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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Vivian Ho (now) and Jamiles Lartey (earlier)

House antitrust investigation targets Facebook, Google and others – as it happened

Top tech companies face an antitrust investigation in the House.
Top tech companies face an antitrust investigation in the House. Photograph: Reuters File Photo/Reuters

Evening summary

President Trump sounds off from across the pond on the disaster relief bill:

House passes $19.1bn disaster aid package

The long-awaited $19.1bn disaster relief aid package now heads to President Trump, who is expected to sign off on it even though it does not include the funding for the border that the White House had requested.

Quick recap: this will be provide aid for a series of recent disasters to hit the US, including Hurricane Harvey and the California wildfires. The bill stalled for weeks in the Senate because of setbacks including the president’s reluctance to provide aid money to Puerto Rico, which had been hit hard by Hurricane Maria.

Looks like it’s going to be a twofer on 11 June:

Mark your calendars. It’s looking like the contempt proceedings for attorney general William Barr, who skipped out on his House judiciary committee hearing last month after a barnburner of a Senate judiciary committee hearing, are set to begin next week.

Judge: One chamber of Congress cannot sue executive branch over border wall

If you’ll rewind to April, you’ll remember that the House sued members of the Trump administration over President Trump’s emergency declaration that bypassed Congress in order to force funding for a border wall.

Today, US Judge Trevor McFadden, who was appointed by Trump, ruled that one chamber of Congress cannot sue the president: “While the Constitution bestows upon Members of the House many powers, it does not grant them standing to hale the Executive Branch into court claiming a dilution of Congress’s legislative authority,” he wrote.

President Trump tweeted today a suggestion that a consumer boycott of AT&T could force “big changes” at CNN, the news organization he has long perceived as his foe (AT&T owns CNN). But the Washington Post is reporting that today’s tweet is just the latest in the president’s long-running crusade to punish CNN:

When AT&T sought to acquire Time Warner -- then the parent company of CNN -- Trump repeatedly complained about the deal, publicly and privately. He instructed aides such as Gary Cohn and Rob Porter to call the Department of Justice to block the deal, according to people familiar with the matter.

No call was made to DOJ, one of the officials familiar with the matter said, and Trump was told that the decision had to be free of political interference from the White House. People who heard the comments said it was sometimes unclear if he was giving an official order or just venting.

The Justice Department, however, did seek to block the $85 million merger over allegations that the deal violated federal antitrust laws before losing in court to AT&T. Department officials denied that their decisions were influenced by the White House, but Trump continued to bring up the subject repeatedly and bragged to aides that his attacks on CNN had driven down their ratings.

House launches bipartisan antitrust investigation into tech industry

Here’s a little more about the wide-ranging antitrust investigation looking into companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon. This has been a hot-button question for all 2020 Democratic candidates - whether they’d consider breaking up these tech giants - and now it appears the House is launching a bipartisan effort to make that determination.

From House judiciary chair Jerry Nadler:

“The open internet has delivered enormous benefits to Americans, including a surge of economic opportunity, massive investment, and new pathways for education online,” Nadler said in a statement. “But there is growing evidence that a handful of gatekeepers have come to capture control over key arteries of online commerce, content, and communications. The Committee has a rich tradition of conducting studies and investigations to assess the threat of monopoly power in the US economy. Given the growing tide of concentration and consolidation across our economy, it is vital that we investigate the current state of competition in digital markets and the health of the antitrust laws.”

According to a press release from House antitrust subcommittee chair David Cicilline, the Committee’s investigation will focus on three main areas:

  • Documenting competition problems in digital markets;
  • Examining whether dominant firms are engaging in anti-competitive conduct; and
  • Assessing whether existing antitrust laws, competition policies, and current enforcement levels are adequate to address these issues.

“The growth of monopoly power across our economy is one of the most pressing economic and political challenges we face today. Market power in digital markets presents a whole new set of dangers,” Cicilline said. “After four decades of weak antitrust enforcement and judicial hostility to antitrust cases, it is critical that Congress step in to determine whether existing laws are adequate to tackle abusive conduct by platform gatekeepers or whether we need new legislation to respond to this challenge.”

