President Donald Trump on Thursday night relished how Portland, Oregon Mayor Ted Wheeler had gotten roughed up at an anti-police brutality protest in his city the day before.
Do Feds Actually Have The Authority To Disperse ‘Unlawful Assemblies’ In Portland?
As Homeland Security agents continue their unwelcome residency in Portland, purportedly to protect federal buildings from “violent anarchists,” the feds’ tactics are coming under increased legal scrutiny.
Chicago Mayor Orders Late-Night Removal of Two Christopher Columbus Statues
Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) directed that two statues of Christopher Columbus be removed from the city parks during the early hours of Friday morning.
The Chicago Tribune was the first to report the removal of one of the statues from Grant Park, noting that removal crews arrived around 1 a.m., and a few dozen people cheered as the statue of the controversial figure was brought down from its pedestal a few hours later.
Crews remove the Columbus statue in Grant Park around 3 a.m. Friday in Chicago. pic.twitter.com/iXIbyn8jZk
— armando l sanchez (@mandophotos) July 24, 2020
A second Columbus statue was removed shortly after from Arrigo Park.
The move came hours after hundreds of protesters gathered outside of Lightfoot’s home in the Logan Square neighborhood, The Tribune said.
The move follows an announcement Thursday by President Donal Trump, who told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a phone interview that he intended to deploy up to 75,000 federal agents to American cities to fight crime and protect federal property and buildings, which he said have been targeted by demonstrators.
The Legal War Against Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Census Power Grab Ramps Up
A new lawsuit filed Thursday challenges President Trump’s new anti-immigrant census policy, expanding the legal battlefield over Trump’s push to deprive immigrant communities of political power.
Continue reading “The Legal War Against Trump’s Anti-Immigrant Census Power Grab Ramps Up”
Judge Restrains Feds From Targeting Portland Journos, Legal Observers
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily restrained federal agents in Portland from arresting or targeting journalists and legal observers, writing that absent a court order, law enforcement would “continue to target” them.
Continue reading “Judge Restrains Feds From Targeting Portland Journos, Legal Observers”
Birx Likens Coronavirus Outbreaks In Hot-Spot States To ‘Three New Yorks’
White House coronavirus task force expert Dr. Deborah Birx warned Friday that the coronavirus surge is “very serious,” likening its spread in surging states like Florida, Texas and California to the outbreak this past spring in New York — which still ranks highest in the country in its staggering death toll for the virus.
White House task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx talks to @SavannahGuthrie about the rising coronavirus cases in states including Florida, Texas and California.
"What we have right now are essentially three New Yorks with these three major states," she says. pic.twitter.com/mczzED47NX
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 24, 2020
“I just want to make it clear to the American public, what we have right now are essentially three New Yorks with these three major states,” Birx told Today Show host Savannah Guthrie when asked about recent comments made by President Donald Trump that the pandemic would get worse in the United States before it gets better.
Birx’s comments come as coronavirus cases surged past 4 million in the United States on Thursday. The number of COVID-19-related deaths also exceeded 1,000 for the third consecutive day, according to the Washington Post. More than 500 of the fatalities were recorded in Florida, California and Texas, where the coronavirus continues its surge. Birx also sounded the alarm for rising cases in Arizona.
Birx hammered the point of wearing masks and practicing social distance amid a culture war that has put many people at risk for the virus as some continue to refuse to wear masks or keep a distance after President Trump has for months fanned the flame of political division weaponizing public health tools as a political prop and flouting CDC guidelines himself.
In a Thursday night interview with Sean Hannity Trump had criticized a group of “very respected people” who he said had advised against wearing masks in the early days of the pandemic.
“All of a sudden, it was a big thing to get masks. I’m all for it,” he said, citing a rare example of him donning a mask several weeks ago while visiting injured veterans at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.
The President has also spent months downplaying the pandemic, only this week resuming daily coronavirus briefings after suggesting in a previous call with Hannity that COVID-19 cases were “created” through efforts to increase testing and that many of the people falling ill with COVID-19 just had “the sniffles.”
But when asked about the seriousness of the virus, Birx told Guthrie that “it’s very serious and it’s very real.”
The health expert added that the infection of young “asymptomatic” people under the age of 30 comes with added dangers because many infected young people were unwittingly spreading the virus. She attributed “this first wave” across Florida, Texas, California, and Arizona, to those unknowing young people who were infected but not wearing protective gear to prevent further spread of the virus.
“They have to assume that they are infected and positive, and we all need to protect those who need our protection right now,” Birx said.
Stephen Miller Says Feds Occupying Portland ‘Should Be Celebrated As Heroes’
White House senior adviser Stephen Miller painted the federal agents occupying Portland, Oregon, some of whom have been “proactively” arresting nonviolent protesters, as brave soldiers on Thursday night.
