Friday, May 3, 2019

Trump calls on parties to ‘come together’ after ‘costly & time consuming investigations’


In a pair of Twitter messages late Thursday night, President Trump called for Republicans and Democrats to “get back to business” after what he described as two years of “each party trying their best to make the other party look as bad as possible.”
The president also issued a to-do list for Congress for the second half of his term, with items including immigration reform, investment in infrastructure and working to lower prices on prescription drugs.
“The Mueller Report strongly stated that there was No Collusion with Russia (of course) and, in fact, they were rebuffed … at every turn in attempts to gain access,” the president wrote.
“But now Republicans and Democrats must come together for the good of the American people. No more costly & time consuming investigations. Lets do Immigration (Border), Infrastructure, much lower drug prices & much more - and do it now!”
The messages came soon after a Fox News interview with President Trump -- conducted by Chief Intelligence Correspondent Catherine Herridge – aired on “Fox News @ Night.”
During that interview, Trump claimed that his administration provided “total transparency” during Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation and other probes, and that it was now time for the country to move on.
“They shouldn’t be looking anymore,” Trump told Herridge, referring to congressional Democrats. “It’s done.”
But House Democrats were angered Thursday when Attorney General William Barr failed to show up to testify before the House Judiciary Committee regarding the Mueller findings.
“The very system of government of the United States, the system of limited power, the system of not having a president as a dictator is very much at stake,” committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., said at Thursday’s hearing.
But it seems that Trump is looking past partisan bickering and working toward accomplishments he can point to with his 2020 re-election campaign looming ahead.
Just two days earlier, the president met at the White House with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer and reportedly worked out a $2 trillion infrastructure plan. It was a far cry from the contentious meeting among the same group just four months ago – which led to a record-setting partial shutdown of the federal government.
On Tuesday, the White House said Trump plans a similar meeting with leading Democrats soon to discuss drug prices, Reuters reported.
Several drugmakers froze prices last year following criticism from the president, but price hikes resumed this year, according to the report.
In late April, the president and first lady Melania Trump attended the Rx Drug Abuse and Heroin Summit in Atlanta, where the president spoke of his administration’s efforts to combat the opioid epidemic and stop the flow of drugs arriving through the U.S.-Mexico border.
Also in April, special White House adviser Jared Kushner disclosed that he was preparing a merit-based immigration plan for the president that would favor immigrants with high-level job skills over those who already have family members in the U.S.
Earlier Thursday, Trump tweeted the results of a Rasmussen poll that showed his job approval rating at 51 percent among the public.

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