The Daily Moth 7-29-19
Wall funding; death penalty; Mueller testimony; Mass shooting at Gilroy Garlic Festival; Boris Johnson new UK PM; Ricardo Rossello resigns; President Trump attacks Baltimore; 2 Americans accused of murdering Italian policeman
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Hello, welcome to the Daily Moth! It is Monday, July 29. I’m back to America, it’s great to be back in the studio. I hope you enjoyed the coverage of WFD 2019. It was a rich experience for me and I would recommend anybody to consider attending future conferences.
Ready for news?
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Wall funding; death penalty; Mueller testimony
Let’s catch up on the major news stories from last week.
The first — on Friday, the Supreme Court said President Trump has the authority to use $2.5 billion from U.S. military funds to build sections of a border wall with Mexico.
The court’s five conservative justices gave the thumbs up and ends a lawsuit that previously froze the money.
The Trump administration plans to use this money to construct more than 100 miles of fencing.
President Trump said this is a big victory, while Democratic leaders said this was a waste of money.
The second news — the Department of Justice has directed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to reinstate the death penalty after a 16-year hiatus and to schedule executions of 5 death-row inmates, beginning in December. A single drug, pentobarbital, will be used, rather than a three-drug cocktail.
This order applies only to federal inmates. The last federal execution was in 2003. 21 states currently ban executions.
The third news — former special counsel Robert Mueller testified before two House committees. News reports describe Mueller as being very brief with his responses, that he appeared to be confused often, and that he did not add any new, explosive information that went beyond his 448-page report.
Mueller said in his first testimony that his team did not indict Trump because it is against DOJ policy to indict a sitting president, but corrected and clarified himself later in his second testimony that his team did not reach a determination on if Trump committed a crime or not. But he did say that Trump could be charged with a crime after he left office.
Mueller criticized Trump and Donald Trump Jr. for praising Wikileaks’ releases of stolen Hillary Clinton emails and warned that many other countries are now trying to copy the Russian government’s election interference activities.
President Trump said that the testimony was terrible for Democrats, that they have nothing.
Democratic leaders in the House are still aggressively pursuing investigations against Trump and his administration.
Border Wall: https://www.apnews.com/5d893d388c254c7fa83a1570112ae90e
Death Penalty: https://www.axios.com/federal-death-penalty-justice-department-576a2e44-5cf0-4f95-a301-34216eb0eaf2.html; https://wnep.com/2019/07/25/federal-death-penalty-resurrected-after-16-years/
Mueller: https://www.axios.com/robert-mueller-testifies-russia-investigation-d6b2028a-14f3-4b0c-84b3-c0784988f085.html
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Mass shooting at Gilroy Garlic Festival
Last night in Northern California, three people, including a 6-year-old boy, were killed in a mass shooting at the Gilroy Garlic Festival. At least 15 other people were injured.
The boy’s name was Stephen Romero. His father said he was shot in the back when he was playing in an inflatable bounce house. The father’s wife and mother-in-law were also shot.
News reports said the gunman was a 19-year-old man named Santino Legan and said he cut through a back fence to enter the festival and randomly shot at people. Police quickly shot and killed him. There is a second male suspect that has not been caught. There is a manhunt underway.
Witnesses said he had a rifle and was wearing military fatigues.
CNN reported that the gunman apparently had an Instagram account that had posts criticizing the festival and a reference to a white supremacist book.
Many pictures and videos show a mass panic as people ran away from the sounds of gunfire.
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/29/us/gilroy-california-food-festival-shooting-monday/index.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/29/us/gilroy-festival-shooting.html
https://heavy.com/news/2019/07/santino-william-legan/
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/07/29/gilroy-garlic-festival-really-angry-gunman-cut-fence-shot-randomly/1855482001/
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Boris Johnson new UK PM; Ricardo Rossello resigns
Last Tuesday Boris Johnson became the new prime minister of the U.K., replacing Theresa May, who resigned after she couldn’t deliver on a Brexit deal. Boris is best known for being a leader for Brexit in 2016 and is a controversial person with many people criticizing him, but he has many supporters as well. It is Boris’ administration’s goal to leave the European Union on October 31st with either a deal with the EU or no deal.
The second update — last Wednesday night Ricardo Rossello announced he would resign as governor of Puerto Rico. There were massive protests after journalists released hundreds of pages of very offensive text messages he sent people in his inner circle. There were massive celebrations by people frustrated with his leadership. It is not yet clear who will take over as governor.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/us/rossello-puerto-rico-governor-resigns.html
https://www.france24.com/en/20190729-puerto-rico-governor-wanda-vazquez-ricardo-rossello-protests-resignation
https://time.com/5632412/boris-johnson-prime-minister-uk/
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President Trump attacks Baltimore
President Trump sparked a controversy by tweeting that Baltimore is a disgusting, dangerous place that is infested with rats and rodents. He was targeting U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings (D), who represents Baltimore.
Rep. Cummings, in his role as Chairman of the House Oversight Committee, said there were terrible conditions at U.S. border facilities with children defecating on themselves and being without showers. So Trump fired back at him with the Baltimore tweets.
Many Baltimore residents responded on social media to defend their city and condemn Trump’s remarks as racist. Baltimore’s residents are 53% African-American.
Rev. Al Sharpton said Trump has a “venom for blacks and people of color.” Trump responded by saying Sharpton hated "Whites & Cops”
The Baltimore Sun wrote an editorial that said Trump is a rat — that it is better to have some vermin living in your neighborhood than to be one.
Trump responded by saying Rep. Cummings is a racist. He also pointed to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ remarks in 2015 in which he said Baltimore was like a third-world country, and said he should be labeled as a racist.
Bernie responded to this by saying that Trump's lies and racism never ends — that his remarks were based on his efforts to help Baltimore while Trump’s remarks were an attack.
This is the second major race-related controversy with Trump in the past two weeks. The first one was about Trump telling four U.S. Congresswomen of color to go back to the place where they originally came from.
https://www.baltimoresun.com/opinion/editorial/bs-ed-0728-trump-baltimore-20190727-k6ac4yvnpvcczlaexdfglifada-story.html
https://www.apnews.com/4175ea0e61e746cd95d7c684cd6a59f7
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/weak-insecure-incapable-loving-our-country-trump-blasts-squad-after-n1032066
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2 Americans accused of murdering Italian policeman
Two young American men from California, ages 18 and 19, are detained by police in Italy and accused of murdering an Italian police officer Mario Cerciello Rega (35) in Rome.
Rega was a part of Italy’s Carabinieri paramilitary corps and was married two months ago.
The American suspects’ names are Gabriel Natale-Hjorth and Finnegan Elder. Both graduated from high school last year.
News reports say the two Americans bought drugs from a dealer, but when they saw that the drugs were fake, stole the dealer’s backpack. The dealer called the police. Rega and another officer were dressed in plainclothes and approached the Americans, but there was a fight, and Rega was stabbed several times and died after being transported to the hospital.
Police said they found a large knife in the hotel room the Americans were in. There was an image that showed one of the American suspects handcuffed and blindfolded, which sparked criticism.
The Americans could be detained for the rest of the investigation because they are considered flight risks.
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/italy-mourns-officer-stabbing-while-two-americans-remain-custody-n1035576
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49138157
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That is all for today. Again, it’s good to be back in the studio! See you tomorrow and stay with the light!