Summary
We interrupt our regular liveblog programming today, so we can tune into the second night of the Democratic debates. Follow live updates and analysis of the debates here.
In other news:
- Kelly Craft has been confirmed as the new US ambassador to the United Nations. Craft has been criticized for her absenteeism from her previous post as the US envoy to Canada, and her views on climate change.
- Nearly half the House Democrats now support an impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump, according to an Associated Press tally on Wednesday. The number has jumped since Robert Mueller testified last week about his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
- The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by a quarter point . The move comes after Donald Trump has applied significant pressure on the central bank to lower rates in order to stimulate economic growth.
- A church in Baltimore kicked Ben Carson, the US housing and urban development (Hud) secretary, off its property. A member of the church said asking Carson to leave had nothing to do with him being a member of the Trump administration.
The Senate confirmed Kelly Craft to serve as Trump’s ambassador to the UN. Craft succeeds Nikki Haley, who announced her resignation in October.
Craft came under fire earlier this year for spending more than half her time as ambassador to Canada absent from her post. During her confirmation process Democrats expressed concerns at her family’s investments in the fossil fuel industry; Craft is married to Joseph Kraft, a billionaire coal magnate from Kentucky. After initially saying in an interview that she appreciates “ both sides of the science” on climate change, she acknowledged during her confirmation hearing that global heating was driven by human activity. However, she rejected the idea of the US re-entering the Paris climate agreement.
With the second night of the Democratic debates a couple of hours away, immigrant rights protestors have blocked traffic at an international crossing between Detroit and Canada.
In a press release, Carlos Rojas, a spokesperson for the advocacy group Cosecha, said: “A vague commitment to support immigration reform is an empty promise that we cannot accept...We need to know that candidates are serious about solving the daily crisis undocumented workers and families have been facing for decades, and that means putting an immediate end to all detention and deportation on their first day in office”
⭕ BREAKING: Michigan immigrants & allies are blocking the international tunnel to Canada, right outside the debate in Detroit. They are demanding that candidates commit to ending all detention and deportation on day 1.
— Movimiento Cosecha (@CosechaMovement) July 31, 2019
Watch live: https://t.co/E7O889vK27#DemDebateTakeover pic.twitter.com/t0JZNnoxHF
Updated
Joe Biden has announced his Snapchat debut, with a splash.
I’ve got some exciting news: I am now on Snapchat! Subscribe to get a behind-the-scenes look at tonight’s #DemDebate and what’s happening on the campaign trail: https://t.co/AFamrxf91F pic.twitter.com/LdYpSDWh9n
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 31, 2019
The account so far has featured his granddaughters.
The move has been met with... skepticism.
How’re you doing fellow kids — fellow youths of a similar disposition?! I, too, am “with it.” https://t.co/sbqQXu73cW
— Tanvi (@Tanvim) July 31, 2019
Is Snapchat still a thing? https://t.co/kpl1lQ5Tfe
— Julie Bykowicz (@bykowicz) July 31, 2019
Updated
Maanvi Singh here, taking over on the West Coast.
The Trump administration imposed sanctions against the Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.
The Treasury department’s press release said the sanctions were imposed because Zarif “acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly” Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
The move was anticipated in June when the Trump administration ordered new sanctions against Khamenei and announced that it would be levying fresh sanctions against Zarif, Iran’s top diplomat, as well.
In a statement, the Treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, said: “The United States is sending a clear message to the Iranian regime that its recent behavior is completely unacceptable...Foreign Minister Javad Zarif spreads the regime’s propaganda and disinformation around the world through these mediums.”
Tensions with Tehran have been escalating since May.
Zarif responded in a tweet.
The US' reason for designating me is that I am Iran's "primary spokesperson around the world"
— Javad Zarif (@JZarif) July 31, 2019
Is the truth really that painful?
It has no effect on me or my family, as I have no property or interests outside of Iran.
Thank you for considering me such a huge threat to your agenda.
