“It is time for us to impeach this president.”
— Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), quoted by CNN.
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Quote of the Day
“I refer to him as ‘the occupant.’ He simply occupies the space. He embodies zero of the qualities and the principles, the responsibility, the grace, the integrity, the compassion, of someone who would truly embody that office.”
— Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-MA), quoted by the Boston Globe, on President Trump.
Harris Surges In New Hampshire
A new St. Anselm College poll in New Hampshire finds Joe Biden leading the Democratic presidential race with 21%, followed by Kamala Harris at 18%, Elizabeth Warren at 17%, Pete Buttigieg at 12% and Bernie Sanders at 10%.
Beto O’Rourke, who registered at 6% in the April poll, received zero percent support in the new poll.
The poll’s margin of error is 5.2%, which means that the top three candidates — Biden, Harris and Warren – are virtually tied.
House Probes Whether Pentagon Weaponized Ticks
Roll Call: “The House quietly voted last week to require the Pentagon inspector general to tell Congress whether the department experimented with weaponizing disease-carrying insects and whether they were released into the public realm — either accidentally or on purpose.”
Trump’s Notes Captured by Photographer
The Washington Post captured photos of President Trump’s talking points when he denied that his tweets about four House Democratic women were racist.
It’s fascinating that his words were prepared in advance and that certain phrases were highlighted for emphasis.
Kellyanne Conway Told to Ignore Subpoena
President Trump told White House counselor Kellyanne Conway to ignore a congressional subpoena, the Washington Post reports.
Are You OK With a Racist President, Republicans?
The Raleigh News & Observer slammed Republicans for not criticizing President Trump’s racist tweets over the weekend:
“Go back where you came from” is among the worst of racist tropes. It divides us by ethnicity and skin color. It says that even if someone is a citizen or legal immigrant, they are not part of the rest of us. That runs contrary to who we should be as Americans, and if Donald Trump didn’t know it when he typed the words, he surely did later when people responded with appropriate outrage. But the same president who referred to Haiti and African nations as “shithole countries” and said African visitors would never “go back to their huts” once again doubled down on his racism.
It’s dangerous, destructive behavior, and at the least every Republican lawmaker in Congress should declare as much about their president’s outburst.
For members: The Politics Behind Trump’s Racism.
Trump and RNC Raised $123 Million Last Quarter
“President Trump, his re-election committees and the Republican National Committee raised over $123 million in the second quarter of 2019, bringing their total cash on hand to a combined $108 million as the race for the White House heats up,” CBS News reports.
How Assange Used Embassy for Election Meddling
“New documents obtained exclusively by CNN reveal that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange received in-person deliveries, potentially of hacked materials related to the 2016 US election, during a series of suspicious meetings at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.”
“The documents build on the possibility, raised by special counsel Robert Mueller in his report on Russian meddling, that couriers brought hacked files to Assange at the embassy.”
“The surveillance reports also describe how Assange turned the embassy into a command center and orchestrated a series of damaging disclosures that rocked the 2016 presidential campaign in the United States.”
Schumer Blisters Republicans Over Trump Tweets
Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) blasted Republicans over the silence with with many have responded to President Trump’s tweets telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back” to their home countries, The Hill reports.
Schumer said Trump’s comments “drip with racism” and questioned if Republicans weren’t commenting “out of embarrassment or agreement.”
Asked Schumer: “Where are you? When something this serious, this bigoted, this un-American happens? If you’re saying to yourself well, he got us our big tax credit, well, he’s taking regulations off big corporations … we have to go along with this racism? You are making a deal with the devil.”
Alan Turing Is the Face of Britain’s £50 Note
“Alan Turing, a crack code-breaker and visionary mathematician who was convicted under Victorian-era homophobic laws, will be the face of Britain’s new £50 note,” CNN reports.
“Turing, who killed himself in 1954 after he was subjected to chemical castration, will appear on the new polymer note by the end of 2021.”
Democratic Lawmaker Will Force Impeachment Vote
Rep. Al Green (D-TX) said that he would move forward in the next two weeks on articles of impeachment against President Trump, saying “the American people are fed up with his racism and bigotry,” the Washington Post reports.
“Green, who filed articles of impeachment in 2017 and has threatened for months to try again, said things ‘came to a boiling point’ with Trump’s weekend tweets as well as his handling of the crisis along the southern U.S. border.”
Jonathan Allen: “This is a good way for Green to split the Democratic Party, show Trump has bipartisan support and potentially end the possibility of an impeachment inquiry. He will soon be President Trump’s favorite lawmaker.”
Roy Moore Hits Fundraising Wall
Roy Moore’s FEC disclosure form shows that in the first ten days of his 2020 U.S. Senate campaign in Alabama he raised less than $17,000.
Just three of the itemized donations over $200 were from residents of Alabama.
Warren Turned to Big Donor to Pay for DNC Database
“Elizabeth Warren relied on a multimillion-dollar Democratic donor to cover the cost of an expensive voter database — a move that risks putting her campaign at odds with the spirit, if not the letter, of the pledge she made to abstain from ‘big money’ fundraising,” BuzzFeed News reports.
Matthew Yglesias: “Case study in why it’s a mistake to articulate any kind of ethical standard in politics – reporters will mercilessly punish you for real or imagined violations of your principles while giving you zero credit.”
Jeffrey Epstein Had Foreign Passport In His Safe
Daily Beast: “The safe’s contents were disclosed during a bail hearing at which prosecutors argued that Epstein is a flight risk and should be kept locked up until his sex-trafficking trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney Alex Rossmiller said the politically connected money manager has ‘vast assets and every incentive in the world to use those assets.'”
“He said that bank documents the government got last week show Epstein had $110 million in a single account — and another $400 million in various holdings. The passport found in the safe was issued in the 1980s and gave a residence of Saudi Arabia, Rossmiller said. It was not issued under Epstein’s name but did have a photo that appeared to be of him.”
Meghan McCain Says Lindsey Graham Has Changed
Meghan McCain criticized her father’s longtime friend Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for standing by President Trump after Trump suggested that a group of non-white progressive congresswomen “go back” to where they came from, The Hill reports.
Said McCain: “Whatever is happening to Lindsey, this is not the person I used to know.”
She also slammed the “cowardice” of the GOP for not speaking out.
Trump Says His Tweets Were Not Racist
President Trump denied that the inflammatory tweets he issued Sunday against four House Democrats were racist, CNN reports.
Said Trump: “As far as I’m concerned, if you hate our country, if you’re not happy here, you can leave. If you’re not happy in the US, if you’re complaining all the time, you can leave. You can leave right now.”
Asked if he’s concerned that white nationalists have come out in support of his tweets, Trump said: “It doesn’t concern me because many people agree with me. And all I’m saying — they want to leave, they can leave.”
Ex-Fox & Friends Host Flees Country Amid Fraud Charges
“Ex-Fox & Friends co-host Clayton Morris has left the country amid more than two dozen lawsuits from investors who say he defrauded them in real estate deals involving properties in Indianapolis,” the Indianapolis Star reports.
“Morris, who previously resided in a $1.4 million home in New Jersey, has moved with his family to a coastal resort town Portugal, according to his wife’s Facebook post.”
