Summary
From Joan E Greve and me:
- During a coronavirus briefing, Donald Trump spoke without his top health officials, Dr Deborah Birx and Dr Anthony Fauci. The president stayed on message, encouraging Americans to wear masks despite his months-long resistance to covering his face in public to stop the spread of disease. He chose a racist term to refer to the coronavirus and repeated a few false or misleading claims about the national stockpile and testing.
-
Trump signed an executive order aimed at excluding undocumented persons from being counted in the 2020 census. The ACLU immediately said it would file a lawsuit against the administration over the order, which comes a year after the supreme court blocked Trump’s effort to add a citizenship question to the census.
- Joe Biden accused Trump of having “quit on this country” amid the coronavirus pandemic. Delivering a speech on his plan to expand access to early childcare, Biden said of Trump, “For all his bluster about his expertise on the economy, he’s unable to explain how he’ll actually help working families hit the hardest ... He’s quit on you. He’s quit on this country.”
- Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell outlined the broad strokes of the Republican coronavirus relief bill. McConnell said the legislation would include $105bn for schools, which is well short of the $430bn that Democrats have been pushing for. The bill will also allocate more money in small business loans and direct payments to American families, McConnell said.
- John Bolton said there is no justification for the deployment of DHS forces on the streets of Portland. Bolton told the Guardian in an interview, “The protection of federal courthouses now is the responsibility of the US Marshals Service ... I’m not saying everything’s hunky dory in Portland, Oregon, because it clearly is not. But I don’t see any justification for the deployment of the Department of Homeland Security personnel.”
Updated
Skepticism is growing in the United States about the accuracy of publicly reported numbers for Covid-19 deaths, according to Axios-Ipsos polling published on Tuesday.
Thirty-one percent of respondents in the survey said they believe the number of Americans dying from Covid-19 is in reality smaller than public data portrays. Skepticism was up from 23% in May.
Skepticism about coronavirus statistics was heavily correlated with media consumption habits, the poll found. A 62% majority of Fox News watchers said the statistics are overblown, while 48% who reported no main news source thought so. Only 7% of CNN and MSNBC watchers thought so.
Denialism around the virus is growing at a time when the US faces an unprecedented emergency of exploding case numbers and when the urgency is acute for coordinated action to prevent an uncontrollable outbreak, epidemiologists say.
Trump asked the US ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, to inquire if the British government might help push to have the British Open golf tournament at the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, the New York Times reports.
Johnson reportedly told multiple colleagues that the president wanted him to see if he UK officials could help make Turnberry the venue for the world-famous golf tournament in 2018.
From the Times:
The ambassador’s deputy, Lewis A. Lukens, advised him not to do it, warning that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain, these people said. But Mr. Johnson apparently felt pressured to try. A few weeks later, he raised the idea of Turnberry playing host to the Open with the secretary of state for Scotland, David Mundell.
The Guardian has not independently verified the Times’ reporting.
Trump has drawn criticism in the past for using his political position to draw business to his properties in the UK. In 2018, Congress opened an investigation into whether increased spending at Prestwick airport near Glasgow and visits to Turnberry violated the constitution.
That investigation followed reports that the strained airport was offering “cut-price rooms for select passengers and crew” and free rounds of golf at Turnberry for US military and civilian aircrews.
Updated
In response to Trump’s briefing today, Democratic National Committee spokesperson Lily Adams said that “as soon as he was off script, Trump once again downplayed the virus.”
“The White House thinks these briefings will be good for Trump’s ratings, but the more people hear from Trump, the more they see what a failure he is,” she wrote in a statement. “Trump might be able to read semi-coherently from prepared remarks for 15 minutes, but that doesn’t mean he’s turned over a new leaf on his response.”
California’s governor has granted an emergency release to Patricia Wright, a 69-year-old woman battling terminal cancer inside a prison that has suffered a major outbreak.
Wright, who doctors say has months to live, left prison on Tuesday morning for the first time in 23 years, greeted by her five children, three sisters and a dozen other relatives waiting on the other side of the gates at the California Institution for Women (CIW), east of Los Angeles. The family’s long fight for her release became increasingly urgent due to Covid-19, which has infected more than 160 people at CIW and nearly 7,000 people across the state’s prison system.
“I’ve been waiting for this day for 23 years, it is really indescribable,” said Wright, standing on the street outside CIW as her grandchildren and other loved ones swarmed her with hugs and handed her flowers and gifts, including her first iPhone. She danced and held her hands in the air. “Oh my God! I’m walking on cloud nine … I just want to sit down at the table with my family and embrace my children.”
Wright, who has battled breast and ovarian cancer and is legally blind, is undergoing chemotherapy. She spoke of her fears of dying alone behind bars in recent interviews with the Guardian, and is one of tens of thousands of older and at-risk prisoners who have been pleading for some form of clemency in response to Covid-19. Since March, 40 prisoners have died and those numbers are expected to increase in the coming weeks.
“For the past 23 years, I’ve had this burden in my heart every day. I could not live fully thinking about my sister in prison,” said Chantel Bonet, who years earlier moved to the city of Corona, where the prison is located, so she could be closer to her sister. “Now that burden is lifted.”
Wright, a survivor of domestic violence, was accused of hiring someone to kill her abusive husband but has maintained her innocence. She is one of many women convicted of murder under US laws that have faced widespread scrutiny for targeting victims of abuse. She was sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, meaning this kind of direct action from the governor was her only option.
Donald Trump has bestowed his good wishes on Ghislaine Maxwell, who faces federal charges for allegedly enabling disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of minor girls.
At a press conference ostensibly to discuss the coronavirus crisis gripping the US on Tuesday, Trump took questions from reporters, one of whom asked him about Maxwell’s recent arrest and whether she might implicate some of the “powerful men” who formed part of Epstein’s jet set social circle.
“I don’t know – I haven’t really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly,” Trump responded. “I have met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. But I wish her well, whatever it is.”
Maxwell, a longtime associate of Epstein, was arrested earlier this month and charged with conspiracy to entice minors to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, enticement of a minor to travel to engage in illegal sex acts, conspiracy to transport minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, and perjury.
Epstein was arrested last July and killed himself in federal jail in August. His death sparked a flurry of speculation about what he knew about the powerful figures from the worlds of politics, science and entertainment with whom he had frequently associated, including figures like Trump, former president Bill Clinton and Britain’s Prince Andrew.
Responding to the reporter’s question, Trump concluded by saying: “I don’t know the situation with Prince Andrew. Just don’t know. Not aware of it.”
On CNN, Nancy Pelosi is referring to the coronavirus as the “Trump virus” castigating the administration’s response to the pandemic.
