Mueller castigates Trump’s decision to commute Roger Stone’s sentence – live | US news

The row over Goya Foods is spreading to some unlikely places. Last week, Goya Foods CEO Bob Unanue heaped praised on Donald Trump, saying: “We’re all truly blessed at the same time to have a leader like President Trump, who is a builder”.

There was backlash due to the fact that the head of an organization that describes itself as the largest Hispanic-owned food company in America praised a president who has introduced policies that have hurt Latinx people.

Hashtags such as #BoycottGoya and #Goyaway appeared on social media. However, UFC fighter Jorge Masvidal, who was raised in Miami by parents from Cuba and Peru, hit back on Saturday.

“Actions of @GoyaFoods speak louder than the #woke mob. My people don’t get influenced by those that don’t know. They’ve been helping our people when we needed it most,” he wrote on Twitter.

Masvidal fought for the UFC welterweight title this weekend but lost to Nigeria’s Kamaru Usman.

A CBS News poll has found Donald Trump has lost ground to Joe Biden in battleground states that have become Covid-19 hotspots. Biden, the presumptive Democrat nominee for president, has a six-point lead in Florida, is tied in Arizona and trails by one point in Texas. Trump won all three states in the 2016 election.

Most people polled in the three states said efforts to contain the virus in their states are going badly. The poll found that the more people are concerned about Covid-19, the more likely they are to vote for Biden. Most voters in all three states believed their state reopened too soon. Among those who do, they believe it was partly due to pressure from Trump’s administration.

However, the poll also found Trump still has enthusiastic backing from his core voters. Despite the president’s baseless claims postal voting is open to fraud, most of those polled in Arizona, Texas and Florida said they would like mail-in voting to be made easier.

Admiral Brett P Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, has appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press to talk about the surge in Covid-19 cases across the US.

He is asked about reports by CNN and the Washington Post that Dr Anthony Fauci has been sidelined by the coronavirus taskforce.

“There is complete, open, honest discussion within the task force … Believe me, if there’s a public health opinion that needs to be said, that needs to be it,” says Giroir. “And I respect Dr Fauci a lot, but Dr Fauci is not 100% right and he also doesn’t necessarily, he admits that, have the whole national interest in mind. He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view.

“But let me just say, there is absolutely open discourse. I feel absolutely free saying anything to the vice president within those rooms. … It’s got to be science driving the policy. And that’s the way it is.”

Donald Trump wore a mask for the first time in public on Saturday, but had not done so up until then during the pandemic. Giroir is asked if wearing a mask is important.

“I think the public health people have been very, very clear that mask-wearing is essential,” he says. “It’s very important that we can really decrease the transmission. You may not protect yourself, but you really protect everyone else. And the Surgeon General says it very well. ‘Covid stops with me.’ If you want it to stop with you, wear a mask.”

US sports are beginning to resume, but not without a few problems along the way. Major League Soccer is hosting a month-long tournament in Florida, a hotspot for Covid-19 at the moment. The tournament is taking place at Disney World, where the NBA expects to resume its season at the end of the month.

On Sunday, a match between DC United and Toronto FC was postponed after one player rested positive for Covid-19. Two teams, FC Dallas and Nashville, have already withdrawn after positive tests.

“The results of yesterday’s tests for DC United and Toronto FC produced an initial unconfirmed positive Covid-19 case for one player and an inconclusive test for another player. Because of the arrival time of the clubs in Orlando, the league’s protocol called for retesting both teams this morning and to await the results of those tests prior to playing the match,” the league said in a statement.

Major League baseball is due to restart on 23 July, while the NFL is scheduled to start at the beginning of September.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi says Democrats will take legislative action in the wake of Donald Trump’s decision to commute the jail sentence of his former campaign adviser, Roger Stone.

Calling Trump’s decision “a threat to our national security,” Pelosi told CNN on Sunday that House Democrats aim to restrict the president’s powers of clemency.

Mitt Romney and Robert Mueller are among the many figures to have voiced concern over Trump’s commutation of the sentence.

Good morning. There are plenty of news lines around today as reaction continues after Donald Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of his former campaign adviser, Roger Stone. The president himself was seen on Saturday wearing a mask in public for the first time during the pandemic.

That decision came as records are set for coronavirus cases across the US, particularly in the south and southwest of the country.