Sen. Elizabeth Warren electrified California Democrats on Saturday with a pledge for bold action, matching if not outshining enthusiasm for the state’s own Sen. Kamala Harris to kick off a day when more than a dozen presidential candidates planned to make their cases to thousands of activists in the nation’s largest liberal stronghold. 

Some say if we all just calm down, the Republicans will come to their senses,'' Warren said in bringing the crowd to its feet with a thinly veiled shot at former Vice President Joe Biden, who has expressed hope the GOP will havean epiphany” after President Donald Trump is gone. “But our country is in a crisis. The time for small ideas is over.” 

Biden was the only major candidate not attending the three-day gathering in San Francisco, opting instead to campaign in Ohio. 

California has shifted its 2020 primary earlier on the calendar, to March 3, part of the Super Tuesday collection of contests, in hopes of giving the state more sway in choosing the party’s nominee. California will offer the largest delegate haul, but it is a notoriously difficult state to campaign in, given its massive size and expensive media markets. 

Harris, with a built-in advantage, looked to make a show of force in Saturday’s prime speaking slot to kick off addresses from presidential hopefuls, the day’s main event. She played up her deep connection to California voters, having won statewide office three times, once to the U.S. Senate and twice as the state’s attorney general, and also having been elected as San Francisco’s district attorney. 

Harris, too, sparked a standing ovation when she declared, “We need to begin impeachment proceedings and we need a new commander in chief!” 

Earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, also a Californian, avoided mentioning impeachment in her remarks but said the House would hold Trump accountable.  

Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke addressed the morning session of the convention, slipping seamlessly between Spanish and English, a key move in a state with a large Hispanic population. He praised California Democrats for their massive turnout in the 2018 midterms, when the party flipped seven U.S. House seats held for years by Republicans, and noted that his unsuccessful Senate bid drew record Democratic turnout as well.  

You, California Democrats, have offered the rest of the country an example,'' he said.And in Texas we were right there with you.”  

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders is expecting to build heavily on the California organization he built in the last presidential campaign. He wasn’t scheduled to address the full crowd until Sunday, but he greeted union workers at a Saturday morning breakfast and received an enthusiastic reception Friday night at a meeting of the Chicano-Latino caucus, which endorsed him during the close 2016 contest with Hillary Clinton. 

“This time we are going to win California,” he declared.  

Other candidates attending the gathering: New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker; New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand; Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard; South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg; California Rep. Eric Swalwell; Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar; former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper; Washington Gov. Jay Inslee; former Obama housing chief Julian Castro; and former Maryland Rep. John Delaney.
…

Democratic presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg knows firsthand the burden of six-figure student loan debt. He and his husband, Chasten, are far from alone, though, and their personal college indebtedness is helping to keep the issue on the national stage. 

With loans totaling more than $130,000, they are among the 43 million people in the United States who owe federal student loan debt. 

The debtors are so numerous and the total debt so high — more than $1.447 trillion, according to federal statistics — that several of the Democratic candidates have made major policy proposals to address the crisis. Their ideas include wiping away debt, lowering interest rates, expanding programs that tie repayment terms to income, and making college free or debt-free. 

Student loan debt is often discussed as an issue that mostly affects millennials, but it cuts across age groups. Federal statistics show that about 7.8 million people age 50 and older owe a combined $291.9 billion in student loans. People age 35 to 49, a group that covers older millennials such as Buttigieg as well as Generation X, owe $548.4 billion. That group includes more than 14 million people.  

One of the most detailed plans to help solve the problem has come from Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, who says she would entirely erase student debt for 75% of borrowers while making public colleges and universities free. Her plan would be paid for by a tax on “ultramillionaires,” those households with a net worth of $50 million or more. Warren wants to cancel $50,000 in student loan debt for each borrower with a household income under $100,000 and would cancel smaller amounts for those who earn more.  

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont has outlined a plan to make public universities tuition-free and says he wants to lower student loan rates and “substantially lower student debt.”  

Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke of Texas stops short of advocating for programs to cancel all debt, like Warren wants to do. Instead, he has suggested wiping away debt for people who go into jobs where there’s a manpower shortage, such as doctors in rural areas, but it’s not clear which professions would qualify. 

He also has said he wants to give Americans two years of free tuition at community colleges, make four-year state universities debt-free for those with low and modest incomes and allow borrowers to refinance student loans at lower interest rates.  

Julian Castro, housing secretary in the Obama administration, says he wants to eliminate tuition at public colleges and universities. He has issued a plan that would not require loan repayment until borrowers earn more than 250% of the federal poverty level, currently $25,750 for a family of four. It would cap monthly payments at 10% of their income after that.   

Sen. Kamala Harris of California has publicly called for debt-free college, wants to allow people to refinance their loans at a lower interest rate, base repayment on income and simplify financial aid applications to make it easier for needy students to apply.  

If elected, Buttigieg, the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Ind., would likely be the first president with student loan debt. Barack and Michelle Obama said they paid off their student loans a few years before he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006.  

Buttigieg often speaks about the experience that he and his husband have had with student loan debt. Buttigieg graduated from Harvard in 2004, then won a Rhodes scholarship and graduated from Oxford in 2007. The mayor previously told Vice that he got through school without much debt, but that Chasten racked up loans while getting bachelor’s and master’s degrees to become a teacher.  

In his financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics in mid-May, Buttigieg reported that he and his husband have between $110,000 and $265,000 in student loan debt. The report requires a range rather than a specific dollar amount. Chris Meagher, a campaign spokesman, said the exact amount is $131,296.  

Americans with student loans owe on average $33,000, so the Buttigiegs’ debt is on the high end. They are among the 2.8 million Americans who owe more than $100,000 in federal student loan debt. 

Meagher did not answer questions about whether the loans belonged to Buttigieg or his husband, or both. 

The disclosure statement shows that the couple has 20 loans outstanding, with interest rates ranging from 3.4 percent to 6.8 percent, on loans that were opened between 2009 and 2017. Fifteen of those accounts, more than $100,000 of the balance, were reported to be on an income-based repayment plan. 

Buttigieg has spoken about making it easier to refinance student loan debt. During a town hall hosted by Fox News, he discussed expanding the federal Pell Grant program and making it easier to pay off debt through public service. On his website, he called for middle- and low-income families to pay zero tuition'' at public colleges, or to attend themdebt free.”  

Buttigieg has also called for more support for students who enter public service, such as teaching. 

Seven 2020 presidential contenders have proposed legislation in the Senate to do that. The bill would simplify and expand a program that forgives federal loans for public service workers who make 120 monthly loan payments while working for a government agency or qualified nonprofit. Only about 1% of borrowers who applied to the program were approved. The candidates backing the legislation are Warren, Sanders, Harris, and Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York, Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota, Cory Booker of New Jersey and Michael Bennet of Colorado.  

Former Vice President Joe Biden made a call for a similar simplification and expansion Tuesday in a speech in Houston before one of the nation’s largest teachers unions. 
…

Beto O’Rourke stumbled with women from the start, featuring his wife sitting silently in his presidential campaign launch video and joking repeatedly about being a part-time parent.

But with his campaign at risk of stalling, O’Rourke is attempting to improve his standing with female voters. His wife, Amy, will begin a rare string of campaign appearances on Friday in Iowa, speaking at joint events and making herself available to chat and take pictures with would-be supporters.

Her presence will be an important test of whether Beto O’Rourke can reverse his less-than-favorable first impressions with women. It’s an unusual position for a candidate whose appeal with women helped make him a national political phenomenon while nearly upsetting Texas Sen. Ted Cruz last fall. And it shows how much work has to be done to get his presidential bid back on track.

“Any perceived entitlement by a young white male candidate did disqualify him with some young women activists,” Judy Downs, executive director of the Des Moines-area Polk County Democratic Party, said of O’Rourke. Downs remains undecided in the party’s 2020 primary but added, “In a field where we have 24 qualified candidates, that kind of small-level of gaffe can be enough to cut someone off the list.”

This Iowa swing comes as O’Rourke seeks to reintroduce himself to voters.

He burst into the presidential race at a breakneck pace, bouncing around the country and prioritizing town hall crowds over national media appearances and building out a campaign infrastructure. When initial buzz fizzled, O’Rourke changed course, hiring dozens of new staffers, appearing more often on national TV and rolling out detailed proposals on immigration and other hot-button issues, attempting to shake perceptions he offered more style than substance.

Aides insist that strategy shift doesn’t extend to Amy O’Rourke, noting that she campaigned in New Hampshire last month. They say her stepping more into the presidential race spotlight is due to the logistics of their three children finishing the school year — not an acknowledgement that his campaign needs her help.

“When she can get on the road, she wants to get on the road,” O’Rourke spokesman Chris Evans said. “She is as much of the core of the campaign as he is.”

But others in O’Rourke’s orbit acknowledge there’s ground to be made up.

“He has this kind of persona of the preppy rich kid and it’s easy to say, He's just another privileged white guy and does America need that now?' I totally see that," said Tzatzil LeMair, who helped organize campaign events while O'Rourke was running for Senate in Texas and helms the "Latinos for Beto" page on Facebook. "Beto is like this product, but you have to try it. You have to get people to meet him. You need toexperience’ Beto.”

Iowa state Sen. Clarie Celsi remains undecided in the primary but said O’Rourke’s parenting quip was a “deal breaker for me,” despite his quickly apologizing and abandoning it during the campaign’s opening days.

“You see young men with five kids running for office, and you’re like, `Oh, I wonder how you’re able to do that — oh, you have a wife at home, great.’ But women have to fight a lot harder to be able to have that much freedom,” she said.

Playing an active role in the campaign, Amy O’Rourke could smooth over such impressions. A 37-year-old teacher and school administrator, she advised on policy and strategy during the Senate race and is doing the same for the presidential bid, aides say. Even while not personally campaigning, she helps plan travel schedules, reviews major issue proposals and critiques things like designs on campaign shirts.

“We’re better when Amy talks. We’re better when she’s talking, be it in a video, on stage or in Beto’s ear,” said Kim Olson, a friend of the O’Rourkes who campaigned unsuccessfully for Texas agriculture commissioner last year and is now running for Congress in a district between Fort Worth and Dallas.

Winning over women will be crucial to success in Iowa. Women made up a majority of Iowa voters who supported Democratic House candidates, according to AP VoteCast, a survey of voters from the 2018 midterms, and they typically turn out in stronger numbers than men for the caucuses, which begin the presidential nominating process.

O’Rourke received 52 percent of the 2018 female vote in the nation’s largest red state compared to 48 percent for Cruz, according to VoteCast, though Cruz won the race by 2.6 percentage points. O’Rourke’s campaign also points to recent polling suggesting he could beat President Donald Trump in a head-to-head, 2020 matchup, fueled by strong favorability ratings with women.

Even as he reboots his campaign, though, the new Beto O’Rourke at times looks like the old one. He recently livestreamed getting a haircut, a move he also made while running for Senate. But he joked this time about “cutting off some of this ear hair you get when you get older,” a quip that women on social media quickly noted a female candidate wouldn’t have been able to live down.

Avery Blank, an adviser to the Washington-based Wilson Center’s Women in Public Service Project, wrote a column about Amy’s nonspeaking role in the O’Rourke launch video. She says the campaign missed a chance to leverage what she knew about her husband as a person — but appearing together before voters can fix that.

“Let Amy speak,” Blank said. “Give her the mic.”
…

After two days of intense criticism, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden reversed course Thursday and declared that he no longer supports a long-standing congressional ban on using federal health care money to pay for abortions.

“If I believe health care is a right, as I do, I can no longer support an amendment” that makes it harder for some women to access care, Biden said at a Democratic Party fundraiser in Atlanta.

The former vice president’s reversal on the Hyde Amendment came after rivals and women’s rights groups blasted him for affirming through campaign aides that he still supported the decades-old budget provision. The dynamics had been certain to flare again at Democrats’ first primary debate in three weeks.

Centrist risks

Biden didn’t mention this week’s attacks, saying his decision was about health care, not politics. Yet the circumstances highlight the risks for a 76-year-old former vice president who’s running as more of a centrist in a party where some skeptical activists openly question whether he can be the party standard-bearer in 2020.

And Biden’s explanation tacitly repeated his critics’ arguments that the Hyde Amendment is another abortion barrier that disproportionately affects poor women and women of color.

“I’ve been struggling with the problems that Hyde now presents,” Biden said, opening a speech dedicated mostly to voting rights and issues important to the black community.

“I want to be clear: I make no apologies for my last position. I make no apologies for what I’m about to say,” he explained, arguing that “circumstances have changed” with Republican-run states, including Georgia, where Biden spoke, adopting new, severe restrictions on abortion.

‘Middle ground’ on abortion

A Roman Catholic who has wrestled publicly with abortion policy for decades, Biden said he voted as a senator to support the Hyde Amendment because he believed that women would still have access to abortion even without Medicaid insurance and other federal health care grants and that abortion opponents shouldn’t be compelled to pay for the procedure. It was part of what Biden has described as a “middle ground” on abortion.

Now, he says, there are too many barriers that threaten that constitutional right, leaving some women with no reasonable options as long as Republicans keep pushing for an outright repeal of the Supreme Court’s 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.

The former vice president said he arrived at the decision as part of developing an upcoming comprehensive health care proposal. He has declared his support for a Medicare-like public option as the next step toward universal coverage. He reasoned that his goal of universal coverage means women must have full and fair access to care, including abortion.

​Reversal praised

A Planned Parenthood representative applauded Biden’s reversal but noted that he has been lagging the women’s rights movement on the issue.

“Happy to see Joe Biden embrace what we have long known to be true: Hyde blocks people, particularly women of color and women with low incomes, from accessing safe, legal abortion care,” said Leana Wen of Planned Parenthood, the women’s health giant whose services include abortion and abortion referrals.

Other activists accepted credit for pushing Biden on the issue.

“We’re pleased that Joe Biden has joined the rest of the 2020 Democratic field in coalescing around the party’s core values — support for abortion rights, and the basic truth that reproductive freedom is fundamental to the pursuit of equality and economic security in this country,” said Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL, a leading abortion-rights advocacy group.

Reaction on both sides

Repealing Hyde has become a defining standard for Democrats in recent years, making what was once a more common position among moderate Democrats more untenable, particularly given the dynamics of primary politics heading into 2020. At its 2016 convention, the party included a call for repealing Hyde in the Democratic platform, doing so at the urging of nominee Hillary Clinton.

At least one prominent Democratic woman remained unconvinced.

“I am not clear that Joe Biden believes unequivocally that every single woman has the right to make decisions about her body, regardless of her income or race,” said Democratic strategist Jess Morales Rocketto, who worked for Clinton in 2016. “It is imperative that the Democratic nominee believe that.”

Republicans pounced, framing Biden’s change in position as a gaffe.

“He’s just not very good at this. Joe Biden is an existential threat to Joe Biden,” said Tim Murtaugh, the communications director for President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.

A senior Biden campaign official said some aides were surprised at the speed of the reversal, given Biden’s long history of explaining his abortion positions in terms of his faith. But aides realized that as the front-runner, the attacks weren’t going to let up, and his campaign reasoned that the fallout within the Democratic primary outweigh any long-term benefit of maintain his previous Hyde support.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal conversations.
…

More than two years after voter check-in software failed on Election Day in a North Carolina county, federal authorities will conduct a forensic analysis of electronic poll books for evidence of tampering by Russian military hackers. 

The Department of Homeland Security analysis of laptops used in Durham County is the first known federal probe of voting technology that malfunctioned during the 2016 election. 

State election officials had renewed their long-dormant request for the forensic exam based on the report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian election interference.  

Poll book provider VR Systems says that contrary to Mueller’s findings, it does not believe its network was infiltrated. 

The malfunction in heavily Democratic Durham County forced voters to use paper ballots and wait in line during extended voting hours.
…

U.S. President Donald Trump, in Europe to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, took time Thursday to unleash new broadsides at political targets back home for their roles in investigating him, special counsel Robert Mueller and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Trump contended in a Fox News interview that Mueller made “such a fool” of himself last week when he delivered his first and only public statement on his 22-month investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and whether Trump, as president, obstructed justice by trying to thwart it. 

Mueller said that with the long-time Justice Department policy forbidding the filing of criminal charges against sitting presidents, “Charging the president with a crime was not an option we could consider.” Even so, Mueller said, “If we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that” and declined to exonerate him of obstruction allegations. Instead, Mueller said that prosecutors made no determination on whether charges were warranted.

Attorney General William Barr and then-Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein had earlier decided charges were not warranted against Trump, with Barr saying that Mueller had assured him, as he wound up his investigation, that he was not saying that obstruction charges would have been warranted absent the Justice Department policy banning charges against a sitting president.

