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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lois Beckett (now) and Joan E Greve, Daniel Strauss and Martin Belam (earlier)

USPS chief Louis DeJoy says he won't restore mail-sorting machines ahead of election – as it happened

Evening summary

We’re wrapping up our live politics coverage for tonight. An updated summary of today’s key events from myself and Joan Greve:

  • Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden said in an interview that would shut the country down to stop the spread of Covid-19 if scientists recommended it.
  • Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he does not intend to restore mail sorting machines that have been removed from some USPS locations. Testifying before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, DeJoy argued the machines that had been removed were “not needed”. However, DeJoy acknowledged that some of the operational changes he has implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.
  • A federal judge denied Trump’s request for a stay of the subpoena for his tax returns. An appeals court denied Trump’s request to immediately put Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr’s subpoena on hold, and said it would hold a hearing on the matter, but not until 1 September.
  • People incarcerated in California prisons are inside the wildfire evacuation zone but not yet being evacuated, and their family members are speaking out.
  • Steve Bannon dismissed the federal charges against him as a “political hit job”. The former Trump adviser, who was arrested yesterday for allegedly using money from his anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall for personal expenses, said on his podcast today, “I’m not going to back down. This is a political hit job ... I’m going to continue to fight.”
  • Attorney general William Barr said he was “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Trump floated the idea of a pardon for Snowden last week, saying, “It seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently ... and I’m going to take a very good look at it.”
  • The Golden State Killer was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Judge Michael Bowman said Joseph James DeAngelo “deserves no mercy” after pleading guilty to 13 murder charges and 13 kidnapping-related charges.
  • Actress Lori Laughland was sentenced to just two months in prison for her role in a college admissions bribery scandal. Her husband received five months.

Updated

Something wonderful happened in Washington. It happened at the zoo.

The Associated Press’ White House correspondent shared some good news today:

Updated

Biden: 'I would shut [the country] down' to prevent spread of Covid-19

If the move was recommended by scientists, Joe Biden told ABC News today, he would shut the country down to stop the spread of Covid-19.

“I would shut it down; I would listen to the scientists,” Biden said.

Biden criticized the way the Trump administration has presented a zero-sum choice between slowing the spread of the virus and reopening the economy.

“We cannot get the country moving, until we control the virus,” Biden said. “That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with. In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing, and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus.”

ABC News said the full interview would air on Sunday.

Updated

Appeals court won’t step in for now on Trump tax records

A federal appeals court said Friday it wouldn’t step in right away to delay New York prosecutors’ effort to get President Donald Trump’s tax records, potentially leaving the supreme court as his most promising option to block prosecutors’ subpoena, the Associated Press reports.

The 2nd US circuit court of appeals denied Trump’s request to immediately put Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R Vance Jr’s subpoena on hold while Trump appeals to try to get it invalidated.

The appeals court said it would hold a hearing on the request for a delay, but not until 1 September. After winning a lower court ruling, Vance’s office had agreed not to enforce the subpoena before 28 August.

The district attorney’s office and Trump’s lawyers didn’t immediately comment on what the appeals court ruling might mean for that timeframe.

Updated

Long lines in Oregon as residents waited for $500 relief checks that quickly ran out

“It took about 48 hours for the state to run out of funds for a program meant to help Oregonians struggling because of the pandemic.”

That’s the Salem Reporter, an Oregon news outlet, describing the lines of hundreds of people trying to get access to a one-time payment of $500 for people who had lost income because of the pandemic. Only 70,000 payments were available.

Updated

California governor has no answers on millions of potential evictions on 1 September

Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, refused today to provide specific answers to questions on the imminent and massive eviction crisis in the state.

An estimated 4.1m to 5.4m renters are currently at risk of eviction due to their inability to pay rent during the pandemic, and the California court system is set to allow these cases to proceed starting 1 September. That means the state could soon experience a surge in homelessness and displacement while also battling severe wildfires and a continued Covid-19 crisis.

Newsom and state lawmakers have a little over a week to come up with some kind of legislative solution to prevent mass evictions, and when the governor was asked about the crisis during a wildfire update this afternoon, he responded that negotiations were under way with a range of different groups, but had nothing more to share.

A reporter followed up and questioned him on his own position, asking, “Do you think renters should be evicted now or in the future for rents they couldn’t pay because of the pandemic?”

He declined to directly answer, saying, “We are committed to advancing the negotiations, and I’m committing to make public those efforts as soon as we are in a position to bring all the parties together and they are satisfied with the details of the work that’s currently being advanced.”

His comments came hours after a major protest in Los Angeles where tenants rights groups shut down the downtown LA courthouse and demanded rent relief.

For more on the California crisis:

Updated

Actress who fought college admissions bribery charges gets just 2 months in prison

“Full House” star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, were sentenced to prison for using their wealth and privilege to cheat their daughters’ way into the college of their choice, the Associated Press reports.

Loughlin was sentenced to two months, Giannulli to five months, in the college admissions bribery case.

Under the plea deals with prosecutors — unusual because the proposed terms were binding once accepted, instead of granting the judge sentencing discretion — Giannulli will also pay a $250,000 fine and perform 250 hours of community service. Loughlin will pay a $150,000 fine and perform 100 hours of community service.

Unlike other prominent parents charged in the case who quickly admitted to the charges — including “Desperate Housewives” actor Felicity Huffman — Loughlin and Giannulli fiercely fought the allegations for more than a year.

The news of very brief sentence for the actress and her husband in the bribery case sparked discussion about the way wealthy white Americans are able to exempt themselves from the harshness of the American criminal justice system, and about the much longer and more serious penalties that have been imposed on black parents, including Tanya McDowell and Crystal Mason.

Updated

‘They have nowhere to run:’ terminally ill prisoners inside wildfire evacuation zone

My colleague Sam Levin has been reporting on the horrifying situation in California prisons, where incarcerated people just miles from blazing wildfires are breathing in smoke and wondering when they will be evacuated.

