Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Gabrielle Canon in Oakland (now) and Lauren Gambino in Washington (earlier)

Woman with two Chinese passports and malware arrested at Mar-a-Lago – as it happened

Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence. Zhang allegedly told a Secret Service agent she was a Mar-a-Lago member and was allowed to use the pool.
Mar-a-Lago, Donald Trump’s Florida residence. Zhang allegedly told a Secret Service agent she was a Mar-a-Lago member and was allowed to use the pool. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Tuesday night summary

That’s it for me tonight! Here’s what happened Tuesday evening:

  • Mexico’s foreign secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, told reporters today that his country was prepared if Trump makes good on his threats to close down the southern border. If the Administration moves forward without a plan that would allow trade to continue, it could cost the US economy up to $2bn a day.
  • White House whistleblower Tricia Newbold, who outed the alarming number of Trump administration security clearances that were granted despite denials from intelligence officials, will be sharing her story tonight on NBC.
  • House Democrats have decided against employing the Republican tactic used in last year’s Nunes memo and are seeking other ways to release details from the Mueller report.

This morning, across Twitter, people were alarmed to hear the president demand that the “oranges” of the Mueller investigation to be looked into.

Calling their cadre of small-scale supporters the “Yang Gang”, 2020 candidate Andrew Yang’s campaign announced he had raised $1.7m in the first quarter, The Daily Beast reports.

Though that trails far behind high-profile contenders like Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, who brought in $18.2m and $12m respectively, Yang’s campaign manager is casting it as an indicator of the underdog businessman’s potential to rally support.

“An outsider candidate raising nearly $2 million in two months in entirely small contributions is unheard of,” he wrote in a statement. “Andrew Yang has proven he can build an online fundraising army from scratch”.

Yang will be on CNN this month as part of a series of town halls with 2020 candidates on the news network.

Today Trump again repeated his untrue origin story—incorrectly stating that his father was born in Germany.

Trump’s grandfather was German but his father was born in New York. The president’s autobiographical book, The Art of the Deal, doesn’t mention Germany and instead points to his Swedish descent — another untrue claim used by his father because he felt it would look better to Jewish tenants.

House Democrats are rebuking a Republican move that forced the release of classified info last year, and have declared they won’t use the tactic to expose details of the Mueller report, Politico reports.

The so-called “Nunes Memo”, a four-page document released by then-Republican chairman and Trump-ally Devin Nunes, relied on classified material to criticize FBI investigators and the special counsel looking into 2016 election meddling. When it was released, critics argued against its accuracy and the FBI cast it as potentially dangerous to national security.

Per Politico:

Until Nunes spearheaded the tactic, lawmakers had never used the controversial House rule, which allows the Intelligence Committee to release any information — no matter how highly classified -- if the committee determines ‘that the public interest would be served by such disclosure’”.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff told the news organization that ““That provision was so badly abused in the last Congress by the pushing out of false and misleading information that that’s not a road we want to go down”.

Tricia Newbold, a White House whistleblower who told Congress that the Trump administration ignored the advice of intelligence officials and overturned nearly two dozen security clearance denials will be on NBC News tonight.

Newbold spent two decades as a White House security adviser and told the House oversight and reform committee last month that many of the individuals were granted clearances after being flagged for their conflicts of interest, personal and criminal conduct, financial issues and drug use.

“I feel that right now this is my last hope to really bring the integrity back into our office,” Newbold said, according to the memo released yesterday by committee chairman, Elijah Cummings.

“I want it known that this is a systematic – it’s an office issue, and we’re not a political office, but these decisions were being continuously overrode [sic].”

This is Gabrielle Canon taking over from the west coast for Lauren Gambino.

Amidst blowback over Trump’s threats to shutdown the Mexican border, Mexican Foreign Secretary, Marcelo Ebrard, told reporters that, at least for now, it isn’t going to happen.

But, Reuters reports, Ebrard said today that if the two countries are unable to resolve the issues and the Trump Administration makes good on the threat, Mexico will be ready.

Last Friday, Trump tweeted that he could close the crossing within the week “If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States”.

Ebrard was quick to respond, saying then that “Mexico does not act on the basis of threats”.

Earlier today White House officials sought to soften Trump’s promise to shutdown the border, and Trump’s Economic Advisers began looking for ways to lesson the severe impact the closure would have on the US economy, which could cost up to $2bn a day (not to mention all but end American access to Avocados).

Summary

  • Trump continued to threaten to close down the US-Mexico border despite concern that it would cause an economic “catastrophe” not to mention exacerbate the problem of migrants and asylum-seekers at the border.
  • An intruder carrying to Chinese passports and a flash drive with malware was allowed to enter Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort while he was visiting the estate.
  • Bernie Sanders announced his campaign raised a stunning $18.2m in the first 41 days of his campaign.
  • Allies rally to Biden’s defense as he prepares to enter the race amid accusations of inappropriate behavior toward women.
  • Chicago is poised to elect a new mayor. Either candidate will make history as the first black woman to be elected mayor.

Senator Joe Manchin defends Biden, telling CNN that he had never seen the former Vice President “intentionally make anyone uncomfortable”.

Washington congresswoman and progressive caucus co-chair Pramila Jayapal on Tuesday gave an emotional speech about her gender-nonconforming child while advocating for LGBTQ civil rights legislation at a historic hearing on Capitol Hill.

She became emotional as she explained how her child had discovered a “newfound freedom,” my colleague Sam Levin writes.

“I didn’t intend to say this today, but my beautiful now 22-year-old child told me last year that they were gender non-conforming, and over the last year, I have come to understand from a deeply personal mother’s perspective … their newfound freedom … to rid themselves of some conformist stereotype of who they are, to be able to express who they are at their real core.”

Read Sam’s story here:

Updated

A nice Equal Pay Day story: Warren’s campaign pays staff equally, regardless of their gender, her campaign tells Refinery29.

Woman with two passports 'lied to gain access Mar-a-Lago' – federal agents

The Associated Press is following a wild story out of Fort Lauderdale today, where federal agents say “a woman carrying Chinese passports and a device containing computer malware lied to gain admission to President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club over the weekend during his Florida visit.”

According to court documents, 32-year-old Yujing Zhang allegedly told a Secret Service agent Saturday she was a Mar-a-Lago member and was at the president’s “winter White House” to use the pool. The club manager mistook Zhang for the daughter of a member and agents allowed her to enter, according to the agents.

Once inside the resort, Zhang told the receptionist she was there for a Chinese American event, according to the Associated Press. There was no event scheduled to take place. The agents said the thumb drive she was carrying contained malware.

She is facing charges for lying to agents and illegal entering. Her attorney declined comment, the AP said.

Updated

Bernie Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir strongly denied any suggestion that anyone from the senator’s team or his allies encouraged Lucy Flores to publish her account of an unwelcome interaction with Joe Biden.

“Neither the Bernie Sanders campaign nor anyone involved in it, planted, planned, persuaded, cajoled or otherwise urged Lucy Flores or anyone else to tell their story. Full stop, period, end of sentence. I don’t want to hear it. We didn’t play a role,” he said.

Flores, the former Nevada lawmaker, supported Sanders during the 2016 election and was on the board of his group Our Revolution.

Donald Trump once again claims his father was born in Germany. His grandfather, Friedrich Trump, came to the US from Germany in 1885.

Updated

The Democratic National Committee announced on Tuesday that its second presidential primary debate will be held in Detroit, Michigan. The debate will take place on July 30 and 31 and broadcast on CNN.

“The debate lineups for each night will be determined at random to provide each candidate with a fair opportunity to make his or her case to a large, national audience,” the DNC said in a statement.

Updated

Not all Republicans are supportive of Trump’s threats to shut down the border wall.

The Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports that the Republican mayor of El Paso, the largest American city on the US border with Mexico, is warning that that the move would have “detrimental, almost draconian” impact on the entire region.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is also sounding the alarm.

Trump ready to close border 'if I have to close it'

Speaking to reporters at the White House ahead of a meeting with NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, Donald Trump said he hasn’t “made that intention known” yet about whether he will close the border with Mexico.

But he added: “I’m ready to close it if I have to close it.”

Trump continued to say that If Mexico doesn’t stop migrants from coming to the US or if he can’t reach a deal with Congress, “the border’s going to be close.”

“It’s the only way we’re getting a response, and I’m totally ready to do it,” he said.

Asked about the economic impact of such a drastic course of action, Trump agreed that the US economy would take a hit financially. But he said: “Security is what’s most important.”

Earlier on Tuesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders indicated that the administration was pleased with Mexico’s efforts to deal with illegal immigration and urged it to do so to prevent the US from shutting the border.

Updated

The House has authorized subpoena for Carl Kline, former head of personnel security at the White House as well as for documents related to a citizenship question on the 2020 Census.

In case there were any doubts about who won the healthcare standoff between Republicans and Trump:

Wynn executives and outside counsel were “part of a coverup to protect founder Steve Wynn from allegations by employees that he had engaged in sexual misconduct against them,” the Wall Street Journal reported, citing an investigation completed by Massachusetts regulators.

The 199-part report cited the failures by the corporation that were “significant, repetitive and reflective of the company’s historical governance practices,” the paper said.

Read the full report here.

The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday morning held the first-ever hearing on the Equality Act that would provide nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ Americans, one a day after the International Transgender Day of Visibility.

Here Republican congressman Matt Gaetz says he supports the sentiment of the law but believes it could be exploited. As an example, he suggests that Trump might declare himself the first female president.

The mother of Michael Brown, a black teen who was fatally shot by a white Ferguson police officer, is one of three candidates running for City Council in Ferguson’s 3rd Ward on Tuesday. If Lesley McSpadden is elected, she would have oversight over the police force that killed her son.

“I wanted to go back and do something right in a place that did something so very wrong to my son, and I think that’s what my son would want as well,” McSpadden told the Associated Press.

Former FBI directors James Comey sat down with CNN to chat about the findings of the Mueller report. He also mused about his role in Trump’s election.

In a moment of triumph after the conclusion of the Mueller investigation, Donald Trump declared Republicans would be known as “the party of healthcare”.

The move confounded Republicans who had already lost a bruising battle in Congress to repeal Barack Obama’s healthcare law and believe the issue is partly why they lost the House in 2018. Now, with no plan, Trump decided to barrel ahead with a new healthcare push.

But on Monday night, Trump backed off the idea, promising that he would not push for a vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act until after next year’s election.

“Vote will be taken right after the Election when Republicans hold the Senate & win back the House,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “It will be truly great HealthCare that will work for America.”

CNN is reporting that Trump’s change of heart came after several Republicans, including Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, appealed to Trump to drop the issue.

In jest, one Republican senator emphasized the party’s lack of a healthcare plan.

Updated

North Carolina GOP Chairman Robin Hayes, a former five-term congressman, was indicted on Tuesday in connection with an investigation involving donations made to the state Republican Party.

Updated

¡Ay, caramba!

Every campaign site that POLITICO reviewed had mistakes, ranging from minor typos to truly incomprehensible passages. The website of Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, posted shortly after her Feb. 20 announcement, addresses her mother using a masculine adjective. Sen. Kamala Harris at one point wrote that she had “wasted” her life defending American democracy. And Julián Castro’s website extolls the possibility of building an “América” that works for everyone, seemingly not realizing that he’s making promises about the entire American continent,” Politico’s Jesus Rodriguez reported.

Updated

More context on the financial disclosures we’re seeing today:

Meredith Watson,one of the two women accusing Virginia’s lieutenant governor Justin Fairfax of sexual assault sat down with CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King in her first interview.

“He knew that the year prior that I had been raped by someone and that nothing was done about it. And he was a very good friend to me,” she told told King. “Which is why I never would’ve expected anything like this from him.”

Sanders: closing the southern border may still be 'the best decision' but not the administration's 'first choice'

Asked what authority gives POTUS the right to close the border White House press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters: “Democrats are leaving us absolutely no choice at this point.”

According to a pool report, Sanders said: “It may be that it’s the best decision that we close the border,” but added that the option was not “our first choice”.

The president’s “number one priority is to protect life,” she said, and is not “working on a specific timeline.

She said Democrats are playing a “dangerous game” asking for information on security clearances because it puts everyone with a clearance at risk. On a question about whether the administration followed protocol in issuing clearances, Sanders declined to provide details.

But in an interview with Fox News, Sanders said the Trump administration believes Mexico is “stepping up and taking a greater sense of responsibility in the process.” She urged the Mexican government to continue making progress on the issue so that the White House does not need to act on Trump’s threat to close the southern border.

“We need them to continue to do that so that we aren’t forced to take drastic action like closing the ports of entry at our border,” she told the network.

Updated

The Washington Post reported today that the children of murdered Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi have receieved compensation as part of ongoing negotiations ahead of the killers’ trails.

[His children] have received million-dollar houses in the kingdom and monthly five-figure payments as compensation for the killing of their father, according to current and former Saudi officials as well as people close to the family.

Khashoggi’s two sons and two daughters may also receive much larger payouts — possibly tens of millions of dollars apiece — as part of “blood money” negotiations that are expected to ensue when the trials of Khashoggi’s accused killers are completed in the coming months, according to the officials and others who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks.

The previously undisclosed payments are part of an effort by Saudi Arabia to reach a long-term arrangement with Khashoggi family members, aimed in part at ensuring that they continue to show restraint in their public statements about the killing of their father by Saudi operatives in Istanbul six months ago, the officials said.

Donald Trump has said that he plans to cut financial assistance to three Central American countries amid escalating threats to shut down the southern border. Here he complains about US aid to the region, which he said has not helped stem the flow of migrants north to the US.

A slip of the tongue?

Democrats and critics have accused the White House of treating Puerto Ricans as “second-class citizens”. A failure to fully acknowledge Puerto Rico as a US territory whose residents are US citizens strikes at the heart of the debate over disaster aid funding for the island.

Updated

Meanwhile, at a House Oversight committee on Capitol Hill this morning, chairman Elijah Cummings is preparing to issue subpoenas related to the White House’s process for issuing security clearances and another regarding a citizenship question on the 2020 census.

Republicans on the committee are objecting.

Jim Jordan, the ranking Republican on the committee, contended that he hadn’t “seen anything like this”. “Benghazi” is probably not far from mind for some Democrats on the committee.

Trump wants to know why Democrats have stopped talking about Mueller while insisting it’s time for Democrats to talking about the Russia investigation and return to the business of governing.

Money. Money. Money. We’re about to hear a lot about it.

That’s because first financial quarter of the presidential campaign season ended 31 March. So far we’ve only heard from three Democratic campaigns (and counting!) about how much they raised over the last three months.

Bernie Sanders has far and away the highest fundraising totals, which was not entirely unexpected. Sanders campaign manager announced on Tuesday that he raised a massive $18.2m since launching in February from 525,000 contributors giving roughly 900,000 individual contributions. The average donation was $20 and a majority of the contributors are under 39 years old.

Kamala Harris announced Monday night that she raised $12m. She earned donations from 218,000 individual contributions in the first quarter of 2019. Roughly 98% of Harris’s contributions were under $100, and 99.45% of her donors can contribute again, according to the campaign.

Pete Buttigieg raised an impressive $7m for a candidate whose name people are still learning how to pronounce. He earned donations from 158,550 donors with an average average donation of $36.35. Roughly 64% of the total amount are contributions under $200

At this stage, financial disclosures are an early test of the energy and enthusiasm of a campaign. A significant number of grassroots, small-dollar donors – especially important in 2020 as a a qualifier for the Democratic debates – shows interest in the campaign. It also, importantly, allows a campaign to scale up and build out their operations to compete in the early-voting states.

Campaigns must file their financial disclosures by 15 April, so we may not hear from all of the candidates until then.

Take a deeper dive:

Updated

Bernie Sanders raises $18.2m in massive first quarter haul

Yours truly is on a press call with Bernie Sanders’s campaign manager. They announced that Sanders has raised $18.2 million in the first quarter.

Updated

Pelosi tells Biden: 'Join the straight-arm club' over 'touchy-feely' behavior

Asked about the fresh scrutiny over former Vice President Joe Biden’s behavior with women, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi offered some advice: “Just pretend you have a cold and I have a cold.”

Pelosi, who is the first female Speaker, urged male politicians to keep their distance during encounters with women.

“Join the straight-arm club with me,” she said during a live interview with Politico in Washington on Tuesday. “He’s an affectionate person, to children, to senior citizens, to everyone, but that’s just not the way.”

Pelosi said the two allegations of unwelcome contact should not keep him from running.

“I don’t think it’s disqualifying,” she said, adding: “He has to understand in the world that we’re in now that people’s space is important to them, and what’s important is how they receive it and not necessarily how you intended it.”

Former Nevada lawmaker Lucy Flores described in an essay her discomfort when Biden kissed her on the head during a campaign event in 2014. She has since said the episode is disqualifying and that he should not run.

Amy Lappos, a Connecticut woman also detailed an unwanted exchange with the former Vice President, describing how he grabbed her head and they rubbed noses during a 2009 fundraiser. She said she was prompted to recount the allegation publicly after watching the treatment of Flores.

Updated

Every four years, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg contemplates a run for President. But earlier this year he ruled it out in an op-ed published on Bloomberg News.

It’s been less than a month and he’s already considering running again, according to Axios. The report is based on discussions with people who have discussed the matter with Bloomberg.

The former mayor is reportedly considering a run if Vice President Joe Biden decides to remain on the sidelines. Though Biden had appeared poised to run, a debate over the appropriateness of his interactions with women over the years has burst into the open after a former Nevada lawmaker wrote an op-ed about an encounter with the former Vice President that she said left her feeling uncomfortable.

Should Biden not run, he would leave a wide opening for a fellow moderate - possibly one who is roughly his age and enjoys high name recognition?

Updated

Donald Trump is tweeting this morning and on a bit of a roll.

Opening summary

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Washington and all things politics.

Before we dive in, let’s take a moment to recognize Equal Pay Day – the day into the year that women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year, according to the National Committee on Pay Equity. It’s 2 April. (The date is based on the average pay of all women and doesn’t reflect the far greater disparity between what men earn and pay for black and brown women.)

Today Donald Trump will host the Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg at the White House. Trump has repeatedly attacked the alliance, so all eyes will be on what they say exiting the meeting.

Later this evening Trump will deliver the keynote address at the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) annual spring dinner, which will be held at the National Building Museum.

We’re also watching how the Democratic chairs respond to Attorney General William Barr’s failure to meet their 2 April deadline to deliver the 300+-page Mueller report to Congress. Barr has said meeting the deadline was not feasible and he has said he would deliver it sometime around mid-April. Still, Democrats are demanding the full, unredacted report and have insisted the deadline stand.

Democrats from the House and Senate will rally outside of the supreme court to demand the Trump administration abandon its most serious effort yet to kill Barack Obama’s healthcare law.

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
Florida woman goes on sushi date with Hinge match. Then they get to the restaurant—and he embarrasses her in front of everybody
First dates are bound to have some awkwardness. This one included maybe a little too much. One Florida woman thought she was in for a normal sushi date with a guy she met on Hinge. Instead, the evening spiraled into a series of increasingly baffling choices.
The Mary Sue
The Mary Sue
FDA Alert: Stop Using This Anti‑Choking Device Now
Image source: shutterstock.com
Kids Ain't Cheap
Kids Ain't Cheap
Kim Kardashian And Kris Jenner Deny Sex Tape Plot As Ray J Fires Back
Kim Kardashian and Kris Jenner have denied claims of orchestrating the release of Kardashian's 2007 sex tape, reigniting a legal battle with Ray J.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
“Full-Time Job”: Cindy Crawford’s “Sad” Morning Routine Video Sparks Health Debate
"And we wonder why they are all narcissists."
Bored Panda
Bored Panda
Zendaya appears to confirm Tom Holland wedding rumours after giving ‘telling sign’ at awards
The star, 29, continued to fuel speculation at the 2026 ESSENCE Black Women in Hollywood Awards in Los Angeles on Thursday
Evening Standard
Evening Standard
Why Kelly Osbourne's 'Thin Look' at 2026 BRITs Continues to Worry Fans Despite Her Plea for Compassion
Before the BRIT Awards, Kelly had already addressed the growing commentary around her appearance.
International Business Times UK
International Business Times UK
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.
Download on the AppStore Get it on Google Play