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McCarthy’s management style tested by his conference’s most extreme members

Apadana Central — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 11:22:38 +0000

It didn’t stick. Greene again made news this week for invoking Nazi-era imagery to mock Covid safety practices, raising fresh questions about whether McCarthy can keep a lid on his increasingly restive caucus with his soft touch and indirect methods, sometimes on his own and sometimes with the help of top allies and lawmakers. In this case, Jeff Miller, who sits on the board of trustees at the museum, orchestrated last month’s trip after Greene expressed interest in attending, multiple GOP sources said.

The episode underscores the limits of the McCarthy approach — not just with Greene, but with all of the radical members in his conference. While the California Republican has publicly denounced some of his members’ most controversial actions, including Greene’s Holocaust remarks, none of these lawmakers have suffered any real internal consequences for behavior that includes floating dangerous conspiracy theories, whitewashing the January 6 insurrection or having connections to white nationalists.

For McCarthy, he would much rather keep the spotlight on divisions across the aisle. The House Republican leader also believes keeping these fringe members in the fold — rather than ex-communicating them all together — is a better long-term leadership strategy for keeping them in check. Plus, the GOP leader may be reluctant to alienate a group of Donald Trump-aligned Republicans whom he may need to count on for speaker votes one day.

But that management style also poses a risk for McCarthy and the GOP, especially as the battle for the House heats up. Absent real punishment, the party’s extremists are not only failing to fall in line, but may only feel more emboldened. And Democrats are already seizing on the GOP’s refusal to exorcise the most radical elements from their party, looking to make it a campaign issue in the 2022 midterms.

“Marjorie Taylor Greene continues to make offensive comparisons to Nazis because she knows there will be no real consequences from Kevin McCarthy or Tom Emmer,” said Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, a New York congressman and chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, in a statement. “McCarthy and Emmer have been nothing but complicit and cowardly in the face of Greene’s repeated racism and antisemitism.”

Controversies in the conference

Greene is hardly the only source of heartburn inside the House GOP. On Thursday, freshman Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado also blasted out a tweet referring to “Needle Nazis” when talking about officials carrying out President Joe Biden’s latest Covid-19 vaccination push.

Then there’s Rep. Matt Gaetz, who is under federal investigation for potential sex trafficking violations involving a minor. But McCarthy is letting the probe play out before deciding whether to reprimand the Florida Republican, while noting he’d automatically lose his committee assignments if indicted. In the meantime, though, Gaetz has gone on a public speaking tour with Greene and even floated running for president in 2024 if Trump sits out.

Meanwhile, a growing chorus of House Republicans have sought to downplay the deadly Capitol riots, including Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia, who said the day looked like a “normal tourist visit.” Greene, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and other GOP lawmakers have started to promote a wild conspiracy theory that the FBI incited the insurrection. And Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona has been leading the charge to turn Ashli Babbitt, a rioter who was shot by a police officer after storming the Capitol, into a martyr.

Gosar came under fire earlier this year for speaking at the America First Political Action Conference, which was organized by Nick Fuentes, a known white nationalist. The Arizona Republican also recently appeared on a fundraiser flier alongside Fuentes that was promoted on social media. Gosar denied that there was any such event on his schedule, but he also made clear that he is unapologetic about promoting the “America First” agenda — no matter who it attracts.

“Not sure why anyone is freaking out. I’ll say this: there are millions of Gen Z, Y and X conservatives. They believe in America First,” he tweeted. “They will not agree 100% on every issue. No group does. We will not let the left dictate our strategy, alliances and efforts. Ignore the left.”

None of those GOP members, including Gosar, have faced any widespread blowback or serious repercussions from their party, though McCarthy has previously said through a spokesman that “there is absolutely no place for racism in our discourse or society.”

Greene’s office, meanwhile, sent along a video featuring clips of journalists, pundits, strategists and comedians criticizing Trump and in some cases comparing him to a dictator.

McCarthy’s low-key leadership approach

When asked if he plans to reprimand the members who whitewashed the insurrection or voted against legislation to award a Congressional Gold Medal to the police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6, McCarthy suggested that he deals with those matters privately.

“What I talk to my members is what I talk to my members personally about,” McCarthy said at a recent news conference. “But if you want to talk to somebody about how they vote, talk to them.”

Indeed, McCarthy prefers to operate behind the scenes. He has hauled Greene, Gaetz and Gosar into his office to have private conversations with them after controversies have surfaced. McCarthy has also implemented a mentorship program where more senior lawmakers are assigned to help guide the freshmen, including both Boebert and Greene, as well as Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina, another Republican firebrand who has stepped in controversy.

There was at least one recent instance where McCarthy’s leadership style was successful in reining in the right flank: Gosar and Greene’s plans for an “America First” caucus were quickly scrapped after McCarthy and his top deputies condemned a draft proposal of a potential policy platform for the group, which called for respecting “Anglo-Saxon political traditions.”

McCarthy’s allies argue that his carrot-over-stick approach has also proven to be successful with Rep. Jim Jordan, a Republican from Ohio. The conservative hard-liner was once a pain in McCarthy’s side and even challenged him for minority leader in 2018. But after McCarthy awarded Jordan high-profile assignments in the conference, Jordan is now a team player and has steered clear of some of the recent antics deployed by his fellow members of the House Freedom Caucus.

Defenders of McCarthy also point out that his ability to deal with unwieldy members is limited, especially when it comes to Greene, who already had her committee assignments taken away by Democrats earlier this year.

“What leverage does he have? What tools does he have?” said one GOP lawmaker. “He talks to them a lot. He does what he can. He sits them down and makes clear what his expectations are. But there’s only so much he can do.”

Yet McCarthy has shown that he is, in fact, willing to punish his own — but only in certain cases. In 2019, he removed former Rep. Steve King of Iowa from his committees, but only after King spent years making racist and controversial remarks and had been cut loose by the House GOP’s campaign arm.

More recently, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming was booted from GOP leadership, with McCarthy’s blessing, for repeatedly criticizing Trump. And last week, McCarthy said during a private lunch that he would strip any Republican of their committee assignments if they accepted an offer from Speaker Nancy Pelosi to serve on the January 6 select committee, though he later told reporters he wasn’t making any threats.

Still, Democrats have been quick to highlight the apparent difference in standards for Cheney and Greene.

