— THE WHITE HOUSE said Wednesday’s trip to El Paso and Dayton was not a photo op, and they completely shut out media. They said the media blackout was for good reason — it would’ve disrupted people in the hospital who were trying to work, and heal. But they then claimed that people were going gaga for the president in the hospital, which would’ve been a great image for a leader who is often criticized for not being able to handle one of his most important roles: that of consoler in chief. The White House did release its own photos of the visit.
WAPO: “None of the eight patients still being treated at University Medical Center in El Paso agreed to meet with Trump when he visited the hospital, UMC spokesman Ryan Mielke said. Two victims who already had been discharged returned to the hospital with family members to meet with the president.” WaPo
— THE PRESIDENT said those who were criticizing him were “political people.” “[T]hese are people that are looking for political gain. I don’t think they’re getting it. And, as much as possible, I’ve tried to stay out of that.” Between El Paso and Dayton, he criticized JOE BIDEN on Twitter, saying his speech was “soo boring.” (Biden was asked about this by NBC’s resident Biden expert, MIKE MEMOLI, and Biden said Trump should get a life.)
SHORTLY AFTER,TRUMP criticized Dayton Mayor NAN WHALEY and Sen. SHERROD BROWN (D-Ohio), who were with the president for part of Wednesday, and had generally praised his visit. He then went on to criticize CNN and Fox News’ SHEP SMITH. He later turned to JOAQUIN CASTRO and his brother JULIÁN. And he ended his day with “fake news,” Democrats using “racism” as a tool against him and a final blast at Bloomberg Opinion executive editor — and Trump biographer — TIM O’BRIEN.
ALL OF THESE MISSIVES came in the midst of a trip where he was visiting two communities that were deeply affected by a series of mass shootings.
SPARING THE ROD: TRUMP told reporters on Air Force One that he’s considering commuting former Illinois Gov. ROD BLAGOJEVICH’S sentence. “His wife I think is fantastic and I’m thinking about commuting his sentence very strongly. I think it’s enough, seven years,” Trump said, according to pooler Eli Stokols of the L.A. Times.
Side note: Trump also noted that Blago had been on “Celebrity Apprentice,” per Bloomberg’s Jen Jacobs, but didn’t mention that he fired him over Harry Potter. “I just want to ask this one question,” Trump said on the show. “Your Harry Potter facts were not accurate. Who did the research?” To which Blago responded at the time: “But it’s Slithering and it’s Hufflepuff and it’s Ravencloth …” The episode… The firing
— USEFUL REMINDER … WHY BLAGO WAS ACCUSED AND CONVICTED … CHICAGO TRIBUNE: “Blagojevich was convicted of attempting to use his office to personally benefit, offering the former U.S. Senate seat of then-President-elect Barack Obama for barter, but also for trying to use his official office to gain a prosperous job or gain campaign funds in exchange for his actions.
“Some counts involving the alleged sale of the Senate seat were subsequently removed but his sentence and corruption conviction stood. He also was convicted of attempting to shake down a children’s hospital and the horse racetrack industry for official actions in exchange for campaign donations.
“Government agents secretly recorded Blagojevich discussing the Senate seat appointment with his onetime deputy governor, Doug Scofield. ‘I’ve got this thing and it’s (expletive) golden,’ Blagojevich said in the secretly recorded conversation. ‘I’m not just giving it up for (expletive) nothing.’” Chicago Tribune
Good Thursday morning. THE WASHINGTON NATIONALS beat the San Francisco Giants on Wednesday, completing a three-game sweep. They have the red-hot New York Mets this weekend in Queens.
CHILMARK READING — “Barack Obama hits the links on the Vineyard”: “Barack Obama, the former president, and Michelle arrived on the island Sunday. The former president promptly hit the links, playing at Farm Neck Golf Club in a foursome that included Golden State Warriors star Steph Curry and former Celtic Ray Allen.” Boston Globe
THE LATEST ON GUN CONTROL …
— THE NRA HAS TRUMP’S EAR: WAPO’S JOSH DAWSEY and SEUNG MING KIM: “NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre spoke with Trump on Tuesday after the president expressed support for a background check bill and told him it would not be popular among Trump’s supporters, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss internal talks.
“LaPierre also argued against the bill’s merits, the officials said. The NRA, which opposes the legislation sponsored by Sens. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), declined to comment.” WaPo
— BTW, WE ALSO ASKED THE WHITE HOUSE what meetings the president had scheduled on gun control, because he said he had one scheduled, yet we could not find anyone on Capitol Hill who was aware of it. The White House has not gotten back to us with an answer — still.
NO SENATE FOR HIM? … BETO O’ROURKE told NBC’S RACHEL MADDOW that he will return to the 2020 campaign trail. “I will pursue the nomination of our party to serve our country as president of the United States.” He added: “But right now I’m going to focus on my community, on our family, on those families who are grieving right now and on those families who have somebody who’s not yet out of the woods.”
THE RAIDS … AP/MORTON, MISS.: “‘Let them go!’: Tears, shock over ICE raids at Mississippi food processing plants”: “U.S. immigration officials raided numerous Mississippi food processing plants Wednesday, arresting 680 mostly Latino workers in what marked the largest workplace sting in at least a decade.
“The raids, planned months ago, happened just hours before President Donald Trump was scheduled to visit El Paso, Texas, the majority-Latino city where a man linked to an online screed about a ‘Hispanic invasion’ was charged in a shooting that left 22 people dead in the border city.
“Workers filled three buses — two for men and one for women — at a Koch Foods Inc. plant in tiny Morton, 40 miles east of Jackson. They were taken to a military hangar to be processed for immigration violations. About 70 family, friends and residents waved goodbye and shouted, ‘Let them go! Let them go!’ Later, two more buses arrived.” AP
TAPPING IT BACK — “Billionaire Stephen Ross gets backlash for Trump fundraiser,”by Maggie Severns: “News that the billionaire and Republican donor Stephen Ross would hold a Hamptons fundraiser for President Donald Trump sparked anger online at some of Ross’ most prominent businesses on Wednesday: luxury spinning studio SoulCycle and Equinox gym.
“Ross, who is worth an estimated $7.7 billion, founded the Related Companies, a real estate firm that invests in popular fitness and restaurant brands and owns the Miami Dolphins football team. Ross is a longtime GOP donor. But he has not been a major public supporter of Trump’s in the past, and his move to host the lunchtime fundraiser on Long Island for the president elicited backlash from people who pay for his high-end fitness memberships, as well as from one player for the Miami Dolphins.”
— ROSS’ RESPONSE: “In a statement provided to POLITICO, Ross said that he had ‘always been an active participant in the democratic process’ and that he preferred ‘to engage directly and support the things I deeply care about.’
“‘I have known Donald Trump for 40 years, and while we agree on some issues, we strongly disagree on many others and I have never been bashful about expressing my opinions,’ Ross said. ‘I have been, and will continue to be, an outspoken champion of racial equality, inclusion, diversity, public education and environmental sustainability, and I have and will continue to support leaders on both sides of the aisle to address these challenges.’”
FLASHBACK … ROSS to N.Y. MAGAZINE in February: “I don’t like Donald, OK, we can stop there. We’d be here all day.” N.Y. Mag (hat tip: Annie Karni)
QUITE CLEARLY, Ross didn’t think this fundraiser would get much attention. … FWIW: Kara Ross, Stephen’s wife, gained fame as a jeweler creating pieces for MICHELLE OBAMA.A 2011 story about Ross
CNN’S JAKE TAPPER: “White House rebuffed attempts by DHS to make combating domestic terrorism a higher priority”: “White House officials rebuffed efforts by their colleagues at the Department of Homeland Security for more than a year to make combating domestic terror threats, such as those from white supremacists, a greater priority as specifically spelled out in the National Counterterrorism Strategy, current and former senior administration officials as well as other sources close to the Trump administration tell CNN.” CNN
THE INVESTIGATIONS — “Pondering Impeachment, House Sues Don McGahn, Ex-White House Counsel, for Testimony,” by NYT’s Nicholas Fandos and Charlie Savage: “The House Judiciary Committee sued on Wednesday to force the former White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II to testify before Congress, asking a federal judge to strike down the Trump administration’s claim that top presidential aides are ‘absolutely immune’ from its subpoenas.
“In a filing in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, the Judiciary Committee identified Mr. McGahn as ‘the most important witness, other than the president, to the key events’ at the center of its investigation into possible obstruction of justice by President Trump — behavior detailed by the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, that the committee said could warrant impeachment.
“‘The Judiciary Committee is now determining whether to recommend articles of impeachment against the president based on the obstructive conduct described by the special counsel,’ the filing said. ‘But it cannot fulfill this most solemn constitutional responsibility without hearing testimony from a crucial witness to these events: former White House counsel Donald F. McGahn II.’” NYT
COMMITTEE NEWS …
— DCCC CHAIRWOMAN CHERI BUSTOS pointed out on Twitter the other day that their online fundraising has already beat what they raised online in 2015. WHAT SHE DIDN’T SAY: Their unitemized fundraising is down 25% compared to this point in 2017. That’s a big deal. (With the caveat that all cycles are different, and in the beginning of 2017, they were starting to try to take the House back.)
— THE DCCC posted an online job description for the open executive director slot. The posting
TRUMP’S THURSDAY — The president will have lunch with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo at 12:45 p.m. in the private dining room.
PLAYBOOK READS
HMMM — “Billionaire Wexner Says Epstein Swindled Him Out of ‘Vast Sums,’” by Bloomberg’s Anders Melin, Katherine Burton and Sophie Alexander: “Jeffrey Epstein’s entry into the life of Leslie Wexner spurred a myriad of questions among some of the fashion titan’s closest confidantes and associates.
“What did Wexner, a billionaire who built a fashion empire from scratch, see in Epstein, a college dropout with no obvious background as a money manager or tax expert?
“In recent weeks, revelations about the wealth Epstein amassed during his decades-long relationship with Wexner and his repeated alleged abuse of underage girls during that period have complicated that picture. On Wednesday, the saga took another twist as Wexner wrote to members of the Wexner Foundation that his former money manager had ‘misappropriated vast sums of money from me and my family.’” Bloomberg … The full letter
FOGGY BOTTOM DEPARTURE LOUNGE … AP’S MATT LEE: “U.S. officials say top U.S. diplomat for Latin America resigns”: “The Trump administration’s top diplomat for Latin America has resigned amid internal disputes over immigration policy for the region, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
“Two officials and a congressional aide said Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Kimberly Breier stepped down earlier this week, although they offered differing reasons for her departure. They say Breier cited personal reasons for her decision, but the two officials suggested it was prompted by differences over a recent migration accord with Guatemala. The congressional aide said Breier’s departure was mainly driven by family responsibilities.” AP
FIRST WAYNE ROONEY, NOW THIS — “U.S. Soccer hires lobbyists to argue women’s national team isn’t underpaid,” by Theo Meyer: “U.S. Soccer, which has disputed there’s a pay gap, responded by bringing on two lobbying firms, FBB Federal Relations and Van Ness Feldman, to help convince lawmakers the women’s claims are inaccurate. …
“Molly Levinson, a spokeswoman for the players, said in a statement they were ‘stunned and disappointed’ U.S. Soccer ‘would spend sponsor dollars and revenue to advocate against laws that ensure that women are paid equally to men.’” POLITICO
VALLEY TALK — “White House drafting executive order to tackle Silicon Valley’s alleged anti-conservative bias,” by Margaret Harding McGill and Daniel Lippman: “The White House is circulating drafts of a proposed executive order that would address allegations of anti-conservative bias by social media companies, according to a White House official and two other people familiar with the matter — a month after President Donald Trump pledged to explore ‘all regulatory and legislative solutions’ on the issue.
“None of the three would describe the contents of the order, which one person cautioned has already taken many different forms and remains in flux. But its existence, and the deliberations surrounding it, are evidence that the administration is taking a serious look at wielding the federal government’s power against Silicon Valley.
“‘If the internet is going to be presented as this egalitarian platform and most of Twitter is liberal cesspools of venom, then at least the president wants some fairness in the system,’ the White House official said.” POLITICO
MEDIAWATCH — A DARK DAY FOR MAGAZINES … “Governing to Close”: “After 32 years, the magazine of record for state and local government will discontinue operations. …
“For the past several years, Governing and our parent company, e.Republic, have made continued investments in the magazine, in governing.com and in the numerous events we host throughout the country. Ultimately, however, Governing has proven to be unsustainable as a business in today’s media environment. We will cease publication of the monthly print magazine after September, and we will be ramping down our web presence and the rest of our operations over the next few months.” Governing
— “Pacific Standard magazine is shutting down after losing main financial backer,” by L.A. Times’ James F. Peltz and Sam Dean: “Pacific Standard, an online magazine that aimed to be a Western U.S.-based chronicler of global social and environmental justice and public policy, plans to shut down after a decade of publication … The publication’s last day will be Aug. 16 and the decision by the board of Pacific Standard’s backer, the nonprofit Social Justice Foundation, came without warning.” LAT
— BOOK NEWS: “Workman to Publish AOC Bio”: “The book, a representative of [publisher] Workman said, will ‘look and feel like an of-the-moment gift book with a bold cover, easy-to-read text, and tons of vibrant photos in a small package.’ The representative noted that the book, Workman’s first political biography, will bear more resemblance to such Workman titles as Boss Babes and Strong Is the New Pretty than a traditional political biography. The book, the publisher said, will ‘include photos, quotes, and illuminating text,’ serving as a ‘celebration of the youngest congresswoman in United States history, detailing not only her life but the movement she has energized.’” Publishers Weekly
— PAGE SIX NUGGET: “Coming in September, a gritty not pretty documentary on Roy Cohn.” N.Y. Post
TRANSITIONS — Mick Baccio is now chief information security officer for the Pete Buttigieg campaign. He was the branch chief of White House threat intelligence in the Obama administration. More via Tim Starks… Sara Broadwater will be communications director for Indiana Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch. She previously was communications director for Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas).
ENGAGED — Joshua Hone, a Quorum and Advoc8 alum who is now COO of enotice, an early-stage startup focused on the future of local news, proposed to Rachel King, an incoming foreign service officer who did a Fulbright program in Malaysia and has also served as a Pickering fellow. He proposed on the ferry in Istanbul. Pic… Another pic
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Mike Biundo, co-founder and partner of Right On Strategies and a Trump campaign alum in New Hampshire. A fun fact people in Washington might not know about him: “I am a big professional wrestling fan. Which frankly made it extra hard to turn down the senior adviser to the White House at the SBA under Linda McMahon.” Playbook Plus Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is 61 … Vinay Mehra, president and CFO of The Boston Globe … Catharine Cypher … POLITICO Europe’s Charlie Cooper … WaPo’s Jackson Diehl … Kylie Atwood, national security reporter for CNN, is 3-0 (h/t Ali Spiesman) … Virginia Heffernan … Claire Brinberg, senior producer and political editor at “ABC World News Tonight” … Sam Wilson … Tyler Bowders … Kate Damon … Emily Rogers … Kelly Jemison Needham is 31 … Michael Levin … Jonah Seiger … Italian PM Giuseppe Conte is 55 … Sara Maldonado … Ron Klain, EVP and general counsel at Revolution, is 58 (h/t wife Monica) … Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group … Will Caggiano (h/ts Jon Haber) … Marc Ambinder … Elizabeth Brakebill McAdam … John Lambert of Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) office … James Feinstein … POLITICO’s Daniela Falvo … Karen Jezierny, director of public affairs at Princeton (h/t Ben Chang) …
… Hayley Matz Meadvin, a director at Precision Strategies … former FEC Chairman Michael Toner, partner at Wiley Rein … Jo Duchesne of the Bipartisan Policy Center (h/t dad Steve) … Mike Dankler … Saint Vincent and the Grenadines PM Ralph Gonsalves … Solomon Islands PM Rick Houenipwela … Meg Cahill … William Cronin … Jonah Seiger … Jeff Chu … George Paul Tzamaras of the American Immigration Lawyers Association is 59 … Lance Frank, VP of comms at CBS News … former Michigan Gov. Jim Blanchard, now at DLA Piper, is 77 … Nuriya Janss … Luke Londo … Eric Brakey … Habib Durrani … Dan Betts … Sunny Feldman … Kristina Dei … Samantha Brady … Michael Burwick … Cameron Terry … David Bass, president and CEO of Raptor Strategies … Josh Sternberg … Mike Schwartz … Teach for America’s Joe Walsh … Karen Hancox … Dee Ertukel … Alison Diminuco … Jay Gertsema … Xerxes Bhappu (h/ts Teresa Vilmain)
The mother of El Paso shooting suspect 21-year-old Patrick Crusius called police in Allen, Texas, weeks before the deadly shooting, because her son owned an AK 47-style assault rifle, CBS News has confirmed. The family’s attorney, Chris Ayres, said the phone call was “purely informational,” and that there was “absolutely no fear of violence nor any belief of an intent to do harm” that led Crusius’ mother to call police.
The lawyer added that Crusius did not identify herself or her son to police when she made the call, and that the department did not file the call or follow up on it.
Crusius is accused of opening fire at an El Paso Walmart on Saturday, killing 22 people and injuring dozens more. It’s not clear if he used the same style of gun that his mother called about. Investigators said Crusius drove 10 hours from Allen to El Paso. The alleged white supremacist has been charged with capital murder.
A manifesto believed to have been written by the suspect and uploaded to the web forum 8chan expressed concerns about the growing Hispanic population of Texas. Officials have referenced the document and said the shooting may have a “nexus” to a hate crime.
El Paso police said Sunday that Crusius legally purchased the gun used in the rampage.
CNN first reported Crusius’ mother call to police weeks before the shooting.
Crusius’ family issued a statement Wednesday to The Wall Street Journal saying “Patrick’s actions were apparently influenced and informed by people we do not know, and from ideas and beliefs we do not accept or condone.”
Crusius is being held on capital murder charges, the El Paso County District Attorney’s Office said. The District Attorney’s office is seeking the death penalty.
President Donald Trump says he’s “very strongly” considering commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich (blah-GOY’-uh-vich), who is serving a 14-year prison term for multiple federal corruption convictions.
Trump suggested more than a year ago that he was considering a commutation for Blagojevich, who then filed paperwork requesting one.
The Republican president told reporters Wednesday night while returning to Washington that he thought Blagojevich, a Democrat, had been treated “unbelievably unfairly.”
Trump says he’s taking into consideration Blagojevich’s wife and children and what was, in his view, mere braggadocio.
Blagojevich’s wife, Patti, reacted by tweeting that Trump’s comments about her husband, who has been in federal prison since 2012, leave her family hopeful that their “nightmare might soon be over.”
Andrew Yang participates in the second of two Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by CNN last month in Detroit.
Paul Sancya/AP
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Paul Sancya/AP
Andrew Yang participates in the second of two Democratic presidential primary debates hosted by CNN last month in Detroit.
Paul Sancya/AP
Entrepreneur Andrew Yang is the ninth Democrat to qualify for September’s next presidential primary debates.
Yang crossed the threshold on Thursday after a Monmouth poll in Iowa put him at 2% support. He had previously hit the donor requirements of 130,000 unique donors from 20 different states. His campaign had said he qualified outright based on an earlier poll, but the Democratic National Committee said it wouldn’t count that poll.
Yang has gained surprising momentum in the crowded field, edging out senators, governors and members of Congress for a coveted spot in next month’s debate in Houston, which will be moderated by ABC News and Univision. Yang has campaigned on a “Freedom Dividend,” which would give every American adult $1,000 per month to combat the automation of jobs. He has touted his nerdiness as an asset, quipping in the July debate that “the opposite of Donald Trump is an Asian man who likes math.”
