Evening summary
- Two of the nine financial institutions subpoenaed by House financial services committee for documents related to their dealings with the Trump Organization have already turned over some documents.
- The Pentagon wants to send up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East.
- The House oversight and reform committee reached an agreement with President Trump’s attorneys to expedite the appeals process for a federal judge’s decision to uphold a congressional subpoena for eight years of Trump’s financial records.
- A 10-year-old migrant girl died in government care last year.
Wells Fargo, TD Bank have handed Trump-related documents over to Congress
NBC News is reporting that Wells Fargo and TD Bank - two of the nine financial institutions subpoenaed by the House financial services committee for documents related to their dealings with the Trump Organization - have already turned over some records:
Wells Fargo provided the committee with a few thousand documents and TD Bank handed the committee a handful of documents, according to a source who has seen them. The committee, led by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is especially interested in the president’s business relationship with Russia and other foreign entities.
SCOOP: Wells Fargo, TD Bank have already given Trump-related financial documents to the House Financial Services Committee with @AlexNBCNews https://t.co/BrKccmBQjj
— Leigh Ann Caldwell (@LACaldwellDC) May 22, 2019
Updated
The House oversight and reform committee reached an agreement with President Trump’s attorneys to expedite their appeal on the federal judge’s decision in favor of the the House’s subpoena of his accounting firm for eight years of his personal and business records.
BREAKING: Committee announces request to expedite appeal for subpoena of #President’s Financial Records. Full Release: https://t.co/JQzaVtBr9I pic.twitter.com/P2J9TzOKsx
— Oversight Committee (@OversightDems) May 22, 2019
From the committee’s statement: “Under the requested schedule, which was filed earlier today as a joint motion, written arguments could be submitted as early as June 12, with all briefings completed by July. If the Court approves this accelerated schedule, the Committee would agree to suspend the enforcement of its subpoena during the pendency of the appeal.”
“I was very encouraged earlier this week when the District Court issued its strong ruling supporting Congress’ right to conduct investigations, and I am encouraged that we have now been able to reach this agreement to seek an expedited appeal,” said committee chair Elijah Cummings. “I hope the Court approves our request so we can move forward and effectively discharge our responsibilities under the Constitution.”
Pentagon wants to send up to 10,000 more troops to Middle East
The Associated Press is reporting that the Pentagon will meet with White House officials Thursday morning to present plans “ to beef up defenses against potential Iranian threats”.
BREAKING: The Pentagon will present plans to the White House to send up to 10,000 more troops to the Middle East amid Iran tension, U.S. officials say. https://t.co/jqVsp13a53
— The Associated Press (@AP) May 22, 2019
Report: 10-year-old migrant child died last year in custody
CBS News is reporting that a sixth migrant child died last year in custody after crossing the US border - and authorities never reported her death.
BREAKING: CBS News has learned that a sixth migrant child died after crossing the U.S. border, an HHS official confirmed Wednesday.
— CBS News (@CBSNews) May 22, 2019
The 10-year-old girl's death had not been previously reported https://t.co/tTc4EKUYi2 pic.twitter.com/6Fj3PcN4Uq
Pelosi: Trump "had a temper tantrum"
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi sent out a letter to colleagues just now and, uh, she didn’t mince words.
NEW ... in letter to colleagues, @SpeakerPelosi says @realDonaldTrump had a “temper tantrum” today. Says she wanted to work w trump — obviously that didn’t work out. pic.twitter.com/JOBwFTUEUg
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) May 22, 2019
Arkansas appears to be the latest state that has an issue with a cartoon anthropomorphic rat marrying a cartoon anthropomorphic aardvark.
Or, I guess, the issue could be with the same-sex marriage.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette is reporting that Arkansas Educational Television Network pulled the season premiere of “Arthur” that has the kids’ teacher, Mr. Ratburn, marrying his partner, an unnamed male aardvark.
“We previewed the episode in question because content decisions that affect our smallest viewers and their parents are a major concern for us,” the station’s marketing director told the newspaper. “While ideally parents watch our programming with their children and discuss it with them afterwards, the reality is that many children, some of them younger than age four, watch when a parent is not in the room. In realizing that many parents may not have been aware of the topics of the episode beforehand, we made the decision not to air it on our main channel.”
The decision to not air the episode comes after Alabama Public Television chose to run a rerun instead of the episode as well. The station’s executive director told AL.com, “Our feeling is that we basically have a trust with parents about our programming. This program doesn’t fit into that.”
Reminder that same-sex marriage has been legal in all 50 states for almost four years now.
Updated
And while you’re here, you might as well take a look at Adam Gabbatt’s report from President Trump’s rally earlier this week, in which the president takes on a new nemesis: Fox News
With things taking a quieter turn, make sure to give David Smith’s writeup on what went down today with President Trump and the Democratic leadership:
Hey everybody. Vivian Ho and the west coast bureau, taking over for Adam Gabbatt. Hope you’re all having a lovely Wednesday.
Summary
•A federal judge in Manhattan ruled against Donald Trump, saying he won’t block recent Congressional subpoenas that are demanding his financial records from two banks. The decision means Deutsche Bank and Capital One may now release Trump’s financial records.
•Meanwhile, Donald Trump said he will refuse to work with Democrats unless they drop their investigations into his administration and finances. In a meeting in the White House Rose Garden, Trump slammed Democrats and said he “can’t [negotiate] under these circumstances”.
•But in a subsequent press conference, Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said Trump was never serious about negotiating an infrastructure plan in the first place. Schumer pointed out that investigations were going on when he and Pelosi met with Trump three weeks ago – which hadn’t stopped Trump working with them.
•The hacking of US election systems is “inevitable” and the real question is how the country responds, Trump administration officials said. Adam Hickey, a senior official in the Justice Department’s national security division, said: “If we undermine ourselves, the confidence in our systems, we will be doing our adversaries’ work for them.”
The hacking of US election systems is “inevitable” and the real question is how the country responds, Trump administration officials said Wednesday.
The Associated Press reports that Adam Hickey, a senior official in the Justice Department’s national security division, told a House Oversight and Reform subcommittee that hacking, including by foreign adversaries, was “inevitable” and that the big challenge would be “how we react to it”.
“We need to be focused on resilience,” Hickey said.
“It’s how we as a people respond when there’s a rumor or there’s a report that there’s been a breach. We need to take a breath. We need to have confidence.”
He added: “If we undermine ourselves, the confidence in our systems, we will be doing our adversaries’ work for them.”
The comments by representatives from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security underscored the challenges for federal and state governments in trying to ward off interference from Russia and other countries in the 2020 election.
Special counsel Robert Mueller has documented a sweeping effort by Moscow to meddle in the 2016 election in Donald Trump’s favor by hacking Democrats and spreading disinformation online, and FBI Director Chris Wray said in April that last November’s midterm election was a “dress rehearsal for the big show in 2020.”
It never rains but it pours...
Trump Tower is now one of the least-desirable residential luxury buildings in New York pic.twitter.com/8rAvrC2eCx
— TicToc by Bloomberg (@tictoc) May 22, 2019
Updated
Judge won't block Trump financial records subpoena
A federal judge in Manhattan has ruled against Donald Trump, saying he won’t block recent Congressional subpoenas that are demanding his financial records from two banks.
“I will not enjoin enforcement of the subpoenas,” Judge Edgardo Ramos said after hearing arguments from lawyers for Trump and Congress.
The decision means Deutsche Bank and Capital One may now release Trump’s financial records.
Ramos’s ruling came as Trump continues his battle over congressional oversight.
Earlier a lawyer for the Congressional committees argued that the subpoenas were misconstrued as solely targeting the president and his family, saying they’re part of a “complex investigation across a whole industry, not just Mr Trump.”
He also hit back against claims from Trump that it’s an overreach to subpoena his family members.The lawyer said people use family members to hide assets.
“They put them in the names of their grandchildren,” he said, providing a general example of how people conceal assets.
“This is what people committing financial fraud do,” he also said generally of hiding assets.
