The El Paso representative Veronica Escobarhas declined an invitation to join Trump during his visit tomorrow. She and other El Paso officialshave urged Trump to reconsider his trip. The president also plans to visit Dayton tomorrow.
Puerto Rico’s supreme court is mulling over who will get to be the island’s next governor.
Tensions between the Trump administration and the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro have continued to escalate. Venezuela’s UN representative accused the White House of trying to start a war, as national security adviser John Bolton doubled down on opposition to Maduro’s leadership.
The FBI said investigators have uncovered evidence that the Dayton shooter explored “violent ideologies”. The bureau has opened an investigation alongside the Dayton police department’s homicide investigation.
White House aides have sought to elevate reports that the Dayton gunman supported leftwing ideas and endorsed 2020 candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, but the FBI said the shooter did not appear to be linked to a “bias motive”.
The FBI has also launched a domestic terrorism investigation into the Gilroy garlic festival shooting. The northern California attack left three victims dead last week, and authorities said the shooter had a broad “target list” that included religious institutions and organizations connected to both major political parties.
Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican party have filed a lawsuit challenging a new California law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the state’s primary ballot.
Elizabeth Warren’s team has released a statement responding to reports that the Dayton gunman was a supporter, saying they’re a “distraction”.
New statement from Warren spox @KristenOrthman on Dayton shooter, who retweeted support for Warren and Sanders, as well as extreme left-wing and anti-police posts: “there is a direct line between the president's rhetoric and the stated motivations of the El Paso shooter.” pic.twitter.com/3dkONGsXab
As the Guardian’s Sabrina Siddiqui reported earlier, the White House has attempted to deflect blame onto Democrats and the media.
In interviews with Fox News on Tuesday, the president’s aides repeatedly rejected assertions that the suspect in El Paso, who allegedly authored a hate-filled manifesto echoing Trump’s incendiary language on immigration, may have been influenced or emboldened by the president.
They instead sought to elevate reports that the gunman in Dayton, Ohio, allegedly shared leftwing posts on social media and supported the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.
Law enforcement officials said Tuesday that the Dayton shooting did not appear to be linked to a “bias motive”. Authorities are meanwhile investigating the shooting in El Paso – which left 22 dead, including seven Mexican nationals – as an act of domestic terrorism.
The White House counselor Kellyanne Conway nonetheless lashed out at Democrats and the media for not dedicating more coverage to the Dayton suspect’s political views.
“Let me tell you something, I’m hopping mad this morning because I see very little, scant coverage that this Dayton shooter has been confirmed as having a Twitter feed that was supportive of Antifa, that was supportive of Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders,” Conway said during an appearance on Fox & Friends, one of the network’s most prominent boosters of Trump.
A messenger representing Pedro Pierluisi’s attorneys delivers paperwork in San Juan. Attorneys submitted arguments by a Tuesday noon deadline in what many consider the biggest decision in the 119-year history of Puerto Rico’s Supreme Court: who will be the governor of the U.S. territory mired in political and economic turmoil. Photograph: Dennis M Rivera Pichardo/AP
Puerto Rico’s supreme court is now mulling over who will become the island’s next governor.
Pedro Pierluisi, the disgraced governor’s Ricardo Rossello’s handpicked successor, is facing off against the senate president, Thomas Rivera Schatz, who filed a constitutional challenge over Pierluisi’s appointment.
Here’s where it gets a bit wonky. Pierluisi was appointed secretary of state, second in command to the governor, last week – and was approved by the Puerto Rico house of representatives but not the senate – which was on summer recess. Pierluisi was then sworn in as governor, filling the vacuum left by Rossello.
A lawsuit from the senator seeks an injunction ordering Pierluisi to immediately step down from the governor’s office since he wasn’t approved by both legislative bodies.
If the Supreme Court finds in favor of the Senate, Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez would become governor, though she has said she doesn’t want the job...
Some Puerto Ricans were dismayed that after a mass protest movement successfully led to the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, the question of his successor now lies in the hands of a court.
“It was a possible outcome, but certainly sad because for three weeks the island took to the streets in a historic, forceful way to peacefully overthrow a governor, and now this is left to a majority of nine people who are also nine people named and approved by politicians?” said Sen. Juan Dalmau of the Puerto Rican Independence Party. “That is another constitutional defect.”
