Evening Summary
That’s all from me for today. Here’s a rundown of the day’s biggest news in US politics, coronavirus and protest.
- Trump issued a proclamation suspending a number of employment-based visas through the end of the year. The suspension covers visas for highly skilled workers, seasonal non-agricultural workers, cultural exchanges, and executives of multinational companies, as well as their dependents. Business and tech leaders lambasted the measure.
- Coronavirus cases continued to surge in areas of the South and West, prompting concern from health officials. Arizona, Florida, Louisiana and Texas are among the states seeing climbing infection and hospitalization rates.
- The US death toll from Covid-19 surpassed 120,000.
- Two more Trump campaign staffers tested positive for coronavirus. The two staffers attended the president’s Saturday rally in Tulsa, although the campaign said they wore masks during the event. The news comes two days after six other members of the campaign’s advance team tested positive before the rally.
- The White House defended Trump’s use of a racist slur to describe coronavirus. Pressed on why he referred to the virus as “kung flu,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “I think the media is trying to play games with the terminology of this virus.”
- Trump dodged a question about whether he ordered coronavirus testing to be slowed, as he claimed during his Tulsa rally on Saturday. “If it did slow down, frankly, I think we’re way ahead of ourselves, if you want to know the truth. We’ve done too good a job,” the president said in an interview today. The comment appeared to be at odds with his advisers’ claims that he was joking about slowing testing.
- Joe Biden committed to participating in the three already-planned debates against Trump. The president initially indicated he may not participate in any debates, but his campaign has recently been pushing for an extended debate schedule.
-
A US army private was charged with conspiring with a British neo-Nazi group to attack and kill members of his own unit. The private, Ethan Melzer, provided information on his unit’s location to members of the occultist and white supremacist group Order of the Nine Angles in the hopes of facilitating a “mass casualty” attack.
You can find our continuing coverage of the global coronavirus pandemic here:
In case you saw Donald Trump’s tweets baselessly asserting that foreign governments will use mail-in ballots to “rig” the November election, the Guardian’s voting rights reporter Sam Levine has a report on the actual facts:
Many election offices have systems in place to closely track mail-in ballots and have other methods of verifying the identity of a voter such as comparing the signature on the ballot to ones on file.
“There are many checks and balances in place to ensure that nobody could just print ‘millions’ of ballots and vote them,” said David Becker, executive director of the Center for Election Innovation and Research, who works with election officials across the country.
“We have decades of experience enforcing these security measures, including during world war II, confirming the integrity of mail voting. That’s why election officials from both parties, including most Republicans, promote mail voting and vote by mail themselves.”
Read the full story here:
The US Chamber of Commerce is also opposing Trump’s limitations on visas.
CEO Thomas J Donohue issued the following statement:
Today’s proclamation is a severe and sweeping attempt to restrict legal immigration. Putting up a ‘not welcome’ sign for engineers, executives, IT experts, doctors, nurses and other workers won’t help our country, it will hold us back. Restrictive changes to our nation’s immigration system will push investment and economic activity abroad, slow growth, and reduce job creation.
We are fighting for more investment and more growth in America because that means more jobs, and today that fight takes on a new level of urgency. We have long advocated for a rational immigration system that meets the needs of our economy and reflects the values of our country. Today’s proclamation serves neither of those interests. The US Chamber will continue to strongly advocate for an immigration system that serves the interests of all Americans.”
Here’s an estimate from the Migration Policy Institute of the number of people likely to be affected by Trump’s new proclamation limiting visas:
With Trump proclamation out, which outlines exemptions for some J-1 visa categories, the administration will not permit entry for temporary workers & their dependents in these visa categories pic.twitter.com/RU172LT9El
— MigrationPolicy Inst (@MigrationPolicy) June 22, 2020
H-1B visas, which permit employers to hire foreign workers with specialized knowledge, are especially popular in the tech industry. H-2B visas are for temporary non-agricultural workers, and are often used in the hospitality or landscaping industries.
The proclamation also affects non-immigrant visas. The J-1 visa program is designed to promote cultural exchange, and is often used by visiting professors or scholars. L-1 visas are used by multi-national corporations to transfer in executives or managers.
Tech companies criticize executive order limiting visas
Amazon, Google and Twitter have come out with a strong statement opposing the Trump administration’s latest move to limit immigration, which includes a suspension of H-1B visas, which are widely used by the tech industry.
Amazon appears to have been first out of the gate with a statement:
We oppose the Administration’s short-sighted action. Preventing high skilled professionals from entering the country and contributing to America’s economic recovery puts American’s global competitiveness at risk. The value of high-skilled visa programs is clear, and we are grateful for the many Amazon employees from around the world that have come to the US to innovate new products and services for our customers. Welcoming the best and the brightest global talent to the US is more important than ever, and we will continue to support efforts that will preserve their ability to strengthen our economy.”
Followed by Google chief executive Sundar Pichai:
Immigration has contributed immensely to America’s economic success, making it a global leader in tech, and also Google the company it is today. Disappointed by today’s proclamation - we’ll continue to stand with immigrants and work to expand opportunity for all.