Updated
Members of Congress are set to debate a bill this afternoon that would grant immigration relief to Venezuelans in the US because of the extraordinary conditions in the country. The country’s health system has collapsed, there are widespread food shortages and its infrastructure is crumbling
“They [Venezuelans] can’t go home now, they want to go home,” bill co-sponsor Rep Donna Shalala told the Guardian. “This is not a permanent arrangement, this is a temporary arrangement. And at this moment, Venezuela is a dangerous place.”
Shalala, a Democrat who represents a district in Miami with 20,000 Venezuelans, is pushing for Congress to give Venezuelans Temporary Protected Status (TPS), a designation which would allow Venezuelans already in the US to remain in the country for 18 months, a period which can be extended. People can also seek shelter in the US by applying for asylum in the country or at the border, though Venezuelans have complained their cases are being inexplicably delayed or rejected.
The Homeland Security secretary can unilaterally declare TPS, but the Trump administration has been reluctant to grant any form of immigration relief to Venezuelans or other people whose home countries are in crisis, leading members of Congress to push for it in a bill.
Shalala said she has spoken with Trump’s aides about TPS and is still hopeful they would introduce it on their own, despite the president’s reluctance to provide humanitarian relief to immigrants. “At the end of the day, they don’t like immigrants,” Shalala said.
The extreme hardships facing Venezuelans show no signs of abating. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) projected inflation in Venezuela could reach an annual rate of 10,000,000% this year.
Arguments have begun in Donald Trump’s lawsuit to block Congressional subpoenas of his financial records from Deutsche Bank and Capital One.
Patrick Strawbridge, one of Trump’s lawyers, reiterated in court his argument that Congress is overstepping its role by issuing such broad subpoenas.
“That is law enforcement activity,” Strawbridge said, later saying: “This is a subpoena for private financial records, it is not backed by a valid [legislative] purpose.”
Judge Edgardo Ramos asked Strawbridge why the subpoena wouldn’t be serving a valid legislative purpose, given information on potential wrongdoing might influence legislative developments.
“Why isn’t that an appropriate legislative purpose, if they’re trying to figure out how do we prevent foreign sovereigns [from] influencing our elections?” Ramos said.
On Sunday the New York Times reported that anti-money-laundering specialists at Deutsche Bank “recommended in 2016 and 2017 that multiple transactions involving legal entities controlled by Donald Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, be reported to a federal financial-crimes watchdog”.
Updated
Donald Trump Jr is set to follow in his father’s footsteps by becoming an author.
The first son, who earlier today was described as “a good young man” by his father – has signed a deal with Center Street Books, and the tome will be published later this year.
It will be Trump Jr’s first book, and according to Politico it will focus “on politics, current events and the future of the Maga movement”.
Trump Sr has penned 19 books (sort of – the majority were ghost-written) including The Best Golf Advice I Ever Received and Think Big and Kick Ass.
Updated
Here’s some blather from fierce Trump critic (Trump is a “race-baiting xenophobic bigot”) turned fierce Trump supporter (“I personally like him”) Lindsey Graham, apparently urging the president to keep his head up:
I would encourage the President to focus on what is best for the American people and fight back against efforts to undermine him, his administration, and his family.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) May 22, 2019
Updated
New York legislature passes bill that would allow Congress access to Trump’s state tax returns
As Democrats in congress continue their siege of the Trump administration, early this afternoon New York state lawmakers gave final passage to legislation that would allow Donald Trump’s state tax returns to be released to congressional committees, the Associated Press writes.
Such committees have so far been barred from obtaining Trump’s federal tax filings.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat whom many had been expecting to run for president but so far has been upstaged in this by his city frenemy, New York mayor Bill De Blasio, will now need to sign the legislation. from the Democrat-led legislature.
The bill doesn’t target Trump by name, but it would allow the leaders in Washington, namely of the US House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation, to get access to any New York state tax returns filed by elected and appointed officials.
The law would apply to personal income tax returns, as well as business taxes paid in New York, from where Trump hails and where his and his family’s business activities are headquartered in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has said he wouldn’t comply with a congressional subpoena seeking six years of Trump’s federal tax returns, in part because the request “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose.”
