The two major stories (abuse of children at the border, and the Jeffrey Epstein allegations of what Jonathan Swan called “industrial grade pedophilia “) are not going away. And Trump is smack dab in the middle of both of them.
Guardian:
Trump labor secretary who cut Epstein deal plans to slash funds for sex trafficking victims
Katherine Clark, a congresswoman from Massachusetts, said Acosta’s proposed cut was “reckless” and “amoral”. When seen alongside the sweetheart plea deal he granted Epstein in 2008, when Acosta was the US attorney in Miami, she said, it indicated that the labor secretary did not see protecting vulnerable children as a priority.
“This is now a pattern,” Clark told the Guardian. “Like so many in this administration Mr Acosta chooses the powerful and wealthy over the vulnerable and victims of sexual assault and it is time that he finds another line of work.”
Clark grilled Acosta about the proposed cuts in April, when he presented his departmental budget to the House appropriations subcommittee. On that occasion, she said, she found him “rude, dismissive, challenging”.
“I’m sure this is a very uncomfortable topic for him,” Clark said, “but I don’t think he should be able to hide from it.”
NBC:
Migrant kids in overcrowded Arizona border station allege sex assault, retaliation from U.S. agents
Migrant children held in Yuma, Arizona, report sex assault and retaliation for protests in addition to unsanitary conditions and overcrowding.
Politico:
Acosta tries to calm furor around his handling of Epstein plea deal
In a news conference, the embattled official said abuse victims’ statements are handled differently now.
It's unclear if Acosta's extended news conference will help calm the furor around his past decisions as a prosecutor. President Donald Trump and his aides have expressed confidence in the Cabinet secretary, and Acosta himself said on Wednesday he is on good terms with the president.
"My relationship with the president is outstanding," Acosta said. "He has very publicly made clear that I've got his support. He spoke yesterday in the Oval Office, he and I have spoken."
But a growing number of Democrats are calling for his resignation, and more victims are coming forward to talk about Epstein's abuse over the years.
ABC News:
Support for legal abortion matches its 24-year high: Poll
Most of the change in support for legal abortion is among Americans who say it should be legal “in all cases,” now 27%, matching the high 24 years ago and up 11 percentage points from its low in early 2007. An additional 33% say it should be legal in most cases in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates.
Support rises when rights are threatened.
James Hohmann/WaPo:
Trump might win a Pyrrhic victory against Obamacare, as the balance of judicial power shifts his way
For now, Trump continues to suffer legal setbacks. In a case involving his push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census, a district court judge rejected the Justice Department’s request to change out its team of lawyers. Separately, an appellate court in New York upheld a lower court’s decision that it is unconstitutional for Trump to block critics on Twitter because he’s a public official who uses the platform to communicate with constituents.
But the balance of power is changing on the courts each week to become more favorable to Trump, and it sure sounded like the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit might be ready to uphold at least parts of a federal district judge’s decision in Texas that the entire 2010 health-care law is unconstitutional because the 2017 GOP tax bill got rid of the individual mandate to buy insurance. Two of the three judges on the panel expressed skepticism during the oral arguments that Obamacare can remain intact since the mandate was how Chief Justice John Roberts justified upholding the law in 2012.
Daniel Summers/Arc Digital:
The Acids of Trump’s Border Policy
We are deliberately harming children in order to dissuade more from coming. This is where we are now.
If the imagery of flinging acid at a child is unhelpfully grotesque, let’s return to the question plainly: When is it justified to harm children? What harms are worth inflicting, and to what ends?
These questions must be asked because children are being harmed, and they are being harmed in deliberate pursuit of a goal.
Daniel is a pediatrician and a mandated reporter.
Aaron Blake/WaPo:
The big question Acosta failed to answer
Chief among them is this one: Why did that decision have to be made right then and there? If the evidence wasn’t there yet to be confident in a large-scale federal case, why not investigate further and hopefully uncover what federal prosecutors in New York revealed on Monday?
There are many questions:
And as Trump tries to change the subject:
And, finally, your latest Dem primary news: