Evening summary
- The House intelligence committee subpoenas attorney general William Barr for the full Mueller report and all Mueller materials.
- But according to CNN, the Senate intelligence committee is locked in a fight with Donald Trump Jr. after subpoenaing him to testify in relation to his earlier testimony on the Russia investigation.
- Nearly 99,000 people crossed the US southern border in April, Reuters is reporting, the highest figure since 2007.
- It was an incredibly busy day for a lot of congressional committees, in particular the House judiciary committee, which voted to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress.
The great Sabrina Siddiqui has the full rundown on the House vote to hold attorney general William Barr in contempt. Give it a read here:
House intelligence committee issues subpoena for Mueller materials
Committee chair Adam Schiff subpoenaed attorney general William Barr for “documents and materials related Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, including all counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials produced during the Special Counsel’s investigation, the full unredacted report, and the underlying evidence.” According to a statement from Schiff’s office, the Justice Department must produce the documents by 15 May.
BREAKING: House Intel just subpoenaed DOJ for all counterintelligence and foreign intelligence materials in the probe, the full report, and underlying evidence.
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) May 8, 2019
DOJ has responded to our requests with silence and defiance.
Congress needs the material. We will not be obstructed.
From Schiff:
“For the last month and a half, the Committee has engaged the Department of Justice in a good faith effort to reach an accommodation of our requests for all of the foreign intelligence and counterintelligence information related to the Special Counsel’s investigation, and the Mueller report and its underlying materials. The Department has repeatedly failed to respond, refused to schedule any testimony, and provided no documents responsive to our legitimate and duly authorized oversight activities.
“As both the Special Counsel and the Department of Justice have recognized, the Congress has a vital constitutional role in evaluating misconduct by the Executive Branch, including the President, and to assess and refine laws that address the ‘sweeping and systematic’ invasion of our democracy by Russia. We therefore need these materials in order to do our job. The Department’s stonewalling is simply unacceptable.
“The Department repeatedly pays lip service to the importance of a meaningful accommodation process, but it has only responded to our efforts with silence or outright defiance. Today, we have no choice but to issue a subpoena to compel their compliance. If the Department continues to ignore or rejects our requests, we will enforce our request in Congress and, if necessary, the courts.
“The law is on our side. The Committee’s efforts to obtain necessary documents to do our constitutionally-mandated oversight work will not be obstructed.”
Updated
Reuters is reporting that border officials “apprehended nearly 99,000 people crossing the US southern border in April, the highest figure since 2007”:
Carla Provost, the top US Border Patrol official, called the situation an “unprecedented border security and humanitarian crisis along our southwest border” in testimony to a Senate committee on Wednesday, echoing previous statements by Trump administration officials.
The administration has repeatedly asked Congress to change immigration law so that the government can indefinitely detain families who cross the border without authorization, arguing that current limitations on the detention of children serve as a magnet for migrants.
Border agents apprehended 98,977 people at the southern border in April, according to the data, a nearly 7 percent increase from the number apprehended in March and the highest one-month figure since April 2007, when more than 104,000 people were apprehended.
More than 68 percent of those apprehended were children and people traveling as families. In April 2018, the same category made up slightly more than one-third of southern border arrests.
Border officials deemed a further 10,167 people “inadmissible,” a 6.6 percent drop from the previous month. That category includes people who present themselves for legal admission at a port of entry but are turned away, and people who seek asylum at ports of entry.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti goes a bit deeper on his previous remarks leaving a taco shop with Joe Biden, who is in California campaigning for the 2020 Democratic nomination. He claims to not have endorsed any candidate yet - and that includes the California-grown Senator Kamala Harris - but is “looking and listening.”
“Kamala’s a dear friend and I like her a lot,” he said. “But I’m making sure I represent all 4m people in the city of LA.”
Updated
Senator Kamala Harris may call Los Angeles home these days, but Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti just sat next to former Vice President Joe Biden at a campaign event and declared, “Los Angeles loves Joe Biden.”
“Californians are looking at everybody who is running, but nobody needs to be introduced to Joe Biden,” Garcetti said.
Both Harris and Biden are gunning for the 2020 Democratic nomination, and the staunchly blue state of California will play a unique role in the race - check the Guardian tomorrow for a story from yours truly on this very topic.
If you find yourself needing a break from all the contempt and congressional committees, Joanna Walters brings us a brilliant dispatch from Stormy Daniels’ standup tour:
Does she get offended that Donald Trump denies they had sex?
