Robert Mueller’s testimony to Congress “broke the lie” Donald Trump has been telling and potentially cleared the path to impeachment, House judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler said on Sunday.
Related: Baltimore Sun and CNN lead response to Trump’s racist Cummings attack
Continue reading...Immigrant rights advocates say the ‘safe third country’ agreement is cruel and unlawful, though it could still be blocked
Donald Trump announced Friday that Guatemala was signing an agreement to restrict asylum applications to the US, a move that immigrant rights advocates said was cruel and unlawful.
The so-called “safe third country” agreement would require migrants, including Salvadorans and Hondurans, who cross into Guatemala on their way to the US to apply for protections in Guatemala instead of at the US border.
Continue reading...Move allows administration to redirect money despite lawmakers’ refusal to provide funding
The US supreme court cleared the way for Donald Trump to use billions in Pentagon funds to build a border wall.
The decision allows the Trump administration to redirect approximately $2.5bn approved by Congress for the Pentagon to help build his promised wall along the US-Mexico border even though lawmakers refused to provide funding.
Continue reading...White House announces an asylum deal with Guatemala three days after Trump threatened tariffs, among other sanctions, if it did not sign on
The president is celebrating the supreme court’s decision to allow him to spend $2.5bn on the border wall:
Wow! Big VICTORY on the Wall. The United States Supreme Court overturns lower court injunction, allows Southern Border Wall to proceed. Big WIN for Border Security and the Rule of Law!
This wall won't make anyone any more secure. It's a futile exercise to massage your ego, and advance your racist agenda.
We should be spending this $2.5bn of our tax payers money on housing for homeless people, mental health for veterans, and healthcare for those who are unwell.
The case is not about whether the challenged border barrier construction plan is wise or unwise. It is not about whether the plan is the right or wrong policy response to existing conditions at the southern border of the United States. Instead, this case presents strict legal questions regarding whether the proposed plan for funding border barrier construction exceeds the executive branch’s lawful authority.”
The case the Supreme Court ruled on began after the 35-day partial government shutdown that started in December of last year. Trump ended the shutdown in February after Congress gave him approximately $1.4 billion in border wall funding. But the amount was far less than the $5.7 billion he was seeking, and Trump then declared a national emergency to take cash from other government accounts to use to construct sections of wall.
The money Trump identified includes $3.6 billion from military construction funds, $2.5 billion in Defense Department money and $600 million from the Treasury Department’s asset forfeiture fund.
The Supreme Court has said the Trump administration can spend $2.5bn in Pentagon funds on the border wall:
JUST IN: Supreme Court allows Trump administration to spend $2.5 billion in Pentagon funds on border wall pic.twitter.com/JVxFusMf41
NOW: In a divided decision, the Supreme Court rules the Trump administration can begin using some of the contested federal funds Trump redirected for border wall construction — the court granted the admin's request to stay a lower court injunction https://t.co/SSEU48JLNU pic.twitter.com/DPijozmm8B
Justices Ginsburg, Sotomayor, and Kagan would have denied the stay and left in place the injunction blocking the admin from using the funds while the case went forward; Breyer would have let the govt finalize contracts, but also blocked construction during the litigation
Continue reading...William Barr announces he has reinstated a policy dormant for 16 years, following authorization from Congress and signing by Trump
The US government is set to carry out the death penalty for the first time in 16 years, William Barr, the attorney general, announced on Thursday, despite criticism of capital punishment as “immoral and deeply flawed”.
The justice department scheduled the execution of five death row federal inmates for December and January.
Continue reading...The two-year, $1.37tn agreement would avoid the possibility of a government shutdown or first-ever federal default
Donald Trump and congressional leaders announced Monday that they had struck a critical debt and budget agreement. The deal amounts to an against-the-odds victory for Washington pragmatists seeking to avoid a politically dangerous tumult over the possibility of a government shutdown or the first-ever federal default.
The deal, announced by Trump on Twitter and in a statement by the Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, and the Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, will restore the government’s ability to borrow to pay its bills past next year’s elections and build upon recent large budget gains for the Pentagon and domestic agencies.
Continue reading...The eyes of America will be trained on Capitol Hill on Wednesday, as Robert Mueller testifies before two House committees about his report on Russian election interference, links between the Trump campaign and Moscow and potential obstruction of justice by the president.
Related: 'It's a political civil war': Trump's racist tirades set tone for 2020
Continue reading...Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Democrat representative, has weighed in on Donald Trump's rally in North Carolina, at which the crowd chanted 'send her back' after he mentioned Ilhan Omar. Speaking at Capitol Hill, Ocasio-Cortez said: 'It is about creating a volatile environment in this country through violent rhetoric that puts anyone, like Ilhan, anyone who believes in the rights of all people, in danger'
Continue reading...Court filing says Trump and Hope Hicks spoke to Michael Cohen often as Daniels in 2016 threatened to go public with story of affair
Donald Trump and his press secretary were directly involved in discussions that led to an illegal hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels during the 2016 election campaign, according to the FBI.
Related: Senior Democrats voice fears over Ilhan Omar's safety – live
Continue reading...Fossil fuel interests, pro-gun groups, foreign delegations and all manner of allies visit the Trump International Hotel to cozy up to the administration, say watchdogs
On 25 July, the conservative Heartland Institute is slated to host a one-day meeting at the Trump International Hotel, just a few blocks from the White House. It will feature leading climate science deniers who will discuss issues like “the benefits of ending the Democrats’ war on fossil fuels”, according to the institute.
Last month, as Donald Trump was kicking off his 2020 campaign and boasting again of “draining the swamp” of Washington’s powerful lobbyists and elites, a couple of dozen oil and gas executives with the Domestic Energy Producers Alliance were checking into the president’s hotel before a day of schmoozing with Republican House leaders and cabinet officials.
Continue reading...Nancy Pelosi’s sharp rebuke of the president’s remarks prompted a challenge from Republicans who claimed rule violations
The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a resolution condemning Donald Trump’s incendiary remarks telling four congresswomen of color to “go back” to where they “came from” as racist.
The measure, which formally rebuked the president’s comments, was approved on a mostly partisan-line vote of 240 to 187.
Continue reading...The president seems to regard divisive, nativist rhetoric as his best chance of staying in the White House. Analysts say he may be right
It was foul and repugnant. But was it a vote winner?
Donald Trump’s bigoted tirade against four congresswoman of colour, telling them to “go back” to the countries they came from, prompted widespread revulsion – the comments “drip with racism,” said the Senate minority leader, Chuck Schumer – and yet will not necessarily damage his chances of reelection.
Continue reading...Donald Trump used racist language to attack “the Squad” on Sunday, saying four progressive Democrats who have clashed with party leaders should “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came”.
Related: ‘Is Bernie going to come?’ Warren seizes on Sanders' Netroots absence
Continue reading...After an explosive leak, the British ambassador resigned. The special relationship has been propelled into a strange and uncertain new era
Donald Trump, president and showman, was staging a military pageant to celebrate the Fourth of July and independence from the British empire. George Washington’s soldiers, he told a rainsoaked crowd in Washington, toppled a statue of King George and melted it into bullets for battle.
Related: Kim Darroch's fall from grace casts chill over Washington ambassadors
Continue reading...Mayors in major cities have pledged to support those targeted by Sunday’s ‘enforcement operations’
When CG heard that Donald Trump had announced raids by the immigration enforcement agency Ice a few weeks ago, she turned to her husband. Get groceries, she told him, like a storm is coming.
“Bananas, milk and bread,” CG lists off, remembering what she told him, “Because who knows when we’ll leave the house.”
Continue reading...The US labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, is resigning following criticism of his handling of a plea deal with financier Jeffrey Epstein, who has been accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls. Donald Trump announced the news on Friday with Acosta by his side before the president left on a trip to the midwest
Acosta is stepping down following criticism of his handling of a 2008 plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein, who is awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges
Donald Trump’s labor secretary, Alexander Acosta, has resigned following criticism of his handling of a 2008 plea deal with the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, who is awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking underage girls.
Trump announced the news on Friday with Acosta by his side at the White House. “Alex Acosta is a great secretary of labor,” Trump said. “I hate to see this happen.” He said he did not ask Acosta to leave the cabinet.
Continue reading...Donald Trump abandoned his attempt to add a citizenship question to the 2020 US census but will sign an executive order forcing federal agencies to hand over citizenship data to the commerce department. 'As a result of today's executive order we will be able to ensure the 2020 census generates an accurate count of how many citizens, non-citizens and illegal aliens are in the United States of America. We will leave no stone unturned,' the US president said. The attorney general, William Barr, said including a question on the census was not the only way to obtain this 'vital information'
Continue reading...
In response to the subpoenas, Trump tweeted Democrats should “go back to work.”
Now the Democrats have asked to see 12 more people who have already spent hours with Robert Mueller, and spent a fortune on lawyers in so doing. How many bites at the apple do they get before working on Border Loopholes and Asylum. They also want to interview the highly......
....conflicted and compromised Mueller again. He said he was “done” after his last 9 minute speech, and that he had nothing more to say outside of the No Collusion, No Obstruction, Report. Enough already, go back to work! I won, unanimously, the big Emoluments case yesterday!
Here are all 12 people subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee:
Continue reading...Donald Trump has claimed that ‘the kidney has a very special place in the heart’ as he announced a government plan to tackle kidney disease in the US. The president’s declaration is likely to raise eyebrows among those familiar with human anatomy
Continue reading...