Evening summary
- Robert Mueller will testify “way before” the end of summer, so says House judiciary committee chair Jerry Nadler. “If we have to subpoena him, we will.”
- Representative Steve King couldn’t hitch a ride on Air Force One today.
- A jury deadlocked on a verdict on charges against a border activist who humanitarian aid groups say was just providing two migrants with water, food and lodging.
President Trump pulled out a piece of paper earlier, claiming it was his deal with Mexico. Many speculated then that the paper was blank, but on enterprising Washington Post photojournalist managed to zoom in and enhance.
“the Government of Mexico will take all necessary steps under domestic law to bring the agreement into force with a view to ensuring that the agreement will enter into force within 45 days.” @realDonaldTrump #Mexico agreement. Second photo flipped @washingtonpost @postpolitics pic.twitter.com/lWuJU9bpYK
— Jabin Botsford (@jabinbotsford) June 11, 2019
For those curious here is the original frame. @realDonaldTrump spoke for approximately 20 minutes pulling out the letter several different times. If you want to further analyze I suggest you watch the full clip. pic.twitter.com/iFHg2lDfm2
— Jabin Botsford (@jabinbotsford) June 11, 2019
Updated
Robert Mueller will testify before House judiciary "way before" end of summer
House judiciary committee chair Jerry Nadler tells MSNBC’s Ari Melber that former special counsel Robert Mueller will testify before the committee “way before” the end of summer.
Mueller previously expressed reluctance at any sort of Capitol Hill appearance, making it known in his only public statement that everything he had to say was in the report. It is unknown whether this testimony before the committee “way before” the end of summer will be behind closed doors or public.
“We’re carrying on conversations with him, and he will come in, and if we have to subpoena him, we will,” Nadler said.
Chairman Nadler tells #TheBeat he thinks Mueller will testify "way before" the end of summer pic.twitter.com/hgmhnuP6Ek
— TheBeat w/Ari Melber (@TheBeatWithAri) June 11, 2019
Updated
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez had strong words on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s opposition of the impeachment process:
Talked to @AOC this afternoon on impeachment. Asked if she were satisfied with Pelosi's opposition to beginning the impeachment process, she said: "Personally, I am not." https://t.co/sKhBikpC71
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 11, 2019
She added: "If now isn't the time ... what is the bar, what is the line that we're waiting to be crossed for an impeachment inquiry, and so far it doesn't seem like there is one.
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) June 11, 2019
And so without a clear boundary, it seems as though we're kind of sitting on our hands," she said.
North Dakota’s congressional delegation is urging the Trump administration to address the state’s year-old request for $38m to cover the cost of policing protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline, the Associated Press is reporting.
Senators John Hoeven and Kevin Cramer and Representative Kelly Armstrong sent a letter Thursday calling for attorney general William Barr and acting defense secretary Patrick Shanahan to settle the state’s claim, filed last year by North Dakota’s attorney general against the Army Corps of Engineers. The state is accusing the agency of letting protesters illegally camp on federal land in North Dakota in 2016 and 2017, and not maintaining law and order when thousands gathered to protest the $3.8bn pipeline.
“This administration has reset the precedent on permitting this type of project,” the Bismarck Tribune reports the delegation wrote in the letter. “But we urge you to also reset the federal government’s precedent in these matters to maintain law and order on federal land and recognize the overwhelming responsibility the state and local authorities in North Dakota employed to maintain public safety.”
A jury deadlocked Tuesday on charges against a border activist who humanitarian aid groups say was just providing two migrants with water, food and lodging, the Associated Press is reporting.
Scott Daniel Warren, a 36-year-old college geography instructor, was charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor migrants, and faced up to 20 years in prison.
Prosecutors argued that the men were not in distress and that Warren conspired to transport and harbor them at a property used for providing aid to migrants in an Arizona town near the US-Mexico border.
Jurors said Monday that they couldn’t reach a consensus but a federal judge told them to keep deliberating. The judge set a July 2 status hearing after the jury said it was deadlocked.
The case played out as humanitarian groups say they are coming under increasing scrutiny while President Donald Trump’s administration looks for new ways to clamp down on illegal immigration.
Warren is one of nine members of the humanitarian aid group No More Deaths who have been charged with crimes related to their work. But he is the only one to face felony charges.
In West Texas, a county attorney was detained earlier this year after stopping her car on a dark highway to pick up three young migrants who flagged her down. Teresa Todd was held briefly, and federal agents searched her cellphone.
Border activists say they worry about what they see as the gradual criminalization of humanitarian action.
Warren has said his case could set a dangerous precedent by expanding the definition of the crimes of transporting and harboring migrants to include people merely trying to help border-crossers in desperate need of water or other necessities.
Warren and other volunteers with the No More Deaths group also were targeted earlier this year in separate federal misdemeanor cases after leaving water, canned food and other provisions for migrants hiking through the Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge in southern Arizona.
In Warren’s felony case, the defense team headed by Greg Kuykendall argued that Warren could not, in good conscience, turn away two migrants who had recently crossed the desert to enter the U.S.
Thousands of migrants have died crossing the border since the mid-1990s, when heightened enforcement pushed migrant traffic into Arizona’s scorching deserts.
Here’s a hell of a bump for Senator Cory Booker: the sometimes politically active pop icon Taylor Swift gave the 2020 hopeful a shoutout on Instagram, on which she has 118m followers, for signing her Equality Act petition:
.@CoryBooker gets a shoutout from Taylor Swift on insta. pic.twitter.com/mzUXhrz9KU
— Lissandra Villa (@LissandraVilla) June 11, 2019
In case you missed it, Swift kicked off Pride Month by asking the Tennessee Republican senator Lamar Alexander to support the Equality Act, legislation that recently passed in the House that would extend civil rights protections to LGBTQ people by prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity.
Read all about it below:
Representative Steve King, the Iowa Republican stripped of all committee assignments following a litany of racist remarks and behavior, was banned from flying aboard Air Force One as President Trump traveled to Iowa today, CNN is reporting:
King, who represents the state’s 4th District in Western Iowa, asked the White House to join the President’s entourage, but administration officials rejected the request, two officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
Republican senators Joni Ernst of Iowa and Deb Fischer of Nebraska joined Trump aboard Air Force One. Ernst had not been planning to travel with the President, citing her voting schedule, but ended up flying to Iowa with Trump.
House Republicans stripped King of his committee assignments following an interview with the New York Times in which King rhetorically said “white nationalist, white supremacist, Western civilization — how did that language become offensive?”
These comments came after King endorsed a white nationalist candidate for Toronto mayor and tweeted support of far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders , and after he compared immigrants to dirt and used rhetoric common to the alt-right in an interview with a magazine affiliated with the far-right Austrian Freedom party.
Hey all, Vivian Ho taking over for Sabrina Siddiqui. Let’s see where the day takes us, shall we?
Ok folks, that’s it from me, Sabrina Siddiqui ... I’m handing over to my trusted colleague Vivian Ho, who will take you through the remainder of the day from the West Coast.
But first, a recap of the day’s events:
- The House of Representatives voted along party lines to hold attorney general William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn in civil contempt; Democrats approved the resolution after Barr and McGahn defied congressional subpoenas seeking testimony and documents pertaining to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
- Joe Biden and Donald Trump provided a recap of a potential 2020 general election contest with dueling events in Iowa on Tuesday; Biden warned the president was an ‘existential threat’ to America, while Trump attacked the former vice president by questioning his mental fitness for office.
- A government watchdog group contends that Trump and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may have violated the law by failing to keep records of their meetings with foreign leaders; the group filed a lawsuit citing meetings between Trump and Kim Jong-un, and between Kushner and Saudi diplomats, in which no note takers were present and thus no public record was created.
- Donald Trump Jr will testify before the Senate intelligence committee behind closed doors on Wednesday; the appearance by the president’s eldest son comes after the Republican-led panel issued a subpoena summoning Trump Jr to Capitol Hill following the release of the Mueller report.
Stay tuned for more!
Joe Biden mentions Trump 44 times in Iowa speech
In case there was any doubt Joe Biden is focusing his 2020 campaign on Donald Trump, the former vice president name-checked the president 44 times during his speech in Iowa on Tuesday.
Campaigning in Ottumwa, Iowa, Biden declared Trump was “literally an existential threat to America” while condemning his record on foreign policy, race relations and trade.
Biden also condemned Trump’s conduct during his recent travel to Normandy, where he attacked his political rivals on a trip intended to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day.
“Did he do anything to signal that he’s prepared to walk away from the thugs he’s embraced on the world stage — from Putin to Kim Jong Un? No. He did none of that,” Biden said.
“Instead, he gets up in the middle of the night to attack Bette Midler. He attacks the mayor of London. He attacks the American Speaker of the House. It was a stunning display of childishness for the whole world to see.”
Trump, who held his own speech in Iowa the same day, responded by questioning Biden’s mental fitness as he departed the White House.
“I have to tell you, he’s a different guy,” Trump said of the former vice president. “He looks different then he used to, he acts different than he used to, he is even slower than he used to be.”
“So I don’t know. But when he mentions my name that many times, I guess I should be complimented.”
Trump also claimed Biden was the Democratic candidate he most wanted to run against. Biden currently leads Trump in several swing state and national polls.
House Democrats vote to enforce subpoenas against Barr, McGahn
On a party-line vote of 229-191, House Democrats passed a resolution that would enable lawmakers to go to court to enforce their subpoenas against Barr and McGahn.
The vote had long been planned amid unprecedented efforts by Donald Trump’s administration to stonewall Democrats’ witness and document requests pertaining to special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Democrats on the House judiciary committee voted last month to hold Barr in contempt of Congress after he refused to comply with a subpoena for the full unredacted Mueller report. McGahn separately heeded to instructions from the White House to refuse a subpoena calling upon him to testify before Congress.
Despite a deal between Nadler and the Justice Department on Monday, paving the way for his panel to access some of Mueller’s underlying evidence, House Democrats said they were proceeding with Tuesday’s full floor vote to keep the option to enforce their subpoenas in court if necessary.
The measure also includes language to enable committee chairmen to enforce their subpoenas in court without a full vote on the House floor.
Stay tuned for more...
Updated
Trump and Kushner broke law in meetings with foreign officials, group alleges in lawsuit
Donald Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, appear to have violated the law by failing to document their meetings with Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong-un and others, according to a lawsuit filed by a prominent government watchdog.
The lawsuit, which was filed on Tuesday by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), National Security Archive (the Archive) and Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), outlines several occasions in which the absence of note takers meant no official record was created of conversations between the president, members of his administration and foreign leaders.
The failure to keep records, they contend, is in violation with the Presidential Records Act and the Federal Records Act.
Five such instances concerned meetings between Trump and Putin, while another involved a recent meeting between Kushner and top Saudi officials. The latter excluded officials from the State Department, prompting criticism from the agency.
“It is clear that President Trump and White House officials have gone to great lengths to hold high-level meetings with foreign governments and carry out foreign policy objectives while blatantly ignoring recordkeeping laws and preventing national security officials and the American people from understanding what they are doing,” said Noah Bookbinder, the executive director at CREW, said.
The absence of records in these circumstances causes real, incalculable harm to our national security and poses a direct threat to transparency for the American public. We’re asking the court to compel White House officials to make and maintain these important records that let the public know what the government is up to and provide a safeguard to our history.”
House panel holds antitrust hearing to examine big tech's impact on news media
A hearing is officially underway in the House judiciary committee to examine anti-competitive behavior among digital platforms, such as Google and Facebook, and its impact on news media.
The hearing, which is part of a new antitrust investigation, comes amid growing scrutiny over the dominance of Big Tech and bipartisan push for new regulations.
Lawmakers were set to hear from News Media Alliance, a trade organization representing 2,000 news outlets, among other media executives. Matthew Schruers, vice president of the tech trade group Computer and Communications Industry Association, will speak on behalf of the technology industry.
David Cicilline, the chairman of the House judiciary antitrust subcommittee, opened the hearing with a focus on the enhanced market power of online platforms and subsequent threat to news publishers who have seen a dramatic fall in advertising revenues.
“Concentration in the digital advertising market has pushed local journalism to the verge of extinction,” Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island, said in his opening remarks. “The combination of predatory acquisitions, a growing innovation kill zone, and high network effects and switching costs appear to have undermined entrepreneurship and start-up rates.”
“And the sheer dominance of some platforms has resulted in worse products and significantly less choice, leaving people without a competitive alternative to services that harvest their data, manipulate their behavior, and monetize their attention.”
