Speaking to Rolling Stone in an interview published Wednesday, the freshman rep said Republicans are no longer “in the realm of politics,” and continue to support Trump, which she claims is “an unacceptable position.”
“There are a lot of Republicans that know what the right thing to do is — not just on impeachment but on a wide range of issues — and they refuse to speak up,” Ocasio-Cortez said.
Congresspeople who vote with the president, she argued, despite saying they don’t share his views, need to be held responsible.
“The problem is that if they vote the same way, what does it matter? I don’t care what’s in your heart if how you are voting is the same as someone who is actually racist. At the end of the day, they think that their intentions are gonna save them, but the actual decisions you make matter,” she told the news outlet.
“I am tired of people saying, ‘I’m gonna vote the same way as bigots, but I don’t share the ideology of bigots.’ Well, you share the action and the agenda of bigots. We need to hold that accountable.”
One of the youngest women elected to Congress, Ocasio-Cortez said that without question, she would vote to impeach the president.
“I don’t even know why it’s controversial. I mean, OK, it’s not that I don’t know why it’s controversial,” she said. “I understand that some people come from very tough districts where their constituents are torn. But for me and my community in the Bronx and Queens, it’s easy.”
Severe flooding in Northern California has turned the small river town of Guerneville into an “island,” county officials said Wednesday, rendering the community inaccessible by anything other than watercraft.
In an update to an evacuation notice Wednesday morning, the county reminded area residents that even though rains have eased, the worst of the flooding is yet to come. The Russian River surpassed its flood stage in the town Tuesday evening, resulting in dozens of road closures, and is expected to crest Wednesday night.
In addition to Guerneville, 24 nearby towns and communities were ordered to evacuate. Flood levels are expected to decrease Thursday and into the weekend, according to the National Weather Service.
“Good morning. Guerneville is officially an island,” the Sonoma sheriff’s office posted to Facebook on Wednesday. “Due to flooding all roads leading to the community are impassable. You will not be able to get into or out of town without a boat today.”
The floods were caused by record-breaking rainfall in the region, according to the Weather Service. The Sonoma sheriff’s office has urged residents to heed evacuation warnings, writing Wednesday afternoon that roads “keep flooding, and flooding FAST.”
The rain, winds and flooding were spurred by a “potent atmospheric river,” the Weather Service said.
Atmospheric rivers develop when strong storms pull humid air from the tropical Pacific Ocean to the West Coast. The result is a fire hose of extreme rainfall that can trigger dangerous flooding and deadly landslides. They’re most common during winter, and the effects are exacerbated when heavy rain falls on burn scars from recent wildfires.
Parts of the Sonoma region were hit by the deadly wildfires that ravaged Northern California in 2017, resulting in mass evacuations and the deaths of dozens in surrounding counties. At least six people died in Sonoma County.
Those who have opted to wait out the storm in their homes could be stuck for days, the Los Angeles Times reports. The newspaper reports that this is expected to be the most severe flood in the area since 1995, when the Russian River crested in Guerneville at about 48 feet — 16 feet above its flood stage.
In Monte Rio, a town about five miles south of Guerneville, firefighters worked overnight to help people trapped in their vehicles and homes as water levels rose, the AP reports. Fire Chief Steve Baxman told the Press Democrat that rescuers took “17 people out of cars and houses during the night.”
“Too many people are driving into the water,” he told the publication.
Sonoma County Supervisor James Gore said in a video Tuesday evening that the rainfall could be “100-year storm” material and that he was preparing to move his family to another location overnight, stating: “Family most important, property second.”
“We’re all about preparedness. We’re not trying to have people stand on their roofs and get saved in the middle of the night,” Gore said Tuesday. “If you get an evacuation order, pay attention.”
A car sits underwater in a flooded neighborhood on Feb. 27 in Forestville, Calif. The Russian River has inundated the town of Guerneville, which was placed under mandatory evacuation as roads leading into the town have been flooded over. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON—In the strongest sign yet that an accord is near, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said Wednesday that the U.S. was abandoning for now its threat to raise tariffs to 25% on $200 billion of Chinese goods.
His comments came following a House Ways and Means Committee meeting where Mr. Lighthizer said that the U.S. and China have reached a tentative agreement on a mechanism to enforce the trade deal, which has long been a stumbling block in talks.
Texas Secretary of State David Whitley at his confirmation hearing in Austin. He addressed the backlash surrounding Texas’ efforts to find noncitizen voters on voter rolls.
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Texas Secretary of State David Whitley at his confirmation hearing in Austin. He addressed the backlash surrounding Texas’ efforts to find noncitizen voters on voter rolls.
Eric Gay/AP
A federal judge in Texas ruled that state officials “created a mess” when they questioned the citizenship ofabout 98,000 voters and mistakenly concluded that many of those voters were not eligible to cast ballots.
The sharply written ruling by U.S. District Judge Fred Biery of San Antonio ordered Texas officials to halt the removal of any registered voter from state voter rolls.
“The evidence has shown in a hearing before this Court that there is no widespread voter fraud,” Biery wrote.
In late January, Texas Secretary of State David Whitley issued an “advisory on voter registration list maintenance activity.” He claimed that nearly 95,000 noncitizens were registered to vote and said that about 58,000 had voted in one or more Texas elections. Whitley also said going forward his office would cross-reference data from the state Department of Public Safety and voter registration rolls. If a noncitizen is discovered, local county officials will be notified.
He also said that the suspect voters would be contacted and told that their registration status was under review.
Whitley’s action was met with immediate opposition. Civil rights groups said the list was largely made up of naturalized citizens who had applied for driver’s licenses or state IDs when they were still legal permanent residents.
As Ashley Lopez of member station KUT in Austin reported, state officials were forced to step back from their claim of possible fraud.
In a hearing Monday, Keith Ingram, director of elections in the Texas Secretary of State’s Office testified that more than 25,000 people on the list are in fact citizens.
In his ruling, Judge Biery said that the search for illegal voters “appears to be a solution looking for a problem.”
“Notwithstanding good intentions, the road to a solution was inherently paved with flawed results, meaning perfectly legal naturalized Americans were burdened with what the Court finds to be ham-handed and threatening correspondence from the state which did not politely ask for information but rather exemplifies the power of government to strike fear and anxiety and to intimidate the least powerful among us,” the judge wrote.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, in a statement, said the federal judge was “improperly assuming control” over the state’s voting system.
“While we appreciate the court’s acknowledgment that the Secretary of State took his actions in good faith, no state official violated any applicable law and there is no need for a federal court takeover of state activities,” Paxton wrote. “We are weighing our options to address this ruling and to continue making our case that ineligible voters should not vote and counties are free to continue to follow the law and keep their voter rolls clean.”
Biery ruled that Texas county election officials may still investigate the whether a registered voter is not a citizen, but they may not contact them directly through notices.
Civil rights groups applauded the ruling.
“Today’s court order plainly indicates that the state of Texas must clean up its act,” said Thomas Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund in a statement. “Over-the-top pronouncements of widespread voter fraud without a shred of evidence only serve to broadly deter voter participation. Sending ominous letters to intimidate individual voters based on information known to be incomplete and faulty directly threatens democracy.”
I agree, Maggie. We have grown accustomed since Trump came on the national stage to extraordinary political moments. Even in that context, today sure feels like one of them. Michael Cohen, once one of Trump’s closest aides, rebuked him under oath before Congress, warned that he was a threat to American democracy and implicated a sitting president in criminal activity in his campaign for office.
An already tense hearing involving former Trump fixer Michael Cohen got heated when a Democratic congresswoman and a Republican congressman traded accusations of racism.
The flareup started when Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., was questioning Cohen and took a swipe at Rep. Mark Meadows for bringing Lynne Patton, a black woman who’s friends with the Trump family and works for the federal government, to the hearing as a “prop.” Meadows had presented Patton to the hearing to push back against Cohen’s claims that the president is a racist.
“Just because someone has a person of color, a black person, working for them does not mean they aren’t racist, and it is insensitive that some would even say — the fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman, in this chamber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself,” the freshman Democrat said.