Trump canceled strikes against Iran last month, which he initially ordered in retaliation for Tehran shooting down an American drone.
Updated
Summary
- Nearly half the House Democrats now support an impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump, according to an Associated Press tally on Wednesday. The number has jumped since Robert Mueller testified last week about his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
- The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by a quarter point to a range of 2% to 2.25%. The move comes after Donald Trump has applied significant pressure on the central bank to lower rates in order to stimulate economic growth.
- In the wake of Trump’s racist attacks on Baltimore, a church in the city kicked Ben Carson, the US housing and urban development (Hud) secretary, off its property. A member of the church said asking Carson to leave had nothing to do with him being a member of the Trump administration.
Updated
Guardian political correspondent, Lauren Gambino, writes that tonight’s debate will see Joe Biden face rival Kamala Harris in a highly anticipated rematch after a searing confrontation during last month’s presidential debate.
The former vice-president has also traded jabs with Bernie Sanders and Harris over healthcare, which was a major topic of debate on Tuesday night and revealed some of the sharpest divisions in the party.
Harris released her version of a Medicare for All plan that would cover all Americans without abolishing private health insurance. But the California senator is likely to face questions over how she would implement such a plan without raising taxes on middle-class Americans, as she has insisted is possible.
Biden, who has released a healthcare plan that would build on the Affordable Care Act passed under the Obama-Biden administration, said Harris’s claim that it is possible to pay for Medicare for All without raising taxes on the middle class existed in “a fantasy world”.
No candidate mentioned Biden on Tuesday, in a sign that despite his early lead in the primary contest, his campaign – or at least his ideas – is not dominating the field.
Updated
CNN polling wizard, Harry Enten, has an analysis of a Quinnipiac University poll released this week that shows 51% of voters believe Donald Trump is a racist.
Harry says that while the president’s opponents might not be surprised by the results, it’s a significant result because a majority of voters say the president is racist.
Enten writes:
Compare these numbers to a Harris poll from September 1968. Former Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist, was running for president as an opponent to the Civil Rights movement. As he campaigned, 41% agreed when asked whether Wallace was a racist. That was basically even with the 40% who disagreed with the statement.
There are a few ways to look at these numbers, and none are complementary to Trump. You can say that more voters believe Trump is racist than believed a segregationist running for president in 1968 was. You could be generous to Trump and say that the spread between racist and not a racist (5 points in Trump’s case and 1 point in Wallace’s case) is closer because more voters were undecided on Wallace. Even so, the net margin for Trump being a racist is wider than it was in Wallace’s case.
It’s well worth reading the whole analysis, here.
Ben Carson kicked off of church property in Baltimore
Ben Carson, the US Housing and Urban Development (HUD) secretary, was in Baltimore today to speak about HUD programs to help impoverished communities.
But in the wake of Trump’s racist attacks on Baltimore, Morning Star Baptist church kicked Carson off their property, where he planned to hold a press conference, reports local news station WJZ.
Gregory Evans, a member of the church, told WJZ that Carson’s representatives should have spoken to the church before cleaning up the property and setting up a press conference there. Evans said asking Carson to leave had nothing to do with him being a member of the Trump adminstration.
Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman, said the Fed cut the interest rate because of weak global growth and trade policy developments that have been disruptive to the world economy.
This, though the US labour market remaining strong with the lowest unemployment rate since the late 1960s.
“We see those as threats to what is clearly a favorable outlook. And we see this action as designed to support them and keep that outlook favorable,” Powell said.
Bernie Sanders’s campaign raised $1.1m after the debate last night, reports Guardian political correspondent, Lauren Gambino.
In an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper immediately following the debate, Sanders celebrated his success with fundraising from small-dollar donors instead of the traditional campaign model of fundraising from the wealthy.
Sander’s campaign announces that it raised $1.1 million and received more than 70,000 contributions from small-dollar donors since last night’s debate.
