The Trump administration reiterated on Sunday the president’s threat to close the border with Mexico, regardless of potentially severe consequences for the US economy.
Related: Under the bridge: migrants held in El Paso tell of dust, cold and hunger
Continue reading...Deep in the deep Rio Grande Valley, plans for president Trump’s wall would cut through towns and communities. In Madero, families fear the loss of their livelihood but vow to resist
Rey Anzaldua walks the path, through a pluvial afternoon on the Rio Grande reach opposite Mexico, towards the little church where he has worshipped “since I was five years old”– the lovely chapel of La Lomita, built in 1865 on a Spanish land grant of 1767. It is a jewel: candle smoke and the musky scent of whitewashed stone wrapping the Virgin of Guadalupe icon and offerings of flowers and corn.
Rey’s family has been here since the 1750s. His extended family “had three Spanish land grants between 16,000 and 18,000 acres along the Rio Grande river and the bridge between,” Rey said. “We don’t have much of that now.”
Continue reading...Humorously absurd characters have been appearing in the background of congressional hearings for Trump nominees
Some unlikely protesters have been gracing the confirmation hearings of nominees for top government posts during Donald Trump’s time in office.
This week, the Senate energy and natural resources committee held a confirmation hearing for David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist who has been serving as the acting interior secretary since the resignation of Ryan Zinke in January. And as the committee pressed him on his lobbying record Thursday, a protester in the gallery highlighted the contradiction inherent in his nomination by dawning a swamp creature mask.
Continue reading...President wrongly claims special counsel’s report fully exonerated him as he woos voters in Grand Rapids, Michigan
Donald 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.
Trump dedicated about half of his approximately 90-minute speech in front of a raucous audience at Grand Rapids 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.
Continue reading...President opposes additional disaster aid for territory, saying funds were out of proportion to what mainland states got
Donald Trump told a meeting of Republican lawmakers that hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico had gotten too much rebuilding money compared with mainland states like Florida and Texas, hardening his opposition to further disaster aid for the US island territory.
Trump’s ardent opposition to additional Puerto Rico funding sets up a showdown with House Democrats, who insist that a $13bn to $14bn disaster aid package that’s a top priority for southern Republicans won’t advance without further aid for the island.
Continue reading...We wanted Robert Mueller to rescue us. The death of that fantasy means the real work for Democrats can now begin
We should have known better. We should have known better! We should have learned from the time that we believed we were on the verge of the first female president – the derivative T-shirts, the chilling champagne – only to find that our hopes had been dashed by a racist misogynist demagogue. Yet here we are again, a mass of deflated blue balloons, as the Monday morning headlines confirming our worst fears. Robert Mueller has issued his report. And Donald J Trump is still the president, happily golfing our taxes away.
Related: No collusion, plenty of corruption: Trump is not in the clear | Richard Wolffe
Continue reading...Findings play into the president’s narrative of ‘no collusion’ as he embraces the role of victim
Donald Trump is set to weaponise the special counsel’s finding of no collusion with Russia in his bid for re-election, turning vindication into vengeance with an assault on Democrats and the media.
Robert Mueller found no evidence Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to influence the 2016 election and reached no conclusion on whether the president obstructed justice, according to a four-page summary of his findings by the attorney general, William Barr.
Continue reading...What’s in the attorney general’s summary of the Trump-Russia investigation? And will the report be made public?
William Barr: Although my review is ongoing, I believe that it is in the public interest to describe the report and to summarize the principal conclusions reached by the Special Counsel and the results of his investigation.
Continue reading...Chairman of the US house of representatives judiciary committee, Jerrold Nadler, tells a news conference on Sunday that his committee plans to call on attorney general William Barr to answer questions about Robert Mueller's Russia report.
Continue reading...Bill Barr released a summary of the long-awaited report into allegations the Trump campaign colluded with Russia
The US Attorney general Bill Barr released a summary on Sunday of special counsel Robert Mueller’s long-awaited report into allegations that Donald Trump’s campaign colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
Here are the main findings of the two-year investigation that the president regularly denounced as a witch hunt, before claiming vindication upon its completion:
Continue reading...Donald Trump is claiming 'complete and total exoneration' following the release of a summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's report into collusion with Russia. The president spoke before boarding Air Force One to return to Washington from Florida on Sunday afternoon. The Justice Department said that Mueller's investigation did not find evidence that Trump's campaign 'conspired or coordinated' with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election. Mueller also investigated whether Trump obstructed justice, but did not come to a definitive answer
Special counsel Robert Mueller found that neither Donald Trump nor any of his aides colluded with Russia during the 2016 election, according to a letter delivered to Congress on Sunday by the US attorney general.
Related: No collusion, plenty of corruption: Trump is not in the clear | Richard Wolffe
Continue reading...Vicky Ward has produced a damning depiction, a lethal amalgam of Page Six-like dish and firsthand investigative reporting
Like Donald Trump, Americans are displeased with Jared Kushner, the president’s squeaky sounding son-in-law. As the reality that Kushner received his White House security clearance the same way he got into Harvard sinks in – “Daddy” pulled some very expensive strings – his popularity will not be rebounding anytime soon.
Related: Revealed: Kushner 'challenged on conflicts of interest by Trump aides'
Continue reading...Washington and America waited with bated breath on Saturday for the next stage in the Trump-Russia drama: the communication to Congress of the “principal conclusions” of special counsel Robert Mueller.
Related: Mueller report: Trump camp celebrates but danger is not past yet
Continue reading...Following the submission of special counsel Robert Mueller's Trump-Russia investigation findings to the attorney general, William Barr, high-profile senators including Bernie Sanders, Kamala Harris and Chuck Schumer are demanding that the report is made public. Speaking at a rally in San Diego on Friday night, Sanders said: 'Nobody, including the president of the United States, is above the law'
Continue reading...Robert Mueller has completed his Trump-Russia investigation without prosecuting additional associates of the president, and has reported his findings to William Barr, the US attorney general.
Related: What does the Mueller report say and what does it mean for Trump?
Continue reading...Announcement appeared to catch US allies off-guard as SDF spokesman says its fighters clashed overnight with Islamic State militants
The Trump White House has declared that the Islamic State no longer holds any territory inside Syria, but the claim was disputed by Kurdish-led forces on the ground who said clashes were continuing.
Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, told reporters that the acting defence secretary, Patrick Shanahan, had briefed Donald Trump and that the Pentagon had confirmed that the last vestiges of the Isis “caliphate” had been eliminated.
Continue reading...President insisted ‘there’s no collusion’ in interview with Fox as Washington braces for release of Trump-Russia investigation findings
Former Vice President Joe Biden may wait until the end of April to announce a run for president, CNN reports.
Biden is expected to make a decision about whether to run in the next week or so, but if he decides to run, his team may take another three weeks to plan a launch.
Iowa Rep. Steve King criticized the victims of Hurricane Katrina at a town hall Thursday, suggesting they sat around waiting for government help.
King has a history of controversial remarks and was stripped of his committee assignments for comments about white supremacy.
These comments are disgusting and disheartening. When communities are affected by disasters, we come together to help each other, not tear each other down. https://t.co/APpg8a82hW
Continue reading...Ex-FBI director wrote in a New York Times op-ed he wants the president to suffer a ‘resounding’ loss in the 2020 election
James Comey has said he hopes Donald Trump will not be impeached following the completion of the special counsel’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election. Instead the former FBI director wants the president to suffer a “resounding” loss at the ballot box in 2020.
Related: Trump looks good for 2020, experts say, because 'economy is so damn strong'
Continue reading...In a rebuke of the Trump administration’s ‘energy-first’ agenda, a judge rules greenhouse gas emissions must be considered
In the first significant check on the Trump administration’s “energy-first” agenda, a US judge has temporarily halted hundreds of drilling projects for failing to take climate change into account.
Drilling had been stalled on more than 300,000 acres of public land in Wyoming after it was ruled the Trump administration violated environmental laws by failing to consider greenhouse gas emissions. The federal judge has ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages US public lands and issues leases to the energy industry, to redo its analysis.
The decision stems from an environmental lawsuit. WildEarth Guardians, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Western Environmental Law Center sued the BLM in 2016 for failing to calculate and limit the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from future oil and gas projects.
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