Dalmau submitted a bill Tuesday that would allow Puerto Rico to hold a special election if a governor were to step down, saying it’s a move to uphold democracy.
The 2020 Democratic presidential candidate and New York mayor Bill de Blasio has announced $9m in new funding to support the community in Brownsville, Brooklyn, where one man was killed and 11 were injured after a gunman opened fire at an annual block party last week.
The funding will bolster existing programs to prevent gun violence and promote neighborhood safety, including money to renovate the community center, and install more security cameras and lighting around the Brownsville Playground.
“These programs will build on our commitment to end the epidemic of gun violence and lend much-needed support to the local leaders and activists who work to bring positive, enduring change to the Brownsville community each and every day,” de Blasio said in a statement.
Representative Veronica Escobar says she has declined an invitation to join Donald Trump during his visit to El Paso tomorrow after he rebuked her request to speak to him about his racist comments about Mexicans and immigrants.
“I was told that @realDonaldTrump is ‘too busy’ to have that conversation,” she tweeted. “Tomorrow, I will again be spending time with fellow El Pasoans who are dealing with the pain and horror left in the wake of this act of domestic terrorism fueled by hate and racism.”
The White House invited me to join @realDonaldTrump during his visit to El Paso. My response was clear. I requested a phone call with him today in order to share what I have now heard from many constituents, including some who are victims of Saturday’s attack.
FBI agent Peter Strzok, who once helped oversee the agency’s investigation into Russian election interference and of Hillary Clinton’s emails and was fired over text messages he sent disparaging Trump, is filing a lawsuit over his dismissal.
The suit from Peter Strzok also alleges he was unfairly punished for expressing his political opinions, and that the Justice Department violated his privacy when it shared hundreds of his text messages with reporters.
“This campaign to publicly vilify Special Agent Strzok contributed to the FBI’s ultimate decision to unlawfully terminate him,” the lawsuit says, “as well as to frequent incidents of public and online harassment and threats of violence to Strzok and his family that began when the texts were first disclosed to the media and continue to this day.”
The US national security adviser John Bolton in Lima, Peru. Photograph: Paolo Aguilar/EPA
Venezuela’s UN ambassador is accusing the Trump administration of trying to start a war by sabotaging talks between Nicholás Maduro and his opposition, as the Trump administration’s national security adviser John Bolton doubled down on his view that “Maduro has to go”, according to the Associated Press.
Bolton warned today that the US could retaliate against foreign governments and companies that continue to do business with Maduro’s government, after the White House froze all Venezuelan government assets yesterday.
Addressing a summit on Venezuela’s crisis in Peru’s capital, Lima, Bolton pronounced Maduro’s “dying regime” doomed – even though a seven-month US-backed campaign has so far failed to topple Hugo Chávez’s authoritarian successor.
Bolton claimed Donald Trump’s latest moves – which will also see those who do business with Maduro’s government sanctioned – would help end “Maduro’s tyrannical reign”.
“The time for dialogue is over. Now is the time for action,” Bolton declared, spurning Norway-sponsored negotiations that have been taking place between representatives of Maduro and his US-backed challenger, Juan Guaidó.
But experts questioned the impact and wisdom of the measures, which Maduro’s administration and its Russian backers branded “economic terrorism”.
Some fear the latest sanctions will further aggravate an already dire humanitarian situation which has already forced millions to flee Venezuela, while others believe they will alienate Guaidó’s European backers who believe a negotiated solution is possible.
Two members of Congress have sent a letter to the National Archives seeking records related to the supreme court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.
“In the coming year, the supreme court will again address important matters regarding civil rights, criminal justice, and immigration,” reads the letter, authored by the New York congressman and House judiciary committee chairman Jerrold Nadler and the Georgia congressman Hank Johnson.
The records from Kavanaugh’s time serving as White House staff secretary during George W Bush’s administration and in the White House counsel’s office would help lawmakers fine-tune legislation that would create a professional ethics code for supreme court justices, according to the congressmen.
The Judicial Conduct and Disability Act allows for complaints against federal judges but doesn’t apply to supreme court justices. Dozens of complaints against Kavanaugh, including allegations that he made false and partisan statements during his supreme court confirmation hearings last year, were dismissed after he was confirmed to the nation’s highest court.
