Barr: ‘I don’t agree there is systemic racism in police departments’ – live

Moments ago at the House judiciary committee hearing, Democratic congresswoman Pramila Jayapal accused attorney general William Barr of setting a double standard for protesters based on political ideology.

Jayapal noted Trump previously threatened to “activate” Barr to “dominate” the protesters who have marched against racism and police brutality since the killing of George Floyd.

Yet the president did not pledge similar action when Democratic governor Gretchen Whitmer was facing threats over her coronavirus shutdown order, Jayapal noted. Some of those anti-shutdown protesters swarmed the Michigan capitol with guns.

“When white men with swastikas storm a government building with guns, there is no need for the president to ‘activate’ you, because they’re getting the president’s personal agenda done,” Jayapal said.

“But when black people and people of color protest police brutality, systemic racism and the president’s very own lack of response to those critical issues, then you forcibly remove them with armed federal officers [and] pepper bombs because they are considered terrorists by the president.”

Barr indicated he was not aware of the threats against Whitmer. “There are a lot of protests around the United States,” Barr said.

But Jayapal noted Barr was “very aware” of certain protests in the country, such as those taking place in Portland, Oregon. Barr has defended the actions of federal agents in Portland by arguing they are protecting a federal courthouse in the city.

However, it’s worth noting the anti-shutdown protests in Michigan that Jayapal mentioned took place across the street from the Charles E Chamberlain federal building, raising questions about why those demonstrations didn’t cause similar concern for Barr.

According to the Washington Post, the White House insisted on the money for the new FBI headquarters being included in the next coronavirus relief bill.

The Post reports:

When the White House first proposed inserting money on the FBI building in the legislation and conditioning it on keeping the headquarters in Washington, Republican lawmakers blocked it from being in the bill, people familiar with the discussions said. But White House officials persisted in demanding the money and it ended up back in the legislation.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has now said he would move to strip the provision out of the relief bill after Democratic senators speculated that the proposal was meant to benefit the president’s business.

Over in the Senate, majority leader Mitch McConnell said he is opposed to including money for the new FBI headquarters in the next coronavirus relief bill.

A draft of the Republican relief bill includes $1.75 billion for a new FBI headquarters in Washington, which has been a priority for Trump since he took office.

Before the president’s inauguration, the FBI planned to move its headquarters to the DC suburbs, which would open up a large piece of real estate near Trump’s Washington hotel.

Democrats have accused Trump of trying to block the FBI from moving its headquarters in order to prevent other hotel companies from buying the property and thus creating competition for his company.

Republicans expressed surprise that the unrelated proposal was included in the coronavirus relief bill. “That smells like a kind of strange addition,” Republican senator Ron Johnson said.

McConnell has now said he wants extraneous items, including the money for the FBI headquarters, stripped from the bill.

After attorney general William Barr stumbled over a question about soliciting foreign election assistance, a commissioner of the Federal Election Commission weighed in on the issue.

FEC commissioner Ellen Weintraub reshared a memo from June of last year condemning foreign assistance, saying of the memo, “I would not have thought that I would need to keep saying this.”

Weintraub’s memo reads in part, “Let me make something 100% clear to the American public and anyone running for public office: It is illegal for any person to solicit, accept, or receive anything of value from a foreign national in connection with a U.S. election.”

Over at the House judiciary committee hearing, attorney general William Barr had another tense exchange with a Democratic member of the panel.

Congressman David Cicilline noted that the Republican-led Senate intelligence committee concluded Russia interfered in the 2016 US elections, and Barr said he agreed with that conclusion.

Cicilline then asked Barr, “Is it ever appropriate, sir, for the president to solicit or accept foreign assistance in an election?”

After a pause, Barr responded, “It depends what kind of assistance.”

That answer was notable considering Trump was impeached by the House over allegations that he attempted to pressure Ukraine to intervene in the 2020 presidential race to benefit his reelection bid.

Cicilline repeated, “Is it ever appropriate for the president or presidential candidate to accept or solicit foreign assistance of any kind in his or her election?”

Barr then acknowledged, “No, it’s not appropriate.”

Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf confirmed in a statement that DACA recipients would be allowed to renew deportation protections for one year.

“As the Department continues looking at the policy and considers future action, the fact remains that Congress should act on this matter,” Wolf said. “There are important policy reasons that may warrant the full rescission of the DACA policy.”

The statement said the department would not consider new DACA applications but would “limit the period of renewed deferred action granted pursuant to the DACA policy after the issuance of this memorandum to one year.”

The policy guarantees DACA will remain in place until after the presidential election in November.

The Trump administration reportedly plans to allow “dreamers” to extend deportation protections for a year as the federal government seeks to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.

The news comes a month after the supreme court blocked the administration’s effort to end the Obama-era program.

Reuters reports:

The administration is preparing a fresh attempt to end the program that shields from deportation hundreds of thousands of immigrants living in the United States illegally after entering as children – a group often called ‘Dreamers.’ …

The administration plans to continue its existing policy of not accepting new DACA applicants, a policy in place since 2017, [a senior administration official] told Reuters. But the administration will extend the eligibility by a year for those DACA immigrants whose protection from deportation was due to expire, as long as they do not have a criminal record, the official said.

‘For anyone who refiles, if they are eligible and were set to expire, we will renew them on a case by case basis into the next year for an extension,’ the official said.

That policy would allow DACA to remain in place until after the November election. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden has vowed to make the program permanent if he is elected.

Attorney general William Barr claimed he does not read the president’s tweets, during a tense exchange about Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence.

Democratic congressman Eric Swalwell asked Barr if he was investigating the commutation. When Barr said no, Swalwell asked, “Why not?”

Barr replied, “Why should I?”

Swalwell went on to recount some of the events surrounding Stone’s conviction and eventual commutation. The congressman quoted a Trump tweet from December 2018, in which the president said Stone had “shown guts” by not testifying against him.

Barr said he was not familiar with the tweet.

“You don’t read the president’s tweets?” Swalwell asked.

“No,” Barr responded.

Swalwell replied, “Well, there’s a lot of evidence in the president’s tweets, Mr Attorney General. I think you should start reading them.”

Barr is clearly familiar with at least some of Trump’s tweets because he said earlier this year that the president should stop tweeting about the justice department because it makes it “impossible for me to do my job.”

The House judiciary committee hearing with attorney general William Barr has now resumed after a very brief recess.

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Barr said he does not generally believe there is systemic racism in US police departments. Under questioning from Democratic congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, Barr said, “I don’t agree there is systemic racism in police departments generally in this country.”

• The American Federation of Teachers has authorized “safety strikes” if necessary to protect teachers from coronavirus. The announcement comes as number of school districts in coronavirus hot spots are pushing to reopen schools, despite concerns about the spread of the virus in classrooms.
• Twitter temporarily restricted Donald Trump Jr’s account for spreading false claims about coronavirus. The president’s son shared a video of a doctor falsely claiming that the anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine is a “cure” for coronavirus.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.