El editor principal en Facebook durante 2016, el Huffington Post, este año comenzó a impulsar la diversificación hacia Twitter e Instagram, según Ethan Klapper, el editor global de redes sociales de la web de noticias. “Junto con ese cambio concentrado en las plataformas, hace que el equipo social se concentre en los temas y los públicos, en lugar de centrarse en las plataformas”.
This week’s White House Report Card finds President Trump continuing to be frustrated by immigration policy and stunted on replacing Obamacare, highlights in conservative analyst Jed Babbin’s poor grade. But as Democratic pollster John Zogby notes, the economy is still making jobs and the president is remaking the federal judiciary.
Jed Babbin Grade D
President Trump had a very rough political week beginning with his threat to close the Mexican border and ending with him walking it back. In between were a vote in the House to end our involvement in the war in Yemen, frustrations with the mess in Venezuela, and the latest setback on his old promise to repeal Obamacare.
Trump is justifiably frustrated by Mexico’s failure to help prevent endless streams of illegal immigrants entering the U.S. The tsunami of illegals now amounts to 100,000 per month, over a million per year. He’s also justified and frustrated by the Democrats’ dedication to open borders. But he apparently can’t do anything about that either. His threat to close the border was cheered by his base, but everyone else — ranging from liberals who feared an avocado shortage and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to industries that benefit most from trade with Mexico — was appalled. It was a lousy idea that Trump walked back before the week ended, saying that Mexico was doing better over the past couple of days.
At that point, Trump decided to give Mexico another year to deal with the flood of illegals and drugs smuggled into the U.S., threatening tariffs on cars made in Mexico. The whole exercise made him appear uncertain and very weak.
The best Trump can do — and is doing — is to end financial aid to Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, which are the primary sources of illegal aliens coming in the current flood. It’s a satisfying move, but probably won’t do anything to slow the flow of illegal aliens coming across the U.S.-Mexico border.
The House voted on a resolution to end our involvement in the Saudi war against Yemeni rebels who are a proxy force of Iran. Our involvement was already limited, the aerial refueling of Saudi aircraft by American tanker aircraft having ended. The Senate passed the same resolution earlier. The resolution now heads to the White House, where Trump will exercise his veto power for the second time.
Trump wanted to set up the Obamacare repeal for another round of campaigning in 2020. His promise to repeal the law fell flat in his first two years and now McConnell has said there won’t be any votes on Obamacare repeal until after the 2020 election.
As if that weren’t enough, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke about the buildup of Russian troops in Venezuela. Lavrov said that Russia wasn’t trying to establish another Syria in Venezuela. Which, of course, is precisely what Russia is trying to do with the help of Iran which also has troops there. Venezuela, like Syria, will become a strategic challenge unforeseen by the United States until it is too late to prevent. In Venezuela, Russia’s involvement (and Iran’s) is a violation of the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which prohibits foreign involvement in the Western Hemisphere.
Lavrov’s words taunted Trump, who has said that “all options” were on the table regarding removal of Venezuela’s socialist dictator, Nicholás Maduro. The last time a president enforced the Monroe Doctrine against Russian intervention in our hemisphere brought about the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
John Zogby Grade C
President Trump is still in the White House and he is making policy. There is a possible new trace pact with China. And talks between the administrations of Trump and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will continue. Slowly but surely the president is remaking the federal courts and unemployment stands at 3.8% after the economy added almost 200,000 new jobs in March.
Trump is still rallying and using his bully (!!!) pulpit to push for a fence on the southern border and is not afraid to alienate Mexico in the process. He also has ordered cutting tens of millions of dollars in aid to the Central American nations whose people are the major sources of entry at our border. Critics argue that such aid enables governments to provide aid and services to potential migrants in their home country.
Americans will write our own economic destiny. Never believe the pessimists: Pro-growth, pro-worker policies work.
And now the president is suggesting that he would like to appoint Herman Cain to the Federal Reserve. Will interest rates be lowered to just .0999%?
Jed Babbin is an Examiner contributor and former deputy undersecretary of defense in the administration of former President George H.W. Bush. Follow him on Twitter @jedbabbin
Democrats are giving themselves some room for movement in bipartisan congressional negotiations over border security funding.
Less than a week after the shutdown ended, House Democrats are walking a fine line of avoiding being seen as soft on Trump’s goal of building a wall while also not appearing obstinate in talks aimed at preventing another shutdown.
Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday downplayed the need for physical barriers during the first meeting of the bicameral committee tasked with finding a border security compromise by Feb. 15. But they also didn’t close the door entirely.
When asked afterward if physical barriers are off the table, Lowey was noncommittal.
“At this point, I’m certainly not going to give an answer to that question,” she told reporters.
Rep. Henry Cuellar (Texas), a centrist Democrat on the 17-member conference committee, said House Democrats were approaching the negotiations in staunch opposition to any new barriers along the U.S.-Mexico border.
“The bottom line is, my position is no,” Cuellar said shortly before the start of the conference meeting.
But Cuellar, who represents a district along the Mexican border, also hinted that there’s room for give-and-take.
“I’m saying no, but we’re negotiators and we’ll talk,” he said.
Trump dug in on his demand for a border wall Wednesday ahead of the conference meeting.
“If the committee of Republicans and Democrats now meeting on Border Security is not discussing or contemplating a Wall or Physical Barrier, they are Wasting their time!” Trump tweeted.
House Democratic conferees unveiled the outline of a border security proposal that calls for funding 1,000 new customs officers; new technology at ports of entry to scan vehicles for illicit drugs; equipment for mail processing facilities to detect opioids; and repair projects at ports of entry.
For now, Democrats are not agreeing to money for new barriers.
“We do not support a medieval border wall from sea to shining sea,” Jeffries said. “However, we are willing to support fencing where it makes sense. But it should be done in an evidence-based fashion.”
“The negotiations of the conference committee are going to be hopefully directed at, how do we best make our borders secure, and they will come up with an answer to that question and propose it,” Hoyer told reporters Tuesday.
“I have a record of supporting barriers in the past, so I’m not running from that,” Thompson said Wednesday. “I just think that over time you have to develop and see whether or not there are ways of accomplishing what you want other than barriers, if it can be accomplished. Some places, barriers are probably the optimal.”
When asked Wednesday if a border security deal could include physical barriers, another progressive Democrat, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (Ariz.) replied, “At this point, no.”
“I’ll see what the details of that are and how they define that. But, you know, wall across the border is ridiculous. The cost is ridiculous,” said Grijalva, whose district includes part of the border with Mexico.
Republicans are also indicating room for compromise on the border wall fight.
“Physical barriers would be fine,” McCarthy said, adding that the terms “wall” and “barrier” are equivalent to him and Trump.
“Inside the meetings we’ve had, he’s said it could be a barrier, it could be a wall,” McCarthy said. “Because what a barrier does, it’s still the same thing. It’s the 30-foot steel slat, that’s a barrier.”
Virginia and national Republicans have joined the bipartisan chorus demanding the resignation of Virginia’s Democratic governor. But many of the same people now decrying his racist behavior have done little to nothing to impede racists in their own party or to fight against legal discrimination.
Since the news broke Friday that an image of two people, one in blackface and one dressed as a Ku Klux Klansman appeared on Gov. Ralph Northam’s (D-VA) medical school yearbook page, condemnations from Virginia and national politicians and activists have been swift.
Northam first apologized for appearing in the racist photo, then denied having been in the photo at all, and then acknowledged that he had appeared in blackface around the same time elsewhere — but this has done little to quell the nearly universal calls from Democrats and Republicans alike for him to resign from office.
But as the push for Northam’s resignation quickly spread, several progressives online began pointing out the double standard. Many noted that few of the same folks have called for the resignation of white supremacist Rep. Steve King (R-IA) or spoken out against racist President Donald Trump as he defended white nationalists, pushed for a Muslim ban, demonized Mexican immigrants, and made voter suppression a priority for his administration. Reminders that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and House Republican Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R) also appeared with racist organizations went viral. And others noted the irony that the Virginia Republican Party nominated racist George Allen for Senate in 2006 and 2012 and pro-Confederate Corey Stewart for U.S. Senate just last year.
I have never understood how McConnell has managed to dodge this photo. Look at that smile. pic.twitter.com/hwQyaH65an
REMINDER: In 2002 (aka 1984+18), the man who is now #2 in GOP leadership in House spoke at David Duke’s white supremasist organization conference.https://t.co/NddCqu3GyM
“Racism has no place in Virginia,” said Jack Wilson, chairman of the @VA_GOP. Wilson endorsed Corey Stewart, an actual neo-Confederate for U.S. Senate. “A Senator Stewart would be much better for Virginia and Republicans than a Senator Kaine,” Wilson was quoted saying last July.
In addition to the heads of the Republican National Committee and Republican Party of Virginia demanding Northam step down and Trump himself calling Northam’s actions “unforgivable,” numerous other prominent Republicans have selectively criticized Northam but done little else about racism in their party and public policy. They include:
Rep. Rob Wittman (R-VA)
The senior Republican in Virginia’s Congressional delegation, condemned Northam and said the state needs a leader who can move “who is moving us forward, not backward.” But he has not demanded the resignation of King, endorsed Corey Stewart in 2018, and declined to co-sponsor the Voting Rights Advancement Act in the last Congress.
Rep. Ben Cline (R-VA)
The first term Republican congressman was a long-time member of the Virginia House of Delegates prior to January. In that time, he voted for Virginia’s strict voter ID law and campaigned alongside Corey Stewart. He condemned the “racist behavior depicted in the photos” and urged Northam to “make the best decision for the future of our Commonwealth and step down immediately.”
Virginia House and Senate GOP leaders
Virginia State Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment, Speaker of the House of Delegates Kirk Cox, House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert, House Majority Whip Nick Rush, and House Republican Caucus Chair Tim Hugo all demanded the governor resign. The House leaders said that Northam’s “ability to lead and govern is permanently impaired and the interests of the Commonwealth necessitate his resignation.”
Each one also voted for strict photo ID laws. Norment even sued former Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D) to stop his voter re-enfranchisement plan and offered a constitutional amendment to permanently ban people committed of violent felonies from ever regaining the right to vote.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX)
Cruz tweeted that “anybody who voluntarily chooses to celebrate the evil & bigoted KKK is unfit for public office.” But since running against Trump for president in 2016, Cruz has been one of his most enthusiastic supporters and has not criticized his racist behavior. After Steve King’s latest round of white nationalist comments emerged last month, Cruz called them “stupid” but refused to even say that he would not back his longtime political ally in the future. Cruz has not supported the Voting Rights Advancement Act, backs strict voter ID laws, and supported a repeal of the Voting Rights Act’s pre-clearance provisions.