An angry Meadows demanded Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings, D-Maryland, strike her comments from the record. “I’m sure she didn’t intend to do this, but if anyone knows my record as it relates, it should be you, Mr. Chairman,” he said to Cummings.
Asked to clarify her remarks, Tlaib said, “I’m just saying that’s what I believe to have happened and as a person of color in this committee that’s how I felt at that moment, and I wanted to express that. But I am not calling the gentleman, Mr. Meadows, a racist for doing so. I’m saying in itself it is a racist act.”
The North Carolina Republican and close Trump ally denied he’d used Patton as a prop — and said that accusation was racist.
“To indicate that I asked someone who is a personal friend of the Trump family, who has worked for him, who knows this particular individual, that she’s coming in to be a prop — it’s racist to suggest that I ask her to come in here for that reason,” he said. “She loves this family. She came in because she felt like the president of the United States was getting falsely accused.”
He said he took the accusation especially personally because “my nieces and nephews are people of color. Not many people know that. You know that, Mr. Chairman.”
Cummings responded that he could “see and feel” Meadows’ pain, and referred to him as “one of my best friends” before giving Tlaib another opportunity to clarify her remarks.
She maintained it wasn’t her intention to call Meadows a racist and said, “I do apologize if that’s what it sounded like.”
“As everybody knows in this chamber I’m pretty direct so if I wanted to say that I would have, but that’s not what I said,” she said.
Patton, now an official at the U.S. Department of Housing and Development, made her unusual cameo appearance earlier in the hearing.
“I asked Lynne to come today,” Meadows told Cohen as she stood behind the congressman.
“You made some very demeaning comments about the president Ms. Patton doesn’t agree with. She says as a daughter of a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, there’s no way she would work for an individual who’s a racist. How do you reconcile that? “
Cohen responded, “Ask Ms. Patton how many people who are black are executives at the Trump Organization. The answer is zero.”
One was that the president, while president, directed him to lie about Trump’s involvement with and knowledge of the payments to Stormy Daniels. The other was his indication that people around the president were somehow involved in getting him to change the date he gave about when the discussions for a Moscow-based Trump Tower project ended during the campaign.
Cohen claimed to Congress in 2017 that it was in January 2016 when those discussions ended. But he pleaded guilty last November to lying when he gave that testimony, and in court papers, officials said it ran until June 2016. [This post has been edited.]
A man wearing a T-shirt featuring pictures of President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un poses near the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi on Wednesday.
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A man wearing a T-shirt featuring pictures of President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un poses near the Sofitel Legend Metropole hotel in Hanoi on Wednesday.
Ye Aung Thu/AFP/Getty Images
Despite snarled traffic and security cordons, residents of Hanoi have gamely stepped into their role as hosts for the second Trump-Kim summit, and businesses have cashed in on the event with parodic products, from food to haircuts.
“I believe that this summit will be better than the last one in Singapore,” declares 56-year-old T-shirt merchant Truong Thanh Duc. He adds: “And this summit will bring peace to the world. No more nuclear war.”
His street-side stall in downtown Hanoi is hung with shirts decorated with a beaming Donald Trump and an impassive Kim Jong Un, above the words “Peace Hanoi Vietnam 2019.”
Other garments celebrate a famous Vietnamese rice noodle dish and are emblazoned with logos such as Pho Real, What the Pho and iPho.
A worker removes T-shirts printed with portraits of President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a custom T-shirt shop in Hanoi last week.
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A worker removes T-shirts printed with portraits of President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at a custom T-shirt shop in Hanoi last week.
Hau Dinh/AP
Truong has set out a basket of free bread and water to feed the customers and crowds of tourists passing by his stall.
Elsewhere in the city, commuters waited at an intersection as a black Mercedes Benz limousine with North Korean flags cruised past. As soon as the motorcade was gone, swarms of motorcycles surged forward, creating massive gridlock.
Some barber shops are offering haircuts reminiscent of Kim’s and Trump’s. Others are shaving their visages onto the back of customers’ noggins.
Hanoi restaurants and bakeries, meanwhile, peddle cupcakes, burgers and pizzas adorned with the two men’s images.
Vietnam’s experience as a former wartime adversary of the U.S., which later mended fences with the U.S. and prospered economically, has been at the center of Trump’s message to Kim at the summit.
“I think that your country has tremendous economic potential. Unbelievable. Unlimited,” Trump told Kim, before the two men went for dinner at the French colonial-era Metropole Hotel.
“And I think,” he added, “that you will have a tremendous future with your country — a great leader. And I look forward to watching it happen and helping it to happen.”
As Vietnam’s capital gears up for the second summit between Trump and Kim, people are buying up off-beat souvenirs.
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As Vietnam’s capital gears up for the second summit between Trump and Kim, people are buying up off-beat souvenirs.
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These matters are clearly on the mind of Tran That Thang, who has brought his young grandson to the Vietnam Military History Museum in downtown Hanoi, across the street from a statue of Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.
Tran, accompanied by his wife, takes the young child past the remains of a downed U.S. B-52 bomber, a UH-1 “Huey” helicopter, and rows of unexploded American bombs and landmines.
“In order for my family to visit here today, we have gone through many years of fighting,” says Tran, who was a soldier in the North Vietnamese army from 1972-75.
“It will help people to understand the true value of peace. It’s a solemn and meaningful thing for every family,” he said.
Tran adds: “Now the U.S. and North Korea have chosen Hanoi for their summit to work for world peace, which is what we all want.”
He walks past a fighter plane shot down at Dien Bien Phu in 1954. That decisive defeat for the French, who preceded the Americans in Vietnam, marked the end of their colonial presence in Indochina.
Tran, it happens, was born that year, the son of a North Vietnamese soldier. His father gave him his name, which means “will be victorious.”
Pakistan’s downing of at least one Indian air force jet on Wednesday should not be viewed as a random crisis incident. Instead, it reflects a new period of escalating tension between the two nuclear powers.
The root of this tension is clear: Pakistan’s support for terrorist groups targeting India, and India’s increasing unwillingness to accept these attacks without military reprisal. Because Pakistan is equally unwilling to accept Indian retaliatory attacks, the escalation dynamics are set in place. While it’s likely that the current crisis, precipitated by a recent attack by Pakistani-supported terrorists on India, will blow over, we’re likely to see new military showdowns in the months ahead.
Again, however, the underlying problem here is that Pakistan won’t stop supporting terrorist attacks on Indian soil. Although recent former Pakistan army chief Raheel Sharif and the former head of Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence Naveed Mukhtar showed true leadership taking the fight to terrorists on their soil, powerful cabals of the mid-senior ranks of the security establishment are constantly acting to restrain these efforts. This is why, as on Wednesday, when Indian officials give their Pakistani counterparts evidence of terrorist activity, Pakistan’s response is muted.
This obviously fuels Indian political fury. And that fury fits naturally with the long-bubbling desire of Indian security officials to confront Pakistan. This fits with the interests of both nations’ leaders. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is approaching an election, has realist impulses in foreign policy, but his political base expects increasingly resolute action against Pakistani terrorism. And Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan cultivates Islamic extremist support while also — as with most of his predecessors — deferring to the military on security issues.
In short, the ingredients for tensions are clear and apparent and, short of fears over a nuclear war, the ingredients for detente are absent.
The script for Michael Cohen’s opening statement to Congress on Wednesday is basically the shorter, less well written version of “Fire and Fury.”
CNN is naturally on fire ahead of the testimony, calling Cohen’s opener “damaging,” “stunning” and “shocking.” Perhaps it would be those things, if the public hadn’t already heard almost all of Cohen’s claims before, or if those claims weren’t in some cases just explicitly stupid.
Cohen is expected to say at the start, “Never in a million years did I imagine, when I accepted a job in 2007 to work for Donald Trump, that he would one day run for President, launch a campaign on a platform of hate and intolerance, and actually win.”
