Friday news summary: men who don't apologize
Wrapping up our Friday evening live news coverage. An updated recap of today’s political news:
• Joe Biden stopped short of apologizing to Anita Hill, in his first interview since announcing his presidential campaign. Told he had an opportunity to “apologize, say you’re sorry” for the way he handled Hill’s testimony during Clarence Thomas’ supreme court confirmation hearing, Biden equivocated. “I’m sorry she was treated the way she was treated. I wish we could have figured out a better way [to handle her testimony],” Biden said.
• As he left to speak at the NRA’s annual meeting, Donald Trump again defended far-right Charlottesville marchers. Trump, asked to explain his claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA, said “people were there protesting the taking down of the monuments”. People at the Charlottesville rally included self-identified neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists. The activist Heather Heyer was murdered during the rally by a man who had espoused white supremacist beliefs.
• There’s a civil war going on inside the National Rifle Association. Even as Trump and other Republican politicians pledged their loyalty to the gun rights group at its annual meeting in Indianapolis, there was a furious battle going on behind the scenes, with longtime NRA leader Wayne LaPierre writing a letter to the group’s board claiming that the NRA’s current president and its longtime public relations and advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen, were pressuring him to resign and threatening to smear him with allegations of financial mismanagement and sexual harassment if he refused to step down. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the story, also obtained LaPierre’s letter to the NRA board.
Updated
An email phishing attack allowed Russia to gain access to at least one Florida county’s election network in 2016, but it’s still not clear which county was compromised, the New York Times reports.
The president of the Florida State Association of Supervisors of Elections told the Times that elections supervisors across the state still have not been made aware of exactly what happened.
The revelation also raises questions against Republicans’ political attacks against former Florida Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson, who had raised public concerns about Russian interference in Florida and been pilloried for them.
Nelson lost his election race narrowly to his Republican challenger Rick Scott, the former Florida governor.
Big big news in this story - @marcorubio tells NYT that in fact THERE WAS AN INTRUSION in Fla by Russian hackers in 2016 - Completely contradicting @SenRickScott who attacked Sen. Bill Nelson over it. In 2018 Rubio refused to confirm or deny the issue when it flared up https://t.co/5g5rD5Vx8V
— Gary Fineout (@fineout) April 26, 2019
A day after a federal judge ordered the released of a Coast Guard lieutenant who had been accused of planning a white supremacist domestic terror attack, a black Congresswoman who was allegedly on his target list spoke out against the decision:
Outrage! Judge Day ordered release of a white supremacist who threatened to kill me, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Rep. AOC, Rep. Omar, pres candidates, & journalists! 15 guns found in his home & he has ties to other neo-Nazis. Why is Barr silent? What must we do? My statement: pic.twitter.com/71EZJuxyxs
— Maxine Waters (@RepMaxineWaters) April 26, 2019
Report: Wayne LaPierre Told the NRA Board He's Being Pressured to Resign
President Trump renewed his promise of loyalty to the members of the National Rifle Association at their annual meeting in Indianapolis today.
But behind the scenes, the powerful gun rights group is engaged in a kind of civil war between top leaders and the group’s longtime public relations and strategy firm, Ackerman McQueen. The infighting has made public damaging allegations of misspent funds, self-dealing, and financial mismanagement.
The National Rifle Association’s incendiary leader, Wayne LaPierre, wrote a letter to the NRA’s board last night, claiming that he was being pressured to resign by the organization’s current president and by Ackerman McQueen, the Wall Street Journal reports.
In the letter, obtained by the Journal, LaPierre wrote that he was told that unless he resigned, damaging allegations would be made to the board against him regarding sexual harassment of a staff member and financial improprieties, including expenses spent on his wardrobe and staff travel.
LaPierre said the pressure to resign came from the organization’s current president, Lt. Oliver North, and others, and was “styled, in the parlance of extortionists, as an offer I can’t refuse.”
LaPierre’s allegations mark an escalation of an internal battle between the NRA and its powerful longtime public relations and advertising firm, Ackerman McQueen, over the organization’s finances. The NRA filed a lawsuit against Ackerman McQueen last week, accusing the company of withholding key details from its bills to the gun group, including information about a separate contract it had with North.
LaPierre was told, he wrote, that “I needed to withdraw the lawsuit against [Ackerman McQueen] or be smeared.”
North, a combative and prominent conservative commenter, was once at the heart of the Iran-Contra affair. He was unexpectedly named as the NRA’s president, typically a largely symbolic role, a year ago, replacing a lower-key gun industry executive.
LaPierre has served as the NRA’s executive vice president since 1991. He is known for his fear mongering right-wing rhetoric and his no-holds-barred approach to defending gun rights. Most famously, in the wake of a shooting at a Connecticut elementary school that left 20 small children dead, LaPierre refused to compromise on gun control laws, arguing “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Updated
Yes, he lied. But no, don’t impeach.
A new poll from ABC/The Washington Post finds that 58% of respondents believe that Trump lied to the public about issues related to the Mueller investigation.
But a similar majority think that Congress should not begin impeachment proceedings against him.
The poll, conducted in late April, surveyed a random national sample of 1,001 adults. A majority said the results of the Mueller report did not change their opinion of the Trump administration.
Should Congress begin impeachment proceedings against Trump? A new ABC/Washington Post poll finds clear racial divides, with support for impeachment highest among African Americans: https://t.co/QUSypieAa4 pic.twitter.com/33eoTqtGBn
— Lois Beckett (@loisbeckett) April 26, 2019
Lois Beckett here, taking over our live Friday evening news coverage.
Here’s some of Trump’s speech to the NRA earlier – where he claimed that Democrats “want to take away your guns”. He also told the thousands in the crowd: “You better get out there and vote.”
Trump urged the public to vaccinate their children against measles earlier today, telling reporters: “They have to get the shots. The vaccinations are so important. This is really going around now. They have to get their shots.”
But Trump has a long track record of anti-vaxxer comments. During a Republican primary debate in 2015 Trump said he was in favor of “smaller doses [of vaccinations] over a longer period of time”. A common anti-vaxxer trope is that giving children a vaccination against measles, mumps and rubella in one go can lead to autism. This is not true.
Massive combined inoculations to small children is the cause for big increase in autism....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 23, 2012
“Autism has become an epidemic. Twenty-five years ago, 35 years ago, you look at the statistics, not even close. It has gotten totally out of control. I am totally in favor of vaccines. But I want smaller doses over a longer period of time,” Trump said.
“Because you take a baby in – and I’ve seen it – and I’ve seen it, and I had my children taken care of over a long period of time, over a two-or three-year period of time. Same exact amount, but you take this little beautiful baby, and you pump – I mean, it looks just like it’s meant for a horse, not for a child, and we’ve had so many instances, people that work for me.”
Trump first weighed in on the issue on Twitter in 2012.
“Massive combined inoculations to small children is the cause for big increase in autism,” he claimed.
He made a similar argument in 2014, tweeting, “Healthy young child goes to doctor, gets pumped with massive shot of many vaccines, doesn’t feel good and changes - AUTISM. Many such cases!”
Updated
Here’s a campaign email from Donald Trump, fundraising off the back off Joe Biden’s presidential bid.
It ticks all the usual boxes including: Obama, corrupt coastal elites and bags of cash to Iran (the Obama government did not give bags of cash to Iran).
Trump has tried a few nicknames for Joe Biden, including “Crazy Joe” and “one percent Joe” (a reference to Biden’s poor performance during his 2008 presidential bid), but it seems he’s decided to go with ‘Sleepy Joe’. We can look forward to hearing that for the rest of the year...
Donald Trump has announced that the US will withdraw its support for a United Nations treaty regulating the multibillion-dollar global arms trade.
Addressing the National Rifle Association (NRA) in Indianapolis, the president said he would revoke America’s status as a signatory of the arms trade treaty regulating conventional weapons including small arms, battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships.
“My administration will never ratify the UN arms trade treaty,” Trump said. “We’re taking our signature back. The United Nations will soon receive a formal notice that America is rejecting this treaty.”
The US signed the treaty in 2013 but never ratified it. The NRA has long claimed the treaty poses a threat to the second amendment. On Friday its members stood, applauded and chanted “USA! USA!” as Trump signed a letter to Congress halting the ratification process, then tossed his pen into the crowd.
Bob Menendez, top Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, said: “This is yet another myopic decision that jeopardizes US security based on false premises and fearmongering. While Americans from all walks of life have come to painfully understand the threat posed by not doing enough to prevent weapons from ending up in the wrong hands, it is disturbing to see this administration turn back the clock on the little progress we have made to prevent illicit arms transfers.”
Updated
Beto O’Rourke is in Nevada today. It’s his second visit to the state, which votes third in the 2020 primaries. So far he doesn’t seem to be killing it:
Beto’s first Vegas area event today demonstrates the risks of a Friday campus event. Stage set up in w UNLV courtyard, but the smallish crowd fit inside the adjacent building lobby. pic.twitter.com/GGClYQz8q1
— Dave Weigel (@daveweigel) April 26, 2019
A professor at @unlv told me this campus is a ghost town on Fridays, but this is a very small crowd for @BetoORourke in Vegas. pic.twitter.com/RAoG97PqC5
— Garrett Haake (@GarrettHaake) April 26, 2019
Rod Rosenstein was “taking swipes at his critics” on Thursday night, according to the Associated Press.
At a speech before a lawyers’ group, the deputy attorney general criticized former FBI director James Comey for publicly acknowledging that the agency had launched a Russia counter-intelligence investigation in March 2017.
Rosenstein also broke with the president in several notable ways, the AP says.
He said that “there is not Republican justice and Democrat justice,” contrasting himself with a president who referred to the Mueller team as being compromised of “angry Democrats” and who, according to Mueller’s report, has viewed the Justice Department as a tool for punishing political adversaries.
He also made clear that the Mueller investigation had exposed a sophisticated Russian operation to meddle in American politics, something Trump has been slow to acknowledge.
“There was overwhelming evidence that Russian operatives hacked American computers and defrauded American citizens, and that is only the tip of the iceberg of a comprehensive Russian strategy to influence elections, promote social discord, and undermine America, just like they do in many other countries,” Rosenstein said.
Joe Biden’s campaign raised $6.3m in the first 24 hours, according to his campaign – more than either Bernie Sanders or Beto O’Rourke.
The campaign says 96,926 people donated money on the first day – which averages out at $65.
“The energy behind Joe Biden is truly electric, and we can’t wait for what’s to come. Stay tuned!” the email says.
Sanders raised $5.9m in his first 24 hours, while O’Rourke acquired $6.1m.
Elizabeth Warren raised “more than $6m” in the first quarter of 2019, according to her campaign, with an average donation of $28. Sanders raked in $18m at an average of $20, and Kamala Harris garnered $12 million – her campaign said the average donation was $55.
Updated
Pete ‘Mayor Pete’ Buttigieg is planning a trip to South Carolina where he will focus on outreach to African-American voters, according to the Associated Press.
Buttigieg, who has been rising in the polls in Iowa and New Hampshire, will hold meetings with African-American leaders in the state in early May.
A public event is planned May 5 in Charleston. The next day, Buttigieg will participate in a round-table discussion at South Carolina State University, a historically black Orangeburg school visited already by several Democratic contenders.
Summary
•Joe Biden stopped short of apologizing to Anita Hill, in his first interview since announcing his presidential campaign. Told he had an opportunity to “apologize, say you’re sorry” for the way he handled Hill’s testimony during Clarence Thomas’ supreme court confirmation hearing, Biden equivocated. “I’m sorry she was treated the way she was treated. I wish we could have figured out a better way [to handle her testimony],” Biden said.
