Adult-film
actress Stormy Daniels claimed Wednesday that her attorney, Michael
Avenatti, sued President Trump for defamation without her approval and
launched a second fundraising campaign to raise money "without my
permission or even my knowledge ... and attributing words to me that I
never wrote or said."
In a statement to The Daily Beast,
Daniels said that "Avenatti has been a great advocate in many
ways," but she added: "in other ways Michael has not treated me with the
respect and deference an attorney should show to a client."
"For
months I’ve asked Michael Avenatti to give me accounting information
about the fund my supporters so generously donated to for my safety and
legal defense," Daniels said. "He has repeatedly ignored those requests.
Days ago I demanded again, repeatedly, that he tell me how the money
was being spent and how much was left.
"Instead of answering me
... Michael launched another crowdfunding campaign to raise money on my
behalf. I learned about it on Twitter," added Daniels, who also said
that she had not yet decided if Avenatti would continue to represent
her.
Avenatti responded with a statement obtained by Fox News: " I
am and have always been Stormy’s biggest champion. I have personally
sacrificed an enormous amount of money, time and energy toward assisting
her because I believe in her. I have always been an open book with
Stormy as to all aspects of her cases and she knows that. You need only
look back at her numerous prior interviews where she states we talk and
communicate multiple times every day about her cases. STORMY DANIELS DEFAMATION SUIT AGAINST TRUMP TOSSED ON FIRST AMENDMENT GROUNDS
"The
retention agreement Stormy signed back in February provided that she
would pay me $100.00 and that any and all other monies raised via a
legal fund would go toward my legal fees and costs," Avenatti went on.
"Instead, the vast majority of the money raised has gone toward her
security expenses and similar other expenses. The most recent campaign
was simply a refresh of the prior campaign, designed to help defray some
of Stormy’s expenses."
The fundraising appeal
on the website CrowdJustice had raised $4,785 as of Wednesday evening.
The fundraising page appeared to have been taken down after the Daily
Beast published Daniels' statement. The website reported that an earlier
fundraiser netted more than $580,000 for Daniels' expenses earlier this
year.
Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti outside federal court in Manhattan earlier this year.
(Reuters)
Last month, a federal judge in
Los Angeles threw out Daniels' defamation suit against the president,
which arose from an April tweet in which Trump denied her claims of
being threatened by a man in a Las Vegas parking lot in 2011. Daniels,
whose real name is Stephanie Clifford, claimed Daniels said the man was
threatening her for going public about an alleged sexual encounter with
Trump in 2006. Trump has repeatedly denied the affair took place.
As
part of his ruling in the defamation suit, U.S. District Judge S. James
Otero ordered Daniels to pay Trump's legal fees, which the president's
attorneys estimated to be $350,000.
Daniels
initially sued Trump to invalidate the confidentiality agreement she
signed days before the 2016 presidential election that prevented her
from discussing a sexual encounter she said she had with Trump years
before he ran for president. The confidentiality agreement included a
payment of $130,000 to Daniels from Trump's then-personal attorney
Michael Cohen. This past August, Cohen admitted to making payments to
Daniels and another woman, Karen McDougal "at the direction" of
then-candidate Trump in violation of federal campaign finance law.
Former President Barack Obama speaks with Jon Meacham as he
takes the stage during the 25th anniversary gala celebration for Rice
University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.
(Associated Press)
Without mentioning
President Trump, former President Barack Obama praised his
indictment-free tenure Tuesday during an invitation-only gala in
Houston.
Obama’s remarks came at the tail end of an hour-long
interview with former Secretary of State James A. Baker III during the
25th anniversary celebration of the nonpartisan Baker Institute for
Public Policy at Rice University, the Houston Chronicle reported.
“Not
only did I not get indicted, nobody in my administration got indicted,"
Obama said to a crowd of more than 1,000. "By the way, it was the only
administration in modern history that that can be said about. In fact,
nobody came close to being indicted, probably because the people who
joined us were there for the right reasons."
Presidential
historian Jon Meacham, who moderated the conversational interview
between both men, asked Baker, 88, what he was most proud of in his time
serving three presidents.
"I’m most proud that I had the
privilege of serving two presidents as chief of staff, of being
secretary of treasury, of being secretary of state, of running five
presidential campaigns, and of leaving Washington without getting
indicted," Baker responded.