Sen. Rick Scott(R-FL)
The new senator from Florida demanded Northam resign after seeing his “horrible” yearbook picture. But over his two terms as governor, Scott was noted by the Palm Beach Post for rejecting almost all civil rights restoration requests by people with felony convictions in Florida — unless the applicants were white. He also spent much of his tenure fighting to illegally purge voters from the rolls based on a list so error-riddled that even Republican elections supervisors refused to carry out his scheme. Scott defended then-gubernatorial candidate Ron DeSantis (R) last summer following his racist comments about the Democratic nominee who is black, saying, “I know he didn’t mean any ill will.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy(R-CA)
McCarthy tweeted that after his “past racist behavior,” Northam’s “[s]taying in office only poisons efforts to grow together as one nation.” McCarthy has strongly backed Trump and has not backed the Voting Rights Advancement Act — nor did he take any action during his four-plus years as House Majority Leader to bring a voting rights legislation up for consideration. While he stripped King of committee assignments, McCarthy pointedly refused to call for his resignation, saying that should be left up to him.
Rep. Larry Bucshon (R-IN)
Bucshon opined that Northam “should resign” because there is “no place in our society for racism in any form.” But he has not made similar demands of King or Trump and has not co-sponsored the Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL)
Gaetz has repeatedlytweetedmocking Northam about his racist yearbook and his subsequent denials with comments like, “No way America buys that it was two random people on #RalphNortham’s yearbook page right?”
Gaetz is a fierce Trump defender who actually thanked him for his comments after the deadly white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017. At the time, Trump blamed the violence on “both sides.” Gatez has also not called for King to resign and has not backed the Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
Stefanik tweeted, “Virginians deserve a new Governor. Ralph Northam should resign.” But she has not called for King to resign, has not backed the Voting Rights Advancement Act, and drew criticism for her initial response to Charlottesville which initially simply condemned “hatred and bigotry.”
Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC)
Walker tweeted: “If you don a mask or a hood of racism and hatred you have no business in our public discourse. Governor Northam needs to step aside.” But he has not made the same demand of King, saying only, “Republicans as a whole have tried to respect the voters’ wishes, specifically in Iowa in this case. Even though we’ve had some things we’ve gone on record and publicly disagreed with Mr. King on, I think it’s reached a place that any time — it’s kind of like a football team. . . . If it begins to impact the team in a negative way, then you have a team meeting and say we’ve got to work on this.” Though he has made much of his occasional efforts to boost GOP outreach to black voters, he has not co-sponsored the Voting Rights Advancement Act.
Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY)
Zeldin tweeted that Northam was “guilty of lying with a straight face” about his yearbook and urged him to go to church on Sunday and resign on Monday. But he has not backed the Voting Rights Advancement Act, has not called on King to resign, and actually defended Trump’s “both sides” reaction to Charlottesville, saying, “I would add though that it is not right to suggest that President Trump is wrong for acknowledging the fact that criminals on both sides showed up for the purpose of being violent. That particular observation is completely true.” Zeldin also hosted a 2018 fundraising event featuring Sebastian Gorka (the former Trump aide with ties to a Hungarian Nazi party) and Steve Bannon (Trump’s former chief strategist and former head of a white-nationalist-tied Breitbart website).
Ryan Koronowski contributed research to this story.
La trama de los supuestos contactos que mantuvieron miembros de la campaña del presidente Donald Trump con funcionarios rusos continúa abierta, después de que la cadena CNN revelara este jueves que la Casa Blanca intententara sin éxito que el FBI desacreditara públicamente las informaciones periodísticas que sacaron a la luz estos supuestos vínculos.
Los contactos, según la CNN, los inició el jefe de gabinete de la Casa Blanca, Reince Priebus, que habló sobre el asunto con el subdirector del Buró Federal de Investigaciones (FBI), Andrew McCabe, al día siguiente de la publicación del artículo, aprovechando una reunión sobre otro tema que tuvo lugar en la residencia presidencial.
Priebus volvió a contactar después a McCabe y al director del FBI, James Comey, para pedirles que la agencia hablara con periodistas bajo condición de anonimato para refutar las informaciones de prensa sobre Rusia, según CNN.
No obstante, otra fuente de la Casa Blanca consultada por la cadena subrayó que los contactos de Priebus fueron después de que McCabe le llamara tras ver el artículo para decirle que The New York Times exageró sobre lo que el FBI sabía de esos contactos.
En cualquier caso el contacto directo entre un funcionario de la Casa Blanca y el FBI es un asunto delicado puesto que existen restricciones legales, que prohíben este tipo de contactos cuando aluden a investigaciones pendientes.
Este fue el motivo por el que Comey rechazó la petición para comentar los reportes de prensa, aseguraron las fuentes a CNN, puesto que sabía que las comunicaciones a las que hacían referencia entre los asesores de Trup y Rusia eran investigados por los servicios de inteligencia estadounidenses.
El presidente Trump salió desde su cuenta de Twitter este viernes a criticar a la agencia a la que acusó de “ser incapaz de terminar con las ‘personas de la seguridad nacional que filtran’ y que se han propagado por nuestro gobierno durante mucho tiempo. No son capaces de encontrarlos siquiera dentro del FBI. Información clasificada se ha dado a los medios y podría tener un efecto devastador para Estados Unidos”. Trump además instó a buscarlos a los responsables de manera inmediata.
The FBI is totally unable to stop the national security “leakers” that have permeated our government for a long time. They can’t even……
El secretario de prensa de la Casa Blanca, Sean Spicer, rechazó el reporte de la CNN. “No intentamos descreditar la historia, les pedimos que dijeran la verdad”, señaló en declaraciones recogidas por la cadena. El FBI, por su parte, declinó hacer comentarios.
Los Comités de Inteligencia del Congreso investigan esos presuntos contactos rusos que tuvo la campaña de Trump, a pesar de que Priebus afirma que no hay nada en esos reportes, que calificó de “basura”.
FLY-PARTISAN — Presidents come and go, but flies remain at the White House — like, lots of them — and they’ve become a point of agreement between a Trump official and a Biden official who don’t have much else in common. JARED KUSHNER recently called Biden senior adviser CEDRIC RICHMOND to offer any help he could provide in the new job, but the conversation soon turned to the critters, a source familiar with the chat told us. (The flies have persisted going back at least to the Obama White House; some staffers in Trump’s West Wing used bug zappers.)
“Yeah man, they’re like bats,” Kushner told Richmond. “Good luck.” When we asked Richmond for comment, he emailed us back: “I prefer not. lol.”
MCCARTHY’S LATEST TRUMP CONUNDRUM— Just days after making nice with DONALD TRUMP by leading the ouster of Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) from his leadership ranks, House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY this week will once again find himself in a tough spot via-a-vis the former president.
One of his close allies and a member of his whip team, Rep. JOHN KATKO (R-N.Y.), struck a deal with Democrats on a 9/11-type commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot — and it’s set to come to the floor this week. That means McCarthy will once again have to choose between one of his members and Trump, who — let’s face it — will be none too pleased with any sort of independent commission investigating his actions.
We made some calls about this Sunday night, and here’s what you need to know going into the week:
—McCarthy appeared to diss the deal onFriday, telling reporters he hadn’t seen the details and doubling down on his belief that any commission should also probe violence that occurred amid racial tensions last summer. But multiple sources tell us that Katko was asked by McCarthy to negotiate with Democrats and was in touch with the leader’s office about what he wanted. They also said Katko got almost everything McCarthy asked for.
—Indeed, Democrats agreed to multiple demands from McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL, including equal representation and subpoena power for both parties, and finishing its work before 2022, when the midterms will kick into high gear. Notably, the bill tracks closely with a GOP bill introduced earlier this year that has 30 Republican co-sponsors.
—Katko’s team has told some Republicans that while the agreement’s language doesn’t specifically mention violence by left-wing protesters last summer, the commissioners can go there if they think it will help illuminate what happened on Jan. 6. (We’ll see if Democrats dispute this interpretation of the text.)
— Given all of that, some Republicans supportive of the deal aren’t pleased that McCarthy is keeping his distance — though they understand the bind he is in. “I think Kevin was hoping that the Democrats would never agree to our requests — that way the commission would be partisan and we can all vote no and say it’s a sham operation,” said one senior House Republican aide. “Because he knows Trump is going to lose his mind” over this commission.
—Don’t forget the context: The vote comes as some Republicans have started to equate what happened on Jan. 6 with regular protests, and as Cheney — appearing Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” — accused her party of trying to “whitewash” what happened.
THREE THINGS TO WATCH AS THE DRAMA UNFOLDS:
— The big question on House Republicans’ minds right now is whether McCarthy and House Minority Whip STEVE SCALISE (R-La.) will whip against the deal. Leaders are well aware that if they decided to muscle members to move against it en masse, they’d be effectively throwing Katko under the bus.
— Watch Trump. How vocal he is about this commission could determine its fate. It is almost certain to pass the Democratic House this week but then will need 10 Republican senators to go along.
— What will ELISE STEFANIK do? The New York Republican is close with Katko — but also just won her new position because she’s a fresh face in alliance with Trump. How does she navigate this vote in her first week on the job as conference chair?
THE COMING WELFARE DEBATE — The Biden administration is arguing with Republicans (and a few Democrats) about whether enhanced unemployment benefits are preventing some Americans from entering the labor force. And several Republican-led states have now decided not to accept the money from the federal government.
But many families are about to see another boost of support from Washington. The Treasury Department will announce today that on July 15 the expanded Child Tax Credit will kick in, and some 39 million American households with kids will start to receive monthly payments of as much as $300 per child under 6 and up to $250 per child over 6.
The program, which is set to expire after this year, is estimated to lift 5 million children out of poverty. President JOE BIDEN wants the program renewed through 2025, and other Democrats are pushing for a permanent extension.
Considering the program’s scale and cost ($1.6 trillion over 10 yearsif it were renewed), it sailed through Congress tucked into the American Rescue Plan with remarkably little debate and nary a Fox News segment attacking it. But as with expanded unemployment benefits, which most Republicans supported under Trump, if the labor market continues to struggle, look for the tax credit to come under attack from the right as a welfare program impeding full employment.
This could be a trend. As we saw in the Obama years with the Affordable Care Act, passing progressive legislation is one thing. Implementing it competently and defending it from GOP court challenges, state-level attacks and federal repeal efforts is quite another.
Biden is entering a phase where he will try to do both: pass two more enormous bills loaded with new climate, infrastructure, tax and social welfare policies, while simultaneously implementing what’s already been passed. That will offer new targets for his opponents.
BE BEST —Look out,MELANIA: The Biden White House has its own anti-bullying initiative — but it’s directed at its own staffers, who’ve been abuzz since Friday when a memo landed in their inboxes laying out the Biden administration’s “Safe and Respectful Work-Place Policy.” It states that “discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, retaliation, and bullying violate the respect owed to every employee at the White House.” Employees will receive compliance training, and they can report alleged infractions anonymously. The White House personnel office, in conjunction with the White House counsel, will investigate alleged violations.
The memo also includes this line: “The White House reserves the right to take any disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.”
Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook, where we (almost) never bully each other. Send us an email if you know why the White House sent this memo four months after Biden’s civility pledge — we’ll also let you report it anonymously: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.
BIDEN’S MONDAY — The president will leave Wilmington, Del., at 8:20 a.m. and get back to the White House at 9:15 a.m. Biden and VP KAMALA HARRIS will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9:50 a.m. Biden will deliver remarks about the pandemic and vaccines at 1 p.m. from the East Room.
— Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at noon.
THE SENATE will meet at 3 p.m. to take up the motion to proceed to the Endless Frontier Act, with a vote to invoke cloture at 5:30 p.m.
THE HOUSE will meet at noon, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.
BIDEN’S WEEK AHEAD — The president will head to Dearborn, Mich., on Tuesday to visit and speak at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. On Wednesday, he’s off to New London, Conn., to deliver the Coast Guard Academy commencement address. South Korean President MOON JAE-IN will arrive Friday for a bilateral meeting, including a press conference with Biden.
PLAYBOOK READS
INFRASTRUCTURE YEAR
TAX WARS — Our colleagues Ben White and Sarah Ferris are out with a pair of stories about the collision looming between corporate America and Democrats over Biden’s tax hikes. Reading the two pieces, you get the sense that someone is really, really miscalculating.
— Here’s Ben, writing about the business community “dismissing the threat” that tax hikes will pass:“Corporate executives and lobbyists in Washington, New York and around the country say they are confident they can kill almost all of these tax hikes by pressuring moderate Democrats in the House and Senate. And they think progressive Democrats don’t really care about the costs of new programs and will be happy to push through as much spending as they can and then run on tax hikes in 2022 rather than actually pass them this year.
“Interviews with over a dozen executives, lobbyists and business group officials turned up a similar theme: While Democrats might be able to push through a slightly higher top corporate rate, when it comes to higher taxes on the rich, on capital gains, on financial transactions or private equity profits, forget it. It’s not happening.”
— Meanwhile, Sarah has the dish on Biden and Democrats gambling that tax hikes can be popular (at least when levied on the rich …): “Poll after poll shows those proposals are broadly popular with voters, particularly amid a deadly pandemic that’s exacerbated the nation’s already stark economic divisions. While Democrats acknowledge that touting a tax hike — even if it’s just for top earners — carries risk, they see a dramatic shift in the politics of taxing the rich that they’re ready to use to their benefit.”
POLICY CORNER
AMERICAN FAMILIES PLAN WRANGLING — “Biden’s Plan for Free Community College Faces Resistance,”WSJ: “Republicans and some academics on both the left and right say that community college is already inexpensive and making it free wouldn’t sufficiently address deep-seated problems with the system: high dropout rates and entering students being unprepared for college-level work. …
“The Biden plan as introduced also relies on states contributing funds—about $1 for every $3 from the federal government—raising the question of whether states will go along. … Taking all sources into account, the U.S. spends more than any other developed country on its colleges and universities … and more per student, too. Advocates of community colleges say the sector is underfunded and underappreciated.”
CLIMATE FILES — “Biden’s climate agenda targets Black America with innovation, HBCU funding,”TheGrio: “The Biden administration is putting Black America at the center of the solution for climate change by expanding electric vehicle power stations into Black neighborhoods and dumping funds into HBCU renewable energy research.
“This as President Joe Biden is set to tour a Ford Electric Vehicle facility Tuesday. In an exclusive interview with theGrio, Energy Secretary JENNIFER GRANHOLM discussed this engagement as part of President Biden’s equity initiative that sparks tangible creativity and innovation from people who are not normally at the table or in the research lab.”
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
LATEST IN THE MIDDLE EAST — “Calls mount for Gaza-Israel cease-fire, greater U.S. efforts,”AP: “U.N. Security Council diplomats and Muslim foreign ministers convened emergency meetings Sunday to demand a stop to civilian bloodshed as Israeli warplanes carried out the deadliest single attacks in nearly a week of unrelenting Hamas rocket barrages and Israeli airstrikes.
“President Joe Biden gave no signs of stepping up any pressure on Israel to agree to an immediate cease-fire despite calls from some Democrats for the Biden administration to get more involved. His ambassador to the United Nations, LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, told an emergency high-level meeting of the Security Council that the United States was ‘working tirelessly through diplomatic channels’ to stop the fighting. … Appeals by other countries for Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers and Israel to stop their fire showed no sign of progress.”
— On Capitol Hill on Sunday night, Sens. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.) and TODD YOUNG (R-Ind.), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Middle East, released the first of what’s likely to be many bipartisan calls for peace this week as the death toll rises.
POLITICS ROUNDUP
CAN’T TOUCH THIS — “Teflon Joe muddies GOP’s midterm strategy”: David Siders’ lede says it all: “When the National Republican Senatorial Committee sought to attack four vulnerable Senate Democrats in a series of new ads this spring, President Joe Biden was nowhere to be found. Instead, the NRSC juxtaposed photographs of the senators — RAPHAEL WARNOCK of Georgia, MARK KELLY of Arizona, MAGGIE HASSAN of New Hampshire and CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO of Nevada — next to House Speaker NANCY PELOSI.
“Interviews with more than 25 GOP strategists and party officials depict a president whose avuncular style and genial bearing make him a less-than-ideal foil … In response, Republicans are preparing to break with time-honored custom and cast the president less as the central character in the midterm elections than as an accessory to the broader excesses of the left.”
GOP FLIPS THE SWITCH IN N.H. — Senate Republicans have been eyeing New Hampshire as one of their best pickup opportunities next year. Now they think they’ve got a star candidate to take on Hassan — and are using the same strategy Democrats deployed last cycle: recruiting a governor.
Burgess Everett and James Arkinwrite about the “full-court press” to woo Granite State Gov. CHRIS SUNUNU: “Sununu has the potential to be the most important Republican recruit of the cycle. He’s an incumbent three-term governor fresh off a 30-plus-point victory last year in a state Biden carried with relative ease. And he’s political royalty in the Granite State, the son of a former governor and White House chief of staff as well as the brother of a former senator.”
2022 WATCH — “Big stakes for Biden’s agenda, Democrats’ majority in Michigan,”NBC/Detroit: “Rep. ELISSA SLOTKIN, D-Mich., wants her party to be deliberate as it considers President Joe Biden’s proposals to spend $4 trillion on infrastructure, housing and family care … She wants to ‘make sure there’s nothing hidden on page 1,000 that dings the middle class’ and that any actions in Washington ‘keep our corporations competitive.’ …
“Their position on the front lines of the battle for control of the House means [Rep. HALEY] STEVENS and Slotkin could be a strong barometer for the viability of Biden’s proposals … Because Michigan is losing a seat, at least two of the state’s 14 House members … will be placed in the same district. … And it remains to be seen whether they will get to see the lines before they have to vote on the more controversial elements of Biden’s proposals.”
COMPETING NARRATIVES — “With violent crime spiking, the push for police reform collides with voters’ fears,”WaPo: “[W]ith shootings spiking in cities nationwide during the pandemic, there are growing signs that the thirst for [criminal justice] change is being blunted by fears of runaway crime. … Critical tests of just how far the pendulum has swung will come in the next several days and weeks, with a nationwide flurry of elections for mayor, district attorney and members of Congress.
“Although Republicans have long been skeptical of reform efforts, the races are concentrated in big cities and other areas that are friendly terrain for Democrats. They should offer, at least in theory, fertile ground for the sort of systemic overhauls that protesters who flooded the streets last summer were demanding. Yet the proposals on offer from leading candidates have tended to be more modest.”before they have to vote on the more controversial elements of Biden’s proposals.”
MEDIAWATCH
MEGA-MERGER — “AT&T Is Preparing to Merge Media Assets With Discovery,”Bloomberg: “A deal could be announced as soon as this week … The idea is to combine Discovery’s reality-TV empire with AT&T’s vast media holdings, building a business that would be a formidable competitor to Netflix Inc. and Walt Disney Co. Any deal would mark a major shift in AT&T’s strategy after years of working to assemble telecommunications and media assets under one roof.”
“There were improvements in techniques after JOHN KENNEDY’S assassination. But since then the Secret Service has been stretched thin by its expanding charter; hobbled by inadequate training and obsolescent weaponry; and plagued by mistrust between the rank-and-file and leadership. The agency has also been abused by its overseers … Time and again, in Leonnig’s telling, rather than taking a bullet for the president, the Secret Service has dodged one. … This book is a wake-up call.”
PLAYBOOKERS
IN MEMORIAM — WaPo’s @CarolLeonnig: “The entire @washingtonpost family weeps for 3 of our own. Sports editor David Larimer, who died at 47 after working half his life at the Post; his wife @terri_rupar, a superb editor who made everything better; their daughter Matilda.”
AND A NICE CHIANTI? — NPR White House reporter Tamara Keith tweeted a video of live cicadas, asking for your best recipes for … consumption. We’re curious if she went through with it. If Keith wants some variety in her bugs — a bug salad, perhaps — there are many to be had at the White House.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff has added Rukku Singla as deputy director for policy, Megha Bhattacharya as comms assistant and Zaina Javaid as deputy director for advance. Singla was most recently at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Bhattacharya on Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-Ga.) campaign and Javaid at Sunshine Sachs.
