9(MDExMDI3NjQ1MDEzNjMwMjk0NzlhYzMyZg004))
RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Mike Bloomberg stepped onto the controversy stage final evening for the very first time, and his Democratic rivals wasted no time making an attempt to take him down.
DAVID GREENE, HOST:
No time in any respect. That is Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
ELIZABETH WARREN: A billionaire who calls ladies fats broads and horse-faced lesbians – and, no, I am not speaking about Donald Trump. I am speaking about Mayor Bloomberg.
GREENE: The controversy final evening was broadcast on NBC. And that assault from Warren was just the start.
MARTIN: We have NPR nationwide political correspondent Mara Liasson with us this morning. Hello, Mara.
MARA LIASSON, BYLINE: Hello there.
MARTIN: Primarily based on that clip from Warren, candidates had some pretty damning ammunition to throw at Bloomberg final evening.
LIASSON: They actually did. For individuals who have been anticipating this debate to be a sort of huge battle between the one two candidates with the sources to run the sort of nationwide race we’re about to enter – that is Mike Bloomberg and Bernie Sanders – that was not the largest battle.
MARTIN: (Laughter).
LIASSON: Principally, it was all people else in opposition to Mike Bloomberg. He took extra assaults from the opposite candidates, led, as you heard, by Elizabeth Warren. And this was the primary probability that Democrats needed to see Mike Bloomberg as a candidate, not as a tv business. And surprisingly, he was defensive. He was underwhelming. His marketing campaign appears to have acknowledged that. They really issued a press release final evening saying, quote, “he was simply warming up. We totally count on Mike to proceed to construct on tonight’s efficiency” when he seems on the subsequent debate. However he did not appear to command the stage or vault over the fees to current his personal biography and imaginative and prescient.
And there have been some powerful exchanges between Sanders and Bloomberg. Right here is one among them.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
BERNIE SANDERS: When we have now so many individuals who go to work day by day and so they really feel not good about their jobs, they really feel like cogs in a machine, I would like staff to have the ability to sit on company boards as properly to allow them to have some say over what occurs to their lives.
(APPLAUSE)
HALLIE JACKSON: Mayor Bloomberg, you personal a big firm. Would you assist what Senator Sanders is proposing?
MICHAEL BLOOMBERG: Completely not. I can not consider a ways in which would make it simpler for Donald Trump to get reelected than listening to this dialog.
LIASSON: So if that was a normal election, that might be a fairly sturdy argument. However this can be a Democratic major. And when it got here to closing arguments, that are the possibility for candidates to offer a 30-second model of their imaginative and prescient, Mike Bloomberg’s was fairly technocratic. He mentioned the nation wants a superb supervisor who can construct a workforce with expertise and credibility. He did not give his biography or a giant imaginative and prescient or an agenda.
MARTIN: What about Bernie Sanders? I imply, he is having fun with sort of a comfortable lead proper now. Does he profit when all the opposite candidates sort of pile onto Mike Bloomberg?
LIASSON: Sure, he actually does. He had a superb evening as a result of the controversy did not appear to have been a game-changer. There have been some moments the place he bought flustered and regarded thin-skinned when Bloomberg needled him. However for probably the most half, it was a round firing squad of candidates going after one another.
And one of many undercard fights was Amy Klobuchar versus Pete Buttigieg, who clearly can not stand one another in any respect. They spend treasured minutes going after one another as a substitute of uniting as centrists in opposition to Sanders. And for these center-left Democrats who’re combating for reelection in aggressive districts and states who’re hoping to have somebody on the prime of the ticket that may assist them – of their opinion, it is not Sanders – they actually did not get something out of final evening’s debate. So, sure, Sanders comes out along with his front-runner standing not significantly challenged after the primary time he stood subsequent to the one different candidate with the sources to go in opposition to him.
MARTIN: Simply briefly, on Elizabeth Warren – I imply, she wanted a robust efficiency. Her final debate, she did not actually get a whole lot of talking time. That modified final evening. However what’s her path proper now?
