Iowa lawmakers vote to remove gender ID from state civil rights protections
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(DES MOINES, IOWA) — Iowa lawmakers voted Thursday to strike gender identity from state civil rights protections.
The state’s civil rights law currently protects against discrimination in the workplace, school, accommodations, housing and more based on someone’s “age, race, creed, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, religion, or disability.”
The recent legislation on gender identity quickly made its way through the legislature, though not without facing large protests from critics who believe the bill will open up further discrimination against transgender people.
Transgender Americans — who are estimated to make up less than 1% of the U.S. population over the age of 13 — have been the target of hundreds of Republican-backed bills each year in recent years.
The new Iowa bill is one of more than 450 anti-LGBTQ bills in the U.S. being tracked this year by the American Civil Liberties Union.
Supporters of the legislation came to the Thursday hearing with a plethora of arguments — including concerns about religious freedoms, privacy in public accommodations and the belief that there are only two sexes.
“It would not be wise on the slippery slope of the sand using fluid definitions and feelings. Instead, let’s courageously build it on the tested, immovable foundations of fixed endings and historical truth,” said one community member.
The bill notes an exception for people who experience differences or disorders in sexual development — sometimes known as intersex — as covered by the federal Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Opponents say that the legislation targets a small, vulnerable population and will worsen discrimination often faced by transgender people.
One community member, who said they were an Iowa educated and trained family medicine physician, said the lives of their patients depend on the outcome of the bill.
“As a doctor, I see firsthand how social determinants like stable housing, employment and access to public spaces are critical to my patients’ health,” they said. “The protections in our Civil Rights Code are not abstract. They are lifelines. When a person is denied housing because of their gender identity, they face higher risks of homelessness, violence and worsened physical and mental health.”
(WASHINGTON) — A former Tennessee lawmaker who was once represented by White House Counsel David Warrington said he received a pardon from President Donald Trump after pleading guilty to an illegal campaign finance scheme in 2022.
The White House has not said anything publicly about former Sen. Brian Kelsey’s pardon, but sources familiar with the matter told ABC News that Trump signed the pardon paperwork on Tuesday.
The White House counsel’s office normally reviews presidential pardons, and it was not immediately clear if Warrington recused himself from his former client’s pardon.
Warrington was recused from the Kelsey matter and was not involved in any way, a White House official told ABC News.
Kelsey was two weeks into his 21-month prison sentence when he received the pardon. Bureau of Prisons records reflected that Kelsey was no longer in custody at FCI Ashland as of Tuesday.
According to federal prosecutors, Kelsey illegally funneled tens of thousands of dollars from his state campaign committee to a federal committee to fund his failed 2016 congressional campaign. He originally pleaded guilty to one felony before later withdrawing his plea while he was represented by Warrington.
“Defendant Brian Kelsey entered his plea agreement hastily with an unsure heart and confused mind,” Warrington wrote in a court filing, arguing Kelsey was confused when he decided to plead guilty after his father died and his wife gave birth to twins.
“The fog and sleep deprivation of taking care of his newborns while dealing with everything else in his life led to his confused mind. Once his mind began clearing, Mr. Kelsey acted quickly to seek to withdraw his plea,” he wrote.
But U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw denied the request, finding that Kelsey – who attended law school and practiced law – understood his actions when he initially pleaded guilty. The Supreme Court denied his request to hear his case on in the summer of 2024. He was eventually sentenced to 21 months in prison, though he was allowed to delay serving his sentence while his appeal played out.
Kelsey reported to his minimum-security prison on Feb. 24, spending about two weeks behind bars before Trump issued his pardon. “Praise the Lord most high! May God bless America, despite the prosecutorial sins it committed against me, President Trump, and others the past four years. And God bless Donald J. Trump for Making America Great Again!” Kelsey wrote on social media.
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is gearing up for potentially contentious meetings with Arab power players this week as President Donald Trump continues to press his plan for what he calls U.S. “ownership” of Gaza, going so far as to threaten cutting off U.S. aid to Jordan and Egypt if they don’t go along.
