Sanders helped to roll back women’s rights while allowing the Trump administration to boast about ‘empowering women’
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Continue reading...Category Archives: Trump administration
Biden, Sanders and Harris to face off as Democratic debate lineups set – live
Trio drawn together for split NBC debate on 26-27 June, while Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren and Beto O’Rourke to meet in other group
The Wall Street Journal has an interesting read about how after launching an atypical presidential election bid, Donald Trump’s 2020 campaign team is taking a more traditional path:
The campaign aims to build a political infrastructure that can operate regardless of what Mr. Trump says on stage or on social media. Mr. Trump’s Twitter feed is spoken of as his own brand, separate from the campaign.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders has only a few weeks left of her tenure as White House press secretary and the rumor mill is churning with possible replacements.
Four possible replacements, according to Reuters, are: Stephanie Grisham, Melania Trump’s communications director; Heather Nauert, the former State Department spokeswoman; Tony Sayegh, the outgoing Treasury department spokesman and Hogan Gidley, deputy White House secretary.
Once, after watching Gidley on his screen in the residence, the President walked over to the communications office to tell the staff he thought they were handling the shutdown well.
In the days afterward, Trump confused several officials when he directed them to, “Get me Tidley.”
Continue reading...Trump hails the departing Sarah Sanders: ‘A very fine woman’ – video
The White House press secretary, Sarah Sanders, whose tenure was marked by a breakdown in regular press briefings and questions about the administration's credibility, as well as her own, will leave her post at the end of the month, Donald Trump has announced. Sanders is one of the US president's closest and most trusted White House aides and one of the few remaining staff who worked on his campaign
Continue reading...US says video shows Iranian military removing mine from tanker
- US secretary of state accuses Tehran of ‘lashing out’
- Iran denies responsibility for early morning attack
The US military has released video footage it says shows an Iranian military patrol boat approach one of two tankers attacked in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, to support the Trump administration’s claims that Iran was responsible.
The blurry black and white footage, taken from the air, shows a small military boat alongside a tanker and someone stand up on the prow of the boat to remove an object from the tanker’s hull. The small boat then pulls away from the tanker. US officials were quoted as saying the boat was an Iranian Revolutionary Guard patrol boat approaching the tanker after it was attacked, and the object removed was an unexploded limpet mine.
Continue reading...Sarah Sanders’ tenure as press secretary ended long before her exit
Analysis: the departing White House spokeswoman, who has not held a press briefing in months, spun a web of deceit in her role
“You’re fired!”
Donald Trump was joking when he barked these words at his press secretary, Sarah Sanders, during a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, in April – on a night when both were snubbing the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner.
Continue reading...Sarah Sanders exits after two fraught years as Trump hails ‘a very fine woman’
- Sanders, who made false claims on Trump’s behalf, departs
- Press secretary says ‘I love the president’ in emotional farewell
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, has become the latest official to leave Donald Trump’s volatile administration, but in an emotional farewell she insisted: “I love the president.”
Related: Sarah Sanders to stand down as Trump's press secretary – live
Continue reading...Kellyanne Conway violated US law and should be fired, federal watchdog says
White House spokesman says the agency’s report that the counselor had violated the Hatch Act was ‘deeply flawed’
A US federal watchdog is recommending that Donald Trump fire one of his most ardent and high-profile defenders, White House counselor Kellyanne Conway, for repeatedly violating a law that limits political activity by government workers.
Conway should be removed from federal office, the US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) announced on Thursday.
Continue reading...Mueller report shows ‘evidence of collusion’, says Nixon lawyer John Dean – live
- Former White House counsel Dean testifies to judiciary panel
- Nadler: DoJ has ‘agreed to begin complying with our subpoena’
- Sign up to the US briefing and get a new perspective
Richard Nixon’s former White House counsel John Dean testified before the House judiciary committee today, bringing the fire by stating that “Robert Mueller has provided this committee with a road map” to impeachment.