•Donald Trump claimed the second amendment was “under assault” in a typically free form speech to the National Rifle Association. The president also suggested he was “draining the [DC} swamp”, despite having appointed more than 350 lobbyists to government positions. Trump addressed the NRA at a time when the organization is seriously ailing. Tax filings for the right-wing gun-lobbying organization show it lost nearly $64m in 2016 and 2017.
•Earlier, as he left for the NRA event, Trump again defended far-right Charlottesville marchers. Trump, asked to explain his claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA, said “people were there protesting the taking down of the monuments”. People at the Charlottesville rally included self-identified neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists. The activist Heather Heyer was murdered during the rally by a man who had espoused white supremacist beliefs.
•Trump addressed the NRA on the same day Russian gun-rights activist Maria Butina was sentenced to 18 months in prison after she tried to infiltrate... the NRA. Butina tried to infiltrate the NRA and other American conservative groups promote Russian political interests around the 2016 election. The 30-year-old admitted conspiring to act as an unregistered Russian agent in December.
It seems someone lobbed a phone at/in the general direction of Donald Trump as he came out to address the NRA. The president was unharmed.
whoever threw that phone has terrible aim if he/she was aiming for Trump https://t.co/CsO0IjJJ2B
— Jennifer Bendery (@jbendery) April 26, 2019
Trump has finished addressing the NRA event. He’s promised his characteristic “I will never, ever let you down” and has left the stage to the strains of (a version of) the Rolling Stones classic “You can’t always get what you want”.
You have to wonder: 1. Will Trump get what he needs? The definition of that will differ radically, depending on the day and who you talk to, of course.
Updated
Trump has called to the stage at the NRA event, individuals who used firearms successfully to protect their family or co-workers.
One, a mother who shot and held at gunpoint a man who broke into her home when she was alone there with her daughter, and one, a man who shot a man who was perpetrating a knife attack on co-workers at a meat-packing plant in Oklahoma.
When the man, Mark, mentioned that he had used his AR-15 assault rifle for the deed, predictable cheers and whoops erupted from the audience.
Trump said Mark “had saved countless lives”.
It’s probably truer to say that he saved up to as many lives as were on the floor of the meat-packing plant that day.
He also featured a man who had helped bring to an end the mass shooting at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, in 2017.
Meanwhile, however, it feels pertinent to note that while these small but precious numbers of invaluable lives were saved, the most recent official federal annual figures show that almost 40,000 people died from gunshots in the US in 2017, the highest rate for 20 years.
That represents a total of 12 deaths per 100,000 people – up from 10.1 in 2010 and the highest rate since 1996.
What that bare statistic represents in terms of human tragedy is most starkly reflected when set alongside those of other countries. According to a recent study from the Jama Network, it compares with rates of 0.2 deaths per 100,000 people in Japan, 0.3 in the UK, 0.9 in Germany and 2.1 in Canada.
Jama found that just six countries in the world are responsible for more than half of all 250,000 gun deaths a year around the globe. The US is among those six, together with Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and Guatemala.
Updated
Trump is championing, to warm applause from the gun crowd, free speech on college campuses, under penalty of confiscating federal dollars.
Free speech in this case tends to mean not being able to ban far-right leaders and white nationalist commenters from booking university venues to deliver extremist addresses - events that often descend into violent clashes between attendees of rallies that included white supremacists, Trump loyalists and militia members and counter-protesting anti-fascists.
“You don’t want to hear another voice? You don’t get, in some cases, ridiculous amounts of dollars,” he said.
This is a good point:
On the same day President Trump is speaking at the NRA convention, alleged Russian agent Maria Butina was sentenced to prison for infiltrating.... the NRA.
— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) April 26, 2019
Trump, who has appointed more than 350 lobbyists to government positions, says he is “draining the swamp”.
“We are doing it faster than anyone thought possible,” Trump says.
Then there’s his usual bit about fake news, which prompts boos from the audience.
President Trump addresses @NRA @NRAILA Meeting - LIVE on C-SPAN https://t.co/LMmkzFzukm #NRAAM pic.twitter.com/2B3P6ud831
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 26, 2019
Trump addresses NRA in Indianapolis
Donald Trump is speaking at the National Rifle Association conference. He comes out to the song “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood and spends about two minutes walking about waving.
“I’m a champion for the second amendment. And so are you. It’s not going anywhere,” Trump says.
“Our nation is greater today than it has ever been,” Trump says. Then he talks about respecting the flag for a bit.
Trump: "Our nation is greater today than it has ever been. Stronger, richer... We believe in the rule of law and we will defend the constitution of the United States. There are some people running now – I don't think they have that number one on their list."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) April 26, 2019
Trump says: “We worhip god” and points upward – I guess towards god.
Trump: "We believe in freedom and liberty and the right to keep and bear arms. We know that faith and family, not government and bureaucracy are the centre of American life... In America we don't worship government; we worship God."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) April 26, 2019
You can watch a live stream here:
Updated
Here’s that segment from Joe Biden’s interview on The View where he decline to apologize to Anita Hill:
"Since I had publicly apologized for the way she was treated...I didn't want to, quote, invade her space," Joe Biden says on why he only recently called Anita Hill. "I was grateful she took my call." https://t.co/rxCXj3uvWG pic.twitter.com/hmg3YBVOa0
— The View (@TheView) April 26, 2019
Meanwhile my colleague David Smith is at the National Rifle Association, where Mike Pence is warming up the crowd ahead of a Donald Trump speech.
Here’s the vice-president on guns:
Pence: "Nowhere is this ongoing struggle for freedom more visible every day than the struggle for the second amendment. Firearms in the hands of law abiding citizens don't threaten our families; they protect our families."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) April 26, 2019
And here’s the vice-president crowbarring his anti-abortion views into the speech:
Pence: Freedom is being threatened by "the radical left" every day. The same people "routinely denigrate the faith of millions of Americans and advocate late term abortions and even infanticide". We will stand for the "sanctity of life".
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) April 26, 2019
Ooh and here he is with a little joke!
Pence: "The only thing green about the so-called green new deal is how much green it's going to cost all of us if they eventually sign it into law."
— David Smith (@SmithInAmerica) April 26, 2019
Biden stops short of Anita Hill apology
Biden is asked about Anita Hill, who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment and has criticized Biden for his handling of her testimony during Thomas’ supreme court hearing.
Biden contacted Hill recently, but she has said she was not satisfied with his outreach and declined to characterize his comments as an apology.
“Here’s your opportunity right now to just apologize, say you’re sorry,” a host says to Biden.
He stops short of directly apologizing.
“I’m sorry she was treated the way she was treated. I wish we could have figured out a better way” to deal with the situation, Biden says.
Biden on Anita Hill, threading his way through another apology:
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) April 26, 2019
"I said privately and I said publicly, I am sorry she was treated the way she was treated. I wish we could have figured out a better way to get this thing done. I did everything in my power...."
But what Hill wants Biden to say is: “I’m sorry for the way I treated you,” a host tells the former vice-president.
“I’m sorry for the way she got treated,” Biden says.
“No woman or victim of harassment should ever be put through that circumstance” that she had to go through in the hearing, Biden says.
He says he always believed Hill’s allegations against Thomas.
Biden is asked about the women who have come forward to say his behavior made them feel uncomfortable.
“Are you prepared to apologize?” to those women, he is asked.
Essentially the answer is no.
I have to be “much more aware of the private space of men and women”, Biden says. He says he is “much more cognizant” of private space now.
“I should be able to read better,” what is appropriate, Biden adds.
