Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro grows beard so he's not confused with twin brother, 2020 Dem Julián Castro

Texas Rep. Joaquin Castro — the twin brother of 2020 candidate Julián Castro — says he's grown a beard to help anyone avoid confusing the two, which seemingly happens often enough.
The Democratic congressman, who's served since 2013, joked last week that he was experimenting with facial hair to differentiate himself from his brother, who's currently on the campaign trail seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.
"I hadn’t shaved in like three days and I decided I’d just grow the beard back – and it does help so that people don’t always think that I’m running for president,” Joaquin told reporters on Thursday, according to USA Today.
The rep said people confuse him for his brother in public places like the airport or on the street "just about every day."

Julián Castro, left, and Joaquin Castro, right, are often confused for one another. So Joaquin decided to grow his beard back "so that people don't always think" he's running for president.

Since Julián — who previously served as the mayor of San Antonio, Texas, and as former President Barack Obama's Housing and Urban Development Secretary from 2014 to 2017 — launched his 2020 bid, many have confused the 44-year-old twins.
In June, MSNBC contributor Noah Rothman apologized for mistaking Joaquin for Julián during an episode of "Morning Joe." Rothman cited a June Fox News town hall, which featured Julián, and said Joaquin claimed the Trump administration "is 'hell-bent on moving towards war with Iran."
Joaquin quickly corrected Rothman and said he hasn't spoken to Fox News about Iran. Rothman immediately apologized and was embarrassed, but said the mixup must happen all the time.
Host Chris Hayes, also of MSNBC, in February, asked Joaquin if he was growing a beard "so that people don't confuse you and your twin brother."
"I said that I would try not to look like a certain presidential candidate, so I hope you like the beard here," Castro said.
Hayes said on the show that he spoke to one of the Castro brothers on midterm election night in 2018, but he actually didn't know who he had spoken to. Joaquin said Hayes had spoken to Julián.

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Trump decries 'gutless' Antifa, says he's weighing declaring group major terror organization

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he is considering declaring the far-left Antifa activist group a terrorist organization, equating it with the MS-13 street gang amid reports of members physically attacking conservative demonstrators and journalists at rallies across the country.
"Consideration is being given to declaring ANTIFA, the gutless Radical Left Wack Jobs who go around hitting (only non-fighters) people over the heads with baseball bats, a major Organization of Terror (along with MS-13 & others). Would make it easier for police to do their job!" Trump tweeted.
Trump's tweet came days after Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La.,and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, introduced non-binding legislation that would designate the group as a domestic terrorist organization.
“Antifa are terrorists, violent masked bullies who ‘fight fascism’ with actual fascism, protected by Liberal privilege,” Cassidy said in a statement. “Bullies get their way until someone says no. Elected officials must have courage, not cowardice, to prevent terror.”
At a Senate hearing last week, Cruz asked FBI Director Christopher Wray if he could investigate Antifa under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act. Wray responded that the bureau recognizes Antifa as more of an ideology than an organization.
He added the FBI takes seriously any violence on committed on behalf of ideology.
"We have a quite a number though, I should tell you, of properly predicated investigations of what we categorize as anarchist extremists," Wray told Cruz. "People who are trying to commit violent criminal activity that violates federal criminal law and some of those people do subscribe as what we would refer to as a kind of an antifa-like ideology,"
Antifa members have drawn criticism for their confrontational style and acts of violence against demonstrators with opposing viewpoints in otherwise non-violent rallies. The group clashed with white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 and have gone on the offensive against far-right protesters in various cities.
Some mask-wearing members have been accused of throwing eggs, bottles and other items at people and beating and threatening counter-protesters and members of the media.
Trump has labeled them the "alt-left" and accused the group of attacking people who won't or can't fight back.
“Do you ever notice they [Antifa] pick on certain people?” Trump asked while speaking at a White House event for conservative social media personalities earlier this month where he recalled a violent attack on journalist Andy Ngo at a Portland, Ore., rally. “I mean, he [Mr. Ngo] would tell you he’s not the toughest person in the world physically, right?”
A 69-year-old man killed during his attack on a local Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility last week claimed to be an Antifa member.
"I am Antifa," he wrote in a manifesto the day before the attack.
Some critics say labeling certain groups as domestic terrorists is a step too far.
“It is dangerous and overly broad to use labels that are disconnected [from] actual individual conduct,” Hina Shamsi, director of the national security project at the American Civil Liberties Union, told The Washington Post last week. “And as we’ve seen how ‘terrorism’ has been used already in this country, any such scheme raises significant due process, equal protection and First Amendment constitutional concerns.”

