174 women and several dozen men who had been transferred from the Texas border. She said she was moved by the stories of asylum seekers and parents — stories of family members killed, of children left behind, of violent physical attacks and domestic abuse.“I promised them that I would get their stories out and I promised them I would do everything I could to reunite their families,” Ms. Jayapal said.ImageCredit...Victor J. Blue for The New York TimesIn New York, protesters overflowed Foley Square in Lower Manhattan and filled the surrounding sidewalks. At every intersection on the way to the central march location, clusters of people chanted, “When children are under attack, what do we do? Stand up, fight back!”Crowds also inched across the Brooklyn Bridge, a little more than a mile long, for more than two hours. On one side, in Brooklyn, protesters filed into Cadman Plaza, where people stood in the center or sat in the shade, displaying colorful signs and listening to speakers onstage.“We were walking by cars and all the people driving were honking, giving us the peace sign, shaking fists,” said Laura Rittenhouse, who lives in Manhattan and walked across the bridge. “The most important question is what is the process to reunite these families?” she asked.Carmela Huang, from Brooklyn, brought her two young children to the march. Both children were carrying rectangular cardboard signs they had made this morning that read “REUNITE” in large sharpie letters.Ms. Huang said they had not been to a protest yet in 2018. “But today feels really important,” she said. “I’ve had my head in the sand, just feeling tremendously sad.” She described the march as “reassuring, energizing and rejuvenating.”ImageCredit...Jim Wilson/The New York TimesSome protesters carried rainbow umbrellas and blew bubbles, while a trombone player accented chants of activists.Sadatu Mamah-Trawill, a community organizer with the group African Communities Together, brought her 9-year-old son to the protest. A Muslim woman, Ms. Mamah-Trawill said she still had family in Ghana, her place of birth, and could not imagine being separated from her children.“I’m hoping our government hears us very clearly,” she said. “This is big. I don’t think anybody should miss it.”A small group of mostly women and children rallied in Marquette, Mich., in one of the few counties in the state that voted for Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Silke-Maria Weineck, a German studies and comparative literature professor at the University of Michigan, dressed her service dog, Meemo, with an “Abolish ICE” sign for the occasion.“It’s certainly a conservative part of the country,” she added, “but people feel very strongly about their children.”Outside the Bedminster country club where Mr. Trump was spending the weekend, a few protesters could be seen. “My civility is locked in a cage,” said one sign. “Reunite families now.” | 0 |
Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A boy stands in the rubble of a destroyed shop in Beit Lahia, in northern Gaza, on Monday, November 26. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian school girls walk in a destroyed class room on Monday, November 26, in Gaza. The school was damaged some days ago, before a truce between Hamas and Israel. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Robert Serry, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, greets children during a visit to Gaza to survey damage caused by the exchange of fire between Israel and Hamas militants, on Sunday, November 25. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Employees of the Palestinian Interior Ministry pray in the rubble of the Interior Ministry building in Gaza City on Sunday, November 25. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli soldier fires during clashes with Palestinians after Israeli settlers fought with villagers in the northern West Bank village of Qusra on Saturday, November 24. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian schoolboys look through a hole at their damaged school in Gaza City on Saturday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians school girls walks along a corridor of their school in Gaza City on Saturday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian schoolgirl writes on the blackboard of a classroom in Gaza City on Saturday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian youths gesture during a demonstration next to the security fence on the Gaza border with Israel east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip, on Friday, November 23. A Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli forces near the Gaza border, the first casualty since the two sides agreed a truce ending their week-long conflict, Palestinian medical sources said. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian boy plays in a demolished car in Gaza City on Friday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians inspect the rubble of a destroyed house in Gaza City on Friday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians gather to listen to Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh speak Thursday in Gaza City. Supporters of Hamas and its moderate rival Palestinian party Fatah displayed rare unity in celebrating the cease-fire. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Hasidic Jewish boys dance near the border with northern Gaza on Thursday. The Jews provided music on a visit to show their support for the Israeli soldiers. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Hasidic Jewish boy dances on the barrel of a tank Thursday as he and others celebrate the Israeli soldiers. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh waves to the crowd Thursday in Gaza City. Haniyeh, who heads the governing party of Gaza, said the cease-fire showed the United States had been forced to soften its stance in the region in the wake of the Arab Spring. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians celebrate news of the cease-fire with Israel in Gaza City on Wednesday, November 21. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers sit in a restaurant at the Yad Mordechay Junction as they watch Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliver a statement on live television from Jerusalem. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Rockets launch from Gaza City as an explosion is seen on the horizon at Israel's border with Gaza on Wednesday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers pray next to an artillery gun along Israel's border with Gaza on Wednesday, November 21. Violence continued in the region Wednesday, leaving hopes of a cease-fire in tatters just hours after a halt in fighting seemed close. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Emergency services personnel work at the scene of an explosion on a bus Wednesday in Tel Aviv, Israel. The blast on the public transport bus left at least 22 injured, a hospital official said. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A woman is helped at the scene by emergency workers Wednesday after the explosion on the bus in Tel Aviv. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – The Ministry of Internal Security compound in Gaza City is in ruins Wednesday after an Israeli airstrike targeted it overnight. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Smoke billows after Israeli airstrikes in southern Gaza on Wednesday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli soldier sleeps in a deployment area Wednesday on Israel's border with Gaza. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian pushes his bicycle amid debris Wednesday near the destroyed compound of the Ministry of Internal Security in Gaza City. An Israeli airstrike targeted the building overnight. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – The Israeli military strikes border tunnels between Egypt and southern Gaza on Tuesday, November 20. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli-fired artillery flares illuminate the sky over the southern Israeli border with Gaza Tuesday as fighting continues. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met to deliver joint statements in Jerusalem, Tuesday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli forces fire a shell from the Israel-Gaza border into Gaza on Tuesday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Men on motorcycles drag the body of man through the streets of Gaza City on Tuesday. The men dragging the body claimed it was the body of a collaborator and an Israeli spy. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Ronit Hakmon reacts to the damage to her home in Beer Sheva, Israel, on Tuesday, after a rocket from Gaza militants hit it. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian families evacuate their homes following an Israeli airstrike Tuesday in Gaza City. More than 100 Palestinians have been killed in the weeklong attacks, the Gaza Ministry of Health says. Four Israelis have died. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian children stand at the gate of their home Tuesday as they watch a funeral procession for those killed following an Israeli airstrike in northern Gaza. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian carries a bag of items salvaged from a house destroyed in an Israeli airstrike Tuesday on Gaza City. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli soldier reads his morning prayers Tuesday at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza border as they prepare for a potential ground operation in the Palestinian coastal enclave. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian boy walks through the rubble of Hamas commander's house Tuesday in the southern Gaza town of Rafa. An overnight Israeli airstrike targeted the home. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli F-15 takes off from an Israeli air force base on Monday, November 19, on a mission over the Gaza Strip. Israel carried out 80 strikes on Monday, raising to more than 1,300 the number of sites targeted since it began its bombing campaign on Wednesday, according to the Israel Defense Forces. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli pilot adjusts a strap as he sits in the cockpit of a jet at an air force base on Monday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian firefighters extinguish a blaze following an Israeli airstrike in a Gaza City tower housing Palestinian and international media on Monday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli girl holds her sister as they take cover in a large concrete pipe used as a bomb shelter during a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip on Monday in Nitzan, Israel. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli children play in a large concrete pipe used as a bomb shelter on Monday in Nitzan. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Birzeit University students clash with Israeli soldiers at the Atara checkpoint close to the West Bank university as they protest against Israel's military action on Monday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Birzeit University students clash with Israeli soldiers on Monday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian women mourn during the funeral Monday of members of one family killed when an Israeli missile struck a three-story building in Gaza City on Sunday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli artillery shells hit a target in the Gaza Strip on Monday near Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli soldier from a tank squadron attends a morning briefing at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border on Monday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers from a tank squadron prepare ammunition at an Israeli army deployment area on Monday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A paramedic helps a Palestinian woman out of her building, which was damaged during an Israeli air raid on a nearby sporting center in Gaza City on Monday. At least 90 Palestinians, including a family of 10, have been killed, officials say. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A man covers his nose and mouth as he passes burning debris after Israeli airstrikes in Gaza City on Monday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian man carries a stuffed toy through a street littered with debris after an air raid on a sporting center in Gaza City on Monday. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian men gather around a crater caused by an Israeli airstrike at a home in Gaza City on Sunday, November 18. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – Palestinian relatives grieve at the hospital in Gaza City on Sunday, November 18, over family members killed in an airstrike. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – Palestinians search the debris of the home following an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Sunday, November 18. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – An Israeli emergency worker inspects the damage to a car in Ofakim, Israel, that was hit by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, November 18. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers wait at an Israeli army deployment area near the Israel-Gaza Strip border on Sunday, November 18, as they prepare for a potential ground operation in the Palestinian coastal enclave. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is ready to "significantly escalate" its operation against militants in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Smoke rises after an Israeli air strike on an office of Hamas television channel Al-Aqsa in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Sunday, November 18. Israeli warplanes hit the Gaza City media center and homes in northern Gaza in the early morning. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian children look at damaged buildings following Israeli air strikes Sunday, November 18, in Rafah. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers wearing prayer shawls conduct morning prayers Sunday, November 18, at an Israeli army deployment area. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli soldier from a tank squadron adjusts the tank barrel at an Israeli army deployment area on Sunday, November 18. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Cloth hangs from a window of a building damaged during Israeli air strikes on Gaza City on Sunday, November 18. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian demonstrator throws stones in front of the headquarters of the Palestinian security forces in the West Bank city of Jenin on Sunday, November 18, during a protest against Israel's ongoing military operation in Gaza. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A fireball rises as the Israeli air force carries out a raid over Gaza City on Saturday, November 17. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli woman and her children take cover as sirens wail in Tel Aviv on Saturday, November 17. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians walk amid the debris of a burning factory near the house of Ezzedine Haddad, commander of the armed wing of the Hamas movement, after it was destroyed during an Israeli air strike on Gaza City on Saturday, November 17. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian woman helps her friend cover her face with a traditional scarf during clashes at the Hawara checkpoint in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus on Saturday, November 17. People rallied against the Israeli military operations. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians stand on the rubble of the demolished home of Ezzedine Haddad, commander of the armed wing of the Hamas movement, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, that was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on Saturday, November 17. Israeli air strikes in Gaza killed 10 Palestinians, five of them militants, as nine Israelis were hurt by rocket fire, four of them soldiers, medics said. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers fire tear gas toward strone throwers demonstrating against the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip at the Qalandia checkpoint, in the occupied West Bank, on Saturday, November 17. Israeli strikes on Gaza destroyed the Hamas government headquarters as Israel called up thousands more reservists for a possible ground war. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian youth clash with Israeli soldiers during protests at the Hawara checkpoin on Saturday, November 17. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers stand guard by the Iron Dome defense system launch site on Saturday, November 17, in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A picture taken from the southern Israeli border with Gaza shows smoke billowing following an Israeli air strike inside the Palestinian territory on Saturday, November 17. Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Israel would be held to account for the children who were among 40 people dead in three days of airstrikes on Gaza. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian youth takes cover behind a makeshift barrier during clashes with Israeli soldiers on November 17. Israeli strikes on Gaza destroyed the Hamas government headquarters as Israel called up thousands more reservists for a possible ground war. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – An Israeli missile from the Iron Dome defense missile system is launched to intercept and destroy incoming rocket fire from Gaza on November 17 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Israeli troops have been massing on the border as some 200 targets were hit overnight in Gaza, including Hamas cabinet buildings. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – Israeli civilians run for cover during a rocket attack launched from Gaza on November 17 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers gather next to their armored bulldozers stationed on Israel's border with Gaza on Saturday, November 17. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers fire tear gas toward stone throwers demonstrating against the Israeli military offensive in Gaza in the village of Beit Omar, north of the West Bank town of Hebron, on Saturday, November 17. Egypt and Turkey put the onus on Israel to end the fighting around Gaza as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Cairo a day after Washington urged the two governments to pressure the Palestinians. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – An injured student from the University of Birzeit is carried away Saturday, November 17, during clashes with Israeli soldiers as hundreds of students took part in a demonstration against the ongoing Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip in the Israeli occupied West Bank town of Betunia. Israeli strikes on Gaza killed 10 Palestinians and destroyed the Hamas government headquarters. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Israel-Gaza conflict – A student from the University of Birzeit throws a molotov cocktail toward Israeli soldiers during clashes. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians gather at the site of an Israeli air raid in Gaza City on November 17, 2012. Israeli air strikes hit the cabinet headquarters of Gaza's Hamas government after militants fired rockets at Jerusalem and Tel Aviv as Israel called up thousands more reservists in readiness for a potential ground war. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian paramedics carry an injured woman on a stretcher Saturday, November 17, following an Israeli air raid on a house in Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Smoke billows across the southern Israeli border with the Gaza Strip on Saturday, November 17, following Israeli air strikes inside the Palestinian territory. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian Hamas policeman looks at an Israeli rocket in the street in Gaza City on Saturday, November 17. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli man walks to his house damaged by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip in the moshav of Sde Uziyahu near the southern Israeli city of Ashdod. The Israeli military said it had sealed off all main roads around Gaza and declared a closed military zone, in the latest sign it was poised to launch a first ground offensive on the Palestinian enclave since December 2008-January 2009. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Pro-Palestinian demonstrators protest near the Israeli Embassy in Madrid on Friday, November 16, against Israel's aerial bombardment of the Gaza Strip. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli children wave their national flag Saturday, November 17, as they greet a bus carrying soldiers on a road leading to the Israel-Gaza border near the southern Israeli town of Ofakim. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli tanks maneuver at the Israeli-Gaza Strip border. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Relatives take cover from a rocket attack during the funeral for Itzik Amsalem in Kiryat Malachi, Israel, on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A rocket fired from Gaza toward Israel sails into the air Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Explosions erupt from spots targeted by Israeli airstrikes inside Gaza on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers stand guard while explosives experts examine the site where a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed near the Jewish settlement of Gush Etzion in the village of Kisan, south of Bethlehem on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A relative grieves during the funeral for Itzik Amsalem in Kiryat Malakhi, Israel, on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian protesters hold up the Hamas flag during a rally Friday, November 16, in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – People take cover during a rocket attack at a funeral Friday, November 16, in Kiryat Malakhi, Israel. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian youths throw stones at Israeli security forces Friday, November 16, in a West Bank village near Bethlehem. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli soldier aims at Palestinian youth at a West Bank checkpoint Friday, November 16, during a protest against the fighting in Gaza. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian Fares Sadallah, 11, cries outside his home after an Israeli airstrike Friday, November 16, in northern Gaza. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a blaze Friday, November 16, at the Ministry of Interior in Gaza City following an Israeli air raid. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Relatives of Itzik Amsalam, who was killed Thursday, November 15, in Kiryat Malakhi, Israel, mourn during the funeral on Friday, November 16.. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A woman cries during the funeral of Itzik Amsalam on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli soldier fires a tear gas canister toward Palestinian stone throwers on a road mainly used by Israeli settlers in the West Bank village of Beit Omar on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians run for cover after an Israeli airstrike hits Gaza City on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian youths inspect a destroyed mosque in northern Gaza on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers conduct a patrol as some 16,000 reserve troops are drafted in on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian mourners carry the body of Audi Naser during his funeral in Gaza on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian women and children cry during the funeral of Audi Naser on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian firefighters try to extinguish a fire at the Civilian Affairs branch of the Ministry of Interior on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Smokes billows from a target of an Israeli airstrike Friday, November 16, in Gaza near the border with Israel. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli woman looks out from an apartment building in Ashdod, Israel, damaged by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants on Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians extinguish a fire after Israeli airstrikes targeted the Interior Ministry building in Gaza City Friday, November 16. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israelis take cover in a pipe used as a bomb shelter, after a rocket was launched from the Gaza Strip on Thursday, November 15, in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli man looks out from an apartment building that was hit by a rocket launched presumably from the Gaza Strip, claiming three lives on Thursday, November 15, in Kiryat Malachi, Israel. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians extinguish a fire after Israeli air strikes targeted an electricity generator that fed the house of Hamas's Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City, on Thursday, November 15. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A crater is left at a spot targeted by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City early Thursday, November 15. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli soldiers rest by their armored personnel carriers stationed on the Israel-Gaza border on Thursday, November 15. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Rescue workers evacuate a body Thursday, November 15, in the Israeli town of Kiryat Malakhi after a rocket launched from Gaza hit an apartment building. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflict Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian relatives mourn over the body of Hanen Tafish, a 10-month-old girl, at the morgue of the al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City on Thursday, November 15, after she died following an Israeli air strike in the Zeitun neighbourhood. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinians watch a funeral Thursday, November 15, in southern Gaza. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian pleads for help as he and others try to save a man trapped under his car after an Israeli air raid Thursday, November 15, in northern Gaza. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Israeli police inspect an apartment building hit by a rocket fired by Palestinian militants in Kiryat Malakhi on Thursday, November 15. At least three Israelis were killed and four were wounded, an Israeli police spokesman said. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – The Israeli military launches a missile Thursday, November 15, from the southern city of Beersheba. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A picture taken from the southern Israeli town of Sderot shows smoke billowing from a spot targeted by an Israeli airstrike inside Gaza on Thursday, November 15. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian man inspects his damaged house following an Israeli airstrike early Thursday, November 15, in Gaza City. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – An Israeli reacts after a rocket launched from Gaza hits a building Thursday, November 15, in Kiryat Malakhi. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian firefighters extinguish the blaze from the car of Ahmed al-Jaabari, head of Hamas' military wing, after an Israeli airstrike hit it in Gaza City on Wednesday, November 14. The Israeli strike killed al-Jaabari. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A woman sits inside a bomb shelter Wednesday, November 14, in Netivot, Israel. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Smoke rises following an Israeli airstrike Wednesday, November 14, in Khan Younis, Gaza. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian firefighters extinguish fire from the car in which al-Jaabari was apparently riding. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A Palestinian man cries as security forces wheel al-Jaabari's body into a hospital. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian youths look inside a building where al-Jaabari's body was brought after the attack. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – A wounded Palestinian girl cries at the Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian youths evacuate an elderly man following an Israeli airstrike. Photos: Israel-Gaza conflictIsrael-Gaza conflict – Palestinian civilians leave their houses following an Israeli airstrike. | 0 |
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a nearly $500 billion interim coronavirus bill into law Friday that includes additional money for the small-business loan program, as well as more funding for hospitals and testing.Trump was joined in the Oval Office for the bill signing by Republican lawmakers and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who has been a key White House negotiator with Congress in coronavirus aid legislation. During the ceremony, Trump walked back his comments from the day before that people could get an “injection” of a “disinfectant” that kills the coronavirus, telling reporters that he was being “sarcastic.”Trump also threatened to hold up the next round of coronavirus legislation if the U.S. Postal Service does not raise its rates. Democrats have been arguing for money to be included for the USPS in the emergency funding bills.“The Post Office is a joke,” Trump told reporters. “The Post Office should raise the price [of package delivery] four times. If they don’t raise the price, I’m not signing anything.”The bill passed the Senate earlier this week by voice vote and was approved by the House on Thursday on a 388-5-1 mostly bipartisan vote.The bill includes more than $320 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, created by the CARES Act, which was passed late last month. The program, which quickly ran out of money because of heavy demand, provides forgivable loans to small businesses that keep their employees on the payroll.About $60 billion of the additional PPP funding will be set aside for businesses that do not have established banking relationships, such as rural and minority-owned companies. Expanding access to the aid was a priority for Democrats who worried that some businesses were being shut out of the fund.The bill also provides $60 billion in loans and grants for the Small Business Administration's disaster relief fund, $75 billion for hospitals and $25 billion for coronavirus testing, but does not include the additional funding for states and local governments that Democrats had sought.Although the aid package totals nearly half a trillion dollars, both parties have been referring to it as "interim" legislation meant to bridge the gap between the $2 trillion CARES Act and the next expansive round of coronavirus legislation.Despite some points of disagreement and moments of gridlock, Congress has now managed to pass four bipartisan coronavirus bills in the past few weeks, moving at an unprecedented pace. But there are warning signs that such cooperation could be coming to an end.Democrats have said that funding for state and local governments is a top priority for them in the next bill and they hope to pass it quickly.But Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., signaled that he wants to pump the brakes on spending bills, raising concerns about the national debt and throwing cold water on Democrats’ insistence for additional state funding.“Let’s weigh this very carefully because the future of our country in terms of the amount of debt that we’re adding up is a matter of genuine concern,” McConnell told reporters this week after the Senate passed the interim bill.McConnell also said on “The Hugh Hewitt Show” this week that he was “not ready to just send a blank check down to states and local governments to spend any way they choose to,” adding that he would “certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route.”McConnell’s comments drew immediate criticism from Democrats, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.“Senator McConnell, who’s getting bailed out here? It’s your state that is living on the money that we generate,” Cuomo said of his state at his daily coronavirus news briefing Friday, attacking the Kentucky senator for referring to states’ request for money as “blue state bailouts.”Pelosi also criticized McConnell on Friday, equating his refusal to fund states as “consistent” with Trump’s suggestion that people should consider an “injection” of “disinfectant” to fight the coronavirus.“What is also consistent with Mitch McConnell saying let the states go bankrupt, they don’t believe in science and they don’t believe in governance and that’s why it’s hard to get them to accept the evidence that we have a role to do something to meet the needs of the American people in a very direct and stronger way,” Pelosi said.Trump has said that he was open to including more state funding in future bills, but he expressed a similar sentiment to McConnell’s at the White House coronavirus briefing on Thursday, saying some states had budget problems long before the pandemic.“I’m open to ideas that are going to be great to the people of this country. And if we can help states, we’re always going to help states. Now, there’s different ways of helping states. Some ways are better than others. So we’re looking,” Trump said. “It is interesting that the states that are in trouble do happen to be blue. It is interesting. You know, if you look around, I mean the states that seem to have the problem happen to be Democrat.”McConnell also said this week that he wants to bring the full Senate back to Washington for future rescue packages. The Senate has passed the previous coronavirus legislation by voice vote or unanimous consent, meaning lawmakers were not required to be present and were not on record voting for or against the bills.“My view is we ought to bring everybody back, have full participation to begin to think about the implications to the country’s future for this level of national debt,” McConnell said.Many senators have remained at home in their districts since they adjourned in March. Democrats have been apprehensive about requiring lawmakers to fly back to Washington to work on the next bill in close quarters at the Capitol especially after Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., tested positive for COVID-19.“If we were to come back prematurely and that were to set a bad example for people, that’s a bad thing,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday. “I would like to be governed by the medical experts.”Some Democrats appeared resigned to the idea that more aid would not be passed as quickly as they had hoped.New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the only Democrat to vote against the interim bill, said that she was concerned that the fourth bill did not go far enough, considering that there is no concrete commitment from Republicans to begin working on the next bill.“We’re leaving again today with no plan to come back,” Ocasio-Cortez said after the Thursday vote.“We have no date. We have no commitment on when this CARES 4 is going to happen. And so I have to vote based on what’s in front of us, based on the fact that this is the only bill that we are going to likely entertain in the two months of this crisis. And it is too small.” | 0 |
Behind the scenes, big deal negotiations haven’t even begun on gun control. Vice President Joe Biden and the NRA are sitting down Thursday morning to talk gun control. Up next for a talk: Wal-Mart. But don’t be fooled that the high-profile meetings are going to get much done. ( PHOTOS: Politicians speak out on gun control) The National Rifle Association doesn’t want new gun laws. And Wal-Mart sells a lot of guns, and has a lot of gun owners for customers, so the retail giant doesn’t want to look too close to the White House’s anti-gun push either, one source familiar with the company’s stance said. “Gun sales are going through the roof after the shooting. It’s one of the fastest-selling items right now,” the source said. Wal-Mart wants to be helpful to the White House, but “when it contradicts sales, that’s where it stops.” Wal-Mart spokesman David Tovar disputed the source and his claim. “We have been and continue to be very engaged in the discussions as the administration and Congress work toward a consensus on the right path forward,” Tovar said. “We are prepared to comply with whatever the law says.” ( Also on POLITICO: Immigration's new rival: Gun control) Behind the scenes, the kind of negotiations that lead to big deals that can get through Congress, like the wheeling and dealing that made Biden a kingmaker on the fiscal cliff, haven’t even begun on gun control. Just getting the parties to the table was a challenge. The NRA was not invited to a meeting with Biden until Friday, after the vice president already began meeting with other groups. Wal-Mart originally said it couldn’t make it. And Biden’s meeting with the NRA might get awkward since Richard Feldman, a former gun lobbyist who wrote an NRA tell-all, will also be there. All of this has left even staunch supporters of gun reform laws pessimistic that a big deal will head through Congress, even after the mass shooting in Newtown, Conn., last month that left 20 children dead. “I hope a tragedy like this one will get more and more people who’ve kowtowed to the gun lobby to rethink that, but it’s hard to be very optimistic,” said former Rep. Mike Barnes (D-Md.), who duked it out with the NRA as head of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence in the early 2000s. “It’s very hard to see anything meaningful passing in this House of Representatives.” President Barack Obama said after the shooting that he wanted concrete proposals in front of Congress by mid-January. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration still has high hopes for the meetings. “I don’t want to and the president doesn’t want to prejudge the actions of organizations or groups who are stakeholders in this discussion,” Carney told reporters Wednesday. ( Also on POLITICO: Giffords launches anti-gun website) But the White House is also pushing alternative ideas. Biden said Wednesday that the White House will take a look at executive orders it can use independent of Congress. “We are not going to get caught up in the notion that unless we can do everything, we’re going to do nothing. It’s critically important that we act,” Biden said. And on Tuesday, the White House started reaching out to foundations not usually associated with gun control to drum up support for reform in new advocacy corners. The outside approach makes sense. More than half of the members of the 113th Congress in the House have been given an “A” rating by the NRA. And Democrats remember what happened after they passed the assault weapons ban in 1994: They lost the House. Still, advocates aren’t giving up. Mark Glaze, director of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, pointed to recent polling showing 81 percent of the public will be more inclined to vote for a member of Congress who passes stronger laws to keep guns out of the wrong hands. “I know that if they don’t act and they know if they don’t act, there is going to be another mass shooting,” Glaze said. “If they’ve sat around and not gotten anything done to reduce that risk, I think they are going to be very exposed. The group, which is headed by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is up with a new, emotional ad. Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), the victim of a mass shooting herself, and her husband, Mark Kelly, also formed a group this week to try and blunt the power of the gun lobby. For a major deal in Congress, the White House would need to get gun manufacturers, sportsmen, mental health experts and gun control advocates on its side. That’s the model Obama used to push health reform through. He got drug manufacturers, hospitals and seniors groups on board to help sell the deal to Congress when it was controlled by Democrats in both chambers. The gun lobby has struggled to implement any proactive measures over the past decade as the NRA has grown to become a dominant political player and contributor to political campaigns. And gun rights activists are digging in. A coalition of groups, including the Second Amendment Foundation, Revolution PAC and Women Warriors PAC, among others, is organizing a Gun Appreciation Day two days before Obama’s inaugural address, calling for gun owners to turn “out en masse at gun stores, ranges and shows from coast to coast” on Jan. 19. “We have never had a president who so callously disregards the Constitution, Congress, the courts and the will of the American people,” Gun Appreciation Day Chairman Larry Ward said. A White House official confirmed Biden has met with law-enforcement officials and mayors. “In the coming days and weeks, he will likely hear from gun safety advocates and gun owners; mental health professionals and educators; faith and community leaders; local, state, and federal elected officials; and any number of other people with valuable perspectives on the subject,” the official said. Gun industry lobbyists argue that Newtown hasn’t put their hold on Congress in jeopardy. Despite a press conference by the NRA promoting armed guards at schools that was largely panned — no Republican lawmakers have broken rank and endorsed high-profile legislation like the assault rifle ban Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) is pushing. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), a strong NRA supporter, panned Democrats’ push on gun control Sunday in a Fox News interview. He did say that there are some things, including stricter background checks, that could be implemented. In the coming weeks, one gun lobbyist said the NRA and others would try to make inroads with new members and continue to respond to specific questions from lawmakers. “There’s not a lot of new coming out on their side. Obviously, they are trying to pull on the emotional heart strings of people,” the lobbyist said. “What happened in Newtown is awful. Zero people in this country would say differently, but they are trying to capitalize on it to push a debate they have not been able to in decades.” Reid J. Epstein contributed to this report. | 0 |
Washington (CNN)Since the Senate impeachment trial began last week, Chief Justice John Roberts has been mainly out of the camera's line of sight. He has, clerk-like, enforced Senate procedures and kept the clock for the lawyers at the lectern. He has tried to maintain the chamber's decorum, as when he admonished the legal teams against nastiness, citing a 1905 Senate trial precedent against use of the word "pettifogging."He has introduced some levity, as when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell wished him happy birthday on Monday and the 65-year-old Roberts responded with: "Well, thank you very much for those kind wishes, and thank you to all the senators for not asking for the yeas and nays."Beginning Wednesday, Roberts will be less lighthearted and far more visible. He will be the voice of senators, with his visage at the center of the screen as he reads their questions. Roberts will pose questions that the senators write on forms to the US House managers and President Donald Trump's lawyers.If he follows the model of Chief Justice William Rehnquist in the 1999 trial of President Bill Clinton, Roberts will state the questions with as little inflection and emotion as possible, reading verbatim from the forms. At the start of each query, Roberts is expected -- per tradition -- to announce which senator has put forward the question.Yet it could get awkward, as the chief justice of the United States may be pressed to ask questions -- based on some of the assertions already made in the chamber -- related to Trump as "a cheat ... who got caught" or, alternatively, to Hunter Biden, son of former Vice President Joe Biden, who has been targeted by Trump's defense team. Since Roberts and the 100 senators took their oaths for the trial, he has sat, wearing his customary black robe, at a large desk above the rows of senators' desks. As he has listened to the legal teams at the lectern make their cases, Roberts has leaned back, hands folded, occasionally putting a finger up to his temple. In front of him are a binder, loose sheets of paper and the little nub of a gavel he raps when it is time to declare a break.That silent posture represents a departure from his position at the Supreme Court, where, as he listens to a lawyer at the lectern, he regularly interjects with questions. But there, as distinct from his Senate role, he has a crucial vote and decides cases.Senate Republican and Democratic leaders will organize the questions to be asked from their members. The standard question form includes lines for the senator's name and to whom the question should be directed (House managers or President's counsel).Groups of senators may band together, as happened in 1999.In one instance, Rehnquist announced: "This is a question from Sens. (Mike) DeWine, (Susan) Collins and (Frank) Murkowski to the House managers. With all of the conflicting testimony that exists on the record between Monica Lewinsky and Betty Currie, for example, how are we to resolve the questions of perjury and obstruction of justice without observing the demeanor of witnesses?" Lewinsky was the former White House intern with whom Clinton had had a sexual liaison; Currie was his personal secretary.US Rep. Asa Hutchinson, one of the trial managers, responded at length about the importance of hearing directly from witnesses, beginning with, "I don't think there is any way to resolve the conflicts in their testimony without calling the witnesses."Whatever thoughts Rehnquist had, he kept to himself. But, as Roberts observed on Tuesday, Rehnquist, who died in 2005 and was his immediate predecessor as chief justice, had sought succinct questions and answers.Rehnquist told lawyers on both sides that he would "operate on a rebuttable presumption that each question can be fully and fairly answered in five minutes or less." Roberts noted that the 1999 transcript showed that the statement was met with "laughter.""Nonetheless," Roberts concluded on Tuesday, "managers and counsel generally limited their responses accordingly. I think the late chief's time limit was a good one and would ask both sides to abide by it."Then, it gets really thornyWhen the two-day round of questions is finished, the senators -- and perhaps Roberts -- will confront more difficult issues related to witnesses.Senators have not resolved whether to call witnesses who may have knowledge of Trump's dealings with Ukraine, such as former national security adviser John Bolton. That dilemma has only become more fraught as The New York Times revealed this week that Bolton, according to the newspaper's sources, has recounted in a draft book manuscript that Trump told him he wanted to withhold military aid to Ukraine until the country investigated former Vice President Joe Biden, a Democratic rival of Trump. Based on Senate trial precedent, as well as Roberts' cautious and reserved approach, he is unlikely to take any determinative role in disputes over witnesses or any matter that would seriously influence Trump's ultimate fate -- or jeopardize his own reputation as a jurist and chief justice of the United States.But Roberts could face entreaties to enlarge his role. Some senators and House managers, as well as political commentators, have been debating outside the chamber the extent of Roberts' duties and whether he might even break a tie if senators split 50-50 on witnesses.The Senate rules give the chief justice specific duties as a presiding officer, adhering to the Constitution's dictate that the "sole power" to try a president rests with the Senate.In 1999, Rehnquist saw his role as limited, famously taking a page from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Iolanthe" and remarking that he "did nothing in particular, and did it very well." In the only other presidential impeachment trial, that of President Andrew Johnson in 1868, Chief Justice Salmon Chase broke tie votes twice, but those moves and his political stance throughout that trial remain controversial today.The voting power of the presiding officer has not been tested in modern times. But many scholars of impeachment believe Roberts would not be able to break a tie, and a recent Congressional Research Service report observed, "The Chief Justice, when presiding over an impeachment trial, would not be expected to vote, even in the case of a tie. If a vote on a question results in a tie, the question is decided in the negative."When the vice president presides over the Senate, he is able to break a tie vote. That power is delineated in the Constitution. | 0 |
President Donald Trump blasted the media as “fake news” and criticized journalists for taking part in the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner on Saturday.Trump held a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, as several other events took place in Washington, D.C., including the dinner, the People’s Climate March and Not The White House Correspondents’ Dinner, hosted by TBS’ Samantha Bee.“A large group of Hollywood actors and Washington media are consoling each other in a hotel ballroom in our nation’s capitol right now,” he said. “They are gathered together for a White House Correspondents’ Dinner without the president.”A man holds up a sign about the White House Correspondents' Dinner before a Trump rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.Carlo Allegri / ReutersWhile speaking to reporters at the Ames Companies headquarters ahead of the rally, Trump struck a less critical tone about the dinner.“I hope they have a good dinner, But ours is going to be much more exciting, I think,” Trump told reporters in the White House pool. “We have a big crowd. We sold thousands and thousands of tickets.”Trump has attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner before and was famously roasted by President Barack Obama at the 2011 event.His Pennsylvania rally was largely a chance for Trump to rail against what he called “the dishonest media.” Trump spent the majority of the rally criticizing journalists for their coverage of his first 100 days, and even repeated complaints about coverage of his presidential campaign.At one point, the president claimed he invented the phrase “fake news.”“Everybody is using the word ‘fake news,’” he said. “Where did you hear it first, folks?”People sing the national anthem during Trump's rally.Carlo Allegri / ReutersBut his criticism wasn’t just reserved for the media. Trump also went after Democrats, calling Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) “a bad leader.”“He’s leading the Democrats to doom,” Trump said.Trump also bragged about his success during his first 100 days and hyped up the crowd for upcoming events, including potential action on “the North Korean situation,” “a big decision” on the Paris climate accord and the building of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.“We’ll build a wall, folks, don’t even worry about it,” Trump said.Trump also took note of several people in the audience, asking security to remove a protester and highlighting some signs from the crowd.“Thank you for that sign. ‘Blacks for Trump!’ I love that guy,” Trump said, pointing to one supporter’s sign.Vice President Mike Pence also made an appearance at the rally, calling the mainstream media “fake news” and prompting chants of “CNN sucks” from the audience while introducing Trump.Best Photos From Trump's First 100 Days | 0 |
Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson chaired President Obama's fiscal commission in 2010. Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson proposed a new framework Tuesday to cut the country's debt by $2.4 trillion over the next decade. Bowles and Simpson were the co-chairmen of President Obama's bipartisan fiscal commission in 2010, and their recommendations came to serve as a yardstick for other debt-reduction proposals. Since the fiscal commission disbanded, Congress and the White House have enacted about $2.7 trillion worth of savings that will occur over the next decade. The $2.4 trillion in deficit cuts in the new Bowles-Simpson proposal would be made between 2014 and 2023 and come on top of the $2.7 trillion already passed. Another $2.4 trillion is needed to stabilize the debt and put it on a path to fall below 70% of GDP, according to estimates by the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Related: What you need to know about the sequester The amount of debt reduction recommended by Bowles and Simpson is a more ambitious goal than President Obama has set. Obama is aiming for another $1.5 trillion in savings, which would stabilize the debt at 73% of GDP by the end of the decade. And it's a less stringent, more gradual approach than the stated House Republican goal of erasing all annual deficits by 2023. In any case, they characterize their new recommendation not as the "best" or the "right" framework. They said they see it simply as the "minimum that policymakers must do." Bowles and Simpson suggest the $2.4 trillion in savings could be achieved through a combination of measures, some of which were in their original fiscal commission 2010 plan: Taxes: Enacting tax reform that eliminates or minimizes tax expenditures. The revenue raised would be used to reduce deficits and to pay for the cost of lowering tax rates and simplifying the tax code. The new framework calls for tax reform to raise about one-quarter of the $2.4 trillion -- or $600 billion. Medicare: Reducing Medicare and Medicaid spending by cutting payments to health care providers, changing incentives for providers and beneficiaries, and increasing premiums for high earners, among other changes. Bowles and Simpson say Medicare changes should account for another $600 billion. Inflation-adjusted payments: Adopting a less generous and some say more accurate inflation formula, known as "chained CPI," for any federal payments that are adjusted for cost of living, such as Social Security benefits. Chained CPI would also apply to inflation adjustments for income tax brackets. Other measures: Curb farm subsidies and increase how much civilian and military personnel contribute to their health and retirement plans. The framework calls for half of the $2.4 trillion to be raised through these savings, combined with stricter limits on discretionary spending, along with chained CPI and interest savings. In addition, the new Bowles-Simpson framework calls for lawmakers to go beyond that $2.4 trillion for the long-term. Among other things, they recommend Congress agree to Social Security reforms this year and earmark future savings for the program. The Bowles-Simpson recommendations are bound to draw vehement opposition. Many Democrats oppose changes to entitlement programs unless they only affect the wealthy. And many Republicans refuse to consider raising any new revenue for deficit reduction through tax reform. Bowles and Simpson plan to release more detailed recommendations at some point in coming weeks to flesh out their framework after consulting with members of Congress. Since their work on the fiscal commission, they have been trying to coax lawmakers to negotiate a "grand bargain." Most recently Bowles and Simpson co-founded the Campaign to Fix the Debt, a nonpartisan group advocating for debt-reduction. The campaign has a bipartisan steering committee made up of former politicians, deficit hawks and business people, and a CEO council that has drawn fire mostly from the left, but also from some business groups for its call for more revenue. CNNMoney (New York) First published February 19, 2013: 7:19 AM ET | 0 |
Brazil's Bolsonaro says he will accept aid to fight Amazon fires August 27, 2019 / 8:03 PM / CBS/AFP Indigenous Amazon tribes threatened by fires Indigenous Amazon tribes threatened by fires 01:57 A day after Brazil rejected aid from G-7 countries to fight wildfires in the Amazon, the Brazilian leader has said Tuesday that his government will accept all foreign aid from organizations or countries — as long as it can decide how to use the assistance. President Jair Bolsonaro originally said he would only accept help if French President Emmanuel Macron apologized to him personally for perceived insults first. "Brazilian sovereignty is not negotiable," said Bolsonaro's spokesperson, according to the Reuters news agency. The president also said dialog with France isn't off the table.Politics and feelings aside, forest fires have charred and continue to char the Amazon in Brazil. Just over half of the blazes have hit the massive Amazon basin, which regulates part of Earth's carbon cycle and climate.
The crisis is fueling concerns that further damage from the fires could disrupt global weather patterns. CBS News correspondent Manuel Bojorquez reported about 15% of the Earth's fresh water is in the Amazon. There's so much moisture, scientists say it actually helps cool the entire planet.Amazon tribe warns future of the rainforest could be in jeopardy as fires burnWith the fires burning a lot of that away, there's fear it could eventually cause irreversible damage to the world's climate. It is estimated that more than 3,500 square miles of Amazon forest have been scorched by fire this year. That's an area about the size of Yellowstone National Park.G-7 countries made the $20 million aid offer to fight the blazes at the Biarritz G-7 summit hosted by Macron, who insisted they should be discussed as a top priority. Troops mobilize to fight Amazon fires 03:13 "We appreciate (the offer), but maybe those resources are more relevant to reforest Europe," Onyx Lorenzoni, chief of staff to President Jair Bolsonaro, told the G1 news website.What you can do to help the burning Amazon rainforest"Macron cannot even avoid a foreseeable fire in a church that is a world heritage site," he added, referring to the fire in April that devastated the Notre-Dame cathedral. "What does he intend to teach our country?"
Brazilian environment Minister Ricardo Salles had earlier told reporters they had welcomed the G-7 funding to fight the fires that have swept across 2.3 million acres and prompted the deployment of the army. But after a meeting between Bolsonaro and his ministers, the Brazilian government changed course. Why Amazon could be at risk of "collapsing" 04:16 Personal spat, global crisis"Brazil is a democratic, free nation that never had colonialist and imperialist practices, as perhaps is the objective of the Frenchman Macron," Lorenzoni said.Bolsonaro — a climate-change skeptic — has faced criticism over his delayed response to the fires at home and thousands have taken to the streets in Brazil in recent days to denounce the destruction.The blazes have also fueled a diplomatic spat between Bolsonaro and Macron, who have locked horns repeatedly over the past week. The French president has threatened to block a huge new trade deal between the European Union and Latin America unless his Brazilian counterpart takes serious steps to protect the fast-shrinking forest from logging and mining.Bolsonaro reacted by blasting Macron for having a "colonialist mentality," and days later endorsed vicious personal comments about the French president's wife posted online, driving their relationship to a new low. On Tuesday, Bolsonaro said his government would consider taking the aid from the G-7 if Macron retracted "insults" to the Brazilian leader. Macron has called Bolsonaro a liar, and suggested Brazilian women were likely ashamed of having him as their leader.
"First of all, Macron has to withdraw his insults. He called me a liar. Before we talk or accept anything from France... he must withdraw these words then we can talk," Bolsonaro said according to the Reuters news agency. "First he withdraws, then offers (aid), then I will answer." Although about 60 percent of the Amazon is in Brazil, the vast forest also spreads over parts of eight other countries or territories. Hundreds of new fires have flared up in the Brazilian part of the forest, data showed Monday, even as military aircraft dumped water over hard-hit areas. Pictures from the Amazon rainforest fires 30 photos Download our Free App For Breaking News & Analysis Download the Free CBS News app Thanks for reading CBS NEWS. Create your free account or log in for more features. Please enter email address to continue Please enter valid email address to continue
EMERGENCY COMPONENT - NATIONAL EMERGENCY COMPONENT - NATIONAL EMERGENCY COMPONENT - NATIONAL EMERGENCY COMPONENT - NATIONAL | 0 |
West Palm Beach (CNN)President Donald Trump, on vacation in balmy Florida, suggested that climate change could be a good thing on Thursday, tweeting that cities gripped by freezing temperatures on the East Coast could use some warming.Trump's tweet further places the President's climate policy out of step with the vast majority of scientists, who believe global warming is damaging for the United States and the world."In the East, it could be the COLDEST New Year's Eve on record. Perhaps we could use a little bit of that good old Global Warming that our Country, but not other countries, was going to pay TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS to protect against," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Bundle up!"Despite Trump's assertion, 2016 was the hottest year on record, according to the World Meteorological Organization, and some studies show 2017 is on pace to overtake it. If it does, it will be the fourth consecutive year to rank hotter than all previous.A White House official did not respond when asked what Trump's tweet means for administration policy. Journalists have previously been told that Trump's tweets should be considered official statements from the White House.The tweet is the latest in a series of Trump tweets that links the temperature in any one place to the existence of global warming, something climate scientists have long said is an entirely inaccurate way to view global warming."It's freezing and snowing in New York -- we need global warming," Trump tweeted in 2012.A year later, he added, "Ice storm rolls from Texas to Tennessee - I'm in Los Angeles and it's freezing. Global warming is a total, and very expensive, hoax!"As a candidate for president, Trump put his views on climate change at the forefront."Well, I think the climate change is just a very, very expensive form of tax," he said in 2016. "A lot of people are making a lot of money. I know much about climate change. I'd be -- received environmental awards. And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China. Obviously, I joke. But this is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change."As President, Trump has made those views administration policy by pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, and his Environmental Protection Agency has made a series of moves that curbed the agency's focus on climate science."I was elected by the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," Trump said during a White House event where he announced his decision to withdraw from the global climate accord signed by former President Barack Obama. Arguing that the deal hurts American businesses, Trump said foreign countries were using the deal to hamper American enterprise.Even amid these comments, Trump administration agencies have continued sounding alarm bells on global warming.The Government Accountability Office released a report in October that said the US government has spent more than $350 billion over the past decade in response to extreme weather and fire events and estimated that the US would incur far higher costs as the years progress if global emission rates don't go down. The report called on Trump to use the information GAO compiled to help identify risks posed by climate change and "craft appropriate federal responses."Additionally, the Climate Science Special Report released in November by the federal government found "no convincing alternative explanation" for the changing climate other than "human activities, especially emissions of greenhouse gases."CNN's Eli Watkins and Gregory Wallace contributed to this report. | 0 |
The White House reaffirmed that the United States is still planning on withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change, despite recent reports that claim the Trump administration has flip flopped on its original policy to back out of it. The administration’s statement came in response to reports that President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Everett Eissenstat had announced plans that appeared to soften the White House’s stance on the Paris climate accord.During a meeting of environmental ministers in Montreal, Eissenstat reportedly suggested that the administration was considering reviewing what negotiations can be done in order for the U.S. to stay in the climate accord, the Wall Street Journal reported in an article titled “Trump Administration Won’t Withdraw from Paris Climate Deal.”The White House quickly shut that notion down on Saturday.“There has been no change in the United States’ position on the Paris agreement,” White House deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters told CNN Saturday evening. “As the President has made abundantly clear, the United States is withdrawing unless we can re-enter on terms that are more favorable to our country.”Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reaffirmed those sentiments on Twitter.Our position on the Paris agreement has not changed. @POTUS has been clear, US withdrawing unless we get pro-America terms.— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) September 16, 2017
According to earlier reports from the Journal and the Agence France-Presse, European commissioner for climate action and energy Miguel Arias Cañete told reporters on Saturday: “The U.S. has stated that they will not renegotiate the Paris accord, but they will try to review the terms on which they could be engaged under this agreement.”The alleged change of plans were shared widely on social media on Saturday, considering Trump’s repeated campaign promise to “cancel” the U.S.’s involvement in the climate change deal, which involves 195 countries.When Trump officially announced his plans to withdraw from the Paris Agreement in June, he said he’d be willing to “immediately work with Democratic leaders,” either to “negotiate the U.S. back into Paris” or devise a new pact.Since then, the administration hasn’t officially announced any new policies on the climate change agreement, nor has it provided any details on what a renegotiation with the accord would look like.Though Saturday’s remarks during the climate summit in Montreal may suggest that Trump is softening his views the Paris Agreement, it isn’t clear who he has working on the issue of getting back into the accord. In late August, the administration dissolved the White House’s special envoy for climate change, the position responsible for overseeing the U.S.’s international policy on climate change.According to the AFP, Cañete said officials would meet with U.S. representatives on the sidelines of the General Assembly of the United Nations next week to assess the U.S.’s real position on the Paris agreement. Responding to the White House’s reassurance that the U.S. hasn’t changed its mind on the matter, John Coequyt of the Sierra Club issued a statement to HuffPost saying it had lost all hope in Trump’s denial of climate change.Coequyt said: “For anyone who had any hope that two historically devastating storms striking our nation would wake up the Trump Administration to the reality of the climate crisis, think again.”Hurricane Harvey Aftermath | 0 |
The world watched in shock on Wednesday as French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo became the site of a grisly terror attack. Gunmen opened fire on a second-floor editorial meeting, killing 12 people in total. Among them were eight journalists and two police officers.Journalists felt their profession under fire, and several newspapers are taking to their front pages to react. Editorial cartoons, somber black covers and powerful photos from the attack are seen on pages around the world.The Independent covers their paper with a fictional cover of Charlie Hebdo.Libération in Paris said "We are all Charlie."The Times of London's calls it "attack on freedom."USA TODAY's David Colton calls this page "sad, but defiant."Le Telegramme uses "assassinated."Sports magazine L'Equipe's gruesome score: Liberty 0, Barbarism 12Norway's Aftenposten lights a candle.Daily Mirror says attacks are "barbaric."DeMorgen keeps it simple.La Croix writes "France is bruised."Belgian paper De Jid goes all black.Berlin BZ displays more than 40 Hebdo covers.The Wall Street Journal writes "We Aren't Afraid." | 0 |
(CNN)The Supreme Court agreed Wednesday to postpone oral arguments in significant cases regarding former President Donald Trump's border wall and a controversial asylum policy.Earlier this week, President Joe Biden's Justice Department asked the Supreme Court to delay the arguments. The Justice Department said Biden has directed a "pause in construction" so that the administration can undertake an assessment "of the legality of the funding and contracting methods used to construct the wall." The American Civil Liberties Union, Sierra Club and Southern Border Communities Coalition asked the Supreme Court last year to block the construction the wall.Only hours into his presidency, Biden took an immediate shot at one of his predecessor's key legacies when he signed a proclamation calling for border wall construction to end. The administration's filing Monday showed how the Biden Justice Department is moving to bring building to a halt, as it reviews the former administration's actions. The Biden administration is also beginning to put lawsuits launched under Trump that were intended to acquire private land for the purpose of border wall construction on hold, according to court filings and attorneys. In a separate case, the court agreed to a Justice Department request to suspend oral arguments in a case on the Trump-era policy requiring non-Mexican migrants to remain in Mexico until their next court dates in the United States. The Department of Homeland Security recently stopped enrollments in the program, marking a step toward ending it entirely. That case is scheduled for March 1. Thousands of migrants subject to the policy continue to wait in Mexico in dangerous and deplorable conditions. Organizations challenging the so-called "Remain in Mexico" policy in the lawsuit include the Innovation Law Lab, along with other immigrant right groups.The Biden administration is set to reverse scores of Trump administration policies. In the short term, Elizabeth Prelogar, Biden's acting solicitor general, is expected to play a key role managing a wave of potential reversals concerning issues such as immigration, health care, and religion.Border wall land grab efforts droppedDuring Trump's presidency, dozens of lawsuits had been filed to take private land for the purpose of building additional barriers on the border, leaving some landowners to juggle legal challenges and the coronavirus pandemic. But with Biden's wall executive order, those attempts are now on pause. In one court document, filed on January 22, the Justice Department asked for a continuance in a land seizure case for "at least 60 days," citing Biden's Inauguration Day proclamation that in part directs a review of funds siphoned off for wall construction. In another case, the Justice Department said that it will be dismissing a motion for immediate possession of land, according to Ricardo de Anda, an attorney for Guillermo Caldera, who lives in Laredo, Texas, and whose property was at risk of being taken."We are heartened by the court taking judicial notice of the Executive Order signed by President Biden halting construction of Trump's border wall, in ordering the government to notify the court and the parties as to whether it intends to proceed with the taking of Texan properties," de Anda said in a statement. Two other cases are expecting similar motions to be filed, de Anda said. Ricky Garza, a staff attorney at the Texas Civil Rights Project, a legal advocacy group representing landowners in land seizure cases, told CNN property owners are in a "holding pattern." "There's been movements towards a pause and that's positive," Garza said. "What needs to happen now is the administration reviews and dismisses all these cases."Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar of Texas, a critic of Trump's border wall, said last Thursday that the administration had notified his office that the US Army Corps of Engineers was pausing real estate acquisitions in compliance with Biden's executive order. "Today, I received notification that in compliance with President Biden's executive order, real estate acquisition activities such as surveys and negotiations with landowners have been placed on hold in coordination with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers," Cuellar said in a statement.The Justice Department declined to comment. The Army Corps of Engineers, which provides direction and oversight of border projects, "has suspended work on all border infrastructure projects for DoD and DHS until further notice," said Raini Brunson, a spokesperson for the agency.Dror Ladin, senior staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project, praised the decision to delay the Supreme Court oral arguments, but said more needs to be done."It's a good start that the Biden administration is not rushing to defend Trump's illegal wall in court, but just hitting the brakes isn't enough. Trump's wall devastated border communities, the environment, and tribal sites," Ladin said. "It's time for the Biden administration to step up for border communities, and commit to mitigating environmental damage and tearing down the wall."Trump sped up lawsuitsThe Trump administration accelerated the filing of cases over the last four years in its efforts to build additional barriers on the southern border. At the heart of those cases were landowners, some of whom backed the wall and others who criticized it. Joseph Hein, a landowner in Laredo whose property was being reviewed to build on, described the last four years as being in a "state of limbo." "I was basically at the mercy of them giving me the information that they wanted to give me, and basically the information that they were giving me was nothing," Hein said, referring to the Army Corps of Engineers and Customs and Border Protection. Biden's proclamation ended Trump's national emergency declaration, which allowed the previous administration to dip into Pentagon funds, and calls for the review of contracts. The changes to border wall construction made under Biden so far have also prompted questions in ongoing border wall cases. Shortly after the release of Biden's proclamation, Judge Haywood Gilliam directed the parties in an ongoing wall lawsuit to provide an update by February 16.This story has been updated with the court's action to delay oral arguments.CNN's Ed Lavandera and Ashley Killough contributed to this report. | 0 |
In indictments against five Chinese nationals, the Justice Department described sophisticated attacks to hijack networks and extort universities, businesses and nonprofits.VideotranscripttranscriptChina-Backed Hackers Infiltrated Firms Across the Globe, U.S. SaysThe Justice Department charged five Chinese nationals with breaking into 100 firms and agencies to steal information, hijack networks and extort victims.“We have unsealed three indictments that collectively charge five Chinese nationals with computer hacking and charged two Malaysian nationals for helping some of those hackers target victims, and sell the fruits of their hacking. The Chinese defendants targeted well over 100 victims worldwide in a variety of industries and sectors that are sadly part of the standard target list for Chinese hackers. These criminal acts were turbocharged by a sophisticated technique referred to as a‘ supply chain attack,’ in which the Chinese hackers compromised software providers, software that providers around the world had, and modified the providers’ code to install back doors that enabled further hacks against the software providers’ customers.” “These intrusions allowed hackers to steal source code, customer account data and personally identifiable information. Several of these defendants also defrauded video game companies through manipulation of in-game resources to increase their illicitly obtained income. These for-profit criminal activities took place with the tacit approval of the government of the People’s Republic of China.”The Justice Department charged five Chinese nationals with breaking into 100 firms and agencies to steal information, hijack networks and extort victims.CreditCredit...Pool photo by Tasos KatopodisSept. 16, 2020WASHINGTON — The Justice Department said on Wednesday that a group of hackers associated with China’s main intelligence service had infiltrated more than 100 companies and organizations around the world to steal intelligence, hijack their networks and extort their victims.The United States government presented the allegations in a set of three indictments unsealed on Wednesday that showed the scope and sophistication of China’s attempts to unlawfully advance its economy and to become the dominant global superpower through cyberattacks. The indictments also said some of the hackers had worked with Malaysian nationals to steal and launder money through the video game industry.“The Chinese government has made a deliberate choice to allow its citizens to commit computer intrusions and attacks around the world because these actors will also help the P.R.C.,” Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen said, referring to the People’s Republic of China in a news conference where he announced the charges.The acting U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael R. Sherwin, said some of the perpetrators viewed their association with China as providing “free license to hack and steal across the globe.”The hackers, Zhang Haoran, Tan Dailin, Jiang Lizhi, Qian Chuan and Fu Qiang, targeted social media and other technology companies, universities, government agencies and nonprofits, according to the indictments.They had such reach partly because they used a so-called supply chain attack that enabled them to break into software companies and embed malicious code in their products. Once those products were installed in other systems, the hackers could use the code that they had planted to break in. The attack described by Justice Department officials on Wednesday was among the first supply chain attacks publicly revealed in a U.S. indictment of Chinese nationals.Some of the Chinese hackers also worked with two Malaysian businessmen to use video game platforms to steal from the companies and launder illegal proceeds. The businessmen, Wong Ong Hua and Ling Yang Ching, were arrested on Monday in Malaysia, officials said.The criminal computer activity and the hackers had been tracked by cyberresearchers under the group names Advanced Persistent Threat 41, Barium, Winnti, Wicked Panda and Panda Spider, officials said.“They compromised video game distributors to proliferate malware, which could then be used for follow-up operations,” said John Hultquist, the senior director of threat intelligence at the cybersecurity company Mandiant.The group known initially as Wicked Spider to researchers at CrowdStrike, the California cybersecurity firm, seemed to be hacking for profit. But starting in late 2015, there was a notable shift.The group, which had been predominantly targeting gaming companies, shifted to a long list of companies in the United States, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan that operated in agriculture, hospitality, chemicals, manufacturing and technology whose intellectual property would assist China’s official Five-Year Plan, the nation’s top-level policy blueprint.Their techniques changed as well. In the past, the group was known to use similar malware across attacks, but that year its hackers started pursuing a more sophisticated set of supply chain attacks. By late 2016, researchers concluded that the hackers they had known as Wicked Spider were operating at the behest of the Chinese state and changed their moniker to Wicked Panda. Panda was CrowdStrike’s moniker for hacking groups that acted on orders from the Chinese government.As the indictments were announced on Wednesday, researchers applauded the effort. “The United States government is starting to turn the tide on Chinese intrusion operations on Western companies and targets,” said Adam Meyers, CrowdStrike’s head of threat intelligence.Verizon, Microsoft, Facebook and Alphabet, the parent company of Google, helped the government in its investigation. | 0 |
House and Senate Republicans offered competing plans Thursday to resolve Washington’s debt-limit and government shutdown crises, as President Obama held the latest in a series of meetings aimed at persuading them to accept at least short-term solutions with no partisan strings attached. The White House described President Obama’s conversation Thursday afternoon with House Republican leaders as a “good meeting,” but said no deal was reached to reopen the government. “After a discussion about potential paths forward, no specific determination was made,” the White House said in a statement to reporters. “The President looks forward to making continued progress with members on both sides of the aisle.” Obama’s meeting with about 20 House Republicans, including Speaker John Boehner (Ohio), lasted about 90 minutes. Obama was accompanied by Vice President Biden, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough and deputy chief of staff Rob Nabors. The White House statement said the administration officials “listened to the Republicans present their proposal,” adding that Obama’s goal remains to both raise the debt ceiling and reopen the government. House Republican leaders initially offered a six-week increase in the federal debt ceiling in exchange for negotiations with President Obama on longer-term “pressing problems,” but they stopped short of agreeing to end a government shutdown now in its 10th day. Graphic House Republicans have proposed funding that amounts to about one-third of discretionary funding. See the bills here. Later in the day, Senate Republicans put forward a plan that would reopen the government and raise the federal debt limit for as long as three months. Returning to the Capitol after meeting with Obama at the White House, members of a 20-strong House Republican delegation described the session as a good first step. The White House denied a news report that Obama had rejected the House GOP’s proposal outright, saying that “no specific determination was made” after Obama, Vice President Biden and top officials listened to the presentation. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said the gathering was “a very useful meeting” and indicated that conversations would continue into the evening. “It was clarifying, I think, for both sides as to where we are,” he said. “We put an offer on the table,” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), chairman of the House Budget Committee, told reporters. Obama “didn’t say yes; he didn’t say no,” Ryan said. “We’re continuing to negotiate this evening.” Earlier, in a news briefing following a closed-door meeting of House Republicans to present a plan to raise the debt limit temporarily, House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said, “What we want to do is offer the president today the ability to move a temporary increase in the debt ceiling.” He described the offer as a “good-faith effort on our part to move halfway to what he’s demanded in order to have these conversations begin.” Obama is “happy” that House Republicans agree a federal debt default is not an option, but he would prefer a longer extension of the debt limit, White House spokesman Jay Carney said after the plan was disclosed. Boehner did not immediately tell reporters specifics of the plan. But the speaker made clear that House Republicans were not agreeing to Obama’s demand that they pass legislation to fund the government without partisan riders, thereby ending the first government shutdown in 17 years. [See the latest updates on the shutdown.] In any case, Boehner’s proposal fell flat in the Senate, where members of both parties were clamoring to end the shutdown. Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), speaking to reporters after a White House meeting between Obama and Senate Democrats, said the shutdown must end and the debt ceiling must be raised ahead of negotiations with the Republicans, who he complained keep changing their demands. “This is a situation where they do not know what they want,” Reid said. His message to the GOP: “Open the government. Pay our bills. We’ll negotiate with you about anything.” Reid also said that Senate Democrats would “look at anything [House Republicans] send us,” but when asked about negotiating with them before reopening the government, he replied: “Not going to happen.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), meanwhile, was consulting fellow Republican senators to develop a proposal, advanced by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), to end the shutdown and raise the federal debt limit for as long as three months. The package sparked the first bipartisan negotiations since the standoff began in early September. But Collins’s proposal called for Democratic concessions including repeal of a tax on medical devices needed to fund Obama’s health-care initiative, and it would maintain deep budget cuts known sequestration through at least March. The House GOP plan would suspend the debt limit until Nov. 22, the Friday before Thanksgiving, while also forbidding Treasury Secretary Jack Lew from using “extraordinary measures” that his department has used in recent years to extend his borrowing authority for weeks after the ceiling is reached, according to a senior GOP aide who was in the room. This creates a hard “X date,” as financial analysts call the issue, leaving no wiggle room beyond that day. The House Republicans essentially are offering a “clean” debt-limit increase in exchange for negotiations over reopening the government, aides said. The government shutdown would not end until Obama agreed to “structural reforms” to the tax code and federal health programs. The Republican plan for a six-week increase in the debt limit, without conservative strings attached, was aimed chiefly at calming jittery financial markets, according to senior GOP advisers. Financial markets soared earlier Thursday on the first sign of optimistic news out of Washington in almost a month, with the Dow Jones industrial average up 169 points in the first 15 minutes of trading. The rally continued when Boehner confirmed the plan at an 11 a.m. press briefing, and by 1:30 p.m. the Dow was up more than 225 points. The plan was presented to the House GOP caucus Thursday morning after Lew warned lawmakers that he would be unable to guarantee payments to any group — whether Social Security recipients or U.S. bondholders — unless Congress raises the federal debt ceiling. If the GOP plan goes over well with rank-and-file Republicans, Boehner could put the legislation on the floor for a vote late Thursday, aides said. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) described the plan at the news briefing as “a temporary extension of the debt ceiling in exchange for a real commitment by the president and the Senate majority leader to sit down and talk about the pressing problems” facing the country. Rep. Kevin McCarty (R-Calif.), the House majority whip, characterized these problems as “drivers” of increasing federal debt. Obama has indicated he could support a short-term debt-limit hike, but he has also demanded that Republicans allow the government to reopen before he would negotiate with the GOP. If the Republicans want to negotiate, they should “reopen the government, extend the debt ceiling,” Obama said last week. “If they can’t do it for a long time, do it for the period of time in which these negotiations are taking place.” Carney, the White House spokesman, told reporters Thursday afternoon: “The president is happy that cooler heads at least seem to be prevailing in the House, that there at least seems to be a recognition that default is not an option.” However, Obama “believes it would be far better . . . to raise the debt ceiling for an extended period of time,” as Senate Democrats are proposing. “It would be far better for the economy if we stopped this episodic brinksmanship and . . . mothballed the nuclear weapon here, which is the threat of default, for a longer duration,” Carney said. “But it is certainly at least an encouraging sign that . . . they are not listening to the debt-limit and default deniers.” If Republicans now recognize that default cannot be permitted, he added, “why keep the nuclear weapon in your back pocket?” [Members of Congress are collecting pay during the shutdown.] The first reactions from Republican House members appeared generally positive. But several insisted they would back the measure only with a commitment from the president to open negotiations over the next debt-ceiling hike. “All we’re doing is saying, if the president hasn’t come towards us, we’ll just move the deadline out and offer it again,” said Rep. John Fleming (R-La.). “We haven’t changed our position. We’ve just changed the timeline.” Fleming rejected the idea that the proposal represents a concession from Republicans. “Not really, if we get a concession from the president, to sit down and negotiate. If he doesn’t agree to that, I won’t agree to the debt ceiling.” Meanwhile, several of the House’s most conservative members withheld comment about the proposal. “I’m not very enthusiastic,” Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) said without elaborating. Rep. Steve Scalise (R-La.), chairman of the Republican Study Committee, was noncommittal when asked about the plan and said his support depends on what happens in the meeting with the president Thursday. “Some of this involves a conversation with the president,” Scalise said. “There’s nothing unilateral that can be done. It’s going to involve having the president finally put some things on the table of his own.” Heritage Action for America, a conservative advocacy group influential with tea party Republicans, said Thursday that while it remains committed to fighting Obama’s health-care law and opposes “clean debt ceiling increases,” it wants to give House GOP leaders “the flexibility they need to refocus the debate on Obamacare.” Therefore, the group said, it will not include votes in favor of the proposal in its rankings of lawmakers’ conservatism. The plan would meet Obama’s demand for an increase in Treasury’s borrowing authority without any legislative attachments. But it would set the stage for tough negotiations, possibly lasting until Thanksgiving, over bigger fiscal matters, since the tentative plan calls for only a six-week increase of the debt limit. Advisers cautioned that Boehner’s often unruly caucus, which has repeatedly rejected leadership initiatives in the past, needs to sign off on the plan before it can advance. Reacting to the GOP proposal, a White House official said: “It is better for economic certainty for Congress to take the threat of default off the table for as long as possible, which is why we support the Senate Democrats’ efforts to raise the debt limit for a year with no extraneous political strings attached.” Obama also wants House Republicans to allow a vote on the “clean” government funding bill that has been passed by the Senate, the official said. “Once Republicans in Congress act to remove the threat of default and end this harmful government shutdown, the president will be willing to negotiate on a broader budget agreement,” the official added. “While we are willing to look at any proposal Congress puts forward to end these manufactured crises, we will not allow a faction of the Republicans in the House to hold the economy hostage to its extraneous and extreme political demands. Congress needs to pass a clean debt-limit increase and a funding bill to reopen the government.” Financial experts much prefer a longer-term extension of the debt ceiling, but even a brief extension would ease some of the turmoil that has been brewing on Wall Street. By the time markets closed Monday afternoon, the Dow had dropped 900 points in 14 trading days, losing almost 6 percent of its value. Just three weeks ago, Boehner’s leadership team presented a plan to lift the debt ceiling accompanied by a one-year delay of Obama’s health-care law and a litany of other conservative domestic policy demands. With Washington in gridlock and a key deadline in the debt-limit debate just one week away, Lew told the Senate Finance Committee Thursday morning that he would do all he can to minimize the pain of breaching the $16.7 trillion debt limit. But Lew also told the senators that in an unprecedented situation in which he would be relying entirely on the erratic flow of incoming revenue, the economy would suffer and there would not even be certainty that the government could make all interest and principal payments. “No credible economist or business leader thinks that defaulting is good for job creation or economic growth,” Lew said. “If Congress fails to meet its responsibility, it could be deeply damaging to the financial markets, the ongoing economic recovery, and the jobs and savings of millions of Americans.” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), a key conservative with ties to leadership and more junior tea party-backed colleagues, said Thursday morning that he and his colleagues “potentially” could support the new GOP debt-ceiling plan. “We think there needs to be some movement in dealing with the overall problem,” he said. “It’d be nice to get some dollar-to-dollar cuts there.” Asked whether he could support a short-term increase without related cuts, Jordan said he expected that question would be the primary topic of conversation among House Republicans on Thursday. Amid growing anxiety about a debt default, Republicans in the House and the Senate floated ideas Wednesday for raising the debt limit — if only for a short time — in hopes of forcing Obama to the negotiating table. One of the most significant ideas was brewing in the House, Ryan briefed conservatives on a plan to raise the debt limit for six weeks, which would give party leaders time to negotiate a broad agreement to overhaul the tax code and trim federal health-care and retirement spending. The plan, which Ryan sketched in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece Wednesday, was short on details. And it called for spending cuts of roughly $200 billion to cover the cost of raising the debt limit even in the near term — although senior GOP advisers said late Wednesday that they were also considering an increase with no strings attached. Lew’s appearance is the first public confrontation between a senior administration official and Republicans since the fiscal showdown began last month. The meeting comes as some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are questioning whether the administration has been too alarmist about the threat of going past an Oct. 17 deadline to raise the debt ceiling. Republicans have cited reports by credit-rating firms saying that the United States would not technically default unless it fails to make interest payments on its debt — which they regard as unlikely. Echoing points made by Republican presidents and officials in prior administrations, Lew is tried to counter that argument by highlighting the broad risks of leaving the government with no borrowing authority. “Certain members of the House and Senate believe that it is possible to protect our economy by simply paying only the interest on our debts, while stopping or delaying payments on a number of our other legal commitments,” Lew said. “The United States should not be put in a position of making such perilous choices for our economy and our citizens. There is no way of knowing the irrevocable damage such an approach would have on our economy and financial markets.” For example, officials say, Lew pointed out that the Treasury routinely refinances about $100 billion in debt every week, paying back principal and taking on new debt. He noted that should investors back away from Treasury debt, it could make refinancing difficult and throw the country’s financial markets into even greater chaos. Lew said the administration will face a series of difficult decisions even if Treasury can avoid what the credit-rating firms consider a default. In a scenario where federal spending will far exceed revenue, he said, the administration would have only imperfect options in deciding whom to pay. Officials say Lew will try to push Republicans to decide whom they wouldn’t pay — Social Security recipients or veterans. “We are relying on investors from all over the world to continue to hold U.S. bonds . . .,” Lew said. “If U.S. bondholders decided that they wanted to be repaid rather than continuing to roll-over their Treasury investments, we could unexpectedly dissipate our entire cash balance.” A Treasury official said Wednesday night that Obama would have to make the final decision in such a scenario. Lew confronted a Senate Finance Committee stocked with Republicans who have been skeptical about the administration’s claims that breaching the debt limit would be catastrophic. Among the committee’s members is Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.), who has championed the notion that the Treasury Department could avoid chaos in financial markets by continuing to make interest payments to investors. The senior Republican on the panel, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), has also expressed doubts about the risk of a debt-ceiling breach. But on Wednesday, Hatch acknowledged that blowing the Oct. 17 deadline would “scare the hell out of people.” And while Treasury might be able to pay interest on the debt, Hatch said, “the real question is whether it’s going to tank the stock market.” Obama, when he meets Thursday with House GOP leaders, is planning to emphasize his refusal to “pay ransom” to avoid default and reopen the government. Ryan, nonetheless, held out hope that the “meeting at the White House will allow us to work together and find common ground.” Thursday’s meeting is the second in a series the White House announced Wednesday aimed at breaking the impasse, reopening the government and raising the $16.7 trillion debt limit. Obama met first with House Democrats late Wednesday and plans to meet with each party in the Senate in the coming days, starting with a meeting with the Senate Democratic caucus Thursday. Obama invited the entire 233-member GOP House conference to join him at the White House, but Republicans decided to send only an 18-member group comprising top leaders and key committee chairmen, including Ryan, Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (Ky.) and Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp (Mich.). “Nine days into a government shutdown and a week away from breaching the debt ceiling, a meeting is only worthwhile if it is focused on finding a solution,” Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Boehner, said in a statement. “That’s why the House Republican Conference will instead be represented by a smaller group of negotiators.” The White House said Obama is “disappointed” by Boehner’s decision to limit Republican attendance and emphasized that Obama will not be negotiating. “The president thought it was important to talk directly with the members who forced this economic crisis on the country about how the shutdown and a failure to pay the country’s bills could devastate the economy,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said in a statement. Obama “will talk to anyone anytime . . . but will not pay the Republicans ransom for doing their job,” Carney said. “If the Republicans want to have a real discussion, they should open the government and take the threat of default off the table.” Republicans on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, circulated a memo from one of the nation’s leading credit-rating agencies that seemed to play down the threat of default. In the memo, Moody’s Investors Service said the Treasury Department is likely to continue paying interest on the government’s debt even if Congress refuses to lift the limit on borrowing, preserving the nation’s sterling AAA credit rating. “We believe the government would continue to pay interest and principal on its debt even in the event that the debt limit is not raised, leaving its creditworthiness intact,” said the Oct. 7 memo. “The debt limit restricts government expenditures to the amount of its incoming revenues; it does not prohibit the government from servicing its debt. There is no direct connection between the debt limit (actually the exhaustion of the Treasury’s extraordinary measures to raise funds) and a default.” The memo offered a starkly different view of the consequences of breaching the debt limit than is held by the White House, many policymakers and other financial analysts. Over the weekend, economists at Goldman Sachs said the economy would take a devastating hit even if Treasury kept making payments on the debt, because the pullback in federal spending would amount to roughly $175 billion, or 4.2 percentage points of gross domestic product. Mohamed El-Erian, the chief executive of PIMCO, the world’s largest bond company, agreed that the administration could take steps to contain the worst damage. But, he said, there would still be severe consequences. “It would avoid a series of major and cascading disruptions to the functioning of a financial market that is at the heart of the core of the global financial system,” he said. “Having said that, equities and other risk assets would still likely sell off hard.” Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) noted that Moody’s analysis is geared toward the well-being of its own investors, not average Americans. “When they say their clients will be okay, they’re not talking about people on Society Security, Medicare or our troops in the field. Moody’s doesn’t give a damn about any of those people.” William Branigin, Rosalind S. Helderman and Scott Wilson contributed to this report. | 0 |
Updated on: June 19, 2015 / 10:30 AM / CBS/AP CHARLESTON, S.C. -- A former friend who had reconnected with the man accused of a shooting massacre inside a historic black church in Charleston, South Carolina, said Dylann Roof had become an avowed racist. Joey Meek reconnected with Roof a few weeks ago and said that while they got drunk together on vodka, Roof began complaining that "blacks were taking over the world" and that "someone needed to do something about it for the white race." Charleston shooting 49 photos Roof, 21, is accused of fatally shooting nine people during a Bible study at The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston on Wednesday night, ripping out a piece of South Carolina's civic heart and adding to the ever-growing list of America's racial casualties.
Police in Charleston said Roof was charged with nine counts of murder as well as possession of a weapon during the commission of a violent crime.Meek called the FBI after recognizing Roof in the surveillance footage, down to the stained sweatshirt he wore while playing Xbox videogames in Meek's home the morning of the attack."I didn't THINK it was him. I KNEW it was him," Meek told The Associated Press after being interviewed by investigators.CBS News correspondent Adriana Diaz reports that a classmate reportedly described Roof as a "pill popper" who "told racist jokes." Those who knew Roof say they remember him talking about a scheme, fueled by his segregationist ideals.Meek said Roof told him he wanted "to start a civil war." It has played a part in nearly every major po... 02:47 Meek said during their reunion a few weeks ago, Roof told him that he had used birthday money from his parents to buy a .45-caliber Glock pistol and that he had "a plan" that was six months in the making. He didn't say what the plan was, but Meek said it scared him enough that he took the gun out of Roof's car and hid it in his house until the next day.Roof made incriminating statements indicating he was involved in the shooting, CBS News has learned.Police captured Roof in Shelby, North Carolina, after a motorist spotted him at a traffic light on her way to work. His apprehension ended an intense, hours-long manhunt. Four of the victims were ministers associated... 03:18 Roof waived extradition and was back in Charleston on Thursday night, authorities said, with a bond hearing pending. On Friday, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley told NBC's "Today" show the shooter should get the death penalty."We will absolutely will want him to have the death penalty," Haley said.Charleston officials announced a prayer vigil for Friday evening. The city's mayor described the shooting at the church as an act of "pure, pure concentrated evil." South Carolina church shooting victims 16 photos The victims included a state senator who doubled as the church's minister, three other pastors, a regional library manager, a high school coach and speech therapist, a government administrator, a college enrollment counselor and a recent college graduate - six women and three men who felt called to open their church to all.President Barack Obama called the tragedy yet another example of damage wreaked in America by guns.NAACP President and CEO Cornell William Brooks said "there is no greater coward than a criminal who enters a house of God and slaughters innocent people." Others bemoaned the loss to a church that has served as a bastion of black power for 200 years, despite efforts by white supremacists to wipe it out."Of all cities, in Charleston, to have a horrible hateful person go into the church and kill people there to pray and worship with each other is something that is beyond any comprehension and is not explained," said Mayor Joseph P. Riley Jr. "We are going to put our arms around that church and that church family." Haley joins "CBS This Morning" from Charlesto... 03:36 Surveillance video showed the gunman entering the church Wednesday night, and a Snapchat video reportedly taken by one of the few survivors of the attack shows a small group of people gathered together inside the church. All of them are black except for one man.
Charleston County Coroner Rae Wilson said he initially didn't appear threatening."The suspect entered the group and was accepted by them, as they believed that he wanted to join them in this Bible study," she said. Then, "he became very aggressive and violent."It's not clear whether Roof had any connection to the 16 white supremacist organizations operating in South Carolina, but he appears to be a "disaffected white supremacist," based on his Facebook page, said Richard Cohen, president of Southern Poverty Law Center in Montgomery, Alabama.On his Facebook page, Roof displayed the flags of defeated white-ruled regimes, posing with a Confederate flags plate on his car and wearing a jacket with stitched-on flag patches from apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia, which is now black-led Zimbabwe. A court hearing comes next for the accused ma... 03:52 Diaz reports that Roof was arrested in February at a mall in Columbia, South Carolina - charged with felony drug possession. He was wearing all black and suspicious employees called police.They found Roof with strips of the drug suboxone - often abused, but typically used to treat opiate addiction. The mall banned him from the premises but he was arrested for trespassing there in April.Spilling blood inside a black church - especially "Mother Emanuel," founded in 1816 - evoked painful memories nationwide, a reminder that black churches so often have been the targets of racist violence.
A church founder, Denmark Vesey, was hanged after trying to organize a slave revolt in 1822, and white landowners burned the church in revenge, leaving parishioners to worship underground until after the Civil War. The congregation rebuilt and grew stronger, eventually winning campaigns for voting rights and political representation. Slain Charleston pastor remembered for life o... 03:07 Its lead pastor, state Sen. Clementa Pinckney - among the dead - recalled his church's history in a 2013 sermon, saying "we don't see ourselves as just a place where we come to worship, but as a beacon and as a bearer of the culture.""What the church is all about," Pinckney said, is the "freedom to be fully what God intends us to be and have equality in the sight of God. And sometimes you got to make noise to do that. Sometimes you may have to die like Denmark Vesey to do that."Pinckney, 41, was a married father of two and a Democrat who spent 19 years in the South Carolina legislature after he was first elected at 23, becoming the youngest member of the House.The other victims were Cynthia Hurd, 54; Tywanza Sanders, 26; Myra Thompson, 59; Ethel Lance, 70; Susie Jackson, 87; and the reverends DePayne Middleton Doctor, 49; Sharonda Singleton, 45; and Daniel Simmons Sr., 74.U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the attack would be investigated as a hate crime. Download our Free App For Breaking News & Analysis Download the Free CBS News app | 0 |
U.S. NewsBiden: NFL Should Exercise ‘Generic Decency’ When It Comes To HiringBiden's interview with Lester Holt aired during NBC’s Super Bowl LVI Pregame Show.Andre EllingtonPoliticsJim Jordan Appears To Embrace Trump’s Call To Execute Hillary Clinton Campaign AidesTrump is "right on target" with a statement that included a call for the death penalty, the Ohio lawmaker said.Ed MazzaWorld NewsOver 130,000 Russian Troops Now Staged Outside Ukraine, U.S. EstimatesSome airlines have canceled flights to the capital of Ukraine and troops there have unloaded fresh shipments of weapons from NATO members.By ELLEN KNICKMEYER, JIM HEINTZ and AAMER MADHANI, APU.S. NewsPep Club Apologizes For Cowboy Outfits At Game Against Native American Team“Upon reflection, there was an underlying offensive connection to historical atrocities,” a high school pep club in Alaska said in a statement.Mary PapenfussEntertainment50 Cent Dropped Into The Super Bowl Show Upside Down And Obviously Became A MemeThe rapper was "In Da Club" and fans flipped.Josephine HarveyEntertainmentMickey Guyton Delivers Triumphant Rendition Of National Anthem At Super Bowl 2022Backed by a choir, the “Black Like Me” singer wowed the crowd and the players at SoFi stadium just before kickoff.Carly LedbetterEntertainmentESPN Host’s Wife Exposes His Super Bowl Food Crime And Fans FreakApparently he also eats sandwiches with a knife and fork.Josephine HarveyPoliticsSuper Bowl Viewers Troll Trump With Lots Of Versions Of The Same Scathing JokeYou knew this would happen...Ed MazzaSportsAll The Celebrities You Might’ve Missed At Super Bowl 2022The Rock got things cooking, while stars like LeBron James, Matt Damon and Kendall Jenner watched from the stands.Carly LedbetterPoliticsOfficer Placed On Leave After Viral Video Shows Him Choking Black Purdue StudentThe Indiana State Police are investigating the campus officer's use of force, and the university president promised a "swift and thorough" inquiry.Phillip JacksonEntertainmentPrince Harry Makes A Surprise Appearance At The Super Bowl With His CousinThe Duke of Sussex is living his best California life alongside his cousin Princess Eugenie.Carly LedbetterPoliticsRep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Rallies Support For Progressive Texas CandidatesCampaigning for Jessica Cisneros and Greg Casar, Ocasio-Cortez sent a message to the Democratic establishment: "Do not mess with Texas progressives."Daniel Marans | 0 |
Story highlightsDemocrats rejected Bernie Sanders' allies attempts oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership in the party platformThe party added support for a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage to its platform, a victory for SandersOrlando, Florida (CNN)Bernie Sanders' campaign is declaring victory after striking deals with Hillary Clinton's allies over climate change, health care and a $15-an-hour minimum wage as Democrats finalized the party's 2016 platform. The primary rivals' negotiators never found common ground on trade -- with Clinton's supporters voting down the Sanders backers' language to specifically reject the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership. Sanders supporters were also frustrated to see their proposals denouncing Israeli settlements and banning fracking rejected. Overall, though, they celebrated, touting the party's platform -- finalized in the wee Sunday morning hours -- as one that reflects the causes that animated the Vermont senator's campaign. "We got 80% of what we wanted in this platform," top Sanders foreign policy adviser Warren Gunnels told CNN. Those successes could keep in place plans for Sanders to appear in person with Clinton on Tuesday in New Hampshire, finally endorsing his Democratic primary rival. Clinton's campaign also touted the platform. "We are proud of the work that Democrats did in Orlando and for coming together to further strengthen the most progressive platform in the history of our party," said Clinton senior policy adviser Maya Harris.The weekend was the culmination of Sanders' month-long push, since the Democratic primary contest ended, to move the party's platform leftward. "Now let's put in place a president that can actually deliver on this and let's make sure that she does," Sanders supporter Ben Jealous, the former NAACP head, said in a nod to Clinton after the climate deal was announced. Clinton backers reject TPP amendmentSanders supporters' top priority had been trade, and it was the biggest point of contention between the two camps.When their proposal to oppose the Pacific Rim deal was rejected, Sanders supporters shouted "shame!" and "fake progressive!" at Clinton backers on the Democratic National Committee's platform panel here, as the party met to finalize its official positions on issues ahead of its convention later this month in Philadelphia.Some vowed to force a vote on the convention floor on whether to oppose the trade pact in the party's platform."If it were not for the Sanders campaign, we wouldn't even be having this conversation," said pro-Sanders delegate Cornel West, the civil rights activist and philosopher. "We don't want window dressing in talking about working people." By keeping specific opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership out of the platform, Democrats avoided embarrassing President Barack Obama, whose administration has spent most of his two terms negotiating the massive 12-nation trade deal. However, the decision also opens up Clinton and other Democrats to questions about whether their opposition to the Pacific Rim pact is sincere. It's a politically precarious position as presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump turns decades of Republican pro-trade orthodoxy on its head, regularly railing against the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other free trade deals on the campaign trail.Democrats approved an amendment to the platform proposed by American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union president Lee Saunders, which laid out priorities trade deals should address, including labor policy, the environment and currency manipulation."These are standards all Democrats believe should be applied to all trade agreements, including the Trans-Pacific Partnership," the amendment said.But when Jealous sought a tweak to Saunders' proposal that would have explicitly stated that those reasons are why Democrats oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership, he ran into opposition, as Clinton's camp -- supporting the White House, and led on the floor by Saunders -- called it unnecessary. Jealous pointed to Trump's stance, saying Democrats face something "we have never seen before -- which is a Republican opponent who intends to run clearly against the TPP." "We must empower every representative of the Democratic Party to speak clearly against the TPP," he said. Jealous added: "Hillary is against the TPP. Bernie is against the TPP. Let's not be bureaucrats -- let's be leaders."None of the pro-Clinton Democrats spoke in favor of the trade deal. Instead, Saunders sought to cast the party as already unified on trade -- even as he opposed the Jealous language. "We have to open opposition to TPP from both of our candidates running for president of the United States. For once -- for once -- all Democratic candidates and labor are of one view: No on TPP," Saunders said. Minutes later, another pro-Sanders delegate, Jim Hightower, proposed an amendment that specifically denounces the Trans-Pacific Partnership and says Democrats will oppose giving it a vote -- even in a lame-duck session of Congress before the next president is sworn in. That, too, was rejected.It led more than a dozen furious Sanders supporters to walk out of the meeting."You don't care about the people!" one shouted.The trade fight likely isn't over. Sanders supporter Jonathan Tasini said "there's absolutely no doubt" that his side will file a "minority report" calling for a vote against the Trans-Pacific Partnership on the floor of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia.That mechanism, which Sanders has enough votes to use, will force another trade debate, with all of the convention's delegates able to vote.Sanders prevails on minimum wageThe trade battle was one major loss in a weekend that has included several victories for Sanders. Democrats amended their platform late Friday to call for a $15-an-hour federal minimum wage -- a Sanders priority from the outset of his 2016 campaign.The amendment calls for the change "over time" -- less specific language than Sanders had wanted, making it a concession for Clinton.But it is much more specific than the previous draft of the platform, which said Americans "should earn more than $15 an hour" but didn't mention the federal minimum wage specifically.The amendment calling for the $15-an-hour federal minimum wage was introduced by former Ohio state Sen. Nina Turner, a Sanders supporter. Mary Kay Henry, the international president of the Service Employees International Union, proposed adding language that included the phrase "over time." Both were adopted without a fight -- the product of hours of negotiations between the Clinton and Sanders camps at an Orlando hotel on the first day of the two-day meeting.The minimum wage language pushes Clinton left of the position she's taken on the campaign trail. She has supported a $12-an-hour federal minimum wage, as well as local efforts to set higher minimum wages in places like New York and California. Clinton, Sanders camps strike climate dealThe Clinton and Sanders camps struck a bargain on climate change. While Sanders didn't get the carbon tax he wanted, the compromise says that "greenhouse gases should be priced to reflect their negative externalities, and to accelerate the transition to a clean energy economy and help meet our climate goals." It calls for the same standard Obama used to reject the Keystone XL pipeline -- saying it would "significantly exacerbate" global warming -- to apply to all pipeline projects. It also calls for investment in new infrastructure projects such as renewable power and advanced vehicle manufacturing. The Sanders camp had pushed for a national moratorium but knew, as part of the broader climate deal, that they'd lose that fight. "Gasland" director Josh Fox pushed the proposed ban, calling fracking "an abomination and a horror" and saying, "There is a political revolution going on in this country and fracking has no place in it."Sanders' supporters were on their feet as he spoke, chanting, "No fracking way!"But Clinton's backers replaced the language of Fox's proposal with a much more nuanced version, calling for a restriction on fracking "where states and local communities oppose it."That change got boos from Sanders supporters, but minutes later they cheered the broader climate compromise. Clinton backs public option on health careClinton on Saturday also expressed support for expanding taxpayer-funded health insurance, in a nod to the desires of Sanders' supporters. She affirmed support for the so-called "public option," which would expand health insurance coverage beyond the current provisions in Obamacare. Clinton has supported the public option for decades. But she ran in the Democratic primary as a candidate who wanted to expand Obamacare and used Sanders' support for a public option against him, saying it would be too costly and run into interference from Republican governors."We have more work to do to finish our long fight to provide universal, quality, affordable health care to everyone in America," Clinton said in a statement released by her campaign. "Already, the Affordable Care Act has expanded coverage to 20 million Americans. As president, I will make sure Republicans never succeed in their attempts to strip away their care and that the remaining uninsured should be able to get the affordable coverage they need to stay healthy."Clinton also called for allowing people 55 years and older to be able to enroll in Medicare. Currently, the typical age for enrollment is 65.On a conference call, Sanders called it "an important step forward in expanding health care in America and expanding health insurance and health care access to tens of millions of Americans. I congratulate Secretary Clinton for this extremely important initiative. It will save lives. It will ease suffering."Clinton's backers reject Israel settlements languageClinton supporters rejected an effort Saturday to add a call for "an end to occupations and illegal settlements" in Palestinian territories into the Democratic platform.Clinton's backers argued that the current language in the party's platform, calling for negotiations for a two-state solution in Israel to give Palestinians a homeland, are enough and that going further would inflame tensions and undercut U.S. diplomats' ability to lead future negotiations.But Sanders' supporters -- as well as dozens of young people in the crowd -- said the language they'd proposed simply repeated a position Clinton herself has taken in the past."This is a moral issue. This is an issue of our time. It has spiritual and moral implications," said Cornel West, the pro-Sanders civil rights activist and philosopher. "Democratic Party, you've been in denial for too long. Palestinians ought to be free."The amendment was voted down, 73-95. Its rejection led to the loudest boos of the day, with one man being escorted out after he stood up and declared that Democrats had "sold out to (American Israel Public Affairs Committee)."Marijuana legalization pathway approvedThe biggest cheers of the day came when the platform committee voted 81-80 for platform language calling for a "reasonable pathway to future legalization" of marijuana. The panel also approved criminal justice language endorsed by both campaigns -- with Jealous making the pitch for Sanders and Ben Crump, the lawyer for Trayvon Martin's family, for Clinton's side. It calls for the mandatory use of police body cameras, and says Democrats will "stop the use of weapons of war that have no place in our communities." The platform doesn't detail what it classifies as "weapons of war."It also calls for the Justice Department to investigate all "questionable or suspicious" police shootings. Still up at the Democratic platform meeting in Orlando are potentially contentious fights over issues like fracking and a carbon tax. Asked whether his planned meeting with Clinton would happen, and whether there are plans for further joint events, Sanders said: "We look forward to continue working with the Clinton campaign and we'll have more to say as to where we go forward in the near future." CNN's Eugene Scott and Dan Merica contributed to this report. | 0 |
Story highlights Paul Ryan tells the GOP convention that solutions are needed now, and "we can do this" Sen. McCain, Condoleezza Rice call for strength through powerRyan, the VP nominee, builds on the convention theme of "We Can Change It" The convention seeks to depict Mitt Romney as the protector of the American dreamIn the biggest speech of his still young political career, GOP vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan told the Republican National Convention on Wednesday that time is running out to solve the nation's fiscal problems, but Mitt Romney and he can do it if elected in November."We will not duck the tough issues -- we will lead," Ryan said in his prime time address televised nationwide. "... The work ahead will be hard. These times demand the best of us -- all of us, but we can do this. Together, we can do this."Ryan's speech was part of a campaign effort to portray Romney, a multimillionaire businessman and former Massachusetts governor, as a champion of working-class Americans who struggle under the policies of President Barack Obama.Romney chose Ryan, the conservative House Budget Committee chairman from Wisconsin, as his running mate in hopes that the fiscal expert known for big and hard-line ideas would galvanize support on the political right and appeal to moderates and independents seeking solutions for the nation's chronic deficit and debt problems.Ryan's speech delivered a fiery attack on Obama's record and highlighted the GOP allegiance to founding principles as he decried a dearth of leadership and pledged results in keeping with the convention theme for the day: "We Can Change It.""I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old -- and I know that we are ready," Ryan said. "Our nominee is sure ready. His whole life has prepared him for this moment -- to meet serious challenges in a serious way, without excuses and idle words. After four years of getting the runaround, America needs a turnaround, and the man for the job is Gov. Mitt Romney."Ryan focused mostly on the fiscal issues that are the congressman's strength, such as the national debt, stimulus spending under Obama and his proposed Medicare reforms, which have come under attack by Obama and Democrats. He sought to turn the tables on the issue, repeating the factually challenged assertion that Obama cut Medicare by more than $700 billion to cover the costs of the 2010 health care reform law passed by Democrats.The figure comes from a July 24 Congressional Budget Office report that said repealing the health care law, as called for by Romney and Ryan, would increase spending on Medicare by $716 billion through 2022. At the same time, the CBO letter said keeping Obamacare in place would not mean a $716 billion decrease in Medicare spending, as claimed by Ryan."The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over," Ryan said. "That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare."If elected, he and Romney will confront the tough issues "before the math and the momentum overwhelm us all," Ryan added.His speech included some humorous jabs at Obama that drew laughs and ovations from a charged convention crowd."With all their attack ads, the president is just throwing away money -- and he's pretty experienced at that," Ryan said early in the speech. Later, he received a standing ovation when he asked: "Without a change in leadership, why would the next four years be any different from the last four years?"Ryan also peppered his remarks with references to central government planning and control, code words for socialism among the most conservative elements of the Republican Party."None of us should have to settle for the best this administration offers -- a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us," he said.In the most emotional moment, Ryan paid tribute to his mother, who started her own business after his father died."It was a new life, and it transformed my mom from a widow in grief to a small businesswoman whose happiness wasn't just in the past," Ryan said. "Her work gave her hope. It made our family proud. And to this day, my mom is my role model."In the VIP box of the Tampa Bay Times Forum, Ryan's mother, Betty, stood and waved, and he touched his heart with his hand while gazing at her.In other speeches Wednesday night, Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and John McCain of Arizona offered biting criticism of Obama's presidency, saying the president was failing to adhere to American values.Paul took aim at domestic policies that he blamed for the country's debt now equaling its economic production, calling Obama "uniquely unqualified to lead this great nation.""The republic of Washington and Jefferson is now in danger of becoming the nation of debt and despair," said Paul, the son of vanquished Republican candidate Rep. Ron Paul of Texas.McCain, the Republican presidential candidate defeated by Obama four years ago, took aim at what he called diminishing American power and influence around the world. He accused Obama of abandoning freedom movements in Iran and Syria by not supporting protesters trying to overthrow oppressive regimes, saying "our president is not being true to our values.""We can choose to follow a declining path, toward a future that is dimmer and more dangerous than our past, or we can choose to reform our failing government, revitalize our ailing economy, and renew the foundations of our power and leadership in the world," said McCain, a consistent advocate for a stronger military. "That is what's at stake in this election."Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice added her voice to the call for American strength through power, delivering a politically charged speech that accused Obama of yielding the nation's leadership role in the world."It just has to be that the freest and most compassionate country on the face of the Earth will continue to be the most powerful," Rice said to cheers.Romney and Republicans contend that Obama's policies, such as stimulus spending, have worsened an already bad economic situation the president inherited from the previous GOP administration. They propose traditional conservative policies to shrink government, cut taxes and drastically reform entitlements, which they say will bring economic growth and job creation.Obama and Democrats say such prescriptions are failed policies of the past, and call for increased revenue sources such as higher taxes for wealthy Americans to be part of a deficit reduction plan that includes some spending cuts and entitlement reforms."On almost every issue he wants to go backwards, sometimes all the way to the last century," Obama said Wednesday at a campaign event in Virginia.For Ryan, 42, the vice presidential nomination and convention speech mean an elevated national profile after never having a statewide race.The convention is proceeding as Hurricane Isaac drenches the Gulf Coast after making landfall in Louisiana on Tuesday night, the eve of the seven-year anniversary of devastating Hurricane Katrina. Isaac prompted Republican organizers to postpone the first day of the convention, which is crucial for defining Romney to the American people.Romney mentioned Isaac at a campaign event on Wednesday in Indiana, joking that he appreciated the chance to be there "on dry land.""Our thoughts are, of course, with the people of the Gulf Coast states," he said, noting the Katrina anniversary. "We're grateful that it appears that Isaac will spare them from the kind of damage we saw during Katrina, but for many in the Gulf Coast who just finished repairing their homes and getting their lives back to normal, this must be a heavy burden. And so today our thoughts are with them, our prayers go out to them and our country must do all we can to help them recover."GOP officials pushed ahead with a convention agenda designed to frame the election as a referendum on Obama's presidency while attempting to turn Romney's biggest political vulnerabilities into campaign advantages.Romney clinched the Republican nomination in the roll call of state delegates Tuesday after a rugged Republican primary campaign that saw momentum swings nearly every week and bitter attacks by GOP colleaguesThe 2,200-plus convention delegates also approved a conservative platform that calls for less government, opposes same-sex marriage and endorses a "human life amendment" to ban abortion, with no specific exceptions for cases of rape, incest or when the mother's life is threatened.Romney and Ryan, who also was endorsed by delegates Tuesday, will be formally nominated on Thursday, and Romney's acceptance speech that night will conclude the convention with the highest-profile political moment in the former Massachusetts governor's career.The convention seeks to portray Obama as a failed leader whose policies undermine the American dream, directly attacking the president on the issue of equal opportunity that traditionally favors Democrats.Speaker after speaker has emphasized his or her own humble beginnings as descendants of immigrants who worked hard to achieve success for their families and never expected government help or handouts. Virtually every speaker took umbrage with Obama's comment on the campaign trail that "you didn't build that" in reference to successful businesses that received government help along the way.On Tuesday night, Romney's wife Ann faced a similar entry as Ryan into the full-bore glare of presidential media coverage with her own prime time speech that delivered a political broadside with a personal touch.She mixed homespun anecdotes, such as repeated references to their first date, with references to issues considered weaknesses for her husband -- support from women and his personal wealth -- in encouraging Americans to get to know the warm and loving man she met at a high school dance."This was a political speech wrapped in velvet," CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger commented.Ann Romney took on another tricky political issue for her husband Wednesday when she addressed a Latino coalition and challenged the traditional support by Hispanic-Americans for Democrats, including Obama."I feel like my importance in speaking out is making sure that those coalitions that would naturally be voting for another party wake up and say you better really look at the issues this time," she said. "You better really look at your future and say who is going to be the guy who is going to make it better for you and your children. And there is only one answer."Meanwhile, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida called Wednesday for a more comprehensive and moderate immigration policy by Republicans in order to make inroads with the Latino community."The Republican Party has to become the pro-legal immigration party, not simply the anti-illegal immigration party, and that begins by recognizing that a million people a year immigrate to the United States legally, permanently. No other country even comes close," said Rubio, a Hispanic-American conservative who is a rising Republican star.Noting that millions of illegal immigrants present what he called a humanitarian problem, he added: "We are not going to give amnesty to 12 million people, we are not going to round up and deport 12 million people. Somewhere between those two ideas there is a solution." The GOP platform contains traditional conservative planks on immigration and other issues, including support for the "human life amendment" with no exceptions to an abortion ban. That runs counter to overall public opinion in America, especially among women.Obama took aim at conservative GOP social policies Wednesday, saying voters can decide the direction of the country."In November you can say in this century women can be trusted to make their own health care choices," the president said to cheers. "You can say that in this century we don't think young immigrants who were brought here when they were children and understand themselves as Americans and have pledged allegiance to the flag should suddenly be deported to countries where they have never been."The Obama campaign also has made an issue of Romney's personal wealth, challenging him to release more than the two years of tax returns he has made public -- as his father did in releasing 12 years of returns when running for president in 1968 -- and questioning whether his career as a venture capitalist benefited workers or prepared him to deal with a sluggish economy.In her speech Tuesday night, Ann Romney addressed the Democratic attacks head-on, noting her husband's success throughout his career and expressing amazement that such a record was being criticized."If the last four years had been more successful, do we really think there would be this attack on Mitt's success?" she said.For Romney, 65, the nomination puts him within one step of the goal he first sought in 2007 by running for president after serving as a Republican governor for four years in traditionally Democratic Massachusetts.Though rivals challenged his conservative credentials in the 2012 primaries, Romney emerged victorious. But he continues to walk a political tightrope in trying to energize right-wing support while also appealing to moderates and independent voters.The latest CNN/ORC International Poll indicates a dead heat between Romney and Obama, with new numbers released Sunday showing that 53% of likely voters believe Obama is more in touch with their needs, compared with 39% for Romney.Obama leads by an equal margin when it comes to being in touch with the middle class, and six in 10 say Obama is in touch with the problems facing women today, with just over three in 10 feeling the same way about Romney.Romney leads 48% to 44% over Obama on managing the government effectively and has a 6-point advantage on having a clear plan for fixing the nation's problems. Both figures are within the survey's margin of error. | 0 |
In recent days, more people have taken to covering their faces, although it remains a scattershot strategy driven by personal choice. The government does not recommend it.That may change. Officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are considering altering the official guidance to encourage people to take measures to cover their faces amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because it is an ongoing matter of internal discussion and nothing has been finalized.President Trump told reporters April 3 that he did not plan to take a new Centers for Disease Control advisement that Americans wear non-medical face coverings. (The Washington Post)CDC guidance on masks remains under development, the federal official said. The official said the new guidance would make clear that the general public should not use medical masks — including surgical and N95 masks — that are in desperately short supply and needed by health-care workers.Instead, the recommendation under consideration calls for using do-it-yourself cloth coverings, according to a second official who shared that thinking on a personal Facebook account. It would be a way to help “flatten the curve,” the official noted.Such DIY cloth masks would potentially lower the risk that the wearer, if infected, would transmit the virus to other people. Current CDC guidance is that healthy people don’t need masks or face coverings.According to the CDC and World Health Organization, only the sick, and their caretakers, should wear face masks. Research scientist Jeremy Howard disagrees. (The Washington Post)At the daily White House briefing Monday, President Trump was asked if everyone should wear nonmedical fabric masks. “That’s certainly something we could discuss,” Trump said, adding, “it could be something like that for a limited period of time.”Thomas Inglesby, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said in an interview the CDC should urge people to use nonmedical masks or face coverings.“I think it would be a prudent step we can all take to reduce transmission” by people who are infected but have no symptoms, he said. DIY coverings — like the ones his children just fashioned from old clothes for his family — aren’t perfect and should not be used as an excuse to stop social distancing, he said.Prominent among the people pushing the idea is Scott Gottlieb, an internist and former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration in the Trump administration. Gottlieb was the lead author of a pandemic-response plan published Sunday by the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative-leaning Washington think tank, and framed as a road map for restoring the economy gradually to normal. The road map said that, during this initial phase of rapid community transmission of the coronavirus, “everyone, including people without symptoms, should be encouraged to wear nonmedical fabric face masks while in public.”On CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Gottlieb was more specific: “A cotton mask — we should be putting out guidelines from the CDC on how you can develop a mask on your own.”Gottlieb and his allies acknowledge that an improvised mask, including something akin to a bandanna or even a surgical mask, does not provide protection from infection with the virus. It could, however, limit the amount of respiratory droplets emitted by the person wearing the mask. Epidemiologists believe that infected people can spread covid-19 even when they have no symptoms.Two weeks ago, the CDC updated its strategies for “optimizing the supply of face masks.” In health-care settings where face masks are no longer available, providers might use homemade masks, such as bandannas and scarves, for care of patients with covid-19 “as a last resort.”For now, the CDC encourages everyone to engage in social distancing and to not stand within six feet of another person, especially someone suspected of being sick. The coronavirus is spread by respiratory droplets. The droplets are not aerosolized, and thus do not float through a room but rather fall quickly to the floor. Although such droplets can be produced by talking, they are more likely to travel farther via a cough or sneeze.The fear among health experts is that ordinary people seeking facial protection will siphon needed masks from the limited stockpile. That’s why the surgeon general, Jerome Adams, took to Twitter in late February and wrote “STOP BUYING MASKS!”There are more subtle concerns about mask-wearing and whether it would truly be a positive effect on the spread of covid-19. One major concern is that wearing a mask might give a person a false sense of safety and lead someone to be less disciplined about social distancing.It’s also conceivable a mask could become contaminated with the virus, not properly cleaned or disposed of, and be handled by someone else, leading to coronavirus transmission.Ilhem Messaoudi, a University of California at Irvine epidemiologist, notes that the coronavirus is spread mainly through relatively heavy respiratory droplets. Maintaining the six-foot distance and frequent hand-washing are still the most effective ways to stop infections, she said.“Given the shortage of PPE available to our healthcare workforce, it is irresponsible for anyone to suggest that we should all don masks, reducing the supply for nurses and physicians who do not have the luxury of treating symptomatic, very sick patients from 6 feet away,” Messaoudi said in an email.Jeffrey Duchin, a top health official in Seattle and King County, Wash., which endured the first widespread outbreak of covid-19 in the United States, said the health department there does not recommend that people without illness wear a mask, both because the benefit is uncertain and because there’s a shortage of face masks for health-care workers.“Homemade masks theoretically could offer some protection if the materials and fit were optimized, but this is uncertain,” Duchin said in an email. “It’s also possible that mask-wearing might increase the risk for infection if other recommendations (like hand washing and distancing) are less likely to be followed or if the mask is contaminated and touched.”He didn’t absolutely rule out masks, however. “Well-designed homemade or commercially manufactured masks for the public that did not draw on the supply needed by healthcare workers could potentially provide some protection,” Duchin said.A recent article in the journal the Lancet rounded up the disparate advice given by governments across the planet during this pandemic. In Hong Kong, people are encouraged to wear a surgical mask when taking public transit or being in a crowded place. But the World Health Organization states that healthy people need to wear a mask only if taking care of a person suspected to have the virus.The authors of the Lancet review endorsed masks under certain circumstances: “It would be reasonable to suggest vulnerable individuals avoid crowded areas and use surgical face masks rationally when exposed to high-risk areas. As evidence suggests COVID-19 could be transmitted before symptom onset, community transmission might be reduced if everyone, including people who have been infected but are asymptomatic and contagious, wear face masks.”In recent days a video has been in circulation via YouTube showing anonymous researchers using laser beams in a darkened laboratory to study the way speaking can generate droplets. The researchers urge people to cover their faces to block droplets caused by speech. The video ends with an informal appearance by Harold Varmus, former director of the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute, who urges people to speak virtually and not face to face.“The laser beam experiments demonstrate clearly that you don’t need to cough or sneeze to produce the fluid droplets that are likely to be a significant source of infectious virus: simple speech is enough to produce them,” Varmus told The Post.“Mask-wearing also serves as a reminder to all that we are in a crisis situation and are trying to be good citizens by covering our mouths,” Varmus said.He noted that people walking down the street are at a very low risk of infection.“There is nothing you can do to turn your risk to zero, but we have to balance behaviors and resources in a rational way and if you meet with someone for 20 seconds it’s different than if you meet for 20 hours,” he said.NIH issued a statement downplaying the significance of the video and advised people to follow CDC guidelines.“This is an early basic science experiment that while intriguing, is very preliminary. The work has not been validated, peer reviewed, or published,” NIH said. “To suggest that this has immediate public health implications for the spread of coronavirus would be misleading.” | 0 |
The nation is still abuzz Wednesday after a jury convicted former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin on all counts of murder and manslaughter in the death of George Floyd. The verdict, which found Chauvin guilty of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter after he knelt on Floyd for more than nine minutes last May, set off celebrations nationwide filled with tears, hugs and relief.Now, all eyes turn to Chauvin’s sentencing in the coming weeks, where he faces up to 40 years in prison, as well as the trials in August for the three other former Minneapolis police officers facing charges stemming from Floyd’s death.Here’s what to know:Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday announced a sweeping Justice Department probe into the practices and culture of the Minneapolis Police Department, elevating the federal government’s role a day after Chauvin was found guilty.After calling Floyd’s family, President Biden called for confronting systemic racism. “It’s not enough. We can’t stop here,” he said from the White House after the conviction.White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Wednesday said Biden had been briefed on the fatal police shooting of Ma’Khia Bryant, a 16-year-old Black girl in Columbus, Ohio, which came just as Chauvin’s conviction was being celebrated as a sign of long-elusive accountability for law enforcement.Legal experts say the outcome, a rare instance where an officer is convicted of murder for killing someone on duty, was due to the prosecution’s efforts to fully sever Chauvin from policing, the job he held for nearly two decades.For Black Americans, the positive feelings surrounding the Chauvin verdict were tempered by outrage over other injustices and worries that one officer’s conviction would be held up as proof that the systemic problems highlighted by Floyd’s killing were solved.When will Chauvin be sentenced?He is scheduled to be sentenced in about eight weeks. Chauvin, who is just the second Minnesota police officer to be convicted of murder, faces up to 40 years in prison on the second-degree murder charge.After his conviction Tuesday, Chauvin was handcuffed and taken into custody. Judge Peter A. Cahill revoked Chauvin’s bail after the verdict. The former officer had been out of jail on bail since October.Though the Minnesota sentencing guidelines recommend lesser sentences — 12.5 years on the murder charge — for someone who does not have a criminal history, the state is pushing for a tougher sentencing.Chauvin’s mug shot was released early Wednesday by the Minnesota Department of Corrections. He is being held at a segregated unit of a state prison about 25 miles outside Minneapolis as he awaits sentencing, CNN reported.When are the other officers heading to court?In addition to Chauvin, three other former Minneapolis police officers — Tou Thao, Thomas Lane and J. Alexander Kueng — are scheduled to head to court in August.The three men face charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder as well as second-degree manslaughter. Like Chauvin, they could each face up to 40 years in prison for the aiding and abetting murder charge, but sentencing guidelines could limit the maximum sentence to around 15 years. At a Minnesota Court of Appeals hearing scheduled for next month, the state will attempt to add a third-degree murder charge for Thao, Lane and Kueng.The trial for the three former officers is happening Aug. 23 after a judge split them from Chauvin, citing covid-19 protocols. All of them are currently free on $750,000 bail.What’s the status of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act?On April 21, members of Congress responded to Derek Chauvin being found guilty in the murder of George Floyd. (The Washington Post)With Chauvin’s conviction, the Floyd family will likely turn its attention toward securing passage of federal legislation aimed at reducing police brutality and racism.The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act is a reform measure introduced by Democrats last year that could help reshape police training in the U.S. Among the reforms included in the bill are prohibiting racial profiling throughout law enforcement, banning chokeholds and instituting a national police misconduct registry. The act passed in the House but it remains stalled in the Senate.Vice President Harris, who introduced the legislation last year as a member of the Senate, urged senators to pass the bill, saying “this work is long overdue” and that racial injustice is “a problem for every American.”After the verdict was announced, Floyd’s family members emphasized the importance of the Senate passing the police reform measure. In an op-ed for The Washington Post on Wednesday, Philonise Floyd called on the Senate to “begin the work of transforming policing in the United States” by passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act.“What does justice feel like?” he wrote. “It feels like maybe we can finally take a breath.”Garland says Justice Dept. probe to determine whether ‘Minneapolis police engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing’On April 21, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced an investigation into whether the Minneapolis Police Department engages in "unlawful policing.” (The Washington Post)During remarks at Justice Department headquarters on Wednesday, Garland said the civil investigation following Chauvin’s conviction would determine whether “Minneapolis police engaged in a pattern or practice of unconstitutional or unlawful policing.”The Trump administration had opened a federal civil rights investigation in the case days after Floyd died last May when Chauvin pressed his knee on his neck for more than nine minutes while he was prone on the ground. Garland said in a statement late Tuesday that a criminal probe is ongoing.“Nothing can fill the void the loved ones of George Floyd have felt since his death,” Garland said. “My heart goes out to them and to all those who have experienced similar loss.”He said the civil probe will examine whether the Minneapolis police have engaged in excessive force, discriminatory conduct or abused those with mental or physical disabilities.‘What a day to be a Floyd’Terrence Floyd spoke about his brother in Minneapolis on April 20 following the guilty verdict in trial of former police officer Derek Chauvin. (Reuters)Terrence Floyd, one of George Floyd’s brothers, delivered an emotional statement in which he expressed his gratitude for all of the “support and prayers and love” shown for the Floyd family.He also thanked all those who have long fought for social justice and racial equality, including the Rev. Jesse Jackson, saying, “Their fight was not in vain.”At a news conference after the jury’s guilty verdict, Floyd underlined how significant Tuesday’s resolution was for his family and to history.“I will miss him, but now I know he’s in history,” Terrence Floyd said. “What a day to be a Floyd, man.”Darnella Frazier, teen who filmed Floyd’s arrest, celebrates conviction: ‘Justice has been served’The teenager who captured the world’s attention with her cellphone footage of George Floyd’s arrest and death last year, said she sobbed after jurors in Minneapolis returned a guilty verdict for former police officer Derek Chauvin on Tuesday.“I just cried so hard,” 18-year-old Darnella Frazier wrote on Facebook. “This last hour my heart was beating so fast, I was so anxious. … But to know GUILTY ON ALL 3 CHARGES !!! THANK YOU GOD THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU.”“George Floyd we did it!!” she wrote, ending her post with: “justice has been served.”As the nation celebrated the rare instance of a police officer being convicted of the murder of a Black person, many pointed to Frazier recording Chauvin kneeling on Floyd’s neck in a video that’s been seen millions of times worldwide as a catalyst for the events that led to Tuesday’s guilty verdict.On Instagram, Frazier thanked everyone for the public support over the last year. She again offered her condolences and love to Floyd’s family, saying she hoped they could find some semblance of justice from Chauvin’s conviction.“Although no amount of charges will bring back a loved one, justice was served and his murderer will pay the price,” she said. “We did it.”World reacts to Chauvin’s guilty verdictForeign leaders and media outlets began to react to Chauvin’s conviction in a case that sparked an international reckoning and has grasped the attention of observers around the world.British politicians at the highest levels of government were quick to weigh in.“I was appalled by the death of George Floyd and welcome this verdict,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter.London Mayor Sadiq Khan tweeted that he was thinking of Floyd’s loved ones. “I welcome the verdict but by itself this won’t heal the pain of their loss, which reverberated around the world,” he wrote. “The guilty verdict must be the beginning of real change — not the end.”Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in an interview on “Real Talk Ryan Jespersen” that “it is good news that we saw the verdict come through where people hoped it would.”“But it still underlines that there’s an awful lot of work to do,” he said.Read more: | 0 |
President Donald Trump’s move comes just over a week after his treasury secretary said the trade war between the two countries was “on hold.” | Nicholas Kamm/Getty Images President Donald Trump is moving ahead with steps to protect U.S. intellectual property by punishing China with broad investment restrictions, litigation at the World Trade Organization and hefty tariffs on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods.
