Evening summary
That’s all for today, folks. Thanks for sticking with us.
- President Trump hit back at the Democratic National Committee for shutting Fox News out of televising the 2020 primary debates, tweeting that he will “do the same thing” for other news networks during for the general election debates.
- NBC7 published a cache of leaked documents that show that the Trump administration created a secret database tracking journalists, an attorney, and immigration advocates connected to the migrant caravan.
- As House Democrats put off introducing a resolution intended to rebuke Representative Ilhan Omar over her comments criticizing pro-Israeli lobbying forces, the congresswoman garnered support from senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, who challenged this push to “equate antisemitism with legitimate criticism.”
- Michael Cohen finished up a day of closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, to whom he allegedly presented with edited documents that support his allegations that Jay Sekulow, Trump’s former personal attorney, had edited his statements before the House and Senate intelligence committees. “While we will not discuss the substance of his testimony at this time, Mr Cohen cooperated fully with the Committee, answered every question we asked of him during both interview sessions, and provided important testimony and materials relevant to the core of our probe and that will allow us to advance our investigation substantially. We look forward to his continued cooperation with Congress and law enforcement,” Representative Adam Schiff, committee chairman, said in a statement.
Report: Trump administration created secret database of activists, journalists tied to migrant caravan
Leaked documents show that the US government established a secret database of advocates, attorneys, and journalists who were connected to or covered the caravan of immigrants from Central America who made their way north through Mexico to the United States southern border in 2018, NBC7 is reporting.
In some cases, those who were secretly tracked had alerts placed on their passports.
As the migrant caravan reached the San Ysidro Port of Entry in south San Diego County, so did journalists, attorneys, and advocates who were there to work and witness the events unfolding.
But in the months that followed, journalists who covered the caravan, as well as those who offered assistance to caravan members, said they felt they had become targets of intense inspections and scrutiny by border officials.
One photojournalist said she was pulled into secondary inspections three times and asked questions about who she saw and photographed in Tijuana shelters. Another photojournalist said she spent 13 hours detained by Mexican authorities when she tried to cross the border into Mexico City. Eventually, she was denied entry into Mexico and sent back to the U.S.
These American photojournalists and attorneys said they suspected the U.S. government was monitoring them closely but until now, they couldn’t prove it.
Now, documents leaked to NBC 7 Investigates show their fears weren’t baseless. In fact, their own government had listed their names in a secret database of targets, where agents collected information on them. Some had alerts placed on their passports, keeping at least three photojournalists and an attorney from entering Mexico to work.
A Customs and Border Protection spokesperson told NBC News that “the names in the database are all people who were present during violence that broke out at the border in November” and that “journalists are being tracked so that the agency can learn more about what started that violence.”
Read more here.
President Trump threatens to block news networks from televising presidential debates
The Democratic National Committee announced Wednesday that it will prevent Fox News from televising any of its primary debates during the 2020 presidential cycle, saying that a recent New Yorker exposé on the depth of the Trump administration’s ties to Fox News cast doubt on the network’s capacity to hold a “fair and neutral” debate on the Democratic primaries.
In response, the president tweeted that he would do the same “with the Fake News Networks and the Radical Left Democrats” in the general election.
Democrats just blocked @FoxNews from holding a debate. Good, then I think I’ll do the same thing with the Fake News Networks and the Radical Left Democrats in the General Election debates!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 7, 2019
Updated
President Trump attended an American Workforce Policy Advisory Board meeting on Wednesday and took a big bite out of Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Trump just called Apple CEO Tim Cook “Tim Apple” pic.twitter.com/gTHHtjWvc9
— Sean O'Kane (@sokane1) March 6, 2019
Representative Ilhan Omar garnering support from presidential hopefuls
Senators Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris have both come out in support of Representative Ilhan Omar, whose remarks about Israel have once again sparked accusations of antisemitism.
Sanders told the Hill that a House resolution intended to rebuke Omar over her comments criticizing pro-Israeli lobbying forces “is a way of stifling” debate.
“Anti-Semitism is a hateful and dangerous ideology which must be vigorously opposed in the United States and around the world. We must not, however, equate anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the right-wing, Netanyahu government in Israel. Rather, we must develop an even-handed Middle East policy which brings Israelis and Palestinians together for a lasting peace,” he said in a statement to The Hill.
“What I fear is going on in the House now is an effort to target Congresswoman Omar as a way of stifling that debate,” he continued.“That’s wrong.”
Harris, meanwhile, noted that “there is a difference between criticism of policy or political leaders, and antisemitism.”
NEW — Kamala Harris statement on Ilhan Omar pic.twitter.com/jmNXszdrsy
— Amanda Terkel (@aterkel) March 6, 2019
Omar has apologized for a 2012 tweet in which she said Israel had “hypnotized” America, again last month for suggesting that members of Congress support Israel because they are paid to do so - remarks that were condemned for employing antisemitic tropes.
But she refuses to back down from her comments last week. “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country,” Omar said.
Being opposed to Netanyahu and the occupation is not the same as being anti-Semitic. I am grateful to the many Jewish allies who have spoken out and said the same.
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 3, 2019
House Democrats were expected to offer a resolution condemning antisemitism on Wednesday, in response to Omar’s comments, but the vote was put off due to heavy backlash. Representative Ayanna Pressley told the New York Times that she had pointed out to leadership that there had to be “equity in our outrage.” An anti-Muslim poster outside the chamber of the West Virginia House of Delegates this weekend falsely connected Omar, one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress, to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Updated
And in more Michael Cohen news: ABC News is reporting that “attorneys who claimed to be in close contact with Rudy Giuliani,” current personal attorney to President Trump, had contacted Cohen following the federal raids on his office and homes last April.
The outreach came just as Cohen, who spent more than a decade advocating for Trump, was wrangling with the most consequential decision of his life; whether to remain in a joint defense agreement with the president and others, or to flip on the man to whom he had pledged immutable loyalty. The sources described the lawyers’ contact with Cohen as an effort to keep him in the tent.
Giuliani declined to comment to ABC News, citing attorney-client privilege.
Michael Cohen, on Capitol Hill once again on Wednesday for closed-door testimony, reportedly presented the House Intelligence Committee with documents showing alleged edits to the false written statement he delivered to Congress in 2017, the Daily Beast is reporting.
What those edits are exactly are still unknown, but the documents are meant to support the allegations that Cohen made last week that Jay Sekulow, Trump’s former personal attorney, had edited his statements before the House and Senate intelligence committees.
This will shock you but: in response to the Michael Cohen “edit” docs story today, Trump lawyers Jay Sekulow and Rudy Giuliani are simply reupping Jay’s same statement denial from last week, with Rudy adding that Cohen is “demonstrably lying” https://t.co/3rQWKmZQ1A pic.twitter.com/JELoPIGUl2
— Asawin Suebsaeng (@swin24) March 6, 2019
Bernie Sanders promises to play nice.
That is, the Independent senator from Vermont has once again vowed not to run negative campaign ads against his opponents.
“Bernie wants this to be a campaign of ideas and will be more than happy to discuss differences he has on the issues,” said Arianna Jones, a Sanders campaign spokesperson. “However, he has never, nor will he, engage in personal attacks.”
The pledge, first reported by BuzzFeed, could help to shape the rules of engagement in what is expected to be a spirited primary season with a sprawling and still-growing filed of Democratic candidates.
The senator has long bragged to reporters that he has never run a negative campaign ad in his life. And he made the same commitment when he ran against Hillary Clinton for the nomination in 2016.
But as the competition grew increasingly bitter, Sanders ran an ad ahead of the Iowa caucuses that many in the Clinton campaign said was clearly a negative attack. The “Two Visions” ad did not name Clinton but in contrasting the candidates, Sanders implied that his opponent was beholden to Wall St and “big money”. The senator fought her to a near-tie in the state.
In her memoir of the 2016 campaign, Clinton said Sanders’ attacks “caused lasting damage”.
Ok friends, Sabrina Siddiqui signing off and handing over to my Vivian Ho, my lovely colleague on the West Coast.
But first, a summary of the day’s key events so far:
- The Democratic National Committee has shut Fox News out of televising 2020 primary debates, citing a recent New Yorker report revealing the conservative network’s close ties to Donald Trump;
- Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, appeared for more closed-door testimony before the House intelligence committee ... time will tell what he revealed to the panel in private;
- Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kirstjen Nielsen, testified publicly before the House homeland security committee and was pressed on the president’s national emergency declaration and family separations at the US-Mexico border; in her remarks, Nielsen tried to depict a “crisis” at the border and also acknowledged parents had been deported back to their home countries without their children;
- the US trade deficit with China hit a 10-year high in 2018 ... so about those tariffs!
- prosecutors in Chicago will drop charges against Aaron Schock, the former Republican representative who modeled his congressional office after Downton Abbey, after he agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars back to IRS and campaign;
- Democrats move to restore the net neutrality rules against major Internet companies in new legislation; the 2015 Obama-era rules were rescinded by the Federal Communications Commission under Trump;
- Rashida Tlaib, a freshman member of the House, plans to introduce a bill calling for Trump’s impeachment; the congresswoman previously garnered headlines for declaring Democrats would “impeach the motherf---er”;
- Democrats are torn over how to respond to Ilhan Omar, as members revolted in a closed-door meeting against a bill to rebuke the congresswoman over her comments criticizing pro-Israeli lobbying forces in Washington;
- Trump has revoked an Obama-era requirement for reporting civilian casualties caused by US-led operations across the globe; humanitarian groups decried the lack of accountability and transparency, pointing out the surge in civilian deaths by US-led forces in the Middle East during the Trump presidency;
- Arizona Senator Martha McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, said she was raped in the Air Force by a superior officer during a hearing by the Senate armed services committee about efforts to prevent sexual assaults in the military.
And with that, Viv is now at your service and will take you through the remainder of the evening... until next time from me!
Trump was influenced by flattering letter from Mar-a-Lago patron: report
Some say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach. But given Donald Trump’s well-documented affinity for McDonald’s, there are apparently more unconventional ways to get his attention.
All you have to do is call him ‘King’.
Or so it seems based on a new report published by ProPublica, documenting an attempt by a member of Trump’s prestigious Florida resort to influence the president.
According to the report, the Mar-a-Lago patron in question was Albert Hazzouri, an old friend of Trump’s and cosmetic dentist from Pennsylvania. In late 2017, Hazzouri penned a handwritten letter -- on Mar-a-Lago stationary, but of course -- with a policy suggestion regarding federal dollars being used for veterans’ dental care.
“Dear King,” began the letter, which Hazzouri told ProPublica was done as a favor to the American Dental Association. He signed off with “Love you President” and, just like that, Trump wrote a note of his own to say he had referred the matter to David Shulkin, then the secretary of veterans affairs.