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) June 22, 2020
And Twitter VP for public policy and philanthropy, Jessica Herrera-Flanigan:
"Unilaterally and unnecessarily stifling America’s attractiveness to global, high-skilled talent is short-sighted and deeply damaging to the economic strength of the United States." —@jesirae
— Twitter Public Policy (@Policy) June 22, 2020
The US State Department muted the line of a reporter asking a question about John Bolton’s book during a phone briefing on press freedom, Politico reports.
Spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus was taking questions about the government’s designation of four new Chinese news outlets as “foreign missions” (ie state propaganda) when a reporter for Reuters asked whether US allies in Asia had been in contact about revelations in the former national security adviser’s book, according to the report.
“That’s not what this call is about,” Ortagus said. When the reporter attempted to continue his question, she added: ““AT&T, we can mute that line.”
CBS News state department reporter Christina Ruffini called out the hypocrisy on Twitter:
A/S David Stilwell: “Secretary of State Pompeo has made clear that mature, responsible countries understand that a free press is essential, which is while I’m talking to you all.”
— Christina Ruffini (@EenaRuffini) June 22, 2020
ON THE SAME CALL, A REPORTERS LINE WAS MUTED WHEN HE TRIED TO ASK A Q RELATED TO THE BOLTON BOOK. https://t.co/EMADsM1f8k
DOJ says US Army soldier linked to British neo-Nazi group was planning ambush on own unit
A US Army soldier was plotting with an occultist neo-Nazi group to attack and kill members of his own unit, according to a newly unsealed indictment by the Justice department.
Ethan Melzer, a 22-year old army private from Louisville, Kentucky, has been charged with conspiring and attempting to murder US nationals, conspiring and attempting to murder military service members, providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists, and conspiring to murder and maim in a foreign country, the DOJ announced.
“As alleged, Ethan Melzer, a private in the US Army, was the enemy within,” said acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss in a statement. “Melzer allegedly attempted to orchestrate a murderous ambush on his own unit by unlawfully revealing its location, strength, and armaments to a neo-Nazi, anarchist, white supremacist group.
(Strauss succeeded Geoffrey Berman in the office over the weekend, after Berman was pushed out by the attorney general Bill Barr and Donald Trump.)
Melzer was a member of the Order of the Nine Angles (O9A), a group whose members have been involved with violence and murders, according to the DOJ. “Members and associates of O9A have espoused violent, neo-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and Satanic beliefs, and have expressed admiration for both Nazis, such as Adolf Hitler, and Islamic jihadists, such as Osama Bin Laden,” according to the DOJ.
O9A originated as a fringe group in the UK in the 1960s and has gained influence in recent years among violent neo-Nazi and white nationalist groups, according to a report by Hope not Hate. In March, Hope Not Hate called on the Home Office to ban the group.
Four UK teenagers with ties to O9A have been jailed for terror offenses in the past year, according to the BBC, and one was convicted of planning a terrorist attack.
Louisiana was expected to enter the next phase of coronavirus reopening on Friday, but the state’s governor, John Bel Edwards, announced today that he will instead extend current restrictions for another four weeks.
The decision was based on an uptick in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in parts of the state, governor said, noting that the state ranks seventh out of the 23 states that are seeing rising case numbers.
On Monday, Louisiana surpassed 3,000 deaths and 50,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19.
“There are a lot of people out there saying they are done with this virus,” Edward said, according to the AP. “Well, the virus isn’t done with us.”
The Guardian US’s southern bureau chief, Oliver Laughland, has been reporting extensively on the coronavirus’s toll across the south.
US Covid-19 death toll passes 120,000
This is Julia Carrie Wong in Oakland picking up the blog for the rest of the day.
The death toll of the coronavirus pandemic in the US has reached 120,225, according to the latest figures from John Hopkins University. This is the highest death toll in the world.
This latest grim milestone comes as health officials are raising alarms about “surging” cases in the southern and western US, according to the AP. Among the latest figures causing concern:
- Confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Florida have passed 100,000
- Covid-19 admissions at a chain of eight hospitals in Houston have tripled over the past month to 1400.
- An alarming 20% of Covid-19 tests in Arizona are coming back positive.
- The number of newly confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US has reached 26,000, up from 21,000 per day two weeks ago, according to an AP analysis.
Dr Marc Boom, the CEO of the Houston hospital chain, told the AP: “It is snowballing. We will most certainly see more people die as a result of this spike.”
Boom also pleaded with the public to wear face coverings and practice physical distancing.
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Julia Carrie Wong, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Two more Trump campaign staffers tested positive for coronavirus. The two staffers attended the president’s Saturday rally in Tulsa, although the campaign said they wore masks during the event. The news comes two days after six other members of the campaign’s advance team tested positive before the rally.
- Trump is expected to sign an order today suspending a number of employment-based visas through the end of the year. H-1B visas, among others, are expected to be suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic, despite criticism from many US businessowners.
- The White House defended Trump’s use of a racist slur to describe coronavirus. Pressed on why he referred to the virus as “kung flu,” press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, “I think the media is trying to play games with the terminology of this virus.”
- Trump dodged a question about whether he ordered coronavirus testing to be slowed, as he claimed during his Tulsa rally on Saturday. “If it did slow down, frankly, I think we’re way ahead of ourselves, if you want to know the truth. We’ve done too good a job,” the president said in an interview today. The comment appeared to be at odds with his advisers’ claims that he was joking about slowing testing.
- Joe Biden has committeed to participating in the three already-planned debates against Trump. The president initially indicated he may not participate in any debates, but his campaign has recently been pushing for an extended debate schedule.
Julia will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Updated
Even as more of his campaign staffers test positive for coronavirus, Trump is still scheduled to hold a campaign event in Phoenix, Arizona, tomorrow.
The president will speak at a “Students for Trump” event at the Dream City Church in Phoenix, despite Arizona seeing a rise in its number of coronavirus cases.
In a video, two of the church’s leaders said they have installed cutting-edge technology that “kills 99.9% of Covid within 10 minutes.”
Video: Dream City Church, the Phoenix venue hosting President Trump on Tuesday, posted this video saying that newly-installed technology in the church “kills 99.9% of COVID-19 within 10 minutes” & that folks can know that “when you come here you’ll be safe and protected.” pic.twitter.com/wFC85KPu95
— Vaughn Hillyard (@VaughnHillyard) June 22, 2020
“You can know when you come here you’ll be safe and protected,” one of the church’s leaders says in the video. “Thank God for great technology.”
But it’s unclear how this ambiguously-described technology would prevent respiratory droplets from potentially spreading the virus, and the CDC has previously confirmed instances of coronavirus outbreaks among church communities.
Two Trump campaign staffers who attended rally test positive for coronavirus
Two Trump campaign staffers who attended Saturday’s rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have tested positive for coronavirus.
“After another round of testing for campaign staff in Tulsa, two additional members of the advance team tested positive for the coronavirus,” communications director Tim Murtaugh told NBC News.
“These staff members attended the rally but were wearing masks during the entire event.”
That news brings the total number of Tulsa rally staffers who have tested positive for the virus to eight. Six members of the advance team tested positive before the rally, but Trump decided to move forward with the event anyway.
The updated number of cases among the campaign staff will almost certainly intendify concerns over how the virus may have been spread at the indoor rally.
Updated
Trump expected to sign order temporarily suspending H-1B visas - reports
Trump is reportedly expected to sign an order later today suspending a number of employment-based visas, including H-1B visas, through the end of the year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The new restrictions, which officials said are set to last until the end of the year, expand on a temporary immigration ban Mr. Trump introduced in April that blocked some family members of U.S. citizens and reduced the number of high-skilled workers from immigrating to the U.S. for the time being.
A senior administration official estimated the expanded travel restrictions will prevent about 525,000 people from entering the country between now and the end of the year, including 170,000 green-card holders who have been barred from coming to the U.S. since April. The senior official estimated the move will reallocate about 500,000 jobs to out-of-work Americans in what he described as an ‘America-first recovery.’
In addition to the H-1B visa, the temporary ban will apply to new H-2B visas for short-term seasonal workers in landscaping and other nonfarm jobs, J-1 visas for short-term workers including camp counselors and au pairs and L-1 visas for internal company transfers.
The new restrictions won’t apply to visa-holders already in the U.S., or those outside the country who have already been issued valid visas.
There had been whispers of the potential order in recent weeks, raising concerns among businesses that the restrictions could harm the US economy as it struggles to recover from the pandemic.
Senate Republicans have set up a Wednesday vote to move ahead on senator Tim Scott’s police reform bill, although it’s unclear if the legislation has the votes to advance.
Republicans need 60 votes on the motion to proceed to get it approved, so they need at least seven Senate Democrats to support the motion.
However, Democratic senators have criticized the bill for not going far enough to crack down on police brutality. Specifically, the bill incentivizes police departments to ban chokeholds, while House Democrats’ police reform bill explicitly bans them.
Democratic senator Doug Jones said yesterday he would likely vote in favor of the motion to proceed, but he remains undecided on whether he would support final passage of the bill.
Barack Obama will be joining Joe Biden for a fundraiser tomorrow, as polls show the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee leading Trump in key battleground states.
I’m joining my friend @JoeBiden tomorrow to talk about everything that’s at stake in this election.
— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) June 22, 2020
I hope you’ll join us, too. This is a critical moment in our history––and all of us have to do our part to build this country into what we know it can be. https://t.co/diQxk3uFH2
Trump has built a strong fundraising operation through small-dollar donations, but Biden and the DNC actually outraised the president and the RNC last month, amid the coronavirus pandemic and protests against police brutality.
The movement to defund police departments has picked up significant support since the police killing of George Floyd late last month.
While the movement attracts more grassroots support, Trump has tried to use it to demonize Democrats, although Joe Biden has said he does not believe police departments should be defunded.
Amid that political tension, there has been much confusion around what it would actually mean to defund the police.
The Guardian’s Josh Toussaint-Strauss explains more about the movement in this new video:
The FBI has launched an investigation after a noose was found in the team garage of Bubba Wallace, Nascar’s only black full-time driver. The noose was discovered at Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway as Nascar prepared for a race, which was subsequently delayed by bad weather, on Sunday.
“Regardless of whether federal charges can be brought, this type of action has no place in our society,” Jay Town, the US attorney for Alabama’s southern district, said on Monday. He added that his office, along with the FBI and the justice department’s civil rights division, were involved in the investigation.
Wallace recently led a successful campaign to ban the Confederate flag, a symbol that for many is associated with slavery, from Nascar events. He also outfitted his car with the logo of Black Lives Matter at a race earlier this month. In a statement on Twitter, Wallace called Sunday’s incident a “despicable act of racism and hatred” that showed the fight against prejudice in the United States still has far to go.
“As my mother told me today, ‘They are just trying to scare you,’” the 26-year-old wrote. “This will not break me, I will not give in nor will I back down. I will continue to proudly stand for what I believe in.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany concluded her briefing by boasting about viewership of Trump’s Saturday rally.
McEnany noted that 7.7 million people watched the Tulsa rally on Fox News. “Big number,” she said before leaving the briefing room.
The closing remark was in line with the president’s frequent boasting about his “ratings” for events like his coronavirus briefings, which used to be a daily occurence.
However, the in-person attendance of the Tulsa rally was much less than the campaign had anticipated, a fact that McEnany tried to downplay by insisting the president was “very pleased” with the rally.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany was asked if Trump regrets using the racist phrase “kung flu” to describe coronavirus during his Saturday rally.
McEnany replied that the president “never regrets putting the onus back on China” for the coronavirus pandemic.
Another reporter noted that, earlier this year, White House adviser Kellyanne Conway described the phrase “kung flu” as offensive and wrong.
Asked repeatedly whether the White House disagrees with Conway’s characterization, McEnany ignored the question and then called on someone from the far-right website One America News Network.
Updated
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEanny said Trump was “very pleased” with his Saturday rally, even though there were thousands of unfilled seats in the Tulsa arena.
McEnany’s claim is at odds with multiple reports that Trump has privately lashed out against campaign officials for reports highlighting the event’s attendance.
But McEnany denied those reports. “There is no grounding in fact to that,” she said. “He was very pleased with how the rally went.”
White House defends Trump's use of racist phrase to describe coronavirus
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended Trump’s use of the racist phrase “kung flu” to describe coronavirus during his Saturday rally.
“He is linking it to its place of origin,” McEnany said of the president’s use of the phrase.
Pressed on whether Trump considers the phrase to be racist, McEnany replied, “I think the media is trying to play games with the terminology of this virus.”
Updated
McEnany denies Trump ordered testing to be slowed
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is holding a briefing, and she denied Trump has ordered coronavirus testing to be slowed, even though the president claimed he had during his Saturday rally in Tulsa.
McEnany insisted any suggestion Trump has ordered testing to be slowed is “not rooted in fact,” and she said the president’s claim was “a comment that he made in jest.” She went on to criticize the media’s coverage of coronavirus.
Asked whether it was appropriate to joke about coronavirus when it has killed nearly 120,000 Americans, McEnany said, “He was not joking about coronavirus. ... He was joking about the media.”
Here’s another explanation for Trump’s claim that he ordered coronavirus testing to be slowed: Vice President Mike Pence said the president was just making a “a passing observation” about testing, according to CBS News.
President Trump’s comments at an Oklahoma campaign rally about slowing down testing for #Coronavirus were just “a passing observation” and not meant in jest, @VP Pence told governors on Monday, multiple people on the call tell @cbsnews.
— Ed O'Keefe (@edokeefe) June 22, 2020
Other administration officials had said the president’s claim, made during his Saturday rally in Tulsa, was meant as a joke. But during a phone call today with the nation’s governors, Pence reportedly characterized Trump’s comment as an observation of how increased testing was linked to the number of coronavirus cases.
In an interview today, Trump dodged questions about whether he ordered testing to be slowed. “If it did slow down, frankly, I think we’re way ahead of ourselves, if you want to know the truth. We’ve done too good a job,” the president said.
And once again, public health experts have said the country’s high number of coronavirus cases is much more closely linked to states reopening and Americans relaxing their social distancing practices rather than increased testing.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- John Bolton is continuing his media tour before the release of his book tomorrow. The former national security adviser has said Trump represents a danger to the country and should not be reelected.
- Trump dodged a question about whether he ordered coronavirus testing to be slowed, as he claimed during his Tulsa rally on Saturday. “If it did slow down, frankly, I think we’re way ahead of ourselves, if you want to know the truth. We’ve done too good a job,” the president said in an interview today. The comment appeared to be at odds with his advisers’ claims that he was joking about slowing testing.
- Joe Biden has committeed to participating in the three already-planned debates against Trump. The president initially indicated he may not participate in any debates, but his campaign has recently been pushing for an extended debate schedule.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Biden commits to three presidential debates
Joe Biden’s campaign has reportedly sent a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates committing to participating in the three already-planned debates against Trump.
