Evening Summary
That’s it from the Liveblog for today.
- Greta Thunberg capped her visit to Capitol Hill with a rallying message, urging action on climate change. “This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced and we need to treat it accordingly.”
- Donald Trump capped his visit to California by showing off parts of the border wall under construction in Otay Mesa — using a sharpie to autograph a rust-colored beam. His interior department also announced today it will transfer 560 acres of federal land, including wildlife reserve areas, to army control for the construction of more border wall.
- Barak Obama hinted that a “good president” generally refrains from watching television news and talking politics on social media, without directly referencing Trump.
- Trump, meanwhile, deleted a tweet spreading disinformation, once again, about the congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and whether she was partying on the anniversary of 9/11 (she wasn’t).
-
Robert O’Brien was named as the administration’s new pick for national security adviser.
- CNN announced another Democratic presidential town tall, this one focused on LGBT issues.
Updated
Writer (and occasional Guardian columnist) Roxane Gay has endorsed Massachusetts senator, democratic presidential candidate and selfie enthusiast Elizabeth Warren for president, joining the progressive group Working Families Party -- which endorsed Warren’s challenger Bernie Sanders in 2016.
Shoutout to our #WCW, @rgay. We’re grateful that you’re in this fight with #TeamWarren. ✨ pic.twitter.com/5YEkyrCn8X
— Team Warren (@TeamWarren) September 18, 2019
It appears the endorsement is mutual. In a tweet, Warren said, of the Ayiti and Bad Feminist author: “Her work has changed the way we think about this moment in history.”
Updated
Trump admin to transfer federal land to military control to aid wall construction
Trump’s Department of Interior has announced plans to transfer more than 500 acres of federal land — including wildlife refuge areas — to military control to hasten the construction of more border wall, according to ABC News.
JUST IN: @Interior has transferred 560 acres of federal land to the Army for border wall construction, including areas along a national wildlife refuge.
— Stephanie Ebbs (@stephebbs) September 18, 2019
More to come
The administration has already started constructing parts of the wall in Organ Pipe Cactus national monument in southern Arizona, a Unesco-recognized international biosphere reserve, threatening the habitat of mountain lions, javelinas, endangered pronghorn and many bird species.
Representative Joe Kennedy III to challenge Massachusetts senator Edward Markey
Democratic representative Joe Kennedy III, grandson of the late Robert Kennedy, and member of the Kennedy family will be challenging current Massachusetts senator Edward Markey (who is also a democrat) in the state primaries, according to the Associated Press reports.
Kennedy is expected to formally announce his candidacy this weekend, the AP reports:
A person with knowledge of Kennedy’s plans told The Associated Press that Kennedy will formally make the announcement Saturday. The person wasn’t authorized to preempt Kennedy’s announcement and spoke Wednesday on condition of anonymity.
The 38-year-old grandson of Robert Kennedy has been quietly laying down the foundation of a run, building up his staff and formally announcing his intentions by filing preliminary paperwork with the Federal Election Commission last month.
This could put Massachusetts senator and presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren in an awkward spot. Warren has worked with Markey in the Senate and endorsed him over two other challengers earlier this year. But she’s also close with Kennedy, who she taught while he was a law student at Harvard.
In a statement, the Markey campaign said the incumbent senator “looks forward to spending the next 14 months campaigning hard every day to show the people of the Commonwealth why he’s the right choice.”
New stmt from @SenMarkey on news @joekennedy will mount a primary challenge: "Elections are about choices, and Ed looks forward to spending the next 14 months campaigning hard every day to show the people of the Commonwealth why he’s the right choice." pic.twitter.com/XzNOJQ5EHD
— Frank Thorp V (@frankthorp) September 18, 2019
Updated
Trump ended by signing the wall with a sharpie.
During his meandering press conference at the wall, Trump complained about a lack of funding from Congress and noted that he could get “ Mexico to pay for it” through tariffs — but has decided to hold back because Mexico has been cooperative in helping keep migrants from crossing the border.
Last week, the Supreme Court ruled to allow the Trump administration to enforce a new policy that would prevent most Central American immigrants arriving at the US-Mexico border from seeking protection in the US.
Updated
Trump on California border wall construction: “An amazing project.”
In Otay Mesa, California, Donald Trump proudly showed off a section of the border wall under construction.
“I always envisioned maybe it’s a solid concrete wall — that would have been easy to do,” he said. But he said he settled for a slatted fence after being told that it was important for officers to be able to see through the wall.
“Going over it is virtually impossible,” he said. Once the barrier is finished, “I guess maybe one of the greatest pole vaulters in history could get over the low one, but it’s going to be very painful when they land, right?”
Last year, Trump visited the same area to look at prototypes for the wall.
Updated
Greta Thunberg: "Wake up and face the facts, the reality, the science.”
Greta Thunberg delivered a 15-minute address to around 150 people, rounding off her two-day tour of Capitol Hill. The Guardian’s Washington correspondent David Smith reported from Washington:
The teenage activist looked a little nervous at first as she took the lectern under a giant chandelier in a grand committee room but then smiled as she resumed her call to arms against the climate crisis.
“The USA is the biggest carbon polluter in history,” Thunberg, from Sweden, told the audience. “It is also the world’s number one producer of oil. It is also the only nation to signal its intention to leave the Paris climate agreement because it was ‘a bad deal’.”
Speaking softly, she modulated her voice slightly to make clear she was quoting, disapprovingly, Donald Trump with the words “a bad deal”.
Thunberg invoked Martin Luther King’s struggle for civil rights and John F Kennedy’s goals that included landing a man on the moon – “not because they are easy, but because they are hard”, – to plead with Washington to lead in the fight, even if it seems impossible. “Giving up can never be an option,” she said.
Thunberg emphasized the need for urgent intervention and called politicians to step outside their comfort zones and start “treating this crisis like the existential emergency it is”. Dreams, including promises of green jobs and industries, are not enough, she added.
“Dreams cannot stand in the way of telling it like it is, especially right now... Wherever I go, I seem to be surrounded by fairytales.”
The teenager accused business leaders and others of telling “stories” intended to soothe people and make them go back to sleep. “The problem now is we need to wake up. It is time to wake up and face the facts, the reality, the science.”
Thunberg added: “This is, above all, an emergency, and not just any emergency. This is the biggest crisis humanity has ever faced and we need to treat it accordingly... Stop telling people ‘everything will be fine’... Stop pretending you, your business idea, your political party or plan will solve everything.”
Changing one disastrous energy source for “a slightly less disastrous one” is not progress, she continued. “Richer countries need to do their fair share and reduce their emissions much more and much faster.”
The speech was greeted with a standing ovation and followed by a panel discussion. Thunberg, due to take a train to New York on Wednesday night, was asked about her observations of the way Washington works. She replied: “It’s definitely more calm than I thought. Everything is just happening so slow and people are just repeating the same things over and over again.
“I have heard so many politicians here say the same things over and over again. If it continues like that, we’re not going to get anywhere. We need to move forward from that and transform words into actions. My impression is it’s very calm, slow and diplomatic, which has its ups and downs.”
She also had a message for those who feel depressed or paralyzed by the scale of the crisis. “I started to do something, take action, try to make a difference instead of sitting in despair. That changed my life. It gives your life meaning... To know you can have impact, it makes you feel a lot better.”
Asked what her imagined future 60 years from now looks like, Thunberg replied: “I don’t know. I haven’t thought that far.”
Updated
CNN announces presidential town hall focused on LGBT issues
Along with the Human Rights Campaign, CNN is hosting a town hall for Democratic presidential candidates focused on “lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer issues”, according to the network.
The broadcast on 10 October will be slightly shorter than CNN’s marathon seven-hour climate change town hall – running from 7pm to 11.30pm eastern time. Nine candidates have confirmed that they’ll be participating.
Of the Democratic candidates who qualify for the next major debate, only Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang declined to participate, citing scheduling conflicts.
In a statement, the Human Rights Campaign president, Alphonso David, said that the town hall comes at a time when LGBT rights in the US are under threat.
“Over the last two years, the Trump-Pence administration has rescinded key protections for transgender students, appointed two new conservative justices to the supreme court, banned transgender troops from serving openly in the military, and has repeatedly sought to allow discrimination against LGBTQ people in healthcare, housing, public accommodations and other aspects of life under the guise of ’religious freedom’, David said.
Updated
Having wrapped up his fundraisers in California, Trump is now headed to the border...
Money is seen in President Donald Trump's back pocket as he boards Air Force One in Mountain View, California. More photos of the day: https://t.co/MBzaidtbDd 📷 @tombrennerphoto pic.twitter.com/E2UY0gQQMU
— Reuters Pictures (@reuterspictures) September 18, 2019
Ahead of his arrival at the border wall in Otay Mesa, California, the president has tweeted bilingual Spanish and English” “No more fake asylum... No more illegal entry into the United States.”
Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, which keeps track of immigration data, announced today that the Immigration Court’s active backlog of cases has just surpassed one million:
The latest case-by-case court records through the end of August 2019 show the court’s active case backlog was 1,007,155. If the additional 322,535 cases which the court says are pending but have not been placed on the active caseload rolls are added, then the backlog now tops 1.3 million.
New cases of people who have been told to remain in Mexico while their case is processed, per the policy that Trump loves to tout, make up under 10 percent of the filings, according to the report.
Iran
In Los Angeles, Donald Trump said his administration will be “adding some very significant sanctions onto Iran” but didn’t provide reporters with any more details, noting that he’ll be announcing the sanctions “over the next 48 hours”.
Trump also said that he would grant the Iranian president and foreign minister US visas so they can attend the UN general assembly next week.
“I would certainly not want to keep people out if they want to come,” he said. “Well, we’re going to see what happens.”
Neither US nor Iranian officials have announced plans for direct talks.
Updated
Afternoon summary
It’s good afternoon from me, US politics watchers. I’m handing over at 5pm ET to my colleague on the west coast, Maanvi Singh, to take you through later events today, of which there are plenty.
Greta Thunberg is closing out the afternoon on the east coast by addressing Congress, so it will be interesting to see if she makes a speech, whereas this morning she told a committee hearing she simply wanted the science on the climate crisis to speak for itself, per the 2018 IPCC warning on the impending global climate catastrophe. Our Washington colleague, David Smith, will be at the event.
And Donald Trump is continuing with his events in California. He’s just been obliquely ribbed by Barack Obama...
Here are the main events from the day so far:
- Obama hinted that a “good president” generally refrains from watching television news and talking politics on social media. Can’t imagine who he was talking about.
- There was a lot of fallout from Trump tweeting a post that was later deleted, spreading disinformation, once again, about the congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and whether she was partying on the anniversary of 9/11 (she wasn’t).
- Bernie Sanders came to Omar’s defense. And earlier he launched his policy proposal “Housing for all”.
- Greta Thunberg and American youth climate activists testified on Capitol Hill and demanded politicians act more than talk on the climate crisis, in order to save a viable planet for their generation and those coming after.
- Donald Trump named Robert O’Brien to be his new national security adviser.
Updated
Obama hints at disapproval of Trump's Twitter and Fox habits
Barack Obama has seemingly taken a swipe at Donald Trump, saying he would “advise, if you’re president” to avoid social media and cable news, our west coast based technology reporter Kari Paul writes.
The former US president was speaking as a guest at an event earlier today for Splunk, an international software firm, called “The Beginning of Everything”.
When he was asked how he parsed information while in office, he touted the importance of building a team to stay informed.
“The presidency is like drinking out of a firehose - you can’t absorb that information yourself,” he said. “You can make sure you have a team that is distilling info as effectively as possible so you can get a basic framework for what the problem is.”
He didn’t mention the sitting president’s name, of course.
“The other thing that’s helpful is not watching TV or reading social media,” he added. “Those are two things I’d advise, if you’re a good president, not to do.”
The criticism appears to inevitably be targeted at Trump, who is known for his Twitter diatribes at all hours and obsession with cable news channels and how they portray him.
Trump has tweeted 284 times per month over the last six months, the Hill reports, an increase from months past. Despite the increased frequency, Trump is getting less engagement on his posts today, the report showed.
Obama said spending time on social media and becoming reactive to how polls and media portray you as president can make it more difficult to run the country effectively.
“It creates a lot of noise and clouds your judgment,” Obama said. “You start mistaking the intensity or passion of a small subset of people with a broader sense of how a country feels - it will sway your decision in an unhealthy way.”
Updated
Lawmakers signal legislation to investigate social media and online extremism
As tech execs from Facebook, Google and Twitter faced vigorous challenges from the US Congress at a hearing today on harmful online content, it emerged that lawmakers are drafting a bill to create a “national commission” at the Department of Homeland Security to study the ways that social media can be weaponized.
It will also look at “the effectiveness of tech giants’ efforts to protect users from harmful content online”, the Washington Post reveals in a story this afternoon.
The Post says its reporters have seen a draft of the bill, and that the commission would be empowered “with the authority to hold hearings and issue subpoenas” to examine how effectively social media companies patrol content on the internet.
The commission could suggest legislation and also “create a federal social media task force to coordinate the government’s response to security issues.”
This reflects increased congressional efforts to combat “online hate speech, disinformation and other harmful content” the Post reports, including holding a hearing today where Senators quizzed executives from Facebook, Google and Twitter.
Those testifying insisted the companies have become better and faster at detecting and removing violent extremist content on their social media platforms in the face of mass shootings fueled by hatred, the Associated Press adds.
They said they are spending money on technology to improve their ability to flag extremist content and taking the initiative to reach out to law enforcement to try to head off potential violent incidents.
Updated
Omar decries Trump's fake news
The representative from Minnesota just tweeted succinctly. Ilhan Omar is not impressed with the president’s retweeting a falsehood about the congresswoman earlier today. The original tweet was taken down, but it sparked an outcry.
😔 They also have no problem pushing out #fakenews, while crying about #fakenews.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 18, 2019
In case you were wondering, Trump is at a lunch event in San Diego right now, as he flits around California today on fund-raising and wall-visiting activities, as he tried to block the state from setting its own vehicle emissions rules.
He fired off a three-tweet volley on this a few hours ago.
Gun violence
National Parent Teacher Association president Leslie Boggs testified earlier today in Congress, before a House gun violence prevention task force forum titled: Impact of Gun Violence on Children and the Need for a Senate Vote on Universal Background Checks.
She said: “Thousands of children across the country have been victims of or witnesses to gun violence in their schools, homes and communities. Alongside their ABCs, kindergarteners are singing songs to remind them to run and hide during active shootings.”
She continued: “For years, we have called for action and have said ‘enough is enough.’ Yet, too often, we have been met by ‘thoughts and prayers’ from our elected leaders. Our children and families deserve more than thoughts and prayers. Continuing to do nothing is unacceptable.”
Earlier this year, the House passed its first major legislation on the gun control in nearly a quarter of a century, approving a measure requiring federal background checks for all firearms sales, including online and at gun shows, by 240 votes to 190.
Democrats characterized it as a significant move towards relaxing the gun lobby’s grip on Washington and addressing a national epidemic of gun violence, including the deaths of 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglashigh school in Parkland, Florida, last year that prompted a fresh surge of activism.
But the bill has gone nowhere. The Republican-controlled Senate won’t take it up because majority leader Mitch McConnell says he’s not prepared to alllow debate or a vote on legislation he knows Donald Trump won’t sign - and the president won’t be putting his pen to such a bill.
Boggs said on the Hill today: “Conversations about school safety, gun safety and violence prevention cannot be just about video games, violent programming and mental health. Our nation’s leaders must acknowledge and address the ease of access to firearms and weapons of war.”
She concluded: “Background checks can and will save lives. This common-sense gun measure would have saved lives and prevented injuries in my hometown of Odessa, Texas.”
She was referring to the mass shooting in Midland and Odessa last month, which followed on the heels of the other August massacres in Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, Texas.
Meanwhile 2020 candidate Beto O’Rourke sped to the top of the media exposure ranks following the Democratic debate in Houston last week, according to Axios. This was after weeks of speaking passionately about gun control in the wake of the shooting in his home town of El Paso.
He promised a ban on and compulsory buy-back of assault weapons from civilians. The latest media exposure rankings were compiled by Newswhip via Axios.
Trump not happy with rate trim
The president has expressed his wrath on Twitter.
Do tune into the Guardian’s business live blog for all the fall-out, here.
Jay Powell and the Federal Reserve Fail Again. No “guts,” no sense, no vision! A terrible communicator!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019
Thunberg pronunciation
There has been a lot of serious news in the last few hours, but I must briefly return to the subject of Greta Thunberg’s name and its correct pronunciation.
The people have spoken. Pronouncing Thunberg in a similar way to “Toonberry”, not “Toonberg”, is apparently spot on!
Thanks for the contributions. Here are some great tweets:
@Joannawalters13 Hi Joanna, re your question in the Guardian live feed today about the pronunciation of Thunberg - it is "Toonberry". Link below to Greta's speech to the EU - she introduces herself with full name at the start.https://t.co/HefPTJaGXw
— John Gandy (@JohnGandy) September 18, 2019
And this:
@Joannawalters13 since you ask, a Swedish rolled “rg” is difficult for native English speakers like me to recreate, but sounds more like “rry” than an English “rg” with solid “g” hence Toonberry not too incorrect. #savetheplanet #stopbrexit #austerityismurder #gogreta 🇸🇪 🏴 🇺🇳
— Tom Hawkins (@iamstillthehawk) September 18, 2019
Committee chair and Democrat, Bill Keating, was a “Toonberry” person this morning, which is when it first caught my ear (tbh I didn’t hear Greta clearly say her name, but the tweet that includes a clip of her introducing herself to European lawmakers does the job).
I hope your testimony today will help to galvanize us to act now before we truly are out of time. #ClimateCrisis @GretaThunberg@Jamie_Margolin@vict_barrett@BenjiBacker
— Congressman Bill Keating (@USRepKeating) September 18, 2019
And one respondent on Twitter noted that Keating also finished by telling Greta “thanks so much” in Swedish.
@Joannawalters13 By the way, Mr Keating also thanked her with the words 'Tack så mycket' = impressive.
— Alex Went (@asmwent) September 18, 2019
@Joannawalters13 as you asked, the Swedish pronunciation of #GretaThunberg 's name is like this, I think: https://t.co/O1Cdk7EPmO :) @GretaThunberg
— Dr Popkins (@Howtogetfluent) September 18, 2019
And this:
@Joannawalters13 since you ask, a Swedish rolled “rg” is difficult for native English speakers like me to recreate, but sounds more like “rry” than an English “rg” with solid “g” hence Toonberry not too incorrect. #savetheplanet #stopbrexit #austerityismurder #gogreta 🇸🇪 🏴 🇺🇳
— Tom Hawkins (@iamstillthehawk) September 18, 2019
Greta Thunberg
Updated
Fed cuts interest rates - but was split over it
NEWSFLASH: The Federal Reserve has cut borrowing costs by a quarter-point.
This lowers the Fed funds rate to 1.75%-2%. This is the second such cut in less than two months.
For all the action, please go to our business blog out of London.
“Low key loyalist”
Here’s the Guardian’s world affairs editor Julian Borger on Donald Trump’s announcement this morning that Robert O’Brien will be his new national security adviser.
Donald Trump has appointed the state department’s chief hostage negotiator – whose most prominent international role until now was monitoring the Swedish trial of the US rapper A$AP Rocky – to be John Bolton’s successor as national security adviser, Julian writes.
Unlike his firebrand predecessor, O’Brien is seen as a low-profile loyalist, and his appointment is widely viewed in Washington as a win for the secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, who had competed with Bolton for the president’s ear.
Trump named O’Brien, a California lawyer, on Twitter, just after a tweet announcing unspecified new sanctions on Iran in response to Saturday’s attack on Saudi oil facilities.
The president is said to have been impressed with O’Brien’s work on extracting Americans held in North Korea and Turkey. He made a rare appearance in the headlines when Trump sent him to Stockholm to monitor the trial of A$AP Rocky, a political stunt that infuriated the Swedish government.
You can read the full story here.
Trump’s attacks on Omar
Donald Trump has made several racist attacks to demonize Ilhan Omar, of Minnesota, along with the other members of what is known in Washington as “the Squad” – Democratic party members of congress Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, Ayanna Pressley, of Massachusetts, and Rashida Tlaib, of Michigan, all women of color, my colleague in the capital, David Smith, writes.
In his post retweeting Williams, the president asserted: “Ilhan Omar, a member of AOC Plus 3, will win us the Great State of Minnesota. The new face of the Democrat Party!”
The Washington Post noted Williams has a history of spreading conspiracy theories, including one last month that suggested the death of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein might be linked to former president Bill Clinton. Trump retweeted that claim and defended Williams as “a very highly respected conservative pundit” with “half a million followers” on Twitter, the Post added.
The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual legislative conference took place from 11 to 15 September.
Truth hurts
That’s the Lizzo song Ilhan Omar was happily dancing to on September 13. Very much hoping Lizzo herself will have something to say on social media about all this.
Our co-founder @AdamGreen posted this video from a CBC event on Sept 13, and @IlhanMN retweeted it. Today @realDonaldTrump tweeted that she "partied on the anniversary of 9/11." This is an abhorrent lie that endangers a Member of Congress. Twitter must remove Trump's Tweet now. https://t.co/zzeb1dXTzc
— BoldProgressives.org (@BoldProgressive) September 18, 2019
Whether you like it or not (apologies to Hedwig): Lizzo, ladies and gentlemen.
Updated
Sanders support
Here’s piece of the mind of 2020 candidate Bernie Sanders on this frightening new attack on Democratic congresswoman Ilhan Omar by a conservative and the Commander in Chief.
It comes as no surprise that Donald Trump's racism and xenophobia knows no bounds. I look forward to continue working with Rep. Omar long after Trump loses in 2020. https://t.co/IW9i3xZVCe
— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) September 18, 2019
Omar retweeted it.
Updated
Omar accuses Trump of putting her life at risk
Progressive congresswoman Ilhan Omar, Democrat of Minnesota, has spoken out after Donald Trump retweeted a post this morning from conservative commentator and comedian Terrence K Williams that falsely claimed Omar “partied on the anniversary of 9/11”.
IIhan Omar, a member of AOC Plus 3, will win us the Great State of Minnesota. The new face of the Democrat Party! https://t.co/aQFEygSa4D
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019
The original tweet from Williams has since been deleted from Twitter, and so no longer shows up featured with Trump’s tweet, but plenty of people saw the original (including your blogger, who was pinged it by my eagle-eyed colleague on the Hill, Lauren Gambino), and here’s a screen shot.
It's very normal and totally safe that Trump can just tweet baseless attacks on @IlhanMN, accusing her of celebrating the anniversary of 9/11—something people act extremely rational about. Great stuff. pic.twitter.com/jwbiX9cu7b
— jordan (@JordanUhl) September 18, 2019
Omar pointed out that the event she attended was not on September 11, the anniversary last week of the 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.
“The President of the United States is continuing to spread lies that put my life at risk” she wrote on Twitter, and asked the social media company what it was doing about such misinformation.
This is from a CBC event we hosted this weekend to celebrate black women in Congress.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) September 18, 2019
The President of the United States is continuing to spread lies that put my life at risk.
What is Twitter doing to combat this misinformation? https://t.co/XdkRVrU7mZ
Stephanie Taylor, of the grassroots political advocacy organization the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, earlier tweeted some video of the congresswoman dancing at the event and pointing out that it took place on September 13.
My co-founder @AdamGreen shot this video of Ilhan Omar dancing at a party on 9/13. Today @realDonaldTrump tweeted it, with the false claim she "partied on the anniversary of 9/11." This is a lie and danger to a sitting Congresswoman. Twitter must remove @realDonaldTrump's tweet. https://t.co/cF0eo9x2UC
— StephanieTaylor (@StephanieTaylor) September 18, 2019
Updated
Housing for all?
If you like the sound of Medicare for All, the Bernie Sanders campaign for the 2020 election has a new one for you: Housing for All.
Sanders has just announced a housing proposal that the campaign is touting as the “boldest and most comprehensive plan to end the housing crisis in America.”
The plan would build nearly 10 million homes, fully fund tenant-based Section 8 government rental assistance at $410bn over the next 10 years, and enact a national cap on annual rent increases, among other measures, my national affairs correspondent colleague Tom McCarthy writes.
It would also end the mass sale of mortgages “to Wall Street vulture funds” and increase regulation of mortgage markets.
The plan would cost $2.5tn over a decade, the Sanders camp estimates, to be paid for by a “wealth tax” on American fortunes in the top one-tenth of one percent.
“There is virtually no place in America where a full-time minimum wage worker can afford a decent two bedroom apartment. At a time when half of our people are living paycheck to paycheck, this is unacceptable,” said Sanders in a statement.
The United States faces a shortage of 7.4m affordable homes for the lowest-income renters and more than 18m families in America are paying more than half of their limited incomes on housing and utilities, according to figures provided by the Sanders camp.
Hearing summary and quick analysis
A spare, rather genteel hearing for Greta Thunberg in Congress. Both Republican and Democrat members praised the young Swedish climate activist and universally agreed that the climate crisis was an issue that needed to be addressed, Guardian environment reporter Ollie Milman writes.
You can see why young activists have grasped the public imagination rather than lawmakers, however. Thunberg and those seated next to her – Jamie Margolin and Vic Barrett – spoke of choking wildfires, flooding and existential dread. “It’s devastating and scary and also feels like we’ve been betrayed,” Margolin said. “It’s shameful and cowardly to not take action.”
Members of Congress, meanwhile, spoke of the economy and energy innovation and the benefits of capitalism in growing and selling tomatoes. Not really the stuff of angry rallies. At one point a bemused Thunberg was asked about the national security dimension of the climate crisis.
Lawmakers have, at least, apparently realized that there’s a generation that won’t be easily mollified on the climate crisis. It remains to be seen if they will actually do enough to salve their anger in time to avert the worst ravages of this emergency.
Climate hearing wraps up
As the congressional hearing on climate change ends, the young activists file out of the committee room. We’ll have a wrap up summary and assessment for you shortly.
Meanwhile, my environment reporter colleague, Oliver Milman writes:
Interesting approach here from Republicans, with no hostility towards Greta Thunberg or the other young speakers. They have all acknowledged the existence of the climate crisis, with Representative Garrett Graves (Republican of Louisiana) even stating that “we need to take aggressive action” to address it.
This shows a shift in approach from blanket denial of the science. Instead, there’s a more nuanced pitch whereby we are faced with a problem - but China is the main one making things worse.
China is now the largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, pushing the US into second place, with recent data showing the country’s emissions have increased 50% since 2005.
In one exchange, Graves asked Greta Thunberg what she’d do if she was on the boat she used to cross the Atlantic Ocean to the US on her current visit, and saw another boat throwing five pieces of trash into the sea for every one piece she was able to pick up (the boat in this analogy is China, making more pollution, trash and climate changing emissions than anyone else, including those trying to address the crisis).
Thunberg appeared a little bemused at all this, and pointed out that her yacht was going so fast they couldn’t pick up trash as they went.
But she quickly grasped the analogy, and shot back: “I am from Sweden, a small country, and it’s the same argument, ‘Why should we do something - look at the US?’ It’s being used against you as well.”
Hillary Clinton boosts Thunberg - and the Guardian
Nothing needs to be added.
.@GretaThunberg to Congress: “I know you are trying but just not hard enough.” She’s right. https://t.co/25s6epaXrq
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 18, 2019
Okay, we’ll add a pic of Hillary.
Updated
“To President Trump: climate change is real” - conservative
Another of the young activists giving testimony before Congress this morning is Benjy Backer, a besuited 21-year-old student at the University of Washington, in Seattle, who described himself as a conservative.
Backer founded the American Conservation Coalition, a conservative group that advocates for environmental policies. Here’s an article featuring him in the New York Times last month.
He told the paper that he was “encouraged by Donald Trump’s environmental speech on July 8 as well as recent moves among some Republicans in Congress to advance climate policies. But he also said changes were not occurring fast enough to lure his generation of environmentally conscious conservatives.”
Backer said before the committee this morning that he wanted to say “to President Trump - climate change is real. It’s not a hoax.”
He later said he was actually optimistic about the potential to avert a global climate catastrophe.
“We have time, science says so,” he said. “We have a chance to come together and work across party lines, so I feel hopeful.”
Trump described climate change as a hoax dreamed up by China, during the 2016 presidential election. He’s also called it “very expensive bullshit”.
In 2018 Trump said it wasn’t a hoax but wasn’t a lasting threat, would change back and wasn’t human-caused.
Updated
Do lawmakers keep calling Greta Thunberg “Miss Toonberry”?
What’s with that? Am I hearing things? The second member on the committee now holding its climate change hearing on Capitol Hill has now addressed Swedish 16-year-old activist Greta Thunberg as “Toonberry”.
Her last name is pronounced Toonberg, as far as I’m aware. Do feel free to tweet me if I’m hearing things, because it sounded crystal clear to me from the excellent live feed....
Young climate activist Vic Barrett just gave opening remarks, warning of rising seas, in particular as a result of climate change.
Barrett is a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit, Juliana v the US, that charges the federal government with violating the constitutional rights of youth by perpetuating systems that contribute to climate breakdown.
Those young people – who range in age from 11 to 23 and hail from all corners of the nation – argue that the constitution gives them and future generations a right to an environment free of climate catastrophe.
Photograph: Robin Loznak/AP
“Planet is collapsing”
American youth activist Jamie Margolin has come steaming in with her prepared opening statement. She is suing her state, Washington, over climate change.
“People who say we have a great future ahead are lying to my face,” she told the congressional hearing.
She points out that the destruction already seen in the world from the climate crisis “will get worse” and her generation is being left a terrible legacy.
“The government cannot even begin to imagine the size of the political shift that needs to happen to act on the climate crisis, she says. “The youth are calling for a new era altogether...we only have a few months left to transfer to a renewable energy economy. People call my generation Generation Z as if we are the last generation, but we are not, we are the GND Generation - the green new deal generation,” she said.
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Greta: I have not come to offer prepared remarks
“I don’t want you to listen to me, I want you to listen to the scientists and I want you to unite behind the science,” she said
“Burning fossil fuels is warming the planet...we must do more”
Florida Democrat Kathy Castor just mentioned that the first congressional hearing on climate change took place in 1988.
Imagine how far along efforts to combat climate change would be by now if Congress and the US had acted strongly then.
Maybe we wouldn’t now be talking about a climate crisis or a climate emergency.
To those still doubting, Castor said: “Burning fossil fuels is warming the planet and altering the world’s climate.”
But she said, the US and the world have the solutions to avert dangerous global heating.
“We can do this,” she said, while acknowledging that “a strong action plan has been missing” in the US.
Photograph: Eric Baradat/AFP/Getty Images
Republican says climate change is real
That might seem like a funny headline, but as we know, it’s far from a given when you’re talking about Republicans on Capitol Hill.
Adam Kinzinger, Republican of Illinois, and a rare Republican in Congress who will go after Donald Trump on Twitter when he feels sufficiently moved, just opened his remarks to the climate hearing with these words: “Climate change is real.”
He said that the US needs to reduce its carbon emissions but also it was important to take action on that around the world.
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Greta Thunberg: on Capitol Hill now
Climate activist Greta Thunberg is about to testify to Congress, at a joint hearing before the House foreign affairs subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, energy and the environment and the House select committee on the climate crisis.
