Evening Report — Protests continue to spread on college campuses

Hundreds of students have been arrested on college campuses across the country as pro-Palestinian protests continue to spread.

Columbia University officials in New York gave protestors until 2 p.m. Monday to pack up and leave the on-campus encampment they have occupied for more than a week, or face possible suspension. Students continued their campus encampment and protest efforts, blowing past the deadline.

Although law enforcement officers were stationed outside the encampment prior to the deadline, they did not enter once it had passed. The encampment, made up of several dozen tents, is still standing. 

Columbia University student Sueda Polat, one of the organizers of the protest, said the protestors “will not be moved unless by force.”

“It is against the will of the students to disperse,” Polat said, according to ABC News. “We do not abide by university pressures. We act on the will of the students.”

Meanwhile, police clashed with protesters Monday afternoon on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin after authorities issued a dispersal order. Protesters refused to leave, and law enforcement clad in riot gear broke up the demonstration by force.

In a statement, the university said, “The majority of protesters are believed to be unaffiliated with the university.”

Northwestern University reached an agreement Monday, according to CNN, with protesters to end their five-day encampment. The agreement limits the scope of the protests to the removal of all but one tent, prohibiting the use of non-approved amplified sound devices and ensuring protesters are affiliated with the university.

Protests are also happening on campuses such as Yale, Virginia Tech, University of California at Berkeley, University of Southern California, and more. 

Related coverage:

Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Liz Crisp, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here.

• Former Rep. George Santos is bringing his drag queen alter ego Kitara “out of the closet,” offering Cameo videos for money, claiming a portion of the proceeds will go to charity. 

• Aaron Dimmock, a former naval aviator, has launched a last-minute primary bid to unseat Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.). They will face each other in the state’s Aug. 20 GOP primary.
• Senators from Virginia and Maryland are sounding alarms about an effort to add new long-distance flight slots at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport through the upcoming Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization.

Former President Trump will be back in the courtroom Tuesday with further testimony from banker Gary Farro expected, while a judge’s decision lingers on whether Trump should be held in contempt of court for violating a gag order.

Judge Juan Merchan placed Trump under a gag order to stop the former president from publicly attacking witnesses, jurors and court staff. He’s been repeatedly accused by prosecutors of violating the order, raising the potential for a contempt violation. His ruling could come down any day during the trial.

The Hill’s Niall Stanage has a recap of the top five takeaways from Trump’s first week in criminal court on allegations that he falsified business records to cover up a “hush money” payment to an adult film star during the 2016 campaign cycle.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) returned to Washington this week riding a wave of several recent policy victories, but he hasn’t evaded the ongoing threat to his gavel from a small but capricious group of far-right rebels.

The Hill’s Mychael Schnell and Mike Lillis report that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the ringleader behind the fledgling effort to oust Johnson, has not said when — or even if — she intends to compel the House to act on the vacate motion that she filed last month.

But she’s tapped into frustrations over some of Johnson’s recent policy moves that have received broad bipartisan support, particularly his support for Ukraine aid.

“They’re [sic] plan is keep funding the proxy war with Russia in Ukraine and when that doesn’t work, after all the Ukrainian men have been slaughtered, next they will put American troops on the ground,” Greene wrote on the social media platform X on Sunday. “Johnson will do whatever Biden/Schumer want in order to keep the Speaker’s gavel in his hand, but he has completely sold out the Republican voters who gave us the majority.” 

“His days as Speaker are numbered,” she added.

Despite Greene’s persistent and looming threats to oust Johnson, she has yet to move to force a vote on the matter. But a week free of must-pass legislation makes it more likely that Johnson’s job could be up for debate this week. 

Republican critics of former President Trump are using fellow Republicans’ own words to hammer them on their about-face support for Trump.

In an ad released Sunday, Republican Voters Against Trump warns that some GOP figures, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and former Attorney General Bill Barr, appear to be suffering from “partisan derangement syndrome.”

“Every day, prominent Republicans across the country tell us that Trump was responsible for the attack on the Capitol,” the narrator says over images of McConnell, Barr and others who have spoken out against Trump, only to later endorse his bid for another term in the White House. “But sadly, these same Republicans say they will vote for him again.” (The Hill)

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has issued a combined $200 million fine to the nation’s four largest mobile carriers after an investigation found the companies illegally shared access to customers’ location data.

T-Mobile received the biggest fine at $80 million, along with a $12 million fine for its subsidiary, Sprint. AT&T was fined more than $57 million, and Verizon was fined almost $7 million, according to the FCC’s announcement Monday. 

The mobile carriers have denied wrongdoing and said they intend to challenge the fine.

The FCC first accused the wireless carriers in 2020 of violating laws by not protecting users’ location data. 

The FCC said the resulting investigation found that each of the companies  sold access to their customers’ location information to “aggregators” that went on to resell information to third-party location-based service providers. (The Hill) 

Former Secretary of State and unsuccessful presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is the latest to join the chorus of people condemning South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) over a story recounted in her forthcoming book about killing an unruly dog.

Clinton reupped a 2021 post in which she had written “Don’t vote for anyone you wouldn’t trust with your dog.”

“Still true,” Clinton wrote in the update Monday on the social platform X.

Noem, who has been widely considered to be among a shortlist of contenders for former President Trump‘s running mate this year, defended herself from rising criticism Sunday after an excerpt revealed her story about “Cricket.” Noem wrote that she shot the 14-month-old wirehaired pointer after a failed hunting trip that was followed by the dog’s attack on local livestock.

“I can understand why some people are upset about a 20 year old story of Cricket, one of the working dogs at our ranch, in my upcoming book — No Going Back,” Noem wrote Sunday on the social platform X. “The book is filled with many honest stories of my life, good and bad days, challenges, painful decisions, and lessons learned.”

“The fact is, South Dakota law states that dogs who attack and kill livestock can be put down,” she continued. “Given that Cricket had shown aggressive behavior toward people by biting them, I decided what I did.”

“America’s reproductive rights nightmare is entering a crucial week,” writes Svante Myrick, president of People for the American Way. 

“Will Gen-Z cancel America?” write Kevin Wallsten, political science professor at Cal State Long Beach, and Jack Citrin, political science professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

76 days until the Republican National Convention.

112 days until the Democratic National Convention.

189 days until the 2024 general election. 

Tuesday

• The House and Senate will both be in session.
• Several officials from the Biden administration will be taking part in hearings on Capitol Hill, including Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, Housing and Urban Development acting Secretary Adrianne Todman, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, Environmental Protection Agency administrator Michael Regan, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Troy Miller, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection.