Good morning, Her Campus! With a break-neck news cycle, there is no possible way for you to stay on top of every story that comes across your feeds—we’re all only human, after all.
But, life comes at you fast. So grab a cup of coffee and settle in for this quick and dirty guide to stories you might’ve been sleeping on (like, literally. It’s early.)
Trump Falsely Blames Obama for Family Separations
When addressing immigration on Thursday, President Donald Trump blamed President Barack Obama for family separations at the border. However, Trump’s claims were incorrect.
Trump was widely criticized for his zero-tolerance policy on immigration that resulted in approximately 2,600 children being separated from their families, ABC News reports. But, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, around 221 children still remain in custody despite a federal judge ordering the kids to be reunited with their family.
The president had signed an executive to reverse the policy.
But on Thursday, Trump blamed Obama for family separations, although the former president never enforced a zero-tolerance policy that lead to mass family separations.
“Nobody talks about that, but under President Obama, they separated children from the parents,” Trump said.
“President Obama separated children from families, and all I did was take the same law, and then I softened the law, but by softening the law, many people come up that would not have come up if there was separation,” Trump later said.
According to ABC News, Obama faced an influx of families and children traveling alone trying to escape violence in Central America. The Obama administration, at one point, attempted to house families in special detention centers. When a federal judge in California ruled that the arrangement violated a long-standing rule that children could not be housed in jail-like conditions for an extended period of time, even while with their families, the Obama administration released the families into the United States until they received word of their next court date.
While some families might have been separated during the Obama administration, it was primarily due to serious crimes likes drug trafficking, ABC News reports. Trump’s policy differed in that it considered the act of crossing the U.S. border illegally as a justification to detain parents and place children in protective custody.
Trump Offers UN Ambassador Role to State Department Spokesperson
President Donald Trump has offered to nominate State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert to be U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, a senior White House official told ABC News.
It is not clear, however, if Nauert has accepted Trump’s offer to take Nikki Haley’s spot, as Haley announced that she would leave the position by the end of the year.
When asked about Nauert on Thursday, Trump said that while she is “under very serious consideration,” he had not yet made his final decision and wouldn’t until next week.
“She’s been a supporter for a long time, and she’s really excellent,” the president said of Nauert.
Nauert has been the State Department spokesperson since April 2017, after working as a broadcast journalist at ABC News and an anchor at Fox News.
A source told ABC News that Nauert met with the president on Monday, making it her second meeting with Trump over the position.
The position does require Senate confirmation.
Oprah Says Not Voting Means “Dishonoring” Your Ancestors
While attending a town hall in support of Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams on Thursday, Oprah Winfrey delivered a powerful messages to voters: If you fail to vote in the midterm elections, you are dishonoring your ancestors.
Winfrey stressed the importance of voting by invoking the story of Otis Moss Sr., who had traveled nearly 18 miles on foot to cast his vote but was told that he was too late when he arrived, The Huffington Post reports. He died before the next election, never having been able to vote.
“For anybody here who has an ancestor who didn’t have the right to vote and you are choosing not to vote wherever you are in this state, in this country, you are dishonoring your family,” Winfrey said at the town hall on Thursday.
Oprah: “For anybody here who has an ancestor who didn’t have the right to vote and you are choosing not to vote, wherever you are … You are dishonoring your family. You are disrespecting and disregarding their legacy, their suffering and their dreams.” (via ABC) pic.twitter.com/hOIKm2a2VA
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) November 1, 2018
“You are disrespecting and disregarding their legacy, their suffering and their dreams when you don’t vote,” she added.
Winfrey, who is joining Abrams on the campaign trail in a highly contested race against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R), told the crowd, “I am an independent woman. Nobody paid for me to come here. Nobody even asked for me to come here. I paid for myself and I approve this message.”
“We are not powerless,” she continued. “Every single one of us has the same power at the polls.”
Winfrey also acknowledged the rumors that she is considering a presidential run in 2020, telling the crowd Thursday that she didn’t have a desire to run, HuffPost reports.
“I’m not here because I’m making some grandstand, because I’m thinking of running myself,” she said. “I don’t want to run, OK? I’m not trying to test any waters. Don’t want to go in those waters. I’m here today because of Stacey Abrams.”
Vice President Mike Pence was also in Georgia on Thursday, joining Kemp at a rally.
“I heard Oprah was in town today. And I heard Will Ferrell was going door-to-door the other day. Well I’d like to remind Stacey and Oprah and Will Ferrell — I’m kind of a big deal, too,” Vice President Mike Pence said at a campaign event for gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp pic.twitter.com/74AsupqST8
— POLITICO (@politico) November 1, 2018
“I heard Oprah was in town today,” Pence told the crowd at Kemp’s rally. “And I heard Will Ferrell was going door to door the other day. Well, I’d like to remind Stacey and Oprah and Will Ferrell: I’m kind of a big deal too.”
What to look out for…
Starbucks is giving out free reusable red holiday cups to customers who order a holiday beverage today, November 2nd!