Former HUD Secretary Julián Castro remains next closest to qualifying — he has hit the donor marks but still needs one more poll before Aug. 28 to register the required 2%, and in the Monmouth Iowa survey he received less than 1%.
Billionaire activist Tom Steyer, who announced just last month he was running for president after first passing on a run, hit 3% in the Monmouth poll, which means he also now has three qualifying polls where he has registered at least 2% support. But because of his late start, he still hasn’t hit the fundraising marks. However, the wealthy executive — who has already spent millions on a campaign designed to pressure House Democrats to back impeaching President Trump — is spending heavily to try to get there, asking for just $1 donations to help him qualify for the debates, given that he intends to self-fund otherwise.
New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand also hit 2% in the poll, marking her first qualifying survey. Both Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper have qualified in one poll as well, but only Gabbard has hit the required donor benchmark.
But with Castro inching closer and possibly even Steyer, more than 10 candidates could qualify — meaning there could again be two debates spread across two nights instead of just one. According to the DNC, both Sept. 12 and 13 are reserved for now.
Democratic presidential candidate and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio discusses his position on abortion, the Green New Deal on ‘Hannity.’
In a contentious interview Wednesday night on “Hannity,” Democratic presidential candidate Bill de Blasio affirmed that he supports a woman’s right to choose, but when pressed by host Sean Hannity he refused to say whether he supported any abortion restrictions.
“Do you support any restrictions on abortion? It’s a simple question,” Hannity pressed.
“It’s a simple answer. I believe in Roe v. Wade,” the New York City mayor said, referring to the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
People in Indian-administered Kashmir are confined to their homes. The arrests by security forces are part of India’s crackdown on region. Pakistan has announced the suspension of a key train service with India. And Britain has expressed concern to India over their decision to end Kashmir autonomy.
Al Jazeera’s Priyanka Gupta reports from New Delhi Al Jazeera’s Kamal Hyder reports from Islamabad.
The manifesto written by accused El Paso mass killer Patrick Crusius is the basis for the argument that the shootings were inspired by President Trump. Media commentators, Democratic presidential candidates, and all types of Trump critics have made that case in the days since the murders.
Much discussion was spurred by an article in the New York Times with the headline, “El Paso Shooting Suspect’s Manifesto Echoes Trump’s Language.” The story quoted just 28 words of the nearly 2,400-word manifesto. It noted that Crusius specifically wrote that his views “predate Trump.” And it warned that “linking political speech, however heated, to the specific acts of ruthless mass killers is a fraught exercise.” Nevertheless, the Times declared that even “if Mr. Trump did not originally inspire the gunman, he has brought into the mainstream polarizing ideas and people once consigned to the fringes of American society.”
Democratic contender Beto O’Rourke, an El Paso native, was much more blunt. “22 people in my hometown are dead after an act of terror inspired by your racism,” O’Rourke tweeted to the president.
So what did Crusius actually write? The Times story did not link to the manifesto, nor did many other media accounts. Most news organizations decided that even though the manifesto is clearly part of the El Paso story, they should not give Crusius the exposure he sought by linking to its full text. So many stories have included just a few snippets from the document. (The Washington Examiner has also decided not to link to the manifesto, but it can be easily found on the internet.)
But since the manifesto has become such an important part of the moment’s political debate, it is worth looking at the whole thing. And the impression one gets after reading the manifesto is quite different than some press accounts.
First, to be clear: The manifesto is insane. Part of it discussed commonly debated issues such as the environment and the economy in ways that are well within the boundaries of political conversation going on today — indeed, that might have come out of the New York Times or many other outlets. Other parts of it mixed in theories on immigration from far right circles in Europe and the U.S. Then it threw in beliefs on “race-mixing” straight from the fever swamps. And then it concluded that the solution is to murder Hispanic immigrants, going on to debate whether an AK-47 or an AR-15 would best do the job. By that point, Crusius had veered far from both reality and basic humanity.
But the question is, was he inspired by President Trump? It is hard to make that case looking at the manifesto in its entirety.
Crusius worried about many things, if the manifesto is any indication. He certainly worried about immigration, but also about automation. About job losses. About a universal basic income. Oil drilling. Urban sprawl. Watersheds. Plastic waste. Paper waste. A blue Texas. College debt. Recycling. Healthcare. Sustainability. And more. Large portions of the manifesto simply could not be more un-Trumpian.
Crusius began the manifesto by expressing support for Brenton Tarrant, the man who in March murdered 51 people and wounded 49 others in attacks on a mosque and an Islamic center in Christchurch, New Zealand. Tarrant wrote a 74-page manifesto entitled “The Great Replacement” that dwelled on demographic change in Europe, which Tarrant said was experiencing an “invasion” of immigrants with higher fertility rates than native Europeans. “This crisis of mass immigration and sub-replacement fertility is an assault on the European people that, if not combated, will ultimately result in the complete racial and cultural replacement of the European people,” Tarrant wrote.
Tarrant’s writing deeply affected Crusius. The first words of Crusius’ manifesto were, “In general, I support the Christchurch shooter and his manifesto.” Crusius went on to write that, “This attack is a response to the Hispanic invasion* of Texas. … I am simply defending my country from cultural and ethnic replacement brought on by an invasion.” Later, Crusius referred to Hispanic immigrants as “invaders who also have close to the highest birthrate of all ethnicities in America,” and noted: “Actually, the Hispanic community was not my target before I read ‘The Great Replacement.'”
Crusius was clearly inspired in large part by Tarrant, who in turn said he was inspired by seeing demographic change in France when he traveled to Europe in 2017.
With that in the background, Crusius expressed deep concerns about politics in the U.S. One of the “biggest betrayals” in history, he wrote, was “the takeover of the United States government by unchecked corporations.” Crusius said he could write “a ten page essay on all the damage these corporations have caused.” But the biggest problem, he said, was a dangerous political mix: “Due to the death of the baby boomers, the increasingly anti-immigrant rhetoric of the right and the ever increasing Hispanic population, America will soon become a one party-state.”
That one party, of course, was the Democratic Party. And although Crusius had little use for Republicans, he was most angry about what he had seen in the recent Democratic presidential debates:
They intend to use open borders, free healthcare for illegals, citizenship and more to enact a political coup by importing and then legalizing millions of new voters. With policies like these, the Hispanic support for Democrats will likely become nearly unanimous in the future. The heavy Hispanic population in Texas will make us a Democrat stronghold. Losing Texas and a few other states with heavy Hispanic population to the Democrats is all it would take for them to win nearly every presidential election. Although the Republican Party is also terrible. Many factions within the Republican Party are pro-corporation. Pro-corporation = pro-immigration. But some factions within the Republican Party don’t prioritize corporations over our future. So the Democrats are nearly unanimous with their support of immigration while the Republicans are divided over it. At least with Republicans, the process of mass immigration and citizenship can be greatly reduced.