It appears Dean’s superfans were also there.
John Dean superfans asking him to sign Watergate paraphernalia is a very 2019 thing pic.twitter.com/3ZUDars4Lf
Here’s something fun: Lissandra Villa, a Time magazine reporter, has the walk-out song playlist for the 2020 candidates at the Iowa Democrats Hall of Fame campaign event yesterday.
It’s a good list. We’ve got Dolly Parton for Elizabeth Warren, Lizzo for Kirsten Gillibrand, Marvin Gaye for Tulsi Gabbard, the Clash for Beto O’Rourke, John Lennon for Bernie Sanders, Mary J. Blige for Kamala Harris.
Here is the walk-out song playlist for the candidates at the Iowa Democrats Hall of Fame campaign yesterday. The songs were chosen by the campaigns. pic.twitter.com/Aphykxt322
Continue reading...Company part-owned by Jared Kushner got $90m from unknown offshore investors since 2017
Overseas investment flowed to Cadre while Trump’s son-in-law works as US envoy, raising conflict of interest questions
A real estate company part-owned by Jared Kushner has received $90m in foreign funding from an opaque offshore vehicle since he entered the White House as a senior adviser to his father-in-law Donald Trump.
Investment has flowed from overseas to the company, Cadre, while Kushner works as an international envoy for the US, according to corporate filings and interviews. The money came through a vehicle run by Goldman Sachs in the Cayman Islands, a tax haven that guarantees corporate secrecy.
Continue reading...Trump budget chief wants delay in Huawei restrictions
- Russell Vought makes request in letter to Pence and Congress
- Mnuchin: trade progress with China could ease Huawei actions
The Trump administration’s acting budget chief is asking for a delay in restrictions against Huawei products, according to a letter to Vice-President Mike Pence and nine members of Congress.
Related: ‘All I have done, no credit!’ Enraged Trump defends US-Mexico migrant deal
Continue reading...‘All I have done, no credit!’ Enraged Trump defends US-Mexico migrant deal
President tweets ire at New York Times and opponents as agreement to avoid tariffs comes under scrutiny
The Trump administration was forced to defend its immigration agreement with Mexico on Sunday, amid reports that key provisions in the deal, forged under the threat of trade tariffs, were mostly old commitments agreed to months ago.
Related: Mexican president leads 'celebration' rally after US tariffs dropped
Continue reading...US ambassador: Israel has right to annex parts of West Bank
- David Friedman gives interview to New York Times
- ‘Israel has right to some, but unlikely all’ of disputed territory
The US ambassador to Israel did not rule out an Israeli move to annex parts of the occupied West Bank, land the Palestinians seek for a state, in an interview with the New York Times published on Saturday.
Related: Jared Kushner casts doubt on Palestinian ability to self-govern
Continue reading...Trump officials snub strongman Khalifa Haftar as US shifts course on Libya
Administration gives Libyan National Army chief cold shoulder less than two months after Trump showed support in surprise call
The Trump administration has given the cold shoulder to Libyan warlord Khalifa Haftar, less than two months after Trump appeared to show support for him in a surprise phone call, and is now rethinking its policy towards the country’s civil war, according to multiple sources in the US and the region.
Encouraged by the 15 April call, Haftar and his Libyan National Army (LNA) hired lobbyists in Washington in the hope of arranging an official visit by the field marshal, who is a dual Libyan-US national, or one of his top aides, to reinforce the impression that he had US backing in his offensive against the UN-backed government in Tripoli.
Continue reading...Trump wants to sell more weapons to Saudi Arabia. Congress must stop him | Mohamad Bazzi
The administration wants to sell $8bn of weapons to Saudi Arabia and UAE – and prop up a morally indefensible war
On the Friday before Memorial Day, when few Americans were paying attention, the Trump administration announced that it would circumvent Congress and sell $8bn in new weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. It was Donald Trump’s latest attempt to give a blank check to two US allies leading a disastrous war in Yemen.
