Schumer aide was forced out over 'inappropriate encounters' with staffers

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., saw his communications director depart last year over "inappropriate encounters" with staffers, a Schumer spokesman told Fox News. (Associated Press)

The communications director for Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., was forced out of his role after the November midterm elections over “inappropriate encounters” with staffers, Fox News has learned.
“Upon learning that he had inappropriate encounters within the office and that it was making some staff uncomfortable, he was asked to leave,” a Schumer spokesman told Fox News regarding Matt House, who served as the senator's communications director for nearly six years.
No specific allegations of improper behavior involving House were disclosed.
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In a statement to the New York Post, House said: “I absolutely loved my time working in the Senate and it was the honor of my life. I deeply regret the mistakes I made on the number of occasions when I had too much to drink, and I apologize to anyone who was affected by my behavior.”
“I have always respected all of my colleagues and I was horrified to learn that I made anyone feel uncomfortable. In the past three months, I’ve stopped drinking and I’ve committed to making myself a better colleague and person," he continued.
According to his LinkedIn page, House previously served from 2011 to 2012 as Schumer's press secretary. Prior to joining Schumer’s office, House worked for then-Sen. Joe Biden’s 2008 presidential campaign.
In the past, Schumer has been quick to comment when powerful figures have crossed lines with underlings. Along with other Democrats, he pushed for former U.S. Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., to resign following sexual misconduct accusations and a Senate Ethics Committee investigation.
The Schumer aide's departure was another sign of turmoil among the staffs of top Democrats.
In December a senior adviser to U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif., resigned over inquiries about a $400,000 harassment lawsuit against him while working at the California Department of Justice.
In August, reports surfaced that a longtime driver for U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was suspected of spying on behalf of the Chinese.

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Trump, House Democrats already sparring over investigations

The media have been laser-focused on President Trump's battles with Senate Republicans and his intelligence agency chiefs because when it comes to politics, there's nothing they love more than civil war.
But the greater threat to the president comes from the other party.
When Democrats won the House, there was plenty of prognostication about how they were going to use their newfound power to investigate the hell out of the administration. That faded for a while because by the time Nancy Pelosi got the gavel, the government was shut down.
But now that Washington is open for business — for the time being — the investigative machinery is starting to clank.
Congress, of course, has an obligation to oversee what the executive branch is doing. But there's a pretty clear line between that mission and burying the White House in a blizzard of subpoenas, hearings and demands for information.
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The right is poised to accuse Pelosi's party of doing just that. It's the mirror image of the left accusing the GOP of obsessively investigating Benghazi, Fast and Furious and other problems in the Obama administration.
As someone who's covered dozens of such hearings, I can attest that oversight, with some exceptions, tends to be far more aggressive when the other party holds the White House.
The fencing has already begun, with The Washington Post reporting that "several Cabinet secretaries have already declined to testify before committees on contentious topics such as the impact of the shutdown and the administration's abandoned policy of separating migrant families."
Homeland Security chief Kirstjen Nielsen, for instance, blew off a committee request to testify about border security. The panel's chairman, Bennie Thompson, sent her a blistering letter and told the paper, "If she says she's not coming, we'll subpoena her to the committee. We need to hear from her." Nielsen offered alternative dates — during a week when Congress is out on recess.
Treasury chief Steve Mnuchin and HHS Secretary Alex Azar also ducked House invitations, offering to send other officials instead.
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Here's the most interesting thing in the piece: Trump has told Pelosi, according to sources, that "if House Democrats begin investigating his administration, he will not negotiate with her on other issues."
At the same time, the Post says, Trump told the House speaker in a phone call that she is "great" and "terrific" and promised to work on infrastructure and prescription drug pricing. No wonder her nickname is just "Nancy."
Some clashes are inevitable in divided government. I covered fights between the Reagan administration and a Democratic House that escalated to contempt-of-Congress charges, though in the end they were settled.
But given the anti-Trump zeal among the Democrats, many of whose voters are ready to support impeachment, it's understandable why the president is girding for battle.
House investigations can be a powerful tool for a party that, until January, controlled nothing in Washington. But there's a danger for the Democrats if they're seen as resorting to harassment and intimidation.