That is a not-inaccurate restatement of some of the calculations that have been going on in both Republican and Democratic strategy rooms around the country for many years, certainly before the emergence of Donald Trump as a presidential candidate.
Crusius expressed a number of reasons for his anxiety about immigration. Among them was the growth of automation in the American economy. “Continued immigration will make one of the biggest issues of our time, automation, so much worse,” Crusius wrote. Crusius had obviously read reports that millions of American jobs will be lost to automation in coming years. He noted that while “some people will be retrained … most will not.”
Crusius felt automation would take away his future, too. “My whole life I have been preparing for a future that currently doesn’t exist,” he wrote. “The job of my dreams will likely be automated.”
The automation threat, Crusius continued, means the U.S. “will have to initiate a basic universal income to prevent widespread poverty and civil unrest as people lose their jobs.” (Crusius shared an interest in universal basic income, or UBI, and a pessimism about job retraining, with Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang.) Crusius’ idea was that fewer “invaders” meant more resources for government programs. “Achieving ambitious social projects like universal healthcare and UBI would become far more likely to succeed if tens of millions of dependents are removed,” he wrote.
Then there was education, the price of college, and the job market. “The cost of college degrees has exploded as their value has plummeted,” Crusius wrote. As a result, “a generation of indebted, overqualified students [are] filling menial, low paying, and unfulfilling jobs.” A high school degree used to be “worth something,” he said. No longer.
And then, the environment. Americans enjoy an “incredible” quality of life, Crusius wrote, but “our lifestyle is destroying the environment of our country.” Corporations, he said, are destroying the environment by “shamelessly over-harvesting resources.”
Crusius cited a children’s book by Dr. Seuss, The Lorax, which dealt with environmental devastation. It was published in 1971 and was made into a successful movie in 2012, when Crusius was 14. “This phenomenon is brilliantly portrayed in the decades old classic ‘The Lorax,'” Crusius wrote. “Water sheds around the country, especially in agricultural areas, are being depleted. Fresh water is being polluted from farming and oil drilling operations. Consumer culture is creating thousands of tons of unnecessary plastic waste and electronic waste, and recycling to help slow this down is almost non-existent.”
There was more: “Urban sprawl creates inefficient cities which unnecessarily destroys millions of acres of land,” Crusius wrote. And: “We even use God knows how many trees worth of paper towels just [to] wipe water off our hands.”
After his environmental concerns, Crusius, incredibly, moved to a discussion of the AK-47 versus the AR-15. And then to his racial theories. “I am against race mixing because it destroys genetic diversity and creates identity problems,” he wrote. “Racial diversity will disappear as either race mixing or genocide will take place. But the idea of deporting or murdering all non-white Americans is horrific. Many have been here at least as long as the whites, and have done as much to build our country.” Crusius then suggested dividing America into a “confederacy of territories” by race.
Crusius ended the manifesto by saying he expected to be killed in the attack he would allegedly carry out on Saturday. As it turned out, the shooter was not, and he is now behind bars, charged with killing 22 people and wounding 26 others. He said his actions would be misunderstood as being tied to Trump.
“My ideology has not changed for several years,” Crusius wrote. “My opinions on automation, immigration, and the rest predate Trump and his campaign for president. I [am] putting this here because some people will blame the President or certain presidential candidates for the attack. This is not the case. I know that the media will probably call me a white supremacist anyway and blame Trump’s rhetoric. The media is infamous for fake news. Their reaction to this attack will likely just confirm that.”
That was the only time Trump appeared in the manifesto, and it appears clear that Crusius borrowed his “fake news” characterization of the news media from the president. But that is not what Trump’s critics have charged. They have charged that Trump inspired Crusius to kill. They have charged it so often in the last few days that it has hardened into a general perception that Crusius was inspired by the president. But read the manifesto. It’s just not there.
*The word “invasion” has been used in connection with illegal immigration since long before the president ran for office. In the 1990s, for example, the state of California unsuccessfully sued the federal government, claiming the government did not protect states from an “invasion” of illegal immigrants. In 2010, the state of Arizona also unsuccessfully challenged the federal government over a similar “invasion.” The word was also used, well before Trump, in general commentary, usually by those who sought to restrict immigration levels into the United States. And more generally, too: Bobby Jindal, the son of immigrants and governor of Louisiana who ended his 2016 presidential campaign with a bitter attack on Trump, used to say that “immigration without assimilation is invasion.”
New York City mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Bill de Blasio repeatedly avoided offering specifics on his views about late-term abortion during an appearance on Fox News’ Hannity.
“Do you support any restrictions on abortion?” host Sean Hannity asked Wednesday.
“I believe in Roe v. Wade,” de Blasio, 58, maintained. “I believe the decision is between a woman and her doctor.”
Hannity pushed de Blasio to elaborate on what he meant, noting a Virginia bill that would have significantly rolled back restrictions on abortions in the third trimester, even up to birth.
De Blasio dodged the specifics of the question, saying, “It is a simple answer: I believe in Roe v. Wade.”
“Do you think a woman in the ninth month, putting aside health, putting aside life of the mother, do you support any restrictions until the baby is born? That’s a simple question,” Hannity pushed.
“I believe it’s a smokescreen, because it doesn’t happen in America. Women make this choice, it’s a sacred choice,” de Blasio said. “It’s a sacred choice for women.”
When pushed further, the mayor said, “It’s a very difficult choice, a very personal choice, and what we need to respect is that’s not a choice any woman wants to make. And the law — overwhelmingly Americans believe in protecting the right to choose.”
“Eight months into pregnancy, should a woman be allowed legally to have an abortion?” Hannity again asked the candidate, who is presently polling at 1% in the primary.
“Again, I’ve told you I believe [in] a woman’s right to choose. Period. This is a smokescreen,” de Blasio responded. “I’m not answering your way; I’m answering my way.”
Large swaths of forest have been cut down in Brazil in recent decades to make room for farming. Deforestation contributes to global warming, and reversing it will be necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Andre Penner/AP
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Large swaths of forest have been cut down in Brazil in recent decades to make room for farming. Deforestation contributes to global warming, and reversing it will be necessary to avoid catastrophic climate change.
Andre Penner/AP
Humans must drastically alter food production in order to prevent the most catastrophic effects of global warming, according to a new report from the United Nations panel on climate change.