Our politics reporter Lauren Gambino is on the hill and our environment reporter Oliver Milman is watching and will give us more context on climate science and the wider environmental debate. (Lauren covered Corey Lewandowski’s hearing yesterday, Greta Thunberg today, what a contrast.)
Ollie just tweeted this:
Greta Thunberg is about to face a Congressional panel she has no prepared testimony, instead has submitted the IPCC climate report https://t.co/Q1JNlE4R7L pic.twitter.com/6zHHNeMuLI
— Oliver Milman (@olliemilman) September 18, 2019
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Federal Reserve preparing to cut interest rates
Greta’s coming up, but so is Jay
The US federal reserve is preparing to cut interest rates by a quarter
of a percent later today, to between 1.75% and 2%, at the conclusion of
its September meeting, according to multiple reports, Edward Helmore writes.
Following the meeting, at 2.30pm ET, economists will be watching closely
for signals from Fed chair Jerome Powell (aka Jay) that the central bank is
likely to continue cutting rates again this year.
Officials have pointed to weakening global industrial output and
continuing uncertainty around trade policy, particularly between the
US and China, as key to their thinking.
At the Fed’s last meeting in July, Powell described the rate cut as a
“mid cycle adjustment,” meaning it was not part of a larger rate
cutting cycle.
Just keeping the seat warm?
There was no doubt that the US needed a new national security adviser FAST after the abrupt ousting of John Bolton last week.
It’s the United Nations General Assembly in New York next week, when major world leaders descend. And the tension in the Middle East between Saudi Arabia and Iran could be cut with a sword.
Secretary of state Mike Pompeo might like the naming of Robert O’Brien this morning to the post - it will be seen as less an addition to a top team of rivals jostling for Trump’s ear as the appointment of more of a functionary, perhaps, dare one say it, to make sure there’s someone on the bridge.
Trump didn’t say O’Brien would be acting national security adviser, however, which is one of his favorite tactics for keeping would-be permanent senior cabinet members on their toes but, one assumes, ultra loyal (not to say a tad submissive).
It wasn’t a secret that Pompeo and Bolton were prone to clashing.
O’Brien’s most recent high-profile mission, as the US special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, was to be sent to Stockholm to monitor the court proceedings of the American rapper A$AP Rocky. Nuff said.
To catch you up, a Stockholm court last month found A$AP Rocky guilty of assault but spared him prison in a case that outraged the US rapper’s fans and sparked a diplomatic row when Trump questioned the fairness of Sweden’s judicial system.
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Trump names Robert O'Brien as new national security adviser
Donald Trump just made another major announcement, via Twitter.
I am pleased to announce that I will name Robert C. O’Brien, currently serving as the very successful Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs at the State Department, as our new National Security Advisor. I have worked long & hard with Robert. He will do a great job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019
The president fired his previous national security adviser John Bolton last week.
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Trump threatens to up sanctions on Iran
The president has fired off his latest shot across the bows of Iran. He hasn’t given any detail yet, which presumably means he thinks it speaks for itself via his foreign policy brand – Twitter diplomacy.
I have just instructed the Secretary of the Treasury to substantially increase Sanctions on the country of Iran!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 18, 2019
It’s the latest rumble in the row over US accusations that Iran was behind the weekend drone attack on Saudi oil facilities that reduced the Middle Eastern kingdom’s output.
Earlier today the Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, described American claims that Tehran was involved in the devastating attack on the Saudi Arabian petroleum facilities as slanderous and simply part of Washington’s continuing campaign to isolate and put pressure on Iran, my colleague in London, Patrick Wintour, writes. You can read his latest report on this here.
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Greta Thunberg on Capitol Hill
Good morning, US politics watchers, there’s a packed day ahead, welcome to your online front row seat for all the drama, live.
- Swedish teen climate activist Greta Thunberg is testifying in the US Congress today, with leading US youth activists. We’ll have a live feed when the hearing starts, at 10AM ET (3PM BST). Her appearance comes a day after she told Congress, at a special event yesterday, that she didn’t want praise, that it was about the science and said on action to combat the climate crisis: “You’re not trying hard enough. Sorry.” The Guardian’s politics reporter Lauren Gambino will be at the hearing.
- Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib and military veterans will hold press conference this morning about a “bombshell” report from Vietnam Veterans of America revealing “that pro-Trump foreign interference in the 2020 election has begun”.
- Donald Trump is in California for fundraisers and will visit the southern border later, a day after he moved to end the state’s authority to set its own vehicle emissions standards and bar states from establishing their own regulations. This from the man who says he values clean air. Stay tuned.
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