Democrats condemn attorney general’s plan for rollout of Mueller report

Attorney general has sought to ‘put his own spin’ on special counsel’s report, say lawmakers before report’s release

On the eve of the long-anticipated release of the report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian tampering in the 2016 election and alleged Trump campaign involvement, Democrats accused the attorney general, William Barr, of trying to “cherry-pick” and “put his own spin” on the conclusions of the investigation.

Representative Jerry Nadler, the chairman of the House judiciary committee, appeared with colleagues at a press conference in New York City late Wednesday to protest against Barr’s plan for rolling out a redacted version of the Mueller report.

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Dismay as Trump vetoes bill to end US support for war in Yemen

Politicians decry Trump’s decision to continue US involvement in it as a cynical move and missed opportunity for humanitarian help

Donald Trump has vetoed a bill passed by Congress to end US military assistance in Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen.

The Senate had passed a bipartisan resolution on 13 March in a 54-to-46 vote, in a move that was largely seen as a rebuke of Trump’s alliance with the Saudi forces leading military action in Yemen. The House voted on the resolution in early April, passing it with 247 votes to 175.

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Trump 2020 team spending almost half of Facebook ad budget to target seniors – live

Trump camp is spending 44% of its Facebook ad budget to target users 65 years and older, Axios reports, while top 12 Democrats have allotted 27%

Cory Booker – US senator from New Jersey, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate

Bodega Boys – the entertainers Desus and Mero, Bronx-bred pop podcasters turned stars of the late-night Showtime show “Desus and Mero”

Bodega Boys made it over to Brick City. And yeah, it was indeed brick city for much of the night, but my floater wasn't half bad. Catch me on @SHODesusandMero this Thursday (11pm ET/PT) -- don't miss this game. pic.twitter.com/r3iZWYmefd

Brave political opinions...[John Kerry?!?]

Joe Biden/Bernie Sanders or Joe Biden/John Kerry will be a good ticket.
Warren, Kamala Harris, Beto are completely useless and time wasters.

Trump's logo looks like the Tesco cheap range logo. (Says it all I reckon, except that Trump is a leech on society, and definitely not cheap or value for money) I wonder if Tesco will sue for the misuse of their logo.

As a European, I am deeply envious of what is going on in US politics. Yes, there is a powerful right wing side, but there is also a vibrant and powerful emerging left too.

German voters and politicians are so stuck in 90s politics. They are sleep walking. No urgency on the climate or to how an erstwhile social democrat party could have lost its roots so badly. There is nothing going on here. And about the only party that hasn't sold out to neoliberalism, the Linke, are also not supported.

Old white people. What IS their problem?

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Ilhan Omar: congresswoman receives death threats after Trump 9/11 tweet – video report

The Muslim American congresswoman Ilhan Omar says she has received an increased number of death threats since a video was tweeted by Donald Trump featuring footage from 9/11 and a clip from a speech she made in March this year, with the president accusing her of downplaying the attacks. Omar said in a statement on Sunday: 'Since the president’s tweet on Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in direct threats on my life – many directly referencing or replying to the president’s video'

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Europe urged to reject US Middle East plan if it is unfair to Palestinians

Exclusive: letter from former officials says Europe must stand by the two-state solution

High-ranking former European politicians have condemned the Trump administration’s one-sided Israel-Palestine policy and called in a letter for Europe to reject any US Middle East peace plan unless it is fair to Palestinians.

The letter, sent to the Guardian, the EU and European governments, was signed by 25 former foreign ministers, six former prime ministers, and two former Nato secretary generals.

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Ilhan Omar has had spike in death threats since Trump attack over 9/11 comment

Congresswoman said many threats referenced the president’s tweet as Sarah Sanders praises Trump for ‘calling Omar out’

Muslim American congresswoman Ilhan Omar has said she has received an increased number of death threats after Donald Trump repeatedly tweeted video footage of September 11 and accused Omar of downplaying the terror attacks.

Omar issued a statement on Sunday night saying: “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.”

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Trump fixed on sanctuary city idea amid opposition and doubts over legality

Consternation over move meant to exact revenge on Democrats sees House committee chairs dismiss Trump’s claim

Donald Trump appears determined to send migrants arrested at the southern border to “sanctuary cities” around the US, a scheme meant to exact revenge on his Democratic foes, despite fierce political opposition and doubts over the legality of such a move.

Related: Buttigieg v Pence: Indiana politicians put faith on the election front line

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Full Mueller report may have ‘proof of bad deeds’ and must be seen – Democrat

House judiciary chair Jerrold Nadler accuses attorney general William Barr of ‘acting as a personal agent of the president’

The chairman of the House judiciary committee on Sunday said a report filed by special counsel Robert Mueller could contain “proof of some very bad deeds” and warned that the entire document must be made available to Congress.

Mueller, a former director of the FBI, was appointed to investigate election tampering, alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russian operatives and related matters. He filed what has been described as a nearly 400-page report last month.

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Buttigieg v Pence: Indiana politicians put faith on the election front line

The vice-president and the Democratic hopeful are both Christian and have worked together but in the age of Trump, they and their fellow Hoosiers sense a looming battle

Both are from modestly sized cities in Indiana. Both were baptised Catholic but came to embrace other branches of Christianity. Both found inspiration in former president John F Kennedy as they launched political careers of their own.

The parallels between Mike Pence and Pete Buttigieg stop there.

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Kim Jong-un sets conditions after Trump suggests third summit

  • US needs to ‘stop its current way of calculation’
  • Trump repeats demand to relinquish nuclear weapons

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is interested in meeting Donald Trump again only if the US comes to talks with the right attitude, state media said on Saturday, after the US president floated the idea.

