Tuesday evening summary
Wrapping up for the evening. Here’s what happened today:
-
Bernie Sanders signed a pledge to the Democratic National Committee, complying with a new rule requiring him to run and govern as a Democrat if he wins the presidency in 2020.
- New York regulators are investigating whether Trump committed insurance fraud, and have subpoenaed his broker, Aon, for documents and details on his communications with the company going back to 2009.
- Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross is trying to delay his hearing in front of the House oversight committee, which is hoping to question the high-ranking Trump administration official on his financial ties and other ethical issues.
- The House intelligence committee chairman, Adam Schiff, fired back at the president, who complained that Democrats were taking a “wrecking ball” to his life, saying that rather than drain the swamp, Trump had “filled the swamp to overflowing”.
Congressman Adam Schiff, who chairs the House Intelligence Committee, responded today to Trump’s complaints that Democrats were taking a “wrecking ball” to his life, by rebuking Republicans for not investigating the Administration sooner.
“Two years of a Republican Congress that did no oversight whatsoever,” Schiff said to CNN reporter Manu Raji. “Every day we learn about new impropriety. For a president that talked about draining the swamp, he has filled the swamp to overflowing”.
Schiff, responding to Trump saying Dems are trying to take a "wrecking ball" to his life, told me: "I'm not surprised he doesn't like the idea of oversight because I think he's all too conscious of the corruption large and small in the administration." pic.twitter.com/5si4bEQ9uH
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 6, 2019
Wilbur Ross, who heads the Commerce Department, is trying to pushback next week’s hearing in front of the House Oversight Committee, ABC reports. The Department is citing the significant scale of documents requested by the committee as the reason for delay.
The high-level Trump Administration official is currently scheduled for questioning on March 14, as House Democrats hope to hear more about his attempt to add a citizenship question to the next census, a move that was blocked by a federal judge in New York, and investigate ethics issues that have arisen after Ross misled regulators and failed to divest from assets that could cause a conflict of interest.
Per ABC:
The letter from the Commerce Department references a communication from Democrats on the Oversight Committee last month that requested a large-scale document production related to Ross’s financial disclosures and ethics obligations.
‘In the days following our receipt of that letter, it became clear that the Committee intended to expand the scope of the March 14 hearing to ask the Secretary questions about his personal finances and ethics obligations – topics that we did not anticipate nor expect to be covered in such detail and depth based on the frequent and cordial communications between our staffs,’ it reads”.
In February, the US Office of Governmental Ethics refused to certify Ross’s Financial Disclosure Report, finding inaccuracies that showed he was “not in compliance with his ethics agreement at the time of the report”.
While he was being confirmed for the role as Commerce Secretary, Ross told officials he would divest from assets that might cause conflicts of interest but in the two years since, he has failed to do so. An investigation from the Center for Public Integrity, published in July, revealed that his divestment delays earned 7 figures, with one stock increasing in value between $1.2 million and $6 million (depending on exactly how many shares he owns, a figure that remains unclear).
A new Quinnipiac University poll, released today, finds that the majority of Americans believe the president has committed crimes, both before and while in office.
Of the registered voters polled, 64% said Trump committed crimes before becoming president, and 45% believe he’d done so as president.
“When two-thirds of voters think you have committed a crime in your past life, and almost half of voters say it’s a tossup over whether you committed a crime while in the Oval Office, confidence in your overall integrity is very shaky,” Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll said in a statement released with the findings.
“Add to that, Michael Cohen, a known liar headed to the big house, has more credibility than the leader of the free world,” he added.
The poll found that half of voters believe Cohen more than they believe Trump.
from new Quinnipiac poll:
— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) March 5, 2019
the only demographic groups giving Trump majority approval for job performance are white men (55%) and non-college whites (52%)
among those groups, 54% of white men and 57% of non-college whites also say Trump committed crimes before becoming president
Based on information from Michael Cohen’s explosive testimony, New York regulators are now investigating whether the Trump Organization inflated assets to insurance companies, New York Times reports.
On Monday, the state’s Department of Financial Services issued a wide-ranging 9-page subpoena to the organization’s insurance broker, a company called Aon, for details on all Trump’s communications with the company and any information dating back to 2009 that could help prosecutors identify whether or not the president committed insurance fraud.
Per the Times:
The regulators are also looking at compensation for the current and former Aon employees who handled the Trump Organization account, seeking information about their incentives, bonus payments or commissions. They are seeking similar contracts and agreements between Aon and Mr. Trump.
A spokeswoman for Aon, Donna Mirandola, said the company intended to cooperate, adding: “We do not comment on specific client matters.” The White House referred a request for comment to the Trump Organization, which did not respond to requests for comment. A spokesman for the Department of Financial Services declined to comment.
The subpoena came just days after Michael Cohen indicated to the House Oversight Committee that the Trump Organization inflated the value of its assets to insurance companies. https://t.co/jm5HpNNWwa
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) March 5, 2019
Gabrielle Canon here, taking over for Lauren Gambino for the evening.
Senator Bernie Sanders, a 2020 presidential hopeful already ahead of the pack in the polls, has agreed to run and govern as a Democrat if he wins, the Wall Street Journal reports.
NEW: Bernie Sanders signs DNC loyalty pledge saying "I am a member of the Democratic Party" and that he will run for president as a Democrat in 2020. pic.twitter.com/TiXWtmQwle
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) March 5, 2019
Sanders won his seat in the Senate as an independent and describes himself as a Democratic socialist, but is complying with a new Democratic National Committee requirement for all candidates to declare their allegiance — a rule made after he challenged Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nomination in the last primary.
Summary
- Former New York Mayor and billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg will not run for president.
- Hillary Clinton will not run for president, nor will Oregon senator Jeff Merkley, though Stacey Abrams isn’t ruling out a possible bid.
- Trump is slamming Democrats sweeping requests issued to 81 figures in his orbit. At a bill signing this afternoon, Trump hinted that the White House would not comply with the requests while calling the investigation a “disgrace to our country.”
- Two House Democrats are calling for a criminal investigation into Jared Kushner’s security clearance after the White House declines a request for documents related to the administration’s process for granting the clearances. The move raises the the possibility of a House subpoena.
- Majority leader Mitch McConnell said he would bring up the Green New Deal legislation for a vote in the next couple of weeks. He also predicted a resolution blocking the president’s national emergency declaration would be met with a veto that Congress would not be able to override.
Before I sign off for the day, a final, light-hearted post on a deep-seated American problem.
In 2019, there are few aspects of daily life that cross the partisan divide, from the coast we live on to our choices of news, grocery stores, TV shows and cars.
So it should come as no surprise that Democrats and Republicans differ in their beverage of choice when celebrating Mardis Gras.
Will Feltus, a senior vice president for research at National Media, found that Democrats prefer cognac, brandy and Mexican beers while Republicans prefer bourbon and light, domestic beers, as reported by Bloomberg. Here’s Feltus’ explanation.
Democrats will be heavy consumers of cognac and brandy, both favored by African-American drinkers, who overwhelmingly lean left. Mexican beers such as Corona, Tecate, and Modelo Especial are also popular with Democrats, especially those who don’t turn out regularly on Election Day—that is, they’re popular with young people, whose turnout numbers lag behind older groups. And because Heineken drinkers are concentrated in the Northeast—not friendly territory for Republicans—they, too, skew Democratic.
Republicans have an entirely different alcoholic profile. “They’re big bourbon drinkers,” Feltus says, “and bourbon is most popular in the Republican South.” GOP voters also tend to be older than Democrats and therefore more likely to be paying more attention to their expanding waistlines, which explains why a watery light beer like Michelob Ultra is the most Republican-skewing drink on the chart. Miller Lite, Coors Light, Bud Light, and Busch Light aren’t far behind.
He says whether his data is used to meet like-minded bar-goers or to break the ice, the “real question is what they’ll be drinking tomorrow to get over their hangovers.”
First Lady Melania Trump is in Las Vegas where she will participate in a town hall on the opioid crisis as she wraps up her Be Best West Coast tour.
During the event, Trump challenged the media to give the opioid crisis “the same amount of coverage that you do to idle gossip or trivial stories.” (read more from our expansive coverage of the opioid crisis here.)
“I’d also like to take a moment to challenge the media to cover this very real issue as often as possible,” she said. “In 2017, we lost at least 72,000 Americans to overdoses—that’s 197 lost American lives per day – more than 8 lost lives per hour. I challenge the press to devote as much time to the lives lost – and the potential lives that could be saved – by dedicating the same amount of coverage that you do to idle gossip or trivial stories.”
Among those in the crowd at the International Theater at Westgate Las Vegas were Reverend Jerry Falwell and an Elvis impersonator.
Also this:
Things I learned while watching this event: Melania Trump just renovated the White House bowling alley.
