Closing summary
We’re wrapping up our live updates for today. We’ll be back with you on Monday after a couple days off for the holiday. Happy Thanksgiving.
- Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts issued a rare rebuke over Donald Trump’s attacks on the federal judiciary, saying “we do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges” and praising the “independent judiciary.” Trump responded on Twitter.
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Nancy Pelosi shored up more support to become House Speaker. After Pelosi’s only public potential challenger bowed out, Rep. Brian Higgins, one of 16 signers of a letter opposing Pelosi, reversed course and endorsed her. Later Wednesday, Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Pelosi can count on her support.
- Donald Trump tweeted his thanks to Saudi Arabia for lower oil prices, a day after a his statement embracing the Saudis despite the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Khashoggi’s editor called for a Congressional investigation into Trump and son in law Jared Kushner’s financial ties to Saudi Arabia, and Rep. Tulsi Gabbard said Trump was making the US Saudi Arabia’s “bitch.”
Updated
The Los Angeles County district attorney is declining to bring criminal charges against lawyer Michael Avenatti over domestic violence allegations, the Associated Press reports.
A girlfriend said that Avenatti dragged her out of bed and across the floor of their apartment after an argument.
Avenatti is the lawyer for Stormy Daniels, the pornographic film star who was paid off to keep quiet about a sexual encounter with Donald Trump.
The lawyer again asserted his innocence.
My statement re the decision just issued by the LA County District Attorney's Office is below. pic.twitter.com/gCUBpMKP2f
— Michael Avenatti (@MichaelAvenatti) November 21, 2018
Updated
Donald Trump responded to Chief Justice John Roberts’ rebuke of his attacks on the federal judiciary, saying that so-called “Obama judges” do “have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country.”
“Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts,” he said on Twitter, insisting that cases opposing his policies are disproportionately filed in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, the same one that blocked the asylum rule.
“Please study the numbers, they are shocking. We need protection and security - these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise!” he wrote.
Sorry Chief Justice John Roberts, but you do indeed have “Obama judges,” and they have a much different point of view than the people who are charged with the safety of our country. It would be great if the 9th Circuit was indeed an “independent judiciary,” but if it is why......
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018
.....are so many opposing view (on Border and Safety) cases filed there, and why are a vast number of those cases overturned. Please study the numbers, they are shocking. We need protection and security - these rulings are making our country unsafe! Very dangerous and unwise!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018
The spat began when Trump attacked a court that temporarily struck down his ban on people who cross the border illegally applying for asylum.
“We do not have Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges,” Roberts said. “What we have is an extraordinary group of dedicated judges doing their level best to do equal right to those appearing before them. That independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”
Updated
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez backs Pelosi
Congresswoman-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said she’ll take a “hard pass” on efforts to oppose Nancy Pelosi for the House speakership because they are coming from her right.
“So long as Leader Pelosi remains the most progressive candidate for Speaker, she can count on my support,” the Queens Democrat said on Twitter, calling the opposition “an apparent effort to make the party even more conservative and bent toward corporate interests.”
Ocasio-Cortez said she disagrees with Pelosi on “many issues” but thinks her opponents are worse.
I agree that our party should, and must, evolve our leadership.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 21, 2018
But changed leadership should reflect an actual, evolved mission; namely, an increased commitment to the middle + working class electorate that put us here.
Otherwise it’s a just new figure with the same problems.
There are many issues where the Leader and I disagree.
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@Ocasio2018) November 21, 2018
I was one of only 2 Dems (w/ @RoKhanna) to go on the record to call the proposed tax rule & PAYGO a bad idea.
Yet, we need leadership to be more daring, not less. Her challengers are conservative.https://t.co/eOkxvZCxPM
Updated
Donald Trump called Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Tuesday to push him to act on criminal justice legislation Trump favors, Politico reported.
The bill would reduce mandatory minimum sentences for some drug offenses, expand a program allowing prisoners to earn early release, and provide more funding for programs to discourage recidivism. Republicans are split on the measure.
Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani said Wednesday that Hillary Clinton should “of course” be investigated for obstruction of justice.
Giuliani spoke to the Hill after it was reported that Donald Trump wanted to order the Department of Justice to prosecute Clinton, his opponent in the 2016 election, and former FBI director James Comey.
“Of course she should be investigated,” Giuliani said, charging “there is plenty of evidence that Hillary obstructed justice by destroying evidence in a gross and massive way.”
He was referring to her deletion of 30,000 emails from a personal server.
Even as he attacked Clinton, Giuliani brushed off concerns about first daughter Ivanka Trump’s own use of personal email for official business.
“It’s so stupid!” he said. “So [Ivanka] used her personal email. The thing wrong with Hillary is not that she used her personal email. It’s that she didn’t maintain it. She destroyed it. She destroyed the emails. Somebody used a sledgehammer. Jesus!”
He said there was nothing wrong with Trump’s aborted attempt to order a prosecution.
“I don’t see how a president is prevented from saying someone should be investigated when there is public, probable cause that they committed a crime,” he said.
Clinton’s email use has already been investigated, and the FBI, while criticizing her judgment, determined no criminal charges were appropriate.
National security advisor John Bolton will meet with Brazil’s far-right president-elect Jair Bolsonaro this month, he said Wednesday.
They’ll meet in Rio de Janeiro on Nov. 29.
Look forward to seeing Brazil’s next President @JairBolsonaro in Rio on November 29th. We share many bilateral interests and will work closely on expanding freedom and prosperity throughout the Western Hemisphere.
— John Bolton (@AmbJohnBolton) November 21, 2018
Bolton has welcomed Bolsonaro’s election as a “positive sign,” despite widespread concerns about Bolsonaro’s stated admiration for Brazil’s 21-year military dictatorship and its use of torture.
As Donald Trump heads for his Mar-a-Lago club for Thanksgiving, a former White House ethics lawyer called the Florida club “a place where, for sky-high admissions fees, business executives who have strong interests before the government can literally engage in purchasing access to the president. Those fees also seem to be down payments on ambassadorships.”
“His visits to Mar-a-Lago are part of the original sins of his presidency, and the fact that he’s returning there shows that he has not learned his lesson,” Norman Eisen, the lawyer and chair of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, told the AP.
The comment is not hyperbole: Trump recently appointed Lana Marks, a Palm Beach handbag designer and Mar-a-Lago member, as US ambassador to South Africa, and she’s the fourth club member to get an ambassadorship, according to Eisen’s group.
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel released a statement backing Nancy Pelosi for House Speaker, per Politico.
>@RahmEmanuel comes out for @NancyPelosi.
— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 21, 2018
A lot to unpack here. Yes, as rahm notes, he clashed w Pelosi. He was also seen as a potential speaker at one point. pic.twitter.com/xP9UCyhhln
Defense secretary Jim Mattis said Wednesday that a new order granting more authority to military personnel at the border will not change their mission.
“We are not doing law enforcement. We do not have arrest authority,” Mattis said, according to Politico.
The new order authorizes the troops to protect border patrol agents from migrants if they engage in violence - including by using lethal force if necessary, CNN reported.
The order, which has not been released publicly, does not give new tasks to the military but allows Mattis to expand the troops’ duties if Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen requests it, Politico reported.
“We’ll decide if it’s appropriate for the military, and at that point things like Posse Comitatus obviously are in play,” Mattis said, referring to a federal law that bars the military from engaging in law enforcement inside the United States. “We’ll stay in strict accordance with the law.”
Mattis said the troops are mostly unarmed, Politico reported.
“It’s not an unreasonable concern on the part of the president that we may have to back up Border Patrol,” he said, but added that the soldiers would mainly do that by constructing physical barriers along the border. “They’re not even carrying guns, for Christ’s sake.”
Republican Rep. Carlos Curbelo called Donald Trump’s deployment of the military to the US border “disrespectful” to both the troops and border patrol officers.
The White House has signed an order authorizing the military to perform law enforcement functions, which is barred by US law, and to use lethal force if deemed necessary.
“What the president is doing, I think, is number one disrespectful to our Customs and Border Protection agents,” Curbelo, of Florida, said on CNN. “This is also disrespectful to these troops.”
Trump ordered the deployment to the border in reaction to a caravan of Central American migrants, which he often brought up during the election to stir up fears of a supposed invasion.
“This was a creation of the president, to make people believe that there’s this horrible threat,” Curbelo said. He said the existing border patrol force is “more than capable” of processing caravan arrivals.
Curbelo lost re-election this month, and was among the Republicans attacked by Trump for losing their races after declining to embrace him.
But he said the president’s rhetoric hurt Republicans in suburban districts like his.
“That type of rhetoric really hurt, because people really saw through it,” he said.
