Nearly half of the tap water in the US is contaminated with ‘forever chemicals,’ government study finds

CNN

Nearly half of the tap water in the US is contaminated with ‘forever chemicals,’ government study finds

Jen Christensen, CNN – March 22, 2024

Nearly half of the tap water in the US is contaminated with ‘forever chemicals,’ government study finds

Almost half of the tap water in the United States is contaminated with chemicals known as “forever chemicals,” according to a study from the US Geological Survey.

The number of people drinking contaminated water may be even higher than what the study found, however, because the researchers weren’t able to test for all of these per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS, chemicals that are considered dangerous to human health. There are more than 12,000 types of PFAS, according to the National Institutes of Health, but this study looked at only 32 of the compounds.

PFAS are a family of ubiquitous synthetic chemicals that linger in the environment and the human body. PFAS exposure is linked to problems such as cancer, obesity, thyroid disease, high cholesterol, decreased fertility, liver damage and hormone suppression, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency.

In June 2022, based on the latest science, the EPA issued health advisories that said the chemicals are much more hazardous to human health than scientists originally thought and are probably more dangerous even at levels thousands of times lower than previously believed.

Health effects from the chemicals can be difficult to specify in part because people may be exposed in different ways and at different stages of development and because there are so many types of PFAS chemicals with types and uses that have changed over time.

Most people in the United States have been exposed to some PFAS, and some may be at higher risk, such as industrial workers involved in making PFAS and people who live near those facilities. There’s ongoing research to determine how different levels of exposure to PFAS chemicals might lead to various health effects.

Experts say it’s important for people to understand their risk of exposure through tap water. Water filters may help somewhat if tap water is contaminated, and there are moves to regulate some PFAS chemicals in US drinking water.

Where PFAS concentrations are higher

Previously, there was limited information on exactly how much PFAS chemicals are in residential tap water, said the authors of the research, published in July 2023 in the journal Environmental International. They added that this study is the most comprehensive to date that includes both private wells and public water sources.

The scientists collected water samples directly from taps at 716 locations — 269 from private wells and 447 from public sources — between 2016 and 2021. Based on their findings, they estimate that at least one PFAS chemical would be detected in 45% of US drinking water samples.

This US Geological Survey map shows the number of PFAS detected in tap water samples from select sites across the nation. The findings are based on a USGS study of samples taken between 2016 and 2021 from private and public supplies at 716 locations. The map does not represent the only locations in the US with PFAS. <strong><em> </em></strong> - USGS
This US Geological Survey map shows the number of PFAS detected in tap water samples from select sites across the nation. The findings are based on a USGS study of samples taken between 2016 and 2021 from private and public supplies at 716 locations. The map does not represent the only locations in the US with PFAS. – USGSMore

Most of the contamination came from water sources near urban areas and in areas that generated PFAS, like manufacturing that uses the chemicals in its products or sites where waste was collected.

The highest concentrations of PFAS in drinking water were found in the Great Plains, the Great Lakes, the Eastern Seaboard and Central/Southern California, the study said.

Concentrations were similar between private wells and public supplies.

PFAS can be found in many places, studies show, so toxicologist Dr. Jamie DeWitt is not surprised that it is in so much drinking water.

“There’s been almost no place scientists have looked where they have not found PFAS,” said DeWitt, director of the Environmental Health Sciences Center at Oregon State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences. DeWitt was not involved in the 2023 study.

PFAS are found in hundreds of household items. The chemicals are used to make carpets and clothes stain-resistant. They keep food from sticking to pans and food packaging, and they’re good at keeping grease and water from soaking through. PFAS are in mobile phones, commercial airplanes and low-emission vehicles, in the foods you can buy at the farmers market or the grocery store, and in rainwater and dental floss. They’re even in the dust that collects in your home.

A 2019 study suggested that PFAS chemicals could be found in 98% of the US population. With that in mind, the new 45% number may sound low, but DeWitt said there could be a couple of factors at play. For one, a number of utilities have been making an effort to remove PFAS from the water. Homeowners could also have filters on their systems that make it so PFAS are not as easily detectable.

“I think that’s still a pretty high number, considering,” she said.

Checking for PFAS in water

DeWitt said that it’s important for people to know what’s in their drinking water but that they don’t necessarily need to be scared.

“I don’t think people should be afraid, but they should be aware and armed themselves with knowledge so that they can get information that will help them to make decisions,” she said.

She recommended looking at your local utility website to get its most recent water report. Utilities will disclose what’s in the water and what they are doing to reduce contaminants.

A carbon filter can help, but it has to be changed regularly. If used too long, the filter can become saturated with chemicals and not work as well. Households can also use reverse osmosis filtering systems, but those can be expensive.

The EPA has proposed the first national drinking water standards for six PFAS chemicals. The proposed limits set the allowable levels for these chemicals so low that they could not be easily detected.

If the standards are finalized, water systems will have to determine whether levels of these PFAS pose a potential risk. They may also need to install treatment or take other actions, the EPA said, and may even need to switch to different water sources.

In August 2023, the EPA said it is conducting the “most comprehensive monitoring effort for PFAS ever” at large and midsize public water systems and hundreds of small water systems.

