Democratic presidential candidates Amy Klobuchar and Tom Steyer couldn’t name the Mexican president when asked for it during a televised interview in Nevada Thursday. The two, along with Pete Buttigieg, were separately interviewed by Spanish-language station Telemundo after a candidate forum hosted by the League of United Latin American Citizens. MEXICAN MIGRANTS SENT RECORD $36B IN REMITTANCES IN 2019 Klobuchar, a Minnesota senator, replied, “No,” when asked who the Mexican president is. “I forgot,” was billionaire businessman Tom Steyer’s response.
Presidential hopefuls Tom Steyer and Amy Klobuchar each reportedly
drew a blank when asked to name the president of Mexico during a
campaign event in Nevada.
Buttigieg, the former South Bend, Indiana
mayor, was the only candidate to correctly name Mexico’s president,
Andrés Manuel López Obrado, though he didn’t seem too confident. “Lopez Obrador, I hope,” he answered with a smile. No other 2020 presidential candidates were present at Thursday’s forum, but Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders addressed the audience via video. Wire service reports contributed to this story.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich.,
was briefly detained by police Friday when she joined airline catering
employees in a protest at Detroit Metro Airport, according to reports. Photos posted on social media showed Tlaib, 43, sitting in the road outside the airport’s
Delta terminal, along with eight other protesters – while a larger
group of protesters demonstrated on the sidewalk nearby. Many held signs
reading, “One Job Should Be Enough,” as the group called for better
wages health coverage. Initial reports said Tlaib was arrested in the matter, but a union official later said Tlaib was only briefly detained. Tlaib,
a first-term congresswoman from Detroit who has been in office since
January 2019, later posted a Twitter message about the incident, saying
other protesters had been arrested. It was not Tlaib’s first encounter with law enforcement. Back in July, video surfaced on social media
of a 2016 incident, in which Tlaib – prior to running for Congress – is
dragged out of a Detroit event featuring then-presidential candidate Donald Trump. At
the time Tlaib was a public interest attorney at the Sugar Law Center
for Economic and Social Justice, after being term-limited out of the
Michigan state legislature. Tlaib
quickly drew national attention after taking office in Washington, when
she publicly vowed to “impeach the mother-----,” referring to Trump,
the newly inaugurated president. In December, Trump called out
Tlaib after she posted video of herself excitedly heading to the Capitol
to cast her impeachment vote against him. Fox News' Ronn Blitzer contributed to this story.
San Francisco
Mayor London Breed on Friday admitted having a 20-year friendship and
brief romantic relationship with a former city worker now under FBI investigation, prompting some to call for her resignation. “I write this in the spirit of transparency because in the wake of a scandal at City Hall,
I think San Franciscans are entitled to hear directly from their
Mayor,” Breed wrote in a post on Medium of her association with former San Francisco public works director Mohammed Nuru, who was indicted for public corruption last month. At
a news conference, Breed explained she wrote the post because there
were “a number of rumors” swirling and she wanted San Franciscans to
hear about the relationship directly from her, the Bay Area's FOX 2
reported.
Former director of San Francisco Public Works Mohammed Nuru (left) and San Francisco Mayor London Breed (right).
(AP/Office of Mayor London Breed )
Breed wrote she was profoundly shocked and disappointed when she heard about the charges against Nuru. “To be clear,” she wrote. “I never asked Mohammed Nuru to do anything improper, and he never asked me to do anything improper.” Still,
she admitted accepting $5,600 from Nuru last year for a car repair she
hasn’t paid back yet. She said the disclosure was not required but she
did it out of transparency. Supervisor Gordon Mar suggested the mayor should temporarily step back from her duties, according to FOX 2. "Mayor
Breed's admission of thousands of dollars in unreported gifts from a
subordinate is likely illegal, certainly unethical, and part of a
culture of casual corruption that is eroding the faith of the public,”
Mar said in a statement. “Given the seriousness of this admission, the
direct connection to the central figure in the FBI's investigation into
public corruption, I believe we need to put the people of San Francisco
first. I believe Mayor Breed should do the right thing and temporarily
step back from her duties until a full, independent investigation can be
completed."
"Mayor Breed's admission of thousands of
dollars in unreported gifts from a subordinate is likely illegal,
certainly unethical, and part of a culture of casual corruption that is
eroding the faith of the public.” — San Francisco Supervisor Gordon Mar
Supervisor Hillary Ronen, a political opponent, called the admission “troubling” and said Breed should resign. Supervisor Dean Preston said Breed should appear before the Board of Supervisors. "I
am deeply concerned with revelations today that Mayor London Breed
violated San Francisco law by taking thousands of dollars in gifts from a
City Hall subordinate," he tweeted. Breed added,
"I will not apologize for dating someone two decades ago. I will not
apologize for remaining close friends with him and his family for 20
more years. But neither will I make excuses for any misdeeds." Nuru and restaurant owner Nick Bovis were arrested late last month and charged with corruption and lying to the FBI. They
are accused of attempting to bribe an airport commissioner to vote in
favor of allowing a business owned by Bovis at the airport and accepting
gifts from a Chinese developer in town for business, FOX 2 reported. Nuru resigned this week but both men deny the accusations.
Hundreds of Americans quarantined on a cruise ship docked off the coast of Yokohama, Japan, for more than a week due to a coronavirus –
now called COVID-19 -- outbreak onboard will have the chance to
evacuate, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday,
according to a report. Approximately 380 Americans and their
families on the Diamond Princess will be offered seats on two flights
that could arrive at Travis Air Force Base near Sacramento, Calif., as early as Sunday, a CDC official told The Wall Street Journal.
A group of quarantined passengers exercise on the Diamond Princess
cruise ship Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, in Yokohama, near Tokyo.
(Associated Press)
A CDC team will screen passengers and those exhibiting symptoms won’t be allowed on the flights. Passengers
were placed under in a two-week quarantine Feb. 5 and since then the
number of cases onboard has climbed to 218, including some Americans, in
the largest outbreak outside of China. There are a total of 428 Americans onboard the ship, The New York Post reported.
The quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship is shown in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Feb. 11, 2020. (Associated Press)
In a letter, nine U.S. House representatives, led by
Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., had urged the Trump administration to evacuate
the Americans. Roe is a physician and the ranking member of the House
Veterans Affairs Committee. “From firsthand accounts, we are
concerned about the existing level of care available on the ship,
particularly to the 428 US citizens aboard, as well as the national
security concerns posed by reported quarantine conditions,” the
lawmakers wrote, according to The Post.
“From
firsthand accounts, we are concerned about the existing level of care
available on the ship, particularly to the 428 US citizens aboard, as
well as the national security concerns posed by reported quarantine
conditions.” — Letter from U.S. lawmakers, urging evacuation of Americans aboard cruise ship
Roe
said he has been in contact with Dr. Arnold Hopland, a physician from
Elizabethton, Tenn., who is aboard the ship. Hopland told Roe that crew
members have been doing their best to protect the quarantined pasengers,
the Johnson City Press reported. Once
in the U.S., the evacuated passengers will either be quarantined for
two weeks at the California base or at Lackland Air Force Base in San
Antonio, Texas, The Journal reported. Around
230 Americans who were evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of
the virus, are already in quarantine at Travis. The arriving cruise ship
passengers would be kept separate from them. Earlier
this week, the cruise ship company said Japanese health officials would
remove some passengers to finish their quarantine at an onshore
facility. More than 66,000 people have been sickened in mainland
China and more than 1,500 have been killed by the virus as of Friday
evening. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP In
Beijing, state-run TV Friday announced residents returning from Lunar
New Year celebrations must quarantine themselves for two weeks and could
face legal consequences otherwise, according to The Times.
Thanks to a bill that former Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law in 2017, California will hold its presidential primary election in March this year rather than June, giving the 2020 Democratic candidates an earlier shot at capturing the Golden State’s nearly 500 delegates. But U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters argues that her home state – the nation’s most populous (because of Illegals),
with nearly 40 million residents -- is still getting shortchanged when
it comes to influencing which Democrat carries the party’s banner in
presidential elections. “A lot of people have come to the
conclusion that it should not simply be Iowa and New Hampshire, that
certainly they are not reflective of the makeup of this country,” the
Los Angeles-area congresswoman told CNBC on Thursday. “And so, California
has a role to play.” Waters,
81, who has served in Congress since 1991, noted that few other states
can match California when it comes to fundraising for Democratic
candidates. “We have candidates who fly out to Los Angeles from everywhere to raise money," Waters told CNBC host Kelly Evans, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“You would have two, three, four at a time in Beverly Hills having
dinners and some of our contributors, who are very rich, were holding
fancy parties, trying to accommodate the requests for donations and
contributions.” According to Waters, “The thinking is that if we are supplying tremendous dollars to candidates, we ought to have more say.”
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2019. (Associated Press)
“More say” was said to be the intention behind the bill that Brown signed in 2017. “Candidates
will not be able to ignore the largest, most diverse state in the
nation as they seek our country's highest office," California Secretary
of State Alex Padilla said at the time, according to NPR.
