Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) defended his refusal to issue a statewide mask mandate during an interview on CNN Sunday. Continue reading “MS Governor Struggles To Defend Lack Of Statewide Mask Mandate: ‘It’s Complicated’”
Portland Mayor Rips Trump For ‘Abhorrent’ Use Of Federal Police To Quell Unrest
Portland mayor Ted Wheeler hit back at President Trump’s assertion that his administration is “trying to help” the city by deploying federal law enforcement officials in light of ongoing protests, during an interview on CNN Sunday morning. Continue reading “Portland Mayor Rips Trump For ‘Abhorrent’ Use Of Federal Police To Quell Unrest”
5 Key Takeaways From Trump’s Lengthy Off-The-Rails Interview On Fox News
President Trump aired numerous grievances when pressed by Fox News Sunday anchor Chris Wallace during a lengthy interview that aired Sunday morning. Continue reading “5 Key Takeaways From Trump’s Lengthy Off-The-Rails Interview On Fox News”
Two GOP Sens Apologize For Using Photos Of Cummings In John Lewis Tribute Posts
Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) on Saturday issued apologies after erroneously posting photos of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings in social media posts that paid tribute to Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) following his recent death. Continue reading “Two GOP Sens Apologize For Using Photos Of Cummings In John Lewis Tribute Posts”
Trump Administration Seeking To Block Funding For Testing, Contact Tracing And CDC In COVID Relief Bill
The Trump administration is seeking to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, The Washington Post reported Saturday.
The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to provide for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the pandemic at home and abroad, sources told The Post.
The report also comes as the United States broke its record of daily new cases for the 11th time in July on Thursday.
The officials, who spoke to The Post on condition of anonymity to reveal confidential discussions, cautioned that talks were still underway and that numbers had not yet been finalized.
The negotiations focus on a bill Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is expected to bring before Congress next week as part of negotiations with Democrats on what will likely be the last major coronavirus relief bill before the November election.
Congressional negotiations are expected to unfold with added urgency due to the surge of cases and climbing death toll in the United State. The disagreement, however, between Trump administration officials and Senate Republicans who are at odds about money for testing and other priorities is creating a major bottleneck before those talks get started.
One person involved in the talks told The Post that Senate Republicans were seeking to allocate $25 billion for states to conduct testing and contact tracing, but that certain administration officials want to zero out the testing and tracing money entirely. According to the report, many White House officials argue that some of that money remains unspent since the last major coronavirus spending bill Congress was approved in April which included $25 billion to increase testing.
Meanwhile testing challenges still abound in some hotspots where wait times for test results vary greatly, with people in some places having to wait more than a week to find out if they have tested positive. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R) announced Wednesday that he would send less business to some labs where testing results have been delayed for long periods.
The report comes as the Trump administration has deepened its attacks of health experts and scientists who have provided guidance — and at times warnings — about the future of the nation should its leaders fail to take critical action to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
The news follows a White House announcement Wednesday that directed hospitals to change how they report data to the federal government and how that data will be made available. Effective Wednesday, hospitals were told to report coronavirus case data to the Health and Human Services Department bypassing the CDC – a move that has be criticized by many as an attempt to potentially obscure the true picture of testing results.
Portland Mayor: Feds Escalated the Situation
TPM Reader JC flagged this press conference with the Mayor of Portland and the Chief of Police where they discuss the on-going protests in the city and the role of DHS law enforcement and the President in re-inflaming the situation.
I’ve captured this one answer from Mayor Ted Wheeler in which he says the situation was settling down before federal forces re-escalated the situation with their aggressive tactics.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler says protests/vandalism was winding down before Feds came in and re-inflamed the situation with aggressive tactics and escalation. pic.twitter.com/t9JgzJiKkr
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) July 18, 2020
Trump Finally Breaks Silence On Passing Of John Lewis In Belated Tweet
President Donald Trump finally commented on the death of Representative John Lewis (D-GA), hours after an announcement about the passing of the lionized civil rights hero, who was among the President’s prominent critics.
In the midst of a wave of bipartisan tributes that streamed late Friday evening and early Saturday remembering the Black Democratic congressman from Georgia who served 17 terms following his election in 1986, Trump fired off a series of vicious tweets on other matters.