On Tuesday, Jordan’s King Abdullah is scheduled to meet with Trump at the White House, becoming the first Arab leader to do since he returned to power last month.
Jordan has served as a humanitarian lifeline for civilians in Gaza throughout the Israel-Hamas conflict and already hosts millions of registered Palestinian refugees.
But Trump’s plan for rebuilding Gaza calls for the country, as well as Egypt, to take in close to 2 million more Palestinians he says can be removed from Gaza so that the war-torn land can be transformed into what he calls “the Riviera of the Middle East” under his watch.
Trump’s proposal to “clean out” Gaza has ignited a sharp wave of backlash from Middle Eastern leaders, including from Abdullah.
“His Majesty King Abdullah II stresses the need to put a stop to (Israeli) settlement expansion, expressing rejection of any attempts to annex land and displace the Palestinians,” the Jordanian royal court said in a statement posted to X on Wednesday, in the wake of Trump’s stunning announcement last week.
In the days since, Abdullah has also engaged in a flurry of calls and meetings with the U.N. and other countries that have historically supported the creation of a Palestinian homeland — a possible effort to present a united front aimed at pushing back against Trump’s designs for Gaza.
But the opposition appears to have done little to deter Trump. In a clip from his weekend interview with Fox News released on Monday, Trump said that under his scheme, Palestinians removed from Gaza would not have the right to return to the land after reconstruction was completed.
“No, they wouldn’t, because they’re going to have much better housing, much better,” he said. “I’m talking about building a permanent place for them.”
The president has also brushed off opposition from Jordan and Egypt to taking in large numbers of Palestinians, suggesting he would pressure their governments to get on board.
“If they don’t agree, I would conceivably withhold aid,” he told reporters Monday night.
Trump is also dispatching his top diplomat, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, to the Middle East at the end of this week.
Rubio is slated to visit Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He also met with the Egypt’s foreign minister at the State Department on Monday. However, it’s unclear whether he is on the same page as the president.
During his tour through Central America last week, Rubio was asked multiple times if Palestinians would be allowed to return to Gaza post-reconstruction under Trump’s plan; on each occasion, the secretary did not fully answer the question, but said Gazans would have to live somewhere else “in the interim.”
Asked how Rubio would resolve similar concerns raised by Arab leader’s during his tour through the Middle East, a senior State Department official replied “I don’t know what his plans are. I’m not a mind-reader.”
In a radio interview broadcast on Monday, the secretary said he would be the one putting questions to Middle Eastern officials –asking them how they aim to resolve the conflict.
“The only one who’s stood up and said I’m willing to help do it is Donald Trump. All these other leaders, they’re going to have to step up. If they’ve got a better idea, then now is the time,” Rubio said.
However, the foreign ministers from the Arab countries Rubio will visit already sent a letter to him earlier this month detailing their willingness to work with the Trump administration on a two-state solution, which the secretary has all but dismissed.
Some analysts have characterized Trump’s proposal for Gaza as a negotiating ploy. If that’s the case, Ahmed Aboudouh, an associate fellow at Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa Programme, argues it has already done more harm than good.
“If Trump’s eye-popping intervention was a bargaining tactic, as some searching for logic in the proposal claim, it has already failed. Enormous damage has been done to the fragile peace process and US prestige,” Aboudouh said.
Others, like Thomas S. Warrick — a nonresident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative and former Department of Homeland Security official — see some value in Trump’s proposal.
“No one predicted that Trump would push the United States to engage more on what postwar Gaza should look like in one month than the Biden team did in fifteen months,” Warrick said.
However, Warrick said Trump’s strategy “will need to be dialed back to what is workable,” and that he’s likely to come face to face with one tall hurdle when he meets with Abdullah: Jordan’s unwillingness to accept Palestinian refugees from Gaza.