Quick as a streak of lightning, she said: “It doesn’t offend me. I mean, he also thinks climate change isn’t real.”
Read the whole piece here:
CNN is reporting that the Senate Intelligence Committee “is now at a standoff” with Donald Trump Jr. after subpoenaing him to testify in relation to his earlier testimony on the Russia investigation.
Some more details:
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 8, 2019
-Committee now at a standoff with Trump Jr
-Trump Jr. considering pleading fifth or not appearing at all
-Discussions for Trump Jr’s testimony began several weeks ago before Mueller report was released
-Trump Jr’s position hardened after the report was released https://t.co/0Spg2H200z
Hey all, Vivian Ho taking over for Lauren Gambino.
Summary
- The House Judiciary Committee approved a resolution to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress, a move the Justice Department called “ inappropriate political theatrics”
- President Trump asserted executive privilege over the Mueller report
- According to reports, the Senate Intelligence Committee appears to have subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr.
- The president responded to the New York Times story about his tax information by calling it a “hit job” that was based on “very old information”
DoJ: Democrats engaging in 'inappropriate political theatrics'
The Department of Justice said in a statement that the decision to hold the vote was politically motivated.
“It is deeply disappointing that elected representatives of the American people have chosen to engage in such inappropriate political theatrics,” said department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec.
It continued: “Chairman Nadler’s actions have prematurely terminated the accommodation process and forced the President to assert executive privilege to preserve the status quo. No one, including Chairman Nadler and his Committee, will force the Department of Justice to break the law.”
Updated
Nadler: we are in a 'constitutional crisis'
Nadler is now addressing reporters, defending the committee’s decision to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress.
“We have talked for a long time about approaching a constitutional crisis,” Nadler said. “We are now in it.”
Of Barr, he said that the attorney general “has taken a much greater step farther, in turning the entire Department of Justice into an instrument of Trump personally, rather than an instrument of justice.”
Nadler quoted Benjamin Franklin responding to a question about what type of a government the framers had designed: “A republic, if you can keep it.” The chairman said now is a test of whether the US will remain a republic or if it is “destined to change into a different more tyrannical form of government”.
“There could be no higher stakes than this attempt to arrogate all power to the executive branch,” he said.
• This article was amended on 9 May 2019. The House committee chairman is Jerry Nadler, not Nader as stated in an earlier version.
Updated
House Judiciary Committee votes to hold Barr in contempt of Congress
Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee approved a resolution to hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress.
“No person—and certainly not the top law enforcement officer in the country—can be permitted to flout the will of Congress and to defy a valid subpoena,” said Committee chairman Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York. “ It is our constitutional duty to respond.”
The panel voted to approve the resolution 24 to 16 along party lines.
A last-ditch effort by staff members from the committee and the Justice Department to avert a contempt vote stalled late Tuesday night after they failed to agree over the terms of what redacted information in Mueller’s report lawmakers should be able to access.
The vote sets up a potentially long and protracted legal battle between Congress and the Trump administration.
Next the contempt resolution will go to the full House for a vote. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she believes Congress should hold Barr in contempt.
The contempt resolution only has to pass one chamber of Congress. If it passes the House, Pelosi would then send a criminal referral to the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Jessie Liu, a Justice Department official who serves under the attorney general.
In recent years, the Justice Department has declined to prosecute contempt cases against the attorney general or administration officials.
The two most recent efforts to compel action from executive branch officials by holding them in contempt of Congress involved president Barack Obama’s former Attorney General Eric Holder in 2012 and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in 2008. Both cases resulted in lengthy legal battles that outlasted the administration they served.
Barr released a redacted version of the report to the public last month but Democrats say they want to view an un-redacted version and all of the underlying evidence. The committee issued a subpoena last month for the documents but the justice department has refused to comply.
The department offered to allow a small group of lawmakers the opportunity to view a less redacted version of the report, but Democrats took the position that they would not view it until they gained access to the whole report.
Updated
Senate Intelligence Committee subpoenas Trump Jr
The Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr in relation to his previous testimony on the Russia investigation, Axios is reporting, citing “sources with direct knowledge.”
This comes a day after Senate Majority leader declared “case closed” on the Russia investigation.
Read more from the Axios report here.
New York’s Democrat-controlled Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would allow Congress to gain access to the state’s most powerful taxpayer, the Associated Press reports from Albany.
The bill which now goes to the state Assembly, doesn’t target Trump by name but would authorize state tax officials to release returns filed by several state and federal officeholders if requested by the leaders of the House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation. ...
The law would apply to returns filed by the US president and vice president, US senators, the state’s governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general or comptroller.
It would include filings related to personal income taxes, real estate taxes and corporate income taxes and cover up to five years of returns before the person took office.
The bill next goes to the state Assembly for a vote. Both chambers of the state Legislature are controlled by Democrats.
Updated
The typically garrulous president apparently doesn’t want to talk to reporters today.
Trump did not speak to reporters upon leaving the White House just now. He also closed his cabinet meeting to reporters earlier today, after it was listed as open to the pool. He’s successfully avoided commenting on two major stories: his taxes and executive privilege.
— Abby D. Phillip (@abbydphillip) May 8, 2019
Trump is headed to Panama City tonight for a Make America Great Again rally. The city is located in the Florida Panhandle, the heart of Trump’s support in the state and a region that is still recovering from Hurricane Michael last fall.
It's not true that Democrats "don't want money to go" to the Panhandle for disaster recovery. They argue that if Florida is getting "billions of $$$" for hurricane recovery, so should Puerto Rico, where the death toll is estimated in the thousands https://t.co/atMw3RpD73
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) May 8, 2019
Updated
In our continuing coverage of the policy primary, California senator Kamala Harris, a 2020 presidential candidate, on Wednesday introduced the EQUAL Defense act, intended to help support public defenders financially and prevent burnout.
The plan would establish a $250 million grant program at the Justice Department that would go toward creating workload limits for public defenders, ensuring pay parity between public defenders and prosecutors, funding additional training for public defenders, and provide loan repayment assistance to public defenders.
“All too often, our public defenders are overworked and lack sufficient resources,” said Harris, who served as the former attorney general of California. This makes public defense unsustainable over the long haul. And the thing that suffers is the integrity of our system of justice, which is supposed to be based on fairness and equality. It’s wrong, and it’s the opposite of justice.”
Separately, The Guardian’s Emily Holden has written about the 2020 candidates plans to tackle climate change.
“Of the nearly dozen Democrats running for president, only two campaigns have so far laid out deadlines for transforming American life to slash the pollution that is warming the planet’s climate,” she writes.
Updated
Stephen Moore, the conservative economics commentator who recently withdrew from consideration for a seat on the Federal Reserve amid criticism over past comments he had made about women and minorities, has perhaps not learned his lesson:
At @SALTConference, Stephen Moore ends his interview with an off-color joke, saying that he believes America will succeed in the long term because “our Chinese are smarter than their Chinese.” No one laughs. “That’s a joke, folks!” #SALT2019
— Jen Wieczner (@jenwieczner) May 8, 2019
Updated
Trump imposes sanction on Iron, Steel, Aluminum, and Copper sectors of Iran
Amid escalating tensions with Tehran, the White House announced that Trump has signed an executive order to impose sanctions on Iran’s iron, steel, aluminum, and copper sectors, which help to support the country’s crippled economy.
For more context on the intensifying situation in Iran, the Guardian’s Julian Borger writes:
By taking a couple of small, carefully-calibrated steps towards the exit from the 2015 nuclear deal, Iran has given Europe and China a two-month ultimatum to stand up to the US on the world stage, or risk a slide towards a new Middle East conflict.
The erosion of that multilateral agreement and the return to military posturing in the Persian Gulf, has been driven by a small number of radical players in the Trump administration, the Israeli government, and the Saudi and Emirati monarchies. In the US and Israel, this has happened in the face of resistance from the defence establishment.
Updated
And we’re back in the House Judiciary hearing, where members have resumed debate over whether to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena from the panel.
Watch on CSPAN here.
Trump, still on Twitter, now praising Newt Gingrich for defending him and his tax return situation this morning. With impeccable conservative reasoning gymnastics, Newt, like the president, spun Trump’s $1 billion-plus losses over a decade as a purely strategic, legal, soft-shoe shuffle with the tax code as a way of avoiding income tax, and nothing to do with any troubled finance fundamentals at all.
Gingrich called the New York Times, which reported the returns, “the mortal enemy of Donald Trump”, and then, with a further double-twist midair before landing from the balance beam, Gingrich implied actually that the Donald’s tax code tap-dance from the mid-80s to the mid-90s maybe wasn’t so great for the economy.
He got there by saying it was an argument for the Trump tax cuts. Because “when you lower taxes, there is less reason to have tax shelters and to create losses for tax purposes...the Trump tax cuts are vindicated by the New York Times.”
Standing ovation in the White House.
Meanwhile, the New York senate in state capital Albany, passed legislation that would allow Congress to obtain Trump’s state, as opposed to federal, tax returns, the Hill reported. Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he will sign the bill if it reaches his desk.
Updated
Potus is a lot better at tweeting concern about repeated school shootings than he is about encouraging legislation on new gun safety laws, as deaths from gun violence in the US continue to rise, writes Joanna Walters.
His latest, in the wake of a fatal shooting at a charter school in Colorado yesterday, says: “Our Nation grieves at the unspeakable violence that took a precious young life and badly injured others in Colorado. God be with the families and thank you to the First Responders for bravely intervening. We are in close contact with Law Enforcement.”
This just days after the 20th anniversary of the Columbine shooting in Colorado that ushered in the modern era of US school shootings becoming sickeningly familiar, while gun control laws have mainly only loosened in recent times.
Our Nation grieves at the unspeakable violence that took a precious young life and badly injured others in Colorado. God be with the families and thank you to the First Responders for bravely intervening. We are in close contact with Law Enforcement.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019
Updated
The House Judiciary Committee is now in recess for one hour to allow members to go vote and to grab a quick lunch. Lawmakers, they’re just like us.
When the committee returns, there will likely be more debate before members of the panel finally vote on whether the attorney general should be held in Contempts of Congress.
The committee chairman said during today’s meeting that Trump’s assertion of executive privilege over the un-redacted version of the Mueller report and the underlying evidence is a “clear escalation” in the standoff between the Trump administration and Congress.
What comes next: Committee Democrats are expected to approve the contempt resolution and send it to the floor for a full House vote. Speaker Pelosi indicated this morning that she would bring the resolution up for a vote and it appears to have enough support among Democrats to pass.
Updated
Mark your calendars: Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will appear before the House Financial Services committee on May 22.
This comes as Congress tries to obtain Trump’s tax returns.
INBOX: Chair @RepMaxineWaters announces: Treasury Secretary Mnuchin will appear before her Committee on Wednesday, May 22 at 9:00 AM for a continuation of his April 9 testimony.
— Olivia Beavers (@Olivia_Beavers) May 8, 2019
As a reminder, the last time Waters and Mnuchin squared off, it got heated.
In testy exchange, Rep. Maxine Waters tells Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, "no other secretary has ever told us the day before that they were going to limit their time."
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) April 9, 2019
"You're ordering me to stay here .... that's not what I want to do," Mnuchin says https://t.co/tFCpfQzXeL pic.twitter.com/H7je3oxk6G
Updated
There’s a lot going on in the world. Trade talks with China are on the rocks. Question about Iran now include war. Trump’s attorney general is on the verge of being held in contempt of court.
But in the midst of it all, the president of the United States has found time to fret over the absence of Fourth of July fireworks at Mount Rushmore.
POTUS has literally been talking about this for six months. He said something to Azar, who then had to reach out to Zinke, folks said at the time. https://t.co/UBanC4fj5s
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) May 8, 2019
Yesterday, he cheered the news that the firework display would be restored this year. One has to wonder if Trump envisions his face chiseled in the mountain?
As the House Judiciary committee continues to debate whether Attorney General should be held in contempt of Congress, a PSA to members who might soon have the opportunity to question the special counsel:
MEMO TO CONGRESS: Robert Mueller is pronounced "MULL"-er, as in I am MULL-ing eating off my own arm b/c this mark-up is dragging well into lunch time
— Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) May 8, 2019
Joe Biden will formally launch his presidential campaign on Saturday, May 18 with a kickoff rally in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – the birthplace of American democracy and the birthstate of the former Vice President.
“In Philadelphia, Biden will lay out his vision for unifying America with respected leadership on the world stage—and dignified leadership at home,” his campaign said. “Biden believes in an America that is based on equal opportunity for all. Where everyone in the middle class, and those who aspire to be part of it, - regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion or disability - is in on the deal. And, everyone is treated with dignity.”
Since launching his campaign last month, Biden has visited Pennsylvania, Iowa, South Carolina, Nevada, and New Hampshire.
Updated
Elsewhere, senator Elizabeth Warren, whose presidential campaign has been defined by the catchphrase, “I’ve got a plan for that, has rolled out, yes, a new plan to address the opioid crisis.
On Wednesday, Warren joined Democratic congressman Elijah Cummings to introduce the CARE Act, a comprehensive proposal that would treat the opioid crisis “like the public health emergency that it is.”
