Top Republican supports a national ban on police chokeholds – live

Rush announced at a press conference alongside mayor Lori Lightfoot that the cameras in his office had captured footage of at least eight officers relaxing instead of addressing the looting.

Rush shared some of the footage, which showed several officers lounging on couches and making themselves popcorn and coffee from the office’s supplies. One of them was asleep on Rush’s couch.

“They even had the unmitigated gall to go and make coffee for themselves and to pop popcorn, my popcorn, in my microwave while looters were tearing apart businesses within their sight and within their reach,” Rush said.

“They were in a mode of relaxation, and they did not care about what was happening to businesspeople, to this city. They didn’t care. They absolutely didn’t care.”

Lightfoot apologized to Rush that his office had been treated “with such profound disrespect.”

“That’s a personal embarrassment to me,” Lightfoot said. “I’m sorry that you and your staff even had to deal with this incredible indignity.”

Following widespread criticism over officers not wearing face masks – including from lawyers, protesters and the mayor – New York Police Department have issued a bizarre response, claiming: “We can put our energy to better use”.

The statement, sent out in response to questions over why the majority of officers do not appear to be wearing masks, references the weather, long days and uniforms, but makes no reference to coronavirus or public health in the middle of a pandemic.

“Perhaps it was the heat. Perhaps it was the 15-hour tours, wearing bullet resistant vests in the sun. Perhaps it was the helmets,” Sgt Jessica McRorie, a spokesperson for the deputy commissioner for public information, said last night.

“With everything New York city has been through in the past two weeks and everything we are working towards together, we can put our energy to a better use.”

It comes after legal experts warned of “abysmal” conditions for protesters who they said are being unnecessarily arrested and detained for as long as 48 hours without access to masks, food and water.

The Legal Aid Society told The Guardian that police officers “rarely” wear masks and are endangering protesters’ health and safety. On Sunday, New York mayor Bill de Blasio called on NYPD officers to wear masks, accusing them of “flouting the rules”.

Republican senator and veteran Joni Ernst, who is up for reelection this year, told Iowa reporters today, “I know there will be opposition to [renaming the bases], but it is a discussion that we absolutely need to have.”

Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota said he agreed with Trump that we should not “forget our history,” but he added, “At the same time, that doesn’t mean that we should continue with those bases with the names of individuals who fought against our country.”

Amid a similar debate over removing Confederate statues from the Capitol, senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said earlier today, “A lot of those statues and monuments were put there to kind of declare, ‘We’re not going to integrate.’ … For those that were digging in during the time of Jim Crow, they need to know that time has passed.”

“Seriously failed presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth ‘Pocahontas’ Warren, just introduced an Amendment on the renaming of many of our legendary Military Bases from which we trained to WIN two World Wars,” Trump tweeted from aboard Air Force One, reusing an offensive nickname for the Massachusetts senator. “Hopefully our great Republican Senators won’t fall for this!”

But the Republican-led Senate armed services committee has already adopted Warren’s amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, although it could later be stripped out of the legislation. The amendment calls for establishing a commission to devise a plan for removing Confederate names from military sites, with a goal of implementing the plan within three years.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said yesterday that the president would veto the defense authorization act if it included a proposal to rename the bases, but top House Republican Kevin McCarthy said he was “not opposed” to the idea earlier today.

The plan calls for guaranteeing coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment for anyone called back to work, as well as paid leave for anyone who gets sick. Biden also proposed creating a national contact tracing workforce and establishing best practices for schools and childcare facilities to reopen.

“A stronger, more effective reopening requires doing the work to keep workers safe, to restore consumer confidence, to support small businesses, to ensure seniors can participate, and to provide parents with the help they need to get back to work,” the Biden campaign said in a press release about the plan.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee criticized Trump last week for celebrating the unemployment rate slightly dropping to 13.3%, emphasizing that 20 million Americans are still out of work.

“Trump has abdicated any effective federal leadership, leaving state, tribal, and local officials to do their best without help from Washington,” the Biden campaign said. “With cases of COVID-19 still rising rapidly in parts of the country, Trump has effectively ceased to mobilize any national public health response.”

Joe Biden released a statement earlier today criticizing Trump for making the trip, particularly because Texas is seeing a rise in coronavirus infections after relaxing some social distancing restrictions.

“For weeks we’ve seen President Trump run away from a meaningful conversation on systemic racism and police brutality. Instead, he’s further divided our country. Today’s trip to Texas won’t change any of that,” the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee said.

“He should be implementing an effective plan to re-open our communities so more Americans aren’t lost to this disease. Families in the Lone Star State are hurting and they deserve a President who will rise to the challenges facing our country.”