And yet later on, he calls Trump “a man who ran for office to make his brand great …”
Yes, of course! marketing executives around the globe must be saying right now. Let’s make our brand “great” by emphasizing “hate and intolerance!”
Cohen, Trump’s former gofer, is supposed to admit in his remarks that he never saw any proof or even evidence that the president’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia to influence the election. But he will at least keep hope alive in hearts at CNN by saying he has “suspicions.”
He’ll also call Trump a “racist,” a “con man,” and a “cheat,” summarizing Mitt Romney’s scorching 2016 speech that sank the Trump campaign. No, wait a second — I’m being told that it didn’t work, and that Trump went on to win the election. Never mind.
Cohen will say he was in the room in 2016 when Trump took a call from his longtime adviser Roger Stone, who alerted then-candidate Trump that he had had phone calls with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that a cache of hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton would soon be public. This claim implies that the FBI, House, Senate and all of the news media have been searching for clues that Trump knew about the email hacks, and yet the first we’re hearing about it is from Cohen, who is just about to go to prison?
The simpler explanation is better: Cohen is desperate and bitter. The media are trying to polish the turd of his credibility by noting he has “nothing to lose” in telling the truth. That’s true, but people who shoot themselves after committing mass murder having nothing to lose, either.
Pham Ngoc Canh, from Vietnam, met his North Korean wife Ri Yong Hui in 1971. They finally were able to marry in 2002 and now live in Hanoi.
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Pham Ngoc Canh, from Vietnam, met his North Korean wife Ri Yong Hui in 1971. They finally were able to marry in 2002 and now live in Hanoi.
Nguyen Huy Kham/Reuters
A couple in Hanoi is watching the summit between President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un this week with particular interest.
The husband, from Vietnam, and the wife, from North Korea, had to overcome enormous obstacles to be together. Their love was forbidden for decades by authorities on both sides. But eventually, they triumphed.
“It was love at first sight for me. I fell for him immediately,” recalls Ri Yong Hui, 70, of her Vietnamese husband, 69-year-old Pham Ngoc Canh. The two are sitting on the sofa in their modest, Soviet-era apartment in Hanoi, speaking of the time back in the early 1970s when they first spotted each other working at a fertilizer plant in North Korea.
“I was standing, working on the manufacturing line, and I saw her working in the lab,” says her husband, who was on an internship at the plant. “And I said to myself, ‘I’m going to make her my wife.'”
It was a bold statement, given North Korea’s xenophobic reputation. He didn’t much care. “I’m not afraid of anything,” he says.
Canh started his campaign to woo Ri by watching her movements to figure out her schedule. He arranged to casually bump into her in the hallway. He said hi. She said hi back. And that gave him the courage to take the next step.
“I took a handkerchief I’d bought in Beijing and a photo of me taken with two of my friends,” he says. He snuck into her lab when no one else was there and asked if she had a boyfriend. She said no. He then presented her with the gift and asked if he could visit her home. She said yes.
“I had to take seven buses to get there,” he remembers. “And then I had to walk about three kilometers [2 miles] from the last bus station to her house.”
He continued these visits about once a week, he says, for the remainder of his stay — about another year. Both of them were fully aware of the danger of being caught by the authorities.
“They didn’t allow it, yes,” says Ri, remembering. “But I wasn’t strong enough to resist Canh. Because I knew I was in love with him. I knew I should stop loving him. But I couldn’t.”
Several months later, when he had to return to Vietnam, they met again. Ri feared it might be the last time. “Kill me,” Canh remembers Ri saying, desperate at the thought of living without him. “But I told her we loved each other. ‘There’s no reason to die,’ I said. I told her I would try my best to find opportunities to come back to her as soon as possible.”
And he did, several times in the next five years, wrangling invitations to be part of visiting delegations or offering to translate for others. The two sent letters, surreptitiously, in an era long before smartphones and texting. But letters sometimes went awry. Canh remembers taking a trip to North Korea in the late 1970s and sending Ri a letter, asking her to meet. It arrived a week too late. But they were still able to meet before he left.
“I was glad to see you, but then we had to separate again,” she says. “So, when Canh kept writing in his letters, ‘Love knows no boundary’ it made me upset. And the idea that the end of every meeting was just another separation made me a little afraid of seeing him again.”
Sometimes, when relations between the two countries soured, or when they thought the security services were onto them, the letters stopped. So did the visits. Starting in the late 1980s, the couple had no direct communication for more than a decade.
But there were other things on Ri’s mind in those years.
Pham Ngoc Canh and his wife Ri Yong Hui hold a photo from their early days of courtship in 1971, when he was in North Korea on an internship.
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Pham Ngoc Canh and his wife Ri Yong Hui hold a photo from their early days of courtship in 1971, when he was in North Korea on an internship.
Nguyen Huy Kham/Reuters
“My country back then,” she remembers, “every day was a struggle, every day people were on the brink of starvation since the 90s, because of the Arduous March.” That’s the term North Koreans use to refer to the famine that gripped their country, taking hundreds of thousands and perhaps millions of lives, including her mother’s.
Back then, she says, “I opened my eyes every morning thinking, ‘I did not die yet.’ So I couldn’t really think about Canh, because every day was like that.”
But in Hanoi, Canh was still scheming to reunite with her. As relations between the countries started to improve in the late 1980s, he started a personal charm offensive to, as he says, “build my personal credit with North Korea.”
He set up a Vietnam-North Korea friendship committee, raised money for a 7-ton of donation of rice and reached out to North Korean contacts in Hanoi. In 2001, he made an audacious move, using connections in the Foreign Ministry to deliver a letter pleading his case to Vietnam’s president — who was about to leave on a state visit to North Korea.
A few weeks later, a friend told him his gambit had worked.
“After I heard the president raised this issue, I thought, that’s it,” he says. “I’ve done all I can. But I knew in my heart that North Korea would say yes.”
He was right.
In late 2002, after the couple had waited 30 years, North Korea took the rare step of allowing one of its citizens to marry a foreigner.
There was a small ceremony in Pyongyang. Then Canh brought his wife back to her new home in Hanoi, where a bigger ceremony took place, with hundreds attending.
As the two of them sit on the sofa now, gently touching each other on the arm as they speak, they seem every bit as in love as they describe being back in 1971, when they first met.
“I don’t regret anything,” Canh says, laughing. “If I hadn’t met him, if I hadn’t come here, I would have been dead long before now.”
They don’t have much money, she says — she wishes they did so she could help her country more.
“I hope that there is some advancement in the coming summit,” too, she says. “That U.S.-North Korean relationship gets better, and that the U.S. lifts sanctions and helps North Korea so that North Korea can develop.”
But she admits to being a little sad for her husband, “because he went through a lot waiting for me,” she says. “And does not have any children because of that.”
Her husband just smiles. “No regrets,” he says gently. “I still feel the same now as I did then.” And, he says proudly, he was able to convince a country with nuclear weapons to change its mind.
Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for talks with India after both sides said they shot down each other’s warplanes, something that has not happened since the nuclear-armed rivals went to war in 1971.
“History tells us that wars are full of miscalculation. My question is that given the weapons we have can we afford miscalculation,” Khan said during a brief televised broadcast to the nation on Wednesday.
“I once again invite India to come to the negotiating table,” Khan, who has called for dialogue with New Delhi in the past, said.
The Pakistani prime minister said his country was ready to cooperate with New Delhi into the investigation of a suicide bombing in India-administered Kashmir, claimed by Pakistan-based armed group, Jaish-e-Mohammed.
India blamed Pakistan for “controlling” that attack, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is facing general elections in April and May, vowed a “jaw-breaking” response.
Indian fighter jets carried out predawn air raids on Tuesday in response to the Kashmir attack that left at least 42 Indian soldiers dead.
Earlier in the day, the Pakistani military claimed to have arrested two Indian air force pilots after shooting down two fighter jets, raising fears of a major escalation.
India’s foreign ministry spokesman later confirmed that one of their pilots is missing and that they are “ascertaining the facts”.
Foreign ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar also announced that a Pakistan jet was hit as it took part in an operation “to target military installations on the Indian side”.