Congressman Ro Khanna, who represents Silicon Valley, issued a tempered statement advocating for both “strong antitrust enforcement” and the promotion of “innovation and growth.”

Updated

Hey all, Vivian Ho taking over for Jamiles Lartey. Hope everyone is having a nice Monday.

Summary

That’s it for me today, here are a couple of highlights from US politics today as I hand over to my colleague Vivian Ho.

  • Trump is in the UK for a state visit, having just spoken at a banquet in Buckingham Palace.
  • Congress will soon be holding a vote hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt.
  • Jared Kushner defended the president from charges of racism in an interview with Axios but awkwardly dodged questions about his father-in-law’s birtherism.
  • A New York Times investigation revealed “alarmingly inappropriate” behavior from transportation secretary Elaine Chao.

Axios is reporting that former US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley, will call out pro-choice activists who “demand conformity” as being “anti-women” in a keynote address at Susan B. Anthony List’s 12th annual Campaign for Life Gala Monday evening.

Her prepared remarks reportedly include the following: “Unfortunately, many on the left use the abortion debate to divide women and demand conformity. They do this in the name of feminism. But that is not real feminism...

The idea that women must adhere to a particular set of values is one of the most anti-women ideas in today’s culture. It is a rejection of the ideas of equality and tolerance that the women’s movement is supposed to be about.

Nikki Haley speaking to reporters in February of 2017.
Nikki Haley speaking to reporters in February of 2017. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

“As a pro-life, female governor, I was blessed with a unique platform, and I made every effort to use it appropriately. Not to lob attacks at people who disagreed with me, not to diminish the other side, but to reframe the debate. To explain that being pro-life is not about being for or against women. It is about being for a baby’s right to live — the most basic right there is.”

The remarks come as anti-choice activists have pushed through a wave of restrictive legislation in multiple states aimed at ultimately challenging the abortion rights guaranteed by Roe v Wade.

Donald Trump offered some remarks at the state banquet in the Buckingham Palace ballroom just moments ago.

He told the Queen:

Your Majesty, Melania and I are profoundly honoured to be your guests for this historic state visit.

Thank you for your warm welcome, for this beautiful weather, your gracious hospitality, and Your Majesty’s nearly seven decades of treasured friendship with the United States of America.

This week, we commemorate a mighty endeavour of righteous nations and one of the greatest undertakings in all of history.

Seventy-five years ago, more than 150,000 allied troops were preparing on this island to parachute into France, storm the beaches of Normandy, and win back our civilisation.

As Her Majesty remembers, the British people had hoped and prayed and fought for this day for nearly five years.

You can follow all the details of Trump’s UK state visit on our liveblog here:

'One of the most unprecedented cover-ups since Watergate'

The house will be voting to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in contempt over their failure to comply with subpoenas in an ongoing probe into the Trump Administration’s plan to ask a citizenship question in the 2020 census.

Oversight and Reform Chairman Elijah Cummings said in a letter Monday announcing the move:

The Trump Administration has been engaged in one of the most unprecedented cover-ups since Watergate, extending from the White House to multiple federal agencies and departments of the government and across numerous investigations. The tactics of this cover-up are now clear. The Administration has been challenging Congress’ core authority to conduct oversight under the Constitution, questioning the legislative bases for congressional inquiries, objecting to committee rules and precedents that have been in place for decades under both Republican and Democratic leadership, and making baseless legal arguments to avoid producing documents and testimony.

This cover-up is being directed from the top.


The Washington Post is reporting that A key witness in former Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation of Russian election interference has been indicted by federal officials on child pornography charges.

George Nader, who had a previous criminal record on such charges, was charged in federal court in Virginia, and is expected to make an initial court appearance in New York.

Nader played an unusual role as a kind of liaison between Trump supporters, Middle East leaders, and Russians interested in making contact with the incoming administration in early 2017.

“Lessons from the Mueller Report: Presidential Obstruction and Other Crimes.”

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee announced today that next Monday it will hold a hearing entitled “Lessons from the Mueller Report: Presidential Obstruction and Other Crimes.”

The hearings appear to be an attempt by judiciary chairman Jarrold Nadler to get on with the committee’s sprawling oversight investigation into the Trump administration post-Mueller Report, which has largely been stymied by the Trump administration’s unprecedented, blanket non-compliance with congressional subpoenas.

“While the White House continues to cover up and stonewall, and to prevent the American people from knowing the truth, we will continue to move forward with our investigation,” said Nadler in a statement.

“These hearings will allow us to examine the findings laid out in Mueller’s report so that we can work to protect the rule of law and protect future elections through consideration of legislative and other remedies.”

Updated

Donald Trump maintains he has not seen any protests while on his state visit to the UK. As my colleague Simon Murphy shares, he really must not be looking:

About 100 demonstrators are outside the gates of Buckingham Palace as his helicopter lands. They are protesting against the US president being handed “the red-carpet treatment”.

Waving banners emblazoned with messages declaring the president was “evil”, scores of protesters blowing whistles and horns massed on a green outside the palace.

Demonstrators, many of who were clutching signs urging people to “just say no” to the special relationship, chanted: “Donald Trump’s not welcome here.”

The demonstration, labelled “Protest at the Palace: Spoil Trump’s banquet” by Facebook organisers, called on attendees to “Bring pots and pans, vuvuzelas, musical instruments etc and make some noise”.

Anti Trump protesters outside Buckingham Palace in central London, Britain, 03 June 2019.
Anti Trump protesters outside Buckingham Palace in central London, Britain, 03 June 2019. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

Weyman Bennett, 54, the co-convenor of Stand up to Racism who helped organise the protest, told the Guardian the state visit represented “an insult to people’s basic decent values” and should have been cancelled.

It will be cucumber sandwiches over champagne. It doesn’t matter how boorish he is or what ridiculous things he says, I think very few people will challenge him. That’s not to our credit.

Sometimes you have to say to a bully they’re wrong and stand up for basic rights.

He’s threatened nuclear war, he’s behaved like a boorish idiot, he doesn’t even respect basic diplomatic values.

Theresa May had hoped to bolster her position by inviting Trump, he said, but it had “completely backfired”, adding: “His visit should have been cancelled until he accepts basic human rights.”

Bernard Kiernan, a 70-year-old retired IT consultant who volunteers at a hospital, said he had joined the protest in “solidarity” with friends living in America. He branded Trump a “bully” and a “misogynist”, adding: “He should not have the right to visit our country. He’s not fit to be president.”

Margaret Sanchez, 65, a retired nurse from north west London, described the multi-million pound visit as a “waste of public funds”. She added:

He’s a business man, he’s not a politician. He doesn’t know how to talk to people. If it doesn’t suit him, he calls it fake news.

Neighbours Roshan Pedder, 72, and Paul Gossage, 66, from Surrey, travelled to London to voice their opposition to the visit. Gossage, a retired ambulance technician, carried a sign declaring: “TRUMP IS A MENACE.” He said:

I think it’s important that ordinary people from the UK life myself show we don’t want him here.

At one stage during the protest, a scuffle broke out when a demonstrator tried to wrestle a “make America great again” red hat from a Trump supporter who had turned up.

According to The Hill reporter Cristina Marcos, House Majority leader Stenny Hoyer says lawmakers may take up the Dream Act this week.

The long-stalled bill would clarify the legal status of non-citizens “Dreamers” who arrived in the US as children. It passed the house judiciary committee last week but faces a difficult road to becoming law, as it must get past a Republican-controlled Senate and the possibility of a Trump veto.

In related news Monday, the Supreme court rejected the Trump administration’s request to fast track a decision on whether it will hear a case over the administration’s dismantling of the Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program.

Daca was created by the Obama Administration as a stopgap measure until legislators could agree on a law that would address the status of Dreamers. The Trump administration rescinded it in 2017 but has had that decision reversed in federal court. Only the Supreme Court can reinstate Trump’s rescission now.

The latest Hill-HarrisX poll of the Democratic field shows former Vice President Joe Biden enjoying a robust 19-point advantage over the next comer - Bernie Sanders.

Biden won 35 percent support from Democratic and Democratic-leaning independent registered voters in the June 1-2 survey, compared to 16 percent for Sanders.

Rounding out the top three, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg was a distant third with 8 percent.

The next tier has Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Haris, Beto O’Rourke and Cory Booker all pulling 3-5%

The rest of the field registered support from 1% or fewer of survey participants. Seventeen percent of respondents said they were unsure about their preference. Even if they all broke for any one candidate not named Biden, it still wouldn’t be enough to catch up.

Updated

UK activists are trolling Donald Trump hard so far during his state visit.

Jeffries: hearings around Trump impeachment should begin 'immediately'

NBC News says there are 58 members of the House of Representatives who favor starting an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump. That includes 57 Democrats (and 12 of the 24 Democrats who serve on the House Judiciary Committee) and one Republican- Michigan’s Justin Amash.

In NBC’s next update there should be at least 59. Speaking to Touré for his podcast about impeachment, New York congressman Hakeem Jeffries, the No 4 House Democrat said that he’s “of the view that those hearings should commence immediately.”

The Judiciary Committee, on which I sit, should have hearings on three things: obstruction of justice, abuse of power and the culture of corruption that appears to exist at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Jeffries added that Democrats should not be weighing any potential 2020 backlash (or tailwind) in considering the matter. “It would be dangerous for us to make a decision about impeachment anchored in politics either way. To either decide that we’re not going to impeach because it would be bad politically or that we’ll dive into impeachment because it’ll help politically.”

The podcast will be released Wednesday. The advance look comes courtesy of Politco’s PM Playbook.

Updated

In an hour-long town hall in Dubuque, Iowa, Democratic hopeful Kirsten Gillibrand was offered a made-for-internet moment from Fox News moderator Chris Wallace Sunday night.

Wallace asked Gillibrand to explain her tweet from December 2018, when she said the future was “female” and “intersectional”.

Gillibrand responded: “We want women to have a seat at the table,” To which, as if on cue, Wallace interjected: “What about men?”

“They’re already there — do you not know?” Gillibrand said, greeted by one of the biggest rounds of applause of the night. “It’s not meant to be exclusionary, it’s meant to be inclusionary,” she said.

Gillibrand also took a page from Pete Buttigieg’s book, using her appearance on the conservative station to be critical of its coverage. In another segment, Gillibrand pushed past Wallace’s objections to accuse the network of spreading of a “false narrative” on abortion rights.

The New York Senator has struggled to gather any serious momentum for her campaign, failing to gather either the poll numbers or campaign figures required to get a spot on the primary debate stage thus far.

Times investigation uncovers "alarmingly inappropriate" behavior from Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao

Trump Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao asked federal officials to organize travel arrangements for at least one family member and include other relatives in high-level meetings with Chinese government officials during her first visit to China as a Trump cabinet member, The New York Times reported on Sunday.

“She had these relatives who were fairly wealthy and connected to the shipping industry,” said a State Department official. “Their business interests were potentially affected by meetings.” The trip was reportedly canceled by Chao after ethics concerns were raised with the State and Transportation Departments.

This was “alarmingly inappropriate,” according to David H. Rank, a State Department official who previously served as deputy chief of mission in Beijing.

Chao, who is married to Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, is a member of a wealthy and powerful family in China with respect to their ownership of an American shipping company. The reported arrangements were revealed as part of a Times investigation into close business ties between China and the Chao family’s business.

Chao herself has no formal role at the company, by McConnell has received millions of dollars in gifts from Chao’s father, James, who ran the company until last year.

Remember a few months back when- at that time - rising Democratic star Beto O’Rourke and Donald Trump held dueling rallies in El Paso?

President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the El Paso County Coliseum on February 11, 2019 in El Paso, Texas.
President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at the El Paso County Coliseum on February 11, 2019 in El Paso, Texas. Photograph: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Well, the bills to both campaigns from the city are now due, and according to ABC News, only one has paid it.

