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(CNN)President Donald Trump’s suggestion that the US would use a base in Iraq as a means to “watch” Iran evoked the scorn of Iraqi lawmakers on Monday and seemed to cause confusion among Pentagon officials and analysts, while the State Department told CNN that the US mission in Iraq remains unchanged.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/04/politics/trump-iraq-iran-comments/index.html

    Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam has been caught in a firestorm after a photo surfaced of his 1984 medical school yearbook page showing a man in blackface and another in a Ku Klux Klan outfit. A number of Democrats have called on Northam to resign, but thus far, he says he’s sticking around.

    Northam, a Democrat who was elected as Virginia’s governor in 2017, has offered a befuddling response since the photo from his 1984 medical school yearbook became public on Friday. He initially confirmed he was one of the two people in the picture and apologized, only to then walk that back on Saturday, saying he was still sorry but denying he was one of the men in the picture. He did, however, say he had at another point in time worn blackface — to dress up as Michael Jackson. During a press conference on Saturday, he seemed open to a reporter’s suggestion that he try to moonwalk before his wife stopped him.

    The pressure is mounting for Northam to resign and let Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax take over. Dozens of Democrats — including 2020 presidential contenders, Virginia lawmakers, and the Democratic National Committee — and outside groups have called on Northam to step down.

    Thus far, he appears determined to hold on to his post, even though very few people are standing by him. Kirk Cox, the Republican speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates, has said he thinks Northam should step down but is hesitant about seeking to remove him.

    The ordeal has a lot of layers to it — political, historical, and, obviously, racial. Wearing blackface is deeply offensive, whatever the context. Northam has shown contrition, but he doesn’t have to remain in public office. He could step down and let Fairfax, a descendant of slaves, take over. Democrats have largely taken the side of asking Northam to resign, but thus far, he’s not going for it.

    This started with a yearbook picture — and an abortion bill

    Prior to the yearbook photo’s publication, Northam had already been in the news last week over confusing remarks he made about a Virginia abortion bill, House Bill 2491, that would roll back some of the state’s requirements on abortion, including a 24-hour waiting period and a requirement that second-trimester abortions take place in a hospital.

    As Vox’s Anna North explained, the bill was always a long shot legislatively, especially because of a controversy over a provision that would reduce the number of doctors required to sign off on a third-trimester abortion from three to one. In a Wednesday radio interview, Northam discussed the matter, and that’s where things went awry, per North:

    Appearing to discuss what would happen if a child was born after a failed attempt at abortion, he said, “the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”

    Some took Northam’s comments as an endorsement of infanticide. “In just a few years pro-abortion zealots went from ‘safe, legal, and rare’ to ‘keep the newborns comfortable while the doctor debates infanticide,” said Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) in a statement on Wednesday.

    A spokesperson for Gov. Northam told Vox his comments were “absolutely not” a reference to infanticide, and that they “focused on the tragic and extremely rare case in which a woman with a nonviable pregnancy or severe fetal abnormalities went into labor.”

    The remarks stirred a national debate about abortion amid several recent state efforts to expand abortion access.

    Subsequently, the photo of Northam’s page in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook with a picture of a man in blackface and another in a KKK costume began to bubble up in conservative media outlets. And on Friday, the Virginian-Pilot published the photo and story accompanying it. Other media outlets confirmed it as well.

    Northam said it was him and then said it wasn’t

    When the Virginian-Pilot reported on the photo on Friday, the outlet noted that it wasn’t clear whether Northam was actually in it. Northam apparently wasn’t clear on it either.

    In a statement on Friday evening, Northam apologized for the picture and said he was, indeed, one of the people shown, though he didn’t say which one.

    “I am deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now,” he said. “This behavior is not in keeping with who I am today and the values I have fought for throughout my career in the military, in medicine, and in public service. But I want to be clear, I understand how this decision shakes Virginians’ faith in that commitment.”

    He also released a video response on Twitter accepting his actions but refusing to resign.

    On Saturday morning, there were varying reports about what Northam would do — some suggested he was going to step aside; others said he wouldn’t. He reportedly called members of the state party to tell them he didn’t think it was him in the picture after all. And at a press conference on Saturday, he said the same publicly.

    “I recognize that many people will find this difficult to believe,” Northam said. “The photo appears with others I submitted on a page with my name on it. … In the hours since I made my statement yesterday, I reflected with my family and classmates from the time and affirmed my conclusion that I am not the person in that photo.”

    He said there is “no way that I have ever been in a KKK uniform” but that he does have a recollection of wearing blackface as part of a Michael Jackson costume at a San Antonio dance contest. He explained he used “just a little bit of shoe polish” to dress up and won the contest because he had learned how to moonwalk. A reporter asked Northam if he could still moonwalk, and he seemed to contemplate responding before he said his wife told him “inappropriate circumstances.”

    A lot of people want Northam to step aside

    Many Democrats were quick to call for Northam to step down as soon as the picture surfaced, but some initially stood by him. But as time went on — and especially after Saturday’s press conference — Northam found himself increasingly alone.

    At Vox, Amanda Sakuma listed out the dozens of Democrats, groups, and public figures condemning Northam’s actions and calling on him to resign. The group includes Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, multiple Virginia members of Congress, multiple potential and declared 2020 presidential candidates, the NAACP, Planned Parenthood, and the Virginia Democratic Party.

    Many Republicans have called for Northam to step aside as well.

    Fairfax, who would become acting governor if Northam resigned, said in a statement that he was “shocked and saddened” by the yearbook picture and said he “cannot condone the actions from his past that, at the very least, suggest a comfort with Virginia’s darker history of white supremacy, racial stereotyping, and intimidation.” He did not say he thinks Northam should resign.