— Lauren Gambino (@laurenegambino) July 31, 2019
“I am extraordinarily proud,” Sanders said. “I think we have broken the world’s record in now having two million individual contributions at this point in the campaign, averaging all of $19 a piece. I don’t think anybody has done that. I am proud of that.”
Because of how campaign finance laws work, there is no way to independently verify these numbers at the moment, but Sanders’s campaign said he passed the two million threshold on 11 July.
Last week, Elizabeth Warren’s campaign said she had received one million small-dollar contributions.
Fed cuts interest rate for first time in a decade
As expected, the Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate by a quarter point to a range of 2% to 2.25%.
The Guardian’s economics correspondent, Richard Partington, said the interest rate cut is “an indication that the world’s largest economy is running out of steam.”
The move comes after Donald Trump has applied significant pressure on the central bank to lower rates in order to stimulate economic growth. The president had called the Fed an “anchor wrapped around our neck” and blamed rate rises last year for an unspectacular growth rate in the US.
However, economists had been expecting the central bank to lower its headline rate as economic growth slows. Rising trade tensions between the US and China have served as a brake on international trade.
Impeachment backed by nearly half the House Democrats
Nearly half the House Democrats now support an impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump, according to an Associated Press tally on Wednesday.
There are 113 Democrats and one Republican in the House that have publicly backed impeachment.
The number has jumped since Robert Mueller testified last week about his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. “Some two dozen House Democrats added their names after Mueller’s appearance last week on Capitol Hill,” according to the AP.
This is far from the 218 votes needed to pass legislation in the House, where Democrats hold a 235-seat majority.
Afternoon summary
- Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were the clear winners of last night’s debate, with John Delaney and Marianne Williamson also getting some attention for their performance last night - not necessarily in a good way.
- Jeffrey Epstein appeared in Manhattan federal court later this morning, about one week after he was reportedly found unconscious in his jail cell with neck injuries. Epstein’s case has drawn extensive attention, largely because of his purported ties to powerful, politically connected men, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
- The Washington National Cathedral has warned Donald Trump’s words “give cover to white supremacists,” in the wake of his recent attacks on minority lawmakers, Baltimore and the congressman who represents the city, Elijah Cummings.
- Mongolia’s government has gifted the president’s 13-year-old son, Barron Trump, with a horse named Victory, according to the White House. Mongolia’s government frequently gifts horses to foreign dignitaries - former US defense secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Chuck Hagel received horses after visiting Mongolia, as did Joe Biden.
An unfortunate trend is developing in the Democratic debates - no candidates mentioning Puerto Rico.
In the last round of debates, Julian Castro made a passing reference to it in the second night of debates, but since then, the island’s governor has been forced out of office amid protests.
Remember this, from last month’s debate in Miami? Remember...everything that has happened in Puerto Rico since? https://t.co/wBGxuYIyXO
— Patricia Mazzei (@PatriciaMazzei) July 31, 2019
Mongolia’s government has gifted the president’s 13-year-old son, Barron Trump, with a horse named Victory, according to the White House.
The horse will remain in Mongolia but the Trumps are “very grateful” for the gift, said press secretary Stephanie Grisham.
Mongolia’s government frequently gifts horses to foreign dignitaries - former US defense secretaries Donald Rumsfeld and Chuck Hagel received horses after visiting Mongolia. Joe Biden, the Democratic frontrunner, has also received a horse from Mongolia.
Upon accepting the horse while in Mongolia in 2005, Rumsfeld declared: “I am proud to be the owner of that proud animal.” He named it Montana.
Biden received his horse while visiting Mongolia in 2011. He named the creature Celtic.
Coincidentally, Hagel also gave his horse an Irish name in 2014: Shamrock.
Hagel gave it the name Shamrock because it was the mascot of the high school he graduated from, according to the New York Times.
After Hagel announced the name, the Times reported: “Then he turned sadly to address Shamrock. ‘You be good while I’m gone,’ he said.”
He’s back ...
The president is back on Twitter, defending himself against accusations of racism by calling himself the “least racist person in the world” and insulting the intelligence of one of the most prominent black TV journalists in the US.
....or is he too dumb (stupid} to understand that. No wonder CNN’s ratings (MSNBC’s also) have gone down the tubes - and will stay there until they bring credibility back to the newsroom. Don’t hold your breath!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 31, 2019
Ohio representative Tim Ryan’s campaign has issued a statement about his decision to not put his hand over his heart during the national anthem at the Democratic debate last night, saying it was an accident.
Congressman Ryan wasn’t protesting and didn’t mean to make any statement last night in Detroit, it was a moment of absentmindedness while on a debate stage that won’t happen again. He was, in fact, singing along with the choir to honor our country. Congressman Ryan loves our country and will continue to honor the flag during the anthem in future events, as he has in countless events in the past.
Rep. Tim Ryan didn’t put his hand over his heart during the national anthem. I guess he’s appealing to the Kaepernick wing of the Democratic Party.
— Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) July 31, 2019
Happening now: Will any of the Dems take a knee for the national anthem?
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) July 31, 2019
National Cathedral: Trump 'gives cover to white supremacists'
The Washington National Cathedral has warned Donald Trump’s words “give cover to white supremacists,” in the wake of his recent attacks on minority lawmakers, Baltimore and the congressman who represents the city, Elijah Cummings.
The Washington DC-based Episcopal cathedral is one of the country’s pre-eminent religious institutions and has been the site of presidential funerals, inauguration prayer services and memorials.
It is not the first time the Cathedral has been critical of Trump policies, but it is certainly the most specific criticism of Trump’s normal behavior.
This week, President Trump crossed another threshold. Not only did he insult a leader in the fight for racial justice and equality for all persons; not only did he savage the nations from which immigrants to this country have come; but now he has condemned the residents of an entire American city. Where will he go from here?
Make no mistake about it, words matter. And, Mr. Trump’s words are dangerous.
These words are more than a “dog-whistle.” When such violent dehumanizing words come from the President of the United States, they are a clarion call, and give cover, to white supremacists who consider people of color a sub-human “infestation” in America. They serve as a call to action from those people to keep America great by ridding it of such infestation. Violent words lead to violent actions.
When does silence become complicity? What will it take for us all to say, with one voice, that we have had enough? The question is less about the president’s sense of decency, but of ours.
As leaders of faith who believe in the sacredness of every single human being, the time for silence is over. We must boldly stand witness against the bigotry, hatred, intolerance, and xenophobia that is hurled at us, especially when it comes from the highest offices of this nation. We must say that this will not be tolerated. To stay silent in the face of such rhetoric is for us to tacitly condone the violence of these words. We are compelled to take every opportunity to oppose the indecency and dehumanization that is racism, whether it comes to us through words or actions.
The statement was signed by Right Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington; the Very Rev. Randolph Marshall Hollerith, dean of Washington National Cathedral; and the Rev. Canon Kelly Brown Douglas, canon theologian of Washington National Cathedral.
With Donald Trump and UK prime minister Boris Johnson promising to reach a trade agreement to offset the economic costs of the UK leaving the EU (Brexit), US congressional leaders and diplomats have warned they can’t back a plan if Brexit affects the Irish border.
The Guardian’s world affairs editor, Julian Borger, spoke with Republican and Democrat lawmakers about the strong bipartisan opposition to any UK trade deal in the event of a threat to the 1998 Good Friday agreement, and to the open border between Northern Ireland and the Republic.
Pete King, the Republican co-chair of the Friends of Ireland group, said the threat to abandon the backstop and endanger the open border was a “needless provocation”, adding that his party would have no compunction about defying Trump over the issue.
“I would think anyone who has a strong belief in Northern Ireland and the Good Friday agreement the open border would certainly be willing to go against the president,” King said.