Since taking office almost two years
ago, several Trump aides and associates have been indicted or pleaded
guilty to various crimes. On Monday, Special Counsel Robert Mueller said
former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort violated his plea agreement by lying to the FBI and his office.
At one point Meacham compared Trump to the fictional Harry Potter villain Voldemort.
Obama
and Baker covered a wide range of topics, including redistricting, with
Obama calling Texas a “champion of gerrymandering” and the evolution of
the media and its impact on partisanship.
Baker, who served under
Ronald Reagan and both Bush presidents, said "the responsible center in
American politics has disappeared."
"Whether it was Cronkite,
Brinkley, or what have you, there was a common set of facts, a baseline
around which both parties had to respond to," Obama added. "By the time
I take office, what we see is if you are a Fox News viewer, your
reality is dramatically different than a New York Times reader."
On foreign policy, Baker raised concerns over America's standing in the world under Trump's watch.
"American
leadership in the world is absolutely imperative,” he said. “No other
country can do it," adding that America won the Cold War "because we had
alliances."
The former president also called for a stop to what he said was the growing threat of bigotry, FOX 26 Houston reported.
“In
those environments, you then start getting a different kind
of politics. You start getting politics that's based on ‘That person’s
not like me and it must be their fault," Obama said. "And you start
getting politics based on a nationalism, that's not pride and country,
but hatred for somebody on the other side of the border."
Prior to the gala, Obama met with former President George H.W. Bush, Bush spokesman Jim McGrath tweeted.
"The
two had a very pleasant and private visit at the Bush residence, where
they rekindled what was already a very warm friendship," he wrote on
Twitter.
Illinois state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Aurora, is facing
calls to resign after remarks directed at a Republican colleague.
(Illinois General Assembly)
A
Democratic state lawmaker in Illinois is facing calls to resign after
saying Tuesday she wanted to mix a “broth of Legionella” bacteria to
infect the "loved one" of her Republican colleague.
The remark by
state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, directed at GOP Rep. Peter Breen, came
amid a heated debate over a bill aimed at helping families of those who
died or became sickened by a Legionnaires’ outbreak at a state-run
veterans home.
The Republican had raised questions about the
details and cost of the plan, which Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner had
vetoed. It called for raising the cap on damages the state could pay in
civil cases from $100,000 to $2 million, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
“And,
yes, we know the personal injury lawyers are going to make out like
bandits, which they tend to do anytime they come to the General
Assembly,” Breen said.
That prompted the Democrat, who co-sponsored the proposal, to lash out at him.
“To
the representative from Lombard, I would like to make him a broth of
Legionella and pump it into the water system of his loved one so that
they can be infected, they can be mistreated, they can sit and suffer by
getting aspirin instead of being properly treated and ultimately die,”
she said.
“To the representative from Lombard, I
would like to make him a broth of Legionella and pump it into the water
system of his loved one so that they can be infected, they can be
mistreated, they can sit and suffer by getting aspirin instead of being
properly treated and ultimately die.” — Illinois state Rep. Stephanie Kifowit, D-Aurora
From his microphone, Breen accused Kifowit of wishing death on his family.
Later,
Kifowit, a Marine Corps veteran, took to Twitter and the floor to say
her comments were misinterpreted, and that she “quite clearly” wanted
him to imagine “if it was your family, hypothetically speaking.”
Republican Rep. Jeanne Ives also took offense to Kifowit’s remarks, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“How
dare you. How dare you concoct up some sort of story about brewing up
some batch of Legionella and having him feed it to his family,” Ives
said. “How dare you take the discussion and the debate about a very
serious bill that has a huge cost consequence on both sides, both for
the victim and the state taxpayers. How dare you take an honest debate
about an issue and then wish death on my colleague Peter Breen, his wife
and his two adopted kids.”
In a tweet, the Illinois Republican Party called on Kifowit to resign.
The
Illinois House of Representatives later voted 71-36 to override
Rauner’s veto, the Sun-Times reported. The bill was passed earlier this
year and meant to help the families of 14 people who died and dozens who
became ill from a Legionnaires' outbreak at the Illinois Veteran Home
in Quincy, about 280 miles southwest of Chicago.
A least a dozen
lawsuits claiming negligence by the state have been filed since
Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks beginning in 2015 at the post-Civil
War-era facility.
