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Sen. Rand Paul, who has joined with four other GOP senators against approving President Trump’s national emergency declaration, predicted that the Supreme Court will strike down the action because it violates the “will of Congress.”

“Without question, the president’s order for more wall money contradicts the will of Congress and will, in all likelihood, be struck down by the Supreme Court,” Paul wrote in an op-ed for Fox News published late Sunday.

He went on to say that he believes Trump’s picks to the court — Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch — “may rebuke him on this.”

Trump declared a national emergency last month in a maneuver that would allow him to siphon funds from the military construction budget to pay for a wall on the southern border, a signature issue of his presidential campaign.

The declaration came after Congress refused to authorize the $5.7 billion in funds Trump demanded for the barrier — appropriating only $1.375 billion.

“Congress clearly expressed its will not to spend more than $1.3 billion and to restrict how much of that money could go to barriers,” the Kentucky Republican wrote in the piece.

“Therefore, President Trump’s emergency order is clearly in opposition to the will of Congress.”

Paul recalled that he and Trump objected to President Barack Obama’s use of executive power in 2014 to expand the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program and said he has to view Trump’s order the same way.

“I would literally lose my political soul if I decided to treat President Trump different than President Obama,” Paul said, adding that he supports Trump’s views on immigration.

“I supported his fight to get funding for the wall from Republicans and Democrats alike, and I share his view that we need more and better border security,” he wrote. “However, I cannot support the use of emergency powers to get more funding, so I will be voting to disapprove of his declaration when it comes before the Senate.”

Three other Republicans in the chamber — Thom Tills of North Carolina, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — also said they won’t back Trump’s emergency declaration.

If those four join with all the 47 senators who caucus with the Democrats, there would be a bipartisan majority to block the declaration, leaving Trump with the choice to veto the legislation, which has already passed the House.

But Congress does not appear to have the two-thirds majority needed to override his veto — meaning Trump’s declaration could stay in place.

Source Article from https://nypost.com/2019/03/04/rand-paul-supreme-court-will-likely-strike-down-trumps-border-emergency/

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Denver (CNN)Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Monday announced he is running for president, launching a 2020 campaign in which he will lean on his Western roots and decades of executive experience.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/politics/john-hickenlooper-presidential-campaign/index.html

    Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., one of several Senate Democrats who are running for president in 2020, has been cautious to back a proposal to end the legislative filibuster.

    J. Scott Applewhite/AP


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    J. Scott Applewhite/AP

    Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., one of several Senate Democrats who are running for president in 2020, has been cautious to back a proposal to end the legislative filibuster.

    J. Scott Applewhite/AP

    Most of the Democrats running for president want to create a national single-payer health care system. They want to begin a massive transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. They want to legalize marijuana, pass broad family leave policies, and do a whole lot of other things that previous generations of presidential candidates have balked from fully endorsing.

    But most of these presidential candidates are shying away from endorsing — or outright opposing — a Senate rules change that a growing number of progressive activists say would be essential to making any of these proposals reality.

    They’re calling on Democratic candidates to endorse ending the legislative filibuster, which requires support from at least 60 senators — in almost all cases, that means bipartisan support — to pass most bills. “In order to actually pass a big, bold pro-democracy package, or a big, bold climate package, or a health care package, we’re going to need to be able to do that with 51 votes,” said Ezra Levin, the co-founder of the grassroots organizing group the Indivisible Project.

    The push to eliminate a rule that isn’t constitutional, but is so bound into Senate history and culture that it may as well be, has this field of unapologetic progressives uncharacteristically cautious.

    “Great question,” California Sen. Kamala Harris, a candidate running on a promise to “speak truths,” said when an Iowa voter asked her about killing the legislative filibuster. “Let’s change the subject!”

    Harris isn’t the only candidate cautious about the idea. Many senators see the filibuster as the one essential tool a minority party has to hold leverage and block legislation it opposes. Fresh off a two-year stretch where Republicans held all the levers of power in Washington, D.C., many Democratic senators see the hassles of the filibuster when a party is in the majority as worth the cost of the protections it affords for years in the minority.

    A brief history of the filibuster for those who aren’t steeped in Senate history: it’s not in the U.S. Constitution, but for most of the Senate’s history, the body has required a super-majority of members to agree to end debate and move forward to final votes. That meant even if the majority of lawmakers supported a bill, or a judicial nominee, a large-enough minority could block a vote.

    In the face of increased Republican filibustering, Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, eliminated the filibuster for lower court and executive nominations in 2013. Four years later, when Republicans held the Senate and the White House, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., eliminated filibusters for Supreme Court picks. That meant all these nominees could be confirmed with simple majorities, rather than needing 60 votes of support. Supreme Court Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh were both confirmed with fewer than 60 votes, among many other lower court nominees.

    The filibuster’s last stand: legislation. Most bills still need 60 votes to move forward. That’s why Levin and many other progressive activists are arguing for Democrats to kill it, should the party retake the Senate in 2020.

    “We know that the Republicans will utilize every tool available to them to prevent these kinds of big reforms from getting done. They’ve done it before. They did it during the entirety of the Obama administration,” he said.

    But of the seven U.S. senators running or considering running for president, only one – Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren – is even open to the idea of eliminating the barrier.

    New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand rejected the argument that a 60 vote threshold would block all major Democratic policies during a recent interview on Pod Save America. “If you’re not able to get 60 votes on something, it just means you haven’t worked hard enough, talking to enough people.”

    Progressives like Levin point to the fact that the Obama Administration worked hard to court Republicans during the push for the Affordable Care Act and other major bills, and often got, at most, one or two GOP votes.

    Still, Gillibrand’s not alone. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told CBS he’s “not crazy about getting rid of the filibuster.” California Sen. Kamala Harris is “conflicted,” and said “I see arguments on both sides.”

    New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker is more forceful. “I will personally resist efforts to get rid of it,” he told reporters on the first day of his presidential campaign.

    Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar both signed a letter urging the Senate to keep the legislative filibuster in 2017, when President Trump began his on-again, off-again Twitter calls to blow up the rule.

    But Warren indicated it’s a proposal worth considering. “If the Republicans are going to try to block us on key pieces that we’re trying to move forward, then you better believe we’ve got to keep all the options on the table,” she told Pod Save America.

    It’s a sharp break from some of the non-senators in the race, including Washington Democratic Governor Jay Inslee. “The filibuster will essentially doom us to a situation where we’ll never be able to fight climate change,” he said, blaming the senators’ support for the rule as a byproduct of their life in a fiefdom.

    Delaware Sen. Chris Coons said it’s not about Senate power — it’s about giving minority parties protection and encouraging bipartisan.

    “It’s a terrible idea,” Coons — who isn’t running for president but has long defended the filibuster — told NPR. “Democrats would reap the whirlwind almost immediately.”

    “It is the last bulwark of the rights of the minority in the Senate,” he said. “If a simple majority could carry the day, we’d have a right-to-work law signed into law by President Trump — I could give you a list of 20 things that President Trump would have signed into law in his first few weeks that would either repeal any positive thing that President Obama did, or anything that a progressive Democrat would hope to do in the future.”

    In addition to measure curbing collective bargaining powers, Democrats were able to use the filibuster last session to block attempts to repeal Obama-era financial reforms and abortion restrictions, among other measures.

    Levin says he’s willing to make that trade-off. “Look, Democracy is the theory that people know what they want, and they deserve to get it. And I don’t think as pro-democracy progressive we can afford to be scared of the will of the people,” he said.

    Source Article from https://www.npr.org/2019/03/04/699465964/most-democratic-2020-hopefuls-not-ready-to-bust-the-filibuster-to-push-party-age

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    (CNN)Search and rescue operations will intensify Monday morning for victims of a devastating series of tornadoes that ripped through Alabama on Sunday, killing at least 23 people in one county.

      Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/us/tornadoes-alabama-monday-wxc/index.html

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      (CNN)The impeachment of President Donald Trump suddenly looks like much more than just a theoretical possibility.

        Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/04/politics/trump-mueller-report-nadler-investigation-impeachment/index.html

        President Trump late Sunday tweeted that the call to have his former attorney Michael Cohen testify Wednesday in front of the House Oversight Committee may have contributed to the “walk” that resulted in his second nuclear summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

        Trump initially blamed North Korea for demanding too much in sanction relief that would only come with total denuclearization. Trump said last week simply that he “had to walk away” from the table.  Trump was asked about the Cohen hearing on Thursday while in Hanoi and said “having it [the hearing] in the middle of this very important summit is really a terrible thing.”

        Trump was apparently still considering where the summit went wrong on Sunday night and tweeted, “For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with north Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the “walk.” Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!”

        HANOI SUMMIT MISS MAY BE MESSAGE TO BEIJING: EXPERT

        Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress about the Moscow real estate project and reports to prison in May for a three-year sentence, gave harsh testimony about Trump on several fronts Wednesday. He said Trump knew in advance that damaging emails about Democrat Hillary Clinton would be released during the 2016 campaign — a claim the president has denied — and accused Trump of lying during the 2016 campaign about the Moscow deal.

        The hearing was seen as politically bruising for Trump who hoped to approach the meeting with Kim from a position of political strength.

        Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho commented on the talks during an abruptly scheduled middle-of-the-night news conference after Trump was flying back the the U.S.

        CHAD PERGRAM: DURING SEMINAL MICHAE: COHEN HEARING, THE INSIDERS BECAME OUTSIDERS

        Ri said the North was also ready to offer in writing a permanent halt of the country’s nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests and Washington had wasted an opportunity that “may not come again.”

        North Korean state news agency KNCA’s report Friday offered an upbeat takeaway of the meeting, saying both leaders walked away with a deeper commitment to forging ties between the two historically hostile nations.

        The report said Kim was appreciative that Trump had made “active efforts towards results” and that he regarded the summit talks as “productive,” Reuters reported.

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        South Korean President Moon Jae-in called for new talks between the U.S. and North Korea on Monday, reportedly saying that he believes there will eventually be an agreement.

        Fox News’ Bradford Betz contributed to this report

        Source Article from https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-blames-cohen-hearing-for-possibly-contributing-to-summit-result

        First responders scoured debris Monday searching for missing people after several tornadoes devastated communities in the Southeast. 

        At least 22 people died in one Alabama county, Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones said. Officials expect the numbers to rise as they assess damage and begin recovery. Lee County Coroner Bill Harris told The Associated Press that he had to call in help from the state because there were more bodies than his office could handle.

        The tornado wrecked an area several miles long and a fourth-of-a-mile wide in the county about 60 miles east of Montgomery, Jones told WRBL-TV. Numerous injuries were reported with more than 40 patients at the East Alabama Medical Center by Sunday evening, the hospital said

        In Georgia’s Talbot County, emergency officials initially reported six to eight minor injuries. No seriously injured or dead were found in damaged mobile homes or buildings Sunday night, emergency management spokesperson Ann Erenheim said. 