Trump noted that after Mueller made his public statement, the Justice Department and Mueller’s office clarified there was “no conflict” between their views. Trump claimed that Mueller had “to straighten out his testimony because his testimony was wrong.” Mueller has not testified before any Congressional committees about his report.

With Mueller declining to clear Trump of obstruction allegations, about a quarter of opposition Democrats in the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives have called for Trump’s impeachment or the start of an impeachment inquiry, which Trump says is unwarranted.

Pelosi has resisted calls to open an impeachment proceeding against Trump, preferring to continue wide-ranging House committee investigations of the obstruction allegations, Trump’s finances and other Trump administration policies during his 29-month presidency. 

But the political news site Politico reported that she told Democratic colleagues in a meeting this week, “I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison.” Pelosi has said she prefers to defeat Trump in the 2020election and then prosecute him for his alleged crimes once he is out of office.

“Nancy Pelosi, I call her Nervous Nancy,” Trump said, saying he does not care whether Democrats call Mueller to testify about his investigation. “Nancy Pelosi is a disaster, OK? Let her do what she wants. You know what, I think they’re in big trouble.” 
…

Just six weeks into his presidential campaign, Joe Biden is running as the Democrat to beat, charting a distinct path through the primary states, taking positions that may rile the party base and working with a single goal in mind: not being lumped in with the rest of the field.

While most Democrats crowd an Iowa dinner this weekend, he won’t be on the campaign trail. While most Democrats tout their support of abortion rights, Biden is offering a more nuanced, middle-ground position. And while most Democrats are preparing to battle one another, Biden is focused on President Donald Trump.

Biden’s moves suggest a candidate looking beyond the Democratic primary to the general election, laser-focused on issues that could shore him up with swing voters in key battleground states even if it spurs consternation from some Democrats now. At the moment, the strategy seems to be working as Biden enjoys a sizable lead in most early polls. But that could change with the first presidential debate of the season just weeks away.

“You are still running for the Democratic Party nomination, and you have to respect where the party is … and avoid pitfalls,” said Karen Finney, a key adviser in 2016 to Hillary Clinton, who navigated a fraught relationship with Democrats’ left flank to win the nomination but went on to lose the election. “It’s a very fine line he’s trying to walk.”

There are fresh signs of the peril he faces atop the field.

In a span of 24 hours this week, a staffer appeared to cut short a question-and-answer session with New Hampshire voters after the candidate called China “xenophobic,” suggesting the campaign remains anxious about Biden’s tendency to go off script. Aides admitted the campaign published a climate policy proposal without properly sourcing some material, a sign of a potential lack of discipline that sank Biden’s previous White House bids.

And Biden’s defense of his abortion views enraged fellow Democrats and left him uncomfortably close to Trump, whose campaign happily noted the president also opposes federal money supporting abortion.

More broadly, Biden risks contending with the same air of inevitability that Clinton confronted in 2016, magnifying every misstep and turning some voters against her.

“There are just places where he is out of step with the party,” Finney observed, citing his middle ground on abortion. “The question becomes whether there’s an assumption by this campaign that parts of the base might not like various positions but because people want to win, they’ll be willing to look past it.”

Biden’s Democratic competitors have been reluctant to attack publicly. Even as they disagreed with Biden’s abortion views on Wednesday, they generally avoided referring to him by name.

In private, however, rival campaigns are eager to complain that Biden hides from scrutiny. He’s among the only top-tier candidates yet to appear in a cable news town hall, and in contrast with many of his opponents, he rarely takes questions from groups of reporters after his campaign appearances.

Some of Biden’s top-tier opponents acknowledge they fear voter backlash should they engage the popular Biden more directly. They expect to debate policy differences, but most want to avoid the kind of scorched-earth attacks that fueled Trump’s rise during the 2016 Republican primary.

Only groups like the Progressive Change Campaign Committee — which backs Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren — have called Biden out aggressively. The group this week tweeted a picture of Biden’s schedule for June that features 10 days of campaigning; several days are limited to invitation-only fundraisers.

“You can hide for a few weeks during the primary, but you can’t hide from public engagement during the general election against Trump,” said PCCC co-founder Adam Green.

At Biden headquarters, aides don’t deny a front-runner’s approach, but they dispute any characterization that the former vice president isn’t engaging voters. Days when he’s not on the campaign trail, they say, are devoted to meetings with policy advisers and campaign aides. Indeed, Biden has unveiled two comprehensive policy outlines (education and climate) before the 40-day mark of his campaign, a faster clip than the gaggle of candidates who launched their bids in January and February.

And they say Biden made it to all four early voting states faster than most of his top-tier rivals.

Biden isn’t skipping large-scale Democratic events altogether. On Thursday, he’ll be in Atlanta at a Democratic National Committee event focused on minorities and voting rights. Later in June, he’ll spend two days at the South Carolina state party convention, an important stop ahead of the South’s first primary and the first nominating contest to feature a large black contingent.

And allowing a press pool at fundraisers — something his opponents aren’t doing systematically — means any misstep is captured, even if not on camera. He’s attended house parties and lunchtime meet-and-greets and taken questions in New Hampshire and Iowa, even if not as much as barnstormers like Warren or New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker.

Scott Brennan, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman, said Biden’s strength in early polls allows him to “get a pass” from some of the criticism for now. But he warned that Biden should be aware of a nebulous measure: “Whether voters feel like you’re accessible.”

Then-Sen. Barack Obama skipped Iowa’s Hall of Fame dinner in 2007 — the same event Biden will miss this weekend. But Obama went on to win Iowa, largely because of his lengthy sessions answering questions from voters in more personal settings.

In New Hampshire on Tuesday, voters offered a mixed assessment.

Cynthia Tomai, a 51-year-old who is self-employed, said Biden has to play “catch up” to other candidates. “Would I like to see a little bit more aggressiveness in him?” Tomai said. “Yeah, I would. I think he does need to change his message a little bit.”

Lloyd Murray, a 67-year-old military veteran and business owner, said Biden’s front-runner approach is smart.

“I’m scared for him,” Murray said. “He’s known to make [gaffes] in the past. I want him to play it safe. He’s in the lead.”

 
…

Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday criticized U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on Mexico as “random dart throwing” that lacks a coherent strategy.

Trump unexpectedly told Mexico last week to take a harder line on curbing illegal immigration or face 5% tariffs on all its exports to the United States, rising to as much as 25% later in the year. On Tuesday, Trump said he expected to impose the tariffs as of Monday.

“Trump’s random dart throwing ain’t helping anybody,” Warren, a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, told reporters after a campaign event in Elkhart, Indiana.

Moments earlier, before a crowd of about 600 in the town with a large manufacturing sector, Warren assailed companies that are moving production abroad. While that echoed Trump’s criticism, she faulted his approach.

“Lets be clear — tariff policy by tweet does not work,” Warren said. “Randomly raising tariffs on a handful of goods with no coherent policy and doing it nation by nation makes no sense at all.”

Warren is one of more than 20 Democrats vying for the Democratic nomination to challenge Trump in the November 2020 election.

Mexican officials will seek to persuade the White House in talks hosted by U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday that their government has done enough to stem immigration and avoid looming tariffs. The tariff fight merges two of Trump’s biggest campaign promises, on immigration and fair trade.

“Nobody goes into battle by themselves when they can be stronger by having allies in it,” Warren said, calling for a “coherent trade policy.”

Other Candidates Weigh In

U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar, who is also running to be a Democratic presidential nominee, criticized Trump for creating “chaos” by creating the tariffs and promising more.

“That’s the kind of chaos he likes,” Klobuchar said in an appearance on CNN on Tuesday. “And I just think that’s not how you embark on international diplomacy with one of our best allies.

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, another Democratic presidential hopeful, had a similar criticism.

“This president has no plan and no ability to have a thoughtful approach towards trade or the economy,” Gillibrand said on Monday in a town hall on Fox News. “Because if he wanted to reduce the trade deficit, he’s only grown it.”
…

Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders on Wednesday told Walmart shareholders and top executives that the world’s largest retailer should boost the “starvation”-level wages it pays its workers and stop fueling income inequality.

Speaking at Walmart’s shareholder meeting, the U.S. senator said: “Despite the incredible wealth of Walmart’s owners” the company pays “starvation wages.”

He presented a shareholder proposal asking the company to give hourly employees a seat on its board and raise base wages to $15 an hour.

Walmart’s “wages are so low, many of these employees are forced to rely on government programs like food stamps, Medicaid and public housing in order to survive,” Sanders said.