A resident digs out snow on the sidewalks in Fargo, North
Dakota. A Minneapolis city official who supported a tougher approach on
residents shoveling sidewalks was issued a fine herself.
(FEMA)
A Minneapolis city
official who backed a get-tough approach on residents who don't shovel
snow from their sidewalks was herself the subject of seven complaints
last winter and was issued a fine of $149 at a home she owns, according
to a report.
City Council President Lisa Bender, a member of the
Democratic-Farmer-Labor party who owns the home in the Wedge
neighborhood with her husband, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune that
she didn't know what condition her sidewalk was in when the complaints
were made or why her family wasn't able to clear the snow on time.
“We’ve
owned our house for ten years. We’re a family of two working parents
with two small children, and we do our very best to shovel our sidewalk
at all times,” Bender said.
The city sent out letters earlier this
month reminding residents of the requirement to shovel their sidewalks
after snowstorms, the paper reported.
Bender said she supports a stricter approach so that sidewalks remain clear this winter, according to the report.
“If
there are times when we haven’t gotten to it, then that’s why the
city’s enforcement mechanism is there,” she said. “I should be treated
like every other property owner in the city.”
City inspectors will
be more proactive this winter in searching for unshoveled sidewalks and
issuing notices of violations, the report said.
President Trump late Tuesday congratulated incumbent Republican Sen.
Cindy Hyde-Smith for handily defeating an insurgent challenge by
Democrat Mike Espy in Mississippi's contentious special election runoff
to become the first woman ever elected to Congress from the state.
Hyde-Smith,
59, is an ardent supporter of Trump who was appointed earlier this year
by Mississippi's governor to fill retiring Sen. Thad Cochran's seat.
She will finish out the remaining two years of Cochran's term in the
deep-red state that went for Trump by nearly 20 percentage points in the
2016 presidential election.
"Congratulations to Senator Cindy
Hyde-Smith on your big WIN in the great state of Mississippi. We are all
very proud of you!” Trump tweeted.
With 95 percent of precincts
reporting, Hyde-Smith had 446,927 votes to Espy's 374,880 -- a
commanding margin of 54.4 percent to 45.6 percent, according to state
election officials. The race marks the final midterm contest of 2018.
“I
want everybody to know, no matter who you voted for today, I’m gonna
always represent every Mississippian,” Hyde-Smith said at her victory
party late Monday night. "Being on that MAGA-wagon, the Make American
Great Again bus, we have bonded, we have persevered, we have gotten
through things, we were successful today."
Hyde-Smith's win gives
Republicans more leeway to ensure the confirmation of Trump's federal
judicial and Cabinet nominees that require Senate approval and
strengthens the party's chances of holding the majority in 2020.
"She has my prayers as she goes to Washington to unite a very divided Mississippi," Espy said in his concession speech.
“Cindy
Hyde-Smith has been a strong conservative voice since joining the
Senate, so it should come as no surprise that she was elected by
Mississippians to represent them in Washington,” National Republican
Senatorial Committee (NRSC) Chairman Cory Gardner said in a statement.
“Senator Hyde-Smith won tonight because she has a trusted record of
fighting for Mississippi, and we are happy she will be returning to the
United States Senate.”
On Nov. 6, Hyde-Smith prevailed in a
four-way race that included firebrand Republican Sen. Chris McDaniel --
but she was unable to secure more than 50 percent of the vote amid heavy
turnout, owing to McDaniel's strong showing. The Nov. 6 election --
which saw nearly half of registered voters in Mississippi cast ballots
in the Senate race-- triggered Tuesday's runoff.
McDaniel sharply criticized Hyde-Smith throughout the campaign
for being insufficiently supportive of the president's agenda, and some
analysts suggested he may have dampened enthusiasm among conservatives
for her candidacy.
“There has been a lot of work done to make sure
that McDaniel’s supporters will turn out, but the hardest part about
runoff elections is getting people to turn out,” Jennifer Duffy, the
senior editor for the Cook Political Report, told Fox News. “If they
don’t turn out, McDaniel will be seen as the spoiler because if it
wasn’t for him, there would not have been a runoff in the first place.” AT ROUNDTABLE WITH HYDE-SMITH, TRUMP CRITICIZES 'GRABBER' MIGRANTS WHO USE KIDS AS HUMAN SHIELDS
McDaniel
offered only a lukewarm endorsement for Hyde-Smith after his defeat
earlier in the month, saying, "I don't believe she's the conservative
for this state." He also told his supporters that "President Trump wants
us to unite, and we will unite" to back her.
Susan Fino, left, holds a sign for U.S. Senate candidate Mike Espy
and Logan Liddy holds one for Susan Liddy, a candidate for judge in the
Chancery Court, District 18, Place 1 race at the Oxford Community
Center in Oxford, Miss. on Tuesday, November 27, 2018.
Mississippians
are casting their ballots in runoff elections, including a U.S. Senate
race pitting Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith against Democrat Mike Espy.
(Bruce Newman/The Oxford Eagle via AP)
Espy “cannot be allowed to win this seat,” McDaniel
said shortly after conceding the race, according to Mississippi Today.
“President Trump wants us to unite, and we will unite. We will back
Cindy Hyde-Smith.”
The 64-year-old Espy, who was vying to become
Mississippi's first black senator since Reconstruction, had previously
served in Congress and in former President Bill Clinton's
administration.
Mississippi last elected a Democrat to the U.S.
Senate in 1982, but Espy was trying for the same kind of longshot win
that fellow Democrat Doug Jones had nearly a year ago in neighboring
Alabama, another conservative Deep South state where Republicans hold
most statewide offices.
Democrat Mike Espy, left feeds his ballot into the submission
machine, as directed by poll manager Larry Greer, Tuesday, Nov. 27, 2018
in Ridgeland, Miss. Mississippi voters are deciding the last U.S.
Senate race of the midterms, choosing between Espy and Republican Sen.
Cindy Hyde-Smith. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
His campaign gained a second wind amid a flurry of
damaging reports and missteps that inundated Hyde-Smith's campaign in
recent days. Mississippi's past of racist violence became a dominant
theme in the race after a video showed Hyde-Smith praising a supporter
in early November by saying, "If he invited me to a public hanging, I'd
be on the front row." She said it was "an exaggerated expression of
regard."
As voters headed to the polls, nooses were found
outside Mississippi State Capitol, along with signs explaining that they
were placed there by protesters who wanted to raise awareness about the
state's history of racially motivated lynchings. Some media figures inaccurately blamed Hyde-Smith supporters for placing the nooses.
"So
many things are taken out of context," said Elizabeth Gallinghouse, 84,
from Diamondhead, Mississippi. "The fact that she toured Jefferson
Davis's house. You or I could have done the same thing. They said, 'Put
this cap on. Hold this gun.' It was a fun time. She wasn't trying to
send any messages."
More
than a week after the video's release, Hyde-Smith apologized at a
televised debate to "anyone that was offended by my comments," but also
said the remark was used as a "weapon" against her. Espy responded: "I
don't know what's in your heart, but I know what came out of your
mouth."
Some corporate donors, including Walmart and Major League
Baseball, requested refunds on their campaign contributions to
Hyde-Smith after the videos surfaced.
Hyde-Smith was seen in
another video talking about making voting difficult for "liberal folks,"
and a photo circulated showing her wearing a replica Confederate
military hat during a 2014 visit to Beauvoir, a beachside museum in
Biloxi, Mississippi, that was the last home of Confederate president
Jefferson Davis.
Critics said Hyde-Smith's comments and
Confederate regalia showed callous indifference in a state with a
38-percent black population, and some corporate donors, including
Walmart, requested refunds on their campaign contributions to her.
However,
Espy has had his own negative press in the run-up to the runoff. In
particular, the Hyde-Smith campaign hammered Espy for his $750,000
lobbying contract in 2011 with the Cocoa and Coffee Board of the Ivory
Coast. She noted that the country's ex-president, Laurent Gbagbo, is
being tried in the International Criminal Court for crimes against
humanity.
Espy, who is an attorney, said: "I found out later that this guy, the president, was a really bad guy. I resigned the contract."
"She stood up to the Democrat smear machine." — President Trump
Espy
resigned as President Bill Clinton's agriculture secretary in 1994 amid
a special-counsel investigation that accused him of improperly
accepting gifts. He was tried and acquitted on 30 corruption charges,
but the Mississippi Republican Party ran an ad this year that called
Espy "too corrupt for the Clintons" and "too liberal for Mississippi."
