Trump press secretary denies president is weaponizing justice department and dodges question on autism announcement – live | US news
White House says it won’t ‘tolerate gaslighting’ from media following Trump’s pressure campaign on justice department
Karoline Leavitt was resolute today when fielding questions from reporters on the pressure campaign from the president on the Department of Justice to investigate several of his political opponents.
“We are not going to tolerate gaslighting from anyone in the media or from anyone on the other side who is trying to say that it’s the president who is weaponizing the DoJ,” Leavitt said. “Joe Biden used this sacred American institution to go after his political opponent in the middle of an election year.”
When pressed further about why Donald Trump is unwilling to accept findings from Erik Sibert, the now fired US attorney of eastern district of Virginia, Leavitt said: “The president has every right to express how he feels about these people who literally campaigned on trying to put him in jail, who literally tried to ruin his life and ruin his businesses. And he wants to see accountability for those who abuse their office and abuse their power.”
Key events
Leavitt says administration supports a ‘clean’ short-term funding bill to avoid government shutdown
The press secretary said that she didn’t have any updates on a possible meeting, following a letter that top Congressional Democrats sent to the president to discuss the short-term funding bill that has stalled in the Senate.
A reminder that government funding expires at the end of September, and lawmakers from both chambers are back in their districts on recess.
“This White House wants and what Republicans want, we want a clean funding extension to keep the government open,” Leavitt said. “A straightforward, responsible solution to keep the government open to November 21 and allow the full year appropriations process to move forward.”
GOP lawmakers have labelled Democrats’ version of a continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown as “unserious” as it contains a number of health care provisions to offset the impact of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act.
Leavitt, however, shirked any possible blame: “If the government is shut down, it’s only going to it will be the fault of the Democrats, and it will only hurt the most vulnerable in our country.”
White House says it won’t ‘tolerate gaslighting’ from media following Trump’s pressure campaign on justice department
Karoline Leavitt was resolute today when fielding questions from reporters on the pressure campaign from the president on the Department of Justice to investigate several of his political opponents.
“We are not going to tolerate gaslighting from anyone in the media or from anyone on the other side who is trying to say that it’s the president who is weaponizing the DoJ,” Leavitt said. “Joe Biden used this sacred American institution to go after his political opponent in the middle of an election year.”
When pressed further about why Donald Trump is unwilling to accept findings from Erik Sibert, the now fired US attorney of eastern district of Virginia, Leavitt said: “The president has every right to express how he feels about these people who literally campaigned on trying to put him in jail, who literally tried to ruin his life and ruin his businesses. And he wants to see accountability for those who abuse their office and abuse their power.”
Leavitt sidesteps question about reported autism announcement
Notably, Karoline Leavitt said that she doesn’t “want to scoop” the president or health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr ahead of their 4pm announcement today.
There have been multiple reports that Trump plans to make remarks citing a link between the use of Tylenol – namely its active ingredient acetaminophen – by pregnant women and autism among children. Medical experts have said it’s perfectly safe for women to take over-the-counter pain medication while pregnant.
Leavitt did not confirm the details of today’s announcement:
Before you jump to conclusions based on reports that the White House has not even confirmed, I would encourage everyone in this room to go into the four o’clock announcement with some critical thinking skills and with some open ears to actually listen to what the president and his team of outsiders have to say about this.
Following the public memorial for far-right activist and Trump ally Charlie Kirk on Sunday, Leavitt characterized Erika Kirk’s remarks, where she said that she forgives her husband’s killer, as “one of the greatest acts of grace this world has ever seen”.
Notably, Leavitt incorrectly claimed that 96 Democrats voted “against a basic resolution condemning political violence” in Congress, following his murder.
On Friday, the House ultimately passed a resolution that praised Kirk as a “courageous American patriot” who sought to “elevate truth, foster understanding, and strengthen the Republic”.
Ninety-five Democrats voted to pass the measure, but 58 voted to oppose it, with several saying that they condemned his murder, but could not support Kirk’s speech. Thirty-eight Democrats voted present and 22 did not vote on the resolution.
In a statement, New York Democratic congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said that while “condemning the depravity of Kirk’s brutal murder is a straightforward matter” Kirk’s rhetoric and beliefs “were ignorant and sought to disenfranchise millions of Americans – far from ‘working tirelessly to promote unity’ as asserted by the majority in this resolution”.
Leavitt begins White House press briefing, teasing Trump’s address at UN general assembly
Karoline Leavitt just started the White House press briefing. She noted that the president will address the United Nations general assembly tomorrow in a “a major speech touting the renewal of American strength around the world his historic accomplishments in just eight months”.
We’re due to hear from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt shortly. We’ll bring you the latest lines from the briefing as they happen.
Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, the Indian foreign minister, said he met with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, in New York today, where he says the two of them discussed a range of issues.
“Our conversation covered a range of bilateral and international issues of current concern,” Jaishankar wrote in a post on X.
Scott Bessent, the US treasury secretary, said today that he expects to complete interviews of 10 of 11 candidates to replace Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, by the end of next week, including current Fed board members and regional bank presidents.
Bessent said he expects to begin narrowing the list of candidates after next week and that there may be two or three shortlists before recommending a candidate to Trump. Powell’s term as Fed chair ends in May 2026.
Bessent again ruled himself out as a potential Fed chair, opting to stay at Treasury. He said that Trump “likes me where I am and I like where I am”.
More than 430 Hollywood stars sign open letter supporting Jimmy Kimmel amid suspension
Hundreds of Hollywood and Broadway stars – including Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep – are urging Americans to “fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights” in the wake of Jimmy Kimmel’s suspension.
More than 430 movie, TV and stage stars as well as comedians, directors and writers added their names to an open letter Monday from the American Civil Liberties Union that argues it is “a dark moment for freedom of speech in our nation”.
The move comes less than a week after ABC suspended Kimmel’s late-night talkshow following comments he made about the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk. After a group of ABC-affiliated stations said they wouldn’t air Jimmy Kimmel Live! the Walt Disney Co pulled the show on Wednesday just before its scheduled airing, prompting a firestorm of debate over free speech.
“Regardless of our political affiliation, or whether we engage in politics or not, we all love our country,” the letter says. “We also share the belief that our voices should never be silenced by those in power – because if it happens to one of us, it happens to all of us.”
The list of signatories includes recent Emmy winner Noah Wyle, Oscar-nominated Florence Pugh, comedian David Cross, Tony winner Kelli O’Hara and veteran actor Molly Ringwald. Pedro Pascal, Billy Crystal, Nathan Lane, Kerry Washington and Kevin Bacon are also among those who signed.
“This is the moment to defend free speech across our nation. We encourage all Americans to join us, along with the ACLU, in the fight to defend and preserve our constitutionally protected rights,” the letter concludes.
The US government is revoking the visas of Brazilian solicitor-general Jorge Messias and five other former and current Brazilian judicial officials, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters.
The move represents a significant escalation in the ongoing feud between the US and Brazilian governments that has intensified since the criminal conviction of former president Jair Bolsonaro earlier in the month.
Donald Trump and his political allies have denounced Bolsonaro’s conviction as the fruit of a “political witch-hunt” and more broadly accused Brazil’s judiciary of censoring conservatives.
Brazilian authorities have vigorously rejected those assertions. They say there is ample evidence that the right-wing former leader – a close ally of Trump – attempted to overturn his 2022 election loss to current president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
In addition to Messias, the official said the Trump administration is revoking the visas of former solicitor-general José Levi, former electoral court justice Benedito Gonçalves, auxiliary judge and supreme court aide Airton Vieira, former electoral court aide Marco Antonio Martin Vargas, and Rafael Henrique Janela Tamai Rocha, another high-ranking judicial aide.
Oracle will receive a copy of TikTok’s algorithm to operate for US users – report
Tech giant Oracle, headed by Larry Ellison, will receive a copy of TikTok’s algorithm to operate for US users, a senior official in the Trump administration told the Associated Press.
Determining next steps for the algorithm, currently owned by the Beijing-based ByteDance, has been one of the most watched issues during ongoing negotiations over TikTok’s future. Oracle will now oversee the security of Americans’ data and monitor changes to the popular social media platform’s algorithm.
The official reportedly said they believe the plan will satisfy national security concerns over a Chinese company potentially manipulating what is being shown to US TikTok users.
The White House says doctors may be exempt from H-1B visa fees, according to reporting from Bloomberg.
“‘The Proclamation allows for potential exemptions, which can include physicians and medical residents,’ White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said in an email to Bloomberg News,” journalist Ed Ludlow wrote in a post on X.
Trump signed a proclamation on Friday introducing the application fee of $100,000 for the H-1B visa, 60 times the current cost, in a move designed to encourage companies to hire more American workers. Economists have warned that the move could hurt US economic growth.
We’ll also be keeping an ear out at today’s press briefing to hear the administration’s reaction to several global allies’ recognition of a Palestinian state.
A growing chorus of nations have pledged to recognize Palestinian statehood, in a move that Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has branded as a “a huge reward to terrorism”.
Netanyahu has said, categorically, that a Palestinian state “will not be established west of the Jordan River”.
Last week, on the president’s state visit to the UK, he acknowledged that statehood it was “one of the few things” that he and British prime minister Keir Starmer disagreed on. Over the weekend, Britain, Canada and Australia all formally recognized Palestinian statehood ahead of a high-stakes week at the United Nations general assembly. Trump will address the nations present on Tuesday, 23 September.
A reminder, that you can follow the latest developments in the Middle East at our dedicated blog below.
Lawmakers decry Trump’s pressure campaign on justice department to investigate political opponents
As we reported over the weekend, the president has ramped up his demands of attorney general Pam Bondi to use the Department of Justice to launch investigations into his political opponents.
On Truth Social, the president addressed Bondi directly and bemoaned the lack of investigations into longtime political adversary Letitia James, the New York attorney general, as well as California Democratic senator Adam Schiff and former FBI director James Comey.
“They’re all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done,” Trump wrote. “JUSTICE MUST BE SERVED, NOW!!!”
On Friday, the president said he fired the US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, Erik Siebert, for saying that there was insufficient evidence to charge James with mortgage fraud. “A Woke RINO, who was never going to do his job,” Trump said of Siebert.
In response, several lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized Trump’s politicization of the justice department.
In an interview with NBC News, Rand Paul, Republican senator of Kentucky, toed a line, and said that “lawfare in all forms is bad,” before insisting that Joe Biden was the “king of lawfare”.
Paul also noted that “we need to get politics out of the judicial system as much as we can”.
Meanwhile, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said on CNN that Trump’s actions resembled “the path to a dictatorship”.
“It is so very, very frightening and damaging to our republic,” Schumer added.
Similarly, Chris Murphy, Democratic senator of Connecticut, denounced the president’s demands of the justice department:
Donald Trump, because he doesn’t care about the facts – all he cares about is the threat of imprisonment for his political enemies, so that it suppresses the speech of other people who might speak up – is now going to put his own political loyalist in charge of that investigation.
On social media, Trump said he would nominate Lindsey Halligan to replace Siebert. Halligan is an attorney and special assistant to the preisdent.
“Lindsey is a tough, smart, and loyal attorney, who has worked with me for a long time, including in the winning fight against the Weaponization of our Justice System by Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats,” Trump wrote in his post.
Alexandra Villarreal
The Trump administration has started recruiting hundreds of military lawyers to sit as immigration judges, presiding over what are often life-and-death federal decisions for immigrants in the US, as experts warn the White House strategy is high-risk and arguably unlawful.
The judgeships are temporary but renewable, and the government’s goal is to fill an acute need for more immigration judges amid Donald Trump’s mass deportation mission – which is now happening even as experienced immigration judges seemingly deemed to have fallen foul of the president’s agenda are being purged from the courts.
Active-duty armed forces officers and reservists, part of the military’s justice arm known as the Judge Advocate General’s (Jag) corps, which has given rise to the lawyers there being nickname ‘Jags’, are getting messages asking them to volunteer for the high-stakes immigration roles.
But experts warn that military lawyers do not have the specialized knowledge to perform the duties of an immigration judge and may only have gotten an hour or two of immigration law training – if that – during JAG school, while, further, their appointments would likely break the law.
“The military’s mission is to kill people and break things – and Jags are trained to support that mission within the boundaries of military law. That’s not the same as immigration law. So why would we be using those attorneys, of all the lawyers out there, to decide the fate of families seeking refuge?” said Shawn VanDiver, a navy veteran and immigration advocate. “It’s just another way the Trump administration is trying to sow fear and keep people from coming here.”
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