That expectation was based on the laws of physics and computer climate models and not on studies of actual storms. But earlier this week, researchers in the United States with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, using observational data, reported that the likelihood of these kinds of cyclonic storms developing into the equivalent of Category 3 storms had increased by about 8 percent per decade since the late 1970s.
Reporting was contributed by Jeffrey Gettleman, Sameer Yasir, Kai Schultz, Henry Fountain, Jennifer Jett, Hari Kumar and Elian Peltier.
Prosecutors in Fulton County, Georgia, have opened a criminal investigation into the effort to overturn the 2020 election results, including a phone call in which former president Donald Trump pressured Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” more votes for him, according to multiple reports.
The New York Times first reported that Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis sent a letter Wednesday asking several state officials — including Raffensperger and Gov. Brian Kemp — to preserve documents related to Trump’s call to Raffensperger on Jan. 2.
Though the letter does not mention Trump by name, it states that prosecutors are looking into potential criminal charges over “attempts to influence” the election in Georgia, the Washington Post reported.
“This investigation includes, but is not limited to, potential violations of Georgia law prohibiting the solicitation of election fraud, the making of false statements to state and local governmental bodies, conspiracy, racketeering, violation of oath of office and any involvement in violence or threats related to the election’s administration,” the letter says.
Willis and her office did not respond to calls and emails from BuzzFeed News.
Leaked audio of the hourlong call between Trump and Raffensperger, who is a Republican, was first reported by the Washington Post in early January. In the recording, Trump berates and threatens the Georgia secretary of state, and tells him, “I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.”
Legal experts at the time described the call as amounting to “extortion.” The call was cited in an article of impeachment approved by the House in January accusing Trump of attempting to “subvert and obstruct the certification of the results of the 2020 Presidential election.”
For months, Trump, his campaign, and his allies repeatedly attempted to overturn the election results in key states that he lost to now-president Joe Biden. Those efforts include dozens of failed lawsuits, angry threats to state officials, support from Republican lawmakers including Sens. Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz, and ultimately culminated in a violent insurrection at the Capitol the day Congress certified the results.
The DA’s letter on Wednesday comes on the heels of Raffensperger’s office announcing that it has begun investigating the call.
Georgia is the second state to launch a criminal investigation into Trump’s activities. He is also facing criminal and civil investigations in New York, both related to tax fraud.
Competing newsrooms, including the Virginian-Pilot, soon confirmed that the photo came from Northam’s page in a 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook. He was 25 years old at the time of the book’s publication. A separate yearbook unearthed this weekend also shows Northam went by a few nicknames when he attended Virginia Military Institute, including “ coonman.”
Taken together, the blackface photo and the racial slur are not enough to disqualify Northam from office. It’s true there’s no “youthful indiscretion” defense for racist behavior the governor likely thought was funny when he was well into his 20s. But everyone deserves a mulligan for the dumb and awful things they did decades ago. Everyone deserves a chance to show they’ve changed.
The problem with Northam, however, is that he is too stupid to manage any of that.
After the blackface yearbook photo was published on Feb. 1, the governor immediately apologized for it.
“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.
However, by Saturday morning, after it became clear that his allies were not going to call it square after his apology, he adopted a new strategy: denial.
“When I was confronted with the images yesterday,” he said at a press conference, “I was appalled that they appeared on my page, but I believed then and now that I am not either of the people in that photo.”
The press conference got much worse. Much, much worse.
One reporter asked Northam why he apologized Friday if it wasn’t him in the yearbook photo. The governor responded, “I didn’t study it as well as I should. The first comment I made to the individual that showed it to me, I said this can’t be me.”
As to why he didn’t just say so from the beginning, Northam told reporters, “My word is important to me and my first intention … was to reach out and apologize. As you might imagine and understand, there are a lot of people that are hurt by this and I wanted to reach out to them. After I did that last night, I sat and looked at the picture. Today, I’ve had the opportunity to talk to classmates. My roommate and I am convinced that is not my picture.”
The governor also claims he “vividly” remembers donning blackface to look like Michael Jackson for a talent show in 1984, explaining that this memory makes him confident that he’s not the person featured in the medical school yearbook.
“I used just a little bit of shoe polish to put on my cheeks and the reason I used a very little bit because — I don’t know if anyone’s ever tried that — you cannot get shoe polish off,” he said.
As the governor recounted the talent show anecdote for reporters, Northam blanked on the name “Michael Jackson.” He had to be reminded by his wife, Pam, who whispered it in his ear.
The governor also told members of the press that he won the talent show because he learned to “moonwalk” like Jackson. One reporter asked Northam if he could still do the dance move. The governor was fully prepared to answer that question with a dance demonstration, but he was again saved by his wife. It was only after she told him the circumstances were “inappropriate” that he declined to answer whether he can still “moonwalk.”
Remember: This press conference, which was meant to salvage Northam’s gubernatorial career, came just days after he caused a major headache for his office and his party when he seemingly endorsed post-birth abortions.
No one should be automatically disqualified from holding office because of something hateful he said or did decades ago. Everyone deserves the chance to show they’ve matured in wisdom and judgment and that they’ve learned from their past mistakes.
On Saturday, the Virginia governor showed he is nearly every bit as stupid and tone-deaf as he was in college. Northam had a chance to show he is not the man that he was 35 years ago, and he blew it with an idiotic, hair-brained attempt at crisis management that would make even Anthony Weiner blush.
The governor should not be chased from office for things he did 20 or 30 years ago. He should be chased from office because can’t be trusted with a book of matches.
(CNN)President Joe Biden on Thursday announced a number of new steps his administration will take to try to get more Americans vaccinated and slow the spread of coronavirus, including requiring that all federal employees must attest to being vaccinated against Covid-19 or face strict protocols.
CNN’s Kevin Liptak, DJ Judd, Liz Stark, Barbara Starr, Lauren Mascarenhas, Jacqueline Howard and Deidre McPhillips contributed to this report.
Rudy Giuliani was “apparently inebriated” on election night in November 2020 when he urged Donald Trump to declare prematurely and wrongly that he had beaten Democrat Joe Biden for the presidency.
Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the vice-chair of the congressional select committee investigating the insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 by extremist Trump supporters, declared as much during her opening remarks on Monday in the committee’s second public hearing of six in Washington DC. The first hearing was last Thursday.
“You will also hear testimony that Donald Trump rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani to just claim he won and insist that the vote counting stop, to falsely claim that everything was fraudulent,” Cheney said.
Mississippi Democrat Bennie Thompson, the chair of the House of Representatives panel, had already outlined that the public would hear how Trump “lost an election and knew he lost an election and as a result of this loss decided to wage an attack on our democracy” by inciting the deadly violence on 6 January as rioters broke into the Capitol to try to stop the official certification of Biden’s victory.
On the night of 3 November 2020, Trump was at the White House with family and aides watching election night coverage.
A witness at Monday’s hearing, Chris Stirewalt, a former politics editor for Fox News, testified that the conservative cable channel’s “decision desk” on the night was “the best in the business” and, controversially, beat other outlets to be the first to declare that Biden, not Trump, had unexpectedly won in the pivotal state of Arizona.
That result was a huge blow to the Republicans that caused anger and dismay among those gathered at the White House, both the result itself and the fact that it was Fox News that had called it, the committee heard.
Jason Miller, an attorney then advising Trump, testified to the committee by video that at that point on the night, “there were suggestions by, I believe it was Mayor Giuliani, to go and declare victory and say that we’d won it outright.”
And he described Giuliani, a lawyer and former mayor of New York who was also advising Trump, as “definitely intoxicated”.
Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter and adviser, testified on video that she opined on the night that it was too early to announce that the election was decided, let alone that her father had won.
And Donald Trump’s then campaign manager Bill Stepien also said that he did not think the president should declare victory on election night, but the president disagreed with him.
“It was far too early to be making any calls like that, ballots were still being counted,” Stepien testified.
Barack Obama would not take a position in Joe Biden’s cabinet if the president-elect offered it – because if he did, he fears, Michelle Obama would leave him.
The 44th president made the remark in an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, two days ahead of publication of his memoir, A Promised Land. He was due to speak to CBS again, for 60 Minutes, on Sunday night.
Biden, Obama’s vice-president from 2009 to 2017, is preparing to become the 46th president in January, having defeated Donald Trump at the polls.
Asked how he will help Biden, Obama said: “He doesn’t need my advice, and I will help him in any ways that I can. Now, I’m not planning to suddenly work on the White House staff or something.”
Susan Rice and Michelle Flournoy are among Obama administration veterans reportedly being considered for key posts under Biden.
Asked if he would consider a cabinet position, Obama said: “There are some things I would not be doing because Michelle would leave me. She’d be like, what? You’re doing what?”
In his book, Obama considers what his meteoric rise to the US Senate and then the White House meant for his marriage to Michelle and family life with their daughters, Sasha and Malia.
“My career in politics, with its prolonged absences, had made it even tougher” for his wife to pursue her own law career, he writes. “More than once Michelle had decided not to pursue an opportunity that excited her but would have demanded too much time away from the girls.
“… With my election [as president] she’d been forced to give up a job with real impact for a role [as first lady] that – in its original design, at least – was far too small for her gifts.”
The Obamas’ literary gifts have at least paid off. A Promised Land is part of a reported $65m deal with Penguin Random House that also covered Becoming, Michelle Obama’s memoir, released in 2018, and which has sold more than 10m copies. The former president is expected to produce a second volume.
Another passage of Obama’s CBS interview might have had resonance for the current president, had he been watching.
Obama discussed what it is like to have the luxurious trappings of office, in this instance the presidential motorcade, inevitably taken away.
“I’m driving along,” Obama said, laughing. “I’m still not driving, but [I’m] in the car. I’m in the car in the backseat and I’m looking at my iPad or something. And suddenly, we stop and I’m like, ‘What’s going on?’ There’s a red light. There’s a car right next to us. Some kids are eating a burrito or something in the backseat.
