Updated events of the day
We’re closing out our live US coverage for tonight. Across the country:
- El Paso, Texas readies for hometown 2020 candidate Beto O’Rourke’s first campaign rally there on Saturday morning. The Associated Press has a revealing look at the Democrat’s local history, including an intriguing account of Beto’s blind date.
- In California, family and friends of Willie McCoy are speaking out after Vallejo police released the disturbing body-cam footage of the 20-year-old’s killing by officers after he was found asleep in his car.
- Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren is campaigning in Iowa tonight.
Earlier, in Washington and Mar-a-Lago:
- Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding the full report of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation - into allegations of collusion by Donald Trump or his 2016 election campaign team with the Kremlin to stymie Hillary Clinton, and accusations of obstruction of justice by the president or his circle - by Tuesday April 2, without redactions.
- Attorney general William Barr sent a letter to Congress on Friday saying he would hand the report over to Congress by mid-April or sooner, without giving the president the chance to edit it, but with redactions.
- Donald Trump has threatened to shut the US-Mexico border next week if Mexico doesn’t act to stem the surge of migrants from Central America reaching the US unlawfully. He also blames Democrats for shortcomings in immigration laws and US policy.
My colleague Sam Levin is reporting from a press conference that Willie McCoy’s family is holding now in Oakland, in response to the public release of body-cam footage of the 2o-year-old’s killing.
Follow Sam on Twitter for live updates and video:
“Willie was a sitting duck in that car ... They didn’t want to give him a chance” - David Harrison, Willie’s cousin pic.twitter.com/iqsLMpduIq
— Sam Levin (@SamTLevin) March 29, 2019
The footage of McCoy’s death is extremely painful to watch. McCoy’s brother said that he thinks it is important for the public to see the footage, but that “there’s a thousand videos on YouTube that show police misconduct...it gets dismissed.”
Marc, Willie's older brother, told me he was glad the public would finally see the video, but added: “There’s a thousand videos on YouTube that show police misconduct, whether it’s beatings of citizens or killing them ... It gets dismissed."
— Sam Levin (@SamTLevin) March 29, 2019
In California, Vallejo police have released body cam footage of Willie McCoy’s killing, which shows the 20-year-old asleep in his car before police open fire.
The footage is consistent with claims of McCoy’s family, who said officers did not try to wake him or talk to him before shooting, my colleague Sam Levin reports.
The footage shows:
- That officers did not try to wake McCoy up or talk to him after they spotted a gun in his lap, and instead pointed their firearms at his head directly outside the car as he slept for several minutes.
- The officers then appeared to make a plan to fire at him, with one saying, “If he reaches for it, you know what to do.”
- McCoy eventually started to move, scratching his shoulder and not yet appearing alert or saying anything to officers, and several seconds later, all six officers fired at him.
Police officials did not give the family or their attorney a heads-up about their decision to release the video today, according to the attorney.
Some of the footage, which is extremely disturbing, is included in with article below. The video will not start playing automatically. It is located part-way down the article page.
Read an in-depth profile of McCoy’s life, and hear his friends speak on video about their memories of him, here.
Save this one for your weekend read: Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke is holding his first rally in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, on Saturday. Ahead of the event, the Associated Press has a revealing profile of O’Rourke’s relationship with El Paso, and with Ciudad Juarez, the Mexican city just across the Rio Grande.
The profile highlights some important tensions between O’Rourke’s current rhetoric and his record:
- “Though now he calls for tearing down the border walls that have stood between El Paso and Juarez in some form since the 1970s, O’Rourke voted just last year to approve new border barrier construction.”
- In 2008, O’Rourke also cast a key vote that some El Paso residents say allowed the city to displace poor Mexican families from some of the city’s oldest neighborhoods. “He has charisma for people who don’t know him,” said Angie Martinez, a 74-year-old, retired school cafeteria worker. “But here we know the truth.”
The profile details how O’Rourke took Amy Sanders, the woman he would later marry, on a blind date to Juarez as a “test.” It also includes an astonishing anecdote from O’Rourke’s sister, Charlotte, about the early signs of O’Rourke’s ambition.
At one point, when she was considering becoming a teacher, her brother sat down and presented a very different vision for what she should do with her life. It was “this big spiel about how I am going to be this amazing, like, politician who’s going to change El Paso....And I was like, ‘Uh-huh. Uh-huh,’” Charlotte O’Rourke said. “Now I always say, ‘Oh, he was talking to himself that day.’”
Read the full profile here.
Trump’s re-election campaign is selling t-shirts decorated with a cartoon of House Intelligence Committee chair Adam Schiff, and emblazoned with the president’s nickname for him: “Little Pencil-Neck.”