The bill would dedicate $100 billion in federal funding over the next 10 years, which Warren said is “what’s needed to make sure every single person gets the treatment they need”.
On Friday, Warren will visit Kermit, West Virginia, a small town located along the Kentucky-West Virginia border that has been hard-hit by the opioid epidemic.
Vox has a more detailed look on the plan here.
Updated
In historic 2020 news, Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign has ratified a union contract, a first for a major-party presidential campaign.
In March, a majority of the campaign’s bargaining unit employees designated the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 400 to represent them as their exclusive bargaining representative.
“We are proud of our workers and proud to uphold Bernie’s commitment to collective bargaining rights and a strong labor movement,” said Faiz Shakir, campaign manager. “Together, we have achieved some of the strongest standards for campaign workers in history and set the bar higher for the next generation of campaigners.”
Sanders has long been a staunch advocate of union workers’ rights.
“What this union pulled off will change the way presidential campaigns are run in this country,” said Bianca Márquez, a member of the campaign’s digital team. “Representing a talented and diverse group of campaign staffers at the bargaining table and in a contract was no easy task, but we came together in support of one common goal: achieving the best contract possible and setting a new standard for the industry. As a member of the bargaining committee for the Bernie 2020 staff union, I could not be more proud of what we collectively accomplished.”
The move comes a day after the campaign unveiled sweeping new guidelines to combat sexual misconduct and discrimination.
On a similar note, at about this time every day during past administrations, reporters might tune in for a televised press briefing from the White House.
Not this White House. It has been a shocking 58 days without a formal White House briefing, according to a tally by CNN.
This is a record. Prior to that the longest stretch had been 42 days.
Trump is currently holding a cabinet meeting that is close to the press.
Just before the meeting the White House scrapped a scheduled photo-op that would have allowed reporters to question Trump on his assertion of executive privilege.
WH just scrubbed photo op at start of Cabinet Meeting. That means no chance to question Pres Trump about invoking Executive Privilege on all of House Judiciary Committee's subpoenaed documents.
— Mark Knoller (@markknoller) May 8, 2019
The White House just closed the 11:30 am cabinet meeting to the press. Which means we won’t hear from the president on camera this morning as initially scheduled.
— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) May 8, 2019
We’re going to pull away from the House hearing for just a minute and turn to the White House, where press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders gaggled with reporters after a Fox News Channel interview.
“I think it’s so absurd, this idea, that Congress doesn’t get to see the Mueller report,” she responded to a question about the the House Judiciary Committee’s forthcoming contempt vote, according to today’s pool reporter, the New York Post’s Nikki Schwab. “In fact, there’s a less redacted version of the Mueller report sitting there waiting on them to come and look at.”
She continued: “Chairman Nadler - take a minute to let this sink in - Chairman Nadler is asking the attorney general of the United States to break the law and commit a crime by releasing information that he knows he has no legal authority to have. It’s truly outrageous and absurd what the chairman is doing and he should be embarrassed by his behavior.”
A reporter asked, if there was any indication that the president would not like to see Mueller testify now that executive privilege has been asserted and is there any indication that Mueller might be asked to stay on and not leave in the next few days because of the assertion of executive privilege?
“I’m not aware of any requests like that,” Sanders said. “The president’s made his feeling on that very clear and the way that we see that is that this is over and just because the Democrats didn’t like the results doesn’t mean they get to re-do this process.
“We’ve spent two years, millions of taxpayer dollars, submitted millions of pages in documents, been fully cooperative, hundreds of hours of testimony and Bob Mueller came back and said there was no collusion. If Bob Mueller couldn’t find it, I am 100% sure that Jerry Nadler is not going to find anything that Bob Mueller couldn’t - he can’t even handle asking the attorney general questions. Do we really think he can handle something like this?”
Asked if the US is headed to war with Iran, Sanders said: “I certainly hope not but the president is going to remain firm on our position and I don’t think anybody is looking for any type of war with anybody.”
Updated
The members of the committee are each making statements ahead of the vote. There’s a sharp partisan divide: Democrats believe they are acting in good faith to uphold Congress’s oversight role while Republican’s believe the majority is overreaching in an attempt to “smear” the attorney general.
Here’s a quick sampling of their statements:
NOW at House Judiciary.
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) May 8, 2019
GOP'ERS (Doug Collins, others): Democrats have no legal ground to charge contempt!
DEMS (Nadler, Sheila Jackson Lee): We not only have grounds, this standoff and this president are existential threats to the Constitution and its balance of powers!
