April 2, 2019

Trump Parties While Activists Worry Criminal Justice Bill Will Not Be Fully Funded

By Kate Riga
April 2, 2019 8:29 am

While President Donald Trump held a party celebrating the “First Step Act,” a rare piece of bipartisan legislation focused on criminal justice reform, advocates fretted that the law may never be fully funded.

According to a Monday New York Times report, Trump’s budget only allotted $14 million to the law’s programs, whereas the legislation calls for $75 million.

The Office of Management and Budget says it will revisit the law’s funding, but advocates worry that the combination of Trump’s political opportunism and the Justice Department’s lack of interest will let the act fall by the wayside.

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https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/trump-throws-party-activists-worry-criminal-justice-reform-bill-not-adequately-funded

April 2, 2019

The Wrong Time for Joe Biden?

April 2, 2019 at 10:12 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

Buzzfeed: “Everybody already knows what they think about Joe Biden putting his hands on people, because we’ve all seen this happen in public. We’ve seen Biden kiss people at public events! We’ve all had years to think about it! Does anyone need a photograph of Lucy Flores and Joe Biden to know that, at some point, somewhere, over the last 40 years, someone might have been uncomfortable because the situation wasn’t quite right?”

“But the current system still isn’t ready to handle a well-known, gray-area subject like this. As she said on TV over the weekend, Flores didn’t consider it sexual harassment, she just was uncomfortable, and we all know what she means.”

Michelle Goldberg: “So I don’t think Biden’s avuncular pawing is a #MeToo story… But if Biden was more oblivious than predatory, his history still puts him out of step with the mores of an increasingly progressive Democratic Party. On Sunday, The New York Times reported that some Democrats are bracing ‘for an extended reckoning about Mr. Biden and gender if he enters the race.’ The inevitably of such a reckoning should make Biden reconsider getting in.”

Playbook: “His team has not made Biden available for a single interview, allowing others to tell his story. This isn’t 2009. On-the-record statements don’t suffice. A lot of folks are wondering why Biden won’t address this head-on.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2019/04/02/the-wrong-time-for-joe-biden/

April 2, 2019

He dunked a crucifix in his own urine. His next artistic subject: Donald Trump.

By Isaac Stanley-Becker April 2 at 5:03 AM

Andres Serrano has been quietly stockpiling buttons, baked goods, liquor bottles, slot machines, sports memorabilia, menswear and magazine covers.

For almost a year, his tremendous collection effort has taken him to the front row of high-end auctions and to the far reaches of eBay. The artist best known for his 1987 “Immersion (Piss Christ),” an amber-hued image of a crucifix submerged in a glass container of his own urine, has spent more than $100,000 amassing a treasure trove of more than 1,000 objects.

Each item bears some relationship to President Trump. They include souvenirs from his hotels and casinos, as well as merchandise from his 2016 presidential campaign. They include Trump Vodka, Trump Steaks and remnants of Trump Shuttle. They include a Trump University diploma and a fake dollar bill depicting Hillary Clinton behind bars, to which Trump affixed his signature at a Florida rally.

“Trump everything,” the divisive New York-based artist, whose creations have been vandalized at museums across the world and reviled in Congress, said in an interview with The Washington Post. “I wanted to paint a portrait of Donald Trump using his own brushes.”

The untraditional presidential portrait is set to be revealed April 11 at a still-undisclosed location in Manhattan.

The installation, titled “The Game: All Things Trump,” is an image of the president rendered in his varied acts of salesmanship and self-promotion. It is a Trump readymade, in the model of Marcel Duchamp, the 20th-century pioneer of avant-garde art.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/04/02/he-dunked-crucifix-his-own-urine-his-next-artistic-subject-donald-trump/

April 2, 2019

U.S. officials said aid to El Salvador helped slow migration. Now Trump is canceling it.

By Kevin Sieff April 1 at 8:03 PM

MEXICO CITY — Until last week, U.S. officials held up El Salvador as proof that foreign aid could help curb migration. The partnership between the two countries drew praise from diplomats, members of Congress and even America’s top border enforcement official.

Then President Trump announced that he was withdrawing economic assistance to the Central American country and its neighbors Guatemala and Honduras.

“They haven’t done a thing for us,” the president said Friday.

The claim baffled development officials and Salvadorans, who saw the country’s cooperation with the United States on security, civil society and economic development as a success story, inasmuch as it achieved the Trump administration’s goal of slowing the flow of migrants heading north to the United States.