“Everyone has evacuated but they were left there in prison. Are they going to wait until the last minute to get them out?” Sophia Murillo, whose brother is incarcerated in Vacaville, told The Guardian.

You can read more live updates on the wildfires blazing across California from my West Coast colleagues here.

Updated

Russia gives permission for dissident to seek medical treatment in Germany

New from the Associated Press:

Russian doctors gave a dissident who is in a coma after a suspected poisoning permission to be transferred abroad for medical treatment, in a sudden reversal Friday that came after more than 24 hours of wrangling over Alexei Navalny’s condition and treatment.

Navalny, a 44-year-old politician and corruption investigator who is one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest critics, was admitted to an intensive care unit in the Siberian city of Omsk on Thursday. His supporters believe that tea he drank was laced with poison — and that the Kremlin is behind both his illness and the delay in transferring him to a top German hospital.

Why didn’t Democrats talk more about the Supreme Court at the DNC?

This is Lois Beckett, picking up our live politics coverage from our California office.

“None of the proposals discussed [at the Democratic National Convention] this week, even if signed into law by a President Biden, will stay on the books for very long given our current Supreme Court. And yet we heard so little on the issue.”

That’s Brian Fallon, the executive director of Demand Justice, a progressive advocacy group focused on the court system, talking to NBC News about the Democratic Party’s striking lack of rhetoric this past week about what they might do about Trump’s victory in securing what could likely be a long-term conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

More from other progressive advocates about this issue in the piece.

Today so far

That’s it from me this week. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he does not intend to restore mail sorting machines that have been removed from some USPS locations. Testifying before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, DeJoy argued the machines that had been removed were “not needed.” However, DeJoy acknowledged that some of the operational changes he has implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.
  • A federal judge denied Trump’s request for a stay of the subpoena for his tax returns. The president’s lawyers now reportedly intend to go to the 2nd circuit court of appeals to try to get a stay of the subpoena issued by Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance. The federal judge’s decision comes a month after the supreme court ruled that the president was not exempt from grand jury requests.
  • Steve Bannon dismissed the federal charges against him as a “political hit job.” The former Trump adviser, who was arrested yesterday for allegedly using money from his anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall for personal expenses, said on his podcast today, “I’m not going to back down. This is a political hit job. ... I’m going to continue to fight.”
  • Attorney general William Barr said he was “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Trump floated the idea of a pardon for Snowden last week, saying, “It seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently ... and I’m going to take a very good look at it.”
  • The Golden State Killer was sentenced to life in prison without parole. Judge Michael Bowman said Joseph James DeAngelo “deserves no mercy” after pleading guilty to 13 murder charges and 13 kidnapping-related charges.

Lois will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

A couple dozen House members are demanding an investigation into the deaths of thousands of mail-order chicks, as cost-cutting measures cause delays in mail deliveries.

Democratic Congresswoman Chellie Pingree of Maine sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Postmaster General Louis DeJoy demanding an investigation into reports of the issue.

“USPS is the only carrier that will deliver chicks from hatcheries to local, independent poultry producers and has been an essential and reliable partner for rural America since it first began providing this service over 100 years ago,” Pingree said in the letter.

“We are deeply concerned that the recent issues with live chick deliveries may have been significantly exacerbated by recent changes to USPS service that have led to mail delays and staffing challenges.”

During a Senate hearing today, DeJoy acknowledged that the operational changes he has recently implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.

The justice department announced the arrest of a former Army Green Beret for allegedly conspiring with Russian operatives to provide US defense information.

The US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia said in a statement that Peter Rafael Dzibinski Debbins, 45, repeatedly visited Russia and met with Russian intelligence officials between December 1996 and January 2011. Debbins even allegedly received a code name from Russian intelligence agents.

“Our military is tasked with the awesome responsibility of protecting our nation from its adversaries, and its service members make incredible sacrifices in service of that duty,” said US attorney G Zachary Terwilliger.

“When service members collude to provide classified information to our foreign adversaries, they betray the oaths they swore to their country and their fellow service members. As this indictment reflects, we will be steadfast and dogged in holding such individuals accountable.”

Fact-check: was Trump actually as unaware as he claims about the anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall?

The president’s former senior adviser, Steve Bannon, was arrested yesterday on fraud charges stemming from allegations he used some of the group’s money on personal expenses.

When asked about Bannon’s arrest, Trump said, “I know nothing about the project other than I didn’t like when I read about it. I didn’t like it.”

But one Republican involved in the project previously said he had spoken to Trump about the group multiple times.

CNN has the details:

Trump ally Kris Kobach said in an interview last year that he had spoken with the President three times about the private border wall project that is currently at the center of a federal fraud investigation, and that Trump was ‘enthusiastic’ about the project and it carried his blessing.

Speaking on an episode of the ‘We Build The Wall’ show in May 2019, Kobach, both the general counsel and a board member for the project, said he periodically spoke to the President to give him updates on progress of the project. ...

‘I’ve spoken to the President about this project on three occasions now,’ Kobach said. ‘And he said -- the first time I told him about it -- he said, ‘well, you tell the guys at We Build The Wall, that they have my blessing.’ And he used those exact words.’

Documents obtained by NBC News contradict Postmaster General Louis DeJoy’s comments this morning about restricting postal workers’ overtime.

Many postal workers have told news outlets that their overtime hours have recently been cut, contributing to delays in mail delivery.

But DeJoy told the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee this morning, “We’ve never eliminated overtime ... It has not been curtailed by me or the leadership team.”

But the documents obtained by NBC indicate DeJoy’s cost-cutting measures included prohibiting extra or late mail trips to ensure that carriers “return on time.”

George W Bush endorsed Republican Senator Susan Collins’ reelection bid, marking the former Republican president’s first endorsement of the 2020 election season.

“She’s honest period. She’s forthright period. She brings dignity into a world that has gotten really ugly,” Bush said after meeting with Collins in her home state of Maine, according to the AP.

