“Sen. Rubio, my daughter, running down the hallway at Marjory Douglas, was shot with an assault weapon, the weapon of choice,” Guttenberg said after Rubio voiced his opposition to such legislation. “It is too easy to get. It is a weapon of war. The fact that you can stand here and can’t say that, I’m sorry.”
Kentucky Democrats on Tuesday reclaimed a rural district in the state House of Representatives that went heavily for President TrumpDonald John TrumpTillerson: Russia already looking to interfere in 2018 midterms Dems pick up deep-red legislative seat in Missouri Speier on Trump’s desire for military parade: ‘We have a Napoleon in the making’ MORE in 2016.
Linda Belcher (D), a former state legislator who lost her seat in the Trump landslide in Kentucky, reclaimed the Bullitt County district by a more than two-to-one margin, defeating her GOP opponent Rebecca Johnson 68 percent to 32 percent.
The Democrat had lost her seat in 2016 by just 150 votes, or less than 1 percentage point, even as Trump carried the district with 72 percent of the vote there compared to Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonTrump touts report Warner attempted to talk to dossier author Poll: Nearly half of Iowans wouldn’t vote for Trump in 2020 Rubio on Warner contact with Russian lobbyist: It’s ‘had zero impact on our work’ MORE‘s 23 percent. Sen. Rand PaulRandal (Rand) Howard PaulPentagon: War in Afghanistan will cost billion in 2018 Overnight Finance: Senators near two-year budget deal | Trump would ‘love to see a shutdown’ over immigration | Dow closes nearly 600 points higher after volatile day | Trade deficit at highest level since 2008 | Pawlenty leaving Wall Street group Rand Paul calls for punishment if Congress can’t reach a long-term budget deal MORE (R-Ky.) also won the district in 2016 with 64 percent of the vote.
Tuesday’s special election in the state’s House District 49 was held to replace former state Rep. Dan JohnsonDan JohnsonKentucky state lawmaker kills himself after denying sexual misconduct allegations: report MORE (R), who killed himself in December. Johnson, a pastor at a local church, had been accused of sexual abuse against a member of his congregation. He strongly denied the accusations, though he killed himself just days after local media reported the allegations.
Johnson’s widow, Rebecca Johnson, said she would run to replace her husband less than 24 hours after his death.
Belcher previously held the seat from 2008 to 2012 and from 2014 to 2016, when she lost to Dan Johnson.
Her victory Tuesday is the latest in a series of Democratic victories in special elections across the country over the past year.
The Kentucky district is the 18th formerly Republican-held district to fall into Democratic hands in a special election since Trump won election, a growing trend Democrats see as proof of their party’s momentum heading into the midterm elections. In 2018 alone, Democrats have won Republican-held state legislative districts in Missouri, Wisconsin and Florida.
“Flipping a seat that Trump won by such a considerable margin in 2016 shows the sea change happening across America in 2018,” said Jessica Post, the executive director of the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee. “Voters are speaking up about what they want to see in their elected leaders and volunteering their time and money to change the election maps.”
“When you have great candidates like Linda Belcher, results like tonight’s win are no surprise,” said Rocky Adkins, the Kentucky state House Democratic leader. “Tonight’s victory is also the first step of our journey to take back the Kentucky House of Representatives, and a week from tonight, during the next special election, we intend to take the second step.”
Kentucky Democrats have a lot more than two steps to go before they get within shouting distance of control of the state House. The chamber –– controlled by Democrats for a century before Republicans took over after the 2016 elections –– now has just 37 Democrats among its 100 members.
Updated: 8:29 p.m.
They have yet to be sentenced and have committed to cooperating with the special counsel. It was unclear on Tuesday to what extent Mr. van der Zwaan is cooperating, but his plea agreement does not compel him to do so.
Mr. van der Zwaan’s gilt-edged life was based in London, where he worked for Skadden and lived with his wife after they were married last summer in a lavish English countryside wedding featured in the Russian edition of Tatler magazine. A 2006 law school graduate of King’s College London, he speaks four languages: Russian, Dutch, English and French.
His father-in-law, German Khan, who was born in Ukraine, is an owner of Alfa Group, Russia’s largest financial and industrial investment group. He was on a recent Treasury Department roster of prominent Russian officials and oligarchs.
Tuesday’s court hearing left many questions unanswered about Mr. van der Zwaan, including why he failed to be forthcoming to federal investigators about his communications with Mr. Gates and a second person who was identified by prosecutors only as “a longtime business associate of Manafort and Gates in Ukraine.”