The president has taken to using a racist term to describe to novel coronavirus, including that his briefing today, pinning the blame on China for the pandemic.
Updated
The United States is failing to report vital information on Covid-19 that could help track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to the first comprehensive review of the nation’s coronavirus data.
The report, Tracking Covid-19 in the United States, paints a bleak picture of the country’s response to the disease. Five months into the pandemic, the essential intelligence that would allow public health authorities to get to grips with the virus is still not being compiled in usable form.
That includes critical data on testing, contact tracing, new cases and deaths.
What the authors call “life-and-death information” is being pulled together haphazardly by individual states in a way that is “inconsistent, incomplete and inaccessible in most locations”. Without such intelligence the country is effectively walking blind, with very little chance of getting “our children to school in the fall, ourselves back to work, our economy restarted, and preventing tens of thousands of deaths”.
Circling back to testing ...
Trump, who has been boasting about the country’s coronavirus testing for months, was right in saying that the US has dramatically ramped up testing and is now testing a higher proportion of citizens than many other countries.
But that’s in part because there are so many cases in the US – the bigger the outbreak, the more testing is needed to contain and suppress the virus. The US is now administering more tests per 100,000 people than South Korea and Germany. But a smaller proportion of those tests are coming back positive in the latter two countries.
Updated
One non-coronavirus line from that presser that stood out: Trump on Ghislaine Maxwell, the Jeffrey Epstein associate charged with sex trafficking of minors.
Trump’s response when asked about her: “I wish her well.”
Updated
Trump has wrapped up his very brief briefing, after taking a few questions from reporters. Unlike his previous coronavirus briefings, which would sometimes ramble on for hours, the president kept this one tight and mostly stuck to talking points.
Though, as Eli Stokols at the LA Times pointed out, there was some waffling away from the scripted message ...
Trump on COVID (reading from notes): "It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better."
— Eli Stokols (@EliStokols) July 21, 2020
Minutes later (w/o notes): "The virus will disappear. It will disappear."
Updated
Asked where his top public health officials in charge of the coronavirus response are, Trump said Dr Deborah Birx was “right outside”. He did not explain why she and Dr Anthony Fauci were absent from the briefing.
Updated
More context on testing...
Trump said that he supports more testing if that’s what medical experts recommend (it is). And he said he gets “on average, a test every one, two days”.
He also bragged about how much the US is testing. There are many ways to measure whether a country is conducting enough coronavirus testing. One important metric is the positive test rate. In the US that’s 6.48%, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker.
The WHO recommends that the rate should be lower than 5% before countries even consider reopening and the Harvard Global Health Institute recommends 3% as a maximum.
By contrast, countries that have a handle on the pandemic have much lower positivity rates – in South Korea, that’s just over 1%, and in New Zealand, it’s .5%.
Updated
Trump has noted a “concerning rise” in cases in parts of the south, in a complete shift from his previous strategy – refusing to acknowledge that there is a problem.
He’s staying uncharacteristically on-message. He said the government is “asking Americans to use masks, socially distance and employ vigorous hygiene – wash your hands every chance you get”. He also asked younger people to “avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings”.
Updated
Trump asked Americans to wear masks “whether you like the mask or not”, despite repeatedly downplaying the importance of wearing masks and refusing to wear one on many occasions.
The president was first seen wearing a mask publicly earlier this month.
Fact check: Supplies
Trump talked about how supplies are up after “inheriting very empty cupboards” from the previous administration.
In fact, the Trump administration inherited a stockpile of 19,000 ventilators. His administration has not deployed all of them despite severe shortages when the pandemic first hit.
Updated
Donald Trump’s briefing has begun, and he’s started off using a racist term to describe the coronavirus.
We’ll be following along and fact-checking.
DHS pins blame on local officials for federal government's presence in Portland
At a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) press conference about “Violence, Chaos, and Anarchy in Portland,” agency leadership repeatedly blamed local officials for the federal government’s presence in the Oregon city.
The acting DHS secretary, Chad Wolf, focused much of his remarks on protestors who are targeting a federal courthouse and the federal government’s right to protect its property. He criticized Portland and Oregon lawmakers for taking “little to no action” in response to building damage.
When a reporter asked Wolf how the agency was trying to de-escalate tensions in Portland, he deflected the question and said he had offered resources to Portland’s mayor and Oregon’s governor.
Another reporter asked Wolf about criticism that the federal government’s actions are authoritarian, since the governor and mayor do not want DHS deployed there. Wolf said: “The fact that we are there is because local officials are not taking action.”
Wolf said since 4 July, federal law enforcement had arrested 43 people in the city. This includes federal officials outside of DHS, such as the US Marshals.
Wolf was also asked multiple times about Donald Trump’s vow on Monday to send more DHS personnel into other cities. Wolf stopped short of saying the president was wrong, but said DHS personnel had not been deployed to other cities and repeatedly stated the situation in Portland was “unique.”
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Maanvi Singh, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Dr Anthony Fauci said he was not invited to Trump’s coronavirus briefing today. Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, told CNN moments ago, “I was not invited up to this point. I’m assuming I’m not going to be there.” The president’s coronavirus briefing, his first since April, is scheduled to begin in a few minutes.
- Trump signed an executive order aimed at excluding undocumented persons from being counted in the 2020 census. The ACLU immediately said it would file a lawsuit against the administration over the order, which comes a year after the supreme court blocked Trump’s effort to add a citizenship question to the census.
- Joe Biden accused Trump of having “quit on this country” amid the coronavirus pandemic. Delivering a speech on his plan to expand access to early childcare, Biden said of Trump, “For all his bluster about his expertise on the economy, he’s unable to explain how he’ll actually help working families hit the hardest. ... He’s quit on you. He’s quit on this country.”
- Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell outlined the broad strokes of the Republican coronavirus relief bill. McConnell said the legislation would include $105 billion for schools, which is well short of the $430 billion that Democrats have been pushing for. The bill will also allocate more money in small business loans and direct payments to American families, McConnell said.
- John Bolton said there is no justification for the deployment of DHS forces on the streets of Portland. Bolton told the Guardian in an interview, “The protection of federal courthouses now is the responsibility of the US Marshals Service. ... I’m not saying everything’s hunky dory in Portland, Oregon, because it clearly is not. But I don’t see any justification for the deployment of the Department of Homeland Security personnel.”
Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
In his CNN interview, Dr Anthony Fauci acknowledged the country needed to “do better” on ensuring access to coronavirus testing.
On the issue of reopening schools, the infectious disease expert said he understoof the importance of getting students back to the classroom, but he emphasized the safety of children and teachers needed to guide the policy on school reopenings.
CNN anchor Jake Tapper closed the interview by asking Fauci about his plans to throw out the first pitch at the Nationals game on Thursday, which will be played without any fans in attendance.
