Category Archives: Democrats

Barr assigns attorney to find how Trump-Russia investigation began – live updates

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Attorney general’s new investigation follows years of Trump and supporters claiming justice department and FBI spied on his campaign

On the subject of markets – the Dow Jones Industrial Average has opened up slightly, a half a point in the green on the day so far. It fell a bit more than three points on Monday.

Donald Trump spent at least an hour and some 1,400 characters on Tuesday morning tweeting a defense of his tariffs on Chinese goods, which China has responded to with retaliatory tariffs, precipitating a dive on Monday in the US markets. Asian markets fell less sharply and European markets opened Tuesday slightly up.

Trump said on Tuesday that “Tariffs have rebuilt our Steel Industry - it is booming!”, “we are in a fantastic position”, “We are in a much better position now than any deal we could have made” and “Other countries are already negotiating with us because they don’t want this to happen to them.”

Related: Trump defends China tariffs as trade war leaves allies and opponents in bind

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Montana governor Steve Bullock enters 2020 presidential race

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  • Democrat has pushed progressive policies in conservative state
  • Bullock stresses campaign finance reform in launch video

Steve Bullock, the Democratic governor of Montana, announced on Tuesday that he is entering the presidential race after pushing a progressive agenda in a conservative state.

Among a crowded field of more than 20 Democratic candidates, Bullock attempted to distinguish himself in his campaign launch video by touting his ability to work with Republicans and his record of fighting corporate spending in elections.

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Could climate change submerge Joe Biden’s presidential bid?

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The former vice-president has yet to put forward a plan to address global warming, which polls suggest is the single most important issue for Democrats

Climate change is transforming life by redrawing coastlines, turning vast areas of forest into infernos, stirring enormous storms and spreading exotic diseases. An indirect casualty of this upheaval could be Joe Biden’s hopes of becoming US president.

Biden, frontrunner in the polls to secure the Democratic nomination, has not laid out a plan to address the crisis.

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House Democrat subpoenas six years of Trump tax returns

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Committee chair Richard Neal says treasury secretary and IRS commissioner must provide documents by 17 May

A top House Democrat on Friday issued subpoenas for six years of Donald Trump’s tax returns, giving the treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and the IRS commissioner, Charles Rettig, a deadline of next Friday to deliver them.

Richard Neal, the chairman of the House ways and means committee, , issued the subpoenas days after Mnuchin refused to comply with demands to turn over Trump’s returns. Mnuchin told the panel he wouldn’t provide Trump’s tax records because the panel’s request “lacks a legitimate legislative purpose”, as supreme court precedent requires.

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#ConstitutionalCrisis? Trump’s battle with Congress comes to a head

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The president’s claims of executive privilege over the Mueller report have set new alarm bells ringing for the fate of democracy

Police this week arrested an alleged arsonist who started a fire outside the National Archives building in Washington, claiming that voices told him to “burn buildings down”. The archives display a four-page handwritten document to countless tourists and schoolchildren: the US constitution.

While the physical object remains fragile but secure, the political framework it represents is facing one of the severest threats in its 232-year history. The arsonist is Donald Trump and he is getting ever closer with his tiki torch.

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House Democrats vote to hold attorney general Barr in contempt of Congress

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Panel takes action after Barr refused to provide unredacted Mueller report, as Schiff subpoenas attorney general

House Democrats voted on Wednesday to hold the US attorney general, William Barr, in contempt of Congress, citing his failure to hand over the full, unredacted version of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. The decision came on a day of escalating tensions between Congress and the White House.

Earlier on Wednesday, the White House invoked executive privilege to block the House judiciary committee’s request for the full Mueller report and underlying evidence.

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Mueller report: Mitch McConnell attacks ‘Groundhog Day spectacle’ – live

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McConnell says ‘case closed’ as prosecutors say Trump would face ‘multiple charges of obstruction of justice’ if he were not president

House speaker Nancy Pelosi and senate minority leader Chuck Schumer have issued a joint letter calling McConnell’s “case closed” speech this morning “a stunning act of political cynicism and a brazen violation of the oath we all take”:

Joint Pelosi-Schumer statement calls McConnell’s Mueller speech this morning “a stunning act of political cynicism and a brazen violation of the oath we all take” pic.twitter.com/ey7XmpNkC1

Warren brings her call for Trump’s impeachment from the campaign trail to the floor of the US senate:

On the Senate floor, Sen. Warren calls for impeachment proceedings against President Trump:

"We took an oath to protect and serve the Constitution of the United States of America, and the way we do that is we begin impeachment proceedings now against this president." pic.twitter.com/3IjR0NSrdK

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Who will win Iowa’s support in 2020? That depends on who’s really listening to us

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Joe Biden and 20 other Democrats are crawling over the state. But folks here would like to know: who’s in it for us?

Former vice-president Joe Biden returned to familiar turf in Cedar Rapids and Dubuque, Iowa, last week, fresh off his presidential announcement in Pittsburgh and enjoying a nice bump in some national polls.

He scored 35-40% support of Democrats just after jumping in, up 10 points from March. Bernie Sanders is maybe 10-15 points behind him. Truth be told, in Iowa half the likely caucus-goers eight months hence remain undecided. Many of Biden’s supporters in Iowa remain persuadable. The Des Moines Register’s Iowa Poll hasn’t weighed in since March.

