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Tom McCarthy in New York

Obama announces restrictions on military gear for police – as it happened

President Barack Obama speaks at the Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, Monday, May 18, 2015, in Camden, N.J.
President Barack Obama speaks at the Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, Monday, May 18, 2015, in Camden, N.J. Photograph: Chris LaChall/AP

Summary

We’re going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the day. Here’s a summary of where things stand:

  • President Barack Obama announced new restrictions on military gear for police in a speech in Camden, New Jersey, which he hailed for its turnaround in public safety.
  • On the 2016 campaign trail, Hillary Clinton popped up in an Iowa living room and ran through her policy priorities.
  • New Jersey Governor Chris Christie said it was “ridiculous” to be concerned about privacy invasions from government surveillance. He warned about the pernicious influence, however, of “civil liberties extremists.”
  • Sixty percent of likely voters believe the Patriot Act ought to be modified, against 34% that favor its retention in its current form, according to a new poll.
  • Senator Rand Paul accused Bill Clinton of throwing “a generation of black men in prison” and touted his own plan for criminal justice reform.
  • President Obama tweeted for the first time. President Clinton replied. Then President Obama replied to him.

Updated

Here’s video of Obama announcing new restrictions on military gear for police:

Roll Call catches a new line from Lindsey Graham on the need for thousands of additional US troops in Iraq. Graham this morning said that in a couple weeks he would say he’s running for president.

Here’s a sharp line from Rand Paul in Philadelphia today that we didn’t include earlier. Paul, talking about his work on criminal justice reform, accuses Bill Clinton of putting “a generation of black men in prison.”

“If I were the nominee, we will compete in Philadelphia,” Paul said:

I’ll ask Hillary Clinton, what have you done for criminal justice? Your husband passed all the laws that put a generation of black men in prison. Her husband was responsible for that.”

Here’s what the Clinton event looked like from inside the room:

This is only going to get funnier?

For full coverage of New Jersey governor Chris Christie’s speech earlier today on foreign policy and government surveillance, read the Guardian’s Alan Yuhas (@alanyuhas), “Chris Christie backs NSA snooping in hawkish foreign policy speech”:

The New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, voiced his support for the surveillance capabilities of American law enforcers and intelligence agencies on Monday during a speech that also ranked him among the more hawkish likely presidential contenders.

Christie denounced the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden as a “a criminal who hurt our country and now enjoys the hospitality of Vladimir Putin” in his speech and said that fears of overreach and invasive surveillance by the NSA are “exaggerated and ridiculous”.

Read the full piece here.

Here’s your today’s moment in history, brought to you by the Oval Office:

Clinton ends Iowa address

Clinton wraps. She begins to take questions– we’ll see what more we can wring from the room.

Update: fat chance!

Updated

Then Clinton tells a story about the February 2009 trip to Indonesia she took as secretary of state. She appeared on a teen show called the Awesome show. An audience member asked her how she could work with Obama after losing to him.

Clinton quotes the questioner. She almost seems to put on an accent, a mock Indonesian English accent. It’s a bit awkward.

Updated

Now Clinton tells a story about taking a walk with Bill Clinton in Chappaqua after they’d both worked “so hard” to elect Obama.

The two were walking in a forest, in an area with terrible cell service, and Bill gets a call. Guess who?

Obama talks to Bill, and then Hillary, she says. “I went to Chicago, and he asked me if I would serve as secretary of state.”

She told him no, she says.

“No, he said. I know what I want, and I want you to do this. I don’t want to hear from you again until you say yes.”

“So you know, I told him no, again, later. I did tell my husband, you know, he is so persistent, you know I’ve told him no twice. And Bill said, well you know, I asked you to marry me twice, so I suppose there’s a connection there!”

Laugh line.

She stayed up all night and then called Obama back and said yes.

Updated

This is kind of funny. Clinton seems to assume a primary election win.

“I will need your help as we move toward the general election,” she says. “Because I don’t want the campaign to be about me, but about the agenda we will set.”

What about Bernie Sanders? Martin O’Malley? Some other dark horse?

Clinton is on to Iran. She calls for support for the president who is grappling with a difficult situation in negotiating around Iran’s nuclear program.

“We are living in an incredibly complicated time in American history. It is not a time for easy answers,” she says.

At the end of the day, we need a president who has both the experience and the understanding” to deal with the challenges said.

I really believe that I can go into that office on the very first day and begin to do what is required,” she says.

Moving quickly now. Clinton is on to dark money in politics. She says she will “protect the right to vote and not the right of billionaires to buy elections.”

The Clintons together have earned $30m in speaking and book earnings since January 2014, according to reports last week. That’s not money, for example, fueled to a Super PAC by a nonprofit with anonymous donors. Maybe not “dark money.” Big money though.

Clinton: end stigma on mental health, drug victims

Clinton moves to the drug epidemic: “Meth kills in Iowa. And when I got to New Hampshire, at my very first coffee shop meeting, I heard about the heroin epidemic.”

“This is tearing families apart but it is below the surface. People aren’t talking about it, because it is hard to deal with it.”

The same is true of “untreated mental health problems,” she says, calling them “below the surface.” It’s not being treated, she says.

“I did not believe I’d be standing in your living room talking about the drug abuse problem, the mental health problem and the suicide problem. But I believe I have to.”

Applause line.

Clinton says she will fight to protect the Affordable Care Act, and earns some applause. She says she’ll protect Medicare too.

“I don’t hear my friends on the other side of the aisle talking as much as they used to about repealing the Affordable Care Act,” Clinton says. She says she suspects it’s because they’ve been meeting people who’ve been helped by the policy.

Granddaughter anecdote alert.

“We’ve got this new granddaughter who is unbelievable. And we were with her this weekend. We just go and stare at her.”

They read to her too, Clinton says. “We’re doing it because we know that it aids her brain development.”

By the time the election rolls around, Charlotte Clinton Mezvinsky, currently 7.5 months, will be nearly old enough to vote.

[intermission: More humor attached to the Obama Twitter account, this one h/t @lgamgam]:

Updated

Clinton dives into her theme. “People have done everything they could think of to do to get back on their feet,” she says. “There is a sense that we are on our feet. We’re not running yet, but we are on our feet.”

First applause line: “I am very grateful to President Obama for the changes he made when he inherited the mess he did in 2009.”

Clinton speaks. She thanks Dean Genth and Gary Swenson, who are hosting the event in their home. It looks like they’re standing in their living room. Behind Clinton is the fireplace. But she’s standing kind of sandwiched between Merino and the hosts. She’s achieving an impressive amount of gesture-and-swivel body language for such a tight stage.

Hillary Clinton’s organizer in northern Iowa, Sarah Merino, introduces the candidate. Merino outs herself as a native not of Iowa but of Bedford, NY, spitting distance from the Tappan Zee bridge.

Here’s Clinton.

Clinton appears at Iowa event

The Clinton event gets started in Mason City, Iowa. Watch it live on CSPAN here.

Rep Guinta is the congressman who, as we mentioned earlier, has apologized after the FEC determined he had improperly accepted $355,000 for his 2010 campaign – from his parents.

In Giunta’s defense (?), he also held traditional fundraisers, with big-name draws such as Jeb Bush. But $5,400 per couple – the maximum allowed by law – racks up fairly slowly to make $350K.

McConnell to 'responsibly extend' Patriot Act

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell says he intends to extend Patriot Act provisions that his Kentucky colleague, Senator Rand Paul, today promised to filibuster.

McConnell said Monday that he intends this week to “responsibly extend” provisions of the USA Patriot Act due to expire on June 1, Reuters reports.

Updated

Now that the president is off the stage, we’re awaiting Hillary Clinton’s remarks in Iowa on ways to grow small business. CSPAN is meant to have a live feed.

Updated

Obama wraps Camden speech

Obama wraps a relatively brief speech. “Camden is showing everybody it can be done,” he says. He said young people growing up in insecure communities deserve the faith of society, and an opportunity to thrive.

“We know these problems are solvable. We’re not just lacking for answers. We’re lacking in political will,” Obama says.

Here’s the recommendation from the task force about limiting military gear for police:

Law enforcement agencies should create policies and procedures for policing mass demonstrations that employ a continuum of managed tactical resources that are designed to minimize the appearance of a military operation and avoid using provocative tactics and equipment that undermine civilian trust.

These policies could include plans to minimize confrontation by using “soft look” uniforms, having officers remove riot gear as soon as practical, and maintaining open postures. “When officers line up in a military formation while wearing full protective gear, their visual appearance may have a dramatic influence on how the crowd perceives them and how the event ends.

Obama says “we can’t ask the police to contain and control problems that the rest of us aren’t willing to face... if we as a society don’t do more to expand opportunity... then we’ll end up seeing conflicts between law enforcement and residents.”

“We can’t just expect police departments to solve these problems.”

Obama: militarized gear 'can alienate and intimidate'

Obama hails the report by his policing task force. Recommendations he highlights include:

  • enhanced officer training
  • body cameras and other technologies
  • better data management to track incidents of force
  • rules for military-style equipment

“We’ve seen how militarized gear can sometimes give people a feeling that it’s an occupying force... it can alienate and intimidate,” Obama says. He says some of the equipment “made for the battlefield” is not suitable for local police departments.

“Camden and its people still face very big challenges, but this city is onto something,” Obama says.

He says that’s why he wanted to review the recommendations of his policing task force in Camden. He wants to call on other cities to follow Camden’s lead.

Here’s the full text of the final report of the president’s policing task force.

Obama speaks in Camden

President Obama has begun speaking at the Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center in Camden, New Jersey.

Obama in Camden, via CBS:

Candidate Clinton is inviting Iowa voters to commit to caucusing on her behalf on 1 February. Via Bloomberg:

The president is expected to speak in Camden in about an hour. While we wait you can read the prepared text of Chris Christie’s speech on foreign policy here.

Here’s the section where he calls for increased defense spending:

So we need to give our men and women in uniform the resources they need to get the job done — and we owe it to them. That’s why Congress and the President should repeal the 2011 Budget Control Act as soon as humanly possible, get back to regular order in budgeting and restore funding levels to what Secretary Gates proposed in his fiscal 2012 budget — modest increases in defense spending through the end of the decade that will make a massive difference to our troops. It’s the right thing to do — and we should do it now.

Later, Christie called for “passing a clean extension of the Patriot Act”:

We should begin by passing a clean extension of the Patriot Act. At the end of May, vital pieces of that legislation are going to expire, including Section 215 — essential for our intelligence agencies to access the data they need to stop suspected terrorists. I used this tool extensively, aggressively and legally as US Attorney and I can tell you this: it works. This is a big debate in Congress right now, and different courts have expressed their views on the program too. But right now, that debate is dominated by the intellectual purists worried about theoretical abuses that haven’t occurred — instead of the real threats that we’ve already seen from Garland, Texas, to Ft. Dix, New Jersey.

The Democratic National Committee has responded to Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s announcement that he is forming an exploratory committee for a presidential run.

Here’s the reply, in full (h/t: @bencjacobs):

Following the news that Bobby Jindal has launched his Presidential Exploratory Committee, DNC National Press Secretary Holly Shulman released the following statement:

Poll finds bipartisan opposition to NSA surveillance

Sixty percent of likely voters believe the Patriot Act ought to be modified, against 34% that favor its retention in its current form, according to a new poll of 1,001 likely voters commissioned by the American Civil Liberties Union and carried out by the Global Strategy Group and G2 Public Strategies.

The Guardian’s Spencer Ackerman and Sabrini Siddiqui report:

Opposition to reauthorizing the Patriot Act without modification cuts against a bill by the GOP Senate leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. The poll found 58% of Republicans favor modification, the subject of a rival bipartisan bill that recently passed the House, with only 36% of them favoring retention. Self-identified “very conservative” voters favor modification by a 59% to 34% margin.

The margins for Democrats are similar to those for Republicans. Independent voters, however, are even less enthusiastic about mass domestic surveillance: 71% want the Patriot Act modified, versus 22% who favor keeping it as it is, which pollster Greg Strimple called “intense”.

Read the full piece here.

Quick hits

Here are a few juicy politics headlines for you from around the ’web:

NH GOP Congressman’s Political Career Hangs in Balance After FEC Violation

Bobby Jindal forming exploratory committee for White House run

Rand Paul bucks McConnell on Patriot Act extension

“We will do everything possible, including filibustering the Patriot Act, to stop them,” he told a cheering crowd at a rally in front of Independence Hall.

There’s Bill Clinton, at Rahm Emanuel’s second inauguration (with bonus Senator Dick Durbin on Clinton’s right):

Among Hillary Clinton’s stops in Iowa today will be a meeting with Democratic activists at the home of one of the first gay couples to marry in the state, MSNBC reports:

Dean Genth and Gary Swenson are longtime activists who got married in 2009 on the first day same-sex unions became legal in the state. Both supported Barack Obama over Clinton during the 2008 caucus, but are now backing the former secretary of state.

Summary

As our live blog coverage of the day in politics continues, here’s a summary of where things stand:

  • President Barack Obama had arrived in Camden, New Jersey, to introduce new rules limiting the flow of military equipment to local police forces and other policing reform measures.
  • Hillary Clinton was scheduled to make a campaign trail appearance in Iowa.
  • New Jersey Governor Chris Christie dismissed concerns about invasion of privacy from government surveillance as “baloney.”
  • Christie also blamed “civil liberties extremists” for the rise of concerns about privacy protections following the Edward Snowden revelations.
  • Senator Marco Rubio tied his tongue into knots trying to explain how he would not in hindsight have invaded Iraq yet the war was not a “mistake.”
  • Senator Rand Paul said he would attack Isis militants “regrettably”: “I would do it somewhat regrettably, in that I wish ISIS weren’t so strong.”

The president is making his way to his Camden appearance. He’s landed in Philadelphia, across the Delaware River from Camden.

Having just wrapped a speech in New Hampshire, Chris Christie will not be able to make it to Camden to welcome the president to his state this afternoon, unfortunately:

It’s tough talk across the board from Christie. He calls for an asset ban on Russian president Vladimir Putin, for a stepped-up confrontation with Isis militants in Iraq and for an “absolute” commitment to Israel.

Christie winds down with a call to “banish cynicism” and a quote from Ronald Reagan about the “will and courage of free men and women.”

“Today we live in cynical times, with a cynical politics,” says Christie, who has roundly denied knowledge of an alleged plot by his former deputy chief of staff and high school buddy to close lanes on the George Washington bridge in political retaliation against a small-town New Jersey mayor.

A live feed of the Christie speech is here. He’s describing pillars of a stronger foreign policy. One is firm international alliances, which Christie accuses Obama of squandering.

“We have a government that doesn’t seem to care about all the blood and sweat and treasure that it took to build those alliances,” Christie says.

Exhibit A, Christie says, was the president’s false “red line” on the Syrian president’s use of chemical weapons.

“[Assad] used chemical weapons against his own people,” said Christie. “President Obama’s response? Nevermind.”

Christie said Russia’s incursions in Crimea and Ukraine are not surprising, given what he portrays as the president’s failure to back up words with action.

“We should give Ukraine the weapons it needs to defend itself and we should give it to them now,” Christie says.

Oh great. The president of the United States takes the historic step of joining Twitter and immediately runs into a towering wall of stupid. This cannot actually be what is on Americans’ minds. Where are all the questions about pre-K and chained CPI

Updated

Speaking in Philadelphia, the site of last week’s catastrophic train derailment, Rand Paul calls for the privatization of Amtrak, Bloomberg’s Dave Weigel reports:

Rand Paul speaks in Burlington, Iowa, over the weekend.
Rand Paul speaks in Burlington, Iowa, over the weekend. Photograph: Keith Turrill/Keith Turrill/Demotix/Corbis

Obama Tweets

Talk about big news. Barack Obama has become the first president ever to join Twitter, making him the first president ever to Tweet.

That follows a strong run of firsts for the president including First to Use a Selfie Stick and First to Join a Google Hangout and First to Go on Late Night as a Sitting President.

Update 1:

Update 2:

Updated

Christie: fears of government spying 'baloney'

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie planned to deliver a sharp rebuke of Edward Snowden and to dismiss fears about abuses of government surveillance as “baloney,” according to prepared remarks for a speech today in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Christie also planned to blame “civil liberties extremists” for the rise of concerns about privacy protections following revelations about secret government spying programs.

“When it comes to fighting terrorism, our government is not the enemy,” Christie planned to say, according to remarks obtained by the Associated Press, continuing:

When Edward Snowden revealed our intelligence secrets to the world in 2013, civil liberties extremists seized that moment to advance their own narrow agenda. They want you to think that there’s a government spook listening in every time you pick up the phone or Skype with your grandkids. They want you to think of our intelligence community as the bad guys, straight out of the Bourne Identity or a Hollywood thriller. And they want you to think that if we weakened our capabilities, the rest of the world would love us more.

