Democratic representatives reintroduced the Journalist Protection Act, which would make it a federal crime to threaten, intimidate or attack reporters. The announcement included rebukes of Trump’s rhetoric against the press and others who have followed his example.
A Senate committee will hold hearings to investigate the fatal Ethiopian Airlines crash that killed all 157 people onboard, hoping to shed light on any issues with Boeing’s 737 Max planes. Representatives have called for the planes used by many airlines in the US to be grounded, as they have been in several other countries.
Beto O’Rourke is expected to declare his 2020 candidacy this week.
More than a dozen Republican Senators headed by Utah’s Mike Lee, introduced a bill today that seeks to rein in executive branch authority to issue emergency declarations without Congressional approval.
“If Congress is troubled by recent emergency declarations made pursuant to the National Emergencies Act, they only have themselves to blame. Congress gave these legislative powers away in 1976 and it is far past time that we as an institution took them back. If we don’t want our president acting like a king we need to start taking back the legislative powers that allow him to do so,” Lee said in a statement.
Inbox: Mike Lee introduced the ARTICLE ONE Act to take back legislative powers given to the exec. branch by the National Emergencies Act of 1976.
The bill would automatically end emergency declarations after 30 days unless Congress voted affirmatively to extend the emergency.
Under the current law, to block an emergency declaration Congress has to pass a resolution. The proposed legislation would require Congressional extensions after 30 days for a declaration to continue.
The new bill would not apply to Trump’s border wall declaration and the New York Times reports it was devised as a way to garner support for the president’s plan.
Per the Times:
And one of the Republicans who said he favored the resolution of disapproval, Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina, appeared to be wavering, according to multiple people at the policy lunch. Without him — and barring any other defections — the resolution would fail to reach the president’s desk.
‘If you would have asked me before this lunch then I would have said, in the Senate, the president is going to lose,’ said Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, who opposes the resolution. ‘But I’m not so sure now. A lot of people are trying to think of a way to express their support for the president, but at the same time express their concern’ about ceding too much power to the White House.
While Mr. Lee’s bill would not retroactively apply to Mr. Trump’s border emergency declaration, it would give Senate Republicans cover — and offer their only chance of defeating the House resolution by easing concerns that a future Democratic president could take advantage of the precedent set by Mr. Trump”.
US prosecutors are officially investigating allegations of ballot fraud in North Carolina congressional race, The Washington Post confirmed today.
A federal grand jury issued subpoenas to former Republican candidate Mark Harris’s lawyer this month, along with officials at the north Carolina State Board of Elections, calling for documents connected to the 9th Congressional District race held in November.
Per the Washington Post:
The federal subpoenas come less than a month after state election officials tossed the November results in the 9th District after finding that Dowless orchestrated a “coordinated, unlawful, and substantially resourced absentee ballot scheme” last year to illegally collect, forge and possibly discard other voters’ mail-in ballots.
Officials also accused Dowless of hiding evidence of the operation as it unfolded and obstructing the state’s investigation after the election”.
The Journalist Protection Act, which would classify intimidation or attacks against reporters as federal crimes, was reintroduced today by Representative Eric Swalwell, a Democrat from California, and Democratic Senators Richard Blementhal and Robert Menendez.
A press release about the bill emphasized the need for legislation to protect journalists, who have faced increasing levels of intimidation, threats, and bodily harm.
The values celebrated during #SunshineWeek—accountability through transparency, access to public info, & freedom of the press—are being attacked like never before. This bill makes it crystal clear: Engaging in any kind of violence against members of the media won't be tolerated. pic.twitter.com/aTRz7ywtpv
Highlighting that the announcement comes during Sunshine Week, a national campaign to celebrate open access to public information, the press release cited a “climate of extreme hostility toward the press,” stoked by President Trump:
He has called the press ‘the enemy of the American people,’ and described mainstream media outlets as ‘a stain on America’. He once tweeted a GIF video of himself body-slamming a person with the CNN logo superimposed on that person’s face, and retweeted a cartoon of a ‘Trump Train’ running over a person with a CNN logo on its head.
Such antagonistic rhetoric encourages others to think, regardless of their views, that violence against journalists is more acceptable. Last April, the international organization Reporters Without Borders dropped the United States’ ranking in its annual World Press Freedom Index by two points, to number 45 overall, citing President Trump’s bashing of the media”.
The Communications Workers of America and a coalition of news organizations working to protect press freedoms under the News Media for Open Government have come out in strong support of the legislation.
