Friends of a woman who died in the Collierville grocery shooting have identified her as Olivia King, a longtime resident of the area.
David Fraser said King had no relatives in the Collierville area and that after the shooting Thursday, he traveled to the Regional One Hospital on behalf of her family. He said that at the hospital a doctor informed him directly that she was fatally wounded in the shooting.
David Fraser is married to Maureen Fraser, a member of Collierville’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen. In an interview on the sidewalk near the blocked-off Kroger grocery store, the Frasers said they had known King for years. She was originally from San Antonio and was widowed with three sons: one in the Navy, one in the Air Force and one who had just earned a doctorate, they said.
They said she often attended Catholic mass and had previously worked as a financial secretary at a local school.
“She was just sweet,” David Fraser said, and began to cry.
“Kind, polite, thoughtful,” Maureen Fraser added, standing beside him. “Remember when you were out of work and she gave us some money? Gave us an envelope with some money to help us at Christmas time.”
Her husband had died years earlier. “And she missed him so much,” David Fraser said.
This story will be updated.
Investigative reporter Daniel Connolly welcomes tips and comments from the public. Reach him at 529-5296, daniel.connolly@commercialappeal.com, or on Twitter at @danielconnolly.
Member of European Parliament Carles Puigdemont prepares for an interview in Brussels. The lawyer for Puigdemont says the former Catalan leader has been detained in Sardinia, Italy.
Francisco Seco/AP
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Member of European Parliament Carles Puigdemont prepares for an interview in Brussels. The lawyer for Puigdemont says the former Catalan leader has been detained in Sardinia, Italy.
Francisco Seco/AP
BARCELONA, Spain — Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont, who fled Spain after a failed secession bid for the northeastern region in 2017, was detained Thursday in Sardinia, Italy, his lawyer said.
Puigdemont, who lives in Belgium and now holds a seat in the European Parliament, has been fighting extradition to Spain, which accused him and other Catalan independence leaders of sedition.
Hi lawyer, Gonzalo Boye, said Puigdemont was detained when he arrived in Sardinia, where he was to attend an event this weekend.
The circumstances under which Puigdemont was taken into custody were not immediately clear. Boye wrote on Twitter the ex-regional president was detained under a 2019 European arrest warrant, even though it had been suspended.
Police at the airport in northern Sardinia didn’t answer phone calls Thursday night, while police in the city of Alghero said they weren’t aware of his detention.
The European Parliament voted in March to lift the immunity of Puigdemont and two of his associates. In July the three EU lawmakers failed to have their immunity restored after the European Union’s general court said that they did not demonstrate they were at risk of being arrested.
Sardinian media reported earlier in the week he was due to attend an event in Alghero on Sunday, so his presence on the Mediterranean island had been expected. Sardinian media had also reported that Puigdemont was invited by a Sardinian pro-separatist group.
Puigdemont’s office said in a statement he had traveled to Alghero from Brussels to attend a folklore festival.
Puigdemont was transferred to a jail in Sassari, a city about a 40 kilometer drive northeast of Alghero, the Italian news agency ANSA reported. Earlier reports said a judge in Sassari would rule on Friday on whether Puigdemont should be freed.
Puigdemont and a number of his separatist colleagues fled to Belgium in October 2017, fearing arrest after holding an independence referendum for Catalonia that the Spanish courts and government said was illegal.
Nine Catalan separatists received prison sentences for their role in the 2017 referendum ranging from nine to 13 years. They were pardoned in July.
COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (WREG) — Multiple people were injured Thursday in a shooting inside the Kroger on Byhalia and Poplar Avenue in Collierville, a Memphis suburb, after an active shooter incident officials are calling the “most horrific event” in the town’s history.
Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane confirmed 13 people were shot, and one person killed. The suspected shooter also is dead, possibly from a self-inflicted gunshot, Lane said.
A family member and a Collierville alderman has identified one of the victims as Olivia King.
The suspect’s vehicle is still parked and is being investigated. Sources say the suspect was a sub contractor who did work in the store’s deli department.
Lane said officers entered the store just after 1:30 and found multiple people shot, and employees in hiding. He could not comment on whether the shooter was an employee, saying it was under investigation.
Lane called it “the most horrific event that’s occurred in Collierville history.”
Multiple witnesses report hearing at least a dozen shots. Some customers made it out of the store. Employees had others take shelter in the cooler, witnesses said.
One employee named Brignetta Dickerson, who says she’s worked at the Kroger for 32 years, told WREG she hid with her coworkers and several customers when they heard the gunshots.
She said her only concern was her customers and coworkers.
“I’m still in shock right now,” said Dickerson. “But I was calm. I was calm and told the customers and my co-workers ‘Just sit down and relax. You’ll be okay.’”
Jean Kurzawski said she worked in the back of the Kroger and heard noises toward the front entrance. She thought balloons were popping at first until she saw customers running. She escaped out a back exit and said she heard gunshots continuing behind her.
“I was just thinking, oh I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die, he’s gonna shoot me,” she said.
Collierville High School was briefly sheltering in place.
Multiple ambulances were seen entering Regional One Hospital in Memphis. The hospital reported it saw nine patients, four in critical condition and five non-critical.
A SWAT team member moves into place.
Witness photos show a man on the Kroger roof talking to police. Collierville Police said this is not the shooter and is believed to be an employee of Kroger directing officers. (submitted photo)
Kroger employees embrace after the ordeal.
The scene at the entrance to the Collierville Kroger.
ATF agen ts were investigating the SUV parked outside the Collierville Kroger.
Kroger employees are led out of the store.
Kroger released a statement on the shooting:
We are deeply saddened by the incident that occurred at our Kroger store located on New Byhalia Rd. in Collierville, TN – a suburb of Memphis. The entire Kroger family offers our thoughts, prayers and support to the individuals and families of the victims during this difficult time. We are cooperating with local law enforcement, who have secured the store and parking lot. The store will remain closed while the police investigation continues, and we have initiated counseling services for our associates. To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, we are referring questions to the Collierville Police Department.
