Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., raised $3 million in the first quarter of the year, according to her campaign, a figure that lags behind the hauls brought in by her competitors for the 2020 presidential nomination.
Ms. Gillibrand has more than $10 million cash on hand, ranking her fourth in the Democratic field, her campaign’s communications director, Meredith Kelly, said Sunday. That number includes a $9.6 million transfer from Ms. Gillibrand’s Senate campaign account.
In a memo to supporters on Sunday obtained by The Washington Post, Ms. Gillibrand’s campaign said there was “no question” that its fundraising in the first quarter “was adversely impacted by certain establishment donors - and many online - who continue to punish Kirsten for standing up for her values and for women.”
Ms. Gillibrand was the first senator to call for Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to resign amid sexual misconduct allegations in 2017, and several top Democratic donors, including George Soros and Susie Tompkins Buell, have openly criticized her over the move.
Ms. Gillibrand defended her handling of the matter at an MSNBC town hall last month. “If there are a few Democratic powerful donors who are angry because I stood up for women who came forward with allegations of sexual harassment, that’s on them,” she said.
More than 90 percent of the contributions Ms. Gillibrand received in the first quarter were under $200, her campaign said, and nearly two-thirds of her donors in the first quarter were women.
Dallas transgender woman brutally beaten in broad daylight
DALLAS — Police canvassed a Dallas neighborhood during the weekend in search of anyone who may have witnessed the brutal beating of a transgender woman in an attack that happened in broad daylight in front of a crowd of people and that was caught on cellphone video.
Detectives were seeking clues in hopes of identifying the woman’s assailant or assailants, police said in a statement.
They said the woman reported the assault while receiving hospital treatment Friday night. She told officers the attack happened earlier Friday after she was involved in a minor traffic accident near an apartment complex in the southern part of Dallas, according to the police statement released Saturday.
A purported video of the attack posted on Facebook shows a man in a white shirt viciously beating the woman, apparently into unconsciousness, while the crowd looks on and homophobic slurs are shouted.
Several women eventually carried the victim’s limp body to safety.
A Dallas police spokesman said the woman’s identity and further information about the case would not be released Sunday.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said he is “extremely angry about what appears to be mob violence against this woman” and that those responsible do not represent how most residents feel about the city’s “thriving LGBTQ community.”
“I am in contact with (Police Chief U. Renee Hall) and she assured me that the Dallas Police Department is fully investigating, including the possibility that this was a hate crime,” Mr. Rawlings, who has viewed the video, said in a statement Saturday.
Trump renews Federal Reserve attacks amid controversy over his two picks
President Donald Trump renewed his attacks on the Federal Reserve on Sunday, airing his frustration with the central bank.
"If the Fed had done its job properly, which it has not, the Stock Market would have been up 5000 to 10,000 additional points, and GDP would have been well over 4% instead of 3%...with almost no inflation," Mr. Trump tweeted.
He added: "Quantitative tightening was a killer, should have done the exact opposite!"
The comments come amid open Senate opposition to his two picks for open seats on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain and economic commentator Stephen Moore.
Four Republicans said last week they would not vote to confirm Mr. Cain, a former Republican presidential candidate who formerly sat on the Kansas City regional Fed board, because of sexual harassment allegations against him. He has denied the allegations.
Meanwhile, Moore, a former Wall Street Journal editorial board member and CNN analyst, has been sharply criticized for reversing his opposition to low interest rates when President Barack Obama was in office.
A CNN KFILE review of speeches and radio interviews by Mr. Moore found that he has a history of advocating self-described "radical" views on the economy and government, including supporting the elimination of the corporate and and federal income taxes entirely.
Fordham student dies after fall from iconic bell tower
It was forbidden. But the group of friends sneaked into Fordham University’s most recognizable building in the dead of night anyway early Sunday.
They clambered up the steep staircase of the granite bell tower that overlooks Fordham’s Rose Hill campus to take in the view of the Bronx under moonlight, sending a Snapchat video from the top.
Then something went horribly wrong.
One of the students, a 22-year-old senior, fell through an opening in a landing, the police said, and plummeted down the inside of the clock and bell tower just a month before her graduation.
The woman, Sydney Monfries, was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where she died Sunday evening, according to the university. The police had found her unconscious inside the tower at about 3 a.m., with trauma to her head and body. The circumstances and the height of the fall were not clear.
The university sent multiple emails to students on Sunday, updating them about Ms. Monfries’ fall from the tower in Keating Hall at the heart of campus and the young woman’s condition.
“There are no words sufficient to describe the loss of someone so young and full of promise —and mere weeks from graduation,” the Rev. Joseph M. McShane, the president of the Jesuit university, said in an email to students.
Also in the nation …
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Sunday that she doesn’t believe members of Congress are “smart enough” to examine President Donald Trump’s tax returns, pushing back against Democrats’ demands for information on the president’s finances. … House Speaker Nancy Pelosi characterized the more progressive wing of House Democrats led by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, as "like, five people" that do not represent all progressives, including herself -- adding that freshmen Democrats "know that we have to hold the center." … A new study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that kratom was a cause of death in nearly 100 people over a 17-month period -- a higher number than previously reported. … Roger Stone’s defense fired a volley of legal attacks at special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation Friday, asking a federal judge to dismiss Mr. Stone’s indictment for lying to Congress and obstructing justice and to order that Mr. Stone receive a full unredacted copy of Mr. Mueller’s recently completed report. … Authorities were investigating Saturday the online posting by a hacker group of the personal information of hundreds of federal agents and police officers apparently stolen from websites affiliated with alumni of the FBI’s National Academy. … The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Friday that E. coli-contaminated ground beef was the suspected culprit for an outbreak that infected at least 109 people in six states.
First Published: April 15, 2019, 8:08 a.m.