Friday News Roundup - Domestic

With guest host Todd Zwillich.

This week, Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rosselló resigned after nearly two weeks of protests calling for his ouster. His resignation comes amid several scandals involving leaked offensive text messages, corruption investigations and arrests of federal officials.

Here's more from NBC News:

His resignation, effective Aug. 2, came late Wednesday night on a recorded video published on Facebook. In the message, he touted what he considered accomplishments of his tenure, saying he fought corruption and made strides for different communities.

“My only North Star has been the well-being of my island,” he said.

Crowds in the streets, which for almost two weeks had been calling for the governor to step down, immediately erupted in joyous chants, cheering “Puerto Rico! Puerto Rico!”

“Ricky, te botamos!” (“Ricky, we threw you out!”) the jubilant crowd chanted after the governor’s announcement.

With Rosselló out, who will take over as governor?

We also bring you analysis on former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony before Congress about his investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election. What, if anything, did we learn about the report?

We discussed the hearings in depth during a special broadcast with The Washington Post's Shane Harris, author Garrett Graff and you, our listeners.

One listener tweeted during the broadcast: “Congress needs to focus on foreign government interference in our elections! There is not enough congressional support to bring articles of impeachment, so work on stopping other foreign agents from choosing our presidents!”

We're also following the latest on the Trump administration's immigration policy. On Thursday, a federal judge blocked the president from implementing a new asylum policy, which would prevent people crossing the U.S.-Mexico border from seeking asylum in the U.S. if they had traveled through another country first. In retaliation, President Trump has threatened a travel ban on Guatemalans.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security is claiming to have the legal authority to expedite the deportation of undocumented immigrants, and a U.S.-born teen was held in detention at the border for three weeks after being stopped at a Border Patrol checkpoint.

Plus, we cover Congress' bipartisan budget deal, the move to reinstate capital punishment and the latest on federal oversight of big tech.

We wrap up the week's top domestic stories.

Text by Kathryn Fink.

GUESTS

Fernando Pizarro, Washington correspondent, Univision; @FPizarro_DC

Alexis Simendinger, National political correspondent, The Hill; @ASimendinger

Karoun Demirjian, Reporter, The Washington Post; @karoun

For more, visit https://the1a.org.

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