‘Many of us are concerned’: Lawmakers react to Trump’s national emergency declaration – NBC News
‘Many of us are concerned’: Lawmakers react to Trump’s national emergency declaration – NBC News

Republican and Democratic lawmakers expressed concern Sunday over President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to divert money to build his proposed border wall after Congress refused to authorize such funding.

The declaration, which Trump made Friday, has divided Republicans, with some saying the move amounted to constitutional overreach and could open the door to a future Democratic president declaring similar emergencies over issues the GOP disagrees with.

Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said “many of us are concerned about” the declaration.

That declaration is “certainly the expansion of authority Congress has given past presidents; this president has the same authority,” Johnson said. “I wish he wouldn’t use it in this case. But again, I understand his frustration.”

Johnson said he would take “a very careful look at what he’s doing here in this instance.”

“I’m going to take a look at the case the president makes,” Johnson said. “And I’m also going to take a look at how quickly this money is actually going to be spent versus what he’s going to use.

“If he’s not going to be spending it this fiscal year or very early in the next fiscal year, I would have my doubts” about whether the situation at the border is truly an emergency, Johnson continued. “So again, I’m going to take a look at it and I’ll, you know, I’ll decide when I actually have to vote on it.”

On Friday, Trump ordered a national emergency to build a border wall that he could not get Congress to fund. The government is fresh off of a 35-day partial government shutdown — the longest in U.S. history — that began after lawmakers refused to provide Trump with $5.7 billion in funding to build that wall. Trump shut down the government in response, but relented after more than a month, signing a stopgap spending bill.

The president on Friday also signed a bipartisan spending agreement that included more than $1.3 billion for 55 new miles of border fencing as well as money for other border security measures. Trump will now try to divert nearly $7 billion from a combination of military construction projects, counternarcotics programs, and a Treasury Department asset forfeiture fund to build a longer border barrier.

The national emergency has already drawn legal challenges, which Trump said he expected in announcing the emergency on Friday. He also said he declared the emergency not out of necessity, but to facilitate quicker wall building.

“I could do the wall over a longer period of time,” Trump said. “I didn’t need to do this. But I’d rather do it much faster.”

Congress could pass a resolution disapproving of the emergency declaration, which it has the power to do under the 1976 National Emergencies Act.

On CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Republican Rep. Will Hurd of Texas, who represents a border district, said he would support such a resolution and said he did not think a national emergency declaration was necessary.

“That is not a tool that the president needs in order to solve this problem,” he said.

Democrats voiced strong opposition to Trump’s move. On ABC’s “This Week,” Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois said the House should sue Trump if the resolution is not veto-proof.

“Frankly, the president is trying to take the power of the purse away from the legislative branch,” she said. “We are co-equal branches of government and he is trying to do a type of executive overreach, and it’s just really uncalled for.”

Speaking with CNN’s “State of the Union, Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown said the declaration was in violation of the Constitution.

“Well, this is the first kind of emergency we have seen like this that a president has done this,” he said. “He couldn’t get the Mexicans to build the wall. He couldn’t get Congress to vote the money in. … That’s why you see so many Republicans saying don’t do this. Republicans are afraid that he’s going to take the money from somewhere else and something they care about, but, fundamentally, they think it’s a president who failed, who hates to lose, who is acting childish.”

But others took to the airwaves to defend the president. Republican Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio told “This Week” that the declaration was necessary because Congress would not fund the president’s priority.

“So we tried to do it the appropriations process way and get building it,” Jordan said. “We tried to do this last year, and our party, our party leaders wouldn’t even go there, Democrats certainly wouldn’t go there. So yes, it’s going to be a slow process, it’s going to go to the courts. We understand that. But better to start that process so that we can ultimately get there than to not start it at all.”

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina told “Face the Nation” that the southern border is a national emergency.

“Let’s just say for a moment that he took some money out of the military construction budget,” Graham said. “I would say it’s better for the middle school kids in Kentucky to have a secure border. We’ll get them the school they need. But right now we’ve got a national emergency on our hands.”

Allan Smith

Allan Smith is a political reporter for NBC News.

Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/many-us-are-concerned-lawmakers-react-trump-s-national-emergency-n972611

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Graham calls McCabe comments ‘beyond stunning’ as he threatens to subpoena former FBI chief – Fox News
Graham calls McCabe comments ‘beyond stunning’ as he threatens to subpoena former FBI chief – Fox News
Video

Would Congress learn anything new from calling former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe to testify?

Former Department of Justice prosecutor James Trusty says former acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe has very little credibility.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., vowed Sunday to investigate alleged discussions at the Department of Justice about invoking the 25th Amendment as a way to oust President Trump from office and threatened to subpoena former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe if he refused to testify on the matter before the Senate.

“We’re going to find out what happened here and the only way I know to find out is to call the people in under oath and find out, through questioning, who’s telling the truth because the underlying accusation is beyond stunning,” Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Graham added that he also plans to subpoena both McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein if they won’t voluntarily agree to testify before the committee.

“There is no organization beyond scrutiny,” Graham said. “There is no organization that can’t withstand scrutiny. And the FBI will come out stronger.”

ANDREW MCCARTHY: MCCABE, ROSENSTEIN AND THE REAL THRUTH ABOUT THE 25TH AMENDMENT COUP ATTEMPT

He said: “But we’ve got to get to the bottom of it. What are people to think after they watch “60 Minutes” when they hear this accusation by the acting deputy — acting FBI director that the deputy attorney general encouraged him to try to find ways to count votes to replace the president? That can’t go unaddressed.”

Graham’s comments come on the heels of a Fox News story that reported that former FBI lawyer James Baker, in closed-door testimony to Congress, detailed alleged discussions among senior officials at the Justice Department about invoking the 25th Amendment.

Video

The testimony was delivered last fall to the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees. Fox News has confirmed portions of the transcript. It provides additional insight into discussions that have returned to the spotlight in Washington as fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe revisits the matter during interviews promoting his forthcoming book.

Baker did not identify the two Cabinet officials. But in his testimony, the lawyer said McCabe and FBI lawyer Lisa Page came to him to relay their conversations with Rosenstein, including discussions of the 25th Amendment.

Video

“I was being told by some combination of Andy McCabe and Lisa Page, that, in a conversation with the deputy attorney general, he had stated that he — this was what was related to me — that he had at least two members of the president’s Cabinet who were ready to support, I guess you would call it, an action under the 25th Amendment,” Baker told the committees.

Graham’s comments on Sunday come after he floated the idea of a subpoena last week in a comment to Fox News about the Justice Department discussions.

“I would like to know what happened,” Graham told Fox News. “You’re having a conversation about whether or not you’re going to invoke the 25th Amendment. I imagine if the shoe were on the other foot, my Democratic colleagues would want to know about that conversation if it involved a Democrat.”

CBS News reported on McCabe’s comments after he told “60 Minutes” that Justice Department officials discussed the possibility of removing Trump via the 25th Amendment and that Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein had offered to wear a wire around the president.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

The 25th Amendment provides a mechanism for removing a sitting president from office. One way that could happen is if a majority of the president’s Cabinet says the president is incapable of discharging his duties.

Since giving the interview to “60 Minutes,” McCabe has since made an about-face, with a spokesperson for the former FBI chief releasing a statement that says McCabe did not “participate in any extended discussions about the use of the 25th Amendment, nor is he aware of any such discussions.”

The Justice Department issued a statement calling McCabe’s comments “inaccurate and factually incorrect.”

Reports of the discussions of invoking the 25th Amendment and of Rosenstein wearing a wire were reported in The New York Times.

Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/graham-calls-mccabe-comments-beyond-stunning-as-he-threatens-to-subpoena-former-fbi-chief

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Trump policies unite allies against him at European security forum – Reuters
Trump policies unite allies against him at European security forum – Reuters

MUNICH (Reuters) – In 2009, then U.S. Vice President Joe Biden came to Munich to “press the reset button” with Russia. A decade later he came again to offer the world better relations, this time with his own country.

Promising that “America will be back” once Donald Trump leaves office, Biden won a standing ovation at the Munich Security Conference from delegates who find the president’s brusque foreign policy stance hard to like.

But their elation also exposed the weakened state of Western diplomacy in the face of Trump’s assertiveness, according to European diplomats and politicians who were present.

Biden’s successor, Mike Pence, was met with silence at a reception in the palatial Bavarian parliament on Friday evening after he delivered his signature line: “I bring you greetings from the 45th president of the United States, President Donald Trump.”

His four-day trip to Europe succeeded only in deepening divisions with traditional allies over questions such as Iran and Venezuela and offered little hope in how to deal with threats ranging from nuclear arms to climate change, diplomats and officials said.

Misgivings about Washington’s role in the world are being felt by ordinary people as well as foreign policy specialists. In Germany and France, half the population see U.S. power as a threat, up sharply from 2013 and a view shared by 37 percent of Britons, the Washington-based Pew Research Center said in a report before the Munich foreign policy gathering.

Asked about European anxiety over Trump’s leadership style, a senior U.S. official on Pence’s Air Force Two plane said the vice president’s Munich conference speech on Saturday at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof would “help give them a different perspective”.

“TIT-FOR-TAT”

But if the Europeans did not like the “America First” message, there was no concerted response to it. German Chancellor Angela Merkel was on her own after a last-minute cancellation by French President Emmanuel Macron.

That caused some to lament the failure of the West to uphold the rules-based international order that Washington itself championed in the 70 years that preceded the arrival of Trump in the White House.

“The tit-for-tat logic is unfortunately prevailing … I think that takes us back to the question of enlightened leadership,” said Thomas Greminger, secretary general of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, a security and human rights watchdog.

“We need leaders again who do not believe exclusively in short-termism,” he told Reuters.

It fell to China to aid Merkel in her defense of the post-World War Two order, as the country’s top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, spoke in flawless English for over 20 minutes about the virtues of open trade and global cooperation.

Pence’s message was, in fact, that the pillars of U.S. foreign policy were being rebuilt on a different foundation: isolating Iran, containing China, bringing American troops home and requiring European powers to fall into line.

BROKEN NARRATIVE?

After using a speech in Warsaw on Thursday to accuse Britain, France and Germany of trying to undermine U.S. sanctions on Iran, Pence called in Munich for the European Union to recognize Venezuelan congressional leader Juan Guaido as president over Nicolas Maduro, whom he called a dictator.

That drew an angry response from Spain’s Foreign Minister Josep Borrell, who said the European Union could acknowledge Guaido as interim president until new elections, in line with the Venezuelan constitution.

French foreign minister Jean-Yves LeDrian said he was mystified by U.S. policy on Syria after Trump’s decision to withdraw troops because it would only benefit Iran, which Washington wants to be tough on.

European diplomats and officials also took issue with Pence’s insistence that EU governments stay away from Chinese telecoms companies as they build the latest generation of mobile networks, preferring first to have an internal discussion about the potential risks and U.S. claims of Chinese espionage.

“U.S. pressure has a tendency to make us do the opposite. U.S. pressure is counterproductive. It’s best that they don’t try and pressure us,” a senior French diplomat said.

Whatever the threats, officials seemed to be mainly talking past each other.

Kumi Naidoo, global head of Amnesty International, said security was often defined too narrowly, failing to address the wider dangers of climate change.

“The narrative here at the Munich Security Conference is broken. They are talking about the right topics but in the wrong language. The mentality here is that security is only a national issue,” Naidoo told Reuters.

Leaving for Washington, Pence was unfazed, telling reporters his trip had been very successful. “We’re advancing the interests of the free world, and we’ve made great progress.” 

Additional reporting by Paul Carrel and Andreas Rinke; Writing by Robin Emmott; Editing by Giles Elgood

Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-security/trump-policies-unite-allies-against-him-at-european-security-forum-idUSKCN1Q60L0

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Why Trump wants you to be afraid of high speed trains – CNN
Why Trump wants you to be afraid of high speed trains – CNN

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Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN

Updated 7:58 AM ET, Sun February 17, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

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Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/16/politics/high-speed-trains-trump/index.html

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Chris Wallace calls out Limbaugh for being ‘outraged’ when Obama took executive action | TheHill – The Hill
Chris Wallace calls out Limbaugh for being ‘outraged’ when Obama took executive action | TheHill – The Hill

Fox News anchor Chris Wallace on Sunday called out conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh over the difference between his response when President TrumpDonald John TrumpGillibrand backs federal classification of third gender: report Former Carter pollster, Bannon ally Patrick Caddell dies at 68 Heather Nauert withdraws her name from consideration for UN Ambassador job MORE and former President Obama made an executive action. 

“I want to ask you about the game you say we play in Washington,” Wallace said while on “Fox News Sunday.” “Because the fact is that when President Obama took executive actions, you were outraged.”

Wallace noted a couple of examples from Obama’s administration, such as when he took executive action in November 2014 to protect millions of immigrants without legal status from deportation. 

Limbaugh, who has supported Trump’s national emergency declaration to fund a border wall, said at the time that America couldn’t “stand idly by and try to find some political opportunity while the president basically shreds the Constitution and flushes it down the toilet.”

“I understand that you like what President Trump is doing and you didn’t like what President Obama was doing,” Wallace said. “And that’s the concern here, is that to the degree you give the president more and more powers, yes you’re going to get things from one president you like, but you’re going to get executive powers from another president that you don’t like.”

“You may look at it that way. I don’t,” Limbaugh replied, adding that “what Obama was doing was furthering” problems related to executive action because he was taking “action that I deemed to be harmful to the country.”

“I look at what Trump is doing as something he has to do because he’s not getting any cooperation whatsoever,” Limbaugh said. 

The comments from Limbaugh came just days after Trump declared a national emergency to allocate nearly $8 billion for construction of his long-promised wall along the southern border. 

Trump made the announcement as he agreed to sign a congressional spending bill without the $5 billion in funds for a border wall he had demanded. 

Limbaugh has actively backed the president’s pitch to build a border wall since Trump’s 2016 campaign. He was among a group of commentators who urged Trump to only sign a congressional spending bill in December if it included funds for a wall along the southern border.

Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/media/430417-chris-wallace-calls-out-rush-limbaugh-for-being-outraged-when-obama-took

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Viewpoint: Why Trump may win his legal fight over border wall – BBC News
Viewpoint: Why Trump may win his legal fight over border wall – BBC News
Media captionOther presidents got money for a border barrier – why not Trump?

The latest chapter of Washington dysfunction has culminated in drastic action by the president in order to deliver his key campaign promise. But as his opponents shake their heads and counter-punch through the courts, the historical lessons do not bode well for them, writes Jonathan Turley, professor of constitutional law at George Washington University.

President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to build his long-promised border wall was met with a torrent of condemnations and threats from Democratic critics, including preparation for another heated court fight.

American politics have not been so bitter and divided since Benjamin Franklin and John Adams were forced to share the same bed in 1776.

There is a fundamental incompatibility – if not mutual revulsion – that divides our politics and its focus has fittingly become a debate over a wall.

Does the reality at the border matter?

After securing only part of the funding that he sought, President Trump declared a national emergency along the southern border to allow him to start construction with over $8bn (£6.2bn) of shifted funds to complete his signature campaign promise. For their part, the Democrats are promising immediate court challenges.

There is little evidence of a true national security emergency on the US border with Mexico. Most illegal immigrants overstay their visas or pass through ports of entry. Moreover, the number of apprehensions are down from 1.6 million in 2000 to roughly 400,000 in each year of Trump’s term.

That does not mean that border protection and enhanced enforcement is not warranted. Crossings do remain a serious problem, but few would call this a national emergency.

Yet, President Trump is calling this a national emergency and that may be enough. The reason is not the data but the definition behind a declared emergency.

What is a national emergency?

There is no real definition. Under the National Emergencies Act of 1976, Congress simply allowed a president to declare an emergency and to assume extraordinary powers to combat it.

That is the reason why emergencies are so easy to declare and so difficult to end.

While Congress reserved the right to rescind a declaration, it has never done so.

Even if the Democrats secure enough votes in both houses to negate the declaration by a majority vote, it can be vetoed by the president. It would then require a super-majority of two-thirds of both houses to override the veto.

The challenge for the Democrats is getting a federal court to supply the result that they could not secure in their own branch of government. If they are unable to secure a majority of the 535 members which make up both houses of Congress, they are unlikely to change the result with the single vote of an unelected federal judge.

‘Haze of Democratic hypocrisy’

There is also a problem for the Democrats in getting a judge to listen to arguments through a thick haze of hypocrisy.

President Trump’s assertions of executive authority remain well short of the extremes reached by Barack Obama who openly and repeatedly circumvented Congress.

In one State of the Union address, Mr Obama chastised both houses for refusing to give him changes in immigration laws and other changes. He then declared his intention to get the same results by unilateral executive action.

Image copyright
Alamy

Image caption

President Obama with the Libyan ambassador in 2011

That shocking pledge was met with a roar of approval from the Democrats – including Speaker Nancy Pelosi – who celebrated the notion of their own institutional irrelevancy.

In 2011, I represented Democratic and Republican members who challenged the right of President Obama (and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton) to launch the Libyan war without a declaration from Congress.

Mr Obama then proceeded (like Mr Trump) to use loose funds in the executive branch to fund the entire war without an appropriation.

Ms Pelosi and the Democratic leadership enthusiastically supported Obama’s circumvention of Congress on both the lack of a declaration and the lack of an appropriation.

Will court ignore precedent?

The greatest hypocrisy is the authority that the Democrats intend to use in this challenge.

In 2016, I represented the House of Representatives in challenging one of Mr Obama’s unilateral actions, after he demanded funds to pay insurance companies under the Affordable Care Act (ACA).

Every year, presidents must ask for appropriations of money to run the government – a critical check on executive authority held by the legislative branch.

Congress refused so Mr Obama simply ordered the Treasury would pay the companies as a permanent appropriation – even though Congress never approved an annual, let alone a permanent, appropriation.

Mr Obama did not declare an emergency, he just took the money. Nevertheless, Ms Pelosi and the Democratic leadership opposed the lawsuit and declared it a meritless attack on presidential authority. We won the lawsuit.

In addition to ruling that Mr Obama violated the Constitution, the federal district court in Washington, DC, ruled that a house of Congress does have standing to bring such a lawsuit – a precedent that Congress had sought to establish.

Now Democrats are going to use the precedent that they opposed under Mr Obama. However, they could end up not only losing the challenge but frittering away this historic precedent.

Where will the $8bn come from?

  • $1.4bn from the agreed budget
  • $600m from cash and assets seized from drug traffickers
  • $2.5bn from a defence department anti-drug trafficking fund
  • $3.5bn reallocated from military construction projects

Courts often turn to standing to avoid tough decisions. Since the Democrats are likely to try to litigate this question in the Ninth Circuit which covers California and some other western states, the judge will not be bound by the DC ruling and could rule against the right of Congress to bring such actions.

Moreover, the litigation to the Supreme Court could easily take two years. Once there, the challengers will face a newly minted conservative majority with two Trump appointees.

That would mean that the Democrats could hand Trump a major victory on his signature campaign issue just before voters go to the polls in 2020.

A different age

That brings us back to the night Franklin and Adams had to share a bed. The two founding fathers were going to meet Admiral Richard Howe of the British Royal Navy in Staten Island to discuss the possibility of ending the Revolutionary War.

They found themselves in New Brunswick, New Jersey, at the Indian Queen Tavern. However, it was full and only one room with one small bed was available.

Two of the most irascible framers of the US Constitution crawled into the small bed and immediately began to quarrel.

Franklin had opened up a window but Adams held the common view of the time that you could get ill from night vapours. Franklin insisted that cool fresh air was, in fact, a health benefit and added: “I believe you are not acquainted with my theory of colds.”

Image copyright
Alamy

Image caption

Strange bedfellows… John Adams and Benjamin Franklin

They argued all night until Adams fell asleep. Adams simply wrote later: “I soon fell asleep, and left him and his philosophy together.”

It is perhaps a lesson for our times.

While the debate over open windows as opposed to open borders differs by a certain magnitude, there was a time when entirely incompatible politicians could reach an agreement.

Sure, it was by exhaustion rather than persuasion, but the dialogue continued to a conclusion without enlisting a federal court.

If the Democrats lose this case shortly before the 2020 election, they may wish they had tried the one-who-can-stay-up-the-latest approach to conflict resolution.

Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University in Washington, DC.

Source Article from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47258779

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Aurora gunman opened fire on his coworkers as soon as he lost his job – CNN
Aurora gunman opened fire on his coworkers as soon as he lost his job – CNN

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By Madeline Holcombe, CNN

Updated 7:59 AM ET, Sun February 17, 2019

Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

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(CNN)Illinois gunman Gary Martin brought a pistol to his termination meeting at the sprawling Henry Pratt Co. in Aurora. When he found out he’d been fired Friday, he started killing the people in the room, authorities said.

      CNN’s Faith Karimi, Ray Sanchez, Jason Hanna and Steve Almasy contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/17/us/aurora-shooting-termination/index.html

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    Move over, Oscasio-Cortez. The Green New Deal’s got some competition. – NBC News
    Move over, Oscasio-Cortez. The Green New Deal’s got some competition. – NBC News

    WASHINGTON — The Green New Deal has always been a plan to make a plan.

    It sets an ambitious goal to move the economy toward net-zero emissions by 2030, but as supporters in Congress eagerly work to build out those plans into real legislation, they’re going to face stiff competition from politicians, activists and think tanks working on their own proposals from a different set of assumptions.

    Even among backers of the nonbinding resolution introduced by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., its broad strokes could sow disputes about what the Green New Deal means in practice. Ocasio-Cortez herself described the resolution as a “request for proposals” designed to elicit legislation from multiple lawmakers.

    “This is the first chapter of the book,” said Elizabeth Gore, senior vice president of political affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund, a nonprofit advocacy group. “Where you start out on these proposals is not where you end up.”

    Potential for conflict

    One area where the Green New Deal activists could clash with other environmental groups, lawmakers and other officials are their demands for a suite of “economic justice” policies, which include items like single-payer health care, along with guaranteed jobs and housing.

    The Green New Deal resolution mentions these issues in passing, but there’s no party consensus around them and health care is already shaping up as a defining debate in the 2020 Democratic primaries.

    “My own view is these energy investments and clean energy investments are going to be considered separately when they get to real legislation,” John Podesta, founder and director of the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning advocacy group, told NBC News.

    This could lead to confusion down the line. While many Democrats see the Green New Deal economic proposals as general goals, backers on the left see them as a critical component that they say will aid workers affected by the transition away from fossil fuels.

    “It isn’t a section of the Green New Deal, it is the Green New Deal,” said Demond Drummer, executive director of New Consensus, a nonprofit that’s advised Ocasio-Cortez and is crafting proposals within the Green New Deal framework that could serve as a basis for legislation.

    Many players, many plans

    For Ocasio-Cortez and the activists who put the Green New Deal on the top of Democrats’ agenda, the race is on to define the maximalist approach and hold lawmakers to it.

    Drummer said that the group’s plan is to produce regular policy proposals through 2019, with a goal of assembling a collection that lines up with all of the Green New Deal’s goals by January 2020.

    “It’s not like there’s going to be this magnum opus that’s released in 2020,” he said. “There are some things ready to go now and some things that need to be worked on and revised.”

    Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is working on a “comprehensive” climate proposal that “builds on the (Green New Deal) resolution that was introduced and fleshes out a lot of those details,” communications director Josh Miller-Lewis said.

    On the activist front, the Sunrise Movement is planning a national tour to promote the Green New Deal. They’ll also keep watch over the politicians working on related proposals, which includes the announced and potential 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, several of whom are co-sponsors of the resolution and are also likely to roll out their own climate plans on the campaign trail. In particular, they hope to maintain the plan’s strict 10-year path toward a clean economy, a goal some allies see as unrealistic.

    “If proposals don’t close in on a timeline to get to net-zero emissions in the time the science demands, they’re not the Green New Deal,” said Stephen O’Hanlon, communications director for Sunrise Movement.

    Uncertain allies

    Democratic leaders have generally praised the Green New Deal’s ambition, but they’re staying neutral on where their congressional members go next on climate legislation.

    The resolution has 68 co-sponsors in the House and 11 in the Senate, still well short of a majority of Democrats in either chamber.

    “My view is that when there are issues subject to robust debate within the many members of the House Democratic caucus, that it’s best that I don’t weigh in until I have an opportunity to evaluate the particular legislative proposals and have a discussion with all of the interested parties,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., a member of the House leadership team, told reporters last week.

    Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., created a new Select Committee on climate change, but resisted Ocasio-Cortez’s demands to task it with producing a plan for achieving the Green New Deal’s goals. The committee’s chairwoman, Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., has said only that the panel will operate “in the spirit of the Green New Deal.”

    That leaves it to individual lawmakers and committees to take the lead and Green New Deal advocates may have some allies. Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., chair of the powerful Rules Committee, is a co-sponsor of Ocasio-Cortez’s resolution, as is Transportation and Infrastructure chairman Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore. His committee could potentially incorporate elements of the Green New Deal into legislation.

    “I think you’ll see a different kind of infrastructure bill than you saw in the past,” Podesta said. “There will be more emphasis and reliance on clean energy, more electrification of the transportation sector, more investment in energy efficient buildings.”

    Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., a prominent policy voice in the progressive caucus, said he expected to see “lots of creative initiatives” under the Green New Deal banner, rather than one major bill. He’s working on legislation designed to boost tax credits for electric cars, an issue he’s pursued in prior legislative sessions.

    However, the chair of Energy and Commerce, Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., is not a resolution co-sponsor and has sounded some skeptical notes on Ocasio-Cortez’s approach.

    In the Senate, Republicans are in control, making movement on major legislation unlikely. But key Democrats are also less warm to the Green New Deal, most notably coal-friendly Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., the ranking member on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

    Rival approaches

    There’s a fundamental legislative debate shaping up over how to tax pollution, an area where the Green New Deal may represent a more drastic break from prior Democratic plans.

    For decades, Democrats across the ideological spectrum have sought to put a price on carbon emissions in order to encourage companies and consumers to adopt more energy-efficient practices.

    Markey, the Green New Deal resolution co-sponsor, led a failed 2009 effort to enact cap-and-trade legislation that would set a total limit on pollution and then allow companies to buy and sell emissions allowances between them. It passed the House, but was never voted on in the Senate.

    The Green New Deal resolution stays quiet on the topic of carbon taxes, but supporters have often framed their proposal as a rival framework to that approach.

    Ocasio-Cortez has said cap-and-trade or carbon taxes could be part of an overall solution, but are “inadequate as the whole answer.” A coalition of environmental groups backing the Green New Deal are explicitly against the concept, with critics on the left arguing carbon taxes will raise prices for consumers and spark a political backlash. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who is weighing a Democratic presidential run, unsuccessfully tried to pass a carbon tax in his state last year and has since urged national Democrats to consider other approaches.

    But many economists and environmental groups still back putting a price on emissions and some Democrats see it as an easier bridge to bipartisan support. Versions of a carbon tax enjoy backing from at least some Republicans and major corporations, including oil companies like ExxonMobil and BP, which see it as a way to avoid more intrusive government intervention.

    In the House, Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., is co-sponsoring a bill with Rep. Francis Rooney, R-Fla., and a group of moderate Democrats to impose a $15-per-ton fee on carbon that rises over time and then pay out the collected revenue to Americans as a dividend.

    “We have to create a disincentive,” Rep. Dean Phillips, D-Minn., who has not signed onto the Green New Deal, told NBC News. “I favor a carbon fee and dividend, returning the dollars generated right back to taxpayers.”

    Another carbon fee bill sponsored by a more progressive coalition of Democrats, Sens. Brian Schatz of Hawaii and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Reps. David Cicilline of Rhode Island and Earl Blumenauer of Oregon, would start the price at $50-per-ton.

    Schatz, who is considered an influential policy figure among progressives, has showered praise on the Green New Deal, but did not sign onto the resolution and has said he is working on his own proposals.

    For now, the first legislative action on the Green New Deal will come from the Republicans. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky is planning a vote on the resolution in an apparent bid to highlight divisions among Democrats, including the 2020 candidates, and lay the groundwork for future GOP attacks.

    Minority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called McConnell’s move a “political stunt” in a speech on the Senate floor and challenged Republicans to release their own climate bills. Schumer has not signed onto the Green New Deal, however.

    Benjy Sarlin is a political reporter for NBC News.

    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/move-over-oscasio-cortez-green-new-deal-s-got-some-n972181

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    Graham: I ‘support’ Trump emergency declaration – POLITICO
    Graham: I ‘support’ Trump emergency declaration – POLITICO

    Sen. Lindsey Graham said President Donald Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency at the southern border was legal and justified. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

    National Emergency

    Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Saturday expressed support for President Donald Trump’s decision to declare a national emergency, and said Trump’s own admission that he “didn’t need to” invoke his emergency powers did not weaken the White House’s claim that there is a crisis at the southern border.

    “I really don’t think so,” Graham told host Margaret Brennan in an interview set to air Sunday on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

    Story Continued Below

    “I think the president’s been making a persuasive case that the border is broken, you know,” he said. “Drugs are flowing across the border killing Americans, human trafficking. We’ve got a dangerous situation along the border.”

    Trump on Friday announced his plans for an emergency declaration to help facilitate the construction of a wall along the southern border. During a news conference in the White House Rose Garden, the president said: “I want to do it faster. I could do the wall over a longer period of time. I didn’t need to do this.”

    Congressional Democrats have seized upon those remarks as evidence that current rates of illegal immigration from Mexico into the U.S. do not constitute a national emergency. The liberal advocacy group Public Citizen on Friday filed the first of what is likely to be many lawsuits challenging the White House’s maneuver, arguing that Trump used the declaration to circumvent lawmakers in violation of the separation of powers outlined in the Constitution.

    But Graham on Saturday said the president’s actions were legal and justified.

    “I think the president has the authority to deploy troops to the border. Obama did. Bush did. Trump has,” he said. “And I think he has the authority while they’re there to build barriers, and we’ll see. I support his desire to get it done sooner rather than later.

    The Democratic-controlled House is expected within weeks to pass a resolution formally disapproving of the president’s national emergency declaration. The measure will then head to the Senate, where several of the chamber’s 53 Republicans have already expressed unease with the precedent Trump’s decision sets for future administrations.

    “Congress is locked down and will not give him what we’ve given past presidents,” Graham said. “So unfortunately, he’s got to do it on his own, and I support his decision to go that route.”

    Source Article from https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/16/graham-i-support-emergency-declaration-1173353

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    Jussie Smollett’s Lawyers Say ‘Empire’ Star Didn’t Play “Role In His Own Attack” – Deadline
    Jussie Smollett’s Lawyers Say ‘Empire’ Star Didn’t Play “Role In His Own Attack” – Deadline

    BREAKING… As Chicago police declare a significant shift in “the trajectory of the investigation” of the alleged attack on Jussie Smollett nearly three weeks ago, the attorneys for the Empire star has come out swinging tonight in his defense.

    “As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with,” said defense lawyers Todd S. Pugh and Victor P. Henderson in a statement obtained by Deadline.

    He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack,” the Chicago-based attorneys add of the supposed assault in the early hours of January 29. “Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.” (READ THE FULL STATEMENT BELOW)

    Earlier Saturday, a law enforcement official close to the Chicago PD probe told Deadline that “the new direction of the investigation is now based on the premise that Mr. Smollett was an active participant in the incident.” CNN also reported sources in the department telling the cable newser today that the actor, who plays the openly gay Jamal Lyon on the hit Fox drama, “paid two men to orchestrate the assault.”

    This picks up on the release by authorities late last night of Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, who police previously described as “potential suspects.” With one of the brothers having appeared on Empire as an extra three seasons ago, the remarks by Smollett’s lawyers now claim that one of the duo was the actor’s “personal trainer” for a music video he was set to perform in.

    Arrested on Wednesday, but never charged in what police once referred to a potential “hate crime,” Osundairo brothers have been confirmed by authorities as the two individuals who are seen in the photographs of someone around Smollett’s Chicago apartment that January 29 morning.

    Amidst strongly denied rumors that the attack was staged because Smollett was being written off Empire, the siblings are also said to have been the ones to purchase from a local hardware shop the rope that was strung over the actor’s neck by his supposed assailants during the allegedly racist and homophobic fueled attack.

    Later this evening Chicago PD spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said “we can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation.” He went on to add  “we’ve reached out to the Empire cast member’s attorney to request a follow-up interview.”

    “Jussie and his attorneys anticipate being further updated by the Chicago Police Department on the status of the investigation and will continue to cooperate,” asserted the statement from Henderson and Pugh tonight in direct response to accusations of self staging of the attack and more interaction with the Windy City cops.

    Sitting down with Good Morning America on February 14 in his first interview since whatever truly happened on January 29, Smollett bluntly said he thought the attack occurred because of his consistent slagging of Donald Trump. “I come really, really hard against 45,” the actor told GMA co-host Robin Roberts. “I come really, really hard against his administration, and I don’t hold my tongue.”

    Well, be it Smollett, the Chicago PD, the lawyers, the Osundairo brothers or some as yet unknown party, the rising sentiment clearly is that someone’s not telling the whole story here. Or as Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s Terry Crews put it so well on social media today:

    After offering repeated support for Smollett the past three weeks, so far Empire broadcaster Fox has been silent the past 24 hours as the story seems to be snowballing out of control for all concerned.

    READ THE FULL STATEMENT FROM JUSSIE SMOLLETT’S ATTORNEYS HERE:

    As a victim of a hate crime who has cooperated with the police investigation, Jussie Smollett is angered and devastated by recent reports that the perpetrators are individuals he is familiar with. He has now been further victimized by claims attributed to these alleged perpetrators that Jussie played a role in his own attack. Nothing is further from the truth and anyone claiming otherwise is lying.

    One of these purported suspects was Jussie’s personal trainer who he hired to ready him physically for a music video. It is impossible to believe that this person could have played a role in the crime against Jussie or would falsely claim Jussie’s complicity.

    Jussie and his attorneys anticipate being further updated by the Chicago Police Department on the status of the investigation and will continue to cooperate. At the present time, Jussie and his attorneys have no inclination to respond to “unnamed” sources inside of the investigation, but will continue discussions through official channels.

    Source Article from https://deadline.com/2019/02/jussie-smollett-attack-suspect-lawyers-lie-statement-chicago-police-empire-1202559103/

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    Heather Nauert withdraws from consideration for UN ambassador nomination, State Department says – Fox News
    Heather Nauert withdraws from consideration for UN ambassador nomination, State Department says – Fox News
    Video

    Trump’s pick for US Ambassador to the UN withdraws nomination

    State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert withdrew her name from consideration for the U.N. ambassador nomination, the department said Saturday.

    “I am grateful to President Trump and Secretary [Mike] Pompeo for the trust they placed in me for considering me for the position of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations,” Nauer said in the statement. “However, the past two months have been grueling for my family and therefore it is in the best interest of my family that I withdraw my name from consideration.

    She went on to describe her time working in the administration as being “one of the highest honors of my life.”

    A State Department source told Fox News that the process, on top of traveling around the world and between Washington D.C., and New York to see family, grew to be too much.

    Trump — who picked Nauert to succeed Ambassador Nikki Haley in December — will make an announcement “soon” about a nominee for the position, the State Department said.

    Before she worked at the State Department, Nauert worked as an anchor and correspondent at Fox News — including as a breaking news anchor on “Fox & Friends.” Before Fox, she was a reporter at ABC News. She moved to the State Department in April 2017.

    Secretary of State Pompeo also addressed the decision in the statement, saying it was one he respected.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    “Heather Nauert has performed her duties as a senior member of my team with unequaled excellence,” he said. “I wish Heather nothing but the best in all of her future endeavors and know that she will continue to be a great representative of this nation in whatever role she finds herself.”

    When Trump tapped Nauert for the U.N. role last year, he said she was “very talented.” His announcement came roughly two months after Haley, the former governor of South Carolina, abruptly resigned from the position.

    Fox News’ Alexandra Pamias, Rich Edson, Adam Shaw and Kaitlyn Schallhorn contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/heather-nauert-withdraws-from-consideration-for-un-ambassador-nomination-state-department-says

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    Intern on first day, grandfather of eight among victims of shooting in Aurora, Illinois – NBC News
    Intern on first day, grandfather of eight among victims of shooting in Aurora, Illinois – NBC News

    The five employees of an Illinois manufacturing plant killed when a colleague who had been terminated opened fire included an intern on his first day on the job, a union chairman described as a “gentle giant,” and a grandfather of eight.

    Gary Montez Martin, 45, killed the five people after being fired from his job at Henry Pratt in Aurora, and he was later fatally shot by police after apparently waiting for officers to arrive in a back machine shop, authorities said.

    “My dad was faithful and said, even when he was sick: ‘Nope, I’ve got to go to work because I’ve got to do my job,'” Diana Juarez, the daughter of slain shipping and warehouse worker Vicente Juarez, told Telemundo on Saturday. He was a father of three and a grandfather of eight, the family said.

    Killed in Friday’s rampage were Juarez, who joined the company in 2006; plant manager Josh Pinkard; Russell Beyer, an employee of more than 20 years and union chairman; human resources manager Clayton Parks; and Trevor Wehner, a student at Northern Illinois University who started as an intern in the HR department on Friday, according to police and the company.

    Wehner was expected to graduate in May with a degree in human resources management, university president Lisa Freeman said in a statement.

    Parks was an alumnus of Northern Illinois University who graduated from its college of business in 2014, she said.

    Russell Beyer, Josh Pinkard, Vincente Juarez, Clayton Parks, and Trevor Wehner.Family photos

    Thomas Wherner, Trevor’s younger brother, said, “He wanted to do some good to the people around him, help them out.”

    “I always looked up to him just because he did have so many friends and he was so loved, and I just always wanted to be like him,” Thomas Wherner said in an interview with NBC News.

    Beyer was “a gentle giant,” Mindy Hilliard, who is married to Beyer’s brother, said. “He always was laughing and joking and had a smile on his face. He loved his family.”

    “He had a daughter and a son and was going to be 48 years old this upcoming Thursday,” she said.

    Pinkard, 37, was an Alabama native and “a devoted husband and father to three kids,” a cousin, Zack Howard, said in a statement.

    Mueller Water Products, the parent company of Henry Pratt, said Pinkard joined the parent company 13 years ago in Albertville, Alabama, and moved to Aurora last spring to become plant manager.

    “He loved God, his family, and Mississippi State sports,” Howard said.

    Scott Hall, president and CEO of Mueller Water Products, said Saturday that the company was providing counseling and other assistance.

    The company will be reviewing its procedures to determine if anything can be done in the future “to ensure this horrible incident is never repeated,” he said.

    “Friday was basically the worst day that our company has ever had,” Hall said. “We are hurting right now.”

    Another employee who was shot and wounded was expected to be released from the hospital Saturday, Hall said. Four police officers also were shot and wounded, a fifth was injured by shrapnel and a sixth was injured but not shot, police said.

    Martin was armed with a .40-caliber handgun that had a laser on it, and multiple spent magazines were found, Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman said.

    He bought the gun in March of 2014 but legally should not have been in possession of a gun after it was discovered that he had a 1995 felony conviction for aggravated assault in Mississippi, authorities said.

    A background check was done when Martin was hired 15 years ago, but it did not turn up that conviction, Hall said. Martin was being fired Friday “for a culmination of various workplace rules violations,” Hall said.

    Police secure the area following a shooting at the Henry Pratt Company on February 15, 2019 in Aurora, Illinois.Scott Olson / Getty Images

    Aurora’s police chief said Saturday that Martin opened fire at a meeting in which his employment was terminated, before moving outside the room. Police said Martin was later killed by officers after a short gunfight with police who entered the building looking for him.

    Diana Juarez, the daughter of Vicente, said Saturday the family was heartbroken but also frustrated by what they said was a lack of information following the shooting.

    “We don’t know anything — besides that he’s gone,” she said.

    She also wondered how Martin was able to have a gun when he was being fired.

    “He injured a lot of people and he killed my dad,” she said. “And now I’m not going to see my dad — I’m never going to see my dad. He’s never going to come home from work. Never.”

    Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/intern-first-day-grandfather-eight-among-victims-shooting-aurora-illinois-n972521

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    Statement on Theodore McCarrick | News – ND Newswire
    Statement on Theodore McCarrick | News – ND Newswire

    The Vatican has announced the conclusion of the adjudicatory process against former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, finding that he transgressed his vows, used his power to abuse both minors and adults and violated his sacred duty as a priest. In accord with University President Rev. John I. Jenkins’ statement of Aug. 2, 2018, the University of Notre Dame is rescinding the honorary degree conferred in 2008.

    Source Article from https://news.nd.edu/news/statement-on-theodore-mccarrick/

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    Lindsey Graham says Trump has to "do it on his own" to build the wall – CBS News
    Lindsey Graham says Trump has to "do it on his own" to build the wall – CBS News

    Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, said that President Trump has “got to do it on his own” to build a border wall in an interview with “Face the Nation” Sunday. Mr. Trump — dissatisfied with the $1.375 billion Congress provided him for barriers at the southern border — declared a national emergency to free up more funds to construct border barriers on Friday.

    “Unfortunately, when it comes to Trump, the Congress is locked down and will not give him what we’ve given past presidents,” Graham said. “So unfortunately, he’s got to do it on his own, and I support his decision to go that route.”

    Graham, a staunch ally of Mr. Trump in the Senate, noted that former Presidents George Bush and Barack Obama sent troops to the border. He argued that many in Congress only oppose the wall because Mr. Trump is the person proposing it.

    Graham also discussed Mr. Trump’s comment Friday that he “didn’t need to” call the national emergency, but he did so because he would “rather do it much faster.” Graham said that this comment did not open the national emergency to legal challenges.

    Graham: hard to understand “legal difference” between building wall and sending troops

    “I think the president’s been making a persuasive case that those borders [are] broken. Drugs are flowing across the border killing Americans, [there is] human trafficking. We’ve got a dangerous situation along the border,” Graham said. He added that the president has the authority to send troops to the border and build barriers while they are deployed.

    “I support his desire to get it done sooner rather than later. And I’m disappointed that my Democratic colleagues would not give the President the money to secure the border that they were willing to give the Bush and Obama,” he said.

    However, the president’s decision to declare a national emergency is also facing intense criticism from some Republicans. Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander released a lengthy statement calling the declaration “unnecessary, unwise and inconsistent with the U.S. Constitution” — “unnecessary” because Congress had appropriated funds for border security, “unwise” because future presidents could misuse the power, and “inconsistent” with the Constitution because only Congress is bestowed with the power to tax and spend the people’s money.

    Democratic attorneys general and groups like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have threatened to file suit against the declaration. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn’t rule out a legal challenge on Thursday. Mr. Trump predicted he will be sued but will ultimately prevail in the Supreme Court.

    Mr. Trump is expecting to use $8 billion to build the wall, including the $1.375 billion approved by Congress, with an additional $600 million expected to come from the Treasury Department’s drug forfeiture funds, $2.5 billion coming from the Defense Department’s drug interdiction program, and an additional $3.5 billion coming from the Pentagon’s military construction budget.

    Source Article from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/lindsey-graham-says-trump-has-to-do-it-on-his-own-to-build-the-wall/

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    Weekly Trump report card: Emergency wall move divides the country – Washington Examiner
    Weekly Trump report card: Emergency wall move divides the country – Washington Examiner

    This week’s White House Report Card has split our graders over President Trump’s actions in classic left-right fashion, just like the nation.

    Our graders, conservative analyst Jed Babbin and Democratic pollster John Zogby, gave starkly different reviews of Trump, whose week was highlighted by signing a rare emergency declaration to steer money not OK’d by Congress to his border wall project.

    Jed Babbin
    Grade A-

    It was a very good week for President Trump, including the Senate confirmation of Attorney General William Barr, a compromise on government funding, a national emergency declaration intended to fund partial building of his signature border wall, and a Senate Intelligence Committee statement that their investigation hadn’t found any direct evidence of his campaign colluding with the Russians during the 2016 election.

    Trump’s action avoided another government shutdown. The 1,200-page compromise spending bill was, however, not a good deal. Trump got about $1.4 billion in funding for border barriers, but the bill was chock full of poison pills that limited what kind of barrier can be built, where it can be built, and more provisions that are anathema to the president. Among them are a pay raise for federal workers and $415 million in aid payments to border crossers.

    On Friday, Trump signed the bill and declared a national emergency on the border crisis. The national emergency is intended to free up other funds — mostly from unspent military construction appropriations — to give the president another $3 billion to work with. But the national emergency declaration, as Trump predicted in his Friday announcement, is subject to challenge in court. The first lawsuit challenging the validity of the national emergency declaration was filed in Washington, D.C. federal court before the day ended.

    Barr takes over at the moment of new revelations about the FBI and the Justice Department talking about removing the president under the 25th Amendment. Barr’s toughest job will be to clean out the FBI and the Justice Department of those who abused their powers to Trump’s disadvantage in the election and after it.

    Sen. Richard Burr, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, said its investigation had not found any direct evidence of collusion between Trump’s campaign with the Russians. Burr’s committee’s investigation is regarded as the most bipartisan on the Hill.

    And overseas, Vice President Mike Pence was in Europe scolding our allies there to get end their efforts to get around U.S sanctions to continue to trade with Iran. His efforts aren’t likely to succeed.

    John Zogby
    Grade F

    President Trump ends the week with an average gain in the polls. This despite polls showing opposition to his southern border wall.

    Trump continues to use false premises and outrageously inaccurate statistics to promote the wall, but more people are seeing through the manipulation he is using to fulfill his famous campaign promise. While he compromised with Congress to avert another government shutdown, he issued a controversial order calling the southern border crisis so he can fund the wall.

    This is dangerous on several different fronts and challenges the limits of his executive power and the Constitution.

    As an elected official, Trump is supposed to act with the majority behind him. His wall move is policy and governance by tantrum.

    Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin

    John Zogby is the founder of the Zogby Poll and senior partner at John Zogby Strategies. His latest book is We are Many, We are One: Neo-Tribes and Tribal Analytics in 21st Century America. Follow him on Twitter @TheJohnZogby

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/washington-secrets/weekly-trump-report-card-emergency-wall-move-divides-the-country

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    Pence calls for European allies to dump Iran deal after Merkel defends accord | TheHill – The Hill
    Pence calls for European allies to dump Iran deal after Merkel defends accord | TheHill – The Hill

    Vice President Pence on Saturday called on European allies to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear pact with Iran after German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke out in defense of the accord.

    “The time has come for our European partners to stand with us and with the Iranian people, our allies and friends in the region,” Pence said at the Munich Security Conference.

    “The time has come from our European partners to withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal and join us as we bring the economic and diplomatic pressure necessary to give the Iranian people, the region and the world the peace, security and freedom they deserve,” he added. 

    Pence, who had a bilateral meeting with Merkel at the annual conference, spoke out shortly after the German leader praised the Obama-era nuclear deal.

    “The only question that stands between us on this issue is, do we help our common cause, our common aim of containing the damaging or difficult development of Iran, by withdrawing from the one remaining agreement? Or do we help it more by keeping the small anchor we have in order maybe to exert pressure in other areas?” Merkel said, according to The Associated Press.

    Saturday’s speech was the second time this week that Pence has urged European allies to pull out of the nuclear agreement.

    “Sadly, some of our leading European partners have not been nearly as cooperative. In fact, they have led the effort to create mechanisms to break up our sanctions,” Pence said Thursday in Warsaw during a conference on the Middle East organized by the U.S.

    European efforts to increase trade with Iran was “an effort to break American sanctions against Iran’s murderous revolutionary regime,” he added. “It is an ill-advised step that will only strengthen Iran, weaken the [European Union] and create still more distance between Europe and the United States.”

    President TrumpDonald John TrumpTrump nominates ambassador to Turkey Trump heads to Mar-a-Lago after signing bill to avert shutdown CNN, MSNBC to air ad turned down by Fox over Nazi imagery MORE, a longtime critic of the nuclear pact that the U.S. under former President Obama signed with Iran and several other world powers, withdrew the U.S. from the deal last year on the grounds that it did not address other issues such as Tehran’s support for militant groups in the Middle East and its missile program. 

    The Iran deal is one of several foreign policy platforms that the Trump administration and European allies have disagreed upon, as well as trade and NATO contributions.

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/430351-pence-calls-for-european-allies-to-dump-iran-deal-after-merkel

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    Heather Nauert withdraws from consideration as UN ambassador – CNN
    Heather Nauert withdraws from consideration as UN ambassador – CNN

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    By Michelle Kosinski and Ryan Browne, CNN

    Updated 8:37 PM ET, Sat February 16, 2019

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) said she believed the company \”has not shown good faith to New Yorkers.\””},{“title”:”Beto O’Rourke: Walls don’t save lives, they end lives”,”duration”:”01:55″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”http://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/16/beto-orourke-trump-walls-dont-save-lives-they-end-lives-sot-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/16/beto-orourke-trump-walls-dont-save-lives-they-end-lives-sot-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190216162322-beto-chicago-speech-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/16/beto-orourke-trump-walls-dont-save-lives-they-end-lives-sot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”During a speech to the US Hispanic Leadership Institute in Chicago, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) addressed President Trump’s national emergency declaration for a border wall.”,”descriptionText”:”During a speech to the US Hispanic Leadership Institute in Chicago, former Congressman Beto O’Rourke (D-TX) addressed President Trump’s national emergency declaration for a border wall.”},{“title”:”Texas landowner: The only emergency is ‘man made'”,”duration”:”02:23″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/16/border-wall-texas-trump-plaintiff-suing-alvarez-ac360-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/16/border-wall-texas-trump-plaintiff-suing-alvarez-ac360-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190130181437-mexico-us-border-wall-large-169-2.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/16/border-wall-texas-trump-plaintiff-suing-alvarez-ac360-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”Advocacy group Public Citizen has filed a lawsuit on the behalf of multiple landowners seeking to block President Trump’s efforts to build a wall at the border. CNN’s Anderson Cooper spoke to one of those land owners, Nayda Alvarez. “,”descriptionText”:”Advocacy group Public Citizen has filed a lawsuit on the behalf of multiple landowners seeking to block President Trump’s efforts to build a wall at the border. CNN’s Anderson Cooper spoke to one of those land owners, Nayda Alvarez. “},{“title”:”Rep. Nadler: Trump’s declaration opens up ‘tyranny'”,”duration”:”02:43″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”http://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/16/jerrold-nadler-trump-national-emergency-declaration-legality-tyranny-cpt-sot-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/16/jerrold-nadler-trump-national-emergency-declaration-legality-tyranny-cpt-sot-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190215211731-nadler-cpt-large-169-1.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/16/jerrold-nadler-trump-national-emergency-declaration-legality-tyranny-cpt-sot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) calls President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency over border wall funding a \”tremendous shift of power from Congress to the president.\””,”descriptionText”:”Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) calls President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency over border wall funding a \”tremendous shift of power from Congress to the president.\””},{“title”:”CNN anchor shuts down commentator over Trump lie”,”duration”:”01:44″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/16/trump-border-wall-lie-victor-blackwell-joseph-borelli-sot-ndwknd-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/16/trump-border-wall-lie-victor-blackwell-joseph-borelli-sot-ndwknd-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190216105527-victor-blackwell-borelli-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/16/trump-border-wall-lie-victor-blackwell-joseph-borelli-sot-ndwknd-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”CNN anchor Victor Blackwell shuts down Republican commentator Joseph Borelli over Trump’s repeated lie that his administration has built new wall or fencing along the US-Mexico border. “,”descriptionText”:”CNN anchor Victor Blackwell shuts down Republican commentator Joseph Borelli over Trump’s repeated lie that his administration has built new wall or fencing along the US-Mexico border. “},{“title”:”Governor blasts TV station for piece about her appearance”,”duration”:”03:39″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/16/michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer-tv-station-appearance-smerconish-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/16/michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer-tv-station-appearance-smerconish-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190216095059-governor-gretchen-whitmer-d-mi-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/16/michigan-governor-gretchen-whitmer-tv-station-appearance-smerconish-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) slams a Detroit news station for covering discussions on social media over her appearance during her State of the State speech. “,”descriptionText”:”Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) slams a Detroit news station for covering discussions on social media over her appearance during her State of the State speech. “},{“title”:”Lawmaker slams Ocasio-Cortez for Amazon protest”,”duration”:”02:06″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”http://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/16/rep-carolyn-maloney-amazon-new-york-hq2-ocasio-cortez-ebof-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/16/rep-carolyn-maloney-amazon-new-york-hq2-ocasio-cortez-ebof-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190215210330-carolyn-maloney-ebof-large-169-1.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/16/rep-carolyn-maloney-amazon-new-york-hq2-ocasio-cortez-ebof-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) slams Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for celebrating Amazon’s decision to pull the plug on the $2.5 billion deal that would have permanently brought at least 25,000 high-paying jobs to the heart of Queens, New York.”,”descriptionText”:”Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) slams Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) for celebrating Amazon’s decision to pull the plug on the $2.5 billion deal that would have permanently brought at least 25,000 high-paying jobs to the heart of Queens, New York.”},{“title”:”2020 Democratic hopefuls weigh in on Trump’s emergency”,”duration”:”01:43″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/16/democratic-candidates-on-national-emergency-kyung-lah-dnt-ebof-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/16/democratic-candidates-on-national-emergency-kyung-lah-dnt-ebof-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190214153134-gillibrand-harris-split-large-169-1.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/16/democratic-candidates-on-national-emergency-kyung-lah-dnt-ebof-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”CNN’s \u003ca href=\”http://www.cnn.com/profiles/kyung-lah-profile\” target=\”_blank\”>Kyung Lah\u003c/a> takes a look at how 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls are reacting to President Donald Trump’s deceleration of a national emergency. “,”descriptionText”:”CNN’s \u003ca href=\”http://www.cnn.com/profiles/kyung-lah-profile\” target=\”_blank\”>Kyung Lah\u003c/a> takes a look at how 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls are reacting to President Donald Trump’s deceleration of a national emergency. “},{“title”:”Trump boasts about trade relationship with China “,”duration”:”01:03″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/15/trump-tariffs-steel-rose-garden-emergency-declaration-sot-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/15/trump-tariffs-steel-rose-garden-emergency-declaration-sot-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190215185906-trump-rose-garden-2-15-large-169-1.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/15/trump-tariffs-steel-rose-garden-emergency-declaration-sot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”President Trump said he was leveraging tariffs against China for US economic benefit, citing the steel industry as an example.”,”descriptionText”:”President Trump said he was leveraging tariffs against China for US economic benefit, citing the steel industry as an example.”},{“title”:”Toobin: Telling Stone not to talk to press like taking limb”,”duration”:”01:27″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/15/roger-stone-gag-order-reaction-jeffrey-toobin-sot-tsr-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/15/roger-stone-gag-order-reaction-jeffrey-toobin-sot-tsr-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190215184055-jeffrey-toobin-large-169-1.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/15/roger-stone-gag-order-reaction-jeffrey-toobin-sot-tsr-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin gives his take on a federal judge placing a gag order on longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone and attorneys involved in his criminal case, though Stone’s ability to speak publicly isn’t completely restricted.”,”descriptionText”:”CNN’s chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin gives his take on a federal judge placing a gag order on longtime Donald Trump associate Roger Stone and attorneys involved in his criminal case, though Stone’s ability to speak publicly isn’t completely restricted.”},{“title”:”Amid legal challenges, Trump declares national emergency”,”duration”:”02:14″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/15/trump-declares-national-emergency-kaitlan-collins-dnt-lead-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/15/trump-declares-national-emergency-kaitlan-collins-dnt-lead-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190215143613-03-trump-national-emergency-0215-large-169-1.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/15/trump-declares-national-emergency-kaitlan-collins-dnt-lead-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”President Donald Trump is well aware that his national emergency declaration will face legal challenges, but he’s moving forward anyway. CNN’s \u003ca href=\”http://www.cnn.com/profiles/kaitlan-collins\” target=\”_blank\”>Kaitlan Collins\u003c/a> reports. “,”descriptionText”:”President Donald Trump is well aware that his national emergency declaration will face legal challenges, but he’s moving forward anyway. CNN’s \u003ca href=\”http://www.cnn.com/profiles/kaitlan-collins\” target=\”_blank\”>Kaitlan Collins\u003c/a> reports. “},{“title”:”Sanders on federal investigations: Common thread is hatred”,”duration”:”02:35″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/05/sarah-sanders-common-thread-hatred-sot-newday-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/05/sarah-sanders-common-thread-hatred-sot-newday-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190205090539-sarah-sanders-new-day-2-5-19-large-169-8.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/05/sarah-sanders-common-thread-hatred-sot-newday-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says the common thread between federal investigations swirling around President Donald Trump is \”hysteria\” and \”hatred.\””,”descriptionText”:”White House press secretary Sarah Sanders says the common thread between federal investigations swirling around President Donald Trump is \”hysteria\” and \”hatred.\””},{“title”:”Ex-border patrol chief: Trump had no choice “,”duration”:”01:59″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/politics/2019/02/15/mark-morgan-intv-former-border-patrol-chief-congress-failed-trump-no-choice-sot-nr-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”politics/2019/02/15/mark-morgan-intv-former-border-patrol-chief-congress-failed-trump-no-choice-sot-nr-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/190215145641-mark-morgan-2-15-large-169-1.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/politics/2019/02/15/mark-morgan-intv-former-border-patrol-chief-congress-failed-trump-no-choice-sot-nr-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/this-week-in-politics/”,”description”:”In an interview with CNN’s Ana Cabrera, former border patrol chief Mark Morgan said that President Trump had no choice but to declare a national emergency to get funding for the border wall because \”Congress failed.\” “,”descriptionText”:”In an interview with CNN’s Ana Cabrera, former border patrol chief Mark Morgan said that President Trump had no choice but to declare a national emergency to get funding for the border wall because \”Congress failed.\” “}],’js-video_headline-featured-qmd9yu’,”,”js-video_source-featured-qmd9yu”,true,true,’this-week-in-politics’);if (typeof configObj.context !== ‘string’ || configObj.context.length

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    (CNN)State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Saturday she has withdrawn from consideration as UN ambassador.