Democrats have targeted Collins’ seat, attacking the senator over her support for Brett Kavanaugh’s supreme court nomination and Trump’s tax cuts.

Collins is currently locked in a heated race with Sara Gideon, the Democratic speaker of the Maine House.

Trump’s legal team intends to once again fight a subpoena of his financial records at the 2nd circuit appeals court, according to an NPR reporter.

If the appeals court rejects the president’s request for a stay of the Manhattan district attorney’s subpoena, Trump’s lawyers may then take their case to the supreme court, which could overlap with next week’s Republican National Convention.

However, the supreme court sent the case back to the lower courts last month, when the justices ruled 7-2 that the president was not exempt from grand jury requests, so it seems somewhat unlikely the high court would intervene at this stage.

Bannon dismisses fraud charges as a 'political hit job'

Steve Bannon dismissed the federal charges against him as a “political hit job,” a day after he was arrested on a yacht off the coast of Connecticut.

The former Trump adviser was released on bail yesterday after pleading not guilty to fraud charges, stemming from allegations that he used money from his anti-immigrant group We Build the Wall on personal expenses.

“I’m not going to back down. This is a political hit job,” Bannon said today on his podcast War Room.

“I’m in this for the long haul,” Bannon added. “I’m in this for the fight. I’m going to continue to fight.”

After the charges were announced yesterday, Trump attempted to distance himself from his former adviser, saying he knew “nothing about the project.”

“I haven’t been dealing with him for a long period of time,” the president said.

Updated

Golden State Killer sentenced to life in prison

Joseph James DeAngelo, better known as the Golden State Killer, has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, four decades after he terrorized the suburbs of Sacramento and stalked neighborhoods in southern California, breaking into homes to rape and torture women and girls, and killing couples and young women in their beds.

His crimes left a trail of destruction that has haunted survivors and their families. The sentencing – which took place in Sacramento on Friday, on the 40th anniversary of two of the murders – follows three days of testimony from dozens of women and men who survived DeAngelo’s crimes, as well as family members of those who did not.

Judge Michael Bowman said he was “moved by all their courage, their grace, their strength.”

“All qualities you lack,” he said, addressing DeAngelo. “Are you capable of comprehending the pain and anguish you’ve caused?”

The defendant “deserves no mercy”, Bowman said before the sentencing, which was met with applause.

Trump will travel to the swing state of North Carolina on Monday, the president’s daughter and senior adviser, Ivanka Trump, confirmed in a tweet.

The North State Journal reports:

According to a White House official, President Trump will visit Mills River, located in Henderson County, to visit a Farmers to Families Food Box program site and deliver remarks on the administration’s support for American farmers and families through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program.

The Republican National Convention was originally supposed to take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, next week, but the convention will now be mostly virtual due to the pandemic.

According to Politico, the president will also visit the site of the convention, where a few hundred delegates are still convening to formally nominate Trump, on Monday.

Republican governor of Vermont says he will not vote for Trump

Phil Scott, the Republican governor of Vermont, said he would not be voting for Trump in November’s presidential election.

“I have not decided, at this point, whether to cast a vote for former Vice President Biden, but it’s something that I would consider,” Scott said.

Scott has previously said he did not vote for Trump in 2016, and amid the Senate impeachment trial earlier this year, the Republican governor said Trump “should not be in office.”

Scott’s announcement may have something to do with the fact that he is facing reelection this year in his liberal-leaning state.

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said he does not intend to restore mail sorting machines that have been removed from some USPS locations. Testifying before the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, DeJoy argued the machines that had been removed were “not needed.” However, DeJoy acknowledged that some of the operational changes he has implemented have caused delays in mail delivery.
  • A federal judge denied Trump’s request for a stay of the subpoena for his tax returns. The president now has six days to convince an appeals court to grant a stay of the subpoena issued by Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance. The judge’s decision comes a month after the supreme court ruled that the president was not exempt from such grand jury requests.
  • Attorney general William Barr said he was “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden. Trump floated the idea of a pardon for Snowden last week, saying, “It seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently ... and I’m going to take a very good look at it.”

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

Trump predicts election winner won't be known for 'months'

Addressing the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, Trump predicted that the nation will not know the winner of the presidential election for weeks or even months after Nov. 3.

“You’ll never have an election count on Nov. 3,” the president said. “In my opinion, you wouldn’t be able to know the results of this election maybe weeks, months. Maybe never. I don’t think you’ll know two weeks later. I don’t think you’ll know four weeks later.”

A number of election officials have warned that the much higher number of mail-in ballots this year, due to the coronavirus pandemic, could cause a delay in the reporting of results.

The president also once again attacked mail-in voting, accusing states that are automatically sending ballots to registered voters of causing a “very serious problem for our great democracy.”

Just to reiterate: despite the president’s allegations, voter fraud is very rare, and mail-in voting has been a staple of US election systems for decades.

Trump is currently speaking at the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting, and he offered some thoughts on his Democratic opponent, Joe Biden.

The president opened his remarks by claiming Biden never mentioned China “in any way, shape or form” during his nomination acceptance speech last night.

In reality, the Democratic nominee did mention China, saying, “We’ll make the medical supplies and protective equipment our country needs. And we’ll make them here in America. So we will never again be at the mercy of China and other foreign countries in order to protect our own people.”

Trump also compared Biden to the 2016 Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. “Clinton’s much smarter, but not a likable person. Joe is not nearly as smart, but he’s more likable,” Trump said.

“Maybe I’d rather have the smarter person. Who cares about personality, right?”

Barr is 'vehemently opposed' to Snowden pardon

Attorney general William Barr said he is “vehemently opposed” to a pardon of whistleblower Edward Snowden, even though Trump floated the idea last week.

“He was a traitor and the information he provided our adversaries greatly hurt the safety of the American people,” Barr told the AP.

Snowden was charged under the Espionage Act in 2013 for disclosing classified information about US surveillance programs.