If PFAS is in 45% of US water systems, the country will have a lot of work to do, said Dr. Graham Peaslee, a professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy and concurrent professor of chemistry and biochemistry who does PFAS research at the University of Notre Dame.

“I think that we should try our best to work on how to clean this up. My fear is that this is, global warming aside, this is probably the most expensive environmental problem we’re ever going to face,” said Peaslee, who was not involved in the 2023 study. ”There’s nothing that will magically fix it. It’s fairly expensive to clean this up. And it’s a recurring cost, and there’s no permanent solutions to it for any particular utility. It looks frightening.”

But the cleanup will have to be done, he said, because these chemicals carry real health consequences, and people can’t exactly avoid drinking water.

“It’s really insidious, this poison,” Peaslee said. “We are going to have to get inventive on how to filter it out for all of our days.”

Drinking water in US prisons may contain dangerous levels of ‘forever chemicals’: Study

The Hill

Drinking water in US prisons may contain dangerous levels of ‘forever chemicals’: Study

Sharon Udasin – March 21, 2024

Nearly half of American prisons are located downstream from water sources that are likely contaminated with cancer-linked “forever chemicals,” a new study has found.

Due to insufficient water quality testing in and around such sites, officials have only found that 5 percent of U.S. carceral institutions are situated in watersheds that definitively contain these toxic compounds, according to the study, published in the American Journal of Public Health. But tens of thousands of people are incarcerated at those facilities — and presumptive sources of exposure were found near many more sites.

When it comes to toxins like forever chemicals, also known as PFAS, incarcerated populations are of particular concern because they have minimal ability to reduce their exposures and are therefore especially vulnerable to acute health effects, the researchers stressed.

“If you think of the incarcerated population as a city spread out over this vast archipelago of carceral facilities, it would be the fifth largest city in the country,” senior author Nicholas Shapiro, a medical anthropologist the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement.

That figurative “city,” he continued, has “potentially very high levels of toxicants in its water and no ability to mitigate exposure.”

Notorious for their ability to persist in both the human body and in the environment, PFAS have been connected to a variety of illnesses — including kidney cancer, thyroid disease and testicular cancer.

There are thousands of types of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), found in industrial waste, certain types of firefighting foam and household products, such as nonstick pans, waterproof apparel and many cosmetics.

To draw their conclusions about prisons’ potential exposure to the substances, the researchers assembled a list of the country’s 6,118 carceral facilities from the Department of Homeland Security and conducted a geospatial data analysis to pinpoint which sites were situated in watersheds with known or likely PFAS pollution.

They also considered whether watershed boundaries were at higher elevations with respect to the carceral institutions, as such positioning increases the likelihood that pollutants are infiltrating the facility’s water supply.

Ultimately, they identified 310 sites — or 5 percent of the total facilities — situated in such watersheds, at a lower elevation than at least one known source of PFAS contamination.

At least 150,000 people, of which at least 2,200 are juveniles, live in these facilities, according to the study.

But the reality may be far worse. The authors found that nearly half of all U.S. carceral institutions — 47 percent — have at least one presumptive source of PFAS pollution at a higher elevation than the facilities and within their watershed boundaries.

More than half of U.S. juvenile facilities — 56 percent — meet that description, per the findings.

These potentially polluted prisons, jails and detention centers — the majority of which are state- and county-run institutions — house about 990,000 people, including at least 12,800 juveniles, the authors noted.

Many carceral facilities may be contending with multiple PFAS exposures, with 31 percent of U.S. institutions located in areas with more than one presumptive source of contamination, according to the study. About 13 percent have more than five presumptive sources.

Because about a third of the carceral facilities were missing complete population data, however, the total number of individuals exposed could be much higher, the researchers warned.

Co-author Lindsay Poirier, an assistant professor of statistical and data sciences at Smith College, emphasized the challenges the researchers faced in conducting the study due to the “substantial data gaps” in water quality monitoring and population numbers.

“We’re trying to draw attention to areas that have been underassessed,” Poirier said in a statement.

In addition to the lack of transparent information available, the authors pointed to potential environmental justice issues, as the residents of U.S. prisons “are disproportionately Black, Latinx, Indigenous, low-income, and LGBTQ+.”

Incarcerated youths are also disproportionately adolescents of color, with Black youths more than four times more likely than white youths to be held in a juvenile institution, per the study.

U.S. prisons, they explained, are therefore “an important window into how the justice system advances public health inequities,” the researchers stated.

Although the authors could not test whether the polluted water was for sure entering the prisons, they stressed a need for further research, as these toxins can have lifelong health impacts.

“The most rigorous and consistent water testing is done in well-resourced or particularly engaged communities,” Shapiro said, noting that these same communities are best equipped to reduce their exposure.

“Incarcerated populations have a lot in common with marginalized populations elsewhere in the country that lack the resources and political clout to get their water cleaned up,” Shapiro added. “That needs to change.”

Russia launches likely largest-ever attack on Ukraine’s energy system, Ukrainian official says

CNN

Russia launches likely largest-ever attack on Ukraine’s energy system, Ukrainian official says

Andrew Carey, Yulia Kesaieva, Victoria Butenko, Olga Voitovych and Radina Gigova – March 22, 2024

Russia launched one of its biggest missile and drone barrages on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure overnight into Friday since the start of its full-scale invasion more than two years ago.