Kroger spokesperson
The Collierville store will remain closed until further notice, Kroger Delta Division spokeswoman Teresa Dickerson said.
“We are praying for our associates here in Collierville,” she said.
The Biden administration has halted Border Patrol agents’ use of horses in Del Rio, Texas, amid public outcry over video and photos showing mounted agents grabbing Haitian migrants trying to cross into the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told civil rights leaders Thursday that the administration “would no longer be using horses in Del Rio,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters during a briefing.
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment.
When asked why President Joe Biden has not publicly condemned the images, one of which shows an agent on horseback grabbing a migrant by his shirt, Psaki said the change in policy demonstrates that the president finds the images “horrific.”
“I think people should take away that his actions make clear how horrible and horrific these images are, including an investigation, including a change of policy, including conveying clearly that this is not acceptable, and he’s not going to stand for this in the Biden-Harris administration,” she said.
Mayorkas and Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz on Monday rejected allegations that “whips” were used by agents in a compilation of images and videos that fueled an outcry on social media. They said the agents were wielding reins to control their horses.
However, the images still drew sharp criticism from Democratic lawmakers this week.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., used Twitter to denounce the Border Patrol’s actions.
“It doesn’t matter if a Democrat or Republican is President, our immigration system is designed for cruelty towards and dehumanization of immigrants,” Ocasio-Cortez said in a Twitter post. “Immigration should not be a crime, and its criminalization is a relatively recent invention. This is a stain on our country.”
Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., echoed this sentiment in her own Twitter post Monday.
“These are human rights abuses, plain and simple. Cruel, inhumane, and a violation of domestic and international law,” Omar said in the post. “This needs a course correction and the issuance of a clear directive on how to humanely process asylums seekers at our border.”
Vice President Kamala Harris told reporters Tuesday that she was “deeply troubled” by the photos and fully supported a “thorough investigation,” because “human beings should never be treated that way.”
The policy change comes as the Biden administration faces backlash for its handling of the more than 10,000 Haitian migrants who have tried to cross the Rio Grande to enter the U.S. from Mexico since mid-September.
Psaki said 3,206 Haitian nationals have been moved to Customs and Border Protection custody to either be placed in removal proceedings or expelled through Title 42, a Trump-era health law that denies certain migrants the opportunity to apply for asylum.
The Biden administration recently appealed a federal judge’s order to stop the use of Title 42, much to the dismay of immigration advocates and progressive Democrats who had hoped the policy would come to an end.
A total of 1,401 Haitians have also been sent back to Haiti through repatriation flights that began Sunday, Psaki added. Fewer than 5,000 migrants remain under the bridge in Del Rio on Thursday, she said.
The administration’s response to what has become both a border and humanitarian crisis led the U.S. special envoy for Haiti, Daniel Foote, to resign Thursday over what he called “inhumane” treatment of Haitian migrants.
“Our policy approach to Haiti remains deeply flawed, and my recommendations have been ignored and dismissed,” Foote said in a resignation letter Wednesday obtained by NBC News.
Psaki said Foote had “ample opportunity to raise concerns about migration during his tenure” but “he never did so.” She added that there had been “disagreements” within the Biden administration over its policy response to the surge of Haitian migrants.
A body found earlier this month in the Illinois River near Peru, a far southwest Chicago suburb, has been identified as Illinois State University graduate student Jelani Day, authorities said.
The LaSalle County Coroner reported the body discovered on Sept. 4 “floating near the south bank of the Illinois River approximately ¼ mile east of the Illinois Rt. 251 Bridge,” was identified Thursday as Day, a 25-year-old reported missing in late August.
The cause of death was not immediately known and was pending further investigation and toxicology testing, the coroner’s office said.
“Our hearts are broken,” Day’s family said in a statement. “We ask that you continue to pray for our family during what will be very hard days ahead. Throughout these 30 days, our very first concern was finding Jelani, and now we need to find out #WhatHappenedToJelaniDay. At this moment there are more questions than answers surrounding Jelani’s disappearance and death, and that is where we will focus our energy. As of this moment, we do not know what happened to Jelani and we will not stop until we do.”
The body was first discovered weeks earlier, near where Day’s car was found shortly after he was reported missing, but officials said identification could take weeks or months due to the condition of the body.
“We’ve given them DNA so they can identify the body,” Day’s mother Carmen Bolden Day told NBC Chicago this week. “However what I was told that the crime lab does not have the solution that they need to process the DNA.”
The LaSalle County coroner’s office said while the body was determined to be a man’s body, it remained unidentified as of Wednesday. The office said at the time its investigation into the identity was “separate” from the investigation into Day’s disappearance, though they did not elaborate.
Day disappeared on Aug. 24 and hadn’t been seen since. His car was found two days later in a wooded area near where the body was discovered, miles from where he was last seen.
His family and a professor reported him missing on Aug. 25 after he did not show up for class for several days.
The morning prior, Day was captured on surveillance video going into a dispensary in Bloomington. Two days later, police found his car in the woods 60 miles away in Peru, Illinois. Police said the clothes he was last seen wearing in the surveillance video were found in his white Chrysler 300.
Day’s mother, Carmen Bolden Day, said it was not like him to disappear without telling someone about his whereabouts.
“I need him to come home so that he could continue his journey of becoming Dr. Jelani Day,” Bolden said at the time.
Bloomington Police
Police say Day disappeared under “unexplained suspicious circumstances.”
Bolden said she doesn’t think her son ran away and believes someone may have hurt her son.
“He wasn’t depressed. He didn’t have any kind of pressures that would make him want to escape from life,” she said. “So I do feel as if there was someone involved.”