During the hearings, Kavanaugh denied allegations that he sexually assaulted Dr Christine Blasey Ford in the 1980s, when they were both teenagers, and levied partisan attacks against Democratic senators. His conduct last year and during testimony he gave more than a decade ago as a nominee to become a federal appeals court judge inspired 83 complaints.
During Kavanaugh’s controversial supreme court confirmation process, then-chairman of the Senate judiciary committee Chuck Grassley ultimately withdrew a request to the National Archives for information related to Kavanaugh’s time in the White House counsel’s office after obtaining hundreds of thousands of documents from a private attorney overseeing Kavanaugh’s records.
That’s it from me on the blog today. Maanvi Singh will be taking things over on the west coast for the next few hours.
Here is where the day stands so far:
The FBI said investigators have uncovered evidence that the Dayton shooter explored “violent ideologies”. The bureau has opened an investigation alongside the Dayton police department’s homicide investigation.
The FBI has also launched a domestic terrorism investigation into the Gilroy garlic festival shooting. The northern California attack left three victims dead last week, and authorities said the shooter had a broad “target list” that included religious institutions and organizations connected to both major political parties.
The White House sought to deflect blame away from Trump for the mass shootings by connecting prominent Democrats to other recent attacks. “It’s not the politician’s fault when someone acts out their evil intention,” the White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said. “I’ll just have to say, we would never dream of blaming Elizabeth Warren for the shooter who supports Elizabeth Warren.”
El Paso officials, including the representative Veronica Escobar, have urged Trump to reconsider his trip to the city tomorrow. “From my perspective, he is not welcome here. He should not come here while we are in mourning,” Escobar said. (The president also plans to visit Dayton tomorrow.)
Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican party have filed a lawsuit challenging a new California law requiring presidential candidates to release their tax returns to appear on the state’s primary ballot.
Maanvi will have more on the continuing fallout from the shootings, as well as other developments on Capitol Hill, so stay tuned.
El Paso officials continue to urge Trump to reconsider his trip to the city tomorrow as the city mourns those lost in an attack targeting Hispanic Americans.
“Regardless of what happened here on Saturday, he has constantly demonized, vilified the type of people who live in this community,” the El Paso county commissioner David Stout said. “I don’t understand why in the world anybody would think it would be a good idea for him to be in El Paso, Texas.”
Mike Turner, the Republican who represents Dayton in the House, announced he would support legislation to limit the sale of certain types of guns after the shooting in his district.
Today, I announced my support for restricting military style weapon sales, magazine limits, and red flag legislation. Read my full statement here: https://t.co/HFpxBTAjcL
“I strongly support the Second Amendment, but we must prevent mentally unstable people from terrorizing our communities with military style weapons,” Turner said in a statement. “I will support legislation that prevents the sale of military style weapons to civilians, a magazine limit, and red flag legislation. The carnage these military style weapons are able to produce when available to the wrong people is intolerable.”
Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, said in a press conference earlier today that he would similarly urge the state legislature to consider a “red flag” law, which would allow judges to take guns away from people deemed dangerous.
Dayton shooter was exploring 'violent ideologies', FBI says
Authorities in Ohio provided an update on the investigation into the Dayton attack, revealing that they have uncovered evidence the shooter explored “violent ideologies”.
Todd Wickerham of the FBI would not provide specifics on what ideologies the shooter had delved into, but he said the evidence was strong enough for the bureau to open an investigation alongside the Dayton police department’s homicide investigation. He added that investigators had not found “any indication” of a racial motivation in the attack.
Wickerham added that the bureau is seeking to uncover if any ideology motivated him, if anyone helped him plan the shooting and why he carried out the attack.
The Republican representative Devin Nunes is suing his constituents – and one of his 2020 challengers is helping pay their legal fees.
Devin Nunes arrives for the 2018 State of the Union address. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters
Phil Arballo, one of the Democrats challenging Nunes for his seat in 2020, said his campaign will help raise money for their legal defense fund.
“The central valley is my home. I am a constituent of this district so I am very troubled that a representative would sue his own constituents,” Arballo said in an interview.
In a press conference, the Democratic hopeful went further, calling Nunes “unhinged”. The decision to bring this lawsuit, Arballo said, was evidence that the Republican is “dishonest, unethical, lacks integrity and is unfit to serve as a United States congressman representing this district”.
