WaPo’s Josh Rogin tweets:
Officials confirm to me Patrick Shanahan is not only withdrawing from consideration, he is resigning his current Pentagon post. Last day unclear. https://t.co/zufBzZ9nmz
Continue reading...The secretary of defense has authorized the order to send soldiers to Iran, who has been blamed for attacks on oil tankers last week
The New York Times is reporting that the Justice Department has intervened to keep former Trump adviser Paul Manafort out of the notorious Rikers Island jail complex.
JUST IN: Manafort is not going to Rikers after unusual Justice Dept intervention. https://t.co/zZzlSmvLJ7 https://t.co/zZzlSmvLJ7
Manafort was set to be transferred to Rikers this month to await trial on a separate state case, according to the New York Times. But then Manhattan prosecutors received a letter from Jeffrey Rosen, the top deputy for attorney general William Barr, that indicated that “he was monitoring where Mr. Manafort would be held in New York”.
And then, on Monday, federal prison officials weighed in, telling the Manhattan district attorney’s office that Mr. Manafort, 70, would not be going to Rikers.
Continue reading...The Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg wants to start a family with his husband, Chasten, and says that could happen if he makes it to the White House.
“I don’t see why not,” the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, said in a Father’s Day television interview that also marked his first wedding anniversary.
Continue reading...NBC announces pairings for debates later this month, the first of the 2020 presidential campaign season
The first 2020 presidential debate will be divided into two nights later this month, with senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker going up against the former congressman Beto O’Rourke in the first session. The former vice-president, Joe Biden, will face off with South Bend’s mayor, Pete Buttigieg, and senators Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders on the second evening.
NBC announced the lineup on Friday for its two-night debate, which will begin 26 June in Miami, and is set to be the first direct showdown between the Democrats vying to take on Donald Trump.
Continue reading...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...Documents relate to decision to insert a citizenship question, which the census bureau itself acknowledges will reduce participation
Sticking with the 2020 race, we have a report that former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is taking time off from exploring a presidential run.
Hallie Golden has a quick story for us:
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz will be taking the summer off from exploring his potential 2020 bid for the US presidency. In a statement released Wednesday, Schultz said he experienced “acute back pain” while he was traveling in Arizona as part of his campaign work, and ultimately had to undergo three back surgeries. He said he has decided to spend the summer focused on rest and rehabilitation.
“I take this detour from the road reluctantly,” Schultz said. “My concern for our country’s future remains, as does my belief that the American people deserve so much more from our elected officials.”
In January, the billionaire announced he would explore a potential run for the presidency as an independent candidate. The news sparked a backlash from leading Democrats worried such a move could help President Donald Trump win his reelection bid in 2020.
Schultz has spent months traveling to 15 states, talking with thousands of local residents as part of his campaign. In January, he visited his home town of Seattle to promote his new book and was greeted by dozens of protestors. He said he will be back in touch after Labor Day.
We’ll return to the Democratic 2020 campaign for a short while and to my colleague Adam Gabbatt who spent the morning with Texas Democrat Beto O’Rourke here in New York.
O’Rourke, whose campaign has dropped off in recent weeks according to some polls was her to take part in a morning run with LGBTQ activists.
O’Rourke turned up right on time, ready for action. The 47-year-old was decked out in full running garb for the two-mile jog, mid-thigh shorts displaying willowy legs. He was wearing an Iowa Cubs baseball hat, which seemed on message given the importance of the Hawkeye State in the Democratic primaries.
“Everybody ready to run?” O’Rourke asked the roughly 30 people who had assembled on a popular running path close to the Hudson River. There was a muted response. “Two miles is all we’re doing,” he added, which served to lift spirits a little.
Continue reading...President revived attacks on the media and denied a report his campaign’s polling found him in a weak position across 17 states
Donald Trump on Wednesday lashed out at new polling results showing the president in deep trouble as he mounts his 2020 re-election bid.
A day after a survey found at least six Democratic presidential candidates would defeat Trump in a head-to-head election matchup, the president revived his attacks on the media while dismissing the numbers as, in his view, “fake polling”.