The President slammed “Corrupt Joe Biden,” and criticized “lowlife dummy John Bolton” for his tell-all account as former national security adviser. He even tweeted angrily about the recent book of his niece, Mary Trump – but did not utter a word of condolence or praise for Lewis.
Vice President Mike Pence issued his own statement Saturday, saying that in spite of their differences “John Lewis will be rightly remembered as an icon of the civil rights movement, for me he was also a colleague and a friend.”
He added that he would remember Lewis as a man who was “unfailingly kind.”
“I will never forget the privilege of crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge at his side on the 45th anniversary of Bloody Sunday,” Pence said.
The White House also announced late Saturday morning that its flags would be lowered to half-staff — a move to honor the late Georgia lawmaker that amounted to just about “half a day,” Washington Post White House Bureau Chief Philip Rucker said in a tweet, since the order was issued after 11 a.m.
Just in: Trump has ordered the U.S. flag to be flown at half-staff at the Whtie House and all federal buildings in honor of John Lewis…. for one day. Really, for half a day, since the order came out just past 11 a.m. The president’s proclamation expires tonight.
— Philip Rucker (@PhilipRucker) July 18, 2020
Lewis boycotted the President’s inauguration in January 2017, citing concerns of the legitimacy of Trump’s election amid questions of foreign meddling.
Trump responded at that time by criticizing Lewis, tweeting that instead of announcing his absence from the President’s inauguration Lewis “should spend more time on fixing and helping his district, which is in horrible shape and falling apart (not to mention crime infested) rather than falsely complaining about the election results. All talk, talk, talk – no action or results. Sad!”
The President finally managed to muster his condolences Saturday afternoon, saying in a tweet after 2 p.m., that he was “saddened” and sends “prayers.”
Democratic presidential nominee, Joe Biden, lauded Lewis as a “moral compass,” in a statement issued Saturday morning.
“He absorbed the force of human nature’s cruelty during the course of his life,” Biden wrote, “and the only thing that could finally stop him was cancer.”
In a nod to recent protests, Biden added that “peaceful marchers for racial and economic justice around the world who are asking where we go from here” should follow Lewis’ lead. A veteran of nonviolent protest, Lewis was the only remaining survivor of the Big Six civil rights activists who organized the 1963 March on Washington.
Lewis had endorsed Biden’s 2020 bid for president in April.
US Attorney Calls For Investigation Of DHS Amid Video Evidence Of Camouflaged Portland Arrests
U.S. Attorney Billy J. Williams on Friday called for an investigation into reports that unidentified federal agents donning camouflage fatigues and masks have been arresting protesters in Portland.
“Based on news accounts circulating that allege federal law enforcement detained two protestors without probable cause, I have requested the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General to open a separate investigation directed specifically at the actions of DHS personnel,” Williams wrote in a statement obtained by the ABC-affiliated television station, KATU News.
While requesting the investigation, the U.S. attorney for Oregon also appeared to defend law enforcement officers that he said have “rebuffed” efforts to enter a U.S. Courthouse by force. He said that some law enforcement “have been met with an onslaught of commercial fireworks, laser strikes, glass, mortars, paint, and anything else near at hand.” He added that officers have made efforts to locate perpetrators of violence in recent protests and “arrest them in a manner that is safe for both the officers and nearby non-violent protesters.”
The DHS personnel mentioned by Williams for investigation have been captured in video footage grabbing and arresting protesters and detaining them in unmarked vehicles.
KATU News said it had confirmed a report that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents took at least one protester into custody, claiming that the detained person was suspected of assaulting federal officers or damaging federal property. According to the local news station, CBP agents said they took the suspect to another location for “further questioning” citing safety issues amid the protests which have intensified as federal agents clash with demonstrators who have carried a torch for racial justice since the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police in late May.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D) and Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler (D) have both demanded that federal agents be removed from Portland’s streets.
On Thursday, Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley (D) had tweeted a video that appeared to capture two camouflaged people in masks with generic “police” patches detaining a person in an unmarked van before driving away, saying that “authoritarian governments, not democratic republics, send unmarked authorities after protesters.”
On Friday, Merkley issued a letter to Attorney General William Barr and acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf together with a group of Oregon state and local officials. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden (D) and Reps. Earl Blumenauer (D) and Suzanne Bonamici (D) joined Merkley in calling the actions of federal agents in the Portland protests “out of control” and “an abuse of power.”
The lawmakers rebuked the deployment of federal agents without identifying insignia which they called an effort to “evade transparency and accountability.” The letter also condemned tactics of “snatching people off the street with no apparent reason” and the use of “potentially deadly munitions to harm peaceful protesters.”
I joined @SenJeffMerkley, @ronwyden, & @repblumenauer in demanding answers and calling for the immediate removal of the federal agents who have recently been deployed to Oregon. This abuse of power by the Trump Administration must end before more people are hurt or traumatized. pic.twitter.com/by80VWyAND
— Suzanne Bonamici (@RepBonamici) July 18, 2020
Cuccinelli: Totally Legal and Totally Cool How CBP and ICE Now Control Your City
Last night I noted that Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli told NPR that not only were they not pulling back on their actions in Portland but that they planned to take them nationwide. The brief NPR interview is important because along with other reporting that came out over the course of Friday it helps understand just what the White House is doing and the purported legal rationale under which they are doing it.
As we’ve discussed, even as protests have subsided in much of the United States, they’ve continued in Portland, with an especial focus on Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse in the city. There has been a faction of protestors who’ve set off fireworks, painted graffiti and thrown bottles at police in nightly standoffs. This federal building is key.
Continue reading “Cuccinelli: Totally Legal and Totally Cool How CBP and ICE Now Control Your City”
ACLU Files Lawsuit To Block Attacks By Federal Agents In Portland Protests
The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Oregon on Friday filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and U.S. Marshals Service after they deployed agents to quell racial justice protests that have continued unabated since the police killing of George Floyd in May.
The lawsuit seeks to block federal law enforcement from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force against journalists or legal observers. It is one of many lawsuits that the ACLU said it will be filing against federal authorities in Portland for “unconstitutional attacks” on demonstrators.
In a statement issued Friday, interim legal director for the ACLU of Oregon Kelly Simon, called for the removal of federal agents from the Oregon city.
“Under the direction of the Trump administration, federal agents are terrorizing the community, risking lives, and brutally attacking protesters demonstrating against police brutality,” Simon said, adding, “We will continue to bring the full fire power of the ACLU to bear until this lawless policing ends.”
The suit comes after reports surfaced in The Oregonian Friday that unidentified officers in unmarked military fatigues were driving around in unmarked vehicles and detaining demonstrators.
Named plaintiffs in the case include The Portland Mercury and individual journalists and legal observers who say they were attacked by law enforcement, among them Matthew Lewis-Rolland, a freelance photographer who federal agents allegedly shot 10 times in the back on Sunday. Others, including freelance journalist Justin Yau, who described accounts of alleged attacks with tear gas by federal agents. Both Lewis-Rolland and Yau were wearing high-visibility shirts that said “PRESS” at the time of their alleged attacks, the ACLU said.
The lawsuit adds federal agencies to an existing complaint filed last month against local law enforcement in which a federal judge issued an order blocking local law enforcement from dispersing, arresting, threatening to arrest, or using physical force against journalists or legal observers at protests until October 30.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D) tweeted that the DHS descending on Portland was “political theater” that she says was instigated by President Donald Trump who she believes is “on a mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes.” The governor called for the removal of federal agents who she says are endangering Oregonians and local law enforcement.
The law and order mantra trumpeted by the President is one that ACLU staff attorney Vera Eidelman calls into question, adding that the violence of federal agents in Portland amounted to “lawlessness.”
Trump’s flexing of the brawn of federal agents appears to be apart of a campaign strategy intended to bump up his chance for re-election in November.
Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf issued a statement Thursday citing examples of “violent anarchists” defacing property, setting off fireworks, spraying graffiti on public buildings, failing to follow dispersal orders and assaulting officers.
On Friday, he tweeted his support Friday of “valiant” federal officers who he said “have defended our institutions of justice against violent anarchists.” His comments follow a night marred with violent dispersal tactics that included the use of chemical irritants, smoke and impact munitions.
“We will prevail,” he said.
Acting Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Ken Cuccinelli told NPR on Friday that the DHS intends to use the tactics seen in Portland more broadly.
“With as much lawbreaking is going on, we’re seeking to prosecute as many people as are breaking the law as it relates to federal jurisdiction,” he said, adding, that “this is a posture we intend to continue not just in Portland but in any of the facilities that we’re responsible for around the country.”