It’s yet another reminder, commenters noted, that Melania Trump’s campaign against social media bullying, “Be Best,” might have some work to do in the White House.
Adults should teach children that “when they are using their voices—whether verbally or online—they must choose their words wisely and speak with respect and compassion,” the White House’s “Be Best” site advises.
The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., previously referred to the Democratic congressman as “the pencil neck geek” earlier this week.
Little Pencil-Neck Adam Schiff
— Official Team Trump (@TeamTrump) March 29, 2019
He spent two years knowingly and unlawfully lying and leaking. He should be forced to resign from Congress!
Everyone should buy a Pencil-Neck Adam Schiff shirt today!
BUY Now: https://t.co/5SMsrJC8nU pic.twitter.com/v3Vvmma0e6
In San Francisco, local residents are contributing to dueling crowdfunding campaigns to pay for a legal battle over whether the city will be able to construct a desperately needed homeless shelter in a wealthy area of town.
San Francisco residents have been publicly contributing money, under their names, to help block the construction of a homeless shelter on a vacant lot beneath the Bay Bridge.
Billionaire Salesforce founder Marc Benioff, who has set himself apart from the city’s other tech leaders in his commitment to addressing the city’s homelessness crisis, just donated $10,000 to support the fight for the shelter.
Upto 61k thanks @Benioff absolutely amazing (!!!!) pic.twitter.com/CEzeiSCqIk
— Sana Saleem (@sanasaleem) March 29, 2019
San Francisco currently has an estimated 7,500 homeless residents in the city and more than 1,400 are waiting for temporary spots to open in shelters.
Updated
Lois Beckett here picking up our live coverage from Oakland.
Speaking at a news conference in Mar-a-Lago this afternoon, President Trump told reporters that he decided to stop sanctions against North Korea because he didn’t think they were necessary at this time.
Trump is slated to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in in Washington on April 11.
Main events of the day so far on an action-packed Friday
The Guardian’s US east coast reporting and blogging team will be handing over to our colleagues on the west coast very shortly. My colleague Lois Beckett, in Oakland, California, will take over the live blog, so don’t head for the bar (juice bar or bar bar) just yet - loads more action to come.
Here’s a summary of events of the day so far:
- Democrats on Capitol Hill are demanding the full report of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation - into allegations of collusion by Donald Trump or his 2016 election campaign team with the Kremlin to stymie Hillary Clinton, and accusations of obstruction of justice by the president or his circle - by Tuesday April 2, without redactions.
- Attorney general William Barr sent a letter to Congress on Friday saying he would hand the report over to Congress by mid-April or sooner, without giving the president the chance to edit it, but with redactions.
- Donald Trump has threatened to shut the US-Mexico border next week if Mexico doesn’t act to stem the surge of migrants from Central America reaching the US unlawfully. Also blames Democrats for shortcomings in immigration laws and US policy.
- The president is in Florida, where he swung by Lake Okeechobee with some GOP mates, then ‘coptered off to Mar-a-Lago, where he accepted the resignation of Linda McMahon, director of the small business administration.
- New York magazine published a jolting article about Joe Biden’s habit of giving unsolicited kisses and intimate hugs and “nuzzles” to women and girls he meets at public events and on campaign trails.
Updated
Leading House Democrats still demanding attorney general hand over full Mueller report by April 2
House of Representatives judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler is still insisting that Congress get the full Mueller report - without redactions - by Tuesday, regardless of AG Bill Barr’s letter a few hours ago saying he would present the report, with redactions, by “mid-April if not sooner”.
Barr wrote to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, and Nadler, Democrat of New York, earlier today with his pledge.
The offering by Barr, appointed by Donald Trump a few short months ago, appears to have done nothing to quell tempers on the other side of the aisle and there’ll be sparks flying next week on Capitol Hill.
Updated
Joe Biden subject of New York magazine article about "awkward kiss", uninvited intimacies
When we mentioned earlier that we’d be returning to the subject of Joe Biden, we weren’t quite expecting this:
New York magazine has just published a first-person piece about the former vice-president and potential 2020 election candidate for the Democratic Party nomination, and it’s not a pretty picture.
Lucy Flores, who in 2014 was the 35-year-old Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Nevada, describes how Joe Biden turned out last minute to campaign for her, but left her feeling appalled.
She describes how the then-in-office, then 70-year-old, Veep came up behind her, put his hands on both of her shoulders, inhaled deeply the scent of her hair and planted “a big slow kiss” on the back of her head just before she was about to go on stage at an eve-of-election campaign rally.
The article goes on to describe and illustrate lots of other examples of Biden hugging, gripping, lips-kissing, “nuzzling” and intimately whispering in the ears of daughters and wives of politicians, and women he’s encountered on the campaign trail or at political events.
In some of the pictures the objects of this seemingly-unilateral display of “affection” are visibly uncomfortable.
Tweeting about the article, Flores, describing herself on Twitter as a social justice advocate, former Nevada assemblywoman and “troll slayer”, amongst other things, said:
“This was an incredibly difficult thing to do, but something that felt necessary. It took a while before I found the words and the support that made me feel like this was finally a story I could tell.”
This was an incredibly difficult thing to do, but something that felt necessary. It took awhile before I found the words and the support that made me feel like this was finally a story I could tell. https://t.co/Sr5Go3xuTe
— Lucy Flores (@LucyFlores) March 29, 2019
Trump says 'very good likelihood' he will close the Southern border next week
That’s the latest line from the president holding a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, his private club in Florida.
Updated
Trump gives news conference at Mar-a-Lago
The pool reporter at Mar-a-Lago says:
News conference begins at 4:20 pm. Trump seated on sofa beside Linda McMahon. He announces she is resigning as Small Business Administration director and is going to help with Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
“This is an outstanding woman. Who has done an outstanding job,” Trump said.
Trump says he will nominate her successor in a short time.
The president also says he has a lot of confidence in AG Barr. Again calls Mueller investigation a hoax and says he has nothing to hide.
Updated
Here are some quick-fire thoughts from the Guardian’s Jon Swaine on the latest developments re: Barr, Mueller, Trump, Congress.
Attorney general William Barr’s latest letter, sent Friday afternoon, is unlikely to calm the restive Democrats who have demanded to see Robert Mueller’s full report on the Trump-Russia investigation – and it may have actually set off more alarm bells.
Democrats in Congress knew Barr would want to redact material relating to grand jury proceedings, which are secret and may not be published without a court order. They acknowledged he would also seek to protect the sources of sensitive intelligence.
But Barr’s pledge to use his redacting pen to guard the “privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties” in the report will raise concerns that questionable activity by people around Trump who were not prosecuted by Mueller stand a worrying chance of being covered up.
We should expect a dispute between Barr, who will say he is just following Justice Department policy, and Democrats who argue that this extraordinary investigation requires an extraordinary amount of transparency.
What Bill Barr's original letter to Congress on the Mueller report tells us
Ahead of an expected press conference at Mar-a-Lago and announcements by the president, any moment, here is a refreshed version of a neat summary and explainer relating to Barr’s letter to Congress last weekend.
Barr’s has just sent another letter to Congress, telling them he’ll hand over the report (with redactions) by mid-April, as reported here by Guardian senior reporter Jon Swaine.
Barr first summed up his initial take on the Mueller report (into allegations of collusion between the Trump election campaign and Russia, and obstruction of justice by the president and/or his circle) in a four-page letter to Congress last Sunday, here explained by Guardian senior reporter Oliver Laughland.
Updated
Congresswoman Veronica Escobar to hold press conference in El Paso on border crisis
In this tiny window between AG Bill Barr telling Congress he will release (most of) the Mueller report by mid-April and Donald Trump holding a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, just to let you know that things at the US-Mexico border are still tense.
Reporter-on-the-spot Edwin Delgado sent this mini-dispatch for the Guardian just now, ahead of a press conference in El Paso, Texas, very soon, following his witnessing of the chaos at the border there earlier this week.
On Friday afternoon, El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and local leaders of the border community are expected to address the media on the recent influx of migrants to the border after Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said the entire system is at a “breaking point”.
The press conference is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. ET (2:15 p.m. local time), where Escobar and local advocates are expected to discuss what has led to this humanitarian crisis at the border and the current situation in which hundreds of migrants are being held in a transitory shelter surrounded by chain link fence and barbed wire underneath the Paso del Norte International bridge connecting Ciudad Juarez on the Mexican side of the border and El Paso, separated by barriers.
McAleenan said on Wednesday CBP is ‘reluctantly’ considering releasing migrants directly into the streets as they have already done in Del Rio, Texas, and as happened in El Paso just before Christmas, if the high volume of migrants continues and no other agencies are able to take them.
Local leaders are expected to address the possible scenario in which hundreds of migrants find themselves stranded at local bus stations trying to reach their relatives as it happened in October and Christmas week.
Other potential topics of discussion include the request made by the Department of Homeland Security requesting authority to be able to deport unaccompanied minors faster than the current laws and court rulings facilitate.
“Once again, [DHS Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen is using an increase in the number of asylum seekers as a vehicle to promote an abhorrent policy,” Escobar said in a statement ahead of the press conference.
“Her request for broader authority to detain families indefinitely and deport migrant children, denying them their right to due process, is offensive and anti-American,” she added.
Earlier today, the president threatened to shut the US-Mexico border next week if the flow of migrants unlawfully entering the US is not stemmed.
