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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Sam Levin in San Francisco (now) and Lauren Gambino in Washington (earlier)

Bernie Sanders and Beto O'Rourke release their tax returns – as it happened

Robert Mueller.
Robert Mueller. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

Summary

We’re ending our live coverage for the day - thanks for following along! Here are some highlights:

House oversight committee chairman Elijah Cummings has issued a subpoena to the tax firm Mazars USA for a decade of Trump’s financial records, Politico is now confirming:

It’s apparently been a busy day for subpoenas related to the president’s finances.

Former GOP governor Bill Weld officially announced today that he plans to challenge Trump in the 2020 Republican primary:

The former Massachusetts governor said it would be a “political tragedy” if the president was re-elected and that he would “fear for the republic” if the US had four more years of Trump:

Democratic presidential candidates have raised a total of over $70m during the first fundraising quarter of the 2020 cycle, the AP reports:

This is significantly less than they did the last time the party had a wide open primary. For example, Democratic candidates in the 2008 election raised about $81 million during the first quarter.

The lackluster fundraising by a crowded field of more than a dozen contenders is a sign that a drawn-out primary battle lies ahead. The money troubles come as many donors sit on the sidelines to see how the contest unfolds.

Trump’s campaign has raised $30.3m during the first quarter of 2019, which is more than what was raised by the top two Democratic contenders combined.

The tax returns of Beto O’Rourke show he had an adjusted gross income of $366,455 in 2017, and that he paid $81,000 on that, which is 22.1%.

His campaign has said he will release his 2018 returns “as soon as possible after they are filed”. The returns he published today date back to 2008.

The O’Rourke campaign said in a statement:

As a candidate aspiring to restore the American people’s trust in the nation’s highest office, O’Rourke will also release his 2018 tax returns as soon as possible after they are filed. This follows his commitment to increasing accountability and transparency while in the House of Representatives when he held monthly public town halls back in his district where any person could ask any question.

Beto O'Rourke publishes ten years of tax returns

Beto O’Rourke has now published ten years of tax returns, following releases from Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, Kamala Harris and other 2020 Democratic presidential contenders.

Asked earlier about the returns, O’Rourke said, “I will leave it to you to draw your own conclusions, and make your own judgment.” He added:

The president ... should’ve released his taxes by now, and he must be compelled through a subpoena to do so, so be it. But everyone who runs to seek that office should release their taxes.”

Report: Congress subpoenas banks for Trump finance records

Two congressional committees have subpoenaed at least nine major banks seeking information on Donald Trump’s finances and the lenders’ dealings with Russians, according to a new report in the New York Times.

The Democrats’ subpoenas come from the House’s intelligence and financial services committees, according to the paper. The committees are jointly investigating Deutsche Bank, which has done business with Trump for two decades.

Other banks, including Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America, also received subpoenas today, the New York Times reported, citing anonymous sources.

Here’s a helpful list of who has and who has not released tax returns among the crowded field of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates:

Follow these links here for details on the tax returns of Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Jay Inslee and Bernie Sanders.

Harris has released the most returns of any candidate, covering 15 years.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump’s personal lawyers have continued the fight today against the release of his tax returns:

Some more details on Bernie Sanders’ tax returns:

  • In 2018, his adjusted gross income was $561,293.
  • He paid a 26% effective tax rate on that adjusted gross income.
  • In 2016 and 2017, Sanders earned significant income from his books, and his effective tax rate was 30-35%.
  • In 2018, Sanders and and his wife, Jane O’Meara Sanders, donated 3.4% of their adjusted gross income to charity, the campaign said.
  • Bernie Sanders is in the top 1% of taxpayers, according to IRS data.

Campaign manager Faiz Shakir said in a statement:

Bernie Sanders has been filing detailed financial disclosures for almost 30 years, and he is proud to voluntarily make these tax returns available many months before the election. Senator Sanders believes it is a privilege to live in the United States and he believes it is patriotic to pay the taxes that support our country. As a strong proponent of transparency, the senator hopes President Trump and all Democratic primary candidates will disclose their tax returns.”

