Quaint! Like typewriters or integrity
BY PRIYANKA ARIBINDI, BRIAN BEUTLER,
& CROOKED MEDIA
Tuesday, July 3rd, 2018 | Today, NBC News reported that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are giving asylum seekers at the border no choice but to be deported. According to official documents, these parents can only choose whether they want to return to their home countries alone, or with their children—they are not given an option to stay and make an asylum claim. This new tactic denies asylum seekers their due process rights and may even violate a June court order requiring the Trump administration to reunite the over 2,000 children it seized at the border with their parents. Against this backdrop, more Democrats are joining calls for significant immigration enforcement reforms, including for abolishing ICE altogether. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) called today for restructuring ICE as part of a broader push to “abolish the cruel, dysfunctional immigration system we have today and pass comprehensive immigration reform.”
Many other Senate Democrats, like Sanders, have fallen short of calling for the elimination of ICE, but the rallying cry has helped shift the center of the immigration debate away from defensive responses to Trump’s scapegoating of immigrants, and toward a more humane discussion. Republicans, of course, have responded by lying systematically about why some Democrats want to abolish ICE, and what the consequences of it would be.
| HOW DOES SCOTT PRUITT LOOK PEOPLE IN THE EYE? | CNN reports that earlier this year, EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt asked President Trump to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions and replace Sessions with himself. Pruitt’s interest in the job has been widely reported, as has Trump’s desire to obstruct or terminate Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation by placing a loyalist at the helm of the Justice Department. This new revelation suggests Pruitt almost got his way, and might explain why Trump has tolerated Pruitt’s corruption. Just today we learned:
Believe it or not, there used to be this co-equal branch of government called Congress that could “check” corruption in the executive branch. Quaint! Like typewriters or integrity.
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The Trump administration has rescinded seven Obama-era affirmative-action guidelines, which were designed to encourage campuses to diversify. Trump reportedly interviewed Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) yesterday to fill retiring Justice Anthony Kennedy’s Supreme Court seat. Lee has previously compared Roe v. Wade to the 1857 decision in Dred Scott v. Sandford, which upheld slavery. Women around the country are mailing Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) coat hangers to remind her what’s at stake as she considers whether or not to vote to confirm Trump’s forthcoming nominee. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet one-on-one, without aides present, at the outset of their July 16 summit in Helsinki, Finland. On a related note, the Senate Intelligence Committee (including its eight GOP members) has concluded that Putin personally ordered the influence operation to subvert the 2016 election to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), who has been at the forefront of efforts to help Trump obstruct the Russia investigation, is accused of turning a blind eye to sexual abuse of wrestlers he coached more than 20 years ago at Ohio State University by a team doctor. A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to produce documents demonstrating how it reached its decision to add a citizenship question to the Census, finding strong evidence that the administration acted in bad faith. Good. Harvey Weinstein is facing new sexual assault charges in New York City, one of which carries a maximum life sentence, while Kevin Spacey is now under investigation for three more previously unreported sexual assaults in London. Amazon made Prime Day 36 hours long (coming up July 16 if you care about that sort of consumerism, which we do NOT, but that’s the date so you know and so we know). Gov. Ralph Northam (D-VA) appeared on The Bachelorette last night and, had this season not been overrun by terrible people (h/t Ashley Spivey), maybe people would’ve cared. | | |
On Pod Save The People: DeRay, Sam, Clint, and Brittany discuss overlooked news, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s definition of Democratic socialism, and the lack of accountability in immigration detention contracting. Then, “Hamilton” star Daveed Diggs and Deputy Director at the ACLU Bill Cobb talk about their Campaign for Smart Justice.
Listen →
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The prominent independent national security journalist Marcy Wheeler—a consistent critic of the FBI and intelligence community for over a decade—became an informant when she realized a source of hers was involved in the Russian sabotage of the 2016 election. She’s speaking out because she believes the information she provided to the FBI has been corroborated, and to put a human face on GOP efforts to breach the Russia investigation, which has put other informants at risk. “This investigation is not, primarily, an investigation into Donald Trump. It’s an investigation into people who attacked the United States. It’s time Republicans started acting like that matters.” Read → | Denmark is legally classifying children and parents from immigrant “ghettos”—which are primarily populated by low-income Muslims—as “ghetto children” and “ghetto parents.” According to the New York Times, starting at age one, these “ghetto children” must be separated from their families to be taught “Danish values,” including the language and traditions of Christmas and Easter, for at least 25 hours a week. If they don’t comply, the government has threatened to cut off welfare payments. | | |
THE BACHELORETTE IS BAD, BUT YOU KNOW WHAT’S NOT—THIS THREAD. | P.S. Tomorrow’s a holiday and our benevolent overlords at Crooked Media have allowed us to take the rest of the week off! See you back here on Monday, July 9. | Did someone forward you this email? Sign up to get What A Day in your inbox! | | |
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