Attorney General William Barr will not allow Donald Trump to assert privilege over the report
AG Bill Barr sent his letter this afternoon to Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, and Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, chairman of the House judiciary committee, and made it public in the process.
He notes that portions of the report will be redacted. And that the president, despite having the right to assert executive privilege over some parts of the report, had said he intended to defer to the attorney general.
“[A]ccordingly, there are no plans to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review,” Barr said.
Updated
Attorney general William Barr says Mueller report - parts redacted - to Congress by mid-April or before
Breaking news: Barr gives update on the fate of the Mueller report.
Attorney general William Barr has sent a new letter to lawmakers on Capitol Hill this afternoon saying the report by special counsel Robert Mueller, with his findings on Trump, his 2016 election campaign, and Russia’s election interference will be delivered to Congress by mid-April, if not sooner.
However, the AG warned that some parts would be redacted.
Updated
Last word on the eco-system that Lake Okeechobee keeps alive.
The Everglades includes the National Park but also unique areas such as the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve (hello, the Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean and, for better or worse, the film Adaptation).
It’s hard to know why Donald Trump chose today to visit the area. He’s holding a press conference at Mar-a-Lago at 4PM but that won’t shed light on anything related to the environment or his sudden urge to catch a glimpse of Lake Okeechobee.
So before we leave this delicate topic and return to the topics of healthcare, the border and the economy, here’s a picture of the increasingly-rare Florida panther, which still survives in the Everglades.
Most of us humans will never get to see one in the wild but, as it’s 3PM on a Friday I’m going to remind you what to do if you do, courtesy of verse by Ogden Nash:
A panther is like a leopard
except it hasn’t been peppered
should you behold a panther crouch
prepare to say ouch
better yet, if called by a panther
don’t anther.
Trump on his way back to Palm Beach
Walls, dikes, barriers, bluster.
The pool reporters report that the president has left Lake Okeechobee now and is “wheels up” in the Marine One helicopter on his way to Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago.
At the lakeshore just prior, apparently, around 15 people stood for several minutes around a sign that appeared to include a map of the project. The pool couldn’t hear the conversation. The group then went close to the water and looked out at the lake.
Your blogger presents the next exchange, as reported by the pool, but without comment because I have face-planted.
“Great project,” Trump told reporters.
Pool reports POTUS talked for several minutes about the project. He said Okeechobee has been a success but has had problems.
Pointing to earthen walls along the dike, he said: “I’m looking at all of the walls and I’m saying ...don’t forget our southern border.”
Linda McMahon will chair Trump’s 2020 Super PAC, Politico is reporting.
Earlier we heard that McMahon is stepping down as head of the Small Business Administration – but it seems she won’t be going far.
Instead, she’ll take up a role at “America First Action”, which will play a key role in Trump’s re-election effort. From Politico:
Trump allies have spent weeks searching for someone to chair the super PAC, which officials view as a key plank in the president’s reelection campaign. The president’s top aides believe they will need to raise around $1 billion, and say the super PAC will be a major part of the effort. Brian Walsh, America First Action’s president, declined to comment.
The president is expected to huddle with major donors on Saturday evening at Mar-a-Lago, according to two people familiar with the plans. Trump is planning to speak to reporters at 4pm. McMahon is joining the president at his private club this weekend.
Donald Trump reiterates threat to close the US-Mexico border.
Speaking after his tour of Lake Okeechobee, Trump doubled-down on closing the border over what he describes as an immigration crisis.
“If they don’t stop it we will keep the border closed. And we will keep it stopped for a long time. I’m not playing games,” Trump said, according to a White House pool report.
In other Trump news, the president will hold a press conference at 4pm, where he will respond to reports that Linda McMahon is resigning as head of the Small Business Administration.
According to a White House pool report Trump will speak from Mar-a-Lago.
Updated
Elizabeth Warren takes stage in Iowa
Meanwhile, Democratic 2020 election hopeful Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Senator, is hitting Iowa this weekend.
She just took the stage in Marshalltown “in her first stop focusing on rural Iowa this weekend”, Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC just tweeted.
.@ewarren takes the stage in Marshalltown Iowa in her first stop focusing on rural Iowa this weekend pic.twitter.com/K5yFKr5b9N
— Leigh Ann Caldwell (@LACaldwellDC) March 29, 2019
Lakes and pools.
As the president tours Lake Okeechobee, the Washington reporters’ pool traveling with him notes:
“Pool is aware of reports that Linda McMahon is resigning as head of Small Business Administration. We are seeking details.”
Updated
Trump arrives in Florida, visiting Lake Okeechobee
Local Florida media and the rotating pool of Washington reporters that tracks the movements of the president in Washington and while he is on his travels, and sends dispatches out to the rest of the mainstream US media, has noted that Trump has arrived at Lake Okeechobee in Florida.