— Eva Millona will be assistant DHS secretary for partnership and engagement. She currently is president and CEO of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
— Mike Davis, Ian Prior, Will Chamberlain and Andy Surabian launched a new 501(c)(4) “The Unsilenced Majority,” to fight against cancel culture.
D.C. TIPTOES BACK TO MASKLESS LIFE: Olivia Reingold emails with some details about D.C.’s first weekend after the new CDC mask guidance:
CDC Director ROCHELLE WALENSKY framed the new mask rules as one step closer to normalcy, but the new Washington looked a lot like the old pandemic one. Checking in with mainstays like the Smithsonian museums and Politics and Prose bookstore made it clear they are continuing to ask patrons to wear masks until D.C. rules officially catch up with the new federal guidance. Despite the recent news that kids 12 and over can now get the Pfizer vaccine, schools like Georgetown Day say they don’t intend to revise their mask policies anytime soon.
One reader — a fully vaccinated 20-something ready to shed her mask and go drinking — saw no fewer than eight signs reminding her to mask up during an afternoon in Adams Morgan. Another said he was yelled at by a neighbor in the halls of his Dupont Circle apartment building for not wearing a mask.
Meanwhile, one high-ranking Democratic aide said his office didn’t have new guidance yet. “We’re just taking the weekend to make sure we understand from the Office of the Attending Physician to the CDC,” the person said, adding that they’re working on crafting an updated office mask policy. “I don’t know if legal counsel is going to suggest anything. We’re just reaching out to make sure we have all of our ducks in a row.”
They added that each Senate office already has its own Covid culture and that the new CDC guidance probably won’t do much to change that.
SPOTTED: Sen. JoniErnst (R-Iowa) on the American shuttle from New York to D.C. on Sunday afternoon.
TRANSITION — Lauren Smith is now head of federal regulatory engagement at Cruise. She previously was senior manager at Lyft, and is an Obama White House alum.
ENGAGED — Julie Tsirkin, NBC News Capitol Hill reporter and field producer, and Gavi Reichman, senior account executive at Yext, got engaged at Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Va. He surprised her with the proposal and by bringing in their families, close friends and puppy Stevie. The couple originally met freshman year at a Rutgers fraternity party, but didn’t start dating until they bumped into each other two years later at a Penn State/Rutgers football game at Penn State. Pic… Another pic
— Alex Gangitano, a new White House correspondent and soon-to-be-former lobbying reporter at The Hill, and Bryan Petrich, a consultant at Capco and 2021 Georgetown MBA grad, got engaged Saturday in Oxford, Md. He proposed during a beach picnic after kayaking. The couple originally met at Villanova and reconnected in D.C. Pic
WEDDINGS — Allison Auman, who works in comms at Boeing, and Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Anatoly Smith, a senior-level operator for 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) based out of Joint Base Lewis McChord, got married May 8 in Southern Pines, N.C. They met via modern romance (swiping right). Pic… Another pic
— Lila Nieves-Lee, VP of government affairs at Auto Drives America and a Tim Scott alum,and Adam Farris, legislative director toRep. Byron Donalds(R-Fla.), got married this weekend at Immaculate Conception Church, followed by a reception at the District Winery that featured a cake in the shape of the U.S. Capitol. Pic… Another pic… SPOTTED: Jennifer DeCasper, Kelsey Baron, Saat Alety, Alyssa Richardson, Emily Lavery, Kunal Parikh, Warren and Emily Tryon, Molly Quimby and Naomi Zeigler.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Blake Waggoner, director of public relations at PR firm OBI and an Edelman and Targeted Victory alum, and Erin Waggoner, who works on state government affairs at Verizon, on Thursday welcomed Brooks Daniel Waggoner, who came in at 8 lbs, 10 oz.Pic … Another pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (5-0) … NYT’s Mike Shear and Reid Epstein … NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell … Jim Lyons … DCCC’s Mike Smith … Rick Wiley … Kathleen Sullivan … Olivia Petersen of Morning Consult … former Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) (8-0) … former Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) … BP America’s Wynn Radford … Jeet Guram … Andy Post … Margarita Diaz … MacKenzie Smith … Cheryl Bruner … Camille Joseph … Chuck Raasch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch … Robin and Abigail Pogrebin … Adi Sathi … Randy Schriver … WaPo’s Peter Wallsten …Jenna Lowenstein … Rebecca Nelson … Megan Heckerman Curatolo … POLITICO’s Maura Kelly, Robin Turner,Sean Scott and Thao Sparling … Mike Farrell … Brittany Desch … Bloomberg’s Jeremy Lin … Rachel Palermo … Eric Sapirstein … Paul Blank … Blake Zeff … Jordan Dunn … Go Big Media’s Phillip Stutts … Derrick Robinson … CBPP’s Shannon Buckingham … Myra Freeman … Deirdre Murphy Ramsey of Precision Strategies … Derek Flowers … Ralph Neas … Leslie Ridle … Tim Del Monico … David Brancaccio … Gabrielle Hopkins … Margaret McInnis of Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s (D-Ohio) office (32)
Send Playbookers tips to [email protected]. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross.
In media news today, ‘The View’ gets mocked over a report the show is struggling to find a new Republican host, the Miami Beach mayor tells CNN that Gov. DeSantis has decided to ‘champion’ not taking the vaccine, and an MSNBC producer gets knocked for calling Chinese human rights abuses ‘alleged.’
During an interview with CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins, Brown University School of Public Health Dean Dr. Ashish K. Jha was asked whether the administration was missing a “critical window” for COVID testing heading into the new year.
“You saw President Biden yesterday acknowledging, pretty bluntly, that they need to do better when it comes to testing because we are seeing this nationwide shortage of those rapid at-home tests. It’s very difficult to just walk into a store and get one. And what we’re hearing from officials like Dr. Fauci is that they believe they’re gonna have this solved by mid-January, in a few weeks. But, how critical is the window that we’re missing right now for testing?” asked Collins.
“Oh I think it’s incredibly critical, and I cannot believe this is where we are almost two years into the pandemic. Everybody saw it coming. We knew we needed more tests. I think the administration dropped the ball on this,” Jha responded.
Jha said that the Biden administration appeared to be primarily focused on vaccinations throughout the year while “not paying a lot of attention” to the importance of testing. He added that while a focus on vaccines is “terrific,” the decision to largely ignore the infrastructure for testing has been “really costly” this holiday season.
A few CNN correspondents have recently criticized the president for his handling of the pandemic.
CNN reporter Phil Mattingly questioned last week whether the administration’s inability to adequately prepare for the latest variant with testing should be considered a “failure.”
“No, it’s not,” Biden responded. “Because COVID is spreading so rapidly if you notice. It just happened almost overnight just in the last month. And so, it’s not a failure, but an alarm bell went off. I don’t think anybody anticipated that this was going to be as rapidly spreading as it did.”
Biden again admitted to a lack of foresight on rapid tests in a call with several U.S. governors on Monday, saying, “It is not enough. It’s clearly not enough. If I had – we – had known, we would have gone harder, quicker, if we could have.”
Fox News’ Brandon Gillespie contributed to this report.
The man charged with firearms violations in the Saturday night shooting that killed two and wounded 12 was arrested in a neighboring town, laying beside a tree with a gun in his hand, the criminal complaint against him alleges.
Local and state authorities announced the arrest of Kevin K. Dawkins, 36, at a Monday morning press conference led by Gov. Phil Murphy. They declined to elaborate on how he’s allegedly involved in the 11:30 p.m. Saturday shooting at a house on East Commerce Street in Fairfield that sent partygoers scattering as they fled gunfire.
New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal said the shooting, at a birthday party, was a “targeted attack,” and officials expect more arrests.
Kevin Dawkins in a Cumberland County jail photo.
The complaint says police in Bridgeton, a neighboring town and the county seat of Cumberland County, received an anonymous call after the shooting reporting a person with a gun in a wooded area behind the Maplewood Gardens apartments.
Officers arrived at the apartments, on Maple Drive, and found Dawkins, “laying down beside a tree with the handgun clutched in his right hand,” the complaint says. Officers ordered Dawkins to drop the weapon, and he did, the document says.
Records show Dawkins’ arrest, by Officer Dominic Pizzo, occurred at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday. The gun is a .40-caliber Glock 23 model that was loaded with 22 bullets.
Dawkins lives in the 800 block of East Commerce Street, which along with the Maple Street apartments, are each just under three miles from the shooting scene.
Bridgeton Police Chief Michael Gaimari said in a statement that Pizzo and the officers had assisted the New Jersey State Police at the shooting scene just before the arrest, and all information pertaining to Dawkins’ arrest was handed over to that agency.
“This was an excellent job by Officer Pizzo and other officers who assisted in apprehending this suspect without injury to themselves or the suspect as it could have gone south quickly,” Gaimari said.
Dawkins was initially held on four firearms charges, including unlawfully possessing a firearm, possessing it for an unlawful purpose and possessing a firearm as a convicted felon. Later Monday, records show Bridgeton police added two more charges against Dawkins relating to having a gun as a felon convicted of a serious crime.
He appeared in Superior Court of Cumberland County during a virtual appearance Monday afternoon. He will appear again Thursday for a detention hearing, where the Cumberland County Prosecutor’s Office will argue he be detained pending trial, Prosecutor Jennifer Webb-McRae said.
Webb-McRae declined to elaborate on Dawkins Monday evening, citing an ongoing investigation.
Asia Hester, 25, and Kevin Elliott, 30, died in the shooting and several victims remain hospitalized Monday.
Police investigate an overnight shooting that killed two and wounded 12 in Fairfield Township, Sunday, May 23, 2021. Tim Hawk | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com
Staff Reporter Matt Gray contributed to this report.
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“MURIENDO POR CRUZAR,” AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE INCREASING NUMBER OF IMMIGRANT DEATHS ALONG THE BORDER, THIS SUNDAY, AUGUST 3 AT 6 P.M./5 C
Carmen Dominicci and Neida Sandoval present the Telemundo and The Weather Channel co-production
Miami – July 31, 2014 –Telemundo presents “Muriendo por Cruzar”, a documentary that investigates why increasing numbers of immigrants are dying while trying to cross the US-Mexican border near the city of Falfurrias, Texas, this Sunday, August 3 at 6PM/5 C. The Telemundo and The Weather Channel co-production, presented by Noticias Telemundo journalists Carmen Dominicci and Neida Sandoval, reveals the obstacles immigrants face once they cross into US territory, including extreme weather conditions, as they try to evade the border patrol. “Muriendo por Cruzar” is part of Noticias Telemundo’s special coverage of the crisis on the border and immigration reform.