Joe Biden, when asked to apologize for physical interactions that made some women uncomfortable: "So I invaded your space. I'm sorry it happened. But I'm not sorry that I did anything...to be inappropriate."
— Matt Viser (@mviser) April 26, 2019
He is pressed again about whether he will apologize to the women who have said he made them feel uncomfortable. Biden doesn’t apologize.
“I’m really sorry”, he says: “If they took it a different way.”
He says he never “did anything that was intentionally designed to do anything wrong or be inappropriate”.
Oh boy. Biden asked again — will you apologize?
— MJ Lee (@mj_lee) April 26, 2019
“I’m really sorry if what I did…. They took it a different way."
People have criticized you for not representing the future, former Fox News host Abby Huntsman tells Joe Biden on The View.
Biden says his record on foreign policy and domestic policy shows he has been on the right track.
(Some would disagree given Biden’s support for the Iraq War and record on school integration.)
“That’s for you all to decide,” he says of his age.
Onlookers were expecting that the all-female interview cast of The View would quiz Biden about his treatment of Anita Hill – who accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment and has criticized Biden for his handling of her testimony.
Hill hasn’t come up so far. Instead Biden has been asked about his time in the Obama administration.
“The reason why the president and I got along is philosophically we’re in the same place,” Biden says.
He and Obama disagreed on “implementation” and “timing” on some things, Biden reckons. But they were able to tell each other what was on their mind, while getting along.
Basically there’s not much happening.
Joe Biden gives first interview after announcing presidential bid
Joe Biden is on ABC’s The View – his first interview after he launched his bid for president yesterday.
The former vice-president immediately discusses the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville and Trump’s response – the president claimed there were “very fine people on both sides”. Biden has said that was a motivator in him running for president.
“This is not who we are,” Biden says.
“To compare these racists and not condemn them and neo-Nazis and compare them to genuinely decent Americans” [who were protesting white supremacy] is unacceptable, he adds.
The former vice-president says the rest of the world is judging America under Trump.
“They’re looking like: ‘My lord, what’s going on?’”
Maria Butina sentenced to 18 months in prison
Breaking news: the Russian gun rights activist Maria Butina has been sentenced to 18 months in prison for failing to register as a foreign agent. She will receive credit for the nine months she has already served.
Updated
My dad turned 70 last month and I wouldn’t trust him to run a bath, but the top polling candidates to run the United States of America are 72 (Trump), 76 (Biden), and 77 (Sanders).
There’s no need to worry though, because:
"I am a young, vibrant man." pic.twitter.com/ZP0LjpGDpx
— Axios (@axios) April 26, 2019
Q: "How old is too old to be president."
— CSPAN (@cspan) April 26, 2019
President Trump: "Well I just feel like a young man. I'm so young. I can't believe it. I'm the youngest person -- I am a young vibrant man. I look at Joe, I don't know about him." pic.twitter.com/AYcZtA0b5J
Updated
Trump again defends far-right Charlottesville marchers
Earlier this morning Donald Trump was asked to explain his claim that there were “very fine people on both sides” of the 2017 white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA, after Biden criticized the president on Thursday.
Not for the first time, Trump refused to condemn the people at the right-wing rally, which left a peaceful anti-white supremacy protester dead.
“I was talking about people who went because they felt very strongly about the statue of Robert E Lee,” Trump told reporters as he left for a NRA event in Indianapolis.
“He was a great general,” Trump said.
He added: “People were there protesting the taking down of the monuments.”
People at the Charlottesville rally included self-identified neo-Nazis and other far-right extremists who marched through the streets carrying flaming torches, shouting racial epithets and clashing with people protesting white supremacy.
After a woman peacefully protesting was killed in the protests, Trump refused to denounce the far-right demonstrators, instead claiming there were “very fine people on both sides”.
Trump tries to defend his Charlottesville response by praising Robert E. Lee.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 26, 2019
He claims the 'very fine people' remark was about people who "felt very strongly about the monument to Robert E. Lee. A great general, whether you like it or not."
