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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
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Gabrielle Canon in Oakland (now) and Jessica Glenza in New York (earlier)

Ex-Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe reportedly 'seriously considering' 2020 run – as it happened

Trump told reporters on Wednesday: ‘If the supreme court rules that Obama is out, we’ll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare.’
Trump told reporters on Wednesday: ‘If the supreme court rules that Obama is out, we’ll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare.’ Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

Wednesday evening summary

Here’s what’s happened in politics tonight:

  • The Trump administration’s plan to restrict Medicaid access with work requirements was blocked by a federal judge. Eighteen thousand people have already lost coverage under the program.
  • The education secretary Betsy DeVos is standing by her decision to defund the Special Olympics, as part of a $7bn cut to the budget, while she pours $60m into charter school funding.
  • Attorney General William Barr is unlikely to deliver the Mueller report by a Democratic-set-deadline, but may soon testify before the House Judiciary Committee on its contents.
  • A new resolution from the freshman congresswoman Rashida Tlaib that seeks to push forward impeachment proceedings against the president was rebuffed by her Democratic colleagues. Despite a week-long effort to recruit supporters, only one other representative signed on.
  • The former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe is getting closer to declaring his candidacy for the 2020 presidential race.

As Democrats demure on the idea, freshman Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib submitted an impeachment resolution today with support from only one colleague, CNN reports.

Tlaib spent the week seeking support for the move, but ended up only with a signature from Texas Representative Al Green.

Per CNN:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi earlier Wednesday appeared to dismiss Tlaib’s move, following questions as to how the freshman is faring as she tries to collect support among Democrats. ‘You can ask her how she’s doing on hers’ resolution, Pelosi told CNN earlier Wednesday. ‘That is not an initiative of our House caucus’.

‘I’ve made it really clear on impeachment,’ Pelosi said. ‘Everybody can do whatever they want to do but that’s not a place where we are right now. Right now, we are talking about health care, we are talking about climate and building the infrastructure of America in a green way. Just like we promised in the campaign. That is what we are spending our time on’”.

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler spoke with Attorney General William Barr by phone today, seeking details about Mueller unreleased Muller report, and whether or not Barr will hand it over by Democrats’ deadline on April 2.

While Barr hasn’t agreed to release the report, he has committed to testifying before the panel about its contents.

Amidst a flood of criticism, Education Secretary Betsy Devos released a statement today, defending her plan to defund the Special Olympics and blaming the media and members of Congress who she said “misrepresented the facts”.

Saying she she loves their work and has supported the Special Olympics mission personally, DeVos emphasized that “there are dozens of worthy nonprofits that support students and adults with disabilities that don’t get a dime of federal grant money”, and added that because of “current budget realities, the federal government cannot fund every worthy program, particularly ones that enjoy robust support from private donations”.

The Special Olympics receives roughly $17.6m from the Education Department, the AP reports. DeVos hopes to cut support for the nonprofit as part of a $7bn budget cut next year, while adding a $60m boost in funding for charter schools.

Updated

A federal judge has blocked a Trump Administration’s program being implemented in Kentucky and Arkansas that would add work requirements to Medicaid access, a move that has booted 18,000 people out of their health insurance.

Citing Medicaid’s objectives to provide health coverage to the poor, Judge James Boasberg ruled for the second time that the program violated the intentions behind the health care initiative.

Gabrielle Canon here, taking over for Jessica Glenza

Former Virginia governor Terry McAuliffe is getting closer to a decision on whether or not to enter the already heavily-saturated Democratic race for the white house in 2020, CNN reports.

Democratic strategists believe McAuliffe’s pro-business message could make him a competitive challenge to Trump for the presidency. He also has a strong donor network, accented by his years of campaign experience and work as former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Sources close to McAuliffe told the news network that he is “seriously considering” launching a campaign but has not yet committed.

Per CNN:

While McAuliffe has spent the last week on a spring break vacation with his family, he has also been making calls to donors and longtime friends as he comes closer to making a final decision. One friend described him as ‘almost ready to jump in — he sees no reason not to’”.

The day so far...

Healthcare

  • President Donald Trump is again pushing Republicans to replace the Affordable Care Act, better known as “Obamacare”. His Justice Department is backing a court case which could destroy the law. Trump wants Republicans to be “the party of health care”.
  • He left unclear exactly what that means, but that probably won’t stop Democrats from cheering him on. Republicans have failed for nine years to come up with a politically viable (read: non-toxic) replacement for the government subsidies and regulations put in place by President Obama.
  • Most Democrats believe voters handed Democrats the midterms based on concerns about healthcare, and proposed expanding those protections this week.

Taxes

  • Trump’s pick for the Federal Reserve board owes the US government more than $75,000 in taxes.
  • Also, former Stormy Daniels attorney Michael Avenatti has allegedly failed to pay federal taxes for 10 years and House Democrats are seeking 10 years of Trump tax returns.
  • US Senator and Democrat presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand released her tax returns today.

Hate

  • Also today, Facebook announced it would promotion and support of white nationalism.
  • And the self-described neo-Nazi who drove his car into a protest in Charlottesville, Virginia, killing Heather Heyer, pleaded guilty to federal hate crime charges. The prosecutor described the act as one of “domestic terrorism”.

Bringing this to readers just in case – in the unlikely event! – that you have not seen it, an impassioned speech from AOC on the Green New Deal (which, actually, is more popular than Republicans would have you think).

Charlottesville murderer pleads guilty to federal hate crimes

Self-described neo-Nazi James Fields has pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes. This from Reuters:

Self-described neo-Nazi James Fields, who was convicted of killing Heather Heyer by ramming his car into a crowd protesting a white supremacist rally in Virginia in 2017, pleaded guilty in his federal hate crimes case, local media reported.

Fields, 21, who previously pleaded not guilty to the federal charges, changed his plea during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Charlottesville, Newsradio WRVA in Charlottesville reported.

The specific charges that Fields pleaded guilty to were not immediately clear.

He is already facing a sentence of life in prison after being found guilty in state court of Heyer’s murder and for injuring 19 in the college town in August 2017.

Updated

More tax season news... President Donald Trump’s pick for a seat on the Federal Reserve owes the US government $75,000.

More from Guardian reporter Jon Swaine:

A claim for the debt was filed against Moore by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in January last year at the circuit court in Montgomery county, Maryland, where Moore has a home.

Court records state that Moore, a former Trump presidential campaign adviser, owes the US $75,328 for taxes incurred in 2014. A court clerk confirmed the claim filed by the IRS had not yet been satisfied by Moore.

In a statement, Moore said he disputed the IRS claim. He said he was “eager to reach an agreement” with authorities but had been frustrated by bureaucracy at the revenue service.

“For several years I have been working through a dispute with the IRS, attempting to be returned what my attorneys and accountant believe were tax overpayments of tens of thousands of dollars,” Moore said.

US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos appears before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearingin 2018.
US Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos appears before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing
in 2018. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

US Education Secretary Betsy DeVos got skewered by Democrats on Tuesday for a plan to end $17.6m in funding to the Special Olympics and give charter schools $60m (overall, cuts total more than $7bn, AP reported).

Two days later, both the Los Angeles Times and NorthJersey.com publish major investigations into charter schools.

First, from the Los Angeles Times story on charter school operators Clark and Jeanette Parker of Beverly Hills:

The Parkers have cast themselves as selfless philanthropists, telling the California Board of Education that they have “devoted all of our lives to the education of other people’s children, committed many millions of our own dollars directly to that particular purpose, with no gain directly to us.”

But the couple have, in fact, made millions from their charter schools. Financial records show the Parkers’ schools have paid more than $800,000 annually to rent buildings the couple own. The charters have contracted out services to the Parkers’ nonprofits and companies and paid Clark Parker generous consulting fees, all with taxpayer money, a Times investigation found.

Here are some zingers from North Jersey:

Charters are using tax dollars to pay rents that far exceed building costs. Some charter schools will pay 15 to 80 percent more in rent over a period of years or decades than is needed to pay off the debt on their buildings. The money flows out of public coffers to private groups created to support the schools.

Complex transactions hide profits while taxpayers pick up the tab. Financing for one project involved a half-dozen companies, at least as many loans, and two types of tax credits ― resulting in millions of dollars moving from public to private hands with no accountability.

Charter school operators have exploited a loophole in a federal aid program. They are receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from a program that was meant to spur public school construction but doesn’t require the properties to be owned by the public. Some of the methods used to tap into that aid are now being reviewed by the IRS, which could put some aid in jeopardy.