Updated
Michael Avenatti, the former lawyer for the alleged former lover of the present president, is expected to face further charges in New York today, by federal prosecutors, in relation to his representation of said former alleged lover – Stormy Daniels.
TV network ABC speculates thus, via reporter Kaitlyn Folmer, per tweet:
#BreakingNow: Feds expected to charge Avenatti in dealings with Stormy Daniels: Sources - ABC News - https://t.co/cVGgL8LWLl via @ABC with @AaronKatersky @JoshMargolin 👇🏼👇🏼
— Kaitlyn Folmer (@KaitlynFolmer) May 22, 2019
The new charges will accuse Avenatti of misappropriating money that was supposed to be paid to Stormy Daniels when Avenatti was representing the adult film actress and producer in her public battle against Donald Trump and his former attorney Michael Cohen, the sources told ABC.
The charges are to be filed by federal prosecutors in Manhattan who have already accused Avenatti of extortion in a case involving Nike.
Trump has repeatedly denied he ever had an affair with Daniels. Cohen is in prison.
On Wednesday, Avenatti told ABC News, according to the network, that “No monies relating to Ms Daniels were ever misappropriated or mishandled.”
“She received millions of dollars worth of legal services and we expended huge sums in expenses,” he wrote in a statement to ABC News.
“She directly paid only $100.00 (not a typo) for all that she received,” Avenatti continued. Never a shrinking violet, he once speculated that if he swept in and ran for president he could save the floundering Democratic party.
Stormy (she has said many times, to journalists and in public that she prefers to be known by this stage name, not her birth name of Stephanie Clifford), poked gentle fun at her ex-lip in a public appearance in New York earlier this month.
Updated
Summary
•Donald Trump has said he will refuse to work with Democrats unless they drop their investigations into his administration and finances. In a last-minute meeting in the White House Rose Garden, Trump slammed the opposition party, and said he “can’t [negotiate with Democrats] under these circumstances”.
•But in a subsequent press conference, Democrats Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer said Trump was never serious about negotiating an infrastructure plan in the first place. Schumer pointed out that investigations were going on when he and Pelosi met with Trump three weeks ago – which hadn’t stopped Trump working with them. “Now [Trump] was forced to say how he would actually pay for [infrastructure],” Schumer said, Trump decided to: “run away”.
•Reports suggested the planned infrastructure meeting lasted just three minutes, with Trump clearly unwilling to engage. The New York Times said Trump “walked into the Cabinet Room, did not shake anyone’s hand or sit in his seat, according to a Democrat informed about the meeting”. Trump “left the room before anyone else could speak”, the Times said.
•Elsewhere, it emerged that Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, exchanged more than 230 phone calls with the cousin of a Russian oligarch. Cohen also exchanged more than 950 text messages with Andrew Intrater, the chief executive officer of Columbus Nova LCC and cousin of oligarch Viktor Vekselberg. The news emerged after Robert Mueller released search warrants into Cohen’s emails and other communications.
Updated
More details are emerging about Donald Trump’s fit of pique in this morning.
According to the New York Times, Trump’s planned infrastructure meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer lasted just three minutes – CNN said it was five minutes, but either way it clearly wasn’t very long – and Trump made it clear he had no intention of discussing infrastructure.
From the Times:
When Pelosi and Senator Chuck Schumer arrived at the White House, Mr Trump was loaded for bear. He walked into the Cabinet Room, did not shake anyone’s hand or sit in his seat, according to a Democrat informed about the meeting. He said he wanted to advance legislation on infrastructure, trade and other matters, but that “Speaker Pelosi said something terrible today and accused me of a cover-up,” according to the Democrat.
After just three minutes, he left the room before anyone else could speak, the Democrat said.
Moments ago we heard Pelosi and Schumer dispute that it was investigations into Trump that prompted the president to dismiss the meeting. The Democrats believe Trump was never serious about funding improvements to infrastructure.
Schumer: what happened in White House would 'make your jaw drop'
Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi have just held a press conference, following their reportedly aborted infrastructure meeting with Trump, and also following Trump’s last-minute Rose Garden briefing.
“To watch what happened in the White House would make your jaw drop,” Schumer says.
Schumer says he and Pelosi went to the White House “very seriously” with a detailed, 35-page plan on how to improve infrastructure.
But on arrival they were met with a scene that suggested Trump was “looking for every excuse” on not improving the country’s infrastructure. (As a presidential candidate, Trump promised to spend $1tn improving roads, bridges, and other transportation. As president, he hasn’t done that.)
Schumer suggests that Trump’s Rose Garden claims that he could not negotiate with Democrats while investigations into his conduct were ongoing are just a smoke screen – a cover for Trump not being serious about spending money on infrastructure improvement.
There were investigations going on when he and Pelosi met with Trump three weeks ago, Schumer says.
“Now he was forced to say how he would actually pay for [infrastructure],” Schumer says, Trump decided to: “run away”.
Pelosi said she and Schumer hoped to discuss improvements which would have created jobs, and improved broadband, roads and bridges.
“For some reason, maybe it was lack of confidence on his part,” Pelosi says, Trump “couldn’t match the greatness of the challenge that we have”.
“He just took a pass, and it just makes me wonder why he did that. In any event I pray for the president of the United States,” Pelosi says.
Updated
Well that was quite something. In an extremely hastily convened press conference the president of the United States effectively said he will not work with Democrats unless they stop their investigations into his potential wrongdoing.
Trump was supposed to be meeting with House leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer this morning to discuss improving America’s crumbling infrastructure.
But that meeting lasted just five minutes, according to CNN:
Right as they walked in, Trump brought up the “cover-up” comment Pelosi made earlier this morning. Then, Trump said there would be no negotiations until the investigations are over.
Pelosi told him she knew he wasn’t serious about infrastructure.
Trump reacts after Pelosi accuses him of 'cover up'
Donald Trump is now speaking in the Rose Garden. He suggests he will not work with Democrats unless they cease all their investigations into him.
The president is fresh from a meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, which comes after Nancy Pelosi accused Trump of being “engaged in a cover-up” over his resistance to releasing details and staff to Congressional committees.
Speaking outside the White House, Trump says the Mueller investigation was a “witch hunt” – his usual line. He then laments the impact this has had on his son, Donald Trump Jr.
Trump describes his son as “a good young man” – Trump Jr is 41-years-old – “who’s gone through hell”.
“There was no collusion, there was no obstruction,” Trump continues. Of course, this is not true – Mueller actually found 10 instances of potential obstruction.
Trump says his meeting with Pelosi and Schumer was meant to be about infrastructure –“I’d be really good at that,” he says. But the president says “you can’t do it under these circumstances”.
Trump then says he will only engage with Democrats about infrastructure or other policies once the investigations into him are over.
Updated
Something is going on in the White House Rose Garden...
Stand by. White House just called flash Rose Garden meeting for all press
— Debra J. Saunders (@debrajsaunders) May 22, 2019
This is from the White House pool reporter:
In the rose garden now. There’s a podium with a sign that says “no collusion, no obstruction” plus some stats about the mueller probe
[...]
Still unclear what this is about.
Your pooler will note that there was an infrastructure meeting scheduled for 11:15, that was listed as closed press.
Updated
An investigation has failed to determine whether Virginia Governor Ralph Northam is in a 1984 yearbook photo of a man in blackface next to someone in a Ku Klux Klan hood.
Investigators with a law firm hired by Eastern Virginia Medical School said Wednesday they couldn’t “conclusively determine” the identities of either person in the 35-year-old photo. Northam had said he was the man in picture, before denying it was him.
He did reveal, however, that he had darkened his skin decades ago, to look like Michael Jackson for a dance contest.
They also said they couldn’t discern how the picture was placed on Northam’s yearbook page, but found no evidence it was placed there by mistake or as a prank. It should mark the end of a four-month political odyssey that kind of, almost, but not really forced the nation to contend with the legacy of racist tropes and imagery in popular culture.
