House Democrats to investigate Trump and his impact on DOJ, FBI

Here we go again !

Are subpoenas the only priority for Democrats?

House Democrats prioritize investigations of the Trump administration as the White House braces for the left's subpoena onslaught; reaction from former intelligence officer Don Bramer.

House Democrats are reportedly planning to use their incoming majority in Congress to probe President Trump’s impact on the integrity of the Justice Department and the FBI, and have asked for a response from the departments' leaders by the end of the year.
Rep. Jerrold Nadler, the incoming Democratic chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, urged top U.S. law enforcement officials to respond to over 100 letters House Democrats sent regarding Trump’s actions towards U.S. law enforcement, Reuters reported.
Nadler asked acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker and FBI Director Christopher Wray to respond to the questions by Dec. 31.
"I write with growing concern over President Trump's repeated attacks on the integrity of the Department of Justice and the FBI,” Nadler said in the letter. "The president’s behavior appears to be motivated by an urge to shield himself, his family, and his business interests from the ongoing work of the department and the bureau," he added.

"The president’s behavior appears to be motivated by an urge to shield himself, his family, and his business interests from the ongoing work of the department and the bureau."
— Rep. Jerrold Nadler

HOUSE DEMOCRATS REPORTEDLY PREPARING ‘SUBPOENA CANNON’ FOR TRUMP-RELATED PROBES
The publicized letter is an indication that the incoming Democratic majority -- led by California Democrat Nancy Pelosi -- will use the House’s investigative powers to scrutinize Trump and his associates, potentially leading to a tense standoff between the two branches of government.
The Democrats are reportedly preparing a “subpoena cannon” for when the new Congress gets seated in January, starting investigations that cover everything from the resignation of Attorney General Jeff Sessions last week to Trump’s past tax returns as a businessman to the findings of the Robert Mueller investigation of the 2016 election to Trump’s relationship with adult film star Stormy Daniels.
Nadler recently asked on social media why the president changed the person in charge of Mueller. “We will be holding people accountable,” he said.
The letter refers to Mueller’s investigation as well and suggests Trump wants to curb the probe into the alleged collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign. "The president has called the special counsel’s investigation a 'witch hunt' at least 84 times this year," Nadler wrote in the letter.
“He has identified the investigation as a significant threat to his administration, stating that he wants it stopped. He has threatened to fire department officials for failing to ‘totally protect him’,” he continued.
“These actions are not normal,” the letter added. “And they ignore the guidance of the White House Counsel, flout the Constitution and undermine our federal law enforcement agencies.”

Customs and Border Protection prepares for migrant caravan arrival

Travelers entering the U.S. from Mexico through ports of entry can expect tightened security and longer wait times starting Wednesday, as U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) personnel prepare for the approaching migrant caravan.
In San Diego, Department of Defense personnel working with CBP through Operation Secure Line will install concertina wire, Jersey barricades and fencing to close at least three lanes into the U.S. at the San Ysidro port and one lane at the Otay Mesa port, according to CBP.
The closures could significantly affect business and trade in both San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico. Some 70,000 drivers and 20,000 pedestrians use the San Ysidro crossing to enter the U.S. every day, making it the busiest land port of entry in the Western Hemisphere, according to the General Services Administration.

Some 70,000 drivers and 20,000 pedestrians use the San Ysidro crossing to enter the U.S. every day.

“CBP officials in charge at our local border crossings must always maintain security while we work to efficiently process legitimate trade and travel into the U.S.,” Pete Flores, CBP's director of field operations in San Diego said in a statement.  “The materials will be used to help strengthen border security, to ensure the safety of the American people, the traveling public, CBP personnel and the communities in which we serve.”
Meanwhile, travelers in and around El Paso, Texas, are being told to expect delays while specialized officers are deployed to Arizona and California. Those officers will help with migrant processing and border security efforts.
“We suggest reducing or consolidating your cross-border trips, and if you must cross the border, build extra time into your schedule to accommodate these expected delays,” Hector Mancha, CBP's director of field operations at El Paso, said in a statement.