— Katie Rogers (@katierogers) March 5, 2019
In other 2020 news, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams isn’t ruling out a run for president.
“I need women of color, particularly black women, to understand that our achievements should not be diminished,” Abrams told the New York Times in an interview published today. She added, “Now I’m not saying I would be the best candidate, but I’m not going to dismiss it out of hand the way others do.”
For those keeping track at home, Bloomberg is the fourth 2020 announcement this week. (He’s the fifth if you really thought Hillary Clinton might be considering a run and crossed her off the list.)
On Monday, former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper jumped in the race while former attorney general Eric Holder took himself out of contention. This morning senator Jeff Merkley announced he would seek a third term in the Senate rather than run for president.
Four 2020 announcements so far this week - Hickenlooper in, while Holder, Merkley and Bloomberg are out - and it’s only Tuesday afternoon
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) March 5, 2019
We’re still expecting announcements from a handful of perspective candidates, including Joe Biden, Beto O’Rourke, Sherrod Brown, Steve Bullock, Michael Bennet, Terry McAuliffe and maybe, just maybe, Andrew Cuomo?
Updated
Bloomberg not running for president
Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg will not run for president, he announced in an opinion piece for Bloomberg News titled “Our Highest Office, My Deepest Obligation: I’m not running for president, but I am launching a new campaign: Beyond Carbon.”
So as I’ve thought about a possible presidential campaign, the choice before me has become clear. Should I devote the next two years to talking about my ideas and record, knowing that I might never win the Democratic nomination? Or should I spend the next two years doubling down on the work that I am already leading and funding, and that I know can produce real and beneficial results for the country, right now?
I’ve come to realize that I’m less interested in talking than doing. And I have concluded that, for now, the best way for me to help our country is by rolling up my sleeves and continuing to get work done.
In the op-ed, Bloomberg redoubled his commitment to combatting climate change and gun violence. He also said he intends to champion causes devoted to tackling the opioid crisis in the US, reducing the racial achievement gap in education, and expanding access to the voting booth.
He concludes: “In the weeks and months ahead, I will dive even deeper into the work of turning around our country, through concrete actions and results. And I will continue supporting candidates who can provide the leadership we need — on climate change, gun violence, education, health, voting rights, and other critical issues — and continue holding their feet to the fire to deliver what they promise.
“I hope those who have urged me to run, and to stand up for the values and principles that they hold dear, will understand that my decision was guided by one question: How can I best serve the country?”
Updated
The White House has rejected a request from House Democrats for documents relate to the security clearance process, according to a reporter in the Washington Post.
The move escalates the standoff between Democrats and the Trump White House, an raises the specter of a subpoena from the White House.
The Democrats’ heightened interest in the matter follows fresh reports that Trump directed his chief of staff to give his son-in-law Jared Kushner a security clearance despite concerns from the intelligence community.
In a letter to House Oversight and Reform chairman Elijah Cummings, White House Counsel Pat Cipollone said the request was “without legal support, clearly premature, and suggests a breach of the constitutionally required accommodation process,” according to the Post.
“We believe the best course is to move forward with this agreed-upon accommodation and then speak again once your review of the documents and the briefing are complete,” Cipollone wrote in the letter.
In response, Cummings said: “The White House’s argument defies the Constitutional separation of powers, decades of precedent before this Committee, and just plain common-sense. The White House security clearance system is broken, and it needs both congressional oversight and legislative reform. I will be consulting with Members of the Committee to determine our next steps.”
Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb is resigning, Axios reported. He oversaw the crackdown on electronic cigarettes and helped lead the administration’s response to the opioid epidemic.
Axios wrote that the commute between Washington and Connecticut, where his family, including three young children live, was taking a toll.
Scott Gottlieb is resigning because of “the difficulty of commuting back and forth between” Washington and Connecticut, where his 3 young kids live. https://t.co/ca9gDVx6WI
— Caitlin Owens (@caitlinnowens) March 5, 2019
CBP: Border crossings reach new highs
The number of migrant families crossing the US-Mexico border is on the rise, according to border enforcement officials.
More than 76,000 migrants crossed the border without authorization in February, twice the number of people who crossed during the same period last year. The New York Times reported that the number of families crossing the southern border has broken records in four of the last five months.
This comes as US customs and border protection (CBP) announced plan to build a new facility in El Paso, Texas, to help manage the increase of families that the existing locations crowded and agents overwhelmed.
“The system is well beyond capacity, and remains at the breaking point,” Kevin McAleenan, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told reporters.
He said the facility would provide migrants with proper medical screenings and care. But the move is only a temporary fix, he warned, and the system is not built to support the influx in families, which demand specialized care, the Associated Press reported. Two children recently died in Border Patrol custody.
The Trump administration’s hardline immigration proposals have forced families to resort to increasingly dangerous routes in an attempt to reach the US border. But because many are seeking asylum, a wall is unlikely to stop their migration.
Trump has declared a national emergency at the border that could allow him to circumvent Congress to obtain the funds he needs to begin building a wall on the border. Congress is expected to pass a resolution this week that would rebuke the president’s action. Trump has said he will veto the measure.
McAleenan is scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary on Wednesday at a hearing titled “Oversight of the Customs and Border Protection’s Response to the Smuggling of Persons at the Southern Border.”
“We are facing an illegal immigration crisis at our southern border and President Trump is on sound legal footing to declare an emergency to deal with the problem,” said judiciary chairman Lindsey Graham. “I expect the President’s position will prevail – in Congress and the courts.”
Updated
Senate to vote on the Green New Deal in the "next couple weeks"
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has promised to bring up the Green New Deal for a vote in the chamber, as a way of forcing Demorats to go on the record over the plan Republicans believe will be politically damaging for them. The Democrats who oppose the sweeping plan could risk inflaming the activist base that supports the bold action.
Mitch McConnell says he will bring the Green New Deal up for a vote in the Senate in “the next couple weeks.”
— Paul McLeod (@pdmcleod) March 5, 2019
Of course the GND does not exist as a piece of legislation so this will be a resolution crafted to put Democrats in an awkward spot.
He also said that the Senate will vote to block Trump’s emergency declaration but that Trump would veto it. He added that he doesn’t expect the House to have enough votes to override the veto.
McConnell predicts that “at the end of the day” Trump will get a resolution that he will then veto, and the veto will be sustained. (This is the safe bet at this point.)
— Lissandra Villa (@LissandraVilla) March 5, 2019
Updated
Trump called the House judiciary’s document request a “disgrace to our country”.
“The campaign begins,” he said, taking just one question from reporters after signing legislation to establish a task force dedicated to preventing veteran suicide.
“Instead of doing infrastructure, instead of doing healthcare, instead of doing so many things that they should be doing, they want to play games,” he continued.
He then suggests that the White House would not comply with the requests, pointing to the Obama administration’s handling of the investigation. “They didn’t give one letter. They didn’t do anything. They didn’t give one letter of the requests.”
Trump is due to sign an executive order regarding a “National Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End Suicide” soon, and with the press pool having been ushered into place we might be about to hear from the president directly.
In the meantime, here’s White House press secretary Sarah Sanders’ statement about on “Chairman Nadler’s fishing expedition” – which isn’t the off-beat children’s book it might sound like, but rather what the Trump administration is calling the House judiciary chair’s 81 letters to Trumpworld people and entities yesterday, seeking documentation.
Statement on Chairman Nadler’s fishing expedition. pic.twitter.com/tBsVzrtGYg
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) March 5, 2019
I agree '100%' with keeping troops in Syria – Trump
Two months after abruptly announcing that US troops would leave Syria, prompting controversy and fallout including the resignation of his defense secretary and his envoy to multinational forces fighting the Islamic State, Trump is on record backing a continuing American presence in the country “100%”.
NBC News obtained a letter sent to Trump by a bipartisan group of senators applauding his change of plan, which was quietly announced last month. You can see it here, including the president’s Sharpie-applied notes.
“I agree 100%,” Trump wrote. “ALL is being done.” He also highlighted a paragraph in which the senators, led by Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, said they shared his aims in Syria, which were itemised thus:
- That Isis never returns
- That Iran is not “emboldened”
- That the “best outcome for American interests” is achieved
The senators also said keeping a small US contingent in the country would “help prevent conflict between our Nato ally Turkey and the Syrian Democratic Forces that have been central to the counter-Isis campaign”.
After Trump announced his intention to pull out, many critics suggested that Kurds who have fought with US forces were at risk of being wiped out by Turkey.
Updated
The House judiciary, oversight, foreign affairs and intelligence committees made headlines on Monday, with requests for documentation from and interviews with key figures throughout Trumpworld.
Today, ABC News reports that the ways and means committee is seeking to construct an “air-tight” legal strategy by which to compel Donald Trump to release his personal tax returns for the last 10 years.