US interior secretary faces ethics investigation

The US interior department’s internal watchdog has launched an ethics investigation into the newly confirmed secretary, David Bernhardt, the AP reports:

Deputy interior inspector General Mary Kendall notified Democratic senators in a letter Monday that her office has begun to investigate whether Bernhardt violated ethics rules on conflicts of interest or other issues.

The news comes days after the Senate confirmed Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for oil and gas and other large corporate interests to oversee the nation’s public resources.

Democratic lawmakers had asked the interior department’s office of the inspector general to examine allegations Bernhardt has been using his cabinet job to do favors for former lobbying clients.

Interior spokeswoman Faith Vander Voort said Bernhardt is in full compliance with all ethics laws and rules.

You can read more on the conflict of interest claims from the Guardian’s previous reporting here:

Bernie Sanders releases tax returns

Bernie Sanders has just released his tax returns, as promised:

Here’s Sanders’ statement on the release today:

I consider paying more in taxes as my income rose to be both an obligation and an investment in our country. I will continue to fight to make our tax system more progressive so that our country has the resources to guarantee the American Dream to all people.”

Last week, the senator downplayed his own status as a millionaire, saying, “I wrote a best-selling book. If you write a best-selling book, you can be a millionaire, too.”

It appears that Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke has faced protests from the right and left today in North Carolina.

At one town hall, a man in the crowd interrupted and asked O’Rourke why he did not support single-payer healthcare (in contrast to other 2020 contenders and other progressive Democrats). Here’s how he responded:

He also faced a protester who asked him about immigration:

CNN has obtained 2015 audio of Stephen Moore, the president’s controversial pick for the Federal Reserve board, criticizing Trump’s immigration positions, calling them “extreme nativist”, “crazy” and “dangerous”:

Moore made the remarks while talking to Larry Kudlow, who is now the president’s top economic adviser. In the radio segment, Kudlow compared Trump’s immigration proposals to the worst parts of World War II.

Asked about the remarks today, Kudlow told CNN: “I should’ve never said it because it was never true. President Trump is actually trying like hell to fix an immigration system that’s been broken for 40 years.”

And Moore told CNN that he said “a lot of negative things about Donald Trump before I met him”.

You can read the Guardian’s past reporting on Moore here:

Some more 2020 fundraising news: John Hickenlooper, the former governor of Colorado and a Democratic presidential candidate, has reported raising over $2m in the first four weeks of the campaign.

Some context:

He is trailing many of his opponents in the crowded primary field:

Guardian contributor Jared Goyette has a dispatch from Minnesota, where protesters faced off as Donald Trump made a Tax Day visit:

If Minnesota is to be a battleground state in the 2020 election, it felt like the lines were clearly drawn Monday as boisterous, dueling crowds faced off in Minneapolis while Donald Trump made an appearance for Tax Day.

The two crowds – those supporting Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, and those backing the president – seemed to have little in common, besides their use of American flags and their state of residency. The Trump supporters were older and whiter and included a contingent of leather clad “Bikers for Trump”, as well as at least three “Q” signs, a reference to the rightwing conspiracy theory.

The president’s fans were relatively subdued, only mustering a few half-hearted yells of “fake news” at the journalists in the crowd.

Young women wearing hijabs led chants on the other side, which was a younger and more diverse crowd that sang and spoke out about the escalating attacks on Omar.

Asma Mohammed, 26, walked in front of the line of Omar supporters, using a bullhorn to lead a chant of “What do we do when Ilhan’s under attack? Stand up, fight back.”

“I came here to support my sister Ilhan,” she told the Guardian. “She’s been under attack and she’s been facing death threats consistently, but even more so after Trump tweeted things about her that make her seem like she sympathizing with terrorists.”

Mohammed said Omar was more than just a political figure to her: “She is my sister, as Minnesotans, she is my sister as another woman of faith, as another woman who wears a hijab and faces that kind of hate on the daily.”

Sam Levin in San Francisco here, taking over our coverage for the rest of the day.

Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro has announced that he has raised $1.1m in the first quarter of his 2020 campaign.

More from the AP:

The former San Antonio mayor’s numbers, released Monday, lag well behind other contenders in the crowded field of Democrats. He’s also short of the 65,000-donor threshold to guarantee a spot in the first debates this summer, though Castro has met the polling criteria to get on the stage.