“‘Muriendo por Cruzar’” dares to ask questions that reveal the actual conditions undocumented immigrants face as they try to start a new life in the United States,” said Alina Falcón, Telemundo’s Executive Vice President for News and Alternative Programming. “Our collaboration with The Weather Channel was very productive. They have a unique expertise in covering the impact of weather on people’s lives, as we do in covering immigration reform and the border crisis. The result is a compelling documentary that exposes a harrowing reality.”
“Muriendo por Cruzar” is the first co-production by Telemundo and The Weather Channel. Both networks are part of NBCUniversal.
After the U.S. Supreme Court declined to block a Texas state law that bans most abortions there, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he’ll push for a new California law that will bar the manufacture and sale of assault rifles in the state.
“I am outraged by yesterday’s U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing Texas’ ban on most abortion services to remain in place, and largely endorsing Texas’ scheme to insulate its law from the fundamental protections of Roe v. Wade,” Newsom said in a statement Saturday night. “But if states can now shield their laws from review by the federal courts that compare assault weapons to Swiss Army knives, then California will use that authority to protect people’s lives, where Texas used it to put women in harm’s way.”
The California anti-gun law, Newsom said, would be modeled on the Texas law that makes abortions illegal after six weeks of pregnancy and allows private citizens to sue doctors or anyone who helps a woman get an abortion to enforce it.
Newsom said he was directing his staff to work with the state Legislature and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta on a new law that would allow private citizens to sue manufacturers or distributors of assault weapons.
The Biden administration on Thursday sued Texas over the state’s extreme abortion law, which amounts to a near total ban on abortion, calling the law “clearly unconstitutional”.
US attorney general Merrick Garland said the law that went into effect last week after the supreme court refused to block it and bans almost all abortions in the state was one “all Americans should fear”.
Senate Bill 8, pushed through by Texas’s Republican-dominated legislature, bans abortion once embryonic cardiac activity is detected, which is around six weeks. Most women are not aware they are pregnant as early as that time.
The justice department decided to argue that the law, which offers no exceptions for rape or incest, “illegally interferes with federal interests”, the Wall Street Journal first reported.
On Monday Garland said the justice department would “protect those seeking to obtain or provide reproductive health services”, under a federal law known as the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances.
Garland said that law would be enforced “in order to protect the constitutional rights of women and other persons, including access to an abortion”.
The Texas law incentivizes any private citizen to sue an abortion provider or anyone deemed to have helped a women get an abortion contravening the law. It came into effect on 1 September, and survived an emergency appeal to the supreme court, which voted 5-4 to allow the law to remain in force.
On Thursday, when announcing the lawsuit, Garland said: “The act is clearly unconstitutional” and said that it failed to give women seeking an abortion their constitutional right “at the very moment they need it”.
And he added that the “kind of scheme” that Texas has devised and other states want to follow, where the public enforces the law as a way to avoid legal challenge, and allows individuals to sue abortion providers or those helping a woman obtain the service, was designed to “nullify the constitution”.
Joe Biden condemned the new law and reaffirmed the White House’s support for abortion rights. “This extreme Texas law blatantly violates the constitutional right established under Roe v Wade and upheld as a precedent for nearly half a century,” Biden said in a statement.
The Biden administration has since been under pressure to act, with Democrats on the House judiciary committee writing to Garland on Tuesday, although many experts believe that winning the lawsuit will be a challenge for the federal government.
“The Department of Justice cannot permit private individuals seeking to deprive women of the constitutional right to choose an abortion to escape scrutiny under existing federal law simply because they attempt to do so under the color of state law,” wrote the Democratic members of Congress, who include Pramila Jayapal, representative for Washington, and Val Demings, from Florida.
The Texas law is the strictest legislation enacted against abortion rights in the United States since the supreme court’s landmark Roe v Wade decision in 1973. At least 12 other states have enacted bans early in pregnancy, but all have been blocked from going into effect.
Abortion providers have said the law will probably force many abortion clinics in Texas to ultimately close. Women’s rights advocates fear the conservative-dominated supreme court’s lack of action over the law could signal the start of the unravelling of Roe v Wade.
The search resumed Monday for victims of a vicious tornado outbreak that ripped across the South on Sunday killing at least 23 people in Alabama.
“I’m still thanking God I’m among the living,” said John Jones, who has lived most of his life in Beauregard, the southern Alabama community that was devastated by a tornado.
The violent storms left debris strewn across southern Alabama and Georgia, the Florida Panhandle and into parts of South Carolina. More than 10,000 homes and businesses still had no electricity as of 8 a.m. Monday, according to poweroutage.us. That had dropped to less than 3,000 by 11:30 a.m.
“Much colder air is pushing into the South from the Midwest, and that will make conditions even worse for those without power into midweek,” weather.com meteorologist Christopher Dolce said. Parts of Alabama and Georgia will see low temperatures in the 20s and low 30s each morning Tuesday through Thursday.”
The Lee County Sheriff’s Office told local media that no fewer than 23 people were killed and more than 50 people were hurt when a tornado roared through Beauregard, a community of about 10,000 people some 60 miles east of Montgomery, shortly after 2 p.m. CST.
Sheriff Jay Jones said at a news conference Monday morning that the number of missing people was in double digits. He added, however, that some of those may be people who left the area and haven’t contacted family members.
“It’s extremely upsetting to me to see these people hurting like this and the families who have lost loved ones,” Jones said. “This is a very tight-knit community. These people are tough. They’re resilient people, and it’s knocked them down. But they’ll be back.”
“It hurts my heart to see this,” he said.
Jones said the devastation is shocking.
“It looks almost as if someone took a giant knife and just scraped the ground,” he said. “There are slabs where homes formerly stood, debris everywhere, trees snapped, whole forested areas where trees are snapped and lying on the ground.”
Kathy Carson, Lee County’s EMA director said, “This is the worst natural disaster that has ever occurred in Lee County.”
The East Alabama Medical Center in nearby Opelika, where many of the injured were taken, canceled elective surgeries so it could focus on the injured people, Dave Malkoff of The Weather Channel reported.
The National Weather Service said Monday that two tornadoes hit southern Lee County. The damage from one of them indicated it was an EF4 tornado with winds of 170 mph.
Sunday was the deadliest day for tornadoes in the United States since May 20, 2013.
A makeshift morgue was set up in a parking lot and medical examiners from other locations were coming to assist in identifying the victims.
Lee County coroner Bill Harris said three children are among the dead: a 6-year-old, a 9-year-old who died at the hospital and a 10-year-old, the New York Times reported.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey said she would extend the current state of emergency to provide state resources for areas damaged by the storms.
“Our hearts go out to those who lost their lives in the storms that hit Lee County today,” Ivey said in a tweet. “Praying for their families & everyone whose homes or businesses were affected.”
President Donald Trump tweeted on Monday, “FEMA has been told directly by me to give the A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes.” He added that Gov. Ivey is working closely with FEMA.
About 3:20 p.m. CST, the NWS issued a tornado emergency after a large and destructive tornado was confirmed near Smiths Station, also in Lee County.
Smiths Station Mayor Bubba Copeland told The Weather Channel that at least 12 houses were flattened.
“We have a lot of mobile homes turned upside down,” Copeland said.
No deaths or serious injuries were reported in Smiths Station.
Copeland said Lee County schools are canceled Monday because “several huge holes are on top of the (elementary) school.” Schools will also be closed again on Tuesday.
The storm also destroyed the Buck Wild Saloon, damaged a gas station and toppled a cell phone tower across U.S. 280.
Jonathan Clardy told the Associated Press he and his family hunkered down in their Beauregard trailer as the tornado ripped the roof off.
“All we could do is just hold on for life and pray. It’s a blessing from God that me and my young’uns are alive.”
Julie Morrison and her husband sought shelter in their bathtub as the storm lifted the house and tossed into nearby woods, AP reported.
“We knew we were flying because it picked the house up,” Morrison said. She credited their survival on the shower’s fiberglass enclosure and added that her son-in-law later dug them out.
The Lee County storm warnings were two of several tornado warnings issued for Alabama and Georgia on Sunday afternoon.
Reports said multiple homes were damaged in Dupree, Alabama, south of Dothan. Other reports said the airport and a fire station were damaged in Eufaula, Alabama.
Georgia
Some 30 miles north of Tallahassee, the town of Cairo and its 9,500 residents suffered a direct hit from a tornado. Shortly after, authorities reported widespread damage in the town, but no injuries or deaths were reported.
Speaking with Cairo Mayor Booker Gainor, Tallahassee Democrat reporter Jeffrey Burlew tweeted that dozens of structures were damaged or destroyed and some residents were trapped in their homes after the storm struck the town Sunday night.
“It’s pretty bad,” Gainor told the Democrat. “We have a lot of trees down, debris and power lines. We have trees completely through houses. You would think a hurricane came after this, the way it looks.”
The National Weather Service on Monday confirmed that a tornado struck the town. A 102-mph wind gust was recorded on the tornado’s path, the NWS said.
Grady County EMA Director Richard Phillips told WCTV it appeared 500 to 1000 homes and businesses were affected by the tornado.
Several towns in Georgia reported damage earlier Sunday from several tornadoes that were confirmed on radar by the NWS.
In the town of Talbotton, located some 35 miles northeast of Columbus, several people were injured when a damaging storm rolled through the area, Talbot County Emergency Management Agency director Leigh Ann Erenheim told the Associated Press.
“The last check I had was between six and eight injuries,” Erenheim said in a phone interview with the AP. “From what I understand it was minor injuries, though one fellow did say his leg might be broken.”
The NWS said the Talbotton tornado has been given a preliminary rating of high-end EF2.
Social media was also sharing reports of damage in Perry, Georgia.
Peach County Sheriff Terry Deese said trees were down and some houses were damaged, the Macon Telegraph reported.
While following the storm, Peach County Sheriff’s Sgt. Shane Brooks told the Macon Telegraph he was nearly hit directly by the tornado as he drove down Duke Road in Byron.
“It was moving so fast I didn’t have time do anything but just sit there and hold on,” he told the Telegraph. “It was not something I would want to experience again.”