The committee has the authority to request the documents from the US treasury, but member Bill Pascrell, a New Jersey Democrat, told ABC the matter will most likely “be fought out in the courts, and then possibly the supreme court”.
“They weren’t going to simply take the letter and agree to it,” he said.
Presidential candidates have for years released tax records by convention, but not by compunction. As a candidate, Trump said he was under an audit and would release his tax returns after that. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he never did.
In testimony to the oversight committee last week which ABC said had increased pressure on the ways and means committee, former Trump lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen said he presumed Trump had not been under audit. Trump did not want his returns released, Cohen said, because he “didn’t want an entire group of think tanks, who are tax experts, to run through his returns”. Cohen also said Trump bragged that he did not pay taxes.
Most observers think Trump’s tax returns hold vital information for those eager to investigate him and as such, to Trump’s opponents, they have become a sort of Holy Grail.
There have been glimpses, among them:
- In October 2016, a month before the election, the New York Times used parts of Trump’s 1995 tax return to say he might not have paid federal income tax for 18 years.
- In March 2017, MSNBC got hold of two pages of Trump’s 2005 return, which contained no explosive information.
- In October 2018, the Times released a bumper report on Trump family tax schemes.
But there has been no sign of the motherlode.
Here’s a link to a Guardian column by David Cay Johnston, expert Trump-watcher and the source of the MSNBC report, which we published after the 2018 Times investigation:
In answer to the 2016 Times report, meanwhile, Trump tweeted that he knew “our complex tax laws better than anyone who has ever run for president and am the only one who can fix them”.
A coalition of 21 states has filed a lawsuit to block the Trump administration from the Title X family planning program that would bar clinics receiving federal money from referring patients for abortion.
The impact of the rule change would effectively strip tens of millions of dollars from Planned Parenthood and shift the funding to faith-based clinics.
“Everyone deserves the ability make their own decisions about their health care,” Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said in a statement, according to the Washington Post. “It is appalling that the federal government wants to rob individuals of the right to complete medical information and full access to the critical health care services they rely on.”
The lawsuit argues that the new rule “blesses biased and incomplete pregnancy counseling where the interests of the patient are no longer paramount” and “will politicize the practice of medicine and the delivery of health care.”
The change has been hailed by conservatives and religious groups who are a significant segment of Trump’s support.
Updated
The FBI is looking into a threat against Minnesota congresswoman Ilhan Omar that was written on a bathroom stall and posted on social media, according to the Pioneer Press.
The paper reported that the FBI is in the “initial stages” of assessing the threat. The FBI is involved because Omar is a federal officeholder.
“We are aware of that piece of graffiti at the convenience store and are looking into it with some of our law enforcement partners,” Kevin Smith, public affairs officer for the FBI Minneapolis Division told the Pioneer Press.
Updated
In 1974, Joe Biden reportedly said: “When it comes to civil rights and civil liberties, I’m a liberal but that’s it. I’m really quite conservative on most other issues.”
Kamala Harris was 10. Cory Booker was five. That was the same year Julián Castro was born and several years before Pete Buttigieg and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard were born.
Biden has the longest voting record of any potential challenger, which creates vulnerabilities for the former Vice President in a Democratic field that is younger, more diverse and more ideological than at any point in recent memory.
Joe Biden in 1974, dug up by @zachdcarter: “When it comes to civil rights and civil liberties, I’m a liberal but that’s it. I’m really quite conservative on most other issues.” https://t.co/gUqKMleEGe
— Alex Seitz-Wald (@aseitzwald) March 5, 2019
The Huffington Post piece explores what might be one of the key tensions of a Biden campaign between his folksy, populist brand and his voting record.
“In more than four decades of public service, Biden has enthusiastically championed policies favored by financial elites, forging alliances with Wall Street and the political right to notch legislative victories that ran counter to the populist ideas that now animate his party,” the Zach Carter writes. “If he declares for the presidency, Biden will face a Democratic electorate that has moved on from his brand of politics.”
Updated
Democrats call for criminal investigation into Kushner's security clearance
Democratic congressman Ted Lieu of California and Don Beyer of Virginia, have formally submitted a request to the US Justice Department over a security clearance issued to White House adviser Jared Kushner, who is the president’s son-in-law.
.@RepDonBeyer & I have made a criminal referral of Jared Kushner to @TheJusticeDept.
— Ted Lieu (@tedlieu) March 5, 2019
Making false statements or omitting material info on SF-86 security form is punishable by up to 5 years in prison. More info at @politico huddle. Here's the letter: https://t.co/yq4H1zbhux.
“We are deeply disturbed by recent reports that President Trump ordered his Chief of Staff, John Kelly, to grant Jared Kushner a security clearance, overruling intelligence officials who raised concerns about the clear national security risks of doing so,” the Democrats wrote in a letter to the newly-installed Attorney General William Barr.
Updated
Maine senator Susan Collins, a Republican up for re-election in 2020, says she will oppose Chad Readler, Trump’s nominee for a federal appellate judge.
Sen. Susan Collins said Tuesday she will vote against Chad Readler, President Donald Trump’s nominee for the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals who has come under fire from Democrats over role in ACA lawsuit, per @tedbarrettcnn
— Manu Raju (@mkraju) March 5, 2019
This come as progressive group Demand Justice launches a new digital ad campaign targeting “four Republican senators who may side with the architect of the Trump administration’s legal strategy to gut protections for preexisting conditions.” The ads are aimed at Collins, as well as senators Thom Tillis of North Carolina, Cory Gardner of Colorado and Joni Ernst of Iowa.
Trump will sign an executive order this afternoon setting up a task force to combat veteran suicides. The initiative will be called the “National Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End Veteran Suicide,” or PREVENTS, and led by Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie
Trump will sign an executive order today to create a Cabinet-level task force to prevent veteran suicide. The initiative follows a report released in December that found VA suicide prevention outreach "dropped off" after Trump took office.https://t.co/XzqFRvuOe8
— Axios (@axios) March 5, 2019
Former White House press secretary Sean Spicer told Fox News that he will cooperate with the House investigation into Trump’s ties with Russia.
“There’s nothing that I have to hide,” he said in the interview.
Spicer: "There is nothing that I have to hide" pic.twitter.com/dXZsfyHw3z
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 5, 2019
California congressman Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, has hired veteran prosecutor Daniel Goldman to join his panel’s investigation of the Trump Administration.
The New Yorker reported that Goldman, who served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the Southern District of New York from 2007 to 2017, joined the committee’s staff as a senior adviser and the director of investigations. The committee is leading the House’s investigation into ties between the Trump campaign and Russia during the 2016 Presidential campaign.
Jeffrey Toobin writes that Goldman is well-suited to the role, with experience prosecuting individuals involved in Russian organized crime.
On Tuesday, Schiff put out a statement confirming the hire and announcing several others.
“I am excited to announce the recent addition of a number of capable individuals to the HPSCI leadership team, as we continue our important work of strong and effective oversight of the nation’s intelligence agencies,” Schiff said. “I look forward to working with them to perform important oversight and investigative work to ensure the security of our country and its institutions.”
Sixty days into the 116th Congress – one congressional seat remains unfilled. And the seat will remain unaccounted for until at least September, after the results of the November election were thrown out due to concerns about wide-spread ballot tampering.
According to the Associated Press, North Carolina’s elections board announced on Monday that the party primaries for the state’s 9th congressional district will be held on May 14. If both parties handily choose their nominee, the general election will be September 10. If not, there will be a run-off primary contest and the general election could be delayed.
“It appears to me the irregularities and improprieties occurred to such an extent that they tainted the results of the entire election and cast doubt on its fairness,” said elections board chairman Robert Cordle. “I believe the people of North Carolina deserve a fair election and deserve to have their votes counted properly.”
Election officials ordered the new contest after dramatic public testimony that a political operative working for the Republican candidate Mark Harris had allegedly collected, filled out and forged mail-in ballots in counties in the 9th district.
Harris, who appeared to have won the seat in 2018, has said he won’t run again for the Republican nomination. The Democrat, Dan McCready, said he will try again in a district Trump won by 12% in 2016.
Ohio teen Ethan Lindenberger who chose to be vaccinated against his mother’s wishes will testify before Congress on Tuesday.
“I’m happy to share that I’ll be testifying at a hearing for the committee of health, education labor, and pensions about the importance of vaccinations!” he wrote on Twitter, and included a video.
He’ll be testifying alongside John Wiesman, the Washington state’s secretary of health; John Boyle, president and CEO of the Immune Deficiency Foundation as well as other health experts.
I’m happy to share that I’ll be testifying at a hearing for the committee of health, education labor, and pensions about the importance of vaccinations! Check out the video here!https://t.co/sPM12poJVi
— Ethan (@ethan_Joesph16) March 3, 2019
This comes after a new major study by researchers in Denmark found no link between the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism, even among children whose siblings have the disorder.