I’d say it’s surprising, but it’s not. Nunes has sued more of his constituents than he has held town halls... I guess this is what years in DC will do, makes you think you’re above criticism, & can simply sue voters in your district who disagree with you. https://t.co/LvA1hziHL6
The suit – one of several Nunes has filed against his critics – stems from a 2018 effort to challenge the congressman’s designation as a “farmer” on his California ballot listing.
After Esquire magazine reported that the Nunes family dairy farm moved from California to Iowa in 2006, critics accused him of being a “fake farmer” and the Democratic group, Red to Blue, petitioned to change his designation. A judge ultimately ruled that the Republican could continue to call himself a farmer.
Among those named in the lawsuit, filed by Nunes’ campaign, is retired local fruit tree farmer Paul Buxman, one of the congressman’s constituents, and three other defendants. The suit accuses the defendants of conspiring with “dark money” groups to hurt his 2018 re-election campaign.
Nunes has become a lightening rod on the left for his unwavering loyalty to the president and his sharp attack on the intelligence community. In 2018, he narrowly held on to his seat as voters in Republican districts across the state elected Democrats.
The American Civil Liberties Union has followed through on its promise to legally challenge the Trump administration’s move to expand fast-track deportations.
Hundreds of thousands of people living anywhere in the United States are at risk of being separated from their families and expelled from the country without any recourse.
We and @immcouncil will see the government in court – again.
The White House announced late last month that they would be expanding expedited deportations to potentially apply to all undocumented immigrants who could not prove they had continuously been in the country for two years. Previously such fast-track proceedings were only used with migrants who were apprehended shortly after crossing the US-Mexico border.
At the time the policy was announced, the ACLU denounced the policy shift as a gross violation of immigrants’ rights. “Under this unlawful plan, immigrants who have lived here for years would be deported with less due process than people get in traffic court,” said Omar Jawdat, director of the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project.
A new poll from Quinnipiac University found that Elizabeth Warren has enjoyed a bump in support since the second debates, even as Joe Biden remains the front-runner.
Warren’s support has jumped from 15 percent in a July 29 survey to 21 percent in the latest poll. Biden has remained relatively steady, with his support dropping from 34 percent last month to 32 percent this month.
Bernie Sanders enjoyed a small bump from 11 percent to 14 percent, while Kamala Harris has dropped from 12 percent late last month to 7 percent in the latest poll.
A White House spokesperson dodged the question when asked what specific executive action Trump was considering taking to reduce gun violence.
“Well, look, he’s looking at all options,” Hogan Gidley told Fox News. White House officials said yesterday that Trump and Attorney General William Barrare “resolved” to take action after the shootings.
But the administration has so far been very vague about what that action would look like, only saying that the president is exploring solutions “that actually make an impact.”
FBI launches domestic terrorism investigation into the Gilroy shooter
The FBI announced at a news conference that the bureau is opening a domestic terrorism investigation into the shooting at the Gilroy garlic festival, which left three victims dead in northern California last week.
A mourner cries at a funeral for Keyla Salazar, who was killed in the shooting at the Gilroy garlic festival. Photograph: Noah Berger/AP
Authorities said that the shooter had a broad “target list” that included religious institutions, federal buildings and organizations associated with both major political parties.
John Bennett, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s San Francisco office, said authorities have not yet uncovered a motive in attack. But he said that investigators had found the 19-year-old shooter delved into “violent ideologies.”
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortezdemanded an explanation from Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell after a group of young men wearing shirts advertising his campaign were shown in a photo groping and choking a cutout of the congresswoman.
Hey @senatemajldr - these young men look like they work for you.
Just wanted to clarify: are you paying for young men to practice groping & choking members of Congress w/ your payroll, or is this just the standard culture of #TeamMitch?
It is not clear who is shown in the picture, but it appears the men were attending an annual picnic in Fancy Farm, a small town in Kentucky, where McConnell made an appearance. The senator’s campaign Instagram account shared a series of photos with a few of the young men, among others, holding cardboard cutouts of two of the supreme court’s conservative justices, Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch.
McConnell’s campaign said in a statement to the Washington Post that the men were high schoolers and not part of the campaign staff. The campaign “in no way condones” the picture, the statement added.
