Donald Trump used racist language to attack “the Squad” on Sunday, saying four progressive Democrats who have clashed with party leaders should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”.
Related: ‘Is Bernie going to come?’ Warren seizes on Sanders' Netroots absence
Continue reading...Acosta was under fire for having granted Jeffrey Epstein immunity from federal prosecution in 2008, following sex trafficking ring investigation
Another big House vote this afternoon.
With a 402-12 vote, Congress approved a bill that would ensure funding for the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund.
Jon Stewart says he looks forward to signing ceremony for bill funding 9/11 first responders compensation fund: "We'll all be here for that one final moment—not of celebration, but of relief. Let them exhale." https://t.co/NkJuIoh4fP pic.twitter.com/p7PI4cLDOc
The House has just voted to limit Trump’s authority to make war in Iran as part of a bill which also restricts the president’s budget request for the Pentagon.
Republicans joined the majority Democrats for a 251-170 vote.
Trump said last month he believes he does not need congressional approval to strike Iran. The vote Friday amounted to a pointed and bipartisan rebuttal — led by strange ideological bedfellows, Representatives Ro Khanna, a liberal Democrat from California, and Matt Gaetz of Florida, one of Trump’s most strident Republican allies in Congress.
“When this passes, it will be a clear statement from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that this country is tired of endless wars, that we do not want another war in the Middle East,” Khanna said before the amendment vote.
Continue reading...Fox News host railed against Democratic congresswoman in monologue full of anti-immigrant rhetoric and personal insults
The Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar has called the Fox News presenter Tucker Carlson a “racist fool” after he made a racially loaded attack on her live on air.
Related: Trump's Fourth of July event 'bankrupted Washington DC security fund' – live
Continue reading...Billionaire environmental activist Tom Steyer has formally launched his campaign for president, making a late entry into the sprawling 2020 Democratic field that has already held its first round of primary debates.
Related: Donald Trump: we will no longer deal with the British ambassador
Continue reading...Pelosi attacks Trump’s 2020 citizenship question as ‘disgraceful’, while Trump says US will no longer deal with UK ambassador Kim Darroch
As House Democrats began issuing subpoenas for President Trump’s financial records, the Justice Department fought a federal judge’s decision to allow the lawsuit accusing Trump of profiting off the presidency to go forward, the Associated Press is reporting:
Justice Department lawyers want an appeals court to take the case instead.
They filed papers Monday seeking to move the case from federal court in D.C. to the U.S. Court of Appeals in Richmond, Virginia. They also want to stop subpoena requests seeking Trump’s business tax returns, and documents from Trump’s D.C. and New York hotels, Mar-a-Lago Club and Trump Tower.
Our climate and environment reporter, Susie Cagle, listened in on President Trump’s speech about “maintaining a healthy environment.” Here are some choice quotes from the speech:
Related: What Trump gets wrong about wildfires, by a fire scientist
Continue reading...Donald Trump has compared Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Eva Perón, saying that though he first saw the New York congresswoman “ranting and raving like a lunatic on a street corner” and thinks “she knows nothing”, she has “a certain talent”.
Related: When Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez met Greta Thunberg: 'Hope is contagious'
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We’re ending live coverage for the day, thanks for following along! Here’s a recap and key links from the day:
The Washington Post takes a look at how just how much paper the 2020 Census will require. Spoiler alert: it’s a lot.
The amount of paper that will be printed for the Census is more than enough to cover the entirety of D.C. https://t.co/UM0WY7XCAk
Continue reading...Democratic frontrunner defends ‘centre-left’ credentials but admits he wasn’t prepared for debate attack from Kamala Harris
Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential frontrunner, hit out at the Democratic party’s left wing on Friday, suggesting firebrand progressives cannot win in battleground states.
Biden meanwhile admitted he wasn’t prepared for the attack by rising challenger Senator Kamala Harris on his historic handling of race issues in the first primary debates last week – and said Donald Trump was a bully and he would “smack him in the mouth”.
Continue reading...Kamala Harris was the big winner of the first round of Democratic party debates in the US. This week, her poll numbers surged and so did donations to her campaign. But as Lauren Gambino in Washington notes, it was bad news for the frontrunners as Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders faltered. Also today: Daniel Boffey on the new cast of characters taking over the EU’s top jobs
The race for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination is intensifying after two rounds of televised debates in which the candidates squared up to each other on major issues and their past records. The big winner was the California senator Kamala Harris, who denounced the record of the frontrunner, Joe Biden, on race.
The Guardian’s Lauren Gambino joins Anushka Asthana to look across the diverse field of potential presidential nominees and the debates that highlighted the generational and ideological divides in the party.
Continue reading...Booker, a Democratic presidential candidate, says Biden has ‘an inability to talk candidly about the mistakes he made’
The Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker said on Sunday that while the US must fix racial injustice, he is not sure Joe Biden is “up to that task”.
Related: Julián Castro calls Trump Jr a ‘coward’ over racist attack on Kamala Harris
Continue reading...Donald Trump has dismissed former President Jimmy Carter’s swipe at the legitimacy of his presidency, calling it nothing more than a “Democrat talking point” while offering his own digs at the 94-year-old Carter.
Related: US-China trade talks back on track, says Trump
Continue reading...Ten more candidates battle it out in the contest to become the Democratic nominee for president. It was a strong night for Kamala Harris, who criticised the former vice-president Joe Biden’s record on race. Biden also took a blow from Eric Swalwell, who suggested the former should live by what he said 32 years ago and ‘pass the torch to a new generation’
Continue reading...California senator Kamala Harris confronted former vice president Joe Biden over his civil rights record during the second Democratic debate. “I do not believe you are a racist,” Harris said, looking directly at the former vice-president. “But, it is personal and it was actually hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country.” Biden labelled the accusation "a mischaracterisation of my position".
Continue reading...California senator’s experience of school integration overshadows expected face-off between ex-vice-president and Bernie Sanders
Ten more Democratic presidential candidates clashed in Miami on Thursday night over the best approach to remove Donald Trump from office in 2020, in a contentious debate featuring an explosive challenge from senator Kamala Harris on race that left former vice president Joe Biden rattled.
On a stage divided along generational and ideological lines, the debate – the second over two days to accommodate the huge field of candidates vying for the Democratic nomination – saw Biden, who has dominated the early stages of the race, face off against Vermont senator Bernie Sanders.
Continue reading...The 10 candidates on stage in Miami accurately conveyed the urgency of global heating but missed chances to show how it underlies all key political issues
Thursday’s Democratic debate demonstrated just how far the the US is from contemplating the climate crisis as a threat that will touch almost all areas of American life and policymaking.
Once again, debate moderators waited until nearly 80 minutes into the debate to pose questions on the climate emergency.
Continue reading...Justice says move ‘imperils system of government’ as court blocks 2020 census citizenship question for now in blow to Trump
The big question around the citizenship/census ruling: will the Trump administration have the time / organization to mount a new effort to put the question in place before 2020 Census season (and it’s unclear just when the cutoff here is)?:
This seems like the same “unring the bell” logic of the Muslim ban decision. “Come back and lie to us about your motives more convincingly, please.” https://t.co/LjgGeyc6Xx
More reactions:
This ruling on gerrymandering is exactly why it is not enough to just win the next election. The Supreme Court is helping Republicans *rig* the elections. Democrats need a *proactive* plan to confront the partisan capture of the Court.
On the census, the Trump administration’s lies went so far that even this Supreme Court had to say no. If this leads to a result with no citizenship question, that would be a very welcome outcome, and it would also preserve the status quo. This should have been an easy case, and in the end, it was.
But Chief Justice Roberts’ ruling that no federal court can ever consider claims of extreme and unconstitutional partisan gerrymandering is truly appalling for the long term health of our democracy. It’s a judicial green light for egregious partisanship, a permission slip for politicians to entrench themselves without fear of judicial intervention.
This is a victory for all New Yorkers who refuse to be undercounted, discriminated against, or driven into the shadows. The Trump administration must not be allowed to weaponize the census in its war on immigrants, people of color, and the poor. From the very beginning, the administration has hoped to add a citizenship question in order to undercount, marginalize, and limit the political power of immigrant communities. The justices saw through the Trump administration’s absurd excuses for the addition of the question. We will do everything we can with our partners to ensure that all New Yorkers are counted.”
Continue reading...It was a good night for Cory Booker, Julián Castro and Elizabeth Warren. But Beto O’Rourke and others missed their chance to break through
The big question on everybody’s mind was whether the Massachusetts senator Elizabeth Warren, 70, would continue her meteoric rise into the top tier of candidates.
Continue reading...A technical glitch delayed the second hour of the Democratic debate on Wednesday (June 26), forcing moderators Chuck Todd and Rachel Maddow to pause and go to commercial. US president Donald Trump took aim at broadcasters NBC News and MSNBC, which he accuses of treating him unfairly. He posted on Twitter, "@NBCNews and @MSNBC should be ashamed of themselves for having such a horrible technical breakdown in the middle of the debate. Truly unprofessional and only worthy of a FAKE NEWS Organization, which they are!".
Continue reading...Ten of the Democrats running for their party’s 2020 presidential nomination faced off in Miami in the first of two primetime TV debates on Wednesday night, presenting their competing visions for a post-Trump America. Healthcare and immigration, more than any other issues, led the debate
Bold ideas on the debate stage in Miami – and an unexpected breakout star. Here’s the verdict from our panelists
Generously speaking, Democratic presidential candidates tonight spent a little less than 10 minutes after nearly an hour and a half had gone by answering a handful of direct questions about a climate crisis that could make large swathes of the planet horrifically uninhabitable by the end of this century. (NBC’s technical difficulties took nearly as long.) The best you can say is that tonight’s climate bit was still longer than the time spent on climate during the entirety of the 2016 debates.
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