Mr. van der Zwaan’s lies involved a 2012 report prepared by Skadden and used to defend Mr. Yanukovych, then the Russia-aligned president of Ukraine, from international criticism over the prosecution and incarceration of one of his political rivals, former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko. State Department officials criticized the report, which purported to be the result of the law firm’s independent research, as a misleading account of the actions of Mr. Yanukovych’s government.
Mr. Mueller’s team scrutinized the report as part of its examination of the business dealings of Mr. Manafort and Mr. Gates in Ukraine, where Mr. Manafort worked for about a decade as a political consultant before he joined the Trump campaign. Among other charges, both men have been accused of “using one of their offshore accounts to funnel $4 million to pay secretly” for the report. It is unclear how much, if any, of that money went to Skadden or other firms with which they worked.
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The Ukrainian authorities had begun their own investigation into payments for the report after Mr. Yanukovych fled Ukraine for Russia amid a popular uprising in 2014.
Mr. van der Zwaan told the special counsel on Nov. 3 that he had not spoken to Mr. Gates since mid-August 2016, even though Mr. Gates had called him the following month instructing him to get in contact with an unidentified mutual acquaintance, court papers show.
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He also told prosecutors that he had not talked to that same acquaintance since 2014, even though he called that person in September 2016 to discuss possible criminal charges against Mr. Manafort, a law firm and a former Ukrainian justice minister. The phone conversation, conducted in Russian, was important enough that Mr. van der Zwaan recorded it, according to court papers. Mr. van der Zwaan followed up by calling Mr. Gates, recording that conversation as well.
One of those conversations involved payments that were described as “the tip of the iceberg,” Andrew Weissmann, a prosecutor in Mr. Mueller’s office, said in court. He did not elaborate.
Mr. van der Zwaan also acknowledged that he lied when he told investigators that he had only a “passive role in the rollout of the report,” according to court papers. In fact, prosecutors said, he had discussed with Mr. Gates and others how to publicize the report to make it appear less damning to Mr. Yanukovych’s government, including describing any mishandling of Ms. Tymoshenko’s prosecution as no more than “procedural” errors. Part of the strategy, Mr. Weissmann said in court, was to give an advance copy of the report to The New York Times.
The law firm’s work was being investigated by Ukraine’s top prosecutor, which asked the Department of Justice for help in questioning eight lawyers named as authors of the report, including Mr. van der Zwaan, according to documents reviewed by The Times.
Among the others were Gregory B. Craig, who served as President Barack Obama’s White House counsel, and Clifford M. Sloan, who also worked in the Obama administration. Both Mr. Craig and Mr. Sloan declined to comment.
The Ukrainian officials claimed that Mr. Yanukovych’s government circumvented contracting rules by initially agreeing to pay Skadden a fee that was less than the threshold for competitive bidding — reportedly about $12,000 — then later paying the firm a total of nearly $1.1 million.
Last year, the law firm refunded $567,000 to the Ukrainian government. The firm said the refund represented “the balance of Ukraine’s payment, which had been held in escrow for future work.”
A sentencing hearing for Mr. van der Zwaan was set for April 3.
The charges against him were the seventh criminal case that Mr. Mueller’s team has brought since October. Last week, the special counsel’s office indicted 13 Russians and three companies on charges of interfering in the 2016 United States election with a sophisticated influence campaign on popular social media platforms. An American, Richard Pinedo, of Santa Paula, Calif., also pleaded guilty to identity fraud regarding some bank accounts used by the Russians in their influence campaign.
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In Florida on Tuesday, the State House rejected efforts to immediately consider a bill to ban assault rifles even as students from Stoneman Douglas High School watched from the gallery. But the vote was on an unusual procedural motion, and legislative leaders said they would consider other gun control measures before the session ends in March.
At the White House, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the president’s spokeswoman, said the president was determined to find ways to protect Americans, and especially children, from gunmen. Asked about a broader ban on assault weapons, Ms. Sanders said the White House has not “closed the door on any front.”
“Bump stocks” are attachments that enable semiautomatic rifles to fire faster, almost like machine guns. Twelve of the rifles found in the hotel room of the Las Vegas gunman were fitted with the devices.
Despite the day’s developments, there was deep skepticism in Washington that anything would change because of the long history of inaction by state and federal politicians after similar mass shootings. Gun control activists said they were braced for another disappointing battle with lawmakers.
The president, they noted, promised unwavering fealty last year to the National Rifle Association, drawing thunderous applause at its annual convention by declaring, “To the N.R.A., I can proudly say I will never, ever let you down.” The group in turn enthusiastically endorsed Mr. Trump and spent $30 million on his campaign.
Senator Christopher S. Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, who sponsored the latest background check measure with Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, said he was unimpressed by Mr. Trump’s openness to it. “Let’s not pretend this is some huge concession on his part,” he said. “If this is all the White House is willing to do to address gun violence, it’s wholly insufficient.”
