Source: Talking Points Memo


By Cristina Cabrera
July 21, 2019 11:02 am

White House immigration advisor and speechwriter Stephen Miller went full dog whistle on Sunday, saying that President Donald Trump was merely upholding the “principles of Western civilization” when he criticized the US in the past.

-snip-

Yet, as Fox News host Chris Wallace pointed out to Miller, Trump’s complained about the US plenty of times, particularly during his 2016 campaign. “I think President Obama has been the most ignorant president in our history,” Trump said in a clip Wallace pulled up. “Nobody respects us, they are laughing at us, we don’t know what we’re doing.”

“Why is what those congresswomen have said any worse than what you just heard Donald Trump say?” the Fox reporter asked Miller.

“Anybody who’s running for office, right, left, or center, always points out with they think America can do better and where America needs to go,” Miller responded. “But there’s a fundamental distinction between people who think that we need to lean into and strengthen America’s core values, whether it be our constitutional values, the rule of law, the principles of Western civilization, or people who think it would basically need to turn America into Venezuela.”

-snip-

https://twitter.com/TPMLiveWire/status/1152949924348215297

Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/stephen-miller-defend-trump

By MAYA KING 07/19/2019 04:36 PM EDT

President Donald Trump confirmed Friday that Sen. Rand Paul is involved in diplomatic talks with Iran, referring to the country as “nothing but trouble.”

The Kentucky Republican has long been an opponent of U.S. intervention in Iran. POLITICO reported earlier this week that he had asked for Trump’s blessing to arrange a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in hopes of avoiding further conflict with the country.

Trump had said he was unaware of plans to include Paul in talks with Iran. But he acknowledged the senator's role Friday while responding to a question about the administration’s plan to calm tensions after Iran's seizure of a British oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Rand asked me if he could get involved,” Trump told reporters. “The answer is yes.”

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/19/rand-paul-iran-trump-1423779

By ELEANOR MUELLER 07/21/2019 12:15 PM EDT

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said on Sunday he hopes Robert Mueller's testimony before the House will bring the former special counsel's report "to life."

"Since most of our constituents in their busy lives haven't had the opportunity to read that report — and it's a pretty dry prosecutorial work product — we want Bob Mueller to bring it to life, to talk about what's in that report," Schiff told Margaret Brennan on CBS' "Face the Nation."

"It's a pretty damning set of facts," he said, "that involve a presidential campaign in a close race welcoming help from a hostile foreign power, not reporting it but eagerly embracing it, building it into their campaign strategy, lying about it to cover up, then obstructing an investigation into foreign interference again to try to cover up.

"That's a pretty damning set of facts that most American people are not familiar with," Schiff said. "And, of course, the president keeps on trying to deceive them about those facts. But who better to bring them to life than the man who did the investigation himself?"

Mueller is slated to testify before the House Intelligence and Judiciary committees for a combined five hours on Wednesday. And Democratic congressional leaders hope the public hearings can reinvigorate public interest in the report.

"We want the people to hear it directly from him, not [Attorney General] Bill Barr who had his own misleading characterization of it," Schiff said.

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https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/21/adam-schiff-robert-mueller-testimony-1424134

Source: CBS News


By CAMILO MONTOYA-GALVEZ CBS NEWS July 21, 2019, 11:10 AM


Vice President Mike Pence said President Trump "might make an effort" to speak out against offensive chants by his supporters at campaign rallies in the future.

"He might make an effort to speak out about it," Pence told CBS News chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett during an interview for "The Takeout" podcast, parts of which aired Sunday on "Face the Nation."

The vice president was pressed on Mr. Trump's recent attacks against four Democratic congresswomen of color, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan.

Mr. Trump recently suggested the progressive foursome should "go back" to the "totally broken and crime infested places from which they came." Since eliciting widespread condemnation from Democrats and a handful of Republicans — including a House resolution denouncing the remarks — Mr. Trump has doubled down on his attacks, repeatedly accusing Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez, Tlaib and Omar of hating the U.S. and saying they can "leave" the country.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mike-pence-interview-on-face-the-nation-pence-says-trump-might-make-an-effort-to-stop-future-chants/

https://twitter.com/FoxNewsSunday/status/1152940894963798018

By Devan Cole, CNN

Updated 10:15 AM ET, Sun July 21, 2019

Washington (CNN)Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker on Sunday blasted President Donald Trump for his racist attacks on four minority congresswomen, saying Trump is "worse than a racist."

"The reality is this is a guy who is worse than a racist. He is actually using racist tropes and racial language for political gain. He is trying to use this as a weapon to divide our nation against itself," the New Jersey Democrat told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union."

"And this is somebody who is very similar to George Wallace, who -- a racist -- he's using the exact same language," Booker added, referring to a former governor of Alabama who supported segregation and was a vocal opponent of the Civil Rights movement.

Booker's comments follow Trump's tweeted attacks on four minority Democratic congresswomen last week that implied the lawmakers -- Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Rashida Tlaib of Michigan, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts -- were not natural-born American citizens and should "go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places from which they came." The tweets were widely condemned by congressional Democrats and some Republicans, and the House passed a resolution condemning the racist language Trump used.

more
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/21/politics/cory-booker-donald-trump-worse-than-a-racist-tweet-cnntv/index.html

BY CHRIS MILLS RODRIGO - 07/21/19 09:52 AM EDT

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) on Sunday said Republicans would be wasting their time by asking former special counsel Robert Mueller about FBI misconduct.

“Very clear the Trump investigation was not predicated on the so-called dossier, there was nothing wrong with the FISA application, all the things that they’re talking about have been gone through," Nadler said on "Fox News Sunday."

“If they want to debate or discuss this irrelevancy, let them waste their time. What’s before the American people is the conduct of this president."

Nadler's remarks came after Chris Wallace asked him whether there was a chance Republicans could benefit more from Mueller's testimony than Democrats, given that the former special counsel has promised not to go beyond information presented in his report.

more
https://thehill.com/homenews/sunday-talk-shows/454041-nadler-let-republicans-waste-their-time-asking-about-fbi

Katie Porter isn't part of 'The Squad.' But the freshman House Democrat is stirring up trouble for Trump

By Katie Lobosco, CNN

Updated 9:53 AM ET, Sun July 21, 2019

Washington (CNN)When Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election, a California law professor named Katie Porter -- who had been expecting to join Clinton's transition team to advise on housing policy -- thought she would sit the next four years out of government.

She figured she'd wind up working for Elizabeth Warren, her former Harvard law school professor, or Kamala Harris, who in 2012 appointed Porter to be California's monitor of a nationwide mortgage settlement, to run for president. Instead, she ran for Congress in 2018, winning a Republican seat and joining the "blue wave" of Democrats taking over the House.

Porter, 45, isn't part of "The Squad" -- the four-woman group of freshman progressives of color who were attacked this week by President Donald Trump. But she's emerged as a viral star when it comes to how banks and the government treat the working poor and puncturing Trump's claims about the economy.

She's carving out a Warren-esque role for herself that's included asking top officials do basic math under oath.

Her targets so far have included major Wall Street players like JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, Equifax CEO Mark Begor, and now-former Wells Fargo CEO Tim Sloan.

more
https://www.cnn.com/2019/07/21/politics/katie-porter-freshman-democrat-trump-wall-street/index.html

Source: Politico


By BIANCA QUILANTAN 07/21/2019 10:06 AM EDT

Rep. Elijah Cummings on Sunday said the events of the week since President Donald Trump’s “go back” tweet aimed at four progressive congresswomen of color reminded him of being a 12-year-old growing up in 1962 Baltimore.

“We were trying to integrate an Olympic-size pool near my house and we had been constrained to a wading pool in the black community,” the Maryland Democrat told George Stephanopoulos, host of ABC’s “This Week.” “As we tried to March to that pool over six days, I was beaten, all kinds of rocks and bottles thrown at me. And the interesting thing is that I heard the same chants. ‘Go home, you don't belong here.’ And they called us the ‘N‘ word over and over again.”

Cummings’ anecdote came days after a Trump rally in North Carolina during which some of the crowd chanted “send her back” in reference to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), an American citizen who was born in Somalia. Trump on Friday said that crowd was filled with “incredible patriots.”

“What it does, when Trump does these things it brings up the same feelings that I had over 50-some years ago and it's very, very painful,” the House oversight chairman said. “It's extremely divisive and I don't think this is becoming of the president of the United States of America.”

Read more: https://www.politico.com/story/2019/07/21/elijah-cummings-donald-trump-race-1424123

By Alan Rappeport
July 21, 2019

WASHINGTON — Growing distrust between the United States and China has slowed the once steady flow of Chinese cash into America, with Chinese investment plummeting by nearly 90 percent since President Trump took office.

The falloff, which is being felt broadly across the economy, stems from tougher regulatory scrutiny in the United States and a less hospitable climate toward Chinese investment, as well Beijing’s tightened limits on foreign spending. It is affecting a range of industries including Silicon Valley start-ups, the Manhattan real estate market and state governments that spent years wooing Chinese investment, underscoring how the world’s two largest economies are beginning to decouple after years of increasing integration.

“The fact that the foreign direct investment has fallen so sharply is symbolic of how badly the economic relationship between the United States and China has deteriorated,” said Eswar Prasad, former head of the International Monetary Fund’s China division. “The U.S. doesn’t trust the Chinese, and China doesn’t trust the U.S.”

For years, Chinese investment into the United States had been accelerating, with money pouring into autos, tech, energy and agriculture and fueling new jobs in Michigan, South Carolina, Missouri, Texas and other states. As China’s economy boomed, state and local governments along with American companies looked to snap up some of those Chinese funds.

But Mr. Trump’s economic Cold War has helped reverse that trend.

more
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/21/us/politics/china-investment-trade-war.html?emc=rss&partner=rss