“We suggest reducing or consolidating your cross-border trips, and if you must cross the border, build extra time into your schedule to accommodate these expected delays.”
— Hector Mancha, Customs and Border Protection's director of field operations at El Paso, Texas

The border crossing in West Texas is critical to the economies of El Paso, Texas, and Juarez, Mexico. Like San Ysidro, El Paso’s international bridges are used daily by tens of thousands of travelers coming into the U.S. for work, school and tourism.
The changes and potential for delays are expected to continue indefinitely, according to CBP.

Bob Woodward criticizes CNN's Acosta lawsuit, says media's 'emotionally unhinged' about Trump

Bob Woodward, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Watergate journalist whose recent book, "Fear," described chaotic infighting at the White House, on Tuesday criticized CNN for filing a lawsuit against the Trump administration and charged that too many media figures "have become emotionally unhinged."
Speaking at the Global Financial Leadership Conference in Naples, Florida, Woodward said "the remedy [isn’t suing the administration]. ... It’s more serious reporting about what he’s doing.” NBC reporter Dylan Byers first flagged Woodward's comments.
CNN filed a federal lawsuit against the Trump administration on Tuesday demanding that the White House restore the press credential of star reporter Jim Acosta. The administration suspended Acosta's "hard pass," which provided expedited access to the White House grounds, after he broke protocol by refusing to surrender his microphone during a press conference last week.
Acosta continued to pepper Trump with a barrage of declarative statements and questions -- at times talking over Trump -- until the president stepped away from the podium, even though reporters are typically afforded just one follow-up.
“In the news media there has been an emotional reaction to Trump,” Woodward said. “Too many people for Trump or against Trump have become emotionally unhinged about this.”

FILE - This June 11, 2012 file photo shows former Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward speaking during an event to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Watergate in Washington. 

Woodward added that CNN was taking Trump's "bait" by enlisting high-profile lawyer Ted Olson to pursue a federal case. "This is a negative," Woodward said. "Trump is sitting around saying, ‘This is great.'”
That sentiment was echoed in a piece in Rolling Stone on Tuesday by Ryan Bort titled, "CNN Has Played Right Into Trump's Hands."

"Too many people for Trump or against Trump have become emotionally unhinged."
— Journalist Bob Woodward

JUDGE NAP: CNN HAS A GOOD CASE AGAINST TRUMP ADMINISTRATION
(Trump fiercely criticized Woodward after his book released earlier this year, saying "he’s had a lot of credibility problems.")
CNN's suit alleges that the White House violated Acosta's First and Fifth Amendment rights by punishing him for the content of his speech without providing notice or any due process, although the White House maintains that Acosta was penalized solely because of his behavior.
None of CNN's approximately 50 other "hard pass" holders has lost White House access, nor have reporters belonging to any other liberal-leaning media outlet -- although Trump has suggested that may change.
At the testy press conference the day after last week's midterm elections, Acosta continued to shout questions at Trump even after he tried to move on to another reporter, and he refused to hand the microphone to an intern who tried to retrieve it.
The litigation filed by CNN, which does not fully describe Acosta's actions during the press conference and contains several substantive factual inaccuracies, also asserts that the Secret Service violated the Administrative Procedures Act by taking a final agency action in penalizing Acosta without providing any notice or hearing.
The suit, in arguing that the White House was lying about its motivations for taking action against Acosta, additionally claims that White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders shared a "doctored" clip of the episode on Twitter. In the low-resolution .GIF clip shared by Sanders, Acosta's arm moves slightly faster than it does in higher-quality footage of the press conference, appearing to show him more forcefully striking the intern's arm as she tries to take the microphone from him.
However, despite reporting from a wide variety of outlets that Sanders had shared a doctored clip, a Buzzfeed analysis suggested the changes in the video could have resulted inadvertently from the conversion of the footage to the lower-fidelity .GIF format, which is commonly used on Twitter. The format produces fewer frames per second than a higher-quality video source, making scenes appear to move faster.
White House officials, including Trump adviser Kellyanne Conway, have acknowledged that the video was indeed "sped up" during the conversion process, while consistently denying that the clip was purposefully doctored.
The lawsuit states that Sanders used a bogus justification by claiming that Acosta had "placed his hands on a young woman just trying to do her job as White House intern."
In responding to CNN's suit, Sanders on Tuesday said that Acosta's behavior had "impeded the ability of the President, the White House staff, and members of the media to conduct business.”
"After Mr. Acosta asked the President two questions—each of which the President answered—he physically refused to surrender a White House microphone to an intern, so that other reporters might ask their questions," Sanders said in statement.
"This was not the first time this reporter has inappropriately refused to yield to other reporters," she continued. "The White House cannot run an orderly and fair press conference when a reporter acts this way, which is neither appropriate nor professional. The First Amendment is not served when a single reporter, of more than 150 present, attempts to monopolize the floor."
Fox News' Howard Kurtz and Brian Flood contributed to this report.