Ukrainian officials said at least 10 of the country’s regions were struck in an attack targeting power supplies in multiple towns and cities, including Kharkiv in the east, Odesa on the coast and Kryvyi Rih in the center.

The attacks have left well over 1 million households without electricity Friday morning, according to reports from multiple regional authorities. Only Kyiv and the northwest of the country were spared.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it had “launched a massive strike” on Ukraine’s “military-industrial complex” in response to recent strikes on Russia’s territory. Ukraine’s military – as well as pro-Ukrainian groups of Russian fighters – have this month targeted Russia’s border regions of Belgorod and Kursk, forcing schools to close and residents to evacuate.

“All the goals of the massive strike have been achieved,” the ministry said.

Among the major targets was Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric power complex, situated on the Dnipro river in the southern Zaporizhzhia region.

Ihor Syrota, chief executive of Ukrhydroenergo, the site’s operator, said both electricity generating plants there had suffered massive damage and that it was unclear when or if the plants would be able to resume operations.

The dam itself was currently not in danger of being breached, however, after workers opened the dam’s gates to allow water to flow downriver, another senior Ukrainian energy executive, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, told national television.

Kudrytskyi said the missile and drone barrage was likely the largest-ever single attack on Ukraine’s energy system.

The energy company operating in Dnipropetrovsk region, DTEK, said more than 1,000 miners were working underground when coal mines in the region lost power due to the strike.

The miners were evacuated above ground and no one was injured, DTEK said, adding that coal production would resume once the mines had been repaired.

At least three people were killed in the nationwide strikes, with two reported dead in Khmelnytskyi region, in western Ukraine, and one in Zaporizhzhia. Several people are reported missing and more than a dozen have been injured.

Mykola Oleshchuk, commander of Ukraine’s air force, said 151 missiles and drones had been launched, including 12 Iskander M ballistic missiles, 7 Kinzhal (Kh-47M2) ballistic missiles and 5 Kh-22 cruise missiles.

Over two years of war, these missile types have proven among the hardest for Ukraine’s air defenses to shoot down. According to Oleshchuk, all 24 of these missiles evaded attempts to intercept them.

Elsewhere, the air force commander said 63 Shahed drones had been fired, of which 55 were intercepted.

He said 40 cruise missiles of type Kh-101/Kh-555 were launched, of which 35 were shot down, while two Kh-59 guided missiles were launched and intercepted.

Finally, 22 S-300 and S-400 missile types – originally designed as anti-aircraft interceptors but commonly used by Russia as attack weapons – were also fired. These are usually left alone by air defense systems because the possible interception time is too short.

Rocket debris is scattered by a strike near a residential building in Zaporizhzhia. - Kateryna Klochko/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
Rocket debris is scattered by a strike near a residential building in Zaporizhzhia. – Kateryna Klochko/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

Friday’s attack came a day after Kyiv was struck with a salvo of 31 missiles, in an attack targeting facilities belonging to the Defense Intelligence Directorate, a Ukrainian source told CNN.

That strike included just two ballistic missiles, possibly North Korean-made. All 31 missiles fired were intercepted, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video on Telegram showing firefighters responding at one of the badly damaged energy facilities, and issued a plea to his allies to provide Ukraine with more support.

“Russian missiles do not suffer delays in the way aid packages to our country do. Shahed drones are not affected by indecision like some politicians are,” Zelensky said.

“Our partners know exactly what is needed. They can definitely support us. We need these solutions. Life must be protected from these non-humans from Moscow,” he said, adding that Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia in particular needed US-made Patriot air defense systems.

For months, Republicans in the US House of Representatives have blocked a military aid package valued at $60 billion, as the issue of support for Ukraine has become embroiled in the political debate surrounding Donald Trump’s campaign to regain the presidency.

US President Joe Biden’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan visited Kyiv on Wednesday and insisted he remained confident the House would eventually pass a new assistance package, though he could not say when he thought this might happen.

Ukraine war: Five dead and a million without power after wave of Russian strikes

BBC News

Ukraine war: Five dead and a million without power after wave of Russian strikes

Lipika Pelham – BBC News – March 22, 2024

A million people are without power across Ukraine after Russian missiles targeted energy infrastructure.

There is no electricity in the second-largest city of Kharkiv, the regional head says, and more than 53,000 households in Odesa are without power.

Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, accused Russia of trying to provoke “a large-scale failure of the country’s energy system”.

Russia said it was revenge for recent Ukrainian attacks on Russian territory.

At least five people have been reported killed and 14 wounded.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said the latest wave of attacks showed that Western allies must give more military aid to Ukraine, including additional air defence systems.

“There are no delays in Russian missiles like there are in assistance to our country,” he wrote on Telegram.

Some 90 missiles and 60 Shahed drones were launched into Ukraine during the wave of overnight attacks, he said.

Among the targets was Ukraine’s largest dam – the DniproHES in Zaporizhzhia, which was hit eight times according to Ukrainian officials. Video footage appeared to show the dam on fire, but authorities say there is no threat of an imminent breach.

Officials also say that a trolleybus which was crossing the dam at the time caught fire after a missile strike, killing the driver.

