Legal experts were uncertain how Mr. Xi could impose a national security law on Hong Kong without going through the city’s Legislative Council, a body stacked with pro-Beijing members who have, nonetheless, hesitated to take such a contentious step.
But he cleared up the confusion late last month, when China’s National People’s Congress nearly unanimously passed a resolution empowering the Congress’s Standing Committee to amend the Basic Law and impose anti-sedition regulations on the territory.
For safe measure, the congress ordered Hong Kong to introduce its own national security law, meaning the territory could be subject to two laws that potentially overlap or conflict.
Now, eyes are on the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, which meets every two months or so, to see if it will pass the legislation on Saturday or release a draft. A spokesman for the committee said on Thursday that the proposed law would take aim at separatism, subversion, terrorism and “colluding with foreign powers.” Critics say those sweeping labels could be used to stifle political opposition in Hong Kong.
Draft legislation typically goes through two or three sessions of deliberation before going to a vote, and some experts do not believe the law will be passed on Saturday. Then again, Mr. Xi may want to finish things quickly.
NBC News’ Morgan Radford speaks to a resident about President Trump’s rally in Tulsa, Okla., the day after Juneteenth, a holiday commemorating the day the last American slaves were freed after the Civil War. » Subscribe to NBC News: http://nbcnews.to/SubscribeToNBC » Watch more NBC video: http://bit.ly/MoreNBCNews
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Jubilant protesters read out Trump’s tweet over a bullhorn and cheered. After the statue fell, most protesters returned peacefully to Lafayette Park near the White House.
The Pike statue has been a source of controversy over the years. The former Confederate general was also a longtime influential leader of the Freemasons, who revere Pike and who paid for the statue. Pike’s body is interred at the D.C. headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which also contains a small museum in his honor.
The statue, dedicated in 1901, was located in Judiciary Square about half a mile from the U.S. Capitol. It was built at the request of Masons who successfully lobbied Congress to grant them land for the statue as long as Pike would be depicted in civilian, not military, clothing.
Racial tensions in the country hit a boiling point and spilled into the streets after Floyd’s killing late last month. Video showed a white police officer pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for nearly eight minutes as the handcuffed Black man said, “I can’t breathe.” The officer, Derek Chauvin, has been charged with murder.
Civil rights activists and some local government officials in D.C. had campaigned for years to get the statue taken down but needed the federal government’s approval to do so.
“Ever since 1992, members of the DC Council have been calling on the federal gov’t to remove the statue of Confederate Albert Pike (a federal memorial on federal land). We unanimously renewed our call to Congress to remove it in 2017,” the D.C. Council tweeted Friday.
A proposed resolution calling for the removal of the statue referred to Pike as a “chief founder of the post-Civil War Ku Klux Klan.” The Klan connection is a frequent accusation from Pike’s critics and one which the Masons dispute.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman speaks to reporters last year about two Florida men associated with President Trump’s lawyer Rudolf Giuliani and the Ukraine investigation.
Seth Wenig/AP
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U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman speaks to reporters last year about two Florida men associated with President Trump’s lawyer Rudolf Giuliani and the Ukraine investigation.
Seth Wenig/AP
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is in a fight with the Justice Department over his job.
Geoffrey Berman has overseen prosecutions of associates of President Trump, including Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen. He also brought the grand jury indictment against associates of the president’s current personal attorney, Rudolf Giuliani.
Attorney General William Barr, in a statement released late Friday night, said that Berman is “stepping down” and the president is nominating Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to succeed Berman.
A short time later, Geoffrey Berman fired off his own announcement, denying Barr’s statement.
“I learned in a press release from the Attorney General tonight that I was ‘stepping down’ as United States Attorney,” Berman said. “I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate.”
“Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.”
While Berman is pushing back against leaving his post, Attorney General Barr’s press release indicated that President Trump has already appointed an interim replacement for Berman. Barr said that effective July 3rd, Craig Carpenito, the current US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, would take over until Clayton is confirmed.
Barr thanked Berman for his service, adding, “With tenacity and savvy, Geoff has done an excellent job leading one of our nation’s most significant U.S. Attorney’s Offices, achieving many successes on consequential civil and criminal matters.”
Under Berman’s watch, his office brought the prosecution of multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein on federal sex trafficking charges. Berman later charged two corrections officers who were supposed to guard Epstein with dereliction of their duties after Epstein’s apparent suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Berman’s team also aggressively investigated and prosecuted Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen. Cohen ultimately pleaded guilty to financial crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance crimes.
Under oath, Cohen implicated Trump in payments made to two women ahead of the 2016 elections to keep them quiet about affairs they said they had with Trump.
Berman issued a grand jury indictment againstLev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two men associated with Rudy Giuliani. The two have pleaded “not guilty” to setting up a shell company to hide the foreign sourcing of a $325,000 donation to a superPAC committed to President Trump’s reelection. The two also allegedly helped Giuliani in efforts to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.
And Berman’s office has investigated the business dealings of Giuliani himself, but no charges have been brought against him.
Trump’s rally – his first since he addressed supporters in early March in North Carolina – has the potential to kickstart his struggling reelection effort, quiet critics questioning the wisdom of massive indoor events during the coronavirus pandemic and deliver to the White House a powerful talking point in the increasingly partisan battle over reopening.
It could also backfire: Undermining Trump’s rosy assertions about the course of the virus – and his administration’s response to it – at a time when his support is at a low point.
“They’re definitely taking a risk with this,” said Amy Koch, a Minnesota-based Republican strategist. “If there isn’t a spike, if there isn’t some kind of a ground zero effect, it’s going to embolden him – and it’s going to mean more rallies.”
On the other hand, if public health experts’ fears about the rally becoming a “super spreader” event are realized, it would almost certainly delay future rallies and undercut the president’s message that the country is on course for a quick recovery.
The risks to the rally were underscored by an extraordinary series of events that began Thursday night when Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum set a three-night curfew, citing the expected crowds of more than 100,000, the planned protests, and the civil unrest that has already erupted in the city and around the nation.
The tighter security meant Trump supporters lined up for the rally had to be moved further away from the 19,000-seat BOK Center. Some supporters had been camping out for days to get a good spot and the curfew raised questions about whether they would be able to remain near the site overnight Friday.
By Friday afternoon, the curfew was lifted after Bynum and Trump spoke by phone – a decision that was announced first by Trump on Twitter and then confirmed by the mayor.
Trump is expected to touch down in the Sooner State – one of the reddest states in the nation – around dinnertime and host his first rally since the coronavirus was declared a pandemic. As he strolls onto the stage in the BOK Center, with Lee Greenwood’s “God Bless the USA” pouring through the speakers, he’ll face a dramatically different political scene than the one he was navigating three months ago.
More than 119,000 Americans have died from the virus, according to Johns Hopkins University. Several states, including Oklahoma, are experiencing alarming increases in new daily cases. The death of George Floyd, a Black man whose neck was pinned to the ground under the knee of a white police officer, sparked massive protests and has forced a reexamination of racism and police conduct. The unemployment rate has spiraled to levels not seen since the Great Depression.
Amid the crises, Trump’s polling numbers have been sliding. Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, had a double-digit lead in a nationwide Fox News survey this week. Other independent polls show Biden running up the margins in Wisconsin, Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania – all critical battlegrounds.
Trump has described the Tulsa rally as the start of his campaign (though he had already held 10 rallies this year before the virus locked down businesses and schools). Republican allies predicted a massive turnout in Tulsa would not only send a message of strength but also give him a morale boost at a time when little else has gone his way.
Supporters also view the rally as a chance for Trump to draw a contrast with Biden, who has avoided large events during the pandemic. Officials with the Biden campaign declined to comment about the rally.
“A successful rally would be the launching pad for the rest of campaign season,” predicted Rep. Kevin Hern, an Oklahoma Republican who is planning to attend the rally. “Resuming the campaign rallies will force Joe Biden out of the basement and back onto the campaign trail, proving that Biden cannot compete with Trump.”
If there is not a spike in cases after the event, and if protests around the venue remain peaceful, several Republicans predicted the outcome would ease the campaign’s ability to organize future rallies – which Trump is eager to do. It could also help the GOP put on a full-scale convention, alleviating concerns delegates might have about attending.
“Restarting Trump’s rallies is the Democrats’ worst nightmare,” asserted Republican Lance Cargill, a former speaker of the state’s House of Representatives and now a political consultant. “Whether or not there is a spike in coronavirus cases, the point can and should be made that the lockdown-shutdown has run its course.”
The Trump campaign said the rally drew interest from more than a million people and that it expects tens of thousands to show. Among those who lined up early for the event was Rosie Matlock, who was seated in a blue folding chair and said she had kept her spot in line since Wednesday. The 68-year-old predicted the rally would be “a turning point” for Trump and like a “dose of medicine.”
Still, none of those predictions are a given. Public health officials in Oklahoma have warned against the rally for days, particularly given the recent spike in daily cases in the state. Oklahoma cases of COVID-19 rose by 450 on Thursday, blowing past the record of 259 cases a day earlier, according to the Oklahoma State Health Department.
Trump’s rally also poses big risks
The rally has already run into roadblocks: The campaign had to reschedule after it initially set the event for Juneteenth, the holiday celebrating the end of slavery in the United States. Trump has also faced a backlash for holding the rally in a city that was by many accounts home to one of the worst racial attacks in U.S. history.
And then there is the virus.
Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine at George Washington University, described the rally as a terrible idea “because it’s a crowded indoor venue, without the limit on attendees that would allow for adequate social distancing, and no requirement for face masks, in a city with rising COVID cases.”
Bynum wrote this week that the rally wasn’t his idea and said he shares the “anxiety about having a full house” for the event. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS News Radio this week that large congregations of people heighten the risk.
