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José Andrés to open restaurant in former Trump DC hotel

Celebrity chef José Andrés has announced plans to open a restaurant in the former residence of former President Trump’s Washington, D.C. hotel. 

In a tweet on Monday, Andrés shared the news of his restaurant chain, The Bazaar by José Andrés, will be an occupant at the Old Post Office building, formerly known as the Trump International Hotel. 

“People of DC big news! Today after a dream of 30 years I’m announcing we will open @bazaarbyjose in the Old Post Office!” Andrés said in a tweet. “Building longer tables in the heart of our nation’s capital, welcoming people from across the city & the world I’ll share more soon..” 

In a video, Andrés shared that it is been his longtime dream to open a restaurant at the Old Post Office. 

“But the good news my friends is that my longtime dream once I began talking to Senator Patrick Monahan in 1993 of one day having a restaurant in the opposite office, almost three years later, is coming to fruition,” Andrés said. “And this is what the bells are…yeah are chiming for.” 

This comes as Andrés and the Trump Organization settled a lawsuit in 2017 after the celebrity chef pulled out of a planned collaboration with the organization due to Trump’s immigration rhetoric and views. 

Trump filed a lawsuit against Andrés two years prior due to his refusal to open a restaurant at his then D.C. hotel, suing the chef for $10 million and alleging a breach of contract. 

Andrés, who said in an interview that he confronted Trump over his comments and views on immigration, recently accepted a leadership award from the National Association of Broadcasters Leadership Foundation (NABLF) last week for his humanitarian work in Ukraine amid the country’s ongoing conflict with Russia.

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Biden touts push for Asian Pacific American museum

President Biden on Monday signed legislation to study the creation of a National Museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture, saying efforts to establish the museum come at a “critical time” for the United States.

“Today, it’s clear that the battle for the soul of America continues, that’s why a museum like this is going to matter so much,” Biden said at the White House.

“Museums of this magnitude and consequence are going to inspire and educate. More than anything else, it’s going to help people see themselves in the story of America,” he added.

The president noted that it’s been one year since the Atlanta spa shootings that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, and 80 years since the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II in internment camps. Bill sponsors have also previously spoken about violent attacks against Asian Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic, saying the museum idea has taken on added significance in recent years.

“It comes at a critical time,” Biden said at the bill signing on Monday.

Biden called the bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Grace Meng (D-Calif.) and Sen Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), “long overdue.”

It will establish a commission made up of members appointed by the House and Senate majority and minority leaders. The commission will study the cost of such a museum, whether it should be part of the Smithsonian, and how best to engage Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during its creation.

“I look forward one day to visiting the national museum of Asian Pacific American History and Culture with all of you,” Biden said.

The president also said he was focused on having an administration that looks like America.

“To teach this history is to help all of us as Americans understand where we come from and to teach this history is to help us understand who we are,” Vice President Harris, who is the first person of South Asian descent to become vice president, said at the event.

Last month, Biden and Harris held a celebration for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at the White House, during which they condemned violence and hateful rhetoric toward minority communities.

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Trump’s inner circle testifies his claims were bogus

The House committee examining last year’s attack on the Capitol accused former President Trump on Monday of lying purposely to the public in order to stay in power and raise money from sympathetic supporters — an orchestrated effort the panel said led directly to the deadly insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.

Gathered on Capitol Hill for the second in a series of public hearings into its investigation, the select committee leaned heavily on the testimony of some of the leading figures in Trump’s political orbit to hammer home the notion that, not only were Trump’s claims of rampant voter fraud false, but also that he knew them to be so.

Leading the charge was former Attorney General William Barr, who delivered a damning portrait of the former president as someone increasingly “detached from reality” following the election.

