Latest news with #JoaquinCastro
Yahoo
a day ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Top Texas Democrats ponder the state's future at forum amid questions about what's next for their party
SAN ANTONIO — Hundreds of people packed into a music hall Friday night to ask three big Texas Democrats questions about concerns ranging from local housing struggles to the effects of President Donald Trump's immigration and economic policies rippling through the state's second-most populous city. The town hall was the latest stop in a listening tour for former U.S. Rep. Beto O'Rourke, the El Pasoan whose political future was called into question after losing three statewide elections in four years following a meteoric rise during which he almost unseated U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Houston, in 2018. On Friday night, O'Rourke was joined by state Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio — whose names have each been floated for potential statewide contests. The elected officials introduced themselves with speeches that mixed biographical details with assurances that Texas Democrats fight for all Texans, regardless of who they have voted for in the past, and that there is hope on the horizon. 'We're going to vote our way out of this in 2026,' Castro told the crowd at Stable Hall. 'We have seen tougher people than Donald Trump and we have prevailed. We will prevail again.' Seated in front with the trio was state Rep. Vikki Goodwin, an Austin Democrat who has announced a bid for lieutenant governor, and former Democratic San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg. Both, as well as a local county commissioner, joined the platform at the front of the room for the portion of the night when the elected officials took questions from the audience. In his remarks, O'Rourke pitched legalizing undocumented persons who arrived in the country as children, often called dreamers, and their parents; expanding health care for all; and better lives for educators. 'What if we had a Democratic Party that actually fought for these things?' O'Rourke asked. The three Democrats held the town hall amid reports that it was unclear whether they would each campaign for different statewide seats or compete against each other in a primary for one post. The Dallas Morning News this week reported that they had met — along with former U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, who unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate last year — to hash out a possible lineup. But all are 'steadfastly' interested in running for Senate, per the report. As of Friday, none had officially entered any race. On Friday night, they downplayed the suggestion they were rivals, saying their priority is changing the politics of Texas. The strategy of presenting to voters a team of candidates with high name recognition is not entirely new. Texas Democrats tried it in 2002 when a slate of candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general and U.S. Senate failed to secure any victory. While midterm elections typically bode poorly for the party of the sitting president, that year's midterms handed Democrats wide losses in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack, during which Republican President George W. Bush benefited from a strong approval rating that flowed down the ballot. In Texas, Republicans won the state House for the first time since Reconstruction. Trump, and Republicans, may not have the same upper hand this time. A statewide poll released this week found approval of Trump's performance in net-negative terrain among Texans, although Republicans in the state remain largely loyal to Trump, according to the poll from the Texas Politics Project at the University of Texas at Austin. Democrats seeking a statewide win in Texas will still face a steep uphill battle. No Democrat has won statewide office since 1994. And last year's presidential election complicated narratives about voters, especially the state's growing Latino population that the Democratic party had long banked on for clawing back power from Republicans' tight grip. Trump earned 55% of the Latino voting bloc in Texas after years of Republicans losing it by double digits. Along the U.S.-Mexico border, Trump won 14 of 18 counties — including Starr County, which is 97% Latino and had not been carried by a Republican for 128 years. Rafael Lopez, a 76-year-old Vietnam War veteran, thinks the Democratic party needs to better engage those voters, especially the younger ones. At the rally Friday, he noted his own involvement in politics: He had not protested his whole life until a few weeks ago when he joined a demonstration against the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Since then, he has also gotten involved with the party at the local level, he said. 'When you get to my age, you start to notice things and you notice that things are not going right,' Lopez said. 'We have to lean on the young people.' Few Texas Democrats have animated voters of all ages like two of the people who shared the stage Friday night: O'Rourke and Talarico, a seminarian and former public school teacher whose speeches against socially conservative proposals like book bans have often gone viral on social media. Alee Briggs, a 28-year-old from San Antonio who volunteered on O'Rourke's 2018 Senate campaign, is one of many viewers of Talarico's TikTok videos — and wanted to see him in person. Meanwhile, her friend, Brittany Watson, who attended after an invitation from Briggs, said she was first introduced to Talarico on Friday. She was 'really super impressed.' 'Someone like that to me really embodies what we should be about as a society and the people who should be running the country,' Watson said. Briggs echoed the sentiment: 'He's really refreshing in the rise of Christian extremism. He's using his religion for good and inclusivity. … If he wanted to run for the Senate seat or anything like that, I would definitely support him.' As the guests who secured seats inside the venue began asking questions, a line of people stood outside hoping to get in. Among them was Debora Noble, a 65-year-old from New Braunfels who said she did not identify with any political party. She was drawn to the event because she said she has been following O'Rourke since he was on the El Paso City Council in the 2000s and wanted to hear what he had to say. In particular, Noble said she was worried about cuts to veterans' benefits. The U.S. Army vet of 30 years pointed to a veteran's recent death by suicide in the parking lot of a San Antonio veteran's hospital. 'It's become very difficult for the veterans to get care,' Noble said. 'I just vote for whoever I think is gonna do better for me and my family.' In front of Noble in line stood Robin Pritchard of Austin. The 21-year-old has witnessed those needs for mental health resources following federal cuts as a volunteer with a crisis hotline. 'It's been constant, constant calls, constant texts — like hundreds of people in a queue where there used to be maybe 50,' Pritchard said. Inside the venue, the crowd roared at the suggestion of toppling statewide Republicans and booed at the mention of the Trump administration's actions, like masked immigration officers without badges arresting undocumented people across the country. After the rally, O'Rourke, Talarico and Castro stepped outside to take photos. Near the front of the growing line were those who were unable to get into the event, including Pritchard and Noble. Disclosure: University of Texas at Austin has been a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here. Big news: 20 more speakers join the TribFest lineup! New additions include Margaret Spellings, former U.S. secretary of education and CEO of the Bipartisan Policy Center; Michael Curry, former presiding bishop and primate of The Episcopal Church; Beto O'Rourke, former U.S. Representative, D-El Paso; Joe Lonsdale, entrepreneur, founder and managing partner at 8VC; and Katie Phang, journalist and trial lawyer. Get tickets. TribFest 2025 is presented by JPMorganChase.