Related: The art of the no deal: how Trump and Kim misread each other | Julian Borger

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Trans troops return to era of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ as Trump policy takes effect

Openly transgender people now banned from serving in the military as LGBT groups denounce ‘shameful’ rule

The US military is returning to the era of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policies, after new rules that ban transgender people from serving came into effect on Friday.

The new policy bars military members who have transitioned or are openly trans from enlisting after Friday, while troops who come out as trans while serving after that day will be discharged.It forces trans soldiers to hide their identity or lose their job and will result in increased stigma and mental health issues, said troops and LGBT groups.

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Pence says Trump’s comments praising WikiLeaks are not ‘an endorsement’ – live

Jared Kushner only registered as a Republican on September 20, 2018, Vice reports.

The presidential adviser and son in law was unenrolled in any party until he changed his New York City voter registration on that date.

Vice President Mike Pence says Donald Trump’s many past comments praising WikiLeaks were “in no way an endorsement” of the organization.

“I think the President always, as you and the media do, always welcomes information,” Pence told CNN. “But that was in no way an endorsement of an organization that we now understand was involved in disseminating classified information by the United States of America.”

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White House considered releasing detained migrants in sanctuary cities – report

Officials sought to pressure immigration authorities in effort to retaliate against Trump’s political opponents, Washington Post reports

White House officials have tried to pressure US immigration authorities to release migrants detained at the border into so-called sanctuary cities such as San Francisco to retaliate against Donald Trump’s political adversaries, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.

The Post, which reviewed emails on the issue and spoke to unnamed officials at the Department of Homeland Security, said the White House proposed the measure at least twice in the past six months. Sanctuary cities are those where local officials decline to hand over illegal immigrants for deportation.

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William Barr claims Trump campaign was ‘spied’ on under Obama – live

Attorney general tells Senate subcommittee he intends to release reacted version of Mueller’s Trump-Russia report itself

Washington Gov. and presidential candidate Jay Inslee has been writing and illustrating children’s books for his grandkids for the last decade, CNN reports.

And they’re very on brand, with several of the books focusing on the warming climate and its effect on the environment.

Senator Elizabeth Warren raised $6 million for her presidential campaign in the first three months of the year.

She got 213,000 contributions from more than 135,000 donors, with an average donation of $28, according to the New York Times.

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Trump on border cages: ‘President Obama separated the children’ – video

President Trump said on Tuesday that he would not restart child separation at the border, blaming his predecessor President Obama for the policy. Previously footage had shown children being separated from their families in cages at the border. Speaking in the Oval Office, he said: 'Just so you understand, President Obama separated the children. Those cages that were shown – I think they were very inappropriate.' Trump said that he was the one who changed the policy

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William Barr says redacted Mueller report will be made public ‘within a week’ – live

The attorney general says the Trump-Russia investigation findings will be available and any redactions will be color coded

Barr says he doesn’t not know why members of Mueller’s team might be frustrated with him as reported in several outlets.

No I don’t. I suspect that they wanted more put out but in my view, I was not interested in putting out summaries.”

Barr declines to get into more detail about whether the Mueller report cleared Trump, as the president insists and relies on his letter.

Rep. GRAVES tries to get Barr to agree that his four-page memo concluded "No collusion, no obstruction."

BARR doesn't bite: "Well, the letter speaks for itself."

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Top Republican senator warns Trump to halt apparent homeland security purge

A top Republican senator has warned Donald Trump to halt an apparent purge of the top ranks of the Department of Homeland Security, amid forced resignations, a renewed hardening of the White House stance over immigration and accusations that the president is manufacturing a declared crisis at the US-Mexico border.

The Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican in the US Senate, told the Washington Post he was urging Trump to save the job of Lee Francis Cissna, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, who is reportedly in the president’s crosshairs just two days after the forced resignation of Kirstjen Nielsen as homeland security secretary.

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Nielsen’s exit is another victory for Trump adviser Stephen Miller

The senior adviser and speechwriter is behind of some of the most restrictive components of Trump’s immigration agenda

As news broke of the abrupt departure of Kirstjen Nielsen, Donald Trump’s second homeland security secretary, reports swiftly followed that the move had been orchestrated by Stephen Miller, one of the administration’s sharpest anti-immigration voices.

Nielsen’s resignation on Sunday, following months of speculation, cast a spotlight on the forces behind the president’s controversial policies on immigration, where Miller has been shown to be squarely at the center of influence.

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Trump removes Secret Service director after ousting Kirstjen Nielsen – live

Trump ordered firing of Randolph Alles, White House confirms, a day after forcing out Homeland Security secretary Kirstjen Nielsen

CNN reports Trump tried to order the border closed at El Paso late in March.

Trump eventually talked off of the decision, which would shut down a major port of entry into the United States.

Jerry Nadler, the chair of the House Judiciary Committee, has agreed to have special counsel Robert Mueller appear before the committee.

Today, Ranking Member Collins called for Special Counsel Mueller to appear before @HouseJudiciary. I fully agree. Special Counsel Mueller should come before the Committee to answer questions in public about his 22 month investigation into President Trump and his associates. 1/2

In order to ask Special Counsel Mueller the right questions, the Committee must receive the Special Counsel’s full report and hear from Attorney General Barr about that report on May 2. We look forward to hearing from Mr. Mueller at the appropriate time. 2/2

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Trump designates Iran’s Revolutionary Guards as foreign terrorist organization

Statement marks first time US has formally labeled another country’s military a terrorist group

The United States has designated Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist organization, Donald Trump said on Monday, marking the first time Washington has formally named a branch of the armed forces of a foreign government as a terrorist group.

In a statement, Trump said this unprecedented step, “recognizes the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft”.

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