Florida's House Speaker Stood Up to DeSantis, and Shifted the Power Dynamics
This year has been different, mostly because of one man. Daniel Perez, the Republican speaker of the State House of Representatives, clashed with Mr. DeSantis over how to crack down on illegal immigration; allowed a House investigation into a charity tied to the governor's wife, Casey DeSantis, and insisted on passing a slimmer state budget than what the governor proposed, even if it meant dragging out the unusually bitter legislative session for an extra six weeks.
Mr. Perez, a 37-year-old Cuban American lawyer from Miami, may not have set out to become the governor's adversary when he assumed his leadership role last year. His goal was to reassert his chamber's power, 'to be a coequal branch of government,' he said in an interview on Monday, the session's final day.
Yet that was enough to shift the power dynamics in the Republican-controlled State Capitol, where lawmakers had spent years bending to the will of a popular governor who steadily expanded executive power.
Mr. DeSantis, who is term-limited and has one more regular session left, faced more resistance than ever before. The relationship between Mr. DeSantis and Mr. Perez got so rancorous that, at one point, Mr. DeSantis referred to House lawmakers as 'treacherous.' Mr. Perez countered that the 'emotional' governor was throwing 'temper tantrums.'
In some ways, the conflict was the point, Mr. Perez said on Monday.
'We were able to have a difference of opinion,' he told reporters in Tallahassee. 'We were able to reach a conclusion that maybe either the Senate or the governor didn't agree with. That was our goal.'
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Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Ravens' John Harbaugh on White House visit with Trump: 'I root for our president'
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Yahoo
14 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Trump tariffs live updates: Trump strikes deal with Japan as EU, US reportedly close in on pact
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According to Japan's NHK, the revised tariff structure includes a 12.5% cut plus a 2.5% 'Most Favored Nation' base rate. The move comes as Japanese auto exports to the US have suffered, plunging 26.7% in June. Read more here. Trump: 'I've just signed the largest trade deal in history with Japan' President Trump announced overnight that his team and Japan have finally reached a trade deal, which includes a 15% tariff on imported goods from Japan, and the country will invest $550 billion into the US. Trump, who made the announcement during a White House reception with members of Congress and later on Truth Social, called it the "largest trade deal in history" in reference to Japan. The deal wasn't easy to achieve. Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had hoped to speak with Trump at the G-7 meeting back in June, but earlier this month Trump said Japan was "spoiled" and doubted a deal would happen. The two sides have come a long way, with Ishiba remaining stoic yet firm to maintain his country's trust while trying to reach an agreement with the US. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. President Trump announced overnight that his team and Japan have finally reached a trade deal, which includes a 15% tariff on imported goods from Japan, and the country will invest $550 billion into the US. Trump, who made the announcement during a White House reception with members of Congress and later on Truth Social, called it the "largest trade deal in history" in reference to Japan. The deal wasn't easy to achieve. Japan's Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba had hoped to speak with Trump at the G-7 meeting back in June, but earlier this month Trump said Japan was "spoiled" and doubted a deal would happen. The two sides have come a long way, with Ishiba remaining stoic yet firm to maintain his country's trust while trying to reach an agreement with the US. Bloomberg News reports: Read more here. Trump announces new details on trade pact with Indonesia President Trump and his team released new details of a pact announced last week with Indonesia, confirming plans for a 19% tariff on the country and adding a 40% rate on any 'transhipped' goods. The more complete framework of the deal is further confirmation of an agreement with America's 23rd largest trading partner that will avert 32% tariffs that Trump threatened previously. It also stipulates that 'Indonesia is going to drop its tariffs to 0% on over 99% of its trade,' a senior White House official said Tuesday. The official added that the deal includes the elimination of non-tariff barriers that Trump's team say hinders American companies, including in areas like pre-shipment inspection requirements, motor vehicle safety standards, and restrictions around US medical devices and pharmaceuticals. The exact definition of how Trump defines transshipped goods has been a matter of some debate in recent weeks. The deal with Indonesia includes goods not just re-labeled but made with a significant portion of components from a third country and then assembled in Indonesia. It's a provision also included in a recent deal with Vietnam and is clearly aimed at China. Indonesian negotiators previously confirmed that a deal had been struck but not all details, with the country president's spokesperson telling Reuters the negotiations had been 'an extraordinary struggle.' President Trump and his team released new details of a pact announced last week with Indonesia, confirming plans for