The panel of scientists looked at the climate change effects of agriculture, forestry and other land use, such as harvesting peat and managing grasslands and wetlands. Together, those activities generate about a third of human greenhouse gas emissions, including more than 40 percent of methane.
That’s important because methane is particularly good at trapping heat in the atmosphere. And the problem is only getting more severe.
“Emissions from agricultural production are projected to increase,” the authors warn. “Delaying action” on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, they continue, “could result in some irreversible impacts on some ecosystems.”
This is the latest in a series of reports from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The new reportadds weight and detail to a warning put out by the same panel of scientists last fall, in which they sounded the alarm about the inadequacy of the pledges countries have made so far to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
At that time, the panel broadly suggested that farmland would need to shrink and forests would need to grow in order to keep the Earth from getting more than 1.5 degrees Celsius hotter than it was in the pre-industrial era. Global temperatures have already risen about 1 degree Celsius in the last 150 years.
In order to meet that temperature target, global greenhouse gas emissions will need to fall by 40 to 50 percent in the next decade. Scientists say the only way to achieve that reduction is to significantly increase the amount of land that’s covered in trees and other vegetation, and significantly reduce the amount of methane and other greenhouse gasses that come from raising livestock like cows, sheep and goats.
The new report offers some broad suggestions for how countries might achieve that. For example, for countries that have lost tree cover in the past century, reforestation can help suck greenhouse gasses out of the air, while also preventing soil from drying up. Reducing food waste can also help reduce a country’s greenhouse gas footprint.
Controlling emissions from agriculture is also a food-security issue. Greenhouse gasses from food production create a vicious cycle: As the Earth gets hotter, farming gets more difficult in many places, which forces farmers to clear more land to grow food.
“Climate change, including increases in frequency and intensity of extremes, has adversely impacted food security and terrestrial ecosystems, as well as contributed to desertification and land degradation in many regions,” the report’s authors write.
If greenhouse gas emissions continue to increase, as they are today, it will exacerbate those challenges, and eventually make it all-but-impossible to control global warming without creating serious food shortages.
The U.N. panel is the latest group of experts to grapple with a global conundrum: how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, forestry and other land use without creating food shortages or displacing people whose livelihoods rely on practices that are unsustainable globally.
Scientists and economists have been studying the impacts of our diets on the environment for years. There’s a growing consensus that a transition to a more plant-centered diet would help.
Currently, about 50 percent of the globe’s vegetated land is dedicated to agriculture — and about 30 percent of cropland is used to grow grain for animal feed. Given how much land it takes to grow food to feed livestock, meat production is a leading cause of deforestation.
A report released last month by the World Resources Institute finds that if current dietary patterns continue, an additional 593 million hectares — which is almost twice the size of India — would be needed in order to feed the projected 9.8 billion people (the anticipated population) by 2050.
Right now, agriculture generates an estimated 25 percent of annual greenhouse gas emissions, according to WRI; that’s when you combine food production and the land-use changes associated with farming, such as clearing vegetation and plowing.
If current trends continue, but agricultural productivity does not increase beyond 2010 levels, the WRI report concludes that most of the globe’s remaining forests would need to be cleared to feed the world. And the globe would exceed the greenhouse gas emission targets set by the Paris climate agreement.
“The WRI estimates that if people in the U.S. and other heavy meat-eating countries reduced their consumption of beef (and other meat from ruminants) to about 1.5 burgers per person, per week, it would ‘nearly eliminate the need for additional agricultural expansion (and associated deforestation), even in a world with 10 billion people.’ “
EL PASO — Earlier this year in his State of the Union address, President Trump described to the nation how the Texas border city of El Paso once had “extremely high rates of violent crime” and was considered “one of our nation’s most dangerous cities.” Then he turned it into the living argument for his border wall.
“With a powerful barrier in place,” he went on, “El Paso is one of the safest cities in our country. Simply put, walls work and walls save lives.”
In this West Texas border city, founded 360 years ago as an outpost of the Spanish empire, those words festered. So did words Mr. Trump repeated at a rally he held on the city’s outskirts a few weeks later. “Murders, murders, murders,” he said, in reference to immigrants, as the crowd chanted, “Build the wall!”
For many in El Paso, the potentially devastating consequences of the anger over immigration and race became apparent this weekend, when 22 people were killed at a Walmart and the white suspect warned of a “Hispanic invasion,” plunging the city into mourning. So Mr. Trump returned — this time to say he wanted to help the city grieve.
CNN and other media organizations focus more intensely on mass shootings like in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, but gun violence is more than those major events, said Joe Sakran, director of emergency general surgery at Johns Hopkins.
“The mainstream media, let’s be honest, we talk this issue around the mass shootings. But that’s just a small proportion of the epidemic,” he said.
“We have young black men that are being killed on our streets every day in cities like Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia. And those stories often go untold,” Sakran said to applause.
“So I think we have the responsibility to tell those stories.”
CNN law enforcement expert Charles Ramsey said he’d seen that day-to-day violence in his long police career.
“You go to an outdoor crime scene and you’ve got a body laying there, crime scene doing what they do, and look across the street there’s kids over there looking at what you do,” Ramsey said.
“They’ve got to walk passed that same place to go to school the next day. And then we wonder why they have trouble reading and writing. They’re traumatized,” he said. “There aren’t the services in place to be able to help these kids.”
Two people are taken into custody by ICE agents at a Koch Foods Inc. plant in Morton, Miss., one of seven food processing plants targeted for coordinated raids in the state.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP
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Two people are taken into custody by ICE agents at a Koch Foods Inc. plant in Morton, Miss., one of seven food processing plants targeted for coordinated raids in the state.
Rogelio V. Solis/AP
Federal immigration officials raided several food-processing plants in Mississippi Wednesday and arrested approximately 680 people believed to be working without authorization.
The coordinated raids were conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations “at seven agricultural processing plants across Mississippi,” according to an ICE statement. In addition to the arrests, agents also seized company business records.
More than 600 ICE agents were involved in the raids, surrounding the perimeters of the targeted plants to prevent workers, mainly Latino immigrants, from escaping. The actions were centered on plants near Jackson owned by five companies, according to the Associated Press.
One of the plants is owned by Koch Foods Inc., which bills itself as one of the largest poultry processors in the U.S. with more than 13,000 employees. Forbes ranks it as the 135th largest privately held company in the country, with an estimated $3.2 billion in annual revenue, according to Fortune.
Another plant raided Wednesday was in Canton, Miss., and is owned by Peco Foods Inc., based in Tuscaloosa, Ala. It is the 8th largest poultry producer in the U.S., according to the company’s website.
No representatives for either company responded to an email request or telephone call for comment.
The arrested workers were bused to a local Mississippi National Guard hangar where they were interviewed about their immigration status, including whether they already had deportation orders.
“Today’s raids are part of the ongoing war against immigrant families and the communities in which they live,” Julia Solórzano, an attorney with the Southern Poverty Law Center, said in an emailed statement. “It is especially sickening that days after immigrants were targeted by a gunman in El Paso, Texas, workers at plants across Mississippi witnessed armed agents descending on their workplace.
“It’s also worth noting that immigration agencies that have repeatedly blamed ‘over capacity’ detention facilities for the horrific treatment of those imprisoned nevertheless detained more than 600 people today,” she said.
The size of the raid operation harkens back to 2008 when, under the George W. Bush administration, more than 400 unauthorized workers were arrested in a meatpacking facility in Iowa.
In the aftermath of a deadly mass shooting at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, a viral message spread on social media that said law enforcement cautioned about the threat of more violence at Walmart and Target stores in that city.
The message circulated days after a gunman killed 22 people and wounded dozens more during a morning rampage on Aug. 3, 2019. The suspect in the attack, Patrick Crusius, allegedly posted a racist screed online about what he called a “Hispanic invasion of Texas.”
Just days later, images of vague text messages circulated warning that more violence at big-box retail stores Target and Walmart was likely in El Paso:
El Paso police Sgt. Robert Gomez told us authorities aren’t aware of any potential threat of further violence at Target or Walmart stores in the area. Crusius is currently in custody awaiting trial.
The posts appear to be scarelore — sensational but notoriously vague stories that exploit people’s fears and prompt them to share, often causing them to go viral.
We didn’t get responses to our queries about the meme posts from the FBI or the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office by the time of publication. However, based on the statement from the El Paso Police Department and lack of news stories about what would surely be a big story if it were true, we rate this claim “false.” Like other hoaxes, it may be an effort to expand public fear generated by a recent tragedy.
The mass shooting in El Paso was one of three such incidents that occurred in rapid succession. A gunman opened fire and killed three people at a garlic festival in Gilroy, California, on July 28, one week prior to El Paso. The day after El Paso, a gunman killed nine people in a mass shooting in Dayton, Ohio.
De Blasio called the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the United States the, “biggest ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ in American history,” — a reference to the official military policy from 1994 to 2011 governing LGBT members of the U.S. military.
“There’s no invasion,” he added.
“There are people here already who are part of our community.”
“When you see these caravans starting out with 20,000 people, that’s an invasion,” he said at a Panama City event.
In his interview with Hannity, de Blasio also reacted to the import of illicit drugs and immigration of illegal aliens who are criminals, across the southern border.
“People get in with a wall or without a wall, that’s not how you do it,” he said.
“You create an actual border security mechanism. You have every tool you need and you create a reality in our communities where police and communities are working together.”
At one point, he pushed back on Hannity’s use of the words, “sanctuary city,” to describe municipalities that ignore federal immigration law.
Regarding illegal immigrants being granted access to health care services in New York City, the mayor argued the undocumented residents would cost the taxpayers money for their treatment either way.
“Folks go to the emergency room… who’s paying for it?”
“These are human beings who are part of our economy and part of our neighborhood,” the former city councilman from Brooklyn added.
President Trump has repeatedly told lawmakers and aides in private conversations that he is open to endorsing extensive background checks in the wake of two mass shootings, prompting a warning from the National Rifle Association and concerns among White House aides, according to lawmakers and administration officials.
Trump, speaking to reporters Wednesday before visiting Dayton, Ohio, and El Paso, where weekend shootings left 31 dead, said there “was great appetite for background checks” amid an outcry over government inaction in the face of repeated mass shootings.
Trump’s previous declarations of support for tougher gun controls, including after the deadly Parkland, Fla., shooting in February 2018, have foundered without a sustained push from the president and support from the NRA or Republican lawmakers. Even Trump’s advisers question how far he will go on any effort.
NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre spoke with Trump on Tuesday after the president expressed support for a background check bill and told him it would not be popular among Trump’s supporters, according to officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to freely discuss internal talks. LaPierre also argued against the bill’s merits, the officials said.
The NRA, which opposes the legislation sponsored by Sens. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), declined to comment.
Advisers to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said he would not bring any gun-control legislation to the floor without widespread Republican support. Trump has waffled, current and past White House officials say, between wanting to do more and growing concerned that doing so could prompt a revolt from his political base. Even some supporters of the Manchin-Toomey bill, which would expand background checks to nearly all firearm sales, say it is unlikely to pass.
President Trump and first lady Melania Trump speak to first responders Wednesday as they visit the El Paso Regional Communications Center after meeting with people affected by the El Paso mass shooting. (Evan Vucci/AP)
“I don’t think the president or his Republican allies are going to become out of nowhere advocates of aggressive gun control,” said Matt Schlapp, who leads the American Conservative Union and is a close ally of Trump.
Trump has focused on guns extensively since the shootings, calling lawmakers and surveying aides about what he should do — outreach that began Sunday evening. White House officials say there has been a series of meetings on a response, convened by acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, including a session Tuesday morning. The president has discussed with aides the idea of a Rose Garden bill-signing ceremony for gun-control legislation, a notion that seems premature to many in the West Wing.
Trump also asked lawyers about what he could enact through an executive order, officials said.
“He seems determined to do something and believes there is space to get something done this time around,” said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who said he had spoken to Trump “four or five times” since the shootings. “The president has a pretty common-sense point of view. He’s never been a sports or gun enthusiast. But he is more determined than ever to do something on his watch.”
Manchin said that Trump called him at 6:30 a.m. Monday and that the two spoke again on Tuesday, when Trump said he wanted legislation before September, when the Senate is scheduled to return.
Trump did not express explicit support for the Manchin-Toomey bill but asked a range of questions. Most of the recent mass shootings were carried out with guns purchased legally.
“He was inquisitive, wanting to know why it hadn’t happened. He wanted to know all about it,” Manchin said. “I told him we couldn’t get enough Republicans to help us.”
Manchin said he told Trump that he would need to back any gun-control legislation or it would fail again. Those comments were mirrored by almost a dozen GOP and White House aides.
“If you don’t stand up and say, ‘This is a piece of legislation I support,’ we’re not going to get enough cover to have Republicans stand tall. They won’t be able to do it,” Manchin said.
On Tuesday, Trump outlined some NRA concerns in a second call with Manchin. “We talked about that,” Manchin said. “I told him, we don’t expect the NRA to be supportive. Mr. President, in all honesty, when you did the bump stocks, they weren’t for you. They were against that, too. You didn’t take any hit on that.”
