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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Julia Carrie Wong in San Francisco (now) and Joan E Greve in Washington (earlier)

Trump reportedly considering ending US refugee program – as it happened

Trump at the White House on Thursday.
Trump at the White House on Thursday. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Summary

That’s all from me today. Have a good weekend!

Here’s a summary of the day’s biggest political news:

  • The Trump administration is considering effectively ending the refugee program, which has allowed thousands of people to resettle in the United States each year since 1980.
  • Trump met with a Democratic senator yesterday to discuss possible gun measures after the three mass shootings last month, but he has not committed to a specific piece of legislation, raising serious doubts of any progress on the issue.
  • The Justice Department has launched an anti-trust investigation into four car companies that struck a deal with California to heighten emissions standards, intensifying complaints of Trump weaponizing the department.
  • Trump repeated his false claim that his warning of Hurricane Dorian hitting Alabama was accurate, even as the storm actually struck North Carolina.
  • NOAA, which oversees the National Weather Service, issued a statement undermining the Birmingham, Alabama NWS office for issuing a statement correcting the president’s false information about the storm.

NWS union president calls NOAA statement "dangerous" and "disgusting"

The president of the union that represents employees of the National Weather Service has responded to NOAA’s statement undermining the Birmingham NWS office, telling the Guardian that NOAA’s statement was “dangerous”, “disgusting”, “irresponsible” and “going to cost people’s lives”.

Dan Sobien, president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization, responded to the Friday afternoon statement from NOAA (which oversees the NWS) on Twitter.

In a phone interview with the Guardian, he explained his deep concern over the statement, which he said was unprecedented in his decades with the NWS. (Sobien stressed that he was speaking in his capacity as president of the union and not for the NWS.)

“I’m absolutely shocked at what NOAA did tonight,” he said. “Never, never has the agency undermined its employees like that. It’s unheard of that they would – with no scientific basis whatsoever – undermine their own employees for political reasons. That’s never happened before under any administration ... This doesn’t happen. This is a scientific agency. People gather data and they make the best decisions they can make form that data.”

Sobien’s union represents about 4,000 employees of the NWS, including meteorologists, flight engineers, technicians, and others.

“The NWS’s job is to save people’s lives, and if you undermine that authority, you’re going to cost people’s lives,” he said. “If they don’t believe hurricane warnings or tornado warnings, it will cost lives. That’s what NOAA’s doing. It’s irresponsible, managerial malpractice, and frankly someone should look into them. They have no right to be running an organization if that’s what they’re going to do.”

Sobien said that he was not been able to think of a way for the union to challenge NOAA’s actions, since they did not violate the union contract.

Still, he said NWS employees were expressing displeasure on social media.

“I’ve seen from our own members that they’re up in arms. People are asking us to do something and I don’t know what to do. It’s just disgusting. The whole thing is just ridiculous.”

The chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party is facing criticism after a fundraising email called for stopping Democratic senate candidate “gun-grabber Mark Kelly dead in his tracks”.

Mark Kelly is married to former to former congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, who was shot in the head by a gunman in a 2011 attack that left six people dead. Giffords survived but suffered serious injuries.

Kelly, a former astronaut, is an advocate to gun control.

“Support the Republican Party of Arizona today and, together, we’ll stop gun-grabber Mark Kelly dead in his tracks,” reads the email from Kelli Ward, according to the Washington Post.

Boycotts get called all the time in the Trump era, and it’s hard to tell how many of them have a real impact. (Did you actually #DeleteUber, or just tweet that you did?)

But a new report by Vox suggests that the boycott of upscale spinning class SoulCycle over investor Stephen Ross’s fundraiser for Trump actually had an effect.

The report is based on data from Earnest Research, which analyzed public data an found consistent declines in attendance at SoulCyle classes in the four weeks since news of the fundraiser broke.

I guess if your boycott makes a virtue out of skipping exercise it has a greater chance of succeeding than if it involves inconvenience or sacrifice.

It’s Friday afternoon, tens of thousands of people are facing devastation in the Bahamas, and Dorian is continuing to batter the Outer Banks of North Carolina.

Meanwhile, President Trump is continuing to throw a temper tantrum about whether or not he should have said on Sunday that the state of Alabama would be hit by the hurricane. (He should not have.)

NOAA, the federal agency overseeing the National Weather Service, has now released an official statement discounting its Birmingham, Alabama branch’s statement from the weekend informing Alabamians that they need not worry about Dorian.

Trump also just tweeted a video that shows a CNN reporter suggesting that the storm might hit Alabama, followed by a CNN logo superimposed over a speeding car that crashes and burns.

Someone is certainly crashing and burning, though I’m not sure it’s CNN.

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

Congress will reconvene next week, and CNN is reporting that Democrats on the House judiciary committee are considering broadening their investigation into Donald Trump beyond the scope of the Robert Mueller investigation.

“It is not all about Russian interference in the 2016 election and the President’s efforts to cover up his role in it,” Representative Jamie Raskin told CNN. “The central sin, the original sin of the Trump administration, is the decision to convert the presidency into a money-making operation for the President and his business and his family.”

Other potential topics of congressional hearings could include hush-money payments and the reports that Trump promised to pardon officials if they violated the law to push through his anti-immigrant agenda, according to the report.

That’s it from me this week. My West Coast colleague, Julia Carrie Wong, will be taking over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The Trump administration is considering effectively ending the refugee program, which has allowed thousands of people to resettle in the United States each year since 1980. The final decision will be made next week.
  • The Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell, said he is not expecting a US or global recession, despite the most recent jobs report slightly missing expectations.
  • Trump met with a Democratic senator yesterday to discuss possible gun measures after the three mass shootings last month, but he has not committed to a specific piece of legislation, raising serious doubts of any progress on the issue.
  • The Justice Department has launched an anti-trust investigation into four car companies that struck a deal with California to heighten emissions standards, intensifying complaints of Trump weaponizing the department.
  • Trump repeated his false claim that his warning of Hurricane Dorian hitting Alabama was accurate, even as the storm actually struck North Carolina. (Follow the latest updates on Dorian’s progress here.)
  • Speculation is mounting over whether Mike Pompeo will enter the Kansas Senate race, and the secretary of state has done virtually nothing to quell the rumors.

Julia will have more on the news of the day, so stay tuned. And have a wonderful weekend!

Fresh from the department of oof: Democratic presidential candidate Tim Ryan said he thinks Joe Biden is “declining” and doesn’t have the “energy” to defeat Trump.

“I just think Biden is declining,” Ryan told a reporter, whom he apparently mistook for a potential donor. “I don’t think he has the energy. You see it almost daily. And I love the guy.”

Biden has suffered a series of embarrassing gaffes recently, but they don’t appear to have dented his status as the Democratic front-runner. He has maintained a double-digit polling lead over all his competitors.

Meanwhile, Ryan’s campaign has languished, with the Ohio congressman failing to qualify for the third debate and generally attracting less than 1 percent of voters’ support in polls. But Ryan said he may continue in the race even if he does not qualify for the fourth debate in October.

The president’s second son, Eric Trump, is being mocked by journalists for accusing a Washington Post reporter of sending ... well, a pretty normal email.

From a Daily Beast reporter:

From a Politico reporter:

The Trump administration isn’t only considering drastically rolling back refugee admissions. It’s also trying to make it harder for refugees to work in the United States.

Axios reports:

The Trump administration is planning to allow immigration officials to take as long as needed to approve work permits for asylum seekers by throwing out the current 30-day processing deadline, according to the proposed regulation released on Friday.
Why it matters: The rule could prevent some asylum seekers, awaiting a decision on their asylum claims in the U.S., from legally working for a long period of time. They are already forced to wait 180 days before they are eligible for a work permit. Asylum cases often take years due to immigration court backlogs.

The new policies, in combination with the announcement last month that the administration would start penalizing green card applicants who use public benefits, demonstrate how Trump’s White House is cracking down on immigration of all forms — legal and illegal.

Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker has quietly and steadily amassed the most endorsements in the first two voting states, Iowa and New Hampshire.

Local leaders insist that endorsements still matter in presidential primaries, but 2016 offered some very compelling evidence to the contrary.

After all, Trump had attracted only a handful of endorsements before becoming the presumptive Republican nominee. And Bernie Sanders was able to launch a much more formidable bid against Hillary Clinton than many commentators expected, even though Clinton had the endorsement of most congressional Democrats.

Democratic presidential candidate Tom Steyer is apparently trying to capitalize on the news that the liberal outlet ThinkProgress will shutter today.

