Schneiderman’s fall tears hole in anti-Trump coalition

NEW YORK — From his perch as New York attorney general, Eric Schneiderman served as the self-appointed field general of the anti-Trump resistance. Monday’s bombshell abuse allegations changed all that, removing a critical player from the coalition of state Democratic attorneys general confronting the Trump administration on everything from climate policy to immigration.

Schneiderman’s hasty resignation is sparking a scramble to replace him in New York — the position has long been a springboard to national prominence and higher office — but just as important, it’s raising the question of who’ll step into his role.

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“Schneiderman is gone, and whoever his replacement is … is going to be an equally forceful part of the resistance,” said Garry South, a longtime Democratic strategist in California. “There’s no way around it. It’s New York state. I’m not sure that the actual personnel really matter, because whether the attorney general of California is [Xavier] Becerra or [Democratic challenger] Dave Jones, California’s going to remain on the front lines of the resistance. And I think New York’s in the same boat.”

Aside from perhaps California’s Becerra, no Democratic attorney general has been more aggressive in taking on the Trump administration than Schneiderman. In President Donald Trump’s first year in office, Schneiderman took more than 100 legal and administrative actions against the administration and the Republican-led Congress. In the latest broadside, New York and 16 other states last week sued the Trump administration over efforts to relax vehicle efficiency standards.

The New York attorney general wields extra power in the Trump administration because the president is from here — he lives in New York City, has numerous ownership interests here and has done business here for decades. With Schneiderman’s departure, state and federal law enforcement are, at least temporarily, being deprived of the state official who poses the most immediate danger to Trump.

“It’s even more important today in some ways because of what’s going on in Washington, so it’s an extraordinarily important position,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday during a press conference.

Becerra just last week referred to Schneiderman and more than a dozen Democratic state attorneys general as a “coalition” that he said “will not stand by idly.”

Schneiderman’s reputation as a Democratic icon in the Trump era had grown so strong that comedian Samantha Bee produced an entire segment about him on her weekly cable news show last fall, calling him a “hero” for his challenges to the Trump administration. The video has now been appended with an apology “for characterizing him as a hero.”

One of the women who accused Schneiderman of physical violence, who asked to remain anonymous, told the New Yorker she’d resisted reporting him to law enforcement because of the work he was doing.

“He’s a good attorney general, he’s doing good things. I didn’t want to jeopardize that,” she told the New Yorker.

Republicans and Trump allies seized on the symbolic importance of Schneiderman’s departure even though hundreds of career prosecutors will remain in the attorney general’s office.

“As Schneiderman leaves office in disgrace, his impact and influence with activist Democrat state attorneys general and candidates cannot be overstated,” Republican Attorneys General Association President Leslie Rutledge, the Arkansas attorney general, said in a statement to POLITICO. “While there will be a reckoning for those who directly benefited from his political power, unfortunately, there remain plenty of activist Democrat attorneys general who will push each other down to lead the charge against the rule of law.”

Schneiderman’s latest action against the Trump administration came just hours before the story broke, when he announced he was leading a coalition of states urging the Environmental Protection Agency to halt a rule change that would restrict the kinds of scientific studies the agency could use when crafting policies.

One case pursued by Schneiderman’s office resulted in a Brooklyn federal judge’s ruling in February blocking Trump’s wind-down of the Obama-era federal program protecting so-called DREAMers. Schneiderman’s former colleagues are all but certain to follow through on the litigation. There are also other lawsuits — one brought by Becerra — that won similar relief and are working their way through the courts.

Attorneys general have traditionally held a coveted position in their states’ political hierarchies, with the office often serving as platform to run for higher office.

Schneiderman held special significance because of Trump’s ties to New York, with the potential to bring state cases against Trump and his associates.

Schneiderman’s Russia-related inquiries were already on the back burner due to a decision to allow special counsel Robert Mueller to take the lead on those matters, at least for now. Because of New York’s role at the center of the Trump business empire, the New York attorney general’s office may have a unique role to play as a back-up on Russia-related inquiries and other Trump Organization-related matters federal investigators are reportedly pursuing.

