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The Guardian - US
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Erin Durkin in New York

Judge blocks closure of Missouri's last abortion clinic – as it happened

Thousands of demonstrators in St Louis march in support of Planned Parenthood and a woman’s right to choose.
Thousands of demonstrators in St Louis march in support of Planned Parenthood and a woman’s right to choose. Photograph: Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images

It’s been another tragic day in America, with at least 11 people shot and killed by a gunman in a mass shooting in Virginia Beach. The suspect is also dead, and at least six people are injured.

Here’s a roundup of the other major stories of the day:

  • Trump made favorable comments about Boris Johnson, who is in the running to succeed Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party – and Prime Minister.
  • Trump became the first Republican president to recognize Pride month.
  • A judge ruled that the last remaining abortion clinic in Missouri may remain open.
  • Donald Trump’s plan for tariffs on Mexican goods drew criticism, and the Mexican foreign minister said the two sides would meet for a summit next Wednesday.
  • Attorney General William Barr said he disagreed with much of Robert Mueller’s “legal analysis” in an interview with CBS.

Nevada governor Steve Sisolak signed the Trust Nevada Women Act today, making his state an outlier amid the recent wave of state laws restricting abortion rates.

The law includes a repeal of the requirement that practitioners tell women seeking abortions about the “physical and emotional implications” of the medical procedure, according to NPR.

“With our reproductive rights under constant attack across the country, we are proud that Nevada legislators voted to ensure that Nevada women and families are able to make the best decisions for their health and well-being, along with their doctors,” said Caroline Mello Roberson, director of NARAL Pro-Choice Nevada.

Updated

The governor of Virginia reacts to the mass shooting at a government building.

Gunman kills 11 in Virginia Beach

Eleven people have died and six have been taken to the hospital after a gunman opened fired in a municipal building in Virginia Beach, Virginia.

The suspect was a current public utilities employee, police chief James Cervera said at a press conference. He was shot and killed by police after he shot a police officer who was saved by a bulletproof vest, Cervera said.

We’ll be updating our main story as we get more information here.

Will Trump get a primary challenge? Ohio governor John Kasich is playing coy, but it’s unlikely he would have sent this tweet if he didn’t want people to keep talking about the idea.

British newspaper The Sun just published an exclusive Oval Office interview with Trump in which the president spoke favorably of Boris Johnson’s bid for the Tory leadership.

The Sun described the remarks as a “bombshell intervention” in the leadership contest and “major breach of protocol”.

Trump’s actual quotes do not approach an actual endorsement, however. After the reporter twice referred to Johnson as “Prime Minster Boris Johnson”, Trump responded with general praise, saying: “I think Boris would do a very good job. I think he would be excellent. I like him. I have always liked him. I don’t know that he is going to be chosen, but I think he is a very good guy, a very talented person. He has been very positive about me and our country.”

Later in the interview, Trump also said he likes Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

Updated

AOC’s social media mastery continues to amaze. This video of the congresswoman wielding a cocktail shaker has already racked up more than 100,000 views in less than 30 minutes.

Hello everyone, this is Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco taking over the blog for the rest of the afternoon.

Donald Trump just became the first Republican president to acknowledge Pride month, which starts tomorrow. The annual celebration of LGBTQ history and identity was first acknowledged with a presidential proclamation by Bill Clinton in 1999, but was ignored by George W Bush, according to BuzzFeed News.

Trump’s tweets were met with immediate skepticism and anger by many, however, given his administration’s regressive policies toward LGBTQ rights, including:

  • Banning trangender people from serving in the US military
  • Proposing to remove a rule protecting trans people from discrimination by healthcare providers
  • Opposing passage of the Equality Act, which would extend civil rights protections to LGBTQ people

Updated

Summary

  • A judge ruled that the last remaining abortion clinic in Missouri may remain open. The Planned Parenthood in St Louis had been threatened with closure by the state at midnight, but the judge ordered the state to let it keep operating until at least Tuesday.
  • Donald Trump’s plan for tariffs on Mexican goods drew criticism, and the Mexican foreign minister said the two sides would meet for a summit next Wednesday.
  • Attorney General William Barr brushed off the beating his reputation has taken over the Mueller report by noting: “Everyone dies.” He also said he disagreed with much of Mueller’s “legal analysis.”

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, while bartending in Queens, is condemning the tipped minimum wage, which allows workers like waiter and bartenders to be paid as little as $2.13 an hour at the federal level.

Donald Trump says he’ll be formally announcing his re-election bid on June 18th in Orlando, Florida.

US-Mexico summit planned for next week

US and Mexican officials are due to meet next Wednesday in Washington after Donald Trump announced plans for tariffs on Mexican goods.

Mexican foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard rushed to Washington Friday in hopes of heading off the plan, the Washington Post reports.

En route to Washington, Ebrard tweeted that he had just spoken by phone to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and presidential adviser Jared Kushner.

At a summit Wednesday, Ebrard said that Pompeo will lead the US delegation and he will lead Mexico’s team. “We will be firm and defend the dignity of Mexico,” he wrote.

White House adviser Kellyanne Conway defended Donald Trump’s plan for tariffs on all Mexican goods, which have come under criticism from Republicans and business interests.

Speaking to reporters outside the White House, she reiterated that the tariffs stemmed from Mexico failing to curb the flow of migrants from Central America to the southern border and also blamed Congress: “We just don’t think Mexico’s done enough and Congress has done even less than that.”

Conway also insisted the tariffs do not jeopardize a proposed trade agreement between the US and Mexico, stating: “We are fully confident that USMCA could pass the House.”

Conway did not directly deny a report that the US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer opposes the tariffs. “Ambassador Lighthizer supports the President’s agenda,” she said.

The Planned Parenthood clinic in St Louis, Missouri, which was spared today from closure by a judge, is draped in a massive banner reading “Still here.”

In a new court filing, the Justice Department provides a transcript of a voicemail left by Donald Trump’s lawyer John Dowd for Michael Flynn’s lawyer. The voicemail, which was excerpted in the Mueller report, came after Flynn dropped out of a joint defense agreement with Trump and began to cooperate with prosecutors.

The Illinois state legislature has approved a bill to legalize recreational marijuana in the state, the Chicago Tribune reports.

It now goes to governor JB Pirtzker, who is expected to sign it.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been bartending this week - returning to the job she had before running for Congress - to raise support for living wage legislation. NY1 and WNYC have some scenes from today’s venue.

The bar where she’s slinging drinks is the same one where Rep. Joe Crowley, the longtime powerbroker she defeated in an upset primary win, had his election night party the night of his loss.

Updated

There’s a new push from the left to defeat one of the only remaining anti-abortion Democrat in the House, BuzzFeed reports.

Progressives are targeting Dan Lipinski, an Illinois congressman. Marie Newman, a Chicago businesswoman, is running against him for the second time. “This type of legislation is authoritarian and totalitarian. There’s no other way to describe it,” Newman told BuzzFeed of the recent spate of state-level abortion bans. “Let’s be honest about what it is. It’s taking us back 100 years, and that’s not exaggerating.”

Bernie Sanders says he will have a “litmus test” and only appoint Supreme Court justices who would uphold Roe v Wade, the LA Times reports.

Colorado governor Jay Polis signed legislation banning gay conversion therapy for minors in the state, the Denver Post reports.

Polis, the first openly gay man elected governor in the US, also signed a bill to allow transgender Colorado residents to change the gender listed on their birth certificate without having to prove they’ve had surgery.

Our Jessica Glenza is at a St. Louis press conference where Planned Parenthood is reacting to a judge’s ruling allowing the state’s sole remaining abortion clinic to remain open at least until Tuesday.

Updated

Donald Trump, whose administration banned transgender troops from serving in the military, is tweeting in honor of LGBT pride month and urging other countries to decriminalize homosexuality.

Pete Buttigieg’s presidential campaign has brought on a host of new staffers in the last few weeks, Politico reports.

They include Hillary for America alum George Hornedo as national delegate director, Ann Mei Chang as a “chief innovation officer,” and Obama White House alum Jillian Maryonovich as creative director. The South Bend, Indiana mayor has also hired a national press secretary, Nina Smith, and two deputy press secretaries, Tess Whittlesey and Marisol Samayoa.

Updated

Several Republicans in Congress and major business groups are slamming Donald Trump’s plan for tariffs on Mexican goods, NBC News reports.

The US Chamber of Commerce said it may file a lawsuit against the White House.

“If the president goes through with this, I’m afraid progress to get this trade agreement across the finish line will be stifled,” Sen. Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican, said Friday, according to NBC. “While I support the need for comprehensive border security and a permanent fix to illegal immigration, this isn’t the right path forward.”

Fellow Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley called it “a misuse of presidential authority.”