Steyer left the board of the Center for American Progress, the parent think tank of ThinkProgress, when he launched his presidential bid. But given the billionaire activist’s immense wealth, many noted he could have easily paid to save the news site, which has run deficits in recent years.

From a former ThinkProgress reporter:

Here’s more on ThinkProgress shutting down, from the Daily Beast:

The outlet, which served as an editorially independent project of the Democratic Party think tank Center for American Progress, will stop current operations on Friday and be converted into a site where CAP scholars can post. Top officials at CAP had been searching for a buyer to take over ThinkProgress, which has run deficits for years, and according to sources there were potentially three serious buyers in the mix recently. But in a statement to staff, Navin Nayak, the executive director of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, said the site was ultimately unable to secure a patron. ...

A dozen ThinkProgress employees will be losing their jobs, a CAP aide said, as many who were on staff had already gone to work elsewhere and some were incorporated into the larger CAP infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Steyer has sunk tens of millions of dollars into his presidential bid and was not even able to qualify for the third debate. The shuttering of ThinkProgress is another reminder of how many causes could be supported with the money being spent on presidential campaigns unable to attract even 1 percent of voters’ support.

Larry Kudlow, Trump’s chief economic adviser, dismissed concerns about the most recent jobs report, which slightly missed expectations as the unemployment rate held steady.

Kudlow also side-stepped a question about whether Trump still considers trade wars “easy to win,” as he claimed last year. “I don’t know,” Kudlow replied. “You’d have to ask him directly.”

Trump’s tariffs on China have roiled US markets in recent weeks, and he has shown little sign of backing down, even as negotiators from the two countries plan to resume talks next month.

As Pompeo weighs whether to launch a Senate bid, the secretary of state is reportedly barely on speaking terms with Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton.

CNN reports:

Bolton and Pompeo rarely speak outside of formal meetings, three [people familiar with the situation] said, including a recent stretch of going weeks without speaking to one another. That has left key coordination efforts between the White House and State Department to underlings.

There’s also a rift between Bolton and Trump’s acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who oversees the West Wing. Mulvaney has clashed with Bolton over ideological differences in recent months and sought to distance himself from the embattled national security adviser. ...

But the current situation has led to a deep sense of isolation for NSC staffers working under Bolton, who are charged with coordinating foreign policy and national security options for the President.

The internal rift has only added to the sense of confusion about the administration’s foreign policy priorities, and left some allies and experts scratching their heads about who is running Trump’s policy abroad, according to diplomats and administration officials.

Updated

Speculation heightens about Pompeo entering Kansas Senate race

Mike Pompeo, currently serving as Trump’s secretary of state, is really not doing much to quell speculation that he might jump into the Kansas Senate race next year.

“I do see the noise. I’m flattered when people say Mike will be a good United States senator representing Kansas,” Pompeo told a local talk radio station. “But I’m doing something that I consider an incredible privilege, an opportunity of a lifetime to lead the State Department, and I’m focused on doing that each and every day.”

Pompeo was similarly evasive on the topic during an interview with the Wichita Eagle and the Kansas City Star, saying his comments on the matter could be taken “however you’d like.”

And as a Bloomberg News reporter noted, all of Pompeo’s cagey answers are only heightening speculation that he will enter the race.

The former congressman has also reportedly met with Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, to discuss the race, and some people have suggested Pompeo will launch a bid if he doesn’t think the president will win re-election.

The Trump administration meets next week to discuss what the refugee cap will be for the fiscal year starting Oct 1 after consistently working to trim back the US refugee program to zero admissions.

It’s an unusual target; refugees are subjected to the highest level of vetting of any person immigrating to the United States and the program has had consistent bipartisan support since it first began in 1980.

Bob Carey, who oversaw the refugee resettlement program under Barack Obama, told the Guardian in June that the push to end refugee admissions is “ideologically driven by some people in this administration who are against immigration in any way, shape or form.”

Elizabeth Warren joined her follow Democratic presidential candidate, Beto O’Rourke, in calling for an expansion of the US refugee resettlement program.

For reference, the Obama administration set a goal of admitting 110,000 refugees in fiscal year 2017. Pew Research Center has more on the history of the program:

About 3 million refugees have been resettled in the U.S. since Congress passed the Refugee Act of 1980, which created the Federal Refugee Resettlement Program and the current national standard for the screening and admission of refugees into the country.