“If he weren’t president... he’d be in prison with Michael Cohen,” Steve Cohen says
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) May 8, 2019
Rep. Jordan suggests Dems' contempt vote of Barr is really motivated by their fear he is going to "get to the bottom" of things (aka claims of FBI impropriety in opening Russia probe)
— Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) May 8, 2019
Rep Hank Johnson went there during markup for AG Barr contempt vote: How can we impeach without getting the documents
— Alex Moe (@AlexNBCNews) May 8, 2019
And Republicans jump right on it, w/ Rep. Gaetz saying "this is all about impeaching the president" https://t.co/aFqOxFl9Et
— Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) May 8, 2019
Updated
Nadler: 'This is not a step we take lightly'
Ahead of a vote on a contempt of Congress resolution, Nadler cast the effort as an attempt to uphold the legislative branch’s oversight authority.
“The President has stated that his Administration will oppose all subpoenas, and, in fact, virtually all document requests are going unsatisfied. Witnesses are refusing to show up to hearings,” he said in an opening statement. “This is unprecedented. If allowed to go unchecked, this obstruction means the end of congressional oversight.”
The ranking member, Doug Collins, a Republican of Georgia, called the move “cynical, mean-spirited...and counter-productive”. He said Democrats going after Barr in frustration that the Mueller report did not establish collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
Updated
Sanders: Trump asserts executive privilege over the Mueller report
“Faced with Chairman Nadler’s blatant abuse of power, and at the Attorney General’s request, the President has no other option than to make a protective assertion of executive privilege,” Sarah Sanders said in a statement ahead of the House committee’s vote to hold Barr in contempt of Congress.
The statement adds: “It is sad that Chairman Nadler is only interested in pandering to the press and pleasing his radical left constituency. The American people deserve a Congress that is focused on solving real problems like the crisis at the border, high prescription drug prices, our country’s crumbling infrastructure, and so much more.”
Statement on Executive Privilege pic.twitter.com/6ujCZDnMC0
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) May 8, 2019
House committee chairman Jerry Nadler scoffed at the effort to shield hidden portions of the report. He said the White House is misapplying executive privilege because Trump has already waived that right to allow for the public release of a version of the report.
Updated
We’re standing by for the House Judiciary Committee to vote to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress.
The committee chairman Jerry Nadler, speaking to CNN earlier this morning, called the impasse between the Justice Department and Congress “a constitutional crisis”.
The committee is made up of 24 Democrats and 17 Republicans, making the resolution’s passage all but certain.
Here is a link to the 27-page resolution. [PDF]
Updated
Trump earlier this morning responded to a New York Times story that he lost more than $1bn in the decade between 1985 and 1994.
He said the report was a “hit job” and based on “very old information”.
....you would get it by building, or even buying. You always wanted to show losses for tax purposes....almost all real estate developers did - and often re-negotiate with banks, it was sport. Additionally, the very old information put out is a highly inaccurate Fake News hit job!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019
Pelosi, speaking at a Washington Post Live event earlier this morning, said she believes the House should hold Barr in contempt of Congress for refusing to provide the committee with a full, unredacted version of the Mueller report.
.@SpeakerPelosi says she thinks Attorney General William Barr should be held in contempt. https://t.co/hAuZk6usS4 #PostLive pic.twitter.com/GfE3m3tpx7
— Washington Post Live (@postlive) May 8, 2019
Updated
Trump says China’s vice-premier, Liu He, is coming to the US to “make a deal”. He also said he believed China backed away from the negotiating table because it would prefer to negotiate with a Democrat after the 2020 election.
....Guess what, that’s not going to happen! China has just informed us that they (Vice-Premier) are now coming to the U.S. to make a deal. We’ll see, but I am very happy with over $100 Billion a year in Tariffs filling U.S. coffers...great for U.S., not good for China!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019
Speaking at The Washington Post earlier, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Trump was “deciding to ride the dragon” in his negotiations with China. “The dragon will decide when you get off.”
Updated
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of politics in Washington and around the country.
Today Donald Trump will hold a cabinet meeting before jetting off to Panama City, Florida, where he will hold a Make America Great Again rally.
On Capitol Hill, a House committee is expected to vote to hold the attorney general, William Barr, in contempt of Congress after he failed to comply with a subpoena request for the full unredacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the US presidential election. Barr also failed to appear before the House judiciary committee last week, raising the stakes and inching the branches closer to a constitutional collision.