• General Mark Milley, the nation’s top military officer, apologized for participating in Trump’s photo op after the forcible removal of peaceful protesters. “I should not have been there,” Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, told the National Defense University in a prerecorded video commencement address. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
• Kevin McCarthy, the top House Republican, said he would support a national ban on police chokeholds. The House minority leader said he was also open to renaming military bases named after Confederate generals, which Trump has said he will “not even consider.”
• Nancy Pelosi called for the removal of Confederate statues from the Capitol. The House speaker said she also believed the miliary bases should be renamed, telling reporters, “The American people know these names have to go.” Pelosi added that Trump “seems to be the only person left who doesn’t get it.”

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

“We can’t shut down the economy again,” Mnuchin said in a CNBC interview. “We’ve learned that if you shut down the economy, you’re going to create more damage. And not just economic damage, but there are other areas, and we’ve talked about this — medical problems and everything else that get put on hold.”

The cabinet secretary’s comments came as the number of US coronavirus cases surpassed 2 million, and about a dozen states are seeing a rise in infections since relaxing some social distancing restrictions.

The president has similarly praised states for reopening and warned the costs of shutdowns may outweigh the benefits, although the vast majority of public health experts disagree with that opinion and have expressed caution about relaxing restrictions.

During a press conference on Capitol Hill, McCarthy complained about Republicans being excluded from the drafting process of the Justice in Policing Act, but he said there are elements of the bill that his caucus “conceptually” agrees with.

Asked about the separate proposal to rename military bases named after Confederate generals, McCarthy said, “I think it could be appropriate to change some.” The California Republican said he would wait to see what came out of the defense authorization bill, which may include an amendment addressing the issue, but he noted he was “not opposed” to the idea.

McCarthy’s comments were noteworthy considering Trump said yesterday that he would “not even consider” renaming the bases, and the House minority leader is generally reluctant to distance himself from the president.

During her weekly press conference, Pelosi noted that she had a statue of Confederate general Robert E Lee relocated to the Capitol crypt during her first term as speaker, but she claimed she does not have the authority to remove the statues.

“When I was speaker, I did do what I had the authority to do,” Pelosi said. “Believe me, if I had more authority, we would have fewer of those statues around.”

Pelosi sent a letter yesterday to Republican senator Roy Blunt and Democratic congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, the chair and vice chair of the joint committee on the library, which oversees the placement of statues in the Capitol’s Statuary Hall. In her letter, the speaker called for the removal of 11 statues celebrating Confederate leaders.

“They committed treason against the United States of America, and their statues are still here because their states put them here,” Pelosi said today.

Shifting to the issue of renaming military bases named after Confederate generals, Pelosi said such a change might require legislation. But she added, “The American people know these names have to go.” Pelosi said Trump, who has expressed opposition to renaming the bases, “seems to be the only person left who doesn’t get it.”

She discussed the possibility of crafting legislation that addressed both the statues and the bases. “But these names have to go from these bases, and these statues have to go from the Capitol,” Pelosi said.

Anthony Scaramucci, who spent an eventful 10 days in the Trump White House, said the campaign’s decision to hold its first campaign rally in three months on a holiday celebrating the end of slavery was “abhorrent and a wink at his racist supporters.”

Scaramucci noted Tulsa’s history as the site of a deadly 1921 race massacre targeting African Americans, and he pointed out that Oklahoma is not even considered a swing state for the presidential election.

“The African American community is very near and dear to his heart. At these rallies he often shares the great work he has done for minority communities,” McEnany said this morning.

“He’s working on rectifying injustices,” she added. “So it’s a meaningful day to him and it’s a day where wants to share some of the progress that’s been made as we look forward and more that needs to be done.”

The president announced yesterday that he would hold his first campaign rally in more than three months next Friday in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the site of a deadly 1921 race massacre that targeted African Americans and their businesses.

The announcement was quickly met with criticism from Democratic strategists and commentators.

From Joe Biden’s director of strategic communications:

From a progressive political strategist:

From a former National Security Council spokesperson under Barack Obama:

Trump tweeted this morning, “Our great National Guard Troops who took care of the area around the White House could hardly believe how easy it was. ‘A walk in the park’, one said. The protesters, agitators, anarchists (ANTIFA), and others, were handled VERY easily by the Guard, D.C. Police, & S.S. GREAT JOB!”

A Bloomberg reporter responded by sharing the history of the Nazi SS:

An AFP editor noted the secret service is usually referred to as USSS for obvious reasons:

The anti-Trump conservative commentator Bill Kristol offered the president this advice on the matter: