This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.

You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2019/mar/29/trump-news-today-latest-live-updates-democrats-mueller-report-economy

The article has changed 22 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.

Version 12 Version 13
Mueller report release: Barr says Congress will get redacted version by mid-April – live Mueller report release: Barr says Congress will get redacted version by mid-April – live
(32 minutes later)
Here are some quick-fire thoughts from the Guardian’s Jon Swaine on the latest developments re: Barr, Mueller, Trump, Congress.
Attorney general William Barr’s latest letter, sent Friday afternoon, is unlikely to calm the restive Democrats who have demanded to see Robert Mueller’s full report on the Trump-Russia investigation – and it may have actually set off more alarm bells.
Democrats in Congress knew Barr would want to redact material relating to grand jury proceedings, which are secret and may not be published without a court order. They acknowledged he would also seek to protect the sources of sensitive intelligence.
But Barr’s pledge to use his redacting pen to guard the “privacy and reputational interests of peripheral third parties” in the report will raise concerns that questionable activity by people around Trump who were not prosecuted by Mueller stand a worrying chance of being covered up.
We should expect a dispute between Barr, who will say he is just following Justice Department policy, and Democrats who argue that this extraordinary investigation requires an extraordinary amount of transparency.
Ahead of an expected press conference at Mar-a-Lago and announcements by the president, any moment, here is a refreshed version of a neat summary and explainer relating to Barr’s letter to Congress last weekend.
Barr’s has just sent another letter to Congress, telling them he’ll hand over the report (with redactions) by mid-April, as reported here by Guardian senior reporter Jon Swaine.
Barr first summed up his initial take on the Mueller report (into allegations of collusion between the Trump election campaign and Russia, and obstruction of justice by the president and/or his circle) in a four-page letter to Congress last Sunday, here explained by Guardian senior reporter Oliver Laughland.
In this tiny window between AG Bill Barr telling Congress he will release (most of) the Mueller report by mid-April and Donald Trump holding a press conference at Mar-a-Lago, just to let you know that things at the US-Mexico border are still tense.
Reporter-on-the-spot Edwin Delgado sent this mini-dispatch for the Guardian just now, ahead of a press conference in El Paso, Texas, very soon, following his witnessing of the chaos at the border there earlier this week.
On Friday afternoon, El Paso Congresswoman Veronica Escobar and local leaders of the border community are expected to address the media on the recent influx of migrants to the border after Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan said the entire system is at a “breaking point”.
The press conference is scheduled for 4:15 p.m. ET (2:15 p.m. local time), where Escobar and local advocates are expected to discuss what has led to this humanitarian crisis at the border and the current situation in which hundreds of migrants are being held in a transitory shelter surrounded by chain link fence and barbed wire underneath the Paso del Norte International bridge connecting Ciudad Juarez on the Mexican side of the border and El Paso, separated by barriers.
McAleenan said on Wednesday CBP is ‘reluctantly’ considering releasing migrants directly into the streets as they have already done in Del Rio, Texas, and as happened in El Paso just before Christmas, if the high volume of migrants continues and no other agencies are able to take them.
Local leaders are expected to address the possible scenario in which hundreds of migrants find themselves stranded at local bus stations trying to reach their relatives as it happened in October and Christmas week.
Other potential topics of discussion include the request made by the Department of Homeland Security requesting authority to be able to deport unaccompanied minors faster than the current laws and court rulings facilitate.
“Once again, [DHS Secretary Kirstjen] Nielsen is using an increase in the number of asylum seekers as a vehicle to promote an abhorrent policy,” Escobar said in a statement ahead of the press conference.
“Her request for broader authority to detain families indefinitely and deport migrant children, denying them their right to due process, is offensive and anti-American,” she added.
Earlier today, the president threatened to shut the US-Mexico border next week if the flow of migrants unlawfully entering the US is not stemmed.