“The American people are so tired of subsidizing the greed of some of the largest corporations in the United States,” he added.

Sanders had three minutes to present and make comments. His remarks at the meeting drew attention to his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination as well as to the drive for higher hourly U.S. wages, one of his signature issues.

The proposal, filed by Walmart worker Carolyn Davis, was buried at the end of the annual proxy filing. It had no chance of passing since a majority of shares are owned by the family of the founder, the late Sam Walton, and the retailer has asked shareholders to vote against it.

Sanders also complained that “Walmart’s CEO is making a thousand times more than the average Walmart employee.”

Walmart’s CEO received a 423.6 million pay package last year. The ratio compared with that of the median associate was 1,076 to 1.

Protesters gathered outside the meeting, many from the labor group “United for Respect” which has pushed for a worker presence on Walmart’s board. They held signs supporting Sanders 2020 presidential campaign and calling for a $15 per hour U.S. minimum wage.

“What do we want? 15. When do we want it? Now!” the protesters chanted as Sanders briefly addressed workers and the media in a parking lot outside the meeting.

Final results of the vote were expected later in the afternoon.

Walmart has raised its minimum wage twice since 2016 to $11 an hour, still lower than the $15 an hour that rival Amazon.com Inc pays employees. Retailers Target and Costco also pay higher rates than Walmart.

Chief Executive Officer Doug McMillon said Walmart has raised wages in the United States by 50 percent in the past four years and continues to increase wages on a market-by-market basis to hire and retain talent. He also urged Congress to raise the federal minimum wage, calling the current minimum of $7.25 an hour “too low.”

“We are not perfect, but together we are learning, we are listening and changing,” he said.

Walmart has said it pays an average of $17.50 an hour to its hourly employees, including benefits.

Last year, Sanders introduced the Stop Walmart Act, a bill that would prevent large companies from buying back stock unless they pay all employees at least $15 an hour.

The U.S. Senator has also backed campaigns to push Amazon and Disney  to raise their minimum wages, an issue that has found support with all Democratic candidates running for the presidential nomination.

Walmart, which employs nearly 1.5 million Americans and is the largest U.S. private-sector employer, drew sharp criticism from labor groups and unions when it changed the format of its annual meeting last year, splitting it into two separate events.

The business meeting at which Sanders spoke is now held a few days before the big shareholder event, which draws thousands of employees. This year and the year before, the company rushed through shareholder proposals at the business meeting, which had a fraction of the attendees, in less than 30 minutes.
…

Joe Biden is under fire from his Democratic presidential rivals and women’s rights advocates for his defense of a decades-old prohibition on federal money paying for abortions.

Most Democratic White House hopefuls reflect their party’s latest platform calling for the outright repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which traces back to a compromise made when Biden was a young Delaware senator in the years after the landmark Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling legalized abortion nationwide.

But a Biden campaign spokesman said Wednesday that the former vice president supports the measure, though he “would be open to repealing it” if abortion access is further threatened by restrictive state laws, like those recently passed in Georgia and Alabama.

The hedging prompted intraparty outcry, with top Democrats reaffirming their commitment to abortion rights and scrapping the Hyde Amendment. They generally avoided mentioning Biden by name, but the pushback marked the first significant instance in which virtually the entire crowded 2020 field united to critique Biden, who has emerged as an early Democratic front-runner .

New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who has campaigned as an unapologetic feminist, tweeted “reproductive rights are human rights, period. They should be nonnegotiable for all Democrats.” On Capitol Hill, California Sen. Kamala Harris told The Associated Press she was “absolutely opposed to the idea that a woman is not going to have an ability to exercise her choice based on how much money she’s got.”

Campaigning in Indiana, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said, “This isn’t about the politics, this is about what’s right. The Hyde Amendment should not be the law.”

Other presidential candidates, including Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke, also voiced support for ending the Hyde Amendment.

Biden’s abortion views came under scrutiny recently after video emerged of a conversation between him and a South Carolina activist that appeared to suggest he backed the Hyde Amendment’s repeal. His campaign said Biden thought the activist was asking about the so-called Mexico City rule, which prohibits U.S. foreign aid to non-American organizations that provide abortion services.

The campaign said Biden supports ending the Mexico City rule but backs the Hyde Amendment for now. That would change, it said, “if avenues for women to access their protected rights under Roe v. Wade are closed.”

Biden, a Roman Catholic, has long been a supporter of the once-bipartisan Hyde Amendment, which President Bill Clinton signed into law in 1993. It bars the use of federal funds for abortion other than in cases of incest, rape or to save the life of the mother.

That position aligns the former vice president with the man he’s trying to unseat next year, President Donald Trump. Campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh said Wednesday that “President Trump opposes taxpayer funding of abortions and supports the Hyde Amendment.”

Biden has said in the past he agrees with his church’s opposition to abortion personally but doesn’t think the government should impose his views on others. After the Supreme Court decided the Roe v. Wade case, Biden originally worried the decision “went too far,” though he later became a staunch defender of it.

“I’ve stuck to my middle-of-the-road position on abortion for more than 30 years,” he wrote in his 2007 book “Promises to Keep.” `’I still vote against partial birth abortion and federal funding, and I’d like to make it easier for scared young mothers to choose not to have an abortion, but I will also vote against a constitutional amendment that strips a woman of her right to make her own choice.”

As a party, Democrats didn’t expressly state opposition to the Hyde Amendment until 2016. The Democratic platform that year also introduced a specific mention of Planned Parenthood, as it was adopted amid a rash of Republican-run state legislatures trying to strip Medicaid financing for the women’s health giant whose services include abortion and abortion referrals.

Abortion rights supporters also condemned the Hyde Amendment on Wednesday.

“As abortion access is being restricted and pushed out of reach in states around the country, it is unacceptable for a candidate to support policies that further restrict abortion,” Kelley Robinson, executive director of the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, said in a statement.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said Biden’s position “further endangers women and families already facing enormous hurdles and creates two classes of rights for people in this country, which is inherently undemocratic.”

Biden ally and California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein said in an interview, “I respect Joe. I just disagree.” She said it wouldn’t affect her support, but she planned to raise the issue with him: “Oh, yeah. We’ll talk about it. No question.”

Hawaii Democratic Sen. Mazie Hirono went further, saying she was “very disappointed” in Biden’s position and urged Democratic presidential candidates to “come together” in full support of abortion rights.

“This is why there are going to be a lot of women and others who are going to be asking Biden, `Where exactly are you on the issue of a woman’s right to choose?”’ Hirono said.

 
…

Beto (BET’-oh) O’Rourke has unveiled a voting rights proposal he says can increase voter registration by 50 million and raise nationwide voter turnout to 65%.

He’s seeking to ensure 35 million new voters cast ballots in 2024’s presidential race.

The former Texas congressman and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate announced Wednesday he’d champion legislation ensuring automatic voter registration, including preregistration starting at age 16 and same-day registration. He’d make Election Day a holiday, extend early voting and strengthen the Voting Rights Act.

O’Rourke promises to direct the Justice Department to combat strict voter ID laws around the country and keep some state officials from “purging” voter rolls. He’d back a constitutional amendment imposing 12-year House and Senate term limits and 18-year limits for Supreme Court justices.

The Pew Research Center says voter turnout was 61% in 2016.
…

In a courtroom packed with environmental activists, federal judges wrestled Tuesday with whether climate change violates the constitutional rights of young people who have sued the U.S. government over the use of fossil fuels.

A Justice Department attorney warned three judges from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that allowing the case to go to trial would be unprecedented and open the doors to more lawsuits.

“This case would have earth-shattering consequences,” Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Clark said. 

He called the lawsuit “a direct attack on the separation of powers” and said the 21 young people who filed it want the courts to direct U.S. energy policy, instead of government officials.

The young people are pressing the government to stop promoting the use of fossil fuels, saying sources like coal and oil cause climate change and violate their Fifth Amendment rights to life, liberty and property. 

The judges seemed to feel the enormity of the case, which the plaintiffs’ lawyer compared in scope to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling that mandated desegregation of schools in the 1950s.

If the case moves forward, the judiciary would be “dealing with different branches of government and telling them what to do,” said Judge Andrew Hurwitz, instead of issuing court orders telling officials to stop doing something deemed unconstitutional.

The dire threat to people, particularly the young, demands such action, said Julia Olson, chief legal counsel for Our Children’s Trust, which is representing the plaintiffs. 

“When our great-grandchildren look back on the 21st century, they will see that government-sanctioned climate destruction was the constitutional issue of this century,” Olson told the judges.