Espy said he refused to accept offers of plea deals because, "I was so not guilty, I was innocent."
The significance of the race was not lost on President Trump or top Republicans, who headlined two major rallies Monday night for Hyde-Smith in Mississippi to boost turnout.
"If
you like [Supreme Court Justice Brett] Kavanuagh, there's more coming,"
South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham told the crowd in Tupelo,
Miss. "Let's win tomorrow."
"She stood up to the Democrat smear
machine," Trump said, referring to Hyde-Smith's support for Kavanaugh
amid a series of uncorroborated and lurid sexual misconduct allegations.
He
added: "Your vote on Tuesday will decide whether we build on our
extraordinary achievements, or whether we empower the radical Democrats
to obstruct our progress."
Hyde-Smith, who has made the Trump
rallies a highlight of her runoff campaign, told the crowd in Tupelo: "I
worked very, very hard for you. I have stood up for you and you know I
will continue to stand up for the conservative values of Mississippi."
The Justice Department says California will not be hurt by adding a citizenship question to 2020 census.
(ny.gov)
The Justice Department on Monday suggested California’s lawsuit
against the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship
question on the 2020 census be dismissed because the state can’t prove
it would be harmed by the decision, The San Francisco Chronicle reported.
California’s
argument that it would lose congressional representation and billions
in federal aid, is "highly speculative," the DOJ told a federal judge,
the report said. CALIFORNIA TO SUE TRUMP ADMIN OVER CITIZENSHIP IN 2020 CENSUS
Commerce
Secretary Wilbur Ross’ decision to include a citizenship question on
the 2020 lawsuit prompted lawsuits by cities and states with large
immigration populations. No citizenship question has been asked on a
census since 1950, according to the Chronicle.
Opponents of the citizenship question have accused lawmakers of being politically motivated.
California
Attorney General Xavier Becerra, who announced the suit earlier this
year, called the citizenship question a “bad idea” and “illegal.”
Ross
has maintained that the DOJ’s motivation to add a citizenship question
was merely to help enforce the Voting Rights Act. U.S. District Judge
Richard Seeborg is now deciding whether to drop the lawsuit or allow it
to proceed.
'MediaBuzz'
host Howard Kurtz weighs in on the violent clash in Tijuana as hundreds
of migrants tried to evade Mexican police and ran toward a border
crossing that leads to San Diego, forcing officials to shut down the
border for hours and fire tear gas to push the migrants back.
Well, I guess some people in the caravan were looking to make trouble after all.
The
situation got out of control in Tijuana on Sunday as hundreds of
migrants tried to evade Mexican police and ran toward a border crossing
that leads to San Diego.
Customs officials shut down the border
for hours and fired tear gas to push the migrants back. Some threw rocks
at the American officers, a number of whom were hit, and the border was
shut down for hours. Some 42 migrants were arrested on the U.S. side.
All in all, not a pretty picture.
The inevitable political question: Was President Trump right about the caravan?
The
media depicted the president as shamelessly hyping the threat from the
caravan, which started in Honduras, solely to rouse his base for the
midterms.
Two things, of course, are not mutually exclusive. Trump
did pound away at the caravan as part of an effort to make illegal
immigration a major midterm issue. And most of the media treated the
traveling migrants as sympathetic figures who didn't pose a threat to
anyone.
The reality turned out to be more complicated. Not all the
migrants were a threat, and many legitimately hoped to seek asylum from
persecution or economic hardship. But the hundreds who stormed the San
Diego border, in what began as a protest against slow-moving asylum
claims, clearly included many violent people trying to injure federal
agents.
Trump wasted no time in taking to Twitter yesterday
morning: "Mexico should move the flag waving Migrants, many of whom are
stone cold criminals, back to their countries."
I don't know on
what basis the president is claiming that "many" have a criminal
history, but some clearly committed a crime on Sunday.
It was
Trump's description of the caravan as an "invasion" that prompted CNN's
Jim Acosta to debate him and refuse to give up the microphone, leading
the White House to pull his credentials until they were restored by a
federal judge.
I doubt the clash will do anything to break the
partisan gridlock on this issue, especially with Democrats taking over
the House.
The president and his allies are seizing on the violent
incident to vindicate their view that illegal immigrants pose a threat
to American safety. In his tweet, Trump said: "We will close the Border
permanently if need be. Congress, fund the WALL!"
But liberals and
Latino activists are drawing a different lesson. A Los Angeles Times
story said "the images of the U.S. government using tear gas on a group
of migrants that included children disturbed others, who said it
underscored the cruel approach of the Trump administration."
On that point, such action is not unprecedented. There was a similar incident in 2013,
during the Obama administration, in which about 100 immigrants threw
rocks and bottles at Border Patrol agents, who responded with pepper
spray, in the same region.
There was a strange diplomatic dance
over the weekend when The Washington Post in particular touted a deal
between the administration and the incoming government of Mexico to keep
asylum-seekers in that country during the application process. But then
the Mexican transition officials backed off and said there had been no
deal.
There will always be another caravan. What's clear is that
this thorny and emotional issue is not going away, even though the
latest election is over.
At a Monday night roundtable in Mississippi on his bipartisan criminal justice reform effort,
President Trump charged that some migrants he identified as "grabbers"
who rushed the San Ysidro, Calif., point of entry on Sunday essentially
used children as human shields at the border.
"We've had some very
violent people, and we don't want, frankly, those people in our
society," Trump said at the Biloxi event, which included Mississippi law
enforcement officials and South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey
Graham. "We don't want those people in our country. Three Border Patrol
people yesterday were very badly hurt, getting hit with rocks and
stones."
Earlier Monday, U.S. Customs and Border Protection
commissioner Kevin K. McAleenan said four agents wearing protective gear
were hit with rocks during an "extremely dangerous situation," but were
not badly hurt.
The president turned to the widely circulated
images from Sunday's episode, which showed some migrants running away
with children as tear gas canisters landed nearby. Videos and images
from the port of entry also showed migrants throwing what appeared to be
rocks over the fence and attempting to breach the wall.
"I do say
-- why are they there? First of all, the tear gas is a very minor form
of the tear gas itself -- it's very safe, the ones that were suffering
to a certain extent were the people that were putting it out there. But
you really say, why is a parent running up into an area where they know
the tear gas is forming, and it's going to be formed, and they're
running up with a child?" BORDER PATROL UNDER OBAMA PEPPER-SPRAYED MIGRANTS AT SAME PORT OF ENTRY IN 2013
McAleenan
said Monday that at least 69 people were detained after they crossed
the border on Sunday, and that he was not aware of any that managed to
cross and evade capture by U.S. authorities.
Trump continued: "In
some cases, you know, they're not the parents. These are people, they
call 'em 'grabbers' -- they grab the child, because they think they're
gonna have a certain status by having a child. You know, you have
certain advantages and things with our crazy laws that frankly Congress
should be changing. You know, if you change the laws, you wouldn't have
this problem."
That was an apparent reference
to Trump's longstanding criticism of the Flores consent decree, made
amid litigation during former President Bill Clinton's administration,
that ostensibly limits the amount of time that federal authorities can
detain illegal immigrant minors who are caught along with their parents.
After
the president instituted a zero-tolerance policy that all illegal
immigrants should be referred for criminal prosecution, administration
officials argued that the Flores decree legally prevented them from
keeping adults and children in custody together for more than two weeks.
Amid fierce criticism, Trump signed an executive order this summer
barring family separations at the border, although it remains subject to
legal challenges. WATCH: HUNDREDS OF MIGRANTS ATTEMPT TO STORM PORT OF ENTRY IN SAN YSIDRO
The
president clarified that "they feel an advantage when they're with a
young child. ... They call 'em grabbers, that's a term I've heard. ...
They grab a child, because when they have a child, they feel a lot
safer. ... When you know there's going to be potential violence, you
know there's going to be tear gas or something -- you don't take your
child and bring them there. I can say that all over the border, you have
a lot of grabbers, you have a lot of people who grab children, and they
have no idea who these children are. They're not parents. They have no
idea. And frankly to release the children to these people is a
disaster."
In a statement late Monday, Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen backed up Trump's comments.
"They grab a child, because when they have a child, they feel a lot safer." — President Trump
"It
appears in some cases that the limited number of women and children in
the caravan are being used by the organizers as 'human shields' when
they confront law enforcement," Nielsen said. "They are being put at
risk by the caravan organizers as we saw at the Mexico-Guatemala border.