“Joe Biden looks forward to facing Donald Trump in a multi-debate series that the American people have come to expect from their leaders; we hope that President Trump would not break that tradition or make excuses for a refusal to participate,” Biden campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in the letter, which was obtained by the Washington Post.
Trump had previously suggested he may not participate in any debates, but his campaign has recently been pushing for an extended debate schedule between the two candidates.
Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said in a statement last week, “We want fair debates. We want them sooner and we want a bigger schedule. We also don’t want them up against football games competing for viewers. As many Americans as possible need to see the stark differences between the accomplishments and leadership of President Trump and the failed record and sleepiness of Joe Biden.”
The presidential debates are currently set for September 29, October 15 and October 22, with a vice presidential debate scheduled for October 7.
Fired prosecutor refused to sign letter criticizing de Blasio - report
Geoffrey Berman, the former top prosecutor in the Manhattan US Attorney’s office, was reportedly fired shortly after he refused to sign a letter criticizing New York mayor Bill de Blasio over his social distancing restrictions.
The Wall Street Journal reports:
The day before Attorney General William Barr abruptly announced plans to replace [Berman] as the Manhattan U.S. Attorney, supervisors in Mr. Barr’s Justice Department asked Mr. Berman to sign a letter criticizing [de Blasio] for the city’s enforcement of social-distancing rules to block religious gatherings but not recent street protests, people familiar with the matter said.
Mr. Berman refused to sign the letter Thursday, after engaging in a brief back-and-forth drafting process, the people said. Mr. Berman voiced strong objections to the letter, particularly its assertions that Mr. de Blasio imposed a double standard, and described the letter as a political stunt that would strain relations between his office and the city, two of the people said.
The letter, which was meant to be signed by the head of the Justice Department’s civil-rights division, Eric Dreiband, and Mr. Berman, was never sent, according to the people.
It isn’t known what role, if any, the letter played in the subsequent standoff between Messrs. Barr and Berman that began on Friday night and ended about 18-hours later with Mr. Berman stepping aside from the powerful Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office after President Trump fired him.
Some of Trump’s advisers, including White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, have similarly accused state and local leaders of imposing a double standard when it comes to large events.
However, the recent George Floyd protests have mostly taken place outdoors, thus presenting a lowered risk of coronavirus spread, according to public health experts. There have also been documented coronavirus outbreaks among attendees of church services, as the CDC has pointed out.
Trump on testing: 'We've done too good a job'
Trump dodged a question about whether he ordered coronavirus testing to be slowed, even though he claimed at his Tulsa rally on Saturday that he had.
Asked about the claim by Scripps reporter Joe St George, Trump deflected, saying, “We do more testing than any country in the world by far.”
VIDEO: Just asked President Trump if he actually ordered testing to be slowed down. He said in his Saturday speech he did. He didn't answer the direct question. pic.twitter.com/aDKGu6F2Ok
— Joe St. George (@JoeStGeorge) June 22, 2020
The president reiterated his complaint that more testing yields a higher number of positive results. “As you do more tests, it shows more and more cases,” Trump said. “If we did slow it down, we wouldn’t show nearly as many cases.”
Pressed again on whether he asked the testing to be slowed, Trump said, “If it did slow down, frankly, I think we’re way ahead of ourselves, if you want to know the truth. We’ve done too good a job. ... The reason we have more cases [is] because we do more testing than any other country by far.”
However, public health experts have said the high number of US cases is much more attributable to states reopening and the relaxing of social distancing protocols.
The president’s comments also appeard at odds with claims from his advisers that he was just joking when he said he ordered testing to be slowed.
Updated
A New York police officer was swiftly suspended after body-cam footage showed him putting a black man in a banned chokehold.
The suspension was announced yesterday, hours after the officer was captured on video using the chokehold following an incident in Queens.
“I think we have an obligation to act swiftly but we also have to get it right and to inform the public about what’s going on,” police commissioner Dermot Shea said today. “I think it’s unprecedented times.”
Police chokeholds have received more scrutiny since the killing of George Floyd, who died after a Minneapolis police officer kept his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation earlier this month criminalizing police chokeholds, which have long been banned by the NYPD. The legislation was named after Eric Garner, who died after a police officer put him in a chokehold in 2014.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi criticized Trump’s handling of US-Chinese relations, after the president acknowledged he held off on imposing sanctions over Beijing’s treatment of Uighurs because he did not want to interrupt trade negotiations.
“Congress on a bipartisan basis has long spoken with one voice in defense of those persecuted by Beijing and will continue to do so,” Pelosi said in a statement. “President Trump’s admission that he is looking the other way and enabling one of the worst human rights atrocities of our time in order to ink a trade deal is appalling.”
Asked by Axios on Friday why he had not yet imposed the sanctions tied to the Chinese concentration camps for Uighurs, Trump said, “Well, we were in the middle of a major trade deal.”
Trump noted he signed the Uyghur human rights policy act of 2020 on Wednesday, but Pelosi said in her statement that his approval of the law “rings extraordinarily hollow in light of his clearly stated lack of interest in standing up to Beijing.”