​The lawsuit asks the courts to declare federal energy policy that contributes to climate change unconstitutional, order the government to quickly phase out carbon dioxide emissions to a certain level by 2100 and mandate a national climate recovery plan. 

The Obama and Trump administrations have tried to get the case dismissed since it was filed in Oregon in 2015.

“It’s just really disappointing to see the lengths that they go to – to not only not let us get the remedy that we’re seeking, but not even let us have the chance to prove our facts or present our case at trial,” said Nathan Baring, a 19-year-old from Fairbanks, Alaska, who joined the lawsuit when he was 15.

Baring said a social media campaign in the early days featured the hashtag #KidsvsGov, which was changed to #YouthvsGov as they got older.

“I think eventually it’s just going to have to be #AdultsvsGov,’’ Baring said, laughing.

As the case drags on, sea ice that protects coastal Alaska communities from fierce storms is forming later in the year, leaving those villages vulnerable, he said. 

The young people argue that government officials have known for more than 50 years that carbon pollution from fossil fuels causes climate change and that policies promoting oil and gas deprive them of their constitutional rights.

Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s administration say the young people didn’t find any “historical basis for a fundamental right to a stable climate system or any other constitutional right related to the environment.”

The lawsuit says the young are more vulnerable to serious effects from climate change in the future. The American Academy of Pediatrics, 14 other health organizations and nearly 80 scientists and doctors agreed in a brief filed with the appeals court.

They pointed out that the World Health Organization estimates 88% of the global health burden of climate change falls on children younger than 5.

The case has become a focal point for many youth activists, and the courtroom in Portland was packed. 

If the 9th Circuit judges decide the lawsuit can move forward, it would go before the U.S. District Court in Eugene, where the case was filed. The appeals court judges will rule later.
…

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is pitching a $5 trillion-plus climate proposal that he says would lead the U.S. to net zero emission of carbon pollution by 2050.

The former vice president calls for $1.7 trillion in federal spending over 10 years, with the rest of the investments coming from the private sector. Biden proposes covering the taxpayer costs by repealing the corporate tax cuts that President Donald Trump signed in 2017, while eliminating existing subsidies to the fossil fuel companies.

Biden’s plan — a mix of tax incentives, federal spending, new regulation and more aggressive foreign policy on climate issues — comes as he pushes back on rivals’ assertions that his environmental agenda isn’t bold enough. Climate activists largely praised his pitch Tuesday, although some said the Democrats’ 2020 front-runner still hasn’t gone far enough to challenge the fossil fuel industry.

His proposal calls the Green New Deal pushed by some Democrats on Capitol Hill “a crucial outline” but stops short of some of its timelines for weaning the U.S. economy off power from fossil fuels, even as he promises a “clean energy revolution” nationwide and internationally.

“I will lead America and the world, not only to confront the crisis in front us but to seize the opportunity it presents,” Biden says in a campaign video posted online, warning that failure to act threatens “the livability of our planet” and will accelerate natural disasters that are “already happening.”

Biden also joined many of his Democratic primary opponents in pledging not to accept campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry and promising to keep the U.S. in the United Nations climate agreement signed in 2015 while he was vice president under President Barack Obama. Trump, who calls climate science a “hoax,” has pledged to withdraw from that accord.

Reaction to plan

But the release of Biden’s plan was not without controversy. The campaign was forced to amend the proposal because a handful of passages did not credit some of its sources. The Biden campaign said “several citations” had been “inadvertently left out.”

Biden’s plan is similar in size and scope to what former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke has proposed. Its total price tag falls short of Washington Gov. Jay Inslee’s pitch for $3 trillion in federal spending over a decade and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s $2 trillion green manufacturing plan, also unveiled Tuesday.

Inslee took advantage of the contrasts, saying at a Michigan campaign stop that Biden’s “proposals really lack teeth and they lack ambition that is necessary to defeat the climate crisis.” He added, “We don’t have 30 years to get this job done. We’ve got to start acting now.”

League of Conservation Voters lobbying executive Tiernan Sittenfeld was more complimentary, applauding Biden for “committing to ambitious goals.” Greenpeace, which recently released a scorecard ranking Biden second to last among Democratic candidates, called the outline “a critical step forward,” but spokesman John Noel added that if Biden “wants to become a leader on climate, he needs to outline a plan to phase out fossil fuels.”

At the pro-Green New Deal Sunrise Movement, executive director Varshini Prakash called Biden’s plan “a good start.” Prakash also gave climate activists credit for pushing Biden to the left following their outcry after a recent news report asserted Biden was looking for a “middle ground” on climate. Biden disputed the report at the time.

As president, Biden says he’d start by reversing many actions of the Trump administration, then turn to necessary congressional action and executive branch regulation, while using U.S. political and economic muscle to limit emissions from other nations.

Lost jobs

He acknowledges that such an overhaul would affect existing U.S. energy workers — coal miners and power plant operators especially. He calls first for pension and benefit protections for all such workers and promises an “unprecedented investment” in retraining and redevelopment in those communities.

Biden recognizes the “environmental justice” movement that highlights how pollution disproportionately affects poorer, mostly nonwhite communities. He pledges a more aggressive Environmental Protection Agency, clean drinking water for all Americans and a focus on minority communities for initial rounds of federal clean energy spending.

He doesn’t offer specific spending amounts for those priorities.

Still, Biden’s dual focus on coal towns and nonwhite communities reflects political lessons from 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s loss. Clinton drew ire in coal country when she said as part of a more sweeping statement on energy development that “we’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.” 

Transportation, construction

Biden also envisions expanding the nation’s railways, theoretically reducing demand for car and airline travel.

Among his ideas for automobiles, Biden calls for fuel economy standards “beyond” the Obama administration’s goal of about 54 miles (87 kilometers) per gallon (3.8 liters). The Trump administration has rolled that back, saying the regulation would increase auto prices. Biden also pitches expanded tax credits for purchases of electric vehicles, along with 500,000 more public charging stations nationwide by the end of 2030.

He calls for reducing carbon output from the nation’s buildings by more than 50 percent by 2035, through new construction and tax breaks for retrofitting existing commercial and residential properties. The Energy Department would be tasked with tightening efficiency standards for household appliances and equipment.

Like O’Rourke, Biden mentions nuclear energy as a source the federal government should boost with tax incentives. That could put him at odds with some activists on the left who cast nuclear energy as too dangerous.

On the international front, Biden calls out China as the world’s biggest coal polluter and says he’d hinge all future bilateral deals with Beijing on carbon reductions. Biden also urges an international alliance that would help other nations afford low-carbon development and pitches a global moratorium on Arctic offshore drilling.
…

Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren proposed on Tuesday spending $2 trillion on a new “green manufacturing” program to address climate change that would invest in research and exporting American clean energy technology.

The manufacturing program is the first in a new series of “economic patriotism” proposals Warren is unveiling intended to create American jobs and help U.S. industry.

“This is going to be a big plan for bold structural changes,” Warren said at a campaign rally in Detroit, Michigan.

Warren told the crowd of about 500 in a facility that teaches manufacturing skills that her proposal would be paid for by cutting subsidies in the oil and gas industry. Additionally, by all companies paying more taxes, she said, singling out Amazon.com.

Among the more than 20 Democrats in the field hoping to challenge Republican President Donald Trump in November 2020, Warren has distinguished herself as the most prolific proposer of new policy positions.

Several candidates have offered climate-related policy proposals, including Washington Governor Jay Inslee, who has made it the singular focus of his campaign, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who also announced a climate plan on Tuesday.

Warren said she had not read Biden’s proposal when asked by reporters after her campaign event.

The newest proposal from Warren, a U.S. senator from Massachusetts, lays out how she would carry out some of the policy goals outlined in the Green New Deal, which has the backing of liberal members of her party.

Warren began touting the proposal in a campaign trip to Michigan, a Midwestern state with a large manufacturing sector that shocked political observers in 2016 when voters backed Trump and helped propel him to the White House.

“When we’re talking about manufacturing, when we’re talking about real expertise, we’re talking about Detroit,” Warren said.

The plan is likely to draw criticism from opponents who will argue the price tag is too high and that trying to quickly overhaul the U.S. energy sector would have crippling economic effects.

But Warren also released an evaluation of her three-part proposal conducted by Moody’s economist Mark Zandi, who argued the plan would help the economy on a large scale.

“There is no free lunch, and big businesses, oil and gas companies, and multinationals pay for the cost of this plan,” Zandi wrote. “The economy benefits, although it would take more than a decade for this benefit to be fully realized.”