This is putting vulnerable people in harms way."
At the White House earlier in the day, Trump similarly defended the Border Patrol authorities who fired the tear gas.
"They
had to use it; they were being rushed by some very tough people," Trump
said. "And so they used tear gas. Here's the bottom line: No one's
coming into our country unless they come in legally."
The situation Sunday was not unprecedented. In 2013, during the Obama administration, Border Patrol agents used pepper spray to fend off a crowd of approximately 100 migrants
who attempted to rush the San Ysidro port of entry. The migrants in
that episode also reportedly threw rocks and bottles at U.S.
authorities. Homeland Security data show that, in the final years of the Obama administration, tear gas was deployed at the border approximately once per month.
Nevertheless,
prominent Democrats lined up to hammer the administration on Monday, as
images of migrants fleeing tear gas fumes circulated. New York
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, for example, called the use of tear
gas “horrendous.”
Other analysts suggested that a rework of the
immigration system might be necessary to dissuade similar efforts by
members of any future migrant caravans without encouraging clandestine
migration. John Cerone, a visiting professor of international law at The
Fletcher School at Tufts University, told Fox News that he would
recommend "the creation of new visa categories that people can apply for
without having to physically come to the U.S. first."
At the roundtable, Trump said the episode at the border Sunday highlighted the importance of building a robust border wall.
"The
only little breach yesterday, we took care of it very nicely and
quickly and apprehended those who breached, was in one area where the
wall wasn't quite built yet -- it wasn't completed," Trump said. "When
people look at what's going on at the border, they agree ... with what
we're doing, very strongly."
The president said he would have no
reservations about closing the entire southern border, saying any
implications on trade only would encourage Mexico to get a handle on the
migrant situation there. Trump also noted specifically that some
Mexican police officials had been harmed.
"I'll close it for a
long time," Trump said. "And as far as trade, I'm not concerned, because
Mexico has done very well with trade with the United States."
He
added: "I suspect because of how well the country's doing, we have a lot
more people [coming]. This isn't happening by luck. Something's
happening in Honduras, and Guatemala and El Salvador -- you look how
organized it is. They're handing out papers."
In her statement
Monday night, Nielsen, the DHS head, said that "the overwhelming
majority" of caravan members "are not eligible for asylum in the United
States under our laws."
Calling the episode Monday "entirely
predictable," Nielsen said DHS has confirmed that "there are over 600
convicted criminals traveling with the caravan flow,"
including "individuals known to law enforcement for assault, battery,
drug crimes, burglary, rape, child abuse and more." She added that
Mexico had already arrested at least 100 caravan migrants.
"Seeking employment or family reunification are not grounds for asylum under our laws." — Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen
"Most
of these migrants are seeking jobs or to join family who are already in
the U.S.," Nielsen said. "They have all refused multiple opportunities
to seek protection in Mexico or with the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency.
Seeking employment or family reunification are not grounds for asylum
under our laws, or any international obligation."
The primary
purpose of the roundtable Monday was to discuss the so-called First Step
Act, the first major rewrite of the nation's criminal justice
sentencing laws in a generation, which would boost rehabilitation
efforts for federal prisoners and give judges more discretion when
sentencing nonviolent offenders, particularly for drug offenses.
In
particular, the proposed bill lowers the mandatory minimum sentence for
non-violent repeat drug offenders from 25 to 20 years, reduces
mandatory minimums for other crimes from 20 to 15 years, and makes no
distinction between powder cocaine and crack cocaine.
Trump
highlighted recent criminal justice reform efforts in Texas, Kentucky,
and Georgia, and said "a lot of people have changed their minds" on the
topic.
"If you look at some of the people who are most supportive
of this," Trump said, "it's very impressive. People that are really into
the world of strength and law and order, and they're totally supporitve
of this, as much as anybody." WHAT IS THE STEP ACT, TRUMP'S MAJOR BIPARTISAN CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM INITIATIVE?
The
roundtable took place just an hour before Trump's second campaign rally
of the day in Mississippi to support incumbent GOP Sen. Cindy
Hyde-Smith, who is facing off in Tuesday's special election runoff
against Democrat Mike Espy.
Stormy Daniels and Michael Avenatti outside federal court in Manhattan earlier this year.
(Reuters)