“There’s no doubt that it increases it,” he said.
And both Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx, who has led the White House coronavirus response, raised concerns in recent days about the safety of the rally, NBC News reported Friday. The BOK Center, meanwhile, sent a letter to the Trump campaign late Thursday seeking more information about the campaign’s plan to keep attendees safe.
White House officials and Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, have insisted that the rally can take place safely. Stitt, who visited Trump at the White House on Thursday, said that hospitalizations remain low in the state.
“Oklahoma is ready for your visit. It’s going to be safe,” Stitt told Trump. “And we’re really, really excited.”
Trump and White House officials have noted that the campaign will distribute masks and hand sanitizer and check the temperature of attendees. The campaign did not respond to questions from USA TODAY this week about the cost of that equipment or the vendors for the supplies.
While rally attendees will receive masks, they won’t be required to wear them. They have also been asked to waive their rights to sue the Trump campaign if they get sick. But Trump officials have pushed back on the idea that the rally is gamble.
“We are confident that we can operate safely in Tulsa,” White House spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany said Friday, adding that she would not wear a mask at the event.
Veteran Republican operative Stuart Stevens, a frequent Trump critic, questioned the notion that a successful rally would help the president reignite his campaign, though he predicted the president will declare it a success no matter how it turns out.
“I tend to think that Trump having rallies is bad for Trump,” said Stevens, arguing that the president is already “overexposed” on the virus and other issues.
“When is the last time Trump inserted himself in a situation and it benefited him?” Stevens asked. “As long as this race is about Trump he’s going to lose.”
Existing rules ensure that the council is dominated by lawmakers loyal to Beijing, but a minority of pro-democracy lawmakers has kept a foothold in it. Pro-democracy and pro-Beijing politicians in Hong Kong have said that the security law might be used to disqualify at least some opposition candidates from running in the elections.
On Friday, the United States secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, signaled that the Trump administration would use the September elections to judge whether and by how much to reduce Hong Kong’s special access to American markets. He and other administration officials have said that the pending security legislation shows that China no longer respects Hong Kong’s autonomy.
“We should all watch very closely whether those elections are permitted to take place in a free and fair fashion,” Mr. Pompeo said in a video speech on Friday. “President Trump has made very, very clear to the extent that the Chinese Communist Party treats Hong Kong as it does Shenzhen and Shanghai, we will treat them the same.”
The Chinese government and officials in Hong Kong have asserted that the national security law enjoys broad support in the city, a position that pro-democracy politicians and protesters have contested.
On Saturday, 30 unions and a student group held what they described as a referendum, to gauge their members’ support for a strike in opposition to the law. The unions represented accountants, retail employees, civil servants and bartenders, among other workers.
Organizers set up polling stations across Hong Kong in what was partly an attempt to muster a show of numerical force. The massive street marches last year that demonstrated the breadth of antigovernment sentiment have since dwindled, due in part to the Covid-19 pandemic and increased police pressure on the protests.
The Hong Kong government has fiercely denounced the unions’ referendum, singling out the civil servants’ union in particular for criticism. In a statement on Saturday, a government spokesman called the strike proposal “absolutely unacceptable” and said it would “seriously tarnish” the reputation of the civil service.
People stand around the statue of Confederate general Albert Pike after it was toppled by protesters at Judiciary square in Washington, DC on late June 19, 2020. – Protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital, images broadcast by US media show. The images, broadcast on ABC7 News late Friday, showed the figure of Albert Pike being pulled down with rope before dozens of demonstrators started chanting “black lives matter.”
People stand around and take pictures with the statue of Confederate general Albert Pike after it was toppled by protesters at Judiciary square in Washington, DC on late June 19, 2020. – Protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital. The images, broadcast on ABC7 News late Friday, showed the figure of Albert Pike being pulled down with rope before dozens of demonstrators started chanting “black lives matter.”
People stand around and take pictures with the statue of Confederate general Albert Pike after it was toppled by protesters at Judiciary square in Washington, DC on late June 19, 2020. – Protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital. The images, broadcast on ABC7 News late Friday, showed the figure of Albert Pike being pulled down with rope before dozens of demonstrators started chanting “black lives matter.”
The statue of Confederate general Albert Pike is pictured after it was toppled by protesters at Judiciary square in Washington, DC on late June 19, 2020. – Protesters have toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the US capital, images broadcast by US media show. The images, broadcast on ABC7 News late Friday, showed the figure of Albert Pike being pulled down with rope before dozens of demonstrators started chanting “black lives matter.”
The statue of Albert Pike stands along Indiana Avenue near Judiciary Square on Thursday, Aug. 17, 2017. D.C. Councilmember David Grosso and seven other District elected officials have asked the National Park Serve to remove the statue.
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Following a day of peaceful protests celebrating Juneteenth, protesters pull down and burned the statue of Brig. Gen. Albert Pike in Judiciary Square in Northwest D.C.