        More than 35,000 customers in Alabama and Georgia lost power Sunday following the tornadoes, strong winds and severe thunderstorms, AccuWeather said. Crews are expected to continue restoring electricity as they survey damage to other utilities. 

        No tornadoes are expected Monday or through the rest of the week, the Storm Prediction Center said. Conditions will be drier Monday,  AccuWeather meteorologist Kristina Pydynowski said, with highs in the lower to middle 50s.

        “Colder air will sweep into the Southeast behind the severe weather with temperatures dropping into the 30s southward to central Georgia and across most of Alabama by Monday morning,” Pydynowski said. “Those without power who rely on electric heat need to find ways to say warm.”  

        Sunday marked the nation’s deadliest day for tornadoes in over two years. The last day so many people died in the U.S. due to tornadoes was Jan. 22, 2017, when 16 people were killed in south Georgia. It  was also the USA’s deadliest March day for tornadoes since March 2, 2012, when 40 died.

        Contributing: The Associated Press

        Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/03/03/alabama-tornado-aftermath-workers-search-missing-asses-damage/3052486002/

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        (CNN)More than a dozen people have been confirmed dead after a series of tornadoes touched down in Alabama and Georgia on Sunday afternoon.

          Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/03/us/tornadoes-alabama-georgia-wxc/index.html

          Mr. Trump, who was repeatedly denied wall funding by lawmakers, hopes to use $3.6 billion from military construction projects to fulfill his campaign promise to build a wall along the southern border. He has dismissed concerns about the precedent, saying in a speech on Saturday that “they’re going to do that anyway, folks.”

          Some Republican senators — including Senator James M. Inhofe of Oklahoma, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee — have voiced concerns about the effect on military readiness, seeking assurances that projects in their states will not be affected. The Defense Department has yet to release a list of projects affected.

          Others, including Mr. Paul, have objected to a possible overreach of executive power that future presidents could take advantage of. But few have been willing to publicly say how they will vote on the resolution.

          Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee, said it was “unnecessary and unwise to turn a border crisis into a constitutional crisis about the separation of powers” in a floor speech on Thursday, where he outlined other means for obtaining funds.

          “There is no limit to the imagination of what the next left-wing president could do to harm our country with this precedent,” he added. But pressed by reporters, he declined to reveal his planned vote.

          “I learned a long time ago in the United States Senate, it’s not wise to announce how you will vote on a vote you may never have to take,” he said.

          Conversely, Ms. Collins joined Senator Tom Udall, Democrat of New Mexico, in introducing a resolution of disapproval on Thursday. Ms. Murkowski joined the pair in co-sponsoring the resolution.

          Source Article from https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/03/us/politics/national-emergency-vote-republicans-rand-paul.html

          “Tomorrow, we will be issuing document requests to over 60 different people and individuals from the White House to the Department of Justice, Donald Trump, Jr., to [Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer] Allen Weisselberg, to begin the investigations to present the case to the American people about obstruction of justice, corruption and abuse of power,” Nadler said.

          Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-congress-wall-emergency-investigations-20190303-story.html

          SELMA, Ala. — Famed civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, here to commemorate the 1965 voting-rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge said he believes President Trump would have been on the side of the “storm troopers” who beat protesters in what has gone down in history as “Bloody Sunday.”

          Yahoo News asked Jackson what he thought Trump “would have been doing” if he was in Selma at the time.

          “Probably with the storm troopers,” Jackson said.

          Among the victims that day was John Lewis, now a Democratic congressman from Georgia. Trump was in college in 1965.

          RELATED: Jesse Jackson through the years




          Many Democrats, including some presidential candidates, have labeled Trump a “racist,” a characterization he disputes. His longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said in his testimony to a House committee Thursday that Trump often made racist remarks about blacks.

          Jackson, a 1988 Democratic presidential candidate, was a close ally of Martin Luther King, who helped lead the Selma marches.

          Jackson then shared a story about segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who led the state on “Bloody Sunday” and declined to protect the marchers.

          “I asked George Wallace one time — I was having prayer with him after he was very ill, ‘Why did you unleash the horses on the marchers? He said, ‘I did them a favor,’” Jackson recounted.

          Jackson asked Wallace, who died in 1998, what he meant.

          “He said, ‘Well, if I had not put the troops on him, the mob would have been worse.’ It never occurred to him to turn the troops on the mob, but the marchers,” said Jackson, adding, “That is a mentality. That. is a deeply embedded point of view.”

          Jackson was attending the annual “Martin Luther King & Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast,” which also hosted several current Democratic presidential candidates. He began his comments by saying he was “deeply concerned” that Selma was “being used as a prop.” He describes the city as “the birthplace of modern democracy” and suggested the voting rights protests there led to a “new majority” in the country including minorities and young people.

          “But my concern is that while Selma is the birthplace, it’s being used as a prop. Selma is the 9th poorest city in the country. Ms. Boynton, who invited Dr. King here as the host, her house is condemned. Selma is 40 percent poverty,” Jackson said.

          He said Selma would be the ideal venue for a “rural reconstruction project.”

          “The reason we have a Democratic Congress is because of Selma. There should be some evidence of it,” said Jackson.

          The Democrats at the breakfast included 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who was being honored at the event, and two current candidates, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has said he will make a decision about whether to enter the 2020 race by the end of this month was also in attendance.

          Yahoo News asked Jackson if he felt the current presidential candidates were taking Selma’s needs seriously.