Fauci said the lack of fans will underscore the “stark difference” when sports in the middle of a pandemic. Fauci jokingly added of the ceremonial pitch, “I hope I don’t bounce it too much.”
Fauci says he was not invited to Trump's coronavirus briefing
Dr Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said he had not been invited to Trump’s coronavirus briefing this afternoon.
“I was not invited up to this point. I’m assuming I’m not going to be there,” Fauci told CNN, noting the briefing will begin soon and he is still at the National Institutes of Health headquarters.
Dr. Anthony Fauci says he was not invited to the White House coronavirus briefing today and says the last time he spoke to President Trump was last week https://t.co/b3a787uR2n pic.twitter.com/8uUO72cYKP
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) July 21, 2020
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said he had “a good long conversation” with Trump last week, but he has not spoken to the president today.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked earlier today whether members of the coronavirus task force would join Trump at his briefing. “You’ll have to tune in to see,” McEnany replied.
The absence of Fauci increases the likelihood that the briefing will center on Trump trying to downplay the country’s recent surge in coronavirus cases for his own benefit.
Fauci was also asked about Trump’s recent claim that he is an “alarmist” when it comes to the pandemic. “I consider myself more a realist than an alarmist,” Fauci said.
Updated
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer expressed concern about Trump’s coronavirus briefings, which the president will officially resume in about an hour.
President Trump can't even model good behavior and consistently encourage Americans to wear a mask. Every time he takes the podium, he’s a threat to public health.
— Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) July 21, 2020
We are living through one the greatest failures of presidential leadership in our country’s history.
“President Trump can’t even model good behavior and consistently encourage Americans to wear a mask. Every time he takes the podium, he’s a threat to public health,” the Democratic leader said in a tweet.
“We are living through one the greatest failures of presidential leadership in our country’s history.”
Trump suspended his daily coronavirus briefings in April, after he was fiercely criticized for incorrectly claiming ingesting disinfectants could help protect Americans from contracting coronavirus.
The president also spent months resisted wearing a mask in public, despite mounting evidence that face coverings help mitigate the spread of the virus.
Trump was first seen publicly wearing a mask earlier this month, and he sent a tweet yesterday urging Americans to wear masks. However, the president was also seen attending a fundraiser last night without wearing a mask.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo described a meeting with British prime minister Boris Johnson today as “constructive”, but the mother of Harry Dunn, a teenage British motorcyclist who was killed in a collision with a US diplomat’s wife last year, was less positive about Pompeo’s opposite number.
Dominic Raab was a “lost child in an adult’s world” as he greeted Pompeo on Tuesday, Charlotte Charles said, having been at the gates of Downing Street to watch the American’s arrival.
“Words are not enough anymore,” she said.
Dunn died after a crash outside a US military base in Croughton, Northamptonshire, on 27 August 2019. Anne Sacoolas, 42, was charged with causing his death by dangerous driving but she left the UK days afterwards when the US government claimed she had diplomatic immunity. Sacoolas is the wife of an intelligence officer based at Croughton.
On Tuesday, a Downing Street spokeswoman said Johnson emphasised the need for justice for Dunn and his family.
“He said there was a strong feeling among the people of the UK that justice must be delivered,” she said.
Charles said she had come “to show Mr Pompeo and Mr Raab and Mr Johnson that I’m not just going to stick on my TV and watch them at home. It’s really important that we come here and let them know that Harry was important and they need to realise that.”
A request for the extradition of Sacoolas was rejected by the US in January. Then, Raab, the foreign secretary, said he had protested to the US ambassador and said: “We feel this amounts to a denial of justice, and we believe Anne Sacoolas should return to the UK … I also explained that the UK would have acted differently if this had been a UK diplomat serving in the US.”
Here’s more:
Senator Rand Paul lashed out against his Republican colleagues, as majority leader Mitch McConnell prepares to unveil a coronavirus relief bill expected to cost roughly $1 trillion.
Just came from Progressive Democrat, whoops, I’m mean Republican caucus:
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) July 21, 2020
They’re going to spend $105b more on education, more than we spend every year on the Dept of Education. Anyone remember when Reagan conservatives were for eliminating the Federal Dept. of Education?
“Just came from Progressive Democrat, whoops, [I] mean Republican caucus,” the libertarian senator said in a tweet.
“They’re going to spend $105b more on education, more than we spend every year on the Dept of Education. Anyone remember when Reagan conservatives were for eliminating the Federal Dept. of Education?”
However, the $105 billion for schools is well short of the $430 billion Democrats have proposed to help schools safely reopen.
Paul added, “The majority of Republicans are now no different than socialist Democrats when it comes to debt. They simply don’t care about debt and are preparing to add at least another trillion dollars in debt this month, combined with the trillions from earlier this summer.”
The Kentucky Republican voiced similar criticism of a coronavirus relief bill McConnell introduced in April, but Paul ultimately decided against blocking passage of the bill, which was signed into law.
Bolton: no justification for DHS agents in Portland
Former national security adviser John Bolton has stepped into the row over Portland, saying there is no justification for the deployment of Department of Homeland Security forces on the streets of the Oregon city.
In an interview with the Guardian, Bolton pointed out that he served in the Reagan justice department, giving him an insight into the legal and practical issues involved. He said that even if the situation was so extreme it demanded federal involvement, the DHS was not the right department.
“The protection of federal courthouses now is the responsibility of the US Marshals Service, who are also responsible for physical protection for US judges, as part of the justice department,” said Bolton, who left the Trump administration in September after falling out with the president and subsequently wrote a bestselling tell-all book.
“If there were a threat to a US courthouse in Portland or anywhere else, you beef up the Marshals Service. It’s not like nobody ever gave any thought to this before. That’s what the marshals are there for, and the marshals are in constant coordination with local law enforcement.
“If a governor or mayor says, ‘Look, this is out of control, I need federal help,’ there are occasions when you do that. There are no such requests. I’m not saying everything’s hunky dory in Portland, Oregon, because it clearly is not. But I don’t see any justification for the deployment of the Department of Homeland Security personnel.”
Here’s a report from Chris McGreal, in Portland and speaking to some of the “Wall of Moms” who have turned out to join Black Lives Matter protests and thwart Trump’s federal agents:
Updated
Donald Trump “cannot imprison Michael Cohen for writing a book”, the American Civil Liberties Union said, as the organization filed suit against the federal government.
The ACLU suit against the attorney general, William Barr, and the director of the federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) follows court battles involving John Bolton, a former national security adviser, and Mary Trump, the president’s niece. They defeated attempts to stop publication by the White House and the Trump family respectively, and saw their tell-all books became instant bestsellers.
In a tweet on 2 July, Cohen said he was “close to completion of my book, anticipated release date will be late September”. A week later, the former top Trump aide was returned to prison after he had been released due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Cohen, 53 and Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, was convicted of crimes including lying to Congress and facilitating illegal payments to silence two women who alleged affairs with Trump, the adult film-maker and actor Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, a former Playboy model.
Trump denies the affairs and ordering the payments.
Cohen went to prison in May 2019. He was released a year later, due to the coronavirus pandemic, and expected to complete his three-year sentence at home. Last week, however, the BOP said Cohen had “refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a result, has been returned to a BOP facility”.
Full report here…
Joe Biden promised to give a raise to childcare workers, who he said are “too often underpaid, unseen, and undervalued.”
The Democratic candidate noted 40% of childcare workers are still on SNAP or Medicaid, calling that figure “unacceptable.”
Biden also reflected on his own time as a single father, raising his two sons after his first wife and young daughter were killed in a car accident.
“We know so many of you are going through the same thing without the kind of help I had, but now everything, everything feels different,” Biden said. “There’s just that feeling, that sense, when you just don’t know if everything is going to turn out okay.”
Closing his speech, Biden urged Americans to not lose hope and to remain resilient in the face of this crisis.
“Let’s get the hell -- heck up,” Biden said, correcting his language.
Joe Biden laid out his plan to expand access to preschool for working families, directly linking the need for affordable childcare to the country’s economic recovery.
“We’re trapped in a caregiving crisis within an economic crisis within a healthcare crisis,” the Democratic candidate said.
We are trapped in a caregiving crisis, within an economic crisis, within a public health crisis. You’re doing everything you can, but this president is not.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2020
If I’m your president, here’s what I would do: https://t.co/RbUFxJldQq
Biden pledged that, if elected, he would guarantee access to “free, high-quality preschool” for every three- and four-year-old child in the country.
The former vice president also promised that low- and middle-income families would not spend more than 7% of their income on care for children under the age of five.
Biden says Trump has 'quit on this country'
Echoing his other recent speeches, Joe Biden sharply criticized Trump’s response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Democratic candidate said the president “simply doesn’t understand” that the economy will not recover until the country gets the spread of coronavirus under control.
“For all his bluster about his expertise on the economy, he’s unable to explain how he’ll actually help working families hit the hardest,” Biden said. “He’s quit on you. He’s quit on this country.”
Updated
Joe Biden is describing the third plank of his “Build Back Better” plan to reinvigorate the US economy, which has severely suffered because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Democratic candidate said the plan was aimed at “easing the squeeze on working families” who are caring for young children and elderly loved ones.
“I know it’s hard to think of the future when you’re just trying to get through the crisis at hand,” Biden said, noting that many childcare facilities have been forced to close because of the pandemic.
“We’re in a childcare emergency, and it didn’t have to be this way,” Biden said.
Biden delivers remarks on education workforce
Joe Biden is now delivering remarks in New Castle, Delaware, on how he will “build a robust 21st century caregiving and education workforce,” according to his campaign.
Today, I’m releasing my plan to mobilize a 21st century care and early childhood education workforce.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 21, 2020
It will ease the financial burden of care for families, create good-paying jobs with good benefits, and treat workers with the dignity they deserve.https://t.co/Z8FOorzFmE pic.twitter.com/hcyLR8CIbq
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee has recently delivered a series of speeches on how he would help rebuild the US economy if elected.
Biden’s remarks come as Trump has pushed schools to reopen this fall despite concerns about the spread of coronavirus in the classroom once in-person instruction resumes.
The American Civil Liberties Union vowed to sue the Trump administration over its executive order aimed at excluded undocumented persons from being counted in the 2020 census.
BREAKING: Trump tried to add a citizenship question to the census and lost in the Supreme Court.
— ACLU (@ACLU) July 21, 2020
His latest attempt to weaponize the census for an attack on immigrant communities WILL be found unconstitutional.
We’ll see him in court — and win — again.
“Trump tried to add a citizenship question to the census and lost in the Supreme Court,” the group said in a tweet.
“His latest attempt to weaponize the census for an attack on immigrant communities WILL be found unconstitutional. We’ll see him in court — and win — again.”
The order will almost certainly become tied up in legal battles, making it unlikely the matter will be settled before the November election.
Trump signs executive order to exclude undocumented persons from census
The White House said Trump has signed his executive order aimed at excluding undocumented persons from being counted in the 2020 census.
“For the purpose of the reapportionment of Representatives following the 2020 census, it is the policy of the United States to exclude from the apportionment base aliens who are not in a lawful immigration status under the Immigration and Nationality Act,” the order reads.
“Excluding these illegal aliens from the apportionment base is more consonant with the principles of representative democracy underpinning our system of Government.”
Critics of the expected order have argued the Constitution calls for counting all persons in the United States, whether they are citizens or not. If implemented, the order could cause areas with large populations of undocumented persons to lose funding and government representation.
However, the American Civil Liberties Union has already said it intends to file a lawsuit against the administration over the order, meaning the matter will likely become tied up in the court system.
The order comes one year after the supreme court blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to add a citizenship question to this year’s census.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Trump will soon sign an executive order aimed at excluding undocumented persons from being counted in the census, the White House confirmed to the Guardian. But the American Civil Liberties Union has already said it plans to legally challenge the order, which comes a year after the supreme court blocked the administration’s effort to add a citizenship question to the census.
- The president will resume his coronavirus briefings later today. The White House press secretary deflected a question about whether other officials, such as Drs Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx, will appear at the briefings.
- Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell outlined the broad strokes of the Republican coronavirus relief bill. McConnell said the legislation would include $105 billion for schools, which is well short of the $430 billion that Democrats have been pushing for. The bill will also allocate more money in small business loans and direct payments to American families, McConnell said.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
A spokesperson for Republican congressman Ted Yoho denied that he called Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez “a fucking bitch,” after he confronted the progressive lawmaker about her comments on poverty and policing.
Yoho’s spokesperson told ABC News, “He did not call Rep. Ocasio-Cortez what has been reported in the Hill or any name for that matter. ... Instead, he made a brief comment to himself as he walked away summarizing what he believes her polices to be: bullshit.”
.@RepTedYoho spox denies he called @AOC a "f-cking b-tch."
— John R Parkinson (@jparkABC) July 21, 2020
"He did not call Rep. Ocasio-Cortez what has been reported in the Hill or any name for that matter...Instead, he made a brief comment to himself as he walked away summarizing what he believes her polices to be: bullshit." https://t.co/uPKVZiQ9ye
According to the Hill, Yoho delivered the insult about Ocasio-Cortez shortly after their tense exchange on the Capitol steps ended.