WTOP’s Ken Duffy reported that protesters arrived to the monument’s location near the corner of 3rd and D Streets and began tearing down the statue after 10 p.m.
Developing: Protesters tear down, set fire to lone Confederate statue in DC of General Albert Pike on Indiana Ave NW
Live video shot by NBC4Washington shows demonstrators using rope to drag the statue off its base to the ground. It was then set on fire with lighter fluid.
D.C. Police, whose headquarters are located on the same block of the statue, put the fire out but did not interact with protesters.
After the statue was toppled, President Donald Trump said in a tweet that D.C. Police should have stop the protesters from removing the statue.
The D.C. Police are not doing their job as they watch a statue be ripped down & burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country! @MayorBowser
The statue was erected in 1901 by sculptor Gaetano Trentanove to honor Pike, who fought for the Confederacy but also was a poet and a Freemason. Pike’s statue was the city’s lone confederate monument.
In 2017, D.C. Councilman David Grosso and seven other District elected officials asked the National Park Serve to remove the statue.
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman speaks to reporters last year about two Florida men associated with President Trump’s lawyer Rudolf Giuliani and the Ukraine investigation.
Seth Wenig/AP
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Seth Wenig/AP
U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey Berman speaks to reporters last year about two Florida men associated with President Trump’s lawyer Rudolf Giuliani and the Ukraine investigation.
Seth Wenig/AP
The U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York is in a fight with the Justice Department over his job.
Geoffrey Berman has overseen prosecutions of associates of President Trump, including Trump’s former personal attorney, Michael Cohen. He also brought the grand jury indictment against associates of the president’s current personal attorney, Rudolf Giuliani.
Attorney General William Barr, in a statement released late Friday night, said that Berman is “stepping down” and the president is nominating Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, to succeed Berman.
A short time later, Geoffrey Berman fired off his own announcement, denying Barr’s statement.
“I learned in a press release from the Attorney General tonight that I was ‘stepping down’ as United States Attorney,” Berman said. “I have not resigned, and have no intention of resigning, my position, to which I was appointed by the Judges of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. I will step down when a presidentially appointed nominee is confirmed by the Senate.”
“Until then, our investigations will move forward without delay or interruption.”
While Berman is pushing back against leaving his post, Attorney General Barr’s press release indicated that President Trump has already appointed an interim replacement for Berman. Barr said that effective July 3rd, Craig Carpenito, the current US Attorney for the District of New Jersey, would take over until Clayton is confirmed.
Barr thanked Berman for his service, adding, “With tenacity and savvy, Geoff has done an excellent job leading one of our nation’s most significant U.S. Attorney’s Offices, achieving many successes on consequential civil and criminal matters.”
Under Berman’s watch, his office brought the prosecution of multimillionaire Jeffrey Epstein on federal sex trafficking charges. Berman later charged two corrections officers who were supposed to guard Epstein with dereliction of their duties after Epstein’s apparent suicide in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center.
Berman’s team also aggressively investigated and prosecuted Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen. Cohen ultimately pleaded guilty to financial crimes, lying to Congress and campaign finance crimes.
Under oath, Cohen implicated Trump in payments made to two women ahead of the 2016 elections to keep them quiet about affairs they said they had with Trump.
Berman issued a grand jury indictment againstLev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two men associated with Rudy Giuliani. The two have pleaded “not guilty” to setting up a shell company to hide the foreign sourcing of a $325,000 donation to a superPAC committed to President Trump’s reelection. The two also allegedly helped Giuliani in efforts to dig up dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in Ukraine.
And Berman’s office has investigated the business dealings of Giuliani himself, but no charges have been brought against him.
Aminah Mellion, 39, a public school employee from Springfield, Va., was at the march with her 6-year-old daughter, Ella, who was holding a “Black Lives Matter” sign.
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TULSA, Okla. – About a mile away from the arena where President Trump will hold a Saturday rally, the Reverend Al Sharpton spoke to a field filled with people on the campus of Oklahoma State University – Tulsa, near where the city’s infamous 1921 race massacre took place.
Sharpton, one of several speakers for this year’s Juneteenth celebration in Tulsa, said “they tell their children that Lincoln freed the slaves. The fact is the slaves freed Lincoln.” He also rejected claims that protesters for the Black Lives Matter movement were violent.
“We are not violent, we’re fighting violence,” he said to the crowd.
Sharpton said Juneteenth needed to be a federal holiday, because “it’s the first date this country stepped toward living up to the model that announced that all men were created equal.”
Several lawmakers have introduced legislation to make the day a holiday.
“The president said he was coming on June 19,” Sharpton said to boos from the audience, who were watching in the rain, and slammed the president for admitting he did not know about Juneteenth.
He said that Trump’s admission showed he was “not qualified” to represent the country as a head of state. Sharpton also called Trump “insensitive and isolated,” especially when “he was born and raised in New York, where two-thirds of New York is black and Latino.”
Earlier in the week, Trump claimed that “nobody had ever heard of” the June 19 holiday before the controversy surrounding his rally, which he originally scheduled to be on Juneteenth.
— Nicholas Wu, Courtney Subramanian, Savannah Behrmann
Pressed by reporter, Pence won’t say ‘Black lives matter’
Vice President Mike Pence refused to say Black lives matter when pressed on the issue Friday and instead responded to a question with “all lives matter.”
“Let me just say that what happened to George Floyd was a tragedy,” Pence told an ABC affiliate in Philadelphia, when asked if he would say that Black lives matter. “And in this nation, especially on Juneteenth, we celebrate the fact that from the founding of this nation we’ve cherished the ideal that all, all of us are created equal, and endowed by our creator with certain inalienable rights. And so all lives matter in a very real sense.”
The reporter pressed Pence, “But I will note you did not say those words, ‘Black lives matter,’ and there is an important distinction. People are saying, of course all lives matter, but to say the words is an acknowledgement that Black lives also matter at a time in this country when it appears that there’s a segment of our society that doesn’t agree. So why will you not say those words?”
Pence responded, “Well, I don’t accept the fact that there’s a segment of American society that disagrees, in the preciousness and importance of every human life. And it’s one of the reasons why as we advance important reforms in law enforcement, as we look for ways to strengthen and improve our inner cities, that we’re not going to stop there.”
All lives matter is a saying often tied to criticizing the Black Lives Matter movement, and is viewed as those associated with the Black Lives Matter movement as dismissing and detracting from the concerns of racial injustice.
– Savannah Behrmann
Tulsa mayor lifts curfew ahead of Trump’s rally
Tulsa officials have rescinded a curfew tied to President Donald Trump’s controversial rally scheduled there Saturday in an extraordinary reversal that came after Trump spoke with the city’s mayor.
But in another update Friday night, Tulsa officials announced a police zone downtown for Secret Service and police to eject “individuals that are only present to break the law and disrupt the rights of people assembling peacefully.”
“In lieu of the Executive Order, a secure zone has been established by the United States Secret Service in cooperation with the Tulsa Police Department and multiple law enforcement agencies,” the department posted.
The reversal came hours before Trump was set to touch down for the pivotal campaign event. The president tweeted on Friday,“I just spoke to the highly respected Mayor of Tulsa, G.T. Bynum, who informed me there will be no curfew tonight or tomorrow for our many supporters attending the #MAGA Rally. Enjoy yourselves – thank you to Mayor Bynum!”
The move represented a reversal by Bynum, a Republican, who hours earlier imposed a curfew to cover Friday and Saturday nights based on projections that 100,000 people could attend and concerns about civil unrest.
The timing of that curfew represented a challenge to Trump rally attendees, many of whom have been lined up for days at the BOK Center in anticipation of the rally.
Bynum said in a statement that he imposed the curfew Thursday at the request of Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin, after consulting with the Secret Service and based on their intelligence. Bynum said the Secret Service asked the city Friday to lift the curfew.
“Today, we were told the curfew is no longer necessary so I am rescinding it,” Bynum said.
Trump’s rally is being closely watched by supporters and critics because it is his first event since a rally in North Carolina in March during the early weeks of the coronavirus. Local health officials in Oklahoma had recommended against holding the massive indoor event for fear it could spread the virus further.
After the curfew was announced, Trump supporters lined up outside the 19,000-seat BOK Center were forced to move as city officials began setting up concrete barriers to section the area ahead of expected crowds of thousands who plan to attend.
Kelli Butler, 43, drove with her husband Dan and 13-year-old son Friday morning from Stillwell, about an hour southeast of Tulsa. Butler, who arrived at about 8:30 A.M. local time, said some of the groups, hovered under tents and seated in camping chairs, were told to move behind the barriers but were told their place in line would be honored.
– John Fritze, Nicholas Wu, Courtney Subramanian, Savannah Behrmann
State Supreme Court denies challenge to rally
The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday denied a request for a temporary injunction to block the BOK Center in Tulsa from hosting President Donald Trump’s campaign rally Saturday.
The justices cited a lack of any mandatory language in the state’s reopening plan, which provides social distancing guidelines for entertainment venues.
Attorneys in Tulsa filed a lawsuit earlier this week on behalf of two businesses and two residents to stop ASM Global, which manages the 19,000-seat arena, from hosting the rally “to protect against a substantial, imminent and deadly risk to the community.”
They argued the rally should be prohibited because it would act as a “spreader” event for the transmission of the COVID-19 virus. Paul DeMuro, a lawyer who brought the case, said the goal was to enforce Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidlines.
“The only winner today is the virus. The virus won,” DeMuro said. “Our lawsuit didn’t fail. Our local leaders failed us.”
The petition cited a rise in documented cases of COVID-19 in Tulsa County, which have spiked in recent days. Oklahoma set a new state record for case increases in a single day on Thursday, confirming 450 new cases. The state added 352 new cases on Friday, giving it 802 new cases in two days.