In the past three years, both El Salvador’s homicide rate and migration flows have declined sharply. More than 72,000 Salvadorans were apprehended crossing the U.S. border in 2016. By 2018, the number had plummeted by more than half, to fewer than 32,000.

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/us-officials-said-aid-to-el-salvador-helped-slow-migration-now-trump-is-canceling-it/2019/04/01/5a8ca570-540a-11e9-aa83-504f086bf5d6_story.html

April 2, 2019

Trump has a Russia problem in Venezuela

By Ishaan Tharoor
April 2 at 12:59 AM

A couple of months ago, leading officials in the Trump administration confidently spoke of the imminent collapse of the Venezuelan regime. Now, they’re girding themselves for a more uncertain and prolonged contest.

President Nicolás Maduro, a pariah in the eyes of much of the Western hemisphere, looks no closer to exiting the presidential palace in Caracas. The country’s influential military is mostly still in his camp and his grip on power remains intact, no matter the catastrophic economic crisis hollowing out his country and fueling an unprecedented hemispheric refugee crisis. While more than 50 nations may recognize opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president, Maduro is counting on the continued support of friendlier governments, including China, Turkey and, especially, Russia.

So far, the Kremlin hasn’t disappointed him. It’s attempting to offset the burden of U.S. sanctions on Venezuela’s state oil company by helping the Maduro regime refine its heavy crude. Russia is also increasing wheat sales and continuing its deliveries of sorely needed medical supplies. This week, a senior Russian diplomat in Caracas told my colleagues, a delegation of Venezuelan officials is expected in Moscow to discuss Russian investments in Venezuela’s mining, agricultural and transport sectors.

https://twitter.com/AmbJohnBolton/status/1111659586547867648

But it is what happened toward the end of March that sent heads spinning in Washington. Two planeloads of roughly 100 Russian military personnel landed in Venezuela. The stated reason for their arrival was to help service Venezuela’s Russian-purchased S-300 air defense systems, which may have been damaged amid the country’s increasingly frequent blackouts. The news followed earlier reports of Russian mercenaries or private military contractors already operating as security for the embattled regime.

Maduro’s opponents were outraged. “If their idea is to keep Maduro in power for longer that means more people starving and fleeing the country, more human tragedy in Venezuela,” Brazilian foreign minister Ernesto Araujo told reporters, referring to the Kremlin’s deployments. “Anything that contributes to the continuation of the suffering of the Venezuelan people should be removed.”

more
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2019/04/02/trump-has-russia-problem-venezuela/

April 2, 2019

Pelosi says Biden allegations are not 'disqualifying' for 2020 run

By REBECCA MORIN 04/02/2019 09:12 AM EDT Updated 04/02/2019 09:17 AM EDT

Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that she does not think the allegations against Joe Biden of unwelcome contact are disqualifying for a 2020 run, but that the former vice president should be more aware of others’ personal space.

"I don't think it's disqualifying,” Pelosi said during a POLITICO Playbook interview, adding, “He has to understand in the world that we're in now that people's space is important to them, and what's important is how they receive it and not necessarily how you intended it.”

Former Nevada assemblywoman Lucy Flores on Friday described in an essay how Biden kissed her on the head during a campaign event in 2014, which she said made her feel uncomfortable and was unacceptable.

Amy Lappos of Connecticut has also come out with allegations of unwanted contact against the former vice president, saying he grabbed her head and rubbed noses with her during a 2009 fundraiser.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/02/pelosi-says-biden-allegations-are-not-disqualifying-1247827

April 2, 2019

Trump: Dems 'have become totally unhinged' following Mueller report

Source: The Hill



BY JOHN BOWDEN - 04/02/19 09:13 AM EDT

President Trump took aim at two House Democrats on Tuesday in a tweet accusing the party of becoming "unhinged" in the wake of Robert Mueller's conclusion to his years-long investigation of the Trump campaign and Russian election interference.

In a pair of tweets Tuesday morning, the president said that Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the chairs of the House Judiciary and Oversight committees, would never be satisfied by cooperation and testimony from members of his campaign and eventual administration.

The president also accused Democrats of idolizing Mueller, the head of the special counsel investigation, whom Trump himself has frequently said was running a corrupt probe at the Justice Department aimed at deligitimizing his presidency.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1113060131917479936
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1113062069551722496

Trump and his allies have celebrated the conclusion of Mueller's investigation and a summary of the special counsel's findings from Attorney General William Barr, which stated that Mueller found no evidence of collusion with Russia from members of Trump's campaign and declined to take a position on obstruction of justice, as a victory over Democrats, who have long claimed that evidence exists to prove criminal activity on the part of senior Trump campaign officials.

Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/436875-trump-dems-have-become-totally-unhinged-following-mueller-report

April 2, 2019

As Trump attacked Mueller, he offered mea culpa to Rosenstein, source says

The president didn't go after Rosenstein the same way he went after others.

By Mike Levine Apr 2, 2019 4:01 AM

Four months ago, shortly after President Donald Trump's Twitter account sent out an image suggesting Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein should be prosecuted and imprisoned for appointing special counsel Robert Mueller, the president took the rare step of telling Rosenstein it was a mistake, according to a former Justice Department official informed of the conversation.

As described by the former official, the mea culpa came in a private phone call, within days of Trump retweeting the meme that showed Rosenstein, Mueller and several Obama-era officials behind bars.

"[W]hen do the trials for treason begin?" the Trump-endorsed image asked.

https://twitter.com/The_Trump_Train/status/1067687857400229888

But on the private phone call afterward, Trump insisted to Rosenstein that he didn’t notice the veteran prosecutor in the image's background before it was retweeted, according to the former official.

Publicly, Trump stood by the controversial post.

The previously unreported anecdote reflects how — despite unrelenting attacks on Mueller, Mueller's team and others at the Justice Department — Trump often tried to avoid clashes with Rosenstein, the person who appointed Mueller in the first place.

more
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/trump-attacked-mueller-offered-mea-culpa-rosenstein-source/story?id=62096310

April 2, 2019

As Trump threatens to close border, experts warn of billions in economic damage

By MOLLY O'TOOLE, NOAH BIERMAN and ELI STOKOLS APR 01, 2019 | 4:15 PM | WASHINGTON

When the Trump administration abruptly shuttered the San Ysidro border crossing for five hours on the Sunday after Thanksgiving following a skirmish with a group of migrants, holiday traffic snarled for hours south of San Diego.

Businesses on the U.S. side of the border lost about $5.3 million in sales, local officials said. Tens of thousands of people were temporarily stuck on both sides of the border, creating chaos in nearby areas.

President Trump now is threatening to exponentially increase the scale of that disruption, vowing to indefinitely close the U.S. border with Mexico to show his resolve — and his pique — as tens of thousands of Central American migrants continue to jam legal entry points and unguarded remote areas.

Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, said Sunday that the president, who has threatened to close the border before, is not bluffing. But White House officials declined to provide details of what, if anything, Trump intends to do.

It is probably impossible to close the entire 2,000-mile-long border. But Trump could shut some or all of the 47 official entry ports, which process more than 1 million people and about $1.7 billion in commerce every day.

more
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-na-pol-trump-border-closing-chaos-20190401-story.html#nws=mcnewsletter

April 2, 2019

Dem Congressman: Trump 'Hasn't Been Exonerated by Anybody Except His Own Hired Henchman'

by Tamar Auber | Apr 1st, 2019, 7:59 pm 467

Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen made it clear he does not think that President Donald Trump has been exonerated. In fact, he says the only one who says Trump’s cleared is his “own hired henchman.”

Cohen’s remarks followed MSNBC host Chris Matthews airing a clip from Chris Wallace‘s interview with Kellyanne Conway from over the weekend. During that interview, Conway struggled to explain how the president is claiming exoneration when he has not actually been cleared.

“Congressman, let me know what you think of that,” Matthews said at the end of the clip. “There is the president’s chief communications person unable to explain the obvious — the president’s not clear. He hasn’t been cleared. Not by Mueller, certainly.”

Cohen replied: “He hasn’t been exonerated by anybody except his own hired henchman.”

He continued on: “As he sit here, Steve Scalise is speaking right behind me and it’s nauseating to listen to the Republicans spin what they’re spinning just after they all voted two weeks ago to release the Mueller report. All but four who abstained said the Mueller report should be made public. Now they’re finding every excuse to not make it public and talking about Hillary Clinton and talking about FBI agents.”

video via MSNBC
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/dem-congressman-trump-hasnt-been-exonerated-by-anybody-except-his-own-hired-henchman/