Analysis: With ‘America First,’ where do human rights rank?
WASHINGTON — If it’s an “America First” presidency, where does that rank human rights?
President Donald Trump’s refusal to put public pressure on Saudi Arabia over the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi is raising a question that has dogged his foreign policy. In dealing with Russia, across Asia and, this week, in the Mideast, Trump has often appeared comfortable downplaying concerns about rights abuses and dismissing the importance of U.S. moral leadership. The onetime real estate mogul is as likely to let U.S. financial or security interests guide his choices and his words.
In an Associated Press interview Tuesday, Trump repeated the Saudi royals’ denials of any involvement in Khashoggi’s apparent killing and suggested he trusted them.
“I spoke to the crown prince, so you have that. He said he and his father knew nothing about it. And that was very important,” Trump said. He compared blame directed at the Saudis over Khashoggi, who Turkish officials have said was killed in the Saudis’ Istanbul consulate, to the allegations of sexual assault leveled against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearing. Both, he suggested, had been considered “guilty until proven innocent.”
Not many U.S. leaders would cast Saudi Arabia as innocent. Saudi Arabia is engaged in a bloody civil war in Yemen that has killed thousands of civilians and exacerbated a famine that has killed many more. Domestically, the absolute monarchy strictly regulates speech and dress, and its security services have been accused of torture.
Ex-USA Gymnastics head indicted in Texas on tampering charge
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Former USA Gymnastics president Steve Penny has been arrested after a Texas grand jury indicted him, alleging he tampered with evidence in the sexual assault investigation of now-imprisoned gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
In a statement issued late Wednesday night, the Walker County district attorney’s office in Huntsville, Texas, said Penny was arrested by a fugitive task force Wednesday in Gatlinburg, Tennessee, and awaits extradition to Texas.
The indictment alleges Penny ordered the removal of documents from the Karolyi Ranch relating to Nassar’s activities at the ranch, near Huntsville. The indictment also alleges the removal was aimed at impairing the ongoing investigation of Nassar.
Penny resigned under pressure in March 2017. It’s unclear if he has an attorney.
The third-degree felony is punishable by two to 10 years in prison.
Orange County, California’s diversity emboldens Democrats
FULLERTON, Calif. — Pushy midday shoppers nose their carts through the Korean market, stocking up on bottled kimchi and seaweed spring rolls. A few doors away, customers grab pho to go at a Vietnamese takeout counter. Across the street, lunchtime diners line up for tacos “al pastor” — spit-roasted pork — at a Mexican-style taqueria.
It’s a snapshot of how much Orange County, California, has changed.
For decades, the county southeast of Los Angeles represented an archetype of middle-class America, a place whose name evoked a “Brady Bunch” conformity set amid freeways, megachurches and Disneyland’s spires. The mostly white, conservative homeowners voted with time-clock regularity for Republican candidates like Richard Nixon, whose getaway from Washington, the Western White House, sat on the coast.
The Korean barbecue shops and Mexican bakeries along Orangethorpe Avenue in Fullerton are a signpost of the shifting demographics and politics that have emboldened Democrats eager to flip four Republican-held U.S. House seats in Orange County . The districts, partly or completely within the county, went to Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential election and have become closely watched national battlegrounds as part of Democrats’ strategy to retake the House in November.
In an election season shaped by divisions over President Donald Trump and the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct, perhaps the most telling evidence of the changing county is in the 39th Congressional District.