“At 04:30 all hell broke loose. Terrible fireworks and explosions. At one point, our house tilted,” Valentyna, an eyewitness whose house overlooks the dam told the BBC.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog, the IAEA, said the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant lost connection to the main power line for almost five hours on Friday following the Russian attacks.

This highlighted the “ever-present dangers to nuclear safety and security during the conflict”, it said.

The plant, however, continued to receive external electricity for reactor cooling from its only remaining back-up power line.

Regional head Ivan Fedorov said seven buildings in Zaporizhzhia had been destroyed and 35 others damaged.

Strikes were also reported in President Zelensky’s hometown of Kryvyi Rih and in Vinnytsia, both in central Ukraine. They damaged a “critical infrastructure object”, said Ukrainian officials.

Russia’s defence ministry said the assault on Ukraine’s power grid was part of a series of revenge attacks against Kyiv for its earlier incursions into Russian territory.

Local officials in the Russian region of Belgorod, near the border with Ukraine, said on Thursday that a woman had been killed and many other people wounded by a Ukrainian strike.

The fresh attacks come a day after Russian forces launched one of their biggest air strikes in weeks on the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. At least 17 people, including a child, were injured by falling debris.

Attacks on the energy grid has been part of Russia’s warfare against Ukraine since 2022.

Moscow has previously carried out strikes on Ukrainian power infrastructure plunging millions of people into darkness and depriving them of heat, power and water.

Attacks during the autumn and winter of 2022 left 17 million Ukrainians without a regular supply of electricity for extended periods.

But the head of the Ukrainian grid operator, Volodymyr Kudrytsky, said Thursday night’s attacks were worse.

“Even last winter, attacks on our energy system weren’t so bad as last night. Dozens of grid facilities have been hit. This is on a global scale.”

Mr Kudrytsky added that the worst affected area was Kharkiv, where “Russia literally tried to destroy all the main energy facilities feeding the city”.

Firefighters extinguish a fire at a power station after a missile attack in Kharkiv, on March 22, 2024
Firefighters at a power station in Kharkiv after Russian missile attack

President Zelensky has often described the Russian attacks on power stations as “energy terrorism”.

The White House condemned Thursday’s attacks and renewed its call for urgent additional air defences for Ukraine as soon as possible.

Earlier this month, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for two top Russian commanders, accusing them of ordering attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure.

Russia launches massive air attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

ABC News

Russia launches massive air attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

Patrick Reevell – March 22, 2024

Russia unleashed a massive aerial attack on Friday in what Ukrainian officials said was the largest and most destructive assault on its energy infrastructure since the start of the war.

Over 150 missiles and drones were involved in the bombardment, striking targets across the Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian air force, knocking out power to swathes of the country and badly damaging its largest hydroelectric power station. It was the second largest aerial attack on Ukraine since Russia began its invasion two years ago, the air force said.

At least three people were killed in the assault, and 15 others were injured, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office.

Ukraine’s military said air defenses destroyed around 90 of the projectiles but more than a third still managed to get through.

The strikes forced emergency shut downs of electricity in at least seven regions, including Odesa, Dnipro, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia and Kirovohrad, according to Ukraine’s state energy company. Officials in Ukraine’s second largest city, Kharkiv, said it was entirely without power following the attacks.

“The morning attack by the Russians on the energy system of Ukraine was the largest ever,” Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukrenergo said in a statement.

Kharkiv’s mayor Ihor Terekhov said it was also the largest attack on the city since the start of the war, with at least 20 missiles fired into energy infrastructure, calling the damage “too severe.”

Missiles also hit Ukraine’s largest hydroelectric power station, the Dnipro dam in Zaporizhzhia, setting off a huge fire there and causing critical damage, according to Ukrainian officials.

“We are losing the station,” Ihor Syrota, head of Ukraine’s state hydro-power company, Ukrhydroenergo, told RFE/RL in a live interview, saying that two missiles had struck the power plant.

Ukrainian officials said the structural integrity of the dam itself was not in danger, but local authorities warned people to stock up on water in case of possible shortages.

Friday’s attack involved more than 75 missiles, including seven advanced, hypersonic Kinzhal missiles, according to Ukraine’s air force.

PHOTO: Smoke and fire erupt from an missile explosion on Ukraine's largest dam, the DniproHES, in Zaporizhzhia (Denys Shmyhal/prime Minister Of /via Reuters)
PHOTO: Smoke and fire erupt from an missile explosion on Ukraine’s largest dam, the DniproHES, in Zaporizhzhia (Denys Shmyhal/prime Minister Of /via Reuters)

The attack came as Ukraine is suffering increasingly severe shortages of air defense ammunition, amid delays in Western supplies and with more U.S. support blocked in Congress. A day earlier, Russia launched its largest missile attack on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv in months.

Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday said the attacks showed the cost of the delays in Western support.

Russian drones “don’t have indecision,” Zelensky said in a video address. “It’s important to understand the price of delays and decisions put off. Our partners definitely know what is necessary. They definitely can support. These decisions are needed.”

A new $60 billion military aid package that would include funding for air defense is currently stalled in Congress, blocked by hard right Republicans close to former President Donald Trump. The bill was approved by a bipartisan majority in the Senate in December but Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to put it to a vote.