Castro, who also served in Obama’s cabinet, says he knows he’s not a front-runner but believes momentum is building. His campaign says they’ve raised an additional $570,000 since the start of April.

Evening Summary

Here’s the big news of the day:

  • Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report of his Trump-Russia investigation will be made public in redacted form on Thursday morning - DoJ
  • The French civil defense agency has appeared to reject Trump’s suggestion for extinguishing the fire burning at Notre Dame.
  • Trump will award Tiger Woods a Presidential Medal of Freedom
  • Presidential contender Jay Inslee said he raised $2.25m since entering the race on March 1.
  • Bernie Sanders will appear on a Fox News town hall at 6:30pm EST to discuss the his economic agenda. He has also promised to release his tax returns by Tax Day, which is Monday.

Democratic presidential contender and Washington governor Jay Inslee announced that his campaign has raised over $2.25m since he joined the race on March 1.

In a release, Inslee’s campaign says he his fundraising average “has outpaced better-known candidates” including Senators Kirstin Gillibrand and Elizabeth Warren, who raised more but have been in the race longer.

His campaign said 75% of its contributions are $25 or less and 95% of donations are $100 or less. Inslee is running a campaign focused primarily on climate change.

Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Jose Valencia said Julian Assange’s behavior at the embassy was “undeserving, disrespectful,” he told the Associated Press.

Ecuador revoked Assange’s asylum last week.

Jennifer Robinson, a lawyer representing Assange, has alleged that Ecuador’s government has spread lies about his behavior at its embassy.

Valencia told the AP that Ecuador made a “sovereign decision” when it ended Assange’s protected status after more than 6 years and opened the way for his arrest last week.

It’s Pulitzer Day!

Congratulations to the South Florida Sun Sentinel for its Pulitzer for Public Service for its coverage of the Parkland shooting.

Congratulations to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for its breaking news coverage of the mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal also won a Pulitzer for their coverage of the Trump Administration. The Associated Press and Reuters have won Pulitzer for their international coverage. ProPublica has also won a Pulitzer for its reporting on immigration.

Updated

This is the only update the French civil defense agency has provided in English. It notes that water-bombing aircrafts, or “flying water tanks” as suggested by US president Donald Trump, could lead to the “collapse of the entire structure of the cathedral.”

Updated

Neera Tanden, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress (CAP), said on Monday that a video critical of Bernie Sanders and shared by the group’s associated news website, Think Progress, was “overly harsh”.

The orientation of CAP is to positively engage with all political leaders about the country’s future,” Tanden said in a new statement on Monday.

ThinkProgress is editorially independent of CAP and CAP Action, which is what has made it valuable as a news outlet. Similarly, we at CAP can form our own opinions of their work. We believe the content of the ThinkProgress video critiquing Sen. Sanders is overly harsh and does not reflect our approach to a constructive debate of the issues.

Her comments followed a back-and-forth between CAP and Sanders, who accused the group of using Think Progress to “smear” him and other progressive candidates running for president.

“I and other Democratic candidates are running campaigns based on principles and ideas and not engaging in mudslinging or personal attacks on each other,” Sanders said in a letter to CAP’s board. “Meanwhile, the Center for American Progress is using its resources to smear Senator Booker, Senator Warren, and myself, among others. This is hardly the way to build unity, or to win the general election.”

The accusation leveled by Sanders amplified the long-simmering tensions between supporters of the Vermont senator and allies of Hillary Clinton, who won the Democratic nomination in 2016. CAP was founded by John Podesta, who was the White House chief of staff to Bill Clinton and chairman of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign. Complicating the ties, Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, was formerly editor-in-chief of Think Progress.

The controversy stems from a video published by Think Progress that criticizes Sanders for being a millionaire while railing against an elite class and the concentration of wealth.

In a statement on Sunday, Daniella Gibbs Leger, CAP’s executive vice president for communications, said the news outlet was “editorially independent” and said the think tank “cannot and will not muzzle ThinkProgress”.

“The Center for American Progress is a research institution focused on ideas and policy. ThinkProgress is part of CAP Action: It is editorially independent of both CAP and CAP Action and has been for years,” the statement said. “We do not suggest, edit, approve or see their stories before publishing. And, in this particular instance, no one at CAP or CAP Action knew about this article or video’s existence before publication.”

*This post has been amended to correct the attribution of the statement issued by CAP on Sunday. That statement was from Daniella Gibbs Leger, not Neera Tanden.

Updated

Moments ago Donald Trump opened a roundtable discussion at Nuss Truck & Equipment supply site, located just outside of Minneapolis.

During the discussion, according to the pool reporter, he further commented on the fire blazing at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

“It’s burning at a level that you rarely see a fire burning,” said Trump, who is often struck by the magnitude and scale of disasters. He said of the cathedral is “greater than almost any museum in the world. It’s very bad and it’s looking like it’s [burning to] the ground.”

The crowd gasped.

“That puts a damper on what we are about to say,” he said. “A part of our culture, it’s a part of our lives. ... It’s a terrible sight to behold.”

Updated

Hello! Thanks to Jo Walters for holding down the fort while I grabbed some lunch and fresh air. Lauren Gambino is back on the blog.

Democratic contender Pete Buttigieg is the field’s fasting rising star and no one knows how long it will burn. Among his donors are actor Mandy Moore and James Murdoch – the younger son of Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch.

Updated

Journalists have mixed feelings about the news that the Mueller report will come out on Thursday, the day before Good Friday and Passover.

One pointed out that, in times gone by, when William Barr was last at the DoJ, George HW Bush issued pardons in the Iran-Contra case on Christmas Eve.

But at least it will be Thursday morning, not early evening. Mueller was fond of handing down indictments on Friday afternoons and Barr released his summary of the Mueller report on Sunday afternoon.

Scribes, hacks, broadcasters and pundits can consider themselves relatively lucky with AM Maundy Thursday. And Good Friday isn’t a public holiday here as it is in many countries.

So plenty of brains on deck and time on the clock in news rooms across the US this week to dissect any sneaky leaks, peeks or the full monty. And, with, you know, 24/7 connectivity, it’s not like readers will be far from their phones.

No buried stories here. But we’ll try to keep the speculation under control beforehand.

The Guardian has just launched a separate live news blog that’s following all the developments of the awful inferno in France at the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.

The breaking news blog, currently being anchored in the Guardian’s London HQ, can be reached here:

Updated

This is Joanna Walters, in New York, filling in for a little bit for Lauren, my colleague in Washington, DC.

Donald Trump spoke over the weekend with former president Jimmy Carter about his China policies and “numerous other topics.”
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley says Trump reached out to Carter on Saturday after the former president wrote him “a beautiful letter” about ongoing trade negotiations between the US and China, the AP reports.
Trump’s unconventional presidency has strained relations among the traditionally cordial club of former presidents, and he has publicly feuded with the families of the other three living former American leaders. He was not asked to speak at the funeral last year of George HW Bush.
Gidley says Trump “has always liked” Carter and his wife Rosalynn, and that Trump “extended his best wishes to them on behalf of the American people.”

Updated

Early afternoon news summary

  • Special counsel Robert Mueller’s report of his Trump-Russia investigation will be made public in redacted form on Thursday morning - DoJ
  • Leading Democrats are demanding the president give details of proposals to release undocumented immigrants into so-called sanctuary cities across the US
  • Democratic 2020 candidate Elizabeth Warren has pledged a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases for drilling if she wins the White House
  • Donald Trump is going to give Tiger Woods the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Trump has a suggestion for officials and fire fighters working to put out the blaze that has engulfed part of the iconic Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris.

Here’s footage of the fire:

Updated

Trump announced Tiger Woods to receive the Presidential Medal of Freedom

Tiger Woods claimed his fifth Masters title by a stroke in an extraordinary comeback for the American golfer. Trump, an avid golfer, said he called to congratulate Woods on his win and his “incredible Success & Comeback in Sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE”.

He said he will be awarding Woods the “PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM!”

Congressman Ruben Gallego will be a national campaign chairman for the presidential campaign of his House colleague, Eric Swalwell.