The move, which the White House announced Tuesday morning, reignites trade tensions between the world's two largest economies and ratchets up the pressure just days before Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is set to travel to Beijing for further trade talks. A series of tit-for-tat trade actions earlier this year had depressed markets and threatened to harm consumers and industries in both countries, but relations had calmed down after the two sides launched an economic dialogue that led Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to declare just over a week ago that the trade war was "on hold." Mnuchin and others had noted, however, that Trump wanted to keep the threat of tariffs at the ready, but he was inclined to tone down the trade war rhetoric as discussions were ongoing. The Trump administration declined to specify on Tuesday what had changed that led the White House to issue its latest announcement. But one administration official said it should be viewed as negotiating leverage rather than as a rebuke of the idea that the trade war is on hold."You can't go soft too quickly or you are not going to get where you want to go," the official said.
Still, the sudden statement caught officials from Washington to Beijing by surprise and angered those who had welcomed a calming of the waters.
"Trump’s schizophrenic China trade policy is a menace to the global economy," said Dan Ikenson, a trade policy expert at the Cato Institute who criticized the decision to reverse course "yet again." "The president seems to thrive on the uncertainty and chaos that his version of leadership churns out on a daily basis, but whether any of this actually happens is anyone’s guess." Stocks again fell in light of the news and turmoil in Europe. The Dow Jones industrial average dropped nearly 400 points, or about 1.6 percent, to end the day at 24,361.45. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index was off more than 1 percent to close at 2,689.86.
The steps announced Tuesday involve imposing 25 percent tariffs on imported goods from China that include what the White House called "industrially significant" technology and products related to the "Made in China 2025" initiative. The list of targeted goods will be announced by June 15 and the added levy will be imposed shortly after, the White House said.
The White House is also pledging to put in place investment restrictions and stronger export controls in a bid to curb Chinese acquisition of "industrially significant" technology, which will be announced by June 30 and imposed shortly after. The administration will also continue a WTO case launched in March on accusations that China's intellectual property practices violate international trade law.
All three measures are being taken as a result of a seven-month investigation the Trump administration began into China’s handling of data and intellectual property, which wrapped up in late March. The White House argues as a result of that investigation that Beijing commits IP theft and forces foreign companies to hand over valuable data in order to operate in the Chinese market and compete with domestic firms.
But China is sure to retaliate against the latest measures, as it has made clear that it will respond in kind to any tariffs the Trump administration levies against its exported goods. On Tuesday, China's Ministry of Commerce said it was "surprised" by the White House's announcement but also called it "somewhat expected."
"This is obviously contrary to the consensus reached between the two sides in Washington not long ago," a spokesperson said, according to an informal translation. "No matter what measures the United States takes, China has the confidence, ability and experience to safeguard the interests of the Chinese people and the country’s core interests. China urges the United States to act in accordance with the spirit of the joint statement."
Last month, China promised to respond in kind to Trump's proposed tariffs on $50 billion in goods with its own fees on the same dollar value in imports from the U.S. of amount on soybeans, chemical products and other items. Those would come on top of the tariffs on $3 billion in goods in place as of early April on U.S. shipments to China of pork, fruit, nuts, recycled aluminum and other goods.
There had been some hope among free traders and the anti-tariff camp that the higher set of tariffs would never ultimately go into effect after the two countries launched a trade dialogue earlier this month in Beijing. After Trump administration officials traveled to China at the start of the month, a Chinese delegation came to Washington two weeks later, and the two sides announced that Beijing would buy significantly more U.S. agricultural and energy products in a bid to reduce the bilateral trade deficit.
Many in the business sector urged the Trump administration to once again withdraw its threat to impose tariffs, even as they remained supportive of the need to crack down in some way on China's intellectual property practices.
“Tariffs do not work — point blank," said Dean Garfield, the president and CEO of the Information Technology Industry Council. "Moving forward with tariffs on goods imported from China will harm U.S. consumers and businesses, and will fail to change China’s discriminatory and damaging trade practices."
On Tuesday, American hog farmers sent out a plea calling on the administration to swiftly resolve disputes with China, saying that is costing producers billions of dollars in lost profits. The group cited research from Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes, who estimates that U.S. pork producers have lost $2.2 billion on an annualized basis as a result of events leading up to and following China's 25 percent punitive tariff on pork.
And on Capitol Hill, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer offered muted praise for the announcement but urged Trump not to change his mind again.
"While obviously more details are needed, this outline represents the kind of actions we have needed to take for a long time, but the president must stick with it and not bargain it away," he said in a statement.
But other Democrats appeared less sure that the announcement was a positive one.
Rep. Bill Pascrell of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee, said that taking steps to curb China's "cheating" was necessary but expressed concern about the rollout of the announcement, which "seemingly no one knew" was coming. "The chaos and incoherence of this administration’s approach is more head-spinning than a pinball machine," he added.
Doug Palmer and Ben White contributed to this report. | 0 |
Facebook has banned The Epoch Times, a conservative news outlet that spent more money on pro-Trump Facebook advertisements than any group other than the Trump campaign, from any future advertising on the platform.The decision follows an NBC News report that The Epoch Times had shifted its spending on Facebook in the last month, seemingly in an effort to obfuscate its connection to some $2 million worth of ads that promoted the president and conspiracy theories about his political enemies."Over the past year we removed accounts associated with the Epoch Times for violating our ad policies, including trying to get around our review systems," a Facebook spokesperson said. "We acted on additional accounts today and they are no longer able to advertise with us."Facebook's decision came as a result of a review prompted by questions from NBC News. The spokesperson explained that ads must include disclaimers that accurately represent the name of the ad's sponsors.The Epoch Times' new method of pushing the pro-Trump conspiracy ads on Facebook, which appeared under page names such as "Honest Paper" and "Pure American Journalism," allowed the organization to hide its multimillion-dollar spending on dark-money ads, in effect bypassing Facebook's political advertising transparency rules. Facebook's ban will affect only The Epoch Times' ability to buy ads; the sock-puppet pages created to host the new policy-violating ads were still live at the time of publication.Nicholas Fouriezos, a reporter for the website OZY, tweeted about the move Thursday. It was first spotted last week by Lachlan Markay of The Daily Beast.A recent NBC News investigation revealed how The Epoch Times had evolved from a nonprofit newspaper that carried a Chinese-American religious movement's anti-communism message into a conservative online news behemoth that embraced President Donald Trump and conspiracy content.The religious group that quietly operates the paper believes in a coming judgment day that will send communists to hell and says Trump is helping accelerate that timeline.Since 2016, The Epoch Times' revenue more than doubled, and the reach of its online content rocketed past that of every other news organization, attracting billions of views across its many platforms. It also became a player on the conservative media stage, securing interviews with Trump Cabinet members, loyalists and family members, as well as members of Congress and Republican media stars.Until mid-July, The Epoch Times had placed its ads through accounts that clearly labeled their affiliation to the wider organization. Through the umbrella account, Coverage of the Trump Presidency by The Epoch Times, the news organization spent $1.5 million on more than 11,000 Trump-friendly Facebook ads within the last year.In May, after a popular newsletter from the progressive nonprofit ACRONYM highlighted The Epoch Times' major Facebook spending, journalist Judd Legum noted in his newsletter how many of the ads were in violation of Facebook's policies. NBC News reporters reached out to The Epoch Times in June, prompting a defensive open letter from the site's publisher.By July, The Epoch Times' official accounts were no longer running any ads on Facebook, according to searches of Facebook's Ad Library, its transparency tool that is supposed to make it easy to find information behind ads "related to politics or issues of national importance."The ads are still running, just not under the official accounts. By mid-July, Epoch Times ads had shifted to multiple pages with opaque names such as Honest Paper, Patriots of America, Pure American Journalism and Best News. Other Epoch Times ads were sponsored by a now-defunct page called The News Express.The Epoch Times has spent more than $450,000 on thousands of ads from these five accounts in the last 30 days. It is unclear whether there are other accounts.Multiple anonymous patrons now appear on the "paid for" section of each ad. Where Epoch Times ads used to be clearly marked as being paid for by The Epoch Times, ads now claim to have been paid for by groups such as "Chronicle Media" or "MarketFuel Subscription Services."The new ads prompt potential customers to visit similarly generic websites, such as genuinenewspaper.com and truthandtradition.news, websites registered privately on July 24 and 25, respectively, according to a search on DomainTools, a domain-research company. Those sites both redirect to The Epoch Times' subscription page.The Epoch Times’ publisher, Stephen Gregory, did not respond to an emailed request for comment before the original publication of this article. Three days after publication, Gregory emailed a statement to NBC News which did not address its attempt to circumvent Facebook’s review systems by running its ads through non-branded pages, the reason behind Facebook’s ban, but which asserted the article "grossly misrepresents" the nature of the news organization's advertising.The statement from Gregory read: “The Epoch Times advertisements are print-subscription advertisements describing our paper’s reporting — a popular practice of many publishers — and every one of these ads was approved by Facebook before publishing.”The growth and legitimacy of The Epoch Times are due in large part to Facebook, where it placed $2 million in pro-Trump ads in the last year, more than any other organization outside Trump's re-election campaign and more than what most of the Democratic presidential candidates spent on their own campaigns in the same time.Brendan Steinhauser, a Republican strategist who advised The Epoch Times on how to break into the broader conservative movement, told NBC News that he arranged its introduction to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Conference, and arranged dozens of interviews with right-wing newsmakers.Although he doesn't manage their social media strategy — Steinhauser said The Epoch Times handles that internally — he said creating multiple pages and accounts without clearly labeling their connection to the wider organization was a common practice used by public relations or political campaigns to bring in subscribers and donors.UPDATE (Aug. 26, 2019, 1:20 p.m. ET): This article has been updated with a response from the publisher of the Epoch Times. | 0 |
A woman is injected with her second dose of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. | AP Photo/LM Otero President Joe Biden on Thursday announced plans to require staff vaccinations at all health facilities that receive federal funding, as part of a sweeping new plan to rein in the coronavirus.
The move represents a dramatic expansion of the administration’s bid to boost vaccination rates among frontline health care workers, and comes as the administration readies a redoubling of efforts to rein in the virus.
The requirement is part of a broader six-part blueprint for combating the pandemic that Biden unveiled. Dubbed “Path out of the Pandemic,” it outlines new initiatives aimed at boosting vaccinations and access to testing, insulating the economy, keeping schools open, expanding mask requirements and improving care for Covid-19 patients. “This is not about freedom and personal choice. It’s about protecting yourself and those around you," Biden said. He added, "The bottom line, we're going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated coworkers."
Biden last month said he would impose staff vaccination requirements on all federally funded nursing homes, a directive expected to cover roughly 15,000 facilities employing 1.3 million people. Now, he is extending the order to a far wider group of providers, including major hospitals across the nation that receive Medicare or Medicaid funding.
Officials anticipate the broader mandate will affect more than 50,000 health facilities and 17 million workers. Another centerpiece of Biden's plan is an executive order requiring that all federal workers get vaccinated against Covid-19, with no option for being regularly tested as an alternative. That’s an escalation from his earlier encouragement that the federal workforce seek vaccination or be subject to a range of restrictions.
“The federal workforce is one of the largest in the country, and we’d like to be a model for what we think businesses and other organizations should do around the country,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on Thursday. “The expectation is, if you want to work in the federal government or be a contractor, you need to be vaccinated.”
She added that federal workers would have 75 days to comply with the mandate, unless they qualify for limited exemptions. The administration is also developing regulations that will require employers with more than 100 workers to institute requirements that employees get vaccinated or submit to regular testing. Those employers will also be required to give workers paid time off to get vaccinated. "In total, the new vaccination requirements in the president's plan cover about 100 million workers, that's two-thirds of all workers in the United States," a senior administration official told reporters on Thursday. The Department of Labor and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration are expected to issue a rule "in the coming weeks" that will lay out the exact timeframe for the new requirements. Those who do not comply with the OSHA standard could face fines up to $14,000 per violation, the senior official added.
The president in his speech also called on governors to get all teachers and school staff vaccinated, as well as encourage schools to institute regular testing regimes. In a policy directed at GOP-led states that have sought to ban school mask requirements, the administration is committing to backfilling any salaries or funding that states withhold from schools trying to implement Covid-19 safety measures. “The path ahead even with the Delta variant is not nearly as bad as last winter," Biden said. "But what makes it incredibly more frustrating is we have the tools to combat Covid-19, and a distinct minority of Americans supported by a distinct minority of officials are keeping us from turning the corner.”
The roughly 300,000 staff at Head Start programs will similarly be required to get vaccinated, as well as those who work in schools run by federal agencies. And on testing, the government is planning to use nearly $2 billion to buy 280 million over-the-counter at-home tests from multiple diagnostic manufacturers to support testing in long-term care facilities, community testing sites and other settings. Still, it remains unclear how quickly the administration will be able to procure the rapid tests, which have been in shortage due to overwhelming demand for the products.
Walmart, Amazon and Kroger are also being tapped to sell rapid tests at-cost to consumers for the next three months, according to a fact sheet. The administration is working to expand the number of retail pharmacies where individuals can be tested for Covid-19 and will also sending 25 million rapid tests to community health centers and food banks to expand testing access.
Biden touched on the administration’s plan for Covid-19 booster shots, after an initial rollout prompted broad confusion and accusations of political pressure on government health agencies.
The White House initially announced that it would make boosters available beginning the week of Sept. 20, but has since walked plans back after the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control warned it would be unable to authorize them for all Americans by that deadline. “By planning now, we will be able to quickly get booster shots into the arms of eligible Americans once approved,” the plan reads. “As soon as authorizations are given, the Administration will be prepared to offer booster shots, starting the week of September 20th.”
The administration in the meantime is speeding shipments of monoclonal antibody treatments to states, amid a surge in demand among the harder-hit states in the Southeast.
The new plan comes just two months after Biden held a July Fourth celebration at the White House, where he declared that the nation was close to vanquishing the pandemic. Since then, cases fueled by the more contagious Delta variant have skyrocketed, and the administration has struggled to chart a clear course through the crisis. The CDC in particular has come under fire over its muddled messaging, including abruptly advising people to once again wear masks indoors and releasing an array of confusing data on the implications of so-called breakthrough Covid-19 cases. A Gallup poll earlier this week found that more Americans now disagree than agree that the CDC has communicated a clear pandemic response plan. And for the first time, more people reported feeling negatively about Biden’s own Covid-19 communication than positively. That has fueled a renewed emphasis on the pandemic fight, which Democrats view as critical to Biden’s public standing and their odds of keeping full control of Congress in 2022. Republicans in the meantime are waging pitched battles over mask-wearing in schools, with some like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowing to punish officials that try to make it a requirement.
The federal vaccination requirement will apply to all executive branch workers and contractors, bringing the rest of the government in line with the tougher requirements adopted earlier by the Department of Defense, Department of Veterans Affairs and parts of the health department. Until Thursday, the rest of the federal workforce had the option to submit to regular testing, mask-wearing and restrictions on travel rather than get vaccinated. That clause will now be eliminated, bringing the entire government in line with the approach that Biden has pushed private-sector companies to adopt.
The American Federation of Government Employees, the largest union of federal workers, immediately pushed back on the stronger mandate. While it has “strongly encouraged” its members to get vaccinated and believes that vaccines are essential to protect workers and end the pandemic, AFGE President Everett Kelley said the change in policy should be negotiated with its bargaining unit.
“Put simply, workers deserve a voice in their working conditions,” Kelley said. Psaki said Thursday that the administration has had “a range consultations with unions” — including AFGE — over the last few months.
“We understand there will be objections, there will be concerns, there will be criticisms — but our role here is to save lives, and we welcome feedback and engagement but we’re going to stay true to our goal,” she said. The new plan coincides with rising anxiety over Covid-19 outbreaks at schools, where children under 12 years old remain unvaccinated. Biden stressed the need to set up regular testing as a way of heading off the spread of infection. The White House earlier this year allocated $10 billion to help schools create Covid-19 testing regimes, but few took advantage of the opportunity amid a lull in cases earlier this year. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer at the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, said the effort to implement testing in schools across the country is a good idea. Public health experts have raised concern in recent weeks that infections among children are rising as they head back into classrooms for the start of the school year.
"I have been surprised at how many are not testing routinely," Plescia said.
But it is unclear how the Biden administration plans to get school districts that have not already implemented testing to do so. So far, just 1,602 institutions have signed up to partake in a separate $650 million federal effort to organize testing at regional coordination hubs at K-8 schools and congregate settings like homeless shelters.
One industry source expressed doubt at the effectiveness of what they described as the Biden team employing a strategy of "No, really guys, we mean it."
"We all assume that it's just Texas and Iowa that aren't testing to protect kids. But the reality is plenty of affluent suburbs in Connecticut, Maryland, etc. aren't even testing at all," the source said.
Megan R. Wilson contributed to this report. | 0 |
Two companies, Pfizer and Moderna, have announced they have developed effective coronavirus vaccines. | Jeenah Moon/Getty Images The delay in the presidential transition process won't impact the work of Operation Warp Speed, the public-private partnership to develop coronavirus vaccines, the operation's chief adviser said Sunday.
"Frankly, the operation has been isolated from, from the administration, from the political environment and the political context," Moncef Slaoui said on NBC's "Meet the Press." "We worked very hard to make sure that’s the case. And therefore, all decisions are made, the train is running, whether one administration or the other doesn’t, frankly, make a difference. I hope there is no disruption in any way."
President Donald Trump has protested President-elect Joe Biden’s election, breaking tradition by not conceding. And despite election results, the General Services Administration, the federal agency responsible for beginning the formal presidential transition process, has not yet certified Biden's victory, leaving his team unable to access federal resources. Slaoui, the former head of GlaxoSmithKline's vaccines department, said he's "highly supportive of the program, and if it means I work with the new administration, I'll be very happy to." It's unclear whether Slaoui can begin briefing the Biden transition team. Though he said he would provide the information he made public to the new administration, he's "been informed that I should not be saying anything that's confidential to anybody, including, you know, anybody that's not part of the administration, and therefore I'll act according to what legal requirements are."
Two companies have announced they have developed effective coronavirus vaccines. Pfizer, the first company to seek emergency authorization for its coronavirus vaccine from the Food and Drug Administration, says its vaccine is 95 percent effective after Phase III trials. Moderna, which is also expected to seek FDA authorization for its Covid-19 shot, announced its vaccine was similarly effective in preliminary data.
The federal government cannot move doses of the vaccine until it's approved for emergency use by the FDA. "Within 24 hours from the approval, the vaccine will be moving and located in the areas where each state will have told us where they want the vaccine doses," Slaoui explained. "And then it is each state that will decide specifically, based on the guidance from the [Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] who they will vaccinate." While federal agencies will issue recommendations on which segments of the population should get the vaccine first, the decision lies with states themselves. Priority populations are "very likely to be maybe health care workers, maybe first-line workers, maybe individuals who are at very high risk, elderly, people with comorbidities," Slaoui explained.
"Frankly," he said, "I don't see that the federal government will intervene on a state decision." | 0 |
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Ky., speaks during a news conference with other Senate Republicans on Capitol Hill in Washington, Dec. 15, 2020. | Caroline Brehman/Pool via AP House and Senate leaders were racing on Wednesday night to finalize a coronavirus stimulus agreement alongside a year-end spending bill, with Democrats and Republicans set to exchange offers deep into the night and no imminent threats to tank a deal.
Congressional leaders have agreed on the contours of a $900 billion proposal that would include a second round of direct payments and boost unemployment benefits, but would leave out state and local funding and a liability shield, according to lawmakers and sources briefed on the talks. But negotiations are growing more urgent as Congress creeps toward another government shutdown deadline on Friday evening.
Asked what the hold-up was, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said: "Why this takes so long is because we procrastinate and we pretend just one more day and we’ll get a better deal.” As the day crept on, it became clear that finishing negotiations, finalizing text and voting in both chambers by late Friday became a tougher and tougher task. Lawmakers are beginning to get antsy to go home, but congressional leaders privately informed their members of the possibility of working into the weekend. Congressional leaders have floated the idea of a stopgap funding bill to keep the government open while they wrap up legislative work this weekend, but lawmakers and aides are still hoping they don’t have to resort to that. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said that negotiators were down to "the fine details that we've got to get done, but those are the most important ones.”
"We’re gonna get there," declared Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) as he left the Capitol on Wednesday evening. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said the proposal would likely include direct checks to individuals of $600 to $700 and a weekly unemployment boost of $300 through March. That framework is expected to keep Democrats on-board despite losing out on state and local funding.
The proposal would also include roughly $325 billion in small business relief, including $257 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program that helps employers keep on workers who otherwise might go on unemployment, according to a person familiar with the negotiations. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer also said negotiators are close to an agreement. He said that his party would push for a larger deal next year when Joe Biden assumes the presidency.
"It's not a done deal yet. But we are very close. For Democrats, this has always been about getting the American people the relief they need," said Schumer, describing the urgency of addressing the current "emergency" situation after nearly eight months without a new tranche Covid stimulus. "We Democrats would have liked to go considerably further."
The direct checks will be far less than the $1,200 per person included in the previous relief package, and the unemployment bonus benefits will be below the level of a now-expired $600 weekly unemployment boost in order to keep the cost of the bill in check. On a private Senate GOP conference call Wednesday, McConnell explicitly linked the need for direct payments to the special election in Georgia. “Kelly [Loeffler] and David [Perdue] are getting hammered," McConnell said, according to several sources on the call.
President Donald Trump is pushing to send out checks to Americans, and has backing from liberals, such as Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Republicans, such as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.). “Americans need more help and that’s where I’m going to keep pushing. They need more help and this is not enough," said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). “We’re not there. My job is to keep pushing for more.”
But notably no senators on either the left or right were explicitly threatening to hold up the bill ahead of the shutdown deadline, though Sanders and Hawley both said they'd like to see bigger checks. Still, Sanders called it a "good start," and Hawley called it "good movement."
And House progressives also signaled they could get on board with the deal. Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) asked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi about the size of the checks on a private caucus call Wednesday morning but did not indicate her group would oppose the bill, as they had been discussing the night before. Schumer is pushing for as much as $17 billion for a Save Our Stages provision to help idled venues. Republicans and some Democrats are concerned it will come at the expense of a fund to help restaurants devastated by the pandemic, but Democrats said Schumer wants to help both restaurants and entertainment venues.
The deal would also include large sums of funding for vaccine distribution, education, transportation and health care. And lawmakers are ready to get out of town for the holidays after a breakneck lame duck.
"Some of the our folks who typically might in circumstances like this want to slow things down are, I don't think, inclined to do that," Thune said. He said it would still be possible for the House and Senate to pass the massive package before the Friday deadline and not necessitate another stopgap funding bill. The negotiations moved rapidly. The four congressional leaders — McConnell, Pelosi, McCarthy and Schumer, met late into the night Tuesday in the Capitol with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin joining by telephone.
The negotiators are racing to notch an agreement that would ride alongside a year-long, $1.4 trillion funding bill that needs to pass by Friday. Pelosi wants a vote by the end of the week, but the situation is still unsettled. As of Wednesday evening, the timing for moving a massive government funding-relief deal remained elusive. McConnell gave Republicans a general rundown of the state of play on the GOP conference call during lunch but said negotiations weren’t finished, according to people listening. Separately, Pelosi and Schumer talked to Mnuchin for 45 minutes around lunchtime but aides in both parties said discussions were ongoing. The two most contentious items — funding for state and local governments and a liability shield for businesses — have been left out of the agreement. The state and local funding was a priority for Pelosi, Schumer and other Democrats, while Republicans wanted the liability shield. McConnell suggested dropping both, and a bipartisan group that offered Congress a framework for the leadership talks also jettisoned the two contentious provisions.
This emerging compromise does not include that pot of money as originally envisioned but Democratic negotiators say they have secured other aid to states in the bill. Republicans have vowed to fight for a liability shield and Democrats for more state and local aid next year when Biden is sworn as president and pivots to confronting the United States' precarious economic situation.
"The stimulus package is encouraging. It looks like it's very, very close and it looks like there are going to be direct payments. But it's a down payment," Biden told reporters Wednesday. "It's very important to get done and I compliment the bipartisan group on working together to get it done."
Sarah Ferris contributed to this report. | 0 |
President-elect Joe Biden and incoming first lady Jill Biden received initial injections of the coronavirus vaccine on Monday in a show of support for the inoculation.
“I’m doing this to demonstrate that people should be prepared when it’s available to take the vaccine,” Biden said. “There’s nothing to worry about. I’m looking forward to the second shot.” The Bidens’ vaccinations come less than a week after a member of the press corps covering the transition and Rep. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, the president-elect’s chosen director of the White House Office of Public Engagement, tested positive for Covid-19. Richmond’s diagnosis is one of the closest known brushes with the deadly virus for Biden, who at 78 is at a heightened risk of complications from the disease and has gone to considerable lengths to minimize the risk of exposure during the presidential campaign and ensuing transition.
“We’re still in the thick of this,” Biden said as cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to mount across the country. “There’s millions of people out there that are going to need this.”
The Bidens received shots manufactured by Pfizer, one of two immunizations granted emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration earlier this month.
The two join Vice President Mike Pence among the list of political leaders who have received shots in recent days. Pence and his wife, Karen, got vaccinated during a televised event on Friday morning alongside Surgeon General Jerome Adams, with the vice president promising to the country that “hope is on the way.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also received shots from the Capitol’s attending physician on Friday.
Noticeably absent from that list: President Donald Trump. The White House has been circumspect about when the president — who tested positive for Covid-19 at the beginning of October and was subsequently hospitalized — would get vaccinated or whether he would do so in public, despite urging from the head of the Trump administration’s signature vaccine development operation and others.
Trump also nixed plans to have White House staffers be among the first to obtain access to the vaccine, preferring that shots instead be reserved for other priority groups. Other top government health officials have also had to wait for their turn to get the highly anticipated vaccine.
POLITICO first reported earlier Monday that Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins are among those scheduled to receive doses of the vaccine manufactured by Moderna at an NIH event on Tuesday. NIH had yet to receive a single shipment of the vaccine as of Friday, despite playing a meaningful role in developing Moderna’s vaccine, which the FDA authorized for emergency use Friday night.
Both use a similar mechanism to stimulate the body’s immune response, and shipments of both products have begun to go out throughout the country, where state and local governments are overseeing their individualized distribution plans for allocating their allotments at the ground level.
Broadly speaking, the first batch is being reserved for frontline health care workers and people in some of the highest-risk groups, though there has been some consternation about politicians and certain nonmedical health care employees receiving doses over other staffers while supplies remain scarce.
Several members of Congress have confirmed receiving the first of two rounds of the shot — which are administered weeks apart — both as part of an effort to combat vaccine hesitancy and to ensure continuity of government if disaster struck the Capitol.
Adams, the surgeon general, said on Monday there is “symbolic value” in elected leaders getting vaccinated if it bolsters support for the shots in certain groups that have been disproportionately affected by the virus’s toll.
“We need them to have the confidence to get vaccinated,” he said on Fox News. “It’s not the vaccines, it’s the vaccination that matters.” | 0 |
Credit...Joshua Roberts/ReutersJuly 7, 2019WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced on Sunday that it was replacing the legal team defending the Trump administration’s effort to place a citizenship question on the next census, a change that is all but unprecedented in legal battles as consequential as the one over the 2020 head count.The department said in a statement that it was “shifting these matters to a new team of Civil Division lawyers going forward.” It offered no explanation for the en masse change, which came on the heels of an extraordinary week in a yearlong clash over the issue that has raised concerns about whether the department’s arguments for adding the question could be believed.And it strongly suggested that the department’s career lawyers had decided to quit a case that at the least seemed to lack a legal basis, and at most left them defending statements that could well turn out to be untrue.“There is no reason they would be taken off that case unless they saw what was coming down the road and said, ‘I won’t sign my name to that,’” Justin Levitt, a former senior official in the Justice Department under President Barack Obama, said on Sunday.Kerri Kupec, a department spokeswoman, cast the change in a positive light, saying in a statement that the lawyers had “given countless hours to defending the Commerce Department and have consistently demonstrated the highest professionalism, integrity and skill inside and outside the courtroom.”Attorney General William P. Barr “appreciates that service,” she added, “and is confident that the new team will carry on in the same exemplary fashion.”But according to a Justice Department lawyer who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, no lawyers from the department’s federal programs branch — which customarily defends the administration’s policies in court — would be working on the census issue. A senior official confirmed that federal programs was being taken off the case.Lawyers who had been working on the case apparently concluded that they faced three problems. They had told the Supreme Court that they were up against a strict deadline of June 30 for printing the census forms, and there were difficulties in finding a new justification for the question that would not seem invented out of whole cloth. They may have also concluded that there was no way to move speedily enough to restore the question in any event, given that constitutional and statutory frameworks seem to require a lengthy administrative process before new questions may be added to the census.The change in the legal team appeared to signal even deeper problems for the administration’s effort to put the question on the next census, a proposal that critics have assailed as an ill-disguised plot to manipulate the final head count in ways that would benefit the Republican Party.The department’s lawyers had for months defended assertions by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross that the Justice Department sought the citizenship question so that it could acquire better data to enforce the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Three federal courts ruled that that explanation was clearly an excuse for some other goal, and last month the Supreme Court agreed, saying the question could be asked only if the department came up with a believable rationale.The Justice Department abandoned the fight after that ruling, telling a federal judge that the battle was over “for once and for all,” only to be blindsided last week by President Trump, who said on Twitter that the statements were “fake.” Mr. Trump suggested that the head count could be delayed until he found a way to add the citizenship question, perhaps by printing an addendum that could be tacked onto the questionnaire.That prompted a cascade of troubles. On Wednesday, Justice Department lawyers returned to a Maryland court that was hearing a case against the question to recant their admission of defeat. “The tweet this morning was the first I had heard of the president’s position on this issue, just like the plaintiffs and Your Honor,” Joshua Gardner, a lawyer working on the census issue, told Judge George J. Hazel of United States District Court.Mr. Gardner and other department officials told Judge Hazel and a second judge in Manhattan overseeing another census lawsuit that the search for a way to place the question on the census would continue. But lawyers for opponents of the question pounced on that declaration on Friday, arguing that the Justice Department had insisted repeatedly — including to the Supreme Court — that it was essential to wrap up the dispute by the end of June, lest the census be delayed for lack of time to print questionnaires and other forms.The Supreme Court relied on that deadline, the plaintiffs noted, in leapfrogging the legal appeals process to take the case directly from a lower federal court to a hearing before the justices. But having lost the legal battle, they argued, the Justice Department says there is ample time to hunt for some other way to achieve its goal.The government’s “‘heads I win, tails we’ll see’ approach undermines confidence in both their ability to conduct the 2020 census and public confidence in the rule of law,” the plaintiffs argued. “If any ordinary litigant engaged in such conduct, sanctions would be the minimum relief provided. And defendants are no ordinary litigants.”The Justice Department has been under fire from the moment Mr. Trump took office. In district and appellate court, the department has defended the Trump administration against litigation spurred by the president’s travel ban, his immigration policies and his stance on the Affordable Care Act.Much of that work has fallen to lawyers in the federal programs branch. Known for being particularly apolitical, lawyers in that division pride themselves on their ability to argue vociferously for any policy that the White House supports, no matter who is in office.But career lawyers have pushed back against pressure from the Trump White House for nearly two years, particularly when asked to reverse legal positions that they had already argued in court. They have refused to sign a wide array of legal briefs, and some have even resigned.The defiance culminated in a showdown last summer after the department, under Attorney General Jeff Sessions, declined to defend parts of the Affordable Care Act. A longtime career lawyer, Joel McElvain, resigned over that decision, and the department scrambled to find another career lawyer willing to sign the brief that outlined the decision to reverse course.After that incident, lawyers in federal programs held a standing-room-only meeting to address rancor over the health care reversal. Attendees told The New York Times that lawyers asked whether political considerations had edged out a sound legal opinion, and whether they were considered the president’s enemies.Rank-and-file employees had hoped that Mr. Barr, a veteran of the department, would act as a buffer against White House demands that they feel are not legally defensible.Nearly a half-dozen current and former employees say morale has not risen considerably under Mr. Barr, citing the fact that he allowed the Justice Department to stop defending all of the health care law at the behest of Mr. Trump. And now he has replaced the entire team working on the census question. | 0 |
A COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, is safe and effective enough to give to younger teens, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday in authorizing its use.The decision means adolescents ages 12 to 15 could qualify for shots as soon as Thursday, after the Wednesday meeting of an advisory committee to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. President Joe Biden said last week that 20,000 pharmacy locations are ready to begin vaccinating adolescents once the necessary approvals come through.Shots also will be available soon through pediatricians' offices, the president said. "And if teens are on the move this summer, they can get their first shot in one place and a second shot elsewhere."That may be more complicated in reality. FDA officials speaking late Monday said that while their authorization covers the entire country, each state may have its own rules about who can administer vaccines, so not all pharmacies or vaccination sites available to adults will be open to adolescents. Older teens, ages 16 and 17, have been allowed to get the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine since it was authorized in December. The other two vaccines authorized for use in the USA, from Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, have not been available to minors because studies are still underway. “Today’s action allows for a younger population to be protected from COVID-19, bringing us closer to returning to a sense of normalcy and to ending the pandemic," acting FDA Commissioner Janet Woodcock said in a statement Monday. "Parents and guardians can rest assured that the agency undertook a rigorous and thorough review of all available data, as we have with all of our COVID-19 vaccine emergency use authorizations.”Although rare, adolescents can get seriously ill from COVID-19, and they can spread it to others. "So my hope is that if the vaccine is authorized, parents will take advantage of it and get their kids vaccinated," Biden said.From March 1, 2020, to April 30, 2021, about 1.5 million adolescents, ages 11-17, were diagnosed with COVID-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The FDA is authorizing Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine for teens: Some parents are excited, others are still undecidedDr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, praised the decision in a statement.“As both a parent and a pediatrician, I feel tremendous joy and relief knowing that children as young as 12 years old will soon have the same protections against Covid-19 that so many adults now enjoy," he said. In addition to the health risks, about 40,000 children have lost their parents from COVID-19. "Even those who have escaped direct impact have had their lives upended. Vaccination should help children return to their normal lives."Many parents are eager to get their children vaccinated, so their families can safely visit older relatives and their teens can get back to school and extracurricular and social activities.Barbara Pahud, the Research Director of pediatric infectious diseases at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, said she's thrilled that the nation can add vaccinated teens to its list of accomplishments."This is the energy the world needs now. There's a lot of COVID fatigue," said Pahud, who is involved in Pfizer-BioNTech's trial in younger children and whose own 12-year-old signed up for the Moderna trial."My daughter was very vocal last year saying it's not fair they're only doing studies for adults and not for kids," Pahud said. "She was waiting, tapping on their door for the study to start, and as soon as it opened, she signed up."Pahud said she hopes every adolescent is as enthusiastic about vaccines as her daughter is, but she knows that if parents are vaccine-hesitant, their kids will be, too. "I do believe there's a very good group in the middle that can be convinced if they understand the science," Pahud said. Requiring vaccines at school or at least letting vaccinated kids go without masks, she said, could encourage some holdouts.'Trying to defeat this pandemic'Audrey Baker, 15, and her younger brother Sam, 12, of Cincinnati, volunteered for the Pfizer-BioNTech trial at Cincinnati Children's Hospital, so they could help show the world that the shots are safe for kids their age."I wanted to try and do what I could to be a part of trying to defeat this pandemic, because I know without the vaccine for all ages, we won't be able to make that immunity that we need to reach," said Audrey, an eighth grader who loves math and science and runs long distance on her school's track team."It was like my way of saying thank you to all the health care workers. They were putting themselves out there to help people," said Sam, a sixth-grader who loves math and soccer and, of course, his mom, a nurse-researcher.Both said what they've missed the most during the pandemic is seeing their grandparents, who live a nine-hour drive away in Michigan.Sam had a daylong fever and headache after his second shot, which he was pretty happy about because it meant he almost certainly got the actual vaccine instead of a placebo. His life hasn't changed much, because Audrey had no reaction, so she doesn't know whether she's protected, and their 8-year-old brother, who volunteered for a trial for younger kids, hasn't been accepted.This was the first clinical trial for all three children. Sam, who'd never had blood drawn before, admitted to being a bit nervous before the first needle went in. "But the actual vaccine wasn't really scary, because I believed in science," he said. Their mom, Rachel Baker, said she thought the idea of multiple blood draws might turn her kids off to the trial, but "as soon as I told them about it … they were both in. I was really proud of them for looking past the needles."Fact check:COVID-19 vaccinated people don’t ‘shed’ virus, infect othersBaker said that although she runs research trials for a living and volunteered herself for the AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccine adult trial, she was a little anxious about signing up her kids."Right before the shot, I had to take a breath," she said. "It's a little more personal when it's your child."She's very glad that they were willing to participate and that Sam at least probably got the active vaccine. "When I see him out on the soccer field, it's such a relief to know he's protected," Baker said.Stopping COVID-19's 'engine'Bill Gruber, a pediatrician and Pfizer senior vice president in charge of the children's trials, said he sees three reasons to vaccinate children and teens.First, although young people generally don't die from COVID-19 or get as sick as older adults, 13% of those hospitalized with the virus have been under 18, and adolescents represent a bigger chunk than younger kids.To stop the pandemic, young people will need to be vaccinated. "The children now become the remaining engine for the virus to continue to circulate and potentially spread to the susceptible," Gruber said.Opinion:High-risk teens like my son should be at the top of the COVID vaccine list this monthVaccinating kids will keep them from infecting their teachers, parents and grandparents.And getting vaccinated will let teenagers be teenagers, he said."It will be liberating in the end for children just like it's proved liberating in adults to get back to the normal life we'd like to become accustomed to again," he said.In addition to studies of adolescents, Pfizer is running vaccine trials in 5- to 11-year-olds, 2- to 4-year-olds and 6-month-olds to 2-year-olds. The aim is to find the right dose, Gruber said, to produce the "Goldilocks effect," where children get an effective protection but don't end up with a lot of side effects.In a trial, Pfizer-BioNTech showed that its two-dose vaccine was extremely safe and effective in adolescents 12-15. Out of 16 trial participants infected with COVID-19, all received the placebo, none the active vaccine.Side effects for the adolescents, who receive the same dose as adults, were about equal to what older teens and young adults have seen, Gruber said. The concern is that younger children may have more of a reaction so will need a lower dose.He said he hopes to have data on the 5- to 11-year-olds by the fall and the younger children by the early part of next year. In a prepared statement Monday, Albert Bourla, Pfizer chairman and CEO, thanked trial participants like the Bakers. "We are grateful to all of our clinical trial volunteers and their families, whose courage helped make this milestone possible," he said. "Together, we hope to help bring a sense of normalcy back to young people across the country and eventually around the world.” Next up: Vaccines for younger kidsMichael and Johanna Kelley of Kansas City didn't want to wait that long to give their daughter Nora, 2, a shot at protection, so they signed her up for the Pfizer trial at Children’s Mercy Kansas City.She ran a fever, so they hope she got the active vaccine. The Kelleys don't want to take any chances with Nora's 3-week-old baby sister, Jade, or her grandmother who suffered a terrible bout with COVID-19 last year."It's something we don't want anyone else to have to go through," Michael said of his mother's experience.Baby Jade is too young to get a shot, but everyone else is vaccinated – Johanna got vaccinated during pregnancy, and her antibodies carried over – so she should be protected, the couple said.Michael, a policy director for a nonprofit group, and Johanna, who will finish her master's in social work this month, did their research and talked it through before joining the trial."The vaccine can't be worse than the disease," Michael said. "If there's a way we can protect our children from this disease and speed up reopening, absolutely, we're willing to take that chance." What about the world?Despite the upsides for the nation, some say the United States is wrong to focus on vaccinating healthy children while the virus is killing so many vulnerable people around the globe. "We had a moral obligation to help our elderly and front-line workers. Now it's time to turn our vision to the world," said Lawrence Gostin, who directs the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University.Americans will remain at risk for new infections and dangerous variants while the virus rages elsewhere, he said.Fact check:No evidence that a 2-year-old died after getting Pfizer COVID-19 vaccineAdolescents are among the most significant spreaders of COVID-19 in the USA and put everyone else at risk, "so I understand the temptation" to vaccinate them as quickly as possible, he said, "but I think it's morally obscene to go the last mile and vaccinate the most healthy and fit part of our population while the rest of the world is having such deep suffering." Gostin praised President Biden for delivering 200 million shots to Americans during his first 100 days in office, a milestone passed last week. Biden promised Tuesday that by the 4th of July, the United States will have sent about 10% of its vaccine supplies to other nations.Gostin said the president should promise to vaccinate every health care worker in the world over the next 100 days. "That would gain America's standing in the world beyond any measure," Gostin said. Contributing: Elizabeth Weise and Ken Alltucker, USA TODAYContact Karen Weintraub at kweintraub@usatoday.com.Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input. | 0 |
Amazon appears to have halted the sale of a book accused of attacking transgender people, outraging some prominent conservatives.Ryan T Anderson, a former fellow at the conservative Heritage Foundation, said on Sunday that the online retail giant had removed his 2018 bookWhen Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment from its store. “Given the aggressive push on trans policies coming from the Biden admin, now is a great time to read it,” he said in a tweet on Sunday. “Buy it before you no longer can.”Amazon declined a request for comment from The Independent. A search for Mr Anderson’s book only leads to other titles.“This harms the entire culture of book authoring, publishing, and reading--as it will have a chilling effect on all aspects of the book market,” Mr Anderson told The Independent. “Likewise it cuts off important political and cultural discussion about important matters when we need it most.”Amazon’s guidelines argue that “we believe that providing access to the written word is important, including content that may be considered objectionable,” but also says it doesn’t sell content “that we determine is hate speech, promotes the abuse or sexual exploitation children,” as well as books the company deems “inappropriate or offensive.”The apparent blacklisting of the book outraged prominent conservatives, who deemed it censorship, levelling similar charges as to when the company temporarily banned a popular self-published e-book that questioned the reported health risks associated with the Covid-19 coronavirus and criticised government decisions to enforce lockdowns. The writer David French called the idea that Amazon removed Mr Anderson’s book “absurd.”“I hope this is a mistake @amazon,” he wrote on Sunday. “If not, then it’s absurd and unacceptable.”The New York Times’ Ross Douthat blamed the apparent decision on “some mid-level censor at Amazon.”“Some mid-level censor at Amazon appears to be conducting an experiment in what they can get away with,” he wrote on Twitter on Monday.The fracas even attracted the attention of leading Republican senators.On Wednesday, US senators Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, Mike Braun and Josh Hawley sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos about the incident.“When Harry Became Sally prompted important discussions in the national media and among policymakers in 2018, and remains one of the most rigorously researched and compassionately argued books on this subject,” they wrote in a statement. “By removing this book from its marketplaces and services, Amazon has unabashedly wielded its outsized market share to silence an important voice merely for the crime of violating woke groupthink.”It’s not the first controversy involving the book.Following its publication in 2018, critics argued it ran against most contemporary thinking on transgender identities, focused on negative stories, and quoted “junk science.” Critics also objected to the frequent citations of Paul McHugh, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins who was head of psychiatry when the school’s pioneering trans healthcare programme was shut down. The book refers to prominent transgender celebrities as confused, such as calling actress Laverne Cox “a man who identifies as a woman.”Mr Anderson has pushed back against these claims.“It offers an accurate and accessible presentation of the scientific, medical, philosophical, and legal debates surrounding the trans phenomenon,” he said. “Yes, it advances an argument against transgender ideology from a viewpoint. But it doesn’t get any facts wrong, and it doesn’t engage in heated rhetoric.”A previous book from Mr Anderson,Truth Overruled, which denounced same-sex marriage, remains on the Amazon store. | 0 |
Some argue that impeachment is divisive. That’s fine with me.Jan. 13, 2021Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesAs the House of Representatives voted Wednesday to impeach Donald Trump for a second time, some Republicans argued that such a move — a constitutional obligation, really — was unnecessarily divisive at a time when the nation should be healing and proposing unity.The irony is that this plea is being made by many of the same legislators who just last week were supportive of Trump’s scheme to fraudulently overturn the results of a free and fair election, thereby disenfranchising millions of voters who formed the majority of the electorate.But, beyond that, whenever I hear politicians appealing for unity, I am befuddled. What do they mean by “unity”? What does “unity” mean to America?Yes, America can be unified in pride or defense. But unity doesn’t always exist, even when our country is attacked, or when we are engaged in war.Support for the American Revolution was by no means universal, and at one point, failing to entice enough recruits for the rebellion among white colonists, the government began to enlist thousands of Black ones, a move it had resisted.Resistance to the wars in Vietnam and now Iraq and Afghanistan is well known and somewhat entrenched. In the case of the Vietnam War, for instance, the percentage of people who believed that the United States did the right thing by fighting in Vietnam has remained below a quarter of the population, according to polling. If anything, America is united against the government’s approach to the war.We may think that something like an international competition and accomplishment would rally and unify the country. Not necessarily. Looking back on the space race of the 1960s with hagiographic hindsight, one would think that most Americans were cheering on the effort. They weren’t. As Gallup points out:“In most polls conducted by Gallup during the 1960s, less than a majority of Americans said that the investment in getting a man to the moon was worth the cost. For example, a 1965 poll found only 39 percent of Americans thought that the U.S. should do everything possible, regardless of cost, to be the first nation on the moon.”At times a sense of national unity and community exists when America is attacked — like on 9/11 — when there is a national disaster — like Hurricane Katrina — or when there is a national tragedy — like the shooting at Sandy Hook.But once the politicians become involved — or don’t — the divisions that exist become more evident. After 9/11, politicians lied us into America’s longest war. After Katrina, the federal response was too slow and anemic, and people died as a result. After Sandy Hook there was much talk about new gun control measures, but few materialized.Many people frame the ideas of division and unity around political polarization, which has grown in recent years. As the Pew Research Center pointed out in November:“A month before the election, roughly eight in 10 registered voters in both camps said their differences with the other side were about core American values, and roughly nine in 10 — again in both camps — worried that a victory by the other would lead to ‘lasting harm’ to the United States.”But this seems understandable to me. Political polarization has increased as the percentage of nonwhite people in America has increased. So, as identity politics takes on more of a central role in politics — Republicans electing a white-power president after Democrats elected a Black one — it stands to reason that there would be a strain.By the way, America is expected to be equal halves white and nonwhite by 2045.I don’t object to this form of division at all. I don’t want to be unified with anyone who could openly cheer my oppression or sit silently while I endure it.Furthermore, equality in America has a history of being divisive — from freeing the enslaved, to recognizing Black citizenship and granting Black suffrage, to expanding women’s suffrage, to establishing Reconstruction, to establishing and then abolishing Jim Crow, to our present state of criminal justice and mass incarceration.People now regularly invoke names like Martin Luther King Jr. when talking about equality, as if there was always a consensus around the issue, as if he wasn’t incredibly unpopular, particularly among conservatives, when he was alive. A Gallup poll taken just two years before King was assassinated found that only a third of Americans had a favorable opinion of him.Some people point to Abraham Lincoln’s first Inaugural Address when talking about how to unify a country across differences. Lincoln closes the speech by saying:“We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection.”What they don’t say is that in that same speech, he expressed support for the Fugitive Slave Act as a way of showing conciliation to Southern slavers.For this Frederick Douglass blasted Lincoln as an “excellent slave hound” and the “most dangerous advocate of slave-hunting and slave-catching in the land.”It seems to me, the “unity” of America is often conflated with the silence of the oppressed and the pacification of the oppressors.As long as you can put your foot on my neck without the protestations of your neighbors or the wails of my pain, America is happy. That, to America, is unity: quiet capitulation.The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook and Twitter (@NYTopinion), and Instagram. | 0 |
8:00 am ET By Trip Gabriel 8:00 am ET8:00 am ET By Trip Gabriel Photo Senator Ted Cruz of Texas at a rally on Friday in Des Moines, Iowa.Credit Scott Morgan/Reuters DES MOINES – Senator Ted Cruz on Friday night drew one of the largest crowds in Iowa of any candidate this year: some 2,300 Christian conservatives, who turned out for an unusual program featuring people Mr. Cruz called “victims of government persecution.” The eight people included bakers, a florist, wedding planners and others from several states. All of them said they had been sued, fined or fired for refusing service to same-sex couples or for expressing opposition to homosexuality. Several of them were well known to audiences of right-leaning news media. Seated in a chair facing Betty Odgaard of Iowa, Mr. Cruz listened as she fought back tears recalling how she and her husband had been publicly attacked after refusing to rent their wedding event space to a gay couple. “You have endured pain, you have endured the attacks, you have endured hatred,” Mr. Cruz said, reaching out to touch her arm. A close-up of her pained face was projected on large screens around the stage. The rally sometimes had the feeling of a daytime talk show, and at other moments of a religious revival, as the audience gave standing ovations to the guests for expressing their religious faith. But its purpose was entirely political. A caucus sign-up card and a pen were on every chair. Saying that millions of evangelical Christians had sat out recent elections, Mr. Cruz shouted, “I’m here to tell you we will stay home no longer.” Mr. Cruz’s strategy for winning Iowa is to consolidate Republicans now supporting other conservative candidates like former Gov. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, and to position himself to scoop up supporters of Donald J. Trump, whose appeal the Cruz campaign believes will wither by the winter. Mr. Cruz’s campaign, which spent a month organizing Friday’s rally, has focused on how to triumph in Iowa with such precision that it let slip the exact number of votes it must win: 28,957. (Every campaign has such a number, but rarely lets it get out.) Although Mr. Cruz has declined to criticize Mr. Trump, the senator’s campaign manager sniffed at Mr. Trump’s much larger crowd in Mobile, Ala., on Friday night. “I’d take these 2,500 people over 12,000 in a football stadium in Alabama any day,” the campaign manager, Jeff Roe, said in an interview outside the ballroom where Mr. Cruz spoke. “These people are coming to be part of a movement,” he added. Mr. Trump’s admirers, he said, “are going to be part of a show.” Indeed, Mr. Cruz’s rally was aimed at the hearts and minds of evangelicals, who have picked the winners of the past two Republican caucuses in Iowa. “Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome our heroes to the stage,” Steve Deace, an Iowa radio host who supports Mr. Cruz, said in bringing out the guests. “They find themselves on the front line of the battle for the soul of this culture.” Among them was Barronelle Stutzman, a florist from Washington State, who told of refusing to design flowers for the wedding of a longtime customer named Rob, who is gay, and called it a matter of conscience. “As much as I loved Rob, I couldn’t celebrate his wedding,” she said. “He asked the one thing from her she could not provide,“ said Mr. Deace, who traded off with Mr. Cruz in interviewing the guests. “He went right out of there and reported her, like a George Orwell novel.” Although Mr. Cruz and others on the religious right call people like Ms. Stutzman victims of religious persecution, civil libertarians say they are in violation of anti-discrimination laws. Mr. Cruz called the Supreme Court decision sweeping aside state bans on same-sex marriage an abomination. “Now the Washington elites want to silence those who believe in the biblical definition of marriage,” he said. Directing attention to his special guests, he said: “We are blessed today to be in the presence of heroes. Heroes who have suffered for living out their faith.” | 0 |
Credit...Whitney Curtis for The New York TimesMarch 4, 2015Offering the most definitive account yet of the shooting of an unarmed black teenager that stirred racially charged protests across the country, the Justice Department has cleared a Ferguson, Mo., police officer of civil rights violations in the death last August of Michael Brown.In an 86-page report released Wednesday that detailed and evaluated the testimony of more than 40 witnesses, the Justice Department largely corroborated or found little credible evidence to contradict the account of the officer, Darren Wilson, who is white.Versions of events that sharply conflicted with Mr. Wilson’s were largely inconsistent with forensic evidence or with the witnesses’ previous statements, the report said. And in some cases, witnesses whose accounts supported Mr. Wilson said they had been afraid to come forth or tell the truth because they feared reprisals from the enraged community.The decision ended a lengthy investigation into the shooting in August, in which Mr. Wilson killed Mr. Brown in the street as he tried to stop the teenager for a possible theft of some cigarillos from a convenience store. Several witnesses said Mr. Brown, 18, had his hands up in surrender when he died, leading to violent clashes in Ferguson and nationwide protest featuring chants of “Hands up, don’t shoot.”But federal agents and civil rights prosecutors rejected that story, just as a state grand jury did in November when it decided not to indict Mr. Wilson. The former officer, who left the Ferguson Police Department late last year, said that Mr. Brown had leaned into his patrol car, punched him, reached for his gun, and then after running away, turned and charged at him, making Mr. Wilson fear for his life.“There is no evidence upon which prosecutors can rely to disprove Wilson’s stated subjective belief that he feared for his safety,” the report said. At the same time, it concluded that the witnesses who said that Mr. Brown was surrendering were not credible.ImageCredit...via St. Louis County Prosecutor's Office“Those witness accounts stating that Brown never moved back toward Wilson could not be relied upon in a prosecution because their accounts cannot be reconciled with the DNA bloodstain evidence and other credible witness accounts.”Civil rights charges represented a difficult hurdle for prosecutors to clear. The law requires prosecutors to prove that Mr. Wilson willfully violated Mr. Brown’s civil rights when he shot him. Courts have given officers wide latitude when deciding when to use deadly force if they think their lives are in danger.In a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. called the report “fair and rigorous from the start,” saying it had been conducted independently from the investigation by the local police and had included the canvassing of more than 300 residences to locate additional witnesses. “The facts do not support the filing of criminal charges against Officer Darren Wilson in this case,” Mr. Holder said. For those who feel otherwise, he said, “I urge you to read this report in full.”The fatal encounter, which lasted less than two minutes, occurred at about noon on Aug. 9.According to the report, Mr. Brown had just left the convenience store and was walking with a friend in the middle of a street when Officer Wilson, thinking they might be the suspects in the robbery, blocked their way with his patrol vehicle. After a scuffle in which Mr. Brown reached inside the car, punched Mr. Wilson and grabbed for his gun, the officer fired two shots, one of which grazed Mr. Brown’s right hand, causing the teenager to run away.The officer pursued, but then Mr. Brown suddenly turned and headed back toward him. The officer fired 10 more shots in three volleys, according to witnesses and bloodstain patterns on the ground. After being hit with six to eight bullets, Mr. Brown was finally felled by a shot into the top of his head.In a written statement, Mr. Brown’s parents, Lesley McSpadden and Michael Brown Sr., said they were saddened and disappointed with the news that “the killer of our son wouldn’t be held accountable for his actions.”But the couple also praised the second Justice Department report released Wednesday that found systemic discrimination against African-Americans by the Ferguson Police Department and municipal court.“We are encouraged that the D.O.J. will hold the Ferguson Police Department accountable for the pattern of racial bias and profiling they found in their handling of interactions with people of color,” the statement said.Neil J. Bruntrager, one of Mr. Wilson’s lawyers, expressed satisfaction with the report on the shooting. “It makes it clear that he’s exonerated. We’re glad to have that behind us,” he said.ImageCredit...David Carson/St. Louis Post-Dispatch, via Associated PressAmong the witnesses who told investigators that they had been nervous about corroborating Mr. Wilson’s account was a 31-year-old black woman who had been standing on her brother’s balcony at the time of the shooting. Her initial account to investigators, in which she said that she saw Mr. Wilson fire shots into Mr. Brown’s back as he lay dead on the street, was inconsistent with the autopsy findings.When federal investigators challenged her, she admitted lying, explained to the F.B.I. that “you’ve gotta live the life to know it,” and said she had been afraid to contradict stories that Mr. Brown had been trying to surrender.She then “admitted that she saw Mr. Brown running toward Mr. Wilson, prompting the police officer to yell ‘freeze,’ ” the report stated. It added that the woman said that “it appeared to her that Wilson’s life was in danger.” But when local authorities later tried to serve this witness a subpoena to appear before the grand jury, the report said, “she blockaded her door with a couch.”The report on the shooting provides support for the grand jury’s decision not to bring murder or manslaughter charges and it appears to vindicate the St. Louis County prosecutor, Robert P. McCulloch, who was attacked by some for failing to steer the jury toward an indictment.Mr. McCulloch took the unusual strategy of presenting the grand jury with reams of evidence, including contradictory eyewitness testimony. He then released the entire proceedings to the public, something rarely done. That jumble of grand jury evidence did bolster important parts of Mr. Wilson’s account. DNA and blood samples indicated that Mr. Brown had reached into the officer’s police car, as Mr. Wilson had testified, and two shots were fired in a struggle.That Mr. Brown, slightly wounded, ran away and then turned, with Mr. Wilson chasing him, was also established. And a trail of bloodstains seemed to clearly demonstrate that Mr. Brown was moving toward the officer even after being seriously wounded by an initial volley of bullets.“I assume all the critics will rethink their position at this point now,” Mr. McCulloch told reporters Wednesday. “Or they will level the same criticism at the Department of Justice, if they want to be consistent.”But to some critics, the conflicting witness accounts left questions. In his final moment, was Mr. Brown trying to raise his hands in surrender, was he staggering and falling, or was he continuing a menacing charge, as Mr. Wilson contends?“While credible witnesses gave varying accounts of exactly what Brown was doing with his hands as he moved toward Wilson — i.e., balling them, holding them out, or pulling up his pants up — and varying accounts of how he was moving — i.e., ‘charging,’ moving in ‘slow motion,’ or ‘running’ — they all establish that Brown was moving toward Wilson when Wilson shot him,” the report said.The Justice Department’s report includes a description of every witness’s accounts, which were sometimes offered in multiple interviews with the St. Louis County police and the F.B.I., and judged their likely credibility in court. Of the 41 witnesses described, the Justice Department labeled eight of them as credible because their statements were consistent over time, consistent with other accounts and consistent with the physical evidence. One of these eight was Mr. Wilson’s fiancée, with whom he spoke minutes after the shooting.No witnesses had accounts that were credible and pointed toward Mr. Wilson’s guilt, the investigators wrote. Nine witnesses did not fully contradict or corroborate the officer, while the accounts of 24 others were dissected and shown, the federal investigators said, to lack credibility. These included witnesses who admitted they had not actually seen the events. | 0 |
Ezra KleinApril 29, 2021Credit...Joe Sohm/Visions of America and Universal Images Group, via Getty ImagesI intended to duly fulfill my duty as a political columnist and write about the first 100 days of Joe Biden’s presidency. My idea was to focus on the 50 Senate Democrats: They don’t have a single vote to spare, they have to broker deals that satisfy both Bernie Sanders and Joe Manchin — America does have a multiparty political system, it’s just tucked inside the Senate Democratic caucus — and yet they’ve held together pretty well, on a pretty ambitious agenda.But as I talked to Senate Democrats about the past few months, I kept hearing a note of regret. Not about their agenda, or the bills they had passed or the nominations they had cleared. They were proud of all that. What saddened them was that their accomplishments, both past and prospective, depended on partisan strategies — party-line votes, the budget reconciliation process and, potentially, filibuster reform. They wanted to assure me they were still fighting for a bipartisan future. “You have to keep channels open to Republicans,” Senator Amy Klobuchar told me, even though I hadn’t asked about Republicans.Bipartisanship on big bills isn’t possible right now, and Senate Democrats know it. Still, they want to work with Republicans, and they want Republicans to work with them, and they muse about where it all went wrong. “The 2017 tax cut bill didn’t get a single Democratic vote in the House and Senate,” Senator Ron Wyden told me, disbelief in his voice. “You really have to work at it to not get a single Democratic vote for tax cuts. Everybody likes dessert!”The yearning for bipartisanship shapes the Senate in profound ways. For instance, it helps the filibuster survive. The filibuster is believed — wrongly, in my view — to promote bipartisanship, and so it maintains a symbolic appeal for those who wish for a more bipartisan Senate. “There is no circumstance in which I will vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster,” Senator Joe Manchin wrote in The Washington Post. “The time has come to end these political games, and to usher a new era of bipartisanship.”In the absence of the filibuster, the Senate might pass more legislation, but it would do so in a more partisan way, and some, like Manchin, would see that as a failure no matter the content of the bills. “We’d all prefer bipartisanship, but for some of my colleagues, it’s a very high value,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate majority leader, told me.But even senators who’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that the rules do need to change, like Klobuchar, are caught between reform and regret. And so I want to pose an argument that will clash with the catechisms of American politics: Bipartisan governance isn’t innately better than partisan governance. In fact, it’s often worse.The case for bipartisanship is that we are a divided nation, and legislation should reflect the best ideas of both sides, while not overly antagonizing either. “The truth is, my Democratic friends do not have all the answers and my Republican friends do not, either,” Manchin wrote. “This has always been the case.” He’s right. Neither party can claim omniscience. But in practice, bipartisan governance does not result in legislation featuring the best ideas of Republicans and the best ideas of Democrats. At least in the modern era, that’s likelier to happen through partisan governance.A bipartisan bill is simply a bill that members of both parties support. That means they can support it ideologically and they can support it politically. It’s that latter condition that’s toughest to fulfill: The minority party doesn’t want to give the majority big, bipartisan accomplishments, because the minority party wants the majority to lose the next election.But put that aside. Let’s make this easier for bipartisanship and imagine the only condition that needs to be fulfilled is that both parties think a bill is a good idea. Outside of emergencies — and American politics cannot function only during financial crises and pandemics — the set of ideas that both parties can agree on is far smaller and blander than the range of ideas that one party or the other likes. To insist on bipartisanship as a condition of passage is to believe that it’s better for American politics to choose its solutions from the kids’ menu.Virtually the entire Republican Party signed a pledge to oppose any and all tax increases, so a truly bipartisan approach would mean taxes were simply off the table for policymaking. That would plainly be absurd. But even where more reasonable compromise is possible, problems abound.Bills both parties agree on are often bills that have seen their most dramatic or unusual ideas sanded off. Compromise bills can be wise legislation, but they often result in policy too modest and mushy to solve problems. We would never want industries to release only products that all the major competitors can agree on — we understand that it’s good for the public to have choices, and sometimes the best product starts as a risky bet, not as a consensus pick.I should say, in defense of those who miss bipartisanship, that it wasn’t always this way. For much of the 20th century, America’s political parties were organized more by region than by ideology, with conservative Southern Democrats and liberal Northern Republicans muddling the party’s disagreements. That created a golden age of bipartisanship, where cross-party deals weren’t just a race to the bottom of the policy barrel. But that era ended long ago, and it’s not coming back anytime soon. To ask the parties to cooperate today is like asking opposing football teams to agree not just on who scores the next touchdown, but also on how.The other argument for bipartisanship is that bipartisan policy is more stable — you avoid, for example, the Republicans’ 10-year war to repeal Obamacare, or the Democratic Party’s long fight against the Bush tax cuts. This is a fear Senator Jon Tester voiced to me when we appeared together on “Real Time With Bill Maher” in February. If you get rid of the filibuster and embrace partisan lawmaking, he said, “every time Congress changes hands, what you did two years ago will be repealed and you’ll go in a different direction.”This concern is widely held, but I don’t think it’s accurate. Think of the major partisan bills of the past few decades. Liberals loathed the Bush tax cuts and Medicare Part D, and promises of repeal were constant. But when Democrats took power, they kept (and, through Obamacare, expanded!) Medicare Part D, and when the Bush tax cuts expired, Democrats cut a deal to keep most of them.Similarly, Republicans professed themselves desperate to repeal the Affordable Care Act, but when they took power, it turned out they didn’t have 50 Senate votes to do anything but defang the individual mandate. If they had succeeded in repealing Obamacare, I suspect it would have been a political calamity for them, as millions would have lost health insurance and known exactly who to blame.I am not suggesting that partisan governance will never lead to the repeal of valuable legislation. But there’s little in recent history to support the view that political parties will undo everything their predecessors did. Sharp swings are likelier to happen when congressional gridlock pushes policymaking into executive orders — which is true now. After legislation to protect Dreamers fell to a filibuster in the Senate, President Barack Obama turned to an executive order. President Donald Trump then reversed that order, and then President Biden reversed Trump’s reversal. If the Dream Act — which passed the House and got 55 Senate votes — had been made law in 2010, I think it would have had a better shot at surviving the Trump era intact.If anything, past legislation in America is too stable. More old policy should be revisited, and if it’s not working, uprooted or overhauled. There’s nothing wrong with one party passing a bill that the next party repeals. That gives voters information they can use to decide who to vote for in the future. If a party repeals a popular bill, it will pay an electoral price. If it repeals an unpopular bill, or replace it with something better, it’ll prosper. That’s the way the system should work.We are a divided country, but one way we could become less divided is for the consequences of elections to be clearer. When legislation is so hard to pass, politics becomes a battle over identity rather than a battle over policy. Don’t get me wrong: Fights over policy can be angry, even vicious. But they can also lead to changed minds — as in the winning coalition Democrats built atop the successes of the New Deal — or changed parties, as savvy politicians learn to accept the successes of the other side. There is a reason Republicans no longer try to repeal Medicare and Democrats shrink from raising taxes on the middle class.This is what Manchin gets wrong: A world of partisan governance is a world in which Republicans and Democrats both get to pass their best ideas into law, and the public judges them on the results. That is far better than what we have now, where neither party can routinely pass its best ideas into law, and the public is left frustrated that so much political tumult changes so little.This whole debate is peculiarly American. In parliamentary systems, the job of the majority party, or majority coalition, is to govern, and the job of the opposition party is to oppose. Cooperation can and does occur, but there’s nothing unusual or regrettable when it doesn’t, and government does not grind to a halt in its absence. Not so in America, where the president can be from one party and Congress can be controlled by another. In raising bipartisanship to a high political ideal, we have made a virtue out of a necessity, but that’s left us little recourse, either philosophically or legislatively, when polarization turns bipartisanship into a rarity. That’s where we are now.The legislation Senate Democrats have passed and considered in their first 100 days is unusually promising precisely because it has been unusually partisan. They are considering ideas they actually think are right for the country — and popular with voters — as opposed to the narrow set of ideas Republicans might support. The question they will face in the coming months is whether they want to embrace partisan legislating, repeatedly using budget reconciliation and even ridding the Senate of the filibuster, or abandon their agenda and leave the rest of the country’s problems unsolved.“I can tell you this, I am going to do everything I can to get the biggest, boldest change we can, because I think the people I represent depend on it,” Schumer told me. “My party depends on it. But most of all, the future of my country depends on it.”It will surprise no one to hear that I think Democrats should get rid of the filibuster. But it’s not because I believe Democrats necessarily have the right answers for what ails America. It’s because I believe the right answers are likelier to be found if one party, and then the other, can try its hand at solving America’s problems. Partisan governance gives both parties true input over how America is governed; they just have to win elections. Bipartisan governance, at least with parties this polarized, does the opposite: It deprives both sides of the ability to govern and elections of their consequences.Roge Karma contributed reporting. | 0 |
Drones can begin flying low over the American skyscape by 2017 under rules proposed Sunday by the Obama administration that will finally allow their legal use for business purposes. The rules, which still need to go through a public comment phase, apply to smaller drones weighing 55 pounds or less. Such small flyers aren’t likely to share airspace with manned flights. “We have tried to be flexible in writing these rules,” Michael Huerta, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said in a statement. “We want to maintain today’s outstanding level of aviation safety without placing an undue regulatory burden on an emerging industry.” On a conference call with reporters, Huerta bragged the FAA had created “the most flexible regime for unmanned aircraft 55 pounds or less that exists anywhere in the world.” The proposal is largely favorable to the thousands of businesses who want to use drones for photography, agriculture or inspection purposes. While there was discussion of requiring licensed drone pilots to have time flying in a manned aircraft — a potentially expensive proposition — pilots will instead have to pass a written test at an aviation training center. The FAA rejected the idea of offering the tests online, as is done in some other countries. The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International applauded the FAA for issuing the long-delayed rule, while remaining cautious about its impact. “This proposed rule is a critical milestone in the UAS integration process, and one that is long overdue,” AUVSI President Brian Wynne said. “UAS technology has largely remained grounded while many prospective users wait for the regulatory framework to catch up. This is a good first step in an evolutionary process that brings us closer to realizing the many societal and economic benefits of UAS technology.” In a phone interview, Wynne said he remained worried about what exactly the FAA’s testing would involve, including what the ground school would actually test and where the test would be available. “Those are things they’re still trying to work through,” Wynne said. Huerta said the agency was still crafting its final ideas for administering the test: “We want to find that balance between requiring that base level of knowledge and making it broadly available,” he said. The Air Line Pilots Association, the largest union for commercial airline pilots, struck a decidedly measured tone, saying — in essence — that while it is pleased that the rule has been issued, the union will evaluate it against past recommendations from groups of stakeholders that have looked at the issue. But a number of the proposals would block the drone-delivery dreams of tech giants Amazon and Google, both of which are developing delivery programs. The small drones won’t be able to fly above 500 feet and will have to remain in the operator’s line of sight. Nighttime flights would be banned, and drones still won’t be allowed to carry external weight. Operators also won’t be allowed to fly drones above people not involved in the flight. On a conference call with reporters, Huerta made clear more permissive rules could arrive in the future. “What this represents is another step in a long process,” he said. “This is not the final on the full scope of UAS operations.” Still, Amazon called for the FAA to hurry its work. “The FAA needs to begin and expeditiously complete the formal process to address the needs of our business, and ultimately our customers,” Paul Misener, the online shopping giant’s vice president for global public policy, said in a statement. “We are committed to realizing our vision for Prime Air and are prepared to deploy where we have the regulatory support we need.”? Huerta told reporters the FAA was continuing to research the autonomous and beyond-line-of-sight operations a project like Amazon Prime Air would require, but remained concerned about such drones colliding with other objects. “We recognize that beyond visual line-of-sight is something there’s a lot of interest in,” he said. “The whole question of sense-and-avoid is a very sensitive area.” In another win for the industry, small drones won’t need airworthiness certificates required of planes. The certificates can take three to five years to earn, a timeline the FAA admits couldn’t keep up with the pace of innovation in the industry. But drones will be required to have an identifying number displayed prominently on the body. On planes, this “N number” helps the public quickly identify the plane’s owner and will aid with accountability for drones. Also Sunday, the White House issued a presidential memorandum on drone privacy. The memo requires federal agencies to harmonize their policies and procedures to be consistent with the memo’s limits on data collection and use, retention and dissemination of information collected by drones. It would ensure that agencies prohibit data from being used “in any manner that would violate the First Amendment or in any manner that would discriminate against persons based upon their ethnicity, race, gender, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, in violation of law.” The memo also includes requirements on oversight and transparency, as well as periodic review of those policies. It directs the Commerce Department and National Telecommunications and Information Administration to create a “a framework for privacy, accountability, and transparency issues concerning the commercial and private use of UAS” within 90 days. POLITICO first reported that element of the order in July. In a statement, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) said the order was insufficient and that he would reintroduce legislation requiring stronger privacy rules. “It stops short of ensuring that the strongest safeguards are in place to protect privacy and promote transparency,” Markey said. “The FAA order merely directs NTIA to come up with a voluntary framework for privacy for commercial drone use. We need strong, enforceable rules for both commercial and government activities that require transparency about the collection, use, and retention of data collected by drones before they take flight.” Other Hill reaction was more positive. The leading Democrats on the aviation subcommittees in both the House and Senate, as well as the chairman of the subcommittee in the House, released statements praising the FAA’s work. “This technology holds tremendous promise for many commercial applications in the areas of science, safety, and security, including everything from aerial surveying to precision agriculture,” Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) said. “I look forward to working with the FAA and my colleagues to develop a framework that balances economic potential with protecting privacy and the safety of our national airspace system.” “These draft rules are an important step toward safely incorporating new technology into our sophisticated and crowded airspace,” Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.) echoed. “We have heard a number of concerns that the FAA moved too slowly on these rules. Given the magnitude of the safety implications, we must give the FAA credit for proceeding with caution.” The FAA missed a Dec. 31 deadline to propose the rules and is likely to miss a September deadline to finalize them. The General Accountability Office said at a congressional hearing last year it expects a rule to be finalized in 2017. Huerta and Secretary of Transportation Anthony Foxx wouldn’t commit to any timeline and indicated they expected a barrage of comments on the issue during the coming 60-day period. Wynne urged them to work as quickly as possible: “Speed is very much of the essence here. Good start, but how quickly can we get to a final rule?” Many drone advocates seemed relieved by the proposal, which many worried would be overly restrictive and essentially continue the existing ban on commercial use. “I am very pleased to see a much more reasonable approach to future regulation than many feared,” Brendan Schulman, a lawyer at KramerLevin in New York who has repeatedly sued the FAA over its drone rules, wrote in an email. “I think this is in part the result of legal challenges and rules proposals that have triggered a year-long very public discussion calling for a less restrictive framework for the use of this great new technology.” Kathryn A. Wolfe and Tony Romm contributed to this report. | 0 |
Live coverage of this blog has ended, please click here for Day 2 of Derek Chauvin's trial.Former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin's trial began Monday morning. Chauvin faces three charges, including second-degree murder, in the death of George Floyd. Floyd, a Black man, died May 25 after Chauvin, a white 19-year veteran of the department, pressed his knee into Floyd's neck for several minutes.The nearly nine-minute video of Floyd's death, in which he can repeatedly be heard saying, "I can't breathe," led to global protests last year against police brutality.Judge adjourns trial until tomorrow after 'technical glitch'Hennepin County District Judge Peter Cahill adjourned the trial until tomorrow a bit sooner than planned."We had a major technical glitch here," Cahill said. The live feed from the courtroom went dark while Donald Williams, the third witness called by prosecutors, was testifying. Williams, a mixed martial arts fighter, can be heard on a viral bystander video berating Derek Chauvin and the other officers while they arrested George Floyd.At one point, he called the fired officers "bums."The trial will resume Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. local time with Williams on the stand.Witness calls Chauvin's move on Floyd a 'shimmy'A mixed-martial arts fighter, who came up to the scene of George Floyd's arrest, called Derek Chauvin's knee-on-neck move a "shimmy," a maneuver designed to cut off airflow.Donald Williams, a high school and junior college wrestler before getting mixed martial arts, was a street bystander on May 25 and told jurors that he recognized what Chauvin was doing to Floyd.As a prosecutor showed video of Floyd moaning in agony under Chauvin's knee, and Williams called it a "shimmy," noting how the officer's foot was on its toes, driving down and applying pressure into Floyd's neck.“You can see his foot, his toe is pointing down," Williams said. “And that’s the pressure, to push more down, between his knee, George’s head and the concrete and cut off circulation.”Williams was the third and final witness on Monday. He will return to the stand Tuesday morning.Bystander heard George Floyd 'pleading' for his lifeGeorge Floyd was "pleading" for his life as a police officer had a knee on his neck, a bystander to the deadly confrontation told jurors Monday.Donald Williams, 33, was on his way to Cup Foods on May 25 when he saw police holding Floyd to the ground. Williams was the third witness called by prosecutors.“Hearing George on the ground pretty much pleading for his life saying he’s sorry, 'I can’t breathe, I want my mom, just please let me up,' things like that," Williams told jurors.Williams had spent that Memorial Day fishing and compared Floyd's demise under the knee of Derek Chauvin, the former police officer on trial, to the fish he caught, as they suffocate out of the water. "The more you see Floyd fade away, slowly fade away," Williams said. "He was going through distress because of the knee. He vocalized it, that 'I can't breathe, I need to get up and I'm sorry' and his eyes slowly roll to the back of his head." Nearby cashier takes video of Floyd's arrest last yearA bystander who shot video of George Floyd's arrest said she felt compelled to capture his interaction with officers, because police are "always messing with people."Alisha Oyler worked as a cashier at a Speedway convenience store, across the street from where police took Floyd into custody, leading to his death on May 25. She took seven video clips of police taking Floyd into custody."I always see the police, they're always messing with people. It's wrong and it's not right," Oyler, 23, told jurors.Defense replays fixed camera video in cross-examination of 911 dispatcherDerek Chauvin’s defense attorney in his cross-examination of the first witness Monday replayed video that a 911 dispatcher saw that led her to raise concerns about his use of force, pointing out that she did not have the same training on use of force as police officers.Eric Nelson in his questioning of Minneapolis 911 dispatcher Jena Lee Scurry said she was not a police officer and thus had not been through the same police academy or training as Chauvin. Scurry said in earlier testimony that Chauvin was on George Floyd's neck for so long, she thought live video footage of the scene had frozen. She testified that she believed "something was wrong" as she watched a fixed police camera on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis showing Floyd being detained by Chauvin and his colleagues."It had not changed. They were still on the ground .... it was long enough, long enough that I could look back multiple times," Scurry said. "I first asked if the screens had frozen because it hadn't changed." Nelson asked Scurry questions to suggest that what she also saw at the time was a potential struggle happening inside a police car as video showed what appeared to be the police car rocking back and forth during part of the encounter before Floyd was on the ground. He also asked her if she could hear what the officers were saying as she watched the duration of the live police feed video, which she confirmed she could not at the time.Prosecution calls second witness, a nearby employee who saw Floyd's arrestProsecutors called their second witness to the stand, a 23-year-old woman who saw police apprehend George Floyd last year.Alisha Oyler worked at a Speedway convenience store across the street Chicago Avenue when police were called on May 25.She was questioned by former federal prosecutor Steven Schleicher, who also led jury selection for the prosecution.Biden will be following trial 'closely,' White House saysPresident Joe Biden will "be watching closely" the trial of Derek Chauvin, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday."At the time of George Floyd's death, he talked about this as being an event that really opened up a wound in the American public and really brought to light for a lot of people in this country just the kind of racial injustice and inequality that many communities are experiencing every single day," Psaki said. Psaki said Biden would not weigh in any further on the matter while the trial was ongoing. When asked whether Biden had been in touch with the Floyd family ahead of the trial, Psaki said she did not have any calls to discuss at the moment.Biden frequently talked about Floyd as a candidate and has continued to do so as president, urging the country to use Floyd's death as a call to action against systemic racism. In late May, days after Floyd's killing, then then-presumptive Democratic presidential nominee spoke with his family. Biden also gave an emotional taped address that played at Floyd's funeral service in June, saying that "when there is justice for George Floyd, we will truly be on our way to racial justice in America."Biden, who had long styled himself as a law-and-order Democrat and promoted his close ties with police and first responders, said in May that there needed to be reforms that hold police officers “to a higher standard,” including holding “bad cops accountable.”Floyd was on the ground so long, 911 dispatcher believed a TV screen had frozenA police officer was on George Floyd's neck for so long, a 911 dispatcher thought live video footage of the scene had frozen, she told jurors. Jena Lee Scurry, the dispatcher, testified that she believed "something was wrong" as she watched a fixed police camera on Chicago Avenue in Minneapolis showing Floyd being detained by Officer Derek Chauvin and his colleagues."It had not changed. They were still on the ground .... it was long enough, long enough that I could look back multiple times," Scurry said, answering questions from Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank. "I first asked if the screens had frozen because it hadn't changed." Floyd had been on the ground under police for so long, Scurry called Chauvin's supervising sergeant to voice her concerns. In the call, played for jurors, Scurry acknowledged that it was beyond her normal duties and called herself a "snitch." "My instincts were telling me that something's wrong, something was not right. I don't know what, but something wasn't right," Scurry told jurors.911 dispatcher called as first witness in Derek Chauvin trialThe first witness called in the trial against Derek Chauvin in the death of George Floyd was a Minneapolis 911 dispatcher who called police while witnessing Floyd's arrest.Jena Lee Scurry was called by prosecutors on Monday. Scurry called police after witnessing Floyd’s arrest on a live feed police camera near the neighborhood, the prosecution said in its opening statement."You'll learn that what she saw was so unusual and for her so disturbing that she did something she had never done in her career — she called the police on the police," prosecutor Jerry Blackwell said in his opening statement.Scurry was questioned for the prosecution by Assistant Attorney General Matthew Frank, head of the state's criminal division. | 0 |
The report charges that Americans are being indoctrinated with a false narrative of the nation’s founding and identity, including the role of slavery in its history.Credit...Anna Moneymaker for The New York TimesPublished Jan. 18, 2021Updated Jan. 20, 2021WASHINGTON — The White House on Monday released the report of the presidential 1776 Commission, a sweeping attack on liberal thought and activism that calls for a “patriotic education,” defends America’s founding against charges that it was tainted by slavery and likens progressivism to fascism.President Trump formed the 18-member commission — which includes no professional historians but a number of conservative activists, politicians and intellectuals — in the heat of his re-election campaign in September, as he cast himself as a defender of traditional American heritage against “radical” liberals. Not previously known for his interest in American history or education, Mr. Trump insisted that the nation’s schools had been infiltrated by anti-American thought and required a new “pro-American” curriculum.The commission formed part of Mr. Trump’s larger response to the antiracism protests, some of them violent, that followed the May killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.In his remarks at the National Archives announcing the commission’s formation, Mr. Trump said that “the left-wing rioting and mayhem are the direct result of decades of left-wing indoctrination in our schools.”The commission’s report charges, in terms quickly derided by many mainstream historians, that Americans are being indoctrinated with a false critique of the nation’s founding and identity, including the role of slavery in its history.“Historical revisionism that tramples honest scholarship and historical truth, shames Americans by highlighting only the sins of their ancestors, and teaches claims of systemic racism that can only be eliminated by more discrimination, is an ideology intended to manipulate opinions more than educate minds,” the report says.The report drew intense criticism from historians, some of whom noted that the commission, while stocked with conservative educators, did not include a single professional historian of the United States.James Grossman, the executive director of the American Historical Association, said the report was not a work of history, but “cynical politics.”“This report skillfully weaves together myths, distortions, deliberate silences, and both blatant and subtle misreading of evidence to create a narrative and an argument that few respectable professional historians, even across a wide interpretive spectrum, would consider plausible, never mind convincing,” he said.“They’re using something they call history to stoke culture wars,” he said.The commission’s report depicts a nation where liberals are seething with hatred for their own country, and whose divisions over its history and meaning recall those leading to the American Revolution and the Civil War.It portrays an America whose institutions have been infiltrated by leftist radicals whose views echo those of recent totalitarian movements and argues that progressives have created, in the so-called administrative state, an unchecked “fourth branch” or “shadow government.”And American universities, the report contends, “are often today hotbeds of anti-Americanism, libel, and censorship that combine to generate in students and in the broader culture at the very least disdain and at worst outright hatred for this country.”The report likens the American progressive movement of the early 20th century to the fascism of leaders like Benito Mussolini, who it said “sought to centralize power under the management of so-called experts.”“The biggest tell in the 1776 report is that it lists ‘Progressivism’ along with ‘Slavery’ and ‘Fascism’ in its list of ‘challenges to America’s principles,’” Thomas Sugrue, a historian at New York University, wrote on Twitter. “Time to rewrite my lectures to say that ending child labor and regulating meatpacking = Hitlerism.”Released on Martin Luther King’s Birthday, the report even takes aim at the legacy of the Civil Rights movement, saying that it “was almost immediately turned to programs that ran counter to the lofty ideals of the founders.”Some of the strongest criticism was for the report’s treatment of slavery, which the report suggests was an unfortunate reality throughout the world that was swept away in America by the forces unleashed by the American Revolution, which is described as marking “a dramatic sea change in moral sensibilities.”The report’s authors denounce the charge that the American founders were hypocrites who preached equality even as they codified slavery in the Constitution and held slaves themselves.“This charge is untrue, and has done enormous damage, especially in recent years, with a devastating effect on our civic unity and social fabric,” they write. Men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, while they owned hundreds of enslaved people, abhorred slavery, the report contends.“The White House 1776 Report seems to regard calling the Founders hypocritical about slavery as worse for the country than actual slavery,” Seth Masket, a professor of political science at the University of Denver, wrote on Twitter.And in a line that drew particular fire from historians, the report calls John C. Calhoun “perhaps the leading forerunner” of identity politics.“Like modern-day proponents of identity politics,” it claims, “Calhoun believed that achieving unity through rational deliberation and political compromise was impossible; majority groups would only use the political process to oppress minority groups.”The commission is led by Larry Arnn, a Trump ally and the president of the conservative Hillsdale College. Its co-chairwoman is Carol Swain, a prominent Black conservative and former Vanderbilt University law professor. Other members include Mississippi’s Republican former governor Phil Bryant; the conservative activist Ned Ryun; Mr. Trump’s former domestic policy adviser Brooke Rollins; and Charles Kesler, the editor of the influential conservative publication The Claremont Review of Books.The commission and its report are in part a rebuke to The New York Times Magazine’s 1619 Project, which reframes American history around the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans. The report denounces the project, as did Mr. Trump in his September speech announcing the commission.“This project rewrites American history to teach our children that we were founded on the principle of oppression, not freedom,” Mr. Trump said at the time.Mr. Trump’s commission produced its report just four months after it was created and less than a month after Mr. Trump publicly announced its members. By contrast, a commission on race created by President Bill Clinton in June 1997 issued its first report 15 months later.While billed by the White House as “definitive,” the report included no scholarly footnotes or citations, nor was it clear who its primary authors were. | 0 |
Here’s our look at the Trump administration and the rest of Washington.Wait — did the president really say, ‘Mission Accomplished’? (Stephen Jaffe / AFP/Getty Images) President Trump on Saturday morning thanked his allies in a tweet that declared the airstrikes on Syria “perfectly executed,” but he might have wished he’d stopped there.Instead, he ended his message with the phrase, “Mission Accomplished!” That’s a line that might have a previous president shaking his head.On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush declared an end to major combat in Iraq under a “Mission Accomplished” banner aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. That war, which began in March 2003, grew into a prolonged conflict that didn’t end until 2011.In 2008, the White House said it had “paid a price” for the backdrop. Auditor says Pentagon is censoring key data on the war in Afghanistan By Shashank Bengali The Pentagon is blocking the release of data showing how much of Afghanistan’s territory lies outside government control, censoring a key metric used to gauge progress in the 16-year war, a watchdog agency said Tuesday.The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, an auditing agency established by Congress, said in its latest report that the Pentagon instructed it not to release unclassified data on how many districts and people are controlled or influenced by insurgent groups.“This is the first time SIGAR has been specifically instructed not to release information marked ‘unclassified’ to the American taxpayer,” the head of the agency, John F. Sopko, wrote in a letter.Sopko also said the U.S.-led military coalition, for the first time since 2009, classified information about the size and attrition rates of the Afghan security forces, important indicators of progress in building up army and police forces on which the U.S. already has spent $70 billion since 2002.The decision to withhold more information from congressional oversight and the public comes amid growing violence in Afghanistan and an intensifying combat mission involving a greater number of American troops.Following a series of bombings in Kabul that left at least 136 people dead in 10 days, President Trump signaled on Monday that he was focused on trying to win the conflict militarily, saying, “We don’t want to talk with the Taliban.”But data released by SIGAR since 2015 have shown how the insurgents have gained ground against Afghan security forces. In its previous quarterly report, the watchdog said that only 57% of Afghanistan’s 407 districts were under Afghan government control or influence as of August 2017, the lowest level of control since it began tracking the statistic in December 2015.The steady decline in government control “should cause even more concern about its disappearance from public disclosure and discussion,” Sopko wrote.The watchdog also accused the Pentagon of overstating the impact of its efforts to combat drug cultivation and trafficking, among the Taliban’s main sources of revenue. The Pentagon touted airstrikes that destroyed 25 drug labs in November and December, saying it eliminated nearly $100 million of Taliban revenue.“The labs being destroyed are cheap and easy to replace,” SIGAR said. “According to some estimates, they only take three or four days to replace.” Women journalists shunted to rear for Pence’s visit to Western Wall By Noga Tarnopolsky (Noga Tarnopolsky / Los Angeles Times) Vice-President Mike Pence’s 48-hour visit to Israel stumbled into a public storm Tuesday when female reporters covering his final stop at Jerusalem’s Western Wall were penned behind four rows of their male colleagues.White House officials told stunned journalists that the arrangement emanated from a request made by the Western Wall rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, and followed “Western Wall rules.”Some women journalists said they could not recall such treatment in the past.In a statement to Israel’s Channel 10 news, the Western Wall Heritage Foundation said it “was exactly as it was during the visit of the U.S. president to the Western Wall last May.” Later in the day, in a statement to the newspaper Haaretz, the foundation blamed the United States embassy in Tel Aviv and Israeli security officials for the segregation, and announced they would reexamine the way they handle such events. Women who covered previous VIP visits said the Pence arrangements were significantly more onerous than previous visits, when male and female journalists were separated but not offered substantially different work conditions. The arrangement reflected procedures at the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest site, where on regular days, men have access to two thirds of the area available for prayer.Tal Schneider, the diplomatic analyst for Globes, a financial newspaper, protested that the separation of men and women “may be valid for the requirements of Orthodox prayer, but no one is praying here. We are here to work.”“I don’t appreciate being restricted in my ability to work because I am a woman,” she said. “The discriminatory attitude towards women is infuriating and is unbefitting of a modern country.”Yael Freidson, the Jerusalem affairs correspondent for Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s widest circulation newspaper, said she worried that her editors could choose male colleagues for the next assignment, knowing they would have better access.Before Pence arrived, journalists were herded onto a specially constructed platform in the middle of the Western Wall’s esplanade, with women guided to the right behind a white fence, and men, many carrying cameras, directed to the left, where they had more than double the space.Towards the end of the vice president’s 10-minute visit, male journalists were permitted into the VIP tent where he received a gift from Rabinowitz, while the women remained in their enclosure.None of the men publicly protested the treatment of their female colleagues.Israel’s Association of Women Journalists filed a formal complaint with Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked, herself a woman. Former Sheriff Joe Arpaio, after his pardon from Trump, says he’ll run for Senate in Arizona By Kurtis Lee (Mary Altaffer / Associated Press) Former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, who last year was pardoned by President Trump in a case stemming from his enforcement tactics aimed at immigrants, announced Tuesday he will run for the open Senate seat in his home state. “I am running for the U.S. Senate from the Great State of Arizona, for one unwavering reason: to support the agenda and policies of President Donald Trump in his mission to Make America Great Again,” Arpaio, 85, said on Twitter. He’ll enter a Republican primary for the seat being vacated by Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. Last summer, Trump pardoned Arpaio, who was convicted in July of criminal contempt for violating a federal court order to stop racially profiling Latinos.It was Arpaio’s roughly quarter-century as sheriff that gave him a national reputation for his tough treatment of people suspected of being in the country illegally. Repeated court rulings against his office for civil rights violations cost local taxpayers tens of millions of dollars.In the early 1990s, Arpaio directed construction of a tent city for immigration detainees, a measure he said was intended both to alleviate overcrowding and to underscore his aggressive enforcement measures. But it was open to the burning Arizona sun, and drew widespread criticism.After Trump entered the presidential race in July 2015, Arpaio invited him to Phoenix to talk about a crackdown on illegal immigration. He endorsed Trump just before the first votes in the Iowa caucuses in 2016 and frequently spoke out on behalf of Trump’s campaign. President Trump ends controversial voter fraud commission By Kurtis Lee President Trump signed an executive order late Wednesday ending the voter fraud commission he launched last year as the panel faces a flurry of lawsuits and criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.Trump signed the order disbanding the commission “rather than engage in endless legal battles at taxpayer expense,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement.The Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, created by executive order in May with the stated goal of restoring confidence and integrity in the electoral process, has faced a barrage of lawsuits in recent months over privacy concerns, as the commission sought personal data on voters across the country.Read More Congress returns to work with slimmer GOP majority to accomplish Trump’s agenda By Lisa Mascaro Congress returns to work this week with unfinished business on spending, immigration and other crucial issues, but with an even narrower GOP majority that will make it tougher to move on President Trump’s agenda.The House and Senate will convene Wednesday, swearing in the newly elected Democratic senator from Alabama, Doug Jones, and Minnesota’s Tina Smith to replace a fellow Democrat, Sen. Al Franken, who is resigning as the latest high-profile public figure sidelined by allegations of sexual misconduct. The change gives Republicans only a one-seat margin in the Senate.Trump, fresh off passage of the GOP tax cuts bill, is pushing lawmakers to pivot quickly on his new year priorities of infrastructure investment and immigration, as well as his foreign policy agenda.But another legislative victory seems far off. Republicans have struggled to hold their majority together and Congress first must tackle critical stalled agenda items that leaders punted to 2018. President Trump and Republican lawmakers hold a rally at the White House after passage of the tax cut plan last month. (Michael Reynolds / European Pressphoto Agency) Read More Trump threatens to cut off U.S. aid to Palestinians By Tracy Wilkinson (European Pressphoto Agency) President Trump on Tuesday angrily threatened to cut off U.S. aid to Palestinians as punishment for what he called their failure to show “appreciation or respect” to the United States.Writing on Twitter, the president compared the Palestinians to Pakistan, a nuclear-armed ally that abruptly drew his ire this week and a similar threat to drastically curtail aid.He accused the Palestinians of recalcitrance in what he described as their refusal to negotiate a peace deal with Israel.Palestinian officials have said they can no longer use Washington as a broker to restart peace talks with Israel following Trump’s Dec. 6 decision to overturn decades of U.S. policy and recognize the disputed city of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and ultimately to move the U.S. Embassy there. The Palestinians also claim part of Jerusalem as the capital of an eventual independent state. Until now, the United States and most of the world agreed the city’s political status was a matter to settle in final peace talks.The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly condemned any effort to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, and the Palestinian leadership said it would not meet with Vice President Mike Pence, who had planned a trip to the region. That trip is on hold.“[W]e pay the Palestinians HUNDRED [sic] OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year and get no appreciation or respect,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “[W]ith the Palestinians no longer willing to talk peace, why should we make any of these massive future payments to them?”In response to Trump’s tweet, Hanan Ashrawi, a senior Palestinian official, issued a statement saying: “Palestinian rights are not for sale. By recognizing Occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital Donald Trump has not only violated international law, but he has also singlehandedly destroyed the very foundations of peace and condoned Israel’s illegal annexation of the city.”“We will not be blackmailed,” she said. “President Trump has sabotaged our search for peace, freedom and justice. Now he dares to blame the Palestinians for the consequences of his own irresponsible actions!”The United States does not pay large amounts of money directly to the Palestinian Authority, the government that rules over parts of the Palestinian West Bank. Instead, most money goes to the U.N., refugee or aid agencies and even Israel to pay for roads, welfare, schools, security and other Palestinian projects.The U.S. ambassador to the U.N., Nikki Haley, said Tuesday that the administration was planning to cut off one of those organizations, the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, until the Palestinians “return to the negotiating table.”UNRWA, which receives around $300 million annually from the U.S., for years has been the lifeline to hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. It was not clear if Haley was threatening to cut all U.S. support for the agency.Special correspondent Noga Tarnopolsky in Jerusalem contributed to this report. The White House stops short of calling for government overthrow in Iran By Brian Bennett (AP) President Trump wants Iran to give its citizens “basic human rights” and “stop being a state sponsor of terror,” his top spokeswoman said, but the White House stopped short of calling for a change of government in Tehran.“If they want to do that through current leadership, if that’s possible, OK,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.Sanders praised the “organic popular uprising,” which she said the widespread protests in Iran represented. The protests grew out of years of “years of mismanagement, corruption, and foreign adventurism have eroded the Iranian people’s trust in their leaders,” she said.Earlier Tuesday, Trump called Iran’s government “brutal and corrupt” and wrote in a tweet: “The people have little food, big inflation and no human rights. The U.S. is watching!”Trump also blamed President Obama for “foolishly” giving Iran money that he said went to fund terrorism. The money he referred to were funds belonging to Iran that had been frozen by the U.S. and were released as part of the deal in 2015, which blocked Iran’s development of nuclear weapons. Retirement of Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch clears the way for a Mitt Romney revival By David Lauter (Romney family) The retirement of Utah’s senior senator, Orrin G. Hatch, opens the way for a widely expected Senate bid by Mitt Romney, the Republicans’ 2012 presidential nominee and a frequent critic of President Trump.Although Romney previously served for two terms as governor of Massachusetts (and was raised in Michigan, where his father was governor and his mother ran for the Senate), he comes from a prominent Mormon family with strong ties to Utah. He also served as chief executive of the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics. He’s viewed as a strong candidate for the Senate seat.Romney’s criticisms of Trump, however, could prompt a challenge in a Republican primary. Trump was widely reported to have tried to convince Hatch to run for a seventh term, in part to head off a Romney candidacy.Last month, Romney and Trump were on opposite sides of one of the biggest political fights of the fall — the battle over the Senate seat from Alabama. The president strongly supported Roy Moore, the Republican candidate who had been accused of sexual misconduct by several women. Romney called Moore “a stain on the GOP.”On Tuesday, Romney tweeted praise for Hatch, but did not immediately reveal his own plans. Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch announces he’ll retire at end of term, rather than seek reelection Trump blasts Democrats in advance of immigration meeting By Brian Bennett (Brendan Smialowski / Agence-France Presse) The day before a meeting of administration officials and congressional leaders on outstanding legislative business, President Trump accused Democrats of “doing nothing” to hammer out an immigration deal to protect from deportation people brought to the country illegally as children.“Democrats are doing nothing for DACA — just interested in politics,” Trump wrote in a Tweet on Tuesday morning, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program by its acronym.House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer along with the Republican leaders, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, are scheduled to meet on Wednesday at the Capitol with Trump’s legislative director, Marc Short, and budget director, Mick Mulvaney.The White House on Tuesday said the meeting is to discuss separate spending caps on military and domestic programs. Yet the Democrats insist the discussion also must include a variety of legislative issues that Trump and Congress punted into the new year — on immigration, the budget, healthcare and more.That stance reflects Democrats’ leverage: Republicans need Democratic votes to pass a government-funding bill and avert a federal shutdown when the current funding expires Jan. 19. Democrats especially want separate legislation replacing the Obama-era DACA program; Trump in September ordered a phase-out of the program, beginning March 6, and called on Congress to act before then on an alternative way to address the plight of the group.However, Trump has demanded that any alternative must be part of a package including both money for a border wall and immigration limits. Democrats are opposed. Pakistan hits back after Trump accuses its leaders of ‘lies and deceit’ By Aoun Sahi Pakistan lashed out Monday after President Trump accused its leaders of “lies and deceit” and suggested the United States would withdraw financial assistance to the nuclear-armed nation it once saw as a key ally against terrorism.U.S. Ambassador David Hale was summoned to the Foreign Ministry to discuss the president’s statement, U.S. Embassy spokesman Richard Snelsire said. Pakistan lodged a strongly worded protest, according to two foreign office officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.Pakistan’s prime minister, Shahid Abbasi, called a Cabinet meeting for Tuesday and a meeting of the National Security Committee on Wednesday to discuss Trump’s New Year’s Day tweet.It was the president’s latest broadside against Pakistan after a speech in August in which he demanded its leaders crack down on the safe havens enjoyed by Taliban militants fighting U.S.-backed forces in neighboring Afghanistan.Read More Trump again cheers on Iran protests By Laura King President Trump expressed renewed support Sunday for protesters in Iran, declaring that “people are finally getting wise as to how their money and wealth is being stolen and squandered on terrorism.”In a tweet from his Florida estate, Mar-a-Lago, the president said the nationwide economic protests that began on Thursday – and have taken on wider political overtones as they have grown in size --- were a signal that Iranians “will not take it any longer.”The president’s earlier hailing of the protests drew condemnation from Iran’s government. A Foreign Ministry spokesman called his comments “deceitful and opportunistic.”Following an overnight report of the first two fatalities stemming from the protests, Trump raised some eyebrows by expressing concern over human rights violations as authorities move to crack down on the demonstrations. During his first year in office, the president has shown scant inclination to press foreign governments to respect the fundamental rights of their citizens.“The USA is watching closely for human rights violations!” Trump said in his tweet Sunday.Some domestic critics have pointed to the president’s inclusion of Iranian nationals in his travel ban, suggesting he was more interested in bashing the Tehran government than in supporting freedom of speech in Iran.Even some of the president’s allies said that supporting the protesters on social media did not amount to making policy. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he had urged Trump to give a national address laying out his Iran strategy.“President Trump is tweeting very sympathetically to the Iranian people,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”“But you just can’t tweet here. You have to lay out a plan.” Australian diplomat’s tip a factor in FBI’s Russia inquiry By Associated Press (Alastair Grant / Associated Press) An Australian diplomat’s tip appears to have helped persuade the FBI to investigate Russian meddling in the U.S. election and possible coordination with the Trump campaign, the New York Times reported Saturday.Trump campaign advisor George Papadopoulos told the diplomat, Alexander Downer, during a meeting in London in May 2016 that Russia had thousands of emails that would embarrass Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, the report said. Downer, a former foreign minister, is Australia’s top diplomat in Britain.Australia passed the information on to the FBI after the Democratic emails were leaked, according to the Times, which cited four current and former U.S. and foreign officials with direct knowledge of the Australians’ role.“The hacking and the revelation that a member of the Trump campaign may have had inside information about it were driving factors that led the FBI to open an investigation in July 2016,” the newspaper said.White House lawyer Ty Cobb declined to comment, saying in a statement that the administration is continuing to cooperate with the investigation now led by special counsel Robert Mueller “to help complete their inquiry expeditiously.”Papadopoulos has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is a cooperating witness. Court documents unsealed two months ago show he met in April 2016 with Joseph Mifsud, a professor in London who told him about Russia’s cache of emails. This was before the Democratic National Committee became aware of the scope of the intrusion into its email systems by hackers later linked to the Russian government.The Times said Papadopoulos shared this information with Downer, but it was unclear whether he also shared it with anyone in the Trump campaign. Trump offers fresh support for protesters in Iran as demonstrations continue By Lisa Mascaro President Trump again offered support Saturday for anti-government protesters in Iran, where a third day of demonstrations, the largest in years, spilled across the country amid fears of a crackdown.“Oppressive regimes cannot endure forever, and the day will come when the Iranian people will face a choice. The world is watching!” Trump wrote on Twitter.Trump took a break from playing golf near his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida to tweet clips from his speech to the United Nations General Assembly in September when he called for Iranian democratic reforms.Iranian authorities warned of potential violence as the street demonstrations, which began over economic conditions, swelled into frustrations with the theocratic rule of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Trump has maintained a hawkish stance toward Iran, sharply criticizing the landmark nuclear disarmament accord that Tehran reached with then-President Obama and five other nations in 2015. In October, Trump declined to certify the accord to Congress although the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency says Iran is complying with it. Several conservative GOP senators signaled their support for Trump’s position and backed the protesters in Iran. Others in Congress did not immediately respond, however, amid conflicting reports over who had organized the demonstrations.“Even after the billions in sanctions relief they secured through the nuclear deal, the ayatollahs still can’t provide for the basic needs of their own people,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), a Trump ally and opponent of the nuclear deal.“We should support the Iranian people who are willing to risk their lives to speak out against it,” he added. Trump initially tweeted his support on Friday night. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders issued a statement at that time as protests spread.“There are many reports of peaceful protests by Iranian citizens fed up with the regime’s corruption and its squandering of the nation’s wealth to fund terrorism abroad,” Sanders said. “The Iranian government should respect their people’s rights, including their right to express themselves. The world is watching.” When it comes to U.S.-Russia relations, ‘it takes two to tango,’ Kremlin says By Sabra Ayres The deteriorating relationship between the United States and Russia is one of the biggest disappointments of 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman told reporters today.Russia would like to rebuild relations between the two adversaries, but “it takes two to tango,” Dmitry Peskov said today during a conference call with the press.“We want and are looking for good mutually beneficial relations based on mutual respect, mutual trust with all countries, primarily with European ones, including the United States, but it is necessary to dance tango, as they say.”Peskov blamed the ongoing anti-Russian “Russophobia” in Washington for playing a major role in blocking the two countries from moving forward in their relationship. U.S. investigations into the Trump presidential campaign’s alleged collusion with the Kremlin during the 2016 U.S. election and accusations that the Kremlin tried to interfere with the electoral process continue to cast a dark shadow over the relationship, he said.Peskov told reporters that Moscow was “perplexed” by the investigations. The Kremlin has continued to deny having any involvement with the Trump campaign or doing anything to interfere with the American election.“This is definitely a U.S. domestic affair, but in this case it naturally hurts our bilateral relations, which is regrettable,” Peskov said.Relations between the U.S. and Russia have been categorized as the worst they’ve been since the end of the Cold War. This year, Washington and Moscow have engaged in a diplomatic tit-for-tat in which both sides have been forced to reduce diplomatic staff, embassy properties have been repossessed by the hosting countries and visa services have been interrupted. The U.S. diplomatic mission to Russia shrank from 1,200 personnel, including some Russian local staff, to just over 450 across all its three consulates and embassy in Moscow. In the U.S., Russia was forced to vacate its San Francisco consulate.Moscow has also blamed anti-Russian sentiments on the recent decision by the International Olympic Committee to ban Russian teams from wearing their tricolor uniforms or flags during the upcoming games in South Korea. The international body accused some of the Russian national teams of doping. U.S. and Turkey resume reciprocal issuing of visas but frictions remain By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) The United States and Turkey began issuing reciprocal visas again on Thursday, more than two months after normal visa service was suspended in a dispute over the arrest of two U.S. diplomatic staffers in Istanbul — the latest friction between the two nominal allies.The State Department said it was lifting the visa restrictions after it was assured by the Turkish government that U.S. Embassy employees would not be arrested when performing their official duties.But the Turkish Embassy in Washington denied assurances were offered “concerning the ongoing judicial processes,” and suggested that the arrests were legal and justified.“It is inappropriate to misinform the Turkish and American public that such assurances were provided,” the embassy said in a statement.The dispute has aggravated the already tense relationship between the United States and Turkey, which is a member of the NATO military alliance. The two countries have clashed over U.S. support for Kurdish rebels in Syria and over Turkey’s demands that the U.S. extradite a Turkish cleric who lives in rural Pennsylvania. After a failed coup attempt killed more than 250 people in July 2016, Turkey’s autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, launched a harsh crackdown on his political opponents, arresting or firing tens of thousands of teachers, police, journalists, military officers and others.Erdogan accused Fethullah Gülen, an Islamic educator and former political ally, of orchestrating the coup. Gulen, who has lived in a compound in the Pocono Mountains, has denied any involvement. The Justice Department has so far denied Turkey’s repeated demands to extradite Gulen.Erdogan raised the issue again at the White House in May, but his visit ended in a public relations disaster when his security guards brutally beat peaceful protesters outside the Turkish ambassador’s residence. Two Turkish employees of the U.S. Consulate in Istanbul were arrested this fall for alleged ties to the 2016 coup attempt. The U.S. responded by suspending most visa services at its missions in Turkey in October. The Turkish government reciprocated in November.State Department officials said they have repeatedly demanded more information about any formal charges against the two employees. They reiterated on Thursday that “serious concerns” about the allegations remained. Trump: China caught ‘RED HANDED’ allowing oil to reach North Korea By Brian Bennett (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) President Trump isn’t taking a holiday vacation from Twitter. In one of three tweets early on Thursday from his West Palm Beach golf club, he charged that China was “caught RED HANDED” allowing oil shipments to reach North Korean ports.Pronouncing himself “very disappointed,” Trump in effect was acknowledging the failure of his months-long effort to convince China to clamp down further on energy shipments going to the isolated country, which relies heavily on Beijing, as a way to pressure North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program. Trump’s tweet came after a South Korean newspaper published what it said were U.S. spy satellite images of Chinese ships selling oil to North Korean ships.The United Nations Security Council, which includes China, has voted repeatedly to restrict fuel shipments to North Korea. Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping in November to cut off North Korea’s oil supply entirely, the American ambassador to the U.N., Nikki R. Haley, said at the time. It is unclear if Trump’s admonishment of China was based on news reports or classified information he received from U.S. intelligence officials. There was no daily intelligence briefing on Trump’s public schedule Thursday. He is expected to return to Washington next week after spending the Christmas holiday and New Year’s Eve at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla. President Trump again falsely claims he’s signed more bills than any president By Brian Bennett (Nicholas Kamm / AFP) After another morning at his Florida golf club, President Trump visited firefighters and paramedics at a West Palm Beach firehouse and praised his own performance as president, including with a false boast.Trump touted his administration’s work to roll back government regulations and cut taxes and claimed credit for the stock market hitting record highs. He also said he’s signed more bills into law than any other president, which isn’t true.“We have signed more legislation than anybody,” Trump said, standing in front of a rescue vehicle inside the fire station. “We have more legislation passed, including — the record was Harry Truman a long time ago, and we broke that record, so we got a lot done,” Trump said.An analysis by GovTrack, a website that tracks bills in Congress, shows that Trump has signed the fewest bills into law at this point than any president in more than 60 years, back to Dwight D. Eisenhower. Trump administration urges Russia to reinstate monitors in Ukraine, ‘lower violence’ By Tracy Wilkinson (AFP/Getty Images) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked Russia on Wednesday to reinstate its military personnel at a monitoring station in eastern Ukraine intended to quell escalating bloodshed.In a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, Tillerson also urged Russia to “lower the level of violence” and underscored the Trump administration’s “concern” over increased fighting in Ukraine, the State Department said in a statement.Russia last week withdrew its monitors from the Joint Center on Coordination and Control, which is tasked with verifying a much-violated ceasefire between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists. Moscow cited what it called restrictions and “provocations” from Ukrainian authorities that made it impossible for the observers to do their jobs. Washington has accused the pro-Russia forces of being responsible for many of the truce violations.Late last week, the State Department also announced plans to provide Ukraine with lethal defensive weapons, including Javelin anti-tank missiles, a decision that angered Moscow.The State Department statement did not say whether the weapons deal came up in Tillerson’s conversation with Lavrov.The two also discussed North Korea, its “destabilizing nuclear program” and the need for a diplomatic solution “to achieve a denuclearized Korean peninsula,” the statement said. Russia has offered to serve as a mediator between Washington and Pyongyang, but direct talks do not seem likely at this point. U.S. sanctions two more North Korean officials for ballistic missile program By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) The Trump administration announced sanctions Tuesday against two more North Korean officials for their alleged role in Pyongyang’s expanding ballistic missiles program.The Treasury Department “is targeting leaders of North Korea’s ballistic missile programs, as part of our maximum pressure campaign to isolate [North Korea] and achieve a fully denuclearized Korean Peninsula,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement.The nuclear-armed country tested an intercontinental ballistic missile last month that U.S. officials said appeared capable of reaching New York or Washington, a significant milestone in the country’s growing arsenal. The Treasury Department identified the two North Korean officials as Kim Jong Sik, who “reportedly is a key figure” in the ballistic missile program and led efforts to switch missiles from liquid to solid fuel (which makes them easier to hide before launch), and Ri Pyong Chol, who was “reported to be a key official” in the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles. The sanctions block banks, companies and individuals from doing any business with the targeted officials. It also allows the U.S. government to freeze any American assets owned by the officials.On Friday, the United Nations Security Council unanimously voted to add more sanctions on North Korea, its third round this year. The new measures order North Koreans working abroad to return home within two years, and ban nearly 90% of refined petroleum exports to the country. In a statement published Sunday by North Korea’s state-run KCNA news agency, the foreign ministry denounced the new U.N. sanctions as “an act of war.”“We define this ‘sanctions resolution’ rigged up by the US and its followers as a grave infringement upon the sovereignty of our Republic, as an act of war violating peace and stability in the Korean Peninsula and the region and categorically reject the ‘resolution,’” it said. Salt Lake Tribune calls on Sen. Orrin Hatch to not seek reelection in scathing editorial Perhaps the most significant move of Hatch’s career is the one that should, if there is any justice, end it. The last time the senator was up for reelection, in 2012, he promised that it would be his last campaign. That was enough for many likely successors, of both parties, to stand down, to let the elder statesman have his victory tour and to prepare to run for an open seat in 2018. Clearly, it was a lie. Read the editorial>> Christmas Eve, Trump on Twitter: New attacks on FBI official, decrying ‘Fake News’ By Laura King (Associated Press) President Trump launched a Christmas Eve attack on FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, whom he accuses of favoritism toward his former opponent, Hillary Clinton, and also returned to a longtime favored theme, excoriating the news media for failing to sufficiently extol his accomplishments.Trump, who is spending the holidays at his Florida resort, Mar-a-Lago, also sent Christmas greetings to deployed military personnel, praising them for success in the fight against terrorism.The early-morning swipe at McCabe followed a flurry of tweets attacking the deputy FBI chief on Saturday. McCabe, who has been a lightning rod for Republican attacks on the FBI, is expected to retire early in the new year.Critics say the president and his allies are in the midst of a systematic campaign to denigrate the FBI and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is looking into potential collusion by the Trump campaign in Russia’s attempts to sway the 2016 presidential election.In a pair of statements on Twitter, Trump again expressed scorn regarding news coverage of his administration. For months, the president has been particularly critical of reports regarding the Russia investigation and more recently has repeatedly complained he does not receive enough credit for a booming stock market.In his video conference message to troops overseas, the president made apparent reference to the fight against the militants of Islamic State, who over the last year have lost most of the territory they previously controlled in Iraq and Syria, including former strongholds in Mosul and Raqqah.“We’re winning,” Trump told military personnel deployed in Qatar, Kuwait, Guantanamo Bay and aboard the guided missile destroyer Sampson.Reporters traveling with the president heard his address, but were ushered from the room before he took questions from the troops. The president often breaks with longtime custom and makes politically charged statements at events in which he addresses military personnel. Trump’s Wells Fargo tweet cited in court hearing as reason to remove Mulvaney as CFPB acting chief By Jim Puzzanghera A recent tweet by President Trump about possible penalties against Wells Fargo & Co. was cited during a court hearing Friday as a reason for removing White House official Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.The attorney for Leandra English — the bureau’s deputy director who has said she is the rightful acting head — said Trump’s tweet showed he was trying to exercise improper influence over the independent consumer watchdog.“I think that [tweet] shows you this isn’t just some hypothetical concern,” the attorney, Deepak Gupta, told Judge Timothy J. Kelly of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia during a nearly two-hour hearing.Read More Trump administration recognizes Honduran president’s reelection By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) The Trump administration on Friday formally recognized the incumbent president of Honduras, conservative Juan Orlando Hernandez, as the winner of a bitterly contested presidential election held last month.In a statement, the State Department congratulated Hernandez while also acknowledging widespread irregularities in the Nov. 26 vote and calling for a “robust national dialogue” to overcome political discord in the Central American country, a close ally of the administration.The Organization of American States, which monitored the election, said it was so flawed that only a new round of voting could establish a “fair and transparent” outcome. But the U.S. rejected that determination.Uproar over the contest led to demonstrations in Honduras that left numerous civilians dead after state security forces opened fire on the protests. Activists and others voiced criticism Friday of the administration’s decision.Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), a leading Democratic voice on Central American issues, said he was “angry and deeply disturbed” by the State Department decision.“The recent elections in Honduras were deeply flawed, chaotic and marred by numerous irregularities,” McGovern said. U.S.-Honduran cooperation on matters such as drug-trafficking, violence and immigration requires “a credible, legitimate government that has the support of its people,” in Honduras, McGovern said.Hernandez’s victory also was controversial because it was the first time a sitting president was allowed to run for re-election, barred until now by the Honduran Constitution. Senate Leader Mitch McConnell says fixing DACA is ‘no emergency’ until March By Lisa Mascaro Amanda Bayer, left with banner, and Marisol Maqueda, right, join a rally in support of so-called “Dreamers” outside the White House. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday he’s committed to allowing a vote on a bill for so-called “Dreamers” in January, but sees no rush to resolve the deportation threat posed by President Trump’s decision to end a program protecting immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. “There isn’t that much of an emergency there,” he said. “There is no emergency until March. We’ll keep talking about it.”Trump called for phasing out by March the Obama-era program that allows the young immigrants, many of them longtime residents, to get two-year deferrals of any deportation threat so they can legally attend school or work. Beneficiaries must be vetted for security purposes.Trump told Congress to come up with a legislative alternative for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Obama created by executive order, to protect those currently eligible.A bipartisan Senate group has been working with the White House, but talks stalled this week amid administration demands for curbs on legal immigration flows in exchange for protecting the DACA recipients.Meanwhile, Dreamers and immigrant advocates stormed the Capitol in recent days pressing for the help promised by Trump and Democratic congressional leaders that failed to materialize in the year’s final legislation.Advocacy groups say more than 120 immigrants each day are falling out of compliance without DACA renewals, putting them at risk of deportation. The number that is projected to swell to more than 1,000 a day in March.“We’ve been gridlocked on this issue for years,” McConnell said. “We want to have a signature. We don’t just want to spin our wheels and have nothing to show for it.” President Trump signs tax bill By Noah Bierman (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump on Friday morning signed a sweeping tax-cut measure — his first major legislative achievement — before heading off for a Christmas vacation at his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Fla.The president also privately signed a short-term spending bill to fund government operations through Jan. 19. Congress approved it Thursday, after Republican leaders were unable to bridge differences in their own party as well as with Democrats to get agreement on funding for the full fiscal year. The stopgap bill punts fights on immigration and other issues to January. The tax bill, approved earlier this week in Congress in largely party-line votes, slashes corporate tax rates from 35% to 21% and also includes a host of other provisions for individuals, all intended to boost the economy.Critics point to nonpartisan analyses showing that the package, including changes greatly reducing the number of estates subject to taxes, steers the bulk of tax benefits to top earners and the wealthy, including Trump, despite his repeated claims that he’ll take a hit.Trump signed the bill quietly Friday, but held a public ceremony with Republican lawmakers on Wednesday after the bill’s passage; he also tweeted about the measure extensively. He is expected to hold another public ceremony after the New Year’s holiday. Pelosi urges Ryan to prevent Republicans from curtailing House’s Russia probe By Chris Megerian House Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin greets House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi sent a letter to Speaker Paul D. Ryan on Friday urging him to ensure the House’s investigation into Russian interference with last year’s presidential campaign is not “cut short.”“The American people deserve a comprehensive and fair investigation into Russia’s attacks,” wrote Pelosi, of San Francisco, in her letter. “Political haste must not cut short valid investigatory threads.”The House Intelligence Committee has been probing the issue since March 1, and Democrats have repeatedly warned that Republicans are trying to wrap up its work prematurely. Pelosi said Ryan, a Republican from Wisconsin, should “take urgent action to ensure this investigation can continue.”AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, said Pelosi simply wants “to see this investigation go on forever” in order to “suit her political agenda.”“Whether it concludes next month, next year, or in three years, she will say it is too soon,” Strong said in a statement. She added, “The investigation will conclude when the committee has reached a conclusion.”The committee’s work is led by Rep. K. Michael Conaway (R-Texas). His spokeswoman, Emily Hytha, said he “remains committed to conducting this investigation as thoroughly and expeditiously as possible.”With more interviews scheduled, the investigation shows signs of extending into next year, Bloomberg reported Friday. Congress votes to avert government shutdown, but Senate fails to pass disaster aid package By Lisa Mascaro ( (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press)) Congress approved a temporary spending bill to prevent a government shutdown, but failed to complete work on an $81-billion disaster aid package to help California, Gulf Coast states and Puerto Rico recover from wildfires and hurricanes, as lawmakers scrambled Thursday to wrap up business before a Christmas break.The stopgap measure continues federal operations for a few more weeks, setting up another deadline for Jan. 19. But it left undone a long list of priorities that members of both parties had hoped to finish this year.Read More Wells Fargo says raises were not linked to tax bill passage — then backtracks By James Rufus Koren Wells Fargo & Co.’s move to raise its minimum pay to $15 an hour was part of a long-term plan and not related to the passage of the Republican tax overhaul as the company implied, said a bank spokesman, who later backtracked and stated the hikes were a result of the bill’s approval.The bank was among several large corporations to publicly announce pay raises or new investments immediately following the final House vote in an apparent public relations offensive to boost the popularity of the tax billThe San Francisco bank had implied the direct linkage to the tax legislation in a news release Wednesday, shortly after Congress passed the tax overhaul, which slashes the corporate tax rate to 21% from 35% starting Jan. 1.Read More Obamacare signups beat expectations, despite Trump administration’s opposition By Noam N. Levey (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Despite Trump administration efforts to discourage people from signing up, the number of people enrolling for Affordable Care Act coverage nearly hit last year’s level, the government revealed Thursday.The 8.8 million people who enrolled in the 36 states that use the federal government’s healthcare.gov system significantly exceeded most forecasts.The Trump administration stopped most outreach and other efforts this year aimed at getting people to sign up. The president also repeatedly said publicly that Obamacare was “dead.”Open enrollment continues in California and several other states that run their own healthcare marketplaces. The figures from the federal government indicate that when those states wrap up for the year, the number of people covered by Obamacare will be nearly the same as in 2017.Read More U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly condemns U.S. policy change on Jerusalem despite Trump’s threats By Tracy Wilkinson (Getty Images) The United Nations General Assembly overwhelmingly voted Thursday to condemn President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite Trump’s threats to punish countries that voted against the U.S. position.The resolution passed in an emergency session at U.N. headquarters in New York with 128 in favor, nine opposed and 35 abstentions.The nonbinding resolution demands that Washington rescind its declaration, which included a plan to transfer the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in coming years. The resolution value is mostly symbolic, showing how isolated the U.S. is in the move.Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned this week that she would be “taking names” of countries that opposed the U.S., and Trump on Wednesday suggested he might cut U.S. aid to governments that voted in favor of the resolution.”Let them vote against us,” Trump said. “We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”The U.S. recognition of Jerusalem reversed decades of international consensus on the political status of the divided city. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as their capital in a future independent state.Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said the U.N. was facing an “unprecedented test” and that history would remember those who “stand by what is right.” Democrats defend Robert Mueller, saying Russia investigation must be allowed to continue By Chris Megerian Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) speaking during a committee hearing earlier this year. (Molly Riley / Associated Press) House Democrats said they will fight Republican attempts to “discredit and undermine” the work of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is investigating whether President Trump’s associates helped Russian meddling in last year’s election. “There is an organized effort by Republicans, in concert with Fox News, to spin a false narrative and conjure up outrageous scenarios to accuse special counsel Mueller of being biased,” Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) said. Trump has said he has no plan to fire Mueller, but Democrats are alarmed by escalating criticism of the special counsel’s work. “Why is the president afraid of the facts and the truth?” Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) said.He added, “No matter what the facts are, we’re satisfied if the investigation is complete.”A letter of support signed by 171 Democratic members of Congress will be sent to Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller, a former FBI director, and oversees his investigation. Rosenstein has defended Mueller in the face of Republican criticisms. U.S. blacklists Myanmar army general who it says oversaw atrocities against Rohingya Muslims By Shashank Bengali The Trump administration on Thursday blacklisted a Myanmar army general who it said oversaw human rights abuses committed by security forces against Rohingya Muslims.Imposing economic sanctions against the general, Maung Maung Soe, was the toughest action the United States has taken in response to a brutal army offensive that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has described as ethnic cleansing.In a statement, the Treasury Department said it had examined “credible evidence of Maung Maung Soe’s activities, including allegations against Burmese security forces of extrajudicial killings, sexual violence and arbitrary arrest as well as the widespread burning of villages.”The Rohingya are an ethnic and religious minority of about 1 million people in predominantly Buddhist Myanmar, also known as Burma. The United Nations says that more than 640,000 Rohingya have fled the country since August, after the army launched “clearance operations” in response to attacks carried out by a Rohingya insurgent group against security forces.Rohingya refugees in crowded camps in neighboring Bangladesh have described horrific violence by Myanmar forces, including mass rapes, summary executions and children being burned alive.The aid group Doctors Without Borders estimates that 6,700 people were killed in the first month of the operation. Myanmar authorities deny committing atrocities and say that only a few hundred “fighters” were killed.Maung Maung Soe was chief of the army’s Western Command, which carried out the offensive. He was transferred from his position last month, according to news reports.He was one of 13 individuals worldwide who were blacklisted Thursday under a new U.S. law that gives the Treasury Department authority to target officials for human rights abuses and corruption. Others included former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh; Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the late Uzbekistan dictator Islam Karimov; and Artem Chaika, son of Russia’s prosecutor-general.“Today, the United States is taking a strong stand against human rights abuse and corruption globally by shutting these bad actors out of the U.S. financial system,” said Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.The sanctions freeze any assets Maung Maung Soe holds in the United States and bars Americans from doing business with him. It is also a sign of how quickly U.S. relations with Myanmar have soured.Under the Obama administration, the United States forged closer ties with the former military dictatorship and eased economic and political sanctions as the country began implementing democratic reforms.But Myanmar, which does not regard the Rohingya as citizens, has lashed out at the international community over the current crisis. It has jailed journalists, blocked access to affected areas in the western state of Rakhine and this week barred a U.N. human rights investigator from entering the country.Rohingya activists said the U.S. action would not have much effect on a country that survived under economic sanctions for years.“It is the whole military institution that has a policy to persecute these people,” said Nay San Lwin, a Rohingya activist and blogger in Germany. “According to the U.S.’s own definition, the army is carrying out ethnic cleansing. They have a responsibility to protect these people. Sanctions on one person are really not enough.” ‘Dreamers’ will have to wait until next year for Congress’ long-promised protections By Lisa Mascaro Amanda Bayer, left with banner, and Marisol Maqueda, right, join a rally in support of so-called Dreamers outside the White House. (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press)) A promised year-end deal to protect the young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation collapsed Wednesday as Republicans in Congress — fresh off passage of their tax plan — prepared to punt nearly all remaining must-do agenda items into the new year.Congressional leaders still hope that before leaving town this week they can pass an $81-billion disaster relief package with recovery funds for California wildfires and Gulf Coast states hit during the devastating hurricane season. But passage even of that relatively popular measure remained in doubt as conservatives balked at the price tag.Rather than finish the year wrapping up the legislative agenda, the GOP majorities in the House and Senate struggled over their next steps.Read More Chants of protest drown out any caroling this holiday season at the Capitol By Lisa Mascaro U.S. Capitol Police arrest a man wearing a Santa Claus hat during a protest against the Republican tax bill. (Alex Edelman / AFP/Getty Image) Outside the U.S. Capitol, the lights on a towering Christmas tree are flipped on each evening, giving the Engelmann spruce a festive twinkle; inside the marble halls, wreaths and garlands decorate doorways and alcoves ahead of the holidays.But the spirit of the season has been punctuated by other sights: a Jumbotron parked across from the Capitol reflecting pool broadcasts images of young immigrants who face deportation; Little Lobbyists, children with complex medical needs, were featured in a recent news conference; protesters filed into the visitor galleries to shout against the Republican tax plan.While it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at the Capitol, it’s also shaping up to be a holiday season of protest.Read More Tax bill simplifies filing for some but complicates it for others — and don’t count on that postcard By Jim Puzzanghera A priority of the Republicans’ tax overhaul was simplification, and they drove home the point this fall with an omnipresent prop: a red-white-and-blue postcard.“We’re making things so simple that you can do your taxes on a form the size of a postcard,” House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.) said last month, pulling one from his jacket pocket as he and Republican leaders unveiled their bill.They gave a couple of the cards to President Trump at a White House meeting a few hours later and flashed them often during news conferences and TV interviews in the coming days.Read More Top U.N. human rights official reportedly won’t seek reelection (Getty Images) The top United Nations official for human rights, who has frequently criticized the Trump administration, has reportedly decided not to seek a second term, saying his work had become untenable.Zeid Raad Hussein, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, notified his staff in an email that was obtained by several news outlets, including Agence France-Presse.Staying when his four-year term is up for renewal at the end of August “might involve bending a knee in supplication,” AFP quoted Hussein’s email as saying.Hussein is a Jordanian prince who has criticized, among other things, President Trump’s attempts to ban visitors or refugees from six predominantly Muslim countries.The news comes a day before the U.N. General Assembly is expected to vote on a nonbinding resolution condemning the Trump administration’s formal declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, a decision that went against international consensus.Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., has warned she will be “taking names” of those who vote against the United States on Thursday.Trump echoed that sentiment Wednesday, voiced support for Haley and implying to reporters that he would consider cutting off U.S. aid to countries that vote against the U.S.“Well, we’re watching those votes,” Trump said. “Let them vote against us. We’ll save a lot. We don’t care.”On Monday, the United States lost a Security Council vote 14-1 on a binding resolution that would have required Washington to rescind its declaration. Haley then vetoed the resolution. Top Democrat warns Trump not to fire Mueller or interfere with his investigation By Chris Megerian (Shawn Thew / European Pressphoto Agency) Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, one of the top Democrats involved in the congressional inquiries into Russian interference in last year’s election, said Wednesday that any attempt by President Trump to interfere with the separate criminal investigation would be a “gross abuse of power.”Warner, who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, delivered his warning from the Senate floor as Republicans escalate their criticism of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his team of prosecutors and FBI agents.Some Democrats believe Trump is laying the groundwork to fire Mueller even though the president has publicly denied it. Mueller was appointed in May after Trump fired FBI Director James B. Comey.“In the United States of America, no one, no one is above the law, not even the president,” Warner said. “Congress must make clear to the president that firing the special counsel or interfering with his investigation by issuing pardons of essential witnesses is unacceptable and would have immediate and significant consequences.”Some Democrats say the White House may try to in effect short-circuit the Mueller investigation by replacing Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who is the only official empowered to fire Mueller.Rosenstein recently told Congress that the special counsel is acting “appropriately” and that he would not dismiss Mueller without just cause. ‘We have essentially repealed Obamacare,’ Trump says after tax bill passes By Brian Bennett (Chris Kleponis / Getty Images) President Trump is celebrating Republicans’ passage of the tax overhaul bill as a two-fer: On Wednesday, in addition to tax cuts, he checked off his promise to repeal Obamacare, pointing to a provision in the bill to end the penalty on Americans who don’t get health insurance.“We have essentially repealed Obamacare,” Trump told reporters during a Cabinet meeting at the White House.Other provisions of the 2010 Affordable Care Act are still in place, and Trump and congressional Republicans failed completely on the “replace” half of their vow to “repeal and replace” the program.In Trump’s view, however, stripping away the law’s “individual mandate” to get insurance or else pay a tax penalty amounts to repeal of the whole law. Congressional analysts have said that millions of people would lose insurance as a result, either by choice or because they cannot afford it without subsidies, and that premiums would increase for others as younger, healthy people drop coverage.“We will come up with something much better,” Trump said, adding that block grants to states could be one approach.By his comments, Trump tacitly acknowledged that repeal of the mandate is likely the best he can do following Republicans’ failure this year to agree on a repeal-and-replace bill.Looking back on his first year, Trump also boasted of his administration’s efforts against the Islamic State and increased immigration enforcement. He said he had not given up on funding a border wall or tightening immigration law to limit citizens’ ability to resettle foreign relatives in the country. He said he would “very shortly” visit the border with Mexico near San Diego to see wall prototypes that have been built.He didn’t answer a reporter’s shouted question about how he would personally benefit from the tax bill. House gives final OK to GOP tax plan, sending it to Trump By Lisa Mascaro Congress gave final approval to the GOP tax plan Wednesday, 224-201, after the House took an unusual do-over vote to clear up differences with the Senate-passed bill. The $1.5-trillion package now heads to President Trump, who plans to sign it into law.The House had approved the tax bill on Tuesday but was forced to take another vote Wednesday because a couple of provisions in the version it approved were found to be in violation of Senate procedures. Those provisions were dropped before the Senate gave its approval early Wednesday. Critics complained the Republicans rushed to pass the sweeping tax plan to deliver Trump a year-end legislative victory, but supporters shrugged off the problems as minor. The tax plan dramatically cuts corporate rates and provides some individual rate reductions, overhauling the tax code for the first time in 30 years. Trump administration effort to block immigrant from having an abortion fails By David Savage Scott Lloyd is director of the Office of Refugee Resettlement at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (Drew Angerer / Getty Images) President Trump’s lawyers rushed to the Supreme Court and U.S. appeals court in Washington on Monday evening to file emergency appeals seeking to prevent an immigrant in detention, dubbed Jane Roe in court, from having an abortion. That set the stage for a legal showdown on whether the administration can block pregnant minors in custody from choosing to have an abortion. But the legal clash, which the administration has seemed eager to have, fizzled out Tuesday when the government’s lawyers admitted the “17-year-old unaccompanied minor” in their custody was actually 19. They said they had obtained her birth certificate and realized she was not a minor after all.As a result, Roe, who is 10 weeks pregnant, will no longer be held in a detention center for immigrant minors, and will not be subject to an administration policy that tries to prevent minors in immigration detention from having abortions. Administration lawyers told appeals court judges Tuesday night that Roe was being sent to a facility for adults and likely would be released until her immigration status can be resolved.In a brief order, the D.C. Circuit Court agreed to put the case on hold, but told government attorneys to confirm that “she will be permitted to obtain an abortion.” The administration had earlier tried to delay another young woman, referred to in court as Jane Poe, from having an abortion, but officials relented on Monday because she was 22 weeks pregnant and nearing the time limit for a legal abortion. Senate panel rejects Trump’s pick to lead Export-Import Bank, a leader in the effort to shut it down By Jim Puzzanghera A Senate committee on Tuesday rejected President Trump’s nominee to lead the Export-Import Bank, extending the chaos at the embattled agency whose job is to help U.S. companies sell their goods abroad.Two Republicans joined all Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee in voting against former Rep. Scott Garrett (R-N.J.) to be the bank’s president.Garrett had been a vocal critic of the Ex-Im Bank and a leader of a conservative effort that shut the bank down for five months in 2015 by blocking its congressional authorization. He and other bank opponents branded the bank’s aid as crony capitalism.Read More Congress proposes $81-billion disaster aid package, including funds for California wildfires By Lisa Mascaro Congress is set to consider an $81-billion disaster aid package that includes wildfire recovery money for California and other Western states as well as hurricane relief with a price tag reflecting a year of record-setting natural calamities.The legislation, the text of which was released late Monday, would provide almost twice as much as the $44 billion the White House sought last month to cover relief efforts along the Gulf Coast and in the Caribbean.Republican congressional leaders added more money after California lawmakers objected that the administration had failed to include help for areas damaged by wildfires and Democrats protested that the overall amount President Trump asked for was insufficient.Read More Senate investigating Green Party candidate Jill Stein in Russia probe By Associated Press (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) The Green Party’s 2016 presidential nominee says she’s cooperating with a request for documents from a Senate committee probing Russian meddling in the U.S. election.Jill Stein has acknowledged attending a 2015 event in Moscow celebrating the anniversary of a state-sponsored Russian news organization. The event has attracted investigators’ attention because former national security advisor Michael Flynn also attended and sat beside Russian President Vladimir Putin.Stein says in a statement Tuesday she’s sharing “all communications relevant” to the Senate Intelligence Committee’s mission.The Massachusetts physician says she accepted an invitation to attend the Moscow event and that her campaign did not receive payment or reimbursement for the trip.Stein received about 1% of the popular vote in the 2016 election. White House blames North Korea for worldwide ‘WannaCry’ cyber attack By Noah Bierman (Niklas Halle’n / AFP/Getty Images) The White House officially blamed North Korea on Tuesday for the cyberattack in May known as WannaCry that infected hundreds of thousands of computers in 150 countries, affecting healthcare, financial services and vital infrastructure.Thomas P. Bossert, assistant to the president for homeland security and counter-terrorism, noted in a briefing with reporters that the “consequences were beyond economic.” He warned that North Korea’s “malicious behavior is growing more egregious.”Bossert did not specify what evidence American officials have to blame North Korea, citing security issues, but he cited the country’s prior attacks as revealing hallmarks of how Pyongyang and its network of hackers operates. He said other allied countries had joined the United States in making the determination.The administration did not announce any penalties on the regime, which is already subject to severe sanctions over its nuclear program.“They want to hold the entire world at risk,” Bossert said of North Korea’s rulers, referring to the nation’s nuclear and missile provocations as well as its alleged cyberattack.Given its isolation and international sanctions, North Korea is desperate for funds. Bossert said the country did not appear to make much money on the ransom attack, as word spread that paying a ransom did not result in getting computers unlocked. Its primary goal, he said, was spreading chaos.Bossert and Jeanette Manfra, assistant secretary of homeland security for cybersecurity and communication, said the United States, through a combination of preparation and luck, escaped the worst of the attack, as a patch to the malware was found before U.S. companies and other interests were severely crippled.However, Manfra said, “We cannot be complacent.” Bossert added, “Next time we’re not going to get so lucky.”Manfra praised Microsoft and Facebook for their efforts to combat WannaCry and to block more recent attempts to hack U.S. systems. She and Bossert urged more cooperation and information-sharing from American and multinational companies, arguing a united front is vital to protecting against bad actors who do not differentiate between government and business.Bossert rejected criticism that the the Trump administration has more aggressively called out North Korean cyberattacks than it has Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election. He said the administration has continued the national emergency initiated by President Obama. GOP lures some mountain bike groups in its push to roll back protections for public land By Evan Halper When their vision of creating a scenic cycling trail through a protected alpine backcountry hit a snag, San Diego area mountain bikers turned to an unlikely ally: congressional Republicans aiming to dilute conservation laws.The frustrations of the San Diego cycling group and a handful of similar organizations are providing tailwind to the GOP movement to lift restrictions on the country’s most ecologically fragile and pristine landscapes, officially designated “wilderness.”Resentment of these cyclists over the longstanding ban on “mechanized” transportation in that fraction of the nation’s public lands presents a political opportunity for Republicans eager to drill fissures in the broad coalition of conservation-minded groups united against the GOP environmental agenda.Read More Vice president postpones Israel trip a second time in case his vote is needed to pass tax cut bill By Noah Bierman (Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Vice President Mike Pence is delaying his trip to Egypt and Israel for a second time in case he is needed to break a tie in the Senate for the tax bill that is expected to pass narrowly this week.Two White House officials confirmed the changed schedule, which they say is unrelated to to protests in the region over the administration’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.Pence had initially been scheduled to leave last Saturday. Late last week, the White House moved the trip back a few days to Tuesday night, in case Pence was needed to break a Senate tie. But Monday, they decided to postpone the trip further, to January, given the possibility of a late Senate vote and the coming holidays.“He wants to see it through the finish line,” said a White House official, referring to the tax measure that is a centerpiece of the Republican legislative agenda. “We don’t want to leave anything to chance.”The mid-January dates will allow Pence more breathing room to merge schedules with embassies and hotels, the official said. Trump still plans to address the Israeli Knesset, a high-profile venue to discuss the Jerusalem decision where it is most popular. Trump judicial pick who drew ridicule at hearing withdraws By Associated Press A White House official says the Trump judicial nominee whose qualifications were questioned by a Republican senator has withdrawn his nomination. Matthew Petersen, who was nominated by President Trump to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has been the subject of widespread ridicule since he was unable to define basic legal terms during his confirmation hearing Wednesday. A White House official says Petersen has withdrawn his nomination and that Trump has accepted the withdrawal. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the development publicly. Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy pressed Petersen, a former chairman of the Federal Election Commission, who testified he had never tried a case, on his qualifications to the bench. Trump says McCain will return to Washington if needed for tax vote By Laura King (Associated Press) President Trump said Sunday that Sen. John McCain, who is battling an aggressive form of brain cancer, was returning home to Arizona for the holidays but would come back to Washington if needed to cast a vote on the Republicans’ tax overhaul bill.The Arizona Republican’s office announced last week that McCain was receiving treatment at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center outside Washington for complications from his cancer treatment. McCain’s daughter Meghan tweeted earlier Sunday that her 81-year-old father would be spending Christmas in Arizona.The Senate is expected to vote early this week on the tax cut legislation, but the GOP appeared to have secured sufficient support without McCain’s vote.“John will come back if we need his vote,” Trump told reporters as he returned from a weekend at the presidential retreat at Camp David. “He’s going through a very tough time.” Putin calls Trump to thank him for U.S. help foiling terrorist strike By Laura King (Getty Images) Vladimir Putin phoned President Trump to thank him for what the Russian president said was CIA help in foiling a terrorist attack, the Kremlin said on Sunday.White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the two leaders’ conversation to reporters. It was the second time that the two leaders had talked in four days; Trump called Putin on Thursday to thank the Russian leader for lauding the U.S. economy.Putin, in his annual year-end news conference, had praised Trump for a strong performance by the U.S. stock market. Perhaps ironically, given his credit to the CIA’s recent help, Putin at that news event dismissed as “hysteria” the consensus among American intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential campaign.In reporting Putin’s call to Trump on Sunday, the official Russian news agency Tass said Putin thanked his American counterpart for “information shared by the US Central Intelligence Agency” that had helped break up a plot to set off explosives in St. Petersburg’s landmark Kazan Cathedral and elsewhere in the city, which is Russia’s second-largest.Russian authorities last week had credited their country’s counter-intelligence service, the FSB, for foiling the attacks. They reported that seven people affiliated with Islamic State had been detained in St. Petersburg in connection with the plot. The FSB, the successor organization to the KGB, announced Friday that the group had planned to carry out the attacks on Saturday, and that one of those in custody had confessed to the cathedral bomb plot. Mnuchin: Government shutdown unlikely but could happen By Laura King Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said on Sunday that a government shutdown this week was unlikely but possible.A two-week stopgap spending bill passed by Congress earlier this month provided enough funding to keep the government running through Friday. A deadlock on another temporary funding measure would open the door to a possible shutdown.“I can’t rule it out, but I can’t imagine it occurring,” Mnuchin said on “Fox News Sunday,” suggesting everyone had an interest in avoiding the government grinding to a halt and federal workers going unpaid, especially in the holiday season. “I would expect that both the House and Senate, Republicans and Democrats, understand if they can’t agree on this, they need to have another short-term extension to move this to January,” the Treasury secretary said. “We can’t have a government shutdown in front of Christmas.”In May, irate over concessions made to Democrats in hammering out a spending measure, President Trump tweeted that a “good ‘shutdown” might help matters. While both parties agree that a government shutdown involves a degree of disruption that is not beneficial to either side, shutdowns in 1995-’96 and in 2013 mainly caused a backlash against Republicans. The latest funding measure is to be taken up after a vote on a massive GOP tax overhaul, expected by midweek. Trump transition team says sensitive emails should not have been shared with Robert Mueller By Chris Megerian (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) President Trump’s transition team is crying foul over how special counsel Robert S. Mueller III obtained emails for his investigation into Russian meddling in last year’s campaign and possible Trump campaign complicity. Kory Langhofer, a lawyer for the transition team, sent a letter to Congress on Saturday saying there was an “unauthorized disclosure” of emails. While the Trump transition is long over, the transition team remains a nonprofit organization. Its emails were hosted by the General Services Administration, a federal agency. Mueller reportedly obtained the emails directly from the agency. “There are attorney-client communications,” Langhofer said in an interview. “There are executive-privileged communications.”He added, “What we’re asking Congress to do is to take some legislative action to make sure this never happens again.” Peter Carr, a spokesman for the special counsel’s office, defended the process for obtaining emails.“When we have obtained emails in the course of our ongoing criminal investigation, we have secured either the account owner’s consent or appropriate criminal process,” he said.The letter was first reported by Fox News. A request for comment from the General Services Administration was not immediately answered. This story has been updated with a comment from the special counsel’s office. Virginia house arrest is ending for Paul Manafort By Chris Megerian (Mark Wilson / Getty Images) A federal judge agreed Friday to end Paul Manafort’s house arrest in Virginia, allowing President Trump’s former campaign manager to return to Florida while awaiting trial.The decision followed a dispute between Manafort’s legal team and prosecutors working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who accused Manafort of violating a court order restricting public statements about the case. Under the terms of the judge’s order, Manafort will be allowed to live at his home in Florida as long as he stays within Palm Beach and Broward counties and obeys a curfew from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. If he misses a court appearance, he would forfeit four properties valued at $10 million total. The deal, which includes GPS monitoring, is not as permissive as Manafort originally sought. He had asked to be able to travel freely among Florida, New York, Virginia and Washington. Manafort faces criminal charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty. GOP negotiators enhance child tax credit to win over Sen. Rubio By Lisa Mascaro Republican negotiators slightly increased the refundable portion of the expanded child tax credit in their tax plan, raising it to $1,400 in hopes of winning back Sen. Marco Rubio’s (R-Fla.) support ahead of next week’s vote.Rubio announced Thursday he was withholding support after negotiators ignored his push to make the expanded tax credit, which increases from the current $1,000 to $2,000 in the proposed bill, fully refundable for lower- and moderate-income filers.The refundable portion in the original bill was $1,100.The Florida senator argued that was not enough to help working-class Americans, many of whom already view the GOP plan as tilted toward the wealthy.Rubio’s office was waiting to see the final text before commenting on whether the change was enough to win him over.“We have not seen the bill text, and until we see if the percentage of the refundable credit is significantly higher, then our position remains the same,” Rubio’s spokeswoman said.Negotiators meeting Friday before unveiling the bill said they thought they had the support they needed from Rubio and other holdouts.“I’m confident both chambers will pass it next week,” said Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.). Sen. Marco Rubio opposes GOP tax bill, depriving leaders of crucial support By Lisa Mascaro Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) says he is currently opposed to the GOP tax plan because it fails to include his proposed enhancements to the child tax credit, leaving leaders without crucial support ahead of next week’s expected vote.Republicans can only lose two GOP senators from their slim 52-48 majority as they push the plan forward under special budget rules to prevent a Democratic filibuster.Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday altered his planned Israel trip so he could be on hand, if needed, to cast a tie-breaking vote.Rubio, and GOP Sen. Mike Lee of Utah, have fought to increase the child tax credit, doubling it to $2,000 in the GOP plan, but they also want to increase its refundability. They argue it will lower taxes on middle-income families at a time when the tax plan is being criticized as tilted to the wealthy.“Sen. Rubio has consistently communicated to the Senate tax negotiators that his vote on final passage would depend on whether the refundability of the Child Tax Credit was increased in a meaningful way,” Rubio’s spokeswoman said.Lee stopped short of opposing the bill, but his spokesman said Wednesday he is undecided.GOP leaders, though, have said they believe they have the support for passage. White House gives Roy Moore a unsubtle shove: Time to concede By David Lauter (Alex Wong / Getty Images) The White House sent a clear signal Thursday to the defeated Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama: It’s time to concede.Roy Moore refused to concede the race on Tuesday night when Doug Jones, the Democrat, was declared the winner. Election night results show Jones winning by about 1.5 percentage points, three times more than the state’s standard for a recount. Although a few absentee and provisional ballots remain to be counted, there’s no indication they would change the result.On Wednesday, Moore notably did not call to congratulate Jones — even as President Trump and other leading Republicans did. Instead, he released a video declaring “the battle rages on.”Asked at the daily news briefing whether the White House thinks Moore should concede today, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, “It probably sounds like it maybe should have already taken place.”Sanders also dismissed the idea, pushed by some Moore supporters, that Jones’ victory was tainted in some fashion. Asked if the Democrat had won “fair and square,” she said, “I think the numbers reflect that.”The state’s Republican senator, Richard Shelby, offered a similar comment in an interview with MSNBC in which he said he was willing to work with Jones. “If I was 25,000 votes behind, it’s not going to change much,” Shelby said. House Speaker Paul Ryan says he’s not leaving anytime soon By Lisa Mascaro House Speaker Paul D. Ryan speaks earlier this year in Washington. House Speaker Paul D. Ryan shot down suggestions Thursday that he might soon be retiring.Stories often circulate that party leaders, especially the House speaker, are stepping aside. Ryan’s tenure has been as rocky as that of his predecessor, Rep. John Boehner, who abruptly resigned in 2015 amid GOP infighting.Asked Thursday if he would be leaving, Ryan answered a simple “no,” as he left his weekly press conference in the Capitol. Ryan, the Wisconsin Republican who reluctantly took over the speaker’s gavel after Boehner’s departure, had just finished talking up the GOP tax plan, which leaders hope to pass next week. He also outlined his sweeping agenda for his longtime goal of entitlement reform of welfare benefits next year.Two stories published Thursday suggested Ryan may soon be out.“This is pure speculation,” said spokeswoman AshLee Strong. “As the speaker himself said today, he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.” GOP leaders reach tax deal, cutting corporate rate to 21% and top individual rate to 37% By Lisa Mascaro Republican leaders on Wednesday agreed on a revised plan to cut taxes that would lower the corporate rate from 35% to 21% and drop the top individual rate for the richest Americans to 37%, according to GOP senators and others briefed on the deal.The tentative accord marked a significant step in the Republican push to have a tax bill on President Trump’s desk by Christmas. Leaders did not release details of the compromise or the text of a final bill as negotiations continued.“It’s critically important for Congress to quickly pass these historic tax cuts,” Trump said Wednesday, promising that Americans could begin to reap the benefits of the plan as early as February, if passed.Critics, however, said the latest changes — particularly the lowering of the top individual rate from the current 39.6% — only reaffirmed several independent analyses that show the bulk of the savings from the Republican plan would go to businesses and the wealthy.Read More Farenthold to retire from House amid harassment accusations By Associated Press Texas Republican Rep. Blake Farenthold won’t seek reelection next year, two Republicans said Thursday, adding his name to the list of lawmakers leaving Congress amid sexual harassment allegations that have cost powerful men their jobs in politics, the arts and other fields.The accusations against Farenthold surfaced in 2014, when a former aide sued him alleging sexually suggestive comments and behavior and said she’d been fired after she complained. The lawmaker said he engaged in no wrongdoing and the case was settled in 2015.But the House Ethics Committee said last week that it would investigate Farenthold after congressional sources said he’d paid an $84,000 settlement using taxpayers’ money. Though Farenthold said he’d reimburse the Treasury Department, such payments have drawn public criticism from people saying lawmakers should use their own money for such settlements.A House official said Farenthold spoke twice Wednesday to House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), while another official said the congressman spoke once with Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio) who heads the GOP’s House campaign committee. Those discussions suggested that Farenthold may have come under pressure from leaders to step aside. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe private conversations.Last week, three lawmakers facing accusations of sexual harassment announced their resignations. Reps. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Trent Franks (R-Ariz.) have already left Congress while Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) has said he will step aside soon.Mike Bergsma, Republican county chairman in Farenthold’s home county of Nueces, Texas, said Farenthold campaign manager Joseph Walter told him he will not seek reelection. Walter told Bergsma the staff was working on a media statement that would be issued shortly.“I think it’s a shame. He’s my friend; I think he’s been a good congressman. I wish he had been able to tell his side of the story and that this one issue wasn’t making so much difference,” Bergsma said.“I don’t think he had done anything that devastating, and the thing that’s really hurting him is that it was public money,” Bergsma said, referring to the use of Treasury money to pay the settlement. “And the way the law is structured, my understanding is, he didn’t have much choice.”A second Republican who confirmed Farenthold’s retirement spoke on condition of anonymity to describe a decision the lawmaker had not yet made public. Pence postpones Israel trip in case he’s needed to vote on tax cuts By Noah Bierman (Ethan Miller / Getty Images) Vice President Mike Pence will postpone his trip to Israel and Egypt next week by a few days in case he is needed to break a tie vote in the U.S. Senate on the Republican tax cut bill, his office announced.Pence is scheduled to address the Israeli Knesset on the first major U.S. visit to Israel since President Trump declared on Dec. 6 that the United States will recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.That broke with decades of U.S. policy and international consensus that viewed the holy city’s political status as one that should be in negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, who both claim the city as their capital.Trump’s declaration prompted protests by Palestinians and other Arabs. At a summit in Turkey on Wednesday, Arab and Muslim leaders “rejected and condemned” Trump’s decision, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas suggested he might not cooperate with White House efforts to forge an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.Pence’s office denied reports in the Israeli press that he had delayed his trip because of the Arab reaction, saying Pence may be needed to break a tie in the Senate on Trump’s most important legislative goal,Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the chamber and are trying to vote next week before Democrat Doug Jones, who won a special election in Alabama on Tuesday, is sworn in, which will shrink the majority by one additional vote. Adding to the uncertainty, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was hospitalized Wednesday for side effects from his cancer treatment. Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) also has missed votes this week due to medical reasons.Alyssa Farah, Pence’s press secretary, said in a statement that Pence would stay in town to preside over a tax vote because “we are so close to passing pro-growth pro-jobs tax reform for hard working families.”“The vice president will then travel to Egypt and Israel where he’ll reaffirm the United States’ commitment to its allies in the Middle East and to working cooperatively to defeat radicalism,” she said. Roy Moore not conceding; in fact, he sounds like he’s still campaigning By Jenny Jarvie Roy Moore continued to refuse to concede defeat to Democrat Doug Jones in Alabama’s Senate race, issuing a statement urging supporters to “stand against those who would take from us our country.”In a video statement posted late Wednesday, the former state Supreme Court chief justice declared that “immorality sweeps our land,” and railed against abortion, same-sex marriage and “the right of a man to claim to be a woman, and vice versa.”“We are indeed in a struggle to preserve our republic, our civilization, and our religion and to set free a suffering humanity. And the battle rages on,” he said. “Today, we no longer recognize the universal truth that God is the author of our life and liberty. Abortion, sodomy and materialism have taken the place of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”In a speech peppered with quotes from Abraham Lincoln and the Bible, Moore mourned the decline of prayer in schools and complained of the nation’s “huge drug problem,” insecure borders, national debt and the “tyranny” of judges and justices ruling over the Constitution.“No longer is this about Republican or Democratic control,” he said. “It has truly been said that there is not a dime’s worth of difference between them,” he said. “It is about a Washington establishment which will not listen to the cries of its citizenry - and the battle rages on.”Late Tuesday night, Jones was nearly 21,000 votes ahead of Moore after votes from 100% of Alabama precincts had been counted. Yet in the video, Moore said the final count did not include military and provisional ballots and his campaign continued to wait for the official vote count from Alabama’s Secretary of State John Merrill.In an interview with CNN on Tuesday night, Merrill, a Republican, said he would certify the final vote count between Dec. 26 and Jan. 3 and it would be “highly unlikely” that Moore would eventually win.Moore did not mention the possibility of a recount. A mandatory recount is triggered if the margin between the candidates is narrower than a half percentage point, but Tuesday night’s count had Jones leading by 1.5 percentage points: 49.9% to 48.4%. In Alabama and across the country, pride swells as black female voters show they matter By Michael Finnegan (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press) Every election since she was 16, Catrena Norris Carter has gone door to door, urging black Alabama voters to the polls.In the months leading up to Tuesday’s U.S. Senate race, the community activist and a band of mostly black women registered college students to vote, waved signs on street corners and egged on fellow African Americans at churches, sororities and even football stadiums to be sure to cast their ballots.“Hey, we worked our butts off,” said Norris Carter, 49, an organizer with Vote or Die, a get-out-the-vote group that canvassed on Democrat Doug Jones’ behalf in Birmingham, Montgomery and black rural communities. “A win’s been a long time coming.”The mobilization of African American support is a routine part of just about any winning Democratic campaign. But the overwhelming black turnout here Tuesday, the staggering support for Jones and the sense that African American women in particular carried him to an upset victory made for a moment of shining pride.Not just here in Alabama, but across the country.The fact that the loser was Roy Moore, a Republican with a long history of racially provocative actions and statements, and that the triumph was eked out in a state with a long, ugly history of racial oppression made victory all the sweeter.Read More Politics has veered from one side to the other, but Doug Jones’ win in Alabama suggests the need to hew to the center By Mark Z. Barabak The Democratic win Tuesday in Alabama’s U.S. Senate race may have seemed the most striking example yet of the bitterly negative tenor of American politics in the last several decades, as it has veered from one political pole to the other like a frenetic metronome.Doug Jones’ victory over Republican Roy Moore by little more than 1 percentage point followed by only a year Donald Trump’s 28-point victory in the same state. The two men had almost nothing in common other than their shared good luck in running against a widely disliked member of the opposing party.Trump’s victory in Alabama and similar states was in great part driven by animosity toward Democrat Hillary Clinton. Jones’ success rested on Democratic anger at Trump, reinforced by opposition to the controversial Republican candidate, Moore. The metronome needle that flew far to the right in 2016 swung back to the left in 2017.Read More Omarosa Manigault Newman is leaving the Trump administration. Did she help woo black support? By Kurtis Lee She is among President Trump’s most high-profile black supporters, a reality television star turned government official.Now, Omarosa Manigault Newman is set to leave her role as director of communications in the White House Office of Public Liaison, a position in which she was tasked with working on outreach to various constituency groups.On Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a statement that Manigault Newman was resigning to pursue other opportunities effective Jan. 20, one year to the date after Trump’s inauguration.Read More Embattled Trump judicial nominee Brett Talley withdraws By David Savage (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) Brett J. Talley, President Trump’s choice to be a federal judge in Alabama, has withdrawn from consideration, a White House official said Wednesday.He is the first failed judicial nominee for the new administration, but he is likely to be joined shortly by Jeff Mateer, a Texas assistant attorney general who was nominated to be a district judge in his state.Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) has moved quickly to approve Trump’s proposed judges, but he said Monday that he would not hold a hearing for Mateer and would oppose confirming Talley in the full Senate.Talley is a 36-year old lawyer and blogger who had close ties to the White House. His wife, Ann Donaldson, works for White House counsel Don McGahn. But Talley has little legal experience, has never tried a case and was rated “not qualified” by the American Bar Assn.’s screening committee. Rod Rosenstein pushes back on Republican criticism of special counsel investigation By Chris Megerian (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images) Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein, who oversees special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and his investigation into Russian meddling into last year’s presidential campaign, said Wednesday the case has been handled “appropriately.”Rosenstein’s defense of Mueller came during a House Judiciary Committee hearing as Republicans try to portray the special counsel as tainted by partisan bias against President Trump. “He was an ideal choice,” Rosenstein said about Mueller, whom he appointed in May. Democrats have repeatedly warned that Trump could order Rosenstein to fire Mueller. White House lawyer Ty Cobb said in a Tuesday interview that there was no talk of trying to remove the special counsel. “There are no plans, as we’ve said for months on end, to fire Mr. Mueller,” he said.Read More The guru behind Doug Jones’ big win holds forth on Alabama, Trump and the Democrats’ future By Mark Z. Barabak Paul Maslin is a veteran Democratic pollster who spent Wednesday traveling home from Alabama and luxuriating in Doug Jones’ upset victory in the state’s special U.S. Senate race.During a layover at Chicago’s O’Hare airport, he took a victory lap and offered a few thoughts between flights.On President Trump: “If he can’t figure out a way to turn this around, we’re going to win the Senate, we’re going to kill ’em in the House and we’re going to set up the second half of his presidency where he’s going to be neutered.”On Democrats going forward: “The lesson is we need to keep being aggressive, fighting him everywhere. There’s no reason we can’t win Tennessee, there’s no reason we can’t win Arizona and Nevada. There’s no reason we can’t win congressional seats all over the place.”That said, Maslin suggested Democrats have to deliver if they win the House in 2018 and look to taking back the White House in 2020.On the challenge ahead: “We’re going to have the onus on us, which means we can’t simply be naysayers. We’ve lost credibility in the Midwest, in places like Pennsylvania. The Democratic Party is seen as being out of touch, elitist, without any good ideas on economic or pocketbook issues. We’re going to have to give people a sense we’ve turned the page and we’re not the same old, same old.”On the bottom line:“Rallying people against this president, this Congress and the people who are in control of the government remains a tremendous advantage and will continue to be for the next year.” Republican leaders still hammering out differences on tax bill, with final votes expected next week By Lisa Mascaro ( (Timothy D. Easley / Associated Press)) Ahead of a pivotal meeting Wednesday, House and Senate negotiators swapped new offers on the GOP tax bill as they hurry to resolve differences and regain momentum for passage of President Trump’s top priority.The focal point of the $1.5-trillion tax plan — the steep reduction in corporate rates from 35% to 20% — is expected to be relaxed slightly in the final deal, perhaps to 21%, as negotiators scramble to generate revenue that can be used to offset tax breaks elsewhere.Trump indicated he would be open to higher corporate rates than Republicans first agreed to under a GOP framework, and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said Tuesday that lawmakers also were willing to shift. But others said the reported 21% corporate rate was not yet set.“We’re still talking,” said the majority whip in the Senate, John Cornyn of Texas, late Tuesday.Read More Omarosa Manigault Newman leaving White House By Associated Press (Drew Angerer) The White House says Omarosa Manigault Newman — one of President Trump’s most prominent African American supporters — plans to leave the administration next month. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Manigault Newman’s resignation is effective Jan. 20, one year since Trump’s inauguration. Manigault Newman’s decision comes at the start of what’s expected to be a round of departures heading into the new year. The White House said last week that deputy national security advisor Dina Powell will leave the administration early next year. Manigault Newman is a former contestant on Trump’s reality TV show “The Apprentice.” She joined the administration as director of communications for the White House Office of Public Liaison, working on outreach to various constituency groups. In stunning 2017 defeats, Republicans see vision of difficulties in 2018 By Cathleen Decker Democrats who opened the year clashing among themselves and lamenting President Trump’s election have closed 2017 with victories that demonstrated their ability to weaponize party enthusiasm and draw a template for success in a sharply competitive battle for Congress in 2018.For Republicans, Tuesday night’s stunning loss by Roy Moore in Alabama’s Senate race — the first GOP loss in a Senate race there in a generation — underscored a bleak passage of time: A year that began in unified control of Washington has ended with the party bitterly split and redefined in the worst of ways, saddled with an unpopular president and a Senate candidate accused of child molestation.Certainly, Doug Jones’ victory in Alabama was to some extent a fluke — an outcome made possible by Republicans’ nominating a deeply flawed candidate, Moore, who many of the party’s voters could not stomach. Turnout was tepid in key Republican areas, reflecting conservative voters who chose to sit this one out.Read More Watch live: Rod Rosenstein testifies before House Judiciary Committee By Chris Megerian Ever since Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March, no Justice Department official has been more important to the case than Rod Rosenstein.As the deputy attorney general, the No. 2 position at Justice, Rosenstein appointed former FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III as special counsel and he has the sole authority to fire him.The role has placed Rosenstein under immense political pressure, and on Wednesday he’ll face questions from the House Judiciary Committee at a time when Republicans are raising doubts about Mueller’s investigation.The hearing is scheduled to begin at 7 a.m.Read More Democrat Doug Jones wins Alabama Senate seat, but Roy Moore won’t concede By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Doug Jones, who started the Alabama race for U.S. Senate as a massive underdog, swept to victory Tuesday night in a repudiation of scandal-stained Roy Moore. The upset also dealt a serious blow to President Trump.The narrow victory slices the GOP’s already-thin margin in the Senate to a single seat, complicating the party’s legislative push and giving Democrats a major boost heading into the 2018 campaign, when control of Congress will be at stake.The win — which Moore refused to acknowledge — marked the first time a Democrat has captured a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama in a quarter of a century.More broadly, it signaled the limits of the nation’s political tribalism.Read More Trump, after endorsing two losers in Alabama: ‘I was right’ By Noah Bierman Roy Moore addresses supporters Tuesday night in Montgomery, Ala. (Mike Stewart / Associated Press) President Trump, who stuck with Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore despite warnings from fellow Republicans that Moore was sullying their party, defended his decision after Democrat Doug Jones’ historic win on Tuesday.“I was right!” Trump tweeted early Wednesday, alluding to his earlier endorsement of Luther Strange, the incumbent Republican senator whom Moore upset in a party primary. Moore, who faced allegations of preying on young girls decades ago, had “the deck stacked against him!” Trump wrote.Trump said he nonetheless worked hard for the candidate, but that Moore’s loss justified his initial endorsement of Strange. “The reason I originally endorsed Luther Strange (and his numbers went up mightily), is that I said Roy Moore will not be able to win the General Election,” Trump wrote. “I was right!”The Alabama outcome is likely to hurt Trump politically. Not only did two candidates he endorsed suffer losses — Strange’s support in polls was little changed by Trump’s backing -- but the already slim Republican margin in the U.S. Senate is cut to 51-49. And Republicans who remain will have less confidence that Trump’s political brand will help them with voters. Net neutrality’s repeal means fast lanes could be coming to the internet. Is that a good thing? By Jim Puzzanghera With federal regulators poised to repeal net neutrality rules this week, your internet service provider would be allowed to speed up delivery of some online content to your home or phone.Whether those fast lanes are coming, and what they ultimately deliver for Americans, is unclear.The concept, known as paid prioritization, involves a telecommunications company charging an additional fee to transport a video stream or other content at a higher speed through its network.Read More Alabama GOP chief says Moore lost election By Michael Finnegan (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press) The leader of the Alabama Republican Party recognized Democrat Doug Jones as the winner of Tuesday’s U.S. Senate election even as GOP candidate Roy Moore refused to concede defeat.State GOP chairwoman Terry Lathan said party leaders were “deeply disappointed” in the close result.“During this campaign, we heard Mr. Jones repeatedly say he would talk about ‘kitchen table issues’ and that he would ‘reach across the aisle’ to work with Republicans,” she said.“While these issues weren’t discussed and no other Democratic senator has worked with the Republicans, all eyes will be on his votes. Alabamians will watch the issues he will support or try to stop. We will hold him accountable for his votes.”If Jones aligns himself with liberal Democrats in Washington, she said, Alabama voters will remember his choices when he is up for reelection in 2020. Roy Moore declines to concede in Alabama Senate race By Michael Finnegan (Mike Stewart / Associated Press) Roy Moore declined to concede defeat Tuesday night in the Alabama Senate election even after Democrat Doug Jones declared victory.“It’s not over, and it’s going to take some time,” Moore said, citing the narrow margin between him and Doug Jones in the preliminary count. Appearing downcast at his election night party in Montgomery, Moore quoted Scripture and bemoaned attacks during the campaign.“Part of the problem with this campaign is we’ve been painted in an unfavorable and unfaithful light,” he said. “We’ve been put in a hole, if you will.”Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill, a Republican, told CNN that he would certify the final vote count between Dec. 26 and Jan. 3.With votes from 100% of Alabama’s election precincts counted late Tuesday night, Jones was nearly 21,000 votes ahead of Moore.“There’s always a chance of a recount because any candidate can ask for a recount, and if they pay for it, they can receive a recount,” Merrill said.A mandatory recount is triggered if the margin between the candidates is narrower than a half percentage point, he said. But the count Tuesday night had Jones leading by 1.5 percentage points: 49.9% to 48.4%.Military ballots and provisional ballots will be counted over the next week, Merrill said, and write-in ballots must be reviewed to make sure the candidates were qualified to be tallied.Moore campaign officials said a review of write-in ballots could narrow the margin enough to trigger a mandatory recount. Trump’s troubles with Congress just got worse: Five takeaways from Democrats’ upset in Alabama By Michael Finnegan The stunning victory of Democrat Doug Jones over Roy Moore in Alabama’s U.S. Senate election on Tuesday marked an enormous setback for Republicans in a state they have dominated for decades.It’s a setback with a silver lining, to be sure.Here are five big takeaways from the Democrats’ capture of the Senate seat vacated by Republican Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions:Read More Trump bemoans write-ins as he congratulates Democrat Doug Jones Trump suffers big setback in Alabama, but congratulates Democrat Doug Jones Meet Doug Jones, the law-and-order man who has won Alabama’s Senate seat By Michael Finnegan The odds of any Democrat capturing a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama are steep at best, but Doug Jones was uniquely suited to pull off an upset Tuesday over Republican Roy Moore.Accusations that Moore sexually abused teenage girls played a big part, no doubt, in Jones’ improbable victory over the renowned religious right crusader.Jones, 63, is a former U.S. attorney who cast himself as a law-and-order man. He is skilled at muting his liberal stands on such issues as abortion and gay rights — a necessity in one of the South’s most conservative states.Read More Doug Jones lauds ‘common courtesy and decency’ in Alabama vote At the end of the day, this entire race has been about dignity and respect. This campaign has been about the rule of law. This campaign has been about common courtesy and decency. Democrat Doug Jones of Alabama, in victory speech Democrat Doug Jones wins Alabama Senate race in stunning victory By Mark Z. Barabak Democrat Doug Jones, whose uphill bid for U.S. Senate gathered strength when Republican Roy Moore was hit with charges of sexual misconduct with teenage girls, won Alabama’s special election Tuesday.The victory by Jones, a former prosecutor, sliced the GOP’s already thin Senate majority to a bare 51-49.He will replace interim Republican Sen. Luther Strange, who was appointed in February to fill the seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.Read More Private texts show FBI officials exchanged insults about Trump last year By Joseph Tanfani Two FBI agents involved in the Russia investigation exchanged a series of insults about Donald Trump in private texts during the campaign last year, calling him an “idiot” and “awful,” according to documents released to Congress by the Justice Department on Tuesday night.Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III removed one of the agents, Peter Strzok, from the investigation into possible collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, as soon as the texts surfaced in July during an inspector general investigation. Strzok also was involved in the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton’s emails that concluded last year.In a March 2016 exchange of texts with FBI lawyer Lisa Page, Strzok wrote: “Omg he’s an idiot,” according to messages obtained by the Los Angeles Times.“He’s awful,” Page replied.“America will get what the voting public deserves,” Strzok said.“That’s what I’m afraid of,” Page replied.The texts were sent to several congressional committees late Tuesday, including the House Judiciary Committee. Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein is scheduled to testify before the committee Wednesday morning and is likely to face questions about them.Republicans in Congress have been pressing the Justice Department to release the agents’ texts, saying they suspect bias in the FBI’s inquiries on Clinton and Russia interference.The pair apparently were exchanging texts during a Republican presidential debate in March 2016. “Also did you hear [Trump] make a comment about the size of his d--- earlier? This man can not be president,” Page wrote.After Page remarked that she had seen a Bernie Sanders bumper sticker, Strzok said: “He’s an idiot like Trump. Figure they cancel each other out.”About a week after the election, they expressed horror at reports that then-Sen. Jeff Sessions was a leading candidate for the job of attorney general.“Which is the f-ed uppedness of it....Sessions for AG,” Strzok wrote.“Good god,” Page wrote back. Alabama voices: Keeping fingers crossed ‘that what he says is true’ By Mark Z. Barabak White House interviews finished in special counsel investigation, Trump lawyer says By Chris Megerian (Alex Wong / Getty Images) Investigators working for special counsel Robert S. Mueller III have finished interviewing White House officials, according to Ty Cobb, an attorney on President Trump’s legal team.“All the White House interviews are over,” Cobb said in an interview on Tuesday, adding that the Trump camp hopes the special counsel’s office brings its probe to “a prompt and appropriate conclusion.”A spokesman for the special counsel’s office declined to comment. Mueller was appointed earlier this year to examine whether anyone from Trump’s team coordinated with Russia’s interference in last year’s campaign. Cobb represents the White House and helped arrange interviews with the special counsel’s team. He declined to say when the last one took place or which administration officials were questioned.His insistence that the investigation could wrap up soon has prompted criticism in the past. Rep. Adam Schiff of Burbank, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, previously called the idea “complete fiction.”“I can see why that would be political wishful thinking on the part of the White House, but I don’t see how it would be possible,” he said. Republican senators torn over whether Roy Moore, if elected, would be invited to caucus By Lisa Mascaro Republican senators appeared torn over whether Alabama’s Roy Moore would be invited to join the GOP caucus in the Senate if he is elected in Tuesday’s special election.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to say whether Moore, who has the support of President Trump but whose candidacy has divided Republicans, would be invited for the almost daily lunches and strategy sessions.“All of those are good questions for tomorrow and we await the outcome,” McConnell told reporters.GOP leaders appear increasingly resigned that they cannot block Moore from being seated in the Senate if he defeats Democrat Doug Jones in the special election for the open seat. McConnell recently cited a 1969 Supreme Court ruling as leaving no option but to swear in the candidate, though he said the Senate would likely launch an Ethics Committee investigation into allegations against Moore of sexual misconduct. “After that, it’s anybody’s guess,” said Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, the third-ranking Republican.That doesn’t mean fellow GOP senators, though, would welcome Moore into their conference.”Let’s see what the outcome is and then deal with the outcome,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.), a Moore critic. ”I’ve been pretty outspoken.”Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) downplayed the importance of the conference meetings, saying he rarely joins for lunch. But pressed on whether Moore should be invited, he said, “I’ve indicated my thoughts about Mr. Moore and my desire that he not seek election.”And Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who said he understood the anger Moore’s supporters feel at the establishment in Washington, nevertheless indicated he was uncertain whether the Alabamian would join the GOP conference if elected.“I don’t know how to answer that question,” he said. Steve Bannon misfires, mocks University of Alabama. Oops By Michael Finnegan (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press) Stephen K. Bannon made millions of dollars as a Hollywood producer and Wall Street banker, but casts himself as a guardian of blue-collar America now that he leads the right-wing Breitbart News.That’s no easy balancing act, and Bannon stumbled badly at the closing rally of Republican Roy Moore’s Senate campaign in Alabama.Bannon, former chief strategist for President Trump, told Moore supporters Monday night that MSNBC anchor Joe Scarborough had “called me a Yankee the other day, just because I’m from Richmond, Virginia, the capital of the Confederacy.”“That’s right, Joe, I got into some Yankee schools, Georgetown and Harvard, that I don’t think you made the cut on, brother. Just because a Southerner went to a Yankee school, Joe, doesn’t make you a Yankee.”Oops.It turns out that Scarborough, like Moore, is a graduate of the University of Alabama, deeply beloved by many Moore supporters.The “Morning Joe” host, a Georgia native, had a field day on Twitter as he mocked Bannon, a former Goldman Sachs executive who lived for years in Santa Monica, that liberal enclave of the coastal elite. Female lawmakers call for investigation into Trump sexual misconduct allegations By Sarah D. Wire (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) A group of House Democrats on Tuesday called for an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct by President Trump.“The #MeToo movement has arrived and sexual abuse will not be tolerated, whether it’s by a Hollywood producer, the chef of a restaurant, a member of Congress or the president of the United States,” Rep. Lois Frankel of Florida said at a news conference. “No man or woman is above the law.”Frankel and other members of the Democratic Women’s Working Group want the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to investigate claims by more than a dozen women of inappropriate behavior by Trump before he was elected. Three of the accusers on Monday asked for a congressional investigation.A wave of allegations have been leveled against powerful men in multiple private industries and on Capitol Hill in the weeks since allegations were first made against movie producer Harvey Weinstein.“I’m sorry, Mr. President, you do not live under a different set of rules,” said Rep. Brenda Lawrence of Michigan.The White House has dismissed the validity of the claims, with Trump tweeting Tuesday morning that Democrats unable to prove his campaign colluded with Russia are now focused on “false accusations and fabricated stories of women who I don’t know and/or have never met.”The letter, which had the signatures of 59 female House members when it became public, now has more than 100 signers because male Democrats signed on, Frankel said.Such an investigation of a Republican president by a Congress controlled by his own party is unlikely.Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the committee, voiced his support for an investigation.Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) responded in a letter Tuesday afternoon saying that the allegations cited by the Democrats “constitute crimes” and he is forwarding their letter to the Justice Department.“This committee, nor any other committee of Congress, does not, and cannot, prosecute crimes,” he said in the letter. “Those alleging sexual assault or criminal sexual conduct deserve to be interviewed by law enforcement professionals, and charging decisions should be made by prosecutors based on the quantum and quality of the admissible and provable evidence.”3:15 p.m.: This post has been updated with response from Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.). When Trump tweets, Putin is briefed By Sabra Ayres President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November. (Mikhail Klimentyev / AFP/Getty Images) Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t have a Twitter account, but that doesn’t mean he’s not following every tweet posted by @realDonaldTrump.In fact, Trump’s tweets are presented to Putin every day in his daily briefings and considered White House statements, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.“Moscow considers all statements made on his [Trump’s] official Twitter account to be official, so reports are presented to President Putin about them, as well as about official statements that politicians make in other countries,” Peskov said Tuesday in his daily phone call with the press.Peskov declined to comment about criticism of Trump’s tweeting habits, saying “it would be wrong” to do so.Putin has said he does not have time for social media accounts. The Kremlin press department manages the president’s Instagram account but does not intend to open a Twitter account for Putin, Peskov said.Even if Putin doesn’t tweet, Russia’s political elite frequently use social media to express Kremlin views.Alexey Pushkov, a senator in Russia’s parliament, Tuesday fired off a series of tweets taking issue with everything from what he called U.S. Russophobia to the World Anti-Doping Agency. In one tweet he suggested Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was trying to boost her career post-Trump by saying the women who have accused the U.S. president of sexual misconduct should be heard.“The Trump administration is falling apart: Haley calls to listen to those who accuse him of sexual harassment. Preserving her own career after Trump,” Pushkov tweeted. Amid the rush to finish GOP tax bill, a sudden slowdown for second thoughts By Lisa Mascaro President Trump discusses tax changes with Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), left, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in September at the White House. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) The rush to finish the GOP tax overhaul has hit a snag as Republicans grapple with substantial differences between the House and Senate bills, and pause to consider unintended consequences of the most massive rewrite of the tax code in a generation.Lawmakers are eager to pass the bill, President Trump’s top domestic priority, by Christmas. But they are also increasingly wary of political fallout from the hurried process and want to prevent embarrassing moments, such as the scribbled text hastily added to the margin of the final Senate bill.The end of any major legislative undertaking is often a sprint. But the final stretch of the GOP tax plan is being complicated by an accelerated process like none other in recent history.Read More President Trump slaps back at critic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand with suggestive tweet By Brian Bennett (Michael Reynolds / European Pressphoto Agency) President Trump wrote a sexually suggestive tweet on Tuesday about New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, after the Democratic lawmaker called for him to resign over sexual misconduct allegations.Trump wrote that “Lightweight” Gillibrand “would come to my office ‘begging’ for campaign contributions not so long ago (and would do anything for them).”Trump’s tweet was unusually provocative for a sitting U.S. president, and politically risky given national attention to the topic of sexual harassment of women as well as renewed attention to the allegations against him by more than a dozen women complaining of his past misconduct. Social media and cable television talk shows quickly ignited with bipartisan outrage.Trump also called Gillibrand a “total flunky for” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, her fellow Democratic senator from New York. He also referred to Gillibrand’s statement earlier this month that Democratic President Bill Clinton should have resigned from office, calling Gillibrand “very disloyal.” Gillibrand hit back at Trump, saying he’s brought “shame” to the Oval Office and telling the president he “cannot silence” her. Alabama Senate race churns into final hours, still too close to predict By Mark Z. Barabak With the help of two high-profile surrogates, Roy Moore and Doug Jones scrambled Monday to stake their final claims in Alabama’s cliffhanger of a U.S. Senate race.Moore, who largely disappeared from public view after being accused of sexual misconduct, resurfaced for an election eve rally with Stephen K. Bannon, a political advisor to President Trump, in the rural southeast corner of the state.“We’re Alabama. We’re Republican. And we’re not going to stand by and let other people from out of state and money from California control this election,” he told cheering supporters in Midland City.Jones stumped in Birmingham and Montgomery, targeting core Democrats but also inviting Republicans to follow the lead of the state’s senior GOP senator, Richard C. Shelby, who snubbed Moore by writing in another candidate.“The people of the state, they have elected Richard Shelby for four decades,” Jones said at a breakfast stop in Birmingham. “They’re going to listen to Richard Shelby.”Read More Jamie McCourt is sworn in as U.S. ambassador to France By Brian Bennett (Nick Ut / AP) Former Los Angeles Dodgers co-owner and Trump fundraiser Jamie McCourt was sworn in as the U.S. ambassador to France and Monaco at the White House on Monday, a White House official said. The swearing-in took place inside the Oval Office, said deputy press secretary Lindsay Walters. No reporters were allowed to attend the ceremony. Walters said President Trump was present, and Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath to McCourt.McCourt, a lawyer and entrepreneur, was one of Trump’s early supporters. She signed a letter in October 2016 with 100 other business executives praising Trump’s economic plans and was listed as a 2016 State Victory Finance Chair for Trump’s campaign in California.Like every president, Trump has named several past campaign donors to be ambassadors. The Paris posting historically has been among the most coveted. McCourt donated more than $400,000 to the Trump Victory fund, $50,800 to the Trump inauguration and more than $170,000 to the Republican National Committee.McCourt’s divorce from Frank McCourt was closely followed by Dodger fans. The couple reached a settlement in 2011 with Jamie McCourt reportedly receiving about $130 million and relinquishing her claim to the team. Update: This post was updated to identify the White House spokesperson, who initially declined to be named, and include additional details about the ceremony. ‘We must talk about the health aspects’ of climate change, Schwarzenegger says By Kim Willsher (Thibault Camus / Associated Press) He showed up at Paris City Hall on Monday on a green bicycle and wearing a green tie to talk climate change with the mayor.But Arnold Schwarzenegger almost didn’t make the trip from Los Angeles. One of the wildfires scorching Southern California was threatening his home.“Luckily we have extraordinary firefighters,” he told a group of officials and journalists.The actor and former governor of California was speaking in Paris as the founder of R20, a nonprofit based in Geneva that aims to help regional, state and local governments reduce their carbon emissions by developing clean energy sources. He met with the mayor, Anne Hidalgo.The French, like much of the world, were dismayed when President Trump announced in June that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate change accord signed last year to slow emissions and limit global warming. Schwarzenegger did his best to reassure them.“It doesn’t matter that Donald Trump backed out of the Paris agreement, because the private sector didn’t drop out, the public sector didn’t drop out, the universities didn’t drop out, the scientists didn’t drop out, the engineers didn’t drop out.… No one else dropped out,” he said.“Donald Trump pulled Donald Trump out of the Paris agreement, so don’t worry about that,” he said. “We at a sub-national level are going to pick up the slack and continue on. We will fight and we will create the kind of future for our children and grandchildren because that is our responsibility and no one will stop us.”In October, a dozen cities, including Los Angeles and Paris, pledged to dramatically reduce the use of gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2030 — a plan that Schwarzenegger said was meant to “inspire the rest of the world.” He also encouraged people to talk about climate change in terms of air pollution and the toxic fumes that accompany carbon dioxide in exhaust from cars and factories.“We must talk about the health aspects,” he said. “This is what people can relate to. People want to survive. That is the way the human brain is wired. If you say that eventually our glaciers are melting, the iceberg is melting, the North Pole is going to melt, the sea levels are rising in 20 years ... people can not relate to that.” “When you talk about how many people die every year, when you tell them 9 million people die every year — 19,000 every day … then they get the message.” Doug Jones keeps quiet about Barack Obama and Joe Biden helping his Alabama Senate campaign By Michael Finnegan (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) Former President Obama and his vice president, Joe Biden, each provided last-minute help to fellow Democrat Doug Jones in Tuesday’s Alabama Senate election, but the candidate is keeping quiet about it.Obama and Biden recorded robocalls urging Alabama voters to cast ballots for Jones in his contest against Republican Roy Moore.But Jones denied knowing whose calls his campaign was placing to voters.“I don’t know what’s being used,” he told reporters on Monday.Obama could be especially helpful in motivating African Americans to vote for Jones — and against Moore, who has questioned whether the nation’s first black president was born in the United States.But Moore and other Republicans have tried to persuade Alabama voters that outsiders who don’t share their conservative values are the driving force behind Jones. President Trump has recorded a robocall promoting Moore.For the most part, Jones has tried to play down his support from Democrats outside Alabama.But Biden was the star attraction of a Jones rally in October, and over the weekend, Jones campaigned with Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey and former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick.Jones and Moore are vying to fill the Senate seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.Read More Pentagon to allow transgender people to enlist By Associated Press Protesters demonstrate in New York’s Time Square in July over President Trump’s ban on transgender people joining the military. (Jewel Samad / AFP/ Getty Images) The Pentagon is allowing transgender people to enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, despite President Trump’s opposition.The new policy reflects growing legal pressure on the issue, and the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump’s demand to ban transgender individuals from the military. Two federal courts already have ruled against the ban. Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that make it possible, though difficult, for them to join the armed services.Maj. David Eastburn, a Pentagon spokesman, says the enlistment of transgender recruits will start Jan. 1 and go on amid the legal battles. The Defense Department also is studying the issue.Eastburn told the Associated Press on Monday that the new guidelines mean the Pentagon can disqualify potential recruits with gender dysphoria, a history of medical treatments associated with gender transition and those who underwent reconstruction. But such recruits are allowed in if a medical provider certifies they’ve been clinically stable in the preferred sex for 18 months and are free of significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas.Transgender individuals receiving hormone therapy also must be stable on their medication for 18 months.The requirements make it challenging for a transgender recruit to pass. But they mirror concerns President Obama’s administration laid out when the Pentagon initially lifted its ban on transgender service last year.The Pentagon has similar restrictions for recruits with a variety of medical or mental conditions, such as bipolar disorder.“Due to the complexity of this new medical standard, trained medical officers will perform a medical prescreen of transgender applicants for military service who otherwise meet all applicable applicant standards,” Eastburn said.Last year, then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter ended the ban on transgender service members, allowing them to serve openly in the military. He said that within 12 months — or by July 2017 — transgender people also would be able to enlist.Trump, however, tweeted in July that the federal government “will not accept or allow” transgender troops to serve “in any capacity” in the military. A month later, he issued a formal order telling the Pentagon to extend the ban. He gave the department six months to determine what to do about those currently serving.Trump’s decision was quickly challenged in court, and two U.S. district court judges have already ruled against the ban. Part of one ruling required the government to allow transgender individuals to enlist beginning Jan. 1.The government had asked that the Jan. 1 requirement be put on hold while the appeal proceeds. The Pentagon move Monday signals the growing sense within the government that authorities are likely to lose the legal fight.“The controversy will not be about whether you allow transgender enlistees, it’s going to be on what terms,” said Brad Carson, who was deeply involved in the last administration’s decisions. “That’s really where the controversy will lie.”Carson worried, however, that the Defense Department could opt to comply with a deadline on allowing transgender recruits, but “under such onerous terms that practically there will be none.” Carson, who worked for Carter as the acting undersecretary of Defense for personnel, said requiring 18 months of stability in the preferred sex is a reasonable time.“It doesn’t have any basis in science,” he said, noting that experts have suggested six months is enough. “But as a compromise among competing interests and perhaps to err on the side of caution, 18 months was what people came around to. And that’s a reasonable position and defensible.” Former Flynn business associate denies Inauguration Day texts about nuclear project proposal By David S. Cloud (Associated Press) An energy company that had hired Michael Flynn as an advisor denied a Democratic lawmaker’s report that the incoming national security advisor sent text messages saying the company’s Mideast nuclear reactor project was “good to go” and that U.S. sanctions on Russia would be “ripped up.”Phone records “flatly contradict” claims that Flynn sent several texts to Alan Copson, an executive at ACU Strategic Partners, during President Trump’s inauguration ceremony last January, the company said in a statement. Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, had made the claims about Flynn public last Wednesday, citing information from an interveiw with an unidentified witness. But ACU said that Copson sent and received three text messages on Inauguration Day, none of them to or from Flynn.“Phone records for Alex Copson’s cellphone flatly contradict the core allegation that Mr. Copson received a text message from Gen. Flynn during President Trump’s inaugural speech — which is the sole basis for other allegations contained in your letter,” another company executive said in a letter to Cummings.Flynn worked as a consultant for ACU Strategic Partners in 2015 and 2016 as the company prepared an ambitious proposal to build nuclear power plants across the Middle East in conjunction with Russian partners. As businesses rush to exploit GOP tax cuts, government revenue may shrink more than expected By Don Lee As soon as the last major tax overhaul was enacted in the fall of 1986, accountant Edward Mendlowitz remembers working around the clock to convert corporations into partnerships and other so-called pass-through businesses to take advantage of the new tax code.Now with congressional Republicans drawing closer to passing a package of $1.5 trillion in net tax cuts, mostly for corporations, Mendlowitz reckons he may soon be doing the reverse. The corporate tax rate is expected to fall from 35% to about 20%, its lowest in more than 75 years and considerably less than what pass-through taxpayers are likely to face.“We’re not taking the pencil and paper out yet, but at some point we’re probably going to switch a lot of them,” said Mendlowitz, a partner with WithumSmith+Brown in New Brunswick, N.J.Read More Treasury says tax cuts will more than pay for themselves, in part by factoring in initiatives yet to be proposed By Jim Puzzanghera (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) The Treasury Department on Monday released a one-page analysis of the Senate tax bill, saying the cuts and other changes would more than pay for themselves by stimulating stronger economic growth.But there’s a catch.The conclusion, which runs counter to estimates from Congress’ own scorekeeper and outside analysts, assumes the economy also would be boosted by “a combination of regulatory reform, infrastructure development and welfare reform.”While the Trump administration has been reducing regulations, it has yet to release formal plans for infrastructure and welfare reform.The white paper released Monday by Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy said the Senate tax bill would generate $1.8 trillion in additional federal revenue over the next 10 years, more than offsetting the legislation’s estimated $1.5-trillion cost.But that calculation is based on U.S. economic output growing at a 2.9% inflation-adjusted rate, higher than the growth assumed by Congress’ Joint Committee on Taxation.That nonpartisan committee released an analysis on Nov. 30 saying the Senate tax bill would increase the federal budget deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade even after taking into account increased economic growth.The Treasury analysis, which has been promised for weeks, acknowledges that “some economists predict different growth rates.” Black voters are key to Democratic hopes in Alabama’s Senate race. Will they turn out? By Michael Finnegan Two minutes into Sunday’s invocation, after blessing the sunshine and recent snowfall and its swift melting, the pastor turned to the political contest that has riveted the nation’s attention on the Deep South.He asked the Lord to lift up the country, from the White House to City Hall, and asked for deliverance of a new U.S. senator for Alabama who “will suit us best and is the one that will meet our needs.”The minister, the Rev. Arthur Price Jr., didn’t say who he had in mind. But speaking to a predominantly black congregation in the basement of Birmingham’s historic 16th Street Baptist Church, he didn’t have to.Read More Roy Moore dismisses sexual misconduct allegations as ‘ritual defamation’ By Michael Finnegan (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press) Republican Roy Moore fought back Sunday against allegations that he sexually abused teenage girls when he was in his 30s, saying they were part of a plot to defame him before Alabama’s special U.S. Senate election on Tuesday.“Ritual defamation has been around for a long time, and that’s what this is,” Moore, 70, told Bill Britt, anchor of “The Voice of Alabama Politics” television show.Moore denied ever meeting either Leigh Corfman, who says he molested her when she was 14, or Beverly Young Nelson, who says he bruised her in a sexual assault when she was 16.“I had no encounter with them,” he said. “I have never molested anyone.”Moore also denied dating anyone underage, something he previously said he would not dispute.Contradicting his earlier remarks on the topic, he said he’d never met any of the women who now say he pursued them when they were 16 or 17 years old. The legal age of consent for sex in Alabama is 16.“It’s inconceivable to think that someone would wait 40 years, because they were embarrassed or ashamed or something, and then less than 30 days before the general election, come out and make allegations,” he said.In a Fox News interview last month with Sean Hannity, Moore recalled knowing two of the women who said he pursued them when they were teenagers. He described one of them, Debbie Wesson Gibson, as a friend. She says that Moore asked her on a date when she was 17.Moore also told Hannity that he didn’t recall “dating any girl without the permission of her mother.”Moore faces Democrat Doug Jones in Tuesday’s special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions. Nikki Haley lauds Trump’s ‘courageous’ stance on Jerusalem By Laura King (AFP/Getty Images) The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, says President Trump’s decision to declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel was “courageous.”Haley has staunchly defended Trump’s recognition last week of the contested city as Israel’s capital, facing a barrage of criticism at the U.N. last week. The United States stood virtually alone as Security Council members described the move as rash, impulsive and prejudicial to the outcome of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians.“What you saw was a courageous move by the president,” Haley said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” Disputing the notion that Trump had preempted the city’s status as part of any future peace agreement, she said: “He didn’t talk about boundaries; he didn’t talk about borders. He didn’t get into any of that.”In similarly worded remarks on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Haley asserted that Trump’s move would “move the ball forward for the peace process.”Critics have said the president gave up a significant bargaining chip without winning any concessions from Israel.Palestinian leaders have denounced Trump’s designation, which marked a break with decades of U.S. policy. But while Friday saw clashes across the West Bank in response to the president’s action, the Palestinians did not mobilize large-scale protests as they have in the past in response to any change in the “status quo” surrounding Islam’s third-holiest shrine, located in Jerusalem’s Old City.Demonstrators turned out Sunday in Beirut, staging a raucous protest near the U.S. Embassy, and in Jakarta, the capital of the world’s most populous Muslim-dominated country, Indonesia.But while Arab and Muslim states have decried Trump’s position on Jerusalem, there have been no dramatic diplomatic repercussions. Alabama’s senior GOP U.S. senator says state ‘deserves better’ than Roy Moore By Laura King (Dan Anderson / TNS) Two days before Alabama’s hard-fought U.S. Senate election, the state’s senior Republican, Sen. Richard Shelby, said “the state of Alabama deserves better” than Roy Moore, who has been accused of multiple instances of sexual misconduct, including an assault on a 14-year-old.Speaking Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Shelby told interviewer Jake Tapper: “I think the Republican Party can do better.”The special election campaign in Alabama has been extraordinarily divisive, not only exposing the deep partisan divergence between backers of Moore and his Democratic challenger, Doug Jones, but spotlighting an intraparty rift among Republicans in what has long been a reliably red state.Many Republican strategists believe the party will suffer regardless of who wins Tuesday’s election.Shelby had already stated publicly that he would not vote for Moore and would write in another Republican.His decision to repeat that on television two days before the election raised the ante, coming as both sides make their final appeals to voters. An advertisement featuring Shelby’s earlier statements has been playing heavily on Alabama TV.After initial hesitation when the multiple allegations about Moore surfaced, President Trump – himself accused of sexual improprieties by a number of women – has wholeheartedly endorsed him. ““Get out and vote for Roy Moore,” the president told a rally last week in Pensacola, Fla., addressing Alabama voters.With the campaign in its crucial home stretch, Moore’s campaign has increasingly relied on the support of Trump, who overwhelmingly won the state in the 2016 presidential election. Voting against Moore, the campaign pitch goes, would be a betrayal of the president.“This is Donald Trump on trial in Alabama,” Moore strategist Dean Young said on ABC’s “This Week.” If voters support Jones, he said, “they’re voting against the president.”The Washington Post first reported allegations that Moore, as a county prosecutor in his 30s, had repeatedly sexually pursued girls in their teens. Many voters have rallied to his side, pointing out that the behavior in question was decades ago, and that one of the accusers did not initially make clear that she had added to an inscription she says he wrote in her yearbook.Soon after the allegations were made public, Trump’s daughter Ivanka tweeted that there was a “special place in hell” for child predators. The national GOP withheld support for Moore, but then reversed itself, falling into line with Trump.Moore has branded the accusers liars and said he did not know any of them. In Alabama Senate race, Republicans fear they may lose even if Roy Moore wins By Mark Z. Barabak With more than 48 hours of campaigning still left in Alabama’s scandal-shrouded U.S. Senate campaign — and the outcome far from clear — some Republicans have already conceded defeat.From their perspective, Tuesday will yield one of two unhappy results.Either voters will elect a Democratic U.S. senator from one of the most deeply conservative states in the country, slicing the GOP’s slender majority to a bare 51 to 49; or the Republican Party will seat Roy Moore, an accused sexual predator with a history of outlandish statements who, if Democrats have their way, will effectively serve as running mate for every Republican seeking office in 2018.Read More A reporting misstep places CNN back in President Trump’s crosshairs By Chris Megerian (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) You can always count on President Trump to bash the media, whether or not the reporting is accurate. But on the occasions when the media makes a mistake, he’s quick to pile on.The source of his anger on Saturday morning was an error made by CNN on Friday, when the network wrongly reported that the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. may have been notified about hacked emails obtained by Wikileaks before they were publicly released. The notification didn’t come until after they were public, and CNN corrected its story.That didn’t satisfy Trump, and he drew a comparison to a recent inaccurate report from ABC, which led that network to suspend one of its star investigative reporters, Brian Ross. CNN has said reporters won’t be disciplined because they didn’t break any newsroom guidelines but received inaccurate information from sources.Trump continued to criticize the network on Saturday morning, even saying it may be committing “a fraud on the American Public” by calling itself “the most trusted name in news.” Trump denies that Wells Fargo may avoid federal penalties for alleged mortgage lending abuses By Jim Puzzanghera President Trump on Friday denied a report that the federal consumer financial watchdog might drop sanctions against Wells Fargo & Co. for alleged mortgage lending abuses, and said the bank could face even tougher penalties.Trump’s comments on Twitter appeared to be in response to a Reuters report that Mick Mulvaney — whom Trump installed last month as acting director of the independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau — was reviewing whether Wells Fargo should pay tens of millions of dollars in penalties for charging fees to certain homebuyers to secure low mortgage rates.Trump tweeted that “fines and penalties against Wells Fargo Bank for their bad acts against their customers and others will not be dropped,” and declared the Reuters report incorrect. If anything, he said, fines and penalties will be “substantially increased.”Read More Roy Moore calls accuser a liar after she admits she added to yearbook inscription in sexual assault case By Michael Finnegan U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama stepped up his attacks Friday on the integrity of a woman who says that he sexually assaulted her when she was a 16-year-old waitress at a restaurant where he often dined when he was a prosecutor in his 30s.The woman, Beverly Young Nelson, conceded in an ABC News interview that an inscription that she says Moore wrote in her high school yearbook included notes she added under his signature.“Beverly, he signed your yearbook?” ABC reporter Tom Llamas asked her.“He did sign it,” she answered.“And you made some notes underneath,” Llamas said.“Yes,” she replied.Moore, whose campaign had already suggested his signature in the yearbook had been forged, said Nelson’s remarks to ABC proved she was lying.“Let’s count how many national outlets will ignore the fact that she admits to lying,” Moore wrote on Twitter.A week or two after he signed the yearbook, Nelson alleges, Moore offered her a ride home and she accepted. But instead of driving her there, she says, he parked the car behind the restaurant, groped her breasts, tried to shove her face into his crotch and bruised her neck before she stopped him.At a news conference Friday in Atlanta, Nelson’s lawyer, Gloria Allred, said a handwriting expert had confirmed that the yearbook signature was Moore’s.Moore is running against Democrat Doug Jones in a special election Tuesday to fill the seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jess Sessions. With the spending fight kicked to Dec. 22, Trump doubles down on his demand for a border wall By Brian Bennett (Mandel Ngan / AFP) President Trump still wants his wall.Minutes after he signed a stopgap measure to give Congress two more weeks to negotiate a spending deal and avoid a government shutdown, the president renewed his call for lawmakers to fund his signature campaign promise — a large physical wall along the 2,000 miles of border between the United States and Mexico.“We’re going to get the wall,” Trump said at the White House on Friday after Kirstjen Nielsen was sworn in as the new secretary of Homeland Security. “If we don’t get the wall, then I got a lot of very unhappy people, starting with me.”Trump added that he wants to overhaul the country’s legal immigration system to make it “merit-based” and to “get rid of chain migration,” which allows U.S. citizens to bring qualified family members from abroad.His demands to reduce the flow of legal immigrants as well as build a border wall are likely roadblocks to an agreement to keep the government open beyond Dec. 22.The wall, which could cost tens of billions of dollars, is not popular with either party in Congress. Moreover, Democrats want the spending bill to include legal protections for more nearly 700,000 people brought illegally to the country as children who will be at risk of being deported starting early next year.Trump ended the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program in September, and the deportation deferrals issued under the Obama-era program begin expiring on March 6.Republican lawmakers and Trump are demanding that any measure to help so-called “dreamers” be paired with steep increases in funding for border security, money to build Trump’s wall, and new limits on who U.S. citizens can sponsor for permanent residency.The White House believes such harsh measures would help prevent future waves of illegal border crossings.According to government figures released this week, the number of people attempting to cross the border illegally has dropped sharply since Trump came into office, down 25% compared to the previous year, and the lowest since 1971. But arrests of undocumented immigrants already in the U.S. have soared. Roy Moore: America was great ‘when families were united – even though we had slavery’ By Lisa Mascaro Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore speaks on Sept. 17, 2017 at an event in Florence, Ala. At a Roy Moore rally in September, one of the only African Americans in the audience asked when Moore thought America was last “great.”In response, the Republican candidate for Senate for Alabama acknowledged the nation’s history of racial divisions, but said: “I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another…. Our families were strong, our country had a direction.”At the same event, Moore referred to Native Americans and Asian Americans as “reds and yellows,” and earlier this year he suggested the 9/11 terrorist attacks were divine punishment.Read More Tillerson scolds Saudi Arabia over blocking humanitarian aid to Yemen By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Friday added his voice to growing Trump administration admonitions of longtime ally Saudi Arabia for blocking deliveries of humanitarian aid to war-torn Yemen and other actions in the Middle East.Saudi Arabia declared diplomatic war on neighboring Gulf state Qatar this year and openly supported, and appeared to control, Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri against his country’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which is part of the government.“I think we would encourage [the Saudis] to be a bit more measured and a bit more thoughtful in those actions to, I think, fully consider the consequences,” Tillerson said in Paris, his latest stop on a visit to Belgium, Austria and France.He expressed concern about Saudi actions in Yemen, Qatar and Lebanon as the kingdom seeks to counter Iranian influence throughout the region.In Yemen, Saudi Arabia is backing the government in its civil war against Houthi rebels, who are supported by Iran, Riyadh’s regional arch-rival. The U.S. has supported the Saudi armed intervention with intelligence and military aid. President Trump, in rare U.S. criticism of Saudi Arabia, called this week for a “complete” lifting of the Saudi-led blockade that threatens food supplies for millions of Yemeni civilians.“I think we’ve been clear when it comes to Yemen, we have called for, and President Trump himself called for this week, a complete end to the blockade of Yemen, a reopening of all the ports to not just humanitarian assistance but commercial delivery as well, because about 80 % of the food comes in on commercial shipments,” Tillerson said. “We are asking that Saudi Arabia allow that access.”The White House reiterated that call in a press statement Friday. “We call on the Saudi-led coalition to facilitate the free flow of humanitarian aid and critical commercial goods, including fuel, through all Yemeni ports and to restore commercial flights through Sana’a Airport,” the statement said. “We urge all parties to immediately cease hostilities, re-energize political talks and end the suffering of the Yemeni people,” the statement said.More than 10,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed in the Yemen war, according to the United Nations. Congress approves stopgap funding measure, averting government shutdown threat for now By Lisa Mascaro House Republicans approved legislation Thursday to keep the government running — something they’ve rarely been able to do on their own. The Senate followed suit shortly thereafter, ensuring that a weekend shutdown would be averted.Most House Democrats refused to support the stopgap measure, which extends government operations through Dec. 22. In a 235-193 vote, only 12 House Democrats voted yes.Typically, House GOP leaders, even when they hold the majority, have been unable to pass spending measures without significant support from Democrats. They face problems because Republican deficit hawks often refuse to vote for any legislation that adds to the debt without slashing spending elsewhere, while GOP defense hawks demand more money for the military.The House Democrats’ move put pressure on House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) to assemble the votes from his own party.Read More The White House press briefing, always a spin zone, is now approaching uselessness By Noah Bierman (Alex Wong / Getty Images) The White House press briefing reached an ignominious milestone this week when a spokesman stood before reporters aboard Air Force One, read a series of prepared statements, then refused to take on-the-record questions during one of the newsiest days of the Trump presidency.The briefing for decades has been a mix of spin and information. But under President Trump, a practice established to keep the public informed and the president accountable has increasingly failed to do either, according to academic experts and current and former journalists.“The briefing is just unrecognizable from the days when it was a very useful tool,” said Ann Compton, a former ABC News correspondent who covered seven presidents over a 40-year span from Gerald Ford to Barack Obama.Read More Paul Manafort says special counsel wants to unfairly restrict his freedom of speech By Chris Megerian (Jacquelyn Martin / Associated Press) Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, is defending his decision to help write an editorial explaining his political work in Ukraine, a decision that the special counsel’s office said violated a judge’s order restricting out-of-court statements on the case.“All he has tried to do is to correct the public record in Ukraine concerning his consulting activities in Ukraine,” Manafort’s lawyers said in a court filing. Manafort’s freedom of speech was being infringed, and the special counsel wants him to “simply remain silent while his reputation is battered,” the lawyers said.Manafort is facing multiple charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. He has pleaded not guilty. The issue arose as a federal judge was considering whether to allow Manafort more freedom to travel while awaiting trial. The special counsel had agreed to a bail deal secured with four properties worth $11.6 million, which Manafort would forfeit if he missed a court appearance. But prosecutors backed out of that agreement when they learned about Manafort’s work on the editorial.In the latest court filing, Manafort asked the judge to move forward with loosening his bail terms. Californians might retain a state and local income tax deduction — but with limits By Jim Puzzanghera Californians still might retain their ability to deduct state and local taxes from their federal returns under the Republican overhaul — but with a catch.The total annual deduction would be capped at $10,000, which is the same level as a limited deduction for property taxes that both the House and Senate plans already include.That cap is only about half the size of the average state and local tax deduction for Californians who claim it.Read More In an emotional speech on the Senate floor, Al Franken says he’ll resign amid allegations of sexual misdeeds By Cathleen Decker Al Franken announced Thursday he will resign his Senate seat, falling to a whirlwind of sexual misconduct allegations like those that have enmeshed other politicians, business leaders and media figures across the country in recent months.Hours later, Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, a Republican who is the ideological opposite of the Minnesota Democrat, announced his resignation after the House Ethics Committee revealed it had opened an investigation of sexual harassment allegations against him. In a statement, Franks admitted he had asked two female subordinates about bearing a child for him by surrogacy.In a brief but emotional speech on the Senate floor, with 22 Democratic colleagues and one Republican looking on, Franken invoked the accusations that have swirled around President Trump and the Republican candidate in next week’s special election for an Alabama seat in the Senate, Roy Moore.Read More Rep. Devin Nunes cleared by House Ethics Committee after complaint he divulged classified information amid Russia investigation By Sarah D. Wire (Bill Clark / CQ Roll Call) The House Ethics Committee on Thursday cleared House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes of Tulare of any wrongdoing after a complaint that he had disclosed classified information related to the House’s Russia investigation.When the complaint was filed, Nunes said he would step away from leading the House investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election, though he did not formally recuse himself.In a statement, the ethics committee said experts it interviewed determined that the information Nunes disclosed was not classified.“Based solely on the conclusion of these classification experts that the information that Representative Nunes disclosed was not classified, the committee will take no further action and considers this matter closed,” it states.Nunes thanked the committee in a statement for “completely clearing me today of the cloud that was created by this investigation, and for determining that I committed no violation of anything — no violation of House rules, law, regulations, or any other standards of conduct.”Read MoreUPDATES4:26 p.m.: This post was updated with comment from Nunes.This post was originally published at 3:35 p.m. Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona resigns amid sexual harassment investigation (Cliff Owen / Associated Press) Rep. Trent Franks of Arizona, one of the most conservative members of the House, resigned Thursday after the House Ethics Committee opened an investigation into allegations that he had sexually harassed staff members.The Ethics Committee separately announced an investigation into sexual misconduct by a second Republican lawmaker, Rep. Blake Farenthold of Texas.In a statement, Franks admitted that he had talked with two women who worked for him about bearing a child for him by surrogacy. He insisted he had done nothing wrong, but said he was stepping down because in the “midst of this current cultural and media climate” an investigation would be “distorted and sensationalized.”The other lawmaker under scrutiny, Farenthold, used $84,000 in taxpayer money to settle a case, which was revealed last week. He told a Texas television station that he did nothing wrong, but said he would try to repay the money. He has refused calls to resign.This post was updated with news of Franks’ resignation. Legal impact of Trump’s Jerusalem decision still murky By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) Administration officials sought Thursday to clarify President Trump’s declaration of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel but raised more questions than they answered.David Satterfield, acting assistant secretary of State for Near East affairs, said that although the United States recognizes Jerusalem as the capital, it has taken no position on what the contested city’s borders ultimately should be.That would seem to leave open the possibility that part of the city could still belong to the Palestinians, as they have long claimed -- or not.Satterfield said Trump’s decision would have no impact on the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who live in East Jerusalem.Nor, he said, has the U.S. government decided to print passports or maps with the terminology “Jerusalem, Israel.” Currently, such documents refer only to “Jerusalem,” without a country attached.Asked repeatedly whether he could say categorically that Jerusalem was located in the country of Israel, Satterfield remained noncommittal. Trump on Wednesday reversed decades of U.S. policy by officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and ordering the State Department to start the process of moving the U.S. Embassy to the holy city from Tel Aviv, a process the White House said would take several years.Trump’s announcement provoked anger throughout the Arab world and disagreement by several major U.S. allies, including England and France.Trump pointedly did not describe Jerusalem as Israel’s “undivided capital,” as Israeli Jews routinely do. That too could leave room for maneuvering.Trump argued in his speech Wednesday that moving the embassy reflected the reality in Israel and that it would not undermine his administration’s efforts to restart negotiations aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.He said that he was open to a two-state solution and that he was not taking a position on the boundaries of Jerusalem, a key sticking point in any negotiation because both sides claim the city. Rep. John Lewis says he will skip Mississippi civil rights museum opening because of Trump’s attendance By Jaweed Kaleem (Rick Diamond/Getty Images) Rep. John Lewis, a prominent Georgia Democrat and veteran of the civil rights movement, said Thursday that he would boycott the opening of a civil rights museum in Mississippi because President Trump would attend the event.Lewis is the latest in a growing number of politicians, civil rights groups and activists who have said they will boycott Saturday’s opening ceremony in Jackson, Miss., or have called on Trump to skip it.“President Trump’s attendance and his hurtful policies are an insult to the people portrayed in this civil rights museum. The struggles represented in this museum exemplify the truth of what really happened in Mississippi,” Lewis said in a statement issued with Rep. Bennie G. Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat.Thompson also said he would not attend the opening of the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. The congressmen cited racially charged remarks from Trump and “disparaging comments about women, the disabled, immigrants and National Football League.”White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders responded to the congressmen’s announcements, saying, “We think it’s unfortunate that these members of Congress wouldn’t join the president in honoring the incredible sacrifice civil rights leaders made to right the injustices in our history. The president hopes others will join him in recognizing that the movement was about removing barriers and unifying Americans of all backgrounds.” In an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Lewis said he would reconsider his decision if “the head man” did not attend. The congressmen’s announcement followed one this week from the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People, which said Trump should back down from the event because of his “abysmal” record on civil rights.2:01 p.m.: This article was updated with a comment from Sarah Huckabee Sanders. White House creates confusion over U.S. participation in Winter Olympics in South Korea By Noah Bierman The White House created confusion over whether American athletes would compete in the Winter Olympics in South Korea next year, with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders saying on Thursday that “no official decision has been made on that.” “The goal is to do so,” she said.She later attempted to clarify, tweeting an “update” that the “U.S. looks forward to participating.” Olympic figures are projected on the Gwanghwamun Gate in Seoul. The 2018 Winter Games will be held in PyeonChang, South Korea. (Jeon Heon-Kyun / EPA / Shutterstock) The comments came two days after Russian athletes were banned from attending the Games following a doping scandal.The U.S. had already committed to attending the games, but U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley cast doubt on the issue Wednesday night when she told Fox News that it was an “open question.”The concerns appear to be over safety and the ongoing nuclear standoff with North Korea. Sanders had said Thursday that the U.S. position would be determined “closer to the time” by “an interagency process.”“The president would certainly weigh in,” she added. Trump will have a medical exam at Walter Reed next year, White House says By Brian Bennett (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump will be examined at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center next year, and records from his physical will be released, Trump’s top spokeswoman said Thursday.“He does have a physical scheduled for the first part of next year — the full physical that most presidents go through,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters. “That will take place at Walter Reed, and those records will be released by the doctor following that taking place.”Trump, who is 71, is the oldest person elected to the White House. He bucked tradition during the campaign by refusing to disclose detailed medical records. Previous presidents typically were examined by a military doctor each year they were in office and released the doctor’s findings. Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush both released such records within the first several months they were in office. Trump repeatedly questioned opponent Hillary Clinton’s strength and stamina during the campaign, particularly when Clinton briefly left the campaign trail after she came down with pneumonia and nearly collapsed while leaving a Sept. 11 memorial event in New York City.In December 2015, Trump released an enthusiastically worded letter from his longtime physician, Dr. Harold Bornstein, which said Trump, if elected, would be the “healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency.”Questions about Trump’s health have come up repeatedly. New ones were raised Wednesday when Trump slurred the final words of his speech recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.Such questions were “frankly, pretty ridiculous,” Sanders said, repeating the White House explanation that Trump’s stumbles involved nothing more than a dry mouth. “The president’s throat was dry, nothing more than that,” Sanders said. Tax breaks for beer, unborn children are among goodies in Republican bill By Lisa Mascaro As the House and Senate begin to reconcile their different tax bills, they will have to sort through many little-known provisions that appear designed more to achieve policy goals or reward key lawmakers than deliver tax savings.Here’s a look at some of the standouts, and their prospects for being included in the final legislation.The Johnson amendmentThe House bill essentially does away with decades-old tax code restrictions preventing churches and other nonprofit groups from engaging in political activities.Opponents of the restrictions say the groups should have free expression, but others worry it will interject politics into philanthropy and open the door to more “dark money” campaigns.Thousands of churches and charitable organizations oppose the House approach, preferring to keep the restriction, first introduced by then-Sen. Lyndon B. Johnson in 1954.Read More FBI chief defends agency after Trump says it’s in ‘tatters’ By Chris Megerian (Win McNamee/AFP Getty) FBI Director Christopher Wray politely, but clearly, disagreed with President Trump’s recent claim that the bureau was in “tatters,” telling members of Congress that there is “no finer institution.”“What I can tell you is that the FBI that I see is tens of thousands of agents and analysts and staff working their tails off to keep Americans safe,” Wray told members of the House Judiciary Committee when he was asked about Trump’s remark.“The FBI that I see is tens of thousands of brave men and women,” he continued. “Decent people committed to the highest principles of integrity and professionalism.”At another point, Wray, who was appointed by Trump to replace James B. Comey, said that “the agents, analysts and staff of the FBI are big boys and girls. We understand that we will take criticism from all corners, we’re accustomed to that.” Who really wants Trump to recognize Jerusalem? His evangelical supporters at home By Noah Bierman Israeli President Reuven Rivlin listens as President Trump speaks in Jerusalem in May. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump summed up a central reason for declaring Jerusalem the capital of Israel — one of the most consequential and globally risky decisions of his presidency — in a single statement.“While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver,” he said from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House on Wednesday. “Today, I am delivering.”The decision may have alarmed prime ministers, presidents, kings and their subjects around the world. But it fit neatly into Trump’s political calculus and personal view of his mandate.In his view, he is the president who pushes through toward “historic” change while those around him urge equivocation. He is the president who bluntly scorns the judgment of elites. And he is the president who tallies “promises kept.”Especially important are promises to the voters Trump sees as his base, who include a strong majority of evangelical Christians.Read More Consumer financial watchdog’s deputy director asks judge for injunction to replace Mick Mulvaney as acting chief By Jim Puzzanghera The deputy director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is asking a federal judge for an injunction to install her as the agency’s acting chief in place of President Trump’s appointee, Mick Mulvaney.The Wednesday night legal filing by Leandra English is the latest in the legal battle for control of the bureau and comes after U.S. District Judge Timothy J. Kelly denied her request last week for a temporary restraining order to remove Mulvaney.Kelly did not rule on the merits of the case, which centers on a dispute over which statute governs the appointment of an acting director. English’s attorney, Deepak Gupta, had said his client planned to file for an injunction, which, unlike the restraining order, could be appealed if not granted.Read More Franken to announce plans as cascade of Democrats demands his resignation over groping allegations By Cathleen Decker Democratic patience with Sen. Al Franken evaporated Wednesday in the wake of a new accusation of sexual misconduct against him, and in an uprising led by women, more than half of the party’s senators demanded he resign — a decision that could arrive as soon as Thursday.The cascade of opposition opened when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York said “it would be better for our country” if Franken left office. Within minutes, Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Patty Murray of Washington, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Claire McCaskill of Missouri released similar statements.“Sexual harassment and misconduct should not be allowed by anyone and should not occur anywhere. I believe the best thing for Senator Franken to do is step down,” Harris said.Read More Donald Trump Jr. didn’t want to talk about a key conversation with his father, House Intelligence Committee member says By Chris Megerian (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) was left scratching his head after the House Intelligence Committee’s closed-door interview with Donald Trump Jr. on Wednesday.Trump Jr. claimed attorney-client privilege to avoid discussing a conversation with his father, said Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the committee.Why did he make that claim despite the fact that neither man is a lawyer? Schiff said it was because a lawyer happened to be in the room during the meeting.Schiff said that didn’t wash, and he wants to know more about the conversation, which took place as Trump Jr. was responding to reports of a June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower with a Russian lawyer who offered incriminating information on Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.“In my view, there is no attorney-client privilege that protects a discussion between a father and son,” Schiff said.Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas) had a different view on the interview, which lasted from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., with a few breaks along the way.“From my perspective, all of our questions were answered,” he told reporters. White House says Trump slurred during his speech about Jerusalem because his throat was dry By Brian Bennett (Alex Brandon / AP) The White House said President Trump’s slurred speech at the end of his announcement about Jerusalem was no more than a case of dry mouth.“His throat was dry. There’s nothing to it,” White House spokesman Raj Shah said when asked to explain why President Trump garbled “God bless the United States” at the end of his remarks on Wednesday recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and announcing plans to build a U.S. Embassy in the disputed city.Pressed on whether the slurred words might indicate any health concerns, Shah said: “I know what you’re getting at. I’m saying there’s nothing to it.”The slurred word prompted questions on social media about why the president stumbled over the phrase at the end of his speech.Trump regularly ridiculed Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton over health concerns during the 2016 campaign, repeatedly questioning her stamina and strength. Heads of Christian churches in Jerusalem urge retaining city’s ‘international status’ By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) Heads and patriarchs of Christian churches in Jerusalem on Wednesday bemoaned President Trump’s decision to recognize the ancient city as Israel’s capital, and urged its international status be retained.“We are certain that such steps will yield increased hatred, conflict, violence and suffering in Jerusalem and the Holy Land,” the leaders said in a letter to Trump, “moving us farther from the goal of unity and deeper toward destructive division.”Thirteen heads and patriarchs signed the letter. They represent various branches of the Christian faith, including Greek, Syrian and Armenian Orthodox churches; Episcopalians, Catholics and Lutherans.Several are Palestinian, and most share space in the revered Holy Sepulcher Church in Jerusalem’s Old City. Most Christian tradition holds that the church is located at the site of the Crucifixion and burial of Jesus.“Our solemn advice and plea is for the United States to continue recognizing the present international status of Jerusalem,” the churchmen said. “Any sudden changes would cause irreparable harm.… In this coming Christmas, we plea for Jerusalem not to be deprived from peace.”Jerusalem contains some of the holiest sites for all three monotheistic faiths. Mike Flynn was working on private nuclear power plan while advising Trump, whistleblower says By Chris Megerian (Saul Loeb / AFP / Getty Images) Michael T. Flynn was helping a former business partner lay the groundwork for nuclear power plants in the Middle East, a plan that involved a partnership with Russia, despite his role as an advisor to President Trump, according to a purported whistleblower who provided an account to a leading Democrat in Congress. The whistleblower said Flynn sent text messages to Alex Copson, the managing partner of ACU Strategic Partners, from Trump’s inauguration ceremony on Jan. 20 to say the plan was “good to go.”Copson said Flynn, who briefly served as Trump’s national security advisor, had promised to end sanctions on Russia that had been imposed by former President Obama in retaliation for the country’s interference in last year’s election, the whistleblower said. Flynn had worked as a consultant for ACU Strategic Partners but didn’t divulge the relationship until the third version of his financial disclosure report, which was filed in August. The whistleblower, who has remained anonymous, provided his account to Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Cummings described the account in a letter as “credible allegations that President Trump’s national security advisor sought to manipulate the course of international nuclear policy for the financial gain of his former business partners.” He asked the Republican chair of the committee, Rep. Trey Gowdy of South Carolina, to issue subpoenas that could help verify the whistleblower’s account.Flynn pleaded guilty on Friday to lying to the FBI about contacts with the Russian ambassador, and he’s cooperating with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III in his investigation of Russia’s election meddling. Reversing U.S. policy, Trump declares Jerusalem capital of Israel, orders embassy move By Tracy Wilkinson (EPA) President Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and ordered the State Department to move the U.S. Embassy there from Tel Aviv, upending decades of U.S. policy.“Jerusalem is Israel’s capital,” Trump said. “It is nothing more and nothing less than a recognition of reality.”Trump’s decision, announced during a speech at the White House, makes good on an election campaign promise but quickly angered allies throughout Europe and the Arab world -- as well as the Palestinians, who seek to claim East Jerusalem as their capital in an eventual independent state.Trump, who has also pledged to make the “ultimate deal” to resolve the intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict, risks putting those efforts in danger. He insisted, however, that he remains committed to a peace process.It could take several years to actually move the embassy.Trump said his administration would no longer follow the “failed policies of the past…. It would be folly,” he said.Read More Trump warns a government shutdown ‘could happen’ if Democrats dig in on immigration demands By Brian Bennett (Saul Loeb / AFP) President Trump said a government shutdown “could happen” Saturday and wants any blame to fall on Democrats for refusing to agree to tougher immigration measures.“It could happen,” Trump told reporters at the beginning of a Cabinet meeting at the White House. “Democrats maybe will want to shut down this country because they want people flowing into our country,” Trump said.Lawmakers have hit a stalemate on funding government agencies past Friday, when the current appropriation bills expire. Republicans have been trying to reach a stop-gap deal to fund the government to at least Dec. 22.Democrats have withheld their votes from a short-term measure in hopes of pushing through a bipartisan bill that could protect from deportation immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children. “President Trump is the only person talking about a government shutdown, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) tweeted in response. “Democrats are hopeful the President will be open to an agreement to address the urgent needs of the American people and keep government open.”Trump said he wants Congress to act to protect nearly 700,000 people whose work permits and deportation deferrals begin expiring in March, after he announced in September he was ending the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals Program. But he has since demanded a laundry list of hard-line immigration measures that must accompany such a bill, including a reducton in legal immigration In a Tweet in May, Trump seemed to invite a “good ‘shutdown.’” Democratic senators call on Al Franken to resign; he plans statement tomorrow By Cathleen Decker (Michael Reynolds / EPA) Democratic senators, starting with six women, demanded the resignation of Sen. Al Franken on Wednesday, as another woman surfaced to say that the Minnesota senator had kissed her against her wishes.Within minutes of each other Wednesday morning, Sens. Kamala Harris of California, Patty Murray of Washington, Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Mazie Hirono of Hawaii, Maggie Hassan of New Hampshire and Claire McCaskill of Missouri forcefully called on their colleague to leave office.Shortly after, several other Democratic senators joined the growing calls for Franken to step down. As the calls grew, Franken’s office announced that he plans to make a statement Thursday about his future.Until Wednesday, most Democrats had argued that Franken’s alleged acts—kissing women against their will, mock-groping a woman during a USO tour and grabbing other women’s buttocks—deserved an Ethics Committee review. But they had not demanded that he resign.The senators acted shortly after Politico reported that a former congressional aide had come forward to claim that Franken had kissed her when she accompanied her boss to an appearance on Franken’s radio show. The incident took place almost three years before he won his Senate seat in 2008.Franken, a comedian before he turned to politics, denied the latest accusation but has acknowledged other misconduct.But the statements from the senators made clear that they had decided the time for debating the incidents had passed.“While Senator Franken is entitled to have the Ethics Committee conclude its review, I believe it would be better for our country if he sent a clear message that any kind of mistreatment of women in our society isn’t acceptable by stepping aside to let someone else serve,” Gillibrand said.McCaskill was more abrupt.“Al Franken should resign,” she tweeted.On Tuesday, the longest-serving member of the House, Democrat John Conyers of Michigan, resigned after facing a raft of sexual harassment allegations and demands that he step down. Republicans have yet to make similar demands of Texas Rep. Blake Farenthold, who paid a settlement to an aide after harassing her.9:35 This post was updated with Franken’s office saying he plans a statement tomorrow.9:12 a.m. This post was updated with additional senators joining the call for Franken’s resignation. Tillerson says context important in Trump’s Jerusalem announcement By Tracy Wilkinson (Atef Safadi / EPA/Shutterstock) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson insisted Wednesday that President Trump’s move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel will not ruin efforts to find peace with the Palestinians.“What I would encourage people to do: Listen carefully to the entirety of the speech, listen to the full content of the speech,” Tillerson said in a news conference in Brussels, where he is attending meetings with European allies — none of which recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.“The president is very committed to the Middle East peace process,” Tillerson continued. “He has a team he put into place. That team has been working very diligently. … We continue to believe there is a very good opportunity for peace to be achieved.”Trump named his 36-year-old son-in-law Jared Kushner to head up peace efforts, which have been largely moribund for years. The president is expected to make the Jerusalem announcement later Wednesday and order the State Department to begin arrangements to eventually transfer the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv.On another matter, Tillerson was asked about persistent reports that the White House is seeking his ouster.“You all need to get some new sources,” he said. “Your story keeps being wrong.” Trump to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move embassy from Tel Aviv, officials say By Brian Bennett (Atef Safadi / EPA/Shutterstock) President Trump will declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel in a speech at the White House on Wednesday, three senior administration officials said.He will instruct the State Department to begin a multi-year process for building a U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, asking for funding from Congress, choosing a site and designing the building. In the meantime, Trump will sign a waiver to the 1995 law that demanded the State Department move the embassy from Tel Aviv by May 31, 1999, as every president has done.The embassy won’t be moved immediately, the officials said. They would not commit to a timetable, but one senior official said that opening a new U.S. embassy routinely takes three to four years.“We don’t just put a plaque on the door and open a mission,” said the official. “There are major security and structural considerations and very, very strict guidelines anywhere in the world that have to be followed before a flag goes up.”Trump will have to continue to sign waivers every six months to avoid cuts to the State Department budget that would kick in under the 1995 law. With the president committing to building the embassy in Jerusalem eventually, the White House would like Congress to amend the law to eliminate the waiver requirement.The president recognizing Jerusalem as the capital doesn’t change U.S. positions on the administration of the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, and on final borders of Israel and a Palestinian state that may be part of a final peace deal, the officials said.“The president believes this is a recognition of reality,” the official said, noting that the Israeli government has been based in Jerusalem for decades.Read More Senate committee advances bipartisan measure rolling back some bank regulations By Jim Puzzanghera A Senate committee on Tuesday approved bipartisan legislation that is aimed at easing regulations on smaller banks but also provides significant benefits for many large financial institutions.Supporters of the bill from Senate Banking Committee Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) — including nine Democrats and one independent — called it a sensible step to reduce burdens, mostly on community banks and credit unions, to make it easier for consumers to get mortgages and obtain credit.Critics complained it goes too far in exempting about 30 banks and other firms from stricter oversight put in place after the 2008 financial crisis.Read More ‘Country over party,’ writes GOP Sen. Jeff Flake on $100 donation to Democrat in Alabama Senate race By Lisa Mascaro Republican Sen. Jeff Flake put his money behind his principles Tuesday, dashing off a $100 campaign contribution to Democrat Doug Jones in the Alabama Senate race after President Trump endorsed Jones’ opponent, Republican Roy Moore.Flake has made no secret of his opposition to Moore, who faces accusations of sexual molestation and misconduct decades ago as a young prosecutor who allegedly dated teenagers as young as 14.And Flake has spoken frequently and forcefully against Trump — penning a book, in fact, loaded with his concerns about the presidency and the party.Flake had already said he would prefer Jones over Moore, but a day after Trump backed the former judge, the Arizona Republican took out his checkbook for Jones.On the $100 check, he wrote: “Country over party.” NAACP says Trump’s visit to Mississippi civil rights museum is ‘an insult’ to African Americans By Jaweed Kaleem (Gerald Herbert / Associated Press) Calling President Trump’s record on civil rights “abysmal,” the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People said on Tuesday that the president isn’t worthy of attending the Saturday opening of a civil rights museum in Mississippi.“President Trump’s statements and policies regarding the protection and enforcement of civil rights have been abysmal, and his attendance is an affront to the veterans of the civil rights movement,” Derrick Johnson, NAACP president and chief executive, said in a statement. “He has created a commission to reinforce voter suppression, refused to denounce white supremacists, and overall, has created a racially hostile climate in this nation.”Trump’s scheduled visit to the Museum of Mississippi History and the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum in Jackson has ignited controversy among civil rights groups and Jackson residents who have criticized the president’s relationship to African Americans and other racial minorities.Civil rights groups have called out the president for moves they say are racially charged, including tweets against black athletes who kneel during the national anthem to protest racism and his description of a deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Va., as one that included “some very fine people.”“As a freedom fighter and contemporary of Emmett Till, Trump’s visit is an insult. He has never been a supporter of civil rights or equal opportunity or justice,” Amos Brown, an NAACP board member who is originally from Jackson, said in a statement.Trump is attending the openings at the invitation of Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant. Speaking at the White House on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said planned protests against Trump’s visit would be “very sad.”“This should be something that brings the country together,” Sanders said. Arizona Republican Sen. Jeff Flake contributes to Alabama Democratic Senate candidate Trump wants Moore elected over a Democrat despite ‘very troubling’ allegations, Sanders says By Brian Bennett (Scott Olson / Getty Images) The allegations that Roy Moore made unwanted sexual advances to teenage girls are “very troubling,” President Trump’s top spokeswoman said Tuesday, but Trump endorsed Moore’s campaign anyway because the president wants the Senate seat to go to a fellow Republican.“The president made that decision, and he decided that it was better to have somebody that supports his agenda than a Democrat that doesn’t,” White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters.“We find the allegations very troubling,” Sanders said, but the “people of Alabama” should decide at the ballot box next Tuesday if Moore should be in the Senate.Sanders also said that if the multiple reports that Moore abused teenage girls are true, Moore “should step aside, but we don’t have a way to validate that.”Trump doesn’t back all of Moore’s positions, Sanders said. Moore has said, for example, that “homosexual conduct should be illegal,” a position the president doesn’t support.After keeping Moore at a distance for months, Trump decided to endorse Moore on Monday after speaking with former White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who sees Moore as an ally in a push to upend the Republican establishment.Recent polls have shown Moore neck and neck with Democratic challenger Doug Jones, making the president’s support that much more critical in the race. Tax plan has support of Congress and Trump — but not American voters By Cathleen Decker (Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty Images) President Trump insists that the tax cut plan now before Congress will be seen as a boon to the middle class, a popular confirmation of a promise he made to those voters in his 2016 campaign.It’s not seen that way yet.A Quinnipiac University poll released Tuesday found only 29% of voters approve of the tax plan, while 53% disapprove.Almost two-thirds — 64% — of voters said the plan will benefit the wealthy, compared to 24% who said the middle class would be the winners and 5% who believed low-income Americans would be the beneficiaries.Strikingly, more than 6 in 10 voters said the plan favors the rich at the expense of the middle class — suggesting that voters are primed for an argument already being put forward by Democrats seeking political advantage in the 2018 elections.A host of new polls has placed the tax plan in dangerously unpopular territory. In surveys by Reuters/Ipsos, the Huffington Post and Gallup, support was no higher than 30%. Members of the House and Senate are expected to meet in coming days to reconcile somewhat different versions of the plan.The polls also showed Trump in a difficult position when it comes to boosting the popularity of the tax plan, given that he is nearly as unpopular as the measure.In the Quinnipiac poll, 35% approved of how Trump is handling the presidency, while 58% disapproved. Senate GOP won’t follow Trump’s lead in backing Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore By Lisa Mascaro Senate Republicans are keeping their distance from Roy Moore, the U.S. Senate candidate from Alabama, despite President Trump’s recent endorsement, renewed funding from the Republican National Committee and Tuesday’s rally featuring former White House advisor Stephen K. Bannon.Moore’s campaign continues to divide Republicans worried that their party may be irreparably damaged by supporting a candidate accused of sexual molestation and misconduct decades ago as a young prosecutor who allegedly dated teenagers, one as young as 14.Unlike the RNC, the National Republican Senatorial Committee has no plans to resume funding for the Moore campaign that it halted last month after several women made their allegations public.“The NRSC’s position has not changed and will not change,” Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), the chairman, told NBC.Likewise, the Senate Leadership Fund, an outside campaign giant allied with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), will stay away from Moore, despite Trump’s push.“We are following the NRSC’s lead in Alabama,” a spokesman said.Read More Senate panel OKs Trump’s pick, Jerome Powell, for the next Federal Reserve chief By Jim Puzzanghera A Senate committee has approved Jerome H. Powell’s nomination to replace Janet L. Yellen as chair of the Federal Reserve.Tuesday’s 22-1 vote by the Senate Banking Committee clears the way for full Senate approval in the coming weeks before Yellen’s term ends Feb. 3. The only “no” vote came from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).Powell, 64, who has served as a governor on the Fed board since 2012, is expected to continue Yellen’s policy of gradually raising the Fed’s key short-term interest rate but has signaled more openness to easing financial regulations.Read More Special counsel details $3.2 million in spending on Russia case By Chris Megerian (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III spent $3.2 million in the first 4½ months of his investigation into whether anyone from President Trump’s team helped Russian interference with last year’s presidential campaign.The spending was summarized in a report released Tuesday, the first of what Mueller’s office said will be twice-a-year updates. The single biggest cost was $1.7 million for salaries and benefits, including $500,000 for special counsel employees and $1.2 million for Department of Justice staff working under Mueller.Another $733,969 was spent on equipment, but the report does not provide details.Mueller was appointed in May after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey, who had been leading the investigation. He has announced criminal charges against four people so far, including Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI.Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat and the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, called Mueller’s spending “entirely reasonable given the results we’ve already seen.”This post has been updated with a statement from Sen. Dianne Feinstein. Rep. John Conyers says he will step down following sexual harassment allegations By Cathleen Decker (Associated Press) Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the longest-serving member of the House of Representatives, stepped down today after his support among fellow Democrats collapsed amid accusations of sexual harassment by several female employees.“I am retiring today and I want everyone to now how much I appreciate the support, incredible undiminished support I’ve received,” Conyers said in a radio interview.Read More Trump seeks Democrats’ help on year-end budget, DACA deal By Lisa Mascaro After railing against Democrats for weeks and pushing a sweeping tax plan over their objections, President Trump reached out to the rivals Monday — a subtle acknowledgment that he’ll need their help to avert a government shutdown at the end of the week.Trump invited congressional leaders to the White House on Thursday for discussions on a year-end budget deal, a do-over after Democrats backed out of an earlier meeting when the president tweeted shortly beforehand that he saw “no deal” to be made.Trump had little choice but to soften his approach. Because many Republican lawmakers refuse to vote for almost any new spending bill, Trump needs Democrats to provide what House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) calls “the currency of the realm” — the votes needed to approve a bill to keep government running.Read More White House spokesman refuses to answer questions on the record from reporters By Noah Bierman President Trump has called the news media “the enemy” and routinely labeled reporting he dislikes “fake news.” On Monday, the White House broke another precedent in limiting the press’ ability to ask questions about the president’s decisions.On a day filled with news, White House spokesman Hogan Gidley told reporters traveling with the president aboard Air Force One that he would not take any questions on the record.While returning from Utah, where Trump announced a rollback of protections for national monuments in the state, Gidley read reporters a brief series of statements on a few news items of the day – including Trump’s endorsement of Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore and a Supreme Court decision to allow his travel ban to be enforced for now.Then he announced that he would be declining to answer any questions on the record.Reporters traveling with the president declined his offer to entertain off-the-record questions.The refusal to take questions on the record broke with longtime custom on such trips, when informal press “gaggles” take the place of more formal, televised White House briefings.Why was the White House refusing on-the-record questions? Gidley said he would not answer that question on the record. Mulvaney already is putting his stamp on CFPB — and still sparring over its leadership By Jim Puzzanghera Mick Mulvaney is moving quickly to put his stamp on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency he has strongly criticized, even as he continues to spar with the deputy director over who is its lawful acting chief.Mulvaney, the White House budget director whom President Trump appointed to the post Nov. 24, said he had already started installing some of his aides into bureau positions and was reviewing ongoing legal actions against financial firms. He also expressed support for House legislation introduced last week to repeal the bureau’s recent regulations cracking down on payday and other short-term loans.The moves come despite an expectation that Deputy Director Leandra English will continue her legal battle and file for a temporary injunction that would seek to oust Mulvaney from his office and reinstate her as acting chief.Read More Trump undercuts Obama and Clinton wilderness legacies in Utah. But is it legal? By Michael Finnegan President Trump’s removal of federal protections from huge portions of two national monuments in southern Utah on Monday threatens to undercut the wilderness-conservation legacies of his Democratic predecessors Presidents Obama and Clinton.Whether Trump has the legal authority to withdraw 1.1 million acres of land from Bears Ears National Monument and 800,000 acres from nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante will soon be tested in court.Supporters of the monuments, which cover vast stretches of Utah’s scenic red-rock country, are preparing lawsuits to block Trump from shrinking them.Read More Special counsel backs out of bail deal with Paul Manafort, saying he tried to hide a public relations effort By Chris Megerian Paul Manafort ghost-wrote an editorial about his political work in Ukraine, violating a court order, according to a new court filing from the special counsel’s office.The allegation was disclosed Monday as the reason the special counsel was backing out of a deal on bail with Manafort’s lawyers. The deal would have loosened the terms of house arrest for President Trump’s former campaign manager.Manafort wanted to be allowed to travel among a few states in return for agreeing to forfeit $11.6 million in property if he missed a court appearance. The special counsel’s office, which is investigating whether anyone in Trump’s orbit helped Russia interfere in last year’s presidential campaign, said Manafort helped draft the editorial in recent days, working with a Russian who has ties to that country’s intelligence services.That writing violated a Nov. 8 court order “prohibiting such out-of-court statements in order to protect the fairness of the upcoming trial,” the court filing said.“The editorial clearly was undertaken to influence the public’s opinion of defendant Manafort, or else there would be no reason to seek its publication (much less for Manafort and his long-time associate to ghostwrite it in another’s name),” the court filing said. “It compounds the problem that the proposed piece is not a dispassionate recitation of the facts.”The court filing said Manafort was involved in the editorial as late as Thursday. It did not say whether the editorial was published or identify the Russian that Manafort supposedly worked with.A spokesman for Manafort did not immediately return a message requesting comment. Supreme Court allows full enforcement of Trump travel ban By Associated Press The Supreme Court is allowing the Trump administration to fully enforce a ban on travel to the United States by residents of six mostly Muslim countries.The justices, with two dissenting votes, said Monday that the policy can take full effect even as legal challenges against it make their way through the courts. The action suggests that the high court could uphold the latest version of the ban that Trump announced in September.The ban applies to travelers from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen. Lower courts had said people from those nations with a claim of a “bona fide” relationship with someone in the United States could not be kept out of the country. Grandparents, cousins and other relatives were among those courts said could not be excluded.Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor would have left the lower court orders in place.The San Francisco-based U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals and the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., are scheduled to hold arguments on the legality of the ban this week.Both courts are dealing with the issue on an accelerated basis, and the Supreme Court noted that it expects those courts to reach decisions “with appropriate dispatch.”Quick resolution by appellate courts would allow the Supreme Court to hear and decide the issue this term, by the end of June.Read More Here are the biggest sticking points between the House and Senate tax bills By Lisa Mascaro (Timothy D. Easley / Associated Press) House and Senate Republicans are set to go to work this week to reconcile significant differences between their two tax bills.Here are the biggest sticking points they need to resolve while making sure the legislation does not reduce revenues by more than $1.5 trillion over the next decade or, under Senate rules, add to the budget deficit after that. If it exceeds that amount, Republicans could no longer pass their tax package with a simple majority vote in the Senate.Read More Watch live: President Trump revokes national monument designations in Utah By Keith Schneider President Trump, during an announcement at the Utah Capitol today, made a public lands declaration unlike any ever made by a U.S. chief executive.The president shrank two big national monuments in southern Utah — Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — by nearly 2 million acres.“Some people think that the natural resources of Utah should be controlled by a small handful of very distant bureaucrats located in Washington,” he told a cheering audience at the Utah Capitol. “And guess what, they’re wrong.”With his redesignation, he said, “Public lands will once again be for public use.”Read More Trump: ‘I feel badly for Gen. Flynn’ By Brian Bennett (Mandel Ngan / AFP/Getty Images) President Trump said he felt “very badly” for his ex-national security advisor Michael T. Flynn, who pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in the investigation into Russian meddling.“I feel badly for Gen. Flynn. I feel very badly. He’s led a very strong life, and I feel very badly about it,” Trump told reporters Monday as he left the White House for a trip to Utah where he is expected to announce cuts to two national monuments there.“I will say this. Hillary Clinton lied many times to the FBI and nothing happened to her. Flynn lied, and it destroyed his life, and I think it’s a shame,” Trump said.Trump has repeatedly said Clinton lied to the FBI without providing any evidence. FBI officials have said publicly they have no reason to believe that Clinton lied during their investigation of her use of a private email server while she was secretary of State.In tweets over the weekend, Trump tried to cast doubts on the impartiality of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, contrasting the treatment Flynn received with how the FBI handled the Clinton investigation.After Clinton was interviewed by the FBI in July 2016, then-FBI Director James B. Comey decided not to recommend charging Clinton but called her handling of classified information in her email system “extremely careless.”Trump has also cited reports an FBI agent had been removed from Mueller’s team over text messages critical of Trump.On Saturday, Trump tweeted he fired Flynn because Flynn lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI. That assertion that he knew Flynn had lied to the FBI sparked new discussion of whether Trump may have obstructed justice in a discussion with Comey in February.Comey has testified that Trump told him he hoped he could “see your way clear to letting this go, to letting Flynn go.” Trump has denied saying that. White House officials now say Trump did not write Saturday’s tweet, claiming one of his lawyers did. Trump fully endorses Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore By Noah Bierman (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press) President Trump on Monday fully endorsed Roy Moore, going further in his support of the Alabama Senate candidate accused of making unwanted sexual advances on teenage girls than he had in backing Moore last month.“Democrats refusal to give even one vote for massive Tax Cuts is why we need Republican Roy Moore to win in Alabama,” Trump tweeted early Monday. “We need his vote on stopping crime, illegal immigration, Border Wall, Military, Pro Life, V.A., Judges 2nd Amendment and more. No to Jones, a Pelosi/Schumer Puppet!”In November, Trump pointed to Moore’s denials of the allegations against the candidate from several decades ago, and the president spoke against voting for Democrat Doug Jones, but did not explicitly endorse Moore.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) have previously called on Moore to step aside, saying they believe the allegations. The Republican National Committee is among several conservative groups to withdraw support.But in a sign the GOP is warming to the candidate, McConnell said Sunday on ABC News that the decision should be left to the Alabama voters.Trump is not campaigning for Moore directly but will hold a rally on Friday in the Florida panhandle, which shares a media market with Mobile, Ala. The special election to fill the seat of Jeff Sessions, who is now attorney general, is Dec. 12. GOP tax bill is latest example of Senate leader Mitch McConnell breaking the norms he often espouses By Lisa Mascaro The Republican tax bill is poised to become President Trump’s most significant first-year accomplishment, but the Senate success rests largely with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the quiet Washington insider who accomplished the legislative feat only by shattering the very norms he long championed in Congress.McConnell is known as an institutionalist, less a devotee of a defined agenda than to the traditions of the Senate, which he’s aspired to lead ever since winning his first election in Kentucky more than 30 years ago.But despite his ascribed allegiance to upholding longstanding Senate rules, including so-called regular order, McConnell’s major achievements, including the tax bill, have come from sometimes abandoning those ideals.Read More McMaster defends Trump’s promotion of anti-Muslim videos posted by British far-right group By Laura King President Trump announces the appointment of H.R. McMaster, left, as national security advisor in February. (AFP/Getty Images) H.R. McMaster, President Trump’s national security advisor, on Sunday defended his boss’ retweeting of anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right British group.Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” McMaster said Trump’s intention was “to highlight the importance of creating safe and secure environments for our citizens.”British Prime Minister Theresa May issued an unusual direct rebuke of Trump’s action last week, saying it was “wrong” for him to retweet content promoted by an extremist group, Britain First, whose aim is to stoke hatred and mistrust. British parliamentarians across the political spectrum were also highly critical of the president’s decision to use his Twitter account, with nearly 44 million followers, to give a boost to the group.Pressed by interviewer Chris Wallace as to how the sharing of videos accompanied by incendiary anti-Muslim captions helped promote national security, McMaster replied that it was important to combat the “false narrative” that the fight against groups such as Islamic State is a “war of religion.” Britain First’s characterizations of the videos, which purported to show Muslims committing acts of violence, were widely criticized as incomplete or outright false. The Dutch Embassy in the U.S. said the group falsely claimed that an assailant shown beating another person in one of the video clips was a “Muslim migrant.” The perpetrator, who was punished, was born and raised in the Netherlands, the embassy said. In series of tweets, Trump targets FBI and the agent reassigned from role in Mueller probe By Laura King (Associated Press) President Trump on Sunday tweeted criticism of the FBI, saying its reputation was “in tatters” following the tenure of former director James Comey, who was fired seven months ago.The president also suggested bias against him in the investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, after news accounts said an agent was removed from Mueller’s team following an internal investigation of text messages interpreted as critical of Trump.After 24 hours of silence following Friday’s guilty plea by former national security advisor Michael Flynn to charges of lying to the FBI, Trump on Saturday unleashed a Twitter barrage against the Justice Department and his vanquished presidential rival, Hillary Clinton. Earlier Sunday, the president asserted that he did not ask Comey to halt the investigation of Flynn, although the former director has testified under oath that Trump did so. Trump tweets that he didn’t ask Comey to stop investigating Flynn (European Pressphoto Agency) President Trump said Sunday that he did not ask former FBI director James Comey to refrain from an investigation of fired national security advisor Michael Flynn.The position, articulated in a tweet sent from Trump’s account, contradicts statements made under oath by Comey, who was subsequently fired by the president after refusing to back down in the probe into possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign.Comey has told Congress that the president, in a private conversation of which he made contemporaneous notes, asked him to desist in the Flynn investigation. Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about discussions with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.The former Army lieutenant general was fired weeks into his tenure, and the White House said at the time that it was because he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence. On Saturday, a tweet from the president’s account said Flynn was fired because he lied to both Pence and the FBI. FBI agent was removed from Russia probe over anti-Trump text messages By Associated Press A person familiar with the matter says an FBI counterintelligence agent was removed from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigative team after the discovery of an exchange of potential anti-Trump text messages.The agent, who had also worked on the investigation of Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server, was removed from Mueller’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election this summer.The person who discussed the matter with the Associated Press was not authorized to speak about it publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.The nature of the messages and whom they were exchanged with was not immediately clear. The Justice Department’s inspector general is investigating.The New York Times first reported the agent’s removal. A spokesman for Mueller had no immediate comment, and an FBI representative did not immediately return a message seeking comment. President Trump tells reporters there’s ‘no collusion, no collusion’ after Mike Flynn pleads guilty By Chris Megerian (Manuel Balce Ceneta / Associated Press) President Trump told reporters Saturday that he wasn’t worried about what his former national security advisor, Michael T. Flynn, might tell prosecutors after agreeing to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.Flynn, a retired lieutenant general, pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Sergey Kislyak, then Russia’s ambassador in Washington.“What has been shown is no collusion, no collusion,” said Trump as he departed the White House for a fundraiser in New York. “There’s been absolutely no collusion, so we’re very happy.” GOP quickly reverses tax bill carve-out that would have favored DeVos-aligned Hillsdale College By Lisa Mascaro ((Alex Brandon / Associated Press ) Amid the flurry of late revisions to the GOP tax bill, a very specific proposal to exempt certain educational institutions from a new endowment tax caught the attention of Democrats.The provision appeared designed to shield one school, Hillsdale College, a private campus aligned with the wealthy family of Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos who are longtime GOP donors.DeVos’ brother, Erik Prince, the founder of the Blackwater private security agency, is a graduate.Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer held up a copy of the proposed change as “a metaphor for the whole bill” as he railed against the tax plan ahead of voting.“A single wealthy college, the pet project of billionaire campaign contributors to the Republican Party, was exempted from a tax by a senator who fought to get rid of earmarks,” Schumer said late Friday. “That, unfortunately, is a metaphor for the bill, and how high the stench is rising in this chamber as we debate the bill tonight.”The proposal from Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Penn.) sought to exempt schools from the GOP’s proposed 1.4% excise tax on endowment investment income if they met certain criteria regarding enrollment and the size of their endowment.Democrats said only Hillsdale qualified under the provision.Toomey’s office did not respond to a request for comment. The senator has been a longtime champion of ridding Congress of special funding earmarks, particularly as a former head of the conservative Club for Growth. Late Friday the proposal was revised yet again to raise the endowment threshold so Hillsdale no longer qualified. But then the entire provision was removed from the final bill under an amendment sponsored by Democrats.------------FOR THE RECORDDec. 4, 2:03 p.m.: An earlier version of this post incorrectly referred to Charles E. Schumer as Senate majority leader. He is the minority leader. Sen. Jeff Flake secured commitment on DACA fix for his GOP tax plan vote By Lisa Mascaro (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) As Republicans negotiated revisions to the GOP tax plan Friday to win their votes, Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona took another approach.Flake won a commitment from Republican leaders — and the White House — to work on a permanent fix that would allow young immigrants known as Dreamers to stay in the U.S. as President Trump prepares to end the DACA program next year.The Arizona Republican, who is retiring at end of his term, had been one of the leading GOP senators warning against rising deficits from the $1.5-trillion tax plan. He said he eliminated one budget “gimmick” as part of the agreement.But Flake focused his attention late Thursday and Friday — in phone calls with Vice President Mike Pence — on the young immigrants who were brought to the U.S. illegally as children and now face deportation risk under Trump’s plan.Congress has been working behind the scenes on a legislative alternative to DACA, the Obama-era program that provides recipients with permits to work and remain temporarily in the country.Trump said he would end the program next year, but the president has also pushed Congress to figure out a solution for the Dreamers. Flake’s said he secured a seat at the table. Sen. Bob Corker, perhaps last GOP holdout, opposes tax bill By Lisa Mascaro Sen. Bob Corker, perhaps the last Republican holdout on the tax plan, announced he would oppose the bill ahead of Friday’s expected vote.The Tennessee Republican had been among the strongest critics warning the $1.5 trillion plan would add to the deficit, rather than pay for itself through economic growth as his colleagues suggest.“I wanted to get to yes,” he said in a statement. “But at the end of the day, I am not able to cast aside my fiscal concerns and vote for legislation that I believe, based on the information I currently have, could deepen the debt burden on future generations.” GOP leaders announced earlier Friday they had secured a majority for passage. Sen. Susan Collins supports GOP tax bill ahead of vote By Lisa Mascaro Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, announced her support Friday for the GOP tax bill, joining two other holdouts ahead of an expected vote to pass the overhaul.Collins negotiated several provisions, including one to restore a property tax deduction (capped at $10,000 a year) that is important to residents in California and other states with high-cost real estate and was slated for elimination as part of a repeal of other popular write-offs.GOP leaders said they had secured the votes for passage, expected later Friday. If so, the bill would need to be reconciled with a House-passed version in the days ahead.Read More Trump says Tillerson ‘not leaving’ By Noah Bierman (Associated Press) Donald Trump tweeted Friday afternoon that he is keeping embattled Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, though he would not say how long.“The media has been speculating that I fired Rex Tillerson or that he would be leaving soon - FAKE NEWS!” he tweeted. “He’s not leaving and while we disagree on certain subjects, (I call the final shots) we work well together and America is highly respected again!”The tweet linked to an Instagram post with a picture of Tillerson being sworn in during a ceremony in the Oval Office.Trump met for lunch Friday with Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis. Earlier in the day, Tillerson called reports of his potential departure “laughable.”Trump’s tweet came on a day when most attention is focused on the indictment of Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security advisor. Trump may be trying to show stability in his administration and undermine the credibility of the news media as it trains its attention on the Russia probe. Schiff on Flynn plea: ‘It says to me that Bob Mueller must be getting fairly substantial cooperation from Gen. Flynn’ By Sarah D. Wire (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Rep. Adam Schiff, the senior Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, called former national security advisor Michael Flynn’s plea deal Friday “shocking” but “not unexpected.”“Given the much broader exposure Michael Flynn had on a range of other issues, if this is the universe that he is pleading to, it says to me that Bob Mueller must be getting fairly substantial cooperation from Gen. Flynn,” Schiff said.Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to FBI agents about whether he asked the Russian government in December 2016 to hold off on retaliating against sanctions imposed by then-President Obama for trying to interfere with the presidential campaign. During Friday’s proceeding, the prosecutor said Flynn discussed the 2016 meeting with “a very senior member” of Donald Trump’s transition team.Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III is likely reviewing whether any other transition officials made false statements about Flynn’s contacts with Russia. The House Select Intelligence Committee is also investigating Russian attempts to influence the 2016 election, and what the Trump campaign knew, and Schiff said the committee will likely review testimony from other transition officials as well.“I don’t remember any other administration officials acknowledging that they knew about Michael Flynn’s contacts and the contents of those discussions. So, seems to me, that information the prosecutor relayed to the court is also significant and the fact that he did not identify who those transition officials are is another indication that there is more that the special counsel is working on,” Schiff said.Schiff said if reports from ABC and the Associated Press are true that Flynn is willing to testify that Trump instructed him to make contact with the Russians, it indicates ”the president would be completely knowing of what Mike Flynn did.”“It would explain, I suppose, why he was so reluctant to fire Mike Flynn if in fact Mike Flynn was doing what he asked him to do. But, it would also mean that Mike Flynn was fired for lying about something the president knew and condoned,” Schiff said. White House spikes Trump’s sole public appearance after Flynn guilty plea By Noah Bierman (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) The White House abruptly canceled President Trump’s sole public appearance for Friday, shortly after his former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and confirmed that he is cooperating with prosecutors in their investigation of Trump’s 2016 campaign.The White House had no scheduled news briefing on Friday and directed all calls about the investigation to Ty Cobb, the president’s attorney. Cobb issued a statement downplaying the significance of Flynn’s plea deal.Trump had been planning to briefly allow reporters and photographers into the Oval Office at noon EST at the start of his meeting with Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj of Libya. Trump often responds to shouted questions during such events, but White House aides told waiting journalists that they would not be brought in.The decision to cancel Trump’s appearance came hours after Flynn — his chief national security advisor throughout the campaign and for the first 24 days of the administration, until forced to resign — pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts in December 2016 with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. Trump is also scheduled to attend a Christmas reception for members of the media at the White House on Friday afternoon. Though the schedule suggested he would make remarks there privately, the Flynn news cast doubts on those plans, especially because many journalists would demand that Trump address the matter for the record. Former national security advisor Michael Flynn pleads guilty to lying to FBI By David S. Cloud testRetired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who briefly served as President Trump’s national security advisor, is scheduled to plead guilty Friday morning to a single count of making false statements about his contacts with the Russian ambassador. Former national security advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI, saying he did so because his actions were wrong and he wanted to “set things right.”“I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,” Flynn said in a statement issued by his lawyer minutes after the former Army lieutenant general entered his plea in federal court.He added, “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”According to the plea deal, Flynn lied to FBI agents about whether he asked the Russian government in December 2016 to hold off on retaliating against sanctions imposed by then-President Obama for trying to interfere with the campaign. He also lied about how the Russian government had agreed to “moderate its response.” Flynn lost his job as national security advisor in February, only 24 days after Trump’s inauguration, after the Washington Post revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.“After over 33 years of military service to our country, including nearly five years in combat away from my family, and then my decision to continue to serve the United States, it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of “treason” and other outrageous acts,” Flynn said.UPDATE8:52 a.m.: This article was updated with Flynn’s plea.Read More Flynn confirms cooperation with special counsel, says he wants to ‘set things right’ By David S. Cloud Former national security advisor Michael Flynn said Friday he pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI because his actions were wrong and he wanted to “set things right.” Former national security advisor Michael Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to lying to the FBI, saying he did so because his actions were wrong and he wanted to “set things right.”“I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right,” Flynn said in a statement issued by his lawyer minutes after the former Army lieutenant general entered his plea in federal court.He added, “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”According to the plea deal, Flynn lied to FBI agents about whether he asked the Russian government in December 2016 to hold off on retaliating against sanctions imposed by then-President Obama for trying to interfere with the campaign. He also lied about how the Russian government had agreed to “moderate its response.” Flynn lost his job as national security advisor in February, only 24 days after Trump’s inauguration, after the Washington Post revealed that he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his communications with then-Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.“After over 33 years of military service to our country, including nearly five years in combat away from my family, and then my decision to continue to serve the United States, it has been extraordinarily painful to endure these many months of false accusations of ‘treason’ and other outrageous acts,” Flynn said. Flynn pleads guilty to lying to FBI; prosecutor says ex-national security advisor discussed Russian contact with senior Trump official By Chris Megerian (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) Michael Flynn, President Trump’s former national security advisor, pleaded guilty Friday to making false statements to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador, communications that a prosecutor said Flynn discussed with “a very senior member” of Trump’s transition team.The actions came in a federal court hearing in which Flynn and prosecutors confirmed that the retired Army lieutenant general had struck a deal to cooperate with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.Flynn made the false statements about his December 2016 conversations with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak on Jan. 24, soon after becoming President Trump’s national security advisor. He could face up to five years in prison.The statement about Flynn’s contacts with a senior Trump official was made by prosecutor Brandon Van Grack.Flynn, in a statement issued as he made his plea, said that he had wrongly been accused of “treason and other outrageous acts.”“But I recognize that the actions I acknowledged in court today were wrong, and, through my faith in God, I am working to set things right. My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the special counsel’s office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country,” he said. “I accept full responsibility for my actions.” Trump’s lawyer downplays Flynn’s guilty plea By Noah Bierman Retired Lt. Gen Michael Flynn walks through the lobby at Trump Tower on Nov. 17, 2016, in New York. (Carolyn Kaster / Associated Press) President Trump’s lawyer downplayed the guilty plea and promise of cooperation from former White House national security advisor Michael Flynn on Friday, arguing in a statement that “nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn.”In fact, Flynn’s attorney suggested in court that his cooperation would result in exposure for at least one higher-up within Trump’s orbit.Trump’s lawyer, Ty Cobb, downplayed Flynn’s role in the administration in his statement, pointing out that he was “at the White House for 25 days during the Trump Administration, and a former Obama administration official.” Flynn was among Trump’s closest advisors throughout his campaign.“The false statements involved mirror the false statements to White House officials which resulted in his resignation in February of this year,” Cobb continued. “Nothing about the guilty plea or the charge implicates anyone other than Mr. Flynn. The conclusion of this phase of the Special Counsel’s work demonstrates again that the Special Counsel is moving with all deliberate speed and clears the way for a prompt and reasonable conclusion.”As part of a deal with special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, Flynn pleaded guilty Friday to making false statements to the FBI about his contacts with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak.The agreement confirmed that Flynn is now cooperating with investigators looking into whether members of Trump’s team had aided Russian interference in last year’s presidential election or had violated other related U.S. laws.Flynn admitted that he lied to FBI agents about whether he asked the Russian government in December 2016 to hold off on retaliating against sanctions imposed by President Obama because of their interference in the campaign. He also said he lied about how the Russian government had agreed to “moderate its response.” Flynn, who served for three decades in the Army before retiring as a lieutenant general, was an early and enthusiastic booster of Trump, leading chants of “Lock her up!” against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton at the 2016 Republican convention.Flynn was fired as national security advisor only 24 days into Trump’s administration after officials said he had misled Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Kislyak.In October, Trump’s former campaign manager, Paul Manafort, and another aide, Rick Gates, were arraigned on a dozen charges of fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. Both pleaded not guilty. Another campaign advisor, George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to making false statements about the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia. Trump says Democrats will pay after acquittal of immigrant in murder case By Noah Bierman (Michael Macor / Associated Press) President Trump lashed out in multiple tweets against the acquittal of Jose Ines Garcia Zarate on murder and manslaughter charges, brushing aside the pleas of Kate Steinle’s family, who have asked to end the public battle over their daughter’s death.Trump had tweeted at least three times on the verdict by Friday morning, including one in which he blamed the “weakly protected Obama border” for the “travesty of justice” and demanded “BUILD THE WALL!”“The Schumer/Pelosi Democrats are so weak on Crime that they will pay a big price in the 2018 and 2020 Elections,” Trump wrote in another tweet.Family members of Steinle had previously expressed frustration that the case had been wrapped up in politics and told the San Francisco Chronicle as they awaited the verdict that they hoped the moment would mark an end to their family’s role in public life.“We’re just shocked — saddened and shocked ... that’s about it,” her father Jim Steinle told the paper.Trump, who spoke about the case often during the campaign, lamented that the jury was not told of Garcia Zarate’s prior felony record. The Mexican national with multiple convictions had been deported five times; he was free at the time of the shooting after local prosecutors decided not to press charges against him in a marijuana possession case and did not turn him over to immigration officials.Keeping mum about prior convictions is standard in criminal trials because such information is considered prejudicial, potentially undermining the constitutional right to a fair trial. Judges do, however, consider criminal records during sentencing. Garcia Zarate was convicted on one charge: possession of a firearm by a felon. Inspector general launches inquiry into whether Treasury hid Republican tax bill analysis By Jim Puzzanghera The Treasury Department’s inspector general has launched an inquiry into whether the department hid an analysis of the Republican tax bill — or even did one at all.Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin has said economic growth stimulated by the bill’s large tax cuts would offset lost revenue and indicated his department would produce an analysis proving it.But no analysis has been released as the Senate prepared to vote on its version of the tax legislation. The House approved its tax bill on Nov. 16.Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) wrote to Treasury Inspector General Eric M. Thorson on Thursday asking for an inquiry after a New York Times article said members of the Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy, which would do such an analysis, said they were not working on one.“Either the Treasury Department has used extensive taxpayer funds to conduct economic analyses that it refuses to release because those analyses would contradict the Treasury secretary’s claims, or Secretary Mnuchin has grossly misled the public about the extent of the Treasury Department’s analysis,” Warren wrote. “I am deeply concerned about either possibility.”Rich Delmar, counsel to the inspector general, said Thursday the office had launched an inquiry and that it was a “top priority.”A spokeswoman for Mnuchin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The announcement came as the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation released its analysis Thursday showing that the bill would add $1 trillion to the deficit over the next decade even after accounting for increased economic growth. Ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort could regain some freedom while awaiting trial By Chris Megerian Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, may soon gain some freedom to travel as he awaits trial in federal court.Since his arrest Oct. 30 on charges of conspiracy, money laundering and fraud, the once powerful GOP operative and international consultant has been confined to his condominium in Alexandria, Va., outside Washington, where he’s under GPS monitoring. His lawyers now have reached an $11.6-million bail agreement with the special counsel’s office, which is pursuing the criminal case against Manafort, according to a motion filed Thursday.The proposed deal is being presented to U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson for her approval. The deal involves the pledging of four properties: Manafort’s condo in Alexandria; his home in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.; another condo in Manhattan; and a beachfront property in Bridgehampton, N.Y.Under the proposal, Manafort would be permitted to travel in Virginia, New York, Florida and Washington, D.C., with other domestic travel requiring permission from the court.Manafort would still be barred from leaving the country. He turned over his three U.S. passports to prosecutors after his arrest. If Manafort doesn’t appear in court as required, he would forfeit the four properties. His lawyers said they were worth $11.6 million after existing mortgages are deducted. “Simply put, Mr. Manafort’s family would face severe economic consequences if he were not to appear as required,” Manafort’s lawyer, Kevin Downing, wrote in a court filing. Manafort has pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. His trial is scheduled to start in May. Reported plans to fire Tillerson roil State Department By Noah Bierman (Cliff Owen / Associated Press) Buffeted by multiple reports that President Trump will replace Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in another of the top-level shakeups that have roiled the administration, the State Department struggled Thursday to portray business as usual.Trump is considering replacing Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo by Jan. 20, a year after Trump’s inauguration, a source close to the administration told The Times, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss internal workings at the White House.Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who is close to Trump, would replace Pompeo at the top of the CIA, the source said.Tillerson participated in two meetings at the White House on Thursday, returning between them to a State Department where his leadership as America’s top diplomat has been widely criticized as lackluster. At one point, Trump’s chief of staff, John Kelly, telephoned Tillerson’s chief of staff, Margaret Peterlin, to assure the staff that media reports of Tillerson’s imminent ouster were not true.Tillerson earlier had breakfast with his frequent ally, Defense Secretary James N. Mattis, according to State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert.In a news briefing, Nauert was asked how Tillerson will conduct normal diplomatic work next week when he meets his counterparts on a visit to Europe given the growing reports that he is a short-timer and does not enjoy the president’s confidence. “The secretary is someone whose feathers don’t get ruffled very easily,” Nauert said. “He brushed it off. He’s heard these stories before.“He remains secretary of State,” she added. “He serves at the pleasure of the president.” Senate tax bill would swell deficit by $1 trillion even with economic growth, analysis says By Lisa Mascaro (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The Senate Republican tax bill would increase the federal budget deficit by $1 trillion over the next decade even when taking into account increased economic growth, according to a congressional analysis released Thursday.The so-called dynamic score from the Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that the tax cuts and other changes in the bill would boost the nation’s economic output by an average of 0.8% over the 10-year period.That would reduce the bill’s earlier estimated $1.5-billion deficit impact, which was calculated without taking into account potential economic growth, by about $408 billion.But the bill still would add $1 trillion to the deficit, undercutting assertions by Republican leaders and Trump administration officials that the additional growth spurred by the bill’s large tax cuts would pay for themselves over time.Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), who pushed for the analysis to be released ahead of a vote on the bill this week, said the report “ends the fantasy about magical growth and claims the tax cuts pay for themselves.”“It is the total opposite of what the Senate sponsors and Trump administration have been claiming now for months,” Wyden told reporters.The report could create problems for some Republicans, including Sens. Bob Corker of Tennessee and Jeff Flake of Arizona, who have said they would not vote for a bill that adds to the deficit.Julia Lawless, a spokeswoman for Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), said the analysis does not reflect the final tax bill, which is still being considered and likely to be amended. Key senator says tax bill likely to keep property tax deduction — a partial win, but still a big loss for Californians By David Lauter A key Republican indicated Thursday that the Senate’s tax bill was all but certain to keep a limited deduction for property taxes — a partial victory, but at the same time, a major loss for Californians.Like residents of other high-tax states, Californians would benefit from being able to continue to deduct some of the cost of property taxes on their federal returns. The Republican bill headed to a final vote in the Senate this week proposes to eliminate that deduction.But the bill would still axe the current deduction for state and local income or sales taxes. That is a bigger loss for California, which has the highest top state income tax rate in the nation, but ranks in the bottom third by one measure for property taxes.Read More Democratic pressure mounts on Rep. John Conyers Jr. to resign over sexual harassment allegations By Cathleen Decker House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that the longest-serving member of Congress, Democratic Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, should resign due to “serious, disappointing and very credible” accusations of sexual harassment leveled against him.Pelosi’s announcement signaled a remarkable reversal after a public outcry and was quickly followed by similar statements by other prominent Democratic lawmakers, including Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina, who, like Conyers, is a longtime leader of the Congressional Black Caucus.As recently as Wednesday, Clyburn had questioned the veracity of Conyers’ accusers. Clyburn’s change of position was first reported by Politico.Read More Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff says Jeff Sessions wouldn’t level with congressional committee on Russia investigation By Chris Megerian Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) speaks to reporters in the Capitol. (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions dodged questions about whether President Trump tried to interfere with the investigation into Russian interference in last year’s campaign, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday.“I asked the attorney general whether he was ever instructed by the president to take any action that he believed would hinder the Russia investigation, and he declined to answer the question,” Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank) told reporters after a closed-door meeting with Sessions.His remarks were reported by the Hill. Schiff criticized Sessions for not answering.“If the president did not instruct him to take any action that he believed would hinder the Russia investigation, he should say so,” Schiff said. “If the president did instruct him to hinder the investigation in any way, in my view, that would be a potentially criminal act and certainly not covered by any privilege.”Sarah Isgur Flores, a Department of Justice spokeswoman, said Sessions had simply reiterated his previous refusal to discuss his private communications with the president.“But he also said, same as he’s said before, that he’s never been directed to do anything illegal or improper,” she added. Tom Steyer is leading a campaign to impeach Trump. Why does that annoy so many Democrats? By Mark Z. Barabak Tom Steyer’s drive to impeach President Trump includes a billboard in New York’s Times Square. (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) From its very founding, California has been a land of reinvention. The creed is practically written in the state Constitution: If you don’t like who you are, or your place in life, start over.Gold was the first lure. Since then, countless have sought fame. Others, acceptance.Tom Steyer has no end of wealth, a measure of fame and a seeming appetite for political office.That requires his own bit of reinvention.Read More Nancy Pelosi calls on Rep. Conyers to resign amid sexual harassment probe Speculation picks up about Tillerson’s departure as secretary of State By Tracy Wilkinson (AFP / Getty Images) Speculation has circulated for weeks that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is on his way out. He has publicly contradicted, and been contradicted by, his boss the president. He reportedly called President Trump a “moron” in a private meeting, and never denied that when asked by reporters.Tillerson, 65, the former chief of ExxonMobil, has repeatedly said he has no plans to step down, while adding that he serves at the president’s pleasure.But tension between Foggy Bottom and the White House has not subsided. Thursday, the speculation kicked up again when the New York Times reported the White House had drawn up a plan for CIA director Mike Pompeo to replace Tillerson.In addition to Pompeo, Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor who is now the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has been often discussed as a possible Tillerson’s replacement. The hawkish Halley has seemed in sync with Trump on issues including Iran and the Middle East.Tillerson, who took the Cabinet post with no government experience, has indicated he wanted to stay at least long enough to finish a State Department “redesign” that he is overseeing. That has been widely panned, however, for causing low morale in the agency and an exodus of talented diplomats. Rep. John Conyers hospitalized as new sexual harassment accuser comes forward By Associated Press (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) A woman who alleges she was fired because she rejected Detroit Rep. John Conyers’ sexual advances broke a confidentiality agreement Thursday to tell NBC’s “Today” show that the longest-serving member of the U.S. House subjected her to years of sexual harassment.The Democratic congressman also was hospitalized Thursday in Detroit, according to political consultant Sam Riddle, who said he’d talked with Conyers’ wife. Riddle said he didn’t know why Conyers went to the hospital or his condition.Marion Brown, 61, said the Democratic congressman propositioned her for sex multiple times over more than a decade. She said she stayed on the job because she needed to support her family and found the work rewarding.“It was sexual harassment ... violating my body,” she said. “Propositioning me. Inviting me to hotels with the guise of discussing business and then propositioning me ... for sex.”The Associated Press left messages Thursday seeking comment from Conyers’ lawyer, who has said the 88-year-old will fight the misconduct allegations.Last week, BuzzFeed News reported Conyers had settled a complaint in 2015 for $27,000 from a female staffer who alleged she was fired because she rejected his sexual advances. BuzzFeed didn’t disclose her name in its initial report and said the settlement was confidential.Brown’s lawyer, Lisa Bloom, confirmed to The Associated Press after the NBC interview aired that Brown was that former employee. She said Brown worked for Conyers in a variety of capacities from 2003 until 2014, mostly in the Detroit district office.Brown said she was putting herself “at risk” of violating the confidentiality agreement, but she spoke out to say she’s “not a liar” and to request an apology from Conyers. She said she reported some allegations to Conyers’ chief of staff in Detroit, but nothing happened.Some fellow Democrats are pushing Conyers to resign, but Detroit-area attorney Arnold Reed told the Associated Press on Wednesday that Conyers is innocent and has no plans to step down. Expel Roy Moore if he wins? Not so fast, some senators say By David Lauter (Scott Olson / Getty Images) A few weeks ago, when a series of women first stepped forward to accuse Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, Republican senators said confidently that if he won the Senate seat from Alabama for which he is running, they would expel him.Now, with the Alabama election less than two weeks away, second thoughts have begun setting in.Republican senators continue to say that they would subject Moore, a fellow Republican, to an Ethics Committee investigation. But questions are mounting about whether it would be appropriate for the Senate to oust Moore over allegations that were known to voters before the election.Thursday, Sen. Susan Collins of Maine became the latest Republican to voice those doubts.“I never endorsed Roy Moore,” Collins said at a breakfast with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor. She had opposed Moore even before the recent allegations because of his history, which included defying U.S. Supreme Court rulings, she noted. But “if the voters of a state, fully knowing these allegations … nevertheless choose to elect Roy Moore, is it appropriate for the Senate to expel him?”That’s a “very difficult question,” Collins said. Expulsion would require a two-thirds vote of the Senate. Trump’s spread of British far-right group’s anti-Muslim videos draws condemnation in U.S. and abroad By Brian Bennett (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump extended his flirtation with racist extremists internationally on Wednesday — and drew a rare rebuke from two European allies — by retweeting three anti-Muslim videos from a far-right fringe group in Britain.“It is wrong for the president to have done this,” said James Slack, spokesman for British Prime Minister Theresa May. He described the group, Britain First, as one that “seeks to divide communities by their use of hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tension.”Compounding the sudden diplomatic muddle with the United States’ closest ally, Trump hit back at the prime minister Wednesday night, again on Twitter, telling her, “Don’t focus on me, focus on the destructive Radical Islamic Terrorism that is taking place within the United Kingdom. We are doing just fine!”Read More Are consumer advocates just delaying the inevitable in fight over CFPB acting director? By Jim Puzzanghera They waved signs. They banged drums. And they chanted their opposition to Mick Mulvaney’s appointment as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.“For six years this agency has fought for working people and now it is time for us to fight for the agency,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) at a rally this week in front of the bureau’s headquarters. “Are you ready to fight?”The crowd of about 50 protesters roared “Yeah!” in unison.Read More Analysis: As corporate America fires alleged sexual harassers, Washington stumbles over how to punish its transgressors By Cathleen Decker (J.Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) American corporations in recent weeks have scythed through the ranks of alleged sexual harassers, dispatching personalities as powerful as movie producer Harvey Weinstein and television anchor Matt Lauer, who was swiftly fired on Wednesday after a credible accusation of sexual misbehavior.But in Washington, the growing public intolerance for harassment has tied politicians in partisan pretzels and left them grappling for a way to assess guilt and mete out consequences.Several factors have slowed the political response.In the sharply divided Capitol, partisanship inevitably affects how cases are viewed. So does a reluctance to sit in judgment of peers who are longtime friends and allies. Congress also has more than a whiff of entitlement, accustomed to operating by its own rules while other organizations rush to protect themselves from liability.Read More Congress is caught up in the sexual misconduct scandals. Will it police its own? By Michael Finnegan (Alex Wong / Getty Images) With a spate of sexual harassment allegations stirring trouble on Capitol Hill, Congress faces a new test of how well it can police itself.Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, accused of demanding sex from women who worked for him, is under investigation by the House Ethics Committee. Some fellow Democrats have urged him to resign.Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota, another Democrat fighting to save his career, is bracing for a Senate Ethics Committee inquiry of groping allegations.And GOP lawmakers have threatened to expel Republican Roy Moore of Alabama if he wins a Senate seat in a Dec. 12 special election. He stands accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl and sexually assaulting a 16-year-old decades ago.The raft of allegations of abusive conduct by powerful men in politics, business, news and entertainment — President Trump among them — has put pressure on Congress to improve its system for punishing misconduct in its own ranks.The swift downfalls of NBC anchor Matt Lauer, comedian Louis C.K., actor Kevin Spacey and others in the private sector have highlighted the lumbering pace of the disciplinary process for Congress.Revelations of secret payments of taxpayer money to settle sexual harassment complaints against Conyers and possibly other lawmakers have sparked calls for more transparency.Read More House approves sexual harassment training for all representatives and staff By Sarah D. Wire House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) All members of Congress and their staff will now take anti-sexual harassment training after the House voted Wednesday to make it mandatory.It’s the opening salvo in what House leaders promise will be a complete overhaul of how sexual harassment claims are handled since a wave of accusations have rocked Capitol Hill.“The fact that some people [who] end up walking these halls are subjected to a threatening or hostile work environment when they came here to serve their country, to serve their ideals, that’s wrong, that’s a disgrace. We cannot and we will not tolerate that kind of behavior,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters Wednesday prior to the vote. “We need to have a comprehensive review of all of these things so that we can have a comprehensive response.”The House Administration Committee will hold a second hearing next week about the sexual harassment claims process on Capitol Hill.Half a dozen female representatives have come forward to tell stories about being harassed on Capitol Hill, or to relate stories told to them by staff.For someone who works on Capitol Hill to pursue a harassment administrative hearing or a lawsuit against a lawmaker or staff member, they currently must first go to counseling through the little-known Office of Compliance. The counseling can last up to 30 days and informs accusers of their legal rights. Then, there is 30 days of required mediation with the person they are accusing. During this process, the accuser must sign a nondisclosure agreement and provide their own legal counsel. The person accused is represented by House lawyers.Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-Whittier) said that process is riddled with “outdated, onerous hurdles for complainants to try to overcome before they can ever have their day in court.”Sanchez, who handled sexual assault claims as a labor attorney before being elected to Congress, has described being subjected to unwanted advances by a still-serving House colleague, whom she has declined to name.“The process needs to be fair for all parties involved. In needs to be fair for the complainant and it needs to be fair for the person being accused. They need to have due process,” Sanchez said. “You don’t want character assassinations, nor do you want victims that don’t get their day in court.”Among the measures being considered is an overhaul introduced by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough) that would speed up the complaint process, as well as require more transparency about the accused and about how much harassment settlements cost taxpayers. After Speier shared her own harassment story about being forcibly kissed when she was a staff member on Capitol Hill, more than 1,500 current and former Hill staffers signed a letter asking Congress to change the process. Trump was wrong to share anti-Muslim videos tweeted by far-right leader, British prime minister spokesman says By Associated Press British Prime Minister Theresa May’s spokesman says President Trump was wrong to share anti-Muslim videos tweeted by a U.K. far-right leader.Trump retweeted three videos posted by Jayda Fransen, deputy leader of Britain First. Fransen has been convicted of a hate crime in Britain and currently faces more charges.May’s spokesman, James Slack, said Britain First seeks to divide communities through its use of “hateful narratives which peddle lies and stoke tensions.” He said “it is wrong for the president to have done this.”But May’s office said an invitation for Trump to pay a state visit to Britain was not being withdrawn. Opposition politicians are calling for the visit to be canceled after the far-right retweets. Trump threatens new sanctions, a policy that has failed to stop North Korea’s nuclear advances By Noah Bierman (Agence France-Presse) President Trump is threatening to ramp up sanctions against North Korea, a strategy that so far has proved ineffective against its nuclear development, in retaliation for the latest ballistic missile test.Trump tweeted Wednesday that he spoke with Chinese President Xi Jinping about the test, after speaking late Tuesday with South Korea’s president. The test came days after Trump’s return from Asia, where the subject of North Korea was a primary focus of talks with both leaders as well as Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.Trump already had stepped up sanctions and last week put North Korea back on the list of state sponsors of terrorism.The “major sanctions” that Trump said would be imposed are a reminder of how limited American options are in facing off with a nuclear foe that now claims, with the new test, to have the capacity to reach Washington, D.C. “This situation will be handled!” Trump tweeted, echoing words he used Tuesday after the nuclear test was revealed.Read More Trump posts provocative anti-Muslim videos from a leader of far-right U.K. fringe group By Brian Bennett President Trump retweeted three anti-Muslim videos from the account of a leader of a far-right British fringe group known for conducting “Christian patrols” in predominantly Muslim neighborhoods and arrested recently for inciting hatred and violence. The videos, which purport to show Muslims engaged in acts of violence and anti-Christian incitement, came from the Twitter account of Jayda Fransen, a deputy leader of the group Britain First who was convicted last year of religiously aggravated harassment against a Muslim woman wearing a head scarf. Trump apparently posted the videos from Fransen’s account on Wednesday morning in between tweets about the economy and calling for a boycott of “Fake News CNN” after the cable news network’s decision to not attend the annual Christmas party at the White House.In response, the husband of British parliamentarian Jo Cox, who was killed last year by a man shouting “Britain First,” accused Trump of “spreading hatred” and trying to legitimize the far right in Britain. Fransen praised Trump for retweeting her, writing “GOD BLESS YOU TRUMP! GOD BLESS AMERICA!” GOP tax bill gains momentum despite skepticism from Republican holdouts By Lisa Mascaro After a flurry of last-minute concessions by President Trump to win over reluctant Republicans, the GOP tax plan cleared a key committee vote Tuesday and appeared better positioned for passage when the full Senate votes, probably later this week.Even so, with Republicans’ slim 52-seat majority in the Senate, it would take only three of the remaining half a dozen or so GOP holdouts to block the bill, which Republicans hope will be their signature legislative achievement of Trump’s first year in office. The bill, which still needs to be reconciled with a House version, remains a work in progress.Many of the latest changes were aimed at winning support from Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine centrist who helped kill the GOP’s Obamacare repeal earlier this year.Read More Democratic leaders Pelosi, Schumer call off meeting with Trump after he tweets ‘I don’t see a deal’ By Noah Bierman (AP Photo/Evan Vucci) Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill announced Tuesday they would no longer attend a meeting with President Trump, responding to his tweet earlier in the day that “I don’t see a deal” with “Chuck and Nancy.”“Given that the President doesn’t see a deal between Democrats and the White House, we believe the best path forward is to continue negotiating with our Republican counterparts in Congress instead,” Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) and Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) wrote in a joint statement.They said they would instead request a meeting with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, Congress’s Republican leaders.“We don’t have any time to waste in addressing the issues that confront us, so we’re going to continue to negotiate with Republican leaders who may be interested in reaching a bipartisan agreement,” Pelosi and Schumer wrote.“If the President, who already said earlier this year that ‘our country needs a good shutdown,’ isn’t interested in addressing the difficult year end agenda, we’ll work with those Republicans who are, as we did in April,” they continued.McConnell tweeted that he still plans to meet with the president. ‘I don’t see a deal!’ Trump changes tone on working with ‘Chuck and Nancy’ on immigration, taxes By Brian Bennett (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Hours before a bipartisan meeting Tuesday at the White House on the packed year-end legislative agenda, President Trump attacked the two Democratic leaders in a tweet and announced “I don’t see a deal” with “Chuck and Nancy.”Trump wrote, falsely, that Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi “want illegal immigrants flooding into our Country unchecked, are weak on Crime and want to substantially RAISE taxes. I don’t see a deal!”Trump plans to meet Congress’ two top Democrats as well as Republican leaders in the Oval Office in late afternoon to discuss a long to-do list of must-pass legislation, most significantly a bill to fund government operations before the current spending authority expires Dec. 8. Republicans need Democrats’ votes to pass the spending bill and avoid a government shutdown, given the number of Republicans who routinely oppose any spending. But Democrats for months have said they would not provide support unless the legislation included protections from deportation for so-called “Dreamers,” the hundreds of thousands of mostly younger immigrants brought to the country illegally as children.Those beneficiaries of the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals would begin losing their two-year work permits and deportation deferrals in March because Trump in September ordered the program to be phased out.Back then, however, Trump sided with “Chuck and Nancy” after a similar bipartisan meeting with congressional leaders. They left the Oval Office meeting in September saying they had an agreement with the president to seek continued protection for Dreamers in exchange for more border security funds. Trump confirmed that in his own remarks and tweets at the time, saying he was looking forward to working with them on immigration. But in recent weeks, negotiations between the two parties over protecting Dreamers from deportation have stalled over demands from Trump and Republican lawmakers to include tougher measures on legal and illegal immigration. Trump pushes Republicans on tax overhaul as Congress faces a busy month By Lisa Mascaro With a renewed push from President Trump, GOP Senate leaders on Monday scrambled to revise their tax reform plan to win over skeptics ahead of this week’s crucial vote.Several Republican senators voiced new reservations about the tax bill, a $1.5-trillion package that could become the most significant achievement of Trump’s first year in office, but has low public support among voters.Some senators fear the bill is too heavily tilted in favor of corporations and the wealthy, and does not do enough for small-business owners or ordinary Americans.Read More Trump makes ‘Pocahontas’ jab about Elizabeth Warren to elderly Native Americans in ceremony honoring code talkers By Noah Bierman (Brendan Smialowski / AFP-Getty Images) President Trump used a ceremony on Monday honoring Navajo code talkers’ service in World War II to insult a favorite target, Sen. Elizabeth Warren.Trump noted that Native Americans had been in North America longer than other groups, then segued into a crack about Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat who has been the subject of controversy for her undocumented claims of partial Native American ancestry.“We have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas,” Trump said to the elderly men. Trump has used the insult, which many Native Americans find offensive, before, tweeting or retweeting the name 12 times. But doing so at a White House event honoring Native American service to the country crosses a new threshold for the president.Warren, an Oklahoma native, has credited family lore for her belief that she has some Native American ancestry. But she has no documented proof and is not a member of any tribe. The issue became controversial during her 2012 campaign, when it was learned that academic publications had included Warren, a former Harvard law professor, in publications touting diversity. Warren at one point also listed herself as a minority in a major legal directory.In an interview on MSNBC, Warren responded that “it is deeply unfortunate that the president of the United States cannot even make it though a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur.”White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the White House press briefing said that she did not think that Trump’s use of the nickname for Warren was a racial slur.“What most people find offensive is Sen. Warren lying about her heritage,” Sanders said.This post was updated with comments by Sen. Warren and the White House press secretary. Returning to Capitol Hill, Sen. Al Franken repeats apologies, says he will remain in Senate By David Lauter (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) “I know that I’ve let a lot of people down,” Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) said Monday, repeating his apology to women who have accused him of touching them inappropriately.“I am embarrassed. I feel ashamed,” Franken said during a brief news conference outside his Senate office. “I’m going to try to learn from my mistakes.”“I know there are no magic words I can say to regain your trust,” he added. “That is going to take time.”Franken apologized a week and a half ago after Leeann Tweeden, a news anchor on KABC’s “McIntyre in the Morning,” said that he had aggressively kissed her during a rehearsal for a comedy skit in 2006, when the two were on a USO tour.Since then, additional women have said that Franken inappropriately touched them during photos, accusing him of grabbing their buttocks. Franken repeated Monday that he does not recall those incidents, but that he would not dispute what the women said. “You have to respect women’s experience,” he said, adding that he realized he needed to be “more careful, much more sensitive” to ensure that “this will not happen again.”Franken has agreed to an Ethics Committee review of his conduct. On Monday, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) said Franken should consider resigning. Mulvaney moves to take reins as acting CFPB director amid legal dispute By Jim Puzzanghera ( Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images) Mick Mulvaney arrived at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Monday morning to take the reins as acting director amid a legal dispute over the leadership of the independent agency. Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget who was tapped by President Trump to be acting bureau director, arrived at the agency’s headquarters about 4:20 a.m. Pacific time, according to Ed Mierzwinski of the U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Mulvaney made the short walk from the White House carrying a bag from Dunkin’ Donuts, said Mierzwinski, who was among the first of about a dozen consumer advocates and bureau supporters to arrive to protest Mulvaney’s appointment. John Czwartacki, an OMB spokesman, said Mulvaney was given access to the director’s office and the staff was cooperative. But Leandra English, who was promoted to deputy director Friday, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Sunday, challenging Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney as unlawful. She requested a temporary restraining order to block him from taking the position. A decision could come later Monday. Consumer bureau’s deputy director sues to stop Trump appointee from taking temporary control of agency By Jim Puzzanghera The battle over control of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau escalated Sunday as the deputy director sued to stop President Trump from installing his own appointee as temporary head of the agency.Leandra English, who was promoted to deputy director Friday, filed suit in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, saying Trump’s appointment of Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the bureau was unlawful. She requested a temporary restraining order to block him from taking the position.The nine-page filing said English is “the rightful acting director of the bureau” because the Dodd-Frank Act, which created the agency in 2010, specifically states that the deputy director shall “serve as acting director in the absence or unavailability of the director.”Read More Trump reiterates support for Alabama’s Roy Moore By Tracy Wilkinson (Getty Images) President Trump on Sunday reiterated support for Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, despite numerous allegations against him of sexual misconduct and harassment.“We can’t let Schumer-Pelosi win this race,” Trump tweeted Sunday morning from his Mar-a-Lago golf resort, where he has been spending the Thanksgiving holiday. He was referencing Sen. Charles Schumer of New York and San Francisco Rep. Nancy Pelosi, who head the Democratic contingents in their respective chambers of Congress.Numerous women have come forward to accuse Moore, an ultra-conservative Republican, of various degrees of sexual harassment, including assault, when he was in his 30s more than 30 years ago. One of the accusers was 14 years old at the time.Trump backed Moore’s opponent, Luther Strange, in the Republican primary, but Strange lost to Moore. Now, says Trump, the party cannot afford to allow Democratic candidate Doug Jones to win. A Jones victory could threaten upcoming Senate votes, Trump’s aides have argued, even though whoever wins in the Dec. 12 special election would likely not be seated in time for the crucial tax reform bill.“Liberal Jones would be BAD,” Trump continued. “The last thing we need in Alabama and the U.S. Senate is a Schumer/Pelosi puppet who is WEAK on Crime, WEAK on the Border, Bad for our Military and our great Vets, Bad for our 2nd Amendment, AND WANTS TO RAISES TAXES [sic] TO THE SKY. Jones would be a disaster!”Trump’s insistence on supporting Moore puts him at odds with many in his party, who believe his candidacy has become untenable.Even Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, harshly condemned Moore’s alleged behavior.Trump noted last week that Moore has denied the allegations, and that seemed to be good enough for the president. Conyers leaves House committee post amid sexual misconduct allegations By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) Rep. John Conyers Jr. announced Sunday he was relinquishing his House committee position amid allegations he sexually harassed female staffers.The announcement came shortly after House minority leader Nancy Pelosi repeatedly called on the Michigan Democrat to “do the right thing.” At the same time, she said he deserved due process.Conyers, who has denied the allegations, said in a statement he was stepping down as ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee while he faces an ethics investigation.He said the investigation and the allegations are a distraction to the “important” work of the committee, which he noted handles civil rights cases and voters’ access to the ballot box.Pelosi, of California, defended Conyers as an “icon” who had worked in defense of women over the years. Asked if she believed his accusers, she said it was up to the ethics committee to determine that.“I believe he will do the right thing,” she told NBC News’s Meet the Press.The news website BuzzFeed reported last week that Conyers’s office paid $27,000 to settle a complaint from a women in 2015 who said she was fired after rejecting the congressman’s sexual advances. White House says it’s on solid legal ground in making Mulvaney acting consumer bureau chief By Jim Puzzanghera (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) White House officials said Saturday that President Trump was on solid legal ground in naming Mick Mulvaney as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau despite the departing chief’s last-minute designation of a new deputy to temporarily run the agency.The dueling claims to the bureau’s temporary leadership — until a permanent director is nominated and confirmed by the Senate — could put the controversial consumer watchdog in legal turmoil.Senior administration officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Saturday that Mulvaney’s appointment was consistent with the Federal Vacancies Reform Act of 1998 and they hoped to avoid a court fight.The move also was cleared by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, which will publicly release a formal opinion soon, the officials said.President Trump on Friday night named Mulvaney, the director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, as the bureau’s acting director in the wake of the resignation of its first chief, Richard Cordray.Earlier Friday, Cordray wrote to Trump saying his resignation would be effective at midnight. Cordray also appointed his chief of staff, Leandra English, to be deputy director.The Dodd-Frank law, which created the bureau in 2010, says the deputy director becomes the acting head “in the absence or unavailability of the director.” In an email to bureau staff, Cordray said English would take over as acting director.But senior administration officials said the 1998 vacancies act gives Trump the power to instead install an official who already has been confirmed by the Senate to be the acting director.Mulvaney was confirmed by the Senate to lead OMB and will remain in that job while also serving as acting director of the consumer bureau, senior administration officials said.“I believe Americans deserve a CFPB that seeks to protect them while ensuring free and fair markets for all consumers,” Mulvaney said in a written statement. “Financial services are the engine of American democratic capitalism, and we need to let it work.”Mulvaney has been a vocal critic of bureau, which most Republicans oppose. He has called it a “sick, sad joke,” with lending rules that are “absolutely absurd.”Lauren Saunders, associate director of the National Consumer Law Center, said Trump’s appointment of Mulvaney was unlawful.“In an attempt to install a wrecking ball at the helm of the consumer watchdog, President Trump has ignored the law that dictates that the consumer bureau’s deputy director takes over until Congress can confirm a new director,” she said.“The law is designed to protect the consumer bureau’s independence and to make sure that the qualifications and biases of a new director are examined through the regular confirmation and hearing process,” Saunders said.The dispute could be headed for court. Senior administration officials said that would be determined by English, who must decide whether she will assert that she is the acting director or defer to Mulvaney.A bureau spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment. Trump names Mulvaney as acting CFPB chief as Richard Cordray departs By Jim Puzzanghera President Trump on Friday named White House budget director Mick Mulvaney as the acting chief of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau as Richard Cordray prepared to depart the agency.Cordray announced that Friday would be his last day as the bureau’s director and appointed a new deputy in hopes of keeping an ally in charge until the Senate confirms for the job a nominee from President Trump.But a few hours after Cordray sent his resignation to Trump, the president announced he was installing Mulvaney, director of the Office of Management and Budget, to be the bureau’s acting chief during what could be a lengthy confirmation process for a yet-to-be named nominee, setting up a potential legal fight over temporary leadership of the bureau.Read More Sen. Al Franken apologizes — again — as new misconduct allegations emerge By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) Sen. Al Franken has apologized again for alleged inappropriate conduct as two more women emerged to accuse him of groping.The Democrat from Minnesota said he was attempting to “regain trust” of his constituency even as some colleagues called for his resignation.Following allegations that broke last week involving Franken’s inappropriately touching two women, another two women told Huffington Post that that senator displayed similar behavior with them. The latest two women were not identified. Franken has already apologized, saying that no offense was intended or that he did not recall the incidents in question. Franken said he was a “warm person” that may have been too effusive in meetings with women. He said he had met tens of thousands of people and taken thousands of photographs, “often in crowded and chaotic situations.” Trump addresses troops, takes credit for ‘win’ in Afghanistan By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) President Trump on Thursday used a gratitude message to American troops overseas to take credit for a “win” in Afghanistan and to “give thanks to God” for freedom.The unusual Thanksgiving message was delivered by Trump from his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida over an internet connection to military men and women stationed near Kabul.“I have to say just directly to the folks in Afghanistan: Everybody’s talking about the progress you’ve made in the last few months since I opened it up,” Trump said, according to pool reports.“We opened it up. We said, ‘Go ahead; we’re going to fight to win.’ We’re not fighting anymore to just walk around. We’re fighting to win, and you people are really, you’ve turned it around over the last three to four months like nobody’s seen. And they are talking about it. So thank you very much.“Brave, incredible fighters.”Trump later visited a Coast Guard station Earlier via Twitter, Trump spoke of what he sees as his accomplishments in office: “Jobs coming back, highest Stock Market EVER, Military getting really strong, we will build the WALL”The last was a reference to a barrier Trump wants to build along the U.S. southern border with Mexico. Roy Moore’s Senate campaign is a train wreck. So why does he still have a decent shot at winning? By Mark Z. Barabak Roy Moore, the flailing Alabama candidate for U.S. Senate, has been abandoned by the national Republican Party and most of its leaders.He’s being vastly outspent by his Democratic rival, pummeled on the television airwaves and battered in the state’s newspapers. “Stand for Decency, Reject Roy Moore,” Alabama’s three leading papers thundered in a joint editorial emblazoned on Sunday’s front pages.And yet with just about two weeks to go until the Dec. 12 vote, the race is far from over.Moore has been accused of multiple incidents of sexual misconduct, including molestation of a 14-year-old girl and assault of a 16-year-old when he was an assistant district attorney in his 30s. Moore, 70, adamantly denies the charges, saying they have been conjured up by enemies and a political establishment that cannot abide his staunch Christian conservatism.While President Trump has effectively endorsed Moore, questioning the allegations, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker Paul D. Ryan are among the many GOP high-ups urging Moore to step aside. The Republican National Committee and its Senate campaign arm have walked away from his campaign.But even some who believe the allegations are sticking by Moore. To their mind, there is something even worse than elevating an accused sexual predator to the United States Senate: electing a Democrat.Read More Texas Rep. Joe Barton apologizes for nude photo on Twitter By Associated Press (Associated Press) Texas Rep. Joe Barton is apologizing after a nude photo of him circulated on social media. Barton released a statement Wednesday to the Texas Tribune acknowledging that while separated from his second wife, prior to their divorce, he had sexual relationships “with other mature adult women.” The 68-year-old Republican from Ennis says each relationship was consensual and since has ended. He says, “I am sorry I did not use better judgment during those days. I am sorry that I let my constituents down.” Barton announced his reelection bid this month. The photo appeared on an anonymous Twitter account. His spokeswoman told the Dallas Morning News that Barton has no plans to step down. Barton joined the U.S. House in 1985. He is the longest-serving member of Congress from Texas. Republican tax bill may add to deficit in violation of Senate’s Byrd rule, report says By Lisa Mascaro The Senate Republican tax bill might have a so-called Byrd rule problem by adding to the federal deficit after 10 years, according to a report released Wednesday.Forecasters at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania agreed that during the first decade, the tax plan stays within the $1.5 trillion in additional deficit spending allowed by Senate budget rules.But by 2028, they said, the model shows $29 billion in additional deficit, and red ink continues for several more years. Eventually, the model shows revenues from expiring tax cuts and growth making up for the shortfall.It’s a problem because under a rule named after former Sen. Robert Byrd, the Senate may not use a special budget reconciliation process to pass the tax bill if it adds anything to the deficit after 10 years. Republicans, working hard to avoid any violation, remain confident their final bill will comply with all budget rules, as senators prepare to consider the tax package next week.Previous outside analyses showed similar deficit concerns, but Republicans said that as they revise the bill, official congressional scorekeepers are unlikely to find similar problems. Trump calls LaVar Ball, father of freed UCLA player, an ‘ungrateful fool’ By Matt Pearce (John Locher / Associated Press) In a way, it’s the matchup sports fans have been waiting for.In one corner: famous sports dad LaVar Ball, who has risen to notoriety by being the father of the NBA Lakers’ Lonzo Ball, UCLA player LiAngelo Ball and high schooler LaMelo Ball.In the other corner: the president of the United States, Donald Trump (who also has famous kids, but that’s for another story).Both are brash. Both are highly quotable. Both seem to make news no matter what they say or do. And now they’re both fighting.Early Wednesday morning, the president called Ball an “ungrateful fool” on Twitter, continuing the pair’s public spat after Ball’s son LiAngelo was detained in China along with two other UCLA players on suspicion of shoplifting.Ball has refused to give Trump credit for helping secure the players’ return to the U.S., even suggesting that Ball himself helped secure his son’s release — which apparently infuriated the president.“It wasn’t the White House, it wasn’t the State Department, it wasn’t father LaVar’s so-called people on the ground in China that got his son out of a long term prison sentence - IT WAS ME,” Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning.“Too bad! LaVar is just a poor man’s version of Don King, but without the hair,” Trump continued, referring to the flamboyant boxing promoter. “Just think LaVar, you could have spent the next 5 to 10 years during Thanksgiving with your son in China, but no NBA contract to support you. But remember LaVar, shoplifting is NOT a little thing. It’s a really big deal, especially in China. Ungrateful fool!”Trump had previously vented his frustration with Ball on Sunday, tweeting of the UCLA players, “I should have left them in jail!”UCLA players LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hill had traveled with their team for an exhibition game in China when they were placed under house arrest at their hotel in Hangzhou, China, on Nov. 6 in connection with a shoplifting report at a luxury store near their hotel.The players were released Nov. 14, and Trump credited the intervention of Chinese President Xi Jinping. But in recent interviews, Ball has expressed skepticism about Trump’s role.“Who?” Ball told ESPN when asked about Trump. “What was he over there for? Don’t tell me nothing. Everybody wants to make it seem like he helped me out.”Ball added to CNN, “If I was going to thank somebody I’d probably thank President Xi.”If Trump had helped, “you shouldn’t have to say anything,” Ball told the television network. “Let him do his political affairs and let me handle my son and let’s just stay in our lane.”Ball added: “Tell Donald Trump to have a great Thanksgiving.” Accused Manhattan terrorist will face murder and terrorism charges in a New York courtroom By Joseph Tanfani (Craig Ruttle / Associated Press) The man accused of driving a van onto a crowded Manhattan sidewalk in an attack inspired by Islamic State, killing eight people and injuring 12 others, will face murder and terrorism charges in federal court in New York.Immediately after the attacks, President Trump said he would consider detaining Sayfullo Habibullaevic Saipov at the prison camp on the naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but later backed off and said it would be better to allow him to face justice in New York, where prosecutors have become practiced at terrorism trials.A grand jury in New York on Tuesday indicted Saipov, 29, on eight counts of murder and 12 counts of attempted murder in the Oct. 31 attack. He also faces charges of providing support to a terrorist group and causing death with a vehicle.“Like many terrorists before him, Saipov will now face justice in an American court,” said Joon H. Kim, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, adding that “we expect justice in this case will be swift, firm and resolute.”Saipov, a truck driver who emigrated from Uzbekistan in 2010, told investigators he was inspired to carry out the attack by watching Islamic State videos on his phone, according to court papers in the case. He rented the truck a week earlier so he could practice making turns, then drove it down a crowded bikeway along the West Side Highway before he collided with a school bus.He shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great,” as he jumped out of the truck, authorities said. He was shot by a New York police officer.In a tweet after the attack, Trump noted that Saipov had asked to hang the Islamic State flag in his hospital room. “SHOULD GET DEATH PENALTY!” Trump wrote.Trump was immediately criticized for potentially interfering in a criminal case, traditionally considered off limits for presidents. Prosecutors have not said whether they plan to seek the death penalty. Trump endorses Roy Moore’s denial of sexual misconduct Trump backs Roy Moore: ‘He denies it’ By Noah Bierman President Trump backed Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore, avowing his support for the first time since Moore was accused of making advances against teenage girls years ago and molesting at least two.“He totally denies it. He says it didn’t happen,” Trump told reporters as he left the White House to spend Thanksgiving at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. “I do have to say, 40 years is a long time.”Trump also criticized Moore’s Democratic rival, Doug Jones, in the special election Dec. 12 to fill the seat held by Jeff Sessions before he became Trump’s attorney general.“I can tell you one thing for sure. We don’t need a liberal person in there, a Democrat, Jones,” Trump said. “I’ve looked at his record. It’s terrible on crime. It’s terrible on the border. It’s terrible on the military.”Trump even left the door open for campaigning on behalf of Moore. “I’ll be letting you know next week,” he said.The issue puts the president in a potentially awkward position, given that the “Access Hollywood” recording nearly derailed his campaign and that more than a dozen women have accused him of sexually inappropriate behavior.“Women are very special,” Trump said of the broader issue. “I think it’s a very special time. A lot of things are coming out and I think that’s good for our society and I think it’s very, very good for women.” House opens ethics investigation into sexual misconduct allegations against Rep. John Conyers By Lisa Mascaro The House Ethics Committee said Tuesday it has opened an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct against Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.).House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) other and top Democrats had called for the probe.“As members of Congress, we each have a responsibility to uphold the integrity of the House of Representatives and to ensure a climate of dignity and respect, with zero tolerance for harassment, discrimination, bullying or abuse,” Pelosi said. “As I have said before, any credible allegation of sexual harassment must be investigated by the Ethics Committee.”Conyers said he will cooperate with an investigation, but denied wrongdoing. The 27-term congressman, and top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, settled with a former staff member who alleged she was fired after refusing his advances, according to a report Tuesday by BuzzFeed.“In this case, I expressly and vehemently denied the allegations made against me, and continue to do so,” Conyers said in a statement. “My office resolved the allegations — with an express denial of liability — in order to save all involved from the rigors of protracted litigation. That should not be lost in the narrative.”The Ethics Committee announced late Tuesday it opened an investigation. Pelosi and the No. 2 Democrat, Minority Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland, also pushed for swift reforms to the process used on Capitol Hill for reporting sexual misconduct, as proposed by Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough). “This report is very disturbing,” Hoyer said. “The House ought to observe a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to harassment and discrimination, and I believe an ethics investigation is an appropriate next step.” U.S. puts more sanctions on North Korea backers By Tracy Wilkinson (AFP / Getty Images) The Trump administration Tuesday slapped new sanctions on companies and transport systems that support North Korea as part of a campaign aimed at punishing the country for its nuclear program.A day after President Trump reinstated Pyongyang to the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism, the administration sanctioned one person, 13 companies and 20 vessels for their “long-standing commercial ties to North Korea” or as “transportation networks that facilitate North Korea’s revenue generation and operations.”Most of the vessels were cargo ships with North Korean flags. One of the companies, the South-South Cooperation Corporation, supplied workers to China, Russia, Cambodia and Poland. The United States has called on countries the world over to stop hiring North Korean workers, whose salaries mostly go to their government.The sanctions are the latest in a long line that have yet to deter Kim Jong Un from pursuing nuclear weapons.“As North Korea continues to threaten international peace and security, we are steadfast in our determination to maximize economic pressure to isolate it from outside sources of trade and revenue while exposing its evasive tactics,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in announcing the new sanctions. On Monday, Trump put North Korea back on a list of state sponsors of terrorism, along with Iran, Syria and Sudan, and threatened to continue to tighten punishment of the isolated government. Former Trump campaign aides facing criminal charges won’t need to be home for the holiday By Chris Megerian Paul Manafort, left, leaves the federal courthouse in Washington last month. (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) Paul Manafort and Richard Gates, two of President Trump’s former campaign aides who are under indictment in the special counsel investigation, will be able to travel for the Thanksgiving holiday, a federal judge decided Tuesday. The two men have been under house arrest since last month, when they were arrested on charges of conspiracy, money laundering and fraud.Manafort served as Trump’s campaign manager, and Gates was his deputy. They’ve pleaded not guilty to the charges. Prosecutors said after their arrests that with their extensive connections overseas, the men might be flight risks.There are some conditions to their holiday travel. They must report where they’re going, continue wearing GPS devices and abstain from drinking, the judge ruled. Revised Senate plan would raise taxes for some, add to long-term debt, new reports find By Lisa Mascaro Almost one in 10 taxpayers would initially see a tax hike under the revised Senate Republican tax plan, and the proposal would add as much as $2.4 trillion in long-term debt, according to two new analyses raising fresh concerns ahead of next week’s expected Senate vote.The Tax Policy Center said that while taxes on average would be reduced across all income groups under the plan, 9% of taxpayers would pay more in 2019 and half would pay more by 2027, as the tax cuts for individuals expire. Lower-income households would initially see average tax cuts of $50 a year, about 0.3% of after-tax income, while upper-income households would see cuts of more than $12,000, or 3.5% of after-tax income.At the same time, a Penn Wharton budget model released Tuesday said revenues would fall between $1.3 trillion and $1.5 trillion by 2027, on par with other outside analyses, but in the next decade, revenues would fall between $1.1 trillion and $2.1 trillion, increasing the federal debt by $1.7 trillion to $2.4 trillion by 2040. That’s less than earlier projections of up to $7 trillion in debt, before Senate Republicans revised the bill to keep costs down, in part by allowing the individual tax cuts to expire. But it may still concern some budget hawks.Under both the House and Senate bills, the corporate rate cut, from 35% to 20% would be permanent, because, Republicans argue, lower business taxes will spur economic growth. Tuesday’s Penn Wharton report said growth would be between 0.3% and 0.8% higher in 2027 than without the Senate package, also similar to earlier projections. FCC chairman proposes repeal of net neutrality regulations By Jim Puzzanghera The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday proposed repealing tough net neutrality rules for online traffic, following through on a promise earlier this year to roll back the controversial Obama-era regulations.Ajit Pai, a Republican appointed by President Trump, opposed the rules when they were enacted in 2014, when the FCC was controlled by Democrats.“Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet,” Pai said in a written statement.Read More Trump and Putin to speak today, White House says By Associated Press President Donald Trumpchats with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin as they attend the APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting on November 11, 2017. (Mikhail Klimentyev / AFP/Getty Images) The White House says President Donald Trump plans to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.Trump and Putin spoke informally several times last week when they attended a summit in Vietnam. They agreed on a number of principles for the future of war-torn Syria.Trump’s conversation with the Russian president will follow Putin’s Monday meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad (bah-SHAR’ AH'-sahd). Putin hosted Assad at a Black Sea resort ahead of a summit later this week with Russia, Turkey and Iran, as well as U.N.-sponsored peace talks in Geneva.The Kremlin said Tuesday that Assad was called to Russia to get him to agree to potential peace initiatives drafted by Russia, Iran and Turkey as Russia prepares to scale back its military presence in Syria’s six-year war. 59,000 Haitians living in U.S. must leave within 18 months, Trump administration says By Joseph Tanfani (Hector Retamal / AFP-Getty Images) Some 59,000 Haitians living in the U.S. under temporary status must leave within 18 months, the Trump administration announced Monday.More than 30,000 of the Haitians affected by the order live in Florida, with another large concentration in New York City.Haitians who entered the U.S. illegally have been protected against deportation since 2010 under a program known as Temporary Protected Status, which Congress created during the 1990s to avoid sending large numbers of people back to areas suffering from wars or natural disasters.In Haiti’s case, the temporary status was granted in 2010, after a powerful earthquake devastated the island, which has long been among the poorest places in the Western Hemisphere.In May, John F. Kelly, who was the secretary of Homeland Security at the time, said that conditions in Haiti had improved enough that the U.S. would be unlikely to continue extending the temporary protection. At the time, he extended Haitians’ protected status for six months, but urged them to prepare to leave the U.S.Acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine C. Duke reaffirmed that decision Monday, but provided an 18-month delay, until July 22, 2019, before the order to leave will become effective. Some of the Haitians currently covered by temporary status will be able to stay if they have other claims for legal immigration status, administration officials said. Read More White House says Trump spoke rhetorically on Twitter; does not regret helping UCLA players come home UCLA freshmen, from left, Cody Riley, LiAngelo Ball and Jalen Hill admitted to shoplifting while in China in a press conference at Pauley Pavilion. (Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times) President Trump does not regret his role in helping to free three UCLA basketball players from detention in China last week, his spokeswoman said on Monday, though his weekend complaint on Twitter suggested otherwise.“It was a rhetorical response to a criticism by the father,” Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, said at a press briefing in response to questions about Trump’s tweet on Sunday that he “should have left them in jail!”Trump posted that message on Twitter after LaVar Ball, the father of one of the players detained on suspicion of shoplifting, LiAngelo Ball, publicly downplayed Trump’s role in securing their release. The three players had expressed thanks to Trump, among others; even before that, however, Trump had tweeted his expectation that they show their gratitude to him. Sanders said, “The president was happy to see the release of these individuals and have them back in the United States.” Tillerson disputes reports of low morale in State Department By Tracy Wilkinson (AFP / Getty Images) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday defended his department against mounting reports of low morale and unease among staff with its direction.Tillerson has launched a major “redesign” of the unwieldy agency but was blasted last week by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for his handling of the process, which some blame for driving out many veteran diplomats.Tillerson’s spokeswoman, Heather Nauert, acknowledged on Friday for the first time that there were morale problems at the department.But Tillerson disputed that characterization on Monday and, as he has had to do several times this year, defended his management.”The redesign is going to address all of that,” Tillerson said during a brief appearance with Qatari Foreign Minister Sheik Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al Thani.“And this department is performing extraordinarily well, and I take exception to anyone who characterizes otherwise,” Tillerson said. “It’s just not true.” Yellen to step down from Fed board when her successor as chair is sworn in By Jim Puzzanghera (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet L. Yellen submitted her resignation Monday, effective when her successor is sworn in, providing President Trump another seat to fill on the central bank’s board.Trump decided not to renominate Yellen, 71, to lead the Fed, opting this month to tap Fed Gov. Jerome H. Powell instead.Yellen’s four-year term as the first woman to chair the Fed Board of Governors expires on Feb. 3. Her term as a board member doesn’t end until January 2024 and she could have stayed on the Fed board until then.But it’s standard practice for a Fed leader to step down once his or her term as chair ends. Yellen’s decision was expected and now will give Trump four seats to fill on the seven-member board.One of Trump’s picks, Randal Quarles, took office last month.In her resignation letter to Trump, Yellen said it was a “great privilege and honor” to serve at the Fed in different roles dating back to her first stint on the board from 1994-97. Yellen also was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco from 2004-10.She joined the board again in 2010 in the aftermath of the financial crisis and served as vice chair under Chairman Ben S. Bernanke.Yellen was a strong ally of Bernanke as he kept interest rates near zero and had the Fed purchase trillions of dollars in bonds to try to stimulate the economy. She took over as chairwoman in 2014 after being nominated by former President Obama and continued to strongly advocate for the tougher financial regulations adopted after the crisis.“As I prepare to leave the board, I am gratified that the financial system is much stronger than a decade ago, better able to withstand future bouts of instability and continue supporting the economic aspirations of American families and businesses,” she wrote to Trump. “I am also gratified by the substantial improvement in the economy since the crisis.” Second woman accuses Sen. Al Franken of inappropriate touching By Associated Press A second woman has accused Minnesota Sen. Al Franken of inappropriate touching.Lindsay Menz tells CNN that Franken placed his hand on her bottom as they posed for a photo at the Minnesota State Fair in 2010, two years into Franken’s first term.The 33-year-old Menz told CNN that the interaction made her feel “gross.” She says she immediately told her husband that Franken had “grabbed” her bottom.Franken told CNN he didn’t remember taking the photo with Menz, but that he feels badly that she felt disrespected.Los Angeles broadcaster Leeann Tweeden accused Franken last week of forcibly kissing her during a USO tour in 2006, before he was elected to the U.S. Senate.Franken’s office has not responded to Associated Press messages seeking comment Monday. Trump says NFL should suspend Oakland Raiders’ Marshawn Lynch By Associated Press (Eduardo Verdugo / Associated Press) President Trump says the NFL should suspend Oakland Raiders running back Marshawn Lynch. Lynch sat during most of the U.S. national anthem and stood for the Mexican anthem before Sunday’s game against the Patriots at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City. Lynch hasn’t stood for the national anthem since returning from retirement this season. Trump tweeted early Monday: “Great disrespect! Next time NFL should suspend him for remainder of season. Attendance and ratings way down.” Former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick started the movement last season when he refused to stand during the anthem to protest racial inequality and police brutality. Read More Trump rages after LaVar Ball downplays his role in freeing UCLA basketball players held in China: ‘I should have left them in jail!’ By Associated Press President Trump said Sunday he should have left three UCLA basketball players accused of shoplifting in China in jail. Trump’s tweet came after the father of player LiAngelo Ball minimized the president’s involvement in winning the players’ release during an interview Saturday with ESPN. Trump has said he raised the players’ detention with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the leaders’ recent meeting in Beijing. The players returned to the U.S. last week. They have been indefinitely suspended from the team. Trump names five more Supreme Court contenders By David Savage ( Susan Walsh / Associated Press) Looking ahead to a future vacancy on the Supreme Court, President Trump on Friday named five conservative judges to his list of potential nominees to the high court.They include Notre Dame law professor Amy Coney Barrett, 45, who was confirmed two weeks ago to a seat on the U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago and D.C. Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh, 52, a White House lawyer for President George W. Bush and a former clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. “The president is refreshing his list,” White House counsel Donald McGahn told an enthusiastic crowd at the Federalist Society convention at the Mayflower Hotel.Kavanaugh’s name drew a loud response. “He’s winning on the applause meter,” McGahn said.It was something of surprise that Kavanaugh was left off Trump’s lists last year. He had been seen as a strong candidate for the next Supreme Court vacancy in a Republican administration, particularly if Kennedy were to retire. But legal experts from the Heritage Foundation and Federalist Society who helped draft the list chose then not to name any prominent Washington figures. But last month, Kavanaugh took the side of the Trump administration in a dispute over whether a 17-year-old immigrant held in a refugee center could obtain an abortion. He wrote a 2-1 decision that put her abortion on hold for several days, but he was then overruled by the D.C. Circuit in a 6-3 decision. The young woman then had the abortion.As for Barrett, the “the dogma lives loudly in her,” McGahn said jokingly. “A prominent Democrat suggested she couldn’t be trusted because she is a practicing Catholic,” he added.He was referring, if not entirely accurately, to Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), who questioned Barrett at her Senate hearing over whether she could separate her personal beliefs from her legal duties. Feinstein said at one point the “dogma lives” in her.Barrett, then a law professor, said she had written that all judges must be able to follow the law and set aside their personal views where there was conflict.The other new names on Trump’s list were Judge Kevin Newsom, a former Alabama solicitor general who was recently confirmed to the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta; Georgia Supreme Court Justice Britt Grant; and Oklahoma Supreme Court Justice Patrick Wyrick.During last year’s presidential campaign, Trump pledged to appoint conservative judges and took the unusual step of issuing two lists of his top-10 contenders. The second list included Judge Neil M. Gorsuch of Colorado, who in turn was appointed to fill the seat of the late Justice Antonin Scalia. President Trump will pick up the tab for his legal fees, lawyer says By Chris Megerian President Trump won’t rely on the Republican National Committee to pay his legal bills during the special counsel investigation into Russia’s interference with last year’s campaign, one of his lawyers said Friday.“He pays his legal fees now,” said the lawyer, John Dowd. “He’s working out a way to square the account.”Trump’s decision was first reported by Reuters. The Republican National Committee previously paid $231,250 to the offices of Dowd and Jay Sekulow, another one of Trump’s lawyers, in August. The next question, Dowd said, is whether Trump can financially support the legal fees incurred by members of his administration, many of whom have hired their own lawyers to handle the special counsel investigation. “The question is, can he kick into that fund?” Dowd said. “That’s being put to the experts” to ensure nothing violates ethics rules. Democratic candidate for Ohio governor defends Sen. Al Franken — then brags about his own sexual history By Colleen Shalby (Amy Sancetta / Associated Press) Ohio Supreme Court Justice Bill O’Neill publicly defended Sen. Al Franken against allegations he groped a woman while she was asleep — but then went too far.In a now-deleted Facebook post Friday, O’Neill – who recently launched a Democratic campaign to run for governor of Ohio – detailed his own sexual history in defense of Franken and “all heterosexual males.”“Now that the dogs of war are calling for the head of Senator Al Franken I believe it is time to speak up on behalf of all heterosexual males. As a candidate for Governor let me save my opponents some research time,” he wrote.“In the last fifty years I was sexually intimate with approximately 50 very attractive females. It ranged from a gorgeous blonde who was my first true love and we made passionate love in the hayloft of her parents barn and ended with a drop dead gorgeous red head from Cleveland,” he added.“Now can we get back to discussing legalizing marijuana and opening the state hospital network to combat the opioid crisis. I am [so] disappointed by this national feeding frenzy about sexual indiscretions decades ago.”Many viewed the post as remarkably tone-deaf in the national debate over sexual misconduct allegations and evidence against a series of powerful men in Hollywood, the media and in politics. The three women running as Republicans for Ohio governor – former Rep. Betty Sutton, Dayton Mayor Nan Whiley and Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor – have called on O’Neill to quit the race. So has the other Democrat, Joe Schiavoni. But in an interview this morning with NPR affiliate WOSU, O’Neill said he stood by his statement and had no intention of backing down. About six hours after his initial post, O’Neill hid or deleted it from his Facebook page. His new post makes no mention of his past sexual experiences, nor does it address his previous comments.