Day’s family has criticized the investigation into the grad student’s disappearance, saying the young Black man has not received the attention of other missing persons like that of Gabby Petito, whose disappearance and subsequent death made national headlines and spawned a multi-state search from numerous law enforcement departments.
On Monday, police investigating Day’s disappearance asked the public for tips once again as the search for the young man continued nearly a month after he vanished.
Previous Coverage of Day’s Disappearance
Members of Day’s family, who live in Danville, have offered $25,000 for the man’s return. An online GoFundMe campaign has added $9,000 to that total.
Celebrity musician Lizzo also shared a TikTok Tuesday on Day’s disappearance, calling attention to the investigation.
Family members have also called for FBI help in the case.
A spokesperson for the FBI’s Springfield office said they have been in communication with Bloomington police “for several weeks,” but declined to comment further on their involvement.
Day graduated from Alabama A&M University with a degree in speech language pathology. Bolden said her son was inspired to go down this career path after seeing a friend struggle.
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A 24-year-old geologist has been missing for three months after last being seen leaving a worksite in the Arizona desert.
Daniel Robinson was first reported missing on June 23. He was last seen leaving a job site near the Sun Valley Parkway and Cactus Road in Buckeye, a suburb west of Phoenix, Buckeye police have said.
Investigators have combed more than 70 square miles, using UTVs, cadaver dogs, drones and a helicopter in an effort to locate Robinson since he disappeared, police said in an update on Sept. 16.
Police have searched 70 square miles since Robinson disappeared. In this photo, police point to Robinson’s Jeep, which was found in a ravine on July 19. (Buckeye Police Department)
With Thursday marking three months since Robinson went missing, his father, David, told FOX10 Phoenix that he feels police have not done enough to find his son.
“When I got here, it took them three days to do the initial search for my son. That’s one day too late,” the elder Robinson said. “A person should be looked for within that 24 to 48-hour period. Anything after that is problematic.”
Robinson was reported missing on June 23.
Buckeye police responded that investigators are exhausting every lead possible.
“A dad’s trying to find his son, that’s the bottom line,” Buckeye Assistant Police Chief Bob Sanders told the station.
Robinson, a geologist who often worked in remote areas, was believed to have been driving a blue 2017 Jeep Renegade at the time of his disappearance.
On July 19, a local landowner spotted Robinson’s jeep in a ravine, which had prevented search crews from spotting it by air and on foot, police said. The vehicle had significant damage.
Robinson’s vehicle was found in a ravine with significant damage on July 19, police said. (Buckeye Police Department)
On July 31, a human skull was found in an area south of the Jeep but was later determined to not belong to Robinson.
Police said no additional human remains have been recovered despite online reports claiming otherwise.
Authorities have asked anyone with information about Robinson’s disappearance to contact police.
The season so far has featured 18 named storms, including six hurricanes and three major hurricanes. If three more storms form, the National Hurricane Center’s list of storm names will be exhausted, and it will be forced to use a supplementary list developed by the World Meteorological Organization for any additional storms. “It is noteworthy that this is the 2nd earliest formation of the 18th named storm in the Atlantic basin, moving ahead of the 2005 hurricane season, and only trailing last year,” the National Hurricane Center wrote.
COLLIERVILLE, Tenn. (WREG) — Multiple people were injured Thursday in a shooting inside the Kroger on Byhalia and Poplar Avenue in Collierville, a Memphis suburb, after an active shooter incident officials are calling the “most horrific event” in the town’s history.
Collierville Police Chief Dale Lane confirmed 13 people were shot, and one person killed. The suspected shooter also is dead, possibly from a self-inflicted gunshot, Lane said. See the press conference with details below:
The suspect’s vehicle is still parked and is being investigated.
Lane said officers entered the store just after 1:30 and found multiple people shot, and employees in hiding. He could not comment on whether the shooter was an employee, saying it was under investigation.
Lane called it “the most horrific event that’s occurred in Collierville history.”
Multiple witnesses report hearing at least a dozen shots. Some customers made it out of the store. Employees had others take shelter in the cooler, witnesses said.
One employee, who says she’s worked at the Kroger for 32 years, told WREG she hid with her coworkers and several customers when they heard the gunshots. She said her only concern was her customers and coworkers.
“I’m still in shock right now,” she said. “But I was calm. I was calm and told the customers and my co-workers ‘Just sit down and relax. You’ll be okay.’”
Collierville High School was briefly sheltering in place.
Multiple ambulances were seen entering Regional One Hospital in Memphis. The hospital reported it saw nine patients, four in critical condition and five non-critical.
A SWAT team member moves into place.
The scene at the entrance to the Collierville Kroger.
Witness photos show a man on the Kroger roof talking to police. Collierville Police said this is not the shooter and is believed to be an employee of Kroger directing officers. (submitted photo)
Kroger employees embrace after the ordeal.
ATF agen ts were investigating the SUV parked outside the Collierville Kroger.
Kroger employees are led out of the store.
Kroger released a statement on the shooting:
We are deeply saddened by the incident that occurred at our Kroger store located on New Byhalia Rd. in Collierville, TN – a suburb of Memphis. The entire Kroger family offers our thoughts, prayers and support to the individuals and families of the victims during this difficult time. We are cooperating with local law enforcement, who have secured the store and parking lot. The store will remain closed while the police investigation continues, and we have initiated counseling services for our associates. To protect the integrity of the ongoing investigation, we are referring questions to the Collierville Police Department.
Kroger spokesperson
Details are still coming in. WREG will update this page as more information becomes available.
A Utah police department is to be investigated over its handling of a dispute between Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie that was captured on bodycam video.
City officials in Moab, Utah, say they have launched the probe into the Moab Police Department which dealt with the couple in August, weeks before Ms Petito was killed.
Officers interacted with Ms Petito, 22, and Mr Laundrie, 23, on 12 August after a bystander called 911 to report a possible domestic dispute involving the couple.