A day before the hearing, the News Media Alliance released a study showing that Google earned an estimated $4.7b in 2018 from news publishers’ content.
News publishers’ revenue from advertising has meanwhile rapidly declined and forced widespread layoffs in newsrooms across the US. According to the Pew Research Center, newsroom employment dropped 23% between 2008 and 2017.
“This journalism crisis is also a democracy crisis. As sources of trustworthy news disappear, American civic life suffers,” Representative Jerrold Nadler, the chairman of the House judiciary committee, said at the hearing.
“Today as the Internet becomes the dominant platform for accessing news, and as this platform grows more and more concentrated in the hands of just two major companies, news media once again faces serious threats, and congressional action may once again be required.”
Donald Trump Jr to testify before Senate intelligence committee
Speaking of investigations, Donald Trump Jr is headed back to Capitol Hill...
NEW: Donald Trump Jr is coming back to Senate Intel for his closed-door interview tomorrow, per a source familiar with the matter, w/ @PamelaBrownCNN @mkraju
— Jeremy Herb (@jeremyherb) June 11, 2019
The Republican-led Senate intelligence committee subpoenaed Trump Jr last month, shocking the president and his allies.
Trump Jr, who was coordinated the infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower after being offered dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russians, testified before the panel in 2017.
Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report nonetheless revealed inconsistencies in what the president’s eldest son told members of Congress about both conversations with his father regarding the Trump Tower meeting, and negotiations over a possible Trump Tower project in Moscow during the 2016 election.
According to CNN, Trump Jr struck a deal with the Senate intelligence committee to privately testify on both of those topics, as well as others, for two-to-four hours on Wednesday.
White House to review Mueller documents before Democrats: Report
House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler on Monday touted a deal with the Justice Department under which his panel could review some of the underlying evidence from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
But not so fast...
The Daily Beast reported on Tuesday that Donald Trump’s White House will work with the Justice Department to determine exactly what material House Democrats are able to see.
Citing two senior administrations officials, the report also alluded to the prospect of the White House claiming executive privilege to limit access to Nadler’s committee.
The White House has aggressively fought efforts by congressional Democrats to obtain key documents and witnesses related to the Mueller investigation and the president’s finances. Nadler’s panel has meanwhile engaged in tense negotiations with the DOJ to see the full unredacted version of Mueller’s report an underlying evidence.
The deal reached on Monday would enable lawmakers to review at least a subset of those documents and showed the first signs of progress in weeks. It remains to be seen how the White House’s role in the process might affect the agreement.
Firing blanks?
Donald Trump just pulled a piece of paper from his jacket’s inside pocket while briefing the White House pool reporters, saying it’s his deal with Mexico.
“That’s the agreement that everybody says I don’t have. I’m going to let Mexico do the announcement at the right time,” he said.
He then added: “This is one page of a very long and very good agreement from Mexico and the United States. Without the tariffs, we would have had nothing.”
But one pool reporter questions whether what’s really on the paper is.....nada.
POTUS holds up what appears to be a blank piece of paper claiming it contains the Mexican deal. Refuses to answer when I ask him to show us. @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/m8sgJer9Uq
— Brian J. Karem (@BrianKarem) June 11, 2019
Updated
Trump said he’s heard Joe Biden’s a loser
Reaching for one of his favorite insults ahead of flying to Iowa for some events today, the president throws “loser” in with a bunch of other brickbats for former vice-president and 2020 candidate Joe Biden.
Speaking with White House pool reporters in the Oval Office less than an hour ago, Donald Trump said: “I heard Biden was a loser. I mean look, Joe never got more than 1%. It looks like he’s failing, it looks like his friends from the left are going to overtake him very soon.” He adds a bit of explanation shortly afterwards, though not much.
“I call him 1% Joe because until Obama came along he didn’t do very well.”
Biden was in Iowa earlier today holding a campaign event and calling Trump an “existential threat”. He went on to excoriate the president at length.
In this initial response, Trump then further told the pool: “When a man has to mention my name 76 times in his speech, that means he’s in trouble. He’s a different guy. He acts different than he used to. He looks different than he used to.”
And...he’s his preferred opponent.
“I’d rather run against, I think, Biden than anybody. I think he’s the weakest mentally and I think Joe is weak mentally. The others have much more energy.”
Trump’s off to Iowa now.