“As a 15-year jurist, I like to think I speak with clarity. So let me try again. When a United States Senator commits a non-criminal act of indiscretion; and when it is brought to his attention he immediately has the integrity to apologize; and the apology is accepted by the victim: IT IS WRONG for the dogs of war to leap onto his back and demand his resignation from the United States Senate. It is morally wrong,” he wrote.“And as an aside for all you sanctimonious judges who are demanding my resignation, hear this. I was a civil right lawyer actively prosecuting sexual harassment cases on behalf of the Attorney General’s Office before Anita Hill and before you were born. Lighten up folks. This is how Democrats remain in the minority.” House passes its tax reform plan as Senate version comes under new attack By Jim Puzzanghera House Republicans approved their sweeping tax-cut package Thursday, setting up a showdown with the Senate, where Republicans are struggling to win support for their own significantly different approach.Senate GOP leaders, after making some revisions this week, are facing mounting dissent and criticism that their tax plan favors corporations and the wealthy. An analysis by Congress’ bipartisan tax experts on Thursday concluded the Senate plan would raise taxes for some of the poorest Americans by 2021.House Republicans had an easier time, passing their measure by a vote of 227 to 205, though 13 Republicans voted no.Read More Kayla Moore, wife of Roy Moore, defends husband as he fights sexual assault allegations By Michael Finnegan The wife of Republican Roy Moore tried Friday to help him recover from sexual assault allegations that have imperiled his campaign for U.S. Senate, saying Alabama voters could count on him to fight abortion, gun control and transgender rights.Kayla Moore did not directly address accusations that her husband decades ago molested a 14-year-old girl, sexually assaulted a 16-year-old waitress, grabbed the buttocks of a 28-year-old woman and made unwanted advances on teenagers.But at an event in Montgomery, Ala., with women who back her husband, she said that attacks on him were part of a plot by liberals in the media, the Democratic National Committee and the Human Rights Campaign, a gay rights group.“The very same people who were attacking President Trump are also attacking us,” she said. “I personally think he owes us a thank you. Have you noticed you’re not hearing too much about Russia?”With a new Fox News poll showing that Democrat Doug Jones has pulled ahead in the Dec. 12 special election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, Moore went on the attack.She said Jones — a lawyer who prosecuted the case against the Ku Klux Klan members who killed four girls in a 1963 church bombing in Birmingham — “is against everything we and Alabama stand for.”She questioned Jones’ record on abortion, guns and transgender military service and bathroom access.Roy Moore, a champion of religious-right causes when he was chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, has denied the allegations of sexual misconduct.“He will not step down,” his wife said. Watch: Sen. Orrin Hatch to Democrats who say tax cuts are for the rich: ‘Bull crap’ By Associated Press A debate between two senators over whether Republican tax cuts are aimed at helping the rich escalated into raised voices, interruptions, a banging gavel and the use of a decidedly un-senatorial noun.“I’m telling you, this bull crap that you guys throw out here really gets old after a while,” Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the oldest and longest-serving Senate Republican, said to a Democratic colleague.The dispute flared Thursday night as Republicans pushed a $1.5-trillion tax cut for businesses and individuals through the Senate Finance Committee over Democrats’ objections. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), a potential 2020 presidential candidate, said everyone knew Republicans aim to help the wealthy because “it’s in their DNA.”Hatch, 83, a senator since 1977 and the committee chairman, decided he’d had enough.“I come from the poor people, and I’ve been working my whole stinking career for people who don’t have a chance,” said Hatch, looking down the committee’s U-shaped table at Brown. “And I really resent anybody saying I’m just doing this for the rich.”Hatch is generally soft-spoken and has a history of working with Democrats, and his display of emotion was unusual. He has not said whether he will seek reelection next fall as his latest term expires.As Brown tried interjecting and the decibel level rose, Hatch told him, “I’m not through,” and said he gets “sick and tired” of that argument.“I get sick and tired of the richest people in the country getting richer and richer and richer,” Brown said.“I come from the lower middle class originally. We didn’t have anything,” Hatch said. “So don’t spew that stuff on me. I get a little tired of that crap.”Republicans have sold their tax package in part as a way to help the middle class. Congress’ nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation projected Thursday that the Senate measure eventually would raise taxes on people earning $75,000 or less because the bill’s tax cuts for individuals will expire and other changes.Brown said the GOP plan isn’t for the middle class, “no matter how many times they sing that song.” He disputed the Republican argument that tax breaks for businesses will produce higher wages and compared it to a difficult shot in basketball.“Spare us the bank shots,” Brown said. “Spare us the sarcasm, the satire.”Brown faces reelection next November to what would be his third six-year Senate term. U.S. calls for swift return to civilian rule in Zimbabwe By Tracy Wilkinson (AFP/Getty Images) The United States on Friday called for a swift return to civilian rule in Zimbabwe, where longtime leader Robert Mugabe was abruptly ousted in a military coup.“Zimbabwe has an opportunity to set itself on a new path — one that must include democratic elections and respect for human rights,” Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in remarks to a ministerial summit on security and governance in Africa.“We all should work together for a quick return to civilian rule in that country in accordance with their constitution,” he said.Mugabe was placed under house arrest earlier this week by the Zimbabwe military after a long succession crisis in which the 93-year-old strongman fired his vice president.These were the first extensive comments on the Zimbabwe conflict by the Trump administration.Tillerson also called on African nations to do more to cut their extensive business ties with North Korea.North Korea “presents a threat to all of our nations,” Tillerson said. In Orange County, fear and loathing for the GOP’s “Screw California” tax bill By Mark Z. Barabak Chris Keena feels obliged to explain: He really is a Republican — honest! — before launching his critique of the Republican tax bill that just passed the House.“I don’t believe in trickle-down theory,” said the 70-year-old retired attorney from Irvine. “The money they save — I’ve seen it in business — the money they save at the top, they keep at the top. It doesn’t trickle down.“I hate to sound like a radical,” he went on, “and I guess it doesn’t go with being a Republican, but it’s a reality. There are a lot of people struggling here. The image is everyone is fat and happy. They’re not. They’re not.”The sweeping tax-cut package, which passed Thursday with overwhelming support from California’s GOP House members, seems almost singularly designed to punish the state and its Democratic legion of Trump tormentors.Eliminating most of the deduction for state and local taxes would be a hefty blow to millions of Californians. The same for a proposed cap on deducting property taxes and mortgage interest — write-offs that make the purchase of that charming $750,000 “starter home” a bit more attainable, if no less insane.It goes on.Read More Trump, who has avoided talk of Roy Moore allegations, weighs in on accusations against Al Franken By Cathleen Decker (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) President Trump, whose own campaign was rocked by sexual harassment allegations, has declined to publicly discuss accusations that Roy Moore, the Republican nominee in the Alabama Senate race, made inappropriate advances toward teenage girls several decades ago.His reticence disappeared Thursday night when it came to Sen. Al Franken, the Minnesota Democrat who was accused earlier in the day of groping and sexual hectoring during a 2006 USO tour.“The Al Frankenstien picture is really bad, speaks a thousand words. Where do his hands go in pictures 2, 3, 4, 5 & 6 while she sleeps?” read the president’s first tweet, sent just after 10 p.m. in Washington.Ten minutes later, he added: “And to think that just last week he was lecturing anyone who would listen about sexual harassment and respect for women. Lesley Stahl tape?”The first referred to a photograph of Franken putting his hands near the breasts of a sleeping Leeann Tweeden, a Los Angeles radio news anchor who accused Franken of groping her and of an aggressive kiss during a rehearsal for a skit he had written.The second appeared to refer to a skit Franken had discussed while working on “Saturday Night Live” that involved drugging and raping CBS reporter Lesley Stahl. The reference was included in a 1995 New York magazine article.Franken, who joined the Senate in 2009, apologized to Tweeden on Thursday in two statements and said he would fully cooperate with an ethics investigation. Tweeden said in a CNN interview that she accepted the apology.Trump’s criticism of Franken was notable because the president has so far declined to offer a specific response to allegations by several women that Moore, as a prosecutor in his 30s, approached them while they were teenagers. Two women have alleged physical assaults.Trump said during his recently concluded Asia trip that he would have more to say about Moore when he returned home. But he left it to Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Thursday to offer a bare-bones comment.“The president believes that these allegations are very troubling and should be taken seriously, and he thinks that the people of Alabama should make the decision on who their next senator should be,” she said.Sanders said Trump believes Moore should step aside if the allegations are true, but she would not say what the president would take as proof.During the presidential campaign, Trump was accused by more than a dozen women of sexual harassment, many instances of which involved unwanted physical contact. He continues to contend that all of the women who have accused him are liars, Sanders said last month.Trump also was captured in a video released one month before the election in which he bragged about grabbing and kissing women against their will.Asked why Trump finds allegations against Moore troubling while contending the ones against him are to be dismissed, Sanders said that the president “has certainly a lot more insight into what he personally did or didn’t do.”“And he spoke out about that directly during the campaign. And I don’t have anything further to add beyond that,” she said.Read More Sen. Al Franken, accused of sexual harassment from 2006, apologizes and agrees to an ethics investigation By Cathleen Decker Sen. Al Franken apologized Thursday after a Los Angeles radio show anchor said that he had forcibly kissed her and later groped her on a 2006 USO tour, and amid a blizzard of criticism said that he would “gladly cooperate” with a Senate Ethics Committee investigation into his actions.“I respect women. I don’t respect men who don’t,” said Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who joined the Senate in 2009 after a career as a comedian. “And the fact that my own actions have given people a good reason to doubt that makes me feel ashamed.”Leeann Tweeden, a news anchor on KABC’s “McIntyre in the Morning,” said in a post on the station’s website Thursday and in interviews throughout the day that Franken had written a skit for the USO tour in which they kissed, and he demanded that they rehearse the scene.Read More Jared Kushner didn’t turn over message about a ‘Russian backdoor overture,’ senators say By Chris Megerian (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press) Senators said Thursday that President Trump’s son-in-law and advisor, Jared Kushner, had failed to turn over some documents Congress sought as it investigates Russian interference in last year’s presidential election. One of the missing documents was a message referencing a “Russian backdoor overture and dinner invite,” according to a bipartisan letter to Kushner’s attorney from Sen. Charles Grassley, a Republican from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the panel’s senior Democrat.Kushner forwarded the message, the letter said, without providing further information, including how he received it or where he forwarded it. Senators became aware of the message when other people turned it over to the committee, the letter said.Kushner’s attorney, Abbe Lowell, said in a statement that they have provided the Judiciary Committee “with all relevant documents” from the campaign and the transition but are “open to responding to any additional requests.”1:45 p.m.: This post was updated to include a statement from Kushner’s lawyer. 25 GOP senators have disavowed Roy Moore. How does that compare to the 2016 Trump tape? By Kyle Kim At least five women have accused Republican Senate nominee Roy Moore of sexual misconduct when they were teenagers. With Alabama’s special election runoff slated for Dec. 12, many GOP senators have withdrawn their endorsements of Moore or issued strong statements condemning him.How does that compare with what GOP senators said about then-presidential candidate Donald Trump after an “Access Hollywood” tape portrayed him speaking crudely about women and bragging about his behavior with women that some have characterized as sexual assault?Trump dismissed the 2005 tape as “locker room talk,” but the incident sparked ample discussion about past sexual misconduct allegations. Several Senate Republicans spoke out.After the tape surfaced, 12 of the 53 Republican senators in office at the time disavowed Trump and withdrew their backing. There were 14 senators who maintained support for Trump, and the rest offered partial criticism, rebuking his comments without explicitly rescinding their endorsements.Of the 52 current GOP senators, 25 have disavowed Moore and say he should step aside. Another 26 have offered partial criticism – calling for him to quit with an “if true” caveat – and one has not yet commented.Read More New Jersey Sen. Menendez’s bribery trial ends in a hung jury By Associated Press The federal bribery trial of Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez ended in a mistrial Thursday when the jury said it was hopelessly deadlocked on all charges against the New Jersey politician and a wealthy donor. Prosecutors can seek to retry the lawmaker. U.S. District Judge William Walls declared the mistrial after more than six full days of deliberations that had to be re-started midway through when a juror was replaced. There was no immediate word on which way the jury was leaning — toward conviction or toward acquittal. The inconclusive end to the 2-month trial could leave the charges hanging over Menendez as he gears up for an expected run for reelection next year to the Senate, where the Republicans hold a slim edge and the Democrats need every vote they can get. Menendez, 63, is accused of using his political influence to help Florida eye doctor Salomon Melgen in exchange for luxury vacations in the Caribbean and Paris, flights on Melgen’s private jet and hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to organizations that supported the senator directly or indirectly. UPDATES10:20 a.m.: This story has been updated with the mistrial. This story originally published at 9:17 a.m.Read More L.A. radio anchor says Al Franken forcibly kissed her during USO tour By Cathleen Decker Sen. Al Franken apologized Thursday after a Los Angeles radio show anchor said that he had forcibly kissed her and later groped her on a 2006 USO tour, actions that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said should trigger a sexual harassment investigation.Leeann Tweeden, a news anchor on KABC-AM’s “McIntyre in the Morning,” said in a post on the station’s website that Franken, then a professional comedy writer and performer, had written a skit for the USO tour in which they kissed, and he demanded that they rehearse the scene.After Franken aggressively kissed her, Tweeden said, “I immediately pushed him away with both of my hands against his chest and told him if he ever did that to me again I wouldn’t be so nice about it the next time ... I felt disgusted and violated.”Tweeden said she found out later, from a CD of photographs taken of the tour, that Franken had groped her while she was sleeping on the plane ride from the Mideast to the United States. It is not clear from the photo whether Franken touched her, but Tweeden said he had.“I couldn’t believe it. He groped me without my consent while I was asleep,” she said. Franken, a Minnesota Democrat who was elected senator in 2009, apologized in a statement released Thursday.“I certainly don’t remember the rehearsal for the skit in the same way, but I send my sincerest apologies to Leeann,” he said. “As to the photo, it was clearly intended to be funny but wasn’t. I shouldn’t have done it.”McConnell, a Republican from Kentucky, said the Senate Ethics Committee should review the matter.“Regardless of party, harassment and assault are completely unacceptable — in the workplace or anywhere else,” he said in a statement.The Franken episode followed repeated claims by women on Capitol Hill that they have been the target of groping and unwanted advances from men and that Congress lacks sufficient protections for them.The issue of sexual aggressiveness has also marked the Alabama Senate race. Republican Roy Moore had been the frontrunner until a series of women came forward and asserted that he had made advances toward them when they were teens and he was a local prosecutor in his 30s.UPDATES:9:05 a.m.: This article was updated with Sen. Al Franken’s apology and other staff reporting.This article was originally published at 8:25 a.m. Senior Democrat wants information from FBI on security clearance for Flynn’s son By Chris Megerian Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), right, talks with Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) in the Capitol. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) wants the FBI to turn over information to Congress on any security clearance application filed by Michael Flynn Jr., the son of President Trump’s former national security advisor.Flynn Jr. served as the chief of staff at his father’s private consulting company, the Flynn Intel Group, and also worked with the president’s transition team.Cummings, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, requested information a year ago from Trump’s transition team on security clearance applications, but Vice President Mike Pence did not respond, he said.Cummings said the lack of a response and reports of foreign entanglements by Flynn and his son raised questions about “the lack of truthfulness” of Flynn Jr.“These actions raise serious questions about the information Michael Flynn Jr. submitted in his security clearance application relating to his foreign contacts and foreign sources of funding,” Cummings said in a statement.A lawyer for Flynn Jr. declined comment. GOP, Democratic senators back bill to bolster FBI gun checks By Associated Press (Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images) Republican and Democratic senators have joined forces on legislation to strengthen the FBI database of prohibited gun buyers after the Air Force failed to report the criminal history of the gunman who slaughtered more than two dozen people at a Texas church.Congress has taken no steps on guns in the weeks after deadly shootings in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, Texas. The bill, which has the backing of the Senate’s No. 2 Republican, John Cornyn of Texas, would ensure that federal agencies, such as the Defense Department, and states accurately report relevant criminal information to the FBI.The Air Force has acknowledged that the Texas shooter, Devin P. Kelley, should have had his name and domestic violence conviction submitted to the National Criminal Information Center database.The bill would penalize federal agencies that fail to properly report required records and rewards states that comply by providing them with federal grant preferences.Cornyn said agencies and state governments have for years failed to forward legally required records without consequences.“Just one record that’s not properly reported can lead to tragedy, as the country saw last week in Sutherland Springs, Texas,” Cornyn said. “This bill aims to help fix what’s become a nationwide, systemic problem so we can better prevent criminals and domestic abusers from obtaining firearms.”Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy of Connecticut, a fierce proponent of gun restrictions, said much more needs to be done on the issue of gun violence, but he believes the bill will help ensure that thousands of dangerous people are prevented from buying guns.“It represents the strongest update to the background checks system in a decade, and provides the foundation for more compromise in the future,” Murphy said.The measure’s prospects in the Senate are unclear despite Cornyn’s backing, and it faces an uncertain future in the GOP-run House.The bill would penalize agencies that fail to forward required information by prohibiting political appointees from receiving any bonus pay. The legislation also seeks to improve accountability by publicly reporting which agencies and states fail to provide the required records.Anyone who purchases a gun from a federally licensed dealer must pass a background check. People convicted in any court of domestic violence are prohibited from buying a gun, but the Air Force has acknowledged that it failed to tell the FBI about the assault conviction for Kelley, a former airman who killed more than two dozen in the Texas church on Nov. 5. That failure made it possible for Kelley to acquire weapons that federal law prohibited him from buying or possessing after his 2012 conviction.The Army has also said it failed to alert the FBI to soldiers’ criminal histories in a “significant amount” of cases.Peter Ambler, executive director of an organization named for former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), the victim of a shooting, said the bill was a step in the right direction.“It’s an important signal to states and federal agencies that Congress means business when it comes to ensuring a strong, effective background check system,” said Ambler, whose organization works to strengthen gun laws. Lower-income earners face tax increases under revised Senate bill, new congressional analysis says By Jim Puzzanghera Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) (Win McNamee) Low-income earners would pay more in taxes starting in 2021 under a revised Senate Republican bill, according to a congressional analysis released Thursday.People with incomes between $10,000 and $30,000 a year would see their overall taxes decrease in 2019 along with all earners, but that would reverse in 2021, according to a report from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation.By 2023, people with incomes below $10,000 also would see increases.All other income categories, including those earning more than $1 million a year, would see tax decreases through 2025.But in 2027, taxes would go up overall for every income group under $75,000 because the revised Senate Republican bill calls for tax cuts and other changes to the individual code to expire at the end of 2025.The large cut in the corporate tax rate, to 20% from 35%, would be permanent under the Republican bill.The new analysis created another problem for Senate Republicans in their effort to pass a tax overhaul.Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), who drafted the bill, and other supporters have touted a Joint Committee on Taxation analysis of the original bill that showed tax decreases in all income categories to dispute Democratic criticism that the plan is tilted toward corporations and the wealthy.Changes to the bill this week altered its overall effects. The revised Senate bill added a repeal of the individual mandate under the Affordable Care Act that requires all Americans to have health insurance.The Joint Committee on Taxation projected in its score of the revised bill that without that mandate, some low-income earners would opt not to buy healthcare coverage, so would not receive the Affordable Care Act’s federal tax credits, Hatch said. Without those credits, their taxes would increase, Hatch said.“We’re seeing some taxes go up because of a scoring assumption, not because of tax rates or policies,” Hatch said at the start of a Finance Committee hearing Thursday. “Anyone who says we’re hiking taxes on low-income families is misstating the facts.”But Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), called the report “jaw-dropping news.”“According to the latest figure in 2021, families earning $30,000 and under are going to get clobbered by a tax hike of nearly $6 billion to pay for this handout to multinational corporations,” he said. “I believe this process ought to end right here and now.”In 2021, the analysis said, total federal taxes paid by people with incomes between $10,000 and $20,000 would increase by $2.8 billion. And taxes paid by people with incomes between $20,000 and $30,000 would increase by $3 billion.Those figures would rise in 2023 and 2025, the analysis said. Also, in 2023, taxes on people with incomes of less than $10,000 would increase by $178 million overall.12:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from the Joint Committee on Taxation report. Ivanka Trump: There’s a ‘special place in hell for people who prey on children’ By Associated Press White House adviser Ivanka Trump listens to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin speak in Bayville, N.J., Monday, Nov. 13, 2017. (Matt Rourke) Ivanka Trump believes “there’s a special place in hell” for people who do the things that GOP Senate nominee Roy Moore is accused of.While President Trump ignored shouted questions from reporters about Moore on Wednesday, the first daughter weighed in on the scandal surrounding the firebrand former Alabama judge, telling the Associated Press that she has seen no evidence discrediting his accusers.Moore has been accused of pursuing sexual and romantic relationships with teenage girls — one as young as 14 — when he was in his 30s.“There is a special place in hell for people who prey on children,” Trump told the AP. “I’ve yet to see a valid explanation, and I have no reason to doubt the victims’ accounts.”Multiple women have come forward to say that Moore either pursued relationships with them or sexually assaulted them when they were teens. Moore has denied the charges. Trump did not call on Moore to exit the race to fill the Senate seat left vacant when Jeff Sessions became U.S. attorney general.The president — who during the 2016 campaign was accused of sexual misconduct by over a dozen women — has yet to comment on the situation. Some GOP senators raising doubts about revised Republican tax overhaul By Lisa Mascaro A gambit by Senate Republicans to make a large corporate tax cut permanent by having benefits for individuals expire at the end of 2025 created new problems for the legislation Wednesday as lawmakers were still grappling with the controversial decision to add the repeal of a key Obamacare provision.The decision by Republican leaders to double down on risky maneuvers to overcome budgetary hurdles with their tax overhaul threatened to put the entire effort in jeopardy.Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) declared he would not support the bill because it treats large corporations differently than many small businesses, which pay taxes through the individual code.Read More By inserting Obamacare repeal into tax plan, Senate GOP may complicate passage By Jim Puzzanghera Senate Republicans took a big gamble Tuesday with their tax reform bill, adding a partial Obamacare repeal provision that would free up more money for tax cuts, but also inject significant new political hurdles.The change, backed by President Trump and a handful of senators, would end the mandate under the Affordable Care Act that all Americans have health coverage. Senate GOP leaders had previously rejected the idea as too risky to include in their tax package, particularly after the repeated failed efforts earlier this year to repeal and replace the 2010 law.Repealing the mandate would save the government an estimated $338 billion over 10 years, but only because millions of people would stop buying insurance and therefore would no longer receive subsidies to help pay for their premiums.Read More Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby joins GOP leaders in shunning Roy Moore By Lisa Mascaro (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press) Republican establishment support for Roy Moore, the embattled Senate candidate in Alabama, eroded further Wednesday as the state’s senior senator, Richard Shelby, said he planned to write in the name of another candidate on his ballot.Facing accusations that he sexually assaulted teenage girls -- assertions he has denied -- Moore should seriously consider withdrawing from the Sept. 12 election to fill the Senate seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, Shelby told reporters.“I wish we had another candidate,” Shelby said, naming Sessions as the ideal contender.But even as national Republican leaders continued pulling their support for Moore, Alabama’s GOP was sticking by him. A party committee for the 5th Congressional District in northern Alabama adopted a resolution supporting Moore on Tuesday night.A steering committee of the statewide party organization was planning to meet Wednesday to consider its support for Moore. State party chairwoman Terry Lathan warned over the weekend that any Republican official or candidate who publicly backs a Senate candidate other than Moore would be making “a serious error.”Rush Limbaugh and some other conservative media figures have stood beside Moore. But with Moore’s financial support from national Republican groups drying up, his Democratic rival Doug Jones has now outspent him on television advertising by 11 to 1, according to Advertising Analytics.Also troublesome for Moore: Fox News personalities have begun casting doubt on his denials of the sexual misconduct allegations.On Tuesday night, Fox host anchor Tucker Carlson faulted Moore for using his Christian faith as a shield against the women’s accusations by saying his adversaries were trying to stifle religious conservatives.And Sean Hannity, who interviewed Moore last week, issued an ultimatum giving Moore 24 hours to clear up “inconsistencies” in his denials.Moore remained defiant. At a church rally Tuesday night in Jackson, Ala., he tapped into the state’s long history of racial conflict. After faulting the Supreme Court for banning prayer in public schools in 1962, he said “they started to create new rights in 1965,” an apparent reference to passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act under President Lyndon Johnson. Sean Hannity: Roy Moore has 24 hours to explain ‘inconsistencies’ in allegations response By Associated Press (Associated Press) Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity has given Republican U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore 24 hours to explain “inconsistencies” in his response to allegations of child molestation or else exit the Alabama race.During his show Tuesday night, Hannity called on Moore to “immediately and fully come up with a satisfactory explanation” for “inconsistencies.” Moore has repeatedly denied allegations of sexual misconduct years ago.Keurig announced Saturday that it had pulled advertising from “Hannity” after several Twitter users questioned the host’s coverage of the allegations against Moore. The move drew anger from conservatives, some of whom posted videos of themselves smashing Keurig coffee-makers Trump suggests UCLA basketball players released from China owe him thanks By Cathleen Decker Three UCLA basketball players, back home in Los Angeles, discuss their detention in China after being accused of shoplifting. President Trump suggested Wednesday that three UCLA players accused of shoplifting in China owed him public thanks after their release from confinement and return home.“Do you think the three UCLA Basketball Players will say thank you President Trump? They were headed for 10 years in jail!” the president tweeted early Wednesday, hours after he returned from a 12-day Asia trip.Trump said Tuesday that he had spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about the three athletes, who were taken into custody while in Hangzhou for a game against Georgia Tech.Their teammates left China after the game, but freshmen LiAngelo Ball, Jalen Hill and Cody Riley were held until Tuesday, when they boarded a plane in Shanghai. When they arrived in Los Angeles, the three ignored reporters’ questions. They planned to speak at a news conference Wednesday.The players have not explained the circumstances of their confinement, but Trump on Tuesday said that “what they did was unfortunate.”“You know, you’re talking about very long prison sentences,” he said, then added of the Chinese: “They do not play games.”After the players’ release, Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott thanked Trump and administration officials for working to free the athletes.“We are all very pleased that these young men have been allowed to return home to their families and university,” Scott said.UCLA Chancellor Gene Block said the school is weighing how to respond to the incident.“Both Athletics and the Office of Student Conduct will review this incident and guide any action with respect to the involved students,” he said in a statement, noting that the proceedings would be confidential. Republicans consider expelling Roy Moore if he does win a Senate seat — a rare and severe punishment By Michael Finnegan Expulsion from the U.S. Senate is rare, but Roy Moore’s refusal to drop his run for an Alabama seat amid sexual assault allegations has led fellow Republicans to suggest kicking him out of Congress before the election even takes place.If he wins the Dec. 12 election to fill the seat vacated by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions and winds up expelled, Moore would become the first senator bounced from office for sexual misconduct.Only 15 senators have been tossed out by their colleagues. The last expulsion was in 1862.Read More Roy Moore invokes God as he rejects mounting calls to quit Alabama Senate race By David Lauter Alabama’s besieged GOP Senate hopeful Roy Moore lashed out at his party’s leaders on Tuesday night, saying they were uniting with Democrats in trying to drive him out of the race with false accusations that he sexually assaulted teenage girls when he was in his 30s.“I’m now facing allegations -- that’s all the press want to talk about,” Moore told an audience at a “God Save America” conference in Jackson, Ala. “But I want to talk about the issues. I want to talk about where this country’s going. And if we don’t come back to God, we’re not going anywhere.”Moore’s campaign rally came as more national Republican leaders dropped their support for him in the Dec. 12 election to fill the Senate seat formerly held by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.“If he cares about the values and people he claims to care about, then he should step aside,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said.In congressional testimony Tuesday, Sessions said he had no reason to doubt Moore’s accusers and did not rule out a Justice Department investigation.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), at a conference sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, floated the idea of Sessions running as a write-in candidate.“He’s totally well known and extremely popular in Alabama,” McConnell said.Sessions’ aides say he’s uninterested. To run, he would need to give up a job he loves in order to take on a race he would be uncertain to win for a three-year stint in his old Senate seat. An Alabama television station reported that at least one person had received what appeared to be a recorded message from a person impersonating a Washington Post reporter, offering money in return for damaging information about Moore. The impersonator claimed his name was Bernie Bernstein.Washington Post editor Martin Baron issued a statement saying the Post was “shocked and appalled that anyone would stoop to this level to discredit real journalism.” McConnell turns to Trump as GOP’s Roy Moore refuses to quit Alabama Senate race By Lisa Mascaro Senate Republicans are hoping President Trump will intervene in the Alabama Senate race after GOP candidate Roy Moore refused repeated calls to step aside amid accusations of sexual misconduct.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spoke to Trump during the president’s trip to Asia and has been in contact with other White House officials. Moore is “obviously not fit to be in the United States Senate,” McConnell said Tuesday.“We’ve looked at all the options to try to prevent that from happening,” McConnell said. “Once the president and his team get back, we’ll have further discussions about it.”Moore has denied the allegations raised by five women that he pursued them when they were teenagers. One has alleged a sexual assault.He shot back at McConnell in a series of tweets mocking the GOP leader’s track record for having backed a failed candidate in the primary election.Republicans’ options are limited because it is too late to remove Moore’s name from the ballot ahead of the Dec. 12 election to fill the seat formerly held by Jeff Sessions, now Trump’s attorney general.One option is to back a write-in candidate. McConnell and other Republican senators have suggested Sessions could run, but the attorney general has not indicated he would do so. House to require sexual harassment prevention training for all lawmakers and staff By Associated Press (Associated Press) Speaker Paul Ryan has announced that the House will adopt a policy requiring all members of Congress and their staffs to undergo training to prevent sexual harassment. The announcement comes shortly after the Committee on House Administration held a hearing during which two female lawmakers shared stories about current members of Congress engaging in sexual harassment. Ryan (R-Wis.) says in a statement, “Our goal is not only to raise awareness, but also make abundantly clear that harassment in any form has no place in this institution.” Earlier Tuesday, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Hillsborough), who introduced a bill to make training mandatory, said two sitting lawmakers — one Republican and one Democrat — engaged in sexually inappropriate behavior. Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) said a trusted source told her a lawmaker exposed himself to a staffer. House hearings: A platform for pressuring Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, as much as questioning him By Cathleen Decker (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images) Sometimes a turn onstage at a televised hearing gives a House member an opportunity to ask questions; sometimes it’s just an opportunity to deliver a monologue.For Rep. Trent Franks (R-Ariz.), question time on Tuesday turned into a chance to deliver a screed against Hillary Clinton and special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, who is leading the investigation into Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, an effort that has already ensnared Trump campaign officials.President Trump has been angered by Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions’ decision to recuse himself from involvement in the investigation. Franks had a suggestion: Force Mueller to recuse himself.Franks argued that the probe into the Trump campaign’s activities was a “snipe hunt,” a colloquial reference to a wild goose chase. He said that there was more evidence of Clinton’s involvement with Russians than there was of Trump’s.“I’m afraid Mr. Trump would have been burned at the stake by now” had the president acted the way Clinton did, Franks said.Franks insisted that Clinton was guilty of collusion with Russia because years ago, while she was secretary of State, the Obama administration approved a Russian company’s purchase of access to some U.S. uranium.Republicans have increasingly made that argument. The State Department was represented on the multi-agency committee that approved the so-called Uranium One purchase, but despite much investigation, there’s been no evidence that Clinton was involved with the deal, nor that it had any negative implications for U.S. security. Still, the issue has served as a distraction from the troubles surrounding the president.Mueller was FBI director when the uranium deal was reached.“What do you think the Justice Department can do to correct … what appears to come to be an injustice?” Franks asked Sessions, in what seemed to be more a rhetorical question than a request for an answer.Sessions replied that he had already asked investigators to look into the uranium deal “so I can look you in the eye and tell you we’ve done the right thing.”“I don’t believe that is giving into politics. I believe we should evaluate on the merits,” Sessions said.“That sounds pretty good to me,” Franks replied happily, having gotten his opportunity to make his point. A friendly member of Congress gives Sessions an opportunity to deny accusations By Cathleen Decker (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI / AFP/Getty Images) Sometimes a friendly face can offer a welcome respite from a contentious House hearing, as Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions can now attest.Rep. Martha Roby, a Republican from Alabama, opened her 5 minutes of House Judiciary Committee questioning by lauding Sessions’ four terms of service in the Senate and his earlier work as a prosecutor.“Have you ever worked with Russia to influence an election?” she asked.“No,” Sessions said.She followed up by asking whether Sessions had ever “in any capacity” done anything to harm U.S. security.“I don’t believe I have,” he said. “I’ve tried to protect our national security.”Roby finished with a fond sign-off.“Thank you so much,” she said. “We appreciate you.”“Thank you for your excellent service to Alabama -- and the United States,” he replied. Sessions said his omission of meetings from a security form was not intended to mislead By Cathleen Decker (EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock) Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions insisted Tuesday that he omitted mention of meetings with the then-Russian ambassador when he filled out security forms because he had been advised that senators need not list official meetings.Sessions said he was told by his executive assistant that, given the volume of meetings senators take part in, “we were not required to list” them on forms that asked for any communication with foreign officials.The attorney general said he thought that approach “was reasonable.”Rep. Ted Lieu, a Democrat from Los Angeles, retorted that nothing on the form, known as an SF-86, said senators should be treated differently than any other person seeking a security clearance.The exchange was part of Lieu’s effort to remind the audience of something that had been acknowledged repeatedly during the House Judiciary Committee hearing: Sessions told a Senate committee that he never met with Russians, but later acknowledged two meetings with former Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak. One of those meetings was nearly an hour long and occurred in his office, Sessions said.Sessions also has acknowledged that he did not mention at least two meetings in which other Trump campaign aides talked about Russia.Sessions has insisted throughout the day that he did not change his story, but merely adjusted it after his memory was refreshed by news accounts of the meetings. He said he had not considered the Kislyak meeting germane because it concerned policy matters he was involved in as a senator.“I have not had any private dealings” with Russians, he said. Those email pseudonyms Loretta Lynch used? Everyone does it, Sessions says By Cathleen Decker (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) Conservative opponents of the Obama administration have had a field day with reports that former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch, her predecessor Eric H. Holder Jr. and others used email pseudonyms when they were serving in government.Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions undermined that talking point by letting loose an inside secret during his appearance Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee:Everyone does it.“In defense of Lynch, I use a pseudonym too, all Cabinet members do,” Sessions said, adding that he thought the act was common among high-ranking political appointees.Lynch used the pseudonym Elizabeth Carlisle, the name of an ancestor, when she was attorney general. What angered opponents was that she used the name in emails related to her meeting with Bill Clinton at the Phoenix airport when the Department of Justice she headed was investigating his wife, Hillary Clinton.Among Holder’s fake names was Lew Alcindor, the birth name of the basketball star later known as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.Left unstated by Sessions on Tuesday: What is his pseudonym? The attorney general did not say. Senate GOP will add Obamacare mandate repeal to tax plan By Lisa Mascaro Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in the Capitol. (Associated Press) Senate Republicans will add a partial Obamacare repeal to their tax plan, using the revenues gained to further lower tax rates for the middle class.Republicans announced the decision Tuesday after their policy lunch, saying they had widespread support among the Senate GOP for the proposal. A revised bill, which would do away with the Affordable Care Act’s mandate that all Americans carry insurance, was expected to be released later Tuesday.“We’re optimistic,” said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.The third-ranking Republican Sen. John Thune of South Dakota said the revenues would be used to push down tax rates. “It’ll be distributed in the form of middle income tax relief,” he said.A repeal of the individual mandate in the Affordable Care Act would save $338 billion in revenue from federal subsidies that would no longer be paid to help low- and middle-income Americans buy insurance policies. Sessions says he hasn’t ‘done anything dishonest’ and he’s not keen on WikiLeaks By Cathleen Decker (Brendan Smialowski / AFP/Getty Images) Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he did nothing wrong when he did not respond to an announcement by Carter Page, a Trump campaign aide, that he planned to go to Russia during the heart of the 2016 campaign.Questioned by Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin), about meetings with campaign advisors Page and George Papadopoulos, Sessions acknowledged that Page told him about his travel plans after a meeting at the Capitol Hill Club.“I made no response,” Sessions said. “What does that mean? I don’t think it means I’ve done anything dishonest.”He reiterated his assertion that he had brushed back Papadopoulos’ suggestion that the campaign send an emissary to meet with Russian officials. Sessions said he “was concerned that he not go off somewhere pretending to represent the Trump campaign.”None of those conversations, he said, contradicted his previous testimony to the Senate that he had not been part of any campaign talks about Russia.Asked by Swalwell whether his current recollections contradicted his Senate testimony, he replied, “I’m prepared to answer the question, but I just will not answer it in a way that suggests that I misled.”Swalwell also reminded Sessions that the president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., has acknowledged that he communicated with WikiLeaks, which published emails that hackers had taken from Democratic campaign aides to injure Hillary Clinton’s campaign.He declined to answer whether it was appropriate for the younger Trump to exchange messages with the group, which U.S. intelligence officials have said is a representative of hostile powers.The president said during the campaign that he loved WikiLeaks and hoped it would release more anti-Clinton information.Do you love WikiLeaks, Swalwell asked?“I’m not a fan of WikiLeaks,” Sessions replied. Sessions again denies he intended to mislead during his Senate testimony — a standard he denied the Clintons By Cathleen Decker U.S. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions angrily denounced accusations that he had intentionally misled members of Congress about any Russian interference in the presidential campaign.“Mr. Jeffries, nobody, not you or anyone else, should be prosecuted ... nor accused of perjury for answering the questions the way I did in that hearing,” Sessions said after Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, a Democrat from New York, reminded him that he had once bragged of prosecuting a police officer for making false statements that he later corrected.Sessions said that when former Trump campaign aide Carter Page mentioned that he was traveling to Russia, “I made no response to it.”When a second aide, George Papadopoulos, suggested that the campaign meet with Russians, he “pushed back,” Sessions said — the second time in the hearing that he made that assertion.“I don’t think it’s right to accuse me of doing something wrong,” he said.Sessions had not mentioned either of those conversations in earlier Senate hearings but said news reports triggered memories of them.Jeffries noted that Sessions had set a tough standard on false statements in the past — voting to remove then-President Clinton from office after he was impeached on charges of perjury in the 1990s. During that time period, Jeffries said, Sessions spoke of his earlier prosecution of a police officer on the same charge.The congressman also reminded Sessions that he had suggested to Fox anchor Lou Dobbs that Hillary Clinton was guilty of perjury when, in a conversation with the FBI about her email server, she said that she did not recall the answers to some questions.Sessions insisted that he had not changed his testimony but had “added things I did not recall at the time. My statement at the time was my best recollection of the circumstances.”Sessions also mocked the idea that in talking about Russia with campaign aides such as Page, he was somehow colluding with a foreign nation.“Does that establish some sort of improper contact with Russians? He’s not Russian, you know,” Sessions said. Tech start-ups fight Senate plan to change the way stock options are taxed By Jim Puzzanghera Senate Republicans have touted their tax bill as business-friendly, but technology start-ups — including Hyperloop One, Airbnb, Uber and Vimeo — are fuming over a provision that would make a major change to how stock options are taxed.A key tool for start-ups to attract employees, stock options are currently taxed when they are cashed in. The Senate Republican tax bill unveiled last week would tax the options on the date they vest, meaning when the employee is allowed to begin cashing them in.The difference is significant because employees often hold on to their options, hopefully until those options’ value rises with the growth of the company. Under the proposed change, employees could face large tax bills before they realize the income from cashing in the stock options to pay them.Read More Atty. Gen. Sessions fields Democrats’ questions on treatment of African Americans at Department of Justice By Cathleen Decker While Russia has garnered most of the attention in Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee hearing, Democrats also have questioned the Justice Department’s treatment of African Americans.When Democrats repeatedly raised questions about voter identification laws, which critics argue disenfranchise black and Latino voters, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions defended the use of such laws as appropriate.He also defended the department’s record in prosecuting drug sellers. Democrats, and some Republicans, have long argued that prosecutors have been far tougher on African Americans accused in drug crimes than white Americans.Rep. Karen Bass of Los Angeles, a Democrat who is African American, challenged Sessions on the subject of an FBI report that said “black identity extremists” were intent on killing law enforcement officers.Bass suggested the report, which was made public in October by Foreign Policy magazine, was racially biased because it cited only organizations active decades ago. Sessions appeared unaware of the details of the FBI report.“It would be interesting to see the conclusion of that report, but I’m aware there are groups that do have extra commitment to their racial identity,” he said.He confirmed that the Justice Department had no parallel report on actions by whites motivated by racial identity, such as the armed white supremacists who protested in Charlottesville, Va., in August, chanting that Jews should be removed from the country.When Bass then named several white supremacist groups now active, Session replied that “there are racial identity white movements ... for sure.” But he said that he would not name them except in writing, so that he was not relying on memory.Later, under questioning by Rep. Cedric Richmond, an African American Democrat from Louisiana, Sessions confirmed that he had not hired African American aides.“I do not have a senior staff member at this time that is African American,” Sessions said. Sessions confirms Trump could pardon allies and family members involved in Russia probe By Cathleen Decker (EPA / Shutterstock) Democrats asking questions of Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions during the House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday often used their five minutes of time to raise the specter of President Trump interfering in the special counsel’s investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election.Rep. Ted Deutch of Florida repeatedly asked Sessions whether Trump had the power to pardon any of those allegedly involved in Russia’s meddling in the election. He cited as possible beneficiaries both former aides and family members, including Donald Trump Jr.After repeatedly saying he “was not able to express an opinion,” Sessions eventually said that Trump did have the option of pardoning.“I believe the president has the power to pardon, no doubt about that,” he said."I think it’s maybe settled law.”Democrats have often used the matter of pardons to raise a comparison with the Watergate scandal and to suggest that the president is willing to operate outside the norms of political behavior.“We should be worried if you are telling us the president should be able to pardon in advance all of those being investigated,” Deutch said.“The attorney general should not be giving legal opinions from the seat of his britches,” Sessions replied.Deutch opened his questioning with a statement that it was “reasonable to conclude” that Trump had obstructed justice by firing FBI director James B. Comey.“I don’t believe that’s a fair conclusion,” Sessions said, but added that judgment belonged to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Sessions tells angry GOP lawmaker: no special counsel to probe Clinton without a ‘factual basis’ By Cathleen Decker Rep. Jim Jordan tells Atty. General Jeff Sessions it “looks like” there’s enough evidence to appoint a special counsel to investigate Hillary Clinton. “‘Looks like’ is not enough basis to appoint a special counsel,” Sessions replied. An hour and a half into the House Judiciary Committee hearing with Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions it became very clear that not only Democrats were irked at him.In an angry series of questions, Rep. Jim Jordan, a conservative Republican from Ohio, demanded to know why the Justice Department has not named a special prosecutor to investigate actions by Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey.“What’s it going to take to get a special counsel?” Jordan asked repeatedly. He cited leaks about a dossier gathered by a former British intelligence officer and paid for in part by Democrats and the FBI.Sessions said that it would require “a factual basis” and “the proper standards” to put the matter before a special counsel.Republicans have increasingly demanded such a move in recent weeks, but Sessions brushed those aside as Jordan grew angrier.“You can have your idea, but sometimes we have to study what the facts are,” Sessions told Jordan.When Sessions noted that Comey is no longer the head of the FBI--he was fired in spring by President Trump--Jordan interrupted loudly.“Thank goodness,” he said.To Jordan’s point that a number of events gave the impression of wrongdoing, Sessions added: “I would say ‘looks like’ is not enough basis to appoint a special counsel.” Unlike Trump’s tweets, Nixon ‘had the courtesy’ to talk about Congress behind closed doors, Rep. Conyers says At a hearing with the House Judiciary Committee, Sessions said he has not been improperly influenced by the president. Sessions says he has ‘no reason to doubt’ women who have accused Roy Moore By Cathleen Decker Asked whether he believed the women accusing Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, Atty. General Jeff Sessions said he had “no reason to doubt these young women.” The contentious race for a U.S. Senate seat in Alabama surfaced in the House Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday when Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions was asked whether he believed the women who have alleged improper acts by the Republican nominee, Roy Moore.“I have no reason to doubt these young women,” Sessions said of those who have accused Moore of harassing or touching them when he was in his 30s and they were teenagers.Moore is seeking a seat Sessions held for four terms before he was confirmed as attorney general earlier this year. Moore defeated Sessions’ appointed replacement, Sen. Luther Strange, in the Republican primary.Sessions would not say whether he believed Moore should be seated if he wins the December runoff. He said he has been advised by Department of Justice ethics officials to “not be involved” in the campaign.“I have steadfastly adhered to that,” he said. Sessions says he ‘pushed back’ at Trump campaign aide’s overtures to Russia By Cathleen Decker (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) Minutes after he blamed conflicting testimony on his inability to recall events that took place more than a year ago, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions did recall making an effort to distance the campaign from contacts with Russia.He did not recall much about two meetings at which Russia was discussed, “to the best of my recollection,” Session said.But he offered an explicit memory of brushing back one campaign aide, George Papadopoulos, who had suggested reaching out to Russia.“I pushed back, I will just say it that way,” Sessions said during a brittle exchange with Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a Democrat from New York in questioning Tuesday before the House Judiciary Committee.As for the rest, he added: “I don’t recall.”Earlier, Sessions said that it was “a lie” to suggest he had given false statements in Senate testimony in which he said that the campaign had not been in touch with Russians. GOP leaders threaten to expel Roy Moore from Senate if he wins Alabama race By Lisa Mascaro Amid new allegations that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore molested teenage girls decades ago, Republican leaders intensified their calls Monday for him to quit the race, even threatening to expel Moore if he wins.The accusations against Moore have thrown the GOP into a crisis, splintering the party and risking defeat in the Dec. 12 special election, for which polls show Democrat Doug Jones now has a narrow lead in the Deep South state.Read More Sessions denies being influenced by Trump to investigate Hillary Clinton By Cathleen Decker During testimony to the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 14, 2017, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions could not disclose whether he was recused from an investigation involving Hillary Clinton. Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he has not been improperly influenced by President Trump to investigate Trump’s 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton.Under questioning by Rep. John Conyers, a Michigan Democrat, Sessions said “that would be wrong.”The question stemmed from news Monday night that Sessions had asked senior aides to determine if the department should probe an Obama administration decision that allowed Russia to acquire a financial interest in U.S. uranium supplies.Republicans have argued that Clinton was improperly involved in the approval, although they have not offered evidence.Sessions said he was aware of Trump’s repeated suggestions that the Justice Department should investigate Clinton, but that his actions did not follow from the president’s words.“The president speaks his mind; he is bold and direct in what he says,” Sessions told members of the House Judiciary Committee. Speaker Paul Ryan says Roy Moore should ‘step aside’ By Lisa Mascaro House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) said Tuesday that Alabama Republican Roy Moore “should step aside,” joining top GOP leaders who are trying to push the Senate candidate facing sexual misconduct accusations out of the race.“These allegations are credible,” Ryan said. “He should step aside.”Five women have said Moore, now 70, pursued them when they were teenagers and he was a prosecutor in the district attorney’s office in his 30s.Moore has denied any misconduct -- though not that he dated teen girls -- and his campaign called the allegations a “witch hunt.” The accusations have upended the Dec. 12 special election as Democrat Doug Jones now has the lead in the state that hasn’t sent a Democrat to the Senate in 20 years.Other top Republicans led by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell have called on Moore to step aside, but he shows no signs of doing so. Sessions denies that he ever gave false statements on Russia: ‘That is a lie’ By Cathleen Decker (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Tuesday that he had “no clear recollection” of being alerted by two former campaign aides to contacts with Russians during the 2016 presidential election. Sessions told members of the House Judiciary Committee that after reading news reports, he now recalls a March 2016 meeting that was attended by Trump foreign policy advisor George Papadopoulos. He made a similar statement regarding the presence of another advisor, Carter Page, at a Capitol Hill Club meeting.Both men have said that they discussed contacts with Russians with Sessions or in his presence. Their statements contradicted previous testimony by Sessions that no such communications took place.Sessions said that after reading the account of Papadopoulos, who has pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI, he remembered telling the advisor that he was not authorized to represent the campaign.“But I did not recall this event, which occurred 18 months before my testimony of a few weeks ago,” he said.Similarly, he said he had no recollection of meeting Page.“In all of my testimony, I can only do my best to answer all of your questions as I understand them and to the best of my memory,” he said, growing visibly angry.“But I will not accept and reject accusations that I have ever lied under oath. That is a lie.” Watch Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions’ opening statement: ‘My answers have never changed’ Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions testified again before the House Judiciary Committee on Nov. 14, 2017. “Lastly, I would like to address the false charges made about my previous testimony. My answers have never changed. I have always told the truth, and I have answered every question as I understood them and to the best of my recollection, as I will continue to do today.“I would like to address recent news reports regarding meetings during the campaign attended by George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, among others. Frankly, I had no recollection of this until I saw these news reports. “I do now recall the March 2016 meeting at Trump Hotel that Mr. Papadopoulos attended, but I have no clear recollection of the details of what he said during that meeting. After reading his account, and to the best of my recollection, I believe that I wanted to make clear to him that he was not authorized to represent the campaign with the Russian government, or any other foreign government, for that matter. But I did not recall this event, which occurred 18 months before my testimony of a few weeks ago, and would gladly have reported it.“As for Mr. Page, while I do not challenge his recollection, I have no memory of his presence at a dinner at the Capitol Hill Club or any passing conversation he may have had with me as he left.“All of you have been in a campaign. But most of you have not participated in a presidential campaign. And none of you had a part in the Trump campaign. It was a brilliant campaign in many ways. But it was a form of chaos every day from day one. We traveled all the time, sometimes to several places in one day. Sleep was in short supply. “And I was still a full-time senator keeping a very full schedule during this time.“During this year, I have spent close to 20 hours testifying before Congress before today. “I have been asked to remember details from a year ago, such as who I saw on what day, in what meeting, and who said what when.“In all of my testimony, I can only do my best to answer all of your questions as I understand them and to the best of my memory. But I will not accept and reject accusations that I have ever lied under oath. That is a lie.” Atty. Gen. Sessions to again explain his incorrect statements on contacts with Russia during 2016 campaign By Cathleen Decker (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) Few weeks have gone by this year without President Trump’s least favorite topic, the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 election, surfacing in some form.On Tuesday, even as the president flies back from his 12-day Asian trip, the subject will rise again.Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions is scheduled to testify at 10 A.M. Eastern to the House Judiciary Committee. He will try to square his past assertions that he knew of no contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians with new claims in court documents and congressional testimony alleging that he did.Sessions, who was Trump’s first senatorial endorser and a key foreign policy advisor during the campaign, got an early hint of the treatment he is likely to face when Democrats castigated him Monday from the Senate floor.“Regrettably, Atty. Gen. Sessions, our nation’s chief law enforcement officer, seems to have a real problem with telling the truth” about his actions and those of the Trump team, Sen. Al Franken of Minnesota said.Franken went through a litany of statements Sessions had made that have now been contradicted by others in the Trump orbit. He accused the attorney general, a four-term senator from Alabama until his Cabinet appointment, of “convenient amnesia.”“He has responded not by coming clean and admitting that his initial testimony was inaccurate but by shifting his story and moving the goalposts,” Franken said.Vermont’s Sen. Patrick Leahy, like Franken, demanded that Sessions return to the Senate to explain the contradictions in his previous testimony.“It’s clear that the Kremlin tested the waters with Sen. Sessions as it did with so many other Trump campaign officials,” Leahy said. “It’s equally clear the attorney general has concealed his contacts with Russian officials…He needs to come back again, and testify again, under oath.”On three occasions Sessions has appeared before the Senate to issue denials of activity, only to have it proved later to be incomplete or wrong.Most recently, former Trump campaign aides Carter Page and George Papadopoulos have said that they informed Sessions of their meetings with Russians, something Sessions denied in his earlier testimony.Read More Trump says he’s hopeful UCLA basketball players in ‘very rough situation’ in China will be allowed to go home By Noah Bierman ( Gaochao Zhang / For The Times) President Trump said he was hopeful that three UCLA basketball players detained in China will be released and sent home.“I had a great conversation with [Chinese] President Xi [Jinping],” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday afternoon, just as his plane was about to take off from Manila, the final leg of his 12-day trip to Asia. “What they did was unfortunate. You know, you’re talking about very long prison sentences. They do not play games.” Xi “was terrific, and they’re working on it right now,” Trump continued. “And hopefully everything is going to work out.”Trump called it “a very, very rough situation” that “was not something that should have happened.”The White House had previously confirmed that Trump, while visiting Beijing last week, asked Xi to help resolve the case quickly. The players — LiAngelo Ball, Cody Riley and Jalen Hillare — are being held at a hotel in Hangzhou, accused of shoplifting. 1:45 a.m.: This post was updated to include more expansive comments from President Trump.This post was originally published at 12:07 a.m.Read More Former waitress says Roy Moore sexually assaulted her when she was 16 By Nina Agrawal A fifth woman has come forward to accuse former Alabama chief justice Roy Moore of inappropriate sexual conduct. A fifth woman has come forward to accuse former Alabama chief justice Roy Moore of inappropriate sexual conduct.Beverly Young Nelson, 55, said Moore, now a candidate for the U.S. Senate, assaulted her when she was a 16-year-old high school student working as a waitress in Gadsden, Ala.Speaking at a news conference in New York, Nelson said Moore was then a 30-year-old deputy district attorney in Etowah County and a regular customer at Olde Hickory House restaurant in Gadsden. He often complimented her on her looks and pulled on the ends of her long, red hair, she said.Initially, she said, “I did not attach any significance to Mr. Moore’s behavior towards me and I did not respond to any of Mr. Moore’s flirtatious behavior.”A few days before Christmas in 1977, Nelson said, she brought her high school yearbook into the restaurant and Moore asked if he could sign it. She said yes, and he wrote, “To a sweeter more beautiful girl I could not say ‘Merry Christmas.’”He signed it, “Love, Roy Moore D.A.,” according to photocopies of the page provided to reporters by Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred, who is representing Nelson. About a week or two later, Nelson said, Moore offered her a ride home. Unable to reach her boyfriend, who was supposed to pick her up, she accepted. “I trusted Mr. Moore because he was the district attorney,” she said. “I thought that he was simply doing something nice.” But instead of driving to the highway, Nelson said, Moore drove to the back of the restaurant and began to grope her, putting his hand on her breasts and later squeezing the back of her neck, attempting to force her head toward his crotch.“I thought that he was going to rape me,” she said. “I was twisting and I was struggling and I was begging him to stop.”Nelson said he eventually allowed her to open the car door and she either fell out or was pushed out. She said Moore told her that “no one will ever believe you” if she told anyone about what had happened.Monday was the first time Nelson disclosed the allegations publicly, though she said she had previously told her sister, mother and husband about her encounter with Moore.Nelson’s remarks follow a report by the Washington Post last week detailing the accounts of four women who say Moore had sexual or romantic encounters with them when they were minors. One of the women was 14 years old at the time.The allegations have upended the Senate race in Alabama, threatening President Trump’s agenda in Congress and leaving Republicans split over how far they’re willing to go to save the seat from a Democrat.Democrat Doug Jones, a former prosecutor, could be expected to pick up votes from the unfolding controversy, though he has declined to raise the issue in his campaign so far.Moore’s Senate campaign immediately responded to the new allegations, insisting again that all of the reports are unfounded.“Gloria Allred is a sensationalist leading a witch hunt, and she is only around to create a spectacle. Allred was the attorney who claims credit for giving us Roe v. Wade which has resulted in the murder of tens of millions of unborn babies,” campaign chairman Bill Armistead said in a statement.“We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again: Judge Moore is an innocent man and has never had any sexual misconduct with anyone. This is a witch hunt against a man who has had an impeccable career for over 30 years and has always been known as a man of high character.”Moore has refused to quit the campaign despite mounting political pressure, most recently from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). Anticipating claims that her disclosure was politically motivated, Nelson said she and her husband had supported Donald Trump for president. “This has nothing to do with Republicans or Democrats,” she said. “It has everything to do with Mr. Moore’s sexual assault when I was a teenager.”UPDATES:1:36 p.m.: This post was updated with additional details from the press conference.12:31 p.m. This post was updated with details of the new accusation.This post was originally published at 11:32 a.m. After new revelations, Sessions faces another grilling on Russia contacts in Trump campaign By Joseph Tanfani For Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, questions about the Trump campaign and Russia have become a nagging headache that won’t go away.Three times, he has appeared before his former colleagues in the Senate and answered questions about what he knew about contacts with Russians during the campaign. Three times, Sessions stumbled, issuing denials that later proved to be incomplete or wrong.On Tuesday, the nation’s highest lawman will face another grilling on Capitol Hill, this time prompted by claims in court documents and congressional testimony that he was told of at least two aides’ meetings with Russian officials — despite his claim last month that he was unaware of any such contacts.Read More Roy Moore responds after Mitch McConnell calls on Alabama Senate candidate to ‘step aside’ after sexual misconduct allegations By Associated Press (AP) Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama “should step aside” in light of allegations he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old girl decades ago. Speaking to reporters after visiting a plant in Kentucky, McConnell said he believes the women who were quoted in a Washington Post story about Moore’s past relationships with them as young women. Previously, McConnell had said Moore should step aside if the allegations proved to be true. He said Republicans are looking at a write-in option in Alabama.Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) weighed in on Moore’s statements as well, Tweeting Monday that she thought he should withdraw. Soon after, Moore responded to McConnell’s statement. Wealthy Americans sign letter asking Congress not to cut their taxes By Jessica Roy Hundreds of rich American taxpayers have signed a joint letter calling on Congress to reject Republicans’ proposed tax plan, saying it would disproportionately benefit wealthy people and corporations at the expense of everyone else.The 400-plus signers are all in the top 5% of Americans by income or wealth, according to a press release by United for a Fair Economy’s Responsible Wealth project. Signers include recognizable last names like Rockefeller and Disney as well as financiers and former CEOs.“Tax reform should be, at a minimum, revenue neutral – without using gimmicks like dynamic scoring,” the letter reads, a reference to what economists say are Republicans’ overly optimistic estimations that economic growth will offset the loss in tax revenue. The Congressional Budget Office’s analysis of the House tax plan estimates that it would add $1.7 trillion to the federal deficit over the first decade.“It is neither wise nor just to give wealthy people more tax breaks at the expense of working families, and it would be especially egregious to fund tax cuts for the wealthy by cutting or dismantling programs that help people meet fundamental human needs like healthcare or nutrition assistance,” the letter continues. “We call on Congress to raise our taxes to bring in much-needed revenue and to restore investments in vital services.”“Under no circumstances should tax reform lose revenue, especially to provide tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations,” the letter concludes.Among the signators are filmmaker Abigail Disney, former Rockefeller Brothers Fund chairman Steven Rockefeller, former American Airlines CEO Robert Crandall, professor Neva Rockefeller, former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert Reich, billionaire activist and financier George Soros and clothing designer Eileen Fisher. Though the Responsible Wealth website is currently down, you can see a cached version of the letter here. Trump asks China’s Xi to intervene in case of detained UCLA players By Brian Bennett (Andy Wong/AP) While in Beijing, President Trump asked China’s leader Xi Jinping to look into the detention in eastern China of three UCLA basketball players on suspicion of shoplifting, a top White House spokesman said Monday.Trump, who left Beijing on Friday for Vietnam and now the Philippines, requested that Xi ensure that the case is resolved quickly and that the three freshman players are treated fairly, U.S. Principal Deputy Press Secretary Raj Shah said in a telephone interview.The UCLA men’s basketball team flew back to the U.S. over the weekend without forwards Jalen Hill and Cody Riley and guard LiAngelo Ball, brother of Los Angeles Lakers guard Lonzo Ball. The three players have not been allowed to leave China after being accused of stealing sunglasses from a Louis Vuitton store near the team’s hotel in Huangzhou last week.The fact that Trump raised the issue with Xi was first reported by the Washington Post.READ MORE Trump’s agenda at stake as sexual misconduct allegations against Roy Moore turn Alabama race into a tossup By David Lauter Roy Moore speaks during a Veterans Day event on Nov. 11 in Vestavia Hills, Ala. (Wes Frazer / Getty Images) Three days after allegations of sexual misconduct with teenage girls hit Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore, the race here has become a tossup that threatens President Trump’s agenda in Congress and has split Republicans over how far they’re willing to go to save the seat from a Democrat.The accusations that Moore, when he was in his 30s, dated teenagers and had sexual contact with a 14-year old have created an almost existential crisis for some Republicans.The allegations come amid a national uproar over sexual harassment by high-profile leaders in entertainment and business, and many GOP senators and other officials swiftly called for Moore to leave the race. Others, including White House officials and Senate leaders, have equivocated.Read More Trump to nominate former pharmaceutical executive Alex Azar as Health and Human Services secretary By Cathleen Decker (Associated Press) in a tweet from Manila, President Trump on Monday announced that he will nominate Alex Azar, a former pharmaceutical executive and healthcare official during the Bush administration, to be his new secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services.If confirmed by the Senate, Azar would replace Tom Price, who resigned as secretary under pressure on Sept. 29 after a series of stories in Politico documented his repeated use of private jets and government aircraft instead of commercial planes, at a cost of more than $400,000. Investigations into Price’s actions are ongoing.Price, a Republican who represented a Georgia district in Congress before he was named to the Cabinet, also presided over the failure of the president’s effort to make good on a campaign promise to repeal and replace Obamacare.The nomination of Azar represents a shift for Trump, who in his Cabinet picks to date often has not selected candidates with experience in the department they would oversee.Read More Here are the 5 major differences between the House and Senate versions of the GOP tax plan By Lisa Mascaro (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) Republicans have repeatedly noted that it’s been more than 30 years since Congress enacted a major tax overhaul — and within the span of a couple of hours last week, they unintentionally demonstrated why.As a House committee prepared to pass one version of a tax bill on a party-line vote Thursday, Republicans on a Senate panel unveiled their own legislation, which contained major differences in key areas involving individual and business taxes.Trump administration officials and Republican congressional leaders downplayed the disparities even as the differences loomed as significant hurdles in the rush to pass legislation by the end of the year.They noted that the bills are largely the same at their heart. Each is centered around a huge cut in the corporate tax rate and makes revisions designed to provide a break to middle-class earners — although independent analyses of the House bill say it benefits the wealthy more than average Americans.“Yes, the Senate bill is going to be different than the House bill because, you know what, that’s the legislative process,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) told reporters Thursday.“But what’s encouraging in all of this is … we have a framework that we established with the White House and the Senate, and these bills are being written inside that framework,” he said.Here are five major differences between the two bills.Read More Trump praises his ‘great relationship’ with Duterte, ignores questions about human rights By Noah Bierman (Jim Watson /AFP/Getty Images ) President Trump touted a “great relationship” with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has been condemned by human rights organizations for overseeing a deadly war on drugs.The brief comments came as the two men held their first official one-on-one meeting Monday morning, though they had already met informally since Trump’s arrival on Sunday.Trump ignored reporters’ questions about human rights and instead joked with Duterte and talked about the weather in the Philippines and Duterte’s hospitality in hosting world leaders for the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations summit, which Trump said was “handled beautifully by the president and the Philippines.”“We’ve had a great relationship. This has been very successful,” Trump said.“We very much appreciate the great treatment you’ve given us. Last night’s event was fantastic — tremendous talent,” Trump added, referring to an opening dinner held for the conference. As reporters shouted questions, Duterte cut them off, deriding the press while holding out the possibility of a news conference later in the day.“We will be talking on matters of interest to both the Philippines and — with you around, guys, you’re the spies,” he said.After the meeting ended, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said that human rights came up in the discussion briefly as Trump and Duterte discussed the Islamic State, illegal drugs and trade.Philippine government spokesperson Harry Roque denied that human rights came up at all.“No, that issue was not raised,” Roque said. “However the president [Duterte] explained at length his war on drugs. President Trump seemed to be appreciative.”“From the body language of the U.S. president, he seemed to be in agreement,” Roque added.Special correspondent Simon Roughneen contributed.1:15 a.m., Nov. 13: This article was updated with a statement from the Philippine government spokesperson.This post was originally published at 9:19 p.m., Nov. 12. Alabama Senate race a toss-up, new poll finds By David Lauter (Scott Olson/Getty Images) Roy Moore, the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama, has lost his lead in the race in the aftermath of allegations that he had sexual contact with teenagers years ago, and the election is now a toss-up, a new poll indicated Sunday.Moore trails Democratic candidate Doug Jones 46% to 42% among Alabama voters, a lead for the Democrat that is well within the poll’s margin of error of 4.1 points in either direction, according to the new survey by Louisiana-based JMC Analytics. That finding is consistent with two overnight polls that were released since the allegations first came to light Thursday.Before the news broke, Moore had an eight-point lead in the race, reflecting Alabama’s heavily Republican tilt. The election is scheduled for Dec. 12.Republican leaders nationally have been scrambling to try to prod Moore to quit the race. But the former Alabama Supreme Court justice, a staunch religious conservative, has insisted he will not quit, saying the allegations against him by four women are politically inspired.Some Republicans have talked about mounting a write-in campaign for another candidate. Others fear that would merely split the party’s vote and hand the election to Jones.The poll showed Democrats united behind Jones, but Republicans split over whether to support Moore. It also showed that Moore’s campaign had largely failed to persuade the state’s voters that Jones is too far to the left — only 31% of poll respondents said they saw him as a “liberal,” with 26% calling him moderate and 37% saying they did not know. Democrat Doug Jones charts an unlikely path in Alabama Senate race as scandal isolates GOP’s Roy Moore By Lisa Mascaro Many politicians might seize on allegations that Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore pursued sexual relations with teenage girls. But Democrat Doug Jones isn’t going there.The former prosecutor, who won convictions against Ku Klux Klan members for killing four young girls in the infamous1963 Birmingham church bombing, has his own story to tell as his unlikely campaign gains sudden momentum.At a Friday night fish fry in a modest, working-class neighborhood outside Mobile, Jones spent more time talking about his own record and what he would do in Washington than about the scandal engulfing Moore.“Those are issues that he has to address, not me ... serious allegations that he needs to face the people of Alabama and talk about,” Jones told reporters afterward.“Our message is the same.… Kitchen-table issues — jobs, the economy,” he continued. “Healthcare is such an important issue for the state. We’re a poor state, we’re an unhealthy state and healthcare is probably the biggest issue that’s causing folks to take a look at this race and hit a political reset button.“My history has been of trying to be a unifying force to reach across the aisle, to find common ground so that we can move the state forward,” he said.Read More Sexual molestation allegation puts Alabama Senate seat in play as Moore’s GOP support fades By Michael Finnegan Pressure mounted Friday on U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of Alabama to drop out of the race amid growing Republican angst over potential damage to the party after a woman accused him of molesting her when she was 14.GOP senators began pulling their endorsements of Moore as it became more apparent that his Democratic rival, Doug Jones, could now win a Senate seat in one of America’s most reliably Republican states.Read More Trump and Duterte meet in Manila -- in matching formal shirts By Associated Press (Andrew Harnik / AP Photo) President Trump is attending a gala in the Philippines celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Assn. of Southeast Asian Nations. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte greeted Trump and other leaders one by one as they arrived at a convention center in Manila for the glitzy event. Trump and Duterte shook hands twice and exchanged pleasantries before the leaders posed for a group photo and everyone filed into dinner. Trump joined his fellow leaders in wearing Philippine formal attire — the Barong Tagalog, or long-sleeved white shirt. Duterte sat to Trump’s left at dinner and they engaged in conversation before the first course was served. Trump and Duterte will hold formal talks on Monday.Read More Trump’s chief of staff noncommittal on Duterte’s reported human rights abuses By Noah Bierman (AP) As President Trump headed to a controversial meeting in the Philippines with President Rodrigo Duterte, the White House chief of staff declined to weigh in on Duterte’s human rights record.Philippine police, at Duterte’s direction, have killed thousands of people accused of drug crimes without trials, incurring condemnations from human rights groups, the United Nations, the U.S. Congress and the European Union.John F. Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff, said human rights would be a “hot topic” in the Philippines but declined to make definitive statements about Duterte’s possible role in abuses--or whether reports of abuses were true. “I mean there’s an awful lot of reported extrajudicial heavy-handedness,” Kelly told a group of reporters after a presidential news conference in Vietnam on Sunday morning, hours before Trump was set to fly to the Philippines.Reporters asked Kelly whether he believed those reports. “Well, we’ll have to see,” he replied.A reporter pressed him again: “You’re not sure?” “I’m not sure,” Kelly responded.Kelly downplayed Trump’s scheduled meeting with Duterte, saying the president’s primary purpose for traveling to the country is to attend two conferences that will attract leaders from around the world.“I would say the conference is the most important thing in the Philippines,” Kelly said. “And, obviously, since the president’s there, he’ll meet with [Duterte] but nothing formal.” Trump’s chief of staff: ‘I do not follow the tweets’ By Noah Bierman Hours after President Trump provoked North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Twitter, suggesting he is “short and fat,” the White House chief of staff said he tells aides not to react to Trump’s comments on social media.“Someone, I read the other day, said we all just react to the tweets,” said Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, speaking with a group of reporters after a presidential news conference Sunday in Vietnam. “We don’t. I don’t. I don’t allow the staff to. We know what we’re doing.”Kelly said, “Believe it or not, I do not follow the tweets.” “I find out about them,” he continued. “But for our purposes, my purpose, is we make sure the president is briefed up on what he’s about to do.”Referring to Trump’s tweets, Kelly said, “They are what they are.” And, in response to a question about whether he needs to take them into account to develop policy, Kelly insisted he does not.“We develop policy in the normal traditional staff way,” he said. Trump says Putin again denies meddling in 2016 election By Associated Press (Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik, Kremlin) President Donald Trump said Russia’s Vladimir Putin once again vehemently denied interfering in the 2016 U.S. elections during their discussions on the sidelines of an economic summit Saturday. Trump declined to say whether he believed Putin, but made clear he’s not interested in dwelling on the issue.“He said he absolutely did not meddle in our election. He did not do what they are saying he did,” Trump said of Putin, speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One as he traveled to Hanoi, the second-to-last stop of his Asia trip. “Every time he sees me, he said: ‘I didn’t do that.’ And I believe, I really believe that when he tells me that he means it,” Trump said, noting that Putin is “very insulted” by the accusation. Trump called the accusation an “artificial barrier” erected by Democrats — once again casting doubt on the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia did try to interfere in the election to help Trump win. Trump and Putin did not have a formal meeting while they were in Vietnam for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, but the two spoke informally several times on the event’s sidelines and reached an agreement on a number of principles for the future of war-torn Syria. But Trump made clear that the issue of Russian meddling in the election hovers over the leaders’ relationship and said it jeopardized their ability to work together on issues including North Korea’s escalating nuclear program and the deadly conflict in Syria. “Having a good relationship with Russia’s a great, great thing. And this artificial Democratic hit job gets in the way,” Trump told reporters. “People will die because of it.” Trump danced around the question of whether he believed Putin’s denials, telling reporters that pressing the issue would have accomplished little. “He said he didn’t meddle. I asked him again. You can only ask so many times,” said Trump. Mitt Romney calls on Roy Moore to quit Senate race after teen molestation charge By Michael Finnegan (Rick Bowmer / Associated Press) Mitt Romney emerged Friday as one of the few Republicans calling unconditionally for Roy Moore to quit the U.S. Senate race in Alabama following allegations that Moore molested a 14-year-old girl when he was 32.Ohio Gov. John Kasich also broke with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell and many other fellow Republicans who have urged Moore to drop out of the campaign only if the alleged 1979 incident turns out to be true.Sen. John McCain of Arizona was the first major Republican to call on Moore to step aside Thursday following the explosive allegation by Leigh Corfman, the woman who told the Washington Post about the alleged sexual encounter when she was a teen.In a Twitter post, Romney said Corfman’s account was “too serious to ignore.”“Moore is unfit for office and should step aside,” Romney wrote.The Post also reported that Moore, a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court, pursued three other girls from 16 to 18 years old when he was a prosecutor in his 30s.Moore has denied all the allegations and vowed to stay in the race.But the Post report has left Republicans fearing that a safely Republican Senate seat might now be vulnerable in the Dec. 12 special election, which pits Moore against Democrat Doug Jones.Republicans are defending a narrow 52-seat majority in the Senate. Frustrated, Kremlin blames U.S. for lack of substantial meeting between Putin and Trump By Sabra Ayres (Michael Klimentyev/Sputnik/Kremlin pool/Pool/EPA-EFE/REX/Shutterstock) President Trump approached Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday evening before a scheduled group photo at the APEC summit in Vietnam.As Trump stuck out his hand to shake the Kremlin leader’s hand, he patted Putin on the shoulder. Both men were dressed in traditional Vietnamese shirts. The two leaders exchanged brief pleasantries before returning to their places in the photo shoot.It wasn’t the meeting the Russians had hoped for.But after several days of what one Kremlin aide frustratingly called “contradictory signals” from the White House, the brief meeting might be the only one-on-one time the Russian and U.S. presidents get during Trump’s Asia trip.For days, both sides had reported that a Putin-Trump sideline meeting would most likely happen at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. But by Friday morning, there was still no confirmation about when or if the meeting would happen.“Our conflicting information is coming from our American colleagues,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made an offhand comment to a Russian journalist that blamed the uncertainty about the meeting on U.S. bureaucrats.“Why are you asking me this?” Lavrov told the journalist. “President Trump himself has expressed his desire to meet. I don’t know what his pencil-pushers are saying. Ask them!”The White House has said there were scheduling conflicts on both sides.Putin and Trump had their first meeting a the G20 summit in Germany in July. That meeting did not improve deteriorating relations between Washington and Moscow, and the diplomatic standoff continues.The Kremlin this week expressed hope that a meeting in Vietnam between the two leaders would be a step toward improving bilateral relations, as well as provide a venue to discuss topics such as North Korea and Syria. Mueller’s investigators reportedly looking into Flynn’s meeting with Turkish officials By Sameea Kamal The FBI is seeking to determine if former national security advisor Michael Flynn met with senior Turkish officials ahead of President Trump’s inauguration to discuss the possibility of Flynn secretly carrying out directives from Ankara while in the White House, according to published reports.As part of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s probe into Russian interference with U.S. elections, witnesses have been questioned about an alleged December 2016 meeting between Flynn and senior Turkish officials at the 21 club in New York, not far from Trump Tower, sources told NBC.The questions were part of a criminal inquiry into Flynn’s paid lobbying efforts for Turkey after he was fired as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency and joined the Trump campaign as a senior advisor.Mueller is said to be investigating whether Flynn discussed orchestrating the return to Turkey of Fethullah Gülen, a Muslim cleric who is a chief rival of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and who lives in exile in Pennsylvania, four sources told NBC.Investigators are also reportedly examining whether Flynn and other participants discussed a deal to free Reza Zarrab, a Turkish-Iranian gold trader who is jailed in the U.S. on federal charges that he helped Iran skirt U.S. sanctions.Mueller is looking into whether such a deal, if successful, would have led to up to $15 million in secret payments to Flynn, sources told NBC.In a statement, Flynn’s lawyers dismissed the allegations as false. “Out of respect for the process of the various investigations regarding the 2016 campaign, we have intentionally avoided responding to every rumor or allegation raised in the media,” they wrote.“But today’s news cycle has brought allegations about General Flynn, ranging from kidnapping to bribery, that are so outrageous and prejudicial that we are making an exception to our usual rule: they are false.”Flynn was forced out as Trump’s national security advisor in February after only 24 days due to his failure to disclose meetings with the Russian ambassador amid the inquiries into Russian meddling in the presidential election. U.S. looking to agreements with Russia over Syria By Tracy Wilkinson Eastern Syrian city of Dair Alzour as government forces battle Islamic State in early November. (AFP / Getty Images) The U.S. is nearing agreement with Russia on establishing additional ceasefire zones in Syria, a key step to finally resolving that country’s brutal civil war.Some officials had suggested agreement could be announced in a meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the margins of Friday’s Asia summit in Vietnam. Moscow announced the meeting would take place, but the White House has said no “formal” encounter is planned.Nevertheless, State Department officials said that as the battle in Syria shifts from fighting the largely defeated Islamic State, more attention is focusing on the festering civil war and post-war reconstruction. Russia backs the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad while the U.S. at least nominally supports an armed opposition.The U.S. and Russia in July agreed on a ceasefire region in southeastern Syria that has more or less held fast. “If we can get to another ceasefire zone, that helps get us closer to the Geneva process,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said, alluding to the Geneva-based peace process for Syria led by the United Nations special envoy Staffan de Mistura.The U.S. and Russia have also been working together on “deconfliction,” meaning establishing procedures for avoiding running into each other on the battlefield or on bombing runs in the skies over Syria.And the U.S. is taking steps to attempt to contain Iran’s influence in the region, inviting Saudi Arabia, archrival of Iran, to pay for and oversee large-scale reconstruction in parts of Syria and Iraq once controlled by Islamic State. Iran has been allied with Russia and Assad in the Syria war. Tillerson cautious on Saudi crackdown By Tracy Wilkinson (AFP/Getty Images) Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Friday that the mass arrests in Saudi Arabia by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman are a matter of concern and should be watched carefully for broader repercussions throughout the region.Tillerson, speaking to reporters onboard a flight from Beijing to Vietnam as part of President Trump’s Asia tour, struck a more cautionary note than his boss, who has expressed unconditional support for the de facto Saudi leader.Tillerson told reporters he had spoken to Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Jubeir, who allayed some of his concerns, but added: “How disruptive it’s going to be remains to be seen.”Outside experts have cautioned that the unprecedented crackdown on scores of Saudi royals and prominent businessmen for alleged acts of corruption could send investors scurrying and stock markets crumbling.“It raises a few concerns until we see more clearly how these particular individuals are dealt with,” Tillerson said.Tillerson also said Jubeir had assured him that Lebanon’s recently resigned prime minister, Saad Hariri, was safe in Saudi Arabia and not being held against his will, as some reports have suggested.Hariri’s abrupt resignation also threatens to destabilize the region, leaving the militant group Hezbollah, which is part of the Lebanese government, to take a more prominent role. Saudi Arabia and the United States consider Hezbollah to be an Iranian-controlled terrorist organization. Californians strongly oppose Trump — and 53% say state’s members of Congress should ‘never’ work with him By Cathleen Decker A year after his election, President Trump remains wildly unpopular in California, and the state’s voters are split over whether members of Congress should work with him when possible, a new USC Dornsife/Los Angeles Times poll has found.The percentage of voters seeking cooperation overall — 47% — dropped somewhat when it came to Trump’s immigration policies, which the state’s Democratic officeholders have fought with legislation and lawsuits.Most California voters praised immigrants and rejected negative characterizations of them that have come from the president and some of his supporters. Eight in 10 said immigrants here without proper documentation were seeking work, not “a handout,” and that they improve the communities in which they live.Read More White House calls molestation claim against Roy Moore a ‘mere allegation,’ but says he should step aside if true By Noah Bierman (Brynn Anderson / Associated Press) President Trump, under pressure to respond to an allegation that Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore nearly four decades ago molested a 14-year-old girl, issued a noncommital statement through his press secretary Friday.“Like most Americans the president believes we cannot allow a mere allegation, in this case one from many years ago, to destroy a person’s life,” Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One. “However, the president also believes that if these allegations are true, Judge Moore will do the right thing and step aside.”Sanders said Trump, on his way to address a summit of Pacific Rim nations in Vietnam, wanted to “remain focused on representing our country on his historic trip to Asia.”The allegation against Moore, first reported in the Washington Post, has put pressure on Trump and other Republicans who have endorsed Moore for a crucial seat in the closely divided Senate. It’s an especially tricky issue for Trump, who has faced allegations of sexual harrassment and charged that his accusers were lying. During the campaign, he threatened to sue them, but did not follow through. Trump and Putin have no meeting scheduled but an informal chat is ‘certainly possible and likely’ By Noah Bierman (AFP/Getty Images) The White House announced Friday that President Trump would not hold an official meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday, though Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said an informal pull-aside is “certainly possible and likely.” Any meeting with Putin could attract unwanted attention to a White House that is dealing with the intensifying investigation over potential collusion between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government.Trump said on his way to Asia last week that he “expected” to meet with the Russian leader during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit\in Vietnam. A Putin aide told Russian media that the meeting was confirmed.However, Sanders told reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday that no meeting had been confirmed, citing “scheduling conflicts on both sides.”“Now, they’re going to be in the same place,” she added. “Are they going to bump into each other and say hello? Certainly possible and likely. But in terms of a scheduled, formal meeting, there’s not one on the calendar and we don’t anticipate that there will be one.” Russia threatens retaliation against U.S. media after RT network told to register as a foreign agent By Sabra Ayres Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen at the headquarters of the “Russia Today” television channel in Moscow in 2013. (Yuri Kochetkov / Pool Photo) Russia said Thursday it could begin next week to take measures against U.S. media outlets working in Russia in retaliation for a decision by the U.S. Department of Justice to make the Kremlin-funded RT news agency register as a foreign agent.The Justice Department set a deadline of Nov. 13 for RT to register as a foreign agency based on accusations that the Russian government-funded cable news network and website was a Kremlin propaganda outlet. The decision came in the wake of investigations into Kremlin attempts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.RT’s chief editor, Margarita Simonyan, said the outlet would register by the deadline but planned to challenge the decision in a U.S. court. Failure to register could result in the seizure of RT’s U.S. bank accounts and the arrest of the senior editor, Simonyan told Russian news outlets.Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a news briefing that Russia was now considering retaliatory measures against U.S. media outlets.“I think that our patience that is nearly run out will take some legal shape. I don’t rule out it will be done next week,” Zakharova told the Rossiya 24 television channel in an interview, the Russian news agency Tass reported.In the past, Russia has threatened to target Radio Free Europe and the Voice of America, both of which receive U.S. government funding. In the past, the ministry also has mentioned CNN, which does not receive U.S. government funds, but is a frequent target of criticism by the Russian government for what it says is anti-Russian bias in its reporting.RT, formerly known as Russia Today, was started in 2005 with a large budget provided by the Kremlin. The news channel broadcasts in several languages and in dozens of countries around the world, promoting what it calls an alternative view to Western media. Critics have said RT’s programming promotes conspiracy theories and anti-Western ideas.In a statement posted to its Facebook account Thursday night, the Russian Embassy in the United States said the Justice Department’s decision “created a dangerous precedent.”“Blatant pressure on the Russian mass media confirms that the United States pursues the course of deliberately hurting our relations,” the statement said. “We consider its demand as a wish to eliminate an alternative source of information, which is an unacceptable violation of the international norms of free press.”The threat of retaliation against U.S. media from the Kremlin is the latest in a diplomatic standoff that has resulted in both Moscow and Washington being forced to reduce embassy staff and give up diplomatic compounds. House committee approves revised tax overhaul bill By Lisa Mascaro A House committee voted along party lines Thursday to approve the Republicans’ sweeping tax overhaul bill -- with some last-minute changes -- a crucial step toward seeking the chamber’s full passage by Thanksgiving.“Americans deserve a new tax code for a new era of prosperity, and today we deliver,” said Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), chairman of the House Ways and Means Committte.The panel’s approval by a 24-16 vote came as the Senate unveiled its own version of tax legislation that contains the same centerpiece -- a large cut in the corporate rate -- but has significant differences that will have to be worked out in the coming weeks.Republicans scrambled Thursday to revise the House measure after changes the committee made this week pushed the cost of the bill over the limit needed to pass it through the Senate on a simple majority vote.Brady proposed a last-minute package of changes to raise more revenue and address concerns by groups such as the National Federal of Independent Business.Among the changes were restoring the tax credit for parents who adopt children, creating a new lower 9% tax rate for the first $75,000 in business income for small pass-through businesses that currently pay the individual rate, and a number of other changes to corporate tax provisions.Jack Mozloom, a spokesman for the NFIB, said the group supported Brady’s change and now intends to back the House bill “barring any surpises.”Last week, the NFIB said it could not support the bill because the new top rate of 25% for pass-through businesses wouldn’t be a benefit to most of its members, who already pay no more than that rate. GOP’s Alabama Senate hopeful accused of sexual encounter with 14-year-old girl, report says By Michael Finnegan Roy Moore, the conservative Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alabama, was accused Thursday of initiating a sexual encounter with a 14-year-old girl in 1979, when he was a 32-year-old prosecutor.The explosive allegation, in a Washington Post report, comes against one of the GOP’s most outspoken Christian conservatives less than five weeks before a special election that Moore is favored to win despite his long history of inflammatory rhetoric.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said that if the allegation is true, Moore “must step aside.”Leigh Corfman, now 53 years old, told the Post that Moore first approached her when she was sitting with her mother on a bench outside an Alabama courtroom down the hall from his office.Moore got her phone number and, days later, took her on a 30-minute drive to his home in the woods, where he kissed her and told her she was pretty, according to Corfman.On a second visit, he took off her shirt and pants, stripped to his underwear, touched her over her bra and underpants, and guided her hand to touch his crotch, she told the Post.She said she asked him to take her home, and he did.Moore, now 70, told the Post in a written statement: “These allegations are completely false and are a desperate political attack by the National Democrat Party and the Washington Post on this campaign.”His campaign also said that if the allegations were true, they would have come up before. This “garbage is the very definition of fake news,” the campaign told the Post.Moore is a former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. He was removed from the bench for defying a federal court order to remove a granite Ten Commandments monument from a judicial building.He is running against Democrat Doug Jones in a Dec. 12 special election to replace Republican Sen. Luther Strange.Strange, who was appointed to the Senate seat to replace Jeff Sessions when President Trump named him attorney general, lost a Republican primary to Moore, whose candidacy was promoted by Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon. Signups for Obamacare insurance coverage surge, despite Trump administration attacks By Noam N. Levey (TNS) Large numbers of Americans signed up for health coverage through the Affordable Care Act in the first days of this year’s open enrollment period, according to new federal figures that show Americans flocking to insurance despite the Trump administration’s ongoing attacks on the healthcare law.In the first four days of the 2018 enrollment period -- which began Nov. 1 -- more than 600,000 people selected health plans through the HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace, which serves residents of 39 states.That represents a daily average of more than 150,000 signups, outpacing the beginning of last year’s open enrollment period under the Obama administration, when an average of 84,000 people a day signed up through the first 12 days.The pace of signups cheered supporters of the healthcare law, many of whom feared that President Trump’s criticism of the law, coupled with major cuts in federal funding for advertising and outreach efforts, would depress enrollment.At six weeks, the enrollment period is also only half as long this year, running until Dec. 15.The new enrollment figures released Thursday do not include signups in 11 states that operate their own marketplaces, including California. Virginia Rep. Bob Goodlatte says he won’t run for reelection By Associated Press ((AFP/Getty Images) ) Another House committee chairman is planning to retire.Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee and a 13-term congressman from Virginia.In a statement Thursday, he says it’s “the right time for me to step aside and let someone else serve the 6th District.”Goodlatte’s tenure as chairman of the judiciary panel ends in December 2018 due to term limits. He describes the marker as the “natural stepping-off point” and a chance to begin a new chapter.The 65-year-old Goodlatte is among several other longtime House committee chairmen who have announced plans to retire at the end of their term, including Jeb Hensarling of Texas, who heads the financial services panel, and Lamar Smith of Texas, the science committee chairman. House makes final tweaks to tax bill before committee vote By Jim Puzzanghera (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) As they await the unveiling of the Senate GOP tax plan Thursday, Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee were scrambling to revise their own bill after changes made this week pushed its cost over the limit needed to pass it through the Senate on a simple majority vote. The committee was expected to approve the House bill later Thursday on a party line vote after making additional changes.An amendment approved Monday and offered by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), the panel’s chairman, gutted a complicated excise tax for foreign transactions of multinational companies that was in the original bill. The excise tax, designed to stop multinational companies from using transactions with foreign affiliates to reduce their U.S. taxes, would have generated $155 billion over the next decade. After pushback from businesses, Brady made technical changes to the proposal that cut that revenue by $148 billion.Brady’s amendment, passed on a party line vote, pushed the cost of the bill to $1.574 trillion over 10 years — $74 billion over what’s allowed to pass the bill through the Senate on a simple majority vote.Brady’s change didn’t satisfy one of the leading opponents of the excise provision, Freedom Partners, which is funded by the Koch brothers and its network of donors. The group pushed for the Senate tax bill to exclude the excise tax entirely. Ahead of Senate tax bill rollout, House signals openness to delaying cut in corporate tax rates By Jim Puzzanghera House Speaker Paul D. Ryan opened the door Wednesday to delaying the implementation of a new 20% corporate tax rate — the cornerstone of President Trump’s plan — amid worries that the GOP proposal will exceed its target of adding no more than $1.5 trillion to the deficit.Postponing the tax cut for a year or two would diverge from Trump’s insistence that corporate rate reductions be made immediately. But Senate Republicans floated the idea this week as they frantically search for ways to pay for the corporate tax cuts and still provide relief to middle-income households.Senators plan to introduce their bill Thursday. Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) said one revenue-raiser that will probably be included is a full repeal of all state and local tax deductions, including property taxes, a big blow to many residents in California and other high-tax states.Read More Trump makes strong statement on Chinese trade: ‘It just doesn’t work’ By Noah Bierman (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump stood next to Chinese President Xi Jinping and said the Chinese had taken advantage of America to build a trade imbalance that is not sustainable.“I don’t blame China,” Trump said. “Who can blame a country for being able to take advantage of another country for the benefit of its citizens? I give China great credit.”Instead, Trump blamed past American presidents.“We have to fix this because it just doesn’t work,” he went on. “It is just not sustainable.”The comments, which came amid a ceremony involving U.S. and Chinese business leaders celebrating $250 billion in trade deals, were far more blunt than typical for such diplomatic pageants. Xi spoke in far different terms, celebrating a Chinese economy that is entering a new phase, from “high-speed growth” to “high-quality growth.”He acknowledged “some frictions” between the two nations, but added that “we hope we can solve all these issues in a friendly and consultative way.”Xi did not discuss North Korea, but Trump also challenged the Chinese leader on that front, referring to his long-standing demand that China exert more pressure on the North Korean government to end its nuclear program.“China can fix this problem easily and quickly, and I am calling on China and your great president to hopefully work on it very hard,” Trump said. “If he works on it very hard there’s no doubt it will happen.” Chinese leader declares ‘new starting point’ in meeting with Trump, who touts personal bonds By Noah Bierman (Nicolas Asfouri / AFP/Getty Images) Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed a “new starting point” for the U.S.-China relationship while President Trump declared that “we have a capacity to solve world problems for many, many years to come” on Thursday, as the two men held their first official business meeting after a raft of ceremonies.Xi, who comes into the meetings flush with new authority in his country, was more detached in his comments than Trump, who spoke in personal terms about a terrific initial meeting Wednesday night and a dinner that went longer than expected because the men were having such a great time.Trump’s language, putting the U.S. and China on near-equal footing, could play to Xi’s favor. The Chinese president is eager to assert China as a dominant world power rivaling America.But Trump hinted, without specifics, that he would be pushing Xi on North Korea and trade. He said part of the solution to the trade imbalance with China could include changes in U.S. trade laws or practices.“I have great respect for that because you’re representing China,” Trump said. But he blamed prior administrations for creating a trade imbalance that has become “so far out of kilter.” Trump gets official Chinese welcome, begins meetings with Xi By Noah Bierman (Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images) President Trump began his first full day in China on Thursday with an elaborate welcome ceremony ahead of a series of talks with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.Trump’s meetings with Xi begin as Chinese police hold three UCLA students accused of shoplifting in a hotel in Hangzhou.Trump began his day at the Great Hall of the People, an imposing government building that sits by Tiananmen Square. Normally brisk Beijing traffic was halted as the American president’s motorcade made its way from the St. Regis Hotel for the short journey. The tourists that normally pack the square were also missing.When Trump and First Lady Melania Trump arrived, they were greeted by Xi, his wife, Peng Liyuan, an honor guard and a Chinese military band that played the U.S. and Chinese national anthems. Cannons fired 21 shots from Tiananmen Square.Schoolchildren waved flags of both countries as the leaders chatted.Just to the north of the square, crowds of thousands of tourists were still lined up to enter the Forbidden City, passing through the Gate of Heavenly Peace under the portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-tung.On the streets of Beijing were red banners inscribed with white Mao-era Chinese characters encouraging citizens to study and follow “Xi Jinping thought.”The two leaders are scheduled to hold several meetings, deliver statements, share a state dinner and view a cultural performance. Democratic surge in suburbs forecasts a potentially rough 2018 for Republicans By Cathleen Decker Republicans awoke Wednesday facing a tortuous road ahead for their candidates in the 2018 elections, particularly in suburban areas where animosity toward President Trump overwhelmed his party in Tuesday’s elections.In the northern Virginia suburbs near Washington, D.C., Democrat Ralph Northam captured 69% of the vote in winning Tuesday’s race for governor, five points better than Hillary Clinton did against Trump in the same area last November. In Hampton Roads, the southern end of an urban crescent that has helped reshape Virginia into a reliably Democratic state in presidential elections, Northam finished seven points stronger than Clinton.The view from the suburbs is key because it points to the central problem for Republicans in 2018: Control of the House will be decided in large part in districts similar to those that retaliated against Trump on Tuesday.Read More Senate Republican tax plan may eliminate property tax deductions and delay corporate cut By Jim Puzzanghera ( (Michael Reynolds / EPA/Shutterstock)) As they prepare to unveil their own sweeping tax plan, Senate Republicans are revisiting key provisions of the House GOP proposal, including possibly eliminating property tax deductions as well as state income tax deductions, increasing the size of child-care credits, offering more help to small businesses and having corporate tax cuts phase in or expire, according to those familiar with the negotiations.The final outline of the Senate plan, scheduled to be released Thursday, remained a work in progress, officials cautioned.“Everything is on the table,” one Republican official who did not want to be identified discussing the talks said Tuesday evening.Read More House GOP tax plan will add $1.7 trillion to deficit over decade, CBO estimates By Lisa Mascaro The federal deficit would grow by $1.7 trillion under the House Republican tax plan, according to a nonpartisan analysis released Wednesday, raising fresh concerns for passage because budget rules in the Senate don’t allow for so much red ink.The assessment from the Congressional Budget Office comes as Republicans are muscling the bill for a vote in the House as soon as next week.House GOP officials had no immediate comment.Republicans in Congress are relying on special budget rules to avoid a Senate filibuster and allow for simple majority passage. But under those rules, the deficit may not rise more than $1.5 trillion by 2027.Senate Republicans are taking a different approach ahead of their rollout of legislation Thursday. But one Republican idea for lowering the deficit -- repealing portions of the Affordable Care Act -- also ran into problems Wednesday when CBO estimated it would produce $338 billion in savings, less than the $416 billion earlier projected.House and Senate Republicans want a bill that meets President Trump’s priorities of lowering corporate rates to 20% and reducing taxes for middle-class Americans, though critics say the bill is more heavily tilted in favor of corporations and the wealthy. U.S. sets new restrictions on business ties and travel to Cuba By Tracy Wilkinson (AFP / Getty Images) The Trump administration announced new rules Wednesday to make it tougher for U.S. businesses to work in Cuba and for Americans to travel to the island.The restrictions are aimed at finally enacting what Trump in June described as plans to reverse the Obama-era diplomatic opening with the communist-ruled island.Effective Thursday, businesses will be required to obey a new set of regulations that are “intended to steer economic activity away from the Cuban military, intelligence and security services,” a senior White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to brief reporters.The Cuban military is deeply enmeshed in much of the island’s economy, including the tourism industry.Individuals will be prohibited from traveling to Cuba under the new rules but can continue as part of groups resistered with the U.S. government and following the so-called “people-to-people” plan, which generally requries the trip to have an educational component.Travel by Americans to the island had exploded in the months since President Obama renewed diplomatic ties with Cuba in 2015, following a half-century of Cold War-era hostility.Advocates of better ties with Cuba reacted with anger. “At a time that President Trump is meeting with communist leaders in China and Vietnam, these regulations show the absolute hypocrisy and political pandering of the Trump administration on Cuba,” said Collin Laverty, president of Cuba Educational Travel, a group that arranges trips to the island. Trump vs. Clinton: Why are we still obsessed a year later? By Mark Z. Barabak It’s the election America just can’t quit.One year later, much of the country continues to obsess over Trump vs. Clinton, as though still seated on the couch, eyes agoggle, watching the final decisive returns trickle in from Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.This is not normal.Normally, campaigns have an expiration date, a day or two after the TV networks strike their sets and the newspapers stuffed with election returns hit the recycling bin.But the biggest upset in modern political history has overturned that convention, along with so much else that once seemed customary.Read More Trump voters disappointed by his presidency threaten the GOP By Michael Finnegan Anthony Miles figured that Donald Trump, rich as he was, could not be bought off. Now he regrets voting for him.“He said he was going to drain the swamp,” said Miles, 62, a computer programmer who lives in Middletown, Conn. “All he’s done is restocked it.”Miles was especially appalled by President Trump’s appointment, since withdrawn, of a drug czar who took pharmaceutical donations as a congressman and wrote a law that thwarted federal power to punish companies that fuel opioid abuse.Read More Democrats seize Virginia and New Jersey governorships in elections seen as precursors of 2018 fights By Cathleen Decker ( (Win McNamee / Getty Images)) Democrat Ralph Northam swept to victory in the race for Virginia governor on Tuesday in a night of political retaliation against President Trump that also saw a Democratic gubernatorial win in New Jersey.Northam’s victory sketched out a path that Democratic strategists hope other candidates can follow in next year’s contest for control of Congress.He piled up big margins in the suburbs of northern Virginia, the most populous and voter-rich area of the state, where animosity toward the president runs deep. At the same time, Northam, the lieutenant governor, also fared better than many Democrats have in more rural areas, preventing the Republican candidate, Ed Gillespie, from running up the score in the southern and western areas of the state, where Trump trounced Hillary Clinton one year ago.Democrats also picked up more than a dozen seats in the Virginia House of Delegates, putting them close to a majority in the lower house with several races undecided — a result that few political analysts or state Democrats had thought likely.Read More Democrat seizes early lead in Washington Senate race, boosting bid for one-party control By Mark Z. Barabak Democrats staked an early lead Tuesday night in their bid to control the Washington state Senate and establish single-party reign over the West Coast.Manka Dhingra, a King County prosecutor, pulled ahead 55% to 45% over Republican Jinyoung Englund, a former congressional aide, in initial returns.Although Democrats claimed victory, final results in Washington’s all-mail election will not be known for several days.At stake is control of the state Senate, which has been the only legislative chamber Republicans hold on the West Coast. The election in the suburbs east of Seattle was held to replace a GOP lawmaker who died last year in office, leaving the chamber evenly divided.The contest became a major fight between the national political parties, the costliest legislative race in state history and a long-distance test of President Trump’s effect on candidates running down-ballot.Democrats hold the governorship and statehouse in Washington and, together with one-party control in Oregon and California, hope to build a solid blue wall of opposition to Trump extending the length of the Pacific Coast. Trump’s plan to make surprise visit to the Korean DMZ is foiled by bad weather By Brian Bennett (Wong Maye-E / Associated Press) President Trump tried to make a dramatic surprise visit to the highly fortified border between North and South Korea on Tuesday, but his helicopter had to turn back because of bad weather, his spokeswoman said.Trump intended to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in and stand together at the Demilitarized Zone in a “historic moment” for the presidents of the two nations, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters traveling with the president.But fog prevented Trump’s helicopter from making the trip, she said. The president’s retinue waited about an hour to make a second attempt, but the fog got worse instead of better. Visiting the DMZ was “something the president wanted to do,” Sanders said, adding that the closely held stop had been planned “for a little while” before Trump left for his five-country tour of Asia. Yet last week, ahead of the trip, aides repeatedly told reporters that Trump would not be going to the area, with one going so far as to dismiss such visits by presidents as “cliche.”President Reagan and every successor except one has visited the DMZ. Vice President Mike Pence and members of Trump’s Cabinet also have done so.Reporters were hastily called together by Sanders early Tuesday for the unexpected trip. In a moment that highlighted the secrecy surrounding Trump’s plans, Sanders held up a paper with the letters “DMZ” and said, “This is where we’re going.” (Jim Watson / AFP/Getty Images) U.S. drops case against woman who laughed at Sessions hearing By Joseph Tanfani (Molly Riley / AFP/Getty Images) Federal prosecutors have decided to drop a case against a woman arrested in the U.S. Capitol after she laughed during the confirmation hearing for Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions.Desiree Ali-Fairooz, an activist with the Code Pink organization, was one of three protesters arrested by Capitol Police during the opening statements of Sessions’ January hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee. In court filings, prosecutors alleged she let out bursts of laughter after Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) praised Sessions during his opening remarks.She was convicted of a misdemeanor in District of Columbia court, but a judge threw out the conviction in July and ordered a new trial. After Ali-Fairooz rejected a plea deal, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington continued to press the case. But prosecutors filed a notice dismissing the charges on Monday, a week before the second trial was to begin.A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment, saying the office typically does not discuss charging decisions.“Guess they’ve got enough “laughing” matters to deal with,” Ali-Fairooz tweeted after the decision.Two other protestors arrested during the hearing drew 10-day jail terms, but the time was suspended on condition they complete six months of probation. After Texas massacre, Republicans wade into gun control debate with proposal to bolster background check compliance By Lisa Mascaro In the aftermath of the mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, the second-ranking Senate Republican said Tuesday that Congress would begin working on legislation to tighten background-check compliances for gun purchases.The proposal announced by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the GOP whip, could become one of the rare times congressional Republicans have responded with legislative action following a shooting that caused mass casualties. Twenty-six people were killed when a gunman opened fire on Sunday church services.“Obviously if things like this can happen in spite of the law, then we need to look at that and try to fix it as best we can,” Cornyn said. “This seems to be an area where there is bipartisan support.”Officials said the gunman, Devin Patrick Kelley, was wrongly able to purchase guns after the Air Force failed to report his domestic violence court-martial to an FBI database.Republicans are considering ways to prevent mistakes or oversight in background checks, including offering incentives to states to comply. “This man should not have gotten a gun,” House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday.Republicans pushed back against previous attempts to clamp down on gun purchases, particularly after the 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting that killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Conn. After the nation’s deadliest mass shooting, which left 58 dead when a gunman opened fire last month on a country music concert in Las Vegas, Congress, which is controlled by Republicans, backed off legislation from California Sen. Dianne Feinstein to ban the sale of “bump stock” devices that can turn rifles into automatic-style weapons like the shooter used in Nevada.Republicans said they would prefer an administrative, rather than a legislative, fix for bump stocks, an approach favored by the National Rifle Assn.Cornyn said Tuesday that he has asked the Senate Judiciary Committee to hold a hearing on bump stock devices.------------For the record2:16 p.m. An earlier version of this post referred to the 2012 Sandyhook school shooting in Newtown, Mass. The shooting took place at the the Sandy Hook school in Newtown, Conn.------------ Republicans reject Democratic attempt to save full state and local tax deduction By Jim Puzzanghera (Chip Somodevilla) Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday defeated a Democratic attempt to restore the full deduction for state and local taxes, which would be scaled back in the GOP tax overhaul legislation.The Republican bill would eliminate the deduction for state and local income and sales taxes while allowing individuals to continue deducting local property taxes up to $10,000.Under the legislation, businesses still would be allowed to deduct all their state and local taxes.Residents of California and other high-tax states would be hardest hit by the change.An amendment from Rep. Bill Pascrell (D-N.J.) would have restored the full state and local tax deduction. The amendment was defeated 23-16 on a party line vote by the tax-writing committee. GOP tax bill would end deduction for wildfire and earthquake victims — but not recent hurricane victims By Jim Puzzanghera The House Republican tax bill would eliminate the deduction for personal losses from wildfires, earthquakes and other natural disasters, but keep the break for victims of the recent severe hurricanes.If the bill becomes law, the deduction would disappear next year but would be available for victims of the massive wildfires that struck Northern California last month — as long as they can figure out their uninsured losses and include them on their 2017 tax return.The legislation specifically repeals the deduction for personal casualty losses. The Internal Revenue Service describes casualty losses as including those from “natural disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and earthquakes. It can also include losses from fires, accidents, thefts or vandalism.”Read More Americans optimistic about jobs, but say incomes lagging By David Lauter Americans increasingly say jobs are plentiful in their communities, but they continue to worry that their incomes are lagging, according to a new poll released Tuesday.As with most questions, partisanship strongly shapes how people see the economy. Republican views about the availability of good jobs suddenly improved with President Trump’s election, while Democrats’ views soured, new figures from the nonpartisan Pew Research Center showed. Even allowing for that, however, the public view of the job picture is at its best level since 2001, Pew found.The picture is more mixed regarding incomes. About half of those surveyed said their incomes were falling behind the cost of living. Four in 10 said they were staying about even. Only 1 in 10 said their incomes were rising faster than the cost of living.Positive feelings about the overall economy appear to have bolstered Trump’s standing, several surveys have indicated. About 3 in 10 people in Pew’s survey said Trump’s policies had improved the economy, about half said they have had no significant effect while about 1 in 5 said they had made things worse.The Pew survey was conducted October 25-30, 2017, among a national sample of 1,504 adults. The results have a margin of error of 2.9 percentage points in either direction. Trump, diminished at home, is feted abroad, as Asian leaders employ flattery to stay on America’s good side By Noah Bierman President Obama made his last trip to Asia, in September 2016, from a position of relative strength. His approval ratings were reliably high, both at home and abroad. He deepened collaboration with China on climate change, doubled American aid to Laos, and lifted an arms embargo on Vietnam.But in terms of decorum, the trip was a disaster. When Obama arrived in China, no staircase awaited Air Force One, causing a flurry of embarrassed confusion. He canceled a meeting with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte after the strongman disparaged him profanely.As President Trump begins a 12-day, five-country trip to Asia, his situation is essentially flipped. Trump arrived in Japan on Sunday as a diminished figure at home — legislative setbacks are piling up, his approval ratings are historically low, and his campaign is under investigation on suspicion of colluding with Russia. According to the Pew Research Center, the U.S. presidency’s favorability ratings abroad are at the lowest point since the George W. Bush era.Read More Paul Ryan on the Texas shooting: ‘This man should not have gotten a gun’ Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan commented on the Texas shooting that killed 26 people Sunday, calling for enforcement of existing gun laws. He also called for prayers for the victims. Trump: ‘Hundreds more’ would have died in Texas shooting if there was more vetting for gun buyers By Brian Bennett (AFP) President Trump said that even with tighter vetting of gun buyers, “there would have been no difference” for those killed in the mass shooting at a South Texas church on Sunday.Trump made the comments during a news conference in Seoul with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in response to a question about why his promised “extreme vetting” for visa applicants shouldn’t also be applied to gun purchases. “If you did what you’re suggesting, there would have been no difference three days ago, and you might not have had that very brave person who happened to have a gun in his truck and shoot him, and hit him and neutralize him,” Trump said, referring to a neighbor who chased down the gunman.“Instead of having 26 dead, he would’ve had hundreds more dead,” he said.Trump seemed to chafe at being asked about gun policy so soon after the deadly rampage that killed 26 people on Sunday and appeared annoyed the topic was brought up while he was in South Korea building tougher measures against the North Korean nuclear program.Trump pointed to the high murder rate in Chicago, which has limits on gun sales, as an example of why vetting gun purchases might not prevent shootings. Chicago is “a disaster, a total disaster,” Trump said. Trump administration ending protections for thousands of Nicaraguan migrants, and defers decision on Hondurans By Joseph Tanfani (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) The Trump administration said Monday it would end a special reprieve from deportation for thousands of Nicaraguans who have been allowed to stay in the U.S. for years, but delayed a decision on similar protections for tens of thousands of Hondurans.The Department of Homeland Security announced that it would not renew temporary protected status for about 5,300 Nicaraguans whose protections under the program expire on Jan. 5. They will be allowed to stay in the U.S. only until Jan. 5, 2019, unless they qualify to stay under other provisions of immigration law, senior administration officials told reporters.But the administration gave a six-month reprieve to some 86,000 Hondurans also covered by the program. The officials said that acting Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke needed more time to determine if conditions in Honduras had improved enough to allow them to return home.The temporary status program was originally set up to protect immigrants from countries that were badly hurt by hurricanes, earthquakes and other natural disasters. Many have lived in the U.S. for as much as 20 years, with large numbers in Southern California.The administration’s actions have been closely watched for any signal about similar protections for larger groups of people who came from other troubled countries, including Haiti and El Salvador. Deadlines come due soon for deciding on whether to renew protections for those groups.Administration officials have been signaling their desire to end the protections, arguing that a program that was supposed to provide a temporary respite after disaster and civil wars has instead become a permanent benefit. People with temporary protected status can’t be detained by immigration agents, can obtain work permits and even obtain permission to travel outside the country.After Hurricane Mitch wrecked much of Central America in 1998, the U.S. extended the temporary protection to immigrants who had entered the country illegally from Honduras and Nicaragua. The program’s protections have been routinely renewed ever since.The next deadline will involve whether to renew protections for about 50,000 Haitians whose protection will expire on Jan. 22. In all, about 325,000 residents from 10 countries, including El Salvador, Sudan and Syria, are protected under the program.Read More The wealthy get the biggest benefit from House Republican tax plan, analysis finds By Jim Puzzanghera 3:39 p.m.: The Tax Policy Center said it has found an error in its analysis and planned to revise the numbers in this report.The greatest benefit from the House Republican tax bill would go to upper-income households, according to an analysis released Monday by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center.Middle-income taxpayers -- those earning between $48,600 and $86,100 annually -- would receive an average tax cut of $700 next year, or about 1% of their after-tax income, the analysis said.The top 20% of the nation’s earners -- those making more than $149,400 a year -- would receive an average tax cut of $4,850, or about 1.4% of after-tax income.Those top earners would also receive 60% of the total tax benefits under the plan. Of that, the top 1% of earners, defined as those making more than $730,000 a year, receive about 22% of the total amount of tax cuts in 2018, the Tax Policy Center said.By contrast, middle-income earners would receive about 12% of the tax benefit under the plan. Those making less than $48,600 would get 3.9%. By 2027, when the estate tax is fully phased out, the top 1% of earners would receive 48% of the benefit of the bill’s cuts. Middle-income earners would get 8% of the benefit.On average, taxes would decline across all income groups initially and for most income groups after a decade, the analysis said.But not all taxpayers would see a cut.At least 12% of filers would face higher taxes next year. In 2027, 28% would have higher tax bills because some provisions in the legislation, such as the new family tax credit, are temporary, the analysis said. U.S. will continue participation in climate talks, senior diplomat says By Associated Press (Sean Gallup / Getty Images) A senior U.S. diplomat says Washington will continue to take part in talks about implementing the Paris climate accord, despite President Trump’s threat to pull out of the pact.Trump announced in June that the United States will withdraw from the 2015 Paris agreement unless he can get a better deal for the United States.Trigg Talley, the U.S. deputy special envoy for climate change, told delegates at the opening of the United Nations climate talks in Bonn on Monday that “we will continue to participate in international climate change negotiations and meetings, including ongoing negotiations related to guidance for implementing the Paris agreement.”He added: “We look forward to working with colleagues and partners to advance the work here over these two weeks and beyond.” With Washington statehouse at stake, Democrats seek to build a West Coast wall of Trump resistance By Mark Z. Barabak One year ago, Manka Dhingra was preparing for a celebration, a gathering of family and friends to mark Hillary Clinton’s election as the nation’s first woman president.Today, she is bearing the hopes and dreams of Democrats crushed by Clinton’s loss and trying to help the party pull itself from a deep hole.A state Senate race pitting two campaign novices in the upscale suburbs east of Seattle has turned into a major battle between the two national parties, becoming the costliest legislative contest in state history and serving as a test of the Trump effect far from the other Washington.At stake is control of the state Capitol in Olympia. Democrats, who run the governments in California and Oregon, hope to build a blue wall of resistance the length of the West Coast and get a shot of momentum ahead of 2018 by extending their legislative winning streak under Trump.Read More The Republican tax bill’s small-business problem — most won’t benefit from the special new rate By Jim Puzzanghera (Michael Reynolds / European Pressphoto Agency / Shutterstock) The House Republican plan to cut taxes for small businesses has a big problem: Most apparently won’t benefit from it.The typical small business, whether it’s a sole proprietorship, partnership or limited liability company, doesn’t pay taxes itself, but its owners do as individuals.And already about 86% of these so-called pass-through businesses pay no more than 25% under the individual code, the new top rate proposed for small-business income in the tax bill unveiled this week. So they won’t get the legislation’s much-hyped small-business tax cut.On top of that, the bill makes it very difficult for lawyers, engineers, doctors, consultants and other personal services providers, who make up a good share of small businesses, to qualify for the 25% rate.“The whole thing doesn’t work for most small businesses,” said Jack Mozloom, spokesman for the National Federation of Independent Business, which has declared it does not support the bill at this point.Read More With election stakes high, even local Virginia contests draw national volunteers and attention By Cathleen Decker (Cathleen Decker / Los Angeles Times) The test of whether the nation’s Democrats can turn enthusiasm into tangible victories rested on a ping pong table in the basement of a home in Leesburg, Va., where breakfast sweets vied for space with scores of election packets that dozens of volunteers gathered to deliver to homes of potential voters.The candidate the volunteers were there to support in a race for the commonwealth’s lower legislative chamber was Wendy Gooditis, one of scores of first-timers drawn to the 2017 state races out of frustration over the presidential election and the conservative bent of Virginia’s Republican-controlled Legislature.Though her campaign is decidedly local, it and others like it around the state carry weight: Virginia represents a nationally watched early test of whether Democrats can halt a series of ignoble defeats and craft a template for the 2018 congressional and gubernatorial elections.Read More ‘This isn’t a guns situation’: Trump says Texas shooter was ‘deranged’ By Brian Bennett President Trump said Monday that the South Texas shooting that killed at least 26 people wasn’t “a guns situation,” and blamed it instead on the gunman’s mental health. During a news conference in Tokyo, where he’s on the first leg of a five-nation Asia trip, Trump was asked if he thought stricter gun laws could help prevent such mass shootings. “I think that mental health is your problem here,” Trump said. “Based on preliminary reports, a very deranged individual, a lot of problems for a long period of time,” he said.It is unclear if the alleged shooter, Devin P. Kelley, 26, showed signs of mental illness. The Texan received a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force in 2014 and had a history of domestic violence.Trump said more people in the church might have been killed if the gunman himself had not been shot by a neighbor with a gun.“Fortunately, somebody else had a gun that was shooting in the opposite direction,” Trump said. ‘He will shoot them out of the sky’: Trump urges Japan to buy U.S. technology to stop North Korean missiles By Brian Bennett (Kiyoshi Ota / Associated Press) President Trump called Monday for Japan to buy U.S. anti-missile batteries to counter the growing ballistic missile threat from North Korea, saying buying more U.S. military equipment would create more jobs for Americans and increase security for Japan.“He will shoot them out of the sky when he completes the purchase of a lot of military equipment from the United States,” Trump said during a news conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.Trump also called on North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to return the Japanese citizens Pyongyang has abducted, saying doing so would be “a tremendous signal” and the “start of something very special.”During the news conference that followed meetings, lunch and the feeding of fish in a koi pond together, Trump pointedly teased his friend Abe over the trade deficit between the two countries, and seemed to advocate a military buildup as a way to close the gap.The Japanese government already buys a lot of U.S. military hardware, Abe replied, but agreed that the country should “enhance our defense capability.”“Missile defense is something based on cooperation between Japan and the U.S.,” Abe said. “If it is necessary” to shoot down a missile, he said, “of course we will do that.”North Korea provocatively fired a ballistic missile over the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido in September, and U.S. and Japanese military officials are concerned that North Korea may launch a similar provocation during Trump’s tour of Asia. Man identified as Texas shooter was court-martialed for assault on his spouse and child By David S. Cloud The man authorities have identified as the shooter in the massacre at a Texas church was given a bad conduct discharge from the Air Force three years ago after being court-martialed for assault, a military spokesperson confirmed Sunday.Federal law prohibits a person who has been dishonorably discharged from buying a firearm. Whether Kelley’s discharge would trigger the law was not immediately clear. Devin P. Kelley, who served in logistics readiness at Holloman Air Force Base in New Mexico starting in 2010, was court-martialed in 2012 for two counts alleging assault on his spouse and assault on their child, Ann Stefanek, the chief of Media Operations for the Air Force, said in a statement.Kelley was convicted and sentenced to 12 months in custody and given a bad conduct discharge, Stefanek said. He was discharged in 2014.The 1968 Gun Control Act made it unlawful for a licensed firearms dealer to sell a weapon to a person with a dishonorable discharge or for such a person “to ship or transport in interstate or foreign commerce, or possess in or affecting commerce, any firearm or ammunition; or to receive any firearm or ammunition which has been shipped or transported in interstate or foreign commerce.”Officials have said they found multiple weapons in Kelley’s vehicle when he died. They have not said how he obtained them. Brazile says ‘no evidence’ Democratic primaries rigged but tells Clinton-allied critics to ‘go to hell’ By Laura King (Associated Press) Donna Brazile, the former interim head of the Democratic National Committee, said on Sunday that she had found “no evidence” of rigging of the 2016 Democratic presidential contests in Hillary Clinton’s favor, though excerpts from her new book have been seized upon by Clinton critics to make that case.Brazile, who temporarily headed the party late in the election cycle, caused a stir with previews of her forthcoming book, “Hacks,” in which she strongly criticizes Clinton and her staff over a joint fundraising agreement with the party committee. She said it gave the Clinton forces too much say over the party apparatus and unfairly hampered Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in his bid for the Democratic nomination.In an interview aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Brazile appeared to soften that slightly, telling interviewer George Stephanopoulos that “I found no evidence, none whatsoever” that the state primaries were rigged to benefit Clinton.But she also said she has no regrets about her scathing assessment of the Clinton campaign’s flaws or her account’s overall critical tenor, despite strong pushback from Clinton allies. Referring to “those who are telling me to shut up,” Brazile said: “You know what I tell them? Go to hell. I’m going to tell my story.” Trump silent on Saudi purge even after speaking to King Salman By Brian Bennett (Yahya Arhab / European Pressphoto Agency) As reports mount about Saudi Arabia arresting Saudi princes, including a prominent billionaire investor, President Trump and his administration have been silent about the ruling family’s purge even after he spoke with the king late Saturday on other matters.It is unclear if the arrests in Saudi Arabia were part of an anti-corruption investigation or a move by King Salman to consolidate power around his own family, or both. Among the princes and current and former ministers arrested was Alwaleed bin Talal, one of the Middle East’s richest people, with large investments in numerous U.S. and global companies.Trump repeatedly has expressed his admiration for the powerful Saudi monarch and promised to support Saudi Arabia’s moves against Iran in the region.He spoke to the king from Air Force One while en route to Asia for a five-nation tour, but the White House’s statement on the call said nothing about the intrigue in Riyahd. Later, when Trump spoke briefly to reporters on the plane, he said only that he’d urged the king to list the Saudi national oil company, Aramco, on an American stock exchange.Pressed by reporters, the White House on Sunday released the detailed description of Trump’s phone call with Salman. It said Salman expressed condolences for the terrorist attack in New York City that left eight people dead, and that the two leaders discussed the fight against Islamic State, the foiling of a missile attack against Riyadh from territory in neighboring Yemen, Saudi purchases of U.S. military equipment, and the expected public offering of Aramco.A senior administration official briefing reporters on Trump’s visit to Japan would not answer a reporter’s question Sunday about whether the arrests came up in the phone call. “I appreciate the question, but it’s — I’m not even going to be able to give you a useful answer,” the official said. Trump and Abe bond in Tokyo over golf, steaks and trucker hats that say ‘great again’ By Brian Bennett (EPA) Shinzo had a something special for Donald. When President Trump arrived on Sunday at the Kasumigaseki Country Club outside Tokyo to play golf with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, the Japanese leader surprised Trump with the sort of trucker hats Trump favors, embroidered in his preferred color — gold — and borrowing from Trump’s signature slogan: “Donald & Shinzo, Make Alliance Even Greater.”The hats symbolized how foreign leaders have quickly learned to play to Trump’s pride, and the Donald-Shinzo love-fest didn’t end there. After nine holes of golf, joined by the fourth-ranked golfer in the world, Hideki Matsuyama, the leaders complimented each other on Twitter. Trump called Abe and Matsuyama “wonderful people.” Abe said Trump is a “marvelous friend” and the round was “full of spirited conversation.”Later, as the two leaders and their wives walked into an expensive teppanyaki grill for dinner in downtown Tokyo, Abe was silent but Trump told reporters, “Our relationship is really extraordinary.” He added a typical hyperbolic flourish: “I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to Japan than we are right now.”Trump said he and Abe were having “very major discussions on many subjects” including North Korea and trade. “I think we’ll insult everybody by continuing to talk about trade,” he added. As Trump begins Asia trip, only one in three Americans trust him to handle North Korea By David Lauter (Kazuhiro Nogi / Associated Press) As President Trump arrived in Japan to start a five-nation trip to Asia that will be heavily focused on the nuclear standoff with North Korea, most Americans have little faith in his ability to handle that problem, according to a poll published Sunday.Only one in three Americans said they had a “great deal” or even a “good amount” of trust in Trump’s ability to “act responsibly in handling the situation involving North Korea,” the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll found. Half said they did not trust him at all, with the rest expressing little trust.The rating on that issue is slightly lower than Trump’s overall job approval: The poll found 37% approving Trump’s job performance and 59% disapproving. That’s in line with recent surveys from Fox News, Gallup, Rasmussen, YouGov, SurveyMonkey and other organizations.Trump gets his highest marks on the economy, on which 44% rate him good or excellent and 53% fair or poor, the new poll found. He gets his lowest ratings on handling race relations and healthcare, where only about one quarter of Americans say his work has been good or excellent.Just over half those surveyed said America’s leadership in the world has grown weaker since Trump took office; one in four say it has grown stronger. The Post/ABC poll was conducted Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 among 1,005 adults. The margin of error is 3.5 points in either direction. House Republicans produced an ambitious tax overhaul, but now the hard work begins By Lisa Mascaro House Republicans produced an ambitious proposal to overhaul the tax code, but as lawmakers sift through the pages, sorting out winners and losers, any concerns they might have are being overpowered by the political momentum to deliver on one of President Trump’s top priorities.The legislation is on a fast track to pass in the House in a matter of weeks, despite criticism that it’s heavily tilted toward corporations and the wealthy, does little for the middle class and will pile $1.5 trillion onto the deficit.Instead, Republicans see in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act an opportunity to salvage their legislative agenda, after limited accomplishments during Trump’s first year in the White House, and reshape the federal tax code to align with their low-tax, small-government goals.Read More U.S. scientists’ report contradicts Trump team on global warming By Associated Press (Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times) A massive U.S. report concludes that evidence of global warming is stronger than ever and that more than 90% of it has been caused by humans.The conclusion contradicts a favorite talking point of senior members of the Trump administration.A 477-page report released Friday said it’s “extremely likely” — meaning with 95% to 100% certainty — that global warming is man-made, mostly from carbon dioxide through the burning of coal, oil and natural gas.Read More Trump responds to Twitter account shutdown By Sameea Kamal (Twitter) President Trump commented Friday morning on the closure of his account for 11 minutes the day before.“I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact,” Trump said, though it was unclear what ‘the word’ was. The account was deactivated just before 4 p.m. EDTTwitter’s first explanation was that someone accidentally deleted it — someone who was not Trump. A few hours later, the company announced that a customer service employee was the culprit. Though the account was quickly reactivated, it continued to do strange things into the evening. At one point, the president’s followers had all but disappeared. Read More Cuba accuses U.S. of ‘lying’ about attacks on Americans in Havana By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) Cuba is denying that a “deliberate attack” caused mysterious ailments reported by U.S. personnel stationed in Havana, and accuses the Trump administration of refusing to cooperate in the investigation of the episode.Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said U.S. officials who claimed 24 Americans suffered hearing loss and other ailments from some sort of acoustic attack were “deliberately lying.”Rodriguez said the Trump administration was “politicizing” the case as part of a broader strategy to spoil relations between the two nations, only recently improved during the last two years of the Obama presidency.Despite Cuba’s decision to allow the FBI on the island to investigate with Cuban authorities, American officials have offered no evidence, medical data or other information, Rodriguez said in a news conference Thursday evening in Washington.“Whoever affirms this was caused by a deliberate attack is deliberately lying,” Rodriguez said.In addition to reports from the 24 Americans, a number of Canadians based in Havana have also complained of health problems. The U.S. has expelled 17 Cuban diplomats from Washington and removed more than half of its Havana-based staff.On Wednesday, the Trump administration reversed the course set by former President Obama and voted against a United Nations resolution condemning the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba. The nonbinding resolution was approved 191-2, with Israel joining the U.S. On last day of work, Twitter employee deactivates President Trump’s account By Jessica Roy (Twitter) For a brief moment Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump’s Twitter account disappeared from the internet.Just before 4 p.m., searching for @realDonaldTrump on Twitter resulted in an error.Twitter’s first explanation was that someone accidentally deleted it — someone who was not Trump. A few hours later, they announced that a customer service employee was the culprit. Still, when tweeters first found out about the incident, they had conclusions of their own. Had Hillary Clinton finally made good on her most memorable tweet? Had Twitter banned the president? Was Russia involved?Minutes after the account disappeared, it came back, just like that. The rest of Twitter wasn’t sure what to think. Some people seemed to think the site was better off without him.Most of Trump’s fans on Twitter seemed unmoved by the news – either that, or they just happened to not be looking at Twitter for a few minutes. His account was offline just long enough for Gateway Pundit to assert that he’d been banned. (Getting suspended/banned on Twitter and having your account deleted/deactivated result in different error messages; the one on Trump’s account was the deactivation screen.)For the time being, it seems Trump is on Twitter to stay, although the account continued to do strange things into the evening. At one point, the president’s followers had all but disappeared. 8:48 p.m.: This post was updated with a statement from Twitter that an employee had deactivated Trump’s account.10:07 p.m.: This post was updated with information about Trump’s followers.This post was originally published at 5:29 p.m.Brian De Los Santos and Christina Bellantoni contributed to this report. In new book, Donna Brazile assails Hillary Clinton campaign for taking ‘control’ of DNC By Kurtis Lee (Paul Sancya / Associated Press) Donna Brazile has torn open an old, persistent wound within the Democratic Party.In her new book, the former interim Democratic National Committee chairwoman makes a bold — if not previously suspected — allegation: Before she took over the organization in the summer of 2016, leaders within the party showed considerable favoritism toward Hillary Clinton during the primary election. From the start, Brazile writes, the scale was tipped in favor of former secretary of State Clinton — and against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). It centers on a fundraising agreement that Clinton’s campaign signed with the DNC that essentially kept the committee afloat and allowed her aides to control the party. “The funding arrangement with HFA [Hillary for America presidential campaign committee] and the victory fund agreement was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical,” Brazile writes in an excerpt of the book published by Politico. “If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead.”Brazile writes that shortly after becoming chair, she called Sanders to explain how Clinton had exerted a “control of the party long before she became its nominee.”“Had I known this, I never would have accepted the interim chair position, but here we were with only weeks before the election,” writes Brazile.Sanders’ campaign also signed an agreement, but decided against raising money for the DNC and state parties.Throughout the primary, Sanders, whose populist message resonated with the party’s liberal base, battled with the DNC, saying the organization was showing favoritism toward Clinton by, among other things, offering a limited number of debates. Jeff Weaver, who served as Sanders’ campaign manger, said Thursday that Brazile’s book “confirms what many understood to be the case.” “We saw throughout the campaign a pattern from the DNC that was favorable to Clinton. They wanted her to be the nominee,” he said.Brazile took over as head of the DNC in July 2016 after the then-DNC chairwoman, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, resigned following the release of leaked emails from WikiLeaks that showed DNC staffers discussing strategies that could be used against Sanders. While Brazile jabs Clinton in her new book, she, too, has faced considerable criticism since last year for her actions during the primary.Leaked emails also published by WikiLeaks showed that Brazile, who before becoming interim chairwoman was a CNN analyst, shared questions with Clinton ahead of a town hall event that the network was hosting in March 2016.Brazile was fired from CNN and apologized for sharing the questions. Republicans toughen position on legislation to protect ‘Dreamers’ By David Lauter (Chris Kleponis / Getty Images) Republican senators, emerging from a meeting with President Trump on Thursday, said they opposed the idea of including legislation to provide legal status for “Dreamers” as part of a must-pass year-end spending deal.That stand could lead to a standoff in Congress next month. Democratic leaders have pushed to include legislation on the Dreamers as part of the year-end measure that lawmakers have to pass to keep government agencies from shutting down.Republicans have been unable to pass bills to fund the government without support from at least some Democrats, a fact that gives the Democratic minority considerable leverage in the year-end negotiations.Earlier this fall, Trump announced that he was canceling the Obama administration’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which shields from deportation some 700,000 young immigrants, known as Dreamers, who came to the U.S. illegally as children. Trump said the DACA program exceeded the president’s authority and kicked the issue over to Congress.Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said a consensus had been reached at the meeting to search for a small-scale fix that would deal with the Dreamers but not to pursue a comprehensive immigration overhaul, which some conservatives have pushed.But, he added, the group also agreed that the issue should be dealt with separately, not as part of the year-end spending measure. Rick Perry suggests connection between fossil fuels and preventing sexual assault By Jessica Roy Secretary of Energy Rick Perry stirred a controversy Thursday when he appeared to suggest a connection between burning fossil fuels and preventing sexual assault, a lesson he said he had learned on a recent trip to Africa.“A young girl told me to my face, ‘One of the reasons that electricity is so important to me is not only because I’m not going to have to try to read by the light of a fire and have those fumes literally killing people,’ ” the former Texas governor said, according to The Hill.“But also from the standpoint of sexual assault. When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts,” he added.When the lights are on, when you have light that shines, the righteousness, if you will, on those types of acts. Energy Sec. Rick Perry He continued, “So from the standpoint of how you really affect people’s lives, fossil fuels is going to play a role in that. I happen to think it’s going to play a positive role.”The Sierra Club released a statement calling for Perry to resign over the comments. “To suggest that fossil fuel development will decrease sexual assault is not only blatantly untrue, it is an inexcusable attempt to minimize a serious and pervasive issue,” the environmental group said. Trump pushes again for restrictions on visa program used by alleged New York attacker By Cathleen Decker (Chris Kleponis / Getty Images) President Trump pushed again Thursday for canceling the green card lottery program under which the alleged New York City attacker entered the country in 2010, as well as for changing immigration rules that give priority to family members of those living in the United States.Speaking in the White House after a meeting with Republican senators, Trump called the diversity visa lottery “a disaster for our country.”“The people put in that lottery are not that country’s finest,” he said, adding that the program created “significant vulnerabilities” for national security.Sayfullo Saipov gained entrance to the United States via the lottery, arriving in 2010 from his native Uzbekistan. He has been charged with driving a rented truck down a bicycle path in Manhattan on Tuesday, killing eight people in an attack reportedly inspired by Islamic State.The lottery program, created during the George H.W. Bush administration, was meant to allow individuals to enter the United States from countries that had low levels of immigration. It had particular support from Irish American and Italian American groups.Trump cast new restrictions on the arrival of family members as ensuring “that we can have a system that is security-based, not the way it is now.”“We want to select people based on their ability to contribute to our country, not choose people randomly when you have no idea who they are or be based on extended family connections,” Trump said. “You have people bringing in 24, 25, 26 people when they come in.”Trump’s claims appeared exaggerated. While residents of other nations enter under a variety of immigration programs, they are vetted by U.S. authorities. Relatives are not automatically allowed into the country, but must apply, according to U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Watch live: President Trump announces his pick to lead the Federal Reserve Watch live: White House briefing with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, national security advisor H. R. McMaster Watch live: President Trump makes announcement on jobs Ex-Trump campaign official withdraws nomination for USDA post By Associated Press (Scott Olson / Getty Images) A former Trump campaign official who has been linked to the Russia investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller has withdrawn his nomination for a Department of Agriculture post. Sam Clovis said in a letter to President Trump dated Thursday that he does “not want to be a distraction or a negative influence.” He cites “relentless assaults on you and your team” that “seem to be a blood sport.”White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the administration respects his decision to withdraw. This week, it was revealed that Clovis had communications with George Papadopoulos, who has admitted to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russian intermediaries. Questions have been raised about Clovis’ qualifications to serve as the Agriculture Department’s chief scientist. He is a self-described skeptic of climate change. House GOP tax plan would place new limits on mortgage interest deduction House Republicans are proposing to place new limits on the tax deduction for mortgage interest in their soon-to-be-released overhaul. A summary of the plan says it would reduce the cap on the popular deduction to interest on mortgages of $500,000 for newly purchased homes. The current mortgage cap is $1 million. The idea is sure to generate opposition from the real estate lobby, but it’s being used to help pay for tax cuts elsewhere in the plan. The plan also limits the deductibility of local property taxes to $10,000 while eliminating the deduction for state income taxes. The child tax credit would rise from $1,000 to $1,600, though the $4,050 per child exemption would be repealed. Read More Trump backs down from call to send New York terrorism suspect to Guantanamo. Instead, ‘DEATH PENALTY!’ By Noah Bierman President Trump backed down from his threat to send New York City terrorism suspect Sayfullo Saipov to the military detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as an enemy combatant and instead called for a quick death sentence.In a tweet early Thursday, Trump said that he “would love to send the NYC terrorist to Guantanamo but statistically the process takes much longer than going through the Federal system.”Trump also called for the “DEATH PENALTY!,” using all capital letters and an exclamation point as a signal that he was not softening his position. He was repeating the call he’d made hours earlier on Twitter, just before midnight Wednesday and also in capital letters -- a presidential intervention against the defendant that could complicate prosecutors’ efforts, by allowing his defense team to argue he cannot receive a fair trial. “There is also something appropriate about keeping him in the home of the horrible crime he committed,” Trump continued on Thursday.With that, he somewhat echoed arguments of President Obama and others for using the American justice system, and thereby underscoring its principles and avoiding constitutional questions. And he contradicted much-criticized comments he’d made Wednesday describing the U.S. judicial system as “a joke” and “a laughingstock” to justify his support for using Guantanamo.Trump had never committed to sending Saipov to Guantanamo. “I would certainly consider it. Send him to Gitmo,” he said on Wednesday.Federal authorities charged Saipov on Wednesday with providing support to a terrorist organization, Islamic State, signaling their intent to use the federal court system. Reversing course, U.S. votes against U.N. resolution condemning Cuba embargo By Tracy Wilkinson (Associated Press) Reversing another Obama-era policy, the Trump administration on Wednesday voted against a United Nations resolution that condemned the half-century-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba.Only Israel voted with the United States against the resolution, which called for an end to the economic embargo imposed by Congress early in the Cold War.A total of 191 countries approved the resolution at a U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.The U.S. ambassador always voted against the annual, nonbinding resolution since it was first introduced 25 years ago — until last year.After President Obama restored diplomatic relations with Cuba and took steps to improve relations with the Communist-ruled island, the U.S. last year abstained. Obama urged Congress to lift the embargo. The Trump administration cited Cuba’s human rights abuses as reason to keep the embargo. President Trump has vowed to roll back other improvements in economic and political ties with Cuba, although he has left the diplomatic opening largely intact.U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said the embargo would remain in place “as long as the Cuban people continue to be deprived of their human rights and fundamental freedoms.”Only Congress can lift the trade embargo.Trump has also blamed the Cuban government for what the U.S. calls mysterious attacks that have injured the hearing and caused other ailments to 24 U.S. diplomatic personnel in Havana.A U.S. investigation in Cuba has yet to determine the source of the ailments, and the State Department said Wednesday that it was not a factor in the U.N. vote. Cuba has denied responsibility for the alleged attacks. Fed stands pat on interest rates, offers upbeat assessment of economy By Don Lee (Andrew Harnik / Associated Press) Federal Reserve officials on Wednesday provided an upbeat account of the economy, saying that economic activity has been “rising at a solid rate despite hurricane-related disruptions.”That bullish assessment will reinforce expectations that the Fed -- while it held interest rates steady this week, as expected -- will nudge up its benchmark rate next month.In its statement Wednesday upon concluding a two-day meeting, the central bank said that the labor market has continued to strengthen, with the jobless rate falling even further, to 4.2% in September. (October’s unemployment and hiring report will be released Friday.)Moreover, the Fed noted that consumer spending, which accounts for two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, has continued to expand moderately, while business investment has been gathering steam in recent quarters.The Fed has lifted its key interest rate twice this year, in March and June, and that so-called federal funds rate is in a range of 1% to 1.25%. The central bank has held off on making a rate move since then, in large part because inflation has been stubbornly below the Fed’s 2% target.Measures of inflation remain low, but the Fed said it expected inflation to move up to its target level over the medium term. The Fed under its chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, has charted a path of gradually raising interest rates, and last month the central bank began shrinking its holdings of bonds that were purchased in recent years to stimulate lending and economic activity. Yellen’s term as chair expires in early February, and President Trump is not likely to nominate her for a second term. Instead, Trump on Thursday is expected to name Jerome Powell, a member of the Fed Board of Governors, to succeed Yellen. When fully occupied, the Fed’s seven-member board, along with five Fed district bank presidents, is responsible for making monetary policy decisions. At their last scheduled meeting of the year, on Dec. 12-13, Fed policymakers are widely expected to make another quarter-point rate hike. They also will update their economic forecast and projections for future rate hikes. The last time they did so, in September, most Fed officials predicted continued moderate economic growth of about 2% for the foreseeable future and at least three rate increases in 2018. Trump wants to insert Obamacare repeal into tax bill -- giving Republicans a new headache as rollout stalls By Lisa Mascaro As House Republicans struggle to produce their ambitious tax overhaul, President Trump weighed in Wednesday with an off-topic suggestion: How about repealing part of Obamacare and use the money saved on healthcare for tax cuts?The idea is not original. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Okla.), who often has the president’s ear, floated as much during a tweet storm over the weekend.Cotton, joined by GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, argue that repealing the mandate that all Americans carry health insurance would save $300 billion over the decade.Not only would Republicans be able to find more revenue needed to pay for tax cuts without having to eliminate popular deductions, but they would also score a political win after their failed effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, supporters reason.But the idea creates headaches for GOP tax bill writers who are already struggling to rally lawmakers around a stand-alone tax bill. Adding Obamacare repeal to the mix would force them to wade through an additional political and procedural morass.The savings from ending the Obamacare individual mandate comes largely if people cancel their once-required insurance coverage. Since most Obamacare recipients receive federal subsidies to lower their premiums, the government would save money if they dropped coverage.But Republicans in the Senate have already shown, in their failed repeal votes this year, that they are unwilling to change the Affordable Care Act in ways that leave more Americans uninsured.Trump’s proposal has not appeared to gain traction. But as the president spitballs ideas -- and Republicans struggle to figure out a way to pay for their tax plan -- it may become something more for them to talk about. Rollout of Republican tax plan is delayed as talks continue By Lisa Mascaro President Trump meets with business leaders at the White House on Tuesday. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press) Republicans delayed the long-awaited introduction of their tax-cut bill Tuesday as members continued to argue over key elements, including how fast to cut corporate rates, which state tax deductions to eliminate and whether to impose new caps on popular 401(k) retirement accounts, according to people familiar with the negotiations.After promising that the bill would be released on Wednesday, the chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas), announced late in the day that the unveiling would have to wait another day.Although Republicans remained divided on some issues, particularly how to pay for the cuts they favored, other details were coming into focus.At a private meeting with outside conservative groups Tuesday afternoon, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (-Wis.) said the plan would keep the current top tax rate of 39.6% for the most affluent Americans, but would make that bracket apply only to “substantially” higher incomes than the current $470,700 for couples, according to participants at the gathering.The plan will also delay the repeal of the estate tax — long sought by the GOP — for two to three years, the speaker told the group.And Ryan said that though he wanted the House bill to immediately slash the corporate tax rate to 20% from the current 35%, the final version may phase in the cut.Read More Virginia tests a likely 2018 election strategy: Racially fraught appeals By Cathleen Decker Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie, right, debates Democratic rival Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam. (Steve Helber / Associated Press) Virginia has been swamped by fearful images as Tuesday’s state elections near: heavily tattooed and handcuffed Latinos staring balefully at the television camera, a mug shot of a convicted pedophile set loose on the state.Versions of those ads may be headed to other states in the 2018 elections, as Republicans seek to maximize the turnout of the burgeoning Trump wing of the party with themes known to appeal to them.The strategy in Virginia by Republican gubernatorial candidate Ed Gillespie has played heavily on themes of race and crime — itself an issue that has historically conjured racial stereotypes — in the style employed by President Trump last year.Both sides believe the outcome likely will turn on which candidate — Gillespie or Democrat Ralph Northam — can best deploy their base voters on Nov. 7. Democrats, who have won statewide in elections since 2009, are counting on Trump’s unpopularity to pull their voters to the polls. Republicans have sought to energize their voters with issues including gangs, sanctuary cities and Confederate monuments.Read More Trump calls for ‘merit based’ immigration in wake of New York attack By Noah Bierman President Trump quickly seized on Tuesday’s deadly attack in New York to promote immigration restrictions and to criticize his chief Democratic rival, New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer.Trump’s immediate labeling of the attack as a terrorist act and his calls for policy actions contrasted with his responses to the violence and a killing by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., in August — Trump wouldn’t blame the neo-Nazis solely and said then he doesn’t rush to discuss incidents without the facts — and to the mass killings in Las Vegas on Oct. 1, after which he said it was too soon to discuss gun laws.Trump’s Wednesday morning tweets followed a report from ABC News that the man apprehended in the New York attack, Sayfullo Saipov, came to the United States in 2010 through the diversity lottery program, which is designed to increase legal immigration from countries with lower numbers of migrants.Trump is trying to end the program, and many conservative outlets have seized on Tuesday’s attacks to criticize the program and Schumer. Two of Trump’s Wednesday tweets referenced Fox News, an indication he probably was watching the cable news channel, his routine in the morning.He first tweeted Tuesday night, soon after the incident, saying he “ordered Homeland Security to step up our already Extreme Vetting Program,” the subject of extensive litigation since Trump took office. Trump did not offer specifics, and it is unclear how different vetting procedures would have affected Saipov’s case.Schumer responded on Twitter hours later: Read More | 0 |
It can be hard to understand this after Democrats staged a 15-hour filibuster on the Senate floor last week, but the intensity gap in the gun debate long predates the attack on the Pulse nightclub in Orlando. It is why nothing got done after children were massacred at an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., even with a newly reelected President Obama pushing for action and a Democratic majority in the Senate.-- A look at the numbers: A Quinnipiac University poll conducted after the San Bernardino attack in December found 83 percent of registered voters supported banning gun sales to people on the government’s terrorist watch list. It had support from 89 percent of Democrats and 77 percent of Republicans, as well as 80 percent in gun-owning households.A separate Gallup poll in December found 71 percent of adults saying a ban on gun sales to people on the federal no-fly list would be “very” or “somewhat” effective in the U.S. campaign against terrorism. This action was seen as one of the more effective measures to combat terrorism — surpassed by increased airstrikes on the Islamic State (79 percent) and providing tighter screening for short-term travelers to the United States (79 percent) but far higher than blocking Muslims from entering the country (38 percent).But, but, but: The Post’s in-house pollster, Scott Clement, flags a 2013 Pew Research Study, which found that people who prioritize gun rights over gun control are four or five times more likely to contribute money to advocacy groups, contact public officials, sign petitions and express their views on social media.-- This intensity gap is why Donald Trump has basically capitulated to pressure from the National Rifle Association. Phoning in to CBS’s “Face the Nation” yesterday, Trump seemed to walk back his support last week for meaningful action on this issue. Instead, he repeatedly praised the National Rifle Association and said that he’s working closely with it. “The NRA has the best interests of our country” at heart, he said. “These are great people.” Caving like that is rare for the headstrong candidate, but it reflects Trump’s continuing political education. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.), his closest ally in the Senate, publicly chastised him last week for breaking with party orthodoxy.-- All that said, the political dynamics of the gun debate are changing in significant ways:-- Republicans are actually offering alternative proposals. GOP leaders do not want their members to look obstructionist the way they did after Sandy Hook three years ago. The majority leader wants to reassure voters that his party is capable of governing. So rather than just blocking the Democratic bills, which procedurally would be easy, Republicans are making a big deal about how they, too, want to stop terrorists from getting guns and proposing measures of their own to do so, even if they are impractical in reality.Democrats have rallied behind a bill from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would let the attorney general deny firearms to any suspected terrorist, congressional reporter Karoun Demirjian explains. The alternative from Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) would let the attorney general do the same — but only if she could prove to a judge within three business days of the attempted sale that there was probable cause to suspect the buyer of ties to terrorism. “Republicans argue Feinstein’s bill doesn’t do enough to protect against situations where someone is mistakenly on a terror watch list,” writes Demirjian. “But Democrats maintain the time limitations in Cornyn’s alternative would make it functionally impossible to actually prevent suspicious individuals from purchasing firearms.”“Democrats will also move a measure by Sens. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) that would expand background checks for anyone trying to purchase a firearm at a gun show or online. It is similar to a compromise measure from Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) that sought to do the same in 2013 … but failed to gather enough support,” Demirjian adds. “Republicans are backing an alternative from Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) that would increase funding for the agency that runs background checks, but wouldn’t expand mandatory background checks to gun shows and online sellers.”The Cornyn and Grassley bills, which both senators know will never actually become law, are designed to help members in tough races defend themselves. The mainstream media and TV news reporters — who have a bad habit of pursuing false equivalency in the name of fairness — are already covering today’s debate as a “he said, she said” sort of situation, which muddies the water and makes it harder for Democrats to score political points.Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) also spent part of last week in discussions with other Republicans to craft her own compromise proposal. Her measure is limited to the no-fly list, which is a subset of the terrorist watch list. “Collins’s proposal is the only attempt at striking a compromise that Democrats have not dismissed out of hand. But it is not scheduled for a vote on Monday, and Democrats are skeptical it would garner any Republican support,” per Karoun.-- A Democratic polling firm says the terrorist watch list measure could sway voters in Florida. An automated poll published Saturday by Public Policy Polling found 83 percent of registered voters in the state support barring those on the Terror Watch List from buying a gun, and 74 percent say they're less likely to vote for a Senate candidate opposed to that. Pollster Tom Jensen emails: “At the end of the poll we did a simple informed horse race, after telling respondents that [Marco] Rubio has opposed barring people on the Terror Watch List from buying firearms and that he's opposed requiring criminal background checks for those wanting to buy firearms. [Democrat Patrick] Murphy's initial 42/41 lead over Rubio ballooned all the way up to 47/32 based on his position on those gun issues. Those numbers are a pretty strong indicator that this year might be different when it comes to gun issues and the election if Congress once again fails to act.”-- Gun control has increasingly become a litmus test issue for Democrats, just like it has been for Republicans over the past two decades. Hillary Clinton was an unabashed supporter of tougher gun laws during this year’s Democratic primaries, a contrast to her more nuanced position in 2008. Bernie Sanders proved quite vulnerable on the issue, specifically his 2005 vote to limit liability for gun manufacturers.In Ohio, the quintessential presidential battleground, Democrat Ted Strickland campaigned as pro-gun in 2010 when he was running for reelection as governor. He even got the NRA endorsement over John Kasich. Six years later, he’s his party’s nominee against Republican Sen. Rob Portman and sounding a different tune.“I grew up in rural Appalachia, and I believe in the Second Amendment,” Strickland writes in a new Medium post. “My creator also gave me eyes and ears, a heart and brain — and the capacity to use all of them to assess the challenges facing our country. There is no denying that America is facing a pressing and heartbreaking epidemic of gun violence. The victims have been school children, moviegoers, parishioners and now dancers at a nightclub. ... Our leaders in Washington like Senator Portman are not taking simple, commonsense steps to keep weapons out of the hands of those who would do us harm.”-- Finally, the forces in favor of gun control are also trying to get their act together, and their efforts have benefited from Mike Bloomberg’s largesse. Catherine Ho looks this morning at a growing group of volunteer activists involved with Everytown for Gun Safety, the nation’s highest-profile gun control group. They have a “Survivor Network” with 1,000 activists in 46 states who are either survivors of gun violence themselves or who know or are related to someone who was killed that way. “Since its launch in April 2014, Everytown has skyrocketed from about a dozen employees to 130,” Cat writes. “Headquartered in midtown Manhattan, the group spent $37 million in 2014, the most recent year for which there are publicly available tax filings.” (By comparison, the NRA in 2014 spent $345 million, though only $20 million on that was on its lobbying arm.)WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:-- The Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Golden State Warriors 93-89 in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The victory ends the city's 52-year championship drought and makes the Cavaliers the first team to recover from a three-games-to-one deficit in NBA Finals history, Tim Bontemps notes. LeBron James was the series MVP.GET SMART FAST:Israel is constructing a deep underground wall around the Gaza Strip, attempting to counter the threat of assault tunnels built by Hamas militants who rule the coastal enclave. (Ruth Eglash)Top U.S. cancer doctors are leading a campaign to increase the use of the HPV vaccine, which is stubbornly underused despite studies that show it could avert tens of thousands of cancer cases per year. (Laurie McGinley)High lead levels have been found in roughly 3 percent of children across the country, according to a study which slams U.S. pediatricians for not doing enough to prevent lead poisoning. (USA Today)Fourteen Nepalese security guards were killed in Kabul by a Taliban suicide bomber, one of the deadliest attacks on foreign contractors since the war began nearly 15 years ago. (Sayed Salahuddin)One in every 113 people in the world is forcibly displaced from their home right now, according to a new global trends report from the United Nations. (Max Bearak)Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s push to give convicted felons the right to vote continues to be a mess. In the latest embarrassment for the close Clinton ally, state officials were forced to remove 132 sex offenders from the list of newly-eligible voters. (Laura Vozzella)Dustin Johnson won the U.S. Open, despite earning a penalty after his ball rotated slightly on the fifth green. (Dave Sheinin)Former Vanderbilt football player Brandon Vandenburg faces a prison sentence of 15 to 25 years after being convicted of multiple charges stemming from a gang rape of an unconscious woman he had been dating. (Cindy Boren)Actor Anton Yelchin was found dead outside his L.A. home after being struck by his own car. The 27-year-old “Star Trek” star was found pinned between his car and a gate on his inclined driveway. (Caitlin Moore) Las Vegas police arrested a 19-year-old man after he tried to pull a gun from an officer’s holster during a Trump rally. “It's not clear what Michael Sandford's intentions were or whether he was attempting to harm Trump. The Secret Service says it has charged Sandford with violating two federal laws following the incident, including assault, and he could face up to a decade in prison if convicted," per CNN.A 64-year-old Ohio gun store owner was killed after a student in his concealed carry class accidentally set off his firearm. The bullet traveled through the wall from an adjacent room. (Peter Holley)A New Hampshire car dealership unveiled a controversial “buy a car, get an AR” sales gimmick that offers buyers an AR-15 assault rifle with the purchase of a vehicle. (Peter Holley)A woman was mauled by a bear while running a marathon through a New Mexico wildlife preserve. Other runners helped until emergency crews arrived. She suffered non-life-threatening injuries to her head and neck. Authorities are trying to find the animal to euthanize it and test it for rabies. (AP)-- Marco Rubio is widely expected to announce he’s running for reelection to the Senate at some point before Friday. National Review's Alexis Levinson looks at how he got here: "NRSC executive director Ward Baker first approached Rubio at the end of April. He also started calling senators and close confidants of Rubio, asking them to talk to him about running. … Several polls conducted by the NRSC starting the first week of May determined that not one of the five candidates then running to replace Rubio had broken out of the pack.”THE "BREXIT" VOTE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT STORY OF THIS WEEK:-- Trump explained his support for Britain leaving the European Union in an interview with The Sunday Times of London: “I would personally be more inclined to leave, for a lot of reasons like having a lot less bureaucracy,” he said. “But I am not a British citizen. This is just my opinion.” He’s previously said he “thinks the country” should leave, though he has declined to comment further on the issue. “I respect David Cameron,” Trump offered in the interview. “I would imagine we will have a very good relationship if I am successful.”-- Two fresh polls suggest support has swung back toward the “remain” category following the Thursday assassination of British MP Jo Cox: 45 percent of voters said they planned to cast a vote to remain in the E.U., according to a Mail on Sunday poll, while 42 said they still wanted to leave. A YouGov/Sunday Times poll also reflected a shift, with “remain” voters edging out leave voters by a 44-43 point margin. (USA Today)-- Key insight: “Emotional ties to Europe likely won’t be on Brits’ minds." From Griff Witte: “To beat back the marauding hordes of continental Europe, the medieval English built an immense stone castle atop the sheer white cliffs of Dover, with 21-foot-thick walls and royal soldiers on constant watch for anyone who dared trespass upon their blessedly detached isle. Eight centuries later, the modern English are still not quite sure whether the people across the water are friend or foe. That lack of emotional attachment to Europe — and indeed the hostility that some feel — helps explain why the country’s citizens might be eager to leave even amid the overwhelming consensus of experts that a departure could be economically, politically and strategically disastrous. But if the pro-E.U. forces are able to stop Brexit, as the U.K. departure is popularly known, it will not be for any love of Europe among the people of Britain. ‘European?’ asked [Derek] Beech, incredulous at the idea of counting himself as one. ‘I don’t even think there is such a thing.’”-- The generational divide is a major fault line. From Karla Adam: “A recent YouGov poll found that those between 18 and 24 were the least likely age group to vote, with only 51 percent saying they were absolutely certain they would cast a ballot. Youth turnout has long been a problem in Britain, and there are fears that it could be exacerbated this year with the referendum date clashing with soccer’s European Championship in France, as well as Glastonbury, a five-day music festival that attracts more than 170,000 people. ... Political apathy has the potential to hurt the ‘remain’ side the most, with polls showing that younger voters are the most pro-E.U. of any age group.” Older people are less enthused about the European project. Voters over 65 are the most likely to vote for a Brexit.-- The prospect of the Brexit alarms our Baltic allies, especially Estonia, Max Boot writes: “With a total population of just 6.2 million and just 56,000 military troops, the Baltic states sit next door to Russia, with 142 million people and more than 3 million troops ... Already Vladimir Putin has invaded Georgia and Ukraine. What is to stop him from marching into the Baltics? … The Balts are also members of the European Union, and they are convinced that a strong and vibrant E.U. is also necessary to maintain their prosperity and security. The E.U. enforces economic sanctions on Russia and provides the financial support needed for its more vulnerable members in Eastern Europe to withstand Russia’s economic pressure. … Their message for Britons is: ‘Lead, not leave.’”SUNDAY SHOW HIGHLIGHTS:-- Trump said it’s time for the United States to “start thinking about” racial profiling: “I think profiling is something we’re going to have to start thinking about as a country,” he said on CBS’s Face the Nation. "It’s not the worst thing to do. ... Other countries do it. You look at Israel and you look at others; they do it and they do it successfully. And I hate the concept of profiling, but we have to start using common sense and we have to use our heads."-- The RNC’s new Hispanic media spokeswoman declined to say whether she’s comfortable defending Trump: "Everyone has to make their own decision in this campaign, and that isn’t different from any other year,” said Helen Aguirre Ferre, in her first media interview since taking the position. “The Republican Party, like I said, is united in defeating Hillary Clinton, and that is what unites all of us." (Ed O'Keefe)IS IT REALLY TOO LATE TO BLOCK TRUMP FROM GETTING THE NOMINATION?-- There were 1,000 participants on a Stop Trump conference call last night. Organizers announced plans to raise money for staff and a possible legal defense fund as they asked new recruits to help spread the word with less than a month until the Republican National Convention. From Ed O'Keefe: "Having started with just a few dozen delegates, organizers also said that they now count several hundred delegates and alternates as part of their campaign. ... The group is led by convention delegates seeking to block Trump at the GOP convention next month in Cleveland by changing party rules so that they can vote however they want -- instead of in line with the results of state caucuses and primaries. It is quickly emerging as the most organized effort to stop Trump." Reince Priebus is working to quash The Resistance. An RNC spokesman dismissed plans to undermine Trump on the floor as "silly" and "nothing more than a media creation and a series of tweets."Delegates are under intense pressure from the party establishment not to join anti-Trump efforts: In North Carolina, some have proposed fining delegates or kicking them out of the party if they vote against Trump. In other states, party leaders have threatened to strip delegates of their credentials if they buck primary results and vote against Trump. Some who have reached out to The Post have spoken on the condition of anonymity, saying that their spouses are fearful of physical threats if they speak publicly about their plans.-- Even so, leaders of the Stop Trump effort -- which, to be clear, is still a HUGE long shot -- were pleased by Paul Ryan’s interview on “Meet the Press" yesterday, in which the Speaker said it’s not his place to decide whether delegates should be bound or unbound at the convention. "It is not my job to tell delegates what to do, what not to do, or to weigh in on things like that. They write the rules. They make their decisions," Ryan said. Though he maintained his endorsement of the presumptive nominee, he told Chuck Todd that Republicans should “follow their conscience." Many perceived this as a green light to keep organizing against Trump.-- Big picture: The conversation about Ryan is completely dominated by Trump. Over the last seven days, there have been more than 198,000 tweets mentioning Ryan. More than 68,000 of them also mentioned Trump, according to our analytics partners at Zignal Labs. The connection was even greater in news articles: The Speaker was mentioned in 13,000 stories over the last week, and more than 10,000 also mentioned Trump.THE DEMOCRATIC DENOUEMENT:-- Sanders could formally endorse Clinton before the Democratic convention in July, depending on the outcome of ongoing policy talks between the two campaigns. From John Wagner: Bernie's manager Jeff Weaver said he has been “encouraged” by discussions over several policy issues important to Sanders — including a plan for tuition-free college — that Sanders would like to see as part of the Democratic legislative agenda going forward. Clinton and Sanders began talks in earnest over such issues during a meeting last Tuesday night in Washington. “The resolution of those issues are important to determining any timetable” for a potential endorsement, Weaver said, adding that the outcome could also determine “how closely the campaigns work together” heading into the fall.-- Meanwhile, taxpayers are spending more than $38,000 PER DAY for Sanders to continue receiving Secret Service protection. It's an expensive reminder that the Vermont senator still hasn’t dropped out. From Wagner: "A team of agents still guards him at his home … They travel with him on commercial and charter flights and use a motorcade to whisk him through cities he visits. Such round-the-clock protection can cost taxpayers more than $38,000 a day. And with the potential for the Secret Service to be watching over Sanders through the convention in Philadelphia five weeks from now, the taxpayers may get stuck with a big security bill long after his campaign receded from the daily cable-news cycle."-- The Congressional Black Caucus attacked Sanders over his effort to get rid of superdelegates. The group voted unanimously to put out a statement “vehemently” opposing any meaningful changes to the system. They say it guarantees minority representation at the convention. (Wagner has more.)-- But the proposal is getting traction at state conventions. The California Democratic Party yesterday, for instance, called for a broad overhaul of the nominating system, including the elimination of caucuses and most superdelegates. From the LA Times: “The California resolution calls for Democratic governors and members of Congress to lose their status as super-delegates and instead attend the nominating convention as nonvoting guests. Members of the DNC would remain super-delegates, but would be required to vote for the candidate who won their (state). The resolution also calls for replacing all state caucuses with state primaries. ... The resolution, though only a symbolic statement, was unanimously approved at the state party’s executive board meeting."VEEPSTAKES:-- The New York Times fronts a story today that says CHEMISTRY is the key consideration in HRC’s VP search. The paper suggests that she has it with Julian Castro and Sherrod Brown but not with Cory Booker. “Mrs. Clinton’s aides began collecting information last week on as many as 10 candidates. James Hamilton, a Washington lawyer who is overseeing the vetting, will begin meeting with candidates as early as this week," Amy Chozick and Thomas Kaplan report. “Senior Democrats, thinking about both the fall election and a potential re-election in four years, said the right choice would stir up enthusiasm on the campaign trail, enhancing Mrs. Clinton’s strengths while not outshining her or overtaking events.”Per the Times, "The contenders most frequently mentioned by her advisers and senior Democrats close to the campaign include Senator Michael Bennet, from the key state of Colorado; Thomas E. Perez, President Obama’s secretary of labor and a Hispanic civil rights lawyer; Representative Xavier Becerra of California; and Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, both former governors from Virginia. Elizabeth Warren … is a favorite of liberal Democrats, though an all-female ticket is unlikely.”-- Becerra declined to say whether he is being vetted by Clinton’s team. “I can’t tell you I know,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “I know I’m in constant communication with the [Clinton] campaign on a number of items, but I can’t tell you I know where they are on the vetting process.”-- Warner said he is not under consideration: “I’m not being vetted. I don’t expect to be vetted,” he told the Virginian-Pilot. The Virginia senator praised junior senator Tim Kaine, saying “there’s nobody" with better integrity and trustfulness. “Secretary Clinton and the country would do well by him,” Warner said.-- Perez was Clinton's surrogate at the Virginia Democratic Party's annual Jefferson Jackson Dinner in Richmond on Saturday night. When The Post's Jenna Portnoy asked about the veepstakes, he replied: "I’ve been around politics enough to know all the swirl that’s fit to print, and so I focus on the reality of the here and now." Leaning forward with clasped hands, he added, “It’s all about her, it’s not about me.”-- Warren visited the Clinton campaign's Brooklyn headquarters for meetings on Friday. Then, on Saturday, she spoke at the New Hampshire Democratic Party convention. (Abby Phillip)-- The Boston Globe looks at how liberals are increasingly concerned that Warren would lose independence and power if she became Clinton's #2: “Warren’s detractors call it grandstanding. But her habit of needling, and sometimes flat out taking on, her own party when it veers toward the political center is what Warren’s allies love about her. And it’s exactly the trait they worry she’d have to give up if she abandons her perch as a senator and becomes Clinton’s running mate,” Annie Linskey writes. “The example that liberals fear most: Hubert Humphrey. Like Warren a darling of the left, he was tasked by President Lyndon Johnson with defending America’s role in Vietnam, which put him in direct conflict with his former allies and hobbled him when he sought the presidency himself.” Three key lines from the story:“When you’re vice president, it’s not your agenda, OK. It’s the president’s agenda,” said former vice president Dan Quayle. “That is something significant you are giving up. That independence.”Barney Frank predicts that Warren as vice president would carve out a role for herself as the tsarina of financial rules in a Clinton White House.She wants to be VP: “Two of Warren’s advisers have told the Globe that she’s intrigued with the idea."-- Politico's lead story is about how Wall Street donors are working behind the scenes to block Warren from getting the spot. “Most big donors don’t want Warren on the ticket because she is the most accomplished anti-Wall Street populist in the Democratic Party," Ben White writes. "But many also think her presence would drive a potential Clinton administration too far to the left, poison relations with the private sector from the start and ultimately be damaging to the economy. A constant theme that emerged in the interviews is that executives in the financial industry believe the first 100 days of a Clinton administration could feature potential deal making with Republicans, who are likely to maintain their majority in the House of Representatives. 'Clinton is going to face a divided government unless there is a total tsunami,' said one moderate Washington Democrat with close ties to the banking industry. 'What you want in a vice president is someone who can negotiate for you on the Hill, someone like Joe Biden.'"-- On the Republican side, Trump hired former Newt Gingrich adviser Kevin Kellems to oversee his surrogate operations. Newt has been getting more VP chatter again over the past 10 days, and this might add another data point. (New York Times)MORE ON THE DONALD:-- Could Arizona go blue for the first time in 20 years? Philip Rucker notes that an estimated 350,000 Latinos are eligible to vote but not registered, and Trump might have awakened a sleeping giant. "There is no recent reliable public polling in Arizona, but Democratic and Republican strategists said private research shows the presidential race as a toss-up. Asked whether Clinton has a path to victory, GOP strategist Charles Coughlin conceded: 'I believe it’s there if she wanted to do it. Everybody always says, ‘This is the election when Latinos turn out,’ and it’s never happened. But I can actually see that happening this time.’"-- Trump met with the Utah GOP chairman over the weekend, alarmed about a poll that shows Clinton polling neck-and-neck with him in the reliably red state. James Evans told The Salt Lake Tribune that Trump promised he'll come back to Utah to campaign in the fall! The chairman said he encouraged Trump to tone down rhetoric that has turned off many Utahans, specifically his attacks on Judge Gonzalo Curiel and his proposed ban on Muslims (which is anathema to Mormons).-- Another Republican senator, Wisconsin's Ron Johnson, twisted himself into pretzels as he explained how he will “support but not endorse” Trump. "To me, endorsement is a big embrace,” he said on CNN’s State of the Union. “It basically shows that I pretty well agree with an individual on almost everything … That’s not necessarily the case with our nominee.”-- “Trump Promised Millions To Charity, But Gave Little To His Own Foundation.” From BuzzFeed’s Andrew Kaczynski and Christopher Massie: In 1990, Trump said he gave away “millions to charity each year.” But records show he only gave $135,000 to his namesake foundation that same year. When asked about his lack of charitable giving in 2004, Trump said he actually intended to disburse his wealth after his death: “I do give millions of dollars a year, but I do it personally. I just write checks and give it away,” Trump told Playboy. “It’s not what you’d call a living foundation,” he said. “It’s set up for after I… when it’s no longer my time. The foundation will become very active at that point.”WAPO HIGHLIGHTS:-- “After Orlando, some American Muslims are anxious about what comes next,” by Mary Jordan and Abigail Hauslohner in Fort Pierce, Florida: “In the Fort, as many call this old Army post, some Muslims last week prayed in an unmarked building, while others worshiped at another nearby mosque where some recent passersby yelled ‘Murderers!’ Sheriff’s and police cars have been patrolling outside both. Omar Mateen, the Orlando shooter, lived in the Fort, where other Muslims also raise families and work in hospitals and run businesses. Now, in the aftermath of last weekend’s mass shooting, they worry about what might come next ... ‘We need to have Muslims and non-Muslims interact,’ said Bedar Bakht, a restaurant manager who has volunteered to cook the daily iftar meal for his fellow congregants at the Islamic Center of Fort Pierce. ‘We have to introduce ourselves to people — tell them, ‘Look, we are normal people. I watch movies. I listen to music.’”-- Trend: “Disdain for Trump and Clinton is so strong, even the dead are campaigning." From Terrence McCoy: “A few weeks ago, a 68-year-old woman lay dying in Virginia. She said it beat the alternative. ‘Faced with the prospect of voting for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton,’ her obituary said, ‘Mary Anne Noland of Richmond chose, instead, to pass into the eternal love of God.’ The dead have had an unusual amount to say this election cycle. They have looked back on their lives and said their ‘only regret is NOT being able to vote against Hillary Clinton. They have called [Trump] ‘Trumpypoo,’ who attracts ‘Angry Not Smart’ supporters. … One of the quirkier byproducts of a campaign season defined by vitriol and polarization has been a dramatic increase in the number of people whose last words are being used to campaign."SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:The Clintons welcomed a grandson:And it brought back this memory:One year later, lawmakers remembered the Charleston shooting victims:Hillary supporter Barbra Streisand had this to say:Another Clinton supporter unwittingly highlighted the generational divide that exists between HRC and Sanders backers:Rep. Nita Lowey (D-NY) said this re: Sanders supporters: "Sometimes I thought these youngsters were going to Woodstock and having a party."— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) June 19, 2016
Shots of the Obamas' trip to Yosemite:Bloomberg's Mark Halperin drew intense mockery for this tweet:What would happen if Trump picked a popular, qualified vp, started talking only abt need to change DC, middle class, Hillary=status quo?— Mark Halperin (@MarkHalperin) June 19, 2016
What would happen if you and I flew to Mars and opened a Bloomberg outpost?— John Weaver (@jwgop) June 19, 2016
What would happen if Le Cirque started serving bus station chili?— Charles P. Pierce (@CharlesPPierce) June 19, 2016
Conservatives reacted strongly to Attorney General Loretta Lynch saying that the government will release only a PARTIAL transcript of Mateen's conversation with hostage negotiators:Decision to manipulate killer's transcripts is outrageous, makes govt complicit in propaganda and undermines confidence in govt generally— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) June 19, 2016
Not releasing audio.a wise thing. But censoring transcripts prevents a free people from understanding what happened and why. Unprecedented— Hugh Hewitt (@hughhewitt) June 19, 2016
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) posed with his AR-15:You can count on Newt Gingrich to have a cake like this:Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) tried a different line of work:Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) tested the egg-on-the-sidewalk trick:Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.) shared this photo from the Denver Pride Fest:Photos from the political world celebrating Father's Day: HOT ON THE LEFT “Antarctica's CO2 Levels Are Now the Highest in 4 Million Years,” from Mother Jones: “Oof. We just passed yet another climate change milestone, and it's a particularly troubling one. Carbon dioxide levels in Antarctica recently hit 400 parts per million. … It's the first time in 4 million years that the region has reached such levels. "The far southern hemisphere was the last place on earth where CO2 had not yet reached this mark," Pieter Tans, the lead scientist of NOAA's Global Greenhouse Gas Reference Network, said in a statement. "Global CO2 levels will not return to values below 400 ppm in our lifetimes, and almost certainly for much longer." HOT ON THE RIGHT “The Pentagon's controversial plan to hire military leaders off the street,” from the MilitaryTimes: “Defense Secretary Ash Carter wants to open the door for more ‘lateral entry’ into the military's upper ranks, clearing the way for lifelong civilians with vital skills and strong résumés to enter the officer corps … The idea is controversial, to say the very least. For many in the rank-and-file military, it seems absurd, a bewildering cultural change that threatens to upend many assumptions about military life and traditional career paths. …. [And] it suggests eroding the military’s tradition of growing its own leaders and cultivating a force with a distinct culture and tight social fabric, which many believe to be the heart of military effectiveness.”
DAYBOOK:At the Supreme Court: It’s a decision day. We’ll know a little after 10 a.m. whether any of the big rulings are coming.At the White House: Obama speaks at the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Vice President Biden speaks at the Center For New American Security Annual Conference.The LA Times previews Biden's speech: He will call Trump’s approach to foreign policy “antithetical” to American values. The VP will hit Trump hard over his praise for Vladimir Putin, arguing that embracing the president “at a time of renewed Russian aggression could call into question America’s long-standing commitment to a Europe whole, free and at peace.” Biden will also emphasize the need to carefully manage the relationship with China, and offer a defense of the administration’s strategy against the Islamic State.On Capitol Hill: The Senate meets at 3 p.m. for gun votes. The House meets at 2 p.m. in pro forma session.The Justice Department will release redacted transcripts of the phone calls between Orlando shooter Omar Mateen and police. (Amber Phillips)On the campaign trail: Looks like no one has public events. QUOTE OF THE DAY: “Don't screw this up.” – Elizabeth Warren’s pep talk to Clinton’s staffers during a Friday visit to her Brooklyn headquarters GOOD READ FROM ELSEWHERE:-- GQ profile, “The Mystifying Triumph of Hope Hicks, Trump’s Right-Hand Woman,” by Olivia Nuzzi: “One day in late January of last year, Hicks was summoned to Trump's office. On the speakerphone was Corey Lewandowski, a journeyman operative whom Trump had just hired for a purpose unclear to Hicks. To the assembled, Trump said simply: We're going to Iowa. Hicks must have known that that meant jumping into a media circus that might change her life, though she wondered only one thing, half in jest: What do people wear in Iowa?” Soon she was fielding media requests and improvising in the role of real-deal political press secretary. “Hicks is a product not of Washington but of the Trump Organization, a marble-walled universe where one's delightful agreeability and ferocious loyalty are worth more than conventional experience. She is a hugger and a people pleaser, with long brown hair and green eyes, a young woman of distinctly all-American flavor—the sort that inspires Tom Petty songs, not riots. And yet Hicks has, almost by accident, helped architect the strangest and least polite campaign in modern American history.”NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:-- “Summer arrives today in just the fashion you might expect,” say our forecasters from the Capital Weather Gang: “Skies are sunny and humidity is on the way up as we head back to work. It’s one of those days that feels hot rather early and keeps going for hours. Some puffy clouds probably form during peak heating in the midday and afternoon, although none are expected to deliver any rain.”-- Phase two of Metro’s SafeTrack program begins today, ushering in 16-day shutdowns to areas in D.C. and Prince George’s County: Until July 3, the Silver, Orange and Blue lines will be impacted, as the stops from Eastern Market to Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road are closed. (Will this impact you? Check out Dr. Gridlock’s complete guide to the shutdown here.)-- Frequent flyers, rejoice! Reagan National Airport is getting a $1 billion renovation, complete with new congestion-relieving efforts and a new commuter concourse on the airport’s north side. (Lori Aratani) -- Coronation: Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam locked down leading Democratic support for his gubernatorial bid, securing formal endorsements from Terry McAuliffe, Mark Warner and Tim Kaine for the 2017 race. (Jenna Portnoy)-- Two people were injured on the National Mall after a large tree limb snapped, plunging to the ground near 9th Street and Constitution Avenue N.W. Video posted online shows many people trying to lift the limb to extricate someone apparently trapped beneath. (Martin Weil)VIDEOS OF THE DAY:And made Trump an "amazing offer":Ben Sasse posted a 3-minute message to "the flawed fathers (like me)":Watch this moving video of kids reading Father's Day cards to their incarcerated dads:The Pro-Clinton super PAC Priorities USA hits Trump as “dangerous to America" in a new ad. The 30-second spot features Trump saying he “loves” war and knows “more about ISIS” than the generals do. It will air in eight states:College Humor tried to find Trump the perfect judge:Campaigning in Arizona, Trump called former Gov. Jan Brewer "tough," even though "it's not nice to say about a woman."During a rally, Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump praised former Arizona governor Jan Brewer, calling her “tough” while noting it wasn’t “nice." (Reuters)The head of the NRA said the Obama administration is "trying to cover their butts" by focusing on gun control, instead of ISIS: A crowd in Orlando sang "Amazing Grace" while counter-protesting a group from Westboro Baptist Church:A crowd gathered in Orlando to counter-protest a group from Westboro Baptist Church that travelled there demonstrate at funerals of the mass shooting victims. (Claritza Jimenez/The Washington Post) | 0 |
Beto O'Rourke jumps into presidential race March 14, 2019 / 10:07 AM / CBS News Former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke announced he is running for president, making it official with an online video released Thursday morning. Seated on a couch next to his wife, O'Rourke announced, "Amy and I are happy to share with you that I am running to serve you as the next president of the United States of America."
He said that the crises in our economy, democracy and climate "will either consume us or they will afford us the greatest opportunity to unleash the genius of the United States of America." O'Rourke went through a list of Democratic priorities, including health care, climate change, family separation and criminal justice reform, gesturing or chopping with his hands to emphasize each point. Beto O'Rourke on impeachment: Voting in 2020 may be the "best way for us to resolve" TrumpO'Rourke said he plans to travel the country and "listen to those who I seek to serve, to understand from your perspective how we can best meet these challenges." And he finished the 3 1/2-minute video by saying, "The only way for us to live up to the promise of America is to give it our all and give it for all of us. We are truly now, more than ever, the last great hope of Earth. "At this moment of maximum peril and maximum potential let's show ourselves and those who will succeed us in this great country just who we are and what we can do." I am running to serve you as the next president. The challenges we face are the greatest in living memory. No one person can meet them on their own. Only this country can do that, and only if we build a movement that includes all of us. Say you're in: https://t.co/EKLdkVET2u pic.twitter.com/lainXyvG2n— Beto O'Rourke (@BetoORourke) March 14, 2019 The bid comes 3 1/2 months after a narrow loss for Senate in Texas, a campaign that catapulted the 46-year-old, three-term lawmaker from El Paso to national prominence. O'Rourke is heading to Iowa for several campaign events, including a stop at Northern Iowa University to stump for Eric Giddens, who is running for a special election for a state Senate seat. At the end of the month, on March 30, O'Rourke plans to return to El Paso to kick off his campaign. The former congressman had been testing the waters for a presidential run in unconventional ways. He took a solo road trip through the Southwest earlier this year, documenting his travels in a series of Medium posts reminiscent of Jack Kerouac. He used Instagram and Facebook to stream conversations with people in his neighborhood and life, including a now famous stop at the dentist. On the day of President Trump's State of the Union address to Congress in February, O'Rourke sat down for an interview with Oprah Winfrey, and said he was thinking about running for president. And when Mr. Trump visited El Paso last month to talk about border security, O'Rourke held a dueling rally that captured the attention of the current commander in chief. O'Rourke has an influential social media presence and demonstrated a grassroots fundraising prowess in his unsuccessful Senate bid, raising a whopping $80 million. He collected endorsements in that race from the likes of Beyonce and Lebron James, fueling interest from the national media and drawing comparisons to John F. Kennedy. He has the potential to tap into various constituencies and, as the El Paso rally demonstrated, a willingness to take on the president. The nominating process will test whether O'Rourke can translate that kind of support and star power to a different kind of campaign, one in which he'll be competing against other popular Democrats, not an opponent like Republican Sen. Ted Cruz. The White House run will also prompt greater scrutiny of his policy proposals and track record in Congress. In an interview with the Washington Post in January, O'Rourke struggled to define his solutions for key immigration issues, even though he represented a district along the border. In an interview with MSNBC last month, he said he would support taking down an existing border wall in El Paso. On Wednesday, just hours before his presidential announcement, Vanity Fair published a cover story profile of O'Rourke, complete with photos by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz. In an interview for the piece, the former congressman talked about his presidential ambitions. "I want to be in it." he told the magazine. "Man, I'm just born to be in it, and want to do everything I humanly can for this country at this moment." The "born to be in it" comment has already garnered some backlash on social media, as issues of inequality and privilege are being debated in what is already the most crowded and diverse Democratic primary field in recent history. O'Rourke addressed criticism he would likely face as a white male in a field that already comprises women, African Americans, a latino and a gay millennial. "The government at all levels is overly represented by white men," he told Vanity Fair. "That's part of the problem, and I'm a white man. So if I were to run, I think it's just so important that those who would comprise my team looked like this country." He continued: "But I totally understand people who will make a decision based on the fact that almost every single one of our presidents has been a white man, and they want something different for this country. And I think that's a very legitimate basis upon which to make a decision. Especially in the fact that there are some really great candidates out there right now." "CBS This Morning" co-anchor Gayle King will speak with O'Rourke for his only national TV interview following his 2020 announcement, Friday on "CBS This Morning" (7 to 9 a.m. ET/PT) Caitlin Huey-Burns Caitlin Huey-Burns is a political reporter for CBS News. | 0 |
Congress The president tweeted a response as Republicans went on Sunday morning shows to downplay the issue. A Washington Post article said Jared Kushner sought to set up a secret line of communication with Russia during the presidential transition. | AP Photo Continue to article content President Donald Trump went on the offensive Sunday after returning from his nine-day trip to the Middle East and Europe to growing scandals at home over his administration’s communications with Russian officials, including an explosive report about Trump son-in-law and confidant Jared Kushner.
Trump attacked the news media on Twitter, and the administration dispatched a retired four-star Marine general — Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly — to defend Kushner on the Sunday news talk shows. “It is my opinion that many of the leaks coming out of the White House are fabricated lies made up by the #FakeNews media,” Trump said on Twitter — a likely reference to The Washington Post’s story about Kushner on Friday, which was sourced to anonymous U.S. officials. The article said Kushner sought to set up a secret line of communication with Russia during the presidential transition.
Trump also leaned on two administration officials with military experience to defend Kushner, who has become a significant person of interest in the FBI’s investigation into whether the Trump campaign coordinated with Moscow in its efforts to sway the presidential election toward Trump.
“I don’t see a big deal,” Kelly, the former head of U.S. Southern Command, said on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think any channel of communication, back or otherwise, with a country like Russia is a good thing.”
Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster, a three-star Army general, also defended Kushner, telling reporters that back-channel communications are normal, according to Reuters.
"We have back-channel communications with any number of individual” countries, McMaster said. “So generally speaking, about back-channel communications, what that allows you to do is communicate in a discreet manner."
Republicans, meanwhile, downplayed the reports about Kushner — with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) joining Trump in casting doubt on the news media.Graham, who has been one of Trump’s fiercest GOP critics on other issues, said Sunday he doesn't "trust this story as far as I can throw it."
“I think it makes no sense that the Russian ambassador would report back to Moscow on a channel that he most likely knows we’re monitoring,” Graham explained to Dana Bash on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The whole story line is suspicious.”
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) noted on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Kushner has agreed to speak with Senate investigators about his contacts with Russian officials.
“Sounds like he’s more than glad to talk about all of these things and instead of getting wrapped up into a lot of hyperbole, as these things can sometimes do, I think talking with him directly and getting him to answer any and all questions as he said he would do would probably be the prudent course of action,” Corker said to Chuck Todd.
For their part, congressional Democrats were muted in their responses to the Kushner developments on the Sunday news talk shows.
The most aggressive take came from Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, which is investigating Russia’s meddling in November’s presidential election, including the possibility of collusion with the Trump campaign.
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Schiff called for a review of Kushner’s security clearance.
“If these reports are accurate, right after that campaign, after that intervention, to have the president's son-in-law, a key player within the Trump Organization, trying to establish a back channel with the Russians through a Russian diplomatic facility, you have to ask, well, who are they hiding the conversations from?” Schiff said.
Schiff added that he was disappointed that McMaster defended Kushner and said “this is an administration that takes in people with good credibility and chews them out and spits out their credibility at the same time.”
Other Democrats, including Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin of Illinois and Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, did not go so far as to call for a security clearance review, instead saying the FBI investigation now being led by special counsel Robert Mueller is best equipped to get to the bottom of the issue.
Durbin said on “Fox News Sunday” that allegations that Kushner sought to set up a back channel with Russia was “a rumor at this point,” adding: “I’ll trust Bob Mueller’s judgment.”
On CNN’s “State of the Union,” Booker said he had “very serious concerns” but was not ready to call for Kushner’s security clearance to be revoked.
“That could be a potential outcome that I seek, but I want to understand, at least hear from, Jared Kushner as well as the administration about what was exactly going on there,” Booker said. | 0 |
President Trump declares a national emergency in order to build a wall along the southern border, on February 15, 2019. Evan Vucci/AP 4 winners and 4 losers from the funding bill and emergency declaration Trump’s national emergency declaration starts a new fight — but it also resolves the spending battle of the past few months. By Feb 15, 2019, 11:05am EST The long-term effects of President Donald Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency Friday — unlocking an additional $7.5 billion to build physical barriers (a “wall”) on the US-Mexico border, in addition to the $1.375 billion appropriated by Congress in the bill Trump signed to fund the government through September 30 — won’t be fully known or understood until the historians get to them.
The emergency declaration itself could be held up in court for months or years. The construction of barriers it authorizes, if allowed to go forward, could take years more. The influence it has (or lack thereof) on norms of executive authority, and the precedent it may or may not set for future political actions, will be the subject of endless debate.
But what happened Friday morning wasn’t just the start of some new and uneasy moment. It was the culmination of a months-long funding battle that resulted in the longest (partial) government shutdown in history. Trump just signed a bill that sets funding levels (and keeps the government open) for the next six months, in addition to making some policy changes around the edges. And the emergency declaration alters political dynamics in Washington that are going to have an impact on what change various politicians can make in the future.
The “winners” and “losers” here are the real effects on people’s lives; even the rising or falling stock of a given politician matters for the policy and institutional agendas he seeks to advance. Even if Trump’s declaration of national emergency opens a whole set of new fights, there are people whose fortunes are definitely better or worse after this morning.
Winner: federal employees
Thanks to Donald Trump’s uncanny ability to make it all about him, the national emergency declaration is getting most of the attention right now. But it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that Congress just passed (and the president just signed) a bill to fund nine Cabinet departments and a host of federal agencies through the end of the fiscal year on September 30. And unlike the emergency declaration — which even the Department of Justice anticipates will almost certainly be slowed by the courts — the funding bill is actually going into effect.
In other words, the United States has just ensured that we won’t have another government shutdown for at least six and a half months. Even after the government shutdown ended in January, federal employees like this still needed help making ends meet — as this line outside a DC food kitchen shows. Now, they have at least six and a half months before another deadline — the longest they’ve had since Trump took office. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
That might not seem like much of a respite. But it’s the longest respite the federal government — and federal employees — have had since Trump came into office.
It’s not just that there have been three shutdowns over the past two years (though two of them happened over weekends and thus barely affected federal employees), or that the shutdown that ended three weeks ago was the longest in history. It’s that when the government has been open, it’s often been running on short-term continuing resolutions. Over Trump’s time in office, a normal budgeting process would have had the government face two funding deadlines, when the fiscal years ended for 2017 and 2018; instead, it’s faced 12. And many of those have gone down to the wire.
Many federal employees will be dealing with the financial aftermath of January’s shutdown (and their delayed paychecks) for some time. But the uncertainty of governance-by-continuing-resolution has its own costs to federal employees’ budgets and psyches. Six and a half months is, relatively speaking, a high degree of certainty.
Furthermore, it’s possible that Trump’s breaking the seal on the national emergency might reduce the risk of future government funding brinksmanship. The president has been threatening to shut down the government over the wall since spring 2017; he finally did it, it didn’t work, and now he’s trying something else. It’s possible that if he no longer sees threatening shutdown as the best way to get what he wants, the next two years might give federal employees more than a few weeks at a time before they have to worry about when they’re getting their next paycheck.
And the cherry on top: Defying Trump’s effort to freeze federal salaries, Congress authorized a 1.8 percent pay raise in the funding bill for civilian feds. Loser: the “power of the purse”
It’s a staple of fifth-grade civics units: The federal government is made of three co-equal branches kept in equilibrium by a system of “checks and balances,” and one of the most important checks that the legislative branch has on the executive — arguably Congress’s most important power, period — is the “power of the purse.”
Congress appropriates money to the executive branch, and Congress determines how that money gets spent. The executive branch might be legally obligated to submit a budget, but the legislative branch has no legal obligation to pay attention to it.
In practice, the executive branch has some options when it wants to move money around. And Congress has passed laws that give the executive branch even more powers in the case of a national emergency — though an emergency declaration unlocks a long list of specific powers, not a blank check to do whatever the president wants.
But even if Trump’s national emergency declaration is a valid exercise of the National Emergencies Act of 1976 — and it will be up to the courts to figure that out — the fact remains: The president of the United States demanded that Congress fund a policy priority of his, Congress refused to fund it at the levels demanded, and the president responded by directing billions more dollars to it anyway.
What really distinguishes this emergency declaration from others isn’t necessarily the factual question of what counts as a national emergency. It’s the fact that Trump telegraphed what he was going to do for weeks — while Congress was negotiating with him and with itself over government funding. Trump was absent from the negotiations that produced this funding bill. He’d already made it clear that if he didn’t get what he wanted from Congress, he’d simply get it another way.
Of course, Trump’s obviousness is going to make it that much harder for the Department of Justice to defend the emergency declaration from the inevitable lawsuits. But that’s the story of the federal government over the past decade or so: The executive branch makes policy, and the judicial branch decides whether to uphold it. The legislative branch is left giving vaguely disapproving quotes to the press.
Loser: Mitch McConnell
Mitch McConnell finally tried to stand up to Donald Trump, and Trump made him back down. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell talks with reporters on January 25, 2019. Win McNamee/Getty Images
The Senate majority leader’s approach to the mercurial president has been to let Trump decide what he wants and then put varying levels of legislative elbow grease into making that happen. It’s a smart approach, if the goal is to protect your incumbent Republican senators: It avoids the worst-case scenario in which senators take a tough vote on a bill because they think the president will sign it, only to have Trump reject the bill and whip up the base against its supporters. Of course, when the president doesn’t say what he wants — or isn’t willing to modify his demands into something that can actually pass — you risk government shutdowns.
McConnell cares more about preventing shutdown than Trump does. So after the government reopened in January, he let his appropriators (led by Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby) actually make a deal first and get the president’s approval later.
At the same time, though, McConnell let it be known that he didn’t want Trump to declare a national emergency. (The Washington Post headline was “McConnell privately cautions Trump about emergency declaration on border wall,” but someone had to tell the Post about the “private” cautioning.) It was an effort to preserve some legislative power vis-à-vis the president — not least in case the Senate was still in Republican hands the next time the presidency was in Democratic ones.
But McConnell couldn’t prevent both a shutdown and an emergency. Before Republican senators were willing to vote for the deal Thursday, they needed assurance the president would actually sign it. And the president’s assurance, apparently, only came when he decided to sign the emergency declaration at the same time.
The result is that McConnell, who let it be known he didn’t want a national emergency, had to stand on the Senate floor and say he supported the president’s decision to sign one to keep the government open. Worse, if the House successfully passes a resolution attempting to reverse the declaration, it will go straight to the Senate floor — McConnell has no power to block it. McConnell will have to either risk embarrassing Republican defections that could kill an emergency declaration he himself is now on the record supporting or whip Republican votes to save an emergency declaration he didn’t want.
Trump’s method of “negotiating” — find various ways to get what you want and wear the other guy down instead of compromising — hasn’t usually worked in Washington. It just worked on, of all people, Mitch McConnell.
Winner: 2020 Democrats
As Democratic politicians have started declaring their candidacies for the 2020 presidential primary and sketching out their policy proposals, they’re inevitably hit with two questions: “How are you going to pay for it?” and “How is that going to get 60 votes in the Senate and survive a filibuster?”
Trump just gave them an easy way to answer both questions at once: declare a national emergency.
Democrats are already threatening to use emergency powers in future to pass their own preferred policies to address the things they think are crises. They’re not digging into the specific emergency authorities they would use, and in some cases, there probably aren’t any available — unlocking emergency funds doesn’t necessarily give you a way to expand gun regulation, for example. But presidential candidates don’t tend to get punished by the voters for overstating the scope of their potential powers.
Almost as importantly, Trump’s emergency declaration distracts political attention from what could have been the first big intra-Democratic fight of the primary. The funding bill Congress passed Thursday was attacked by progressives in the immigrant rights movement for its expansion of immigration detention and what they perceived as insufficient checks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Several presidential candidates — including Sens. Kamala Harris (D-CA), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) — voted against it. Others — including Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and the still-undeclared-but-likely candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) — voted for. Under normal circumstances, those on each side of the bill would now be dogged by questions about their votes — and invited to attack candidates who disagreed. But now, there’s something else for reporters to ask about: an emergency declaration that every Democrat will agree is unnecessary and destructive.
Winner: immigration detention
The Trump administration has played hardball on immigration detention with Congress, and it appears to be paying off. The bill gives ICE money to keep an average of 45,274 immigrants in detention between now and September 30. That’s more, by far, than Congress has ever funded ICE for in advance before. It is, however, less than the number of people actually in detention right now — more than 49,000 as of the beginning of this week. Under the funding deal Congress has struck, Immigration and Customs Enforcement will be able to keep an average of 45,000 immigrants in detention a day between now and September 30. John Moore/Getty Images
In theory, then, ICE is going to have to release some immigrants from detention, or choose not to detain new ones after they’re arrested. Democrats hope that by the end of September, ICE will have the detained population down to 40,520 or so — the level that Congress authorized in its 2018 funding package but that ICE vastly exceeded.
But there’s no way to force ICE to stick to its budget this time either. The Trump administration retains its authority to move some money from other things into ICE detention. The bill includes money for “alternatives to detention,” and restarts a case management program for asylum-seeking families that immigrant rights advocates have long championed as a better approach. But the Trump administration is deeply skeptical of anything that could allow asylum seekers to “abscond” and miss their court dates. Furthermore, the administration is adamant that it needs to detain every immigrant with a criminal conviction or charge in order to protect the safety of the American people, and those make up a majority of the immigrants ICE arrests (as opposed to those apprehended coming into the US). It’s very possible the administration will continue its tactic of detaining people first and finding the money (or asking Congress for help) later.
Loser: “Build the wall”
Seriously, hear me out.
Yes, Trump has as much as $9 billion to build barriers on the US-Mexico border as a result of this morning’s actions (though how much of that money is ultimately available to him will depend on the outcome of the inevitable national emergency lawsuit). But the months-long fight over funding has demonstrated conclusively that no one can actually agree on what counts as a wall — including the president and the conservative media elites who have occasionally threatened to stir up the base against him. Donald Trump has tried to get his base to switch from “build the wall” chants to “finish the wall” chants. It isn’t working. Because no one can really agree on what “the wall” is — much less whether Trump has actually started to build it. Joe Raedle/Getty Images
Without a consensus about what the “wall” is, the fight over it can never get resolved. Trump can declare victory — or Democrats, thwarting him, can declare his defeat on his behalf — but it won’t necessarily stick. When both sides can declare victory, the fight just goes on for another round.
Democrats in Congress crowed that the $1.375 billion they appropriated in this funding bill wasn’t money for a “wall,” because they only authorized that money to be used for “fencing” that conformed to designs already in place on the US-Mexico border. But that’s exactly what the administration was asking for to begin with. Even before the government shutdown, the Department of Homeland Security said it would use the $5.7 billion Trump was demanding to build steel bollard fencing, the same thing Congress has funded. The Trump administration says it’s now using the emergency declaration money to complete those same projects — and it’s explicitly said it’s using bollards. So the “wall” Trump is building with the emergency declaration is going to be identical to the “not a wall” Congress authorized.
Without agreement on whether Trump is currently building the wall or not, how can Trump declare he’s completed it? How can Democrats declare he’s funded it?
President Trump recognizes the pickle he’s in. He turned “build the wall” into a political slogan among people who didn’t understand the border security status quo or what would actually be workable. Now he’s trying to get his base to pivot to “finish the wall” as a way of squaring the circle — and they’re not buying it. There will be future fights over “wall” funding, and they will probably get hopelessly buried in semantics. Because the idea of the “wall” as an entity that people could agree on, and decide to fund or not, is dead.
Winner: congressional oversight
The power of the legislative branch may have taken a big hit Friday, but there is a silver lining for Congress — or at least House Democrats. The funding bill shows that Democrats are serious about providing oversight of the administration — and it demonstrates how robust oversight can change policy. U.S. Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) talks to the press on various topics, including the Government Funding and Border Security legislation during her weekly news conference at the US Capitol, on February 14, 2019. Alex Wong/Getty Images
The bill includes robust reporting requirements for ICE and CBP — on the number of immigrants in detention, any ongoing separation of families at the border (and updates on continued questions about how many families were separated in 2017 and early 2018), and how exactly CBP plans to spend the money it’s authorized for construction and infrastructure. It also instructs the inspector general to continue spot checks of immigration detention centers, while barring ICE and CBP from preventing any member of Congress from entering a facility to inspect it.
Ideally, oversight isn’t just a way to name and shame the executive branch for doing things the opposition finds unconscionable. In theory, it can occasionally lead to actual changes in policy, law, or funding. There’s some of that in the bill too. In the past, Democrats in Congress have shown particular interest in the treatment of pregnant women in immigration detention; there’s a very strict ban in the bill on the shackling of any pregnant woman in the custody of immigration agents. Last year, questions from Congress (and follow-up reporting) revealed that ICE arrested some unauthorized immigrants who had agreed to sponsor children who had come to the US unaccompanied. This bill bars ICE from spending any appropriated money on enforcement against sponsors of unaccompanied children.
Oversight doesn’t have to be antagonistic — it can be a way for members of Congress to understand why the administration wants what it wants. The bill doesn’t give the administration the $800 million in “humanitarian” funding it asked for to improve treatment of children and families — something some congressional Democrats have professed concern about after the deaths of two children in CBP custody in December — but it does give $415 million. About half of that money would be used to build a new processing center for families in Texas, as an alternative to holding families in places that aren’t designed to hold immigrants at all; the rest would be used to hire medical contractors, provide better food and more diapers, and increase CBP’s capacity to move immigrants to a suitable facility even if they’re apprehended in a remote location.
Some progressives are deeply upset with the bill for its expansion of immigrant detention; some progressive first-term members (led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez) had insisted that ICE and CBP have their budgets reduced, not expanded. But there are more restrictions on how that money can be spent, and what the administration has to do to keep Congress from reducing it next time out of pique or distrust, than there would be if Republicans were in charge.
Loser: federal contractors
Federal employees are getting back pay for their work during the partial government shutdown. But as many as 580,000 federal contractors — from security guards and janitors to researchers and IT workers — aren’t getting their lost wages back. Democrats, led by Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith, had wanted to add a bill to the final spending package that would have guaranteed contractors wages they had missed out on because of the impasse. They were blocked, however, by Senate Republicans and the White House.
One Trump administration official told HuffPost that implementing a process to dole out back pay could wind up being costly for federal agencies. But a representative from the Professional Services Council, a group that advocates on behalf of contractors, told the Hill he didn’t think that was actually the case. Because of the disagreement among negotiators and the tight timeline on completing this spending deal, federal contractors have once again been left out in the cold. Many contractors said they had struggled to cover day-to-day living costs during the shutdown, including medication, baby formula, and child care.
Smith has said she’ll keep pushing for contractors to receive the compensation they need. But for now — if Trump signs this spending agreement — all they have is the reassurance that the federal government won’t shut down again for at least six more months. —Li Zhou | 0 |
Life Unearthed Well-being Parenting Horoscopes COVID-19 Video I Didn't Wake Up Like ThisI Didn't Wake Up Like This Shopping Style & Beauty Alabama lawmaker responds to abortion ban with mandatory vasectomy bill: 'It always takes two to tango'Alabama Rep. Rolanda Hollis introduced a mandatory vasectomy bill this week, send "the message that men should not be legislating what women do with their bodies." (Photo: Facebook/Rolanda Hollis)In response to last year’s near-total (and temporarily blocked) abortion ban in Alabama, a state legislator has introduced a bill that would require a man to undergo a vasectomy, at his own expense, “within one month of his 50th birthday or the birth of his third biological child, whichever comes first.”House Bill 238, introduced on Thursday by Rep. Rolanda Hollis (D) notes, “Under existing law, there are no restrictions on the reproductive rights of men.”The bill, Hollis says in a statement she shared with Yahoo Lifestyle, “is meant to neutralize last year’s abortion ban bill, and sends the message that men should not be legislating what women do with their bodies.” Further, she told AL.com, “It always takes two to tango. We can’t put all the responsibility on women. Men need to be responsible also.”The online backlash was swift, of course, with critics calling it “wrong,” “sick,” and “Communism,” although plenty of supporters got her point, and celebrated it, saying, “Ha! Stay out of my uterus!” and “Wahoo!”What the HELL is going on in AL?!Alabama Democrat Rolanda Hollis proposes a bill REQUIRING MEN OVER 50 or over to have a vasectomy...OR ANY MALE, ANY AGE, after their 3rd child!Hello China!COMMUNISM is being PUSHED in AL and VA, TEST STATES, people. https://t.co/Mf4SIQtk9G— Melanie Lauren (@Sweetemmilyn) February 13, 2020@realDonaldTrump rolanda Hollis is bringing a bill that would force men at the age of 50 to get a vasectomy. Democrats are sick. They violate everyone's rights to fulfill a SICK agenda.— alice acosta (@allie258) February 14, 2020Wahoo! “Under existing law, there are no restrictions on the reproductive rights of men” HB 238, filed by Rep. Rolanda Hollis, would require a man to undergo a vasectomy after the birth of his 3rd biological child or w/in 1 month of his 50th birthday...at his own expense https://t.co/Qq82VkZFil— Peg (@ethnobot) February 14, 2020🤣🤣Rep. Rolanda Hollis (D) introduced a bill requiring men to get a vasectomy. House Bill 238, creates a law requiring men to get the procedure "within a month of their 50th birthday or the birth of his third biological child, whichever comes first."Ha! Stay out of my uterus!— 𝒜𝓇𝒾𝑒𝓈𝒶 𝒾𝓈 𝒻𝑒𝒹 𝓊𝓅! Are you? Vote Blue! (@AriesaSandino) February 14, 2020Hollis responded to some of the outcry by including in her statement: “Many have seen HB238 as an outrageous overstep; yet, year after year the majority party continues to introduce new legislation that tries to dictate a woman’s body and her reproductive rights. We should view this as the same outrageous overstep in authority.”Abortion rights activists rallied in front of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, in May 2019 after the state of Alabama passed the country's most restrictive abortion ban. (Photo: ANDREW CABALLERO-REYNOLDS/AFP via Getty Images)She added, “Just as I would turn to my doctor over my state legislator to make recommendations when deciding whether or not to have a surgery, or whether or not to take a certain type of medicine, it is my doctor with whom I — or any of my loved ones — should consult when it comes to making the incredibly difficult decisions related to my personal reproductive rights.”Related Video: Abortion Bans in Alabama, Other States Are Just the BeginningRead more from Yahoo Lifestyle:Most women feel relief and happiness after having an abortion, study findsThe internet goes crazy after Leana Wen ousted from Planned Parenthood: ‘This is a monumental loss’Every Senate vote for Alabama's abortion ban was from a white manFollow us on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. | 0 |
One of the world’s most popular podcasters has said that he’ll “probably vote for Bernie Sanders.” He went on to say some glowing things about Senator Sanders’s consistency and integrity. Unsurprisingly, the Sanders campaign celebrated the moment by tweeting out the clip.
Why wouldn’t it? While Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard, and Andrew Yang have appeared on the Joe Rogan Experience, Rogan has said that Warren, Buttigieg, and Biden have all tried and failed to get booked on the show. It’s obvious why — the YouTube page for The Joe Rogan Experience has 7.29 million subscribers, and even more people download the podcast every month.
Better yet, this legion of fans isn’t made up of progressive activists who were already planning to vote in the Democratic primaries. Rogan spends far more time talking about drugs and movies and Mixed Martial Arts than he does about the presidential election. Many of his fans are relatively apolitical, but some may be moved to register to vote by Rogan’s ode to the integrity of Bernie Sanders — or his passionate defense of Medicare for All.
Of course, there’s a reason why Rogan is controversial. When he does talk politics, the host often does so in the context of chatting with “intellectual dark web” figures like Jordan Peterson and Dave Rubin about culture war issues like free speech on college campuses.
Rogan’s friendly relationship with these right-wing thinkers, along with his own reactionary views, has given many casual observers the impression that he’s a coherent right-winger. In reality, he’s about where many persuadable Americans are, which is to say that while he doesn’t think about politics all the time, he likes and dislikes some individual politicians, he has kneejerk reactionary positions on some issues, and he finds egalitarian proposals for universal programs deeply appealing.
The fact that the Sanders campaign can reach the Joe Rogans of the world is a very good thing. The Controversy However, more than a few progressives, appalled at some of Rogan’s statements over the years and his associations, thought that the campaign should repudiate the endorsement — or at least that it was wrong for Bernie’s social media team to tweet out the clip.
We disagree, but not because we don’t think the criticisms of Rogan are baseless. The “intellectual dark web” figures, for example, that Rogan promotes play a corrosive role in the public discourse. They’re all defenders of traditional hierarchies that stand in the way of human flourishing, they all use silly and sophistical arguments in pursuit of this cause.
We don’t object to “platforming” such people for the purpose of pushing back against their views, but Rogan has acted as an uncritical sounding board for them. (Though there was a hilarious moment in one his conversations with Rubin when Rogan pushed back against Rubin’s libertarian economic fantasies and Rubin — a man who says he cares about “ideas” above all else — was left with no coherent response.)
It’s also true that Rogan’s talent, knack for drawing out guests, and interest in a variety of topics has allowed him to build such a massive platform that he’s far more representative of an actually existing American “center” than any corporate prestige outlet that claims to speak for the “mainstream.” In some contexts, ranging from Palestine to health care to Trump’s child separation policy he’s been a voice of reason and compassion. On that last subject, he’s gone so far as to say that if you don’t oppose what Trump has done to immigrant and refugee families, “you aren’t on the team” of the human race.
This is the real Joe Rogan show: a total mix of the apolitical and political, the reactionary and the progressive. He’s in a sense representative of the political zigs and zags of most ordinary people who don’t think and tweet about politics all the time. The Hypocrisy It’s worth noting the often maddening inconsistency of many Sanders opponents. Some of the loudest voices assailing the Bernie Sanders campaign for putting out a 51-second video highlighting Rogan’s praise for their candidate are centrist Democrats who spent eight years defending the politics of Barack Obama and then supported Hillary Clinton in the race for the 2016 Democratic nomination.
Some of these critics seem to have very short memories. See for example this tweet from Alex Singer, a former Democratic Congressional candidate in Nevada.
Also, Obama won twice, handily, without bigots, homophobes or transphobes.
— Alex Singer (@AlexCSinger16) January 24, 2020
In reality, Obama had homophobic pastor Rick Warren say the opening prayer at his first inaugural — a decision that was controversial even at the time. Part of how Obama could maintain a relatively friendly relationship with someone like Warren is that, when he first ran for president, he claimed to have religious objections to marriage equality. It was only years later that Obama started carefully “evolving” on this issue with one eye on the polls. By contrast, Sanders didn’t have to give up an inch — on trans rights or on any other issue — to get the support of Joe Rogan.
Even on the narrow question of shock jocks with a history of making “problematic” comments, some memories are very short. Hillary Clinton went on the Howard Stern Show and basked in Howard’s praise of her record — and happily agreed with his criticisms of Bernie Sanders — last month. There wasn’t a ripple of “controversy” about it from this crowd. And, if we’re going to be realistic about this, it’s hard to imagine that there would have been much controversy if Joe Rogan had said “I think I’m probably going to vote for Elizabeth Warren because she’s so smart and she has a plan for, like, everything, man” and the Warren camp had tweeted out a clip of that. In fact, we would be drowning in “Slay Kween” emojis.
Our point here isn’t that Warren would have been wrong to “tout Rogan’s endorsement” if that had happened, or that Clinton shouldn’t have gone on Howard Stern. Demonstrating that a criticism is hypocritical isn’t enough to demonstrate that it’s wrong. It just means that the people making it are being inconsistent, and thus that they must be wrong about one or the other half of their inconsistent stance.
As grating as it is that Bernie is being bombarded with outrage for being endorsed by a podcast host with a mishmash of views while hardly anyone raises an eyebrow at Biden’s failure to repudiate his endorsement by Steve Lynch, whose record includes some truly despicable homophobia, we aren’t asking for a more equal distribution of outrage. Quite the opposite. We’re asking what it would take to build a movement capable of taking on oppression and exploitation. How We Beat the Right Joe Rogan has some views on trans issues that anyone on the Left should oppose. Unfortunately, at least half the country holds similar views. The issue isn’t whether Bernie Sanders should compromise with such positions. As a matter of principle, he can’t and shouldn’t do that. The question is whether the best way to build a movement that appeals to rather than alienating the tens of millions of Americans who have reactionary views on at least some issues is to moralistically condemn them for those views or whether it’s to welcome them in an open and compassionate way while continuing to educate them, and while sticking to our own principles.
As a matter of real-world power, it’s also worth noting that the person Rogan said he is probably going to vote for is the most pro-trans candidate in the race. Sanders was a pioneer in the support of trans rights and he hasn’t changed course. Despite the ideological flaws Rogan has on these questions, the material meaning of his announced intention to vote for Sanders is that he plans to help empower a candidate who wants medical transitions to be paid for by the only insurance program that will continue to exist after the enactment of Medicare for All.
Anyone who’s serious about changing the world has to think hard about what compromises they might be willing to make in order to achieve power. This issue has preoccupied organizers for as long as struggles for justice have existed. It’s one thing for people operating in good faith to disagree with each other about those questions. It’s quite another to denounce Sanders for “touting” an endorsement which required no such compromises.
Sanders supporter Mark Pocan, one of the few openly LGBT members of Congress, put this point particularly sharply in his remarks about the controversy. He said, “I usually find that you win elections when more people support you.”
It’s disturbing that this simple truth doesn’t seem to figure in the calculations of those leftists who say that it was wrong for the Sanders campaign to make a play for the votes of some of Rogan’s millions and millions of fans by calling attention to the endorsement. It would be political malpractice for the campaign not to try to get those votes.
Every successful presidential campaign is by definition a coalition of voters who don’t agree with each other about everything but are willing to get behind a given candidate and their platform. The question is whether we’re so allergic to having people in our coalition who haven’t yet reached progressive positions on every issue that we’re willing to risk losing what is arguably the most important election of our lifetimes.
Which is more important — stigmatizing Rogan for his bad views by refusing to make any welcoming gestures when he expresses interest in joining our coalition, or shutting down Donald Trump’s concentration camps?
Changing personal attitudes is important. It’s also a subtle and complicated project. We can at least start by bringing people together in a shared political project to elect a candidate who is committed to the whole list of progressive goals ranging from Medicare for All to protecting trans people from discrimination.
And this leads us to the final point. To the extent that we can change people’s personal views, what’s the best strategy to do us? Are we likely to reach them if we start by drawing a sharp line between us and them, demanding that they repent their bad views before we’ll have anything to do with them? We don’t think so.
The lesson of history is that reactionary attitudes are best combated by human interactions from within coalitions of people who have already been brought together around a shared purpose such as a union organizing drive — or, say, a campaign to elect the most left-wing president in US history. | 0 |
Technology|QAnon Believers Say Being Banned From Facebook Is Proof of the Conspiracyhttps://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/07/technology/qanon-believers-say-being-banned-from-facebook-is-proof-of-the-conspiracy.htmlOct. 7, 2020, 2:20 p.m. ETOct. 7, 2020, 2:20 p.m. ETQAnon followers were speculating on Tuesday night that Facebook’s new ban on all QAnon groups and pages was part of a complex plan by the Trump administration to root out the “deep state” and arrest their enemies. Or the social media company was trying to squelch the impending news that President Trump was about to crack down on his foes.QAnon believers were making both arguments. Neither was true.Earlier on Tuesday, Facebook announced it would remove any group, page or Instagram account associated with the QAnon conspiracy. Within 24 hours, hundreds of groups had disappeared, many of them with hundreds of thousands of followers.After the ban, QAnon believers began to speculate on Twitter and other social media platforms that Facebook’s move was a sign that the moment they had predicted — Mr. Trump reveals his long fight with satanic pedophiles — had finally arrived.ImageCredit...Illustration by The New York TimesOne tweet, which was liked nearly 1,000 times, linked to an announcement by the Justice Department of a news conference Wednesday morning on a matter of “national security.” The tweet claimed the Justice Department was preparing charges against a number of senior Democrats, including Hillary Clinton.Similar tweets by QAnon believers said the news conference would have even bigger news, including an appearance by Mr. Trump to announce that he had arrested hundreds of members of a shadowy group that QAnon believers falsely claim are secretly running a satanic cabal. Many of those tweets were also shared and liked hundreds of times.The Justice Department’s news conference on Wednesday detailed the investigation and arrest of several members of the Islamic State terrorist organization. There was no mention of the satanic cabal that QAnon followers claim Mr. Trump is battling.But after the conference ended, QAnon adherents still maintained the Justice Department would deliver on the sprawling conspiracy theory that their members have spun over years.Researchers who study QAnon said it was typical of the group to incorporate new conspiracies into their narrative to account for inaccurate predictions. Travis View, a host of “QAnon Anonymous,” a podcast that seeks to explain the movement, said the group was already rallying around the idea that a surprise was coming in October or November.Conspiracy theories, Mr. View said, have a way of continuing to live on, even after being repeatedly proven false. | 0 |
Corrections and clarifications:The article has been updated to clarify that Christi Grimm remains in charge of the inspector general's office for the Health and Human Services but that President Donald Trump has nominated someone else to run the office.WASHINGTON – Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's decision Friday to fire his department's inspector general marks the fourth time within the last three months that an internal agency watchdog has been targeted for removal by the Trump administration.IGs are nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Working within the agency they monitor, the inspector generals and their staffs are charged with reporting on government malfeasance and corruption.Here's a look at the inspector generals who have been ousted recently:State Department State Department IG Steve Linick was appointed in 2013 during the Obama administration after serving other senior roles in the U.S. government.A State Department official declined to say why Linick was fired, and the White House did not explain the move in a letter informing lawmakers.But a Democratic aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record, said the IG was probing allegations that Pompeo used a political appointee at the State Department "to perform personal tasks for himself and Mrs. Pompeo."Linick also oversaw the contentious investigation of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server and criticized her actions in a 2016 report.Health and Human ServicesOn May 1, Trump announced he would nominate a new HHS inspector general to run the office now headed by top deputy IG Christi Grimm. The announcement came three weeks after the release of a report from her office that hospitals nationwide were struggling to respond to the coronavirus pandemic.The April 3 report, based on a survey of more than 300 hospitals, described "severe shortages of testing supplies and extended waits for test results" as well as "widespread shortages of personal protective equipment (that) put staff and patients at risk" at a time when Trump was touting the federal response to the crisis.The day after he was asked about the report during a press briefing, Trump tweeted that the report was a "Fake Dossier" written by someone with political motivations.Grimm first joined the IG's office in 1999, serving in both Republican and Democratic administrations. She'll remain as the top deputy in the HHS inspector general's office when the Senate confirms a permanent IG.Department of DefenseTrump replaced acting Defense Department Inspector General Glenn Fine on April 6, removing not only the Pentagon's top internal watchdog but also a key figure overseeing the trillions being spent by Washington to mitigate the economic damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic.Fine had been selected by fellow inspectors general to chair the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, created after Congress passed a roughly $2 trillion stimulus bill known as the CARES Act in late March to help large industries, small businesses and health care providers weather the crisis. The House Friday passed a bill that could add another $3 trillion to the effort.Trump signaled his displeasure with the law's oversight provision when he issued a relatively rare signing statement. Trump said he would ignore portions of the law demanded by some Democrats to give Congress additional visibility into the stimulus spending, arguing that those requirements would infringe on the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.IntelligenceOn April 3, President Donald Trump announced he had fired the intelligence committee watchdog who handled a whistleblower's complaint involving Trump's pressure campaign against the Ukranian president that triggered his impeachment.Michael Atkinson reviewed the complaint that alleged Trump “used the power of his office” to solicit foreign help in the 2020 election, determining in late August that the complaint appeared credible.The then-acting director of national intelligence, Joseph Maguire, prevented him from passing along the complaint to Congress within seven days, as is typically required for national-security whistleblower complaints, after consulting with the White House and Justice DepartmentContributing: Deirdre Shesgreen, Kevin Johnson, Tom Vanden Brook | 0 |
SAN DIEGO, July 2 (Reuters) - A U.S. Navy SEAL platoon leader charged with committing war crimes in Iraq was acquitted by a military jury on Tuesday of murder and all other counts except for unlawfully posing with the corpse of a captive Islamic State fighter.The seven-member jury deliberated for about nine hours before delivering its verdict in the court-martial of Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, a decorated career combat veteran whose case had drawn the interest of U.S. President Donald Trump.The single offense of posing for unofficial pictures with a human casualty, in this case the remains of the Iraqi whom Gallagher was acquitted of killing, carries a maximum sentence of four months imprisonment.Navy authorities said Gallagher has credit for nearly seven months of time already served in pre-trial custody, so he would presumably remain a free man. A sentencing proceeding was to commence later in the day to determine whether Gallagher faces any other punishment, such as a demotion in rank.The case went to the jury of five U.S. Marines and two Navy personnel - all but one a combat veteran - as the trial phase of the court-martial entered its third week.Gallagher could have faced life in prison if found guilty of the most serious charge against him, premeditated murder. Several fellow SEAL team members testified he fatally stabbed the captured Iraqi prisoner in the neck with a custom-made knife after the teenage fighter was brought to Gallagher’s outpost for medical treatment.Some of the same witnesses also said they saw Gallagher, who was originally trained as a medic, perform a number of emergency procedures on the detainee before he died.Gallagher also was charged with attempted murder in the wounding of two noncombatants - a schoolgirl and an elderly man — shot from a sniper’s perch, as well as with obstruction of justice and other offenses.He was found not guilty of all charges but the one stemming from the photos he and fellow SEAL team members took with the dead Islamic State fighter, who was badly wounded in an air strike.Gallagher, 39, a platoon leader, has steadfastly professed his innocence, insisting that disgruntled subordinates with no prior battlefield experience fabricated allegations against him over grievances with his leadership style and tactics.Trump intervened in Gallagher’s case months ago, ordering he be moved from pretrial detention in a military brig to confinement at a Navy base. The presiding judge later released Gallagher from custody altogether.The chief petty officer was arrested in 2018, more than a year after returning from his eighth overseas deployment in Mosul, in northern Iraq.(Reporting by Marty Graham in San Diego; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Scott Malone, Jonathan Oatis and Chris Reese) | 0 |
VideotranscripttranscriptSanders on West Virginia WinAfter he beat Hillary Clinton in West Virginia, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that he was “in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination.”10 May 2016
Salem, Ore.
Bernie Sanders
Let me be as clear as I can be, we are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination.
Our message to the Democratic delegates who will be assembling in Philadelphia is while we may have many disagreements with Secretary Clinton, there is one area we agree, and that is we must defeat Donald Trump.
