http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/3989 ... -sanctions
Legislation that would slap new financial penalties on Russia is running into a familiar obstacle: congressional inertia. Top Republican senators are warning that Congress won’t approve new sanctions quickly, even though many in the upper chamber want to pass something in the wake of the Helsinki summit.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... rosenstein
A group of conservative House lawmakers on Wednesday introduced articles of impeachment against Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, the top Department of Justice (DOJ) official overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation.The introduction of the resolution is the latest sign of escalating efforts among conservatives to oust the DOJ’s No. 2 official. Conservative members led by Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), along with nine co-sponsors, introduced the five articles shortly after a meeting with DOJ officials concerning document production.
...They charge that Rosenstein has a conflict of interest in Mueller's probe, stating that he is a “witness” who could be called to testify in the ongoing investigation into potential surveillance abuse since he signed off on an FBI surveillance renewal application to wiretap Carter Page, a former adviser to the Trump campaign.
...The Justice Department declined to comment on the articles of impeachment, but hours before the impeachment text was introduced, DOJ officials told a far different story.
...t is unclear how many other Republicans will support this measure, or if Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and other House GOP leaders will act on the impeachment efforts. But Meadows on Wednesday night threatened to force a vote to the House floor.
Grandstanding partisan hacks. But they seem to be doing a good job of distracting everyone from Trump's Helsinki summit with Putin and questions about his campaign's possible contacts with Russia.
Bill Shine seems to be trying to suppress reporters who ask questions Trump doesn't like:
http://thehill.com/media/398889-white-h ... rden-event
The White House on Wednesday banned a CNN reporter from a press event in the Rose Garden for asking President Trump questions, according to a CNN report.
Kaitlan Collins, a White House reporter for CNN, was acting as the "pool reporter" for all networks during President Trump's meeting with European Union commissioner Jean-Claude Juncker on Wednesday afternoon.
Collins reportedly asked the president questions about the day's most talked-about stories, a typical move for a pool reporter. She asked, "Did Michael Cohen betray you, Mr. President?" and repeated the question once, according to CNN. She then asked, "Mr. President, are you worried about what Michael Cohen is about to say to the prosecutors? Are you worried about what is on the other tapes, Mr. President?"
When Trump didn't respond, Collins asked, "Why is Vladimir Putin not accepting your invitation, Mr. President?"
Trump ignored the questions and said, "Thank you very much, everybody" to the press pool.
After the event, Bill Shine, the newly minted White House deputy chief of staff for communications, called Collins into his office. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was also present, according to CNN. The former Fox News executive and the press secretary then informed Collins that she was not invited to a press availability in the Rose Garden later in the afternoon because she asked questions that were "inappropriate" for the venue and for reportedly shouting the questions, according to the CNN report.
The responses:
http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/398 ... nnot-stand
The White House Correspondents’ Association (WHCA) slammed the White House on Wednesday following reports that it banned a CNN reporter from a press event for asking President Trump questions.
“We strongly condemn the White House's misguided and inappropriate decision today to bar one of our members from an open press event after she asked questions they did not like. This type of retaliation is wholly inappropriate, wrong-headed, and weak,” WHCA President Olivier Knox said in a statement. “It cannot stand,” the statement continued. “Reporters asking questions of powerful government officials, up to and including the President, helps hold those people accountable. In our republic, the WHCA supports the prerogative of all reporters to do their jobs without fear of reprisal from the government.”
http://thehill.com/media/398901-fox-new ... s-reporter
Fox News on Wednesday came out in support of CNN after one of CNN's reporters was reportedly banned from a White House event. "We stand in strong solidarity with CNN for the right to full access for our journalists as part of a free and unfettered press," Fox News president Jay Wallace said in a statement on Wednesday evening. Fox News host Bret Baier also weighed in, stating on air that Fox stands "firmly" with CNN on the issue.
http://thehill.com/media/398919-lou-dob ... ll-are-you
Fox Business host Lou Dobbs on Wednesday night said he supports the White House's decision to ban a CNN reporter from a press event for asking President Trump questions earlier that day. His comments came shortly after Fox News President Jay Wallace said his network stands in "strong solidarity" with CNN. "My question is, who the hell are you?" Dobbs said after reading CNN's statement about the ban. "The president does insist on respect."