“The Pakistani aircraft was seen by ground forces falling from the sky on the Pakistan side,” he told a briefing.
“In this engagement, we have unfortunately lost one Mig-21. The pilot is missing in action. Pakistan has claimed that he is in their custody.”
Speaking to reporters at Pakistan military headquarters in Rawalpindi, a spokesperson said Pakistani aircraft fired on six targets in Indian-administered Kashmir, hitting “open spaces” as a demonstration of Pakistan’s capability to hit Indian targets.
The intention, the military spokesperson said, was not to cause any civilian or military casualties.
“[The] sole purpose was to demonstrate our right, will and capability for self-defence,” read a Pakistani foreign office statement released shortly after the attacks. “We have no intention of escalation but are fully prepared to do so if forced into that paradigm.”
Major General Asif Ghafoor, the military spokesperson, said Pakistan did not wish to escalate hostilities and urged India to engage in dialogue.
“This was not a retaliation in a true sense, but to tell Pakistan has capability; we can do it, but we want to be responsible, we don’t want an escalation, we don’t want a war,” he told a news conference.
Airspace closed
Police officials in India-administered Kashmir said two pilots and a civilian had died after an Indian Air Force plane crashed in the disputed region, but did not confirm if the plane was shot down by Pakistani forces.
Also on Wednesday, Pakistan closed its airspace for all commercial flights, its civil aviation authority said in a notice.
Several airports in northern India were also closed, forcing airlines to cancel service to at least six cities.
On Tuesday, Indian aircraft entered Pakistani airspace in Pakistan-administered Kashmir to fire four bombs that landed in the village of Jaba, about 10km outside of Kashmir in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
In a foreign ministry statement, India claimed it had destroyed a “Jaish-e-Muhammad camp” in Jaba, but Pakistan’s military and witnesses at the scene said the bombs struck a mostly uninhabited forest. One man was wounded in the attacks, with local hospital officials reporting no other casualties.
It was the first time Indian jets had entered and fired inside the Pakistani territory since a war between the two countries in 1971.
India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory of Kashmir, which both claim in full but administer separate portions of, divided by a Line of Control.
Additional reporting by Asad Hashim from Islamabad
Indian officials said that two pilots and a civilian had died after an air force plane crashed in Indian-administered Kashmir [Danish Ismail/Reuters]
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Sulzberger confronted President Trump about his attacks on the media during an interview in the Oval Office.”,”descriptionText”:”Publisher of The New York Times A.G. Sulzberger confronted President Trump about his attacks on the media during an interview in the Oval Office.”},{“title”:”Relive Kathie Lee and Hoda’s 11 years on ‘Today'”,”duration”:”01:38″,”sourceName”:”CNN Business”,”sourceLink”:”http://www.cnn.com/business”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/business/2018/12/11/kathie-lee-leaving-today-orig.cnn-business/index.xml”,”videoId”:”business/2018/12/11/kathie-lee-leaving-today-orig.cnn-business”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/181211124711-kathie-lee-hoda-today-show-12-11-large-169-1.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/business/2018/12/11/kathie-lee-leaving-today-orig.cnn-business/video/playlists/business-media/”,”description”:”Kathie Lee Gifford will depart the \”Today\” show in April after almost 11 years of hosting alongside Hoda Kotb. The two are famous for their friendship and shared love of wine.”,”descriptionText”:”Kathie Lee Gifford will depart the \”Today\” show in April after almost 11 years of hosting alongside Hoda Kotb. The two are famous for their friendship and shared love of wine.”},{“title”:”TIME magazine names 2018 ‘Person of the Year'”,”duration”:”00:57″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/business/2018/12/11/time-person-of-the-year-jamal-khashoggi-journalists-the-guardians-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”business/2018/12/11/time-person-of-the-year-jamal-khashoggi-journalists-the-guardians-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/181211081445-time-person-of-the-year-2018-large-169-1.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/business/2018/12/11/time-person-of-the-year-jamal-khashoggi-journalists-the-guardians-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/business-media/”,”description”:”TIME magazine has chosen \”The Guardians and the War on Truth,\” a group of journalists who have been in the news in 2018, as its \”Person of the Year.\” “,”descriptionText”:”TIME magazine has chosen \”The Guardians and the War on Truth,\” a group of journalists who have been in the news in 2018, as its \”Person of the Year.\” “},{“title”:”Bernstein: This could make the world tremble”,”duration”:”02:09″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”https://www.cnn.com/”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/business/2018/12/09/carl-bernstein-trump-mueller-republicans-rs-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”business/2018/12/09/carl-bernstein-trump-mueller-republicans-rs-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/181209113345-carl-bernstein-rs-12-09-2018-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/business/2018/12/09/carl-bernstein-trump-mueller-republicans-rs-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/business-media/”,”description”:”Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein discusses with CNN’s Brian Stelter whether the Republican Party will peel away from President Donald Trump as special counsel Robert Mueller’s case closes in on Trump and those close to him.”,”descriptionText”:”Veteran journalist Carl Bernstein discusses with CNN’s Brian Stelter whether the Republican Party will peel away from President Donald Trump as special counsel Robert Mueller’s case closes in on Trump and those close to him.”},{“title”:”CNN’s NY offices evacuated over bomb threat”,”duration”:”02:26″,”sourceName”:”CNN”,”sourceLink”:”http://www.cnn.com”,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/us/2018/12/07/cnn-new-york-bomb-threat-all-clear-lemon-sot-vpx.cnn/index.xml”,”videoId”:”us/2018/12/07/cnn-new-york-bomb-threat-all-clear-lemon-sot-vpx.cnn”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/181207003023-06-cnn-ny-evacuate-1206-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/us/2018/12/07/cnn-new-york-bomb-threat-all-clear-lemon-sot-vpx.cnn/video/playlists/business-media/”,”description”:”CNN’s New York offices and studios have been given the all-clear after evacuating due to a phoned in bomb threat.”,”descriptionText”:”CNN’s New York offices and studios have been given the all-clear after evacuating due to a phoned in bomb threat.”},{“title”:”Ex-CBS chief will not get $120 million severance”,”duration”:”00:31″,”sourceName”:”CNN Business”,”sourceLink”:””,”videoCMSUrl”:”/video/data/3.0/video/business/2018/12/18/cbs-les-moonves-severance-money-zw-orig.cnn-business/index.xml”,”videoId”:”business/2018/12/18/cbs-les-moonves-severance-money-zw-orig.cnn-business”,”videoImage”:”http://www.noticiasdodia.onlinenewsbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/180425203454-les-moonves-large-169.jpg”,”videoUrl”:”/videos/business/2018/12/18/cbs-les-moonves-severance-money-zw-orig.cnn-business/video/playlists/business-media/”,”description”:”Ousted CBS chief executive Les Moonves \”will not receive any severance payment\” from the company, according to the board of directors.”,”descriptionText”:”Ousted CBS chief executive Les Moonves \”will not receive any severance payment\” from the company, according to the board of directors.”}],’js-video_headline-featured-m68vtm’,”,”js-video_source-featured-m68vtm”,true,true,’business-media’);if (typeof configObj.context !== ‘string’ || configObj.context.length
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New York (CNN Business)American reporters asked President Trump about Michael Cohen’s testimony during a photo opportunity between Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un on Wednesday.
China needs to do more than just buy more U.S. goods before the two countries strike a permanent trade deal, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer told the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
“If we can complete this effort — and again, I say’ if’ — and can reach a satisfactory solution to the all-important and outstanding issue of enforceability, as well as some other concerns, we might be able to have agreement that does turn the corner in our economic relationship,” Lighthizer said.
“We can compete with anyone in the world, but we must have rule, enforced rules, that make sure market outcomes and not state capitalism and technology theft determine winners.”
Lighthizer’s testimony comes after President Donald Trump pushed back a key early March deadline for the U.S. and China to strike a trade deal. Trump cited “significant progress” for pushing back the deadline. The Chinese also agreed to buy up to $1.2 trillion in U.S. goods, CNBC learned through a source.
“Let me be clear,” Lighthizer testified. “Much still needs to be done both before an agreement is reached and, more importantly, after it is reached, if one is reached.”
“It has to be specific, measurable; it has to be enforceable at all levels of government.”
Wall Street has worried about increasing trade tensions between China and the U.S. for most of last year as investors gauged the potential impact of tariffs on the global economy.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
Melanie Keener stands outside the Storey County Courthouse in Virginia City, Nev., where she now works in a largely undefined security job. After filing a sexual harassment complaint against Sheriff Gerald Antinoro, Keener was removed from her position as the sheriff’s chief deputy.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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Maggie Starbard for NPR
Melanie Keener stands outside the Storey County Courthouse in Virginia City, Nev., where she now works in a largely undefined security job. After filing a sexual harassment complaint against Sheriff Gerald Antinoro, Keener was removed from her position as the sheriff’s chief deputy.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
In a small county in rural northern Nevada, Melanie Keener was once the second-most powerful person in law enforcement. She was Storey County’s chief deputy, overseeing detentions, investigations and the patrol division.
That ended in 2016 when she reported her boss, Sheriff Gerald Antinoro, for sexual harassment.
“Coming forward has broke me,” Keener said.
Reporting her boss, she said, has ruined her nearly 20-year law enforcement career. She was removed from her position and relegated to an isolated desk in the Storey County Courthouse in Virginia City.
Meanwhile, the man she accused, Antinoro, remains the top law enforcement official in Storey County. He’s still sheriff even after an internal investigation of her complaint found that Antinoro had violated the county’s sexual harassment policy.
Accusations against Antinoro aren’t limited to Keener’s suit. In fact, the county administrator said in court proceedings that there have been “numerous” complaints against the sheriff. Court documents, a police report, interviews and state ethics commission hearings detail multiple other allegations. They range from harassment to using racial slurs and misusing government resources. There also are more serious allegations, including rape.
The allegations have prompted Antinoro’s critics in this rural county, with a population of about 4,000, to ask what it takes to unseat a man accused of so much misconduct, especially toward women.
Storey County Sheriff Gerald Antinoro, here in Virginia City, Nev., is being sued for sexual harassment by his former chief deputy, Melanie Keener.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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Maggie Starbard for NPR
Storey County Sheriff Gerald Antinoro, here in Virginia City, Nev., is being sued for sexual harassment by his former chief deputy, Melanie Keener.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
Antinoro, known as Jerry, has never been prosecuted for a crime. He denies all the allegations that have been made against him, saying they’re part of an organized witch hunt by people who don’t like having a law-enforcing sheriff in town. In fact, he won his third term to office last year and beat a recall effort by his opponents.
“The people of Storey County haven’t bought into their nonsense,” Antinoro said in an interview at his office in Virginia City. “And they keep returning me to office because obviously somebody thinks I’m doing a good job and that I’m a decent guy.”
The law enforcement convention
Keener’s lawsuit details what allegedly happened between her and Antinoro. She claims her troubles began on a business trip to Ely, Nev., for a law enforcement convention in 2015. Keener and Antinoro drove the roughly five-hour drive together.
On the last night, after a little gambling and light drinking, she and Antinoro walked back to their separate rooms. She said she told him about “blowing” $80 gambling.
In her room, while she was washing her face and changing for bed, she heard the ding of a text message. It was from Antinoro.
“And about that blowing thing…LOL,” it said, followed by a smiley-face emoji.
She deflected what she read as clear sexual innuendo. She texted back that she’d probably lost $100 altogether. She said she was trying to steer the conversation back to a place where she felt comfortable without upsetting her boss.
She got another text: “I’m bored stiff over here. LOL.” Then another asking her to grab another drink. Keener told him she was going to bed.
The next day, the car ride home was equally uncomfortable when he started talking.
Overlooking a snow-covered Virginia City. The majority of residents are retirees, and tourists head here for the preserved charm of an Old West town.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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Maggie Starbard for NPR
Overlooking a snow-covered Virginia City. The majority of residents are retirees, and tourists head here for the preserved charm of an Old West town.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
“There was just this long narrative of his sexual life and to the point where I didn’t know what to say,” Keener said. “This is my boss. I was terrified that I would lose my job. So I didn’t say anything. And then the treatment just got worse.”
She said she was silent as Antinoro detailed his visits to swinger clubs, his penchant for watching his girlfriend at the time have sex with other men in public. She wrote it all down in a statement for the county’s internal investigation, which was included in court proceedings.
“I don’t know — maybe I didn’t respond the way he thought I would,” she said.
Her cool reaction to Antinoro’s sexual banter, she alleged, led to months of growing hostile behavior.Antinoro would throw his feet up on her desk repeatedly when she was speaking. Once, fed up, she claims she put her gum on his shoe in protest. He scraped it off and threw it at her head.
A Polaroid picture of Melanie Keener on her first day as a police officer. Keener began her law enforcement career nearly 20 years ago, but after reporting her boss for sexual harassment, she feels as though she will no longer be able to continue a career in law enforcement.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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Maggie Starbard for NPR
A Polaroid picture of Melanie Keener on her first day as a police officer. Keener began her law enforcement career nearly 20 years ago, but after reporting her boss for sexual harassment, she feels as though she will no longer be able to continue a career in law enforcement.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
About eight months later, she said, she was supposed to go on another business trip with her boss. She said she was worried about going out of town with him again.While Antinoro was away, she found the courage to report him.
“I felt like it was a burden,” Keener said. “And they didn’t know what to do with me, so they just stuck me in the county manager’s office and they were just like, ‘OK, you stay here. You report to work here.'”
Antinoro stayed in his position as sheriff while the county investigated. And Keener? Human resources took her badge, her gun, her IDs and relegated her to a hidden corner of the brick courthouse in Virginia City. She’s still there, even after the investigation found that Antinoro had violated the county’s policy against sexual harassment.
“I am really trying to get past it,” she said. “It’s hard when you know that your law enforcement career is over and the person who ended your career is walking around like a little hero everywhere he goes.”
And it feels like there is nothing she and other women can do, she said.
“Nothing this man does, nothing he has done ever catches up to him,” Keener said. “You know, they call him Teflon because it doesn’t matter what he does wrong. He gets away with it.”
Keener sits at her desk in the back corner of the Storey County Museum in Virginia City. After filing a sexual harassment complaint against Antinoro, Keener was removed from her position as the sheriff’s chief deputy.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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Maggie Starbard for NPR
Keener sits at her desk in the back corner of the Storey County Museum in Virginia City. After filing a sexual harassment complaint against Antinoro, Keener was removed from her position as the sheriff’s chief deputy.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
Storey County’s development
Storey County isn’t well known outside Nevada. It’s about 22 miles southeast of Reno and some 44 miles northeast of Lake Tahoe, near the California-Nevada border. The county seat, Virginia City, is a former silver and gold mining town that was the setting of the TV Western Bonanza. Many of its storefronts still look like they’re right out of the late 1800s.
The few hundred locals in Virginia City frequent the Bucket of Blood Saloon, built in 1876. It’s just down the street from the sheriff’s office, past the Virginia City Outlaws theater and across from Grandma’s Fudge Factory. The majority of residents are older retirees, and tourists head here for the preserved charm of the Old West.
But there has been a push in recent years to lure high-tech businesses to the area. That infusion of new money is bringing new scrutiny to local government and the people who run it.
The county seat, Virginia City, was once a silver and gold mining town. It looks like something out of the late 1800s.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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Maggie Starbard for NPR
The county seat, Virginia City, was once a silver and gold mining town. It looks like something out of the late 1800s.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
It’s particularly concerning because the controversy around the sheriff is playing out in the shadow of the national #MeToo movement. In this rural area, though, women have few recourses against elected county officials, said Marlene Lockard of the nonpartisan Nevada Women’s Lobby.
“In this day and age, the message this sends to women is alarming, and I do think that women in that community are afraid to come forward,” Lockard said.