Continue reading “Stephen Miller Says Feds Occupying Portland ‘Should Be Celebrated As Heroes’”
Trump Says He Could Send Up To 75,000 Federal Agents Into American Cities
President Donald Trump said Thursday that he’s willing to send as many as 75,000 federal agents into American cities to quell crime under a banner of “law and order,” which has become a campaign theme and a distraction for a President who has failed to adopt an appropriate strategy to contain the coronavirus pandemic that has killed roughly 143,000 people in the United States.
Speaking in a telephone interview with Fox News commentator Sean Hannity, the President began by saying he was prepared to dispatch between 50,000 and 60,000 people “that really know what they are doing” into American cities.
The more the President talked, the greater the number of agents grew — expanding to as many as 75,000 agents as the call drew on.
The President said that with the help of “strong” and “tough” federal agents “we can solve these problems so fast. But as you know, we have to be invited in.”
The remarks follow widespread criticism of the Trump administration for dispatching federal agents onto the streets of Portland following weeks of protests in the Oregon city after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis without invitation in May.
Reports of camouflaged agents grabbing people off the streets to be detained in unmarked vans and later questioned surfaced earlier this month. Department of Homeland Security officials claimed that agents were identified by agency insignia and a “police” label on their uniforms. Video footage of federal agents using smoke, impact munitions and batons have also emerged. On Thursday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) was tear gassed as he stood in a crowd of demonstrators in front of a federal courthouse.
Since then the President announced earlier this week that agents would also be dispatched in other American cities, saying Wednesday that a “surge” of federal law enforcement would be sent into Chicago and other cities.
“At some point we’re going to have to do something much stronger than being invited in,” Trump warned in his call with Hannity.
“We’ll go into all of the cities, any of the cities. We’re ready,” he said.
CNN pointed out that if deployed, 75,000 officers would mark a significant portion of all federal officers in the country. According to a 2019 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were approximately 100,000 federal law enforcement officers total for the country in 2016.
Trump’s comments come as he has pushed to make federal policing a campaign issue. In his call with Hannity, the President took aim at Democratic leaders who he said are “not taking care” or “respecting” their police. “They want to take all of their power away,” Trump said of Democratic leaders.
The President mocked the Portland mayor who was tear gassed on Thursday calling him “pathetic” and saying that Wheeler “made a fool out of himself” by deciding go out among the people and join them for a night of protest.
He also has falsely described Democratic opponent Joe Biden as anti-police.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump took to Twitter to address the “The Suburban Housewives of America,” warning that “Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream. I will preserve it, and make it even better!”
Since protests spread throughout the country following the murder of George Floyd and others, Trump has worked at a message that uses race-baiting and fear-mongering to project tough-on-crime optics that he hopes will detract from his bungled handling of the coronavirus.
“And except for the China virus that came in, we were setting every record you could set for unemployment, for the stock market. Every single record you could imagine,” Trump told Hannity, adding, “no administration has come close.”
During Thursday’s Fox News interview, Trump suggested he’d spoken recently with Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a Democrat who has strongly critiqued the President for failing to offer common sense gun control reform which would help the Illinois city that has a long history of gun violence.
Trump called it a “great talk,” although Lightfoot has made it clear in tweets and televised interviews that she is prepared to file for a restraining order against federal agents who diverge from the agreed upon path, saying Thursday in an MSNBC interview that the violent scenes that made headlines in Portland would not be repeated in her city. “We’re just not having that in Chicago,” Lightfoot said.
Fauci Says He And His Family Have Been Assigned Security Detail Due To ‘Serious Threats’
Dr. Anthony Fauci, one of the White House’s most prominent health responders to COVID-19 and a target in President Donald Trump’s attempts to downplay the pandemic, said on Thursday that he and his family have been receiving threats.
Trump Dumps Jacksonville As RNC Host: ‘We’ll Have A Very Nice Something’
President Trump began his Thursday press conference with a curveball announcement that the Republican National Convention will no longer be held in Jacksonville, Florida.
“I looked at my team and I said the timing for this event is not right. It’s just not right,” Trump said. “To have a big convention, it’s not the right time.”
The President then added that “there’s nothing more important in our country than keeping our people safe” as coronavirus cases continue to surge throughout the country.
Trump went on to say that he would still deliver a convention speech but in a “different form” without going into detail about what that entails.
Although Trump said that RNC delegates will still report to Charlotte, North Carolina — which he originally moved the RNC largely out of after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) refused to guarantee that the convention could be held at full capacity — he did not go into detail about the RNC’s new plan but teased that “we’ll have a very nice something.”
The President’s whiplash-inducing announcement comes after he recently held rallies and events in Tulsa, Phoenix, South Dakota and Georgia where crowds of maskless attendees appeared to forgo social distancing.
Here’s how Trump’s press conference played out: