WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned China against waiting out his first term to finalize any trade deal, saying if he wins re-election in the November 2020 U.S. presidential contest, the outcome could be no agreement or a worse one.
“The problem with them waiting … is that if & when I win, the deal that they get will be much tougher than what we are negotiating now…or no deal at all,” Trump said in a post on Twitter, as the latest U.S-China trade talks began in Shanghai.
Trump said China appeared to be backing off on a pledge to buy U.S. agricultural products, which U.S. officials have said could be a goodwill gesture and part of any final pact here.
“China … was supposed to start buying our agricultural product now – no signs that they are doing so. That is the problem with China, they just don’t come through,” Trump wrote in a series of tweets.
U.S. and Chinese officials restarted negotiations after talks stalled in May, in a bid to end the year-long trade war marked by tit-for-tat tariffs, but must still resolve deep differences, keeping expectations for this week’s two-day meeting low.
The trade war between the world’s two largest economies has rattled global financial markets that have also been pressured by this week’s U.S. Federal Reserve policy meeting and renewed concerns over Britain’s exit from the European Union.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said the trade talks were going well with China, but added the United States would “either make a great deal or no deal at all.”
“We’ll see what happens,” he told reporters.
The U.S. negotiating team arrived for talks in Shanghai Tuesday afternoon but there was no sighting of U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer or U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin. The U.S. and Chinese delegations later appeared to have reached Shanghai’s historic Fairmont Peace Hotel where sources say the U.S. delegations are having dinner, but both teams avoided the media and did not make public comments.
Slideshow (3 Images)
Trump has targeted China as part of his “America First” campaign that helped him win the White House in 2016 and has staked his re-election bid in part on the strength of the U.S. economy. He has sought to negotiate various trade deals with China as well as Europe and other countries as part of his efforts to make good on his campaign promises.
On Tuesday, Trump also reiterated that Beijing might stall talks in hopes of inking a laxer deal with “somebody like Elizabeth Warren or Sleepy Joe Biden,” singling out two Democratic presidential frontrunners, before reversing course.
“China is dying to make a deal with me. But whether or not I do it, is up to me. It’s no up to them.” he said. “China is willing to give up a lot. But that doesn’t mean I’m willing to accept it.”
Reporting by Susan Heavey, Makini Brice and Alexandra Alper in Washington,; Additional reporting by Brenda Goh and Vincent Lee in Shanghai; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Alistair Bell
Amid the screams, flying bullets and bloodshed that erupted on a warm summer evening at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on
Sunday, someone shouted a pivotal question at the gunman: “Why are you doing this?”
“Because I’m really angry,” the gunman replied, according to Jack Van Breen, who spoke with reporters after performing at the festival with his band, TinMan.
Little more is known about the motive of the shooter, who authorities have identified as Santino William Legan. But on Monday, disturbing details began to emerge about the 19-year-old Gilroy native, including possible links to the white supremacist movement.
The famed festival was winding down when authorities allege that Legan crept past a creek and cut through a fence, bypassing entrance security, while armed with an AK-47-style rifle.
Soon after, he began spraying attendees with gunfire, authorities said, claiming three lives and wounding a dozen more. Within a minute, Legan was shot and killed by three police officers who arrived and fired at him with their handguns.
Investigators spent the next 24 hours gathering evidence, serving search warrants and scouring social media sites
for clues of what led to the rampage.
Before the attack, he posted a photo on Instagram with the caption, “Ayyy garlic festival time come get wasted on overpriced …,” using an expletive.
He also posted a photo of a Smokey Bear sign warning about fire danger, with a caption instructing people to read an obscure novel glorified by white supremacists: “Might Is Right” published under the pseudonym
Ragnar Redbeard. In his profile, which has since been deleted, Legan identified himself as being of Italian and Iranian descent.
The book, published in 1890, includes discredited principles related to social Darwinism that have been used to justify racism, slavery and colonialism, said Brian Levin, director of Cal State San Bernardino’s Center for the Study of
Hate and Extremism.
“The notion that people of color are biologically inferior is a key tenet of this book, and that biological determinism, the Darwinian view of the world, justifies aggression against diverse people and vulnerable people,” Levin said.
Authorities say Legan bought the semi-automatic rifle used in the shooting legally in Nevada on July 9, less than three weeks before the shooting. The weapon looks like a military-style AK-47. With its standard clip and stocks, it’s considered an assault rifle that is banned under California law. It’s unclear if the shooter targeted specific people.
The Nevada gun shop, Big Mikes Guns and Ammo, said in a Facebook post Monday that the buyer ordered the gun online.
“When I did see him, he was acting happy and showed no reasons for concern,” the seller wrote, adding that he was heartbroken over the attack. “I would never ever sell any firearm to anyone who acted wrong or looks associated with any bad group like white power. Everyone is my brother and sister and I am mourning for the families.”
California Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra said Monday the investigation may determine that the gunman broke a law by purchasing the weapon in Nevada and bringing it into the state.
“That weapon could not be sold in California. That weapon cannot be imported into the state of California,” he said. “There is a very strong likelihood, as we develop the evidence, that the perpetrator in this particular case, violated California law, on top of the crimes of homicide.”
Legan was originally from Gilroy and graduated
from Gilroy High School in 2017. In a YouTube video that surfaced of his commencement, Legan’s full name is announced before he walks across the stage to receive his diploma. A district spokesperson declined to confirm that he attended and referred all media requests to the Police Department.
The school district is offering counseling sessions for students, staff and members of the community affected by the incident.
Recently he had spent time in Nevada living with family. Authorities searched two homes tied to him: a house at the end of a quiet suburban cul-de-sac in Gilroy and a triplex unit in Walker Lake, Nev., that authorities believe he used in the days before the shooting.
Officers emerged from the Gilroy house — which sits less than two miles from the festival grounds — carrying several paper bags. Later on Monday, investigators searched the vehicle the gunman drove to the festival. Police said it was found on Laurel Drive, northeast of the park.