“There is quite literally no tool in the US toolbox that could persuade the leaders of Egypt or Jordan to change their minds on this point,” he said. “Trump’s advisors know this, but they would likely rather have Trump hear this directly from Jordanian King Abdullah.”
(WASHINGTON) — Minority Leader Chuck Schumer took to the Senate floor Friday morning to defend his decision to support a Republican short-term funding bill that will effectively help avoid a government shutdown at the end of the day.
His surprise reversal, first announced Thursday evening — a day after he said he and Democrats would try to block the bill — means there will almost certainly be enough Democratic votes to advance the measure to a final Senate vote Friday just hours before the shutdown deadline.
“As everyone knows, government funding expires at midnight tonight. As I announced yesterday, I will vote to keep the government open. I believe it is the best way to minimize the harm that the Trump administration will do to the American people,” Schumer said Friday.
He said he believes the short-term funding bill — or continuing resolution — is a “bad bill” but said he believes if the government were to shut down, it would be a far worse outcome for the country.
“The CR is a bad bill. But as bad as the CR is, I believe allowing Donald Trump to take even much more power via a government shutdown is a far worse option,” Schumer said.
Schumer said he believes a government shutdown would mean President Donald Trump and Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) would have even more authority to “destroy vital government services at a much faster rate.”
He said they would also have the power to determine which federal employees are considered essential — potentially giving them more power to lay off or fire more government workers and shutter federal agencies.
“A shutdown would allow DOGE to shift into overdrive. Let me repeat, a shutdown will allow DOGE to shift into overdrive. It would give Donald Trump and DOGE the keys to the city, state and country,” he said. “Donald Trump and Elon Musk would be free to destroy vital government services at a much faster rate than they can right now and over a much broader field of destruction that they would render.”
He continued, “In a shutdown, Donald Trump and DOGE will have the power to determine what is considered essential and what is not and their views on what is not essential would be mean and vicious and would decimate vital services and cause unimaginable harm to the American people.”
“Musk has told everybody he wants a shutdown because he knows it will help him achieve his horrible goal of just decimating the federal government from one end to the other. In other words, if government were to shut down, DOGE has a plan in place to exploit the crisis for maximum destruction,” Schumer said.
“A shutdown would be the best distraction Donald Trump could ask for,” he added.
Schumer also defended some his Senate Democratic colleagues who have come out opposed to the short-term funding bill. He acknowledged the tough decisions they as a caucus have had to weigh.
“Our caucus members have been torn between two awful alternatives, and my colleagues and I have wrestled with which alternative would be worse for the American people,” Schumer said.
He added that just because some of his colleagues will vote no on advancing the short-term funding bill, it does not mean they support a government shutdown.
“Different senators come down on different sides of this question. But that does not mean that any Senate Democrat supports a shutdown. Whatever the outcome, our caucus will be united in our determination to continue the long-term fight to stop Donald Trump’s dangerous war on our democracy and on America’s working families,” he said.
About the time Schumer was speaking, Trump praised him in a post on his social media platform, saying it took “guts” for the New York senator to signal his support for the GOP bill.
“Congratulations to Chuck Schumer for doing the right thing — Took “guts” and courage! The big Tax Cuts, L.A. fire fix, Debt Ceiling Bill, and so much more, is coming,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“We should all work together on that very dangerous situation. A non pass would be a Country destroyer, approval will lead us to new heights. Again, really good and smart move by Senator Schumer. This could lead to something big for the USA, a whole new direction and beginning,” Trump wrote.
Former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, appeared to be distancing herself from Schumer’s decision, slammed Democrats who support the House GOP bill.
“America has experienced a Trump shutdown before — but this damaging legislation only makes matters worse. Democrats must not buy into this false choice. We must fight back for a better way. Listen to the women, For The People,” she said in a statement Friday.
At the same time, Pelosi applauded House Democrats for their near unanimous vote against the measure.
“I salute Leader Hakeem Jeffries for his courageous rejection of this false choice, and I am proud of my colleagues in the House Democratic Caucus for their overwhelming vote against this bill,” she said.