Russia has largely avoided striking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for the past few months, instead focusing on military production targets. But Ukraine increasingly faces a choice of using its limited air defenses to protect large cities and civilian infrastructure or deploy it to the frontline, where Russia is regaining air superiority.

Ukraine has used the advanced handful of Patriot air defense batteries provided by the U.S. and European countries to shield Kyiv, but does not have enough to protect key cities elsewhere.

Ukrainian officials on Friday also defended recent Ukrainian attacks on Russia’s oil industry, following reports that U.S. officials have urged Ukraine to halt them over fears it is driving up oil prices globally.

Ukrainian drones have repeatedly struck major Russian oil refineries in recent weeks, in an apparent campaign to undermine Russia’s income for its energy sector, a crucial source of revenue for the Kremlin.

The Financial Times on Friday reported that U.S. officials have warned officials at Ukraine’s intelligence service the attacks should stop.

But Ukrainian deputy prime minister Olha Stefanishyna told a security forum Friday the strikes were legitimate.

“These are absolutely legal goals from a military point of view. We understand the appeals of American partners. At the same time, we are fighting with the capabilities, resources, and practices that we have today,” she said at the Kyiv Security Forum.

Russia launches ‘largest series of air strikes’ on Ukraine since start of war

USA Today

Russia launches ‘largest series of air strikes’ on Ukraine since start of war

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy – March 22, 2024

Russia launched the largest wave of missiles and Iraniansupplied drones against Ukrainian cities since the start of the war two years ago, the White House said Friday.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the attackslaunched overnight, demonstrated how important it is for U.S. to continue providing air defense systems and capabilities to the Ukrainians to fend off Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Mr. Putin is not waiting,” Kirby said. ”He’s not sitting on his hands. He’s making lethal use of every single minute available to himWhile our own Congress refuses to act, he’s not wavering.”

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby

President Joe Biden has been urging Congress to pass an emergency national security bill which was approved by the Senate with bipartisan support and includes $60 billion in assistance for Ukraine. The bill has failed to gain traction in the Republican-controlled House.

“The House of Representatives must pass the national security supplemental as soon as possible so that we can provide Ukraine with this vital equipment,” said Kirby. “And as we’ve seen in just the last couple of days, every single day the House delays is another day that the Ukrainians have to pay for it with their own lives.”

A Ukrainian officer from The 56th Separate Motorized Infantry Mariupol Brigade fires a multiple launch rocket system based on a pickup truck towards Russian positions at the front line, near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 5, 2024.
A Ukrainian officer from The 56th Separate Motorized Infantry Mariupol Brigade fires a multiple launch rocket system based on a pickup truck towards Russian positions at the front line, near Bakhmut, Donetsk region, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 5, 2024.

The attack left more than one million homes without electricity; the targets included power plants and energy supply lines, a hydroelectric dam, ordinary residential buildings and “even a trolleybus,” according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

“Russia is at war with people’s everyday lives,” wrote Zelenskyy. “My condolences to the loved ones of those killed by this terror.”

Ukrainian officials say that at least 10 different regions of their country were struck.

Swapna Venugopal Ramaswamy is a White House Correspondent for USA TODAY. 

Factbox-‘Bloodbath,’ ‘vermin,’ ‘animals’: Trump’s rhetoric on the trail

Reuters

Factbox-‘Bloodbath,’ ‘vermin,’ ‘animals’: Trump’s rhetoric on the trail

Gram Slattery – March 22, 2024

FILE PHOTO: Former U.S. President Trump hosts a campaign rally, in Rome, Georgia

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has made a series of inflammatory and racist statements on the U.S. campaign trail since declaring his candidacy in November 2022.

In some cases, he has used violent imagery to lambaste immigrants and opponents. He has warned that the United States is on the verge of collapse, and his rhetoric has raised concerns that he might flout democratic norms by using the power of the state to target perceived enemies if he is elected.

Here are some of Trump’s more controversial statements to date:

BLOOD POISONING

Trump has said on several occasions that immigrants in the United States illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country.”

Anti-Defamation League leader Jonathan Greenblatt called the language “racist, xenophobic and despicable.” The campaign of Democratic President Joe Biden compared Trump’s comments to those of Adolf Hitler, who used the phrase “blood poisoning” in his manifesto “Mein Kampf.”

Public opinion polls show that illegal immigration is a leading concern for voters, and Trump has consistently portrayed immigration as a major driver of violent crime and economic decay.

In past statements, Trump has suggested that Democrats are purposefully allowing migrants into the country to grow their political support.

This is a key element of the far-right “Great Replacement” conspiracy theory, which asserts that leftist and Jewish elites are engineering the ethnic and cultural replacement of white populations with immigrants of color that will lead to a “white genocide.”

The debate over the economic effects of immigration is decades-long, though most researchers say immigration broadly boosts economic growth.

Some 33% of Republicans in a February Reuters/Ipsos poll cited immigration as their top issue, while 6% of Democrats said the same.

VERMIN

Trump pledged at a November rally in New Hampshire that he would “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.”

Those comments drew rebukes from congressional Democrats and some moderate Republicans. Some historians have traced the use of the word “vermin” to Hitler and Italy’s Benito Mussolini.

