Donald Trump under fire for rejecting climate change report – live updates | American News

A federal court of appeal on Tuesday overturned some of the convictions of two former staff members of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in the George Washington Bridge corridor closure scandal. , reported the Associated Press agency.

From the AP:

Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni were sentenced in 2016 for conspiracy to cause traffic jams to punish a mayor for failing to accept Christie's candidacy for re-election.

The 3rd Appellate Court of the American Circuit in Philadelphia dismissed the chief of conspiracy in civil rights of each accused. He upheld the convictions for wire fraud and misuse of property of an organization receiving federal funds.

Baroni and Kelly had asked that all charges be dismissed.

Both should be returned. Kelly is currently facing an 18-month sentence, while Baroni is sentenced to 24 months. They could also request that the 3rd complete circuit hear the case.

Their lawyers did not immediately comment on Tuesday's decision.

In their minutes, Kelly and Baroni's lawyers had stated that their civil rights convictions were based on a right to travel within the territory that had not yet been recognized by the Court. supreme.

Kelly was the author of the famous message "The Time of Traffic Problems in Fort Lee" a month before three lanes of access to the bridge were reduced to one, without warning local authorities.

The huge four-day freeze and part of a fifth in September 2013 has turned into a scandal dubbed "Bridgegate" that has held back Christie's presidential aspirations. Christie conceded later, played a role in Republican candidate Donald Trump's decision not to name him. his racing companion.

The media reports that The Guardian newspaper reports that Paul Manafort met secretly with Wikileaks founder Julian Assange during the 2016 campaign.

Jennifer Palmieri, director of communications for Hillary Clinton's campaign, described it as "additional evidence of collusion".

She said the revelation was "not surprising" in light of "the strategic importance of timing" for publishing hacked emails from Wikileaks.

Bill Kristol, editor of Conservative Weekly Standard, mocked Donald Trump's frequent claim that there was "no collusion" between his campaign and Russia. "Which campaign president did not have secret talks with Julian Assange at the Ecuador Embassy in London?", He said.

Wikileaks denied this information, claiming that he "was willing to bet a million dollars at the Guardian and at the head of his editor that Manafort had never met Assange".

But many others said the report was a potential indicator of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia's piracy efforts.

Texas Representative Beto O'Rourke called for the removal of a Confederate plaque from the state capital of Texas.

"Take it today," said Tuesday in a tweet Tuesday the Democrat and former Senate candidate.

State officials are reviewing procedures that could potentially be used to remove the marker, according to the Dallas News. The plaque bears the "Children of the Confederation", which express the "desire to perpetuate … the heroic deeds of those who have engaged in the Confederate army" and claim that the civil war "n? was not a rebellion, nor its foundation, to support slavery. "

He is right in front of the office of the state representative, Eric Johnson, who has asked for his removal. Attorney General Ken Paxton has issued a notice that several people have the power to eliminate it, according to the Dallas News.

"The AG talked. The Capitol Conservative can remove the plaque unilaterally. No need to politicize this issue or bog down at the 86th #TxLege. Remove it and move on, "tweeted Johnson.

O'Rourke retweeted his message Tuesday with his own support saying, "I'm with Eric for this one."

Former President Barack Obama recorded an automated call sent to Mississippi voters Monday night, according to the National Journal reports this morning.

"My name may not be on the ballot, but our future is, and that's why I think it's one of the most important elections in our world. life. Make a plan to vote tomorrow. I count on you to vote before the polls close, "said Obama. He did not mention the Democratic candidate, Mike Espy, during the call.

A Republican congressman from Florida said Donald Trump was "reckless" to refuse to believe the findings of his administration's climate report.

Representative Carlos Curbelo told CNN on Tuesday that the president's reaction was "extremely disappointing, it's reckless, it's irresponsible.

The report was "prepared by members of his administration – scientists who have no other purpose than to tell us the truth," said Curbelo.

He urged Trump to return to his district in South Florida to see the effects of climate change. "You can see the real effects of climate change," he said, citing the most powerful hurricanes that hit the state. "It certainly makes them stronger, bigger and more dangerous. The rise in sea level threatens our drinking water supply here in South Florida. It's very real. "

"I think he does not want to believe it. He dug, "said Curbelo of Trump. "He'll have to swallow his pride to accept reality."

The Democratic candidate for the Senate, Mike Espy, voted in Ridgeland, Mississippi.

"I work with all those who are good-willed and want to pull themselves together in Mississippi," said Espy, who is in a second round with Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith, after voting. "I have done it all my life and I will do it as the next senator."

Espy said the race, which has been marked by racial controversy, is now in the hands of voters.

"It's out of my hands," he said. "The vote must just enter."

White House councilor Kellyanne Conway said she had "great compassion" for mothers and children seeking to cross the US border, but she doubted the idea that most migrants in the caravan were peacefully seeking asylum.

Conway said that she had "great compassion" for women and children caught in the tear gas deployed by the US Border Patrol, but said that there are "peaceful and lawful means" to enter the United States that they should continue, CBS News reported.

"We need border security," Conway said, according to CBS.

Conway denounced traffickers as migrants paid to bring them into the country with promises of asylum and said that the border violence showed that Trump's critics accusing the president of making politics with this problem was wrong, according to the Associated Press.

She said the idea that everyone in the migrant caravan would "seek asylum peacefully" is false, according to the AP.

Former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt had been interviewed before the interviews on Fox & Friends, and his representatives had even approved a scenario featuring the Pruitt segment, reports the Daily Beast.

The warm relationship has been revealed in e-mails obtained through a request from the Sierra Club's Freedom of Information Act.

"This is not a common practice and the problem is being dealt with internally with the people involved," said a Fox News spokesperson at the Daily Beast.

Former Trump campaign director Paul Manafort spoke secretly with Julian Assange at the Embassy of Ecuador in London and arrived about the same time he joined the campaign. Trump.

Manafort visited Assange in 2013, 2015 and in the spring of 2016 – during the period when he was named key figure in Trump's campaign for the White House, sources told The Guardian.

Special advocate Robert Mueller said Monday that Manafort had repeatedly lied to investigators even after entering into an advocacy agreement, violating his plea agreement and committing new federal crimes.

Former CIA director John Brennan has criticized Donald Trump for his attacks on special advocate Robert Mueller, claiming his name would be "despised" by history.

"Your feelings of inferiority, insecurity, vulnerability and guilt are strong and clear. You remind me how many corrupt, authoritarian leaders abroad have behaved before being dismissed, "Brennan said in a tweet on Tuesday. "The name of Bob Mueller will be venerated in the annals of US history; your name will be despised.

Earlier Tuesday morning, Trump launched an attack on Mueller, calling him a "rogue prosecutor turned into a thug".

Trump overturned Brennan's security clearance in August in retaliation for criticism by the CIA chief of the president.

Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday that climate change was "not a questionable issue" and that "the future of the planet was at stake," according to a US government report that predicts disastrous consequences of climate change .

"Scientists have told us – despite Trump's absurd thought that it's a hoax – that the future of the planet is at stake," said the Vermont Senator at the show "New CNN's Day, adding that climate change was "not a questionable question" my mind. "

Trump said Monday that "I do not believe" in the national climate assessment published by his own government.

The analysis concludes that climate change could cost the US economy hundreds of billions of dollars and thousands of lives each year in the future.

"The American people must stand up and say, for the sake of their children and grandchildren:" We will have to face the greed of the fossil fuel industry, which sees their short-term profits as greater than the expected benefits. kind of life that my grandchildren will have, "Sanders told CNN.

Sanders also discovered Trump as a "totally fictitious and political opportunist".

"He moves with the wind, and for the moment, he is an extreme right, because he thinks it's like that that we get votes," he said. declared.

Voters in Mississippi are going to the polls this morning to make the decision to hold an election in the US Senate, which will pit Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith against Democrat Mike Espy.

Polling stations opened at 7 am (8 am Eastern).

Hyde-Smith won the special elections held earlier this month to fill the seat of Republican Thad Cochran, who resigned. But because she did not win the majority, a flow was triggered.

The campaign was dominated by racial issues, with controversies surrounding Hyde-Smith's remarks about a "public hanging" and apparent affection for Confederation, casting doubt on his solidly Republican seat.

Donald Trump appeared Monday night at a closing rally for Hyde-Smith in Biloxi, calling Espy "far left" and "out".

This morning, Donald Trump again tweeted about Mueller's investigation. He calls this a "fictitious witch hunt" and complains that "Fake News Media builds Bob Mueller as a saint, whereas in reality he is exactly the opposite"

Speaking of which, if you have not already done so, take a look at David Taylor's articles on Mueller and his investigation.