The Congressional Black Caucus and civil rights leaders on Thursday denounced Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the Supreme Court, saying his vote would be a threat to voting rights — pointing to the South Carolina voter ID law he voted to uphold.
Why it matters:
"If you look at what has happened just over the last few years at the Supreme Court with the closely divided decisions on issues that deeply [affect] the rights and protections of African Americans, you will understand why this moment is so important for us."
— Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel, NAACP Legal Defense Fund
In a conference call with Jewish leaders Thursday, President Trump said that he had stopped giving money to the Palestinians and their leaders in order to force them to the table for a peace deal with Israel.
"I said to some of the past negotiators. 'Did you ever do that before? Did you ever use the money angle?' They said, 'No, sir. We thought it would be disrespectful.' I said, 'I don't think it's disrespectful at all. I think it's disrespectful when people don't come to the table.'"
The big picture: Trump also told the Jewish leaders that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital took the issue off the table and moved both sides closer to a deal — though conversations between Palestinian leaders and the White House have effectively been shut down since then. He added that Israel would have to do good things for the Palestinians in order to bring about any deal, though he remains sure that a solution can be reached despite the region's complexities.
House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows told Politico Playbook Thursday that a number of unnamed congressional Democrats have contacted his office about investigating the anonymous New York Times op-ed trashing President Trump.
The big picture: The piece, attributed to a "senior administration official," has taken Washington by storm. Meadows told Politico that the apparent bipartisan outreach came about because "what many of us do agree on is that efforts within the White House to anonymously sabotage a duly elected president is an act of cowardice and does not serve American taxpayers well."
Sen. Cory Booker made waves Thursday by pledging to publicly release "committee confidential" documents during today's Senate Judiciary Committee confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination.
The big picture: The emails — from Kavanaugh's time as a lawyer in the George W. Bush White House — include critical remarks about affirmative action regulations issued by the Department of Transportation. The emails were first reported by The New York Times.
The Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services have proposed a rule that would allow them to indefinitely keep children caught crossing the border illegally with their parents in family detention centers, circumventing the Flores Settlement, a legal ruling that prevents minors from being held in detention longer than 20 days.
Why it matters: The Flores Settlement has been a key obstacle to the Trump administration's efforts to crack down on immigrant families illegally crossing the border, which reached a flash point earlier this year with the administration's "zero tolerance" family separation policy.
Sen. Cory Booker announced at the start of Thursday's Senate Judiciary Supreme Court confirmation hearing for Brett Kavanaugh that he would publicly release "committee confidential" documents.
"I am going to release the email about racial profiling. And I understand that the penalty comes with potential ousting from the Senate. And if Sen. Cornyn believes that I violated Senate rules, I openly invite and accept the consequences...the emails being withheld from the public have nothing to do with national security."
— Sen. Cory Booker
Why it matters: The email in question was a part of a massive document dump that came on Monday night from a Bush administration lawyer. [Read the emails]
Following Wednesday's White House meeting on clemency and prison reform, a few of the attendees had an impromptu discussion with President Trump about potential commutations for Chris Young and Matthew Charles, two prisoners for whom Kim Kardashian West has advocated, Judge Kevin Sharp, who attended both meetings, tells Axios.
Why it matters: Trump'sclemency spree has slowed in the last few months, but the conversation on Wednesday reveals that he remains engaged with the topic. It also highlights the influence of Kardashian West, who was pivotal in convincing Trump to commute the life sentence of Alice Marie Johnson in June.
President Trump is not just seething about Bob Woodward. He’s deeply suspicious of much of the government he oversees — from the hordes of folks inside agencies, right up to some of the senior-most political appointees and even some handpicked aides inside his own White House, officials tell Axios.
The big picture: He should be paranoid. In the hours after the New York Times published the anonymous Op-Ed from "a senior official in the Trump administration" trashing the president ("I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration"), two senior administration officials reached out to Axios to say the author stole the words right out of their mouths.
The Judicial Crisis Network, a top conservative political group, is spending $600,000 national airtime to boost President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh ahead of his confirmation vote.
The details: JCN said the 30-second ad will be aired for two weeks on CNN, MSNBC and FOX News Channel starting Thursday — the third day of Kavanaugh's confirmation hearings. JCN is a dominant outside group that helped confirmed Trump's first justice nominee, Neil Gorsuch, and it had recently launched an ad campaign to pressure vulnerable red-state Democrats to support Trump's pick.
Speaking at a campaign rally for New Jersey Democratic congressional candidate Mikie Sherrill, former Vice President Joe Biden denounced the current political climate in Washington, arguing that the Republican-led Congress has been afraid of standing up against President Trump's divisive rhetoric, according to NJ.com.
"I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of what's going on in this country... This is not who we are. This is not the America I know."
President Trump has called on the New York Times to turn over the anonymous senior administration official — who authored the bombshell New York Times op-ed that gives readers a deeper look into the Trump administration — citing "National Security purposes."