Barr said his Justice Department was forced to play “whack-a-mole” with the flood of false fraud allegations pouring in from Trump supporters around the country. One by one, the department investigated the claims but found no wrongdoing. The accusation that Dominion Voting Systems, a voting machine company, had installed software to flip votes from Trump to Joe Biden was “idiotic,” Barr said, while another claim — that more people voted in Philadelphia than there are voters in the city — was “absolute rubbish.” 

“And I told him that the stuff that his people were shoveling out to the public was bullshit, I mean, that the claims of fraud were bullshit,” Barr told the committee in an earlier interview that was aired during Monday’s hearing. “And, you know, he was indignant about that.”

Testimony presented Monday showed a clear fracture behind the scenes between Trump and some of his top aides, who told the committee they confronted Trump directly about his claims of widespread fraud in the weeks after the 2020 election, only to be ignored.

“The election fraud claims were false. Mr. Trump’s closest advisers knew it. Mr. Trump knew it,” Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) said at the outset of the hearing. “That didn’t stop him from pushing the false claims and urging his supporters to ‘fight like hell’ to ‘take back their country.’”

The committee used video clips of Trump making fabulous claims of rampant fraud and contrasted them with interviews with White House and campaign aides disputing those assertions.

They showed Trump laying the groundwork for his ultimate assertion — that only fraud could deal him an election loss — as early as April 2020, a thread he revisited when he claimed victory on election night, then amplified heading into Jan. 6.

Former Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue testified that he personally explained to Trump that Justice Department officials had looked into claims of fraud in Georgia, Nevada and elsewhere but that much of the information the president was receiving was inaccurate. In response, Trump would shift his focus to other claims of fraud.

“There were so many allegations that when you gave him a very direct answer on one of them, he wouldn’t fight you on it, he’d move to another one,” Donoghue said.

Former Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien, who was promoted to that role in July 2020, was scheduled to testify in-person on Monday but backed out after his wife went into labor. 

In his absence, the committee used clips of Stepien’s private deposition, in which he discussed his effort to convince Trump of the benefits of mail-in voting, of the amount of time it would take to count ballots and declare a winner in the 2020 election and of the need to let votes be counted before declaring victory. As part of that effort, he brought in House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to help make the case. It fell on deaf ears.

“My recommendation was to say that votes are still being counted. It’s too early to tell, too early to call the race,” he said.

“I don’t recall the particular words. He thought I was wrong. He told me so and, you know, that they were going to, he was going to go in a different direction.”

Trump instead relied on the counsel of Rudy Giuliani, a key promoter of the Dominion conspiracy theory who emerged as one of the leading public champions of Trump’s lie about a stolen election. 

The committee used footage of Giuliani on Fox News and appearing before a Pennsylvania panel claiming dead people had voted for Biden in large numbers and that ballots were brought in to erase Trump’s lead in Michigan — both of which were dispelled by witnesses on Monday.

“There were two groups, my team and Rudy’s team. I didn’t mind being part of ‘Team Normal,'” Stepien told the committee, saying he did not believe the tactics encouraged by Giuliani were “honest or professional.” In a surprising moment in Monday’s hearing, the panel showed former Trump campaign adviser Jason Miller testifying that Giuliani was “definitely intoxicated” on election night.

The committee also spent considerable time on the “red mirage” concept, a historic trend predicting that Republicans will perform well early in the vote-counting process due to their preference for same-day, in-person voting, while Democratic vote totals kick up later as early and absentee ballots are counted in the days after the polls close. 

Chris Stirewalt, former political editor at Fox News, said that trend was expected again in November in 2020, but Trump’s willingness to use that “quirk” to mislead the public about the presidential results led the network to alter its approach to election coverage.  

“Basically, in every election, Republicans win Election Day, and Democrats win the early vote,” Stirewalt testified. “We had gone to pains — and I’m proud of the pains we went to — to make sure that we were informing viewers that this was going to happen. Because the Trump campaign and the president had made it clear that they were going to try to exploit this anomaly.”

Trump’s advisers said they informed him of those vote-counting dynamics, but it did nothing to prevent Trump from claiming immediate victory.

