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(CNN)The US Capitol is once again secured but four people are dead -- including one woman who was shot -- after supporters of President Donald Trump breached one of the most iconic American buildings, engulfing the nation's capital in chaos after Trump urged his supporters to fight against the ceremonial counting of the electoral votes that will confirm President-elect Joe Biden's win.Shortly after 1 p.m. ET Wednesday hundreds of pro-Trump protesters pushed through barriers set up along the perimeter of the Capitol, where they tussled with officers in full riot gear, some calling the officers "traitors" for doing their jobs. About 90 minutes later, police said demonstrators got into the building and the doors to the House and Senate were being locked. Shortly after, the House floor was evacuated by police. Vice President Mike Pence was also evacuated from the chamber, where he was to perform his role in the counting of electoral votes. An armed standoff took place at the House front door at about 3 p.m. ET, and police officers had their guns drawn at someone who was trying to breach it. A Trump supporter was also pictured standing at the Senate dais earlier in the afternoon. A woman, who is yet to be identified, died after being shot in the chest on the Capitol grounds, DC police confirmed to CNN. More information on the shooting was not immediately available and a police spokesperson said additional details will come later. DC Police Chief Robert Contee said three other people died from medical emergencies during the riot."One adult female and two adult males appear to have suffered from separate medical emergencies, which resulted in their deaths. Any loss of life in the District is tragic and our thoughts are with anyone impacted by their loss," Contee said at a news conference Wednesday night.Multiple officers have been injured with at least one transported to the hospital, multiple sources tell CNN.Smoke grenades were used on the Senate side of the Capitol, as police worked to clear the building of rioters. Windows on the west side of the Senate were broken, and hundreds of officers amassed on the first floor of the building. The Senate floor was cleared of rioters as of 3:30 p.m. ET, and an officer told CNN that they successfully squeezed them away from the Senate wing of the building and toward the Rotunda. The protesters were removed through the east and west doors of the Capitol. At least 52 people were arrested as of 9:30 p.m. ET Wednesday in Washington.The US Capitol Police worked to secure the second floor of the Capitol first, and were seen just before 5 p.m. ET pushing demonstrators off the steps on the east side of the building. With about 30 minutes to go before Washington's 6 p.m. ET curfew, Washington police amassed in a long line to push the mob back from the Capitol grounds.It took until roughly 5:40 p.m. ET for the building to once again be secured, according to the sergeant-at-arms.The stunning display of insurrection was the first time the US Capitol had been overrun since the British attacked and burned the building in August of 1814, during the War of 1812, according to Samuel Holliday, director of scholarship and operations with the US Capitol Historical Society.The shocking scene was met with less police force than many of the Black Lives Matter protests that rolled across the country in the wake of George Floyd's killing at the hands of Minneapolis police officers last year. While federal police attacked peaceful protesters in Lafayette Square outside the White House over the summer, clearing the way for Trump to take a photo in front of a nearby church at the time, protesters on Wednesday were able to overrun Capitol police and infiltrate the country's legislative chambers.An afternoon of chaosThe protesters first breached exterior security barriers, and video footage showed protesters gathering and some clashing with police near the Capitol building. CNN's team on the ground saw a number of protesters trying to move up the side of the Capitol building. Several loud flash bangs were heard as well.Protesters could be seen pushing against metal fences and police used the fences to push protesters back, while other officers reached over the top to club people trying to cross their lines. Flash bangs could be heard near the steps of the Capitol as smoke filled the air. In some instances officers could be seen deploying pepper spray. Tear gas was deployed, but it's not clear whether by protesters or police, and people wiped tears from their eyes while coughing. After the building was breached, the Capitol police officer in the House chamber told lawmakers that they may need to duck under their chairs and informed lawmakers that protesters were in the building's Rotunda. Lots of House members were seen wearing gas masks as they moved between Capitol buildings. Members were calling family to say they were OK. Congressional leaders were being evacuated from the Capitol complex just before 5 p.m. ET and were set to be taken to Fort McNair, a nearby Army base in Washington, according to a federal law enforcement official. Trump has directed the National Guard to Washington along with "other federal protective services," according to White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany. The entire DC National Guard has been activated by the Department of Defense, according to the Pentagon."The D.C. Guard has been mobilized to provide support to federal law enforcement in the District," said Jonathan Hoffman, the chief Pentagon spokesman. "Acting Secretary Miller has been in contact with Congressional leadership, and Secretary McCarthy has been working with the D.C. government. The law enforcement response will be led by the Department of Justice."The official said DC National Guard was not anticipating to be used to protect federal facilities, and the Trump administration had decided earlier this week that would be the task of civilian law enforcement, the official said. Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a citywide curfew from 6 p.m. ET on Wednesday until 6 a.m. ET Thursday.Lawmakers return to the CapitolLawmakers began returning to the Capitol after the building was secured and made it clear that they intended to resume their intended business -- namely, confirming Biden's win over Trump by counting the votes in the Electoral College.Proceedings resumed at about 8 p.m. ET with Pence -- who never left the Capitol, according to his press secretary -- bringing the Senate session back into order."Let's get back to work," he said.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement earlier Wednesday evening that congressional leadership wanted to continue with the joint session Wednesday night."Today, a shameful assault was made on our democracy. It was anointed at the highest level of government. It cannot, however, deter us from our responsibility to validate the election of Joe Biden," Pelosi wrote."To that end, in consultation with Leader Hoyer and Whip Clyburn and after calls to the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Vice President, we have decided we should proceed tonight at the Capitol once it is cleared for use. Leader Hoyer will be sending out more guidance later today."Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the floor that the "United States Senate will not be intimidated. We will not be kept out of this chamber by thugs, mobs or threats." It took until deep in the early hours of Thursday morning, but Congress eventually counted and certified Biden's election win.Trump tells supporters to go home, eventuallyTrump finally called on his supporters to "go home" hours after the riot started, but spent a large amount of time in the one-minute video lamenting and lying about his election loss. In one stunning line, Trump told the mob to "go home," but added, "We love you. You are very special."Trump struck a sympathetic tone to the rioters he himself unleashed, saying, "I know your pain, I know you're hurt. We had an election that was stolen from us. It was a landslide election and everyone knows it. Especially the other side. But you have to go home now. We have to have peace."However, later on in the evening Trump justified the mob's actions and praised them."These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!" he said, in a tweet that was later deleted by Twitter. Others inside the President's orbit tweeted their calls for calm as the mob repeatedly attempted to take over the building.Donald Trump Jr., the President's son, said that his supporters who mobbed the Capitol were "wrong and not who we are.""Be peaceful and use your 1st Amendment rights, but don't start acting like the other side. We have a country to save and this doesn't help anyone," he tweeted.Multiple bombs detonated safelyFederal and local law enforcement responded to reports of possible pipe bombs in multiple locations in Washington, DC, according to a federal law enforcement official.A pipe bomb was found at the Republican National Committee's headquarters, a RNC official told CNN. The device was found on the ground outside, along the wall of the headquarters. It was safely detonated by the police, the RNC official said.At least two suspected pipe bombs were rendered safe by law enforcement -- the one at the building that houses RNC offices and one in the US Capitol complex, a federal law enforcement official told CNN. The official said these were real explosive devices and they were detonated safely.The Democratic National Committee was also evacuated after a suspicious package was being investigated nearby, a Democratic source familiar with the matter told CNN. The party had preemptively closed the building ahead of the protests, the source said, but a few security and essential personnel were evacuated.Near the scene where one of the pipe bombs was found Wednesday, police detained a suspect and found a vehicle with a rifle and as many as 10 Molotov cocktails, according to a federal law enforcement official. Investigators are working to determine whether there's a connection to the bombs found earlier. This story has been updated with additional developments on Wednesday.CNN's Pamela Brown, Phil Mattingly, and Daniela Diaz contributed to this report. | 0 |
"Piracy," "hijacking" and "state terrorism" — the condemnation of Belarus was swift and strong after it forced the landing of a commercial airplane carrying an opposition journalist.In a show of unified fury, the United States, Britain, the European Union, NATO and the United Nations on Monday lined up to call out the action in the skies above the eastern European country led by Alexander Lukashenko, often referred to as Europe's last dictator.President Joe Biden called the incident "outrageous" in a statement and said the U.S. stood with other countries urging for the release of Roman Protasevich, who was traveling on the flight.Secretary of State Antony Blinken called the plane's forced landing "brazen and shocking,"and noted that American passengers were on board.White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday that National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had "raised our strong concerns on this issue," with his Russian counterpart during a meeting Monday. Russian President Vladimir Putin has been a vocal supporter of Lukashenko.Psaki declined to say whether the White House considered it safe for U.S. airlines to fly in Belarus airspace.E.U. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted Sunday that "the outrageous and illegal behavior of the regime in Belarus will have consequences." While former President of the European Council Donald Tusk labeled the incident an "act of state terrorism."The chorus of international ire follows the forced landing in Minsk, the Belarusian capital, of a Ryanair flight on Sunday carrying key opposition blogger, Protasevich. He was detained on arrival, officials and rights activists said.The commercial Ryanair passenger plane was traveling from Greece to Lithuania when a Soviet-era MiG-29 fighter jet was nearby and Belarusian authorities flagged what turned out to be a false bomb alert to force the aircraft to land.Protasevich, 26, works for the Poland-based online news service NEXTA and is wanted in Belarus for broadcasting mass protests against Lukashenko last year via the Telegram messenger app.Opposition journalist and activist Roman Protasevich arrives for a court hearing in Minsk, Belarus, in 2017.Reuters fileAccording to passengers on the jet who spoke to Reuters, Protasevich held his head in his hands and looked sad and scared on landing. He also appeared to pass his laptop and mobile phone to a female companion, while authorities were later seen taking Protasevich into custody on arrival in Minsk.It's unclear what charges or jail terms Protasevich could face, but Belarus remains among a handful of countries in Europe to administer the death penalty."While it sounds like an extraordinary Hollywood plot, it's not. The reality of this apparent act of air piracy is chilling," Marie Struthers, human rights group Amnesty International's Eastern Europe and Central Asia director said in a statement.Struthers said the European Union and "the rest of the world must react without delay" in calling for Protasevich's immediate release.Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politicsMichael O'Leary, chief executive of Ryanair, which operated the flight, called the incident "state-sponsored hijacking ... state-sponsored piracy" on Irish Newstalk radio.A spokesman for the Belarusian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anatoly Glaz, batted away what he called "bellicose" statements from the West on Monday and said the government's actions complied with international law.During unrest in Belarus last August following Lukashenko's reelection — the president's allegedly landslide win has been widely criticized — then-candidate Joe Biden said the people of Belarus were facing "systematic repression" and living under an "authoritarian regime." Lukashenko denies electoral fraud.The E.U. has already imposed three rounds of sanctions on Belarus in response to last year's contested presidential election. Some European politicians are now calling for tougher next steps, among them the suspension of E.U. airlines flying over Belarus and a ban on Belarusian airlines from landing at E.U. airports.But the E.U. will also have to tread carefully to avoid pushing Lukashenko into even closer ties with key ally, Russia.So far, Russian President Vladimir Putin has not commented but the editor-in-chief of state-controlled Russia Today tweeted that Lukashenko had "performed beautifully."Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a press conference on Monday that Russia was "in favor of assessing this situation not in a hurry, not in a rush."A Latvian airline, airBaltic, became the first on Monday to announce it would no longer fly over Belarusian air space.Adela Suliman is a London-based reporter for NBC News Digital. Tatyana Chistikova, Reuters, Lauren Egan and Winston Wilde contributed. | 0 |
President Obama said world leaders were right to be "rattled" by Donald Trump.“They are rattled by (him) — and for good reason,” said Obama of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. The president was speaking Thursday in Japan on the sidelines of a Group of Seven conference, a two-day event focused on the global economy.“A lot of the proposals he has made display either ignorance of world affairs, or a cavalier attitude, or an interest in getting tweets and headlines,” said Obama.Japan urges G-7 to tackle global economic risksHe dismissed concerns that attacks by Democratic rival candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were hurting the party's electoral chances.“During primaries, people get a little grumpy with each other. Somebody’s supporter pops off and there’s a certain buildup of aggravation,” Obama said. “Every little speed bump, conflict trash-talking that takes place is elevated.” | 0 |
House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offered different views of the sequester cuts that took effect late Friday night after lawmakers failed to reach a deal to avoid them. On NBC's Meet The Press, Boehner criticized the cuts, calling them "silly" and "random.""I am concerned about its impact on our economy and its impact on our military. Listen, we've known about his problem for 16 months. We've known the sequester was coming," he said. "I’ve watched leaders from both parties kick this can down the road. We’re out of road to kick the can down."Boehner said he believed cuts were needed, but that "there are smarter ways to cut spending than this silly sequester that the president demanded... we need to address the long-term spending problem. But we can't cut our way to prosperity.”When asked how the cuts would affect economic growth, Boehner said, "I don't know whether it's going to hurt the economy or not. I don't think anyone quite understands how the sequester is really going to work.” The House Speaker insisted he did everything he could to avoid the cuts and blamed the president and the Democrats for not reaching a deal."There's no one in this town who's tried harder to come to an agreement with the president and deal with this long-term spending problem," he said.McConnell struck a different tone on CNN's State Of The Union, calling Friday's cuts “modest." "We have a $16 trillion national debt,” he said. “Our debt is as big as our economy. That alone makes us look like a Western European country... I think the American people know we have a spending addiction in Washington."McConnell said that Senate Republicans are open to discussing how to rework the cuts, but put his foot down on raising taxes.The first of the automatic spending cuts took effect on Friday after months of unproductive negotiations between the White House and Republicans. The cuts, totaling $1.2 trillion, were designed during the 2011 debt ceiling crisis in hopes that it would force Congress to reach a deal to balance the budget. A Congressional Budget Office official said that the cuts could cost 750,000 jobs. Last month, Boehner called the cuts "ugly and dangerous."Biggest Political Hypocrites | 0 |
Story highlights"James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press," Trump tweetedTrump didn't provide further details Friday on whether he was taping conversations (CNN)President Donald Trump issued a thinly veiled threat Friday to fired FBI Director James Comey, apparently suggesting there are possibly recorded conversations between the two men that could be leaked to counter the former FBI director if necessary."James Comey better hope that there are no 'tapes' of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press," Trump tweeted. The remark is an extraordinary development in the ongoing feud between the President and the agencies investigating alleged ties between his campaign and Russia.White House press secretary Sean Spicer said at an afternoon briefing that Trump's warning was "not a threat," adding, "The President has nothing further to say on that."When he fired Comey earlier this week, Trump garnered comparisons to President Richard Nixon and his infamous decision to remove the special prosecutor investigating Watergate crimes in 1973. The Watergate scandal accelerated drastically when it was revealed Nixon taped conversations in the White House. Trump didn't provide further details Friday on whether he was taping conversations. Asked whether Trump was recording conversations in the White House, Spicer repeated his statement that Trump had nothing further to add.Comey is "not worried about any tapes" of conversations between him and Trump, a source familiar with the matter told CNN on Friday, adding that "if there is a tape, there's nothing he is worried about" that could be on it. Democratic Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Conyers, the respective ranking members of the House oversight and judiciary committees, requested from White House counsel Donald McGahn copies of all recordings between Trump and Comey."It is a crime to intimidate or threaten any potential witness with the intent to influence, delay, or prevent their official testimony," the two wrote in a letter. "The President's actions this morning -- as well as his admission yesterday on national television that he fired Director Comey because he was investigating Trump campaign officials and their connections to the Russian government -- raise the specter of possible intimidation and obstruction of justice. The President's actions also risk undermining the ongoing criminal and counter-intelligence investigations and the independence of federal law enforcement agencies."Clapper: There could be evidenceSoon after tweeting the threat to Comey, Trump invoked former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who testified before the Senate earlier this week that he was not aware of any evidence demonstrating collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia."When James Clapper himself, and virtually everyone else with knowledge of the witch hunt, says there is no collusion, when does it end?" Trump tweeted.Clapper, however, qualified his testimony by saying he had been unaware of an FBI investigation into the matter until Comey announced it to the public at a House hearing in March. It's also unclear how much Clapper would know about developments in the investigation after he left office earlier this year.And speaking on MSNBC early Friday afternoon, Clapper would only say that the intelligence community lacked enough evidence to issue an assessment that represented a consensus of all the US intelligence agencies."That's not to say there wasn't evidence, but not that met that threshold," Clapper said."And you're not attempting to clear or convict anyone of collusion, it is just out of your scope?" MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell asked."That's correct," Clapper replied.He added: "It would be in everyone's best interest to get to the bottom of this. And for the country. Otherwise, this is going to continue to linger as a dark cloud, in my opinion, over this administration."It's not unheard of for presidents to record conversations, using different systems to do so, with and without participants' knowledge. Six presidents secretly recorded meetings and telephone conversations between 1940 and 1973, according to historian and CNN contributor Julian Zelizer.John Dean, a former White House counsel under Nixon who served four months in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal, said it would be Trump, not Comey, with the most to lose were recordings of the two men to surface."Obviously, President Trump is confused. He is the one who must hope there are no tapes. Honest people don't have problems being taped," Dean tweeted.Trump's reasoning behind firing ComeyThe initial, official White House version of how Comey came to be fired was that deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, fresh on the job, wrote a memo expressing concern about the way Comey had handled the Hillary Clinton email investigation.But mounting evidence suggests Comey was actually fired because of the Russia probe.Sources have told CNN that Trump's decision to ax Comey was made after he grew increasingly frustrated with him following a congressional hearing last week in which he said he was "mildly nauseous" over the idea that he helped sway the 2016 election. A source close to Comey told CNN's Jake Tapper Wednesday there are two specific reasons why Trump fired the FBI director:1. Comey never provided the President with any assurance of personal loyalty.2. The FBI's investigation into possible Trump team collusion with Russia in the 2016 election was accelerating.Trump's surrogates, including Vice President Mike Pence, have struggled to keep up with the shifting narrative on how and why the decision was made, and Trump tweeted Friday it was "not possible" for his team to recount details and talking points with "perfect accuracy."On Thursday, Trump, discussing the firing of Comey, told NBC News that he was frustrated by the ongoing investigation and believed it was motivated by Democrats' fury at losing the election.
Trump told NBC's Lester Holt: "And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said 'you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story, it's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.'"Comey has not yet responded to the Senate intelligence committee's invitation to testify in closed session next week, Democratic and Republican spokespersons for the committee told CNN Friday.Trump threatens pressComey was not Trump's only target of an apparent threat Friday -- he also suggested the possibility of ending White House press briefings."As a very active President with lots of things happening, it is not possible for my surrogates to stand at podium with perfect accuracy!" Trump tweeted. "Maybe the best thing to do would be to cancel all future "press briefings" and hand out written responses for the sake of accuracy???"Deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders faced backlash from the press Thursday during her briefing after her comments on the Comey timeline conflicted with Trump's remarks to NBC. CNN's Mary Kay Mallonee, Pamela Brown, Brian Todd, Daniella Diaz and David Wright contributed to this report. | 0 |
When shots were fired, Capitol Police cleared the East Front of the Capitol. | POLITICO | MJ Lee/POLITICO Police shot and killed a woman who led them on a car chase Thursday from the White House to the U.S. Capitol, injuring two officers and forcing a short-lived lockdown of the sprawling complex, law enforcement officials said. During a news conference Thursday evening, officials also said that a girl, who was approximately 1 year old and was in the Black Infiniti sedan, is in good condition and in protective custody. Police described a fast-moving incident in which the sedan rammed the outer gate at the White House and then sped down Pennsylvania Avenue as shots were fired in at least two locations, including the 100 block of Maryland Avenue NE, where the Infiniti finally stopped. One Capitol Police officer was injured by hitting a barricade in pursuit of the suspect. Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said a Secret Service officer was also injured when the Infinity struck the officer. ( WATCH: Capitol car chase caught on tape) Capitol Police Chief Kim Dine said he personally spoke with the Capitol Police officer and “he is doing well.” “He’s a 23 year veteran of the United States Capitol Police and he’s doing very well, thank you for asking,” Dine said. “He was at the hospital when I spoke to him, but he’s gonna be fine.” The Washington Post, Hartford Courant and other media outlets have identified the suspect as 34-year-old Miriam Carey, a dental hygienist of Stamford, Conn. Carey suffered from post-partum depression after the birth of her daughter, her mother told ABC News. Law enforcement sources told NBC News that Carey may have believed President Barack Obama was stalking her, based on what investigators have found. Carey reportedly had a history of mental health issues. ( PHOTOS: Shots fired on Capitol Hill) Dine told reporters gathered at the press conference that “this appears to be an isolated, singular matter with, at this point, no nexus to terrorism.” Lanier added that many details were still to be determined. “Right now, it is all very preliminary. We don’t know which officers fired, how many rounds were fired. I will say, both at the White House and at the Capitol, the security perimeters worked. They did exactly what they were supposed to do and they stopped the suspect from breaching the security perimeters in a vehicle at both locations.” The lockdown was lifted around 3 p.m. and the House was gavelled back into session at 3:30 p.m. but a heavy police presence still enveloped Capitol Hill. The Capitol Police said a U.S. Park Police helicopter flew over the Capitol at the request of the Metropolitan Police Department. ( WATCH: Hill shooting halts debate on House, Senate floor) Lanier said Thursday evening that at this point all the information suggests the driver’s actions were intentional. “This was a lengthy pursuit,” she said. “There were multiple vehicles that were rammed. There were officers that were struck and two security perimeters that were attempted to be breached. So, it does not appear in any way this was an accident.” Lanier said, as of now, evidence states there were shots fired in at least two locations in the pursuit. Secret Service spokesperson Ed Donovan said no shots were fired at the White House. Witnesses said they heard multiple gunshots. The vehicle first slammed into a post near the White House at 15th street and Pennsylvania Avenue, NW. It then fled east to the Capitol. ( WATCH: Shots fired on Capitol Hill: Breaking news reports) When the car arrived on Capitol Hill, police cars tried to box it in, according to Ryan Christensen of Idaho Falls, Idaho, who witnessed the chase as it reached the area. The car got away from police, and that’s when shots were fired. Christensen told reporters he thought it was a “motorcade” at first. Two eyewitnesses said Capitol Police fired multiple shots at the black sedan on Constitution Avenue near the Hart Senate Office Building. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid called the Capitol Police officer injured in Thursday’s incident and reached him in the hospital, a Reid spokesperson said. The officer, who told the senator he would be fine, said “the only thing I do every day is to make sure you and everyone who works up here is safe.” ( WATCH: U.S. Capitol Police order Capitol Hill lockdown) President Barack Obama was briefed on the incident. Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio), who is second in line to the presidency, was in the House Republican cloakroom, just off the House floor. A slight scene of chaos broke out on Capitol Hill immediately following the incident. Capitol Police immediately cleared the plaza on the East Front of the Capitol and quickly moved dozens of members of Congress, aides, reporters and tourists into rooms in the building. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) was on the balcony off of the speaker’s lobby when he heard what he said sounded like “fireworks,” he told reporters. Guards immediately told members on the balcony to step inside. Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.), who was also on the balcony, said he heard “five or six” gunshots. “Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!” Posey told POLITICO. “Then sirens went off, cops started going everywhere yelling ‘get inside, get inside!’” Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) stayed in the U.S. Senate chamber. While being interviewed by a reporter, McCaskill was pulled into the chamber by a Capitol Police officer. “Senator, we’re locking down the Capitol” the officer yelled. The front plaza outside the White House was closed. Secret Service cars with lights and sirens sped down 17th Street toward the White House, followed by another two with motorcycles. Capitol Police immediately announced a message on emergency radio to all House and Senate offices, and sent out an e-mail to congressional staff. “Gunshots have been reported on Capitol Hill requiring all occupants in all House Office Buildings to shelter in place,” Capitol Police wrote in an email to all House staff. “Close, lock and stay away from external doors and windows. Take annunciators, Go Kits and escape hoods; and move to the innermost part of the office away from external doors or windows. If you are not in your office, take shelter in the nearest office, check in with your OEC and wait for USCP to clear the incident. No one will be permitted to enter or exit the building until directed by USCP. All staff should monitor the situation. Further information will be provided as it becomes available.” In a sign of the normalcy outside of the Capitol perimeter, diners sat on the patio at Charlie Palmer’s later Thursday evening with beer and wine watching as police just yards away manned red road flares and directed traffic in the 1st & Louisiana intersection area. Elizabeth Titus, Carrie Budoff Brown, Seung Min Kim, Manu Raju, M.J. Lee, Burgess Everett, Jonathan Allen, Ginger Gibson, Tal Kopan and Jose DelReal contributed to this report. CORRECTION: The article initially incorrectly stated the order of the presidential succession . As Speaker of the House, John Boehner is second in line, following Vice President Joe Biden. | 0 |
HONG KONG — Protesters clashed with police in riot gear and armed with pepper spray in Hong Kong's main airport terminal Tuesday, leaving at least one person injured.Video showed officers trying to clear out the crowd at Hong Kong International Airport as the protesters chanted. Not long after the altercation began, most of the protesters had left the airport and the police had pulled back.Several demonstrators were arrested during the confrontation. The Hong Kong Police Force said in a tweet that at least one person was injured and required immediate medical attention but that protesters were blocking ambulance access.Medics remove an injured man who anti-government protesters said was an undercover policeman at the airport in Hong Kong on Aug. 13, 2019.Thomas Peter / ReutersVideo from inside the terminal showed a large crowd gathered around someone who appeared to have been injured. A video posted on Twitter showed an officer drawing his pistol and pointing it at the crowd after he appeared to have been beaten with a baton.Following the confrontation, President Donald Trump tweeted that he had been informed by U.S. intelligence that the Chinese government was "moving troops to the Border with Hong Kong." It's not clear what intelligence agency Trump was referring to or if authorities in China were in fact headed to the border.Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politics "Everyone should be calm and safe!" he posted.The president had earlier called the protests in Hong Kong a "very tough situation" and said he "hopes it works out for everybody."Michelle Bachelet, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, said in a news briefing via her spokesperson that she "condemns any form of violence or destruction of property" and urged protesters and police to "engage in an open and inclusive dialogue aimed at resolving all issues peacefully."Demonstrators have been in the departure hall of the airport for the past several days. Tuesday was the first time police had moved in on the protesters to clear the terminal.Saturday and Sunday were particularly violent in the city as Hong Kong authorities shot tear gas and fired bean-bag rounds into crowds of protesters who had gathered at underground train stations. Scores of demonstrators were arrested, sometimes after being beaten with batons and left bloodied by authorities.Police officers have also reported injuries, including burns from Molotov cocktails, bruises and eye irritation from laser pointers.Bachelet called on the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to investigate the incidents.Protesters have been in the streets for months, after initially opposing a bill to create an extradition treaty with the neighboring People's Republic of China. Critics of the bill said Hong Kong residents, who enjoy freedoms and liberties not available to their neighbors in China, could be swept up in that nation's murky judicial system.Even after the bill was removed from consideration by Hong Kong's chief executive, Carrie Lam, protesters have not relented. They've called for Lam's resignation and greater democratic freedoms.The Chinese central government said in a statement Tuesday that it "firmly supports" Lam.Earlier Tuesday, the airport announced that all check-in services for departing flights would be shut down. Check-in services were also suspended Monday.Riot police use pepper spray to disperse anti-extradition bill protesters at the Hong Kong international airport on Aug. 13, 2019.Thomas Peter / ReutersAll check-in services for departures were suspended at 4:30 p.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET), the airport authority added, advising people not to come to the airport.Joshua Wong, a protester who was at the airport during the clashes with police, said they were demonstrating to stop the bill, end police brutality and fight for elections that aren’t controlled by the government.“The leaders of Hong Kong should represent the voice of people instead of being the puppet of communist authorities,” he said during an appearance on MSNBC.The former British colony was handed back to mainland China in 1997, under the so-called one country, two systems framework that would allow Hong Kong residents to retain civil liberties for at least 50 years.But Hong Kong residents do not directly elect their chief executiv, and they’ve been increasingly frustrated with Beijing’s opposition to full suffrage.Paul Goldman reported from Hong Kong, and Minyvonne Burke from New York.Minyvonne Burke is a breaking news reporter for NBC News.Paul GoldmanPaul Goldman is a Tel Aviv-based producer and video editor for NBC News. | 0 |
Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders’ latest ad stars civil rights activist Erica Garner, whose father was put in a police chokehold in 2014 and died. Garner, who endorsed Sanders in January, argues in the ad released on YouTube Thursday that the independent Vermont senator is the Democratic contender most capable of reforming a racially biased criminal justice system. “I believe Bernie Sanders is a protester," Garner says. "He’s not scared to go up against the criminal justice system. He’s not scared." “And that’s why I’m for Bernie," Garner concludes in the nearly four-minute video titled "It's Not Over."The ad, narrated entirely by Garner, gets its title from an anecdote Garner recounts sharing with her 6-year-old daughter Alyssa. Garner told Alyssa the story of Rosa Parks' refusal to get out of her seat at the front of the bus for a white person."'But those are in the old days, right Mommy?'" Garner recalls her daughter asking. "And I had to explain to her that it’s not really over."The video continues with images of Garner caring for Alyssa and protesting the death of her father, Eric Garner, as she explains the pain of her father's loss and her efforts to change a system in which law enforcement has the power to take black lives frivolously.Sanders is absent until the second half of the ad, when he appears in clips that show him uttering condemnations of an institutionally racist criminal justice system. “It is not acceptable to me that we have seen young black men walk down streets in this country, be beaten and be killed unjustly," Sanders is shown saying.NBC News reported that the Sanders campaign has purchased national cable airtime for a two-minute version of the ad, but that several cable networks refused to air the full-length video.The ad comes as Sanders and Hillary Clinton fight for Democratic primary wins in states such as South Carolina, where receiving a large share of the African-American vote is crucial to victory.Clinton has enjoyed greater popularity among African-American voters, including black elected officials, up to this point. The Congressional Black Caucus political action committee endorsed the former secretary of state on Thursday.Also on Thursday, Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a civil rights hero who has endorsed Clinton, publicly questioned Sanders' civil rights movement bona fides.Meanwhile, Sanders picked up an endorsement this week from award-winning artist and civil rights movement veteran Harry Belafonte. And last week, former NAACP President Ben Jealous endorsed Sanders. Prominent author Ta-Nehisi Coates has also said that in spite of his vocal criticism of the democratic socialist, he plans to vote for Sanders.According to HuffPost Pollster's polling average, Sanders currently trails Clinton by 30 percentage points in South Carolina, where the primary is set for Feb. 27.CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article stated that cable networks had refused to air the Sanders campaign ad altogether.Also on HuffPost:Powerful Black Lives Matter March In Washington | 0 |
Credit...Hani Mohammed/Associated PressDec. 6, 2014SANA, Yemen — United States commandos stormed a village in southern Yemen early Saturday in an effort to free an American photojournalist held hostage by Al Qaeda, but the raid ended in tragedy, with the kidnappers killing the American and a South African held with him, United States officials said.The hostages — Luke Somers, an American photojournalist, and Pierre Korkie, a South African teacher — were killed by their captors, militants from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, when they realized the rescue effort was underway. President Obama said he had authorized the operation, led by about three dozen Navy SEAL Team 6 commandos, after concluding that Mr. Somers’s life was in “imminent danger.” It was the second attempt by United States forces to rescue Mr. Somers from Yemen in less than two weeks. Despite the deaths of the hostages, as well as several Yemeni civilians, President Obama said his administration would not back down from using military power to free its captured citizens.“As this and previous hostage rescue operations demonstrate, the United States will spare no effort to use all of its military, intelligence and diplomatic capabilities to bring Americans home safely, wherever they are located,” he said in a statement. The raid Saturday, however, may have doomed an effort by a South African aid group to free Mr. Korkie. Gift of the Givers, a South African relief organization that has projects in Yemen, said it had successfully negotiated Mr. Korkie’s release, and he had been expected to be freed by the militants on Sunday. American officials said they were not aware of those arrangements. ImageCredit...Luke Somers/Demotix, via CorbisMr. Somers had been part of a group of freelance journalists who covered the aftermath of Yemen’s 2011 uprising and had stayed on, working as a freelance editor at English-language publications and as a photojournalist. He was kidnapped in September 2013 while walking on a street in Sana, Yemen’s capital. Shortly before his death, Mr. Somers’s family released a video in which they pleaded with his captors to release him, while insisting that they had no prior knowledge of the first rescue attempt. On Saturday, Mr. Somers’s sister, Lucy Somers, told The Associated Press that F.B.I. agents had notified the family of her brother’s death.“We ask that all of Luke’s family members be allowed to mourn in peace,” she said. In the village where the rescue attempt took place, in the southern province of Shabwah, a tribal leader, Tarek al-Daghari al-Awlaki, said the American commandos had raided four houses, killing at least two militants but also eight civilians. He said that one of the civilians killed was a 70-year-old man. “The shooting caused panic,” Mr. Daghari said. “Nine of the dead are from my tribe.” He added that villagers had spent the rest of Saturday burying the dead and collecting spent bullet casings.American officials said they acted while facing a perilous deadline and a tiny window of opportunity. Mr. Somers’s captors said in a video statement released Wednesday that they would kill him by Saturday unless unspecified demands were met. The ultimatum for Mr. Somers appeared to be largely a response to the first raid, on Nov. 25, an operation led by United States Special Operations commandos on a cave near Yemen’s border with Saudi Arabia. The commandos freed eight other hostages and killed seven militants, but found no sign of Mr. Somers, who apparently had been moved in the days before the operation. By Saturday, though, the United States had tracked him to a walled compound in the village in southern Yemen. American intelligence, including spy satellites, surveillance drones and eavesdropping technology, had pinpointed the location of Mr. Somers and one other Western hostage inside the compound, according to a senior military official who provided an account of the operation. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss classified operations.ImageCredit...Gift of Givers, via Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAmerica’s Special Operations forces have played a central role in global combat missions since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the most notable being the raid into Pakistan in 2011 that killed Osama bin Laden. But the challenges of distance, weather, equipment failure, pinpoint intelligence — and unpredictable actions by the adversary — are ever-present.A raid in July by Special Operations forces against an Islamic State safe house in Syria also failed to free American hostages, who apparently had been relocated in advance of the mission.In the case of the raid Saturday, the intelligence on Mr. Somers’s location was accurate. It seems likely that the deadline set by the militant captors to kill him on Saturday set the clock on carrying out the mission.It remained to be seen whether the killings represented a larger shift in the tactics of Al Qaeda, which has largely turned away from executing hostages in recent years in favor of negotiating ransoms — a contrast to the frequent executions carried out by the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. When they have faced military raids, Al Qaeda militants have executed hostages. The operation on Saturday began at about 1 a.m. The SEAL Team 6 commandos, joined by a small number of Yemeni counterterrorism troops, swept toward the village aboard V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft under cover of darkness early Saturday local time. They landed several hundred yards from the compound in an effort to remain undetected. Their effort faced steep odds. The compound, which was located in a remote, hilly area, surrounded by scrub, was guarded by about half a dozen gunmen, already jittery about a possible repeat of the previous rescue attempt. And the approach to the compound was sufficiently difficult that the commandos had virtually no element of surprise, which they typically plan for and rely on. The commandos were detected when they were less than 100 yards from the compound. It was not clear what alerted the militants. “It was very difficult to catch them by enough surprise to prevent them from having time to execute the hostages,” said the senior military official, who monitored the operation overnight Friday into Saturday.Heavily armed and wearing night-vision goggles, the commandos breached the compound and knew in which building the hostages were being held. But their advantage was already lost: The commandos saw one of the militants go into a small building long enough to shoot the hostages and leave. By the time the Americans reached the building, the militants had already fled. The commandos recovered Mr. Somers and Mr. Korkie, who were both gravely wounded. One of the hostages — officials did not say which one — died on the Osprey ride to the amphibious assault ship Makin Island, from which the rescue mission was launched off the Yemeni coast.The other hostage died on the operating table after reaching the ship.Mr. Korkie was kidnapped with his wife, Yolande Korkie, in May 2013. Ms. Korkie was released without a ransom in January after Gift of the Givers used its connections with tribal leaders in the area to contact the kidnappers, according to the charity’s director, Imtiaz Sooliman.Negotiations for the release of Mr. Korkie proved more difficult, the aid group said, with Al Qaeda insisting on the payment of a ransom — even though the family said that they did not have the money. The South African government refused to intercede, Mr. Sooliman said in an interview in June.In the statement posted on the Gift of the Givers website, the aid group said that “Pierre was to be released by Al Qaeda tomorrow.” Yemeni leaders were preparing “the final security and logistical arrangements,” the statement continued.“It is even more tragic that the words we used in a conversation with Yolande at 5:59 this morning was, ‘The wait is almost over.’ ” | 0 |
The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee continues to defend the NSA bulk data collection program in the wake of the release of a report commissioned by the White House that called for a number of changes.
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said Sunday on ABC's "This Week With George Stephanopoulos” that the report had a number of high points, including saying that the recommendations make the case that program is legal and didn't violate constitutional rights. But he disagreed with a recommendation that the data be held by private companies than the government.
"I think it opens it up to more privacy violations when the company holds it," Rogers said. "These are business records, not private records of content, so they’re not listening to phone calls."
Rogers also said former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who made the NSA collection program public, should return to the United States to face charges for the leaks.
"I do think he should come home — I would personally pay for his plane ticket — and be held accountable for his actions," Rogers said. "He has contacted a foreign country and said I would sell you classified information for something of value."
He added, referring to an open letter Snowden sent Brazil, "We call that treason, and I think that letter very clearly lays out who this gentleman is and what his intentions are clearly." | 0 |
Joe Biden will withdraw all the remaining US troops from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the al-Qaida terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, a senior administration official has confirmed.The president is expected to make a formal announcement on Wednesday. There are currently about 2,500 US troops in the country, serving alongside 7,000 other foreign troops as part of a Nato coalition. Most, if not all, Nato allies are likely to withdraw in coordination with the US.“We will remain in lockstep with them as we undergo this operation. We went in together, adjusted together and now we will prepare to leave together,” a US official said.The drawdown of US troops will begin by 1 May, the withdrawal deadline the Trump administration agreed with the Taliban last year, and will be completed by the 9/11 anniversary.“We went to Afghanistan to deliver justice to those who attacked us on September 11th and to disrupt terrorists seeking to use Afghanistan as a safe haven to attack,” a senior administration official said.“We believe we achieved that objective some years ago. We judge the threat against the homeland now emanating from Afghanistan to be at a level that we can address it, without a persistent military footprint in the country and without remaining at war with the Taliban.”The only remaining US military presence after September 11 this year will be security for the US embassy, a task normally carried out by marines. The Biden administration has said it will negotiate with the Afghan government over the precise security arrangements for the diplomatic mission in Kabul.About 800,000 US soldiers and other military personnel have served at least once in Afghanistan since the US invasion in 2001, launched in the wake of the September 11 attacks. More than 2,300 have been killed, and 20,000 wounded.Nearly 50,000 Afghan civilians have died in the conflict since 2001. Although the overall civilian death toll decreased last year, there has been an increase in targeted killings. The number of women killed in 2020 rose last year and according to the UN, 65 journalists, media professionals and human rights defenders were killed between 1 January 2018 and 31 January 2021.Peace talks between the Kabul government and the Taliban have been under way since September, but they suffered a setback this week when the insurgents said they would not attend a US-backed peace summit in Turkey due to begin in a few days. A Taliban spokesman, Muhammad Naeem, tweeted on Tuesday that the Taliban would not take part in any such conference “until all foreign forces completely withdraw from our homeland”.Fawzia Koofi, an Afghan politician and women’s rights activist said on Twitter: “No war will end with war … The next few months should be used to reach peace. The Taliban wanted a US exit, they got it. What we want now from Taliban is peace and life in dignity and harmony.”The US military orthodoxy until recently has been that any withdrawal from Afghanistan would have to be “conditions-based”, meaning it was dependent on the security situation and the threat posed by the Taliban to the democratic and social gains of the past 20 years.The senior US official briefing reporters on the decision said: “The president has judged that a conditions-based approach, which has been the approach of the past two decades, is a recipe for staying in Afghanistan forever.”Biden pledged to continue the withdrawal from Afghanistan in his presidential campaign. Interviewed during the campaign on the CBS programme Face the Nation, Biden was asked if he would feel any responsibility if Afghan human rights, particularly of women, were harmed as a result of the withdrawal.“Do I bear responsibility? Zero responsibility,” Biden replied. “The responsibility I have is to protect America’s national self-interests and not put our women and men in harm’s way to try to solve every single problem in the world by use of force.”The administration says it will keep sufficient forces in the region to react if al-Qaida or other terrorist groups re-establish training camps inside Afghanistan, but the dispersal of the terrorist threat meant it no longer made sense to keep a permanent force in the country.“This is not 2001, it is 2021,” the senior official said. “And in 2021, the terrorist threat that we face is real and it emanates from a number of countries indeed a number of continents, from Yemen, from Syria, from Somalia, from other parts of Africa. And we have to focus on those aspects of a dispersed and distributed terrorist threat.”Britain has about 750 troops in Afghanistan in non-combat roles, and while no final decision has been made as to what will happen to them, senior defence sources recently indicated that the UK is likely to largely withdraw in parallel with the US. “If they go, we’ll all have to go. That’s the reality of it,” one British source said.Combat operations for UK troops lasted until 2014, and 454 forces personnel or civilians employed by the Ministry of Defence were killed while serving. Some UK insiders fear that if the Taliban were to regain control following the withdrawal it could raise a simple question in the minds of the public – “what was it all for?” – although there is a growing belief that the terror threat to western countries is finally reducing.US officials said there would be a decisive response to any Taliban attacks on US and allied troops during the withdrawal. However, attacks on Afghan troops and civilians have continued despite the peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.A suicide car bombing on Tuesday killed a child and at least two other civilians in Farah, western Afghanistan. It exploded as residents broke their fast on the first day of Ramadan. At least 10 members of the Afghan security forces were killed in the north of the country.The imminent announcement of withdrawal drew criticism from Republican leaders and a few Democrats.“Foreign terrorists will not leave the US alone because our politicians have grown tired of taking the fight to them,” the Republican Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, said, adding that Biden “needs to explain to the American people why he thinks abandoning our partners and retreating in the face of the Taliban will make America safer”.Jeanne Shaheen, Democratic senator from New Hampshire, said on Twitter that the withdrawal “undermines our commitment to the Afghan people, particularly Afghan women”.“I urge the Biden admin to make every effort between now and September to safeguard the progress made and support our partners in the formation of an inclusive, transitional government,” Shaheen wrote. | 0 |
Washington (CNN)President Donald Trump will participate in a town hall with NBC News on Thursday night, setting up a competing television event with Joe Biden in lieu of a presidential debate in which voters would have seen both presidential candidates engage with each other and discuss issues head-to-head.Biden is set to appear in an ABC town hall, and both events are scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. The two were originally scheduled to participate in a second debate, but the event was eventually canceled after Trump objected to the virtual format announced by the Commission on Presidential Debates in light of Trump's positive coronavirus diagnosis."The event is set to take place outdoors and in accordance with the guidelines set forth by health officials, also consistent with all government regulations," Hoda Kotb said on NBC's "Today" show Wednesday.National Institutes of Health Clinical Director Clifford Lane said in a statement to NBC News that they have concluded, via PCR test analysis, "with a high degree of confidence" that Trump is "not shedding infectious virus."The event will be moderated by Savannah Guthrie, who will sit 12 feet from the President. Attendees will be required to wear face masks.Trump's decision last week to back out of the second debate led to Biden and ABC swiftly announcing their plans to hold a town hall, and shortly thereafter, Trump's team entered talks with NBC about a similar event on the condition that Trump tested negative for coronavirus.Trump is down in all national polls and either behind or tied with Biden in key swing states, and is in greater need of a national platform in which he can make his case to voters with less than three weeks to go before Election Day. | 0 |
Just a month ago, Los Angeles County and the rest of California celebrated a long-awaited reopening, marking the tremendous progress made in the battle against COVID-19 by lifting virtually all restrictions on businesses and other public spaces. Now, the coronavirus is resurgent, and the nation’s most-populous county is scrambling to beat back the pandemic’s latest charge. Starting Saturday night, residents will again be required to wear masks in indoor public spaces, regardless of their vaccination status. The latest order not only puts the county further at odds with both the California Department of Public Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — both of which continue to maintain that vaccinated people need not cover their faces indoors — but puts officials in the precarious position of asking the inoculated to forfeit one of the benefits recently enjoyed. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment,” said Dr. Muntu Davis, the county’s health officer.Vaccinated people are, in essence, being asked to make a sacrifice to help slow coronavirus spread among the unvaccinated. Officials have stressed that those who have been inoculated have an excellent chance of being protected, even from the easily spread Delta variant, believed to be twice as transmissible as the conventional coronavirus strains. Between Dec. 7 and June 7, the unvaccinated accounted for 99.6% of L.A. County’s coronavirus cases, 98.7% of COVID-19 hospitalizations and 99.8% of deaths. The new order, which comes a little more than two weeks after the county recommended the same protocols as a precaution, will go into effect at 11:59 p.m. Saturday — and Davis said it will be similar to the masking requirements that were in place before the June 15 reopening.“We’re not where we need to be for the millions at risk of infection here in Los Angeles County, and waiting to do something will be too late given what we’re seeing now,” he told reporters Thursday.The order will continue to allow indoor restaurant dining, although people will need to keep their masks on when they’re not eating or drinking.Long Beach, which has its own independent public health department, will align with L.A. County’s health order. The other city in L.A. County with its own public health department, Pasadena, already recommends that everyone — including the fully vaccinated — wear masks in indoor public settings, and the city is “reviewing options for a mandate,” according to a spokeswoman.L.A. County’s rise in community transmission has accelerated dramatically since California fully reopened on June 15. For the weeklong period that ended that day, L.A. County averaged 173 new coronavirus cases a day. For the seven-day period that ended Wednesday, the county’s average was 1,077 new cases a day. On Thursday, the county reported 1,537 additional cases. Countywide, COVID-19 hospitalizations increased over that same time frame — from 223 on June 15 to 452 as of Wednesday. Still, cases and hospitalizations are still more than 93% below what they were at the peak of the winter surge. And deaths remain at historically low levels, at an average of about seven a day.Although officials don’t expect hospitals to ever be as stressed with COVID-19 patients as they were during the winter surge, it’s still possible the healthcare system could be significantly affected if trends continue.“There is still time to take action and protect people through vaccination, since we are starting from a lower baseline rate,” Dr. Roger Lewis, who directed COVID-19 hospital demand modeling for the L.A. County Department of Health Services, wrote in an email. “It is critically important that everyone eligible for vaccination who has not already been vaccinated does so as quickly as possible.”An uptick in cases, combined with the presence of the highly infectious Delta variant of the coronavirus, was behind L.A. County’s urging in late June that all residents wear masks in public indoor spaces.Cases have increased rapidly since then, and county health officials now believe more direct intervention is needed. Davis said he expects the new order will remain “in place until we begin to see improvements” in community transmission. He characterized universal indoor masking as one of the more effective ways to curb the spread without interrupting operations at businesses and venues.But, he acknowledged, further intervention could be necessary if conditions deteriorate. “Anything is on the table if things continue to get worse, which is why we want to take action now,” he said. The vaccines are believed to be essentially as effective against the Delta variant as other variants. During June, 86% of people diagnosed with the Delta variant in L.A. County were not fully vaccinated — in the same range as the Alpha variant, where 91% of people diagnosed were not fully vaccinated; the Gamma variant, 92%; and all other variants, 89%.But officials suspect that unvaccinated people have stopped wearing masks in indoor public settings and businesses, even though they’re still required to do so.The new mask order, Davis said, “really is about making this a universal practice. It’s the easiest thing to do in terms of ensuring that we’re all protected, regardless of the risks that we have.” Still, the renewed restrictions in L.A. County are undoubtedly a blow to some eager to put COVID-19 in the rearview mirror. “I’m not nervous about the mask mandate again,” said Kali Mashayekhi, a California native and Penn State student. “I’m nervous that this means cases are going up again.”Mashayekhi said the new order feels like “walking backwards,” but it puts her at ease knowing that the intent is to protect everyone.“I’m vaccinated now, so I’m not worried,” she said. “But we need to do it for the safety of everyone.”Elizabeth Diaz, a fourth-grade teacher in Hawthorne, said she’s continued to wear her mask indoors, even when restrictions were eased. “It’s for our safety,” she said.One woman, who declined to give her name, said she felt that the mandate was overprotective. “It’s not selfish,” she said. “Do I like it? No, I don’t. But no one likes to have their face covered.”Hilda Solis, chairwoman of the county Board of Supervisors, said she hoped this was only “a temporary action, until we can lower our cases and continue getting more people the doses they need.”With similar increases across the state, other counties are also urging residents to take additional precautions. This week, health officials in Sacramento and Yolo counties issued voluntary calls for all their residents to wear masks in indoor public settings.UC San Francisco on Thursday ordered a mandatory indoor masking policy everywhere on campus, effective immediately.“As health leaders of the communities in which we live and work, we have the special responsibility to practice sound COVID-19 hygiene as we serve all those who rely on us,” Dr. Josh Adler, UC San Francisco Health’s chief clinical officer, said in a memo. Statewide guidance on face coverings remains unchanged, according to the California Department of Public Health. However, the department “supports local health departments, like Los Angeles County, making stricter policies based on the conditions in their community.”“Vaccines remain the best protection against COVID-19, including the highly infectious Delta variant,” officials wrote in a statement to The Times. “We urge all eligible to get vaccinated, as it is the most important thing we can do to stop the spread of the virus.”Already, cases are ballooning across California. Orange, San Diego and San Bernardino counties have all had their daily case averages more than double since late June, and the state’s latest weekly average of 2,980 new coronavirus cases per day is up 175% from two weeks ago.The CDC now considers L.A., San Bernardino, San Diego, Riverside and Imperial counties to have “substantial” community transmission — the second-worst classification on the agency’s four-tier scale — as all recently recorded seven-day case rates that were over 50 per 100,000 residents.California as a whole is still categorized as having “moderate” community transmission, the second-lowest tier. Despite increasingly urgent calls to get vaccinated as cases rise, California’s inoculation pace continues to tail off. Over the last seven days, providers throughout California have administered an average of just over 56,000 doses per day, Times’ data show. Though that figure could rise as more reports come in, it won’t be anywhere near the high of the rollout, when hundreds of thousands of shots were going into Californians’ arms each day. Only 52% of all L.A. County residents are fully vaccinated, while nearly 60% have received at least one shot. Some experts think it would take 70% to 85% of all residents to be vaccinated to achieve “herd immunity” against the coronavirus — when the sustained transmission of the virus is interrupted.Health officials say there are many reasons a person may be unvaccinated. Some may still be too young to receive the shots, or have an underlying health condition that prevents them from doing so. Others may be wary of potential side effects, or unable to get the time off work. Another common sticking point is that all three available vaccines have been authorized only for emergency use at this point, and haven’t yet received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But there’s undoubtedly a segment of the population that’s steadfastly opposed to getting inoculated — either for personal or political reasons, or because they’ve come to believe some of the vaccine disinformation that’s spread widely on social media.Experts say it is possible to persuade people to get the shot. About 1 in 5 adults say they’re now vaccinated after being previously reluctant, according to a national survey by the Kaiser Family Foundation, and many of them said that conversations with family, friends and doctors helped. | 0 |
May 5, 2021 / 7:46 AM / CBS News Pandemic hastens birth rate drop Pandemic hastens birth rate drop 05:23 The number of births in the U.S. fell 4% in 2020, dropping to the lowest level since 1979 and continuing a multi-year trend of declining birth rates. That's according to a report published Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
The agency reported 3,605,201 births in 2020, down from 3,747,540 during the year prior, based on provisional data from more than 99% of birth certificates issued during the year. 2020 marks the sixth consecutive year that the number of births in the U.S. has fallen, the agency reported. Meanwhile, provisional figures show the general fertility rate dropped to a record low in 2020, falling to 55.8 births per 1,000 women ages 15 to 44, down 4% from the previous year.Among teenagers, many of whom shifted to remote learning due to the pandemic, birth rates fell precipitously, according to data released by the CDC. The birth rate for young women between the ages of 15 and 19 fell to a record low in 2020, dropping to 15.3 births per 1,000, an 8% decline from the year before. That continues a significant downward trend over the past two decades — down 75% from 1991, the most recent peak. The birth rate among girls between the ages of 10 and 14 was 0.2 births per 1,000 in 2020, unchanged since 2015.
The CDC also calculated that the total fertility rate, which reflects the average number of times a woman will give birth in her lifetime, declined to a record low in 2020, falling to 1,637.5 births per 1,000 women, down 4% from 2019. That's considerably lower than what the agency referred to as "replacement" levels, or the rate necessary for a generation to replace itself, which the CDC said was about 2,100 births per 1,000 women. According to the CDC, the total fertility rate has generally been below replacement levels since 1971, and "consistently" below that level since 2007.Some experts have sounded the alarm on declining birth rates and what this will mean for the U.S. economy in the years to come. In a recent interview with "CBS This Morning" co-host Tony Dokoupil, Dowell Myers, who studies demographics at the University of Southern California, called the phenomenon a "crisis.""We need to have enough working-age people to carry the load of these seniors, who deserve their retirement, they deserve all their entitlements, and they're gonna live out another 30 years," he said. "Nobody in the history of the globe has had so many older people to deal with."The pandemic could prove to exacerbate the decline. The Brookings Institution has predicted "a large, lasting baby bust" of at least 300,000 fewer children in 2021. Health departments in more than two dozen states provided records to CBS News, showing a 7% drop in births in December — nine months after the first lockdowns began. Phil Cohen, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, said December's drop was the biggest he's seen since the baby boom ended in 1964. "We don't know if it's the beginning of a bigger decline over the whole next year or if it's just a shock from March," Cohen said in February. "But I'm more inclined based on history to think that all of next year is going to be very much down for births." 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
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Credit...Max GutherEvery country needs the same lifesaving tools. But a zero-sum mind-set among world leaders is jeopardizing access for all.Credit...Max GutherApril 10, 2020As they battle a pandemic that has no regard for borders, the leaders of many of the world’s largest economies are in the thrall of unabashedly nationalist principles, undermining collective efforts to tame the novel coronavirus.The United States, an unrivaled scientific power, is led by a president who openly scoffs at international cooperation while pursuing a global trade war. India, which produces staggering amounts of drugs, is ruled by a Hindu nationalist who has ratcheted up confrontation with neighbors. China, a dominant source of protective gear and medicines, is bent on a mission to restore its former imperial glory.Now, just as the world requires collaboration to defeat the coronavirus — scientists joining forces across borders to create vaccines, and manufacturers coordinating to deliver critical supplies — national interests are winning out. This time, the contest is over far more than which countries will make iPads or even advanced jets. This is a battle for supremacy over products that may determine who lives and who dies.At least 69 countries have banned or restricted the export of protective equipment, medical devices or medicines, according to the Global Trade Alert project at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland. The World Health Organization is warning that protectionism could limit the global availability of vaccines.ImageCredit...Thibault Savary/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesWith every country on the planet in need of the same lifesaving tools at once, national rivalries are jeopardizing access for all.“The parties with the deepest pockets will secure these vaccines and medicines, and essentially, much of the developing world will be entirely out of the picture,” said Simon J. Evenett, an expert on international trade who started the University of St. Gallen project. “We will have rationing by price. It will be brutal.” Some point to the tragedy playing out around the world as an argument for greater self sufficiency, so that hospitals are less reliant on China and India for medicines and protective gear.China alone makes the vast majority of the core chemicals used to make raw materials for a range of generic medicines used to treat people now hospitalized with Covid-19, said Rosemary Gibson, a health care expert at the Hastings Center, an independent research institution in New York. These include antibiotics, blood pressure treatments and sedatives. “Everyone is competing for a supply located in a single country,” Ms. Gibson said.But if the laudable goal of diversification inspires every nation to look inward and dismantle global production, that will leave the world even more vulnerable, said Chad P. Bown, an international trade expert at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington.President Trump and his leading trade adviser, Peter Navarro, have exploited the pandemic as an opportunity to redouble efforts to force multinational companies to abandon China and shift production to the United States. Mr. Navarro has proposed rules that would force American health care providers to buy protective gear and medicines from U.S. suppliers.“We just don’t have the production capacity,” Mr. Bown said, noting that Chinese industry is restarting, while American factories remain disrupted. “Just as you don’t want to be too dependent on China, you don’t want to be too dependent on yourself. You have now walled yourself off from the only way you can potentially deal with this, in your time of greatest need, which is relying on the rest of the world.”ImageCredit...Comunidad de Madrid, via Getty ImagesZero-Sum MentalityFor seven decades after World War II, the notion that global trade enhances security and prosperity prevailed across major economies. When people exchange goods across borders, the logic goes, they become less likely to take up arms. Consumers gain better and cheaper products. Competition and collaboration spur innovation.But in many countries — especially the United States — a stark failure by governments to equitably distribute the bounty has undermined faith in trade, giving way to a protectionist mentality in which goods and resources are viewed as zero-sum.Now, the zero-sum perspective is a guiding force just as the sum in question is alarmingly limited: Potentially vital supplies of medicine are in short supply, exacerbating antagonism and distrust.Last week, the Trump administration cited a Korean War-era law to justify banning exports of protective masks made in the United States, while ordering American companies that produce such wares overseas to redirect orders to their home market. One American company, 3M, said halting planned shipments of masks overseas would imperil health workers in Canada and Latin America. On Monday, 3M said it struck a compromise with the government that will send some masks to the United States and some overseas.In recent weeks, Turkey, Ukraine, Thailand, Taiwan, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa and Ecuador have all banned the export of protective masks. France and Germany imposed bans on masks and other protective gear, lifting them only after the European Union barred exports outside the bloc. India banned exports of respirators and disinfectants.Britain has prohibited exports of hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug now being tested for potential benefits against the virus. Hungary has banned exports of the raw material for that drug and medicines that contain it.“The export bans are not helpful,” said Mariangela Simao, assistant director general for medicines and health products at the World Health Organization in Geneva. “It can disrupt supply chains of some products that are actually needed everywhere.”President Trump has been especially aggressive in securing an American stockpile of hydroxychloroquine, disregarding the counsel of federal scientists who have warned that testing remains minimal, with scant evidence of benefits.India is the world’s largest producer of hydroxychloroquine. Last month, the government banned exports of the drug, though it stipulated that shipments could continue under limited circumstances.“In this situation, each country has to take care of itself,” said Satish Kumar, an adjunct professor at the International Institute of Health Management Research in New Delhi. “If we are not able to take care of our population, it will be a very critical situation.”After Mr. Trump demanded that India lift the export restrictions on Monday night while threatening retaliation, the government appeared to soften its position.“In view of the humanitarian aspects of the pandemic,” said India’s foreign ministry spokesman Anurag Srivastava, the government would allow exports “to some nations who have been particularly badly affected” — an apparent nod to the United States.Arithmetic suggested that a policy of stockpiling for national needs might leave other countries short. India is likely to require 56 metric tons, but now has only 38 metric tons, said Udaya Bhaskar, director general of the Pharmaceuticals Export Promotion Council of India, an industry body set up by the government to promote exports of Indian medicines.One manufacturer, Watson Pharma, owned by Teva Pharmaceuticals and based in the western Indian state of Goa, was seeking to triple its production of hydroxychloroquine over the next two weeks.ImageCredit...Sam Panthaky/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesGenomics and GeopoliticsAs global pharmaceutical companies explore new forms of treatment for the coronavirus — a complex undertaking even under ideal laboratory conditions — they are having to navigate an additional layer of real-world intricacy: geopolitics.Companies steeped in genomics and the rigorous demands of manufacturing must find a way to develop new drugs, begin commercial production and also anticipate how the predilections of nationalists running major economies may limit supplies.One of the most closely watched drugs, remdesivir, is made by Gilead, an American company. Though clinical trials have not yet been completed, the company has been ramping up manufacturing to meet global demand in advance of the drug’s approval.Like many newer drugs, remdesivir’s formula includes “novel substances with limited global availability,” according to a statement on the company’s website.Gilead is increasing production in part by expanding beyond its own facilities in the United States, contracting with plants in Europe and Asia, in a move that appeared to hedge its bets against trouble in any one place. “The international nature of the supply chain for remdesivir reminds us that it is essential for countries to work together to create enough supply for the world,” said Daniel O’Day, Gilead’s chairman and chief executive, in an April 4 statement.Gilead says it has enough of the drug to treat 30,000 patients, while aiming to amass enough to treat one million by the end of the year. But outside experts questioned whether that would be sufficient.“There is going to be a real fight over the allocation of the remdesivir supply if indeed it proves effective,” said Geoffrey Porges, an analyst for SVB Leerink, an investment bank in Boston.Another drugmaker, the New York-based Regeneron, is preparing a U.S. plant to produce a cocktail of antibodies developed in genetically engineered mice, with tests planned for hospitalized patients and as a preventative treatment. A similar antibody cocktail proved effective against Ebola.The company is planning the extraordinary action of shifting the production of some of its most profitable drugs — one that treats eczema, another for eyes — to a factory in Ireland to make room for the experimental treatment.Regeneron’s chief executive, Dr. Leonard Schleifer, said the decision to make the new drug cocktail in the United States was both geopolitical and practical.“You want to make it close to where the need is, and we anticipate there will be great need in the United States,” he said.He acknowledged that making products overseas now posed risks that they could be subject to export bans in that country. In addition, Regeneron is receiving federal funds to expand its manufacturing of the vaccine, which carries the expectation that the company will prioritize the American market.“It just made good sense to us to do this in the United States,” Dr. Schleifer said.ImageCredit...Emanuele Cremaschi/Getty ImagesChina’s MomentChina has seized on the pandemic as an opportunity to present itself as a responsible world citizen, in contrast to Western democracies that failed to reckon with the threat — not least the United States, now the epicenter of the outbreak.Ever since President Trump took office, unleashing tariffs on friends and foes alike, China’s paramount leader, Xi Jinping, has sought to exploit the American abdication of global leadership as a chance to crown himself champion of the rules-based trading system.Given that China is ruled by an unelected Communist Party that subsidizes state-owned companies and tolerates the widespread theft of intellectual property, those claims have strained credulity.China’s reputation has also suffered as it pursues its Belt and Road Initiative, a $1 trillion collection of infrastructure projects stretching from East Asia to Europe and Africa that has been engineered to spread Beijing’s influence and generate business for Chinese companies. Some recipients of Chinese credit have come to see the terms as predatory, prompting accusations that China is an ascendant colonial power.China has dispatched doctors and ventilators to Italy while offering aid to France, Germany and Spain. Last month, as the European Union banned exports of protective gear, Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vucic, embraced China’s largess, even kissing the Chinese flag.“European solidarity does not exist,” Mr. Vucic declared. “I believe in my brother, my friend, Xi Jinping, and I believe in help from China. The only country that can help us now is China.”Chinese factories make 80 percent of the world’s antibiotics and the building blocks for a huge range of drugs. Chinese officials have pledged to continue to make these wares available to the world. Such moves may bolster China’s standing, yet appear unlikely to pacify the Trump administration.“Certainly, it would help in projecting China’s soft power,” said Yanzhong Huang, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations. “But I don’t know whether this would ease concerns in the West, particularly the United States, on the need to diversify the supply of the manufacturing of active pharmaceutical ingredients.”President Trump has long obsessed over the trade deficit with China as a supposed scorecard of American victimization. But given China’s role as a dominant supplier of hospital gear and medicines, American health effectively depends on being able to buy more from Chinese factories.“Right now, the brightest shiny hope that we have is imports of this stuff,” said Mr. Bown, the trade expert. “We’d like to run the biggest trade deficit we could possibly find.”“It’s not that we are buying this stuff from China that’s made us vulnerable,” he added. “It’s that we are buying this stuff from China, and we decided to start a trade war with them.”ImageCredit...Dimitrije Goll/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesThe Quest for VaccinesChina aims to become the first nation to crack the code for a vaccine, a milestone that could cement its status as a world superpower, resonating not unlike the United States’ putting a person on the moon.“Its importance lies in being able to display our scientific and technological prowess to other countries,” said Yang Zhanqiu, a virologist at Wuhan University, in the central Chinese city where the coronavirus first emerged.About 1,000 Chinese scientists are now engaged in creating vaccines for the virus, with nine potential versions in development, according to the government. The government is considering bypassing some phases of planned clinical trials to rush potential vaccines into emergency use as soon as this month.But one element appears in conspicuously short supply — international collaboration.In 2003, when another coronavirus, known as SARS, spread through China with deadly impact, officials from the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deployed to Beijing to help the government forge a containment strategy. In the years that followed, Chinese and American authorities collaborated on epidemics in Africa.But in recent years, American public health authorities have sharply diminished their presence in Beijing at the direction of the Trump administration, said Jennifer Huang Bouey, an epidemiologist and China expert at the RAND Corporation.“Given the overall sentiment that any scientific research will be helping China, the United States is really trying to reduce any collaboration with China,” said Ms. Bouey. “That really hurts global health.”“There’s a lack of trust,” said Mr. Huang at the Council on Foreign Relations. “Nationalism remains very strong among the Chinese public.”Some international collaboration is taking place. Dr. Seth Berkley, the chief executive of the Gavi Alliance, a nonprofit group started by Bill and Melinda Gates that works to get vaccines to the world’s poor, noted that one of the best Ebola vaccines was discovered by a Canadian public health lab, transferred to an American drug maker and then manufactured in Germany.“That’s how science is done, and we really ought to follow that paradigm,” he said. “Nothing illustrates the global nature of this problem better than Covid-19, which started off in Wuhan and spread to 180 countries within three months. This is a global challenge that requires a global response.”But even before a vaccine is confirmed, national governments are already seeking to lock up future supply.In Belgium, a company called Univercells is preparing to manufacture two vaccines that are under development even before clinical trials are completed, according to its co-founder, José Castillo. Univercells expects to begin production by September, with the eventual aim of making as many as 200 million doses a year at a pair of plants south of Brussels.One country — Mr. Castillo declined to disclose it — has already ordered half of the supply of vaccines that his company will initially make, a share that would decline to 10 percent as production increases.Some countries will most likely fail to secure enough vaccine. “It’s really a matter of scarcity,” Mr. Castillo said.More than overwhelming demand explains the anticipated shortfall. Though the science behind developing vaccines has advanced substantially, making them often involves labor-intensive techniques that are not designed to quickly produce billions of doses.“The bottleneck is to produce it, to make it in very large quantities,” Mr. Castillo said.The sense of urgency appears to have inspired President Trump to try to persuade a German company that is developing a possible vaccine to relocate to the United States. The company, CureVac, has denied it was approached by the United States, and said it had no plans to move.The president has other weapons. He could cite the Defense Production Act to force American companies to give the United States government priority over other buyers for potential vaccines.A little-known unit within the Department of Health and Human Services, whose mission is to protect American residents from bioterrorism and pandemics, gives grants to companies to speed their vaccine development. It also often comes with the requirement that recipients supply the government with a stockpile, said James Robinson, a vaccine manufacturing expert who sits on the scientific advisory board of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, an international consortium dedicated to making vaccines available worldwide.That division, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, recently gave nearly $500 million to Johnson & Johnson to help it develop a coronavirus vaccine and set up a U.S. manufacturing facility.Johnson & Johnson declined to say whether its arrangement with the government would require it to set aside vaccines for American use. It said it currently had the ability to produce as many as 300 million doses a year at its facility in the Netherlands, was preparing to manufacture a similar number in the United States, and was working with outside partners to add capacity elsewhere.“If the current administration is still in place when the vaccines are available, they are going to be really merciless in terms of privileging the U.S. for supply versus the rest of the world,” said Michel De Wilde, a vaccine research consultant, and a former executive at Sanofi, a French vaccine manufacturer.Around the world, 50 potential vaccines are now in the early stages of development, according to the W.H.O. If history is any guide, scientists will eventually produce an effective version.What is less certain is whether the benefits will be shared.“I’m worried about every country that has the potential to manufacture the vaccine,” said Dr. Richard Hatchett, the chief executive of the vaccine consortium. “They all have the ability to impose export controls. They all have the ability to nationalize their vaccine industry.”If that is what happens, the dangers proliferate.“If there are epidemics out of control in parts of the world,” said Dr. Berkley, of the Gavi Alliance, “we will never get control of this because the virus will come back and continue to spread.”Reporting was contributed by Hari Kumar, Karan Deep Singh, Kai Schultz, Javier Hernandez and Andrew Jacobs. | 0 |
Donald Trump has summoned a tornado of negative stories that threaten to rip his campaign from its foundation if he doesn't stop, supporters inside and outside Trump's orbit are warning.Several top backers — including Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani — are trying to persuade Trump to move past his feud with the parents of the late Iraq War soldier Humayun Khan, stop bashing fellow Republicans like House Speaker Paul Ryan and Sen. John McCain, and refocus his attacks on Hillary Clinton.But hopes aren't high among Republican allies that Trump, 70, can make such a fundamental change at this point. And the Trump campaign publicly denies that any intervention is occurring at all."The reality is that I don't think anyone has any influence" over Trump, a party source told NBC News.Within the GOP, strategists are increasingly wondering at what point candidates will aggressively break with Trump or the party will divert resources from the presidential race to head off a collapse down the ticket."They don't want to, but he's forcing people's hands," GOP strategist Ryan Williams told NBC News. Williams described the campaign as "free-wheeling and careening from one self-inflicted controversy to another."Trump's allies within the party can complain, but they can't say they weren't warned.Trump has made outrageous and offensive statements from the minute he announced his campaign last year, and he slimed Republican rivals at every step along the way.He's resisted previous entreaties from party elders to change course after calling Mexican immigrants "rapists," proposing a ban on Muslim visitors to the United States, linking Sen. Ted Cruz's father to the John F. Kennedy assassination and bringing up a federal judge's "Mexican heritage" as proof of bias."He lacks any kind of self-control," a GOP operative said. "That's not my opinion. It's well demonstrated."As Trump regularly reminds voters at rallies, however, he's also survived numerous so-called crises to reach his current position. But the general election isn't the primaries, and the timing and intensity of the current episode stand out.CNBC's John Harwood quoted an unnamed ally of campaign manager Paul Manafort on Tuesday night who called the mood "suicidal" and said Manafort was "mailing it in" after concluding that Trump was incapable of taking his advice.Another source inside the campaign told NBC News that Harwood's account was "all true" and that the environment was "way worse than people realize."Lending particular urgency to this week's chaos is Trump's declining position in the polls against Clinton, who appears to be enjoying a major bump from last week's Democratic convention.Surveys indicate Clinton not only eliminating Trump's gains from his own convention, but also regaining the solid lead she held before FBI Director James Comey's criticism of her email practices depressed her support.The most recent NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll puts him behind Clinton, 50 percent to 42 percent, with registered voters. A Fox News poll released Wednesday gave Clinton a 49 percent-to-39 percent lead.Convention bounces are sometimes fleeting, but once the race settles, there are few opportunities for candidates to make up ground, making Trump's missteps especially dangerous.The Olympics begin this weekend, making it harder for Trump to win free media for much of the month. He could make it up by buying TV time, but the Clinton campaign and allied groups have reserved $98 million in ads through November — compared to less than $1 million on Trump's side.The less likely Trump looks to win and the more toxic he looks with key voting groups, the more pressure Republican candidates in competitive races will face to denounce him.""If Trump wants us to make a choice between our senators and representatives and him, it won't be him," another GOP operative in a swing state told NBC News.But it's a delicate balance. If Republican candidates abandon Trump en masse, party operatives warn, depressed voters might stay home and leave federal and state candidates vulnerable to an electoral wipeout.While Republican candidates in some swing states have polled ahead of Trump by distancing themselves from his more controversial positions, they still need conservatives to show up and split their ticket to prevail.So far, few high-profile Republicans running for office have repudiated Trump — even Sen. Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire is sticking by him, despite Trump's recent insults and Ayotte's longtime discomfort with his rhetoric.The further Trump sinks, however, the harder it becomes to hold everyone together.A veteran GOP strategist suggested that the party should be able to win competitive House and Senate races with smart campaigns if Trump is trailing Clinton by 1 to 5 points. But if he starts to trail by double digits in polls — as he did in Fox's survey — it could create a panic as Republicans rush to disavow his candidacy in the hope that they might survive the coming disaster.Publicly, Trump and his top aides argue that talk of campaign troubles are overblown."We're great — it's a terrible week for Hillary Clinton," campaign spokesman Jason Miller told NBC News with a smile Wednesday.Trump, Miller said, has always been the anti-establishment candidate. His refusal to support Ryan against a pro-Trump primary opponent only reinforced that brand.And the campaign has had some good news mixed with the bad. This week, it raised an impressive $80 million in campaign contributions along with party allies — short of Clinton's $90 million, but a strong improvement for a campaign that built its fundraising operation from scratch after Trump largely self-funded during the primaries.Some also note that Clinton and other Democrats are vulnerable to negative stories.The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that the Obama administration shipped $400 million in cash to Iran as part of a deal over sanctions at the same time Iran released Americans it had detained. The State Department said that the payment was unrelated and that the negotiations were kept separate, but Republicans accused it of paying a ransom.Fact checkers have also pilloried Clinton this week for claiming that the FBI corroborated her previous defenses of her email practices.But other campaign aides expressed concern that Trump failed to capitalize on Democratic weaknesses or emphasize his core strengths because he's too often distracted by side stories and settling scores within the GOP."We've got to get back to these basic issues that got him this far," former Trump adviser Barry Bennett told MSNBC.Trump's afternoon speech Wednesday in Daytona Beach, Fla., demonstrated the difficulty. He began with a long and focused recounting of the Iran story and Clinton's statements on her use of a private email server. He also praised Sen. Marco Rubio for endorsing him, extending an olive branch to a onetime critic after having baited Ryan and McCain the day before."The campaign is doing really well," Trump said. "It's never been so well united."But the usual Trump, still nursing past grudges and falling into bizarre tangents, wasn't far behind.After discussing Iran, he turned to his old feud with Megyn Kelly, in which he said the Fox News host had "blood coming out of her wherever." Trump, who made the initial comment one year ago this week, told the crowd that "perverted" Democrats wrongly portrayed it as a comment on menstruation in attack ads, when, in fact, he meant "her nose, her ears, her mouth."Despite his outward confidence, Trump has sounded more concerned about his position. In several interviews and speeches, he's made unsubstantiated claims that the election could be "rigged" against him, raising concerns that he might be laying the groundwork to delegitimize a Clinton presidency after a loss."Wouldn't that be embarrassing, to lose to Crooked Hillary Clinton?" Trump said in Florida. "That would be terrible." | 0 |
Reporting from DAVOS, Switzerland — President Trump gave his salesman’s pitch for America on Friday before an international crowd of corporate and political titans, and took credit for its economic success, even as he was shadowed by fresh clouds from home about his heightened jeopardy in the Russia investigation and opposition to his immigration plan.Contrary to predictions that Trump might use his keynote address to the World Economic Forum in Davos to bash multilateral trade deals and international alliances, as he did during his campaign, he appeared to soften the edges of his “America First” policy in his speech to the elites who gather in this glitzy Alpine resort each winter to champion free trade and global cooperation.“America is open for business and we are competitive once again,” Trump told several hundred attendees, reading his speech from teleprompters. “Now is the perfect time to bring your business, your jobs and your investments to the United States.”Given the complaints here about Trump’s aggressive trade policies and worries that America is withdrawing from its global leadership role, Trump received general credit for showing up and hobnobbing with fellow world leaders and moguls at an event that has not seen a U.S. president since Bill Clinton in 2000.Some in the crowd booed and hissed when Trump, during a question-and-answer session that followed his speech, said it “wasn’t until I became a politician that I realize how nasty, how mean, how vicious, and how fake the press can be.”While Trump’s anti-media remarks are familiar to Americans, they struck a dissonant note on the international stage since U.S. presidents historically have been global clarions for a free press.Although the evidence was scant, Trump dropped at least one hint he might be moderating other views.Earlier this week, Canadian Prime Minster Justin Trudeau announced here that his country would join 10 others that have agreed to move forward on the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade pact without the United States. Trump withdrew from the proposed accord shortly after taking office, calling it a “horrible deal.”In his comments here, Trump cracked the door slightly to reentering the TPP in some way, saying he was open to negotiating trade deals with the 11 countries “either individually, or perhaps as a group.”That sparked a buzz of comment here and on social media. Trump vowed to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement during the campaign, but his administration is seeking to renegotiate it with Mexico and Canada. In contrast, the White House has shown no sign it is reconsidering its decision on TPP.And while global challenges like climate change and poverty dominate the agenda here, the CEOs and other top executives Trump met in his 36-hour visit publicly applauded the corporate tax cuts he signed into law last month.All that put Trump in a good mood.“I’ve been a cheerleader for our country,” Trump said in his speech, which largely echoed familiar White House talking points. “And everybody representing a company or a country has to be a cheerleader, or no matter what you do, it’s just not going to work.”Trump said he will put America first just as other leaders should put their countries first, a line he used in a harder-edged address he delivered at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Vietnam in November.Trump accused “some countries” of exploiting the international trading system at the expense of others. He said he supports free trade, but it “needs to be fair and it needs to be reciprocal.”“The United States will no longer turn a blind eye to unfair economic practices, including massive intellectual property theft, industrial subsidies, and pervasive state-led economic planning,” he said, probably a reference to China.At his raucous political rallies back home, that sentiment often generates loud cheers. The crowd at Davos stayed silent, saving polite applause for the end of his remarks.As he often does, Trump claimed credit for the booming U.S. economy, citing growth numbers and the removal business regulations. That message was partly diluted by news Friday that U.S. growth slowed slightly in the fourth quarter to 2.6%, which was short of Trump’s projections.The Davos conference is considered the premier event for the world’s wealthy glitterati, a familiar group to the billionaire owner of Mar-a-Lago and other high-end hotels and resorts. In his speech, Trump nodded to his working-class supporters, saying that “when people are forgotten, the world becomes fractured.”Trump also couldn’t resist taking a jab at Hillary Clinton despite the American tradition of steering clear of partisan politics while on foreign soil. In the question-and-answer session, Trump said the stock market would have dropped 50% if “the opposing party” had won instead of him.The audience scored the tone of Trump’s speech carefully, given his antagonism to international organizations and pacts, such as the Paris climate accord, trade agreements and the Iran nuclear deal that are generally celebrated at the conference.It was partly overshadowed at home after the New York Times reported late Thursday that Trump tried to fire special counsel Robert S. Mueller III last June, halting the effort only after White House Counsel Donald McGahn threatened to resign.Nor could Trump escape fallout here from reports that he had labeled African nations “shithole countries” during a recent Oval Office meeting with several members of Congress. The comments sparked widespread condemnation around the globe.Trump ignored reporters’ questions about the crude language when he met early Friday with Paul Kagame, longtime president of Rwanda and incoming chairman of the African Union. Kagame is the first African leader Trump has met since his comments were reported on Jan. 11.The African Union had called on Trump to apologize for the remarks, which he has denied making. It is not known whether the dispute came up in Trump’s private discussion with Kagame. A subsequent statement from the White House summarizing the meeting did not mention the issue.“It’s a great honor to be with President Kagame,” Trump told reporters as he sat beside Kagame and several aides, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. “We have had tremendous discussions.”Kagame also tried to smooth over the dispute, thanking Trump “for the support we have received from you … and your administration.”Trump also dismissed a shouted question about the Mueller development as “fake news.” Instead, he boasted of how his appearance had swelled the crowd at Davos this year.“We have a tremendous crowd, and a crowd like they’ve never had before. It’s a crowd like they’ve never had before at Davos,” Trump bragged as he entered the hall with Klaus Schwab, the Germany founder of the forum.Then, in a rare burst of modesty, he quipped, “I assume they’re here because of Klaus.”[email protected]: @noahbiermanUPDATES:1:20 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details from Trump’s meetings in Davos.6 a.m.: This article was updated with Trump’s comments.This article was originally published at 2:10 a.m. | 0 |
Now, Ford has decided that if her story is going to be told, she wants to be the one to tell it.Speaking publicly for the first time, Ford said that one summer in the early 1980s, Kavanaugh and a friend — both “stumbling drunk,” Ford alleges — corralled her into a bedroom during a gathering of teenagers at a house in Montgomery County.While his friend watched, she said, Kavanaugh pinned her to a bed on her back and groped her over her clothes, grinding his body against hers and clumsily attempting to pull off her one-piece bathing suit and the clothing she wore over it. When she tried to scream, she said, he put his hand over her mouth.“I thought he might inadvertently kill me,” said Ford, now a 51-year-old research psychologist in northern California. “He was trying to attack me and remove my clothing.”Ford said she was able to escape when Kavanaugh’s friend and classmate at Georgetown Preparatory School, Mark Judge, jumped on top of them, sending all three tumbling. She said she ran from the room, briefly locked herself in a bathroom and then fled the house.Ford said she told no one of the incident in any detail until 2012, when she was in couples therapy with her husband. The therapist’s notes, portions of which were provided by Ford and reviewed by The Washington Post, do not mention Kavanaugh’s name but say she reported that she was attacked by students “from an elitist boys’ school” who went on to become “highly respected and high-ranking members of society in Washington.” The notes say four boys were involved, a discrepancy Ford says was an error on the therapist’s part. Ford said there were four boys at the party but only two in the room. Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh denied committing sexual or physical harassment as an adult when asked by Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) on Sept. 5. (The Washington Post)Notes from an individual therapy session the following year, when she was being treated for what she says have been long-term effects of the incident, show Ford described a “rape attempt” in her late teens. In an interview, her husband, Russell Ford, said that in the 2012 sessions, she recounted being trapped in a room with two drunken boys, one of whom pinned her to a bed, molested her and prevented her from screaming. He said he recalled that his wife used Kavanaugh’s last name and voiced concern that Kavanaugh — then a federal judge — might one day be nominated to the Supreme Court.On Sunday, the White House sent The Post a statement Kavanaugh issued last week, when the outlines of Ford’s account became public: “I categorically and unequivocally deny this allegation. I did not do this back in high school or at any time.”Through a White House spokesman, Kavanaugh declined to comment further on Ford’s allegation and did not respond to questions about whether he knew her during high school. The White House had no additional comment.Reached by email Sunday, Judge declined to comment. In an interview Friday with The Weekly Standard, before Ford’s name was known, he denied that any such incident occurred. “It’s just absolutely nuts. I never saw Brett act that way,” Judge said. He told the New York Times that Kavanaugh was a “brilliant student” who loved sports and was not “into anything crazy or illegal.”Christine Ford is a professor at Palo Alto University who teaches in a consortium with Stanford University, training graduate students in clinical psychology. Her work has been widely published in academic journals.She contacted The Post through a tip line in early July, when it had become clear that Kavanaugh was on the shortlist of possible nominees to replace retiring justice Anthony M. Kennedy but before Trump announced his name publicly. A registered Democrat who has made small contributions to political organizations, she contacted her congresswoman, Democrat Anna G. Eshoo, around the same time. In late July, she sent a letter via Eshoo’s office to Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.In the letter, which was read to The Post, Ford described the incident and said she expected her story to be kept confidential. She signed the letter as Christine Blasey, the name she uses professionally. Though Ford had contacted The Post, she declined to speak on the record for weeks as she grappled with concerns about what going public would mean for her and her family — and what she said was her duty as a citizen to tell the story.She engaged Debra Katz, a Washington lawyer known for her work on sexual harassment cases. On the advice of Katz, who said she believed Ford would be attacked as a liar if she came forward, Ford took a polygraph test administered by a former FBI agent in early August. The results, which Katz provided to The Post, concluded that Ford was being truthful when she said a statement summarizing her allegations was accurate.By late August, Ford had decided not to come forward, calculating that doing so would upend her life and probably would not affect Kavanaugh’s confirmation. “Why suffer through the annihilation if it’s not going to matter?” she said.Her story leaked anyway. On Wednesday, the Intercept reported that Feinstein had a letter describing an incident involving Kavanaugh and a woman while they were in high school and that Feinstein was refusing to share it with her Democratic colleagues.Feinstein soon released a statement: “I have received information from an individual concerning the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court,” she wrote. “That individual strongly requested confidentiality, declined to come forward or press the matter further, and I have honored that decision. I have, however, referred the matter to federal investigative authorities.”The FBI redacted Ford’s name and sent the letter to the White House to be included in Kavanaugh’s background file, according to a Judiciary Committee aide. The White House sent it to the Senate Judiciary Committee, making it available to all senators.As pressure grew, the New York Times reported that the incident involved “possible sexual misconduct.”By then, Ford had begun to fear she would be exposed. People were clearly learning her identity: A BuzzFeed reporter visited her at her home and tried to speak to her as she was leaving a classroom where she teaches graduate students. Another reporter called her colleagues to ask about her.On Friday, the New Yorker reported the letter’s contents but did not reveal Ford’s identity. Soon after, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) released a letter from 65 women who say they knew Kavanaugh when he attended high school from 1979 to 1983 at Georgetown Prep, an all-boys school in North Bethesda. “Through the more than 35 years we have known him, Brett has stood out for his friendship, character, and integrity,” the women wrote. “In particular, he has always treated women with decency and respect. That was true when he was in high school, and it has remained true to this day.”As the story snowballed, Ford said, she heard people repeating inaccuracies about her and, with the visits from reporters, felt her privacy being chipped away. Her calculation changed.“These are all the ills that I was trying to avoid,” she said, explaining her decision to come forward. “Now I feel like my civic responsibility is outweighing my anguish and terror about retaliation.”Katz said she believes Feinstein honored Ford’s request to keep her allegation confidential, but “regrettably others did not.”“Victims must have the right to decide whether to come forward, especially in a political environment that is as ruthless as this one,” Katz said. “She will now face vicious attacks by those who support this nominee.” After so many years, Ford said, she does not remember some key details of the incident. She said she believes it occurred in the summer of 1982, when she was 15, around the end of her sophomore year at the all-girls Holton-Arms School in Bethesda. Kavanaugh would have been 17 at the end of his junior year at Georgetown Prep.At the time, Ford said, she knew Kavanaugh and Judge as “friendly acquaintances” in the private-school social circles of suburban Maryland. Her Holton-Arms friends mostly hung out with boys from the Landon School, she said, but for a period of several months socialized regularly with students from Georgetown Prep.Ford said she does not remember how the gathering came together the night of the incident. She said she often spent time in the summer at the Columbia Country Club pool in Chevy Chase, where in those pre-cellphone days, teenagers learned about gatherings via word of mouth. She also doesn’t recall who owned the house or how she got there.Ford said she remembers that it was in Montgomery County, not far from the country club, and that no parents were home at the time. Ford named two other teenagers who she said were at the party. Those individuals did not respond to messages on Sunday morning.She said she recalls a small family room where she and a handful of others drank beer together that night. She said that each person had one beer but that Kavanaugh and Judge had started drinking earlier and were heavily intoxicated.In his senior-class yearbook entry at Georgetown Prep, Kavanaugh made several references to drinking, claiming membership to the “Beach Week Ralph Club” and “Keg City Club.” He and Judge are pictured together at the beach in a photo in the yearbook.Judge is a filmmaker and author who has written for the Daily Caller, the Weekly Standard and The Post. He chronicled his recovery from alcoholism in “Wasted: Tales of a Gen-X Drunk,” which described his own blackout drinking and a culture of partying among students at his high school, renamed in the book “Loyola Prep.” Kavanaugh is not mentioned in the book, but a passage about partying at the beach one summer makes glancing reference to a “Bart O’Kavanaugh,” who “puked in someone’s car the other night” and “passed out on his way back from a party.”Through the White House, Kavanaugh did not respond to a question about whether the name was a pseudonym for him.Ford said that on the night of the party, she left the family room to use the bathroom, which was at the top of a narrow stairway. She doesn’t remember whether Kavanaugh and Judge were behind her or already upstairs, but she remembers being pushed into a bedroom and then onto a bed. Rock-and-roll music was playing with the volume turned up high, she said.She alleges that Kavanaugh — who played football and basketball at Georgetown Prep — held her down with the weight of his body and fumbled with her clothes, seemingly hindered by his intoxication. Judge stood across the room, she said, and both boys were laughing “maniacally.” She said she yelled, hoping that someone downstairs would hear her over the music, and Kavanaugh clapped his hand over her mouth to silence her.At one point, she said, Judge jumped on top of them, and she tried unsuccessfully to wriggle free. Then Judge jumped on them again, toppling them, and she broke away, she said.She said she locked herself in the bathroom and listened until she heard the boys “going down the stairs, hitting the walls.” She said that after five or 10 minutes, she unlocked the door and made her way through the living room and outside. She isn’t sure how she got home.Ford said she has not spoken with Kavanaugh since that night. And she told no one at the time what had happened to her. She was terrified, she said, that she would be in trouble if her parents realized she had been at a party where teenagers were drinking, and she worried they might figure it out even if she did not tell them.“My biggest fear was, do I look like someone just attacked me?” she said. She said she recalled thinking: “I’m not ever telling anyone this. This is nothing, it didn’t happen, and he didn’t rape me.”Years later, after going through psychotherapy, Ford said, she came to understand the incident as a trauma with lasting impact on her life. “I think it derailed me substantially for four or five years,” she said. She struggled academically and socially, she said, and was unable to have healthy relationships with men. “I was very ill-equipped to forge those kinds of relationships.”She also said that in the longer term, it contributed to anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms with which she has struggled.She married her husband in 2002. Early in their relationship, she told him she had been a victim of physical abuse, he said. A decade later, he learned the details of that alleged abuse when the therapist asked her to tell the story, he said.He said he expects that some people, upon hearing his wife’s account, will believe that Kavanaugh’s high school behavior has no bearing upon his fitness for the nation’s high court. He disagrees.“I think you look to judges to be the arbiters of right and wrong,” Russell Ford said. “If they don’t have a moral code of their own to determine right from wrong, then that’s a problem. So I think it’s relevant. Supreme Court nominees should be held to a higher standard.”CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story said Christine Blasey Ford’s letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein had been redacted when it went from Feinstein’s office to the FBI. The story has been updated to reflect subsequent information that the FBI did the redacting before sending the letter on to the White House to be included in Kavanaugh’s background file.Beth Reinhard, Seung Min Kim, Alice Crites and Julie Tate contributed to this report. | 0 |
A decision about boosters from the FDA is expected by next week, and a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory committee is slated to meet Wednesday and Thursday to recommend how a third shot should be used. The FDA advisory committee, following Pfizer’s lead, recommended that the third shot be given at least six months after the second.Friday’s protracted online meeting, the most important FDA advisory committee meeting since the vaccines were first authorized, gave the Biden administration and Pfizer some, but not all, of what they wanted. Boosters will be on the way into many millions of arms — with the exact number depending on how the FDA and the CDC decide who meets the criteria for being at high risk of serious illness.The consideration of booster shots comes as the United States endures a fourth wave of covid-19 infections, with hospitals in some corners of the nation confronting the long-feared prospect of rationing care and having to decide which patients receive access to treatments and medical equipment. And the debate has sparked criticism from some officials in the global health community who argue that the U.S. discussion of boosters betrays selfishness, as many in the world do not have access to a first dose of vaccine.The recommendation to target shots primarily to older adults is far narrower than what the companies and top officials in the Biden administration had sought: a blanket approval to boost anyone 16 and older. The panel voted resoundingly against a broadly available booster. Many committee members said they felt uncomfortable about whether the benefits outweighed the risks to younger adults, citing the lack of robust safety data.The meeting then took an unusual turn. The voting question was reformulated, to ask if members of the committee thought a booster would be safe and effective for a narrower slice of the population. The panel voted unanimously yes.Expert advisers to the Food and Drug Administration on Sept. 17 recommended a coronavirus vaccine booster to people 65 and older and those at high risk. (The Washington Post)The vote and the variety of views on display during hours of debate Friday, even among experts, could complicate the Biden administration’s effort to extend boosters to all adults beginning next week — and exacerbate public confusion.“Today was an important step forward in providing better protection to Americans from COVID-19,” White House spokesman Kevin Munoz said in a statement. “We stand ready to provide booster shots to eligible Americans once the process concludes at the end of next week.”The committee’s deliberations did not address many of the questions circulating among the public, including the roughly 81 million people who have received shots made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson and whose eligibility for a booster may not be decided for weeks.The all-day meeting revealed an array of opinions among America’s top medical experts on whether boosters are necessary and, if so, when and for whom.“It would be great to wait until we have all the data about safety,” said Jay M. Portnoy, a professor of pediatrics who works at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo. “I’d rather not get the covid disease. I’d rather get the third dose of the vaccine.”After Pfizer’s initial request for a booster broadly available to the general population was voted down, the panelists had a freewheeling discussion about what the age limit should be for getting an additional shot.Paul A. Offit, a vaccine expert at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said he favored boosters for people age 65 and up, after which Eric J. Rubin, editor in chief of the New England Journal of Medicine, said, “I’m 63, so I like the 60 age instead of the 65 age.” Portnoy said he planned to get his dose next week — and then said he would get one the very next day.Those divisions extended even within the FDA.“We know that there may be differing opinions about the interpretation of the data regarding the potential need for additional doses, and we strongly encourage all the different viewpoints to be voiced and discussed regarding the data, which is complex and evolving,” Marks said at the introduction of the meeting.Marks, in addressing the panel, showed his hand about his views without explicitly spelling them out. He noted that many vaccines require additional doses six months down the line, so it “should not be a surprise” if the coronavirus vaccines need another dose as well.He also said many other vaccines are used not just to prevent severe illness and hospitalizations but also mild cases. And he mentioned the importance of preventing the spread of the virus to vulnerable populations such as younger children, for whom a vaccine has not been approved.Two career FDA scientists who co-authored a highly unusual paper in the medical journal Lancet this month, arguing that boosters were not needed in the general population, also asked questions that betrayed their inclinations. Both have announced that they will soon step down from the agency.Phil Krause, one of those FDA officials, asked a pointed question about some of the data Pfizer is using to support the case for boosters.“Part of this, of course, is the difficulty of looking at this kind of data, without having the chance for FDA to review it or allowing for this kind of data to go through the peer-review process,” Krause said, adding that Pfizer was a co-sponsor of the study.Marion Gruber, the other FDA official, raised the issue of safety earlier in the meeting, pointing out that the risk of heart inflammation after vaccination, though rare, is highest among younger males, who may have different risks and benefits from the vaccine than do older adults.Some Americans have already found unofficial ways to get additional vaccine doses, and that number is only expected to increase, experts said. A third dose is already recommended for people with compromised immune systems.Advisory panel members heard presentations from the FDA, the CDC and Pfizer. The data was often conflicting.CDC scientist Sara Oliver presented data showing that while protection against milder infections has waned over time, protection against severe disease remains robust, even among older adults. She showed unpublished data that found that through July, adults 75 and older were 88 percent protected against hospitalization.But scientists from Israel showed that in their highly vaccinated population, protective immunity from vaccination had clearly waned as the country confronted the delta surge this summer. That resulted in a huge uptick in infections, they found — and in severe cases, even among people who were fully vaccinated.The government there decided to implement a booster campaign at the end of July, beginning with people older than 60, and presented data suggesting that it may have helped save hospitals from being overwhelmed.Cases “were doubling every 10 days, and we got to places with thousands of cases, doubling every 10 days. It was scary,” said Sharon Alroy-Preis, director of public health services for Israel’s Ministry of Health. “If we had not started boosters at the end of July, we would have come to the capacity of Israeli hospitalization capabilities — and gone beyond it.”One of the studies from Israel, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, showed that people 60 and older who were given a booster shot had an 11-fold lower risk of contracting an infection than people who did not receive the additional shot. Research data from Israel’s Ministry of Health, posted online Wednesday by the FDA in advance of its presentation at Friday’s advisory committee meeting, also showed that the booster campaign dramatically lowered the rate of severe cases among people 60 and older.Pfizer officials have depended heavily on the data from Israel in making their case that boosters are necessary.“The Israeli experience could portend the U.S. covid-19 future — and soon,” said William C. Gruber, senior vice president of vaccine clinical research and development at Pfizer.The booster issue has been swamped with scientific and political controversies in recent weeks. Senior Biden administration officials, worried about data showing a waning of vaccine efficacy, announced in mid-August that boosters would be available the week of Sept. 20, pending FDA and CDC sign-offs.Many scientists were outraged by the decision to make a political announcement ahead of the scientific confirmation that boosters were safe, effective and necessary. Those scientific agencies subsequently told the White House that only the Pfizer-BioNTech product, whose data was the first to be filed at the agency, could be cleared by then.Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has spoken forcefully in favor of boosters. In an interview Thursday with The Washington Post, he said the Israeli data suggests that a third shot might prevent viral transmission — something that could help curb the pandemic.Fauci said some scientists seem to believe “it is okay” for vaccinated people to get infected as long as they experience only mild or moderate symptoms and don’t end up in the hospital. But, he said, “as a clinical person who sees a lot of patients, that isn’t okay,” adding that even mild infections can result in missed work, disruptions of family life and potential cases of long covid, with its debilitating effects.Yasmeen Abutaleb and Lena H. Sun contributed to this report. | 0 |
PM denies any wrongdoing and says he’s the victim of a politically orchestrated ‘witch-hunt’ by the media and opponents.Video Duration 03 minutes 07 seconds Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been indicted on corruption charges on Thursday, presenting one of the gravest challenges yet to Israel’s longest-serving leader.
Netanyahu, 70, denies all wrongdoing but now finds himself stuck in political and legal limbo. He has failed to put together a government after two inconclusive elections this year, and now faces a legal process that could drag on for years.
Here is a guide to the criminal cases against him:
What are the allegations against Netanyahu?
Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit announced that he has filed criminal charges against Netanyahu in investigations listed as cases 1000, 2000 and 4000.
Case 1000 centres on allegations that Netanyahu and his wife Sara wrongfully received gifts from Arnon Milchan, a prominent Hollywood producer and Israeli citizen, and Australian billionaire businessman James Packer. Those gifts allegedly included champagne and cigars. He has been charged with fraud and breach of trust. Case 2000 alleges that Netanyahu negotiated a deal with the owner of Israel’s best-selling daily newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, for better coverage. In return, prosecutors say, he offered legislation that would slow the growth of a rival daily newspaper. In this case, Netanyahu has been charged with fraud and breach of trust. Case 4000 alleges that Netanyahu granted regulatory favours to Israel’s leading telecommunications company, Bezeq Telecom Israel, in return for positive coverage of him and his wife on a news website controlled by the company’s former chairman. Netanyahu has been charged with bribery, as well as fraud and breach of trust, in this case.
What does Netanyahu say?
Netanyahu denies any wrongdoing and says he is the victim of a politically orchestrated “witch-hunt” by the media and the left to remove him from office.
Loyalists in Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party have accused the Israeli justice system of bias, and Netanyahu himself has argued that receiving gifts from friends was not against the law.
His legal team says criminal probes into the relations between politicians and the news media would be a threat to a free press, a central pillar of any democracy.
Will a trial begin soon?
Unlikely. It could take many months before the cases are brought before the court. Netanyahu could also seek a plea deal rather than stand trial.
Netanyahu’s allies in parliament, the Knesset, have said they would push to grant him parliamentary immunity from prosecution. But with Israeli politics in unprecedented turmoil, it is unclear whether such a move is even possible.
Could he go to jail if convicted?
Bribery charges carry a sentence of up to 10 years in jail and/or a fine. Fraud and breach of trust carry a prison sentence of up to three years.
Will there be political fallout?
Netanyahu has dominated Israeli politics for more than a decade. But both he and his main centrist rival Benny Gantz have failed to form a government after two elections, in April and September, leaving the country in political and economic stasis.
If there is no political breakthrough in the next three weeks, Israel will face yet another election, which few want.
If he is still in office as prime minister after that, Netanyahu would be under no strict legal obligation to quit. According to Israeli law, a prime minister must step down if ultimately convicted, but can stay in office throughout legal proceedings, including appeals.
It is unclear if allies – who have mostly remained loyal – will continue to stick by him.
Some may see it as a chance to emerge from the shadow of a man who has been at or near the summit of Israeli politics for a generation and who enjoys an international profile like no other Israeli politician. | 0 |
President Trump suggested Friday that there may be “tapes” of his private conversations with FBI Director James B. Comey, whom he fired earlier this week, in what appeared to be an attempt to threaten Comey about “leaking to the press.”In his tweet, Trump appears to suggest that he may have recordings of his communications with Comey. But it is unclear if such tapes exist.Trump's tweet about Comey was likely a reaction to a New York Times report, published Thursday night detailing a one-on-one dinner Trump had with Comey shortly after the inauguration. The report said that Comey has told associates that Trump twice asked Comey during their conversation to pledge his loyalty to him, something the FBI director declined to do.During his afternoon press briefing Friday, White House press secretary Sean Spicer was asked repeatedly whether the president had listening devices installed in the Oval Office. Spicer refused to confirm or deny whether Trump was taping conversations.“I’ve talked to the president; the president has nothing further to add on that,” Spicer said.Spicer said that Trump's tweet about the tapes was “not a threat,” but he refused to elaborate further. The president “simply stated a fact, the tweet speaks for itself,” Spicer said.In his tweet, Trump put the word tapes in quotation marks, indicating that there may be a some kind of record of his conversation with Comey, whether or not it's an actual audio or video recording. He used a similar construct in two of his March 4 tweets accusing President Barack Obama, without any evidence, of wiretapping his campaign offices. Trump put the words “wires tapped” in quotation marks, which Spicer later argued meant surveillance activities more broadly as opposed to physical wiretapping.Since President Trump fired FBI Director James Comey on May 9, the explanations for the dismissal have been getting murkier. (Jenny Starrs/The Washington Post)In an interview Thursday with NBC News anchor Lester Holt, Trump said that he spoke three separate times with Comey about whether he was the subject of the FBI's investigation into Russian interference in the presidential election — once over dinner and twice during phone calls.Trump's tweet Friday drew immediate comparisons to President Richard Nixon's practice of taping his private conversations in the Oval Office. Presidential historian Michael Beschloss tweeted, “Presidents are supposed to have stopped routinely taping visitors without their knowledge when Nixon's taping system was revealed in 1973.”Presidents are supposed to have stopped routinely taping visitors without their knowledge when Nixon’s taping system was revealed in 1973.— Michael Beschloss (@BeschlossDC) May 12, 2017 | 0 |
An hour-by-hour guide to interpreting election results like an expert.Published Nov. 3, 2020Updated Nov. 7, 2020[Joe Biden has won the 2020 U.S. presidential election. Read our story]This year, the rise of mail voting will make election night much harder to follow. In most states, the results will be heavily skewed at various points of the night, depending on when a state counts mail ballots, in-person early voting or Election Day voting. In other words, the results could be very misleading. And in some states, the count might take days.More than anything else, keep these three tips in mind:Be cautious. A lot of states are changing the way they’re administering the election, and even the experts don’t know exactly how all this is going to go.If you want to dig into detailed results, focus on the right places. If you’re the kind of person who checks the results by county, make sure you’re focusing on counties where all of the votes have been counted. Partial results will be heavily skewed toward whatever vote method was counted first, so home in on the places where results are complete. One possible exception: if a candidate is beating expectations with results that were supposed to be strong for the other candidate.Our results pages will offer an estimate of whether nearly all of the votes are counted. It’s just a guess, but train your eyes there.Finally, focus on the states that count their early and mail votes before counting Election Day votes. Why? They’ll probably wrap up most of their count on election night — their counties will probably tell us that all of the vote is in. Florida, Iowa, Ohio and Texas are good examples. Pennsylvania and Arizona are not.Here’s what I’ll be paying attention to, hour by hour:7 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. EasternMajor poll closings: Florida (Eastern time zone), Georgia, North Carolina, OhioWhat to watch: The Times election needles in Georgia, Florida and North Carolina, which analyze incomplete results to estimate the likeliest outcome. These are some high-powered needles: We’ll process the results by precinct and vote method, which should give us a very granular view of what’s going on.Signs of a Biden or Trump win? Again, just watch the needles — at this early stage, the results will be heavily skewed by vote method, and the needle is the best way to see any early trends.Tips on these states:FloridaIt counts fast. The early and mail votes will arrive first and will probably lean Democratic; don’t be surprised to see Joe Biden take a lead. Then the Election Day votes should flood in. We’ll see whether President Trump can keep it close before the more Republican Panhandle counties (which are in the Central time zone) come in at 8 p.m. Nearly all of the votes will be counted by that time, and it’ll be a slow trickle to the finish. Unless it’s a really close race, it should be called on election nightOhio Early and mail ballots will come first; don’t be surprised to see Mr. Biden take an early lead. Then we’ll have to wait for the Election Day vote, which could take several more hours. Mr. Trump will most likely mount a comeback, and we’ll see whether it’s enough.ImageCredit...Ryan Christopher Jones for The New York TimesGeorgia This one often counts slowly. The early in-person votes usually come first, and usually in rural areas. Don’t be surprised to see Mr. Trump take the early lead. Then we’ll have to wait — first for the Atlanta-area counties to report at all, and then for the more Democratic absentee votes. This one could take all night.North Carolina A quick count. As with Florida, expect the early and nearly all mail ballots first and fast. Mr. Biden will likely take an early lead, followed by the Election Day vote and a Trump comeback. We’ll see whether it’s enough, but we could easily have enough votes for a call by midnight, even in a close race. One catch: The state accepts absentee ballots well after the election, which will help Mr. Biden.8 p.m. EasternMajor poll closings: Florida (Central time zone), Maine, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire (poll closings vary by municipality, with some closing earlier), Michigan (Eastern time zone), Texas (Central time zone)What to watch: Stay focused on the needles in North Carolina and Florida, where things will be moving quickly. Resist the temptation to look at big leads for Mr. Biden in Texas and Ohio.Signs of a Biden win: If Mr. Biden still holds a comfortable lead in Florida after the early votes arrive in the Panhandle, the president’s chances are on life support. Of course, the needle will probably have told you this already. North Carolina’s Election Day vote will take longer, but maybe we’ll have enough votes there for the needle to start to make up its mind.Signs of a Trump win: If Mr. Trump has already fought Mr. Biden to a draw in Florida, this one could go down to the wire — a precondition for a national Trump victory. At this point, victory in Florida would come down to the straggling Election Day vote: Democratic ballots in Miami-Dade and Broward, versus a whole lot of Republican vote elsewhere in the state. Again, the needle will be your guide.Tips on these states:Maine/New HampshireIn theory, both of these states should count all of their ballots in no particular order, but I don’t know much about what to expect here. I strongly recommend waiting to see the vote in a completed township before rushing to any judgments.PennsylvaniaThis could be painful. The state will mainly be counting in-person Election Day ballots on election night, because state law prohibits election administrators from even opening mail ballots until Election Day. That means it’s going to be a while until they get through all the mail votes, which represent one-third of the overall vote. In the final Times/Siena survey, Mr. Biden had a 75-19 lead among voters who requested an absentee ballot and an 80-13 lead among those who had returned one. Mr. Trump could easily lead all through the night, even if he’s on track for a decisive loss.TexasThe early votes from metropolitan areas will arrive quickly, which will appear to give Mr. Biden a big lead. Then we’ll have to see whether Mr. Trump can catch up with rural and Election Day votes. Texas can take a while to count its votes, but it ought to be mostly finished on election night. That’s more than we can say for a lot of states.9 p.m. EasternMajor poll closings: Arizona, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan (final polls close in Central time zone)What to watch: This is the moment when we’ll probably have a good idea of what direction this night is heading. We’ll have a very good sense of what happened in Florida and North Carolina, which will have either effectively decided the election in Mr. Biden’s favor or kept the president’s hopes alive. We’ll now start to turn to the Midwest, where we’ll get our first indications of whether Mr. Biden can win back the white working-class voters who abandoned Democrats four years ago.Signs of a Biden win: If Mr. Biden’s still leading or outright victorious in North Carolina and Florida, according to the needle. We also ought to have some counties all wrapped up in Ohio, for our first clear look at what’s happening in the Midwest. If Mr. Biden is running well ahead of Mrs. Clinton’s performance there in 2016, that will be a clear tell that the polls were generally right about his strength among white voters.Signs of a Trump win: If Mr. Trump’s going to win, he will need to be favored in North Carolina and Florida at this point, at least in the view of the needle. He’ll also need to show some surprising strength in the first counties to wrap up in the Northern battlegrounds.Tips on these states:ArizonaThis one will be frustrating. First, Arizona can’t even report its results for a whole additional hour, so don’t even bother to check for the initial results.Then at 10 p.m., we’ll get early and absentee votes — cast by the weekend before the election — in one big dump. That’ll be a huge share of the overall electorate: more than two million votes. Mr. Biden will hold the lead: Registered Democrats outpaced Republicans in the early return. But it’s not clear whether it’ll be a huge lead, because the returns will also reflect voters who are fairly old and white.After that, they’ll tally up the votes cast on Election Day — hopefully by sometime in the early morning in the East. This vote could be pretty Republican by registration, but it’ll also include voters who are fairly young and nonwhite.Finally, the absentee votes received late — say, on Election Day — won’t be reported for a few more days. Usually, those votes are very Democratic. But Democrats got their mail ballots in early, so the remaining outstanding ballots heading into this weekend were very Republican. The big question: Are those Republicans who haven’t yet turned in their ballots going to just vote in person on Election Day, in which case the Republicans wouldn’t do well in the late mail vote? Or are the late mail votes going to be Republican this year, just because the Democratic ones came in so fast?MichiganAnother weird one. Some large jurisdictions began processing absentee ballots before the election, so it shouldn’t be quite as bad as in Pennsylvania. But on balance, absentee votes could be slow and counted later than the Election Day vote. If Mr. Biden leads at all on election night, that’s probably a good sign for him. But we’ll have to see just how many absentee ballots they get through.WisconsinThis one might be less frustrating. Most counties say they’ll be able to count everything on election night, and most counties will report their absentee and Election Day votes together. If that’s right, we should actually get a decent picture here pretty quickly. A big caveat: Not every town or county reports its absentee and Election Day votes together. You’ll have to be careful to make sure you’re not looking at a county that’s still missing a huge chunk of Democratic absentees, including Milwaukee and Green Bay’s Brown County.Minnesota Reasonable. Minnesota allows advance processing of Election Day ballots, so it should be able to tally those ballots fairly quickly. It’s not clear whether they’re going to count them in any particular order. I’d guess that means we get an unskewed count, but we’ll want to be cautious and wait for counties to wrap up before we make too many proclamations.10 p.m. EasternMajor poll closings: Iowa, NevadaWhat to watch: The Arizona early vote dump, and then we keep scouring the Midwest for the counties that appear to have concluded their count.Signs of a Biden win: Let’s suppose that Mr. Biden didn’t win Florida and North Carolina, which we more or less ought to know by 10 p.m. First, we’re going to want to see if he has a big lead in the Arizona early vote. He ought to have one. Then all eyes on the Midwest — and especially Wisconsin and Ohio. Here, we’re looking for early signs of strength for Mr. Biden. In Ohio, we’re focused on the completed counties; in Wisconsin, we’re trying to take a broad, aggregate view of all the counties without centralized absentee precincts. If Mr. Biden’s doing far better than Hillary Clinton did in 2016 in mostly white rural areas, that might be all we need to know. We’ll also have to keep a special eye on the counties in Appalachian eastern Ohio, for some hints on Pennsylvania.Signs of a Trump win: First, did Mr. Trump keep it close in the Arizona early vote? That would be a good sign for him. Then all eyes are on these mostly white Midwestern counties, especially those that have counted all of their vote. The president needs to match his 2016 tallies — or more. If the polls are right, he’ll fare far worse. If they’re wrong, we’ll know — even if we’re not yet sure whether he’ll squeak it out again.Tips on these states:IowaIowa is usually fairly straightforward. Officials count most votes quickly, and they usually count the early votes first — so Mr. Biden might get out to an early lead. Either way, we shouldn’t have to wait too long before receiving a clear picture. A close race would be a bad sign for Mr. Trump.NevadaIt used to be straightforward, but mail voting will complicate this one a bit, too. We should get basically all of the early votes and at least the Clark County (Las Vegas) absentee vote pretty quickly. Then we’ll wait for them to count the rest — which could take well into the early-morning hours in the East. And even when that’s done, there will still be late mail ballots to count: The state accepts ballots that arrive through Nov. 10.11 p.m. EasternNo battleground poll closings.What to watch. In 2016, this was around the time that Mr. Trump was the projected winner in Ohio and Iowa. If he has any shot of a breakthrough in the more competitive Midwestern battlegrounds, he ought to be in a similar spot.It’s also about the time I’ll be peeking a bit more at Pennsylvania and Michigan. Yes, Mr. Trump probably has a big lead at this point. But are there any counties that seem to have gotten through their mail absentee votes? I’d guess some are wrapping up.Signs of a Biden win: We’re still assuming that Mr. Biden hasn’t been called the winner in North Carolina or Florida, though that’s possible at this stage — even in a tightly fought race. Either way, most of our attention remains on the Midwest, and Mr. Biden would be outrunning Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 performance by a wide margin in completed counties in Iowa and Ohio. There probably won’t be a call in either state.Mr. Biden would also hope to be running ahead of Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 showing in the Wisconsin counties without centralized absentee precincts.Signs of a Trump win: This is around the time when Mr. Trump was projected the winner in North Carolina and Florida four years ago, though the late mail ballots in North Carolina might preclude a projection there in a fairly close race. Whether he’s got a call or not, Mr. Trump ought to be ahead in both states. Ohio and Iowa could fall into the president’s column around this time as well.This is also about the time Georgia was called in 2016, though the race is closer this year, and the absentee ballot situation raises some added questions. If you’re a Trump fan, don’t panic if you still don’t have the call in Georgia at this hour.Onward into the nightSigns of a Biden win: If the polls are right and the count is on track, Mr. Biden is probably getting a Wisconsin and Nevada call on election night. Georgia’s another possibility — if Mr. Biden is going to win the state, he has probably caught up to Mr. Trump by now. If the night’s going really well for Mr. Biden, maybe he’s still competitive or even leading in Iowa, Ohio or Texas.Michigan and Pennsylvania? Well, we’re just going to have to wait and see. Of the two, Michigan seems more plausible.Exactly where will the count stand in Michigan and Pennsylvania if Mr. Biden’s on track for victory? It depends on how many absentee ballots they get through, of course. If they haven’t counted many mail ballots, Mr. Trump could even lead by double digits.The better measure: Focus on any counties that manage to wrap up their count. I’d guess some will get pretty close. If Mr. Biden’s winning, he will start to outrun Mrs. Clinton’s 2016 showing in the counties that get through their mail votes. That could be the tell.Signs of a Trump win: If the president’s on track, the race in Nevada and Wisconsin might be too close to call. Even if he eventually loses Wisconsin, he might hold on to the lead all the way until we get the absentees from Milwaukee. He probably already got the call in that long list of states where Mr. Biden’s hoping to squeak out a win, like Ohio and so on.The most important sign would be a lead in Pennsylvania and Michigan. In Pennsylvania, it could easily be a double-digit lead, depending on just how many absentee ballots have been counted. With Mr. Biden holding such a commanding lead among the third of the electorate that voted early, a Trump win most likely involves a double-digit victory on Election Day — and a double-digit lead in the count, late into the night. | 0 |
The Department of Homeland Security officially published a change to what’s known as the “public charge” rule on Monday that would make it much harder to apply for a green card or earn a visa. The new policy, which is set to go into effect in mid-October, expands the definition of what would make an applicant likely to become a “public charge,” someone who the government has deemed would be dependent on it, thus rendering them ineligible for legal permanent residency status.In October 2018, the DHS released its proposal for expanding the criteria for what constitutes a “public charge” to include those receiving non-cash government services, like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), when evaluating applications for visas and legal permanent residency. Currently, people are generally only considered public charges if they use cash assistance or long-term institutional care the government is funding.The rule change also creates other factors to be weighed in consideration of the “totality of circumstances” aspect of the rule when evaluating green cards and visa applications including English proficiency, income level and health conditions. (Refugees and asylum-seekers, among others, are exempted from the rule.)After the release of the DHS proposal, the rule went through a 60-day public comment period, during which the department received over 260,000 comments about the proposal. It reached the desk of the Office of Management and Budget on July 12. Currently, the limited public charge definition means the regulation is not often used to justify the rejection of an application. The administration is purporting to solve the “the alleged but illusory problem that immigrants are eating up taxpayer funds,” said Doug Rand, an Obama administration veteran who co-founded Boundless Immigration, a technology company that helps immigrants get green cards and citizenship. Rand added the change “makes no sense,” as undocumented immigrants are not allowed to access federal public benefits. He also said that the proposal was the administration’s effort at making “profound” changes to the immigration system without congressional approval.The Department of Homeland security has published a change to the public charge rule, which will have "chilling effects" on millions of immigrants.Andrew Harnik/AP PhotoA study released in July found that 8.3 million children, most of whom are citizens, enrolled in Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program or SNAP are at potential risk of being disenrolled, with more than 5 million of those children having specific medical needs. The researchers predict that between nearly 1 and 2 million children with specific medical needs will ultimately be disenrolled as a result of the rule change.The rule’s public benefits component will not be applied retroactively, meaning those seeking green cards and visas who were enrolled in these public benefits programs before the rule was enacted will not be penalized for it.The English proficiency criteria “privileges people from certain countries where English is already spoken,” according to Jackie Vimo, a policy analyst at the National Immigration Law Center.The change to the public charge is one of multiple instances of the Trump administration attempting to change immigration policy without having to go through Congress. There’s also the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s proposal released on May 10 to halt eligibility for families with members holding different immigration statuses, or “mixed-status” families, in public and Section 8 housing, as well as other changes to the public charge rule and its enforcement.Together, these changes “turn our immigration system into green cards for the highest bidder,” Vimo said.While only those seeking green cards and visas are impacted by the rule, experts warn of a “chilling effect” that will prompt eligible immigrants to unenroll in government services. The chilling effect has already begun due to the fear generated by the proposal, ever since the idea was first reported on in February 2018.A study from May found that one in seven adults in immigrant families have avoided public benefits programs, including some who would not be affected by the rule. Rand believes that the “chilling effect is part of the intent.” “A very large number of people are likely to disenroll from public benefits from which they are perfectly entitled under U.S. law,” he said.In a letter sent July 24 obtained by HuffPost, 18 state attorneys general, spearheaded by Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D), claimed the Department of Homeland Security “entirely failed” in their estimation of the cost of their proposed public charge rule change. The lawmakers requested a meeting with the agency to further discuss the officials’ “significant concerns about the severe impact” of the proposed rule on their residents. They argue the rules would cause “extensive injury” to the economies of their states and to their states’ residents — it would cause loss of health insurance, medical access, and food and cash benefits. “If implemented as proposed, the rules will result in a reduction of total economic output, a drop in workers’ wages, and elimination of jobs in our states,” the attorneys general wrote. The OMB did not accept their request for a meeting.Ferguson told HuffPost that they are “exploring our legal options” and “actively preparing for a potential lawsuit” and that he is “confident you’ll see litigation from the states on the matter.”The city of Baltimore and nonprofit public policy organization Democracy Forward sued President Donald Trump and the Department of State in November 2018 for their attempt to alter the public charge rules. They argued the Trump administration moved forward with its plans despite understanding that the rule change would deter lawfully present immigrants and naturalized citizens from obtaining the services they need and are eligible for. | 0 |
Two weeks ago, a stunning account in Rolling Stone magazine about an alleged gang rape at the University of Virginia sent the nation reeling. The stomach-churning story led to a police and university investigation, student protests, a temporary ban on fraternities and sororities at the school — and, eventually, tremors in the media that dared to ask: Was the account to be believed? Sixteen days later, another bombshell: Rolling Stone backed off the story.On Friday, the magazine said it discovered new information that made it lose faith in the piece, days after reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely defended it.As a University of Virginia graduate who recently wrote about the heartbreak of sophomore Hannah Graham, whose disappearance and slaying captivated millions, I could barely digest the rape account. In a story dripping in gruesome details, Erdely recounted how freshman "Jackie" was brutally assaulted for several hours at a party at Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in the fall of 2012 after being lured to a darkened room by her date "Drew."The outrage in the university community and beyond was palpable. How could this go unchecked? How could these perpetrators still walk school grounds, still run into Jackie, still graduate in May?When I could finally swallow my anger and angst, I re-read the Rolling Stone piece a few days later. This time, however, I was able to detach from the scintillating prose — and I found the story unsettling for other reasons:• Embedded throughout the narrative were verses from a 70-year-old school song the reporter deemed "naughty," implying a culture of abusing women for decades. How could one make that leap?• The word "alleged" never appeared in the 9,000-word article.• There were changed names and quotes from unidentified people. On a guided tour of fraternity row, the reporter quotes a nameless student: "I know a girl who got assaulted there." Chimes in a second nameless student: "I do, too! That makes two! Yay!"• There was missing or unclear attribution. The story says "studies have shown that fraternity men are three times as likely to commit rape." Which studies?• And the most gaping hole of all: There was no mention of any attempt to contact the alleged perpetrators or to verify the events.The story goes into detail to cite alleged ringleader Drew — how he worked as a lifeguard, still roamed the campus. But beyond that, nothing. Now the fraternity says it has no record of anyone working at the aquatic center in 2012, nor a record of any social event on Sept. 28, 2012, the date in question.A basic tenet of journalism is to report all sides of a story — no matter how ugly, no matter how difficult. If you are unable to reach a party for comment you say that. If a party denies allegations in a story, you say that. It's not sexy; it doesn't always make for potent prose. But reporting all sides bolsters credibility and empowers your piece.A mesmerizing narrative should not supplant balance and fairness, standards editors should demand of anything they publish.USA TODAY has a policy of limiting the use of anonymous sources because unsubstantiated stories lose credibility with readers.The saddest takeaway may be that Rolling Stone could publish something so vivid, so alluring, yet so thin on facts and the alleged rapists' side of the story -- a failure the editors belatedly admitted Friday.The resulting firestorm is drowning out the voices that still deserve to be heard: the Jackies who may have suffered sexual assaults at Virginia and college campuses across the land.Miller is USA TODAY's copy desk chief. Follow her on Twitter @susmiller | 0 |
Story highlightsThe debate wasn't only a clash of ideas; it was a contrast of styles, say contributors Tim Stanley: Candidates were in different worlds, pugnacious Biden vs. wonkish RyanPaul Begala: Calling Romney-Ryan's plans "malarkey" was a home run for DemocratsJulian Zelizer: Both sides will be able to boast about their candidates' performanceVice President Joe Biden met his challenger, Rep. Paul Ryan, Thursday night in Danville, Kentucky, for the vice presidential debate. CNN contributors and analysts offered these assessments of the evening:Timothy Stanley: Debate was sports bar vs. seminarThis was a strange debate, even an ugly one. The two men looked like they were taking part in separate discussions. Ryan was speaking in the economics seminar at some obscure think tank. Biden was shouting answers in the middle of a loud sports bar. The tone was so uneven that the candidates seemed to find each other's presence a nuisance -- Biden laughed his way through Ryan's answers and Ryan was often visibly irritated. The most surreal moment was when Biden picked a fight with the moderator, Martha Raddatz, about the Afghanistan War. We've never seen him this pugnacious. Overall, it was a draw. Liberals will probably appreciate that Biden did what Obama failed to do last week: He took the debate to the Republicans and called out their "malarkey." But moderate voters might take offense at his combative tone, which often bordered on rude. By contrast, Ryan's softer, more wonkish style might strike floating voters as weak. But he could also score among those looking for calm and reason rather than heated rhetoric. Biden excelled when attacking Ryan on Romney's flip-flops and failure to commit to specific spending cuts. Ryan excelled when talking about his beloved Medicare and tax plans. Both men displayed thoughtfulness and humanity in the question of abortion, which pitted different traditions of Catholicism against one another. Ryan said his faith and his public policy were inseparable; Biden refused to compel others to adhere to Catholic doctrine. Again, how the voter reacts to those answers will depend on their prejudices. This debate wasn't about persuasion. It was about drawing contrasts and playing to the cameras. As a result, it probably wasn't the game changer that either side was looking for.Timothy Stanley is a historian at Oxford University and blogs for Britain's The Daily Telegraph. He is the author of "The Crusader: The Life and Times of Pat Buchanan."Paul Begala: Biden's "malarkey" line sums it upI sometimes think the definition of a Democrat is someone who is afraid to take his own side in a fight. Malarkey.With that one word, spoken in the opening minutes of the vice presidential debate, Joe Biden signaled he was fighting back. Biden gave the Democrats the debate they needed. He grabbed Paul Ryan by the scruff of his neck and gave him a thorough thrashing.Biden pounced on Ryan for seeking to cut funding for embassy security, even as he played politics with the terror attack on our consulate in Benghazi. The Malarkey Moment surprised Ryan and energized Biden. Perhaps smelling blood in the water, Biden kept Ryan on his heels for the rest of the evening. Ryan gulped water as Biden spoke, and Biden smiled (sometimes you could tell it was forced) as Ryan talked. And for all the times they called each other "my friend" and said, "with all due respect," both candidates had a tone of exasperation at times.Biden hammered Ryan and Romney for sneering at a giant percentage of Americans. Ryan has called as many as 40% of our fellow citizens "takers." Yet he more than once spoke of his family's dependence on Social Security and Medicare. Biden wouldn't let him get away with it. Finally, it got to Ryan, who snarled, "I know you're under a lot of duress." Whoa, sonny-boy, watch the snark. You're getting your butt kicked, and it shows.The Obama campaign released a photo of President Obama watching the debate. Good. The president was criticized for being too passive in the first debate. Some may criticize Biden for being too aggressive in this one. So be it. But I loved his performance, and I bet the president did as well.Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist and CNN political contributor, is senior adviser to Priorities USA Action, the biggest super PAC favoring President Barack Obama's re-election. Begala was a political consultant for Bill Clinton's presidential campaign in 1992 and was counselor to Clinton in the White House.Ana Navarro: What Obama could learn from BidenI'm a Republican pundit. I'm supposed to write that Paul Ryan crushed Joe Biden and turned him into dust in tonight's debate. But I've accidentally consumed some truth serum. I saw this as draw. Both Biden and Ryan were prepared, well practiced and brought their A game to the table. The campaign spinners are going to make the case their respective candidates won. In my book, they both scored victories.Biden won because unlike President Obama in the first debate, Biden did not clearly, unequivocally lose. He stopped the bleeding for his camp. Had Biden followed in Obama's example and given a lackluster performance, it would have been the fatal blow. Instead, Obama lives to fight another day. Ryan also came out victorious. He shared the stage with a sitting vice president and one of he most veteran politicians in America and held his own. Ryan went toe to toe with the vice president, even when discussing foreign policy, Biden's strength. Despite his youth, Ryan looked vice presidential. He debated a man who could easily be his father, but they sat there as equals and on even footing.Neither of them blinked or ceded an inch. Both of them came armed with facts and figures but also gave us a view into their personal side. This was a good debate for Joe Biden and Paul Ryan, and also for the American people. We got to see the two sides passionately advocate distinct positions. There is no muddled gray area here.Folks, buckle up! We have a tight race in our hands. The vice presidential debate has made the next presidential debate that much more crucial. If President Obama hopes to reverse the tide, he could stand to learn a few lessons from his vice president. For starters, show up not only in body, but also in soul. Engage your opponent, better yet, look at him. Challenge the statements you think are inaccurate. Don't leave opportunities on the table. Don't just stand at the plate; swing at the balls pitched at you.Joe Biden was being compared to President Obama in the first debate. He vastly outperformed him. Paul Ryan was being compared to Joe Biden, and he stood his ground. The ball now goes back to Romney and Obama's court. A few months ago, some Democrats were fretting about whether it would be better to replace Biden on the ticket. If President Obama doesn't come out swinging and deliver an energetic performance in the next debate, Democrats might find themselves wondering if the wrong guy isn't on the top of the ticket.Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist and commentator, served as national Hispanic campaign chairwoman for John McCain in 2008 and national Hispanic co-chair for Jon Huntsman's 2012 campaign. Follow her on Twitter @ananavarro.Bob Greene: The words that echoed loudestIt wasn't a moment that will make the headlines.But of all the words spoken Thursday evening, they were the ones that may have had people of every political persuasion, all across the country, nodding their heads in quiet agreement.The words came about eight minutes before the conclusion of the vice-presidential debate. They were spoken not by either of the candidates, but by the moderator, Martha Raddatz.She prefaced her thoughts by saying she knew that both men had great respect for the people who serve in the military. And then she said:"I recently spoke to a highly decorated soldier who said that this presidential campaign has left him dismayed. He told me, quote, 'The ads are so negative, and they are all tearing down each other rather than building up the country.' What would you say to that American hero about this campaign, and at the end of the day, are you ever embarrassed by the tone?" The answers given by Joe Biden and Paul Ryan -- serious in tenor -- were not as stirring as the question itself, because unless you are a professional political operative whose job it is to attack the other side, you recognize the wisdom in that soldier's words. Raddatz did not mention what the soldier's political allegiance was, and it would have been beside the point. What mattered is that he is an American, and he believes that much of the tone of the campaign has been beneath the dignity of what Americans should expect.Biden repeatedly referred to Ryan as "my friend"; Ryan, at the end of the proceedings, thanked Biden -- he referred to him as "Joe" -- and said it had been an honor to debate him.People tend to accord each other that kind of courtesy when they have to look each other in the eye. Friday morning, though, the ad wars will resume, like bombing raids conducted from two miles in the air. The truth of that is undebatable.Bob Greene is a best-selling author whose 25 books include "Late Edition: A Love Story," "Duty: A Father, His Son, and the Man Who Won the War," and "Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen."Donna Brazile: Who says VP debates don't matter?Joe Biden proved tonight that vice presidential debates can -- and should - matter. And Martha Raddatz proved that moderators can -- and should -- moderate. Paul Ryan showed that talking points, an engaging personality and a few personal anecdotes can't mask bad policy, misinformation and ignorance.Paul Ryan attempted to dominate the conversation -- a bullying tactic he took from Romney's playbook and that clearly irritated Biden. He rattled off misleading information, half-truths and cooked-up numbers. He made unsubstantiated claims about President Obama, the effects of his policies, both here and abroad, and ignored the context of the last four years: the "Great Recession" and Republican congressional obstructionism. Biden successfully challenged them all.Raddatz pressed both candidates for specifics and would not be bulldozed. She kept the debate moving, didn't let it deteriorate (too much), and asked hard questions. At various points, both candidates were uncomfortable; both Biden and Ryan had "I don't want to answer that" moments. That's a sign the moderator was doing her job. For the most part, she let them debate, but acted as guide and, well, moderator. It's a tough line moderators have to walk, but Martha Raddatz did it as well as anybody.Joe Biden came prepared to argue, to debate and to be Joe. He didn't allow the "less than candid" Republican claims to go unchallenged. When Ryan brought up "values," Biden brought up "responsibility," and the disdain Romney and Ryan have for 47% (or 30%) of the American people. He even countered Ryan's reference to his "gaffes," replying, "I always say what I mean."Ryan was salesman smooth and knew his talking points. Biden was passionate and "fired up." Ryan talked; Biden shared experience. Both men could argue, but only Biden was intense -- because he spoke -- and frowned and gestured and smiled - from his heart as well as his mind.A young woman, in her early twenties, wrote me after the debate that Joe Biden inspired her with his fervor and honesty to register and to vote.Yes, this debate mattered. A lot.Donna Brazile, a CNN contributor and a Democratic strategist, is vice chairwoman for voter registration and participation at the Democratic National Committee. She is a nationally syndicated columnist, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and author of "Cooking With Grease." She was manager for the Gore-Lieberman presidential campaign in 2000.Margaret Hoover: Ryan ahead on style and substanceBottom line -- this debate will amount to a draw. Biden, who needed to stop the hemorrhaging of momentum from the Obama-Biden campaign, performed strongly, but was overly aggressive. If he was downright rude, according to many in the Twitterverse, he got a pass from the president's supporters, who can only hope they see this offense from the commander-in-chief next week. Biden tried to dominate the debate, lost on style and stumbled on substance. Ryan seemed less confident on foreign policy at the beginning, but recovered on Afghanistan, where he's visited twice and had a personal anecdote to illustrate his time in Helmand Province. I wish he'd called Biden out when he accused Ryan of voting to "to put two wars on a credit card." Biden, too, voted for both wars. The high water mark of the performance was Ryan's fancy footwork early that took 47%-gate off the table in quipping, "I think the vice president very well knows that sometimes the words don't come out of your mouth the right way." Even Biden had to chuckle.This split screen captured the contrast in visions of the two vice presidential candidates on fiscal policy. Appropriately on the left, older Joe Biden, defending big government and modern liberalism's spending and fiscal denial with a grinning fresh face offering new ideas for fiscal reform and longevity from the right. Ryan was classy to thank the vice president for the debate, even after having been smirked at for the previous 90 minutes. But Biden's graciousness to Ryan's mother once the microphones were cut portrayed his interpersonal warmth that plays so well on the campaign trail. I think Ryan had the advantage on substance and style. In a national race where both guys are second runner-up, this is effectively a draw for how it plays into the larger campaign narratives. Margaret Hoover is the author of "American Individualism: How a New Generation of Conservatives Can Save the Republican Party."William Howell: Ryan's challenge was bigger, and he met itNo great surprise, Joe Biden delivered tonight. On the heels of his boss' withering performance last week, the vice president demonstrated his deep knowledge of domestic and foreign policy issues, fluidly maneuvering between minutiae about tax policy and the draw-down in Afghanistan on the one hand and meta-arguments about the stakes involved in this election on the other. He also scored his share of style points. Though all that laughing through those big pearly whites proved a bit unnerving at times, Biden exhibited his relish for a good debate and his conviction in essential liberal principles. The Democratic base is surely pleased.It was Paul Ryan, though, who faced the bigger challenge. Ryan had to prove his commitment to ideas and principles that are not entirely of his choosing. During the primaries, when Romney was brandishing his conservative credentials, this task would have been easily met. But going into this debate, it was not clear that the darling among the conservative right would be able to square his views with those of the more moderate incarnation of the former governor of deep-blue Massachusetts. But well he did. Disciplined, substantive and on point, Ryan effectively thwarted efforts by Biden to drive a wedge between the congressman's former voting record and the policy positions of the Romney-Ryan ticket. He performed as well as his party could possibly have hoped.This debate is not likely to move the polls much at all. But that is not to say that it is entirely inconsequential. For at least the coming week, Democrats can now talk about something other than their president's detachment. And Republicans generally, but Romney in particular, can rest assured that the GOP presidential ticket is in order as they settle on a consistent message to push through Election Day.William Howell is the Sydney Stein professor in American politics at the University of Chicago.Maria Cardona: Pressure is on the next two debates This was one of the best vice presidential debates I've seen. The pressure was on Vice President Joe Biden to deliver a great performance -- and deliver he did. Biden was assertive and aggressive, and he didn't let any untruth or distortion coming out of Paul Ryan's mouth slide. From Medicare to taxes to Iran to Afghanistan to the 47% to abortion, Biden did not miss an opportunity and was as clear as he could have been on how President Obama would be on the side of middle-class families, seniors, women and those most vulnerable in our society. He was factual and specific. His years of experience in the Senate showed as he commanded the stage with his expertise. Rep. Paul Ryan held his own, didn't make any mistakes and was prepared. But he was outwitted by Biden and challenged by the moderator Martha Raddatz when he was being vague. Ryan's weakest moments came when he was pressed for specifics. He seemed demure on the issue of what loopholes he would close or how he and Mitt Romney would pay for the tax cuts and defense spending increases they are proposing. Raddatz pushed him on these points, and he did not have a satisfactory answer. In some instances, whether it was on economic issues or Iran, Ryan was not able to say what he and Romney would do differently. Biden came across as more authentic, much more passionate and as a guy who is a real champion of the middle class. Moreover, Biden was able to stop the bleeding, get Democrats excited about the next two debates and inject some much needed energy and optimism coming out of the doldrums from last week's presidential debate. Did the debate change any minds? Probably not. It seems Republicans are happy with Ryan's performance just as Democrats are happy with Biden's. What this means is that the remaining two presidential debates take on even more importance for how this race will continue to play out. Stay tuned. Maria Cardona is a Democratic strategist, a principal at the Dewey Square Group, a former senior adviser to Hillary Clinton and former communications director for the Democratic National Committee.John Avlon: Biden overwhelms RyanI underestimated Joe Biden. Before the vice presidential debate, I'd thought that Paul Ryan would have the upper hand -- a young, smart policy wonk and great communicator paired off against an out-of-practice, aging politico with a recurring case of foot-in-mouth disease. I was wrong. Joe Biden had clearly studied Barack Obama's failures in the first presidential debate and decided to do the exact opposite -- intensely engaged, smiling and pushing back aggressively at the slightest hint of misstatement or exaggeration. Paul Ryan was bobbing on the sea of Biden, keeping his head above water much of the time but occasionally overwhelmed by the combined force of personality and facts. He looked like what he was -- an earnest, intelligent, over-coached, comparatively inexperienced chairman of the Budget Committee. Moderator Martha Raddatz had perhaps the best debate, especially compared to the unfocused Jim Lehrer; she actually asked pointed questions and follow-ups. And it was there that the campaign spin had to surrender to stats and facts. Ryan is a budget expert, but he either didn't want to acknowledge or didn't know his own campaign's proposal to increase military spending to 4% of GDP, adding $2 trillion in federal spending over 10 years and blowing a hole in their deficit reduction rhetoric. Likewise, questions about what specifically a Romney-Ryan administration would do differently about Syria, Iran or Afghanistan went essentially unanswered despite the flurry of words. Joe Biden made his share of unforced errors -- interrupting Ryan far too much and getting so overheated at one point that he turned his frustration against the moderator in an awkward spate of finger-pointing. Ryan also shined in his discussion of deficits and debts, contrasting the president's speeches with score-able policy. His closing statement was disarming and compelling. The best moment in terms of style and substance was Raddatz's question about abortion and the candidates' shared Catholic faith. Both men gave serious, thoughtful answers on this most difficult of subjects -- but Ryan's anti-abortion agenda contrasted to Biden's belief that he could not impose his personal religious views on an individual woman's decision. It was an eloquent defense of the separation of church and state -- a core concept we have heard too little about in recent years. This debate might not get as many viewers as the 70 million Americans who tuned in to the Biden-Palin debate in 2008 -- but it was far more substantive, energetic and serious. It was a great debate -- simultaneously civil and contentious -- the kind we need more of in the United States. Biden's strong performance gave the Democrats a much needed shot in the arm, a compelling defense of their values and beliefs that will buoy their sagging morale and change the narrative going into the second presidential debate on Tuesday. It might not have changed many undecided minds, but it changed the momentum -- and that's a win in our democracy circa 2012.John Avlon is a senior political columnist for Newsweek and The Daily Beast. He is co-editor of the book "Deadline Artists: America's Greatest Newspaper Columns." He is a regular contributor to CNN's "Erin Burnett OutFront."Julian Zelizer: Something for both sidesVice President Joe Biden and Rep. Paul Ryan engaged in a vigorous debate, with a moderator who kept pushing the discussion along. Both sides will find something in the debate that they can boast about. Ryan demonstrated he could debate policy areas where he is not as experienced, particularly foreign policy, and he handled himself well before the television cameras. He remained calm under fire. Ryan was also able to tell a few personal stories that he used to try to humanize the image of his running mate.For Democrats, who needed a much bigger boost, Biden came through in that he was much more aggressive than Obama was in last week's debate, hammering away at Republican economic policies, warning voters about his opponent's Medicare plan and defending the administration's actions overseas. Biden consistently raised questions about whether Ryan and the Republicans are even telling the truth when they speak. During the last segment of the debate, Biden seemed to be at his strongest, a Democrat who was tough on national security and someone who was on firmer ground than his opponent with regard to understanding these challenges. Biden said what many Democrats wanted President Obama to say against Romney, showing the enthusiasm and the fire that was absent last week.There are some viewers who might have been turned off by Biden's tendency to laugh and shake his head in dismissive fashion as Ryan was speaking. The danger for Democrats is that some swing voters read this as arrogance and partisanship rather than a sign of Biden's comfort before the cameras.Like other vice presidential debates, this one probably won't have much of an impact on the electorate, though it will help curb some of the media discussion about Obama's poor first performance and generate some excitement among Democrats who were left deflated after Denver. Finally, both candidates handled themselves well enough that it probably won't have any major effect on their fortunes if they choose to run for the presidency in 2016.Julian Zelizer is a professor of history and public affairs at Princeton University. He is the author of "Jimmy Carter" and of the new book "Governing America."Aaron Carroll: Debate shed little light on Medicare, MedicaidNo one will confuse this debate and the last one. Both participants came prepared to fight. There are many who will say that Vice President Biden was too forceful, or was disrespectful, but for supporters of the president who wanted to see a more energetic response to the Republican campaign, Biden's performance was likely a balm. The polls will tell us in the next few days, but if Biden's actions tonight inspire the base as I think they likely will, then the president will see some benefit.Of course, my main interest is health policy, and in that respect, tonight was a bit disappointing. The entire discussion centered on Medicare. For all the bluster between the two campaigns, the differences between them on that program for the next decade are small. For all the talk about the financial risk Medicare holds, neither wants to cut it severely soon. On Medicaid, however, the differences are stark; that program didn't come up at all.I also was appalled that raising the Medicare age of eligibility was tossed off as an obvious thing to do. That's a terrible idea. Dr. Aaron E. Carroll is an associate professor of pediatrics at the Indiana University School of Medicine and the director of the university's Center for Health Policy and Professionalism Research. He blogs about health policy at The Incidental Economist and tweets at @aaronecarroll. | 0 |
As the matriarch of one of America’s political dynasties, Mrs. Bush spent a half century in the public eye. She was portrayed as the consummate wife and homemaker as her husband rose from Texas oilman to commander in chief. They had six children, the eldest of whom, George W. Bush, became president. Their eldest daughter, Robin, died at age 3 of leukemia, a tragedy that had a profound impact on the family.Her husband served two terms as vice president under Ronald Reagan and then one as president, from 1989 to 1993. On his watch, the Cold War ended, and the nation and its allies achieved a swift and crushing victory over Iraq in the Persian Gulf War — before a faltering economy largely doomed his reelection prospects. Former first lady Barbara Bush dies at age 92First Lady Barbara Bush, with her trademark white hair and three-strand pearl necklace, sits on the White House’s Truman Balcony with her dog Millie. Mrs. Bush has passed away at age 92. (Arthur Elgort/Conde Nast)George W. Bush, a former governor of Texas, was president from 2001 to 2009, and after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he led the country into long-lasting wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the rumblings of the Great Recession. “Barbara Bush was a fabulous First Lady and a woman unlike any other who brought levity, love, and literacy to millions,” her eldest son said in a statement. “To us, she was so much more. Mom kept us on our toes and kept us laughing until the end.”Only Abigail Adams, whose husband, John Adams, and son John Quincy Adams served as the second and sixth presidents, respectively, of the United States, shared Mrs. Bush’s distinction of being the wife and mother of commanders in chief. Notable deaths in 2018 and 2019: Nipsey Hussle, George H.W. Bush, Stan Lee, John McCain, Aretha Franklin and other famous faces we’ve lostNipsey Hussle, a Grammy nominated rapper who sought to revive South Los Angeles, died at age 33 on March 31. Read the obituary (Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Warner Music)Another Bush son, Jeb, served two terms as Florida governor before unsuccessfully seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2016. Mrs. Bush was proud of her family’s achievements but expressed reservations — especially as Jeb Bush mounted his White House bid — about whether it was healthy in a democracy for one family to accumulate so much power. In a “Today” show interview, she called Jeb Bush “by far the best-qualified man.” But “there are a lot of great families, and it’s not just four families or whatever. There are other people out there that are very qualified,” she remarked, adding — with her characteristic bluntness — that “we’ve had enough Bushes.”But once her son entered the race, she was 100 percent in — and she did not mince words about her distaste for his primary opponent, businessman Donald Trump. In a joint interview with Jeb before the New Hampshire primary, she unflinchingly stated that it was “incomprehensible” to her that anyone would vote for Trump, particularly women, in light of his abusive comments about them.Instinctively understanding how Trump’s apparent fondness for Russian leader Vladimir Putin might not sit well with voters, she further noted: “Putin has endorsed him, for heaven’s sakes. Putin the killer, Putin the worst. That’s an endorsement you don’t want.”Trump issued a statement Tuesday evening, praising Mrs. Bush as “an advocate of the American family” and highlighting her focus on literacy as one of her greatest achievements.A relatively unknown national figure until her husband became vice president, Mrs. Bush was comfortable as a backstage force, maintaining stability during her family’s more than two dozen moves before entering the vice president’s official residence in 1981.
