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The Guardian - US
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Lois Beckett in San Francisco (now), Joan E Greve in Washington and Martin Belam (earlier)

White couple who pointed guns at St Louis protesters face criminal charges – as it happened

In a 28 June photo, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, stand in front their house as they confront protesters in St Louis.
In a 28 June photo, Mark and Patricia McCloskey, stand in front their house as they confront protesters in St Louis. Photograph: Laurie Skrivan/AP

Evening summary

We are wrapping up our daily live politics coverage for today. An updated summary of some of the key events in US politics:

  • Trump said he would resume his coronavirus briefings, likely starting tomorrow. Trump held daily briefings at the start of the coronavirus crisis, but the briefings attracted widespread criticism because of the president’s frequent false and misleading claims about the pandemic. The announcement comes as the president’s approval and polling numbers continue to decline. He also tweeted a photo of himself wearing a face mask, after facing months of criticism for refusing to publicly wear a mask.
  • A St. Louis prosecutor announced criminal charges against the white couple who pointed guns at anti-racism protesters outside their mansion. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, both attorneys in their 60s, are now facing are facing a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon. Kimberly Gardner, the first black top prosecutor in St. Louis history, has been battling the city’s police department and the state’s Republican establishment for years. She said she had already faced death threats over her investigation of the white couple.
  • The gunman suspected of attacking a federal judge’s family, leaving her son shot to death and her husband wounded, was an anti-feminist lawyer who left behind thousands of pages of writing railing against a “feminazi infestation” of the legal system. Roy Den Hollander also called Judge Esther Salas “lazy and incompetent.”
  • The department of homeland security reportedly intends to send 150 federal agents to Chicago. Those reports come as activists in Portland, Oregon, have expressed severe alarm over incidents involving federal agents using unmarked cars to detain peaceful protesters.
  • A coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University appears to be safe and prompts an immune response, raising hopes about the distribution of a vaccine in the coming months. The Oxford team published the results of its vaccine trials in the medical journal the Lancet today.
  • Georgia state senator and Democratic party chairwoman Nikema Williams will replace John Lewis on the November ballot. Williams was selected from a group of five finalists to replace Lewis as the Democratic congressional nominee in Georgia’s 5th district, after the longtime congressman and civil rights icon died on Friday.

Louisiana program offering help with rent overwhelmed by response

A program to help residents pay rent during the pandemic was supposed to offer assistance to 10,000 people. It was suspended after receiving 40,000 applications in just four days, the Times-Picayune reported.

A housing advocacy group said the response should be no surprise, since it estimated that there were 42,000 unemployed renters across Louisiana, and a $24 million program to help them was starkly insufficient.

“(HousingLOUISIANA has) said from the beginning that $250 million is the minimum amount needed for rental assistance through the end of 2020,” the group said in a written statement to the Times-Picayune.

Updated

Suspect in attack on judge’s family ranted about ‘feminazi infestation’

The man authorities have said attacked the family of a federal judge, leaving her husband wounded and her son dead, had previously called her “a lazy and incompetent Latina judge appointed by Obama,” and had fantasized about raping a different female judge who presided over his divorce case, NBC News reported.

A review of thousands of pages of self-published writing by Roy Den Hollander, an anti-feminist lawyer, found threats of retribution against the “feminazi infestation of government institutions” and the “feminist infested American judicial system,” NBC reported.

The lawyer “was active in anti-feminist and misogynist groups on Facebook, including groups titled Humanity Vs. Feminism and Men Going Their Own Way, according to an analysis of accounts linked to him,” NBC News reported. It characterized his writing as “littered with language common among the most extreme anti-feminist communities on the web.”

St Louis prosecutor: ‘We must protect the right to peacefully protest’

In announcing criminal charges against a wealthy white couple who pointed guns at anti-racist protesters marching through their gated community, St. Louis’ top prosecutor said the protesters were “peaceful” and “unarmed.”

“We must protect the right to peacefully protest, and any attempt to chill it through intimidation will not be tolerated,” Kimberly Gardner wrote in a statement on Twitter.

But Gardner noted in the statement that she had also filed charges against another St. Louis man who had “assaulted peaceful demonstrators at the King Louis IX statute on June 27th,” the day before the incident involving the white couple.

The man charged in that incident was black, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch previously reported. The newspaper published video it said appeared to capture part of the assault, which showed a black man attempting to slap a white man, during a protest centered on whether or not to remove a statue of the French King.

Since 18-year-old Michael Brown’s killing by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri in August 2014, St. Louis has become one of the major centers of protest over racist policing and broader anti-black racism in the United States. Ferguson is one of the many small jurisdictions that circle St. Louis, a metropolitan area that is marked by stark racial segregation between black and white residents.

Gardner, who was elected in 2016, is the city’s first black circuit attorney.

Updated

Another political battle for St. Louis’ first black top prosecutor

In late June, when a white couple pointed guns at the racial justice protesters marching past their $1.15 million mansion in St. Louis, the photographs and the video of the incident immediately went viral.

St. Louis’ police department said that they were investigating the June 28 incident, but that it viewed Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the white couple, as the victims, not the perpetrators, of an incident of “trespassing” and “intimidation.”

But the city’s top prosecutor, who is black, made a different announcement. Kimberly Gardner said said was she was “alarmed” to see an incident “where peaceful protestors were met by guns and a violent assault”, and that her office was also investigating.

“Make no mistake: we will not tolerate the use of force against those exercising their first amendment rights,” Gardner wrote.

Gardner, the first African-American top prosecutor in St. Louis’ history, was elected in 2016 as one of the country’s new wave of progressive prosecutors, who aimed to reduce mass incarceration and address the stark racial disparities within America’s criminal justice system.

Since she announced her investigation into the McCloskeys, powerful white Republicans, including the president, Missouri’s governor, and Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, have rallied behind the wealthy white couple, and made clear that they would oppose any attempt to charge them. Trump said in an interview that the idea that the McCloskeys might be prosecuted was “a disgrace.” Republican governor Mike Parson said in a radio Friday that he would likely pardon them if they were to be convicted of anything.

Republican Sen. Josh Hawley asked the Justice Department to consider a civil rights investigation of Gardner, suggesting that her investigation of whether the couple violated any laws was an infringement of their Constitutional rights, and an “an unacceptable abuse of power and threat to the Second Amendment.”

Gardner said she has received death threats in the wake of the comments about her by Republican lawmakers, and compared the attacks against her to violent threats by the Ku Klux Klan in an interview with the Washington Post last week.

“This is a modern-day night ride, and everybody knows it,” Gardner told the Washington Post, referring to the Ku Klux Klan’s tactics of intimidation towards black Americans. “And for a president to participate in it, in the larger context of racism and cronyism, is scary.”

Several Black leaders in St. Louis have expressed support for Gardner, including Democratic U.S. Rep. William Lacy Clay, who has said protesters “should never be subject to the threat of deadly force, whether by individuals or by the police.”

Gardner did not back down in the face of political pressure from Missouri Republicans to choose not to prosecute the gun-toting St. Louis couple. On Monday, she announced criminal charges against the McCloskeys, including a felony charge of unlawful use of a weapon, and a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault.

“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner that is unlawful in the city of St. Louis,” Gardner told the Associated Press, arguing that the couples’ actions risked creating a violent situation during an otherwise nonviolent protest.

She is recommending a diversion program such as community service rather than jail time if the McCloskeys are convicted. Typically, class E felonies could result in up to four years in prison.

An attorney for the McCloskeys, Joel Schwartz, in a statement called the decision to charge “disheartening as I unequivocally believe no crime was committed.”

Gardner has said Trump, Parson and others are attacking her to distract from “their failed approach to the COVID-19 pandemic” and other issues.

Gardner has already spent years battling with the city’s police union and Missouri’s Republican political establishment. Her office charged then Republican governor Eric Greitens with felony invasion of privacy in 2018 for allegedly taking a compromising photo of a woman during an extramarital affair. The charge was eventually dropped, but Greitens resigned in June 2018.

A private investigator Gardner hired to investigate the claims against Greitens was later indicted for perjury for allegedly lying during a deposition. His case is pending.

Gardner also has butted heads with police leaders, especially after she developed an “exclusion list” of more than two dozen officers who were barred from serving as primary witnesses in criminal cases over what Gardner called credibility concerns. The move angered Police Chief John Hayden, who also is Black.

In January, Gardner filed a federal lawsuit accusing the city, the police union and others of a coordinated and racist conspiracy aimed at forcing her out of office. The lawsuit also accused “entrenched interests” of intentionally impeding her efforts to change racist practices.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated

Criminal charges for white St Louis couple who pointed guns at protesters

The white couple who pointed guns at the racial justice protesters marching through their gated community in St. Louis are now facing criminal charges.

St. Louis’ top prosecutor said that Mark and Patricia McCloskey “are facing a single felony count unlawful use of a weapon — exhibiting,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported.

The husband and wife, who are both personal injury attorneys in their 60s, also face a misdemeanor charge of fourth-degree assault.

While the prosecutor who announced the charges against the McCloskeys said she is recommending community service rather than jail time if they are convicted, the case is likely to fuel continued partisan debate over gun rights and racial violence.

President Donald Trump and other white Republican leaders have spoken out publicly in support of the couple in the past, saying that he believed “they were going to be beat up badly, if they were lucky” and that they should not be prosecuted.

Missouri’s Republican governor said Friday he would likely pardon the couple if they were to be convicted.

Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner told the Associated Press in advance of announcing the charge that the McCloskeys’ actions risked creating a violent situation during an otherwise nonviolent protest.

“It is illegal to wave weapons in a threatening manner — that is unlawful in the city of St. Louis,” Gardner said.

Gardner is recommending a diversion program such as community service rather than jail time if the McCloskeys are convicted. Typically, class E felonies could result in up to four years in prison.

Missouri’s governor said on Friday, before any charges were announced, that if the couple were to be convicted of a crime, he would likely pardon them.

“By all means, I would, and I think that’s exactly what would happen,” governor Mike Parsons said in a radio interview, the Post-Dispatch reported.

“If this is all about going after them because they … did a lawful act, then, yeah, if that scenario in fact happened, I don’t think they’re going to spend any time in jail,” he said, while noting he would wait for “all the facts.”

The attorney for the McCloskeys, Joel Schwartz, in a statement called the decision to charge “disheartening as I unequivocally believe no crime was committed.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Updated

Report: Men’s Rights Activist Linked to Killing of Federal Judge’s Son

The man who shot a federal judge’s husband and son in New Jersey on Sunday night was a self-described “anti-feminist” and men’s rights activist, according to multiple media reports citing unnamed law enforcement sources.

The suspected gunman, Roy Den Hollander, was reportedly found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound later on Sunday night.

Hollander brought a case before Judge Esther Salas in 2015, challenging the United States’ male-only military draft, the New York Times reported, noting that the case is ongoing.

“For years, he had filed suits alleging that women get unconstitutional special treatment, pushing to outlaw Ladies’ Nights at bars and women’s studies programs at universities,” the Daily Beast reported. In 2013, in a media interview about a legal defeat, he claimed he was contemplating an act of “vigilante justice” against Ladies’ Nights.

The Daily Beast noted Hollander had also filed a “ludicrous” lawsuit against reporters from major news outlets, including CNN, The New York Times and The Washington Post, claiming their reporting about Trump “amounted to a violation of the anti-racketeering statute used to prosecute mobsters.”

The judge’s husband was wounded in the attack and is in the hospital, the Times reported. The Judge’s 20-year-old son was killed.

Missouri governor’s troubling remarks on kids and COVID-19

This is Lois Beckett, picking up this afternoon’s live politics coverage from our California office.

Comments from a Friday radio interview with Missouri’s Republican governor, Mike Parson, are continuing to spark condemnation and alarm, the St Louis Post-Dispatch reports today:

“These kids have got to get back to school,” the governor said on Friday. “They’re at the lowest risk possible. And if they do get Covid-19, which they will – and they will when they go to school – they’re not going to the hospitals. They’re not going to have to sit in doctor’s offices. They’re going to go home and they’re going to get over it.”

