White Home picks Kennedy deputy Jim O’Neill to run CDC amid senator backlash
Good day and welcome to the US politics stay weblog. My title is Tom Ambrose and I will likely be bringing you the most recent information strains over the following few hours.
We start with information that the White Home has chosen a deputy of Robert F Kennedy Jr to function the performing head of the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), a choice that comes because the standoff over the firing of director Susan Monarez has deepened, with Monarez’s legal professionals claiming she won’t depart except Donald Trump himself removes her.
A White Home official confirmed to the Guardian that Jim O’Neill, at present the deputy secretary of the Division of Health and Human Companies (HHS), had been selected to temporarily lead the public health agency, giving Kennedy an ally in his efforts to overtake US vaccine coverage.
Not like Monarez, O’Neill, a former funding govt, doesn’t have a medical or scientific background. He served as a former speechwriter for the well being division throughout the George W Bush administration, and went on to work for the tech investor and conservative megadonor Peter Thiel.
Senator Invoice Cassidy, chair of the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee, referred to as on the division’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to indefinitely postpone its upcoming 18 September assembly.
He mentioned:
Critical allegations have been made concerning the assembly agenda, membership and lack of scientific course of being adopted for the now introduced September ACIP assembly.
In the meantime, senator Susan Collins mentioned she was “alarmed” by Monarez’s firing, including:
Susan Monarez is a extremely succesful scientist who introduced a wealth of expertise to the company. Whereas I acknowledge that the CDC director serves on the pleasure of the president, I’m alarmed that she has been fired after solely three weeks on the job.
Final evening I talked with former director Monarez about her elimination. I agree with chairman Invoice Cassidy, who heads the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the CDC, that this matter warrants congressional oversight.
It got here as senior CDC vaccine analysis and public well being leaders who resigned in protest told hundreds of supporters across the street from the campus on Thursday that the Trump administration must “get politics out of public well being”.
In different developments:
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The president is gravely severe about operating for a 3rd time period in violation of the US structure, California governor Gavin Newsom mentioned on Wednesday, warning People to “get up” to what he described as Trump’s flagrant disregard for democratic norms. “I don’t assume Donald Trump needs one other election,” Newsom, a Democrat, mentioned throughout a live interview at a summit hosted by Politico in Sacramento. “This man doesn’t consider in free, honest elections.”
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The White Home has requested {that a} US military base on the outskirts of Chicago help with immigration operations because the Trump administration plans a broader takeover of Democratic-run “sanctuary cities”. On Thursday, the Naval Station Nice Lakes confirmed that the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) had reached out for help, telling the Related Press that the DHS had requested “restricted assist within the type of amenities, infrastructure and different logistical must assist DHS operations”.
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The air power will present army funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the rioter fatally shot throughout the January 6 Capitol assault, marking one other step in Donald Trump’s aggressive rehabilitation of the assault.
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A Washington senator has referred to as for the Trump administration to supply “speedy solutions” about reviews that two firefighters have been detained by border brokers as they have been responding to a wildfire within the state.
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Seven individuals have arrived in Rwanda as a part of a deal to simply accept deportees from the US, the Rwandan authorities has mentioned. The Trump administration has been negotiating preparations to ship individuals to 3rd international locations together with South Sudan and Eswatini, previously Swaziland, as a part of its wider deportation drive.
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The household of 18-year-old Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz was shocked after they discovered that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had discreetly moved him out of California, in line with California congresswoman Luz Rivas, who spoke along with his family members and reviewed federal detention data.
Key occasions
Senate Democrats signal letter to postpone affirmation listening to for brand new Fed governor nominee
All Democrats on the Senate banking, housing, and concrete affairs committee have signed a letter to Republican chair Tim Scott, the senator from South Carolina, to postpone Stephen Miran’s affirmation listening to to the Federal Reserve’s board of governors – scheduled for subsequent week.
The lawmakers say that Donald Trump’s determination to fireplace Lisa Prepare dinner earlier this week is an “unprecedented try” to “undermine” the US central financial institution’s independence. As a substitute, the Democrats say the committee ought to “maintain an oversight listening to on the authorized and financial implications of the President’s actions”.