          “All of them now speak to … voter enforcement to offset voter suppression, but beyond voting, there must be fruits of democracy. Where are the fruits?” Jackson asked, adding, “There should be some plan. HUD should be here, HHS should be here. There should be some evidence Selma is the birthplace of democracy.”

          Asked about voter suppression, a major concern of Democrats in recent elections, Jackson noted the increasing number of minorities in Congress, and said the country has made “tremendous strides” in “spite of the voter suppression.” But he said there are ongoing “schemes to suppress the vote” including gerrymandering that favors white, Republican districts. He brought up the 2016 presidential election.

          “Hillary won by three million votes. Trump is the president,” said Jackson, adding, “Schemes to undermine the vote are very real and very alive.”

          Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/03/03/jackson-trump-belongs-with-the-storm-troopers-at-selma/23682996/

          President TrumpDonald John TrumpLawmakers discussed possible pardon talks with Cohen: report 5 takeaways as Republicans close ranks at CPAC Donald Trump puts past presidents to shame with North Korea policies MORE on Sunday appeared to point blame at Democrats for the collapse of his negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un last week.

          “For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the “walk” Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!” Trump tweeted.

          The president was referring to the testimony of his former personal attorney, Michael Cohen, which occurred simultaneously with his summit in Hanoi, Vietnam. 

          Cohen testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, where he accused the president of lying to the public about hush money payments and floated the possibility of Trump’s collusion with Moscow.

          Cohen was sentenced to prison last year after pleading guilty to financial crimes, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress. He sentence is set to begin on May 6.

          While Cohen was on Capitol Hill, Trump was in Hanoi, at his second meeting with Kim.

          Trump entered negotiations with the hope of securing a deal that involved North Korea denuclearizing, but talks ended abruptly without any type of deal, which Trump alludes to in his tweet. 

          The president told reporters following the summit that the U.S. was not willing to fully lift sanctions in exchange for partial denuclearization, stating that “[s]ometimes you have to walk, and this was just one of those times.”

          A North Korean official disputed that characterization of the country’s position adding that Kim “may have lost the will” to engage in future negotiations.

          “This proposal was the biggest denuclearization measure we could take at the present stage in relations to [the] current level of confidence between the DPRK and the United States,” North Korea’s foreign minister said.

          Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/432412-trump-points-to-dems-over-failure-of-north-korea-summit

          March 2 at 4:24 PM

          When President Trump’s longtime fixer Michael Cohen testified last week that his former boss was a “racist” and “con man” who routinely skirts the law, Republicans showed little interest in following up on his claims.

          They shrugged when Trump called murderous dictator Kim Jong Un a “real leader” and once again elevated the North Korean leader on the world stage.

          And faced with a vote on Trump’s legally contested declaration of a national emergency at the Mexican border, just 13 of 197 House Republicans opposed him.

          Acquiescence to Trump is now the defining trait of the Republican Party more than two years into his presidency — overwhelming and at times erasing principles that conservatives viewed as the foundation of the party for more than a half century.

          Trump’s ownership of the GOP was on vivid display again Saturday, when the president appeared at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Maryland, an annual gathering that has transformed into a raucous celebration of Trump, featuring propaganda-style art and a speaker who declared that the president was “chosen by God.”

          Standing before an exuberant crowd chanting “Trump!” and “U-S-A,” Trump spent two hours railing against the “failed ruling class,” calling the special counsel’s Russia investigation “bullshit” and portraying his election as a major moment in global history.

          “We are reversing decades of blunders and betrayals,” Trump declared at one point, before asserting that he was only joking in 2016 when he asked Russia to release Hillary Clinton’s private emails.

          “Lock her up! Lock her up!” CPAC attendees roared at the mention of the former Democratic presidential nominee.

          In interviews over the past week, Republicans on Capitol Hill offered an array of reasons for their unflinching loyalty to Trump as the 2020 campaign begins to take shape: a deep-seated fear of his pull with their supporters in primary races; fraying consensus about conservatism as nationalism takes hold of the party; and shared partisan disdain for Trump’s perceived enemies in the news media and the Democratic Party.

          “We’re not going to turn on our own and make the Democrats happy,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.), who is up for reelection in 2020. “We don’t see any benefit in fracturing, but we do see a lot to lose.”

          Republicans say Trump’s overhaul of the federal judiciary and the confirmation of two Supreme Court justices, along with the passage of the GOP’s sweeping tax law, have helped bind the party together through bouts of political turbulence — from the loss of their House majority to the longest government shutdown in history to the torrent of developments related to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s ongoing probe of Russian interference in the 2016 campaign.

          All of it has left Trump firmly in control. Most potential 2020 primary challengers sit on the sidelines as the GOP establishment rallies around Trump’s reelection. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who once gave Trump a jar of hand-selected Starbursts candy as a gift, is a Trump booster and confidant. Former GOP foes in the Senate, such as Lindsey O. Graham (S.C.) and Rand Paul (Ky.), flatter him and are regulars at his golf courses.

          “They fetishize this nonconservative in the Oval because it’s tribal,” said Mike Murphy, a veteran GOP strategist and Trump critic. “It’s us versus them, we’re right and they’re evil, and it’s created this Trump cult that dominates the party.”

          Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.), a Democrat who fended off Trump’s attempts to unseat him in last year’s midterm election, said of Republicans: “I don’t understand why they allow all of this stuff to go on. I would bet money two years ago — 20 years ago — that this would never happen. I’m not sure Watergate would be prosecuted under the conditions we have today.”

          Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) publicly acknowledged what many Republicans say privately: The GOP is wholeheartedly accepting behavior and policies from Trump that would spark outrage from a Democratic president, particularly Trump’s attempt to use executive power in defiance of Congress to secure funding for a wall along the Mexican border.

          “It’d be a little different,” Simpson said with a chuckle. “If President Obama had done the national emergency, Republicans would have gone crazy.”

          Nonetheless, most Republicans backed Trump’s move last month, seeing it as a political exit ramp for the president as he flailed during the latest shutdown fight. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) urged Trump not to do it, only to eventually accept it. When House Democrats forced a vote Tuesday on legislation to overturn Trump’s declaration, just 6 percent of House Republicans dared to break publicly with Trump.

          One defector was Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.), a libertarian-leaning Republican who is well known for clashing with leadership. Trump backers in his ruby-red district were incensed.

          “I’m feeling it right now,” Massie said. “Lots of phone calls for voting that way. But it’s okay, because my district knows me. For those who don’t have that brand, it’s more dangerous for them to try and take an independent path, because they’ll be seen as being against the president.”

          Opposition among Senate Republicans has been more visible. Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), facing a difficult reelection race next year, has said he would vote to curb Trump’s use of emergency powers in this instance, worrying that a Democratic president could “exploit” those powers in the future. Three GOP moderates — Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) — have also voiced opposition to Trump’s declaration and called on him to withdraw his plan or risk a rebellion.

          But Trump had an ominous warning for those GOP critics in an interview last week with Fox News anchor Sean Hannity: “I think they put themselves at great jeopardy.”

          On foreign policy — long the bastion of Republican hawks who have been hostile to dictators and supportive of global institutions — Trump has been cast as a GOP hero, despite his feuds with allies, protectionist trade policies and chummy engagement with autocrats such as Kim, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

          When Trump declared after a summit with Kim in Hanoi last week that the North Korean leader was not responsible for the death of former prisoner and U.S. college student Otto Warmbier, most Republicans stayed mum.

          “He’s doing a hell of a job as commander in chief,” Graham said at CPAC on Thursday.

          Trump’s near daily dismissal of the Mueller investigation as a “witch hunt” has become another GOP refrain. Trump’s elected allies, such as Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) and Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), have buoyed the cause, repeatedly questioning the integrity of the Justice Department and FBI in the process.

          Partisan loyalty to an embattled president has plenty of historical precedents. Many Republicans stood by Richard Nixon during Watergate and by Ronald Reagan during the Iran-contra scandal. Bill Clinton was supported by most Democrats even as he was impeached on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice.

          Any high-profile voices in the party objecting to Trump are increasingly scattered or silent, while the “Never Trump” faction from the 2016 campaign has all but fallen into obscurity.

          Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who served as a foil to Trump and called him “dangerous,” passed away in August. Former president George H.W. Bush died in November, and his son, George W. Bush, shuns attention. Other onetime opponents have retreated, such as Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), who has quarreled with Trump at times but has mostly stayed out of the spotlight.

          Former Massachusetts governor William Weld has expressed interest in running against Trump in the Republican primary, but he is little known nationally. Former Ohio governor John Kasich (R) continues to toy with the idea but has not committed to a bid. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) is also intrigued, but has said an insurgency would be futile unless Trump’s GOP support crumbles.

          According to a Washington Post-ABC News poll in January, 75 percent of Republicans and GOP-leaning independents approve of Trump’s performance in office.

          The Republican National Committee, led by Romney niece and Trump ally Ronna McDaniel, is using aggressive measures to stave off any possible primary threat. RNC members passed a resolution giving Trump the party’s “undivided support” and effectively merged with Trump’s campaign.

          “They will lose horribly,” McDaniel said at CPAC about Trump’s potential Republican primary challengers.

          Graham, who has undergone a dramatic metamorphosis from noisy Trump foe to vocal supporter, isn’t worried about the scandals engulfing the White House.

          “I think people know what they’re going to get with President Trump,” Graham said in an interview. “A lot of people said some of the same things about him in the campaign. I’ve come to get to know the president. I like him, I understand his warts.”

          But Cohen, who served as a top RNC official following Trump’s 2016 victory, offered words of caution for the president’s defenders during his House testimony Wednesday.

          “I did the same thing that you’re doing now,” Cohen said, addressing Republicans on the panel. “And I can only warn people, the more people who follow Mr. Trump as I did, blindly, are going to suffer the same consequences that I’m suffering.”

          Cohen was given a three-year prison sentence in December for lying to Congress, tax evasion and breaking campaign finance laws. He will report to prison in May.

          Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.

          Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/were-not-going-to-turn-on-our-own-republicans-rally-around-trump-as-threats-mount/2019/03/02/6b9786ac-3bb2-11e9-aaae-69364b2ed137_story.html

          <!– –>

          China is offering to lower tariffs on U.S. farm, chemical, auto and other products as part of a trade deal that is nearing completion, a new report says.

          The Wall Street Journal in that report Sunday also said that as part of that trade pact, the United States is considering eliminating most if not all of the trade sanctions imposed on Chinese products last year.

          Bloomberg News reported Friday that the final deal is being prepared and that the pact could be signed by President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping within weeks.

          A summit between the two leaders could happen sometime in March, according to both Bloomberg and the Journal.

          “Speaking of China we’re very well on our way to doing something special. But we’ll see,” Trump said Thursday.

          But Trump, speaking in Hanoi, Vietnam, after ending negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without reaching an agreement on that communist nation’s nuclear program, added, “I am always prepared to walk.”

          “I’m never afraid to walk from a deal, and I would do that with China, too, if it didn’t work out,” the president said.

          The U.S. has threatened to place tariffs of 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese imports if no deal is reached.

          Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/03/beijing-offering-to-lower-tariffs-and-other-restrictions-on-american-farm-chemical-auto-and-other-products-and-washington-considering-removing-most-if-not-all-sanctions-levied-against-chinese-products.html

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          Washington (CNN)The Senate likely now has enough votes to pass a measure blocking President Donald Trump’s national emergency declaration after Sen. Rand Paul signaled his support for the resolution of disapproval.

          Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/03/politics/rand-paul-trump-national-emergency-declaration/index.html

          <!– –>

          China is offering to lower tariffs on U.S. farm, chemical, auto and other products as part of a trade deal that is nearing completion, a new report says.

          The Wall Street Journal in that report Sunday also said that as part of that trade pact the United States is considering eliminating most if not all of the trade sanctions imposed on Chinese products last year.

          Bloomberg News reported Friday that the final deal is being prepared and that the pact could be signed by President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping within weeks.

          A summit between the two leaders could happen sometime in March, according to both Bloomberg and the Journal.

          “Speaking of China we’re very well on our way to doing something special. But we’ll see,” Trump said Thursday.

          But Trump, speaking in Hanoi, Vietnam, after ending negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without reaching an agreement on that communist nation’s nuclear program, added, “I am always prepared to walk.”

          “I’m never afraid to walk from a deal, and I would do that with China, too, if it didn’t work out,” the president said.

          The U.S. has threatened to place tariffs on 25 percent on $200 billion of Chinese imports if no deal is reached.

          Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/03/beijing-offering-to-lower-tariffs-and-other-restrictions-on-american-farm-chemical-auto-and-other-products-and-washington-considering-removing-most-if-not-all-sanctions-levied-against-chinese-products.html

          President Trump on Sunday continued to knock the “collusion delusion” of the Democrats’ Russian investigations and once again referred to a book manuscript from his former longtime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen.

          “After more than two years of Presidential Harassment, the only things that have been proven is that Democrats and other broke the law. The hostile Cohen testimony, given by a liar to reduce his prison time, proved no Collusion! His just written book manuscript showed what he said was a total lie, but Fake Media won’t show it,” he posted on his Twitter page, referring to Cohen’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee last Wednesday.

          “I am an innocent man being persecuted by some very bad, conflicted & corrupt people in a Witch Hunt that is illegal & should never have been allowed to start – And only because I won the Election! Despite this, great success!” he continued in a second tweet.

          Cohen made a series of sweeping allegations against Trump during his appearance, including that the president lied and committed crimes while in the White House.

          But the once trusted lawyer for the president said he did not have “direct evidence” that Trump or his campaign colluded with the Russians during the 2016 election.

          On Saturday in a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump singled out the investigations being conducted by Mueller.

          “Unfortunately you put the wrong people in a couple of positions and they leave people for a long time that shouldn’t be there and all of a sudden they’re trying to take you out with bulls—,” he told the crowd of conservatives.

          Mocking the Democrats and their “collusion delusion,” Trump blasted them for overreaching for launching a series of new investigations into him now that they are in the majority.

          “This phoney thing looks like it’s dying so they don’t have anything with Russia there, no collusion,” Trump said of Mueller’s investigation. “So now they go in and morph into ‘Let’s inspect every deal he’s ever done. We’re going to go into his finances. We’re going to check his deals. We’re going to check’ — these people are sick.”

          In a tweet on Friday, Cohen accused Cohen of writing a “love letter to Trump” in a book deal he was pursuing with publishers.

          He appeared to be referring to a report in the Daily Mail that said Cohen had been shopping a book deal but it collapsed after he was charged in Manhattan federal court.

          Cohen is scheduled to report to prison on May 6 to begin serving a three-year sentence after he pleaded guilty last fall to tax evasion, campaign finance violations and lying to Congress.

          Source Article from https://nypost.com/2019/03/03/trump-again-slams-cohen-democrats-i-am-an-innocent-man/

          SELMA, Ala. — Famed civil rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson, here to commemorate the 1965 voting-rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge said he believes President Trump would have been on the side of the “storm troopers” who beat protesters in what has gone down in history as “Bloody Sunday.”

          Yahoo News asked Jackson what he thought Trump “would have been doing” if he was in Selma at the time.

          “Probably with the storm troopers,” Jackson said.

          Among the victims that day was John Lewis, now a Democratic congressman from Georgia. Trump was in college in 1965.

          RELATED: Jesse Jackson through the years




          Many Democrats, including some presidential candidates, have labeled Trump a “racist,” a characterization he disputes. His longtime personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, said in his testimony to a House committee Thursday that Trump often made racist remarks about blacks.

          Jackson, a 1988 Democratic presidential candidate, was a close ally of Martin Luther King, who helped lead the Selma marches.

          Jackson then shared a story about segregationist Alabama Gov. George Wallace, who led the state on “Bloody Sunday” and declined to protect the marchers.

          “I asked George Wallace one time — I was having prayer with him after he was very ill, ‘Why did you unleash the horses on the marchers? He said, ‘I did them a favor,’” Jackson recounted.

          Jackson asked Wallace, who died in 1998, what he meant.

          “He said, ‘Well, if I had not put the troops on him, the mob would have been worse.’ It never occurred to him to turn the troops on the mob, but the marchers,” said Jackson, adding, “That is a mentality. That. is a deeply embedded point of view.”

          Jackson was attending the annual “Martin Luther King & Coretta Scott King Unity Breakfast,” which also hosted several current Democratic presidential candidates. He began his comments by saying he was “deeply concerned” that Selma was “being used as a prop.” He describes the city as “the birthplace of modern democracy” and suggested the voting rights protests there led to a “new majority” in the country including minorities and young people.

          “But my concern is that while Selma is the birthplace, it’s being used as a prop. Selma is the 9th poorest city in the country. Ms. Boynton, who invited Dr. King here as the host, her house is condemned. Selma is 40 percent poverty,” Jackson said.

          He said Selma would be the ideal venue for a “rural reconstruction project.”

          “The reason we have a Democratic Congress is because of Selma. There should be some evidence of it,” said Jackson.

          The Democrats at the breakfast included 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, who was being honored at the event, and two current candidates, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker. Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, who has said he will make a decision about whether to enter the 2020 race by the end of this month was also in attendance.

          Yahoo News asked Jackson if he felt the current presidential candidates were taking Selma’s needs seriously.

          “All of them now speak to … voter enforcement to offset voter suppression, but beyond voting, there must be fruits of democracy. Where are the fruits?” Jackson asked, adding, “There should be some plan. HUD should be here, HHS should be here. There should be some evidence Selma is the birthplace of democracy.”

          Asked about voter suppression, a major concern of Democrats in recent elections, Jackson noted the increasing number of minorities in Congress, and said the country has made “tremendous strides” in “spite of the voter suppression.” But he said there are ongoing “schemes to suppress the vote” including gerrymandering that favors white, Republican districts. He brought up the 2016 presidential election.

          “Hillary won by three million votes. Trump is the president,” said Jackson, adding, “Schemes to undermine the vote are very real and very alive.”

          Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/03/03/jackson-trump-belongs-with-the-storm-troopers-at-selma/23682996/

          CLOSE

          US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he doesn’t think North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was involved in the mistreatment of American college student Otto Warmbier, who died after being detained in the isolated country. (Feb. 28)
          AP

          White House national security adviser John Bolton said Sunday that North Korea should give a “full accounting of what happened” in the death of an American citizen who fell into a coma while in the regime’s custody. 

          Bolton made the remark when asked during an interview with CNN if he agreed with President Donald Trump, who took North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “at his word” that he did not have any involvement with Otto Warmbier’s mistreatment. 

          “Look, the president made it very clear he considers what happened to Otto Warmbier an act of brutality that’s completely unacceptable to the American side,” Bolton told “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper. “The fact is, the best thing North Korea could do right now would be to give us a full accounting of what happened and who was responsible for it.” 

          When Tapper pressed Bolton if he agreed with Trump that Kim didn’t know about the fatal injuries Warmbier suffered in North Korean custody, Bolton said, “My opinion doesn’t matter.” 

          “You’re the national security adviser to the president,” Tapper replied. “Your opinion matters quite a bit.” 

          “I am not the national security decision-maker. That’s his view,” Bolton explained. 

          Critics equated Trump’s acceptance of Kim’s denial to other incidents where he believed notorious strongmen’s professions of innocence, such as when he accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s denial of interference in the 2016 election and implied we will never know if Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. 

          “He’s not saying he’s siding with dictators over Americans,” Bolton said. “As with what I just said on North Korea, the administration position expressed by the president and every other official who has addressed it is we want a full accounting from the Saudis. So I think that’s entirely consistent with finding out, getting to the bottom of what happened.”

          Warmbier was a 21-year-old student at the University of Virginia when he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for allegedly vandalizing a propaganda poster during a visit to the reclusive communist nation in 2016. He fell into a coma in North Korean custody and died from a brain injury shortly after returning to the U.S. in June 2017. 

          “I don’t believe he knew about it,” Trump said of Kim last week after their summit in Vietnam was cut short. “He tells me that he didn’t know about it and I will take him at his word.” 

          Trump also said Kim – whom he called his “good friend” – felt “badly about” Warmbier’s death. 

          Otto Warmbier’s parents respond: ‘Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son’

          ‘I hold North Korea responsible’: Trump says Warmbier comments ‘misinterpreted’

          “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for the death of our son, Otto,” Fred and Cindy Warmbier said in a statement on Friday after Trump’s comments about the death of their son. “Kim and his evil regime are responsible for unimaginable cruelty and inhumanity.”

          In response to the criticism, Trump tweeted that he had been “misinterpreted” – although he did not explain how – and said, “Of course I hold North Korea responsible for Otto’s mistreatment and death.”

          “I love Otto and think of him often!” Trump said. He did not go so far as to directly blame Kim, however. 

          Former ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson, who spent years negotiating with North Korea, said in an interview with MSNBC that it was “inconceivable” that Kim could not have known about Warmbier’s treatment. 

          “North Korea is a totalitarian dictatorship. Anything that the leadership does has to be approved by the man at the top,” said Rosa Park, director of programs and editor at The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.

          Tapper told Bolton, “I don’t know one expert on North Korea who thinks that anything could have happened to Otto Warmbier without Kim Jong Un knowing about it ahead of time.”

          “Good for them,” Bolton replied without elaborating.

          “I give my advice to the president,” Bolton said. “He makes up his own mind. That’s why he’s president.”

