Pelosi on Trump and Russia: ‘This Is as Unhealthy because it Will get’

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Russian meddling (in Afghanistan) and a racist retweet. It’s Monday, and that is your tip sheet.

The place issues stand

• President Trump has jumped the shark: That’s how prime Democrats framed issues on Sunday, condemning the president for failing to behave in response to Russian interference in Afghanistan.

• A Occasions investigation, revealed Friday, discovered that Trump was briefed on an intelligence report three months in the past exhibiting that Russia had provided money rewards to Islamic militants launching assaults on American forces in Afghanistan. However the White Home nonetheless hasn’t taken any steps to retaliate or make the Russians cease.

• “That is as dangerous because it will get,” Nancy Pelosi mentioned on ABC’s “This Week,” mentioning that Trump denied having been briefed on the intelligence. “Whether or not he’s or not, his administration is aware of, and our allies — a few of our allies who work with us in Afghanistan — had been briefed and settle for this report.”

• Joe Biden weighed in throughout a digital city corridor occasion held by Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote, a voters group. “His whole presidency has been a present to Putin, however that is past the pale,” Biden mentioned. “It’s a betrayal of essentially the most sacred responsibility we bear as a nation, to guard and equip our troops after we ship them into hurt’s method.”

• Intelligence officers and Particular Operations commandos had been reporting since not less than January that they suspected the Russians could be providing funds to Taliban fighters. This may characterize a major escalation in Russia’s recognized involvement in conflicts between American forces and Afghan insurgent fighters. Again in March, administration officers mentioned registering a diplomatic grievance with Moscow or implementing new sanctions, however they’ve finally chosen to do nothing.

• Is Trump bothered by the truth that a stable chunk of his supporters persistently maintain racist beliefs? He appeared fairly OK with it on Sunday morning, when he retweeted a video that includes a person in a golf cart bearing a “Trump 2020” signal yelling “White energy!” in response to a counterprotester who had requested him, “The place’s your white hood?”

• The 2-minute video featured clips from a golf-cart parade in assist of Trump at The Villages, a Florida retirement group. Counterprotesters jeer at and taunt the Trump supporters and wave indicators calling the president a bigot and a racist, drawing a bilious response.

• The president retweeted the video simply after 7:30 a.m. Tim Scott, the one black Republican within the Senate, mentioned on CNN’s “State of the Union” shortly after 9 a.m. that he thought Trump ought to take away it. “We will play politics with it or we are able to’t,” he mentioned. “I’m not going to. I feel it’s indefensible. We should always take it down.” Trump later deleted the tweet.

• The president’s choice to flow into the video was notable not just for the unvarnished white-supremacist language (heard throughout the first 10 seconds), but in addition as a result of it so clearly depicted a nation torn aside, filled with anger and resentment on each side of the political spectrum.

• The counterprotesters seen within the video additionally mirrored Trump’s difficulties with older white voters, a sometimes Republican constituency that has lengthy been uncomfortable together with his political model, and might be key to a Biden victory in November.

• Beginning July 1, college students who say they have been defrauded by for-profit faculties and universities will nonetheless should pay again the loans they took out for college. That’s due to a coverage put in place by Betsy DeVos, Trump’s schooling secretary.

• Congress handed a bipartisan invoice rejecting the rule, however Trump vetoed that laws final month. So on Friday, Home Democrats tried to override Trump’s veto. The vote was 238 to 173 — nicely wanting the two-thirds majority wanted.

• “It was necessary to strive,” mentioned Consultant Susie Lee, Democrat of Nevada. “You’ve 350,000 college students on this nation who’re ready for aid.”

• With Michael Flynn probably on the verge of going free, a workforce of Occasions reporters dug up a personal correspondence between William P. Barr, the legal professional normal, and Sidney Powell, Flynn’s legal professional, who’s additionally a frequent Fox Information commentator and is popular with Trump. Within the letter, Powell requested for “utmost confidentiality” whereas suggesting that Barr open an investigation into the “political” nature of the fees in opposition to Flynn.

• Flynn, Trump’s former nationwide safety adviser, had already pleaded responsible to mendacity to the F.B.I., however Barr took Powell up on the concept anyway. He finally ordered the Justice Division legal professionals on the case to drop the cost.

• However the decide within the case, Emmet Sullivan, didn’t instantly settle for Barr’s request, saying he was unconvinced that there was no case in opposition to Flynn. So Barr’s legal professionals appealed the choice to an appeals panel, which ordered Sullivan to finish the trial. Sullivan hasn’t but adopted by on that, and the complete appeals courtroom may nonetheless select to reverse the panel’s ruling.

Protesters held indicators referencing a forthcoming tell-all e-book by Mary Trump, the president’s niece, as his motorcade entered the Trump Nationwide Golf Membership in Sterling, Va.

A protest in Michigan over the church’s firing of a lesbian worker, days after the Supreme Courtroom’s choice.

The story of Terry Gonda and her dismissal from her job as a music director at St. John Fisher Chapel, a Catholic Church in Auburn Hills, Mich., didn’t finish when the Archdiocese of Detroit fired her final week.

Her termination as a result of she is married to a girl has gained nationwide and worldwide consideration. On Saturday night, a pair hundred individuals got here out for Mass and an indication of assist for Gonda and her spouse, Kirsti Reeve, who had a symbolic marriage ceremony in 2003 and have been legally married since 2011.

The demonstrators carried indicators proclaiming “Love is Love,” “Restore the Dignity of the Church” and “Jesus had 2 Dads and He turned out fantastic.” They listened to music and speeches and honked their horns from the church parking zone.

Monsignor Michael LeFevre, the pastor of the church, who was celebrating his final Mass earlier than being transferred to a different parish later this week, paid tribute to Gonda throughout his sermon.

“What we have a good time this weekend is a celebration of creating room in our lives for prophets. That one has been a prophet for many people for a few years,” he mentioned, pointing to Gonda. “And you’ve got made room for Terry and she or he has prophetically been that presence for a lot of, a few years. We will’t take that away. Nobody can take that away.”

LeFevre acquired phrase from the archdiocese that it could finish Gonda’s employment simply days earlier than the Supreme Courtroom dominated that employers couldn’t hearth employees based mostly on their sexual orientation or gender identification. However in his choice, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote that what the ruling meant for non secular establishments particularly was a query “for future instances.”

Brian Clark, a retired professor and a member of the parish council, mentioned the council was making ready an open letter to the Archdiocese to specific its dismay.

“What would Jesus do?” he requested the group assembled after the Mass. “This isn’t difficult, we all know what he would do. Any person can be getting a day out.”

Gonda and Reeve mentioned they deliberate to stay members of the parish and hoped that leaders of the Archdiocese, who’ve declined to debate the firing, would have a change of coronary heart. Gonda has performed a management position within the parish for the final 30 years.

“I’ve had my moments of yelling at God as a result of that is heartbreaking. That is my household,” Gonda mentioned. “However actually, proper now, I’m stuffed with hope as a result of one thing is occurring right here. One thing actually, actually necessary is occurring. And I really feel love and hope and forgiveness and pleasure, as a result of God’s will is shifting right here.”

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