Shulkin said he never received the letter. Hazzouri did, however, tout the letter and his warm rapport with Trump while seeking a license from the Florida Board of Dentistry to open a small practice.
Hazzouri claimed to ProPublica his reference to Trump as “King” was simply an inside joke. I’ll just leave this here:
Updated
Senate Democrats seek to establish select committee on climate
Democrats plan to introduce a resolution to create a Senate committee on climate, minority leader Chuck Schumer announced on Wednesday.
“Climate change is one of the most significant crises facing humanity, and it’s time for the United States Senate to dedicate a new committee solely to the climate crisis,” Schumer said. “Not only have Senate Republicans yet to put forward a single plan to seriously address climate change, many of them still deny basic science and facts.”
“Democrats believe that Congress must take urgent action,” he added, “which is why I am calling on [Senate majority leader Mitch] McConnell to hold a standalone vote on this resolution to create a new Senate committee devoted to examining the many costs of climate inaction.”
Democrats have used their newly-minted House majority to set up a panel dedicated to combating climate change. The Senate has examined the issue through the lens of the existing energy committee, but that panel has a far more wide-ranging mandate.
While the resolution to establish a select committee on climate is unlikely to go anywhere in the Republican-led Senate, the move by Democrats is another attempt to emphasize the party’s commitment to environmental issues.
Politics is strange.
"The Republican majority leader said that we want to end air travel and cow farts. And cows don't fart, by the way Mr. President, they belch. So just for the record."
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) March 6, 2019
-- @SenStabenow pic.twitter.com/6x1o70tV3j
Speaking of Trump, the president does not appear to have much confidence in the upcoming Senate vote to terminate his national emergency declaration.
“We’ll have to see how the vote goes,” Trump told reporters at the White House.
The president declared a national emergency last month after Congress rebuffed his demands for billions of dollars in funding toward a wall along the US-Mexico border. The Democratic-led House of Representatives passed a resolution last week revoking Trump’s order.
At least four Senate Republicans have said they will join Democrats in voting against Trump’s declaration: Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Susan Collins of Maine, Thom Tillis of North Carolina and Rand Paul of Kentucky.
Several other Republican senators have criticized the president’s move, stating it set a dangerous precedent to declare a national emergency over what is effectively a policy goal. It is not, however, anticipated that Congress will be able to send a bill to Trump’s desk rescinding his declaration with a veto-proof majority.
Activists are nonetheless stepping up pressure on the Senate and on Wednesday delivered more than 760,000 petition signatures collected by immigrant rights, pro-democracy and progressive groups urging lawmakers to reject Trump’s declaration.
Updated
As Democrats weigh how to handle Representative Ilhan Omar’s comments on Israel, Donald Trump is accusing the party of failing to stand up to anti-Semitism.
It is shameful that House Democrats won’t take a stronger stand against Anti-Semitism in their conference. Anti-Semitism has fueled atrocities throughout history and it’s inconceivable they will not act to condemn it!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 6, 2019
Trump previously called on Omar to resign over her controversial comments on US support for Israel. Vice president Mike Pence has said Omar should be removed from the House foreign affairs committee if she refuses to resign.
Flashback: In 2017, after white supremacists marched in Charlottesville, Virginia chanting, among other slogans, “Jews will not replace us”, and after a counterprotester was killed, Trump infamously declared there were “very fine people on both sides”. He also defended his tweet of image in the 2016 election featuring Hillary Clinton’s face over a six-point star and a pile of $100 bills.
Updated
Republican senator says she was raped by Air Force supervisor
JUST IN from the AP:
Senator Martha McSally, the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, said Wednesday that she was raped in the Air Force by a superior officer.
The Arizona Republican, a 26-year military veteran, made the disclosure at a Senate hearing on the armed services’ efforts to prevent sexual assaults and improve the response when they occur.
McSally said she did not report being sexually assaulted because she did not trust the system, and she said she was ashamed and confused. McSally did not name the officer who she says raped her.
“I stayed silent for many years, but later in my career, as the military grappled with the scandals, and their wholly inadequate responses, I felt the need to let some people know I too was a survivor,” she said, choking up as she detailed what had happened to her. “I was horrified at how my attempt to share generally my experiences was handled. I almost separated from the Air Force at 18 years of service over my despair. Like many victims, I felt like the system was raping me all over again.”
McSally’s revelation comes not long after Senator Joni Ernst, a Republican from Iowa, detailed her own abuse and assault, and at a time of increased awareness over the problem of harassment and assault in the armed forces. Reports of sexual assaults across the military jumped nearly 10 percent in 2017 -- a year that also saw an online nude-photo sharing scandal rock the Defense Department.
McSally said she shares in the disgust of the failures of the military system and many commanders who have failed to address the problems of sexual misconduct. She said the public must demand that higher-ranking officials be part of the solution.
Trump: Civilian casualties to go unreported
Donald Trump is revoking an Obama-era requirement for reporting civilian casualties resulting from US intelligence operations across the globe.
From the AP:
Trump issued an executive order Wednesday scrapping a section of former President Barack Obama’s order that required reports of civilian casualties that occurred through military as well as intelligence operations. With Trump’s action, only civilian casualties from military operations will need to be reported.
In a statement, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council said the US government is fully committed to “minimizing — to the greatest extent possible — civilian causalities and acknowledging responsibility when they unfortunately occur during military operations.”
