Mar 27, 2019

Neo-Nazi in Charlottesville car attack pleads guilty to hate crimes

First responders and protestors attend to the injured people after a car rammed into a crowd of anti-White Supremacy protestors in Charlottesville in August 2017. Photo: Samuel Corum/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

James Alex Fields Jr., the avowed neo-Nazi who drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters during an infamous white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2017, killing 1 person and injuring multiple others, pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes in court Wednesday.

Details: This means that Fields, who was convicted in state court in December of first-degree murder for the death of Heather Heyer, will not face the death penalty. Each of the 29 counts he’s now facing carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and a fine of up to $250,000, according to the Justice Department. Fields will be sentenced on July 3.

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Orion Rummler

4 hours ago - Politics & Policy

Trump says he will campaign against Lisa Murkowski after her support for Mattis

Trump with Barr and Meadows outside St. John's Episcopal church in Washington, D.C. on June 1. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

President Trump tweeted on Thursday that he would endorse "any candidate" with a pulse who runs against Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).

Driving the news: Murkowski said on Thursday that she supported former defense secretary James Mattis' condemnation of Trump over his response to protests in the wake of George Floyd's killing. She described Mattis' statement as "true, honest, necessary and overdue," Politico's Andrew Desiderio reports.

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Dave Lawler

5 hours ago - World

The president vs. the Pentagon

Trump visits Mattis and the Pentagon in 2018. Photo: Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty

Over the course of just a few hours, President Trump was rebuffed by the Secretary of Defense over his call for troops in the streets and accused by James Mattis, his former Pentagon chief, of trampling the Constitution for political gain.

Why it matters: Current and former leaders of the U.S. military are drawing a line over Trump's demand for a militarized response to the protests and unrest that have swept the country over the killing of George Floyd by police.

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Sara Fischer, Ursula Perano

5 hours ago - Economy & Business

New York Times says Tom Cotton op-ed did not meet standards

Photo: Avalon/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

A New York Times spokesperson said in a statement Thursday that the paper will be changing its editorial board processes after a Wednesday op-ed by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), which called for President Trump to "send in the troops" in order to quell violent protests, failed to meet its standards.

Why it matters: The shift comes after Times employees began a coordinated movement on social media on Wednesday and Thursday that argued that publishing the op-ed put black staff in danger. Cotton wrote that Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act in order to deploy the U.S. military against rioters that have overwhelmed police forces in cities across the country.

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