Congressman Roger Williams, who joined Yoho on the Capitol steps, told the Hill that he was not aware whether his colleague made the insulting comment.
“I was actually thinking, as I was walking down the stairs, I was thinking about some issues I’ve got in my district that need to get done,” Williams said. “I don’t know what their topic was. There’s always a topic, isn’t there?”
The federal agents being sent to Chicago are expected to remain in the city for at least two months, according to the Associated Press.
The AP reports:
DHS is slated to send about 150 Homeland Security Investigations agents to Chicago to help local law enforcement deal with a spike in crime, according to an official with direct knowledge of the plans who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly.
The agents, which are generally used to conduct investigations into human trafficking, drugs and weapons smuggling, were expected to stay in Chicago at least two months, according to the official. It’s not clear exactly how they will back up local law enforcement or when they will arrive, but they will make arrests for federal crimes, not local ones.
Chicago’s Democratic mayor, Lori Lightfoot, has said she opposes the administration’s efforts to send federal agents to her city and may even file a lawsuit over the issue.
“We are not going to have people who don’t know our streets, don’t know our neighborhoods and then who are engaging in clearly unconstitutional conduct operating at will in our city,” Lightfoot said in an interview last night.
Trump to sign executive order to exclude undocumented people from census
The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
Donald Trump is planning to take executive action Tuesday to exclude undocumented persons from the official Census Bureau count for drawing electoral districts, the White House confirmed.
The decision will likely be met with an immediate legal challenge (the American Civil Liberties Union has already indicated it will sue). The US constitution requires districts to be apportioned based on a census of all “persons.”
Electoral districts must have roughly the same amount of people in them, but Republicans have been pushing in recent years to exclude those who can’t vote from the official tally. In 2015, Thomas Hofeller, a top Republican redistricting expert, wrote that only using the voter eligible population would be “advantageous to Republicans and non-Hispanic whites.”
The US supreme court ruled in 2016 that states were not required to draw districts based only on the number of eligible voters, but left an open question as to whether states could choose to do so. The issue is expected to return to the court in the future.
Trump’s executive order comes a year after the US supreme court blocked his administration’s effort to add a question asking about citizenship to the 2020 census survey, which goes to every US household. In a 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts said the Trump administration had not followed proper procedure in adding the question and that its justification “seems to have been contrived.”
Updated
Moments ago, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said it was “absolutely absurd” that the St Louis couple who pointed guns at anti-racism protesters had been charged with a felony.
ST. LOUIS PROTESTS: @PressSec says Trump condemned charges against the St. Louis couple who brandished guns at protesters in June, calling it "absolutely absurd"
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 21, 2020
Patricia and Mark McCloskey each face one charge of "unlawful use of a weapon — flourishing"https://t.co/XdJR5mW0U0 pic.twitter.com/xvQZXtAYfD
McEnany accused the St Louis prosecutor who filed the charges against Mark and Patricia McCloskey of an “extreme abuse of power,” claiming the couple was merely “defending themselves from violent protesters.”
Lois Beckett has more details on the charges:
Mark and Patricia McCloskey, both personal injury attorneys in their 60s, will be charged with felony unlawful use of a weapon and a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault.
‘It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner – that is unlawful in the city of St Louis,’ the circuit attorney Kim Gardner told the Associated Press on Monday, arguing that the couple’s actions risked creating a violent situation during an otherwise non-violent protest.
‘We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation will not be tolerated,’ Gardner said in a statement.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany concluded her briefing with one of her trademark scripted walk-offs.
The press secretary lashed out against the New York Times for the newspaper’s recent deep dive on how the Trump administration failed to get coronavirus infections under control.
Specifically, the Times reported this on Dr Deborah Birx, the coordinator of the White House coronavirus task force:
Dr. Birx was more central than publicly known to the judgment inside the West Wing that the virus was on a downward path. Colleagues described her as dedicated to public health and working herself to exhaustion to get the data right, but her model-based assessment nonetheless failed to account for a vital variable: how Mr. Trump’s rush to urge a return to normal would help undercut the social distancing and other measures that were holding down the numbers.
McEnany said of the Times article, “The attack on Dr. Birx was appalling and egregious, and the New York Times should be ashamed of themselves.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked to elaborate on her comment that Trump is tested “multiple times a day” for coronavirus.
The White House previously said the president was tested on a daily basis, but McEnany’s comment that he is tested multiple times each day is new.
McEnany would not provide further details, only saying Trump is tested “often.” She repeated, “Sometimes it is more than one time a day.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany accused journalists of trying to “scare” Americans about the pandemic.
“I think in many cases the media has tried to scare the American people,” McEnany said.
The press secretary argued the media has not appropriately covered other health-related costs of the shutdowns caused by coronavirus.
McEnany’s comments come as the US death toll from coronavirus surpasses 140,000. The US has also confirmed more than 3.8 million cases of the virus.
One White House reporter asked press secretary Kayleigh McEnany about the president’s belated tweet endorsing the use of face masks as a means of limiting the spread of coronavirus.
McEnany claimed Trump has “always been consistent” on the use of face masks by saying they are recommended but not required as a precaution against contracting the virus.
But the president was only seen publicly wearing a mask for the first time earlier this month, more than three months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention initially recommended face coverings.
“The president has led,” McEnany insisted. “He’s been consistent.”
McEnany said Trump is tested for coronavirus “multiple times a day” and is thus taking the appropriate precautions. The White House has previously said the president was tested for the virus daily.
When asked whether experts like Drs Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx would be at today’s coronavirus briefing, McEnany mysteriously responded, “You’ll have to tune in to see.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was pressed on a video from Portland showing a Navy veteran who was peacefully protesting being beaten by federal agents.
McEnany deflected by referring questions to the department of homeland security, but she said the White House “always encourage[s] the appropriate use of force.”
When McEnany was asked where Trump derives the constitutional authority to send federal agents to cities without the consent of local leaders, the press secretary cited the administration’s right to protect federal property.
However, activists in Portland say federal agents have targeted peaceful protesters far from the federal courthouse cited by administration officials.
White House criticizes 'anarchy' in Portland
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is now holding a briefing, hours before Trump’s coronavirus briefing this evening.
McEnany opened the briefing by saying, “By any standard, the violence, chaos and anarchy in Portland are unacceptable.”
The Trump administration has recently been criticized for sending federal law enforcement agents to Portland to crack down on protests against racism and police brutality.
Trump signaled yesterday he would send more federal agents to other Democratic-controlled cities, and reports indicate the administration plans to soon send 150 federal agents to Chicago, despite opposition from the city’s mayor.
A fellow House Democrat came to the defense of congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, after Republican lawmaker Ted Yoho accosted her over her comments about crime and poverty.