When Legan didn’t come home after the shooting, his older brother, Rosino Legan, thought he’d been shot by the gunman, said Jerome Turcan, a family friend
who trained Rosino Legan
in boxing and martial arts for many years.
When Turcan heard on the radio that there had been a shooting in Gilroy, he called Rosino Legan
and his father, Tom Legan.
Turcan said he got through to Rosino Legan
, who said he was in the car with his cousin, searching for his younger
brother.
Rosino Legan
couldn’t find his brother and was thinking of going to the emergency room, Turcan said.
“They wanted to be sure he was OK. That was the last contact I had with him,” Turcan said. “And then I learned this morning it was Santino who did the shooting. It was shocking.”
Turcan, who teaches martial arts in San Jose, said he trained Rosino Legan
two or three times a week for more than a decade. He watched the boy grow into a top-notch athlete, he said, at one point ranked second in the nation for his weight class.
Rosino Legan, 23, is a boxer who was training for the 2020 Olympics two years ago, though it’s unclear if he’s training now. He graduated from a high school east of Santa Cruz and from Santa Clara University, a private college, in 2018.
In a 2017 Gilroy Dispatch article, Santino Legan is described as one of his brother’s “ready-made sparring partners,” in addition to his two other brothers.
In a 2014 Medium post,
Rosino Legan wrote about his experience with the 2013 California versus
Puerto Rico boxing team and described his father, Tom Legan — a competitive track-and-field runner — as his coach.
Turcan said Tom Legan is “a great athlete himself,” adding that the father tried out for the Olympics in 1988 for the 800- and 400-meter events.
Turcan said he didn’t see much of Santino Legan
— the boy didn’t box or train in martial arts. The teen’s grandfather, who died last year, was a former Santa Clara County supervisor who was accused and acquitted of molesting his daughter in 1982.
“That family is a good family, really respectful, really hardworking,” Turcan
said. “I don’t know where this comes from. It’s shocking, just shocking.”
As of late Monday, police were “no closer” to determining whether there was a second person involved in the shooting, Gilroy Police Chief Scot Smithee said.
“Everyone wants to know the answer: Why?” Smithee said. “If there’s any affiliation with other people, or groups of people, that could potentially pose a threat in the future, that all plays in.”
Times staff writers Matthew Ormseth and Laura J. Nelson reported from Gilroy, and Hannah Fry, Alene Tchekmedyian, Colleen Shalby and Richard Winton from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Ruben Vives, Hailey Branson-Potts, David Montero, Patrick McGreevy and Thomas Curwen contributed to this report.
Having lost generations of young people, it’s time to try something new, says former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich.
Former Republican Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich said Tuesday that President Trump’s tweets aimed at Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., will bring a long-needed spotlight to the “dire problems” of Baltimore.
“It takes tweets to get people to focus in on some of the dire problems that we’ve had now for multi, for many many years a multigenerational failure with regard to our schools and flight of our small businesses and the drug culture and lots of small gangs,” Ehrlich said on “Fox News at Night.“
Trump started a feud with House Oversight Committee Chairman Cummings, calling the congressman’s district “a disgusting, rat and rodent-infested mess.”
Cummings, who has represented parts of the city in Congress for more than 20 years, said on ABC News that there is “no doubt” the president is a racist.
“If it takes some tweets to get people to actually focus on that. Then we’ll have at least a positive byproduct of it,” Ehrlich said.
Baltimore officials and national Democratic officeholders pushed back against the president’s remarks, including the president of the Baltimore City Council and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Ehrlich recalled Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., making similar remarks about Baltimore in 2015, though similar outrage was absent.
Ehrlich went on to say, “There is a double standard for everything the president does. Quite frankly, it’s going to be demonized.”
“It’s not just Congressman Cummings’ district. It’s obviously a lot of urban areas: white, black. Doesn’t matter what color you are. But to a very real extent, we’ve lost a lot of our kids. We’ve deprived them of their constitutional rights, particularly with regard to failing public education. It’s an old fight I had as governor here. We lost that fight, unfortunately,” Ehrlich said.
Seven cities see home prices heating up again, but Seattle sinks,…
Home prices continue to gain, and while the gains were still shrinking in May on a national level, some markets are seeing stronger price appreciation yet again.
A sheriff says one person is dead and a suspect was shot at a Walmart in the northern Mississippi city of Southaven.
DeSoto County Sheriff Bill Rasco told WHBQ-TV that one person was killed and the suspect was shot.
The shooting prompted a sizeable law enforcement response, with officers setting up a perimeter and entering the Walmart Supercenter.
According to a local Memphis reporter, “A Walmart employee tells me two of his co-workers were shot and killed this morning. He said the shooter worked there for 25 years before he was recently fired. A police officer and the shooter were also shot. Office expected to be okay.”
However, officials have not publicly confirmed these details.
A woman answering the phone at the Southaven Police Department Tuesday morning said “we have ongoing emergencies” and no one was available to provide information.
Under new Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the government has toughened its stance on a no-deal Brexit, which it has said is “now a very real prospect”.
The pound – which was trading at about $1.50 against the dollar before the EU referendum in June 2016 – has dropped by 2.4% since Monday, when a spokeswoman for Downing Street said that the UK would not enter talks with Europe unless the so-called Irish backstop is scrapped.
She said that because the EU has said it is not willing to renegotiate on this point, “we must assume there will be a no-deal Brexit on 31 October.”
It follows comments at the weekend by Michael Gove, who wrote in the Sunday Times that the government was now “working on the assumption” of a no-deal Brexit,
Mr Johnson appeared to strike a slightly softer tone on Monday afternoon, when he said he would “hold out the hand” and “go the extra thousand miles” to strike a new Brexit deal.
However, it was not enough to stop the slide in sterling.
Seema Shah, senior global investment strategist at Principal Global Investors, said: “If it looks like this juggernaut cannot be stopped, we do expect sterling to keep falling.”
She said that the pound could drop as low as $1.18 against the dollar, but added: “There is a widespread view that a no-deal Brexit will be stopped.”
The former chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Lord Jim O’Neill, told the BBC’s World at One programme that in addition to the risks of a no-deal Brexit, the markets were also “looking at a government that might be leaning on an independent central bank, possibly including the choice of its new governor” and the policy plans that suggest the government is going to increase spending.
The combination of these factors is “essentially pointing one way for the pound”, Lord O’Neill said.
However, he added that he thought the pound looked “very cheap”, and if there was a Brexit deal, then sterling could recover “very sharply”.
‘Expensive time’
Tourist rates are based on trading levels on the international currency markets, which is bad news for UK holiday makers heading abroad.
“Unfortunately holiday makers are going to experience a pretty horrendous summer,” James Hickman, commercial manager at FairFX, told the BBC.
“If they are visiting Europe they could be getting less than parity for their pounds when buying euros, and they will be getting a poor dollar rate if going to the USA.”
“It is going to get worse,” he adds. “The market is digesting the news that it is almost inevitably going to be a hard Brexit.
“For anyone going abroad in August, it is going to be a very expensive time.”
Those that buy euros at the airport can currently expect to receive as little as 97 euro cents for their pound.
Better rates can be found by buying in advance, with the Post Office offering a sliding scale from €1.0663 to €1.0712 to the pound, depending on how much cash is ordered. In its branches it is offering €1.0630.
That’s still a long way from the summer of 2015, when tourists were getting at least €1.32 for their pound. The big fall came in 2016 after the UK voted to leave the European Union.
Getting the best from your travel money
Analysis by Kevin Peachey, BBC personal finance reporter
Image copyright Getty Images
Currency experts say holidaymakers should never wait until they reach the airport to exchange money, as bureaux in the airport complex usually have the worst rates.
The timing of when to exchange cash can be tricky – it is difficult to predict how the value of the pound will move, so one common suggestion is to change half of your holiday money weeks in advance of departure, and the rest just before, to hedge your bets.
Ordering currency online in advance and then collecting the cash in person can also secure a better rate.
Cash exchange is not the only option. Carrying a wad of notes can be dangerous and not always covered by travel insurance. The market for specialist pre-loaded currency cards is growing, and banks are competing on the rates and deals for overseas use that they offer to current account holders. So doing your homework on charges and shopping around is advisable.
In general, using a regular debit card can be expensive, owing to the extra charges, and remember to let your bank know if you are going away to avoid being locked out by anti-fraud processes.
If you do use a card on your holiday, shops, restaurants and cash machines will usually ask if you want to pay in pounds rather than the local currency. Always choose the latter. Tourists can lose up to 10% by paying in sterling rather than the domestic currency.
The Senate failed Monday in a bid to override a trio of vetoes issued by President Donald Trump, allowing the administration to move forward with plans to sell billions of dollars of weapons to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Trump’s decision to sell the weapons in a way that would have bypassed congressional review infuriated lawmakers from both parties. In a bipartisan pushback, Democrats and Republicans banded together to pass resolutions blocking the $8.1 billion weapons sales to the U.S. allies in the Persian Gulf.
Votes to override Trump’s vetoes failed, 45-40, 45-39 and 46-41. A two-thirds vote was needed in each case.
The White House argued that stopping the sales would send a signal that the United States doesn’t stand by its partners and allies, particularly at a time when threats from hostile countries such as Iran are increasing. Saudi Arabia has long been a regional rival to Iran. Its strategic importance has grown as tensions with Iran have mounted after Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from a 2015 accord that restricts the Iranian nuclear program.
The Senate votes came as the House Oversight Committee released a report criticizing the Trump administration over its apparent willingness to allow the president’s friends and allies undue influence over U.S. policy toward Saudi Arabia.
New documents obtained by the committee “raise serious questions about whether the White House is willing to place the potential profits of the president’s friends above the national security of the American people and the universal objective of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons,” the report said.
The report “exposes how corporate and foreign interests are using their unique access to advocate for the transfer of U.S. nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia,” said Rep. Elijah Cummings of Maryland, the panel’s Democratic chairman.
Cummings, who has repeatedly targeted the Trump administration in a series of investigations, came under sharp attack from Trump this weekend, when the president called the congressman’s district a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” where “no human being would want to live.”
The 50-page Oversight report, released Monday, says Trump’s longtime personal friend, campaign donor and inaugural chairman, Tom Barrack, negotiated directly with Trump and other White House officials to seek positions within the administration, including special envoy to the Middle East and ambassador to the United Arab Emirates.
At the same time, Barrack was promoting the interests of U.S. corporations seeking to profit from the transfer of nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia; advocating on behalf of foreign interests seeking to obtain U.S. nuclear technology; and taking steps for his own company, Colony NorthStar, to profit from the proposals, the report said.
One of the companies leading an effort to build nuclear plants in Saudi Arabia, IP3 International, repeatedly pressed the Trump administration not to require Saudi Arabia to commit to a rigorous “gold standard” in any agreement with the U.S., complaining it would lock them out of lucrative nuclear contracts, the report said.
IP3 officials had “unprecedented access” to the highest levels of the Trump administration, including meetings with Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and Cabinet Secretaries Rick Perry, Steven Mnuchin, Mike Pompeo, Rex Tillerson, James Mattis and Wilbur Ross, the report said.
The report also criticized the White House for refusing to produce any documents in the investigation and said communications obtained from outside sources indicate that Kushner and other officials used personal email or text accounts to communicate about Saudi-related deals.
The private communications appear to violate White House policy and the Presidential Records Act, the report said.
The White House did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
A spokesman for Barrack said he has been cooperating with the Oversight panel and provided documents the committee requested.
The spokesman, Owen Blicksilver, said Barrack’s investments and business activities are well known and are intended to “better align” Middle East and U.S. objectives. Barrack has never served in the Trump administration.
The Trump administration has approved seven applications for U.S. companies to sell nuclear power technology and assistance to Saudi Arabia. Lawmakers from both parties have expressed concerns that Saudi Arabia could develop nuclear weapons if the U.S. technology is transferred without proper safeguards.