The Nevada Women’s Lobby is pushing for legislation to allow a “provision of impeachment or removal” for an elected county official who has been found to have violated sexual harassment policies multiple times.
“[Storey County] really is the last vestiges. It’s a tired old saw where the good old boys reign,” Lockard said. “I think this legislation and the efforts of many different resources in Nevada will send them a message: Just because you’re a lone county in rural Nevada doesn’t mean the women there should be treated any differently.”
Virginia City is a small town, which means pretty much everyone knows about the sheriff’s troubles — and about his feud with Lance Gilman.
Lance Gilman is a county commissioner and the owner of the famous Mustang Ranch brothel,an important source of revenue for the county.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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Maggie Starbard for NPR
Lance Gilman is a county commissioner and the owner of the famous Mustang Ranch brothel,an important source of revenue for the county.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
Gilman is also a well-known and powerful man around town. He’s a county commissioner and the owner of the famous Mustang Ranch brothel,an important source of revenue for the county. Gilman said it pays hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes and fees each year.
Along with his business partner, Roger Norman, Gilman is responsible for bringing more than 100 companies to the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center. They include tech giants like Tesla and Google. He said the businesses have taken the county from one of the poorest in Nevada to potentially the wealthiest.
Gilman wants Antinoro removed from office, saying it’s not good for business to have a man accused of sexual assault and harassment in charge of law enforcement. Gilman and his business partner spearheaded an unsuccessful recall effort against the sheriff that ended in 2017. He’s also suing Antinoro for defamation.
Antinoro said Gilman is out to get him because Gilman doesn’t like the way he enforces the law at the brothel — something Gilman insists is not true. Meanwhile, Gilman said the businesses he has brought to town are concerned.
“It’s had a worry impact on the businesses. Obviously they’re here. Obviously we’re successful,” Gilman said. “They are all, unfortunately, aware of what we have going on.”
Allegations of rape
The most serious accusation against Antinoro is rape.
In a 2014 Sparks, Nev., police report, a woman said that Antinoro, then a deputy in the sheriff’s office, raped her in 2006 at the direction of another sheriff’s office employee.
The woman, afraid of being identified, reported the alleged rape to police under a pseudonym. She didn’t know Antinoro, she said, but did know the other man.
“They both were in full uniform with guns,” their accuser saidin an interview with NPR.
She spoke on the condition of anonymity, still afraid of the men. She said it took her about eight years to gather the courage to report the alleged rape to police, she said.
“I knew it was gonna be very hard for people to believe that these two had done that,” she said. After all, they were in law enforcement. “I was scared.”
The Storey County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia City. Sheriff Antinoro’s nine years in the position are marred by multiple accusations that range from harassment to alleged criminal behavior. They include rape, organizing the gang rape of a woman, sexual harassment, using racial slurs and misusing government resources.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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Maggie Starbard for NPR
The Storey County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia City. Sheriff Antinoro’s nine years in the position are marred by multiple accusations that range from harassment to alleged criminal behavior. They include rape, organizing the gang rape of a woman, sexual harassment, using racial slurs and misusing government resources.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
She’s still afraid. She recounted the alleged assault in an interview on the condition that she’d never be identified.
She told police she was asleep at home when she heard the crackle of a police radio.
“I was not awake when it first started happening, and when I became fully awake and realized what was going on, I was rigid with fear,” she said.
She said she was forced to perform oral sex on Antinoro at the direction of the other man. Then Antinoro raped her as the other man watched, pleasuring himself. NPR is not naming that man because his accuser is afraid that identifying him will identify her.
“Then they both got up, got dressed and left,” she said. “My family doesn’t know about it. My friends don’t know about it. I’m embarrassed. I know I shouldn’t be, because I was the victim. But I am embarrassed that somebody had that kind of control over me.”
Too ashamed to initially confide in friends or family, she turned to alcohol. She said that because of the drinking, she lost her job and custody of her daughter.
“I was trying to block it out. Just trying to get all the memories to go away,” she said. “Beating myself up because I shouldn’t have let it happen.”
Finally she told a friend. In 2014, she reported it to the Sparks police near Storey County, abouteight years after the alleged assault. But police couldn’t pursue the case. The statute of limitations had run out.
She’s sober now, she has a steady job and she has spent a lot of time in therapy. But she’s still afraid.
Many accusations against Antinoro are documented in hundreds of pages of depositions in the two lawsuits against the sheriff, a police report alleging rape and interviews with alleged victims and their lawyers. And yet he has never been prosecuted.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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Maggie Starbard for NPR
Many accusations against Antinoro are documented in hundreds of pages of depositions in the two lawsuits against the sheriff, a police report alleging rape and interviews with alleged victims and their lawyers. And yet he has never been prosecuted.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
“I don’t live in that county. But I drive through that county to get to my home, and every time I see a Storey County car, I freeze,” she said. “I feel my blood pressure rising, my pulse racing. I feel sweaty. Because I think, ‘What if it’s one of them?’ “
Antinoro denies he raped the woman. He said in a deposition that it was consensual and didn’t involve anyone else.
Another alleged assault is also detailed in Keener’s sexual harassment lawsuit. This one involved a woman who said she was romantically involved with Antinoro. She has never reported her alleged rape to police — she and her lawyer said she’s too afraid to speak about what allegedly happened. She did not speak with NPR, and NPR is not identifying her because she is the alleged victim of a sexual assault.
In her deposition, she testified thatshe met Antinoro at her job. In 2015, he heard her birthday was coming up, and he asked her to go skydiving.
“It’s always been on my bucket list,” she said she told him.
A portrait of Antinoro hangs on the wall of the Storey County Courthouse in Virginia City. Despite many allegations, he has won three elections and beat a recall effort by his opponents.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
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A portrait of Antinoro hangs on the wall of the Storey County Courthouse in Virginia City. Despite many allegations, he has won three elections and beat a recall effort by his opponents.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
She’d been divorced for a few years, and he seemed nice. So she said yes.
“The more things we did, I, I just felt comfortable with him,” she testified in her deposition. “I thought he was an OK guy, you know?”
She agreed to go with him to Lodi, Calif., for a romantic weekend. He asked her to wear a dress he liked. They swam at the hotel pool, had dinner and cocktails, then went for a swim again. That’s when things turned.
She testified that she looked up from the pool and saw Antinoro speaking to three men she didn’t recognize. She asked who they were — friends of his? He said no, they were there to have sex with her. She said she was shocked and that she didn’t want to do it. She threatened to call the police if he didn’t make them leave.
She said she went to the room; Antinoro followed her. She went to the bathroom. Then the door opened. One of the men from the pool was there. He pulled her out of the bathroom.
“And then they just, they threw me up against one of the other guys,” she testified. “I started screaming and screaming, and the other guy that was there put some duct tape on my mouth and threw me on the bed. It was all over after that.”
She testified that the three strangersraped her. Antinoro was there at the beginning, she said, but she was so distraught as she tried to fight the men off that she’s not sure if he stayed. The next morning, she said, Antinoro acted like nothing had happened.
“He set me up to get raped,” she said in her testimony.
Afraid, she pretended everything was fine until she got home and away from Antinoro. She has never pressed charges, also out of fear.On the day she was deposed, she was still afraid.
“I’m scared to death of him,” she said in her testimony. She went on: “Now that I’ve given this testimony, well, what’s he going to do? … That’s why I didn’t want to do this.”
Her statement was referred to police in Lodi, Calif., by the Nevada attorney general. The police opened a case in 2018, then closed it. To protect the identity of any possible victims of sexual assault, they would not discuss the case.
Antinoro denies the allegations against him. “It’s a concerted effort by a small group of people to try and remove me from office,” he said. Because “I enforce the rules, I follow the law and I don’t give people breaks.”
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Antinoro denies the allegations against him. “It’s a concerted effort by a small group of people to try and remove me from office,” he said. Because “I enforce the rules, I follow the law and I don’t give people breaks.”
Maggie Starbard for NPR
“A complete and utter fabrication”
Antinoro has never been prosecuted for or charged with these alleged sexual assaults. He denies the allegations.
