A federal court on Tuesday blocked new rules established by the Trump administration that would have allowed employers with religious or moral objections to opt out of an Obamacare requirement that includes birth control coverage in employee health insurance plans.
Two
out of the three judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th
Circuit concluded that a birth control exemption violated the Affordable
Care Act’s contraception mandate, which requires all employers to
provide birth control coverage with no co-payment.
The
Health and Human Services Department, Labor Department, and Treasury
Department in 2017, started adopting new rules that allowed religious
groups, including the Little Sisters of the Poor, to opt out of the
requirement to provide birth control coverage for employees, the National Review reported. The rules were finalized in 2018 but have not been enforced.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra spearheaded a lawsuit with 13 other states against the religious exemption rules.
“It’s
a simple concept: a woman and her doctor are the only people qualified
to decide what’s best for her health. Today will serve as a reminder to
the Trump Administration that politicians and employers certainly have
no business interfering with women’s reproductive healthcare,” Becerra
said in a statement, according to the Washington Times.
Tuesday's
decision blocked the new rules from going into effect in California,
Delaware, Virginia, Maryland, New York, Illinois, Washington, Minnesota,
Connecticut, North Carolina, Vermont, Rhode Island, Hawaii, and the
District of Columbia, Bloomberg Law News reported.
Judge
J. Clifford Wallace, who was nominated by President Nixon, wrote in the
majority decision that “the religious exemption contradicts
congressional intent that all women have access to appropriate
preventative care and the exemption operates in a manner fully at odds
with the careful, individualized, and searching review mandated by the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act.”
Judge
Andrew J. Kleinfeld, who was nominated by President George H. W.
Bush, dissented, writing that the 14-state lawsuit was brought before
the court in an effort to save states money, not to protect
women's reproductive rights. He also wrote that a ruling in the U.S.
Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, which blocked the implementation
of the Trump administration rules nationwide, renders this case moot.
“The
casual reader may imagine that the dispute is about provision of
contraception and abortion services to women. It is not.” Kleinfeld
wrote. “No woman sued for an injunction in this case, and no affidavits
have been submitted from any women establishing any question in this
case about whether they will be deprived of reproductive services or
harmed in any way by the modification of the regulation. This case is a
claim by several states to prevent a modification of a regulation from
going into effect, claiming that it will cost them money.”
Speculation is growing that Hillary Clinton will make a last-minute entry into the 2020 presidential race after reports published Tuesday said members of the Democratic establishment doubted any of the party’s current top candidates can beat President Trump next November.
But
those Democrats already running said Clinton is doing more harm than
good for the party by taking aim at Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, in
recent remarks.
Clinton in recent weeks has privately stated she would enter the 2020 presidential race if she were certain she could win, The New York Times
reported Tuesday. The story, titled “Anxious Democratic Establishment
Asks, ‘Is There Anybody Else?’,” said about a half-dozen Democratic
donors gathered in New York City questioned whether former front-runner
Joe Biden could stand strong against Trump, citing Biden’s lackluster
debate performance in Ohio last week.
hey also raised concerns
about Biden's fundraising struggles and his need to defend his family’s
business dealings in Ukraine amid the ongoing Trump impeachment inquiry.
They also said Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders were likely too liberal to win the general election.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post,
citing unnamed sources, reported that Clinton was considering a 2020
rematch against Trump after the State Department concluded this week
there was "no persuasive evidence of systemic, deliberate mishandling of
classified information" regarding Clinton's use of a private email
server while serving as secretary of state.
The same State
Department report, however, dozens of individuals were at fault for
mishandling classified information and found hundreds of security
violations during her 2009-2013 tenure.
Clinton,
the first woman to win a major party presidential nomination — and the
national popular vote leader with almost 3 million more votes than Trump
— remains a popular figure in her party, even after enduring criticism
for losing key Midwestern states in 2016. For Republicans, she's
perennial target -- currently in the Mississippi governor's race, where
Democratic nominee Jim Hood, a longtime attorney general, is being
attacked for acknowledging he voted for her over Trump.
Clinton’s supporters within the Democratic establishment have also passed around an op-ed published earlier this month in the San Francisco Chronicle by former Mayor Willie Brown titled: “Who should run against Trump? How about Hillary Clinton?” the Washington Post reported.
Both
the Post and the Times reported that Clinton was not the only possible
last-minute candidate on Democrats’ minds. Also being considered
were: former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Disney chief executive
Bob Iger, Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, and former first lady Michelle
Obama. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Former Vice President Joe Biden
offered an apology late on Tuesday for previously referring to the
Clinton impeachment as a "partisan lynching" just hours after he
condemned President Trump for referring to his own impeachment with the same term.
Trump
was widely criticized for claiming on Twitter that Republicans are
witnessing a "lynching." Several 2020 Democrats piled on the president,
including the 2020 frontrunner.
"Impeachment is not 'lynching,' it
is part of our Constitution," Biden reacted. "Our country has a dark,
shameful history with lynching, and to even think about making this
comparison is abhorrent. It's despicable."
However, CNN unearthed an interview Biden did on the network in 1998, where he used the term he blasted Trump for.
"Even
if the president should be impeached, history will question whether or
not this was a partisan lynching or whether or not it was something that
in fact met the standard," then-Sen. Biden told CNN's Wolf Blitzer,
"the very high bar that was set by the founders as to what constituted
an impeachable offense."
As his unearthed remarks went viral,
Biden offered an apology... but continued to hammer Trump by insisting
he "chose his words deliberately."
"This wasn’t the right word to
use and I’m sorry about that," Biden tweeted. "Trump on the other
hand chose his words deliberately today in his use of the word lynching
and continues to stoke racial divides in this country daily."
Biden was one of several Democratic lawmakers
who used the term "lynching" in the past, including now-Judiciary
Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y, and Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., on Tuesday said a fellow Republican lawmaker deconstructed a key part of the latest Trump impeachment inquiry witness testimony in Tuesday's closed-door session.
"In 90 seconds, we had John Ratcliffe destroy Taylor's whole argument," McCarthy said.
The questioning by Ratcliffe, a Texas Republican and member of both the House Intelligence and Judiciary Committees, was an important moment in the hearing, McCarthy claimed.
"We can't really talk about it," he said.
Ratcliffe
appeared on Fox News after the testimony and said there were new
details brought to light, but said nothing "worthy of impeachment."
McCarthy added House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., is not allowing lawmakers to speak too specifically about the proceedings, in an interview Tuesday on "The Ingraham Angle."
"Adam
Schiff won't let us talk about what happened," he said regarding U.S.
diplomat to Ukraine Bill Taylor's closed-door hearing on Capitol Hill.
"There is no quid pro quo."
The
California lawmaker also claimed the impeachment inquiry process
continues to be based largely on testimony from those without first-hand
knowledge of the Trump-Ukraine situation.
"The
one thing that you find out in this process is all this information
is just like that whistleblower... everything is second-, third-,
and fourth-hand information," he said.
He criticized Schiff for
how he is conducting the proceedings, claiming the relevant Republican
lawmakers are unable to view information from the hearings unless they
are accompanied by the chairman's staff members.
"What they are doing [is] they are changing every rule we ever had," he said.
A new report has alleged that Hunter Biden received tens of thousands
of dollars over a year and a half period from Ukrainian energy company
Burisma Holdings. Biden reportedly used his position at the company to
defer $3.4 million to a company run by his business associate Devon
Archer.
Between April 2014 and November 2015, Biden and Archer were each paid
$83,000 monthly for “consulting services” between the two firms. The
report went on to claim Burisma’s founder hired Biden to protect the
company from persecution.
This comes after a former State Department official told Congress
this week he raised concerns about Biden’s business dealings in the
past. George Kent said he warned White House officials in 2015 about how
Hunter Biden’s position could look like a conflict of interest. Vice
President Joe Biden was overseeing cancer treatments for his son Beau at
the time and Kent’s warning fell by the wayside.
President Trump responded to Kent’s testimony on Friday.
“They brought (Kent) him in as a witness against me…and he
excoriated, from what they reported on the news,” said the president.
“He excoriated the Obama administration…, saying that has tremendous
problems with Joe Biden’s son and the Ukraine.”
Hunter Biden has since admitted that his decision to be a part of
Burisma while his father was in office was “poor judgement.” Going into
the 2020 election season, both Bidens have sworn to avoid further
business dealings and associations with foreign firms. They both deny
allegations of any wrongdoing.
WEST
BRANCH, Iowa (AP) — Hillary Clinton’s suggestion this past week that
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard is being “groomed” by Russians to act as a
spoiler in the 2020 race may have had the opposite effect of what the
2016 Democratic presidential nominee intended: It’s elevated Gabbard’s
candidacy and may have inspired even more ardent interest in her
campaign among Clinton critics.
On Saturday,
Gabbard found fans among the many Clinton skeptics across Iowa, where
Clinton barely won the 2016 Democratic caucuses against Vermont Sen.
Bernie Sanders.
“What is this horrible thing that Hillary said about you?” one person asked Gabbard at a house party in West Branch.
Gabbard
responded that “it revealed the truth that I have been experiencing for
a long time now — which is that, because I have been trying to bring
about an end to our country’s long-held foreign policy of waging one
regime-change war after the next . I am labeled as a traitor.”
“This is a message that is being sent to every single American . who speaks out for peace,” she said.
Gabbard’s
longshot campaign came under scrutiny this past week after Clinton
appeared on a podcast where she did not mention the Hawaii congresswoman
by name, but said she believes the Russians have “got their eye on
somebody who’s currently in the Democratic primary and are grooming her
to be the third party candidate.” There was no mistaking whom she meant.
Although
Russian interest in Gabbard is apparent, Clinton produced no evidence
that Moscow is grooming or directly backing the congresswoman.
Gabbard’s
campaign has been promoted by Russian state-owned media and a number of
alt-right websites and defended on Twitter by the Russian Embassy.
She’s previously faced controversy and criticism from leaders in her
party for her unorthodox foreign policy positions, like her decision to
meet Syrian President Bashar Assad.
On
Friday and Saturday, Gabbard refused to disavow the support she’s seen
from Russian actors and alt-right sites. But she repeatedly said she
will not run as an independent or third-party candidate if she doesn’t
win the Democratic nomination.
And Gabbard
encountered supporters across eastern Iowa on Saturday. During a
campaign stop in Iowa City at a University of Iowa tailgate, a man came
up to give Gabbard a ushanka-style yellow Hawkeye hat.
“It’s a Russian hat!” Gabbard said with a laugh, before hugging the man and taking a picture with him.
And at the West Branch house party, Gabbard found many Clinton critics who were supportive of her campaign.
Clinton’s
comments were “divisive and despicable,” said Patricia McIntosh, 83, a
semi-retired university employee who liked Gabbard’s “anti-regime-change
message.” McIntosh said: “I have no respect for Hillary Clinton at
all.”
Robert
Rodriguez, a 35-year-old food delivery driver, drove from Minneapolis
to see Gabbard speak. He, too, appreciated Gabbard’s anti-war stance and
said Clinton had “sowed division in this primary” with her critique. He
also noted Gabbard’s support from some alt-right websites
He
asked: “You have people praising candidates for being able to reach
across the aisle and garner support from the so-called other side, but
Tulsi’s a problem because she has support from the other side? Isn’t
that what we want?”
Both Rodriguez and
McIntosh described themselves as longtime Gabbard fans and skeptics of
the Democratic establishment, and both said they weren’t sure if they’d
support the eventual nominee if neither Gabbard nor Vermont Sen. Bernie
Sanders, another anti-establishment candidate for president, didn’t win.
But
Gabbard also managed to win over some people who hadn’t been familiar
with her campaign, like Jennifer Rogers, a 38-year-old nurse from North
Liberty, Iowa, who liked that Gabbard was a military veteran.
“I
really like that she answers questions,” she said. “She doesn’t just
shout talking points and campaign slogans.” Rogers said she’s been on
the fence but “today I’m pretty convinced that I think she’s going to be
my candidate.”
Still, it’s unclear exactly
what Gabbard hopes to achieve with her unorthodox campaign, as she’s
struggled to raise money and hit the polling threshold to make it on the
debate stage. She has yet to qualify for next month’s debate.
Gabbard has just three staff members on the ground in Iowa.
Asked whether she plans to add staff in any of the early states, Gabbard demurred.
She
said she’s “continuing to use every platform possible to reach voters
directly” when asked about her path to the nomination, and wouldn’t
predict how she’d finish in Iowa. But she suggested that might not
matter — even if she doesn’t have enough delegates to win, “we’re taking
this all the way to the nomination.”
All U.S. troops leaving Syria as part of the withdrawal plan recently announced by President Trump will be stationed in western Iraq, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Saturday.
In addition, the U.S. military will continue its efforts to prevent a resurgence by Islamic State group (ISIS) terrorists, he said.
“Things
could change between now and whenever we complete the withdrawal,”
Esper told reporters while flying to the Middle East from Washington,
according to the Associated Press, “but that’s the game plan right now.”
“Things could change between now and whenever we complete the withdrawal, but that’s the game plan right now.” — Defense Secretary Mark Esper
The
U.S. departure from Syria will take “weeks not days,” Esper said, and
involve both aircraft and ground convoys as about 1,000 troops relocate,
Reuters reported.
Esper’s comments were the first specific
details on where American troops will go as they leave Syria, according
to the AP. Fox News reported last week that President Trump said only
that troops would be redeployed "in the region."
The
55-year-old Pentagon chief, who assumed the office permanently July 23
after serving as acting defense secretary for about three weeks
following the departure of former Defense Secretary James Mattis, said
he has spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about the plan to shift the more
than 700 troops from Syria into western Iraq, the AP reported.
Esper,
who previously served as Army secretary, did not rule out the
possibility that U.S. forces relocated to Iraq could still conduct
counterterrorism missions inside Syria. But he said those details will
be worked out over time.
The U.S. defense chief was traveling as a
fragile cease-fire, negotiated by the U.S. and Turkey, was underway in
Syria – but according to Reuters some Turkish military vehicles crossed
into Syria on Saturday, and Turkish officials claimed aboyt 14
“provocative attacks” had been launched from the Syrian side.
In
Iraq, U.S. troops were heading to a country that has seen violent
political protests in recent week, leading to more than 100 deaths, Reuters reported.
Trump
ordered the withdrawal of most of the U.S. troops in Syria after
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his forces were about to
invade Syria to push back Kurdish fighters that Turkey views as
terrorists.
Critics
of the president say the plan amounts to an abandonment of the Kurds,
who have helped the U.S. military combat ISIS, but Trump argued that the
Kurds have not always been the pro-American allies their supporters
claim them to be.
“They’re not angels, if you take a look,” Trump
said Wednesday. “They did well when they fought with us. They didn’t do
so well when they didn’t fight with us.”
Meanwhile, a group of House Democrats, accompanied by one Republican, traveled to Syria neighbor Jordan
on Saturday, where they held talks with Jordan’s King Abdullah II and
other Jordanian leaders about the Syria situation. Results from those
talks were not immediately known early Sunday in the U.S. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi
and other U.S. lawmakers announced late Saturday U.S. time that they
had arrived in Jordan for meetings with King Abdullah II and other
officials regarding the situation in Syria.
Although
touted as a "bipartisan" delegation, the group includes just one
Republican -- Rep. Mac Thornberry of Texas, ranking member of the House
Armed Services Commitee. Thornberry is among a group of Texas
Republicans who've announced they won't seek reelection in 2020. REP. PAUL GOSAR: TRUMP WAS RIGHT TO WITHDRAW TROOPS FROM SYRIA -- WE SHOULD PROTECT US BORDERS INSTEAD
“Our
bipartisan delegation is visiting Jordan at a critical time for the
security and stability of the region,” Pelosi said in a statement.
“With the deepening crisis in Syria after Turkey’s incursion, our
delegation has engaged in vital discussions about the impact to regional
stability, increased flow of refugees, and the dangerous opening that
has been provided to ISIS, Iran and Russia.”
Pelosi and other members of the U.S. delegation met
with Abdullah, who has been king of Jordan since 1999, as well as Crown
Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, Prince Feisal bin Al Hussein, Foreign
Minister Ayman Safadi and other senior Jordanian officials, according to Reuters.
Jordan is located directly south of Syria. The two nations share a border that is about 233 miles long.
The
talks in Jordan come as both Turkey and the Kurdish-led Syrian
Democratic Forces (SDF) claim the other side is violating terms of a
120-hour cease-fire brokered by the U.S. and Turkey on Thursday.
Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., criticized the cease-fire deal as a "sham."
President
Trump has also taken criticism from some Republicans for his recent
decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria. Critics from both parties
contend that the move has left Syria's Kurds vulnerable to attacks by
Turkish forces and increased the likelihood of an ISIS resurgence in the
region.
But other lawmakers, such as Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., have defended the president's move.
In what was seen as a bid to temper some of the criticism, Trump earlier this month announced a pledge of $50 million in humanitarian aid to Syria.
Along
with Pelosi, the other Democrats in the delegation are Rep. Eliot
Engel, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Foreign Services Committee; Rep.
Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security
Committee; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., chairman of the House
Intelligence Committee; Rep. Ron Kind, D-Wis., member of the House Ways
and Means Committee; Rep. Susan Davis, D-Calif., member of the House
Armed Services Committee; Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., chairman of the
House Oversight and Reform subcommittee on national security; and Rep.
Elaine Luria, D-Va., member of the House Armed Services Committee.
CNN’s Scott Jennings once again took liberals to the cleaners on the Abrego Garcia case, the ‘Maryland man...
