Staffers on Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign voted to unionize on Friday, giving current and future workers bargaining power for pay and benefits, and "becoming what is possibly the first presidential campaign staff in history to organize," USA Today reports.
Diving the news: Workers will work through negotiations with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union Local 400. If Sanders wins the presidential bid, employees who transitioned to the White House with him would not remain part of the union, per a UFCW spokesperson. Sanders publicly apologized in January after women from his 2016 presidential campaign said sexual assault allegations weren't appropriately managed.
President Trump vetoed the Congressional legislation on Friday afternoon, rejecting a resolution overturning his decision to declare a national emergency on the southern border.
Why it matters:12 GOP Senators went on the record to condemn Trump over the southern border wall emergency funding — the first time Congress has successfully moved to block a presidential emergency declaration, per the AP. This is also the first veto of Trump’s presidency and sets him up at loggerheads with Senate Republicans. Congress is not expected to achieve the necessary votes to override a presidential veto, which would require two-thirds in both chambers. However, the Democratically controlled House is anticipated to vote to override the veto on March 26.
Beto O'Rourke's got something that is capturing everyone's attention — including his fellow 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, some of whom went out of their way to address him.
Driving the news: Sens. Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker all sent fundraising emails to their supporters specifically citing Beto's presidential bid. (The subject line of Harris' email was simply: Beto O'Rourke.) They haven't done this for other presidential candidates, except Harris' team which sent a similar note when Bernie Sanders announced.
Mexican smugglers are now using express buses to take Guatemalan migrants directly to the U.S. southern border in a matter of days without stopping or staying the night in any in-between location — at the cost of up to $7,000 for the most comfortable package, the Washington Post's Nick Miroff reports.
Why it matters: The route takes less time and is less dangerous than other smuggling routes and practices, making it an easier sell for smugglers to make to families hoping to flee. Smugglers tell the migrants that if they turn themselves into border authorities once they walk across the border, they will be released into the U.S. after a few days. The reporting comes after a surge in border apprehensions last month, and as President Trump prepares to veto Congressional efforts to block a declared national emergency intended to fund a border wall.
A New York appeals court on Thursday said a defamation suit against President Trump filed by a former "Apprentice" contestant, who claims Trump groped her and pressed his genitals against her at a hotel in 2007, can move forward.
Details: When Trump denied the claims during the 2016 presidential campaign, Summer Zervos sued him for defamation. Trump’s lawyers reportedly intend to appeal. His legal team failed last year to block the suit, after suggesting that the president is protected from such lawsuits in state courts.
The Sanders Institute — a Vermont-based think tank founded to advance liberal policies by 2020 presidential candidate Bernie Sanders' wife and son — will cease operations in the near-term, amid growing ethical concerns surrounding the nonprofit's fundraising and campaigning efforts, the Washington Post reports.
Flashback: The criticism comes after the 2016 election in which Sanders condemned fellow Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and the nonprofit her family operated, which, he alleged, resulted in increased power, money and influence. Though Sanders did not formally participate, the institute had secured "hundreds of thousands of dollars" in the 2 years since it was started, WaPo reports.
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.