City officials acknowledged in a statement that the police department had received criticism and praise for “their response and their resolution of the incident involving Ms Petito and Mr Laundrie.”
“The Moab City Police Department has clear standards for officer conduct during a possible domestic dispute and our officers are trained to follow those standards and protocol,” the city stated.
“At this time, the City of Moab is unaware of any breach of Police Department policy during this incident. However, the City will conduct a formal investigation and, based on the results, will take any next steps that may be appropriate.”
This police camera video provided by The Moab Police Department shows Brian Laundrie talking to a police officer after police pulled over the van he was traveling in with his girlfriend, Gabrielle “Gabby” Petito, near the entrance to Arches National Park on Aug. 12, 2021.
Police pulled over the couple in their white van near the entrance to Arches National Park, and the subsequent interaction was captured on bodycam and written up in a police report.
It has been used to highlight the couple’s stressed relationship in the month before Ms Petito disappeared and her remains eventually found near a remote campground in Wyoming.
The police stop came two weeks before Ms Petito’s final communication with her family, with a witness saying they were concerned at a fight the couple were having.
“We drove by and the gentleman was slapping the girl,” the caller said, according to 911 audio from Grand County Sheriff’s Office.
“Then we stopped. They ran up and down the sidewalk. He proceeded to hit her, hopped in the car and they drove off.”
In the bodycam footage Ms Petito can be seen sobbing and breathing heavily, and an officer tells her that they considered her the aggressor and Mr Laundrie the victim.
No charges were filed against them, and at the suggestion of the officers Mr Laundrie spent the night at a hotel while Ms Petito stayed in the van.
“Both the male and female reported they are in love and engaged to be married and desperately didn’t wish to see anyone charged with a crime,” officer Eric Pratt wrote in the report.
“After evaluating the totality of the circumstances, I do not believe the situation escalated to the level of a domestic assault as much as that of a mental health crisis,” officer Daniel Robbins wrote in the report.
“I then determined the most appropriate course of action would be to help separate the parties for the night so they could reset their mental states without interference from one another.”
Officials said that investigators would now gather all evidence to evaluate the department’s response to the incident.
And they said that all of the information would be made available to any agency investigating Ms Petito’s death and all officers involved would be made available to answer questions.
“We understand that individuals can view the same situation in very different ways, and we recognise how the death of Ms Petito more than two weeks later in Wyoming might lead to speculation, in hindsight, about actions taken during the incident in Moab,” added the city.
“The purpose of the City’s formal investigation is to gather the underlying facts and evidence necessary to make a thorough, informed evaluation of such actions.”
Ms Petito and Mr Laundrie had been on a “van-life” adventure across America when she went missing.
He arrived back at his parents’ home in Florida on 1 September without his girlfriend, and the Petito family reported her missing 10 days later.
Her remains were discovered at the spread creek campground in Wyoming on Sunday, and on Tuesday a coroner determined that she had died from homicide.
Police in Florida continue to search for Mr Laundrie in a 25,000 acre nature reserve in Sarasota County, Florida, after he disappeared from his family home. He has been named as a person of interest by police.
Congressional Democrats and the White House have reached an agreement on a “framework” to pay for a massive social welfare spending package, party leaders said Thursday.
But they have no deal on how much they’ll spend on the legislation, which initially came with a $3.5 trillion price tag that some party centrists say is too high.
“The revenue side of this, we have an agreement on a framework,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters Thursday.
The New York Democrat has been working to corral lawmakers in his party to agree to the terms of a $3.5 trillion social welfare spending package that has stalled over objections from centrists.
Democrats plan to use tax increases on corporations to pay for at least part of the bill, but some centrist party lawmakers disagree with some of the new taxes. That appears to be settled, according to Schumer, who did not provide details.
Pelosi said the House Budget Committee will advance a bill “in a timely fashion” and that the revenue plan Democrats have agreed to “can cover the proposal the president put forth to build back better, his vision for the country.”
Lawmakers are racing to show at least the framework of an agreement by next week, when House Democrats plan to take up a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package that liberals say they won’t vote for unless the social welfare bill passes ahead of it.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat who appeared alongside Schumer, told reporters the Democrats “have made great progress” toward a final deal on the social welfare package, but they have not written the bill, she said.
Lawmakers, she said, are determining “what is affordable, what is effective, and what gets the best results” out of an array of “so many good provisions.”
The bill aims to pay for a new package of government programs, including free community college, free preschool, paid family and medical leave, expanded Medicare benefits, and an extension of child tax credits, among many other provisions.
Pelosi declined to give details on the forthcoming agreement.
“The House, the Senate, and the White House came to an agreement on how we can go forward in a way to pay for this, Pelosi said. “This was great progress.”
Pelosi downplayed the “price tag” and said the party is focused on “what’s in the bill.”
Democrats disagree on how much to spend.
Two Senate centrists, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, said they won’t vote for a bill that spends $3.5 trillion and are seeking to lower the cost.
Their opposition means Democrats cannot pass the measure in the evenly split Senate, where the party planned to use a budgetary tactic to advance the bill with a simple majority.
The announcement from Schumer and Pelosi comes a day after President Joe Biden met with Senate centrists and liberals, seeking to broker a deal on cost, scope, and revenue.
Pelosi wouldn’t say how much the bill might end up costing, and she would not promise the House will remain on schedule to take up the infrastructure measure next week.
“We take it one day at a time,” Pelosi said. “I’m confident we will pass both bills.”
That proposal is expected to stall in the Senate, where Republicans are unanimous in their opposition to any bill that seeks to raise or suspend the debt ceiling.
Democrats are on tight economic timelines. Some are self-imposed, such as Pelosi’s promise to hold a vote on a $1 trillion infrastructure bill on or before Sept. 27. The Senate has already passed the measure.
But there are other, standing deadlines. While Congress must pass a new budget by the end of September to avoid a shutdown, lawmakers must also figure out a way to increase or suspend the debt ceiling by a to be determined “drop-dead” date.