Early afternoon summary
Here are the main political news items so far today:
- Jon Stewart says the treatment by Congress of those made sick by working in and around the Ground Zero area of New York after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center is “shameful”.
- House speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, says impeaching Donald Trump is not off the table. But she’s “done” with trading barbs with the president.
- Former environmental protection agency (EPA) administrators are sounding the alarm over the Trump administration’s environment policies on everything from clean air and water to the climate crisis.
- Democratic 2020 contender Joe Biden has called Donald Trump an “existential threat” at a rally in Iowa. Trump is heading to the early-caucus state later today for a fund-raiser and other events.
Updated
Jon Stewart: Congress' treatment of 9/11 victims is 'shameful'
Jon Stewart has delivered a scathing rebuke of Congress and its handling of benefits for 9/11 first responders and victims, telling US lawmakers their inaction is “an embarrassment to the country”.
Stewart, who has been a forceful proponent of legislation providing federal funding for medical treatment for 9/11 survivors, testified on Tuesday alongside first responders and victims before the House judiciary committee.
But only a handful of lawmakers appeared at the hearing, prompting a visibly angry Stewart to condemn their treatment of those who responded to and survived the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
“As I sit here today, I can’t help but think what an incredible metaphor this room is for the entire process that getting healthcare and benefits for 9/11 first responders has come to,” Stewart said. “Behind me, a filled rom of 9/11 first responders and in front of me a nearly empty Congress.”
He added:
Shameful. It’s an embarrassment to the country and it is a stain on this institution. You should be ashamed of yourselves, for those that aren’t here, but you won’t be. Because accountability doesn’t appear to be something that occurs in this chamber.”
Earlier this year, the US government slashed payments by more than half to those who were sick and dying from the toxins released during the attacks after US officials said the 9/11 victims compensation fund was running out of money.
Those who developed health issues or did not discover illnesses until a later stage saw even larger reductions in payouts for health benefits. More than 20,000 individuals have suffered or died from cancer, breathing problems and other ailments on account of the trauma inflicted on 9/11.
Stewart told lawmakers it took only five seconds for first responders in New York to arrive at the scene of the terrorist attacks and that hundreds “died in an instant”.
“There is not a person here, there is not an empty chair on that stage, that didn’t tweet out ‘never forget the heroes of 9/11’,” he said, quoting how members of Congress annually mark that day. “Never forget their bravery, never forget what they did, what they gave to this country.”
Drawing attention once more to the lack of urgency among lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Stewart said: “It would be one thing if their callous indifference and rank hypocrisy were benign, but it’s not.”
Your indifference cost these men and women their most valuable commodity — time. It’s the one thing they’re running out of. This should be flipped. This hearing should be flipped. These men and women should be up on that stage, and Congress should be down here answering their questions as to why this is so hard and takes so damn long.”
Stewart, who often grew emotional in his remarks, has repeatedly traveled to Washington with 9/11 victims and first responders to lobby for legislation to codify the health benefits into law. Congress authorized $7.3b in 2015 to cover claims through the end of 2020, but funds have quickly been depleted across 20,000 people enrolled in the program.
Data released by the 9/11 fund in January showed a 235% surge in death claims compared to the end of 2015. The number individuals suffering from cancer and filing eligible claims has also ballooned.
“Certainly 9/11 first responders shouldn’t have to decide whether to live or to have a place to live,” Stewart said. “More of these men and women are going to get sick, and they are going to die.”
He also took aim at those who dismiss 9/11 funding as a ‘New York issue’, stating:
Al-Qaeda didn’t shout ‘death to Tribeca’. They attacked America. And these men and women, and their response to it, is what brought our country back. It’s what gave our reeling nation a solid foundation to stand back upon ... And you are ignoring them.”
“I’m sorry if I sound angry and undiplomatic, but I am angry and you should be too,” added Stewart, who received a standing ovation at the conclusion of his statement.
“They responded in five seconds. They did their jobs [with] courage, grace, tenacity, humility. Eighteen years later, do yours.”
Updated
Nancy Pelosi: impeachment 'not off the table'
House speaker Nancy Pelosi did not rule out impeaching Donald Trump as Democrats continue to investigate the findings of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report and whether the president is guilty of obstructing justice.
