Summary
We’re ending the liveblog now so we can turn our attention to the third Democratic presidential debate.
- Ten Democratic presidential contenders are making final preparations for tonight’s presidential debate in Houston, Texas. The debate is three hours long, from 8pm to 11pm ET, and will feature a thinned Democratic lineup.
- The event is likely to feature debate on gun control and healthcare, both issues which will be top of mind for Texas. Last month in El Paso, a gunman killed 22 people in a Walmart, and 5.5 million Texans lack health insurance.
Here’s an updated recap of today’s political news...
- A 14-foot inflatable rat is awaiting Donald Trump in Baltimore, as he makes is first visit to the city after calling it a “rodent-infested mess.
- The Trump administration began enforcing a new asylum policy to force migrants to apply for asylum in a country they travel through before reaching the US, in order to qualify for asylum in America. The policy is expected to severely restrict claims, and force migrants into many months of waiting, predominantly in Mexico.
- Former Vice President Joe Biden released a new ad defending the Obama presidency, a move made to defend his lead.
- US Senator Elizabeth Warren released a health plan, a platform which had been notably absent from her campaign.
- The House Judiciary Committee held impeachment investigations, although not all Democrats were certain they wanted to call it an impeachment.
- The shooting suspect in the El Paso massacre was indicted.
- Democrats passed a ban on oil and gas drilling in the arctic, a symbolic bill expected to die in the Republican-controlled Senate, and the Trump administration was said to be finalizing the rollback of clean water regulations.
The CEOs of 145 companies including Airbnb, Uber and Twitter — sent a letter to the senate, asking lawmakers to expand background checks and “red flag” laws that allow courts to confiscate guns from people who might threaten themselves or others.
Signing a letter with other CEOs isn’t exactly a bold move, marketing experts say. Polls have shown the majority of Americans favor more restrictions on guns; those who don’t aren’t likely to quit using Twitter or Uber because their CEOs signed a letter.
“I don’t think there is anything risky about trying to stem gun violence,” said Paul Argenti, a Dartmouth College professor of corporate communication. “The majority of people in this country agree with this.”
But it’s unclear how much impact the letter will have. Many heavyweights — like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Starbucks, Tesla and General Motors — didn’t sign. Those companies didn’t respond Thursday to messages asking about the letter. And the House, Senate and President Donald Trump have yet to come to an agreement on the various gun policies they’re debating.
A 14-foot inflatable rat is awaiting Donald Trump in Baltimore.
We are hanging in B’more #ObamaAve waiting for Cheeto the First. https://t.co/GBi7WYWATi if you need a street sign. pic.twitter.com/7ODpeQcEEt
— Claude Taylor (@TrueFactsStated) September 12, 2019
According to The Baltimore Sun, “the inflatable rat, complete with the Republican president’s signature lengthy red tie, came to town with Claude Taylor, a Twitter-famous provocateur who said it’s been coast to coast, even to Trump’s Palm Beach, Florida, club.”
New York is repealing a ban on gay conversion therapy
Two years ago, New York City banned conversion therapy, a discredited, damaging practice that promotes the false idea that a person’s gender or sexuality can be changed.
But today, the New York City Council speaker Corey Johnson, who is gay, said the city will repeal the ban. The move would LGBTQ+, officials said, by neutralizing a legal challenge from a Christian group.
If the lawsuit were to reach the Supreme Court, LGBTQ+ advocates worry the ruling could severely damage attempts to ban conversion theraphy across the country.
Supporters of repealing the conversion therapy ban say that it is a regrettable but necessary step given the Supreme Court’s conservative makeup under the Trump administration.
“Obviously I didn’t want to repeal this. I don’t want to be someone who is giving in to these right-wing groups,” Mr. Johnson said in an interview. “But the Supreme Court has become conservative; the Second Circuit, which oversees New York, has become more conservative.”
Mr. Johnson introduced a bill on Thursday to repeal the ban; once the full Council approves the measure and Mayor Bill de Blasio signs it, the city would then be governed by a less restrictive state law, which applies only to minors.
A vote could come by the end of the month, after a hearing, council officials said.
“We think this is the most responsible, prudent course,” Mr. Johnson said.
A Democratic presidential debate approaches...
- Ten Democratic presidential contenders are making final preparations for tonight’s presidential debate in Houston, Texas. The debate is three hours long, from 8pm to 11pm ET, and will feature a thinned Democratic lineup.
- The event is likely to feature debate on gun control and healthcare, both issues which will be top of mind for Texas. Last month in El Paso, a gunman killed 22 people in a Walmart, and 5.5 million Texans lack health insurance.
Before the debates...
- The Trump administration began enforcing a new asylum policy to force migrants to apply for asylum in a country they travel through before reaching the US, in order to qualify for asylum in America. The policy is expected to severely restrict claims, and force migrants into many months of waiting, predominantly in Mexico.
- Former Vice President Joe Biden released a new ad defending the Obama presidency, a move made to defend his lead.
- US Senator Elizabeth Warren released a health plan, a platform which had been notably absent from her campaign.
- The House Judiciary Committee held impeachment investigations, although not all Democrats were certain they wanted to call it an impeachment.
- The shooting suspect in the El Paso massacre was indicted.
- Democrats passed a ban on oil and gas drilling in the arctic, a symbolic bill expected to die in the Republican-controlled Senate, and the Trump administration was said to be finalizing the rollback of clean water regulations.
Updated
Here is more from the Associated Press, on the US Supreme Court decision which will allow the Trump administration to severely restrict asylum claims at the border.
With a go-ahead from the Supreme Court, the Trump administration Thursday began enforcing a radical new rule that would deny asylum to nearly all migrants arriving at the southern border a move that spread despair among those fleeing poverty and violence in their homelands.
A spokeswoman for the Homeland Security agency that manages asylum cases said the policy will be retroactive to July 16, when the rule was announced.
The new policy would deny asylum to anyone at the U.S.-Mexico border who passes through another country on the way to the U.S. without first seeking asylum there. Late Wednesday, the Supreme Court cleared the way for the administration to enforce it while legal challenges move forward.
Migrants who make their way to the U.S. overland from places like Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador would be largely ineligible for asylum, along with people from Africa, Asia and South America who try to get in by way of the US-Mexican border.
“Our Supreme Court is sentencing people to death. There are no safeguards, no institutions to stop this cruelty,” the immigration-assistance group Al Otro Lado said in a statement.
The Mexican government likewise called the high court’s action “astonishing.” The effects of the new policy could fall heavily on Mexico, leaving the country with tens of thousands of poor and desperate migrants with no hope of getting into the U.S.
Acting US Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan called the Supreme Court’s go-ahead a “big victory” in the Trump administration’s attempt to curb the flow of migrants.
In Tijuana, Dunea Romero, a 31-year-old Honduran woman, started to tear up at the thought of not being allowed to take refuge in the US. She said she packed a bag and fled her homeland with her two boys, ages 7 and 11, after hearing that her ex-husband, a powerful gang leader, was going to have her killed.
“I did this so I didn’t lose my life,” she said. “I didn’t want to leave my sons without a mother.”
A Nicaraguan who has been waiting in Ciudad Juarez to request asylum in the U.S. could be among those who would be affected. He said he fled his home country after running afoul of the Nicaraguan government with many acts of civil disobedience.
He passed through Honduras on his way to the border, meaning he would have to return to that violence-ridden country under the new rule. He asked that his name not be used because a past news report quoting him led to retaliation against relatives in Nicaragua.
“The president of Nicaragua is friends with the president of Honduras, and what the Honduran president could do is send all of the Nicaraguans back to their country,” he said. “And me, setting foot in Nicaragua again, what could happen to me is I could get locked up, be detained, and processed in Nicaragua for the crimes that they accuse me of terrorism and high treason against the government of Nicaragua.”
In Tijuana, Ngoh Elliot Takere of Cameroon stood only steps from the US and felt overwhelmed by frustration after learning that he could be blocked from getting in. He has been waiting for two months in Mexico for his number to be called so he can submit a request for asylum in the US.
The 28-year-old furniture maker said he left his war-torn African homeland after being jailed by police for being part of the English-speaking minority. He was released on the condition that he leave the country or be killed, he said.
He said the military burned his family’s home, killing his mother.
As for the possibility of being turned away by the United States, Takere said: “I can’t think of that.”
An estimated 45,000 migrants who have been turned back by the U.S. government and forced to wait out their asylum requests on the Mexican side of the border under yet another new, more stringent Trump administration policy.
The Trump administration says it has begun restricting asylum claims on the southern border in the wake of a Supreme Court ruling. https://t.co/dKBH0AvakJ
— The Associated Press (@AP) September 12, 2019
The supreme court ruled on Wednesday to allow the Trump administrationto enforce nationwide restrictions that would prevent most Central American immigrants from seeking asylum in the US.
The administration announced in July a new policy that would deny asylumto anyone who passes through another country on their way to the US without seeking protection there first, therefore affecting almost all migrants who arrive at the US-Mexico border.
The justices’ order late Wednesday temporarily undoes a lower-court ruling that had blocked the new asylum policy in some states along the southern border.
Most people crossing the southern border are Central Americans fleeing violence and poverty. They are largely ineligible under the new rule, as are asylum seekers from Africa, Asia and South America who arrive regularly at the southern border.
Groups challenging the policy in court say that it violates the US refugee act and the UN refugee convention guaranteeing the right to seek asylum to those fleeing persecution.
The shift reverses decades of US policy. The administration has said that it wants to close the gap between an initial asylum screening that most people pass and a final decision on asylum that most people do not win.
In a scathing dissent, justices Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Sonya Sotomayor say that the supreme court “sidesteps the ordinary judicial process” by overriding proceedings in the lower courts.
“Once again, the Executive Branch has issued a rule that seeks to upend longstanding practices regarding refugees who seek shelter from persecution,” Sotomayor wrote.
Socialism_Is_Very_Very_Bad
Literally LOLed at the hotel internet password for the GOP retreat-> pic.twitter.com/5AACL9l6u1
— Rachael Bade (@rachaelmbade) September 12, 2019
Vice President Mike Pence will speak tonight at an event for the nonprofit Concerned Women for America, a stalwart conservative thinktank which promotes, “Biblical values and Constitutional principles.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks tomorrow, at a “celebration luncheon”.
Tonight, @vp is speaking to a gala at @realdonaldtrump's D.C. hotel -- a public official, helping one of Trump's private customers.
— David Fahrenthold (@Fahrenthold) September 12, 2019
It's just one speech. But it's an illustration of something about the Trump admin that's changing before our eyes...1/10https://t.co/gLAAuUZsrp
More from the Washington Post:
Spokespeople for Pence and Pompeo defended the speeches, saying the appearances did not steer this business to the president’s hotel, as the nonprofit had already chosen the venue before inviting the two officials. They said the appearances had been vetted for ethical or legal concerns and approved by others in the White House and the State Department.
...
Pompeo and Pence visit the hotel at a time when Trump and his administration seem to be giving up on a bedrock promise of his presidency: that he would never use his public power to boost his private business.”
McCarthy, surprisingly, cites plastics contamination in the ocean as a crisis Republicans would solve if they retake the House in 2020. He then used a plastics industry talking point to describe the problem.
McCarthy said the vast majority all ocean plastic contamination comes from 10 rivers, none of which are located in the US.
However, that figure does not tell the full story. A Guardian US investigation recently revealed the US exports the equivalent of 680,000 shipping containers of plastic refuse to developing countries which mismanage most of their own waste.
(Reminder: only 9% of the world’s plastic has ever been recycled.)
In other environmental news today, Republicans are expected to formally end clean water regulations meant to protect wetlands and streams from pollution; and a bill to ban oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is expected to die in the Republican-controlled Senate.
A reporter asked Republican House minority leader Kevin McCarthy whether it was appropriate for President Trump to call Baltimore a, “rodent infested mess”.
This is how McCarthy responded: The president “made a case why many major cities have challenges.”
“The president coming here symbolizes – yes, he cares about Baltimore... He has found for his entire life how to bring people out of poverty.”
Here is that original tweet:
....As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 27, 2019
Background checks for guns?
A reporter asks Republican House Minority Kevin McCarthy if President Trump supports background checks for guns – like the vast majority of Americans. Republican minority leader Kevin McCarthy deflects.
[Trump] wants to make sure whatever we do solves the problem, so he’s gathering all the information.”
Republican minority leader Representative Kevin McCarthy is now criticizing Democratic Representative Jerry Nadler for holding impeachment investigations.
“The American public does not want it,” McCarthy said.
We are now watching a press conference with the House Republican leaders. They are speaking as part of the House Republican retreat in Baltimore, sponsored by the Congressional Institute. Watch along with us.
El Paso shooting suspect indicted
A man accused of gunning down people at a busy Walmart in El Paso last month was indicted Thursday for capital murder, prosecutors announced.
Patrick Crusius, 21, of Allen, Texas, was indicted on one count in connection with the August 3 mass shooting that left 22 dead, district attorney Jaime Esparza said.
El Paso prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for the man, who remains jailed without bond.
His defense lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment today, the AP writes.
Attorney Mark Stevens previously said he will use “every legal tool available” to prevent his client from being executed.
The El Paso county district clerk’s office said Crusius’ indictment would not be publicly available until next week because it takes a few days to process and assign the case to a court.
Prosecutors have said Crusius surrendered to police after the attack saying, “I’m the shooter,” and that he was targeting Mexicans.
In court documents, prosecutors alleged that Crusius was the author of a screed published shortly before the shooting that said it was “in response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
Federal prosecutors have said they are weighing hate-crime charges against Crusius that could also carry the death penalty.
The massacre, along with another August mass shooting in the Texas cities of Midland and Odessa , has fueled anger among gun control and immigration advocates, and caused political blowback.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott acknowledged weeks after the attack that “mistakes were made “ when he sent a fundraising mailer encouraging supporters to “take matters into our own hands” and “DEFEND” Texas.
The shooter’s screed was straight out of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant lexicon.
House Republicans are departing on buses now for their annual retreat in Baltimore, MD. President Trump will address the gathering tonight after calling the city “disgusting” and rat infested. pic.twitter.com/StGTNfzT71
— Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) September 12, 2019
BREAKING: Federal court has blocked #TN law restricting voter registration drives. Huge victory for our clients and huge thanks to this amazing team of lawyers @CampaignLegal @aclutn @ACLU @fairelections
— Danielle Lang (@DaniLang_DC) September 12, 2019
A Tennessee law which would have potentially criminalized voter registration drives has been blocked by a federal court. Here is an excerpt from the decision:
The unrefuted evidence before the court suggests that the defendants will be required or are likely to curtail their voter registration efforts in response to the Act. hey may even be forced to discontinue their activities altogether... Forcing the plaintiffs to wait while a case winds its way through litigation would mean taking away chances to participate in democracy that will never come back.”
Important:
My fave kind of scoop: Portman is hosting Thurs GOP lunch today. Menu:
— Seung Min Kim (@seungminkim) September 12, 2019
Signature Salad (Per Golden Lamb Recipe, Lebanon)
Lake Erie Walleye
Saddleberk Pork (Pleasantville)@BobEvansFarms Mashed Potatoes (Rio Grande)
Yellow Squash Casserole
And @PierresTweets Ice Cream (Cleveland)
Democrats voted today to ban drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The move is largely symbolic, since the Republican-controlled Senate is unlikely to take up the measure.
Here is more from our previous reporting on the subject:
The move would also increase greenhouse gas pollution. With high oil production, the department said, the increase each year could be 5m metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, equal to putting about a million more cars on the road and up to .01% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
There could also be negative effects for birds, marine mammals and polar bears, as well as a loss of permafrost, vegetation and wetlands.
An internal memo obtained by Mother Jones warned that the department could have trouble advancing the plan because oil exploration and seismic testing could be particularly bad for polar bears.
Coat of controversy
Even as they attended a 18th anniversary commemoration yesterday of the terrorist attacks on the US on September 11, 2001, Donald and Melania Trump both managed to stir up controversy.
Although she didn’t say anything at the event the president and she went to at the Pentagon, a minor tempest blew up on social media about the first lady’s coat, Joanna Walters writes.
Some observers thought that the stitching and button clasp on the back of the coast resembled, in outline, a depiction or something that could be mistaken for a depiction of a plane flying into a skyscraper.
That is a reference to the passengers aircraft that were hijacked by Al-Qaida terrorists and flown at high speed into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City on that tragic day, killing almost 3,000 people.
Another hijacked plane was flown into the Pentagon building just outside Washington, DC, and a fourth plane was diverted by rebelling passengers and crashed into a field in Pennsylvania shortly after.
White House press spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham dismissed the idea that Melania Trump’s coat might have been insensitive as “ridiculous”.
Here’s a tweet of protest on the topic:
Melania wears a coat in thier 911 post that literally looks like a plane flew into a tower.
— Mrs. John ❤ Shepard (@loveShepard4eva) September 11, 2019
🙄
Did they fire all the stylists too or is Melania just the biggest troll ever?? pic.twitter.com/lhLfBCFKwi
Meanwhile Donald Trump attracted criticism over his conduct surrounding the ceremony for, among other things, once again bringing up dubious implications that he had rushed down to Ground Zero on the fateful day 18 years ago and he and some his workers offered help and somehow became involved in the long and arduous recovery effort that followed.
He’s previously said he spent “a lot of time” at Ground Zero, a claim that has been disputed.
The president also got a mixed reception for fist-pumping skywards in apparent glee, with a big grin, and giving a bouncy greeting when he arrived at an airport in Pennsylvania for a service on the somber day.
“Hey, how are ya! What a good-looking group! What a good-looking group of people!” the president gushed as the crowd cheered, the New York Post reported.
Others were less charitable.
“It’s the anniversary of one of the worst tragedies in American history – and Donald Trump is PUMPED!!” tweeted Chicago Tribune columnist Rex Huppke.
Judiciary committee hearing has wrapped up.
It’s unclear whether the impeachment process will ever move beyond the committee’s investigation.
The committee would have to introduce impeachment articles against Donald Trump and win approval from the House to bring charges, the AP writes.
The Republican-led Senate is unlikely to convict Trump and remove him from office.
Still, the committee has persisted in advancing the impeachment issue, partly to bolster two lawsuits against the Trump administration as the White House has repeatedly blocked witness testimony and document production.
The suits say the material is needed so the committee can decide whether to recommend articles of impeachment.
The resolution the committee approved along party lines would allow the committee to designate certain hearings as impeachment hearings, empower staff to question witnesses, allow some evidence to remain private and permit the president’s counsel to officially respond to testimony.
The committee says the resolution is similar to procedural votes taken at the beginning of the impeachment investigations into Presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton.
“Under these procedures, when we have finished these hearings and considered as much evidence we are able to gather, we will decide whether to refer articles of impeachment to the House floor,” Nadler had said in his opening statement.
The first hearing scheduled under the new impeachment rules is with onetime Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski on September 17.
Photograph: J Scott Applewhite/AP
El Paso mass shooting: suspect indicted
A grand jury in El Paso, Texas, has indicted the suspect in the August mass shooting on capital murder charges in the fatal shooting of 22 people at a Walmart in the border city, the AP reports.
More details on this ASAP.
Also, have a read back at the Guardian article referenced in Senators’ letter to Amazon.
Amazon is a very big company. They need to have a union put in place,” said an Amazon worker who requested to remain anonymous. The worker has been with the company for two years and was transferred to Staten Island when it opened in October 2018. “They overwork you and you’re like a number to them. During peak season and Prime season, they give you 60 hours a week. In July, I had Prime week and worked 60 hours. The same day I worked overtime, I got into a bad car accident because I was falling asleep behind the wheel.”
Three US Senators, including 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, have written to Amazon to “express our concerns” about the intense pressures the company has put on delivery drivers.
“Amazon’s pursuit of larger profit margins, increasingly unstable delivery expectations, and methods to avoid regulatory and legal oversight are alarming,” the senators wrote, before a list of questions for the company.
Here is a link to that letter.
New Biden ad defends Obama presidency
Barack Obama was a great president. We don’t say that enough. pic.twitter.com/FLiYpg8jLR
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 12, 2019
Just before Thursday’s 2020 Democratic Presidential debate, former Vice President Joe Biden released an ad defending his former boss, Barrack Obama.
“He was a president our children could and did look up to,” said Biden, in footage from a campaign speech. “... I was proud to serve as his Vice President, but never more proud than the day we passed healthcare,” Biden said.
The ad then goes through a series of Obama-Biden accomplishments, including reforming prison sentencing guidelines, protecting migrants brought to the US as children and advancing LGBT rights.
Trump administration finalizes plan to revoke clean water rule
The rule protects drinking water for one-third of Americans. We are expecting a press conference later today. Here is more from the Associated Press:
The Trump administration plans to revoke an Obama-era regulation which provided federal protection to many US wetlands and streams.
Two Environmental Protection Agency officials with knowledge of the plan told The Associated Press the administration plans to substitute the rule with its own version.
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler and Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works R.D. James scheduled a news conference for later Thursday to discuss the decision.
President Donald Trump has promised to repeal the 2015 Obama rule, which defines what bodies of water fall under federal jurisdiction.
Farmers, homebuilders and other business interests say the rule harmed economic development and violates property rights. Environmentalists said the move would leave millions of Americans with less safe drinking water and damage wetlands that prevent flooding.
The American Farm Bureau Federation said the Trump administration’s plan to revoke an Obama-era clean water rule is a good move for farmers.
Congressional relations director Don Parrish said the 2015 regulation to protect wetlands and waterways created uncertainty about where farmers could cultivate land.
“It would be great if farmers didn’t have to hire an army of consultants and lawyers just to be able to farm,” said Parrish.
Evironmentalists said the Trump administration move would leave millions of Americans with less safe drinking water and damage wetlands that prevent flooding.
Trump administration finalizes repeal of 2015 water rule Trump called ‘destructive and horrible.’ But the fight over #WOTUS sure to continue. w/@eilperin https://t.co/UyXm7vx8nB
— Brady Dennis (@brady_dennis) September 12, 2019
Ahead of the 2020 Democratic presidential debates scheduled for tonight, US Senator Elizabeth Warren released details of her health plan.
The plan comes after some raised questions about why Warren – who has carried her campaign on the slogan that she “has a plan for that” – had not released specifics on her health platform.
The plan calls for single-payer, public health insurance for “physical” ailments, and “affordable, high-quality” mental healthcare.
Physical ailments would be covered by a version of Medicare-for-all, which would expand the existing public health insurance program for the elderly and disabled to all Americans.
Excluding prescription drugs and mental healthcare from a Medicare-for-all platform puts Warren in a more moderate position than her liberal rival, US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont.
Look for that policy difference to be sussed out at tonight’s debate.
Greta Thunberg, the Swedish youth climate activist who sailed to New York on a carbon-neutral yacht, will appear in Washington DC next week at the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis.
Young people have forged a global 🌍 movement to demand action on solving the #ClimateCrisis.
— ClimateCrisis (@ClimateCrisis) September 11, 2019
Now @HouseForeign & @ClimateCrisis will hear from @GretaThunberg @Jamie_Margolin & @vict_barrett at a joint hearing NEXT WEEK!https://t.co/nL0yafrm8E pic.twitter.com/OHXf429k8X
Our young global leaders are going to move us forward toward addressing the climate crisis,” said Subcommittee Chairman William Keating, Representative from Massachusetts. “That is both inspiring and disheartening - disheartening because we should have been acting on this long before our youth needed to stand up and demand it.”
Hillary Clinton read her emails at a mock resolute desk at the Venice Biennale. The performance art piece was designed by Kenneth Goldsmith, an American poet and critic.
Goldsmith used techniques of “appropriation and collage,” to create the work, which includes 60,000 pages of double-sided copies. Curators for the piece, titled HILLARY: The Hillary Clinton Emails, described it this way:
The pile of papers is rather unimpressive, rebutting Trump’s efforts to make them monumental. In this way, Goldsmith creates an anti-monument to the folly of Trump’s heinous smear campaign against Clinton. In an ambient somewhere between a library, a theatre stage and an embassy, the language of digital bureaucracy is transformed by Goldsmith into a work of literature.
Found my emails at the Venice Biennale. Someone alert the House GOP. pic.twitter.com/eeXaKhy9Dz
— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) September 12, 2019
House Democrats are divided over whether to impeach President Trump. Today, as they hold hearings investigating the president, they argue about whether they are conducting an impeachment proceeding.
Here is more from the Associated Press:
House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler says, plain and simple, what his committee is doing is an impeachment investigation, no matter how you want to phrase it.
“Some call this process an impeachment inquiry. Some call it an impeachment investigation. There is no legal difference between these terms, and I no longer care to argue about the nomenclature,” Nadler said at the panel session.
“But let me clear up any remaining doubt: The conduct under investigation poses a threat to our democracy. We have an obligation to respond to this threat. And we are doing so,” he added.
Republicans disagree with Nadler and argue the House has never voted to open an official inquiry.
“My colleagues know very well they don’t have the votes to authorize impeachment proceedings on the House floor, but they want to impeach the president anyway,” the panel’s GOP ranking member, Doug Collins of Georgia, said. “So, they are pretending to initiate impeachment.”
Nadler and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have been talking about impeachment very differently.
Nadler has been clear that his committee is moving ahead, Pelosi is reluctant to mention the “I” word and has repeatedly said the strategy is to “legislate, investigate and litigate.”
In private meetings, she has urged caution and told the caucus that the public isn’t there yet on impeachment.
At the same time, she has signed off on the committee’s moves.
Some of the leading Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential candidates have spoken out strongly in favor of impeachment. The topic will surely come up again tonight in the debate in Houston that will see the top 10 contenders take the stage together for the first time.
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, an agency meant to work against workplace discrimination, will stop collecting information on the wage gap by race and gender. The data collection only started in 2016.
The agency, now headed by a Trump nominee, announced its intention to stop collecting the data Wednesday. Businesses with more than 100 employees were required to report the data.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced yesterday that it will stop collecting data on the wage gap.
— ACLU (@ACLU) September 12, 2019
This is a complete betrayal of @USEEOC's mandate to ensure equality in the workplace. We urge the commission to reverse this decision immediately.
In the UK, all businesses with more than 250 employees are required to report wage gap details. The effort revealed lingerie company Boux Avenue, Apple and Ryanair had some of the largest pay gaps between men and women.
The Trump administration has reportedly given up efforts to write an Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) replacement bill.
After campaigning to repeal the law for eight years, Republicans have struggled to piece together a cohesive strategy for caring for the staggering 27.5m Americans locked out of the healthcare system.
As well, the Trump administration has joined Republican-led states in a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of Obamacare. If they prevail, millions of Americans who rely on the healthcare provided by the law could be caught in the middle, as either side appeals to the US Supreme Court.
“Rehashing ‘repeal the ACA and replace with something better’ isn’t a winning message, and I’m guessing they know that,” Shawn Gremminger, senior director of federal relations at Families USA told the Washington Post. The Trump administration said reports work had stopped were false.
A little live fact-checking from the Guardian’s reporter Joan Greve.
It appears this is the Al Green quote (from May) that Trump is referring to, which is different in both wording and meaning than the president claims here. https://t.co/FdpxlXsJeY pic.twitter.com/zlN1iTKrva
— Joanie Greve (@joanegreve) September 12, 2019
A new poll found broad support for gun control measures. The news comes the same day that 145 business executives signed an open letter calling on Republican US senators to enact legislation also passed by the Democrat-led House.
A new NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll shows broad support – among Democrats and Republicans alike – for legislation to reduce gun violence, including more funding for mental health treatment (89%), universal background checks (83%) and red flag laws (72%). https://t.co/ItTtqyCVk1
— NPR (@NPR) September 11, 2019
Every day, 100 Americans are shot and killed and hundreds more are wounded. These are more than mass shootings; in recent weeks, gun violence has devastated Chicago, Canoga Park, Newport News, Gilroy and Brooklyn, among others. This is a public health crisis that demands urgent action,” the executives wrote, in the letter published by the New York Times.
Also today, Trump is expected to attend the House Republican retreat in Baltimore, Maryland, a city he described as a “disgusting ... rodent infested mess” in July. There is no public agenda for the meeting, which is being held behind closed doors, the Baltimore Sun reported.
Before speaking to House Republicans tomorrow evening, Trump will raise money at a fundraiser in Baltimore - a city he derided this summer as a "rat and rodent infested mess" where "no human being in the world would want to live.”
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) September 12, 2019
Baltimore residents have responded with a slate of planned protests, including a “Musical Labor Protest” from the Baltimore Welcome Committee and an LGBTQ dance party.
Updated
Corey Lewandowski to appear on Capitol Hill
The judiciary committee chairman, Jerry Nadler, has also announced that the panel will hold a hearing on 17 September with Corey Lewandowski, Donald Trump’s former campaign manager.
Nadler said Trump “asked Lewandowski twice to deliver a message to former attorney general Jeff Sessions to limit the Mueller investigation, making Lewandowski a critical witness to presidential obstruction of justice”.
The committee has also subpoenaed Rob Porter and Rick Dearborn, who also witnessed Trump’s “repeated obstruction”, for the same hearing, Nadler said.
Updated
Jerry Nadler makes his case
Trump “went to great lengths to obstruct special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation” into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election in favor of Donald Trump and whether his campaign colluded with that meddling, Nadler explains in a statement made public on the eve of this committee session.
He cites also “the president’s attempts to remove the special counsel and encourage witnesses to lie and to destroy or conceal evidence. Anyone else who did this would face federal criminal prosecution.
“The Mueller report resulted in 37 criminal indictments, 7 guilty pleas, and revealed 10 possible instances where President Trump obstructed justice, at least five of which we now know to be clearly criminal.
“Trump’s crimes and corruption extend beyond what is detailed in the Mueller report. The president is in violation of the emoluments clauses of the constitution as he works to enrich himself, putting the safety and security of our nation at risk. He has dangled pardons, been involved in campaign finance violations and stonewalled Congress across the board, noting that he will defy all subpoenas,” Nadler writes in his statement.
He concludes: “No one is above the law. The unprecedented corruption, coverup, and crimes by the president are under investigation by the committee as we determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment or other ... remedies.”
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Is it an impeachment inquiry or not? Democrats can’t seem to agree
In the spirit of open journalism, that’s the headline in an excellent analysis piece in the New York Times this morning ahead of the judiciary committee session that’s now underway this morning.
It’s well worth a read, here.
Meanwhile, Dan Pfeiffer, top adviser to Barack Obama, had this to say on Twitter late last night.
The politics of impeachment are debatable. Maybe they are good. Maybe they aren't. No one knows. But I do know that the current Democratic strategy of telling the base they are impeaching Trump and telling the moderates the opposite is an absolute disaster.
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) September 11, 2019
So this session on the Hill is not popular with many.
‘Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter ...’
“It doesn’t matter, we are not in an impeachment inquiry,” says Republican Doug Collins, with vigor and volume.
He’s talking about his earlier remark that the committee’s session is like an Instagram filter, making something like something it’s not. But he might have meant Snapchat, he now thinks. This is the level of debate we’re at right now.
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‘This is a walk down the yellow brick road’
Doug Collins, the Georgia Republican and ranking member of the judiciary committee, is opening his remarks by, of course, making fun of this session.
“This is a walk down the yellow brick road. The Emerald City is impeachment,” he says.
Wait, Collins has now said the committee session is a trip to Fantasy Island.
He says bring on the popcorn and “let the show begin”. Indeed.
Photograph: Ronald Grant
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‘It’s not about misguided policy or personal behavior’
Nadler explains that this whole process is about whether to recommend articles of impeachment against Donald Trump – the process, effectively, by which Congress prosecutes a president.
He says America is facing a threat to its democracy.
There aren’t completely fixed rules about how all this happens, if and when there is an impeachment, it will be open to a lot of interpretation and, you can be sure, fierce argument.
Nadler said that the forthcoming decision about an impeachment inquiry “cannot be based on our feelings about Donald Trump. It’s not about misguided policy or personal behavior, it’s based on the evidence before us and the evidence that keeps coming in.
This will all lead to a vote on whether to recommend articles of impeachment to the full floor of the House of Representatives.
He’s handing over now to the top Republican on the committee, Doug Collins, of Georgia.
He says, basically, that the session is a mirage. Nothing happening, it’s like “an Instagram filter that makes something appear as something it’s not”.
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House Judiciary Committee prepares for its first impeachment-related vote
The chairman, Jerry Nadler, is calling the committee to order, says the Trump 2016 election campaign got help from Russia and that the president interfered with the resulting inquiry.
The session is set to define procedures for upcoming hearings on Donald Trump even as some moderates in the caucus are urging the panel to slow down.
The vote today, while technical, is an escalation as the judiciary panel has said it is examining whether to recommend articles of impeachment, the Associated Press writes.
It would allow the committee to designate certain hearings as impeachment hearings, empower staff to question witnesses, allow some evidence to remain private and permit the president’s counsel to officially respond to testimony.
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House judiciary committee takes first step towards possible impeachment
Good Morning, watchers of American politics, we are firing up our Guardian US pol live blog earlier than usual today in order to catch live a committee session on Capitol Hill to discuss procedures for possible impeachment of the president.
There’s so much going on today so please buckle in and stay tuned. Here are the main events:
- The House Judiciary Committee under chairman Jerrold Nadler, Democratic congressman of New York, is holding what is called a markup session this morning at 8AM ET. To quote the committee’s own words, the committee “will consider procedures for future hearings related to its investigation to determine whether to recommend articles of impeachment with respect to President Donald Trump.” Got that? I thought so. There is anything but harmony among the Democrats in Washington on this - with House speaker Nancy Pelosi trying to hold off the “i” word indefinitely, it seems. But with Republicans surely dismissing the whole thing as a farce, the session will be lively. And live streamed here.
- It’s the first Democratic debate today where all the main contenders will be on one stage, in Houston, Texas. The Guardian’s team are on their way there and we’ll have some previews and pontifications on what to expect. This is the third round of debates and the first time stand-out contenders Joe Biden and Elizabeth Warren will face off on the same stage.
- There will surely be fall-out today from last night’s Supreme Court ruling to allow the Trump administration to enforce nationwide restrictions that would prevent most Central American immigrants from seeking asylum in the US.
- There will also be reverberations from the president’s announcement yesterday that, essentially, he want to ban flavored e-cigarettes. My colleague and health reporter Jessica Glenza will be taking over this blog shortly and will have more to say about that, no doubt. I encourage you to read Jessica’s terrific article about e-cigs earlier this week.
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