Treasury officials estimate that lawmakers have until some point in October before the U.S. would default on its debt for the first time.
Despite the time crunch, Schumer has promised to take up the House-passed debt ceiling and government funding bill nonetheless and force the GOP to publicly vote against a bill that would keep the government open and allow the Treasury Department to continue to pay for legislation Congress has already authorized.
Raising or suspending the debt ceiling, or borrowing limit, does not authorize new federal spending, but allows the Treasury to pay for legislation that lawmakers have already passed. An increase would allow the department to pay off bills associated with the trillions in Covid relief enacted under former President Donald Trump and Biden.
Many suspect that Pelosi will be forced to pass a new resolution without the debt ceiling to keep the government open. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has said on multiple occasions he would support such a “clean” bill to avoid a shutdown.
Separately, Pelosi and Schumer declared Thursday morning that they had reached an agreement on the “framework” for taxes that would be needed to fund Democrats’ $3.5 trillion package to revolutionize the U.S. public safety net.
“The White House, the House and the Senate have reached agreement on a framework that will pay for any final negotiated agreement,” Schumer said. “So, the revenue side of this, we have an agreement on. It’s a framework. An agreement on the framework.”
Moderate and progressive Democrats have clashed over the size and scope of the package. Neither Pelosi nor Schumer clarified whether the negotiators had made decisions whittling down their options for financing the bill, or were simply in agreement over which of many options they are collectively willing to consider.
National Border Patrol Council president blasts Biden’s immigration agenda on ‘The Story’
The head of the Border Patrol union is accusing the Biden administration of using a controversy over agents on horseback blocking Haitian migrants to “deflect” from its own handling of the crisis at the border, while saying the furor is “completely and totally demoralizing” for agents.
“They know that what is taking place under the bridge is very embarrassing to them so they are trying to deflect,” Brandon Judd, head of the National Border Patrol Council, told Fox News in an interview. “That’s the administration trying to deflect off themselves for their failures which led to the catastrophe that’s taking place under the bridge.”
U.S. Customs and Border Protection mounted officers attempt to contain migrants as they cross the Rio Grande from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico, into Del Rio, Texas. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez) (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)
Judd was referring to a controversy, fueled primarily by liberal activists and Democratic lawmakers, about images that emerged Sunday of Border Patrol agents blocking migrants in Del Rio from entering the U.S.
Agents were surged to the area to tackle the wave, which saw more than 14,000 migrants camped under the bridge last week, and led to the administration increasing deportation flights. Judd has said previously that Border Patrol warned the administration about the potential crisis months ago, but no action was taken.
After the images emerged, some falsely claimed that the agents in the images were using “whips” to hit migrants, a narrative seized on by a number of Democrats. Meanwhile the White House called the images “horrible and horrific” while Vice President Kamala Harris called for an investigation and described the images as “troubling.”
But Judd pointed out what were misidentified by many in the media and on Capitol Hill as “whips” were in fact long reins, which are used to control the horse in riverines, and said that no migrants were hit or injured during the incident.
“What they were holding were reins, they were not whips, those reins are used to control the horses,” he said. “The agents also have to protect the migrants from the horses they can’t let them close if they try and so they will twirl the reins in their hands, but they do not hit them nor were any of those migrants hit by any object, let alone by a whip or a rein”
DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas appeared to initially refute the claims being made by some in the media on Monday as she stood alongside Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz – who noted the use of long reins and how they are necessary to control the horse.
But by Tuesday, after the White House weighed in, Mayorkas said the images “troubled me profoundly.” The agents involved have since been shifted to desk duty as the investigation continues. Judd said he was not surprised by Mayorkas’ change in attitude.
Sept. 20, 2021: Mounted U.S. Border Patrol agents watch Haitian immigrants on the bank of the Rio Grande in Del Rio, Texas as seen from Ciudad Acuna, Mexico. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images) ((Photo by John Moore/Getty Images))
“He has to toe the line or he’s out of a job, so of course he’s going to say what the White House wants him to say once they’ve made their official statement,” he said.
Later, on Thursday afternoon, the White House announced that Mayorkas had told civil rights leaders that Border Patrol use of horses was being suspended in the Del Rio Sector.
Judd told Fox News before that announcement that he welcomed an investigation because he believes it will show the agents did nothing wrong.
“I know that it’s going to show there is no wrongdoing, there was no policy violation, they did not hit any one of the migrants, none of the migrants were injured in that incident and they were deployed to do exactly what they did, they followed their training, the same training being given to all horse patrol agents under the Biden administration,” he said.
Additionally, he emphasized the dangers that face Border Patrol, noting recent violent episodes by migrants on both a transport bus and a deportation flight, and that agents were sandwiched between a migrant camp behind them and a number of migrants in front of them.
“In law enforcement where officers are injured the most or even killed is in a moment’s notice, everything happens very very quickly, so when you’re in an enforcement posture, you have to be quick, you have to be decisive and you have to take proper action and in this case they did take proper action,” he said.
Multiple Border Patrol agents have spoken to Fox News expressing their dismay at the administration’s response to the controversy. Judd said the incident makes agents, who work 10 hours a day and six days a week in many cases, wonder why they put on the uniform.
“When you don’t have the backing of your management, it comes to the point where you wonder why you’re working,” he said. “This is the White House, this is the President of the United States, and when you’re being criticized for doing the job that he supposedly wants you to do, it becomes completely and totally demoralizing.”
Fox News’ Peter Hasson contributed to this report.
THE READOUT — Here’s the most important development that came from President JOE BIDEN’s five hours of meetings with 23 legislators in the Oval Office on Wednesday, according to a senior White House official: “Moderates agreed that they need to coalesce around an offer to the liberals.”
It might not sound like much. But given how dug in both sides have been, the White House views the commitment from the Manch-ema wing as “a real breakthrough.”