According to NorthJersey.com, charter schools there also paid “interest rates and fees experts described as high, damaging and even predatory,” and also flipped properties “between related companies,” in one case adding $2m to a debt which taxpayers are covering in rent.

Wilbur Ross snubbed the US Senate appropriations committee.

Also today, IRS documents allege Michael Avenatti has not paid his full income tax bill in 10 years. He was arrested Tuesday for allegedly trying to extort more than $20m from Nike.

This is from the Los Angeles Times:

The first sign of trouble came in 2009 when, the IRS said, he reported $1.9 million in personal income but failed to pay $570,000 in taxes. The next year, the IRS said, Avenatti reported $1.2 million in income but skipped out on a $282,000 tax bill.

Since then, according to federal prosecutors, Avenatti has filed no personal income tax returns, even as he deposited $18 million into his bank accounts.

US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman explains extortion charges against Michael Avenatti on Monday.
US Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman explains extortion charges against Michael Avenatti on Monday. Photograph: Eduardo Muñoz/Reuters

Updated

Democrats leading the House Oversight Committee are trying to obtain 10 years of Trump’s tax returns from an accounting firm, according to Politico.

US Senator (and Democratic presidential contender) Kirsten Gillibrand released her tax returns today.

Updated

A word to those who still consider themselves moderate Republicans … the late Barbara Bush was asked later in her life whether she still considered herself a Republican and she said: “I’d probably say no today.”

USA Today has an exclusive on her forthcoming biography and, in today’s edition, explained:

This story is adapted from The Matriarch: Barbara Bush and the Making of an American Dynasty, which will be published April 2 by Twelve Books. Author Susan Page, the Washington Bureau chief of USA TODAY, spent hours interviewing the former first lady during the final six months of Bush’s life and was given access to her personal diaries spanning decades.

Then the extract begins with this alarming start: “Barbara Bush blamed Donald Trump for her heart attack.

It wasn’t technically a heart attack, though she called it that. It was a crisis in her long battle with congestive heart failure and chronic pulmonary disease that hit her like a sledgehammer one day in June 2016. An ambulance was called to take her to the hospital. The two former presidents who had been at home with her that day, her husband and her oldest son, trailed in a car driven by the Secret Service. The tumultuous presidential campaign in general and Trump’s ridicule of son Jeb Bush in particular had riled her. “Angst,” she told me.

Afterward, Jeb, whose presidential campaign was already history, urged her to let it go, to focus on herself and have faith in the country,” Page writes.

The AP adds that the point about Barbara Bush not necessarily considering herself a GOP voter any more came in a February 2018 interview.

She died in April last year at age 92.

Bush recalls drafting a funny letter to mail after the election congratulating Bill Clinton on becoming a presidential spouse. But Bush said when she woke up, she realized “to my horror that Trump had won.”

A friend gave Bush a clock that counted down the time remaining in Trump’s first term that she kept at her bedside.

Updated

An aviation safety hearing is set to get underway in about an hour, amid renewed questions about an Federal Aviation Administration practice that allows airplane manufacturers to certify safety of their own airplanes.

This morning, the AP reported, transportation secretary Elaine Chao defended Donald Trump and blamed Congress for what she called a delay in nominating a permanent head of the FAA.

Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat from Illinois, asked Chao at a Senate appropriations hearing on Wednesday morning whether it was unusual that Trump took 14 months to propose a nominee to head the agency, which is under scrutiny for its oversight of Boeing after two crashes involving Boeing’s best-selling plane, the 737 Max.

Chao said the process has been slowed by the White House and by Congress, but Durbin pointed out that Trump never sent a nominee to the Senate for consideration.

Chao said acting administrator Daniel Elwell was qualified to lead the agency. Elwell is a former military and airline pilot who had been the No. 2 official at FAA.

Elwell was bypassed when Trump this month announced he would nominate a former pilot and Delta Air Lines executive, Stephen Dickson, to head the FAA.

Updated

Facebook to ban promotion and support of white nationalism and white supremacism

This news out of San Francisco rather than Washington, but it’s unmistakably political.

The Associated Press writes that Facebook is extending its ban on hate speech to prohibit the promotion and support of white nationalism and white separatism.

The company previously allowed such material even though it has long banned “white supremacists.” The social network says it hadn’t applied its ban to expressions of white nationalism because it previously linked such expressions with broader concepts of nationalism and separatism such as American pride or Basque separatism, both of which are still allowed.

But civil rights groups and academics called this view “misguided” and have long pressured the company to change its stance.

Facebook says it concluded after months of “conversations” with them that white nationalism and separatism cannot be meaningfully separated from white supremacy and organized hate groups.

Updated

A colleague asked me a question this morning: Why would Republicans go after healthcare again, when it has proven to be a losing issue for them?

According to a new report from the New York Times, some administration officials told the president his base of voters would love it.

Updated

Key Republican tells Trump healthcare push "makes no sense"

Axios reports there is exasperation within Republican ranks, as Trump pushes healthcare as a major agenda item, despite Republicans not having a plan to reform healthcare (and losing on the issue in the midterms). From Axios:

In the Oval Office Wednesday, Trump told reporters: “If the Supreme Court rules that Obamacare is out, we’ll have a plan that is far better than Obamacare.” At this time, the Republicans don’t have a replacement plan...

Republican officials are privately blaming Trump’s chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, domestic policy chief, Joe Grogan, and the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought, for engineering the new position.

A woman protests against a Republican health plan that eventually failed, in 2017.
A woman protests against a Republican health plan that eventually failed, in 2017. Photograph: Justin Lane/EPA

Trump said yesterday he wants Republicans to be “the party of health care”, but left unclear what exactly he meant.

Some 18,000 people in Arkansas might have an idea though. They lost their health plans after the Trump administration approved new work requirements – and paperwork requirements – forcing them to show they have a job.

Reminder that the Trump administration expanded the “global gag rule” on Tuesday. The rule bans reproductive health agencies which receive US foreign aid from telling women about abortion. The move will please Trump’s evangelical base, whose support for the president has been as steadfast as their opposition to abortion rights.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced the expansion Tuesday:

This is decent. This is right. I am proud to serve in an administration that protects the least among us.”

Democrat Stacey Abrams was just asked about becoming former Vice President Joe Biden’s running mate (neither has officially declared!!):

“You don’t run for second place... If I’m going to enter a primary, then I’m going to enter a primary”.

White House welcomes wife of Venezuelan opposition leader

Fabiana Rosales is being welcomed at the White House as she tried to rally international support for her husband, and the ouster of President Nicolas Maduro. We have this from the Associated Press:

Trump said the Venezuelan people have been through “unfathomable” trials under Maduro, and Pence called Rosales a “courageous” woman and said the U.S. stands firmly behind the opposition cause.

Rosales is scheduled to meet later with members of Congress and will speak at a conference with the ambassador recognized by the Trump administration.

The U.S. and 50 other countries say Maduro’s re-election last year was illegitimate and have recognized Guaido as the interim president.

Pete Buttigieg: ‘My gaydar is not great to begin with’

Did America already have a gay president?

If South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg was elected, he would be the first “out” president in American history. But the Washington Post recently argued he wouldn’t be the first gay president.

However, Mayor Peter declined to comment on whether he would be the first.

“My gaydar is not great to begin with,” he said.

Updated

What if the Starr report was handled like the Mueller investigation?

Also this morning, The Guardian has an exclusive interview with Paula White, the mega-church pastor and prosperity gospel preacher who advises President Trump.

She said he 18-year relationship with the president, which began after he called her when he saw one of her sermons on TV, was a “direct assignment” from God.

President Donald Trump listens as Pastor Paula White leads a prayer in the State Dining Room of the White House.
President Donald Trump listens as Pastor Paula White leads a prayer in the State Dining Room of the White House. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images

People go, ‘If Hillary asked you to pray for her, would you?’ Of course I would, but I don’t have a relationship with her. This is an ongoing, 18-year relationship [with Trump],” said White. Importantly, White said, she had never taken a favor from Trump and never accepted money for her work with him.

“I’ve been under Bush’s courting, I’ve been under Clinton’s courting, Obama’s courting, Mitt Romney’s courting,” said White. She said it was all part of being a megachurch pastor and televangelist. “Bernie Sanders has never asked me, but I’m just saying if he did ask me to pray for him, I would,” she said.