Republican Arizona state senator says US will 'look like South American countries' soon

Arizona State Sen. Sylvia Allen, pictured here during a legislative session in May 2018, is apologizing while defending herself from criticism for comments she made on immigration and birth rates. (AP Photo, File)

Republican Arizona state Sen. Sylvia Allen believes the U.S. will soon "look like South American countries" because immigrants entering the U.S. and low birth rates among white people are contributing to a lack of cultural assimilation.
Speaking at a Republican Party event in Phoenix on July 15, Allen, of Snowflake, a city in Navajo County, said immigrants were inundating the U.S. — so much so that they can't learn "the principles of our country."
Her remarks were obtained and published by the Phoenix New Times on Friday.
"We have a right as a country to have people coming in an organized manner, so we know who is coming. So we can have jobs for them, so we can provide education for them, and health care, and all these things that people need," Allen said at the event, which celebrated "Mormon Political Pioneers."

Arizona State Sen. Sylvia Allen, pictured here during a legislative session in May 2018, is apologizing while defending herself from criticism for comments she made on immigration and birth rates. (AP Photo, File)

The senator continued: "We can't provide that when people are just flooding us and flooding us and flooding us and overwhelming us so we don't have time to teach them the principles of our country any more than we're teaching our children today."
Allen also touched upon the declining birth rate of white people in the U.S., telling those at the event the "median age of a white woman is 43" while the "median age of a Hispanic woman is 27."
"We are not reproducing ourselves, the birthrates," she said, according to the report. "But here's what I see is the issue: It's because of immigration."
Wendy Rogers, a Republican running for the state Senate seat now held by Allen, issued a statement Saturday denouncing Allen's comments as "very racist" and said Allen should retire from the Legislature — while Democratic state Sen. Martin Quezada told the Arizona Republic that the "tone and perspective" of Allen's remarks on migrants were "insulting, to say the least."
Allen told the New Times that her comments were inspired by a respected demographer who she says has described "the browning of America," and apologized in Facebook posts on Friday and Saturday "to anyone who has been hurt" by her words. She later thanked people who spoke in support and added, "Verbal Lynching is the political tool used today to silence debate on critical issues."
The senator did not immediately return Fox News' request for comment regarding her remarks.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Trump throws Squad feud back at Pelosi after 'racist' accusation: 'Democrats always play the race card'

President Trump is defending himself against accusations of racism, claiming he’s just the latest target of a party that plays the “race card,” as he leveled criticism against Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.
Trump called out Cummings on Saturday, slamming him as a “brutal bully” for how he spoke to border patrol officials, and said that the congressman’s Baltimore district is in “FAR WORSE” shape than the situation at the southern border. That rebuke resulted in claims of racism from Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, but Trump pointed out that he’s hardly the first to get accused of racism, with the speaker herself recently in the middle of a similar controversy.
“Someone please explain to Nancy Pelosi, who was recently called racist by those in her own party, that there is nothing wrong with bringing out the very obvious fact that Congressman Elijah Cummings has done a very poor job for his district and the City of Baltimore. Just take a look, the facts speak far louder than words!” Trump tweeted Sunday morning. “The Democrats always play the Race Card, when in fact they have done so little for our Nation’s great African American people,” he added.
The president appeared to be referring to how House Speaker Pelosi was the target of a thinly veiled accusation of racism when Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., accused her of “singling out” women of color. That was after Pelosi dismissed Ocasio-Cortez and her “Squad” -- that includes Reps. Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Ayanna Pressley -- as being more influential on social media than in Congress. Trump defended Pelosi at the time.
On Saturday, Pelosi stood by Cummings and the city of Baltimore, where she was born, and rebuked Trump, calling his remarks "racist."
“Rep. Cummings is a champion in the Congress and the country for civil rights and economic justice, a beloved leader in Baltimore, and deeply valued colleague,” she tweeted. “We all reject racist attacks against him and support his steadfast leadership.”
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., also called Trump's comments "ugly and racist" during a campaign stop on Saturday.
Trump doubled down on his comments against Cummings Saturday afternoon, tweeting, "Elijah Cummings spends all of his time trying to hurt innocent people through 'Oversight.' He does NOTHING for his very poor, very dangerous and very badly run district!" The tweet included a video purporting to show a rundown area of West Baltimore.
The video included a female voice lamenting that "they're worried about the kids at the border, but this is how actual American citizens got to live and deal with," she added.
Trump tweeted a similar-appearing video late Saturday, asking: ".@RepCummings, why don’t you focus on your district!?"
"Mr. President, I go home to my district daily," Cummings tweeted in response to Trump's initial criticism. "Each morning, I wake up, and I go and fight for my neighbors. It is my constitutional duty to conduct oversight of the Executive Branch. But, it is my moral duty to fight for my constituents."
Trump took another shot at Pelosi Sunday morning, saying her San Francisco district was unrecognizable, and that “Something must be done before it’s too late.”
Fox News' Adam Shaw contributed to this report.

