Read Time: 5 Minutes
Protests/Racial and Social Justice
- Democrat Jaime Harrison went off on Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) for running a Facebook ad that features an apparently darkened image of the Senate hopeful, blasting Graham for “playing a part in a 400-year history of an Old South that had no room for people who looked like me.” Harrison has fought hard in the race to unseat Graham, who is facing one of his toughest reelection bids yet.
- Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) said the federal government has agreed to withdraw agents from Portland, a step toward ending a standoff with President Trump over the use of federal force, although the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said it would maintain its presence until conditions improved.
- A number of people arrested at Portland protests say the terms of their release prevent them from attending protests going forward — a stipulation First Amendment experts have called cause for concern.
- The City Council in the border town of Laredo, Texas, voted to paint “Defund The Wall” on the street in front of a downtown federal courthouse in a similar fashion to the many “Black Lives Matter” streets painted in cities across the country.
- Douglas County (NV) Sheriff Dan Coverley told a local library not to bother calling 911 for help after it expressed support for Black Lives Matter.
In a statement The Douglas County public library had denounced, “all acts of violence, racism and disregard for human rights.” “We support #BlackLivesMatter.” “We resolutely assert and believe that all forms of racism, hatred, inequality and injustice don’t belong in our society.”
Coverley posted an open letter on the sheriff’s office website, “Due to your support of Black Lives Matter and the obvious lack of support or trust with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, please do not feel the need to call 911 for help,” Coverley wrote.
“I wish you good luck with disturbances and lewd behavior, since those are just some of the recent calls my office has assisted you with in the past.”
- In what the state attorney says appears to be a case of racial profiling, Luis Santos, a former Florida theme park security guard, has been arrested for falsely detaining a Black teen who was on his way to basketball practice, prosecutors said.
“You work here? You live here?” asked Santos, 54, as he recorded with a cellphone, according to excerpts released by prosecutors. The teen stopped and answered Santos’ questions before the situation escalated.
“You’re not going anywhere,” said Santos, stepping out of his vehicle. “You’re being detained. You’re not going anywhere.” Santos held his hand over his pocket as if he had a weapon. He also forced the victim to put his hands in the air.
Santos called 911 claiming that the unidentified teenager was seen on video “breaking into cars” and that he thought the teen had stolen a bike. Prosecutors with the Hillsborough State Attorney’s Office said there was no evidence of any crimes.
Trump Administration
- The U.S. military unveiled plans to withdraw about 12,000 troops from Germany, in fallout from President Donald Trump’s long-simmering feud with Berlin, but said it will keep nearly half of those forces in Europe to address tension with Russia.
U.S. officials stressed that only a relatively small number of advanced units would move anytime soon. The rest of the troop movements would take years to fully implement, in part given the potentially billions of dollars in additional cost.
- Lawmakers in both parties are panning the Trump administration’s plan.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) blasted the move as a “grave error,” while Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NB) said President Trump shows a “lack of strategic understanding.”
“Once more, now with feeling: U.S. troops aren’t stationed around the world as traffic cops or welfare caseworkers – they’re restraining the expansionary aims of the world’s worst regimes, chiefly China and Russia,” Sasse said in a statement.
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin “are reckless – and this withdrawal will only embolden them,” Sasse added. “We should be leading our allies against China and Russia, not abandoning them. Withdrawal is weak.”
- The Trump administration is sending additional federal agents and funding to Cleveland, Milwaukee and Detroit, expanding a program that has targeted Democratic-run cities facing increases in violent crime.
- The Trump administration’s controversial “public charge” rule that would make it easier for immigration officials to deny entry to people likely to rely on government assistance has been blocked by a federal judge who cited the coronavirus pandemic.
- President Trump mistakenly tagged an Ohio HVAC company as Air Force One in a tweet, prompting the company to offer its services.
“As a family owned business, we don’t take sides in politics but we were flattered by the mention… but if this is an invitation to provide mechanical services in the White House or on Air Force One, we’re all ears!”
- President Trump attacked Fox News tweeting:“I was on Air Force One flying to the Great State of Texas, where I just landed. It is AMAZING in watching @FoxNews how different they are from four years ago. Not even watchable. They totally forgot who got them where they are!”
- President Trump confirmed that he has never confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin with intelligence reports that Russian units paid Taliban-linked militants to attack U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
During a clip from an interview with “Axios on HBO,” Trump said he “never discussed it” with Putin during a phone call last week.
“That was a phone call to discuss other things, and frankly that’s an issue that many people said was fake news,” Trump said when pressed about why the matter wasn’t raised.
NOTE: The CIA has been analyzing the intelligence for several months and has assessed that the Russian program is real. Intelligence analysts believe that the bounties resulted in the deaths of three Marines killed in April 2019 when the vehicle they were traveling in was blown up just outside Bagram.
- More than 50 facilities across the country that have faced enforcement actions for alleged Clean Water Act violations are among those taking advantage of an EPA policy that lets companies forgo pollution monitoring during the pandemic.
- In a tweet, the president suggested delaying the November election because of the false claim there are problems with the legitimacy of mail-in voting: “With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
- The U.S. economy contracted at its steepest pace since the Great Depression. The economy shrunk at a rate of 32.9 percent during the second quarter of 2020 as the coronavirus pandemic spurred an economic collapse of record-breaking speed and size, the Commerce Department reported.
- The Labor Department reported that initial unemployment claims rose for the second week in a row, with 1.4 million registering for benefits for the first time.
Presidential Campaign
- President Trump’s reelection campaign has halted new ad buys in Michigan in recent days as polling shows former Vice President Joe Biden with a widening lead in the state.
Trump’s recent withdrawal came as his campaign shifted advertising dollars to other battlegrounds like Iowa.
Sources: ABC News, Associated Press, The Atlantic, Axios, Bloomberg, CBS News, CNN, Financial Times, Fox News,The Hill, Independent, NBC News, NJ.com, NPR, NY Times, Politico, Reuters, Salon, Slate, Vanity Fair, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post
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