While at a private event in England on Wednesday night, acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said for the U.S. economy to keep growing, more immigrants need to come to the country.
The Washington Post obtained audio of Mulvaney's remarks, made at the Oxford Union. He told the crowd the United States is "desperate — desperate — for more people. We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we've had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants." He stressed that they must come in a "legal fashion."
President Trump is surrounded by immigration hardliners like senior policy adviser Stephen Miller, who wants to curtail both legal and illegal immigration, and others who argue that immigrants increase wage competition against U.S. workers. Last year, Trump said the United States is "full," and people trying to cross the southern border need to "turn around." Mulvaney said the president might have an "anti-immigrant" reputation, the Post reports, but he wants to lure more foreign workers to the U.S. Catherine Garcia
President Trump would rather keep the facts to himself.
Last week, the House Intelligence Committee reportedly received a briefing detailing how Russia was once again interfering in the 2020 election. The next day, Trump attacked his outgoing national intelligence director for letting the briefing happen, people familiar with the exchange told The New York Times.
The committee, led by Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), learned from intelligence official Shelby Pierson that Russia was working to get Trump re-elected this fall, five people familiar with the matter said. Pierson has a reputation for bluntness, and some officials who heard about the briefing suggested Pierson should've left out the bit on Russia to avoid riling up Republicans in the room. Trump's allies at the briefing "challenged the conclusions, arguing that Mr. Trump has been tough on Russia and strengthened European security," the Times writes.
An even bigger uproar came the next day from Trump himself, who attacked Acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire for what was said in the briefing. This happened last Friday, and by Wednesday, Trump announced he was replacing Maguire with U.S. Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell, who's unabashedly loyal to the president. Read more at The New York Times. Kathryn Krawczyk
Another day of jury deliberations in the Harvey Weinstein rape trial has wrapped, but we still don't have a verdict.
The jury concluded its third day of deliberations on Thursday, sending a note to the court near the very end of the day, The Wrap reports. The jury reportedly wanted to revisit the cross-examination of Annabella Sciorra, whose allegation that Weinstein raped her in 1993 or 1994 is being used to support the charges of predatory sexual assault. The jury also wanted to revisit all of Sciorra's subsequent testimony, Deadline reports.
Because the request came close to the end of the day, this testimony will be read back to jurors "first thing" on Friday, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The jury also asked to see a list of people Sciorra says she told about the alleged rape, but the request was denied since this wasn't entered into evidence, per Deadline.
The jury on Thursday reportedly reviewed evidence having to do with both Sciorra's testimony and the testimony of Mimi Haleyi, who alleges Weinstein forcibly performed oral sex on her in 2006, Variety reports. Haleyi's claim is central to the case, and Weinstein is facing charges over both Haleyi's allegation and the allegation of Jessica Mann, who alleges the disgraced producer raped her in 2013.
The Reporter notes that "of the seven notes that the jurors have sent to the judge, several have related to Sciorra's allegations against Weinstein, suggesting the panel has been laser-focused on her case." None of the questions so far have had to do with Mann's allegation.
Weinstein is facing potential life in prison. Jury deliberations will continue on Friday morning.
Fourteen Americans who contracted coronavirus on a cruise ship in Japan were transported back to the U.S. against the wishes of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, The Washington Post reports.
A total of 328 Americans were quarantined on the Diamond Princess ship for weeks before test results showed 14 of them had the COVID-19 virus, the Post writes. The U.S. State Department had said no one with the infection would be allowed on a flight. But it fought with the CDC to transport the infected people, who weren't showing symptoms, back anyway on the same flight and separated from those not infected by a "plastic-lined enclosure," the Post writes. State eventually won, but the CDC reportedly refused to puts its name on the press release announcing the flight.
More than 600 people on the ship contracted the coronavirus, and two passengers, both in their 80s, died on Thursday. South Korea also reported its first death from the disease on Thursday as case numbers there swelled by about two-thirds, per the Post. China reported new coronavirus numbers of Wednesday that seem to show spread of the infection is slowing, with 394 new infections and 136 deaths added in the past week, CBS News reports. Kathryn Krawczyk