He’s visiting the Herbert Hoover Dike, the lesser-known (as in completely unknown to the general public outside of southern Florida) cousin of the Hoover Dam. The Dike is a system of levees and water control channels around the lake, but is showing its age.
He stands with Florida’s GOP Senators Marco Rubio and Rick Scott, listening to governor Ron DeSantis moments ago. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters
It’s also at its lowest level since 2011, a local TV station reported, adding that the US army corps of engineers is working to repair the dike by 2022.
Supporters of the president turned out to greet him, holding signs with such messages as “Sugar cane farmers for Trump” and “Make Lake O Great Again”.
Updated
Linda McMahon, head of the Small Business Administration, may be heading for the door
Linda McMahon, the head of the Small Business Administration, is reportedly planning to announce as soon as Friday that she’s stepping down.
McMahon is expected to rejoin the private sector. Her exact plans are unclear, but one of the people said the wealthy business mogul intends to play a fundraising role for Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
She was expected to join the president at Mar-a-Lago, his private Florida club, this weekend, Politico reports, according to folks in the know.
There’s no explanation from the Trump administration on this yet. She had been seen as a possible successor to commerce secretary Wilbur Ross.
A longtime professional wrestling executive and former Republican Senate candidate, McMahon is an original member of Trump’s Cabinet, having been confirmed for the job in February 2017. She’s also one of just five women in the president’s Cabinet, the news website points out.
Updated
Dee Margo, the Republican mayor of El Paso, met with Customs and Border Protection commissioner Kevin McAleenan when the federal official visited the border in the city on Wednesday and declared the system there to be “at breaking point”.
Margo told NPR shortly after that that the idea of shutting the border in response to the current migration surge would not be helpful.
He put the problem down, in the big picture, to the lack of “intestinal fortitude” exhibited on either side of the aisle in Congress on immigration laws for the past three decades.
Immediately on the ground, if the president closes the border next week, the effects will immediately be dramatic, if that’s not stating the obvious. Just in El Paso, Margo pointed out that:
“We have a hundred billion-plus in trade back and forth in imports and exports. We have six of the 28 bridges that cross from Texas to Mexico...We have 23,000 legal pedestrians that come north every day. We’ve got 13 million vehicles that come north every year.
“It affects us all the way around, from commerce - and the wait times on the bridges are approaching two hours, that’s an environmental issue, while cars are just sitting there idling. It’s a major problem.
“But the issue is not just Mexico and whatever they’re doing. The issue is the lack of action by our Congress to deal with this.”
Updated
Politicians disagree about whether there is a crisis at the border and, if there is, to what extent it is self-inflicted by America’s own dysfunctional immigration policies.
My colleagues Amanda Holpuch, taking to experts from her well-informed purchase in New York, and Nina Lakhani, who’s based south of the US-Mexico border and reports from Mexico City, analyze the latest and jointly write today:
US authorities’ failure to keep up with a steep increase in Central American families seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border has left El Paso aid workers, churches and city government scrambling to respond.
After a sudden surge in arrivals, migrants have been crowded into hotels, churches and even held under a bridge behind a chain-link fence and razor wire while their asylum claims are processed.
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, said the number of new arrivals in March is expected to reach 100,000, including 55,000 family members. “The immigration system is at breaking point,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
The chaotic scenes in El Paso are the result of a regional crisis in which growing numbers of Central American families flee violence, corruption and poverty – only to come up against failed migration polices in Mexico and the US.
The exodus has only gained pace in recent months. Last year, border apprehensions dropped to historic lows, but in February CBP announced more than 76,000 people were apprehended or sought asylum at the US southern border – the highest number in a decade.
The advocacy group DHS Watch noted that family apprehensions at the border had been steadily increasing since 2012. “Nothing is perfect, but we have seen that the Trump policies of the last two years have not only failed, they have led us to more serious problems,” Ur Jaddou, director of DHS Watch, said in a statement.
Authorities in US border towns have struggled to cope with the crush of families and unaccompanied minors. Because of limits on how long children can be held in detention, most families are now being released to pursue their claims in immigration courts, a process that can take years.
Read their whole report here.
Summary
Comedy writer and political observer Nick Jack Pappas isn’t laughing.
He tweeted: “$558 billion in goods flow across the U.S.- Mexico border in both directions, making Mexico our third-biggest trading partner for goods. Closing the border would cost billions.”
Pappas then continues, including a think tank quote: “If you are thinking about a total shutdown of the border, then it’s hundreds of millions of dollars A DAY -- maybe a billion.” - Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. Our economy would stall. The U.S. would become one of Trump’s failed businesses.
The Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies demand the detention of migrants entering the US unlawfully, even if they are claiming asylum after escaping violence and crushing poverty in Central America.
Most migrants are arriving from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, a region my world affairs colleague in Washington, Julian Borger, has described, politically, as “a hell the US helped create” with its foreign policy.
The federal agencies on the front line, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are overwhelmed.
Hundreds of migrant families who’ve crossed the border are packed under a highway overpass on the border in El Paso, in western Texas, next to the border processing station, behind razor wire and fencing, as CBP struggles to figure out where to put them.
Many are sick and, as reporter-on-the-spot Edwin Delgado reported for the Guardian on Wednesday, exhausted as the mostly parents and children wait to find out their next step.
He wasn’t allowed by the authorities to talk to the folks, but witnessed the latest scenes unfolding as Washington policy aims and their manifestation on the ground create chaos.
Images emerged on Wednesday of hundreds of families packed into a grim open air space beneath an underpass, behind razor wire and fencing, their faces – some weary and bewildered, some hopeful – turned toward America.
They were migrants trying to make their way to the United States from Central America and found themselves being held at the US-Mexico border in a parking lot of a border patrol station at the international crossing point in El Paso, in western Texas.
Nearby, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, declared an “operational crisis” because of a recent surge in the number of people arriving at the border, many hoping to seek asylum, and either crossing into the US unlawfully or waiting in gathering numbers on the Mexican side to be processed.
He said the immigration system on the southern border was at “breaking point” and called on Congress to bring solutions.
Trump tweets threat to close US-Mexico border
In a three-stage Twitter blast, Donald Trump has just excoriated the Democrats and Congress over US immigration laws and legislative reforms of same, hammered Mexico, and threatened to shut the US-Mexico border next week.
The president tweeted that “the Democrats have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the world.”
He then continued: “If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States throug our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING.....
....through their country and our Southern Border. Mexico has for many years made a fortune off of the U.S., far greater than Border Costs. If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States throug our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING.....
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2019
....the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week.
....the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week. This would be so easy for Mexico to do, but they just take our money and “talk.” Besides, we lose so much money with them, especially when you add in drug trafficking etc.), that the Border closing would be a good thing!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 29, 2019
Updated
Trump threatens to close the US-Mexico border
Breaking News: Trump is threatening to close the border with Mexico next week, over reports from his agencies that the immigration system there is “at breaking point” following a surge of migrants being detained after crossing unlawfully, especially in Texas, in recent weeks.
Donald Trump threatened on Friday to close the US border with Mexico next week, or at least large sections of the frontier, if Mexico “doesn’t immediately stop all illegal immigration coming into the United States” from the region, Reuters reported moments ago.
Updated
From one swamp to another
Is there such a thing as a good swamp? Definitely, when it’s the Florida Everglades. It’s not even a swamp, it’s a very slow-moving, shallow, freshwater river seeping southwards to the bottom of Florida and supporting one of the most incredible ecosystems in the world.
Beats the Washington political one hands down.
The Everglades is under threat but still hosts an animal and plant cornucopia, though don’t get me started, it’s a pet topic and, like the health of the ocean, causes a perpetual push-pull on the emotions between awe and anxiety.
Just north of the Everglades, in southern Florida, feeding that glorious, wetland wilderness known as the “river of grass”, sits the vast Lake Okeechobee, the invaluable freshwater resource for both humans and wildlife, and the president’s destination today before retreating to Mar-a-Lago one week after he received the attorney general’s summary of the Mueller report there.
Trump is heading to Lake Okeechobee after proposing $63 million in federal funds for Everglades restoration, when Democrats and Republicans from Florida asked for $200 million, the Miami Herald declares, starkly, today.
“They cut everybody,” Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio said, when asked why the White House offered a much lower funding amount than requested. “They just asked every agency to take huge cuts so that’s where that comes from. We’ve got to get that fixed. The lower their number, the harder it’s going to be to get it done.”
Rubio, the climate change skeptic.
The lake, vital for the whole region, is regularly ravaged by toxic algae blooms, as my colleague Oliver Milman has previously described. The lake and the Everglades have been sorely neglected and abused and are at the mercy of climate change and overdevelopment, as Ollie described in his recent report “Everglades in crisis”.
If you trust this collection of conservatives to restore them, well, good luck with that.
But Trump, Rubio, Senator Rick Scott and governor Ron DeSantis will surely enjoy the photo-op.
Here’s the next cover of Time.