Donald Trump is at his Palm Beach golf course today playing a round of golf with Jack Nicklaus, per CNN.
The White House adds that Trump is playing with famed golfer Jack Nicklaus. https://t.co/qbLA4jJoxq
— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) November 21, 2018
Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has some choice words in response to Donald Trump’s embrace of Saudi Arabia after the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
Hey @realdonaldtrump: being Saudi Arabia’s bitch is not “America First.”
— Tulsi Gabbard (@TulsiGabbard) November 21, 2018
Chief Justice John Roberts hits back at Trump's criticism of federal judiciary
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts is rebutting Donald Trump’s criticism of the federal judiciary.
BREAKING: In rare rebuttal, Chief Justice Roberts rejects Trump criticism of federal judges, praises independent judiciary.
— The Associated Press (@AP) November 21, 2018
More from the AP:
Chief Justice John Roberts is pushing back against President Donald Trump’s description of a judge who ruled against Trump’s new migrant asylum policy as an “Obama judge.”
It’s the first time that the leader of the federal judiciary has offered even a hint of criticism of Trump, who has previously blasted federal judges who ruled against him.
Roberts said Wednesday the U.S. doesn’t have “Obama judges or Trump judges, Bush judges or Clinton judges.” He commented in a statement released by the Supreme Court after a query by The Associated Press.
Roberts said on the day before Thanksgiving that an “independent judiciary is something we should all be thankful for.”Last year, the president used the term a “so-called judge” after the first federal ruling against his travel ban.
The full statement, via Buzzfeed:
JUST IN: Chief Justice John Roberts speaks out in defense of an "independent judiciary" in the wake of President Trump's latest attack on the judiciary. (News first reported by @shermancourt and the AP.) pic.twitter.com/22YssGOWXv
— Chris Geidner (@chrisgeidner) November 21, 2018
Updated
Slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi’s editor at the Washington Post asked Congress to investigate Donald Trump and his son in law Jared Kushner’s financial ties to Saudi Arabia.
Editor Karen Attiah spoke out Wednesday after Trump issued an extraordinary statement standing with Saudi Arabia despite the journalist’s murder.
“Congress must investigate Trump’s and Jared Kushner’s financial dealings with Saudi Arabia and Mohammed bin Salman and resulting conflicts of interest,” she said on Twitter.
She also said the Saudi ambassador should be expelled from Washington, and the US and UK should push for an end to Saudi Arabia’s “atrocious war” in Yemen.
“Jamal #Khashoggi wanted to live in Washington so that he could be free. And for a year, he was,” she wrote. “It is why the fight for #JusticeForJamal is global— its about the freedom for peaceful people and journalists to express themselves without fear of imprisonment and death.”
*Deep breaths*
— Karen Attiah (@KarenAttiah) November 21, 2018
It’s easy to get lost in the grief and outrage over Trump siding Saudi regime that thinks nothing of butchering peaceful journalists in consulates.
But hope is not all lost. Congress must act, and the American people can still help.
Here’s a thread #Khashoggi
Special counsel Robert Mueller may still have more questions for Donald Trump after the president submitted answers to written queries, Trump’s lawyer said.
Presidential attorney and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani told CNN the legal team will fight providing any information they believe is protected by executive privilege.
“We’ll consider them and answer them if necessary, relevant and legal,” Giuliani said. “If it was something that would be helpful, relevant — not a law school exam.”
Trump submitted answers Tuesday to written questions about possible collusion between his 2016 campaign and Russia, but did not answer questions about potential obstruction of justice.
“It’s not on the table, but could be put back on the table,” Giuliani told CNN about obstruction questions.
Giuliani said there were no surprises in the answers from Trump, who has insisted his campaign did not participate in Russian efforts to sway the election in his favor. “I don’t think there’s an answer that will surprise them very much,” he said. “None of the answers have changed.”
Two Republican Congressional committee chairmen have asked the White House for information about first daughter Ivanka Trump’s use of a personal email account for official business.
In a letter to White House chief of staff John Kelly, Rep. Trey Gowdy, chair of the committee on oversight and government reform, said the committee must assess whether the White House complied with record keeping and information security laws.
Sen. Ron Johnson, head of the Senate homeland security committee, also wrote to the White House counsel asking for information on the Trump administration’s compliance with federal record keeping requirements.