“We gotta move on,” he added later. “We can’t just let this thing stop us in our tracks.”

Among the many responses, the Post-Dispatch reported, was one Democrat running for governor in Missouri, who responded: “Does he not realize multiple American kids have died after being infected?”

Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding, a Harvard epidemiologist, called the comments “dystopian”.

Updated

Today so far

That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Lois Beckett, will take over the blog for the next few hours.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Trump said he would resume his coronavirus briefings, likely starting tomorrow. Trump held daily briefings at the start of the coronavirus crisis, but the briefings attracted widespread criticism because of the president’s frequent false and misleading claims about the pandemic. The announcement comes as the president’s approval and polling numbers continue to decline.
  • Trump tweeted a photo of himself wearing a face mask. The president has weathered months of criticism for not embracing masks as a means of limiting the spread of coronavirus. The CDC first urged Americans to wear face coverings in April, but Trump was only seen publicly wearing a mask for the first time earlier this month.
  • The department of homeland security reportedly intends to send 150 federal agents to Chicago. Those reports come as activists in Portland, Oregon, have expressed severe alarm over incidents involving federal agents using unmarked cars to detain peaceful protesters.
  • A coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University appears to be safe and prompts an immune response, raising hopes about the distribution of a vaccine in the coming months. The Oxford team published the results of its vaccine trials in the medical journal the Lancet today.
  • Georgia state senator and Democratic party chairwoman Nikema Williams will replace John Lewis on the November ballot. Williams was selected from a group of five finalists to replace Lewis as the Democratic congressional nominee in Georgia’s 5th district, after the longtime congressman and civil rights icon died on Friday.

Lois will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports from California:

Thirty-three California counties, covering 92% of the state’s population, now find themselves on the state’s watch list as coronavirus continues to stretch hospital resources thin.

Late last week, US military medical teams deployed 100 staff members to five California hospitals to assist hospital staff in hard-hit areas of the state. And more help is on the way.

Governor Gavin Newsom said today that the federal government dispatched 190 medical personnel to help support counties facing shortages of staff and resources.

Coronavirus cases in California continue to climb. While the positivity rate of those tested has dropped slightly over the past week from 7.7% to 7.2%, nobody is comforted while rates are north of 7%, Newsom said. Hospitalizations continue to rise, creating pressure for hospitals in the state’s hotspots.

In rural Placer County, for example, just 18% of ICU beds are available. San Benito County currently has no capacity to handle more ICU admissions, Newsom said, a reminder that ““county by county, things look very differently than they do statewide.”

Meanwhile, Newsom addressed reporting from the New York Times that he was required to personally ask (and thank) Donald Trump in order to secure needed medical swabs. Newsom said the claims were “not true”, adding that he expressed appreciation for the administration’s support routinely as they deliver assistance.

Newsom also tackled a claim circulating today that Trump may be sending federal law enforcement officers into Oakland, as he has done in Portland, Oregon, to “deal with unrest”.

Newsom waived away the possibility, saying bluntly that if the federal government attempted to send law enforcement officers into Oakland, “We would reject it.”

Trump tweets photo of himself wearing face mask

The president has tweeted a photo of himself wearing a face mask, after weathering months of criticism for not publicly embracing masks as a means of limiting the spread of coronavirus.

“We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance,” Trump said in a tweet. “There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!”

The tweet comes more than three months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention first urged Americans to wear face coverings to help limit their risk of contracting the virus.

For weeks, Trump resisted wearing a face mask in public, even as more evidence emerged that it was an effective way to mitigate the spread of the virus.

The president was seen wearing a mask in public for the first time earlier this month, as he visited Walter Reed National Military Medical Center just outside of Washington.

Democrats demand briefing on foreign influence operation targeting lawmakers

Democratic congressional leaders are demanding an FBI briefing to all members of the House and Senate on a foreign influence campaign aimed at lawmakers.

Four senior congressional Democrats -- House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, House intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff and Senate intelligence committee vice chairman Mark Warner -- requested the briefing last week in a letter to FBI director Christopher Wray.

“We write to request that the Federal Bureau of Investigation provide a defensive counterintelligence briefing to all Members of the House of Representatives and the Senate regarding foreign efforts to interfere in the 2020 U.S. presidential election,” the Democrats said in the letter.

“We are gravely concerned, in particular, that Congress appears to be the target of a concerted foreign interference campaign, which seeks to launder and amplify disinformation in order to influence congressional activity, public debate, and the presidential election in November.”

The letter does not elaborate on the specifics of the foreign operation, but the Democratic leaders included a classified addendum that was omitted from the public version of the letter.

State senator to replace Lewis on ballot

The Democratic party of Georgia has chosen state senator and party chairwoman Nikema Williams to replace the late congressman John Lewis on the November ballot.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports:

Facing an urgent legal deadline, the state party’s executive committee met Monday on a virtual Zoom call to select Williams over four other finalists from a group of 131 candidates who submitted online applications after Lewis’ death on Friday.

Williams is seen as a virtual lock to win the Atlanta-based district, which is so heavily Democratic that Lewis often drew only token Republican opposition since he won the seat in 1986. She will face Republican Angela Stanton-King, an ally of President Donald Trump, in November.

Scott Hogan, the executive director of the Democratic party of Georgia, said in a statement, “We congratulate Nikema on this appointment, and look forward to working with her in this new capacity as we uphold and build on Congressman Lewis’ legacy and elect Democrats across Georgia this November.”

This will mark the first time in more than three decades that someone other than Lewis will represent Georgia’s 5th congressional district. The civil rights icon first took office in 1987.

The Trump administration has been consulting the former government lawyer who wrote the legal justification for waterboarding, on how the president might try to rule by decree.

John Yoo told Axios he has been talking to White House officials about his view that a recent supreme court ruling on immigration would allow Trump to issue executive orders that flout federal law.

In a Fox News Sunday interview, Trump declared he would try to use that interpretation to try to force through decrees on healthcare, immigration and “various other plans” over the coming month.

Constitutional scholars and human rights activists have also pointed to the deployment of paramilitary federal forces against protesters in Portland as a sign that Trump is ready to use this broad interpretation of presidential powers as a means to suppress basic constitutional rights.

Yoo became notorious for a legal memo he drafted in August 2002, when he was deputy assistant attorney general in the justice department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

It stated: “Necessity or self-defense may justify interrogation methods that might violate’ the criminal prohibition against torture.”

Memos drafted by Yoo were used for justifying waterboarding and other forms of torture on terrorism suspects in CIA “black sites” around the world.

The attorney general released a statement about the fatal shooting of federal judge Esther Salas’ son.

“On behalf of the entire Justice Department, I send my deepest condolences to Judge Salas and her family on the death of their son and wish her husband a swift and complete recovery,” William Barr said.

“This kind of lawless, evil action carried out against a member of the federal judiciary will not be tolerated, and I have ordered the full resources of the FBI and U.S. Marshals Service to investigate the matter.”

Salas’ 20-year-old son, Daniel Anderl, was fatally shot by a gunman who reportedly approached the house wearing a face covering and a FedEx uniform. Salas’ husband, Mark Anderl, was also shot and is reportedly in critical but stable condition. The judge was not injured.

According to reports, the suspect in the case was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound earlier today.

A day after Kanye West held his first “campaign” event in North Charleston, electoral authorities in South Carolina have confirmed that the rapper will not appear on the ballot there in November’s presidential election.

Whether or not West is serious about running for the White House, predictably enough he is attracting attention.

As the AP reported it, at his event on Sunday, held during an effort to attract signatures to a petition to be on the ballot, West “ranted against historical figure Harriet Tubman, saying the Underground Railroad conductor ‘never actually freed the slaves, she just had them work for other white people’, comments that drew shouts of opposition from some in the crowd.”

Here’s some more serious words on Harriet Tubman:

Republican senator Rand Paul voiced opposition to Trump’s efforts to send federal law enforcement agents to Democratic-controlled cities.

“We cannot give up liberty for security,” Paul said in a tweet. “Local law enforcement can and should be handling these situations in our cities but there is no place for federal troops or unidentified federal agents rounding people up at will.”

Paul’s comments marked quite a contrast from one of his Republican colleagues, senator Lindsey Graham, who said Trump is “right to demand that law and order be restored in American cities.”

Activists in Portland, Oregon, have warned federal agents are using unmarked cars to detain peaceful protesters, and the Chicago Tribune reported today that the department of homeland security intends to send 150 agents to Chicago.

Teachers are suing the state of Florida over a mandate to return to in-person classes. Florida Education Association President Fedrick Ingram said Republican Governor Ron DeSantis needs “a reality check” about the state of Covid-19 in his state.

“The governor needs to accept the reality of the situation here in Florida, where the virus is surging out of control. He needs to accept the evolving science. It now appears that kids 10 and older may pass along the coronavirus as easily as adults,” Ingram said.

“Everyone wants schools to reopen, but we don’t want to begin in-person teaching, face an explosion of cases and sickness, then be forced to return to distance learning. Florida’s Constitution demands that public schools be safe. Teachers and parents want our schools to meet that basic standard.”

Supreme court blocks Democrats on Trump financial records

This being America in the Fourth Year of Trump, there has been a lot of news this morning, political and otherwise, so much so that the following chunk or nugget of pure news may have slipped out of the pan and back into the chilly information stream in which news gold is so avidly sought. Or similar.

The supreme court has turned down a request from House Democrats to accelerate appeals hearings in their attempt to get hold of Donald Trump’s financial records.

Democrats had asked the justices to issue their formal judgement faster than the customary 25 days after their 9 July ruling on the matter, which sent it back to the lower courts. Trump opposed the request. The justices have said no.

Many observers counted the original ruling as a political win for Trump, as Democrats are not likely to see his records before the election in November or even the end of the current Congress in January, by which time Trump will either be a lame duck waiting to leave the White House – or not – or a triumphant eagle, ready for a second soaring term.

It’s not all good news for Trump. As Bloomberg News reports, “Chief Justice John Roberts last week granted a similar request from Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance, clearing lower courts to move ahead in a separate clash over a grand jury subpoena for Trump’s records.”

However, “Trump had agreed to that request, and Roberts indicated his decision was based at least in part on the president’s consent.”

The New York case concerns hush money payments to women who claim affairs with Trump and with them campaign finance laws. Like the congressional case, it is not likely to produce Trump’s financial records for the public to see any time soon.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham voiced support for Trump’s efforts to send federal law enforcement agents to Democratic-led cities to crack down on protests against racism and police brutality.

Graham, the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, said in a tweet, “President Trump is right to demand that law and order be restored in American cities. These protests and riots are getting out of hand, jeopardizing public safety and economic recovery.”

The South Carolina Republican added, “If federal law enforcement officials are necessary to do the job and President Trump chooses to go down this path, I completely support him.”

Graham’s comments come as activists in Portland, Oregon, express alarm over reports of federal agents using unmarked cars to detain peaceful protesters. The department of homeland security also reportedly plans to send 150 federal agents to Chicago.

When Trump was asked this morning about how he plans to act against cities that have seen protests in recent weeks, he replied, “We’re going to have more federal law enforcement, that I can tell you.”

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Trump said he would resume his coronavirus briefings, likely starting tomorrow. Trump held daily briefings at the start of the coronavirus crisis, but the briefings attracted widespread criticism because of the president’s frequent false and misleading claims about the pandemic.
  • The department of homeland security reportedly intends to send 150 federal agents to Chicago. The report from the Chicago Tribune comes as activists in Portland, Oregon, have expressed severe alarm over incidents involving federal agents using unmarked cars to detain peaceful protesters.
  • A coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University appears to be safe and prompts an immune response, raising hopes about the distribution of a vaccine in the coming months. The Oxford team published the results of its vaccine trials in the medical journal the Lancet today.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Suspect in shooting of federal judge's son found dead - reports

A suspect in the fatal shooting of federal judge Esther Salas’ son has been found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to reports.