Rep. Ilhan Omar targets Israel again, compares Jewish state to US South during segregation

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn, tweeted another comment about Israel on Thursday night, after previously landing in hot water for posts that critics have called anti-Semitic.
This time, the freshman lawmaker agreed with a liberal activist, who wrote online that current-day Israel is much like the U.S. South was during segregation.
The latest episode began Thursday night after the liberal activist, Max Berger, blasted the American Jewish Committee for its criticism of Omar, the Somali-born congresswoman, who recently said that she “chuckles” whenever people describe Israel as a democracy.
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“The American Jewish establishment claims Israel is a democracy for all its citizens. But the nation state law classifies 1.6 million Palestinian Israelis as second class. And 4.7 million people live under Israeli military occupation or control without political or human rights,” Berger claimed.
Later in the thread, Berger agreed with Omar that Israel is “not a real democracy.” He also compared Israel to the segregated South.
“Israel is like the south before 1963: millions of people under Israeli control are denied the right to vote, speak freely or assemble because of their ethnicity. It's a democracy for Jews only. That's not a real democracy,” Berger tweeted.
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Omar endorsed the tweet, sharing his anti-Israel rhetoric to her more than 471,000 followers.
“Many of them truly know this, but don’t want to accept it. In the same way many Americans knew separate yet equal was immoral but remained silent until brave few were silent no more,” Omar wrote.
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“They can attack, spin my words and vilify me, but they will not succeed in silencing me,” she added.
Shortly after being sworn in to Congress, the Minnesota Democrat was on the defensive for her tweet claiming Israel had “hypnotized the world.”
Earlier this month, several Republicans condemned a decision by Democratic leaders to appoint Omar to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, charging that she has a history of making overtly anti-Semitic comments.
The strong GOP criticism came as Omar separately fielded wide-ranging criticism for posting on Twitter that U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., was "compromised" -- and then, in a head-turning interview on CNN, admitting she had no evidence for the assertion other than that Graham sometimes supported President Trump. Omar has since rejected suggestions that her comments were intended as a homophobic dog whistle.

Trump dismisses border wall negotiations as 'waste of time'

President Trump called the talks of a border wall “a waste of time” in a new interview, while further putting blame for gridlocks in Washington on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.
“I’ve actually always gotten along with her, but now I don’t think I will any more,” Trump told The New York Times in the interview to be published Friday. “I think she’s doing a tremendous disservice to the country. If she doesn’t approve the wall, the rest of it’s just a waste of money and time and energy because it’s desperately needed.”
“I think Nancy Pelosi is hurting our country very badly by doing what’s she doing and, ultimately, I think I’ve set the table very nicely,” the president added in the interview in the Oval Office, amid signs that he could be losing leverage in Congress as lawmakers race to avert another shutdown in the government.
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While asked by The Times about his plans to declare a national emergency to build the wall, Trump told the liberal paper: “I’ve set the table. I’ve set the stage for doing what I’m going to do.”
Lawmakers have cautioned that if Trump declares an emergency, future Democratic presidents might do the same for issues they favor that Congress derails. Some are reluctant to cede Congress' constitutional power to control spending to any president, and many say there is no real border emergency.
PELOSI’S DAUGTHER SAYS HER MOM WILL ‘CUT YOUR HEAD OFF AND YOU WON’T EVEN KNOW YOU’RE BLEEDING’
Democrats offered further details of their border security plan Thursday, unveiling a measure that would provide no wall funds. It would significantly boost spending for scanners at ports of entry, humanitarian aid for apprehended migrants, and new aircraft and ships to police the U.S.-Mexico border. It also would freeze the number of border patrol agents and block any wall construction in wildlife refuges along the border.
During the interview, Trump said the presidency is a “loser” financially.
“I lost massive amounts of money doing this job,” he told The Times. “This is not the money. This one of the great losers of all time. You know, fortunately, I don’t need money. This is one of the great losers of all time. But they’ll say that somebody from some country stayed at a hotel. And I’ll say, ‘Yeah.’ But I lose, I mean, the numbers are incredible.”
He indicated to the Times he’s looking forward to run for reelection next year.
“I love this job,” he said.