Political historians say the use of dehumanizing rhetoric – including words like “vermin” – makes it easier to strip away rights from residents and citizens as they are seen as less worthy of democratic or constitutional protections. Nazis, for instance, frequently referred to Jews as lice, rats and vermin.

The Trump campaign has dismissed those comparisons.

BLOODBATH

During a March appearance alongside a Republican Senate candidate in Ohio, Trump warned of a “bloodbath” if he fails to unseat Biden in November’s election.

At the time Trump was discussing the need to protect the U.S. auto industry from overseas competition, and Trump and allies later said he was referring to the auto industry when he used the term.

Trump’s campaign has sought to portray Biden as a threat to automaking jobs in Michigan, a key swing state, due to the Biden administration’s promotion of electric vehicles.

Biden’s campaign team rejected that characterization and condemned what it called Trump’s “extremism,” “his thirst for revenge” and his “threats of political violence.”

IMMIGRANTS ARE ‘ANIMALS,’ ‘NOT PEOPLE’

Trump has frequently referred to immigrants in the country illegally in subhuman terms, for example referring to them as animals who are prone to violence.

“In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion,” he said during his March appearance in Ohio. “But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical Left says that’s a terrible thing to say. “These are animals, OK, and we have to stop it,” he said.

During stump speeches, Trump frequently claims that immigrants crossing the border illegally have escaped from prisons and asylums in their home countries and are fueling violent crime in the United States.

While available data on criminals’ immigration status is sparse, researchers say people in the country illegally do not commit violent crimes at a higher rate than native-born citizens.

BLACK AMERICANS AND CRIME

Trump drew the ire of Biden’s campaign and civil rights leaders and groups in February when he suggested Black voters were more drawn to him because of his criminal indictments. He also said Black voters had come to “embrace” his mugshots.

“And then I got indicted a second time and a third time and a fourth time. And a lot of people said that that’s why the Black people like me because they have been hurt so badly and discriminated against,” Trump said while speaking to a Black conservative group in South Carolina before the state’s primary election, which he went on to win.

Trump’s legal challenges, including federal charges over his alleged efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss and his handling of classified documents, among other state charges and civil lawsuits, differ greatly from the historic inequities Black Americans have experienced in the criminal justice system.

Trump has also described at least two Black prosecutors – Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and New York Attorney General Letitia James – as “animals.” He has repeatedly referred to James as “Peekaboo,” which rhymes with a racial slur.

Trump allies say his attacks are referring to prosecutors’ conduct, not their race, and they say he is working hard to win the support of Black voters.

APOCALYPSE NOW

Trump frequently leans into apocalyptic imagery on the campaign trail, telling supporters that if he does not win in November – or if he does not otherwise get his way – the country will enter into terminal decline.

At a March campaign event in North Carolina, Trump said Biden’s immigration policies amounted to a “conspiracy to overthrow the United States” through lax security policies that had allowed millions of migrants to stream across the U.S. border with Mexico.

Biden’s administration, Trump contended, seeks “to collapse the American system, nullify the will of the actual American voters and establish a new base of power that gives them control for generations.”

In response, Biden’s campaign pointed to a border security bill in Congress that Trump helped torpedo in February by urging Republicans to vote against it.

DICTATOR ON ‘DAY ONE’

During a televised town hall in December, Trump said he would not be a dictator “other than (on) Day One” of a potential second term. He said he would close the southern border with Mexico and expand oil drilling during the first day of his administration.

Biden’s campaign said the comments were explicit proof that he wants to be an autocrat, while Trump’s allies said he was joking.

Biden has centered his campaign on the contention that stopping Trump from returning to office is crucial, as Trump represents a threat to democracy.

Trump argues that Biden is a more serious threat to democracy, as federal law enforcement agencies under him are prosecuting prominent Republicans, himself included.

Some 44% of Democrats said extremism is their top election issue, according to the February Reuters/Ipsos poll, while 13% of Republicans said the same.

GRAPHIC: Where Biden and Trump stand on the issues.

(Reporting by Gram Slattery, editing by Ross Colvin, Kieran Murray and Howard Goller)

Man who helped drag police officer into mob gets over 5 years in prison for Capitol riot attacks

Associated Press

Man who helped drag police officer into mob gets over 5 years in prison for Capitol riot attacks