Swalwell’s campaign has been treated with some skepticism – he’s not the only congressman in the race. He’s not the youngest in the race. He’s not even the only Californian in the race. So what was the 17-field person missing before he jumped in?

That is the case Gallego will have to make as a national co-chair.

Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren campaign has rolled out yet another new policy proposal.

“It is wrong to prioritize corporate profits over the health and safety of our local communities,” Warren wrote in a Medium post. “That’s why on my first day as president, I will sign an executive order that says no more drilling — a total moratorium on all new fossil fuel leases, including for drilling offshore and on public lands.”

She says she would also:

  • reinstate the methane pollution rule to limit existing oil and gas projects from releasing harmful gases that poison our air
  • reinstitute the clean water rule to protect our lakes, rivers, and streams, and the drinking water they provide.

Updated

Three Democratic chairman are demanding the White House release all documents related to its proposal to release undocumented immigrants in so-called sanctuary cities across the US as a way to retaliate against Democrats who oppose the president’s immigration agenda.

In a letter, congressman Elijah Cummings, of Maryland, Jerrold Nadler of New York and Bennie Thompson of Mississippi —chairs of the House Oversight, Judiciary and Homeland Security committees —told acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and acting Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan that they are “deeply troubled” by the Trump administration’s proposal, according to the Daily Beast.

They call it a “bizarre and unlawful attempt to score political points” and ask for the documents by May 3.

Read more here.

Trump is reacting to news that the Mueller report will be released on Thursday:

The Democratic field is large – 18 people, the last time I checked. It’s competitive – and still very early. That is to say that endorsements are hard to come by at this stage.

But Kamala Harris has been snagging some high-profile endorsements: labor activist Dolores Huerta and progressive lawmaker Barbara Lee. On Monday she announced former South Carolina lawmaker Bakari Sellers was backing her bid for president.

Bernie Sanders also picked up an endorsement this weekend from Cardi B.

Asked why, she said: “Bernie don’t say things to be cool. There’s pictures of him being an activist from a very, very, very long time.”

Updated

DOJ: redacted Mueller reported expected to be released on Thursday

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s redacted report on Russian meddling in the US presidential election will be made public on Thursday morning, the Justice Department said on Monday.

Washington has been eagerly awaiting the release of the report, a summary as interpreted by Attorney General William Barr was sent to Congress last month. Congressional Democrats have demanded Barr release the entire un-redacted document to Congress. In a letter last month, they asked Barr to release the full report by 12 April but he missed the deadline.

The four-page summary provided by Barr to Congress said the special counsel found no proof that Trump or anyone associated with his campaign had colluded with Russia. He said Mueller had not reached a conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice.

Barr said that he concluded that, based on the special counsel’s findings, Trump didot not obstruct justice.

Updated

The newest class of Democratic freshman has been hailed as the most diverse and female in US congressional history. But among the group, there are two Katies from southern California and that’s been causing some serious confusion on Capitol Hill.

Katie Porter is on the left. Katie Hill is on the right.

The two women look nothing alike, are a decade apart and have different political backgrounds and professions and yet Washington can’t seem to tell them apart, reports the LA Times.

Political donations for Porter have gone to Hill’s campaign office. Congressional staffers conflate them in meetings. Reporters mix them up in the hallways and in their stories.

Social media is where most mistakes manifest. The Victory Fund, a group that supports LGBTQ lawmakers like the openly bisexual Hill, has tagged Porter — who is straight — in social media posts so many times that she jokes that she hopes the group might endorse her, too.

Even Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) isn’t immune. From the dais on the House floor, she mentioned Hill when she meant Porter on swearing-in day in January.

The piece is a fun read but it also asks whether there might be a double standard at play: “There are 15 men named John in the House and 14 who go by James or Jim. But it’s the two Katies who keep getting mixed up.”

Read more here.

Updated

Donald Trump and Cher have had their clashes over the years. But they’ve found common ground on one of the most bitterly divisive and partisan issues of his presidency: immigration.

In an interview with Yahoo News’ Skullduggery, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talks Omar, Netanyahu, Biden, impeachment and 2020.

Here are some of the highlights from the freshman congresswoman’s chat with co-hosts Michael Isikoff and Daniel Klaidman.

  • Impeachment: “I think you could reach in a bag and pull so many things out that are impeachable of this president. I support impeaching this president.”
  • Trump attack on Rep Ilhan Omar: “You do not splice together out of context words with images of the planes hitting the Twin Towers and not think that you are trying to incite a stereotype of all Muslims being terrorists.”
  • Netanyahu: “I think that Netanyahu is a Trump-like figure.”
  • Her 2020 pick: “I truly do not have one yet. I truly do not ... I haven’t endorsed anybody, but I’m very supportive of Bernie. ... I also think what Elizabeth Warren has been bringing to the table is … truly remarkable, truly remarkable and transformational.”
  • Biden: “I can understand why people would be excited by that, this idea that we can go back to the good old days with Obama, with Obama’s vice president. There’s an emotional element to that, but I don’t want to go back. I want to go forward.”
  • Yankees v Mets: “Oh, man. I’m in trouble. ... I have been raised a Yankees fan through and through ... However, this is a huge feud in my family because a big part of the Bronx side of my family are also Mets fans, and Citi Field is in my district. So, in some ways, I have to kind of learn to be a Mets fan too.”

Updated

The Associated Press is reporting that prosecutors have dropped a criminal case against a woman who was charged with assaulting White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.

The trail for Mary Elizabeth Inabinett, 63, of Maryland, who confronted Conway at a Mexican restaurant last year, was scheduled to begin on Monday but prosecutors instead asked the judge to drop the charges.

More from the AP:

Conway told police she was attending a birthday party with her teenage daughter at a Mexican restaurant in Bethesda, Maryland, last October when she felt somebody grab her shoulders from behind and shake her. The woman who confronted Conway yelled, “Shame on you” and “other comments believed to about Conway’s political views,” according to a document prepared by Montgomery County police that charged Inabinett last November with second-degree assault and disorderly conduct.

Conway wasn’t injured, the document says.

Montgomery County prosecutor Kathy Knight said Inabinett sent Conway a letter apologizing for the incident.

Ramon Korionoff, a spokesman for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office said dropping the charges is “the best resolution for this particular set of circumstance.”

After Sarah Sanders said Democrats “aren’t smart enough” to understand Trump’s tax returns, freshman congresswoman Katie Porter said it was a “bet” she was willing to take if he would release them.

New polling out of New Hampshire shows Bernie Sanders topping the primary there, with prospective candidate Joe Biden trailing slightly behind. Sanders defeated Hillary Clinton in his neighboring state by a wide margin.

South Bend mayor Pete Buttigieg is in third place, a reflection of his heightened profile.

Interesting, if Biden – who is considering running as a moderate heavyweight to counter Sanders – doesn’t enter the race, Sanders picks up a majority of his support.

(Caveat: polling at this stage is still partially a reflection of name recognition - though Buttigieg’s jump shows that newer and lesser-known Democrats are starting to break through.)

Updated

This exchange between CNN anchor Jake Tapper and New York congressman Jerry Nadler, who has been critical of Omar’s comments on supporters of Israel, is how some Democrats believe the party should respond.

Asked on Sunday if the New Yorker had a problem with how Congresswoman Ilhan Omar described 9/11, he replied:

No, I did not. She characterized it only in passing. She was talking about discrimination against Muslim Americans. And she just said that, after that happened, it was used as an excuse for lots of discrimination and for withdrawal of civil liberties. No, I did not take -- I have had some problems with some of her other remarks, but not -- but not with that one. And for the president to -- 9/11 occurred in my district. I’m very familiar with it. I know a lot -- I know people, a lot of people, who suffered from it. I was involved, I was instrumental in getting funding for small business grants for victims of 9/11, for people with small businesses in the area.

The president -- he wasn’t president, but Donald Trump actually took a $150,000 grant from the Bush administration. They let him take a $150,000 grant meant for small businessmen for 40 Wall Street, the small business 40 Wall Street. He stole $150,000 from some small businessperson who could have used it to help rehabilitate himself. And that’s why we appropriated it, why I got Congress to appropriate that money. To use it for his own small business of 40 Wall Street, he has no moral authority to be talking about 9/11 at all.”