AG Bill Barr sent his letter this afternoon to Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, and Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, chairman of the House judiciary committee, and made it public in the process.AG Bill Barr sent his letter this afternoon to Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, and Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, chairman of the House judiciary committee, and made it public in the process.
He notes that portions of the report will be redacted. And that the president, despite having the right to assert executive privilege over some parts of the report, had said he intended to defer to the attorney general.He notes that portions of the report will be redacted. And that the president, despite having the right to assert executive privilege over some parts of the report, had said he intended to defer to the attorney general.
“[A]ccordingly, there are no plans to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review,” Barr said.“[A]ccordingly, there are no plans to submit the report to the White House for a privilege review,” Barr said.
Breaking news: Barr gives update on the fate of the Mueller report.Breaking news: Barr gives update on the fate of the Mueller report.
Attorney general William Barr has sent a new letter to lawmakers on Capitol Hill this afternoon saying the report by special counsel Robert Mueller, with his findings on Trump, his 2016 election campaign, and Russia’s election interference will be delivered to Congress by mid-April, if not sooner.Attorney general William Barr has sent a new letter to lawmakers on Capitol Hill this afternoon saying the report by special counsel Robert Mueller, with his findings on Trump, his 2016 election campaign, and Russia’s election interference will be delivered to Congress by mid-April, if not sooner.
However, the AG warned that some parts would be redacted.However, the AG warned that some parts would be redacted.
Last word on the eco-system that Lake Okeechobee keeps alive.Last word on the eco-system that Lake Okeechobee keeps alive.
The Everglades includes the National Park but also unique areas such as the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve (hello, the Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean and, for better or worse, the film Adaptation).The Everglades includes the National Park but also unique areas such as the Big Cypress National Preserve and the Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve (hello, the Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean and, for better or worse, the film Adaptation).
It’s hard to know why Donald Trump chose today to visit the area. He’s holding a press conference at Mar-a-Lago at 4PM but that won’t shed light on anything related to the environment or his sudden urge to catch a glimpse of Lake Okeechobee.It’s hard to know why Donald Trump chose today to visit the area. He’s holding a press conference at Mar-a-Lago at 4PM but that won’t shed light on anything related to the environment or his sudden urge to catch a glimpse of Lake Okeechobee.
So before we leave this delicate topic and return to the topics of healthcare, the border and the economy, here’s a picture of the increasingly-rare Florida panther, which still survives in the Everglades.So before we leave this delicate topic and return to the topics of healthcare, the border and the economy, here’s a picture of the increasingly-rare Florida panther, which still survives in the Everglades.
Most of us humans will never get to see one in the wild but, as it’s 3PM on a Friday I’m going to remind you what to do if you do, courtesy of verse by Ogden Nash:Most of us humans will never get to see one in the wild but, as it’s 3PM on a Friday I’m going to remind you what to do if you do, courtesy of verse by Ogden Nash:
A panther is like a leopardA panther is like a leopard
except it hasn’t been pepperedexcept it hasn’t been peppered
should you behold a panther crouchshould you behold a panther crouch
prepare to say ouchprepare to say ouch
better yet, if called by a pantherbetter yet, if called by a panther
don’t anther.don’t anther.
Walls, dikes, barriers, bluster.Walls, dikes, barriers, bluster.
The pool reporters report that the president has left Lake Okeechobee now and is “wheels up” in the Marine One helicopter on his way to Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago.The pool reporters report that the president has left Lake Okeechobee now and is “wheels up” in the Marine One helicopter on his way to Palm Beach and Mar-a-Lago.
At the lakeshore just prior, apparently, around 15 people stood for several minutes around a sign that appeared to include a map of the project. The pool couldn’t hear the conversation. The group then went close to the water and looked out at the lake.At the lakeshore just prior, apparently, around 15 people stood for several minutes around a sign that appeared to include a map of the project. The pool couldn’t hear the conversation. The group then went close to the water and looked out at the lake.
Your blogger presents the next exchange, as reported by the pool, but without comment because I have face-planted.Your blogger presents the next exchange, as reported by the pool, but without comment because I have face-planted.
“Great project,” Trump told reporters.“Great project,” Trump told reporters.
Pool reports POTUS talked for several minutes about the project. He said Okeechobee has been a success but has had problems.Pool reports POTUS talked for several minutes about the project. He said Okeechobee has been a success but has had problems.
Pointing to earthen walls along the dike, he said: “I’m looking at all of the walls and I’m saying ...don’t forget our southern border.”Pointing to earthen walls along the dike, he said: “I’m looking at all of the walls and I’m saying ...don’t forget our southern border.”
Linda McMahon will chair Trump’s 2020 Super PAC, Politico is reporting.Linda McMahon will chair Trump’s 2020 Super PAC, Politico is reporting.
Earlier we heard that McMahon is stepping down as head of the Small Business Administration – but it seems she won’t be going far.Earlier we heard that McMahon is stepping down as head of the Small Business Administration – but it seems she won’t be going far.
Instead, she’ll take up a role at “America First Action”, which will play a key role in Trump’s re-election effort. From Politico:Instead, she’ll take up a role at “America First Action”, which will play a key role in Trump’s re-election effort. From Politico:
Trump allies have spent weeks searching for someone to chair the super PAC, which officials view as a key plank in the president’s reelection campaign. The president’s top aides believe they will need to raise around $1 billion, and say the super PAC will be a major part of the effort. Brian Walsh, America First Action’s president, declined to comment.Trump allies have spent weeks searching for someone to chair the super PAC, which officials view as a key plank in the president’s reelection campaign. The president’s top aides believe they will need to raise around $1 billion, and say the super PAC will be a major part of the effort. Brian Walsh, America First Action’s president, declined to comment.
The president is expected to huddle with major donors on Saturday evening at Mar-a-Lago, according to two people familiar with the plans. Trump is planning to speak to reporters at 4pm. McMahon is joining the president at his private club this weekend.The president is expected to huddle with major donors on Saturday evening at Mar-a-Lago, according to two people familiar with the plans. Trump is planning to speak to reporters at 4pm. McMahon is joining the president at his private club this weekend.
Speaking after his tour of Lake Okeechobee, Trump doubled-down on closing the border over what he describes as an immigration crisis.Speaking after his tour of Lake Okeechobee, Trump doubled-down on closing the border over what he describes as an immigration crisis.
“If they don’t stop it we will keep the border closed. And we will keep it stopped for a long time. I’m not playing games,” Trump said, according to a White House pool report.“If they don’t stop it we will keep the border closed. And we will keep it stopped for a long time. I’m not playing games,” Trump said, according to a White House pool report.
In other Trump news, the president will hold a press conference at 4pm, where he will respond to reports that Linda McMahon is resigning as head of the Small Business Administration.In other Trump news, the president will hold a press conference at 4pm, where he will respond to reports that Linda McMahon is resigning as head of the Small Business Administration.
According to a White House pool report Trump will speak from Mar-a-Lago.According to a White House pool report Trump will speak from Mar-a-Lago.
Meanwhile, Democratic 2020 election hopeful Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Senator, is hitting Iowa this weekend.Meanwhile, Democratic 2020 election hopeful Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Senator, is hitting Iowa this weekend.
She just took the stage in Marshalltown “in her first stop focusing on rural Iowa this weekend”, Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC just tweeted.She just took the stage in Marshalltown “in her first stop focusing on rural Iowa this weekend”, Leigh Ann Caldwell of NBC just tweeted.
.@ewarren takes the stage in Marshalltown Iowa in her first stop focusing on rural Iowa this weekend pic.twitter.com/K5yFKr5b9N.@ewarren takes the stage in Marshalltown Iowa in her first stop focusing on rural Iowa this weekend pic.twitter.com/K5yFKr5b9N
Lakes and pools.
