Barr: Charge protesters with sedition

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Thursday, September 17

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BARR: CHARGE PROTESTERS WITH SEDITION Attorney General William Barr reportedly told federal prosecutors to aggressively consider charging violent demonstrators at anti-racism protests with plotting to overthrow the government and other serious federal crimes. Barr told U.S. attorneys around the country during a call last week to pursue federal charges whenever they could. He specifically pointed to a rarely used sedition law, which criminalizes plots to overthrow the government. [HuffPost]

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DETAINED WOMEN SAY THEIR REPRODUCTIVE ORGANS WERE REMOVED UNNECESSARILY Multiple women detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement alleged that a doctor unnecessarily removed their reproductive organs, corroborating earlier reports of sterilizations without consent on migrant women from a detention facility in Georgia. MSNBC’s Chris Hayes reported about at least two women who claimed that their reproductive organs were removed and they either did not fully consent to or were coerced into the procedures while detained at the privately run ICE Irwin County Detention Center). House Democrats have demanded an investigation. [HuffPost]

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CDC DIRECTOR: MASKS ARE OUR 'BEST DEFENSE' The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention again urged Americans during a Wednesday Senate hearing to wear face masks, in contrast to President Donald Trump’s lax attitude. “These face masks are the most important, powerful public health tool we have. ... If we did it for six, eight, 10, 12 weeks, we would bring this pandemic under control,” Robert Redfield said. “We have clear scientific evidence they work.” He added that it was unlikely that a vaccine would be available to the general public until mid-late 2021. This comes as the federal government rolls out a COVID-19 vaccine plan, aiming to make the vaccine free to all Americans. Trump publicly slapped down Redfield later, saying he was wrong about a vaccine timeline and the effectiveness of masks. [HuffPost]

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COHEN ON WHY REPUBLICANS SUPPORT TRUMP: WE'RE STUPID During an appearance on MSNBC, Trump’s former longtime fixer and personal attorney Michael Cohen told host Joy Reid that he predicts Trump, if he loses, will claim the Nov. 3 election was rigged and use Attorney General William Barr to invalidate ballots that he will say are “fake” in order to stay in office. “He doesn’t care about the Constitution of the United States,” Cohen said. Reid noted that Trump can’t do these things alone and that Cohen and many others went along with Trump. She asked, “Why do they do it?” “Because we’re stupid. You know, we’re a bunch of sycophants,” Cohen said without hesitation. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP HEALTH OFFICIAL TAKES LEAVE AFTER CONSPIRACY RANT Michael Caputo, the politically appointed assistant secretary for public affairs at the nation’s health department, is taking a leave of absence. This follows his posting a video of himself accusing the government scientists fighting the coronavirus pandemic of having a “resistance unit” and of plotting to undermine Trump. Caputo’s science adviser, Dr. Paul Alexander, will also leave the Department of Health and Human Services entirely. [HuffPost]

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FOR-PROFIT JAIL SUED OVER YET ANOTHER DEATH A deadly for-profit jail that sits on the border of Texas and Arkansas is facing another federal lawsuit after the “senseless” death of an inmate whose family called her “just the latest victim of a greedy corporate culture that sees inmates as dollar signs and puts profits over people’s lives.” Holly Barlow-Austin died in June after her stay at the Bi-State Justice Center Jail, run by LaSalle Corrections. A lawsuit filed by her husband and mother says that the company has been “neglecting and abusing inmates, disregarding their fundamental constitutional rights.” [HuffPost]

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ROMNEY SLAMS GOP SENATE PROBE INTO HUNTER BIDEN Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) slammed a Republican-led Senate investigation involving Hunter Biden, saying it has the appearance of a “political exercise” intended to damage the candidacy of his father, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Congressional Republicans earlier this year launched two partisan investigations into the Obama administration and Hunter Biden. They’re expected to wrap up their work and release public reports on their findings before the Nov. 3 election. [HuffPost]

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FIRE, FLOOD, SMOKE, CYCLONES: THE CLIMATE CRISIS IS EVERYWHERE In the last two weeks, wildfires fueled by extreme heat and drought have consumed a combined 5 million acres in California, Oregon and Washington, killing at least 33 people and displacing tens of thousands. Residents in cities coast to coast found themselves under hazy orange skies this week as smoke stretched for thousands of miles. Off the Atlantic coast, a record-tying five tropical cyclones swirled simultaneously on Tuesday ― the latest in an “extremely active” hurricane season. “Climate and ecological breakdown are impossible to ignore at this point,” Peter Kalmus, a climate scientist, told HuffPost. [HuffPost]

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TRUMP CLAIMS COVID-19 VACCINE WILL BE READY BY OCTOBER Contradicting his own health officials and other experts, Trump claimed a COVID-19 vaccine would be available as soon as October. He also said that at least 100 million vaccine doses would be distributed in the U.S. by the end of the year. Hours earlier, Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told a Senate committee that first responders could have limited access to a vaccine in November or December, but it won't be “fully available to the American public” until at least “the second or third quarter” of 2021. [HuffPost]

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LINCOLN PROJECT CO-FOUNDER NAMES TRUMP'S 'GREATEST LIE' IN AMERICAN HISTORY Longtime Republican strategist Steve Schmidt says Trump’s admission that he knowingly downplayed the coronavirus threat early in the pandemic has no other parallel in the nation’s history. “Bob Woodward induced a confession of the greatest lie in American history, bar none,” Schmidt said on MSNBC. “It is a catastrophic leadership failure. But more than that, there’s no equivalent in the country’s history to it. It is the greatest malfeasance in the history of the United States.” [HuffPost]

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TRUMP BLAMES BLUE STATES FOR COVID-19 DEATH TOLL

Trump politicized the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans on Wednesday, placing the blame for the nation’s high death toll from coronavirus on “blue states.” “The blue states had tremendous death rates,” Trump said at a news conference. “If you take the blue states out, we’re at a level that I don’t think anybody in the world would be at, we’re really at a very low level.” There have been significant deaths from coronavirus in states across the country, regardless of their governors’ political affiliation. [HuffPost]

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BARBADOS TO REMOVE QUEEN ELIZABETH AS HEAD OF STATE

Barbados wants to remove Britain’s Queen Elizabeth as its head of state and become a republic, the Caribbean island nation’s government has said, reviving a plan mooted several times in the past. A former British colony that gained independence in 1966, Barbados has maintained a formal link with the British monarchy, as have some other countries that were once part of the British empire. “The time has come to fully leave our colonial past behind,” said Barbados Gov. General Sandra Mason, delivering a speech on behalf of the country’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley. [Reuters]

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