President Trump: North Korean Missile Tests Do Not Pose Threat to U.S.

This Thursday, July 25, 2019, photo provided on Friday, July 26, 2019, by the North Korean government shows a test of a missile launch in North Korea. A day after two North Korean missile launches rattled Asia, the nation announced Friday that its leader Kim Jong Un supervised a test of a new-type tactical guided weapon that was meant to be a “solemn warning” about South Korean weapons introduction and its rival’s plans to hold military exercises with the United States. Independent journalists were not given access to cover the event depicted in this image distributed by the North Korean government. The content of this image is as provided and cannot be independently verified. Korean language watermark on image as provided by source reads: “KCNA” which is the abbreviation for Korean Central News Agency. (Korean Central News Agency/Korea News Service via AP)

President Trump downplays last week’s missile tests by North Korea.
Last week, during a press conference the President said the incident would not interfere with U.S. North Korea negotiations.
He said the missiles were ‘short-range,’ commonly used by many countries, and therefore did not pose a threat to the U.S.
“They are short range missiles and my relationship is very good with Chairman Kim and we’ll see what happens. But they are short range missiles, and many people have those missiles” President Trump said.
In fact, the President went on to tout his healthy working relationship with Chairman Kim Jong Un, saying the relationship remains in good condition and the tests were not carried out in bad faith against the U.S.
“He didn’t say a warning to the United States. I can tell you that. he didn’t say a warning to the United States” President Trump said.

Speaker Pelosi: I’m not running out the clock on impeachment

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of Calif., speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, July 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appears to be more open to an impeachment inquiry, following Robert Mueller’s” testimony on Capitol Hill.
On Friday, reporters grilled Pelosi on whether she is running out the clock on impeachment ahead of the six week August recess after her party failed to obtain a game-changing soundbite from the former special counsel.
Pelosi denied the speculation and claimed she knows what she is doing handling the matter:

“No, I’m not trying to run out the clock. Let’s get sophisticated about this. Okay? We will proceed when we have what we need to proceed, not one day sooner. And everybody has the liberty and the luxury to espouse their own position and to criticize me for trying to go down the path in the most determined, positive way. Again, their advocacy for impeachment only gives me leverage. I have no complaint with what they are doing.”

Democrats have faced mounting criticism from within the party due to Pelosi’s slow yet measured approach to move on impeachment.

Marianne Williamson wants to be taken seriously at next debate

Democratic presidential candidate author Marianne Williamson speaks during the Democratic primary in Miami. (AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee)

Marianne Williamson, a 2020 Democratic hopeful, said she hopes to be taken more seriously as a candidate on this week’s debate stage after her first debate left her on the receiving end of online jokes and memes.
In an interview published Sunday, Williamson, a  best-selling author and Oprah Winfrey’s spiritual adviser, admitted she wasn’t thrilled with the public’s response to her performance last month.
“I hope that this time my delivery will be more aligned with my substance,” she told USA Today. “I don’t regret the substance of anything I said, but I understand that my delivery made me vulnerable to mockery.”
Williamson, who vowed to beat President Trump with a politics of “love,” said she plans to “just be myself” during Tuesday’s debate in Detroit.
This time around she plans to avoid traditional debate preparation, she said, and will instead rely on her experience thus far on the campaign trail.
"I did a lot of that last time. This time I’m seeing things a little bit differently," Williamson said.
"Every day on the campaign trail is preparation. Every day you’re thinking about issues, writing about issues, talking about issues, learning about issues,” she added. “It’s a continuous process. To me, that’s the best preparation.”

2020 Democratic hopefuls respond to shooting at Gilroy festival

The 2020 election Democratic field on Sunday responded to the Gilroy Garlic Festival shooting that killed at least four, including the gunman, and injured 15, saying the incident is a horrible reminder of the country’s “gun violence epidemic.”
“This violence is not normal,” Joe Biden, the former vice president, tweeted. “How many more families will have to lose a loved one before we fix our broken gun laws? We must take action, starting with real reform.”
Authorities in Gilroy were joined Monday by officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in their investigation. Early reports indicated that a single gunman opened fire and was engaged in under one minute by police officers who were stationed nearby.
The shooting, which occurred during a band's performance, sending the crowd running, had chilling similarities to the 2017 Las Vegas massacre that resulted in 58 deaths.
Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., who was once the state’s attorney general, took to Twitter to call the shooting “horrific.”
“Our country has a gun violence epidemic that we cannot tolerate,” she tweeted.
Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., said on Twitter that his heart breaks for the families involved in the shooting, and also pointed to the gun violence “epidemic.”
Beto O’Rourke did not mention the Gilroy shooting in a late-Sunday tweet, but said he was “sending love to all who are hurting tonight—and all who are affected by the 40,000 gun deaths in America each year.”
Gun control has been a key issue for Democrats and many have laid out plans on how they will approach the issue. Booker unveiled a wide-ranging gun control proposal this week and showcased his call for federal licensing of firearms.
Harris said she too would move quickly to curb gun violence if elected to the White House, vowing to use executive action if Congress didn’t act in her first 100 days.
Fox News' Paul Steinhauser and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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.

Cartoons

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.