“El Paso billed Donald J. Trump for President Inc. for his “Make America Great Again” rally -- for nearly half a million dollars. The invoice was sent to the campaign’s Fifth Avenue offices in New York on March 27. It was due April 26, and El Paso has yet to see a dime,” ABC reported.

The exact number is $470,417.05, broken down by reimbursements owed to six city departments.

The report continues: “If El Paso doesn’t receive payment from the Trump campaign, that money would come out of municipal revenue and the city’s contingency budget -- funds used for unexpected and emergency situations, like natural disasters. Just last June, historic and deadly flooding ravaged southern Texas. Now, as tornado alley wakes up, and hurricane season looms -- that’s a financial life vest no city wants to do without.

Donald J. Trump for President Inc.’s outstanding $470,417.05 is about 63% of the city’s contingency budget for the year.”

Federal workers, who recently had their income disrupted by the longest government shutdown in US history, could be getting a raise next year.

The Hill reports that House Democrats are proposing a 3.1 percent pay hike for federal workers in 2020.

The raise was included in the draft appropriations bill covering financial services and general government, which is expected to advance through a subcommittee hearing on Monday and advance to the House floor later in the month.

President Trump blocked a scheduled 2.1 percent increase in pay to federal workers last year, in an order that froze federal pay.

Trump: Sadiq Khan a stone cold loser'

Donald Trump arrived in the UK for a state visit just about an hour ago, and set a combative tone by criticizing the London mayor as his plane landed.

After Air Force One touched down at Stansted, the US president and his wife, Melania, were greeted by the foreign secretary, Jeremy Hunt, one of the contenders in the Conservative leadership race to replace Prime Minister Theresa May.

Trump was seen chatting with Hunt for a minute and occasionally patting him on the back. Before landing, Trump described Sadiq Khan as “a stone cold loser” after the London mayor compared him to a 20th-century fascist.

Khan’s spokesman said “childish insults” should be “beneath the president of the United States”.

You can follow Trump’s state visit on its own liveblog here.

Updated

Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson said yesterday on MSNBC that impeachment proceedings are “absolutely” inevitable, and rejects the idea that backlash over impeachment could cost Democrats control of Congress in 2020.

“I think we risk losing majority if we don’t bring impeachment proceedings. It will be hard pressed for a Democratic majority in the House of Representatives not to go forward with an impeachment operation.”

Trump 'absolutely not' a racist, insists Kushner

Good morning. Let’s start off the week with a masterclass in deflection.

For that we turn to first son-in-law and trusted Trump advisor Jared Kushner in an interview with Axios released Sunday. Asked about the president’s racism, Kushner said confidently that Trump was “absolutely not” a racist, and that Democrats who call the president a racist are doing “a disservice to everyone who suffers from real racism in this country.”

Interviewer Jonathan Swan interjected by pointing to birtherism - Trump’s first foray into US party politics as an agent of the disproven idea that Barack Obama wasn’t born in the US.

You may be forgiven if what followed gives you the sensation of being stuck in a time loop.

Swan: “Was birtherism racist?”

Kushner: “I wasn’t really involved in that.”

Swan: “I know you weren’t. Was it racist?”

Kushner: “Like I said, I wasn’t involved in that.”

Swan: “I know you weren’t. Was it racist?

Kushner: “I know who the president is and I have not seen anything in him that is racist.”

In the interview Kushner, who has been broadly tasked with facilitating peace in the Middle East also cast doubt on Palestinians ability to self-govern. Asked whether he understood why the Palestinians might not trust him, Kushner said: “I’m not here to be trusted.”

Kushner also sidestepped questions about the US policy over the death of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post columnist murdered by a Saudi government hit squad in Turkey.

Asked if he joined Khashoggi’s fiancee in calling on the Saudi government to release his body (or identify where they put the body parts) so his family might bury him, Kushner said: “Look, it’s a horrific thing that happened. Once we have all the facts, then we’ll make a policy determination, but that would be up to the secretary of state to push on our policy.”

Updated

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