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 7 Version 8
Trump threatens to close US-Mexico border over reports immigration is at 'breaking point' – live Trump threatens to close US-Mexico border over reports immigration is at 'breaking point' – live
(32 minutes later)
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.
.@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.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.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.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.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.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”.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.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.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: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.“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.“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.”“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.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: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.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.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 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 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 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.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.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.Read their whole report here.
Comedy writer and political observer Nick Jack Pappas isn’t laughing.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.”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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.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.”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.....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.........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.
....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!....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.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.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.
Is there such a thing as a good swamp? Definitely, when it’s the Florida Everglades. It’s not even a swamp, it’s a very slow-moving, shallow, freshwater river seeping southwards to the bottom of Florida and supporting one of the most incredible ecosystems in the world.
Beats the Washington political one hands down.
The Everglades is under threat but still hosts an animal and plant cornucopia, though don’t get me started, it’s a pet topic and, like the health of the ocean, causes a perpetual push-pull on the emotions between awe and anxiety.
Just north of the Everglades, in southern Florida, feeding that glorious, wetland wilderness known as the “river of grass”, sits the vast Lake Okeechobee, the invaluable freshwater resource for both humans and wildlife, and the president’s destination today before retreating to Mar-a-Lago one week after he received the attorney general’s summary of the Mueller report there.
Trump is heading to Lake Okeechobee after proposing $63 million in federal funds for Everglades restoration, when Democrats and Republicans from Florida asked for $200 million, the Miami Herald declares, starkly, today.
“They cut everybody,” Florida GOP Senator Marco Rubio said, when asked why the White House offered a much lower funding amount than requested. “They just asked every agency to take huge cuts so that’s where that comes from. We’ve got to get that fixed. The lower their number, the harder it’s going to be to get it done.”
Rubio, the climate change skeptic.
The lake, vital for the whole region, is regularly ravaged by toxic algae blooms, as my colleague Oliver Milman has previously described. The lake and the Everglades have been sorely neglected and abused and are at the mercy of climate change and overdevelopment, as Ollie described in his recent report “Everglades in crisis”.
If you trust this collection of conservatives to restore them, well, good luck with that.
But Trump, Rubio, Senator Rick Scott and governor Ron DeSantis will surely enjoy the photo-op.
Here’s the next cover of Time.
Sneak peek at this week's cover of @TIME. I could see the president getting this one framed... pic.twitter.com/i6cDRmEzMc
In his follow-up dispatch from Grand Rapids, for the Guardian, Tom Perkins observes Trump’s fanatical supporters at the rally and their instant digestion of the inaccurate claim by the president and leading Republicans that he had been “cleared” of all wrongdoing by the Mueller report, which Potus described as “an elaborate hoax”.
The base now eagerly anticipate the long-awaited construction of a wall on the US-Mexico border , an economic boom and Trump-Pence 2020.
One cool head in the crowd, however, appealed for “an end to partisan bickering”. Good luck with that.
In Grand Rapids, Michigan, last night, Trump continued his assault on the media and Democrats on Thursday night, wrongly claiming “total exoneration, complete vindication” at his first rally since Robert Mueller submitted his report, Tom Perkins writes in the Guardian.
Trump dedicated about half of his approximately 90-minute speech in front of a raucous audience at to the topic, labeling the accusations and investigation “ridiculous bullshit”. The president bounced between theories about why the special counsel’s investigation happened and attacks on his opponents.
“All of the Democrats, politicians, the media also – bad people,” Trump told the crowd at Michigan’s Van Andel Arena. “The crooked journalists, the totally dishonest TV pundits” helped perpetuate “the single greatest hoax in the history of politics”.
He later claimed that the investigation was really an effort “to overturn the results of the 2016 election”.
“It was nothing more than a sinister effort to undermine our historic election and to sabotage the will of the American people,” Trump said to loud boos.
He repeatedly called for “accountability”, drawing chants of “Lock them up”. At other points, the president mocked Democratic opponents, including “little pencil-neck Adam Schiff”, Democrat of California and the chairman of the House intelligence committee, and his fellow lawmaker Jerry Nadler, chair of judiciary, both of whom Trump claimed he “beat again”.
Trump had earlier told reporters as he left the White House that he had been “cleared” by the Mueller report, which is patently untrue. Even Barr’s wafer-think summary of the report noted that Robert Mueller said the president had not been exonerated over the issue of obstruction of justice.
Donald Trump is traveling to Florida today and, surprisingly, isn’t landing as a hole-in-one directly at his Palm Beach private club and hob-nobbing nest, Mar-a-Lago.
He’ll reach his weekend White House later for, perhaps, a tender chicken breast and grilled watermelon with balsamic glaze and a side of fries in the elegant oceanfront bistro with its breezy al fresco tables in the sun, followed by some vigorous laps in the outdoor pool (okay, that’s a more typical afternoon itinerary for Mar-a-Lago’s paying members than Potus, but the place is, surprisingly, not without style).
But first he’s swinging by Lake Okochobee with the three musketeers of Florida Republican power: governor Ron DeSantis, Senator Marco Rubio and governor-turned-senator Rick Scott.
The vast lake is one of the most precious and most abused bodies of natural fresh water in the United States and is suffering from over-exploitation, algae attacks, pesticide run-off and merciless neglect and underfunding.
That Trump is going there at all, with his strong record of undermining environmental protections in his two years in office, is a little surprising. More on that in a moment after we take a glance back at his spin through Michigan last night.
Tempers are certainly rising in the Democratic camp on Capitol Hill over the absence from their desks of the Mueller report and speculation now turns to exactly what AG Barr will issue next.
Barr has made it clear to leading Dems that he won’t be releasing the full report by their demanded deadline, April 2, but with exasperation and anxiety in the air, will next week bring anything else from the DoJ?
Barr has been going through the report amid Democratic concerns that what has been made public so far was tilted in Trump’s favor, the Associated Press writes this morning.
It’s unclear whether whatever Barr might release next will be Mueller’s own words or another summary. House judiciary committee chairman Jerry Nadler offered to join Barr to seek a judge’s approval to unseal grand jury testimony, an aide told the AP.
Barr has said he’ll provide Congress with at least a partial version in April and told Nadler he would agree to testify before his committee.
Democrats complain that Barr overstepped by making the determination, with deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein, that Trump did not obstruct the investigation.
As the tension ramps up between the Democrats and Barr, let’s agree that Friday is always a good day for intrigue.
A question - well, there are so many questions about the Mueller report, its process and full findings - but one question piques the curiosity this morning: Why didn’t Robert Mueller subpoena Trump to give an interview to the investigation team?
It was a question for months, whether Trump would talk face-to-face to Mueller and his prosecutors, which the president was resisting and the prospect of which obviously made his inner circle’s knees tremble, given Trump’s penchant for dissembling and contradicting himself moment to moment.
He never did and, fascinatingly, Mueller never ordered him to. This headline in the Washington Post today certainly draws the eye: “A Mueller mystery: How Trump dodged a special counsel interview — and a subpoena fight”.
The story says that a year ago, Mueller warned Trump’s lawyers that if the president didn’t sit down voluntarily for an interview, he could face a subpoena.
He never explicitly, directly threatened to subpoena the president, apparently, but continued to pursue a sit-down between Trump and Mueller’s corps of federal investigators for the rest of 2018, without issuing one, while Trump’s lawyers successfully averted the interview and Mueller accepted written answers to questions instead.
No not Donald Trump and Joe Biden, though we’ll come to that later. Trump, 72, and Jerry Nadler, 71.
New York contemporaries who’ve been at loggerheads before on their home turf, Nadler is going to be an important needle in Trump’s side as the Democrat battles furiously with AG Bill Barr to get the full report by Robert Mueller passed to Congress.
As chairman of the House of Representatives judiciary committee, Nadler is one of the most powerful voices on the Hill demanding the Mueller report - by Tuesday.
After a phone call with Barr two days ago, Nadler told reporters: “I asked whether he could commit that the full report and un-redacted full report with the underlying documents and evidence will be provided to Congress and to the American people, and he wouldn’t commit to that.”
Democrat staffers on Capitol Hill have been filling in some of the gaps about the interactions, NBC writes.
Apparently, Barr acknowledged making a mistake by speaking extensively with the chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, Trump’s GOP nemesis-turned best pal/golfing buddy/lapdog, over dinner before speaking to Nadler.
The Dems think there’s actually no reason Trump couldn’t be charged with obstructing the investigation, even if Mueller found no underlying crime was committed.
Since taking the committee chairmanship in January, Nadler (like House Speaker and steady-hand-skipper Nancy Pelosi) have warned Dems to keep cool heads and not rush to impeach Trump. But he’s not going to let the Mueller report stay under wraps if he can possibly help it.
My DC colleague Lauren Gambino reminded us then that: “Long before Trump came to Washington, he and Nadler sparred over a real estate venture proposed by Trump that Nadler forcefully opposed.”
In his book The America We Deserve, Trump later described Nadler as “one of the most egregious hacks in contemporary politics”.
Leading Democrats are heading for a major clash with attorney general William Barr next week if there is no sign of the full report by special counsel Robert Mueller being handed over to Congress.
Mueller was appointed by the Department of Justice to act as an independent prosecutor, above the fray, in May 2017, after Donald Trump fired James Comey, the head of the FBI. Mueller took on the investigation into whether the president or his 2016 election campaign colluded with the Russian government or its operatives to defeat Hillary Clinton. And whether the president obstructed justice in the aftermath.
All lawmakers and the public have had sight of since Mueller delivered his report to the DoJ last Friday just after 5PM is a four-page summary written by AG Barr and given to Congress on last Sunday afternoon.
Barr said that after reading the report he could reveal there was no finding of collusion and, following Mueller’s decision not to make a decision on obstruction, that he reckoned there had been no crime of obstruction committed.
He did note, however, that Mueller said Trump was not exonerated on the issue of obstruction.
Democrats on the Hill have demanded to see the full report by April 2. But Barr has been sending increasingly strong signals this week that he is in no hurry to hand over the report and there is no guarantee that they will get the full report, without redactions, or the evidence underlying the findings.
It’s all setting up a major confrontation next week if the Justice Department doesn’t send the full Mueller report to Congress by Tuesday, NBC writes, as six committee chairmen have demanded.
The next step, House Democratic staffers told journalists, would be a subpoena. “We’ll have more to say on April 3,” one said.
By all means grab coffee and donuts, it’s Friday after all, but the politics swamp never stops bubbling so stay with us for all the live news today.
Fresh from his first post-Mueller report rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, last night, which featured gloating, calls for vengeance and truth-stretching, Donald Trump heads to Florida. Not straight to Mar-a-Lago, he’s going to Lake Okeechobee first to witness environmental problems that threaten the freshwater wonder and the Everglades to the south.
Democrats on the Hill are revving up to ramming speed in the direction of the attorney general, William Barr, as the clash over when and whether Congress will ever see the full Robert Mueller report on the special counsel’s Trump-Russia investigation becomes ever more fierce. There are increasing worries that Barr is going to shield much of the report from congressional/public eyes.
The economy is humming and that bodes well for the Republicans in 2020, but there are signs that it’s too soon to dream of a campaign victory around that. The US commerce department has revised downwards its estimates for economic growth in the fourth quarter. That paired with the brake on interest rate rises means observers need to carry their folding umbrellas with them, as well as their sunnies.