“He was peddling it around like a commercial merchant,” Barr said. “We can’t tolerate that.”

But on Saturday, Trump said he would “look at” the issue. “There are many, many people — it seems to be a split decision that many people think that he should be somehow treated differently, and other people think he did very bad things,” Trump said. “And I’m going to take a very good look at it.”

Snowden has been living in Russia since he leaked the information in order to avoid US prosecution.

Updated

Judge denies Trump request for a stay of subpoena for tax returns

A federal judge has denied Trump’s request for a stay of the Manhattan district attorney’s subpoena for his financial records, including his tax returns.

The president now has six days to convince an appeals court to grant the stay, but he is quickly running out of options to avoid giving Manhattan DA Cy Vance the requested records.

US district judge Victor Marrero rejected Trump’s challenge to the subpoena yesterday, after the supreme court ruled last month that the president was not exempt from such grand jury requests.

The president’s legal team has argued the subpoena should be dismissed because they say it is political motivated, but Vance has insisted he needs the records for a “complex financial investigation” of the Trump Organization.

Updated

Senator Tom Carper explained his cursing during the hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, which was caught on a hot mic and widely shared on Twitter.

“Those who know me know that there are few things that get me more fired up than protecting the Postal Service!” Carper said in a tweet.

In case you missed it: the Delaware Democrat was heard saying “fuck, fuck, fuck” as he missed his turn to question DeJoy because of a technical issue.

Brief Kanye update: Kanye West has not qualified to appear on the ballot in the swing state of Ohio, according to Ohio secretary of state Frank LaRose.

Officials in several states have announced in recent days that West did not make the cut to appear on their presidential ballots, despite the rapper’s last-minute effort to launch a White House bid.

After he delivered a rambling and at-times nonsensical campaign speech in South Carolina last month, West’s wife, Kim Kardashian West, said he has recently been experiencing the effects of bipolar disorder and asked for “compassion and empathy” during this difficult time for their family.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Daniel Strauss.

The Senate hearing with Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has just concluded, and the Republican chairman of the Senate homeland security and governmental affairs committee, Ron Johnson, ended it on a distinctly partisan note.

Johnson said many of the constituent calls he has received about the US Postal Service have sounded “very highly scripted.”

“This could be a very well organized effort, which doesn’t surprise me in the slightest,” Johnson said.

In reality, there have been nationwide reports about slow mail services, resulting in late prescription deliveries and rent payments, among other issues.

Updated

Ohio senator Sherrod Brown, who is not on the committee currently questioning DeJoy, just released a lengthy letter to the postmaster general in which, among other things, the Ohio Democrat says DeJoy should resign.

Brown, again, is not on the Senate Government Affairs and Homeland Security Committee so this letter only goes so far in actual consequence but it does illustrate where Democrats are on DeJoy.

Here’s a key line from the letter: “The Postal Service is cherished because it supports businesses, communities, and households across Ohio and the country. It is critical that the position of Postmaster General is held by an individual who is committed to sustaining the USPS services that Americans rely on and is dedicated to the long-term viability of the institution. Americans know that you cannot preserve the Postal Service while gutting its services or preventing its employees from doing their jobs.”

Missouri senator Josh Hawley is now asking DeJoy if the Postal Service will have enough revenue to sufficiently operate through election day.

“Yes sir,” DeJoy responded.

Utah senator Mitt Romney is now questioning DeJoy and started out by noting that in addition to the postmaster general previously donating to Trump’s campaign he has also donated to Romney’s campaign.

“Some would say you contributed to both sides,” Romney joked. Romney is a Republican like Trump but oftentimes at odds with the president on major policy topics.

Romney went on to ask if DeJoy is confident that the postal service could process all the ballots received by clerks up to election day.

“Extremely, highly confident. We will scour every plant leading up to election day,” DeJoy said.

DeJoy says he won't restore decommissioned mail sorting machines

Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general, said he would not restore mail sorting machines ahead of the 2020 election amid widespread outcry over mail delays. DeJoy has announced he is suspending recent mail changes, but confirmed Friday he would not reverse the changes and restore the machines.

“No intention to do that. They’re not needed,” DeJoy said, noting that mail volume was down.

The Postal Service has decommissioned 671 bar code sorters so far, about 13% of the total according to the Washington Post. That’s a significant increase from 2018 and 2019 , when USPS decommissioned 3% and 5% of the machines, respectively.

DeJoy admitted that one of his changes, a requirement that postal workers leave on their routes on time, regardless of whether the mail was ready to go out, had resulted in some delays.

DeJoy also said he learned about the removal of mail boxes and sorting machines “when everyone else was made aware.” He said there is a routine process for removing post office collection boxes and the recent removals were a part of that process. Over the last 10 years, 35,000 mail boxes have been removed, DeJoy said, and since he became postmaster general, 700 mailboxes had been removed.

USPS has announced no more collection boxes will be removed before the election.

David Williams, a former member of the USPS board of governor, which appointed DeJoy, testified Thursday that the decision to remove mailboxes and sorting machines was unusual and would not save the agency money.

Updated

An important point out of this hearing is that DeJoy is not shying away from the fact that he’s planning dramatic changes to the Postal Service, they will just come after the November elections.

Nevada senator Jacky Rosen is now grilling DeJoy on whether he did analyses to make sure specific interest groups like senior citizens or veterans would be made by the changes the postmaster general has instituted at the organization.

In short, DeJoy is saying “no” again and again.

“The only change that I made, ma’am, is that the trucks leave on time. Theoretically all the mail should be received faster,” DeJoy said.

Asked if he thinks the Post Office needs a “massive bail out to deliver mail on election day, DeJoy said “no” but added that he does think the service needs reform.

“We continue to do what we’re supposed to do at a significant cost impact and I’m one to try to get to a sustainable model but in this case I believe we believe some compensation for it,” DeJoy said.

Now Oklahoma senator James Lankford is asking DeJoy about a report that he was “locking up” blue boxes in Burbank, California.