Congress is increasingly uneasy with the close relationship between the Trump administration and Saudi Arabia. Trump has made the kingdom a centerpiece of his foreign policy in the Middle East as he tries to further isolate Iran. In the process, Trump has brushed off criticism over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi and the Saudis’ role in the war in Yemen.
“From the start, this administration has failed to demonstrate what kind of national security threat or quote-unquote ’emergency’ from Iran warranted fast-tracking the sale of these weapons to Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E.,” said Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
The pending sale “not only is a Saudi jobs program, it is also a give-away of sensitive U.S. military technology,” Menendez said.
GILROY, Calif. — Police say a young man armed with an AK-47-style rifle cut through a fence and opened fire on a crowd eating and listening to music at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California. Though officers responded in less than a minute, three people died in the attack.
The victims were identified as 6-year-old Stephen Romero, 13-year-old Keyla Salazar and recent college graduate Trevor Irby.
Irby, a biology major, graduated from Keuka College in upstate New York in 2017. In a statement, President Amy Storey said alumna Sarah Warner was with him at the festival and was not physically injured.
Police have identified the gunman as 19-year-old Santino William Legan. They say he appears to have posted two photos on Instagram that day, including one minutes before he opened fire.
Legan’s since-deleted Instagram account says he is Italian and Iranian. It also shows a photo he posted earlier depicting Smokey the Bear in front of a “fire danger” sign. In the caption, Legan said to read “Might is Right,” a book published in the 1800s.
The misogynist and anti-Semitic work is used by neo-Nazis and white supremacists on extremist sites.
Minutes before the shooting, he posted a photo from the festival: “Ayyy garlic festival time” and “come get wasted on overpriced (stuff).”
TIMELINE OF GILROY SHOOTING:
According to Police Chief Scot Smithee, Legan got inside the event through the creek and used an unknown tool to cut into the fence.
According to Smithee, the shooting took place on north side of the festival and the closest team of officers responded immediately when calls came in around 5:40 p.m. about shots fired. They were there and engaged with the suspect, who was armed with an assault-type rifle, in less than a minute.
“As soon as he saw the officers he engaged the officers and fired at the officers with that rifle,” he said.
Smithee added, “Despite the fact that they were outgunned with their handguns against a rifle, those three officers were able to fatally wound that suspect and the event ended very quickly.”
Smithee says there is no confirmation of a 2nd suspect involved in the shooting, despite witnesses claiming they saw one.
Police said that a twitter post that was circulating of a man claiming to have shot up the garlic festival is now a hoax. Police have tracked down the owner of that account and have taken him into custody. They’ve concluded that he was not part of the shooting.
Police say the gun Legan used was an AK-47 style assault rifle that he purchased legally in Nevada on July 9.
ATF and police are searching a home belonging to Legan’s father in Churchill Place in Gilroy. The home is about a mile away from Christmas Hill Park, where the shooting took place. Just a few blocks from walking path access along the Uvas Creek.
ABC7 Community Journalist Dustin Dorsey drove from the home on Churchill Place to the nearest walking path along Luchessa Way.
It took less than two minutes to get to a walkway that leads directly to Christmas Hill Park.
The main path along the north side of the park is lined with several neighborhoods and is backed up to many houses as well.
Our reporter then followed a different walking path along the De Anza Place and the south side of the park that led directly to a back entrance to the Gilroy Garlic Festival.
The entrance opened up to the kid’s zone area of the festival where you could see the remains of what was a chaotic scene with festival-goers frantically leaving the park.
It was clear to see that the area had been abandoned as people left trash cans and other items knocked over.
Law enforcement was standing near the back gate to make sure no one came onto the festival grounds during the investigation.
Police also said Monday that a warrant was issued to search the suspect’s car. Gilroy Police Department was joined by the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and the bomb squad.
From Sky 7 you could see a robot alongside the vehicle with investigators meticulously making sure there wasn’t a bomb or explosives inside.
Smithee says the motive remains unknown. Police are still investigating whether there is a second suspect.
Gilroy police are asking any witnesses who have not contacted them yet to call 408-846-0583. They advise anyone looking to reunite with a loved one to call 408-846-0584.
The FBI has also set up a tip site for anyone who has photos, video or info they can share to help with the investigation.
The ATF reported on Sunday in a tweet that the agency’s San Francisco Field Division is responding to the shooting.
Gov. Gavin Newsom also sent a statement on Twitter, saying the shooting was “nothing short of horrific.”
President Donald Trump condemned the “wicked murderer” who opened fire at the festival.
Trump spoke Monday before an event at the White House to sign a bill ensuring that a victims’ compensation fund related to the Sept. 11 attacks never runs out of money.
The president said that the nation would “grieve” for the victim
Law Enforcement is at the scene of shootings in Gilroy, California. Reports are that shooter has not yet been apprehended. Be careful and safe!
Senator Kamala Harris said on Sunday her office is monitoring the situation, “Grateful to first responders who are on the scene in Gilroy and keeping those injured by such senseless violence in my thoughts. My office is closely monitoring the situation.”
The shooting occurred during the annual three-day celebration featuring food, cooking competitions and music that attracts more than 100,000 people.
City officials tell ABC7 News the community has organized a vigil to honor the people killed and injured as a result of the shooting. The vigil will take place at 6pm on the plaza outside of the Gilroy Police Department. The vigil is open to the public.
Twenty Democratic presidential candidates will debate Tuesday and Wednesday night. It will be the last time voters will see some of them on a debate stage.
The Democratic National Committee’s rules for inclusion in early debates, the first from NBC in late June in Miami and the second from CNN this week in Detroit, were quite generous. If Sen. Michael Bennet, currently polling at 0.0% in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, got in both, then it’s safe to say the rules were not terribly restrictive.
But that’s over after Detroit. Party rules call for new qualification standards for candidates in the next debate, scheduled for September in Houston. Candidates will be required to meet a new polling standard and a new donations standard.
To make it onstage, candidates will have to “receive two percent or more support in at least four polls (which may be national polls, or polls in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and/or Nevada),” according to the DNC. The committee went on to list several specifications for the polls themselves to make sure the candidates can cite support in legitimate surveys.