The first part of Warren’s plan calls for spending $400 billion over 10 years on clean energy research and development.

Warren said she believes the United States could one day use no fossil fuels. “It’s part of our technological bandwidth,” she said in a brief news conference after the Detroit rally.

Next, Warren proposed increasing the amount the United States spends on “American-made clean, renewable, and emission-free energy products for federal, state, and local use, and for export.”

Warren said the United States currently spends $1.5 trillion on defense procurement, which she called “bloated,” and argued that an equal amount should be spent on clean energy.

As part of this proposal, Warren would require companies that sell to the federal government pay their employees at least $15 an hour, that employees receive 12 weeks paid family and medical leave and be able to form unions. Labor practices were included in Green New Deal proposals.

Finally, Warren called for creating a new federal office responsible for trying to get foreign countries to purchase U.S. clean energy technology.

Likening it to programs that help foreign countries buy U.S.-made weapons, Warren would allocate $100 billion to assist countries buying U.S. energy technologies.

While acknowledging ambitious goals that liberal advocates have supported to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2050, Warren said it was important that other countries cut emissions as well.

“We need other countries to slash their emissions, and that means we need to supply the world with clean energy products (at low enough prices to displace dirty alternatives) to put us on the right path,” Warren wrote on Medium.
…

The White House on Tuesday directed two more former aides, including top presidential adviser Hope Hicks, to defy subpoenas from Democratic lawmakers investigating whether U.S. President Donald Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart the probe of Russian meddling in the 2016 election.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler said Hicks and Annie Donaldson, the former chief of staff for ex-White House counsel Donald McGahn, were told to not comply with his panel’s subpoenas for documents from their time working in the White House. Trump had earlier blocked McGahn’s cooperation with the committee, where an impeachment inquiry would begin against Trump if Democrats decide to pursue it.

Hicks worked for the Trump Organization, the president’s business empire, before he entered politics. She served as his campaign press secretary and later became White House communications director, before resigning in early 2018. She once testified to Congress that she told “white lies” on Trump’s behalf.

Nadler said Hicks has turned over some documents from her time working on Trump’s campaign. The Nadler committee is trying to arrange public testimony from Hicks, McGahn and Donaldson.

Trump has vowed to fight all Democratic subpoenas. The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives is voting next week on whether to hold McGahn and Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for their defiance of Judiciary Committee subpoenas, with Nadler saying that he expects Hicks and Donaldson also will eventually be held in contempt.

Donaldson was a key witness for special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into whether Trump obstructed justice. Mueller’s team of lawyers relied on copious notes she took about McGahn’s interactions with Trump, with McGahn telling investigators that Trump directed him to seek Mueller’s dismissal. McGahn ignored the president’s request, then later left his White House job last year to return to private legal practice in Washington.

Mueller outlined several instances of alleged obstruction by Trump in the 448-page report released in April, but said he could not bring any charges against the president because of Justice Department restrictions prohibiting filing of charges against a sitting president. Barr and then Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein subsequently decided that no criminal charges were warranted against Trump.

Nadler protested the White House stance blocking cooperation from Hicks and Donaldson, saying, “The president has no lawful basis for preventing these witnesses from complying with our request.”

 
…

Congress is finally shipping President Donald Trump a $19.1 billion disaster aid bill, a measure stalled for months by infighting, misjudgment, and a presidential feud with Democrats.

The House is approving the measure in its first significant action as it returns from a 10-day recess. It is slated for a Monday evening vote in which Republicans whose home districts have been hit by hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and fires are set to join with majority Democrats to deliver a big vote for the measure.

Conservative Republicans had held up the bill during the recess, objecting on three occasions to efforts by Democratic leaders to pass the bill by a voice vote requiring unanimity. They say the legislation — which reflects an increasingly permissive attitude in Washington on spending to address disasters that sooner or later hit every region of the country — shouldn’t be rushed through without a recorded vote.

Along the way, House and Senate old-timers have seemed to outmaneuver the White House, though Trump personally prevailed upon Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Richard Shelby, R-Ala., to drop a bid to free up billions of dollars for dredging and other harbor projects. The Senate passed the bill by a sweeping 85-8 vote on its way out of Washington May 23, a margin that reflected a consensus that the bill is long overdue.

The measure was initially held up over a fight between Trump and Democrats over aid to Puerto Rico that seems long settled. 

“Some in our government refused to assist our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico who are still recovering from a 2017 hurricane. I’m pleased we’ve moved past that,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairwoman Nita Lowey, D-N.Y. “Because when disaster strikes, we shouldn’t let a ZIP code dictate our response.” 

​Migrant issue

The measure also faced delays amid failed talks on Trump’s $4 billion-plus request to care for thousands of mostly Central American migrants being held at the southern border. The sides narrowed their differences but couldn’t reach agreement in the rush to go on recess but everyone agrees that another bill will be needed almost immediately to refill nearly empty agency accounts to care for migrants.

The measure is largely the same as a version that passed the House last month that Republicans opposed for leaving out the border funding.

“We must work together quickly to pass a bill that addresses the surge of unaccompanied children crossing the border and provides law enforcement agencies with the funding they need,” said top Appropriations Committee Republican Kay Granger of Texas. “The stakes are high. There are serious — life or death — repercussions if the Congress does not act.” 

Among the reasons was a demand by House liberals to block the Homeland Security Department from getting information from federal social welfare authorities to help track immigrants residing in the U.S. illegally who take migrant refugee children into their homes.

​Floods, tornadoes

As the measure languished, disasters kept coming — with failed levees in Arkansas, Iowa and Missouri and tornadoes across Ohio just the most recent examples. The measure is supported by the bipartisan party leadership in both House and Senate.

The legislation is also being driven by Florida and Georgia lawmakers steaming with frustration over delays in delivering help to farmers, towns, and military bases slammed by hurricanes last fall. Flooding in Iowa and Nebraska this spring added to the coalition behind the measure, which delivers much of its help to regions where Trump supporters dominate.

The bill started out as a modest $7.8 billion measure passed in the last days of House GOP control. A $14 billion version advanced in the Pelosi-led chamber in January and ballooned to $19.1 billion by the time it emerged from the floor last month, fed by new funding for community rehabilitation projects, Army Corps of Engineers water and flood protection projects, and rebuilding funds for several military bases, including Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.

Many Republicans opposed funding to mitigate future disasters as part of rebuilding projects when Superstorm Sandy funding passed in 2013 only to embrace it now that areas such as suburban Houston need it. Democrats, for their part, held firm for what ended up as roughly $1.4 billion for Puerto Rico, letting Trump feud with the U.S. territory’s Democratic officials for weeks and deflecting political blame for stalling the bill.
…

The Democrat-controlled U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on June 10 on Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election and its connections to Donald Trump’s campaign.

The committee will hear testimony from former U.S. attorneys and legal experts, including John Dean, a Trump critic and former White House counsel to President Richard Nixon who served a year in prison in connection with the Watergate scandal.

“We have learned so much even from the redacted version of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report,” Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said in a statement.

“These hearings will allow us to examine the findings laid out in Mueller’s report so that we can work to protect the rule of law and protect future elections through consideration of legislative and other remedies,” Nadler said. 

In a 448-page, redacted report released in April, Mueller documented numerous occasions in which Trump sought to quash the probe, including by firing former FBI Director James Comey. Mueller ultimately did not reach a decision as to whether Trump had obstructed justice, however.

The special counsel said last week that even if he had been willing to conclude Trump had committed a crime, he could not have indicted him because of a Justice Department policy that prohibits indicting a sitting president.

” … Our first hearing will focus on President Trump’s most overt acts of obstruction. In the coming weeks, other hearings will focus on other important aspects of the Mueller report,” Nadler said.

The House Judiciary Committee has already held many hearings and sought materials and testimony related to its investigation into whether Trump tried to obstruct Mueller’s probe.

Last month, Attorney General William Barr refused to appear for a scheduled committee hearing before the committee and the White House blocked former White House Counsel Don McGahn from appearing at another hearing.
…

Democratic White House hopeful Cory Booker is rolling out his Iowa steering committee, a team of activists and operatives that features party powerbroker Jerry Crawford, who played a key role in each of Bill and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaigns in the state.

Crawford, a Des Moines-area attorney who also played leading roles on Al Gore and John Kerry’s campaigns, said he’s been courted by multiple campaigns but told The Associated Press in an interview he’s backing Booker because of the New Jersey U.S. senator’s positive message.