The added within the letter:
We have now a accountability to the American public to make sure that the Federal Reserve is making selections which are in the most effective curiosity of companies and households, pursuant to its congressional mandate, not based mostly on the whims of the President.
Vital to notice that Miran was introduced because the president’s choose to switch Adriana Kugler, who resigned early from her publish. If confirmed, Miran would fulfill the rest of Kugler’s time period, which expires in January.
If Trump’s try to oust Prepare dinner from the Federal Reserve board is profitable, that may create one other emptiness for him to appoint a governor.
DC eating places take a success as employees, petrified of Ice raids, keep residence
Kira Lerner
Hernán was on the Latin American restaurant that he owns along with his brother in north-west Washington DC final week when his employees began getting telephone calls and messages about Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) checkpoints within the neighborhood. The workers, scared that they may be focused and racially profiled, requested if they may go residence.
Inside hours, Hernán needed to shut their doorways, and the restaurant hasn’t been open since.
“Actually after President Trump introduced the nationwide guard on DC, all the things stopped,” mentioned Hernán, who requested his final title not be used attributable to fears of Ice retaliation. “All the things disappeared as a result of the bike supply guys, they’re scared. They’re not on the streets proper now. My individuals, most of my cooks are Spanish[-speaking] and so they don’t need to go to DC proper now.”
Hernán, who additionally owns a restaurant in Maryland, mentioned he hoped to have the ability to reopen in just a few weeks if and when the Trump administration’s takeover of the DC police ends and immigration enforcement arrests change into much less frequent. However the future is unclear for him and lots of restaurant house owners within the US capital.
Already affected by fewer customers as a result of administration’s nearly three-week-long crackdown, eating places are additionally having to deal with employees shortages as a result of many immigrants, each documented and undocumented, worry coming into DC and being on the streets, and a few have been detained by Ice.
Donald Trump doesn’t have any public occasions scheduled in the present day, in line with the White Home.
We’ll preserve you up to date if that adjustments, and in addition preserve a watch out for any posts on Reality Social or impromptu press availability.
Taiwan has ‘proper to stay free’, US senator says in go to criticised by China
A go to to Taiwan by two US senators has drawn criticism from China, which claims the island as its personal and objects to any contact between officers of the 2 sides.
The chair of the Senate armed companies committee, Roger Wicker, and the Nebraska senator Deb Fischer arrived in Taipei on Friday for a collection of high-level conferences with senior Taiwanese leaders to debate US-Taiwan relations, regional safety, commerce and funding, in line with the American Institute in Taiwan, Washington’s de facto embassy in lieu of formal diplomatic relations with the self-governing island democracy.
Upon arrival, Wicker mentioned:
A thriving democracy is rarely absolutely assured … and we’re right here to speak to our mates and allies in Taiwan about what we’re doing to boost worldwide peace.
Wicker instructed Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, throughout a gathering on the presidential workplace in Taipei that he and Fischer have been visiting to get a greater understanding of Taiwan’s wants and issues.
“We come right here from america bringing a message from the Congress of dedication, of long-term friendship and a willpower {that a} free nation like Taiwan completely has the correct to stay free and protect self-determination,” Wicker mentioned.
“At a time of worldwide unrest, this can be very vital for us to be right here,” Fischer added, noting that discussions would come with “safety, alternatives and progress for this a part of the world”.
Practically 1,000 ‘employee over billionaire’ actions deliberate for Labor Day in US
Michael Sainato
Practically 1,000 “employee over billionaire” protests are being deliberate in all 50 states beginning this weekend as a part of a Labor Day week of motion organized by labor unions and advocacy teams in opposition to the Trump administration’s insurance policies.
The actions embody marches and rallies in cities resembling Chicago and Los Angeles, a Labor Day parade in New York City, rallies in Palmer, Alaska, Freeport, Maine, and a deliberate protest on the state capitol in Honolulu, Hawaii.
The protests are organized by the AFL-CIO, the biggest federation of labor unions within the US, and dozens of accomplice organizations, together with Public Citizen, Indivisible, Democracy Ahead, MoveOn and Patriotic Millionaires.
