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Pelosi tells Dems she wants to see Trump ‘in prison’

She also clashed with Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, who pressed her to begin impeachment proceedings.

By HEATHER CAYGLE

06/05/2019 09:50 PM EDT

Speaker Nancy Pelosi told senior Democrats that she’d like to see President Donald Trump “in prison” as she clashed with House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler in a meeting on Tuesday night over whether to launch impeachment proceedings.

Pelosi met with Nadler (D-N.Y.) and several other top Democrats who are aggressively pursuing investigations against the president, according to multiple sources. Nadler and other committee leaders have been embroiled in a behind-the-scenes turf battle for weeks over ownership of the Democrats’ sprawling investigation into Trump.

Nadler pressed Pelosi to allow his committee to launch an impeachment inquiry against Trump — the second such request he’s made in recent weeks only to be rebuffed by the California Democrat and other senior leaders. Pelosi stood firm, reiterating that she isn’t open to the idea of impeaching Trump at this time.

“I don’t want to see him impeached, I want to see him in prison,” Pelosi said, according to multiple Democratic sources familiar with the meeting. Instead of impeachment, Pelosi still prefers to see Trump defeated at the ballot box and then prosecuted for his alleged crimes, according to the sources.

They said she was expressing solidarity with pro-impeachment Democrats who want to hold the president accountable while disputing the idea that it is now time to take that step. Pelosi has long argued that certain conditions must be met before Democrats begin impeachment — public support and strong bipartisan backing, neither of which have so far materialized..

Other Democrats said Pelosi’s comment wasn’t that surprising given her previous criticisms of the president, including saying Trump “is engaged in a cover-up,” that his staff and family should stage an intervention and that the president’s actions “are villainous to the Constitution of the United States.”

Ashley Etienne, a Pelosi spokeswoman said Pelosi and the chairmen “had a productive meeting about the state of play with the Mueller report. They agreed to keep all options on the table and continue to move forward with an aggressive hearing and legislative strategy, as early as next week, to address the president’s corruption and abuses of power uncovered in the report.”

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings (D-Md.), Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) and Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.) were also present for the meeting. Financial Services Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) — a vocal impeachment supporter whose panel is probing Trump’s finances — was not in attendance.

In Tuesday’s meeting, some committee chairs expressed frustration about the appearance that rank-and-file members — rather than party leaders — were leading the caucus’ oversight strategy, including what they do on impeachment, according to one source familiar with the meeting.

But not all committee leaders were supportive of the impeachment inquiry. Both Schiff and Neal argued that if Democrats are going to open an inquiry, they should also be prepared to impeach Trump, which the caucus isn’t ready to do, they said. Cummings also sided with Pelosi, according to a source.

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George Conway: Trump sends 'invitation to commence impeachment proceedings'

By Jamie Ehrlich, CNN

Updated 8:46 PM ET, Wed June 12, 2019

Washington (CNN)Conservative lawyer George Conway, the husband of top White House aide Kellyanne Conway, and former acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal said Wednesday that a brief filed by President Donald Trump's lawyers represents an "invitation to commence impeachment proceedings."

Writing in The Washington Post opinion section, Conway and Katyal said Trump's brief, filed Monday in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, presents "an argument for autocrats, not Americans," in maintaining that Congress cannot investigate the president -- except possibly as part of impeachment proceedings -- because it represents an overreach of law enforcement authority reserved for the President.

The Trump team fights back in the brief against the multiple investigations being conducted into the administration by congressional Democrats -- the Oversight Committee, in this instance -- saying that Congress is "trying to prove that the President broke the law" and the Oversight Committee's subpoena of Trump's accountants exceeds Congress' constitutional authority.
The brief, Conway and Katyal, write, "can be construed as an invitation to commence impeachment proceedings."

They go on to say that Trump's defiance of congressional subpoenas -- along with his insults of judges and journalists -- is not "proper" for a President of the United States.
"Other leaders around the world may behave this way, but these are not proper actions of a president of the United States. What makes the United States exceptional is its commitment to its constitutional architecture, particularly divided powers," they write.
"Every principle behind the rule of law requires the commencement of a process now to make this president a former one," the piece concludes.
Katyal was acting solicitor general during the Obama administration.

Conway, as the husband of one of Trump's top surrogates, and someone who once wanted to work in the administration, has emerged as extremely unlikely critic of the President.
He argued in a Washington Post op-ed in March that counter to Trump's claims, special counsel Robert Mueller had not "exonerated" him and that it was time for Congress to step in. In April, he called on Congress to remove Trump from office following the release of the redacted special counsel report.

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Orlando Sentinel endorses 'not Donald Trump' for president ahead of reelection kickoff

Dylan StablefordSenior Editor

Yahoo News•June 18, 2019

Hours before President Trump was due to hold a rally in Orlando billed as the kickoff to his reelection campaign, the Orlando Sentinel announced who it is endorsing for president in 2020: not Donald Trump.

“Some readers will wonder how we could possibly eliminate a candidate so far before an election, and before knowing the identity of his opponent,” the paper said in a scathing editorial on Tuesday. “Because there’s no point pretending we would ever recommend that readers vote for Trump.”

The Sentinel has mostly endorsed Republicans since 1960, but in recent years it has been more independent, backing Democrats in 2004 (John Kerry over George W. Bush), 2008 (Barack Obama over John McCain) and 2016 (Hillary Clinton over Trump). It endorsed Republican Mitt Romney over Obama in 2012.

But Trump’s erratic behavior and petulant, dishonest statements in office pushed the Sentinel to its non-endorsement.

“After 2 1/2 years we’ve seen enough,” the editorial board said. “Enough of the chaos, the division, the schoolyard insults, the self-aggrandizement, the corruption, and especially the lies.”

The Sentinel pointed to the Washington Post’s “Fact Checker,” a database that has documented more than 10,000 false or misleading claims made by Trump since he took office.

“There was a time when even a single lie — a phony college degree, a bogus work history — would doom a politician’s career,” the Sentinel said. “Not so for Trump, who claimed in 2017 that he lost the popular vote because millions of people voted illegally (they didn’t). In 2018 he said North Korea was no longer a nuclear threat (it is). And in 2019 he said windmills cause cancer (they don’t). Just last week he claimed the media fabricated unfavorable results from his campaign’s internal polling (it didn’t).”

The editorial was published to coincide with Trump’s Tuesday night rally at Orlando’s Amway Center....

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WASHINGTON — Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, conceded on Monday that he could not stave off final passage of a resolution overturning President Trump’s national emergency declaration, setting up a rebuke to Mr. Trump amid signs that the president’s grip even on his own party in Congress may be slipping.

With Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky joining three other Republicans — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Thom Tillis of North Carolina — in announcing he would support the measure, Democrats now have the 51 votes they need to secure passage and to force Mr. Trump to issue the first veto of his presidency.

Mr. McConnell is exploring whether he can amend the House-passed resolution of disapproval, to send it back to the House and slow its trip to the president’s desk. Ms. Collins and Ms. Murkowski are both sponsors of a separate resolution, virtually identical to the House resolution, introduced in the Senate last week.

And while a veto is highly unlikely to be overturned, the congressional majority that forces it will stand as a powerful rejection of the tactics Mr. Trump has used to fulfill his top campaign promise to build a wall on the southern border — and will apparently be the first time since passage of the National Emergencies Act of 1976 that Congress has voted to overturn an emergency declaration.

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Donald Trump Says Noise from Windmills 'Causes Cancer' — 'Idiotic,' GOP Senator Says

People
Maria Pasquini
PeopleApril 4, 2019

Donald Trump Says Noise from Windmills 'Causes Cancer' — 'Idiotic,' GOP Senator Says

President Donald Trump made a very bold — and very wrong — rebuke of wind power earlier this week.

During a fundraiser for the Republican National Congressional Committee on Tuesday, the president, a longtime skeptic of alternative energy, claimed that the noise produced by windmills “causes cancer.”

“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer,” he said.

Although there is no evidence to suggest a link between the noise generated from wind turbines and cancer, USA Today pointed out that some critics have linked wind farms to “annoyances that could disrupt sleep, induce headaches or even cause mild nausea.”

However, according to a 2014 report from the National Institutes of Health, researchers found “that when sited properly, wind turbines are not related to adverse health.”

The following day, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, a leading Republican and supporter of wind energy, spoke out against Trump, telling reporters the president’s comments “were, first of all, idiotic,” according to the Des Moines Register.

Although Grassley did criticize Trump, he went on to say he believed the president’s comments, which did elicit laughter from the crowd, were “tongue in cheek.”

Politico also reported that Grassley, who went through the 1970s energy crisis, said he’s “going to give some leeway when he criticizes alternative energy.”

“I’ve lived through it, he never has,” Grassley said.

Iowa is the leading producer of wind energy in the United States. According to the Iowa Environmental Council, it was the first state to generate more than 30 percent of its electricity through wind power.

When asked by reporters whether there was any truth to the president’s comments about wind turbines and cancer, White House Director of Strategic Communications Mercedes Schlapp said she didn’t “have an answer to that.”

Additionally, although Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds acknowledged how important wind farms have been to her state’s economy, she said it’s “not my place” to contradict the president.

“You know how those things change,” she said, according to the Register. “One year, coffee’s good for you. The next year, coffee causes cancer.”

Prior to his speech at the NRCC, Trump spread false claims about windmills in Michigan last week.

“If Hillary got in … you’d be doing wind,” Trump said during a campaign speech, according to Vox. “Windmills. Weeeee. And if it doesn’t blow, you can forget about television for that night. ‘Darling, I want to watch television.’ ‘I’m sorry! The wind isn’t blowing.’ I know a lot about wind.”

Slamming Trump, Michael Mann, a professor of atmospheric science at Pennsylvania State University told Newsweek that the president’s comments represented “malicious ignorance.”

“The truth is that a combination of wind, solar and other renewables, along with battery and smart grid technology, can provide continuous and abundant electricity,” Mann said.

Trump’s disdain for windmills predates his time in office.

In 2012, he railed against offshore wind turbines near the Trump International Golf Links in Scotland, saying that they would ruin the views, according to Politico. Over the years, Trump has tweeted at least 60 times about the project.

He has also repeatedly contended that windmills are responsible for the deaths of many, many birds.

“They kill so many birds. You look underneath some of those windmills, it’s like a killing field,” he said in 2018 at a private fundraising event in New York, according to Newsweek.

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Treasury Department misses deadline to hand over Trump's tax returns, asks for more time

Christal Hayes
USA TODAY•April 10, 2019


WASHINGTON – The Treasury Department said it would not hand over President Donald Trump's tax returns by Wednesday, the deadline congressional Democrats gave in their request, instead, saying it would consult with the Justice Department to ensure the law and Constitution is followed.

In a two-page letter to House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal, Treasury Department Secretary Steven Mnuchin wrote that the department was reviewing the documents and the law to "ensure that taxpayer protections and applicable laws are scrupulously observed" and noting that "the Treasury Department will not be able to complete its review of your request" by Wednesday.

"The Department respects Congressional oversight, and we intend to review your request carefully," Mnuchin wrote, noting the "unprecedented nature" of the request and the potential issues that could arise, such as using personal tax returns for malicious and political purposes.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump told reporters he would not allow his tax returns to be handed over.

"I’m not gonna do it while I’m under audit," Trump told reporters at the White House, though congressional Democrats said the law does entitle them to review tax records.

Trump said Democrats are digging for dirt, even though "my finances are very clean."

The president has said for years he would not release his taxes because they are under audit, but that is not a legal requirement; he could release his returns whether they were under audit or not.

In an April 3 letter to the IRS, Neal, D-Mass, cited a law allowing Congress to review individual tax returns for legislative purposes. His committee, Neal wrote, is "considering legislative proposals and conducting oversight related to our Federal tax laws."

It was the first such demand for a sitting president’s tax information in 45 years.

Neal is one of only three congressional officials authorized under a rarely used 1924 law to make a written request to the treasury secretary for anyone’s tax returns. The law says the treasury secretary “shall furnish” the requested material to members of the committee for them to examine behind closed doors.

William Consovoy, a lawyer for the president, sent a four-page letter to the Treasury Department on Friday blasting the request and arguing that making Trump's tax returns available would violate the law.

"This request is a transparent effort by one political party to harass an official from the other party because they dislike his politics and speech," Consovoy wrote in the letter. "Chairman Neal wants the President's tax returns and return information because his party recently gained control of the House, the President is their political opponent, and they want to use the information to damage him politically."

Mnuchin, in his letter to the House Ways and Means Committee, noted the concerns related to this request, including from Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chariman of the Senate Finance Committee. In his position, Grassley is also allowed under law to request an individual's tax returns.

Mnuchin noted that Grassley said the request for Trump's returns was not for "legitimate legislative purpose" and "Nixonian to the core." Mnuchin also acknowledged that the last Congress, controlled by Republicans, called such a request "an abuse of authority" that would "set a dangerous precedent."