“That office is the ace in the hole for anyone who wants to make sure that Trump can’t pardon his way to immunity from prosecution,” said Jamie Court, president of the California-based consumer advocacy group Consumer Watchdog. “The New York attorney general not only has tremendous power to make sure that Michael Cohen and other potential witnesses play ball rather than thinking they’re going to get a free pass from a presidential pardon. But he also has a lot of control over Wall Street and developments there, and over the type of investigations that can go on into Trump’s business enterprises.”

What has helped fuel Schneiderman’s national profile is a law unique to New York called the Martin Act, which allows the state attorney to pursue cases of alleged financial fraud outside of the state, as Schneiderman did with Exxon, AIG and Bank of America. The Wall Street Journal editorial board on Tuesday used the Schneiderman scandal to once again call for the law’s repeal.

For consumer advocates, Court said, “I think that we all felt much better knowing that there was an aggressive attorney general from New York ready to take the president’s colleagues to state court, where they couldn’t be pardoned.” But Court described Schneiderman’s behavior as a “dangerous thing” and said, “He had to go, but the question is, who is Cuomo going to replace him with who will be as much of a threat?”

Trump’s election drew unprecedented public attention to the offices of Democratic attorneys general. Schneiderman and fellow Democrats immediately became point people in their states in the resistance to Trump, while Trump has come to define their tenures. Becerra, campaigning to maintain the California post he was appointed to, devoted his first TV ads of the election cycle to his opposition to Trump.

Still, political observers inside and outside of New York were skeptical that Schneiderman’s departure would dramatically alter the shape of states’ anti-Trump litigation.

Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey, who had a strong working relationship with Schneiderman, said the future of the office’s progress is in the hands of the staff members Schneiderman leaves behind.

“The women and men who serve in the New York Attorney General’s Office who serve every day to enforce the laws and protect the rights of all Americans,” Healey said in a statement. “I look forward to working with the next Attorney General of New York to continue that important work.”

Peter Iwanowicz, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York and the former head of the New York State Office of Climate Change, said he wasn’t concerned about the impact of Schneiderman’s resignation on ongoing environmental litigation, in part because it’s likely that anyone who replaces him will also be a Democrat in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans nearly 3 to 1.

“I don‘t expect anything to change, because we’re not talking about an election where a different political ideology could come into office,” Iwanowicz told POLITICO.

Still, in New York political circles, Schneiderman’s resignation has prompted a furious scramble over who will succeed him. Career prosecutors in the attorney general’s office and Cuomo, who previously held the office himself, are hoping the state Legislature, which has the authority to name Schneiderman’s successor, will take their time making a choice because of the high-stakes litigation the office is involved in.

Schneiderman’s departure automatically elevated state Solicitor General Barbara Underwood to the role of interim attorney general. Attorneys and Schneiderman’s aides described Underwood as tremendously accomplished and competent and are pushing for her tenure as interim attorney general to be extended, in the name of maintaining some continuity over the office’s ongoing cases.

Any appointed attorney general would still face the need for reelection in the fall, when Schneiderman was supposed to be running for reelection to a third term.

Schneiderman’s spokesperson Amy Spitalnick said in a tweet Tuesday, “This morning, I’m grateful to work with the best colleagues in the business — including Barbara Underwood, who will be acting NY AG. She’s argued 20 cases before SCOTUS, clerked for Thurgood Marshall, much more. The work continues.”

Underwood, who also served under Cuomo when he was attorney general, earned praise from Cuomo on Tuesday.

“She is an extraordinarily competent woman,” the governor said.

In a statement Tuesday afternoon, Underwood tried to assuage fears about Schneiderman’s departure. “The work of this office is critically important. Our office has never been stronger, and this extraordinarily talented, dedicated, and tireless team of public servants will ensure that our work continues without interruption.”

