Trump plays down Air Force One plane switch as criticism grows over ‘decoy’ passengers – US politics live | US news
Trump says Secret Service and military wanted him off Air Force One in Turkey due to threat
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
President Donald Trump said he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat that he insisted didn’t scare him.
When US intelligence allegedly found a credible threat that Iran plotted to kill him last month, Trump left Air Force One in a catering truck, an episode first reported by the Washington Post and also by the New York Times.
Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge, as well as the risk to the people – White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters – he left on the plane, AP reported.
“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter.
“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.”
While the president was reportedly snuck out the side door of the plane, more than a hundred aides, officials and reporters were kept onboard to fly towards Britain, without being told there was a threat to their lives.
It comes as Democrats called for a congressional briefing over a stunning charade. Critics now question why reporters and the public had been deliberately misled.
“It appears that the idea was we can reduce the danger to president Trump by offering up 100 or so people to be killed by the Iranians in his place,” said Steven Cash, executive director of the Steady State and a former CIA intelligence officer and senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence branch.
Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, called the operation “unprecedented and surreal” and “downright scary” on CNN. “There has to be a congressional briefing because it involves not just the safety of the president.
“I want to know what precautions were taken to make sure that all of the passengers on that Air Force One, which was judged too dangerous for the president to fly on, what precautions were taken to keep the staff and reporters on that plane safe?”
Read our full story here:
In other developments:
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David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, pulled off a last-minute victory after re-entering the Wisconsin governor’s race and snagging an endorsement from Tony Evers, the outgoing governor. The race came down to the wire, with Francesca Hong and Crowley running close to each other as each batch of results came in. Republican Tom Tiffany easily secured his party’s nomination.
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In Minnesota, lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan handily won the Democratic primary for US Senate, beating moderate US representative Angie Craig in a race animated by anti-ICE sentiment. She will face Michele Tafoya in the general.
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In the Republican bid for Minnesota governor, House speaker Lisa Demuth scored an upset, beating pillow salesman Mike Lindell, who had gotten Trump’s endorsement. She will face Amy Klobuchar in the general.
And in hotly contested congressional races:
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Luke Bronin beat incumbent John Larson in Connecticut’s first congressional district.
-
Matt Little won a three-way race in Craig’s district, Minnesota’s third congressional district.
-
Michael Alfonso, the 26-year-old son-in-law of transportation secretary Sean Duffy, won the Republican nomination in Tiffany’s district, Wisconsin’s seventh congressional district.
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Rebecca Cooke won the Democratic primary in her third try to unseat Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s toss-up third congressional district.
Key events
Darline Graham to face Ralph Norman in South Carolina Republican primary runoff
George Chidi
Senator Darline Graham, appointed to complete the Senate term of her late brother, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina will face congressman Ralph Norman in a runoff election for the Republican nomination.
Graham held a narrow lead in the polls going into the abbreviated special primary on Tuesday, which predicted a close contest for second place. Norman, Russell Fry, a congressman, and Mark Sanford, a former governor, had polled within a point of each other in the most recent survey from the Trafalgar Group.
The winner of the runoff on 25 August will face Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee and a pediatrician, in November.
Graham has loudly trumpeted her endorsement from Donald Trump, but also enjoys the support of South Carolina’s governor, Henry McMaster, and John Thune, the Senate majority leader. In recent interviews the political outsider sought to convince people that her experience, and focus on affordability, made her the right candidate.
“I ran a state agency. I turned it from a struggling agency into a national model. I think that’s great experience to bring to the table,” Graham said, addressing reporters after casting her ballot on Tuesday. She highlighted the passage of a sanctions bill targeting Russia during her short tenure in Washington. “I was the deciding vote on Todd Blanche as attorney general. So I think I’ve accomplished a whole lot in three weeks.”
Trump administration set to spend at least $900m on White House construction – report
President Donald Trump’s administration is to spend at least $900m for construction projects on the White House grounds, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing records.
Instead of securing money directly from Congress, the administration has gathered funding from other agencies and private donors and directed it to an account that holds a few million dollars for routine maintenance of the White House, the report said.
Confidential contracts and related planning documents indicate that the administration plans to use money in that account for White House “modernization projects,” the report added.
In July, Donald Trump hid in a catering truck and reportedly secretly switched planes in a security ruse prompted by a credible Iranian assassination threat.
In this video, the Guardian breaks down the footage from that day, showing how the president reportedly boarded the old Air Force One jumbo jet in view of television cameras and then was secretly shuttled minutes later to a smaller plane via an airport catering truck typically used to load meals and other supplies preflight.
Trump’s actual location was concealed from journalists and some White House staff, who thought they were traveling with Trump on the older plane.
Progressive Peggy Flanagan sweeps Minnesota Senate primary in race defined by anti-ICE anger
Rachel Leingang
Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor, won the Democratic primary for US Senate in a race centered on immigration enforcement after the Trump administration crackdown turned deadly and destructive earlier this year.
Flanagan ousted congresswoman Angie Craig in yet another example of progressive campaigns toppling moderates amid an anti-establishment wave among Democrats.
“It’s time to fight for what people actually need,” Flanagan recently told the Guardian. “And so often I think Democrats are like: ‘What do we think we can win?’ Instead of: ‘What are the fights that we should be picking?’”