Next Tuesday here in Oregon, let us have the highest voter turnout in Oregon democratic primary history.After he beat Hillary Clinton in West Virginia, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont said that he was “in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination.”CreditCredit...Jim Urquhart/ReutersMay 10, 2016Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont captured the West Virginia primary on Tuesday, forcing Hillary Clinton to continue a costly and distracting two-front battle: to lock down the Democratic nomination and to take on Donald J. Trump in the general election.Mrs. Clinton has a nearly insurmountable lead in delegates, which Mr. Sanders’s victory, one week after he won Indiana, did little to narrow. But by staying in the race, as he has vowed to do until the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July, Mr. Sanders continues to tug Mrs. Clinton to the left.This week, after long resisting Mr. Sanders’s call for a single-payer health care system, Mrs. Clinton embraced allowing people as young as 50 to buy into Medicare.In Oregon, which votes next week, Mr. Sanders appealed to unpledged superdelegates, who can cast votes as they please at the convention, to rally behind him as the stronger opponent to Mr. Trump.“If you look over the last month or six weeks, at every national poll, Bernie Sanders defeats Donald Trump by big numbers,” he said.With Mr. Trump aggressively attacking Mrs. Clinton as he focuses on the general election, Mrs. Clinton’s potential vulnerability was exposed in her defeats in West Virginia and Indiana, states with many white, working-class voters.Once a core Democratic constituency, whites in Appalachia without a college education have deserted the party over cultural issues like guns and President Obama’s environmental policies, which have hurt the coal mining industry.Mrs. Clinton tried to repair relations in the last week, less because of her contest with Mr. Sanders than to mend fences for the November election.She campaigned hard along the Ohio River, knowing that she must stanch the defection of working-class voters, especially white men, to Mr. Trump in two crucial states, Ohio and Pennsylvania.Her campaign, which has not bought television ads since her sweep of four Eastern states on April 26 and hoped to conserve money for the general election, is going back on the air in Kentucky before its primary next week.Mrs. Clinton’s vulnerability in Ohio and Pennsylvania was highlighted by polls released Tuesday by Quinnipiac University, which showed her running close with Mr. Trump in the two states but losing ground because of a wide gender gap. In Ohio, which has voted with the winning candidate in the last 10 presidential elections, she was ahead of Mr. Trump by seven percentage points among women, but behind by 15 points among men.In Pennsylvania, which Mr. Trump aims to win as part of a Rust Belt strategy, Mrs. Clinton was ahead among women by 19 points, but losing to Mr. Trump among men by an equal 19 points.Mr. Trump, who became the presumptive Republican nominee last week with a landslide victory in Indiana, added icing to the cake on Tuesday by taking West Virginia and Nebraska. (Democrats voted in Nebraska on March 5.)Even before the withdrawal of his last Republican rivals, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Gov. John Kasich of Ohio, Mr. Trump was far and away the leader in West Virginia polls. At a rally in the state last week, he promised to bring back coal mining jobs, without giving any details.The decline of coal in Appalachia is a result of increased mechanization of mining, the conversion of power plants to cheaper natural gas, and environmental regulations. The industry and its political allies play down the first two and blame the White House for a “war on coal.”Mr. Trump, who has repeatedly called climate change a “hoax,” opposes Mr. Obama’s plan to reduce carbon emissions from power plants. Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Sanders both propose more rapid transitions to cleaner energy, partly to create new jobs.Mrs. Clinton was haunted throughout her visits to West Virginia and Kentucky last week by a comment she made in March that her climate change policies would “put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” She made the remark in the context of pledging money to coal communities, but the sound bite trailed her, and she found herself repeatedly on the defensive.Mr. Sanders’s victory was less about policy differences with Mrs. Clinton (his environmental plans would phase out coal more rapidly) than about the state’s demographics. He beat Mrs. Clinton in a largely white, rural state, as he has throughout the primaries.Eight years ago, when Mrs. Clinton defeated Mr. Obama in West Virginia’s primary, one in five voters said in exit polls that race had been a factor. | 0 |
When President Donald Trump tweeted "LIBERATE MINNESOTA!" on Friday morning, some of his most fervent supporters in far-right communities — including those who have agitated for violent insurrection — heard a call to arms.The tweet was one of three sent from the president's account, along with "LIBERATE MICHIGAN!" and "LIBERATE VIRGINIA, and save your great 2nd Amendment. It is under siege!"Trump's tweets came after small protests by Trump supporters broke out in a handful of states, many of which were fueled by anti-vaccination and anti-government groups. Anti-government sentiment has percolated among far-right extremists in recent weeks over the stay-at-home orders governors have issued to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.Trump's tweets, however, pushed many online extremist communities to speculate whether the president was advocating for armed conflict, an event they’ve termed "the boogaloo," for which many far-right activists have been gearing up and advocating since last year.There were sharp increases on Twitter in terms associated with conspiracies such as QAnon and the "boogaloo" term immediately following the president’s tweets, according to the Network Contagion Research Institute, an independent nonprofit group of scientists and engineers that tracks and reports on misinformation and hate speech across social media.Posts about the "boogaloo" on Twitter skyrocketed in the hours after the president’s tweets, with more than 1,000 tweets featuring the term, some of which received hundreds of retweets."We the people should open up America with civil disobedience and lots of BOOGALOO. Who’s with me?" one QAnon conspiracy theorist on Twitter with over 50,000 followers asked."Boogaloo" is a term used by extremists to refer to armed insurrection, a shortened version of "Civil War 2: Electric Boogaloo," which was coined on the extremist message board 4chan.Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington condemned Trump's tweets in his own Twitter thread in which he warned the president about encouraging violence."The president is fomenting domestic rebellion and spreading lies - even while his own administration says the virus is real, it is deadly and we have a long way to go before restrictions can be lifted," Inslee wrote.A Twitter spokesperson said the president’s tweets didn’t violate the site’s policies against content that poses a risk to health or well-being around the coronavirus outbreak.The use of "liberate" in the tweets is too vague to be actionable, according to the Twitter spokesperson.The activity comes as extremist researchers have warned about increased activity during the pandemic.Law enforcement officials have previously identified "boogaloo" domestic extremists as a legitimate threat. A report released by the Network Contagion Research Institute about the term "boogaloo" being used to ironically mask violent overthrow attempts had "gone viral" within law enforcement and intelligence communities in February, Homeland Security Advisory Council member Paul Goldenberg told NBC News in February.The president’s tweets came just minutes after Fox News aired a segment featuring coverage of a Facebook event called "Liberate Minnesota." Although only a few hundred people expressed interest in the event on Facebook, local news sites and conservative blogs drove attention to the event Thursday, one day before the president’s tweets."Minnesota citizens now is the time to demand Governor Walz and our state legislators end this lock down!" the event’s Facebook page reads. "Thousands of lives are being destroyed right now. It is not the governor's place to restrict free movement of Minnesota citizens! Gov. Walz you work for the citizens of this state!"A few hundred protesters had gathered outside Gov. Tim Walz’s residence in St. Paul, Minnesota, by Friday afternoon, packed in tight crowds along the sidewalk. They chanted "USA" and carried signs with pro-Trump, anti-Walz messaging. One sign read, "If ballots don’t free us bullets will."The Minnesota protest followed several others in different states including Ohio, New York, North Carolina, Kentucky and Michigan, in which demonstrators have demanded governors end shutdowns enacted to stop the spread of the coronavirus.The protests have been a unifier of anti-government and conspiracy-minded subcultures, bringing anti-vaccination activists, anti-government militia groups, religious fundamentalists and white supremacists together at state capitols.While focused on their respective states, the groups are organizing expressly to call for people to violate the policies that Trump has supported at daily news briefings.Ohio had one of the first national rallies. On April 9, about 70 protesters gathered on the lawn of the state Capitol. Chanting "Free Ohio Now!," they carried signs and bucked guidelines for maintaining 6 feet of social distancing. Videos of the event were livestreamed in popular anti-vaccination Facebook groups.On Wednesday, in an action dubbed "Operation Gridlock," thousands in Lansing, Michigan, protested from their cars outside the state Capitol. The crowd included a variety of conservative and far-right icons, including "Don't Tread on Me" banners, Trump campaign flags and at least two Confederate flags. Some people brought their assault weapons. The crowd also chanted "Lock her up," referring to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat who has often been criticized by Trump. The chant was popularized during Trump campaign rallies as a call to jail then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.The event was organized by two Michigan conservative nonprofits, but heavily attended by more extreme groups.One anti-vaccination activist and anti-government "sovereign citizen," a reference to a movement that believes taxation is unconstitutional, was arrested in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Tuesday at a similar "reopen" rally where over 100 people gathered in their cars to honk every 15 minutes in protest of the state’s stay-at-home order.Each of the events had been organized on Facebook.Though the protests were reasonably small, they were lauded by members of the conservative media, including most evening Fox News hosts.One host, Laura Ingraham, voiced her support for the Michigan protests Wednesday, with a tweet that read, "Time to get your freedom back."The Minnesota protest’s description on Facebook was then posted to popular pro-Trump forums and sent around as an email chain letter.One host of the "Liberate Minnesota" event on Facebook, Don Huizenga, posted a link to the Facebook event Monday, urging peaceful protest."I hope to see you all there! We'll be nice, respectful and well dressed. Bring your signs and your passion for America!" he wrote.By Thursday, Huizenga struck a different tone."Some of us understand what is happening. The rest of the sheep do not. But, it was designed that way...which is why we're speaking out and acting out," he wrote. "Wait for the violence. It will happen. People in our culture are NOT designed to obey these kinds of orders."Huizenga said in a phone interview that he worked in the 6th Congressional District for Trump’s campaign. He said that he and event co-host Michele Even, who he said was a "fellow activist," came up with the idea.He said that while "people are really energized and Trump is an attachment to that energy," he was more concerned about ending the lockdown because of the "precedent it sets."He added that the violence he anticipated in his Facebook post would not be part of the rally."We’re gonna do everything we can to clean up our mess when we leave, to make sure people are respectful. This is a conservative rally. I don’t expect it to be chaotic. People here really don’t want it to be chaotic," he said.But Huizenga reiterated his warning about violence."The message here that I had: Violence will happen and it will happen in two weeks when people literally don’t have any food," he said. "When we’re pitting neighbor against neighbor, people are going to be angry. Humans aren’t designed to act like this, especially American humans aren’t used to this at all. You’re gonna rub people the wrong way. There will be violence. People are dying from the side effects of all this legislative action."On pro-Trump message boards like TheDonald.Win, an offshoot of a forum that was effectively banned from Reddit earlier this year, Trump’s tweets delivered a clear message: get ready for the civil war."Time to BOOG pedes. It's now or never," one highly ranked comment in response to Trump’s "Liberate Virginia" tweet reads. "Earn our freedom for us and our kids like our forefathers did in 1776 or stay silent and be the frog boiled in the pot as we sit in the gulags and wonder why we didn't do anything." | 0 |
Republican US Senator Lisa Murkowski has said she was “disturbed” by the Senate leader’s approach to working with White House counsel on the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, saying there should be distance between the two.The comments by the Alaska lawmaker come after Mitch McConnell, majority leader of the Republican-led Senate, said during a Fox News interview earlier this month that he was working in “total coordination” with the White House on the upcoming trial.“To me it means that we have to take that step back from being hand-in-glove with the defense,” Murkowski said in comments aired late on Tuesday during an interview with Alaska-based NBC news affiliate KTUU-TV. “I heard what leader McConnell had said. I happened to think that has further confused the process.”Murkowski, who says she remains undecided on how she will vote in the upcoming impeachment proceedings, cited the need for distance between the White House and the Senate on how the trial should be conducted.Trump was impeached last week by the Democratic-led House of Representatives on two charges over his pressuring Ukraine to announce an investigation of former vice president Joe Biden, one of the top contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, and Biden’s son. He has been charged with abuse of power and obstructing Congress’ investigation.Trump has said he did nothing wrong.Republicans have a three-seat majority in the Senate, with 53 seats, where 51 votes are needed to pass a set of rules for the Trump trial. The actual impeachment trial in the Senate would need a two-thirds majority vote for a conviction.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has not yet transmitted the articles of impeachment to the Senate, a bid to pressure Senate Republicans to reach an accord with the Democrats in the chamber on trial rules. McConnell said the Senate could not take any action until it receives the articles.Whether or not to call witnesses has been one of the main sticking points between the Democrats and the Republicans in drafting rules for the impeachment proceedings. McConnell on Monday said that Republicans had not ruled out hearing witnesses in the impeachment trial of the Republican president.However, McConnell made clear he would not accede to a Democratic request for the Senate to agree ahead of time to take testimony during the trial.There is little chance Trump will be convicted and removed from office through a trial in the Republican-led Senate, but the impeachment proceedings could resonate at the ballot box in November. | 0 |
In the interviews, more than 400 insiders offered unrestrained criticism of what went wrong in Afghanistan and how the United States became mired in nearly two decades of warfare. With a bluntness rarely expressed in public, the interviews lay bare pent-up complaints, frustrations and confessions, along with second-guessing and backbiting. Click any underlined text in the story to see the statement in the original document “We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan — we didn’t know what we were doing,”Douglas Lute | Lessons Learned interview | 2/20/2015Tap to view full document Douglas Lute, a three-star Army general who served as the White House’s Afghan war czar during the Bush and Obama administrations, told government interviewers in 2015. He added: “What are we trying to do here? We didn’t have the foggiest notion of what we were undertaking.”Douglas Lute | Lessons Learned interview | 2/20/2015Tap to view full document “If the American people knew the magnitude of this dysfunction . . . 2,400 lives lost,”Douglas Lute | Lessons Learned interview | 2/20/2015Tap to view full document Lute added, blaming the deaths of U.S. military personnel on bureaucratic breakdowns among Congress, the Pentagon and the State Department. “Who will say this was in vain?”Douglas Lute | Lessons Learned interview | 2/20/2015Tap to view full document Since 2001, more than 775,000 U.S. troops have deployed to Afghanistan, many repeatedly. Of those, 2,300 died there and 20,589 were wounded in action, according to Defense Department figures. The interviews, through an extensive array of voices, bring into sharp relief the core failings of the war that persist to this day. They underscore how three presidents — George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump — and their military commanders have been unable to deliver on their promises to prevail in Afghanistan. With most speaking on the assumption that their remarks would not become public, U.S. officials acknowledged that their warfighting strategies were fatally flawed and that Washington wasted enormous sums of money trying to remake Afghanistan into a modern nation. The interviews also highlight the U.S. government’s botched attempts to curtail runaway corruption, build a competent Afghan army and police force, and put a dent in Afghanistan’s thriving opium trade. The U.S. government has not carried out a comprehensive accounting of how much it has spent on the war in Afghanistan, but the costs are staggering. Since 2001, the Defense Department, State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development have spent or appropriated between $934 billion and $978 billion, according to an inflation-adjusted estimate calculated by Neta Crawford, a political science professor and co-director of the Costs of War Project at Brown University. Those figures do not include money spent by other agencies such as the CIA and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which is responsible for medical care for wounded veterans. “What did we get for this $1 trillion effort? Was it worth $1 trillion?”Jeffrey Eggers | Lessons Learned interview | 8/25/2015Tap to view full document Jeffrey Eggers, a retired Navy SEAL and White House staffer for Bush and Obama, told government interviewers. He added, “After the killing of Osama bin Laden, I said that Osama was probably laughing in his watery grave considering how much we have spent on Afghanistan.”Jeffrey Eggers | Lessons Learned interview | 8/25/2015Tap to view full document The documents also contradict a long chorus of public statements from U.S. presidents, military commanders and diplomats who assured Americans year after year that they were making progress in Afghanistan and the war was worth fighting. (Video by Joyce Lee/The Washington Post) Several of those interviewed described explicit and sustained efforts by the U.S. government to deliberately mislead the public. They said it was common at military headquarters in Kabul — and at the White House — to distort statistics to make it appear the United States was winning the war when that was not the case. “Every data point was altered to present the best picture possible,”Bob Crowley | Lessons Learned interview | 8/3/2016Tap to view full document Bob Crowley, an Army colonel who served as a senior counterinsurgency adviser to U.S. military commanders in 2013 and 2014, told government interviewers. “Surveys, for instance, were totally unreliable but reinforced thatBob Crowley | Lessons Learned interview | 8/3/2016Tap to view full document everything we were doing was right and we became a self-licking ice cream cone.”Bob Crowley | Lessons Learned interview | 8/3/2016Tap to view full document John Sopko, the head of the federal agency that conducted the interviews, acknowledged to The Post that the documents show “the American people have constantly been lied to.” The interviews are the byproduct of a project led by Sopko’s agency, the Office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Known as SIGAR, the agency was created by Congress in 2008 to investigate waste and fraud in the war zone. In 2014, at Sopko’s direction, SIGAR departed from its usual mission of performing audits and launched a side venture. Titled “Lessons Learned,” the $11 million project was meant to diagnose policy failures in Afghanistan so the United States would not repeat the mistakes the next time it invaded a country or tried to rebuild a shattered one. The Lessons Learned staff interviewed more than 600 people with firsthand experience in the war. Most were Americans, but SIGAR analysts also traveled to London, Brussels and Berlin to interview NATO allies. In addition, they interviewed about 20 Afghan officials, discussing reconstruction and development programs. Drawing partly on the interviews, as well as other government records and statistics, SIGAR has published seven Lessons Learned reports since 2016 that highlight problems in Afghanistan and recommend changes to stabilize the country. But the reports, written in dense bureaucratic prose and focused on an alphabet soup of government initiatives, left out the harshest and most frank criticisms from the interviews. “We found the stabilization strategy and the programs used to achieve it were not properly tailored to the Afghan context, and successes in stabilizing Afghan districts rarely lasted longer than the physical presence of coalition troops and civilians,” read the introduction to one report released in May 2018. The reports also omitted the names of more than 90 percent of the people who were interviewed for the project. While a few officials agreed to speak on the record to SIGAR, the agency said it promised anonymity to everyone else it interviewed to avoid controversy over politically sensitive matters. Under the Freedom of Information Act, The Post began seeking Lessons Learned interview records in August 2016. SIGAR refused, arguing that the documents were privileged and that the public had no right to see them. The Post had to sue SIGAR in federal court — twice — to compel it to release the documents. “We don’t invade poor countries to make them rich. We don’t invade authoritarian countries to make them democratic. We invade violent countries to make them peaceful and we clearly failed in Afghanistan.” — James Dobbins, former U.S. diplomat Listen The agency eventually disclosed more than 2,000 pages of unpublished notes and transcripts from 428 of the interviews, as well as several audio recordings. The documents identify 62 of the people who were interviewed, but SIGAR blacked out the names of 366 others. In legal briefs, the agency contended that those individuals should be seen as whistleblowers and informants who might face humiliation, harassment, retaliation or physical harm if their names became public. By cross-referencing dates and other details from the documents, The Post independently identified 33 other people who were interviewed, including several former ambassadors, generals and White House officials. The Post has asked a federal judge to force SIGAR to disclose the names of everyone else interviewed, arguing that the public has a right to know which officials criticized the war and asserted that the government had misled the American people. The Post also argued the officials were not whistleblowers or informants, because they were not interviewed as part of an investigation. A decision by Judge Amy Berman Jackson of the U.S. District Court in Washington has been pending since late September. The Post is publishing the documents now, instead of waiting for a final ruling, to inform the public while the Trump administration is negotiating with the Taliban and considering whether to withdraw the 13,000 U.S. troops who remain in Afghanistan. The Post attempted to contact for comment everyone whom it was able to identify as having given an interview to SIGAR. Their responses are compiled in a separate article. Sopko, the inspector general, told The Post that he did not suppress the blistering criticisms and doubts about the war that officials raised in the Lessons Learned interviews. He said it took his office three years to release the records because he has a small staff and because other federal agencies had to review the documents to prevent government secrets from being disclosed. “We didn’t sit on it,” he said. “We’re firm believers in openness and transparency, but we’ve got to follow the law. . . . I think of any inspector general, I’ve probably been the most forthcoming on information.” The interview records are raw and unedited, and SIGAR’s Lessons Learned staff did not stitch them into a unified narrative. But they are packed with tough judgments from people who shaped or carried out U.S. policy in Afghanistan. “We don’t invade poor countries to make them rich,”James Dobbins | Lessons Learned interview | 1/11/2016Tap to view full document James Dobbins, a former senior U.S. diplomat who served as a special envoy to Afghanistan under Bush and Obama, told government interviewers. “We don’t invade authoritarian countries to make them democratic. We invade violent countries to make them peaceful and we clearly failed in Afghanistan.”James Dobbins | Lessons Learned interview | 1/11/2016Tap to view full document From left, Gen. David H. Petraeus, Joint Chiefs Chairman Michael Mullen, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki and Defense Secretary Robert Gates at the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, N.Y., in 2009 as President Barack Obama publicly outlined his plans for a troop surge in Afghanistan. (Christopher Morris/VII/Redux) To augment the Lessons Learned interviews, The Post obtained hundreds of pages of previously classified memos about the Afghan war that were dictated by Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld between 2001 and 2006. Dubbed “snowflakes” by Rumsfeld and his staff, the memos are brief instructions or comments that the Pentagon boss dictated to his underlings, often several times a day. Rumsfeld made a select number of his snowflakes public in 2011, posting them online in conjunction with his memoir, “Known and Unknown.” But most of his snowflake collection — an estimated 59,000 pages — remained secret. In 2017, in response to a FOIA lawsuit filed by the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research institute based at George Washington University, the Defense Department began reviewing and releasing the remainder of Rumsfeld’s snowflakes on a rolling basis. The Archive shared them with The Post. Together, the SIGAR interviews and the Rumsfeld memos pertaining to Afghanistan constitute a secret history of the war and an unsparing appraisal of 18 years of conflict. Worded in Rumsfeld’s brusque style, many of the snowflakes foreshadow problems that continue to haunt the U.S. military more than a decade later. “I may be impatient. In fact I know I’m a bit impatient,”Donald Rumsfeld | Rumsfeld memoTap to view full document Rumsfeld wrote in one memo to several generals and senior aides. “We are never going to get the U.S. military out of Afghanistan unless we take care to see that there is something going on that will provide the stability that will be necessary for us to leave.”Donald Rumsfeld | Rumsfeld memoTap to view full document “Help!”Donald Rumsfeld | Rumsfeld memoTap to view full document he wrote. The memo was dated April 17, 2002 — six months after the war started. What they said in public April 17, 2002 “The history of military conflict in Afghanistan [has] been one of initial success, followed by long years of floundering and ultimate failure. We’re not going to repeat that mistake.” — President George W. Bush, in a speech at the Virginia Military Institute With their forthright descriptions of how the United States became stuck in a faraway war, as well as the government's determination to conceal them from the public, the Lessons Learned interviews broadly resemble the Pentagon Papers, the Defense Department's top-secret history of the Vietnam War. When they were leaked in 1971, the Pentagon Papers caused a sensation by revealing the government had long misled the public about how the United States came to be embroiled in Vietnam. Bound into 47 volumes, the 7,000-page study was based entirely on internal government documents — diplomatic cables, decision-making memos, intelligence reports. To preserve secrecy, Defense Secretary Robert McNamara issued an order prohibiting the authors from interviewing anyone. SIGAR’s Lessons Learned project faced no such restrictions. Staffers carried out the interviews between 2014 and 2018, mostly with officials who served during the Bush and Obama years. About 30 of the interview records are transcribed, word-for-word accounts. The rest are typed summaries of conversations: pages of notes and quotes from people with different vantage points in the conflict, from provincial outposts to the highest circles of power. Some of the interviews are inexplicably short. The interview record with John Allen, the Marine general who commanded U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan from 2011 to 2013, consists of five paragraphs. In contrast, records of interviews with other influential figures are much more extensive. Former U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker sat for two interviews that yielded 95 transcribed pages. Unlike the Pentagon Papers, none of the Lessons Learned documents were originally classified as a government secret. Once The Post pushed to make them public, however, other federal agencies intervened and classified some material after the fact. The State Department, for instance, asserted that releasing portions of certain interviews could jeopardize negotiations with the Taliban to end the war. The Defense Department and Drug Enforcement Administration also classified some interview excerpts. The Lessons Learned interviews contain few revelations about military operations. But running throughout are torrents of criticism that refute the official narrative of the war, from its earliest days through the start of the Trump administration. At the outset, for instance, the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan had a clear, stated objective — to retaliate against al-Qaeda and prevent a repeat of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. A joint artillery training session at a combat outpost in Jaghatu, in Wardak province, in 2012. (Lorenzo Tugnoli for The Washington Post) Yet the interviews show that as the war dragged on, the goals and mission kept changing and a lack of faith in the U.S. strategy took root inside the Pentagon, the White House and the State Department. Fundamental disagreements went unresolved. Some U.S. officials wanted to use the war to turn Afghanistan into a democracy. Others wanted to transform Afghan culture and elevate women’s rights. Still others wanted to reshape the regional balance of power among Pakistan, India, Iran and Russia. “With the AfPak strategy there was a present under the Christmas tree for everyone,”Lessons Learned interview | 5/18/2015Tap to view full document an unidentified U.S. official told government interviewers in 2015. “By the time you were finished you had so many priorities and aspirations it was like no strategy at all.”Lessons Learned interview | 5/18/2015Tap to view full document The Lessons Learned interviews also reveal how U.S. military commanders struggled to articulate who they were fighting, let alone why. Was al-Qaeda the enemy, or the Taliban? Was Pakistan a friend or an adversary? What about the Islamic State and the bewildering array of foreign jihadists, let alone the warlords on the CIA’s payroll? According to the documents, the U.S. government never settled on an answer. As a result, in the field, U.S. troops often couldn’t tell friend from foe. “They thought I was going to come to them with a map to show them where the good guys and bad guys live,”Lessons Learned interview | 12/15/2017Tap to view full document an unnamed former adviser to an Army Special Forces team told government interviewers in 2017. “It took several conversations for them to understand that I did not have that information in my hands. At first, they just kept asking: ‘But who are the bad guys, where are they?’ ”Lessons Learned interview | 12/15/2017Tap to view full document The view wasn’t any clearer from the Pentagon. “I have no visibility into who the bad guys are,”Donald Rumsfeld | Rumsfeld memoTap to view full document Rumsfeld complained in a Sept. 8, 2003, snowflake. “We are woefully deficient in human intelligence.”Donald Rumsfeld | Rumsfeld memoTap to view full document What they said in public Dec. 1, 2009 “The days of providing a blank check are over. . . . It must be clear that Afghans will have to take responsibility for their security and that America has no interest in fighting an endless war in Afghanistan.” — President Barack Obama, in a speech at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y. As commanders in chief, Bush, Obama and Trump all promised the public the same thing. They would avoid falling into the trap of "nation-building" in Afghanistan. On that score, the presidents failed miserably. The United States has allocated more than $133 billion to build up Afghanistan — more than it spent, adjusted for inflation, to revive the whole of Western Europe with the Marshall Plan after World War II. The Lessons Learned interviews show the grandiose nation-building project was marred from the start. U.S. officials tried to create — from scratch — a democratic government in Kabul modeled after their own in Washington. It was a foreign concept to the Afghans, who were accustomed to tribalism, monarchism, communism and Islamic law. “Our policy was to create a strong central government which was idiotic because Afghanistan does not have a history of a strong central government,”Former State Department official | Lessons Learned interview | 7/10/2015Tap to view full document an unidentified former State Department official told government interviewers in 2015. “The timeframe for creating a strong central government is 100 years, which we didn’t have.”Former State Department official | Lessons Learned interview | 7/10/2015Tap to view full document Meanwhile, the United States flooded the fragile country with far more aid than it could possibly absorb. During the peak of the fighting, from 2009 to 2012, U.S. lawmakers and military commanders believed the more they spent on schools, bridges, canals and other civil-works projects, the faster security would improve. Aid workers told government interviewers it was a colossal misjudgment, akin to pumping kerosene on a dying campfire just to keep the flame alive. U.S. soldiers wounded by an IED are transported by medevac in Kandahar province in 2010. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) One unnamed executive with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) guessed that 90 percent of what they spent was overkill: “We lost objectivity. We were given money, told to spend it and we did, without reason.”Lessons Learned interview | 10/7/2016Tap to view full document Many aid workers blamed Congress for what they saw as a mindless rush to spend. One unidentified contractor told government interviewers he was expected to dole out $3 million daily for projects in a single Afghan district roughly the size of a U.S. county. He once asked a visiting congressman whether the lawmaker could responsibly spend that kind of money back home: “He said hell no. ‘Well, sir, that’s what you just obligated us to spend and I’m doing it for communities that live in mud huts with no windows.’ ”Senior USAID official | Lessons Learned interview | 8/15/2016Tap to view full document The gusher of aid that Washington spent on Afghanistan also gave rise to historic levels of corruption. In public, U.S. officials insisted they had no tolerance for graft. But in the Lessons Learned interviews, they admitted the U.S. government looked the other way while Afghan power brokers — allies of Washington — plundered with impunity. Christopher Kolenda, an Army colonel who deployed to Afghanistan several times and advised three U.S. generals in charge of the war, said that the Afghan government led by President Hamid Karzai had “self-organized into a kleptocracy”Christopher Kolenda | Lessons Learned interview | 4/5/2016Tap to view full document by 2006 — and that U.S. officials failed to recognize the lethal threat it posed to their strategy. “I like to use a cancer analogy,”Christopher Kolenda | Lessons Learned interview | 4/5/2016Tap to view full document Kolenda told government interviewers. “Petty corruption is like skin cancer; there are ways to deal with it and you’ll probably be just fine. Corruption within the ministries, higher level, is like colon cancer; it’s worse, but if you catch it in time, you’re probably ok. Kleptocracy, however, is like brain cancer; it’s fatal.”Christopher Kolenda | Lessons Learned interview | 4/5/2016Tap to view full document A banner depicting President Hamid Karzai in Kabul shortly after the country’s 2004 election. (Emilio Morenatti/AP) By allowing corruption to fester, U.S. officials told interviewers, they helped destroy the popular legitimacy of the wobbly Afghan government they were fighting to prop up. With judges and police chiefs and bureaucrats extorting bribes, many Afghans soured on democracy and turned to the Taliban to enforce order. “Our biggest single project, sadly and inadvertently, of course, may have been the development of mass corruption,”Ryan Crocker | Lessons Learned interview | 1/11/2016Tap to view full document Crocker, who served as the top U.S. diplomat in Kabul in 2002 and again from 2011 to 2012, told government interviewers. He added, “Once it gets to the level I saw, when I was out there, it’s somewhere between unbelievably hard and outright impossible to fix it.”Ryan Crocker | Lessons Learned interview | 1/11/2016Tap to view full document What they said in public Sept. 4, 2013 “This army and this police force have been very, very effective in combat against the insurgents every single day. And I think that’s an important story to be told across the board.” — Then-Army Lt. Gen. Mark A. Milley, praising the Afghan security forces during a press briefing from Kabul. Milley is now a four-star general and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Year after year, U.S. generals have said in public they are making steady progress on the central plank of their strategy: to train a robust Afghan army and national police force that can defend the country without foreign help. In the Lessons Learned interviews, however, U.S. military trainers described the Afghan security forces as incompetent, unmotivated and rife with deserters. They also accused Afghan commanders of pocketing salaries — paid by U.S. taxpayers — for tens of thousands of “ghost soldiers.” None expressed confidence that the Afghan army and police could ever fend off, much less defeat, the Taliban on their own. More than 60,000 members of Afghan security forces have been killed, a casualty rate that U.S. commanders have called unsustainable. Afghan army recruits in Kabul in 2009. (Emilio Morenatti/AP) One unidentified U.S. soldier said Special Forces teams “hated”U.S. Special Forces officer | Lessons Learned interview | 9/7/2016Tap to view full document the Afghan police whom they trained and worked with, calling them “awful — the bottom of the barrel in the country that is already at the bottom of the barrel.”U.S. Special Forces officer | Lessons Learned interview | 9/7/2016Tap to view full document A U.S. military officer estimated that one-third of police recruits were “drug addicts or Taliban.”U.S. military officer | Lessons Learned interview | 10/20/2016Tap to view full document Yet another called them “stealing fools”Victor Glaviano | Lessons Learned interview | 4/11/2017Tap to view full document who looted so much fuel from U.S. bases that they perpetually smelled of gasoline. “Thinking we could build the military that fast and that well was insane,”Senior USAID official | Lessons Learned interview | 8/15/2016Tap to view full document an unnamed senior USAID official told government interviewers. Meanwhile, as U.S. hopes for the Afghan security forces failed to materialize, Afghanistan became the world’s leading source of a growing scourge: opium. The United States has spent about $9 billion to fight the problem over the past 18 years, but Afghan farmers are cultivating more opium poppies than ever. Last year, Afghanistan was responsible for 82 percent of global opium production, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. In the Lessons Learned interviews, former officials said almost everything they did to constrain opium farming backfired. “We stated that our goal is to establish a ‘flourishing market economy,’ ”Douglas Lute | Lessons Learned interview | 2/20/2015Tap to view full document said Douglas Lute, the White House’s Afghan war czar from 2007 to 2013. “I thought we should have specified a flourishing drug trade — this is the only part of the market that’s working.”Douglas Lute | Lessons Learned interview | 2/20/2015Tap to view full document Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel speaks to U.S. troops in 2013 at Camp Bastion, in Helmand province. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images) From the beginning, Washington never really figured out how to incorporate a war on drugs into its war against al-Qaeda. By 2006, U.S. officials feared that narco-traffickers had become stronger than the Afghan government and that money from the drug trade was powering the insurgency. No single agency or country was in charge of the Afghan drug strategy for the entirety of the war, so the State Department, the DEA, the U.S. military, NATO allies and the Afghan government butted heads constantly. “It was a dog’s breakfast with no chance of working,”Former senior British official | Lessons Learned interview | 9/21/2016Tap to view full document an unnamed former senior British official told government interviewers. The agencies and allies made things worse by embracing a dysfunctional muddle of programs, according to the interviews. At first, Afghan poppy farmers were paid by the British to destroy their crops — which only encouraged them to grow more the next season. Later, the U.S. government eradicated poppy fields without compensation — which only infuriated farmers and encouraged them to side with the Taliban. “It was sad to see so many people behave so stupidly,”U.S. official | Lessons Learned interview | 5/11/2016Tap to view full document one U.S. official told government interviewers. What they said in public Sept. 8, 2008 “Are we losing this war? Absolutely no way. Can the enemy win it? Absolutely no way.” — Army Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, in a news briefing from Afghanistan The specter of Vietnam has hovered over Afghanistan from the start. On Oct. 11, 2001, a few days after the United States started bombing the Taliban, a reporter asked Bush: “Can you avoid being drawn into a Vietnam-like quagmire in Afghanistan?” “We learned some very important lessons in Vietnam,” Bush replied confidently. “People often ask me, ‘How long will this last?’ This particular battlefront will last as long as it takes to bring al-Qaeda to justice. It may happen tomorrow, it may happen a month from now, it may take a year or two. But we will prevail.” In those early days, other U.S. leaders mocked the notion that the nightmare of Vietnam might repeat itself in Afghanistan. “All together now — quagmire!” Rumsfeld joked at a news conference on Nov. 27, 2001. But throughout the Afghan war, documents show that U.S. military officials have resorted to an old tactic from Vietnam — manipulating public opinion. In news conferences and other public appearances, those in charge of the war have followed the same talking points for 18 years. No matter how the war is going — and especially when it is going badly — they emphasize how they are making progress. For example, some snowflakes that Rumsfeld released with his memoir show he had received a string of unusually dire warnings from the war zone in 2006. After returning from a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan, Barry McCaffrey, a retired Army general, reported the Taliban had made an impressive comeback and predicted that “we will encounter some very unpleasant surprises in the coming 24 months.” “The Afghan national leadership are collectively terrified that we will tip-toe out of Afghanistan in the coming few years — leaving NATO holding the bag — and the whole thing will collapse again into mayhem,” McCaffrey wrote in June 2006. Two months later, Marin Strmecki, a civilian adviser to Rumsfeld, gave the Pentagon chief a classified, 40-page report loaded with more bad news. It said “enormous popular discontent is building” against the Afghan government because of its corruption and incompetence. It also said that the Taliban was growing stronger, thanks to support from Pakistan, a U.S. ally. Yet with Rumsfeld’s personal blessing, the Pentagon buried the bleak warnings and told the public a very different story. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, left, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in March 2002. (Robert A. Reeder/The Washington Post) In October 2006, Rumsfeld’s speechwriters delivered a paper titled “Afghanistan: Five Years Later.” Brimming with optimism, it highlighted more than 50 promising facts and figures, from the number of Afghan women trained in “improved poultry management” (more than 19,000) to the “average speed on most roads” (up 300 percent). “Five years on, there is a multitude of good news,” it read. “While it has become fashionable in some circles to call Afghanistan a forgotten war, or to say the United States has lost its focus, the facts belie the myths.” Rumsfeld thought it was brilliant. “This paper,” he wrote in a memo, “is an excellent piece. How do we use it? Should it be an article? An Op-ed piece? A handout? A press briefing? All of the above? I think it ought to get it to a lot of people.” His staffers made sure it did. They circulated a version to reporters and posted it on Pentagon websites. Since then, U.S. generals have almost always preached that the war is progressing well, no matter the reality on the battlefield. “We’re making some steady progress,” Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Schloesser, commander of the 101st Airborne Division, told reporters in September 2008, even as he and other U.S. commanders in Kabul were urgently requesting reinforcements to cope with a rising tide of Taliban fighters. Two years later, as the casualty rate among U.S. and NATO troops climbed to another high, Army Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez held a news conference in Kabul. “First, we are steadily making deliberate progress,” he said. “And this includes the State Department, ambassadors, you know, down at the local level. Everybody did a great job. We’re all doing a great job. Really? So if we’re doing such a great job, why does it feel like we’re losing?” — Michael Flynn, a retired three-star Army general Listen In March 2011, during congressional hearings, skeptical lawmakers pelted Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, with doubts that the U.S. strategy was working. “The past eight months have seen important but hard-fought progress,” Petraeus responded. One year later, during a visit to Afghanistan, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta stuck to the same script — even though he had just personally dodged a suicide attack. “The campaign, as I’ve pointed out before, I think has made significant progress,” Panetta told reporters. In July 2016, after a surge in Taliban attacks on major cities, Army Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan at the time, repeated the refrain. “We are seeing some progress,” he told reporters. What they said in public March 27, 2009 “Going forward, we will not blindly stay the course. Instead, we will set clear metrics to measure progress and hold ourselves accountable.” — Obama, in remarks from the White House During Vietnam, U.S. military commanders relied on dubious measurements to persuade Americans that they were winning. Most notoriously, the Pentagon highlighted “body counts,” or the number of enemy fighters killed, and inflated the figures as a measurement of success. In Afghanistan, with occasional exceptions, the U.S. military has generally avoided publicizing body counts. But the Lessons Learned interviews contain numerous admissions that the government routinely touted statistics that officials knew were distorted, spurious or downright false. A person identified only as a senior National Security Council official said there was constant pressure from the Obama White House and Pentagon to produce figures to show the troop surge of 2009 to 2011 was working, despite hard evidence to the contrary. “It was impossible to create good metrics. We tried using troop numbers trained, violence levels, control of territory and none of it painted an accurate picture,”Senior National Security Council official | Lessons Learned interview | 9/16/2016Tap to view full document the senior NSC official told government interviewers in 2016. “The metrics were always manipulated for the duration of the war.” Even when casualty counts and other figures looked bad, the senior NSC official said, the White House and Pentagon would spin them to the point of absurdity. Suicide bombings in Kabul were portrayed as a sign of the Taliban’s desperation, that the insurgents were too weak to engage in direct combat. Meanwhile, a rise in U.S. troop deaths was cited as proof that American forces were taking the fight to the enemy. The remains of Army Maj. Gen. Harold J. Greene, 55, arrive at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware in August 2014. Greene was the first U.S. general killed in Iraq or Afghanistan. (Linda Davidson/The Washington Post) “It was their explanations,” the senior NSC official said. “For example, attacks are getting worse? ‘That’s because there are more targets for them to fire at, so more attacks are a false indicator of instability.’ Then, three months later, attacks are still getting worse? ‘It’s because the Taliban are getting desperate, so it’s actually an indicator that we’re winning.’ ” “And this went on and on for two reasons,” the senior NSC official said, “to make everyone involved look good, and to make it look like the troops and resources were having the kind of effect where removing them would cause the country to deteriorate.” In other field reports sent up the chain of command, military officers and diplomats took the same line. Regardless of conditions on the ground, they claimed they were making progress. “From the ambassadors down to the low level, [they all say] we are doing a great job,”Michael Flynn | Lessons Learned interview | 11/10/2015Tap to view full document Michael Flynn, a retired three-star Army general, told government interviewers in 2015. “Really? So if we are doing such a great job, why does it feel like we are losing?”Michael Flynn | Lessons Learned interview | 11/10/2015Tap to view full document Upon arrival in Afghanistan, U.S. Army brigade and battalion commanders were given the same basic mission: to protect the population and defeat the enemy, according to Flynn, who served multiple tours in Afghanistan as an intelligence officer. “So they all went in for whatever their rotation was, nine months or six months, and were given that mission, accepted that mission and executed that mission,”Michael Flynn | Lessons Learned interview | 11/10/2015Tap to view full document said Flynn, who later briefly served as Trump’s national security adviser, lost his job in a scandal and was convicted of lying to the FBI. “Then they all said, when they left, they accomplished that mission. Every single commander. Not one commander is going to leave Afghanistan . . . and say, ‘You know what, we didn’t accomplish our mission.’ ”Michael Flynn | Lessons Learned interview | 11/10/2015Tap to view full document He added: “So the next guy that shows up finds it [their area] screwed up . . . and then they come back and go, ‘Man this is really bad.’ ”Michael Flynn | Lessons Learned interview | 11/10/2015Tap to view full document Lt. Gen. David Rodriguez arrives at Forward Operating Base Pasab in Kandahar province for a transfer-of-authority ceremony in 2011. (Mikhail Galustov for The Washington Post) Bob Crowley, the retired Army colonel who served as a counterinsurgency adviser in Afghanistan in 2013 and 2014, told government interviewers that “truth was rarely welcome”Bob Crowley | Lessons Learned interview | 8/3/2016Tap to view full document at military headquarters in Kabul. “Bad news was often stifled,”Bob Crowley | Lessons Learned interview | 8/3/2016Tap to view full document he said. “There was more freedom to share bad news if it was small — we’re running over kids with our MRAPs [armored vehicles] — because those things could be changed with policy directives. But when we tried to air larger strategic concerns about the willingness, capacity or corruption of the Afghan government, it was clear it wasn’t welcome.”Bob Crowley | Lessons Learned interview | 8/3/2016Tap to view full document John Garofano, a Naval War College strategist who advised Marines in Helmand province in 2011, said military officials in the field devoted an inordinate amount of resources to churning out color-coded charts that heralded positive results. “They had a really expensive machine that would print the really large pieces of paper like in a print shop,”John Garofano | Lessons Learned interview | 10/15/2015Tap to view full document he told government interviewers. “There would be a caveat that these are not actually scientific figures, or this is not a scientific process behind this.”John Garofano | Lessons Learned interview | 10/15/2015Tap to view full document But Garofano said nobody dared to question whether the charts and numbers were credible or meaningful. “There was not a willingness to answer questions such as, what is the meaning of this number of schools that you have built? How has that progressed you towards your goal?”John Garofano | Lessons Learned interview | 10/15/2015Tap to view full document he said. “How do you show this as evidence of success and not just evidence of effort or evidence of just doing a good thing?”John Garofano | Lessons Learned interview | 10/15/2015Tap to view full document Other senior officials said they placed great importance on one statistic in particular, albeit one the U.S. government rarely likes to discuss in public. “I do think the key benchmark is the one I’ve suggested, which is how many Afghans are getting killed,” James Dobbins, the former U.S. diplomat, told a Senate panel in 2009. “If the number’s going up, you’re losing. If the number’s going down, you’re winning. It’s as simple as that.” Last year, 3,804 Afghan civilians were killed in the war, according to the United Nations. That is the most in one year since the United Nations began tracking casualties a decade ago. Craig Whitlock Craig Whitlock is an investigative reporter who specializes in national security issues. He has covered the Pentagon, served as the Berlin bureau chief and reported from more than 60 countries. He joined The Washington Post in 1998. | 0 |
About 100,000 people selected a health plan in November, the official said. About 29,000 people signed up for health insurance through HealthCare.gov on Sunday and Monday — a figure that surpasses the total for the whole month of October, an official familiar with the program told POLITICO. The quickened pace of enrollments came as the White House hit its self-imposed Nov. 30 deadline to fix the troubled Affordable Care Act website. The preliminary numbers for the two-day period provide the clearest evidence yet that the federal exchange is on the mend. About 26,000 people selected a health plan during October and about 100,000 people did so in November, the official said. ( Also on POLITICO: Obamacare fix wins applause, but troubles remain) HealthCare.gov relaunched Sunday after a two-month rush by federal officials to repair more than 400 software bugs and upgrade the hardware. President Barack Obama’s goal was to get the site working better for the vast majority of users. Although the site is performing much better for consumers, insurance industry officials have said they continue to receive garbled reports on who is enrolling in their plans. The so-called back-end problems with the site could cause headaches for consumers when they attempt to claim their benefits on Jan. 1 if insurers continue to receive incomplete information. ( Also on POLITICO: Health enrollments leap in 48 hours) The sharp increase in the pace of enrollments could begin to allay one of the industry’s other major fears — that after a two-month delay in standing up a functioning website, the administration won’t enroll enough people or the right mix of people by the March 30 deadline. The Congressional Budget Office projected that 7 million would sign for Obamacare in 2014. Republicans dismissed the latest figures as unimpressive, arguing that enrollment isn’t where it should be to hit the CBO target or the monthly estimates detailed in an administration memo released by the House Ways and Means Committee. “The spectacular failure of this rollout has set expectations so embarrassingly low that Democrats are celebrating enrollment numbers that still only represent a fraction of what is needed for this law to work,” said Brendan Buck, a spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio). Data were not yet available from the 14 states and the District of Columbia that run their own insurance websites, the official said. The state exchanges surpassed the federal exchange in October with almost 80,000 enrollments. The 29,000 enrollees for Sunday and Monday reflect individuals who have chosen a health plan, but they have not necessarily paid for the first month’s premium because coverage doesn’t begin until Jan. 1. | 0 |
(CNN)President Donald Trump has hired Brad Parscale, the digital media director of his 2016 campaign, to run his re-election bid, the campaign announced on Tuesday. The announcement was initially hyped by The Drudge Report, a website run by Matt Drudge, a conservative figure with considerable influence inside the White House. But it was no surprise that Trump will run for re-election in 2020 -- he filed shortly after his 2017 inauguration -- but it is unusual for a sitting president to hire a campaign manager three years before the election.White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters in June 2017 that Trump was going to run for re-election in 2020."Of course, he's running for re-election," Sanders said.Eric Trump, one of the President's sons, touted Parscale as an "amazing talent" who was "pivotal to our success in 2016.""He has our family's complete trust and is the perfect person to be at the helm of the campaign," he said in a release from the campaign.Jared Kushner, the President's son-in-law and senior adviser, added that Parscale was "essential in bringing a disciplined technology and data-driven approach to how the 2016 campaign."The campaign also said in the announcement that it would be involved in the 2018 midterm election by "providing candidates with general support, endorsements and rallying the support of the political grassroots by engaging Trump supporters in districts and states." The midterm will be pivotal for the future of Trump's presidency. The party in control of the presidency historically suffers sizable losses in the first election after winning the White House. Trump has already begun mentioning that trend in speeches, hoping to spur his supporters to buck history.Parscale has remained an active force in his political operation -- America First -- since the President stepped into the White House. Parscale's Florida-based firm, Parscale Strategy, has a contract with the Republican National Committee to, among other things, help grow its data base of small donors.Parscale never worked in politics before joining the Trump campaign in 2015. He knew the candidate and his family from working for the Trump Organization for several years designing websites and helping develop digital strategy for Trump businesses.Even as Trump went through three campaign managers during his tumultuous presidential bid, Parscale, a close associate of Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, was a constant, quiet presence.Parscale's formal title during the Trump 2016 campaign was digital director, but behind the scenes he grew into much more: directing campaign spending on television ads as well as digital, building a small dollar donor operation, and having significant influence on the overall campaign working closely with then-Republican National Committee chief of staff Katie Walsh and the RNC get out the vote operation.On digital advertising, Parscale brought Facebook employees into the campaign to better take advantage of social media to promote Trump, and tear down Hillary Clinton.The unprecedented spending on digital media did not sit well with the candidate. During the campaign, Trump angrily questioned Parscale about how he was spending campaign cash."I don't believe in this mumbo-jumbo digital stuff." Parscale recalled Trump screaming at him."I was crushed actually. It was the first time he had ever, just-- I hadn't even seen him yell at anyone, let alone me," Parscale told CBS' "60 Minutes" last year.Despite getting dressed down, he kept focused on digital media spending.In fact, during the last week of the campaign, he says he saw data showing movement in Trump's favor in what were considered likely wins for Clinton, and he pounced, moving money out of Virginia, where he did not think Trump could win, and Ohio, where he felt confident Trump would win."I took every nickel and dime I could out of anywhere else. And I moved it to Michigan and Wisconsin. And I started buying advertising, digital, TV," Parscale told "60 Minutes."Parscale has said that after Trump won, the President-elect thanked him and made clear he then understood the power of what he had called "mumbo jumbo digital stuff."RussiaParscale has repeatedly insisted he had no knowledge of the Russian operation to influence the 2016 campaign in favor of Trump, and against Clinton. He says that is what he told congressional investigators behind closed doors last year when he went before the Senate and House intelligence committees looking into Russian meddling.Yet Parscale has gotten caught up in controversial actions Cambridge Analytica, a prominent conservative data firm that he hired to work for the Trump campaign.In 2016, Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix tried to reach WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to try to help take better political advantage of the hacked Clinton emails. The company says Nix never reached Assange, though CNN reported Nix wanted to create a searchable database of the Clinton emails.Parscale says he had no knowledge of that, and has insisted the only reason he brought in Cambridge Analytica was because a digital expert he wanted to hire -- Matt Oczkowski -- was under contract there. Parscale ended up bringing more than a dozen Cambridge Analytica employees into the Trump campaign as analysts. Parscale says the campaign never used Cambridge Analytica's raw data.The Trump campaign's data analytics operation is also under scrutiny by special counsel Robert Mueller, CNN reported in May 2017.Parscale gave private testimony to the House Intelligence Committee last year as part of its investigation of Russian meddling.Dan Merica and Marshall Cohen contributed to this report.This story has been updated. | 0 |
Neera Tanden, president of Center for American Progress, speaks during an introduction for New Start New Jersey at NJIT in Newark, NJ, Monday, Nov. 10, 2014. President-elect Joe Biden will have an all-female senior communications team at his White House, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield. Tanden will be director of the Office of Management and Budget, according to a person familiar with the transition process granted anonymity to speak freely about internal deliberations. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)Neera Tanden, president of Center for American Progress, speaks during an introduction for New Start New Jersey at NJIT in Newark, NJ, Monday, Nov. 10, 2014. President-elect Joe Biden will have an all-female senior communications team at his White House, led by campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield. Tanden will be director of the Office of Management and Budget, according to a person familiar with the transition process granted anonymity to speak freely about internal deliberations. (AP Photo/Mel Evans)WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden will have an all-female senior communications team at his White House, reflecting his stated desire to build out a diverse White House team as well as what’s expected to be a return to a more traditional press operation.Biden campaign communications director Kate Bedingfield will serve as Biden’s White House communications director. Jen Psaki, a longtime Democratic spokeswoman, will be his press secretary.Four of the seven top communications roles at the White House will be filled by women of color, and it’s the first time the entire senior White House communications team will be entirely female.President Donald Trump upended the ways in which his administration communicated with the press. In contrast with administrations past, Trump’s communications team held few press briefings, and those that did occur were often combative affairs riddled with inaccuracies and falsehoods.Trump himself sometimes served as his own press secretary, taking questions from the media, and he often bypassed the White House press corps entirely by dialing into his favorite Fox News shows.In a different area of the White House operation, Biden plans to announce a number of his top economic advisers this week. He’ll name Neera Tanden, the president and CEO of the liberal think tank Center for American Progress, as director of the Office of Management and Budget, according to a person familiar with the transition process granted anonymity to speak freely about internal deliberations.In a statement announcing the White House communications team, Biden said: “Communicating directly and truthfully to the American people is one of the most important duties of a President, and this team will be entrusted with the tremendous responsibility of connecting the American people to the White House.”He added: “These qualified, experienced communicators bring diverse perspectives to their work and a shared commitment to building this country back better.”Bedingfield, Psaki and Tanden are all veterans of the Obama administration. Bedingfield served as communications director for Biden while he was vice president; Psaki was a White House communications director and a spokesperson at the State Department; and Tanden served as a senior adviser to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and helped craft the Affordable Care Act.Others joining the White House communications staff are:— Karine Jean Pierre, who was Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’ chief of staff, will serve as a principal deputy press secretary for the president-elect. She’s another Obama administration alum, having served as a regional political director for the White House office of political affairs.— Pili Tobar, who was communications director for coalitions on Biden’s campaign, will be his deputy White House communications director. She most recently was deputy director for America’s Voice, an immigration reform advocacy group, and was a press staffer for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.Three Biden campaign senior advisers are being appointed to top communications roles:— Ashley Etienne, a former communications director for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, will serve as Harris’ communications director.— Symone Sanders, another senior adviser on the Biden campaign, will be Harris’ senior adviser and chief spokesperson.— Elizabeth Alexander, who served as the former vice president’s press secretary and his communications director while he was a U.S. senator from Delaware, will serve as Jill Biden’s communications director.After his campaign went virtual due to the coronavirus pandemic, Biden faced some criticism for not being accessible to reporters. But near the end of the campaign, he answered questions from the press more frequently, and his transition team has held weekly briefings since he was elected president.The choice of a number of Obama administration veterans — many with deep relationships with the Washington press corps — also suggests a return to a more congenial relationship with the press.Also joining the Biden administration as economic advisers, according to a person familiar with transition plans who was not authorized to speak on the matter:— Brian Deese, a former Obama administration economic adviser, is expected to be named to head the National Economic Council.— Princeton University economist Cecilia Rouse, who served on the Council of Economic Advisers during the Obama administration, is expected to be named to head the Council of Economic advisers.— Heather Boushey, the president and co-founder of the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, and Jared Bernstein, who served as an economic adviser to Biden during the Obama administration, are also expected to be named to the Council of Economic Advisers.As head of the OMB, Tanden would be responsible for preparing Biden’s budget submission and would command several hundred budget analysts, economists and policy advisers with deep knowledge of the inner workings of the government.Her choice may mollify progressives, who have been putting pressure on Biden to show his commitment to progressive priorities with his early staff appointments. She was chosen over more moderate voices with roots in the party’s anti-deficit wing such as Bruce Reed, who was staff director of President Barack Obama’s 2010 deficit commission, which proposed a set of politically painful recommendations that were never acted upon.___Taylor reported from Washington and Madhani from Chicago. | 0 |
EditorialSept. 8, 2014President Obama said on Sunday that now is the time “to start going on some offense” against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, the Sunni extremist group that is overrunning northern Iraq and has a stronghold in Syria. That would be a serious escalation of the American role there.He will need to explain to the nation with specificity how airstrikes against ISIS in Syria fit into a broader strategy; how they could be successful; how they might be done without benefiting Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, who is under attack by ISIS and other Sunni opposition forces; and how the United States can avoid entanglement in another military morass if it moves more aggressively into this theater.Until ISIS emerged as a regional threat, the Obama administration argued it had no legal standing to become militarily involved in Syria. American forces began airstrikes in August against ISIS fighters in Iraq after units of the Iraqi Army collapsed and extremists began persecuting minority groups, attacking the Mosul Dam and threatening Americans in Erbil. There seemed to be legal grounds for airstrikes because Iraq asked for assistance and Americans were at risk. From the beginning, Mr. Obama has pledged that ground troops would not be involved.Administration officials now say Mr. Obama has authority to take action even across the porous Iraq-Syria border if there is intelligence identifying ISIS fighters in Syria involved in the beheadings of two American journalists or if requested to do so by the Iraqi government to protect its border.Their assertion, however, does not resolve the question of the need for congressional authorization for military attacks in Syria. Lawmakers, facing re-election in November, seem divided on the need for a vote, although they will at least have to approve new financing for the mission. Mr. Obama himself has been ambiguous, saying in one breath, “I’m confident that I have the authorization that I need to protect the American people” and, in another, that Congress needs “to have buy-in” on the issue.While most of the focus has been on military action, the administration’s strategy is broader, and those other elements — political, economic and diplomatic — are as important. On Monday, the Iraqis approved a new, more inclusive government, which the Americans pressed for and is essential to undercutting ISIS’s grip on disaffected Sunnis. There are plans for a new provincial force that would bring Sunnis and Shiite militias into Iraqi security structure and plans to train and equip moderate Syrian rebels so they can capitalize on airstrikes in Syria.The Obama administration is also trying to marshal an international coalition to fight ISIS, but success is far from guaranteed. On Sunday, Arab League foreign ministers agreed to take necessary measures to confront ISIS, but they made no specific commitments. On Monday, a meeting between Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Turkish officials did not result in any firm announcement.There are many ways for countries to make contributions, including shutting down channels for ISIS financing, closing Turkey’s border to ISIS fighters and weapons, urging Sunni tribes to work with the Shiite-led government in Baghdad, and providing intelligence to coalition members. But there are also many impediments and complications to getting disparate countries to work together, including Turkey’s fear that ISIS, in retaliation, might kill 49 Turkish diplomats held by the militants.Mr. Obama has called ISIS a serious threat and has said, “we have the capacity to deal with it.” On Wednesday, he plans to give a speech about the issue. His challenge will be to persuade American and foreign listeners that he has an effective strategy to eliminate the threat. | 0 |
Story highlightsDouglas Brinkley says Williams should have heeded Cronkite's golden rule for war reporters: never self-aggrandizeHe says the newsman got tripped up when he tried to also be a showmanDouglas Brinkley is CNN presidential historian and author of "Cronkite." The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. (CNN)Walter Cronkite had a golden rule for all wartime reporters: never self-aggrandize. Even though Cronkite had been the first reporter to fly over the beaches at Normandy on June 6, 1944, he minimized the experience. When asked decades later whether he had flown over Utah or Omaha Beach, Cronkite shrugged. "I think it was Omaha," he said. "We didn't know about those names then, of course. All I knew was the beach. I didn't even know how extensive the landings were."Such self-deprecating responses regarding his own WWII experiences became de rigueur for Cronkite. He gained credibility by dialing back his valor. Considered the "Dean of the Allied Air War," for going on U.S. bombing missions over Nazi Germany, Cronkite, a reporter for the United Press, insisted he was nothing more than a nervous-nelly fly-on-the-wall. Although Cronkite had once crash landed in a Dutch potato field under enemy fire, he chose instead to focus on celebrating the liberation of the Netherlands at the hands of the Free Dutch."They pelted us with tulips until our car was fender deep in them," Cronkite recalled. "Tulips are heavy flowers. In bundles they are dangerous. The only blood I spilled in the war was that day -- hit by a bunch of tulips tied together with a piece of wire."Cronkite was Brian Williams's all-seasons' hero, and Williams was one of the heirs apparent to the Cronkite tradition."I was a Cronkite groupie by the age of 6," Williams once told me." "At our household, dinner was hinged on Walter's saying 'And that's the way it is.' Only then could the meal get served. That was the mid-1960s, and I continued to travel with him from the age of polyester to the age of his ever-thickening sideburns and beyond."Cronkite, however, retired from CBS News in 1981, just as cable TV was beginning to blossom. For Williams to be the Cronkite of the Internet Age on NBC News, he had to be dramatic, not steady; pithy, not "aw shucks"; au courant, not a throwback to the days of Lowell Thomas. Everybody trusted Cronkite because he reminded them of their favorite uncle or trusted family physician. Being square in the age of the Beatles made Cronkite retro cool. Williams, at his heart, is the broadcast news nerd extraordinaire -- everybody's friendly neighborhood TV news anchorman writ large. At his worst he doubles as a multimedia showman, the class clown, eliciting laughs by lampooning his own nightly news straight-man act.What Williams has accomplished with this progressive strategy -- a postmodern approach to the patriarchal voice-of-God news anchor -- is to prove that he isn't a stuffed shirt, that he is self-deprecating like Cronkite. Media critics have lauded Williams' two-act juggle: serious newsman and surprisingly funny clown. But what Williams failed to consider was that death -- in either war (Iraq) or national disaster (Katrina) -- shouldn't have a showman front and center. Ernest Hemingway learned from hunting that one should never milk death or drown it in a sea of verbiage. Being solemn always trumps being out in front in a battle zone.What's important to know about Williams, why he deserves a second chance, is that he is a fine broadcast journalist. Like Cronkite after the Tet Offensive of 1968, Williams gets on the airplane, travels to danger zones, ad-libs for hours on end seldom making a gaffe. As a TV journalist, he is a pro. When Williams brings himself into the narrative, however, when he goes on "David Letterman" or "The Daily Show" or babbles to Michael Eisner, the showman overruns the reporter. When you sit around a campfire telling ghost stories, you want the audience to lean forward (the slogan of MSNBC), to be utterly captivated by every detail. The more embellishment the better.But Iraq and Katrina are all too real for that. I interviewed Williams about his New Orleans experiences for my book "The Great Deluge." His personal narrative was riveting. Give him credit for breaking a dozen news stories during those dark days in 2005. Online allegations now rage that Williams fabricated what he saw and experienced in post-Katrina New Orleans. That is unfair to him.Everything was helter-skelter in the Gulf South, and Williams did a public service by trying to make sense of the post-hurricane situation. Williams did have a dysentery-like condition (if not textbook dysentery), which he explained in an interview I did shortly after the Category 3 hurricane hit. "I couldn't keep anything down," he said. "That whole night was hazy. I couldn't get clarity of mind." Overall, his reporting of the post-Katrina events is credible. Nevertheless, Williams-as-showman very well may have embellished or conflated or compressed some of the on-the-ground, in-the-moment facts, but it's silly now to nitpick whether the dead body he saw was on Canal Street or Claiborne Avenue.It is clear that Williams needs to apologize more profusely, to set the record straight once and for all -- but only once, and for good -- for his Iraq fabrication and to clarify details about his Katrina experience. He needs to stay off the comedy shows for a while and to stop talking about himself. There is an Japanese adage that the nail that stands the tallest gets hammered down. Williams' hazing has made him right-sized. But enough is enough.The public needs hardworking newsmen like Williams as a matter of trust, of public good. If Cronkite were placed under the same digital media microscope, he'd look smaller than we remembered. The public shouldn't lose faith in Williams as a journalist, but it is all right for us to shout loudly in his ears, "It's not about you!" The superhighway of celebrity and showmanship is filled with debris. Tuesday night, NBC News decided to suspend Williams for six months without pay. That seems about right.Maybe Williams needed to be reminded of which role -- newsman or showman -- was most important, which ball to favor in his juggling act. It is a fact that Cronkite knew all too well: sometimes a little tuliping in a war zone goes farther than a tale of looking down the tube of an RPG. | 0 |
Donald Trump has told Republicans he is “1,000%” behind their immigration reform effort, but did not offer a clear path forward as his administration faced bipartisan condemnation over separating children and their parents at the border. Meanwhile, it emerged that Trump administration officials have been sending babies and young children forcibly taken from their parents at the US-Mexico border to at least three “tender age” shelters in south Texas.Lawyers and medical providers who have visited the Rio Grande valley shelters described playrooms full of crying preschool children.Kay Bellor, the vice-president for programs at the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, said: “The thought that they are going to be putting such little kids in an institutional setting? I mean, it is hard for me to even wrap my mind around it. Toddlers are being detained.”Steven Wagner, an official with the Department of Health and Human Services, said: “We have specialised facilities that are devoted to providing care to children with special needs, and tender age children, as we define as under 13, would fall into that category.Graphic“They’re not government facilities per se, and they have very well-trained clinicians, and those facilities meet state licensing standards for child welfare agencies, and they’re staffed by people who know how to deal with the needs particularly of the younger children.”At a closed-door meeting with House Republicans on Capitol Hill, members said Trump expressed concern for the families being separated by the “zero-tolerance” policy, but he did not take responsibility for the practice. Instead, the president urged the Republicans in the room to pass legislation that keeps families together. After the meeting, the Florida Republican congressman Carlos Curbelo said: “The president does want this to end.”Curbelo, who has led the charge for immigration reform, said Trump told members that Ivanka Trump had appealed to him to stop separating families. However, the president gave no indication that he was willing to reverse the policy and did not acknowledge that he could stop the separations without legislation, he added. Instead, Trump insisted Congress deliver a legislative solution.Unbowed by mounting public anger, Trump and leading administration officials have fiercely defended the policy, which has led to the separation of more than 2,300 children from their parents in five weeks. Before the meeting on Tuesday evening, as the president walked through the Capitol, a protester yelled: “Mr President, fuck you.”As Trump left the session, he faced a rare demonstration by members of Congress. House Democrats shouted at the president to abandon his immigration policy while waving signs that read: “Families belong together.” Children who crossed the border at a processing centre in McAllen, Texas. Photograph: Handout/AFP/Getty ImagesThe California congressman Juan Vargas shouted: “Mr President, don’t you have kids? Don’t you have kids, Mr President? How would you like it if they separated your kids?”Speaking to reporters, Trump said: “We had a great meeting. These are laws that have been broken for many years, decades. But we had a great meeting.” Quick GuideWhy are families being separated at US border?ShowWhy are children being separated from their families? In April 2018, the US attorney general, Jeff Sessions, announced a “zero tolerance” policy under which anyone who crossed the border without legal status would be prosecuted by the justice department. This includes some, but not all, asylum seekers. Because children can’t be held in adult detention facilities, they are being separated from their parents.Immigrant advocacy groups, however, say hundreds of families have been separated since at least July 2017. More than 200 child welfare groups, including the American Academy of Pediatrics and the United Nations, said they opposed the practice. What happens to the children? They are supposed to enter the system for processing “unaccompanied alien children”, which exists primarily to serve children who voluntarily arrive at the border on their own. Unaccompanied alien children are placed in health department custody within 72 hours of being apprehended by border agents. They then wait in shelters for weeks or months at a time as the government searches for parents, relatives or family friends to place them with in the US.This already overstretched system has been thrown into chaos by the new influx of children. Can these children be reunited with their parents? Immigration advocacy groups and attorneys have warned that there is not a clear system in place to reunite families. In one case, attorneys in Texas said they had been given a phone number to help parents locate their children, but it ended up being the number for an immigration enforcement tip line.Advocates for children have said they do not know how to find parents, who are more likely to have important information about why the family is fleeing its home country. And if, for instance, a parent is deported, there is no clear way for them to ensure their child is deported with them. What happened to families before? When an influx of families and unaccompanied children fleeing Central America arrived at the border in 2014, Barack Obama’s administration detained families.This was harshly criticized and a federal court in 2015 stopped the government from holding families for months without explanation. Instead, they were released while they waited for their immigration cases to be heard in court. Not everyone shows up for those court dates, leading the Trump administration to condemn what it calls a “catch and release” program. By Amanda Holpuch Read moreHouse Republicans, barrelling towards a vote on a pair of immigration bills, were hoping the president would rally skeptical members of the caucus around a proposal that sought common ground between moderates and conservatives on an issue that has fiercely divided the party.Instead, Trump said he would sign either proposal that came to his desk, members said.The Kansas Republican congressman Kevin Yoder said: “He said we need to pass one of the two bills.” He added that the president was “agnostic” about which of the two measures they should pass.The Florida Republican congressman Mario Díaz-Balart said: “Here’s what I’m absolutely – 1,000% – sure of. “Without his [Trump’s] support, without his approvals, there’s no shot of it passing the House, there’s no shot of it going anywhere.”During his remarks, which were expected to focus on immigration, Trump spoke about his recent visit to North Korea and his trade policy, members said. He also openly mocked the Republican congressman Mark Sanford, a conservative critic of the president who lost a primary this month after Trump endorsed his opponent, they said.The meeting came at a delicate moment for Republicans, as several lawmakers in both chambers rushed to defuse the spiralling political crisis caused by the immigration crackdown. Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, said “all of the members of the Republican conference support a plan that keeps families together” and endorsed a narrow plan that would allow law enforcement to detain parents and children together while their immigration case is adjudicated in court. McConnell said he hoped to pass a bill as early as this week. 01:11'These children are not animals': US house decries separation policy – video Any such legislation would require some support from Democrats, who immediately rebuffed the plan, arguing that Trump could unilaterally end the practice. The Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, said: “There is no need for legislation. There’s no need for anything else. You [Trump] started it, you can stop it – plain and simple.”Under the policy, all adults are arrested for crossing the border illegally. As children cannot be kept in an adult prison, they are held separately.In the House, Republicans have included a provision to end family separations in their compromise immigration proposal, which would also provide $25bn (£19bn) for Trump’s border wall and his other hardline security demands. The bill would offer a pathway to citizenship for young undocumented immigrants, known as Dreamers. A rival bill, supported by a conservative bloc of Republicans, would not guarantee them a path to citizenship. Trump did not discuss whether he would back a standalone measure should support for the immigration proposals flounder. The president has called on Democrats to negotiate an end to the separations, inviting criticism that he is leveraging the crisis at the border to win support for his hardline immigration framework. The House is expected to vote on the immigration measures this week and their fates are far from certain.Additional reporting by the Associated Press | 0 |
Washington (CNN)History can be a wise teacher, but it's also crucial to take the right lessons. Confronted with a should-they-or-shouldn't-they proposal on impeachment, Democrats worry that if they fail to learn history's lessons, they are doomed to repeat them.As they held a conference call to consider the Mueller report on Monday, party leaders in the House tried to resist falling into the same trap as Republicans who tried to oust President Bill Clinton and paid a heavy short-term political price.They also stepped up their post-Mueller investigations by subpoenaing President Donald Trump's former White House counsel Don McGahn to testify in their investigation into whether the President obstructed justice, even as Trump sued to block another committee from accessing his financial records.But while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi seemed to tamp down plans for impeachment during the conference call, some Democratic presidential candidates sharpened their arguments at CNN's town halls Monday night for moving forward with impeachment proceedings.Polls show most Americans don't favor an impeachment battle and immovable support for Trump among his base, so many Democratic lawmakers are buying into the conventional wisdom that impeachment could consign them to the same fate as 1990s Republicans.But a longer-term look at the fallout from Clinton's impeachment in 1998 may tell a different story than Democrats now seem to be remembering.It's true that House Republicans performed poorly in the midterm polls in the middle of Clinton's impeachment drama and that the 42nd president left office with unusually high approval ratings.But less than two years after Clinton escaped with his job from a Senate impeachment trial, Republicans won the presidency after using the outgoing president's morals to underpin their campaign.The other modern presidential election with an impeachment overhang, in 1976, also saw the incumbent party lose to a candidate -- Democrat Jimmy Carter -- implicitly running against scandal. Two years after Richard Nixon left office before he could be impeached over Watergate, Carter won the White House after capturing the anti-Washington mood by telling Americans, "We just want the truth again."History offers contradictory examples for Democratic leaders, such as Pelosi, who has her own memories of impeachment as a rising star of the 1990s and held the conference call with her members on Monday to discuss next steps.Of course, the overriding question should be whether the actions of a President demand impeachment because they meet the constitutional bar of high crimes and misdemeanors, not whether the process could bring partisan advantage."There are some decisions that are bigger than politics," Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts recently said, invoking loftier motives even as she sought a political payoff by becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to call for Trump's impeachment after the Mueller report.Warren consolidated her argument in a CNN town hall meeting in New Hampshire on Monday night."There is no political inconvenience exception to the United States Constitution," Warren said. "If any other human being in this country had done what's documented in the Mueller report, they would be arrested and put in jail."Another Democratic candidate, Sen. Kamala Harris of California, adopted a similar position to Warren at the same town hall event, amid growing differences between 2020 hopefuls and Democratic leaders in the House."I believe Congress should take the steps towards impeachment," Harris said. Another 2020 contender Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont called for an "objective" investigation in the House but warned that constant impeachment talk could distract from Democratic priorities like health care, raising the minimum wage and tackling climate change. No case to answerTrump's defenders argue that Mueller's failure to establish conspiracy between the President's 2016 campaign team and Russia and lack of a decision on whether Trump obstructed justice mean that impeachment would be a frivolous and unjustified process. Some are also warning Democrats they would face a backlash if they go ahead.After Mueller's effort revealed Trump's pattern of lying and use of his presidential power to thwart investigations, few Democrats question whether Trump deserves to be impeached. But the debate is turning not on the question of Trump's guilt but on whether Democrats think impeachment is a smart political idea.One Democratic argument from before the release of the redacted Mueller report last week is that Democrats would play into Trump's hands by impeaching him. The Senate GOP majority would protect the President from conviction in an impeachment trial and the process would unify Republicans and electrify Trump's 2020 base.Advocates of this position point to what happened when the Republicans impeached Clinton in 1998. In the subsequent midterm elections, Democrats bucked historic trends and picked up five seats, a shock win that contributed to Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich losing his job.The result was seen as a referendum on Republican overreach after Clinton was impeached for committing perjury and obstruction of justice following a scandal arising out of his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky. It also suggests to some 21st-century Democrats what can happen when a party puts an attempt to destroy a presidency before issues that voters most care about."With President Clinton, the impeachment proceedings became a proxy for the election," Democratic Rep. Stephen Lynch of Massachusetts told CNN's Dana Bash on Monday. "(Clinton's) popularity went up. Some of it was sympathy, some of it was the facts that people saw that impeachment proceeding as a proxy for his worthiness for being elected.""If the next two years becomes about impeachment instead of about judging the President on his first term. ... I think it may play into President Trump's hands for reelection," he said.Polling may support Lynch's position since there is no data that suggests the Mueller report is the top issue for voters on either side of the political divide. Given the polarization of the Trump era, Mueller's conclusions are also unlikely to change the voting preferences of the most committed partisans. Maybe it's not worth risking the votes of anyone left in the shrunken political middle ground with a long impeachment drama.The evidence of the 2000 election does suggest that there is precedent for draining months of scandal and high-profile congressional investigations to have a detrimental impact on the party holding power.In the 2000 presidential election, Republican nominee George W. Bush -- who branded himself as an outsider despite his presidential lineage -- repeatedly vowed to restore "honor and dignity to the White House" as he jammed the Democratic nominee -- Vice President Al Gore -- over Clinton's behavior.The tactic played on voter fatigue of eight years of Clinton scandals, including the impeachment saga, internal White House controversies and allegations of illegal fundraising -- and even the ethics questions that swirled around Gingrich and other Republicans.But the message's potency lay in its deft, implicit reference to impeachment. Bush used the attack to leave Gore with an unpalatable choice of renouncing the man he hoped to succeed and carrying the can for his improprieties."If he's got a problem with what went on in the past, he ought to explain what it is," Bush told reporters in 2000 in a clear reference to the Lewinsky scandal.In the end, Gore was never able to find a way to benefit from Clinton's popularity and to insulate himself from lingering questions about his morality and Bush won a disputed election that was eventually settled by the Supreme Court.Impeaching Clinton did not hurt the GOP in subsequent elections either, since the party outperformed in the 2002 midterms and retained the presidency in 2004, though the dynamics of those two elections were largely shaped by the trauma of 9/11.One difference in the current scenario is that the scandal-tainted President is expected to be on the ballot himself in 2020 -- and Trump has shown a staggering capacity to sidestep even the most damaging political scandals.While red state senators would love to save Trump in a Senate trial, such a vote would be politically damaging for Republican senators up for re-election in presidential swing statesImpeachment may not be 'worth it'But many top Democrats seem to have made up their minds on impeachment even before the redacted Mueller report was released last Thursday.While they want to avoid the worst risks of an impeachment saga, Democrats also want to reap the benefits of Mueller's unflattering account of Trump's behavior.For now, they are pursuing a hybrid approach by holding a series of high-profile hearings with eye-catching witnesses and probing the President's alleged obstruction.In many ways this is going through the motions of impeachment without the end result, in an attempt to frame a case to voters that Trump is unfit to serve a second term."While our views range from proceeding to investigate the findings of the Mueller report or proceeding directly to impeachment, we all firmly agree that we should proceed down a path of finding the truth," Pelosi wrote in a letter to colleagues on Monday."It is also important to know that the facts regarding holding the President accountable can be gained outside of impeachment hearings," she added.Pelosi doesn't have the luxury of waiting for history's verdict as she plots the Democratic strategy over the next 18 months until Election Day.If she chooses to avoid impeachment and Democrats put a new president in the White House, she will be vindicated. But if Trump wins reelection despite the choking cloud of scandal around his White House, Democrats may question why they didn't try to mortally wound him politically when they had the chance. | 0 |
Nov. 28, 2020, 7:57 PM ESTThe Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Saturday rejected an election challenge spearheaded by U.S. Rep. Mike Kelly, who argued that a law permitting no-excuse mail voting violated the state Constitution.Kelly, along with several other Pennsylvania Republicans, sought to invalidate millions of mail-in votes, which could have ceded a key state won by President-Elect Joe Biden to President Donald Trump.The ruling said, "Petitioners sought to invalidate the ballots of the millions of Pennsylvania voters who utilized the mail-in voting procedures. ... Alternatively, Petitioners advocated the extraordinary proposition that the court disenfranchise all 6.9 million Pennsylvanians who voted in the General Election and instead 'direct the General Assembly to choose Pennsylvania’s electors.'"RecommendedThe high court ruled no on all counts and said, "All other outstanding motions are dismissed as moot." It said the claim could have resulted in the "disenfranchisement" of millions of voters.A spokesman for Kelly did not immediately respond to a request for comment.The state Supreme Court unanimously wiped out a lower court order that had blocked state officials from doing anything further to carry out this week’s certification of the election results.The court criticized plaintiffs for filing the suit more than a year after universal mail-in voting was established in the state and said they lacked "due diligence."The suit is one of more than 26 pro-Trump election challenges dismissed by courts in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, Georgia and elsewhere.The president has claimed his loss is the result of widespread fraud but so far not a single court, including some headed by Trump appointees, have agreed.Pete WilliamsPete Williams is an NBC News correspondent who covers the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, based in Washington.Dennis RomeroDennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital. | 0 |
Washington (CNN)The Clinton Foundation, fighting back against charges of conflict of interest in a forthcoming book, is trying to tamp down a growing political problem by admitting that it made "mistakes" as the philanthropy grew but maintaining that it did not intentionally do anything wrong.In a blog post out Sunday, Foundation acting CEO Maura Pally reaffirmed its commitment to transparency, but nevertheless said some errors had occurred."Yes, we made mistakes, as many organizations of our size do, but we are acting quickly to remedy them, and have taken steps to ensure they don't happen in the future," Pally wrote.While the details of the Clinton Foundation's operations are complex and date back almost a decade, they have thrown a wrench in the "ramp up" period of Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. Instead of focusing solely on early presidential states, like the campaign had hoped, many of her top aides spent the last week answering questions about the foundation and its tangled relationship to numerous foreign donors. In a new book "Clinton Cash," writer Peter Schweizer alleges that the Foundation, led until recently by likely Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, let some donors to the foundation have undue influence on the charity's work and State Department actions. Schweizer said Sunday that he did not have "direct evidence" of ethical misconduct, but said the pattern he uncovered should raise eyebrows and trigger an investigation.The Clinton Foundation has drawn fire both from Schweizer and from reports in The New York Times and other outlets for some of the work of a subsidiary of the philanthropy, the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership, which is backed by Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining company owner who has been a big donor to the Foundation. Pally said that donations to the Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership weren't publicly disclosed because Canada bars the names of donors from being released without their consent."This is hardly an effort on our part to avoid transparency," Pally wrote.She also explained the Foundation's plans to refile tax returns after reports emerged that the philanthropy had made errors in recent years. Pally said the Foundation had not intentionally under reported revenue, but rather accidentally combined revenue from government grants with contributions from donors.Pally stressed the Foundation was working to rectify the errors."We are committed to operating the Foundation responsibly and effectively to continue the life-changing work that this philanthropy is doing every day," she said.Hillary Clinton resigned from the Foundation's board immediately after declaring her presidential run. Shortly after, the Foundation unveiled new a new donor disclosure schedule and said it would only accept foreign donations from six countries. The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership was started in 2007 when Giustra brought the idea to Bill Clinton, according to a spokesperson for Giustra. The initiative is an arm of the Clinton Foundation, meaning its donors are disclosed on the Clinton Foundation website. Giustra pledged $100 million at the start of the enterprise and in order to help fund the initiative, a Clinton Foundation spokesperson said Giustra also established The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Canada) in 2007. The Canadian charity was signed off on by the Clinton Foundation, the foundation spokesperson said. Both a Giustra and foundation spokesperson said that the Canadian arm charity was founded in order to allow other Canadian philanthropists to donate to the enterprise and receive a tax credit. But because the charity is operated in Canada, it falls under different laws than groups in the United States."Under Canadian laws, charitable donors have a right to privacy," said Giustra's spokesperson. "When a donor gives money to a Canadian charity in confidence, and in the process provides his or her personal information, under Canadian law a fiduciary relationship is established between the Canadian charity toward the donor concerning the use of private information that the donor has provided."Giuistra's spokesperson would not detail the group's donors, but said that no one from the Clinton Foundation was briefed on donations to The Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Canada) because that would have broken Canadian law."To maintain a fiduciary relationship between Canadian donors and Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Canada) with regard to disclosure of donor information, prior consent must be first obtained from each and every Clinton Giustra Enterprise Partnership (Canada) donor agreeing to disclose their donor information to any other person or organization," the spokesperson said.Schweizer, however, was on ABC on Sunday, where the author argued that there was a smoking gun in the book."The smoking gun is in the pattern of behavior," he said of the Clintons.All of these explanations by people close to the Clintons, though, have not stemmed the tide of mounting ethical questions being poised by Clinton's detractors. Many Republican operatives see the story as clean hit against Clinton, and one that will make a convincing ad once the campaigns start in earnest."These new revelations," Republican National Committee spokeswoman Allison Moore said on Thursday, "continue to raise serious questions about Hillary Clinton's judgment as Secretary of State." | 0 |
The contempt resolution against Holder is a first since 1998. | REUTERS The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee voted along party lines Wednesday to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena in the “Fast and Furious” investigation, setting up a legal showdown with President Barack Obama in the middle of his tough reelection battle. Within minutes, Republican leaders announced plans for a vote of the full House on the contempt resolution. The dramatic committee action came after Holder asserted executive privilege over some of the documents sought by the House panel, which is chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). But GOP lawmakers weren’t swayed, and they proceeded with the contempt vote despite bitter objections from the White House, Justice Department and Democratic lawmakers. Speaker John Boehner and other top Republicans went so far as to suggest the White House was using executive privilege to cover up its involvement in Fast and Furious. Issa and his fellow GOP lawmakers on the Oversight panel defeated several Democratic amendments seeking to revise or water down the contempt resolution and its accompanying report. Republicans then pushed through the chairman’s measure, the gist of which was leaked weeks ago, on a 23-17 vote. ( Also on POLITICO: Boehner suggests W.H. cover-up) Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said in a joint statement after the committee vote that they plan to forge ahead with a floor vote next week unless Holder relents. ”While we had hoped it would not come to this, unless the Attorney General reevaluates his choice and supplies the promised documents, the House will vote to hold him in contempt next week,” Boehner and Cantor said. “If, however, Attorney General Holder produces these documents prior to the scheduled vote, we will give the Oversight Committee an opportunity to review in hopes of resolving this issue.” Holder issued his own statement after the vote blasting Issa. “This divisive action does not help us fix the problems that led to this operation or previous ones and it does nothing to make any of our law enforcement agents safer,” Holder said. “It’s an election-year tactic intended to distract attention — and, as a result — has deflected critical resources from fulfilling what remains my top priority at the Department of Justice: Protecting the American people.” The Oversight panel’s vote, and Obama administration’s move to invoke executive privilege, is similar to battles between President George W. Bush and Democrats over the extent of presidential power. It sets up a much more serious debate over the authority of the executive and legislative branches as it relates to the botched gun surveillance program, which allowed Mexican drug cartels to obtain roughly 2,000 weapons from U.S. gun dealers. (Also on POLITICO: Issa: Contempt vote coming on Fast and Furious) The dispute over Fast and Furious, and the Holder-Issa showdown, adds fuel to the already heated partisan atmosphere on Capitol Hill. Democrats slammed Issa for his handling of the probe, saying a legitimate congressional inquiry has now turned into a personal power struggle between him and Holder, as well as an opportunity for Issa to get headlines and TV time. The contempt resolution against Holder marks the first time since 1998 that a congressional committee has taken such an action against the nation’s top law-enforcement official. And the exertion of executive privilege is Obama’s first involving a congressional investigation. Bush asserted it six times, and President Bill Clinton used it 14 times. GOP leadership quickly began portraying the executive privilege claim as a potential cover-up by Obama’s White House — a weighty charge in an election year. Some House Republicans even tried to invoke the famous Watergate-era mantra, “Who knew what and when did they know it?” That was meant to suggest a more extensive scandal, though the lawmakers offered no new evidence to back up such a claim. “Until now, everyone believed that the decisions regarding ‘Fast and Furious’ were confined to the Department of Justice. The White House decision to invoke executive privilege implies that White House officials were either involved in the ‘Fast and Furious’ operation or the cover-up that followed,” said Michael Steel, Boehner’s spokesman. “The Administration has always insisted that wasn’t the case. Were they lying, or are they now bending the law to hide the truth?” White House Communications Director Dan Pfeiffer said that “given the economic challenges facing the country, we believe that House Republicans should work with the rest of Congress and the President to create more jobs, not more political theater.” “The problem of gunwalking was a field-driven tactic that dated back to the previous Administration, and it was this Administration’s Attorney General who ended it. In fact, the Justice Department has spent the past fourteen months accommodating Congressional investigators, producing 7,600 pages of documents, and testifying at eleven Congressional hearings,” Pfeiffer said in an emailed statement. “Yet, Republicans insist on moving forward with an effort that Republicans and objective legal experts have noted is purely political.” The Obama administration statement did not address the decision to invoke executive privilege. After a fruitless session Tuesday between Holder and Issa - and a Justice Department assertion of executive privilege Wednesday morning that fell on unsympathetic GOP ears - the Oversight and Government Reform moved forward with its contempt resolutions. The resolution authorizes Boehner “to take all appropriate action to enforce the subpoena” from Issa’s panel to DOJ. Boeher could seek a criminal referral to the Justice Department - a case that would be handled by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia - but that is unlikely to be enforced, at least based on past precedent. ( PHOTOS: Eric Holder’s career) The House could bring a civil action against DOJ in federal court and seek an expedited ruling, as occurred in 2008 when House Democrats sued the White House over the firing of U.S. Attorneys. The House won the first round in that legal fight, but with both sides fearing an unwanted precedent, the two sides later cut a deal to allow senior White House aides, including Karl Rove, to testify. In his opening statement at the politically charged hearing, Issa said his panel had uncovered “serious wrongdoing” by the Justice Department. “The Department of Justice has fought this investigation every step of the way,” Issa added. “Over and over again, the Department of Justice has sought to protect its political appointees.” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) then made an impassioned plea for “justice for Brian Terry,” a Border Patrol agent killed in a Dec. 2010 shootout. Some Fast and Furious weapons were found at the scene of that shooting. “We have a moral duty to his family,” Chaffetz said. But Rep. Elijah Cummings (Md.), top Democrat on the Oversight panel, blasted Issa for his handling of the probe and his treatment of Holder. Other Democrats accused Issa of “character assassination” against Holder and being “extremely disrespectful” to the attorney general. ”For the past year, you have been holding the Attorney General to an impossible standard,” Cummings said. “You accused him of a ‘cover-up’ for protecting documents he was prohibited by law from producing. You claimed that he ‘obstructed’ the committee’s work by complying with federal statutes passed by both houses of Congress and signed by the president. And earlier this month, you went on national television and called the attorney general — our nation’s chief law enforcement officer — a liar.” “Even Newt Gingrich wouldn’t hold a contempt vote on the floor of Congress against Janet Reno,” added Democratic Rep. Carolyn Maloney (N.Y.). (PHOTOS: Eric Holder’s career) In a letter to Obama on Wednesday morning, Holder said the documents that Issa wants should be withheld under a claim of executive privilege. Holder told Obama that he was “very concerned that the compelled production to Congress of internal Executive Branch documents generated in the course of the deliberative process concerning its response to congressional oversight would have significant and damaging consequences.” “This would raise substantial separation of powers concerns and potentially create an imbalance in the relationship” between Congress and the White House. In another letter to Issa, Holder blamed the California Republican for the stalemate after the two men failed to reach a compromise on Tuesday. ”After you rejected the department’s recent offers of additional accommodations, you stated that the committee intends to proceed with its scheduled meeting to consider a resolution citing the attorney general for contempt for failing to comply with the Committee’s subpoena of October 11, 2011. I write now to inform you that the president has asserted executive privilege over the relevant post-February 4, 2011, documents,” Holder told Issa. The documents in question are related to a Feb. 4, 2011, letter sent by the Justice Department to Capitol Hill on Fast and Furious. DOJ later withdrew the letter as inaccurate, a stunning move that surprised Issa and other congressional investigators. According to Holder, the Justice Department “has already shared with the committee all internal documents concerning the drafting of the February 4 letter, and numerous Department officials and employees, including the Attorney General, have provided testimony, transcribed interviews, briefings, and other statements concerning the drafting and subsequent withdrawal of that letter.” No attorney general has faced such a contempt vote since 1998, when the same House panel voted to hold then-Attorney General Janet Reno in contempt over a campaign finance investigation. Republicans did not bring that measure to the floor for a full House vote. The contempt resolution states that the Justice Department’s “refusal to work with Congress to ensure that it has fully complied with the committee’s effort to compel the production of documents and information related to this controversy is inexcusable and cannot stand. Those responsible for allowing Fast and Furious to proceed and those who are preventing the truth about the operation from coming out must be held accountable for their actions.” The resolution added that the Justice Department “has refused to produce certain documents to the committee” but “without any assertion of executive privilege by the President, and the Department has not provided a privilege log delineating with particularity why certain documents are being withheld.” A privilege log is an index of withheld documents giving legal reasons for why they are not being turned over. Issa issued two subpoenas in 2011 as part of his investigation into the failed Fast and Furious program, which allowed roughly 2,000 U.S. guns to be obtained by Mexican drug cartels. The botched surveillance program was run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with DOJ supervision. Issa has been seeking DOJ documents related to the handling of the Fast and Furious case. While DOJ has turned over thousands of pages of documents, Issa has complained it has not been enough or that the documents were repetitive. For his part, Holder told reporters Tuesday night that his department had made “extraordinary” efforts to accommodate Issa’s demands over the last few weeks and months. This included making available “internal deliberative documents” related to a later withdrawn Feb. 2011 letter from the Justice Department to congressional investigators. Holder offered Issa a briefing and documents the California Republican sought during Tuesday’s session, but failed to receive a commitment from Issa that the panel would drop the contempt issue. Holder also called Issa’s position “political gamesmanship” and not a true attempt to resolve the dispute. The parents of the Border Patrol agent killed in 2010, Brian Terry, issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon slamming Obama and Holder for their actions. “Attorney General Eric Holder’s refusal to fully disclose the documents associated with Operation Fast and Furious and President Obama’s assertion of executive privilege serves to compound this tragedy,” said Josephine and Kent Terry. ” It denies the Terry family and the American people the truth,” said Josephine and Kent Terry. “The documents sought by the House Oversight Committee and associated with Operation Fast and Furious should be produced and turned over to the committee. Our son lost his life protecting this nation, and it is very disappointing that we are now faced with an administration that seems more concerned with protecting themselves rather than revealing the truth behind Operation Fast and Furious.” | 0 |
VideotranscripttranscriptTerror in Brussels: A Timeline of HorrorA breakdown of the locations in Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels.naA breakdown of the locations in Tuesday’s terrorist attacks in Brussels.CreditCredit...Belgian Federal Police, via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesMarch 22, 2016BRUSSELS — Bombs packed with nails terrorized Brussels on Tuesday in the deadliest assault on the European heartland since the Islamic State’s attacks on Paris four months ago, hitting the airport and subway system in coordinated strikes that were also claimed by the militant extremist group.The bombings paralyzed Brussels, the headquarters of the European Union and NATO, prompted international travel warnings to avoid Belgium and reverberated across the Atlantic to the United States, where New York and other major cities raised terrorism threat levels. Anxieties intensified about the inability to prevent mass killings at relatively unprotected places.At least 30 people were killed by two blasts at the Brussels airport departure area around 8 a.m. and one in a subway station shortly after 9. The police found at least one other unexploded bomb in a search of a Brussels house hours later.And Europe’s most wanted person suddenly became an unidentified man in a white coat and dark hat seen pushing a luggage cart in an airport surveillance photo taken just before the bombings. Two other men in the photo, each wearing a black glove on his left hand, were identified by Belgian prosecutors as suspected suicide bombers who appeared to have died in the explosions.“To those who have chosen to be the barbaric enemies of liberty, of democracy, of fundamental values, I want to say with the greatest strength that we will remain assembled and united,” the Belgium prime minister, Charles Michel, said at a news conference Tuesday evening, declaring a three-day mourning period.Francis Vermeiren , the mayor of Zaventem, the Brussels suburb where the airport is located, was quoted by Agence France-Presse late Tuesday as saying all three men had arrived in a taxi, putting suitcases that contained the bombs on luggage carts.CNN reported on Tuesday night that the police removed bags of evidence from an apartment in the northeast Brussels neighborhood of Schaerbeek, after a taxi driver who saw the photograph of the men told the authorities that he had taken them from the building to the airport that morning, with many large bags. Passengers who had been in line at airport departure counters described sudden panic and mayhem as the explosions turned the area into a death trap with flames, smoke, flying glass, nails and shrapnel, leaving at least 10 people dead.“We heard a big noise and saw a big flash,” said one passenger, Ilaria Ruggiano, who had been traveling with six others, including her mother. “My mother went to the floor — she was hit. I just dropped my luggage and went to the floor. A kid came out, bleeding a lot. I tried to help him with a tissue, but it was not enough. There were two bombs.” The airport was closed, disrupting and diverting dozens of flights and leaving hundreds of passengers stranded, and the Belgian authorities placed the entire metropolitan area on emergency lockdown. It was not clear when the airport would reopen; the Belgian authorities said it was certain to remain closed Wednesday because of the investigation.ImageCredit...Ketevan Kardava/Associated PressThen at 9:11 a.m. — the timing may just have been an eerie coincidence — a bomb tore through a car in the rear part of a subway train pulling out of the busy Maelbeek station at the height of the morning rush, killing at least 20 people.“We felt a boom; we felt the building tremble,” said Henk Stuten, 50, who works for the European Commission in an office above the station. “We saw through the windows that people were rushing out of the metro exit.”More than 230 people, including people from around the world, were wounded in the three blasts.In the afternoon, Amaq, a news agency affiliated with the Islamic State, issued a bulletin claiming responsibility for the attacks, calling them the work of suicide bombers.Frédéric Van Leeuw, the Belgian federal prosecutor, said at a news conference on Tuesday night that “at this stage, it is not possible to draw a formal link with the Paris attacks.” A cell of 10 operatives, a number of them from the Brussels district of Molenbeek, were implicated in the Paris attacks on Nov. 13, which left 130 people dead. The Brussels strikes came only a few days after the Belgian police captured Salah Abdeslam, the only suspect in the Paris assaults believed to have survived, who is considered a potential trove of information.The State Department on Tuesday warned Americans traveling in Europe to “exercise vigilance when in public places or using mass transportation.” Terrorist groups, the department travel alert said, “continue to plan near-term attacks throughout Europe, targeting sporting events, tourist sites, restaurants and transportation.” VideotranscripttranscriptBelgian Bomb Called a Suicide AttackThe Belgian prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw said the explosion at the Brussels airport on Tuesday morning was probably a suicide attack, and Prime Minister Charles Michel said Belgium had anticipated a terrorist attack.1. (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER, CHARLES MICHEL, SAYING:
“We feared a terrorist attack would happen and this is what happened. In Zaventem and in a metro station in Brussels terrorists have committed murder. We’re confronted with a situation in which there are many dead and many wounded.” 4. (SOUNDBITE) (Dutch) BELGIAN PROSECUTOR, FREDERIK VAN LEEUW, SAYING:
“This morning there were two explosions in Zaventem, of which one was probably the work of a suicide bomber, and a second explosion a bit later in Maelbeek.”The Belgian prosecutor Frédéric Van Leeuw said the explosion at the Brussels airport on Tuesday morning was probably a suicide attack, and Prime Minister Charles Michel said Belgium had anticipated a terrorist attack.CreditCredit...Laurent Dubrule/European Pressphoto AgencyThe threat of further bombings was underscored by the official warnings for people in Brussels to remain indoors, as an intensive search was underway by the police in the Brussels area into Tuesday evening. The federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement that one of the searches, in Brussels’s Schaerbeek district, led to the discovery of “an explosive device containing nails, among other things.” The statement said “chemical products and a flag of the Islamic State” also had been found there.Late Tuesday, the Belgian Federal Police released new photographs of the suspected suicide bombers and asked people to contact the agency if they recognized them. The public call suggested that whatever information investigators had gathered at the scene, such as DNA, had not yet yielded information allowing them to identify the men or they were unknown to the Belgian authorities.The heightened security in Belgium extended to two nuclear plants, Doel and Tihange, where nonessential workers were sent home, although the plants remained operational. Ine Wenmaekers, a spokesman for the Belgian nuclear regulatory agency, said that the step was precautionary and that “there was no direct threat to the power plants.”World leaders reacted with horror and calls for solidarity, though the attacks also spotlighted the fractious debate over terrorism and Islam in Europe and in the American political campaign. The Eiffel Tower and the Burj Khalifa in Dubai were among the world landmarks lit up in the black, red and yellow of Belgium’s flag as night fell.“Through the Brussels attacks, it is the whole of Europe that is hit,” President François Hollande of France declared. He vowed “to relentlessly fight terrorism, both internationally and internally.”ImageCredit...Sylvain Lefevre/Getty ImagesThe French government ordered 1,600 extra police officers to patrol the nation’s borders, including at train stations, airports and ports. Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain called an emergency meeting of ministers. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany said the attacks “aim at the heart of Europe.” Pope Francis expressed condolences.President Obama, speaking in Havana, called the Brussels attacks “yet another reminder that the world must unite, we must be together, regardless of nationality or race or faith, in fighting against the scourge of terrorism.”But a Russian official tempered sympathy with a scolding of his European colleagues over their policies on migration and terrorism. “It is time for Europe to understand where the real threat is coming from, and to unite its efforts with Russia,” Aleksei K. Pushkov, the chairman of the foreign affairs committee in Parliament, wrote on Twitter.Since the Paris attacks, security experts have warned that Europe was likely to face additional assaults by the Islamic State and by other militant groups.The Paris attacks showed that the scale and sophistication of the Islamic State’s efforts to carry out operations in Europe were greater than first believed, and analysts have pointed to Europe’s particular vulnerabilities. They include the huge flow of undocumented migrants from the Middle East last year; the unimpeded movement of European citizens between their home countries, neighboring countries and Syria to fight with the Islamic State; and persistent problems with intelligence-sharing among European countries and even between competing security agencies in some nations.Few countries have been more vulnerable than Belgium. Among European countries, Belgium has the highest proportion of citizens and residents who have traveled to Syria or Iraq, insular Muslim communities that have helped shield jihadists, and security services that have had persistent problems conducting effective counterterrorism operations, not least in their four-month effort to capture Mr. Abdeslam.Photographs and amateur video posted online showed the Brussels airport passengers covered in blood and soot, looking stunned but conscious. Some passengers were seen being taken away on luggage carts.Jérôme Delanois said he was at an Internet cafe near the Delta Air Lines counter when he heard a thunderous noise. “There were two explosions — one big one and one little one,” he said. “The first one blew all the walls and everything. There were burning flames. The first one was bigger. It blew out all the windows.”Most of the wounded in the subway blast were evacuated to the Rue de la Loi, outside the station, which serves the area that hosts most of the European Union’s core institutions.Brian Carroll, 31, a communications consultant from Washington, said he was on a subway car near Maelbeek en route to a conference in downtown Brussels when he heard a loud blast.“As we were pulling into the station, there was suddenly a loud explosion,” he said in a phone interview. “There was smoke everywhere. Everyone dropped to the ground. People were screaming and crying.”Mr. Carroll said he had remained on the ground for one or two minutes, then got up, pried open a door of the subway car with his hands and fled.“I thought to myself, ‘I’ve got to get out of here,’ ” he said. “I headed toward an exit. There was smoke and soot everywhere. There was glass everywhere. It was like running through a cloud of dust. I saw the exit of the station was destroyed. I ran out of the station; I ran as far as I could.” | 0 |
A new "religious freedom" law in Indiana touched off a firestorm of criticism across the country Friday, after opponents warned that it could lead to legal discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals in the state's business establishments.The measure, which Indiana Gov. Mike Pence (R) signed into law Thursday, allows any individual or corporation to cite religious beliefs as a defense when sued by a private party. The legislation has already prompted threats of boycott from public officials and celebrities. "Star Trek" actor and LGBT activist George Takei expressed his outrage on Twitter using the hashtag #BoycottIndiana. Jason Collins, the first openly gay NBA player, also took to Twitter to ask Pence whether it would "be legal for someone to discriminate against me." San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee (D) prohibited the use of taxpayer money to fund any city employees' trips to Indiana. And Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff has canceled the company’s events in the state.In some Indiana cities, stickers reading "This Business Serves Everyone" have been spotted in shop windows.The National Collegiate Athletic Association, which will host the Final Four games of its men's basketball tournament in Indianapolis, said on Thursday that it was "especially concerned about how this legislation could affect our student-athletes and employees." Other prominent names also weighed in by Friday. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who came out as gay last year, said he was "deeply disappointed" with the law. And likely 2016 presidential candidate and Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton also took to Twitter to denounce the measure. "Sad this new Indiana law can happen in America today. We shouldn't discriminate against ppl bc of who they love #LGBT," the former secretary of state wrote.Pence, a potential 2016 presidential contender, has defended the law as a fair protection for those who "feel their religious liberty is under attack by government action.” But on Saturday night, the Indy Star's Tim Swarens reported that Pence said he would support the introduction of legislation to "clarify" that the law does not promote discrimination against gays, lesbians, bisexual and transgender individuals. Pence didn't give any specifics about what would be in the new legislation, but said he expects it to be introduced in the coming week."I support religious liberty, and I support this law," Pence told the Indy Star. "But we are in discussions with legislative leaders this weekend to see if there’s a way to clarify the intent of the law."Supporters of the law, which takes effect in July, maintain that it is being mischaracterized as something that specifically targets LGBT people, rather than something that defends religious freedom in general. They further note that similar measures were passed by 19 other states, and that discrimination against LGBT people hasn't automatically followed everywhere. The Associated Press reports that in Mississippi, for example, there haven't been "any high-profile instances of the law being used by businesses to deny goods or services to gays.""It gives our courts guidance about evaluating government action and puts the highest standard -- it essentially says, if a government is going to compel you to act in a way that violates your religious beliefs, there has to be a compelling state interest," Pence said of the bill in a radio interview Thursday.On Friday, the Arkansas state Senate passed a similar bill that drew criticism from one of the nation's largest retailers, Walmart. "We feel this legislation is counter to this core basic belief of respect for the individual and sends the wrong message about Arkansas, as well as the diverse environment which exists in the state," said a spokesman for the company.CORRECTION: A previous version of this article mistakenly identified Jason Collins as the first openly gay NFL player. He played for the NBA.10 Incredible Improvements For LGBT People Since The First State Legalized Gay Marriage | 0 |
Montana Democrat Recently Broke with Party Over Gun LegislationApril 23, 2013 -- Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat and chairman of the Finance Committee, has decided to not seek re-election in 2014, ABC News has learned, becoming the eighth senator to step down next year.Baucus, who has served in the Senate for 36 years, intends to make his announcement this afternoon. The decision surprised - and angered - some Democrats, given his vote last week against expanding background checks in the gun debate - a top priority of President Obama.Related: Senate Rejects Background Checks LegislationThe retirement of Baucus gives Republicans another opportunity in its quest to win control of the Senate. But the race could still be intensely competitive for Democrats, particularly if former Gov. Brian Schweitzer, one of the state's most popular figures, runs for the Senate seat.Democrats are now defending open seats in Iowa, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, South Dakota and West Virginia. Republicans need to pick up six seats to win a majority in the Senate.A friend of Baucus told ABC News today that he has been thinking about retiring "for a long time." He has recently been remarried and "is finally happy," the friend said."At 72, he can still have a life," the friend said. "It's harder to do that at 79."But Baucus was clearly keeping his options open. He has about $5 million in his campaign account and has been aggressively raising money and meeting with donors this year.A week ago, he said the implementation of the nation?s new health care law had been a ?train wreck.? That was among the conservative remarks and votes that had agitated many liberal Democrats.Baucus has also been losing fights within his party. The latest example is Internet sales tax legislation being considered this week in the Senate - over the fierce objections of Baucus, the chairman of the Finance Committee. He disappointed many Democrats during the Obamacare debate when as a top negotiator he determined a public health insurance option should not be included in the bill. And he helped former President George W. Bush enact Medicare Part D, the prescription drug benefit, as well as sweeping tax cuts.But while Baucus may have not been as liberal as some in his party, he did get results. Obamacare eventually passed. The prescription drug benefit is an integral part of Medicare, and President Obama has protected the Bush era tax cuts for the majority of wage earners.The face of the Senate is changing rapidly, with Baucus joining Democratic Senators Tom Harkin of Iowa, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, Carl Levin of Michigan, Frank Lautenberg of New Jersey and Tim Johnson of South Dakota in retirement. Republican Senators Mike Johanns of Nebraska and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia also have announced their intention not to seek re-election.Related: Read More About Max BaucusTop Stories | 0 |
TAMPA, Fla. -- Paul Ryan pledged Wednesday that if he and his running mate Mitt Romney were elected president, they would usher in an ethic of responsibility. The Wisconsin congressman and GOP vice presidential candidate repeatedly chided President Barack Obama for blaming the jobs and housing crises on his predecessor, saying that his habit of "forever shifting blame to the last administration, is getting old. The man assumed office almost four years ago -– isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?"Ryan then noted that Obama, while campaigning for president, promised that a GM plant in Wisconsin would not shut down. "That plant didn’t last another year. It is locked up and empty to this day. And that’s how it is in so many towns today, where the recovery that was promised is nowhere in sight," Ryan said.Except Obama didn't promise that. And the plant closed in December 2008 -- while George W. Bush was president. It was just one of several striking and demonstrably misleading elements of Ryan's much-anticipated acceptance speech. And it comes just days after Romney pollster Neil Newhouse warned, defending the campaign's demonstrably false ads claiming Obama removed work requirements from welfare, "We're not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers."Ryan, for his part, slammed the president for not supporting a deficit commission report without mentioning that he himself had voted against it, helping to kill it. He also made a cornerstone of his argument the claim that Obama "funneled" $716 billion out of Medicare to pay for Obamacare. But he didn't mention that his own budget plan relies on those very same savings. Ryan also put responsibility for Standard & Poor's downgrade of U.S. government debt at Obama's doorstep. But he didn't mention that S&P itself, in explaining its downgrade, referred to the debt ceiling standoff. That process of raising the debt ceiling was only politicized in the last Congress, driven by House Republicans, led in the charge by Paul Ryan. The credit rater also said it worried that Republicans would never agree to tax increases. “We have changed our assumption on [revenue] because the majority of Republicans in Congress continue to resist any measure that would raise revenues,” S&P wrote. Jodie Layton, a convention goer from Utah watching the Ryan speech, said she was blown away by the vice presidential candidate. But she said she was surprised to hear that after his speech about taking responsibility, he'd pinned a Bush-era plant closing on Obama. "It closed in December 2008?" she asked, making sure she heard a HuffPost reporter's question right. After a long pause, she said, "It's happening a lot on both sides. It's to be expected."Ryan has referenced the GM plant before, and his attack was debunked by the Detroit News, which called it inaccurate. "In fact, Obama made no such promise and the plant halted production in December 2008, when President George W. Bush was in office," Detroit News reporter David Sherpardson wrote earlier this month. "Obama did speak at the plant in February 2008, and suggested that a government partnership with automakers could keep the plant open, but made no promises as Ryan suggested."After the speech, CNN's political commentators focused mostly on Ryan's misstatements, demonstrating the degree to which they were evident.Top Obama adviser David Axelrod jumped on the GM factory claim. "Again, Ryan blames Obama for a GM plant that closed under Bush. But then, they did say they wouldn't 'let fact checkers get in the way.'"Ryan, however, appears to have made the calculation that the misleading won't hurt him with voters. He might be right. CNN's David Gergen, while acknowledging some "misstatements" in Ryan's address, suggested that pundits focus elsewhere. "But let's not forget that this was a speech about big ideas," he told his audience.UPDATE: For more on the closure process, which was announced in mid-2008, see the local Gazette Xtra. More than 2,000 Janesville GM workers were laid off immediately; another 57 stayed on until April 2009 as production wound down.UPDATE: 8/30 -- Brendan Buck, a spokesman for Paul Ryan, defended the congressman's remarks in an email to The Huffington Post. “It’s President Obama who needs to explain his words," Buck said. "The facts are clear: when the GM plant went on standby the President told the people of Wisconsin he would ‘lead an effort to retool’ it and restart production. But when the bailout’s winners and losers were decided, Janesville ended up losing. The people of Wisconsin, like so many Americans, are still waiting for the President’s imaginary recovery.” Buck is referring to an October 2008 Associated Press report which quotes then-candidate Barack Obama saying that if he's elected, he will "lead an effort to retool plants like the GM facility." That's different, of course, than saying he'd retool the plant itself, but it adds context to Ryan's argument.Conservative media outlets have clashed with mainstream fact-checkers who have debunked Ryan's claim by noting that the plant didn't fully wind down until Obama was president in April 2009, when the final 57 workers were laid off. Ryan's campaign, notably, is not reaching for that technicality to defend his claim. Instead it is arguing the broader point that when the plant closed is less important than the fact it has not re-opened. Ryan, during his speech, referenced Obama's speech in Janesville in Feb. 2008.“I know that General Motors received some bad news yesterday, and I know how hard your governor has fought to keep jobs in this plant. But I also know how much progress you’ve made—how many hybrids and fuel-efficient vehicles you’re churning out," Obama said at the time. “And I believe that if our government is there to support you and give you the assistance you need to re-tool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another 100 years.”Government support for the plant, however, was a big if -- and it wasn't an if that came through for the plant under the Bush administration. Romney, meanwhile, opposed the auto bailout, which puts the campaign in the awkward spot of criticizing Obama for not intervening enough in the private sector with government bailouts. The Washington Post's Greg Sargent on Thursday interviewed a Ryan-supporting Wisconsin businessman who argued that the plant may have been unsalvageable even with significant government support. "This morning, I spoke to a leading business official in Janesville, Wisconsin, who was at the center of efforts to save the GM plant — one who supports Paul Ryan — and he offered a nuanced version of the history that strains simplistic interpretations," Sargent reported. "The official, John Beckord, who heads the pro-business group Forward Janesville, makes two key points. First, that the market for the GM product in question collapsed much faster than anyone expected it would at the time of Obama’s speech. Second, that there is no telling whether the plant would have reopened, even if the economy had recovered faster."Republican National Convention 2012 | 0 |
Updated on: September 3, 2021 / 7:02 PM / MoneyWatch Jobs report reveals slowdown in economic recovery Jobs report reveals slowdown in economic reco... 01:51 Hiring across the U.S. pulled back dramatically in August as a surge in COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant dragged down the recovery. Employers added 235,000 jobs last month, the Labor Department reported on Friday, far fewer than the roughly 750,000 expected by forecasters. The nation's unemployment rate fell to 5.2%, from 5.4%.The monthly job gains are a big drop from July, when more than 1 million jobs were created, according to revised government data.
"The labor market recovery cooled markedly in August as businesses and job seekers grew more cautious in the face of the fast-spreading Delta variant," Lydia Boussour, lead U.S. economist with Oxford Economics, said in a report.Customer-facing industries were hardest hit in August, with retail trade losing 28,000 jobs and leisure and hospitality staying unchanged. But the goods economy powered ahead: Transportation and warehousing added 53,000 jobs, which brings employment in the sector above its pre-pandemic peak. Manufacturing added 37,000, a majority of them in the auto industry, signaling that supply bottlenecks may be easing. Professional and business services added 74,000 jobs, on par with the previous month.Average hourly earnings grew a strong 4.2% year-over-year, a figure that was boosted by the absence of lower-paying leisure and retail jobs."Today's report has the Delta variant written all over it," Nick Bunker, economic research director at the job site Indeed, wrote in a note. "The underlying momentum is still there. We just have to see if we can keep up the pace until this surge is behind us." With COVID-19 cases having spiked in July and August, Americans have been buying fewer plane tickets and reducing hotel stays. Restaurant dining, after having fully recovered in late June, has declined to about 10% below pre-pandemic levels, and some live events have been canceled. Some 9 million unemployed workers are set to lose their jobless benefits starting next week, likely dragging down consumer spending and slowing the recovery further.Businesses are also delaying their returns to offices, threatening the survival of downtown restaurants, coffee shops and dry cleaners. Many manufacturers are still struggling with persistent supply bottlenecks, while a recent purchasing managers' survey found that the Delta variant is causing significant absenteeism in factories. Jobless Americans on why they're unemployed 02:27 In August, the number of people who reported losing work hours because their employer was closed due to the pandemic rose by 400,000, to 5.6 million, according to the Labor Department.Unequal unemploymentWhile the overall unemployment fell, jobless rates rose for some groups of workers. Black workers' unemployment rose to 8.8% from 8.2% in July, as more entered the workforce than were hired for jobs. Likewise, the teenage labor force grew, driving up their unemployment rate to 11.2%, from 9.6% in July. The rising unemployment rate for Black workers is "very discouraging and something we need to keep watching," said Elise Gould, an economist at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.Although the job numbers typically fluctuate from month to month, unemployment among Black workers during the pandemic has been about double the rate for White workers."This recovery seems to be leaving some workers out in the cold more than others," she said. "We should be making sure the labor market is as tight as possible, so those who have been historically marginalized in the labor market have a shot." A deep troughBefore the pandemic upended the economy, employers adding 200,000 jobs would be considered a blowout month. But the job market is still climbing back from the historic blow dealt by the coronavirus, which in April of 2020 drove up unemployment to 14.7%. There are roughly 5.3 million fewer workers on payrolls today than in 2020.The Associated Press contributed reporting. Download our Free App For Breaking News & Analysis Download the Free CBS News app Thanks for reading CBS NEWS. Create your free account or log in for more features. Please enter email address to continue Please enter valid email address to continue
EMERGENCY COMPONENT - NATIONAL EMERGENCY COMPONENT - NATIONAL EMERGENCY COMPONENT - NATIONAL EMERGENCY COMPONENT - NATIONAL | 0 |
The Republican nomination is his. Now there's a new question: Can Donald Trump win the White House?With a decisive victory in the Indiana primary Tuesday, the billionaire businessman who was initially ridiculed as a reality-TV candidate was declared the presumptive nominee by Republican National Chairman Committee Reince Priebus. Trump's final two rivals, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Ohio Gov. John Kasich, called it quits, sealing the most remarkable political rise in modern American history.Now some of his primary rivals and other senior Republicans argue that Trump's lack of governmental experience and his unprecedented negative ratings — including among such crucial electoral groups as women, Latinos and young people — will doom his prospects in November. But as Trump likes to remind people, the conventional wisdom has been wrong about him from the start."It's been some unbelievable day and evening and year," Trump declared in a victory speech Tuesday night in the lobby of Trump Tower in New York, where he had announced his candidacy almost a year ago. “We’re going to win big league, believe me."Trump delivers knockout in Indiana as Cruz drops outTale of the tape: The 15 contenders Trump has knocked outHe faces what could charitably be described as an uphill battle. A national CNN/ORC poll, taken April 28-May 1, showed Clinton with a daunting lead over Trump of 54%-41%. To win the White House, he needs to hold all of the states Mitt Romney won in 2012, with a total of 206 electoral votes, then add at least 64 more to get to the 270 mark to claim the presidency.A look at five states that could hold the key to both how a Trump victory is possible and how difficult it will be. Here's one scenario that would give Trump 273 electoral votes — and the White House.1. Hold Arizona: 11 electoral votesIn the past 16 presidential elections, Arizona has voted Democratic just once, in 1996. But Trump's characterization of Mexican immigrants as rapists and murderers and his vow to build a wall along the Southern border have energized Latino voters here. In the latest RealClearPolitics average of recent statewide polls, Clinton leads the state by 3.5 percentage points. She and Trump showed strength in Arizona in its primaries last month, each winning by double digits.2. Hold North Carolina: 15 electoral votesDemocrats say North Carolina has been moving in the party's direction, but after Barack Obama carried the state in 2008 he lost it in 2012. Now Clinton leads Trump by 2 points in statewide polls, and both husband Bill Clinton and daughter Chelsea Clinton have visited the state in recent weeks. Boosted by her solid support among African Americans, Clinton won the primary over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 14 points in March; Trump edged Texas Sen. Ted Cruz by 3 points.3. Flip Florida: 29 electoral votesFlorida defines a swing state: In the last six elections, Democrats have carried it three times, Republicans have carried it three times. In statewide polls, Clinton now leads, but by just 2.2 points. She's already returned to the state for campaign-related events since the Democratic primary in March, which she won by more than 30 points. But Trump has roots in Florida, including his lavish Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach. He crushed Florida Sen. Marco Rubio in the primary by close to 20 points after pushing former governor Jeb Bush out of the race entirely. Would "Little Marco," as Trump called Rubio, pitch in to help in the fall?4. Flip Ohio: 18 electoral votesNo Republican has won the White House without carrying Ohio, and since 1960 the Buckeye State has had a perfect record of going with the national winner. At the moment, Clinton holds a lead in statewide polls, but it's narrow: 3.5 points. In March, she easily won the state's Democratic primary. Trump lost the Republican primary to the home-state governor, John Kasich. But Ohio's struggling manufacturing base and its hard-pressed blue-collar voters could provide a receptive audience for Trump's message in the general election. Kasich would be in a position to boost the GOP nominee, if he chose to do so. And where was Clinton campaigning Tuesday? Ohio.5. Flip Pennsylvania: 20 electoral votesPennsylvania hasn't voted Republican in the presidential race since 1988, but the state includes many of the white working-class voters who are Trump's most fervent supporters. In last week's primary, Trump won two-thirds of Republican voters who didn't have a college degree, defeating Cruz overall by more than 2-1. Clinton won the Democratic primary by 12 points. In statewide polls now, Clinton leads by 7.4 points. As in Florida and Ohio, Pennsylvania has a competitive Senate race that could also play a role. | 0 |
PoliticsBiden Keeps Up Pressure On Putin To Pull Back Russian Troops, End Ukraine CrisisRussian President Vladimir Putin has suggested there may be a diplomatic solution to the predicament he created.S.V. DateU.S. NewsU.S. Skater Vincent Zhou Recalls Most ‘Difficult’ Moment From COVID Isolation At OlympicsThe 21-year-old was forced to withdraw from the men's short program after testing positive for the coronavirus.Lee MoranEntertainmentStephen Colbert Taunts Trump With The Only Tax Advice He May Need From Now OnTrump is looking for a new accounting firm after his old one dropped him.Ed MazzaPoliticsBiden Gains Nothing By Picking A Centrist Supreme Court NomineeRemember what happened when Obama selected Merrick Garland to appeal to Republicans?Jennifer BenderyPoliticsFox News Analyst Offers Mortifying Take On Trucker Protest Crackdown"By this rationale, they could have cracked down on the civil rights movement. They could have arrested Martin Luther King," said law professor Jonathan Turley.Josephine HarveyPoliticsCivil Rights Groups To Biden DOJ: Stop Relying On 100-Year-Old Racist Precedents In CourtResidents of Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories have been denied equal rights, including the right to vote, because they were considered “uncivilized race[s].”Paul BlumenthalPoliticsSen. Josh Hawley: ‘It Is Not A Pro-Riot Mug’The Missouri Republican said he only saluted the peaceful protesters -- and the others should go to jail.Arthur DelaneyPoliticsBlack West Virginia Lawmaker Sues Anti-Abortion Group Over Racist KKK Image Targeting HerWest Virginia delegate Danielle Walker filed suit against West Virginians for Life after the group emailed her and posted a graphic of a KKK member doing a Nazi salute.Sarah Ruiz-GrossmanMediaJury Rejects Palin’s Defamation Claim Against The New York TimesShe is expected to appeal.Sara BoboltzCelebrityFamily Of Cinematographer Who Was Killed On Set Of ‘Rust’ Sues Alec BaldwinAt least three other lawsuits have been filed over the shooting.By Andrew Dalton, APEntertainmentNick Cannon Appears To Hint He’s Missing Ex-Wife Mariah Carey In New Song ‘Alone’"I’ve been lying, I say I’m cool when I know I miss it,” the daytime talk show host sings on the track.Kimberley RichardsEntertainmentJohn Mulaney And Andy Samberg’s ‘Chip ‘N Dale’ Reboot Makes Fun Of RebootsThe teaser, which features a CGI Dale, a 2-D Chip and a Roger Rabbit cameo, takes a very meta look at the duo 30 years after their Disney hit.Elyse Wanshel | 0 |
The 5-4 ruling was written by Chief Justice John Roberts and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Elena Kagan, Stephen Breyer and Sonia Sotomayor.In penning the opinion, Roberts once again sided with the liberals on the bench in a momentous dispute that will infuriate judicial conservatives who are still bitter that he once provided the deciding vote to uphold Obamacare.The opinion is the second time in a week when the Supreme Court -- bolstered with two of President Donald Trump's nominees -- has ruled against the Trump administration. Monday, the court said LGBTQ Americans are protected under the Civil Rights Act.The ruling emphasizes that the administration failed to provide an adequate reason to justify ending the DACA program. "We do not decide whether DACA or its rescission are sound policies," Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. "'The wisdom' of those decisions 'is none of our concern.' We address only whether the agency complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action."It is a blow to the Trump administration, as immigration reform has been a lynchpin of Trump's agenda. It means that for now, participants in the program can continue to renew membership in the program that offers them work authorization and temporary protection from deportation.President Donald Trump appeared to blast the DACA decision and an opinion issued earlier this week that extended anti-discrimination protections to LGBTQ workers. "These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives," he tweeted. Trump continued to attack the decision in a series of tweets later Thursday, claiming it didn't seem to be "based on the law" and that it "tell you only one thing, we need NEW JUSTICES of the Supreme Court."Former President Barack Obama also weighed in on the decision on Twitter Thursday morning, writing of DACA recipients: "Today, I'm happy for them, their families, and all of us." "We may look different and come from everywhere, but what makes us American are our shared ideals," Obama wrote, noting the program was created eight years ago this week. Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden also celebrated the ruling, calling it a "victory" and again saying that if elected, he will work "immediately" on legislation that would make the program "permanent." "The joy of today's victory does not erase the difficult road ahead," Biden said in a statement. "We know that much work remains to be done."And California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who led a coalition of attorneys general in defense of DACA before the Supreme Court last year, told CNN Thursday evening the ruling was "an indictment of the way the Trump administration does business.""It said that everyone must follow the rule of law," he told CNN's Erin Burnett of the ruling. "The White House and the occupant don't have a right to be above the law."The Trump administration could move, again, to try to rescind the program, but this time the administration will have to provide a better explanation grounded in policy for its reason for termination."Today's decision allows Dreamers to breathe a temporary sigh of relief," said Professor Stephen Yale-Loehr of Cornell Law School. "The administration may try to terminate the DACA program with a better justification, but that will take months or years. In the meantime, Congress should enact permanent relief for Dreamers to end this drama once and for all."Luz Chavez, a DACA recipient based in Maryland, was at the steps of the Supreme Court when the decision came down Thursday."Right now, at the end of the day, our community won, right? We've been pushing for this for a long time. Immigrant youth are the reason why DACA was announced and created," Chavez told CNN. "It's exhilarating."'A delicate political issue'After the ruling was handed down on Thursday, Trump retweeted a tweet featuring Justice Clarence Thomas' dissent. The decision is "an effort to avoid a politically controversial but legally correct decision," Thomas wrote.Thomas, one of the court's most conservative members, argued in his dissent that "the majority makes the mystifying determination that this rescission of DACA was unlawful. In reaching that conclusion, the majority acts as though it is engaging in the routine application of standard principles of administrative law.""On the contrary, this is anything but a standard administrative law case." Justice Samuel Alito seemed to agree with Thomas' assessment, writing that "DACA presents a delicate political issue, but that is not our business." "As Justice Thomas explains, DACA was unlawful from the start, and that alone is sufficient to justify its termination. But even if DACA were lawful, we would still have no basis for overturning its rescission," Alito argued. And Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump's second nominee to the court, wrote a separate dissent praising immigrants, but saying he did not agree with the majority opinion. "They live, go to school, and work here with uncertainty about their futures. Despite many attempts over the last two decades, Congress has not yet enacted legislation to afford legal status to those immigrants," Kavanaugh wrote.He noted that that "the only practical consequence of the Court's decision to remand appears to be some delay" because the court's decision "seems to allow the Department on remand to relabel and reiterate substance."Created by Obama after congressional stalemateDACA, established in 2012, is available to any undocumented immigrant who came to the US under the age of 16, who had lived in the US since at least June of 2007, was enrolled in high school or graduated and had not been convicted of certain offenses. An individual also had to pose no national security or public safety threats. Recipients who met the criteria became eligible for renewable, two-year grants of "deferred action" from removal. They were also eligible for work authorization and Social Security numbers. In return, however, they had to provide the government with certain identifying information.After Trump came into office, then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced the program had been created "without proper authority" and only after Congress had rejected proposed legislation. The following day, Elaine Duke, then-acting Secretary of Homeland Security, announced it would be phased out, pointing out that it had "legal and constitutional defects." Months later, after legal challenges had been launched, then-Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen issued a new memo laying out more policy-based justifications for winding down the program. She said, for example, that the program increased the risk of undermining public confidence in the rule of law. Federal courts stepped in and said the administration had acted arbitrarily when phasing out the program in violation of the law. The courts pointed to the administration's thin justification -- reasoning Roberts and the Supreme Court eventually agreed with.The administration moved aggressively asking the Supreme Court to lift the injunctions, and the President predicted success."We want to be in the Supreme Court on DACA," Trump said. But the justices sat on the petition for months, before finally granting cert last term.The plaintiffs, including the University of California, a handful of states and DACA recipients argue to the Supreme Court that the phase-out violated the Administrative Procedure Act, a federal law that governs how agencies can establish regulations. One hundred and forty-three business associations and companies filed a brief in support of DACA stressing that its phase-out will harm the economy. The brief points to research from the libertarian Cato Institute that estimates that companies will face an estimated $6.3 billion in costs to replace Dreamers "if they can even find new employees to fill the empty positions."And Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, filed a brief in support of DACA noting that his company employs 443 Dreamers who come from 25 different countries and four continents. "We did not hire them out of kindness or charity," Cook argued. "We did it because Dreamers embody Apple's innovative strategy" he said. "They come from diverse backgrounds and display a wide range of skills and experiences that equip them to tackle problems from different perspectives."After the justices heard arguments in the case, supporters of DACA recipients also told the court that some 27,000 recipients were working on the front lines to fight Covid-19.Lawmakers look for a more permanent solutionSeveral Democratic lawmakers applauded the decision by the court, proclaiming it a victory while also pushing for more permanent protections for Dreamers.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi praised the decision in a press conference Thursday, saying it "supports our values as a country."Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called it a "wonderful, wonderful day for the DACA kids, for their families and for the American dream.""We've always believed in immigration in America. We've had some dark forces oppose it in recent years, but we believe in it. It's part of our soul," the New York Democrat said on the Senate floor. "In these very difficult times, the Supreme Court provided a bright ray of sunshine this week."Many lawmakers pointed to the Dream and Promise Act, a bill making its way through the Senate that prohibits removal proceedings against certain immigrants and provides them with a path to permanent resident status, as a next step in the fight for DACA."Supreme Court decision on #DACA is a victory for Dreamers & the American people against the cruelty & unlawfulness of the Trump admin," Democratic Rep. Joaquin Castro of Texas tweeted. "Senate must immediately pass American Dream & Promise Act for permanent protection." Sen. Elizabeth Warren called upon Senate Republicans to "stop political games" on the bill."I'm happy the Supreme Court upheld DACA to protect Dreamers from the crisis Trump created. But we can't stop here," the Massachusetts Democrat tweeted. "(Senate GOP): stop the political games & pass this bill for Dreamers & their families."Former members of the Obama administration echoed those calls. David Axelrod, a former Obama senior adviser and CNN commentator, tweeted Thursday that action from Congress is needed."DACA was never presented as a permanent solution for these young people or to the status of the millions of undocumented people who are here, contributing to, and embedded in, our communities, yet still in a legal shadow. Congress needs to act to address these issues," Axelrod said.Former Democratic presidential nominee and member of the Obama administration Hillary Clinton also weighed in, urging Congress to provide a path to citizenship for DACA recipients."Today's Supreme Court decision to uphold DACA is a happy end to the cruel uncertainty the Trump administration put these young people through. Now Congress must give them a path to citizenship," she said.GOP criticism of RobertsRep. Jim Jordan, the top Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, took aim at Roberts for once again siding with the liberal justices."First, Obamacare. Now, DACA. What's next? Our second amendment gun rights?" Jordan, who represents Ohio, wrote in a tweet. Sen. Tom Cotton was just as unhappy with the chief justice."Yet John Roberts again postures as a Solomon who will save our institutions from political controversy and accountability," the Arkansas Republican said. "If the Chief Justice believes his political judgment is so exquisite, I invite him to resign, travel to Iowa, and get elected. I suspect voters will find his strange views no more compelling than do the principled justices on the Court."This story has been updated with details of the ruling and reaction.CNN's Priscilla Alvarez contributed to this report. | 0 |
Winners and losers from last night’s debateToo tired after last night’s three-hour-plus debate? Too many candidates to keep track off? Too many zingers and back-and-forths? Have no fear: Our list of winners and losers is here.First, the winners:Carly Fiorina: Yes, we aren’t the only ones who thought she stood out. But she was prepared, took advantage of every opportunity, and certainly sounded the part. Bottom line: She made the most of her appearance at the main stage (and don’t forget, she almost didn’t make it!) But as her interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie reminded us, her business and political experience -- getting fired from HP, losing her only race in California -- will receive more attention as she does.Marco Rubio: Just like in the first debate, Rubio shined and demonstrated that he’s a natural performer at these kinds of debate. He’s always hitting doubles. That said, his water joke when talking about California’s drought was tone deaf.Chris Christie: Out of all the candidates who NEEDED a good debate (Walker, Huckabee, Paul, and Christie), Christie delivered the most. He scratched and clawed like this could be his last opportunity on a stage like this. And he made the most of it.Jeb Bush: The first part looked like a repeat performance of the Cleveland debate for Bush. But he had to show to everyone (donors, establishment Republicans, the press) that he could beat up Trump. And he did.The losers:Donald Trump: He didn’t have a good night (although he'd disagree). As it turns out, he was the one with low energy. In fairness, Trump knows when he has an audience and when he doesn’t. And the small crowd at last night’s GOP debate -- the epitome of your GOP establishment -- wasn’t his kind of crowd. Given the length of the debate and all of the questions directed at his way, it also isn’t surprising he seemed out of breath by the end.Ben Carson: This was his chance to shine, and he fell flat. The exchange over vaccines underscored this: He had the facts and credibility on his side, but was unable to deliver a forceful response.Scott Walker: He had a good first 10 minutes with his “apprentice” line. But he faded after that. It was like the football team that immediately delivered on the trick play it had been practicing, but then showed little else for the rest of the game.Mike Huckabee: Beyond his Kim Davis answer, Huckabee really didn’t stand out -- a surprising result given how he was consistently the GOP’s best debater in the 2007-2008 campaign.Those who were OK:Ted Cruz: He didn’t broaden his appeal, but if there’s one thing about Ted Cruz, he knows how to talk to the constituency he’s trying to win over.Rand Paul: The exchange over marijuana gave us a glimpse of why Paul is still an interesting candidate. But he was simply OK…John Kasich: If you’re a down-the-middle political independent or an evenhanded political reporter, you probably thought he did great. But if you’re a conservative Republican, what did he say that excited you? His answers on the Iran deal were almost identical to the talking points from Obama and Clinton.The establishment strikes back at TrumpBeyond the winners and losers, and beyond the debate’s extraordinary length (more than three hours!!!!), perhaps the biggest storyline was how the other Republican candidates -- especially from the establishment -- struck back at Donald Trump. Here was Jeb: “The one guy that had special interest that I know of that tried to get me to change my views on something was generous and gave me money was Donald Trump. He wanted casino gambling in Florida.” Here was Walker: “Mr. Trump, we don't need an apprentice in the White House.” Here was even Fiorina: “I think Mr. Trump is a wonderful entertainer, he's been terrific in that business. I also think that one of the benefits of a presidential campaign is the character and capability, judgment and temperament of every single one of us over time and under pressure.” If the air has started the leak from the Trump balloon, it might have begun last night.A party divided usually cannot standHere is our final observation from last night’s debate – the GOP remains divided on so many different issues. Immigration. Foreign policy in the Middle East. How to deal with Planned Parenthood. Marijuana. Bottom line: Winning parties typically don’t usually have this many major differences. And one of the reasons why the GOP remains divided is that it’s still litigating the past GOP administration (the Bush-Trump exchange over the Iraq war captures that perfectly). In 2016, the eventual GOP nominee will be arguing: “Trust me -- I’m not George W. Bush or the Republicans in Congress.” But boy, that’s a tough argument to make. Today’s Republican Party is still searching for its core. And as a result, one of the winners from last night’s debate by default was Hillary Clinton or whoever the Dem nominee will be.Hillary stumps with the governor of VermontSpeaking of Hillary, she campaigns today in New Hampshire with Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin, who has endorsed Hillary over fellow Vermonter Bernie Sanders. As one of us has written, Sanders has yet to receive a single endorsement from a Democratic elected official -- on Capitol Hill or in Vermont. Here’s Monica Alba’s dispatch on Hillary’s Jimmy Fallon appearance last night.Jeb walks back his Margaret Thatcher answerNBC’s Peter Alexander spoke exclusively to Jeb Bush after last night’s debate. Here’s one thing we noticed: He seemed to be walking back his answer that he’d put Margaret Thatcher on the $10 bill. “You know, I don't think that's the most relevant thing in the world,” he said. “I would give it up to the-- on the internet and let people decide this. That would generate a lot of interest. It could create all sorts of opportunities for math teachers to teach math, for social studies teachers to do the same. You could have an avalanche of interest in picking the woman that should be on the $10 bill.”Two other political stories to watch the Iran deal and the FedToday is the deadline for Congress to act on the Iran deal. And as a result, it looks like today will be the day it officially becomes a done deal. And today, we’ll also hear if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates.On the trailHillary Clinton campaigns in New Hampshire, while husband Bill raises money in Chicago… Trump also is in New Hampshire, holding a rally in Rochester at 7:00 pm ET… Jeb Bush holds a rally in Las Vegas at 6:45 pm ET… And Rand Paul also is in the Silver State.Click here to sign up for First Read emails. Text FIRST to 622639, to sign up for First Read alerts to your mobile phone. Check us out on Facebook and also on Twitter. Follow us @chucktodd, @mmurraypolitics, @carrienbcnewsMark Murray is a senior political editor at NBC News.Chuck Todd is moderator of "Meet The Press" and NBC News' political director. Carrie Dann is a political editor for NBC News. | 0 |
GENEVA — President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin emerged from their meeting in Switzerland on Wednesday projecting optimism for future relations despite continued divisions on thorny topics from cyberattacks to human rights abuses.In separate post-summit news conferences, Biden described the tone of the discussions as "good, positive" and Putin said it was "constructive" and there was a "glimpse of hope" regarding mutual trust.But the upbeat responses did not diminish the long-festering tensions between the two nations that have recently been strained by accusations of election interference, cyberattacks and human rights violations.Putin continued to deny Russia's role in recent cyberattacks against U.S. institutions. He also deflected when asked about the imprisonment of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny and alleged human rights abuses in his country, discussing, instead, gun violence in the U.S. and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.Biden said the men discussed the cases of Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed, Americans imprisoned in Russia; arms control measures; Navalny; the importance of a free press; cybersecurity; Russian attempts to destabilize democratic elections; Ukraine; and Belarus, among other topics."I told President Putin my agenda is not against Russia or anyone else. It's for the American people," Biden said."I also told him that no president of the United States could keep faith with the American people if they did not speak out to defend our democratic values, to stand up for the universal and fundamental freedoms," Biden continued. "So human rights are always going to be on the table, I told him."The success of Wednesday's talks, Biden said, would be determined in the next few months based on whether Putin's confrontational posture toward the U.S. improves. While Biden said he could not offer any confidence that Putin would change his behavior, he felt that "the last thing" Putin wanted was a Cold War.Biden said it was in Putin's self-interest to cooperate with the U.S., saying the Russian leader's desire to preserve his credibility worldwide could influence his behavior.While Biden said he did not make any threats or give an ultimatum, he told Putin that the U.S. would respond if Russia attempted to interfere in its elections again and that there would be "devastating" consequences if Navalny died while in prison."The bottom line is I told President Putin that we need to have some basic rules of the road that we can all abide by," Biden said.Biden also said he gave Putin a list of 16 items he considered to be critical infrastructure that should be considered off-limits to cyberattacks and that the U.S. would respond if attacks continue.Putin announced that he and Biden had reached an agreement to return the ambassadors of both nations to their respective posts and had agreed to begin "consultations" on cyber issues.Back home, Republicans, some of whom released statements before the conclusion of Biden’s news conference, reiterated criticism of the president’s earlier decision to waive sanctions against the company overseeing construction of Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany. The move faced bipartisan congressional opposition, and Republicans have said it amounted to handing Putin a major strategic boost in Europe.Others took issue with Biden’s assessment that Putin was concerned with how the world viewed him and Russia’s relevancy on the global stage."Putin could care less about how the world views his efforts to silence dissidents at home and abroad," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., tweeted. "Again, quite frankly, I think he enjoys the reputation of being someone you don’t want to cross. Very dangerous observations by President Biden regarding Putin."The sitdown between the two countries ended slightly sooner than White House officials had suggested it would — lasting around just three hours — and consisted of one continuous session rather than the two that had been originally planned. Biden said that after two hours "we looked at each other like 'OK, what next?'"Biden and Putin were joined first by Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, along with translators, and later opened up the meeting to a larger group.Security around Villa La Grange, the picturesque mansion and lakeside park where the summit took place, had been extremely tight. The park was blocked off by thick rolls of barbed-wire fencing with Swiss police patrolling the grounds. A large section of the city had been closed off with police boats dotting the crisp waters of Lake Geneva, in a city known for its neutrality and international cooperation.The meeting between the two leaders came as relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent years, most recently with ransomware attacks that originated in Russia on critical U.S. infrastructure. The attacks added to the strain caused by election interference, increased aggression toward Ukraine and Putin's crackdowns on political opposition.In the two months since Biden invited Putin to hold a summit, Russian groups have been linked to cyberattacks targeting U.S. government agencies, a major meat producer and the largest fuel pipeline on the East Coast.Putin also voiced support for the leader of Belarus after the grounding of a passenger jet to arrest a dissident journalist, and Russia has banned political organizations linked to the jailed opposition leader Navalny.Biden spent days preparing for the summit. Shortly before departing the U.S. for Europe, he gathered in the Roosevelt Room at the White House for a prep session with a group of outside Russia experts — including officials from the Trump and Obama administrations — to discuss a range of views about how to deal with Putin, according to a person familiar with the matter.“He’s not just winging it. He’s putting a lot of time and attention into this meeting,” the person said.Biden arrived in Geneva Tuesday afternoon following days of meetings with America’s closest allies during a gathering of the Group of Seven leaders, which include Canada, the U.K., France, Italy, Germany and Japan, and a summit of the NATO alliance countries.He departed Geneva for Washington Wednesday following the Russia summit, marking the end to his first foreign trip as president.CORRECTION: (June 16, 2021, 6:10 a.m. ET): A previous version of this article misspelled the last name of a former U.S. president. His name is Ronald Reagan, not Regan. | 0 |
STORY HIGHLIGHTS NEW: Police chief: Shots were fired and "tear gas was deployed" amid new violence
Michael Brown was shot by police, sparking outrage in Ferguson, Missouri
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says civil rights investigators have launched an inquiry
NAACP president: "Honor his memory by seeking justice nonviolently"
Ferguson, Missouri (CNN) -- Hours after federal civil rights investigators and the FBI opened an inquiry into the death of a teenager shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, violence flared again in the St. Louis suburb.