“California has been a leader time and time again on the most important
issues facing our country — including immigration, education, and the
environment.” He added that the date change would “help ensure
that issues important to Californians are prioritized by presidential
candidates from all political parties." Last year, state
Democratic Party spokesman Roger Salazar told Fox News that the earlier
primary would also help California pull the national party in a more
progressive direction. “The Democratic electorate [in California] is much more progressive than almost any state,” Salazar said at the time. “All of that is going to help bring up some of the core issues Californians care about.” He listed the environment, health care, immigration and economic injustice as top issues among California Democrats. That
may explain why progressive candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., leads
in four major California polls, according to Politico. Ironically,
Waters’ remarks about the “tremendous dollars” being donated by
Californians come amid a primary battle in which some of the party
faithful are accusing New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg of trying
to “buy” the nomination. Since the start of 2020, the former mayor
of New York City has spent $13 million on advertising in California and
opened 20 regional offices with a total of 300 staffers, Politico
reported. Bloomberg also got a head start
on other candidates in California by spending time there earlier this
month, after deciding to skip the Iowa and New Hampshire races. As
for who is taking the most money from California, that title belongs to
former South Bend, Ind., Pete Buttigieg, who has raised more than $9
million in the state, according to Federal Election Commission data, the outlet reported.
Florida
Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered an investigation following financial
disclosures of a private anti-domestic violence agency, hired by the state,
whose former CEO received an annual salary of more than $700,000 -- and
who reportedly received a total of nearly $5 million in paid time off
over a four-year period. The contract of Tiffany Carr, who led the
Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence for two decades, granted
her 50 paid days off per year since 2010, the Miami Herald reported, in
addition to other perks such as a car allowance and time at "an
executive retreat at the place of her choosing." At least two staffers working under Carr also received lucrative time-off arrangements, according to the newspaper. Carr
stepped down from the job, citing a "significant health diagnosis,"
following a joint Herald and Tampa Bay Times investigation in July 2018
into her compensation and a subsequent order by the state Department of
Children and Families to audit Carr's agency, the Herald reported. Details
of the agency's finances were finally revealed to state lawmakers
Thursday, prompting the governor's call for an investigation. "After many months of obstruction by the Florida Coalition Against
Domestic Violence, the governor’s office received deeply disturbing
information regarding the organization’s practices over the past several
years,’’ DeSantis’ office said in a statement. “These practices include
exorbitant compensation payouts, abuse of state dollars, withholding of
information, and breach of public trust." The Florida House also
voted to subpoena Carr and the agency's board of directors as the state
examines thousands of pages of newly released documents, according to
the Associated Press. DeSantis,
a Republican who took office in January 2019, also ordered the head of
the state's child welfare agency to review contracts with the
domestic-violence organization, which distributes state and federal
money to organizations that help victims of abuse. “My
administration will not tolerate wasteful or fraudulent spending,
particularly by an organization that purports to serve the vulnerable
victims of domestic violence,” DeSantis said.
“My
administration will not tolerate wasteful or fraudulent spending,
particularly by an organization that purports to serve the vulnerable
victims of domestic violence.” — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks at news conference in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Jan. 29, 2019. (Associated Press)
“As to the measures that we're taking, they're
extraordinary, I would say, but these are extraordinary circumstances,”
Republican House Speaker Jose Oliva told reporters after the vote on
subpoenas. The House had been seeking more information about
Carr's pay ever since the newspapers first raised questions in 2018, The
Associated Press reported. Scott
Howell, the coalition's president of internal and external affairs, did
not immediately respond to an AP message seeking comment. During House floor debate, Democratic Rep. Anna Eskamani said Carr's salary was appalling. “When
we work at our local domestic shelters, we know that every penny
counts, and when you have a CEO being paid that much money as survivors
need support, it should be something that appalls each one of us,” she
said. The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti compared himself to 2020 presidential contender Pete Buttigieg Thursday, alluding to a handful of similarities between himself and the former South Bend mayor.
According to the Los Angeles Times, 49-year-old Garcetti said he is an "older, straighter Pete" during a Thursday speech.
Garcetti
toyed with a White House run earlier in the election cycle, but he
decided to stay out of the crowded presidential field early last year,
saying Los Angeles is, "where I want to be and this is a place where we
have so much exciting work to finish."
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti returned Ed Buck's donation in November of last year.
(AP)
LOS ANGELES MAYOR GARCETTI SIGNS CITY's ENHANCED 'GREEN NEW DEAL
Garcetti also made a similar joke last month in The Atlantic, the newspaper pointed out.
The
mayor raised his national profile in 2018 by campaigning and raising
money for Democratic candidates and state parties around the country.