In an interview with the BBC, Cindy McCain, the widow of John McCain, said she wasn’t sure if she could vote for Donald Trump in 2020.
She added that she never get over Trump’s attack on her husband when he said that McCain wasn’t a war hero because he was captured. McCain, who was shot down over North Vietnam, was held prisoner for five and a half years, and repeatedly tortured.
One signer of the anti-Pelosi letter has flipped.
Brian Higgins of New York has now announced that he will back Pelosi to be Speaker.
Rep. Brian Higgins (D-NY), who signed the anti-Pelosi letter, flips and says he’ll support her for Speaker.https://t.co/Ee1MC7x6fe
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) November 21, 2018
Democrats might pull out another win in a race that has already been called. Late arriving ballots have broken against incumbent Republican David Valadao in California’s 21st district.
At the rate late-counted ballots have broken, #CA21 Rep. David Valadao (R) isn’t just in “jeopardy,” he’s probably the underdog. That means the likeliest House outcome at the moment is a Dem gain of *40 seats.*
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 21, 2018
George Papadopoulos is trying to duck out of his plea agreement with special counsel Robert Mueller and avoid going to jail. Mueller isn’t having it in a filing.
The defendant has received what he bargained for, and holding him to it is not a hardship.
Special counsel's office argues Papadopoulos had plenty of time to bring a challenge to Mueller's appointment, and the fact that someone else is doing it elsewhere is not a reason to upend a case where he got a "favorable" deal and that's pretty much over https://t.co/7dc7oR0gbJ pic.twitter.com/t2LMo44kW2
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) November 21, 2018
White House to allow troops at the border to perform law enforcement roles
The Military Times reports that an order signed by chief of staff John Kelly last night has authorized troops at the border to act in a law enforcement capacity and use lethal force if deemed necessary.
However, the order may run afoul of the Posse Comitatus which forbids the military from acting in a law enforcement role on American soil.
Voters in North Carolina approved a constitutional amendment to require voter identification.
Republicans are holding a lame duck session next week to pass legislation to implement this. If all Republicans legislators attend and support the legislation on partisan lines, they can overcome a veto from the state’s Democratic governor Roy Cooper. If the legislation waits until next session, enough Democrats have been elected that Republicans can’t override a veto on party lines.
Former attorney general Alberto Gonzalez has criticized President Donald Trump over the New York Times report that Trump sought to prosecute Hillary Clinton and Jim Comey.
He told CNN “we live in a democracy, and you don’t go after political rivals.”
Freshman Democrats are feeling pressure from Nancy Pelosi to support her for Speaker.
One, Jeff Van Drew of New Jersey, who signed a letter to make clear his opposition to Pelosi taking the gavel, said that he was worried that it would hurt his chances of serving on key committees.
Republican legislators in Wisconsin are pushing to move the state’s presidential primary in 2020 to March from April.
The move has nothing to do with the primary calendar. Instead, it’s about separating the primary election with that for the state supreme court. Republicans fear that a competitive Democratic primary coinciding with the race for state supreme court could doom a conservative incumbent’s chances.
The move has met a major backlash from local elected officials. It would mean consecutive elections in February, March and April and cost the state roughly $7 million.
The reviews are in from the lone debate in Mississippi’s special election for Senate and no one is comparing it to Lincoln and Douglas.
What happens when a debate is held between a pol last on the ballot in 1992 and another who only reads from talking points?
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) November 21, 2018
Well, it wasn’t exactly high drama. Misssisssipi meh (to be charitable)https://t.co/kN8rvyYgXR
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board roasted President Donald Trump for his comments about Saudi Arabia yesterday.
While the Journal’s editorial page has long been Trump friendly, criticized his comments.
President Trump did himself and the country no favor with his crude statement Tuesday on the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia in the aftermath of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder by Saudi agents.
Commenting on whether Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman knew about the murder, Mr. Trump said in a statement only he could have written: “Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t!”
We are unsure of the purpose of the exclamation point here, just as we are unsure what goal Mr. Trump hoped to achieve with what can only be described as a raw and brutalist version of foreign-policy realpolitik.
Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker is facing a potential investigation for a Hatch Act violation. The New York Times reports on the newest potential ethics issue for Whitaker.
Mr. Whitaker also faced new questions on Tuesday about donations to his unsuccessful 2014 campaign for a United States Senate seat in Iowa. Mr. Whitaker’s campaign committee received four donations totaling $8,800 this year, a few months after he joined the Justice Department, records show.
Executive branch officials are generally prohibited by a federal law, the Hatch Act, from knowingly soliciting or accepting campaign donations.
One of the key measures of the midterms was which districts had a Whole Foods. Democrats picked up seats in many of those districts earlier this month.
There are 233 congressional districts w/ a Whole Foods Market (h/t @GrantrGregory), nearly the same number Dems will control in 2019.
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 21, 2018
Dems will control 67% of those 233 districts come January, up from 55% today.
Fact: of the 42 House seats Dems have flipped from GOP control so far, exactly two thirds - 67% - contain a Whole Foods Market. None of the three seats Rs flipped from Dem control have one.
— Dave Wasserman (@Redistrict) November 21, 2018
Updated
Jennifer Duffy at the Cook Political Report offers a good overview of the state of play in Mississippi.
Less than a week out from the state’s special election runoff for the Senate, the seat is classified as “Lean Republican” with one Democratic strategist describing the party’s standard-bearer, Mike Espy, as having “a puncher’s chance.”
The race is still due for one more shakeup when President Donald Trump will stump the Magnolia State for Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith on Monday, the day before the election.
Nate Cohn has an interesting look at polling bias during the midterms.
Polls underestimated Democratic turnout in states like California and New York but missed Republican turnout in states like Ohio, Indiana and Missouri.
Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker imposed far harsher sentences than almost other U.S. Attorney in the country when he was the top federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Iowa.
The Washington Post reports
Whitaker spent nearly five years as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Iowa. His office was more likely than all but one other district in the United States to use its authority to impose the harshest sentences on drug offenders, according to a finding by a different Iowa federal judge, Mark W. Bennett, who it called a “deeply troubling disparity.”
NEW : AG Whitaker was once ranked as one of the worst US Attorneys in the country for abusing a power to send minor drug offenders to prison for decades...via @PostKranish https://t.co/ixx5LmSmtA
— Carol Leonnig (@CarolLeonnig) November 21, 2018
Democrats seem set to win one of the three remaining uncalled House races.
In upstate New York, Democrat Anthony Brindisi’s lead is now greater than the number of remaining uncounted ballots. Brindisi will have bested Claudia Tenney, a first term Republican with a history of controversial remarks.
Trump and Chinese president Xi Jinping will have dinner at the G20 summit in Buenos Aires in December. However, one top White House aide will not be on the guest list.
Peter Navarro, White House trade advisor and vocal China hawk, will reportedly not be invited to the dinner. Navarro has been the leading advocate for a tougher line on China in the administration.
The potential for competitive Democratic leadership races has been reduced. Nancy Pelosi announced last night that she was creating a new elected position, Chair of the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee. And like clockwork, one candidate for the number five position in the caucus, Assistant Democratic Leader, has dropped out.
And like clockwork, David Cicilline sends out Dear Colleague letter announcing he’s withdrawing from asst majority leader race to run for newly created DPCC chair position. Point: Pelosi. pic.twitter.com/zEI94s2iLo
— Elaina Plott (@elainaplott) November 21, 2018
Trump thanks Saudi Arabia – of course
President Donald Trump tweeted earlier this morning to thank Saudi Arabia for lower oil prices.
Oil prices getting lower. Great! Like a big Tax Cut for America and the World. Enjoy! $54, was just $82. Thank you to Saudi Arabia, but let’s go lower!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 21, 2018
The tweet comes the day after his extraordinary statement on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi by the Saudis.
Updated
This analysis from The Resurgent points to one of the reasons that Democrats have an outside shot at picking up a Senate seat in the Mississippi special election runoff.
There is a hard core cadre of conservatives who backed third place finisher Chris McDaniel on Election Day who are still embittered over the series of events that led to Thad Cochran’s narrow win for the seat in 2014. The state saw a vicious Republican primary between longtime incumbent Cochran and McDaniel, who was running as a Tea Party outsider. Although McDaniel outpolled Cochran in the first round of voting, neither received 50% which led to a runoff that Cochran narrowly won with ugly recriminations on both sides.
Today in politics: Pelosi fends off rival and Democrats win in Utah
Good morning.
Nancy Pelosi has made a deal to fend off a potential rival to be speaker, Democrats officially won another House seat last night and Mississippi held the final debate of 2018. And Donald Trump is at one of his golf courses this morning.
It’s Wednesday in American politics.
Updated