“It’s not off the table,” Pelosi, who has faced mounting pressure to launch a formal impeachment inquiry against Trump, said at a fiscal summit in Washington on Tuesday.
“I don’t think you should impeach for political reasons and I don’t think you should not impeach for political reasons,” she added. “It’s not about politics. It’s not about Democrats and Republicans, it’s not about partisanship.”
“It’s about patriotism to our country. It’s upholding the constitution of the United States.”
Pelosi’s comments came as a growing number of Democrats have called for impeachment proceedings amid efforts by the White House to stonewall their investigative measures.
The Trump administration has instructed several key witnesses, including former White House counsel Don McGahn and Trump’s former communications director Hope Hicks, not to testify before Congress.
Pelosi has thus far pushed back against opening an impeachment inquiry at this stage, stating the issue is “very divisive” and could benefit Trump as he positions himself for re-election in 2020.
At the same time, she has engaged in an escalating war of words with the president, questioning his fitness for office and calling for an intervention. Last week, Pelosi told Democrats behind closed doors she would rather see Trump “in prison” than impeached.
Pelosi declined to address her private comments on Tuesday, stating: “When we have conversations in our caucus, they stay in our caucus.”
She nonetheless signaled she was through trading barbs with Trump, telling the crowd: “I’m done with him.”
“I don’t even want to talk about him,” Pelosi said, adding: “My stock goes up every time he attacks me, so what can I say, but let’s not spend too much time on that because that’s his victory, the diverter-in-chief, the diverter-of-attention-in-chief.”
Updated
Comedian Jon Stewart joins health experts and victims now to testify before the House judiciary committee on the lack of federal funding for the 9/11 Victim Compensation Fund, which was designed to ensure medical care to those impacted by the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.
Funding for the program, which covers more than 16,000 individuals across the US, is running out of money and has had to dramatically slash benefits to first responders and survivors.
Stewart has been a vocal advocate of legislation to provide funding for 9/11 victims and routinely lobbied lawmakers on Capitol Hill. The House judiciary is committee is poised to vote Wednesday on reauthorizing the program.
Watch live here and stay tuned for more.
Updated
Former EPA administrators sound alarm over Trump's environmental policy
A host of former Environmental Protection Agency administrators -- Gina McCarthy, Christine Todd Whitman, William Reilly, and Lee Thomas -- are testifying before House energy subcommittee on environmental policy under Donald Trump.
The Guardian’s Emily Holden has the latest:
Former leaders of the Environmental Protection Agency--including three Republicans and one Democrat--are warning lawmakers that the Trump administration’s rollbacks of key pollution safeguards are putting Americans at risk.
The Obama administration’s EPA chief, Gina McCarthy, plans to tell a House subcommittee today that she finds it “disconcerting” that four past administrators “feel obligated to testify together and individually to make the case that what is happening at EPA today is simply put, not normal.”
Trump has shrunk staff and begun to rescind rules for cleaner electricity, vehicle fuel efficiency and waterway protections. The administration is refusing any action to slow the climate crisis, with Trump denying the science showing humans are heating the planet. EPA has relaxed enforcement of environmental laws, with top officials saying they want to work with industry. A number of top EPA appointees previously represented the groups they now regulate.
Seven former EPA leaders in April urged the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to conduct more oversight of the agency.
“With every passing day, EPA seems to be losing valuable career staff while agency leadership has been on a seemingly unstoppable crusade to rollback rules with seemingly little regard to the health impacts of their rollbacks,” McCarthy said.
Christine Todd Whitman, EPA chief under Republican president George W. Bush, will testify that “today, as never before, the mission of EPA is being seriously undermined by the very people who have been entrusted with carrying that mission out.”
“We are here because we are deeply concerned that decades of environmental progress are at risk of being lost,” she said.
Trump repeats 'no collusion' claim
Well, Donald Trump is tweeting again ... (not that he ever stopped).
The president took to his favorite social media platform on Tuesday to refer to the Russia investigation as “the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time” and once again suggest, falsely, that he had been exonerated by special counsel Robert Mueller’s report.
