Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tells CNN’s Jake Tapper that Biden needs to show Democrats that he can turn his campaign around and says “he hasn’t
While Promoting His Memoir, JD Vance Repeatedly Said U.S. Manufacturing Jobs ‘Aren’t Coming Back’ and Bashed ‘Hyper-Protectionists’
AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
Vice President JD Vance is clapping along with the MAGA faithful to President Donald Trump’s tariffs this week, but in the past he has repeatedly insisted that U.S. manufacturing jobs were not coming back and dismissed efforts to force them to return with tariffs as a futile exercise by “hyper-protectionists,” according to a review of his social media posts and interviews over the past several years by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski and Em Steck.
In a Rose Garden press conference Wednesday afternoon, the president declared it to be “Liberation Day” and announced a series of sweeping new tariffs, including 10% on virtually all imported good s, 25% on foreign automobiles , and a long list of what he described as “reciprocal tariffs ” on dozens of countries around the world.
The markets were rattled after Trump’s plans were confirmed, with U.S. stock futures plummeting in after-hours trading, and continuing to have historically bad days on Thursday and Friday. Even a number of Republicans have spoken out to criticize the tariffs as causing unnecessary economic harm .
The CNN article found that tariffs were yet another Trump-adjacent issue where Vance , who had once bashed the president as someone who could be “America’s Hitler ,” had radically reversed his previous views.
When Vance was gaining fame for his Hillbilly Elegy memoir beginning in 2016, as Trump was first running for president, he “argued in repeated interviews, speeches and social media posts that automation and technological change were the primary forces reshaping the American economy and said he opposed ‘hyper protectionists’ and their policies,” reported CNN’s Kaczynski and Steck, listing several direct quotes from Vance that rejected efforts to reverse longstanding U.S. support for free trade:
“So many of these jobs that have disappeared from these areas just aren’t coming back. They haven’t disappeared so much from globalization or from shipping them overseas,” Vance said in a January 2017 interview with Education Week. “They’ve largely disappeared because of automation and because of new technological change.”
Other comments and social media activity from Vance during that time directly took aim at Trump’s trade rhetoric. Shortly after Trump met with manufacturing CEOs in February 2017 and publicly railed against America’s trade deficits, Vance pushed back.
“Can’t be repeated enough: if you’re worried about America’s economic interest, focus more on automation/education than trade protectionism,” Vance wrote…
Even when Vance acknowledged that globalization had caused deep harm in some communities, citing research that linked increased exposure to Chinese imports with strain on local labor markets, he argued that those downsides did not justify a sweeping reversal of US trade policy.
“Now does that mean that we should be hyper-protectionists in our approach to trade? I would argue no,” Vance said at an April 2017 event. “But should we be cognizant of the fact that when you have some of those communities that are really exposed to trade, it can very often harm them or at least cause some pretty negative consequences, even as it might cause some positive ones. I think we have to.”
Vance insisted that it was not possible to “go backwards in time” to bring back these jobs, referred to such efforts as trying to fight “yesterday’s war,” arguing that instead the “solution to that problem” was to retrain Americans for “the 21st-century workforce.”
“Vice President Vance has been crystal clear in his unwavering support for revitalizing the American economy by bringing back manufacturing jobs and sticking up for middle class workers and families since before he launched his U.S. Senate race, and that is a large part of why he was elected to public office in the first place,” Vance spokesman Taylor Van Kirk told CNN.
The post While Promoting His Memoir, JD Vance Repeatedly Said U.S. Manufacturing Jobs ‘Aren’t Coming Back’ and Bashed ‘Hyper-Protectionists’ first appeared on Mediaite .
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JUST IN: Judge Orders Return of Man Trump Admin Sent To El Salvador Mega-Prison by Error
A federal judge Friday ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to return a man mistakenly sent to an El Salvador prison back to the United States.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was detained and deported as part of the administration’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in an effort to deport illegal migrants who are also gang members. Garcia was previously granted “protected status” in the United States and was deported due to an “administrative error,” according to the administration. Garcia is originally from El Salvador, but has been living in Maryland since 2011. Garcia was removed from the country on March 15.
U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis ordered that Garcia be returned to the United States by Monday. The court order came in response to a lawsuit Garcia filed over his deportation. USA Today added, “Abrego Garica’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and their 5-year-old son, who are both U.S. citizens, have sued the government demanding his return.”
NBC News reported that Erez Reuveni, a Justice Department lawyer representing the Trump administration in this matter, said at a court hearing that there has not been a “satisfactory” explanation for Garcia’s situation, admitting Garcia should not have been deported.
“I will say for the court’s awareness that when this case landed on my desk, the first thing I did was ask my client the same question,” the lawyer said. “I have not yet received an answer that I find satisfactory.”
At the hearing, Reuveni admitted he did not know the reason for Garcia being deported and he requested time for the administration to correct the mistake without “court superintendence.” ICE had previously noted in a court filing that it had no power to bring Garcia back as he is now in the custody of El Salvador.
Garcia’s lawyer noted that he does not have a criminal record, but White House officials continue to insist Garcia is a gang member.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed this week that Garcia was involved in “human trafficking” and he is an MS-13 gang member despite having no convictions for such crimes.
In an interview with Fox News, Vice President JD Vance also justified Garcia being removed from the country, referring to him as “not exactly father of the year,” and cited “traffic violations” while accusing him of being a gang member. USA Today explained Garcia’s past detainment in the US:
The court order protecting Abrego Garcia from removal from the United States grew out of an earlier case.
In March 2019, he was arrested outside a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland, where he was looking for work, after a confidential informant testified that he was an active member of the MS-13 gang, according to government lawyers. His attorneys say he was not a member of MS-13, and the government offered scant evidence to back up its claim.
A court ordered him deported to El Salvador, but Abrego Garcia applied for asylum, asking for protection under the United Nations Convention Against Torture. In court filings, he said he had come to the United States because the Barrio 18 gang, which is rivals with MS-13, was extorting and threatening him and his family for their pupusa business in their San Salvador neighborhood and pressuring him to join the gang.
Watch above via CNN.
The post JUST IN: Judge Orders Return of Man Trump Admin Sent To El Salvador Mega-Prison by Error first appeared on Mediaite .
Taxes are due tomorrow. Here’s how to file for an extension
Chuck Schumer Excoriates ‘Vicious, Nasty, And Anti-Semitic’ Remark From Republican Senator
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) pulled no punches on Friday in slamming Sen. Bernie Moreno (R-OH) for recently calling him “Führer Schumer.”
While wrapping an appearance on CNN with anchor Dana Bash, Schumer was asked to react to the Ohio Republican’s comments.
“I do, before I let you go, want to ask about a report in the Columbus Dispatch that says Ohio Republican Senator Bernie Moreno told people that Democrats are, quote, ‘Monolithic sheep that follow the Führer Schumer’s orders.’ What’s your reaction to being called a ‘Führer’ by a fellow senator?” Bash asked the top Democrat.
“This is vicious, nasty, and anti-Semitic, plain and simple,” Schumer replied, adding:
You know, I’m the highest Jewish-ranking official in America, and I lost people, lots of people, to the Holocaust, to this vicious man, Hitler, who killed 6 million Jews. It is outrageous what he did. It is anti-semitic what he did. He ought to renounce his own comments, but where are the Republicans denouncing this vicious anti-Semitism? It is so brutal, especially to those of us who’ve lost someone, and many in my family, to that horrible man, Hitler.
The original report on Moreno’s comments read , “Moreno, who was elected in November, made the comment to reporters outside the Senate chamber as members of his caucus struggled to agree on a path forward to try to pass President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax-cut agenda.”
“Here’s the main thing you’ve got to understand. Republicans are independently minded. Democrats are monolithic sheep that follow the Fuhrer Schumer’s orders,” Moreno was then quoted as saying.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
The post Chuck Schumer Excoriates ‘Vicious, Nasty, And Anti-Semitic’ Remark From Republican Senator first appeared on Mediaite .
Fed Chair Warns Trump Tariffs Will Lead to ‘Higher Inflation’ And Slow Economic Growth
Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said on Friday that he believes President Donald Trump’s sweeping global tariffs and resulting trade wars risk “both higher unemployment and higher inflation.
Speaking at an event just outside Washington, DC, Powell told the crowd, “While tariffs are highly likely to generate at least a temporary rise in inflation, it is also possible that the effects could be more persistent.”
CNN’s Vanessa Yurkevich reported on Powell’s remarks during Inside Politics on Friday midday. Anchor Dana Bash began the segment by playing a quick clip of Powell, saying:
Looking ahead, higher tariffs will be working their way through our economy and are likely to raise inflation in coming quarters. While uncertainty remains elevated, it is now becoming clear that tariff increases will be significantly larger than expected. And the same is likely to be true of the economic effects, which will include higher inflation and slower growth. The size and duration of these effects remains uncertain.
Yurkevich reported, “Now, reporters in the room also asked Jerome Powell whether he believes that the economy is headed for a recession. He would not answer that. But we know JP Morgan revised their recession outlook up from 40 percent before President Trump announced these tariffs on April 2nd to 60 percent.”
“And you can see just what the stock market has done over time since President Trump took office in January. Just a steep decline at the Nasdaq, the S&P, and on the Dow. Just a precipitous decline, especially in this last week, as investors are craving some sort of uncertainty [sic]. Dana, does it look like they’re getting that right now,” she concluded.
Notably, Powell, who was appointed by Trump in his first term, told reporters in November that he would not step down if Trump asked him to or tried to fire him.
Watch the clip above via CNN.
The post Fed Chair Warns Trump Tariffs Will Lead to ‘Higher Inflation’ And Slow Economic Growth first appeared on Mediaite .
CNN’s Scott Jennings Says Trump ‘Betting His Presidency’ On Tariffs — Refuses To Say They’re ‘A Good Bet’
CNN’s Scott Jennings — a staunch defender of President Donald Trump — said Trump is “betting his presidency” on a tariff policy that has fueled a global stock market selloff — then refused to call it a “good bet.”
The stock market dropped like a boulder as soon as the opening bell rang Thursday morning after Trump announced his tariff program , and closed almost 1700 points in the hole — and that was before China announced reciprocal tariffs that sent futures crashing again. But Trump, in comments to reporters on the North Lawn and aboard Air Force One Thursday afternoon, projected success.
On Friday’s edition of CNN News Central , anchor John Berman asked Jennings if Trump’s assurances had “an Animal House quality.”
Jennings was diplomatic in his responses, but conspicuously avoided answering affirmatively when Berman asked if the president is making “a good bet” with his presidency on the line:
JOHN BERMAN: In the middle of all of that, President Trump said this.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: How’s it going? I think it’s going very well. It was an operation, like when a patient gets operated on. The markets are going to boom. The stock is going to go boom. The country is going boom. And the rest of the world wants to see, is there any way they can make a deal?
JOHN BERMAN: I think it’s all going very well. Scott Jennings, does that have an Animal House quality? Kevin Bacon saying, “all is well, remain calm.”
SCOTT JENNINGS: Well, he firmly believes in this and he believes that and I heard him say on the plane last night, you know, countries are already calling to talk about what they can do with the United States.
He firmly believes it and he firmly believes in making this bet. I mean, he’s betting his presidency on this issue, which is probably the most closely and longest held political and economic belief that he’s ever had. He’s been talking about doing it for 40 years.
JOHN BERMAN: Do you think it’s a good bet?
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: We’ll find out. If it’s right, it’ll be the ballsiest thing that ever happened. And if it wrong, the consequences will fall on one shoulder.
JOHN BERMAN: To that end, Megan, Axios made this same point that Scott is making here.
For better or worse, as we’re looking at the stock market drops from yesterday, the futures being pointed down today, Donald Trump did this. I don’t think he would deny that. I think he’d own it.
But Donald Trump did this by choice.
MEGHAN HAYS: Yeah, absolutely. It’s kind of shocking.
Watch above via CNN News Central .
The post CNN’s Scott Jennings Says Trump ‘Betting His Presidency’ On Tariffs — Refuses To Say They’re ‘A Good Bet’ first appeared on Mediaite .
Elon Loses in Wisconsin
CNN reports: Liberals will win majority of the Wisconsin Supreme Court, CNN projects .
The current results with 69% of the vote counted (source: CNN) is s follows.
That’s a pretty big lose for Elon Musk’s ability to throw tens of millions around to get what MAGA wants out of a given state-level election.
While I would not want to make too much out of this contest, it ain’t nothing. It should be seen to be at least in part a comment on the Trump admininstration and Musk’s antics.
Note that Wisconsin is closely divided at the state level in terms of partisan voting (as I noted yesterday ).
I don’t have time for much analysis at the moment and will likely be scarce for the next several days.
I would note that the two Florida special elections held today will result in the GOP retaining those seats, as was expected given the large R leans in both districts.
CNN Anchors Roast Trump for Saying ‘Markets Are Going to Boom’
CNN anchors roasted President Donald Trump over his prediction that “markets are going to boom” as the world reels from a tariff-fueled stock market selloff.
Trump rolled out his tariff program Wednesday that was much larger and more comprehensive than many expected — cratering stock futures almost instantly.
The stock market dropped like a boulder as soon as the opening bell rang Thursday morning, and closed almost 1700 points in the hole — and that was before China announced reciprocal tariffs that sent futures crashing again. But Trump, in a gaggle aboard Air Force One Thursday afternoon, predicted the stock market will “boom.”
On Friday’s edition of CNN News Central , anchors John Berman and Kate Bolduan each had quips about Trump’s prediction:
JOHN BERMAN: The whistling sound you may have heard yesterday was the Dow falling more than 1,600 points. That was yesterday.
And we’re already seeing this new fallout today. European stocks extended losses after their worst day in eight months.
The White House up until now has been shrugging it off, and the president keeps describing it like he’s an ER doctor.
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: As a sick patient, it went through an operation on Liberation Day, and it’s going to be a booming country.
JOHN BERMAN: All right, again, it may have been an operation performed without anesthetic, and based on what we see this morning, it was only one incision. A lot more cuts are happening.
Question now is, what comes next? A lot, apparently. We get some new vital signs on that patient in about 90 minutes, the new jobs report is out for March. It will give us an idea of how the deep federal jobs cuts are affecting the market.
Let’s get right to CNN’s Alayna Treene at the White House in the middle of all of this in the middle of stocks diving again this morning.
Alayna, you’ve got some information about the behind the scenes maneuvering here.
ALAYNA TREENE: That’s right. I think what’s very clear, John, and it was very clear yesterday in kind of the tour of top advisors, top economic advisors from Scott Bessent to Howard Lutnick, the list goes on, that they were trying to be very deliberate in their messaging.
To make it clear that, you know, these tariffs are here to stay, that negotiations maybe could happen, but for now, that’s not really the plan, that the president and this administration are committed to really trying to see this broader… global realignment, a break in the way that trading has been done globally for the last 70 or 80 years.
…
The president himself is really trying to show no worries about that. He said yesterday when leaving the White House that the markets are, quote, “going to go boom, the stock market is going to go boom.”.
We’ll see if that ends up actually being the case. John.
JOHN BERMAN: Well, it appears the stock markets are going “boom,” just not in the way he may want.
ALAYNA TREENE: (LAUGHS).
JOHN BERMAN: Alayna Treene at the White House, thank you very much for that. Kate?
ALAYNA TREENE: And going “boom!” While we are watching it right now.
Watch above via CNN News Central .
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