In a trio of meetings Biden first hosted Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and Speaker NANCY PELOSI, then he brought in a bicameral group of centrist Democrats, and finally he gathered key progressives from both chambers. They snacked on individually wrapped cookies with the presidential seal. The president was loquacious, according to one senator present: “It’s Biden, so you know Joe does a fair amount of talking.” The last session ended just after 7 p.m.
The second meeting produced the most news. It started with the president pressing his 11 guests — including JOE MANCHIN, KYRSTEN SINEMA, STEPHANIE MURPHY and JOSH GOTTHEIMER — to give him a specific top-line number for the reconciliation bill. They all refused and instead argued Dems should nail down an agreed-upon list of revenue raisers that would determine the top line. Murphy came to the meeting with a 10-plus-page spreadsheet of ways to fund the bill.
Biden fished again for a top line. “Give me a number, and tell me what you can live with and what you can’t,” Manchin later quoted the president saying. But no luck.
“The president really wanted a top line and was clearly getting frustrated,” said a source briefed on the meeting. “He was very frustrated that they couldn’t announce a number today.” The source added that his boss’s “biggest takeaway” was that Biden acknowledged the top-line number would be less than $3.5 trillion.
WHAT THEY TALKED ABOUT: Almost every policy area in the bill was discussed, according to Sen. JON TESTER (D-Mont.), including housing, taxes, child care, health care and climate.
There was no breakthrough on climate. “I have big problems” with the climate provisions, Manchin said afterward. “Probably [the president] and I are in a different place on that.”
On the big health care standoff betweenPelosi, who wants to shore up the Affordable Care Act, and BERNIE SANDERS, who wants to expand Medicare benefits, the centrists made it clear they were on team Pelosi. “They stressed to the president, ‘We’re behind the speaker in this instance,’” said the source. “There was enough in that room to kill Bernie Sanders’ idea.”
Finally, they also asked the president not to rush the reconciliation process and to use his influence in the House to pass BIF.
BIDEN’S ASSIGNMENT: The president sent them on their waywith what, from the White House’s perspective, was the most important action item: Come up with a set of principles or framework for reconciliation that will persuade progressives to back down from their threat to kill BIF in the House on Monday. “The goal is to try to get a framework before the vote on the bipartisan infrastructure package,” Tester said after he left the White House.
In the final meeting — which includedReps. BARBARA LEE and PRAMILA JAYAPAL as well as Sanders and Sen. RON WYDEN — Biden faced a united front of progressives pleading with him to use his influence to delay the Monday vote.
“It’s weird if you are supposedly for a bill to insist on killing it,” one person in the room told Playbook. “The iron law of legislating is that if you have the votes you take the vote, and if you don’t have the votes you delay the vote. That was done on BIF multiple times at the request of the moderate negotiators. It’s quite standard. It is NOT standard to insist on a vote when you know it will fail. Weird to call yourself a pragmatist and then kill the bill you say you want to pass by not giving negotiators more time.”
How did Biden respond to the requests for delay? “I hear ya,” the president told the progressives, according to Wyden. “I know a lot of you think that’s an arbitrary date. Let me think about it, and I’ll talk to Sen. Schumer and the speaker.”
Several Democratic lawmakers told us that any request to moderates to delay the vote would have to come from the president, not Pelosi.
LOOKING AHEAD: In the near term we see three possible scenarios, based on our conversations with numerous people in the Biden meetings Wednesday:
1) Centrists make a reconciliation counteroffer that’s robust enough to convince progressives to vote for the infrastructure bill early next week.
2) The offer from centrists comes up short, but Biden steps in and convinces the Gottheimer gang to agree to a vote delay until there’s a reconciliation deal.
3) The offer from centrists comes up short, the infrastructure vote goes forward, and progressives follow through on their promise to kill the bill. (Or we find out they were bluffing.)
Good Thursday morning, and thanks for reading Playbook. Second gentleman Doug Emhoff chose Beck’s “E-Pro” over Salt-N-Pepa’s “Whatta Man” and Cali Swag District’s “Teach Me How to Dougie” for his campaign walk-on song. Drop us a line and tell us what you would have picked: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.
JOIN US — The killing of 20-year-old Army soldier VANESSA GUILLEN, who had told family she was being sexually harassed by several soldiers prior to her disappearance at Fort Hood last year, has galvanized calls to change how the military deals with sexual assault and harassment. Sens. KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND (D-N.Y.) and JONI ERNST (R-Iowa), a veteran and a sexual assault survivor, have long pushed Congress to act on the issue. Their efforts are gaining steam but still face opposition. Join Rachael today at 1 p.m. for a Women Rule virtual joint interview with Ernst and Gillibrand to discuss the state of their proposed legislation and what it will take to curb sexual assault and sexual harassment in the military. Register here
BIDEN’S THURSDAY:
— 9:30 a.m.: The president and VP KAMALA HARRIS will receive the President’s Daily Brief.
— 12 p.m.: Biden will receive his weekly economic briefing.
— 12:30 p.m.: Biden and Harris will have lunch together in the private dining room.
HARRIS’ THURSDAY:
— 11:15 a.m.: Harris will meet with Ghanaian President NANA ADDO DANKWA AKUFO-ADDO in the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office.
— 3:15 p.m.: Harris will meet with Indian PM NARENDRA MODI in the Vice President’s Ceremonial Office.
Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at noon.
THE HOUSE will meet at 10 a.m. Pelosi will hold her weekly press conference at 10:45 a.m. House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY will hold his at 11:30 a.m.
THE SENATE is in.