“That is about natural, grassroots organizing, and we deliberately wished it to be outdoors of Washington DC, as a result of that’s the place the impacts are being felt,” Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, mentioned.
“Whether or not it’s academics or nurses or building employees, they’re all decided to face up and struggle again, as a result of they’re experiencing the cuts, they’re experiencing the change in insurance policies, they’re experiencing the assaults of this White Home on their unions, and they also’re decided to make their voices heard and mobilize to struggle ahead no matter what’s taking place round us, irrespective of the obstacles.”
Dani Anguiano
Patty Murray, the Washington senator, has referred to as for the Trump administration to supply “speedy solutions” about reviews that two firefighters have been detained by border brokers as they have been responding to a wildfire within the state.
Federal immigration authorities on Wednesday staged an operation on the scene of the Bear Gulch hearth, a virtually 9,000-acre (3,600-hectare) blaze within the Olympic nationwide forest, the place they arrested two individuals who have been a part of a contract firefighting crew, the Seattle Times first reported. The hearth is the biggest at present burning within the state.
Authorities made the firefighters line as much as present ID, the Seattle Instances reported. One firefighter instructed the newspaper that they weren’t permitted to say goodbye to their detained colleagues.
“I requested them if his [co-workers] can say goodbye to him as a result of they’re household, and so they’re simply ripping them away,” the firefighter mentioned to the Seattle Instances, including that the federal agent swore and instructed the firefighter to go away.
The operation sparked widespread condemnation within the state. Murray in her statement launched on Thursday morning demanded details about the whereabouts of the firefighters and the administration’s coverage round immigration enforcement throughout wildfires.
Maya Yang
In the meantime, the White Home has requested {that a} US military base on the outskirts of Chicago help with immigration operations because the Trump administration plans a broader takeover of Democratic-run “sanctuary cities”.
On Thursday, the Naval Station Nice Lakes (NSGL) confirmed that the Division of Homeland Safety had reached out for help, telling the Related Press that the DHS had requested “restricted assist within the type of amenities, infrastructure, and different logistical must assist DHS operations”.
An NSGL spokesperson instructed the outlet that no selections have been made concerning the request and that the bottom has not but acquired any official request to assist a nationwide guard deployment. The Guardian has reached out to the NSGL for remark.
In an announcement to the Guardian, a DHS spokesperson mentioned: “President Trump has been clear: we’re going to make our streets and cities protected once more. Throughout the nation, DHS regulation enforcement are arresting and eradicating the worst of worst together with gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and rapists which have terrorized American communities. Beneath secretary [Kristi] Noem, ICE [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and CBP [Customs and Border Protection] are working additional time to ship on the American individuals’s mandate to arrest and deport legal unlawful aliens and make America protected once more.”
The sign from the Trump administration comes only a few weeks after the president directed a federal takeover of Washington DC – deploying the nationwide guard, taking on the police division, and ramping up immigration raids and deportations within the metropolis.
Trump suggests extra US cities want Nationwide Guard
President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy the Nationwide Guard to Chicago, New York, Seattle, Baltimore, San Francisco and Portland, Oregon, to struggle what he says is runaway crime.
But information reveals most violent crime in these locations and across the nation has declined in recent times.
Homicides by means of the primary six months of 2025 have been down considerably in comparison with the identical interval in 2024, persevering with a post-pandemic development throughout the US, AP reviews.
Trump, who has already taken federal management of police in Washington, DC, has maligned the six Democratic-run cities that each one are in states that opposed him in 2024. However he hasn’t threatened sending within the Guard to any main cities in Republican-leaning states.
John Roman, an information skilled who directs the Heart on Public Security & Justice on the College of Chicago, acknowledged violence in some city neighborhoods has persevered for generations. However he mentioned there’s no US metropolis the place there “is mostly a disaster.”
“We’re at a exceptional second in crime in america,” he mentioned.
Senator Roger Wicker, the chairman of the Armed Companies Committee and one of many strongest advocates for Taiwan within the US Congress, arrived in Taipei on Friday to debate safety as China ratchets up its army strain on the island.
Wicker, a Republican, mentioned he and Senator Deb Fischer have been visiting to bolster the “nice partnership” america and Taiwan had and would have sooner or later, Reuters reviews. Fischer can also be a Republican and a member of the Armed Companies Committee.