The spokesman, who spoke only on condition of anonymity to elaborate on the president’s written order, said Trump’s action eliminates “superfluous” reporting requirements that don’t “improve government transparency, but rather distract our intelligence professionals from their primary mission.”
Why this matters: Civilian casualties have soared under the Trump administration with little accountability from the media.
According to the UK-based watchdog group Airwars, 2017 was the deadliest year for civilian casualties in Iraq and Syria, marking a 200% increase compared with the previous year. Estimates put the number of civilians killed by US and allied strikes between 3,923 and 6,102 in both countries last year.
Human rights groups have said safeguards aimed at protecting civilians have been dramatically reduced during the Trump presidency.
Amnesty International USA condemned the Trump administration’s decision to essentially do away with transparency around civilian deaths.
“This is a shameful decision that will shroud this administration’s actions in even more secrecy with little accountability for its victims,” Daphne Eviatar, the group’s director of security with human rights, said in a statement.
“The public deserves to know how many civilians are killed by US actions,” she added. “This is an unconscionable decision and in complete disregard of fundamental human rights.”
House Democrats in dispute over Rep. Ilhan Omar
A meeting of House Democrats reportedly erupted into a feud on Wednesday over a proposed resolution condemning anti-Semitism in an indirect rebuke of Representative Ilhan Omar.
According to a report in the Washington Post, tensions rose dramatically in the closed-door meeting as some Democrats criticized their leadership for unveiling the measure in the first place.
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus were especially upset that Omar, a Somali refugee, was being targeted for her rhetoric instead of Donald Trump and Republicans.
A quick explainer on how we got here:
- Omar found herself at the center of renewed claims of anti-Semitism last week after stating that those pushing pro-Israeli interests had “allegiance to a foreign country”.
- The comments came after Omar was forced to apologize last month for invoking Jewish stereotypes when she suggested support for Israel in Washington was motivated by money.
- Republicans, who have relentlessly attacked Omar, swiftly seized on her latest remarks. Some Democrats in Congress joined the criticism, stating that while there were legitimate grievances to air with the Israeli government, Omar’s statements lacked nuance.
- In a bid to address the issue, Democratic leaders signed onto a resolution that would disavow religious hatred in a thinly-veiled sanction of Omar.
- That announcement was met with criticism, particularly on the left, for allowing Republicans to define the conversation around bigotry and ignoring what others say are Islamophobic attacks on Omar, who wears hijab and in November became one of the first Muslim women elected to the US Congress.
- Democrats initially said they were adding language to the measure, which was poised to come up for a vote this week, to also condemn Islamophobia. But its future now appears in doubt.
Our democracy is built on debate, Congresswoman! I should not be expected to have allegiance/pledge support to a foreign country in order to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that! https://t.co/gglAS4FVJW
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) March 3, 2019
The bottom line: The Omar saga marks a major test for the Democratic Party as it grapples with evolving views over the state of US-Israeli relations and the intersection of race and identity within that debate.
There is widespread belief that some of Omar’s past comments played on anti-Semitic tropes -- for which she apologized. But many of Omar’s defenders point out that she has received a disproportionate amount of attention due to her own background as a black Muslim woman. All the while, Trump has on numerous occasions perpetuated Jewish stereotypes and courted white nationalists.
At least two major threads have thus emerged from this story in the eyes of many Democrats:
1. By rebuking Omar, is the party adopting a position that there is little room for criticism of the pro-Israeli lobby in Washington; and
2. Are Democrats feeding into a double standard for how discriminatory comments are received when uttered by Trump versus other elected officials?
Cedric Richmond, a representative from Louisiana, told his Democratic colleagues today: “I think there’s a big rise in anti-Semitism and racism, and that’s a bigger conversation we need to be having. ... But it starts at 1600 Pennsylvania. It doesn’t start with one member out of 435 members of Congress.”
Updated
Donald Trump’s DHS secretary Kirstjen Nielsen sounded the alarm before Congress on Wednesday over a recent spike in apprehensions at the US-Mexico border.
The Guardian’s Amanda Holpuch has an analysis well worth your time about what that tells us about the Trump administration’s policy failures on immigration.
“Despite well-documented problems with violence and political instability in the countries people are fleeing,” Holpuch writes, “the administration has instead blamed ‘activist courts, congressional inaction, and criminals.’”
Democrats reject Fox News for presidential debates
The Democratic National Committee has announced it will omit Fox News from televising any of its primary debates during the 2020 presidential cycle, citing a recent report detailing the conservative network’s close rapport with Donald Trump.
In a statement to the Washington Post, DNC chairman Tom Perez said a New Yorker exposé on the depth of the Trump administration’s ties to Fox News cast doubt on the network’s capacity to hold a “fair and neutral” debate on the Democratic primaries.
“I believe that a key pathway to victory is to continue to expand our electorate and reach all voters,” Perez said. “That is why I have made it a priority to talk to a broad array of potential media partners, including Fox News.”
He added: “Recent reporting in the New Yorker on the inappropriate relationship between President Trump, his administration and Fox News has led me to conclude that the network is not in a position to host a fair and neutral debate for our candidates. Therefore, Fox News will not serve as a media partner for the 2020 Democratic primary debates.”
The New Yorker story, titled The Making of the Fox News White House, detailed how some of the network’s prominent conservative hosts serve as informal advisers to the president.
It also alleged that Fox News was aware of the hush money payments made by Trump’s personal attorney, Michael Cohen, to adult film actress Stormy Daniels to hide her alleged affair with the president but chose not to run the story in a bid because 21st Century Fox chairman Rupert Murdoch wanted Trump to win.
The presidential debates are typically televised by networks who secure exclusive rights to do so. There are 12 Democratic primary debates currently scheduled and set to begin in June. Fox was among the networks to send proposals to the DNC to air one of the debates.
Bill Sammon, the senior vice president at Fox News, said in a statement he hoped the DNC would reevaluate the decision while pointing out that it would be hosted by some of the network’s more well respected anchors.
“We hope the DNC will reconsider its decision to bar Chris Wallace, Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum, all of whom embody journalistic integrity and professionalism, from moderating a Democratic presidential debate,” Sammon said.
“They’re the best debate team in the business and they offer candidates an important opportunity to make their case to the largest TV news audience in America, which includes many persuadable voters.”
Updated
Trump's ambassador pick says US-Saudi relationship bigger than crown prince
John Abizaid, Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, defended the close rapport between the two countries amid the continued fallout over the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Testifying before the Senate foreign relations committee on Wednesday, Abizaid said ties between Washington and Riyadh were bigger than the Saudi crown prince, Mohammad bin Salman, whose position has been called into question due to his alleged role in Khashoggi’s execution.
“It is in our interest to make sure that the relationship is sound,” Abizaid told the Senate foreign relations committee, which is considering his nomination.
“This is not to say that I am unaware of the challenges facing the U.S.-Saudi partnership today,” he added.
“War in Yemen, the senseless killing of Jamal Khashoggi, rifts in the Gulf alliance, alleged abuses of innocent people -- to include an American citizen and female activists -- all present immediate challenges,” Abizaid said.
“Yet in the long run, we need a strong and mature partnership with Saudi Arabia.”
Abizaid faced appeals from US lawmakers to hold Prince Mohammad, commonly referred to as MBS, accountable for human rights abuses.
“He’s gone full gangster,” Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from Florida, said.
Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the committee, said the Trump administration had failed to provide Congress with “a legally mandated determination” about Khashoggi’s murder, dubbing the snub as “insulting’.
Abizaid, a retired four-star general who oversaw US Central Command, said he would insist on being privy to all US-Saudi communications.
Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, has developed a close bond with MBS and met with the crown prince last week during a tour of the Middle East. A readout of their meeting released by the White House did not mention Khashoggi.
Melania Trump slams media for reporting on 'gossip'
First lady Melania Trump has lashed out at the media for prioritizing coverage of “idle gossip or trivial stories” over issues such as the opioid epidemic.
During a discussion on Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nevada, Trump said of the crisis: “I think it should be on every media and the front pages of the newspapers, and I’m sure a lot of people would follow and go home and talk with the children and educate them so they are responsible adults, and they show them how drugs can be dangerous.”
She challenged the media 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”.
You can read the Guardian’s extensive coverage on the opioid epidemic here.
The first lady’s comments came during a two-day swing across three states to promote her “Be Best” initiative. During the trip, Trump ignored shouted questions about Michael Cohen, her husband’s former personal attorney.
During his explosive testimony before Congress last week, Cohen said he was instructed by Donald Trump to lie to the first lady about an affair the president allegedly had with adult film actress Stormy Daniels in 2006 and hush money payments to cover it up.
Cohen said he wished to apologize to Melania Trump, stating she was “a kind, good person”.
Updated
Dem congresswoman calls for impeachment
Rashida Tlaib, one of several prominent freshman members of Congress, has called for impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump to begin in the House of Representatives.
“Remember, this is setting a precedent. If we don’t hold impeachment proceedings today, start them today and hold him accountable to following the United States Constitution, think about that, this is not going to be the last CEO that runs for president of the United States,” Tlaib said, according to reporters.
“This is not going to be the last person that tries to get away with this,” she added. “And what does that say about the most powerful, most important body, most important position in the world?”
Tlaib stirred controversy earlier this year for vowing that Democrats would “impeach the motherf---er” in reference to Trump.
Her latest comments come a week after Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal attorney, implicated Trump in several allegations that could amount to criminal activity.
During that hearing, Tlaib, who sits on the House oversight committee, sparred with a Republican colleague, Congresman Mark Meadows, over the latter’s attempts to refute Cohen’s assertion that Trump was “a racist”.
Tlaib said Wednesday she planned to introduce a resolution calling for Trump’s impeachment and would bolster her cause by rallying groups to hold protests across the country.
Democratic leaders in Congress have cautioned members against focusing on impeachment, pointing out that there would not be sufficient votes in the Republican-led Senate to remove Trump from office even if the House voted to impeach the president.
A poll released this week found that a majority of the American public did not believe Trump should be impeached.
UPDATE via AP: Former Representative Aaron Schock of Illinois has agreed to repay tens of thousands of dollars in taxes and to campaign committees in exchange for prosecutors dismissing his felony corruption case.
Prosecutors had previously said they would drop all charges against Schock if he agreed to repay the money.
A reminder of the backstory here:
Former Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock is scheduled to appear in court for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in his corruption case.
A federal judge in Chicago set a Wednesday hearing for the 37-year-old, who once was a rising star of the Republican Party.
Schock resigned from Congress in 2015 amid scrutiny of his spending, including redecorating his office in the style of the “Downton Abbey” TV series. He was indicted in 2016 on 22 counts, i ncluding wire fraud and falsification of election commission filings.