PLAYBOOK READS
THE WHITE HOUSE
THE LOOMING CLIFF — Biden isn’t panicking about the prospect of defaulting on the nation’s debt, Chris Cadelago reports. The White House is instead letting Hill Democratic leaders take the lead on raising the debt ceiling, setting up calls between Republicans and Treasury, and coordinating outside pressure on the GOP to fold. “Inside the White House and among allies, there’s an overarching belief that there is still time to resolve the matter and that Americans care far less about the process of raising the debt ceiling than whether it gets done.”
PICKING UP WHERE TRUMP LEFT OFF — The deportations of Haitian migrants “are a stark example of how Mr. Biden — who declared on Feb. 2 that his goal was to ‘undo the moral and national shame of the previous administration’ — is deploying some of the most aggressive approaches to immigration put in place by [DONALD] TRUMP over the past four years,” NYT’s Michael Shear, Natalie Kitroeff, Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Eileen Sullivan report.
“Having failed in his attempts to build a more ‘humane’ set of immigration laws, Mr. Biden has reacted in a way that few of his supporters expected. In case after case, he has shown a willingness to use tough measures, even as he struggles to confront a challenge that has vexed presidents for decades: securing the borders while living up to U.S. humanitarian obligations to migrants fleeing economic hardship, political instability and violence.”
The WSJ recently reported thatLANNY DAVIS and former Rep. BOB LIVINGSTON (R-La.), two men famously at odds over the BILL CLINTON impeachment in the 1990s, have teamed up as foreign agents representing KHALIFA HAFTAR, a “Russian-backed warlord vying for power in Libya.” The Journal added that “[h]uman-rights organizations and international prosecutors have accused Mr. Haftar’s forces of war crimes” and that the “lobbying campaign is an effort by Mr. Haftar to regain some of the influence he has lost since the collapse last year of his 14-month long offensive against the country’s internationally-recognized government in Tripoli.”
Davis, who has a long history of representing controversial foreign clients, sent Playbook the following statement about his latest: “Our lobbying mission, as summarized in our FARA filing, is limited to expressing Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s support of free and fair, UN-supervised elections on December 24 – to facilitate a peaceful, stable, unified, democratic Libya, under the rule of law, with human rights accorded to all men and women.
“We were told by the Field Marshal’s senior advisor that the Field Marshal categorically denies all allegations about him in the unproven Virginia complaint filed in court some time ago and that he is confident he will prove these allegations to be false and without basis in fact.”
The lobbying duo insisted that they would not have taken on the $160,000-per-month account absent that categorical denial. Furthermore, their message to Washington is that the warlord — sorry, field marshal — “has consistently opposed radical Islamic extremists in Libya and elsewhere, including ISIS, Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood.”
CONGRESS
HEADS EXPLODING — An anti-abortion group is spending six figures on an ad campaign thanking Manchin for opposing changes to the filibuster — “a move sure to make filibuster reform advocates’ heads explode.” So write Daniel Lippman and Anthony Adragna for POLITICO’s Congress Minutes, a cool new platform to keep you up to date throughout the day on key goings-on on the Hill. Check it out here and follow @politicongress on Twitter.
—Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine) said she won’t back the Democrats’ abortion rights bill — Congress’ response to the six-week abortion ban in Texas, LAT’s Jennifer Haberkorn reports. The House is likely to pass the bill Friday, but it faces certain defeat in the Senate if it reaches a vote.
CONSIDER IT A WARNING — JOHN PODESTA, former chief of staff for Clintonand longtime political insider, said Democrats need to dial back the price tag of their $3.5 trillion budget proposal, NYT’s Jim Tankersley reports: “If they do not, he warned, they risk failure to pass the legislation — and the loss of their congressional majorities next year.”
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — A group of progressive and grassroots organizations is sending a letter to Congress today urging members of the House to vote no on the BIF without the reconciliation bill. “Passing just that small bill alone wouldn’t be a compromise; it would be a capitulation,” the letter says. “We strongly support the position of the Congressional Progressive Caucus that two bills must pass together, as a critical step on the journey toward tackling the climate crisis and furthering racial and economic justice. We urge progressives to hold strong. We will have your back.” The letter is signed by 90 organizations, including MoveOn, Indivisible, Greenpeace, the Sunrise Movement, the Working Families Party, People’s Action, Center for Popular Democracy and the Green New Deal Network.The letter
ALL POLITICS
‘IT’S TIME … TO PAY ATTENTION’ — As redistricting battles heat up around the country, the AP’s Cacia Coronado and Nick Riccardi zero in on Texas as a case study of the push by Latino advocates to grow their numbers in Congress. The message: “Latinos accounted for slightly more than half of all U.S. population growth in the last decade, and it’s time for the political system to pay attention.”
CAMPAIGNING IN THE TIME OF COVID — In the tightening Virginia governor’s race,Democrat TERRY MCAULIFFE is stepping up his attacks on Republican GLENN YOUNGKIN for not supporting pandemic-related mandates, Zach Montellaro reports this morning. The escalation comes on the heels of California Gov. GAVIN NEWSOM’s victory in the recall election, in which he made vaccine mandates a centerpiece of his campaign.
GETTING HIS HEAD IN THE GAME— Despite facing one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the country, West Virginia Gov. JIM JUSTICE has his sights set on coaching the boys’ varsity basketball team at Greenbrier East High School. There’s just one problem: The school board voted not to hire him, NYT’s Campbell Robertson reports. “The issue is not whether Mr. Justice, a Democrat turned Republican in office, would be good at the boys’ coaching job, but whether it is something he should really be focusing on right now.”
PLAYBOOKERS
Bernie Sanders’ famous Inauguration Day outfit“is the inspiration behind a racy Halloween costume sold by Dolls Kill, an online store primarily known for Gen Z’s beloved ‘e-girl fashion,’” according to Page Six.
“Two culinary powerhouses” are teaming up to open “Tawle, an eclectic Middle Eastern restaurant … in Tishman Speyer’s massive new food hall” at 1850 K St. next year, according to Washingtonian.
