Evening Summary
Kari Paul here, signing off for the night! Here are the top stories from the past few hours.
- Verizon became the latest company to pull advertising from Facebook in response to the company’s policies around hate speech and misinformation. It joins dozens of others including Patagonia and REI.
- Vice president Mike Pence and other members of the Trump administration were criticized Thursday for touring an automobile factory in Ohio without masks.
- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the number of Covid-19 cases in US may be 10 times higher than reported.
- Black voters support Biden over Trump at a staggering 92% to 5%, a new poll found.
Black voters in the US say racism and police conduct are the top issues for the 2020 election, a new poll from Washington Post-Ipsos finds, and are highly critical of Donald Trump on both matters.
The poll shows support for Biden is significantly higher than that for Trump among Black voters, at 92% to 5%. Roughly half of those polled who will vote for Biden say they will do so because they “support Biden” and the other half say they mainly “oppose Trump.”
Support for Biden among Black voters is highly stratified along age lines. Some 87% of black seniors say Biden is sympathetic to the problems of Black people in America, but that number drops to 66% among those under age 40.
This could affect voter turn out, the poll said: only 61% of Black voters under the age of 40 say they are “certain to vote” in November compared to 82% of Black adults between 40 and 65 and 87% of Black adults over the age of 65.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Thursday the number of Covid-19 cases in US may be 10 times higher than reported.
By those measures, an estimated 20 million Americans have been infected by the virus, compared to the official number of 2.45 million infected. The CDC released the new estimate based on testing for antibodies across the country.
“Our best estimate right now is that for every case that’s reported, there actually are 10 other infections,” CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield said on a call with reporters Thursday.
That’s because many cases of the illness come with no symptoms, Redfield noted. That does not undermine how dangerous the disease is, he noted. On Thursday, the CDC also expanded its list of who is at greatest risk for COVID-19 complications, removing the age cutoff of 65.
“There’s not an exact cutoff of age at which people should or should not be concerned,” Jay Butler of the CDC said.
Vice president Mike Pence and other members of the Trump administration were criticized Thursday for touring Lordstown Motors, in Lordstown, Ohio without wearing masks.
Vice President Mike Pence tours Lordstown Motors, in Lordstown, OH. No one, including the VP, wears a mask. pic.twitter.com/WmAmxQ0leS
— The Hill (@thehill) June 25, 2020
Members of the Trump administration, including Donald Trump himself, have frequently declined to wear masks throughout the coronavirus pandemic despite CDC recommendations to do so.
Pence was at the former General Motors plant for the unveiling of an all-electric truck. He discussed the Trump administration’s trade policies as they relate to manufacturing.
“We fought for free and fair trade and the values and ideals that have always made this country great,” Pence said. “On every single promise, President Trump delivered for the people of Ohio.”
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley told reporters on Thursday he does not believe lawmakers will be able to compromise on police reform legislation because the issue has become “too partisan”.
#NEW I asked GOP @ChuckGrassley if he's hopeful about a #policeReform compromise
— Raquel Martin (@RaquelMartinTV) June 25, 2020
"I'm very pessimistic...Republicans can never get credit for a bill dealing with race issues...this is very much partisan...they don't care anything about the black community"#NexstarDC@WHO13news pic.twitter.com/cCLOlCybYn
“I’m very pessimistic...Republicans can never get credit for a bill dealing with race issues or a bill dealing with police reform,” he said. “This is very much partisan, they don’t care anything about the black community.”
Verizon is pulling advertising from Instagram and Facebook, the biggest name to boycott the company thus far as the movement calling on Facebook to address hate speech grows.
The company said on Thursday it will join other companies including Ben & Jerry’s, Patagonia and REI in suspending advertising from Facebook-owned platforms until the company “can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable.”
“We have strict content policies in place and have zero tolerance when they are breached, we take action,” Verizon’s chief media officer John Nitti said in a statement. “We’re pausing our advertising until Facebook can create an acceptable solution that makes us comfortable and is consistent with what we’ve done with YouTube and other partners.”
The move comes after “Stop Hate for Profit” campaign was launched Wednesday by advocacy groups including the Anti-Defamation League, the NAACP, and the Color Of Change. It asks advertisers to pressure the tech giant to adopt stricter policies against racist and hateful content on its platforms by pausing all spending on advertising with the company for the month of July.
As part of the campaign, the groups alerted Verizon that one of its advertisements on Facebook had appeared next to a video from the conspiracy group QAnon drawing on hateful and antisemitic rhetoric.
The advocacy groups argue Facebook has failed to address misinformation and hate speech by making Breitbart News a “trusted news source” despite its history of working with white nationalists and neo-Nazis, allegedy allowing housing discrimination against communities of color, and failing to remove Holocaust denial posts.
The pressure on Facebook to moderate hate speech has accelerated in recent weeks as the platform refused to flag false and incendiary statements from Donald Trump despite moves from rival platform Twitter to do so.
Facebook acknowledged the growing pressure on a call with advertisers on Wednesday, where a Facebook executive admitted there is a “trust deficit” with its clients on the platform.
Updated
Hello, readers! Kari Paul in Oakland, California here with the news for the next few hours. Stay tuned for updates.
Today so far
That’s it from me today. My west coast colleague, Kari Paul, will take over the blog for the next few hours.
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Joe Biden accused Trump of “whining and self-pity” amid the coronavirus pandemic. “He’s like a child who can’t believe this has happened to him,” Biden said during a speech in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. “All his whining and self-pity. Well, this pandemic didn’t happen to him; it happened to all of us. And his job isn’t to whine about it. His job is to do something about it.”
- The House is expected to soon pass the Democratic police reform bill, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. House members are currently debating the bill, and it will then come up for a full floor vote. Although it will likely pass the House, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has already said the legislation is a non-starter.
- Another 1.5 million Americans filed for unemployment last week. About 47 million Americans have now submitted unemployment claims since the start of the coronavirus crisis. The weekly number has leveled off in recent weeks, but the figure remains worrisomely high as many states report increases in new coronavirus cases.
- The treasury department sent $1.4 billion worth of stimulus payments to dead people. The direct payments, which were approved as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, were sent to more than 1 million Americans who had already died, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.
- Trump reportedly asked for a toppled Confederate statue to be put back up. According to NBC News, the president personally requested that the DC statue of Confederate general Albert Pike, which was torn down by protesters last week, be put back up.
Kari will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
Defense secretary Mark Esper said he has authorized the deployment of 4,000 Pentagon personnel to the southern border starting in October, a month before the presidential election in November.
According to a statement from the Pentagon, “the duties to be performed by military personnel include ... detection and monitoring, logistics and transportation support to US Customs and Border Protection.”
JUST IN: @EsperDoD authorizing the deployment of up to 4,000 @DeptofDefense personnel to the southern border starting in October to support @DHSgov pic.twitter.com/ZlSkGUGhs8
— Jeff Seldin (@jseldin) June 25, 2020
The announcement was reminiscent of Trump’s efforts to focus attention on the migrant caravan in the weeks leading up to the 2018 midterm elections.
As Americans prepared to go to the polls, the president threatened to send the military to the US-Mexican border to stop those in the caravan from entering the country.
However, the gambit did not pay off, as Democrats ultimately took control of the House of Representatives in the midterms.
More from the Guardian’s Mario Koran in California:
Despite the grim report on the rise in new coronavirus cases, governor Gavin Newsom maintained his characteristically stoic delivery, encouraging Californians to continue to do their part by wearing masks and keeping safe distances.
It’s only because of the steps taken, he said, that the state has been able to avoid the worst case scenario he floated in March, when he said more than half the state, roughly 25m residents, could contract the virus over the next eight weeks.
“We are not victims of fate,” said Newsom. “We can manifest the future.”
Newsom praised the decision by Disney to push back its reopening date, originally set for July 17, after cases spiked in and around Los Angeles.
Newsom also unveiled the creation of an open-source portal for members of the public to scour coronavirus data, a platform he said was partly created in an effort “to back up the health professionals”.
The move comes on the heels of reports of anger and threats being directed toward public health experts. This week, Los Angeles county’s director of public health said someone casually suggested she should be shot during a Covid-19 briefing she was hosting on Facebook live.
The Guardian’s Mario Koran reports from California as the state grapples with a surge in new coronavirus cases:
California governor Gavin Newsom didn’t waste time in today’s press briefing delivering a blunt message: the state has not yet entered the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. It is not yet out of the first.
In recent days the picture in California has worsened on nearly every measure. Tuesday set a new record for coronavirus infections, counting more than 7,000 new positive test results. The positivity rate of those testing has ticked up to 5.6% in the past seven days. The state is currently using 34% of its ICU capacity, a percentage that’s also on the rise.
More than 4,200 patients are currently hospitalized due to Covid-19, absorbing 8% of the state’s surge capacity.
Between Sunday and Tuesday, California witnessed a 69% rise in coronavirus cases in just two days, as communities reopen from lockdown restrictions. Los Angeles county now leads the nation with more than 88,500 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
In his speech on healthcare, Joe Biden criticized Trump for calling coronavirus testing a “double-edged sword” during his Saturday rally in Tulsa.
“Testing unequivocally saves lives, and widespread testing is the key to opening up our economy again — so that’s one edge of the sword,” Biden said in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
“The other edge: that he thinks finding out that more Americans are sick will make him look bad. And that’s what he’s worried about. He’s worried about looking bad.”
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee also urged Americans to socially distance and wear masks to limit the spread of coronavirus.
“We’re going to have to wear masks. And I know as Americans it’s not something we’re used to. But it matters,” Biden said. “We’re going to have to socially distance. It’s not easy. It seems so strange to us. ... But for now, we have to socially distance. It matters.”
Biden accuses Trump of 'whining and self-pity' amid pandemic
Joe Biden delivered remarks on healthcare in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, this afternoon, as more than half of US states report increases in the number of new coronavirus cases.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee accused Trump of mishandling the US response to the pandemic.
“He’s like a child who can’t believe this has happened to him,” Biden said. “All his whining and self-pity. Well, this pandemic didn’t happen to him; it happened to all of us. And his job isn’t to whine about it. His job is to do something about it.”
Biden on Trump: "He's like a child who can't believe this has happened to him. All his whining and self- pity. Well, this pandemic didn't happen to him, it happened to all of us. And his job isn't to whine about it. His job is to do something about it." https://t.co/Nj065CIsxp pic.twitter.com/wxZdNgPi9e
— CBS News (@CBSNews) June 25, 2020
Biden criticized Trump for continuing to attack the Affordable Care Act as the country grapples with this crisis. The administration, for example, is still part of a lawsuit aimed at overturning the ACA.
“If Donald Trump refuses to end his senseless crusade against health coverage, I look forward to ending it for him,” the former vice president said.
“The presidency is a duty to care,” Biden added. “A duty to care for everyone, not just who voted for you, but to care for everyone, all of us.”
Updated
California declares budget emergency over coronavirus surge
California’s governor Gavin Newsom moments ago declared a budget emergency in the most populous US state, blaming expenses and the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Such an action allows the state to tap into its so-called rainy day fund for extra resources, Reuters reports.
California anticipates a $54.3-billion budget deficit due to costs and a drop in revenue linked to the pandemic.
Under a deal reached with lawmakers, the state would use about $16 billion from the rainy day fund over the next three years to help right its budget, said HD Palmer, a spokesman for the governor’s finance department.
The finance department has projected a 25.5% decline in personal income taxes collected by the state, and a 27% decline in sales taxes and a 23% drop in corporate taxes.
In addition, the state expects to spend more than projected in 2020 because of expenses related to the coronavirus pandemic of about $13 billion.
California is having a torrid time amid the latest surge in coronavirus infections sweeping southern and western states.
You can read the latest national report on this here.
The Guardian reported yesterday that California has seen a 69% rise in coronavirus cases in just two days, Newsom said, as the state continues to battle a surge of new infections and hospitalizations.
The state has witnessed an alarming jump in cases as communities reopen from lockdown restrictions. Los Angeles county now leads the nation with more than 88,500 cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
Numbers have shot upward in recent days, rising from 4,230 on Sunday to 7,149 by Tuesday, according to public health data. The weekend also saw a record number of hospitalizations due to the virus. The state is currently at 30% of its ICU capacity.
Updated
Attempt to block Trump niece book dismissed
An attempt to block publication of a book by Donald Trump’s niece has been dismissed by a court in New York.
Ted Boutros, an attorney for Mary Trump, tweeted that a court in Queens dismissed a lawsuit brought by the president’s brother, Robert Trump.
“The court has promptly and correctly held that it lacks jurisdiction to grant the Trump family’s baseless request to suppress a book of utmost public importance and concern,” Boutros said.
“We hope this decision will end the matter. Democracy thrives on the free exchange of ideas, and neither this court nor any other has authority to violate the constitution by imposing a prior restraint on core political speech.”
There seems little doubt it will not end the matter.
Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World’s Most Dangerous Man by Mary L Trump is due out on 28 July. According to publisher Simon & Schuster, also behind John Bolton’s tell-all which a federal judge declined to block last week, the trained clinical psychologist will “shine a bright light on the dark history of their family” and offer a “revelatory, authoritative portrait of Donald J Trump and the toxic family that made him”.
The publisher also promises “a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse” that explain the inner workings of “one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families”.
Mary Trump has expressed opposition to her uncle on Twitter and was reportedly a key source for the New York Times’ Pulitzer-winning reporting on the Trump family’s tax affairs. But almost 20 years ago, she signed a non-disclosure agreement concerning litigation over a family will.
In an interview with the news site Axios last week, President Trump said: “She’s not allowed to write a book. You know, when we settled with her and her brother, who I do have a good relationship with – she’s got a brother, Fred, who I do have a good relationship with, but when we settled, she has a total ... signed a nondisclosure.”
On Thursday Mary Trump’s brother told the Daily Mail he believed the NDA meant his sister should not be allowed to publish.
In a statement which the Mail said was provided by Eric Trump, the president’s second son, Fred Trump III said: “At the time that our lawsuit with the family was resolved, Mary and I had each received a generous financial settlement from the family and were more than willing to agree to execute non-disclosure provisions.
“In my opinion, those provisions of the 2001 settlement agreement are still in effect and binding today and I have continued to honor them.”
It was also reported that the president’s younger brother, Robert Trump, spent 10 days in intensive care before filing his suit to stop his niece.
In a statement to the New York Times after he left hospital the 72-year-old said: “Her attempt to sensationalize and mischaracterize our family relationship after all of these years for her own financial gain is both a travesty and injustice to the memory of my late brother, Fred, and our beloved parents. I and the rest of my entire family are so proud of my wonderful brother, the president, and feel that Mary’s actions are truly a disgrace.”
Trump’s nominee to lead the Manhattan US attorney’s office would not commit to recusing himself from investigations involving the president during a House hearing today.
Securities and exchange commission chairman Jay Clayton -- who has been named as Trump’s replacement for Geoffrey Berman, after the top prosecutor’s abrupt firing this weekend -- was pressed on the issue while testifying before a House financial services subcommittee.
Democratic congressman Carolyn Maloney asked Clayton if he would “commit, right here, to recusing yourself” from investigations involving the president’s businesses or associates.
Clayton replied, “What I will commit to do, which is what I commit to in my current job, is to approach the job with independence and to follow all ethical rules.”
The abrupt firing of Berman prompted speculation that Trump was looking to crack down on the investigations coming out of the southern district of New York office.
The president has previously lashed out against administration officials, such as former attorney general Jeff Sessions, who recuse themselves from high-profile investigations.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell encouraged Americans to wear masks to limit the spread of coronavirus, as more than half of US states report increases in new cases.
“I think that’s what people ought to do,” the Kentucky Republican told an ABC News reporter. “That’s what we’re doing in the Senate, and that’s what I’m counseling other people to do.”
Some Republican lawmakers, including senators Mitt Romney and Marco Rubio, have similarly encouraged their constituents to cover their faces.
However, other congressional Republicans have taken a much more laissez-faire approach to encouraging mask usage.
Not a lot of masks at this GOP pressser but there is a MAGA hat pic.twitter.com/K0kDwLhvVm
— Melanie Zanona (@MZanona) June 25, 2020
At the end of a House freedom caucus press conference moments ago, caucus chairman Andy Biggs was asked whether his Arizona consitutents should wear masks. “It’s up to them,” Biggs said.
A photo of the press conference indicated only one of the Republican lawmakers was wearing a mask during the event.
House minority leader Kevin McCarthy dodged a question about Trump using a racist term to describe coronavirus.
“When we have seen a spike in coronavirus, you’re concerned about somebody and the way they name it,” McCarthy said on Capitol Hill. “That’s appalling to me.”
Trump received widespread criticism for referring to coronavirus as “Kung Flu” during his Saturday rally in Tulsa, as a number of states report increases in new cases of the virus.
Of course, McCarthy’s response to the question ignores the fact that Trump is simultaneosuly downplaying the surge in new cases, incorrectly insisting that the increase is due to expanded testing.
In reality, many public health experts have said the surge in new cases is more attributable to states reopening and Americans relaxing social distancing practices.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi ruled out the idea of impeaching attorney general William Barr, after one Democratic member of the House judiciary committee called for it.
Pelosi said during a Washington Post Live event, “131 days from now, we will have the solution to many problems, one of them being Barr.”
Pelosi’s comment comes a day after the judiciary committee held a hearing on the politicization of the justice department, during which several justice department veterans accused Barr of undermining the rule of law.
“Anyone who saw that testimony will know that Barr is a mess,” Pelosi said of the hearing. “He is a disgrace to the department of justice.”
Democratic congressman Steve Cohen said during yesterday’s hearing, “We should pursue impeachment of Bill Barr because he is reigning terror on the rule of law.”
But Pelosi indicated she would rely on the November election to oust Barr from his role.
Multiple Trump campaign staffers are reportedly now quarantining after attending the president’s Tulsa rally and interacting with several colleagues who later tested positive for coroanvirus.
CNN reports:
After eight staffers tested positive, several of the campaign’s top officials decided to quarantine for the week instead of going into the office, two sources familiar with the situation told CNN. Staff had only recently returned to the office after months of working from home because of coronavirus restrictions.
As a precaution staff who were in Tulsa are working remotely and they will be tested before returning to the office, a campaign official said.
Trump received criticism for holding the indoor rally as a number of states, including Oklahoma, reported increases in new coronavirus cases.
Six campaign staffers tested positive for the virus shortly before the rally began, but Trump moved ahead with the event anyway. Two additional staffers who attended the rally have since tested positive as well.
Today so far
Here’s where the day stands so far:
- Another 1.5 million Americans filed for unemployment last week. About 47 million Americans have now submitted unemployment claims since the start of the coronavirus crisis. The weekly number has leveled off in recent weeks, but the figure remains worrisomely high as many states report increases in new coronavirus cases.
- The treasury department sent $1.4 billion worth of stimulus payments to dead people. The direct payments, which were approved as part of the $2 trillion coronavirus relief bill, were sent to more than 1 million Americans who had already died, the Government Accountability Office said in a new report.
-
Trump reportedly asked for a toppled Confederate statue to be put back up. According to NBC News, the president personally requested that the DC statue of Confederate general Albert Pike, which was torn down by protesters last week, be put back up.
The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.
The governor of Texas is temporarily pausing all additional reopening, as the state grapples with a surge in new cases of coronavirus.
“As we experience an increase in both positive COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, we are focused on strategies that slow the spread of this virus while also allowing Texans to continue earning a paycheck to support their families,” Republican governor Greg Abbott said in a statement.
“The last thing we want to do as a state is go backwards and close down businesses. This temporary pause will help our state corral the spread until we can safely enter the next phase of opening our state for business.”
Abbott announced earlier today that all hospitals in Harris, Travis, Bexar and Dallas counties must also stop elective surgeries, as many hospitals report their intensive care units are nearing full capacity.
Texas officials reported yesterday that they had confirmed 5,551 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, setting a new single-day record.
Trump asks for toppled Confederate statue to be put back up - report
Trump has personally requested that a statue of a Confederate general be put back up after protesters in Washington tore the monument down, according to NBC News.
NBC Washington reports:
Trump called Interior Sec. David Bernhardt and asked the Park Service to restore a statue of Brigadier General Albert Pike, two sources told NBC News.
The White House did not provide a comment, NBC News reported.
But an Interior Department spokesman reiterated Bernhardt’s call for law and order.
‘The Secretary has made his position quite clear when it comes to lawlessness, violence against police, and destruction of public property,’ the spokesman said.
Protesters in Washington tore down the Pike statue last week. The statue has been a center of controversy for decades, with a number of local officials calling for its removal.
Trump has said he plans to sign an executive order this week on protecting federal monuments and punishing those who deface them, as Confederate statues have been targeted across the country. Activists have long denounced Confederate statues as monuments to white supremacy.
Updated
Trump is again tweeting away, as he makes his way to Joint Base Andrews to fly to Wisconsin for a tour of a shipbuilding facility.
The president first dismissed Carly Fiorina’s announcement that she will be voting for Joe Biden, saying, “She lost so badly to me, twice in one campaign, that she should be voting for Joe. No complaints!!!”
Fiorina, who ran against Trump for the 2016 Republican nomination, told the Atlantic she would be voting for Biden because Americans need “real leadership that can unify the country.”
The number of ChinaVirus cases goes up, because of GREAT TESTING, while the number of deaths (mortality rate), goes way down. The Fake News doesn’t like telling you that!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 25, 2020
The president also repeated his widely disputed claim that the country’s number of new coronavirus cases is increasing because of expanded testing.
“The number of ChinaVirus cases goes up, because of GREAT TESTING, while the number of deaths (mortality rate), goes way down,” Trump tweeted, once again trying to pin the blame for the pandemic on Beijing.
However, public health experts have said the rise in new cases is more attributable to states reopening and Americans relaxing their social distancing practices.
Testifying before the House energy and commerce committee this week, Dr Anthony Fauci noted the number of coronavirus deaths often lags behind the number of new cases, predicting the country could see a rising death toll in the weeks to come.
NYPD officer arrested after using chokehold
The New York officer who was caught on camera over the weekend using a banned chokehold on a black man has now been arrested, the NYPD said.
The department said in a statement that David Afanador, who was suspended after footage emerged of him using a chokehold on Ricky Bellevue, was arrested today on charges of strangulation and attempted strangulation.
The footage sparked outcry, particularly because it came only weeks after the police killing of George Floyd. A video showed a Minneapolis police officer keeping his knee on Floyd’s neck for nearly nine minutes.
The NYPD has long banned chokeholds, but the practice has attracted more attention since the 2014 death of Eric Garner, who died after being put in a chokehold by New York police officers. Garner repeatedly told the officers, “I can’t breathe.”
New York governor Andrew Cuomo signed legislation earlier this month criminalizing the use of police chokeholds.
Trump and the first lady visited the Korean War Memorial in Washington to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the war.
The president and his wife laid a wreath at the memorial and talked to some of the Korean War veterans present for the ceremony.
POTUS and FLOTUS at Korean War Memorial. pic.twitter.com/LKp6pb65Ix
— Chris Johnson (@chrisjohnson82) June 25, 2020
The president will go from the ceremony to Joint Base Andrews to travel to Wisconsin, where he will tour and deliver remarks at a shipbuilding facility later today.
Trump is once again complaining about Fox News, his favorite news network that has recently attracted more of the president’s criticism.
In this case, Trump lashed out against a Fox commentator who correctly noted most of the protesters forcibly removed from Lafayette Square earlier this month were peaceful.
“A @FoxNews commentator just ripped me with lies, with nobody defending,” Trump tweeted this morning.
The commentator also recounted how Trump held up a Bible upside down during his widely criticized photo op at St John’s Church. Trump denied doing so, but photos of the event clearly show otherwise.
Here's the photo taken by @dougmillsnyt. https://t.co/Z4lwtboucM pic.twitter.com/fnzSz8WB0c
— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) June 25, 2020
Meanwhile, more than half of US states are reporting increases in their numbers of new coronavirus cases, and the country’s death toll from the virus is approaching 122,000.
Updated
Today’s supreme court decision made it easier for the government to target asylum-seekers at the border for quick deportation.
Immigrant advocates frustrated by the decision were especially concerned about justice Samuel Alito’s interpretation of the asylum process.
Alito wrote the majority 7-2 ruling and used Trump administration documents to advance the controversial idea that asylum claims are largely fraudulent.
This idea, borne from rightwing anti-immigration groups and promoted by the Trump administration, ignores the sheer complexity of US asylum laws.
The government does not actually track how many asylum claims turn out to be fraudulent. Instead, Alito cited data about how many people pass the first step, the credible fear interview, but end up not pursuing the asylum process.
A detail he ignores is that the asylum process is complicated and the government does little to clarify court dates and share information people need to complete the process. Border officials have also been documented lying to asylum-seekers about their rights. And the Trump administration has issued so many changes to the process that essentially a policy which is legal one month may not be legal the next.
Katharina Obser, a senior policy advisor at the Women’s Refugee Commission, pushed back against Alito’s reasoning:
So so terrible. When someone doesn't win asylum or even isn't found to have credible fear it does not - especially in today's broken, destroyed system - automatically mean that their claim was meritless. This takes for granted that the system is fair - it isn't. https://t.co/O66rWFzroL
— Katharina Obser (@Kat_Obser) June 25, 2020
House Democrats held a socially distant press conference on the Capitol steps ahead of the vote on their police reform bill, which is expected to pass.
House Democrats gather on the Capitol steps at a social-distancing presser before passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act pic.twitter.com/dFjD8ofqKN
— Scott Wong (@scottwongDC) June 25, 2020
“Today is the day we pass legislation to transform policing in America,” congressional black caucus chairwoman Karen Bass said, describing the Justice in Policing Act as “a bill for human rights in our country.”
House speaker Nancy Pelosi said passing the bill was a way to honor the life of George Floyd and everyone else killed by police brutality.
“When we pass this bill, the Senate will have a choice: To honor George Floyd’s life or to do nothing,” Pelosi said.
The House vote comes one day after Senate Democrats blocked the Republican police reform bill from advancing, after complaining the bill did not go far enough to address police brutality.
Although the Democratic bill is expected to pass the House, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has already said he considers the legislation to be a non-starter.
Supreme court enhances Trump's rapid deportation power
The supreme court has issued a decision bolstering Trump’s ability to rapidly deport undocumented immigrants, including those seeking asylum.
In a 7-2 decision written by conservative justice Samuel Alito, the court ruled that those seeking asylum did not have a broad right to have their case heard by a federal judge.
The decision marks a victory for Trump, who has sought to expand the administration’s ability to rapidly deport those who enter the country illegally.
The supreme court’s decision overturns a ruling from the ninth circuit, who had ruled in favor of an undocumented immigrant seeking a federal court ruling on his asylum claim.
The immigrant, a Sri Lankan farmer named Vijayakumar Thuraissigiam, had his asylum claim denied and wanted the case to be heard again by a federal judge.
Treasury sent $1.4bn in stimulus payments to dead people
The federal government spent more than $1bn on stimulus payments that went to dead people, according to the US Government Accountability Office.
The congressional watchdog said in a new report, “The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury moved quickly to disburse 160.4m payments worth $269.3bn. The agencies faced difficulties delivering payments to some individuals, and faced additional risks related to making improper payments to ineligible individuals, such as decedents, and fraud.
“For example, according to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, as of April 30, 2020, almost 1.1 million payments totaling nearly $1.4 billion had gone to decedents.”
The direct cash payments were approved as part of the $2tn Cares Act, which was meant to offer Americans financial assistance amid the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout.
Shortly after the government started distributing the payments, reports emerged that Americans had received checks addressed to family members who had already died.
The IRS issued new guidance last month asking those who received checks addressed to dead relatives to return them to the federal government.
Updated
A new poll shows Joe Biden leading Trump in several key battleground states – including Wisconsin, where the president is visiting today to tour a shipbuilding facility.
According to the New York Times/Siena College poll, Biden leads by 11 points in Wisconsin, 11 points in Michigan, 10 points in Pennsylvania, 6 points in Florida, 7 points in Arizona and 9 points in North Carolina.
Trump won all six of those states in 2016, and he can only afford to lose a couple of them in November and still win the electoral college.
More broadly, if Trump is struggling in states like North Carolina, he’s likely losing support in other states that should be safely in his column. A poll released yesterday showed the president and Biden are virtually tied in Ohio, which Trump carried by 8 points in 2016.
There are still more than four months left until the general election, and plenty will change in that time. But it’s clear that Trump needs to start quickly turning around this trend, or he will have no chance at a second term.
Updated
This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.
Senator Tim Scott, the only black Republican in the Senate, has reportedly seen an uptick in threats and racist messages in recent weeks, as he crafted the Republican police reform bill.
CNN reports:
Scott, the only African American Republican in the chamber, played two of the messages for his GOP colleagues during a policy lunch Tuesday, according to his spokesman Sean Smith.
The caller who described Scott as ‘Uncle Tim’ also said he was a ‘sellout’ and ‘the lowest piece of sh*t this country ever produced.’ That caller also made unflattering remarks about South Carolina’s other Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, and the two GOP senators from Florida, Marco Rubio and Rick Scott. ...
‘Tim Scott, my crosshairs on my rifle are going to be pointed right at your forehead and blow your black (inaudible) dumbass away,’ said one caller.Another referenced the ‘stimulus package’ and the ‘KKK’ and warned Scott was ‘going to die’ because people from the South ‘just don’t like Blacks.’
Scott’s spokesperson told CNN that most of the calls do not specifically mention any legislation, but they have significantly increased since Scott took over Republicans’ police reform efforts.
Yesterday, Scott’s bill was blocked by Senate Democrats, who have complained the legislation does not go far enough to address police brutality.
The Associated Press are reporting that Donald Trump is facing renewed criticism over his plans to celebrate Independence Day with a showy display at Mount Rushmore.
Native Americans who view the monument as a desecration of land violently stolen from them and used to pay homage to leaders hostile to native people are planning protests for the presidents’s 3 July visit.
The event is slated to include fighter jets and the first fireworks display at the site since 2009. It comes amid a national reckoning over racism and a reconsideration of the symbolism of monuments around the globe.
“Mount Rushmore is a symbol of white supremacy, of structural racism that’s still alive and well in society today,” said Nick Tilsen, a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe and the president of a local activist organisation called NDN Collective. “It’s an injustice to actively steal Indigenous people’s land then carve the white faces of the conquerors who committed genocide.”
While some activists, like Tilsen, want to see the monument removed altogether and the Black Hills returned to the Lakota, others have called for a share in the economic benefits from the region and the tourists it attracts.
Trump has long shown a fascination with Mount Rushmore. South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said in 2018 that he had once told her straight-faced it was his dream to have his face carved into the monument, which was constructed between 1927 and 1941.
For many Native American people, including the Lakota, Cheyenne, Omaha, Arapaho, Kiowa and Kiowa-Apache, the monument is a desecration to the Black Hills, which they consider sacred. Lakota people know the area as Paha Sapa “the heart of everything that is”.
Tim Giago, a journalist who is a member of the Oglala Lakota tribe, said he doesn’t see four great American leaders when he looks at the monument, but instead four white men who either made racist remarks or initiated actions that removed Native Americans from their land.
“Washington and Jefferson both held slaves” he said. “Lincoln, though he led the abolition of slavery, also approved the hanging of 38 Dakota men in Minnesota after a violent conflict with white settlers there. Roosevelt is reported to have said, ‘I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians, but I believe nine out of every ten are.’”
As mentioned earlier, Donald Trump isn’t expected to be seen wearing a face mask during his trip to Wisconsin later today, despite the fact that everybody else will.
This isn’t the only time that the president has made himself an exception to the rule. In this video, my colleague Maanvi Singh looks back at how Trump has long been contradicting and defying science during the coronavirus outbreak, and the impact this has had on the country’s faltering handling of the pandemic.
Scott Bauer of the Associate Press has been doing some scene-setting for Donald Trump’s visit to Wisconsin today. The president is, according to polling released by the New York Times today, trailing Joe Biden by 11 points in the state that he carried by fewer than 23,000 votes in 2016.
Trump will be taking a private tour of a shipyard far away from Milwaukee, where local coronavirus restrictions now prevent large rallies. And he’ll land just a day after Gov. Tony Evers activated the National Guard following unruly protests in the state capital.
Showing the hit the economy has taken from the coronavirus outbreak, when Trump last campaigned in Wisconsin, the unemployment rate was 3.5%. Now, 12% of workers are jobless.
At the Fincantieri Marinette Marine shipyard the president will speak to 500 to 600 people inside, all of whom will be required to wear masks.
Trump will not.
Eric Dunt, the shipbuilder’s spokesperson, told Bauer via email that “We are not asking or requiring the president to wear a mask, as we are going to go to great lengths to give him the appropriate social distance.”
Yesterday, the US recorded its single biggest one-day rise in coronavirus cases, which now total more than 2.3 million. Thirteen employees at the shipbuilder have tested positive for Covid-19 during the outbreak, but they have all recovered and are now back to work, Dent said.
Trump’s appearance gives him a chance to score points with blue-collar workers who know the importance of the shipbuilder to the region’s economy, said John Nygren, a Republican member of the state Assembly who was born and raised in Marinette.
“Granted, Trump is not traditional in a lot of ways, but it’s a great opportunity from a working-class standpoint to show Republicans can stand up for them,” Nygren said.
Trump will no doubt tout a contract won in April by Fincantieri Marinette Marine to build up to 10 navy frigates. The shipbuilder plans to invest $200 million to expand the Marinette facility because of the contract. The company employs about 2,500 people now, and the deal could add 1,000 jobs and be worth $5.6 billion if all the ships are built. It’s the first new major shipbuilding program for the navy in more than a decade.
Visiting a navy shipbuilder shortly before the 4 July holiday gives Trump the chance to show both his support for the military and what it means to be a patriotic American, Nygren said. That message is especially important to give during a time “when we’re dealing with a lot of divisions,” he added.
By contrast, Biden campaign spokesperson Sean Higgins highlighted the unemployment figures, and said “Wisconsin families deserve strong, honest leadership to bring us together and help our country recover. But Trump is unprepared to meet the moment.”
Trump is due to make his remarks at around 4pm.
1.48m more Americans file for unemployment
Another 1.48 million people filed for unemployment insurance across the US last week as the grim economic toll of the coronavirus pandemic continued as infection rates picked up in many states.
Claims for unemployment insurance have now fallen for 12 weeks in a row but remain historically high. About 47 million people have now filed for benefits in the last 14 weeks, with 3 million claims made in the last two weeks.
My colleague Dominic Rushe has a full report here: 1.48m more Americans file for unemployment as pandemic takes toll
An Arizona City Councilman has faced a barrage of criticism after invoking the words of George Floyd to complain about having to wear a mask due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Scottsdale’s Guy Phillips was attending an anti-mask rally he organised, and opened his comments by saying “I can’t breathe! I can’t breathe!” before removing his own mask. The rally was reportedly attended by around 150 people, many of whom were not wearing masks, despite the poster advertising the event asking them to.
Scottsdale Mayor Jim Lane has mandated that masks should be worn in public places where it is not possible to effectively socially distance. Arizona is one of the states that has seen a surge of coronavirus cases in recent days.
Critcis of Phillips have included Gov. Doug Ducey, who tweeted that the comments were “flat out wrong. Despicable doesn’t go far enough. The final words of George Floyd should NEVER be invoked like this. Anyone who mocks the murder of a fellow human has no place in public office. Period.”
Just flat out wrong. Despicable doesn’t go far enough. The final words of George Floyd should NEVER be invoked like this. Anyone who mocks the murder of a fellow human has no place in public office. Period. https://t.co/l0wyVE2BP4
— Doug Ducey (@dougducey) June 25, 2020
Phillips has subsequently apologised to local station 12 News over the phone, saying “It was a stupid and insensitive comment that I shouldn’t have made and I had no intention of disrespecting anybody while making that comment.”
He said that his intent was only to show how restrictive he felt masks were, and not to mock George Floyd.
It probably won’t carry much weight, but former Republican presidential candidate and CEO of Hewlett-Packard Carly Fiorina has said this morning that she will back Joe Biden in November.
In 2010 Fiorina ran as a Tea Party candidate for Senate, and she made a run for the White House in 2016. She’s been interviewed on The Atlantic’s Ticket podcast and says:
As citizens, our vote is more than a check on a box. It’s a statement about where we want to go. I think what we need now actually is real leadership that can unify the country. I am encouraged that Joe Biden is a person of humility and empathy and character. I think we need humility and empathy everywhere in public life right now. And I think character counts.
During the 2016 primary campaign, Fiorina was viciously mocked by Donald Trump in comments that were widely derided as sexist. She still went on to support his election, but not this time around it seems.
There’s set to be more legal wrangling over John Bolton’s best-selling The Room Where It Happened book. While in one direction the Trump administration have been aiming to shut it down, an Freedom of Information act lawsuit filed today demands details of the pre-publication review process.
For his part, Bolton has continued to deny the administration’s claim that there is any classified information contained in his book. It went though a review process that lasted months, and which Bolton says led to changes in the book at the insistence of the National Security Council. There was then a second review, which prompted more edits, and which Bolton has claimed was a more political attempt to suppress the book.
Kel McClanahan is one of the lawyers behind the new lawsuit, and he has told Politico that: “The Bolton case describes a prepublication review process driven by the whims of the political appointees in the White House, shrouded in the deference courts traditionally give the Intelligence Community on questions of national security. The public deserves to know if the claims made behind closed doors about Bolton’s book hold up to the scrutiny of a skeptical judge in a more demanding FOIA context.”
You can read more about it here: Politico - New lawsuit demands details on Bolton book review
Earlier this week 24-year-old Madison Cawthorn scored a surprise victory in the Republican primary in North Carolina - defeating a Trump-endorsed opponent. With a little more national scrutiny on him, it emerged that on social media he had ‘liked’ a tweet referring to the QAnon conspiracy theory - more evidence perhaps of the way that QAnon has moved from the fringes of the internet to be closer to the Republican party itself.
My colleague Julia Carrie Wong has been investigating QAnon for some time, and this morning she’s published a great deep dive into what she’s found about how the conspiracy theory spreads on social media.
Read it here: Down the rabbit hole - how QAnon conspiracies thrive on Facebook
Editor-in-Chief and CEO of Time magazine Edward Felsenthal has published a strongly worded op-ed online this morning that will be appearing in the July edition of the magazine, saying of the US:
As the country nears its 250th anniversary, it is being tested by an overdue reckoning on police brutality, white supremacy and systemic racism in all its forms, by a relentless pandemic on the rise again, by a deep economic and unemployment crisis, by a President who continually deploys racist language and stokes rather than calms division.