“I have suggested the same thing that @aoc has poverty & unemployment lead to crime,” Arizona Democrat Ruben Gallego said in a tweet. “Weird neither Yoho or any other member has ever talked to me that way.”
I have suggested the same thing that @aoc has poverty & unemployment lead to crime. Weird neither Yoho or any other member has ever talked to me that way. https://t.co/eQfwBe0223
— Ruben Gallego (@RubenGallego) July 21, 2020
Ocasio-Cortez told the Hill, which reported on the incident, that she had never experienced such a personal confrontation from one of her House colleagues.
“That kind of confrontation hasn’t ever happened to me — ever,” the progressive congresswoman said. “I’ve never had that kind of abrupt, disgusting kind of disrespect levied at me. ... I’m frankly quite taken aback.”
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell addressed the Republican coronavirus relief bill in a floor speech this morning.
McConnell said he would soon release the text of the bill, but he outlined some of the broad strokes of the legislation in his speech.
The Republican leader said the three pillars of the next relief bill would be “kids, jobs, healthcare.”
McConnell said he was proposing $105 billion for schools, which is well short of the $430 billion that Democrats have been pushing for.
The Kentucky Republican said his caucus was also calling for more money in small business loans and direct payments to American families.
However, McConnell did not address continuing additional unemployment benefits, as Democrats have called for, or implementing a payroll tax cut, which the White House has been promoting.
It’s still unclear whether the Senate will be able to pass another relief bill, considering Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has already sharply criticized McConnell for crafting the bill without Democratic cooperation.
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez responds to report Republican colleague accosted her
Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has weighed in on a report that one of her Republican colleagues accosted her on the Capitol steps yesterday.
The Hill reported that the progressive lawmaker was confronted yesterday by Republican congressman Ted Yoho, who criticized Ocasio-Cortez’s recent comments about the connection between poverty and crime.
According to the Hill, Yoho said Ocasio-Cortez was “disgusting” for saying of New York’s spiking gun violence earlier this month, “Crime is a problem of a diseased society, which neglects its marginalized people. ... Policing is not the solution to crime.”
Yoho told Ocasio-Cortez, “You are out of your freaking mind.”
Ocasio-Cortez responded by saying Yoho was being “rude.”
After the two parted, Yoho was overheard saying, “Fucking bitch.”
Ocasio-Cortez reflected on the tense exchange this morning, writing in a tweet, “I never spoke to Rep. Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nation’s Capitol yesterday. Believe it or not, I usually get along fine w/ my GOP colleagues. We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door.”
The progressive congresswoman closed the tweet by cheekily adding, “But hey, “b*tches” get stuff done.”
I never spoke to Rep. Yoho before he decided to accost me on the steps of the nation’s Capitol yesterday.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 21, 2020
Believe it or not, I usually get along fine w/ my GOP colleagues. We know how to check our legislative sparring at the committee door.
But hey, “b*tches” get stuff done. 🤷🏽♀️ https://t.co/WlG3xccwR7
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The Guardian’s Sam Levine reports:
A North Carolina prosecutor accused of using a racist law to prosecute an African American woman for voter fraud has now doubled the charges against her, the Guardian has learned.
The case involves Lanisha Bratcher, a 32-year-old woman who voted in 2016 while on probation for a felony assault charge (North Carolina prohibits those on felony probation from voting), as the Guardian reported in December.
Bratcher says she had no idea she was ineligible to vote, but the district attorney in Hoke county, where Bratcher voted, decided to charge her with a class I felony for voting while serving a criminal sentence. She faced up to 19 months in prison.
The case has been pending since late last year and Bratcher has since begun working at a beauty store and is expecting her third child in December. But in early June, the district attorney’s office brought new charges against Bratcher.
Prosecutors told her attorney they intended to dismiss the original charge against her, but provided two new grand jury indictments against Bratcher under a different provision of the same law that makes it a felony to knowingly swear a false statement in an election.
It’s a small tweak that allowed the district attorney to double the charges against Bratcher, who was arrested last year but is out on bond. She was initially just charged with a single felony for illegal voting, but because Bratcher swore she was eligible to vote on both her voter registration and early voting form, the district attorney is now pursuing charges on two felony counts.
She now faces a maximum of 19 months in prison for each count, her attorney said, though a judge could sentence her to less or probation of she is convicted. “It feels like in some ways she’s being punished or targeted for fighting back,” said John Carella, Bratcher’s lawyer. “She’s certainly upset this is still going on. She is trying to move on with her life.”
When he resumes his coronavirus briefings today, Trump will also not be facing the friendliest audience, considering his recent polling numbers.
According to an ABC News/Washington Post poll released last week, 64% of Americans distrust what the president says about the pandemic.
The president is clearly hoping the return of these briefings will help him turn around those numbers and boost his reelection prospects, as national polls show him trailing Joe Biden by double digits.
However, considering nearly two-thirds of Americans don’t trust what Trump has to say about coronavirus, it’s unclear how he can use these briefings to improve the country’s opinion of his response to the pandemic.
Trump will resume his coronavirus briefings at 5 pm ET today, in an apparent attempt to boost his suffering polling and approval numbers amid widespread criticism of his response to the pandemic.
Speaking to Fox News this morning, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the briefings would be “short” and “very newsy,” noting the president planned to take reporters’ questions.
McEnany also said the president may occasionally bring other officials from the White House coronavirus task force with him, but the briefings seem likely to become the Trump show.
According to CNN, no member of the task force is expected to attend today’s briefing, and some administration officials remain opposed to resuming the briefings, which ended in April shortly after the president incorrectly claimed ingesting disinfectants could help protect against coronavirus.
Trump’s briefings frequently included false, misleading and occasionally dangerous claims, so it’s unclear whether television networks will air the events live.
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.
In a new lawsuit, the American Civil Liberties Union accuses Trump of trying to imprison his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, for writing a book about the president.
Martin Pengelly has more details:
Cohen went to prison in May 2019. He was released a year later, due to the coronavirus pandemic, and expected to complete his three-year sentence at home. Last week, however, the [Bureau of Prisons] said Cohen had ‘refused the conditions of his home confinement and as a result, has been returned to a BOP facility’.
Those conditions, which many observers said were unusual, included forbidding Cohen to speak to the media or to publish his book. Cohen’s lawyer, Lanny Davis, pointed out that Cohen had been allowed to speak to the media from the Federal Correctional Institution in Otisville, New York.
Now the ACLU and law firm Perry Guha LLP have filed suit in US district court in New York. According to the suit, Cohen is being held in solitary confinement at a federal prison in New York state.
‘He is being held in retaliation for his protected speech,’ the suit says, ‘including drafting a book manuscript that is critical of the president – and recently making public his intention to publish that book soon, shortly before the upcoming election about President Trump.’