Josh Gerstein and Lauren Dezenski contributed to this report.

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Google I/O 2018: The 10 biggest announcements

The annual Google I/O developer conference is Google’s biggest event of the year by far. Unlike Apple, where the biggest event each year is the company’s late-summer iPhone unveiling, Google is a software company first and foremost. At Google I/O each year, Google takes us on a journey through the company’s efforts to push the boundaries of consumer technology. Google isn’t a completely open book, of course, and there are plenty of secret projects being worked on behind closed doors. But the company is always quite open about its core focuses, and Google I/O 2018 was a showcase of all the key areas of concentration at Google.

Artificial intelligence was obviously among the stars of the show at Google I/O 2018, and Google Assistant will play an even more central role in Google’s ecosystem than it already has over the past few years. We also got our first glimpse at the newly updated version of Android P, which is available to developers (and anyone else who wants to install it on his or her Pixel phone) beginning today. The company covered all that and more during its 90-minute Google I/O 2018 keynote presentation, and we’ve rounded up all of the most important announcements right here in this recap.

Smart Compose in Gmail

This is a nifty new feature in Gmail that uses machine learning to not just predict words users plan to type, but entire phrases. And we’re not just talking about simple predictions like addresses, but entire phrases that are suggested based on context and user history. The feature will roll out to users in the next month.

Google Photos AI features

Google Photos is getting a ton of new features based on artificial intelligence and machine learning. For example, Google Photos can take an old restored black and white photo and not just convert it to color, but convert it to realistic color and touch it up in the process.

Google Assistant voices

The original Google Assistant voice was named Holly, and it was based on actual recordings. Moving forward, Google Assistant will get six new voices… including John Legend! Google is using WaveNet to make voices more realistic, and it hopes to ultimately perfect all accents and languages around the world. Google Assistant will support 30 different languages by the end of 2018.

Natural conversation

Google is making a ton of upgrades to Google Assistant revolving around natural conversation. For one, conversations can continue following an initial wake command (“Hey Google”). The new feature is called continued conversation and it’ll be available in the coming weeks.

Multiple Actions support is coming to Google Assistant as well, allowing Google Assistant to handle multiple commands at one time.

Another new feature called “Pretty Please” will help young children learn politeness by responding with positive reinforcement when children say please. The feature will roll out later this year.

New visual canvas for Google Assistant

The first Smart Displays will be released in July, powered by Google Assistant. In order to power the experiences provided by Smart Displays, Google had to whip up a new visual interface for Assistant.

Also of note, Google Assistant’s visual UI is getting an overhaul on mobile devices as well in 2018.

Swiping up in the Google app will show a snapshot of the user’s entire day courtesy of Google Assistant. The new UI is coming to Android this summer and to iOS later this year.

Google Duplex

Using text to speech, deep learning, AI, and more, Google Assistant can be a real assistant. In a demo at I/O 2018, Google Assistant made a real call to a hair salon and had a back and forth conversation with an employee, ultimately booking an actual woman’s haircut appointment in the time span requested by the user.

This is not a feature that will roll out anytime soon, but it’s something Google is working hard to develop for both business and consumers. An initial version of the service that will call businesses to get store hours will roll out in the coming weeks, and the data collected will allow Google to update open and close hours under company profiles online.

Here’s a demo video:

Google News

Google News is getting an overhaul that focuses on highlighting quality journalism. The revamp will make it easier for users to keep up with the news by showing a briefing at the top with five important stories. Local news will be highlighted as well, and the Google News app will constantly evolve and learn a user’s preferences as he or she uses the app.

Videos from YouTube and elsewhere will be showcased more prominently, and a new feature called Newscasts are like Instagram stories, but for news.

The refreshed Google News will also take steps to help users understand the full scope of a story, showcasing a variety of sources and formats. The new feature, which is called “Full Coverage,” will also help by providing related stories, background, timelines of key related events, and more.

Finally, a new Newsstand section lets users follow specific publications, and they can even subscribe to paid news services right inside the app. Paid subscriptions will make content available not just in the Google News app, but on the publisher’s website and elsewhere as well.

The updated Google News app is rolling out on the web, iOS, and Android beginning today, and it will be completely rolled out by the end of next week.

Android P

Google had already released the first build of Android P for developers, but on Tuesday the company discussed a number of new Android P features that fall into three core categories.

Intelligence

Google partnered with DeepMind to create a feature called Adaptive Battery. It uses machine learning to determine which apps you use frequently and which ones you use only sporadically, and it restricts background processes for seldom used apps in order to save battery live.

Another new feature called Adaptive Brightness learns a user’s brightness preferences in different ambient lighting scenarios to improve auto-brightness settings.

App Actions is a new feature in Android P that predicts actions based on a user’s usage patterns. It helps users get to their next task more quickly. For example, if you search for a movie in Google, you might get an App Action that offers to open Fandango so you can buy tickets.

Slices is another new feature that allows developers to take a small piece of their apps — or “slice” — that can be rendered in different places. For example, a Google search for hotels might open a slice from Booking.com that lets users begin the booking process without leaving the search screen. Think of it as a widget, but inside another app instead of on the home screen.

Simplicity

Google wants to help technology fade to the background so that it gets out of the user’s way.

First, Android P’s navigation has been overhauled. Swipe up on a small home button at the bottom and a new app switcher will open. Swipe up again and the app drawer will open. The new app switcher is now horizontal, and it looks a lot like the iPhone app switcher in iOS 11.

Also appreciated is a new rotation button that lets users choose which apps can auto-rotate and which ones cannot.

Digital wellbeing

Android P brings some important changes to Android that focus on wellbeing.

There’s a new dashboard that shows users exactly how their spent their day on their phone. It’ll show you which apps you use and for how long, and it provides other important info as well. Controls will be available to help users limit the amount of time they spend in certain apps.

An enhanced Do Not Disturb mode will stop visual notifications as well as audio notifications and vibrations. There’s also a new “shush” feature that automatically enables Do Not Disturb when a phone is turned face down on a table. Important contacts will still be able to call even when the new Do Not Disturb mode is enabled.

There’s also a new wind-down mode that fades the display to grayscale when someone uses his or her phone late at night before bed.

Google announced a new Android P Beta program just like Apple’s public iOS beta program. It allows end users to try Android P on their phones beginning today.

Google Maps

A new “For You” tab in Google Maps shows you new businesses in your area as well as restaurants that are trending around you. Google also added a new “Your Match” score to display the likelihood of you liking a new restaurant based on your historical ratings.

Have trouble choosing a restaurant when you go out in a group? A long-press on any restaurant will add it to a new short list, and you can then share that list with friends. They can add other options, and the group can then choose a restaurant from the group list.

These new features will roll out to Maps this summer.

Computer Vision

A bit further down the road, Google is working on a fascinating new feature that combines computer vision courtesy of the camera with Google Maps Street View to create an AR experience in Google Maps.

Google Lens is also coming to additional devices in the coming weeks, and there are new features coming as well.

Lens can now understand words, and you can copy and paste words on a sign or a piece of paper to the phone’s clipboard. You can also get context — for example, Google Lens can see a dish on a menu and tell you the ingredients.

A new shopping features let you point your camera at an item to get prices and reviews. And finally, Google Lens now works in real time to constant scan items in the camera frame to give information and, soon, to overlay live results on items in your camera’s view.

BONUS: Waymo self-driving taxi service

Waymo is the only company that currently has a fleet of fully self-driving cars with no driver needed in the driver’s seat. On Tuesday, Waymo announced a new self-driving taxi service that will soon launch in Phoenix, Arizona. Customers will be able to hail autonomous cars with no one in the driver’s seat, and use those self-driving cars to travel to any local destination. The service will launch before the end of 2018.

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