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Vivian Ho in San Francisco (now) and Joan E Greve in Washington (earlier)

Trump has 'particular venom for people of color', Al Sharpton says – as it happened

Evening summary

  • People continued to respond to President Trump and his comments on Representative Elijah Cummings. Others clearly stayed mum.
  • The Senate failed to override the president’s veto of a resolution blocking US arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other countries without Congressional approval.

Welp, it happened. Ever since Cardi B tweeted about Senator Bernie Sanders and that she was “sad how we let him down in 2016,” everyone assumed some collaboration was in the cards. Today, CNN confirmed:

Though last week’s tweet may have been Cardi B’s latest shout-out to Sanders, it definitely was not the first. The rapper has long supported the Vermont senator, stating “Vote for Daddy Bernie, bitch” during the last presidential primary.

More response to President Trump and his comments on Representative Elijah Cummings:

The impeachment tally keeps growing...

While others had something to say about President Trump and his statements on Representative Elijah Cummings, Senator Mitt Romney remained mum.

Hey all, Vivian Ho on the west coast taking over for Joan Greve. Let’s see where the day takes us, shall we?

That’s it from me today. Vivian Ho will take the blog over from our West Coast office.

Here is where the day stands so far:

  • Trump renewed his attacks on representative Elijah Cummings and his congressional district in Baltimore, which he had previously called “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess.”
  • While visiting Baltimore, Al Sharpton accused Trump of attacking Cummings and his constituents “in the most bigoted and racist way.” “He attacks everybody,” the longtime activist said of the president. “But he has a particular venom for blacks and people of color. He doesn’t refer to any of his other opponents or critics as ‘infested.’ He does not attack their districts.”
  • Kamala Harris released her long-awaited health care plan, which was quickly criticized by both Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders. Biden will likely bring up the issue when he and Harris share the debate stage on Wednesday.
  • Elizabeth Warren also released her trade policy plan, which had some surprising overlap with Trump’s comments on the issue.

Stay tuned to see if Trump escalates his attacks against Cummings even further.

Representative Mark Meadows, a close congressional ally of Trump’s, put out a statement praising both the president and fellow congressman Elijah Cummings.

“He’s passionate about the people he represents, and no, Elijah is not a racist” Meadows said of Cummings in his statement, which former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum read live on CNN. “I am friends with both men, President Trump and Chairman Cummings, and I know them both well, and neither is a racist.”

A CNN reporter noted this:

Trump issued an endorsement of Daniel Cameron, a Republican candidate for Kentucky attorney general who is black.

Trump’s praise of Cameron for being “touch on Crime” and “Strong on Borders” comes after he has repeatedly slammed representative Elijah Cummings’s majority-black district in Baltimore as crime-ridden.

Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to lambaste those who criticized the majority leader for refusing to take up election security bills.

The Kentucky Republican attracted a slew of negative headlines last week for twice rejecting consideration of election security bills, despite special counsel Robert Mueller’s warning that Russian election interference continues “as we sit here”.

Comparing the criticisms to “modern-day McCarthyism,” McConnell said he would not be “intimidated” into taking up the legislation. “For decades, I’ve used my Senate seat to stand up to Russia and protect the United States of America,” McConnell said. “I’m proud of my record … and liars cannot gaslight it away.”

A Washington Post reporter tweeted this about his remarks:

A Democratic congressman revealed he and his wife were attending the Gilroy garlic festival when last night’s shooting occurred.

Representative Dan Lipinski of Illinois said he and his wife Judy were “okay” and that they were praying for those killed and injured in the attack.

Trump meets with pastors amid fallout over Baltimore attacks

A pastor who met with Trump today said he finds it “hard to believe” that the president is a racist.

Pastor Bill Owens participated in a White House meeting with the president that did not initially appear on Trump’s public schedule. But Owens said the meeting had been planned for several days and included about 20 pastors.