“We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at 4 o’clock in the morning,” Trump said on election night, a clip played during Monday’s hearing.

But what were Trump’s chances of winning at that point, Lofgren asked Stirewalt, who had assisted in the controversial Fox News decision to call Arizona for Biden.

“None,” he responded. 

As Trump continued to press his claims of election fraud, his fundraising apparatus kicked into gear, the committee argued. Senior counsel Amanda Wick found the Trump campaign sent more than 1 million emails to supporters soliciting donations under the pretense of fighting election fraud between Election Day and Jan. 6.

Ultimately, Trump and his allies raised roughly $250 million. But a so-called Election Defense Fund that Trump had promoted did not exist, and former campaign staffers admitted it was merely a marketing tool. Instead, millions of dollars were funneled to conservative groups run by Trump allies, including his former chief of staff Mark Meadows.

“Throughout the committee’s investigation we found evidence that the Trump campaign and its surrogates misled voters as to where their funds would go and what they would be used for. So not only was there the big lie, there was the big rip-off,” Lofgren said.

Mychael Schnell contributed.

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EV start-up planning bankruptcy filing

Electric Last Mile Solutions (ELMS), an electric vehicle start-up company, has announced it has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy. 

“Ultimately, the Board determined, following a comprehensive review with the assistance of the Company’s outside advisors, and upon the recommendation of the Company’s management, that it is in the best interest of the Company and the Company’s stockholders, stakeholders, creditors, and other interested parties to file for Chapter 7 relief,” ELMS said in a statement. 

The start-up company said a leadership team led by the newly-appointed interim CEO and President Shauna McIntyre had launched a review of the company’s products and commercialization plans and also assessed its planned product offerings, production plans, and certification processes. 

The leadership team’s findings led to the resignations of ELMS CEO Jim Taylor and founding Executive Chairman Jason Luo, the statement said. 

“I’m very disappointed by this outcome because our ELMS team demonstrated incredible determination to get our electric vans ready to meet the critical need for clean, connected vehicles that reduce carbon emissions from ground transportation,” McIntyre said in a statement, adding that she is proud of what the ELMS team has accomplished in their short time period. 

“This is a viable and essential technology, and I am confident that many of our talented employees will play a future role in this energy transition effort,” McIntyre concluded. 

The Michigan-based company went public last June through a merger with the Forum Merger III Corp., a blank check firm, CNN reported. 

“For the past several months, the ELMS board and the new ELMS leadership team have worked nonstop to address legacy financial, governance and operational matters at the Company, and enormous progress was made, including towards vehicle certification” ELMB board chairman Brian Krzanich said in a statement. “Therefore, it’s extremely frustrating that we must take this route, but it was the only responsible next step for our shareholders, partners, creditors, and employees.”

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Hispanic Caucus endorses South Florida House challenger

The Congressional Hispanic Caucus campaign arm on Monday will endorse Florida state Sen. Annette Taddeo (D) in a congressional race that is a key Democratic pickup opportunity in the Sunshine State, The Hill has learned.

Bold PAC, the Hispanic Caucus campaign arm, picked Taddeo over two other potential Democratic challengers — including another Latino — vying for the opportunity to run against Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-Fla.).

“I’ve known Annette for years and have witnessed first hand the kind of public servant she is and the passion that has always driven her to represent her community. As a state legislator, Annette has fought hard to improve the quality of life of working Americans of all stripes in her district,” Bold PAC Chair Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.) said.

“As a Member of Congress, she will continue defending a woman’s right to choose and fighting to increase opportunities for American small businesses so they can create better paying jobs,” Gallego added.

The endorsement is the latest in a string of Bold PAC picks in key primaries, often selecting one Hispanic candidate over another.

The group’s main mission, other than defending Hispanic Democratic incumbents, is to expand the Hispanic Caucus by getting more Hispanic Democrats elected to Congress.