Within the Bush clan, she was known as “the enforcer.” “She may be a lot of people’s grandmother,” Jeb Bush told Newsday in 1990 when asked about his mother’s soothing, even matronly persona as first lady, “but she was our drill sergeant when we were growing up.”By her account, she had evolved from a shy, socially “square” 16-year-old schoolgirl smitten at the sight of her 17-year-old future husband at a Christmas dance in Greenwich, Conn. At 19, she left her elite women’s college — Smith — to marry him.
Within a few years, they would leave behind their lives of wealth and privilege in the Northeast as George H.W. Bush sought his fortune as a Texas oilman before winning a congressional seat in 1966. Mrs. Bush accompanied him across the country and around the world as he served as U.N. ambassador, leader of the Republican National Committee, U.S. envoy to China and director of the CIA before becoming Reagan’s running mate.According to Peter and Rochelle Schweizer’s 2004 book, “The Bushes: Portrait of a Dynasty,” Mrs. Bush for years maintained and meticulously curated a network of tens of thousands of contacts and friends that she saved on index cards for social and fundraising reasons. By the time the Bushes got to the White House and automated the card file, they had a Christmas card list in excess of 10,000 names. The political spouseAs a political spouse, she contrasted sharply with her predecessor as first lady, Nancy Reagan, who had at times generated unwanted attention with her lavish spending, designer clothes and intrusions into her husband’s administration. Mrs. Bush presented herself as the antithesis of glamour and excess. She endeared herself to many with her droll frankness, boasting about her trademark triple-strand faux pearls and joking about her prematurely white hair. The two wives were formidable women, protective of their husbands, and their relationship during the Reagan administration was noticeably icy. The Bushes were seldom invited to the Reagan White House’s family quarters.As first lady, Mrs. Bush established the nonprofit Barbara Bush Foundation for Family Literacy, to which she donated nearly $800,000 in after-tax proceeds from her best-selling “Millie’s Book” (1990), which channeled the voice of her pet dog.She also encouraged people to volunteer at homeless shelters and Head Start projects, and she promoted AIDS awareness when the disease was still highly stigmatized and misunderstood. In 1989, she made front-page headlines when she visited Grandma’s House, a pediatric AIDS care center in the District, and cradled an infant patient at a time when many people mistakenly believed the disease could be contracted through mere proximity to the virus. She attended in 1990 the funeral of Ryan White, the teenager who had fought to return to public school in Indiana after he contracted the AIDS virus through a blood transfusion. (Her husband signed into law what is now the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program to help provide services for people with the disease, but AIDS advocates have regarded the program as inadequately funded for years.) Mrs. Bush sat on the board of the historically black Morehouse College in Atlanta and was reported to have played a role in the selection of her friend Louis W. Sullivan, the president of Morehouse’s medical school, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.Despite her preferences for staying behind the scenes, Mrs. Bush wasn’t shy about expressing her own views. At times, Mrs. Bush made public statements that seemed to conflict with her husband’s policies, including his opposition to abortion rights and gun-control measures. But she adamantly resisted being pulled into discussions about personal and controversial topics, dispatching unwanted questions with salty humor or a sharp, “Next question.” In a rare misstep while joking with reporters, she referred to Geraldine Ferraro, her husband’s vice-presidential opponent in 1984, as “that $4 million — I can’t say it, but it rhymes with ‘rich.’ ” She quickly apologized.The White House staff adopted a nickname bestowed on her by her children — the “Silver Fox” — and took care not to cross her. She was known to stare down aides she thought were not performing up to task for her husband.In one incident, Mrs. Bush put Craig Fuller, chief of staff to then-Vice President Bush, on notice after friends and supporters complained that he was not returning their calls. As she watched him sift through a stack of messages, she snapped, within her husband’s earshot, “Keep looking. . . . You’ll find a couple from me.”During four years as first lady, Mrs. Bush consistently ranked among the nation’s most-admired women, with high poll numbers that contrasted with her husband’s tumbling ratings. During the 1992 election, she was often deployed by the Bush campaign as a surrogate to humanize a president not known for charisma or the common touch.
She was, many commentators agreed, his most valuable asset in a race against then-Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton, an agile campaigner who pounded Bush on the economy, and wild card candidate H. Ross Perot, a Texas billionaire running as an independent.“She had grit and grace, brains and beauty,” Clinton said in a statement after her death, noting that he sometimes visited the Bushes at their family retreat in Kennebunkport, Maine. “Barbara joked that George and I spent so much time together I had become almost a member of the family, the ‘black sheep’ that had gone astray.”Mrs. Bush generally managed to avoid the sorts of intrigues and uproars that perturbed her predecessor as first lady and her successor, Hillary Clinton, a lawyer, activist and herself an eventual presidential nominee. Clinton promised to be a partner in her husband’s public life and memorably defended her career by remarking, “I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas.”In her no-nonsense way, Mrs. Bush rejected the idea of the election being a referendum on dramatic generational change and pushed back against polls that said she was better liked by the electorate than her husband.“Nobody is jealous of me,” she told The Washington Post. “I mean, look at me. Who would be? It’s easy to like me. They like George, and they respect him. But he has to say no to people because he has to do what’s right for the country, and that’s hard.”'Interested in George'Barbara Pierce was born in New York City on June 8, 1925, and raised in the tony suburb of Rye, N.Y. She was one of four children of the former Pauline Robinson, the daughter of an Ohio Supreme Court justice, and Marvin Pierce, a top executive of McCall Corp., which published Redbook and McCall’s magazines. As a child, Barbara stood out physically, having reached 5 foot 8 and 148 pounds by age 12. She once described her younger self as “a very happy, fat child who spent all my life with my mother saying, ‘Eat up, Martha,’ to my older sister and, ‘Not you, Barbara.’ ” She would later talk about her mother as a humorless, unapproachable taskmaster.She was 16 and a student at the private Ashley Hall school in Charleston, S.C., when she met George Herbert Walker Bush, who was then attending the private Phillips Academy in Andover, Mass. A romance sparked at the 1941 Christmas dance and continued mostly through letters.She later called him her first love and said he was the only boy she ever kissed. She entered Smith College in 1943, but, as she told United Press International years later, “didn’t like to study very much. . . . The truth is, I just wasn’t very interested. I was just interested in George.”She withdrew from Smith in 1944 after their engagement was announced. Her fiance, a handsome Navy pilot, was serving in the South Pacific on Sept. 2, 1944, when his plane was hit by enemy fire. He was rescued in the water. They married on Jan. 6, 1945, while George was home on leave. He had named his bomber plane “Barbara.”After the war, she went with him to New Haven, Conn., where he graduated from Yale University, and then to West Texas.Many years afterward, she told The Post that her early experiences in Texas helped toughen her for public life. “When you become a couple, all grown up, nobody’s son or daughter, nobody’s shadow, you are you,” she said. “For me, it was a very healthy thing. I grew up after I left the shadow of my mother.”In 1953, the Bush family was devastated by the prolonged suffering and eventual death of daughter Robin, whose full name was Pauline Robinson Bush. Decades later, Barbara Bush would still choke up when speaking of her.“I was combing her hair and holding her hand,” she told the “Today” show. “I saw that little body, I saw her spirit go.”Barbara was thrust into despair by the ordeal and its aftermath. But The Post reported that Robin’s death deepened Mrs. Bush’s bond with her son George, who was 7 at the time. He would tell friends he could not go out to play because his mother needed him, and he worked hard to cheer her up — shaping, as it happened, his ebullient personality.Mrs. Bush gradually regained her equilibrium. With her husband, she started a foundation that raised money for leukemia research and awareness. She also spent considerable time helping guide her son Neil through his struggles with dyslexia. She said her son’s reading disorder contributed to her devotion to literacy as second lady and then as first lady.
George H.W. Bush’s careers in the oil business and public service often kept him away from home, leaving Mrs. Bush as the authority figure. She drove the car pools and stuffed five kids in the car for the annual summertime cross-country trips to the family retreat in Kennebunkport.She acknowledged that once her youngest child left the house, she fell into depression. She attributed her feelings, at least in part, to the lack of purpose she felt as her children — and the women’s movement — came of age. “Suddenly women’s lib had made me feel my life had been wasted,” she told USA Today in 1989.She said that her husband helped her overcome her doubts and that she also began to take satisfaction in seeing her children develop into self-sufficient adults, even if some — particularly the one who would become president — showed fiercely independent sides.By his own admission, George W. Bush drank too much in his youth and gave his parents many headaches before a newfound religious fervor in his 40s changed his life. Mrs. Bush simply called her son “a late bloomer.”Neil, the fourth child, was a director of the Denver-based Silverado Savings & Loan and was enmeshed in its collapse in 1988, which cost taxpayers more than $1 billion. He and other directors settled the case, and Neil Bush paid a $50,000 fine. Besides her husband, survivors include five children, George, Jeb, Marvin, who co-founded an investment firm, Neil Bush and Dorothy “Doro” Bush Koch, who has worked in fundraising and philanthropy; a brother; 17 grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.'A great life'Mrs. Bush generated a flash of controversy when Wellesley College, the women’s school in Massachusetts, invited her to speak at its 1990 commencement. Some students protested, saying the first lady, who had dropped out of college to marry and who had risen to prominence through the accomplishments of her husband, did not represent the type of career woman the college sought to educate.At the commencement, Mrs. Bush told the graduates to “cherish your human connections: your relationships with family and friends.” She memorably added: “Somewhere out in this audience may even be someone who will one day follow in my footsteps, and preside over the White House as the president’s spouse, and I wish him well.”She had abandoned some of the reserve she cultivated as first lady by the time her son was elected president in 2000. When George W. Bush’s administration was criticized for its slow response to Hurricane Katrina in 2005, she told the public radio program “Marketplace” that the Gulf Coast evacuees being housed at Houston’s Astrodome “were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.”
A White House press secretary tried to play down the remark, saying Mrs. Bush was making a strictly “personal observation.”In her final years, Barbara Bush lived in the home she and her husband built in Houston and largely stayed out of the spotlight. In 2009, she sat for an interview with Fox News on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the George Bush Presidential Library in College Station, Tex.“Well, it was a wonderful life that he’s had and I’ve shared,” Mrs. Bush said wistfully, recalling her time with her husband in Washington and China and even the car that first took them to West Texas. “We’ve had a great life.” | 0 |
With a majority of Americans now in favor marijuana legalization, President Barack Obama is now saying weed is no more dangerous to individuals' health than alcohol. In an interview with the New Yorker's David Remnick published Sunday, Obama said while he believes marijuana is "not very healthy," the drug isn't as harmful as some insist. “As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don’t think it is more dangerous than alcohol," Obama told Remnick. When asked if he believes marijuana is less harmful than alcohol, Obama said it is less damaging "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer.""It’s not something I encourage, and I’ve told my daughters I think it’s a bad idea, a waste of time, not very healthy," he added. Marijuana is currently classified by the Drug Enforcement Administration as a Schedule 1 substance, which the DEA considers "the most dangerous class of drugs with a high potential for abuse and potentially severe psychological and/or physical dependence." Other Schedule 1 drugs include heroin, ecstasy and LSD. Obama said his focus on reforming laws that punish drug users, noting the racial disparity in drug arrests."We should not be locking up kids or individual users for long stretches of jail time when some of the folks who are writing those laws have probably done the same thing," he said. In August, the Obama administration announced it would not stop Washington and Colorado from legalizing recreational marijuana use, marking a major step away from the administration's war on drugs. In the New Yorker interview, Obama said he believes these new laws are "important."“It's important for it to go forward because it’s important for society not to have a situation in which a large portion of people have at one time or another broken the law and only a select few get punished," he said.Former President Bill ClintonAPBill "Didn't Inhale" Clinton has supported decriminalizing marijuana for more than a decade and more recently has spoken out against the war on drugs. “I think that most small amounts of marijuana have been decriminalized in some places, and should be," he said back in 2000 in an interview with Rolling Stone. "We really need a re-examination of our entire policy on imprisonment.” He's since spoken about the issue of marijuana and drug prohibition a number of times. Last year, he appeared in the documentary, "Breaking the Taboo," where he argued that the war on drugs has been a failure.Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.)APPaul exhibited his libertarian tendencies earlier this year when he explained that he'd favor reforming marijuana laws to either decriminalize or reduce penalties for possession. “I don't want to promote that but I also don't want to put people in jail who make a mistake," Paul said. "There are a lot of young people who do this and then later on in their twenties they grow up and get married and they quit doing things like this. I don't want to put them in jail and ruin their lives."Former Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas)As a congressman, Paul took his opposition to marijuana and drug prohibition a step farther than his son has so far. He supported a number of bills that would have removed the plant from its current status as a Schedule I substance under federal law, where it is considered alongside heroin and PCP. Because his history on the topic is so expansive, just take a look at the video to the left for a selection of his comments.Evangelist Pat RobertsonAPWhile the 83-year-old Robertson may say a lot of things that make him sound like a kooky old man, he's also made a few remarks to endear himself to marijuana advocates. "I really believe we should treat marijuana the way we treat beverage alcohol," Robertson said in an interview with The New York Times in 2012. "I've never used marijuana and I don't intend to, but it's just one of those things that I think: this war on drugs just hasn't succeeded." Robertson has made similar remarks on his "700 Club" show before, but the Times, like many others, perhaps felt they must have misheard him.New York City Mayor Michael BloombergGetty ImagesIn a state of the city address earlier this year, Bloomberg made it clear that he supported a promise by New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) to push marijuana decriminalization. "I support Governor Cuomo's proposal to make possession of small amounts of marijuana a violation, rather than a misdemeanor, and we'll work to help him pass it." A similar effort specific to NYC has made some progress, but faces an unclear path forward with New York lawmakers.Actor Bryan CranstonGetty ImagesSome may think of Cranston as more of a meth guy thanks to Walter White, his character on AMC's hit show "Breaking Bad," but in real life he's spoken out against current pot laws, suggesting that recreational marijuana use isn't a big deal -- and shouldn't be treated like it. “[T]o me, marijuana is no different than wine," he said in an interview with High Times. "It's a drug of choice. It's meant to alter your current state -- and that's not a bad thing. It's ridiculous that marijuana is still illegal. We're still fighting for it ... It comes down to individual decision-making. There are millions of people who smoke pot on a social basis and don't become criminals. So stop with that argument -- it doesn't work.”[H/T Marijuana Majority]Former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson (R)APUnlike many politicians, Johnson, a Libertarian presidential candidate in 2012, has unabashedly admitted using marijuana. But beyond his personal history with pot, he's been an outspoken advocate for legalizing and taxing it. From his campaign platform: "By managing marijuana like alcohol and tobacco - regulating, taxing and enforcing its lawful use - America will be better off. The billions saved on marijuana interdiction, along with the billions captured as legal revenue, can be redirected against the individuals committing real crimes against society."Author Stephen KingGetty ImagesKing hasn't been shy about advocating for a legal marijuana industry that could give easy access to recreational users and revenue to the states. “Marijuana should not only be legal, I think it should be a cottage industry," he said in an interview with High Times. "My wife says, and I agree with her, that what would be really great for Maine would be to legalize dope completely and set up dope stores the way that there are state-run liquor stores.”[H/T Marijuana Majority]Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.)Getty ImagesRohrabacher was a co-sponsor of the 2013 "Respect State Marijuana Laws Act," which seeks to protect marijuana users or businesses acting legally according to state marijuana laws from being prosecuted under the federal Controlled Substances Act. While marijuana has been made legal for various uses in a number of states, the Obama administration continues to enforce federal laws across the nation. This has led to numerous raids of marijuana-based businesses, as well as prosecutions of growers and other people involved in pot.Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska)APRep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.)Getty ImagesGlenn BeckAPBack in 2009, when Beck had a Fox News show, he suggested that marijuana legalization could be a worthwhile solution to raging drug violence on the nation's border with Mexico. "I think it's about time we legalize marijuana," he said. "We have to make a choice in this country. We either put people who are smoking marijuana behind bars or we legalize it, but this little game we're playing in the middle is not helping us, it is not helping Mexico and it is causing massive violence on our southern border."Billionaire Richard BransonAPFrom an op-ed by Branson arguing for an end to the war on drugs: "Decriminalization does not result in increased drug use. Portugal's 10 year experiment shows clearly that enough is enough. It is time to end the war on drugs worldwide. We must stop criminalising drug users. Health and treatment should be offered to drug users - not prison. Bad drugs policies affect literally hundreds of thousands of individuals and communities across the world. We need to provide medical help to those that have problematic use - not criminal retribution."GOP Mega-Donor David KochAPKoch may have funneled countless dollars to conservative candidates who oppose reforming marijuana laws, but back in 1980, when he was the vice presidential candidate for the Libertarian Party, he suggested that it was "ridiculous" to consider people who smoked pot "criminals."Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R)Getty ImagesIn 2010, Perry told Jon Stewart that he believed in a federalist approach to marijuana laws -- that is, to allow states to determine their own approach and to tell the federal government to butt out. He's since suggested he'd be willing to support decriminalizing possession of small amounts of marijuana.Comedy Central's Jon StewartGetty ImagesStewart has made a habit of taking down politicians who exhibit an uncompromising stance on marijuana prohibition. In 2012, Stewart took New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) to task for vetoing a marijuana decriminalization bill. “Alright, as much as I disagree, I don’t think marijuana should be illegal, but it is illegal on the federal level," Stewart began. "Christie is a former prosecutor, a man of conviction, of principle, doesn’t believe that the state should supersede federal law." The praise in the second sentence is a good sign that Stewart is about to shred Christie. Watch the rest of his takedown above.Actor Jack NicholsonAPIn an interview with the UK's Daily Mail in 2011, Nicholson said that he personally still used marijuana, before making the case for ending the prohibition on pot as well as other drugs. "I don't tend to say this publicly, but we can see it's a curative thing. The narcotics industry is also enormous. It funds terrorism and - this is a huge problem in America - fuels the foreign gangs," he said. "More than 85 percent of men incarcerated in America are on drug-related offences. It costs $40,000 a year for every prisoner. If they were really serious about the economy there would be a sensible discussion about legalization."Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman (R)APIn a 2013 American Conservative op-ed chock full of moderate Republican views, Huntsman snuck in a call to "applaud states that lead on reforming drug policy." While Obama and his administration have responded to state marijuana reforms by saying they must enforce federal laws against marijuana, the president has the power to reschedule the drug, which would allow federal authorities to shift resources away from a prohibitive approach.Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R)APPalin spoke out on marijuana in 2010, saying she didn't support legalizing it but also calling it a "minimal problem" for the nation. "However, I think we need to prioritize our law enforcement efforts," Palin said. "If somebody's gonna smoke a joint in their house and not do anybody any harm, then perhaps there are other things our cops should be looking at to engage in and try to clean up some of the other problems we have in society." While Obama has spoken repeatedly about not being interested in prosecuting small-time marijuana users, he hasn't done anything to prevent them from being busted by law enforcement in states where the drug is still illegal.Comedian Jimmy KimmelGetty ImagesKimmel notably took a shot at Obama while serving as host of the 2012 White House Correspondents Dinner, questioning a continued marijuana crackdown under the president's administration. He then went on to say that the issue of its continued illegality was a serious political concern for many Americans.(Check out the video above.)Former President Jimmy CarterGetty ImagesCarter hasn't minced words in expressing his opposition to harsh marijuana and drug prohibition policies. In 2012, the former president said he was fine with state legalization efforts, though he himself doesn't necessary support legalizing the drug. “As president 35 years ago I called for decriminalizing -- but not legalizing -- the possession of marijuana,” Carter said. “Since then, U.S. drug policies have been very horrible to our own country because of an explosion in prison populations.”Former Virginia Attorney General Ken CuccinelliAPA staunch conservative who failed in a run for the U.S. Senate last year, Cuccinelli suggested in 2013 that he was "evolving" on marijuana legalization, and that he supported the rights of states to determine their own pot laws. "I don't have a problem with states experimenting with this sort of thing I think that's the role of states," Cuccinelli said, according to Ryan Nobles of WWBT.Columnist Dan SavageAPSavage slammed Obama for perpetuating the war on drugs while on HBO's "Real Time With Bill Maher" in 2009. “The proof will be in the policy. The war on drugs has gotten a really bad rap, when you ask people if they support the war on drugs they say no ... [Obama's] budget once again has the same old drug warrior policy ... I reject the assumption that everybody who is using drugs needs treatment or is an addict and needs to get arrested ... Not all drug use is abuse.” He's kept up the fight for drug policy reform since.[H/T Marijuana Majority]MSNBC's Al SharptonGetty ImagesSharpton has repeatedly spoken out in favor of reforming drug laws. In 2011, he suggested that the nation had wasted trillions of dollars in an ill-fated effort that had weighed particularly heavily on the African American community. “We've been fighting the war on drugs since the '60s. And guess what? Trillions of dollars later, we are losing," Sharpton said during a segment on MSNBC. "When you look at the disparities in sentencing drug offenders, hasn't this kind of injustice undermined the legitimacy of our criminal justice system?”[H/T Marijuana Majority]Former Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.)APTancredo came out aggressively in favor of reforming marijuana laws in 2010, telling the Colorado Independent that the correct path forward was "Legalize it. Regulate it. Tax it." Tancredo continued, “The arguments against marijuana today are the same as the arguments against liquor years ago.” Years later, the former congressman agreed to smoke pot on camera with a documentary filmmaker, a deal that he later backed out of. | 0 |
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood. Charles Dharapak/AP Photo Little is known about when, exactly, the "sequester" will wreak its expected havoc on the nation - but the process begins on Friday.
Each federal agency will implement its cuts differently, on its own timeline, and the White House Office of Management and Budget tells ABC News it does not have a calendar for what cuts will happen when.
The soonest-felt cuts will be to civilians working for federal contractors, who have been squeezed since late last year. Layoffs could happen right away, and President Obama will travel to a shipyard in Virginia today to highlight those cuts.
But we can guess that some of the worst purported consequences - of which agency heads have warned repeatedly - will come as a result of furloughs for government workers. Mandatory days off for TSA agents and air-traffic controllers will mean logjammed air travel, and fewer border patrol agents on duty will mean a more porous border, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano have said. Those furloughs will begin in April.
With that in mind, here's a basic timeline:
March 1 - Sequestration goes into effect. Barring a large deficit-reduction deal, or an agreement to cancel the sequester altogether, President Obama will be required to issue a sequestration order before midnight on March 1. His Office of Management and Budget (OMB) will submit a report to Congress. Federal agencies, which have already been drafting their sequestration plans according to OMB, will begin operating at reduced funding levels. The cuts will happen.
~March 4 - Furlough notices issued. If President Obama gives his order late at night on Friday, March 1, agencies could give notice to employees on the following Monday, March 4, that furloughs will be coming. Furloughed employees must be notified a month in advance, in most cases, according to Office of Personnel Management guidelines. Agencies can issue these notices before March 1, so it's possible federal employees will get word of furloughs this week. Agencies could also wait to issue furlough notices, hoping that a deficit deal comes quickly.
March 27 - The government runs out of money, or a new funding measure is passed. The federal government is currently being funded by a temporary measure that expires March 27. Congress and Obama will have to approve more funding in March, and while they've previously opted to continue the same funding levels, the March 27 deadline could provide a convenient time for them to strike a deficit deal, or at least modify the sequestration law to target the cuts differently.
~April 4 - Furloughs can begin, consequences are felt. This date is not definite, but it's a best guess. A wide array of agency-specific factors could mean different kinds of federal workers are furloughed at different times, according to an OMB official, but a 30-day notification timeline is the general rule - meaning government employees would start missing work a month after notices go out March 4.
It's not as if the entire federal government will shut its doors. Many furloughed employees will miss one day every two weeks - the Federal Aviation Administration, for instance, plans on cutting its workforce by that amount. But if the heads of federal agencies are to be believed - and hyperbole is possible - Americans can expect longer waits in the TSA line, fewer commercial flights, a more porous border, fewer workplace inspections, less meat and poultry production, and a host of miserable consequences arising from furloughed TSA workers, air traffic controlers, border-patrol agents, and OSHA and FDA inspectors.
Again, it's not certain that these purported consequences will begin happening April 4. Agencies have developed their own plans for implementing sequester cuts, and the timing could be different where different parts of the federal government are concerned. If any agencies have graded out their sequester plans, counting on Obama and Congress to reach a deficit bargain within a few weeks of the sequestration era, the worst of the cuts could be delayed. | 0 |
Can a sitting president block witnesses at his own impeachment trial?Jan. 27, 2020Credit...Erin Schaff/The New York TimesClaire FinkelsteinMs. Finkelstein is a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania.This week, as part of the impeachment trial of President Trump, the Senate will take up the question of subpoenas for witnesses and documents. House managers had previously tried but failed to convince their Republican colleagues to go along with a series of amendments on witnesses and documents.The vote on witnesses is critical. The testimony of key administration or former administration officials like Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton may be the only remaining hope Democrats have for disabusing Republican senators of their loyalty to Donald Trump before the vote on conviction.But the vote on witnesses is essential for another reason. The Senate is facing a test of the very issue under consideration in the second article of impeachment, namely Mr. Trump’s obstruction of Congress and the institution’s willingness to rein in a president who is abusing the powers of his office. Regardless of their inclinations on the final vote to remove, every senator should understand the critical nature of this decision for the integrity of the impeachment process, the preservation of congressional authority and ultimately for the rule of law.First, a vote to subpoena witnesses would strike at the heart of the president’s efforts — which continue to this day — to impede his own removal from office. Earlier attempts by leaders in the House to complete a detailed inquiry without waiting out the courts on the issue of witnesses fell flat. Admittedly, they had good reasons to move on. As Jerry Nadler explained, it took eight months to get a Federal District Court to say that Don McGahn cannot ignore a congressional subpoena, and it could have taken eight more for a final judgment affirming that ruling on appeal.By sending articles of impeachment to the Senate without having countered the president’s interference with House proceedings, Democratic leaders lost an opportunity. But there is a second shot at that confrontation, with the added benefit that any subpoenas the Senate issues will have bipartisan support. Calling a halt to Mr. Trump’s obstruction of Congress is essential if the process is to be impartial, independent and fully reflective of the conscience of our elected officials. Opinion Debate Will the Democrats face a midterm wipeout? Mark Penn and Andrew Stein write that "only a broader course correction to the center will give Democrats a fighting chance in 2022" and beyond. Matthew Continetti writes that “time and again, the biggest obstacle to a red wave hasn’t been the Democratic Party. It’s been the Republican Party.” Ezra Klein speaks to David Shor, who discusses his fear that Democrats face electoral catastrophe unless they shift their messaging. Michelle Cottle examines two primary contests that “will shake the parties well beyond the states in play.” Second, it is critical to push back on the president’s dangerous expansion of executive privilege, regardless of whether the process results in his removal. Mr. Trump actually believes he is entitled to use his authority to prevent witnesses from testifying or to withhold incriminating documents or other evidence. Consider his open encouragement to witnesses to defy subpoenas, as well as the idea he floated that he would assert executive privilege to block current and former administration officials from testifying, for the sake of “protecting future presidents.” These moves are consistent with Mr. Trump’s view that Article II allows him to do whatever he wants.If the Senate subpoenas witnesses, the Trump legal team will once more assert executive privilege, or the closely related idea of “testimonial immunity,” to block their enforcement, but this would be a gross abuse of that concept. The Senate must be prepared to go to the mat to enforce any subpoenas it issues, or the impeachment process itself will serve to weaken congressional authority and to establish the president’s entitlement to use the privilege of his office to immunize himself from scrutiny.The enforcement of subpoenas in an impeachment trial is potentially complex. The Senate Impeachment Rules provide that “the Senate shall have power to compel the attendance of witnesses” and to “enforce obedience to its orders,” meaning that the Senate can use its inherent powers to enforce any subpoena it issues during an impeachment trial. But the sergeant-at-arms, who is empowered to conduct enforcement for Congress, does not have a jail or a full police force at his disposal. Moreover, Congress has not used its enforcement powers since 1934 (and the action prompted an immediate habeas petition from its recipient). This leaves open the possibility that the Senate will turn to the courts, not to rule on the validity of the subpoenas but to help enforce them. Alternatively, the witnesses themselves could turn to a federal court to defend against a Senate order to testify.Either way, we can expect to see a pitched battle between Congress’ power and executive branch claims of executive authority play out in federal court. In such a scenario, there could be the unprecedented complication that the case could land in the Supreme Court while Chief Justice John Roberts is presiding over the trial. If Justice Roberts were to recuse himself, the country might face the specter of a Supreme Court deadlocked on the critical question of whether a sitting president undergoing an impeachment trial has the right to assert executive privilege to block witnesses at his own trial.Ultimately, getting clear about the limits of presidential authority and strengthening Congress’s hand is even more important for protecting democracy and the rule of law than removing the 45th president. Leaving unaddressed the question of whether a president can use the powers of his office to shield himself from accountability will make it impossible to undo the damage wrought on our system of checks and balances by the Trump presidency. This is the moment to push back on the expansion of presidential power and to reinforce the principle that we are a government of laws, not men.Safeguarding Congress’s authority and independence is the most important task facing the House managers in the Senate trial. Reasserting the ability of Congress to control its own process is the first step toward reclaiming that authority.Claire Finkelstein is the Algernon Biddle professor of law and professor of philosophy and the faculty director of the Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law at the University of Pennsylvania.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: [email protected] The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. | 0 |
President Trump will not attempt to stop former FBI director James B. Comey from testifying in a public hearing Thursday by asserting executive privilege, the White House said Monday.“The president's power to assert executive privilege is well established,” principal deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters during the daily press briefing. “However, in order to facilitate a swift and thorough examination of the facts sought by the Senate Intelligence Committee, President Trump will not assert executive privilege regarding James B. Comey's scheduled testimony.”Comey's testimony will be his first public comments since Trump fired him early last month, and he is likely to be asked about any conversations the president may have had with him about the ongoing investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election.Comey reportedly wrote memos describing conversations with Trump before he was fired in which Trump allegedly asked him to “let this go,” referring to the FBI's investigation of Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn.Former FBI director James Comey agreed to testify before an open session of the Senate Intelligence Committee. (Reuters)Earlier, the White House had said that Trump was considering the use of executive privilege to halt Comey's testimony, essentially arguing that he is afforded an expectation of privacy in conversations he may have had with a government official.But experts have said any attempt to assert executive privilege over Comey’s expected testimony would be on shaky ground legally, largely because he is no longer a government employee.Trump also spoke publicly about his reasons for firing the FBI director and about his conversations with Comey. He has said Comey assured him he was not personally under investigation, and in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt, Trump criticized Comey as an attention seeker.“He's a showboat, he's grandstander, the FBI has been in turmoil,” Trump said. “Regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey knowing there was no good time to do it.”While White House officials said in the days after Comey's dismissal that it was largely the result of a memo written by Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein criticizing the FBI director's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server when she was secretary of state, Trump suggested in the NBC interview that the Russian investigation played a role in his decision.“And in fact, when I decided to just do it, I said to myself — I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story,” Trump continued. “It's an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should've won.”Comey is set to testify before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday in a hearing that will likely shed light on his conversations and interactions with Trump.The Justice Department investigation into Russian interference in the election and any possible collusion with Trump campaign associates has now been taken over by a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller. | 0 |
Credit...Tom Brenner/The New York TimesFeb. 9, 2018WASHINGTON — President Trump on Friday blocked the release of a classified Democratic memo rebutting Republican claims that top federal law enforcement officials had abused their powers in spying on a former Trump campaign aide, a move that Democrats denounced as politically motivated hypocrisy.Last week, the president moved quickly, over the objections of the Justice Department and the F.B.I., to declassify the contents of a rival Republican memo drafted by House Intelligence Committee staff members. He claimed, incorrectly, that the Republican memo had vindicated him in the special counsel investigation into Russian election interference.But Donald F. McGahn II, the president’s lawyer, said in a letter to the committee on Friday night that the Democratic memo could not be released because it “contains numerous properly classified and especially sensitive passages.” He said the president would again consider making the memo public if the committee, which had approved its release on Monday, revised it to “mitigate the risks.”Under the obscure rule invoked by the Intelligence Committee to initiate the document’s release, the committee could choose to make those changes, or could decide to seek a vote of the full House to try to override Mr. Trump’s decision.Democrats expressed outrage at the president’s decision. “Republicans and Democrats on the Intelligence Committee voted UNANIMOUSLY to release this memo,” Representative Terri Sewell of Alabama, a Democratic member of the committee, wrote on Twitter. “@realDonaldTrump is not interested in transparency, he is interested in protecting himself and derailing the Russia investigation.”Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the committee, had said earlier in the week that he feared that Mr. Trump would play politics with the dueling memos.Mr. Schiff, who has traded bitter Twitter messages with the president after Mr. Trump called him one of “the biggest liars and leakers” in Washington, warned this week that Mr. Trump might call for “political edits” intended to erase embarrassing parts of the memo, not information related to national security.In a statement on Friday night, Mr. Schiff said that Democrats had provided their memo to the F.B.I. and the Justice Department for vetting before it was approved for release by the committee. The Democratic memo was drawn from the same underlying documents as the Republican one.“We will be reviewing the recommended redactions from D.O.J. and F.B.I., which these agencies shared with the White House,” Mr. Schiff said, “and look forward to conferring with the agencies to determine how we can properly inform the American people about the misleading attack on law enforcement by the G.O.P. and address any concerns over sources and methods.”Representative Devin Nunes of California, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee and the biggest champion of the Republican memo, said in a statement that he “had warned that the Democratic memo” revealed intelligence sources and methods, and that “it’s no surprise that these agencies recommended against publishing the memo without redactions.”“Intelligence Committee Republicans encourage the minority to accept the D.O.J.’s recommendations and make the appropriate technical changes and redactions so that no sources and methods are disclosed and their memo can be declassified as soon as possible,” he said.Mr. McGahn said Mr. Trump was “inclined to declassify” the Democratic memo, and encouraged the committee to make the changes that he said the Justice Department had identified as important for “national security and law enforcement interests.”“The executive branch stands ready to review any subsequent draft of the Feb. 5 memorandum for declassification at the earliest opportunity,” Mr. McGahn wrote to the committee.In his letter, Mr. McGahn said that Rod J. Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, and the F.B.I. director, Christopher A. Wray, had identified portions of the memo for which they had “significant concerns.” Mr. McGahn referred the committee to a separate document — not released publicly — in which Mr. Wray and Mr. Rosenstein were said to provide details to the committee about those concerns.Spokesmen for the Justice Department did not respond Friday night to questions about the concerns that Mr. Rosenstein and Mr. Wray had reportedly expressed.It was not immediately clear what recourse Democrats might seek against the president’s decision to hold up the release of their memo. The Democrats, led by Mr. Schiff, would need the support of Republicans, who control the committee, to force a House vote on the matter.Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Senate Democrat, said bluntly, “Millions of Americans are asking one simple question: What is he hiding?”Although Republicans eventually voted in favor of releasing the Democratic document after initially opposing it, their support for overriding the president to make public a document that is meant to undercut their own is another matter.While many Republicans said their memo showed evidence of political bias in the early stages of the Russia investigation, Mr. Trump went further, claiming on Twitter last Saturday that the Republican memo “totally vindicates” him in the investigation.After Mr. Schiff challenged Mr. Trump’s claim, the president lashed out on Twitter, calling him “Little Adam Schiff” and accusing him, without presenting any evidence, of leaving “closed committee hearings to illegally leak confidential information. Must be stopped!”Democrats say their 10-page memo corrects key mischaracterizations and crucial omissions in the Republican case. The Republicans’ three-and-a-half-page memo focused on the F.B.I.’s use of material from a former British spy, Christopher Steele, to obtain a warrant to spy on Carter Page, the former Trump campaign official.Mr. Steele was gathering information on possible connections between Russia and Trump associates, but the Republican memo says that the F.B.I. did not disclose to a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court judge that he was being paid by the Democratic National Committee and lawyers for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.People familiar with the Democratic memo said that it argues that the F.B.I. was more forthcoming with the surveillance court than Republicans had claimed. It says that while the F.B.I. did not name the Democratic National Committee or Mrs. Clinton’s campaign, the bureau did disclose to the court that the information it had received from Mr. Steele was politically motivated.Mr. Nunes has since conceded that the political nature of the material was included in a footnote — a fact confirmed in a letter released this week by two senior Republican senators. But Mr. Nunes said the disclosure still fell short.Democrats also say Republicans misrepresented the words of Andrew G. McCabe, the former deputy director of the F.B.I., when they said he told the committee late last year that the agency would not have sought a wiretap of Mr. Page without Mr. Steele’s dossier of information.“One week ago, the Department of Justice and F.B.I. implored the White House not to release a deeply flawed and inaccurate memo prepared by Chairman Devin Nunes,” Mr. Schiff said in his statement. “The White House ignored their concerns and approved the publication of the Republican memo with no redactions even though the action was described by the agencies as extraordinarily reckless and omitting material facts.”The F.B.I. suspected that Mr. Page, a former investment banker based in Moscow who had previously been under investigation, was acting as a Russian agent.The surveillance warrant application itself remains under tight seal. The New York Times has filed a motion asking the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to unseal all materials related to the wiretap. There is no precedent for releasing such documents publicly.Democrats had sought to release their memo at the same time the Republican one was made public, but lawmakers in the committee’s majority objected. They argued that the Democratic document first had to be shared with all members of the House and evaluated to ensure that it did not compromise national security. | 0 |
The Slatest Valerie Castile, mother of Philando Castile, in November when her son’s killer was charged with manslaughter.
Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images Philando Castile’s killer, police officer Jeromino Yanez, was acquitted of manslaughter and two counts of dangerous discharge of a firearm on Friday. The case of Castile’s shooting last July in a suburb of St. Paul, Minnesota had sparked mass protests after his girlfriend Diamond Reynolds posted a dramatic and wrenching video of the shooting’s aftermath. The video, taken with Reynolds’ 4-year-old daughter in the car, included footage of Castile lying in a puddle of blood after he was struck five times from seven shots. Castile had informed the officer that he was carrying a firearm, for which he had a permit. Shortly thereafter, Yanez opened fire. In his opening statement, Yanez’s defense attorney claimed that Castile was holding his gun when he was shot. “He has his hand on the gun,” Engh reportedly said during opening arguments. “The next command is, ‘Don’t pull it out.’ … [Yanez] can’t retreat … But for Mr. Castile’s continuous grip on the handgun, we would not be here.” The prosecution argued that the 32-year-old school cafeteria supervisor with no violent criminal record was reaching for his driver’s license—as Yanez had instructed—and not his gun when he was shot. The forensic evidence and Reynold’s testimony would both seem to back up the prosecution’s account and rebut the defense’s version. Reynolds testified that he was trying to unbuckle his seatbelt so that he could get out his wallet and driver’s license when he was shot. As the Associated Press reported, this was supported by forensics: Prosecutor Jeff Paulsen highlighted autopsy evidence in his closing argument, reminding the jury of a bullet wound to what would have been Castile’s trigger finger — and that there was no corresponding bullet damage nor wounds in the area of Castile’s right shorts pocket, where he carried his gun. He also cited testimony from first responders who saw Castile’s gun in his pocket as he was loaded onto a backboard. The jury—which included ten white jurors and two black jurors—took 27 hours to deliberate and asked to review dashcam footage of the incident along with Reynolds’ harrowing cell phone video. The Minneapolis StarTribune reported that the jury wasn’t allowed to have additional information it requested, without the judge specifying why: Jurors asked the court Friday to reread the officer’s testimony in its entirety, their second request … for statements he made regarding the fatal shooting of Philando Castile. But Ramsey County District Court Judge William H. Leary III denied the request without elaborating, saying the reasons aren’t “important to share right now.” As my colleague Leon Neyfakh noted in November when the officer was charged: “Yanez is the first Minnesota officer to be criminally charged in a police-involved death since 2000. In that time, the paper has reported, there have been more than 150 such incidents.” The city of St. Anthony—for which Yanez worked as an officer—said it would end his employment because “the public will be best served if Officer Yanez is no longer a police officer in our city.” The city promised to offer him “a voluntary separation agreement to help him transition to another career.” “There has always been a systemic problem in the state of Minnesota, and me thinking, common sense that we would get justice. But nevertheless the system continues to fail black people,” Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, reportedly told media after the verdict. “I am so disappointed in the state of Minnesota. My son loved Minnesota. He had one tattoo on his body and it was of the Twin Cities. My son loved this city, and the city killed my son and the murderer gets away.” *Correction, June 16, 2017, at 10:10 p.m: This post originally referred to the Minneapolis Star Tribune as the St. Paul Tribune. It also said Castile was shot in St. Paul rather than a suburb. | 0 |
Story highlights Polish Foreign Minister says talks with President and opposition ended early FridayOpposition says 100 killed in Kiev, the worst violence since the unrest began 3 months ago Talks involving Ukraine's president, opposition leaders and foreign diplomats are ongoing West threatens sanctions against government; Russia stands by it, against protestersProtests. Talks. Violence. Protests. Talks. Violence.By early Friday morning, the lone positive point was that -- for the time being -- Ukraine's cycle of political and physical infighting was not then at its bloodiest point, as it had been hours earlier. Opposition medics said that 100 protesters died Thursday in clashes with police, when gunfire was unleashed. The government places the toll much lower. The health ministry puts the total death toll since Tuesday at 77. Twenty-six of them had been previously reported for Tuesday alone.Another 577 people have been injured; 369 of those were hospitalized, the ministry said.The Foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland met with Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and with the opposition overnight.After dawn, Poland's top diplomat, Radoslaw Sikorski tweeted: "After negotiations through the night, talks ended at 7:20."Prodded by the foreign diplomats, the key players were talking about not just a bandage for the violence but also a more long-term political solution and maybe the beginnings of healing. Yet the facts of the last three months and, particularly, the last week show that it's way too early to celebrate or savor any peace. There have been two truces since Sunday. Each of them collapsed suddenly into carnage centered in Kiev's Maidan, or Independence Square. The latest bloodshed was also the worst since the unrest began. CNN crews at the scene reported that as security forces were moving away from the area after the latest truce, a group of protesters pursued them throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails.Demonstrators did this all under a sky blackened by smoke from their burning barricades, with at least one of them firing toward police lines with a shotgun. Security forces appeared to fight back with automatic weapons and at least one sniper rifle.In video shot by Radio Free Europe, men wearing what appear to be government uniforms fired at unseen targets with automatic rifles and a sniper rifle with a telescopic sight. CNN could not immediately confirm their target.Another video shot by CNN shows a medic trying to help a man on the ground being felled by gunfire."I'm cleaning blood from the floor and I'm crying because this is really hard for me," said a man named Anton, who was volunteering at a protest medical clinic set up in a hotel.Renewed violenceInterior Minister Vitali Zakharchenko said the violence had been "provoked exclusively by the opposition leaders," echoing an earlier statement from President Viktor Yanukovych's office accusing protesters of breaking the truce."The opposition used the negotiation period to buy time, to mobilize and get weapons to protesters," the statement from the President's office said.However, a doctor volunteering to treat protesters, Olga Bogomolets, accused government forces of shooting to kill, saying she had treated 13 people she believed had been targeted by "professional snipers.""They were shot directly to their hearts, their brain and to their neck," she said. "They didn't give any chance to doctors, for us, to save lives."CNN could not independently confirm Bogomolets' claim of sniper fire.At the hotel that had been converted into a triage center, bodies covered in bloodied sheets lay on the floor. Orthodox priests prayed over them.The Interior Ministry admitted Thursday that its forces used firearms, explaining that it only did so to protect unarmed police who were in danger. Ukraine's parliament later passed a resolution that security forces should stop using guns (something that's already illegal for protesters), back off from their positions around Maidan and denounce the "anti-terror" operation that had been announced earlier.But whether this Thursday night resolution -- which doesn't need the president's signature -- has an impact remained to be seen.In a statement that appeared to increase pressure on protesters, the Interior Ministry said it reserved the right to use force to free about 70 police officers it said had been taken hostage Thursday by protesters.However, a number of people purporting to be police officers appeared on Ukrainian television saying they had joined protesters of their own free will. It wasn't clear whether those claiming to be police officers were among those allegedly taken hostage.There was no sign of any captives when CNN crew went Thursday night to where they were thought to be held. A human rights group earlier claimed that any police who'd been held against their will had been released. In one way, at least, Kiev got back to a semblance of normality Thursday. In addition to announcing his resignation from Ukraine's ruling party, the city's mayor Volodymyr Makeenko reopened the city's mass transit system -- which government officials had shut down to prevent protesters from reaching Independence Square.But the unrest wasn't just in Kiev. Anti-government protesters have also hit the streets in Lviv -- about 540 kilometers west of Kiev, near the Polish border -- among other locales. Such sentiment is particularly prevalent in western Ukraine, which is more likely to side with Europe and against Yanukovych; Ukraine's east, meanwhile, has tended to support him and closer ties to Russia."The people gathering here represent every demographic of the city," said Jason Francisco, an Emory University professor who was one of many to submit CNN iReports from Lviv. "... It is fair to say that the city is virtually entirely behind the opposition. And this accounts for perhaps the most conspicuous thing about the situation here: The security presence is virtually nonexistent."Roots of the crisisThe violence inflames a crisis that started in November, when Yanukovych reversed a decision to sign a trade deal with the European Union and instead turned toward Russia. Ukraine's population has long been divided between historic loyalties to Europe and its eastern neighbor.The political strife has since ballooned well beyond that one issue, however, including the opposition's pressing constitutional reforms and to shift powers away from the president and to parliament.And the bloodshed this get week has gotten the world's attention. British Prime Minister David Cameron, for instance, talked by phone Thursday with his Polish counterpart as well as Russian President Vladimir Putin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.S. President Barack Obama also discussed the Ukraine.U.S. Vice President Joe Biden talked late Thursday with Yanukovych, who has also been in touch with Putin and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. In comments Thursday, the U.N. leader called for "genuine dialogue" and said he was "appalled by the use of firearms by both the police and protesters" -- even as he stressed it is crucial, especially, that authorities exercise restraint.Russia, for one, has said it will send a mediator there at Yanukovych's request to negotiate with the opposition.But the Russian ambassador to the U.N., Vitaly Churkin, said his government doesn't believe the opposition wants a dialogue. He accused protest leaders of invading government facilities as a buildup to a takeover of parliament."We think that this attempt to execute a violent coup should stop," he said.Contrast that opinion to those expressed by Western officials, who have generally put more of the blame, and the responsibility, on the Ukrainian government.U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt told CNN on Thursday that "extremes on both sides are gathering strength" because of the instability. Even then, Pyatt said, "It's very clear that, for the United States, the preponderance of the responsibility rests with the President Yanukovych.""Our position is (that) President Yanukovych needs to lead his country into a new future, and he needs to do so through the vehicle of a new government, change to the constitution and the political order."The instability extends, too, to Ukraine's military, after its leader was replaced Wednesday by Yanukovych. There have been no indications Ukrainian troops have been involved in the violence, having rather moved to protect their own facilities and weaponry, U.S. military spokesman John Kirby said. At the same time, the Ukrainian military's new leadership has been "unresponsive" to U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel's attempts to communicate with them, according to Kirby.Diplomatic efforts under wayAfter meeting in urgent session in Brussels, European Union officials agreed to freeze the assets of Ukrainians deemed responsible for the violence, and to prevent them from traveling into the European Union, the organization said in a statement."There is widespread horror in the European Union as well as in the United Kingdom at the scale of the loss of innocent life and the events of the last 48 hours," British Foreign Minister William Hague said.The move comes a day after the United States announced it wouldn't give visas to 20 people, including government officials, tied to the unrest. Washington is also preparing an order to freeze assets of Ukrainians who are believed to be involved in the crackdown, a senior administration official said Thursday. It's likely President Barack Obama will sign the order later in the day, but his administration is closely watching diplomatic efforts on the ground to make sure such a move won't be counterproductive, the administration official said.Late Thursday, Secretary of State John Kerry called for the violence to stop and placed the bulk of the blame on one side. "We unequivocally condemn the use of force against civilians by security forces, and urge that those forces be withdrawn immediately," he said in a statement.He said Washington had already started implementing sanctions over the violence and directed an admonition at Yanukovych."There is no time for brinksmanship or gamesmanship," Kerry said. "President Yanukovich must undertake serious negotiations with opposition leaders immediately...."The State Department also issued a travel warning to U.S. citizens, advising them to defer travel to the Ukraine due to the violence.The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland met Thursday in Kiev with opposition leaders and Yanukovych. They had planned to attend the Brussels meeting, but talks went longer than expected, a German foreign ministry spokeswoman told CNN.Late Thursday, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said via Twitter that the hourslong talks involving all sides had led to some "progress ... but important differences remain." This comment came as Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said there is a proposal before Yanukovych for elections this year, the formation of a new government within 10 days of that election and revisions to the constitution by this summer, according to a statement from Tusk's office.Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador, also said it was his understanding that Yanukovych had opened up to the idea of early elections.Russia's foreign ministry appeared to criticize Western diplomatic efforts, according to a report by Russian state news agency RIA Novosti."The ongoing attempts to obtrusively intervene from outside, threat with sanctions or trying to influence the situation in any other ways are inappropriate and can't lead to anything good but can only aggravate the confrontation," the report quoted spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich.Analysts warned there was little that outside pressure could do, especially if the Ukrainian military gets involved on the side of the government cracking down on protesters."My own hunch," said Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass, "is this is going to continue to escalate." | 0 |
The Split Between the States Over GunsOwners of firearms will have more rights in Texas and fewer rights in California in the new year, thanks to the nation’s deepening cultural divide.Eric Gay / APWill restrictions on guns expand or contract in 2016? It depends entirely on which state you’re in.Guns are about to become a lot more visible in the nation’s second most populous state. With a law that takes effect in the new year, Texans licensed to carry firearms won’t have to conceal them anymore—they can wear them out in the open, so long as they are in a belt or shoulder holster. Later in 2016, Texans will be allowed to take guns into campus dorms and classrooms, although those will have to remain hidden from view.Gun laws are also set to change this week in California, but the country’s biggest state is going in the opposite direction. Concealed weapons will now be banned on college campuses, and police and families will have new powers to seek court orders to strip firearms from relatives believed to be a threat to themselves or others.The partisan debate over gun policy may have paralyzed Congress, but the rise in high-profile mass shootings has catalyzed action in the states, and 2015 saw the gap in gun laws between red and blue states grow ever larger. Kansas and Maine—states where Republicans hold governorships and the legislature—passed laws dramatically expanding the rights of gun owners. In Democrat-run Oregon, however, gun-control advocates won passage of a law requiring background checks for all firearms purchases. And advocates claimed bipartisan victories in nine states—including deep-red Alabama, Louisiana, and South Carolina—that restricted access to people sanctioned for domestic violence abuses.“Taking all those things together, it’s a draw,” said Tim Daly, who directs the campaign on guns and crime policy at the liberal Center for American Progress.In a political environment long dominated by the NRA, advocates for stricter gun control have claimed momentum ever since the 2012 massacre of 20 young children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Despite the failed push at the federal level, an additional half-dozen states have enacted background check laws, bringing the total to 18 nationwide. And while the number of new state gun-control laws in 2015 was less than the flurry enacted in 2013, advocates say they have improved their record in fighting NRA-backed attempts to expand gun rights and protecting legislators targeted by the NRA in elections. “We have, I feel, the wind at our backs for the first time ever,” said Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America. “It’s not a third rail anymore.”The NRA’s biggest victories came in Kansas and Maine, which passed laws allowing gun owners to carry concealed firearms without a permit. Gun-rights supporters have cheered the new “open carry” and “campus carry” laws in Texas, although they have both forced local businesses and governments to prepare citizens who may be unsettled to see guns openly displayed in public. Some business owners are taking advantage of a provision allowing them to put up signs banning guns from their stores, while city officials in Dallas released a video aimed at discouraging residents from calling 311 or 911 every time they see someone carrying a holstered gun. (“Only call 911 if you encounter a person who is in violation of the law,” a city spokeswoman advises, referring to people who are carrying guns outside a holster, intoxicated, committing a crime, or “acting in a reckless or suspicious manner.”)The California protective-order law was a big win for gun-control advocates, who say it’s the most expansive such measure in the country. It will allow police or worried family members to take action if a person makes threats or displays disturbing behavior that falls short of warranting arrest or involuntary commitment. It was designed in response to the 2014 shooting rampage by Eliot Rodger in Isla Vista near the UC-Santa Barbara campus. Sheriff’s deputies had previously been dispatched to Rodger’s apartment after his family raised concerns to mental-health workers, but left without touching his stash of firearms. The bill passed despite concerns that it would infringe on the constitutional rights of people who hadn’t committed a crime. “We think this is a very promising model for other states to follow,” said Ari Freilich, a staff attorney at the California-based Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.If the state-level battle over gun laws has become a more evenly matched tug of war in recent years, both sides seem to be pulling harder. As gun-control advocates have stepped up efforts to restrict access in blue and purple states, the NRA and its legislative allies have argued that the key to preventing mass shootings is to arm more people in more places, such as schools and college campuses. Despite their defeats in Kansas, Maine, and Texas, gun-control advocates backed with millions from former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg boast about stopping NRA-backed efforts to enact campus-carry laws in 14 of the 16 states where bills were introduced. “These are bills that would have sailed through the statehouses in the past,” Watts said.The NRA counters that it has beat back even more efforts to restrict gun access and that, by its count, states in 2015 passed 10 times more bills that it supported than bills they opposed—a similar record to 2014 and an improvement over 2013. The suggestion by gun-control groups that they have the momentum in the states, said NRA spokeswoman Amy Hunter, “is a lie being pushed by Bloomberg in his efforts to convince the American people that he’s gaining traction, when the truth is there is no appetite for more gun control.”The polls show this, the successful passage of hundreds of pro-gun bills shows this, as do elections. Over the past three years, states across the country have signed into law nearly 300 new measures protecting and expanding Second Amendment rights. That’s almost 10 times the number of new anti-gun laws.Hunter said the NRA’s biggest setback came just last week, when Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring announced that he would stop recognizing concealed-carry permits from residents of 25 states that have laxer gun laws. The change is the most aggressive such action to deny reciprocity by any state in the country, and it could open a new avenue of activism as states enact increasingly divergent gun policies. “Guns cross over state lines as easily as cars do,” Watts said.Like most everything else, the fight over gun policy will move to the campaign trial in 2016. In Nevada and Maine, voters will decide for themselves in November whether background checks should be mandatory for private gun sales. Hillary Clinton has taken up the mantle of gun control from President Obama, ensuring it will be an issue in the general election should she capture the Democratic nomination. Obama could announce limited executive actions of his own before then. Yet in the absence of any action by Congress, gun policy will continue to be decided by the states. And if 2015 was any indication, the chasm between red and blue will grow wider and wider. | 0 |
But buried in the data is an indicator of a different kind of success: Republican resistance to the law at the level of states is also having a substantial impact by limiting the drop in percentages of uninsured people, keeping the uninsured rate higher than it might otherwise have been.Here’s how: Gallup tells me that the numbers show that the drop in uninsured due in particular to the Medicaid expansion has slowed significantly since last year — because far fewer new states have expanded Medicaid in recent months compared to the block of states that did so initially at the start of 2014.The uninsured rate among U.S. adults declined to 11.9% for the first quarter of 2015 — down one percentage point from the previous quarter and 5.2 points since the end of 2013, just before the Affordable Care Act went into effect. The uninsured rate is the lowest since Gallup and Healthways began tracking it in 2008.While Gallup concludes that the improving economy may be playing a role, it also notes that the uninsured has now dropped significantly lower than it was in early 2008, before the worst of the economic crisis, suggesting that the law is a key factor. And Gallup adds that the drop in the uninsured rate is particularly pronounced among lower income Americans (down 8.7 percentage points since the law went into effect), African Americans (down 7.3 points) and Latinos (down 8.3 points).That’s great. But Dan Witters, the research director of the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, tells me the numbers also clearly show a drop-off in the impact of the Medicaid expansion on the uninsured rate — a drop-off that coincides with the slowdown in GOP states opting into the expansion.Witters says that Gallup data — which are extremely extensive, a key reason why this polling is the gold standard for measuring the law — showed that last year’s drop in the uninsured rate, which was 4.6 percentage points, was heavily fueled by the Medicaid expansion. The expansion was responsible for around 40 percent of the newly insured, he says.But this year, the drop has thus far been only 1.5 points — in part because of the Medicaid expansion slowdown. The data show that the fall in the rate in uninsured this year due to the Medicaid expansion is only about three-tenths of a percentage point, he says.“The states that are expanding Medicaid in recent months have only been trickling in — there are fewer new states expanding Medicaid in 2015 as opposed to 2014,” Witters says. “That has sucked the air out of the rate of decline this time, relative to the last. The rate of decline in the uninsured has dropped across all American adults, in part because fewer states are joining in the Medicaid expansion.”Witters says the data suggests that if the expansion had proceeded at a comparable clip this year, the uninsured rate would have shown an even “more accelerated decline this time, a decline pretty close to what we saw the first time around.” He adds: “We’d probably see around another point shaved off — and every percentage point is another 2.4 million American adults.”Florida might end up opting in to the Medicaid expansion. GOP governor Rick Scott’s sudden reversal on the expansion has put the state’s budget negotiations — including planned tax cuts, a major GOP priority — in peril, and some GOP legislators are insisting on the expansion to move the budget process forward, which suggests its fiscal logic may ultimately carry the day. That logic may yet prevail in other states where the expansion is being debated.But it’s very possible the Medicaid expansions could remain on hold. And beyond that, of course, looms the Supreme Court’s pending decision in the King v. Burwell lawsuit, which could gut subsidies for millions in the three dozen states where governors have declined to set up exchanges, possibly driving the uninsured rate back up again. Which is to say that even if the law currently is accomplishing one of its core goals, GOP resistance to it is accomplishing one of its core goals, too — and the resistance’s achievements could only grow more impressive in the months ahead. | 0 |
Oct 29, 2018, 4:02 pm CREDIT: SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images On Monday, the Supreme Court turned away an effort to reinstate Pennsylvania’s gerrymandered congressional maps. Although this is not the first time the Court refused to bail out the GOP’s partisan gerrymander in this state, it is the first time it turned away this case since Brett Kavanaugh’s confirmation gave Republicans a solid majority on the Supreme Court.
The case is Turzai v. Brandt.
Last January, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down that state’s congressional maps because they violated the state constitution. The unconstitutional maps were so aggressively gerrymandered that Republicans won 13 of the state’s 18 congressional districts in 2012 even though Democrats won a majority of the popular vote.
The state supreme court’s decision should have been the final word on the case. As a general rule, state supreme courts have the final word on questions of state law, and the Supreme Court of the United States cannot overrule their interpretation of a state constitution. Nevertheless, Pennsylvania Republicans came to the U.S. Supreme Court with a legal theory that is simultaneously outlandish but nevertheless well-crafted to appeal to Republican judges.
The Constitution provides that “the times, places and manner of holding elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof.” Pennsylvania Republicans argue that this language prevents the state supreme court from tossing out a partisan gerrymander because a court is not a legislature.
The U.S. Supreme Court, however, has repeatedly rejected this reading of the word “legislature.” It did so most recently in its 2015 decision in Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistrict Commission.
More than a century ago, the Supreme Court held that redistricting can be determined by a referendum. Not long thereafter, the Supreme Court held that the governor may veto state redistricting legislation, even though the governor is not a member of a state’s legislative branch. Taken together, these cases establish that when the Constitution assigns the power to draw districts to the “legislature,” it refers to the state’s valid lawmaking process — not necessarily to the body of lawmakers elected by the people.
Nevertheless, Arizona State Legislature was a 5-4 decision, with four Republicans arguing that the word “legislature” can only refer to a state’s legislative branch.
The Court’s fifth Republican, Justice Anthony Kennedy, crossed over to vote with the Court’s four Democrats in Arizona State Legislature. But Kennedy is no longer on the Court, and his replacement, Brett Kavanaugh, is a hardline conservative who appeared to call for revenge against Democrats during his confirmation hearing.
At the very least, however, Kavanaugh will not be able to take his revenge in this particular case. The Court’s decision not to hear Turzai suggests that, at the very least, Republicans don’t have the votes to reinstate one of the nation’s most egregious gerrymanders. | 0 |
Jeff Sessions to testify: Focus of Russia probe shifts to attorney general Updated on: June 12, 2017 / 7:44 AM / CBS News President Trump's attorney general is now being drawn into the investigations of Russian election meddling. Jeff Sessions will testify publicly tomorrow to the Senate Intelligence Committee and he may have to answer questions raised by last week's testimony from James Comey. The president attacked the fired FBI director again Sunday tweeting, "I believe the James Comey leaks will be far more prevalent than anyone ever thought possible. Totally illegal -- very cowardly."
A lot of questions for Sessions cropped up after Comey's testimony last week. Senators from both sides want to know why Sessions was involved in the FBI director's firing, reports CBS News' Nancy Cordes. On "Face the Nation" Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ran through the questions he wants answered by the attorney general. Graham on Trump and Comey 07:20 "Did he interfere with the Russian investigation before he recused himself? The president said Comey was fired because of Russia. How does that fit in with his recusal?" Schumer said. Sessions was scheduled to testify before the Judiciary Committee tomorrow -- about the Department of Justice budget. But he announced the switch to the intelligence committee this weekend after it became clear that he was only going to get grilled about his role in Comey's firing. Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation over three months ago, after admitting he had not disclosed two meetings with the Russian ambassador in 2016. Comey suggested to senators last week that there might be more to it than that. "We also were aware of facts that I can't discuss in an open setting that would make his continued engagement in a Russia-related investigation problematic," Comey said during last week's testimony. As for the president's offer to give his side of the story under oath, Republican Lindsey Graham urged the president Sunday, "Don't do it!" He warned Mr. Trump that he might be, "his own worst enemy.""You may be the first president in history to go down because you can't stop inappropriately talking about an investigation that, if you just were quiet, would clear you," Graham said on "Face the Nation" over the weekend. Some Republicans now are arguing that Sessions isn't the first attorney general to inject politics in an investigation, pointing to testimony last week that Loretta Lynch urged Comey to call the probe into Clinton's e-mail practice a "matter" rather than "investigation."Democrat Senator Dianne Feinstein said that request made her "queasy." Download our Free App For Breaking News & Analysis Download the Free CBS News app | 0 |
U.S. Embassy, other western missions have been evacuated as Taliban forces enter Kabul.The Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in just over a week.A Taliban spokesman told Al-Jazeera English that they are seeking unconditional surrender.In a swift and stunning rout, Taliban fighters seized control of Afghanistan’s capital Sunday, completing their sweep of the besieged nation as the Afghan government collapsed after two decades of U.S. efforts to reshape the region as part of its “war on terror.”Embattled President Ashraf Ghani fled the country as the Taliban entered the capital city of Kabul, and American troops scrambled to evacuate thousands of U.S. diplomats and Afghans from the U.S. Embassy.The Taliban, which had been on the outskirts of Kabul for hours, announced soon after it would move farther into a city gripped by panic throughout the day as helicopters raced overhead to evacuate personnel from the U.S. Embassy. Smoke rose near the compound as staff destroyed important documents. Several other Western missions prepared to pull their people out.The Pentagon authorized an additional 1,000 U.S. troops to be deployed to Afghanistan to help with the evacuation efforts, said a defense official who was not authorized to speak publicly. That is on top of the 5,000 troops that President Joe Biden announced Saturday would be sent to ensure "an orderly and safe" drawdown and evacuate U.S. personnel, as well as Afghans who helped American forces.The Taliban is likely to declare the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan from the presidential palace in Kabul, an official told The Associated Press. The Al-Jazeera network broadcast footage of Taliban fighters inside the presidential palace, sitting behind a desk that the network presumed was Ghani's and placing their guns on it.In Washington, Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris met via videoconference with their national security team to hear updates on the evacuation of civilian personnel and allies who worked alongside the U.S. government during the 20-year war.On Sunday evening, a joint statement from the State and Defense departments said the U.S. is working to secure Kabul's airport to allow for departures, and would take over air traffic control with added troops on the ground."Tomorrow and over the coming days, we will be transferring out of the country thousands of American citizens who have been resident in Afghanistan, as well as locally employed staff of the U.S. mission in Kabul and their families and other particularly vulnerable Afghan nationals. And we will accelerate the evacuation of thousands of Afghans eligible for U.S. Special Immigrant Visas, nearly 2,000 of whom have already arrived in the United States over the past two weeks," the statement reads.What we know:How did the Taliban retake Afghanistan so quickly? What's happening now?An exit reminding some of SaigonAmerica's longest war began after the terror attacks Sept. 11, 2001, plotted by al-Qaida's Osama bin Laden, who was harbored by the Taliban government. A U.S.-led invasion forced the Taliban to retreat.For some, the U.S. pullout was a reminder of America’s ignominious withdrawal from Vietnam in 1975, which ended with images of U.S. helicopters evacuating Americans from the roof of the embassy in Saigon.U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken flatly rejected such comparisons. "This is manifestly not Saigon," Blinken argued, characterizing the removal of embassy and other personnel as "very deliberate."Still, analysts predicted that history would view the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan as a failure.“On Day One, we go in, and the Taliban is in charge. Twenty years later, the Taliban is back in charge,” said Jack Weinstein, a former Pentagon official and expert on international security.“I don’t know how you couch that as a victory,” he said.US responds:U.S. troops evacuate embassy staff to Kabul airport as Taliban encircles Afghan capital, Blinken saysCaught off-guardThough Kabul had been expected to fall, the speed of its collapse clearly caught the Biden administration off-guard. Biden set a deadline of Aug. 31 to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan and bring an end to the 20-year conflict. Last week, an American military assessment estimated it would be a month before the capital would come under insurgent pressure.Defying expectations, the Taliban seized nearly all of Afghanistan in a short time, despite the hundreds of billions of dollars spent by the United States and NATO over nearly two decades to build up Afghan security forces. The Afghans were defeated by the Taliban or fled much of the country, even though they had some air support from the U.S. military.More:A timeline of the US withdrawal and Taliban reconquest of AfghanistanThe U.S. Embassy in Kabul warned Sunday the security situation was deteriorating and instructed American citizens to "shelter in place" amid reports of gunfire at the airport. American troops were in the midst of evacuating all diplomatic staff from the embassy to the airport as the Taliban entered Kabul. Ghani flew out of the country, according to multiple media outlets.He offered an explanation in a Facebook post Sunday: "Today, I came across a hard choice; I should stand to face the armed Taliban who wanted to enter the palace or leave the dear country that I dedicated my life to protecting and protecting the past twenty years. ... The Taliban have made it to remove me, they are here to attack all Kabul and the people of Kabul. In order to avoid the bleeding flood, I thought it was best to get out."Abdullah Abdullah, the head of the Afghan National Reconciliation Council, criticized Ghani's exit. “The former president of Afghanistan left Afghanistan, leaving the country in this difficult situation," Abdullah said. "God should hold him accountable.”Afghans fearing that the Taliban would reimpose the kind of brutal rule that all but eliminated women’s rights rushed to leave the country, lining up at cash machines to withdraw their life savings, the AP reported.More:Taliban's Afghanistan advance tests Biden's 'America is back' foreign policy promiseTaliban remained strongFor years, U.S. and Afghan forces focused on controlling supply chains and major cities, forcing the Taliban into Afghanistan’s rugged hinterland. The Taliban remained strong in the mountainous rural areas, using those regions as bases of attack to seize territory once U.S. forces left.The Taliban remained in control of strategic border crossings, according to The Associated Press, smuggling weapons and supplies while rejuvenating forces outside the country.In February 2020, Washington under President Donald Trump signed a deal with the Taliban that limited direct military action against the insurgents. That allowed the fighters to gather strength and move quickly to seize areas when Biden announced his plans to withdraw all American forces by the end of this month.More:Trump claims Afghanistan withdrawal would have been 'much more successful' if he were president. Would it?Taliban awaits 'peaceful transfer of Kabul city'Sunday, Taliban negotiators in the capital discussed the transfer of power, said an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, according to AP.It remained unclear when that transfer would take place and who among the Taliban was negotiating. The negotiators on the government side included former President Hamid Karzai; Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Hezb-e-Islami political and paramilitary group; and Abdullah, who has been a vocal critic of Ghani.Karzai, with his three daughters, appeared in a video, saying he remained in Kabul.“We are trying to solve the issue of Afghanistan with the Taliban leadership peacefully,” he said, while the roar of a passing helicopter could be heard overhead.Taliban returns:Many fear it will again end Afghan human rights, support terrorismAfghanistan’s acting defense minister, Bismillah Khan Mohammadi, lashed out at Ghani.“They tied our hands from behind and sold the country,” he wrote on Twitter. “Curse Ghani and his gang.”Taliban fighters tried to calm residents of the capital, insisting they wouldn’t enter people’s homes or interfere with businesses. They said they’d offer an “amnesty” to those who worked with the Afghan government or foreign forces.“No one’s life, property and dignity will be harmed, and the lives of the citizens of Kabul will not be at risk,” the insurgents said in a statement, according to AP.More: First group of Afghan interpreters who served with US troops are on their way to a new life in the USReports of brutality across AfghanistanThere have been reports of revenge killings and other brutal tactics in areas of the country the Taliban have seized. One female journalist, weeping, sent voice messages to colleagues after armed men entered her apartment building and banged on her door.“What should I do? Should I call the police or Taliban?” Getee Azami cried. It wasn't clear what happened to her after that.Many rushed to the Kabul airport, the last route out of the country after the Taliban took every border crossing. NATO said it was “helping to maintain operations at Kabul airport to keep Afghanistan connected with the world.”One Afghan university student described feeling betrayed as she watched the evacuation of the U.S. Embassy.“You failed the younger generation of Afghanistan,” said Aisha Khurram, 22, who is unsure whether she’ll be able to graduate in two months. “A generation ... raised in the modern Afghanistan were hoping to build the country with their own hands. They put blood, efforts and sweat into whatever we had right now."Sunday began with the Taliban seizing the nearby city of Jalalabad – which had been the last major city besides the capital not in their hands. Afghan officials said the militants also took the capitals of Maidan Wardak, Khost, Kapisa and Parwan provinces, as well as the country's last government-held border post.Later, Afghan forces at Bagram air base, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, surrendered to the Taliban, according to Bagram district chief Darwaish Raufi. The prison at the former U.S. base held both Taliban and Islamic State group fighters.Contributing: The Associated Press | 0 |
Story highlightsThe federal government is facing a possible shutdown next weekThe government has been here before in 1995 and 1996History may give Congress pause before embarking on another shutdownNo science or religion can accurately predict what will happen in Congress. But looking plainly at the political chess board and listening to sources on Capitol Hill, there is plenty of reason to think that a shutdown of the federal government won't happen, at least not next week.Here's why:Politics. And blame. And 1996."Let's put it this way," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, told CNN. "I'm not about to shut down the government and have Republicans take the blame for it. It's just that simple."Bluntly, many Republicans fear they will be blamed for a shutdown, just months before a big congressional election year. This makes them highly motivated to find a way to keep government running. A CNN/ORC poll in mid-September showed 51% of people would hold Republicans in Congress responsible for a shutdown versus 40% for President Barack Obama.House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, might already be in this camp. He initially proposed a spending bill that would have avoided a standoff. Conservatives forced him to go to war with a different version fully defunding Obamacare, but Boehner's opening move was an important signal that he wants to sidestep a shutdown.There may be some learned behavior from history here, too. "I saw this movie before, I saw what happened before," said Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, talking about the sting Republicans felt after the shutdowns in 1995 and 1996. "That's what happened the last time we tried this," he concluded.Bottom line: Ideal or not, Congress runs on political currency. And multiple House GOP aides tell CNN that the majority of the Republicans in their conference fear a shutdown would cost them with voters. The next fightsRepublicans are divided over how far to take the Obamacare battle right now. And GOP leaders also are preparing a second Obamacare fight during the upcoming debt ceiling debate. So, they have the option of dropping the anti-Obamacare push from the shutdown debate now and instead including it in the debt ceiling fight coming up.At the same time, Democrats are eager to get past the shutdown debate so they can move on to the debt ceiling and start to deal with yet another fight: budget cuts slated to hit in January at the latest. The numbersRepublicans have 233 members in the House, 16 votes more than a majority. Those 233 are divided over how far to take the Obamacare fight, over whether to ultimately shut down government in the name of defunding the health care law. This year, funding measures repeatedly have passed the House of Representatives with a bipartisan coalition. Take a look at the Superstorm Sandy funding vote. Or the last debt ceiling increase. Or the March vote to avoid a government shutdown. Sure, every vote is different. But a bipartisan safety net has magically rolled out during the last funding standoffs.Deadline pressureSomething happens in the day or two before a potential shutdown. Whatever the atmosphere and seemingly-firm positioning now, things will ramp up fast if Congress gets closer to a shutdown, especially a shutdown that would go in place during a work week.Workers ask if they will be sent home without pay. Troops (and their families) worry if their paychecks will be delayed. Families may start to cancel vacations. That is the moment when incredible political pressure against a shutdown builds. The deadline itselfFinally, we come to a public secret. The government does not necessarily have to shut down at the end of the day on September 30. Yes, at midnight, funding officially runs out for most programs. But if lawmakers are close to a deal, the president can order agencies to keep running for a few hours or perhaps even a day or two for Congress to pass the legislation. This has happened before. Recently. At midnight at the end of April 8, 2011, the funding for most agencies officially ran out. But Democrats and Republicans had struck a funding deal a few hours before, it just had not passed through Congress yet. So the Obama administration told agencies to hold off with any shutdown plans because a spending bill was likely to become law soon. In that case, it waived just a few hours of shutdown, but sources in both parties at the Capitol have confirmed that the president can do this for a longer period if a deal is emerging.Again, Congress works best on deadlines, and the shutdown deadline is not quite as firm as people might think.Why a shutdown (still) might happenAll this said, you cannot underestimate the swirling, unpredictable dynamics in Congress at the moment and Republicans' gut-level objections to Obamacare.Once the Senate passes its version of a spending bill, House Republicans are considering attaching another item to it. That could be a one-year delay in the individual insurance mandate in Obamacare, a repeal of a medical device tax, a change in how the government handles congressional employee health plans or possibly something in support of the Keystone pipeline.A spending bill with something Republicans want and Democrats don't would set up a late game of chicken between the House, Senate and president. If no one blinks, which is possible, this would lead to a shutdown. It's unclear whether House Republicans will do this. It is also unclear how Democrats would react. But this scenario is the reason there is still a chance a shutdown could happen. | 0 |
Sept. 13, 2018Editors’ Note: September 14, 2018 An earlier version of this article and headline created an unfair impression about who was responsible for the purchase in question. While Nikki R. Haley is the current ambassador to the United Nations, the decision on leasing the ambassador’s residence and purchasing the curtains was made during the Obama administration, according to current and former officials. The article should not have focused on Ms. Haley, nor should a picture of her have been used. The article and headline have now been edited to reflect those concerns, and the picture has been removed.WASHINGTON — The State Department spent $52,701 for customized and mechanized curtains for the picture windows in the new official residence of the ambassador to the United Nations.The residence is in a new building on First Avenue in Manhattan. For decades, American ambassadors to the U.N. lived in the Waldorf Astoria hotel. But after the hotel was purchased by a Chinese insurance company with a murky ownership structure, the State Department decided in 2016 to find a new home for its top New York diplomat because of security concerns.The government leased the apartment, just blocks from the delegation’s offices, with an option to buy, according to Patrick Kennedy, the top management official at the State Department during the Obama administration. The full-floor penthouse, with handsome hardwood floors covering large open spaces stretching nearly 6,000 square feet, was listed at $58,000 a month.The current ambassador, Nikki R. Haley, is the first to live in the new residence, which has spectacular views. But a spokesman for Ms. Haley emphasized that plans to buy the mechanized curtains were made in 2016, during the Obama administration. Ms. Haley had no say in the purchase, he said.While ambassadors around the world are given residences, there are only two such residences in the United States — for the U.N. ambassador and the deputy ambassador.The ambassador’s new residence is particularly grand since it is used for official entertaining. But her deputy’s is also very nice, having served as the location for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s intimate steak dinner in May with Kim Yong-chol, North Korea’s top nuclear weapons negotiator. During the dinner, Mr. Pompeo used its sweeping views to point out various features of New York City’s skyline to the senior official from the world’s most reclusive country.The new curtains themselves cost $29,900, while the motors and hardware needed to open and close them automatically cost $22,801, according to the contracts. Installation took place from March to August of last year, during Ms. Haley’s tenure as ambassador.The new curtains are more expensive than the $31,000 dining room set purchased for the office of Ben Carson, the secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. That purchase became so controversial that President Trump considered firing Mr. Carson, though the spending rules covering agency chiefs are different from those for ambassadors.Rex W. Tillerson, the Trump administration’s first secretary of state, froze hiring, pushed out many of the department’s most senior diplomats and proposed cutting the department’s budget by 31 percent. In embassies around the world, projects were eliminated and jobs were left unfilled, and the delegation to last year’s United Nations General Assembly meeting was slashed.“How can you, on the one hand, tell diplomats that basic needs cannot be met and, on the other hand, spend more than $50,000 on a customized curtain system for the ambassador to the U.N.?” asked Brett Bruen, a White House official in the Obama administration.But Mr. Kennedy, his colleague from the Obama administration, defended the purchase, saying that it would probably be used for years and that it was needed for both security and entertaining purposes.“All she’s got is a part-time maid, and the ability to open and close the curtains quickly is important,” Mr. Kennedy said.Mr. Pompeo will soon receive government housing himself, after the Defense Department agreed to rent him a flag officer’s home on a military base in the Washington area. The State Department said the unusual move would save on security costs. Mr. Pompeo is one of the few members of Mr. Trump’s cabinet of modest means.While the State Department would not say where Mr. Pompeo’s house would be located, a United States official and a former top State Department official said he would live at Fort Myer, a small Army post near Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. | 0 |
(CNN)The Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans kicked off the 2020 NFL season by holding a moment of unity against racism together on the field at Arrowhead Stadium only to have boos heard from the Kansas City crowd.The visiting Texans were not on the field for "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and the National Anthem while the Chiefs remained on the field for both. The boos began after the Texans returned to the field to join the Chiefs during a moment of silence and a show of unity. "Please join us in a moment of silence dedicated to the ongoing fight for equality in our country," the announcer at the stadium stated ahead of the moment.Boos, lasting about 5 to 10 seconds, could be heard from the crowd as the Chiefs linked arms and the Texans made their way to the middle of the field to join them. It's unclear if the fans were booing the Texans for not being on the field for the National Anthem or if the boos were directed at the moment of unity.With Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes and Texans quarterback Deshaun Watson standing in the center, the two teams formed a chain with players and staff by linking arms.The crowd eventually applauded once the chain was formed, and the teams then broke apart to get ready for kickoff. | 0 |
Should the government be able to tell you what underwear to buy? Or what to name your children? Or how many times a day you can go to the bathroom? No. That would be invasive and wrong.But under a new policy reportedly being considered by the Trump administration, the federal government would attempt to tell millions of transgender people like me not what we can do, but who we can be. It would attempt to tell us that, legally, we don’t exist — that in the eyes of the state, we are not ourselves.It’s the ultimate form of government intrusion.Trump's Department of Health and Human Services is said to have drafted a memo to federal agencies that would “erase” the legal status of millions of transgender people by using Title IX to impose an archaic definition of gender as “immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth.”The policy, according to reporting by the New York Times, is part of a larger attempt to roll back existing protections for transgender people fought for by human rights advocates, particularly in education and health care policy. Codifying the exclusion of transgender identity under Title IX would apply to the departments of Labor, Justice, Education and Health and Human services, allowing everything from workplace discrimination against trans people to reduced access to school facilities for trans children to disparate access to health care for members of the community.This policy flies in the face of scientific, medical, and social consensus. At a strictly biological level, it creates a binary where one does not exist: Many people are born with ambiguous genitalia, an indisputable medical fact that the Trump administration’s memo suggests resolving through DNA testing (which the American Medical Association code of ethics warns against as part of its board's opinion that children with differences of sex development be allowed to come of age before decisions are made about their physical presentation). It ignores the reality that a person’s genitalia at birth does not define who they are, and would scapegoat an entire segment of the population.But it is also just cruel. If this proposal is implemented, trans people would face massive barriers when doing basic things required to participate meaningfully in society. We wouldn't be able to get passports that accurately reflect our gender, start new jobs without disclosing our transgender status or use Medicaid or Medicare to access the appropriate health care.Federal civil rights laws are not silver bullets, transgender people — particularly trans women of color — already face among the highest rates of violence and systemic discrimination of any population in the US. But gutting federal protections for trans people who are subjected to hate or educational discrimination will dramatically exacerbate the rampant abuse of trans people at the hands of powerful institutions and directly result in transgender lives being lost, particularly among the youngest and most vulnerable members of our community.A policy that allows for increased job and housing discrimination, among other forms of discrimination, allows for government-enforced poverty and homelessness for an entire generation of people who simply want to live their lives as their authentic selves. The end goal here is no less than the complete ostracization of transgender people from public life: This is an attempt to disappear us.But this policy will ultimately fail, even if it is briefly implemented. Like many of this administration’s other attempts to target marginalized people for political gain, there are limits to the damage the executive branch can do with the stroke of a pen. This memo may attempt to remove trans people’s legal protections from federal law, but it cannot undo the strong precedent set by several courts that say transgender people are covered by gender discrimination laws, and it cannot overrule the ability of states to enforce such protections. It can’t turn back the clock on the overwhelming medical consensus that trans people are real, and that we deserve to live our lives like everyone else.But, even if its impact is mitigated by the courts, this attack on trans people's legal status will still lead to real harm for our community. It will embolden violent bigots and deter young people from accessing life-saving services. It’s a neon, flashing sign from the federal government to trans people that says We don’t value your lives.Denying trans people’s existence is the tip of the iceberg, because defining your identity and choosing how to present your gender to the world is a basic form of self expression. We have always been the canaries in the coal mine. If this authoritarian attack goes unchecked, what other basic freedoms will be on the chopping block?Even if you’re not trans, we need your help — and I don’t just mean voting on November 6. There are concrete things you can do right now to support transgender people like amplifying our voices in the media and on social media, submitting federal register comments against the policy if the administration attempts to implement it as a regulatory change, contribute to organizations led by trans people and talk to other cis people about transgender rights. Start today.If you are trans, take a deep breath. We existed long before we had legal status, and we will endure long after this administration is a distant memory. We do not need permission from the state to be ourselves. We can get each other through this the way that we always have.The Trump administration thinks they can erase transgender people with a memo, but they’re wrong. We are tattoos. We are permanent marker. We are mountains. We are thunder. You cannot erase us, and you cannot control us. We will fight for the basic right to be ourselves, and we will win.Evan GreerEvan Greer is an activist, musician and writer based in Boston. She is the deputy director of the digital rights group Fight for the Future and writes regularly for outlets like The Guardian, BuzzFeed News and The Washington Post. | 0 |
President-elect Donald Trump, who vowed to ”drain the swamp” in Washington, on Sunday chose the chairman of the GOP as his top employee. Reince Priebus, called “the face of the GOP establishment,” will serve as Trump’s chief of staff, running his White House team and deciding what issues come before him.And while that raised the eyebrows of some Trump supporters (including former KKK leader David Duke), Sunday’s more talked-about appointment was perhaps Stephen Bannon, Trump’s campaign CEO who’s embraced an “alt-right” movement of white nationalists.It’s For the Record, the politics newsletter from USA TODAY.Alt-right in the White HouseTrump’s decision to name Bannon as chief strategist and senior counselor drew criticism from Republicans and Democrats for his recent tenure as president of Breitbart News. The site, which dedicates a page to “black crime,” has published stories comparing feminism to cancer and extolling the Confederate flag’s “glorious heritage.”Before joining Trump’s team in August, Bannon called Breitbart a “platform for the alt-right,” a fringe movement of white nationalists and racists. Now he’ll report to Trump as a top adviser.Bannon said that he looked forward to continuing the “very successful partnership” from the campaign. Others were less enthused."It is a sad day when a man who presided over the premiere website of the 'alt right' — a loose-knit group of white nationalists and unabashed anti-Semites and racists — is slated to be a senior staff member in the 'people's house,'” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, said in a statement.If Bannon’s appointment is a nod to the grassroots support that energized Trump’s campaign, Priebus could act as a counterbalance to comfort the GOP establishment. But there’s more drama than that: Priebus is a close ally of Paul Ryan, the House speaker often targeted by Breitbart.“Now I will have them both with me in the White House as we work to make America great again,” Trump said in a statement.Trump softens some stances on ‘60 minutes’Since the election, hundreds of reports of hate crimes and harassment haves surfaced. Trump’s words? “Stop it.”That’s what he offered during a 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday. The interview aired after a spike in reported hate-related incidents following Trump’s win, as tracked by the Southern Poverty Law Center.After Tuesday, an Indiana church was vandalized with the words “Heil Trump.” A video spread of Pennsylvania students carrying a Trump sign and saying “white power.” In Michigan, high school boys surrounded a female student and shouted “lock her up” and elementary-age students posted signs on their lockers that read “I don’t like gays.”"That's terrible because I'm going to bring this country together,” Trump said of the incidents.On 60 Minutes, Trump also seemed to temper some of his campaign’s promises. He’ll initially restrict his deportations to “criminals” in the country illegally, he said. And the “wall” he famously touted may look more like a fence in some places. He’s also mentioned amending Obamacare instead of fully repealing it.Trump also said he’d turn down his presidential salary, following John F. Kennedy and Herbert Hoover in doing so, IJR reported.Around the AftermathObamacare is doomed. Now what? (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)Will Obamacare’s birth control coverage survive the overhaul? Paul Ryan can’t say (USA TODAY)Protests of Trump’s election continued into a fifth straight day (USA TODAY)Pipeline protesters dig in as Trump’s presidency nears (Argus Leader)There’s the candidate Trump we knewIn that 60 Minutes interview that aired Sunday, Trump said he would be “very restrained” on Twitter as president. That morning, he sent three tweets insulting the New York Times. | 0 |
Story highlightsA Democratic budget plan calls for both spending cuts and more tax revenuePresident Obama meets with House Republicans for talks that define their differencesDespite the president's charm offensive, harsh rhetoric persists from both sidesBudget proposals show the deep ideological divide between the partiesNothing, it seems, can bridge the bottomless political divide in Washington over taxes and spending.Not an election last November that gave President Barack Obama a second term. Not polling that shows a strong majority of Americans want both sides to compromise in forging an agreement to reduce chronic federal deficits and debts.Not the president's new personal outreach to Congress, including a 90-minute meeting Wednesday with House Republicans. And not even white smoke from the Vatican chimney that signaled selection of a new pope as the talks occurred."You are straining the analogy," Obama told reporters afterward when asked if the meeting produced any similar message of spiritual significance.Leaders on both sides acknowledged the deep differences between them on a day when congressional committees began considering separate spending proposals for 2014 to launch the formal budget process.In an interview broadcast Wednesday on ABC, Obama warned that compromise may prove unattainable."Right now what I'm trying to do is create an atmosphere where Democrats and Republicans can go ahead and get together and try to get something done," he said of his so-called charm offensive that has included a dinner with GOP senators, lunch with House leaders and meetings with others legislators. "But ultimately it may be that the differences are just too wide."House Speaker John Boehner labeled Obama's visit to the Capitol on Wednesday "productive" because it allowed both sides to understand the "very real differences" between the parties."Republicans want to balance the budget. The president doesn't," Boehner said. "Republicans want to solve our long-term debt problem. The president doesn't. We want to unlock our energy resources to put more Americans back to work. The president doesn't."He then came to either his punch line or understated conclusion: "But having said that, today was a good start, and I hope that these kinds of discussions can continue."Earlier, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan also recognized the challenge, telling the panel's first meeting on his proposed budget for next year that Congress faced a tough negotiation."We are hoping that at the end of the day, we're still talking to each other and we can make a down payment" on balancing the federal budget, said Ryan, R-Wisconsin.On the Senate side, Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray made her own joking reference to the papal decision as the panel began considering the first full Democratic spending plan in recent years."I understand we have a new pope and a committee hearing to mark up a budget. That's history twice, so it's good," said Murray, D-Washington. Turning serious, she added that "this process is not going to be easy" because of "a serious difference of opinion about what our government should be doing to keep our economy and our national finances moving in the right direction."The proposal by Senate Democrats called for a mix of increased tax revenue and spending cuts to reduce deficits by about $1.9 trillion over 10 years.It would increase revenue by about $975 billion by eliminating and curtailing tax breaks and loopholes for wealthy Americans and corporations. It would also cut spending by an estimated $975 billion: $493 billion in domestic spending; $240 billion in defense spending; and $242 billion in interest savings.The proposal included a $100 billion economic stimulus package for road and bridge repairs, as well as worker training, that Murray said would be paid for by curtailing tax breaks for high-income households and corporations.However, the Senate plan avoided significant changes to popular entitlement programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, which are major drivers of federal deficits.Republican leaders oppose new tax hikes or revenue and demand substantial overhauls of entitlement programs, setting up another in the litany of congressional impasses of recent years.At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney told reporters that Obama's new outreach was intended to find "common ground" on a deficit reduction plan that would include reforms of the tax system and popular entitlement programs.Obama will introduce his own budget proposal next month, and the president and Democrats concede their approaches would not eliminate annual deficits, as sought by Republicans, but instead reduce them to what they say are manageable levels.Republicans call such an approach inadequate, insisting that government has become too large and costly to ensure needed economic growth.Ryan proposed a conservative budget for fiscal year 2014, which begins on October 1. He said it would eliminate the annual deficit in a decade without raising taxes.It calls for cutting $5 trillion from projected spending increases in the next 10 years while lowering tax rates and getting rid of most of Obama's signature legislation of his first term -- the 2010 health care reform law.Ryan also revived his proposal to reform Medicare, the health care program for senior citizens that is considered the biggest driver of rising federal deficits as costs increase and more Americans become eligible.The idea was a major issue in last year's presidential election, in which Ryan was the vice presidential candidate on the GOP ticket that lost to Obama. It calls for offering senior citizens a choice between traditional fee-for-service Medicare and a premium support system that would provide a fixed government payment to help them buy private health insurance. The plan would take effect in 2024 to exempt people 55 and older today.Both sides reverted to harsh rhetoric from last year's election campaign in defending their deeply entrenched positions on Wednesday.Ryan referred to "job-killing tax increases" pushed by Obama and Democrats, saying his push for less government and lower tax rates would benefit economic growth."What we're saying, like we said before, is we can hit these same revenue numbers without killing jobs," he contended, adding that budgets were all about priorities and choices.Democrats responded that the Ryan proposal would harm economic growth by shifting the burden of deficit reduction to middle-class Americans, the elderly and others, while cutting spending for college loans, infrastructure development, scientific research and other areas vital for job creation."It is not consistent with American values. It is not fiscally responsible," argued Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Florida.In the ABC interview, Obama took aim at the choices in Ryan's budget plan."If you look at what Paul Ryan does to balance the budget, it means that you have to 'voucherize' Medicare, you have to slash deeply into programs like Medicaid, you've essentially got to either tax middle-class families a lot higher than you currently are or you can't lower rates the way he's promised," the president said.For his part, Ryan noted that while his side lost last year's election, his 2014 budget plan adhered to GOP principles that the party believes will set the country on the right path to growth and prosperity.However, he sounded contradictory when challenged by reporters Tuesday about his call to eliminate most of Obama's health care reform law. After first saying "we are not going to re-fight the past" and that "law is law" with regard to the measure known as Obamacare, Ryan later said that "we need to repeal and replace Obamacare with a better system."Republicans led by their conservative base seek to shrink the size and cost of government, opposing any new tax revenue while pushing for spending cuts and lower tax rates that they say will spur more economic growth.After agreeing in January to allow tax rates on top income earners to return to higher levels of the 1990s, Republican leaders say they oppose any further steps to raise taxes.Obama and Democrats say they want to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and that comprehensive deficit reduction must include increased taxes on wealthy Americans to prevent the burden of austerity steps from shifting too much to the middle class, the elderly and other vulnerable demographics.By clearly staking out positions in their budget proposals, Obama and Congress appear intent on trying to avoid the crisis-driven brinksmanship of the past four years.However, the familiar, partisan nature of the budget plans illuminated the continuing political division that the public blames for legislative dysfunction.A CBS News poll last week showed more than 70% of respondents want both sides to compromise to end the brinksmanship over taxes and spending that dominated Obama's first term.During the past four years, House Republicans pushed through partisan budgets that Senate Democrats ignored, forcing the repeated extension of past spending plans. Meanwhile, the president's budget proposals generated little support in Congress.The upcoming negotiations are complicated by lingering fiscal issues from past showdowns.Deep cuts to military and other discretionary spending took effect this month, and both sides were expected to try to soften their impact through a separate funding measure for the rest of the current fiscal year, which ends September 30.Called a continuing resolution, it must pass by March 27 to prevent a partial government shutdown. The Republican-led House passed its version last week, and the Democrat-led Senate took up its own version this week.Congress also must authorize an increase in the federal borrowing limit this summer, and Republicans have made clear they intend to leverage that moment to try to extract concessions.A comprehensive deficit-reduction deal appeared close during Obama's first term, but eventually fell apart over taxes.Obama and Democrats want to eliminate tax breaks and loopholes worth about $600 billion over 10 years as part of a broader $1.2 trillion deficit-reduction package that would include entitlement reforms.Some Republicans have indicated support for ending such tax breaks as part of a broad deal. However, the fiscal-cliff agreement in January that resulted in higher tax rates on top income earners galvanized opposition by GOP leaders to further increases in tax revenue.Meanwhile, Republicans say Obama and Democrats must deliver on significant entitlement reforms.One change Obama has proposed would tighten the adjustment for inflation of benefits such as Social Security, meaning annual increases for future recipients would grow at a slower pace.Opponents of the reform, known as "chained CPI" in reference to the Consumer Price Index it involves, argue it hurts senior citizens and others who most need their benefits.If achieved, a grand bargain would give Obama a major political victory and a boost in cementing his desired presidential legacy after the controversial health care and Wall Street reforms of his first term.Republicans also would get credit from moderates and independents for a willingness to compromise, but conservatives could punish them with primary challenges in 2014 and beyond.Another possible outcome is a limited agreement that would include some elements under discussion.For example, a smaller agreement might end some tax breaks and loopholes while cutting Medicare costs paid to providers, not beneficiaries, to achieve $500 billion or so in deficit reduction over 10 years.Such a result, coupled with previous spending cuts and the January fiscal-cliff deal, would fail to reach the total $4 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade that economists and political leaders have targeted as the minimum amount needed.It also would allow both parties to simultaneously claim credit for making some progress while continuing to blame the other for preventing more.A status quo outcome -- no major deficit reduction steps -- would mean continued brinksmanship over each pending fiscal deadline, as well as further economic uncertainty that already has lowered the U.S. credit rating and slowed growth. | 0 |
Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton split the primaries in Oregon and Kentucky Tuesday, as Clinton avoided going weeks without a victory. But as Clinton is set to secure the Democratic nomination on June 7, the rift in the party is deeper than ever. Facing criticism over violence and threats from his supporters as last week’s Nevada GOP state convention, Sanders dodged press questions, before issuing a statement that appeared to justify his supporters’ actions, asserting that the process was rigged by Clinton supporters against his own backers. As Clinton and the DNC condemned their developments, the events were a cautionary signal to Democratic state parties across the country, and for the Democratic convention in Philadelphia that Sanders supporters remain deeply committed and won’t just fall in line once Clinton secures the requisite number of delegates. It’s the latest indication that Clinton, immersed in a two-front political battle, has yet to find a way to outreach to Sanders supporters other than stoking their fears about GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump. Trump and Clinton released their personal financial disclosure statements, with the Republican claiming more than $500 million in income in 2015 and a net-worth over $10 billion. Clinton’s financials showed she took in millions in book royalties and paid speeches last year. But Trump is continuing to refuse to release his tax returns which would provide additional justification for his haul. Sanders requested a 90-day extension to file. Trump may have largely self-funded his primary campaign, lending himself tens of millions on top of millions in small-dollar donations and promotional sales. But he has inked a pair of joint fundraising agreements with the Republican National Committee and some state parties that will allow him to raise up to $449,400 from top donors. Trump proposes rolling back Dodd-Frank and talking to Kim Jong-un. Melania Trump says her husband isn’t Hitler. And Jeb Bush has some thoughts about Trump’s taco bowl tweet. Here are your must-reads: Must Reads Why a Civil Case Over Emails Could Hurt Hillary Clinton More Than the FBI TIME’s Massimo Calabresi reports on the case in which two top aides will be deposed Why Donald Trump Is Targeting ‘Security Moms’ But experts doubt the strategy will work, TIME’s Jay Newton-Small reports On the Lonely Island of ‘Never Trump’ Across Washington, stalwarts of the GOP foreign-policy establishment find themselves suddenly adrift. Could they really vote for—gulp—Hillary? [Politico] Trump Preparing Plan to Dismantle Obama’s Wall Street Reform Law A populist candidate does a solid for the big banks [Reuters] Bucking Trends, Trump Sends Teams to Democrat-Leaning States Looking to expand the general election map [Associated Press] Get our Politics Newsletter. The headlines out of Washington never seem to slow. Subscribe to The D.C. Brief to make sense of what matters most. Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder. Sound Off “What Trump did was so insensitive. First, not all Hispanics are Mexican. Secondly, not all Hispanics eat tacos. Thirdly, showing your sensitivity by eating an American dish is the most insensitive thing you can do. Fourthly, to say this, next to all things he already said, is a further insult. It’s like eating a watermelon and saying ‘I love African-Americans.’” — Jeb Bush to Dutch newspaper NRC Handelsblad on Donald Trump’s taco bowl tweet “We know the truth. He’s not Hitler. He wants to help America. He wants to unite people. They think he doesn’t but he does. Even with the Muslims, it’s temporary.” — Melania Trump on her husband, Donald Trump Bits and Bites Kathleen Sebelius Hails Supreme Court Decision as a ‘Win for Women’ [TIME] Jeb Bush Has Some Thoughts On Trump’s Cinco De Mayo Tweet [Huffington Post] Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly Spar Over ‘Bimbo’ Retweet [TIME] Trump Willing to Talk to North Korea’s Kim, Wants to Renegotiate Climate Accord [Reuters] Melania Trump: Husband Is ‘not Hitler,’ Reporter ‘Provoked’ Anti-Semitic Attacks [CNN] Sanders Dodges Question About Convention Disturbance [NBC] Contact us at [email protected]. | 0 |
President Donald Trump walks on the South Lawn of the White House. | AP Photo/Patrick Semansky President Donald Trump has filed a lawsuit seeking to throw out hundreds of thousands of ballots in Wisconsin, in an effort to overturn the results in a state he lost to President-elect Joe Biden.
Results in the state were certified on Monday, following a partial recount requested and paid for by the Trump campaign that increased Biden’s margin of victory in the state by a handful of votes.
The Trump campaign’s suit, which was filed in the state Supreme Court on Tuesday morning, targets roughly 221,000 ballots cast in two heavily Democratic counties, Milwaukee and Dane, which encompass the majority of Wisconsin’s Black residents. The president previously targeted those two counties for the recount his campaign requested. The ballots the Trump campaign is seeking to have tossed fall into four buckets, according to a copy of the lawsuit circulated by the Trump campaign: 170,000 in-person absentee ballots, 5,500 ballots that had some witness address missing, 28,400 ballots from voters who claimed they were “indefinitely confined” and 17,300 ballots returned during “Democracy in the Park” events hosted by the city of Madison.
Biden’s margin of victory in the state was roughly 20,600 votes.
Trump’s suit alleges that Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, a Democrat, acted too early in certifying the election results on Monday afternoon, following the state elections board canvassing the statewide results and finding Biden winning.
Notably, Trump’s suit does not allege or provide evidence of widespread electoral fraud, as the president has repeatedly claimed on Twitter and elsewhere. Instead, the campaign is alleging that those roughly 221,000 ballots were cast in violation of state law. “The people of Wisconsin deserve election processes with uniform enforcement of the law, plain and simple,” Jim Troupis, counsel to the Trump campaign, said in a statement. The case does make vague references to a “higher probability” of fraud with mail ballots.
The Trump campaign alleges that the counties did not follow state law with the largest bucket of ballots the Trump campaign is seeking to have tossed, the in-person absentee ballots, by not having voters submitting a separate written application.
But the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel notes that the practice of allowing voters to sign a form on the ballot envelope — which counts as both a ballot application and as a certificate that they are the one filling out the ballot — has been in use “for more than a decade.”
The Trump campaign is also trying to toss out ballots from all voters who newly claimed after March 25, the day the first stay at home order went into effect in Wisconsin, that they were “indefinitely confined,” which allows voters to submit an absentee ballot without a copy of a photo ID. The Trump campaign alleges some of those voters don’t meet the criteria.
When Trump narrowly carried the state in 2016, his campaign did not challenge practices like in-person absentee voting and clerks filling out missing witness information.
Troupis, a former Dane County judge, is actually seeking to have his own ballot tossed. He and his wife both voted via in-person absentee, the Journal Sentinel previously reported. | 0 |
Texas Sen. Ted Cruz has made no secret of the fact that he spanks his daughter when she misbehaves. He has also suggested the American people should deliver a “spanking” to Hillary Clinton.Now, he is prescribing the same discipline for a protester who interrupted him during a rally in Indiana on Sunday.“Apparently there’s a young man who’s having some problems,” Cruz said as the man yelled: “You suck!”“Thank you, son,” Cruz replied, before adding that he believes “children should actually speak with respect.”“Imagine what a different world it would be if someone had told Donald Trump that years ago,” he said. “You know, in my household, when a child behaves that way, they get a spanking.”The exchange comes as Cruz and Trump are stumping for every last vote heading into to the Republican primary in Indiana on Tuesday. Trump leads Cruz by roughly 9 percentage points, 42%-32.7%, in the RealClearPolitics average of recent Hoosier polls. A win there could help solidify Trump’s claim to the nomination, while dealing Cruz a formidable blow.Cruz says Trump won't get enough delegates to win the Republican nominationPoll: Trump has 15-point lead over Cruz in Ind. | 0 |
He continued to make lofty promises of soon-to-come bombshells, peddle falsehoods, spread long-debunked conspiracy theories, attack his perceived enemies and dabble in misogynistic tropes — all while playing the role of persecuted victim.Trump’s phone conversation with the hosts of “Fox & Friends” also undercut Republicans’ strained efforts to defend him during the House impeachment inquiry.House Republicans undercut some of their arguments in the impeachment inquiry while questioning witnesses Fiona Hill and David Holmes on Nov. 21. (The Washington Post)He attacked witnesses — including those who had been requested by Republicans — saying he hardly knew them. He continued to smear his former ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch, and said House Republicans hadn’t followed his example only because, they told him, “she’s a woman, we have to be nice.” And he briefly appeared to welcome the prospect of being impeached by the House, saying “I want a trial” in the Senate.Trump also parroted the unfounded theory that Ukraine, not Russia, was responsible for hacking Democrats’ emails during the 2016 presidential campaign, a baseless claim most Republican lawmakers tried to sidestep during the hearings.“They gave the server to CrowdStrike, or whatever it’s called, which is a company owned by a very wealthy Ukrainian,” the president said, indicating that his concerns about “corruption” in Ukraine were linked to a politically convenient conspiracy theory. “That’s a big part of this whole thing. Why did they give it to a Ukrainian company?”Trump’s former homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, has said he repeatedly informed the president that the allegation was false. On Thursday, Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee took umbrage when Trump’s former Russia adviser, Fiona Hill, accused them of promoting a “fictional narrative” of Ukrainian election meddling promoted by the Kremlin.Trump appeared unfazed by the fact that not even his staunchest defenders have embraced his claims about CrowdStrike, a company he asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate during the July 25 phone call at the heart of the impeachment proceedings.“Are you sure they did that? Are you sure they gave it to Ukraine?” Fox’s Steve Doocy asked Trump.“Well, that’s what the word is,” the president said, offering no evidence. “That’s what I asked, actually, in my phone call, if you know. I asked it very point blank because we’re looking for corruption.”Republican lawmakers have tried to make the case that Trump withheld military aid and a White House visit from Ukraine while seeking investigations of Democrats in part because he had legitimate concerns about corruption in the country. House Democrats have dismissed that defense, saying Trump and his lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani used the pretext of corruption to try to secure probes targeting former vice president Joe Biden and his son Hunter, as well as the unfounded claims about Ukraine’s role in the 2016 election.Several witnesses from Trump’s own administration have testified that the president’s push for “investigations” was a thinly veiled political effort to boost his reelection chances.While Trump’s convoluted impeachment defense has lacked consistency, his Fox interview underscored how he has never wavered in his willingness to attack Democrats.He blasted House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) as a “sick puppy,” called House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “crazy as a bedbug” and, without evidence, accused top officials from the Obama administration of “spying on my campaign.”His attacks got an assist from Fox’s Ainsley Earhardt, who helped the president peddle the falsehood that Trump’s release of a rough transcript of his July 25 call with Zelensky had undermined Democrats’ impeachment claims.“Why did [Schiff] make up my statement?” Trump asked, referring to an exaggerated account of the phone call Schiff gave that added mob-boss flair to the president’s actual words.“Because he didn’t think you were going to release the transcript,” Earhardt responded.“That’s right,” Trump replied. “Exactly.”Except it was wrong. Schiff’s rendition came after the White House released the rough transcript of the call.The Fox News hosts also repeatedly challenged Trump to offer evidence when he made his most head-scratching claims. The president repeatedly demurred.“What are you talking about?” Doocy asked when Trump predicted that his Justice Department was on the verge of exposing “perhaps the biggest scandal in the history of our country.”Trump’s answer was vague.“I think you’re going to see things that are going to be incredible,” he said, adding that he has not been personally involved in any of the Justice Department’s investigations into the origins of the FBI’s Russia probe.“Who is your source that’s telling you this?” Fox’s Brian Kilmeade asked when Trump claimed that Obama administration officials had worked to undermine his presidency from its earliest days.“I can’t tell you that,” Trump answered. “I can only say that we have a lot of information that a lot of bad things happened.”“You electrified the wall?” Kilmeade asked when the president casually claimed that the barrier on the southern border had been equipped with electricity.“We’re building a fantastic wall,” Trump responded. It wasn’t clear if he had heard the question.Trump’s classic braggadocio was on display for much of the interview, in tandem with his penchant for playing the victim. He complained of negative media coverage while claiming that his administration had accomplished more than any other in history. He also credited himself with saving thousands of lives in Hong Kong.“If it weren’t for me, Hong Kong would’ve been obliterated in 14 minutes,” he said, claiming that China had refrained from cracking down on pro-democracy protesters at his request.He also suggested that, to pave the way for a trade deal with China, he might veto bipartisan legislation designed to support the Hong Kong protesters.“We have to stand with Hong Kong, but I’m also standing with President Xi [Jinping],” Trump said.He complained that he had not been given adequate credit for the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi during a raid he approved last month.“If Obama did al-Baghdadi, the biggest terrorist in the last 100 years, if Obama did it, it would be a two-year story,” Trump said. “With me, I got a day. Not that it matters.” He lamented that when he arrived in Washington, the government was filled with “thousands of people that are Never Trumpers,” people he said are now testifying against him.But many of the witnesses in the impeachment inquiry, including Hill, Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, former Ukraine envoy Kurt Volker and acting ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor, are people his administration specifically hired.Trump also launched into gender-specific criticism of several women, including one in his own White House.He described Yovanovitch as “the ambassador, the woman,” and described a conversation with Republicans in which her gender was brought up.“I said, ‘Why are you being so kind?,’ ” Trump said, before recounting what he said was the GOP response: “Well sir, she’s a woman, we have to be nice.” “This was not an angel, this woman, okay?” he said.Yovanovitch testified last week that she was forced to leave her post in Ukraine because of a smear campaign led by Trump’s allies.Trump described Pelosi, the first female speaker of the House, as “not talented,” “highly overrated” and “totally incompetent.”And he criticized the husband of one of his top White House aides, Kellyanne Conway, by hinting that he had been traumatized by the marriage.“Kellyanne is great, but she’s married to a total whack job,” Trump said. “She must’ve done some number on him, Ainsley. . . . He’s got to be some kind of a nut job. She must’ve done some bad things to him, because that guy is crazy.” | 0 |
London (CNN Business)Seafarers, truck drivers and airline workers have endured quarantines, travel restrictions and complex Covid-19 vaccination and testing requirements to keep stretched supply chains moving during the pandemic. But many are now reaching their breaking point, posing yet another threat to the badly tangled network of ports, container vessels and trucking companies that moves goods around the world.In an open letter Wednesday to heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly, the International Chamber of Shipping (ICS) and other industry groups warned of a "global transport system collapse" if governments do not restore freedom of movement to transport workers and give them priority to receive vaccines recognized by the World Health Organization."Global supply chains are beginning to buckle as two years' worth of strain on transport workers take their toll," the groups wrote. The letter has also been signed by the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the International Road Transport Union (IRU) and the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF). Together they represent 65 million transport workers globally."All transport sectors are also seeing a shortage of workers, and expect more to leave as a result of the poor treatment millions have faced during the pandemic, putting the supply chain under greater threat," it added.Guy Platten, secretary general of the ICS, said that worker shortages are likely to worsen towards the end of the year because seafarers may not want to commit to new contracts and risk not making it home for Christmas given port shutdowns and constant changes to travel restrictions.Fragile supply chainsThat will heap pressure on stretched supply chains and could, for example, worsen current challenges with food and fuel supply in the United Kingdom."The global supply chain is very fragile and depends as much on a seafarer [from the Philippines] as it does on a truck driver to deliver goods," added Stephen Cotton, ITF secretary general. "The time has come for heads of government to respond to these workers' needs."When Karynn Marchal and her crew were told that they wouldn't be allowed to go on shore upon docking in Hokkaido, Japan it was a big hit to morale. "None of us knew how long it would go on for," the 28-year old chief officer of a car-carrying ship told CNN Business.That was more than 18 months ago. Marchal — and hundreds of thousands of seafarers like her — have not been permitted shore leave since. After weeks on board a ship, a couple of hours on shore provides much needed respite. But seafarers can only leave a vessel in order to travel elsewhere, usually to return home. Marchal considers herself "one of the luckier ones," because she has at least been able to make it home to the United States. "There are people who have been stuck at sea for over a year," she said.Early in the pandemic, many seafarers agreed to extend their contracts by several months to keep supplies of food, fuel, medicine and other consumer goods flowing around the world. The grounding of planes and border closures had made it almost impossible to move workers from one part of the world to another and to swap crews. At the peak of the crisis in 2020, 400,000 seafarers were unable to leave their ships for routine changeovers, some working for as long as 18 months beyond the end of their initial contracts, according to the ICS. Multiple vaccinations, repeated testingWhile these numbers have improved, crew changes remain a major challenge. Some travel restrictions were reimposed as a result of the coronavirus Delta variant and transport workers continue to face a myriad of vaccine and testing requirements just to do their jobs. Often these are imposed at a moment's notice, said Platten.Inconsistent requirements mean that some seafarers have been vaccinated multiple times because some countries have approved only certain vaccines, according to Platten.He knows of at least one seafarer who has received six vaccine doses, or three two-dose regimens. "It's an absolute nightmare. I can't understand why we don't have some sort of global standard," he told CNN Business.Meanwhile, the unequal distribution of vaccines globally means that only about 25% to 30% of seafarers, many of who are from India and the Philippines, are fully vaccinated, according to Platten.Coronavirus testing is also a challenge. In February, Germany unilaterally introduced mandatory PCR testing with no exemption for truck drivers, leading neighboring countries including Italy to impose similar restrictions to avoid having thousands of drivers stranded in their own territory. These measures affected thousands of truck drivers, particularly on the Brenner Pass between Italy and Austria, forcing them to queue for days in sub-zero temperatures with no food or medical facilities. The EU Digital Covid Certificate has since eased some of the pressure, but bottlenecks remain."Drivers have faced hundreds of border issues and blockades through the pandemic," said Umberto de Pretto, IRU secretary general. "Truck drivers, and the citizens and businesses that depend on the goods they move, pay a heavy price for misguided Covid restrictions that do not exempt transport workers," he added. Marchal, the chief officer, and her crew had to do 10 Covid tests in seven days before they were allowed to enter the shipyard in Singapore for repairs last month. Maintenance was delayed by a week following a coronavirus outbreak at the port and the vessel is not expected to leave before mid October. In the meantime, the crew must remain on board the ship.Compulsory quarantines when disembarking and on arrival in their home countries can mean that pilots and seafarers spend a month of their vacation time stuck in a hotel room before they're able to see their families.Seafarers "run the shipping industry," yet they have not been given the priority of frontline workers, said Shaailesh Sukte, the captain of Seaspan Amazon, a container ship. "If you want the world to [keep] moving, you need to relax travel restrictions," he told CNN Business. | 0 |
A group of Democratic senators is demanding more answers from the FBI after the agency revealed new details about the limited scope of its supplemental investigation into Brett Kavanaugh's background when he was a nominee for the Supreme Court.In a letter June 30 to Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and Chris Coons, D-Del., made public Thursday, Jill Tyson of the FBI's congressional affairs office acknowledged that the department conducted only 10 additional interviews in its supplemental investigation, even though it had received over 4,500 tips.Tyson said "relevant tips" from phone calls and messages were forwarded to the White House counsel's office. It's unclear what became of the tips after that.Whitehouse, who had written FBI Director Christopher Wray asking for details about the inquiry in July 2019, said, "This long-delayed answer confirms how badly we were spun by Director Wray and the FBI in the Kavanaugh background investigation and hearing."While Wray has said the FBI followed tip line procedures, "he meant the 'procedure' of doing whatever Trump White House counsel told them to do," Whitehouse tweeted. "That's misleading as hell."A spokesperson for the FBI declined to comment. Former White House counsel Don McGahn did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.Then-President Donald Trump tasked the FBI with conducting a supplemental background investigation into Kavanaugh at the urging of some Republican senators after his nomination to the high court in 2018 was endangered by sexual misconduct allegations dating to his high school and college years. Kavanaugh repeatedly denied any wrongdoing."As the Senate has requested, this update must be limited in scope and completed in less than one week," Trump said at the time.Republicans said the subsequent FBI report vindicated Kavanaugh, while Democrats maintained that it was incomplete. NBC News reported at the time that the FBI hadn't contacted over 40 people with potential information about the sexual misconduct allegations.The Senate confirmed the nomination in a narrow 50-48 vote.Attorneys for the accuser who testified at Kavanaugh's confirmation hearing, Christine Blasey Ford, said in a statement that the FBI letter confirmed that the agency's investigation was "a sham and a major institutional failure.""Because the FBI and Trump's White House Counsel hid the ball on this, we do not know how many of those 4,500 tips were consequential, how many of those tips supported Dr. Ford's testimony, or how many showed that Kavanaugh perjured himself during his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee," said the lawyers, Debra S. Katz and Lisa J. Banks. "Our nation deserved better."Dareh Gregorian is a politics reporter for NBC News. | 0 |
History Popular views of the explorer see him as intrepid adventurer or bungling murderer. But he was also a religious crusader. A hagiographic take of Christopher Columbus’ arrival.
Photos.com/Getty Images Plus Slate has relationships with various online retailers. If you buy something through our links, Slate may earn an affiliate commission. We update links when possible, but note that deals can expire and all prices are subject to change. All prices were up to date at the time of publication. Tucked inside historian Alan Mikhail’s new biography of Sultan Selim, the ambitious early-16th-century ruler of the Ottoman Empire, is a riveting series of chapters about Christopher Columbus. Mikhail’s ambition in writing God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World was to restore the place of the Ottoman Empire in the global history of the early modern period. To that end, the Columbus chapters make the argument that at its inception, European exploration of the New World can be understood as an ideological extension of the Crusades—a new effort to circumvent the ever-more-powerful Islamic presence in Europe. Because this argument is somewhat hidden inside a big biography of an Ottoman ruler, it’s not been as controversial with traditionalists as the 1619 Project’s recasting of American history around slavery, but it’s got a similar power to make you look at a major historical happening in a completely new way. I asked Mikhail to explain how Columbus came to commit himself to combating Islam, how his feelings about Muslims affected his approach to the New World, and whether the Europeans of this time could rightly be called “Islamophobic.” This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity. Rebecca Onion: There are a few common popular stories of Columbus. The first one is the elementary school version, where a brave explorer sets out for strange worlds—basically, a hagiographic take. Then there’s the revisionist one: Columbus was a blunderer who didn’t know what he was doing and just kind of happened onto the “New World.” But this is another twist, what you’re writing about. Alan Mikhail: Yes, and of course there are also corollaries of the two versions of Columbus you talked about: the Italian American hero and the genocidal murderer. Oh! Of course, I assumed the “genocidal murderer” part was understood, but thank you for making that clear. Ha, yes. What I’m hoping to do is to point out something else that’s crucial to his biography, and that’s right there in his own writings and in the understanding of his age: He was a crusader. Columbus was born in 1451 in Genoa—a really important mercantile port city but also a crusader port city. He was born two years before the Ottomans captured Constantinople, in 1453. And that was seen as an apocalyptical loss for Christian Europe. The Ottomans had—in the words of one of the Popes—“plucked out one of the two eyes of Christendom,” which were Rome and Constantinople, the Eastern capital. In very real terms for a place like Genoa, this made a difference, because Constantinople, through the Bosphorus strait, had provided access to the eastern Black Sea; that is where Genoa had many of its trading ports, to connect to places further East. So there was this sense of loss in Genoa that was religious but also economic. Genoa also had lots of crusaders going in and out of its port, when Columbus was young. We think of the Crusades as only happening in the medieval period, in the 11th and 12th centuries, but there were calls for Crusades up through the 17th century. To various degrees of effectiveness, of course. But Columbus was alive when there were crusaders going in and out of his city, and one of the crusading orders had a hospital in Genoa. So Columbus was brought up on this story of loss. And he also read works like Marco Polo’s. One of the things that would become very important for Columbus, that he took from reading Marco Polo, is the idea of the “Grand Khan.” This is a person Polo wrote about that maybe has some connection to various actual historical figures. He’s supposed to be a ruler in a far-off place in Asia, who Polo says has shown interest in converting to Christianity. If this “Grand Khan” would convert, Polo’s readers were thinking, he would bring his subjects along with him, and there’d be this big Christian ally way off in Asia that would let Christians surround the Muslims in the Middle East and basically crush them. That idea was very important to Columbus. On the first page of his logbook recording his voyage, Columbus writes to Isabella and Ferdinand, the Spanish sovereigns, that they had sent Columbus on a mission to India to find the Grand Khan. He’s very explicit about this being a reason for the trip. These were ideas he absorbed when he was young, but he had personal experience encountering Muslims, too, before he set off on the voyage. Yes, when he finally set to the sea as a teenager, in his early ventures as a sailor for hire, a couple of voyages took him to various parts of the Muslim world. He was hired by the king of Anjou in France to retrieve a ship of his that had been captured by pirates based in Tunis, on the North African coast. That was the first time that Columbus was face to face with a living, breathing Islam—not the kind of fantasy he had read about or heard about in Genoa. We don’t know the outcome of that voyage—he probably didn’t retrieve the ship—but that’s the first time he encountered the Muslim world in any kind of way. There was another voyage that took him to Chios, an island off the Anatolian Coast in the Aegean Sea, and there he met Greek soldiers who had fought in defense of Constantinople. So he heard these real-life stories about this loss of a Christian city to this Muslim power. He sailed with Portuguese navigators down the West Coast of Africa, and there again, encountered Muslim powers. He got this sense that, even once you sail out of the Mediterranean, and are in this very different kind of place, West Africa—Islam is going to be there to greet you. Then he was present at the siege of Granada in 1492, when Isabella and Ferdinand captured Granada. And in that logbook I spoke about, he connects that event—the expulsion of the last Muslim ruler from Spain—with the sovereigns’ decision to send him on the voyage, to find a new route to Asia and to connect with the Grand Khan. To him, these things were all tied together. To what degree was this idea that his voyage would be a way to outflank Islam explicit in the way he lobbied Ferdinand and Isabella to support him—if we know? Famously, he went to a lot of people to try to get them to fund his voyages. And during that process, he did cite what he saw as the existential battle between Christendom and Islam as one of the reasons for his voyages. And this worked with Isabella and Ferdinand in part because of the politics of European rulership. They controlled property in Italy, specifically Sicily, that the Ottomans, or so they thought, were poised to invade, at various points. And of course, there were still many Muslims in Spain after the conquest of Granada; the sovereigns saw those Muslims that remained as a potential fifth column—internal enemies, maybe allies to the Ottoman Empire, the Mamluks, or Muslim powers in North Africa. They sort of felt like Islam was breathing down their necks. There are a lot of examples of the ways Columbus and other explorers approached the Native people in the New World, primed to perceive them in the same way they thought of the Muslims they had encountered in Europe. This is the other half of the story, which is that the explorers used language around Islam to frame their experience of the Old World, once they got to the New World. Some examples: Columbus described the weapons of the Taíno—the Indigenous people of the Caribbean—as alfanjes, which was the Spanish name for the scimitars used by Muslim soldiers. Hernán Cortés said that there were 400 “mosques” in Mexico, by which he probably meant Aztec temples, and that Aztec women look like “Moorish women.” He describes Montezuma, the Aztec leader, as a “sultan.” This first generation of conquistadors were forged in this world of warfare between Islam and Christendom, and that’s what they thought of in their minds’ eye, when they thought of enemies. And they also thought maybe they were seeing these signs of Islam because they were in Asia, where it would make sense, right? Yes, well, it depends on who you’re talking about; Columbus, until the day he died in 1506, thought he’d landed in Asia. So he thought all he needed to do was find the right path in, to the Grand Khan. But even much later, way beyond Columbus’ time, in the 1580s or something, when it was clear the Americas weren’t Asia, the Spanish authorities in what is today Peru reported rumors that Ottoman ships were off the West Coast of South America. There’s zero historical evidence so far that this was true—I mean, I’m open to change my mind if somebody finds evidence!—but what I’m interested in is this idea they still seemed to have that Islam is everywhere; Muslims are all around us. Is it possible to use the word Islamophobia to describe the way Columbus, Isabella, Ferdinand, and other Christian Europeans felt at this time? I don’t know if that’s ahistorical. What was the motivation for their animus? Anxiety about territory? Religious fear? I didn’t use the word Islamophobia in the book. That’s a very modern term; I would be hesitant to apply it to this period. Maybe something like “anti-Muslim sentiment,” which, to be fair, is clunkier. It’s very tricky, the answer to this question. The idea is that there’s a thread of anti-Muslim sentiment from this period, and maybe even before, to today. In some ways you can draw a throughline. But I don’t want to buy into a story about some kind of eternal “clash of civilizations,” because there are plenty of examples of Christian Europeans and Muslims having quite positive interactions at the same time I’m talking about: the sharing of ideas, the exchange of goods, diplomatic relationships, fighting on the same side of wars against other enemies. And that’s part of the book, too—to point out that the Ottoman Empire has been part of “our history.” Why do you think it was important to highlight this angle on Columbus’ story? As I started writing this as an epic history, curious about the Western perspective on this, I thought, Why isn’t this motivation—this crusading motivation—part of the Columbus story? I mean, if you go back to Columbus and the Spanish sovereigns we are talking about, who wanted to deny and defeat Islam, they succeeded, in that the narratives about the New World do exclude Muslims. That’s part of the legacy. If you think of the imports, if that’s what you want to call them, that Columbus brought with him in 1492, you have disease, an ambition to find Asia, and a crusading spirit of anti-Muslim sentiment. And very tragically, to write this history of what happened next, you then have to fold what happened to the Native people of the Americas into Europe’s anti-Islamic history. And again, I don’t want to get too transhistorical here, but there are some ways in the modern American psyche that there are still connections between Muslims and Native Americans. You see that today, in the way the main American theater of warfare is the Muslim world, and so much American weaponry used there is named after Native Americans—Apache helicopters, Black Hawk helicopters, Tomahawk missiles. There’s a history of American warfare with Native peoples that’s playing out again, in different ways in the Muslim world. You could say, Those are just names, it’s language, that doesn’t mean anything. But it does! There are reasons why discursive echoes like these exist. There’s a reason that Columbus and Cortés used language referring to Islam, when they encountered the New World, and not the language of anti-Judaism. They didn’t talk about, I don’t know, “the dirty French,” or something like that. There are particular reasons for that, that have to be explained. | 0 |
President Donald Trump, bowing to a deepening humanitarian crisis along the southwest border, signed an executive order Wednesday that promises to halt family separation while insisting that the administration's "zero tolerance" policy to prosecute all illegal immigrants would continue. “We’re going to have strong, very strong borders, but we’re going to keep the families together," Trump said. "I didn’t like the sight or the feeling of families being separated."Vice President Mike Pence and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen stood by his side when he signed the order in the Oval Office."Thank you for your leadership, sir," said Nielsen, who has become the public face of the administration's policy that led to separation of children from adult immigrants charged with illegal entry.The order's title, "Affording Congress an Opportunity to Address Family Separation," puts the onus on lawmakers to provide a long-term fix with legislative action. It authorizes DHS to keep families together when they are detained at the border, unless officials determine that the child's welfare is at "risk." It also authorizes the Defense Department to provide facilities for housing those families.Also under the order, the Justice Department was directed to prioritize the prosecution of cases involving families.Justice officials had been working since early Wednesday on a draft of the order aimed at reversing politically-charged policy that has resulted in the separation of more than 2,000 children of adult illegal immigrants in the past month, an official familiar with the matter said Wednesday.The scope of the order, however, did not address how the already-separated children would be re-united with their parents. The text of the document appeared only to apply to families of future illegal immigrants, while fates of the existing detainees — children and adults — are likely to be left to Congress to resolve.The first signs that Trump was preparing to act emerged early Wednesday, as Nielsen huddled with the White House to discuss possible options, including an executive order, while Attorney General Jeff Sessions worked with Justice officials on the mechanics and language that would ultimately preserve the administration's promise to prosecute all those accused of illegal entry.More:Trump to sign executive order to end immigrant family separations: What we know nowMore:Why are immigrant children being separated from parents? All your questions answeredMore:Fact check: What's really going on with immigrant children being detained at the border?Hours later, Trump announced that he would take action to end family separation.“I’ll be signing something in a little while that’s going to do that," Trump said after he was asked about stopping the separation of families at the border. "I’ll be doing something that’s somewhat preemptive and ultimately will be matched by legislation, I’m sure.”The controversial zero tolerance policy was first announced more than a month ago by Sessions.“If you cross this border unlawfully, then we will prosecute you,” Sessions said in the shadow of California's busiest border crossing in San Diego. "If you are smuggling a child, then we will prosecute you and that child will be separated from you as required by law.”Some of the most intense public pressure to reverse course, had been applied to Nielsen, the public face of the strategy, and Sessions, the architect of the zero tolerance policy.Late Tuesday, protesters heckled Nielsen as she ate dinner at a downtown Washington, D.C., Mexican restaurant. And for his part, Sessions was rebuked by separate coalitions of state attorneys general and former federal prosecutors who called on the attorney general to halt the practice of separating children from their parents.Sessions also was the target of public condemnation from United Methodist clergy and lay members who suggested that that actions taken by the administration and the attorney general were akin to child abuse.Still, prior to his announcement, Trump again blamed Democrats for the problems, asserting that Republicans wanted security."I am working on something - it never ends!" he tweeted. | 0 |
Story highlightsCongress kicks off new year with fight over extending jobless benefits1.3 million people lost those benefits when Congress failed to act last monthPartisan, midterm election year politics will further complicate the debateSenate Majority Leader Harry Reid plans a first vote Tuesday morning toward renewing unemployment benefits for about 1.3 million Americans who lost them when they expired at the end of December.Democrats and President Barack Obama support the extension -- which had been scheduled for a vote Monday evening but Reid delayed the vote until Tuesday -- while Republicans generally oppose extending those benefits. And with Democrats in control of the Senate and Republicans having a majority in the House, the issue doesn't seem to be one that will be easy to resolve.1. The check's not in the mail Roughly 1.3 million long-term unemployed were affected when Congress failed to continue a 2008 recession-era federal law providing nearly a year of benefits, paid for by U.S. taxpayers, that kicked in when state jobless benefits ran out. As Gene Sperling, director of the White House's National Economic Council told CNN's Candy Crowley on "State of the Union." "(Monday) is actually the day that 1.3 million Americans will go to the mailbox and find that check missing, the check that they rely on to put food on their table."2. New year, old fightExpect a repeat performance of years past when Democrats and Republicans clashed in often dramatic showdowns rife with fiery rhetoric and lengthy filibusters. Democrats argue the program is needed to sustain economic recovery and offer a lifeline to those struggling to keep their head above water financially. Republicans counter the benefits are an economic drain and a disincentive to looking for work. The Congressional Budget Office estimates continuing them for another year will cost about $26 billion.Republican leaders say they would consider extending the benefits but insist that the $26 billion comes from making cuts elsewhere.Reid said Sunday that the government normally doesn't have to make "offsets" for emergency funding like these benefits and called the Republican demands "foolishness."3. Politics at playThe legislative fights will take place against the backdrop of a midterm election year. Democrats are refocusing on issues relating to economic inequality, which is important to their base.Many Republicans, including potential 2016 presidential candidate Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, have long insisted that the Great Recession-era extension of emergency federal benefits deter job-hunting and are unnecessary as the economy rebounds and unemployment declines."When you allow people to be on unemployment insurance for 99 weeks, you're causing them to become part of this perpetual unemployed group in our economy," Paul said on Fox News last month. "And it really -- while it seems good, it actually does a disservice to the people you're trying to help."4. White House wades into the frayThe message from the White House on this issue: Bring it on!In his weekly address over the weekend, President Barack Obama blasted Republicans in Congress who "went home for the holidays and let that lifeline expire.""That's my New Year's resolution -- to do everything I can, every single day, to help make 2014 a year in which more of our citizens can earn their own piece of the American Dream," Obama said in his address.5. The honeymoon's overThe tone set by this first political showdown could foreshadow the tenor of future fights over funding the federal government, raising the debt ceiling, efforts to try and repeal or roll back portions of the President's signature health care law and the long-postponed fight over immigration reform. | 0 |
Washington (CNN)Vice President Kamala Harris was huddled with other White House officials in President Joe Biden's private dining room last week when the room let out a "collective exhale." A Minnesota jury had found Derek Chauvin guilty of murdering George Floyd.As the large flat-screen television mounted on the north wall flashed three "guilty" counts, the room was overcome with a "sweeping sense of relief," an aide said. Harris joined Biden and the first lady moments later in the Oval Office, where Floyd's family was patched in by speakerphone."She wants to say something," Biden told the group, gathered in a hallway at the courthouse in Minneapolis, before ceding the line to his vice president. "I'm just so thankful to the entire family. Your courage, your commitment, your strength has been a strength. This is a day for justice in America," Harris told the group. "In George's name and memory, we are going to make sure his legacy is intact and that history will look back at this moment and know that it is an inflection moment."For Harris, it was also a moment that underscored her history-making presence within the young administration. She has often said she didn't know a Black man growing up in Oakland that hadn't faced a level of profiling and discrimination. Speaking to the Floyd family, Harris was presented an opportunity to tap into their collective grief in a way no vice president before her could.Nearly 100 days into their tenure, Biden and Harris have worked to deepen their relationship, spending five hours or more together per day in meetings at the White House, according to aides. Both Biden and Harris shunned work travel in the early days to set an example during the pandemic -- forcing them into closer proximity than their predecessors.She began her tenure attending nearly every one of Biden's events, provided her own speaking slot and always in-frame as the President delivered remarks, an unmissable -- and intentional -- level of visibility.Her position as the country's highest-ranking woman of color, she said in an interview last week, brings with it a heavy weight."I carry a great sense of responsibility, if not the seriousness of the responsibility, to be in this position and be a voice for those who have not traditionally been in the room," Harris told CNN's Dana Bash in an exclusive interview.A deepening relationshipHer presence at Biden's side while the verdict was read, and later in the Grand Foyer as each delivered a statement, was the culmination of weeks of private conversations between Biden and Harris about the trial, which officials said had been a subject of increasing concern for the President as he weighed potential outcomes and the prospect of renewed unrest around the country.More than at any previous point in Biden's presidency so far, the issues of race and policing that had galvanized his presidential campaign were emerging again. The President, his aides and even the first lady watched developments with intense interest, aware a leadership test awaited upon its conclusion.Biden consulted a wide array of voices about how to respond to a verdict in the Chauvin trial and new incidents of police violence against Black Americans, including members of the Congressional Black Caucus and members of his senior staff, including senior adviser Cedric Richmond and Domestic Policy Council Director Susan Rice, according to people familiar with the conversations.He also turned to Harris. Over the course of several group meetings and in their weekly private lunches -- held in the same dining room, which features a painting of President Abraham Lincoln meeting with Union generals during the Civil War -- the two discussed the situation at length, according to people familiar with the matter.It was the type of moment Biden seemed to anticipate when, in the wake of Floyd's killing last summer and the protests that ensued, he selected Harris as his running mate. More than achieving any political objective, Biden appeared to recognize the imperative in having an authoritative voice on issues of systemic racism and law enforcement at the highest level inside the White House.He selected Harris, a former California attorney general with whom he had sparred on issues of race when they were primary competitors, and declared she would act as his closest partner in an attempt to repair a country riven by racial and political divisions."You'll recall that when Joe Biden asked me to join him on the ticket, he did so with a sense of intentionality, of purpose, knowing that he and I may have very different life experiences but we also have the same values and operate from the same principles," Harris said in the interview. "It was something that I know he was very intentional about in terms of asking me to run with him and to serve him, which is that I will bring a perspective that will contribute to the overall decisions that we make."Harris declined to say exactly what she'd discussed with Biden in the lead-up to the trial's conclusion -- "I'm not going to talk about private conversations, of course" -- but she did provide a glimpse into her rapport with a President she spends hours with every day."He and I are in almost every meeting together, have made almost every decision together," she said, adding later: "It is often the case that as I will ask his opinion about things, he will ask my opinion and through that process I think that we arrive at a good place. And ultimately, of course, he is the President and he makes the final decision."She said she remains the last person in the room when big decisions are made -- including, she said, when Biden decided earlier this month to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.And while she shares few political traits with her immediate predecessor, Mike Pence, she too is quick to heap praise upon the man under whom she serves."This is a president who has an extraordinary amount of courage," she said, referring specifically to the Afghanistan decision. "I wish that the American public can see sometimes what I see, because ultimately -- and the decision always rests with him -- but I have seen him over and over again make decisions based exactly on what he believes is right. Regardless of what maybe the political people tell him is in his best self-interest."A fraught assignmentSo far, Biden has assigned her one major portfolio: Attempting to stem the flow of migrants from Central America arriving at the southern border through diplomatic engagement with leaders in the region. It was a task some of her advisers appeared wary of taking on, people familiar with the matter said, given its political pitfalls. One source close to Harris' staff said some aides felt that the assignment "wasn't ideal."But Harris made clear the assignment was a request from Biden, not a dictate: "He asked me to do it. Just as he was asked to do it," she told Bash.And two sources familiar with the matter said she did not pause or push back before accepting the role."When President Joe Biden asked her, she did not hesitate," said one of those sources, who requested anonymity to discuss internal conversations.Inside the White House, the immigration issue has caused deep anxiety as Biden's advisers worry the situation could worsen over the coming months, potentially torpedoing legislative momentum. A confusing back-and-forth this month over the number of refugees allowed into the United States underscored the perils on the issue, and showed the struggle the administration is facing finding its footing.Already, Republicans have used the assignment to paint Harris as the face of the problem, questioning why she hasn't visited the border. Some of the backlash prompted the White House to make clear multiple times her role is limited to diplomatic efforts in curbing the migrant flow -- and not the entirety of the problem.Those close to Harris acknowledge she wanted to own a foreign policy portfolio item. Despite any political perils it might carry, she sees it as an opportunity to beef up her foreign policy bona fides.Harris does plan to travel to Central America in June, officials said, and will meet virtually with leaders from Guatemala this week. "I can't get there soon enough," Harris told Bash.While details of the trip are still being configured, a source familiar with discussions said she's been urged to not only meet with government officials in the region, but to also engage with civil society organizations, anti-corruption organizations and women's groups, shining a light on Afro-descendants and indigenous people."There was a real sense that she knows when she goes that she will be curating these visits in ways that look very different than her predecessors," the source said.Still, in the interview, even Harris acknowledged the problem was not something she'll be able to solve in the short term."We're making progress," she said, "but it's not going to evidence itself overnight. It will not. But it will be worth it."Harris models herself after her bossStill, for all the attention paid to Harris' assignment on immigration, it is her broader assignment as Biden's sounding board -- which, over the last weeks, has included racial issues -- that is emerging as her primary role inside the West Wing.She's looked to Biden's own vice presidency as a model. Biden determined early in his own vice presidency that having regular access to President Barack Obama -- through their weekly lunches and entrance to whichever meetings he felt it necessary to attend -- would help define his role and strengthen their working relationship.And Harris has worked to emulate their relationship at every step.She regularly attends morning intelligence updates alongside Biden in the Oval Office, preferring to read the daily briefings on a secure iPad. In meetings with members of his Covid and economic teams, Harris has pressed senior advisers for progress reports on vaccinations and economic relief for vulnerable communities, a White House official said.But she has also begun stepping out on her own, including a domestic travel schedule that brought her to New Hampshire on Friday, touting the administration's efforts to expand broadband internet in front of large grey fiber-optic cable spools and rows of electric transformers.She's held rounds of solo telephone calls with foreign leaders, and met individually with Japan's Prime Minister when he visited the White House earlier this month. Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, has briefed her separately in her office ahead of calls and meetings, in addition to joint briefings with Biden.And earlier this month, she moved out of the presidential guest house across Pennsylvania Avenue and into the vice presidential residence at the Naval Observatory after a construction-prolonged delay -- meaning she and Biden are no longer neighbors.On her trip to New Hampshire, she stopped at a local bookstore and bought two books: "Of Women and Salt," by Gabriela Garcia, whose themes of migration and family could inform her new policy role; and the "Complete Mediterranean Cookbook," which could inspire meals at her new, more private dwellings, where -- in theory -- she can reinstitute her well-known Sunday dinners.Just as Biden and his speechwriters began drafting statements for the end of the Chauvin trial in the days ahead of the verdict, Harris' team set to work preparing her own statement, recognizing her voice would be a critical one no matter the result."Here's the truth about racial injustice," said Harris, speaking ahead of Biden from the same lectern after the verdict. "It is not just a Black America problem or a people of color problem. It is a problem for every American. It is keeping us from fulfilling the promise of liberty and justice for all. And it is holding our nation back from realizing our full potential."As a senator, Harris co-sponsored policing reform legislation named for Floyd and has led calls from the White House to see it passed. Talks between Republicans and Democrats have intensified in the past week, though it wasn't clear how involved Harris has been in the discussions.Rep. Karen Bass, a California Democrat who's a leading proponent of the bill, said last week the White House is being kept informed as things move forward. Officials from the Office of Legislative Affairs, along with Rice and Richmond, are keeping track of developments.When Harris was asked whether she was open to compromise on the issue of qualified immunity for police officers -- a key sticking point in negotiations -- she demurred."I need to be fully briefed on it," she said when leaving the Senate floor on Wednesday after casting a tie-breaking vote. "I haven't made a decision about it. But as you know, I was part of the language -- I helped write the language."Where the bill, which supplanted Biden's campaign promise to convene a policing commission at the White House, fits within the administration's overall legislative priorities isn't necessarily clear. The President is in the midst of advancing a major infrastructure package, and plans to introduce a secondary American Family Plan bill soon.Biden will push for the George Floyd bill when he addresses a joint session of Congress this week, according to officials. If tradition holds, Harris will be seated directly behind him on the rostrum alongside House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- the first time two women have filled the iconic television shot behind the President.With the history, however, comes a burden."I carry a great, great weight of responsibility knowing that there are so many people -- the generations of women who fought for and imagined that there would be a woman vice president or a woman on the ticket -- I think of that all the time in terms of the responsibility I have to hopefully make them proud," Harris told CNN. She's also acutely aware of the legacy she'll leave behind for Black and Brown kids. "I carry a great sense of responsibility for all of the young girls and boys of color," she went on, "those who identify in some way because maybe no one expected something of them but they expect a lot of themselves, to do well and to do right and to do good." | 0 |
Jan. 7, 2014Roger Ailes was so eager to influence national politics that in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, he told fellow Fox News executives point-blank: “I want to elect the next president.”In the corporate thicket of News Corporation, according to a new book, Mr. Ailes dared to battle with Lachlan Murdoch, a son of Rupert Murdoch, the chairman, openly gloating when the younger Mr. Murdoch eventually left his post at the company and even commandeering his chair.At Fox News, the book says, Mr. Ailes was disdainful of even his most bankable on-air talent, privately calling Bill O’Reilly “a book salesman with a TV show” and Brian Kilmeade, a peppy Fox host, “a soccer coach from Long Island.”Those episodes are described in “The Loudest Voice in the Room” by Gabriel Sherman, a 560-page biography of Mr. Ailes being published on Jan. 21 by Random House.The book aims to be an exhaustive look at Mr. Ailes’s life and his monumental career, particularly as chairman of Fox News Channel. Under his stewardship, the network, known best for its conservative opinion shows in prime time, dominates the cable news competition, frequently posting ratings better than those for its main rivals, MSNBC and CNN, combined. It has also become the most profitable division of 21st Century Fox, its parent, with annual earnings that have been estimated at $1 billion.The book describes in detail Mr. Ailes’s professional ambition, his desire to influence American politics through a conservative prism, and his status as a visionary who possessed an intuitive understanding of the power of television to shape public opinion. Before entering the corporate world, Mr. Ailes was a political consultant, and Mr. Sherman’s book credits him with being a pioneer in using television during election campaigns.In the months before publication, the book has drawn sharp criticism from a chorus of people connected to Fox News, including employees and contributors who have taken to Twitter to attack Mr. Sherman.Mr. Ailes, in what some viewed as an attempt to pre-empt Mr. Sherman’s book, cooperated with another biography, “Roger Ailes: Off Camera” by Zev Chafets, which was published last year by Sentinel, a conservative imprint at Penguin.In his book, Mr. Sherman, a contributing editor at New York magazine, follows Mr. Ailes, 73, from his boyhood in Ohio to his perch as one of the most powerful figures in the history of television.Despite being unsatisfied with many of the Republican candidates for president in 2012, Mr. Ailes endeavored to promote Mitt Romney on Fox News programs, the book says. Before the Wisconsin congressman Paul D. Ryan was chosen as Mr. Romney’s running mate, Mr. Ailes advised Mr. Ryan that his television skills needed work and recommended a speech coach.At the beginning of the general election, a four-minute video criticizing President Obama’s policies was broadcast on “Fox and Friends,” provoking outrage from the left and prompting the network to say publicly that Mr. Ailes had no involvement in its creation. In “The Loudest Voice in the Room,” Mr. Sherman writes that the video “was Ailes’s brainchild.”The New York Times obtained a copy of the book in advance of its publication.Mr. Sherman said in the source notes that he interviewed 614 people who knew or worked with Mr. Ailes for the book, which took more than three years to report and write. More than 100 pages are devoted to source notes and bibliography.Former employees cited in the book talked of Mr. Ailes’s volatile temper and domineering behavior. In one anecdote, a television producer, Randi Harrison, told Mr. Sherman that while negotiating her salary with Mr. Ailes at NBC in the 1980s, he offered her an additional $100 each week “if you agree to have sex with me whenever I want.”A Fox News spokeswoman said in a statement on Tuesday: “These charges are false. While we have not read the book, the only reality here is that Gabe was not provided any direct access to Roger Ailes and the book was never fact-checked with Fox News.”The book also describes an explosive episode dating back to 1995, when Mr. Ailes was a high-ranking executive at NBC and locked in a power struggle with another executive, David Zaslav.At a company dinner, according to the book, Mr. Ailes made clear he was ready to do battle with Mr. Zaslav. “Let’s kill the S.O.B.,” he told his dining companions, Mr. Sherman writes. At a separate meeting with Mr. Zaslav, the book says, Mr. Ailes was said to have unleashed a vulgar, anti-Semitic slur at his rival.That episode was promptly investigated, at NBC’s behest, by a partner from the firm Proskauer Rose, Mr. Sherman writes. The partner concluded in his internal report that he believed the allegation that Mr. Ailes made an anti-Semitic remark — an obscene phrase with the words “little” and “Jew” — was true. Bob Wright, the former chairman and chief executive of NBC who was Mr. Ailes’s boss at the time, is quoted in the book as saying, “My conclusion was that he probably said it.” Mr. Sherman also cites documentation from the investigation.Through a spokeswoman, Mr. Ailes specifically denied using an anti-Semitic slur against Mr. Zaslav.Mr. Zaslav, now the chief executive of Discovery and one of the most powerful executives in television, also denied it. “We fought with each other and we fought with a lot of other people,” he said Tuesday in a phone interview. “But this allegation is false.” He added that he and Mr. Ailes were now friends.In his source notes, Mr. Sherman quotes Mr. Zaslav as denying the episode.Random House, which acquired “The Loudest Voice in the Room” in December 2010, said that Mr. Sherman was prepared to speak up in the news media to defend the book. An excerpt will run in New York magazine.Both Mr. Sherman and Random House say they are girding for a counterattack from Fox News. Some Fox employees have already denigrated Mr. Sherman publicly, with the prime-time host Sean Hannity calling him a “phony journalist” on Twitter.Last year, lawyers from Fox News met with lawyers from Random House to discuss Mr. Sherman’s book. Fox requested the meeting because it had heard about allegations that might be in the book that it said were inaccurate, and to emphasize that the book had not been fact-checked by Fox News.Theresa Zoro, a spokeswoman for Random House, said in a statement that Mr. Sherman’s book was “an objective and rigorously reported account of Roger Ailes’s life and his running of Fox News. We fully stand by the book. If anyone has issues with it, we will respond with the facts as Gabe Sherman has reported them.”Mr. Sherman said in an email: “I consider Roger Ailes to be one of the most fascinating, consequential figures in contemporary American life. I wrote this book to shed light on the full scope of his talents and power, which have found their fullest expression at Fox News.” | 0 |
Story highlights Central American leaders meet with Obama on youth migrant surge They say they're working on a plan to address underlying cause of migrationThe Obama administration is buoyed by slight slowing of migrant kids at the borderCongress working on scaled-back plan, but House and Senate divided on approachCentral American leaders signaled to President Barack Obama they're working on a "comprehensive plan" to address the underlying reasons for the surge of immigrant youth from their countries who are entering the United States illegally.The presidents of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala met with Obama at the White House on Friday as Washington struggles to find a solution to what many consider a humanitarian crisis.The influx this year of tens of thousands of child immigrants, many unaccompanied, has become a partisan flashpoint on the already divisive issue of reforming a U.S. immigration system that all sides agree is broken. Obama and Presidents Otto Perez Molina of Guatemala, Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras, and Salvador Sanchez Ceren of El Salvador issued a statement that reiterated "our commitment to prevent families and children from undertaking this dangerous journey and to work together to promote safe, legal, and orderly migration."They "all agreed that an effective solution requires a comprehensive and joint effort" from those countries, other nations in the region and the United States, they said.Specifically, the Central American presidents "indicated" to Obama that they were working on a plan to address the root causes of why people are leaving their countries.Underlying causesPart of that, all at the meeting agreed, must address strategies for reducing crime and promoting greater social and economic opportunity. Priorities include pursuing criminal enterprises "that are exploiting this uniquely vulnerable population" and the need to discourage use of "smuggling networks" that place immigrants at "high risk of violent crime and sexual abuse."Obama and the others also pledged to redouble efforts to counter misinformation about U.S. deportation policy around young immigrants that some say is fueling the surge, and promised to further efforts to "humanely repatriate migrants, consistent with due process."Most can't stayObama told the Central American leaders that most of the child migrants crossing the border illegally now won't be permitted to stay. Some have been deported already, while most are being allowed to stay temporarily while their immigration status is sorted out.Also being discussed within the Obama administration has been a pilot program that would let the United States assess asylum claims in those countries in order to reduce the number of illegal immigrants. But Obama sought to play down that option as an answer."There may be some narrow circumstances in which there is humanitarian or refugee status that a family might be eligible for. If that's the case it would be better for them to apply in country rather than take a very dangerous journey all the way up to Texas to make those same claims," Obama said.But he added that potential applicants would still have to meet the same criteria to qualify."Under U.S. law, we admit a certain number of refugees from all over the world based on some fairly narrow criteria and typically refugee status is not just based on economic need or because a family lives in a bad neighborhood or in poverty it's typically defined fairly narrowly," he said.The White House previously called the idea premature. But spokesman Josh Earnest said before Friday's meeting that it could be extended to other countries, if successful.Struggling for a solutionThe administration and Congress have struggled in recent weeks to come to a consensus on how to address the surge that has overwhelmed border and immigration services.Obama has asked Congress for $3.7 billion in emergency funds for border efforts, while Republicans and some Democrats in Congress are resisting that proposal, and offering alternatives that would spend less and change immigration policy to deport kids faster.Either way, Obama and others are concerned that lawmakers will leave at the end of next week for their August recess without approving a fix.House Republicans are expected to vote on a scaled-down border bill next week. It would provide less than $1 billion to address the crisis and would modify a 2008 law to make it easier to deport children from Central America who enter the United States illegally.Currently, kids who enter the country illegally from Central America can stay until they receive an immigration hearing. That process can take months or years.The proposal to alter that law all but ensures the bill will not come to a vote in the Senate, where Democrats are opposed to tagging that change to a funding bill of its own for the border crisis.Democrats worry that accelerating the process will result in many falling through the cracks and being sent back to situations characterized by many as violent situations in their countries.Guard troops to borderThe administration also is considering sending National Guard troops to the border, according to a White House official, just days after Texas Gov. Rick Perry said he would do just that in the Rio Grande Valley area.The Pentagon and the Department of Health and Human Services sent a team this week to assess Border Patrol efforts in the Rio Grande Valley. The number of unaccompanied minors seeping through that area has slowed dramatically since last month. | 0 |
Suspect in killing of right-wing protester fatally shot during arrest Updated on: September 4, 2020 / 8:09 PM / CBS/AP A man suspected of fatally shooting a supporter of a right-wing group in Portland, Oregon, last week was killed Thursday as investigators moved in to arrest him, the U.S. Marshals Service has confirmed. Michael Forest Reinoehl, 48, was killed as a federal task force attempted to apprehend him in the area of Olympia, Washington.