“This Fourth of July recess, Kevin McCarthy has made it clear once again what kind of leader he is,” Pelosi’s press office said in a statement this week. “Not only will he kowtow to the radical elements of his conference and look the other way when they hold fundraisers with white supremacists or invite insurrectionists to events, but he will also actively silence and threaten anyone who stands up for the truth and our democracy.”

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Rebel shareholders are taking on big companies. And they’re winning

Apadana Central — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 11:54:03 +0000

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A version of this story first appeared in CNN Business’ Before the Bell newsletter. Not a subscriber? You can sign up right here.

Now, a wave of activism is forcing them to pay closer attention.

What’s happening: Shareholders approved a record number of resolutions in 2021 on issues related to climate and social topics such as diversity — signaling they increasingly view inaction on these fronts as a major financial risk.

“This is a startling proxy season,” Heidi Welsh, executive director of the Sustainable Investments Institute, told me. “I think it’s really going to change the way companies look at concerns on environmental and social issues raised by their investors.”

A review of top US companies from the Sustainable Investments Institute and partner As You Sow identified 34 majority votes this year for proposals regarding environmental, social and corporate governance, or ESG, issues. That’s well above last year’s record of 21 (and the number could keep growing).

The most high-profile shareholder victory has come from Engine No. 1, an activist hedge fund that took on ExxonMobil (XOM) after accruing just 0.02% of the oil giant’s shares. Critical of Exxon’s record on climate change, Engine No. 1 successfully installed three new directors on the company’s board — a huge coup that could force Exxon to make major changes to its strategy.

What changed: Engine No. 1 emerged triumphant by bringing powerful institutional investors like BlackRock (BLK) onside. Welsh said that represented a seismic shift and shows how times have changed.

“You cannot get those levels of support without buy-in from the major mutual funds,” she said.

Climate has been a key theme, with eight proposals earning more than 50% support. Political spending, diversity and Covid-19 have also featured prominently. At Netflix (NFLX), more than 80% of voters backed a proposal for more election spending oversight and disclosure. Resolutions for racial justice audits at Amazon (AMZN) and JPMorgan Chase (JPM) ultimately did not pass, but received more support than expected.

On the radar: Shareholders are showing a growing willingness to flex their muscle just as Trump-era rules making it harder to file resolutions are due to take effect, though the changes are being challenged in court by a coalition including As You Sow.

Still, having won big in 2021, many activists are gearing up for future fights. Engine No. 1, now looking beyond ExxonMobil, just announced the launch of a low-fee exchange-traded fund that will trade under the ticker “VOTE.”

The Engine No. 1 Transform 500 ETF, which launched with $100 million in assets, will invest in the 500 largest US stocks so it can pressure reluctant firms to change their ESG strategies. The hedge fund hopes to recruit legions of mainstream investors who back its approach.

“Rather than just invest in companies that are already incorporating ESG initiatives into their businesses, this product allows investors to take their seat at the table and be part of the change at companies,” Michael O’Leary, managing director at Engine No. 1, told me via email.

Gas prices will keep rising if OPEC doesn’t act soon

American drivers need OPEC and Russia to come to the rescue.

Gasoline prices are averaging $3.12 a gallon in the United States, according to AAA. The seven-year high comes just as millions of people hit the road for July 4th weekend, my CNN Business colleague Matt Egan reports.

Demand for energy is so strong as the world economy reopens that prices will likely go even higher — unless Saudi Arabia-led OPEC and its allies start pumping much more oil soon.

US oil prices finished June at $73.47 a barrel, leaving them up 34% in 2021. That marks the best first half of a year since 2009, according to Refinitiv Oil Research.

Watch this space: Producers known as OPEC+ have been adding supply, but only gradually. They could announce a change of plans after a meeting on Thursday.

It’s possible the group will stay the course due to concerns about Covid-19 variants like the Delta strain. Oil producers remain cautious and want to avoid getting caught flat-footed if demand stalls.

But many analysts believe producers could take a more aggressive tack, giving drivers some much-needed relief.

“We believe they will answer the call to put more barrels on the market,” Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, wrote in a note to clients.

Robinhood’s record fine raises questions

Popular trading app Robinhood just earned a notorious distinction: It was ordered to pay the biggest fine ever issued by a top Wall Street regulator.

The details: The Financial Industrial Regulatory Authority is demanding that Robinhood pay about $70 million, accusing it of “systemic supervisory failures” and of hurting investors by giving them “false or misleading information.”

FINRA’s sanctions on Robinhood focus on large-scale system outages that hit the platform in March 2020, as well as the options trading procedures at the heart of a lawsuit filed by the family of a 20-year-old Robinhood trader who died by suicide last year.

“The fine imposed in this matter, the highest ever levied by FINRA, reflects the scope and seriousness of Robinhood’s violations,” Jessica Hopper, head of FINRA’s department of enforcement, said in a statement.

Robinhood neither admitted to nor denied the charges. In a statement, the company noted that it has heavily invested in improving the platform’s stability, educational offerings, customer support and legal teams.

Step back: FINRA’s sanctions remove one of the major clouds hovering over Robinhood ahead of a blockbuster initial public offering later this summer. But the startup still faces plenty of scrutiny, raising questions about whether investors will back a firm garnering so much regulatory attention.

See here: Gary Gensler, chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission, has repeatedly expressed concerns about the “inherent” conflicts of interest in the payment-for-order flow model that’s central to Robinhood’s commission-free trading business.

Walgreens (WBA) reports results before US markets open.

Also today: Initial jobless claims for last week arrive at 8:30 a.m. ET. The ISM Manufacturing Index for June follows at 10 a.m. ET.

Coming tomorrow: The latest US jobs report is expected to show that 700,000 jobs were added last month.

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Maricopa County will not reuse equipment turned over for partisan 2020 audit

Apadana Central — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 13:11:13 +0000

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In a letter sent to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs on behalf of the Maricopa County Supervisors, the county attorney said they shared Hobbs’ concerns about the “future use by Maricopa County of the election equipment that was subpoenaed by the Arizona Senate, because they placed it under the control of persons not certified to handle election equipment in the United States, such as the Cyber Ninjas and others.”

“The voters of Maricopa County can rest assured, the County will never use equipment that could pose a risk to free and fair elections,” reads a statement posted on Maricopa County’s website, “As a result, the County will not use the subpoenaed equipment in any future elections.”