Police Chief Thomas Jackson told CNN shots were fired Monday night in Ferguson, and police fired tear gas to disperse a crowd that had gathered in an area where looting occurred Sunday.
"Officers were brought in to quell the hostilities," he said. "Tear gas was deployed."
The Saturday-night shooting, which left 18-year-old Michael Brown dead, has fueled rising tensions in the town of 21,000 and sparked national debate.
One side says the African-American teenager was surrendering, his hands in the air to show he was unarmed, when the officer opened fire. Authorities counter that Brown had attacked the officer in his car and tried to take his gun. Father: 'I just want justice for my son'
Michael Brown's friend describes shooting
Fatal shooting sparks looting, violence
Mom: 'You took my son away from me'
Police chief: 'We can get to the truth' After a vigil for the teen devolved into chaos Sunday when violence and looting broke out among some protesters, NAACP President Cornell William Brooks called Monday for people protesting Brown's death to do so nonviolently.
"We have seen young people giving in to violence and frustration and rage. It may be inexcusable. It is not unexpected," Brooks told reporters. "But I say to my young brothers and sisters, note the young man whose rage is your heart, note that he was nonviolent. He never got into a fight. If you want to honor his memory, honor his memory by seeking justice nonviolently."
Witnesses to Brown's shooting say he was unarmed and had his hands in the air when the police officer shot him.
Authorities tell a different story. St. Louis County Police Chief Jon Belmar says the officer tried to get out of his vehicle just before the shooting, but Brown pushed him back into his car.
Brown "physically assaulted" the officer, Belmar said, and the teen tried to get the officer's weapon.
Brown was shot about 35 feet from the vehicle, the chief said, declining to provide more details. The officer's name has not been released by authorities.
"The genesis of this was a physical confrontation," Belmar said, adding that his department has been called in to conduct an independent investigation.
The Ferguson Police Department said its cars are not equipped with dashboard cameras.
Shell casings collected at the scene were from the officer's weapon, Belmar said.
Monday, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the shooting "deserves a fulsome review" by federal investigators.
"At every step, we will work with the local investigators, who should be prepared to complete a thorough, fair investigation in their own right. I will continue to receive regular updates on this matter in the coming days," Holder said in a statement. "Aggressively pursuing investigations such as this is critical for preserving trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve."
Mother: 'No violence, just justice'
The lawyer representing Brown's parents called Monday for a swift investigation.
"We want this investigation to be done fairly, and we make a demand to the Justice Department to come in and help restore trust and confidence in the process of equal justice. ... This family is very distrustful. This community is very distrustful," attorney Benjamin Crump told reporters, calling for witnesses to come forward.
Brown's parents urged people to remain calm.
"No violence, just justice," the teen's mother, Lesley McSpadden, told reporters.
McSpadden said her son recently graduated from high school and was supposed to start college Monday.
"We can't even celebrate," she said. "We've got to plan a funeral."
Standing beside the teen's family, Brooks said the NAACP is committed to determining what happened.
"We are committed to this family, committed to seeking justice, committed to being a presence, day-in and day-out," he told reporters.
Mayor calls for calm
"Obviously, the events of last night are not indicative of who we are," Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said on CNN on Monday morning, adding that Sunday night's chaos was "not constructive" and was only "bringing down the community."
St. Louis County Police said 32 people were arrested and shots were fired at police.
Monday, St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Robert McCulloch said charges had been filed against about 10 people in connection with burglaries of several businesses.
"What occurred last night, the mob action, we know certainly is not representative of what's going on and what the people in the neighborhood necessarily think," he said.
Flanked by several from the community Sunday, McSpadden was McSpadden was emotional as she shouted into a television reporter's microphone.
"You took my son away from me! You know how hard it was for me to get him to stay in school and graduate? You know how many black men graduate? Not many!" she said. "Because you bring them down to this type of level where they feel they don't got nothing to live for anyway! (They feel) they gonna try to take me out anyway!"
Others who gathered shouted at police.
"We will stay out here as long as you are!" they screamed at officers.
Many of the officers appeared stoic, watching young men kneel before them and raise their hands up to symbolize surrender, but one officer can be heard on video yelling back, calling protesters "animals."
Some in Ferguson are demanding that the name of the officer who shot the teenager be released.
Monday afternoon, Jackson -- the police chief -- said he plans to release the name in the next 24 hours. Authorities want to make sure the officer is in a safe location, he said.
'Lost control'
"Last night, everything lost control," Knowles said Monday.
He was asked about the officer who called protesters "animals."
"The officers did their best. They're only human," Knowles responded, adding that not every police officer present was from the Ferguson department.
Sunday's gathering became more intense as some people broke windows at a store and began taking things from it. They threw rocks and bottles. Gunshots rang out.
Antonio French, an alderman in St. Louis, said a QuikTrip gas station was looted and an ATM dragged out.
"This QuikTrip is where things started (Saturday) with this case, based on various accounts," French said.
The slain teenager and a friend were "accused of stealing gum from the store or some sort of cigarettes," the alderman said.
"People have a lot of anger and are frustrated," French said. "They don't have recourse in the system, and it happens often in this country, and it has boiled over. I think people are angry and looking for a reason to let it out tonight."
Knowles said he wants to let the independent investigation into Brown's death take its course. He plans to meet with Brown's parents soon and will meet with clergy in Ferguson and African-American leadership in the town.
Whatever the investigation's findings, "we will deal with that," he said.
Multiple gunshots An autopsy will determine how many times Brown was shot. The medical examiner for St. Louis County, Mary Case, said Monday afternoon the autopsy is complete, but she would not give details and said St. Louis County police will release the information.
Toxicology results on Brown's body are pending.
On the number of times Brown might have been shot, Belmar has said, "It was more than just a couple."
"We don't know what happened, and there are lots of conflicting stories," Knowles said. "Unfortunately, there will have to be some time taken to understand what happened. Hopefully, we will get to an understanding, and justice will be served."
The officer who shot Brown is on paid administrative leave during the investigation and will be available to talk to county homicide detectives.
He has been with the force for six years and will be required to undergo two psychological evaluations before returning to duty, Belmar said.
Crump, who also handled the case of Trayvon Martin in Florida, said Monday that Brown's family is "devastated" and doesn't believe that the teenager got into a physical confrontation with police.
Martin, 17, was killed in 2012 by a Florida neighborhood watch organizer who was acquitted last year of murder charges.
The high-profile case sparked a heated nationwide discussion of race as well as debate over Florida's "stand your ground" law.
Monday, Crump said Brown's shooting once again highlights "the senseless death of a young boy of color at the hands of people who are supposed to protect and serve them."
"Their son was doing all the right things," Crump said. "Graduating from high school, never been in trouble. And for this to happen, for him to be killed in broad daylight ... they want answers just like everybody else in the community."
Trayvon Martin case fast facts
Opinion: How many unarmed people have to die?
CNN's Ashley Fantz and Catherine E. Shoichet wrote in Atlanta, and George Howell reported from Missouri. CNN's Devon Sayers, Shawn Nottingham, Eliott C. McLaughlin, Shimon Prokupecz, Julian Cummings, Jason Carroll, Dave Mattingly, Dave Alsup, Melanie Whitley, Joe Sutton, Faith Karimi, Mayra Cuevas, Shirley Henry, Julian Cummings and Tristan Smith contributed to this report. | 0 |
In testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Horowitz revealed that a prosecutor handpicked by Attorney General William P. Barr to review the same issues had failed to convince him that the FBI lacked a valid reason to initiate the probe. But just as importantly, Horowitz emphasized what he saw as myriad failures by the FBI after opening the case and said officials had not adequately explained their actions.Since his 434-page report was released Monday, Democrats have emphasized its conclusion that political bias did not drive the investigation into a possible conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia; Barr and fellow Republicans have said the report found so many flaws that the investigation should have never happened.After the report’s release, former FBI director James B. Comey declared it showed the investigation was “just good people trying to protect America.” Horowitz made clear, however, that no one should claim victory from his report.Inspector General Michael Horowitz criticized the FBI for “basic, fundamental and serious errors” in handling the surveillance applications for Trump campaign a (Reuters)“Does your report vindicate Mr. Comey?” asked Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.).“It doesn’t vindicate anyone at the FBI who touched this, including the leadership,” Horowitz responded. “Does it vindicate Mr. McCabe?” Kennedy asked, referring to Comey’s deputy, Andrew McCabe. “Same answer,” Horowitz responded.The inspector general found 17 errors or omissions made by the FBI as it sought and received approvals to conduct surveillance on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Those applications were filed to the secret court created by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, to oversee intelligence and terrorism cases.Republicans pressed Horowitz to explain what, other than intentional animus or political bias, would explain so many errors.“It’s fair for someone to sit there and look at all of these 17 events and wonder how it could be purely incompetence,” Horowitz conceded.“This has got to be fixed,” Kennedy replied. “At a minimum, someone’s got to be fired.”The most senior FBI leaders who oversaw the probe have since left the bureau.Horowitz offered new details about his disagreement with the attorney general and Connecticut U.S. Attorney John Durham, who at Barr’s direction is investigating the FBI’s handling of the Russia probe.When the report was released, Durham issued an unusual public statement saying he did not completely agree with Horowitz’s conclusion that the opening of the investigation was justified. Asked by the panel’s senior Democrat, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), if Durham offered anything to change Horowitz’s view that the FBI had a valid reason to open the probe in July 2016, Horowitz replied: “No, we stand by our finding.”Durham and Horowitz met in November to discuss the inspector general’s findings, Horowitz said. He told lawmakers that their disagreement centered around whether the FBI should have opened a preliminary investigation, which puts some limitations on the steps agents can take, or a full investigation.Durham’s investigation is ongoing, and Barr indicated Tuesday it could be spring or summer before it reaches a “watershed.”In the Trump campaign case, the FBI opened a full investigation based on a tip from the Australian government. Durham “said during the meeting that the information from the friendly foreign government was in his view sufficient to support the preliminary investigation,” Horowitz said.The distinction is a narrow one that typically has little bearing on the early stages of an investigation. Horowitz said that even if agents had opened a preliminary investigation, rather than a full investigation, they still would have been authorized to use informants as they did in the first month of the case.The key difference between a preliminary and full investigation is that preliminary investigations don’t allow investigators to seek surveillance warrants. The bureau did not take that step in the Trump campaign case until October 2016, almost three months after the probe was opened.Horowitz said he was “surprised” to see Durham issue a public statement disagreeing with that part of his report. Barr also disagrees with Horowitz on the issue, and in media interviews Tuesday said the FBI may have acted in “bad faith” by pursuing the case. Horowitz’s testimony marked his first public pushback to Barr and Durham, revealing the depth of disagreements among senior law enforcement officials about Horowitz’s findings. Before the report was released publicly, The Washington Post reported that Barr disputed Horowitz’s conclusion that the FBI had sufficient grounds to open the investigation.Horowitz operates independently from Justice Department leadership, and his office, by design, does not take directions from the department hierarchy. Spokespeople for Durham and the attorney general declined to comment on Horowitz’s statements.Republicans castigated the FBI over its investigation into the Trump campaign, declaring that such a shoddy case should never be pursued again.While Horowitz was testifying, Trump tweeted: “They spied on my campaign!” And at a campaign event Tuesday night in Hershey, Pa., the president used some of his strongest language yet to attack the FBI.“The FBI also sent multiple undercover human spies to surveil and record people associated with our campaign,” he said. “They’ve destroyed the lives of people that were great people, that are still great people. Their lives have been destroyed by scum, okay, by scum.”Asked about that accusation, Horowitz responded, “I would not call people names like that.” He also said that inspector general investigators found no evidence to support the president’s long-standing claims that the FBI wiretapped his phones.Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), the Judiciary Committee chairman and a frequent defender of the president, said politicians of both parties should be alarmed to see how the FBI launched an investigation into a political campaign, told no one inside the campaign of its concerns and kept pursuing that investigation even after gathering a significant amount of exculpatory evidence.“We can’t write this off as being just about one man or one event. We’ve got to understand how off-the-rails the system got,” Graham said. “I think Democrats and Republicans are willing to make sure this never happens again.”He also said the FISA court would have to undergo significant changes in order to continue operating.Graham said he would assume, “for the sake of argument,” that the FBI had an adequate basis to open a counterintelligence investigation — though he noted the standard for doing so is low. But the other failures, he said, were more than a few modest mistakes.“What happened here is not a few irregularities,” Graham said. “What happened here is the system failed. The people at the highest levels of our government took the law into their own hands.”Feinstein defended the FBI as doing critical work to pursue disturbing allegations of election-year wrongdoing.“This was not a politically motivated investigation. There is no ‘deep state,’ ” she said, referencing a pejorative term used by Trump and his allies to describe career civil servants they perceive to be biased against the president. “The FBI’s motivation was motivated by facts, not bias.”In contrast, Graham invoked J. Edgar Hoover, a former FBI director whose name has become synonymous with abuses of law enforcement powers. He criticized the FBI for deciding to investigate, rather than warn, the Trump campaign about possible Russian involvement with the election. He read a series of anti-Trump texts from two officials involved in the case — agent Peter Strzok and lawyer Lisa Page — which the inspector general had addressed in a previous report.Among the texts Graham pointed to was an August 2016 message in which Strzok told Page he was at a Walmart in southern Virginia and could “smell the Trump support.” The text, Graham said, showed those with key roles at the FBI did not want Trump to win.“These are a few bad people that couldn’t believe Trump won, didn’t want him to win, and when he won, couldn’t tolerate the fact that he won,” Graham said. “And all these smelly people elected him. This is bad stuff.”In the fall of 2016, FBI officials sought and received court approval to conduct electronic surveillance on Carter Page after he had left the campaign, suspecting he might be an agent of the Russian government. The inspector general concluded that FBI agents “failed to meet the basic obligation” to ensure the applications for surveillance on Page were “scrupulously accurate.”Central to the FBI’s surveillance application for Page was a now-infamous dossier — a collection of shocking and occasionally lurid allegations against Trump, prepared by a former British intelligence officer hired by an opposition research firm working for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.Barr, the attorney general, said Horowitz’s criticisms did not go far enough, telling the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that the FBI’s handling of one of the most sensitive political investigations it has ever conducted was “a travesty,” and that Durham continues to pursue the matter.Addressing Barr’s comments about the probe being opened on the “thinnest” of suspicions, Horowitz said: “He’s free to have his opinion. We have our finding.”Horowitz declined to say whether drafts of his report ever contained an assertion about Durham’s investigation. People who had seen drafts of Horowitz’s report said a footnote in the document explained that the inspector general asked Durham whether he had evidence to support a right-wing theory that the investigation began as a setup by U.S. intelligence using a Maltese professor to entrap the Trump campaign, and that Durham had responded he had not.Such a footnote about Durham and the origins of the probe was not in Horowitz’s final public report, and the people familiar with earlier drafts said it apparently had been removed or redacted.“I’d rather not get into what our draft reports might or might not have said,” Horowitz said. He added, though, that Durham “told us what he disagreed with, and we considered his comments and again, what you see here is our final report that we stand by.” | 0 |
GOFFSTOWN – Chris Christie kicked off a two day swing to New Hampshire with a sober prescription for tackling escalating entitlement spending.The New Jersey governor and potential Republican presidential candidate proposed raising the retirement age for Social security to 69, means testing for Social Security, and gradually raising the eligibility age for Medicare.Christie outlined his proposals on entitlement reform at a speech Tuesday morning at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College.“In the short term, it is growing the deficit and slowly but surely taking over all of government. In the long term, it will steal our children’s future and bankrupt our nation. Meanwhile, our leaders in Washington are not telling people the truth. Washington is still not dealing with the problem,” Christie said.“Washington is afraid to have an honest conversation about Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid with the people of our country. I am not,” the governor added.Christie said that Social Security should be retirement insurance, and he proposed what he described as “modest” means testing.“Let’s ask ourselves an honest question: do we really believe that the wealthiest Americans need to take from younger, hardworking Americans to receive what, for most of them, is a modest monthly Social Security check? I propose a modest means test that only affects those with non-Social Security income of over $80,000 per year, and phases out Social Security payments entirely for those that have $200,000 a year of other income,” Christie said.He added that his proposal would only affect 2 percent of all Social Security recipients.When it comes to Medicare, Christie would increase the current sliding scare of means testing.“We should expand the sliding scale under my proposal. Seniors with an $85,000 a year income will pay 40% of premium costs and increasing it to 90% above $196,000 a year in retirement income, Christie said.Christie also proposed raising the retirement age for Social Security.“I’m proposing we raise the age to 69, gradually implementing this change starting in 2022 and increasing the retirement age by two months each year until it reaches 69. I also believe we need to raise the early retirement age – people who take their retirement early -- at a similar pace, raising it by two months per year until it reaches 64 from the current level of 62,” ChristieAnd he also called for raising the eligibility age for Medicare at what he described as “a manageable pace of one month per year, so that by 2040, you’d be eligible for Medicare at 67 years old, and by 2064 would be 69 years old. Raising the eligibility age, slowly so that people can plan for it, has another advantage. It encourages seniors to remain in the workforce.”Christie also trained some of his fire on President Barack Obama, saying the president “has left us a debtor nation. In his short time in office, he has almost doubled the national debt – increasing it by over $8 trillion.”“It won’t be easy to turn around the fiscal mess that Barack Obama has left us either. He has avoided the tough decisions. Imagine that the straightforward discussion I’ve just had with you today, President Obama has been afraid to have with you for the last eight years -- from the day he declared for president in February of 2007 to this very day,” Christie added.Christie ended his speech by touting that he’s not afraid to tackle the difficult issues, like entitlement reform.“Here’s what you’ll learn about me. I have been talking about the growth of entitlements as a big problem, at both the state and federal levels, for a number of years. Not because it is politically popular, but because it is true. And because it will affect everything we can do as a country to make this century the second American century. I will not pander. I will not flip flop. I’m not afraid to tell you the truth as I see it, whether you like it or not,” Christie concluded.Prior to his address, Christie met with students at Saint Anselm College. After a conference call with conservative reporters who were unable to watch the speech, Christie was headed to a retail stop at Caesario’s Pizza on Elm Street in Manchester.Later in the day he was scheduled to hold a meet and greet at the Stone Church Tavern in Newmarket, followed by a closed door Seacoast Roundtable hosted by Renee Plummer, one of the most influential GOP activists along the coast.Wednesday Christie meets and greets voters at Chez Vachon, a breakfast spot in Manchester, before holding a town hall in Londonderry. He returns to New Hampshire on Friday to speak at the NHGOP’s First-in-the-Nation Leadership Summit. The two-day confab in Nashua’s attracting just about every declared candidate and probable Republican White House contender. | 0 |
Jurisprudence Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg poses with fellow justices during their official group photo at the Supreme Court on Nov. 30 in Washington,
Jabin Botsford/the Washington Post via Getty Images The Supreme Court struck an extraordinary blow for criminal justice reform on Wednesday, placing real limitations on policing for profit across the country. Its unanimous decision for the first time prohibits all 50 states from imposing excessive fines, including the seizure of property, on people accused or convicted of a crime. Rarely does the court hand down a ruling of such constitutional magnitude—and seldom do all nine justices agree to restrict the power that police and prosecutors exert over individuals. The landmark decision represents a broad agreement on the Supreme Court that law enforcement’s legalized theft has gone too far. Wednesday’s ruling in Timbs v. Indiana, authored by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is sharp and concise. It revolves around a single question of extraordinary importance. The Eighth Amendment guarantees that no “excessive fines” may be “imposed,” an ancient right enshrined in the Magna Carta and enthusiastically adopted by the Framers. But the Bill of Rights originally applied only to the federal government, not the states. After the Civil War, the 14th Amendment was ratified to apply these rights to the states, which had engaged in grotesque civil rights violations to perpetuate slavery. The Supreme Court, however, slowly applied (or “incorporated”) these rights against the states one by one, not all at once. And before Timbs, it had never incorporated the Excessive Fines Clause—allowing states to exploit their residents for huge sums of cash and property. They did so through civil asset forfeiture, a process that we would call theft in any other context. Here’s how it works: Prosecutors accuse an individual of a crime, then seize assets that have some tenuous connection to the alleged offense. The individual need not be convicted or even charged with an actual crime, and her assets are seized through a civil proceeding, which lacks the due process safeguards of a criminal trial. Law enforcement can seize money or property, including one’s home, business, or vehicle. It gets to keep the profits, creating a perverse incentive that encourages police abuses. Because the standards are so loose, people with little to no involvement in criminal activity often get caught up in civil asset forfeiture. For instance, South Carolina police tried to seize an elderly woman’s home because drug deals occurred on the property—even though she had no connection to the crimes and tried to stop them. Get The Angle in Your Inbox Every weekday, Slate's copy editors round up the stories you should read. Tyson Timbs is not quite so sympathetic, but his story illustrates the injustice of limitless forfeiture. In 2015, Timbs was charged with selling heroin to undercover officers in Indiana. He pleaded guilty. A trial court sentenced him to a year of house arrest, five years’ probation, and an addiction-treatment program, which helped him overcome his opioid addiction. The court also ordered Timbs to pay $1,203 in fines and fees. So far, so fair. But then Indiana hired a private law firm to seize Timbs’ Land Rover, which he used to transport heroin. The firm filed a civil suit to obtain the car, valued at $42,000—more than four times the maximum fine for his drug conviction. (Under Indiana law, the state and its chosen firm would get to split the profits.) Timbs fought back, alleging that the forfeiture constituted an “excessive fine” under the Eighth Amendment, applied to the states through the 14th Amendment. The Indiana Supreme Court disagreed, holding that SCOTUS had never incorporated that particular clause against the states. At oral arguments in November, multiple justices seemed incredulous that Indiana even raised that argument. “Here we are in 2018, still litigating incorporation of the Bill of Rights,” Justice Neil Gorsuch scoffed to Indiana Solicitor General Thomas Fisher. “Really? Come on, General.” And on Wednesday, every justice agreed that the 14th Amendment applies the guarantee against excessive fines to the states. In her majority opinion, Ginsburg traced the right back to the Magna Carta through the English Bill of Rights and the Virginia Declaration of Rights, all of which heavily influenced the U.S. Constitution. By the time the 14th Amendment was ratified, 35 of the 37 states explicitly barred excessive fines. And during debate over ratification, congressmen noted that Southern states were using punitive fines to subjugate newly freed blacks. The framers of the 14th Amendment plainly intended to incorporate the Excessive Fines Clause to rein in these “harsh inflictions … almost reenacting slavery.” “In short,” Ginsburg wrote, surveying this evidence, “the historical and logical case for concluding that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporates the Excessive Fines Clause is overwhelming.” She also swatted down Indiana’s fallback argument that the clause does not apply to proceedings over an individual’s property, holding that these forfeitures still qualify as “fines” that trigger constitutional scrutiny. Gorsuch and Justice Clarence Thomas wrote separately to quibble with a doctrinal matter: They argued that the Privileges or Immunities Clause is the proper vehicle through which to incorporate the Bill of Rights—not the Due Process Clause, as is generally accepted. This cavil has no bearing on the outcome of the case. In one sense, Ginsburg’s opinion is sweeping—it finally opens the federal courthouse door to victims of civil asset forfeiture, like Timbs, who believe they’ve been wronged. But Wednesday’s decision leaves some questions unanswered. The court has already ruled that when the federal government seizes money or property, the fine must not be “grossly disproportional to the gravity of [the] offense.” Presumably, this same standard now applies to the states. But when is a forfeiture grossly disproportionate? Does Indiana’s seizure of Timbs’ Land Rover meet this standard? Ginsburg didn’t say, instead directing the Indiana Supreme Court to evaluate the question. Prepare for a flood of litigation urging federal courts to determine when civil asset forfeiture crosses this constitutional line. There is, regardless, a great deal to celebrate in Timbs v. Indiana. At long last, SCOTUS has put a federal check on states’ multimillion-dollar civil asset forfeiture schemes. People like Tyson Timbs will have a fighting chance of getting their stuff back when the states seize it for profit. The Supreme Court is unlikely to end policing for profit in one fell swoop. But on Wednesday, it sent a clear message to states like Indiana that the days of largely unregulated abusive forfeiture are over. | 0 |
Story highlightsTrump's comments mark an extraordinary departure from a fundamental principle of American democracyClinton on Trump's remarks: 'That is horrifying' (CNN)Donald Trump on Wednesday refused to say he would accept the result of the presidential election if he loses to Hillary Clinton, raising the possibility of an extraordinary departure from principles that have underpinned American democracy for more than two centuries."I will look at it at the time," Trump said when asked during the final presidential debate whether he would concede if he loses on November 8, following his claims that the election is "rigged" against him.He added: "I will keep you in suspense."The comments at the Las Vegas showdown marked a stunning moment that has never been seen in the weeks before a modern presidential election. The stance threatens to cast doubt on one of the fundamental principles of American politics -- the peaceful, undisputed transfer of power from one president to a successor who is recognized as legitimate after winning an election.The Republican nominee doubled down on his comments about the election Thursday during a rally in Delaware, Ohio, where he said he would accept the results "if I win."Trump's debate performance could doom his chance to win over any remaining undecided voters at this late stage in the campaign. His comments about the election results came during a debate in which he spoke of "hombres," language that could offend Latinos. And he referred to Clinton as a "nasty woman."His campaign manager sought to blunt the election comments, appearing on CNN's "New Day" Thursday."What Donald Trump has said, over time, if you take all of his statements together, he has said that he will respect the results of the election," said Kellyanne Conway, although she argued what he's saying is not without precedent."Everybody, including Al Gore in 2000, waits to see what those election results are," she later added. That's a flawed comparison, however, since Gore's fate was in the hands of an automatic recount due to the narrow margin of George W. Bush's lead in Florida. Gore did not question the integrity of the election before Election Day.The election remarks also expose a divide with Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, who told CNN's Wolf Blitzer before the debate, "We'll certainly accept the outcome of this election."Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who is leading Trump in most polls, said her competitor's remarks were "horrifying" and accused him of taking refuge in the idea that any event that turns out against him -- even an Emmy award that goes to a rival -- is "rigged.""That is not the way our democracy works," Clinton said. "We've been around for 240 years. We have had free and fair elections. We've accepted the outcomes when we may not have liked them. And that is what is expected of anyone standing on a debate stage during a general election."She continued: "He is denigrating -- he's talking down -- our democracy. And I for one, am appalled that somebody who is the nominee of one of our two major parties would take that kind of position."Trump's remark about the election result is certain to dominate the aftermath of the debate with only 19 days to go before the election, and it seemed likely to overshadow the GOP's nominee's strongest performance in any of the three presidential debates.A CNN/ORC instant poll found 52% of debate watchers viewed Clinton as the winner compared to 39% who felt the same about Trump.Trump didn't have much margin for error going into the debate. He's down eight points in the latest CNN Poll of Polls and is nearly out of time to launch what would have to be one of the most remarkable comebacks of modern times.A new edition of the CNN electoral map on Wednesday moved two key swing states, Florida and Nevada, to "lean Democrat." Two other states that have voted almost exclusively Republican for decades, Utah and Arizona, are now considered battlegrounds.Calm startThe showdown began in a more civil and calm way than the two previous debates, in which Trump and Clinton repeatedly flung sharp, bitter jabs at one another. He was far more disciplined for much of the debate, and did his best to avoid taking Clinton's bait, showing restraint as he and Clinton debated the Supreme Court, the Second Amendment, abortion and the economy.The billionaire reality star-turned-politicians did a better job than in the first two debates of prosecuting Clinton's weaknesses, lambasting her over her record as secretary of state and the controversy over her private email server, and painting her as the symptom of a tired political establishment who had achieved nothing in her 30 years in public life.But Trump seemed to lose his cool as the debate went on, harshly criticizing Clinton and occasionally getting testy with the debate moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News. The debate began to take a turn when Trump and Clinton clashed over the Republican nominee's relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.Clinton blasted Trump as a "puppet" of Putin and directly called on him to condemn what she said was a Russian effort to use cyberattacks to influence the election in her opponent's favor.Trump replied that Putin had no respect for Clinton or President Barack Obama."That's because he would rather have a puppet as president of the United States," Clinton said, implying that Putin wanted Trump to win the election."No puppet. You are the puppet," Trump said.Trump said he had never met Putin but allowed that the Russian leader had said nice things about him, and said it would be good if Washington and Moscow worked together to fight ISIS.But he added: "This is not my best friend."Clinton and Trump also bitterly sparred over the theme of who is qualified to be president. Wallace pressed Trump on why so many women had come forward to accuse him of sexual assault if the allegations were not true.Trump said the claims had been "largely debunked.""I think they want either fame or her campaign did it," Trump said, referring to the women that came forward after he said at the last debate that he had never been abusive to any women.Clinton noted that Trump had implied at several rallies that he could not have made inappropriate advances toward the women because they were not sufficiently attractive.Trump wrongly denied that he had ever made such a remark."Donald thinks belittling women makes him bigger. He goes after their dignity and their self worth," Clinton said.Treatment of womenClinton said that Trump's treatment of women was part of pattern of behavior that saw him insult a disabled reporter, go after the parents of a fallen Muslim soldier and question the impartiality of an American judge of Mexican descent.She said such tactics were in line with a divisive and very "dangerous vision of our country."The tone of the debate -- unusually substantial at the start -- never recovered once the atmosphere became charged. As the event wound down, Clinton said that under her economic plan, the payroll taxes of both herself and Trump would go up to ensure the solvency of Social Security -- unless her rival could figure out a way to avoid paying taxes."Such a nasty woman," Trump interjected.CNN's Jim Acosta, Jeff Zeleny and Dan Merica contributed to this report. | 0 |
In the wake of two mass shootings in the U.S. in a single week, the White House said Friday that President Biden is prepared to issue executive orders to enact gun reform, circumventing the need for a divided Congress to pass legislation.White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters at a briefing that she couldn’t offer an “exact time frame” on when those orders would move off Biden’s desk, but said they were “one of the levers that we can use ... to help address the prevalence of gun violence and address community safety around the country.”Biden, however, made clear during his Thursday afternoon press conference that infrastructure rather than gun reform would be his next legislative priority, which led to complaints from gun control activists and progressive Democrats.Psaki said Biden understands their frustration and suggested that their ire be directed toward those members of Congress who are voting to block gun control legislation.White House press secretary Jen Psaki. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)“We would say that the frustration should be vented at the members of the House and Senate who voted against the measure the president supports,” Psaki said Friday.The White House has yet to address whether Biden plans to send gun policy proposals of his own to Capitol Hill. He said earlier this week that he believes his administration can guide a narrow Democratic majority in the Senate to pass two gun reform bills kicked over from the House of Representatives, despite multiple failed attempts of previous administrations to get comprehensive laws on the books.The bills passed by Democrats in the House would require background checks to be performed for all gun purchases and transfers and would close the so-called Charleston loophole, which in some instances allows gun sales without a completed background check.Biden has urged the Senate to take “common sense steps,” encouraging Congress to pass a law banning assault-style rifles and high-capacity magazines across the country. He helped shepherd the country’s prior assault-weapons ban while serving as a senator from Delaware in the 1990s. That ban, signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994, lasted for a decade until President George W. Bush let it expire. Biden believes a Democratic Congress can reinstate the ban and implement new measures — but the reluctance of some moderate members of the party could make that difficult.Boulder, Colo., residents at a candlelight vigil honoring the 10 people who were killed on Monday. (Paula Bronstein./Getty Images)In 2013, a few months after 20 children were killed at their elementary school in Newtown, Conn., a bipartisan bill that required background checks on commercial gun transactions failed in the Senate. A more sweeping version of the provision also failed to make it off the floor in 2016, after a gunman killed 49 people at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Fla.Even now, after two back-to-back mass shootings in Atlanta and Boulder, Colo., Democrats may not have the numbers — or the Republican support — to pass the provisions. Despite co-sponsoring the 2013 background check legislation, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., has already voiced opposition to the two House bills, instead pressing for the passage of his own version.____Read more from Yahoo News:FAQ: What is going on at the southern border?Asian adoptees raised in the U.S. describe the challenges of forging a racial identityEvanston, Ill., becomes 1st U.S. city to approve reparations plan for Black residents | 0 |
Woodward and Sperling had an email exchange concerning the writer's opinion piece.
POLITICO’s “Behind the Curtain” column last night quoted Bob Woodward as saying that a senior White House official has told him in an email he would “regret” questioning White House statements on the origins of sequestration. The official in question is Gene Sperling, economic adviser to the president. The White House has since pushed back, saying the exchange was far more innocuous than Woodward claims. We have obtained, exclusively, the exchange. Here it is: From Gene Sperling to Bob Woodward on Feb. 22, 2013 Bob: I apologize for raising my voice in our conversation today. My bad. I do understand your problems with a couple of our statements in the fall — but feel on the other hand that you focus on a few specific trees that gives a very wrong perception of the forest. But perhaps we will just not see eye to eye here. But I do truly believe you should rethink your comment about saying saying that Potus asking for revenues is moving the goal post. I know you may not believe this, but as a friend, I think you will regret staking out that claim. The idea that the sequester was to force both sides to go back to try at a big or grand barain with a mix of entitlements and revenues (even if there were serious disagreements on composition) was part of the DNA of the thing from the start. It was an accepted part of the understanding — from the start. Really. It was assumed by the Rs on the Supercommittee that came right after: it was assumed in the November-December 2012 negotiations. There may have been big disagreements over rates and ratios — but that it was supposed to be replaced by entitlements and revenues of some form is not controversial. (Indeed, the discretionary savings amount from the Boehner-Obama negotiations were locked in in BCA: the sequester was just designed to force all back to table on entitlements and revenues.) I agree there are more than one side to our first disagreement, but again think this latter issue is diffferent. Not out to argue and argue on this latter point. Just my sincere advice. Your call obviously. My apologies again for raising my voice on the call with you. Feel bad about that and truly apologize. Gene From Woodward to Sperling on Feb. 23, 2013 Gene: You do not ever have to apologize to me. You get wound up because you are making your points and you believe them. This is all part of a serious discussion. I for one welcome a little heat; there should more given the importance. I also welcome your personal advice. I am listening. I know you lived all this. My partial advantage is that I talked extensively with all involved. I am traveling and will try to reach you after 3 pm today. Best, Bob (Also on POLITICO: Woodward at War) | 0 |
Supreme Court Allows Longer Deadlines for Absentee Ballots in Pennsylvania and North CarolinaRepublicans in both states opposed the extensions. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court on Tuesday, did not participate in either case, saying she had not had time to fully review the briefs.Credit...Michelle Gustafson for The New York TimesPublished Oct. 28, 2020Updated Dec. 11, 2020WASHINGTON — In a pair of decisions welcomed by Democrats, the Supreme Court on Wednesday let election officials in two key battleground states, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, accept absentee ballots for several days after Election Day.In the Pennsylvania case, the court refused a plea from Republicans in the state that it decide before Election Day whether election officials can continue receiving absentee ballots for three days after Nov. 3.In the North Carolina case, the court let stand lower court rulings that allowed the state’s board of elections to extend the deadline to nine days after Election Day, up from the three days called for by the state legislature.The court’s brief orders in the two cases were unsigned. The Pennsylvania order appeared to be unanimous, while the North Carolina one was issued over three noted dissents.Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court on Tuesday, did not take part in either case. A court spokeswoman said Justice Barrett had not participated “because of the need for a prompt resolution” and “because she has not had time to fully review the parties’ filings.”The Pennsylvania and North Carolina cases were the latest examples of the complications that Covid-19 has presented to officials preparing for next week’s election and facing a record-setting number of absentee and mail-in ballots cast by voters eager to avoid voting in person during a pandemic.Democrats have consistently pushed for more lenient rules when it comes to mail-in ballots and how and when they are counted. Republicans have resisted such changes, with many of them arguing that the relaxed rules could open the process to abuse and fraud.There were no noted dissents in the Pennsylvania case, though three justices said the court might return to it after Election Day. In the North Carolina case, the same three members of the court — Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch — said they would have granted requests from Republican lawmakers and the Trump campaign to block lower court rulings allowing the longer deadline.The two cases involved broadly similar issues. In Pennsylvania, the question was whether the state’s Supreme Court could override voting rules set by the state legislature. In North Carolina, the question was whether state election officials had the power to alter such voting rules.The Pennsylvania case left open the possibility of later action by the court.“I reluctantly conclude that there is simply not enough time at this late date to decide the question before the election,” Justice Alito wrote.“Although the court denies the motion to expedite” the petition seeking review, he wrote, the petition “remains before us, and if it is granted, the case can then be decided under a shortened schedule.”The court’s refusal to move more quickly came a little more than a week after it deadlocked, 4 to 4, on an emergency application in the case. The Pennsylvania Republican Party had asked the justices to temporarily block a ruling from the Pennsylvania Supreme Court that allowed election officials to count some mailed ballots received up to three days after Election Day.The state court said the extra time was needed because of the coronavirus pandemic and delays in mail service.State Republicans, apparently hoping that the arrival of Justice Barrett would alter the judicial calculus, returned to the Supreme Court on Friday asking it to hear an ordinary appeal from the state court’s ruling, which is not unusual, but to compress a process that usually takes months into a few days, which certainly is.In his statement, Justice Alito criticized his court’s treatment of the case, which he said had “needlessly created conditions that could lead to serious postelection problems.”“The Supreme Court of Pennsylvania has issued a decree that squarely alters an important statutory provision enacted by the Pennsylvania legislature pursuant to its authority under the Constitution of the United States to make rules governing the conduct of elections for federal office,” he wrote.That echoed a concurring opinion issued on Monday by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh in a voting case from Wisconsin. Justice Kavanaugh also said that state legislatures, rather than state courts, have the last word in setting state election procedures.Writing on Wednesday, Justice Alito said he regretted that the election would be “conducted under a cloud.”“It would be highly desirable to issue a ruling on the constitutionality of the State Supreme Court’s decision before the election,” he wrote. “That question has national importance, and there is a strong likelihood that the State Supreme Court decision violates the federal Constitution.”“The provisions of the federal Constitution conferring on state legislatures, not state courts, the authority to make rules governing federal elections would be meaningless,” he wrote, “if a state court could override the rules adopted by the legislature simply by claiming that a state constitutional provision gave the courts the authority to make whatever rules it thought appropriate for the conduct of a fair election.”Earlier on Wednesday, Pennsylvania officials told the court that they had instructed county election officials to segregate ballots arriving after 8 p.m. on Election Day through 5 p.m. three days later. That could potentially allow a later ruling from the court to determine whether they were ultimately counted.In its motion seeking expedited consideration of the case, lawyers for the Republican Party wrote that the court’s ordinary briefing schedules “would not allow the case to be considered and decided before the results of the general election must be finalized.”The motion noted that four justices had already indicated where they stood when the court deadlocked on Oct. 19. Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh said they would have granted a stay blocking the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s decision. On the other side were Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and the court’s three-member liberal wing: Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan.Neither side gave reasons, and the split suggested that Justice Barrett could play a decisive role if the court eventually heard the case.Responding to the motion seeking expedited treatment of the Republicans’ appeal, the Pennsylvania Democratic Party called the request “rash and unseemly.”“Even on the extraordinarily hurried schedule” proposed by the Republicans, the response said, “a ruling from this court could not realistically issue until the eve of the election.”“By then,” it added, “it will be too late for many Pennsylvania voters who have relied on the existing rules to adjust to any change in the rules that this court might impose.”The state court ordered a three-day extension for ballots clearly mailed on or before Election Day and for those with missing or illegible postmarks “unless a preponderance of the evidence demonstrates that it was mailed after Election Day.”The U.S. Supreme Court has not hesitated to block orders from federal judges that sought to alter state rules for conducting elections. Rulings from state courts present more difficult questions because the Supreme Court generally defers to them in cases concerning interpretations of state law, and the Constitution empowers state legislatures to set the times, places and manner of congressional elections.In an earlier brief, Republicans argued that “the Constitution reserves a special role for state legislatures in federal elections,” one that cannot be overridden by state courts. The brief relied heavily on the Supreme Court’s decision in the cases culminating in Bush v. Gore, the 2000 ruling that handed the presidency to George W. Bush.“By extending the deadline by judicial fiat and establishing a presumption of timeliness that will allow voters to cast or mail ballots after Election Day,” the brief said, “the Pennsylvania Supreme Court has impermissibly altered both the ‘time’ and ‘manner’ established by the General Assembly” for conducting elections.In response, Josh Shapiro, Pennsylvania’s attorney general, a Democrat, said a provision of the State Constitution protecting “free and equal elections” allowed the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to extend the deadline.The North Carolina case concerned a state law that allowed absentee ballots to be received up to three days after Election Day. But the state’s board of elections, drawing on its power to address natural disasters, had agreed to nine days as part of a settlement of a lawsuit in state court.ImageCredit...Gerry Broome/Associated PressAll five members of the board agreed to the settlement, including two Republicans who later resigned, saying they had been “gulled into providing their assent.”Republican lawmakers, the Republican National Committee and the Trump campaign challenged the settlement in federal court, saying the board had exceeded its power. By a 12-to-3 vote, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled against them. All three of President Trump’s appointees to the court voted with the majority.“All ballots must still be mailed on or before Election Day,” Judge James A. Wynn Jr. wrote. “The change is simply an extension from three to nine days after Election Day for a timely ballot to be received and counted. That is all.”In dissent, Judges J. Harvie Wilkinson and G. Steven Agee, joined by Judge Paul V. Niemeyer, said the majority’s ruling had endorsed a pernicious trend.“It takes no special genius to know what this insidious formula is producing,” they wrote. “Our country is now plagued by a proliferation of pre-election litigation that creates confusion and turmoil and that threatens to undermine public confidence in the federal courts, state agencies and the elections themselves.”In the Supreme Court, the Trump campaign urged the justices to intercede.“This case involves an extraordinary attempt by an unelected state board of elections to rewrite the unambiguous terms of a statute enacted in June by a bipartisan state legislature to set time, place, and manner requirements for absentee voting in response to the Covid-19 pandemic,” the brief said.The board responded that it had the statutory authority to act. A state law gave it emergency powers to be used when elections are disrupted by natural disasters.“In the past three years alone, the board has twice extended the absentee-ballot receipt deadline after hurricanes hit the state’s coast,” its brief said. “No one challenged those extensions.”Justice Thomas said he would have granted the stay sought by the Republicans, but he gave no reasons.Justice Gorsuch, joined by Justice Alito, criticized “the board’s constitutional overreach.”Its actions, Justice Gorsuch wrote, “do damage to faith in the written Constitution as law, to the power of the people to oversee their own government, and to the authority of legislatures.”“Such last-minute changes by largely unaccountable bodies, too,” he wrote, “invite confusion, risk altering election outcomes, and in the process threaten voter confidence in the results.” | 0 |
Story highlightsWhite House task force meeting was disappointing, the NRA saysMovies don't cause violence, the former head of movie industry group tells CNNMany groups are pushing for universal background checks, Vice President Joe Biden saysMany also support taking action on high-capacity magazines, he saysA federal task force looking for ways to curb gun violence will have a set of recommendations by Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden announced Thursday.Speaking during a week of meetings with disparate groups on various sides of the issue -- including some for and others against stricter gun controls -- Biden, who oversees the task force, said the recommendations to be given to President Barack Obama will serve as a beginning."This doesn't mean it is the end of the discussion, but the public wants us to act," he told reporters.Obama called for the task force after last month's massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, in which 27 people were killed -- 20 of them elementary school children.Biden said he's been surprised by how many groups have encouraged universal background checks for all gun owners, including those who purchase through private sales.Some states have backlogs of thousands of felons who are never registered on lists aimed at helping prevent dangerous weapons from getting into their hands, he noted.The National Rifle Association said it was "disappointed" with a White House task force meeting Thursday, saying it expected mental health, the "marketing of violence to our kids" and school safety to be top topics."We were disappointed with how little this meeting had to do with keeping our children safe and how much it had to do with an agenda to attack the Second Amendment," the group said in a statement. "While claiming that no policy proposals would be prejudged, this task force spent most of its time on proposed restrictions on lawful firearms owners -- honest, taxpaying, hardworking Americans."The group indicated it will now concentrate its efforts through members of Congress.NRA President David Keene told CNN's "The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer" that little common ground was found. An exception was a possible agreement to place "potentially violent" mentally ill people on a national database of those not allowed to buy firearms, Keene said.Biden called it a complicated issue, emphasizing that there is "no singular solution to how we deal with" mass shootings.Many stakeholders in the issue have met with members of the task force, Biden said, including medical and religious groups, educators and parents.Concerns about mental health may be "one of the most important things that we've been focusing on," he said.Biden also noted that many firearm deaths in the United States are suicides.Referring to one of the most contentious issues -- whether to reinstate an assault weapons ban -- Biden said he has never heard so much support for "the need to do something about high-capacity magazines."The task force also was meeting with members of the entertainment industry to discuss violence in movies and TV shows.Obama has spoken out about a culture that often "glorifies guns and violence."Dan Glickman, a former congressman and onetime head of the Motion Picture Association of America, rejects suggestions of links between films and real-life violence."I don't think the abundance of movies that are put out by the entertainment industry are that violent or cause violence," he told CNN on Thursday.Also, Glickman said, "Hollywood does a pretty good job of letting parents know through its ratings system what kind of movie is coming out -- whether there's violence or sexual conduct or other kinds of things."Glickman was a U.S. representative from Kansas for nine terms but lost a re-election bid in 1994. He blames that loss partly on supporting an assault weapons ban."I would vote for it again and thought it was the right thing to do," he said Thursday. He called it "a very politically sensitive issue," particularly among law-abiding gun owners who see it as a threat to their ownership of guns.Biden said Wednesday that while legislative action is needed to prevent mass shootings, Obama is also exploring executive orders.Keene, the NRA president, told CNN that "some things you can do by executive orders, some things you can't do by executive orders. Some things you do by executive orders need money to be implemented, and that's up to Congress."Wal-Mart, Dick's Sporting Goods and Bass Pro Shops were among 10 retailers who were to meet Thursday with Attorney General Eric Holder, who is part of the panel.Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retailer, triggered controversy earlier in the week when it said its officials were unavailable to attend the meeting because of scheduling. The company soon reversed its decision, saying it had "underestimated the expectation to attend."The NRA has argued that it is committed to keeping people protected, but that a focus on stricter gun control is misguided.NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre has called for all U.S. schools to have armed guards. Keene later told CNN the group supports schools choosing whether they want armed guards. | 0 |
President Trump signed an executive order on Monday intended to give Americans more information about the cost and quality of health-care services to help them comparison shop before they get care.The order is pegged to the gathering momentum of the 2020 election in which voters are eager for political leaders to lower what they pay for care. It is based on the idea, in fashion lately with both Republicans and Democrats, that greater transparency in hospital and other health-care prices will lead consumers to make better choices about where to get care and thus will save money.“No Americans should be blindsided by bills for medical services they never agreed to in advance,” the president said in a signing ceremony in the White House’s grand foyer. “We are fundamentally changing the nature of the health-care marketplace . . . This is a truly big action. People have no idea how big it is. Some people say bigger than health care itself.”
The most contentious part of the order requires health officials to propose a regulation within 60 days that would eventually require hospitals and doctors employed by hospitals to post their charges — including disclosing for the first time the discounted rates they negotiate with insurers.As administration officials worked on the executive order, hospitals and insurers complained about the prospect of being forced to share the results of these secret negotiations, predicting that would destroy competition among health-care institutions and insurers and have the perverse effect of driving up prices.The order itself does not immediately trigger changes in the health-care system. But it sets in motion several new rules HHS and other federal agencies will write and gives Trump a set of pro-consumer talking points in the first week after he formally announced his reelection campaign.In a media briefing before Trump signed the order, senior administration officials said they had not decided how much detail would be required about the negotiated rates and that such fine print would be left to the Department of Health and Human Services, which is instructed to write new rules to carry out this and other aspects of the order.The executive order is the third relating to health care during Trump’s time in the White House. The first, issued hours after he took office, instructed agencies to look for ways to lessen regulations the Obama administration had written under the Affordable Care Act. The second, in October 2017, directed officials to foster inexpensive types of insurance allowed to skirt the ACA’s required benefits and consumer protections.Anticipating protests from the hospital and insurance industries about disclosing negotiated rates, a senior administration official, talking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said the executive order “leaves room for us to . . . work with industry” to decide the level of detail that is required to be made public.The official also said such negotiated rates already are routinely included in explanation-of-benefit notices insurers send customers following a hospitalization. “We are saying you have the right to have an estimate of the information before you get the service . . . rather than after the fact when it does you no darn good.”Tom Nickels, the American Hospital Association’s executive vice president for government relations and public policy, said the order’s language “is pretty vague” about publicizing negotiated rates. “Prices in the aggregate, prices for individual patients, prices for individual services, prices for geographic areas?Charles N. “Chip” Kahn III, president of the Federation for American Hospitals, said the health-care industry “should be doing everything we can” to provide timely, useful information to help consumers make sound health-care decisions. “On the other hand, if it swerves and calls for the publication of health-care pricing data information that may lead to more spending, that’s a problem,” he said. “It is still an open question what the government will require here.”Matt Eyles, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, the industry’s main trade group, said it supports the notion that patients should have accurate, real-time information about costs so they can make informed decisions about their care. “But publicly disclosing competitively negotiated, proprietary rates will reduce competition and push prices higher — not lower — for consumers, patients, and taxpayers,” he said.Eyles cited 2015 comments by the Federal Trade Commission that publicizing privately negotiated rates would disrupt health-care markets by letting competing hospitals know what their rivals were charging, which reduces their incentive to offer insurers lower rates.Frederick Isasi, executive director of Families USA, a liberal consumer-healthy lobby, said that transparency about health care prices “is incredibly important . . . What we’re concerned about is, the administration can make an announcement about an executive order. What we want to see is, is it put into practice and does it withstand legal changes?”HHS Secretary Alex Azar told reporters during the media briefing that another part of the order calls for the government to consider proposals to give patients more information in advance about the out-of-pocket costs they will face. Another directs the administration to draft a plan to consolidate the health-care quality data that exists for different health programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid.One facet of the order says agencies should significantly expand the availability of government data for researchers studying ways to improve health care.The order also instructs officials to encourage people to use health-savings accounts — an arrangement long touted by conservatives that enables people, or their employers, to put money into tax-preferred accounts for medical expenses, often used in tandem with insurance policies that have high deductibles. In addition, the order directs HHS to collaborate with other departments to curb a hospital billing problem that also has gained attention in Congress: patients saddled with unexpectedly large medical costs because they did not realize some doctors who treated them were out of their insurance network. | 0 |
A man wearing a mask walks past a closed store on Wednesday. | Tony Dejak/AP Photo The number of Americans losing jobs to the coronavirus pandemic continued last week to climb steeply, the Labor Department reported Thursday, with 3.2 million new unemployment claims filed.
The latest figure, which covers the week ending May 2, puts job losses over the past seven weeks at nearly 33.5 million, prompting many economists to suggest that unemployment now stands higher than in most Americans' lifetimes.
"The outlook for the labor market remains frightening," Indeed Hiring Lab's director of economic research Nick Bunker said in reaction to the claims figure. "Not only does the pace of layoffs remain at unprecedented levels, but hiring intentions remain depressed." The Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday will release its more precise estimate of the April unemployment rate as part of its monthly jobs report.
The private payroll company ADP reported Wednesday that its own survey indicated 20.2 million private-sector jobs were lost last month, largely in the service-providing industries. But that number could well be too low, given that the report relies on data that runs only through April 12.
According to Indeed's Bunker, the number of people who have newly applied for benefits over the past seven weeks suggests one in five jobs have been lost due to the pandemic.
California saw the greatest number of new claims last week, receiving an estimated 318,064 applications. Texas followed with 247,179 new claims.
Self-employed workers who were made temporarily eligible last month for jobless benefits under the CARES Act are starting to trickle into DOL’s weekly claims count. Thirty-one states have updated their systems to begin cutting unemployment checks to those workers, according to DOL. But 21 of those states implemented the new program only in the last two weeks.
States have struggled to process the flood of new claims that began in mid-March, when non-essential workers were first ordered to stay home. Nine states have asked DOL for $36 billion in federal advances to cover the skyrocketing costs of the benefit payouts amid the pandemic, with Illinois topping the list with an $11 billion request.
California took out its first $348 million unemployment insurance loan last week, just two years after repaying the $65 billion it borrowed from the federal government during and after the Great Recession of 2007-9.
More than two dozen states have started reopening their economies and reducing stay-at-home restrictions, as lawmakers in Washington debate whether to move forward with another round of coronavirus relief.
Ian Shepherdson, chief economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, wrote in reaction to the report that "if the current rate of decline continues," the number of weekly claims would fall below 1 million, "in the second or—more likely—third week of June."
But despite the continued weekly deluge of unemployment claims, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Richard Clarida this week predicted that the economy will get its bearings in the second half of the year.
“We’re living through the most severe contraction in activity and surge in unemployment that we’ve seen in our lifetimes,” he said Tuesday on CNBC.
Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans agreed, telling reporters on Tuesday that “the pickup in activity will likely be slow at first, because of continued social distancing and other safety precautions.” | 0 |
* Snowden writes letter of thanks to Ecuador* Says free to make new disclosures* U.S. Justice Dept spokeswoman says Snowden free to return (Adds Guardian report on Ecuador)By Andrew Osborn and Alexei AnishchukLONDON/MOSCOW, July 1 (Reuters) - Former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden broke his silence on Monday for the first time since fleeing to Moscow over a week ago, blasting the Obama administration and saying he remained free to make new disclosures about U.S. spying activity.Snowden, who faces espionage charges in the United States and is believed to be staying in a transit area at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport, surfaced with a letter to the Ecuadorean government and in a statement released through anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, which has taken up his cause.WikiLeaks also released another statement saying Snowden was asking for asylum in several countries, including Russia, China, Brazil, India and Ireland. Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa was quoted in Britain's Guardian newspaper as saying his country could not consider an asylum request unless Snowden was on Ecuadorean territory.In his WikiLeaks statement, Snowden accused the Obama administration of deception in a campaign to prevent him from finding political asylum and of "leaving me a stateless person" by revoking his U.S. passport.Snowden, 30, had not been heard from in the eight days since he flew to Moscow from Hong Kong, where he had first taken refuge after fleeing Hawaii.Snowden has sought asylum in Ecuador and in an undated letter sent to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa seen by Reuters, said the United States was illegally persecuting him for revealing its electronic surveillance programme, Prism, but made it clear he did not intend to be muzzled. 'UNEQUAL WORLD'"I remain free and able to publish information that serves the public interest," Snowden, who had been a contract employee for the U.S. National Security Agency, said in the letter."No matter how many more days my life contains, I remain dedicated to the fight for justice in this unequal world. If any of those days ahead realise a contribution to the common good, the world will have the principles of Ecuador to thank."But in an interview published on the Guardians website on Monday, Correa said giving Snowden a temporary travel pass to fly to Moscow was "a mistake on our part" and that Snowden was now Russia's problem."Are we responsible for getting him to Ecuador? It's not logical," he said.Asked if he would like to meet Snowden, Correa said: "Not particularly. He's a very complicated person. Strictly speaking, Mr. Snowden spied for some time."Snowden said the U.S. government was persecuting him."While the public has cried out support of my shining a light on this secret system of injustice, the Government of the United States of America responded with an extrajudicial man-hunt costing me my family, my freedom to travel, and my right to live peacefully without fear of illegal aggression," Snowden wrote.In his WikiLeaks statement, Snowden lashed out at President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden for pressing Ecuador to turn him away."This kind of deception from a world leader is not justice, and neither is the extralegal penalty of exile," he said."Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right," Snowden said. "A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum ... Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me."U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Nanda Chitre rejected Snowden's allegation that he was marooned, "since he is still a United States citizen and his country is willing to take him back.""As the State Department has already said, the U.S. government is prepared to issue individuals wanted on felony charges a one entry travel document to return home," she said. LONG LIST OF COUNTRIESWikiLeaks disclosed on Monday that Snowden had prepared requests for asylum in countries including Austria, Bolivia, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela. The requests were given to a Russian official at the airport and were to be delivered to the appropriate embassies in Moscow.Snowden already has sought asylum in Ecuador and Iceland.Russian Foreign Ministry and Kremlin officials declined immediate comment.Russian President Vladimir Putin said Snowden could stay in Russia on one condition."He must stop his work aimed at harming our American partners, as strange as that sounds coming from my lips," he told reporters after a gas exporters' conference in Moscow.Putin said he suspected that Snowden would continue leaking information because "he feels himself to be a human rights activist.""So he must choose a country of destination and go there," he said, speaking before the asylum request to Russia was reported. "Unfortunately, I don't know when this will happen."Putin said Russia was not working with Snowden and had no intention of handing Snowden over to the United States."Russia has never given up anyone to anybody and does not plan to. And nobody ever gave anyone up to us," Putin said.Shortly after Snowden fled the United States for Hong Kong in May, and long before he arrived in Russia, Putin suggested the surveillance methods he revealed were justified in fighting terrorism, if carried out lawfully.Although Russia has sometimes exchanged captured spies with the United States, Putin suggested on Monday that this was not on the cards for Snowden. "As for Mr. Snowden, he is not our agent and he is not working with us," Putin said.Obama, at a news conference in Tanzania, repeated that the United States was working through law enforcement channels to prod Russia to extradite Snowden.Obama said there had been "high-level discussions with the Russians about trying to find a solution to the problem." (Additional reporting by Lidia Kelly, Alissa de Carbonnel in Moscow, Mark Hosenball, Alina Selyukh and David Ingram in Washington and Jeff Mason in Dar Es Salaam; Writing by Steve Gutterman and Andrew Osborn; Editing by Ralph Boulton, Tim Dobbyn and Bill Trott)Obama's Handshakes Around The World | 0 |
If you needed proof that Hillary Clinton will continue to run a cautious, stage-managed campaign, look no further than Tim Kaine.Updated Apr. 13, 2017 3:26PM ET / Published Jul. 22, 2016 8:15PM ET © Carlos Barria / ReutersIt’s officially Tim Kaine.Hillary Clinton announced today that Sen. Tim Kaine will be her presidential running-mate, pushing the mild-mannered Virginian into a glaring national spotlight. "I'm thrilled to tell you this first: I've chosen Sen. Tim Kaine as my running mate. Welcome him to our team," the former Secretary of State said in a text to her supporters.Kaine, a former governor and current senator, was the safe choice for the cautious Democratic nominee—but that doesn't mean he won't have an impact.Kaine is no Bernie Sanders; the senator’s favorite conversation topic is his conviction that Congress needs to pass an authorization for the use of military force giving Obama the authority to go to war with ISIS. It’s certainly a topic of massive constitutional importance. But still ... not the sexiest issue. And picking Kaine won’t enchant progressives.“Tim Kaine would be a perfect addition to the ticket, in that he would add no progressive backbone that might inconvenience Team Hillary when it's time to govern,” People for Bernie co-founder Charles Lenchner told Politico Magazine. And pro-choice groups stay mum about him, as his view on abortion rights is more moderate than Clinton’s. Kaine himself assured Meet the Press that he is “boring.” He’s also a devout Catholic who was a missionary in Honduras for 9 months and speaks fluent Spanish. That said, the senator brings an unusual—and heart-wrenching—resume to the ticket. He’s one of a small (though growing) number of national politicians to handle a mass shooting. He was governor of Virginia when the Virginia Tech shooting left 32 victims dead, and drew bipartisan praise for the role he played helping the community recover and heal. “By any standard, Tim Kaine provided the exact kind of leadership that VA needed during a tremendous crisis and tragedy,” said Tucker Martin, who was press secretary at the time for Virginia’s Republican attorney general, Bob McDonnell. “I think you’d be hard-pressed to find anyone who would say he didn’t rise to the moment.” Kaine’s remarks to the grieving campus community left many deeply moved. “You can go beyond grief to isolation and feeling despair,” he said at the time, addressing victims’ families. “Those haunting words that were uttered on a hill on Calvary: ‘My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?’ Despair is a natural emotion at a time like this. They’re all natural, they’re all appropriate. But let me ask one thing of you, this community, as you wrestle with your sadness, as you wrestle with your own feelings of anger, of confusion, as you wrestle with the despair—even you family members who have lost people close: You do not let hold of that spirit of community that makes Virginia Tech such a special place.”All told, the senator is an extremely low-risk pick for Clinton. So while her politics may not be conservative, her politicking certainly is. | 0 |
The Mexican government has stopped a caravan of Central American migrants trying to reach the Mexico-US border as their presence in the country brought blistering attacks from the US president, Donald Trump.In a statement issued on Monday night, the interior ministry and foreign relations ministry said the migrants had improperly entered the country and would be subject to administrative procedures.“Under no circumstances does the government of Mexico promote irregular migration,” the statement said.Approximately 400 caravan participants have already been removed from the country, according to the government.Adolfo Flores, a BuzzFeed journalist covering the caravan, reported some of the migrants, such pregnant women and those with disabilities or chronic conditions, might be issued humanitarian visas. Everyone would have 10 days to leave the country or they could request a 30-day stay, during which time they could request permission to remain.Organisers expected some of the participants to continue travelling north, though some would likely apply for asylum in Mexico.Trump returned to the offensive on immigration on Monday, when he repeated a claim that “caravans” of migrants from Central America are threatening to enter the US via Mexico. He also demanded: “Act now Congress, our country is being stolen!”“Mexico has the absolute power not to let these large ‘Caravans’ of people enter their country,” the president tweeted. “They must stop them at their Northern Border, which they can do because their border laws work, not allow them to pass through into our country, which has no effective border laws.“Congress must immediately pass Border Legislation, use Nuclear Option if necessary, to stop the massive inflow of Drugs and People. Border Patrol Agents (and ICE) are GREAT, but the weak Dem laws don’t allow them to do their job. Act now Congress, our country is being stolen!”Trump’s use of the term “caravans” – also made in a sequence of tweets on Easter Sunday – had been reported on by Fox News, Trump’s preferred cable network. The “nuclear option” he referred to would be a reform of Senate rules to allow major legislation to pass with 51 votes rather than the current 60. The Republican majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has shown no sign of acceding to Trump’s repeated demand.Mexico’s interior minister, Alfonso Navarete Prida, told reporters on Monday: “It is absolutely incorrect to say that there is no effort in Mexico to regulate, support and mange migratory processes.”Flores reported on Friday: “For five days now, hundreds of Central Americans – children, women and men, most of them from Honduras – have boldly crossed immigration checkpoints, military bases, and police in a desperate, sometimes chaotic march toward the United States. Despite their being in Mexico without authorization, no one has made any effort to stop them.”TimelineDonald Trump and Dreamers: a timeline of mixed messagesShow16 August 2015Upon announcing his presidential bid Donald Trump makes hardline immigration reform central to his campaign and pledges to end Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca).“I will immediately terminate President Obama’s illegal executive order on immigration,” he says.7 December 2016Weeks after winning the White House, President-elect Trump appears to soften his stance on Dreamers. Despite offering no specific policy he promises to “work something out”.“On a humanitarian basis it’s a very tough situation.” he tells Time magazine.16 February 2017Trump acknowledges the fraught road to a solution, describing Daca as a “very difficult thing for me as I love these kids”.“I have to deal with a lot of politicians,” Trump says. “And I have to convince them that what I’m saying is right.”5 February 2017Trump abruptly announces he will end Daca, phasing out applications for renewal by March 2018. The president insists the decision provides a “window of opportunity for Congress to finally act”.14 September 2017Following talks with Democrats, Trump hints a deal may be close, but suggests it wouldn’t include a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers.“We’re not looking at citizenship. We’re not looking at amnesty,” Trump tells reporters.9 January 2018Trump promises to “take the heat” for a bipartisan Daca bill being brokered by senators. But within days he revokes his support, calling the bipartisan plan “a big step backwards”. The US government shuts down after negotiations over the budget and a Dreamers solution collapse. On the same day a district judge rules the administration must keep the program open to new applications, a ruling that is later supported by other federal court decisions.24 January 2018With the government reopened with a temporary bill, Trump tells reporters he is now open to a pathway to citizenship for Dreamers “over a period of 10-12 years” if the individual “does a great job, they work hard”.1 April 2018Trump appears to end the possibility of a bipartisan deal over Daca with a series of furious tweets on Easter Sunday. He blames Democrats and declares: "NO MORE DACA DEAL!"Oliver LaughlandOrganisers said some 1,300 people were participating in the caravan. Mexican immigration officials routinely detain and deport hundreds of thousands of Central Americans, who in recent years have streamed north to escape horrific violence in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador. Mexico deported 16,278 individuals in the first two months of 2018 – 97% of them were Central Americans.The migrants’ paths through Mexico are perilous. Criminal gangs, often acting in cahoots with crooked public officials, prey upon migrants, often extorting them or kidnapping them for ransom. Shelters run the length of the country, offering migrants a place to eat, rest and wash and tend to their wounds as they head north. The operators of these shelters expressed wariness with the caravan currently winding its way through southern Mexico, saying such attempts at moving migrants through Mexico often turn into targets for criminal groups. Jorge Andrade, a spokesman for the shelters, says “polleros” – human smugglers – and other organised crime members have infiltrated previous caravans. People pretending to be migrants, meanwhile, joined in and started extorting actual migrants.“It’s a real logistical challenge, in addition to security questions,” Andrade said. During a 2014 caravan that Andrade accompanied, “we realised that we had been infiltrated by people from organised crime, whom we could identify.”Many of the participants in caravans inevitably are offered humanitarian visas, which allow them to temporarily remain in Mexico, or they file asylum applications.Alex Mensing, project coordinator for Pueblos Sin Fronteras, which was accompanying the caravan, says the shelters in Mexico “do important work and caravan members have benefited from their services”. He added that migrants participating in the caravan would receive legal advice upon reaching the city of Puebla and some would likely seek asylum in Mexico.“The people in the caravan are much, much less vulnerable to human rights abuses,” Mensing said.On Monday, Trump widened his attack, tweeting: “DACA is dead because the Democrats didn’t care or act, and now everyone wants to get onto the DACA bandwagon … No longer works. Must build Wall and secure our borders with proper Border legislation. Democrats want No Borders, hence drugs and crime!” Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or Daca, was an Obama-era programme that shielded undocumented migrants brought to the US as children, known as Dreamers, from the threat of deportation.“The [Trump] attack on Daca was designed to pit Central Americans against Mexicans and to put immigrants in the United States against immigrants who are trying to exercise their right to seek asylum in the the United States,” Mensing said.Trump announced the cancellation of Daca last year. No replacement has been instituted but court orders have maintained protections for recipients.Trump claimed on Sunday that “a lot of people are coming in because they want to take advantage of Daca, and we’re going to have to really see”.In fact, to be eligible for Daca, applicants must have lived in the US continually since 15 June 2007 and come to the country before their 16th birthday. Applicants must also either be in school, or have graduated high school, or have been honourably discharged from the US military or coast guard.Trump’s decision to quash any remaining hopes of a Daca deal drew criticism on Sunday. John Kasich, the Republican governor of Ohio who is seen as a possible primary challenger to Trump in 2020, tweeted: “A true leader preserves & offers hope, doesn’t take hope from innocent children who call America home. Remember, today is Easter Sunday.”Trump rejected one deal with Democrats that would have funded a border wall, which he promised throughout his campaign for the White House would be paid for by Mexico. He has recently suggested the military could pay for the wall, a prospect experts said was extremely unlikely.Later on Monday, Trump returned to the North American Free Trade Agreement, a favourite target which in his Sunday tweets he had threatened to “stop”. “Mexico is making a fortune on NAFTA,” he wrote, adding: “With all of the money they make from the US, hopefully they will stop people from coming through their country and into ours, at least until Congress changes our immigration laws!”Polls in Mexico show people south of the border support Nafta, but don’t see themselves as big winners from the trade deal, which also includes Canada.Regarding possible motives for Trump’s latest outburst, which also took in Amazon, NBC and CNN, news outlets reported White House sources as saying Trump has been told his base thinks he has softened on immigration. The president has also been beset by damaging stories, from developments in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian election interference and alleged collusion between Trump aides and Moscow, to adult film actor Stormy Daniels’ claim that she had an affair with the billionaire in 2006.Controversies over ethics and spending are affecting members of the Trump administration, including the housing and urban development secretary, Ben Carson, and the Environmental Protection Agency administrator, Scott Pruitt.On Sunday the former Veterans Affairs secretary David Shulkin told network television he was fired last week, rather than resigning as the White House claimed. Shulkin, who opposed the privatisation of VA operations, blamed political appointees for his downfall. | 0 |
news analysisBrexit Is Finally Done, but It Already Seems Out of DateThe idea of an agile “Global Britain” was an effective sales pitch. But that was before President Trump and other populists began erecting barriers to trade.Credit...Adam Ferguson for The New York TimesPublished Dec. 24, 2020Updated Feb. 28, 2021LONDON — It took 11 grueling months for negotiators from Britain and the European Union to hammer out the terms of a post-Brexit trade deal. But in many respects, the deal is already four and a half years out of date.The world has changed radically since June 2016, when a narrow majority of people in Britain voted to leave the European Union, tempted by an argument that the country would prosper by throwing off the bureaucratic shackles of Brussels.In those days, the vision of an agile, independent Britain — free to develop profitable, next-generation industries like artificial intelligence and cut its own trade deals with the United States, China and others — was an alluring sales pitch. The buccaneers of Brexit promised to create a “Global Britain.”That was before the anti-immigrant and anti-globalist-fueled rise of President Trump and other populist leaders who erected barriers to trade and immigration and countries turned inward. It was before the coronavirus pandemic exposed the vulnerabilities of far-flung supply chains, fueling calls to bring strategic industries back home and throwing globalism into retreat.In the anxious dawn of 2021, buccaneers are out of fashion. The world is now dominated by three gargantuan economic blocs — the United States, China and the European Union. Britain has finalized its divorce from one of them, leaving it isolated at a time when the path forward seems more perilous than it once did.ImageCredit...Daniel Leal-Olivas/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images“The whole ‘Global Britain’ model doesn’t reflect the more protectionist, nationalistic world we’re living in,” said Thomas Wright, the director of the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. “Becoming a global free trader in 2016 is a bit like turning into a communist in 1989. It’s bad timing.”As Prime Minister Boris Johnson leads Britain into a post-Brexit future, he also risks being out of step politically.The Brexit agreement with the European Union comes at the very moment that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. is replacing Mr. Trump’s “America First” credo with a message of mending alliances and collaborating to tackle issues like global health and climate change.While the deal averts tariffs and quotas on goods crossing the English Channel, it is at heart about disentangling neighbors who had become deeply integrated over four decades. That estrangement, analysts say, is bound to weaken ties between the two sides in other areas, like security and diplomacy.“Biden wants to see alliances and multilateralism and cooperation, and Brexit runs completely against that,” said Mujtaba Rahman, an analyst at the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultancy. “Brexit is graduating into a more difficult political context where it is running against the grain.”Mr. Trump cheered Britain’s drive to sever itself from the European Union. As a reward, he promised to negotiate a trade agreement with Mr. Johnson, whom he cultivated personally. But Mr. Biden opposed Brexit and has ruled out negotiating new trade agreements until the United States improves its own competitive position. That nullifies one of the prime selling points of Brexit.ImageCredit...Andrew Testa for The New York TimesMr. Johnson has pivoted by highlighting other ways that Britain can work with the United States. It is increasing military spending to reinforce NATO and playing host at a United Nations climate summit next year, which will give Mr. Biden a platform to re-engage the United States in the climate challenge.Britain has also promoted itself as a champion of democratic values in places like Hong Kong, standing alongside the United States. But in a less hospitable world, it may not find many allies for that kind of work.“Who are the obvious partners for them?” Mr. Wright said. “Four years ago, they could have said Brazil, but Brazil is now run by Bolsonaro,” he added, referring to the populist president, Jair Bolsonaro.There are also limits to how muscular a partner Britain can be in the confrontation with autocratic states like China and Russia. Its changing relationship with China illustrates its diminished stature.Britain once hoped its free-agent status would allow it to develop a thriving commercial relationship with Beijing, unencumbered by the baggage of the European Union or the United States. But under pressure from Mr. Trump on the role of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei in 5G networks, Britain has largely abandoned its cultivation of China, falling in line with the United States’ more antagonistic position.ImageCredit...Suzie Howell for The New York TimesThe European Union, by contrast, has continued to negotiate a landmark investment treaty with China, a goal of the Germans, who want greater control over the Chinese operations of their companies. Last-minute objections raised by aides to Mr. Biden are giving the Europeans second thoughts, but Germany’s drive to finish the deal before the end of the year attests to its more confident position.In 2016, Brexit was embraced by three distinct factions in British politics, said Matthias Matthijs, a professor of international political economy at Johns Hopkins University: right-wing anti-immigration figures like Nigel Farage; orthodox free traders in the Conservative Party; and some on the left, who hoped the move would free up money to subsidize factory jobs in the country’s industrial north and, in any event, regarded the European Union as a bankers’ club that Britain was well out of.“It’s not clear that signing this E.U. trade deal will give them more freedom to do that,” Mr. Matthijs said of the subsidies, noting that Britain had agreed to abide by constraints on how much state aid it can dole out to industry.The paradox, he said, is that Britain is casting off from the European Union at a time when its two largest economies, Germany and France, are embracing some of the tenets of industrial policy that inspired Brexit.ImageCredit...Andrew Testa for The New York TimesThe pandemic has forced Brussels to reconsider policies it once shunned — initially in the form of a $913 billion coronavirus rescue package — that bring it closer to the ideas pushed by Brexiteers, like Mr. Johnson’s former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings. He was an architect of a plan to use public money to “level up” Britain’s economically disadvantaged north with its more prosperous south.Liberating itself from the constraints of Brussels had been one of the biggest attractions of Brexit. Instead, Britain faces a much larger competitor that seems bent, like Britain itself, on transforming its economies with digital and “green” technology — and more open to using state aid to do so.Another irony of Brexit is that Europe, alienated by the unilateral policies of Mr. Trump, has begun echoing some of the language used by Brexiteers in 2016. President Emmanuel Macron of France and others have spoken of the need for “European sovereignty” in the face of a less reliable United States. Mr. Johnson made reclaiming British sovereignty the leitmotif of his negotiations with Brussels.Britain still has indisputable advantages as it charts a new course. Despite being devastated by the pandemic, its economy is flexible and resilient, at least relative to those on the European continent. It was the first Western country to approve a virus vaccine, while the European Union has been bogged down by the need for its members to move together.ImageCredit...Andrew Testa for The New York TimesMr. Matthijs predicted that Britain’s economy would snap back faster after the pandemic than those of Germany or France, which he said the Brexiteers would attribute to the freedom gained by shaking loose of Brussels.Britain’s independence also affords it the chance to be experimental in its relations with other countries. Mr. Wright, for example, said the Biden administration might be interested in negotiating a different kind of economic understanding with Britain than an old-fashioned free trade agreement.“They’re well positioned to be the guinea pig for this,” he said.Britain, after all, just negotiated a deal unique in the annals of trade diplomacy — one that separates, rather than brings together, partners. Its ability to get that done, analysts said, is a hopeful sign for its ability to reshape itself yet again.Nevertheless, “the world of June 2016 is not the world of today,” Mr. Wright said. “They know that as well, deep down.” | 0 |
“He has lived an otherwise blameless life,” said Judge T. S. Ellis as he sentenced Paul Manafort to just 47 months in prison on Thursday.In an otherwise blameless life, Paul Manafort lobbied on behalf of the tobacco industry and wangled millions in tax breaks for corporations.In an otherwise blameless life, he helped Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos bolster his image in Washington after he assassinated his primary political opponent.In an otherwise blameless life, he worked to keep arms flowing to the Angolan generalissimo Jonas Savimbi, a monstrous leader bankrolled by the apartheid government in South Africa. While Manafort helped portray his client as an anti-communist “freedom fighter,” Savimbi’s army planted millions of land mines in peasant fields, resulting in 15,000 amputees.In an otherwise blameless life, Manafort was kicked out of the lobbying firm he co-founded, accused of inflating his expenses and cutting his partners out of deals.Read: Paul Manafort, American hustlerIn an otherwise blameless life, he spent a decade as the chief political adviser to a clique of former gangsters in Ukraine. This clique hoped to capture control of the state so that it could enrich itself with government contracts and privatization agreements. This was a group closely allied with the Kremlin, and Manafort masterminded its rise to power—thereby enabling Ukraine’s slide into Vladimir Putin’s orbit.In an otherwise blameless life, Manafort came to adopt the lifestyle and corrupt practices of his Ukrainian clients as his own.In an otherwise blameless life, he produced a public-relations campaign to convince Washington that Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was acting within his democratic rights and duties when he imprisoned his most compelling rival for power.In an otherwise blameless life, he stood mute as Yanukovych’s police killed 130 protesters in the Maidan.In an otherwise blameless life, he found himself nearly $20 million in debt to a Russian oligarch. Instead of honestly accounting for the money, he simply stopped responding to the oligarch’s messages.In an otherwise blameless life, he tried to use his perch atop the Trump campaign to help salvage his sorry financial situation. He installed one of his protégés as the head of the pro-Trump super PAC Rebuilding America. His friend allegedly funneled $125,000 from the super PAC to pay off one of Manafort’s nagging debts.In an otherwise blameless life, Manafort was found guilty of tax evasion on an industrial scale. Rather than paying his fair share to help fund national defense and public health, he kept his cash in Cyprus and wired it home to buy more than $1 million in bespoke clothing.In an otherwise blameless life, he disguised his income as loans so that he could bamboozle banks into lending him money.In an otherwise blameless life, he attempted to phone a potential witness in his trial so that they could align their stories.In an otherwise blameless life, he systematically lied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s prosecutors, after he promised them his full cooperation.Read: Robert Mueller is not invincibleIn an otherwise blameless life, he acted with impunity, as if the laws never applied to him. When presented with a chance to show remorse to the court, he couldn’t find that sentiment within his being. And with Ellis’s featherweight punishment, which deviated sharply downward from the sentencing guidelines, Manafort managed to bring his life’s project to a strange completion. He had devoted his career to normalizing corruption in Washington. By the time he was caught, his extraordinary avarice had become so commonplace that not even a federal judge could blame him for it. | 0 |
Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan has withdrawn from consideration to hold the post in a permanent capacity, President Donald Trump announced Tuesday in tweets. The president said Shanahan had opted to “devote more time to his family.” Shanahan confirmed the news in a statement Tuesday. Trump said he would name Army Secretary Mark Esper as the new acting defense secretary.Acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan, who has done a wonderful job, has decided not to go forward with his confirmation process so that he can devote more time to his family....— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2019
....I thank Pat for his outstanding service and will be naming Secretary of the Army, Mark Esper, to be the new Acting Secretary of Defense. I know Mark, and have no doubt he will do a fantastic job!— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 18, 2019
Shanahan has served as the department’s acting chief since December, when former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis resigned in protest over Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.In May, the president announced Shanahan as his pick to lead the department on a permanent basis but stalled in sending his formal nomination to the Senate Armed Services Committee. Shanahan’s confirmation process was delayed due to an ongoing FBI investigation looking into, among other things, reported incidents of domestic violence in his family.The alleged incidents largely stemmed from Shanahan’s divorce from Kimberley Jordinson. Shanahan and Jordinson alleged they were assaulted by one another, and Jordinson was arrested and charged with domestic violence during one dispute in 2010. Shanahan dropped the charges and later filed for divorce. In a separate incident in November 2011, Shanahan initially defended William Shanahan, his son who was 17 at the time, after he beat Jordinson with a baseball bat. The attack left her bloody and unconscious, with a fractured skull and internal injuries that necessitated surgery, according to court and police records reviewed by The Washington Post.In a memo two weeks later to his ex-wife’s brother, Shanahan claimed his son acted in self-defense.“Use of a baseball bat in self-defense will likely be viewed as an imbalance of force,” he wrote. “However, Will’s mother harassed him for nearly three hours before the incident.”Then-acting Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan delivering remarks during a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on May 27.Tom Brenner via Getty ImagesShanahan alluded to the alleged incidents in two statements Tuesday, first to USA Today and then in a statement confirming his withdrawal from the process.“I believe my continuing in the confirmation process would force my three children to relive a traumatic chapter in our family’s life and reopen wounds we have worked years to heal,” he said.In interviews with the Post this week, Shanahan said he regretted how he handled the incident with his son.“Quite frankly, it’s difficult to relive that moment and the passage was difficult for me to read. I was wrong to write those three sentences,” he said. “I have never believed Will’s attack on his mother was an act of self-defense or justified. I don’t believe violence is appropriate ever, and certainly never any justification for attacking someone with a baseball bat.”Shanahan previously served as deputy defense secretary; before that, he worked for more than 30 years at Boeing. In March, the Defense Department announced it had opened an ethics investigation into allegations that Shanahan regularly touted Boeing over other defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin, while serving in an official government capacity. The Pentagon’s inspector general cleared Shanahan of the allegations in April. | 0 |
Republicans on the list include Rep. Roger Williams of Texas, a wealthy businessman who owns auto dealerships, body shops and car washes, and Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri, whose family owns multiple farms and equipment suppliers across the Midwest. The Democrats count Rep. Susie Lee of Nevada, whose husband is CEO of a regional casino developer, and Rep. Debbie Mucarsel Powell of Florida, whose husband is an executive at a restaurant chain that has since returned the loan. And there are almost certainly more, according to aides and lawmakers. But only the Small Business Administration and Treasury Department have that information, and the Trump administration is refusing to provide any details. That leaves it entirely up to business owners — including elected officials — to decide whether to come forward about a loan, which can be as large as $10 million. Democrats have tried to pry free the list of recipients. But their push in the House to require disclosure of at least some companies was blocked on the floor late last month by Republicans — including Williams and Hartzler, who voted against the bill. Lee and Powell joined all Democrats in supporting it. All four lawmakers have previously voted in favor of the small-business program. “This is the largest distributor of taxpayer money in human history, and we need to ensure taxpayers know where it’s going,” the author of that bill, Rep. Dean Phillips, said in an interview. The Minnesota Democrat added that his bill “was not written to expose members of Congress, because frankly I expected members of Congress to be forthright and transparent to begin with.” Each of the lawmakers who received PPP loans, either directly for their business or indirectly through a spouse, say the loans were acquired through proper channels and part of a desire to help keep Americans employed. Spokespeople for Williams and Hartzler declined to say how much money was provided under the loans to the privately held companies lawmakers own. Full House Resorts, of which Lee's husband is the president and CEO, received $5.6 million, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. Fiesta Restaurant Group, which employs Mucarsel Powell's husband as an executive, received $15 million before returning it in full. A spokesperson for Mucarsel Powell said her husband played no role in applying for the PPP loan and did not financially benefit from the aid; amid the recession, he took a pay cut from his employer. While it is not illegal for lawmakers to apply for or accept the money, it has raised new questions about lawmakers’ potential conflicts of interest as they craft the next coronavirus rescue package as well as the administration’s fierce secrecy of the $670 billion program. The program already faced intense scrutiny over charges it was helping the well-connected after reports revealed that large corporations were among the first to be awarded loans, while the smallest businesses were stuck in line. Now it’s being dogged by growing transparency complaints, with Treasury and SBA refusing to disclose recipients after officials initially said data would become public through Freedom of Information Act requests. POLITICO has sought the information under FOIA. Both Democrats and Republicans have vowed there will be robust oversight of Congress’ spending on coronavirus relief, including its signature loan program. But Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has so far refused to disclose the recipients of those loans, though he indicated Monday he was planning talks with lawmakers seeking details on the loans. “Among other steps, the Administration should release the names of all PPP borrowers,” a group of senior Democrats wrote in a letter to Mnuchin on Monday. Much of the scrutiny surrounding lawmakers taking PPP loans has centered on Williams, one of the wealthiest members of Congress with a net worth of over $27 million in 2018. He received a PPP loan for an undisclosed amount for his Roger Williams Chrysler Dodge Jeep dealership in Weatherford, Texas. The same dealership employs his wife, according to his most recent financial disclosure form.
“If you’re a multimillionaire taking taxpayer money in the middle of the biggest unemployment since the Great Depression, get ready to explain that decision to the American people,” said Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) as she introduced new transparency legislation last month and called out Williams by name in a news release.
Williams was one of 146 Republicans to oppose Phillips’ bill to require the SBA to disclose loans over $2 million. Another one of those Republicans was Hartzler, whose family also received PPP loans for multiple businesses. Aides to both Republicans said their respective loans were under the $2 million threshold that would have required disclosure under the bill but would not provide more details. A spokesman for Hartzler also declined to say which of her businesses had received the loans. "The public statement from April is the only information we have at the moment surrounding PPP,” Hartzler spokesman Danny Jativa said. Phillips’ transparency legislation initially would have published the names of all businesses that received a loan, though he agreed to create a $2 million threshold for disclosure as part of an agreement with some of his GOP colleagues. But the bill, which won the support of 38 Republicans, fell just a handful of votes short on the floor, stunning Phillips and other Democrats who had expected it to pass under a fast-track procedure reserved for popular bills. “To this very day, I do not quite understand what happened,” Phillips said. Conservative opposition to the bill, however, had been mounting in the week leading up to the floor vote, with Republicans increasingly worried that the measure would essentially “name and shame” businesses who receive PPP loans. Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) — who serves on the Congressional Oversight Commission established by the coronavirus relief law and says PPP loans should be disclosed under existing SBA policy — said in an interview that he believed the bill was “redundant” and that “this whole PPP program is already burdened with tremendous paperwork” requirements. Meanwhile, Mnuchin and some businesses have expressed concern that disclosing the borrowers could reveal confidential information about their payroll. Phillips said he has begun talks with top Democrats to bring the bill to the floor again — this time, under a simple majority where it would easily pass. The freshman Democrat said he is also open to changes to safeguard payroll data in order to win over more Republicans, as long as it still requires disclosure. “My simple, but very strong belief is that taxpayer dollars — when distributed by Congress and the executive branch of our government — should be transparent and subject to accountability,” Phillips said. “Plain and simple.” Nevada Rep. Lee has also faced scrutiny for her personal connections to the program.
The freshman Democrat was hit with an ethics complaint from a right-leaning watchdog group on Friday after reports that she personally lobbied SBA to help casinos — like Full House Resorts, which her husband runs — access PPP loans. SBA eventually did make the change, and the business that employs Dan Lee received millions of dollars through the program, as first reported by the Daily Beast, as did many other struggling Nevada casinos.
Lee’s office said she had no knowledge of the loans and had no influence over the application. And her spokesman noted that her advocacy for the PPP gaming fix was part of a bipartisan push by the Nevada delegation. “In terms of transparency, the Congresswoman does believe that loan recipients should be publicly disclosed, which is why she voted in favor of the TRUTH Act," a Lee spokesman said in a statement, referring to the Phillips bill. Mucarsel Powell, the fourth lawmaker known to have ties to the program, also faced criticism after a publicly traded company that employs her husband as an executive received $15 million in PPP loans. But the company, Fiesta Restaurant Group, later returned the money after public outcry nationwide over large companies accessing aid intended for small businesses. "Congresswoman Mucarsel-Powell has called for full transparency of which corporations have gotten PPP loans," a spokesperson said, singling out Republicans for "blocking our calls for transparency.” | 0 |
Throughout McCain’s illness, Trump has continued to publicly snub him — including a recent appearance in which the president declined to say McCain’s name when signing a bill that was named for him. As of late Friday, Trump had said nothing about McCain’s medical decision.Trump does not want to comment on McCain before he dies, White House officials said, and there was no effort to publish a statement Friday as many politicians released supportive comments on the ailing senator.Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and President Trump have been at odds with each other for a while. Here's a look at their war of words. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)Their increasingly combative relationship has served as a metaphor of sorts for the Republican Party: the former Vietnam POW and “proud conservative” who fell short to Barack Obama in his run for president in 2008 versus the loud draft avoider who rapidly seized control of the GOP and White House eight years later.McCain rarely disguised his distaste for Trump as the real estate developer ran for president on a platform that included attacks on immigrants and U.S. allies. In July 2015, after then-candidate Trump rallied an estimated 15,000 in Phoenix and claimed to represent a “silent majority,” McCain said Trump had “fired up the crazies” in his state. The battle was on.By the end of that month, Trump had disparaged McCain’s Vietnam War service, saying McCain was “not a war hero” despite spending more than five years as a POW and enduring torture.“He was a war hero because he was captured. I like people who weren’t captured,” Trump said during a forum in Ames, Iowa.Trump refused to apologize at the time, despite criticism from nearly every corner, and has never retracted the statement. He has occasionally told people that he does not regret the comment.“The reality is that John McCain the politician has made America less safe, sent our brave soldiers into wrongheaded foreign adventures, covered up for President Obama with the VA scandal and has spent most of his time in the Senate pushing amnesty,” Trump wrote in an op-ed for USA Today that month. “He would rather protect the Iraqi border than Arizona’s.”McCain did eventually endorse Trump in 2016, then withdrew his support weeks before the election after the emergence of an “Access Hollywood” tape where Trump is recorded bragging about groping women. Trump’s immediate and angry response: “The very foul mouthed Sen. John McCain begged for my support during his primary (I gave, he won), then dropped me over locker room remarks!”In office, McCain has supported much of Trump’s economic and national security agenda, despite his misgivings about Trump’s dismissive approach to traditional U.S. alliances. But he has also shown frustration toward Trump’s White House, dismissing nominees abruptly from his office or growing angry at senior West Wing aides. McCain crossed the White House last year over the GOP attempt to repeal Obama’s Affordable Care Act, and Trump has never forgiven him. After the vote, Trump said that McCain voted no out of a personal vendetta against him and that he would never vote yes to something that helped Trump.He repeatedly told advisers that McCain should step down from the seat and let the Republican governor appoint another senator. Trump has also told White House aides that his supporters are not big fans of McCain and boasted that he became president while McCain did not.Trump’s retelling of the health-care vote, usually without mentioning McCain by name, has continued throughout the senator’s more than year-long treatment for brain cancer. The 81-year-old’s family said Friday that he is discontinuing treatment.“Obamacare, we got rid of the individual mandate, which is the most unpopular aspect,” Trump said during a political speech Aug. 13 in Utica, N.Y. “I would have gotten rid of everything, but as you know one of our, one of our wonderful senators said, ‘thumbs down,’ at 2 o’clock in the morning.”Trump’s aggrieved references to the health-care vote “never stops being gross,” McCain’s daughter Meghan wrote on Twitter in June.“I’ve let him know several times that was beneath the office and it doesn’t reflect well on him,” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, a South Carolina Republican and longtime McCain friend, said of Trump’s attacks. “He’s an American hero by any stretch of the imagination, and I don’t see how it helps the president.” Graham said Trump “feels like he helped McCain in his primary, and John is sort of picking on him.” In May, Trump and press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to apologize for an aide’s remark that McCain’s opposition to Gina Haspel, nominee for CIA director, “doesn’t matter” because “he’s dying anyway.”The aide, Kelly Sadler, left her job the next month, but White House aides said her departure was not a punishment for the remark. Trump told advisers he did not care if she apologized or not and was more determined to suss out who leaked the comments, calling advisers in for a West Wing scolding. During occasional Oval Office conversations about McCain’s health or status in the Senate, Trump would usually say nothing, current and former officials said. He grew angry regularly that McCain was portrayed as the “good guy” in the news media and he as the “bad guy,” according to a former senior administration official who spoke to Trump about McCain.Trump has fumed to friends about McCain’s role in receiving research compiled by a former British intelligence officer that alleged Russia had potentially compromising information about Trump. He has complained that McCain has criticized him over Russia and foreign policy, questioning his expertise and noting that he won the presidency and McCain did not. “Even a remote risk that the President of the United States might be vulnerable to Russian extortion had to be investigated,” McCain wrote in what he called his last book, “The Restless Wave,” published this year.“I could not independently verify any of it, and so I did what any American who cares about our nation’s security should have done. I put the dossier in my office safe, called the office of the director of the FBI, Jim Comey, and asked for a meeting,” McCain wrote.McCain’s assessments became more withering the longer Trump was in office.In August 2017, McCain denounced white supremacists who held a deadly rally in Charlottesville after Trump had said the event was attended by “fine people on both sides.”“White supremacists aren’t patriots, they’re traitors — Americans must unite against hatred & bigotry,” McCain tweeted at the time.In accepting the Freedom Medal at the National Constitutional Center in October, McCain condemned “half-baked, spurious nationalism cooked up by people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems,” a clear dig at Trump.Asked about McCain’s remarks the following day, Trump said “people have to be careful, because at some point I fight back.”“You know, I’m being very nice, I’m being very, very nice, but at some point I fight back and it won’t be pretty,” Trump said in a WMAL radio interview.Not long afterward, McCain appeared to take a shot at Trump for avoiding the draft during the Vietnam War.“One aspect of the [Vietnam] conflict by the way that I will never ever countenance is that we drafted the lowest income level of America, and the highest income level found a doctor that would say that they had a bone spur,” McCain said during an interview with CSPAN.McCain did not mention Trump by name, but his meaning appeared clear. Trump received five wartime deferments, including one in which a doctor diagnosed him with bone spurs.Finally in July, McCain pilloried Trump for his chummy performance alongside Russian President Vladimir Putin at a news conference in Helsinki, calling it “one of the most disgraceful performances by an American president in memory.”The U.S. president had rhetorically embraced Putin and appeared to side with him over U.S. intelligence officials on Moscow’s aggressive election interference.“The damage inflicted by President Trump’s naivete, egotism, false equivalence, and sympathy for autocrats is difficult to calculate,” McCain said. “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.”Trump said nothing in response. As McCain spends his final days in Arizona, aides say, Trump is inclined to still say nothing at all. | 0 |
President Trump vowed on Monday that his tax cut plan would not include any changes to tax-deferred retirement accounts such as 401(k)s, following reports last week that House Republicans were weighing a sharp reduction in the amount of income American workers could save through such programs.Trump tweeted Monday morning: “There will be NO change to your 401(k). This has always been a great and popular middle class tax break that works, and it stays!”Several news organizations reported last week that congressional Republicans were considering a cap on contributions to 401(k) programs as part of a broad overhaul of the tax code.Such tax-deferred accounts are a popular way that many Americans, especially middle-class workers, save for their retirement. Any proposed limits or restrictions could have drawn a sharp backlash, including in the asset management industry.Americans are allowed to contribute up to $18,000 per year pretax in a 401(k) or similar account, benefits that remain extremely popular. In 2015, 54 million Americans had active 401(k) accounts, according to the Investment Company Institute. Some lobbyists had fretted that the White House would severely lower the cap on the amount of money that Americans can contribute pretax to these accounts, but Trump’s message on Monday seemed designed to quash that concern. Still, the White House has said it would pursue looking at ways to simplify the tax treatment of retirement accounts, leaving open the possibility that there could be changes in this area. It also leaves open the possibility that Trump will further scale back the plan in the face of resistance on popular tax breaks.Trump's tweet comes as the White House steps up its campaign for tax legislation this week. The president wrote an op-ed in USA Today under the headline, “With tax reform we can make it morning in America again,” a play on former president Ronald Reagan's campaign slogan.Trump spoke with House Republicans on a Sunday evening conference call to mobilize support for tax cuts, and he plans to visit Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a luncheon meeting with Senate Republicans.Meanwhile, Ivanka Trump, one of the president's daughters and a senior White House adviser, will travel to suburban Philadelphia on Monday to hold a town hall meeting about tax reform. | 0 |
EditorialAug. 13, 2017Credit...Edu Bayer for The New York TimesLet’s discard the fiction that President Trump wasn’t placating white supremacists by responding so weakly to the neo-Nazi violence that killed Heather Heyer, a 32-year-old counterdemonstrator in Charlottesville, Va., on Saturday. The neo-Nazis heard his message loud and clear.“He didn’t attack us,” crowed The Daily Stormer, a white supremacist website, about Mr. Trump’s statement after the two days of racist demonstrations. “Refused to answer a question about White Nationalists supporting him. No condemnation at all. When asked to condemn, he just walked out of the room. Really, really good. God bless him.”The police said a 20-year-old man, who participated in the long-planned protest against the removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee, plowed his car into peaceful counterdemonstrators on Saturday, killing Ms. Heyer and injuring 19 others. He was charged with second-degree murder. Two Virginia state troopers responding to the protests died in a helicopter crash.After the attack, and before he spoke, Mr. Trump reportedly consulted advisers. They told him to condemn the white nationalists who fomented the violence.He did not. Instead, he spoke of an “egregious display of hatred, bigotry, and violence that’s on many sides.”Mr. Trump is alone in modern presidential history in his willingness to summon demons of bigotry and intolerance in service to himself. He began his political career on a lie about President Barack Obama’s citizenship and has failed to firmly condemn the words and deeds of white supremacists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klan leaders and other bigots who rallied behind him. A number of these people, including David Duke, the former Klan imperial wizard, and Richard Spencer, self-styled theorist of the alt-right, were part of the amen chorus of bigots in Charlottesville.“We are going to fulfill the promises of Donald Trump,” said Mr. Duke, whose support Mr. Trump has only reluctantly disavowed in the past. “That’s what we believed in. That’s why we voted for Donald Trump.”Mr. Trump’s fear of naming the source of Saturday’s violence sharply contrasts with his eagerness to call out Islamist terror.All day on Sunday, Mr. Trump remained silent, as H. R. McMaster, the national security adviser, and Mike Pompeo, director of the Central Intelligence Agency, whose jobs are to understand and combat hate-based threats, covered for him on the television news shows. Ivanka Trump, her father’s senior adviser and self-proclaimed moderating force, issued a single tweet of protest.“There should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-nazis,” she wrote on Sunday, apparently blind to her father’s accommodation of those forces.One aide not heard from was Steve Bannon, Mr. Trump’s chief strategist, whose nationalist theories and Breitbart dog whistles helped summon the rage on display in Charlottesville.On Sunday, the White House issued, anonymously, another weak statement, saying that the president’s words on Saturday “of course” included “white supremacists, KKK, Neo-Nazi and all extremist groups.”Meanwhile a handful of congressional Republicans have condemned the hate on display in Charlottesville, and in our politics. Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado said of white supremacists, “We don’t want them in our base, they shouldn’t be in a base, we shouldn’t call them part of a base.”But Mr. Trump does, and in his desperation to rescue his failing presidency, he again clung to them. | 0 |
“The conclusion that Congress may apply the obstruction laws to the President’s corrupt exercise of the powers of office accords with our constitutional system of checks and balances and the principle that no person is above the law,” Mueller’s team wrote.Attorney General William P. Barr is planning key redactions to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report. (Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)Trump once feared Mueller could destroy his presidency, but the special counsel may instead define it. By releasing a thick catalogue of misconduct and mendacity that, if not criminal, is deeply unflattering, Mueller’s report may mean long-term political problems for a president seeking reelection next year.Still, Trump’s electoral base has not been swayed by such stories in the past, and he has already claimed victory on the investigation’s bottom line: no conspiracy with Russia, no obstruction of justice.Since Mueller ended his investigation last month, a central question facing the Justice Department has been why Mueller’s team did not reach a conclusion about whether the president obstructed justice. The issue was complicated, the report said, by two key factors — the fact that, under department practice, a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime, and that a president has a great deal of constitutional authority to give orders to other government employees.Trump submitted written answers to investigators. The special counsel’s office considered them “inadequate” but did not press for an interview with him because doing so would cause a “substantial delay,” the report says.The report said investigators felt they had “sufficient evidence to understand relevant events and to make certain assessments without the President’s testimony.”Trump’s legal team declared Mueller’s report “a total victory” for the president. It “underscores what we have argued from the very beginning — there was no collusion — there was no obstruction,” they said.In their statement, Trump’s lawyers also attacked former leaders at the FBI for opening “a biased, political attack against the President — turning one of our foundational legal standards on its head.”Trump said little publicly about the report’s release. At an event Thursday, he indicated he was having a “good day,” adding that “this should never happen to another president again, this hoax.” Ahead of the report’s release, the president lobbed a familiar attack on the investigation. “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!” he tweeted. “The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats.”If Mueller’s report was a victory for the president, it was an ugly one. Investigators paint a portrait of a president who believes the Justice Department and the FBI should answer to his orders, even when it comes to criminal investigations.During a meeting in which the president complained about then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, Trump insisted that past attorneys general had been more obedient to their presidents, referring to President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Robert, as well as the Obama administration.“You’re telling me that Bobby and Jack didn’t talk about investigations? Or Obama didn’t tell Eric Holder who to investigate?” Trump told senior White House staffers Stephen K. Bannon and Donald McGahn, according to the report.“Bannon recalled that the President was as mad as Bannon had ever seen him and that he screamed at McGahn about how weak Sessions was,” the report said.Repeatedly, it appears Trump may have been saved from more serious legal jeopardy because his own staffers refused to carry out orders they thought were problematic or potentially illegal.For instance, in the early days of the administration, when the president was facing growing questions concerning then-national security adviser Michael Flynn’s conversations about sanctions with a Russian ambassador, the president ordered another aide, K.T. McFarland, to write an email saying the president did not direct those conversations. She decided not to do so, unsure if that was true and fearing it might be improper.“Some evidence suggests that the President knew about the existence and content of Flynn’s calls when they occurred, but the evidence is inconclusive and could not be relied upon to establish the President’s knowledge,’ ” the report said.The report also recounts a remarkable moment in May 2017 when Sessions told Trump that Mueller had just been appointed special counsel. Trump slumped back in his chair, according to notes from Jody Hunt, Sessions’s then-chief of staff. “Oh my God, this is terrible. This is the end of my presidency. I’m fucked,” Trump said. The president further laid into Sessions for his recusal, saying Sessions had let him down.“Everyone tells me if you get one of these independent counsels it ruins your presidency,” Trump said, according to Hunt’s notes. “It takes years and years and I won’t be able to do anything. This is the worst thing that ever happened to me.”The special counsel’s report on possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russians to interfere in the 2016 election is extremely detailed with only modest redactions — painting a starkly different picture for Trump than Attorney General William P. Barr has offered, and revealing new details about interactions between Russians and Trump associates.Mueller’s team wrote that though their investigation “did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” that assertion was informed by the fact that coordination requires more than two parties “taking actions that were informed by or responsive to the other’s actions or interests.”And Mueller made it clear: Russia wanted to help the Trump campaign, and the Trump campaign was willing to take it.“Although the investigation established that the Russian government perceived it would benefit from a Trump presidency and worked to secure that outcome, and that the Campaign expected it would benefit electorally from information stolen and released through Russian efforts, the investigation did not establish that members of the Trump Campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities,” Mueller’s team wrote.The report detailed a timeline of contacts between the Trump campaign and those with Russian ties — much of it already known, but some of it new.For example, Mueller’s team asserted that in August 2016, Konstantin Kilimnik, whom the FBI has assessed as having ties to Russian intelligence, met with Paul Manafort, Trump’s campaign chairman, “to deliver in person a peace plan for Ukraine that Manafort acknowledged to the Special Counsel’s Office was a ‘backdoor’ way for Russia to control part of eastern Ukraine.”The special counsel wrote that both men believed the plan would require candidate Trump’s “assent to succeed (were he elected President).”“They also discussed the status of the Trump Campaign and Manafort’s strategy for winning Democratic votes in Midwestern states,” the special counsel wrote. “Months before that meeting, Manafort had caused internal polling data to be shared with Kilimnik, and the sharing continued for some period of time after their August meeting.”Mueller’s report suggests his obstruction-of-justice investigation was heavily informed by an opinion from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) that says a sitting president cannot be indicted — a conclusion Mueller’s team accepted.“And apart from OLC’s constitutional view, we recognized that a federal criminal accusation against a sitting President would place burdens on the President’s capacity to govern and potentially preempt constitutional processes for addressing presidential misconduct,” Mueller’s team wrote.That decision, though, seemed to leave investigators in a strange spot. Mueller’s team wrote that they “determined not to apply an approach that could potentially result in a judgment that the President committed crimes.” They seemed to shy from producing even an internal document that alleged the president had done something wrong — deciding, essentially, that they wouldn’t decide.“Although a prosecutor’s internal report would not represent a formal public accusation akin to an indictment, the possibility of the report’s public disclosure and the absence of a neutral adjudicatory forum to review its findings counseled against determining ‘that the person’s conduct constitutes a federal offense.’ ”Barr said during a news conference Thursday that Justice Department officials asked Mueller “about the OLC opinion and whether or not he was taking the position that he would have found a crime but for the existence of the OLC opinion.”“He made it very clear, several times, that he was not taking a position — he was not saying but for the OLC opinion he would have found a crime,” Barr said.Mueller did not attend the news conference.Barr addressed the media before releasing the report. He made repeated references to “collusion,” echoing language the president has stressed even though it is not a relevant legal term.Barr also described how the nation’s top law enforcement officials wrestled with investigating Trump for possible obstruction of justice. He and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein “disagreed with some of the special counsel’s legal theories and felt that some of the episodes did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law” but that they accepted the special counsel’s “legal framework” as they analyzed the case, Barr said.It was the first official acknowledgment of differing views inside the Justice Department about how to investigate the president.Barr also spoke about the president’s state of mind as Trump responded to the unfolding investigation. “As the Special Counsel’s report acknowledges, there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by a sincere belief that the investigation was undermining his presidency, propelled by his political opponents, and fueled by illegal leaks,” he said.“That awareness marked a significant change in the President’s conduct and the start of a second phase of action,” Mueller’s team wrote in their report. “The president launched public attacks on the investigation and individuals involved in it who could possess evidence adverse to the President, while in private, the President engaged in a series of targeted efforts to control the investigation.”Mueller’s team said those efforts included attempting to remove Mueller as special counsel, pressuring Sessions to unrecuse himself from the investigation, and using “public forums to attack potential witnesses who might offer adverse information and to praise witnesses who declined to cooperate with the government.”The Mueller report is considered so politically explosive that even the Justice Department’s rollout plan sparked a firestorm, with Democrats suggesting that the attorney general was trying to improperly color Mueller’s findings before the public could read them.Barr is preparing to testify to Congress about the report next month, and Democrats are moving to secure Mueller’s testimony soon after. The attorney general also notified Congress after the report’s release that a small number of senior members of each party would get a chance to review a less-redacted version of the document next week.Democrats, who have vowed to fight to get the entire report without redactions, as well as the underlying investigative documents, immediately panned the offer, calling it a non-starter.Greg Miller, Spencer S. Hsu, Karoun Demirjian, Ellen Nakashima, Philip Rucker, John Wagner and Felicia Sonmez contributed to this report. | 0 |
Subsets and Splits