It all kicked off in early February after a conservative website posted a picture of Northam’s medical school yearbook page, prominently featuring the now infamous photograph. The Democratic governor issued two apologies within hours, initially indicating that he was one of the people in the picture, but then reversed course at a news conference the next day in which he also defied the cacophony calling for his resignation.
Northam’s revised position was one of amnesia. He didn’t remember taking the picture, being in it, selecting it for his yearbook page, or have ever seen it before.
Defying calls to resign, he said he wanted to focus his remaining three years in office on addressing longstanding racial inequities. The governor has quietly made concrete steps towards that aim, ending the suspension of driver’s licenses for motorists with unpaid court fines and costs, and launching a review into how public schools teach the nation’s racial history.
Northam largely disappeared from public event in the months following the scandal, but this highly anti-climatic conclusion will likely hasten his attempt to engineer a slow return to political normalcy.
The heat for Northam to resign significantly lessened after scandal enveloped his potential successors. Two women publicly accused Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax of sexual assault, which he denied.
Then state Attorney General Mark Herring, who would have been next in line after Northam and Fairfax for the governorship, announced he’d also worn blackface in college.
But the incident will forever mark Northam’s time in office, and opponents will undoubtedly continue to use it against him. House Majority Leader Delegate Todd Gilbert recently said Northam had chosen to “repair his own racist legacy,” rather than protect victims of domestic abuse after the governor vetoed a bill requiring a mandatory jail term for repeat domestic abusers.
Michael Cohen exchanged nearly 1,000 texts with Russian oligarch's cousin
Donald Trump’s former fixer and lawyer-turned-convicted felon Michael Cohen exchanged more than 230 phone calls and 950 text messages with the cousin of a Russian oligarch, according to search warrants released on Wednesday.
The communications between Cohen and Andrew Intrater, the chief executive officer of Columbus Nova LCC, began on the day of Donald Trump’s election, according to a U.S. search-and-seizure warrant filed in Washington on Aug. 7, 2017, and unsealed on Wednesday.
Citing public records and news reports, the government said Columbus Nova is an investment management firm controlled by Renova Group, which is itself controlled by Viktor Vekselberg, a wealthy Russian citizen. Intrater, an American, is a cousin of Vekselberg.
A federal judge had ordered the special counsel to release the five warrants, which cover searches of Cohen’s email and other internet accounts made between July and November 2017.
As a result of Mueller’s investigation Cohen pleaded guilty to tax evasion and lying to Congress, among other crimes, and is currently serving a three-year prison sentence.
House Republicans have called two prominent climate deniers to testify in a hearing about a stunning international report that 1m species are at risk of extinction from climate change and environmental damage.
The study, compiled over three years by more than 450 scientists and diplomats, warns that human society is in jeopardy too.
While some Republicans are now raising concerns about the climate crisis, others in the minority in the House are still questioning the scientific consensus that global heating is an urgent and man-made threat. New polling shows climate change is more politically polarizing than abortion in the US.
The hearing is happening in a subcommittee of the House Natural Resources Committee. In response to the damning report, subcommittee Republicans have called climate deniers Marc Morano, the founder of Climate Depot, and Patrick Moore, chairman of the CO2 coalition.
Morano claims the report “hypes and distorts biodiversity issues for lobbying purposes”, while Moore’s group argues, despite the overwhelming science to the contrary, that more carbon dioxide is good for the planet.
The study warns that “the continuing expansion of human activities is significantly altering the fabric of life of the planet”.
Thankfully, there will be some non-quack scientists testifying. Robert Watson, former chair of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, will tell the committee there is “unequivocal” evidence that biodiversity “is being destroyed by human activities at a rate unprecedented in human history”.
You can watch the hearing here.
Updated
Pelosi: Trump is 'engaged in a cover-up'
House majority leader Nancy Pelosi has come out firing this morning, accusing Donald Trump of carrying out a cover-up by attempting to block congressional committees from investigating him.
Pelosi spoke to reporters following a meeting of the entire House Democratic caucus this morning.