The background check bill, which seeks to improve the existing database used to prevent gun purchases by criminals and the mentally ill, is a small nod in the direction of gun control that does nothing to close loopholes that allow millions of gun sales without a background check. Last year, N.R.A. officials said they were fine with it.
It is also unclear whether Mr. Trump’s statement of support for the measure, which included a desire for some “revisions,” might be linked to other legislation that the N.R.A. backs. In the House, a similar background check measure was combined with legislation that would effectively allow people to legally carry concealed weapons in all 50 states.
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That legislation is the top priority for the N.R.A., and gun control activists have promised to fight it aggressively.
“That normalizes the carrying of guns on all American streets,” said John Feinblatt, the president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a group that advocates gun control measures. He said joining the two measures would be a “craven” bait-and-switch and “disrespectful for all the families” of the Florida school that suffered through last week’s shooting.
The president’s bump stock announcement surprised the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which did not appear to have been informed of the pending remarks from Mr. Trump. The Justice Department announced a review of the devices in early December. Led by the A.T.F., the review sought to determine whether the bureau — which is responsible for policing firearms — was able to regulate the devices without action from Congress.
Under the Obama administration, the bureau had determined it could not regulate them. Given that prior position, A.T.F. officials had indicated privately in the months after the Las Vegas massacre that any ban of bump stocks would require new legislation.
Bump stocks were not used on the rifle in the shooting last week in Florida, the authorities said.
Mr. Trump’s announcement on Tuesday appeared to short-circuit the agency’s review. The A.T.F. had not yet determined whether it had the authority to ban the devices when Mr. Trump directed Mr. Sessions to draft a regulation doing so.
In a statement, an A.T.F. official said she was “not authorized to comment on pending legislation, legislative proposals or the possibility of executive action.” A Justice Department spokesman said that the department “understands this is a priority for the president.”
The shooting in Florida prompted the White House to highlight the administration’s actions as students from the school included Mr. Trump among the politicians they criticized for failing to keep them safe.
In an impassioned speech on Saturday, Emma Gonzalez, a senior at the school, assailed the president’s N.R.A. ties and accused him of setting a crass monetary value on the lives of gunshot victims by taking so much money from the gun-rights group.
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“If you don’t do anything to prevent this from continuing to occur, that number of gunshot victims will go up and the number that they are worth will go down,” Ms. Gonzalez said on Saturday at a rally for gun control. “And we will be worthless to you.”
With funerals underway for those who died at the Florida high school, Mr. Trump said that he plans to host a “listening session” on Wednesday with high school students and teachers at the White House. He is scheduled to meet on Thursday with state and local officials to discuss school safety.
Ms. Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that the session on Wednesday will include students and parents from the Florida school as well as people affected by school shootings at Columbine High School in Colorado and Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn. She did not say whether any of the student activists who have been critical of Mr. Trump were invited to the White House.
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In an opinion earlier in February, the state Supreme Court wrote that Pennsylvania’s congressional districts need, at minimum, to be compact and contiguous, to contain roughly the same number of people, and to not split counties and other communities unnecessarily. A map was unconstitutional, the court said, when it prioritized partisan advantage over those criteria.
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As investigators dig into Florida school shooting suspect Nikolas Cruz’s background, more and more instances have emerged in which state and federal officials apparently missed opportunities to stop his runaway obsession to, as the alleged killer purportedly stated in a 6-month-old comment on a YouTube video, “be a professional school shooter.”
“This kid, in his own way, was screaming out in every way the mind knows how to scream out. He did everything, including saying, ‘I want to go and shoot people in school,'” Cruz’s attorney Howard Finkelstein told ABC News. “I don’t know what you can do more than that to get somebody’s attention.”
Among the growing list of warning signs either detailed by public statements from officials or public records are:
— An admission by the FBI that it was given two tips on Cruz’s potential for violence, including the September comment on the YouTube video, which the FBI said it investigated but could not verify who posted it. The bureau also said on Friday that a Jan. 5 tip that came across its Public Access Line, warning that Cruz might be planning a “school shooting” and detailing his guns, was not passed on to its Miami field office and was never investigated.
— A report in August 2016 by the Florida Department of Children and Family that shows the agency investigated a Snapchat post showing Cruz cutting his arms and was told by Cruz that he “plans to go out and buy a gun.” The agency determined Cruz “to be stable enough not to be hospitalized,” according to the DCF report obtained by The Associated Press.
— Investigators dissecting Cruz’s social media accounts since the mass shooting have found posts that Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel described to ABC News as “very, very disturbing.”
— Broward County School District officials saying Cruz was reprimanded regularly while a student at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School and eventually expelled. Jim Gard, a math teacher at the school, told ABC News he believes Cruz had been banned from bringing a backpack to school when he was a student there.