Sneak peek at this week's cover of @TIME. I could see the president getting this one framed... pic.twitter.com/i6cDRmEzMc
— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) March 28, 2019
Trump supporters at rally declare that "things are swinging his way"
In his follow-up dispatch from Grand Rapids, for the Guardian, Tom Perkins observes Trump’s fanatical supporters at the rally and their instant digestion of the inaccurate claim by the president and leading Republicans that he had been “cleared” of all wrongdoing by the Mueller report, which Potus described as “an elaborate hoax”.
The base now eagerly anticipate the long-awaited construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border , an economic boom and Trump-Pence 2020.
One cool head in the crowd, however, appealed for “an end to partisan bickering”. Good luck with that.
Trump calls Mueller investigation "ridiculous bullshit"
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, last night, Trump continued his assault on the media and Democrats on Thursday night, wrongly claiming “total exoneration, complete vindication” at his first rally since Robert Mueller submitted his report, Tom Perkins writes in the Guardian.
Trump dedicated about half of his approximately 90-minute speech in front of a raucous audience at to the topic, labeling the accusations and investigation “ridiculous bullshit”. The president bounced between theories about why the special counsel’s investigation happened and attacks on his opponents.
“All of the Democrats, politicians, the media also – bad people,” Trump told the crowd at Michigan’s Van Andel Arena. “The crooked journalists, the totally dishonest TV pundits” helped perpetuate “the single greatest hoax in the history of politics”.
He later claimed that the investigation was really an effort “to overturn the results of the 2016 election”.
“It was nothing more than a sinister effort to undermine our historic election and to sabotage the will of the American people,” Trump said to loud boos.
He repeatedly called for “accountability”, drawing chants of “Lock them up”. At other points, the president mocked Democratic opponents, including “little pencil-neck Adam Schiff”, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House intelligence committee, and his fellow lawmaker Jerry Nadler, chair of judiciary, both of whom Trump claimed he “beat again”.
Trump had earlier told reporters as he left the White House that he had been “cleared” by the Mueller report, which is patently untrue. Even Barr’s wafer-think summary of the report noted that Robert Mueller said the president had not been exonerated over the issue of obstruction of justice.
Trump heads to Florida after 'victory lap' first post-Mueller rally in Michigan
Donald Trump is traveling to Florida today and, surprisingly, isn’t landing as a hole-in-one directly at his Palm Beach private club and hob-nobbing nest, Mar-a-Lago.
He’ll reach his weekend White House later for, perhaps, a tender chicken breast and grilled watermelon with balsamic glaze and a side of fries in the elegant oceanfront bistro with its breezy al fresco tables in the sun, followed by some vigorous laps in the outdoor pool (okay, that’s a more typical afternoon itinerary for Mar-a-Lago’s paying members than Potus, but the place is, surprisingly, not without style).
But first he’s swinging by Lake Okochobee with the three musketeers of Florida Republican power: governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Marco Rubio and governor-turned-senator Rick Scott.
The vast lake is one of the most precious and most abused bodies of natural fresh water in the United States and is suffering from over-exploitation, algae attacks, pesticide run-off and merciless neglect and underfunding.
That Trump is going there at all, with his strong record of undermining environmental protections in his two years in office, is a little surprising. More on that in a moment after we take a glance back at his spin through Michigan last night.
Updated
Will attorney general Bill Barr release more of Mueller's words next or a longer summary of his own authorship?
Tempers are certainly rising in the Democratic camp on Capitol Hill over the absence from their desks of the Mueller report and speculation now turns to exactly what AG Barr will issue next.
Barr has made it clear to leading Dems that he won’t be releasing the full report by their demanded deadline, April 2, but with exasperation and anxiety in the air, will next week bring anything else from the DoJ?
Barr has been going through the report amid Democratic concerns that what has been made public so far was tilted in Trump’s favor, the Associated Press writes this morning.
It’s unclear whether whatever Barr might release next will be Mueller’s own words or another summary. House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler offered to join Barr to seek a judge’s approval to unseal grand jury testimony, an aide told the AP.
Barr has said he’ll provide Congress with at least a partial version in April and told Nadler he would agree to testify before his committee.
Democrats complain that Barr overstepped by making the determination, with deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, that Trump did not obstruct the investigation.
As the tension ramps up between the Democrats and Barr, let’s agree that Friday is always a good day for intrigue.
A question - well, there are so many questions about the Mueller report, its process and full findings - but one question piques the curiosity this morning: Why didn’t Robert Mueller subpoena Trump to give an interview to the investigation team?
It was a question for months, whether Trump would talk face-to-face to Mueller and his prosecutors, which the president was resisting and the prospect of which obviously made his inner circle’s knees tremble, given Trump’s penchant for dissembling and contradicting himself moment to moment.
He never did and, fascinatingly, Mueller never ordered him to. This headline in the Washington Post today certainly draws the eye: “A Mueller mystery: How Trump dodged a special counsel interview — and a subpoena fight”.
The story says that a year ago, Mueller warned Trump’s lawyers that if the president didn’t sit down voluntarily for an interview, he could face a subpoena.
He never explicitly, directly threatened to subpoena the president, apparently, but continued to pursue a sit-down between Trump and Mueller’s corps of federal investigators for the rest of 2018, without issuing one, while Trump’s lawyers successfully averted the interview and Mueller accepted written answers to questions instead.
Updated
Clash of the septuagenarians
No not Donald Trump and Joe Biden, though we’ll come to that later. Trump, 72, and Jerry Nadler, 71.
New York contemporaries who’ve been at loggerheads before on their home turf, Nadler is going to be an important needle in Trump’s side as the Democrat battles furiously with AG Bill Barr to get the full report by Robert Mueller passed to Congress.
As chairman of the House of Representatives judiciary committee, Nadler is one of the most powerful voices on the Hill demanding the Mueller report - by Tuesday.
After a phone call with Barr two days ago, Nadler told reporters: “I asked whether he could commit that the full report and un-redacted full report with the underlying documents and evidence will be provided to Congress and to the American people, and he wouldn’t commit to that.”
Democrat staffers on Capitol Hill have been filling in some of the gaps about the interactions, NBC writes.
Apparently, Barr acknowledged making a mistake by speaking extensively with the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, Trump’s GOP nemesis-turned best pal/golfing buddy/lapdog, over dinner before speaking to Nadler.
The Dems think there’s actually no reason Trump couldn’t be charged with obstructing the investigation, even if Mueller found no underlying crime was committed.
Since taking the committee chairmanship in January, Nadler (like House Speaker and steady-hand-skipper Nancy Pelosi) have warned Dems to keep cool heads and not rush to impeach Trump. But he’s not going to let the Mueller report stay under wraps if he can possibly help it.
My DC colleague Lauren Gambino reminded us then that: “Long before Trump came to Washington, he and Nadler sparred over a real estate venture proposed by Trump that Nadler forcefully opposed.”
In his book The America We Deserve, Trump later described Nadler as “one of the most egregious hacks in contemporary politics”.
Updated
Democrats to create havoc if Barr doesn't hand over Mueller report ASAP
Leading Democrats are heading for a major clash with attorney general William Barr next week if there is no sign of the full report by special counsel Robert Mueller being handed over to Congress.
Mueller was appointed by the Department of Justice to act as an independent prosecutor, above the fray, in May 2017, after Donald Trump fired James Comey, the head of the FBI. Mueller took on the investigation into whether the president or his 2016 election campaign colluded with the Russian government or its operatives to defeat Hillary Clinton. And whether the president obstructed justice in the aftermath.
All lawmakers and the public have had sight of since Mueller delivered his report to the DoJ last Friday just after 5PM is a four-page summary written by AG Barr and given to Congress on last Sunday afternoon.
Barr said that after reading the report he could reveal there was no finding of collusion and, following Mueller’s decision not to make a decision on obstruction, that he reckoned there had been no crime of obstruction committed.
He did note, however, that Mueller said Trump was not exonerated on the issue of obstruction.
Democrats on the Hill have demanded to see the full report by April 2. But Barr has been sending increasingly strong signals this week that he is in no hurry to hand over the report and there is no guarantee that they will get the full report, without redactions, or the evidence underlying the findings.
It’s all setting up a major confrontation next week if the Justice Department doesn’t send the full Mueller report to Congress by Tuesday, NBC writes, as six committee chairmen have demanded.
The next step, House Democratic staffers told journalists, would be a subpoena. “We’ll have more to say on April 3,” one said.
Trump heads to Florida after first rally since Mueller, as Democrats up the ante over report
By all means grab coffee and donuts, it’s Friday after all, but the politics swamp never stops bubbling so stay with us for all the live news today.
- Fresh from his first post-Mueller report rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, last night, which featured gloating, calls for vengeance and truth-stretching, Donald Trump heads to Florida. Not straight to Mar-a-Lago, he’s going to Lake Okeechobee first to witness environmental problems that threaten the freshwater wonder and the Everglades to the south.
- Democrats on the Hill are revving up to ramming speed in the direction of the attorney general, William Barr, as the clash over when and whether Congress will ever see the full Robert Mueller report on the special counsel’s Trump-Russia investigation becomes ever more fierce. There are increasing worries that Barr is going to shield much of the report from congressional/public eyes.
- The economy is humming and that bodes well for the Republicans in 2020, but there are signs that it’s too soon to dream of a campaign victory around that. The US commerce department has revised downwards its estimates for economic growth in the fourth quarter. That paired with the brake on interest rate rises means observers need to carry their folding umbrellas with them, as well as their sunnies.
Updated