“Let me be clear — all these fears are baloney.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gestures while speaking at a breakfast ahead of this afternoon's convening of the Georgia Republican Convention, Friday, May 15, 2015, in Athens, Ga.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie gestures while speaking at a breakfast ahead of this afternoon’s convening of the Georgia Republican Convention, Friday, May 15, 2015, in Athens, Ga. Photograph: David Goldman/AP

Updated

Last week’s Republican fumbling of questions about the Iraq war skittered straight into the weekend, with Senator Marco Rubio becoming the latest presidential hopeful to bobble it.

Rubio has seemed to take all sides on the issue, saying the war made the world safer but also saying last week that, “knowing what we know now,” he would not have authorized the 2003 US invasion.

Pressed by Fox News host Chris Wallace on Sunday on the apparent contradiction in those statements, Rubio threw up an impressive – and impressively comprehensible – defense.

“I still say it was not a mistake, Rubio said. “A president cannot make a decision on what someone might know in the future.”

Wallace: Was it a mistake?

Rubio: It was not a mistake for the president to go into Iraq based on the information he was provided as president.

Fortunately there’s one voice of clarity on the issue on the Republican side: Donald Trump.

“I would have never been in Iraq,” Trump told Fox News on Sunday after Rubio’s appearance, adding that Saddam Hussein was preferable to Isis:

“These characters like Rubio made a total fool of himself on Chris Wallace’s program, talking about we were better off without Saddam Hussein. Give me a break. Right now we have ISIS, which is worse than Hussein. Hussein did one thing: he killed terrorists.

“We are in worse shape than we ever were. It’s a mess.”

Paul: the reluctant interventionist. Politico is in Philadelphia too:

Paul promises to compete in Pennsylvania, arguing that his record of calling for criminal justice reform – including reforming mandatory sentencing for drug offenders and – gives him an edge on Hillary Clinton in places like Philadelphia. Here’s Bloomberg:

Obama beat Romney by five points in Pennsylvania in 2012.

Before his speech today in Philadelphia, Senator Paul mingled with some locals.

Rubio: 'None of that matters if we're not safe'

The best video on Marco Rubio’s YouTube channel is probably the one that features him coaching a kiddie football team. He gives a pep talk on the theme of not giving up or stopping believing.

Most important of all, however, Rubio says in a separate video, is keeping safe. In a Q&A on Friday, the 2016 presidential candidate was asked which is a higher priority, “domestic issues or the foreign issues, especially terrorism.”

Rubio says “our economy will always be a major issue” but “none of that matters if we’re not safe”:

Updated

Hillary Clinton is in Iowa today, but where’s Bill?

Just one state east, in Illinois, where the former president is expected to attend the inauguration of Rahm Emanuel to his second term as Chicago mayor.

We should have some lines from Rand Paul soon on the showdown over House legislation to reform US government surveillance programs – legislation that Paul has threatened to filibuster in the Senate.

While we wait – on the off chance you missed Saturday Night Live this weekend – and its send-up of what a Hillary Clinton candidacy could mean for your summertime this year:

Some details on the Clinton event – the candidate will appear in Mason City, Iowa, this afternoon to make some remarks about small business. That’s tentatively slated for 3.45pm ET.

This old house: A Fayetteville, Arkansas, home that future President Bill Clinton purchased for $17,500 in 1975 as an inducement for his girlfriend Hillary to accept his marriage proposal has been converted to a museum called the The Clinton House Museum. The Clintons were married there on 11 October, 1975.
This old house: A Fayetteville, Arkansas, home that future President Bill Clinton purchased for $17,500 in 1975 as an inducement for his girlfriend Hillary to accept his marriage proposal has been converted to a museum called the The Clinton House Museum. The Clintons were married there on 11 October, 1975. Photograph: Brian Cahn/Brian Cahn/ZUMA Press/Corbis

Good morning and welcome to the day in politics, an umbrella that today will also cover the appearance this afternoon by President Obama in New Jersey to announce new rules limiting military equipment for local police forces.

Before we get to the president, however, New Jersey governor Chris Christie is slated to deliver a speech calling for beefed-up government surveillance programs and attacking Edward Snowden for exposing domestic spying. Some of the programs could be shuttered if Congress fails to act before a 1 June deadline to renew them.

Elsewhere in the 2016 presidential race, Hillary Clinton plans to return to the campaign trail in Iowa, while the Republican slate of candidates has (almost) gained a likely new entry in Lindsey Graham, the senator from South Carolina. After a weekend “cattle call”, Mike Huckabee and Rick Perry are still kicking around Iowa on Monday, while Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush were scheduled to pop up in their home state of Florida.

Updated

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