As the president tours Lake Okeechobee, the Washington reporters’ pool traveling with him notes:
“Pool is aware of reports that Linda McMahon is resigning as head of Small Business Administration. We are seeking details.”
Local Florida media and the rotating pool of Washington reporters that tracks the movements of the president in Washington and while he is on his travels, and sends dispatches out to the rest of the mainstream US media, has noted that Trump has arrived at Lake Okeechobee in Florida.
He’s visiting the Herbert Hoover Dike, the lesser-known (as in completely unknown to the general public outside of southern Florida) cousin of the Hoover Dam. The Dike is a system of levees and water control channels around the lake, but is showing its age.
It’s also at its lowest level since 2011, a local TV station reported, adding that the US army corps of engineers is working to repair the dike by 2022.
Supporters of the president turned out to greet him, holding signs with such messages as “Sugar cane farmers for Trump” and “Make Lake O Great Again”.
Linda McMahon, the head of the Small Business Administration, is reportedly planning to announce as soon as Friday that she’s stepping down.
McMahon is expected to rejoin the private sector. Her exact plans are unclear, but one of the people said the wealthy business mogul intends to play a fundraising role for Donald Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
She was expected to join the president at Mar-a-Lago, his private Florida club, this weekend, Politico reports, according to folks in the know.
There’s no explanation from the Trump administration on this yet. She had been seen as a possible successor to commerce secretary Wilbur Ross.
A longtime professional wrestling executive and former Republican Senate candidate, McMahon is an original member of Trump’s Cabinet, having been confirmed for the job in February 2017. She’s also one of just five women in the president’s Cabinet, the news website points out.
Dee Margo, the Republican mayor of El Paso, met with Customs and Border Protection commissioner Kevin McAleenan when the federal official visited the border in the city on Wednesday and declared the system there to be “at breaking point”.
Margo told NPR shortly after that that the idea of shutting the border in response to the current migration surge would not be helpful.
He put the problem down, in the big picture, to the lack of “intestinal fortitude” exhibited on either side of the aisle in Congress on immigration laws for the past three decades.
Immediately on the ground, if the president closes the border next week, the effects will immediately be dramatic, if that’s not stating the obvious. Just in El Paso, Margo pointed out that:
“We have a hundred billion-plus in trade back and forth in imports and exports. We have six of the 28 bridges that cross from Texas to Mexico...We have 23,000 legal pedestrians that come north every day. We’ve got 13 million vehicles that come north every year.
“It affects us all the way around, from commerce - and the wait times on the bridges are approaching two hours, that’s an environmental issue, while cars are just sitting there idling. It’s a major problem.
“But the issue is not just Mexico and whatever they’re doing. The issue is the lack of action by our Congress to deal with this.”
Politicians disagree about whether there is a crisis at the border and, if there is, to what extent it is self-inflicted by America’s own dysfunctional immigration policies.
My colleagues Amanda Holpuch, taking to experts from her well-informed purchase in New York, and Nina Lakhani, who’s based south of the US-Mexico border and reports from Mexico City, analyze the latest and jointly write today:
US authorities’ failure to keep up with a steep increase in Central American families seeking asylum at the US-Mexico border has left El Paso aid workers, churches and city government scrambling to respond.
After a sudden surge in arrivals, migrants have been crowded into hotels, churches and even held under a bridge behind a chain-link fence and razor wire while their asylum claims are processed.
The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, said the number of new arrivals in March is expected to reach 100,000, including 55,000 family members. “The immigration system is at breaking point,” he told reporters on Wednesday.
The chaotic scenes in El Paso are the result of a regional crisis in which growing numbers of Central American families flee violence, corruption and poverty – only to come up against failed migration polices in Mexico and the US.
The exodus has only gained pace in recent months. Last year, border apprehensions dropped to historic lows, but in February CBP announced more than 76,000 people were apprehended or sought asylum at the US southern border – the highest number in a decade.