Edwin Meese: Special counsel never should have been appointed for Russia probe

Former Attorney General Edwin Meese said recently he believes former Special Counsel Robert Mueller should never have been appointed for the probe into Russia interference into the 2016 U.S. elections.
Meese also claimed in an interview airing Sunday on "Life, Liberty & Levin" that the Mueller report seemed "foreign" to the man credited with authoring it.
"In my opinion, no, there was no need," Meese said when asked whether it was necessary for a special counsel to oversee the FBI's Russia investigation.
"For one thing, the department was not in any way conflicted."
However, Meese, who served under President Ronald Reagan between 1985 and 1988, said former Attorney General Jeff Sessions was right to recuse himself because he was a potential "fact witness" in the investigation due to his prominent role in Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.
"But, that certainly did not conflict the entire Department of Justice," Meese added.
Rather than appointing Mueller, Meese claimed, the Russia investigation could have been executed through standard channels within the government.
"If once there was an allegation, if there was one, then that should have gone through the normal processes of the department and been handled by the U.S. attorney either in Washington, D.C., or in New York -- wherever the jurisdiction happened to be," Meese explained.
Discussing Mueller's appearance before two House committees Wednesday, Meese claimed the former FBI director appeared to be unfamiliar with parts of his own report.
"I was concerned by his testimony," he said.
"I was concerned by the fact that so much of the report seemed to be foreign to him, or at least he was not familiar with it. And I've since reflected the views of a lot of people who were watching and that was that he was not familiar with the report because it looked like someone else had written it."
Host Mark Levin served as Meese's chief of staff during the Reagan administration.

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Judge could order Georgia to use paper ballots this fall

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia allowed its election system to grow “way too old and archaic” and now has a deep hole to dig out of to ensure that the constitutional right to vote is protected, U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg said Friday.
Now Totenberg is in the difficult position of having to decide whether the state, which plans to implement a new voting system statewide next year, must immediately abandon its outdated voting machines in favor of an interim solution for special and municipal elections to be held this fall.
Election integrity advocates and individual voters sued Georgia in 2017 alleging that the touchscreen voting machines the state has used since 2002 are unsecure and vulnerable to hacking. They’ve asked Totenberg to order the state to immediately switch to hand-marked paper ballots.
But lawyers for Fulton County, the state’s most populous county that includes most of Atlanta, and for state election officials argued that the state is in the process of implementing a new system, and it would be too costly, burdensome and chaotic to use an interim system for elections this fall and then switch to the new permanent system next year.
A law passed this year and signed by Gov. Brian Kemp provides specifications for a new system in which voters make their selections on electronic machines that print out a paper record that is read and tallied by scanners. State officials have said it will be in place for the 2020 presidential election.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs argued Friday that the current system is so unsecure and vulnerable to manipulation that it cannot be relied upon, jeopardizing voters’ constitutional rights.
“We can’t sacrifice people’s right to vote just because Georgia has left this system in place for 20 years and it’s so far behind,” said lawyer Bruce Brown, who represents the Coalition for Good Governance and a group of voters.
Addressing concerns about an interim system being burdensome to implement, plaintiffs’ lawyers countered that the state put itself in this situation by neglecting the system for so long and ignoring warnings. Lawyer David Cross, who represents another group of voters, urged the judge to force the state to take responsibility.
“You are the last resort,” he said.
Georgia’s voting system drew national scrutiny during the closely watched contest for governor last November in which Kemp, a Republican who was the state’s top election official at the time, narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams.
The plaintiffs had asked Totenberg in August to force Georgia to use hand-marked paper ballots for that election. While Totenberg expressed grave concerns about vulnerabilities in the voting system and scolded state officials for being slow to respond to evidence of those problems, she said a switch to paper ballots so close to the midterm election would be too chaotic. She warned state officials that further delay would be unacceptable.
But she seemed conflicted Friday at the conclusion of a two-day hearing.
“These are very difficult issues,” she said. “I’m going to wrestle with them the best that I can, but these are not simple issues.”
She recognized that the state had taken concrete steps since her warning last year, with lawmakers providing specifications for a new system, appropriating funds and beginning the procurement process. But she also said she wished the state had not let the situation become so dire and wondered what would happen if the state can’t meet its aggressive schedule for implementing the new system.
The request for proposals specifies that vendors must be able to distribute all voting machine equipment before March 31, which is a week after the state’s presidential primary election is set to be held on March 24. Bryan Tyson, a lawyer representing state election officials, told the judge the state plans to announce the new system it’s selected in “a matter of days.”
Alex Halderman, a University of Michigan computer science and engineering professor, testified Friday that the state election system’s vulnerabilities and that the safest, most secure system would be hand-marked paper ballots with optical scanners at each precinct.
Four county election officials, three of whom will oversee elections this fall, testified that it would be difficult to switch to hand-marked paper ballots in time for those elections. They cited difficulties getting enough new equipment, as well as challenges training poll workers and educating voters. They also said they’d have trouble paying for the switch unless the state helps.
The two groups of plaintiffs agree that the whole system is flawed and has to go. They also believe the ballot-marking devices the state plans to implement have many of the same problems, and they plan to challenge those once the state announces which vendor has won the contract. But they disagree about what the interim solution should be.
The plaintiffs represented by Brown are asking the state to use hand-marked paper ballots along with its existing election management system and to use the ballot scanners it currently uses for paper absentee and provisional ballots for all ballots.
The plaintiffs represented by Cross want the state to implement its new election management system in time for the fall elections and to use ballot scanners along with paper ballots.
Totenberg did not say when she would rule.

US, Guatemala sign agreement to restrict asylum cases

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration signed an agreement with Guatemala that will restrict asylum applications to the U.S. from Central America.
The “safe third country” agreement would require migrants, including Salvadorans and Hondurans, who cross into Guatemala on their way to the U.S. to apply for protections in Guatemala instead of at the U.S. border. It could potentially ease the crush of migrants overwhelming the U.S. immigration system, although many questions remain about how the agreement will be executed.
President Donald Trump on Friday heralded the concession as a win as he struggles to live up to his campaign promises on immigration.
“This is a very big day,” he said. “We have long been working with Guatemala and now we can do it the right way.”
He claimed that “this landmark agreement will put the coyotes and smugglers out of business.”
The announcement comes after a court in California blocked Trump’s most restrictive asylum effort to date, one that would effectively end protections at the southern border.
The two countries had been negotiating such an agreement for months, and Trump threatened Wednesday to place tariffs or other consequences on Guatemala if it didn’t reach a deal.
“We’ll either do tariffs or we’ll do something. We’re looking at something very severe with respect to Guatemala,” Trump had said.
But on Friday, Trump praised the Guatemalan government, saying now it has “a friend in the United States, instead of an enemy in the United States.”
Trump added that the agreement would protect “the rights of those with legitimate claims,” end “abuse” of the asylum system and curtail the crisis on the U.S. southern border.
He said that as part of the agreement, the U.S. would increase access to the H-2A visa program for temporary agricultural workers from Guatemala.
It’s not clear how the agreement will take effect. Guatemala’s Constitutional Court has granted three injunctions preventing its government from entering into a deal without approval of the country’s congress.
Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales said via social media that the agreement allows the country to avoid “drastic sanctions ... many of them designed to strongly punish our economy, such as taxes on remittances that our brothers send daily, as well as the imposition of tariffs on our export goods and migratory restrictions.”
Earlier Friday, Morales questioned the concept of a “safe third country.”
“Where does that term exist?” he asked reporters. “It does not exist, it is a colloquial term. No agreement exists that is called ‘safe third country.’”
Human rights prosecutor Jordán Rodas said his team was studying the legality of the agreement and whether Interior Minister Enrique Degenhart had the authority to sign the compact.
Guatemala’s government put out a six-paragraph, Spanish-language statement Friday on Twitter. It does not call the agreement “safe third country” but “Cooperation Agreement for the Assessment of Protection Requests.”
The Guatemalan government said that in coming days its Labor Ministry “will start issuing work visas in the agriculture industry, which will allow Guatemalans to travel legally to the United States, to avoid being victims of criminal organizations, to work temporarily and then return to Guatemala, which will strengthen family unity.”
The same conditions driving Salvadorans and Hondurans to flee their country — gang violence, poverty, joblessness, a prolonged drought that has severely hit crop yields — are also present in Guatemala. Guatemala also lacks resources to adequately house, educate or provide opportunity to potential asylum seekers, observers say.
In Guatemala City, social and student organizations spoke out against the agreement in front of the Constitutional Court, on the grounds that the country is mired in poverty and unemployment and has no capacity to serve migrants. They called for a protest rally Saturday.
Advocacy groups condemned the move Friday, with Amnesty International saying “any attempts to force families and individuals fleeing their home countries to seek safety in Guatemala are outrageous.”
“The Trump administration must abandon this cruel and illegal plan to shut doors to families and individuals trying to rebuild their lives in safety,” said Charanya Krishnaswami, the group’s advocacy director for the Americas.
Democratic Rep. Eliot Engel, the chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, said Trump’s decision to sign the agreement was “cruel and immoral.” ″It is also illegal,” he added. “Simply put, Guatemala is not a safe country for refugees and asylum seekers, as the law requires.”
Homeland Security officials said they expected the agreement to be ratified in Guatemala and would begin implementing it sometime in August. Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan said it was part of a long-standing effort with Guatemala to address migration and combat smuggling. He cautioned against calling the country unsafe for refugees.
“It’s risky to label an entire country as unsafe. We often paint Central America with a very broad brush,” he said. “There are obviously places in Guatemala and in the U.S. that are dangerous, but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have a full and fair process. That’s what the statute is focused on. It doesn’t mean safety from all risks.”
Guatemalans accounted for 34% of Border Patrol arrests on the Mexican border from October to June, more than any other nationality. Hondurans were second at 30%, followed by Mexicans at 18% and Salvadorans at 10%.
Trump was asked if he expected to reach similar agreements with Honduras and El Salvador. He replied, “I do indeed.”
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Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Luis Alonso and Jill Colvin in Washington, Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Peter Orsi in Mexico City and Sonny Figueroa in Guatemala City, Guatemala, contributed to this report.

Bernie Sanders: US policy in Mideast can't be 'pro-Israel, pro-Israel, pro-Israel'

U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders said Friday that U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East cannot be “pro-Israel.”

The Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, who is Jewish and has lived in Israel in the past, made the remark Friday on the "Pod Save America" podcast.

“Our policy cannot just be pro-Israel, pro-Israel, pro-Israel,” Sanders said. “It has got to be pro-region, working with all of the people, all of the countries in that area.”

“Our policy cannot just be pro-Israel, pro-Israel, pro-Israel. It has got to be pro-region, working with all of the people, all of the countries in that area.”

— U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders

BERNIE BOOSTS OMAR AS DEMS’ ISRAEL RIFT DEEPENS
The independent from Vermont said he fervently believes that “the people of Israel have absolutely the right to live in peace, independence, and security. End of discussion,” but added he has an issue with the way Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has run the country in recent years, the Washington Examiner reported.
“I think what has happened is in recent years under Netanyahu, you have an extreme right-wing government with many racist tendencies,” Sanders said, blaming the prime minister for worsening tensions between Israel and the Palestinians. Sanders also criticized President Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to the holy city of Jerusalem, something he believes put peace negotiations with Palestinians at risk.
In May, the Trump administration officially opened the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem, in a historic move cheered by Israelis but met with mass protests from Palestinians that turned deadly in the lead-up to the ceremony. Clashes at the border had left dozens of Palestinians dead and hundreds wounded by the time the ceremony ended. But Israel's prime minister praised the Israeli security forces for protecting the Gaza-Israel border, as U.S. officials held out hope that the prospect of peace remained in reach.
If he becomes president, Sanders said, he’d consider using the billions in aid the U.S. sends to Israel each year as leverage to force Netanyahu to change his actions, adding that Palestinians deserve to be treated with dignity and respect, the Examiner reported.
Netanyahu became the longest-serving Israeli prime minister this month, having held office for more than 13 years, according to The Guardian. He needs to win an election in September and survive three corruption cases against him in order to remain in office.
Fox News' Brooke Singman and Judson Berger contributed to this report.