    There’s more to this than the basic facts

    The basic ins and outs of the controversy surrounding Northam are significant enough, but there’s also a lot of context here.

    For one thing, blackface is a no-go no matter the circumstances, including for a Michael Jackson contest, and in the 1980s. Harmeet Kaur at CNN delved into the racist roots of blackface:

    The origins of blackface date back to the minstrel shows of mid-19th century. White performers darkened their skin with polish and cork, put on tattered clothing and exaggerated their features to look stereotypically “black.” The first minstrel shows mimicked enslaved Africans on Southern plantations, depicting black people as lazy, ignorant, cowardly or hypersexual, according to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC).

    The performances were intended to be funny to white audiences. But to the black community, they were demeaning and hurtful.

    But in more recent history, the photo is notable when juxtaposed with Northam’s 2017 gubernatorial campaign. His Republican opponent, Ed Gillespie, ran a campaign that included fearmongering about immigrants and defending Confederate statues. Democrats decried his bid as “the most racist campaign in Virginia history.”

    As Vox’s Jane Coaston lays out, some in the GOP have seized on the Northam picture as proof that Democrats can be just as racist as Republicans. They say that Democratic accusations of racism among Republicans are just politics. Of course, just because Northam may or may not have appeared in a racist photo does not mean Gillespie’s actions were not also racist.

    There have also been a lot of questions about why the Northam picture appeared now and not during the 2017 election or at some other point before this. It appears timed to the abortion debate in Virginia right now.

    Despite the pressure, Northam seems to be digging in. It’s not clear how much longer he’ll hold on. Northam on Monday morning reportedly told staff he needs more time to decide.


    The news moves fast. Catch up at the end of the day: Subscribe to Today, Explained, Vox’s daily news podcast, or sign up for our evening email newsletter, Vox Sentences.

    Source Article from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/2/4/18210666/ralph-northam-yearbook-photo-blackface-virginia

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    (CNN)Democratic Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax said reports that he committed sexual assault are false and he instead described an encounter that was “100% consensual.”

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/04/politics/justin-fairfax-sexual-assault-allegation/index.html

    Congressional Democrats are using their guest lists for the State of the Union address on Tuesday to score political points against President Trump on immigration, the government shutdown and more.

    While Trump has said he plans to deliver a message of unity on Tuesday night and find common ground with Democratic lawmakers, many on the other side of the aisle aren’t buying his plea for bipartisanship. With Democrats fuming over Trump’s push for a border wall amid a still-unresolved funding standoff, those guest lists signal the president could face a tough crowd.

    WHEN IS THE 2019 STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS? EVERYTHING TO KNOW ABOUT TRUMP’S SECOND SPEECH TO CONGRESS

    In the latest example, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said on Monday she’ll bring an activist who made headlines protesting against now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s nomination to the Supreme Court.

    Archila famously cornered then-Sen. Jeff Flake in a Senate elevator and pleaded for the Republican lawmaker to reconsider voting for Kavanaugh, who was accused by Christine Blasey Ford of sexual assault. Flake agreed to delay a committee vote to allow for a brief investigation, before ultimately supporting Kavanaugh — who denied the accusations.

    Archila said she is “honored” to be the guest of the freshman Democrat and will sit in the gallery overlooking the chamber during Trump’s address. She said she will wear white and a pin the congresswoman gave her that says, “Well behaved women rarely make history.”

    While Ocasio-Cortez has chosen to highlight the controversy surrounding Kavanaugh with her guest, other Democrats have invited guests directly affected by the ongoing immigration debate and the recent partial government shutdown.

    Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D- N.J., invited Victorina Morales, a Guatemalan woman living in the U.S. illegally who reportedly was fired from the Trump National Golf Club.

    Morales has spoken out about the Trump Organization’s hiring practices. The Trump Organization said last week that it will use the E-Verify electronic system at all its properties to check employees’ documentation.

    Sandra Diaz, a native of Costa Rica who worked at Trump’s club from 2010 to 2013, also will be attending the State of the Union as a guest of Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez of California.

    Diaz was also hired without legal papers. She is now a legal permanent U.S. resident and said she decided to speak out because she is angry about the president describing some immigrants as violent.

    KAMALA HARRIS’ STATE OF THE UNION GUEST WILL BE FEDERAL EMPLOYEE AFFECTED BY SHUTDOWN

    Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., invited a mother and daughter from Guatemala who were denied asylum in the U.S. and eventually were separated for two months last spring after they were caught illegally crossing the southern border.

    “This child separation policy came from a dark and evil place within the heart of this administration,” Merkley said, according to local Oregon media. “Innocent children suffered because of deeds that were carried out in our names and using our tax dollars as Americans. I’m bringing Albertina and Yakelin as my guests to the State of the Union because we need to bear witness to the suffering that this cruel policy inflicted, and resolve to make sure that nothing like this ever happens in the United States of America again.”

    Other Democratic lawmakers have invited guests who were directly affected by the government shutdown.

    Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who is running for president in 2020, invited Trisha Pesiri-Dybvik, an air traffic controller who lost her home in the 2017 Thomas fire in Southern California and was one of the 800,000 federal workers who missed paychecks during the shutdown.

    “Trisha Pesiri-Dybvik was one of the more than 800,000 federal workers whose paychecks were withheld during the shutdown — and it happened while her family was still recovering from losing their home in the Thomas Fire,” Harris wrote on Twitter. “I’m honored she will join me at the State of the Union.”

    Harris’ colleague in the Senate, Democrat Chris Murphy of Connecticut, has invited Regina Moller, the executive director of Noank Community Support Services. The nonprofit organization, which was affected by the government shutdown, offers shelters to unaccompanied minors separated from their families at the U.S. southern border with Mexico.

    Democrats have also invited guests affected by gun violence, high drug and insurance costs and the Trump administration’s changes to rules on transgender people in the military.

    CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

    Democrats, however, do not have a monopoly on using the State of the Union guest list to make a political point.

    Republicans are bringing guests ranging from survivors of sexual slavery in the Middle East to survivors of the opioid epidemic and Border Patrol agents.

    Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, invited a police officer who accidentally overdosed on the synthetic opioid Fentanyl after the powder ended up on his shirt following a drug arrest, while Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., is bringing Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad, a Yazidi human rights activist and sexual slavery survivor under ISIS.

    Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, invited the sector chief for the Border Patrol’s Rio Grande Valley Manny Padilla to be his guest.

    Rep. Doug Collins, R-Ga., also invited Art Gallegos, the co-founder of the Latinos Conservative Organization, to the State of the Union in an effort to emphasize the need for border security.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/democrats-troll-trump-with-state-of-the-union-guests

    The Hindu Kush Himalaya Assessment touches on the phenomenon of elevation-dependent warming. Though it is well known that temperature changes due to increased levels of greenhouse gases are amplified at higher latitudes, like in the Arctic, there is growing evidence that warming rates are also greater at higher elevations.

    “Mountain people are really getting hit hard,” said David Molden, the director general of the International Center for Integrated Mountain Development, the research center near Kathmandu, Nepal’s capital, that led the study. “We have to do something now.”

    Around South Asia, the impact of climate change has already intensified. Brutal heat waves are becoming unbearable, making people sicker and poorer, and diminishing the living standards of 800 million people.

    Access to water is also a concern. Last spring, shortages were so severe in the Indian city of Shimla, in the Himalayas, that some residents asked tourists to stop visiting so that they would have enough water for themselves.

    A government report released last year found that India was experiencing the worst water crisis in its history. About half of India’s population, around 600 million people, faced extreme water scarcities, the report found, with 200,000 people dying each year from inadequate access to safe water.

    By 2030, the country’s demand for water is likely to be twice the available supply.

    In neighboring Nepal, rising temperatures have already uprooted people. Snow cover is shrinking in mountain villages, and rain patterns are less predictable. Fertile land once used for growing vegetables has become barren.

    “Water sources have dried up,” said Pasang Tshering Gurung, a farmer from the village of Samjong, which is about 13,000 feet above sea level.

    Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/world/asia/himalayas-glaciers-warming.html

    A new leak of three months worth of President Donald Trump‘s daily schedules has provoked anger among top White House aides and allies of the president, echoing the early days of Trump’s presidency during which leaks seemed to plague the administration on a near-daily basis.

    Axios reported Sunday on the series of schedules provided by “a White House source,” which revealed according to their analysis that the president spends “around 60% of his scheduled time over the past 3 months in unstructured “Executive Time.””

    The internal schedules offered significantly more insight into the president’s daily activities compared to the ‘Daily Press Guidance’ provided to the public.

    The White House did not dispute the authenticity of the schedules and instead set their sights on publicly trashing the official responsible for the leak.

    “What a disgraceful breach of trust to leak schedules,” Director of Oval Office Operations Madeleine Westerhout wrote on Twitter Sunday. “What these don’t show are the hundreds of calls and meetings [President Trump] takes everyday. This [president] is working harder for the American people than anyone in recent history.”

    In a statement to Axios, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said the schedules showed that “President Trump has a different leadership style than his predecessors and the results speak for themselves.”

    Sanders declined to comment further on the story and whether the White House planned to mount an internal investigation similar to previous major leaks.

    Several conservatives and allies of the president expressed similar concern over the leak and also defended the president from accusations that the unstructured time in his schedule proves he’s not productive.

    The ‘Executive Time’ moniker grew to prominence over a year ago following a similar leak of internal schedules, which showed the blocks of time spent by the president away from the Oval Office often lined up with his habit of tuning in to cable news and tweeting out observations or grievances.

    “Disgusting that someone would leak this,” tweeted Marc Thiessen, an AEI fellow and former speechwriter for President George W. Bush. “An appalling breach of trust.”

    “The distortions of the hate Trump movement are never more obvious than in the reaction to the President’s leaked schedule,” Trump ally Newt Gingrich said.

    Conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt went as far to suggest that the leak could be dangerous to national security.

    The controversy mirrored previous major leaks that roiled the White House, including the publishing of the president’s call transcripts with the leaders of Mexico and Australia in 2017 and details of the president’s private conversation with the Russian foreign minister and ambassador in the Oval Office following FBI Director James Comey’s firing.

    Such episodes have fueled the belief among the president and many supporters of the existence of a wider ‘deep state’ embedded in his presidency aiming to undermine or embarrass him in order to thwart his agenda.

    The White House in the past has repeatedly said it was working to root out such officials through internal investigations, including the author of an anonymous op-ed posted in the New York Times by an official who identified themselves as a member of the “Resistance inside the Trump Administration.”

    Source Article from https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/leak-president-trumps-schedules-disgraceful-breach-trust-white/story?id=60831767

    Firefighters work in the driveway of a house damaged in a deadly plane crash Sunday in Yorba Linda, Calif. Officials say at least five people died, including the pilot and four people who were in the house.

    Alex Gallardo/AP


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    Alex Gallardo/AP

    Firefighters work in the driveway of a house damaged in a deadly plane crash Sunday in Yorba Linda, Calif. Officials say at least five people died, including the pilot and four people who were in the house.

    Alex Gallardo/AP

    Updated at 9:45 a.m. ET

    At least five people were killed Sunday when a plane apparently broke apart in the air and plummeted into a neighborhood in Yorba Linda, Calif. The pilot died, along with four people in a house hit by wreckage. Officials aren’t sure what caused the crash.

    Two of the victims owned the two-story stucco house that was hit and was engulfed in a raging fire, said Lt. Cory Martino of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

    Several witnesses described a dramatic scene in which the aircraft, a 1981 twin-engine Cessna 414, burst into flames and began breaking apart even before it hit the house. Security surveillance footage seemed to confirm that version of events, showing the out-of-control plane trailing black smoke as it fell to the ground.

    “The plane blew up about 100 feet off of the ground. The plane blew up in the sky,” neighbor Jared Bocachica told local TV station KTLA news. “I come out … it’s raining plane parts from the sky.”

    The plane had taken off from nearby Fullerton Municipal Airport early Sunday afternoon, said aviation investigator Eliott Simpson of the National Transportation Safety Board. Citing radar data, he said the Cessna had climbed to about 7,800 feet — but after flying around 10 miles, it made a rapid descent.

    “The airplane appeared to break up in the latter stages of the flight,” Simpson said at a news conference Sunday night.

    Wreckage has been found over a span of some four blocks. A wing was in part of one street; an engine fell onto another, punching a gaping hole in the asphalt. The main cabin and an engine landed in a backyard, a few feet away from a gazebo.

    The identities of those killed have not been released; police say the pilot, who was flying alone, was a man, and that there were two men and two women in the house.

    The crash prompted dozens of residents to rush out of their houses to assess damage and try to help. Some used fire extinguishers and hoses to put out smoldering flames. Around the corner from the burning house, another home had a broken window and a shattered porch pillar. Part of the plane’s propeller lay in the driveway.

    It will take at least 24 hours to collect all the wreckage that was strewn around the neighborhood, Simpson said. The NTSB and other agencies are investigating what may have caused the deadly crash, with the help of Cessna and the company that built the plane’s engines, Simpson said.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/02/04/691237824/5-die-as-plane-crashes-into-neighborhood-in-southern-california

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/428365-graham-there-could-be-war-among-gop-over-border-wall

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    (CNN)During a free-wheeling press conference to address a racist photo on his medical school yearbook page, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said he wouldn’t be surprised if other photos like that were found in the 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/03/politics/northams-medical-school-yearbook/index.html

      By Monday morning, Mr. Northam had spent more than 60 hours in deepening political isolation, abandoned by Democrats who quickly came to see his diminished standing as a burden on two fronts: their policy agenda, including matters like teacher pay and tax policy, and their efforts to capture control of the House of Delegates and the Senate this year. Both chambers are within reach for the party, which has made gains throughout the state in recent years.

      “It has created a dark cloud,” said Mark L. Keam, a legislator from Northern Virginia who was among the Democrats afraid of a loss of leverage as long as Mr. Northam remained the titular head of the party in Virginia.

      “Right now,” he added on Sunday, “the issue that we must resolve is how the governor presides over the current legislature.”

      This week is among the most crucial for the General Assembly, which faces an all-important deadline for bills to advance.

      Mr. Northam, who attended his longtime church on Virginia’s Eastern Shore on Sunday morning, has commented publicly just three times since the photograph emerged online on Friday. He first issued a statement on Friday, when he said he was “deeply sorry for the decision I made to appear as I did in this photo and for the hurt that decision caused then and now” and indicated that he would seek to serve out his term, set to expire in 2022. A video message released a short time later reiterated the governor’s position.

      But on Saturday, Mr. Northam stunned Richmond when he reversed course and said he had concluded that he was not, in fact, in the photograph on his yearbook page. “It was definitely not me,” Mr. Northam said at a news conference. “I can tell by looking at it.”

      Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/04/us/politics/northam-photo.html

      More than 50 media organizations, celebrities and politicians were sent letters from lawyers representing the Covington Catholic High School student seen in a controversial viral video — the first step in a possible libel and defamation lawsuit — and the teen’s legal team also released a 15-minute video that they say shows “the truth” about his interactions at last month’s March For Life.

      Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., actors Alyssa Milano and Jim Carey, media organizations CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Diocese of Covington were among the dozens recently sent preservation letters, the text of which advised the parties not to destroy any documents in connection with the case. The Cincinnati Inquirer first reported on Friday the initial list of organizations, and attorney Todd McMurtry confirmed to Fox News on Monday that more organizations or individuals could also receive letters.

      “It’s an enormous pool of possible defendants,” he said, adding only one party had responded to the letter, though he did not say which.

      COVINGTON BISHOP APOLOGIZES FOR PREMATURELY CONDEMNING STUDENTS IN VIRAL INCIDENT WITH NATIVE AMERICAN ELDER

      McMurtry, of the Hemmer DeFrank Wessels law firm in Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky, is part of the legal team representing Nick Sandmann, the Kentucky teenager vilified online after a viral video widely misrepresented him allegedly harassing a Native American man following a pro-life demonstration on Jan. 18 at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

      The incident sparked massive and widespread criticisms of Sandmann, who was seen in a brief snippet of the encounter smiling while standing in front of activist Nathan Phillips, and Sandmann’s classmates.

      COVINGTON HIGH SCHOOL TEENS, FAMILIES FIGHT BACK

      Subsequent videos revealed the students – some, including Sandmann, wearing red “Make America Great Again” hats – were actually accosted and yelled at before Phillips and other Native American activists approached them. Another group – the so-called Black Hebrew Israelites – were heard and seen shouting at the students.

      Both school officials and the Native Americans involved have said they’ve received death threats since the encounter.