Taddeo last week dropped out of the Democratic race to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), and instead opted to run for the nominally competitive Miami-area district.

Her decision to run in a seat that’s flipped parties twice in as many elections could give Democrats a rare chance to unseat a Republican in Florida.

Still, Salazar is the early favorite in the race, as the GOP has taken a stranglehold on Florida politics.

“Tough race, yes. But that’s all I know, it’s tough races, so that’s OK. But winnable race nonetheless,” Taddeo told The Hill.

Taddeo is a well-known Florida politician who in 2014 was Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist’s running mate in the gubernatorial race against Sen. Rick Scott (R), who served eight years as governor.

After bowing out of the gubernatorial primary, Taddeo endorsed Crist, who served as Florida’s Republican governor from 2007 to 2011, ran against Scott as a Democrat in 2014, and has served in the House since 2016.

Taddeo said her switch from the statewide race to the House race was largely stoked by the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, where a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers in an elementary school last month.

“Uvalde happened and that is really the moment when I realized I needed to do this. Look, I have a daughter in public school, there has been already at least three instances at her school where we have gotten a threat and the parents had been told with the option to send the kids to school the following day or not,” Taddeo said.

“It was actually my daughter who had a conversation with me and she said, ‘Mom, you need to run for Congress. Your voice is needed. Your leadership is needed,’ and she’s the one that did it,” Taddeo added.

Taddeo said she received support to run from both sides of the aisle, with friends encouraging her to take on Salazar, whose unorthodox rhetoric has at times come under criticism from Democrats and Republicans alike.

Still, Salazar is an incumbent running in a district rated as “solid Republican” by the Cook Political Report, in a red state, in a year where Democrats face tough headwinds.

Taddeo is the first high-profile Democrat to announce a 2022 House run in Miami, where former Democratic Reps. Donna Shalala and Debbie Mucarsel-Powell were voted out of office in 2020.

“It is really important to have a Latina versus Latina [race]; it makes a huge difference. But more importantly, a Latina that has quite a record like me, of working across the aisle getting things done, being there for our constituents, those that vote for us and those that don’t, unlike what we currently have,” said Taddeo.

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White House takes new look at federal gas tax holiday

The White House is showing signs that it is more seriously considering a federal gas tax holiday, sources tell The Hill. 

President Biden’s economic team has discussed the gas tax holiday recently and is expected to meet later this week for further talks.

The White House is under political pressure to do something to provide relief to Americans dealing with high inflation and rising gas prices. The economic storm has created serious headwinds for Democrats ahead of the midterms, where the party is worried about a shellacking.

“It’s definitely an option on the table,” said one Democrat close to the White House. 

Suspending the federal gas tax would require an act of Congress, but a public push by Biden in favor of the policy could help spur action on Capitol Hill. 

Some are pitching the White House on the idea.

Robert Wolf, the former CEO of UBS Americas who served as an economic adviser to former President Obama, said he is supportive of the Biden administration implementing a federal gas tax holiday but only during the period of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has driven up prices. 

He said most of the recent price increases in gas are linked to the Russian war.

“I know that some may view this as somewhat gimmicky because it will revert itself at some point, but a majority of the recent gas hike since the beginning of the year has been due to the Russian invasion,” Wolf told The Hill on Monday. “I think tying it solely to the war and setting an end date makes it more strategic and smart. 

“I also think it ties directly into the Putin price hike narrative and aligns well with President Biden’s concern about how inflation is impacting hard-working Americans and he will use every tool available,” he added.

A handful of states have already moved to suspend their gas tax, and Wolf said he would support Biden calling on remaining states that haven’t yet done so to follow suit. 

The White House has repeatedly said that nothing is off the table when it comes to combating rising gas prices. 

“It’s clear the White House is doing absolutely everything it can right now,” said Josh Freed, leader of the climate and energy program at the centrist Democratic think tank Third Way. “It would make sense that a gas tax holiday is on the table as part of their strategy.”