Some had speculated on whether the meeting was called at the last minute to change the narrative after Trump’s racist attacks on representative Elijah Cummings and his Baltimore district.

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, offered to help pay for a plane ticket to Somalia for representative Ilhan Omar so that the Minnesota Democrat could learn to “appreciate America more”.

The comments, made last week during an interview with the far-right outlet Breitbart News, came after Trump tweeted that Omar and three other minority congresswomen should “go back” to where they came from. That comment precipitated a “send her back” chant at one of Trump’s campaign rallies.

“I’m not saying we forcibly send her anywhere,” Paul told Breitbart. “I’m willing to contribute to buy her a ticket to go visit Somalia. I think she can look and maybe learn a little bit about the disaster that is Somalia.”

Slamming the country where Omar was born for having “no capitalism” or “God-given rights” under a constitution, Paul said the congresswoman “might come back and appreciate America more” after visiting Somalia.

Omar did not respond directly to Paul’s comments but did reshare tweets about them, including this one:

Booker accuses Trump of "projecting" when he claimed Sharpton was a "con man"

Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker mocked Trump for attacking Al Sharpton after the president claimed the longtime activist was “a con man, a troublemaker, always looking for a score.”

Another House Democrat has come out in favor of impeachment, as the caucus inches closer to a majority level of support for launching an inquiry.

“When looking at the evidence presented, there is obviously enough smoke to investigate the potential fire of corruption,” representative Emanuel Cleaver of Missouri said in a statement. “Congress has a constitutional responsibility to further investigate the evidence presented by the Special Counsel.”

Joe Biden’s advisers fear another shaky debate performance could do lasting damage to his presidential campaign – particularly given that he will once again share a stage with Kamala Harris.

Specifically, they are worried that more halting answers from the former vice president could shine a spotlight on concerns about his age.

The New York Times reports:

[I]nterviews recently with more than 50 Democratic voters and party officials across four states, as well as with political strategists and some of Mr. Biden’s own donors, revealed significant unease about Mr. Biden’s ability to be a reliably crisp and effective messenger against Mr. Trump. ...

Some voters couched their misgivings in euphemisms about wanting ‘new ideas’ or ‘new people.’ Some expressed fears of appearing ‘ageist’ — a reflection of the good will Mr. Biden enjoys with much of the Democratic rank-and-file. Others referenced their own lives: If they have ‘slowed down’ upon reaching a certain age, the thinking goes, Mr. Biden must have as well. And a few people were blunt.

‘Seventy-plus is too old,’ said John Hampel, 68, of West Des Moines, Iowa, who said he would like to support a centrist candidate. Mr. Biden would fit that ideological bill, but Mr. Hampel, citing his own age, continued, ‘I think he should pass the torch.’

The latest Quinnipiac national poll confirms that Joe Biden’s numbers are bouncing back after a temporary stumble following the first debates.

Biden attracted the support of 34 percent of Democratic respondents, compared to Elizabeth Warren’s 15 percent, Kamala Harris’ 12 percent and Bernie Sanders’ 11 percent.

Those numbers represent a 12-point bump for Biden and an 8-point dip for Harris since the university’s July 2 poll, while Warren and Sanders have remained relatively stable since then.

As FiveThirtyEight’s Nate Silver reported last week, Harris appears to have lost about a third of what she had gained after the debate, and Biden seems to have regained about two-fifths of what he had lost.

So even though Harris is in better shape than she was before the first debates, Biden is still the clear frontrunner. But this week’s debates could change that.

Updated

Former intelligence officials warned that Trump’s nomination of representative John Ratcliffe to replace Dan Coats as director of national intelligence was an attempt to “neutralise” US spy agencies.

Julian Borger has more:

Trump has indicated that he might not wait for [Ratcliffe] to receive Senate confirmation before wresting control over the office of the director of national intelligence, which coordinates the work of the other 16 intelligence agencies.

‘The Acting Director will be named shortly,’ Trump tweeted on Sunday, announcing the departure of Coats, and his choice of Ratcliffe, who has been a staunch defender of Trump in Congress.

However, the statute that established the role of DNI states that in case of a vacancy, the principal deputy director acts in the role until a replacement is confirmed. That would be Sue Gordon, a career official with three decades’ experience in intelligence. An attempt to break the rules and oust her will probably heighten the sense in the intelligence agencies that they are under attack. ...

‘I fear that there is a slow takeover of the norms and procedures of governance by this president, amassing unprecedented executive power,’ Mowatt-Larssen, now at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, added. ‘To do that he needs to neutralise or at least silence the intelligence community. He has been doing that for three years, but this takes it to the new level.’

The Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus issued a statement endorsing Kamala Harris’s presidential bid just one day before the second round of debates are set to start in Detroit.

“The Michigan Democratic Party Black Caucus is proud to endorse Kamala Harris for President,” said Keith Williams, the chairman of the caucus. “She is a proven leader who has given a voice to the voiceless and championed our community as District Attorney, Attorney General, and United States Senator. Her plans to close the racial wealth gap, invest in our classrooms and higher education is a clear investment in our future but also America’s future and her continued economic growth.”

Williams had previously said Harris was his favorite candidate “because she’s a sister,” but had declined to formally endorse her until today.

Trump will soon meet with “Inner City Pastors,” an event that did not initially appear on his public schedule.

He will almost certainly bring up his attacks on representative Elijah Cummings’ congressional district in Baltimore.

Warren releases trade plan that seems to echo Trump at points

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren released an extensive trade policy proposal that appears to echo Trump on certain issues, like the economic threat of China and jobs that have been lost to outsourcing.

“As President, I won’t hand America’s leverage to big corporations to use for their own narrow purposes — I’ll use it to create and defend good American jobs, raise wages and farm income, combat climate change, lower drug prices, and raise living standards worldwide,” Warren wrote in a Medium post outlining her proposal. “We will engage in international trade — but on our terms and only when it benefits American families.”

Warren goes on to list nine preconditions countries must meet before entering a trade deal with America. They include eliminating all domestic fossil fuel subsidies, having a plan to meet the requirements of the Paris Climate Agreement and upholding internationally recognized human rights.

But the proposal would fundamentally alter existing and future trade partnerships and is likely to face intense congressional opposition, Politico notes.

The irony multiplies: House Republicans have scheduled their annual policy retreat in ... Baltimore.

Despite Trump’s concerns that the city is a “very dangerous & filthy place,” House Republicans plan to hold the September retreat at a downtown Baltimore hotel, the Washington Post reports.

The GOP retreat was originally supposed to take place in January in West Virginia, but it was rescheduled due to the looming government shutdown. It is now set to occur between September 12 and 14 at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront, which is just barely outside of representative Elijah Cummings’ district.

Trump’s comments this morning to 9/11 first responders that he “spent a lot time” at Ground Zero are raising serious doubts.

A New York Times reporter who spent years covering the fallout of the attacks for the New York Post tweeted this:

Trump has made similar claims in the past. During a 2016 rally in Buffalo, New York, he said, “I was down there and I watched our police and our firemen down on 7/11, down at the World Trade Center right after it came down. And I saw the greatest people I’ve ever seen in action. I saw the bravest people I’ve ever seen, including the construction workers, including every person down there. That’s what New York values are about.”

The Associated Press reported at the time:

Trump’s reference to ‘7/11’ was a slip of the lip. News accounts from days just after 9/11 include references to Trump giving high-fives to police officers and volunteers on their way to the World Trade Center site. ‘I have a lot of men working down here. I want to make sure they’re OK,’ he said. Trump said his employers were cleaning and digging out, but declined to say where they were working.

Joe Biden’s campaign has released its own blistering criticism of Kamala Harris’ health care plan.