Donald Trump Jr. calls out Schiff after reports say that blocked phone calls weren’t to father

Donald Trump Jr. late Thursday laid into House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., after reports appeared to vindicate the younger Trump of Democratic suspicions that he made phone calls to President Trump around the time of the Trump Tower meeting with Russians in June 2016.
Senate investigators obtained phone records which appeared to show that Trump Jr. had actually spoken to two longtime Trump family friends – Brian France, the chief executive of Nascar, and the investor Howard Lorber, the New York Times reported, citing two people briefed on the matter.
Trump Jr. responded to the reports on Twitter, knocking Schiff.
“Has anyone heard from Adam Schiff?” Trump Jr. tweeted. “I imagine he’s busy leaking other confidential info from the House Intelligence Committee to change the subject?!?”
Democrats have long suspected the calls were between Trump Jr. and his then-candidate father regarding a meeting with Russians offering dirt on Hillary Clinton during the 2016 campaign.
Schiff appeared on MSNBC Thursday night and said that Democrats were unable to confirm the reporting "because the Republicans wouldn't let us get the phone records."
Trump Jr. said in a statement to the Times that, “After a year of hearing about this one ad nauseam, yet another left-wing narrative officially bites the dust.”
Sources told the paper that the report was seen by the White House as a victory. The findings marked an important development for Trump allies who've seen a challenging week that culminated with the arrest of longtime ally Roger Stone.
President Trump responded to the reports late Thursday, appearing to call out Democrats and the media.
“Just out: The big deal, very mysterious Don Jr telephone calls, after the innocent Trump Tower meeting, that the media & Dems said were made to his father (me), were just conclusively found NOT to be made to me,” Trump wrote. “They were made to friends & business associates of Don. Really sad!”
He followed up later Thursday with a second tweet, saying “This witch hunt must end!”
Trump Jr. has maintained that Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian lawyer he met with at Trump Tower, did not have any information to share and instead wanted to discuss the Magnitsky Act and other sanctions.
The Trump Tower meeting has been under intense scrutiny from investigators seeking whether Trump colluded with Russia in the 2016 presidential election. Investigators are also looking at the financial ties between some Trump associates and the Kremlin.
A special counsel, led by Robert Mueller, was appointed to investigate potential wrongdoing more than one year ago, and the team has already brought multiple charges against people associated with the presidential campaign.

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Dems won’t strike 'so help you God' from House committee oath after outcry

Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., speaks during a House Committee on Natural Resources hearing on Nov. 7, 2017. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday voted to keep "so help you God" in the oath administered to witnesses testifying before the panel, a day after Republicans denounced an apparent effort to strike the language.
A draft of a new committee rules package obtained exclusively by Fox News this week indicated the committee planned to omit the phrase from the oath "Do you solemnly swear or affirm, under penalty of law, that the testimony that you are about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?"
DRAFT SHOWS DEMS PROPOSE STRIKING 'SO HELP YOU GOD' FROM OATH TAKEN IN FRONT OF KEY HOUSE COMMITTEE
But on Wednesday, the committee voted to keep “so help you God” in the oath as part of the rules package after a debate on the issue, according to aides and a video of the committee's deliberations posted to social media. A spokesman for Democratic Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva, the committee chairman, did not return a request for comment from Fox News.
A day earlier, Republican leaders reacted with dismay to the proposed change, suggesting it was part of a leftward shift by the Democratic Party. The draft placed the words "so help you God" in red brackets, indicating they were slated to be cut. The words "under penalty of law" were in red text, indicating that Democrats proposed to add that phrasing to the oath.
“It is incredible, but not surprising, that the Democrats would try to remove God from committee proceedings in one of their first acts in the majority," House Republican Conference Chairwoman Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., told Fox News. "They really have become the party of Karl Marx.”
The House Natural Resources Committee has oversight of national parks, wildlife and energy.
The proposed change was not the first time Democrats have sought to strike references to God in official party documents. In 2012, the floor of the Democratic National Convention erupted over a sudden move to restore to the platform a reference to God and recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital -- after heavy criticism from Republicans for initially omitting them. Democrats, though, were hardly in agreement over the reversal.
A large and loud group of delegates shouted "no" as the convention chairman (then-Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa) called for the vote. Villaraigosa had to call for the vote three times before ruling that the "ayes" had it. Many in the crowd booed after he determined the language would be restored.