a 19% tariff on the country and adding a 40% rate on any 'transhipped' goods. The more complete framework of the deal is further confirmation of an agreement with America's 23rd largest trading partner that will avert 32% tariffs that Trump threatened previously. It also stipulates that 'Indonesia is going to drop its tariffs to 0% on over 99% of its trade,' a senior White House official said Tuesday. The official added that the deal includes the elimination of non-tariff barriers that Trump's team say hinders American companies, including in areas like pre-shipment inspection requirements, motor vehicle safety standards, and restrictions around US medical devices and pharmaceuticals. The exact definition of how Trump defines transshipped goods has been a matter of some debate in recent weeks. The deal with Indonesia includes goods not just re-labeled but made with a significant portion of components from a third country and then assembled in Indonesia. It's a provision also included in a recent deal with Vietnam and is clearly aimed at China. Indonesian negotiators previously confirmed that a deal had been struck but not all details, with the country president's spokesperson telling Reuters the negotiations had been 'an extraordinary struggle.' Trump says US has reached trade deal with the Philippines President Trump said Tuesday the US had reached a trade deal with the Philippines following its president's visit to the White House. He posted on Truth Social: This doesn't seem to move the needle much for the Philippines, whose imports to the US will see a 19% tariff instead of the 20% Trump had threatened from Aug. 1. The Philippines is the US's 29th-largest trade partner. President Trump said Tuesday the US had reached a trade deal with the Philippines following its president's visit to the White House. He posted on Truth Social: This doesn't seem to move the needle much for the Philippines, whose imports to the US will see a 19% tariff instead of the 20% Trump had threatened from Aug. 1. The Philippines is the US's 29th-largest trade partner. Copper-laden ships race to reach US ahead of tariffs Fascinating angle from Bloomberg: Read more here. Fascinating angle from Bloomberg: Read more here. 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"We think we can manage absorbing any of the impacts with the various levers that we have at our disposal. It's always a local decision as to how to utilize those levers, but right now, it's something that we factored into our rest of year guidance." Yahoo Finance's Brooke DiPalma reports that Coca-Cola reported earnings for its second quarter that topped forecasts. Read more here. Bessent says he will meet Chinese officials, discuss tariff deadline extension US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business on Tuesday that he plans to meet his Chinese counterpart next week and discuss an extension of an August 12 deadline for higher tariffs. Both China and the US reached a trade truce in London last month to prevent escalating tariffs. Reuters reports: Read more here. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Fox Business on Tuesday that he plans to meet his Chinese counterpart next week and discuss an extension of an August 12 deadline for higher tariffs. Both China and the US reached a trade truce in London last month to prevent escalating tariffs. Reuters reports: Read more here. RTX cuts 2025 profit forecast as tariff costs weigh US aerospace and defense giant RTX (RTX) cut its 2025 profit forecast on Tuesday, citing President Trump's trade war as the major reason. Shares of the company fell 3% in premarket trading. Reuters reports: Read more here. US aerospace and defense giant RTX (RTX) cut its 2025 profit forecast on Tuesday, citing President Trump's trade war as the major reason. Shares of the company fell 3% in premarket trading. Reuters reports: Read more here. GM's core profit slides in second quarter as Trump's tariffs bite Tariffs have started to hit US automaker General Motors (GM), who reported a fall in second quarter core profit of 32% to $3 billion on Tuesday. The automaker said tariffs have sapped $1.1 billion from results as it continues to grapple with President Trump's challenging trade war. Reuters reports: Read more here. Tariffs have started to hit US automaker General Motors (GM), who reported a fall in second quarter core profit of 32% to $3 billion on Tuesday. The automaker said tariffs have sapped $1.1 billion from results as it continues to grapple with President Trump's challenging trade war. Reuters reports: Read more here. Canadian boycott of US spirits hurts broader alcohol sales: Trade group American imports to Canada have dropped sharply due to Canadian provinces' boycott of US spirits amid the ongoing trade war with the United States, according to a Canadian liquor trade group. Reuters reports: Read more here. American imports to Canada have dropped sharply due to Canadian provinces' boycott of US spirits amid the ongoing trade war with the United States, according to a Canadian liquor trade group. Reuters reports: Read more here. AstraZeneca announces $50B US manufacturing investment, matching its big pharma peers Pharmaceutical giant, AstraZeneca (AZN) announced it plans to invest $50 billion in US manufacturing by 2030, in the hopes it will avoid steep tariffs on imported components manufactured abroad. Yahoo Finance's senior reporter Anjalee Khemlani looks at how AstraZeneca's latest US investment keeps pace with its big pharma rivals. Read more here Pharmaceutical giant, AstraZeneca (AZN) announced it plans to invest $50 billion in US manufacturing by 2030, in the hopes it will avoid steep tariffs on imported components manufactured abroad. Yahoo Finance's senior reporter Anjalee Khemlani looks at how AstraZeneca's latest US investment keeps pace with its big pharma rivals. Read more here
CNN
15 minutes ago
- CNN
Gabbard releases more Russia documents to accuse Obama of ‘manufacturing' intelligence
One day after President Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of treason over the intelligence assessment that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and sought to help Trump, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified a highly sensitive congressional report she claimed was more evidence of a 'treasonous conspiracy.' The release of the redacted report, written during the first Trump term by Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, was the latest step in a multi-faceted effort from Gabbard and other Trump allies to attack the FBI's Russia investigation and the intelligence community's assessment on Russian election interference. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Wednesday evening that the Justice Department was creating a strike force to assess the evidence released by Gabbard and 'investigate potential next legal steps which might stem from DNI Gabbard's disclosures.' Speaking from the White House podium on Wednesday, Gabbard stopped short of accusing Obama of treason, deferring to Justice Department lawyers. But she alleged that 'the evidence that we have found and that we have released directly point to President Obama leading the manufacturing of this intelligence assessment.' 'They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true,' she said. Gabbard insisted the Russian goal in 2016 was to sow distrust in American democracy — not to help Trump, a key judgment of the 2017 assessment that Republicans have long challenged. But her claims that the Obama administration 'manufactured' the assessment are not supported by the newly redacted House report — or CIA Director John Ratcliffe's own review of the intelligence assessment, which he released earlier this month. Ratcliffe's review argued the assessment that Russian President Vladimir Putin 'aspired' to help Trump win the 2016 election should not have been a so-called high confidence judgment, which indicates the intelligence community's level of certainty, and it took issue with some of the analytic procedures underpinning the assessment. But Ratcliffe's review found that 'the overall assessment was deemed defensible.' The House report — which involved intelligence so sensitive it was kept in a so-called 'turducken,' or a safe within a safe, at CIA headquarters — took a similar stance on the key judgment that Russia sought to help Trump, arguing that the assessment made analytical leaps based on relatively thin sourcing and failed to weigh contradictory intelligence highly enough, but neither argued that it was 'manufactured.' Still, the release of the House Intelligence Committee review, led by former Rep. Devin Nunes when now-FBI Director Kash Patel was a top aide, was a long-sought victory for Trump — in large part because it pushes back against a similar review conducted by the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee in 2020, which found the intelligence supported the conclusions that Putin interfered to help Trump and there were no 'significant tradecraft issues' in the preparation of the assessment. Gabbard's decision to publicize the report when multiple predecessors had declined to do so, including Ratcliffe during Trump's first term, comes at a moment when her standing within the Trump administration had been in question. In June, Trump publicly undermined Gabbard's assessment on Iran's nuclear capabilities and she was absent from at least one major national security meeting to discuss Israel and Iran. CNN reported at the time that the president viewed her as 'off-message.' Democrats accused Gabbard of jeopardizing intelligence community sources and methods by releasing the report. 'The desperate and irresponsible release of the partisan House intelligence report puts at risk some of the most sensitive sources and methods our Intelligence Community uses to spy on Russia and keep Americans safe,' Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement. 'And in doing so, Director Gabbard is sending a chilling message to our allies and assets around the world: the United States can no longer be trusted to protect the intelligence you share with us.' One Democratic congressional source said intelligence agencies were still in the process of proposing redactions to the document ahead of its release, but that Gabbard declassified the report Wednesday before the process had been completed. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence did not respond to a request for comment. A former senior US intelligence official said they were alarmed by some of the material in the report that remained unredacted, warning it could alert Moscow to how intelligence was collected and potentially endanger sources. The report includes an explanation from the classified assessment that some judgements are based on a human intelligence source with secondhand access for several specifics, including Putin's order to pass collected material to WikiLeaks, Putin's views on Hillary Clinton, and details about 'specific, planned Russian Foreign Intelligence Service efforts.' 'It should also scare the crap out of any source we have who reports on politically inconvenient subjects,' the intelligence official said. 'If I were them, I'd be going dark about now.' In 2017, the US extracted from Russia one of its highest-level covert sources inside the Russian government. Trump and his allies in Congress have sought to release the House Intelligence Committee report for years now. The material that was being scrutinized was so sensitive that the CIA would only let congressional staffers view it at CIA headquarters, requiring their work stay locked up at Langley. The committee brought in its own safe for its files — which became known as the 'turducken' — that remained locked away at the CIA during the Biden administration. It's not clear whether the full extent of the classified House Intelligence Committee report was redacted, declassified and released on Wednesday. In the lead-up to the 2020 election, Trump allies pushed Ratcliffe, who was then the director of national intelligence, to release a redacted version of the report. But Ratcliffe ultimately did not so do amid strenuous objections from CIA and NSA officials, who warned it would damage sources and methods and US relationships with allies. Instead, the report was part of a large collection of documents brought to the White House in the final days of the first Trump administration, which were redacted so they could be declassified and released. The redacted documents were not ultimately released before Trump left office in 2021, though he did so in March. But an unredacted copy of the documents — including the highly sensitive intelligence that was redacted from what was released Wednesday — went missing and was apparently never found. US intelligence officials scrambled to assess the potential damage of the binder's contents becoming public after it went missing at the end of the first Trump administration, according to a source with direct knowledge of the events. There are hints at why the intelligence agencies were so concerned with the report in the declassified version released Wednesday. The report includes redacted lines that detail what signals intelligence the assessment had relied upon, as well as what Putin was being told and how it was obtained. The House document provides one of the most detailed glimpses to date into the raw intelligence relied upon by analysts to produce the 2017 assessment — but one that is impossible to compare to the Senate review that reached the opposite conclusion on the judgment that Putin was aspiring to help Trump. Much of the documentation for that panel's reasoning remains classified. The House report accuses Obama administration intelligence leaders of relying on thinly sourced and uncorroborated intelligence to conclude that Putin preferred Trump, while alleging that the assessment suppressed intelligence that Putin did not care who won and that Russia's intelligence services allegedly possessed damaging information about Clinton that was not released before the election. The January 2017 assessment does note there was a disagreement on the level of confidence in that assessment: the CIA and FBI had high confidence, and the NSA had medium confidence. But the GOP report argues that the conclusion was flawed, based upon previously unpublished intelligence reports, including three that were 'substandard.' One report, based on a single human source the House panel said was biased against both Trump and Putin, contained a claim that Putin was 'counting' on Trump's victory, according to the committee. That claim was interpreted in different ways by different analysts but was ultimately used to reach the 'aspire' judgment, the report said. 'One scant, unclear and unverifiable fragment of a sentence from one of the substandard reports constitutes the only classified information cited to suggest Putin 'aspired' to help Trump win,' the report states. The Ratcliffe-led CIA in its review found that the 'aspire' judgment was 'plausible and sensible, but was an inference rather than fact sourced to multiple reporting streams,' noting that it also rested on an assessment of 'the public behavior of senior Russian officials and state- controlled media, and on logic.' It said that the assessment authors had properly interpreted the sentence fragment. The report also details what US intelligence knew about Russian intelligence material collected on Clinton that was not released before the election, including allegations about her health, which Republicans wrote 'would have created greater scandals' than the hacked materials from John Podesta released by WikiLeaks. Republicans questioned why this information wasn't released if Russia was trying to help Trump (CNN was unable to confirm the origin or veracity of any of the allegations). CNN reached out to Clinton aides for comment. The GOP report criticizes the assessment's inclusion of the infamous and discredited dossier written by British intelligence official Christopher Steele, which was paid for by the Clinton campaign and alleged coordination between Russia and the Trump campaign. A summary of the dossier was included as an annex in the January 2017 assessment, after CIA officials objected to including it in the report itself. The intelligence analysts who prepared the report told the Senate Intelligence Committee the dossier played no role in the analysis of Russia's interference. Special counsel John Durham, who was appointed by then-Attorney General Bill Barr during Trump's first term, spent four years investigating a wide range of topics, including potential wrongdoing by the FBI and intelligence community during the 2016 post-election period. He never accused any US officials of any crimes related to the 2017 intelligence assessment,
