Today’s edition of quick hits.
* Marco Rubio echoed the line the White House has touted for several weeks, but U.S. aircraft carriers still aren’t facing West: “Rubio said ‘Operation Epic Fury,’ the Trump administration’s name for the U.S.-Israel war with Iran, is ‘over.’”
* The revised death toll from these boat strikes has reached at least 187: “The U.S. military said on Monday that it had struck another boat in the Caribbean Sea, killing two men as part of a campaign against people the Trump administration accuses of smuggling drugs by sea.”
* An important ruling from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals: “A second federal appeals court has rejected the Trump administration’s bid to lock up the majority of people it is seeking to deport, without an opportunity for release on bond — even if they have no criminal records and have resided in the country for decades.”
* In related news: “President Donald Trump’s immigration raids and checkpoints are weighing on the labor market, leading to fewer jobs for both U.S.-born men without a college degree as well as undocumented immigrants, according to an economic study out this week.”
Recommended
* The president went after The New York Times in his personal capacity, and now his administration is targeting the newspaper, too: “The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a federal civil rights lawsuitagainst The New York Times on Tuesday, claiming that the paper had engaged in ‘unlawful employment practices’ and had discriminated against a white male employee who did not get a sought-after promotion.”
* Remember when Trump used to support an assault weapons ban? That position is long gone: “The Trump administration sued Denver and its police department on Tuesday seeking to strike down an assault weapons ban that has been in place for Colorado’s largest city since 1989. The lawsuit came a day after Denver officials publicly rejected calls by the Department of Justice to repeal the longstanding city ordinance that makes it a crime to possess assault weapons.”
* A case I’ve been keeping an eye on: “The Justice Department will remain blocked from examining electronic devices seized from a Washington Post reporter, a federal judge in Virginia ruled Monday. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Anthony J. Trenga marks the second time a court in the Eastern District of Virginia has rejected efforts by the Justice Department to sift through a phone, computers and other devices belonging to Post reporter Hannah Natanson.”
* The senator’s fixation on Fauci has long been rather unsettling: “Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Tuesday called for Anthony Fauci, former longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), to be indicted for what the senator claimed was his lying under oath about gain-of-function research.”
See you tomorrow.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
Latest Post