In March, the administration administratively banned bump stocks, the devices used to make semiautomatic rifles fire rapidly like machine guns.
A White House official said Trump had asked some advisers and lawmakers this week about whether the NRA had enduring clout amid an internal leadership battle and allegations of improper spending, as well as what his supporters would think of the bill. The Washington Post reported this week that LaPierre sought to have the NRA buy him a $6 million mansion in a gated Dallas-area golf club after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, in which 17 students and staff members were killed.
Toomey said he has spoken with the president at least three times since the weekend shootings. He declined to elaborate on the conversations, although he stressed that Trump hasn’t specifically endorsed the bill. Their conversations have been more general, he said, but Toomey noted that they had been “encouraging” and “very recent.”
“I will just tell you generally the president is open-minded about this,” Toomey said.
Some measures — such as a ban on assault weapons — have been ruled out, White House officials and legislative aides say. Recent polls indicate a majority of Americans support some form of a ban on assault rifles, though there is a large partisan divide and fewer than half of Republicans support such measures.A July NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll found 57 percent of the public supported a ban on “the sale of semiautomatic assault guns, such as the AK-47 or the AR-15.” Fewer than 3 in 10 Republicans supported the proposal, rising to a slight majority of independents and more than 8 in 10 Democrats.
“There’s no political space for that,” Graham said. “So I don’t think he’s going to go down that road.”
However, about 9 in 10 Americans support requiring background checks for all gun purchases, including more than 8 in 10 Republicans, Democrats and independents, according to polling.
Trump was vague about what he would do in his comments Wednesday, and current and former White House officials said he is often ambivalent on what he should do after shootings.
After the Parkland shooting, Trump expressed support for background checks for gun purchases and greater police power to seize guns from mentally disturbed people. But he faced significant resistance from the NRA and Republicans and abandoned the ideas.
On Air Force One after the October 2017 shooting in Las Vegas that left 58 dead, Trump said he wanted to enact a law to keep such shootings from happening again and would question others for ideas but did not have specific proposals.
After shootings, Trump regularly would poll aides about what measures would have political support, but if they did not gain backing, he was not inclined to lead the charge.
“He would not be blocking it, but he’s not going to be the one forcing it to happen,” one official said.
Some of the president’s more-moderate friends and donors have pressed for more-robust gun-control measures. But Trump has also told advisers that he cannot lose any members of his “base.”
“Republicans are headed for extinction in the suburbs if they don’t distance themselves from the NRA. The GOP needs to put forth solutions to help eradicate the gun violence epidemic,” said Dan Eberhart, a Republican donor.
In public, Trump has promoted “red flag” laws — also known as extreme risk protection orders — that allow family members or law enforcement to petition a judge to ban gun access for someone they believe is an imminent threat to themselves or others. Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have such laws already in place, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, which advocates more restrictions on firearms.
White House aides said such a bill was the most likely outcome and had the most support in the West Wing. Schlapp said that Trump could persuade Republicans to support some measures seen as less restrictive.
“It’s the best route forward because it can pass, the president will sign it and it can actually stop the next attack,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who drafted legislation to encourage more states to pass their own red-flag laws, said in a phone interview Wednesday. He began working on the legislation after the Parkland shooting.
“If you look at all the studies that have been done, you see that invariably, with perhaps the exception of Las Vegas, they all exhibited signs and warnings to people around them that they could do something,” Rubio said.
Yet any effort on Capitol Hill to implement firearms restrictions is likely to face, at a minimum, skepticism from conservatives concerned about any measure viewed as restricting gun rights.
Early on in his administration, Trump moved to loosen restrictions on gun purchases by people with mental illnesses, signing legislation overturning an Obama-era regulation that barred certain people with mental health issues from purchasing firearms.
Some Republican officials have pointedly noted that Graham didn’t consult other GOP senators before forging ahead with Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on a plan to advance red-flag legislation through the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A handful of Republican members of the Judiciary Committee, through aides and in public comments, have indicated they are open to policies that would encourage states to implement such laws.
Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) appeared the most skeptical, with a spokesman saying merely that Sasse has asked to review the legislative language from Graham. A spokesman for Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.) said the lawmaker “believes red-flag laws are one of the tools states can consider, but that there are dangers depending on how a state implements these laws,” expressing concern about protecting “due process and our constitutional rights.”
Democrats, while generally supportive of red flag laws, questioned how much congressional efforts would actually help states — particularly conservative ones with Republican governors — enact them. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that Democrats would demand a vote on legislation expanding background checks that had already passed the House and is opposed by the Trump administration in tandem with any Senate vote on red flag laws.
“The question is, what difference can the federal government make in what is largely a state decision?” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), one of the most vocal advocates of gun control in Congress. “I’m all for federal action on extreme risk protection orders. I’m just not sure it’s going to move the needle.”
“Our president has aligned himself with the darkest forces in this nation,” Mr. Biden said. Mr. Trump “offers no moral leadership,” he added, saying that the president has “no interest in unifying the nation” and that there was “no evidence the presidency has awakened his conscience in the least.”
“Indeed, we have a president with a toxic tongue who has publicly and unapologetically embraced a political strategy of hate, racism and division,” Mr. Biden said.
Leaving the White House on Wednesday morning, Mr. Trump was asked to respond to another comment by Mr. Biden in which he said the president had more in common with George Wallace than George Washington.
“Well, Joe is a pretty incompetent guy,” Mr. Trump said. “I’ve watched his interviews. I’ve watched what he said and how he said it. And I wouldn’t have rated him very high in the first place. But Joe Biden has truly lost his fastball, that I could tell you.”
Later, as the former vice president delivered the speech, the president tweeted his disgust from Air Force One as he traveled from Dayton to El Paso.
“Watching Sleepy Joe Biden making a speech. Sooo Boring!” the president tweeted. “The LameStream Media will die in the ratings and clicks with this guy. It will be over for them, not to mention the fact that our Country will do poorly with him. It will be one big crash, but at least China will be happy!”
Mr. Trump did not arrive in El Paso until about 4:30 p.m. Eastern time, but like in Dayton, protesters gathered ahead of his arrival, demonstrating their anger about what they said was his divisive language and unwillingness to push for aggressive gun control measures. Judy Lugo, the president of the Texas State Employees Union, which represents 10,000 state workers, was one of the people who said Mr. Trump should not have come to El Paso.
“I don’t think it’s appropriate,” Ms. Lugo said of the president’s visit. “The people here need to mourn, they need to be left alone. They don’t need him coming down saying how sorry he is when people don’t think he’s sorry.”
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