“We’re right here to speak to our mates and allies in Taiwan about what we’re doing to boost worldwide peace, the type of peace by means of power that Ronald Reagan talked about,” he instructed reporters at Taipei’s downtown Songshan airport, referring to the late US president.
“We stand right here to re-emphasise the partnership and the safety friendship settlement that america has had with Taiwan for some a long time.”
The US Senate is because of think about subsequent week the Nationwide Protection Authorization act, or NDAA, a virtually $1 trillion invoice that units coverage for the Pentagon.
Wicker mentioned that this 12 months’s NDAA would “add to the provisions once more” when it got here to Taiwan, although he gave no particulars.
Who’s Jim O’Neill? CDC chief set to bolster RFK Jr plan to remake vaccine coverage
Maanvi Singh
The White Home has chosen a prime aide to well being secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr to quickly lead the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention – an appointment that’s anticipated to bolster Kennedy’s objectives of remaking federal vaccine coverage.
Jim O’Neill, a biotech investor and speechwriter for the well being division throughout the George W Bush administration, was tapped as performing director of the company that oversees vaccine suggestions, a White Home official confirmed to the Guardian.
O’Neill, not like Monarez, has no coaching in drugs or infectious illness science. He’s a former speechwriter for the well being division, throughout the Bush years, who went on to work for the tech investor and conservative megadonor Peter Thiel.
However who’s O’Neill and what does he need to do on the CDC? Learn our full explainer right here:
CDC officers who stop in protest lead name to ‘get politics out of public well being’
George Chidi
Senior CDC vaccine analysis and public well being leaders who resigned in protest instructed a whole bunch of supporters throughout the road from the campus on Thursday that the Trump administration must “get politics out of public well being”.
The company is reeling from the firing of the CDC chief, Susan Monarez, however Monarez, who was confirmed as CDC chief only a month in the past, has refused to be eliminated. Three senior leaders – Debra Houry, Demetre Daskalakis and Daniel Jernigan – resigned shortly after in protest, citing the alleged unfold of misinformation beneath the Trump administration and political interference of their work. The staffers cheered and applauded them on the occasion on Thursday.
“You’re the those that shield America, and America must see that you’re the those that shield America, and we’re going to be your loudest advocates,” mentioned Daskalakis to the throng. Daskalakis, who was accompanied on the rally by Houry and Jernigan, is now the previous director of the Nationwide Heart for Immunization and Respiratory Illnesses and is understood for his management in HIV prevention and vaccination applications and the Biden administration’s response to the mpox outbreak.
The three, plus Jennifer Leyden, who led the workplace of public well being information, resigned collectively on Thursday to make an announcement concerning the injury the administration had accomplished to public vaccine analysis, and in protest of the administration’s response to vaccine disinformation, they mentioned.
“We agreed to do that collectively. We’ve been speaking about it for months, and the previous few days, it was simply escalating,” mentioned Houry, the CDC’s former chief medical officer. “If one among us retired, it could have been a blip. When the three of us do it collectively, it’s extra highly effective and simply reveals the state of our company.” She and the others are asking for Congress to intervene, to place a cease to political interference within the group’s work.
Trump faces key authorized take a look at in effort to exert management over Federal Reserve
Callum Jones
The chaos on the CDC is way from the president’s solely battleground todat. In a while, Donald Trump’s battle to exert management over the Federal Reserve faces a key authorized take a look at, with a governor of the central financial institution looking for a short lived block on his extraordinary try to fireplace her.
Lisa Prepare dinner sued the US president on Thursday, together with her legal professionals describing his try to dismiss her as “unprecedented and unlawful”, and based mostly on “pretextual” allegations.
The case is broadly anticipated to be finally determined by the supreme court. Whereas it makes it method by means of the courts, Prepare dinner is looking for a short lived restraining order in opposition to Trump’s try to “immediately” dismiss her from the Fed’s board.
A listening to on the movement is about for 10am in Washington on Friday. The case has been assigned to US district decide Jia Cobb, an appointee of Joe Biden.