Abrams' campaign plans on judge's favorable ruling in lawsuit, says Kemp's lead has narrowed

Democrat Stacey Abrams said she expects a federal judge to rule Wednesday in largely her favor regarding the federal lawsuit from her campaign filed over the weekend in hopes of forcing a runoff election in Georgia’s unsettled governor's race.
In a tweet on Tuesday, Abrams said her legal team plans on receiving “a ruling by noon tomorrow, and we expect to receive most of the relief we have asked for.”
If the judge rules in favor of Abrams, the suit would prevent officials from certifying county vote totals until Wednesday and could restore at least 1,095 votes that weren't counted as it would require officials to tally any votes that were wrongly rejected. The campaign said thousands of more ballots could be affected.
Each of Georgia's 159 counties must certify final returns by Tuesday, and many have done so already. The state must certify a statewide result by Nov. 20.
Brian Kemp, her Republican challenger, issued a statement on Saturday, a day before Abrams filed the lawsuit, calling for his opponent to concede. Kemp has declared victory and said it is "mathematically impossible" for her campaign to force a runoff.
Kemp had 50.3 percent of the vote as of late Tuesday evening, according to The New York Times and was leading by roughly 59,000 ballots.
Abrams’ campaign manager, Lauren Groh-Wargo, tweeted Tuesday afternoon that "it's not just provisionals, there are still Election Day and mail votes being reported in places that were ‘100%’ reported, & none from Gwinnett."
She said Abrams received 84.6 percent of the 2,738 votes reported Tuesday, before adding that the margin to force a runoff election has narrowed to 18,617.
In a separate lawsuit, a federal judge on Monday ordered Georgia to take steps to protect provisional ballots and to wait until Friday to certify the results of the midterm elections that include an unsettled race for governor.
Common Cause, a nonpartisan group, claimed in the suit that Kemp, while secretary of state, failed to maintain "the security of voter information despite known vulnerabilities" leading up to the midterm. The suit blasted the state's "provisional ballot scheme," that could disenfranchise a registered voter at the ballot box.
Judge Amy Totenberg, who was appointed by President Obama, also ruled that Georgia must not certify the election results before Friday at 5 p.m., which falls before the Nov. 20 deadline set by state law.
Abrams is hoping to become the first African-American woman governor of a U.S. state.
If Kemp is able to hold onto his narrow lead to avoid a runoff election, his governorship will be marred by lingering questions about his handling of a contentious election he oversaw as secretary of state.

Way to go Dumb asses in Arizona Cartoons

Federal judge rules to protect provisional ballots, Abrams' campaign cheers 'good news'

A federal judge on Monday ordered Georgia take steps to protect provisional ballots and to wait until Friday to certify the results of the midterm elections that include an unsettled race for governor.
Lauren Groh-Wargo, Abrams campaign manager, announced Judge Amy Totenberg's decision late Monday. WSBTV.com reported that the judge’s 56-page ruling could affect thousands of provisional ballots. Groh-Wargo called the ruling "good news."
Brian Kemp, her Republican challenger, issued a statement a day earlier calling for Abrams to concede. Kemp has declared victory and said it is "mathematically impossible" for her campaign to force a runoff.
Abrams' campaign did not immediately respond to a phone call from Fox News late Monday night.
Abrams, 44, a Democrat, has maintained that she will not concede until every vote has been counted, and pointed to the 5,000 votes tallied over the weekend that favored her.
Totenberg, who was appointed by President Obama, ruled in connection to Common Cause's lawsuit filed on Nov. 5. Totenberg's order doesn't change the Tuesday deadline for counties to certify their results.
Common Cause, a nonpartisan group, claimed in the suit that Kemp, while secretary of state, failed to maintain "the security of voter information despite known vulnerabilities" leading up to the midterm. The suit blasted the state's "provisional ballot scheme," that could disenfranchise a registered voter at the ballot box.
The suit pointed out cases where voters were turned around after computer glitches and cases where voters were not offered provisional ballots. One man voted for decades and was “disturbed” to learn his registration history was erased.
The court ruled that the secretary of state’s office must establish a hotline and publicize it on its website for voters to see if their provisional ballots were counted. Totenberg also ruled that Georgia must not certify the election results before Friday at 5 p.m., which falls before the Nov. 20 deadline set by state law.
"I am fighting to make sure our democracy works for and represents everyone who has ever put their faith in it. I am fighting for every Georgian who cast a ballot with the promise that their vote would count," Abrams said in a statement explaining her refusal to end her bid to become the first black woman elected governor in American history.
A total of 21,190 provisional ballots were cast in the state during the midterm, 12,151 were cast in 2014. Four Democratic-leaning counties with the largest number of provisional ballots -- Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett – “had not yet reported their numbers to the secretary as of November 11,” the suit said.
The lawsuit also asked that provisional ballots cast by a voter registered in another county be counted as if the voter had shown up at the wrong precinct. The lawsuit says that of the 1,556 provisional ballots Fulton County reported having rejected by Nov. 9, nearly 1,000 were disqualified because they were cast by voters whose registration records showed them registered in another county.
Edgardo Cortes, who currently works as an election security adviser at New York University, said these uncounted provisional ballots could sway the election and, despite Kemp’s claims, his unofficial vote total is so close to 50 percent, a runoff is possible.
Kemp was up 50.2 percent to Abrams' 48.7 percent early Tuesday. More than 3.9 million votes were cast in the election, and Abrams would need to acquire more than 20,000 additional votes to force a runoff.
Abrams' campaign filed a lawsuit Sunday asking a federal court to push the deadline for counties to certify their results to Wednesday, while also requiring that elections authorities count certain provisional and absentee ballots that have been or would be rejected for "arbitrary reasons."
“This ruling is a victory for the voters of Georgia because we are all stronger when every eligible voter is allowed to participate in our elections,” Sara Henderson, executive director for Common Cause Georgia, which filed the lawsuit, told AJC.com.