But Freed and others in Washington say that a federal gas tax holiday would have little impact for consumers. 

An estimate from the Penn Wharton Budget Model released earlier this year found that suspending the federal gas tax from March to December of this year would reduce average gasoline spending by between $16 and $47 for that period.

Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, said that studies have shown that roughly two-thirds of the tax cut would be captured by energy companies. He also argued that the tax relief wouldn’t be targeted enough to reach lower- and middle-income Americans, noting that wealthy individuals would benefit equally from the holiday. 

The money raised by the federal gas tax also helps fund infrastructure projects across the country, meaning that a suspension of the tax could hamper those projects down the road. 

​​“You also run the risk of undermining funding for infrastructure, which is critical for the economy’s long-term growth,” Zandi said. 

Still, the idea gained traction earlier this year among some Democrats on Capitol Hill. Sens. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) and Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), both of whom are facing difficult reelection bids, introduced legislation back in February that would temporarily suspend the federal gas tax until next January. 

“What I’ve been pushing for is, among other things, suspending the gas tax. That helps put some more money back in people’s pockets,” Hassan told Fox News on Friday. “I’m pushing the administration to support that. They haven’t yet, and that’s frustrating.”

The administration has limited and dwindling options to address rising gas prices and inflation.

Biden has taken a range of targeted actions, including ordering an unprecedented release from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve earlier this year and putting pressure on oil companies to ramp up production.

Following a speech at the Port of Los Angeles on Friday, Biden took aim at oil companies, accusing them of purposefully not ramping up production in order to charge more. 

“Exxon made more money than God this year,” Biden said. 

Biden is also weighing a trip to Saudi Arabia in the coming weeks, which many experts believe will be focused in part on urging the country to ramp up production of oil so there is more supply on the global market. 

Most Americans say they expect inflation to continue to increase in the coming months, according to a survey by The Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. The poll showed that nearly three-quarters of Americans are cutting back on spending, including on restaurants and entertainment, bracing for the worst to come. 

“The president continuing and increasing his dictation of the public of the challenge right now and really pushing the producers to produce more oil, and get it into the economy and getting more refineries back online to refine this is what needs to get done,” Freed said. 

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What is straw purchasing a gun?

When a bipartisan group of 20 senators announced a framework deal for gun-related legislation on Sunday, it said one point of the nine-pronged proposal “cracks down” on people who illegally straw purchase and traffic guns.

Gun control groups have long called attention to the impact on gun violence of straw purchases, a term with which many may be unfamiliar.

A straw purchase, as defined by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, involves someone who purchases a gun for someone who is prohibited by law from possessing one or for someone who does not want their name associated with the transaction.  

Straw purchases are deemed a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

Federally licensed firearm dealers are required to perform background checks for those seeking to buy a firearm. Licensed dealers also are required under federal law to maintain records on their gun sales and make them available to law enforcement for inspection.

But those background checks and records involve the purchaser of the firearm and not always the ultimate user of the gun. That’s why tougher laws on straw purchases are a priority for gun control groups.

State laws punishing straw purchases vary.

Seven states have laws that penalize sellers who transfer firearms to traffickers under certain circumstances, according to Giffords, a gun violence advocacy group. A small number of states also penalize the actual buyer in straw purchases.

Some other states have looser regulations that prohibit individuals from knowingly encouraging sellers to conduct those illegal firearm transfers, according to the group.

Despite the federal prohibition and state-level legislation, many gun control advocates and experts say the illegal transactions still happen regularly.

A 2010 study published in the Journal of Urban Health that screened 149 licensed retailers in California found roughly 1 in 5 agreed to participate in a straw purchase of a handgun. Seven years earlier, a study found as many as half of dealers from large U.S. cities expressed a willingness to participate in such a purchase.