A statement from the Marshals Service confirmed that Reinoehl was wanted as a prime suspect in the killing of 39-year-old Aaron "Jay" Danielson, who was shot in the chest Saturday night, and was the subject of an arrest warrant issued by Portland police.Federal agents from the FBI and the Marshals Service located Reinoehl on Thursday after the warrant was issued. Police officials work at a scene where a man suspected of fatally shooting a supporter of a right-wing group in Portland, Oregon, last week was killed as investigators moved in to arrest him in Lacey, Washington, September 3, 2020. Ted Warren/AP During the encounter, Reinoehl was shot by a law enforcement officer working on the federal task force, but the officer who opened fire was not a federal agent, one official told CBS News' Clare Hymes. It was not immediately clear which law enforcement agency the task force member who shot Reinoehl came from.
"The fugitive task force located Reinoehl in Olympia and attempted to peacefully arrest him," the U.S. Marshals Service said. "Initial reports indicate the suspect produced a firearm, threatening the lives of law enforcement officers. Task force members responded to the threat and struck the suspect who was pronounced dead at the scene." The statement said no law enforcement officers were injured during the incident.Reinoehl had described himself in a social media post as "100% ANTIFA," suggested the tactics of counter-protesters amounted to "warfare," and had been shot at one protest and cited for having a gun at another.He had been a regular presence at anti-racism demonstrations in Portland, which continued late into Thursday evening for a 99th consecutive day. Anti-racism protesters gather in Portland, Oregon, on the evening of September 3, 2020. T. Sean Herbert/CBS CBS News producer T. Sean Herbert said that after word of Reinoehl's death spread among the demonstrators, a group of about 150 marched from Laurelhurst Park to a former police precinct building east of central Portland on Thursday night. The demonstration remained peaceful as police officers took positions away from the protesters to defend the building's entrances. Trump tweets on "cold blooded killer"In a tweet late Thursday night, President Donald Trump demanded to know, "why aren't the Portland Police ARRESTING the cold blooded killer of Aaron 'Jay' Danielson? Do your job, and do it fast. Everybody knows who this thug is. No wonder Portland is going to hell!" Why aren’t the Portland Police ARRESTING the cold blooded killer of Aaron “Jay” Danielson. Do your job, and do it fast. Everybody knows who this thug is. No wonder Portland is going to hell! @TheJusticeDept @FBI— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 4, 2020 It was unclear whether Mr. Trump was aware of the operation that took place in Lacey to apprehend Reinoehl. His suggestion that Portland was "going to hell" due to a lack of law enforcement action came two days after he ordered the Office of Budget Management and U.S. Attorney General William Barr to identify "anarchist" cities and cut their federal funding.Portland was among several cities singled out by Mr. Trump, where he said "weak" Democratic leaders were allowing "anarchists" to "harm people, burn buildings, and ruin lives and businesses." Mr. Trump has portrayed people attending the wave of protests across the nation, who have demanded social justice and fair treatment of minorities by law enforcement, as "thugs" and criminals as he campaigns for re-election on a tough "law and order" platform.The shooting on Saturday that left Danielson dead occurred near clashes between supporters of President Trump and counter-protesters after a "Trump 2020 Cruise Rally" that happened earlier in the day. Joey Gibson, the founder of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer, told the Associated Press that the person killed was a member of his group. A man is treated after being shot on August 9, 2020, in Portland, Oregon, after fights broke out as a large caravan of supporters of President Trump drove through the city, clashing with counter-protesters. Paula Bronstein/AP Mr. Trump shared a video on Twitter of a caravan of his supporters driving through Portland and lauded them as "GREAT PATRIOTS!"In the wake of the shooting, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler pleaded on Sunday for an end to violence. He appealed directly to people who posted messages on social media threatening to come to Portland to avenge the protester's death, saying he was aware the shooting could become a potential "flashpoint." Reinoehl's recordReinoehl had had recent run-ins with the police prior to Saturday's shooting. On July 5, officers cited him on allegations of possessing a loaded gun in a public place, resisting arrest and interfering with police. On July 26, Reinoehl was shot near his elbow after he got involved in a scuffle between an armed white man and a group of young people of color. The man who was carrying the gun, Aaron Scott Collins, told The Oregonian/OregonLive that he and a friend had just left a bar when they saw the group harassing an older Black man. His friend began filming them with a phone, and the group confronted them, calling them Nazis, he said. Reinoehl later that day spoke to an AP videographer. His arm was wrapped in a bloody bandage; he said he was on his way to meet protest medics so they could change it.He said he didn't know what had started the altercation between Collins and the group, but that several people had decided to intervene when they saw Collins fighting with minors."As soon as the adults jumped in, he pulled out a gun," Reinoehl said. "I jumped in there and pulled the gun away from people's heads, avoided being shot in the stomach and I got shot in the arm."Reinoehl also was wanted on a warrant out of Baker County in Eastern Oregon, where court records show he skipped a hearing related to a June case in which he has been charged with driving under the influence of controlled substances, reckless driving, reckless endangerment and unlawful possession of a firearm. Police said he drove on an interstate at up to 111 mph, with his daughter in the car, while racing his 17-year-old son, who was in a different vehicle. 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
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WASHINGTON – Colorado's former Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday joined the growing field of Democratic candidates hoping to unseat President Donald Trump in 2020. The centrist Democrat made the announcement in an online video titled "Standing Tall." The video touts Hickenlooper's accomplishments as governor and highlights his biography as an unemployed geologist who became a successful restaurateur. "We need a leader who can bring people together and get stuff done. As a successful entrepreneur, mayor and governor, I’ve proven that I can build and lead amazing teams of talented people- a key ingredient to effecting real progressive change. I hope you'll join me," he tweeted Monday morning.The two-term governor left office in January. Before becoming governor, he served two terms as mayor of Denver. He is expected to campaign on his ability to implement Democratic goals in a politically divided state and to try to stand out from the largely progressive group of Democratic candidates by portraying himself as a pragmatist. Hickenlooper has hedged on supporting Medicare for All and the Green New Deal. "I'm running for president because we're facing a crisis that threatens everything we stand for," Hickenlooper, 67, said, as the video displayed an image of Trump. "As a skinny kid with Coke bottle glasses and a funny last name, I've stood up to my fair share of bullies." The candidates:Who is running for president? Here's a list of the candidates who have declared so farHickenlooper said, "We need dreamers in Washington but we also need to get things done. I've proven again and again I can bring people together to produce the progressive change Washington has failed to deliver."On "Good Morning America" on Monday, Hickenlooper further detailed the crisis he believes America is facing, citing climate change and the soaring cost of health care as symptoms of a larger problem."This is a crisis of division," he said. "And I think it's probably the worst period of division that we've had in this country since the Civil War."Ultimately I'm running for president because I believe not only that I can beat Donald Trump, but that I am the person that can bring people together on the other side and actually get stuff done," he said.The campaign video pointed to his success in bringing oil and gas companies together with environmentalists to agree on methane emission caps. The campaign video also focused on Hickenlooper's gun control efforts in the wake of the 2012 mass shooting in an Aurora, Colorado, movie theater. He signed bills requiring universal background checks and limiting magazine capacity to 15 rounds.He previously told the Fort Collins Coloradoan that he would bring a western perspective and collegiality missing from much of the national debate. It was one of the first times the former governor specifically addressed the question of whether he would run for president in 2020."I understand that I would be a ridiculous long shot, and we're not a big state, we don't have all the donors and giant corporations and all that stuff," Hickenlooper said at the time. "I think there's a reason we've had the Number 1 economy for two years in a row. I don't think that happened by accident. I think that was a function of that unity, that feeling that we're all in this together and we're going to find solutions to our economy and our education, make sure that we have a workforce."Hickenlooper will be able to point to other liberal accomplishments as governor. He signed a law legalizing same-sex civil unions in 2013 and opposed the death penalty. He also ordered Colorado to adopt California's low vehicle emission standards before leaving office. But some progressives felt that Hickenlooper was too supportive of the energy industry and were critical of his opposition to ballot measures that sought to limit drilling in suburban areas.In 2017, Hickenlooper and former Republican Ohio Gov. John Kasich joined to propose fixes for the Affordable Care Act. The bipartisan effort fueled speculation that the pair might consider a "unity ticket" in 2020, but Hickenlooper threw cold water on that idea in September. The Republican Nation Committee rejected the notion that Hickenlooper is a moderate, calling him a "tax-and-spend liberal" in a statement Monday. "John Hickenlooper is the latest tax-and-spend liberal to join the race. But according to Hickenlooper, he’s actually ‘a lot more progressive’ than his far-left opponents. In a primary dominated by socialist policies like the $93 trillion ‘Green New Deal,’ that puts him way outside the mainstream," said RNC spokesman Michael Ahrens.Contributing: Fort Collins Coloradoan; Chrissie Thompson and Jessie Balmert, The Cincinnati Enquirer; The Associated Press. | 0 |
First Read is a morning briefing from Meet the Press and the NBC Political Unit on the day's most important political stories and why they matter.Why Trump can’t escape his ‘Birther’ pastOn Thursday night, the Washington Post reported that Donald Trump refused -- again -- to say President Obama was born in the United States. “I’ll answer that question at the right time,” Trump said. “I just don’t want to answer it yet.” After Hillary Clinton seized on the issue before an audience of Latinos, a Trump campaign spokesman issued a statement saying that Obama WAS born in the U.S. “Having successfully obtained President Obama’s birth certificate when others could not, Mr. Trump believes that President Obama was born in the United States,” senior communications adviser Jason Miller said. And it’s possible that Trump tries to backtrack on his ‘Birther’ past at his campaign event in DC today. But there’s a big reason why he can’t escape it, no matter what he says: It’s a key part of his political identity. Indeed, just look at these Trump statements AFTER Obama produced his birth certificate in 2011:“Who knows [if Obama is a natural-born citizen]? Who knows? Who cares right now? We're talking about something else, OK? I'm going to have my own theory on Obama. Someday I'll write a book, I'll do another book that will do successfully.” -- Jan. 6, 2016So for Trump’s campaign -- or even Trump himself -- to backtrack on this ‘Birther’ past some 50 days before the election is like asking Hillary Clinton to backtrack on being married to Bill Clinton, or Bernie Sanders to backtrack on being a democratic socialist, or Barack Obama to backtrack on his fondness for Abraham Lincoln. It is part of Trump’s political identity, and his political following started with this.It isn’t true to say Hillary Clinton or her ’08 campaign started the Birther movementThe other part of the Trump campaign statement from last night -- in fact, it was its beginning -- was pinning the Birther story on Hillary Clinton. "Hillary Clinton’s campaign first raised this issue to smear then-candidate Barack Obama in her very nasty, failed 2008 campaign for President. This type of vicious and conniving behavior is straight from the Clinton Playbook.” But that is untrue. While SUPPORTERS of Clinton stirred this conspiracy on the Internet, Clinton or her campaign NEVER said/suggested/insinuated that Obama wasn’t born in the United States. As the Washington Post wrote last year, “Clinton's campaign, one of the most thoroughly dissected in modern history, never raised questions about the future president's citizenship. The idea that it did is based largely on a series of disconnected actions by supporters of Clinton, mostly in the months between Obama's reaction to the Jeremiah Wright story and the Democratic National Convention.”Why Team Trump addressing the Birther story doesn’t make much senseThe only way Trump addressing the Birther story makes sense is through the logic that “any day the campaign is about you is a good day.” Besides that, addressing it doesn’t make sense. Either he doubles down on his past statements, which only complicates the campaign trying to woo African Americans and to seize on the “Deplorables” controversy. Or he repudiates his past Birther statements, which raises the question if he has a political core. How can you beat the Birther drums for five years and then say you’re sorry 50-plus days before an election? If so, what does he believe? And what is he for? One other point here: With his poll numbers improving, Trump appears to be getting a little cocky (this, Dr. Oz, criticizing the African-American pastor). As we know, Hillary Clinton can sometimes be a terrible frontrunner. Maybe Trump isn’t a good one as well…Clinton’s message problem: It’s not enough being against TrumpSpeaking of Clinton, she’s had a message problem since mid-August: It isn’t enough being AGAINST Trump. She also to say what she’s FOR. Indeed, this was a problem that both Mitt Romney and John Kerry had, and look how their campaigns turned. That said, Clinton’s retooled stump speech yesterday started to get at the “for” issue. Some examples:“But I want you, I want you to think with me for a minute about how I certainly feel lucky when I'm under the weather, I can afford to take a few days off. Millions of Americans can't. They either go to work sick or they lose a paycheck, don't they?”“I'm running for the LGBT teenager here in North Carolina who sees your governor sign a bill legalizing discrimination and suddenly feels like a second-class citizen.”“I've been involved in politics in one way or another for many years. It is not an easy business. It can get rough and I've built up some defenses. When it comes to public service, I'm better at the service part than the public part, but this is why I do it and this is who I'm in it for: to make life better for children and families. And that's what this race has always been about for me.”Mr. Kasich Comes to Washington (to talk about supporting TPP)Finally, guess who’s also in DC today? Answer: Ohio Gov. John Kasich, who is meeting with President Obama to discuss promoting the TPP trade agreement. “Friend, I will be in Washington, D.C. tomorrow to participate in a bipartisan discussion at the White House about the benefits of trade for job creation, innovation and improving national security,” he said in an email to his supporters. “Free trade is not only a powerful driver of job creation for Americans but it's also a national security issue. There's no better tool for America to encourage other nations to embrace freedom and equality than healthy trade relationships.”On the trailHillary Clinton gives a speech in DC to the Black Women's Agenda Symposium … Donald Trump is also in DC, where he holds a campaign event at 10:00 am ET, and then he holds a rally in Miami, FL at 6:00 pm ET… And Michelle Obama stumps for Clinton in Fairfax, VA at 3:00 pm ET.Countdown to first presidential debate: 10 daysCountdown to VP debate: 18 daysCountdown to second presidential debate: 23 daysCountdown to third presidential debate: 33 daysCountdown to Election Day: 53 daysChuck Todd is moderator of "Meet The Press" and NBC News' political director. Mark Murray is a senior political editor at NBC News.Carrie Dann is a political editor for NBC News. | 0 |
Story highlightsObama paints a picture of a country on the rebound, empowered by its ethnic diversity and infused with possibilityHe criticizes foes' descriptions of ISIS' influence in the U.S.Washington (CNN)Putting aside a sudden crisis with Iran, President Barack Obama on Tuesday urged Americans in his final State of the Union address to reject the politics of tribalism and fear that have rocked the campaign to find his successor and to build a "clear-eyed, big-hearted" and "optimistic" nation.Delivering his annual report to the nation, Obama did not name Republican 2016 candidates. But he took clear, implied shots at them nevertheless, particularly front-runner Donald Trump, as well as Sens. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. America's destiny, the President said, was imperiled by a political system festering in malice, gridlock and in the grip of the rich and the powerful.Obama also took on critics who accuse him of weakening American power abroad and Republicans who say he is underplaying the threat from radical Islamist groups such as ISIS. He mocked the contention that fighters on "on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages" represented an existential threat to America.The President acknowledged that a torrent of change, technological advances and economic dislocation has left many Americans fearful of the future and anxious as social structures that have underpinned the life of the nation for decades fray. But he urged them not to fall prey to the periodic temptation that has emerged throughout history to alienate minorities and resist social change."Each time, there have been those who told us to fear the future; who claimed we could slam the brakes on change, promising to restore past glory if we just got some group or idea that was threatening America under control," Obama said. "And each time, we overcame those fears.""We made change work for us, always extending America's promise outward, to the next frontier, to more and more people. And because we did -- because we saw opportunity where others saw only peril -- we emerged stronger and better than before."Economic opportunity, security and a sustainable, peaceful planet are possible, he said, if the country could return to "rational, constructive debates.""It will only happen if we fix our politics," he said.In a way, Obama's seventh and last State of the Union address was a microcosm of his entire presidency: He invoked a chorus of hope and optimism about America's destiny and the transformative nature of change but was undercut by the poisoned political divides he has been unable to narrow -- and that have even grown during his presidency. Then he encountered fierce opposition from Republicans who believe he has transformed the nation by eroding its exceptional qualities and thwarting the Constitution.Meanwhile, a foreign policy crisis raging in the Middle East after Iran seized 10 U.S. sailors exemplified the struggles in which Obama has had to impose U.S. authority in an increasingly chaotic world that has challenged his core mission of ending costly American wars abroad.Secretary of State John Kerry told CNN that the service members would be released "very soon." And Obama did not address the crisis in his speech but defended the legacy-building deal reached to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program.While Obama, in deference to his ebbing power as a lame-duck president, avoided the long list of legislative proposals that Congress has no intention of taking up, he strongly defended his domestic record, claiming credit for 14 million new jobs and a halving of the unemployment rate. He said those who claimed the economy was in decline are "peddling fiction."He rebuked politicians who draw congressional districts to protect safe seats and vowed to launch a national effort to secure voting rights, an issue particularly important to minority communities. And he named Vice President Joe Biden, who lost his beloved son Beau to cancer last year, to head "Mission Control" in a new "moon shot" to cure the disease. He told conservatives who deny climate change to "have at it" because they were defying the world.Obama also vowed -- once again -- to fight to close the war on terror camp at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, renewing one of the first promises of his presidency that has been thwarted by Congress. He called the facility a "recruitment brochure for our enemies and was expensive and unnecessary."Obama's rebuttal to campaign trail rhetoric The first African-American president also offered a detailed rebuttal of the kind of politics that alienates people rather than unites them. At times, Obama was almost pleading with his audience to embrace the vision of hope and change that swept him to power and then was sullied by the bitter realities of polarized politics over a darker vision of America's character."What I am asking for his hard. It's easier to be cynical; to accept that change isn't possible, and politics is hopeless, and to believe that our voices and actions don't matter," Obama said."But if we give up now, then we forsake a better future."It seemed clear that the President had Trump in his thoughts."As frustration grows, there will be voices urging us to fall back into tribes, to scapegoat fellow citizens who don't look like us, or pray like us, or vote like we do, or share the same background," Obama said, voicing a familiar critique of Democrats and some Republicans at the rhetoric of the billionaire real estate mogul whose populist campaign has taken American politics by storm."We can't afford to go down that path. It won't deliver the economy we want, or the security we want, but most of all, it contradicts everything that makes us the envy of the world."In the Republican response, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley also -- after criticizing Obama's policies -- offered a repudiation of Trump, decrying the "siren call of the angriest voices."Obama appeared to relish the chance to take on Republican critics who have lambasted his performance as commander in chief."I told you earlier all the talk of America's economic decline is political hot air. Well, so is all the rhetoric you hear about our enemies getting stronger and America getting weaker. The United States of America is the most powerful nation on Earth. Period. It's not even close," Obama said.The man who burst on the political scene by rejecting the notion that there was a red America or a blue America also diagnosed a sick political system. "It doesn't work if we think the people who disagree with us are all motivated by malice, or that our political opponents are unpatriotic," Obama warned, and even accepted a share of the blame for not uniting warring political factions."It's one of the few regrets of my presidency -- that the rancor and suspicion between the parties has gotten worse instead of better. There's no doubt a president with the gifts of Lincoln or Roosevelt might have better bridged the divide, and I guarantee I'll keep trying to be better so long as I hold this office.After weeks of intense campaigning, Obama did not make gun control a centerpiece of his speech. But he did leave a seat open in the first lady's guest box, in a stark reminder of silenced victims of gun violence.Warns on ISISAnd he slammed Republicans who have responded to the spread of ISIS across much of the Middle East and the group's apparent widening of its target list to Europe and the United States, by warning that its rise is a threat to America itself."As we focus on destroying ISIL, over-the-top claims that this is World War III just play into their hands," Obama said."They do not threaten our national existence. That's the story ISIL wants to tell; that's the kind of propaganda they use to recruit," Obama said, warning against pushing away vital Americans allies in the Middle East by "echoing the lie" that the group represents Islam."We just need to call them what they are -- killers and fanatics who have to be rooted out, hunted down, and destroyed," he said, warning that "tough talk or calls to carpet bomb civilians" may work as a soundbite but don't pass muster on the world stage. Obama's comments appeared aimed at Cruz, who has warned he would carpet bomb ISIS and Rubio, who says America is waging an existential fight against radical Islamic terrorism.Republicans pounce on Iran timingThe Iran incident complicated Obama's effort to counter claims by critics that the escalating chaos in the Middle East is the result of a deficit of U.S. leadership and emboldened attacks by GOP presidential candidates who contend his "weak" performance as commander in chief has opened vacuums exploited by U.S. enemies.Republican candidates and lawmakers immediately seized on the incident to charge that Obama has emboldened Iran's aggressive behavior in its neighborhood by offering sanctions relief in return for a halting of its nuclear weapons program."This is the latest manifestation of the weakness of Barack Obama, that every bad actor ... views Obama as a laughingstock," Cruz said on WRKO radio.Rubio said Iran's provocations were the result of having a "weak president" in the Oval Office. "Iran is testing the boundaries of this administration's resolve. And they know the boundaries are pretty wide and this administration is willing to let them get away with many things," said Rubio on Fox News.And Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner told CNN's Jake Tapper on "The Lead" that Obama should delay the start of his speech "to talk about what has happened."Haley says Obama record has fallen shortRepublicans agree with Obama that his presidency has been transformational -- but in a bad way. They believe he has presided over anemic growth rates, wielded executive power on immigration, gun control and climate change to thwart the Constitution, is oblivious to the severity of Islamist terrorism and has engineered an era of declining American power in the world.The GOP highlighted one of its rising stars, Haley, who often is touted as a possible vice presidential nominee, in its official televised response to the President's address.Haley painted an unflattering picture of Obama's America and said the nation would soon have a chance to turn the page in remarks which also seemed to be a repudiation of Trump."The President's record has often fallen far short of his soaring words," Haley said."Many Americans are still feeling the squeeze of an economy too weak to raise income levels. We're feeling a crushing national debt, a health care plan that has made insurance less affordable and doctors less available, and chaotic unrest in many of our cities. Even worse, we are facing the most dangerous terrorist threat our nation has seen since September 11th, and this president appears either unwilling or unable to deal with it."Haley took a shot at Obama's foreign policy record, saying a Republican president would "make international agreements that were celebrated in Israel and protested in Iran, not the other way around."Haley decries 'siren call of the angriest voices'The governor also highlighted her personal story as a daughter of Indian immigrants and draw a contrast with some of the rhetoric currently on display in the primary campaign. "Today, we live in a time of threats like few others in recent memory," she said. "During anxious times, it can be tempting to follow the siren call of the angriest voices. We must resist that temptation. No one who is willing to work hard, abide by our laws, and love our traditions should ever feel unwelcome in this country."Tuesday's address before a packed House chamber also marked the debut of House Speaker Paul Ryan -- a longtime Obama rival -- on the platform alongside Biden.And as per tradition, one Cabinet member did not attend the speech. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson was named as the "designated survivor." | 0 |
Then-President Donald Trump speaks at an event. Former President Donald Trump’s Facebook account should remain suspended for the time being, the company’s oversight board announced Wednesday — agreeing that his rhetoric had created "a serious risk of violence" but saying the social network had been "arbitrary" in ousting him indefinitely.
The board upheld Trump's suspension but ordered: "Within six months of this decision, Facebook must reexamine the arbitrary penalty it imposed on January 7 and decide the appropriate penalty." Trump responded hours later with a statement that didn't directly address the ruling but vowed to impose "a political price" on the "corrupt social media companies" that blocked, suspended or throttled his accounts after a crowd of his supporters, buoyed by his baseless claims of a stolen election, staged a deadly attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6. "What Facebook, Twitter, and Google have done is a total disgrace and an embarrassment to our Country," Trump said in a statement also posted to his blog. "Free Speech has been taken away from the President of the United States because the Radical Left Lunatics are afraid of the truth, but the truth will come out anyway, bigger and stronger than ever before. The People of our Country will not stand for it!"
Wednesday's decision has potentially huge implications for American politics, the 2024 election and the balance of power between world leaders and the U.S.-based social media giant, especially if it leads to Trump's eventual return to the world's biggest social media platform.
And it's a judgment call that Facebook cannot escape the responsibility for making, the board's ruling made clear — throwing a major wrench in CEO Mark Zuckerberg's plans to have the board make some of its thorniest decisions.
“Facebook must make its decision and be held accountable for whatever it decides,” Michael McConnell, a former Republican-appointed federal judge and a member of the oversight board, said during a call with reporters after the ruling was announced. Board members urged the platform to make a decision: either permanently ban Trump, or set a clear timetable for his suspension. And they acknowledged this meant they could soon be tasked with reviewing the company's handling of Trump yet again if someone appeals Facebook's eventual decision. "I would say it's a substantial possibility," McConnell told reporters.
Reaction to the decision was swift from across the political spectrum — and not in Facebook's favor, as lawmakers revived calls for taking action to curb the company's power over American political discourse.
"It’s a sad day for Facebook because I can tell you, a number of members of Congress are now looking at, do they break up Facebook?" former Rep. Mark Meadows, who served as Trump's chief of staff during the final year of his presidency, said on Fox News. "Do they make sure that they don't have a monopoly?"
Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, the House Judiciary Committee's top Republican, tweeted: "Break them up."
Meanwhile, House Energy and Commerce Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) tweeted after the ruling that while Trump "played a big role in helping Facebook spread disinformation," the platform's struggles to combat disinformation and harmful content runs much deeper. "Every day, Facebook is amplifying and promoting disinformation and misinformation, and the structure and rules governing its oversight board generally seem to ignore this disturbing reality," Pallone wrote. "It’s clear that real accountability will only come with legislative action."
The parties remain largely divided, however, in how they want to clamp down on Silicon Valley, with Democrats focusing on concerns such as hate speech and disinformation while Republicans accuse the tech companies of censoring conservatives.
The hashtag “#DeleteFacebook” was trending among U.S. Twitter users less than an hour before the announcement, in a sign of the passions the case has roused.
Facebook has said the board’s decision would be binding, and confirmed Wednesday that Trump remains booted for now. The company "will now consider the board’s decision and determine an action that is clear and proportionate," Facebook's global affairs chief Nick Clegg said in a statement after the board's ruling.
In upholding Facebook's decision to suspend Trump, the board found that two of his posts the day of the storming of the Capitol "severely violated" the company's rules against praising or supporting individuals engaged in violence, including his remarks referring those in the mob as "great patriots" and "very special."
It also noted that Trump "created an environment where a serious risk of violence was possible" by spreading false claims about widespread voter fraud in the 2020 elections, and thus that Facebook was "justified" in suspending him.
But the panel rebuked the company for issuing an indefinite ban with no criteria for if or when Trump's posts or account could be restored.
The former president contended during his appeal to the board that "all genuine Trump political supporters were law-abiding" during the Capitol riot, and that nothing he said on Jan. 6 could "reasonably be interpreted as a threat to public safety," according to documents the panel made public Wednesday. Eli Sugarman, the board's non-voting content director, called Trump's statement "replete with falsehoods." Wednesday's verdict comes after Democratic officials, civil rights leaders and other advocates spent years calling on Facebook to crack down on posts by Trump they argued blatantly violated its policies against harassment, bullying, hate speech and rhetoric that incites violence. Conservatives tech critics, meanwhile, have railed against social media companies’ takedowns of Trump’s accounts as an affront to free speech online and evidence of an anti-GOP bias among Silicon Valley companies such as Facebook and Twitter.
The former president has sought to maintain a public presence in the interim by issuing tweet-like official statements through his office. In recent months he’s also mused about returning to social media by launching his own rival platform. Conservatives, meanwhile, have cited the case as prime evidence that tech giants are abusing their online dominance to muzzle conservative speech. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington state, the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, has said that “censoring the sitting President of the United States has serious free speech consequences that will extend far beyond President Trump's time in office.”
"If they can ban President Trump, all conservative voices could be next," House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said on Twitter after the decision. He promised, "A House Republican majority will rein in big tech power over our speech."
Still, some groups praised the board for addressing both Trump's suspension and the company's review of the matter.
"Donald Trump is one of the single greatest threats to democracy in modern history," NAACP National President Derrick Johnson said in a statement. "The hatred and misinformation the former president propagated has no place in America, let alone on a platform with billions of users."
“The Oversight Board made the right call by affirming the initial suspension while holding Facebook accountable for clarifying its policies and making the final determination about whether Trump can use the platform," said Alexandra Givens, CEO of the Center for Democracy & Technology. But another group, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, called it "dangerous" for the board to kick the decision back to Facebook.
"In their decision today, the Facebook Oversight Board made many of the same errors that Facebook makes in its own enforcement decisions," the lawyers' group said. "It did not evaluate the full context of the case and it used legal technicalities to avoid answering hard questions."
Scrutiny of Facebook’s handling of Trump’s rhetoric heightened after the deadly attack by his supporters, who used social networks including Facebook to organize ahead of the Jan. 6 riot and posted on the site in real-time about their rampage through the Capitol. Critics, especially Democrats, said the company had been far too lenient in allowing Trump to sow doubts about the integrity of the 2020 elections and too slow to respond to viral hoaxes and violent rhetoric about the outcome. “We believe the risks of allowing the President to continue to use our service during this period are simply too great,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Jan. 7 post announcing that Trump would be suspended from the platform.
A few weeks later, Facebook asked the oversight board to review its decision. The group of 20 legal scholars, former government officials and other outside experts has the power to permanently overturn Facebook’s content decisions. Though Facebook appointed the board members, they say they operate independently.
Wednesday's ruling was the highest-profile decision in the board’s brief history since launching ahead of the 2020 U.S. elections. The panel had overturned Facebook’s decisions on six out of eight prior cases, a streak that Trump critics feared meant the former president was headed for a surprise return to the platform. Those cases all involved user posts that Facebook had removed for violations ranging from hate speech to Covid-19 disinformation to incitement of violence, but Trump’s case marked the first time the panel reviewed a case directly involving a global leader’s account.
The board’s deliberations have been a source of massive global intrigue, prompting more than 9,000 submissions for public comment about how it should rule. The board said the soaring public interest caused them to extend the deadline for comment on Trump’s case, and eventually to delay the decision on his suspension itself beyond the usual 90-day review period.
The ruling adds to a string of losses for Trump’s presence across social media platforms. He’s been permanently booted off of Twitter and indefinitely suspended from YouTube due to the risks of further violence in the wake of the storming of the Capitol. A number of other social network platforms where Trump was not as active, such as Snapchat and the Amazon-owned Twitch, have also either permanently or indefinitely suspended the former president. YouTube has left open the door for Trump’s possible return, with CEO Susan Wojcicki saying his account will be reinstated when the risk of violence subsides. But the oversight board’s ruling closes the door on any chance of him returning immediately to Facebook and Instagram, where Trump racked up over 35 million and 24 million followers, respectively. The social media companies’ actions against Trump drew pushback from unexpected corners of the political spectrum, including U.S. progressive icon Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and foreign leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Sanders told The New York Times in March that he’s not “particularly comfortable” with Twitter barring the former president from expressing himself, despite believing that Trump is a “racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, a pathological liar, an authoritarian.”
Merkel spokesperson Steffen Seibert, meanwhile, called Twitter’s ban “problematic” and said that the “right to freedom of opinion is of fundamental importance.” Some European leaders have expressed reservation about private companies making calls about where to draw limits on free speech and expression online, and suggested governments should regulate the issue instead.
As part of its ruling Wednesday, the oversight board also issued recommendations to the company about how to better handle situations around world leaders and potentially harmful content, as well as what it should do in response to the Capitol riot. Unlike the board’s decisions on content appeals, the policy recommendations are not binding, but Facebook must respond to them within 30 days under its rules. The board called on Facebook to reexamine and consider overhauling how it handles content from political leaders and other influential users, noting that “heads of state and other high officials of government can have a greater power to cause harm than other people.” Facebook in the past has relied on what it calls a newsworthiness exemption to justify leaving up posts by global leaders that otherwise might violate its policies, under the rationale that users have a right to see notable posts by prominent government officials. But former Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, a member of the oversight board, told reporters that “newsworthiness will never be sufficient reason to keep up content from public figures that incite violence.” The board also urged Facebook to launch and publicly publish a “comprehensive review” of how the company may have contributed to the spread of unfounded election fraud claims that led to the violence at the Capitol. “This should be an open reflection on the design and policy choices that Facebook has made that may allow its platform to be abused,” the board said.
Emily Birnbaum, Quint Forgey and Josh Gerstein contributed to this report. | 0 |
Story highlightsClinton lost her temper Thursday when activists asked her to "reject fossil fuel money" In 2008, Clinton ran a 30-second ad hitting then-Sen. Barack Obama on the same issueSyracuse, New York (CNN)Hillary Clinton, currently defending herself from environmental critics for accepting money from employees at oil and gas companies, hit then-Sen. Barack Obama for doing the same thing in 2008.Clinton lost her temper at an event on Thursday when activists from Greenpeace and 350 Action, two environmental organization, asked her to "reject fossil fuel money" and not accept donations from the gas and oil industry. "I'm so sick of the Sanders' campaign lying about me. I'm sick of it," Clinton said.In response to the confrontation, Nick Merrill, Clinton's spokesman, said the candidate "has not taken a dollar from oil and gas industry PACs or corporations." Clinton's campaign, in fact, has not received any money directly from oil and gas companies, as that would violate election law.But during her 2008 presidential campaign against Obama, Clinton ran a 30-second ad hitting the then senator for the same thing."You've seen the ad," says a narrator before cutting to a separate ad of Obama saying, "I don't take one from oil companies.""No candidate does. It has been against the law for 100 years," says the narrator. "But Barack Obama accepted $200,000 from executives and employees of oil companies. Every gallon of gas takes over three bucks from your pocket. But Obama voted for the Bush-Cheney energy bill that puts $6 billion in the pocket of big oil."The narrator adds, "Hillary voted against it. She will make oil companies pay to crate the new jobs in clean energy America needs."Clinton concludes the ad by saying, "I'm Hillary Clinton and I approve this message."The ad ran during Pennsylvania's primary, a state Clinton won by nearly 10 percentage points.Clinton's ad was a response to Obama's own ad that said, "I'm Barack Obama. I don't take money from oil companies or Washington lobbyists and I won't let them block change anymore."Both Clinton and Obama accepted money from executives and employees of oil companies during the 2008 campaign, according to Center for Responsive Politics. Obama accepted $222,309 and Clinton accepted $309,363, according to the watchdog.Clinton's 2016 campaign has taken more than $300,000 from people who work for those companies, according to Greenpeace. Clinton's campaign noted on Thursday that Sanders has taken upwards of $50,000 from the same individuals.Brian Fallon, Clinton's press secretary, responded to the 2008 ad by noting that Sanders, too, has taken money from employees at oil and gas companies."Then, as now, both Democratic candidates in the race accepted donations from employees of oil and gas companies," Fallon said. "We have not accused Senator Sanders of being beholden to the oil and gas industry on that basis, nor should he say that of Hillary Clinton." | 0 |
WASHINGTON - Testimony has concluded for the day and will resume on Thursday.What's next:Two other witnesses will testify this week:Fiona Hill, former White House aide who testified on national security adviser John Bolton’s concerns about Trump’s Ukraine policyDavid Holmes, State Department official in the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv who overheard Trump ask Sondland about “investigations” on a callAfter the hearing, Republicans cast aside the new information offered by Cooper, dismissing it as “some email from some staffer.”Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, pointed out that the email Cooper said her staff got from an official at the Ukrainian embassy on July 25 – the same day that Trump has his infamous phone call with Ukraine’s president – did not include any mention of Ukrainians worried about a hold on military aid, only questioning the status of assistance.Asked about the specific timing of the email and that it was the same day as Trump spoke with Zelensky, Jordan said “I find it interesting. At the same time, I don't find it significant.”- Nicholas Wu and Christal HayesSchiff closes out marathon hearings House Intel Chairman Adam Schiff, D-California, ended Wednesday's marathon hearings with a moment of levity after top Republican Devin Nunes mocked him in his closing remarks. Nunes concluded by saying he was handing over to Schiff for "story-time hour." "I thank the gentleman as always for his remarks," Schiff said before the audience broke out into laughter. But the top Democrat used the remaining minutes to reflect on what he said is the difference between corruption and anti-corruption. “We’re supposed to believe that Donald Trump is a great corruption fighter...let’s look at his words and deeds," he said.Removing former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and allegedly tying U.S. security assistance to Trump's request for an investigation into the Bidens "is not anti-corruption. That is corruption," he said. Schiff then closed out the hearing by recalling what he said was a telling moment in Kurt Volker's testimony on Tuesday, in which the former special envoy to Ukraine recalled cautioning top Zelensky aide Andrey Yermak against investigating the country's previous president. "You mean the type of investigations you're pushing for us to do on Biden and Clinton?" Yermak said, according to Volker. Schiff pointed out that's not corruption or anti-corruption, but hypocrisy."When they see a president of the United States who is not devoted to the rule of law, who is not devoted to anti-corruption, but instead demonstrates in word and deed, corruption, they are forced to ask themselves, what does America stand for anymore?"- Courtney SubramanianDemocrats quash attempts to subpoena the whistleblower, other Republican witnessesFollowing the conclusion of Cooper and Hale’s testimony, Democrats on the Intelligence Committee declined to take up an attempt by Republicans to compel witnesses like the whistleblower and Hunter Biden to testify. “I do not concur in these requests for subpoenas,” Schiff said, adding that the committee would not attempt to investigate the whistleblower or debunked conspiracy theories about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.The members voted to table the motions along party lines.Hale: Yovanovitch was an 'exceptional officer doing exceptional work'Rep. Denny Heck, D- Wash., allowed Hale to have the floor and set the record straight on Yovanovitch, the former ambassador to the Ukraine who was ousted after a smear campaign.In a lengthy statement, Heck outlined the smear campaign and said he was allowing Hale “the opportunity to demonstrate leadership.”“Ambassador Hale, I want to give you an opportunity to now do what Secretary Pompeo did not do,” Heck said. “I’m offering you the opportunity to reaffirm to this committee and the millions of Americans hopefully who are watching, that Marie Yovanovitch is a dedicated and courageous patriot and that she served with grace and dig even in the face of that orchestrated and unsubstantiated smear attack against her.”Over several minutes, Hale offered praise for Yovanovitch, saying he only met her when he took this job and knew “immediately” that she was an “exceptional officer doing exceptional work” in a critical area.He said he supports the institutional officers working at the State Department and said they consist of the “best groups of diplomats in the world.” Hale noted he wished that Yovanovitch could have stayed in her post.- Nicholas WuCooper testimony ‘destroys’ central GOP defense, Swalwell saysRep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., went through particular arguments Republicans have lodged in defending the president, using holds on aid in other countries and that Ukraine did not know about a hold on money when the president made a request for investigations in his July 25 call with Zelensky.Swalwell outlined how a hold on military aid on Lebanon was different, something Hale said was legitimate due to concerns in the country.He ended his questioning with noting how Cooper’s testimony about emails from Ukrainians that showed there was concern in July over military aid, including a July 25 email where a Ukrainian embassy official asked what was going on with military assistance. The emails raise questions over whether Ukrainians knew about a hold on $400 million in aid before a key phone call between Trump and Zelensky, which also happened on July 25.“Ms. Cooper. Your testimony today demonstrates the power of coming forward and defying lawless orders from the president,” Swalwell said. “Because you came forward and testified, we learned this new information, which destroys a central defense that the Republicans have put forward.”- Christal HayesCooper revises previous testimony, says Ukrainians worried about aid in JulyDeputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper gave information about additional relevant emails to lawmakers regarding Ukraine’s concerns about security assistance, an addition to her previous closed-door testimony. The same day as the call between Trump and Zelensky, there were emails from the State Department saying both Congress and the Ukrainians were asking about security assistance.“My staff showed me two unclassified emails that they received from the State Department. One was received on July 25th at 2:31 pm. That email said that the Ukrainian embassy and House Foreign Affairs Committee are asking about security assistance,” Cooper said. “The second one was received on July 25th at 4:25 pm. That email said that the Hill knows about the FMF [Foreign Military Financing] situation to an extent, and so does the Ukrainian Embassy."She did not know, however, what specifically the Ukrainians asked about in their July messages, and she said she was not informed of the July 25 emails at the time.Republicans have said the Ukrainians did not know about the hold on security assistance at the time of the call, which happened on the morning of July 25.Cooper did not discuss the hold on aid with President Donald Trump."I have never discussed this or any other matter with the President, and never heard directly from him about this matter," she said.- Nicholas WuSchiff opened the hearing by outlining what role Cooper and Hale have in this storyDemocrats have outlined before Americans throughout the public hearings, with Cooper providing insight on the freeze on Ukraine military aid and Hale witnessing the smear campaign against former ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.“Hale pushed to get the State Department to put out a robust full-page statement of defense and praise for Ambassador Yovanovitch, sadly to no avail,” Schiff said. “That silence continues today.”Nunes used his time at the start of the hearing to depict the inquiry as partisan and unfair, listing the witnesses who they would like to have testify before the committee.“This is impeachment in search of a crime,” Nunes said.Cooper and Hale arrive for the second impeachment inquiry hearingDefense Department official Laura Cooper and State Department official David Hale arrived on Capitol Hill for the second hearing today in House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.Cooper, who oversees Ukraine policy at the Pentagon, previously testified behind closed doors about the withholding of security assistance to Ukraine.Hale, a senior State Department official, told lawmakers and staff behind closed doors about the ouster of U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.The evening hearing is likely to be shorter than this morning’s lengthy hearing with U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland.- Nicholas WuSchiff: Sondland testimony is a 'seminal moment in our investigation'Rep. Devin Nunes of California, the top Republican on the committee, said Democrats continued to change what they sought in their investigation. The hearing failed to answer fundamental questions such as who was the whistleblower, Nunes said.Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Sondland provided crucial information.“This is a seminal moment in our investigation,” Schiff said. “The evidence you have brought forward is deeply significant and troubling.”- Bart JansenStay updated:Follow USA TODAY's impeachment coverageSondland: Trump would benefit from the opening of investigationsRep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., walked Sondland through a series of questions about his July 26 call with Trump about Ukraine investigations, with the ultimate question about who would benefit from the investigation of the president’s political opponents.Sondland said he preferred not to characterize who would benefit. Sondland also parried by saying he didn’t realize at the time that investigations of Burisma Holdings meant an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter. Ultimately, he surrendered.“I assume President Trump,” Sondland said, to applause in the audience. After a pause, Sondland added: “I’ve been very forthright. I really resent what you’re trying to do.”Maloney thanked him for being forthright, but said it took three tries to get there. Sondland gave a closed-door deposition and then modified it before the transcript was released, before his testimony Wednesday.“We appreciate your candor,” Maloney said. “But let’s be really clear about what it took to get it out of you.”- Bart JansenSondland says he’s talked with the president many timesSondland said he had talked with the president many times in response to a question from Rep. Jackie Speier about the number of times he had talked with the president.“It's probably in that range," he told Speier when she asked if the number of conversations he had with the president was "less than 20."Earlier today, Trump said he did not know Sondland well."I don’t know him very well. I have not spoken to him much," Trump told reporters.According to Sondland, he and Trump “are not close friends” but “have a professional, cordial working relationship.”When asked if Trump knew who Sondland was, he said, “Yes.”- Nicholas WuRep. Jackie Speier, D-Calif., asked about retaliation against a whistleblower who files a complaint, when she was interrupted by Rep. Michael Conaway, R-Texas, asking if she would respond to a question. She refused to yield because she had only three minutes for questions. Conaway said the article based on her allegation got three Pinocchios, a measure of accuracy used by The Washington Post.“The president of the United States has five Pinocchios on a daily basis, so let’s not go there,” Speier said to sustained applause in the audience.- Bart JansenSondland: We worked with Giuliani at Trump's behestSondland said he, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker worked with "Giuliani on Ukraine matters at the express direction of the President of the United States." "We did not want to work with Mr. Giuliani, " he said. "Simply put, we played the hand we were dealt. We all understood that if we refused to work with Mr. Giuliani, we would lose an important opportunity to cement relations between the United States and Ukraine. So we followed the President’s orders.""We worked with Mr. Giuliani because the President directed us to do so," he said again.The testimony from Sondland, a wealthy Portland, Oregon, hotelier and Trump donor, is being closely watched because of his ability to offer a first hand account of his discussions with Trump on Ukraine.Sondland described raising worries about a "quid pro quo" with Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., a close Trump ally who served on a congressional task force on Ukraine."I shared concerns of the potential quid pro quo regarding the security aid with Senator Ron Johnson," Sondland said, adding that he also raised concerns with Ukrainian officials.Sondland said he became aware in July and August that the White House suspended security aid, a move he opposed. He said he wasn’t told why the aid was held up, but that he understood it’s release would depend on Ukraine beginning investigations.“I was adamantly opposed to any suspension of aid, as the Ukrainians needed those funds to fight against Russian aggression,” Sondland said. “I tried diligently to ask why the aid was suspended, but I never received a clear answer. In the absence of any credible explanation for the suspension of aid, I later came to believe that the resumption of security aid would not occur until there was a public statement from Ukraine committing to the investigations of the 2016 election and Burisma, as Mr. Giuliani had demanded.”Trump has attempted to put distance between himself and Sondland, telling reporters on Nov. 8, "I hardly know the gentleman."-- Bart Jansen, William Cummings, Courtney Subramanian and Nicholas WuSondland's opening statement:Read the full text of his opening statement in the impeachment hearingWitness testimonies:Who are the 17 witnesses in the Trump impeachment inquiry and what have they said?Trump on Sondland testimony: 'It's all over'President Donald Trump zeroed in Wednesday on one portion of the bombshell impeachment testimony on Capitol Hill: Gordon Sondland's testimony that the president did not directly tie Ukraine aid to investigations into his rival.Reading from hand-written notes on the South Lawn of the White House as he departed for Texas, Trump focused on the portion of Sondland’s testimony in which he says the president told him there was no quid pro quo in his dealings with Ukraine. "That means it’s all over," Trump told reporters. "This is the final word from the president of the United States. I want nothing."Trump then walked off to Marine One without taking questions. He ignored other, more damaging testimony, such as Sondland's understanding that a large number of officials understood that Ukraine would not receive nearly $400 million in military aid until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced his government would cooperate with the investigations.Rep. John Ratcliffe, R-Texas, reinforced that Trump said, “I want nothing” and “no quid pro quo,” in a Sept. 9 call with Sondland.“Anything sinister or nefarious about any of that?” Ratcliffe asked, which Sondland denied. “That is the truth, as you have presented it, correct. None of that is hearsay. None of that is speculation. That is direct evidence.”- John FritzeGiuliani defends himself amid Sondland testimonyThe president's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani defended himself against Sondland's allegations, in which the U.S. ambassador to the E.U. said Trump directed Giuliani to push for a quid pro quo in Ukraine on his behalf."I came into this at Volker’s request. Sondland is speculating based on VERY little contact. I never met him and had very few calls with him, mostly with Volker," Giuliani tweeted, referring to Kurt Volker, a former envoy to Ukraine who testified on Tuesday."Volker testified I answered their questions and described them as my opinions, NOT demands. I.E., no quid pro quo!" Giuliani said.Volker testified that he never considered Giuliani to be speaking on behalf of the president.During his closed-door deposition, Sondland testified that he did not recall meeting Giuliani in person during his time as ambassador. He said he "only spoke with him a few times" and Volker had introduced him electronically. He said he believes he spoke to Giuliani no more than two or three times by phone, with the first time in early August of 2019.Under Republican questioning, Sondland said Trump never ordered him to work with Giuliani, but that if he and other U.S. officials such as Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Volker wanted to improve the relationship with Ukraine, Giuliani was key.“Rudy was the guy,” Sondland said. “It wasn’t an order. It was if you want to work on this, this is the guy you gotta talk to.”In a tweet, Giulani accused House Republican lawyer Steve Castor of “picking up Democrat lies” by asking Sondland why he trusted Giuliani “given his business dealings in the region.”“I have NO financial interests in Ukraine, NONE! I would appreciate his apology,” Giuliani wrote.- Courtney Subramanian and Bart JansenTurner criticizes Sondland's presumption on Ukraine aidRep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, said Sondland testified that Trump never told him that military aid depended on an announcement of investigations into the Bidens and the 2016 election.Sondland said it was his presumption that aid was tied to the investigations.“No one on this planet told you that President Trump was tying aid to the investigations. Yes or no?” Turner said.“Yes,” Sondland said.“You really have no testimony today that ties President Trump to a scheme to withhold aid from Ukraine in exchange for these investigations,” Turner said.Sondland said he was presuming. Turner said the evidence wasn’t even hearsay, it was made up.“Made up testimony is when I just presume it,” Turner said. “You’re just assuming all of these things.”- Bart JansenGOP lawmaker challenges Sondland's credibilityRep. Lee Zeldin, R-N.Y., said Sondland’s credibility was an issue because he said he presumed that the administration was withholding military aid from Ukraine on condition of investigations, rather than being told that directly by President Donald Trump.“That’s a problem, when you’re using words like speculation, presumption, guessing,” Zeldin said. “You have additional information that I think would be helpful for these questions and answers.”Republicans have noted that Mark Sandy, an official from the Office of Management and Budget, gave a closed-door deposition on Saturday to three committees investigating Ukraine, but that the transcript hasn’t been released yet. Zeldin said Sandy explained why the aid was withheld.Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Sandy was reviewing his transcript Wednesday before it is released. Sandy is not a top official at the Office of Management and Budget responsible for the release of foreign aid, Schiff said. The acting OMB director and deputy director each defied subpoenas for their testimony.- Bart JansenRick Perry hits back on Sondland testimonyRick Perry’s office says Sondland misrepresented his contacts with Giuliani.The office of Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Sondland “misrepresented both Secretary Perry's interaction with Rudy Giuliani and direction the Secretary received from President Trump.”According to Perry’s office, Perry only spoke to Giuliani once, at Trump’s request.“At no point before, during or after that phone call did the words 'Biden' or 'Burisma' ever come up in the presence of Secretary Perry,” said DOE press secretary Shaylyn Hynes.- Nicholas WuSondland disputes reports he was part of irregular diplomacy channelSondland disputed the description by other diplomats that he and others were running an irregular channel of diplomacy with Ukraine because he was dealing directly with President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Energy Secretary Rick Perry and former National Security Adviser John Bolton.“I’m not sure how someone can characterize something as an irregular channel when you’re counting the president of the United States, the secretary of State, the national security adviser, the chief of staff at the White House, secretary of Energy,” Sondland said. “I don’t know how that’s irregular. A bunch of folks that are not in that channel are aggrieved for some reason for not being included. I don’t know how they can consider us being the irregular channel, and they being the regular channel, when it’s the leadership making the decisions.”The others never complained to him, Sondland said.“I don’t remember anyone sounding any alarm,” Sondland said. “Everyone’s hair was on fire, but nobody decided to talk to us.”- Bart JansenSondland: ‘Shocked’ by response to meetingSondland said he was surprised to hear other U.S. officials were upset about a July 10 meeting at the White House where he discussed investigations with Ukraine officials as a condition of a meeting between President Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.Other witnesses, including Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council senior director for Europe and Russia, have testified that former National Security Adviser John Bolton abruptly ended the meeting when investigations were mentioned. Hill said Bolton told her to report the incident to council lawyers and that he wasn’t part of whatever “drug deal” that Sondland and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney were "cooking up."Under Republican questioning, Sondland said he was surprised to hear the complaints because he thought the meeting ended well, with pictures on the White House lawn on a sunny day.“I was shocked,” Sondland said.- Bart JansenTrump's skepticism toward UkraineRep. Devin Nunes of California, the top Republican on the committee, highlighted Trump’s reason for skepticism about Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts in requesting investigations. Nunes said Democratic operatives tried to discredit the 2016 Trump campaign with Ukrainian sources.“Who were these Democratic operatives who were dirtying up the Trump campaign in 2016?” Nunes asked.Sondland confirmed that he had told lawmakers in a closed-door deposition that Trump was skeptical about Ukraine during a May 23 meeting at the White House.“I think he said: 'they tried to take me down.' He kept saying that over and over,” Sondland said in the deposition.- Bart JansenSchiff: Sondland’s testimony goes to heart of matterDuring a break in the hearing, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told reporters Gordon Sondland’s testimony “goes right to the heart” of the investigation on Ukraine that House Democrats are pursuing.Schiff said the ambassador's testimony was “among the most significant evidence to date.”-- Nicholas WuPence, Pompeo were ‘in the loop’Gordon Sondland said Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo were kept informed of the pressure campaign on Ukraine to open investigations into Trump’s political rivals.“I mentioned to Vice President Pence before the meetings with the Ukrainians that I had concerns that the delay in aid had become tied to the issue of investigations,” Sondland said Sept. 1 before a meeting between Pence and Zelensky.Sondland submitted to lawmakers emails he had written to Pompeo and other Trump administration officials.A July 19 email from Sondland to Pompeo, White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and other officials carried the subject line “Re: I Talked to Zelensky just now.” It said Zelensky was prepared to receive a call from Trump“He is prepared to receive Potus' call. Will assure him [Trump] that he [Zelensky] intends to run a fully transparent investigation and will ‘turn over every stone,’” Sondland wrote.Sondland on Pence and Pompeo:'Everyone was in the loop,' ambassador says about high-level efforts to pressure UkraineBoth Perry and Mulvaney responded to Sondland’s email.On Aug. 11, Sondland sent an email to State Department officials and addressed to Pompeo.“Mike – Kurt and I negotiated a statement from Ze[lensky] to be delivered for our review in a day or two,” Sondland wrote “The contents will hopefully make the boss happy enough to authorize an invitation. Ze plans to have a big presser on the openness subject (including specifics) next week.”Sondland said a top State Department official, Lisa Kenna, responded that she would pass the note to Pompeo.“Everyone was in the loop,” Sondland said.-- Nicholas WuPence's office denies Sondland testimonyMarc Short, Vice President Mike Pence’s chief of staff, disputed Sondland’s testimony about speaking with Pence in Warsaw on Sept. 1 about investigations, saying it never happened.“The Vice President never had a conversation with Gordon Sondland about investigating the Bidens, Burisma, or the conditional release of financial aid to Ukraine based upon potential investigations,” Short said. “Ambassador Gordon Sondland was never alone with Vice President Pence on the September 1 trip to Poland. This alleged discussion recalled by Ambassador Sondland never happened.”Short also noted that multiple witnesses had said Pence never mentioned Hunter Biden, former Vice President Joe Biden or Burisma before or after the Sept. 1 meeting.- Bart JansenSondland's key statements:Gordon Sondland's impeachment inquiry testimonyCall to Trump from Ukraine restaurantGordon Sondland confirmed he spoke with Trump on his cell phone on July 26, a day after the president had a phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.David Holmes, a State Department official at the U.S. embassy in Kyiv, told lawmakers in a closed-door deposition last week that he overheard Sondland's July 26 call with Trump and said the president asked whether Zelensky was going to open the investigation he sought.Sondland said he was at a Kyiv restaurant, as Holmes also said, and the call lasted five minutes."Other witnesses have recently shared their recollection of overhearing this call. For the most part, I have no reason to doubt their accounts. It is true that the President speaks loudly at times," he said Wednesday."It is true that the President likes to use colorful language," he added, referring to the expletives mentioned in Holmes' recall of the conversation.Sondland added though he did not remember the precise details of the conversation, noting the White House prohibited him from seeing any readouts of the call. He said that at the time, he did not think the conversation was significant."Actually, I would have been more surprised if President Trump had not mentioned investigations, particularly given what we were hearing from Mr. Giuliani about the president's concerns," he said.But he said he had no recollection of discussing Vice President Joe Biden or his son Hunter on the call or after it ended. Holmes told House investigators Sondland told him after the call that Trump only cared about "big things" that benefited him, like "this Biden investigation that Giuliani is pushing." Asked by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff if he had anything to dispute in Holmes' recollection of the call, Sondland said he didn't, though he did not recall mentioning Biden.“I do not recall mentioning the Bidens. It was Burisma and the 2016 election," he said.Asked about the July 26 call with Sondland, Trump said: "I know nothing about that. First time I've heard it. The one thing I've seen that Sondland said was that he did speak to me with for a brief moment and I said 'no quid pro quo under any circumstances.'""And that's true. But I've never heard this. In any event, it is more secondhand information, but I've never heard it," Trump told reporters last week.-- Courtney Subramanian and Nicholas Wu Grisham: ‘Democrats keep chasing ghosts’White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham released a statement on Sondland’s testimony, highlighting how Trump told the ambassador there was “no quid pro quo.” “No quid pro quo ever occurred,” she said, denying the conditioning of security assistance on the opening of investigations.“Democrats keep chasing ghosts,” she concluded.- Nicholas WuSondland: Trump cared about announcement, not actual investigationIn response to a question from Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, Gordon Sondland said Rudy Giuliani had conveyed to him that what mattered most to Donald Trump was the public announcement of the investigations, not the investigations themselves. “He had to announce the investigations. He didn't actually have to do them," Sondland said of the president’s demands as expressed through Giuliani.- Nicholas WuNunes compares Ukraine outreach to George WashingtonRep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the top Republican on the Intelligence Committee, compared the Ukraine outreach to George Washington’s diplomacy with Great Britain in his opening statement.“I would remind my friends on the other side of the aisle that our first president, George Washington, directed his own diplomatic channels to secure a treaty with Great Britain. If my Democratic colleagues were around in 1794, they’d probably want to impeach him, too,” Nunes said.He also lashed out at “partisan extremists” who transformed the Intelligence Committee into an “Impeachment Committee.”“The Democrats have exploited the Intelligence Committee for political purposes for three years, culminating in these impeachment hearings,” he said.-- Nicholas WuSchiff lays out Sondland's role in Ukraine saga House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-California, began his opening remarks by laying out the Democratic case of impeachment against President Donald Trump."Trump’s scheme undermined military and diplomatic support for a key ally and undercut U.S. anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine," he said.Schiff recounted Sondland's role in the Ukrainian saga, placing him in key moments in the timeline and underscoring his importance as a witness to whether Trump abused his power. The top Democrat described Sondland as a "skilled dealmaker" who "found himself increasingly embroiled in an effort to press the new Ukrainian President that deviated sharply from the norm, in terms of both policy and process.""Now, it is up to Congress, as the people’s representatives to determine what response is appropriate," he said after recalling the events in Ukraine."If the President abused his power and invited foreign interference in our elections, if he sought to condition, coerce, extort, or bribe an ally into conducting investigations to aid his reelection campaign and did so by withholding official acts – a White House meeting or hundreds of millions of dollars of needed military aid – it will be up to us to decide, whether those acts are compatible with the office of the Presidency," Schiff said.-- Courtney SubramanianWhy Sondland's testimony mattersIn an addendum to his original testimony, Sondland said he communicated a quid pro quo to a top Ukrainian presidential adviser, Andriy Yermak. "I now recall speaking individually with Mr. Yermak, where I said that resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks," Sondland said.David Holmes, a State Department official in the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv, testified that he overheard a call between Sondland and Trump in which Trump asked Sondland about "investigations." According to Holmes, Sondland assured Trump that Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky “loves your a--” and would do “anything you ask him to” about investigations. Holmes said, "I then heard President Trump ask, 'So, he's gonna do the investigation?' Ambassador Sondland replied that 'he's gonna do it,' adding that President Zelensky will do 'anything you ask him to.'"How to stay updated on USA TODAY's impeachment coverageMore:Aide testifies Sondland told Trump that Zelensky would 'do anything you ask him to'Holmes also told lawmakers that when he asked Sondland "if it was true that the President did not 'give a s--- about Ukraine," Sondland replied that Trump only cared about "big stuff" that worked to Trump's personal benefit like investigations into his political adversaries. Other testimony has indicated that Sondland was in contact with Trump as he waged a "parallel" campaign of diplomacy that Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, said was like a "drug deal." National Security Council official Tim Morrison told members of Congress and staff behind closed doors that Sondland told him "the President was giving him instruction" related to the "parallel" campaign to pressure Ukraine to open investigations into Trump's political adversaries. “Ambassador Sondland believed and at least related to me that the President was giving him instruction,” Morrison said of a conversation with Sondland. And before the July 25 call, Sondland emailed Morrison and other White House staff to say “he had spoken to the President that morning to brief him on the call.”Recounting a later conversation between Morrison and Sondland, Morrison said Trump told Sondland “there was no quid pro quo, but President Zelensky had to do it and he should want to do it.”What Hale and Cooper have saidThe officials testifying in the afternoon are expected to shed further light on the campaign to remove U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and the withholding of aid. Cooper oversees Ukrainian policy at the Pentagon and previously told lawmakers and staff in her closed-door testimony how it became clear after Trump's call with Zelensky how the nearly $400 million of security aid was being withheld as “it relates to the President's concerns about corruption.”Hale testified behind closed doors about Yovanovitch's ouster. When asked who would decide against releasing a statement in support of Yovanovitch in light of the "smear" campaign against her, he said it would have been "someone more senior than me." "Given my position in the State Department, it could only have been someone more senior to me. The Secretary most likely would have been the person." | 0 |
NEW YORK – Eric Adams, the Brooklyn Borough president and a former police captain, was in the lead Wednesday to be New York City's next mayor. But even though voting is done, the race is far from over.It may take several weeks to find out who won the Democratic primary for mayor, with absentee ballots still trickling in and a new ranked-choice voting system allowing New Yorkers to list their top five preferences for mayor.No candidate won an outright majority in the election Tuesday, so the ranked choice preferences of voters will now be redistributed as the candidates with the fewest number of votes are eliminated in a series of rounds.Speaking to his supporters Tuesday night, Adams acknowledged the ranked-choice process would still need to play out but reveled in his early lead.“We know that there’s going to be twos and threes and fours," he said. "But there’s something else we know. We know that New York City said, ‘Our first choice is Eric Adams.’”Meanwhile, onetime front-runner Andrew Yang conceded the race Tuesday night after initial results had him in fourth. The city's Board of Elections is expected to release the first batch of ranked-choice votes next Tuesday, calculating only the preferences of early and in-person voters.New York City mayoral race: What to know about the candidates, issues and why 'progressive' isn't leading the wayAfter the counting of absentee ballots begins, the next round of ranked-choice preferences, including those mail-in votes, is expected to be released July 6.Common Cause/NY, an advocacy group that supports the ranked-choice system, said it's likely that complete results won't be known until July 12."Democracy takes time, and every vote counts. Accurate and fair election results are worth waiting for," Susan Lerner, the group's executive director, said in a statement.Who is Eric Adams? And who are the other NYC mayoral candidates?Adams commanded 31.7% of voters' first choice preferences in the results released from Tuesday and early voting. Maya Wiley, the former counsel to Mayor Bill de Blasio, was in second with 22.2%. Former sanitation department head Kathryn Garcia had 19.5% in third. And Yang, the entrepreneur riding the momentum of his 2020 presidential run into the mayor's race, sat in fourth with 11.7%.Adams, 60, made public safety his campaign's central message at a time when the city has seen an uptick in crime. He's also been an advocate for police reform in the past and promised to address racial inequities in the city.Though briefly registered as a Republican in the 1990s, Adams was first elected to the New York Senate in 2006. He became Brooklyn Borough president in 2013. He would be the city's second Black mayor.Born in Brownsville, Brooklyn, and raised in South Jamaica, Queens, Adams grew up in a working-class household and, as a teen, was beaten while in police custody, sparking his desire to become a police officer and change the department from within.In 1995, he formed 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, an advocacy group that sought to fight racial profiling and police brutality while restoring trust among Black residents.Bruce Berg, a political science professor at Fordham University who specializes in New York City politics, said Adams, a "homegrown" candidate, gained credibility from both his police and political background.As a former police officer and someone who understands the Black community's suspicion of police, he doesn't want police to leave, but rather "engage in true community policing," said Michael Hendrix, director of state and local policy at the Manhattan Institute.Adams faced criticism on the campaign trail after a POLITICO report detailed discrepancies in his campaign and real estate records. Opponents accused him of misusing his government office building as a campaign office and actually living in New Jersey. Adams denied both allegations.His primary rival during the race was Yang, whom the day before the election Adams called a "fraud" and "liar."Yang was seen as the race's front-runner for months, but started to lag in polling in the past several weeks. He also made public safety a central message to his platform, while seeking to incorporate ideas he ran on for president, such as a version of universal basic income.But he suffered a number of key gaffes that his rivals used as campaign fodder, such as admitting to leaving the city for the Hudson Valley in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and having never voted in a New York City mayoral election before.Yang fought back, especially after he drew jabs for saying the Times Square subway station was his favorite. His campaign cast attacks that he wasn't a "true" New Yorker as racist, and he sought to shed light on a spike in anti-Asian hate crimes in the city.Progressives in the race:New York City's mayoral race is all about police, crime. Will Ocasio-Cortez endorsement give progressives a boost?Wiley emerged as the liberal favorite in the race after two other candidates' campaigns faced setbacks. She won the backing of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and other left-leaning politicians in the city.Her platform included policies such as investing in public housing, financing a stipend for child and elder care, and diverting police funding to schools and mental health and homelessness services.Kathryn Garcia leaned into her government experience in her campaign. She advocated for increasing policing in some areas of the city to fight crime while making climate change a key part of her campaign. Before winning The New York Times and New York Daily News endorsements, she garnered little attention, but surged in polling as the race reached its end. In the final weekend of the campaign, she and Yang rallied together to promote-ranked voting. However, while Yang backed her as his No. 2, Garcia didn't reciprocate.How does ranked choice voting work? And why does New York City have it?Democratic voters could select their top five preferences for mayor out of a crowded field that featured eight major candidates.If one person had won a majority in the first round, they would have won the nomination. Since that didn't happen, the candidate with the fewest first choice votes was eliminated, and the preferences of the ballots listing them as first are redistributed. The process continues until two candidates are left, and the person with the most votes wins.Ranked choice systems have been used in other cities, such as Oakland, California, and Cambridge, Massachusetts. The change in New York is due to a 2019 ballot initiative to enact ranked voting for primaries and special elections.Advocates say ranked voting better captures voters' preferences and can be less costly than runoff elections. It's also believed to lead to less nasty campaigning and more alliances, though the New York City race featured plenty of jabs and few candidates cross-endorsing.NYC has never elected a woman as mayor:Will one of these women change that?But the process has been criticized as being confusing to some voters, who may not rank five candidates, leading to their ballots being "exhausted" if all of their preferences are eliminated."It's our first time. We have no experience, no major cities like us have had any experience in this," said Sid Davidoff, a senior adviser to former Mayor John Lindsay. "That'll be the conversation. More than who's elected mayor, how they got elected will be the conversation after it's over."What about the other races in New York City?Facing the Democratic winner in November will be Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, who won the Republican primary Tuesday.Democratic voters far outnumber Republicans in the city, and Sliwa is not expected to stand much of a chance against any Democratic candidate. He was endorsed by former Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani.In two other citywide elections, progressive candidates fared better. Incumbent Public Advocate Jumaane Williams appeared to cruise to reelection, while Brad Lander was leading the pack in the race for comptroller. That race also uses ranked voting; City Council Speaker Corey Johnson trailed Lander in second.In the much-watched Manhattan district attorney race, former federal prosecutor Alvin Bragg was leading Tali Farhadian Weinstein, also a former federal prosecutor.The winner of that race, which is not using ranked voting, will take over for Cyrus Vance, the longtime New York City prosecutor whose office is currently overseeing an investigation into former President Donald Trump and the Trump family's businesses.Follow USA TODAY's Ryan Miller on Twitter @RyanW_Miller | 0 |
Do brands have beliefs?