— At least 20 calls for service in the last few years regarding Cruz for a variety of disturbance complaints, including fighting with his mother, who died in November after contracting pneumonia, authorities said. In a police report from Sept. 28, 2016, a therapist who went on one of the calls cleared Cruz, concluding he was “no threat to anyone or himself.”
— One of Cruz’s classmates told ABC News that about a year ago, Cruz told him, “I swear to God I’ll shoot up this school.” But the student did not report the threat to school officials after Cruz apologized for making it, the student said.
During a gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale on Saturday, Emma Gonzalez, a student at Stoneman Douglas, told a crowd that students had reported Cruz numerous times for his behavior.
“We did, time and time again since he was in middle school,” Emma said. “It was no surprise to anyone who knew him to hear he was the shooter.”
Robert Runcie, the Broward County School District superintendent, declined to comment on Cruz specifically, but told ABC News in an interview on Sunday, that the district follows up on all complaints about students.
“They are disciplined, they are reviewed,” Runcie said. “In schools, we provide counseling and support to the greatest extent possible.
“But there are limitations for what we can do at a legal standpoint right now,” Runcie said. “If a student has serious issues, we collaborate when appropriate with law enforcement agencies on when to take action. But the big challenge, I believe, is that we have various agencies, including the school system, that are working really hard but in silos.”
Runcie said there isn’t a system available in which the schools, law enforcement, social service agencies and mental health agencies share information that could possibly connect the dots about a particular student.
“We’re gonna certainly review this and all of us in our respective areas are gonna figure out how we can improve on what we are doing,” Runcie said. “But at the end of the day, there’s got to be legislation, there has to be some type of infrastructure built so that we’re all working smarter instead of just harder in our own silos, if you will.”
Israel told ABC News that he’s ordered an investigation into all 20 calls regarding Cruz to “look at what our deputies did, and if our deputies acted inappropriately, or missed and didn’t do what our leaders think they should’ve done.”
But Israel said his deputies often find their “hands are tied” by laws. He said the state’s Baker Act — which gives law enforcement the ability to involuntarily take someone suffering from mental illness to a facility to be examined if they are an immediate threat to themselves or others — needs to be expanded.
“We have to be able to when we read disturbing texts, when somebody says ‘I want to be a school killer’… we need the ability to involuntarily Baker Act someone for what we think they might do,” Israel said. “That has to be done in this day and age.”
But Israel said nothing will change unless Congress acts to strengthen gun laws to keep weapons out of the hands of people with a history of mental illness.
“They deserve and we deserve to have them confined, and when they’re examined and somebody says they’re ready to be released, they should be released and they shouldn’t be able to come over with an order and have us give them their handguns,” Israel said.
“They’re not better three or seven days later,” he said. “They’re not better, they’re not healed. We don’t know what’s gonna happen. We need to keep their guns.”
“I’d like everyone to know about my husband,” she said in an interview with Znak, a Russian news site. “And not only about my husband, but about all the boys who died there so stupidly. Where were they sent to, and why? They didn’t even have protection, they were like pigs sent to slaughter!”
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President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump arriving for a state dinner last November with China’s President Xi Jinping and China’s first lady Peng Liyuan in Beijing.
(REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst, File)
President Donald Trump has boasted repeatedly about his big and powerful “nuclear button” — but according to a new report, it almost got away from him last year in China.
According to Axios, five sources said that on Nov. 9, during Trump’s visit to Beijing’s Great Hall of the People, Chief of Staff John Kelly and a U.S. Secret Service agent had a “skirmish” with Chinese security officials over the so-called nuclear “football,” which helps set a nuclear strike order in motion.
When the U.S. military aide carrying the football entered the Great Hall, Axios reported, Chinese security officials blocked his entry.
Kelly, in the adjoining room, was told, and the former United States Marine Corps general rushed over and told U.S. officials to keep walking, according to Axios.
“We’re moving in,” Kelly said — and his team all started moving.
A Chinese security official then grabbed Kelly, and Kelly shoved the man’s hand off of his body, according to Axios. Then a U.S. Secret Service agent grabbed that Chinese security official, and tackled him to the ground.
Axios reported that at no point did the Chinese have the nuclear football in their possession or even touch the briefcase.
The process for launching a nuclear strike is secret and complex. The nuclear football is carried by a rotating group of military officers everywhere the president goes and is equipped with communication tools and a book with prepared war plans.
If the president were to order a strike, he would identify himself to military officials at the Pentagon with codes unique to him. Those codes are recorded on a card known as the “biscuit” that is carried by the president at all times. He then would transmit the launch order to the Pentagon and Strategic Command.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.