As media debate boycott, Trump still dominates the news

The press just can't quit Donald Trump.
No matter what he does — or doesn't do — he's the story. The biggest story. Often the only story.
And that story, the continuous story, inevitably involves we the media. The president excels at dragging the news business into the center of every controversy, and its members all too often fall into the trap.
Even the recent chatter about whether media outlets should boycott White House press briefings puts them in a potential confrontation with Trump, which is just the way he likes it.
The president was in Paris over the weekend, for the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I, and this Washington Post story yesterday encapsulates the addictive nature of the coverage.
The lead notes that "on a trip to Europe, the president hardly said a word — and he still managed to outrage at almost every turn."
But is that alleged outrage fanned by the media? And if Trump generates outrage whether he speaks or not, isn't that a telling statement?
Other than one critical tweet about Emmanuel Macron (based on an inaccurate newspaper story, the Post notes), "Trump didn't throw any sharp elbows at his peers here. It was still all about him."
Translation: The media still made it all about him.
The newspaper's take is that "it was because of the images. He looked uncomfortable and listless in a bilateral meeting with Macron, whose sinewy energy stood in stark contrast to Trump's downbeat expression as the French leader patted him on the thigh."
We can't have that!
Trump also skipped a scheduled tour of a military cemetery for Americans, blaming the rain. And by the way, that was a legitimate issue to cover, as it felt like a snub by a president who had gone to France in part to honor the sacrifices made by our soldiers.
At an event at the Arc de Triomphe, Stone sat "stone-faced as Macron railed against the rise of nationalism — a rebuke of Trump's professed worldview. The overall takeaway to many was a president turning away from the world, a man occupying the office of the leader of the free world who appeared withdrawn and unenthusiastic on the global stage."
And the first quote was a tweet by former Obama aide David Axelrod, who said, "America First feels like America Alone."
The president made huge news on previous foreign trips by getting into confrontations with other western leaders. But on a trip where he largely avoided public conflict, for whatever reason, Trump still drew negative coverage.
(He offered a different take on Twitter: "Just returned from France where much was accomplished in my meetings with World Leaders. Never easy bringing up the fact that the U.S. must be treated fairly, which it hasn't, on both Military and Trade.")
Meanwhile, New York Times media columnist Jim Rutenberg weighed in yesterday on the fallout from the Jim Acosta controversy.
The White House suspended Acosta's credentials after a dustup in which he refused to stop asking Trump questions or give up the microphone. To his credit, Rutenberg pointed out that Acosta "is a somewhat polarizing figure, viewed by some of his press corps colleagues as a showboat."
After noting that CNN President Jeff Zucker told his producers not to play up the Acosta punishment, the column said that "CNN would not be led by the nose into giving significant airtime to another Trump attack on the news media ...
"Reporters could stage a group protest. But that would make them look like they're at war with the president, just as he always says they are. Or they could do nothing and effectively 'submit to his authority to determine who gets to hold him accountable,'" as GOP strategist and fierce Trump critic Steve Schmidt put it.
It's a no-win situation. And here's why a boycott wouldn't work:
— Much of the country would turn on the press for not doing its job. Refusing to show up at briefings is a very tough sell.
— Trump would pound away at the media, saying they have moved into the opposition camp.
— Journalists would be seen as hopelessly self-absorbed if they surrendered the chance to question the White House press secretary on the public's behalf.
— And most important of all, it would never happen. There's no way all the disparate media outlets, with their varying interests, would agree to a joint boycott, and the show would go on.
This is actually somewhat symbolic since Sarah Huckabee Sanders is now briefing only rarely as her boss takes more and more questions from reporters.
But it highlights once again that most media debates these days are about Donald Trump — and the media.

Trump stares at King of Morocco who appeared to be sleeping during WWI speech

President Donald Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Morocco's King Mohammed VI, his son Crown Prince Moulay and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, left, attend a commemoration ceremony for Armistice Day at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris. (AP)

Donald Trump stared down the King of Morocco who appeared to be taking a nap during Emmanuel Macro's moving World War One ceremony speech.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco was seen with his eyes closed as Macron honored the soldiers who died during WWI in a video clip posted to Reddit yesterday.
The U.S. President, who was seated two spaces away from the royal, looked unimpressed as he looked past his wife Melania.
Yesterday’s ceremony marked 100 years since the Armistice happened at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in front of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.
Trump was seated between Melania and Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel as Macron also spoke about the dangers of nationalism.
Macron said the "ancient demons" that caused World War I and millions of deaths are growing stronger.
He said: "Patriotism is the opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is treason, if we think our interest may only come first and we don't care for others, it is treason of our values. A betrayal of all moral values, we must remember this.
"It is those values and virtues that motivated those who sacrificed all to defend democracy... It is those values and those virtues that gave them strength because it guided their heart.
"The lessons of the Great War cannot be of vengeance nor forgetting the past. We must think of the future and preserve that which is essential."