The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:
Longstanding tensions within the Democratic party have reemerged in a New York congressional race where an insurgent candidate is seeking to unseat a long-time senior party figure.
The divide is largely between establishment Democrats lining up behind incumbent congressman Eliot Engel, a member of congress for three decades who chairs the House foreign affairs committee, and liberals and anti-establishment Democrats backing Jamaal Bowman, a teacher and middle school principal.
The race has emerged as the next battlefield between divergent wings of the Democratic party. It is the latest chance for progressives to finally notch a win after a long drought of primary contest wins and a stinging defeat of Vermont senator Bernie Sanders in the presidential race.
The hope for progressives is that Tuesday’s primary contest will result in a similar outcome to the 2018 Democratic primary race for New York’s 14th congressional district where progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a virtual unknown, ousted incumbent congressman Joe Crowley, a member of Democratic leadership in the House of Representatives.
A Bowman win is far from a sure thing. Polling is sparse but Engel’s campaign recently tweeted that the incumbent congressman still leads by single digits – arguably a lot less than an incumbent should be ahead against a first-time candidate.
Trump has clarified his position on meeting with Nicolás Maduro, after indicating in a Friday interview that he was open to sitting down with the Venezuelan dictator.
“I would only meet with Maduro to discuss one thing: a peaceful exit from power!” Trump wrote in a new tweet.
Unlike the radical left, I will ALWAYS stand against socialism and with the people of Venezuela. My Admin has always stood on the side of FREEDOM and LIBERTY and against the oppressive Maduro regime! I would only meet with Maduro to discuss one thing: a peaceful exit from power!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 22, 2020
But the president told Axios on Friday, “I would maybe think about that. ... Maduro would like to meet. And I’m never opposed to meetings — you know, rarely opposed to meetings.”
Trump also voiced little confidence in opposition leader Juan Guaidó, even though his administration has worked extensively to promote Guaidó as Venezuela’s rightful leader.
The White House said it is scaling back its temperature checks, as Washington enters the second phase of its reopening today.
In a statement, White House spokesperson Judd Deere said those in close proximity to the president and the vice president would still be temperature-checked and receive a coronavirus test.
For months during the pandemic, the White House has been doing temperature checks & asking health Qs of all journalists entering the grounds. For some reason, that wasn’t the case today. Tents normally staffed during business hours for these screenings are being taken down. pic.twitter.com/wWvZE9lN5m
— Monica Alba (@albamonica) June 22, 2020
A White House reporter noted this morning that the journalists entering the building had not been checked or asked about potential coronavirus symptoms. The tents where guards usually asked such questions were also being taken down.
The decision to wind down the temperature checks will likely intensify questions over whether the White House is downplaying the threat of coronavirus even as nearly half of US states report an increase in cases.
The supreme court issued one decision this morning in a rather obscure case related to the securities and exchange commission seeking “punitive sanctions” from defendants.
The 8-1 decision in Liu v SEC, which was written by justice Sonia Sotomayor, says, “The Court holds today that a disgorgement award that does not exceed a wrongdoer’s net profits and is awarded for victims is equitable relief permissible under §78u(d)(5).”
Major decisions related to abortion and the release of Trump’s tax returns still await. The court is next expected to release decisions in their remaining cases on Thursday.
Nascar said late on Sunday that a noose was found in the garage stall of Bubba Wallace, the only full-time black driver in the circuit’s top-flight Cup Series, at Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama.
The incident comes two weeks after Wallace, who drives the No 43 Chevrolet for motor sport icon Richard Petty’s team, successfully campaigned for Nascar to ban the Confederate flag at its tracks and properties.
“Late this afternoon, Nascar was made aware that a noose was found in the garage stall of the 43 team,” Nascar said in a statement. “We are angry and outraged, and cannot state strongly enough how seriously we take this heinous act. We have launched an immediate investigation, and will do everything we can to identify the person(s) responsible and eliminate them from the sport.
“As we have stated unequivocally, there is no place for racism in Nascar, and this act only strengthens our resolve to make the sport open and welcoming to all.”
On Twitter, Wallace said the “the despicable act of racism and hatred leaves me incredibly saddened and serves as a painful reminder of how much further we have to go as a society and how persistent we must be in the fight against racism.”
“As my mother told me today, ‘They are just trying to scare you,’” the 26-year-old Alabama native wrote. “This will not break me, I will not give in nor will I back down. I will continue to proudly stand for what I believe in.”
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Pengelly.
Both chambers of Congress will vote on police reform bills this week, but Senate Republicans’ proposal might be quashed before it even gets taken up for debate.
House Democrats’ bill, which bans police chokeholds and no-knock warrants, is expected to pass the chamber without much Republican support, considering Trump has called on members of his party to oppose it.
The Democrat House wants to pass a Bill this week that will destroy our police. Republican Congressmen & Congresswomen will hopefully fight hard to defeat it. We must protect and cherish our police, they keep us safe!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 21, 2020
Senate Republicans, on the other hand, need at least seven Democrats to vote with them on the motion to proceed to advance senator Tim Scott’s bill, which incentivizes police departments to ban chokeholds.