LIASSON: Effectively, I do not know what her path is, however she mentioned that she had her greatest fundraising evening final evening. Bear in mind; she ran in Iowa and New Hampshire as a unity candidate, and that failed. She went again to being a fighter in opposition to just about everybody else. She, together with Biden and Klobuchar and Buttigieg, nonetheless on the lookout for a breakout second. They clearly do not suppose the time is ripe but to unite round a center-left different to Sanders.
MARTIN: All proper. NPR’s Mara Liasson. Thanks, Mara.
LIASSON: Thanks.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: President Trump’s longtime buddy Roger Stone can be sentenced as we speak.
GREENE: And let’s simply keep in mind the buildup to at the present time and the entire controversy. President Trump weighed in, saying that Roger Stone ought to get a extra lenient sentence. Then the Justice Division revised its sentencing steering on this case, and the whole prosecution workforce give up in protest. There have been extra tweets from the president. There have been questions on Legal professional Basic William Barr’s independence. After which lastly, Barr does a TV interview and says the president’s tweets make it unattainable for him to do his job. And since then, greater than 2,000 former Justice Division officers have referred to as on the legal professional normal to resign.
MARTIN: NPR justice correspondent Ryan Lucas is within the studio. Hello, Ryan.
RYAN LUCAS, BYLINE: Hello there.
MARTIN: All proper. So all this back-and-forth in regards to the sentencing of Roger Stone – ultimately, although, all of it comes all the way down to the choose, proper? It’s her name to make as we speak.
LUCAS: That is proper. The choice on how a lot time Stone spends behind bars is as much as Decide Amy Berman Jackson. And she or he’ll check out an entire vary of issues to make her name on Stone’s sentence. Solely a type of components is the sentencing suggestion from the federal government that has been the supply of a lot controversy over this previous week. The Justice Division attorneys who prosecuted the case advisable seven to 9 years, as David referenced. The legal professional normal overruled them to ask for a lighter sentence, though the division deferred to the choose on how lengthy that needs to be. However lengthy story quick, sure, the decision right here is the choose’s.
MARTIN: Remind us what Roger Stone was convicted of.
LUCAS: So the case in opposition to Stone is definitely a part of the Russia investigation that was introduced by particular counsel Robert Mueller. Final yr, Stone was indicted on seven counts – obstruction, witness tampering and mendacity to Congress. And in November, a federal jury right here in D.C. discovered him responsible on all seven counts. The costs tie again into Stone’s efforts through the 2016 marketing campaign to get in contact with WikiLeaks in regards to the hundreds of Democratic emails that it had in the end launched through the race. The case in opposition to Stone – enjoyable reality – was the final particular person – he was the final particular person charged as a part of Mueller’s investigation.
MARTIN: So the president has tried to make this private, as he usually does. He is attacked Decide Jackson on Twitter. You have executed a whole lot of reporting on her. What have you ever realized about her expertise that would inform how she’s going to method the choice as we speak?
LUCAS: Effectively, I’ve spent hours within the courtroom together with her. She’s dealt with a number of of the Mueller circumstances, together with Paul Manafort’s case right here in D.C. These are extraordinarily high-profile circumstances, and he or she’s dealt with them with a fairly affected person and regular hand. I’ve additionally spoken to a variety of individuals who both know her or have tried circumstances in entrance of her. They are saying that she’s very good, she’s well-prepared and really a lot accountable for her courtroom. And so they inform me that she will not be intimidated. She can be clear in her pondering and make her determination on Stone’s sentencing primarily based on the information of the case and the legislation.
MARTIN: So Decide Jackson provides her determination as we speak, after which what? Roger Stone goes to jail? That is it?
LUCAS: That is usually how this may work, sure. However, in fact, there’s been hypothesis for a very long time – since Stone was really indicted – whether or not the president would in the end pardon him. Trump has actually made clear that he thinks that Stone’s a superb man and that he is gotten a mistaken deal and been horribly mistreated. The president’s emotions in regards to the Mueller investigation writ massive are actually clear. He feels that it has been a witch hunt. Trump has been requested repeatedly about whether or not he would pardon Stone. He hasn’t mentioned sure, however he pointedly additionally has not dominated it out.
MARTIN: Has not mentioned no. All proper. NPR’s Ryan Lucas for us. Thanks. We respect it.
