Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh in San Francisco (now), Joan E Greve in Washington and Paul Owen (earlier)

Trump falsely declares himself 'the chief law enforcement officer' of the US – as it happened

Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he boards Air Force One Tuesday.
Donald Trump speaks with reporters as he boards Air Force One Tuesday. Photograph: Alex Brandon/AP

Live political reporting continues in Wednesday’s blog:

Summary

  • Mike Bloomberg has plunged into another controversy over his past comments — this time after newly uncovered video from last year showed him using dehumanizing language to describe trans people.
  • The billionaire former mayor of New York will face his competitors on the debate stage for the first time tomorrow in Las Vegas.
  • Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, and Joe Biden have all singled out Bloomberg today, critiquing his record on race and policing, as well as his self-funded campaign.
  • Ahead of the Nevada caucuses this week, Sanders held a double-digit lead over his competitors, according to a new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll. Another poll, from NBC and the Wall Street Journal also found Sanders in the lead, but has been criticized for appearing to leave Warren off a question that gauged candidates’ chances of winning a general election against Donald Trump.
  • The president falsely claimed he was “the chief law enforcement officer” of the US. Earlier today he commuted the sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who has served seven years in prison on corruption charges after being caught on tape trying to sell a US Senate seat.
  • Trump also pardoned former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik and financier Michael Milken.
  • Trump condemned what he called a “fraudulent investigation” into Roger Stone though he did not indicate whether he would pardon the longtime ally who was convicted of lying to Congress and obstructing Trump-Russia inquiry

Updated

Bernie Sanders’ campaign will ask for a partial recount of the Iowa caucus results, following state Democratic Party’s recanvass.

The recanvass updates reported results, but it doesn’t correct math errors. It appeared to narrow the gap between Sanders and Pete Buttigieg even further.

“While it is clear that Sen. Sanders won the popular vote in Iowa by 6,000 votes, the recanvass process reduced the State Delegate Equivalent deficit by 97 percent,” said Sanders’ adviser Jeff Weaver. “We now believe a recount will give Sen. Sanders enough State Delegate Equivalents to put him over the top by that metric as well. We want to thank the people of Iowa, our supporters, our volunteers and everyone who made this possible.”

The Iowa Democrats began a recanvass at the request of Sanders and Buttigieg’s campaigns. Although the party awarded Buttigieg the most delegates, the AP has still not declared a winner. The rollout of the results has been delayed due to issues with reporting and collecting data on election night, and errors in the complex math required to calculate the outcomes.

Updated

Warren isn’t the only candidate to single out Bloomberg. In response to news that the billionaire former mayor would sell his company if elected president, Joe Biden’s campaign pointed out that Bloomberg once said he’d sell his company if he ran for president.

Updated

Elizabeth Warren has been on the offensive against Mike Bloomberg, with her account tweeting critiques of the former New York mayor throughout the day in what could be a preview of tomorrow’s debate in Las Vegas.

The Massachusetts senator had hit Bloomberg on his policing policies, and the fact that he is using his vast wealth to fund his own campaign. “It’s a shame Mike Bloomberg can buy his way into the debate,” Warren said in one of her targeted tweets.

Bloomberg is surging in polls, even as Warren’s support has lagged. In Nevada, where Warren had one of the earliest and strongest campaigns, she’s banking on a strong showing of support at the caucuses to boost her back up.

Tomorrow, she’ll and the other Democratic contenders face off for the first time against Bloomberg who qualified to participate in the Las Vegas debate after the Democratic National Committee relaxed its qualification requirements.

Updated

Andrew Yang has dropped out of the Democratic primaries, but some of his supporters are continuing to carry the torch for him in Nevada.

Over the weekend, #StillVotingYang trended on Twitter, as thousands of supporters said the entrepreneur remained their top choice even though he suspended his campaign.

The mayor of Chicago said Donald Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of the former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, “sends the wrong message”.