Neither the letter nor the statement mention the potential cost of replacing the machines or who would be responsible for covering it.

Maricopa County is roughly halfway through a lease contract with Dominion Voting Systems for the machines. It does, however, note the county is working on interim plans to prepare for upcoming elections.

“With the backup equipment and the other certified tabulation equipment not subpoenaed, the Board of Supervisors, Elections Department and Recorder’s Office are working with our current vendor to replace the subpoenaed equipment so we will be able to serve voters for the November 2021 election,” the county said in its statement.

Fueled by former President Donald Trump’s claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election, Arizona state Senate Republicans demanded an election audit of the results in Maricopa County that kicked off in April. The audit was conducted by the Florida-based company Cyber Ninjas, which has no experience auditing elections and whose chief executive officer promoted Trump’s conspiracy theories about the election on social media.

The county turned nearly 400 tabulation machines over to the state Senate after GOP lawmakers subpoenaed the materials and a judge ruled that county officials had to comply.

Hobbs sent a letter in May urging the county not to redeploy any of the subpoenaed election equipment in future elections and instead acquire new machines “to ensure secure and accurate elections in Maricopa County going forward.”

She cited Cyber Ninjas’ failure to be transparent with what they did with the equipment, allow election officials or expert observers with the secretary of state’s office to remain with the equipment during the process, and to provide a “continuous, clearly visible livestream of the area” of where the equipment was kept.

“I have grave concerns regarding the security and integrity of these machines, given that the chain of custody, a critical security tenet, has been compromised and election officials do not know what was done to the machines while under Cyber Ninjas’ control,” Hobbs wrote.

The partisan audit wrapped up last week and its findings have not yet been publicly released, but election audit experts and nonpartisan observers of the proceedings have said that Cyber Ninjas’ methods are deeply flawed and do not follow standard election auditing procedures, which could introduce errors and bias into the results. Republican Maricopa County officials have also harshly criticized the state Senate’s audit.

The results of the partisan audit, however, would have no bearing on the election results given that the secretary of state has already certified the election results, showing President Joe Biden narrowly won the state of Arizona.

County election officials have also already conducted two audits and found no evidence of widespread voter fraud and other issues in Maricopa County’s results.

CNN’s Sara Murray, Stephanie Becker and Eric Bradner contributed to this report.

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Progressive group launches $7 million effort to elect Democratic secretaries of state and attorneys general

Apadana Central — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 13:02:13 +0000

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End Citizens United/Let America Vote on Tuesday will endorse six Democratic incumbents as part of its new “democracy defender” program, shared first with CNN. The group is backing Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford, Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, and Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon.

It also intends to engage in races in Florida, Texas, Georgia and Arizona — states where Republican-controlled legislatures also have passed or advanced bills that reduce access to the ballot or seek to seize power from election officials and put it in the hands of lawmakers or administrators of their choice.

The GOP’s legislative moves mean voting rights advocates “must more vociferously fight to protect every American’s voice and vote,” Tiffany Muller, the president of End Citizens United and Let America Vote, said in a statement. She said the incumbents her group is endorsing “consistently stood up to corruption, protected voting rights, and are holding the line to ensure our elections are safe, fair and accessible.”

The organization has not disclosed how it intends to spend the $7 million, but it typically uses a mix of mailers, digital and traditional advertising and grassroots outreach in its campaigns.

Attorneys general and secretaries of state are on the ballot in more than two dozen states next year.

State election chiefs from both parties have faced verbal abuse and threats, following the 2020 election — as former President Donald Trump spread falsehoods of a “rigged” election. Although there’s no evidence of widespread wrongdoing that could have changed the election’s results, Republicans lawmakers in key swing states have raced ahead with laws they say will shore up election integrity.

Democrats and voting rights groups say the measures are aimed at suppressing votes in 2022. Additionally, they argue that bills seeking to curb the power of secretaries of state and other election officials could lead to partisan meddling when it’s time to count votes and certify results.

The States United Democracy Center, a bipartisan group founded to advance fair elections, has tallied at least 216 bills in 41 states that would criminalize the actions of election officials, give legislators more power over the running of elections or otherwise interfere. Two dozen have become law to date.

Last week, GOP lawmakers who control Arizona’s Legislature voted to strip Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs of her authority to oversee election-related lawsuits and gave that power to the state’s Republican attorney general.

The ban would expire on January 2, 2023, when the offices of secretary of state and attorney general could switch party control after the 2022 election. Hobbs is running for governor; Attorney General Mark Brnovich is running for the US Senate.

Hobbs has sharply criticized a GOP-ordered and problem-ridden “audit” of the 2.1 million votes cast in Maricopa County, Arizona.

In Michigan, meanwhile, a Republican lawmaker has introduced a bill that calls for an audit of 2020 results in the state — despite the secretary of state concluding that no fraud or foul play occurred in last year’s election. Last week, the Republican-led state Senate Oversight Committee affirmed there was “no evidence of widespread or systematic fraud” in that election.

In a statement about the endorsement, Benson pledged to “continue fighting so every American knows the truth: The 2020 election was the safest and most secure in our state and nation’s history.”

CNN’s Eric Bradner contributed to this story.

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Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner distance themselves from the former President

Apadana Central — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 12:00:20 +0000

Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner distance themselves from the former President

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Sometimes the former President complains for several hours about the “stolen” 2020 election. Other times, his frustrations emerge in fits and starts — more likely when he is discussing his hopeful return to national politics. And while he often has a rotating audience of cheering listeners, the gap between Trump and his daughter and son-in-law grows wider by the week, according to 12 former Trump White House officials, former administration officials, family friends, acquaintances and members of Trump’s team who spoke with CNN about changes to the former President’s current inner circle.

A large part of the reason for the separation is Trump’s constant harping on the past and his inability to move on. The former President has also started to question the role that Kushner — one of the few people who were able to stay close to Trump throughout his two presidential campaigns and White House tenure — has played in his presidential legacy.

Ivanka Trump has also struggled to undo the entanglements caused by the years at her father’s side in the White House, as she seeks a less complicated life for her family, according to two acquaintances. They described her as having to walk a fine line between embracing her father and distancing herself from his election lies.

Having spent much of the last five-and-a-half years in close proximity to him, Ivanka Trump and Kushner were rarely seen with him in the months leading up to the former President’s seasonal shift from living at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida, to living in a cottage at his private golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

“They weren’t around for the usual spring and summer events at Mar-a-Lago,” says one clubgoer and family friend, noting the absence of Trump’s elder daughter and the couple’s three young children.

Simultaneously, the disappearance of Kushner — once the ringleader of Trump’s policy operations — was also apparent. A person familiar with Kushner says there were visits from the Kushner/Trump family to Mar-a-Lago before Trump’s move North, but they were sparse, averaging once every three to four weeks. The physical distance between them was not far: after leaving Washington, Kushner and Ivanka Trump moved to a Miami high-rise to await the construction of their mansion on a nearby private island.

Kushner’s presence, physically and virtually, has become increasingly rare as it became clear that his father-in-law remained preoccupied with the 2020 election, according to one person familiar with the situation.

“He was kind of like a parent who sticks around less and less each morning while they’re transitioning their kid to day care,” this person said.

Kushner moves to the side

It wasn’t the distance that kept Kushner away, say those who know his thinking — it was the desire to be far from Trump’s constant stream of contempt, and the chorus of voices cheering him on.

“Trump always has an array of characters around him,” says a person who worked in the administration.

Around mid-March, some of Trump’s most trusted advisers began urging him to bring someone onto his team who could oversee daily operations and help organize his candidate meetings, fundraising requests and endorsement vetting process.

“I don’t think it’s accurate to say he needed a new Jared, because Jared was always more of a policy guy inside the White House, but there was definitely a sense that some part of the puzzle was missing and it was contributing to a lot of internal confusion and chaos,” said a former White House official.

Eventually, Trump brought on Susie Wiles, a Florida-based consultant who had earned his trust and was a familiar face to others on his payroll. But the frequency of Wiles’ appearances, as well as her overall involvement, has also decreased since Trump relocated to Bedminster for the summer, according to one of the people involved with his operation.

Another consistent presence is that of Donald Trump Jr, whose penchant for politics has grown in the years since his father entered the political scene and who has become an increasingly trusted adviser to the former real estate mogul.

Kushner is not helping Trump cook up plans for a rally later this month, nor is he intensely involved with the former President’s endorsement decisions or frequent public statements, which, sans a social media presence, come via news releases from Trump’s leadership PAC, Save America — again, something Kushner has veered away from.

Without input from his elder daughter and her husband, Trump is isolated from their influence, though the person close to Kushner does note he “still speaks on the phone” to the former President.

Now Trump finds himself more often in the company of an ever-changing circle of advisers. Trump allies say he is once again interacting with characters who should require supervision — noting that he has been in frequent touch with One America News anchor Christina Bobb, a prolific proponent of far-fetched theories about the 2020 election, in addition to MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, who has encouraged Trump to keep challenging the 2020 election results in several states.

A member of Trump’s team tells CNN the former President has “always had siloed relationships” with various people and that even in the White House — with Kushner ostensibly down the hall — Trump could frequently be “running his own play.” This person notes Trump’s cadre of recent influencers is akin to his unconventional way of eliciting opinion.

“There are other circles around him, yes,” says this person, who doesn’t argue there are questionable characters in the ear of the former President, “but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t also have very reasonable and buttoned-up people there as well.”

The person close to Kushner adds that the group off whom Trump bounces his most off-the-wall and questionable theories is, while conspiratorial in nature, not completely out of the realm of a host of “regulars” with whom he has held court over the years.

“The stakes [now] are also less than they were when he was in the White House,” says the source.

Eroded trust

Trump has privately started to question Kushner’s contributions to his legacy. One person who spoke with the former President in the last two weeks recounted a conversation in which Trump complained about Kushner inking a book deal that he thinks his son-in-law will use to take credit for some of his achievements.

Another source confirms there is jealousy from Trump about Kushner’s book, which a Kushner associate says was a “seven-figure deal” with Broadside Books, the conservative branch of mega-publisher HarperCollins. Trump, who has lately been helping with several journalists’ in-the-works books about his presidency, has yet to announce a deal of his own.

“He’s always been suspicious of Jared,” this person said, noting that Trump has previously discounted Kushner’s role in some of the key policies he enacted as president, including Middle East peace deals and criminal justice revisions.

Two people familiar with conversations Trump has had since his arrival in May at Bedminster say he questioned whether Kushner “accomplish[ed] peace in the Middle East after all” after tensions between Israel and Hamas erupted into a violent series of airstrikes last month.

“It is not a secret President Trump doesn’t like when he thinks other people are getting attention for something he feels he has facilitated,” says another former Trump White House official. “There’s a sweet spot between saying nothing about work you did and saying too much that everyone has to find — or else he gets triggered.”

A person who works with Trump now disputes that the former President has been vocal about disloyalty to Kushner, noting that several of the authors who have interviewed the former President for their books have asked directly whether Trump blames Kushner for his election loss.

“Every time, he’s answered definitively, ‘no,’ on the record,” says the person.

Those close to Kushner laugh off the idea of an estrangement, saying Trump is provocative at times because that is who he is. They note Kushner is long used to the occasional Trump backlash, and it doesn’t bother him.

“He knows Trump acknowledges his successes,” says the person close to Kushner.

Still, the Kushner intimates make no bones about the fact that the couple disagrees with the former President’s current pursuits. It’s clear that the close advisory relationship is no more.

The distance Kushner and Ivanka Trump have put between their current life and the former President has also helped, but that gap that is soon to close.

For the last week, Kushner, Ivanka Trump and their children have been on a summer road trip, from Miami to, eventually, Bedminster. It’s the sort of summer activity millions of American families partake in, but the Kushner clan has made stop-offs along the way with a who’s who of Trump’s former administration.

Over the weekend, they were in Kiawah, South Carolina, staying with former US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who has made no secret of her desire to run for president but remains estranged from Trump’s inner circle after publicly criticizing his response to the 2020 election. The Kushners and the Haleys were spotted on a double date at a popular local restaurant. Haley said in April that she would not make a run for the White House in 2024 if Trump decides he will run — or she would at least discuss that scenario with him.

“That’s something that we’ll have a conversation about at some point if that decision is something that has to be made,” she said at a news conference.

Haley, like the Kushners, added that she has put space between herself and the former President, noting she had not talked to him since after the election but before the January 6 storming of the Capitol by a mob of his supporters.

The source close to Kushner downplayed the visit with Haley, saying South Carolina was just “one of the states along the way” on their drive.

Monday found them in Nashville, paying a visit to former State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus, a close friend of Ivanka Trump’s and frequent guest on Fox News. During the Trump administration, Ortagus worked for then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who has in recent months toyed with the idea of a run for the White House.

The Kushner family will eventually get to their East Coast digs, and the person close to Kushner noted they will also spend time at their old apartment in New York City, in addition to Bedminster. They’ll also perhaps visit the Hamptons, the summer playground of the rich and connected.

In Bedminster, the Kushner cottage and the Trump cottage are separated by mere tens of feet, about as close as the families have been for an extended period since the White House. Kushner’s allies say that won’t be a problem for him, as the two men are “not at odds,” as one describes their relationship. Another friend of Kushner’s says the men have a “good relationship, but [Kushner] is not anywhere near his political orbit.”

Things might be slightly more challenging for Ivanka Trump, though, who has for the last several months walked a tightrope between Trump, her father, and Trump, the wounded loser of a contentious election.

For the time being, she is not getting involved in the rhetoric, nor the unknowns that could be on the horizon for her father — politics, business, relationships or investigations.

“She is being very present, in the moment,” says a person who has worked closely with her for the last several years. “She’s not concerned.”

“After spending four years serving and traveling the country extensively, Ivanka is taking time with family and friends,” her former chief of staff, Julie Radford, tells CNN.

Explaining why the former President’s life is not simpatico with his daughter’s, one of the people close to Kushner said, “She is focused on her children, and spending time with them, period.”

“Listen, you lose an election, things happen, people get over it, they move on, these are natural consequences,” says the friend of Kushner’s.

The person familiar with Trump’s thinking insists no one has been “removed” from his inner circle and that whatever the status of the relationship, the blurred lines among employee, adviser and son-in-law exist because they’ve both made them such.

“This is family, and family is in its own category. Its own unique category,” the person said.

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Trans women are still incarcerated with men and it’s putting their lives at risk

Apadana Central — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 11:28:04 +0000

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Jones, who was released from prison in May 2020 and is now a legal assistant at the Transgender Gender-Variant & Intersex Justice Project in San Francisco, says she was repeatedly raped and sexually assaulted by male prisoners and abused by male correctional officers across multiple facilities throughout her multiple stints in custody.

At the time, Jones did not feel like she could report the assaults to corrections officers, for fear of retribution, including being thrown into solitary confinement. But she says she had told officers that she was transgender and feared for her safety.

She heard similar fears from other trans women serving with her.

“We lived with it,” she says. “We lived with the abuse.”

Jones is not alone.

As recently as last year, the vast majority of incarcerated trans people in America are still housed in facilities based on the sex they were assigned at birth, according to a 2020 investigation by NBC News.

Jasmine Rose Jones

This is despite robust evidence that trans women are at a significantly higher risk of abuse and assault than the general prison population, according to academic research and surveys of incarcerated trans people. And that is still the case nearly 30 years after a landmark Supreme Court decision in Farmer v Brennan that found deliberately failing to protect incarcerated trans people from abuse or violence behind bars qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment.

Activists say not much has changed. Now, they are working to change policies on both the federal and state level to allow trans prisoners to decide for themselves where they would feel safest being housed — or at least have their voice heard, even if prisons or independent decision-making boards still get to make the final call.

A 2007 study from the University of California, Irvine, found that incarcerated transgender people were 13 times more likely to be sexually assaulted than a random sample of incarcerated men. Fifty-nine percent of transgender prisoners reported having been sexually assaulted within a California correctional facility compared to just 4.4% of the incarcerated population as a whole.

“Transgender women are not safe behind bars, period,” says Rodrigo Heng-Lehtinen, the incoming executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE). “Nobody should be in danger just because they are in government custody.”

In 1994, the US Supreme Court ruled on Eighth Amendment grounds that failing to protect trans people in custody is unconstitutional because it qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment. Farmer v Brennan centered on the alleged prison rape of a trans woman, Dee Farmer. She says only a few days after a transfer to FCI Terre Haute, a federal prison in Terre Haute, Indiana, she was raped by a cellmate. Prior to her incarceration, she had been living as a transgender woman, and argued that that fact, coupled with what court documents called the “violent environment and a history of inmate assaults” at the Terre Haute facility, meant that officials deliberately failed to protect her from harm by placing her there.

A California lawmaker wants to repeal an anti-loitering code that critics say has been used to target trans women

“He just kept repeatedly punching me all over,” she remembers, voice strong but still emotional more than 30 years later. “He started kicking me and I saw a knife in his tennis shoe. And it scared me so bad that I just stopped resisting. And he threw me on the bed and raped me.”

“A prison official’s ‘deliberate indifference’ to a substantial risk of serious harm to an inmate violates the Eighth Amendment,” wrote Justice David Souter in the court’s opinion. While a jury ultimately found for the defendants in her case, her win at the Supreme Court is still hailed as a victory.

Activists like Dee Farmer are still fighting to institute national and state-level policies that would require a facility to house transgender, nonbinary or intersex people in the facilities where they feel safest, which would often mean according to their gender identity.

“They should not feel that they have to settle for being assaulted or violence or being harassed or being abused,” she tells CNN. “Make it known that this is what is happening. Let your voice be heard.”

‘I never murdered anyone or anything like that’

Transgender people are disproportionately impacted by the criminal justice system to begin with, incarcerated at significantly higher rates than other groups.

According to the NTCE’s last national US Transgender Survey conducted in 2015, the rate of incarceration for transgender people was double that of the nation-wide rate of incarceration, and about 10 times higher for Black transgender women.

In many states, being transgender in public can lead to an arrest under so-called “Walking While Trans” laws: anti-loitering codes officially used to target sex workers, which in practice target primarily trans women of color regardless of whether they are sex workers, advocates say.

“I was certainly profiled” as a transgender woman on the street, says activist and transgender woman Bamby Salcedo. “It was always a thing. I would always be stopped for just walking to get groceries from the store.”

Salcedo says she was first incarcerated at age 19, shortly after she began her transition process, and spent the next 14 years in and out of prison and jail for a variety of drug charges and petty theft charges, which she says primarily entailed shoplifting makeup and food.

Activist Bamby Salcedo is seen at the AIDS Monument Groundbreaking earlier this month in West Hollywood, California.

“I never murdered anyone or anything like that,” Salcedo says. “Back in the ’80s there weren’t any services related to us. So anything we needed we got from the street, from our sisters. Participating in the street economy was the only way for us to live and survive.”

Salcedo says the “inhumane” and “disgraceful” treatment of trans women in custody often starts immediately upon the intake process, a sentiment echoed by Jones and others.

“We are told to get undressed in front of many men” including both corrections officers and other male prisoners, Salcedo describes, which “automatically creates this sense of fear for many of us and this sense… that it’s ok to sexually harass us and oftentimes sexually assault us.”

Jones similarly spent a lot of time on the street as a teen, after becoming homeless when she says her mother kicked her out of the house after coming out as gay.

“The streets were my best friend. That’s where I learned to become who I am today,” Jones says.

But soon, for Jones too, life on the street turned to life behind bars.

Violence on the Inside

Once they are incarcerated, trans people are at significantly higher risk of violence. Trans prisoners are over nine times more likely than the prison average to be assaulted or abused by fellow prisoners, and over five times more likely to be assaulted or abused by facility staff, according to a national survey conducted by the National Center for Transgender Equality. According to the 2015 survey, within the year leading up to the survey, almost a quarter of transgender prisoners reported being physically assaulted by other people in custody or staff.

Salcedo describes being raped in custody by a man who held a razor blade against her neck. On other occasions, she says she was beaten by other prisoners, including one time being beaten with a four-by-four piece of wood.

“Every single day I was at least verbally attacked. Every single day,” she remembers.

Formerly incarcerated trans women say that abuse often comes at the hands of correctional officers.

Deadly attacks on Black trans women are going up. This grieving mom is fighting back

“They have this whole language they used toward the trans community,” Jones remembers. “They call us horrible names, they used to have us strip out in front of other inmates to embarrass us. They used to come and ransack our cells and take our make-up. They wouldn’t let us eat in chow halls if we were wearing any make-up at all.”

Opponents of housing people in custody according to gender identity argue that men could falsely claim to be transgender so they are housed with women they can then assault. There is no evidence to support that this happens, while there is overwhelming evidence that trans women in men’s prisons are being sexually assaulted at exponentially higher rates than the general incarcerated population.

“There is no evidence whatsoever to support this argument of false claims. It simply doesn’t happen,” Heng-Lehtinen says. “There are criteria for determining that someone really is transgender… It’s not as simple as simply declaring that you are transgender.”

There is limited data available on whether incarcerated transgender women in women’s facilities are at a lower rate of sexual assault because so few transgender women are currently being incarcerated in women’s facilities. However, formerly incarcerated trans women speaking to CNN shared that they would feel more comfortable being strip searched by guards who are women — standard practice in women’s facilities — and would feel safer with cellmates who are women.

Laws on the books

In 2003, President George W. Bush signed the Prison Rape Elimination Act, or PREA, into law. It required the Department of Justice to develop federal rules for prisons and jails aimed at preventing and eliminating sexual assault and rape of prisoners. The DOJ issued those PREA Standards in 2012, which still stand today.

Among them, the PREA Standards say that prison staff “must consider [housing assignments] on a case-by-case basis,” and not simply on the basis of a person’s “genital status.” The rules also say “serious consideration” should be given to an incarcerated person’s “own views regarding his or her own safety.”

In practice, activists say those standards rarely lead to trans women ever being incarcerated in a women’s facility, despite their requests to be housed as such.

“We’ve heard from so many trans women that prison officials will ask them if they have a penis during intake,” says Richard Saenz, a senior attorney with Lambda Legal. “And that’s how they decide where they should be housed.”

This Black trans activist is fighting to shield her community from an epidemic of violence

Saenz says Lambda Legal gets hundreds of letters and phone calls every year from trans people in prison who say they are being assaulted, abused and otherwise are unsafe in their housing situation specifically because they are transgender. .

“[PREA is] still not enforced consistently enough,” Heng-Lehtinen says. “We need clearer and more detailed policy about exactly how to determine the housing assignment and it needs to be reevaluated periodically because circumstances change.”

“Best practice would be for a trans person’s housing to be re-evaluated every year. And if that’s not going to happen, it should be revisited every five years.”

The Department of Justice tells CNN that the Federal Bureau of Prisons “follows and enforces PREA standards and recognizes the importance of ensuring that inmates are and feel safe while in custody. Under current policy, a transgender or intersex inmate’s own views with respect to his or her own safety must be given serious consideration when BOP makes housing and programming assignments.”

Part of the problem, activists say, is that there is a “patchwork” of federal and state regulations that is often “exploited to ignore the transgender person who is unsafe,” explains Heng-Lehtinen.

This patchwork includes the federal government’s Transgender Offender Manual, which the Trump Administration revised in 2018 to roll back protections for trans people in custody. It required officials “use biological sex as the initial determination” for housing placement, but it did not define the term “biological sex” — a controversial term for which there is not one standard set of medical criteria.

Despite the Biden administration’s assurances that they want to improve the quality of life for transgender Americans, it has not yet revised these Trump-era regulations or issued a new Transgender Offender Manual.

“We do expect the Biden administration to update and fix the Transgender Offender Manual,” says Heng-Lehtinen, who says the NCTE has been working closely with the Biden administration and Department of Justice to make these changes.

Salcedo is now the CEO and President of Los Angeles-based TransLatin@ Coalition, an organization dedicated to improving the conditions of trans people in America. She says revising the Transgender Offender Manual is a good start, but not enough.

“More than that, it’s important that we understand the reasons why trans people are incarcerated: we are criminalized because of who we are. An alternative to that is to provide trans people with the resources and support that we need, rather than… having to resort to survival which gets us put in prison.”

State level action

Individual states are also working on legislation requiring their state corrections facilities to house transgender people in the place they feel safest. That includes SB 132 in California, which Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law in September of 2020, effective January 1. This law requires transgender, non-binary and intersex prisoners to be housed in “a correctional facility designated for men or women based on the individual’s preference,” according to the bill text. It also requires all carceral staff to address prisoners by their correct gender pronouns and to search prisoners in a way consistent with their gender identity.

But activists say this law is also unevenly implemented.

“Since I’ve been out, I’ve been hearing stories of trans people being assaulted …, being stripped out,” or strip searched, by male correctional officers says Jones, alleging that is happening because the trans women are still being housed in men’s facilities with officers who are men. “Even though SB 132 is now law, they are not implementing it right. They need to be held accountable for that. People are really under attack now.”