Schock has pleaded not guilty.
His attorneys argued the case should be dismissed, saying his prosecution violated separation-of-powers clauses. The Supreme Court declined last month to consider it.
The case was originally filed in central Illinois. The Justice Department transferred it to prosecutors in Chicago last year.
Updated
Democrats move to restore net neutrality rules
Democrats in Congress will unveil a bill on Wednesday to restore the net neutrality rules that were repealed by the Federal Communications Commission under Donald Trump.
While the text of the bill, titled the Save the Internet Act,has not been released, the intent will be to reinstate 2015 rules barring Internet providers such as Comcast, Verizon and AT&T from blocking or slowing internet content or offering paid “fast lanes”.
“Republicans will have a second chance — there are second chances — to right the Trump administration’s wrong,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said.
The effort will face an uphill battle given Republicans maintain control of the Senate, but it marks another opportunity for the Democratic Party to reinforce its legislative agenda. A majority of Americans opposed the Trump administration’s repeal of net neutrality rules.
Foreign leaders lavish Trump with gifts
The AP reports:
Foreign leaders showered President Donald Trump and his family with more than $140,000 in gifts during their first year in the White House, with China and Saudi Arabia among the most lavish givers.
According to the State Department’s annual accounting of such gifts, China’s president gave Trump and his wife the two most expensive presents in 2017. They were a calligraphy display worth $14,400 and a porcelain dinnerware set that includes plates imprinted with the pink house at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort worth $16,250.
The Saudis and Gulf Arab states gave at least $24,120 in gifts to the Trumps. Those included a $6,400 pendant necklace from the Saudi king and a gold-plated fighter jet model worth $4,850 from Bahrain’s crown prince.
All gifts were turned over to the National Archives.
Nielsen maintains the Department of homeland security has the “legal authority” to separate families at the border.
“Zero tolerance means prosecuting those who break the law,” she said.
Nielsen nonetheless sought once again to claim family separation was not a policy, despite Donald Trump’s own statements to the contrary. Other members of the Trump administration also referred to it as a “policy”, but at the height of the controversy Nielsen tried to frame the matter as one of following “the law”.
Downton Abbey congressman gets day in court
Remember Aaron Schock, the former Republican congressman from Illinois? Allow us to refresh your memory...
Here is a photo of Schock’s former office, modeled after the red room in the television series Downton Abbey:
It may well have looked nice, but Schock’s lavish spending prompted further scrutiny of his actions -- which it turned out encompassed all sorts of illegal activity.
Here’s more from the Associated Press on where things stand now:
Former Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock is scheduled to appear in court for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court declined to get involved in his corruption case.
A federal judge in Chicago set a Wednesday hearing for the 37-year-old, who once was a rising star of the Republican Party.
Schock resigned from Congress in 2015 amid scrutiny of his spending, including redecorating his office in the style of the “Downton Abbey” TV series. He was indicted in 2016 on 22 counts, i ncluding wire fraud and falsification of election commission filings.
Schock has pleaded not guilty.
His attorneys argued the case should be dismissed, saying his prosecution violated separation-of-powers clauses. The Supreme Court declined last month to consider it.
The case was originally filed in central Illinois. The Justice Department transferred it to prosecutors in Chicago last year.
And for good measure, here’s the link to the trailer for the Downton movie. I, for one, cannot wait until September.
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A few more key moments from Nielsen’s testimony thus far:
- Asked by Representative Sheila Jackson Lee, a Democrat from Texas, if she has the capacity to make decisions independent of the president, Nielsen stated: “The oath, as you know, is to the constitution.” She added that much of the information she has provided the president is covered by “confidentiality privileges”.
- Nielsen could not have a number in front of her of how many young migrants were currently detained by the US government but said she would provide that information to Congress.
- Nielsen said Immigration and Customs Enforcement, also known as ICE, is not stopping families from being reunited. There are some children, she noted, who were not being reunited with their parents due to safety concerns.
- When Representative Jim Langevin, a Democrat from Rhode Island, pointed out the president erroneously said there had never been as many apprehensions at the border in history as there were now, Nielsen insisted she could not speak to the context of Trump’s comments. Asked if the president was misleading the American people, Nielsen said there were “some categories” of border crossings for which there were “record levels of apprehensions”.
- Nielsen maintained there was an emergency at the border, citing a “new phenomenon” of large groups arriving in search of asylum: “The problem is not just the vastly increasing numbers ... but it’s the type of migrant that our system is not set up to protect.”
Meanwhile, as the crisis continues to unfold in Venezuela, the Trump administration is reaffirming its backing of opposition leader Juan Guaido.
In a statement released on Wednesday, national security adviser John Bolton said:
“The United States strongly supports the democratic transition in Venezuela led by Interim President Juan Guaido and the National Assembly and is pursuing several new diplomatic and economic initiatives in support of that transition. The United States is putting foreign financial institutions on notice that they will face sanctions for being involved in facilitating illegitimate transactions that benefit Nicolas Maduro and his corrupt network. We will not allow Maduro to steal the wealth of the Venezuelan people.”
Donald Trump has declared all options on the table with respect to the unrest in Venezuela, where President Nicolás Maduro has vowed to hold onto power amid anti-government protests.
More than 50 countries, including the US and most Latin American nations, have formally recognized Guaidó, the head of the opposition-led National Assembly, as Venezuela’s interim leader.
