House Intel Chair Demands Report, Citing ‘Significant Evidence Of Collusion’

House Intel Chair Demands Report, Citing ‘Significant Evidence Of Collusion’

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA), feels that there is still “significant evidence of collusion” linking Russian interference into the 2016 presidential election to President Trump’s presidential campaign, even though the Justice Department has indicated that there will be no more indictments recommended in the Mueller investigation.

“There’s a difference between compelling evidence of collusion and whether the special counsel concludes that he can prove beyond a reasonable doubt the criminal charge of conspiracy,” said Schiff on ABC’s “This Week.” “As I’ve said before… I leave that decision to Bob Mueller, and I have full confidence in him.”

“I trust in his prosecutorial judgment,” Schiff added . “But that doesn’t mean, of course, that there isn’t compelling and incriminating evidence that should be shared with the American people.”

Schiff is pushing for the full release of the Mueller Report, and threatening to subpoena or even sue for its release.

“If the request [to release the report] is denied, subpoena, if the subpoenas are denied, we will haul people before congress, and yes, we will prosecute in court if necessary to get this information,” said Schiff, “And yes, you know I’ll say this, I think that Neal Katyal’s prognostication is correct. We will win that litigation.”

Katyal write an opinion piece for the Washington Post on Friday arguing that the attorney general should release the Mueller report. While serving as a lawyer at the Justice Department, Katyal had drafted regulations pertaining to the release of such reports in the late 1990s.

“Should Barr not provide the report to Congress, Congress will have to subpoena it, and Congress will almost certainly win that battle,” said Katyal. “The attorney general should follow Congress’ vote and honor the values at the core of our democracy, and release the report.”

House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY) has made similar comments to Schiff’s today, including arguing that it may require a Supreme Court fight to force the release of the report.

View the exchange below:

 

President Drops New Zealand Massacre To Defend His Fox Favorites

President Drops New Zealand Massacre To Defend His Fox Favorites

Reprinted with permission from Alternet.

In the wake of a deadly anti-Muslim shooting rampage that left 49 people dead in Christchurch, New Zealand, and amid a self-declared national emergency over immigration via the United States’ southern border, the President of the United States has taken to his Twitter account to inform the country of what really matters: how he was portrayed on a Saturday Night Live rerun, and the lack of his favorite hosts on Fox news.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, President Trump complained about the popular weekend parody program, suggesting that the FCC and even the Federal Election Commission get involved.

Then — with a break to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day and more attacks on deceased Senator and war hero John McCain — it was time to defend embattled Fox news hosts Jeanine Pirro and Tucker Carlson.

Pirro is off the air for a week after she made Islamophobic comments about Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. Last Saturday, the television host claimed that Pirro, being Muslim, could not support U.S. law.

Carlson, meanwhile, faced a brutal week where several tapes of his call-in segments with morning “shock jock” DJ “Bubba the Love Sponge” were brought to light, including several incidents of the host defending convicted pedophile Warren Jeffs.

The President has already been under fire for his response to the New Zealand shooting, including sending “best wishes” to grieving New Zealanders. With his Sunday morning rants about television shows, it would seem that he has already forgotten these shootings.

 

 

Mulvaney Insists Trump Would Shut Government Again

Mulvaney Insists Trump Would Shut Government Again

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.
written by  / 

 

Just two days after the end of the longest government shutdown in United States history, White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney made it clear that the president would be willing to do it all over again.

Face The Nation host Margaret Brennan asked Mulvaney if the president was “really prepared” to shut down the government again in three weeks.
“Yeah I think he actually is,” Mulvaney said. Keep in mind he’s willing to do whatever it takes to secure the border. He does take this very seriously. This is a serious humanitarian and security crisis. And as President of the United States he takes the security of the nation as his highest priority.”

After a disastrous government shutdown precipitated by the President’s refusal to compromise on his demands for billions of dollars for a southern border wall, the government managed to pass a bill funding and reopening the government for three weeks. During that time, the president apparently expects to get the money for his wall.

“He doesn’t want to shut the government down,” added Mulvaney. “Let’s make that very clear. He doesn’t want to declare a national emergency. What he wants to do is fix this the way that things are supposed to get fixed with our government which is through legislation.”

Mulvaney then pushed the blame on Democrats.

“One of the reasons he agreed to open the government this week was to essentially take the Democrats at their word while their leadership have been telling us they were not interested in negotiating and they were sort of taking this do nothing and hope the president gives up approach,” said Mulvaney. “There were many many Democrats, both rank and file and some lower levels of leadership, would come to us and say look we-we happen to agree with you on border security, some of them were even very public about it.”


 

Trump Attacks Pelosi As Left And Right Reject His ‘Deal’

Trump Attacks Pelosi As Left And Right Reject His ‘Deal’

Reprinted with permission from AlterNet.
by  / 

 

President Trump is facing criticism — and responding to it — over his latest proposal to end the government shutdown over his demand for border wall funding.

While it was clear that any plan including his wall would be, to use Nancy Pelosi’s language, a “non-starter” amongst congressional Democrats, even with its inclusion of limited protections for Temporary Protected Status (TPS) recipients and “dreamers,” it was also panned by the right, most notably right-wing commentator Ann Coulter.

President Trump, who largely appears to have started his hardline stance on wall funding due to statements from Coulter and other right-wing pundits, appeared to respond directly to Coulter via Twitter this Sunday, pushing back on the notion that he was offering Amnesty.

As indicated in the jab at “Nancy” at the end of that Tweet, Trump also continued to attack Speaker Pelosi, calling her irrational and claiming that she would have some say over the condition of the streets in the City of San Francisco.


The government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history, going over the 30-day mark and threatening critical programs throughout the country.