Trump demands Nascar driver Bubba Wallace apologize over noose incident – live

Here’s where the day stands so far:

• Trump was criticized for suggesting Nascar driver Bubba Wallace should apologize for raising concerns about a noose found in his garage. The president said that the incident was a “hoax,” although a picture released of the door pull in Wallace’s garage clearly resembled a noose. Trump also criticized Nascar for banning Confederate flags at its races.
• The supreme court ruled states can punish “faithless electors,” members of the electoral college who try to vote for candidate who did not win their state. The court still has five outstanding cases, including one involving Trump’s financial records.
• A judge ordered the Dakota Access pipeline to be shut down until a more thorough environmental review can be completed. The federal judge’s ruling marks a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who have been protesting against the pipeline for years.

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

A federal judge has ordered the controversial Dakota Access pipeline to be shut down until a more thorough environmental review can be completed.

The AP reports:

US district judge James Boasberg said previously the pipeline, which has been in operation three years, remains “highly controversial” under federal environmental law, and a more extensive review was necessary than the environmental assessment that was done by the US Army Corps of Engineers.

In a 24-page order Monday, Boasberg wrote that he was ‘mindful of the disruption such a shutdown will cause’, but said he had concluded that the pipeline must be shut down.

‘Clear precedent favoring vacatur during such a remand coupled with the seriousness of the Corps’ deficiencies outweighs the negative effects of halting the oil flow for the 13 months that the Corps believes the creation of an EIS will take,’ Boasberg wrote.

The ruling marks a victory for the Standing Rock Sioux tribe, who have been protesting against the pipeline for years, and a defeat for Trump, who pushed for speedier construction of the pipeline shortly after taking office.

Republican senator Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s closest Senate allies, pushed back against the president’s tweet about Nascar driver Bubba Wallace.

“Well, I don’t think Bubba Wallace has anything to apologize for,” Graham said. “When there was a chance that it was a threat against Bubba Wallace … they all rallied to Bubba’s side, so I would be looking to celebrate that kind of attitude more than being worried about it being a hoax.”

Graham also said he did not agree with Trump’s criticism of Nascar’s decision to ban Confederate flags at its races.

“They’re trying to grow the sport,” Graham said. “I’ve lived in South Carolina all my life, and if you’re in business, the Confederate flag is not a good way to grow your business.”

The mayor of Miami-Dade county is signing an emergency order to close more businesses again as Florida grapples with a surge in new cases of coronavirus.

“I am signing an emergency order that will close restaurants (except for takeout and delivery services), along with ballrooms, banquet facilities, party venues, gyms and fitness centers, and short-term rentals,” mayor Carlos Gimenez said in a statement announcing the order.

“We can tamp down the spread if everyone follows the rules, wears masks and stays at least six feet apart from others. I am counting on you, our 2.8 million residents, to stop the spread so that we can get back to opening our economy.”

The Republican mayor announced the order, which will go into effect starting Wednesday, as the state reported more than 6,000 new cases of coronavirus in the past day. The state’s total number of cases has now surpassed 200,000.

Simon & Schuster announced it is pushing up the publication date of Mary Trump’s book by two weeks, citing “high demand and extraordinary interest.”

The book from the president’s niece was originally set to be published July 28, but it will now be released next Tuesday, July 14.

On the newly released back cover of the book, Trump accuses her uncle of being “incapable of growing, learning, or evolving.”

Trump’s publisher has previously said the book will explore “a nightmare of traumas, destructive relationships, and a tragic combination of neglect and abuse” that contributed to the creation of “one of the world’s most powerful and dysfunctional families.”

Last week, a judge in New York granted a temporary restraining order against Trump as her family seeks to block the book’s publication, but Simon & Schuster was released from the order, indicating the book will be published regardless.

Another Nascar driver, Tyler Reddick, criticized Trump after the president suggested Bubba Wallace should apologize for raising concerns about a suspected noose found in his garage.

In his tweet this morning, Trump also criticized Nascar for banning Confederate flags from their races.

“We don’t need an apology,” Reddick said in response to Trump. “We did what was right and we will do just fine without your support.”

White House press secrtary Kayleigh McEnany defended Trump’s tweet about Bubba Wallace, which criticized the black Nascar driver for raising concerns about a suspected noose found in his garage before a race.

McEnany said the president’s tweet was making “a broader point that this rush to judgment on the facts before the facts are out is not acceptable.”

The press secretary compared the Nascar incident to actor Jussie Smollett’s false police report about being the victim of racist and homophobic violence.

Of course, the two events seem dramatically different, especially considering it was Nascar’s president who reported the noose, not Wallace.

The FBI concluded the noose was a garage door pull that had been in the garage since before it was assigned to Wallace, but a photo of the rope showed it greatly resembled a noose, and Nascar said no other garage had a door pull tied in that manner.

Nascar president Steve Phelps said after the photo was released, “As you can see from the photo, the noose was real, as was our concern for Bubba. Based on the evidence we had, we thought our drivers – that one of our drivers had been threatened, a driver who had been extremely courageous in recent words and actions. It’s our responsibility to react and investigate, and that’s exactly what we did.”

It looks like we will have to wait at least another day to hear the supreme court’s decision on Trump’s financial records.

The court is done issuing rulings for the day and has not yet provided an update on when its next opinion day will be.

There are still five cases left for the court to decide, which means there will likely be one or maybe two more opinion days.

The supreme court has issued its ruling on so-called “faithless electors,” members of the electoral college who try to vote for a presidential candidate who did not win their state.

In a unanimous decision wrtten by justice Elena Kagan, the court said, “We now affirm the Washington Supreme Court’s judgment that a State may enforce its pledge law against an elector.”

The ruling will allow states to punish electors who do not support the winning candidate in their state, likely bringing an end to faithless electors.

The supreme court will soon start issuing today’s decisions, marking the first time in 24 years that the court has issued opinions in July.

Congressional Democrats and prosecutors in New York are waiting to see if the court will rule on allowing them access to Trump’s financial records.

The Democratic lawmakers and the prosecutors have issued subpoenas for the records in connection to investigations of the president and his businesses, but Trump has repeatedly blocked them from receiving the documents.

This is Joan Greve in Washington, taking over for Martin Belam.

Trump’s tweet attacking Bubba Wallace, Nascar’s only top black driver, also overlooks the fact that it was not Wallace who discovered and reported the pull rope resembling a noose.

Congress is not in session this week, which means Republican lawmakers will likely be able to avoid questions about whether they agree with Trump that Nascar was wrong to ban the Confederate flag from its races.

Donald Trump has just launched an attack on Nascar driver Bubba Wallace, that is breathtaking even by the president’s usual standards.

While seeming to complain about Nascar’s decision to ban the Confederate flag, and criticising the sports’ TV ratings, Trump is asking if Wallace has apologised after a noose found in his garage sparked an investigation.

An FBI investigation into the incident concluded that what had been reported as a noose was a garage door pull, that had been there some time before the garage was assigned to Wallace.

However, Nascar released a photograph of the noose, and said their checks showed that out of 1,684 garage stalls at 29 tracks, only 11 had a garage door pull-down rope tied in a knot. The only one fashioned in a noose was the one discovered by a crew member in Wallace’s No43 garage stall.

President Steve Phelps said: “As you can see from the photo, the noose was real, as was our concern for Bubba. Based on the evidence we had, we thought our drivers – that one of our drivers had been threatened, a driver who had been extremely courageous in recent words and actions. It’s our responsibility to react and investigate, and that’s exactly what we did.”