“I’m very much drawn to his passion for civility and his determination to pursue healing,” Crawford said.

Crawford is among 10 Iowa activists, operatives and elected officials who plan to provide strategic advice and operational support to Booker’s campaign as part of his Iowa steering committee, being rolled out Monday. The group includes four other previously unannounced endorsers: former Iowa state House minority leader Rep. Mark Smith and city councilmembers Dale Todd, of Cedar Rapids, and Mazahir Salih and Bruce Teague, both of Iowa City. Booker’s campaign said it hopes all three will help organize African American support for him in their respective cities.

The other five steering committee members are state Reps. Amy Nielsen and Jennifer Konfrst; Iowa Democratic Party central committee members Landra Jo Reece and Melinda Jones; and former American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees political director Marcia Nichols, all of whom previously expressed their support for Booker.

“From local activists to council members and state representatives, these individuals have been on the forefront of standing up for their communities,” Booker said in a statement.

Crawford, whose weekend conversation with the AP was interrupted by a call from Booker, said he plans to be in touch with the Booker campaign multiple times a week and has already begun efforts to convince other major Iowa political players to get on board with the campaign. Besides gathering support for the candidate over the next nine months, Booker’s team sees the members of his steering committee as key forces on caucus night, the kind of voices who could win over persuadable caucus-goers in key precincts.

With at least 50 staffers on the ground, Booker’s Iowa team is widely seen inside the state as one of the strongest and most seasoned, behind only Massachusetts U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s in numbers. But thus far, Booker’s staffing strength hasn’t translated to support in the polls: Booker still draws only low single-digit support in nationwide and state surveys.

Booker’s staff and advisers dismiss the polls as too early to be predictive and argue that the senator is running more of a slow burn-style campaign that will ensure he has the operation in place to harness any momentum in the fall if he does catch fire — and enough resources to sustain it through the caucuses and beyond.

“This is a horrible time to be one of the front-runners,” Crawford said, noting that early Iowa front-runners “don’t do very well, historically speaking.”

Crawford said he expects to see Booker surge around Thanksgiving, but right now, “Cory’s exactly where you want to be.”

 
…

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders on Sunday called on California Democrats to unite against Donald Trump, kicking the 2020 presidential campaign into high gear with jabs against the Republican president and a veiled swipe at Democratic rival Joe Biden.

Sanders called Trump “a racist, a sexist, a homophobe and a religious bigot” in a speech capping off a state Democratic convention that drew fourteen of the 24 candidates to make their case before 5,000 delegates, guests and press in the most populous – and most heavily Democratic – U.S. state.

“Together we are going to defeat a president who has the most corrupt administration in history,” Sanders said, “and a president who knows nothing about real American values.”

The San Francisco convention became a window into the forces at work in the Democratic Party as it seeks to recover from Trump’s populist-fueled victory in 2016.

The party’s left-leaning delegates greeted Sanders and liberal U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren like rock stars.

Former Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper drew boos when he said socialist policies would not propel the party to victory, and other moderates were booed for rejecting the idea of a universal public health care system, or Medicare for All.

Former vice president Joe Biden, who leads Sanders in polls for the Democratic nomination in California and nationwide, did not attend the convention, drawing barely veiled criticism from Sanders.

Sanders noted that the fourteen candidates who addressed the convention, as well as some who had “chosen for whatever reason not to be in this room,” offer a variety of ways to approach a campaign against Trump. But Sanders rejected the centrist approach favored by Biden and some other candidates.

On issues like health care, pharmaceutical prices and climate change wracking the country, “there is no middle ground,” Sanders said.

Addressing concerns among some Democrats that a moderate would be more electable than a fiery progressive, Sanders said such an approach would not generate the enthusiasm needed to defeat Trump.

“We will not defeat Donald Trump unless we bring excitement and energy into the campaign and unless we give millions of working people and young people a reason to vote and a reason to believe that politics is relevant to their lives,” Sanders said.

California, which will send nearly 500 delegates to the party’s nominating convention next year, took on new heft for the 2020 campaign after moving its nominating election to March from June. Democrats hold all statewide elective offices in the state, and dominate both houses of the legislature.

U.S. Senator Kamala Harris, a native daughter who has been eclipsed in early polling in California by Biden and Sanders, made clear she was not taking her home state for granted.

On Saturday, supporters with signs bearing her name and shouting “Kamala! Kamala!” formed a gauntlet that Sanders was forced to walk through on his way into a labor union breakfast.

“I am here to earn everyone’s support, and I’m going to fight to earn it,” Harris said at a breakfast held by the party’s women’s caucus.

 
…

President Donald Trump said Sunday that “America has had enough with Mexico,” contending that it is an “abuser” of the United States by not stopping the surge of Central American migrants headed north to seek asylum in the U.S.

Trump, who is threatening to impose a 5 percent tariff on Mexican exports sent to the U.S. unless it blocks the migrants short of the U.S. border, accused Mexico of “taking but never giving. It has been this way for decades.”

On Twitter, Trump said, “Either they stop the invasion of our Country by Drug Dealers, Cartels, Human Traffickers, Coyotes and Illegal Immigrants, which they can do very easily, or our many companies and jobs that have been foolishly allowed to move South of the Border, will be brought back into the United States through taxation (Tariffs).”

Trump’s attacks on Mexico came a day after Mexican President Andres Manual Lopez Obrador suggested his country could clamp down on migration. He said he thinks the United States is ready to discuss its threat to impose the tariff, effective June 10, as a means to combat illegal migration from Central America.

“There is willingness on the part of U.S. government officials to establish dialogue and reach agreement and compromises,” the Mexican leader said.

Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said he had spoken to U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo by phone and said face-to-face talks between the two would take place on Wednesday in Washington.

“We will be firm and defend the dignity of Mexico,” Ebrard said.

Lopez Obrador called for “dialogue” rather than “coercive measures” and said he expects “good results” from the Washington talks.

Trump set off the dispute last week, posting a policy statement on Twitter.

“On June 10, the United States will impose a 5% Tariff on all goods coming into our Country from Mexico, until such time as illegal migrants coming through Mexico, and into our Country, STOP,” Trump tweeted. Until “the illegal immigration problem is remedied” tariffs will continue to rise monthly, going as high as 25% by October 1.

U.S. border agents have apprehended an increasing number of people, largely from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, who crossed the southern U.S. border in recent months, many of them hoping to win asylum to stay in the U.S.

In contrast to previous spikes in arrivals, recent groups have included a large number of children, prompting U.S. officials to scramble to support families and children traveling without parents.

The tariff dispute is occurring as Trump is seeking congressional approval for a new U.S.-Canada-Mexico trade deal. Some Washington analysts have suggested that if Trump imposes the tariff on imports from Mexico, it would imperil passage of the trade pact, but acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney dismissed such concerns, saying the two issues are not connected.

“This is an immigration matter, not a trade issue,” Mulvaney told Fox News Sunday.

He said Trump threatened to impose the tariff “to put pressure on Mexico. Congress will not help us fix the border, so we turned to Mexico.”
…

The Pentagon has told the White House to keep the military out of politics, after someone from the White House directed the Navy to keep the warship USS John S. McCain “out of sight” when President Donald Trump visited Japan.

“On Friday, May 31, Secretary Shanahan directed his Chief of Staff to speak with the White House Military Office and reaffirm his mandate that the Department of Defense will not be politicized,”  Shanahan’s spokesman Army Lt. Col. Joe Buccino said Sunday.

Eric Chewning, Shanahan’s chief of staff, told the defense secretary that he had reinforced this message to the White House, according to Buccino.

“There’s no room for politicizing the military,” Shanahan told reporters aboard a U.S. military aircraft en route to Seoul. “We take these things seriously, and my office and others will deal with it directly.”

The directive to hide the USS John S. McCain from Trump was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

An email seen by VOA showed discussions about the warship between the White House Military Office and an officer with the U.S. Navy’s 7th Fleet ahead of Trump’s trip.

“USS John McCain needs to be out of sight,” reads the email’s third bullet-pointed request.

“Please confirm #3 will be satisfied,” the email emphasized.

Shanahan confirmed Sunday that the White House Military Office gave the directive that the warship should be hidden from view “directly” to the Navy’s Seventh Fleet, which manages naval operations in the Western Pacific.

“The directive was not carried out,” Shanahan added.

According to Shanahan, officials have told him that a white tarp was placed over the ship’s stern on the days preceding the visit, but the tarp was for “hull preservation” and was removed prior to the president’s visit.

A paint barge was moved the day prior to Trump’s visit “to support ongoing maintenance,” but the barge “did not obscure the view of the ship during the visit,” said Shanahan.

Sailors with the USS John S. McCain and the USS Stethem were on a 96-hour Memorial Day weekend liberty unrelated to the visit and did not participate in the Trump event, he confirmed.

VOA had previously reported these details provided by a U.S. Navy official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Shanahan said he had called the late Senator John McCain’s wife “a couple days ago” after news of the incident broke, but declined to discuss the “private conversation.

On Thursday, Shanahan said he did not authorize and was not aware of the White House directive to hide the USS John S. McCain from Trump.

“I would never dishonor the memory of a great American patriot like Senator [John] McCain,” Shanahan told reporters traveling with him. “I’d never disrespect the young men and women who crew that ship.”

Trump tweeted Thursday that he was not informed about the controversy surrounding the USS John S. McCain during his visit to Japan.

The president later told reporters outside the White House that whoever was involved in the move was “well meaning” but that he was unaware of the decision to hide the warship.

“I don’t know what happened. I wasn’t involved. I would not have done that,” he said, adding, “I was not a big fan of John McCain in any way, shape or form.”

Trump frequently feuded with longtime Republican senator and 2008 Republican presidential candidate John McCain, who died last year.

The USS McCain was originally named for the senator’s father and grandfather, both Navy admirals, and now honors all three men.
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U.S. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will be on a state visit to the Britain June 3 to June 5.

What to know for the visit?

It’s not Trump’s first visit to Britain.

What’s so special this time?

Trump was in Britain in July 2018 on a working visit, which involved much less pomp and pageantry than a state visit. On a working visit, the visiting country and not the host country covers the bill.

A state visit is a formal visit by a head of state and is normally done at the invitation of the queen on the advice of her government. Queen Elizabeth II, as the current head of state, will act as Trump’s official host for the duration of the visit.

An invitation for a state visit was extended soon after Trump took office in 2017, but a number of concerns, including security have been hampering plans.

The White House said the upcoming trip would reaffirm the “steadfast and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.”

Twelve U.S. presidents have visited Britain, though only two were there on state visits: George W. Bush in 2003 and Barack Obama in 2011.

What’s on the agenda?

In addition to a private lunch and a state banquet hosted by the queen, the president and the first lady also will attend cultural engagements with other members of the royal family.

They will participate in events to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the D-Day invasion during World War II, including a visit to Portsmouth, a launch site for the offensive that led to the liberation of Europe. Other countries’ representatives are expected to attend.

Trump will hold a business round table at St. James’s Palace, and he’ll attend a bilateral meeting at 10 Downing Street, the residence and home of British Prime Minister Theresa May, who is resigning after failing to achieve an agreement on Britain’s departure from the European Union. May has said she will resign on June 7, two days after Trump is scheduled to leave.

Trump, who has supported Brexit since his 2016 presidential campaign, has criticized May’s handling of the issue. Responding to a reporter’s question on Thursday, Trump said he might meet with Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage — pro-Brexit politicians who are seeking to replace May. Trump said they both were his friends, “very good guys, very interesting people.”

In an interview Friday with British tabloid The Sun, Trump said Boris Johnson would be an “excellent” choice for the Conservative Party leadership. “I think Boris would do a very good job,” he said, adding that his endorsement “could help anybody.”

After his three-day visit to Britain, Trump will fly to Shannon, Ireland, for a bilateral with Prime Minister Leo Varadkar. Trump said he will stay overnight in Doonbeg, the luxury golf resort in County Clare that he bought in 2014.

On June 6, Trump will head to France where he will observe the D-Day anniversary in Normandy, alongside French President Emmanuel Macron.

Who else is coming and who are they meeting?

Other than the president and the first lady, the White House has confirmed the president’s adult children also will be on the trip.

They will meet members of the royal family, including Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Parker Bowles; Prince William and his wife, Kate Middleton; and Prince Harry. The Trumps will not be meeting Prince Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle, nor their new baby, Archie. Markle, who is American, is still on maternity leave.

Additionally, Trump will attend a reception at the U.S. Embassy to meet staff and their families.

Where are they staying?

State visitors usually stay with Queen Elizabeth at either Buckingham Palace or Windsor Castle. President George W. Bush and President Obama both stayed at Buckingham Palace. A spokesperson for the royal household said the Trumps will not be staying with the queen, however, due to renovation work that is being carried out at the royal residence.

Buckingham Palace is currently undergoing a 10-year, $477 million renovation, including major electrical and plumbing work.

Will there be protests?

During Trump’s visit last July, more than 100,000 people protested on the streets of London, according to police. This year, protest organizers say they expect similar numbers.

The main protest, “Together Against Trump,” will take place in London on Tuesday, June 4. Smaller protests are planned elsewhere in Britain.

The protests are organized in general opposition to Trump’s views and policies on issues such as immigration and climate change. The campaign group Stop Trump said, “We will make it clear to the British government that it’s not OK to normalize Trump’s agenda and fear it has sparked.”

The “Trump Baby” — a 6-meter balloon by artist Matt Bonner depicting the president as an infant in a diaper holding a cellphone — is expected to appear, as it did during Trump’s 2018 visit to Britain and during his visits to France and Argentina.
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The vast majority of U.S. state voting legislation introduced this year was intended to expand voting access rather than impose restrictions.

Lawmakers in 45 states have been debating at least 647 bills that would expand voting access, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University’s School of Law. That’s compared with lawmakers in 28 states that have considered at least 82 bills to restrict access.

Voting-related topics under consideration in legislatures this year:

Early voting

Most states and the District of Columbia allow registered voters to cast ballots in person before Election Day. This year, lawmakers in New York and Delaware approved early voting in those states. An effort to allow voters in Connecticut to decide whether that state should have early voting did not receive enough support from legislators to make the ballot next year.

Bills that would allow early voting or put the question before voters also were introduced in Maine, Minnesota, Missouri and Virginia.

No-excuse absentee voting

While absentee ballots are available in every state, 19 states require a voter to provide a reason for requesting one. This year, bills that would allow some form of no-excuse absentee voting or put the question before voters were introduced in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire and New York.

​Same-day and Election Day registration

A growing number of states allow people to register and vote on the same day. In most cases, this applies to the early voting period as well as Election Day. Proof of residency and identification are required. States check whether a voter has already cast a ballot and have criminal penalties to deter fraud. 

This year, bills that would allow for same-day voter registration or to put the question before voters were introduced in Connecticut, Delaware, Kansas, Maryland, Nevada, New Mexico and New York.

Automatic voter registration

Seventeen states and the District of Columbia have started or have plans to implement a system in which residents are automatically registered to vote when they have contact with the state, typically at the state’s motor vehicle agency, unless they decline.

This year, bills that would implement automatic voter registration were introduced in Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska and New Hampshire.

Registration assistance

Republicans in some states have expressed concerns about the actions of third-party voter registration groups, specifically pointing to the burden on local election officials when the groups submit forms that are incomplete or contain false information.

In Tennessee, this prompted a law signed recently by Republican Gov. Bill Lee that allows for fines for 100 or more incomplete registration forms in a year. A similar measure was introduced in Arizona.

​Voter identification

Seven states have what has been described as “strict” photo identification requirements, meaning a voter must show a photo ID prior to casting a ballot. In those states, people who do not have an acceptable form of photo ID are directed to cast a provisional ballot that will be counted only if the voter visits the appropriate election office to present an ID within a certain number of days.

Ten other states have “non-strict” photo identification requirements. Depending on the state, some voters may have the option to sign an affidavit, or poll workers can vouch for their identity. In other cases, voters are directed to cast a provisional ballot, and then election officials determine eligibility without further action required of the voter.

Efforts to implement photo ID requirements in Montana and Wyoming failed this year.

Sources: National Conference of State Legislatures and the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU’s School of Law
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Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand has unveiled a comprehensive plan to protect the rights of LGBTQ people to mark the start of Pride Month.

If elected, the New York senator says she’d direct the Justice Department to consider gender identity and sexual orientation a protected class. She would also ban discrimination against transgender members of the military and federally recognize a third gender in identification documents, denoted by an “X” on ID cards.

In a platform announced Saturday, Gillibrand said she’d prohibit gay conversion therapy nationwide and direct public schools to allow transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms matching their identity.

Her proposal would further require health insurance plans to cover hormone therapy for transgender patients, and it would recognize U.S. asylum claims for LGBTQ people fleeing persecution in their home countries.

 
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