Donald Trump raised the possibility of one day granting amnesty to migrants living in the US illegally, after Democrats rejected his latest plan to fund a wall along the southern border and reopen the US government.
Related: Trump whisperers: are Stephen Miller and Fox keeping the shutdown alive?
Continue reading...Donald Trump forged ahead on Saturday and proposed a deal to end the US government shutdown, despite Democrats having rejected it before he began to speak.
Related: Republicans’ lack of alarm over the shutdown reveals a disturbing truth | Ross Barkan
Continue reading...The Democratic House speaker, Nancy Pelosi, has accused the White House of leaking information about a planned congressional trip to Afghanistan, saying it was 'very, very irresponsible on the part of the president'
Continue reading...President highlights Pelosi’s proposal to delay speech in letter to supporters as he cancels her trip to Afghanistan
According to CNN, President Trump wasn’t pleased to learn that his AG pick was so close with special counsel Robert Mueller. AG nominee William Barr referred to Mueller as “Bob” during the first day of his Senate confirmation hearing, and said that “the Barrs and Muellers were good friends and would be good friends when this was all over”. He also described Mueller as a “straight-shooter”.
While Barr said during his hearing that Trump ‘was interested’ in hearing about the friendship, the details that emerged this week caught the President off guard, the three sources said. He bristled at Barr’s description of the close relationship, complaining to aides he didn’t realize how much their work overlapped or that they were so close”.
Reuters is reporting that four Volkswagen managers from the car company’s luxury Audi unit have been indicted for their role in the 2015 scandal over the automaker’s attempt to evade US exhaust emissions tests.
The four are charged in a 12-count indictment with conspiring to evade U.S. emissions standards in diesel vehicles sold in the United States with 3.0-liter engines. The vehicles include the 2009-2015 Audi Q7 vehicles as well as other Q5, A6, A7, and A8 diesel models. They are accused of wire fraud, violating the Clean Air Act and conspiracy.
Volkswagen spokesman Pietro Zollino said the company continues ‘to cooperate with investigations by the Department of Justice into the conduct of individuals. It would not be appropriate to comment on individual cases’”.
Continue reading...Steny Hoyer, the Democratic majority leader in the House, State of the Union address is off in an interview with CNN
Steny Hoyer, the Democratic majority leader in the House, makes plain “the State of the Union is off” in an interview with CNN.
.@KateBolduan: "The letter sounds like she’s asking, but isn’t she just telling him?"
Rep. Hoyer: "The speaker is the one who invites the president…”
Kate: "So, the State of the Union is off?"
Hoyer: "The State of the Union is off."
It’s worth looking at this time capsule at the shock felt in Washington in 1913 when Woodrow Wilson became the first president to deliver the State of the Union in person since John Adams.
WASHINGTON IS AMAZED. Pelosi proposal to delay the SOTU gives me a chance to once again tweet my favorite WaPo story ever, about how the city was "agape" when a pressident (Wilson) showed up to give a speech at the Capitol: https://t.co/8A1qsRYbsl
Continue reading...Trump’s nominee says he would not fire Mueller without good cause. Watch live and follow the latest
The office of Robert Mueller, the special counsel, submitted a new court filing on Tuesday detailing communications between former Trump aid Paul Manafort and alleged Russian intelligence operative Konstantin Kilimnik.
New filing from Mueller's office: Paul Manafort said in Jan 2017 he was using intermediaries "to get people appointed in the Administration", Rick Gates has told investigators. pic.twitter.com/yv5ypLdrpL
At a taping for “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” this evening, Sen. Gillibrand shared that she was officially joining the race for the white house. Announcing that she was assembling an exploratory committee and will soon be on her way to Iowa, she told Colbert she was running as a mom as she outlined key parts of her platform:
“As a young mom, I’m going to fight for other people’s kids as hard as I’d fight for my own, which is why I believe health care should be a right, not a privilege; it’s why I believe we should have better public schools for our kids because it shouldn’t matter what block you grew up on; and I believe that anybody who wants to work hard enough should be able to get whatever job training they need to earn their way into the middle class” she said.
Tonight I announced that I’m preparing to run for president, because I believe we’re all called to make a difference. I believe in right vs. wrong – that wrong wins when we do nothing. Now is our time to raise our voices and get off the sidelines. Join me: https://t.co/I1vp93u0wh
Ms. Gillibrand, a 52-year-old former corporate lawyer, has been criticized by opponents as a politician without a firm ideological bearing of her own, having transformed from a pro-gun, conservative upstate congresswoman with deep ties to Wall Street financiers to a crusading liberal who rails against guns and refuses corporate political action committee money.”
The US government shutdown is now the longest such closure in history. On Saturday, day 22, members of Congress were out of Washington, Donald Trump was unmoved in the White House, his border wall unbuilt, and around 800,000 federal workers were still without pay and facing mounting hardship.
Related: 'Barely above water': US shutdown hits black federal workers hardest
Continue reading...The Iraq war veteran and US representative for Hawaii made announcement in a CNN interview scheduled to air Saturday
Tulsi Gabbard, the Democratic US representative from Hawaii, said she will run for president in 2020, CNN reported on Friday.
“I have decided to run and will be making a formal announcement within the next week,” she said in an interview with CNN that is scheduled to air on Saturday.
Continue reading...Donald Trump has backed away from his threat to declare a national emergency to fund his long-promised border wall, as pressure mounts to find a solution to the three-week impasse that has closed parts of the government, leaving hundreds of thousands of workers without pay.
“We want Congress to do its job,” the president said Friday during a roundtable on border security at the White House. “What we’re not looking to do right now is national emergency.”
Continue reading...President visits Texas on shutdown’s 20th day as rift with Democrats expands
Donald Trump has reiterated his threat to declare a national emergency if Congress does not meet his demand for billions of dollars to construct a wall along the US-Mexico border as part of a deal to end the partial government shutdown.
The president visited the Texas border on Thursday – the 20th day of a partial government shutdown – in a publicity ploy to help make the case for funding his long-promised wall after negotiations with Democrats broke down.
Continue reading...The US president was speaking to reporters outside the White House when he was asked for his thoughts on calling a national emergency, to which he replied: I'll probably do it, almost definitely.' Donald Trump also denied having a 'temper tantrum' during his reported confrontation with Democrats
Continue reading...Donald Trump abruptly ended a critical meeting with Democratic leaders on Wednesday, calling it a “total waste of time” as the partial shutdown of the US government dragged into its 19th day with no end in sight.
The further deterioration of negotiations over the funding lapse affecting nearly 800,000 federal employees came a day after the president used his first address from the Oval Office to reinforce his demands for a wall along the southern border with Mexico.
Continue reading...For the first time in his presidency, Donald Trump delivered a televised address from the Oval Office, urging Congress to pay for his border wall to stop the ‘security crisis at our southern border’. Shortly afterwards, the Democratic House and Senate leaders, Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, accused Trump of ‘manufacturing a crisis’
Continue reading...Democratic leaders to speak from US Capitol in response to president’s televised speech on border security after calling for equal airtime
2020 Watch: Kamala Harris, the senator from California, released her memoir on Tuesday titled The Truths We Hold: An American Journey.
The book chronicles Harris’ upbringing as the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, her unexpected rise in US politics and current policy vision for the country.
“There were a lot of ways Secretary Kelly could have shown responsiveness, a lot of information he could have provided,” Harris writes. “Indeed the American people had a right to this information, and, given my oversight role on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, I intended to get it. Instead, he said gruffly, “Why are you calling me at home with this?” That was his chief concern. By the time we got off the phone, it was clear that he didn’t understand the depth of what was going on. He said he’d get back to me, but he never did.”
Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer who attended the infamous June 2016 meeting at Trump Tower during the presidential campaign, has been charged by US authorities with obstruction of justice.
The indictment, which was unsealed on Tuesday by the US attorney for the Southern District of New York, is separate from the special counsel investigation of Russian interference in the US election and potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Moscow.
Natalia Veselnitskaya is accused of fabricating evidence in a US money-laundering case she was working on when she visited Trump Tower in June 2016 to meet senior Trump advisers including his son Donald Jr and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Federal prosecutors in New York said on Tuesday that Veselnitskaya and a senior Russian official drafted a bogus investigation report that she presented in court as supposed evidence that exonerated her client, Prevezon.
Continue reading...New chairman of the House intelligence committee leads pack of antagonists as he plans to investigate the details of Trump’s businesses, his lenders, and his partners in the US and abroad
Not long after Robert Mueller was appointed special counsel, Donald Trump declared it would be a “violation” for the investigation to touch the Trump Organization or his family finances. Pressed on whether he would fire Mueller if that line were crossed, Trump said: “I can’t answer that question because I don’t think it’s going to happen.”
Related: Trump aides may be in legal jeopardy as Democrats give evidence to Mueller
Continue reading...Donald Trump said on Sunday he may declare a national emergency over immigration, to allow him to build a wall on America’s southern border.
Related: Is Mitt Romney the man to lead a Republican rebellion against Trump?
Continue reading...Saturday was day 15 of a partial government shutdown that Donald Trump said could go on for months or years, if he is not given funding for a wall on the Mexican border. As new talks were held without result, potentially devastating effects of the shutdown were coming into focus.
Related: Shutdown over border wall is crucial test for Trump's presidency
Continue reading...President says ‘we can call it a national emergency’ to bypass Congress and build wall ‘quickly’ at press conference
Asked if he would turn down the automatic raise coming his way during the government shutdown, @VP Pence says “yes.” pic.twitter.com/Z6vPc14Cuf
Trump also said he would consider asking his Cabinet officials not to accept the $10,000 raise due to take effect for them tomorrow.
Donald Trump seems to confirm ABC News reporting that his administration is considering building a wall without the consent or appropriation of Congress by declaring a national emergency.
“I can do it if I want,” Trump said. “We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly.”
"I can do it if I want," Trump now saying he is "allowed" to build the wall himself without congressional approval or appropriation. "We can call a national emergency and build it very quickly."
President Trump just said he could declare a national emergency to build the wall unilaterally without Congress. So this whole shutdown is... what, then?
Continue reading...House tests new power by passing bills to end the government shutdown, but legislation is unlikely to break impasse
Democrats reclaimed power in the House on Thursday and officially elected Nancy Pelosi to be the next speaker, returning her to a position for which she made history as the first woman elected to the office.
The California Democrat earned 220 votes from a total of 430 members present, while Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader, won 192.
Continue reading...Effort to embarrass freshly sworn-in Congresswoman fails after footage endears her to wide audience
An attempt to humiliate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as she was sworn in as the youngest ever US Congresswoman has backfired impressively, prompting a huge outpouring of support for her.
A 30-second video was posted by a Twitter user called AnonymousQ, showing Ocasio-Cortez dancing on the roof of a building while in college.
Continue reading...