The lawsuit comes after the White House recently tried (and failed) to block the publication of two other tell-all books about the president from former national security adviser John Bolton and Trump’s niece, Mary Trump.
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Pompeo describes visit to British prime minister as "constructive"
Mike Pompeo has tweeted some details of his meeting this morning with British prime minister Boris Johnson, saying it was a “constructive visit”
Constructive visit with @BorisJohnson today. Our two countries’ long-standing, strong bilateral relationship has laid the foundation for today’s candid discussion on issues ranging from 5G telecommunication to our negotiations for a U.S.-UK free trade agreement. pic.twitter.com/9j1o3bK8e6
— Secretary Pompeo (@SecPompeo) July 21, 2020
As expected, US-UK trade and China featured in the discussion, with Pompeo specifically mentioning 5G. The British government recently announced that it would be stripping Huawei’s technology out of the nation’s 5G network by 2027, a decision which Donald Trump appeared to partially claim credit for.
Pompeo will spend the afternoon meeting with his direct counterpart, foreign secretary Dominic Raab. The two are to give a joint press conference later this afternoon.
Pompeo’s visit has not been protest-free. As well as the usual anti-Trump sentiment often seen on London’s streets when a member of the administration visits the UK, there were demonstrations demanding freedom for Julian Assange, and also representatives of the campaign for justice for Harry Dunn.
The mother of the teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn had appealed for the prime minister to make her son “top priority” during the visit, and was outside the Foreign and Commonwealth Office this morning when Pompeo arrived.
Minnesota lawmakers ban neck restraints after George Floyd's death
Associated Press are reporting that the Minnesota legislature passed a package of police accountability measures early Tuesday that includes a ban on neck restraints like the one that was used on George Floyd before his death in Minneapolis.
The sweeping package was said to be one of the most substantial changes to the state’s criminal justice system in years and also bans chokeholds and so-called ‘warrior-style training’ in which officers are instructed to view all encounters as inherently dangerous.
Passage of the measures comes after nearly two months of negotiations that followed Floyd’s death on 25 May.
The House approved the measure 102 to 29 just before midnight Monday. The Senate passed it 60 to 7 and sent the bill to Gov. Tim Walz a couple of hours later.
The legislation also improves data collection around deadly force encounters and creates a new state unit to investigate those cases. It increases funding for crisis intervention training, creates an arbitration panel to handle police misconduct cases and establishes incentives for officers to live in the communities they police, the Star Tribune reported.
“We’ve never stopped working on this, whether we were in session or out of session. That’s something we all felt was important,” said Republican senate majority leader Paul Gazelka.
However, the eventual bill passed was the subject of much compromise. The Democrats’ original policing proposal went further, including provisions to restore voting rights for felons and giving the responsibility for prosecuting deadly force cases to the attorney general’s office. These plans fell by the wayside.
Floyd’s family are suing Minneapolis over his killing.
Social media has been a vector for spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic, and will inevitably play a part in shaping how November’s election campaigns are being perceived.
This morning my San Francisco colleague Julia Carrie Wong has an interview for us with Ellen Pao, the silicon valley figure who was formerly in charge of Reddit. Pao spoke to the Guardian about the lessons she learned, the mistakes she made, and how she knows that Facebook doesn’t actually take content moderation seriously.
You outsource the stuff that’s not important. It’s the chicken and the egg, right? They don’t think it’s important so they outsource it to this team, and that team doesn’t have any visibility within or voice within the organization. When a team is very distant, you don’t see it being harassed, and you don’t care about it that much because they’re not actually part of your team. It just becomes easier to dismiss problems.
Read it here: ‘They don’t think it’s important’: Ellen Pao on why Facebook can’t beat hate
And we’ve got another interesting look at social media here, with Adrienne Matei looking at a new report from Dr Heather Williams and Dr Alexi Drew entitled “Escalation by Tweet: Managing the New Nuclear Diplomacy”. Originating from the Centre for Science and Security Studies at King’s College London, the report looks at how government officials and agencies use Twitter during global crises.
Because Twitter enables the impulsive sharing of blunt, unmediated messages, Williams and Drew note it is “not an ideal medium for crafting nuanced diplomatic messages”. They also observe that because Americans make up Twitter’s largest user base (with 59.35 million users), US citizens and decision-makers are disproportionately susceptible to Twitter disinformation campaigns and messaging. Essentially, if you’re an adversary of the US and want to influence the American conversation for your own purposes, Twitter could be a highly useful tool.
Read more here: The age of blunt diplomacy? Twitter can be used to escalate global conflict, study says
We’ve long been aware that Donald Trump has a rather singular approach to things, but even by his standards it seems odd to be tweeting about the great reviews of his interview at the weekend with Chris Wallace. The general consensus is that the president was robustly challenged and fact-checked on the spot in a way that has sometimes been lacking in the interviews that he has conducted. The president seems very pleased with it though.
Thank you for the good reviews and comments on my interview with Chris Wallace of @FoxNews. We may have set a record for doing such an interview in the heat. It was 100 degrees, making things very interesting!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 21, 2020
The interview included some very strange moments, including the president claiming that a cognitive test was very hard.
Might, though, there be a campaigning angle at work here this morning?
Replying to Trump’s tweet just now was his senior legal adviser, Jenna Ellis, asking if opponent Joe Biden would undertake the same kind of interview. We can expect to see a lot of this questioning of Biden’s own mental competency from the Trump team in the coming months.
Will Joe Biden do a sit down interview for an hour with Chris Wallace under the same conditions as President Trump? No questions in advance or any topic off limits? No teleprompter or notes or handlers in his ear?
— Jenna Ellis (@JennaEllisEsq) July 21, 2020
Why not?
Nurses to hold Washington memorial for 160 colleagues lost to Covid-19
Nurses will be holding a memorial this morning to honour 160 colleagues who have lost their lives to Covid-19 during the pandemic. Gathering at 9:15am EST in Washington, they will also be demanding that the government acts to provide better protection to healthcare workers.
“How many of these frontline nurses would be here today if they had had the equipment they needed to do their jobs safely?” said Zenei Cortez, president of National Nurses United, who have organised the memorial and protest. “The House of Representatives passed the HEROES Act on May 15 but Senator Mitch McConnell has sat on his hands as the pandemic has surged and nurses and other health care workers have gone without the proper PPE, causing many to get sick and die.”
Nurses in Florida have repeatedly demonstrated about what they claim are poor and unsafe working conditions when dealing with coronavirus patients in the state.
Poll: a third of Americans believe there are fewer Covid-19 deaths than officially recorded
This week’s Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index is out, and they are leading with the line that “most Americans believe others are making the pandemic worse”. They also find that more Americans, particularly Republicans, are denying the official toll of the pandemic.