Washington Post
5 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
How Trump pivoted from bombing Iran to announcing a ceasefire
In just 48 hours, President Donald Trump pivoted from an unprecedented bombing of Iranian nuclear facilities to announcing a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, resulting in a flurry of diplomatic activity that left allies and adversaries scrambling to keep up. Trump's Monday evening announcement of the ceasefire, which appears to be holding despite breaches by both sides, reflects his mercurial decision-making process, which current and former officials say is unorthodox even by his standards. The president has largely sidestepped the traditional foreign policy establishment and the intelligence community in dealing with the Iran crisis. And in proclaiming victory and announcing major foreign policy moves, he has posted missives on social media rather than going through diplomatic channels. Early U.S. intelligence reports have also suggested that the U.S. military strikes did not destroy Iran's nuclear program and may have only set it back by a few months, with stockpiles of highly enriched uranium relocated to other secure locations. 'This is Trump trying to declare success and then sell that version of reality to the American people and then hope that any countervailing facts get drowned out by other news,' Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs committees, told The Washington Post. But some former officials say Trump could have found the slim path between preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon and preventing U.S. military entanglement in another Middle East war. 'Trump's pivot back to negotiations puts the pressure on Iran to accept no enrichment,' said Anthony Ruggiero, a former White House national security official during Trump's first term. 'The U.S. military strikes provide Trump and his negotiators leverage to insist on significant limits on Iran's nuclear program.' A senior White House official, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive conversations, suggested that Trump had immediately begun to focus on the prospects of a ceasefire from the White House Situation Room on Saturday night, shortly after he saw U.S. bombs hit nuclear sites in Iran. 'NOW IS THE TIME FOR PEACE!' Trump wrote on social media that evening. The precise planning of the Iran strikes were confined to a small group of top officials. Trump's advisers include longtime hawks such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who favored military action against Iran's nuclear program, and aides who are broadly skeptical of foreign military intervention. Vice President JD Vance, according to an administration official familiar with the matter, viewed a strike as 'reasonable, but he was very concerned about any drawn-out conflict leading to regime change or U.S. forces on the ground.' 'He has long been concerned about mission creep where we set one objective and then shift the goal posts,' the official said. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, an ardent critic of 'regime change wars,' was frank about the U.S. intelligence community's assessment that Iran had not decided to weaponize its nuclear program during congressional testimony — a view that was dismissed by Trump publicly. Trump did not make the final decision to strike Iran's nuclear sites until 4 p.m. on Saturday and was 'consistently pursuing diplomatic channels' until that point, even though military assets were already on the move, a senior White House official said. At that time, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave Trump the final opportunity to stand down, the official said. The strikes, which targeted Iran's three main nuclear sites, took place a little under three hours later. Even with the nuclear sites still smoking and the Iranian military preparing retaliatory attacks on Israel and the U.S. presence in Qatar, Trump set in motion days of intense diplomacy between the three nations, with Special Envoy Steve Witkoff calling Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to deliver a message that was both a threat and an olive branch. 'You saw what we can do. We are capable of much more,' Witkoff told Araghchi, according to the senior official. 'We want peace, and you should too.' Despite the threat, Iran responded with a volley of strikes on Israel. On Monday, the Iranian military fired missiles at al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar in what it called a 'decisive' response to U.S. 'aggression.' Even after the attack on its soil, Qatar served as a key interlocutor in negotiations with Iran, according to diplomats familiar with the negotiations. Trump later thanked the Emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, for his role. Speaking at a news conference Tuesday, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said Washington asked Doha to mediate a ceasefire. 'We made the necessary contacts [with Iran] that led to the announcement made by the U.S. president, which we welcome,' he said. Rubio and Vance spoke 'directly or indirectly' to the Iranians, according to officials who briefed the media. Trump also spoke separately to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, informing him that the United States had finished its military role in the conflict. The Israeli leader convened his government's Security Cabinet for a late-night meeting on Monday. According to a government statement, Netanyahu told his advisers that Israel had achieved all the objectives of its operation against Iran 'and much more.' In light of this, Israel had agreed to Trump's proposal for a ceasefire 'in full coordination' with the U.S. leader, according to the statement. On Monday, neither Israel nor Iran independently confirmed the ceasefire after Trump announced it in a 6 p.m. social media post. In a Fox News interview just minutes after, Vance was surprised by the timing of the announcement. 