DeJoy responded that he has not been locking up blue box mailboxes there.

Updated

Frustration over mics and cameras for conference calls happen for lawmakers too. As he began his questioning at this hearing Delaware senator Tom Carper got frustrated while trying to get his mic to work.

These things happen.

Ohio senator Rob Portman asked DeJoy if he supported absentee voting and vote by mail.

DeJoy responded that he voted absentee “for a number of years.”

Portman then asked DeJoy to clarify: do you support Americans voting by mail?

“I think the American public should be able to vote by mail and the postal service will support -so I think that’s yes,” DeJoy said.

Portman noted that there is no-fault vote-by-mail in Ohio and “it’s worked quite well.”

Things are heating up between Peters and DeJoy.

First, Peters pressed DeJoy on whether overtime is being rolled back. DeJoy said no would not affect service and were not put in place when he took the job. Peters pointed out that overtime has been rolled back. Peters also pressed DeJoy on Post Office closures, here too DeJoy denied any deliberate closures.

“Post Office closures are not a directive I gave,” DeJoy said.

“I have never spoken to the president about the postal service other than” when he accepted the position.

He also said he had not “spoken to [white house chief of staff] Mark Meadows” until roughly last week.” DeJoy also denied that he has had any real contact with other high ranking White House officials.

It’s pretty clear where Johnson stands. He concluded his questioning by saying DeJoy should be “commended” for the changes he’s looking to put in place.

Now Michigan senator Gary Peters, the ranking Senate Democrat, is going to question the postmaster general.

Updated

Asked about the removal of some postboxes across the country by Johnson, DeJoy said “since my arrival we removed 700 collection boxes of which I had no idea that that was a process.”

DeJoy is stressing that this is “a normal process that’s been around...50 years and in the last 10 years we have pulled back about 35,000.”

He also weighed in on the sorting machines being removed. “I repeat both the collection boxes and the machines close down I was made aware when everyone else was made aware.”

Johnson said “So this isn’t some devious plot.” Johnson so far has stressed that none of the changes are not meant to hinder the election or tip the scales in any way.

After Louis DeJoy’s opening statement, Wisconsin senator Ron Johnson, the chair of the Senate Homeland and Government Affairs Committee began questions.

DeJoy stressed that no changes planned for the service were meant to affect the presidential election.

“There has been no changes of any policies with regard to mail” in an effort to affect the November elections.

Johnson then asked if the postal service has the capacity to handle the influx of ballots expected to come in for this election.

“Adequate capacity, plus mail volume is down 13-14 percent this year,” DeJoy said, adding “we will have additional resources on standby” this year.

Senate hearing on US Postal Service begins

The hearing on the United States Postal Service where the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, is beginning.

DeJoy, a longtime major Republican donor, has been criticized for the changes he’s making to the service ahead of the November elections. The worry is that DeJoy’s mandated changes could hinder the influx of mail-in ballots expected to come through the agency because of the coronavirus pandemic.

DeJoy recently said those changes would be postponed until after the elections.

“This year the postal service will likely record a loss of $9bn,” DeJoy said adding that those losses will increase “without change” in those years to come.

Updated

Daniel Strauss here, taking over for Martin.

Vice president Mike Pence made the rounds on the morning news shows and got into a testy exchange on CBS when asked about QAnon and the president’s recent comments about the conspiracy theory. Donald Trump’s reelection campaign clipped the exchange.

Pence effectively punted on the question.

As a reminder, Trump was asked about the conspiracy theory which theorizes that Trump is secretly fighting a ring sex traffickers spread across the federal government.

Trump said he did not know much about QAnon but said “I’ve heard these are people that love our country” and that “So I don’t know really anything about it other than they do supposedly like me.”

QAnon supporters think that Trump is really in office to fight a satanic cult of pedophiles who are connected to celebrities and Democratic Party figures. Trump has tweeted support for QAnon believers running for Congress.

Hillary Clinton criticises Trump's "authoritarian approach" to November's election

Hillary Clinton has made a much-trailed appearance on Morning Joe today, and she spoke at length on people needing to plan to vote in November, and of Trump’s authoritarian approach to the polls. Clinton said:

Get a plan for voting. If you’re going to vote by mail, do it as soon as you can. Follow all the rules. Take a picture of your ballot. If you’re going to vote in person, if you can, vote early. Get everybody you know to vote early. But here’s what we already know is going to happen. Unfortunately the RNC and the Trump campaign have already said, they’re going to have a lot of intimidators at the polls. Trump just reinforced that by saying that he was going to have off duty law enforcement and retired law enforcement and the like to really demonstrate a kind of authoritarian approach toward the election, by trying to scare people literally away from the polls

She also made a bipartisan appeal for people to volunteer to be poll workers, to protect American democracy.

And that should be it from me in London this morning, unless anything dramatic happens in the next five minutes. I’m handing over to Daniel Strauss, and I’ll see you next week. Take care and stay safe.

Updated

If you want to get your revision in before USPS Postmaster General Louis DeJoy appears before a Senate committee at 9, then Politico have a scene-setter for you.

Sen. Ron Johnson said that he invited DeJoy to the GOP-led Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to give him the chance to defend himself against criticism from Democrats over delays in mail delivery.

“I appreciate Mr. DeJoy decided to take on this very thankless task, and unfortunately he’s finding out it’s not only thankless, but now he’s being subject to character assassination as well,” Johnson said.

DeJoy may struggle to mollify his critics, but the move also gives the Republican megadonor and Trump ally the opportunity to try to regain control of his own narrative ahead of what’s sure to be a fiery Democratic-led oversight hearing next week.

You can read that here: Politico – DeJoy looks to reintroduce himself amid Postal Service furor

We’ll have a video live stream of the hearing on the blog, so keep it tuned here.

Chris McGreal has been in Howard county, Iowa for us. It’s a county that flipped dramatically from backing Obama to supporting Trump, and he finds there are signs of danger for the president:

A Des Moines Register poll in March gave Trump a 10-point lead over his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden. But an election turned upside down by a pandemic that has created even more chaos than a president famed for disruption has put Iowa into contention. Now Trump is fighting to cling to a narrow lead over Biden. Just 45% of Iowans approve of Trump’s handling of the pandemic and only 37% think he has provided the right leadership on the Black Lives Matter protests. Perhaps most worrying for Trump, 45% of Republican voters in Iowa say the nation is on the wrong track.

Read it here: ‘I’m more for Trump than I was before’: president clings to narrow lead in Iowa as Biden closes in

Gracie Bonds Staples has a thoughtful opinion piece for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution this morning looking at the hope, excitement and trepidation of Black America caused by the nomination of Kamala Harris for the role of vice president.

Matthew Platt, a political science professor at Morehouse College, has concerns:

Harris strikes me as too politically malleable. She wants to have the widest possible appeal without losing any support. She lacks policy substance. That troubles me because I think it will mean that Black people would have fewer policy gains under a President Harris. There is a segment of white people who believe Black people can’t do certain things. She is a child of immigrants rather than a descendant of slaves. That’s nothing against her, but it feeds into a narrative ‘regular’ Black people still aren’t good enough.

It’s particularly interesting on the relationship between the communities of Black and white women voters. Staples quotes the chair of gender studies at Mount Holyoke College, Riché J. Daniel Barnes, on her trepidations:

As we approach the anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, we have to ask, How will white women react to the idea that a Black woman may be the first woman elected vice president?

You can read it here: Atlanta Journal-Constitution – Kamala Harris: The hope, excitement and trepidation of Black America

Mike Pence confirms wife will be returning to in-person teaching amid school reopening controversy

Mike Pence has been very visible on the airwaves this morning. He’s been on Fox defending the president’s foreign policy, saying: “I’m happy to take this President’s record on the foreign stage to the American people in the next 74 days, because this is a president who has put America first, he’s put American Security first.”

That is in some contrast to the views of the 70 former national security staffers who worked for Republican presidents who have signed an open letter backing Joe Biden this morning.

With controversy still raging over school reopenings, Pence has also confirmed that his wife will be going back to work as a teacher.

Updated

While California’s wildfires are an ecological disaster at one end of the country, at the opposite end, Alaska, another environmental storm is brewing. Oliver Milman writes for us today about the Trump administration’s plans to allow oil and gas exploration in the Arctic sanctuary protected since the 1950s as the last fully intact ecosystem in the US.

Polling of the broader American public shows widespread opposition to the idea of drilling in Arctic national wildlife refuge (ANWR). Advocates for the country’s last great wilderness hope it will still be spared from being just another place riven by roads, trucks and buildings and that Alaska can move away from being handcuffed to the fortunes of volatile, polluting fossil fuels.

The ANWR lease area contains up to 11.8bn barrels of gettable oil, which, when burned, would further worsen a climate crisis globally and in Alaska, one of the fastest-heating places in the world where roads and buildings are buckling due to melting soil frosts, fierce wildfires now routinely tear through forests billowing unbreathable smoke and the animals are being so severely affected that the salmon are shrinking in size.

“ANWR is a thriving ecosystem that is already under threat from climate change and doesn’t need further damage from oil extraction,” said Victoria Herrmann, managing director of the Arctic Institute.

Read it here: ‘There’s nowhere like it’: Alaska’s wildlife refuge fears death by drilling

German daily newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung has quoted Kelly Craft, US ambassador to the United Nations, as saying that the behaviour of the US’s European allies has been “disappointing” with regard to imposing sanctions on Iran.

“This matter is so important that we cannot wait until the arms embargo runs out on 18 October. We cannot wait for the world to realize on 18 October 18 that China and Russia have the ability to deliver weapons and Iran to buy them to pass them on to militias and other terror groups around the world that are steered by Tehran” she said in the interview.

US secretary of state Mike Pompeo went to the UN yesterday to set in motion a diplomatic gambit, claiming the US is still a participant in the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran – from which Donald Trump explicitly withdrew two years ago – and therefore retains the right under the rules of the deal to trigger a “snapback” or resumption of full UN sanctions. The move was roundly rebuffed.

Former Republican national-security leaders write open letter backing Joe Biden

More than 70 former Republican Party national-security leaders have written an letter backing Joe Biden, saying president Donald Trump is unfit to lead.

“We are profoundly concerned about the course of our nation under the leadership of Donald Trump,” the letter, published by the conservative advocacy organization Defending Democracy Together, says.

“Trump has demonstrated that he lacks the character and competence to lead this nation and has engaged in corrupt behavior that renders him unfit to serve as President.”

The signatories include those who have served under Reagan, George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush and Donald Trump. They list ten specific grievances they have with the president, saying that Donald Trump:

  • has gravely damaged America’s role as a world leader
  • has shown that he is unfit to lead during a national crisis
  • has solicited foreign influence and undermined confidence in our presidential elections
  • has aligned himself with dictators and failed to stand up for American values
  • has disparaged our armed forces, intelligence agencies, and diplomats
  • has undermined the rule of law
  • has dishonored the office of the presidency
  • has divided our nation and preached a dark and pessimistic view of America
  • has attacked and vilified immigrants to our country
  • has imperiled America’s security by mismanaging his national security team

You can read it, and all the signatories, here: A statement by former Republican national security officials

We’ve just published this piece from authors Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano about the fires: The climate crisis has already arrived. Just look to California’s abnormal wildfires.

There’s an idea that when the climate crisis begins, we will know it. Movies present it as a moment when the world’s weather suddenly turns apocalyptic: winds howl, sea levels surge, capital cities are decimated. Climate messaging can bolster this notion, implying that we have a certain number of years to save the day before reaching a cataclysmic point of no return.

Living in expectation of a definitive global break can blind us to the fact that gradually, insidiously, the climate crisis has already arrived. In few places is this as clear as California, where extreme wildfires have become the new abnormal.

Read it here: Alastair Gee and Dani Anguiano – The climate crisis has already arrived. Just look to California’s abnormal wildfires

At least five now reported dead in North California wildfires

Here’s the latest from Associated Press on those devastating wildfires in California. Authorities say that the dozens of wildfires have now claimed at least five lives and continue to threaten tens of thousands of homes.

The death of a resident in Solano County, in the northeastern San Francisco Bay Area, was reported Thursday without any additional details.

An aircraft drops fire retardant on a ridge during the Walbridge fire in California
An aircraft drops fire retardant on a ridge during the Walbridge fire in California Photograph: Josh Edelson/AFP/Getty Images

Three civilians had died in Napa County since the fires began, said Daniel Berlant, a Cal Fire assistant deputy director. In all, more than 30 civilians and firefighters have been injured.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether the Solano and Napa county fatalities included a Pacific Gas & Electric utility worker who was found dead Wednesday in a vehicle in the Vacaville area between San Francisco and Sacramento.

A pilot on a water-dropping mission in central California also died Wednesday when his helicopter crashed.

Governor Gavin Newsom addressed the fires directly at the DNC last night, seemingly filming his segment of the virtual convention on a phone from a forest near Watsonville, after he visited an evacuation center.

“I confess this is not where I expected to be speaking here tonight. If you are in denial about climate change, come to California” he said.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has been on TV this morning giving his reaction to that Joe Biden speech. Asked if Biden had “stuck the landing”, Cuomo said:

I think he did a great job. As someone who’s been before an audience, in a situation like that it’s hard without an audience. There’s no energy, there’s no give and take. So I think he did an extraordinary job. And what I like about it is, I’ve known Joe Biden many years, and that was Joe Biden. That was not a speechwriter. That was no one putting words in his mouth. Those words came from his heart and his soul.

Cuomo went on to say that voters face a stark choice between Biden and Trump in what he described as “not a complex election”.

CNN are reporting that Kamala Harris, famed for her Senate interrogations, will not today be asking questions of USPS head Louis DeJoy. Instead, she’s submitted some written questions. Here’s what they put the decision down to:

Harris’ decision not to verbally participate in the hearing appears to be a sign of her new role as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s running mate, a position often seen as one where it’s most important to “do no harm” to the top of the ticket. It also could be an indicator of how the Biden camp plans to deploy Harris in the homestretch of a campaign where Biden’s team has worked to make a referendum on President Donald Trump.

The testimony is also scheduled the morning after Harris’ running mate gave the biggest speech of his career to date, a time historically reserved for cable networks to reflect on the nominee’s speech — and not testimony involving the vice presidential nominee.

Dejoy is due up at 9am ET.

Read it here: CNN – Now the VP nominee, Harris won’t interrogate DeJoy at hearing

Also on the convention theme, Ryan Lizza writes for Politico today on what we learned about Joe Biden during his bizarre 4-day convention

By the morning of the fourth day of the convention some Democrats I know started to privately worry that the party was blowing it. I heard a list of concerns: there wasn’t a clear sense of what Biden would actually do as president, there was too much emphasis on his character, there wasn’t enough outreach to moderates or Americans who don’t identify with some of the protest movements that were celebrated each night.

But Biden’s speech last night seemed to allay many of those fears. The concerns I heard all stemmed from the same problem: the Democratic Party in the age of Trump is far more heterogeneous than the Republican Party. It’s more racially diverse. It’s more ideologically diverse, spanning from Bernie Sanders to Michael Bloomberg. It’s more economically diverse. This is a good problem for Democrats to have because it’s born out of its swelling ranks driven by hostility to Trump.

Read it here: Politico – What we learned about Joe Biden during his bizarre 4-day convention

Back to last night’s DNC, here’s the video clip of 13 year old Brayden Harrington talking about how when he met Joe Biden “He told me we were members of the same club: we stutter. It was really amazing to hear that someone like me became vice president.”

Biden gave him some tips on how he himself became more confident speaking in public, as Harrington explains in the clip.

A Georgia police department is investigating an arrest captured on video showing a white officer using a stun gun on a Black woman, reports the Associated Press.

Gwinnett County police officer Michael Oxford was placed on administrative duty pending an internal investigation into the encounter Tuesday, which was filmed on the front porch of a Loganville home and has since been viewed millions of times on the video-sharing app Tik Tok.

The officer responded to the home at around 7:30pm on a property damage call in which a neighbour reported a group of people had thrown a bottle at her car, according to a Gwinnett County police statement. She also told officers one of the group members threatened to assault her 9-year-old child.

Police said one of the women on the porch at a nearby home matched the description of a suspect in the complaint.

The video showed the officer speaking with another one of the women on the porch, identified by police as Kyndesia Smith, who could be heard saying: “You’re on our property.”

“We did not call you, I’m not going anywhere,” Smith said.
The officer responded that she was under arrest and grabbed her, later firing a stun gun at her, according to the video. The woman fell into bushes in front of the home screaming as the officer continued to struggle with her in an attempt to place her in handcuffs.

In another video obtained by news outlets, Smith appeared to kick at the officer as he pushed her into the back of a police car.

The police statement alleged the officer gave the woman “several warnings” and told her she would be stunned if she resisted commands.

“The police department takes all use of force seriously,” the statement said, concluding: “An investigation into this incident is being conducted.”

The woman’s mother, Aytra Thomas, spoke out against the officer’s use of force and told WSB-TV in an interview Thursday that the arrest “didn’t have to go that way.”
Smith was charged with felony obstruction and simple battery against a police officer and was released after posting bond.

New Orleans to rename street named after Confederacy president - will instead honor local civil rights icon

While we are on the subject of racial justice, the city council in New Orleans voted last night to rename Jefferson Davis Parkway to Norman C. Francis Parkway in January. It switches from honoring the former president of the Confederacy to instead celebrate a local civil rights icon and longtime president of a historically Black university.

Francis was the first Black graduate of the law school at Loyola University of New Orleans. The street being named for him runs by Xavier University of Louisiana, a historically Black university that was founded by Catholic nuns. Francis served as Xavier’s president from 1968 until 2015.

The vote to rename the street was 7-0, with council members, meeting online, expressing their happiness that the honor was being bestowed on Francis, 89, while he is alive to see it.

The then Xavier University president Norman Francis poses for a photograph at the the university in New Orleans in 2008
The then Xavier University president Norman Francis poses for a photograph at the the university in New Orleans in 2008 Photograph: Bill Haber/AP

Members also made clear they will be looking at other streets and memorials that honor Confederates, reports the Associated Press.

“We have a duty collectively, not just in silos, to look at other streets that we know are problematic,” council member Joseph Giarrusso III said.

Thursday’s vote came more than three years after workers removed statues honoring Davis and Confederate Generals Robert E. Lee and P.G.T. Beauregard from prominent places on the city landscape.

Then-Mayor Mitch Landrieu drew blistering criticism from supporters of Confederate memorials and iconography when he led that effort, which gained steam after the murder of nine Black worshipers at a South Carolina church. The killer, Dylann Roof, was an avowed racist who brandished Confederate battle flags in photos.

Outrage over this year’s police custody death of George Floyd in Minneapolis again recharged efforts to remove Confederate icons in New Orleans. After months of Black Lives Matter protests, there was little resistance to changing the street name. There was one public comment read opposing the move during Thursday’s meeting

Demonstrators returned to a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement building in Portland, Oregon, late last night for a second consecutive night, and faced off with law enforcement.

Portland police declared an unlawful assembly early Friday. Police officers worked with federal agents to clear about 100 protesters that had gathered outside the ICE building, news outlets reported.

The action follows a protest Wednesday night into early Thursday morning in which protesters clashed with federal agents for the first time since July in a demonstration targeting the ICE building. The demonstrators spray painted windows on the building, broke several windows and shined laser lights at agents inside, prompting local police to declare the event a riot.

Last night a separate crowd of about 100 people marched to the Portland police union office and along North Portland streets without incident.

The Oregonian reports that a 17 year old, Erandi Jones-Vega, addressing the crowd, saying “If you’re here right now you need to be loud. You need to be exhausted. Because we’re exhausted.”

Another woman read aloud the names of Black people killed in shootings by Portland police. People responded by saying, “Rest in Power.”

Yesterday, police released information that showed that during the more than 80 nights of protests in Portland, authorities declared a riot more than 17 times, and arrested more than 500 people.

The Hill have this wrap of the DNC. They say on the downside:

The broadcast ratings are down big from 2016 and Democrats are doubtful nominee Joe Biden will get much of a polling bump in the next few days.

But they also say

Biden answered any questions about whether he’d be able to meet the moment, sending Democrats out of the convention on a high note.

Other notable moments Jonathan Easley picks out include Barack Obama getting stuck in properly to the fray, the colder fury of Michelle Obama, the fact that they managed to several viral moments out of their programming, and that in a year of nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, the Democratic party put racial justice to the forefront.

Read it here: The Hill – What we’ll remember from the 2020 Biden convention

As you can imagine there’s an awful lot of reaction around the web last night and this morning to Joe Biden’s acceptance speech – most of it seeming to say that he did the job he needed to do.

Dana Milbank writes for the Washington Post:

The power of Biden’s acceptance speech — and the power of his candidacy — was in its basic, honest simplicity. The rhetoric wasn’t soaring. The delivery was workmanlike (he botched an Ella Baker quote in his opening line). But it was warm and decent, a soothing, fireside chat for this pandemic era, as we battle twin crises of disease and economic collapse and we only see each other disembodied in boxes on a screen. Biden spoke not to his political base but to those who have lost loved ones to the virus.

Biden’s speech, and indeed the whole closing night of the Democratic convention, was the polar opposite of the Trump’s “American carnage” vision. Biden’s rejoinder: American compassion. American competence. American community.

Read it here: Washington Post – Biden speaks from a place Trump doesn’t know — the heart

If you missed it last night, here’s some of the highlights from that Joe Biden speech.

And here’s my colleague Joan E Greve with her key takeaways from the evening.

Welcome to our live coverage of US politics and the coronavirus crisis in the US for Friday. Here’s a quick whizz round where we are, and a little of what we might expect to happen today.

  • Joe Biden gave the speech he had been waiting decades to deliver as he accepted the presidential nomination at the Democratic nation convention. It won praise from the left and the right – but not from Donald Trump
  • A 13 year old boy with a stutter stole the show after giving a speech at the DNC following coaching from fellow sufferer Biden
  • Steve Bannon pleaded not guilty to fraud after his arrest on a luxury yacht. Trump’s ex-adviser was arrested for allegedly defrauding donors to ‘We Build the Wall’ campaign
  • 1,042 new coronavirus deaths and 46,029 new Covid-19 cases were reported in the US yesterday. Iowa, Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming are among the states still seeing a daily growth in new cases
  • Firefighters are stretched thin as California’s wildfires grow rapidly
  • NBC News reported that Stephen Miller wanted to separate tens of thousand more migrant kids from their parents, and that he made top Trump officials personally endorse moving forward with the family separation policy in a show-of-hands vote
  • Postmaster General Louis DeJoy testifies to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs at 9am ET. In the wake of the unfolding USPS crisis, that could get testy
  • Following the DNC razzmatazz, it is back to the campaign grind. Joe and Jill Biden alongside Kamala Harris and Doug Emhoff will attend a virtual Biden for President grassroots finance event
  • At 11am the president delivers remarks at the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting in Arlington
Joe Biden accepts the party nomination for US president during the last day of the DNC
Joe Biden accepts the party nomination for US president during the last day of the DNC Photograph: Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

I’m Martin Belam, and I’ll be here with you for the next couple of hours. You can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

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