      KENTUCKY STUDENT SEEN IN VIRAL CONFRONTATION WITH NATIVE AMERICAN SPEAKS OUT

      McMurtry told the Inquirer the aftermath of the incident “permanently stained [Nick’s reputation]” and that the organizations and individuals addressed in the letters may have defamed or libeled Nick with false reporting.

      He told Fox News that not everyone who received the letter could be called to defend themselves in a court, but that they have basis to believe that they could be sued. He added the documents that should be preserved for any future litigation include any drafts of stories, emails between colleagues discussing the incident, and, for celebrities and individuals, any tweets or statements sent to the public.

      A spokeswoman for the Covington Diocese declined to comment. Emails to other organizations and individuals were not immediately returned.

      KENTUCKY TEEN IN VIRAL VIDEO SAYS HE DID NOTHING PROVOCATIVE: ‘I HAD EVERY RIGHT’ TO STAND THERE

      In addition to the letters, Sandmann’s legal team – which includes L. Lin Wood, a nationally-recognized attorney in the fields of libel, defamation and the First Amendment – also released a 15-minute video they say show “the truth” of what happened at the March for Life event.

      “2 weeks ago, the mainstream media, politicians, church officials, commentators & celebrities rushed to judgment to wrongfully condemn, threaten, disparage & vilify Nick Sandmann based solely on a few seconds of an out-of-context video clip. It only takes 15 minutes to learn the truth,” the video description, posted on YouTube, stated.

      On Twitter, Wood added: “Some say a 15-minute video is too long to go viral. Will we allow incomplete 30-second video clips to be basis for agenda-driven false accusations & threats against a 16-year old student? Please share the full truth about what was done to Nick Sandmann.”

      Wood did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment Monday.

      CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

      “For the mob to just go tear apart a 16-year-old boy is inexcusable,” McMurtry told the Inquirer. “He’ll never be able to get away from this.”

      Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/us/legal-team-of-covington-high-school-student-in-viral-video-prepare-for-possible-libel-fight-release-15-minute-video-of-the-truth

      • President Donald Trump is teasing show-stopping announcements he may include in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
      • Ideas he has publicly toyed with include the declaration of a national emergency to secure border-wall funding and the confirmation of a second meeting with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.
      • Trump’s goal with an emergency declaration would be to spend money on a border wall without approval from Congress, though a new poll indicates it would be an unpopular move.
      • In an interview that aired Sunday, Trump also said that his next meeting with Kim “is set” and that he would most likely reveal details like the date and venue on Tuesday.

      President Donald Trump has been teasing bombshells that he may drop during his State of the Union address on Tuesday night.

      Trump has publicly mulled using the speech to declare a national emergency over illegal immigration and to confirm a new summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

      Asked whether he would declare a national state of emergency, Trump told reporters on Friday to “listen closely” to the address.

      Trump has mulled declaring an emergency as a way of getting money to build a wall along the southwestern US border without the approval of Congress.

      The inability of Trump and lawmakers to agree on wall funding caused a record-breaking partial government shutdown, which stretched from late December to the end of January.

      Read more: Here are the details you might miss watching Trump’s State of the Union address on TV

      On Friday, when asked whether people should expect him to declare a national emergency, Trump said: “I think there’s a good chance that we’ll have to do that. But we will at the same time be building, regardless, we’re building a wall. And we’re building a lot of wall. But I can do it a lot faster the other way.”

      He hinted that the State of the Union was where he would announce the move.

      “Well, I’m saying listen closely to the State of the Union,” he said. “I think you’ll find it very exciting.”

      Trump delivering the State of the Union address in 2018.
      Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

      Trump told The New York Times last week that declaring a national emergency might be his chosen route to try to get the wall built.

      “I’ll continue to build the wall and we’ll get the wall finished,” he said. “Now whether or not I declare a national emergency — that you’ll see.”

      He continued to call the issue an “emergency” on Sunday, when speaking on the CBS show “Face the Nation.”

      “It’s national emergency, it’s other things and you know there have been plenty national emergencies called,” he said.

      Read more: Trump is planning to slam abortion in his State of the Union speech, fanning the flames of the culture wars

      CNN last month reported that the White House was preparing a draft national emergency declaration and had identified where it could get the money for a wall.

      Such a move would appear to be unpopular. In a CBS poll published Sunday, 66% of Americans said Trump should not declare a national emergency if Congress did not fund a wall.

      Trump arriving to deliver the State of the Union address in January 2018.
      Win McNamee/Getty Images

      Trump raised the issue of the border wall again on Sunday, writing on Twitter that “Republicans must be prepared to do whatever is necessary for STRONG Border Security.”

      “Dems do nothing,” he wrote. “If there is no Wall, there is no Security. Human Trafficking, Drugs and Criminals of all dimensions – KEEP OUT!,”

      A bipartisan group of lawmakers are working to reach a compromise on border security before government funding runs out February 15, when another government shutdown could begin.

      In an interview that aired Sunday, Trump told CBS he would not take the prospect of another shutdown “off the table.”

      Another summit with Kim Jong Un

      Trump also said in the Sunday interview that his next meeting with North Korea’s leader “is set” and that he would reveal details about the planned meeting “probably State of the Union or shortly before.”

      Trump said the US and North Korea had “made tremendous progress” and contradicted the belief of Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats that Kim was unlikely to surrender his nuclear weapons. “That’s what the intelligence chief thinks,” he said.

      Trump with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un on Sentosa Island in Singapore in June.
      Evan Vucci/AP

      Trump instead reiterated his belief that the countries could come to an agreement, saying “there’s also a very good chance that we will make a deal.”

      “It has a chance to be one of the great economic countries in the world,” he said. “He can’t do that with nuclear weapons and he can’t do that on the path they’re on now.

      “I like him. I get along with him great. We have a fantastic chemistry.”

      Source Article from https://www.thisisinsider.com/state-of-the-union-trump-teases-border-wall-emergency-kim-jong-un-summit-2019-2

      Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax issued a forceful pre-dawn denial on Monday to an allegation of sexual assault that surfaced after 15 years, in the latest political bombshell to rock Richmond where Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam is battling resignation calls over a racist photo from his medical school yearbook.

      Fairfax, who would be next in line for governor should Northam bow to pressure and resign, called the allegation “defamatory” and “false.”

      NORTHAM HAS UNSCHEDULED STAFF MEETING AMID CALLS FOR RESIGNATION: REPORT

      “Lt. Governor Fairfax has an outstanding and well-earned reputation for treating people with dignity and respect,” the statement from his office read. “He has never assaulted anyone—ever—in any way, shape, or form.”

      The allegation was first posted by Big League Politics, the same political blog that published the now-infamous yearbook photo showing someone in blackface and someone in a KKK costume, from Northam’s 1984 yearbook page. Despite initially apologizing for appearing in the photo, he now denies either of the individuals is him.

      The blog, in the post that prompted Fairfax’s denial, claimed that a fellow at Stanford University said a man sexually assaulted her at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston, Mass.

      “Imagine you were sexually assaulted during the DNC Convention in Boston in 2004 by a campaign staffer. You spend the next 13 years trying to forget it ever happened. Until one day you find out he’s the Democratic candidate for statewide office in a state some 3000 miles away, and he wins that election in November 2017,” a post from the reported accuser said, according to the blog. “Then, by strange, horrible luck, it seems increasingly likely that he’ll get a VERY BIG promotion.”

      She did not name Fairfax, but the report implied she was referring to the lieutenant governor, who then responded to it.

      VIRGINIA GOV. NORTHAM SAYS HE WILL NOT RESIGN DESPITE LOSING SUPPORT FROM BOTH DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS

      But in his denial, Fairfax explained that the accuser “first approached the Washington Post” over a year ago, prior to his inauguration in 2018.

      “The Post carefully investigated the claim for several months,” Fairfax’s office said in a statement. “After being presented with facts consistent with the Lt. Governor’s denial of the allegation, the absence of any evidence corroborating the allegation, and significant red flags and inconsistencies within the allegation, the Post made the considered decision not to publish the story.”

      Fairfax’s office added: “Tellingly, not one other reputable media outlet has seen fit to air this false claim. Only now, at a time of intense media attention surrounding Virginia politics, has this false claim been raised again.”

      “The Lt. Governor will take appropriate legal action against those attempting to spread this defamatory and false allegation,” the statement read.

      The denial comes amid a political firestorm in Virginia, as a photo of the governor emerged showing a man in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb in his 1984 medical school yearbook.

      Northam, on Saturday, denied being in the photo, despite admitting to being in the picture a day earlier, and instead acknowledged darkening his face for another occasion that same year, when he dressed as singer Michel Jackson as part of a talent contest.

      He explained that he initially admitted to being in the photo, but “in the hours since I made my statement, I reflected with family and classmates from that time and it affirmed my conclusion that I am not the person in that photograph.”

      Northam called the image “offensive” and “racist,” but said he had nothing to do with the preparation of the yearbook and did not purchase it.

      Northam asserted repeatedly over the weekend that he would not resign from his post, despite a wave of criticism from 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls, Democratic lawmakers and Republicans demanding he leave office.

      If Northam did agree to resign from his post, Fairfax would assume the governorship. Over the weekend, Fairfax condemned the racist photo and said he “cannot condone the actions from his past.”

      TRUMP SLAMS RALPH NORTHAM YEARBOOK CONTROVERSY AS BEING ‘UNFORGIVEABLE‘ 

      The photo resurfaced after Northam sparked outrage last week with comments about a controversial abortion bill that one sponsor had said could allow women to terminate a pregnancy up until the moment before birth.

      Northam, a former pediatric neurologist, was asked about those comments and said that third-trimester abortions are done with “the consent of obviously the mother, with consent of the physician, multiple physicians by the way, and it’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities or there may be a fetus that is not viable.”

      “So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother,” Northam said last week.

      Conservative commentators and Republican lawmakers took the remarks to mean that Northam was discussing the possibility of letting a newborn die—or even “infanticide.”

      Northam defended his comments, saying they were limited to actions physicians may take in the case of “tragic or difficult circumstances” such as a non-viable pregnancy or “severe fetal abnormalities.” He later tweeted that he had “devoted his life to caring for children and any insinuation otherwise is shameful and disgusting.”

      CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

      On Sunday night, Northam had an unscheduled meeting with key staff members, and The Washington Post reported that resignation is an active consideration. The paper reported that there is another meeting set for Monday.

      Northam reportedly spent much of Sunday inside his home meeting with close advisers who—to at least some degree—have differing opinions on how to proceed. Some want the governor to fight through and work to rebuild his image. Pam Northam, the state’s first lady, wants her husband to continue to fight, the paper reported, citing two sources.

      Fox News’ Adam Shaw, Eddie DeMarche and The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

      Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/virginia-lt-gov-fairfax-denies-sexual-assault-allegation-amid-political-storm

      The president’s schedule places him in the Oval Office at the start of each workday, but Axios reported that Trump often spends mornings at the residence reading newspapers, watching TV and calling aides, lawmakers, friends, advisers and other officials. 

      Source Article from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-sarah-sanders-executive-time_us_5c580bfde4b00187b552815d

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      (CNN)With a looming February 15 deadline to fund parts of the US government, few are optimistic the President and Congress will be able to reach agreement in time to prevent another partial shutdown, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by SSRS.

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        Members of the U.S. military install multiple tiers of concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande near the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas in November.

        Eric Gay/AP


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        Eric Gay/AP

        Members of the U.S. military install multiple tiers of concertina wire along the banks of the Rio Grande near the Juarez-Lincoln Bridge at the U.S.-Mexico border in Laredo, Texas in November.

        Eric Gay/AP

        Another 3,750 troops will be sent to the southern border to help install wire barriers and to monitor crossings, officials said. The new deployment will bring the total number of active-duty troops there to around 6,000.

        In a tweet on Sunday, President Trump said that “STRONG border security” is necessary in the face of “Caravans marching through Mexico and toward our Country.”

        The announcement of new troops on Sunday comes just days before Trump is expected to discuss border security measures during Tuesday’s State of the Union Address.

        Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said Thursday that the troops would be deployed to the border over the next month, NPR’s Tom Bowman reported. They’ll join the 2,300 active-duty troops already there, bringing the total to about the same number as were deployed in the fall. Another 2,100 National Guard troops are also stationed there.

        “At the Pentagon, people I talk with say, listen: this is a waste of money,” Bowman said. Stringing razor wire is a job better suited to the National Guard, they tell Bowman; “you don’t use active-duty troops for this.” Military troops deployed at the border “are not allowed to apprehend migrants the way border agents do,” NBC News reported.

        Last week around 2,400 migrants left a city shelter in Mexico City, on their way to the U.S.-Mexican border, Reuters reported.

        When Pentagon officials testified before the House Armed Services Committee last week, they didn’t mention the upcoming troop deployment. Congressman Adam Smith, who chairs the committee, released a statement criticizing what he called a lack of transparency.

        “I am deeply troubled that the witnesses did not disclose the upcoming increase in guard, reserve, and active duty personnel, even though we asked them multiple times during a two-and-a-half-hour hearing what would happen next on the border,” Smith wrote, echoing concerns in a letter he wrote to Shanahan. That omission raises questions about whether the troop increase “is so unjustified that they cannot defend an increase in public,” he wrote.

        Trump suggested Friday that he would announce action on a border wall during the State of the Union address, which is taking place Tuesday. “I don’t want to say it, but you’ll hear the State of the Union, and then you’ll see what happens right after the State of the Union,” he told reporters.

        Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/02/04/691222383/pentagon-deploying-3-750-troops-to-southern-border

        President Donald Trump said in a CBS News interview that aired Sunday that he isn’t sure if he wants special counsel Robert Mueller’s report to be made public.

        The president was asked by “Face the Nation” anchor Margaret Brennan if he would have a problem with the report being released publicly.

        “That’s totally up to to the attorney general,” Trump said. “I don’t know. It depends. I have no idea what it’s going to say.”

        “So far this thing’s been a total witch hunt,” Trump continued. “And it doesn’t implicate me in any way. There was no collusion. There was no obstruction. There was no nothing. Doesn’t implicate me in any way, but I think it’s a disgrace.”

        Trump’s nominee for attorney general, William Barr, said at his confirmation hearing last month that while special counsel regulations require Mueller to submit a report to the Justice Department, what the public eventually sees might simply be a report from the attorney general on Mueller’s conclusions.

        The acting attorney general, Matt Whitaker, said last week that he thinks Mueller is close to wrapping up his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia. If the attorney general opts not to make the report public, Congress could try to subpoena it or compel administration officials to testify about its findings.

        Mueller has secured convictions or guilty pleas from a number of top Trump campaign officials, such as former campaign manager Paul Manafort and ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn. Manafort was convicted of several counts of tax and bank fraud, and Flynn pleaded guilty to making false statements to the FBI and has cooperated with investigators.

        Last month, Mueller arrested longtime Trump associate Roger Stone on charges of obstruction, witness tampering and making false statements to Congress. Mueller has also charged Russian nationals with crimes stemming from his probe of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

        Trump told “Face the Nation” that “many” of the Russians charged by Mueller “were bloggers from Moscow or they were people that had nothing to do with me, had nothing to do with what they’re talking about or there were people that got caught telling a fib or telling a lie.”

        Pointing to Stone, Trump said he “didn’t work on the campaign” except at its onset. The president said he hasn’t thought about pardoning Stone.

        “It looks like he’s defending himself very well,” Trump said. “But you have to get rid of the Russia witch hunt, because it is indeed.”

        “Remember this. Remember this,” Trump added. “There’s been no president that has been tougher on Russia than Donald Trump.”

        Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-says-he-doesn-t-know-if-he-wants-mueller-n966366

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        Five people died and two others were injured after a small plane apparently came apart, raining debris across a Southern California neighborhood and igniting a house fire before landing in a backyard, authorities said Sunday.

        The male pilot, who was the only person in the twin-engine plane, and four people in the Yorba Linda house that caught fire died Sunday, Orange County Sheriff’s Lt. Cory Martino said at a news conference Sunday night. He says the deceased occupants of the home were two males and two females. No other identifying information such as names or ages was immediately released.

        The Cessna 414A took off from the Fullerton Municipal Airport about a dozen miles west of the blaze, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said.

        A two-story house burst into flames after being struck by the main cabin and one engine of the plane, sending panicked neighbors into the streets. The second engine dislodged and fell onto the street, creating a large hole in the asphalt, according to Eliott Simpson, an aviation accident investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board.

        “It was a boom. It sounded like something exploded. It shook our house,” said John Wolbart, who lives a block away.

        He said he ran to the burning house and saw a woman come out with singed hair.