Continue reading...Biden and Trump to hold duelling rallies in key battleground state, while big tech under scrutiny at congressional hearing in Washington
Well, Donald Trump is tweeting again ... (not that he ever stopped).
The president took to his favorite social media platform on Tuesday to refer to the Russia investigation as “the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time” and once again suggest, falsely, that he had been exonerated by special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
“Mueller has spoken. He found No Collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russians. The bottom line is what the Democrat House is doing is trying to destroy the Trump Presidency (which has been a tremendous success), and I can assure you that we’re done with the Mueller......
....investigation in the Senate. They can talk to John Dean until the cows come home, we’re not doing anything in the Senate regarding the Mueller Report. We are going to harden our Infrastructure against 2020!” @LindseyGrahamSC
Vice president Mike Pence has defended the Trump administration’s move to bar US embassies from flying the rainbow pride flag during LBGTQ pride month as “the right decision”.
“We’re proud to be able to serve every American,” Pence said in an interview with NBC News late Monday. “But when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies, and capitals around the world, one American flag flies.”
At least four US embassies – in Israel, Germany, Brazil and Latvia – were denied permission to fly the pride flag. Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany, is spearheading an American campaign to decriminalize homosexuality around the world and said he would be “proud” to fly the rainbow flag.
But Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, believes that embassy flagpoles should be reserved for the American flag only, according to a spokeswoman.
Continue reading...Hillary Clinton’s youngest brother, Tony Rodham, died on Friday night, the former Democratic presidential candidate said on Twitter.
Rodham’s age was not immediately known but he was born in 1954, six years after Clinton, 71, and four years after the other Rodham sibling, Hugh, 69, in the Chicago suburbs.
Continue reading...Campaigners will be wearing orange as a tribute to Hadiya Pendleton, a 15-year-old shot dead in Chicago in 2013
Billionaire Charles Koch’s conservative political network is launching four new PACs, CNN reports.
The groups will back incumbents in primaries who have sided with Koch’s positions on trade, immigration and other issues. His organization, Americans for Prosperity, is working to distance itself from Donald Trump and his wing of the Republican party, CNN reports.
More than three quarters of Americans support upholding the Roe v Wade decision legalizing abortion, according to a new poll.
In the NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist Poll, a total of 77% of Americans said they support keeping the landmark decision in place in some form, while 13% want it overturned. Americans are split, however, on how many restrictions there should be on abortion access: 26% say they want to keep Roe but add more restrictions, 21% want to expand it to allow abortion in any circumstance, 16% want to keep it in its current form, and 14% want to keep it while removing some abortion restrictions.
Leading Democrat Jerry Nadler says he may issue subpoena to special counsel if Mueller does not agree to testify voluntarily
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg returned to the Supreme Court bench after surgery for cancer this year and is leaning on her colleagues for support. From the Associated Press:
Since Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s return in late winter from cancer surgery and broken ribs , she has regularly accepted Justice Clarence Thomas’ extended hand to help her down the three steps behind the Supreme Court bench when the gavel falls and court ends for the day.
There’s something touching about seeing the 86-year-old liberal icon and the 70-year-old conservative stalwart briefly join hands to exit the courtroom. Most people in the courtroom can’t see the justices once they leave the bench, but the seats reserved for reporters offer a good view.
Troops deployed to California are being tasked with painting the border wall between the US and Mexico, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said on Wednesday, in a tweet that called it “a disgraceful use of government spending.”
DHS informed Congress today that troops are going to spend the next month painting the border wall & “the primary purpose is to improve the aesthetic appearance.” A disgraceful misuse of taxpayer $$. Our military has more important work to do than making Trump’s wall beautiful.
Continue reading...Officials say language classes and recreation programs for immigrant children staying in federal shelters ‘not directly necessary’
Vice President Mike Pence will meet Wednesday with top Mexican officials who are seeking to head off the administration’s threatened tariffs, the Hill reports.
Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard is representing his country at the talks and expected to argue Mexico is already taking steps to prevent migrants from crossing the US-Mexico border.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says Paul Manafort should not be held in solitary confinement, and nor should anyone else. Manafort, Donald Trump’s former campaign chair, is reportedly heading for Rikers Island where he’s likely to be held in solitary while awaiting trial on New York state charges.