ABC News reports:

The suspect was found dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound near Campsite Road and Berry Brook Road in Sullivan County, the sources said. A municipal employee discovered the body in a car.

The deceased suspect was an attorney who, sources said, had a case before Judge Salas in 2015.

A FedEx package addressed to Judge Salas was discovered in the car, sources said.

Law enforcement officials previously said the suspect wore a FedEx uniform and a face covering to approach Salas’ house and shoot her son and husband. Salas was not injured.

Salas’ 20-year-old son, Daniel Anderl, died from his wounds, and her husband, Mark Anderl, is reportedly in critical but stable condition.

House holds moment of silence for John Lewis

The House has just held a moment of silence in honor of the late congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis, who died on Friday.

About 100 lawmakers gathered on the floor to honor their former colleague, and they broke into applause as the moment of silence ended.

It was a rather emotional moment, with the House clerk actually getting choked up as she read the resolution in honor of Lewis.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi also appeared to be holding back tears as she presided over the moment of silence, referring to Lewis as “the conscience of the Congress.”

Moments ago in the Oval Office, Trump spoke about the widely criticized actions taken by federal law enforcement officers against peaceful protesters in Portland, Oregon.

The president applauded the federal agents, saying they had done a “fantastic job” in Portland.

Asked whether he would send more federal agents to other cities, Trump replied, “We’re going to have more federal law enforcement, that I can tell you.” That comment comes as one report indicates the department of homeland security intends to send 150 federal agents to Chicago.

He disparaged the protesters in Portland as “anarchists,” claiming lawmakers there are afraid of the demonstrators.

“These are anarchists; these are not protesters,” Trump said. “These are people that hate our country, and we’re not going to let it go forward.”

He went on to paint a picture of a country “going to hell” because of the recent protests against racism and police brutality.

“This is worse than Afghanistan, by far,” Trump said. “This is worse than anything anyone has ever seen. All run by the same liberal Democrats. And you know what? If Biden got in, that would be true for the country. The whole country would go to hell.”

Updated

DHS to send 150 federal agents to Chicago - report

The department of homeland security reportedly intends to send 150 federal agents to Chicago, a development that will likely intensify activists’ concerns about Trump attempting to circumvent local Democratic leaders to crack down on recent protests against racism and police brutality.

The Chicago Tribune reports:

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security is crafting plans to deploy about 150 federal agents to Chicago this week, the Chicago Tribune has learned, a move that would come amid growing controversy nationally about federal force being used in American cities.

The Homeland Security Investigations, or HSI, agents are set to assist other federal law enforcement and Chicago police in crime-fighting efforts, according to sources familiar with the matter, though a specific plan on what the agents will be doing had not been made public.

Activists in Portland, Oregon, have expressed severe alarm over reports of federal agents using unmarked vehicles to detain peaceful protesters, and they have warned the administration may attempt to expand the strategy to other cities.

Unsurprisingly, Trump explained his decision to resume the White House coronavirus briefings by pointing to his “record” ratings from the briefings.

“I was doing them, and we had a lot of people watching, record numbers watching in the history of cable television, and there’s never been anything like it,” Trump said, according to the White House pool report.

“It’s a great way to get information out to the public as to where we are with the vaccines and the therapeutics,” Trump added, even though he was frequently criticized for making false or misleading claims during the briefings.

The president said the briefings would “probably” start tomorrow. “I’ll do it at 5 o’clock like we were doing,” Trump said. “We had a good slot. A lot of people were watching.”

Trump to resume coronavirus briefings tomorrow

Trump told reporters he would resume holding coronavirus briefings starting at 5 pm ET tomorrow.

The president held daily White House briefings at the start of the coronavirus crisis, but he suspended them amid widespread criticism of the many false or misleading statements he made during the briefings.

Perhaps most famously, Trump suggested Americans could protect themselves from coronavirus by ingesting disinfectants, a false and dangerous claim that led public health officials to issue warnings against doing so.

However, one of Trump’s senior advisers, Kellyanne Conway, argued last week that resuming the briefings could help the president improve his falling polling numbers.

“The president had a 51% approval rating ... when he was doing the daily briefings,” Conway told Fox News. “They don’t need to be two hours long. ... But he can provide information to Americans because nobody does that quite like President Trump.”

Trump unexpectedly called reporters in to the Oval Office for an update on the discussions about Senate Republicans’ coronavirus relief bill.

The president said the discussions were going well, and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin added that he and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows would brief Republicans on the talks tomorrow.

“And then we will also be reaching out to the Democrats to begin our discussions,” Mnuchin said, according to the White House pool report.

Mnuchin did not provide many specifics about the Republican bill, but he said the administration wanted to ensure Americans do not make more money staying home than going to work, indicating Republicans are looking at curtailing additional unemployment benefits, which are set to expire at the end of this month.

House minority leader Kevin McCarthy similarly said, “We don’t think any federal money should be spent [if] it gives you a disincentive to work; we want to make sure we have incentives to keep going.”

Democrats have called for continuing additional unemployment benefits, noting that tens of millions of Americans remain out of work because of the pandemic.

“We’re never going to have our economy come back unless we recognize that we must put money in the pockets of the American people,” House speaker Nancy Pelosi said earlier this month.

Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has released a statement criticizing the Republican coronavirus relief bill as inadequate.

In a “Dear Colleague” letter to the Senate Democratic caucus, Schumer specifically questioned majority leader Mitch McConnell’s decision to craft the bill “behind the closed doors of his office.”

“This one-party approach to this legislation is the same approach that delayed the passage of the CARES Act and the subsequent interim emergency relief legislation, failed on policing reform, and it won’t work this time around either,” Schumer said.

“Unfortunately, by all accounts the Senate Republicans are drafting legislation that comes up short in a number of vital areas, such as extending unemployment benefits or funding for rental assistance, hazard premium pay for frontline workers, or investments in communities of color being ravaged by the virus, and many other necessary provisions. Democrats will need to fight hard for these important provisions.”