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En las noticias más leídas del día, Sura, XXI Banorte, Principal y Profuturo GNP se ponían de acuerdo para reducir los traspasos de cuenta de los trabajadores para poder ahorrarse gasto en publicidad e incrementar utilidades. Mientras tanto en el estado de Puebla, presuntos ladrones de combustible asesinaron a cuatro soldados en dos incidentes separados, en los que también murieron seis delincuentes y además, te damos algunos consejos para que sobrevivas con éxito una entrevista de trabajo.
1. Afores pagarán multa de 1,100 millones de pesos
Las administradoras de fondos para el retiro Sura, XXI Banorte, Principal y Profuturo GNP tendrán que pagar una multa total por 1,100 millones de pesos por retener las cuentas de trabajadores que ahorran para su pensión a través del proceso de traspaso.
Cofece determinó responsabilidad a estas afores y de 11 personas físicas por ponerse de acuerdo para reducir los traspasos entre afores para reducir el gasto en publicidad y con ello incrementar sus utilidades.
Afores pagarán multa de 1,100 millones de pesos. Ver nota.
2. Canelo Álvarez, un boxeador sin el ‘estilo’ mexicano
Para el boxeador, Canelo Álvarez, originario de Juanacatlán, Jalisco, cuando elige ropa lo hace pensando en la comodidad. “Mientras uno se sienta seguro, creo que eso es lo más importante”. Algunas de las marcas que suele elegir son: Dolce & Gabbana, Calvin Klein y relojes de la firma Hublot.
El precio de una playera del boxeador va desde 205 dólares y de una sudadera ronda entre los 395 dólares.
En el tema de mercadotecnia, el peleador mexicano tiene la misma importancia que el basquetbolista Stephen Curry, estrella de los Golden State Warriors, para la compañía deportiva Under Armour.
Canelo Álvarez, un boxeador sin el ‘estilo’ mexicano. Ver nota.
3. Reportan 10 muertos tras enfrentamientos en Puebla
Fueron asesinados en Puebla cuatro soldados, aparentemente por ladrones de combustible en dos incidentes separados, en los que también murieron seis delincuentes, informaron el jueves las autoridades.
El robo de combustible ha crecido en los últimos años en Puebla y otros estados, lo que es un grave problema para la petrolera estatal Pemex.
De acuerdo con la Sedena, en la primera agresión los soldados no respondieron porque los presuntos criminales utilizaron mujeres y niños como escudo, para protegerse.
Reportan 10 muertos tras enfrentamientos en Puebla. Ver nota.
4. Seis errores comunes en las entrevistas de trabajo
A todos nos ha pasado que al acudir a una entrevista laboral, las manos nos sudan, la voz nos tiembla y nos ponemos nerviosos debido a que no nos preparamos para ella. El objetivo de la entrevista de trabajo es convencer al entrevistador de que uno se siente motivado y capacitado para el puesto de trabajo ofrecido, pero si fallamos en lo que en algunos casos se puede considerar como el paso más importante, la entrevista, se limitan las posibilidades de obtener ese puesto.
Todos los pasos anteriores en el proceso de selección de un empleador sirvieron para descartar a los candidatos menos idóneos para los puestos, por lo que sólo se quedarán para las entrevistas con los que tienen más potencial para desarrollar con éxito el puesto ofrecido.
Si eres de los que en el momento de las entrevistas, no sabe qué hacer, entra a la nota completa, estos tips te serán de mucha ayuda.
Seis errores comunes en las entrevistas de trabajo. Ver nota.
LA TESTE-DE-BUCH, France (AP) — A heat wave broiling Europe spilled northward Monday to Britain and fueled ferocious wildfires in Spain and France, which evacuated thousands of people and scrambled water-bombing planes and firefighters to battle flames in tinder-dry forests.
Two people were killed in the blazes in Spain that its prime minister linked to global warming, saying, “Climate change kills.”
That toll comes on top of the hundreds of heat-related deaths reported in the Iberian peninsula, as high temperatures have gripped the continent in recent days and triggered wildfires from Portugal to the Balkans. Some areas, including northern Italy, are also experiencing extended droughts. Climate change makes such life-threatening extremes less of a rarity — and heat waves have come even to places like Britain, which braced for possible record-breaking temperatures.
The hot weather in the U.K. was expected to be so severe this week that train operators warned it could warp the rails and some schools set up wading pools to help children cool off.
In France, heat records were broken and swirling hot winds complicated firefighting in the country’s southwest.
“The fire is literally exploding,” said Marc Vermeulen, the regional fire service chief who described tree trunks shattering as flames consumed them, sending burning embers into the air and further spreading the blazes.
“We’re facing extreme and exceptional circumstances,” he said.
Authorities evacuated more towns, moving another 14,900 people from areas that could find themselves in the path of the fires and choking smoke. In all, more than 31,000 people have been forced from their homes and summer vacation spots in the Gironde region since the wildfires began July 12.
Three additional planes were sent to join six others fighting the fires, scooping up seawater and making repeated runs through dense clouds of smoke, the Interior Ministry said Sunday night.