Via Politico pic.twitter.com/01W4IwGx8y
On Thursday Joe Biden said Trump describing a crowd of racists as “very fine people” was a key motivator in him running for president.
Fetch the nuts! And the beer! Dust off the 80s megamix! More than 4,500 people are hosting house parties this weekend as part of a Bernie Sanders’s organizing effort.
“Attending an Organizing Kickoff this Saturday is one of the biggest things you can do to help elect Bernie and jumpstart this campaign. I hope you’ll give me the chance to explain why,” says an email from the Sanders campaign.
Sanders will be delivering a live video message which will be streamed at the parties, which should be fun, and:
When you join a kickoff event, you’ll learn exactly how you can begin organizing right in your community. You will also get the chance to hear directly from Bernie about where this campaign is going next and why your participation is so important.
The president speaketh:
Trump just now to reporters on White House South Lawn: “If I am guilty of anything, it’s that I have been a great president.”
— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) April 26, 2019
And here’s a video of Trump exiting the White House. I wouldn’t listen to the audio, because there’s a very loud plane in the background and I think it just gave me tinnitus.
Trump just now: “The only thing I’m guilty of is being a great president.” pic.twitter.com/Zt4hhtaTRr
— Terry Moran (@TerryMoran) April 26, 2019
Updated
A federal judge has given the government six months to locate potentially thousands of children it separated from their families at the US-Mexico border.
Trump administration officials have said it could take as long as two years to reunite the children who were split from their parents before the government’s “zero tolerance” policy sparked uproar in 2018. But on Thursday US district judge Dana Sabraw gave a 25 October deadline.
[Sabraw] had ruled in March that the Trump administration was responsible for all of the children the government separated from their parents and not just the 2,700-plus children who remained in federal custody on June 26 when the judge ordered officials to reunite the families.
The Trump administration’s zero-tolerance policy at the US-Mexico border separated scores of families from May to June 20 in an attempt to deter rising numbers of Central Americans from crossing the border with their children. Trump said the immigrants were exploiting legal loopholes to apply for asylum and win release in the United States. Under the policy, officials prosecuted adults for the crime of crossing the border and sent their children to federal shelters across the country.
But a government watchdog later discovered that thousands more children may have been taken from their parents starting as early as July 1, 2017, in a trial run of the zero-tolerance policy, but efforts to track them were so poor that the exact number is unknown.
Welcome to coverage of today's political news
•The Democratic presidential candidates are spreading themselves across the country, after presumptive top-dog Joe Biden finally entered the race. They say that in New York City you’re never more than six feet from a rat, and given there are now 20 eager Democrats trotting about, there’s a high probability that wherever you live, there’ll be a thrusting presidential hopeful in the vicinity.
•Biden is in New York, appearing on ABC’s The View at 11am, his first interview since announcing his candidacy. Elsewhere, Beto O’Rourke is in Nevada, and Cory Booker is in South Carolina. There’s a bumper package of Elizabeth Warren, Tulsi Gabbard, Andrew Yang and Eric Swalwell in Iowa, both John Hickenlooper and Seth Moulton are in California, and Kirsten Gillibrand will be in New Hampshire.
•In the red corner, Donald Trump will be addressing the National Rifle Association in Indianapolis. My colleague David Smith believes that unlike in 2016, the NRA might actually needs Trump more than Trump needs it. Tax filings for the right-wing gun-lobbying organization show it lost nearly $64m in 2016 and 2017, and there is evidence its influence is waning.
•In his The View interview, Biden may well be asked about his handling of Anita Hill’s testimony against Clarence Thomas in 1991. Biden oversaw the confirmation hearing during which she accused Thomas of sexual harassment – and was aggressively questioned as a result – and contacted Hill earlier this month to express “regret for what she endured”. But Hill told the New York Times on Thursday she was not satisfied with the conversation.
