Democrats say they will step up investigations after new reports on Trump and Russia
WASHINGTON — Congressional Democrats Sunday pledged heightened scrutiny of President Donald Trump's dealings with Russia, spurred by news reports of extraordinary secrecy surrounding his conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the opening in 2017 of an FBI counterintelligence investigation into whether Trump worked on behalf of the Kremlin.
Trump's Republican allies in Congress and his administration defended him, impugning the motives of federal investigators, insisting the White House had been tough on Russia, and denouncing as "ludicrous" any suggestion that Trump had been compromised by Moscow.
The intensifying Russia-related furor coincides with a partial government shutdown that pushed over the weekend into a record-breaking fourth week. More than three-quarters of a million federal workers have been furloughed or are working without their salaries. They missed their first paychecks of 2019 last week.
There was little sign of any imminent breakthrough in ending the shutdown, whose effects are being more broadly felt with each passing week. Trump spent Sunday morning demanding on Twitter that Congress allocate funds for building a wall on the border with Mexico, a project Democrats vehemently oppose.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/democrats-say-they-will-step-up-investigations-after-new-reports-on-trump-and-russia/ar-BBScmHs?li=BBnb7Kz