In the event of a hard Brexit, in the absence of guarantees for the Northern Ireland agreement, the strength of sentiment among Irish Americans – a tenth of the population, many of them in swing states – could make it an issue in next year’s presidential and congressional elections.
Donald Trump is emboldening a “dark psychic force” in the US, declared self-help guru and Democratic hopeful Marianne Williamson last night.
Williamson proved yet again to be a spring of viral moments, such as when she bluntly explained to a child reporter, that no, she does not have any pets.
Young reporter to @marwilliamson: “Do you have a pet?”@marwilliamson to young reporter: “I had a cat and the cat died.” pic.twitter.com/jK8Miaf1TG
— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC) July 31, 2019
Before you buy a “stop the dark psychic force 2020” shirt, it’s important to note Williamson has a terrible record when it comes to health and science. She said in June that requiring children to get vaccines is “draconian” and has argued that all people should avoid treating clinical depression with medicine.
That said, she emerged last night as the only candidate who actually has an outlined plan for the US to pay reparations to the descendants of the enslaved. Her response to a question about reparations, and her plan to spend $500bn to pay them, was impassioned:
We need to realize that when it comes to the economic gap between blacks and whites in America, it does come from a great injustice that has never been dealt with.
That great injustice has to do with the fact there were 250 years of slavery followed by another 100 years of domestic terrorism. What makes me qualified to say $200 to $500 billion? I’ll tell you what makes me qualified. If you did the math of the 40 acres and a mule, given that there were 4 to 5 million slaves at the end of the Civil War—they were all promised 40 acres and a mule for a family of four. If you did the math today it would be trillions of dollars. And I believe that anything less than $100 billion is an insult, and I believe that $200 to $500 billion is politically feasible today, because so many Americans realize there is an injustice that continues to form a toxicity underneath the surface.
Jeffrey Epstein is due to appear in Manhattan federal court later this morning, about one week after he was reportedly found unconscious in his jail cell with neck injuries.
The Manhattan US Attorney’s Office alleged earlier in July that Epstein “sexually exploited and abused dozens of minor girls” from 2002 to 2005. Some of his victims were just 14 years-old, prosecutors also alleged.
Epstein’s case has drawn extensive attention, largely because of his purported ties to powerful, politically connected men, including Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Prince Andrew.
The Guardian’s opinion panelists are in with their assessments of last night’s debate – essentially concluding it was a good night to be Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
Theodore R Johnson, a senior fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice, noted the debate went on for two hours before candidates mentioned black people and the specific challenges they face.
And once the topic of black America finally came up, the candidates rushed to discuss their respective policy proposals that they hoped would signal their seriousness about racial equality, from the funding of black colleges to the study of reparations.
But black voters know that campaign promises rarely materialize once a candidate becomes president, so one’s reputation, trustworthiness, and passion tend to be what wins black support. On this score, the candidates were who we thought they were. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren were the only two on stage who entered the evening with observable black support in their coalition, and it will remain that way after tonight.
With Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders fending off attacks about their ambitious, left-leaning plans on Tuesday night, the rest of the Democratic field is bracing for their debate this evening.
The frontrunners tonight – Joe Biden and Kamala Harris – are unlikely to face as many existential questions about how far left the Democrat party is while their competitors, like the rest of the field last night, fight for name recognition and break out moments to keep their campaign’s afloat.
It’s been more than 12 hours since Donald Trump tweeted, which means he stayed silent through the debates. His campaign did, however, sent a blitz of emails during the event.
Place your bets now for how long Trump can keep his fingers off the “Tweet” button as one of his main Twitter targets, the Federal Reserve, is expected this afternoon to cut interest rates for the first time in a decade.
For months, Trump has been pushing the Fed to cut rates on Twitter - and in the process defied the presidential norm of keeping the central bank sectioned off from the political sphere.
It’s a slightly unusual move for the Fed as interest rates are usually lowered when the economy is slow, which it is not.
Today, we’ll have the live updates and analysis on the Fed announcement this afternoon, as well as previews of tonight’s debates.