LUCAS: Thanks.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
MARTIN: All proper. We’ll flip to Germany now as a result of there’s been a mass capturing within the city of Hanau. Eleven persons are useless, together with the suspected shooter. German media reviews that a web based video and a written confession linked to the suspect point out that he could have had a far-right motive.
GREENE: That is proper. In accordance with these media reviews, there’s this confession. And the suspect writes that sure races must be eradicated. Germany’s prosecutor’s workplace has reportedly taken cost of this investigation, and they are going to be holding a information convention later as we speak. German police mentioned they discovered the suspected shooter useless at his residence tackle. And so they additionally discovered a second individual useless there.
MARTIN: All proper. From Berlin, we have NPR’s Rob Schmitz on the road. Good morning, Rob.
ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Rachel.
MARTIN: All proper. So this simply occurred final evening. Clearly, particulars are nonetheless sketchy. However what are you able to inform us proper now?
SCHMITZ: Effectively, we all know that final evening at round 10 o’clock, a gunman opened fireplace at a hookah bar, after which at one other one within the metropolis of Hanau outdoors Frankfurt. He killed not less than 9 individuals and injured a number of others. Clientele at each bars are predominantly Turkish and Kurdish Germans. And after the shootings, the suspect then returned to his condominium, and that is the place police discovered his physique and the physique of his 72-year-old mom. Police imagine the suspect is a 43-year-old German citizen who’s a resident of Hanau. Authorities within the German state of Hesse say they’re investigating the crime as a possible right-wing extremist terror assault.
The inside minister of the state of Hesse, Peter Beuth, held a brief press convention this morning in regards to the capturing. And here is what he mentioned.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PETER BEUTH: (Talking German).
SCHMITZ: He is saying right here that flags all through the nation will fly at half-mast as we speak and that his deepest sympathies are with the households of the victims. And he needs the injured survivors fast and full recoveries.
MARTIN: So what are you able to inform us, Rob, about these reviews from German media that there was this letter that the suspected shooter left behind and a few sort of video?
SCHMITZ: Yeah, authorities have not confirmed this but, however a number of German media shops are reporting that police discovered a written confession on the suspect’s residence by which he wrote that sure races must be eradicated. They’re additionally reporting that he left a video indicating he was a racist and had right-wing extremist views.
MARTIN: I imply, clearly, Germany has been making an attempt to handle far-right-wing expression for…
SCHMITZ: Yeah.
MARTIN: …Generations. However it’s gotten worse over the previous couple of years, hasn’t it?
SCHMITZ: Yeah. Proper-wing extremism right here in Germany has been on the rise since 2015, when Chancellor Angela Merkel made the tough determination to permit a whole bunch of hundreds of migrants from war-torn international locations within the Center East and North Africa to seek out refuge right here. After that, there have been a string of terrorist assaults by Islamic extremists, after which that was adopted by terror assaults by right-wing extremists.
In accordance with authorities knowledge, the variety of right-wing extremists right here in Germany has risen by a 3rd final yr alone. German intelligence now suspects there are greater than 32,000 of them, and half are thought of doubtlessly violent with a excessive affinity for firearms. And this assault comes after one other capturing in Berlin 4 days in the past, and it comes 4 months after a right-wing extremist shot and killed two whereas making an attempt to assault a synagogue within the metropolis of Halle.
MARTIN: Simply briefly, is the German authorities or authorities making an attempt to method this downside another way?
SCHMITZ: Effectively, gun legal guidelines in Germany are among the many most stringent on the earth. And the federal government proper now’s planning an overhaul of its home intelligence and legislation enforcement businesses in an effort to crack down on right-wing extremism. So we’ll see extra about this within the coming months.
MARTIN: All proper. Rob Schmitz, worldwide correspondent in Berlin. Rob, we respect your reporting on this. Thanks.
SCHMITZ: Thanks, Rachel. Transcript offered by NPR, Copyright NPR.
The post News Brief: Democratic Debate, Stone Sentencing, German Shooting appeared first on Down The Middle News.
source https://downthemiddlenews.com/news-brief-democratic-debate-stone-sentencing-german-shooting/
No comments:
Post a Comment