Schumer closed the letter by calling for a “a bipartisan, bicameral process” to draft a relief bill that can pass both chambers with widespread support, as the past coronavirus relief bills did.

The Democratic Party of Georgia has released its list of five finalists to be nominated to succeed John Lewis in the House of Representatives.

The five finalists are:

  • Park Cannon, a member of the Georgia House.
  • Andre Dickens, a member of the Atlanta city council.
  • Robert Franklin, the former president of Morehouse College.
  • Nikema Williams, a member of the Georgia Senate.
  • James “Major” Woodall, the state president of the Georgia NAACP.

“The nominating committee fully considered all of the applicants and, following a robust discussion, reached a consensus on its recommendations,” nominating committee member Jason Carter said in a statement released by the state party.

The statement noted that the list of finalists would be discussed at a meeting of the party’s executive committee later today.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has arrived at the White House for a meeting with Trump, House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The group is expected to discuss Senate Republicans’ latest coronavirus relief proposal, which is expected to cost about $1 trillion.

That is far less than the $3 trillion included in House Democrats’ Heroes Act, which passed the House in May but has not been taken up in the Senate.

According to reports over the weekend, Trump is trying to zero out the proposed funding for coronavirus testing and contact tracing efforts in the Republican bill.

The president has repeatedly (and incorrectly) claimed that the country’s recent surge in coronavirus cases is due to the expansion of testing in many states.

A coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University appears to be safe and prompts an immune response, lifting hopes about the possibly distribution of a vaccine in the coming months.

The university published the findings from its most recent trials of the vaccine in the medical journal the Lancet. The Oxford team reported no early safety concerns from the vaccine and said it produced a strong immune response.

“The vaccine provoked a T cell response within 14 days of vaccination (white blood cells that can attack cells infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus), and an antibody response within 28 days (antibodies are able to neutralise the virus so that it cannot infect cells when initially contracted),” the university said in a statement about the findings.

Dr Anthony Fauci, the US government’s top infectious disease expert, has said he thinks it is likely a vaccine will be developed by early next year, but Trump has suggested (without much basis) that a vaccine could be developed even faster.

Good morning. This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, congressman John Lewis’ hometown paper, is honoring the late civil rights icon with a 12-page spread this morning.

Lewis was born in Alabama, but he spent most of his adult life in Atlanta and represented the city in the House for 33 years before his death on Friday.

The special section in today’s newspaper to commemorate his death recalls his civil rights work, his involvement in local politics and his long career in Congress.

Updated

Democratic Party to nominate someone to contest John Lewis' congress seat today

Rep. John Lewis is irreplaceable, and his loss will be felt keenly for many years to come. However, the Democratic party have to get on with the job of selecting someone who will stand to potentially take his seat in the November elections.

Mourners of the late Rep. John Lewis hold a vigil in his memory in Atlanta
Mourners of the late Rep. John Lewis hold a vigil in his memory in Atlanta
 Photograph: Lynsey Weatherspoon/Reuters

The Democratic Party of Georgia says it had received 131 applications for the ballot spot for the 5th Congressional District, which includes parts of Atlanta, by its Sunday evening deadline

A special seven-member committee including Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, 2018 gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams and 2014 gubernatorial nominee Jason Carter will choose between three to five candidates from the applicant pool by noon today.

The party’s executive committee will then pick a nominee based on the special committee’s recommendations by 4pm.

Bottoms has already tweeted this morning about the memory of both John Lewis and her aunt Ruby Doris Smith Robinson.

Nancy Pelosi has been on Morning Joe this morning, and had short shrift for the idea that Donald Trump might somehow hang on to office in the White House in the event the election result is disputed in November. Yesterday on Fox the president refused to confirm that he would leave.

Pelosi then went on to suggest that the White House would have to be fumigated after Trump left.

She has also this morning announced a moment of silence in honour of the late Rep. John Lewis

Federal forces again use tear gas on Portland Black Lives Matter protests

Portland, Oregon saw more Black Lives Matter protests over the weekend, with dramatic images emerging from the city.

Mothers stand between federal law enforcement officers and protesters during a protest against racial inequality in Portland
Mothers stand between federal law enforcement officers and protesters during a protest against racial inequality in Portland Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters

Social media was particularly taken with the images of Portland’s mums coming out to protest, and to stand between law enforcement forces and protesters.

Protest against racial inequality in Portland
Protest against racial inequality in Portland Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters

The presence of the mums did not stop law enforcement forces using just that - force.

A protester reacts to milk poured on his eyes after being tear gassed during a protest against racial inequality in Portland, Oregon, 19 July
A protester reacts to milk poured on his eyes after being tear gassed during a protest against racial inequality in Portland, Oregon, 19 July Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters

The authorities have been putting their side of events to the media this morning. A police department statement said police officers did not engage with the the crowd, but that federal authorities periodically came of out of the US courthouse in Oregon’s largest city to keep demonstrators at bay.

Video posted online also showed protesters taking down fencing that had surrounded the courthouse. “Dozens of people with shields, helmets, gas masks, umbrellas, bats, and hockey sticks approached the doors before federal law enforcement came out and dispersed the crowd,” police said.

Federal agents use crowd control munitions to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters near the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Monday, July 20, 2020, in Portland
Federal agents use crowd control munitions to disperse Black Lives Matter protesters near the Mark O. Hatfield United States Courthouse on Monday, July 20, 2020, in Portland Photograph: Noah Berger/AP

“At 1:34am people lit a fire within the portico in front of the federal courthouse. Others gathered around the fire adding wood and other debris to make it larger. At 1:42am federal law enforcement came out of the courthouse, dispersed the crowd and extinguished the fire,” the statement said.

Gas was used at least twice to remove protesters, the statement said, but Portland officers “were not present during any of the activity” or deploy any “CS gas.”

Tear gas and other chemical agents used by federal agents to disperse demonstrators during a protest against racial inequality are seen in Portland, 19 July
Tear gas and other chemical agents used by federal agents to disperse demonstrators during a protest against racial inequality are seen in Portland, 19 July Photograph: Caitlin Ochs/Reuters

The statement comes as some local and state leaders have voiced their displeasure with the presence of federal agents in the city. Speaking on CNN’s ‘State of the Union,’ Democratic Mayor Ted Wheeler said federal officers “are not wanted here. We haven’t asked them here. In fact, we want them to leave.”