Beyond that, the DNC says, candidates must show they have received donations from at least 130,000 unique donors, plus at least 400 unique donors in at least 20 states. Together, those rules will eliminate a lot of current Democratic candidates.
Right now in the RealClearPolitics average of national polls, just seven candidates are polling at 2% or higher: Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris, Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Yang, and Beto O’Rourke. If they stay that way, they will be in the September debate.
That means 13 candidates are below 2%: Cory Booker, Amy Klobuchar, Tulsi Gabbard, Julian Castro, Bill de Blasio, Kirsten Gillibrand, John Delaney, Marianne Williamson, Steve Bullock, John Hickenlooper, Tim Ryan, Michael Bennet, and Jay Inslee. (Two more candidates, Tom Steyer and Joe Sestak, entered the race too late to make the current field.)
A few of those might make it to September by hitting the 2% mark in an early-voting state. For example, Booker is currently at 2.5% in the RealClearPolitics average of Iowa polls. So he, and perhaps others, might make it in on that basis.
But even if a candidate can scratch his or her way to 2%, they must still meet the donations standard; the DNC is clear that candidates have to hit both marks to make it into the later debate.
The big field has left the first debates open to eccentricity. Marianne Williamson, a lecturer on spiritual growth and author of books with titles like A Return to Love, The Law of Divine Compensation, and Enchanted Love, has added a touch of, well, something unusual to the debates. Andrew Yang, an entrepreneur whose main platform is a universal monthly income of $1,000 for every U.S. citizen over the age of 18, is another interesting voice. (Yang might make it to the next stage; he is currently at 2.3% in the RealClearPolitics average.)
Only one candidate has dropped out of the Democratic race so far — Rep. Eric Swalwell of California. He took part in the first debate, but remained at an unmeasurable level in the polls. “We have to be honest about our own candidacy’s viability,” Swalwell said in announcing his departure.
Soon other candidates will have to reach that same level of honesty. If they don’t make the cut for the September debate, they’ll be instantly robbed of their only opportunity to reach a nationwide audience, and they’ll be just as instantly relegated to the category of also-ran.
Republicans had a big field — 17 candidates — in 2016. They, too, started dropping out early. Back then, the first GOP debate was held on August 6, 2015, the second on September 16, and the third on October 28 — all months before the first primary or caucus votes.
Rick Perry dropped out between the first and second debates. Scott Walker dropped out a few days after the second debate. Bobby Jindal dropped out after the third, as did, later, Lindsey Graham and George Pataki.
Now, especially because they have an even bigger field than the GOP had in 2016, the time is coming for Democrats to start dropping out, too. It will certainly be a disappointment for those candidates who have to face the fact that they never caught fire. But it will be a good thing for voters. A smaller field will mean they get a better look at each candidate.
Primary contests are about narrowing the field. It’s time that got started.
Apparently six broken ribs and more than half a million dollars in damages weren’t enough for America’s most anti-Semitic congresswoman. Minnesota’s Ilhan Omar, a Democrat, took a break from spewing Hamas sympathies and allegedly violating state and federal tax laws to cover up her seemingly sham marriage to retweet a joke endorsing the 2017 assault of Republican Sen. Rand Paul.
So Congresswoman Omar is now retweeting those cheering on assaults against other members of Congress. Remember that simply citing her words is incitement, but this is apparently just fine?
The retweet comes following days of an escalating war of words between Omar and Paul, who earlier said he’d pay for her to revisit Somalia, from which she immigrated, in order for her to better appreciate America. Omar previously admonished Paul for voting against further funding of the 9/11 First Responders Victims Fund.
As you may recall, Paul’s neighbor blindsided the senator, who was wearing noise-canceling headphones, and attacked him from behind on the lawn of his Bowling Green, Kentucky home. The neighbor, Rene A. Boucher, left Paul with five or six broken ribs, subsequent pneumonia, weeks required for medical leave, and breathing issues for the following year. Boucher, a Democrat who maintained that the attack was motivated by ordinary neighborly rage rather than political animus, was ordered to give Paul $582,834 for damages, pain, and medical expenses.
There’s no question tensions have put politicians and journalists in more danger than they’ve been in decades. Antifa terrorists in Oregon gave journalist Andy Ngo a brain hemorrhage for simply doing his job, and after five years of steadily declining threats against either the president or those in line for presidential succession, prosecutions of such threats against President Trump and his cabinet spiked by 130% in just one year. Of course, violence goes both ways. South Bend Mayor and 2020 hopeful Pete Buttigieg has spent an unprecedented amount on security due to homophobic threats against him. Last year, a career criminal targeted prominent Democrats from former President Barack Obama to Hillary Clinton with mail bombs.
So when Omar, who has said “violent rhetoric … [has] no place in society,” shares jokes teasing, if not openly inviting assault of her congressional colleagues on the basis of pure political animus, it raises the question, who’s threatening the peace that makes our republic even possible?
“It was nice of her to provide even more evidence that she is a person with vile, anti-American beliefs and values, who apparently also supports violence for political disagreements,” Doug Stafford, Rand Paul’s chief strategist, told the Washington Examiner.
Omar can speak for herself if she so wishes to clarify or amend her remarks. But she’s already shown us who she is. The only question that matters here is whether her colleagues and the firefighting truth-seekers in the media hold her to account.
Ratcliffe, though currently in Congress, has experience at the Department of Justice and is well-versed in the requirements of the DNI job, Whitaker claimed Monday on “The Story.”
“John and I were U.S. attorneys in the Bush administration,” he said.
“I think he’s perfectly qualified to do this role. I think he’s a smart, talented individual.”
Ratcliffe has been well-versed in the intelligence community after driving key sections of ongoing Republican-led probes into apparent Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) abuses by the FBI and Justice Department.
“It’s clear that Rep. Ratcliffe was selected because he exhibited blind loyalty to President Trump with his demagogic questioning of former Special Counsel Robert Mueller,” Sen. Schumer said.
“If Senate Republicans elevate such a partisan player to a position that requires intelligence expertise and non-partisanship, it would be a big mistake.”
In a tweet, President Trump formally announced Ratcliffe as Coats’ eventual successor, adding the current officeholder will depart on August 15.
Alberto Romero was home in San Jose late Sunday afternoon when he got the panicked call from his wife at the Gilroy Garlic Festival: Someone had shot their 6-year-old son in the back, her in the stomach and hand and her mother in the leg.
They had been playing at the bounce house.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening, that what she was saying was a lie, that maybe I was dreaming,” said Romero, a 33-year-old electrician who gathered with family members after midnight early Monday at Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
The Gilroy Police department held a news conference following the shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in Gilroy, California.
Officers have served two search warrants associated with the gunman who opened fire at a Northern California food festival on Sunday night, which killed three people and wounded at least 12 others, police said Monday.
In a second of two news conferences Monday, Gilroy Chief of Police Scot Smithee told reporters that police executed a search warrant at a home “associated to our suspect,” adding that they also found the vehicle the shooter, Santino William Legan, drove to the Garlic Festival on Sunday and were in the process of searching the car.
He said the car turned up a “little northeast” of the park where the festival took place. Smithee added that investigators already finished searching the home, but said he did not have details as to what was found.
Police working a scene after the deadly shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival on Sunday. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
Police on Monday also searched the two-story Gilroy home of Legan’s family, which was less than a mile from the garlic festival. Officers reportedly left with paper bags carrying what appeared to be evidence.
Jan Dickson, who lives across the street, told The Associated Press that Legan had not lived there for at least a year, adding that SWAT officers came to the home Sunday night.
Dickson said officers ordered those inside the home to come out with their hands up and one person did. She called the Legans “a nice, normal family.”
FBI Deputy Special Agent in Charge Craig Fair told reporters that agents were conducting interviews but couldn’t comment on the results of those interviews or if Legan’s family was cooperating with their investigation.
Fair added that investigators were looking through Legan’s social media profiles to try determining a motive.
The Associated Press reported Legan, 19, appeared to have posted two photos on an Instagram account, which has since been deleted, on Sunday, including one minutes before he opened fire in which he referenced the festival.
The Instagram account reportedly said Legan was Italian and Iranian.
Police said Legan turned and fired his “AK-47-type” rifle at responding officers before they killed him.
They said they also continued to investigate what may have led Legan to carry out the horrific assault.
Smithee told reporters in an earlier news conference on Monday that the attack killed a man in his 20s, a 13-year-old girl and a 6-year-old boy.
The man in his 20s has been identified as Trevor Irby, a recent graduate of Keuka College in upstate New York.
The college’s president said in a statement on Monday that Irby graduated with a biology major in 2017 and confirmed he was among the victims of the shooting.
The Santa Clara Medical Examiner identified the 6-year-old victim as Stephen Romero of San Jose.
The 13-year-old girl’s name has not yet been released.
Smithee said it’s too early in the investigation to determine if any of the victims were targeted.
“It appeared as though it (the shooting) was random,” he told reporters. “But, I think we’re too early in the investigation to say that definitively.”
He added that investigators were still compiling a list of all those who were wounded.
Smithee said three officers — among those already at the event to provide security — were able to shoot and kill the suspect “despite the fact that they were outgunned with their handguns against a rifle.”
He added that the officers engaged the gunman less than a minute after the first shots rang out. “It could have gotten so much worse, so fast,” Smithee told reporters.
He said Legan gained access to the festival by cutting through a fence near a creek area. He said some witnesses reported a second suspect, but police could not immediately confirm those reports.
Smithee told reporters in the second news conference on Monday that police were “no closer to determining whether there was or was not a second suspect and if there was, what involvement they may have had.”
Investigators in northern Nevada said they searched an apartment located near Hawthorne, which Legan apparently used. The Mineral County District Attorney confirmed the search by the FBI and local sheriff’s deputies, The Associated Press reported, adding that the Mineral County Sheriff and a spokesperson for the FBI in Nevada declined to provide information about what was found.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s office in California announced Monday that a family-assistance center would help those affected by the shootings.
The services were to include grief counselors, assistance with filing claims for state funds for payment of medical bills and referrals to agencies for counseling and other aid.
Fox News’ Greg Norman, Edmund DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump’s seemingly endless attacks on Rep. Elijah Cummings made their way onto the late night shows.
During Monday night’s monologue, Late Show host Stephen Colbert presented “episode three — million” of his segment “Is Donald Trump a Racist?”
“Previously on, ‘Is Donald Trump racist?’ Yes!” Colbert said to laughter. “But some people still aren’t convinced. Not even after his Twitter attack on chairman of the House Oversight Committee and the man watching his white co-workers explain Get Out to him, Elijah Cummings.”
For those not keeping score, Trump bashed the Maryland Congressman and described the city of Baltimore — which Cummings represents — as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess,” Saturday on Twitter.
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Since then, the president has faced a barrage of criticism and been branded a “racist” by many Democrats, social media users, and earlier today the Rev. Al Sharpton, who called Trump a “bigot” at a news conference in Baltimore.
As for Trump, he insists he’s not racist and Sunday on Twitter, turned the tables by saying Democrats “always play the race card.”
But Colbert wasn’t buying Trump’s defense and dealt the race card back to the president.
“I’m not the racist, he’s the racist!” Colbert said in his best Trump voice. “After all, I wouldn’t have said anything racist at all if he [Cummings] was white.”
“Another weekend, another racist outburst from our racist president,” he said Monday on Late Night, before tossing to his “Closer Look” segment.
“So once again, he attacked a Congressman of color by using the word ‘infested,’ just as he did two weeks ago when he told four Democratic Congresswomen of color… to go back to the ‘crime infested places from which they came.’”
“Hey man, the only thing that’s infested here is your brain,” Meyers quipped.
— Late Night with Seth Meyers (@LateNightSeth) July 30, 2019
Over on the Daily Show, host Trevor Noah appeared confounded by Trump’s description of Baltimore as a “rodent infested mess.”