One of the Democratic presidential candidates, Beto O’Rourke, reacted to the Trump administration considering an effective end to the refugee program.

O’Rourke, who previously represented the border city of El Paso in the House, said the move would go against the principles of America’s founding.

Fed Chair says he doesn't expect a recession

Jerome Powell said today that the Federal Reserve, of which he is chairman, is not expecting a US or global recession.

But it is monitoring a number of uncertainties, including trade conflicts, and will “act as appropriate to sustain the expansion.”

Powell gave an upbeat view of the American economy during an appearance with Swiss National Bank Chairman Thomas Jordan in Switzerland.

Powell said that trade policy is causing “some uncertainty” but that the US consumer is in good shape.
“I would not see a recession as the most likely outcome for the United States or the global economy,” Powell said.

The whole world in his hand? Jerome Powell at the Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy panel discussion in Zurich earlier today.
The whole world in his hand? Jerome Powell at the Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy panel discussion in Zurich earlier today.
 Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Powell was speaking at a conference sponsored by the Swiss Institute of International Studies at the University of Zurich.

It was his first public appearance since his remarks at the Fed’s annual monetary conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, on August 23.

Financial markets were eager to see whether Powell would provide any more clues about what the Fed will do at its next meeting on September 17-18.
At its last meeting in July, the Fed cut rates for the first time in a decade, lowering its key policy rate to a new range of 2% to 2.25%.

Markets believe there is a near certainty that the Fed will cut rates for a second time at the September meeting.

Going with the flow. Swimmers in Lake Zurich or stock market investors?
Going with the flow. Swimmers in Lake Zurich or stock market investors? Photograph: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters

Updated

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • The Trump administration is weighing an effective end to the refugee program that has allowed tens of thousands of people to resettle in the United States each year. The final decision will likely come next week.
  • Trump met with a Democratic senator yesterday to discuss possible gun measures after last month’s three mass shootings, but the president has offered no commitment on supporting a specific piece of legislation.
  • The Justice Department is launching an investigation into four automakers who struck a deal with California in July to heighten emission standards, raising concerns that Trump is weaponizing the department.
  • Howard Schultz announced he would not pursue an independent presidential bid after all, despite toying with the idea for months.
  • The US jobs report slightly missed expectations as the unemployment rate held steady.

The blog is keeping an eye on all of the Trump administration’s policy moves and Hurricane Dorian’s progress, so stay tuned.

Politico reported back in July that Trump was weighing an effective shutdown of the refugee program, at the urging of an official aligned with senior White House adviser Stephen Miller.

Miller has been the most ardent anti-immigration official in the president’s closest circle of advisers, and his influence is reportedly only rivaled by Jared Kushner’s.

In his two and a half years in the administration, Miller has championed a number of proposals aimed at limiting both legal and illegal immigration.

For example, he was a major proponent of the administration’s proposal, announced last month, to penalize green-card applicants who use public benefits.

Updated

Trump administration weighs gutting refugee program

The Trump administration is considering an effective end to the refugee program that has allowed tens of thousands of people to resettle in the United States each year.

The New York Times reports:

In meetings over the past several weeks, one top administration official has proposed zeroing out the program altogether, while leaving the president with the ability to admit refugees in an emergency. Another option that top officials are weighing would cut refugee admissions by half or more, to 10,000 to 15,000 people, but reserve most of those spots for refugees from a few handpicked countries or groups with special status, such as Iraqis and Afghans who work alongside American troops, diplomats and intelligence operatives abroad.

Both options would all but end the United States’ status as one of the leading places accepting refugees from around the world.

The issue is expected to come to a head on Tuesday, when the White House plans to convene a high-level meeting in the Situation Room to discuss at what number Mr. Trump should set the annual, presidentially determined ceiling on refugee admissions for the coming year.

Reports of the Justice Department launching an investigation into car companies pursuing lower emission standards reignited complaints that Trump is weaponizing the department.

From a former spokesman for Barack Obama’s Justice Department:

From a ProPublica editor:

DOJ launches anti-trust investigation of automakers who struck emissions deal with California

Trump’s Justice Department has launched an investigation into the four car companies that struck a deal with California in July to heighten emission standards.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

Justice Department lawyers are seeking to determine if Ford Motor Co. , Honda Motor Co. , BMW AG and Volkswagen AG violated federal competition law by agreeing with each other to follow tailpipe-emissions standards beyond those proposed by the Trump administration, [people familiar with the situation] said. ...

