Senators’ fury at developments at US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as Jim O’Neill picked to replace Susan Monarez
The chaos at the CDC is far from the president’s only battleground todat. Later on, Donald Trump’s battle to exert control over the Federal Reserve faces a key legal test, with a governor of the central bank seeking a temporary block on his extraordinary attempt to fire her.
Lisa Cook sued the US president on Thursday, with her lawyers describing his attempt to dismiss her as “unprecedented and illegal”, and based on “pretextual” allegations.
Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting.
Susan Monarez is a highly capable scientist who brought a wealth of experience to the agency. While I recognize that the CDC director serves at the pleasure of the president, I am alarmed that she has been fired after only three weeks on the job.
Last night I talked with former director Monarez about her removal. I agree with chairman Bill Cassidy, who heads the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the CDC, that this matter warrants congressional oversight.
The president is gravely serious about running for a third term in violation of the US constitution, California governor Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday, warning Americans to “wake up” to what he described as Trump’s flagrant disregard for democratic norms. “I don’t think Donald Trump wants another election,” Newsom, a Democrat, said during a live interview at a summit hosted by Politico in Sacramento. “This guy doesn’t believe in free, fair elections.”
The White House has requested that a US military base on the outskirts of Chicago assist with immigration operations as the Trump administration plans a broader takeover of Democratic-run “sanctuary cities”. On Thursday, the Naval Station Great Lakes confirmed that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) had reached out for assistance, telling the Associated Press that the DHS had requested “limited support in the form of facilities, infrastructure and other logistical needs to support DHS operations”.
The air force will provide military funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the rioter fatally shot during the January 6 Capitol attack, marking another step in Donald Trump’s aggressive rehabilitation of the attack.
A Washington senator has called for the Trump administration to provide “immediate answers” about reports that two firefighters were detained by border agents as they were responding to a wildfire in the state.
Seven people have arrived in Rwanda as part of a deal to accept deportees from the US, the Rwandan government has said. The Trump administration has been negotiating arrangements to send people to third countries including South Sudan and Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, as part of its wider deportation drive.
The family of 18-year-old Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz was shocked when they found out that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had discreetly moved him out of California, according to California congresswoman Luz Rivas, who spoke with his relatives and reviewed federal detention records.