This is a question we’re forced to ask today thanks to Gillette’s latest commercial. It was created by the New York-based ad agency Grey and is called “We Believe.” And what the century-old, multibillion-dollar razor company, owned by the health and personal care giant Procter & Gamble, purports to believe is this: Its longtime slogan, “The Best a Man Can Get,” is ripe for an update. In the pre-Super Bowl ad — released three weeks before the Super Bowl, as part of the YouTube-era rat race to get advance write-ups and possibly a viral hit during peak-commercial-watching season — Gillette shows young boys bullying each other and beating each other up, older men touching women’s shoulders in business meetings, and suburban dads lined up at a never-ending row of charcoal grills saying, “Boys will be boys,” over and over while watching incidents of light violence.
The voiceover poses the question: “Is this the best a man can get?” No! The commercial pivots. One handsome 20-something man asks another handsome 20-something man to stop ogling a woman in the street. One young dad asks his daughter to say, “I’m strong.” Another young dad is moved to break up a brutal fight between children in a parking lot. That is the best a man can get. The ad has caused controversy across the comments sections of YouTube and the never-ending hellfeed of Twitter, in large part because it has offended many men. Plenty of the responses are sexist and racist, with dozens complaining that the ad makes white men in particular look bad and arguing that, basically, there is no such thing as “toxic masculinity,” but rather a tragic lack of masculine influences in schools and homes because women are so bad at holding on to husbands and selfishly insist on being the majority of public school teachers. “Men are saying, we feel marginalized, criticized and accused rather than feeling inspired empowered and encouraged,” RedPeak branding firm executive Susan Cantor told the Wall Street Journal.
Pankaj Bhalla, Gillette’s brand director for North America, responded to criticism of the ad, in the Journal, saying “This is an important conversation happening, and as a company that encourages men to be their best, we feel compelled to both address it and take action of our own. We are taking a realistic look at what’s happening today, and aiming to inspire change by acknowledging that the old saying ‘Boys Will Be Boys’ is not an excuse.”
Men who are angry about a commercial and calling for a boycott of a razor company in the comments of a YouTube post are also writing things like, “Gillette is desperately deleting critical comments for fear that people will know about what men are saying about this radical feminist advert.” These arguments make no sense whatsoever. Still, this ad is a misfire, in that it is a blatant attempt to make money off a painful and ongoing collective action that has not even an indirect relationship to face razors. Is it likely that there were people at Gillette with good intentions and people at Grey who wanted to help realize them? Absolutely! However, it is inherently nonsensical to use feminism to sell men’s grooming products, or any products, as feminism is a political movement bent on dismantling current structures of power, which likely includes multibillion-dollar corporations like Procter & Gamble. And unfortunately, it is impossible, maybe irresponsible, for a commercial to try to explain centuries of societal glorification of male violence or to make a compelling argument that proves women are people. This is an advertisement set to air during a football game on primetime television, and within those constraints, it can absolutely not depict — in a convincing way — the complex and never-ending story it seeks to profit from. (Not least because the only “crimes” against women it can reasonably show are catcalls and exaggerated butt honks.) This is not the first time a Procter & Gamble brand has attempted to sell personal hygiene items by situating them in dubious feminist narratives. It previously did so with the 2014 “Like a Girl” campaign, which promoted Always tampons and invited teenagers to “run like a girl” in order to demonstrate internalized misogyny. The company’s deodorant brand Secret also has a running “Stress Test” campaign, which shows women getting ready to confront sexism in business meetings. Gillette is not alone here, obviously. The temptation for brands to appear “woke” and engaged has escalated significantly in the Trump era. Last September, when Nike launched its 30th anniversary “Just Do It” campaign featuring Colin Kaepernick, Sarah Banet-Weiser situated it in a history of “commodity activism,” writing for Vox: This practice merges consumer behavior with political or social goals. Whether challenging police brutality or questioning unattainable beauty norms, branding in our era has extended beyond a business model: It is now both reliant on and reflective of our most basic social and cultural relations. … Individual consumers act politically by purchasing particular brands over others in a competitive marketplace, where specific brands are attached to political aims and goals.
Commodity activism can sometimes be good for business, she argues, but it can easily backfire. Female empowerment may be a fairly innocuous political motive, but criticizing men directly? Way too far. This is not the first time “toxic masculinity” has appeared in men’s grooming product advertising, and it’s not the first time men have lost their cool about it either.
Please do not make me choose between a billion dollar company leveraging feminism for sales and men so insecure they think an ad for razors is threatening to their identity— Jaya Saxena (@jayasax) January 15, 2019 In a battle between the fragile egos of men who watch and respond viscerally to commercials and the bottom line of a massive company, it’s tempting (and entirely acceptable) to not care about the winner. But it’s also worth remembering that Gillette’s women’s brand, Venus, is best known for its “I’m Your Venus” commercials, which promise already tan and clean-shaven women that their new razor blades will make them “feel like a goddess.” Recently, venture capitalist Mike Dodd described the brand to Vox, calling it “an afterthought brand” based on “a ’60s ad man” idea of what women want. “It’s right there in the tagline,” he said. “You know, the best a man can get.”
Upstart Gillette competitor Harry’s — originally a direct-to-consumer brand, now with huge installations at Target and Walmart — recently launched the women’s razor brand Flamingo, in direct competition with the DTC startup Billie, both of which are marketed around making razors functional and cool and encouraging women to shave “when they feel like it,” without paying more than men do for tools that perform a fairly uninteresting task. A decade ago, Gillette held 70 percent of the global market share for razors, and now it holds 54 percent. Those sales didn’t disappear; they went to those newer, savvier companies that don’t have 100 years of history making women feel bad about body hair and talking about men’s facial hair routines as if they were matters of import and action on the scale of a Fast & Furious movie. Now, it appears, the company would like those customers back. Correction: “We Believe” is a digital-only campaign, which will not air on TV as previously implied. | 0 |
New York isn’t really a tabloid city anymore. But in recent weeks, as Eric Adams came into focus as the city’s likely next mayor, he did so as a kind of political character familiar from the tabloids: the provocateur, the media’s gleeful antagonist. As the summer heat reached Orchard Beach, in the Bronx, Adams posed shirtless for the news cameras—sixty years old, vegan and ripped. He said that he might have to carry a handgun in Gracie Mansion, for protection. On the campaign trail, he told outsized-sounding stories about himself: that he had been a squeegee man; that, after the birth of his son, an enemy within the N.Y.P.D. had shot out the windows of his car. On primary night, David Freedlander, a reporter with New York magazine who had questioned stories like these, tweeted that he had been excluded from Adams’s June 22nd victory event in retribution. (The campaign said that this wasn’t true.) From the podium, Adams made a point of chastising “younger” reporters for following Twitter more closely than the politics of the city’s poor neighborhoods—his base. His supporters chanted, “The champ is here.”The next day, still weeks before the final tally in the primary, Adams—a Brooklyn machine pol, longtime cop, state senator, borough president, and up-by-the-bootstraps centrist—declared himself “the face of the Democratic Party.” Across a year of Zoom debates and candidate forums, Adams proved to be the best talker of the candidates, the most adept at condensing politics into tangible images and phrases. His rivals spoke about the necessity of including “Black and brown communities” in the city’s prosperity. But when Adams said, “We don’t want fancy candidates,” everyone knew what he meant.Adams is the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York, which probably assures him of election in November, as the second Black mayor in the city’s history. (His Republican opponent will be Curtis Sliwa, a radio host and founder of the Guardian Angels, who is most famous for having once staged his own kidnapping.) The national press has mostly not taken up Adams’s claims that he is a figure of national significance, in part because the election often seemed, given the sheer scale of the city, quite small. An ex-cop of no real ideological distinction (Adams), the city’s former sanitation commissioner (Kathryn Garcia), the general counsel to the current mayor (Maya Wiley)—it sounded like a strong field in a small Midwestern city, and the candidates frequently struggled to catch attention in a race often conducted via Zoom. The city’s most prominent progressives (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Jumaane Williams) did not run, which left the proceedings without a vivid ideological dimension. The designated celebrity candidate, Andrew Yang, turned out to be less interesting up close, and faded to fourth place. Demographics favored Adams, and they proved to be destiny, if only barely: a decisive tabulation released Tuesday evening, after the final round of ranked-choice voting, gave him the victory over Garcia by all of eighty-four hundred votes.The demographics were easy enough to see on a map. Garcia, a pragmatist who received the coveted endorsement of the Times, won Manhattan and the museumgoer belt: Brooklyn Heights, Riverdale in the Bronx. Wiley, whose campaign emphasized racial justice and cutting the police budget, won the gentrifying neighborhoods of North and central Brooklyn. Yang was strongest in Queens, where there are many Asian American voters, and in certain Hasidic neighborhoods in Brooklyn. The poorest parts of the city all went to Adams: the eastern and southern ends of the Bronx, Brownsville and East New York, in Brooklyn—a centrist coalition of working-class Black and Latino voters that broadly mirrored Biden’s core voting bloc in New York. The political analysts who made a case for Adams’s victory generally emphasized the strength of this coalition in a party whose heroes often entice only voters with college degrees. Howard Wolfson, once a leading aide to Michael Bloomberg, predicted recently that Adams’s “message of ‘justice and safety’ and ‘possibility and opportunity’ will resonate far beyond NYC and will chart a course for Democrats around the country.” But even that endorsement suggested an uncertainty that is quickly coming to characterize the Democratic Party during the Biden years: it can see how important working-class voters are to its electoral prospects much more easily than it can figure out how to help them.Adams’s issue is crime. Having spent the period between the early nineteen-eighties and the early two-thousands as a cop, and having watched the city become first impossibly dangerous and then spectacularly safe, he knew crime as deeply as any mayoral candidate knew any issue. As Adams recounted to my colleague Eric Lach, in May, he had been the transit officer assigned to compile a monthly report on crime in the early nineties. Jack Maple, the police department’s CompStat guru, would come by his desk and pinpoint patterns in the data. In Adams’s view, this kind of precision policing had been abused by the N.Y.P.D. in the Rudy Giuliani era, but it represented a model for how the department ought to deal with crime now: more cops, not fewer, more precisely deployed. His tough-on-crime stance required a little personal repositioning: having spoken out against stop-and-frisk in the late nineties, as a member of a Black cops’ group, Adams chose to support its limited application in his mayoral race, as he followed a more conventional law-and-order line.Violent crime is still very low in New York, but it is higher than it was before the pandemic: reported shootings nearly doubled in 2020, and murders rose by forty-four per cent. Adams campaigned as if a return to the pervasive fear of the Ed Koch and David Dinkins years were near at hand. His rivals, Adams told Lach, “know the New York. But, see, many of us, we know the old New York. That is why you see this trepidation, this anxiety, because we fought so hard to get out of that time.”The ongoing story of working-class New York City has not really been about crime. It has been about a more general failure of infrastructure: the breakdown of the subways, the cramped and insufficient housing that helped to spread COVID, the public hospitals that could not handle the infected, the moldy school buildings that teachers balked at returning to, even the opaque and unwieldy process of the mayoral race’s ranked-choice-voting system. These might not have had much to do with crime, and they might not be resolved by an ex-cop in Gracie Mansion carrying a gun. But, if the public-safety issue didn’t describe the scope of the challenge in New York, then it did at least share the same mood, something that Adams’s campaign realized: that New York carries some elements of a class illusion, and that old New York—where subways got stuck between stations and public health was in the hands of obtuse bureaucracies and on some days the schools just didn’t open—has been there all along, visible if you were patient enough to go out all the way to the end of the subway lines.No one really knows what Eric Adams’s city would be like. In part, that is Adams’s own fault. As David Schleicher, of Yale Law School, pointed out recently, the nominee’s policy agenda consists of “blog posts and platitudes—an afterthought.” But lately the vision thing has been a national problem for the Democrats, too. In this sense, Adams may be, as he declared himself, the new face of the Democratic Party, somebody whose aims are still a little undefined. The mayoral election underscored the main revelation of the 2020 Presidential primaries: that the constituency for overtly progressive politics is still too small to win major elections, which circumscribes the Party’s reform agenda even though Democratic élites are further to the left than they’ve been in a generation. The potential for greater reform hinges, to a depressing degree, on what can be sold in Washington as “infrastructure”—as merely fixing what’s already there, rather than trying what is ambitious and new. If you are feeling hopeful about Adams’s city, you might focus on his alignment with some business interests and the poorest parts of the city, and imagine a program of development that cools the heat of gentrification and builds the housing and infrastructure that poor neighborhoods need. But Adams didn’t strike those notes as the campaign ended. Instead, he made clear whom he’s with and whom he’s against—he played the tabloid character. Right now, the next mayor has more alignments than plans.New Yorker FavoritesThe day the dinosaurs died.What if you could do it all over?A suspense novelist leaves a trail of deceptions.The art of dying.Can reading make you happier?A simple guide to tote-bag etiquette.Sign up for our daily newsletter to receive the best stories from The New Yorker. | 0 |
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can resume travel at low risk to themselves, but the agency is still not recommending travel given rising case counts.CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, who earlier this week issued an urgent plea to limit travel due to fears of another COVID-19 surge, said Friday that the new guidance is based on studies showing the "real-world'' effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines.Vaccinated travelers no longer have to follow the CDC's recommendations to get a COVID-19 test before and after travel unless required by the destination. They still need to wear masks and take other precautions. A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last recommended vaccine dose.The CDC's Friday announcement does not change one high-profile COVID-19 travel restriction, however. Vaccinated travelers still must abide by a CDC order, issued in January, requiring a negative COVID-19 test to board international flights to the United States, and should get another test three to five days after returning.Stuck in Mexico: Travelers stranded after testing positive for COVID under CDC order Shopping for flights? Change fees and other pre-pandemic penalties are back or returning soon on cheapest ticketsDespite the new guidance, Walensky said during a White House briefing that the CDC is not reversing its advice to avoid nonessential travel during the pandemic, vaccinated or unvaccinated. "CDC is not recommending travel at this time due to the number of rising cases,'' she said during the briefing.Asked how that squares with the announcement that vaccinated Americans can safely travel, she said: "Our guidance is silent on recommending or not recommending fully vaccinated people travel,'' she said. "Our guidance speaks to the safety of doing so. If you are vaccinated, it is lower risk.''The CDC's travel recommendations, which have evolved during the pandemic under the general banner of avoiding nonessential travel and still apply to those who aren't vaccinated, call for getting tested one to three days before a trip, three to five days after a trip and staying home and self-quarantining for seven days after travel, even with a negative test. If unvaccinated travelers don’t get tested, they should stay home and self-quarantine for 10 days after travel.Those guidelines were still in place for vaccinated travelers when the CDC issued broad guidance for vaccinated Americans in early March.They are only guidelines, though, and plenty of travelers have boarded planes or taken road trips without the CDC's blessing. In March, passenger counts at U.S. airports topped 1 million a day every day but five, according to the Transportation Security Administration – something that hasn't happened in over a year. | 0 |
With only about 14,000 votes separating President-elect Joe Biden and President Donald Trump in battleground Georgia, the state is heading into a recount of presidential votes.Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, said Wednesday that the state will recount presidential election results in each county by hand because of the close margin.On Wednesday, Biden was up by less than 0.3% of the nearly 5 million votes cast in Georgia. On Saturday, he was declared winner of the presidential election as some states continued to count votes, largely because his margins in several states are too wide for Trump to overcome.Georgia's presidential race has not yet been called because of the close result, but Biden appears poised to take the state's 16 electoral votes.Georgia's changing political makeup:From Southern lore to diverse communityHere's what you need to know about Georgia's recount:Why is this happening?Georgia law requires an auditing process before the state certifies results. A "risk-limiting audit" includes the checking of a random sample of ballots by hand to compare against machine tabulation, to ensure accurate results.Raffensperger said Wednesday that he would choose to audit the presidential race. But because the margin between Biden and Trump is so slim, a random sample of ballots would not be a sufficient measure and a full hand recount is triggered.Raffensperger said the hand recount "is really what makes the most sense with the national significance of this race and the closeness of this race."The decision to audit the presidential race is not because of the Trump campaign's request to do a hand recount, he said."This will help build confidence," Raffensperger said.A recount is provided for in Georgia law, but it not required, if the trailing candidate comes within a 0.5% margin of the leading candidate. Biden leads by less than 0.3%.Raffensperger is also under fire from the Republican incumbent senators from his state, Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, who alleged without evidence that there was misconduct in the administration of the election.Although the senators called for him to resign, "that is not going to happen. The voters of Georgia hired me, and the voters will be the one to fire me," Raffensperger said in a statement.How does a hand recount work?In a hand recount, instead of scanners reading and tallying the vote on each ballot, scanners will be used only to count ballots.Election workers will hand sort ballots into piles for each candidate, and the machines will count those piles."It will be a heavy lift. We will work with the counties to get this done in time for our state certification," Raffensperger said.How long will it take?The recount is expected to be completed with election results certified by the deadline of Nov. 20, Raffensperger said. The state is responsible for paying for the recount.He noted that election workers "will be working plenty of overtime" to get the recount done on time.Is Georgia recounting all 5 million ballots?Yes. While a risk-limiting audit would be done on a sample of votes, the hand recount will include each "legally cast ballot," Raffensperger said.A sample of ballots would not be a reliable way to audit the results, he said, because of how tight the race is."When you have 5 million votes and the margin is so close, 14,000, if we pulled out 10,000 votes, all of a sudden it could say, well this is the person that won. We pull out 100,000 and this is the person that won. If we pull out a million, this person won," Raffensperger said."And that's why mathematically you have to do a full, hand-by-hand recount of all because the margin is so close."What happens after the recount?Because the hand recount is triggered by the audit, some have wondered whether the losing candidate can still request another recount after the certification of results . Responding to whether the Trump campaign could ask for another recount if Trump is still trailing, Raffensperger said he believes that the Trump campaign could request it if the margin was still within 0.5%. Another recount would be scanned rather than counted by hand, Raffensperger said.Biden has already earned the required 270 electoral votes to win the presidency, which will not change with any outcome of Georgia's recount. If his lead holds, Biden would gain an additional 16 electoral votes. Contributing: The Associated Press | 0 |
The US supreme court on Tuesday endorsed US government authority to detain immigrants awaiting deportation at any time – potentially even years – after they have completed prison terms for criminal convictions, handing Donald Trump a victory as he pursues hardline immigration policies.The court ruled 5-4, with its conservative justices in the majority and its liberal justices dissenting, that federal authorities could pick up such immigrants and place them into indefinite detention at any time, not just immediately after they finish their prison sentences.The ruling, authored by the conservative justice Samuel Alito, leaves open the possibility of individual immigrants challenging the federal law involved in the case on constitutional grounds if they are detained long after they have completed their sentences.In dissent, the liberal justice Stephen Breyer questioned whether the US Congress when it wrote the law “meant to allow the government to apprehend persons years after their release from prison and hold them indefinitely without a bail hearing”.The Trump administration had appealed against a lower court ruling in the case that favored immigrants, a decision it said would undermine the government’s ability to deport immigrants who have committed crimes. Trump has backed limits on legal and illegal immigrants since taking office in January 2017.The plaintiffs included two legal US residents involved in separate lawsuits filed in 2013, a Cambodian immigrant named Mony Preap convicted of marijuana possession and a Palestinian immigrant named Bassam Yusuf Khoury convicted of attempting to manufacture a controlled substance.Under federal immigration law, immigrants convicted of certain offenses are subject to mandatory detention during their deportation process. They can be held indefinitely without a bond hearing after completing their sentences. | 0 |
(CNN)As Natalia Miranda lay on the ground, she didn't know how she got there. Her body was severely swollen and her clothes were torn and dirty.A SUV ran over the 14-year-old a few weeks before Christmas last year. She says she was walking the two blocks between her home in Clive, Iowa, and her junior high school to watch a basketball game. Neither Natalia or her parents could make sense of what happened but soon, police told the family that it wasn't an accident. The driver, a White woman, admitted that she intentionally hit the teen, police said."Her intention was clear ... because she looks Mexican," Natalia's father, Cesar Miranda told CNN, referring to what the driver told police.In the year following a mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, multiple attacks targeting Latinos and immigrants have taken place across the United States. Before the massacre, the suspected gunman — now indicted on more than 90 federal and state charges, including hate crimes — published a racist screed railing against Latinos and immigrants, authorities said. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges."The attack in El Paso wasn't just a lone gunman opening fire on those 'Mexican invaders' as he called them," said Domingo Garcia, national president for the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC). "His actions were part of the larger attack against Latinos in our country being fueled daily by the poison of racial hate."It was a terrifying escalation to the ongoing racist rhetoric and violence against Latinos in the country. About a year before the shooting, half of Latinos said they had concerns about their situation in America and were worried that a family member or close friend could be deported, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Research Center. That sentiment didn't vanish in the aftermath of the shooting. The driver accused of hitting Natalia, Nicole Poole Franklin, 42, was arrested in December and remains jailed with no bond. She faces two charges of attempted murder and one count of assault-violation of individual rights, which is a hate crime. The charges stem from three separate incidents one involving Natalia, one involving a Black teen and one related to allegedly yelling racial slurs at a gas station attendant, according to jail and court records, and police reports. The case remains pending in Polk County court. CNN has reached out to the public defender representing Poole Franklin but has not heard back. Since the incident, Natalia and her family said they have constantly battled with anger, fear, and the teen's mental and physical recovery. Natalia has dreamed more than once that the same SUV returns and "runs over in her upper part of her body like it's going to finish her up," said Dalila Alonso Miranda, the teen's mother. While the state case remains pending, Natalia's family is calling for federal hate crimes charges to be brought against Poole Franklin. "If you don't charge someone with a hate crime when they tell you that that's why they did it, then when will you?" Alonso Miranda said.More hate crimes reported, less federal prosecutionsHate crimes targeting Latinos have increased every year since 2015, according to the 2018 FBI Hate Crime Statistics report, the latest data available. In 2018, there were 485 incidents and 671 victims in anti-Hispanic or Latino incidents, compared with 427 incidents and 552 victims in the previous year, the agency's data shows. Comparing 2018 to 2015, when there were 299 incidents and 392 victims, the number of incidents rose 62%.Bias against Black or African American people overwhelmingly comprises the largest category of reported hate crime offenses pertaining to race, according to the FBI data. Brian Levin, director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at the California State University, San Bernadino, says he attributes the increase to a national shift in focus from Muslims to Latinos. The FBI data in 2018 shows 270 incidents were reported against Muslims and Arab-Americans, the fewest since 2015. In the past few months, more incidents involving Asians and Black people were reported than in the previous two years, Levin says, but it doesn't mean the anti-Latino sentiment is gone."We have ticking time bombs across the country and we don't know who they're going to hit exactly but we know who they hate," Levin said.But even if hate crimes are actually reported, proving that a person committed a crime motivated by another person's race, national origin, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability can be very difficult, said Phyllis Gerstenfeld, a professor and chair of the criminal justice department at California State University, Stanislaus.There have been few federal hate crimes prosecuted since 2012, according to an analysis by Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, an organization at Syracuse University that tracks and collects data about the federal government.Gerstenfeld, whose primary field of study is hate crimes, said there could be more incidents that remain unknown to authorities because victims don't feel comfortable reporting them."Hate crimes in general don't get reported to the police very often, but particularly with some communities of victims. Latinos, especially if they're undocumented or they have poor relationships with police, are not going to report them," Gerstenfeld told CNN.'We are in America, we don't speak Spanish here'A mother says she couldn't stop two white women in East Boston from assaulting her and her 15-year-old daughter in February. The women "physically attacked them because they were laughing and speaking to each other in Spanish," the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said.The mother, Vasquez, said that when one of the women approached her, she asked her daughter to translate and the woman began yelling at them and assaulted them. CNN is identifying the mother by her last name for privacy and security concerns. "She yelled, 'We are in America, we don't speak Spanish here, speak English!,'" Vasquez, 46, told CNN. The mother did not identify which one of the two women yelled at her.During the altercation, Vasquez said she was bitten on her right thumb and hit multiple times while her daughter was punched in the face multiple times and pulled by the hair.Two women — Jenny Leigh Ennamorati, 25, and Stephanie Armstrong, 25 — were each charged with two counts of violating constitutional rights with bodily injury and two counts of assault and battery charges, the district attorney said. Both cases have probable cause hearings scheduled for September.They told police they heard the Vasquezes laughing and speaking Spanish and believed they were making fun of them, according to a police report, which redacted the women's names but they were later released by prosecutors.CNN has reached out to an attorney representing Ennamorati but has not heard back. William J. Barabino, an attorney representing Armstrong, said video recorded by a bystander and the "accuser statement" shows that his client "never laid a hand on anyone.""Eventually, she went over to the physical dispute and can be seen extending both arms in an effort for all to calm down. That isn't a crime and we expect that a judge or a jury will eventually reach that same conclusion," Barabino said in a statement emailed to CNN.The incident has haunted Vasquez since then. For weeks, she says her daughter would wake up scared and crying at night and constantly asked why anyone would treat them like that. They have been mostly at home since the incident because of the pandemic and her daughter has been talking with a counselor but Vasquez is concerned about how she would interacts with more people when classes resume.Fear may have kept many other victims silent, Vasquez says, but she can't let hatred and bigotry go unpunished. Even after the Vietnamese restaurant where she worked closed due to the pandemic and she struggled to find another job for nearly four months, she hasn't stop talking with others about the incident and working with her attorneys. "There's Asians, Latinos, everything in this country and still others haven't understood that we deserve the same respect than people who were born in America," Vasquez said. CNN's Rebekah Riess and Gregory Lemos contributed to this report. | 0 |
Credit...Scott McIntyre for The New York TimesNov. 17, 2018TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — Andrew Gillum, the Democratic nominee and mayor of Tallahassee, conceded the Florida governor’s race on Saturday to Ron DeSantis, a former Republican congressman closely allied to President Trump, saying he was satisfied with a recount that had him trailing by about 34,000 votes.Mr. DeSantis declared victory on election night this month, and Mr. Gillum, 39, announced he was conceding the race at the time. But he re-entered the race a week ago, under pressure from staff members and allies in organized labor, after the Florida secretary of state’s office declared an automatic recount.“We promised to fight until every vote was counted, and obviously we are now closing out the hand recount phase,” Mr. Gillum said in an announcement broadcast over Facebook Live on Saturday, standing next to his wife. “R. Jai and I wanted to take a moment to congratulate Mr. DeSantis on becoming the next governor of the great state of Florida. This has been the journey of our lives.”Mr. Gillum has not yet called the governor-elect, a spokesman for Mr. DeSantis said. But Mr. DeSantis responded to Mr. Gillum on Twitter, accepting his concession anew.“This was a hard-fought campaign,” Mr. DeSantis wrote. “Now it’s time to bring Florida together.”Even Mr. Trump, who days before the election referred to Mr. Gillum on Twitter as a “thief,” complimented the Democrat hours before his concession, congratulating him for his “really tough and competitive race.”“He will be a strong Democrat warrior long into the future — a force to reckon with!” the president wrote.Two statewide recounts still underway, after a vote-counting process that was assailed by Republicans, without evidence, as a possible smoke screen for election fraud, are for the state agriculture commissioner race and the United States Senate race between the Democratic incumbent, Bill Nelson, and Rick Scott, the Republican governor. In Palm Beach County, an extremely tight state legislative seat was also being recounted.In a nod to the stressful 11 days after Election Day, Mr. Gillum said the state would have to look at how it conducts elections.“We need to update Florida’s elections system and bring it into the 21st century,” he said.Broward County’s elections supervisor, Brenda C. Snipes, again had to defend her office’s work when a small batch of ballots from the Senate race appeared Saturday during the recount for the agriculture commissioner race.René D. Harrod, a deputy county attorney, said 47 manila envelopes containing ballots for the Senate race had been inadvertently assembled for manual counting alongside envelopes for the agriculture commissioner race. “Somebody took the wrong box off the shelf,” Ms. Harrod said, adding that the mistake was caught right away.“No harm, no foul,” she said.In Palm Beach County, elections officials planned to take the day off Sunday, because they had no chance of making the noon deadline for submitting a new tally in the agriculture commissioner race.ImageCredit...Steve Cannon/Associated PressThe governor’s race between two young and energetic politicians — Mr. DeSantis, a Trump acolyte who adopted elements of the president’s white-hot style, and Mr. Gillum, a liberal darling running to be Florida’s first black governor — was widely seen as a proxy battle between competing ideological visions of the country’s future, one diverse and progressive, the other conservative and quick to defend Mr. Trump’s nationalist policies.It was also an unexpected matchup. Neither Mr. Gillum nor Mr. DeSantis was viewed as his party’s likely nominee when the primary season began. Mr. Gillum defeated a field of rivals that included a former House member and the mayor of Miami Beach. Mr. DeSantis, after gaining the endorsement of Mr. Trump, easily turned back the state agricultural commissioner, Adam Putnam, who had been viewed as the likely nominee.Mr. DeSantis, a Harvard- and Yale-educated former Navy legal officer at Guantánamo Bay, had represented the Sixth District, centered on Daytona Beach, since 2012. He ran for the Senate in 2016 but dropped out after Marco Rubio, the Republican incumbent, decided to run for re-election.But he rose to national prominence as an energetic advocate for the president on Fox News, where he has appeared dozens of times since Mr. Trump was elected, defending him from critics and directing barbs at liberals, the news media and the special counsel Robert S. Mueller III.In Mr. Gillum, voters were presented in many ways with Mr. DeSantis’s opposite. As an elected official in Tallahassee since 23, he embraced liberal positions — like higher corporate tax rates, legalization of marijuana, tighter gun control and Medicare for all — that thrilled the Democratic Party’s activist base. But they also gave Mr. DeSantis more than enough material to portray him as a radical leftist out of step with a quintessential swing state.But Mr. DeSantis struggled to gain momentum, and he trailed in the polls for much of the campaign after telling Fox News that Florida voters should not “monkey this up” by voting for Mr. Gillum. Critics saw the remark as a racist dog whistle, but Mr. DeSantis, who is white, said he had not intended it as a racial jab.That was not the only racial episode during the campaign. In August, an Idaho-based white supremacist group placed racist robocalls to Florida voters in which a man claiming to be Mr. Gillum spoke in the exaggerated accent of a minstrel performer while monkeys screamed in the background. Both campaigns denounced the calls, which drew attention to Mr. DeSantis’s earlier gaffe.The negative attention on Mr. DeSantis’s campaign lifted in the weeks before the election, when he named Susie Wiles, a veteran Republican operative, as his new campaign manager. He worked furiously to define Mr. Gillum as a proponent of “ideological radicalism” and a “George Soros left-wing agenda” who was out of step with the average Floridian.And he campaigned on a promise to support military veterans, defend a scholarship program that pays private school tuition for low-income students and appoint “constitutionalist” judges to the State Supreme Court, a promise that echoed a similar one made on the campaign trail in 2016 by Mr. Trump.Mr. Gillum said on Saturday that he remained committed to pushing for societal change — if not as the next governor, then as an advocate.“Although nobody wanted to be governor more than me, this was not just about an election cycle,” he said. “This was about creating the kind of change in this state that really allows the voices of everyday people to show up again in our government. We know that this fight continues in spite of the outcome of this election.”At 39, he remains young enough to run again, for the governorship or some other office.“Stay tuned,” he said. “There will be more to come.” | 0 |
Barack Obama's presidencyU.S. President Barack Obama attends the Nuclear Security Summit in the Hague, Netherlands, in March 2014. As Obama's second term nears its close, here's a look at some key moments of his administration. Barack Obama's presidencyFirst lady Michelle Obama brushes specks from the coat of then-Sen. Obama in Springfield, Illinois, just before he announced his candidacy for President in February 2007. Their daughters Malia, left, and Sasha wait in the foreground. Barack Obama's presidencyObama appears on "Meet the Press" with Tim Russert, right, in Des Moines, Iowa, in November 2007. Barack Obama's presidencyObama shakes hands with supporters after addressing a rally in Concord, New Hampshire, in January 2008. Barack Obama's presidencyObama gives a speech at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia in March 2008. Barack Obama's presidencyObama speaks at the 2008 Democratic National Convention in Denver. Barack Obama's presidencyObama stands on stage in Chicago with his family after winning the presidential election on November 4, 2008. Barack Obama's presidencyObama poses in the Oval Office with several former U.S. Presidents in January 2009. From left are George H. W. Bush, Obama, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Barack Obama's presidencyObama is sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009. Barack Obama's presidencyAs retired military officers stand behind him, Obama signs an executive order to close down the detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2009. Barack Obama's presidencyObama and Vice President Joe Biden look at solar panels as they tour the solar array at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on February 17, 2009. That same day, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Barack Obama's presidencyA soldier hugs Obama during his surprise visit to Camp Victory just outside Baghdad, Iraq, in April 2009. Barack Obama's presidencyObama bends over so the son of a White House staff member can pat his head during a visit to the Oval Office in May 2009. The boy wanted to know if Obama's hair felt like his. Barack Obama's presidencyObama kisses Sonia Sotomayor's cheek after announcing her as his nominee for Supreme Court justice in May 2009. Barack Obama's presidencyPalestinian security forces in Jenin, West Bank, listen to Obama speak from Cairo University in Egypt in June 2009. The Palestinian Authority hailed as a "good beginning" Obama's speech to the Muslim world in which he reiterated his support for a Palestinian state. Barack Obama's presidencyObama and the first lady meet with Pope Benedict XVI in Vatican City in July 2009. Barack Obama's presidencyObama hosts the Apollo 11 astronauts -- from left, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong -- in the Oval Office on July 20, 2009. It was the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. Barack Obama's presidencyPolice Sgt. James Crowley, second right, of Cambridge, Massachusetts, speaks with Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., second left, alongside Obama and Biden as they share beers on the South Lawn of the White House in July 2009. The so-called Beer Summit was held after Crowley arrested Gates at his own home, which sparked tensions and racial furor. Barack Obama's presidencyObama salutes during the transfer of Sgt. Dale R. Griffin at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, in October 2009. Obama traveled to the base to meet the plane carrying the bodies of 18 U.S. personnel killed in Afghanistan. Barack Obama's presidencyObama walks along the Great Wall of China in November 2009. Barack Obama's presidencyObama delivers a speech after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, Norway, in December 2009. Barack Obama's presidencyObama and former Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush walk to the White House Rose Garden to speak about relief efforts for earthquake-stricken Haiti in January 2010. Barack Obama's presidencyFirst daughters Sasha and Malia Obama play in the snow with their father after a snowstorm hit Washington in February 2010. Barack Obama's presidencyObama's signature on the Affordable Care Act is seen at the White House in March 2010. Barack Obama's presidencyObama throws out the opening pitch before a baseball game between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Washington Nationals in April 2010. Barack Obama's presidencyObama and his daughter Sasha swim in Panama City Beach, Florida, in August 2010, to encourage people to come back to the Gulf Coast after a devastating oil spill. Barack Obama's presidencyObama laughs as he makes a statement on his birth certificate in April 2011. Obama said he was amused over conspiracy theories about his birthplace, and he said the media's obsession with the "sideshow" issue was a distraction in a "serious time." Barack Obama's presidencyObama, Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and members of the national security team receive live updates on the mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden on May 1, 2011. Barack Obama's presidencyU.S. Marines watch from Afghanistan as Obama announces the death of bin Laden on May 2, 2011. Barack Obama's presidencyObama enjoys a pint of Guinness in his ancestral home of Moneygall, Ireland, in May 2011. Barack Obama's presidencyObama and the first lady meet with Britain's Prince William and Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, at Buckingham Palace in May 2011. Barack Obama's presidencyObama and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon walk together in May 2011 during a tour of the tornado devastation in Joplin, Missouri. Barack Obama's presidencyObama delivers remarks to troops and military families at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, on December 14, 2011, marking the exit of U.S. soldiers from Iraq. Barack Obama's presidencyObama pays for a dog toy as he shops with his dog Bo at a PetSmart in Alexandria, Virginia, in December 2011. Barack Obama's presidencyObama sits on the famed Rosa Parks bus at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan, in April 2012. Barack Obama's presidencyBritish Prime Minister David Cameron, Obama, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and others watch the overtime shootout of the Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich in a conference room at Camp David, Maryland, during a G-8 Summit in May 2012. Barack Obama's presidencyObama sits in his chair during a Cabinet meeting in July 2012. This image was tweeted by his official Twitter account in August 2012 in response to Clint Eastwood's "empty chair" speech at the Republican National Convention. The tweet simply said, "This seat's taken." Barack Obama's presidencyObama casts a shadow in this picture as he accepts the 2012 Democratic nomination for President during the final day of the Democratic National Convention in September 2012. Barack Obama's presidencyObama and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney participate in the first presidential debate of the 2012 election. Barack Obama's presidencyObama celebrates on stage in Chicago after defeating Romney on Election Day in 2012. Barack Obama's presidencyObama pauses during his speech at a memorial service for the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in December 2012. Barack Obama's presidencyHundreds of thousands gather at the U.S. Capitol building as Obama is inaugurated for his second term on January 21, 2013. Barack Obama's presidencyIsraeli President Shimon Peres, left, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, stand with Obama after Obama arrived in Tel Aviv, Israel, in March 2013. Barack Obama's presidencyObama adjusts an umbrella held by a Marine during a White House news conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in May 2013. Barack Obama's presidencyJay Leno interviews Obama on "The Tonight Show" in August 2013. Barack Obama's presidencyWhite House press secretary Jay Carney fields questions from reporters during a daily press briefing at the White House in September 2013. Obama had just pushed for congressional approval for limited military strikes against the Syrian government. Barack Obama's presidencyActor and comedian Zach Galifianakis interviews Obama during his appearance on "Between Two Ferns," a digital video series with a laser focus on reaching people aged 18 to 34. The President urged young people to sign up for his new health care plan in the video posted on the website Funny or Die. Barack Obama's presidencyObama walks to the Oval Office on August 7, 2014, the same day he announced the beginning of airstrikes on ISIS. Barack Obama's presidencyObama speaks to the nation about normalizing diplomatic relations with Cuba in December 2014. Barack Obama's presidencyFrom left, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and House Speaker John Boehner listen as Obama speaks during a meeting in the Cabinet Room of the White House on January 13, 2015. Barack Obama's presidencyObama responds to a heckler who interrupted his speech during a White House reception for LGBT Pride Month in June 2015. Barack Obama's presidencyObama cries in January 2016 as he delivers a statement on his executive action to reduce gun violence. Barack Obama's presidencyCuban President Raul Castro tries to lift up Obama's arm at the end of a joint news conference in Havana, Cuba, in March 2016. Castro hailed Obama's opposition to a long-standing economic "blockade," but said it would need to end before ties between the two countries are fully normalized. Barack Obama's presidencyObama visits Prince William, Duchess Catherine and their son, Prince George, during a trip to London in April 2016. Barack Obama's presidencyObama hugs Hillary Clinton after speaking at the Democratic National Convention in July 2016. Obama told the crowd at Philadelphia's Wells Fargo Center that Clinton is ready to be commander in chief. "For four years, I had a front-row seat to her intelligence, her judgment and her discipline," he said, referring to Clinton's stint as secretary of state. | 0 |
Story highlightsWitness who took the video says "Mr. Scott didn't deserve this"North Charleston police Officer Michael Slager is fired The city orders an additional 150 body cameras (CNN)The officer charged with murder in the shooting death of an unarmed black man in South Carolina has been fired as anger continues to build around his case.A video shows Officer Michael Slager, who is white, firing eight shots at 50-year-old Walter Scott as Scott has his back to him and is running away. Scott, who was unarmed, was struck five times.The FBI is investigating, and once again, a shooting involving police has sparked national outrage. "I have watched the video, and I was sickened by what I saw," North Charleston police Chief Eddie Driggers told reporters Wednesday.The mayor spoke at the same news conference that was repeatedly interrupted by protesters, who chanted: "No justice! No peace!" They called for Mayor Keith Summey to step down.Summey told reporters that the city has ordered an additional 150 body cameras "so every officer on the street" in the city will have one. That is in addition to 101 body cameras already ordered, he said.Just before the conference was set to begin, demonstrators walked in. They were led by a man wearing a "Black Lives Matter" T-shirt who shouted, "This is what democracy looks like!"Scott's shooting stirred memories of the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri, where an unarmed black teenager was killed by a white police officer. A grand jury declined to indict the officer in that case. But not everyone agreed that Scott's case is like Brown's or that race was a factor."We can't get into the brain of another individual, so we can't state that," Scott family attorney Chris Stewart said. "I think it would be irresponsible to say that and try and inflame a community or anything of that nature."An autopsy of Scott showed that he "sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the back of his body," and his death was the result of a homicide, the Charleston County Coroner's Office said.Asked whether CPR was performed on Scott after Slager shot him, Driggers said: "In the end of it (the video), what I saw was (what I) believed to be a police officer removing the shirt of the individual and performing some type of life-saving (procedure), but I'm not sure what took place there."The North Charleston Police department was not legally obligated to but chose to hand the case over to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, according to a news release from Scarlett A. Wilson, the Ninth Judicial Circuit solicitor.Though Wilson said she is subject to rules that limit what she can say publicly, she stated: "My role is to hold accountable those who harm others unlawfully, regardless of profession. This office does not dictate nor comment upon police policy, training and procedure. I am, however, deeply concerned when those who are sworn to serve and protect violate the public's trust."Use of stun gun questionedSlager pulled Scott over on Saturday morning for a broken taillight, authorities have said. The beginning of the video shows the two men standing close to each other. Any words exchanged between Scott and Slager are not audible on the released tape. It's also unclear what happened before Scott started to run away, or why he ran.The officer initially said that he used a Taser stun gun on Scott and that Scott tried to take his weapon."Shots fired and the subject is down," Slager said, according to police reports. "He took my Taser." Before the officer started firing his gun, a dark object falls behind him and hits the ground. It's not clear whether that is the Taser. Later in the video, when the officer approaches Scott's body, he drops a dark object next to the man. It's not clear whether that is the Taser.It's unknown whether Scott took the officer's Taser or whether the officer picked the object up and moved it closer to the body.When Scott's brother Anthony saw the video, he was convinced the officer had lied, he told CNN."There was not a struggle for the Taser," Anthony Scott said. "I didn't believe my brother would have done that anyway."To Anthony Scott, the videotape shows his brother was "running for his life" away from the officer."I think my brother was thinking he was not going to be shot, no one would have thought that," Scott said. The video shows Walter Scott attempting to run away. His back is to the officer, and he is a few yards away when the officer raises his gun and fires.A man walking to work on Saturday recorded the video and provided it to the family. That man, Feidin Santana, spoke to NBC's Lester Holt.He said there had been a struggle between the two men on the ground before he started recording, and that the officer was in control.When asked how he felt about the fact that Slager has been charged with murder, Santana said that "no one can feel happy.""He has his family and Mr. Scott also has his family. But I think, you know, he made a bad decision. And, you know, you pay for your decisions in this life," he told NBC's Holt. "Mr. Scott didn't deserve this. And there were other ways that can be used to get him arrested. And that wasn't the proper way to do that."If convicted of murder, Slager could face life in prison or the death penalty. Outrage on social media"People are upset, people are pointing out how wrong the officer was for gunning down Mr. Scott," South Carolina State Rep. Justin Bamberg said as he stood alongside Anthony Scott on Wednesday.#WalterScott received 11,000 mentions on Twitter in just one hour Wednesday; 243,000 mentions in 24 hours. #RIPWalterScott is also trending, as is #MichaelSlager. Bamberg said he hasn't heard of anyone acting out violently to protest the shooting.He and Scott stressed they don't want that to happen."Things are in play now, and this officer is in the process of being prosecuted," Bamberg said, imploring anyone listening to him speak on CNN: "We ask that you let the justice process run its course."That message was echoed by Walter Scott's mother, who said she feels "forgiveness in my heart, even for the guy that shot and killed my son.""He was a loving son, a loving father. He cared about his family and ... no matter what happens, it will not replace my son," Judy Scott told CNN's Anderson Cooper.The investigationThe Justice Department said it would "take appropriate action in light of the evidence and developments in the state case.""The South Carolina Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation has opened an investigation concurrent with the S.C. Law Enforcement Division and are providing aid as necessary to the state investigation," the Justice Department said in a statement. "The Department of Justice Civil Rights Division and the South Carolina U.S. Attorney's Office will work with the FBI in the investigation." Whether Scott's civil rights were violated will be part of the Justice Department's investigation. In the meantime, Slager remains behind bars. He was denied bail at a bond hearing Tuesday night, CNN affiliate WCIV reported.Slager will remain in custody unless a circuit court sets his bond, a court spokesman told CNN. The court has not set a date for that hearing.According to WCIV, Slager initially said through his attorney, David Aylor, that he followed the appropriate policies and procedures.But Aylor later told CNN that he no longer represents the officer. It's not clear whether Slager has found a new attorney. A CNN examination of Slager's police job application indicates he has been an employee of the North Charleston Police Department for about five years and five months.Instead of wearing his police uniform, Slager now wears a jail uniform. CNN's Ryan Scallan, Christine Bear, Tristan Smith, Martin Savidge, Dana Ford, Sam Stringer, Randi Kaye, Chandler Friedman, Evan Perez, Don Lemon and Steve Brusk contributed to this report. | 0 |
Joe Biden’s campaign will be running television ads in El Paso, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth heading into Election Day. The Democratic nominee for vice president, Kamala Harris, is planning a visit to Texas during the homestretch of the campaign. And polls show the Biden-Harris ticket within striking distance — and, in some surveys, ahead — in the traditionally Republican state. Texas may still not be among the top priorities of either party’s presidential nominee in 2020 — and President Donald Trump might still be the favorite here. But the activity in the final days of this year’s presidential election suggests that, for the first time in decades, Texas is not a foregone conclusion. Democrats are at least in the running here in races for the presidency, U.S. Senate and numerous seats down ballot. “It’s really exciting. We see the amazing turnout numbers here in Harris County, but it’s not just here,” said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo. “It’s Fort Bend, it’s Denton and Hays, too. I don’t think it’s just demographic changes, but people rejecting the leadership that’s currently in the White House. We saw this already in 2018, and we’re just building on that.” Voting in Texas When was the last day to register to vote? The deadline to register to vote in the 2020 general election was Oct. 5. Check if you’re registered to vote here. If not, you’ll need to fill out and submit an application, which you can request here or download here. When can I vote early? Early voting for the 2020 general election runs from Oct. 13 to Oct. 30. Voters can cast ballots at any polling location in the county where they are registered to vote during early voting. Election Day is Nov. 3. How will voting be different because of the pandemic? In general, polling locations will have guidelines in place for social distancing and regular cleaning. Several counties will offer ballot marking devices so voters avoid contact with election equipment. Poll workers will likely be wearing face masks and other protective equipment, but masks will not be required for voters. How do I know if I qualify to vote by mail? Texas is one of just a few states that hasn’t opened up mail-in voting to any voter concerned about getting COVID-19 at a polling place. You can find eligibility requirements and review other questions about voting by mail here. Are polling locations the same on Election Day as they are during early voting? Not always. You’ll want to check for open polling locations with your local elections office before you head out to vote. Additionally, you can confirm with your county elections office whether Election Day voting is restricted to locations in your designated precinct or if you can cast a ballot at any polling place. Can I still vote if I have COVID-19? Yes. If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19 or are exhibiting symptoms, consider requesting an emergency mail-in ballot or using curbside voting. Contact your county elections office for more details about both options. See our voter guide Have you run into hurdles or problems while trying to vote in Texas? We want your help in reporting on those challenges. Tell The Texas Tribune your voting story.
Supported By: Trump won Texas by 9 percentage points in 2016 — and that was the smallest margin of victory for a Republican since 1996. But few, if any, polls are showing that kind of margin right now. The latest survey from the University of Texas/Texas Tribune, released Oct. 9, gave Trump a 5-point lead over Biden in the state. A Quinnipiac University poll last week showed a tie; a Dallas Morning News/University of Texas at Tyler poll released Sunday showed Biden up 2 points, and a New York Times/Siena College poll on Monday gave Trump a 4-point lead. Another nonpartisan Texas poll released Monday, from the Hobby School for Public Affairs at the University of Houston, gave Trump a 5-point lead. Overall, RealClearPolitics’ polling average hovers at a 3.2-point advantage for Trump. A Biden win in Texas would be a political earthquake in American politics. The last Democrat to win the state’s Electoral College votes was Jimmy Carter in 1976. It’s unlikely Texas would be the tipping point that handed Biden the White House — most agree a Texas win would be accompanied by a Biden landslide across the country. But it would end the decadeslong Republican dominance in the nation’s most populous red state. In another sign of the competitiveness here, billionaire Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday indicated he would use his super PAC, Independence USA, to fund $15 million worth of statewide ads in both Texas and Ohio. A spokesman for Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York, said the decision came after his team polled multiple states and came away convinced that Texas and Ohio were prime pickup opportunities. Trump’s campaign and his allies insist that Republicans’ grip on the state hasn’t loosened. Over the weekend, campaign spokesperson Tim Murtaugh and former Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, also the former governor of Texas, told supporters on a press call that Trump would not visit Texas before Election Day. “The president is going to win Texas,” Murtaugh told a reporter in response to a question about Trump’s plans for the state. “The president will be focusing his time and travel and energy on the states that will decide the election.” In a separate statement to The Texas Tribune, Trump Victory spokesperson Samantha Cotten said the campaign’s “top notch ground game can’t be matched by Biden’s 11th hour effort.” “While our volunteers are making millions of voter contacts and sharing President Trump’s ‘America First’ agenda, Biden is campaigning on decimating the energy industry. It’s safe to say President Trump is poised to win Texas,” Cotten said. Biden himself hasn’t made a formal visit to the state. But the number of people going to the polls has been a major source of optimism for Democrats. With four days of early voting still ahead, the percentage of Texas registered voters who had already cast ballots on Monday was poised to surpass the entire share of people who voted early in 2016. Given that Texans have six extra days of early voting this year and because some voters’ habits might have shifted due to the pandemic, it’s hard to conclude what that will mean for overall turnout. But Democrats were optimistic, especially since the raw number of votes cast was shattering records in the state’s fast-growing suburban areas, which have traditionally voted Republican but which trended more blue in the 2018 midterm elections. “Turnout is completely unprecedented, and you better bet that the folks who are turning out are not turning out to keep the status quo,” Hidalgo said. The shifting politics of the suburbs — and Trump’s declining popularity there — has also threatened Republicans’ hold on their state House majority and several congressional seats long held by GOP members. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, finds himself at the center of a reelection race that has heated up considerably in recent weeks. His Democratic opponent, MJ Hegar, has handily outpaced him in fundraising since the summer, and national outside groups are making a late, eight-figure financial play to defeat him. While polls continue to give Cornyn an advantage over Hegar, the senator is prepared for a much closer contest than his last reelection bid, which he won by 27 points. “I think it’ll be single digits” this time, Cornyn said in a Dallas TV interview Sunday. Even beyond the presidential and U.S. Senate races, some statewide races are drawing increasing attention. Chrysta Castañeda, the Democratic nominee for railroad commissioner, announced Monday that she had received $2.6 million in donations from Bloomberg, a remarkable amount for an office that rarely attracts political interest from outside Texas. The all-GOP Railroad Commission regulates Texas’ oil and gas industry. And even if Trump wins Texas, a margin smaller than his 2016 one could cause a significant ripple down-ballot. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is targeting 10 GOP-held seats across the state, while its Republican counterpart is working to win back the two seats it lost in 2018, those currently held by Democratic Reps. Colin Allred of Dallas and Lizzie Pannill Fletcher of Houston. With a week left, though, the most hotly contested races are four where the GOP is on defense: the races for the 21st District, where Rep. Chip Roy, R-Austin, is running for reelection; the 22nd District, where Rep. Pete Olson, R-Sugar Land, is retiring; the 23rd District, where Rep. Will Hurd, R-Helotes, is also vacating the seat; and the 24th District, where another retirement is happening with Rep. Kenny Marchant, R-Coppell. But even beyond that core battlefield, some seats once considered stretches for Democrats appear increasingly competitive. Case in point: the 3rd Congressional District, currently held by Rep. Van Taylor, R-Plano. Trump won the suburban Dallas district by 14 points in 2016, but U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, carried it by only 3 in 2018 and the latest Democratic polling has Biden winning it by double digits, with Taylor in a tight race against Democratic challenger Lulu Seikaly. In a sign of how much of a liability Democrats believe Trump is in the district these days, Seikaly is airing TV ads that explicitly tie the incumbent to the president, particularly on his coronavirus response. Seikaly’s latest TV ad shows a man inside his garage reacting with disbelief at Trump’s suggestion earlier this year that people may inject themselves with disinfectants to fight the virus. “For us, at least, Van Taylor has been such a proponent of Donald Trump … so for these voters who are abandoning the president, that is what we’ve been doing with our ads, our mail, our digital,” Seikaly said in an interview. “We need them to know Van Taylor is just a Donald Trumper.” Taylor, for his part, is airing commercials that avoid any mention of Trump, opening with an attack on “Liberal Lulu Seikaly” before touting a Dallas Morning News story that labeled him “Mr. Bipartisan.” The biggest down-ballot prize for Democrats, though, is the Texas House. Democrats are nine seats away from the majority after picking up 12 seats two years ago — and Republicans acknowledge that even if Trump carries the state, even if Cornyn wins reelection, the House is still very much in play. Austin Chambers, president of the Republican State Leadership Committee, said in an interview Monday that the Texas House battle will be a “dogfight that’s gonna be close all the way until the end.” He expressed confidence that Republicans will ultimately prevail but said the RSLC has spent about $9 million to defend the majority in Texas “and we don’t plan to slow down any time soon.” Asked for the biggest challenge the RSLC faces in the homestretch, Chambers pointed to “all of the out-of-state Democratic money flooding in.” “We’ve got better candidates, we’ve got better campaigns, we’ve certainly got a better message,” Chambers said. “We’ve got to make sure they don’t outshout us and outgun us.” Democrats are certainly trying their best. On Monday, the Texas House Democratic Committee announced its latest fundraising haul: $4.5 million over roughly the past month, or more than eight times what it raised during the same period last election cycle. Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin, The New York Times and the University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. | 0 |
4:17 p.m. ET, October 6, 2018Our live coverage of the Senate's final vote on Brett Kavanaugh has ended. Go here or scroll through the posts below to see how the final vote unfolded. You can also visit CNN Politics for more on Kavanaugh.4:06 p.m. ET, October 6, 2018Senate confirms Kavanaugh to the Supreme CourtFrom CNN's Ted BarrettThe Senate voted Saturday to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, following a contentious confirmation battle.The vote total was 50-48.The vote took place as protesters against the nomination interrupted the vote and as those for and against Kavanaugh marched on the Capitol grounds and at the Supreme Court.Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia was the only Democrat to vote for the nominee. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska was the only Republican who opposed the nomination. 4:01 p.m. ET, October 6, 2018Protesters are forcibly removed from the Senate Gallery during voteFrom CNN's Ashley Killough, Phil Mattingly and Jeremy HerbProtesters shouted at the top of their lungs and yelled “I will not consent” as they were forcibly removed from the Senate Gallery during the final confirmation vote for Brett Kavanaugh. At least seven protesters were removed. They continued to scream as they were pulled into the hallway.As the vote started, one by one protesters stood in different sections and started shouting, most with their fists raised. One protester had to be carried out by her arms and legs.4:02 p.m. ET, October 6, 2018Roll call has started on Kavanaugh nomination voteRoll call has started on Brett Kavanaugh's nomination vote. Protesters could be heard shouting as the final vote was about to begin. Vice President Mike Pence is presiding over the vote.Watch the moment:3:44 p.m. ET, October 6, 2018Protesters stage sit-in at Supreme CourtFrom CNN's Miguel Marquez and Sonia MogheProtesters staged a sit-in Saturday in front of the US Supreme Court ahead of Brett Kavanaugh's final confirmation vote.They chanted “our streets” and expressed support for survivors as they sat in the middle of street.US Capitol Police tried to control the sit-in, but eventually backed off.3:33 p.m. ET, October 6, 2018This is what protests look like in DC todayProtesters occupy the center steps of the East Front of the US Capitol after breaking through barricades to demonstrate against the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh on Oct. 6, 2018 in Washington, DC.Demonstrators descended on Capitol Hill and the Supreme Court Saturday to protest ahead of the Senate's final confirmation vote on Judge Brett Kavanaugh.Police arrested demonstrators who swarmed the steps of the Capitol to protest Kavanaugh's confirmation.Here's what it looked like:3:29 p.m. ET, October 6, 2018Cornyn: "This has not been the Senate's finest hour"From CNN's Laurie UreRepublican Sen. John Cornyn, speaking to reporters Saturday ahead of the final vote, said the process surrounding Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation was not "the Senate’s finest hour.""This has not been the Senate’s finest hour, to be sure," Cornyn said. "We need to find some way to, after the dust settles, to figure out a better path forward. Nobody involved, whether it’s Dr. (Christine Blasey) Ford or Judge Kavanaugh, deserved to be treated the way they were treated."He also addressed protests at the Capitol and Supreme Court."Protesters are great. I mean, that’s the American way. But the assaulting people, the inciting people, inciting other people who may be listening to perhaps even violence is dangerous. So I think we need to take a step back and try to learn from this and do better," Cornyn said.3:29 p.m. ET, October 6, 2018Why some protesters won't just get a fineFrom CNN's Kristin WilsonAny protesters, who was arrested both Friday and Saturday, will not be allowed to simply pay a fine and be released again, Capitol Police told CNN. Instead, they will be taken to central booking, where they will remain until Tuesday (since Monday is a federal holiday). This also applies to any protesters who disturb the Senate floor from the gallery.Anyone who was arrested for the first time Saturday will be allowed to pay a fine and be released. 2:19 p.m. ET, October 6, 2018Police arrest protesters on the steps of the CapitolFrom CNN's Ross Levitt and Gisela CrespoPolice arrested demonstrators who stood on the steps of the Capitol on Saturday and protested the nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh.As police detained the protesters, people chanted “Arrest sexual predators; not protesters.”Teresa Blair shot this video of Capitol Police officers detaining demonstrators as others chanted “The whole world’s watching” and “Vote them out.”Watch that moment: | 0 |
Marked by vicious insults and shouting that left CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer at times scrambling to maintain control, the final debate before Super Tuesday set a new low for a Republican Party that, counter-intuitively, desperately needed this moment to occur. For the first time in 10 debates and six months, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz finally ignored each other and turned on Donald Trump, viciously attacking his record, character, and policy platform, which Rubio memorably described as “Everyone’s dumb, he’s going to make America great again. Win, win, win.” But with nearly half of the delegates needed to win the nomination on the line, and Trump still leading in almost every state, it remains unclear whether the chaos of Thursday night will be enough to catapult either candidate into the front-runner position.On its surface, the debate was so crazy that during one three-way exchange between Trump, Rubio, and Cruz, CNN’s closed-captioning gave up and simply wrote “unintelligible yelling”. But behind the chaos (and Ben Carson’s bizarre line about fruit salad was a new strategy to take down Trump: attack him, unrelentingly. As soon as the debate started, they both sandwiched him on immigration, with Cruz calling his plan “amnesty” (the A-word of conservatism), and Rubio emphatically attacking Trump for illegally hiring Polish workers, paying a million-dollar fine for doing so. “If he builds the wall the way he built Trump Tower, he'll be using illegal immigrants to do it,” he joked. They continued to tag-team him on several of his past scandals, such as the lawsuit he is facing over “fake school” Trump University (a mere civil suit, Trump retorted), the tax returns he has not released (because, Trump claimed, he is currently being audited), and what both described as his total lack of actual policy plans to deal with real problems.Rubio especially had several breakout moments, armed with a series of comebacks and quick to respond to Trump’s almost-clichéd insults. (At one point during a heated exchange about health care, Trump brought up Rubio’s much-maligned gaffe where he repeated himself “five times” during the New Hampshire debates. “I just watched you repeat yourself five times five seconds ago,” Rubio responded, unable to conceal his delight at having turned the tables.) At times, it appeared that Rubio had taken several lessons from the Trump Academy of the Dramatic Arts, rolling his eyes, waving his hands about for effect, and seeming far more human than the “Marco Roboto” of weeks past.Even Cruz supporter Glenn Beck said that it was the Florida senator’s best performance yet, giving new life to Rubio’s campaign and, perhaps, reviving hopes Trump would not run away with the Republican nomination.But despite a much more spirited performance from the two senators, Trump continued to leverage the same talking points against them, amping up the vitriol. Rubio was now a sweaty-faced “choke artist” instead of just an inexperienced young man who kept “repeating” himself; Cruz was no longer just a “liar” who screwed over Carson in Iowa, but a “basket case” and a “crazy zealot.” (Cruz responded in turn, asking Trump to “get back on [his] meds”.)It seemed last night that Rubio and Cruz finally realized what the rest of the country had long known: by attacking each other, they had allowed Trump to metastasize, enticing both the moderates Rubio wanted and the hard right that Cruz thought he could win. Instead of attempting to knock each other out in order to lay claim to a dramatic final showdown with Trump, they combined forces to prevent him from having a shot at the nomination. By most measures, they appeared successful, reducing Trump to a pile of angry talking points. But the billionaire former reality-TV star has enjoyed a bizarre resiliency; six months of nonstop attacks by G.O.P. leaders have failed to slow his momentum, and likely even have empowered him. Rubio and Cruz showed backbone Thursday, the one thing Republican voters have seemed to value above all other qualities this election cycle. But given that it took them until virtually the last minute before Super Tuesday to go on the offensive, their spectacular night could prove to be their grand finale.What Might Donald Trump Really Think About the Great Wall?By Erik Tanner/Contour/Getty Images (Trump). | 0 |
Contrary to click-bait headlines this week, the State Department inspector general's report proves that Hillary Clinton is by a long shot the most qualified and trustworthy candidate running for president. But don't take my word for it, take five minutes and read the report yourself. The section about Clinton "breaking the rules" is less than six pages long.The actual rules, however, would take weeks to read. They are mostly contained in the "Foreign Affairs Manual," and just skimming them is dizzying. They make the report's conclusion that "longstanding, systemic weaknesses related to electronic records and communications have existed within the Office of the Secretary that go well beyond the tenure of any one Secretary of State" come as no surpriseNo surprise either that with its budget declining and national security mission growing for decades, "records management" hasn't been a high priority for the State Department.What may be surprising is that had Clinton used a government server and email address, we would know nothing more about anything today; in fact, we'd probably know less since Clinton's records retention system was far more sophisticated, well-maintained, secure and organized than the government's. What definitely came as a shocker in the report was the government's so-called "system" for retaining email: 1. Print every one and stick it in a box in random order. 2. Put said box on a shelf somewhere. 3. Start a new box. Seriously. Read the report. There are thousands of boxes of emails in no order, with no way of knowing whether they are comprehensive.Well, I guess we know they're not comprehensive. The report clarifies that Colin Powell, for instance, hasn't printed any of his emails from his private server."Printing and filing remained the only method by which emails could properly be preserved within the office of the secretary in full compliance with existing FAM Guidance," says the report, and "80 percent of agencies had an elevated risk for the improper management of electronic records reflecting serious challenges handling vast amounts of email, integrating records management functionality into electronic systems, and adapting to the changing technological and regulatory environments."How's that for a confidence booster?The specific "rule" Clinton allegedly broke states that the "general policy" of the State Department is for employees to use government email service on a government-issued device, but it then goes on to provide the conditions under which exceptions are made. The report acknowledges that Clinton had been openly using her private email server since she was a senator, through her 2008 presidential campaign and then as secretary of state. In fact, during her tenure at the State Department, 55,000 emails were sent by Clinton using her clintonemail.com email address, all of which have been printed and made available, more than any other previous secretaries.The report also clearly states: "Laws and regulations did not prohibit employees from using their personal email accounts for the conduct of official Department business." And nowhere in the report is there suggestion that Clinton's use of a private email address and server was "illegal."Instead, the thrust of the criticism of Clinton is that the Bureau of Diplomatic Security and the Bureau of Information Resource Management were not asked permission by Clinton to use her private server. Had she asked, the new person in charge says, permission would have been denied.How the new person in charge of security knows what the old person in charge of security when Clinton was secretary would have done is not explained, but bureaucrats under a microscope are like cockroaches when the lights come on. They scatter."These officials all stated that they were not asked to approve or otherwise review the use of Secretary Clinton's server and that they had no knowledge of approval or review by other department staff. These officials also stated that they were unaware of the scope or extent of Secretary Clinton's use of a personal email account, though many of them sent emails to the secretary on this account."So let's get this straight: The bureaucrats "in charge" of security knew Clinton was using a private email server since 2001 -- and they sent her email regularly to it between 2009 and 2013 -- but they wouldn't have given her permission to do that?They sent her emails to her personal address, but they didn't know she had a personal address?This was no covert operation, for heaven's sake. It's not like Clinton was secretly selling arms to Iran and funding the Contras. The Clintons paid out-of-pocket for a few techies to work in their basement keeping this server humming and free from cyber breaches. Staffers from the Bureau of Diplomatic Security inspected the email system, looked at the logs and communicated with these people on a regular basis. The bureau even refused to help fix it when Hurricane Sandy disrupted power "because it was a private server," according to the report.Clinton reasonably believed her private server was allowed because the bureaucrats in charge of security allowed it. This present-day conviction for violating rule 12 FAM 544.2 after the fact means nothing of any consequence. Nobody was hurt. No security was breached. Who cares?Oh, but other rules were broken --12 FAM 592.4 and 12 FAM 682.2-6 to be exact. These fault Clinton for failing to report a suspected a cyber-security "incident."Sounds Benghazi-like, right? Sounds pretty darn serious, right?Wrong. The "incident" was Clinton sending an email to her under secretary that said, "Is this really from you? I was worried about opening it!"The use of an unnecessary exclamation point might be fair game for critique, but really, in the grand scheme of things, do you care that she didn't report this "incident?"It's not like she had nothing better to do as secretary of state. In 55,000 pages of email one alleged incident went unreported, so that makes her untrustworthy? Compared to whom? Trump? Bernie? How about reporting your tax returns, fellas?The inspector general's report found the State Department under Secretaries Albright, Powell, Rice and Kerry fell short of rules around the management, storage and protection of email transmission -- as do virtually every other government agency and corporation.In Maine we have rules, too, about document retention, and guess what? Nobody follows them, including Gov. Paul LePage. Until a document-shredding scandal was exposed, the Secretary of State's office wasn't even aware that 60 percent of state agencies didn't have a records custodian, the board responsible for rulemaking was defunct and retention schedules were 30 years old.Does this justify bad behavior? Of course not, but there's a reason why so many people don't care about Hillary Clinton's 55,000 emails. The fact is, had she followed the letter of the law, our lives would be no better or worse. We would have had boxes of printed emails and instead we have boxes of printed emails. There's not one iota of evidence of any motive to do harm, break the law or personally gain.So to the people who were hoping the inspector general's report would be the second-to-last nail in the coffin before a much-anticipated criminal indictment: sorry. Clinton remains the most qualified, experienced and trustworthy candidate by a long shot. She neither blames others for the technical rule violations, nor tried to cover up or conceal emails she sent or received.The American people are sick and tired of hearing about her damn emails. There's no smoking gun in the report. If that makes you unhappy, blame the liberal media. | 0 |
2016 Ohio was the wild card win that allows Clinton to shift her gaze forward. Hillary Clinton now has a 300-delegate lead. | Getty Continue to article content WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — The 2016 Democratic primary effectively ended Tuesday night, with Hillary Clinton as the all-but-certain winner but Bernie Sanders barely acknowledging it.
For Clinton, a narrow win in Illinois and double-digit victories across the battleground states of Florida, North Carolina and Ohio provided deliverance from a humbling loss in Michigan a week earlier and finally gave her the space to begin her pivot to Donald Trump and the general election. That left the Vermont senator to deliver his standard 60-minute stemwinder in Phoenix without mentioning a single defeat. After noting that she now has a 300-delegate lead – which will make it essentially impossible for Sanders to catch up given the rules of the Democratic process -- Clinton turned her attention to the front-runner for the Republican nomination.
“Our commander-in-chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass it,” she told her energetic supporters.
“When we hear a candidate for president call for rounding up 12 million immigrants, banning all Muslims from entering the United States,” Clinton said, discussing Trump’s most outrageous policies, “when he embraces torture, that doesn’t make him strong, it makes him wrong.”
With Trump sweeping Florida and knocking Marco Rubio out of the race, Clinton also highlighted the heightened stakes for Democrats, noting that “tonight, it’s clearer than ever that this may be one of the most consequential campaigns of our lifetimes.”
That doesn’t mean Sanders -- fueled by a money machine that never stalls -- will fade into the ether any time soon. The calendar now turns to a string of overwhelmingly white, caucus states like Idaho, Utah, Washington, and Alaska, where he is favored to collect the small piles of delegates available -- 244 delegates in total, counting Hawaii on March 26.
“It’s amazing, he’s a cash machine,” marveled a Clinton insider. “If he loses, he says, ‘big bad Hillary is winning.’ Boom, $5 million. If he wins, it’s like, ‘keep the revolution going!’ Boom, $5 million. We got 1.5 million more votes. But either way, he gets $5 million.”
Clinton on Tuesday night crushed Sanders in Florida -- where there are more eligible voters in South Florida than in all four early nominating states combined -- with a 31-point victory. And she won North Carolina by a hefty 16-point margin, despite a $1 million Sanders ad blitz over the past week that tripled her spending there.
Clinton allies were quick to declare the race over. "Hillary Clinton's wins tonight effectively ended the Democratic nomination for president,” said Brad Woodhouse, the president of Correct the Record. “It is all but mathematically impossible for Bernie Sanders to overtake her lead. Her message is resonating and hers is the real revolution--a revolution that will break down barriers and that will get things done for the American people."
But if Florida was a bonanza that widened the delegate gap between them, Ohio was the wild card win that allowed Clinton to shift her gaze forward -- her 13-point victory represented a staggering blow to Sanders, who was not able to translate his economic message and opposition to foreign trade deals into success in Ohio and Illinois. In the other industrial Midwestern states to vote Tuesday, Clinton held a slight lead in Missouri with 99 percent of the vote in.The Clintons had deeper roots in Ohio, which the Democratic frontrunner won eight years ago, and had more union backing there than she did in Michigan. That contributed to big wins across the state -- she won early voters by over 40 points in Cleveland; by almost 30 in Columbus; by almost 40 in Cincinnati; and by over 40 in Dayton, a Clinton campaign aide said, crediting campaign manager Robby Mook’s game plan for the resounding win.
Even as Clinton all-but-announced the next phase of her campaign Tuesday night, campaign operatives said they would continue to fight hard in the Arizona primary March 22, in order to break up Sanders’ expected string of caucus state wins that could follow.
While Sanders booked $1.7 million in ads the week before the Arizona primary, Clinton’s campaign Tuesday night released its first Spanish-language ad, which draws a direct contrast with Trump. Arizona is where the campaign expects to begin ramping up and spending money beginning Wednesday.
If there's one deficit left for the campaign to address, it's cash. Clinton acknowledged as much Tuesday night, imploring her supporters to “join the 950,000 supporters who already have contributed, most less than $100” and guiding them to her website to donate. The campaign followed up with a text signed "H" from Hillary, telling supporters: “If you knocked on doors, talked to friends, pitched in, or voted -- tonight is your victory. Now, let’s bring it home. Chip in $1 to say you’re with me.”
But in reality, unless Sanders is able to defy all odds by defeating Clinton in places like California and New York by landslide margins, his path to the nomination is now essentially blocked.
Even progressive leaders acknowledged as much Tuesday, lauding Sanders for moving Clinton to the left in the primary rather than talking up his chances of actually winning it.
“Clinton has engaged Bernie Sanders in a race to the top on key issues like expanding Social Security instead of cutting it, breaking up Too Big To Fail banks, jailing Wall Street executives who break the law, and debt-free college,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee. “That was almost unimaginable a year ago.”
Now Clinton confronts a narrowing Republican field that her aides said can only benefit her. “What she offers in terms of her strength as commander in chief, [her promise] to make America whole again, as she says…that’s a good choice for us,” communications director Jennifer Palmieri told reporters before the polls closed. “For the choice to be clearer, we think that is to our benefit.”
Speaking to reporters briefly outside a polling location in North Carolina Tuesday afternoon, Clinton expressed confidence about her a match-up against Trump.
“He’s gotten a minority -- perhaps a plurality but a minority -- of those who chose to vote in the Republican primaries and caucuses,” Clinton said. “I’ve gotten more votes than he has already. I don’t think he represents the vast majority of Americans, who are more interested in solving our problems than venting our disappointments.”
With a decisive win in a key November battleground, the Clinton campaign got off to a good start. Of the states that voted Tuesday, Florida was the biggest delegate prize and the state where the Clinton campaign has been building a grassroots volunteer base the longest. Florida native and longtime Clinton aide Craig Smith -- the very first hire of Bill Clinton’s 1992 campaign -- has been working for the campaign organizing volunteers here since last fall.
Sanders, in contrast, didn’t visit the state until last week, but then he did more than just dip his toe in. He went up on television in Orlando, Tampa and Jacksonville and held big rallies in Miami, Gainesville and Orlando. But he was a late arrival in a state with extensive early voting; by the time he got on the air, about 750,000 Democrats had already cast their ballots, Florida Democrats said.
“Sen. Sanders wanted to play big here, and I think that the fact that his numbers are not moving is more of a testament to his lack of ability to put together a diverse coalition in a big state like Florida,” said Ashley Walker, Obama’s 2012 Florida state director.
Florida Democrats credited the big win to the state’s diverse population, as well as the deep connection the Clintons have with the state. Bill Clinton campaigned relentlessly in Florida for President Obama in 2012.
“They’ve been down here tirelessly every election cycle,” said Walker. “They’re familiar faces down here for the average voter.” And part of Sanders appeal in other states -- his laser focus on economic inequality -- hurt him in an ethnically and geographically diverse state. “Our state is really eight or nine different states,” said Walker. “Clinton’s work on such a broad range of issues put her in a good position to garner support with all the different groups.” | 0 |
Brett Kavanaugh practically embodied an ALL CAPS SCREAM on Thursday in his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. At first yelling, then breaking down in tears, the embattled Supreme Court nominee denied the allegations against him, attacked the partisans who raised them, and portrayed himself as an aggrieved victim.Kavanaugh stands accused by Christine Blasey Ford of sexually assaulting her when they were both teenagers. Two other women have also accused Kavanaugh of sexual misconduct. Blasey spent the morning telling the committee her story, smiling congenially at the senators on the panel and at times herself choking up.There were no smiles from Kavanaugh.“This has destroyed my family and my good name, a good name built up through decades of very hard work and public service at the highest levels of public government,” he told the Judiciary Committee. “It’s an outrage,” he told Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) in response to her questions as to why he didn’t demand an FBI investigation. “A joke. A farce,” Kavanaugh said, talking about the accusations of Julie Swetnick, who claims the judge was present at a party where she was raped.Kavanaugh’s apparent strategy is called DARVO, short for “Deny. Attack. Reverse victim and offender.” The term was coined by Jennifer Freyd, a psychologist at the University of Oregon.She first started thinking about the formulation watching Anita Hill testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee decades ago ― a moment that clearly echoed on Thursday.Freyd said that in her view, Kavanaugh was definitely using DARVO on Thursday. “All the parts are there,” she told HuffPost.An innocent man, unjustly accused, but facing the job interview of his life didn’t have to react the way Kavanaugh did on Thursday afternoon ― visibly angry and emotional, clearly feeling victimized.“He does not need to be the victim here but rather a dignified person who cares about the issue of sexual assault in our country,” Freyd said Thursday, as Kavanaugh was speaking. “He could say that this a great teachable moment for our country ― to really deal with sexual assault. Of course, there is another option too. If he wanted to stop denying he could do a profoundly healing thing for this country: acknowledge and apologize for what he did do.”The DARVO strategy has been on display over the past few weeks as Republicans rally around Kavanaugh. Donald Trump is perhaps a master practitioner, portraying himself as the victim of smear campaigns and women being paid to accuse him of sexual misconduct.“As you have seen, I am a victim of one of the great political smear campaigns in the history of our country,” he said during the presidential campaign, as allegations mounted against him.Trump played the victim again on Wednesday in a rambling press conference where he defended Kavanaugh. “I was accused by four or five women who got paid a lot of money to make up stories about me,” he said, telling reporters he identified strongly with the embattled judge.And before Trump, there was Bill Clinton, who famously told the country he did not have sexual relations with “that woman.” That turned out to be untrue. | 0 |
Credit...Pete Marovich for The New York TimesSept. 5, 2017WASHINGTON — For 16 years, advocates for legalizing young immigrants brought here illegally by their parents have tried to pass legislation to shield them from deportation. The bill was called the Dream Act, and in Congresses Democratic and Republican, and in the Bush and Obama administrations, whether by stand-alone bill or comprehensive immigration legislation, it failed again and again.Now, with 800,000 lives in the balance and a fiercely anti-immigration current running through the Republican Party, lawmakers are being asked to try again — with a six-month deadline, to boot. The prospects for success after more than a decade of false starts would already be daunting, but President Trump may have made the odds even longer after he promised voters last year that Republicans would take a hard line on immigration, then punted the issue to Congress.His invitation to lawmakers on Tuesday to “do something and do it right” for the so-called dreamers will run into the headwinds of his own politics. On the other hand, lawmakers who for 16 years have been unwilling to grant legal status to a sympathetic group of unauthorized immigrants may find that taking their legal status away is even harder than conferring it.“I’m hoping that this is a moment where we are forced to finally do something,” said Senator Richard J. Durbin, Democrat of Illinois and an original author of the Dream Act — the letters stand for Development, Relief and Education for Alien Minors. “We want to call this bill for a vote on the floor of the House and the floor of the Senate. I am hoping that we will have enough votes to pass it.”Senator Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, said she believed there is “widespread bipartisan support for legislation that would provide some measure of protection to children who are brought to this country through no decision of their own.”Before there was Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, there was Mr. Durbin’s Dream. In 2007, a version of the measure won the support of a majority of senators but fell victim to a bipartisan filibuster that included eight Democrats. Three years later, the bill passed the House but again did not get through the Senate.And in 2013, language allowing dreamers to stay in this country and work or attend school was included in a broader immigration package that passed the Senate with 68 votes — then failed in the House.Frustrated after years of failings, President Barack Obama signed DACA as a temporary order in the hope that Congress would eventually pass the Dream Act and broader immigration changes. But with Republicans in control of both chambers of Congress, the Dream Act stalled once again.The politics have clearly shifted on the issue — for both parties. With Mr. Trump scheduled to visit her state on Wednesday, Senator Heidi Heitkamp, a North Dakota Democrat who is facing a tough re-election bid, posted a lengthy statement on her Facebook page in which she echoed Mr. Obama’s assertion on Tuesday that ending the program was “cruel.”Some Republicans have softened, as well. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Washington Republican who chairs the House Republican Conference, said in a statement that while she has long said she did not agree with the way Mr. Obama enacted his program, Congress “must protect” the dreamers who are currently shielded from deportation.She added, “That principle is fundamental for me.”But hard-liners in the Republican conference remain unbowed. Representative Steve King of Iowa, one of the fiercest voices in his party against illegal immigration, tweeted that delaying an end to DACA so Republican leadership “can push Amnesty is Republican suicide.”The Dream Act’s history is tortured. In 2001, a concerned guidance counselor for a frightened young woman whose family immigrated from South Korea reached out to Mr. Durbin for help. The young woman, Tereza Lee, was a pianist who was hoping to apply to top-ranked music schools, but the law said she would have to leave the United States for 10 years and apply for re-entry. To help Ms. Lee, Mr. Durbin introduced the Dream Act.Democrats had a hand in the legislation’s historical futility. For years, they used the Dream Act as a bargaining chip to push for broader immigration legislation, hoping a sympathetic group of young immigrants could help win a pathway to citizenship for the far broader pool of 12 million unauthorized immigrants. Now, most Democrats say there is no time for comprehensive immigration changes.But Republican leaders indicated that they will need sweeteners, perhaps funding for a border wall or other measures to bolster border security.“The process of taking care of the kids will be a negotiated process,” said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, who appeared with Mr. Durbin on Tuesday at a news conference to call for bipartisan action. “There are a lot of people who believe that a good marriage would be border security and Dream Act.”Both Mr. Graham and Mr. Durbin made clear they could support such a marriage — albeit reluctantly, in the case of Mr. Durbin — but negotiations look inevitable. Others agreed.“I think it’s an opportunity for us to deal with a myriad other issues that we need to deal with, with a broken immigration system,” said Senator Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee. Among those issues, he said, are border security, efforts by immigrants to overstay their visa and the so-called “E-Verify” system for employers to certify that their workers are in this country legally.Senator John Cornyn of Texas, the No. 2 Republican, was definitive. “I think what President Trump did is appropriate, which is to kick it to Congress, and so we will take that up,” he said. “But there’s no way that it will stand alone.”In the House, Republican moderates say they are willing to work with Democrats to enshrine the program in legislation — and to force Republican leaders to abandon their customary strategy of passing bills only with overwhelming Republican support — a “majority of the majority.”“I believe the votes are there to pass some kind of a DACA program in the House,” said Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania and a chairman of the so-called Tuesday Group of House moderates. “I’m not saying a majority of the majority, but there are 218 votes.”Representative Mike Coffman, a Colorado Republican who represents a narrowly divided, heavily Latino district, said Monday that he planned to push a legislative maneuver to get a vote on a temporary extension of DACA that he wrote with Representative Luis V. Gutiérrez, Democrat of Illinois. The so-called discharge petition for the Bridge Act would force Republican leaders to bring the bill to the floor if it has 218 signatures.“Democrats have to decide, O.K., do we allow the deportation of these young people because we don’t like a Republican taking leadership on this issue? Or do we go with a Republican led initiative?” said Mr. Coffman, a top target for Democrats in next year’s midterm elections.Mr. Gutiérrez weighed in for Mr. Coffman’s efforts. “I don’t care who gets the credit. There are 800,000 kids’ futures at stake,” Mr. Gutierrez said. “The only consideration we have is how do we legislatively fix this problem.”It remains unclear if Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House Democratic leader, would back the Bridge Act, which would extend DACA for three years, and rally others to do the same.But she has requested a meeting with Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who has the power to bring the Dream Act to a vote at any time and who said Tuesday he hoped to find consensus to ensure “that those who have done nothing wrong can still contribute as a valued part of this great country.” | 0 |
The Real Tom Paine-Fair is Fair
Rudy NYC
HenryMiller
"I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
Remember that line, Clinton fans. You'll see it a lot if she's foolish enough to run for President.
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CBS News: "You say that the Ryan Plan does not balance the annual budget for 30 years. What would the national deficit be by that time.
Paul Ryan: "I don't know. I haven't run the numbers, yet."
The budget wonk is actually a budget quack. He still doesn't know to this today. He just makes up numbers that sound good, and throws them out there.
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Says the man whose new catchphrase is "bait & switch, folks... bait & switch".
**************
Fair, Ryan IS a budget quack who uses the works of Ayn Rand, a militant atheist who saw religion as an arm of the state as the blueprint for his budget. June 27, 2013 10:21 am at 10:21 am | | 0 |
Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) demanded a public apology — for all Mississippians — from Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.), who drew harsh criticism for a line made while campaigning in early November.“If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row,” Hyde-Smith is heard saying in a video posted to Twitter by journalist and blogger Lamar White Jr. on Sunday morning.Thompson released a statement Monday, calling the senator’s comments on public hanging “beyond disrespectful and offensive,” adding that Mississippi’s history includes “one of the highest numbers of public lynching, that we know of, than any other state in this country.”Hyde-Smith, who in a Sunday statement called the remark an “exaggerated expression of regard,” refused to elaborate Monday when reporters asked for more context. She appeared in Jackson, the state’s capital, with Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) — who appointed Hyde-Smith to Congress earlier this year — after accepting an endorsement from the National Right to Life Committee.“I put out a statement yesterday, and that’s all I’m gonna say about it,” Hyde-Smith said when asked by reporters if she was familiar with the history of hangings in Mississippi. She was also asked if the phrasing was in her everyday vocabulary and to specify why the remark should not be viewed with a negative connotation."If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd be on the front row"- Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith says in Tupelo, MS after Colin Hutchinson, cattle rancher, praises her. Hyde-Smith is in a runoff on Nov 27th against Mike Espy. pic.twitter.com/0a9jOEjokr— Lamar White, Jr. (@LamarWhiteJr) November 11, 2018
Unable to get an answer from Hyde-Smith, reporters turned to Bryant for answers.“I can tell you all of us in public life have said things that we could’ve phrased better,” Bryant said, adding, “I know this woman, and I know her heart, and I knew that when I appointed her, and I know it now. She meant no offense by that statement.”Hyde-Smith, who has been endorsed by Trump, became the first woman to represent Mississippi in Congress in April after she was appointed to replace Republican Sen. Thad Cochran, who stepped down because of health problems.She faces Democrat Mike Espy in a Nov. 27 runoff to determine who will serve the remaining two years of Cochran’s term. Neither candidate was able to win more than 50 percent of the vote in the Nov. 6 special election.Espy and Hyde-Smith had the top two vote tallies, each receiving about 41 percent. If Espy were to win, he would be become the first black senator to represent the state since the Reconstruction era. Espy served three terms in the House of Representatives, from 1987 to 1993.Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant appointed state Agriculture and Commerce Commissioner Cindy Hyde-Smith to the Senate on March 21. (WDAM 7)In a statement Sunday, Espy called Hyde-Smith’s comments “reprehensible.” He added, “They have no place in our political discourse, in Mississippi, or our country. We need leaders, not dividers, and her words show that she lacks the understanding and judgment to represent the people of our state.”Many critics of Hyde-Smith’s comment noted the history of racism and hangings in the state. Statistics from the NAACP show that nearly one-eighth of the 4,743 lynchings between 1882 and 1968 that occurred in the United States took place in Mississippi.“Hyde-Smith’s decision to joke about ‘hanging,’ when the history of African-Americans is marred by countless incidents of this barbarous act, is sick,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said in a statement Sunday. “Any politician seeking to serve as a national voice of the people of Mississippi should know better.”The next US Senator from Mississippi will be chosen in a runoff election between Mike Espy and Cindy Hyde-Smith. Saying positive things about public hangings while running against a black candidate in the South is certainly an interesting tactic. https://t.co/FtpfRIsbZk— Sean Carroll (@seanmcarroll) November 11, 2018
Whatever her intention, Hyde-Smith’s joke amounts to this: “We are not the kind of people who are hanged. We are the kind of people who do the hanging.”— Angus Johnston (@studentactivism) November 11, 2018
Hold up. Hold up. Stop EVERYTHING.A sitting United States Senator, IN MISSISSIPPI just said “If he invited me to a public hanging I’d be on the front row.”REALLY?She just said this in the heart of lynching country. SHE’S RUNNING AGAINST A BLACK MAN!Unthinkable. https://t.co/UTfKiVsF0P— Shaun King (@shaunking) November 11, 2018
Cristen Hemmins, chairwoman of the Lafayette County Democrats in Mississippi, said the video was “absolutely stunning.”“With the history of lynching of Mississippi, you just don’t say something like that,” Hemmins said in an interview Sunday. “I can’t even imagine the kind of mind that would come up with a throwaway phrase like that. I’m a Mississippian. Nobody I know talks like that. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”Hyde-Smith of Brookhaven is a former Democratic state senator and agriculture commissioner. In 2010, she switched to the Republican Party, according to the Clarion Ledger. Last week, she vowed to keep pushing Trump’s agenda, asserting “Republicans are going to keep this seat” and that she would “fight like nobody’s business the next three weeks.”Trump has been vocal in his support for Hyde-Smith, tweeting in August that she is “strong” on issues such as job creation and his proposed wall on the southern border to help him “put America First!”He added, “Cindy has voted for our Agenda in the Senate 100% of the time and has my complete and total Endorsement. We need Cindy to win in Mississippi!”“She’s always had my back,” he said. “She’s always had your back, and a vote for Cindy is a vote for me.”Republicans are expected to gain seats in the Senate. The majority they held before the election, 51 seats, could rise to as high as 54 depending on races in Florida, Arizona, and Mississippi.Read more: | 0 |
WASHINGTON — Longtime Republican campaign adviser Roger Stone, a friend of President Donald Trump's, was sentenced to three years, four months in federal prison Thursday for obstructing a congressional investigation of Russia's 2016 presidential election meddling."He was not prosecuted, as some have complained, for standing up for the president. He was prosecuted for covering up for the president," U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said before she handed down her sentence of 40 months, a $20,000 fine, two years of probation and 250 hours of community service.Trump has called Stone's prosecution a "disgrace," but Jackson disagreed. "There was nothing unfair, phony or disgraceful about the investigation or the prosecution," she said."At his core, Mr. Stone is an insecure person who craves and recklessly pursues attention. Nothing about this case was a joke. It wasn't funny," the judge said.Stone showed no emotion while the sentence was read, almost appearing bored. He stared with his hands in his pockets and continually rocked on his heels, but he smiled outside the Washington courthouse as he left.Stone will not have to report to prison until the judge acts on a defense motion for a new trial based on a claim of juror bias.Asked by Jackson whether he had any statement to make before she handed down her sentence, Stone declined.Download the NBC News app for breaking news and politicsStone's sentence would likely end the career of one of the most controversial and colorful political operatives in American history — a self-described "agent provocateur" who spent a career in the shadows of Republican politics before helping to engineer Trump's election. As depicted in the Netflix documentary "Get Me Roger Stone," he saw Trump's potential as a presidential candidate earlier than most.Stone's attorneys argued that his history in politics, his declining health at age 67 and the low likelihood that he would ever commit another crime called for probation or, at most, home confinement. Federal prosecutors at first recommended a sentence of seven to nine years, but Attorney General William Barr directed Justice Department lawyers to submit a new court filing suggesting that three to four years would be more appropriate.In court, however, prosecutor John Crabb, who'd signed the memo asking for a lighter sentence, advocated for the higher sentencing guidelines in the original recommendation. He also apologized to the judge for any confusion caused by the dueling memos.Crabb said the confusion was not caused by the original trial team, which, he said, had authorization from the U.S. attorney for Washington to file the original sentencing memo. He said the issue was miscommunication between Barr and the U.S. attorney's office in Washington."DOJ and the U.S. attorney's office is committed to enforcing the law without fear, favor or political influence," Crabb said.Trump has lambasted the original prosecutors for unfairly targeting Stone, calling their conduct "disgusting."Jackson defended the four, who resigned from the case after their sentencing recommendation was overridden."Any suggestion that the prosecutors in this case did anything untoward or unethical is incorrect," Jackson said. While she disagreed with its recommended sentence, Jackson said "the government's initial memorandum was thorough, well-researched and supported" by the record.Trump said Tuesday that Stone "was not involved in our campaign at all," but in August 2015, when he was a candidate, Trump said "I terminated Roger Stone" as a campaign adviser, calling him a publicity seeker. But Stone remained in close contact with the campaign and purported to have an inside track on what WikiLeaks was planning.We apologize, this video has expired.The FBI arrested Stone in January 2019 on charges that he misled the Republican-led House Intelligence Committee in 2017 about his efforts to learn of plans by WikiLeaks to release emails hacked from the Democratic Party and Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign. A federal jury in November found Stone guilty of lying to Congress by falsely claiming that he never asked anyone to contact WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange about the emails and that he never spoke to anyone in the Trump campaign about the efforts. Prosecutors said Stone asked a radio talk show host, Randy Credico, to contact Assange and pass messages back and forth.Former Trump advisers Steve Bannon and Rick Gates testified that Stone was keeping the campaign apprised of his WikiLeaks efforts, and phone records showed that Stone talked to Trump shortly after the Democratic National Committee announced that it had been hacked.Stone was also accused of urging Credico to lie to Congress about those contacts by emulating a character from "The Godfather: Part II." In the movie, Frank Pentangeli is called to testify before a congressional committee investigating organized crime and is expected to implicate Michael Corleone. But when Corleone enters the hearing room along with Pentangeli's brother, he claims to know nothing about the mob boss.Stone was never charged with doing anything illegal during the campaign. Instead, the charges were based on his efforts to cover up what he did and to intimidate Credico into doing the same.While awaiting trial, Stone repeatedly violated the judge's order not to make public statements about the case. Shortly after he was charged, he posted a photo of the judge on social media with what appeared to be the crosshairs of a gun sight next to her head.The details of the defense motion for a new trial have not been disclosed, but Stone's supporters have said it is based on comments made by the jury forewoman, Tomeka Hart. When the four career prosecutors took themselves off the case, she said on social media: "It pains me to see the DOJ now interfere with the hard work of the prosecutors."Hart ran for Congress in Tennessee as a Democrat in 2012, a fact she disclosed during jury selection. Asked by Jackson whether she could fairly evaluate the evidence, she said yes, and Stone's attorneys did not seek to have her removed from the jury pool. But Stone's supporters said she posted comments critical of Trump before jurors were summoned for the selection process.Trump tweeted last week: "Now it looks like the fore person in the jury, in the Roger Stone case, had significant bias." At the sentencing, the judge said the jurors "served with integrity."Stone's friend Kristin Davis, a former madam who ran for governor of New York in 2013, told NBC News in a text message: "It's rather odd to me to pronounce sentence before we have ascertained the integrity of the trial." She also claimed that there had been "serious undisputed juror misconduct here," apparently referring to Hart's political views."It falls on President Trump to use the power of a pardon as the final means of checks and balances to right this horrible wrong," she said.Trump said Tuesday that he hadn't thought about pardoning Stone. Ahead of the sentencing Thursday, however, he retweeted video of Fox News host Tucker Carlson calling for him to pardon Stone.After the sentencing, Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tweeted, "It should go without saying, but to pardon Stone when his crimes were committed to protect Trump would be a breathtaking act of corruption."For more than four decades, Stone was a political consultant known for aggressively pursuing and using opposition research. He once co-owned a lobbying firm with Paul Manafort, the former Trump campaign chairman who is serving a 7½-year prison sentence for financial crimes stemming from his lobbying work on behalf of the Ukrainian government.As the sentencing was underway Thursday, Trump questioned on Twitter why Stone would get prison time while also questioning why Clinton and former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe would walk free. | 0 |
During a speech in Massachusetts on Thursday, President Obama addressed the continued protests and clashes in Ferguson, Mo., following the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. (The Associated Press) President Obama on Thursday escalated the federal response to the violent protests in Missouri over the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager as state officials tried to de-escalate the crisis, bringing in the highway patrol to take over security from local police. . Speaking from Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., where he is on vacation, Obama called for national unity and healing following the police shooting Saturday of Michael Brown, 18, in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson. Obama said many Americans “have been deeply disturbed” by images of clashes between police and protesters, and he called for a thorough investigation “to see that justice is done.’’ Soon after, his attorney general, Eric H. Holder Jr., issued a statement saying he was “deeply concerned” about “the deployment of military equipment and vehicles” to combat protesters in Ferguson. He said that a federal civil rights probe of the incident is escalating, with investigators having already interviewed eyewitnesses on the scene, and that Missouri officials have accepted federal assistance “to conduct crowd control and maintain public safety without relying on unnecessarily extreme displays of force.’’ Obama’s remarks, his most comprehensive on the shooting to date, were the latest and most visible step in a rapid coalescence among political and community leaders to tamp down the violence and find ways to prevent it while multiple investigations of the tragedy move forward. In a sudden burst of interest fueled by images of heavily armed police that swirled on social media, politicians from both sides of the aisle rushed on Thursday — five days after the shooting — to condemn the tactics of the nearly all-white police force in the predominantly African American town. The reactions were remarkably similar from political opposites across the spectrum. Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.), for example, called for authorities to “de-militarize this situation,’’ while Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), a likely Republican presidential candidate, condemned “the militarization of our law enforcement’’ in a Time magazine essay. The increased concern also extended to state officials, with Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon (D) announcing that the state highway patrol would supervise security operations promising changes in the law enforcement approach in Ferguson, where days of anger over Brown’s death have been met by a forceful presence from St. Louis county and Ferguson police. Local forces will still be working on the ground, Nixon said, but the highway patrol “will be the lead agency.” “I think you all will see a different tone,’’ Nixon said during an appearance at a chuch in Florissant. Obama addressed the issue after a fourth night of clashes between police and residents in Ferguson. The fatal shooting by police of Brown there has evolved into a national debate over justice in African American communities. “There is never an excuse for violence against police or for those who would use this tragedy as a cover for vandalism or looting,” Obama said, before adding:“There is also no excuse for police to use excessive force against peaceful protests or to throw protesters in jail for lawfully exercising their First Amendment rights. And here in the United States of America, police should not be arresting or bullying journalists who are just trying to do their jobs.” Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery was detained by police on Wednesday while reporting on the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., following the fatal shooting of unarmed teen Michael Brown by police over the weekend. (The Washington Post) According to a friend who says he witnessed the incident, Brown was walking down a Ferguson street when a police officer in a car ordered him to get on the sidewalk. Brown had his hands in the air to show he was unarmed when the officer shot him multiple times, the friend said. The police version is that Brown attacked the officer in his car and tried to grab his gun. Obama attended a birthday party in Martha’s Vineyard for a friend Wednesday during the latest unrest. Police fired tear gas at protesters, and two reporters, including one from The Washington Post, were arrested while covering the events. In concluding his remarks about Ferguson on Thursday, Obama said that while “emotions are raw right now” in the suburb and accounts of the tragedy differ, “let’s remember that we’re all part of one American family.” “Now is the time for healing,” Obama said. “Now is the time for peace and calm on the streets of Ferguson. Now is the time for an open and transparent process to see that justice is done. And I’ve asked the attorney general and the U.S. attorney on the scene to continue to work with local officials to move that process forward.” Obama did not take questions from reporters after his remarks. The Justice Department’s civil rights division, along with the U.S. attorney’s office in St. Louis and the local FBI field office, are investigating the shooting in a parallel probe to the state investigation. Holder, who met with Obama on Thursday to discuss the case, said: “Our review will take time to conduct, but it will be thorough and fair.” The Ferguson police department bears little demographic resemblance to the mostly African American community, where residents harbored suspicions of law enforcement long before the shooting. In a one-paragraph written statement Tuesday, Obama called Brown’s death “heartbreaking.” He urged Ferguson and communities across the country to “remember this young man through reflection and understanding,” adding, “We should comfort each other and talk with one another in a way that heals, not in a way that wounds.” Before Obama spoke Thursday, Ferguson Mayor James Knowles said in an interview on CNN that the arrest of the two reporters Wednesday night “appeared regrettable.” He added, “We will make sure that reporters are treated in a proper fashion.” Knowles also said that the release of names of police officers by the group Anonymous has jeopardized their safety. “None of those officers have anything to do with what went on,” he said. “Anybody now who’s named is absolutely in danger.” In a midday news conference, Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson sought to explain the arrest of peaceful protesters, saying that police could not distinguish them when moving against crowds involved in violence or vandalism. “It’s a crowd,” Jackson said. “If the crowd is getting violent, and you don’t want to be violent, get out of the crowd.” He said that “journalists are not a target” for the police and that he did not know why the two reporters were arrested Wednesday night. Asked if he was concerned about the “militaristic” image that the local police have presented, Jackson said: “The whole picture is being painted a little bit sideways from what’s really happening. It’s not military. It’s tactical operations. It’s SWAT teams. That’s who’s out there: police. We’re doing this in blue.” David Nakamura contributed to this report. | 0 |
“We can NEVER allow Open Borders!” President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday. | Jacquelyn Martin/AP Photo President Donald Trump warned Saturday of “traffic & commercial delays” along the southern border as a result of the administration’s decision earlier this week to ramp up the number of immigration officers processing Central American migrants attempting to enter the U.S. through Mexico. “We have redeployed 750 agents at the Southern Border’s specific Ports of Entry in order to help with the large scale surge of illegal migrants trying to make their way into the United States,” the president wrote on Twitter. “This will cause traffic & commercial delays until such time as Mexico is able to use … it’s [sic] powerful common sense Immigration Laws to stop illegals from coming through Mexico into the U.S., and removing them back to their country of origin,” Trump continued. “Until Mexico cleans up this ridiculous & massive migration, we will be focusing on Border Security, not Ports of Entry.”
In another post, the president implored congressional Democrats to join with Republican lawmakers and legislate fixes to “the horrible, costly and foolish loopholes” in U.S. immigration statutes. “Once that happens, all will be smooth,” Trump tweeted. “We can NEVER allow Open Borders!”Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen on Monday directed Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan to hasten the “temporary reassignment of personnel and resources from across the agency to address the influx of migrants.” She also announced plans to require that greater numbers of non-Mexican asylum-seekers stay in Mexico while they wait for their cases to be resolved.
Trump on Thursday retreated from his earlier threat to shut down the southern border, saying he would first impose auto tariffs on Mexico in an attempt to curb the rate of illegal drugs entering the U.S. “Before we close the border, we‘ll put the tariffs on the cars,“ the president told reporters in the Oval Office. “I don‘t think we‘ll ever have to close the border.“ | 0 |
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection voted unanimously to hold former White House aide Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress after the longtime ally of former President Donald Trump defied a subpoena for documents and testimony. Still defending his supporters who broke into the Capitol that day, Trump has aggressively tried to block the committee’s work by directing Bannon and others not to answer questions in the probe. Trump has also filed a lawsuit to try to prevent Congress from obtaining former White House documents. But lawmakers have made clear they will not back down as they gather facts and testimony about the attack involving Trump’s supporters that left dozens of police officers injured, sent lawmakers running for their lives and interrupted the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.The committee’s chairman, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said Tuesday that Bannon “stands alone in his complete defiance of our subpoena” and the panel will not take no for an answer. He said that while Bannon may be “willing to be a martyr to the disgraceful cause of whitewashing what happened on January 6th — of demonstrating his complete loyalty to the former president,” the contempt vote is a warning to other witnesses.“We won’t be deterred. We won’t be distracted. And we won’t be delayed,” Thompson said.The Tuesday evening vote sends the contempt resolution to the full House, which is expected to vote on the measure Thursday. House approval would send the matter to the Justice Department, which would then decide whether to pursue criminal charges against Bannon. The contempt resolution asserts that the former Trump aide and podcast host has no legal standing to rebuff the committee — even as Trump’s lawyer has argued that Bannon should not disclose information because it is protected by the privilege of the former president’s office. The committee noted that Bannon, fired from his White House job in 2017, was a private citizen when he spoke to Trump ahead of the attack. And Trump has not asserted any such executive privilege claims to the panel itself, lawmakers said. Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney — one of just two Republicans on the committee, and a rare GOP critic of Trump — said Bannon and Trump’s privilege arguments suggest the former president was “personally involved” in the planning and execution of the day’s events. “We will get to the bottom of that,” Cheney said. The committee says it is pursuing Bannon’s testimony because of his reported communications with Trump ahead of the siege, his efforts to get the former president to focus on the congressional certification of the vote Jan. 6 and his comments on Jan. 5 that “all hell is going to break loose” the next day. Bannon “appears to have had multiple roles relevant to this investigation, including his role in constructing and participating in the ‘stop the steal’ public relations effort that motivated the attack” and “his efforts to plan political and other activity in advance of January 6th,” the committee wrote in the resolution recommending contempt.The Biden White House has also rejected Bannon’s claims, with Deputy Counsel Jonathan Su writing Bannon’s lawyer this week to say that “at this point we are not aware of any basis for your client’s refusal to appear for a deposition.” Biden’s judgment that executive privilege is not justified, Su wrote, “applies to your client’s deposition testimony and to any documents your client may possess.” Asked last week if the Justice Department should prosecute those who refuse to testify, Biden said yes. But the Justice Department quickly pushed back, with a spokesman saying the department would make its own decisions. While Bannon has said he needs a court order before complying with his subpoena, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and former White House and Pentagon aide Kashyap Patel have been negotiating with the committee. The panel has also subpoenaed more than a dozen people who helped plan Trump rallies ahead of the siege, and some of them are already turning over documents and giving testimony.Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin said all the other witnesses who were subpoenaed are “either complying or acting in good faith as opposed to just blowing us off,” as Bannon has. The committee is also conducting voluntary closed-door interviews with other witnesses who have come forward or immediately complied with their requests. For some of the witnesses, Raskin said, “it’s a privilege and really an opportunity for them to begin to make amends, if they were involved in these events.” Some of them “feel terrible about the role they played,” he said. Still, there could be more contempt votes to come. “I won’t go into details in terms of the back and forth, but I’ll just say our patience is not infinite,” said Illinois Rep. Adam Kinzinger, the panel’s other Republican, about some of the witness negotiations. The vote came a day after Trump sued the committee and the National Archives to fight the release of documents the committee has requested. Trump’s lawsuit, filed after Biden said he’d allow the documents’ release, claims that the panel’s August request was overly broad and a “vexatious, illegal fishing expedition.” Trump’s suit seeks to invalidate the entirety of the congressional request, calling it overly broad, unduly burdensome and a challenge to separation of powers. It requests a court injunction to bar the archivist from producing the documents. The Biden administration, in clearing the documents for release, said the violent siege of the Capitol more than nine months ago was such an extraordinary circumstance that it merited waiving the privilege that usually protects White House communications.___Associated Press writers Jill Colvin, Colleen Long, Zeke Miller, Nomaan Merchant and Eric Tucker contributed to this report. | 0 |
During a trip to Israel, Rep. Kevin Yoder disrobed and jumped into the Sea of Galilee. | AP Photos The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff — and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses. During a fact-finding congressional trip to the Holy Land last summer, Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) took off his clothes and jumped into the sea, joining a number of members, their families and GOP staff during a night out in Israel, the sources told POLITICO. Other participants, including the daughter of another congressman, swam fully clothed, while some lawmakers partially disrobed. More than 20 people took part in the late-night dip in the sea, according to sources who were participants in the trip. ( PHOTOS: Israel swim participants) “A year ago, my wife, Brooke, and I joined colleagues for dinner at the Sea of Galilee in Israel. After dinner I followed some Members of Congress in a spontaneous and very brief dive into the sea and regrettably I jumped into the water without a swimsuit,” Yoder said in a statement to POLITICO. “It is my greatest honor to represent the people of Kansas in Congress and [for] any embarrassment I have caused for my colleagues and constituents, I apologize.” Travis Smith, Yoder’s chief of staff, told POLITICO “Neither Congressman Yoder, nor his staff, have been interviewed by the FBI.” These GOP sources confirmed the following freshmen lawmakers also went swimming that night: Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) and his daughter; Rep. Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) and his wife; Reps. Ben Quayle (R-Ariz.), Jeff Denham (R-Calif.) and Michael Grimm (R-N.Y.). Many of the lawmakers who ventured into the lake said they did so because of the religious significance of the waters. Others said they were simply cooling off after a long day. Several privately admitted that alcohol may have played a role in why some of those present decided to jump in. ( PHOTOS: When congressmen go wild) The Sea of Galilee, a Christian holy site, is where Jesus is said in the Bible to have walked on water. The FBI looked into whether any inappropriate behavior occurred, but the interviews do not appear to have resulted in any formal allegations of wrongdoing. But Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.), who was the senior most GOP lawmaker in Israel on the trip, was so upset about the antics that he rebuked the 30 lawmakers the morning after the Aug. 18, 2011, incident, saying they were distracting from the mission of the trip. Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) was also on the privately funded excursion, which means two of the three top House Republicans were a part of this trip. Neither Cantor nor McCarthy went swimming that night, the sources said. Some of their staff did. The account of that August 2011 night in Israel was pieced together for the first time by POLITICO based on interviews with more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses, as well as public records of the trip. A Cantor spokesman confirmed that the majority leader dressed down his Republican colleagues and that a staffer was later interviewed by FBI agents. “Twelve months ago, [Cantor] dealt with this immediately and effectively to ensure such activities would not take place in the future,” said Doug Heye, Cantor’s deputy chief of staff. Heye added: “Last year, a staffer was contacted by the Bureau [FBI], which had several questions, the staffer answered those questions and that appears to have been the end of it.” The FBI’s questions focused on who went into the water that night, and whether there was any impropriety, according to multiple sources. The American Israel Educational Foundation, a group related to AIPAC, the prominent pro-Israel advocacy group, sponsored the trip, which ran from Aug. 13 to Aug. 21, 2011. The trip cost AIEF upwards of $10,000 per person, according to records filed with the House Ethics Committee. More than 60 people took part in this AIEF trip. These trips to the Holy Land are a rite of passage for members of Congress, as they visit the most sacred sites in the Jewish and Christian faiths – while their Israeli government hosts drive home the huge importance of U.S. support of Israel. That’s partially why, when the trip devolved into drinking and merrymaking, Cantor was livid. In a Congress that has already sunk to new lows in public-opinion polls, and seen a bipartisan wave of scandals, this latest controversy could only further damage that image. Since the start of the 112th Congress, former Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) resigned following the revelation that he was sending naked pictures of himself to women he met on the Internet. Former Rep. Christopher Lee (R-N.Y.) quickly left office after he was caught sending a topless photo of himself to an online acquaintance. Former Rep. David Wu (D-Ore.) stepped down after an “unwanted” sexual encounter with the daughter of a longtime friend. Former Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.) resigned after having an extramarital affair with the wife of an aide and then trying to cover it up. On the Israel trip that included the late night swim, the group of lawmakers on Aug. 18 departed the posh David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem for Tiberias, a historic seaside town located on the banks of the Sea of Galilee. On the night in question, the GOP group checked into Scots Hotel, where rooms could run up to $1,000 each night. At 8:45 p.m., they headed to Decks, a popular restaurant located on the sea, according to an itinerary filed with the House Ethics Committee. As dinner was winding down, Cantor and McCarthy left the restaurant, but the most of the other lawmakers and staff stayed behind, and the drinking continued, according to several sources who attended the dinner. After what they describe as a “long, hot day,” more than 20 lawmakers and senior aides decided to jump into the sea, sources said. Some went in wearing all their clothes, although others partially undressed. Yoder removed all his clothes, the only person to do so, according to multiple sources. Senior aides also jumped into the Sea of Galilee. They included Steve Stombres, Cantor’s chief of staff; Tim Berry, McCarthy’s chief of staff; Laena Fallon, Cantor’s former communications director and Emily Murray, McCarthy’s top health care aide. Kristi Way, a top Cantor staffer, was also on the trip. Few offices responded to requests for on-the-record comment about the incident. However, numerous Republicans discussed what occurred on the condition of anonymity. Some of those present took photographs of the group right after the late-night swim, sources said. After the lawmakers and staff returned to the United States, FBI agents questioned congressional staff about the trip, specifically about what happened in Tiberias. The FBI declined to comment on its probe, saying its standard policy was not to comment on such matters. Patrick Dorton, a spokesman for AIEF, defended the group’s trip to Israel, saying it was substantive and rigorous. “As part of the trip, and after of day of meetings including with the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, and briefings on Hezbollah and the border with Lebanon, trip participants traveled to the shore of the Sea of Galilee,” Dorton said in an emailed statement. “This location made it possible to visit a series of Christian holy sites the next day. After dinner that evening, some in the group went swimming in the biblically significant sea. While AIEF has not been contacted by any government agency, we would certainly be willing to answer any questions or respond to any government inquiry on this event or the overall trip.” The AIEF trips to Israel are a fixture of Washington. Both staff and lawmakers travel with the group to the Holy Land, and schedules are filled with boldfaced names. On this trip, lawmakers met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in his office and huddled with his top aide Ron Dermer over dinner at 28 King David, a posh banquet facility in Jerusalem. They ate breakfast separately with the Washington-based Israeli ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, and Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat. Israeli President Shimon Peres had the group gathered at his residence, and later that day, they met with Tzipi Livni, the opposition leader. Dan Shapiro, the American ambassador to Israel, had the large group to his home in Herzliya for dinner. On the day of the swimming incident, they met with Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority prime minister, according to the itinerary filed with the House. CORRECTION: The Sea of Galilee is a lake. An earlier version of this story mischaracterized it. | 0 |
Wounded passengers are treated following a suicide bombing at the Brussels Airport on March 22, 2016. The attacks on the airport and a subway killed 32 people and wounded more than 300. ISIS claims its "fighters" launched the attacks in the Belgian capital.Syrians gather at the site of a double car bomb attack in the Al-Zahraa neighborhood of the Homs, Syria, on February 21, 2016. Multiple attacks in Homs and southern Damascus kill at least 122 and injure scores, according to the state-run SANA news agency. ISIS claimed responsibility.Syrian pro-government forces gather at the site of a deadly triple bombing Sunday, January 31, in the Damascus suburb of Sayeda Zeynab. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to a statement circulating online from supporters of the terrorist group.Wounded people are helped outside the Bataclan concert hall in Paris following a series of coordinated attacks in the city on Friday, November 13. The militant group ISIS claimed responsibility for the attacks, which killed at least 130 people and wounded hundreds more.Emergency personnel and civilians gather at the site of a twin suicide bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, on Thursday, November 12. The bombings killed at least 43 people and wounded more than 200 more. ISIS appeared to claim responsibility in a statement posted on social media.Smoke rises over the northern Iraqi town of Sinjar on November 12. Kurdish Iraqi fighters, backed by a U.S.-led air campaign, retook the strategic town, which ISIS militants overran last year. ISIS wants to create an Islamic state across Sunni areas of Iraq and Syria.Syrian government troops walk inside the Kweiras air base on Wednesday, November 11, after they broke a siege imposed by ISIS militants.Members of the Egyptian military approach the wreckage of a Russian passenger plane Sunday, November 1, in Hassana, Egypt. The plane crashed the day before, killing all 224 people on board. ISIS claimed responsibility for downing the plane, but the group's claim wasn't immediately verified.An explosion rocks Kobani, Syria, during a reported car bomb attack by ISIS militants on Tuesday, October 20.Shiite fighters, fighting alongside Iraqi government forces, fire a rocket at ISIS militants as they advance toward the center of Baiji, Iraq, on Monday, October 19.Smoke rises above a damaged building in Ramadi, Iraq, following a coalition airstrike against ISIS positions on Saturday, August 15.Iraqi men look at damage following a bomb explosion that targeted a vegetable market in Baghdad on Thursday, August 13. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. In this image taken from social media, an ISIS fighter holds the group's flag after the militant group overran the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn on Thursday, August 6, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. ISIS uses modern tools such as social media to promote reactionary politics and religious fundamentalism. Fighters are destroying holy sites and valuable antiquities even as their leaders propagate a return to the early days of Islam. An ISIS fighter poses with spoils purportedly taken after capturing the Syrian town of al-Qaryatayn.Smoke rises as Iraqi security forces bomb ISIS positions in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi, Iraq, on August 6.Buildings reduced to piles of debris can be seen in the eastern suburbs of Ramadi on August 6.The governor of the Asir region in Saudi Arabia, Prince Faisal bin Khaled bin Abdulaziz, left, visits a man who was wounded in a suicide bombing attack on a mosque in Abha, Saudi Arabia, on August 6. ISIS claimed responsibility for the explosion, which killed at least 13 people and injured nine others.Saudi officials and investigators check the inside of the mosque on August 6.Mourners in Gaziantep, Turkey, grieve over a coffin Tuesday, July 21, during a funeral ceremony for the victims of a suspected ISIS suicide bomb attack. That bombing killed at least 31 people in Suruc, a Turkish town that borders Syria. Turkish authorities blamed ISIS for the attack.Protesters in Istanbul carry anti-ISIS banners and flags to show support for victims of the Suruc suicide blast during a demonstration on Monday, July 20.People in Ashmoun, Egypt, carry the coffin for 1st Lt. Mohammed Ashraf, who was killed when the ISIS militant group attacked Egyptian military checkpoints on Wednesday, July 1. At least 17 soldiers were reportedly killed, and 30 were injured.Syrians wait near the Turkish border during clashes between ISIS and Kurdish armed groups in Kobani, Syria, on Thursday, June 25. The photo was taken in Sanliurfa, Turkey. ISIS militants disguised as Kurdish security forces infiltrated Kobani on Thursday and killed "many civilians," said a spokesman for the Kurds in Kobani.Residents examine a damaged mosque after an Iraqi Air Force bombing in the ISIS-seized city of Falluja, Iraq, on Sunday, May 31. At least six were killed and nine others wounded during the bombing.People search through debris after an explosion at a Shiite mosque in Qatif, Saudi Arabia, on Friday, May 22. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, according to tweets from ISIS supporters, which included a formal statement from ISIS detailing the operation.Iraqi soldiers fire their weapons toward ISIS group positions in the Garma district, west of the Iraqi capital of Baghdad, on Sunday, April 26. Pro-government forces said they had recently made advances on areas held by Islamist jihadists.A member of Afghanistan's security forces stands at the site where a suicide bomber on a motorbike blew himself up in front of the Kabul Bank in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on Saturday, April 18. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. The explosion killed at least 33 people and injured more than 100 others, a public health spokesman said.Iraqi counterterrorism forces patrol in Ramadi on April 18.Thousands of Iraqis cross a bridge over the Euphrates River to Baghdad as they flee Ramadi on Friday, April 17.Yazidis embrace after being released by ISIS south of Kirkuk, Iraq, on Wednesday, April 8. ISIS released more than 200 Yazidis, a minority group whose members were killed, captured and displaced when the Islamist terror organization overtook their towns in northern Iraq last summer, officials said.Kurdish Peshmerga forces help Yazidis as they arrive at a medical center in Altun Kupri, Iraq, on April 8.A Yazidi woman mourns for the death of her husband and children by ISIS after being released south of Kirkuk on April 8. ISIS is known for killing dozens of people at a time and carrying out public executions, crucifixions and other acts. People in Tikrit inspect what used to be a palace of former President Saddam Hussein on April 3.On April 1, Shiite militiamen celebrate the retaking of Tikrit, which had been under ISIS control since June. The push into Tikrit came days after U.S.-led airstrikes targeted ISIS bases around the city.Iraqi security forces launch a rocket against ISIS positions in Tikrit on Monday, March 30.The parents of 19-year-old Mohammed Musallam react at the family's home in the East Jerusalem Jewish settlement of Neve Yaakov on Tuesday, March 10. ISIS released a video purportedly showing a young boy executing Musallam, an Israeli citizen of Palestinian descent who ISIS claimed infiltrated the group in Syria to spy for the Jewish state. Musallam's family told CNN that he had no ties with the Mossad, Israel's spy agency, and had, in fact, been recruited by ISIS.Iraqi Shiite fighters cover their ears as a rocket is launched during a clash with ISIS militants in the town of Al-Alam, Iraq, on Monday, March 9.Displaced Assyrian women who fled their homes due to ISIS attacks pray at a church on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria, on Sunday, March 1. ISIS militants abducted at least 220 Assyrians in Syria. Safi al-Kasasbeh, right, receives condolences from tribal leaders at his home village near Karak, Jordan, on Wednesday, February 4. Al-Kasasbeh's son, Jordanian pilot Moath al-Kasasbeh, was burned alive in a video that was recently released by ISIS militants. Jordan is one of a handful of Middle Eastern nations taking part in the U.S.-led military coalition against ISIS.A Kurdish marksman looks over a destroyed area of Kobani on Friday, January 30, after the city had been liberated from the ISIS militant group. The Syrian city, also known as Ayn al-Arab, had been under assault by ISIS since mid-September.Kurdish people celebrate in Suruc, Turkey, near the Turkish-Syrian border, after ISIS militants were expelled from Kobani on Tuesday, January 27.Collapsed buildings are seen in Kobani on January 27 after Kurdish forces took control of the town from ISIS.Junko Ishido, mother of Japanese journalist Kenji Goto, reacts during a news conference in Tokyo on Friday, January 23. ISIS would later kill Goto and another Japanese hostage, Haruna Yukawa.ISIS militants are seen through a rifle's scope during clashes with Peshmerga fighters in Mosul, Iraq, on Wednesday, January 21.An elderly Yazidi man arrives in Kirkuk after being released by ISIS on Saturday, January 17. The militant group released about 200 Yazidis who were held captive for five months in Iraq. Almost all of the freed prisoners were in poor health and bore signs of abuse and neglect, Kurdish officials said.Smoke billows behind an ISIS sign during an Iraqi military operation to regain control of the town of Sadiyah, about 95 kilometers (60 miles) north of Baghdad, on Tuesday, November 25.Fighters from the Free Syrian Army and the Kurdish People's Protection Units join forces to fight ISIS in Kobani on Wednesday, November 19.A picture taken from Turkey shows smoke rising after ISIS militants fired mortar shells toward an area controlled by Syrian Kurdish fighters near Kobani on Monday, November 3.Iraqi special forces search a house in Jurf al-Sakhar, Iraq, on Thursday, October 30, after retaking the area from ISIS.ISIS militants stand near the site of an airstrike near the Turkey-Syria border on Thursday, October 23. The United States and several Arab nations have been bombing ISIS targets in Syria to take out the militant group's ability to command, train and resupply its fighters.Kurdish fighters walk to positions as they combat ISIS forces in Kobani on Sunday, October 19.Heavy smoke rises in Kobani following an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition on October 18.Cundi Minaz, a female Kurdish fighter, is buried in a cemetery in the southeastern Turkish town of Suruc on Tuesday, October 14. Minaz was reportedly killed during clashes with ISIS militants in nearby Kobani.Kiymet Ergun, a Syrian Kurd, celebrates in Mursitpinar, Turkey, after an airstrike by the U.S.-led coalition in Kobani on Monday, October 13.Alleged ISIS militants stand next to an ISIS flag atop a hill in Kobani on Monday, October 6. A Kurdish Peshmerga soldier who was wounded in a battle with ISIS is wheeled to the Zakho Emergency Hospital in Duhuk, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 30.Syrian Kurds wait near a border crossing in Suruc as they wait to return to their homes in Kobani on Sunday, September 28.A elderly man is carried after crossing the Syria-Turkey border near Suruc on Saturday, September 20.A Kurdish Peshmerga fighter launches mortar shells toward ISIS militants in Zumar, Iraq, on Monday, September 15.Kurdish Peshmerga fighters fire at ISIS militant positions from their position on the top of Mount Zardak, east of Mosul, Iraq, on Tuesday, September 9. Displaced Iraqis receive clothes from a charity at a refugee camp near Feeshkhabour, Iraq, on Tuesday, August 19.Aziza Hamid, a 15-year-old Iraqi girl, cries for her father while she and some other Yazidi people are flown to safety Monday, August 11, after a dramatic rescue operation at Iraq's Mount Sinjar. A CNN crew was on the flight, which took diapers, milk, water and food to the site where as many as 70,000 people were trapped by ISIS. But only a few of them were able to fly back on the helicopter with the Iraqi Air Force and Kurdish Peshmerga fighters.Thousands of Yazidis are escorted to safety by Kurdish Peshmerga forces and a People's Protection Unit in Mosul on Saturday, August 9.Thousands of Yazidi and Christian people flee Mosul on Wednesday, August 6, after the latest wave of ISIS advances.A Baiji oil refinery burns after an alleged ISIS attack in northern Selahaddin, Iraq, on Thursday, July 31.A Syrian rebel fighter lies on a stretcher at a makeshift hospital in Douma, Syria, on Wednesday, July 9. He was reportedly injured while fighting ISIS militants.Children stand next to a burnt vehicle during clashes between Iraqi security forces and ISIS militants in Mosul on Tuesday, June 10. | 0 |
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted the framework agreement reached by world powers to curb Iran's nuclear program, repeatedly calling it a "free path to a bomb" that will spark an arms race in the Middle East.Under the framework announced last week, international sanctions would be lifted in phases if Iran meets its commitments. The International Atomic Energy Agency would conduct inspections to monitor significant limits on Iranian nuclear facilities, and the restrictions would be in place for at least a decade. In a series of interviews on Sunday political talk shows, Netanyahu called for world leaders to strike a "better deal" that significantly — and permanently — rolls back Iran's nuclear infrastructure. Sanctions should be ratcheted up — not lifted — to pressure Iran until it stops its "aggression in the region," he said. Netanyahu questioned whether inspections would be effective, saying Iran has shown that it cannot be trusted."I wouldn't bet the shop on inspections," the Israeli leader said on CNN's "State of the Union." "It's not a country that you can place your trust in. And it's not a country that you're going to resolve its congenital cheating. You're just not going to replace it by placing more inspectors there."The "very, very bad" agreement only allows Iran to build a vast arsenal by placing temporary restrictions and lifting sanctions that had crippled the country's economy, Netanyahu said. He repeatedly said the agreement would "pump up their terror machine worldwide." Echoing concerns among skeptics of the framework, Netanyahu said it would spark a nuclear arms race in the Middle East, with Sunnis states already seeing Shiite Iran as a major threat."I think this is a dream deal for Iran and a nightmare deal for the world," Netanyahu said on NBC's "Meet the Press."Netanyahu did not outwardly criticize President Obama, but he said there is a "legitimate difference of view" between the two leaders. Netanyahu said he believes Obama is doing what is best for the United States. But the agreement will jeopardize not only Israel but also surrounding countries in the Middle East, the Israeli leader said on ABC's "This Week." The framework agreement does not block Iran's path to nuclear weapons, and instead paves it, he said. | 0 |
Credit...Wissam Nassar for The New York TimesNov. 15, 2012KIRYAT MALACHI, Israel — Israel and Hamas brushed aside international calls for restraint on Thursday and escalated their lethal conflict over Gaza, where Palestinian militants launched hundreds of rockets into Israeli territory, targeting Tel Aviv for the first time, and Israel intensified its aerial assaults and sent armored vehicles rumbling toward the Gaza border for a possible invasion.Defense Minister Ehud Barak of Israel, expressing outrage over a pair of long-range Palestinian rockets that whizzed toward Tel Aviv and set off the first air-raid warning in the Israeli metropolis since it was threatened by Iraqi Scuds in the Persian Gulf war of 1991, said, “There will be a price for that escalation that the other side will have to pay.”Early Friday, the Israeli military said it had called up 16,000 army reservists, as preparations continued for a possible ground invasion for the second time in four years. Mr. Barak had authorized the call-up of 30,000 reservists, if needed, to move against what it considers an unacceptable security threat from smuggled rockets amassed by Hamas, the militant Islamist group that governs the isolated coastal enclave and does not recognize Israel’s right to exist.It was not clear whether the show of Israeli force on the ground in fact portended an invasion or was meant as more of an intimidation tactic to further pressure Hamas leaders, who had all been forced into hiding on Wednesday after the Israelis killed the group’s military chief, Ahmed al-Jabari, in a pinpoint aerial bombing. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said he was ready to “take whatever action is necessary.”Israel said Friday that Mr. Netanyahu had agreed to a temporary cease-fire during the visit of the Egyptian prime minister to the Gaza Strip, which was to begin later in the day. The announcement reflects Israel’s interest in preserving its strained and fragile peace treaty with Egypt.ImageCredit...The New York TimesThe visit is expected to last about three hours, and an official in Mr. Netanyahu’s office said by telephone that Israel had told Egypt that the cease-fire would hold as long as “there would not be hostile fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.”“Prime Minister Netanyahu is committed to the peace treaty with Egypt,” the official said. “That peace serves the strategic interests of both countries.” There was no suggestion that the Israelis were considering a more permanent cease-fire at this stage.Tel Aviv was not hit on Thursday. One rocket crashed into the sea off its coast and another apparently fell, the ability of militants 40 miles away to fire those weapons at the city of 400,000 underscored, in the Israeli government’s view, the justification for the intensive aerial assaults on hundreds of suspected rocket storage sites and other targets in Gaza.Health officials in Gaza said at least 19 people, including five children and a pregnant teenager, had been killed over two days of nearly nonstop aerial attacks by Israel, and dozens had been wounded. Three Israelis were killed on Thursday in Kiryat Malachi, this small southern Israeli town, when a rocket fired from Gaza struck their apartment house.In a sign of solidarity with Hamas as well as a diplomatic move to ease the crisis, President Mohamed Morsi of Egypt ordered his prime minister to lead a delegation to Gaza. In another diplomatic signal, Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, also planned to visit Jerusalem, Cairo and Ramallah, the West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, in coming days.In Washington, Obama administration officials said they had asked friendly Arab countries with ties to Hamas, which the United States and Israel regard as a terrorist group, to use their influence to seek a way to defuse the hostilities. At the same time, however, a State Department spokesman, Mark C. Toner, reiterated to reporters the American position that Israel had a right to defend itself from the rocket fire and that the “onus was on Hamas” to stop it.VideoThe New York Times’s Isabel Kershner traveled through Israel to give an eyewitness account of the latest conflict in the region.The Pentagon said late Thursday that Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta spoke to Mr. Barak this week about Israeli operations in and around Gaza and condemned the violence carried out by Hamas and other groups against Israel.There was no sign that either side was prepared, at least not yet, to restore the uneasy truce that was forged the last time the Israelis invaded Gaza in the winter of 2008-9, a three-week war that left 1,400 Palestinians dead and drew widespread international condemnation.Denunciations of Israel for what critics called a renewal of its aggressive and disproportionate attacks spread quickly on the second day of the aerial assaults. The biggest criticism came from the 120-nation Nonaligned Movement, the largest bloc at the United Nations. In a statement released by Iran, which holds the group’s rotating presidency and is one of Israel’s most ardent foes, the group said: “Israel, the occupying power, is, once more, escalating its military campaign against the Palestinian people, particularly in the Gaza Strip.” The group made no mention of the Palestinian rocket fire aimed at Israel but condemned “this act of aggression by the Israelis and their resort to force against the defenseless people” and demanded “decisive action by the U.N. Security Council.”For his part, Mr. Netanyahu accused Hamas of placing thousands of smuggled rockets into civilian areas, including near schools and hospitals, and firing them randomly into Israel without regard to where they landed. “In the past 24 hours Israel has made it clear that it will not tolerate rocket and missile attacks on its civilians,” he said in a statement. “I hope that Hamas and the other terror organizations in Gaza got the message.”The Israel Defense Forces said that within hours of the Tel Aviv air-raid warning, they had attacked 70 underground rocket-launching sites in Gaza and “direct hits were confirmed.” There were also unconfirmed reports that Israeli rockets had struck near Gaza’s Rafah crossing into Egypt, forcing the Egyptians to close it.Military officials said Israel’s aerial assaults had hit more than 450 sites in Gaza by early Friday. The officials also said militants in Gaza had fired more than 300 rockets into southern Israel and at least 130 more had been intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome antimissile defense system.In Gaza, health officials said, those who died Thursday included a 2-year-old boy who had been struck on Wednesday in the southern town of Khan Yunis, a 10-month-old girl wounded on Wednesday in the Zeitoun area and a child in the northern border town of Beit Hanoun. A 50-year-old man in Beit Lahiyeh, near the northern border, was killed Thursday afternoon when he was buried by sand after a bomb exploded nearby. Others killed Thursday included two brothers in Beit Hanoun, two Hamas members of a rocket-launching squad in Beit Lahiyeh, and three other Hamas fighters killed in a single strike in Khan Yunis.Southern Israel had been the target of more than 750 rockets fired from Gaza this year that hit homes and caused injuries. Among the dozens fired on Thursday was one that smashed into a four-story apartment building in Kiryat Malachi, which means City of Angels, and resulted in the first Israeli civilian deaths.It was just after 8 a.m. when the sirens blared in Kiryat Malachi, a largely working-class town of 20,000 about 15 miles north of Gaza, which had not suffered a direct hit by rockets from Gaza before.One of the top-floor apartments was home to the Scharf family, a couple in their 20s with young children. Neighbors said they had recently come from India, where they were emissaries for the Chabad-Lubavitch organization of Hasidic Jews. At the incoming rocket alert they did not rush for the relative safety of the stairwell as many of the neighbors did, perhaps not knowing the drill.In the adjacent apartment, Yitzhak Amsalem, also in his 20s, ignored his mother’s pleas to take shelter. Instead he and Aharon Smadja, a rabbi and a friend, stood by the window, eager to photograph “the fireworks,” neighbors said.When the rocket crashed into the top of building, Mr. Amsalem and Mr. Smadja, and Mira Scharf, the mother, were killed. | 0 |
Obama needs a speech that rallies the faithful without losing credibility with the rest. This time, President Barack Obama is going to have to actually talk about Obamacare in his State of the Union address. No more touch-the-base-and-keep-running treatments, the way he’s handled it the past couple of years. This time, he’ll be expected to linger on base a bit, at least long enough to acknowledge the launch of the biggest domestic achievement of his presidency — and do it in the least awkward way possible. That’s the consensus of Democratic strategists, health care experts, pollsters and crisis-management experts, all of whom will have reasons to listen closely when Obama brings up the health care law on Jan. 28. It will be Obama’s most high-profile address since the clunky rollout began, and although it has come a long way since the worst days of October, it’s still not enough for him to say, “Nailed it.” ( Also on POLITICO: Obama plans 'optimistic' State of the Union) Instead, Obama will have to find an uplifting message about the law that doesn’t imply that everything’s suddenly back on track. The most he can say, based on the latest developments, is that “it’s moving back toward the track,” said Len Nichols, director of the Center for Health Policy Research and Ethics at George Mason University. The federal enrollment website, HealthCare.gov, is working much better than it was in October, and sign-ups for private health coverage sped up dramatically in December. Now 3 million Americans have selected private health insurance plans, and there’s time for one more wave before enrollment ends March 31. And CGI, the main contractor on the botched website, has been shown the door. ( WATCH: POLITICO’s issue-by-issue SOTU preview) That doesn’t mean the Obama administration can put its fire extinguishers away though. The age mix isn’t right yet with too many older adults and not enough younger ones. The early sign-ups in the exchanges may not include a lot of actual uninsured people, although some have probably been added through Medicaid. Insurers are still waiting for the “back end” of the website, the part that handles their payments, to be built. And HealthCare.gov’s Facebook page is loaded with complaints about enrollment problems, like customers who say they couldn’t get any proof of coverage from their insurance companies, couldn’t get coverage for their kids or are bouncing back and forth between the website and insurance call centers to try to resolve errors. ( WATCH: Turn the Table: State of the Union predictions) The bottom line: Obama needs a speech that rallies the faithful without losing credibility with the rest of the country. There’s actually a fairly easy formula, according to the strategists and health care analysts, and it doesn’t require a radical departure from what Obama has already said about the law. He needs to say that millions of people have already signed up for coverage — though he shouldn’t overstate how many. He should say that millions more who already have health coverage have gotten new benefits, like preventive care with no copayments. He has acknowledged the bad rollout, but tell the law’s most enthusiastic supporters that “we’ve turned the corner.” ( Also on POLITICO: Backstage SOTU peek on Instagram) Most of all, Democratic strategists say, he has to revive his message that “we’re not going back.” “I don’t think he is going to try and resell that everything is perfect, but I would remind people that we can’t go back to a time when insurance companies were running the health care system and deciding who gets to participate,” said Democratic pollster John Anzalone. “No more getting denied coverage because of pre-existing conditions, no more being priced out of the marketplace because of DNA (pre-existing conditions), no more lifetime limits, no more having to file bankruptcy because a family has a medical emergency.” Obama has said all of that before, but now that people are actually getting health coverage and other benefits, Democrats say the reminder is more important than ever. ( Also on POLITICO: State of the Union: Response mania) “Americans do not like having their rights taken away. And they do not like the idea of the GOP taking away their newfound health care rights,” said Paul Begala, a former adviser to President Bill Clinton. Health care didn’t occupy a lot of time in Obama’s last three State of the Union addresses since the law was signed. In 2011, Obama acknowledged that the new House Republican majority hated the law, said it can always be improved but vowed never to go back to the days when insurance companies could turn people down because of pre-existing conditions. In 2012 and 2013, Obamacare was reduced to a walk-on role — a couple of quick sentences, and that was it. This year, the speech is expected to be built around the sweeping theme of reducing economic inequality, so the health care law still can’t take up more than a small piece of it. But now that the major parts are finally going into effect, and the rollout was such an all-consuming national story, Obama can’t gloss over it without looking like he’s intentionally avoiding the subject. “You can’t hide from this. The story will be bigger if you do,” said Marlin Collingwood, president of CHT Group, a Boston-based firm that specializes in crisis communications. Collingwood said the speech would be a good time to use the kind of self-deprecating humor Obama has used in other bad situations. “He can just say, ‘Yeah, we’ve had a rough couple of months,’” he said. “But then he’s got to move past that quickly and talk about the benefits.” The White House isn’t tipping its hand on what approach Obama will take, but there’s one powerful storytelling technique that pretty much everyone is expecting him to use: First lady Michelle Obama will have a guest in the audience who has gotten health care coverage for the first time, allowing the president to tell a powerful story that makes it harder for Republicans to keep pushing for repeal. “If there’s a family that’s gotten health insurance for the first time, that’s a story that’s very hard to ridicule,” said Collingwood. Some Democrats say it wouldn’t be too hard for Obama to link the health care law to the economic inequality theme as one part of the larger storyline he wants to define the rest of his presidency. Democratic strategist Chris Lehane predicted that the law’s expansion of health coverage will be folded into the inequality theme — “that for our democracy to flourish, we need to address the vast and growing inequalities by increasing access to higher education; moving forward on health care for all; investing in the jobs of the future; making sure that people get a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work.” That approach carries some risks though because “it gets into winners and losers,” and Obama’s audience may react badly to the idea that some people will pay higher costs to help more vulnerable people, said Robert Blendon, an expert on health care public opinion at Harvard University. The better approach, he said, would be for Obama to talk more narrowly about “protecting people from the costs of health care without talking so much about narrowing the gap.” Obama faces one especially tricky challenge: He has to talk to different audiences with wildly different feelings about the health care law. Republicans are rigidly against it, of course, but independents are skeptical, too, and they won’t be convinced by feel-good talking points that ignore the rollout problems. Democrats, on the other hand, will want Obama to talk about the cause that’s so close to their hearts — and the one Obama pushed through Congress largely because they wanted it. “For Democrats, this is really a litmus test. They’re going to want to hear him say their work has paid off, and we’ve turned the corner, and we’re moving ahead,” said Blendon. But has it really turned the corner? Health care experts say it’s too soon to say, and it certainly won’t be clear until enrollment ends in March and the final signup numbers come in. “Certainly, the huge enrollment numbers for December are very good news, but (1) there’s still quite a bit of ground to make up in the next 3 months, so will the momentum continue? (2) Will the back-end stuff work to complete enrollment, invoicing and payment for millions of people? Once both questions are answered in the affirmative, I think the ACA is back on track,” Jon Kingsdale, a consultant who ran the Massachusetts health insurance exchange that predated Obamacare, wrote in an email. Nichols, however, says it’s a good sign that health insurers don’t seem too worried about not having enough young adults in the mix yet. “They’re not panicked. Why are they not panicked? Because they know this is normal,” Nichols said. “Sure, the sick people came in first, but there are three more months.” | 0 |