The new antitrust inquiry by the Justice Department stands to escalate tensions between Washington, Sacramento and the auto industry over plans by the Trump administration to roll back clean-air mandates on auto makers.

California regulators have said they are willing to ease mandates, but not nearly as far as the Trump administration, which has proposed eliminating all upcoming increases in the efficiency requirements.

Trump meets with Democratic senator on guns as his position remains unclear

Trump met with Joe Manchin, the Democratic senator of West Virginia, yesterday to discuss possible gun measures in the wake of three more mass shootings that left dozens dead.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The 30-minute private meeting, which included several White House staffers, touched on a range of possible gun-related policy issues including background checks, the people said. Mr. Manchin, a West Virginia Democrat, and Sen. Pat Toomey (R., Pa.) have long urged legislation expanding background checks for gun sales. Their bill failed to pass the Senate in 2013.

‘The president expressed interest in getting a result, so conversations will continue to see if there’s a way to create a reasonable background check proposal, along with other ideas,’ a White House official said.

But another person familiar with the meeting said the president didn’t give Sen. Manchin a clear signal, illustrating the widespread uncertainty on Capitol Hill about what Mr. Trump might support.

The meeting seems to be the latest attempt by the president to give the appearance of doing something on guns while actually doing nothing.

Mitch McConnell has said he will not take up a gun bill in the Senate without Trump’s explicit endorsement, and the president has consistently sent mixed messages on what legislation he wants to see.

Given that Trump has reportedly been presented with polling showing that background checks are not popular among his voting base, it seems less and less likely the president will sign a gun bill into law in the near future, despite the dozens of lives lost.

Trump’s re-election campaign is now fundraising off Sharpiegate, giving supporters the chance to buy markers so that they, too, can alter maps showing the potential path of a hurricane and unnecessarily raise alarm in a state out of the storm’s way.

Of course, this tweet from Trump’s campaign manager gets the order of events surrounding Sharpiegate a little backwards.

The media isn’t still covering the altered map because it’s going “crazy.” It’s covering the story because the president is apparently having trouble letting the matter go, repeatedly tweeting (as recently as this morning) his false claim that his warning about the hurricane hitting Alabama was accurate.

So if there’s anyone who this story is driving “crazy,” it doesn’t seem like it’s the media.

The blog will now return to one of the weirder news events of August: an anti-Trump boycott of Equinox and SoulCycle.

In case you need a refresher: the luxury fitness chains faced calls for a boycott after it was revealed that one of the companies’ major investors was hosting a fundraiser for Trump.

Such political boycotts are generally unsuccessful, but new data indicates the flare-up may have actually affected SoulCycle’s business.

Recode reports:

In the weeks following the August 7 news about the fundraiser, boycott calls appear to have worked, according to new data from Earnest Research, a company that analyzed publicly available website data. During the week that ended on Sunday, August 11, which includes dates both before and after the news, SoulCycle attendance declined about 1 percent compared with the same week a year earlier. That’s been followed with consistent declines of 6 percent to 7.5 percent in subsequent weeks. The data only includes SoulCycle locations across the US that were open last year, in order to be able to make the comparison.

Additional data, which Earnest blogged about last month, shows an even larger decline from earlier in August 2019, though it says some of that is related to seasonal attendance trends.

The data could make high-dollar donors even more skittish about diving into politics in any form during the Trump era.

Okay, one last thing about Sharpiegate: it appears the altered map of Hurricane Dorian, which was changed to include Alabama in the storm’s potential path, was the work of the president himself.

The Washington Post reports:

It was Trump who used a black Sharpie to mark up an official National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration map, which he displayed during an Oval Office briefing on Wednesday, according to a White House official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.

‘No one else writes like that on a map with a black Sharpie,’ the official said of the map, which added Alabama into the hurricane’s potential pathway inside the loop of the marker.

Trump won't let go of false hurricane claim

Well, here we are again. With Hurricane Dorian battering North Carolina, Trump has taken time out of his day to once again claim that his inaccurate warning about the storm hitting Alabama was, indeed, accurate.