The advocacy group DHS Watch noted that family apprehensions at the border had been steadily increasing since 2012. “Nothing is perfect, but we have seen that the Trump policies of the last two years have not only failed, they have led us to more serious problems,” Ur Jaddou, director of DHS Watch, said in a statement.
Authorities in US border towns have struggled to cope with the crush of families and unaccompanied minors. Because of limits on how long children can be held in detention, most families are now being released to pursue their claims in immigration courts, a process that can take years.
Read their whole report here.
Comedy writer and political observer Nick Jack Pappas isn’t laughing.
He tweeted: “$558 billion in goods flow across the U.S.- Mexico border in both directions, making Mexico our third-biggest trading partner for goods. Closing the border would cost billions.”
Pappas then continues, including a think tank quote: “If you are thinking about a total shutdown of the border, then it’s hundreds of millions of dollars A DAY -- maybe a billion.” - Duncan Wood, director of the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute. Our economy would stall. The U.S. would become one of Trump’s failed businesses.
The Trump administration’s hardline immigration policies demand the detention of migrants entering the US unlawfully, even if they are claiming asylum after escaping violence and crushing poverty in Central America.
Most migrants are arriving from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, a region my world affairs colleague in Washington, Julian Borger, has described, politically, as “a hell the US helped create” with its foreign policy.
The federal agencies on the front line, Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, are overwhelmed.
Hundreds of migrant families who’ve crossed the border are packed under a highway overpass on the border in El Paso, in western Texas, next to the border processing station, behind razor wire and fencing, as CBP struggles to figure out where to put them.
Many are sick and, as reporter-on-the-spot Edwin Delgado reported for the Guardian on Wednesday, exhausted as the mostly parents and children wait to find out their next step.
He wasn’t allowed by the authorities to talk to the folks, but witnessed the latest scenes unfolding as Washington policy aims and their manifestation on the ground create chaos.
Images emerged on Wednesday of hundreds of families packed into a grim open air space beneath an underpass, behind razor wire and fencing, their faces – some weary and bewildered, some hopeful – turned toward America.
They were migrants trying to make their way to the United States from Central America and found themselves being held at the US-Mexico border in a parking lot of a border patrol station at the international crossing point in El Paso, in western Texas.
Nearby, the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commissioner, Kevin McAleenan, declared an “operational crisis” because of a recent surge in the number of people arriving at the border, many hoping to seek asylum, and either crossing into the US unlawfully or waiting in gathering numbers on the Mexican side to be processed.
He said the immigration system on the southern border was at “breaking point” and called on Congress to bring solutions.
In a three-stage Twitter blast, Donald Trump has just excoriated the Democrats and Congress over US immigration laws and legislative reforms of same, hammered Mexico, and threatened to shut the US-Mexico border next week.
The president tweeted that “the Democrats have given us the weakest immigration laws anywhere in the world.”
He then continued: “If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States throug our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING.....
....through their country and our Southern Border. Mexico has for many years made a fortune off of the U.S., far greater than Border Costs. If Mexico doesn’t immediately stop ALL illegal immigration coming into the United States throug our Southern Border, I will be CLOSING.....
....the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week.
....the Border, or large sections of the Border, next week. This would be so easy for Mexico to do, but they just take our money and “talk.” Besides, we lose so much money with them, especially when you add in drug trafficking etc.), that the Border closing would be a good thing!
Breaking News: Trump is threatening to close the border with Mexico next week, over reports from his agencies that the immigration system there is “at breaking point” following a surge of migrants being detained after crossing unlawfully, especially in Texas, in recent weeks.
Donald Trump threatened on Friday to close the US border with Mexico next week, or at least large sections of the frontier, if Mexico “doesn’t immediately stop all illegal immigration coming into the United States” from the region, Reuters reported moments ago.