Trump Opposes Further Disaster Aid for Battered Puerto Rico

President Donald Trump is taking a hard line against further disaster aid for hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico, telling GOP allies that the U.S. island territory has gotten too much rebuilding money compared with Southern states.

Trump's opposition to additional Puerto Rico funding sets up a showdown with House Democrats, who insist that a $13 billion to $14 billion disaster aid package that's a top priority for southern Republicans won't advance without Puerto Rico aid.

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio says Trump told Republicans at a luncheon Tuesday that aid for Puerto Rico "is way out of proportion to what Texas and Florida and others have gotten."
The disaster aid package cleared a procedural hurdle by a 90-10 vote and is expected to pass the Senate, setting up talks with the Democratic-controlled House.

George Conway: Trump Is Guilty of Being Unfit for Office

George Conway, the husband of counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway, argued in a new opinion piece that President Donald Trump is unfit for office.
Reacting to the news that special counsel Robert Mueller cleared Trump of conspiring with the Russians to win the 2016 presidential election, Conway penned an article for The Washington Post and said if Mueller was charged with investigating whether Trump was fit to serve, he would be guilty.

"If the charge were unfitness for office, the verdict would already be in: guilty beyond a reasonable doubt," he wrote.
Regarding Mueller's conclusion of no collusion, Conway said he wants to see Mueller's full report to explore what he sees are "links" between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"As matters turned out, and quite surprisingly, we now know from public sources that there were links aplenty," Conway wrote. "So who knows what we might learn on these subjects from Mueller's still-unreleased report?"
Mueller also looked at whether Trump obstructed justice during the multiple investigations that examined whether his campaign had improper ties to the Russians. Mueller, a former director of the FBI, could not reach a conclusion on that, a point Democrats have pounced on.

Conway was no different.
"If his report doesn't exonerate the president, there must be something pretty damning in it about him, even if it might not suffice to prove a crime beyond a reasonable doubt," Conway wrote. "And in saying that the report 'catalogu[ed] the president's actions, many of which took place in public view,' [Attorney General William] Barr's letter makes clear that the report also catalogues actions taken privately that shed light on possible obstruction, actions that the American people and Congress yet know nothing about."

Barr released a brief summary of Mueller's findings Sunday. He has pledged to release a more detailed report in the coming weeks.

Barr: Next Mueller Report Out in Weeks, Not Months

Attorney General William Barr plans to issue in a matter of weeks a public version of the special counsel's report that found President Donald Trump's 2016 campaign team did not conspire with Russia, as Trump prepared to use the findings against his political opponents.
Democrats attempted to change the subject to healthcare after the report from Robert Mueller appeared to shatter their case that Trump was an illegitimately elected president.
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 48 percent of Americans still believed Trump worked with Russia to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, down 6 points since conclusions from the Mueller report came out on Sunday.
The poll found Trump's job approval rating had ticked up 4 points to 43 percent following release of the findings. There was a thirst for more information, as 57 percent of Americans said they wanted to see the entire report.

Barr released his own summary of the report's central findings on Sunday but said he needed more time to review the report to determine how much of it could be made public.
A Justice Department official said on Tuesday that Barr's plan was to release a public version in "weeks, not months." Congressional Democrats have demanded Barr turn over the report to them by April 2, which would only leave a week for the Justice Department to complete its review.
The Justice official said there was no plan to share an advance copy of the report with the White House.
Some portions of Mueller's confidential report contain materials that arose during secret grand jury proceedings. Federal rules generally prohibit the government from releasing that information to the public.
The report also contains information about ongoing criminal investigations that Mueller referred to other U.S. attorneys' offices.

Barr has not yet revealed a precise date for when the final public version might be ready.
The Justice Department has not commented on the Democrats' request that it be released to Congress by next week.
Trump and his top aides attacked unidentified political opponents for starting the campaign investigation, calling the actions treasonous and worth probing.
"I think what happened was a disgrace," Trump told reporters on a visit to the U.S. Capitol, where he had lunch with Republican senators.
Republicans also were out for retribution, with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell saying he supported a push for an inquiry into potential missteps by law enforcement officials in their probe of Trump.
Senator Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, leaped on a court filing from the Justice Department that said the entire Obamacare healthcare law - the signature legislative accomplishment of Democratic President Barack Obama - should be struck down in the courts.

The law provides healthcare coverage for an estimated 20 million people, and Trump and his Republican allies, who see it as government overreach, have failed to replace it despite vows to do so.
"It is a stark reminder of the difference between our two parties: Democrats are fighting to expand and improve healthcare coverage and lower costs while Republicans are trying to take it all away and raise costs," Schumer said on the Senate floor.
Republicans said during their lunch with Trump they discussed ways to improve the healthcare system.
TRUMP CAMPAIGN FUNDRAISING
Trump's re-election campaign launched fundraising drives in the aftermath of the Mueller report. "Democrats allowed this WITCH HUNT to go on for 2 YEARS. It’s time to show them we’re tired of their PARTISAN investigations," said one fundraising appeal.

Trump suggested he had been the victim of a smear campaign launched by senior officials in the Obama administration.
"It went very high up, and it started fairly low, but with instructions from the high-up," Trump told reporters, without offering details. "This should never happen to a president again."
Trump advisers were predicting he would go on the offensive at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on Thursday night, his first major appearance since the Mueller investigation concluded.
"We reserve the right to remind the American people that the Democrats have tried for two years, by lying to the American people, to overturn the election results of 2016," a senior Trump campaign official said. "And they don’t get to just turn the page and say: 'Never mind."

Obamacare Cartoons

Trump administration backs total overturn of Obamacare, will support states challenging the law

The Trump administration on Monday told a federal appeals court that the whole Affordable Care Act must be abolished, setting for a clash between President Trump and 2020 Democratic candidates embracing “Medicare for All” system.
Justice Department attorneys filed a letter with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans asking to effectively strike down the ACA in its entirety, agreeing with the landmark ruling made by a federal judge in Texas last year.
"The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s judgment should be affirmed. Because the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed, the government intends to file a brief on the appellees’ schedule," the filing read.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor ruled last year that Obamacare is no longer constitutional because the tax reform – as enacted by Republicans –eliminated the health care law’s penalty for not having health insurance.
The administration initially insisted that only certain parts of the law should be invalidated, including protections for people with pre-existing conditions. But the latest filing moved on from the earlier position and embraces the total overturn of the law.
The filing noted that the government will file a brief in support of the Texas-led coalition of states that are trying to overturn the health care law, given that “the United States is not urging that any portion of the district court’s judgment be reversed,” the Washington Post reported.
“The Department of Justice has determined that the district court’s comprehensive opinion came to the correct conclusion and will support it on appeal,” Kerri Kupec, a spokeswoman for the Justice Department, told the newspaper.
A victory for the government would mean that millions of people could potentially lose their health care and causing particular disruption within the industry as no replacement system would be put in place.
Over 11 million reportedly signed up for Obamacare coverage this year, it was announced this week. That’s just slightly less than compared to 2018. At the same time, however, the number of new customers fell by more than 500,000, a worrying sign for the backers of the system.
The move to support efforts to strike down the ACA will undoubtedly pit Trump and Democratic presidential candidates, such as Sens. Bernie Sanders and Kamala Harris, who are increasingly embracing abolishing private insurers and support the creation of a single-payer system.
At the same time, the latest effort to completely invalidate the law may prove Congressional Democrats right, who warned during the midterm election last year that Republicans are trying to repeal the law, including the protections for people with pre-existing conditions, while Republicans denied such plans.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Pentagon authorizes up to $1B to start 57 miles of border wall construction

The Pentagon notified Congress late Monday that it authorized the transfer of up to $1 billion to erect 57 miles of "pedestrian fencing" along the U.S.-Mexico border in direct support of President Trump's national emergency declaration from last month.
The fencing, which will be 18 feet high, is to be erected in the Yuma and El Paso sectors, the statement read. The Pentagon's announcement was notable. A reporter from the New York Times tweeted that it is the first time the funds will be transferred under section 284 for the border wall.
Section 284 allows the Pentagon to "construct roads and fences and to install lighting to block drug-smuggling corridors across international boundaries of the United States in support of counter-narcotic activities of Federal law enforcement agencies," the statement read.
The Pentagon's announcement was made as Trump nears a victory over Democrats as the House tries to override his first veto, a vote that seems certain to fail and allow his declaration to stand. The vote, which is set for Tuesday, would keep the border emergency intact, which for now, would allow the president to shift an additional $3.6 billion from military construction projects to work on a barrier along the southwest boundary.
"The president will be fine in the House," said Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., in a brief interview. "The veto will not be overridden."
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted, “Christmas came early this week,” in response to the announcement.  He was likely also referring to special counsel Robert Mueller’s report that said there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 presidential election.
Patrick M. Shanahan, the acting Secretary of Defense, announced that the funds will be used to support the Department of Homeland Security and Customs and Border Patrol. He authorized the Army Corps of Engineers to begin its planning and execution.
A group of Democratic senators criticized the Pentagon’s move and called the maneuver a violation of congressional appropriations, Bloomberg reported. Democrats have called the national emergency declaration a crisis manufactured by Trump
"The $1 billion reprogramming that the department is implementing without congressional approval constitutes a dollar-for-dollar theft from other readiness needs of our Armed Forces," Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and others wrote in a letter to Shanahan, according to the report.
Even with his veto remaining intact, Trump may not be able to spend the money for barriers quickly because of lawsuits that might take years to resolve.

Trump's Twitter Habits Influencing Politics, And The Law

President Donald Trump's Twitter habits have influenced how other elected and government officials interact with constituents online – and has become a free speech issue being battled in court, The Washington Post reported.

In court cases in Wisconsin, Missouri, and South Carolina, politicians are fighting over whether they can block their constituents from Twitter online conversations — and in each, a federal court ruling against Trump last May was cited — a case that is due to be argued on appeal Tuesday.
In the case, U.S. District Judge Naomi Buchwald of New York said Trump violated the First Amendment by blocking individual users critical of the president or his policies. The comments attached to Trump's tweets are a public forum, the judge ruled. Trump unblocked the seven people behind the lawsuit and appealed.

"Sometimes public officials don't back down," Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University — who is scheduled to argue the case against the president Tuesday — told the Post.

"But the courts seem to be siding with the constituents who are blocked, and in some cases the public officials are changing their minds."
Justice Department lawyers say in court filings in New York that @realDonaldTrump is a personal account on a privately owned digital platform. Trump created the account before he took office, and it is subject to his control — not the control of the federal government, they argue.

Analiese Eicher, executive director of One Wisconsin Now, told the Post that being able to monitor state officials and interact with them online is critical to the group's work on voting rights, student loan debt and free speech.
Banning people is just as problematic "online as it is at a town hall meeting," she told the Post.
"Free speech is not just for people or organizations with whom public officials like or agree with," she told the Post.

Lindsey Graham Wants a Special Counsel to Investigate Mueller Probe

A leading Senate Republican said on Monday he would ask Attorney General William Barr to appoint a special counsel to probe whether U.S. law enforcement officials made missteps in their investigation into possible collusion between President Donald Trump's campaign and Russia.
A day after the attorney general said the report by Special Counsel Robert Mueller found Trump's campaign did not conspire with Russia, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said: "We will begin to unpack the other side of the story."

He said it was time to look at the origins of a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant for former Trump adviser Carter Page, which was based in part on information in a dossier compiled by Christopher Steele, a former British intelligence officer who co-founded a private intelligence firm.
Graham told reporters he planned to ask Barr to appoint a special counsel to investigate the FISA matter, which is already being probed by the Justice Department's internal watchdog, Inspector General Michael Horowitz.
A spokesman for Graham said later that Barr agreed to appear before the Judiciary Committee after he vets Mueller's report.

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on Graham's request.
Graham said he would use subpoena power if necessary, whether or not a special counsel is appointed. He added he also had lingering questions about the FBI's probe into Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server while she was U.S. secretary of state from 2009 to 2013.
Republican lawmakers have contended the FBI made serious missteps when it sought the warrant to monitor Page in October 2016 shortly after he left the Trump campaign.

Page, a foreign policy adviser during Trump's campaign, drew scrutiny from the FBI, which said in legal filings in 2016 that it believed he had been "collaborating and conspiring" with the Kremlin. Page met with several Russian government officials during a trip to Moscow in July 2016. He was not charged.
Fusion GPS, a Washington-based political research firm, was initially contracted to investigate Trump on behalf of Republicans who wanted to stop Trump's bid for the party's nomination. Fusion later hired Steele to investigate Trump, and the firm was paid for Steele's dossier work by a law firm connected to Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

The top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, Senator Dianne Feinstein, said Graham had the prerogative as chairman to bring whatever he wants before the committee.
But told of Graham's interest in Clinton's emails, Feinstein said to reporters: "Well, haven't we had enough of it? Look how many years it's been." Former FBI Director James Comey said in August 2016 that no charges would be brought against Clinton over the matter.