'Start Here': Dems host 1st debate as a migrant detention facility comes under fire
Here's what you need to know to start your day.
It's Thursday, June 27, 2019. Let's start here.
1. Miami twice
Ten 2020 Democratic presidential hopefuls took the stage in Miami on Wednesday night for the first of two nights of debates.
The primary, ABC News Political Director Rick Klein reports from Miami, already is shaping up to be an ideological battle between Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., clarifying her position on Medicare for All, and Julian Castro and former Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, launching into a Texas standoff over immigration policy.
"They all want to beat Donald Trump," Klein says on "Start Here." "They fundamentally disagree about how to do it."
Who won the night? The front-runner in tonight's debate, Joe Biden.
On Wednesday, Klein reminds us, "His name did not come up even one time."
2. 'Not meant for kids'
Many of the Democratic candidates made immigration policy a central issue this week, speaking out against the unsanitary conditions for migrant children at detention facilities and planning visits to a for-profit shelter in Florida.
ABC News Chief National Correspondent Matt Gutman joins "Start Here" after visiting a government detention facility under scrutiny in Clint, Texas.
"These facilities are not meant for kids, and they're not meant to hold kids for very long," Gutman tells us. "They were designed to hold single, adult males for about eight to 12 hours. These kids right now are being held for an average of six to 10 days."
Back in Washington, lawmakers are under pressure to address the humanitarian concerns at the southern border. The Senate on Wednesday approved a measure to send $4.6 billion in emergency humanitarian aid -- including $145 million for the Pentagon to use for border control -- while the House voted to approve a $4.5 billion measure that specifically deals with the conditions of detention centers.
Both chambers of Congress need to reconcile their bills before the July 4 recess.
3. SCOTUS ... out ... for ... summer
The Supreme Court wraps up its term today with decisions expected on high-profile cases involving gerrymandering and whether the Trump administration can add a citizenship question to the census.
It's the "biggest chance in a generation" for the justices to weigh in on redistricting, says ABC News' Devin Dwyer, but he predicts the court will stay out of it.
"The Supreme Court has always shown a reluctance to get involved in this," Dwyer says. "They don't want to get into the politics of judging when drawing a certain boundary is or isn't too partisan."
The justices in their arguments on the census case seemed inclined to side with the Trump administration, Dwyer adds, however some 11th-hour challenges in lower courts could affect any ruling.
"Start Here," ABC News' flagship podcast, offers a straightforward look at the day's top stories in 20 minutes. Listen for free every weekday on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Spotify, Stitcher, TuneIn or the ABC News app. Follow @StartHereABC on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram for exclusive content and show updates.
Elsewhere:
'President Trump, I want you to look at this photo. These are not drug dealers or vagrants or criminals. They are people simply fleeing a horrible situation in their home country for a better life. So, President Trump, if you want to know the real reason there's chaos at the border, look in the mirror.': Chuck Schumer is among the many horrified by the photo of father and daughter who drowned trying to reach America.
'None of your business': Donald Trump doesn't exactly elaborate -- "I'll have a very good conversation with him" -- on what he intends to discuss in an upcoming meeting with Vladimir Putin, who, according to a declassified intelligence report in 2017 and to the director of the FBI in 2018 and to the Mueller report in 2019, pretty clearly tried to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, which Trump won despite losing the popular vote by almost 3 million.
'A potential risk that Boeing must mitigate': The Federal Aviation Administration discovers another potential issue with 737 Max jets.
'We already miss her terribly': Sharks kill an American in the Bahamas.
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Doff your cap:
On July 18, 2017, Gaylen Grandstaff received a package that changed his life.
Grandstaff, a 52-year-old former firefighter from Texas, had been living for the past seven years in Moscow with his Russian wife, Anna. The couple taught English and lived quietly in a small apartment in a traffic-choked northern neighborhood.
For years, Grandstaff had suffered from Crohn's disease and treated it with peptides. Weeks earlier, he he'd ordered pills using the Chinese site Alibaba. In addition to his usual order for the peptides, he also bought a $10 bottle of metal cleaner that he claims was pushed on him by the man who sold him the pills.
Minutes after the package arrived, there was banging on the Grandstaffs' door. They opened it to find four Russian customs officials, an attorney, witnesses and a translator. The agents told the Grandstaffs that the cleaner Gaylen had ordered contained a banned narcotic, and he was under arrest for drug smuggling.
'Bear and the ladybug': American Gaylen Grandstaff's 2-year imprisonment in Russia
Grandstaff was taken to jail and formally charged with smuggling a psychotropic substance in a large quantity and ordered held in pretrial detention. From that moment, he was in the hands of the Russian criminal justice system, kept in Moscow jails for almost two years. The charge against him carried a maximum sentence of 20 years.
ABC News' Patrick Reevell has been following this case and his full report is astonishing.
Grandstaff eventually was released, but he and Anna can't leave Russia because the case isn't officially resolved.
"This won't be over," Grandstaff said, "until my feet are back on American soil."
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