His $2.5 million-plus in party fundraising included $100,000 each for
the state parties in each of the first four presidential nominating
states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina. He made stops
in several of those states and other longtime battlegrounds like Ohio,
where he frequently talked about the city’s transit-building boom
Garcetti, according to The Times, is also a Rhodes Scholar and a piano player, like Buttigieg, and both have served in the U.S. Navy Reserve.
Garcetti
has also defended the idea of a mayor as a presidential candidate,
saying a mayor's experience as chief executive squared well with the job
in the White House. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg is
beginning to turn some heads in the Democratic primary with his
aggressive spending in Super Tuesday states, while former New York Mayor
Bill de Blasio and Miramar, Fla. Mayor Wayne Messam each ran
unsuccessful campaigns and have dropped out of the Democratic primary.
When asked about his future plans early last year, Garcetti didn't rule out a different bid for higher office in the future.
“Who knows what the future is,” he said, adding later, “Life is long.” The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Prosecutors reportedly recommended 57 months in prison Thursday for former Baltimore Mayor Catherine Pugh who pleaded guilty last November to conspiracy and tax evasion linked to her self-published "Healthy Holly" children’s books. Pugh was indicted for allegedly running a multiyear scam using her books to boost her political career and pad her coffers. In
a 37-page sentencing memorandum, U.S. Attorney Robert Hur wrote, Pugh's
scheme was “a recurring pattern of well-executed steps that built on
each other, becoming more audacious and complex leading up to the
mayoral election,” according to WJZ-TV. Prosecutors said her plan to rip off nonprofits and taxpayers began in 2011 when she was a state senator. Among
other things, the indictment against Pugh accused her of claiming
taxable income in 2016 of $31,020, with $4,168 tax due, "when in fact,
Pugh's taxable income was $322,365, with an income tax due of
approximately $102,444." Pugh's books have included "Healthy
Holly: Exercising is Fun" and "Healthy Holly: Fruits Come in Colors like
the Rainbow." Most were sold directly to nonprofits and foundations
that did – or tried to do – business with the state or with Baltimore. Prosecutors
said Pugh arranged fraudulent sales of her books to schools, libraries
and a medical system to pay for her mayoral bid as well as to buy and
renovate a house in Baltimore City. The memorandum also says Pugh
used a business she co-owned to launder a $20,000 check into her
campaign from a donor who had already given the $6,000 limit, WJZ
reported. Pugh also lied to FBI agents, according to the
memorandum, when they came to her house for her personal cell phone. She
said she didn’t have it and gave them a work phone but agents heard it
ringing from under a pillow in her bedroom when they called it a short
time later, according to the station. “Almost immediately, the
agents heard a vibrating noise emanating from her bed. Pugh became
emotional, went to the bed and began frantically searching through the
blankets at the head of the bed. As she did so, agents starting yelling
for her to stop and show her hands,” prosecutors wrote, the Baltimore
Sun reported. “The facts establish that Pugh deliberately engaged
in a broad range of criminal acts while serving as Maryland State
Senator and Mayor of Baltimore City,” Hur added. “As an educated
businesswoman and successful politician, Pugh had countless
opportunities for self-reflection, occasions when she could have checked
her moral and ethical compass and chosen to change course," he
said. "She did the opposite, and chose to double down on a path of
rampant criminal deception to fulfill her ambitions." Specifically,
Pugh pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud, conspiracy to
defraud the United States and two counts of tax evasion. The four counts
collectively carried a maximum sentence of decades behind bars. She did not plead guilty to seven individual counts of wire fraud. “The
chronology of events since 2011, comprising Pugh’s seven-year scheme to
defraud, multiple years of tax evasion, election fraud, and attempted
cover-ups, including brazen lies to the public, clearly establishes the
deliberateness with which she pursued financial and political gain
without a second thought about how it was harming the public’s trust,”
wrote Assistant U.S. Attorneys Martin J. Clarke and Leo J. Wise,
according to the Sun. Pugh resigned last May. She had been under investigation since February 2017. Her
defense said they strongly disagree” with the recommendation and said
their position "as to a fair and appropriate sentence will be laid out
in a sentencing memorandum which will be made public pending order of
court,” WJZ reported. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 27. Fox News' Barnini Chakraborty contributed to this report.
Former director of San Francisco Public Works Mohammed Nuru (left) and San Francisco Mayor London Breed (right).
(AP/Office of Mayor London Breed )
A group of quarantined passengers exercise on the Diamond Princess
cruise ship Saturday, Feb. 15, 2020, in Yokohama, near Tokyo.
(Associated Press)
The quarantined Diamond Princess cruise ship is shown in Yokohama, near Tokyo, Feb. 11, 2020. (Associated Press)
U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is seen at the Capitol in Washington, Dec. 18, 2019. (Associated Press)
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti returned Ed Buck's donation in November of last year.
(AP)
