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Graham sends ominous tweet to Comey: See you soon

Sen.  Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., posted an ominous reply to ex-FBI-Director James Comey on Twitter Sunday after Comey seemed to sum up the summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation by posting a picture of a man who appeared lost in the woods.
The photo posted by Comey was of a man surrounded by tall trees, and the caption was simply: "So many questions."
Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, replied, "Could not agree more," an obvious message that he hopes to question the former FBI head.
Comey's tweet followed Attorney General William Barr’s announcement that Mueller did not find evidence that Trump’s campaign “conspired or coordinated” with Russia to influence the 2016 presidential election but reached no conclusion on whether Trump obstructed justice.
Trump and his team celebrated the outcome but also laid bare his resentment after two years of investigations that have shadowed his administration. “It’s a shame that our country has had to go through this. To be honest, it’s a shame that your president has had to go through this,” he said.
Despite Trump’s claim of total exoneration, Mueller did not draw a conclusion one way or the other on whether he sought to stifle the Russia investigation through his actions including the firing of former FBI director James Comey.
According to Barr’s summary, Mueller set out "evidence on both sides of the question" and stated that "while this report does not conclude the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him."
The Hill reached out to Graham for clarification about his tweet and his office referred the website to a letter from Graham to the attorney general about investigating a FISA surveillance warrant against Carter Page, a former campaign adviser to then-candidate Trump.
The surveillance of Page became a contentious matter between Republicans and Democrats.
Republicans say the FBI had abused its surveillance powers and improperly obtained the warrant, a charge that Democrats rebutted as both sides characterized the documents in different ways.
Critics have charged that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who signed off on the FISA application renewals, should not have approved them without more reliable intelligence.
Trump has claimed that his campaign was “illegally” spied on for “the political gain of  Crooked Hillary Clinton and the DNC.”

Harris Sends Signal to Biden on 2020: Every Era Has Its End

California Sen. Kamala Harris sent a signal to the old guard of Democratic politics that every era has its end.
At an Atlanta church service Sunday, the presidential candidate compared leadership to a relay race in which each generation must ask themselves "what do we do during that period of time when we carry that baton."
Then she added with a smile that for "the older leaders, it also becomes a question of let's also know when to pass the baton."
At 54 years old, Harris is one of the younger contenders for the White House in 2020. While former Vice President Joe Biden has not said whether he will run, both the 76-year-old and 77-year-old Bernie Sanders have previously run for the White House and fallen short.

Biden and Sanders are seen as strong contenders for the Democratic nomination, though other candidates and some voters have emphasized the need for a more youthful approach to try and beat President Donald Trump in the general election. Several other candidates in the race, including two governor, are also in their late sixties.
Other highlights of Sunday campaigning:
KIRSTEN GILLIBRAND
Democratic presidential candidate Kirsten Gillibrand assailed President Donald Trump as a coward who is "tearing apart the moral fabric of the vulnerable," as she officially started her campaign for president.
The senator spoke in New York Sunday, feet away from one of Trump's signature properties, the Trump International Hotel and Tower.

She said that instead of building walls as Trump wants to do along the U.S.-Mexico border, Americans build bridges, community and hope.
Gillibrand also called for full release of special counsel Robert Mueller's report in the Russia investigation. Attorney General William Barr released a summary Sunday afternoon, but Democrats want to see the full details.
Gillibrand is trying to position herself in the crowded field of Democrats seeking the party's nomination. While some hopefuls have shied away from mentioning Trump, Gillibrand has not hesitated to do so.

ELIZABETH WARREN
Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Sunday the National Rifle Association is holding "Congress hostage" when it comes to stemming gun violence.
The Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential candidate tells a campaign rally that if seven children were dying from a mysterious virus, "we'd pull out all the stops till we figured out what was wrong." But in terms of gun violence, she said the NRA "keeps calling the shots in Washington."
Warren finished a two-day campaign trip to New Hampshire with an event at a middle school in Conway Sunday afternoon.
Warren focused much of her speech on her approach to economics, but paid special attention to unions Sunday. She said more power needs to be put back in the hands of workers.

BETO O'ROURKE
Democratic presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke told voters in Las Vegas Sunday that President Donald Trump bears blame for the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border but responsibility lies with everyone in the country to fix the situation.
O'Rourke spoke Sunday to more than 200 people packed into and snaking around a taco shop on the city's north end. He said immigrant families are leaving their home countries and journeying on foot because they have no other choice.
The former Texas congressman said desperate families were broken up in the U.S. when they were at their most vulnerable and desperate moments, and what happened to them "is on every single one of us."

