Pew asked respondents from 18 countries whether immigrants are “a burden on our country because they take our jobs and social benefits” or “make our country stronger because of their work and talents.”
Trends: Greece, Germany and Italy are more skeptical about immigration now than in 2014, while the opposite is true in Spain, the U.K., and France.
In a crowded scramble, Beto O'Rourke broke through in a way most candidates could only dream of with his 2020 entry this morning.
The big picture: For a candidate polling in the single digits, O'Rourke has a huge national profile, as shown by the instant response to this morning's announcement.
Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross defended his decision to add a citizenship question to the 2o20 census, telling lawmakers on Thursday that he acted solely at the request of the Justice Department to enhance the Voting Rights Act, denying it was intended to influence the allocation of congressional seats across the country.
Why it matters: His testimony before the House Oversight Committee comes after 2 federaljudges blocked his move to add the question, ruling it lacks a factual basis for necessity and would unconstitutionally suppress responses from non-citizens. The Supreme Court is set to hold a hearing next month — with a ruling expected by June — on the consequential blockbuster case that would inform and shape public policy for the next decade.
The Senate voted on Thursday to 59-41 to terminate the president’s emergency declaration on what Trump describes as a national security crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, but the final tally fell short of the required 2/3 needed to override a veto.
The state of play: Twelve Republican senators voted against Trump's national emergency. Trump declared the emergency last month to reallocate $3.6 billion towards building a wall on the southern border.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday he will protect President Trump's privacy if he receives a request from House Democrats for the president's tax returns, per NBC.
Driving the news: House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) is expected to formally ask for Trump's tax returns as House Democrats continue to lay the groundwork for investigating the president's financial deals and interests.
China's median global approval rating has surpassed the U.S. at 34%, the country's highest score since 2009, Gallup reports in a newly released survey.
Where it stands: The U.S. approval rating for 2018 stands at 31%, only a 1% increase from the "new record low" seen during the first year of Donald Trump's presidency, per Gallup. 2018 also marks the first time that the global approval rating of Russia — currently at 30% — has been on equal ground with the U.S.
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) plans to vote to block Trump's border emergency declaration at Thursday's Senate hearing, per CNN.
The bottom line: With Romney's vote, there is enough GOP support for the Senate's resolution against Trump's emergency declaration to pass. But Trump made it clear again on Thursday that he will veto the bill if necessary. It would be the first veto of his presidency, and made as Republicans voice concerns about executive overreach.
Former Texas congressmen Beto O'Rourke announced he has joined the 2020 presidential election on Thursday, joining a crowded pool of candidates who are seeking out the Democratic nomination, the AP reports.
Why it matters: Beto was unknown outside of Texas until his race against Ted Cruz put him on the national stage. If he ends up winning, AP writes that he "would be the first U.S. politician to do so since Abraham Lincoln lost his Senate bid to Stephen Douglas in Illinois in 1858, then was elected president two years later."
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway told Fox News' '"The Ingraham Angle" Wednesday there's "a lot of noise and a lot of nonsense" about the Trump administration — hours after her husband claimed the president told "pathological" lies.
In his latest attack, George Conway criticized the president for telling "absurd" lies and claiming former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort's sentencing judge cleared him of collusion.
Kellyanne Conway has never publicly addressed her husband's criticisms of Trump.
On "The Ingraham Angle," she denounced the Republican senators against Trump's border wall emergency declaration and said he'd issue a veto if it's overturned. She also attacked Democrats who say he dehumanizes people and the media for not covering positive Trump administration stories.
What she's saying: "I think the media mattered to themselves and to each other," Kellyanne Conway told Laura Ingraham. "But there is a lot of noise and a lot of nonsense out there. I think people know that they are doing much better."
President Trump appeared to blame the media Wednesday for peddling the conspiracy theory that first lady Melania Trump uses a body double to accompany him on trips.
Details: Some social media users had suggested the first lady looked different and might be an actress while wearing sunglasses when the couple’s visited a memorial in Opelika, Alabama, for the 23 victims who died in a tornado there. The body double conspiracy theory emerged in 2017, when Melania Trump visited the U.S. Secret Service training facility in Maryland. She was also wearing dark glasses during that visit. Trump did not supply any evidence to back up his claim of who was behind the conspiracy theory.
Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz said Wednesday if he were president, he'd never sign a bill into law that didn't receive bipartisan support, The Washington Post reports.
What he's saying: "I would not sign any legislation — none — into law that does not have bipartisan support," Schultz said in Miami. "We need to be candid with the American people and admit, yes, that both sides have good ideas if we work together."
Why it matters: Schultz hasn't entered the 2020 race, but he is on a nationwide tour while exploring the issue of running as a centrist independent. He told Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto" Wednesday he was thinking of running outside of the two-party system because it was broken. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told the Fox News show if Schultz were to run, it would hurt the Democrats.
Immigration agents have been using a database of nationwide license plate numbers supplied by local police departments to target unauthorized immigrants, according to documents released Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Why it matters: Police departments have long used automatic license plate scanners installed to spot criminal suspects and enforce traffic regulations. But Vasudha Talla, a staff attorney with the ACLU of Northern California, wrote in a blog post that the organization has "grave concerns about the civil liberties risks of license plate readers take on greater urgency as this surveillance information fuels ICE’s deportation machine."
House Judiciary Chairman Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), told reporters on Wednesday that former acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker did not deny discussing details of the Michael Cohen case with President Trump, nor did he refute claims that he directly participated in conversations about whether to fire 1 or more U.S. attorneys in New York who brought the case against Cohen.
Details: Whitaker, who was in charge of the Justice Department from November until last month, met privately with Nadler to clarify his public testimony that took place in February. However, the panel's ranking Republican member Douglas Collins (R-Ga.), who was present, pushed back against Nadler's characterization of Whitaker's comments, calling them an "inaccurate interpretation of what he said. Mr. Whitaker said he did not have conversations with the president about Cohen," said Collins, per CBS News reports.
