Feb 20, 2019

Coast Guard lieutenant arrested on suspected domestic terror plot

U.S. Coast Guard Lt. Christopher Hasson, 49, was arrested Friday in Silver Spring, Maryland, on a federal criminal complaint for drug and gun charges, with reports citing an official detention memo that included a hit list, stockpiled ammunition and contact with white supremacists.

Details: "The defendant intends to murder innocent civilians on a scale rarely seen in this country ... he must be detained pending trial," according to court documents filed this week, per the Washington Post.

  • Though details such as dates and times have not been made public, officials with the U.S. Attorney's Office in Maryland characterized Hasson as consumed by neofascism.
  • Hasson called for "focused violence," and was intent on killing "almost every last person on earth," according to court records filed in U.S. District Court in Maryland. Targets of the attack included media personalities and elected officials such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

What's next: The government is calling the initial charges the "proverbial tip of the iceberg." Hasson's arraignment is scheduled for Thursday in Greenbelt, Maryland.

Go deeper

Alayna Treene
7 mins ago - Politics & Policy

GOP plans "nightly surprise" for revamped convention

President Trump at the 2016 Republican National Convention. Photo: Bill Clark/Getty Images

The reworked Republican National Convention will be a four-night spectacle including still-under-wraps venues, a 10 p.m. "nightly surprise" and guests and themes playing to "the forgotten men and women of America," two senior Trump campaign officials involved tell Axios.

Driving the news: The messaging will focus heavily on "very granular details" of what a second term for President Trump would look like — answering a question Trump left hanging in a Fox News event earlier this summer — and attack cancel culture, "radical elements" of society and threats to public safety.

Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow
Margaret Talev
37 mins ago - Health

Axios-Ipsos poll: Fear of voting

Data: Axios/Ipsos poll; Note: ±3.0% margin of error for the total sample; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon/Axios

Democrats are twice as likely as Republicans to worry about in-person voting — with nearly two in three seeing it as a large or moderate risk to their health — according to this week's installment of the Axios-Ipsos Coronavirus Index.

Why it matters: This could pose a significant disadvantage for Joe Biden and other Democratic candidates in November if the pattern holds — especially in states where high infection rates persist, or where there are significant hurdles to mail-in, absentee or early voting.

Go deeper (2 min. read)Arrow
Sam Baker
37 mins ago - Politics & Policy

Trump: Coronavirus is "under control"

President Trump said in an interview with “Axios on HBO” that he thinks the coronavirus is as well-controlled in the U.S. as it can be, despite dramatic surges in new infections over the course of the summer and more than 150,000 American deaths.

  • “They are dying, that's true. And you have — it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague,” he told Axios' Jonathan Swan.
Go deeper (1 min. read)Arrow