Dr. Leana Wen, president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in response to the ruling allowing Missouri’s only abortion clinic to remain open:

“Today is a victory for women across Missouri, but this fight is far from over. We have seen just how vulnerable access to abortion care is here—and in the rest of the country. We are glad that the governor has been prevented from putting women’s health and lives in danger—for now—and call on him to stop this egregious politicalization of public health in an attempt to ban all safe, legal abortion care in the state.

“We want our patients to know that we will never abandon the women of Missouri. We will keep fighting these attempts to end access to health care, to ensure all people can get the care that they need—no matter what.”

Dr. Colleen McNichola, an abortion provider at Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, said:

“This is a huge sigh of relief for the many patients who need access to safe, legal abortion in Missouri. The fight goes on. While temporary, we celebrate today, and tomorrow we go back to work to ensure access to abortion does not go dark at the last health center that provides abortion in Missouri. Planned Parenthood has served Missouri for more than 87 years and we aren’t going anywhere. While Governor Parson abandoned our patients, we will not. Our doors are open today, our doors will be open tomorrow, and we will fight to make sure all patients continue to receive the care they need and deserve.”

'This gives us a little breathing room'

Our Eric Lutz reports from St. Louis:

Planned Parenthood supporters gathered outside the clinic Friday afternoon breathed a sign of relief after a judge ruled that the organization could continue performing abortions past a midnight deadline.

“I’m delighted,” said Maude Essen, a St. Louis resident who lives just a few blocks from the Forest Park Avenue facility. “This gives us a little breathing room.”

She and her friend, Mary Kuc, had stood on a corner near the Planned Parenthood, where supporters of the healthcare organization and anti-abortion activists gathered ahead of the ruling.

A ruling against Planned Parenthood would have “taken us back to the 1970s,” Kuc said.

Supporters of the organization carried signs, eliciting honks and thumbs-up from passing cars on the busy street.

“It’s fucking ridiculous,” Nella Ballou, a Planned Parenthood supporter, said of the attack on reproductive rights, ahead of the ruling. “It’s really horrific.”

Peg O’Malley stood outside the Planned Parenthood after the ruling on Friday, holding a sign that read: Pro-Choice Catholic.

“It gives me no comfort, she said of the ruling. “The fight’s not over.”
She was antagonizes by a handful of anti-abortion activists, who questioned her Catholic faith.

“It’s absurd,” O’Malley said

Updated

New York governor Andrew Cuomo said he is “dubious” that the state legislature will legalize marijuana this year, The City reports.

Judge allows Missouri abortion clinic to stay open

A judge has ordered that the last remaining abortion clinic in Missouri can stay open for now.

Judge Michael Francis Stelzer granted Planned Parenthood’s request for a restraining order blocking the state’s effort to shut them down.

Missouri’s last remaining abortion provider – a Planned Parenthood in St Louis - was threatened with losing its license after the state charged it did not comply with a health department investigation. It would have been the only state without a single abortion clinic.

But the judge ruled that the clinic demonstrated that “immediate and irreparable injury will result if petitioner’s license is allowed to expire,” so it must be allowed to remain open while the merits of the case are argued. Another hearing was set for Tuesday.

Updated

Fox News is defending host Laura Ingraham after her comments calling white supremacist Paul Nehlen a “prominent voice” on the right who was “censored by social media.”

“It is obscene to suggest that Laura Ingraham was defending Paul Nehlen’s despicable actions especially when some of the names on the graphic were pulled from an Associated Press report on best known political extremists banned from Facebook,” the network said in a statement to The Daily Beast. “Anyone who watches Laura’s show knows that she is a fierce protector of freedom of speech and the intent of the segment was to highlight the growing trend of unilateral censorship in America.”

California governor Gavin Newsom is encouraging women seeking abortions to come to his state if their own states restrict the procedure.

“California will continue to uphold women’s equality and liberty by protecting their reproductive freedom, educating Californians about their rights to reproductive freedom, welcoming women to California to fully exercise their reproductive rights, and acting as a model for other states that want to ensure full reproductive freedom for women,” Newsom wrote in a proclamation Friday, the Sacramento Bee reports.

Newsom and the governors of Oregon and Washington also sent a letter Friday to other governors urging them to pursue laws strengthening abortion rights in their states.

Donald Trump’s top trade adviser opposed his push to put tariffs on Mexico, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer argued internally that the tariffs would jeopardize a pending North American trade accord, people familiar with the situation told the paper. “Lighthizer is not happy,” one administration official told WSJ.

Updated

The Pentagon has now gone a full year without a single on-camera press briefing by its top spokesperson, the Hill reports.