        The wounded were taken to a hospital with burn injuries, said Pokey Sanchez, an assistant chief with the Orange County Fire Authority. A firefighter was also treated for a minor injury.

        Clint Langford, who lives about a half-mile away, said he was in his living room when he heard a low rumbling.

        “It’s the eerie, low rumbling sound that keeps getting lower and louder. It was scary,” he said. “And then all of a sudden boom. It shook the house.”

        He looked out his front door and could see plane parts falling out the sky in the distance.

        Pat Rogers, who lives about a mile from the crash site, told the Orange County Register he saw the plane on fire and coming apart.

        Video posted on Twitter showed panicked residents running to the house as it became engulfed in flames and dark smoke. One man doused a burning wing that landed on the street with a garden hose.

        Aerial footage taken from news helicopters show plane parts, including side panels and a propeller, scattered on rooftops and driveways near the burned house. The main body of the twin-engine plane was found in the backyard of another home not far from the burned house. The fire spread to a SUV that was parked in the driveway.

        Debris was scattered over four blocks, Simpson said.

        Rain from a winter storm helped firefighters extinguish the house fire. They planned to search the burned house in case there were additional victims, Sanchez said.

        The National Transportation and Safety Board will investigate the cause of the crash.

        Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/02/04/5-die-2-are-hospitalized-when-plane-parts-hit-california-house.html

        Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Va., met with key staff members for an unscheduled staff meeting on Sunday before the Super Bowl and is apparently considering his next move after a photo emerged showing a man in blackface and another in Ku Klux Klan garb in his 1984 medical school yearbook page, a report said.

        Northam resisted calls to resign a day earlier– insisting that he did not appear in the yearbook photo, which contradicted his earlier remarks when he apologized for the picture. The Washington Post, citing unnamed sources, reported that resignation is an active consideration, and called the meeting emotional. The paper reported that there is another meeting set for Monday.

        Northam reportedly spent much of the day inside his home meeting with close advisers who—to at least some degree—have differing opinions on how to proceed. Some want the governor to fight through and work to rebuild his image. Pam Northam, the state’s first lady, wants her husband to continue to fight, the paper reported, citing two sources.

        Northam’s office did not immediately respond to an email from Fox News early Monday.

        DAN GAINOR: GROUNDHOG DAY DISASTER AS THE MEDIA KEEP MESSING UP NORTHAM STORIES

        Some high-profile Democrats would prefer he rebuilds his image after leaving office. Hillary Clinton and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Saturday tweeted out that he needs to step aside.

        The Virginian-Pilot released the photo on Friday from Northam’s 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook. The Post reported that the images first appeared on Big League Politics, a conservative website.

        Earlier in the week, Northam made headlines over comments about abortion that he said were taken out of context. He was on a radio program where he described a hypothetical situation where an infant who is severely deformed or unable to survive after birth could be left to die.

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        “So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen, the infant would be delivered. The infant would be kept comfortable. The infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired, and then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother,” the former pediatric neurologist said while on WTOP to discuss the Repeal Act.

        That prompted accusations from prominent Republicans that he supports infanticide. Northam tweeted later: “I have devoted my life to caring for children and any insinuation otherwise is shameful and disgusting.”

        Northam, in regards to the photo outrage, said he plans on continuing to lead.

        “If we get to the point where we feel that we’re not effective, that we’re not efficient, not only for our caucuses, but the Commonwealth of Virginia, then we will revisit this and make decisions,” he said on Saturday.

        Fox News Louis Casiano and The Associated Press contributed to this report

        Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/northam-has-unscheduled-staff-meeting-amid-calls-for-resignation-report

        Meantime, several factions in the Iraqi Parliament plan to push a measure that would strictly limit the United States’ military activities in the country, including where American soldiers can circulate and how long they can stay.

        The issue brings together Shiite parties who do not like Americans, most notably the one led by the radical cleric Moktada al-Sadr. That group now has the largest bloc of votes, with Shiite parties that have strong links to Iran and that are associated with armed groups known collectively as the Hashid.

        While the measure is still in the planning stages, the parliamentary party representing Mr. al-Sadr announced about a week ago that it would put the issue on Parliament’s legislative agenda for March, and the party’s lawmakers have begun discussing the idea with other parliamentary blocs.

        Joining with the Sadr faction is the Fateh coalition, whose members include political representatives of the mostly Shiite Muslim armed groups that sprang up when the Islamic State invaded northern Iraq in 2014. Some of these armed factions have close ties to Iran and initially were partially funded and supplied by Iran. Today, however, all the Iraqi armed groups are legal and paid by the Iraqi government, and say they have merged their command structure.

        Mr. Trump’s comments in the CBS interview echoed his administration’s previous claims that Iran is cheating on the spirit of the 2015 nuclear agreement from which the United States has withdrawn, an assertion contradicted in an American intelligence assessment last week that concluded that Iran is not, for now, taking steps necessary to make a bomb.

        In an apparent reference to Al Asad Air Base in western Iraq, which Mr. Trump visited during a whirlwind trip to the country in late December, the president said in the CBS interview that the United States has “an unbelievable and expensive military base built in Iraq” that is “perfectly situated for looking at all over different parts of the troubled Middle East.”

        In fact, American forces operate from several Iraqi bases across the country, with most of the roughly 5,200 troops based at Al Asad or in Erbil in northern Iraq.

        Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/03/us/politics/trump-iraq-troops-syria-iran.html

        The schedules appear to identify 77 hours of official meetings during that stretch, and 38 hours of events. On some days, Axios noted, Trump has spent almost the entire working day in executive time, including the day after the Nov. 7 midterm elections with 7 hours. 

        Source Article from https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-60-percent-executive-time_us_5c579f90e4b0871047549db3