Quoting his close ally, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, Trump tweeted:
“Mueller has spoken. He found No Collusion between the Trump Campaign and the Russians. The bottom line is what the Democrat House is doing is trying to destroy the Trump Presidency (which has been a tremendous success), and I can assure you that we’re done with the Mueller......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2019
....investigation in the Senate. They can talk to John Dean until the cows come home, we’re not doing anything in the Senate regarding the Mueller Report. We are going to harden our Infrastructure against 2020!” @LindseyGrahamSC
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 11, 2019
He then closed his morning thread with an all-caps: “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!”
House Democrats have been pursuing the full, unredacted Mueller report as they weigh a formal impeachment inquiry against the president. House speaker Nancy Pelosi has thus far resisted calls from within her caucus to launch impeachment proceedings, stating such a move would be politically divisive and play directly into Trump’s hands.
On Monday, House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler announced a deal with the Justice Department under which Democrats will be given access to a subset of documents pertaining to the underlying evidence Mueller used to draw up his report.
The agreement was the first thaw in weeks of contentious negotiations between the two sides over what material Democrats would be allowed to review. Nadler’s committee voted last month to hold attorney general William Barr in contempt of Congress after he declined to comply with a subpoena for the full Mueller report.
The full House will vote on Tuesday on the contempt resolution, which also aims to hold former White House counsel Don McGahn accountable for refusing to testify before Congress despite receiving a subpoena of his own.
Following the Justice Department’s decision to hand over certain documents related to Mueller’s investigation, Nadler said he would not enforce the contempt resolution against Barr but signaled he may go back to it if the documents were insufficient.
You can read my explainer on what the whole contempt fight means here.
Updated
Pence defends Trump's ban on pride flags at US embassies
Vice president Mike Pence has defended the Trump administration’s move to bar US embassies from flying the rainbow pride flag during LBGTQ pride month as “the right decision”.
“We’re proud to be able to serve every American,” Pence said in an interview with NBC News late Monday. “But when it comes to the American flagpole, and American embassies, and capitals around the world, one American flag flies.”
The Guardian’s Oliver Milman has more:
At least four US embassies – in Israel, Germany, Brazil and Latvia – were denied permission to fly the pride flag. Richard Grenell, the US ambassador to Germany, is spearheading an American campaign to decriminalize homosexuality around the world and said he would be “proud” to fly the rainbow flag.
But Mike Pompeo, the US secretary of state, believes that embassy flagpoles should be reserved for the American flag only, according to a spokeswoman.
“Pride Month, that we’re in right now, is celebrated around the world by many State Department employees, by many embassies,” Morgan Ortagus, the state department spokeswoman, said on Monday. “The secretary has the position that, as it relates to the flag pole, that only the American flag should be flown there.”
Read the full report here.
Hello and welcome
Good morning everyone! Sabrina Siddiqui here, manning the live blog and taking you through the latest in US politics.
I’ll be giving you updates on two congressional hearings today: One will feature first responders and students, along with comedian Jon Stewart, testifying before lawmakers on the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund. The government fund providing health benefits to those sickened by the attacks has nearly run dry, and victims will implore Congress to expand it.
Big Tech will also be under scrutiny at a hearing examining anti-competitive behavior among digital giants -- namely Amazon, Google, Facebook and Apple. Last week, House speaker Nancy Pelosi warned tech titans: “The era of self-regulation is over”.
And then there will surely be news from a certain Donald Trump, who you may have heard of, so stay tuned!
Updated
Joe Biden: Trump An 'Existential Threat'
Joe Biden and Donald Trump will hold dueling rallies in the key battleground state of Iowa, offering Americans a preview of what a hypothetical 2020 general election might hold in store.
According to CBS News, Biden plans to call Trump an “existential threat” to the United States as he seeks to position himself as the best Democratic contender to take on the president at the ballot box. The former vice president plans to draw a “sharp contrast” on issues such as climate change, tariffs and American values.
Biden launched his campaign in April with a laser focus on the general election, touting himself as the most likely candidate to defeat Trump while lamenting the trajectory of the country under the president’s stewardship.
Biden will expand upon the theme on Tuesday, telling Iowans: “What are you going to do when your kids start tweeting like Trump and say, ‘Well, the president did it.’”
Trump will meanwhile travel to western Iowa on Tuesday to deliver remarks on renewable energy before heading to Des Moines for a dinner and fundraiser with the state’s Republican Party.
Trump has repeatedly attacked Biden, calling him “another low I.Q. individual” and hitting his record on trade and crime.