A statement from Biden’s campaign accuses the California senator of having “released a health care plan that both backtracks on her long-promised – but then-hedged – support of Bernie Sanders’ Medicare for All legislation while at the same time committing to still unraveling the hard-won Affordable Care Act that the Trump Administration is trying to undo right now.”

The statement specifically criticizes Harris’s proposal to phase in the new system over 10 years. “This new, have-it-every-which-way approach pushes the extremely challenging implementation of the Medicare for All part of this plan ten years into the future, meaning it would not occur on the watch of even a two-term administration,” Biden’s campaign said. “The result? A Bernie Sanders-lite Medicare for All and a refusal to be straight with the American middle class, who would have a large tax increase forced on them with this plan.”

But the former vice president couldn’t end the statement without issuing a very backhanded compliment to Sanders. “To their credit, the Sanders campaign has been honest that the only way to enact Medicare for All without substantially raising taxes on the middle class would require ‘unicorns’ and ‘magic wands,’” the statement concludes.

Campaign staffers for Kamala Harris and Bernie Sanders are going back and forth defending their candidates’ health care plans after Harris released her long-awaited proposal today.

Sanders’s staffers are basically saying Harris’s plan doesn’t go far enough, specifically citing the role of private insurers. While Harris would allow private insurers to participate in Medicare plans, Sanders would eliminate the companies’ role. Sanders’s policy director tweeted this about Harris’s plan:

And that sparked a tense exchange with Harris’s press secretary:

Harris releases long-awaited health care plan

Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris has released her campaign’s health care plan, which seems to create a middle option between Bernie Sanders’ Medicare-for-all plan and Joe Biden’s proposal to largely maintain the status quo while adding a government-run insurance option.

Harris outlined the plan in a Medium post, explaining that her proposal would allow Medicare to be expanded to all Americans over 10 years while preserving a role for private insurers.

“Medicare works. It’s popular. ... Now, let’s expand it to all Americans and give everyone access to comprehensive health care,” Harris writes, noting that her proposed Medicare system would “cover all medically necessary services, including emergency room visits.”

But the California senator diverges from Sanders and other progressives on private insurance companies. (Sanders’ plan would eliminate the role of private insurers.)

“[W]e will allow private insurers to offer Medicare plans as a part of this system that adhere to strict Medicare requirements on costs and benefits. This would function similar to how private Medicare plans work today, which cover about a third of Medicare seniors, and operate within the Medicare system,” Harris writes. “This preserves the options that seniors have today and expands options to all Americans, while also telling insurance companies they don’t run the show.”

Harris does not mention that private insurance companies have profited extensively off their existing role in Medicare Advantage, which could help stifle industry opposition to her plan.

Harris has previously offered mixed messages on her health care views, initially saying at a CNN town hall in January that she would “eliminate” private insurance. She later walked that back. But during the first round of presidential debates, Harris raised her hand when the moderators asked who was in favor of getting rid of private insurance.

Updated

Conservative commentator Bill Kristol provided this “summary” of Dan Coat’s resignation letter as director of national intelligence:

George Conway, who is married to senior White House adviser Kellyanne Conway, responded with this note:

If you need a refresher: former defense secretary Jim Mattis resigned late last year with a letter delineating all of his ideological differences with Trump. Mattis specifically cited the poor treatment of international allies and the administration’s approach to “malign actors” as two key matters on which he and the president diverged.

The letter concluded, “Because you have the right to have a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other subjects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position.”

Another House Democrat, representative Dina Titus of Nevada, has come out in favor of impeachment.

The House Democratic caucus is now nearing a majority level of support for launching impeachment proceedings, Politico reported yesterday.

Titus’ announcement brings the number of pro-impeachment House Democrats up to about 109, which is nine short of a majority for the Democratic caucus.

Sharpton: Trump 'has a particular venom for blacks and people of color'

Al Sharpton addressed Trump’s attacks on representative Elijah Cummings and his congressional district in Baltimore.

Speaking to reporters in Baltimore, the longtime African American activist said Trump had attacked Cummings and his constituents “in the most bigoted and racist way.”

“He attacks everybody,” Sharpton said of the president. “I know Donald Trump. He’s not mature enough to take criticism. He can’t help it. He’s like a child. Somebody says something, he reacts. He’s thin-skinned and not really matured that well.

“But he has a particular venom for blacks and people of color,” Sharpton noted. “He doesn’t refer to any of his other opponents or critics as ‘infested.’ He does not attack their districts.”

Sharpton then went on to laud Cummings’ constituents. “The fact of the matter is Elijah Cummings’ district is the most well-educated and middle class-aspiring district of blacks in this country,” he said.

Updated

Trump has left the bill signing without taking any questions on his attacks against Baltimore, his new director of national intelligence or anything else.

Trump on 9/11 first responders: 'I was down there also'

Trump interrupted his own remarks on the bill extending the 9/11 victims fund to claim he was “down there also” after planes struck the Twin Towers.

“I was down there also, but I’m not considering myself a first responder,” Trump said at a Rose Garden event where first responders were present.

Updated

Trump started his bill signing ceremony for the 9/11 victims fund extension by expressing condolences for those affected by the shooting in northern California.

He also recognized former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani, who now serves as Trump’s lawyer. Giuliani was the city’s mayor when the 9/11 attacks occurred, and Trump said he considered Giuliani to be “our greatest mayor.”

Trump has just appeared for a bill signing of the 9/11 victims fund extension. Watch as he delivers remarks here.

Democratic presidential candidates are preparing for the debates that start tomorrow in Detroit, but Cory Booker’s campaign is already looking ahead to the next face-off.

The New Jersey senator announced this morning that his campaign had hit the donor threshold to qualify for the fall debate.

Booker has received contributions from at least 130,000 unique donors and has registered at 2 percent or higher in enough qualifying polls, meeting the Democratic National Committee’s heightened requirements for the September debate.

The DNC’s stricter qualifications are expected to significantly decrease the number of debate participants. The Detroit debates, split between tomorrow and Wednesday, will feature 20 candidates.

Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee — who has centered his campaign around the climate crisis — has launched a new environmental justice proposal.

The Washington governor would turn the White House Council on Environmental Quality into the Council on Environmental Justice, increase civil and criminal penalties for polluters, and create a fund to reduce energy bills for low-income families.

Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee speaks in Houston.
Democratic presidential candidate Jay Inslee speaks in Houston. Photograph: David J Phillip/AP

His broader climate plan specifies that 40% or more of federal investments in a greener economy—or $1.2 trillion—would go to communities facing the most pollution, income inequality and impacts from global heating.

Inslee in an op-ed in The New York Times on Sunday argued the climate crisis is a winning campaign issue and that President Donald Trump’s record on the environment is a “huge obstacle to his re-election.”

The governor says his White House would map overall environmental inequity—from pollution from power plants, highways and fossil fuel facilities--and use the data in government decisions.

Inslee would also ban uses of PFAS chemicals, which are polluting drinking water for hundreds of communities around the country, particularly around military bases that have used firefighting foam containing the toxic chemicals in drills.

Another ironic twist to Trump’s attacks on Baltimore: the president’s son-in law and adviser Jared Kushner owns more than a dozen apartment complexes there that have been cited for, among many other things, rodent infestations.

The Washington Post reports:

Kushner Cos., which started operating in Maryland in 2013, has owned almost 9,000 rental units across 17 complexes, many of them in Baltimore County, the Baltimore Sun reported earlier this year.

The properties generate at least $90 million in annual revenue. Kushner stepped down as chief executive of the company in 2017, when he became a senior White House adviser. ...

In 2017, Baltimore County officials revealed that apartments owned by the Kushner firm were responsible for more than 200 code violations, all accrued in the span of the calendar year. Repairs were made only after the county threatened fines, local officials said, and even after warnings, violations on nine properties were not addressed, resulting in monetary sanctions.

In an investigation by the New York Times and Pro Publica published earlier that year, tenants of Kushner properties reported mouse infestations, mold problems and maggots. A private investigator who looked into Kushner’s property management company, Westminster Management, described the managers as ‘slumlords.’

Gunman kills three at California garlic festival

Three people, including a six-year-old boy, were shot and killed by a gunman who opened fire at the Gilroy garlic festival in northern California. Authorities confirmed the gunman was also killed after a confrontation with police.

Security measures are taken after a mass shooting at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California.
Security measures are taken after a mass shooting at the Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

Vivian Ho and Adam Gabbatt have more:

The gunman used a rifle and gained entry to the Gilroy garlic festival by cutting through a fence to avoid tight security, including metal detectors, police said.

A second suspect was ‘involved in some way, we just don’t know in what way’, the Gilroy police chief, Scot Smithee, said at a late-night press conference. The police chief said the motive behind the killings remained unclear.

On Monday it emerged that six-year-old Stephen Romero was among the victims. His grandmother, Maribel Romero, told KGO-TV that Romero was a ‘loving boy’ who was ‘always kind, happy and, you know, playful’. Romero’s father, Alberto Romero said his son had been playing on a bouncy castle when the shooting happened. Romero was not at the festival, and learned that Stephen had been shot when his wife called from the hospital.

Trump on Sharpton: 'Hates Whites & Cops!'

Trump is attacking Al Sharpton as “a con man, a troublemaker, always looking for a score” as the longtime activist heads to Baltimore amid the president’s attacks on the city.

In response, Sharpton tweeted a photo of Trump attending a 2006 convention for the National Action Network, a civil rights organization founded by Sharpton.

Updated

Trump renews attack on Elijah Cummings

Good morning, live blog readers – and welcome to another week that has started with Donald Trump launching racist attacks against a black member of Congress.

Just weeks after the president suggested four minority congresswomen should “go back” to where they came from, he has now suggested that Baltimore, the home city of representative Elijah Cummings, is “a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” and “the worst run and most dangerous [district] anywhere in the United States”.

Trump continued with that line of racist criticism this morning, upon learning that Al Sharpton was going to visit the city.

It is ironic that Trump is attacking Cummings for being “all talk, no action,” given that the president’s ire was first ignited because of the many investigative steps Cummings has taken as chairman of the House oversight committee.

But the “all talk, no action” line also echoed Trump’s criticisms shortly after he was elected against representative John Lewis, a civil rights icon who was beaten by police during the famous 1965 march in Selma, Alabama. Trump also claimed Lewis’s Georgia district was “in horrible shape,” an assertion that many of the congressman’s constituents dismissed as a “flat-out lie”.

Many residents of Cummings’ majority-black district have similarly denied Trump’s characterization of their home, suggesting that the president’s false attacks are based largely on who lives there.

CNN host Victor Blackwell touched on this issue during an emotional segment discussing Baltimore, where he grew up. “There are challenges no doubt. But people are proud of their community,” said Blackwell, who is African American. “I don’t want to sound self-righteous, but people get up and go to work there, they care for their families there, they love their children who pledge allegiance to the flag just like children do in districts of congressmen who support you, sir. They are Americans too.”

Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats speaks during a press briefing at the White House.
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats speaks during a press briefing at the White House. Photograph: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

Here are a few other things the blog is keeping its eye on today:

  • Director of national intelligence Dan Coats is leaving his post next month, clearing the way for representative John Ratcliffe, a Trump loyalist who grilled special counsel Robert Mueller last week.
  • Trump will almost certainly be thrown questions about Coats and his attacks on Cummings when he participates in a signing ceremony for the 9/11 victims fund at 10 a.m. EDT. But there’s no guarantee he’ll respond.
  • 2020 candidates are preparing for the next round of debates, which start tomorrow in Detroit.

We’re covering all of that and more today, so stay tuned.

Updated

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