On Politics: Pompeo’s Iran Plan Deepens Tensions

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/20/us/politics/mike-pompeo-iran.html

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Good Wednesday morning. Here are some of the stories making news in Washington and politics today.

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• Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has recommended designating Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization. It would be the first time the United States designated a unit of another government’s military as a terrorist group, and some American officials caution it could put troops and intelligence officers at risk.

• President Trump hosted Jair Bolsonaro, the Brazilian president, at the White House on Tuesday. Mr. Bolsonaro is a brash nationalist whose populist appeal comes from his use of Twitter and his history of making crude statements.

• The Trump administration’s $1.5 trillion tax cut in 2017 promised sustained economic growth. But while the cuts have activated some aspects of the economy in the short term, officials now concede they will not be enough to deliver the 3 percent annual growth the president promised over the long term.

• For years, the Pentagon has maintained that no civilians have been killed in American airstrikes and raids in Somalia. In a new report released Tuesday, however, Amnesty International put the death toll at 14 since 2017 alone. The report linked the killings to Mr. Trump’s decision to relax rules for preventing civilian casualties.

• The Supreme Court adopted a strict interpretation of a federal immigration law, saying it required the detention of immigrants facing deportation without the possibility of bail if they had committed crimes, including minor ones, no matter how long ago they had been released from criminal custody.

• When asked whether a white society was superior to a nonwhite society, Representative Steve King of Iowa — already under scrutiny for his history of racist comments — answered, “I don’t have an answer for that, that’s so hypothetical.”

• Mr. Trump directly attacked George T. Conway III, the husband of his senior adviser Kellyanne Conway, calling him a “total loser” after Mr. Conway questioned the president’s mental fitness.

• When asked about his criticism of Senator John McCain, who died in August, Mr. Trump attacked the senator’s vote on repealing the Affordable Care Act. Mr. Trump added that he was “never a fan” of the senator, and never will be.

• Stung by obscene and pointed criticism, Representative Devin Nunes, a Republican from California, has sued Twitter and three users for defamation, claiming the users smeared him and the platform allowed it to happen because of a political agenda.

• How did Peter Parker, Bruce Wayne and Kathryn Janeway wind up in the credits for the 2019 Economic Report of the President? The story behind the straight-out-of-Comic-Con Easter egg.

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Today’s On Politics briefing was compiled by Isabella Grullón Paz in New York.

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