Dershowitz Slams 'Shameful' Mueller, Hits CNN

Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s final report sounds like a “law school exam,” where he shirked his job and didn’t have “the guts” to make a decision on whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice, Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz said Sunday during an appearance on Fox News where he also slammed CNN personalities and guests who “misinformed the American public.”

Mueller turned in his final report Friday, and Attorney General William Barr on Sunday in a letter to Congress said the investigation concluded there was no collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign during the 2016 presidential election.

On the topic of potential obstruction of justice on the part of President Donald Trump, the special counsel referred the question of criminality to the attorney general.
“I thought it was a cop out for him to say there was not enough evidence to indict, but it’s not an exoneration, and we’re going to put a report out,” Dershowitz told anchor Shannon Bream “… It sounds like a law school exam. That’s not the job of the prosecutor. The job of the prosecutor is to decide yes or no. Make a decision.”

The TV personalities and guests on CNN who predicted Mueller’s probe would result in indictments for collusion and obstruction “should be hanging their heads in shame,” Dershowitz added.
“I have to tell you, they should be hanging their head in shame when you think about how many people went out on a limb and predicted there would be indictments for obstruction, there would be indictments for collusion, there would be indictments for this and for that,” he.

“They made it seem like it was an open and shut case, and they misinformed the American public, and they have to have some public accountability when you say things that turn out not to be true.”

President Trump: 'Complete and Total Exoneration'

Celebrating "no collusion and no obstruction" as reported by Attorney General William Barr's summary of special counsel Robert Mueller's report, President Donald Trump claimed "complete and total exoneration."

"Collusion, the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard," President Trump told the media before boarding Air Force One, leaving Florida's Mar-a-Lago during a weekend away from the White House. "No collusion and no obstruction.

"Complete and total exoneration." 
President Trump called the witch hunt of his administration and campaign "an illegal takedown that failed."

"It's a shame our country has had to go through this," he said. "It is a shame your president had to go through this."
President Trump also expressed hope "the other side of this" will be investigated, suggesting potential investigative abuses of FISA warrants and investigating the political opposition.

"The president was totally vindicated," Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani told Fox News after Trump's statement to the media. "And investigation by people who hate him."

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Warren may be too wonkish to connect with voters, some say

Democratic Party presidential candidate Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s campaign announced the candidate’s next scheduled visits to Iowa on Saturday – amid talk that the senator from Massachusetts may be viewed as too much of a policy wonk to win the party's 2020 nomination.
Warren will return to Iowa March 29-30 with plans to speak at a rally in Storm Lake, hold meet-and-greets in Marshalltown and Perry, and attend an organizing event in West Des Moines, FOX 28 of Cedar Rapids reported.
But her focus on breaking up tech giants, ending the electoral college, imposing lobbying bans on elected officials after they leave office and establishing universal pre-K and child care programs – all popular ideas with many Democratic voters – don’t seem to be translating into actual support for Warren, NPR reported.
“You hear from people that [Warren] sort of reminds them of Hillary [Clinton], which they mean in a purely stylistic sense,” Michelle Goldberg, a New York Times columnist, said on the newspaper’s podcast the Argument. “It leads me to wonder: What is the salience of policy in a Democratic primary — or in our politics at all?”

“You hear from people that [Warren] sort of reminds them of Hillary [Clinton], which they mean in a purely stylistic sense.”
— Michelle Goldberg, New York Times columnist

"I just don't know if she would go over nationally," former New Hampshire state Rep. Daniel Hansberry told the Associated Press. He was among 27 current and former state lawmakers who signed a 2015 letter urging Warren to seek the presidency.
"In the Northeast and on the West Coast I wouldn't be a bit surprised if she got a huge vote," Hansberry said. "But I don't know if she's too progressive for other parts of the country."
In other words, when it comes time to choose a candidate, many voters may prefer the sizzle rather than the steak.
That concept may explain why Donald Trump topped Hillary Clinton in 2016, Richard Reeves of the Brookings Institution wrote soon after that election.
"What Donald Trump did during the campaign was to paint in a very broad brush," Reeves wrote. "Rather than having a debate about immigration policy in the round, [Trump asked], 'Are you for or against the wall? Are you for or against the Muslim ban?’”
Warren’s failure to catch fire seems reflected in dollars: A federal filing shows she raised at least $300,000 on the day she launched her campaign – far short of the $6.1 million raised by former U.S. Rep. Beto O’Rourke, D-Texas, the $6 million raised by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., or the $1.5 million raised by Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.
Nevertheless, Warren seems to be sticking with the idea that in 2020 the devil – i.e, the votes – may be in the details.
“The rules of our economy are so rigged in favor of the rich and powerful,” Warren recently told Time magazine, “that we can’t afford to just tinker around the edges. Our fight is for big, structural change.

"The rules of our economy are so rigged in favor of the rich and powerful that we can’t afford to just tinker around the edges. Our fight is for big, structural change."
— U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.

“This is the time for Democrats to identify exactly what’s broken,” she continued, “and lay out exactly how we’ll fix it.”
Aside from the idea the Warren may be focused too sharply on policy details, others note that many voters may associate Warren with an event that worked against her: Her release of DNA results last October in a bid to prove her claims of Native American ancestry – which won her the derisive nickname “Pocahontas” from President Trump.
Warren ended up apologizing to the head of the Cherokee Nation in early February, amid claims that she had exaggerated her ancestry for personal gain. Then just days afterward, reports surfaced that Warren had claimed Native American heritage on a 1986 Texas State Bar registration form.
Finally, Warren – and yes, some other Democrats in the 2020 field -- faces an unfortunate historical fact: Voters seldom back U.S. senators for the presidency, preferring Congress members and governors instead.
When Sen. Barack Obama was elected in 2008, he became just the third sitting senator – behind Warren Harding and John F. Kennedy – to win the White House, Politico reported.
So the obstacles between Warren and the White House would seem to make her potential election as the nation’s first female president even more of an achievement.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rep. Ilhan Omar faces hundreds of protesters outside CAIR fundraiser in California

U.S. Rep Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., speaks to support LGBTQ and allied high school students from across the state of Minnesota outside the State Capitol in St. Paul, March 21, 2019. (Associated Press)

U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar faced hundreds of protesters Saturday outside a Southern California fundraising event for the local chapter of a major advocacy group representing Muslim-Americans.
“Burn the Quran!," “Ilhan Omar, go to hell!” and “Shame on you, terrorists!" were among some of the messages shouted outside a Woodland Hills hotel where the Minnesota Democrat spoke at a fundraiser for the Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) of Greater Los Angeles, according to a report. The town is about 25 miles northwest of downtown L.A.
The protesters lined a sidewalk area, where they waved Israeli flags and denounced the freshman congresswoman over recent remarks that some have described as anti-Semitic, the Los Angeles Daily News reported. The atmosphere was a mix of dancing and music mixed with the vitriolic comments against Omar, the report said.
Omar, a 37-year-old immigrant from Somalia who came to the U.S. with her family in 1995, has faced a storm of criticism from pro-Israel politicians and groups after her February tweet that said “It’s all about the Benjamins baby,” in reference to the support that some U.S. lawmakers have offered to Israel.
The freshman Democrat drew scorn from Republicans and some in her own party. She later apologized and clarified her criticism of the Israeli government.
“Anti-Semitism is real and I am grateful for Jewish allies and colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes,” she wrote on Twitter.
“Being opposed to [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu and the occupation is not the same as being anti-Semitic," she continued. "I am grateful to the many Jewish allies who have spoken out and said the same."
A handful of counterprotesters also appeared outside the event to voice support for Omar.
The event at the fourth annual Valley Banquet, titled “Advancing Justice: Empowering Valley Muslims,” was sold out and closed to the public. The Los Angeles Police Department told City News Service that it had an unspecified number of officers working the event.
“We don’t disclose the numbers,” Officer Sal Ramirez told City News Service.
Omar's visit to Southern California is expected to continue Sunday, as she is scheduled to attend a private meet-and-greet in Irvine, according to a flyer for the event.
Her appearance was one of two political events in the region Saturday. In Los Angeles, U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, a Democratic 2020 presidential candidate, visited a mosque to commemorate the victims of the March 15 mass shooting in New Zealand, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“Your background is different than mine,” Sanders told about 200 Muslims at the Islamic Center of Southern California. “What a joy it is to share that.”
Later in the day, he spoke to an estimated 12,000 people at a downtown Los Angeles rally.
“As president of the United States, I will not have kind words to say about authoritarian leaders around the world who espouse bigotry and hatred,” Sanders told the crowd. “Together we will make the United States the leader in the world in the fight for democracy and human rights.”