More than 200 reinforcements headed to join the 1,500 firefighters trying to contain the blazes in the Gironde, where flames neared prized vineyards and billowed smoke across the Arcachon maritime basin famed for its oysters and beaches.
Spain, meanwhile, reported a second fatality in two days in its own blazes. The body of a 69-year-old sheep farmer was found Monday in the same hilly area where a 62-year-old firefighter died a day earlier when he was trapped by flames in the northwestern Zamora province. More than 30 forest fires around Spain have forced the evacuation of thousands of people and blackened 220 square kilometers (85 square miles) of forest and scrub.
Passengers on a train through Zamora got a frightening, close look at a blaze, when their train halted in the countryside. Video of the unscheduled — and unnerving — stop showed about a dozen passengers in a railcar becoming alarmed as they looked out of the windows at the flames encroaching on both sides of the track.
Climate scientists say heat waves are more intense, more frequent and longer because of climate change — and coupled with droughts have made wildfires harder to fight. They say climate change will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive.
“Climate change kills,” Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said Monday during a visit to the Extremadura region, the site of three major blazes. “It kills people, it kills our ecosystems and biodiversity.”
She warned of “terrifying prospects still for the days to come” — after more than 10 days of temperatures over 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit), cooling only moderately at night.
At least 748 heat-related deaths have been reported in the heat wave in Spain and neighboring Portugal, where temperatures reached 47 C (117 F) earlier this month.
The heat wave in Spain was forecast to ease on Tuesday, but the respite will be brief as temperatures rise again on Wednesday, especially in the dry western Extremadura region.
In Britain, officials have issued the first-ever extreme heat warning, and the weather service forecast that the record high of 38.7 C (101.7 F), set in 2019, could be shattered.
“Forty-one isn’t off the cards,” said Met Office CEO Penelope Endersby. “We’ve even got some 43s in the model, but we’re hoping it won’t be as high as that.”
France’s often-temperate Brittany region sweltered with a record 39.3 C (102.7 F) degrees in the port of Brest, surpassing a high of 35.1 C that had stood since September 2003, French weather service Meteo-France said.
Regional records in France were broken in over a dozen towns, as the weather service said Monday was “the hottest day of this heat wave.”
The Balkans region expected the worst of the heat later this week, but has already seen sporadic wildfires.
Early Monday, authorities in Slovenia said firefighters brought one fire under control. Croatia sent a water-dropping plane there to help after struggling last week with its own wildfires along the Adriatic Sea. A fire in Sibenik forced some people to evacuate their homes but was later extinguished.
In Portugal, much cooler weather Monday helped fire crews make progress. More than 600 firefighters attended four major fires in northern Portugal.
___
Leicester reported from Le Pecq. Associated Press journalists Danica Kirka and Jill Lawless in London, Geir Moulson in Berlin, Raquel Redondo in Madrid, Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal, and Jovana Gec from Belgrade, Serbia, contributed.
Fox News senior correspondent Claudia Cowan reports from Vacaville with an update.
Dozens of wildfires raging through Northern California have reportedly killed at least 5 people this week, including a Pacific Gas & Electric worker who was helping first responders and a pilot on a water-dropping mission who was killed in a crash.
Three civilians have died in Napa Valley and one in Solano County, Cal Fire said in an update. It wasn’t immediately clear if the power company worker was included in the count of civilians.
At least 30 civilians and firefighters have been injured in the fires, which have also destroyed hundreds of structures and threatens hundreds of homes. Thousands of residents have been evacuated and at least two people were missing.
“Please keep the family and PG&E in your thoughts and prayers,” Cal Fire said in a statement, adding the PG&E employee was taken to the hospital after he was found unresponsive in his car, according to KPIX-TV in the Bay Area. He was pronounced dead at the hospital.
“If you are in denial about climate change, come to California,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said during an address at the Democratic National Convention Thursday, after re-recording his speech to speak about the fires.
Multiple fires burning in Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Lake and Yolo Counties, known collectively as the LNU complex fires, were sparked Monday by lightning strikes and grew by 60% Thursday from 131,000 acres to 215,000 acres by 6 p.m., according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires jump Interstate 80 in Vacaville, Calif., Wednesday, Aug. 19, 2020. The highway was closed in both directions shortly afterward. Fire crews across the region scrambled to contain dozens of wildfires sparked by lightning strikes as a statewide heat wave continues. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)
The Hennessey Fire, the largest of the group, has grown to 192,000 acres with zero percent containment, Cal Fire said.
Still, Cal Fire Division Chief Charlie Blankenheim said firefighters are making steady progress. “We’re doing really good in there,” he told reporters Thursday. “We’re fairly confident that we stopped the spread and hopefully there won’t be any more push further into Vacaville, we’ll be able to keep it where it is, and we’ll keep any more structures from being lost.”
More than two dozen major fires have scorched the state, taxing California’s firefighting capacity, sparked by the unprecedented lightning siege that dropped nearly 11,000 strikes over several days.
Upwards of 10,000 firefighters are on the front lines, but fire officials in charge of each of the major fire complexes say they are strapped for resources. Some firefighters were working 72-hour shifts instead of the usual 24 hours. The state has requested 375 engines and crew from other states.
“That’s going to allow our firefighters that have have been on the front line since this weekend to have an opportunity to take some rest,” Daniel Berlant, an assistant deputy director with the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
LAS VEGAS — Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid thinks Republicans have been seduced by President Donald Trump and forgotten the whole point of the US Senate.
Sitting at his desk in his old Senate chair with his name engraved on the back, Reid complained that the Republican-led upper chamber has become too subservient to the president under current Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“I can’t imagine how the Republicans are being so compliant on everything [Trump] wants,” Reid told me during a recent interview in his Las Vegas office. “What’s the Senate all about?”
It’s not because Trump is an aberration, he cautions: “Trump did not create the Republican Congress; the Republican Congress created Trump.”
Former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sits at his desk during an interview in his Las Vegas office. Krystal Ramirez for Vox
If Reid thinks the Senate is a shell of its former self, Republicans would likely tell the former Senate majority leader he helped hasten its demise. Reid was an effective but controversial leader, who will be remembered for “going nuclear” in 2013, blowing up the Senate filibuster that was long considered sacred.
Reid attributes that to a matter of practicality, saying he had “no choice” in the face of McConnell obstructing former President Barack Obama’s court and Cabinet picks.
“It was the right thing to do,” he told me bluntly.
Reid blames congressional Republicans for the fall of the Senate — pointing to their conduct on Obama’s Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland, who never got a vote. More recently, he watched as Senate Republicans allowed Trump to issue an emergency declaration in an attempt to fund his border wall. With that precedent now set, Reid warned Democrats could do something similar in the future on an issue like gun control.
The former leader, 79, is now three years retired and returning to work after undergoing treatment for pancreatic cancer (which he recently said is in remission). Reid is largely confined to a wheelchair these days but seems on top of his game. With a steady stream of Democrats running for president seeking out his advice on policy, he’s certainly still an influential player in Nevada and national politics.
Reid has not endorsed a Democrat in the 2020 race. But he’s warning the entire party that winning the election is no given and Trump could very well succeed again. “We have to first approach this recognizing that he could be reelected,” Reid said. “We cannot let this man be elected again. I think he has to be taken on. You need to fight him, but not on his terms, on your terms.”
And he was clear: Democrats should try to beat Trump in 2020, not waste their time attempting to impeach the president. Even with the current “tribalism” on Capitol Hill, Reid told me it’s crucial for Congress to do their work rather than become mired in impeachment.
“We’ll get nothing done if there’s impeachment proceedings,” he said. “We’d spend all of our time on that; nothing else.”
In a lengthy interview, Reid reflected on the state of Congress and Democratic politics — complete with his signature burns.
Ella Nilsen
I wanted to ask you about the filibuster. Do you stand by your decision to get rid of the filibuster for most presidential nominations in 2013?
Harry Reid
Let’s go back and look where we were. Obama was president of the United States. We had the DC Circuit that was four, five members short. DC Circuit is the second most important court in the country, right below the Supreme Court. The Republicans don’t like organized labor, they couldn’t take them on directly, so what they did is defang the National Labor Relations Board. They couldn’t even get a quorum because they wouldn’t approve any new people coming on the board.
We had Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officers that Obama couldn’t get approved. So we had no choice; I had no choice. And that’s why the Democrats agreed to change the rules. Now, first of all, understand the rules have been changed in the Senate lots and lots of times. I did it; it was the right thing to do. We approved over 100 judges for Obama, we filled all his Cabinet and sub-Cabinet officers with rare exception, we took care of the National Labor Relations Board, we did a lot of good things. And it would not have happened otherwise. We had to do that or the White House, the president, would become a meaningless person.
Ella Nilsen
Some 2020 candidates including Elizabeth Warren have called for the elimination of the filibuster entirely. Do you agree?
Harry Reid
No, I don’t. I think it should be done gradually. I didn’t author, but I approved, an article written by one of my longtime staff members, Bill Dauster, in the NYU Law Journal. It was a good, good article, because what it said was unless things changed, the House of Representatives was just going to move across the Capitol and you would have two Houses of Representatives. Now, would that be the end of the world? No, because it would still be bicameral. But you would have a simple majority determine what happens in the Senate. As I said, it’s not the end of the world for the Senate, but it would be better if we didn’t do it.
In the past, the filibuster has been used very sparingly. However, the Republican Congress in the last many years have filibustered everything so that 60 votes became the vote. As we wrote in that article, unless it changed, the House of Representatives will move across the hall and we’ll just have two Houses of Representatives.
Ella Nilsen
With that question about obstruction, when you look at what Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has done, what is the mark you think he has left on the Senate?
Harry Reid
Well, I think the worst thing that was done by the Republicans has been what they’ve done with the Supreme Court. To think — now, first of all, the chairman of the Republican Judiciary Committee when they were in the majority, [Orrin] Hatch from Utah, said the most qualified person to be a Supreme Court Justice is Merrick Garland. He said that. I’m not making this up; that’s what he said. And so when Merrick Garland came up … we were all very happy, but Orrin Hatch walked away from it and this man never even got a vote. So that’s what the Republicans have caused to happen in the Senate. If they have a black mark against them, it is certainly what they’ve done with the Supreme Court.