Democratic senators have voiced criticism of the Scott bill, arguing it does not go far enough, but it’s unclear whether Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer will advise his fellow Democrats to vote against the motion to proceed.
"I'm not all that crazy about @SenatorTimScott's bill," @DougJones. "The thing we haven't done is sat down and have the dialogues where we can find common ground on the bills to put something on the Senate floor that we know can pass with bipartisan support." pic.twitter.com/XvT35daC5K
— Kasie DC (@KasieDC) June 22, 2020
Democratic senator Doug Jones of Alabama said on MSNBC last night that he was likely to vote in favor of the motion to proceed, despite his reservations about the bill.
“I’m not really that crazy about senator Scott’s bill,” Jones said. “But I also think there needs to be an open discussion about this. So, I’m inclined to vote to proceed with debate on the bill. That doesn’t mean I’ll necessarily vote for the final passage on that bill.”
More from NPR’s talk with John Bolton, which touches on an area the president discussed with Axios in an interview published on Sunday: North Korea, China and Trump’s attitude to and fondness for dictators and authoritarian rulers.
Asked why he compares Trump’s courtship of Kim Jong-un, the North Korean leader, to the president’s dating life, Bolton said: “Well, he said that he always, back in the day, as they say, he always wanted to be the one who broke up with the girl first. He didn’t want the girl to break up with him. And he used that to describe whether he would cancel the summit with Kim Jong-un first or whether we would risk the North Koreans canceling it.
“And I thought it was an insight into the president, candidly given, that showed how he approached this. As opposed to looking at it from the perspective of what our ultimate strategic interest was, in my view, would have been better not to agree to the summit to begin with.
“And I might say, as we’ve seen just in recent weeks, where North Korea has literally blown up the office building that had been used as a liaison with the South Koreans, that this entire two-year-long effort with North Korea ended in diplomatic failure. But that allowed the North Koreans the time that they need to continue to pursue nuclear weapons and ballistic missile delivery systems.
Bolton was then asked if Trump has “a kind of romantic approach to numerous dictators”. Remarkably enough, he answered: “Yeah, I think that’s an accurate description, and I don’t discount the importance of personal relations between the top leaders of the countries … I think the president had a continued problem in discerning the difference between having a good personal relationship with Xi Jinping, let’s say, and the US having good relations with China in the sense of advancing American national interest.”
Speaking to Axios, Trump said he had not pressed China over human rights issues regarding the treatment of Muslim minorities, let alone sanctioned the Chinese government, because he was pursuing a trade deal.
Bolton said: “I think that this is an example of how the president’s policy is so often incoherent and how it responds to domestic political pressure. So, for I recount several incidents in the book with respect to the Uighurs, with respect to the anniversary of the 1989 massacre at Tiananmen Square and a number of other issues where the president said, ‘Well, you know, we have human rights problems, too.’
“Now, just recently, he signed legislation designed to clarify his power to exact sanctions on China against the Uighurs. But even as recently as Sunday afternoon, he was pointing out that doing so could interfere with trade negotiations with China. So it sounds like he’s tough on one day, the next day he’s not. And I think once the November election is behind us, if he wins, I think it’s entirely possible he’ll be right back to the trade negotiation.”
NPR has published an interview with John Bolton this morning.
Bolton defends himself against what the judge who cleared his book for publication said was irresponsible behaviour and use of senstive material. He was also asked about Trump’s attempt to seize all royalties and profits from the book.
“I wrote this book,” he said, “as a matter of philosophy and belief in the importance of putting the facts about the Trump administration before the American public, for them to make up their mind. I felt I had an obligation to do it. I explain that in the book itself.
“And I knew there would be trials and tribulations when you displease Donald Trump. Ask his niece who he’s now saying signed a nondisclosure agreement that prohibits her book from being published. So this is all par for the course.
“And I didn’t look forward to it. Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t anything I thought would be pleasant. But I have been determined and was vindicated, I think, by the court in laying the story before the American people. They will be the ones who decide.”
In remarks that may enrage Democrats still furious Bolton did not testify during impeachment proceedings against Trump, Bolton told NPR all such House Democrats managed to create with their impeachment effort was “a bitterly partisan debate that prefigured essentially what was then going to happen in the Senate”, which is where every Republican except Mitt Romney voted to acquit Trump and move on.
Bolton insisted he was right to deny testimony to the House but offer it to a Senate that wasn’t going to take it.
“Impeachment is probably the gravest constitutional responsibility the House has,” he said. “And I’m sorry that that grave responsibility was affected by their own political calculus. But in effect, that’s what the Ukraine allegations about Trump were all about, torquing legitimate government power around his own political interest. So this is part of the impeachment malpractice that I’ve complained about.”
Bolton also says he has written “a book about how not to be president” – which might interest former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, who is out this morning with extracts from her own book saying Bolton thought he was president, not Trump.
It’s a long interview – more to come.
Updated
Here comes an attempt at a dead cat bounce, of a sort, it being that thing where a scandal-ridden politician lobs something shocking on the table and cries, “Look! A dead cat!” and everyone looks so the pressure on the other thing goes away.
Trump on Twitter this morning (capitals author’s own):
RIGGED 2020 ELECTION: MILLIONS OF MAIL-IN BALLOTS WILL BE PRINTED BY FOREIGN COUNTRIES, AND OTHERS. IT WILL BE THE SCANDAL OF OUR TIMES!
There is no evidence that mail-in voting leads to mass, or even more than very rare, voter fraud, involving foreign countries or not. Trump himself has both voted by mail and tried to do so using the wrong address. Republican secretaries of state across the country (and Democrats, obviously) have mailed out ballots to voters living under a pandemic. Election infrastructure is already subject to chaos, shortages and abuse which can depress turnout and disproportionately affect minorities. In general, Republicans benefit from lower turnout. Trump is well behind Joe Biden in national polls and most polls in battleground states.
Sam Levine, our voting rights correspondent, knows a lot about this:
Former White House press secretary Sarah Sanders has blasted former national security adviser John Bolton for being “a classic case of a senior White House official drunk on power, who had forgotten that nobody elected him to anything” and who sometimes “acted like he was president”.
Sanders left the Trump White House in June 2019, two months before Bolton resigned. Bolton will publish his memoir, The Room Where It Happened, on Tuesday.
Sanders, who has remained loyal to the president amid rumours of her own political ambitions in Arkansas, which her dad Mike Huckabee used as a springboard for two presidential runs, has a book out in September.
It’s called Speaking for Myself. Critics of Sanders will no doubt observe that during her time as White House press secretary, she rarely spoke for the president: daily briefings withered on her watch, shrank to nothing under her successor Stephanie Grisham, then made a comeback under the current occupant of the role, Kayleigh McEnany.
But here Sanders comes with a book and, in a very Washington way, she has provided a spot of exclusive “perfect smokey eye” to the Axios website.
During Trump’s state visit to London last year, Sanders writes, “Bolton apparently felt too important to travel with the rest of us. As we were ready to depart for the Winfield House [the US ambassador’s residence] we loaded onto a small black bus.
“We waited and watched as Bolton sped by and left us in the dust. The discussion on the bus quickly moved ... to how arrogant and selfish Bolton could be, not just in this moment but on a regular basis.”
Sanders also claims “Bolton acted like he was the president, pushing an agenda contrary to President Trump’s”, and details a chewing out from then-acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who reportedly called Bolton “a fucking self-righteous, self-centered son of a bitch”.
Sanders doesn’t print the swearwords – I did that – but she says “That epithet ... was the culmination of months of Bolton thinking he was more important and could play by a different set of rules than the rest of the team. ... Bolton backed down and stormed off.”
In response, Axios quotes Sarah Tinsley, longtime senior adviser to Bolton, as absolving him of such bad behaviour about transportation arrangements. She doesn’t say whether he thought he was president.
Good morning…
…and welcome to another day’s coverage of politics in the US, protests over police brutality and structural racism, the coronavirus outbreak and Donald Trump’s handling of it all. Where were we…
- John Bolton, the former national security adviser whose tell-all White House memoir was cleared for publication on Tuesday by a judge, has been speaking to the media. He thinks Trump is a danger to the republic and should be a one-term president. Our write-up is here. There is some confusion over whether Bolton, a hard-right foreign policy hawk straight outta the George W Bush administration, had said he would vote for Joe Biden or not. He won’t vote for Trump, anyway. Particularly as the president is still threatening to go after the book’s proceeds and maybe Bolton himself.
- Among other revelations, news from Axios that Trump denies asking China for help getting elected but admits to skipping sanctions over human rights abuses against Muslims because of the US-China trade deal. Of such things, the coronavirus pandemic has led to China suspending some poultry imports from the US.
- News also from Axios that Trump thinks he can stop his niece from publishing a book about the family next month. Mary L Trump signed an NDA over some intra-Trump unpleasantness 20 years ago, you see.
- After the president’s flop in Tulsa on Saturday night, an uncomfortable spotlight remains trained on Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager. Rick Wilson of the Lincoln Project told us: “Brad’s survival now depends on the good offices of his patrons inside the Trump camp, and [Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner] are already signaling their displeasure to the media.”
- Trump also announced plans to visit the southern border and speak in Phoenix, Arizona on Tuesday, and continued to defend remarks about wanting to reduce testing for coronavirus which were just part of the fallout from the Tulsa rally.
- Amid the protests, there were two shootings in Seattle’s Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or the Chaz, over the weekend. Police said a crowd stopped them responding to the first one.
- In New York, the American Museum of Natural History has announced it will remove a statue of Theodore Roosevelt outside its main entrance that has been a lightning rod for protest, as it shows the 26th president astride a horse, attended by an African American and a Native American. The Roosevelt family is in favour but Trump isn’t, tweeting with uncharacteristic brevity: “Ridiculous, don’t do it!”
So that’s all that, with links. Here, for history fans, is why comparing Trump to George Wallace, the infamous segregationist governor of Alabama and insurgent presidential candidate … is unfair to Wallace:
Updated