Michael Kunzelman – March 21, 2024

This image from police body-worn camera video, contained and annotated in the Justice Department's government's sentencing memorandum supporting the sentencing of Jeffrey Sabol shows Sabol at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. During the course of an attack on police officers, Sabol ripped the baton out of the hands of a fallen officer, leaving him unable to defend himself against assaults by other rioters. Sabol then helped his co-defendants drag a second officer into the crowd, where that officer was also beaten by rioters. (Department of Justice via AP)
This image from police body-worn camera video, contained and annotated in the Justice Department’s government’s sentencing memorandum supporting the sentencing of Jeffrey Sabol shows Sabol at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. During the course of an attack on police officers, Sabol ripped the baton out of the hands of a fallen officer, leaving him unable to defend himself against assaults by other rioters. Sabol then helped his co-defendants drag a second officer into the crowd, where that officer was also beaten by rioters. (Department of Justice via AP)
This combination of images from police body-worn camera video, contained and annotated in the Justice Department's government's sentencing memorandum supporting the sentencing of Jeffrey Sabol, shows Sabol at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. During the course of an attack on police officers, Sabol ripped the baton out of the hands of a fallen officer, leaving him unable to defend himself against assaults by other rioters. Sabol then helped his co-defendants drag a second officer into the crowd, where that officer was also beaten by rioters. (Department of Justice via AP)
This combination of images from police body-worn camera video, contained and annotated in the Justice Department’s government’s sentencing memorandum supporting the sentencing of Jeffrey Sabol, shows Sabol at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. During the course of an attack on police officers, Sabol ripped the baton out of the hands of a fallen officer, leaving him unable to defend himself against assaults by other rioters. Sabol then helped his co-defendants drag a second officer into the crowd, where that officer was also beaten by rioters. (Department of Justice via AP)
This image from police body-worn camera video, contained and annotated in the Justice Department's government's sentencing memorandum supporting the sentencing of Jeffrey Sabol, shows Sabol at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. During the course of an attack on police officers, Sabol ripped the baton out of the hands of a fallen officer, leaving him unable to defend himself against assaults by other rioters. Sabol then helped his co-defendants drag a second officer into the crowd, where that officer was also beaten by rioters. (Department of Justice via AP)
This image from police body-worn camera video, contained and annotated in the Justice Department’s government’s sentencing memorandum supporting the sentencing of Jeffrey Sabol, shows Sabol at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in Washington. During the course of an attack on police officers, Sabol ripped the baton out of the hands of a fallen officer, leaving him unable to defend himself against assaults by other rioters. Sabol then helped his co-defendants drag a second officer into the crowd, where that officer was also beaten by rioters. (Department of Justice via AP)

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Colorado man who helped other rioters drag a police officer into a mob storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Thursday to more than five years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

Jeffrey Sabol ripped a baton from an officer’s hands before pulling another officer into the crowd outside the Capitol, allowing other rioters to assault the officer with weapons.

Sabol, 54, told U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras that he knows he is “100%” guilty and would have apologized directly to the officers whom he attacked if they had attended the hearing.

“I accept whatever it is you hand me,” Sabol said. “I’ll be honest: I deserve it.”

The judge sentenced Sabol to five years and three months behind bars. He’ll get credit for the three years and two months that he has already spent in jail since his arrest.

Contreras said Sabol had mischaracterized his violent actions on Jan. 6 as efforts to be helpful.

“It’s hard to imagine how any of this was helpful,” the judge said after describing Sabol’s conduct that day.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for Sabol.

Sabol told FBI agents who arrested him that he was filled with “patriotic rage” on Jan. 6 because he believed the 2020 presidential election was stolen from then-President Donald Trump and said he answered a “call to battle” because he was a “patriot warrior,” according to prosecutors.

Contreras convicted Sabol of felony charges last year after a “stipulated bench trial,” which means the judge decided the case without a jury based on facts that both sides agreed to in advance. Such trials allow defendants to admit to certain facts while maintaining a right to appeal a conviction.

Sabol traveled from Colorado to Washington, D.C., with other members of what he called a “neighborhood watch” group. They attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 before Sabol went to the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

Sabol was wearing a helmet when he and other rioters attacked police officers on the west side of the Capitol.

“He entered the fray with the intent to halt the certification of the electoral college vote and to violently combat what he believed was a stolen election,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

On the Lower West Terrace, Sabol initially watched as another rioter beat a Metropolitan Police Department officer with a crutch and started to drag that officer down a set of steps. Sabol and a third rioter stepped in and helped drag the officer headfirst down the steps and into the crowd, where other rioters beat him with a flagpole and baton.

After Sabol stole a baton from another officer, other rioters dragged the officer into the crowd, kicked and stomped on him, struck him with poles and ripped off his gas mask before he was pepper sprayed.

Sabol tried to cover his tracks and flee the country after the riot. He microwaved laptops and hard drives, dropped his cell phone out a car window and booked a flight to Zurich, Switzerland, but he didn’t board the flight. Instead, he rented a car and drove to the Westchester, New York, area before he was arrested on Jan. 22, 2021.

Sabol worked as a senior geophysical manager for an environmental services company that fired him after his arrest.

“Jeff Sabol is not a violent man and regrets being caught up in his emotions and engaging in conduct that is not reflective of the law-abiding man and loving father that he has always strived to project,” his attorney wrote in a court filing.

Contreras previously sentenced several other rioters who were charged with Sabol and convicted of attacking the injured officers.

A former Tennessee sheriff’s deputy, Ronald Colton McAbee, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison. Florida resident Mason Courson was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison. Arkansas truck driver Peter Francis Stager was sentenced to four years and four months in prison. Michigan resident Justin Jersey was sentenced to four years and three months in prison. Michigan construction worker Logan Barnhart was sentenced to three years in prison. Kentucky business owner Clayton Ray Mullins was sentenced to two years and six months in prison.

Another co-defendant, Georgia business owner Jack Wade Whitton, is scheduled to be sentenced in May.

More than 1,300 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.

Man who helped drag officer into crowd on Jan. 6 sentenced to prison

The Hill

Man who helped drag officer into crowd on Jan. 6 sentenced to prison

Tara Suter – March 21, 2024

A Colorado man charged for helping drag a law enforcement officer into a crowd during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was sentenced to more than five years in prison Thursday, according to prosecutors.

On top of the sentence, Jeffrey Sabol, 53, was also given three years of supervised release and ordered to pay more than $32,000 in restitution, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. He has been convicted of three felony charges including obstruction of an official proceeding in relation to his conduct during the Jan. 6 riot.

Sabol traveled from Colorado to Washington, D.C., to watch former President Trump speak at his “Stop the Steal” rally at the Ellipse on the day of the Jan. 6 riot, according to court documents. He traveled with fellow members of a “self-described ‘neighborhood watch’ group.”

“Before leaving, the group members discussed what to bring with them,” the press release said. “On the advice of one group member, Sabol packed a helmet, a trauma kit, a buck knife, and zip ties.”

Following the rally, he made his way to the Capitol and joined the riot, the release said. At one point, he “assisted two rioters in dragging a law enforcement officer down the steps and into” a mob, where “rioters beat the officer with a flagpole and a baton.”

Later, Sabol “deleted text messages and other communications from his cell phone,” prosecutors wrote.

He also tried to flee the U.S. and booked a flight to Switzerland, but could not board the aircraft and “rented a car and drove toward Westchester, New York, where the FBI arrested him on Jan. 11, 2021,” according to the documents.

Sabol acknowledged during his hearing that he is “100 percent” guilty and said he would have apologized to the officers if they had been present, according to The Associated Press.

“I accept whatever it is you hand me,” Sabol told the judge, per the AP. “I’ll be honest: I deserve it.”

More than 1,300 individuals have been charged with federal crimes related to the insurrection, according to the release. Of those charged, more than 800 have been sentenced.

Self-professed ‘patriot warrior’ sentenced for role in violent Jan. 6 insurrection

United Press International

Self-professed ‘patriot warrior’ sentenced for role in violent Jan. 6 insurrection

Doug Cunningham – March 21, 2024

Jeffrey Sabol, a Colorado man who helped drag a police officer into the violent pro-Trump Jan.6 insurrection mob, was sentenced Thursday to 63 months in prison for three felonies. Pro-Trump rioters breached the security perimeter at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021 (pictured). File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI
Jeffrey Sabol, a Colorado man who helped drag a police officer into the violent pro-Trump Jan.6 insurrection mob, was sentenced Thursday to 63 months in prison for three felonies. Pro-Trump rioters breached the security perimeter at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021 (pictured). File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

March 21 (UPI) — A Colorado man who helped drag a police officer into the violent pro-Trump mob during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection was sentenced Thursday to 63 months in prison for three felonies.

Jeffrey Sabol, 53, was accused of beating a police officer who was attempting to help injured rioters.

His charges include an attack on a D.C. police officer. He said in an interview with police following his arrest that he had answered a call to battle because he “was a patriot warrior.”

His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.

Sabol, of Kittredge, Colo., also was sentenced to 36 months of supervised release and ordered to pay $32,165.65.

Pro-Trump rioters breach the security perimeter and penetrate the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the Electoral College vote count that would certify President-elect Joe Biden as the winner in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI
Pro-Trump rioters breach the security perimeter and penetrate the U.S. Capitol to disrupt the Electoral College vote count that would certify President-elect Joe Biden as the winner in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 6, 2021. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

The Justice Department, citing court documents and stipulated facts in the case, said Sabol attended the Trump “Stop The Steal” rally before joining the front of a line of rioters confronting police at the Capitol.

“In a coordinated effort, Sabol and another rioter pushed a third rioter — who, himself, was holding a riot shield — from behind, propelling him forward and up a set of steps, so that the rioter with the shield ran into the line of police,” the DOJ said in a statement. “As the officers attempted to repel the rioters pushing against the police line, Sabol kept pushing forward and slammed into a riot shield held by a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer.”

Pro-Trump rioters breach the security perimeter and penetrate the U.S. Capitol to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power as Congress met to certify the Electoral College results in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI
Pro-Trump rioters breach the security perimeter and penetrate the U.S. Capitol to block the peaceful transfer of presidential power as Congress met to certify the Electoral College results in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021. File Photo by Ken Cedeno/UPI

Sabol was in the pro-Trump mob as an MPD officer was pulled into the violent mob, according to the DOJ.

He was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting, federal robbery, and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers with a deadly or dangerous weapon and aiding and abetting.

After the attack on the Capitol Sabol deleted texts and other communications from his cell phone. He also booked a flight to Zurich, Switzerland in an attempt to flee the United States.

After he was unable to board the aircraft Sabol rented a car and drove to Westchester, New York, where he was arrested by the FBI Jan. 11, 2021.

He told officers he was wanted by the FBI after “fighting tyranny in the D.C. Capitol.”

He also destroyed his laptop computers in a microwave oven and dropped his cell phone in a body of water.

The DOJ said Sabol came to the Capitol with a helmet, a buck knife, a trauma kit and zip ties.

During the melee Sabol pulled an officer’s baton from his hands as he was supine on the ground with such force that the officer’s torso was lifted from the ground, according to the DOJ.

Sabol is a geophysicist.

The DOJ said Thursday since Jan. 1, 2021 1,358 people have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the Capitol insurrection. More than 486 people have been charged with felonies for assaulting or impeding law enforcement.