A transgender woman placed in a men’s prison after alleging abuse has been moved to a women’s facility

Jennifer Orthwein, a public interest attorney in California, and now a friend of Jones, filed a lawsuit on June 11 on behalf of a currently incarcerated trans woman, Syiaah Skylit, and the entire class of trans prisoners in similar situations in California.

“As people have begun to assert their rights under SB 132, they have been met with severe retaliation, distressing delays, tactics intended to police their genders, dangerous rumors and misinformation, and systemic outing of transgender, nonbinary and intersex people,” Orthwein tells CNN.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation tells CNN, “CDCR has remained committed to providing a safe, humane, rehabilitative and secure environment for all transgender, non-binary, and intersex people housed in the state’s correctional facilities… All housing transfer requests are being reviewed by a multi-disciplinary team to include institution leadership, mental health professionals, and Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA) Compliance Managers. We’ve also developed and provided specialized training to staff to ensure they are aware of laws and departmental policies and to give them the knowledge and tools they need when interacting with the incarcerated transgender community.”

According to the court filing, “Defendants and the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (“CDCR”) have repeatedly tortured, sexually assaulted, threatened, and pepper sprayed Plaintiff Syiaah Skylit, a 30-year-old Black transgender woman.” Orthwein says Skylit has attempted suicide and gone on a hunger strike.

On the day the lawsuit was filed and CNN requested comment, Skylit was informed that her transfer request was approved and she will be transferred within the next few days, according to Orthwein.

“CDCR cannot comment on pending litigation, nor can we comment on a specific incarcerated person’s housing requests. But again, we take the health and safety of all those in our care very seriously and are ensuring thorough reviews are completed for each request.”

According to CDCR, out of 1,277 incarcerated individuals that identify as transgender, non-binary or intersex, 272 have requested gender-based housing transfer requests. 265 are from people being housed at male institutions requesting to be transferred to female institutions and seven are from people being housed at female institutions requesting transfer to a male facility.

CDCR says that a total of 33 requests have been approved and 19 of those approved incarcerated people have already been transferred. They say the remaining 239 requests are “being evaluated.”

While both lawsuits and policy efforts are underway to ameliorate the conditions for transgender, non-binary and intersex people behind bars, advocates say lives are at stake.

“The need is urgent,” Heng-Lehtinen says. “There are trans people behind bars right now suffering.”

“We want people to understand that we are under no delusion that this bill will make prisons safe for anyone, including gender variant people,” Orthwein says. “We just hope that this bill makes it possible for transgender, nonbinary and intersex people to survive prison with as much of their mental and bodily integrity intact as possible.”

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Opinion: I can’t forgive the people who won’t admit my partner, Brian Sicknick, was a hero

Apadana Central — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 11:06:35 +0000

News | Apadana Media

When we finally were ready to meet for our first date, he made an odd request. Meet for breakfast? I came to learn that breakfast was his favorite meal of the day, particularly blueberry pancakes. Brian was very quiet, shy almost, and had an innocence about him that was incredibly endearing. We bonded over our love of animals, our military experience, and our passion for helping others — he as an officer, me as a clinical social worker.

Soon, we moved in together — for 11 years, through the good, the bad and the ugly, the belly laughs, birthdays, Thanksgivings, Christmases, road trips, vacations, heartbreaking losses and moves to new homes. Last July we took a break from our relationship to figure out our futures. He kept our dachshunds; I babysat them when he worked late. We remained incredibly close.

On the morning of January 6, 2021, Brian reminded me that I needed to stay overnight to be with the dachshunds because there were pro-Trump protests happening over the outcome of the election. He said he would not be coming home until late the following day.

02 Sandra Garza brian sicknick

I was busy at work, so I didn’t follow the news that day. Then Brian’s mother, Gladys, called me — frantic — asking me to get in touch with him. “There is something going on at the Capitol,” she said. I assumed it was nothing serious; over our 11 years, it was not uncommon for something to be going on at his job — and Brian was always OK. I reached out and asked him to contact his mother. He did and I went back to my work.

Later that evening, the call came: the worst phone call of my life. It was from a US Capitol Police Officer who told me that Brian was in the hospital. I couldn’t comprehend what I was hearing. He said he would send an officer to my house. As I waited on pins and needles, I was finally met by a Virginia state trooper who could give me no information about what had happened to Brian. She escorted me to the hospital.

When I arrived at the ER, there was no one there to greet me. I told a woman behind a desk why I was there. She asked me to sign in and sit down. I explained the severity of the situation, trying my best to remain calm. Thankfully, the kindness of the state trooper helped ground me in a very agonizing, frustrating moment.

Eventually, I was greeted by the ER physician who told me the terrible news that Brian was on a ventilator and I could not see him because of Covid restrictions. I notified Brian’s mother, who immediately drove with her sister to the hospital. They also were not allowed to see Brian. The rest of his family soon arrived. Brian died the next day.

In the days after his death, I was further shocked and saddened to learn Capitol Police Officer Howard Leibengood and DC Police Officer Jeffrey Smith had died by suicide.

Devastated over the loss of Brian and drowning in grief, I took two months off from work. There were times I didn’t want to get up in the morning, didn’t want to face my life without Brian in it. I also did not watch any of the January 6 footage because I had heard so many terrible things about it and didn’t think I could psychologically handle it.

But before his memorial a month later, something came over me: I wanted to see everything I could and understand what happened that day. As I watched the videos, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I saw officers being brutalized and beaten, and protesters defying orders to stay back from entering the Capitol. All the while, I kept thinking, “Where is the President? Why is it taking so long for the National Guard to arrive? Where is the cavalry!?”

As the months passed, my deep sadness turned to outright rage as I watched Republican members of Congress lie on TV and in remarks to reporters and constituents about what happened that day. Over and over they denied the monstrous acts committed by violent protesters.

I was further angered when Officer Billy Evans was killed in early April at the Capitol, rammed by a driver at the North barricade of the Capitol Complex. The assailant, who was killed by police, reportedly struggled with mental health issues and was not apparently part of the January 6 riot, though he held strong political ideologies, his family said. But it felt very much to me that the attack and Officer Evans’ death was directly related to the events of January 6, that people were newly emboldened to vent their life frustrations with the government by attacking innocent officers who diligently protect the Capitol daily. Still, I kept largely silent out of respect for Officer Evans’ family.