The briefings used to be routine.

Democratic voters are divided on whether to allow felons to vote while in prison, a new poll found – a question that has also divided the party’s presidential field.

In the HuffPost/YouGov survey, 44% of Democrats support allowing those in prison to vote while 41% oppose it. Americans overall oppose it 54% to 31%. An 81% majority of Democrats and a 68% majority of Americans overall support voting rights for felons after they have completed their full sentences.

Senator Bernie Sanders has pushed allowing felons to vote from prison.

Updated

Missouri's neighboring states prepare for influx of patients

As the last abortion clinic in Missouri is threatened with closure, providers in nearby states are rushing to pick up the slack.

Dr Erin King, the executive director of Hope Clinic, the nearest abortion provider across the river in Granite City, Ill., is “scrambling” to prepare for an influx of patients seeking the procedure should St Louis Planned Parenthood’s license be revoked.

She says she’s been preparing for a couple years now as the Missouri government ramped up its war on reproductive rights, doubling its number of doctors and increasing its staff. But, she told the Guardian, the immediacy of the Missouri nearing the loss of its last abortion provider is forcing her and her staff to adapt quickly.

What’s going on in Missouri is “very scary,” King said.

While she says the crisis won’t impact the level of care at her clinic, located about a 10 minute drive from downtown St Louis, it has put both her staff and her patients on edge.

“We’ve seen a significant increase in patient stress in the last two weeks,” she said, referring to the Department of Health and Senior Services challenge to Planned Parenthood and the restrictive abortion bill Republican Governor Mike Parson signed into law this month.

Updated

On the heels of protests in St Louis, Missouri yesterday, as the state’s last abortion clinic could close, Planned Parenthood’s president Dr Leana Wen told the Guardian women’s healthcare is in a “state of emergency” in the United States.

“This is a terrifying time,” Wen said. “We have a situation not unlike a natural disaster, where people’s lives are in danger. Except this is manmade.”

Abortion is legal in all 50 US states, but that has not always meant it is accessible. Missouri’s last abortion clinic is in danger of being shutdown because of bureaucratic red tape.

Missouri Governor Mike Parson, who signed an eight-week abortion ban into law just last week, has argued the state health department found “deficient practices” at the health clinic.

The health department is demanding interviews with all seven physicians practicing at the clinic, including trainees. Planned Parenthood, which already agreed to perform an addition medically unnecessary pelvic exam on its patients before an abortion (the state now requires two before the procedure) has called the demand “harassment” and intimidation of providers.

“Missouri’s governor just signed a law that could put doctors in jail for up to 15 years, could allow the state to investigate women for having miscarriages,” said Wen. “So, there should be no confusion about what the true intention of the Missouri governor really is – which is to stop all safe legal abortion in Missouri.”
Wen also said people should not confuse the wave of new and extreme legislation with a groundswell against abortion rights.

“This is what is happening across the country – there are extreme politicians who are passing the most egregious law we’ve ever seen – attacking women’s health,” she said.

Two-thirds of Americans support Roe v Wade, the landmark 1973 US supreme court decision which legalized abortion, and which continues to make unconstitutional abortion bans, like Missouri’s, unenforceable today.

The American people, said Wen, “are seeing what we have seen all along – this threat to Roe v Wade is not hypothetical. It is not a drill. This is really happening,” she said.

“The American people know we need more healthcare, not less, we want our children to grow up in a world with more rights, not less. We will be organizing, educating, mobilizing all across the country.”

Updated

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general found “dangerous overcrowding” and unsanitary conditions at an El Paso, Texas, Border Patrol processing facility, CNN reports.

The inspector general did an unannounced inspection of the El Paso Del Norte Processing Center and found 750 and 900 migrants there on two separate days – far exceeding its capacity of 125.

There were “standing room only conditions,” according to a report obtained by CNN, and Customs and Border Protection “was struggling to maintain hygienic conditions in the holding cells” with many migrants wearing soiled clothes for days or weeks. There were 76 detainees packed into one cell that’s supposed to hold no more than 12, and 155 in a cell for 35.

Updated

Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs on Mexico will hit particularly hard in some states expected to be key 2020 election battlegrounds, CNBC reports:

Several key 2020 electoral states would take a particularly sharp blow from the tariffs.

Border state Arizona gets about 40% of its imports from Mexico, the highest share for any state. About 38% of Michigan’s imported products come from Mexico, while about 35% of Texas’ imports are from its southern neighbor.

Trump’s surprise tariffs on Mexican goods could raise costs for companies and consumers in those three states, which the president carried in the 2016 election.

Michigan is a swing state that had voted for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. Texas is a reliably red state, but nonetheless has several Republican lawmakers facing tough reelection campaigns next year. Arizona has been trending toward favoring Democrats.

Updated

Former Ohio governor John Kasich says he’s not planning a 2020 primary challenge to Donald Trump.

“There is no path right now for me, I don’t see a way to get there,” Kasich said Friday on CNN, per the Hill.

“Ninety percent of the Republican Party supports him,” he said. “Maybe somebody wants to run and make a statement and that’s fine, but I’ve never gotten involved in a political race where I didn’t think I could win.”

Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld has launched a long-shot primary campaign against Trump.

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the White House is monitoring reports that North Korea executed members of its nuclear negotiating team with the American government, including Pyongyang’s top special envoy to the US.

“I’m not going to comment on intelligence one way or another,” she said Friday. “I can tell you we’re monitoring the situation and continue to stay focused on our ultimate goal, which is denuclearization.”

White House press secretary Sarah Sanders on Friday defended Donald Trump’s plan to impose new tariffs on Mexican imports, telling reporters anyone surprised by the president’s announcement “has been living under a rock”.

“We have been talking to Mexico for months, asking them to step up and do more,” Sanders said, referring to what the Trump administration’s frustration with the flow of Central American migrants through the US-Mexico border.

Sanders added that while Trump had not spoken directly with Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who threatened retaliatory tariffs against the US, teams for both leaders have been in “regular communication”.

“The president is concerned about national security,” Sanders said.
Trump’s move to slap a 5% tariff on all Mexican imports rattled markets and invited criticism from some members of his own party, who accused the president of overstepping his trade authorities.

“The president didn’t blindside his own party,” Sanders said. “This is fully supported by the law.”

House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerry Nadler says he believes Donald Trump’s campaign did collude with Russia, and that Trump would have been indicted if he wasn’t president, Crain’s New York reports.

New York City’s police union, a longtime foe of Mayor Bill de Blasio, is warning South Carolina police about de Blasio as he arrives for a campaign stop there.

“As you can see, a President Bill de Blasio would be an unmitigated disaster, not just for union members, but for any American who wants a functioning government,” Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association president Patrick Lynch wrote in a letter to the S.C. Law Enforcement Officers Association, The State reports.

The PBA is locked in a contract fight with de Blasio and has protested him as he runs for president.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is not taking a firm position on Donald Trump’s threatened tariffs against Mexico, per the Washington Post.

Donald Trump argues that his Mexican tariff plan will cause companies to leave Mexico and return to the US.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said Friday that he has sent his foreign secretary to Washington to try to negotiate a solution after Donald Trump announced 5% tariffs on the country’s goods, NPR reports.

A federal appeals court has agreed to expedite Donald Trump’s appeal of a ruling allowing a bank to hand over his financial records to the House of Representatives.

The second circuit court of appeals on Friday granted the request to fast track the case, the Hill reports. Trump is appealing a ruling by a judge last week who declined to block Deutsche Bank and Capital One from handing over records in response to a subpoena from House Democrats.

Updated

Only 11 employers were prosecuted for hiring undocumented immigrants in the year that ended in March, the New York Times reports. The data suggests the Trump administration has not made going after employers a priority, even as it pursues hard-line policies on immigration.

During the same 12-month period, more than 112,000 individuals were prosecuted for illegal entry or re-entry into the US, according to data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University. “Not only are few employers prosecuted, fewer who are convicted receive sentences that amount to more than token punishment,” TRAC told the Times.

Donald Trump’s golf courses have been caught employing unauthorized immigrants, many of whom have since been fired, but never faced any legal consequences.

Donald Trump is defending his plan for tariffs on Mexican goods.

Patrick Shanahan, the acting defense secretary, insisted Friday that the military would remain apolitical, after news emerged that the USS John McCain was hidden from Donald Trump’s sight during a trip to Japan.

“Our business is to run military operations and not to become politicized,” Shanahan said in Singapore, CNN reports. “I’ll wait until I get a full explanation of the facts before I pass judgment on the situation, but our job is to run the military.”

Updated

US stock futures and global stock markets tanked Friday after Donald Trump announced plans for a 5% tariff on Mexican imports.

CNN reports on the damage:

Japan’s Nikkei (N225) slumped 1.6%, while South Korea’s KOSPI (KOSPI) was mostly flat. Markets in Europe also opened lower. Britain’s FTSE 100 index fell 0.8%. Stocks in Germany shed 1.3%, and in Francethey dipped 1%.

Stock futures indicated that those losses would extend to the United States. The Dow is poised to fall 230 points, or 0.9%, when markets open. The S&P 500 is tracking similar losses, while the Nasdaq could drop 1.1%.

Washington governor and presidential candidate Jay Inslee released an immigration plan Friday that calls for a large increase in refugees admitted to the US. Inslee has centered his Democratic primary bid on climate change, and this is his first major police proposal on another issue.

CNN reports that it calls for letting at least 110,000 refugees into the country each year. Donald Trump has capped the number at 30,000.

He also proposes addressing “climate migration,” and increasing aid to Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to help those countries tackle the problems, climate-related and otherwise, that have caused a flood of migrants to leave for the US.

World leaders will gather in solemn assembly next week above the sandy beaches of Normandy to mark the 75th anniversary of the world-changing D-Day invasion of France. It’s typically a heartfelt tribute to alliance and sacrifice and a unified vow for enduring unity, outweighing any national or political skirmish of the moment - but Donald Trump could change all that, the Associated Press reports:

That’s what has some U.S. veterans and others worried about President Donald Trump’s attendance. The president has shown a repeated willingness to inject nationalistic rhetoric and political partisanship into moments once aimed at unity. For Trump, there is no water’s edge for politics, no veneer of nonpartisanship around military or national security matters.

The president, who did not serve in the military before becoming commander in chief, has feuded with Gold Star families, blasted political opponents on foreign soil, and mocked Sen. John McCain, a prisoner of war, for being captured by the enemy. Trump’s antipathy for the late senator was so well known that the White House this week requested that the Navy keep the USS McCain out of the president’s line of sight during a recent trip to Japan, so as not to rile the president.

It’s a pattern that is set to get more scrutiny in coming days, as Trump heads overseas for the D-Day memorial where he will be joined at the service by, among others, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat whom he has called “crazy Nancy” and warned not to try to impeach him.

“It’s unfortunate we have to be even concerned that this historic commemoration will be overly politicized, but this is the command climate he’s created and the reality we have,” said Paul Rieckhoff, founder and former head of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. “We have to send our president. You go with the president we’ve got, and this is the president we’ve got. So we’re rightfully holding our breath for an event like this.”

Elizabeth Warren proposes allowing presidents to be indicted

Senator Elizabeth Warren said Friday that if elected president, she’ll push legislation to reverse the policy that a sitting president may not be charged with a crime.

“I’ve got a plan to make sure that no President is above the law,” she wrote in a post on Medium.

“Congress should make it clear that presidents can be indicted for criminal activity, including obstruction of justice. And when I’m president, I’ll appoint justice department officials who will reverse flawed policies so no president is shielded from criminal accountability.”

The justice department’s longstanding policy says that a sitting president cannot be indicted, though there is no law explicitly prohibiting such criminal charges. Special counsel Robert Mueller has cited the policy as part of his rationale for not concluding whether Donald Trump committed obstruction of justice.

“If Donald Trump were anyone other than the President of the United States right now, he would be in handcuffs and indicted,” Warren wrote.

Barr: We disagreed with Mueller's "legal analysis"

The attorney general William Barr said he disagrees with the “legal analysis” in special counsel Robert Mueller’s report – and he’s apparently unconcerned about the beating his reputation is taking because he’s got an eye on his own mortality.

“We didn’t agree with the legal analysis, a lot of the legal analysis in the report. It did not reflect the views of the department,” Barr told CBS News in an interview that aired Friday morning.

Mueller’s report detailed a number of instances in which Donald Trump may have obstructed justice, but chose not to reach a conclusion about whether or not he was guilty of the crime. He made a point of saying he was not exonerating Trump. “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said this week.

Barr, acting on his own, issued the conclusion that Trump did not commit obstruction of justice.

“We applied what we thought was the right law,” Barr said in the CBS interview. “I was trying to state the bottom line.”

The AG also said he was unfazed by attacks on his handling of the report, by critics who say he has misled the public and prioritized protecting Trump over the integrity of the investigation.

“I am at the end of my career,” Barr told CBS. “Everyone dies and I am not, you know, I don’t believe in the Homeric idea that you know, immortality comes by, you know, having odes sung about you over the centuries, you know?”

You can read the full interview transcript here.

Updated

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