Related: UK arms exports are still playing a central role in Yemen’s humanitarian crisis | Anna Stavrianakis
Continue reading...Trump’s anti-abortion global gag rule harming women in Africa and Asia, report says
‘People are dying as a result of the policy’ that bans aid to foreign groups who provide or promote abortions, says author of report
The Trump administration’s anti-abortion restrictions on US global health aid funding have significantly damaged health care for women in Africa and central Asia, according to a new report.
Restrictions on funding also include limiting access to funds for sex education, and shifting funds to anti-LGBTQ and pro-abstinence groups such as Focus on the Family, researchers say.
Continue reading...Pompeo: US will talk to Iran if it acts like a ‘normal nation’
- Secretary of state: ‘We’re prepared … to engage in conversations’
- Rouhani: Iran would hold talks if Washington shows it respect
The US is prepared to engage with Iran about its nuclear program without pre-conditions but needs to see the country behaving like “a normal nation”, secretary of state Mike Pompeo said on Sunday.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani suggested on Saturday that Iran may be willing to hold talks if Washington shows it respect, but said Tehran would not be pressured into talks.
Continue reading...Donald Trump is lashing out at Mexico but his real fight is at home | Phillip Inman
Democrats are turning a president enraged at the blocking of his border wall into an unhinged beast
Donald Trump’s threats of higher import tariffs against Mexican goods can be better understood not as an escalation of his trade war with the rest of the world, but as the act of a desperate man, prepared to upset most US business leaders to achieve his aim of building a border wall with the country’s southern neighbour.
His anger, which he will bring with him on a state visit to London on Monday, is not so much with Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s administration in Mexico City as with Congress, which has blocked the border wall, or at least restricted funding to such an extent that its completion is unlikely before the next presidential race gets under way.
Continue reading...Mexico could tighten migration controls to defuse Trump tariffs threat
- Andrés Manuel López Obrador hints at concession to US
- Talks over US president threat in Washington next week
Mexico’s president hinted on Saturday that his country could tighten migration controls in order to defuse Donald Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on Mexican goods. Andrés Manuel López Obrador also said he expected “good results” from talks in Washington next week.
Related: 'No idea too lunatic': how Trump's shock troops attack US democracy
Continue reading...Judge blocks closure of Missouri’s last abortion clinic – live
- President Dr Leana Wen says: ‘This is a terrifying time’
- Missouri clinic faced shutdown at midnight
- Sign up for the US briefing and get a new perspective
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been bartending this week - returning to the job she had before running for Congress - to raise support for living wage legislation. NY1 and WNYC have some scenes from today’s venue.
She’s now going around the restaurant, pen and pad in hand taking orders.
.@AOC begins serving tables at an embargoed location in Queens - she says she’s excited for servers to be the served today. pic.twitter.com/YdCjZvkSI7
There’s a new push from the left to defeat one of the only remaining anti-abortion Democrat in the House, BuzzFeed reports.
Progressives are targeting Dan Lipinski, an Illinois congressman. Marie Newman, a Chicago businesswoman, is running against him for the second time. “This type of legislation is authoritarian and totalitarian. There’s no other way to describe it,” Newman told BuzzFeed of the recent spate of state-level abortion bans. “Let’s be honest about what it is. It’s taking us back 100 years, and that’s not exaggerating.”
Continue reading...Donald Trump defends tariffs on Mexico as stock markets reel
After 5% tariff announced, president tweets ‘Mexico has taken advantage of the US for decades’
Donald Trump has defended his decision to impose new tariffs on Mexico as stock markets worldwide were rattled by fears of an escalation in trade tensions.
“Mexico has taken advantage of the United States for decades,” Trump tweeted. “Because of the Dems, our Immigration Laws are BAD. Mexico makes a FORTUNE from the U.S., have for decades, they can easily fix this problem. Time for them to finally do what must be done!”
Continue reading...