When I learned of the proposal to create a January 6 commission to investigate the attack, and understood the importance of what this bill would accomplish, I finally felt compelled to speak out, along with Gladys, to encourage the Republican Senators to vote yes.

I knew it would not be comfortable or easy being in the public eye, but my desire for justice outweighed any discomfort I felt. As we went door to door to their offices several weeks ago ahead of the vote, some Republican senators were very pleasant and polite. Others were dismissive, and others could barely hide their disdain.

Since those meetings, only a handful of Republican senators showed that they possessed the moral compass to do the right thing by voting yes, putting America first, and showing warmth and compassion for the officers (as well as their families) who protect them daily.

By denying or downplaying the viciousness and trauma that occurred on January 6, members of Congress and the people who continue echoing their false narrative are engaging in a specific kind of psychological harm that is familiar to people who work in mental health. It’s known as “secondary wounding.” Secondary wounding, described by psychologist Aphrodite Matsakis, occurs when people “minimize or discount the magnitude of the event, its meaning to the victim, [or] its impact on the victim’s life.”

United States Capitol Police Officer Brian D. Sicknick passed away after confronting pro-Trump protesters on Jan. 6.

Make no mistake: All of the officers and people who were physically harmed, terrified, psychologically destabilized or lost loved ones due to that day are literally being re-traumatized every time someone speaks untrue words to describe what happened on January 6.

For those lawmakers who voted no, I will continue to speak out to remind them and those Americans who support them, of the horrors of that day and the trauma that continues in the minds of those that suffered in the battle in the very seat of American democracy. This not only includes the officers, but fellow senators and congressmen and women, as well as the innocent employees who were in the Capitol that day who were terrified and wondered if they, too, would make it home that day.

Brian was a proud American and loved his country. He continued his service long after his time in the military by becoming a US Capitol Police Officer, serving the American people and members of Congress — and protecting democracy.

To know that some members of Congress — along with the former President, Donald Trump, who Brian and I once supported but who can only now be viewed as the mastermind of that horrible attack — are not acknowledging Brian’s heroism that day is unforgivable and un-American.

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Compensation for Families of Ukrainian Plane Crash Victims to Be Paid in Full: Iran’s Judiciary

Apadana Central — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 12:52:51 +0000

Iranian Judiciary | Apadana Media

The spokesperson for the Iranian Judiciary unveiled plans to pay the families of victims of a Ukrainian jetliner that crashed near Tehran in January 2020 the whole amount of the allocated compensation prior to a court verdict.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Gholamhossein Esmaeili said “a hundred percent of the compensation” allotted to the families of victims of the doomed Ukrainian plane crash will be paid.

Making those payments before the final court ruling is an advantage and positive point, the Judiciary spokesman added.

He also noted that detailed investigations have been conducted into all aspects of the crash case, which has come to court.

It is not appropriate for other countries to comment on the case as the judicial process is under way in Iran, Esmaeili added.

The competent body allowed to deal with the case is the Iranian court, he emphasized.

In December 2020, the Iranian administration agreed to pay the families of every victim of the Ukrainian plane $150,000 in compensation.

Earlier, in August, Deputy Foreign Minister for International and Legal Affairs Mohsen Baharvand had said international documents and treaties would be the criteria for the sum of compensation that Iran is going to pay the families of victims.

The Kiev-bound UIA Boeing 737 crashed shortly after taking off from Tehran on January 8, 2020, killing all 176 people on board, mostly Iranian and Canadian citizens.

Iran said the plane was hit by an anti-aircraft missile due to human error.

News | Apadana Media

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COVID Daily Death Toll in Iran Stands at 134

Apadana Central — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 12:51:14 +0000

COVID News | Apadana Media

The coronavirus pandemic claimed 134 lives in Iran over the past 24 hours.

Providing the latest statistics on the coronavirus infection, the Health Ministry’s spokeswoman said on Tuesday that the total number of people tested positive for COVID-19 in the country has surpassed 3,049,000 after the detection of 10,216 new cases since yesterday.

Sima Sadat Lari said the pandemic has claimed 134 lives over the past 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 82,351.

More than 2,683,200 patients have recovered from the coronavirus infection so far or have been discharged from hospitals across Iran, Lari noted.

Among those undergoing treatment at present, 3,394 are being kept in the Intensive Care Units of medical centers because of critical health conditions, she said.

The spokeswoman also said more than 21.81 million coronavirus diagnostic tests have been carried out in Iran so far and over 4.36 million people have received the first dose of coronavirus vaccine.

The number of people infected with COVID-19 across the world has surpassed 177 million and the death toll has exceeded 3.82 million.

News | Apadana Media

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Rouhani Unveils Plan for Document on Economic War Crimes against Iran

Apadana Central — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 12:49:14 +0000

News | Apadana Media

As a victim of sanctions and a fierce economic war, Iran is going to release a document on the crimes it has faced under the inhumane and unprecedented sanctions imposed by the US, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said.

Speaking at a Tuesday meeting of the Administration’s Economic Coordination Headquarters, Hassan Rouhani said it is necessary to present the public with “the document on the crime of imposing economic war” on Iran and the criminals who imposed such unprecedented and inclusive sanctions, in order to inform the whole world about the Trump administration’s anti-human crimes against the Iranian nation.

Pointing to the dire consequences of the economic war on Iran’s economic development and the lives of people, the president said, “Crime against humanity is normally perceived by the public opinion as war and military clashes, while the sanctions and economic war should also be considered and registered as a silent crime against humanity.”

“Iran, as a victim of such an inhumane measure, will present the world with the document on the crime committed by the imposers of sanctions,” he stated.

Hailing the Iranian nation’s resistance and his administration’s handling of the situation against the economic war and sanctions, Rouhani said, “Apart from the document on Trump’s crimes that obstructed a country and a nation’s development and progress and harmed the livelihood of people and even the health and medical sector, the document on the resistance and management of the fight against the economic war should also be presented to the world.”

Iran has been under a series of illegal sanctions imposed by the US since 2018, when ex-president Donald Trump withdrew Washington from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The US unleashed the so-called maximum pressure campaign and targeted the Iranian nation with the “toughest ever” restrictive measures.

News | Apadana Media

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