As expected, a very different tone between Democrats and Republicans on the House homeland security committee before which Nielsen is testifying.
The panel’s chairman, Representative Bennie Thompson, slammed Donald Trump’s “nonexistent emergency” while criticizing Nielsen for her role in enforcing the president’s restrictive immigration agenda.
“The Secretary can choose whether to be complicit in this administration’s misinformation campaign, or she can correct the record and start a serious discussion about the way forward on border security,” Thompson said.
The committee’s top Republican, Representative Mike Rogers, meanwhile blasted “propaganda” by smugglers and traffickers he said were seeking to take advantage of the US immigration system.
Insisting that “walls work”, Rogers said: “Border security and keeping America safe used to be priorities for both of our parties.”
“We never argued about whether barriers worked until Donald Trump wanted them,” he added.
Whereas the committee’s Democrats so far have pressed Nielsen on the number of migrant children in federal custody and efforts by the administration to reunite families, Republicans have peppered the DHS secretary with questions about how much smugglers charge for border crossings and why migrants were allowed into the country while awaiting their asylum hearings.
Not that anyone was expecting a sudden show of bipartisanship, but just to let the record show.
Kirstjen Nielsen acknowledges parents deported without children
Kirstjen Nielsen confirmed in her testimony before the House homeland security that the Trump administration has deported parents without their children after they arrived at the US-Mexico border seeking asylum.
Nielsen said parents were provided a choice to submit to voluntary deportation with or without their children, particularly as pressure intensified last year over family separations at the border.
More than 450 parents were deported without their children -- an issue that is the subject of at least one lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Some parents have complained there has been minimal, if any, effort to track them down since they were forced to leave the country. A group of 29 parents even crossed the border once more this week in a bid to reunite with their children.
Immigration advocates have also raised concerns that parents were not sufficiently informed of the choice to leave the country without their loved ones.
Asked on Wednesday how many young people were currently detained at the border, Nielsen could not say.
Trump's DHS secretary: 'We face a crisis' at the border
Donald Trump’s homeland security secretary, Kristjen Nielsen, told Congress on Wednesday that illegal immigration was “spiraling out of control”, as she sought to justify the president’s declaration of a national emergency at the US-Mexico border.
Testifying before the House homeland security committee, Nielsen said the rate of illegal border crossings had “spiked substantially” while suggesting the number was poised to increase further in the coming months.
“We face a crisis — a real, serious sustained crisis at our borders,” Nielsen said in her opening remarks. “This is not a manufactured crisis. This is truly an emergency,”
“Our capacity is already severely restrained, but these increases will overwhelm the system entirely,” she added.
“Illegal immigration is simply spiraling out of control and threatening public safety and national security.”
Nielsen’s appearance came as the Senate is debating a bill to terminate Trump’s national emergency declaration — a move the president took last month in a bid to bypass Congress and build the border wall that ranked among the biggest promises of his campaign.
The Democratic-led House of Representatives passed a resolution last week to revoke Trump’s declaration, which has widely been panned as an overstep of his authority. The Senate, which remains under Republican control, is expected to vote on the measure this week.
A handful of Senate Republicans have said they will join Democrats in rejecting Trump’s declaration — marking a rare legislative rebuke of the president by members of his own party. They are unlikely, however, to secure enough votes to override a presidential veto.
In her remarks, Nielsen attempted to bolster the Trump administration’s claim that the situation at the border was indeed an emergency.
“It’s not just how many people are coming, but who is arriving,” she said, pointing to the uptick in migrants fleeing war-torn countries in Central America.
Citing US asylum laws and previous court rulings, Nielsen complained that the government was “often forced to release these groups in the United States”.
“In recent years, we have seen the numbers of vulnerable populations — children and families — skyrocket,” she said. “And we have virtually no hope of removing them in the future.”
While there have been occasional surges in migrants seeking refuge at America’s borders, the overall rate of illegal immigration has fallen sharply over the last decade. Last fall, the undocumented population in the US hit a 12-year low.
Nielsen will likely be pressed by Democrats as the hearing carries on about the administration’s claims, as well as humanitarian concerns included the separation of migrant parents and children and conditions at detention facilities along the border.
Hello everyone! Sabrina Siddiqui here, taking over the live blog through the evening...
As you can see, there’s already a lot to unpack this morning with the brimming between the White House and Democrats over the flurry of investigations against the president and the escalating row over the border.
Let’s focus first on Capitol Hill, where Kirstjen Nielsen, the secretary for the department of homeland security, is now testifying before the House homeland security. She will almost certainly face tough questions about family separations at the border and Trump’s declaration of a national emergency in order to bypass Congress and build a wall.
You can watch the hearing live here. Stay tuned for key takeaways.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders called a wide-ranging probe into Donald Trump launched by House Democrats an “absolute embarrassment.”
The House Judiciary Committee led by chairman Jerry Nadler last week requested documents from more than 80 people connected to Trump, as part of a broad probe into potential obstruction of justice and abuse of power.
“It is an absolute embarrassment that members of Congress are using all their time and resources into attacking the president,” Sanders said Wednesday on Fox and Friends. “This expedition that you are seeing led by Chairman Nadler is truly an embarrassment to Congress and it’s hurting our country, and it is the opposite of what they were elected to do.”
Sanders claimed the investigation was intended to help Democrats politically in the 2020 presidential election.