“Despite this alarming uptick … ASM Global plans to host an event that will bring tens of thousands of people into an enclosed area in downtown Tulsa … without putting precautions in place to prevent the spread of the virus,” the petition stated.
“All credible, qualified medical experts, including the CDC, agree that this type of mass-gathering indoor event creates the greatest possible risk of community-wide viral transmission.”
The Trump campaign said it will check attendees temperature as they come in, provide hand sanitizer and issue masks but not require they be worn. Tickets to the rally come with a liability waiver that says the campaign or other parties associated with the event cannot be held liable for exposure to the coronavirus.
In addition, the BOK Center will provide personal protective gear to event staff, periodically clean and disinfect the arena during the rally, and install plexiglass partitions at all concessions stands.
Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt said earlier this week that people concerned about the spread of COVID-19 at the rally should stay home.
– Tim Willert, The Oklahoman
Trump campaign: Hope any protests are peaceful
A Trump campaign spokesman said Friday peaceful protests are common around the president’s rallies, but that officials hope the latest event in Tulsa on Saturday doesn’t become as violent as protests for racial justice in other cities.
Trump tweeted Friday that “protesters, anarchists, looters or lowlifes” won’t be treated like in New York, Seattle or Minneapolis, but that Tulsa will “be a much different scene!”
“Well, I think if they’re peaceful and if they’re agitating and getting into the violence and other things that will be a different story,” Lotter said. “But we normally have peaceful protests going on around our rallies. And we would hope that anybody that’s coming in from out of town would continue to honor that peaceful tradition in our country and not go to violence.”
Lotter also said the campaign is providing masks for attendees, but wouldn’t mandate they be worn because people are free to make their own decisions.
“Well, we’re making the masks available and we encourage anyone who wants to wear one to be able to do so,” Lotter said. “But we also understand that this is an individual choice. And that people have a right to make the decision for themselves whether they want to come to the rally, whether they want to come inside, whether they want to be outside and also if they want to wear a mask. This is a risk that people know and that they are free to make the decisions that best reflect their needs, their desires and their own personal health.”
–Bart Jansen, USA TODAY
Trump threatens Tulsa protesters on rally eve
President Donald Trump threatened to crack down on protesters expected to show up at his campaign rally in Tulsa, Okla., on Saturday, the first such event since the coronavirus pandemic sidelined his campaign schedule.
“Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis,” Trump tweeted on Friday. “It will be a much different scene!”
Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said Trump was referring to “destructive” protesters, noting that buildings have been burned, looted, and vandalized during recent demonstrations against police brutality.
“These things are unacceptable,” she said. “And we will not see that in Oklahoma.”
The president’s tweet came hours after Tulsa mayor G. T. Bynum imposed a curfew, citing expected rally crowds of more than 100,000, planned protests and the civil unrest that has already erupted in the city and around the nation this month.
Trump drew widespread and bipartisan criticism for his last interaction with protesters, when U.S. Park Police and other law enforcement agencies used force to clear Lafayette Square near the White House so the president could pose with a Bible in front of the historic St. John’s Church.
The latest threat also drew fire.
William Kristol, former editor of The Weekly Standard, posted on Twitter that the constitutional right “of protesters are the same in Tulsa as elsewhere in the US. So are the 1A rights of Trump supporters. It’s up to OK and Tulsa authorities to follow the law and protect all citizens. But what Trump’s doing is inciting his followers to extra-legal action.”
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., accused Trump of “threatening peaceful protesters standing up for justice.”
–John Fritze, USA TODAY
Police: Threats to Trump rally from social media
Concerns among Tulsa officials about the potential for violence outside Trump’s rally Saturday appeared to come from social media postings, according to Tulsa police.
Jeanne Pierce, a Tulsa Police Department spokesperson, told USA TODAY the city’s information on threats came from social media postings on sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Craigslist. Pierce cited posts on Craigslist that urged people to come to Tulsa and make trouble or for people infected with COVID-19 to attend and expose others to the sometimes fatal illness. At least some of the posts have been confirmed fake.
They “don’t know if they’re hoaxes or they’re true but it’s a precautionary measure,” Pierce explained.
Asked about the mayor’s estimate of over 100,000 people at the rally, Pierce said the numbers were what the White House press office had told the city, factoring in the 19,1990-person capacity of the arena and the overflow capacity outside.
– Nicholas Wu, USA TODAY
Curfew imposed ahead of rally
The mayor of Tulsa, Oklahoma, imposed a curfew ahead of President Donald Trump’s campaign rally there, prompting officers to move out supporters who had been camping out in front of the arena.
Mayor G. T. Bynum announced the order Thursday evening, citing the expected crowds of more than 100,000, the planned protests and the civil unrest that has already erupted in the city and around the nation this month.
Bynum also said he’s received information from the Tulsa Police Department and other law enforcement agencies “that shows that individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive or violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally.”
Bynum said the order is needed to protect health and safety and preserve lives and property.