Titled “America’s critical moment”, Felsenthal’s op-ed goes on to say:
Time’s leadership is committed to standing up against white supremacy, police brutality and systemic racism, and to standing up for change. We are committed to building a company that reflects the demographics and lived experiences of the world we cover, to increasing the hiring, professional development and career advancement of Black employees and members of other underrepresented groups, and to creating antiracist workplace environments.
You can read it here: Time - America’s critical moment
With widespread calls for police reform and the campaign to #DefundThePolice getting worldwide attention, there’s been huge interest in areas of the US who have attempted reform. Camden and Newark in New Jersey are two areas where police reform has been tried. Ankita Rao reports for us, finding that not everything has gone as smoothly as it is sometimes portrayed
“When I heard that we were a model city, I almost fell off my chair,” said Dr Doris Carpenter, who grew up in Camden and attended a protest on Saturday. “Until people rise, Camden won’t rise, and so often [city officials are] making decisions for us. We need to present at the table – this is no longer a slave plantation.”
Read it in full here: These New Jersey cities reformed their police – but problems still persist
Nate Cohn has written for the New York Times today a follow up to their poll yesterday which showed Joe Biden with a commanding national lead over Donald Trump.
Today Cohn’s focus has been the six key November battleground states of Arizona, Florida, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. In all six states, Biden is ahead - and in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin it is a double-digit lead.
Mr. Trump’s once-commanding advantage among white voters has nearly vanished, a development that would all but preclude the president’s re-election. Mr. Biden now has a 21-point lead among white college graduates, and the president is losing among white voters in the three Northern battleground states — not by much, but he won them by nearly 10 points in 2016.
There’s lot of interesting detail in the piece - including how Trump’s public clash with Gov. Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan over coronavirus protests has back-fired. 59% of voters disapprove of Mr. Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, and 57% opposed those protests against social distancing measures.
All in all it is another grim read for Trump campaign HQ staff: New York Times - Showing strength with white voters, Biden builds lead in battleground states
Tucson, Arizona’s police chief offers resignation over custody death
Another policing development has been the offer of resignation from Tucson, Arizona’s police chief Chris Magnus at a press conference. Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said she did not know if the resignation would be accepted.
The move follows the public release of bodycam footage of an incident on 21 April which led to the death of 27-year-old Carlos Ingram-Lopez.
Officers were called to a home where they say they found Ingram-Lopez “drunk, yelling and running around the house naked.”
In the video, shown to the public for the first time yesterday, Ingram-Lopez is ultimately arrested and handcuffed facedown. He is then held, still naked, in that position for about twelve minutes, while shouting and in distress.
Mayor Romero said that she was “deeply troubled and outraged” by the event. A medical examiner’s report could not conclusively pinpoint a cause of death, noting that Ingram-Lopez had a high level of cocaine in his blood, and also had an enlarged heart.
Chief Magnus said that his officers had no malicious intent, but had committed “multiple policy violations”. All three officers have resigned from the force - with Magnus noting that “The files for these officers reflect that the department would have terminated them had they not resigned”.
There had been a delay in reviewing the case, and the department has now instituted a policy requiring at least two chiefs to view video footage related to any in custody death within 48 hours.
Mayor Romero said she will propose police reforms, stating “It is simply not acceptable that both mayor and council and the public were not notified of this event after the incident took place.”
Three police officers fired in North Carolina over racial slurs video
Three North Carolina police officers have been fired after a recorded conversation where they talked about slaughtering black people, used racial slurs, and spoke of the need for a second civil war.
An ‘accidental activation’ video recording was made in officer Kevin Piner’s car. It was later reviewed within the Wilmington Police department, and the conversation was discovered. Piner was fired for misconduct along with Cpl. Jessie Moore and officer James Gilmore.
During the recording Moore referred to a woman he had arrested with a racial slur, and Piner said he was planning on buying a new assault rifle in preparation to “slaughter” people who he also described with a racial slur. Piner also complains about the police department “taking the knee”.
Wilmington Police Chief Donny Williams said “Why are we releasing this information this way and at this time? Because it is the right thing to do. Normally, personnel laws allow only a very small amount of information to be made public. However, in exceptional cases, when it is essential to maintain public confidence in the administration of the City and the Police Department, more information may be released. This is the most exceptional and difficult case I have encountered in my career. We must establish new reforms for policing here at home and throughout this country.”
The department has released their full report of the incident. When interviewed, each officer accepted that the conversation was a genuine recording, but denied being racist.
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of US politics today. It’s a month since George Floyd was killed by police, triggering a renewed wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the US and the world. Congress and the Senate are yet to agree on a package of police reform - and overnight news broke that three police officers in North Carolina have been fired over a video recording of a conversation they had, which used racial slurs and talked of ‘slaughtering’ black people.
Here are some of the main developments overnight, and what we can expect from the rest of the day:
- US coronavirus cases set a new record for a one-day high. More than 38,600 new infections were reported yesterday — surpassing records set in late April. The federal government responded by starting to roll back funding for 13 testing sites.
- Donald Trump will visit and deliver remarks at Fincantieri Marinette Marine. It is a shipbuilding facility in Wisconsin. He will also be on the Fox News Hannity show at 9pm ET, and participating in a wreath laying ceremony at the Korean War Veterans Memorial in the morning alongside Melania Trump.
- The Supreme Court is expected to release new decisions at 10am.
I’ll be here for a couple of hours - you can get in touch with me by emailing martin.belam@theguardian.com
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