LEXINGTON, Va. — In what was billed as a major foreign policy address, Mitt Romney blasted President Obama’s leadership in the Middle East on Monday, saying that a withering of American resolve had made the region a more dangerous place where the United States has less leverage. “Hope is not a strategy,’’ Romney said. Romney sought to capitalize on the violence in Libya and Egypt that has made Obama vulnerable in the national security realm long seen as his strength. The Republican nominee vowed to “change course in the Middle East,” including by taking a hard line on Iran and arming Syrian rebels. Romney said he knows “the president hopes for a safer, freer, and a more prosperous Middle East allied with the United States. I share this hope.” But he added: “We cannot support our friends and defeat our enemies in the Middle East when our words are not backed up by deeds.” The address mostly repackaged things Romney has said before, sometimes with greater precision. The Republican offered few specific ways he would change the Obama administration’s current approach. Although he made broad critiques of Obama’s “passivity,” Romney did not call for any new armed intervention in any Mideast conflict. “I believe that if America does not lead, others will,” Romney said, “others who do not share our interests and our values.” Romney did say Obama failed reformist protesters in Iran in 2009, and is failing the anti-Assad forces in Syria now. The United States is “sitting on the sidelines,” instead of working with other nations to arm Syrian rebels, Romney said. Much of Romney’s address focused on the complex threat posed by Iran, but he did not propose specific solutions that differ from the Obama administration’s current policy of tightening sanctions and insisting that an Iranian nuclear bomb is intolerable. Romney did not say whether he would continue the current international diplomatic effort to persuade Iran to back off the most worrisome elements of its nuclear program. Iran claims the program is aimed only at peaceful nuclear energy and medical uses. Romney, speaking in confident and crisp tones before an audience of more than 400 cadets and invited guests at Virginia Military Institute, said it is Obama’s “responsibility to use America’s great power to shape history—not to lead from behind, leaving our destiny at the mercy of events.” Romney did not call for a new “red line” on Iran as Israel has said it wants, and he did not specifically say he would be open, in the future, to a U.S. attack on Iran to stop them from acquiring “nuclear capability” so Israel doesn’t have to do it now. He did not mention the crippling effect sanctions are having now, and he didn’t call for regime change in Iran. The speech at VMI thrust foreign policy further into the center of a campaign that until recently had been almost entirely about the economy. The focus is expected to intensify as the two candidates debate foreign policy during their last one-on-one encounter, on Oct. 22. Romney said he would support Israel, the nation presumably most at risk if Iran acquired nuclear weapons, and charged that Obama’s poor relationship with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has help embolden Iran and other adversaries. “I will reaffirm our historic ties to Israel and our abiding commitment to its security,” Romney said. “The world must never see any daylight between our two nations.” That was a reference to a remark Obama reportedly made to “put some daylight” between the United States and Israel early in his administration. Obama has since pledged many times to support Israel and his administration claims ties between the two nations have never been stronger. Romney said he would bulk up the U.S. naval presence around Iran, something the Obama administration has done occasionally on an ad hoc basis. He said he would add to the Navy’s fleet, but did not say how he would pay for it. Romney also promised new conditions on foreign aid, including to Egypt. “I will make it clear to the recipients of our aid that in return for our material support, they must meet the responsibilities of every decent modern government,” Romney said. He said Obama has “no trade agenda to speak of,” and has signed no new bilateral trade deals. That is technically true, since the deals he signed with South Korea, Panama and Colombia were begun under Republican President George W. Bush. Free trade deals are often politically unpopular among key Democratic constituencies such as labor groups. Although Obama had used mild anti-free-trade rhetoric during the 2008 campaign, he has pointed to those three deals and another in the works with Asia as accomplishments. Romney said Obama had failed to secure a deal to keep some troops in Iraq, and promised that he would manage the coming U.S. exit from Afghanistan with national security, not politics, as his guide. The Obama campaign quickly criticized the speech as a patchwork of overheated rhetoric and outdated ideas. “I just find him very shallow,” former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said in a conference call arranged by the Obama campaign. Romney’s views on Russia, for example, seem rooted in the last century and infirmed by the most conservative of his circle of foreign policy advisers, Albright said. “I’m beginning to think that Governor Romney just doesn’t have the facts,” Albright said. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One campaign spokeswoman Jen Psaki called the address Romney’s seventh attempt to reboot his foreign policy vision. “This is somebody who leads with chest-pounding rhetoric. He’s inexperienced. He’s been clumsy of his handling of foreign policy,” Psaki said. Romney spoke in a small auditorium at the military school, behind a U.S. flag and several military flags. A group of several hundred white-uniformed cadets filled the seats, mixing with a few dozen invited guests. Patriotic and military music played in the background. Romney stuck to his prepared text and did not ad lib. The former CEO and Massachusetts governor, in his comfort zone when focused on the economy, has stumbled during his occasional forays into foreign policy. It has been the unscripted or hurried moments that have caused Romney, who has little foreign policy experience, the most trouble. Even many Republicans were critical after Romney slammed Obama’s handling of the attacks on U.S. diplomatic missions in Egypt and Libya, even as the events were unfolding. The Sept. 11 assault in Libya killed U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans. Romney has mounted a sustained attack on Obama’s leadership ever since, as questions have mounted over the administration’s shifting explanations of the attack and whether the U.S. post was properly secured. He offended his British hosts and Palestinian leaders during an overseas trip in July, failed to mention Afghanistan in his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention, and was roundly criticized for the timing of his assault on Obama’s handling of violence in Libya. With increasing questions about the Obama administration’s handling of the violence in Libya that killed four Americans — and with Romney gaining momentum from his widely praised performance in last week’s first debate — some experts think the speech is well-timed. Though Obama has consistently outpolled Romney on foreign affairs, that advantage has diminished. A Washington Post-ABC News poll conducted just before the first debate showed Obama with a five-point edge in who is more trusted to handle international concerns, down from the president’s double-digit advantage earlier in the year. “It’s understandable why he’s doing it now,” said David Rothkopf, a former senior Clinton administration official who is chief executive of Foreign Policy magazine. “The administration, which two to three months ago seemed unassailable on foreign policy and national security issues, now looks much more vulnerable because of what happened in Libya, because the entire Middle East is a mess, because of tensions between Obama and Netanyahu.” In a series of speeches that began during the Republican primary campaign, Romney has proposed a more confrontational approach to China, Russia and other countries, and he accused Obama of failing to contain Iran’s nuclear ambitions, offending Israel, and jeopardizing the U.S. military with budget cuts that Republican congressional leaders have supported. Advised by veterans of the Reagan and both Bush administrations, Romney has also used blunt, sometimes swaggering language on the stump that has at times evoked the Cold War, including his pledge to “devote myself to an American century.” But Romney’s description of Russia as America’s “number one geopolitical foe” has drawn criticism, and his overseas trip in July, intended to showcase Romney as a world leader and potential commander in chief, was widely seen as plagued by missteps. Romney, in an interview, questioned Britain’s readiness for the Olympic Games it was about to host, drawing rebukes from British leaders and a tabloid headline labeling him “Mitt the Twit.’’ He then angered Palestinian leaders by suggesting that the Israeli economy has outpaced that of the Palestinian territories in part because of advantages of “culture,’’ while also vastly misstating the difference in gross domestic product between Israel and Palestinian areas. Romney advisers argued at the time that the trip had been successful, pointing out the candidate’s generally positive reception in Israel and an endorsement from former Polish president and pro-democracy icon Lech Walesa. The Obama campaign, citing foreign policy achievements including the killing of Osama bin Laden and the U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq, is undeterred. Campaign officials have accused Romney of flip-flopping on the U.S. mission in Libya and troop withdrawals from Afghanistan, and have pointed out that the lack of new policy prescriptions. They also say most people don’t vote based on foreign policy, though it may be seen more broadly as part of a leadership test. The Obama campaign released a television ad Monday that blasted Romney’s foreign policy credentials and said his “gaffe-filled” European tour in July showed his “reckless” and “amateurish” approach to international issues. Gearan reported from Washington. Jon Cohen in Washington contributed to this report. | 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 |
Story highlights The IRS inspector general says liberal groups also were on target listCommittee Chairman Issa concedes there is no proof that IRS targeting was politicalIssa is looking for a possible White House role in the targetingDemocratic Rep. Cummings says Issa is on a partisan witch huntThe inspector general who reported Internal Revenue Service targeting of conservative groups said Thursday that he didn't have information until last week that the word "progressive" also was on a list of criteria for extra scrutiny of tax-exempt applications.At a hearing of the House Oversight Committee, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration J. Russell George said the information that liberal groups also were probably targeted only came to him July 9.His audit, released in May, cited criteria including "tea party" and other conservative-themed words or labels that were used to decide whether applicants for tax-exempt status should come under further review. Since then, an investigation by the panel turned up documents that showed IRS workers also were told to look for the liberal-themed label."They were not provided during our audit, even though similar documents that list quote 'tea party' unquote but not 'progressive' were," George said. "I am very disturbed that these documents were not provided to our auditors at the outset, and we are currently reviewing this issue."The IRS targeting revealed by George's audit in May led to accusations by Republicans that the Obama administration could be using the tax agency's powers against political enemies. Democrats have rejected such allegations and insisted that liberal groups also were targeted.Last week, the top Democrat on the House committee questioned why George's audit had not included information on liberal groups being targeted. Thursday's hearing was the first time George issued a public response to the criticism by Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland."We just learned recently that name was being used by the Internal Revenue Service," George said of the term "progressive."George's audit indicated that lax oversight at the IRS allowed for the singling out of some conservative groups starting in 2010 and continuing until last year.In particular, the report said IRS workers in the tax-exempt unit used "Be on the Lookout" or BOLO lists of words such as "tea party" to assess what applicants came under extra scrutiny that delayed decisions for months and even years. However, it also said no evidence existed that the targeting was politically motivated.George subsequently testified at previous hearings that he could not specifically identify whether any liberal groups were similarly targeted. However, Cummings said information made public last week showed that George, who was appointed in 2004 by GOP President George W. Bush, was aware that liberal groups also were targeted.On Thursday, George and other officials in the inspector general's office said the audit focused on the BOLO list that included conservtive labels. George expressed frustration over how the issue has unfolded, at one point saying: "This is not a clean-cut matter. There's a lot going on here."Earlier at Thursday's hearing, two career IRS employees shot down the central premise of committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa's argument that the agency's targeting scandal was politically motivated.Asked repeatedly whether they knew of anyone at the IRS with political motives to obstruct applications for tax-exempt status by conservative groups, the pair told the panel "no."Issa himself asked the question early on in the committee's third hearing on the issue, as did others from both parties amid bitter exchanges that focused attention on the political squabbling instead of the targeting cited by George's report.Cummings challenged Issa on past comments suggesting that White House involvement in the targeting showed it was a weapon against political enemies of President Barack Obama."This is unsubstantiated nonsense," Cummings said, adding that it undermined the integrity of the committee.For his part, Issa insisted that the testimony from IRS veterans Elizabeth Hofacre and Carter Hull established that IRS officials in Washington played a major role in the targeting. The problem was broader than the earlier claim by Democrats that it was limited to the agency's Cincinnati office that handles tax-exempt applications, Issa said."We can today debunk the accusation that Cincinnati was, in fact, the story and that it never went to Washington, which it clearly did," the California Republican said.However, his case was deflated by the unwavering insistence by Hofacre and Hull that they were unaware of any political motivation in the targeting or any influence from outside the IRS on extra scrutiny that delayed responses to applications.The hearing followed a series of accusatory memos and news releases by both sides as the IRS targeting issue descended further into a purely partisan spitting match.Issa sent the IRS a letter Wednesday that made new demands for all communications on the matter between the tax agency, the Treasury Department and Obama's office since February 2010.The letter, signed by Issa and other House Republicans, quoted excerpts of an interview with Hull that said the office of the IRS chief counsel -- who was appointed by Obama in 2009 -- played a role in scrutiny that delayed processing tax-exempt applications from some conservative groups."Its involvement and demands for information about political activity during the 2010 election cycle appears to have caused systematic delays in the processing of tea party applications," the GOP letter said.In response, Cummings issued his own letter that accused Issa of dishonest intentions."Rather than describing the whole truth, your letter appears yet again to create a skewed account based on partial, incomplete, and cherry-picked information while disregarding key evidence that contradicts your political narrative," Cummings wrote.A day earlier, Cummings released a memo that cited excerpts from committee interviews with 15 IRS workers that found no evidence of political bias or White House manipulation alleged by Republicans."Despite an extremely aggressive investigation involving thousands of documents and more than a dozen interviews of IRS employees, the overwhelming evidence before the committee reveals no political motivation or White House involvement in this process," said the memo written by the committee's Democratic staff.Issa conceded in an opinion piece published Wednesday on the USA Today website that the two-month investigation has yet to find hard evidence of involvement in the targeting by anyone outside the IRS. He argued that the lack of proof does not mean the investigation should end."We candidly still don't have clear answers to many important questions and have yet to begin interviewing senior IRS officials," Issa wrote, saying "judgment should be withheld until all relevant witnesses are interviewed and all documents reviewed."In an editorial Thursday, USA Today questioned the value of the ongoing investigation."No political operatives from the Obama campaign or the White House have been linked to any of the IRS' activities," the editorial said. "What's more, it has become increasingly clear that confusion on the part of IRS employees, rather than a starkly political motive, was the primary cause of the delays."At times during Thursday's hearing, Issa took a conciliatory stance, saying that any evidence of targeting -- whether of liberal or conservative groups -- should be investigated."If the facts are that people got abused for myriad reasons, we ought to know it," Issa said.Both Issa and Cummings asked George to provide more information on groups targeted by the IRS, and the inspector general pledged to do so.Cummings and other Democrats took aim Thursday at past statements by Issa and other Republicans, calling them blatantly political accusations with no basis in fact that went against the spirit of Issa's call at the start of Thursday's hearing to "reject, categorically, assumptions for which there is not evidence."Rep. Gerald Connolly, a Virginia Democrat, called for Issa to retract his earlier comments that the targeting involved only conservative groups and was an effort to target Obama's political enemies.Issa responded that tea party groups that came under extra scrutiny could be considered political enemies of the president and that he had yet to see hard evidence that liberal groups were targeted.Republicans made a point Thursday of singling out White House spokesman Jay Carney for criticism, noting he previously said that the targeting involved rogue IRS employees in Cincinnati. Hofacre described herself as offended by the characterization of the issue as misdeeds at her level.She and Hull said the delays in rendering final decisions on applications by conservative groups was because of a lack of guidance from superiors in Washington. Under tax law and IRS regulations, groups that primarily engage in political activity are ineligible for tax-exempt status. The targeting occurred after the 2010 ruling by the Supreme Court that opened the political process to more private contributions from business and labor, leading to increased applications for tax-exempt status from groups involved in political activity.In the memo Cummings made public Tuesday, IRS employees who identified themselves as Republicans, Democrats and independents said there was no political motivation or outside influence involved in the agency's handling of tax-exempt requests from groups with possible or likely political affiliations.According to the memo, an IRS tax law specialist based in Washington who described herself as Republican said "no, not at all" when asked whether there was any evidence that the agency targeted Obama's political enemies."That's kind of laughable that people think that," the memo quoted the woman as saying.Cummings and other Democrats complained Thursday that the other IRS employees who had been interviewed were not called as witnesses to the latest hearing. | 0 |
January 16, 2021 / 7:18 AM / CBS News The National Rifle Association said Friday that it has filed for bankruptcy and is moving to Texas, where the organization says it has 400,000 members. The NRA is currently based out of New York, where state Attorney General Letitia James has filed a lawsuit alleging financial crimes by its top officials and is seeking to disband the organization. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection stops all court and legal proceedings regarding debt or collection, while an organization restructures its debts. In May 2020, the NRA, which says it has 5 million members, laid off dozens of employees and shut down fundraising and its national convention amid the coronavirus pandemic. The fundraising pause and the lack of a national convention in a presidential election year was a huge financial setback for the organization, although Americans bought a record number of guns in 2020. The NRA said it is "restructuring" in a state that "values the contributions of the NRA, celebrates our law-abiding members, and will join us as a partner in upholding constitutional freedom." The NRA has been based out of New York since its inception in 1871. Texas Governor Greg Abbott tweeted the news and wrote "welcome to Texas—a state that safeguards the 2nd Amendment."Meanwhile, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, one of the largest organizations dedicated to reducing gun violence, called the NRA's move an "attempt to escape legal culpability for years of financial mismanagement and illegal self dealing." "This desperate maneuver is a de facto admission of guilt," said John Feinblatt in a statement.
James filed a lawsuit in August in New York that alleged the NRA and four of its top executives mismanaged funds and violated state and federal laws, resulting in the loss of more than $64 million for the organization in a span of three years. Senior leaders, James claims, misused millions from the NRA's coffers on trips to the Bahamas, private jets, luxury hotels and fine dining. The NRA's president denied the allegations at the time, calling the lawsuit "a baseless, premeditated attack on our organization." The NRA said Friday that there would be "no immediate changes to the NRA's operations or workforce."Melissa Quinn contributed to this report. 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
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Politics Donald Trump at Thursday’s press conference.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images From a high-resolution photograph of Donald Trump’s printed-out remarks for his Thursday press conference, we know two things. The first is that Trump’s speech was printed out for him in a huge font and protected by a plastic page protector. The second was that the visible page of the speech was unmarked except in one place—where the word “Corona” in “Corona Virus” (two words) had been crossed out with a Sharpie and replaced with a word in distinctive penmanship printed in all caps: “CHINESE.” It was clear Trump had replaced the accepted shorthand for the COVID-19 virus with another that would blame another country for the pandemic while inflaming antipathy against the “Chinese” and (because ethnic hatreds aren’t especially discerning) Asians in general. And he’d done so quite deliberately. This was a new development. Trump had previously referred to the pandemic as “the coronavirus.” So what changed? The answer is obvious: People familiar with Trump’s limited but effective toolbox will recognize by now that the turn to racism is a sign of Trumpian distress. It means that Trump—who hasn’t been able to hold rallies amid his adoring fans—is feeling not just insecure but trapped. He thought the coronavirus was one more narrative he could control. He couldn’t. And so, perhaps sometime around March 16, when he first used the phrase “Chinese Virus” on Twitter himself, it became clear that the president was ready to embrace an ugly construction Mike Pompeo and others had earlier tried to mainstream. This xenophobic strategy is emerging because Trump, who handled the outbreak disastrously, is now engaged in a Herculean pivot toward a narrative that he takes the crisis seriously and always has. You can trace this lexical shift to that effort. During the many weeks Trump downplayed the epidemic and told Americans not to worry, he referred to the virus using perfectly conventional language. As recently as Feb. 22, he tweeted, “The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA,” adding, “Stock Market starting to look very good to me!” Earlier, on Jan. 22, he was insisting to CNBC that the virus was “totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China.” (As of this writing, the United States has nearly 20,000 confirmed cases in what appears to be an exponential rise.) A lot of people took Trump at his word, so they didn’t take protective measures. The government also failed to ramp up production of N95 masks or hospital ventilators or protective equipment. South Korea discovered its first case the same day the United States did, but while South Korea was testing 10,000 people a day in drive-thrus, for free, the United States was suffering an inexplicable test shortage. As late as March 9, Trump was still trying to compare the coronavirus outbreak to the seasonal flu to make it seem like nothing Americans should worry about. “So last year 37,000 Americans died from the common Flu. … At this moment there are 546 confirmed cases of CoronaVirus, with 22 deaths. Think about that!” On Thursday, still in his first week of admitting the seriousness of the threat, Trump said, “Nobody in their wildest dreams would have thought we would need tens of thousands of ventilators”—despite weeks of reporting and pleas from medical professionals that the country did not have nearly enough ventilators for the crisis. Americans have notoriously short memories, but even some Trump supporters can probably recall how egregiously and how recently Trump downplayed the danger. So out came the Sharpie pen. Time to pivot to the language of war. Time to find a target people can turn their ire on. Time for the “Chinese virus.” This strategy of ramping up racism under duress—developed by his former adviser Steve Bannon—is as familiar as it is ugly. It gives Trump supporters not one but two exciting wars to get worked up about: one literal, one cultural. The former is stupid and psychologically transparent—viruses aren’t combatants, but a “wartime” president brooks little dissent, and his obvious and even disastrous mistakes are easily excused by a frightened populace unified against a hated enemy. Difficult though it may be to muster jingoistic fury at a virus, many Republicans are doing their level best. Some, like Sen. Tom Cotton, have tried to link the coronavirus’s “villainy” with China’s, falsely suggesting that China (which has suffered the greatest losses) had a hand in developing the virus and announcing that the U.S. would “hold accountable those who inflicted it on the world.” It’s perfectly true that China was less than forthcoming in the early stages of the pandemic. But it’s hard to feel superior about that when the United States was itself aggressively undertesting its citizens in part because the president himself expressed a disinclination to inflate the number of U.S. cases by, for example, letting sick American cruise passengers disembark on American soil. But the second war, the culture war, is at least as important. It’s the war Trump knows he can use to win back any supporters who might have started to doubt him after he insisted for weeks that the virus was “totally under control” and “like the flu” and that the economy was “great.” The Democrats—and the scientists who have been sounding the alarm, and the media Trump hates that has reported the truth about the virus’s likely spread despite Trump’s lies to the contrary—have the high ground on every axis that matters right now. The Democrats have been striving to protect Americans first while putting politics second (see New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s tentative praise for the Trump administration after it began taking things seriously). Meanwhile, two Republican senators—Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler—appear to have misinformed their constituents, falsely reassuring them that the media was lying to them about the gravity of the situation, even as they privately dumped huge amounts of stock and invested in industries that would profit under a coronavirus pandemic. Trump, whose sole priority is his reelection, desperately needs to remind his supporters that the Democrats, scientists, and journalists who took the outbreak seriously from the start are still their enemies. He can achieve that easily enough; all he has to do is reignite a debate over whether something he says is or is not racist. If Trump can make it look like the very people who took the pandemic seriously are now frivolously objecting to his nomenclature, maybe he can claw back any support that may have been waffling. Republican lawmakers, as ever, support Trump’s messaging effort. Sen. John Cornyn defended the use of “Chinese virus” by saying things like, “China is to blame because the culture where people eat bats and snakes and dogs and things like that,” safe in the knowledge that this strategy is a win-win. If no one objects to appalling pronouncements like this one, his message lands. And if they do object, the offended parties will only bolster the Trumpist perspective that the enemies of the people prioritize political correctness over human lives. Look! They’re talking about racism in the middle of a pandemic! Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted that he knew of an entire family who lost their jobs, and yet “some people want to argue over what name we should use for the virus.” That calling COVID-19 the “Chinese Virus” is not just theoretically but materially harmful to Asian Americans should go without saying. And yet it must be said, even and especially in these desperate times when the more strategic countermove might be to ignore the bait. People of Asian descent have seen increased mistreatment since the outbreak began—being yelled at, being beaten, their children attacked and their businesses boycotted. People stopped eating at Chinese restaurants. A fake flyer in Los Angeles purporting to be from the World Health Organization instructed people to avoid Asian American—not Chinese but Asian American!—businesses. People are being openly racist to Asian journalists. So common was anti-Asian sentiment that the University of California, Berkeley’s health center infamously posted a set of “common reactions” in January that included “xenophobia: fears about interacting with those who might be from Asia and guilt about that fear.” Why would a president amplify a counterproductive fear of Asians in a public already unnerved by a rising epidemic and dramatic social and economic disruption? The fog of war lets you get away with incompetence and reversals. Of course he’s waging a war on two fronts with that one tiny phrase; the move lets him pivot from total denial that the coronavirus is a concern to a statesmanlike acknowledgment of the threat. And it applies to everyone on the field with him. Take Sean Hannity, who on March 9 said, “I see it, again, as let’s bludgeon Trump with this new hoax,” and 10 days later said, “This program has always taken the coronavirus seriously. We’ve never called the virus a hoax.” Telling people they didn’t actually hear what they heard is no small undertaking. It takes all of a box, a saw, some mirrors, and plenty of smoke. It’s why Trump has gone from trying to reassure the stock market with “everything’s fine!” to declarations that he always knew a pandemic was coming. Here’s the dispiriting truth: The racist trolling will work—unless Americans can adapt to Trump’s stratagem. Yes, it’s risky to let Trump set the agenda yet again by letting him distract people from his deadly mismanagement of this crisis with a racist phrase. But there is a countermeasure worth considering, and it would mean narrating the racist turn as exactly what it is. We know that racism, for Trump, is as much a tool as a mindset. We should put his deployment of it in context, both for ourselves and to others. Trump gets more racist when he’s nervous. When a judge was ruling over Trump University’s fraudulent practices, Trump attacked the judge’s ethnicity. Leading up to the 2018 election, Trump tweeted hysterically about “migrant caravans” headed toward our border full of MS-13 members and people from the “Middle East.” The racist turn doesn’t activate his base in a vacuum; it requires liberal outrage to produce a feedback cycle that keeps his supporters riled up and convinced that there is a war to fight. This is a nasty loop, and it’s hard to break out of it. But this is a president who responds remarkably well to incentives, however craven, and at present he has no incentive to act differently. His racism feeds his perceived strength. If we, by which I mean the media and the public, could internalize and be clearer about the frantic bet Trump is making—that his calculated racism isn’t just a strategy but a tell that he’s desperate to change the story—the incentives might work a little differently. | 0 |
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) announced Monday that she would vote against a new bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act, leaving Republicans at least one vote short of what it would take to pass it ― and dealing what looks like a lethal blow to this latest effort at Obamacare repeal.Collins announced her opposition in a statement literally minutes after the Congressional Budget Office released a preliminary assessment of the bill introduced by Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.).That bill would cut Medicaid, replace the Affordable Care Act with a less generous set of grants to the states and weaken key protections for people with pre-existing conditions. The nonpartisan CBO concluded the bill would reduce federal spending but also leave untold millions without health insurance while destabilizing insurance markets.Collins had said she would not announce her position on the bill until seeing the CBO report, and she cited those findings as evidence of the “devastating impact” Medicaid cuts and changes to insurance regulations would have on her constituents.But Collins didn’t reserve her objections to the substance of Graham-Cassidy. She also criticized the slapdash process to get the bill to the Senate floor, noting that the language of the bill had changed several times in the past few days, even though a vote is supposed to take place this week. (For that reason, the CBO analysis was actually based on an earlier, slightly different version of the bill.)“The fact that a new version of this bill was released the very week we are supposed to vote compounds the problem,” Collins said. “Sweeping reforms to our health care system and to Medicaid can’t be done well in a compressed time frame, especially when the actual bill is a moving target.” Senate Republicans have been rushing to bring the Graham-Cassidy bill to a floor vote before the end of the month, when they lose parliamentary authority to pass repeal with 50 votes rather than the customary 60 it takes to overcome a filibuster. But that still means they can lose only two votes from within their caucus, since Democrats are unified in opposition and the Republicans have just 52 seats. With Collins, they appear to have now lost three votes. Sen. John McCain of Arizona announced his opposition Friday and Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky has said repeatedly he would vote no without dramatic changes that would inevitably lose support from other Republicans.Those three may not be alone. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who in July joined Collins and McCain in rejecting a repeal bill from Senate leadership, has not announced her position. But like Collins, Murkowski has said that she was determined to protect rules on pre-existing conditions and that she was worried about the effect of funding cuts on her state.Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has also said he’s a no vote, at least for the moment, but for different reasons. Like Paul, he has said he believes that the Graham-Cassidy bill, for all of its spending cuts and efforts to deregulate insurance markets, leaves too much of Obamacare in place.With three senators announcing their opposition and at least two more leaning that way, it’s not clear whether Senate Republican leaders will press ahead with a vote, whether on this bill or some other form of repeal legislation. One possibility is that Graham, Cassidy and their allies could continue modifying the bill by scaling it way back or adding more provisions in the hopes of getting one or more of their skeptical colleagues to change their minds. But the latest version of their bill, which Graham and Cassidy released to the public Monday morning, was supposed to do just that ― in part, by throwing some extra money at states like Maine, apparently in the hopes of winning over senators like Collins.If that was the intent, Collins made it clear the gambit did not work. “Maine still loses money under whichever version of the Graham-Cassidy bill we consider because the bills use what could be described as a ‘give with one hand, take with the other’ distribution model,” Collins said ― noting, among other things, that long-term cuts in the bill would inevitably affect every state. Everything Collins said Monday was consistent with her earlier statements, and that included her warning that the Affordable Care Act has real problems in need of attention. “The current state of health insurance, where premiums are skyrocketing, choices are limited and small businesses are struggling, needs fixing,” Collins said. “My focus will remain on remedying these problems.”But Collins, like McCain, had said she would like to see the Senate health, education, labor and pensions committee (on which Collins sits) resume work on narrower, bipartisan efforts to shore up trouble health insurance markets.The committee’s chairman, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), suspended that work when Senate leadership began pushing for a vote on Graham-Cassidy. Should leadership give up on the bill, those talks could start up again. | 0 |
(CNN)Newly surfaced video from 1993 appears to feature the mother of Tara Reade, a woman who accused presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden of sexual assault, calling into a cable TV show to seek advice around the time of the alleged assault. In a "Larry King Live" segment that aired on August 11, 1993, on CNN, an unnamed woman calls in to the show with her location identified on the screen as San Luis Obispo, California. The show was about the cutthroat nature of Washington, DC, politics and media."Yes, hello. I'm wondering what a staffer would do besides go to the press in Washington?" she asks. "My daughter has just left there after working for a prominent senator, and could not get through with her problems at all, and the only thing she could have done was go to the press, and she chose not to do it out of respect for him."Larry King responds: "In other words, she had a story to tell but out of respect for the person she worked for, she didn't tell it?""That's true," the caller says.The woman does not mention sexual assault or harassment, nor does she describe in any detail what "problems" she might be referring to. Her daughter's name and Biden are also not mentioned. In a phone interview with CNN Friday night, Reade told CNN that she is certain the voice in the video belongs to her mother, Jeanette Altimus, who died a few years ago."I've been crying because I haven't heard my mom's voice in a few years. So it's been a little emotional," Reade said. "I miss her. I miss her voice."CNN separately confirmed that Altimus lived in San Luis Obispo around the time of the newly surfaced clip from "Larry King Live." The Intercept first reported on the interview. The Biden campaign declined to comment on the video, referring CNN to statements it previously released denying Reade's sexual assault allegation. Those statements include one from Biden's executive assistant at the time of the allegation who said she never received any complaints. The 1993 assault allegationCNN had previously reached out to Reade multiple times but she had not agreed to be interviewed prior to Friday. In that phone interview, she shared similar details of the sexual assault allegation she had told in recent weeks to multiple media outlets, including The New York Times, Washington Post and the Associated Press.She told CNN that in 1993, when she was working as an aide in Biden's Senate office, she was asked to deliver a duffle bag to the then-Delaware senator. In a corridor somewhere in the Capitol Hill complex, Reade said Biden "had me up against the wall; he used his knee to spread open my legs," and "put his fingers inside me."Reade said when she pulled away, Biden said to her, "Come on man. I heard -- I thought you liked me." Biden then looked angry, according to Reade, and said, "You are nothing to me. You are nothing." She said that Biden eventually took her by the shoulders and said words to the effect of, "You're OK. You're fine," before walking away.Reade said on the night of the alleged assault she spoke on the phone with her mother, who was "adamant" that she call the police. She said she did not call the police. Reade said she recalls her mother telling her sometime after the alleged assault that she had called into Larry King's show."I think what makes me emotional is that I was really hard on her and I said, 'Why would you do that, it's scary to me,'" Reade told CNN. "I had told her not to do that and she did and she did it on her own and I know now. I wish I could go back and I could hug her and say thank you for being a good mom and trying to protect me." The New York Times spoke with a friend of Reade's, who said Reade had told her about the alleged assault at the time; a second friend said Reade told her in 2008 that Biden had touched her inappropriately. The Times said it also had spoken with nearly two dozen people who worked with Biden in the early 1990s, and none corroborated Reade's allegation.The Washington Post interviewed Reade's brother, Collin Moulton, who told the paper that she had told him in 1993 that Biden had "behaved inappropriately by touching her neck and shoulders" but not about the alleged sexual assault. Several days after that interview with Reade's brother, the Post said, "he said in a text message that he recalled her telling him that Biden had put his hand 'under her clothes.'"Reached by text message on Saturday, Moulton told CNN that Reade told him in the early 1990s that she had been asked to bring Biden his gym bag, and that in a private setting, he had cornered her against the wall and put his hands under her clothes. "My mom wanted her to go to the police," he said.Moulton also said he remembered Reade telling him that she had been asked to serve drinks at an event for Biden because she had "nice legs," and that Biden had touched her shoulders and neck. Reade told the Times that she had filed a complaint about Biden with the Senate in 1993 but that she did not have a copy of it; the Times said it could not locate it.Reade filed a police report in Washington about the alleged assault earlier this month. CNN obtained the incident report from DC police -- it states that "Subject-1 disclosed that she was the victim of a sexual assault which was committed by Subject-2 in 1993."Last year, Reade had publicly alleged that Biden had made her feel uncomfortable by touching her neck and shoulders. Reade told CNN that this resulted in death threats, and that a victim advocate had advised her to speak to the police.Biden campaign's denialIn a statement provided to CNN, Biden's deputy campaign manager and communications director, Kate Bedingfield, denied Reade's allegation, calling it "untrue.""Vice President Biden has dedicated his public life to changing the culture and the laws around violence against women. He authored and fought for the passage and reauthorization of the landmark Violence Against Women Act. He firmly believes that women have a right to be heard - and heard respectfully," Bedingfield said. "Such claims should also be diligently reviewed by an independent press. What is clear about this claim: it is untrue. This absolutely did not happen."The campaign also shared a statement from Marianne Baker, who was Biden's executive assistant in the 1980s and 1990s when he was a senator. Reade told the Times that she had complained to Baker and two other aides about harassment by Biden, but not about the alleged assault."In all my years working for Senator Biden, I never once witnessed, or heard of, or received, any reports of inappropriate conduct, period -- not from Ms. Reade, not from anyone. I have absolutely no knowledge or memory of Ms. Reade's accounting of events, which would have left a searing impression on me as a woman professional, and as a manager," Baker said. "These clearly false allegations are in complete contradiction to both the inner workings of our Senate office and to the man I know and worked so closely with for almost two decades."Baker also said that dozens of employees had reported to her over the years, and that Biden himself had fostered "a professional workplace" environment in his Senate office.Last year, multiple women publicly came forward to say that Biden had made them feel uncomfortable in the way that he physically interacted with them. None of them accused him of sexual assault.The New York Times reported that it recently interviewed the women who made these complaints and that "they did not have any new information about their experiences to add," but that several of them said they believed Reade's new allegation.Lucy Flores, a former Nevada assemblywoman, described an encounter with Biden in 2014 where she said he had made her feel "uneasy, gross and confused" by coming up from behind her and kissing the back of her head.At the time, Biden said that in all of his years as a public figure, "not once -- never -- did I believe I acted inappropriately. If it is suggested I did so, I will listen respectfully. But it was never my intention."UPDATE: This story has been updated to reflect the comments Reade's brother made to CNN via text after initial publication of this story.CNN's Andrew Kaczynski and Kate Sullivan contributed to this story. | 0 |
U.S. troops returning from Ebola-stricken nations will be isolated for 21 days, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Wednesday, a day after the White House raised concerns about states imposing strict quarantines of health care workers returning from West Africa.Top commanders for the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps made the recommendation to Hagel on Tuesday. The Army instituted an isolation requirement for 21 days — the incubation period for the deadly virus — on Monday.Hagel directed the isolation policy be reviewed in 45 days to see whether it was necessary to continue with it, said Rear Adm. John Kirby, Pentagon press secretary."The secretary believes these initial steps are prudent," Kirby said, adding the review period will reveal "what we learn and observe from the initial wave of personnel returning from (West Africa.)"Hagel's decision goes beyond Pentagon guidelines issued earlier this month that stopped short of requiring isolation, urging only that returning troops be subject to medical monitoring.During their deployment to West Africa, U.S. troops are not treating Ebola patients but rather are assigned to building clinics and training and testing blood samples for the presence of the virus.Air Force Col. Edward Thomas, a spokesman for the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, said civilian doctors returning from West Africa are better able to monitor themselves because of their background, while most of the troops being sent to the area are young and do not have such medical training.The approach is consistent with military culture, Thomas said. Commanders have implemented stringent requirements for troops returning home in the past, and approach to Ebola is no different, he said."At least initially, we think this conservative approach is the right one," Thomas said.The developments come after the White House urged states on Tuesday to lift mandatory quarantine requirements for volunteer medical workers returning from Ebola-stricken nations out of concern the moves could discourage sorely needed health care workers from volunteering to fight the virus in West Africa. Over the weekend, New York, New Jersey and others implemented the controversial rules.The federal government's general guidance for health care workers reserves isolation only for those who have been exposed to Ebola directly. Obama and other officials said troops face different situations from civilians in part because they are not in West Africa by choice.However, President Obama appeared to acknowledge a distinction between a military requirement to isolate troops and his view that mandatory quarantines not be imposed upon civilian medical volunteers returning from West Africa."The military is a different situation, obviously. They are not there voluntarily; it's part of their mission that's been assigned to them by their commanders and ultimately by me, the commander in chief," he told reporters Tuesday. "So we don't expect to have similar rules for our military as we do for civilians."Meanwhile, the Army said Monday that it is implementing a 21-day isolation requirement for all soldiers returning from West Africa. The policy's first impact was on about dozen GIs who arrived over the weekend at a U.S. military installation in Vicenza, Italy, including commander of Army forces in Africa, Maj. Gen. Darryl Williams.Williams and his troops are being housed in a separate facility and are not allowed contact with family members for the 21-day period. The troops are provided access to a gym, a day room, TV and the Internet. They are being monitored for any signs of infection. | 0 |
Syrian civil war in photos – In this photo provided by the anti-government activist group Aleppo Media Center, Syrian men help survivors out of a building in Aleppo after it was bombed, allegedly by a Syrian regime warplane on Saturday, February 8. The United Nations estimates more than 100,000 people have been killed since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011. Click through to see the most compelling images taken during the conflict, which is now a civil war:Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians gather at a site hit by barrel bombs, allegedly dropped by a regime helicopter on the opposition-controlled Mesekin Hananu district of Aleppo on February 8.Syrian civil war in photos – Civilians wave national flags as they take part in a rally in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, in a handout photo released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency on February 8.Syrian civil war in photos – A man stands next to debris in the road following a reported airstrike by Syrian government forces in the northern city of Aleppo on February 8.Syrian civil war in photos – Medical personnel look for survivors after a reported airstrike in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, February 1.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians carry a dead body following an airstrike on February 1.Syrian civil war in photos – A man walks amid debris and dust on January 31.Syrian civil war in photos – An injured man is covered in dust after an airstrike on January 29.Syrian civil war in photos – A man tries to fix electrical wires in a neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, on January 27.Syrian civil war in photos – Rebels and civilians check out a crater that activists say resulted from a Syrian government airstrike on an Aleppo bus station on Tuesday, January 21.Syrian civil war in photos – Men rush to a site that Syrian government forces reportedly hit in Aleppo on January 21.Syrian civil war in photos – Buildings lie in ruins in Aleppo on Sunday, January 19, after reported air raids by Syrian government planes.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian child collects items from a garbage pile on Saturday, January 18, in Douma, northeast of the capital.Syrian civil war in photos – A piece of exploded mortar lies in a street in Daraya, a city southwest of Damascus, on Friday, January 17.Syrian civil war in photos – Residents search for survivors in Aleppo on Saturday, December 28, 2013, after what activists said were airstrikes by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Syrian civil war in photos – A man appears distraught after an air raid in Aleppo on Monday, December 23. Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters sit in a damaged house in Old Aleppo on Saturday, December 21. Syrian civil war in photos – People search for survivors amid the rubble after an airstrike in Aleppo on Tuesday, December 17. Syrian civil war in photos – A man sits on the ground after the airstrike in Aleppo on December 17.Syrian civil war in photos – A woman carries children following airstrikes on a rebel area of Aleppo on Sunday, December 15.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians look at the aftermath of an airstrike on a rebel area of Aleppo on December 15.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians help a wounded woman following airstrikes in Aleppo on December 15.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians look at the aftermath of an airstrike on a rebel area of Aleppo on December 15.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebel fighters clash with pro-government forces in Aleppo on Wednesday, December 11.Syrian civil war in photos – A woman weeps inside a damaged vehicle after forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad captured the town of Nabak on Monday, December 9.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter takes position during fighting with government forces in Deir Ezzor on Monday, December 2.Syrian civil war in photos – Shiite fighters from a group called the Hussein Brigade search for rebels from the Free Syrian Army in Hejeira on Thursday, November 21.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army rebels battle government forces in Aleppo on Monday, November 18.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter holds his position in a damaged building during clashes with government forces in Deir Ezzor on Monday, November 11.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter fires during clashes with government forces in Deir Ezzor on November 11.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter prepares an improvised mortar shell in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, November 9.Syrian civil war in photos – Two injured men are transported on a cart in Aleppo, Syria, following shelling as fighting between pro-government forces and rebels continues on Saturday, October 26. Syrian civil war in photos – Rebel fighters hold a position in Deir Ezzor, Syria, on Thursday, October 24.Syrian civil war in photos – An opposition fighter stands in the doorway of a building as he smokes a cigarette in Deir Ezzor, Syria, on Tuesday, October 22.Syrian civil war in photos – People use buckets as they try to extinguish a fire that ignited at a fuel station in Aleppo, Syria, on Sunday, October 20. Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian opposition fighter aims a catapult toward regime forces in Aleppo, Syria, on Thursday, October 17.Syrian civil war in photos – Firefighters extinguish a burning vehicle after two mortar rounds struck the Abu Roumaneh area in Damascus, Syria, on Saturday, October 12.Syrian civil war in photos – An opposition fighter aims as others run for cover while they hold a position behind burning tires in the Salaheddin district of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Wednesday, October 9.Syrian civil war in photos – An opposition fighter smokes a cigarette as he takes a break following the injury of his friend in the Salaheddin neighborhood of Aleppo on October 9.Syrian civil war in photos – Smoke rises after a mortar shell hit a residential area during fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels in Maaret al-Numan, Syria, on October, 9.Syrian civil war in photos – Rebel fighters cover a car in mud for camouflage at an undisclosed location in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib on Tuesday, October 8.Syrian civil war in photos – Masked female rebel fighters walk alongside their trainer on a street in the Salaheddin district of Aleppo, Syria, on October 8.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter prays moments before heading into battle in Maaret al-Numan, Syria, on Monday, October 7.Syrian civil war in photos – A mother comforts her baby in an area where she and her family have taken shelter after fleeing their village turned battlefield in Syria's Idlib province on Sunday, September 22.Syrian civil war in photos – A man checks an AK-47 at his gun shop in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, September 21.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters take cover moments after firing a rocket toward government forces in the Idlib province of northern Syria on Friday, September 20.Syrian civil war in photos – Rebel fighters inspect a stairwell amid fighting against Syrian government forces on Thursday, September 19, in the Saif al-Dawla district of Aleppo, Syria.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian child sits in a village in the Idlib province countryside on September 19. Syrian civil war in photos – Opposition fighters react after returning from the battlefield in the Idlib province countryside on September 19. Syrian civil war in photos – Smoke rises after a bomb was thrown from a helicopter, hitting a rebel position during heavy fighting between troops loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and opposition fighters in the Idlib province on September 19.Syrian civil war in photos – Rebel fighters duck behind a barricade from firing in Aleppo on Wednesday, September 18.Syrian civil war in photos – AFP reporter Sammy Ketz hits the ground as a Syrian soldier runs past during sniper fire in Maalula on September 18. Ketz and a photographer were reporting on the ancient Christian Syrian town northeast of Damascus.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian opposition fighter takes a break on a mountain near a rebel camp in Idlib province on September 18. Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter rests inside a cave at a rebel camp in Idlib province on Tuesday, September 17. Syrian civil war in photos – Volunteers wear protective gear to show a class how to respond to a chemical attack in Aleppo, Syria, on September 15. For two months, Mohammad Zayed, an Aleppo University student, has been training a group of 26 civilians to respond to a chemical attack.Syrian civil war in photos – Syria's pro-Assad militia rest near Maalula, Syria, on Friday, September 13.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian soldiers take aim at rebel fighters positioned in the mountains of the Christian town of Maalula on September 13.Syrian civil war in photos – Rebels parade at a former military academy north of Aleppo during a September 13 ceremony to mark an agreement to unite two rebel brigade forces.Syrian civil war in photos – A fighter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command squats next to the covered body of an alleged foreign rebel fighter in the Yarmouk refugee camp in the Syrian capital of Damascus on Thursday, September 12. Syrian civil war in photos – An opposition fighter runs in front of a sniper curtain in the industrial area of Deir Ezzor, Syria, during clashes with regime forces on September 12. Syrian civil war in photos – A sheet hangs across an alley way to shield fighters from sniper fire as a fighter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command walks past destroyed buildings in the Yarmouk refugee camp in Damascus, Syria, on September 12. Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter stands guard inside a damaged house in Aleppo's Qastal al-Harami neighborhood on September 11. Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters climb a flight of stairs to take positions near the Hanano barracks on September 11.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian government tank is seen during clashes with Free Syrian Army fighters in Maaloula, Syria, on September 11. Syrian civil war in photos – A funeral is held on September 11 for three Christian Syrians killed during battles with an al Qaeda-linked rebel group that took control of the historic Christian town of Maaloula from regime forces during the weekend.Syrian civil war in photos – A man walks through a destroyed residential area of Saraqib, Syria, on Monday, September 9, following repeated airstrikes by government forces.Syrian civil war in photos – A soldier wears a picture of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on his chest while at a market in old Damascus on September 8.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter prays in a trench in the Damascus suburbs on September 8.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter takes up a shooting position in Aleppo on September 8.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter runs for cover in Raqqa province on September 8.Syrian civil war in photos – Buildings are heavily damaged in the Salah al-Din area of Aleppo on September 8. Syrian civil war in photos – A boy named Issa, 10, carries a mortar shell in a weapons factory of the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo on Saturday, September 7. The boy works with his father in the factory. Syrian civil war in photos – Issa fixes a mortar launcher in the Aleppo weapons factory on September 7.Syrian civil war in photos – A bedroom lies in ruins after clashes between government forces and rebels around Ariha on September 7.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian forces are seen in the Syrian Christian town of Maaloula on September 7. Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian soldier prepares large-caliber bullets for a machine gun in Maaloula on September 7. Syrian civil war in photos – A man stands inside a home damaged by heavy shelling in Arbeen, a suburb of Damascus, Syria, on September 7. Syrian civil war in photos – Men gather on the remains of a destroyed building after reported airstrikes by Syrian government forces in the rebel-held northwestern Syrian province of Idlib on Thursday, September 5. Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter takes cover as he watches forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad near Hanano barracks in Aleppo on September 3. Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters walk inside a damaged house in Aleppo on September 3.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters talk inside a burnt house in Aleppo on September 3.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter peeks through the curtains of a bedroom in Deir ez-Zor, Syria, on Monday, September 2.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters take their positions behind piled sandbags, as one of them points his weapon, in Deir ez-Zor on September 2.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter points his weapon at Syrian regime forces in Deir ez-Zor on September 2.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian firefighters try to extinguish a fire after a missile hit a residential building in Damascus, Syria, on September 2.Syrian civil war in photos – A U.N. arms expert collects samples during an inspection of a suspected chemical weapons strike site in the Ghouta area outside Damascus on August 29.Syrian civil war in photos – People search for belongings in rubble in Raqqa, Syria, on August 29.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters launch a rocket toward forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Deir Ezzor on August 29.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian Kurd uses hay to hide another woman in a training session organized by the Kurdish Women's Defense Units on Wednesday, August 28, in a northern Syrian border village. They're preparing if the area comes under attack. Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters escort U.N. vehicles with chemical weapons experts on August 28 through a site of a suspected chemical weapons attack outside Damascus. Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter takes position behind sandbags in the old city of Aleppo, Syria, on Tuesday, August 27. Syrian civil war in photos – A U.N. team leaves its Damascus, Syria, hotel in a convoy on Monday, August 26. The team was to investigate an alleged chemical attack that killed hundreds last week in a suburb of the Syrian capital. Sniper fire hit a vehicle used by the U.N. chemical weapons investigation team multiple times Monday, according to the United Nations. Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian soldier walks down a street in Damascus on Saturday, August 24.Syrian civil war in photos – Pigeons lie dead on the ground on August 24 from after what activists say is the use of chemical weapons by government forces in the Damascus suburb of Arbeen.Syrian civil war in photos – Columns of smoke rise in Barzeh after heavy shelling on Friday, August 23.Syrian civil war in photos – A young Free Syrian Army fighter is reflected in a mirror as he takes position in a house in Aleppo on Thursday, August 22.Syrian civil war in photos – Rebels move around a building in Aleppo on August 22.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels claim pro-government forces used chemical weapons to kill citizens outside Damascus on Wednesday, August 21. People inspect bodies in this photo released by the Syrian opposition Shaam News Network.Syrian civil war in photos – People search the rubble of a bombed building in Aleppo, Syria, on Friday, August 16.Syrian civil war in photos – Men bury the bodies of six members of the same family killed in a bombing in Raqqa on Saturday, August 10.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian Army soldiers patrol a devastated street in Homs on Wednesday, July 31.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters move through a hole in a wall in Khan al-Assal on Monday, July 22, after seizing the town.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter walks past swings in a deserted playground in Deir al-Zor, Syria, on Sunday, July 21.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter speaks with a fellow fighter through a hole in a wall in Deir al-Zor on July 21.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter casts a shadow on a wall as he carries his weapon in a shelter in Deir al-Zor on Thursday, July 18.Syrian civil war in photos – Yahya Sweed, 13, is comforted by his father as he lies on a bed in Kfar Nubul on Tuesday, July 16. The boy was injured by shrapnel, resulting in the amputation of his right leg.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter naps in a trench about 300 feet from the Syrian government forces' positions along the highway connecting Idlib with Latakia on Monday, July 15.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter uses a hole in the wall of a destroyed school to aim at Syrian government forces in the Izaa district of Aleppo on Sunday, July 14. Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter uses a mirror to scope out snipers loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on Friday, July 12.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter stands over a boy who was injured during shelling in Al-Bara on Monday, July 8. Syrian civil war in photos – Members of the Free Syrian Army fire a homemade rocket toward regime forces in Deir al-Zor on Sunday, June 16.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels leave their position in the northwestern town of Maaret al-Numan on Thursday, June 13. The White House said that the Syrian government has crossed a "red line" with its use of chemical weapons and announced it would start arming the rebels.Syrian civil war in photos – Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are seen near Qusayr on Thursday, May 30. Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels take position in a house during clashes with regime forces in the old city of Aleppo on May 22.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian army soldiers take control of the village of Western Dumayna north of the rebel-held city of Qusayr on Monday, May 13. Syrian troops captured three villages in Homs province, allowing them to cut supply lines to rebels inside Qusayr town, a military officer told AFP. Syrian civil war in photos – Rebel fighters fire at government forces in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, May 12. Syrian civil war in photos – Searchers use a flashlight as they look for survivors among the rubble created by what activists say was a missile attack from the Syrian regime, in Raqqa province, Syria, on April 25. Syrian civil war in photos – A Kurdish fighter from the "Popular Protection Units" (YPG) takes position inside a building in the majority-Kurdish Sheikh Maqsood area of Aleppo, on Apri. 21.Syrian civil war in photos – People walk past destroyed houses in the northern Syrian town of Azaz on Sunday, April 21. Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters take positions prior to an offensive against government forces in the Khan al-Assal area, near Aleppo on Saturday, April 20.Syrian civil war in photos – Men inspect damage at a house destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo on April 15.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian and Kurdish rebel fighters walk in the Sheikh Maqsud district of Aleppo on April 14.Syrian civil war in photos – A female rebel monitors the movement of Syrian government forces in Aleppo's Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood on Thursday, April 11.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel runs to avoid sniper fire from Syrian government forces in Aleppo on April 11.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels observe the movement of Syrian government forces around Al-Kendi hospital in Aleppo on Wednesday, April 10.Syrian civil war in photos – Rescue teams and security forces check out the scene of a deadly car bomb explosion in Damascus on April 8.Syrian civil war in photos – The fighting has taken a toll on buildings in Aleppo's Saladin district, seen here on April 8.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel runs for cover in Deir ez-Zor on April 2.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel checks for snipers across the street toward the Citadel in Aleppo, Syria, on Saturday, March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian fighter mourns the death of a friend in Aleppo on March 30, in this photo taken by iReporter Lee Harper.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian opposition fighter runs for cover from Syrian army snipers in Aleppo on Wednesday, March 27.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian girl covers her face to protect herself from fumes as a street covered with uncollected garbage is fumigated in Aleppo on Sunday, March 24.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian man and his family drive past damaged buildings in Maarat al-Numan, on Wednesday, March 20.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians carry the body of a Syrian army soldier during a funeral ceremony in Idlib province on Tuesday, March 19.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels take position in Aleppo, the largest city in the country, on March 11.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian men search for their relatives amongst the bodies of civilians executed and dumped in the Quweiq River on March 11.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter looks back as smoke rises during fighting between rebel fighters and forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad on the outskirts of Aleppo on Saturday, March 2. Syrian civil war in photos – Residents read Shaam News newspapers published by the Free Syrian Army in Aleppo on March 2.Syrian civil war in photos – A member of the Free Syrian Army reacts to the death of a comrade who was killed in fighting, at Bustan al Qasr cemetery in Aleppo on Friday, March 1.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter throws a home-made grenade at Syrian government forces in Aleppo on February 16.Syrian civil war in photos – A member of the Free Syrian Army stands with his weapon as he looks at a rainbow in Aleppo on February 16.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian woman looks through a bus window in Aleppo on February 14.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters walk through a dust-filled stairwell in Damascus on February 7.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel gestures at comrades from inside a broken armored personnel carrier in Al-Yaqubia on February 6.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter throws a hand grenade inside a Syrian Army base in Damascus on February 3.Syrian civil war in photos – People stand in the dust of a building destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo, Syria on February 3.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters run as they enter a Syrian Army base during heavy fighting in the Arabeen neighborhood of Damascus on February 3.Syrian civil war in photos – An unexploded mortar shell fired by the Syrian Army sits lodged in the ground in Damascus on January 25.Syrian civil war in photos – Fighters from Fateh al Sham unit of the Free Syrian Army fire on Syrian Army soldiers at a check point in Damascus on January 20.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army fighter walks between buildings damaged during Syrian Air Force strikes in Damascus on January 19.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel fighter tries to locate a government jet fighter in Aleppo on January 18. Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels launch a missile near the Abu Baker brigade in Albab on January 16.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian boy walks near rubbish next to tents at a refugee camp near the northern city of Azaz on the Syria-Turkey border, on January 8.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians look for survivors amid the rubble of a building targeted by a missile in Aleppo on January 7.Syrian civil war in photos – A father reacts after hearing of a shelling by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Aleppo on January 3.Syrian civil war in photos – A patient smokes a cigarette at Dar Al-Ajaza psychiatric hospital in Aleppo on December 18, 2012. The psychiatric ward, housing around 60 patients, has lacked the means to function properly since fighting broke out there in July.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians mourn a fallen rebel fighter at a rebel base in the al-Fardos area of Aleppo on December 8, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Members of Liwa (Brigade) Salahadin, a Kurdish military unit fighting alongside rebel fighters, monitor the area in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A member of Liwa Salahadin aims at a regime fighter in the besieged district of Karmel al-Jabl in Aleppo on December 6, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Two young boys sit underneath a washline in a refugee camp on the border between Syria and Turkey near Azaz on December 5, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – The bodies of three children, who were allegedly killed in a mortar shell attack that landed close to a bakery in Aleppo, on December 2, 2012, are laid out for identification by family members at a makeshift hospital at an undisclosed location of the city.Syrian civil war in photos – Smoke rises in the Hanano and Bustan al-Basha districts in Aleppo on December 1, 2012 as fighting continues through the night.Syrian civil war in photos – Damaged houses in Aleppo are seen after an airstrike on November 29, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel mourns the death of a comrade in Maraat al-Numan on November 20, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians protesters stand on Assad's portrait during an anti-regime demonstration in Aleppo on November 16, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel takes cover during fighting against Syrian government forces in Aleppo on November 15, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian opposition fighter Bazel Araj, 19, sleeps next to his pistol in Aleppo on November 11, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter fires at a Syrian government position in Aleppo on November 6, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel leaps over debris left in the street while running across a "sniper alley" near the Salahudeen district in Aleppo on November 4, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Rebels hold their position in the midst of a battle on November 3, 2012 in Aleppo.Syrian civil war in photos – A man cries while being treated in a local hospital in a rebel-controlled area of Aleppo on October 31, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A man is treated for wounds after a government jet attacked the Karm al-Aser neighborhood in eastern Aleppo on October 31, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel interrogates a handcuffed and blindfolded man suspected of being a pro-regime militiaman in Aleppo on October 26, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Smoke rises from a fuel station following a mortar attack as Syrian women walk on a rainy day in the Arqub neighborhood of Aleppo on October 25, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel fires at an army position in the Karm al-Jabal district of Aleppo on October 22, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A wounded Syrian boy sits on the back of a truck carrying victims and wounded people to a hospital following an attack by regime forces in Aleppo on October 21, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A man lies on the ground after being shot by a sniper for a second time as he waits to be rescued by members of the Al-Baraa Bin Malek Battalion, part of the Free Syria Army's Al-Fatah brigade, in Aleppo on October 20, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian army soldiers run for cover during clashes with rebel fighters at Karam al-Jabal neighborhood of Aleppo on October 20, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Smoke rises after a Syrian Air Force fighter jet fired missiles at the suburbs of the northern province of Idlib on October 16, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian opposition fighter stands near a post in Aleppo on October 11, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian man mourns the death of his father, who was killed during a government attack in Aleppo on October 10, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel fighter is carried by his friends and laid on a gurney to be treated for gunshot wounds sustained during heavy battles with government forces in Aleppo on October 1, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels help a wounded comrade to an Aleppo hospital after he was injured in a Syrian army strike on September 18, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syria Army fighters are reflected in a mirror they use to see a Syrian Army post only 50 meters away in Aleppo on September 16, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian man carrying grocery bags tries to dodge sniper fire as he runs through an alley near a checkpoint manned by the Free Syria Army in Aleppo on September 14, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A woman walks past a destroyed building in Aleppo on September 13, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Free Syrian Army fighters battle during street fighting against Syrian army soldiers in Aleppo on September 8, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian man wounded by shelling sits on a chair outside a closed shop in Aleppo on September 4, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A woman sits in her wheelchair next to her house, damaged by a Syrian air raid, near Homs on August 26, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Members of the Free Syrian Army clash with Syrian army soliders in Aleppo's Saif al-Dawla district on August 22, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A man mourns in front of a field hospital on August 21, 2012 in Aleppo.Syrian civil war in photos – Wounded civilians wait in a field hospital after an air strike on August 21, 2012 in Aleppo.Syrian civil war in photos – People pray during the funeral of a Free Syrian Army fighter, Amar Ali Amero, on August 21, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A man cries near the graves of his two children killed during a recent Syrian airstrike in Azaz on August 20, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian woman holds her dead baby as she screams upon seeing her husband's body being covered following an airstrike by regime forces on the town of Azaz on August 15, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian rebel runs in a street of Selehattin during an attack on the municipal building on July 23, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels hunt for snipers after attacking the municipality building in the city center of Selehattin on July 23, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Members of the Free Syrian Army's Mugaweer (commandos) Brigade pay their respects in a cemetery on May 12, 2012 in Qusayr.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian rebels take position near Qusayr on May 10, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army member takes cover in underground caves in Sarmin on April 9, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Rebels prepare to engage government tanks that advanced into Saraquib on April 9, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – Men say prayers during a ceremony in Binnish on April 9, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A young boy plays with a toy gun in Binnish on April 9, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A Free Syrian Army rebel mounts his horse in the Al-Shatouria village near the Turkish border in northwestern Syria on March 16, 2012, a year after the uprising began.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian refugees walk across a field before crossing into Turkey on March 14, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A rebel takes position in Al-Qsair on January 27, 2012.Syrian civil war in photos – A protester in Homs throws a tear gas bomb back towards security forces, on December 27, 2011.Syrian civil war in photos – A man stands under a giant Syrian flag outside the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on December 24, 2011.Syrian civil war in photos – A member of the Free Syrian Army looks out over a valley in the village of Ain al-Baida on December 15, 2011.Syrian civil war in photos – Members of the Free Syrian Army stand in an valley near the village of Ain al-Baida, close to the Turkish border, on December 15, 2011.Syrian civil war in photos – Displaced Syrian refugees walk through an orchard adjacent to Syria's northern border with Turkey on June 14, 2011, near Khirbet al-Jouz.Syrian civil war in photos – A Syrian man holds up a portrait of President Bashar al-Assad during a rally to show support for the president in Damascus on April 30, 2011.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians rally to show their support for President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on April 30, 2011.Syrian civil war in photos – A screen grab from YouTube shows thick smoke rising above as Syrian anti-government protesters demonstrate in Moaret Al-Noman on April 29, 2011.Syrian civil war in photos – A screen grab from YouTube shows Syrian anti-government protesters run for cover from tear gas fired by security forces in Damascus on April 29, 2011, during the "Day of Rage" demonstrations called by activists to put pressure on al-Assad.Syrian civil war in photos – A woman sits by the hospital bed of a man allegedly injured when an armed group seized rooftops in Latakia on March 27, 2011, and opened fire at passers-by, citizens and security forces personnel according to official sources.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrians wave their national flag and hold portraits of al-Assad during a rally to show their support for their leader in Damascus on March 29, 2011.Syrian civil war in photos – Syrian protesters chant slogans in support of al-Assad during a rally in Damascus on March 25, 2011. | 0 |
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