Blagojevich has served seven years in prison on corruption charges. He was caught on tape trying to sell a US Senate seat. Lori Lightfoot, the mayor of Chicago said that commuting Blagojevich’s sentence “would be controversial under any president, but President Trump embodies the worst in public leadership through his brazen disrespect for the rule of law and good governance”.

Oddly, though the NBC/WSJ poll asked voters to weigh in on a theoretical race between Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Mike Bloomberg and Amy Klobuchar, it didn’t test a matchup between the president and Elizabeth Warren.

Warren ranked fourth among voters who participated in the same poll, above Buttigieg and Klobuchar.

Bloomberg would sell his company if elected president, according to his adviser.
Bloomberg would sell his company if elected president, according to an adviser. Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images

Mike Bloomberg said he would sell Bloomberg LP if he were elected president, according to his advisor. Bloomberg would put the company into a bling trust, and the trustee would sell it, adviser Tim O’Brien told the AP. Proceeds from the sale would go to Bloomberg Philanthropies, the charitable arm of the former New York mayor’s business.

“We want to be 180 degrees apart from Donald Trump around financial conflicts of interest,” O’Brien told the AP. “We think it’s one of the biggest stains on the presidency, and Trump’s record is his refusal to disengage himself in his own financial interests. And we want to be very transparent and clean and clear with voters about where Mike is on these things.”

Bloomberg retained ownership of his company while serving as New York mayor.

A new poll finds Bernie Sanders would win against Mike Bloomberg in a two-way race.

When asked how they’d vote if they had to choose between Sanders and Bloomberg, 57% of Democratic primary voters polled chose the former.

Bloomberg’s campaign has cast the primaries has a “two-man” race between the former New York mayor and the Vermont senator.

According to the poll by NBC and the Wall Street Journal, Sanders also did best in matchups between the Democratic candidates and Donald Trump.

Updated

Report: video shows Mike Bloomberg using language that dehumanizes trans people

A newly uncovered video from a forum in March 2019 shows Bloomberg saying that trans rights were about “some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she, or it can go to the locker room with their daughter, that’s not a winning formula for most people”, according to a report by Buzzfeed News.

The revelation comes on the same day that Bloomberg’s campaign released a video touting the former New York mayor’s record on LGBTQ+ issues, Buzzfeed notes.

Bloomberg’s sensitivity was far less apparent at a forum hosted by the Bermuda Business Development Agency on March 21, 2019, in Manhattan, where Bloomberg derided Democratic candidates for talking about transgender protections.

“If your conversation during a presidential election is about some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she, or it can go to the locker room with their daughter, that’s not a winning formula for most people,” he said.

Bloomberg made a similar remark about a “man wearing a dress” in 2016, but his comments uncovered Tuesday — remarks he made less than a year ago — came amid the early stages of the 2020 Democratic primary.

The video was posted to YouTube shortly after the March event, but has received few views. Bloomberg was not a candidate for president at the time, but announced his campaign just eight months after he made the remarks.

Updated

Evening summary

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:

  • Trump falsely claimed he was “the chief law enforcement officer” of the US, a title that actually belongs to attorney general William Barr.
  • Trump commuted the sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who has served seven years in prison on corruption charges after being caught on tape trying to sell a US Senate seat.
  • The Blagojevich commutation was one in a series of acts of clemency from Trump, who also pardoned former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik and financier Michael Milken.
  • The sentencing of former Trump associate Roger Stone will take place on Thursday, as scheduled, while Stone’s legal team continues to push for a new trial.
  • Trump appeared to indicate his support for granting Stone a new trial in a series of tweets quoting a Fox News analyst.

Maanvi will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign has responded to Pete Buttigieg’s earlier comment that he has concerns about Sanders’ ability to win in a general election against Trump.

The Sanders campaign pointed to the candidate’s formidable fundraising operation and popularity with people of color, particularly Latinx voters, as evidence of the Vermont senator’s broad appeal.

But some of Sanders’ critics fear he will see his polling numbers dangerously slide once the Trump campaign starts focusing on the self-described democratic socialist.

Trump himself appears to relish the idea of facing Sanders and has repeatedly accused the Democratic party of trying to prevent Sanders from winning the nomination, although he has offered no evidence for that claim.

A new poll from Maine shows Republican senator Susan Collins locked in a close race with her expected Democratic opponent, state House speaker Sara Gideon.

The Colby College poll found that 42% of Maine voters support Collins, compared to 43% who support Gideon. In comparison, Collins won reelection in 2014 with more than 68% of the vote.

The poll also found that Collins’ vote to acquit Trump in the Senate impeachment trial is hurting her with the state’s many independent voters.

Of the independents polled, 39% said Collins’ acquittal vote made them less likely to support her, compared to 13% who said it made them more likely to support her.

Democrats consider Collins’ seat to be one of their top pick-up opportunities as they attempt to take control of the Senate, which would require flipping four Republican seats (or three if they can also win the White House).

In a pair of tweets, Trump accused Mike Bloomberg of “illegally buying” the Democratic presidential nomination as the billionaire candidate spends hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising.

Some of Bloomberg’s critics have raised concerns about the former New York mayor receiving endorsements from lawmakers who have benefitted from his political donations, but those endorsements do not run afoul of campaign finance laws.

Bernie Sanders’ campaign has released its first television ad in South Carolina ahead of the state’s primary next week.

The ad features Richland county council vice-chair Dalhi Myers, who swung to Sanders after initially supporting Joe Biden.

“I don’t think there’s anything more important than defeating Donald Trump,” Myers says in the ad.

“Initially I was a Joe Biden supporter. I switched from the Biden campaign to the Sanders campaign because I want to see the kind of lines around the building that we saw in 2008.”

South Carolina polls have shown Biden in the lead, but Sanders has been on the rise after his strong performances in Iowa and New Hampshire.

In a new statement, five House Republicans from Illinois criticized Trump’s decision to commute the sentence of the state’s former governor, Rod Blagojevich.

The Republican lawmakers said they were “disappointed” by Trump’s commutation of Blagojevich, who was described as “the face of public corruption in Illinois.”

“History will not judge Rod Blagojevich well,” the statement concludes.

At least two of the lawmakers reportedly appealed directly to Trump not to commute the sentence of the former Democratic governor, who was caught on tape trying to sell a US Senate seat.

Attending a campaign event in Nevada, Pete Buttigieg echoed a voter’s concern that Bernie Sanders would lose in a general election to Trump.

Sanders’ campaign has pushed back against such “electability” complaints by pointing to head-to-head polling showing the Vermont senator is ahead of Trump.

But some of Sanders’ critics have predicted he will see his numbers decrease once Trump’s campaign starts turning its fire on the self-described democratic socialist.

Senior Republicans issue statement in support of Barr

Three senior congressional Republicans -- Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy and Senate judiciary committee chairman Lindsey Graham -- have issued a statement in support of attorney general William Barr.

The statement describes Barr as “a man of the highest character and unquestionable integrity” and dismisses calls for the attorney general to resign.

“Suggestions from outside groups that the Attorney General has fallen short of the responsibilities of his office are unfounded,” the statement says. “The Attorney General has shown that he is committed without qualification to securing equal justice under law for all Americans.”

More than 1,100 former Justice Department employees have signed a letter calling on Barr to resign over his handling of the case of former Trump associate Roger Stone.

The Republicans’ statement concludes, “We expect that, as always, efforts to intimidate the Attorney General will fall woefully short.”

In the White House’s statement on the pardons of Bernard Kerik and Michael Milken, a number of prominent figures from conservative media and the Trump administration are mentioned as supporters of the pardons.

Trump approves two more high-profile pardons

In addition to the commutation of Rod Blagojevich, Trump has also offered a pardon to former New York police commissioner Bernard Kerik, who pleaded guilty to eight felony charges in 2009.

Kerik confessed to tax fraud and lying to White House officials and served more than three years in prison. In a statement, Kerik, who appeared on Fox News last night, thanked Trump for the pardon.

Trump has also approved a pardon for Michael Milken, the well-known financier who became the face of financial scandals in the 1980’s and was convicted for racketeering and fraud.

Trump falsely declares himself 'the chief law enforcement officer'

In his comments to reporters at Joint Base Andrews, Trump said he had not considered pardoning Roger Stone, but he complained that his former associate was being treated “very unfairly.”

The president then made the eye-popping (and false) claim that he is “the chief law enforcement officer of the United States.”

That is, of course, not true:

Trump also did not rule out the possibility of weighing in on Stone’s case in the future. “The attorney general is a man with great integrity,” Trump said. “I chose not to be involved. I’m allowed to be involved. I could be involved if I want to be.”

Barr complained in an interview last week that Trump’s tweets about the Stone case “make it impossible for me to do my job.”

On that point, Trump actually did not disagree. “I do make his job harder,” Trump said. “He’s working against a lot of people who don’t want to see good things happen in my opinion.”

Updated

Trump confirms he has commuted Blagojevich's sentence

Speaking to reporters on the tarmac before boarding Air Force One, Trump confirmed that he has commuted the sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich.

“He served eight years in jail. That’s a long time,” Trump said of Blagojevich, who was originally sentenced to 14 years on corruption charges.

The president said he didn’t know Blagojevich “very well,” even though the former governor was briefly a contestant on “Celebrity Apprentice” while Trump was its host. But Trump said he had seen Blagojevich’s wife on television, and he expressed sympathy for their children not being able to see their imprisoned father.

“It was a prosecution by the same people -- Comey, Fitzpatrick -- the same group,” Trump said, referring to former FBI director James Comey, who was fired by the president.

Comey’s close friend Patrick Fitzgerald, the former US attorney, led the prosecution against Blagojevich.

But again, Blagojevich was caught on tape trying to sell the US Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama when he became president.

Mike Bloomberg released a raft of proposals to strengthen Wall Street regulation on Tuesday as he shapes up for his first Democratic presidential debate.

Bloomberg is expected to face a hostile reception from his rival candidates, and his new proposals will head off some attacks - though probably not many - by bringing his policies closer to those of the rest of the field.

Among his proposals: Bloomberg would toughen tests intended to determine whether banks can withstand an economic downturn;
impose a tax on financial transactions; restore consumer protections and strengthen the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), established under Senator Elizabeth Warren’s leadership.

“The stock market is at an all-time high, but almost all of the gains are going to a small number of people,” said Bloomberg. No doubt Warren et al will be keen to point that he is one of those people.

Afternoon summary

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Trump sent a series of tweets indicating support for a new trial in the case of his former associate Roger Stone, whose sentencing is scheduled to take place on Thursday.
  • Mike Bloomberg has qualified for tomorrow’s debate, with a national poll showing the billionaire former New York mayor climbing to second place behind Bernie Sanders.
  • Trump reportedly plans to commute the sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of trying to sell the Senate seat vacated by Barack Obama.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

ABC News has more on Trump’s expected commutation of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich:

Blagojevich, a Democrat, has been a resident of the Federal Correctional Institution, in Englewood -- near Littleton, Colorado -- since March 15, 2012, where he is known as Inmate No. 40892-424.

His date for expected release remains 2024, factoring in two years of credit for good behavior. ...

In 2009, he appeared on NBC’s ‘The Apprentice,’ a reality TV show then hosted by Trump, alongside tenured reality show performers like Sharon Osborne and Bret Michaels. ...

A federal jury in Chicago previously convicted the former Illinois governor of attempting to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated when President Obama was elected in 2008, among the 17 guilty counts against him. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Trump reportedly intends to commute Blagojevich's sentence

Trump reportedly intends to commute the sentence of former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich, who has been in prison since 2012 on corruption charges.

The president has previously toyed with the idea of a commutation for Blagojevich, who was caught on tape trying to sell the Senate seat left open by Barack Obama.

Trump tweeted this back in August:

The White House announced earlier today that Trump would grant clemency to Eddie DeBartolo Jr, the former owners of the San Francisco 49ers who pleaded guilty in 1998 to failing to report a bribe from an elected official.

According to a new poll, about two-thirds of American voters have seen a television ad from Mike Bloomberg.

In comparison, about half of voters have seen a television ad from Trump, and 40% have seen one of Bernie Sanders’ ads.

Bloomberg has spent more than $300 million on campaign advertising, surpassing Barack Obama’s ad spending during the entire 2012 race.

Updated

CNN dug up a 2016 clip of Mike Bloomberg denouncing the democratic socialism supported by Bernie Sanders by claiming young Americans are simply confused about the meaning of the term.

“Young people listened to ... Bernie Sanders, and they said, ‘Yeah, democratic, that’s good. Socialism, yeah, that’s that social media stuff.’ Because our kids no longer learn civics in school. They no longer study western history. They no longer read western literature.

“We are trying to change and dumb down the system, and if you don’t know what happened in the past, you’re going to have to relive it.”

Sanders and Bloomberg have intensified their attacks on each other in recent days, as national polls show Sanders leading the presidential field while Bloomberg is on the rise.

In a new Medium post, Democratic senator Chris Murphy described meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy over the weekend.

Murphy said he and Republican senator Ron Johnson met with Zelenskiy in Kyiv before attending the Munich security conference.

During the meeting, Murphy expressed his displeasure about Rudy Giulaini’s efforts in Ukraine to get dirt on Joe Biden, which reportedly continued as Trump’s impeachment trial unfolded.

Murphy writes:

Zelensky clearly doesn’t really want to talk about this, and I don’t blame him. But he tells us that, though Giuliani has long wanted a meeting with him, he has always stayed clear of Giuliani and intends to keep it that way. He has no intention of getting involved in American politics any more than he already has, unintentionally. ‘As an actor, I always dreamed of becoming famous in America,’ he tells us, breaking away from Ukrainian and speaking to us in English. ‘And now I’m famous in America. But not the way I wanted!’

Zelenskiy’s conversations with Trump were at the center of the president’s impeachment, and the controversy has caused issues for the Ukrainian leader back home.

Judge in Stone trial says Thursday sentencing will occur as planned

US district judge Amy Berman Jackson, who is overseeing the trial of former Trump associate Roger Stone, said his sentencing would take place on Thursday, as planned.

There had been questions raised about a potential delay in sentencing, as Stone’s lawyers push for a new trial due to the alleged anti-Trump bias of one of the jurors.

However, Jackson said the sentencing should occur as scheduled, while noting that its execution may be delayed because of the concerns raised by Stone’s team.

Trump grants clemency to former 49ers owner

The White House has just announced Trump is granting clemency to Eddie DeBartolo Jr, the former owners of the San Francisco 49ers.

In 1998, DeBartolo pleaded guilty to not reporting a bribe from Edwin Edwards, the former governor of Louisiana.

The Pentagon is pushing back against a report that senator Lindsey Graham told defense secretary Mark Esper he would “make your life hell” if the US withdrew troops from the Sahel region in Africa.

NBC News reports:

Senators and members of the House met with Esper on the margins of the Munich Security Conference. Graham, R-S.C., and Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., who are members of the Foreign Relations Committee, led the charge, said the four people, telling Esper that Congress would not support a U.S. troop withdrawal from the Sahel region in Africa and laying out the reasons to keep the troop presence there.

At one point, Graham warned Esper that there would be consequences if the Pentagon withdrew all troops from the region. Graham told Esper that he could ‘make your life hell,’ according to the four people. One member present said Graham, Coons and several other lawmakers laid out their case ‘forcefully.’

But the press secretary of the Pentagon pushed back against the report, claiming Graham never made the comment.

Bloomberg releases criminal justice plan

Hours after qualifying for the next debate, Michael Bloomberg released a set of proposals aimed at reforming the criminal justice system.

The billionaire former mayor of New York is calling for a $22.5 billion investment to cut the US prison population in half by 2030. Bloomberg is also proposing spending $1 billion on programs for young men of color.

The release of the plan comes as Bloomberg has faced renewed scrutiny over his “stop and frisk” policy as mayor of New York. Criminal justice reform advocates have said the policy unfairly targeted men of color.

Bloomberg began his presidential campaign by apologizing for stop and frisk, but many of his critics have said that he has not done enough to reckon with the damage the policy caused.

Addressing supporters in Washington state yesterday, Bernie Sanders called stop and frisk a “racist” policy that caused communities of color to “live in fear and humiliation.”

With Michael Bloomberg climbing in the polls, the billionaire candidate’s campaign is going on the offensive against frontrunner Bernie Sanders.

Bloomberg’s campaign manager suggested the opposition research on Sanders would be “disqualifying”:

One of Sanders’ advisers replied by criticizing Bloomberg for his past support for the Iraq war and his record on criminal justice:

The good polling news for Michael Bloomberg just keeps on coming this morning.

A new poll from Oklahoma, which will also hold its primary on Super Tuesday, shows Bloomberg leading the field with 20%.

The billionaire candidate is trailed by Bernie Sanders at 14% and Joe Biden at 12%. Elizabeth Warren, who grew up in Oklahoma, hit 8%.

Virginia poll shows Bloomberg, Sanders leading

In addition to qualifying for the next Democratic debate, Michael Bloomberg also got some good news from a Virginia poll out this morning.

According to the Monmouth University survey, Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders are tied among likely voters in Virginia, which will hold its primary on Super Tuesday.

Bloomberg and Sanders both hit 22% in the poll, trailed by Joe Biden at 18% and Pete Buttigieg at 11%. No other candidate registered in the double digits.

Bloomberg’s stategy of skipping the early voting states to focus on the 14 states that will hold contests on March 3 appears to be paying dividends. The billionaire candidate was campaigning in Virginia this weekend, and he has spent hundreds of millions of dollars on advertising across the country.

But there’s still plenty of time for things to change before March 3. Only 25% of Virginia’s likely primary voters said they were firmly set on their chosen candidate.

Trump’s comments come as a conference call on the status of the Stone case is expected to take place today.

US District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson issued the unusual order for the call after the entire four-person prosecution team quit following following attorney general William Barr’s intervention to rescind their recommendation of a seven-to-nine year sentence for Stone.

Trump goes on to recap some of his grievances against the Mueller investigation, concluding: “If I wasn’t President, I’d be suing everyone all over the place ... BUT MAYBE I STILL WILL. WITCH HUNT!”

Trump seems to call for new trial for Stone

Donald Trump is obviously keeping a keen eye on any developments in Roger Stone’s sentencing – for which there is a hearing by telephone scheduled today (see earlier).

This morning the president is focusing on calls for a new trial 0f Stone based on allegations that the foreperson of the original trial had anti-Trump views.

The president has been widely criticised for interfering in the sentencing. More than 1,000 former US justice department officials, including some of the top government lawyers in the country, have called on attorney general William Barr to resign over his handling of the case.

The justice department reduced its sentencing recommendation for Stone, a Trump ally, after the president tweeted calling it “horrible and very unfair”.

Quoting Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano, Trump tweeted today:

Stone will be sentenced for obstruction, false statements and witness tampering on 20 February.

Trump to waive law to speed construction of wall

A section of the border wall under construction last week in New Mexico.
A section of the border wall under construction last week in New Mexico. Photograph: Paul Ratje/Agence France-Presse/AFP via Getty Images

The Trump administration said Tuesday that it will waive federal contracting laws to speed construction of his signature border wall at the US-Mexico border, the Associated Press reports.

The Department of Homeland Security said waiving procurement regulations will allow 177 miles (283 kilometers) of wall to be built more quickly in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. The 10 waived laws include requirements for having open competition, justifying selections and receiving all bonding from a contractor before any work can begin.

The acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, is exercising authority under a 2005 law that gives him sweeping powers to waive laws for building border barriers.