Even if gun dealers don’t end up following through on the transaction, a survey of a random sample of 1,601 licensed dealers during the summer of 2011 found that more than two-thirds — 67.3 percent — had experienced attempted straw purchases.

Everytown for Gun Safety and other gun control groups have called on Congress to strengthen laws governing gun trafficking and straw purchases.

The bipartisan group of senators announced on Sunday that it would seek to crack down on those purchases as part of an agreement on a series of gun-related proposals. 

The agreement follows days of closed-door talks after a string of high-profile mass shootings, including at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y.

The statement — signed by 10 Senate Republicans — indicates the legislation has a good chance of avoiding a legislative filibuster, the 60-vote threshold required for most bills.

But a GOP aide involved in the negotiations told The Hill on Sunday that the deal is an “agreement on principles, not legislative text” and that some of the principles could be dropped if lawmakers do not agree to a final text.

With no legislative text, the specifics of a crackdown on straw purchases remain unclear. 

Democrats hope they can bring a gun violence package to the floor the week of June 20.

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Health Secretary Becerra tests positive for COVID-19 twice in less than a month

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday, the agency announced, the second time he has been infected in less than a month.

“This morning in Sacramento, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra tested positive for COVID-19 after taking an antigen test. He is fully vaccinated and boosted against COVID-19, and is experiencing mild symptoms. He will continue to perform his duties as HHS Secretary, working in isolation,” HHS spokeswoman Sarah Lovenheim said in a statement.

Becerra previously tested positive for COVID-19 on May 18 while traveling in Berlin ahead of the Group of Seven meetings for health ministers.

Last week, Becerra was in Los Angeles to participate in the Summit of the Americas with President Biden and Vice President Harris. HHS said Becerra is not considered a close contact of either.

Biden so far has avoided having a known case of the virus, but the White House has acknowledged it is possible he will be infected as well. The administration argues that tools such as vaccines, booster shots and treatments now exist that make the virus much more manageable.  

Becerra is not the only official who tested positive following the summit. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Monday revealed he also tested positive for COVID-19 for the second time this year.

Reinfection is quickly becoming the primary driver of new cases in the United States, showing that immunity from previous infections is no longer able to provide the same level of protection against emerging variants and subvariants.

Infectious disease experts think a typical SARS-CoV-2 infection will likely become less dangerous over time, but the full implications and severity of multiple infections are still not clear.

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Chris Wallace: Jan. 6 panel painting Trump as a 'loser in a naked grab for power' following election

CNN anchor and analyst Chris Wallace said the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol is attempting to paint former President Trump as a “loser” desperate to hold on to power following his loss in the 2020 election.

“If they’re successful today, and obviously to Trump supporters nothing they say may be successful, but if they’re successful in putting the lie to the big lie, then suddenly Trump is not an aggrieved party,” Wallace said during CNN’s coverage of Monday’s second hearing of the committee.

“He’s simply a loser, in a naked grab for power and willing to overturn the judgement of 150 million American voters and say that he won when he didn’t win.”

For the second time, Wallace was a member of CNN’s team of analysts covering the highly anticipated congressional hearings.

He was hired by the network late last year to host a show on its streaming channel, which has since been shut down. Executives at CNN have said Wallace will continue to host a talk show that will air on Sunday evenings on CNN and on HBO Max, which is owned by the cable giant’s new parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.

Wallace, who spent decades as Fox News’s top political anchor and news pundit, has said he left Fox after the 2020 election because working there had become “unsustainable.” He has specifically taken issue with some of the claims made by the network’s top opinions hosts about the Capitol attack and coronavirus pandemic.

“There was never a chance that they were going to find enough votes to switch,” Wallace said Monday in reference to Trump’s efforts to overturn the election results through recounts and lawsuits.

“It’s what Bill Barr said: It wasn’t that ‘if there was fraud,’ it was, ‘was there fraud on the dimensions that would actually reverse the outcome of the election?’ And there never was a chance of that,” Wallace said.

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