Crawford County Fire Chief Randall Pate said a tornado destroyed four homes. Pate also reported one injury: a woman whose ankle was broken when her home was damaged.
Following the storms, Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for Talbot, Grady and Harris counties.
Florida
The NWS confirmed that an EF2 tornado struck the area of Baum in Leon County on Sunday.
The Leon County Sheriff’s Office said in a Facebook post that at least 10 homes in the community have substantial damage, and five of those were completely destroyed. At least two people were taken to a hospital.
The NWS also confirmed an EF1 tornado touched down in the Jackson County town of Alford, about 70 miles northwest of Tallahassee.
Jackson County Emergency Management Director Rodney Andreasen told WCTV the tornado damaged three homes, including ripping the side off one of the houses.
The storm also caused a tree to crash into a home in Gadsden County where a family of four was. Two rooms were destroyed but no one was injured, WCTV reported.
A radar-confirmed tornado spread debris across Interstate 10 in Walton County, the AP reported. The eastbound lanes of the interstate had to be closed for cleanup.
South Carolina
Storms caused numerous reports of damage in and around Columbia Sunday night. The NWS said Monday that damage surveys indicated three tornadoes struck the Midlands area of the state.
The storm caused damage to a church in Lexington, South Carolina, and ripped a roof off a home and blew recreational vehicles onto their sides near Lexington. The damage was consistent with a tornado, the NWS said.
The front of the Red Bank Baptist Church in Lexington was damaged by the storm.
Around 150 adults and children were at the church for Sunday night services when the storm hit, the State reports. Children sang “Jesus Loves Me” as they huddled with adults in a long hallway.
The Columbia Police Department tweeted a photo of a tree that had fallen on a house north of downtown. Trees also fell on cars downtown, the State reported.
The NWS confirmed that an EF1 tornado struck north of downtown. It also said
In Edgefield County, seven people were injured when the storm hit a gas station in Merriwether, north of Augusta, Georgia, WRDW reported. The NWS said the damage here was also consistent with a tornado.
Trees were knocked down in North Augusta, South Carolina, and Aiken, South Carolina.
Gov. Gavin Newsom said in Stockton Thursday that a new plan to set aside vaccine doses for people who live in disproportionally impacted communities would help confront COVID-19 inequities and also help the state in its reopening efforts.
He said the state’s plan to set aside 40% of all vaccine doses for people who live in neighborhoods most vulnerable to impacts from the pandemic would “make real progress.”
“We’re not meeting our goals,” Newsom said of the state’s current efforts that partner with 337 community organizations.
“We have to be bolder and we have to go bigger in terms of our resolve and our commitment,” he said.
The doses will be spread out among 400 ZIP codes with about 8 million people eligible for shots, Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s health and human services secretary, said on Wednesday.
“With vaccines still scarce, we must target vaccines strategically to maximally reduce transmission, protect our healthcare delivery system and save lives,” Ghaly said in a briefing.
Many of the neighborhoods are concentrated in Los Angeles County and the Central Valley, which have had among the highest rates of infection. The areas are considered most vulnerable based on metrics such as household income, education level, housing status and access to transportation.
While race and ethnicity are not explicit factors in designating vaccinations, the 400 vulnerable ZIP codes overlap heavily with neighborhoods with higher populations of Blacks, Latinos and Asian and Pacific Islanders, officials said.
Once 2 million vaccine doses are given out in those neighborhoods, the state will make it easier for counties to move through reopening tiers that dictate business and school reopenings.
Right now, a county can move from the most restrictive purple tier to the lower red tier based on several metrics, including having seven or fewer new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people per day over a period of several weeks. That metric will change to 10 new cases or fewer. In the red tier, businesses such as restaurants and gyms can open for indoor services at limited capacity.
Also in the red tier, schools that want to access new state funding must provide in-person learning for students in transitional kindergarten through grade six and at least one grade each in middle and high school.
About 1.6 million vaccine doses already have been given to people in those 400 ZIP codes, and the state will hit the 2 million mark in the next week or two, officials said.
Once the state gives out 4 million doses in those neighborhoods, it will revise the metrics for getting into the even less restrictive orange and yellow tiers.
Newsom said while visiting Stribley Community Center on Thursday that the state’s test positivity rate had fallen to 2.1% from 6.1% a month ago. New COVID-19 cases were just over 3,500 on Thursday, down from more than 13,000 a month ago, he said.
Democrats in the House — and on the 2020 campaign trail — are divided about whether to start impeachment proceedings against President Trump, following a report from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III that detailed Trump’s efforts to hinder Mueller’s investigation.
The most compelling practical argument against such an effort is that it is unlikely to succeed. That’s because the decision on whether to remove him from office would be made by the Senate, which is controlled by Trump’s GOP.
If Democrats choose to pursue impeachment, they will be using an unwieldy measure built into the Constitution as an emergency tool. Only two U.S. presidents have ever been impeached. Here are five things to know about how the impeachment process works.
1. What sorts of offenses trigger impeachment proceedings?
There is no hard-and-fast list. The House decides. The Constitution says that presidents, vice presidents and other federal officials can be impeached for “Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
But what are “high Crime and Misdemeanors?” The document doesn’t say. In the past, the House — where impeachment proceedings must begin — has defined those terms to mean something broader than just “federal crimes.”
The House has also impeached presidents for behavior that undermines the constitutional system or that brings shame to the office of president, regardless of whether that behavior was criminal.
For instance: President Andrew Johnson, who was the first president to be impeached, was charged with firing one of his Cabinet members — in defiance of a law that said he needed the Senate’s permission. He was also charged with, in essence, insulting Congress. One article of impeachment accused Johnson of “scandalous harangues” about legislators, made “with a loud voice.”
2. How does impeachment work?
The House would vote on articles of impeachment, which are individual statements of offense. All it takes is a simple majority. If any of them pass, the president has been “impeached” — something like being indicted in a legal procedure.
Next, the president’s case would move to the Senate, which acts as a 100-member jury. The House appoints “managers,” who act like prosecutors, laying out the case for the president’s removal. The chief justice of the United States presides over the proceedings if the president is on trial.
Convicting the president requires two-thirds of all senators to agree. If that happens, the president is automatically removed from office.
3. Has that ever happened?
Not to a president. Johnson, who was the first president to be impeached, escaped conviction by one vote in 1868. Bill Clinton was the second: The House brought impeachment proceedings against him in 1998, alleging perjury and obstruction of an investigation. The Senate acquitted him by a wider margin.
President Richard M. Nixon resigned in 1974 before the full House could vote on impeachment charges against him.
Beyond the cases that involve presidents, impeachment has been a tool rarely used in U.S. history. Since 1789, only eight federal officials have been convicted by the Senate and removed from office. All eight were federal judges.
That list includes one current member of Congress: Rep. Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.), a former federal judge who was convicted by the Senate of extorting a bribe in a case before him. Four years after Hastings was removed from office as a judge, he was elected to Congress.
4. How long does impeachment take?
In Nixon’s case, nine months elapsed between the start of the House Judiciary Committee’s impeachment investigation in October 1973 and the committee’s approval of its first impeachment resolution. Nixon resigned in early August 1974.
In Clinton’s case, the House moved much faster. In September 1998, the House received a report from independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr that recommended impeachment against Clinton. The House voted to impeach Clinton in December 1998, and the Senate acquitted him in February 1999.
5. What lessons could Democrats draw from the impeachment investigations of Nixon and Clinton?
The Nixon investigation seems to bolster an argument made by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) that if Democrats think Trump deserves to be impeached, they ought to try.
Public support for Nixon’s removal was low at the start of the investigation but rose steadily as the probe uncovered new evidence of his abuses of power. His resignation brought a wave of public revulsion with Washington corruption — and a huge political boost to Democrats. The 1974 elections swept in a wave of “Watergate Baby” legislators who gave Democrats huge advantages in the House and Senate.
Clinton’s impeachment, however, did not turn out as well for the opposition party.
In the election held in the middle of their impeachment investigation, Republicans were accused of overreach and lost seats in the House. Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.), who had led the charge, resigned after unrest in his caucus.
Neither of these cases, however, is a very useful case study for today’s Democrats — since Clinton and Nixon were both in their second terms.
Trump is in his first. That has led some Democrats to conclude that they should focus more on defeating Trump in 2020 than impeaching him before then.
President Trump arrives for a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., last week.
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President Trump arrives for a campaign rally in Grand Rapids, Mich., last week.
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The headline findings by special counsel Robert Mueller delivered a political shot in the arm for President Trump and Republicans, they say — how long it lasts may depend on the full document.
Attorney General William Barr told Congress that Mueller’s office didn’t establish a conspiracy between Trump’s campaign and Russian interference in the 2016 election, nor did it establish — per Barr — that Trump obstructed justice.
Barr’s office is working now to redact grand jury testimony, foreign intelligence and other material from the full Mueller report before releasing it sometime this month.
Here are some of the big questions it may answer.
What did Trump know?
Trump’s campaign and business had many contacts with Russians from 2015 through the 2016 election — these are not in dispute and they were among the reasons for the investigation in the first place.
Mueller, in fact — according to Barr — confirmed that “Russian-affiliated individuals” made “multiple offers” to “assist the Trump campaign,” which comports with the versions of events given in court documents and according to other official sources that already are public.
Did the substance of any of these offers ever reach Trump or other members of his brain trust? If so, what did they do?
Micromanagement
People who worked for Trump have said nothing happened in his business or campaign without his involvement.
Donald Trump Jr. attends a fashion show during New York Fashion Week in February in New York City.
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Donald Trump Jr. attends a fashion show during New York Fashion Week in February in New York City.
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That’s why, for example, former Trump aides have said they thought it likely he was at least aware that Donald Trump Jr. convened a meeting at Trump Tower in June 2016 at which a Russian delegation delivered a tip on Democrats.
Trump Jr. said it wasn’t what he expected and he didn’t pursue it any further, and authorities evidently did not conclude it broke the law.
No one faced criminal charges in connection with that meeting and the Justice Department says Mueller hasn’t recommended any more indictments beyond the ones that already have been unsealed.
And Trump has denied he was aware in 2016 of the Russian interference in the election and of the Trump Tower meeting specifically. Democratic opponents said they thought phone records might undermine that denial, but they didn’t.
If Mueller’s full report further bolsters the Trumps’ defenses, that will mean more good political news for the president and his family.
If Mueller’s report established that Trump did know what was happening and, while he didn’t conspire with Russia’s efforts, he also didn’t report them to authorities, that may take away some of the political momentum Trump and the GOP have built up so far from the Barr account of Mueller’s findings.
What did the feds establish about the dossier?
The unverified Russia dossier was not the origin of the Russia investigation, but it may be the most infamous piece of information about it. NPR has not detailed its claims because they are unverified.
The degree to which Mueller’s full report specifically addresses the material in the dossier could be one of its most important developments for the politics of the post-Mueller era.
If the full report torpedoes the dossier altogether, that will strengthen efforts like those by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who wants an investigation into how the FBI and Justice Department used it in the Russia investigation.
If Mueller substantiates some of the dossier’s contents, that could create problems for the White House short of the worst-case “collusion” allegation that evidently now is off the table.
Kompromat
Russian President Vladimir Putin offers a World Cup football to President Trump during a joint news conference after their summit on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin offers a World Cup football to President Trump during a joint news conference after their summit on July 16, 2018, in Helsinki.
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For example, one claim of the dossier was that powerful Russians may possess compromising material — or so-called kompromat — about Trump and that may have been why he took such sympathetic tone toward Moscow — for fear of it being revealed.
Democrats also continue to ask whether Trump may be beholden to Russia or compromised by people in it — and whether that might be true even if, per Barr’s letter, Trump’s 2016 campaign didn’t collude with the election interference.
Mueller’s findings about this could change the understanding of the Russia imbroglio yet again.
What did Trump ask, and of whom, involving the various investigations?
Alleged obstruction of justice was a potent threat to Trump because frustrating an investigation is illegal even when there was no underlying crime.
That was another reason why Trump and Republicans welcomed Barr’s letter about Mueller’s findings so warmly.
And it’s one reason why Democrats reacted so strongly to Barr’s characterization of Mueller’s findings, of which the attorney general wrote: “‘while this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.’ “
In short, Barr made it sound as though this came down to a judgment call. Barr and Rod Rosenstein, according to the attorney general, were the ones who concluded that Mueller’s findings were insufficient to establish that Trump had committed a crime.
So what were those findings?
A number of press reports suggested Trump asked people — intelligence agency leaders, Justice Department or law enforcement officials and White House officials — to take actions that critics called obstruction of justice.
Trump’s alleged actions included requests for investigators to ease up on him or friends, for people to be fired or removed — or for safe loyalists to be placed onto cases — and for people to give inaccurate information to Congress.
The code
Former FBI Director James Comey is sworn in before testifying before the Senate intelligence committee on Capitol Hill on June 8, 2017, in Washington, D.C.
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Former FBI Director James Comey is sworn in before testifying before the Senate intelligence committee on Capitol Hill on June 8, 2017, in Washington, D.C.
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Were those reports accurate? And if so, how much of the assessment depends on the president’s exact words?
Former FBI Director James Comey, for example, told the Senate intelligence committee that Trump said “I hope you can let this go,” when alluding to the case of former national security adviser Mike Flynn. Trump, in this telling, did not say: I hereby order you to discontinue your investigation of Flynn.
Trump, as his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen told the House oversight committee, often speaks in a “code.” Mueller’s report may reveal how much the Justice Department’s decision not to prosecute on obstruction depended on the substance of his actions and how much on his use of that “code.”
What were the extent of the active measures?
Two of the ways Russia interfered in the 2016 election have gotten most of the attention:
People walk under a heavy snowfall in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin in Moscow in January.
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People walk under a heavy snowfall in front of St. Basil’s Cathedral and the Kremlin in Moscow in January.
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How many other types of “active measures” did the Russians wield in service of their aim to sow chaos and, eventually, help support Trump? Are there any types of interference that haven’t been made public?
Mueller’s answers about the tools Russia used to interfere in the last presidential election will help Americans prepare to safeguard future elections.
What were the origins of the active measures?
The U.S. intelligence community assessed early on that Putin had ordered the influence campaign “to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate [Hillary] Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.”
What more is known about when, precisely, Putin decided to launch it — and why? Who involved chose the techniques — and why?
Americans have learned a great deal from Mueller’s prosecutions about the operational workings of the Kremlin’s active measures effort — the movement of the troops in what amounted to a war of information.
What’s less clear, for now, were the actions of their generals.
Police wrap the body of a suspected terrorist killed outside a home rented by a suspected terror group in Sainthamaruthu, Sri Lanka. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The Washington Post)
SAINTHAMARUTHU, Sri Lanka — They arrived a day or two after the Easter Sunday bombings and moved into a low-slung house behind a high wall and black metal gate, unloading boxes from a pale gray minivan.
But the neighbors in the seaside town of Sainthamaruthu soon began to suspect that something wasn’t right. Finally, a group of local residents asked the new arrivals — men, women and children — to leave town.
Within hours, the quiet lane was turned into a war zone.
On Friday, at least 15 people, including six children, were killed in bomb blasts and gunfire as Sri Lankan security forces closed in on the house.
Police believe the fiery explosions were triggered deliberately — the final violent acts of a group whose hideout had bombmaking items and black backpacks. Their preparations pointed to just one thing: possible plans for the next steps in a campaign of terror that began April 21 with bombings at churches that claimed more than 250 lives.
The identities of those killed in Sainthamaruthu were not immediately known or released. On Saturday, after the chaos, crime scene personnel in fluorescent vests roamed the area around the home collecting metal pellets, torn pieces of clothing and fragments of flesh.
A blown-out wall inside the house next to the one rented by suspected terrorists in Sainthamaruthu. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The Washington Post)
The confrontation on Sri Lanka’s eastern shore — on the other side of the island from the capital, Colombo — came amid a nationwide security crackdown and searches for suspects across the country. Police have deployed new emergency powers to stop and question individuals and to conduct raids.
But the events that flushed out the suspects in Friday’s raids involved something simpler: neighborhood intuition.
It began when Imam Lateef, 54, the vice-chairman of the nearby Hijra Mosque, received a call from the landlord who had rented the home to the group. The landlord was worried about the people in the house. Their behavior was suspicious, Lateef said, and the landlord wanted them to leave.
Lateef and several other members of the mosque walked over to the house, along a canal crowded with lotus plants.
The man who answered the door said that the family was from Kattankudy, the hometown of Zahran Hashim, the mastermind of the attacks, and the base of National Thowheed Jamaath, the Islamist extremist group Hashim founded. The mosque delegation politely asked them to leave by the following day.
Police inspect a vehicle belonging to alleged terrorist suspects outside a home in Sainthamaruthu. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The Washington Post)
A soldier holds backpacks found inside the home of terror suspects in Sainthamaruthu. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The Washington Post)
Meanwhile, after Friday prayers, Mohammed Rizwan, a local shopkeeper, was chatting with a group of friends about the new arrivals. They had heard they were from Kattankudy and resolved to check them out.
When Rizwan went by in the early evening Friday, he said that a man at the house told him to get out and pointed a gun at his chest. Rizwan took off running, grabbing the nearest police officer he could find — a local traffic cop.
Minutes later, the first blast shook the house.
A second blast followed. Then a third. But this time, special police units and soldiers were on the scene.
The blasts blew a hole in the roof and wall of the house, sending tiles flying. The security forces exchanged gunfire with a man carrying an AK-47 rifle. He was shot dead.
Amid the confusion, security forces also shot at three people in an auto-rickshaw that failed to heed warnings to stop, injuring two and killing one. It turned out the trio had no connection to the house or the attacks.
Earlier on Friday, police had raided a house about three miles from the rented home. There they found a cache of explosives, police said, plus the clothing and flag used by the Easter Sunday bombers to record a video professing allegiance to the Islamic State.
When the authorities entered the home in Sainthamaruthu at dawn on Saturday, they found the charred bodies of children in a corner of the room. They also discovered two survivors. An injured woman and toddler were taken to the hospital.
The evidence left behind was chilling. The home contained bombmaking equipment, including detonators, wires, plastic tubes for explosives and three identical, brand-new black backpacks.
Outside, the body of the man shot by the security forces — identified only as “Niyaz” by a local police official — still lay face down on the cobbled pavement as flies buzzed around the corpse. Ripped pieces of clothing were scattered on the ground together with bullet casings. Torn sheaves of paper with the hadith — the sayings of the prophet Muhammad — were strewn in two places.
Officers look at a series of items, including backpacks, plastic cylinders and batteries, found inside ahome rented by terror suspects in Sainthamaruthu. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The Washington Post)
Police carry the body of a suspected terrorist in Sainthamaruthu. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The Washington Post)
In the still, humid air, crime scene personnel climbed ladders and began to scour the house’s roof for evidence. Meanwhile, police officers took two white plastic sheets and created a makeshift body bag, hoisting a corpse into the back of a navy blue police truck.
Nearby, hundreds of local residents had spent the morning sheltering at a school while they waited to be able to return to their homes. The entire town of Sainthamuruthu was under a curfew, with all roads closed and all shops shuttered.
Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena said Friday that strict new measures were being taken to identify and track people, similar to hard-line methods used during the civil war between separatist ethnic Tamils and the government that ended in 2009.
He said that about 70 individuals suspected of ties to the Islamic State had been arrested, and that another 70 suspects were still at large. On Saturday, the National Thowheed Jamaath, the Islamist extremist group linked to the Easter attacks, was banned.
“We had to declare an emergency situation to suppress terrorists and ensure a peaceful environment in the country,” the president said. “Every household in the country will be checked” and lists of all residents made to “ensure that no unknown person can live anywhere.”
Rizwan, the shopkeeper, expressed a sense of pride at his actions a day earlier.
“I feel like I did a brave thing when I went to see what was happening,” he said. Perhaps, he added, this would mark the end of the terror that has stalked Sri Lanka in recent days.
“We hope it’s over,” he said. “But we don’t know.”
Residents from the area where a gunfight took place between authorities and suspected terrorists wait at a nearby school to go back to their houses in Sainthamaruthu. (Asanka Brendon Ratnayake for The Washington Post)
Benislos Thushan and Pamela Constable in Colombo contributed to this report.
Ecuador cuenta con la tecnología de comunicación móvil 4G más rápida de América Latina, aseguró el vicepresidente de la República, Jorge Glas, cuando lideró el enlace ciudadano 501 en noviembre pasado. Una afirmación que reiteró en el discurso del pasado 21 de junio ante la Comisión de Fiscalización de la Asamblea.
Glas se refiere al informe de la firma británica OpenSignal, que indica que la velocidad promedio en el país en esa red es de casi 25 megabites promedio por segundo (24,92 Mbps) –forma como se mide la calidad en internet en la que a mayor megabites, más es la rapidez–.
Pero no todos tienen una línea activa en la red móvil 4G. Y los que la poseen tienen problemas de cobertura. Si bien el número de líneas activas en ese sistema pasó, en un año, de 1,2 millones a 2,8 millones en abril pasado, estas representan el 19% de las 15,1 millones existentes. Incluso, el reporte de OpenSignal muestra a Ecuador en el último lugar de catorce naciones de América analizadas con la menor cobertura 4G, con el 42,5%.
Alfredo Velazco, director de Usuarios Digitales, da cuenta de la dificultad de acceder a esta red en la mayor parte del territorio: “Viajo todo el tiempo de Quito a Guayaquil, generalmente en carro, un gran porcentaje de ese trayecto no se cuenta con esa señal”.
A ello se suman las barreras económicas para contratar el servicio de banda ancha móvil o fija (que se instala por lo general en los hogares) y el alto costo de los teléfonos inteligentes (smartphone en inglés), dice Freddy Villao, profesor de la Facultad de Ingeniería en Electricidad y Computación de la Espol.
En el caso de la red 4G, por ejemplo, agrega Villao, la cobertura de la banda ancha móvil es aún reducida. “Según la Arcotel (Agencia de Regulación y Control de las Telecomunicaciones), el porcentaje de radiobases con esa tecnología en 2016 era del 11% para Conecel, 13% para Otecel y 32% para CNT EP (Corporación Nacional de Telecomunicaciones)”.
Otro factor es el tipo de equipos. Por ejemplo, el 57,7% de los ecuatorianos tenía un teléfono celular en 2016, pero solo el 26,83% de ellos contaba con un smartphone, según el INEC.
El último informe de la Cepal titulado ‘Estado de la banda ancha en América Latina y el Caribe 2016’ da cuenta de que, como en el resto de la región, la penetración de la banda ancha móvil en Ecuador ha crecido. Según el Ministerio de Telecomunicaciones y de la Sociedad de la Información (Mintel), hay 46,7 abonados activos por cada cien habitantes hasta marzo pasado. Sin embargo, aún no se alcanza el promedio de América Latina que fue de 58 suscriptores en 2015, anota la Cepal.
Otra consideración es la forma como se usa internet. Para la ama de casa Ana Guillén, de 63 años, acceder es tener la red WhatsApp, servicio que obtiene al recargar $ 1 “cuando hay plata”, afirma. Ella vive en Durán (Guayas) y dice que por sus condiciones económicas no ha comprado computadora ni ha contratado internet en su hogar: “Mi esposo es albañil y lo poco que trae es para la comida. (Una laptop) cuesta de $ 500 a $ 1.200 (en el mercado hay desde $ 300) y si la sacamos a crédito es el doble”, asegura.
En Ecuador había 15,5 computadoras de escritorio o laptops disponibles en los hogares por cada 100 habitantes en 2015. Esto sin distinguir la calidad, tiempo de vida o tecnología de los aparatos.
El costo del servicio es otra limitante. El precio de cada megabite por segundo baja mientras más megas se contratan. Así, indica Villao, “si el plan es de 3 Mbps, el costo es de $ 6,66 al mes por cada Mbps (1,2% del PIB mensual per capita); si es de 4 Mbps, el valor puede llegar a $ 4,50 mensuales por cada Mbps (0,86% del PIB mensual per capita)”, calcula este especialista basado en los precios que ofrecen los proveedores en sus sitios web. Agrega que “si la velocidad contratada es 15 Mbps, el costo puede ser de $ 1,80 mensuales por 1 Mbps. Si el plan es de 100 Mbps, el costo al mes por 1 Mbps puede ser $ 1 (0,19% del PIB mensual per capita)”.
En Ecuador, el 36% de los hogares tenía internet fijo en 2016, según la encuesta del INEC. Es un porcentaje que no llega al promedio regional de América Latina, que es de 43,4% de hogares con banda ancha fija, según el informe de la Cepal del año pasado.
Diana Yépez y Mónica de Hidalgo viven en el norte de Guayaquil en hogares con servicio de internet fijo. La primera afirma que debido a las constantes fallas en el servicio, cambió de proveedor. “Nos quedábamos sin internet días enteros. Llamábamos a pedir que solucionen y nos daban largas… Descubrimos que la velocidad en la que navegábamos era inferior a la que pagábamos, por eso optamos por contratar con otro proveedor”.
En Ecuador existió y aún existe un incremento de precios en toda la gama de artículos tecnológicos, computadores, laptops, tablets, smartphones”. Alfredo Velazco,
Usuarios Digitales
Mónica, en cambio, una profesora jubilada de 50 años, también tiene una mala experiencia: “Hay días y noches enteras que no tenemos internet” dice. Ella cuenta que cuando organiza algún festejo, los videos del sitio web YouTube no se cargan: “Terminamos usando discos”. En su caso, paga alrededor de $ 34 al mes por 20 Mbps de velocidad.
El informe titulado ‘Estado de internet de Akamai’, que el Mintel cita, en respuestas a este Diario, indica que la velocidad de conexión promedio bajó en Ecuador el 2,9% en el primer trimestre de 2017 con respecto al cuarto trimestre de 2016. El país aparece en el puesto 92 del ranking global y en el noveno de 15 países del continente con una velocidad de conexión promedio de 6,2 Mbps.
Se recomienda incentivar a empresas… para fomentar la producción nacional de bienes de Tecnología de la Información y Comunicación”. Freddy Villao,
Docente
Villao señala que esto responde a que “la planta externa más grande del Ecuador que pertenece a la CNT es predominantemente de cobre” por lo que “no permite dotar de la banda ancha fija a los hogares… Recién en los últimos años, con un significativo desfasamiento tecnológico en relación a otros países del mundo, se están instalando redes FTTH (Fiber To The Home) dotadas de puertos G-PON de 2,5 Gbps (down)”. Esta última es una red que utiliza la fibra óptica para llegar a los suscriptores con un internet de alta velocidad.
Los proveedores CNT y Netlife ofrecen este servicio. Xavier Moreano, gerente de marketing de la segunda, sostiene que la velocidad depende del sistema utilizado, ya sea vía cable a través de la red pública telefónica o fibra óptica. “Nuestra cartera es de más de 165 mil clientes de los que el 98% son hogares a los que proveemos un servicio de ultra alta velocidad con fibra óptica… Tenemos planes desde 20 a 200 Mbps”.
Even the Proud Boys, a far-right group with a history of violence that includes participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection, discouraged members from attending Saturday’s rally. After videos posted last month on social media showed Randy Ireland, who claimed to be president of a New York Proud Boys chapter, urging other Proud Boys to go to the rally outside the Capitol, the Proud Boys quickly disavowed the message and told their members to stay home. The group threatened that any Proud Boys who do attend would be “banished from the fraternity,” and some chapters called for Ireland to step down.
NYC’s largest municipal workers’ union said that Mayor Bill de Blasio must negotiate over his vaccine mandate.
De Blasio announced that the entire city workforce will need to get the COVID-19 vaccine or be tested weekly.
“If City Hall intends to test our members weekly, they must first meet us at the table to bargain,” said the executive director of District Council 37.
New York City’s largest municipal workers’ union said Monday that Mayor Bill de Blasio must “meet us at the table to bargain” after he announced that the entire city workforce will soon be mandated to get vaccinated against the coronavirus or be tested weekly.
“If City Hall intends to test our members weekly, they must first meet us at the table to bargain,” Henry Garrido, the executive director of District Council 37, which represents 150,000 workers, said in a statement.
Garrido added, “While we encourage everyone to get vaccinated and support measures to ensure our members’ health and wellbeing, weekly testing is clearly subject to mandatory bargaining. New York City is a union town and that cannot be ignored.”
De Blasio, citing the spread of the highly transmissible Delta variant of the coronavirus, announced earlier Monday that the Big Apple’s some 340,000 city workers will be required to get inoculated or be tested once a week as of Sept. 13.
“This is about our recovery. This is about what we need to do to bring back New York City. This is about keeping people safe,” de Blasio said during a press briefing.
The mayor responded to Garrido’s comments during the briefing, saying “I think when it comes to the health and safety of our workers in the middle of a global pandemic, we have the right as employers to take urgent action to protect people’s health, to protect their lives.”
The city’s labor relations commissioner, Renee Campion, explained, “Under the New York City collective bargaining law, we do have to negotiate the safety and impact with the unions of these policies, so we will be doing that.”
However, Campion said, the COVID-19 vaccine or test mandate “is a requirement of the employees and we do have the right to do that.”
The United Federation of Teachers union said it supported the new city requirement.
“Vaccination and testing have helped keep schools among the safest places in the city,” a UFT spokesperson said. “This approach puts the emphasis on vaccination but still allows for personal choice and provides additional safeguards through regular testing. There are still many things to do before we are prepared to safely open our schools in September.”
Representatives for the city’s fire and police unions did not immediately comment when reached by Insider.
Popularmente se le llama temporal de Santa Rosa a la tormenta o lluvias fuertes que se desarrollan en el hemisferio sur entre 5 días antes y 5 días después del 30 de agosto, día de Santa Rosa de Lima, patrona de las América.
La leyenda cuenta que en 1615 una joven religiosa, llamada Rosa, de nombre original Isabel Flores de Oliva, impidió con sus rezos la llegada de piratas holandeses a Lima. Logró generar una tormenta y los piratas no llegaron. Así los creyentes se convencieron que Santa Rosa había ahuyentado a los piratas.
En Uruguay es tradición esperar que cerca del 25 de agosto, pocos días antes o pocos después, se desarrolle este fenómeno .”Santa Rosa no falla”, es la típica frase que se acostumbra decir aun en contra de todos los pronósticos meteorológicos.
Según estudios estadísticos, fueron apenas 16 las ocasiones (en 142 años de registros), en que se desarrolló un episodio que pueda clasificarse como temporal en estas fechas. Las lluvias que se aproximan esta semana podrían explicarse como el choque de los primeros vientos cálidos y temperaturas altas con los frentes fríos que permanecen del invierno.
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