Flanagan will now face Michele Tafoya, a Republican former National Football League sideline reporter, in November. If she wins, Flanagan will become the first Native American woman in the Senate.
Meanwhile, the state’s gubernatorial race proved a rebuke of Donald Trump’s endorsement power as Mike Lindell, an election denier and pillow salesman, lost to Lisa Demuth, the Minnesota house speaker. Demuth will face Amy Klobuchar, a Democratic US senator, in November, where Klobuchar is favored to win.
Lindell’s significant campaign liabilities had led his own party to speak out against his campaign. He is contending with ongoing defamation cases because of his election denialism, as well as a potential campaign finance violation for handing out free pillows at a parade. He recently stepped down as CEO of MyPillow, which faces legal claims for unpaid bills.
Minnesota leans Democratic. It has not elected a Republican statewide since 2006, when Tim Pawlenty won a second term as governor and a Republican presidential candidate has not won the state since 1972.
David Crowley defeats Francesca Hong to win Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor
Rachel Leingang
David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, won the Democratic primary for Wisconsin governor after beating the Democratic socialist Francesca Hong.
Crowley pulled off a last-minute victory after re-entering the campaign and snagging an endorsement from Tony Evers, the outgoing governor.
With most votes counted, Crowley had 39.8% of the vote, ahead of Hong’s 39.4%, according to the Associated Press: a lead of just more than 3,000 votes. The race came down to the wire, with Hong and Crowley running close to each other as each batch of results came in.
Polls had shown Hong as a clear frontrunner during the campaign, but with large chunks of voters still undecided and an ever-changing field of candidates, polling was difficult. Polls in Michigan had similarly shown the progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed with a more sizeable lead than he ended up with in his victory in the Democratic primary for US Senate.
Crowley’s pitch to voters in the waning weeks of the campaign was electability: he felt he was more poised to win against Tom Tiffany, a Republican congressman and ardent Trump supporter who ran unopposed in the Republican primary. Tiffany voted against certifying the results of the 2020 election, which Trump lost.
Crowley previously told the Guardian:
We knew that the stakes were too high for me to sit on the sideline, and that we need the best candidate, not just with executive leadership, but somebody who has a proven track record of getting things done. And that’s what voters want. They want someone they can trust. And that’s why we got back into this race.
Trump says Secret Service and military wanted him off Air Force One in Turkey due to threat
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
President Donald Trump said he slipped away from Air Force One after a trip last month in Turkey because the Secret Service and military wanted him on a “different plane” due to a threat that he insisted didn’t scare him.
When US intelligence allegedly found a credible threat that Iran plotted to kill him last month, Trump left Air Force One in a catering truck, an episode first reported by the Washington Post and also by the New York Times.
Trump downplayed the extraordinary nature of the subterfuge, as well as the risk to the people – White House officials, security and support staff, and reporters – he left on the plane, AP reported.
“They wanted me to go on a different flight, different plane,” Trump told reporters after returning from an event in Ohio, saying he had little choice in the matter.
“I guess there was a threat out there. I didn’t really ask too much about it,” he said. “I get a lot of threats.”
While the president was reportedly snuck out the side door of the plane, more than a hundred aides, officials and reporters were kept onboard to fly towards Britain, without being told there was a threat to their lives.
It comes as Democrats called for a congressional briefing over a stunning charade. Critics now question why reporters and the public had been deliberately misled.
“It appears that the idea was we can reduce the danger to president Trump by offering up 100 or so people to be killed by the Iranians in his place,” said Steven Cash, executive director of the Steady State and a former CIA intelligence officer and senior adviser to the Department of Homeland Security’s intelligence branch.
Richard Blumenthal, a Democratic senator for Connecticut, called the operation “unprecedented and surreal” and “downright scary” on CNN. “There has to be a congressional briefing because it involves not just the safety of the president.
“I want to know what precautions were taken to make sure that all of the passengers on that Air Force One, which was judged too dangerous for the president to fly on, what precautions were taken to keep the staff and reporters on that plane safe?”
Read our full story here:
In other developments:
-
David Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, pulled off a last-minute victory after re-entering the Wisconsin governor’s race and snagging an endorsement from Tony Evers, the outgoing governor. The race came down to the wire, with Francesca Hong and Crowley running close to each other as each batch of results came in. Republican Tom Tiffany easily secured his party’s nomination.
-
In Minnesota, lieutenant governor Peggy Flanagan handily won the Democratic primary for US Senate, beating moderate US representative Angie Craig in a race animated by anti-ICE sentiment. She will face Michele Tafoya in the general.
-
In the Republican bid for Minnesota governor, House speaker Lisa Demuth scored an upset, beating pillow salesman Mike Lindell, who had gotten Trump’s endorsement. She will face Amy Klobuchar in the general.
And in hotly contested congressional races:
-
Luke Bronin beat incumbent John Larson in Connecticut’s first congressional district.
-
Matt Little won a three-way race in Craig’s district, Minnesota’s third congressional district.
-
Michael Alfonso, the 26-year-old son-in-law of transportation secretary Sean Duffy, won the Republican nomination in Tiffany’s district, Wisconsin’s seventh congressional district.
-
Rebecca Cooke won the Democratic primary in her third try to unseat Derrick Van Orden in Wisconsin’s toss-up third congressional district.