Two dozen Democratic congresspeople have now publicly called for impeachment proceedings against Trump. Pelosi has said she doesn’t want to do that – but was clear that she does think Trump is acting improperly, saying:
We do believe that it’s important to follow the facts. We believe that no one is above the law, including the President of the United States, and we believe that the President of the United States is engaged in a cover-up — in a cover-up, and that was the nature of the meeting.
JUST IN: Speaker Pelosi says "we believe the president of the United States is engaged in a cover up" by stonewalling testimony for ongoing congressional investigations. pic.twitter.com/7ILMb95vZM
— NBC News (@NBCNews) May 22, 2019
Pelosi is meeting Trump at the White House today, nominally to discuss infrastructure plans. After this morning that summit is likely to be... interesting.
Updated
Ben Carson, former brain surgeon turned Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, made a spectacularly incompetent appearance before the House Financial Services Committee yesterday.
Carson was appearing before the committee to give answers on housing policies. Few were forthcoming, although he did provide plenty of viral moments.
One came when Carson confused the term REO – which refers to a house owned by a bank after it’s been foreclosed – with the cookie ‘Oreo’. When told by Rep Katie Porter it was not a cookie but an acronym, Carson got the acronym wrong anyway.
Carson was also unfamiliar with ‘OMWI’, which stands for Office of Minority and Women Inclusion. It’s a term most us probably haven’t heard of, but a term you’d expect a cabinet secretary to know.
Carson, who wrote an autobiographical, hubristically titled book called ‘Gifted Hands’, went on to stumble on questions about FHA (Federal Housing Administration) loans. FHA is an agency Carson oversees as HUD secretary.
Prior to Carson taking over at HUD, the former presidential candidate’s best-known association with housing was when he abruptly left the 2016 campaign trail to go to his Florida house and acquire “a fresh set of clothes”.
It seems that experience hasn’t served him well in his new role. Porter noted after the hearing that Carson had given “literally gave zero competent answers”. He did, however, pose on Twitter with a box of Oreos, in an act of what the British might call ‘epic banter’.
OH, REO! Thanks, @RepKatiePorter. Enjoying a few post-hearing snacks. Sending some your way! pic.twitter.com/q4MMTBWVUI
— Ben Carson (@SecretaryCarson) May 21, 2019
Updated
House intelligence chair Adam Schiff has canceled an “enforcement meeting” scheduled this morning, after the Justice Department agreed to begin providing documents related to Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Schiff had planned a meeting where he reportedly planned to take action against Attorney General Bill Barr for refusing to hand over the Special Counsel’s counterintelligence materials. Schiff has not specified which documents he was after, but said they were intelligence materials referenced in Mueller’s report.
According to CNN the concession “is a significant boost to Schiff in his effort to view the special counsel’s investigative materials beyond what was contained in the public Mueller report”.
From Schiff’s office:
The Department of Justice has accepted our offer of a first step towards compliance with our subpoena, and this week will begin turning over to the Committee twelve categories of counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials as part of an initial rolling production. That initial production should be completed by the end of next week.
Updated
Good morning...
... and welcome to an action-packed day in American politics.
•The entire Democratic House caucus is meeting today. Top of the agenda: whether to initiate impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump. Two dozen Democrats publicly support impeaching the president, according to reports, although in private that number could be a lot higher.
• Beto O’Rourke is among those calling for impeachment. The former congressman held a CNN town hall last night, where he blamed Trump for a rise in hate crimes and rolled out a plan to protect abortion rights. O’Rourke, who has been struggling in the polls, said he would ensure his every nominee as president “understands and believes Roe v. Wade is the settled law of the land”.
• Robert Mueller will release the search warrants from his investigation into Michael Cohen today. On Tuesday a federal judge ordered the special counsel to release the five warrants, which cover searches of Cohen’s email and other internet accounts made between July and November 2017.
•A slew of Democratic candidates are out selling their wares today. John Delaney, who has now been running for president for almost two years, is in Iowa; Pete Buttigieg is hitting the trail in New York; Wayne Messam is hammering away at Massachusetts; Eric Swalwell is in Illinois; and Marianne Williamson in New Hampshire.
Updated