A nude protester faces off against Federal law enforcement officers in Portland on Saturday night
A nude protester faces off against Federal law enforcement officers in Portland on Saturday night Photograph: Nathan Howard/Reuters

One of the more striking images from the weekend was that of a nude protester facing off against the federal forces on Saturday night. The LA Times has published a bit more background on that particular naked protest - and how nude protest has been a thing associated with Portland for a while. It should be noted, however, that some have expressed a view that the so-called Portland “Athena” has acted as an unwelcome distraction from the main message of the protests - that Black Lives Matter.

A protester holds up a Black Lives Matter sign in front of the Federal Courthouse in Portland on Saturday night
A protester holds up a Black Lives Matter sign in front of the Federal Courthouse in Portland on Saturday night Photograph: Leslie Spurlock/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock

Francine Prose, meanwhile, has written for us today about what it has been like watching Trump’s shock troops descend onto Portland:

Americans who care about our country and still hope we can fix our flawed democracy should pay attention. There are those, Trump and Barr among them, who would like to see our freedoms replaced by unflagging obedience to the needs of corporations and billionaires. What happened in Portland is an important story hiding in the shadow of Covid-19’s devastations. If we let the increasingly empowered paramilitary arms of the government deny our right to assemble and speak freely, to circumvent our legal system and eliminate the writ of habeas corpus, we won’t need to scroll down our phones to know that we are doomed.

You can read more here: Francine Prose – Watching Trump’s shock troops descend onto Portland, it’s hard not to feel doomed

Julian Brave NoiseCat, the director of Green New Deal Strategy for Data for Progress, has written for us this morning, saying that Joe Biden has endorsed the Green New Deal in all but name:

If you set aside the most attention-grabbing left-wing programs included in New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s 2019 Green New Deal resolution, like Medicare for All and a federal job guarantee, Biden’s plans broadly align with an approach advocated by the left-wing of the Democratic party. Firstly, like the Green New Deal, Biden’s plans reframe climate action as a jobs, infrastructure and clean energy stimulus. After three decades of economic elites failing to pitch a carbon tax as a solution to the supposed “market failure” of greenhouse gas emissions, Biden has elected to focus instead on economy-wide performance standards as the cutting edge of decarbonization. And while earlier generations of Democrats wanted consumers to foot the bill for that clean energy transition at the gas pump, a position shared by Milton Friedman, Biden takes Keynes and Franklin Delano Roosevelt as his intellectual and political forebears. Perhaps most encouragingly, Biden views the workers, unions and communities of color most impacted by the fossil fuel economy and the potential shift away from it as deserving special attention.

Read more: Julian Brave NoiseCat – Joe Biden has endorsed the Green New Deal in all but name

28 states have now enacted a policy requiring face coverings

Starting today, Arkansas residents who are 10 years and older must wear masks when in the presence of non-household members and they aren’t able to socially distance. That means that 28 states have now enacted a policy requiring face coverings in some situations. The 28 states are:

  • Alabama
  • Arkansas
  • California
  • Colorado
  • Connecticut
  • Delaware
  • Hawaii
  • Illinois
  • Kansas
  • Kentucky
  • Louisiana
  • Maine
  • Maryland
  • Massachusetts
  • Michigan
  • Montana
  • Nevada
  • New Jersey
  • New Mexico
  • New York
  • North Carolina
  • Oregon
  • Pennsylvania
  • Rhode Island
  • Texas
  • Virginia
  • Washington
  • West Virginia

Rules vary from state to state - for example in Louisiana specific parishes can opt-out of the mandate if they can demonstrate they have a low positive infection rate.

In addition, the District of Columbia has imposed a face mask rule, and Puerto Rico is requiring that people wear face coverings when in public spaces.

Surgeon General Jerome Adams has been on Fox News, trying to get across to their viewers that wearing face masks is a matter of health policy, not an assault on freedom.

Updated

Workers set to take the knee and Strike For Black Lives across the country

Today is the Strike For Black Lives, and organizers say tens of thousands are set to walk out of work in more than two dozen US cities to protest systemic racism and economic inequality.

Labour unions, along with social and racial justice organizations from New York City to Los Angeles, will participate in a range of planned actions. Where work stoppages are not possible for a full day, participants will either picket during a lunch break or observe moments of silence to honour Black lives lost to police violence, organizers said.

“We are ... building a country where Black lives matter in every aspect of society, including in the workplace,” Ash-Lee Henderson told Aaron L. Morrison for the Associated Press.

“The Strike for Black Lives is a moment of reckoning for corporations that have long ignored the concerns of their Black workforce and denied them better working conditions, living wages and healthcare,” said Henderson, who is an organizer with the Movement for Black Lives.

Among the strikers will be essential workers: nursing home employees, janitors and delivery men and women. Fast food, ride-share and airport workers are also expected to take part in planned events.

At noon in each US time zone on Monday, workers are expected to take a knee for about eight minutes, the amount of time prosecutors say white police officer Derek Chauvin held his knee on George Floyd’s neck before Floyd died.

Strikers are demanding sweeping action by corporations and government to confront systemic racism and economic inequality that limits mobility and career advancement for many Black and Hispanic workers, who make up a disproportionate number of those earning less than a living wage.

Specifically, they are calling on corporate leaders and elected government officials to use executive and legislative power to guarantee people of all races can thrive. That demand includes raising wages and allowing workers to unionize to negotiate better health care, sick leave and child care support.

In Manhattan, essential workers will gather outside of the Trump International Hotel to demand the Senate and president Donald Trump pass and sign the HEROES Act.

The House-passed legislation provides protective equipment, essential pay and extended unemployment benefits to workers who have not had the option of working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

Organizers said New York Sen. Chuck Schumer is expected to rally with workers.

Kasich to back Biden?

According to the Associated Press, former Ohio governor and candidate for the presidential nomination John Kasich has been approached to speak at the Democratic National Convention, a slimmed-down and mostly online event in Milwaukee, Wisconsin next month.

Kasich is also a former congressman and committee chair, an influential Republican who would be quite a get to speak against a Republican president – but one with some views and parts of his record in government that Democrats, by and large, do not share.

Biden’s deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, would not confirm the approach to Kasich but she told the AP: “In terms of Republican supporters, I think it speaks to a career of being able to work across the aisle, of being able to actually get things done. We welcome the support of anybody who’d rather see Joe Biden be president than Donald Trump.”

Kasich, who ran for the Republican nomination in 2016 and ended up writing in John McCain as his choice for president, has been critical of Trump for some time. In 2018, he told the Guardian:

I’m not a Johnny-come-lately to this … most of the, people have been upset with him, and then endorse him and then they get upset with him. I just have not operated that way … I did not feel public pressure to have to go and support somebody that I was not convinced was going to pull the country together.

Mike Pompeo is visiting the UK and Denmark over the next couple of days. The state department say that while he is on the trip he will meet with prime minister Boris Johnson and foreign secretary Dominic Raab to discuss Covid-19, China, Hong Kong, and the US-UK free trade agreement negotiations. On the agenda from the UK side will be the extradition of Anne Sacoolas over the killing of teenage motorcyclist Harry Dunn.

One thing unlikely to come up, which will no doubt please Pompeo, is the growing interest in a whistleblower complaint from a state department employee about his conduct.

Read more here: The Hill – Whistleblower alleges repeated attempts were made to report Pompeo’s ‘questionable activities’

My colleagues Lauren Gambino and Maanvi Singh have been looking at the state of play in Arizona ahead of November’s election – once a Republican bastion, it is in play this time around

The decade-long backlash to the so-called “show me your papers” immigration law, demographic change and population growth, are reshaping the state’s political landscape, turning one of the last conservative bastions of the south-west into a battleground.

With less than four months until the election, polls show Biden ahead of the president in a state Trump won in 2016 by fewer than four percentage points, a far narrower margin than past Republican nominees. In 2018, in November’s midterm elections, young Latino voters cast votes in record numbers, joining white moderates in the suburbs, to elect Kyrsten Sinema – the first Democrat to win a US senate seat in Arizona in decades.

Read more here: Once a Republican bastion, Arizona is now a battleground that could decide the election

Updated

One of the stranger exchanges during Donald Trump’s interview with Chris Wallace was over the president’s claims to have taken a cognitive test. Trump having said in the past that he had aced it and that this was hard to do, Wallace produced some images from the test. Trump said Wallace was misrepresenting it.

If you fancy a crack at it yourself, this is the kind of test of which the president was saying “They get very hard, the last five questions.”

One of the MoCA cognitive tests
One of the MoCA cognitive tests Photograph: MOCA

Questions include repeatedly subtracting seven from 100, knowing what the date is, listing as many words as you can think of that start with the letter ‘f’ in a minute, and drawing a clock with the hands set at ten past eleven.

Here are some highlights of the Fox News Sunday interview:

Updated

20 year old son of federal judge shot dead at her home

Here’s a bit more detail from the Associated Press on the shooting of the 20-year-old son of US District Judge Esther Salas.

According to judiciary officials, the shootings occurred at the North Brunswick home of Salas, and killed her son. Daniel Anderl, a college student, was the judge’s only child, the official said. Her husband, defense lawyer Mark Anderl, was injured in the attack.

Salas was in the basement at the time and wasn’t injured, according to a judiciary official who spoke anonymously. The perpetrator, believed to be a lone gunman posing as a FedEx delivery person, was not in custody, the official said. The FBI tweeted Sunday night that it’s looking for one suspect in the shootings.

Salas, seated in Newark, was nominated by president Barack Obama and confirmed in 2011. Prior to that she served as a US Magistrate Judge in New Jersey, after working as an assistant public defender for several years.

Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez, who backed Salas’s nomination to the federal bench, said in a statement Sunday night, “My prayers are with Judge Salas and her family, and that those responsible for this horrendous act are swiftly apprehended and brought to justice.”

In an emailed statement, Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy called the shooting “a senseless act” and said “this tragedy is our latest reminder that gun violence remains a crisis in our country and that our work to make every community safer isn’t done.”

Good morning, welcome to our live coverage of US politics, Black Lives Matter protests, and the coronavirus crisis for today, amid the aftermath of Donald Trump’s extraordinary interview yesterday.
  • A poll puts Joe Biden ahead of Donald Trump by 15% among registered voters nationally. Biden holds a 20-point lead when it comes to who Americans trust to handle the coronavirus pandemic
  • The president gave a chaotic interview on Fox in which, among other things, he said of the coronavirus death toll “it is what it is”. He said he would eventually be proved right for saying earlier in the year that it would “disappear”
  • The US now has 3,773,260 confirmed coronavirus cases, causing 140,534 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker. 64,650 new cases were reported on Sunday. This is down on Saturday’s figure of 66,026 and Friday’s record 76,403
  • More than 1,200 members of the US National Academy of Sciences have now signed an open letter urging the president to “restore science-based policy in government”
  • After weeks of protests in the city, Portland’s mayor has demanded federal troops be removed, saying “their presence is actually leading to more violence and vandalism”. Oregon’s attorney general has vowed to seek a restraining order against them
  • Judiciary officials say a gunman shot and killed the 20-year-old son of a federal judge as he answered the door of the family home Sunday in New Jersey, and shot and wounded the judge’s husband before fleeing
  • Roger Stone used a racial slur during a radio interview with host Morris O’Kelly, who is black
  • Kanye West appeared to launch his presidential campaign with a chaotic rally in South Carolina on Sunday, and a rambling speech that took in abortion, Harriet Tubman and the terms of West’s promotional deal with Adidas
  • Trump’s only scheduled engagement today is a fundraiser at Trump International Hotel in Washington. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo heads to the UK

I’m Martin Belam and I’ll be with you for the next couple of hours. You can get in touch with me at martin.belam@theguardian.com

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