Updated
Senator Bernie Sanders is ticking off the early voting states after formally launching his presidential campaign in Brooklyn and Chicago last weekend. His campaign announced that he will hold a rally in Concord, New Hampshire on Sunday morning following events in Iowa on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
A controversial US surveillance program revealed in the Guardian by the National Security Agency whistleblower Ed Snowden in 2013, has not been used for six months and is unlikely to be renewed, a key congressional aide has said.
Under the version of the program, the NSA collected the communication records of millions of US citizens indiscriminately and in bulk, regardless of whether or not they were suspected of wrongdoing.
The administration actually hasn’t been using it for the past six months because of problems with the way in which that information was collected and possibly collected on US citizens, [and] in the way that was transferred from private companies to the administration … I’m actually not certain that the administration will want to start that back up,” Luke Murry, the national security adviser to Republican House of Representatives minority leader, Kevin McCarthy, told the national security website Lawfare.
A new book by veteran Democratic foreign policy adviser Trina Vargo accuses Bill and Hillary Clinton of nepotism, dishonesty and vindictiveness – even trying to get a grant to study in Ireland for their daughter’s boyfriend.
The Guardian’s Ireland correspondent, Rory Carroll writes that the book represents an “assault on a previously untouched part of the Clinton political legacy” in Ireland.
Vargo, who was a behind-the-scenes Washington player in Northern Ireland’s peace process, claims the couple tried to obtain a scholarship to Ireland for a boyfriend of their daughter, Chelsea, and later cut funding for the scholarship to punish Vargo for backing Barack Obama in the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination race.
Angel Urena and Nick Merrill, spokespersons for the Clintons, defended the couple and rejected the book’s claims. “Their legacy there is something they are incredibly proud of and one that is well documented. These accusations are baseless and patently false.”
In an era of tribalism and partisanship, some 2020 candidates hope to rise above the fray with an appeal to what they believe is a yearning for cross-party congeniality and consensus-building. But veterans of the Obama White House tell the Daily Beast that such an approach is futile.
There’s this sort of older way of thinking about politics where it’s all about personal relationships… That’s not how politics works,” Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Obama, told the website. “Barack Obama and Mitch McConnell had shared a bottle of whiskey once and McConnell went out and stole a Supreme Court seat from him.”
This is part of a wider debate happening within the Democratic party about how to engage with Republicans in the age of Trump.
After eight years of watching Republicans rebuke, block and obstruct Obama’s agenda – and then watch as the same people give their unyielding fealty to a man who breaks presidential norms on a daily basis – many younger and progressive Democrats are demanding their leaders give the opposition what they view as a dose of its own medicine. They want to see Democrats fight fire with fire. They want representatives who are hostile to the administration and unflinching in their opposition.
Case in point: Joe Biden, who is likely to run for president in 2020, drew sharp rebuke from progressives when he praised Mike Pence in a speech about how the US under Trump had lost its standing with key allies. Democratic presidential nominee Elizabeth Warren and former New York gubernatorial candidate Cynthia Nixon responded with a critique of Pence’s LGBTQ record.
“You’re right, Cynthia,” Biden responded on Twitter. “I was making a point in a foreign policy context, that under normal circumstances a Vice President wouldn’t be given a silent reaction on the world stage. But there is nothing decent about being anti-LGBTQ rights, and that includes the Vice President.”
This is quite the story about elderly Trump critics who fear they’ll die without ever knowing the conclusion of the Mueller investigation, by NPR’s Tim Mak.
A son recounts his father’s dying words: “It just was quiet for a little while and then he just sits up in bed halfway and looks at me and he goes, ‘S***, I’m not going to see the Mueller report, am I?’ And that was really the last coherent thing that he said.”
Read the full story here.
Ty Cobb, the mustachioed Washington lawyer who represented the White House in the Russia investigations has some thoughts about Robert Mueller.
“I don’t feel the same way about Mueller,” Cobb said in an interview with ABC News’ podcast The Investigation. “I don’t feel the investigation is a witch hunt.”
He also said: “In my first nine-and-a-half months … I was able to prevent the president from going on the attack against Mueller. It wasn’t really until [Trump’s now-former lawyer John] Dowd sent out a critical tweet of Mueller and Rudy joined the team that the president felt unleashed.”
EXCLUSIVE: Ty Cobb, who represented the White House while special counsel Robert Mueller ramped up his probe, tells @ABC he considers Mueller “an American hero” and does not share President Trump’s view that the Russia probe is a politically motivated hoax https://t.co/TaXRbysfFA pic.twitter.com/gH194t2hKd
— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 5, 2019
In other big 2020 news... Hillary Clinton definitively ruled out a run for president next year.
“I’m not running, but I’m going to keep on working and speaking and standing up for what I believe,” she said in an interview with News 12 Long Island.
“I want to be sure that people understand I’m going to keep speaking out,” Clinton said. “I’m not going anywhere. What’s at stake in our country, the kind of things that are happening right now are deeply troubling to me. And I’m also thinking hard about how do we start talking and listening to each other again? We’ve just gotten so polarized. We’ve gotten into really opposing camps unlike anything I’ve ever seen in my adult life.”
Updated
Trump is tweeting again about “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT” and the what he calls “the greatest overreach in the history of our country.”
The greatest overreach in the history of our Country. The Dems are obstructing justice and will not get anything done. A big, fat, fishing expedition desperately in search of a crime, when in fact the real crime is what the Dems are doing, and have done!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
He also claims the Republican approval rating just hit 93%. He is likely referring to Republicans approval of his job performance and not the public’s opinion of the GOP, which is low.
Republican Approval Rating just hit 93%. Sorry Haters! MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
House Democratic leaders will this week vote on a resolution condemning anti-Semitism after Minnesota congresswoman Ilan Omar again sparked controversy with the suggestion that pro-Israeli activists “push for allegiance to a foreign country.”
The draft resolution “acknowledges the dangerous consequences of perpetuating anti-Semitic stereotypes” and “rejects anti-Semitism as hateful expressions of intolerance that are contradictory to the values that define the people of the United States,” according to the Washington Post. But it does not name Omar.
It is disturbing that Rep. Omar continues to perpetuate hurtful anti-Semitic stereotypes that misrepresent our Jewish community. Additionally, questioning support for the U.S.-Israel relationship is unacceptable. (1/2)
— Rep. Juan Vargas (@RepJuanVargas) March 4, 2019
In a lengthy thread on Twitter, New York congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez believes that the resolution exposes a double standard and asks why members who make racist, sexist or homophobic comments aren’t duly condemned.
One of the things that is hurtful about the extent to which reprimand is sought of Ilhan is that no one seeks this level of reprimand when members make statements about Latinx + other communities (during the shutdown, a GOP member yelled “Go back to Puerto Rico!” on the floor). https://t.co/MwrRN4v4DG
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) March 5, 2019
And she is not the only Democrat questioning the resolution is a way to silence debate on the issue.
Voting to condemn antisemitism is fine, even if you feel compelled to do it twice. But I worry that accusation is a way to kill all debate about policy regarding Israel. And folks need some new, non inflammatory language to be supportive of Israel but opposed to Bibi’s policies.
— Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) March 5, 2019
(Earlier this year, the House rebuked Iowa congressman Steve King after his comments on white nationalism and Republicans stripped him of his committee assignments.)
Updated
Good morning, happy Mardis Gras and welcome to our live coverage of the news in Washington.
It is relatively quiet here this morning, save for the fallout from this late-breaking Wall Street Journal report.
The newspaper reported last night that “an attorney for Michael Cohen, Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer, raised the possibility of a pardon with attorneys for the president and his company after federal agents raided Mr. Cohen’s properties in April, according to people familiar with the discussions.”
That conversation is currently being probed by congressional investigators, according to document requests issued Monday by the House Judiciary Committee to dozens of Trump associates, including one of the president’s current lawyers and Mr Cohen.
Meanwhile, @realDonaldTrump is atwitter.
Now that they realize the only Collusion with Russia was done by Crooked Hillary Clinton & the Democrats, Nadler, Schiff and the Dem heads of the Committees have gone stone cold CRAZY. 81 letter sent to innocent people to harass them. They won’t get ANYTHING done for our Country!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 5, 2019
He also Tweeted a New York Times story about a patient who appears to have been cured of HIV, though he forgot to include a link to the piece. Apparently Trump believes the “failing” New York Times when he likes the headline.
Congress is back in session today and a vote on a resolution to block Trump’s national emergency declaration is expected to pass the Senate later this week. Trump has said he will veto the measure, the first of his presidency. The bill does not appear to have the votes in either chamber to override a presidential veto.
Oregon senator Jeff Merkley is not running for president. Instead he will seek a third term in the Senate. Here’s the video of his announcement.
Laissez les bons temps rouler.
Updated