Republican Martha McSally concedes Arizona Senate race to Democrat Kyrsten Sinema

Republican U.S. Rep. Martha McSally conceded Arizona's U.S. Senate race to Democratic Congresswoman Kyrsten Sinema on Monday after the latest vote count showed McSally trailing by more than 38,000 votes out of more than 2.2 million ballots cast.
"Congrats to @kyrstensinema. I wish her success," McSally tweeted from her official campaign account. "I’m grateful to all those who supported me in this journey. I’m inspired by Arizonans’ spirit and our state’s best days are ahead of us."
"As long as I’ve served Arizona, I’ve worked to help others see our common humanity & find common ground," Sinema tweeted soon after McSally conceded. "That’s the same approach I’ll take to representing our great state in the Senate, where I’ll be an independent voice for all Arizonans.
"Thank you, Arizona. Let's get to work."
Sinema's victory means that Democrats have flipped the seat previously held by retiring Republican Sen. Jeff Flake. Democrats now have 47 Senate seats, while Republicans have 51. The final makeup of the Senate will be determined following a recount in Florida and a Nov. 27 runoff election in Mississippi.
Flake tweeted congratulations to Sinema "on a race well run, and won," adding "You'll be great."
Sinema, a three-term congresswoman, is Arizona's first Democratic U.S. senator since 1994. McSally, a former Air Force pilot who embraced President Donald Trump after opposing him during the 2016 elections, had claimed that Sinema's anti-war protests 15 years ago disqualified her and said one protest amounted to "treason."
But during her six years in Congress, Sinema built one of most centrist records in the Democratic caucus, and she voted for bills backed by Trump more than 60 percent of the time. She backed legislation increasing penalties against people in the country illegally who commit crimes.
In remarks to supporters, Sinema paid tribute to the late Republican Sen. John McCain, who died this past August.
Sinema said the former prisoner of war and GOP presidential nominee was "irreplaceable" and "taught us to assume the best in others, to seek compromise instead of sewing division, & to always put country ahead of party.”
"As your Senator, that’s exactly what I'll do," Sinema went on. "Not by calling names or playing political games, but by showing up and doing the work to keep Arizona moving forward."
McSally's attacks on Sinema reached back more than 15 years to when Sinema was a Green Party spokeswoman and liberal activist.
McSally backed Trump's tax cut, border security and the repeal of ObamaCare as she survived a three-way GOP primary in August, defeating two conservative challengers who claimed her support for Trump was fake. McSally also campaigned on her military record and support for the armed forces.
Sinema attacked McSally's leadership of last year's failed ObamaCare repeal effort as a sign that she would not protect Arizona residents with pre-existing medical conditions. McSally argued that she would protect patients, despite her vote on the bill that would have removed many of those protections.
The Arizona contest drew more than $90 million in spending, including more than $58 million by outside groups, according to Federal Election Commission reports. Attack ads by both sides clogged the airwaves for months.
Sinema, 42, has a law degree, worked as a social worker and was a political activist in her 20s, running as an independent Green Party candidate for the Arizona House. She then became a Democrat and served several terms in the state Legislature. Sinema started as an overt liberal but developed a reputation for compromise among her Republican peers, laying the groundwork to tack to the center. She was elected to represent Arizona's newly-created 9th Congressional District in 2012.
McSally, 52, was the first female Air Force pilot to fly in combat, flying A-10 attack jets. She also was the first woman to command a fighter squadron, again in A-10s.
McSally lost her first race in Arizona's 2nd congressional district in 2012 when she was narrowly defeated by Democratic Rep. Ron Barber, who replaced Rep. Gabby Giffords after she was wounded in a 2011 assassination attempt. But McSally came back to win the 2014 election, beating Barber by a narrow margin and was re-elected in 2016.
Flake was an outspoken critic of Trump and announced in 2017 that he would not seek re-election, acknowledging he could not win a GOP primary in the current political climate. His support of the president's initiatives, however, was mixed. He strongly backed last year's tax cut bill but criticized Trump's positions on free trade.

Democrat Russian Probe Cartoons