Updated

The US Supreme Court rejected an argument made by Justice Brett Kavanaugh when he was an appeals court judge. This from the Associated Press:

The court’s 6-2 ruling Wednesday affirms an appeals court decision against investment banker Francis Lorenzo over false and misleading statements Lorenzo sent in emails to potential investors in a company. The emails described the company as having assets of $10 million when Lorenzo knew the real figure was $400,000.

Kavanaugh had dissented from the appellate ruling. He took no part in the high court case.

Justice Stephen Breyer’s majority opinion rejected Lorenzo’s argument that he did not violate Securities and Exchange Commission anti-fraud regulations because he merely sent the emails at the direction of his boss, who supplied the messages’ contents.

Updated

Also today, US Representative Steve King of Iowa is fighting for his political life after his long history of racist comments have drawn criticism.

Just last week, King told a town hall that victims of Hurricane Katrina in the black-majority city of New Orleans only asked for help, while Iowans “take care of each other”.

King said: “Here’s what Fema tells me. We go to a place like New Orleans, and everybody’s looking around saying, ‘Who’s going to help me? Who’s going to help me?’”

As a reminder, healthcare was the top issue in the midterm elections – above the economy or immigration – which got far more air time.

It’s no wonder why. In one recent example, pharmaceutical companies started producing a “generic” version of insulin, a drug used by diabetics to control blood sugar. The discount price for Americans? $137. But Germans pay only $55.

In two short sentences, the Trump administration crystallized its position that the health care coverage enjoyed by nearly 20 million people, as well as the protections by tens of millions more with preexisting conditions, should be annihilated,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on the floor Tuesday morning.

Healthcare is also an issue Democrats see as a winner. The day after the Mueller report summary was released, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi unveiled a law to strengthen Obamacare, just as Trump sought to demolish it.

As Democrats try to unite following the Mueller report summary, healthcare is looking like the go-to issue. Trump’s Justice Department is backing the idea the entire law is unconstitutional, which could end coverage for 21 million people.

NRA to issue key vote against Violence Against Women Act

As student activists with March for Our Lives seek to crack the GOP resistance to gun laws, the National Rifle Association will issue a key vote against the Violence Against Women Act today.

The group opposes the legislation because it could confiscate guns away from people convicted of domestic violence and stalking. Here’s an explanation of the group’s opposition, from NRA spokesperson Jennifer Baker, via National Journal:

The NRA opposes domestic violence and all violent crime, and spends millions of dollars teaching countless Americans how not to be a victim and how to safely use firearms for self-defense,” Baker said. “It is a shame that some in the gun-control community treat the severity of domestic violence so trivially that they are willing to use it as a tool to advance a political agenda.”

Updated

Expect hearings on airplane safety today. US Senator Ted Cruz will lead hearings on aviation safety this afternoon. The hearings are in light of two crashes of the Boeing 737 Max airplanes in Ethiopia and Indonesia.

They come amid renewed questions about an Federal Aviation Administration practice that allows airplane manufacturers to certify safety of their own airplanes.

Trump buoyed by Mueller report findings

Good morning and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of US politics.

•Donald Trump has some wind at his back after not being founded to have colluded with a foreign adversary. It was far from a total exoneration, of course, but that hasn’t stopped Trump from declaring Mueller’s report to be a “total exoneration”. His re-election campaign is similarly buoyed, and is planning “to make whoever the nominee is radioactive well before they get the nomination” a campaign official, presumably speaking figuratively, told Axios. Trump’s people have been out filming Democratic candidates, hoping to catch a slip-up.

•The challenge for Democrats is to stay united. But Trump may have helped them out with his renewed push to scrap the Affordable Care Act. On Tuesday the Justice Department argued that Obamacare should be thrown out – along with its provision protecting people with pre-existing conditions and stipulation that people under 26 can stay on their parents plans. According to Politico the move was opposed by “two key cabinet secretaries”: Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and Attorney General Bill Barr.

•Former vice-president, potential future president Joe Biden apologized for his role in the 1991 Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearings last night. “I wish I could have done something,” Biden said of the hearings, which undermined the credibility of Anita Hill – a woman who claimed Thomas had sexually harassed her. Biden was chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time, and many have pointed that in that role he probably could have done something.

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