He spoke at length to NPR from his office about the accusations. He called every assault accusation a fabrication. He attributed the sexual harassment findings and the reports of racist language in the Keener complaint as people being politically correct.
He also denies the more serious accusations.
The alleged rape in Sparks, Nev.?
“It was false then and it’s false now, no truth to it whatsoever,” he said.
The orchestrated gang rape in Lodi, Calif.?
“That is a complete and utter fabrication. Plain and simple,” he said.
He does acknowledge he has called white people the N-word, but he doesn’t see that as racist.
The conversation about his sex life with Keener, his former chief deputy, during their car ride home from the conference?
He said if it bothered her she should’ve said something.
As far as the text messages to Keener?
“There was no sexual innuendo. Never had any interest in her in that manner,” he said. “And, you know, it makes me not want to talk to anybody because you can take anything and turn it into sexual connotation.”
Antinoro’s opponents say they are determined to remove him from office.
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Antinoro’s opponents say they are determined to remove him from office.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
So why would so many people make up these stories?
“It’s a concerted effort by a small group of people to try and remove me from office,” Antinoro said. Because “I enforce the rules, I follow the law and I don’t give people breaks.”
Before landing in Storey County, he bounced around different law enforcement agencies in Utah andthen in Nevada. He was known as Gerald Cook until about 17 years ago, when he changed his name. He said he wanted to retake his family’s Italian name.
He was“invited to leave his position” as chief enforcement officer at the Nevada Transportation Authority in 2006, hesaid in court proceedings, though it’s unclear why. Later that year, he joined the Storey County Sheriff’s Office as a deputy. In 2010, he was elected to his first term as sheriff.
He sits at his desk. On the bookshelf nearby is a framed picture of him and President Trump. He said he related to Trump because he was accused of so many “false” things driven, he said, by political vendettas.
“That’s why,” he said, he wrote the president a letter of support.
“Knowing what I’ve gone through,” he said. He related.
He got a signed response back.
“Dear Sheriff Antinoro, thank you for your kind letter of support,” it reads. “I appreciate your service to our nation as Sheriff of the Storey County Police Department.”
Antinoro framed it and put it on the shelf next to the picture in his office.
Ethics commission investigation
Antinoro’s opponents, though, are determined to remove him from that office; chief among them is Gilman.
Lance Gilman is largely responsible for bringing tech giants like Tesla to Storey County. He and his business partner at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center spearheaded an effort to recall the sheriff, but Antinoro prevailed.
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Lance Gilman is largely responsible for bringing tech giants like Tesla to Storey County. He and his business partner at the Tahoe Reno Industrial Center spearheaded an effort to recall the sheriff, but Antinoro prevailed.
Maggie Starbard for NPR
“We’ve tried every avenue to say, ‘Look at this,’ ” Gilman said in an interview at the industrial center that houses the more than 100 businesses he helped bring to the county.
The sheriff’s opponents asked the Nevada attorney general’s office to review all the allegations.
A statement from the attorney general’s office said investigators “spent hundreds of hours conducting a thorough investigation of allegations related to Storey County Sheriff Antinoro, including coordinating with the FBI.” But it said it “found no criminal conduct within our office’s jurisdiction to prosecute.”
The statement pointed out that matters like sexual harassment fall under the Nevada Equal Rights Commission and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
It closed the investigation last year.
“This isn’t about politics,” Keener says. “This is about an individual that is the highest law enforcement authority in Storey County.”
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“This isn’t about politics,” Keener says. “This is about an individual that is the highest law enforcement authority in Storey County.”
Maggie Starbard for NPR
Now Gilman is pinning his hopes on the Nevada Commission on Ethics. If a county official is found to have “willfully violated” the ethics of his office three times, the commission must file a removal complaint with the courts, said Yvonne Nevarez-Goodson, the commission’s executive director.
Antinoro has been found to have willfully violated the ethics of his office twice. He is appealing one of those decisions and plans to appeal the other.
Meanwhile, women like Keener say they worry that she and his other alleged victims will be dismissed as political pawns.
“This isn’t about politics. This is about an individual that is the highest law enforcement authority in Storey County,” she said. “To see it as politics, that takes away from those that have been victimized by him.”
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has departed for Hanoi by train for talks with US President Donald Trump.
Although he flew to Singapore when he met Donald Trump in Singapore last year, it seems the long-standing tradition of long-distance train travel for North Korean leaders is still going strong.
Rep. Matt Gaetz apologized late Tuesday for comments many regarded as threatening to Michael Cohen, President Trump’s former personal attorney who is set to testify Wednesday in front of the House Oversight Committee.
“While it is important 2 create context around the testimony of liars like Michael Cohen, it was NOT my intent to threaten, as some believe I did. I’m deleting the tweet,” Gaetz wrote on Twitter.
The Florida Republican and Trump ally came under fire for a tweet earlier Tuesday that asked Cohen, “Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat. I wonder if she’ll remain faithful when you’re in prison. She’s about to learn a lot…”
Gaetz later defended his comments, telling reporters, “We’re witness testing not witness tampering. And when witnesses come before Congress their truthfulness and veracity are in question and we have the opportunity to test them.”
Cohen, who pleaded guilty to lying to Congress, is expected to testify Wednesday about Trump’s knowledge of leaked Democratic emails and negotiations for Trump Tower Moscow during the campaign, along with the hush-money payments to two women who alleged affairs with Trump that led to Cohen’s guilty plea for campaign finance violations.
Gaetz’ apology was in response to a statement from Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who had issued an admonishment after Gaetz’ initial tweet to members about comments that “can adversely affect the ability of house committees to obtain the truthful and complete information necessary to fulfill their duties” — comments she said should be monitored by the Ethics Committee.
Ahead of the president’s dinner with Kim, some reporters who were supposed to go into the dinner — including ones who asked questions in the previous appearance — were barred from entering.
At first the White House was not going to allow any print pooler reporters into the room, citing sensitivities of shouted questions. But according to the designated print pooler, a Wall Street Journal reporter, photographers protested, and the Journal reporter was allowed into the room. Wire pool reporters were not allowed into the room.
But Sanders appeared to change her explanation, seeming to cite space as the main issue at stake.
“Due to the sensitive nature of the meetings we have limited the pool for the dinner to a smaller group, but ensured that representation of photographers, TV, radio and print poolers are all in the room,” Sarah Sanders said in a statement. “We are continuing to negotiate aspects of this historic summit and will always work to make sure the U.S. media has as much access as possible.”
On Tuesday, India said its Air Force conducted strikes against a militant camp in Pakistani territory. That attack killed a “very large number” of terrorists, trainers and senior commanders belonging to the Jaish-e-Mohammed, according to New Delhi.
India’s response came after the group recently claimed responsibility for a deadly attack in India-controlled Kashmir where more than 40 security officers were killed. That suicide car bombing prompted a barrage of international criticism toward Pakistan for failing to crack down on terror groups operating on its soil.
For its part, Islamabad denied there were any casualties from India’s Tuesday strike.
On Wednesday, Pakistan said its Air Force carried out strikes along the so-called Line of Control to demonstrate its “right, will and capability for self defence.” The Line of Control is the de facto border between the Indian and Pakistani parts of the former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Then, according to a spokesman for the Pakistan armed forces, Indian planes entered Pakistani airspace and two jets were shot down. One of the aircraft fell on India’s side of Kashmir, while the second came down in Pakistani-held territory, and its pilot was captured, the spokesman said.
An Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesman acknowledged that one pilot was missing and a combat jet had been lost. That spokesman also claimed a Pakistani jet had been shot down in the altercation.
Why does it matter?
Kashmir has always been a sensitive topic for both countries, which have fought two wars over the mountainous region. In 2014, forces from Pakistan and India exchanged fire in border clashes.
Tuesday’s attack was the first time India has used airstrikes inside Pakistan since 1971. Moreover, the area it struck — Balakot — was well outside Pakistani Kashmir and beyond the Line of Control.
Since the terrorist attack earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been under pressure from his base to respond with force ahead of a parliamentary election due to take place by May.
“That India entered Pakistan’s airspace is a clear indication that it is willing to do whatever it takes to keep India safe, which, I suspect, caught Pakistan off-guard,” Akhil Bery, analyst for South Asia at political consultancy Eurasia Group, told CNBC on Tuesday.
Dhruva Jaishankar, a fellow in foreign policy studies at Brookings India, said India has faced a series of terrorist attacks since the 1990s from groups and individuals based in Pakistan. The challenge for both sides has always been about how to respond to provocations from its neighbor, especially after each country became a nuclear power.
Jaishankar told CNBC that both countries have tested the limitations of how far they can escalate the conflict before reaching a “nuclear threshold.”
To be clear, escalating tensions to the point of nuclear conflict would be catastrophic for both India and Pakistan and would destabilize the entire region — an option unlikely to be taken by either New Delhi or Islamabad.
For his part, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s sway with the country’s influential military is limited. The way Khan handles this week’s situation will be a big test of his leadership, according to Moeed Yusuf, associate vice president for the Asia Center at the United States Institute of Peace.
“You have a new leader in Pakistan who (has to) show that he is strong and willing to stand up to India,” Yusuf told CNBC. “He must also follow the army’s lead and so if the army decides to escalate, he won’t be able to say much to them right now.”
For Modi, meanwhile, it would be “political suicide” if he walked back on the conflict at this stage — when it may appear to outside observers that India and Pakistan had evenly matched each other’s force, Yusuf said.
What’s next?
Experts have said it is highly unlikely that a war would break out between the two nations — even if the situation escalates further in the coming days.
Eurasia Group’s Bery said New Delhi’s public statements on its air strikes were careful to emphasize that it was an attack on a terror camp that was already planning terrorism against India. Modi may also have electoral politics in mind.
“Modi has already alluded to the strikes in a campaign rally earlier today, and will continue to press the point he is willing to do whatever it takes to keep India safe,” Bery said on Tuesday, adding that the prime minister is positioning himself as someone committed to India’s security to appeal to more voters.
For Pakistan’s part, Jaishankar said it is possible that Islamabad would play up Wednesday’s air strikes as “some kind of a retribution” and that could even lead to a de-escalation of tension between the countries.
The international community may need to get involved in coming days, according to Yusuf, who said the U.N. Security Council should step in and prevent further use of force.
— The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to the report.
As House Democrats vote Tuesday to stop President Trump’s emergency declaration on the southern border, congressional Republicans should ask themselves: Why is it that every other president is permitted by courts to exercise “executive discretion,” and yet Trump isn’t?
A New York Times report on Monday set up the scene for weak-willed Senate Republicans, writing that, “The [Democrat-controlled] House’s vote on a declaration of disapproval will force Republicans to choose between the congressional prerogative over federal spending established in the Constitution and a president determined to go around the legislative branch to secure funds for a border wall that Congress has refused to grant.”
Trump’s emergency declaration earlier this month does nothing more than free up little bits of money already allocated to the executive branch so that he can build more wall barriers on the border, stunting the overwhelming flood of illegal immigration from Latin America.
It’s every bit of a crisis today as it was when former President Barack Obama called it that in 2014, and the media happily played along. Trump’s official declaration only means he’s using his last option to address the issue.
This isn’t an choice between fidelity to the Constitution or blind loyalty to a president; though I’ll note the executive branch is part of that newly appreciated document, and Congress has already given the president the authority to do exactly what Trump is pursuing. This is a choice about relinquishing authority to Democrats to set immigration policy even while a Republican president is in office.
Obama made up his own law in 2012 that said nearly 1 million eligible illegal immigrants in the U.S. would not only be overlooked by law enforcement but could come out, declare themselves to the public, and receive indefinite legal protection.
Take for granted that the program was created out of compassion — plus Obama’s upcoming re-election — for young immigrants who may only know the U.S. as their home, but it should then also be taken for granted that if one president can dictate immigration policy within the authority Congress has given them, the same right belongs to every other president. Or, at the very least, every other president should be able to exercise power in moving to limit the influx of foreigners by erecting limited structures on the border.
Not so fast, says the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit!
The federal court ruled in November that the Trump administration could not end the Obama-era program with the argument that it was never legal to set it up in the first place. And yet, in the court’s unanimous opinion, it repeatedly acknowledged that the executive branch has the right to determine enforcement of immigration law by way of “executive discretion.”
Page 10: Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals “was a permissible exercise of executive discretion.”
Page 27: The Reagan administration “exercised executive discretion to defer the deportation of the minor children of non-citizens” and “extended voluntary departure, the mechanism through which these individuals were allowed to remain in the United States is, like deferred action, a creature of executive discretion.”
Page 69: “We therefore conclude that DACA was a permissible exercise of executive discretion.”
Who with a straight face could argue that it’s acceptable “executive discretion” for one president to carve out an exception for up to 1 million people not legally entitled residence in the U.S. but that it’s unconstitutional for another duly elected executive to eliminate that same exception? The 9th Circuit did it.
Now Trump’s emergency declaration is, as everyone knew it would be, tangled up in court. That order didn’t even affect anyone in the U.S., whether legally here or not. It did nothing more than cobble together funds available to the executive so that Trump might add on to the existing walls and barriers at the southern border, slowing down the drug dealers, human traffickers, and child molesters from Central America.
Skittish Republicans can keep this in mind when presented with the fake dilemma that they must either choose between the Constitution and the president. They can instead choose reality.
If recent history is any indication, and of course it is, Michael Cohen’s testimony this week in front of Congress is about to make any lunatic ramblings by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., look like the musings of a wise sage.
Cohen, President Trump’s former gofer, will on Tuesday deliver what is expected to be three days of testimony implicating his ex-boss in a series of crimes Cohen has already pleaded guilty to, including campaign finance violations (Zzz…), lying to Congress, and lying to the FBI.
Cohen has admitted that he lied about the timeline of a real estate venture that the Trump Organization has pursued for decades, including into the 2016 election. Cohen also claimed that he acted on behalf of Trump during the election when he paid hush money to women who claimed they had separate affairs with Trump years before.
A federal judge sentenced Cohen to three years in prison for those crimes, which have some relation to Trump, and others, which don’t, including Cohen’s extensive history of tax evasion and bank fraud.
So far, there is no strong evidence that Trump himself was engaged in any legal wrongdoing. The president denies he ever told Cohen to lie about the pursuit of a Trump Tower in Moscow, a project Trump has dreamed about since the 1980s, and he denies that the payments to his alleged mistresses from roughly 12 years ago were made to influence the 2016 election.
And there’s no reason why Cohen’s testimony should carry any weight. He most recently embarrassed himself in a nationally televised interview by insisting over and over again that he was “taking responsibility” for his crimes.
Cohen is “taking responsibility” by going to prison the same way a deadbeat drunk is “taking responsibility” for being unemployed. When you’re fired from your job, “taking responsibility” is your only option.
There has never been a time that Cohen didn’t look like a delusional mess.
On Election Day 2016, after it was clear that Trump had won the presidency, Cohen reportedly told a group of friends, “Nobody’s going to be able to fuck with us. I think I’m going to run for mayor.”
I imagine Cohen’s grandmother nearby offering an encouraging, “Some day you will, baby! You will!”
In March of last year, Cohen referred to himself as Trump’s “Ray Donovan,” a TV character who made the problems of celebrities go away. If that was Cohen’s paid responsibility for Trump as a “fixer,” the president should ask for a full refund.
But classic Cohen is his interview in 2015 with the Daily Beast, which sought comment from him for a story on Trump’s divorce from Ivana. Apparently unaware that Ray Donovan is not real, Cohen nonetheless channeled his fictional persona, telling the reporter, “So I’m warning you, tread very fucking lightly, because what I’m going to do to you is going to be fucking disgusting. You understand me?”
Now that Cohen’s going to prison, though, he’s supposedly gone from Ray Donovan to repentant deacon.
No one took him seriously before, and they shouldn’t take him seriously now.
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