Ella Nilsen
When you got rid of the filibuster in 2013, were you concerned that it would be taken a step further with the Supreme Court? And now, given what McConnell has done with the Supreme Court?
Harry Reid
Well, that’s possible. As I said, the rules in the Senate have been changed many, many times over the years. But what goes around comes around. Republicans, for example, voting to give — hard to mention his name as president — President Trump the authority to make an emergency declaration for this wall. If they do that, they’ve set a precedent to say, “Okay, seems to me if he can do that for a wall, then we can do something about guns.” 57,000 Americans are killed every year. So I repeat, what goes around comes around. They better be careful.
Ella Nilsen
If we did get to a point where the filibuster was eliminated, do you think it would be possible to govern in such a closely divided Senate?
Harry Reid
Oh, sure, of course. It would be easier probably to do that than what the Republicans are doing now, causing a filibuster on everything. You need 60 votes on everything — that isn’t the way it should be. The Congress would still work, [but] it wouldn’t work nearly as well as it has in the past because of the rules in the Senate. But if we changed them, the Senate would still have six-year terms; they would have to, as Jefferson said, pour the coffee in the saucer and let it cool off. It wouldn’t end the world of Congress.
Reid responds to questions during a Vox interview.Krystal Ramirez for Vox
Ella Nilsen
What do you think about McConnell tying himself so closely to Trump?
Harry Reid
Well, I know Mitch McConnell; I consider him a friend. I can’t imagine how the Republicans are being so compliant on everything he [Trump] wants. What’s the Senate all about?
As I always said, I didn’t work for the president, I worked with him. We are a separate branch of government — we’re the legislative branch of government. Let the White House, which is the executive branch of government, do what they want to do. But we should be a buttress to keep the White House from going crazy, as this one has done.
Ella Nilsen
So you don’t think that’s happening now — do you feel the Senate or McConnell is serving the president?
Harry Reid
I think the Senate has lost their way.
Ella Nilsen
Are McConnell and Trump matching your and Obama’s legacy on judicial nominations at this point?
Harry Reid
[long pause] Matching … if you just go by numbers, of course they’re fairly equal at this stage. But I think if you look at quality, they’re not close.
Ella Nilsen
Are you concerned, though, about the number of Trump/McConnell judges that are now going to serve lifetime appointments, given some of their track records?
Harry Reid
Yeah, but of course, they’re concerned about what we did too. But I hope that the judges who are put in the courts around the country will understand they’re a separate branch of government. Once they get to be a judge, they no longer have to please Donald Trump. They are lifetime appointments. And we find around the country that a lot of these judges who I think a lot of people thought would just roll over and play dead for this administration aren’t doing it.
Ella Nilsen
How do you think Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer have handled President Trump so far, with the government shutdown and now all this talk about impeachment?
Harry Reid
Well, I served as leader when Pelosi was the speaker the first go-round, and I have such admiration for her, and the public feels about the same way I do. She has been one of the few people that took on Trump, and he had no answer to her questions and her pressure. Sen. Schumer and I have a longstanding relationship. Everyone knows that I brought him into Senate leadership. He did very well. As a leader, I hope I helped prepare him for that, but I’m not in any way [going] to second-guess him. I think the world of Chuck Schumer; we will always be friends. So I’m the wrong guy to ask, because I’m prejudiced.
Ella Nilsen
Well, looking at the challenges Trump has posed. The shutdown, when I was covering that, it felt like DC was gripped by this chaos.
Harry Reid
Well, I, during my political career, have heard people talk about the Constitution and the framework it has to protect our country. I never really felt that until Trump was elected president; I really feel that now. I think we’re going to overcome Trump because of our Constitution. We’re going to get through the next less-than-two years of him and then we’re going to have a new day. As Pete Seeger sings, “I can see a new day, soon to be, when the storm clouds will soon pass.” But I do believe that. I think that Trump will be gone because of our great Constitution. Our country will move on and get past that.
Ella Nilsen
There’s been a lot of discussion about impeachment since the Mueller report came out. Do you think Democrats should pursue that?
Harry Reid
There’s some who say the Mueller report is only an invitation for impeachment. Now, that would be a better view if it was a year ago. But it’s now; it’s not long until the 2020 election. I have no problem with there being hearings held based on the Mueller information. But I think to have impeachment now would eat up precious time we have before the general election, and I think even though there’s a lot of tribalism going on in Congress — some say, “Well, we’re not going to get anything done anyway.” I don’t believe that. We have to get a few things done, we can do that, and we’ll get nothing done if there’s impeachment proceedings. We’d spend all of our time on that, nothing else.
Ella Nilsen
Trump is talking with House Speaker Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Schumer about an infrastructure plan. Do you have any hope anything bipartisan is going to happen?
Harry Reid
We’re not going to get anything done unless it’s done on a bipartisan basis. That’s the way it is, no matter who’s president. And Trump, even though he hasn’t been good at most things … he’s a great starter but a lousy finisher. He starts a lot of stuff and rarely finishes anything. So I would think there’s hope for a good deal on the need for infrastructure. A trillion dollars — it’s more than that, but let’s start at $1 trillion. We have highways, roads, bridges, dams, waterways, sewer systems, just to name a few things that are deeply in trouble. We have water lines leaking all over America, and why aren’t they being fixed? Because people don’t have money to do it. Governments don’t have money to do it.
Now, we all agree there should be something done on infrastructure, so how are we going to pay for it? I don’t even think you can find a Republican writer, a journalist, that says anything good about the Trump tax cut. It just didn’t help; it didn’t help anyone. And I would hope we could use some of that money for infrastructure. We need to have money to pay for the infrastructure. It’s good to go to a meeting in the White House and say how much we need to improve our infrastructure system, it’s another thing to say we have problems with our infrastructure but we need to pay for it, and then outline how it’s going to be paid for.
Ella Nilsen
If Democrats can’t show a bipartisan achievement like infrastructure or another piece of legislation, could that hurt the party in 2020?
Harry Reid
I don’t think there’s any way to blame Democrats for the problems we have in Congress. Trump did not create the Republican Congress; the Republican Congress created Trump. It would be really a stretch to blame Democrats for things not getting done in this Congress.
Ella Nilsen
What do you think about the current push for Medicare-for-all in the House? They recently held hearings.
Harry Reid
Well, one of the things I’m very pleased that I worked hard on and we accomplished was Obamacare. That was very, very hard to get the votes to pass that. Pelosi and I were running the Congress at that time and we were able to get it done. A tremendous accomplishment for this country, and we know what it’s done: It’s improved the health care delivery system in America today. The Republicans have done what they could to chop it up and try to get rid of it; they haven’t been able to do that. They’re afraid to get rid of it.
But I think what we need to do is go back and restore Obamacare and keep progressing in that way. It’s easy to talk about Medicare-for-all and just eliminating everything and have it change tomorrow, but it’s much harder to do; it’s not that easy. And I think we would be better off going back and taking care of Obamacare, which did so many good things for so many different people. It allowed people who had prior disabilities who couldn’t get insurance [to get it]. Insurance companies ran roughshod over everybody. They couldn’t do that with Obamacare. But now they’ve weakened that a lot. So now what I say is let’s go back and restore Obamacare to make it better.
Ella Nilsen
How do Democrats defeat Trump in 2020?
Harry Reid
We have to first approach this recognizing that he could be reelected. We cannot let this man be elected again. I think he has to be taken on. I keep reminding the American people what’s in the Mueller report, what they see every day about his fabrications, about things people can’t believe he fabricates. This man who is president of the United States brags about what he can do to women, what he has done to women. I think he has to be taken on. You can’t take it lightly, but you can’t walk away from him, be afraid to fight him. You need to fight him, but not on his terms, on your terms.
Ella Nilsen
What do those terms look like?
Harry Reid
Take him head on. Let’s talk about an issue. Talk about health care delivery. Talk about what he’s done to foreign relations, what he’s done to our trade policy, what he’s done with renewable energy, which is nothing. What he’s done to destroy the environment, which is a lot. He ignores climate change — the most significant problem facing mankind today, or maybe ever. He doesn’t think it exists.
Ella Nilsen
Do you think Democrats are better off saying, “Look at these issues, here’s what he’s done on these issues,” rather than focusing on the Mueller report and Russia — this thing that’s consuming Washington?
Harry Reid
I think it’s a mix of both. I think that you can’t put your playbook and just have one play; you need to be able to adjust as time goes on.
Ella Nilsen
Looking at some of the candidates that are running, you see this left-wing populism coming from Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren. Do you think that is an effective counter to the right-wing populism that Trump embodies?
Harry Reid
It’s a little more loud now than in the past. But ever since I’ve been involved in national politics, the Republicans are monitored and pushed by the far right. That’s the way it’s always been. Democrats have always been pushed by the left. That’s why we had the big flare-up in Chicago when [Hubert] Humphrey was running for president [in 1968]. So it’s always been there. It’s just louder than it’s been in the past.
Ella Nilsen
Even than in the ’60s?
Harry Reid
Oh, yeah, I think so.
Ella Nilsen
Why do you think it’s gotten so much louder?
Harry Reid
Because of Trump. I think he’s so outrageous in so many things he does that people are trying to find a way to respond to that. And as I said, I think that for example, on health care delivery, we’re not going to change the world in a day, but we can change it a few hours at a time and restore Obamacare to what it was and make it even better. On climate change, we’re not going to change it overnight, but we have these things we have to do. Renewable energy is something… we need to get rid of coal — get rid of it! Fossil fuels, do everything we can to get rid of it. America can supply all the energy it needs with wind and sun and geothermal and biomass, all kinds of things. We do not need fossil fuel.