Almost a third of Americans believe the real death toll of the pandemic is less than the 135,000 officially reported as of mid-July. Republicans (59%) are the most likely to say that the real number of deaths is less than the official count while Democrats (61%) continue to mostly believe the real toll of the pandemic is greater than what has been officially reported. Most Americans overall still believe the actual number of deaths is either higher than (37%), or on par with (31%), the official count.
With more restrictions in place as many states halted or rolled back their reopening plans, just under half of Americans - 44% - report seeing friends and family in the last week.
Read more details here: IPSOS – Americans disillusioned with fellow citizens’ response to pandemic as denial mounts
Hunter Felt has been looking for us at the difficulties the NBA has faced in its plan to allow players to wear social justice messages on their shirts - most notably because they haven’t been able to carry all the players along with them
If the NBA expected the jersey idea to completely satisfy players, it received a rude awakening. Most notably, LeBron James, the league’s most popular player and its de facto spokesperson, came out to say that he was skipping the whole concept. “It was no disrespect to the list that was handed down to all the players,” James told reporters. “I commend anyone that decides to put something on the back of their jersey. It’s just something that didn’t seriously resonate with my mission, with my goal.” He pointedly added that he had several ideas he would have suggested had he been part of the process, but he wasn’t. James was the most high-profile player to opt-out, but he was far from alone.
Read it here: The NBA’s shaky jersey initiative shows the league’s wokeness has its limits
Biden to unveil plan for free preschool for all 3 and 4 year olds
As part of Joe Biden’s plan to revive the coronavirus-battered economy, the Democratic presidential candidate is expected unveil a sweeping child and eldercare plan later today, designed to help struggling Americans re-enter the workforce.
The plan, which Biden will detail at a campaign event in New Castle, Delaware, seeks to make childcare more affordable and accessible for families, and to make it easier for ageing relatives and loved ones with disabilities to receive home or community-based care.
His plan would cost $775 billion over a decade and will be paid for by rolling back tax breaks for real estate investors, and tightening enforcement of the existing US tax code.
As a first step, the plan would send federal aid to state and local governments to keep childcare programs and other public services operating.
Reuters report that ultimately the plan would seek to create 3 million jobs in the healthcare and education sectors, while bolstering the workforce overall by 5 million by allowing people who were taking care of children or relatives to rejoin the labor force.
As part of the proposal, Biden pledges to provide all 3-year-old and 4-year-old children access to free preschool, which the campaign says would save parents thousands of dollars a year in childcare costs.
Updated
Federal forces again target protesters with gas and projectiles in Portland
Demonstrators again crowded in front of the federal courthouse and the city’s Justice Center in Portland, Oregon late Monday night, before authorities cleared them out as the loud sound and light of flash bang grenades filled the sky.
The federal officers’ actions at protests in Oregon’s largest city have been hailed in public by Donald Trump, but they have been done without local consent, and are raising the prospect of a constitutional crisis that could escalate, as weeks of demonstrations find renewed focus in clashes with camouflaged, unidentified agents outside Portland’s US courthouse.
State and local authorities, who didn’t ask for federal help, are awaiting a ruling in a lawsuit filed late last week. State Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum said in court papers that masked federal officers have arrested people on the street, far from the courthouse, with no probable cause and whisked them away in unmarked cars.
Constitutional law experts have said federal officers’ actions in the progressive city are a red flag in what could become a test case of states rights as the Trump administration expands federal policing.
“The idea that there’s a threat to a federal courthouse and the federal authorities are going to swoop in and do whatever they want to do without any cooperation and coordination with state and local authorities is extraordinary outside the context of a civil war,” Michael Dorf, a professor of constitutional law at Cornell University, told the Associated Press.
“It is a standard move of authoritarians to use the pretext of quelling violence to bring in force, thereby prompting a violent response and then bootstrapping the initial use of force in the first place” Dorf said.
“This is a democracy, not a dictatorship,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, said on Twitter last night. “We cannot have secret police abducting people in unmarked vehicles. I can’t believe I have to say that to the president of the United States.”
This is a democracy, not a dictatorship. We cannot have secret police abducting people in unmarked vehicles. I can’t believe I have to say that to the President of the United States.https://t.co/m7iejhPtyP
— Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) July 20, 2020
The American Civil Liberties Union yesterday sent an a letter to Attorney General William Barr, urging that he appoint a special counsel to investigate alleged civil rights or criminal violations against protesters, journalists or legal observers in the city.
The Oregonian reported that last night’s protests - the 54th continuous night - began with two groups, called the Wall of Moms and PDXDadPod, marching from the riverfront to the Justice Center at 9pm.
Among the crowd was Mardy Widman. The 79-year-old grandmother of five said this was her first time protesting since George Floyd’s death because of her fear of the coronavirus, but the Trump administration’s decision to send federal agents to Portland had motivated her to come.
The Oregonian reports that by 9:15 pm, more than 1,000 people had gathered in the area as the march joined a group of around 300 Black Lives Matter protesters who had already gathered there. Federal officers set off smoke devices near the courthouse in attempts to clear the crowd at around 11:35pm and then again at 12:25am.
Updated
Seven states and Puerto Rico report record highs for coronavirus hospitalisations
Good morning, welcome to our live coverage of US politics, the coronavirus crisis and the Black Lives Matter protest movement for today. Here’s a quick run-through of the key points from yesterday and overnight, and something of what we can expect to unfold today.
- Donald Trump will resume daily coronavirus press briefings at 5pm today. Cynics may suggest that he’s got more of an eye on the TV ratings and how it might impact his re-election chances than it is a serious attempt to wrestle with the pandemic gripping America, although last night the president did tweet out a positive message about using face masks
- Another 59,966 new cases of Covid-19 were reported in the US yesterday. The number continues to fall from the 16 July peak of 75,643. But seven states and Puerto Rico reported record highs for coronavirus-related hospitalisations on Monday.
- Trump’s plan to put more federal forces onto the streets to face down protests has been criticised as an election ploy. Federal officers again set off gas canisters and shot projectiles towards a crowd of demonstrators gathered early Tuesday morning in Portland, Oregon
- A white couple who pointed guns at protesters marching against racial injustice outside their mansion in St Louis will face criminal charges
- Secretary of state Mike Pompeo is in London - his motorcade actually drove past me last night - where he will meet in private with British prime minister Boris Johnson, and later on give a joint press conference with his British counterpart Dominic Raab, which is likely to focus on China. The subject of Russian interference in elections may also come up - today the British government released a long-awaited report into it
- Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is also holding a morning briefing
I’ll be here for the next couple of hours, and you can get in touch with me directly at martin.belam@theguardian.com
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