“We hope that will accelerate some of the construction that’s going along the Southwest border,” Wolf told Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends on Tuesday.

Secretaries under President Donald Trump have issued 16 waivers, and President George W Bush issued five, but Tuesday’s announcement marks the first time that waivers have applied to federal procurement rules. Previously they were used to waive environmental impact reviews.

The Trump administration said it expects the waivers will allow 94 miles (150 kilometers) of wall to be built this year, bringing the Republican president closer to his pledge of about 450 miles (720 kilometers) since taking office and making it one of his top domestic priorities. It said the other 83 miles (133 kilometers) covered by the waivers may get built this year.

Politico has more on Bloomberg’s preparations to join the debate stage for the first time. He is not known as a brilliant orator, and many of his fellow Democrats may relish the chance to play up his wealth, his past as a Republican, and the controversies about racism and sexism that have blown up in the past couple of weeks.

His rivalry with Sanders is becoming increasingly bitter, and the Vermont senator is unlikely to pull his punches, telling a crowd earlier this week: “Now, Mike Bloomberg is struggling — he’s down to his last $60bn. Hey, life is hard, you know — food prices going up, housing going up. How are you going to make it on $60bn? Mike is trying.”

As Politico reports:

Top Bloomberg lieutenants and policy experts have been preparing him for what would be the most unscripted event yet of his three-month-old campaign. As the prep sessions have ramped up, increasing in frequency, his team is working to get him to project comfort and composure in the line of fire, while portraying him as the toughest Democrat to take on Donald Trump.

Howard Wolfson, the veteran Democratic strategist who joined Bloomberg’s orbit in 2009 after working on Hillary Clinton’s 2008 presidential race, is playing the role of Sanders; Julie Wood, Bloomberg’s national press secretary, is depicting Elizabeth Warren; and senior advisers Marc La Vorgna and Marcia Hale are stand-ins for Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar, respectively …

“He’s been super underwhelming on the stump so far. [I] think people seeing him up close; he could suffer from a little ‘Biden syndrome.’ Namely, he’s not as impressive when he’s not produced and he’s also pushing 80, which nobody seems to be talking about,” said New York-based political consultant Neal Kwatra, who is unaffiliated in the Democratic presidential primary. Bloomberg just turned 78.

Updated

The poll that has opened the door for Bloomberg also has good news for Sanders, however.

The NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey shows the Vermont socialist senator well at the head of the field, with 31% – up nine points since the last poll by this company in early December.

Bloomberg comes in second with 19% (up 15). Biden is on 15% (down nine), Warren on 12% (down five), Klobuchar on 9% (up five) and Buttigieg on 8% (down five).

The poll also asked which Democrats would beat Donald Trump in the popular vote in November, finding that all the main contenders would.

Their leads ranged from Biden’s six points, to Bloomberg’s four points, Sanders’ three points, Buttigieg’s and Klobuchar’s two points, and Warren’s one point.

The election is decided based on the electoral college, however, not the popular vote. In 2016 Trump lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by nearly 3m votes, but still won the election, thanks to his strength at picking up delegates in key states.

Bernie Sanders: substantial lead in new poll.
Bernie Sanders: substantial lead in new poll. Photograph: Ted S Warren/AP

Updated

Bloomberg’s appearance on the debate stage is highly controversial.

The Democrats changed their qualification rules just weeks ago, scrapping the need for participants to reach a threshold of donations.

The billionaire Bloomberg is funding his own campaign, and the rule change was widely seen as a move by the Democratic establishment to allow the centrist former mayor to take part.

Bernie Sanders has been particularly scathing about the change, noting: “Suddenly a guy comes in who has not campaigned one bit in Iowa or New Hampshire … but he’s worth $55bn and I guess if you’re worth $55bn you can get the rules changed for a debate.”

Bloomberg qualifies for next Democratic debate

Michael Bloomberg has qualified for tomorrow’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas – the first time he will face his opponents on the debate stage.

The former New York mayor needed four poll ratings of 10% or above to qualify. A poll from NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist released on Tuesday showed Bloomberg with 19% support.

Updated

Good morning.

The presidential candidates are back on the campaign trail today, with Democrats Bernie Sanders, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg in Nevada ahead of Saturday’s caucuses there.

Sanders, Buttigieg and Klobuchar will all appear on CNN tonight for town hall-style interviews.

It’s also the deadline at midnight ET tonight for candidates to qualify for the next Democratic debate, which takes place in Las Vegas on Wednesday. Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders and Warren have all qualified – but a change in the rules means Michael Bloomberg may qualify to appear for the first time. He needs to reach 10% in one more poll to make it. The Democrats controversially scrapped a rule that meant participants had to reach a donor threshold, allegedly to allow the self-funding billionaire former New York mayor to take part.

Bloomberg – who joins the race in earnest on Super Tuesday, 3 March – has come under fire over the past week for allegedly racist policing policies as New York mayor and for alleged sexist and misogynistic comments as a businessman. His fellow Democrats stuck the knife in further yesterday, with Biden saying: “$60bn can buy you a lot of advertising, but it can’t erase your record.”

Sanders, the leftwing Vermont senator who is now the frontrunner in the race, seems to be pulling ahead in polling in Nevada, with the ailing centrist Biden now nine points behind him in polling averages. The former vice-president has also plunged in national Democratic polling following his poor showings in Iowa and New Hampshire this month, leaving Sanders in the lead but with centrists Bloomberg and Buttigieg gradually climbing. Warren, Sanders’ rival on the left, seems to be on the slide too.

Like Iowa, Nevada holds caucuses rather than primaries – complicated, hours-long public meetings with multiple rounds of balloting. (Here’s more on how they work.) But after the shambles in Iowa where an app malfunctioned, the Nevada Democratic party has said it won’t use the same technology. But it’s not clear what they will use instead. “Reports suggest the party has decided to abandon the app for a combination of Google forms and scannable paper ballots as a backup,” writes Kari Paul.

Donald Trump is heading west too, meeting the LA 2028 Olympic Organizing Committee and supporters in Beverley Hills and then heading to Las Vegas.

Trump waded into controversy last week when his attorney general, William Barr, criticised him for interfering in criminal cases such as that of his friend Roger Stone, who is due to be sentenced for obstruction, false statements and witness tampering on 20 February. There is a pre-sentence hearing on that case today.

Here’s some of the US politics news you may have missed from yesterday:

Updated

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
‘Heath Ledger knocked my tooth out jousting with a broom’: how we made A Knight’s Tale
‘The lances were made of balsa wood and filled with uncooked spaghetti – so that when they broke, there’d be an explosion of what looked like splinters’
The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Part star, part supporting actor, Robert Duvall lit up 1970s American cinema – and kept going
Robert Duvall, who has died at the age of 95, will be remembered for a glittering career that saw him appear in two of American cinema’s most iconic films. But let’s not forget the other hundred or so more across a career spanning six decades.
The Conversation
The Conversation
‘Unintentionally among the queerest releases of its time’: why Calamity Jane is my feelgood movie
The latest in our ongoing series of writers picking their comfort watches is an appreciation of Doris Day’s rule-defying heroine
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Netflix’s new drama miniseries is based on a shocking true story — but it’s too intense to binge-watch
Netflix’s new drama series “Lead Children” has crashed the top 10, following a young doctor racing to uncover why children near an industrial plant are falling ill.
Tom’s Guide
Tom’s Guide
Fresh Spider-Man: Brand New Day leak reveals first official look at its villains — and Marvel fans aren't happy about the design of one of them
A Spider-Man 4 merchandise leak has seemingly revealed its villains ahead of the MCU movie's long-awaited trailer debut.
TechRadar
TechRadar
Bad Bunny’s Thrown A Little Shade At Kendall Jenner’s Ex Before, But He Threw Some Back After That Super Bowl Halftime Show
Somebody's still bitter.
Cinemablend
Cinemablend
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play