Yes - released from solitary.
NYT used the term solitary confinement, & that’s what I am commenting on.
“Protective custody” IS a separate practice, but does not necessarily exclude solitary. If he is in fact not being held in solitary, great. Release everyone else from it too.
A day after the deadliest US mass shooting this year in which 12 people were shot dead at a government building, Elizabeth Warren was asked what she would do to confront an “overwhelming surge” in such events.
The Massachusetts senator said she wanted to reframe the question, then continued: “It’s not just mass shootings.” Every day in America, she said, gun violence occurs “on sidewalks and playgrounds and people’s backyards. It’s happening family by family across the country. And it doesn’t get the same headlines. And that is wrong.”
Continue reading...The New York congresswoman serves food and mixes drinks in a restaurant as part of an effort to promote increased wages for tipped staff. Ocasio-Cortez told cheering workers the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour was equivalent to 'indentured servitude'. She worked as a bartender before getting elected to Congress last year.
Continue reading...Fourteen hopefuls flock to party convention in anti-Trump state with newly pivotal role in primaries
On a recent visit to California, Joe Biden polished off a plate of tacos with the Los Angeles mayor, Eric Garcetti. Pete Buttigieg was feted by Gwyneth Paltrow at a star-studded fundraising event in Los Angeles. Beto O’Rourke trekked to Yosemite national park to unveil his $5tn plan to combat climate change. And Kamala Harris, California’s native daughter, has flexed her home state credentials with a long list of local endorsements.
Competition is already well under way in California, but the race for the Golden State’s more than 400 delegates will heat up this weekend as more than half of the two dozen candidates auditioning for the chance to unseat Donald Trump arrive in San Francisco for the state party’s annual convention.
Continue reading...Last remaining abortion clinic in the state expects to close within 72 hours, as Planned Parenthood prepares to file a lawsuit
Netflix has become the first Hollywood giant to pledge action should Georgia’s extremist abortion law come into effect.
In a statement to CNBC the streaming and film production company said it would “rethink our entire investment in Georgia” should the so-called “heartbeat law” go into effect.
Vice president Mike Pence has responded to the Supreme Court decision earlier in the day that upholds an Indiana law requiring fetal remains be disposed of in the same way has human bodies.
The law was signed by Pence, then the governor of Indiana, in 2016.
Today, Justice Thomas wrote: SCOTUS has been zealous in the past in barring discrimination based on sex, race, & disability. Hopeful someday soon SCOTUS will recognize the same protections for the unborn when they rule on future appeals of pro-life legislation.
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That’s all from me! Here’s a rundown on the day’s major events:
Abortion providers reported an “alarming escalation” in incidents of disruption and intimidation in 2018, according to a new report by their professional association, the National Abortion Federation (NAF).
Trespassing reached the highest level since the NAF began recording such incidents in 1999, while incidents of obstruction grew 78% from 2017 to 2018. Providers also reported record levels of picketing (99,409 incidents) since recording began in 1977, and the highest number of incidents of vandalism (125) since 1990.
Continue reading...Footage of House speaker deliberately slowed down to make her appear drunk or ill
Facebook says it will continue to host a video of Nancy Pelosi that has been edited to give the impression that the Democratic House speaker is drunk or unwell, in the latest incident highlighting its struggle to deal with disinformation.
The viral clip shows Pelosi – who has publicly angered Donald Trump in recent days – speaking at an event, but it has been slowed down to give the impression she is slurring her words. Several versions of the clip appeared to be circulating.
Continue reading...Footage of the Democratic House Speaker was edited to make her appear drunk or unwell, in the latest incident highlighting social media's struggle to deal with disinformation. Compare the original footage with the viral clip
• Facebook refuses to delete fake Pelosi video spread by Trump supporters
Continue reading...The Democratic speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, said the White House was “crying out for impeachment” and called for Donald Trump’s family to intervene in the president’s wellbeing “for the good of the country”. The dramatic statements came one day after Trump stormed out of a meeting in the Oval Office with Pelosi and the Democratic Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer, about infrastructure legislation, and then held a hastily called press conference to say he wouldn’t work with Democrats until they stop investigating him.
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