“A journalist should not have to worry about threats of harassment or physical attacks solely for doing their jobs and informing the public,” Coalition Director Melissa Wasser said in a statement. “The Journalist Protection Act would not elevate journalists to a special status, but rather would ensure they receive the same protections if attacked while gathering and reporting the news.”
A Senate panel responsible for aviation oversight will hold hearings on the deadly Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes, Reuters reports. In addition to investigations, Senator Ted Cruz, who heads the subcommittee on aviation and space, also pushed for the planes to be temporarily grounded until more is understood on what caused the crashes, joining other representatives including Senators Mitt Romney and Richard Blumenthal.
Out of an abundance of caution for the flying public, the @FAANews should ground the 737 MAX 8 until we investigate the causes of recent crashes and ensure the plane’s airworthiness.
Following the Ethiopians Airlines crash Sunday, which killed all 157 people on board, several countries including the United Kingdom, China, Indonesia, and Australia grounded their planes.
In the US, the Federal Aviation Administration said Monday that it is investigating the crashes but deemed the planes safe. In a statement released early Tuesday, Boeing said it was complying with regulators and emphasized that safety is the first priority.
Beto O’Rourke has been teasing that he might seek the presidency in 2020 for weeks now but has not yet officially announced his candidacy. CNN reports, that’s likely to change this week:
Former US Rep. Beto O’Rourke is ready to “push the button” to launch his presidential campaign, with the announcement expected to first come on social media, a source familiar with his plans told CNN.
Aware that the 2020 Democratic primary is quickly taking shape, O’Rourke is set to announce his candidacy this week, rather than launching an exploratory committee”.
.@BetoORourke campaign up with bunch of Facebook ads promoting 2020 announcement, first time advertising on FB since November. Example: pic.twitter.com/Oqz7M6bezg
Beto O’Rourke will travel to Iowa this weekend to campaign for a state senate candidate.
President Donald Trump spoke to the CEO of Boeing after tweeting “planes are becoming too complex to fly” in the aftermath of the Ethiopian Airlines crash.
Andrew Yang, a longshot Democratic presidential candidate, announced he had received the 65,000 individual donations to his campaign necessary to qualify for the first Democratic presidential debates.
Similar legislation has been introduced for years but has become more urgent after the Trump administration took steps to curb DACA, the program that shields 700,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children from deportation.
Congressman Seth Moulton of Massachusetts just published an op-ed in the Washington Post calling for abolishing the Electoral College and the filibuster in the Senate.
Moulton is considered a potential presidential candidate and both the Electoral College and the filibuster have become bugaboos on the left by some who view them as structural obstacles to progressive reform in the United States.
South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg raised over $600,000 in the 24 hours following his televised town hall on CNN Sunday. There were 22,000 individual donations, more than a third of the threshold needed to qualify for the first Democratic primary debates.
The budget proposed by the White House yesterday features deficits over over a trillion dollars a year for the next few years. The result is a significant increase in interest payments for the national debt, more in fact that funding for all of Medicaid.
"The government will spend $482 billion on interest payments for the debt next year, more than the entire budget for Medicaid." https://t.co/diJpzKLOaM
Raul Grijalva, the former head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, has criticized Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for her approach towards her colleagues on Capitol Hill.
“In my experience it has never really been productive in the past,” Grijalva said. “But that’s her political call, the consequences are hers.”
The White House announced today that President Donald Trump will award the Medal of Honor posthumously to Staff Sergeant Travis Atkins who died protecting his fellow soldiers from a suicide bomber in 2007.
The AFL-CIO, the largest labor organization in the United States, has criticized the Green New Deal in a new letter as “not achievable” and “unrealistic.”
In a letter last week to Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), the lawmakers who introduced a resolution last month detailing the key components of their plan, the AFL-CIO said it could not support a proposal that did not address their concerns.
“We will not stand by and allow threats to our members’ jobs and their families’ standard of living go unanswered,” wrote Cecil Roberts, president of the United Mine Workers of America, and Lonnie Stephenson, president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.
After tweeting about airplane safety earlier today, Trump reportedly spoke with the CEO of Boeing.
President Trump spoke with Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenberg today following his tweet about how flying has become too complicated, per @jeffzeleny and @fschouten. It’s the first known conversation between the two since the Ethiopian Airlines plane crash.
Although, Pence as President of the Senate, has an office on the Senate side of the building, the former congressman was given an additional office on the House side as well by Speaker Paul Ryan.