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Trump and Putin discussed Mueller report during phone conversation, says White House – as it happened

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Sarah Sanders says pair had ‘very good’ talk on Friday morning in which Venezuela was also discussed

Here’s an updated recap of today’s political news as we close out the Friday night live politics blog:

The president elaborated his complaints about conservative “censorship” on social media, highlighting his concerns about the treatment of Diamond and Silk, two online commenters who have been championed by Republicans for being black women who support Trump, James Woods, and Paul Watson, a British editor of Infowars, Alex Jones’ conspiracy site.

Trump appeared on Infowars, which has promoted multiple conspiracy theories, including the conspiracy that the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting was a hoax, in 2015, and told host Alex Jones “Your reputation is amazing. I will not let you down.”

The wonderful Diamond and Silk have been treated so horribly by Facebook. They work so hard and what has been done to them is very sad - and we’re looking into. It’s getting worse and worse for Conservatives on social media!

So surprised to see Conservative thinkers like James Woods banned from Twitter, and Paul Watson banned from Facebook! https://t.co/eHX3Z5CMXb

He is very very very very very very very very very very very obviously an extremist. https://t.co/4pK2klhbqi

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Democrat mocks absent William Barr with fried chicken – video

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Steve Cohen, a representative from Tennessee, brings a bucket of fried chicken to Thursday morning’s House judiciary committee in a pointed message to the attorney general, who refused to appear for questioning after he testified before the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday

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Pelosi says Barr lied to Congress: ‘That’s a crime’ – live

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House speaker criticized attorney general’s failure to show up for House hearing during her weekly press conference

President Trump is now touting a number of issues important to evangelical Christians, including ending the Johnson Amendment and saying “Merry Christmas.”

The Johnson Amendment prevented houses of worship with tax exempt status from endorsing political candidates. The Trump administration ended enforcement of that provision.

President Donald Trump is now speaking at the Rose Garden for the National Day of Prayer. Watch live here.

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Joe Biden: Anita Hill not satisfied with former vice-president’s apology

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Biden, who handled her testimony before the Senate in 1991, contacted Hill to express ‘regret for what she endured’

Former vice-president Joe Biden, who launched his third campaign for president on Thursday, told Anita Hill he regretted the way he handled her testimony against Clarence Thomas at the 1991 supreme court hearings but she was not “satisfied” by the conversation.

Biden contacted her earlier this month to express his “regret for what she endured” during the hearing, an attempt to reckon with a defining moment from his past that looms over his present bid for the White House.

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Joe Biden 2020: what you need to know – video profile

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Barack Obama's former vice-president has entered the race for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. It is his third presidential campaign – after two unsuccessful attempts at earning the nomination in 1988 and 2008. He joins a crowded and diverse field. If successful, the 76-year-old would become the oldest person to be elected president in US history

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Joe Biden to announce presidential bid on Thursday – live news

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Former vice-president to officially launch bid for president, while Jared Kushner says Mueller investigation ‘just a big distraction’

Beto O’Rourke, the Texas congressman and presidential candidate, is jumping into the race for big donor $$$ with a New York City fundraiser next month in which hosts are asked to raise $25,000. The New York Times reports:

NEW: Beto O'Rourke will be holding private big $$$ fundraisers (his campaign has not previously held any).

Hosts are asked to raised $25,000 for a New York City event next month on May 13. pic.twitter.com/RbMpNz8DX8

The Guardian can confirm reports that former vice president Joe Biden will launch his 2020 campaign this week.

Sources close to Biden said he will make his announcement in a video to be released on Thursday and plans to hold an event in Pittsburgh on Monday.

Biden was initially expected to kick off his campaign on Wednesday before delaying his launch. Early polling shows Biden in the top tier of the Democratic field but in close competition with Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders for frontrunner status.

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Seth Moulton: meet the 19th Democratic contender for US 2020 race – video

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The Massachusetts congressman Seth Moulton has become the 19th person to declare their intention to seek the Democratic presidential nomination. Watch the decorated Marine Corps veteran talk about his fame in Iraq, his attempt to stop Nancy Pelosi's re-election as House Speaker and what makes him stand out in a crowded Democratic field 

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Meet the 88-year-old powering his insurgent 2020 bid with teens

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Fueled by the ambition of two teenagers, ex-Alaska senator Mike Gravel is running for president with the explicit intention of entering Democratic debates

In 2008’s Democratic race for the White House, a little-known former senator from Alaska, Mike Gravel, barnstormed the party debates, railing against America’s foreign wars and slamming his rival candidates as elitists out-of-touch with ordinary Americans.

Related: Who is running for president? The full list of 2020 Democratic candidates

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Mueller report: House issues subpoena for full unredacted version

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Jerry Nadler issues subpoena for Robert Mueller’s full report and the underlying documents ‘to make informed decisions’

The House judiciary chairman, Jerry Nadler, on Friday issued a subpoena for the full, unredacted report by special counsel Robert Mueller on Russian interference in the 2016 US election and the Trump campaign.

Related: 'No new information': Russia shrugs off Mueller report

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

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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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Does everyone really love Mayor Pete? His home town has some answers

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By many measures, Buttigieg’s mayoral career has been a success – but his policies have not pleased everyone and poverty and crime are still high

Jack Colwell was a young reporter with a big story. Trade union sources told him that the Studebaker car plant, the beating heart of South Bend, Indiana, was closing down with a loss of nearly 7,000 jobs that would devastate the community. On 9 December 1963, above his byline, the front page headline on the South Bend Tribune newspaper read: “Auto output to end here.”

Related: 'They call me Mayor Pete': Buttigieg launches 2020 presidential run

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

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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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