      CNN’s Kate Sullivan. Kylie Atwood and Andrew Kaczynski contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/16/politics/heather-nauert-withdraws-un-ambassador/index.html

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    Jussie Smollett Viewed As “Active Participant” By Cops In Alleged Assault – Deadline
    Jussie Smollett Viewed As “Active Participant” By Cops In Alleged Assault – Deadline

    (UPDATED with Chicago PD statement) BREAKING: The focus of the Chicago Police department’s probe into the alleged assault of Jussie Smollett almost three weeks ago has shifted – to the Empire star himself.

    “The new direction of the investigation is now based on the premise that Mr. Smollett was an active participant in the incident,” a law enforcement source close to the situation told Deadline today.

    “We can confirm that the information received from the individuals questioned by police earlier in the Empire case has in fact shifted the trajectory of the investigation,” a Chicago PD statement late Saturday declared. “We’ve reached out to the Empire cast member’s attorney to request a follow-up interview.”

    Lawyers for Smollett have been contacted by law enforcement in the last several hours with a request that the actor resubmit to questioning by detectives, I also hear. In anticipation of such requests, the Empire star has in recent days retained attorneys Victor P. Henderson and Todd Pugh. The Chicago-based lawyers specialize in criminal defense.

    Today’s new “trajectory” statement is the first update on the case from the department’s remarks last night that “due to new evidence as a result of today’s interrogations, the individuals questioned by police in the Empire case have now been released without charging and detectives have additional investigative work to complete.”

    This comes as CNN is reporting that sources in the Chicago PD tell them that the actor who plays the openly gay Jamal Lyon on the hit Fox drama “paid two men to orchestrate the assault.”

    The two men in question are Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo.

    The duo were released by authorities at 9 PM Chicago time on Friday after being arrested and held without charge by the police for 48 hours. Chicago detectives are now following the lead that the brothers purchased the rope that was placed around Smollett’s neck in the early hours of January 29 when he was supposedly attacked by two men screaming racist and homophobic slurs.

    At least one of the two has appeared as an extra on the Chicago-filmed Empire and seems to know Smollett socially

    Solidly supportive of Smollett in the immediate aftermath and days since January 29. Fox had no comment today on the emerging direction of the investigation when contacted by Deadline. On the day of the attack, 20th Century Fox Television and Fox Entertainment said in a statement they were “deeply saddened and outraged” by the assault.

    At the same time and in the following days, Empire co-workers, colleagues, many across the industry and even President Donald Trump expressed support and outrage at the attack that Smollett described. A sold out February 2 West Coast live show at the Troubadour saw Smollett take the stage to cheers and describe how he fought back against his assailants to even stronger cheers.

    Facing doubts about the event as police searched for “persons of interest” and Smollett handed over limited phone records to them, the performer went on Good Morning America on February 14 to say he thought the attack occurred because of his ongoing criticism of Trump. “I come really, really hard against 45,” he told Robin Roberts. “I come really, really hard against his administration, and I don’t hold my tongue.”

    This week, Fox didn’t hold their tongue at all in refuting any notion that Smollett may have staged the attack because his exit from Empire was being considered by producers. “The idea that Jussie Smollett has been, or would be, written off of Empire is patently ridiculous,” said 20th Century Fox TV and Fox Entertainment on Valentine’s Day. “He remains a core player on this very successful series and we continue to stand behind him.”

    Empire co-creator Danny Strong and writers on the hip hop series also refuted the rumor that local Chicago media was running with on the Windy City filmed show

    Reps for Smollett did not return request for comment on their client’s perspective or situation.

    Anita Bennett contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://deadline.com/2019/02/jussie-smollett-attack-suspect-chicago-police-cnn-empire-1202559032/

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    Illinois factory gunman killed five victims after being fired – Reuters
    Illinois factory gunman killed five victims after being fired – Reuters

    AURORA, Ill. (Reuters) – The gunman who killed five co-workers and wounded five policemen at an Illinois factory was a violent felon who nevertheless obtained a state permit to buy a firearm despite being legally barred from owning one, authorities said on Saturday.

    Gary Martin, 45, who carried his pistol to work on Friday apparently suspecting he faced dismissal from his job, opened fire after being told of his termination in a meeting at the Henry Pratt Company plant in Aurora, Illinois, about 40 miles (64 km) west of Chicago, police said.

    The dead included the plant manager, a human resources supervisor, a human resources intern and two other workers. A sixth employee and five police officers responding to the scene were wounded, and the gunman himself was slain about 90 minutes later in a gunfight with police who stormed the building.

    Martin had purchased the murder weapon, a .40-caliber Smith & Wesson handgun with a laser sight, in March 2014 from a local gun dealer, Aurora Police Chief Kristen Ziman told reporters on Saturday.

    Despite his criminal history, the weapon was lawfully sold to Martin two months after he was issued a state Firearm Owners Identification, or FOID card, a document used to designate people eligible to own and buy guns.

    To apply, Illinois residents need only furnish a valid driver’s license, a recent photo and $10 fee. State police then have 30 days to approve or deny the application.

    Ziman said Martin’s 1995 conviction for aggravated assault in Mississippi, which reportedly involved the bludgeoning and stabbing of a girlfriend, “would not necessarily have shown up on a criminal background check conducted for the FOID card.”

    The conviction came to light only after his gun purchase, when Martin applied for a concealed-carry permit requiring him to undergo fingerprinting in a more extensive screening process, Ziman said.

    “The fact remains that some disgruntled person walked in and had access to a firearm that he shouldn’t have had access to,” she said at the news conference. “I don’t want to make it political. This is a human issue.”

    Police are seeking to learn why Martin was not forced to surrender his gun once his felony conviction was revealed. Ziman said disclosure of his conviction should have triggered a revocation of his FOID card, generating a letter instructing him to relinquish his weapon and permit to law enforcement.

    The chief said records indicate such a letter was sent, and “we’re looking into whether we followed up on that.”

    In addition to the 1995 assault conviction, Martin had several prior arrests in Illinois, including for suspicion of domestic violence and criminal damage to property.

    90-MINUTE SIEGE

    The apparent background check lapse was likely to draw renewed scrutiny to a system that allowed a gun merchant to sell a weapon to a convicted felon who was legally barred from possessing one.

    Friday’s bloodshed marked the latest spasm of gun violence in a nation where mass shootings have become almost commonplace, and came a day after the first anniversary of the massacre of 17 people by a gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.

    The siege in Illinois unfolded over an hour and a half, although the gunman’s victims, including the wounded policemen, were struck by gunfire in the first several minutes, police said.

    Officers eventually found Martin in a machine shop at the back of the 30,000-square foot (2,800-square meter) building, and he died after a short gunfight.

    The plant, which manufactures water distribution products and operates as a factory and warehouse, employs about 200 workers in a working-class district of Aurora, the second-largest city in Illinois.

    Scott Hall, president of Henry Pratt’s corporate parent Mueller Water Products, told a separate news conference on Saturday that Martin was a 15 year veteran of the company.

    Hall said Martin had been subject to disciplinary actions and that he was ultimately fired for a “culmination of workplace violations.” He declined to elaborate.

    Among the victims were Trevor Wehner, a human resources intern who was spending his first day at the company when he was fatally shot, police and a family friend said.

    Authorities identified the other workers killed as Josh Pinkard, the plant manager; Clayton Parks, the human resources manager; Russell Beyer, a mold operator and union chairman; and Vicente Juarez, a stock room attendant and fork lift operator. Their ages were not given.

    Slideshow (3 Images)

    A sixth employee wounded in the shooting was expected to survive, as were the five policeman struck by gunfire. At least two of them remained hospitalized on Saturday in stable condition, Ziman said.

    Neighbors of Martin, who lived in an apartment in Aurora, described him as a quiet man whom they often saw operating a remote control car and a drone.

    “He looked very normal,” said neighbor Gildardo Bravo, a 43-year-old cleaning company supervisor.

    Reporting by Robert Chiarito; Additional reporting by Karen Pierog in Chicago; Additional reporting and writing by Alex Dobuzinskis and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Tom Brown, James Dalgleish and Daniel Wallis

    Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-illinois-shooting/illinois-factory-gunman-killed-five-victims-after-being-fired-idUSKCN1Q50L0

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    Illinois Worker Who Opened Fire Inside Factory Had No Permit for Gun – The New York Times
    Illinois Worker Who Opened Fire Inside Factory Had No Permit for Gun – The New York Times

    Sgt. Bill Rowley, a spokesman for the Aurora Police Department, said the police had no record of being notified by the state police that Mr. Martin had not volunteered his firearm as required in 2014. It was unclear whether Mr. Martin, who lived in Aurora at the time of his death, also lived there in 2014.

    A day after the shooting, police gave a fuller account of the deadly events inside the Henry Pratt Company warehouse on Friday afternoon, and identified the five workers — all apparently co-workers of Mr. Martin — who were killed.

    The victims included some of the company’s most experienced workers but also its newest: Josh Pinkard, who was the plant manager of the warehouse, perished in the shooting, as did Trevor Wehner, who was a student at Northern Illinois University and an intern in the company’s human resources department. Mr. Wehner was expected to graduate from college in May. Friday, when the shooting occurred, was the first day of his internship, according to officials from Northern Illinois University.

    Also killed, the police said, were Vicente Juarez, a stock room attendant and forklift operator; Clayton Parks, the human resources manager; and Russell Beyer, a mold operator. Officials at Northern Illinois said that Mr. Parks had also graduated from the university, in 2014, and said it was offering counseling help to those in need. (The school, in DeKalb, Ill., was the site of another mass shooting 11 years ago.)

    Police first received several 911 calls at 1:24 p.m. on Friday, as frantic callers said there was a shooter at the warehouse. Mr. Martin had been summoned to what police described as a “termination meeting” at the warehouse where he had worked for at least 15 years. At least two victims were shot at the scene of that meeting.

    Four minutes later, police arrived and were confronted by the gunman. Two of the first four officers to arrive were shot and transported to hospitals with injuries that were not life-threatening.

    According to the police, Mr. Martin then retreated into the 29,000-square-foot building, hiding from officers in a machine shop near the back of the facility. It took about 90 minutes for officers to find, shoot and kill him.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/16/us/aurora-illinois-shooting.html

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    ‘Finish that wall’: Trump seeks to turn his failure to build the wall into campaign rallying cry – The Washington Post
    ‘Finish that wall’: Trump seeks to turn his failure to build the wall into campaign rallying cry – The Washington Post

    Toluse Olorunnipa

    Robert Costa

    Josh Dawsey

    February 16 at 4:55 PM

    President Trump and his political team plan to make his years-long quest for a border wall one of the driving themes of his reelection effort — attempting to turn his failure to build such a project into a combative sales pitch that pits him against the political establishment on immigration.

    Trump has declared a national emergency to secure the funds Congress has repeatedly denied him despite his own admission that the move is likely to get tied up in court. This move has galvanized many of his supporters even as others on the right remain dubious and disappointed.

    His campaign is fundraising off his showdown with congressional Democrats over the border — portraying the opposition party as more interested in political games than the public’s safety.

    And faced with the fact that he has yet to build an inch of the concrete or steel wall he promised, Trump and his campaign have started relying on a rhetorical sleight of hand: speaking the wall into existence.

    “Now, you really mean, ‘Finish that wall,’ because we’ve built a lot of it,” Trump falsely claimed at a campaign rally Monday in El Paso after supporters broke out in chants of “Build that wall!”

    As he spoke, giant placards with the words “Finish the Wall” hung from the rafters, an unmistakable signal Trump’s aides say reflects the campaign’s growing push to convince the president’s supporters that the border barrier they imagined him building is already real.

    These endeavors underscore the extent to which Trump and his allies are attempting to make 2020 a repeat of 2016 — centered on a portrayal of the nation as under siege from criminal immigrants and other dark forces, and reliant upon a die-hard base of older whites in rural areas.

    The strategy comes with serious risks. It largely assumes that despite Trump’s poor poll numbers and his setback in the midterms, he remains popular enough to rely on the same strategy that delivered him the White House through a thin electoral college victory even as he lost the popular vote by almost 3 million votes.

    “He used immigration pretty effectively in 2018 to motivate voters, but the question is whether it’s going to be enough in the states he needs in 2020,” said Jennifer E. Duffy, a nonpartisan election analyst at the Cook Political Report. “In places like Michigan, Wisconsin, Florida, Pennsylvania and Arizona, can it get the job done?”

    Duffy added that if Democrats nominate a strong presidential nominee, Trump might find himself fighting “the last war” as the electorate adjusts to new choices and new debates.

    Trump’s Republican allies remain confident and said his messaging in recent weeks — however bungled — is nevertheless setting him up for the 2020 presidential election, both in framing the wall as a motivating tool for his core voters and underscoring his commitment to border security.

    “You can argue about the details, but strategically, it works,” said former Republican House speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally.

    “The president wants Beto O’Rourke out there, in contrast, saying that walls kill people and we shouldn’t have walls. That could be a snapshot of the 2020 election,” Gingrich said of the former Democratic congressman from Texas, a potential presidential contender.

    Critics say the president’s exaggerated claims about ongoing wall construction will ultimately backfire, undermining his ability to sell himself as a master negotiator who can work his will in Washington.

    “The president has always survived by living inside a reality-distortion field,’’ said Tim O’Brien, author of “TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald” (2005). “When things don’t go his way, he simply creates another narrative.”

    Trump’s claims that the wall is well underway have intensified and become more descriptive in recent weeks as he weathered a record-breaking government shutdown over wall money and bipartisan negotiations to stave off a second lapse in federal funding.

    “The wall is very, very on its way,” Trump told a conference of law enforcement officials Wednesday. “It’s happening as we speak . . . and it’s a big wall. It’s a strong wall. It’s a wall the people aren’t going through very easy.”

    On Friday, Trump signed a bill that included $1.375 billion for fencing and other expenditures, a far cry from the $5.7 billion he previously demanded. That money can also only go toward building the type of barriers already in use, not the concrete wall Trump highlighted during the campaign and early in his presidency.

    By declaring a national emergency, the White House is attempting to bypass Congress and repurpose more than $6 billion from the Pentagon and other agencies to fund wall construction, but Democrats said they will attempt to stop the move legislatively and in the courts.

    “What you’re seeing is the mother of all pivots,” said veteran GOP strategist Mike Murphy, a Trump critic.

    He’s trying to turn being outfoxed by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) “into a win by creating a rally cry for the reelect campaign,” he said. “For his core base, it’ll ameliorate some of the criticism. But it won’t help him with general-election voters. He’s playing survival politics with his own base and using the illusion of success.”

    Trump has been building up to this strategy for much of the past year, as conservative angst mounted over the lack of progress on the wall while Republicans had full legislative control. Democrats took back the House in last year’s midterm elections, all but killing Trump’s chances of securing adequate funding to build hundreds of miles of wall on the border.

    The president’s original promise, to make Mexico pay for the wall, also remains unfulfilled, succumbing to a political reality that was long obvious despite Trump’s claims to the contrary.

    The president has complained repeatedly about news coverage depicting the wall as not being built and has told his campaign and communications officials they have to convince people that more of the wall is being built.

    He has sought to meet with contractors about the wall, even giving specifics on how tall the wall should be.

    Trump has repeatedly looked to unorthodox places to get wall money. For example, he has discussed using money meant to help Puerto Rico recover from Hurricane Maria to fund the wall. During a recent presidential trip to the border, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) told Trump that pulling funds from Puerto Rico could jeopardize financial aid to Florida and Texas, which were also hit hard by natural disasters. Still, the option remains on the table for future expenditures toward the wall, two White House officials said.

    While Trump has expressed frustration over Republicans not providing funding for his wall during the first two years of his presidency, GOP congressional leaders have been irritated at times by his shifting demands and lack of attention to the specifics of the legislative debate.

    The $5 billion he demanded earlier this year was an arbitrary number, aides said, after he grew frustrated that Congress only gave him $1.6 billion — even though his own aides sought that amount. Trump has often talked about the wall, but current and former White House officials say it has not been a top priority among senior aides. There has been no designated point person on the issue, and Trump’s agitation and concern often waxes and wanes.

    Several times since taking office, Trump has redefined what he considers a wall. While his administration funded wall prototypes that were to be built of solid concrete or steel, Congress has placed restrictions into funding bills that only allow for previously deployed fencing designs. Trump has since claimed that such fences, including renovations that replace existing barriers, constitute the wall he promised.

    During the last government shutdown, Trump told advisers that Democrats would be more inclined to support the wall if it was called a “steel slat barrier” or some other phrase. But eventually he relented, realizing there was no support for the wall no matter what he called it. 

    Polls show most voters blamed the president for the government shutdown, though Trump has since cast it as a strategic win, despite the fact that it did not produce the wall funding he wanted.

    According to a person who spoke with the president Monday, Trump has argued that he will eventually be able to claim that he “shut down the government over this wall” and that his supporters will approve.

    Some of the president’s allies have said that politically, Trump’s “finish the wall” rhetoric should be interpreted more metaphorically than literally.

    “The point of the wall is to show how the president is committed to border security and painting Democrats into a corner as being against that,” said former White House legislative director Marc Short.

    “Finish the wall,’’ he said, “is a good message as long as the wall is a metaphor for border security.”

    A White House official said it is even broader than that.

     “Finish the wall is really: ‘Finish what we started.’ It’s about the Trump presidency, more than anything,” said the official, who spoke under the condition of anonymity because the individual was not authorized to speak publicly. “It’s telling the voters to stick with us, finish what we started, as the Democrats pursue the Green New Deal or Medicare-for-all.” 

    Veteran Democrats acknowledge the power of Trump’s pitch in a deeply divided nation but question whether it can work again in 2020 in the same way it worked with some swing voters in 2016.

    “It’s an applause line that has emotional resonance — and it’s completely irrational,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.). “There is, I think, a broad majority of Americans who are really fed up with the false contention that the wall is somehow the equivalent to border security. It’s a vanity project for the president.”

    Many moderate Republicans, such as Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), a former FBI agent who represents the Philadelphia suburbs, have noticed Trump’s evolving updates on the wall — and have grown frustrated with his insistence on calling for a wall. 

    “I never even use the term wall,” Fitzpatrick said. “That conjures up images of a brick-and-mortar structure, from sea to shining sea, when it’s far more complicated.”

    Democrats have pledged to file legal challenges to Trump’s declaration of a national emergency, setting up a constitutional clash over the president’s attempt to usurp spending power from Congress.

    A court battle could stretch out for months or years, but Trump is already determined to tell his supporters he is moving full speed ahead on building the border wall.

    “He fashions his own reality,” said Barbara Perry, a presidential historian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs. “It’s like John Kennedy going out after the Bay of Pigs and saying, ‘What a great victory.’ But for [Trump’s] base, I’m just not sure that it matters to them.”

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/finish-that-wall-trump-seeks-to-turn-his-failure-to-build-the-wall-into-campaign-rallying-cry/2019/02/16/3fbaebd4-3138-11e9-ac6c-14eea99d5e24_story.html

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