It’s “not exactly how you would expect an American president to talk about an American city,” Noah said, before essentially branding Trump a racist.
“As multiple people have pointed out, this language is part of a pattern. President Trump always uses the word ‘infestation’ when talking about people of color,” Noah said. “You don’t need to be a genius to understand what Trump is implying.”
The A-B-Cs of this week’s Trump beef: air conditioning, Baltimore, and champagne. pic.twitter.com/Vqqf6gbRbS
The report says that at the same time Mr. Barrack was seeking to become the administration’s Middle East envoy or ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, he was exploring the possibility that his private equity firm, Colony Capital, would be part of a deal purchase Westinghouse Electric Company, the sole American manufacturer of large-scale nuclear reactors — partly with capital from Saudi Arabia or its close ally, the United Arab Emirates.
The idea was that Westinghouse would then be well positioned to bid for Saudi government business building nuclear power plants. Because the United States carefully regulates the transfer of nuclear technology to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons, any such deal would require the approval of Congress and the administration.
An early contender for that business was a private company called IP3 International, which had assembled a consortium of American companies eager to get in on what could have amounted to a multibillion dollar deal. Before he became Mr. Trump’s national security adviser — a post he held for less than a month — Mr. Flynn had listed himself as an adviser to IP3. Officials at IP3 said that the listing was in error and that Mr. Flynn was not associated with the company.
The Oversight Committee investigators tried to explore questions that federal prosecutors in the United States attorney’s office in Brooklyn have been scrutinizing for months: whether Mr. Barrack, who led financing efforts for Mr. Trump’s 2016 campaign and inauguration, tried to shape the Trump team’s message in favor of the governments of Saudi Arabi and the United Arab Emirates, where his firm has done hundreds of millions of dollars in business.
Mr. Barrack was in close touch during the campaign, transition and early administration with people well connected to the ruling family of the United Arab Emirates, including Mr. al-Malik and Yousef al-Otaiba, the powerful Emirati ambassador to the United States.
In May 2016, Mr. Barrack sent Mr. al-Malik a draft of an energy policy speech that Mr. Trump, then closing in on the Republican presidential nomination, was to deliver that month in North Dakota, asking for pro-gulf region language. According to the report, Mr. al-Malik, who has been interviewed by federal prosecutors, “circulated the draft among Emirati and Saudi officials.”
Mr. Barrack then incorporated language from Mr. al-Malik into a draft that he sent to Paul Manafort, the Trump campaign chairman, who had been hired on his recommendation.
President Trump’s plan to nominate a political ally as director of national intelligence was seen by current and former officials as a move to subdue spy agencies that he has long regarded as disloyal, and silence one of the few pockets of occasional dissent in his administration.
Trump began attacking U.S. spy agencies almost from the moment he declared his candidacy, and since taking office he has routinely rejected analysts’ conclusions on issues including Russian election interference, the murder of a Saudi journalist and more.
Now, with the choice of Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.) to serve as the nation’s next spy chief — and Attorney General William P. Barr already entrenched at the Justice Department — Trump is poised to seize greater control over the two pillars of government that he perceives as most hostile to his presidency.
Intelligence community officials said that the moves raised fears about the politicization of their work, and that the official who often represents their views in meetings at the Oval Office may be less inclined to deliver unvarnished — and sometimes unwelcome — assessments to the president.
Former officials described Trump’s plan to install Ratcliffe as a threat to the independence of the nation’s spy agencies.
“This is clearly an effort to bring together the powers he needs in the hands of loyalists,” said Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former high-ranking CIA official who served in Republican and Democratic administrations
Trump’s antagonism toward the intelligence community often is traced to his anger over assessments that Russia interfered in 2016 to help elect him, a conclusion that he appears to believe undercuts his electoral accomplishment and legitimacy.
When that finding was made public, weeks before Trump’s inauguration, he lashed out on Twitter, accusing the CIA of waging a smear campaign against him. “One last shot at me,” he said. “Are we living in Nazi Germany?”
Since then, Trump has remained determined to discredit the Russia assessment, frequently accusing the CIA and FBI of taking part in an anti-Trump conspiracy. In Ratcliffe and Barr, Trump would have staunch allies overseeing both those agencies — and who have backed his dark but unsubstantiated suspicions.
Ratcliffe seemed to endorse this view in a Fox television interview Sunday, saying that the Russia investigation led by Robert S. Mueller III had been led by lawyers “close to the Clinton Foundation” and alleging that “there were crimes committed during the Obama administration” that should now be investigated.
Those statements are certain to add to the sense of foreboding among analysts and agents who are already subjects of an internal probe ordered by Barr into the origins of the Mueller investigation.
The outgoing director of national intelligence, Daniel Coats, was widely seen as a second-tier player in the administration, with little influence at the White House. But he was willing at times to publicly challenge Trump when the president’s assertions were at odds with intelligence community findings.
Coats repeatedly insisted that Russian interference in 2016 was real and that Moscow was continuing to intervene in U.S. political affairs, even as Trump said he was convinced by the ardent denials of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Coats also spoke in congressional testimony and other settings about Iran’s compliance with a nuclear accord, and said that North Korea was unlikely to abandon its development of nuclear weapons — positions that undercut the public pronouncements of the president.
In January, Trump became so enraged by Coats’s testimony on Iran that he lashed out on Twitter, saying U.S. intelligence professionals should “go back to school” and were “extremely passive and naive when it comes to the danger of Iran. They are wrong!”
Such clashes led to months of speculation about Coats’s security in a position that Trump at times toyed with eliminating entirely. The job was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks to help coordinate the activities of and set priorities for a constellation of 16 separate spy agencies.
Lee Hamilton, who as co-chair of the commission that investigated the attacks was among the architects of the DNI job, said that he has watched with concern as its authority has eroded in the Trump presidency.
Coats’s record “was one of some turbulence with Trump,” Hamilton said in an interview. “But he told it like he and his intelligence colleagues saw it.”
Ratcliffe has provided little indication that he would be inclined to do so, a prospect that Hamilton described as worrisome given Trump’s tendency to reject or ignore intelligence community findings.
“It scares me,” Hamilton said of Trump’s approach to intelligence. “I would acknowledge that it has not so far been calamitous, disastrous, catastrophic. But it’s a matter of risks. You elevate the risks when you have a president who seems to put more faith in Putin than in the CIA or Dan Coats. It raises the risk of a catastrophic mistake.”
Trump arrived in office largely unfamiliar with the structure, capabilities or apolitical traditions of U.S. spy agencies. Senior officials at the time expressed hope that his antagonistic views would soften as he spent time with agency leaders and received daily doses of highly classified secrets.
Instead, officials said, the relationship remains wary, marred by distrust and dysfunction. Rather than being persuaded by briefers bearing classified evidence, Trump continues to trust his instincts and the assurances of foreign leaders he favors.
Last year, after the CIA concluded with high confidence that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had ordered the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, Trump dismissed the consensus views of the CIA’s Middle East experts as mere “feelings.”
Asked about Mohammed’s complicity, Trump said, “Maybe he did, maybe he didn’t.”
CIA Director Gina Haspel subsequently delivered a detailed briefing on the Khashoggi killing to members of Congress, who emerged saying they could no longer see any room to doubt Mohammed’s role in the assassination.
The intelligence community’s influence in the Trump administration has been eroded further by the departure of other senior officials who were seen as receptive to the work of the CIA and other agencies. Among them were former secretary of defense Jim Mattis and former secretary of state Rex Tillerson.
Tillerson was replaced by Mike Pompeo, who had risen to favor with Trump while serving as CIA director and tailoring intelligence judgments in ways that pleased the president. In one of his early public appearances, Pompeo said that the intelligence community had concluded that “the Russian meddling that took place did not affect the outcome of the election.”
His statement mischaracterized the findings of spy agencies that had explicitly noted in their January 2017 report that they had not reached any judgment about the impact of Russia’s interference. The CIA was forced to clarify Pompeo’s statement the next day, saying that “the intelligence assessment with regard to Russian election meddling has not changed.”
(Reuters) – Worries about the U.S.-China trade war are running high during the current U.S. quarterly reporting season, with companies as diverse as Juniper Networks and O’Reilly Automotive bemoaning the consequences but saying they are finding ways to weather the storm.
Trade negotiations shift to Shanghai on Tuesday, with stock market investors sensitive to fallout from the year-long conflict and any signs that it could escalate.
Tariffs were mentioned in about a third of conference calls held by S&P 500 companies reporting their quarterly results through July 26, according to FactSet. The 71 firms flagging tariffs were up from the 50 companies discussing tariffs in the same time frame in the first-quarter season, but less than the 99 a year ago when tariffs were an emerging issue for U.S. corporations.
Many of those corporations outlined to investors their plans to minimize the impact of the trade war, which has added to uncertainty as they struggle with a sluggish global economy, including lackluster economies in Europe and Japan.
Parts supplier O’Reilly Automotive said in its conference call last week that it raised the prices of its products to make up for higher costs related to the tariffs.
Network gear maker Juniper Networks Inc on Thursday missed the mid-point of its margin guidance due to the tariffs, saying it expected pressure to continue, even as it manages its operating expenses to mitigate the damage.
Of S&P 500 components that have reported their second-quarter earnings, export-focused companies have beaten analysts’ expectations 77% of the time, while companies focused on the domestic economy have exceeded expectations just 66% of the time, according to an analysis by Credit Suisse.
That suggests that export-oriented companies are feeling the trade war less than investors expected, said Patrick Palfrey, an earnings analyst at Credit Suisse.
“Trade is an exacerbating factor, as opposed to the primary driver of the slowdown,” Palfrey said.
S&P 500 earnings are expected to have risen just 0.6% in the second quarter from a year ago, according to IBES data from Refinitiv. A big part of the slowdown reflects tough comparisons with a year ago, when the U.S. tax cut package led to a 24.9% jump in second-quarter earnings.
Roughly 76% of the 222 companies that have reported as of Monday morning have beaten analysts’ earnings expectations, in line with the recent trend.
Third-quarter earnings expectations have now turned negative, however, with earnings expected to decline 0.6% from a year ago, based on Refinitiv’s data.
Wall Street has reacted sharply over the past year to tweets from U.S. President Donald Trump, variously suggesting progress and setbacks in settling the trade dispute. Buoyed by expectations the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates, but also suggesting investors are becoming less sensitive to uncertainty around the trade war, the S&P 500 has surged 20% year to date and hit record highs last week.
Mattel’s stock has surged 16% since Thursday, when the toymaker’s quarterly results beat expectations, while it warned about the impact of an escalation of the trade war.
“We are being watchful of the potential tariff that may be implemented, and if implemented, would impact the entire toy industry. We have contingency plans in place and we’re working closely with the retailers to ensure that we are aligned on our approach to mitigate the tariffs,” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz said on a conference call last week.
The Philadelphia Semiconductor index has surged 38% in 2019, even as trade tensions and U.S. restrictions on sales to Chinese telecom Huawei make it harder to predict when U.S. chipmakers will recover from a global, cyclical downturn.
Investors were surprised last week after Texas Instruments said that U.S.-China trade tensions were not hampering its ability to conduct business in China, while Intel said on Thursday that customers worried about potential tariffs on chips were preemptively buying processors.
“We really think the Q2 action was pulling from the second half into the first half,” Intel CFO George Davis told Reuters following the earnings report. “Depending on how the trade discussions go, there could be some additional activity there, but we’re not expecting at the same level, if at all, during the third quarter. We’re forecasting demand based on the signals we’re getting from our customers.”
China recently signaled it would allow Chinese firms to make some tariff-free purchases of U.S. farm goods, while Washington has encouraged companies to apply for waivers to a national security ban on sales to Huawei. But going into the talks, neither side has implemented the measures that were intended to show their goodwill.
Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch and Noel Randewich; Editing by Tom Brown
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