Trump wrote to Prepare dinner on Monday, telling her that he was eradicating her from her place “efficient instantly”, based mostly on the allegation from one among his allies that she had obtained a mortgage on a second residence she incorrectly described as her major residence.
The president has spent months attacking the Fed, the place most policymakers – together with Prepare dinner – have to date defied his requires rate of interest cuts. He has spoken of quickly constructing “a majority” on the central financial institution’s board, calling into query the way forward for its longstanding independence from political oversight.
Learn the complete report right here:
White Home picks Kennedy deputy Jim O’Neill to run CDC amid senator backlash
Good day and welcome to the US politics stay weblog. My title is Tom Ambrose and I will likely be bringing you the most recent information strains over the following few hours.
We start with information that the White Home has chosen a deputy of Robert F Kennedy Jr to function the performing head of the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention (CDC), a choice that comes because the standoff over the firing of director Susan Monarez has deepened, with Monarez’s legal professionals claiming she won’t depart except Donald Trump himself removes her.
A White Home official confirmed to the Guardian that Jim O’Neill, at present the deputy secretary of the Division of Health and Human Companies (HHS), had been selected to temporarily lead the public health agency, giving Kennedy an ally in his efforts to overtake US vaccine coverage.
Not like Monarez, O’Neill, a former funding govt, doesn’t have a medical or scientific background. He served as a former speechwriter for the well being division throughout the George W Bush administration, and went on to work for the tech investor and conservative megadonor Peter Thiel.
Senator Invoice Cassidy, chair of the Senate Well being, Schooling, Labor and Pensions Committee, referred to as on the division’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) to indefinitely postpone its upcoming 18 September assembly.
He mentioned:
Critical allegations have been made concerning the assembly agenda, membership and lack of scientific course of being adopted for the now introduced September ACIP assembly.
In the meantime, senator Susan Collins mentioned she was “alarmed” by Monarez’s firing, including:
Susan Monarez is a extremely succesful scientist who introduced a wealth of expertise to the company. Whereas I acknowledge that the CDC director serves on the pleasure of the president, I’m alarmed that she has been fired after solely three weeks on the job.
Final evening I talked with former director Monarez about her elimination. I agree with chairman Invoice Cassidy, who heads the Senate committee with jurisdiction over the CDC, that this matter warrants congressional oversight.
It got here as senior CDC vaccine analysis and public well being leaders who resigned in protest told hundreds of supporters across the street from the campus on Thursday that the Trump administration must “get politics out of public well being”.
In different developments:
-
The president is gravely severe about operating for a 3rd time period in violation of the US structure, California governor Gavin Newsom mentioned on Wednesday, warning People to “get up” to what he described as Trump’s flagrant disregard for democratic norms. “I don’t assume Donald Trump needs one other election,” Newsom, a Democrat, mentioned throughout a live interview at a summit hosted by Politico in Sacramento. “This man doesn’t consider in free, honest elections.”
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The White Home has requested {that a} US military base on the outskirts of Chicago help with immigration operations because the Trump administration plans a broader takeover of Democratic-run “sanctuary cities”. On Thursday, the Naval Station Nice Lakes confirmed that the Division of Homeland Safety (DHS) had reached out for help, telling the Related Press that the DHS had requested “restricted assist within the type of amenities, infrastructure and different logistical must assist DHS operations”.
-
The air power will present army funeral honors to Ashli Babbitt, the rioter fatally shot throughout the January 6 Capitol assault, marking one other step in Donald Trump’s aggressive rehabilitation of the assault.
-
A Washington senator has referred to as for the Trump administration to supply “speedy solutions” about reviews that two firefighters have been detained by border brokers as they have been responding to a wildfire within the state.
-
Seven individuals have arrived in Rwanda as a part of a deal to simply accept deportees from the US, the Rwandan authorities has mentioned. The Trump administration has been negotiating preparations to ship individuals to 3rd international locations together with South Sudan and Eswatini, previously Swaziland, as a part of its wider deportation drive.
-
The household of 18-year-old Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz was shocked after they discovered that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) had discreetly moved him out of California, in line with California congresswoman Luz Rivas, who spoke along with his family members and reviewed federal detention data.