I am reminded about how European reporters refused to let one of Trump's ambassadors off-the-hook when he refused to answer a question, with each subsequent reporter asking him the same thing. A pity our reporters don't have that kind of solidarity. I'd be asking Trump the same questions at every press conference from now on, until he answered.
That is, if they can get hold of him.
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... s-for-iowa
President Trump departed the White House on Thursday for a trip to Iowa and Illinois without facing the news media, citing bad weather despite clear skies in the nation's capital.
The Rose Garden press conference was about an agreement between Trump and the EU to talk about trade:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... trump-deal
The European Union appears to have won a big trade-war ceasefire with the U.S. for a small price -- at least in the short term.
In return for a pledge by U.S. President Donald Trump to suspend the threat of an extra tariff on European cars, the EU reheated proposals to bolster transatlantic economic ties and threw in a vow to buy more American soybeans.
...The main question mark is the feasibility for the EU of the remaining part of the package: a goal to import more liquefied-natural gas from the U.S. This has strategic consequences for the bloc in general and for Germany in particular as Europe seeks to reduce reliance on Russian natural gas.“We do not believe this will materialize in any significant way,” said Johana Typoltova, European gas analyst for Bloomberg New Energy Finance in London.
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles ... than-trump
The joint statement Juncker and U.S. President Donald Trump signed hints at what the bargaining was about. The parties agreed “to work together toward zero tariffs, zero non-tariff barriers, and zero subsidies on non-auto industrial goods” (translation: tariffs on cars, the major sticking point in U.S.-EU trade relations under Trump, will not be touched) and to “reduce barriers and increase trade in services, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, medical products, as well as soybeans” (translation: the EU will keep its trade barriers against U.S. agricultural imports but is happy to buy more soybeans).
Juncker also told Trump that the EU “wants to import more liquefied natural gas” from the U.S. (but not that it will work to reduce imports of Russian pipeline gas) and that it’s happy to work together with the U.S. to reform the World Trade Organization.
This may sound almost as unspecific as the statement Trump signed with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un in Singapore: There are no numbers, no deadlines and no specific measures outlined in the Trump-Juncker document. Yet it’s clear that Trump’s fire and fury against European car imports have been put to rest, at least temporarily.
Good news, I think. As someone put it, the arsonist has gotten credit for putting out the fire - but I think we're all better off without the fire. Unfortunately, we have other fires Trump started with Canada and Mexico, not to mention the five-alarm blaze he's started with China, which holds US Treasury bonds as its ace.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/25/busi ... ficit.html
How the Trump Tax Cut Is Helping to Push the Federal Deficit to $1 Trillion
The amount of corporate taxes collected by the federal government has plunged to historically low levels in the first six months of the year, pushing up the federal budget deficit much faster than economists had predicted.
The reason is President Trump’s tax cuts. The law introduced a standard corporate rate of 21 percent, down from a high of 35 percent, and allowed companies to immediately deduct many new investments. As companies operate with lower taxes and a greater ability to reduce what they owe, the federal government is receiving far less than it would have before the overhaul.
http://thehill.com/policy/defense/39900 ... olicy-bill
The House on Thursday easily passed the $717 billion annual defense policy bill, keeping it on track to become law before the start of the fiscal year for the first time since fiscal 1997.
...“This bill takes a major step forward in rebuilding our military, reforming the Pentagon and better preparing this country to deal with the national security challenges which lay before us,” House Armed Services Committee Chairman Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) said on the House floor. The bill...would authorize about $639 billion for the base budget of the Pentagon and defense programs of the Energy Department. It would also allow for another $69 billion for a war fund known as the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) account.
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/39887 ... -detainees
The House Appropriations Committee on Wednesday approved an amendment that would limit the use of shackles on pregnant women detained by immigration and border patrol.
...The American Medical Association, she continued, recommends against shackling pregnant women in their second or third trimester because it can increase chances of harming the fetus.
The practice of shackling women was uncommon until the Trump administration imposed its zero-tolerance border crossing policy, Clark said, in part because women were not regularly detained prior to that.
The amendment would still allow the use of shackling in extreme circumstances, such as for women who pose a clear flight risk or a danger to themselves or others.
http://thehill.com/policy/energy-enviro ... rder-walls
Thousands of scientists have endorsed research finding that President Trump’s proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border would harm biodiversity in the region.Earther reported that as of Wednesday, more than 2,700 scientists have signed onto the study “Nature Divided, Scientists United: US–Mexico Border Wall Threatens Biodiversity and Binational Conservation.” The report was published Tuesday in the peer-reviewed scientific journal BioScience. More than 2,500 scientists had signed on at the time of its publication.
The paper found that efforts to build the wall “threaten some of the continent's most biologically diverse regions,” and that the already constructed segments of the wall “are reducing the area, quality, and connectivity of plant and animal habitats and are compromising more than a century of binational investment in conservation.”
Also, Putin was reluctant to visit the White House this fall, so Trump has put off that meeting. And the White House issued a statement claiming that the question about whether Putin wanted Trump to win the election was accidentally lost from the official video and transcript due to technical glitches. This sounds like a mighty big coincidence that Trump's least favorite question was the one lost. Or perhaps they're just not very competent? Thanks to The Atlantic and other media sources pointing out the omission, the Trump administration has now corrected the official transcripts:
http://thehill.com/homenews/administrat ... -saying-he
Edit:
Well, this didn't last long.
http://thehill.com/policy/national-secu ... empt-after
Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) says he is tabling his efforts to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein after having several meetings with Republican leadership, stating that he would instead pursue contempt if the Justice Department (DOJ) does not turn over documents Congress is seeking.
I didn't really expect this to go anywhere, but GOP leaders shut them down faster than I expected.
The Atlantic has a synopsis of the Pompeo hearings:
https://www.theatlantic.com/internation ... ng/566045/
Mike Pompeo came to Congress on Wednesday to brief members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Donald Trump’s recent summits with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un. But the appearance turned into something far more fundamental and extraordinary: an investigation into whether, on foreign policy, the current president of the United States speaks for the U.S. government and U.S. officials like the secretary of state speak for the president. Senators of both parties questioned what the Trump administration stood for, and whether Trump and his administration stood in the same place.
More on the FCC's refusal to approve the Sinclair merger:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ar ... ne/566099/
Sinclair’s deals were sketchy to say the least, orchestrating problematic sidecar agreements that would allow them to control certain stations even without owning them, he said. For instance, a sidecar deal would see the Chicago broadcasting powerhouse WGN sold to the Maryland car salesman Steven Fader, a business associate of the Sinclair chairman David Smith. Sinclair would still provide programming and ad sales, and would have a buy-back option, the Chicago Tribune reported in March.
...Pai’s reversal saw the FCC vote 4–0 to send the merger to an administrative judge—a potentially grueling uphill battle for any corporate aspirant in Sinclair’s shoes. Sinclair submitted a revised plan last Wednesday as a last-ditch effort to get the Commission to change its mind. Unless that happens, Sinclair-Tribune is staring down a slow and painful death. ...In sending the Sinclair merger to an administrative judge, Pai’s order went so far as to suggest Sinclair demonstrated a “lack of candor” in representing itself to the FCC, a harsh and uncommon accusation—a violation of the FCC’s “character qualifications” in licensing—that could result in harsh penalties for the company, including license revocations.
And this could get interesting:
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/26/trump-o ... y-wsj.html
A federal grand jury investigating President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer has subpoenaed the chief financial officer of Trump's company, Allen Weisselberg, to testify, a new report said Thursday.
The Wall Street Journal said that Weisselberg is considered a witness in the ongoing probe of Trump's ex-attorney Michael Cohen.
Apparently Mueller is also looking at Trump's tweets. Not too surprising. I'd love to be a fly on the wall when agents are looking at those. They must have a tough time keeping a straight face at the more lunatic comments.
http://www.kcrg.com/content/news/People ... 39871.html
People are gathering with NextGen Iowa at Northeast Iowa Community College to protest during President Donald Trump's visit.... As soon as the President's motorcade arrived on campus, protesters filled the street leading to the main entrance at NICC. Messages on signs related to Russian collusion, deportation, and encouraging others to vote PresidentTrump and Congressman Rod Blum out of office.
...it did not stop Trump supporters from showing up, as well. " ... Sybil Schroeder, who came to support Trump, waving the flag of the United States....admitted she was in the minority today supporting Trump, but she said it would not stop her from wanting to stand in front and watch the President arrive