          North Korea summit: Why Trump’s failure to reach a deal is being lauded in Washington

          More: Takeaways from Donald Trump’s abruptly ended summit with North Korea’s Kim Jong Un

          Bolton also defended Trump’s second summit with Kim, which ended early without any agreement

          “I don’t agree at all that it was a failed summit,” Bolton said on “Fox News Sunday.”

          “I think the obligation of the president of the United States is to defend and advance American national security interest and I think he did that, by rejecting a bad deal and by trying again to persuade Kim Jong Un to take the big deal that really could make a difference for North Korea.” 

          Bolton said Trump is “not desperate for a deal, not with North Korea, not with anybody if it’s contrary to American national interest.” 

          Contributing: John Fritze, USA TODAY; Jackie Borchardt and Jessie Balmert, Cincinnati Enquirer

          Fact check: Trump says North Korea summit ‘productive.’ Was it?

          More: Trump believes Kim Jong Un didn’t know about Otto Warmbier. Experts say that’s impossible.

           

          Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2019/03/03/john-bolton-dodges-question-otto-warmbier/3048927002/

          WASHINGTON, March 3 (Reuters) – The head of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee said on Sunday the panel would seek documents from more than 60 people and entities as part of a probe into possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power by President Donald Trump.

          Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler told ABC’s “This Week” the panel wanted to get documents from the Department of Justice, the president’s son Donald Trump Jr. and Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, among others.

          “We are going to initiate investigations into abuses of power, into corruption … and into obstruction of justice,” Nadler said. “It’s our job to protect the rule of law.”

          “It’s very clear that the president obstructed justice,” Nadler said. He said it was too soon to consider whether impeachment should be pursued, however.

          “Before you impeach somebody, you have to persuade the American public that it ought to happen,” he said.

          RELATED: Key figures on House Judiciary Committee

          Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., chairman of the House subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations, makes a statement on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2015, as the House Judiciary Committee met to approve rare bipartisan legislation that would reduce prison time for some nonviolent drug offenders. The aim of the bipartisan bills is to reduce overcrowding in the nation’s prisons, save taxpayer dollars and give some nonviolent offenders a second chance while keeping the most dangerous criminals in prison. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)




          As evidence of obstruction, Nadler cited Trump’s firing of former FBI Director James Comey, who at the time was leading an investigation into Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow.

          That investigation was subsequently taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is expected to deliver his findings to the U.S. attorney general within weeks.

          Nadler also cited what he called Trump’s attempts to intimidate witnesses in the investigation.

          The White House, the Justice Department and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

          Nadler said the committee on Monday would release the list of people and organizations it would be requesting documents from. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Sonya Hepinstall)

          Source Article from https://www.aol.com/article/news/2019/03/03/us-house-panel-begins-probe-of-possible-trump-obstruction/23682918/

          President TrumpDonald John TrumpLawmakers discussed possible pardon talks with Cohen: report 5 takeaways as Republicans close ranks at CPAC Donald Trump puts past presidents to shame with North Korea policies MORE on Sunday renewed his attacks against his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, claiming that a manuscript Cohen allegedly wrote proved that the attorney’s congressional testimony last week was a “total lie.”

          “After more than two years of Presidential Harassment, the only things that have been proven is that Democrats and other broke the law,” Trump tweeted. “The hostile Cohen testimony, given by a liar to reduce his prison time, proved no Collusion!”

          Trump has insisted that Cohen wrote a manuscript last year that was a “love letter” to Trump, contradicting his criticism of Trump in his congressional testimony. No manuscript has been publicly released, and Cohen’s publisher said he never turned one in.

          Trump on Sunday maintained that Cohen’s unseen book manuscript proved his testimony was a lie. He said in a separate tweet that the “Fake Media won’t show it.” 

          “I am an innocent man being persecuted by some very bad, conflicted & corrupt people in a Witch Hunt that is illegal & should never have been allowed to start – And only because I won the Election! Despite this, great success!” Trump said. 

          Cohen, who was sentenced to prison last year after pleading guilty to financial crimes and campaign finance violations, publicly testified before the House Oversight and Reform Committee. His testimony included several allegations that Trump committed crimes over the years. 

          Among other things, Cohen said that Trump directed him to break the law and make a nondisclosure payment to adult-film star Stormy Daniels, who alleges she had an affair with the president.

          Republican lawmakers dismissed Cohen’s credibility, pointing to his prior admission that he lied to Congress about plans to build a Trump Tower in Moscow. 

          Trump on Friday accused Cohen of committing perjury “on a scale not seen before,” citing the book manuscript as evidence. 

          “Congress must demand the transcript of Michael Cohen’s new book, given to publishers a short time ago,” he wrote on Twitter. “Your heads will spin when you see the lies, misrepresentations and contradictions against his Thursday testimony. Like a different person! He is totally discredited!”

          Cohen’s proposed book, which had been tentatively titled, “Trump Revolution: From The Tower to The White House, Understanding Donald J. Trump,” was scrapped in May 2018 due to the former fixer’s legal troubles, according to The Daily Beast

          “We never saw a manuscript from Mr. Cohen,” Rolf Zettersten, the publisher of Center Street, the imprint that considered putting out Cohen’s book, told Politico last week.

          Lanny Davis, an adviser and attorney for Cohen, told The Hill last week that Cohen had been offered a “substantial” advance last year for a book about the president. Davis said Cohen declined the offer. 

          Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/432373-trump-claims-cohen-book-manuscripts-shows-testimony-was-total-lie-i