'I knew that he was working the phones as I was on my way over here,' Vance said. Both sides accused the other of breaching the ceasefire, with Iran accusing Israel of waves of attacks after the reputed start of the agreement and Israel claiming that Iran had fired several missiles in retaliation. The breaches of the ceasefire prompted an angry response from Trump, who told reporters in Washington that he was 'not happy with Israel' and posting on social media that Israel should not 'DROP THOSE BOMBS.' Trump called Netanyahu on Tuesday morning from Air Force One, en route to the NATO summit in The Hague, to order a stop to the bombing, according to officials with knowledge of the call. Trump soon posted that the Israeli jets would 'turn around and head home, while doing a friendly 'Plane Wave' to Iran.' The ceasefire appears to have held since, with both Iran and Israel indicating they view the '12-day war,' as Trump has called it, concluded. In public comments, Trump has ruminated on Iran's future, telling reporters he hopes it will soon be open for trade and writing on social media Tuesday that 'China can now continue to purchase Oil from Iran' — even though Congress has legislated sanctions on Iranian oil. But some fear that the combination of Trump's impulsive demeanor and Iran's residual nuclear program almost ensures future conflict. 'The danger is that this is going to happen every year, or every few years, and so you get into this endless cycle of war,' Castro said. Lior Soroka in Jerusalem and Mohamad El-Chamaa in Beirut contributed to this report.
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘A sick idea': Congressman slams DHS consideration of immigrant competition reality show
New reporting says the Department of Homeland Security is considering participating in a reality show where immigrants compete for citizenship. Rep. Joaquin Castro and Leah Litman join The Weekend to discuss this and more.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Trump's Own Intel Official Just Blew up His Mass Deportation Excuse
The head of the CIA undermined the president's excuse to enact the Alien Enemies Act during a House Intelligence Committee hearing Wednesday. 'To invoke this law, the president must demonstrate that the United States is under invasion by a foreign nation or government,' Representative Joaquin Castro said. 'They have alleged that we are under invasion by the Venezuelan government.' 'The idea that we are at war with Venezuela would come as a surprise to most Americans,' he continued. 'You would think our nation being at war would merit at least a small reference in [a] threat assessment. Director Ratcliffe, does the intelligence community assess that we are currently at war or being invaded by the nation of Venezuela?' 'We have no assessment that says that,' CIA Director John Ratcliffe responded. Earlier this month, the White House made a spontaneous decision to defy a court order by deporting more than 200 alleged members of a Venezuelan gang to El Salvador by invoking the Japanese internment-era wartime policy. Five of the men sued the Trump administration in response, attempting to prevent their 'imminent removal.' But even after U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ordered that the immigrants should remain in the U.S. as they await trial, Trump officials thwarted the law and sent them skybound regardless. Donald Trump justified the infraction by claiming Venezuelan immigration into the country constituted an 'invasion,' and described the current era as a 'time of war.' The men were taken to a notorious El Salvador prison known as CECOT. The Trump administration pledged that every man it had deported to CECOT was a member of Tren de Aragua, a criminal organization, but family members and friends of the deportees claimed that's not true. Some of the men that had been forced to board the planes had no criminal record. On Tuesday, a U.S. circuit judge purported that the Trump administration's actions were wildly unprecedented, and that the nation's current use of the Alien Enemies Act was treating asylum-seekers worse than it treated actual German Nazis during World War II.
The Hill
26-03-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
Castro on Signal chat not being classified: ‘Y'all know that's a lie'
Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Texas) said Trump intelligence officials lied when they said the information included in a Signal group chat did not include classified information. 'The idea that this information, if it was presented to our committee, would not be classified – y'all know it was a lie. That's ridiculous. I've seen things much less sensitive be presented to us with high classification,' Castro said. 'And to say that it isn't is a lie to the country.' Castro made the comments to Director of National Intelligence Tusli Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who on Tuesday both told the Senate Intelligence Committee that the Signal chat discussing plans for airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen did not include classified information. The discussions came to light after Atlantic journalist Jeffrey Goldberg was inadvertently included. 'There is no way, no way, having sat on this committee for nine years, that somebody would come in with that information and give us something that says unclassified [that] you can walk out of this room with this information and give it to whomever you want.' Ranking member Jim Himes (D-Conn.) noted earlier Wednesday that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence classification guidelines say advanced war plans should be top secret.