This blog has been over this many, many times, but Trump is not being truthful here. By the time that the president tweeted out his Sunday warning that Alabama “will most likely be hit,” Dorian’s projected path was not touching the state.

This falsehood has been relentlessly fact-checked in recent days, so it’s anybody’s guess why the president is waging a war on reality itself, even though Americans outside of Alabama are facing the storm right now.

Trump has even taken this crusade to his favorite cable news outlet, as CNN reported yesterday:

Fox News senior White House correspondent John Roberts had just finished his 3 p.m. live shot on Thursday when President Donald Trump beckoned him into the Oval Office.

The President had one argument to make, according to an internal Fox email Roberts sent about the meeting provided to CNN.

‘He stressed to me that forecasts for Dorian last week had Alabama in the warning cone,’ Roberts wrote. ‘He insisted that it is unfair to say Alabama was never threatened by the storm.’

Updated

Buttigieg releases first statewide TV ad in Iowa

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has released his first statewide ad in Iowa, which will run across television and digital platforms in the early voting state.

“As a veteran, and as a mayor, I’ve seen what we can achieve when we have each other’s backs. But in today’s divided America, we’re at each other’s throats,” Buttigieg says in the ad. “To meet these challenges and to defeat this president, we need real solutions, not more polarization.”

That last point is obviously a dig at Trump, but it also seems aimed at some of Buttigieg’s more liberal opponents, like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who have consistently out-performed the Indiana mayor in recent polls.

Buttigieg enjoyed a burst of enthusiasm about his campaign in the spring, which he has capitalized on to build a formidable fundraising operation. But so far, that energy hasn’t translated into a polling surge. He has lingered in the single digits, just outside the top tier of candidates, in recent weeks.

Jobs report slightly misses expectations

More on the jobs numbers: the US economy slightly missed expectations by adding only 130,000 jobs in August, less than the 158,000 economists predicted.

As the unemployment rate held steady at 3.7 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics also revised down its July jobs number from 164,000 to 159,000.

Trump immediately turned to blaming Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chairman that he nominated, for the slowing economy, but the jobs report didn’t cause any additional concerns about a looming recession.

For more insight on the numbers, catch up on our colleague Jasper Jolly’s live blog.

Updated

Trump's former press secretary has first appearance as Fox contributor

Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made her debut on Fox News today – and it’s evident she’ll have no trouble transitioning from Donald Trump’s White House press booster to becoming the president’s FOX TV mouthpiece.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a news conference at the White House.
Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds a news conference at the White House. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

“I’m not going to suddenly change my positions,” she told Fox & Friends. “I think that would be very odd. I loved working for the president.”

First call of duty for Sanders, who stepped down from the White House in June amid rumors, fueled by Trump, that she’ll enter the race for Arkansas governor, was to talk up the latest jobs report.

“We found a magic wand in president Trump and he’s brought manufacturing jobs back this country,” she kicked off, before defending the aggressive stance her former boss has taken on Chinese trade tariffs.

“The president could not be more right on this. We have to make a decision at this point. Who do we want to lead the world? The United States or China? I can assure you that under this president I can assure you it will always be the United States of America.”

And so Sanders continued, taking aim – as expected – at the climate crisis proposals that came out of the Democratic candidates town hall debate, including banning commercial air travel, calling it “very scary the path they want to take us down.”

Sanders was asked about being thrown out of a restaurant in Virginia over her political views. Asked if she was still taking in public places, Sanders said it was “hit and miss.”

“Ninety percent of people who come over to say something negative and to attack you are women. I find that startling. I am only the third woman and first mom to be the White House press secretary. Yet women attack me relentlessly instead of being proud that more women doing those types of jobs…”

Sanders announced her upcoming memoir on Thursday, tweeting that the book will “tell my story about the fight for the future of our country.” Twitter users were quick to offer title suggestions, including “It’s a Wonderful Lie,” “Liar, Liar, Pants On Fire” and “Malice in Blunderland.”

Dorian unleashes intense winds in North Carolina

Hurricane Dorian is continuing its devastating journey through the Atlantic, unleashing intense winds and rain in North Carolina. Dorian’s effects are also expected to be felt in Virginia and possibly southeast New England before the storm dissipates.