The curfew of parts of the city’s downtown started at 10 p.m. Thursday and is in effect until 6 a.m. Saturday. It begins again at the conclusion of Trump’s rally and continues into Sunday morning.
“Big crowds and lines already forming in Tulsa,” Trump tweeted Friday morning, hours after the curfew went into effect.
He also issued this warning: “Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!”
Trump supporters began lining up outside the BOK Center days in advance of the rally.
“Sacrificing a week of our lives is nothing for what Trump has done for us,” Robin Stites, who arrived on Monday to secure the No. 2 place in line, told the The Oklahoman earlier this week.
In a Facebook post Thursday evening, the Tulsa Police Department said anyone in violation of the mayor’s executive order will be asked to leave the area. Those who refuse may be cited or arrested.
In addition to the curfew, the order bans Molotov cocktails or other combustible devices.
“This is an unprecedented event for the City of Tulsa and has hundreds of moving parts,” the post said. “We are asking for everyone’s help in making this a safe event for all citizens.”
The Plaza District in the city had scheduled a half-dozen events during the weekend collectively called “Solidarity in the Plaza: Black Lives Matter,” to showcase Black artists, vendors, filmmakers and performers.
But the event that coincided with Juneteenth on Friday was expected to draw 10,000 people at a time when health officials have warned that any large gatherings could spread the coronavirus pandemic.
“We’re crushed. We were so excited to do something that felt important and like a celebration and artistic. But we just have to put safety and public health first,” Selena Skorman, the Plaza District’s executive director, told The Oklahoman. “We are definitely going to reschedule.”
The number of state cases of COVID-19 rose by 450 on Thursday, in a surge beyond the 259 infections reported Wednesday.
“You can’t say Black Lives Matter and then put the lives of those who are most vulnerable to the disease at risk,” Chaya Fletcher, one of the Plaza District event organizers, said in a statement. “Black people have been disproportionately affected by COVID and it is our responsibility to not contribute to the increase in those numbers.”
The coronavirus pandemic has entered a “new and dangerous phase” as daily Covid-19 cases hit record highs, the World Health Organization warned Friday.
The number of new cases reported Thursday “were the most in a single day so far” at 150,000, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a press conference from the agency’s Geneva headquarters.
Almost half of the total cases were reported from the Americas, Tedros said, with a large number coming from Southern Asia and the Middle East.
“Many people are understandably fed up with being at home. Countries are understandably eager to open up their societies and economies. But the virus is still spreading fast. It is still deadly and most people are still susceptible,” he said.
The coronavirus has sickened more than 8.5 million people worldwide and killed at least 454,359, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Tedros said world leaders and the public need to “exercise extreme vigilance” against the virus, urging them to “focus on the basics.”
“Continue maintaining your distance from others. Stay home if you feel sick. Keep covering your nose and mouth when you cough. Wear a mask when appropriate. Keep cleaning your hands,” he said.
Twitter and Facebook took down a doctored video posted by President Donald Trump that showed the interaction of two toddlers, one black and one white, after receiving notices that the footage was a copyright violation.
“We received a copyright complaint from the rights holder of this video under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and have removed the post,” said Facebook spokesman Andy Stone.
The video also disappeared from Trump’s Twitter feed, with a notice that “this media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner.”
On Thursday, Twitter labeled the video “manipulated media.” It was edited footage of a video that went viral last year of the two toddlers hugging.
CNN covered the video last year, featuring the two toddlers giving each other hugs. One of the boy’s dads, Michael Cisneros, was quoted as saying, “If it can change someone’s mind, you know, or just change their view on things, then it’s totally worth it.”
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But Trump tweeted out a video on Thursday in which the footage was re-edited as part of a broader attack on the media. It at first showed one of the boys chasing the other, with a fake CNN graphic and the chyron, “Terrified todler [sic] runs from racist baby.” Then the rest of the video is shown, to try to make the claim that CNN traffics in “fake news.”
After Trump posted the video, Cisneros posted a message on his Facebook page on Thursday, HE WILL NOT TURN THIS LOVING, BEAUTIFUL VIDEO TO FURTHER HIS HATE AGENDA!! !! !! !!”
CNN also issued a statement on the president’s tweet. “CNN did cover this story – exactly as it happened. Just as we reported your positions on race (and poll numbers). We’ll continue working with facts rather than tweeting fake videos that exploit innocent children. We invite you to do the same. Be better,” the network said in a statement.
Jukin Media said that they filed a takedown notice on behalf of the video’s creator, who was Cisneros. “The video belonged to one of its video partners and that they believed that it was “a clear example of copyright infringement without valid fair use or other defense,” the company said.
Courts have ruled that legal “fair” use of copyrighted material without an owner’s permission depends on a variety of factors, including whether the original clip had been transformed into something with a new meaning.
Meanwhile, at the White House press briefing on Friday, CNN’s chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta had an exchange with Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany over the president’s use of the video.
Acosta asked, “Why is the President sharing fake videos on Twitter about two toddlers who are obviously showing a lot of love for one another? It seems as though he’s exploiting children to make some sort of crass political point. Why is he sharing fake videos?”
She responded, “He was making a point about CNN, specifically. He was making a point that CNN has regularly taken him out of context. That, in 2019, CNN misleadingly aired a clip from one viewpoint repeatedly to falsely accuse the Covington boys of being, quote, ‘students in MAGA gear harassing a Native American elder.’ That’s a harassing video, a misleading video about children that had really grave consequences for their futures.”
Acosta followed up.
“So you’re saying it’s okay to exploit two toddlers hugging one another on a sidewalk to make some sort of political point? The President has described members of the press as ‘fake news’ during the course of this administration. When you share fake videos like that, doesn’t that make you fake news?”
“I think the President was making a satirical point that was quite funny if you go and actually watch the video,” she answered.
U.S. attorneys are typically replaced by their first assistants, but Mr. Berman is being replaced by an outsider who has never worked in that office.
It is a highly unusual decision, but it is not the first time this has happened under Mr. Trump. When Jessie K. Liu left the United States Attorney’s Office in Washington, she was replaced by an ally of Mr. Barr, Timothy Shea, rather than her first assistant.
Mr. Barr met with Mr. Berman on Friday in New York, according to a person familiar with the matter. It was not clear what they discussed.
Mr. Barr was visiting New York to meet with senior New York Police Department officials and to talk about “policing issues that have been at the forefront of national conversation and debate,” according to a Justice Department press release.
On Thursday, Mr. Berman sent a message to the office about safety protocols for returning to work, sounding upbeat and giving no indication he was about to leave, according to a person familiar with the message.
Mr. Berman’s departure came two days after excerpts released from the upcoming book of Mr. Bolton showed what he said was Mr. Trump’s willingness to intervene in criminal investigations, including one in Mr. Berman’s office.
Mr. Bolton wrote in the book that Mr. Trump in 2018 had promised the Turkish president, Mr. Erdogan, that he would interfere in an ongoing investigation against a Turkish company accused of violating Iranian sanctions.
Supporters of President Trump camp Friday near the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., ahead of his rally, the first held since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images
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Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images
Supporters of President Trump camp Friday near the BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla., ahead of his rally, the first held since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic.
Seth Herald/AFP via Getty Images
Updated at 6:33 p.m. ET
With anxieties over the coronavirus and tensions over race looming large, President Trump remains on track to hit the campaign trail Saturday in Tulsa, Okla., as he prepares to rally supporters for the first time since the pandemic took root widely across the country three months ago.
The rally will take place after the Oklahoma Supreme Court rejected an appeal Friday in a lawsuit filed this week by a group of Tulsa residents and businesses seeking to compel organizers to enforce social distancing measures. The lawsuit claimed the rally, which is being held indoors at the 19,000-seat BOK Center, could drastically increase the spread of the coronavirus. New cases of the virus have surged in Oklahoma recently.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters during a briefing Friday afternoon that precautions would be taken, including conducting temperature checks upon entry and providing rally attendees with hand sanitizer and masks.
She emphasized, however, that wearing masks would not be required.
“I won’t be wearing a mask,” she said. “It’s a personal decision. I’m tested regularly. I feel that it’s safe for me to not be wearing a mask, and I’m in compliance with CDC guidelines, which are recommended but not required.”
McEnany addressed the rise in cases in Oklahoma by saying that the governor said the increase was “expected” since the state began to reopen its economy almost two months ago. The Trump campaign asked attendees to sign a waiver assuming the risks of exposure to COVID-19.
Curfew nixed
Tulsa was filled with crowds on the eve of the rally, some camping out in anticipation of Trump’s arrival, others participating in Juneteenth celebrations.
The city was originally intended to be under curfew for the weekend, but it was lifted at the request of the Secret Service, according to a city press release.
“Last night, I enacted a curfew at the request of Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin, following consultation with the United States Secret Service based on intelligence they had received,” Mayor G.T. Bynum said in a statement. “Today, we were told the curfew is no longer necessary so I am rescinding it.”
Trump tweeted the announcement Friday afternoon.
Trump appeared to threaten protesters Friday morning, tweeting, “Any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle, or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!”
When asked what the president was implying, McEnany told reporters Trump was referring to the “inexcusable scenes” in those cities during recent protests.
McEnany said Trump was not referring to all protesters, only the “violent protesters, anarchists, looters — the kind of lawlessness that we saw play out before President Trump came in with the National Guard and calmed our streets with law and order,” she said.
Trump tweeted that his campaign shifted the date of the rally “out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents.”
Observers celebrated Friday throughout Tulsa, including a “rally for justice” held in the Greenwood district, headlined by civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton.
The rally comes as Tulsa nears its 100-year anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, where white residents perpetrated one of the nation’s most heinous acts of deadly violence against Black businesses and residents in Greenwood with the aid of local police in 1921.
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