Updated

Trump to Pelosi: Omar is 'out of control'

Donald Trump escalated his attacks on congresswoman Ilhan Omar, calling her “out of control” and criticizing Democrats for defending her after the the Muslim American Democrat said she has received an increased number of death threats since the president tweeted a video accusing her of downplaying the terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Democrats have condemned Trump for tweeting a video on Friday that spliced her comments before the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) conference last month with images of the Twin Towers burning.

In a statement on Sunday night, Omar said: “Since the president’s tweet Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in direct threats on my life – many directly referencing or replying to the president’s video.”

In the tweet, Trump singled out House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for defending Omar, who he sardonically referred to as Pelosi’s “leader”. He said Pelosi should consider past remarks by Omar that were widely condemned by Democrats, including its leadership, as anti-semitic.

But Trump goes further, accusing her of making “anti-Semitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful U.S. HATE statements”. Omar came to the US as a refugee from Somalia, where her family fled the war and lived first in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee camp before moving to the United States at the age of 12. She is one of the first Muslim women elected to the Congress and the first person in history to wear a hijab in the chamber.

Omar says she often faces questions doubting her “American-ness”. In a tweet this weekend, she said: “No one person – no matter how corrupt, inept, or vicious – can threaten my unwavering love for America.”

Pelosi tweeted on Friday: “The memory of 9/11 is sacred ground, and any discussion of it must be done with reverence. The President shouldn’t use the painful images of 9/11 for a political attack.” On Sunday, she said she asked the US Capitol Police and the House sergeant-at-arms to conduct a “security assessment to safeguard” Omar and her family.

Updated

Democratic hopeful US senator Amy Klobuchar has released 13-years of tax returns joining a cadres of her competitors in doing so. In 2018, she reported $338,483 in income. Bernie Sanders has promised to release his tax returns on Monday is well after acknowledging that he is a millionaire owing to a best-selling book.

This comes as the newly-empowered House Democrats go after Trump’s tax returns. Sarah Sanders told Fox News on Sunday that Democrats shouldn’t bother because they “aren’t smart enough” to understand his returns.

Trump campaign raises $30m in first quarter

Donald Trump for President Inc announced that it raised a whopping $30.3 million during the first quarter of 2019 – more than was raised by the top two Democratic contenders combined.

In a statement on Monday, Trump’s re-election campaign and the Republican National Committee said it would report a combined $76.1 million haul to the US Federal Election Commission (FEC). Together, it said, Trump’s campaign, the RNC, and the joint fundraising committees have a stunning $82 million cash on hand.

“Our prodigious fundraising is further proof of President Trump’s clear record of accomplishment on behalf of the American people,” said Brad Parscale, Trump’s campaign manager. “The tremendous support he is receiving is a result of ‘promises made, promises kept’ and the enormous appeal of his determination to Make America Great Again.”

He has more cash on hand than president Obama had at this point in his presidency. But as Trump proved in 2016, the candidate with the most money on hand doesn’t always win.

Updated

Opening summary

Good morning and Happy Tax Day to all the US taxpayers out there.

Today, Washington is on pins and needles in anticipation of the redacted Mueller report. The attorney general, Bill Barr, has said he would release the report this week and the expectations are that the findings will be damaging for the president.

Donald Trump weighed in this morning.

He has also called on Congress to abandon their two-week Easter recess to return to Washington and “FIX THE IMMIGRATION LAWS”. There’s little chance of that – especially for an issue with little prospect for compromise at this moment.

Today Trump heads to a suburb of Minneapolis for a roundtable discussion on the economy and tax reform at Nuss Truck and Equipment. He returns to Washington after.

Democrats are also eagerly awaiting another development: Bernie Sanders’ tax returns. The candidate promised to release then on Monday. Later tonight he will hold a televised town hall on Fox News.

Updated

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Bored Panda
US man issues challenge to disprove his claim of having world’s smallest penis to raise micropenis awareness
North Carolina’s Michael Phillips revealed that he had a 0.38in member in bid to reduce stigma of the condition
The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
Movies and series leaving Netflix in March 2026, including hugely re-watched sitcom
A deal is yet to be struck to keep the show on the service
The Independent UK
The Independent UK
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