People recover items from a beached boat after Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbor, Great Abaco.
People recover items from a beached boat after Hurricane Dorian in Marsh Harbor, Great Abaco. Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

But it’s becoming increasingly clear that the Bahamas experienced the most significant losses from the hurricane. The country’s official death toll has risen to 30, but that’s expected to increase as recovery efforts continue.

The Guardian is keeping up its live coverage of the storm today, so follow along.

GOP moves to cancel some primaries despite Trump's challengers

The candidates challenging Trump for the Republican presidential nomination already had their work cut out for them, given the president’s sky-high approval rating in the party. But now those challengers might not even get the chance to compete against Trump in certain states.

Politico reports:

Four states are poised to cancel their 2020 GOP presidential primaries and caucuses, a move that would cut off oxygen to Donald Trump’s long-shot primary challengers.

Republican parties in South Carolina, Nevada, Arizona and Kansas are expected to finalize the cancellations in meetings this weekend, according to three GOP officials who are familiar with the plans.

The moves are the latest illustration of Trump’s takeover of the entire Republican Party apparatus. They underscore the extent to which his allies are determined to snuff out any potential nuisance en route to his renomination — or even to deny Republican critics a platform to embarrass him.

Trump advisers are quick to point out that parties of an incumbent president seeking reelection have a long history of canceling primaries and note it will save state parties money. But the president’s primary opponents, who have struggled to gain traction, are crying foul, calling it part of a broader effort to rig the contest in Trump’s favor.

It is true that some states have canceled primaries in the past when an incumbent president was running, but the moves are still sure to trigger accusations that the GOP is trying to stifle democracy for Trump’s benefit.

Biden addresses controversy over fundraiser co-host

Despite the pushback, Joe Biden went ahead with a fundraiser last night that was co-hosted by a founder of a natural gas company, which some activists said violated the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge.

“I just want to be very clear to everyone here: I am committed to not raising money from fossil fuel executives and I am not doing that tonight,” Biden told fundraiser attendees. “Climate change presents an existential threat, and it is real … I’m so tired of having a president who picks fiction over science.”

Meanwhile, a couple dozen protesters outside the event chanted phrases like, “Hey hey, hey Joe, fracked gas has got to go.”

Biden chose to blame the controversy on a “mild misrepresentation,” and his aides have pointed out that the host in question, Andrew Goldman, is not involved in the day-to-day operations of the natural gas company.

But climate activists are still crying foul, accusing Biden of playing semantics to get around the pledge that he signed. It doesn’t help matters that many Democrats are already displeased about Biden holding high-dollar fundraisers at all.

But given the former vice president’s steady position atop most polls despite a series of recent gaffes, it seems unlikely that this flare-up will move the needle much.

Howard Schultz scraps his potential White House bid

Happy Friday, live blog readers!

Well, that’s one less person running for president. Howard Schultz, the former Starbucks CEO, announced that he would not pursue the independent presidential bid he has been toying with since January.

“My belief in the need to reform our two-party system has not wavered, but I have concluded that an independent campaign for the White House is not how I can best serve our country at this time,” Schultz wrote in a letter posted to his website.

Schulz also noted that “not enough people today are willing to consider backing an independent candidate because they fear doing so might lead to re-electing a uniquely dangerous incumbent president”.

That last sentiment will likely frustrate the many Democrats who have been making that same argument to Schultz for months. But it will still come as a relief on the left that Schultz, who presented himself as a pragmatic alternative to some of the more progressive presidential candidates, will not split the anti-Trump vote.

More than anything, the announcement came as a shock to those who forgot Schultz was still considering a bid, given that back surgery has left him unable to campaign since June. This Slate headline neatly summed it up: “Former Starbucks CEO Reminds Everyone He Was Thinking of Running for President by Announcing He Won’t.”

Pete Buttigieg speaks with local residents at the Hawkeye Area Labor Council Labor Day Picnic.
Pete Buttigieg speaks with local residents at the Hawkeye area labor council Labor Day picnic. Photograph: Charlie Neibergall/AP

Here’s what else the blog is keeping its eye on:

  • Donald Trump has no publicly scheduled events and is already tweeting about everything from immigration to interest rates.
  • Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg will appear on the Breakfast Club.
  • Hurricane Dorian, now a category 1 storm, is unleashing its havoc on North Carolina. The Guardian will have live coverage of the storm as it progresses.

That’s all still coming up, so stay tuned.

Updated

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