“They have no message. They know that their entire party has been taken over and radicalized by a fringe group on the left, and that is not going to play across the board, so the only play they have to try to beat this president in 2020 is to attack him.”
In the Fox interview, Sanders also criticized Republican senators who plan to vote for a resolution to block the national emergency that Trump has declared at the southern border in order to get money for a wall.
With the Republicans’ support, the resolution is expected to pass the Senate. It has already passed the House.
“My message to that group is do your job. If you had done what you were elected to do on the front end, then the president wouldn’t have to fix that problem on his own through a national emergency,” she said.
Despite Donald Trump’s vows to take on China on trade, the US trade deficit with the country hit a new record last year.
The trade gap jumped to $419.2 billion in 2018, up from $375.5 billion in 2017, according to a Commerce Department report released Wednesday.
Trump has slapped tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum.
The overall gap between US imports and exports soared in 2018 to $621 billion, up from $552.3 billion in 2017.
Donald Trump’s decision to grant security clearance to Jared Kushner flew in the face of national security concerns, Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi said Wednesday.
“He had numerous errors and omissions with regard to unreported foreign contacts. He has tremendous financial vulnerability which make him susceptible to compromise and manipulation,” the Illinois Democrat said on CNN. “Most of the law enforcement community who looked at his particular case specifically said he should not have access to top secret security clearance.”
Trump ordered security clearance Kushner, his son in law and senior advisor, over the objections of intelligence agencies, the New York Times reported last week. CNN reported that Trump also ordered security clearance for his daughter Ivanka against recommendations by senior officials.
The White House has refused to turn over documents to Congress dealing with Kushner’s clearance.
“Their refusal to comply flies directly against our constitutional duty of oversight,” said Krishnamoorthi.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who recently deployed to the southern border with the National Guard, will meet with Donald Trump Wednesday to discuss the issue.
“What I saw was a really bad situation, something that I think is deserving of a national emergency, not because of the immigration issue but because of the drugs and the human trafficking,” the Illinois Republican told CNN’s New Day. “If you think about the cartels, the Sinaloa or the Zetas, they basically make money on two things. One is trafficking humans. The other is trafficking drugs, both of which are over the border.”
GOP @RepKinzinger, who deployed to the southern border, will meet with the President today.
— New Day (@NewDay) March 6, 2019
He says the situation "is deserving of a national emergency, not because of the immigration issue but because of the drugs and human trafficking,” he says. https://t.co/6QB85uIS1z pic.twitter.com/DQjK5egH6l
Kinzinger expressed support for a wall on the border, even though a large majority of drugs are smuggled through official checkpoints.
“What a border wall does is shrinks the amount of border you have to actively monitor,” he said. “I did not work one area of the border in Arizona that had a wall because they weren’t going over it.”
Sen. Mike Rounds explained away Donald Trump’s hush money payments to porn star Stormy Daniels Wednesday by saying that Trump loves his family.
“I honestly think this president loves his family, and I think it has as much to do with trying not to have public discussions about something that is for him a private matter that he didn’t want to have to discuss with his family,” the South Dakota Republican said on CNN’s New Day, when asked if he was concerned about Trump signing off on a $35,000 check to reimburse his lawyer for the hush money on a day that was full of official business as president.
“I think that’s a lot of it,” Rounds said. “I think he really does care about his family. I think he loves his family, and I don’t think he wanted his family to go through this.”
Homeland security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen is set to testify before Congress Wednesday about the Trump administration’s policy of separating immigrant families and the president’s declaration of a national emergency at the US-Mexico border.
Nielsen will appear before the House Homeland Security Committee and is expected to face tough grilling about family separations, the New York Times reports.
“It’s either she was negligent, unaware or knew the effects on the children. None of those options are acceptable,” Rep. Lauren Underwood, the vice chair of the committee, told the Times.
The Trump administration is looking to refashion endangered species protections in order to ease conditions for industry, particularly those involved in oil and gas, the Guardian’s Oliver Millman reports.
Along the way, some species may risk being pushed close to extinction.
“The Trump administration has been a disaster for endangered species,” said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. “The stated intent is to expand oil and gas drilling. It is quite possible we will lose species because of the hostility and callousness shown by this administration.”
In July, the Trump administration proposed ending the practice of providing the same protections to species whether they be endangered or the less serious designation of threatened. The administration also wants economic impacts to be considered when species listings are decided, with species removed from the list more easily.
Separately, the administration announced it will no longer pursue people or businesses for the unintentional killing of birds, such as when the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico wiped out up to a million birds in 2010.
Vice-President Mike Pence is heading to Ohio this week to headline a fundraiser for the oil and gas industry.
Pence will appear on Friday in Columbus at the annual meeting of the Ohio Oil and Gas Association, a trade organization for the industry, the Associated Press reports.
Donald Trump’s administration has been friendly to the fossil fuel industry, rolling back a host of environmental and safety regulations.
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Cohen gives closed-door testimony
Donald Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen will be back on Capitol Hill testifying today before the House intelligence committee.
The daylong testimony will be behind closed doors, the Associated Press reports.
Cohen testified publicly before the House oversight committee last week, where he called the president a conman, a cheat and a racist.
He was also interviewed privately last week by the Senate and House intelligence committees, according to AP.
Cohen has pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations for arranging illegal hush money payments to women who say they had sexual encounters with Trump and to lying to Congress about negotiations for a Trump Tower in Moscow, among other crimes. He has been sentenced to three years in prison.
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