I fought coal in Nevada; we don’t have one plant left in Nevada. It’s on its way out. People don’t want coal. We have Trump — he held out false hope for the coal industry. It’s gone, it’s just a question of how long it’s going to hang around, and we need to speed up its demise.
Ella Nilsen
What 2020 candidates are you keeping your eye on? There are so many of them now.
Harry Reid
Well, I had the good fortune of being able to visit with almost all of them. I have a meeting over the weekend with Beto [O’Rourke]. So we’re fortunate to have the good people running that we do. I of course served with Joe Biden in the Senate for 34 years; he’s a friend of mine. We’ve got our caucuses coming here next February, so I’m going to be very, very cautious and not endorse anyone. But everyone knows of my affection for Joe Biden.
Ella Nilsen
It seemed like Biden’s pitch when he announced was, first of all, taking Trump on very directly. And then also it seemed to me kind of a return to the Obama years, and I’m curious if you think that’s an effective pitch to the American people.
Harry Reid
Joe Biden’s rollout was very, very good, because it made a contrast to what we’re doing now under the Trump administration and what he has done. But he did it very, very subtly and very well, because remember he was eight years vice president for Obama. So I think everyone quickly realized that he’s not going to have Obama before the primary out waving banners for him, but everyone knows of their close relationship.
Ella Nilsen
What about Elizabeth Warren? There were reports you encouraged her to run for president for 2020. Why was that, and have you encouraged anyone else?
Harry Reid
Those reports are absolutely true. Her chief of staff and campaign manager was my former press secretary, so I have a longstanding relationship with Sen. Warren. I helped her get started and put her on that commission; she did a great job. To make a long story short, we wanted her after we passed Dodd-Frank to be in charge of consumer affairs in the White House and the Republicans stopped her from doing that, so she ran for the Senate. I wish they had given her that job. She’s done well. I think the world of her; she knows I can’t endorse her, I can’t endorse Joe or anybody else. But that doesn’t mean I can’t tell everybody how good they are.
Ella Nilsen
What do you think she brings to the campaign?
Harry Reid
First of all, she brings a Harvard brain with her. Being a law professor at Harvard, she’s a very, very bright woman. She is someone who I think is respected for what she’s done, not what she plans to do but what she’s done. … She started with nothing, became a single mother, got out of school because she was smart, and has done well.
Reid sits in his old chair from the US Senate. Krystal Ramirez for Vox
Ella Nilsen
On the Nevada caucuses, what have Democrats in Nevada done in order to turn out the Latino/Hispanic vote that other states have struggled to do?
Harry Reid
There was an article that came out today that was so good. It talked about the reason that [Jacky] Rosen beat [then-Sen. Dean] Heller was the strong, strong Hispanic vote. I had been a fan of Hispanics and their organizations for a long, long time and people actually used to make fun of me. “Why are you going to do that? A lot of them are illegal; they never register to vote. If they are registered to vote, they don’t vote and turnout’s awful.”
When I ran last time, they thought they had me. The first ad they ran [was] “Harry Reid, the best friend illegal immigrants ever had,” and it had all these dark people look like they were coming across the water or something. And all it did was make Hispanics mad. So they joined together and reelected me. People said I couldn’t be reelected, leaders never do well in the state and it hurts to be a national leader. I did just fine and from that day forward — people around the country understood that Hispanics make a difference, and they do.
Ella Nilsen
Do you see that happening in 2020 with Trump’s rhetoric on immigrants?
Harry Reid
Oh, sure, yes, I think so. As I said two years ago here in Nevada, they make all the difference. [They] elected Congresswoman Jacky Rosen, who had only served one term in the House and became a senator.
Ella Nilsen
I feel like states like Texas have struggled to do this in the same way. Do you think there are other state parties who haven’t quite figured out how to do it?
Harry Reid
Texas has always been a difficult state. I’ve tried many times to elect a senator there. The problem we’ve had in Texas is there’s 22 separate media markets. It’s so expensive. But Beto did pretty well. I wish he had run against [John Cornyn], but he decided not to do that. But I just think that Texas is demographically a Democratic state; it’s only a question of time until they become one.
Ella Nilsen
How important are the Nevada caucuses in 2020?
Harry Reid
Well, I worked hard to get them established. It’s also been good for the country. The four early states — South Carolina, Nevada, Iowa, New Hampshire’s the only direct vote; the rest are caucus states. Nevada is the only state that is representative of our country: 30 percent Hispanic, 9 percent African American. Our balance is so interesting. We have a heavy Filipino population here. So the caucuses are just remarkably good for the country. If you want to do well in the West, you have to come to Nevada because we educate people in public lands, we advise them on renewable energy, we educate on nuclear waste, how bad it is.
Ella Nilsen
When you look at the power that Iowa and New Hampshire have, do you see Western states like Nevada and California taking a chunk of that power and getting to decide the president?
Harry Reid
Oh, yeah, for sure. And look what’s happened in the last few years. Two Democratic senators in California, two in Washington, two in Oregon. The West Coast is pretty Democratic, and we even got a Democratic congressman out of Utah, can you believe that?
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