SPOTTED at the Former Members of Congress’ annual Statesmanship Awards on Wednesday night at D.C.’s Potomac View Terrace: Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.), House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), Reps. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), Val Demings (D-Fla.), Mary Gay Scanlon (D-Pa.), Billy Long (R-Mo.) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Blanche Lincoln, Joe Donnelly,Charlie Dent,Donna Edwards,Ileana Ros-Lehtinen,John Faso,Elizabeth Esty,Dennis Ross, Belgian Ambassador Jean-Arthur Régibeau and Jo Ann Jenkins.
SPOTTED at theonline premiere of “Not Going Quietly,” a documentary on Ady Barkan’s activism, on Wednesday night:Barkanand Rachael King, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.),Reps. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Katie Porter (D-Calif.)and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Martin Sheen, Richard Schiff, Marlee Matlin, Mary McCormack, Dulé Hill, Joshua Malina, Bradley Whitford, Amy Landecker, Patton Oswalt, Rosario Dawson, Steve Kerr and Christine Pelosi.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Samantha Keitt is joining Left Hook as a VP of public affairs. She previously was director of public affairs at SKDK.
MEDIA MOVE — Natalie Allison is joining POLITICO as the new Senate campaigns reporter. She currently covers state politics at the Tennessean.
STAFFING UP — Saule Omarova is expected to be nominated as comptroller of the currency, per Victoria Guida. She’s a Cornell Law professor who’s criticized financial institutions’ power and, if confirmed, would oversee the country’s banks.
— The White House announced several new nominations: Michael Adler as U.S. ambassador to Belgium, Erik Ramanathan as U.S. ambassador to Sweden, Calvin Smyre as U.S. ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Mary Lu Jordan as commissioner of the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, Susan Harthill as commissioner of the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, Joseph DeCarolis as administrator of the Energy Information Administration, Maria Robinson as assistant Energy secretary in the Office of Electricity, and Christopher Frey as assistant EPA administrator for the Office and Research and Development.
TRANSITIONS — Mary Ellen Callahan is now deputy COS for DHS Deputy Secretary John Tien. She most recently was assistant general counsel for the Walt Disney Company and is an Obama DHS alum. … Valerie Chicola is now senior comms adviser for Rep. Maria Salazar (R-Fla.). She previously was broadcast comms adviser for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. …
… Jesse Poon is now assistant director of government relations at Brown University. He previously was a principal at Lewis-Burke Associates, and is a David Cicilline campaign alum. … Ben Rosner is launching Anabasis Partners, an international marketing and comms consultancy, as partner and head of the U.S. He previously was head of strategy and crisis comms for the Israel Defense Forces.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Joshua Karp, a Democratic comms strategist and founding partner at Hone Strategies, and Dorian Karp, director of policy and advocacy at Jewish Women International, welcomed Rory Shoshana Karp on Tuesday. She came in at 7 lbs, 2 oz, and joins big sister Ellie. Pic… Another pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Reps. Al Lawson (D-Fla.) and Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) … Kristen Silverberg … Elise Jordan … Todd Ricketts … Helen Tolar of Mehlman Castagnetti … Nick Everhart of Content Creative Media and Medium Buying … NYT’s Mike Schmidt … Richard Viguerie … POLITICO’s Bernie Becker, Sam Sabin,Emily Martin and Brandon Winrow … Sean Spicer (5-0) … Corey Tellez of Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin’s (D-Ill.) office … PwC’s Todd Metcalf … Tom Martin of the American Forest Foundation … Abbey Watson … Darryl Nirenberg of Steptoe … Ralph Hellmann (6-0) … CNN’s Greg Wallace … David Harris of the American Jewish Committee … Kyle Wiley of CRW Consulting … Saunji Fyffe … Karen Czarnecki of the Mercatus Center at George Mason … Serenety Hanley of 43 Alumni for America … NBC’s Julia Ainsley … former Rep. Jason Lewis (R-Minn.) … Siraj Hashmi … Brooke Brogan … CBS’ Anne Hsu … SoRelle Wyckoff Gaynor … Gabriella Schwarz … Julius Niyonsaba … Ryan Shucard … Loretta Solon Greene … Matt Hirsch … Katrina Mendiola … Dale Leibach … Nicole Mata of Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-Calif.) office … Ana Marie Cox … Kelly Sackley … Amanda Cox
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The U.S. Border Patrol said that more than 9,000 migrants, mostly from Haiti, were being held in a temporary staging area under the Del Rio International Bridge in Texas as agents worked as quickly as they could to process them.
About 1,400 Haitians have been deported since Sunday, with more flights scheduled for each day, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. As of Thursday, there were around 4,050 migrants, most of them Haitians, still at the Del Rio bridge.
But the Biden administration, facing the highest level of border crossings in decades, has enforced policies intended to slow the entry of migrants. On Monday, Alejandro N. Mayorkas, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, said newly-arrived Haitians would not be covered by the temporary residence orders that were extended earlier this year.
“We are very concerned that Haitians who are taking this irregular migration path are receiving false information that the border is open or that temporary protected status is available,” Mr. Mayorkas said during a news conference on Monday in Del Rio, Texas. “I want to make sure that it is known that this is not the way to come to the United States.”
Officials at Haiti’s Embassy in Washington did not respond to messages for comment Thursday morning.
In a statement, the State Department thanked Mr. Foote for his service and said “the United States remains committed to supporting safe, orderly, and humane migration throughout our region.”
NORTH PORT, Fla. (WFLA) — North Port police officers and FBI agents resumed the search for Brian Laundrie Thursday.
Officers have searched Carlton Reserve for several days after learning from his family that he went missing Sept. 14. The Laundrie family told authorities that their son had left to go hike at the reserve, prompting the search.
Laundrie is the sole person of interest in the homicide investigation of his fiancé Gabby Petito, whose remains were identified Tuesday afternoon. However, he has not been charged with any crime, and police are treating his disappearance as a missing person’s case.
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