Month: June 2020
Bolton makes his move: Memoir to claim Trump misconduct went beyond Ukraine, slam ‘reelection calculations’
Former National Security Adviser John Bolton’s forthcoming memoir claims President Trump’s "transgressions" went well beyond the Ukraine saga that led to his impeachment and alleges that “reelection calculations” drove the president's major decisions, according to a press release for the book. 
John Bolton’s book hints at ‘Ukraine-like transgressions’ in Trump foreign policy
Former National Security Adviser John R. Bolton renewed impeachment controversy Friday, alleging in his book that President Trump committed "Ukraine-like transgressions" throughout his foreign policy decisions.
A new press release for Mr. Bolton's upcoming book, titled "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," accuses Democrats of committing "impeachment ...
Trump mysteriously disappears from Senate Republican campaign ads
In early February, all but one Republican senator outright voted to acquit Donald Trump of impeachment charges without so much as hearing from one single witness. But judging by Senate Republican campaign ads four months later, you'd be forgiven if you thought Trump had been convicted and booted from office.
In 15 campaign ads released since March by Senate Republicans in competitive races, pictures of Trump were nowhere to be found in any of them, according to a review by the Daily Beast. Trump managed to get a single mention in a late April ad by North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis bragging that the senator had been appointed to the now irrelevant White House coronavirus task force. That ad has likely already been benched since Trump's all but tweeted “uncle” at the virus.
Tillis, who has voted with Trump more than 93% of the time, has gone through quite the transformation in the last several months. When Senate Republicans voted to save Trump's presidency, Tillis released a Trump-centric ad defending that vote, touting Trump's trade deals, and reminding voters that Trump would indeed be on the ballot in November. Oops.
In a do-over this week, Tillis sympathizes with the economic difficulties many residents in his state are facing while entirely abandoning Trump and his happy talk about jumpstarting the economy and "TRANSITIONING TO GREATNESS."
A similar erasure of Trump is happening in ads from GOP incumbents in Maine, Arizona, Colorado, and Montana. Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner, who's voted with Trump 89% of the time, skips over Trump completely while hyping his bipartisan work with Democratic Gov. Jared Polis to confront the coronavirus. Maine Sen. Susan Collins appears to have switched parties in one ad featuring her alongside Democratic senators Tim Kaine of Virginia and Joe Manchin of West Virginia.
Looks like GOP senators took to heart that memo released by the National Republican Senatorial Committee advising against defending Trump. None of these senators are trying to defend the indefensible, even after they voted to keep his presidency alive. Instead, many have taken the memo's advice to scapegoat China for Trump's failures at every turn.
Even Arizona Sen. Martha McSally—who has voted with Trump 95% of the time—moved away from ads earlier this year skewering her Democratic challenger for supporting Trump’s impeachment and removal. Now, McSally's busy playing up the business ties of Democrat Mark Kelly, who's trouncing her in the polls, to China.
Sure, Senate Republicans are fundraising off Trump in targeted emails, but they're not touching him with a 10-foot pole in their large-scale ads. Expect to see more of the mysteriously disappearing Trump since more GOP Senate seats are in play by the week, it seems. Trump's simply too toxic to touch—too bad all the Senate Republicans up for reelection this cycle put their personal stamp of approval on Trump with their acquittal votes.
Below are several examples of recent ads.
Sen. Cory Gardner
Sen. Martha McSally
Sen. Susan Collins
Abbreviated Pundit Roundup: Republicans on record as opposing change, defending traitors
It’s remarkable that more than 150 years after the Civil War ended, Republicans are still fighting a rearguard action.
Senate chairman vows fight over Confederacy issue
Inhofe plans to water down language requiring name change for bases honoring Confederate generals
Oklahoma Republican James M. Inhofe, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Thursday that he will try to dilute his committee’s newly adopted proposal that would require the Defense Department to rename bases and other assets named after Confederates...
First, he said, he would change it from a requirement to change Confederacy names to an option: “‘shall’ respond should be ‘may,’” he said.
Secondly, he said state and local communities should be involved not just in informing the commission’s work but also in ultimately making the decision over whether and how to rename bases.
This is not going to end well for them.
Susan B Glasser/NewYorker:
Trump Hates Losers, So Why Is He Refighting the Civil War—on the Losing Side?
A week of protest, pandemic, and political unrest in the capital.I know it is hard to remember all the crazy things that happen in the course of a week in Trump’s America, but I will try hard to remember this one: a week when I saw troops in the streets and worried about a years-long economic crisis; a week when an untamed pandemic killed up to a thousand Americans a day; a week when massive nationwide protests suggested that our dysfunctional, gridlocked political system might finally actually do something about the plague of police brutality and systemic racism. And then there was the President, who chose to spend the week refighting the Civil War—on the losing side. This, too, I will remember, and so, dear reader, should you.
That Trump St. John's Church/Bible photo op didn't go any better than gassing peaceful protesters did in retrospect. And don't forget: They thought it was a tremendous win ... which is a good argument for why Trump is going to lose.
Milley Apologizes for Role in Trump Photo Op: ‘I Should Not Have Been There’
President Trump’s walk across Lafayette Square, current and former military leaders say, has started a moment of reckoning in the military.
“I should not have been there,” Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a prerecorded video commencement address to National Defense University. “My presence in that moment and in that environment created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.”
His first public remarks since Mr. Trump’s photo op, in which federal authorities attacked peaceful protesters so that the president could hold up a Bible in front of St. John’s Church, are certain to anger the White House, where Mr. Trump has spent the days since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis taking increasingly tougher stances against the growing movement for change across the country.
Staring down a polling slide and growing unease, Trump campaign enters perilous moment
A months-long precipitous slide in the polls, an unfocused message, and deepening doubts about his ability to soothe a nation wracked by a trio of crises have suddenly recast President Donald Trump as an undisputed underdog in the 2020 campaign.
It’s even raised the possibility that if conditions don’t improve, Trump could lose decisively to Joe Biden in an election less than five months away, according to more than a dozen interviews with leading GOP and Democratic officials and strategists — potentially upending long-held expectations that the White House race would be determined by razor-thin margins in a small handful of states…
“If this election were held today, it would be Biden by double digits, easy,” said James Carville, the lead strategist for Bill Clinton’s 1992 presidential campaign. “Things could change, but they generally don’t.”
Other Democrats, who remain reflexively cautious due to the lingering scars of 2016’s surprise result, are still heartened by the data showing blossoming support for Biden and dismal numbers for Trump.
Analysis: As US reckons over race, Trump becomes a bystander
At a moment of national reckoning over racism in America, President Donald Trump is increasingly becoming a bystander.
He wasn’t in the pews of churches in Minneapolis or Houston to memorialize George Floyd, the black man whose death sparked protests across the country. He hasn’t spoken publicly about the ways Floyd’s death during a police arrest has shaken the conscience of millions of Americans of all races. And he’s dismissed the notion of systemic racism in law enforcement, repeatedly putting himself firmly on the side of the police over protesters.
Geoffrey Skelley/FiveThirtyEight:
Trump’s Approval Rating Has Dropped. How Much Does That Matter?
For the last three weeks, President Trump’s approval rating has steadily ticked downward. It now sits at 41.1 percent,1 according to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential approval tracker.
This is notable, because it’s the lowest Trump’s approval rating has been since the House of Representatives was in the midst of conducting its impeachment inquiry in November 2019.
It’s not exactly hard to unpack why this is happening now. Trump has gotten consistently low marks for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and many Americans also don’t approve of how he’s responded to the protests following the death of George Floyd, a black man killed by police officers last month.
The question is: Just how much does this latest shift in approval numbers matter?…
This is doubly true if independent voters are also turned off by Trump, as they backed him by 4 points in 2016, according to the exit polls. And there’s reason to believe Trump might already be in trouble with independents. That CNN poll found, for instance, Trump trailing by 11 points with this group, while a Monmouth University poll conducted in late May and early June had Trump down by 16 points. Other surveys have found Trump in slightly better shape with independents, although still trailing Biden. For instance, an early June poll from NPR/PBS Newshour/Marist had him behind by 4 points, and the latest survey from The Economist/YouGov had him down by 3 points. The margins here matter, but at this stage, the polls generally agree that Trump’s losing among independents, which isn’t a good sign for his reelection chances.
Of course, with roughly five months to go until Election Day, Trump has time for his approval rating to bounce back, just as it has previously. Trump’s actions, as we’ve seen, can negatively affect his ratings, but it’s also within his power to boost them. But the more Trump’s approval rating hangs out around the 40 percent mark, the harder it is to imagine him attracting enough support to win reelection — especially given his inability to broaden his appeal. And as we’ve said before, Trump’s base won’t be enough.
Biden Is Convinced Military Would Remove Trump If He Refused To Leave White House
Joe Biden is “absolutely convinced” that the military would remove President Trump from the White House if he refuses to leave after a reelection loss in November.
“This president is going to try to steal this election,” Biden said in an interview on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah on Wednesday night.
When asked if Biden had considered what would happen if he wins but Trump refuses to leave the White House, the Democratic presidential nominee said he had.
“I’’m absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch,” Biden said.
In other words, a post-Trump GOP will be more Trumpy as sane people flee.
As Americans Shift on Racism, Trump Digs In
With much of the country acknowledging that protesters’ frustrations are justified, the president increasingly sounds detached from many voters in the political middle and even some of his allies.
At a time when the country is confronting three overlapping crises — the coronavirus, an economic collapse and a reckoning with racism and injustice — Mr. Trump’s inability to demonstrate empathy illustrates the limitations of his political arsenal. He is well equipped to compete in a campaign where slashing negative attacks are the order of the day, and few salesmen speak in superlatives like the former hotel magnate. Yet when the moment calls for neither pugilism nor promotion, he has little to say.
Reinforcing Mr. Trump’s instincts and decisions are a small group of advisers, like those who arranged for the president to hold a campaign rally on June 19 in Tulsa, Okla. — on a day dedicated to honoring black emancipation, Juneteenth, and in a city that saw one of the worst episodes of racial violence in the country’s history a century ago.
Errol G Southers/USA Today:
Black ex-cop: I understand the anger but don't defund police. It could make things worse.
If you strip police funds, the first cuts will be community interaction programs that require humanity and commitment, not guns, tanks or pepper spray.
I am an African American. I grew up during the civil rights era, and I saw firsthand police abuses and brutality against people who looked like me. It is what motivated me to pursue a career in law enforcement, to be a part of the change I sought in the world. This career led me to city police forces in California, to the FBI and ultimately to serve as assistant chief at the Los Angeles World Airports police department. Across my years in law enforcement, I saw plenty of the bad qualities in the profession, but I saw something else as well — the positive impact police programs and outreach have in supporting safe, strong communities.
When police command staff are presented with a reduced budget, the decision-making is simple. They will not reduce expenses for personnel and equipment. They will cut the costs of the many programs police departments provide that are outside of day-to-day law enforcement. There are offerings like cadet and Explorer programs, which bring together young people and police in community service and personal development.
Most Americans, including Republicans, support sweeping Democratic police reform proposals - Reuters/Ipsos poll
Trump and Biden have both said they oppose “defunding” police departments.
Yet the Reuters/Ipsos poll found that support varies based on how it is defined.
For example, 39% of respondents supported proposals “to completely dismantle police departments and give more financial support to address homelessness, mental health, and domestic violence.”
But 76% said they supported moving “some money currently going to police budgets into better officer training, local programs for homelessness, mental health assistance, and domestic violence.”
Schiff won’t oppose Trump intel chief’s bid to declassify more of House GOP Russia report
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff will permit President Donald Trump's new intelligence chief to declassify additional portions of a 2018 Republican-led committee report on Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Democrats have derided the report as a whitewash of the episode, contending that Republicans closed their inquiry without seeking testimony from central witnesses and refused to subpoena others who wouldn’t answer fundamental questions. But an aide to the Schiff-led committee said Thursday that Schiff "won't object" to John Ratcliffe's request to view the unredacted report and consider whether additional portions might be declassified for the public.
The move is the latest indication that the administration is pursuing Trump's demands to relitigate the investigations that dogged the first three years of his presidency. Trump has repeatedly assailed the Russia probes as a "hoax" and "witch hunt. Since Trump survived a Senate impeachment trial, he has sought to oust officials across government he viewed as disloyal, and he has installed some of his fiercest allies in senior intelligence roles amid this effort.
The GOP report, based on nearly 60 witness interviews, produced no evidence that Trump or his associates conspired with Russians during the Kremlin's 2016 interference. The panel also raised questions about the intelligence "tradecraft" used by the Obama administration to determine that Russia favored Trump to win, though that conclusion has since been reaffirmed by special counsel Robert Muller and the GOP-led Senate Intelligence Committee.
“The Republican report was properly met with derision at the time, and conflicts not only with the unanimous conclusion of the intelligence community, but special counsel Mueller’s evidence and findings, evidence presented in criminal indictments, the bipartisan findings of the SSCI, and the report of the then-HPSCI minority," a House Intelligence Committee aide said. "The GOP report remains a transparent effort to rewrite the history of the 2016 election by disputing the clear and proven finding that Putin preferred Trump’s election to the presidency."
The panel's response followed Ratcliffe's request for a new look at the 2018 GOP report, revealed in a letter to Senate Republicans made public earlier Thursday. In the letter, Ratcliffe provided a newly declassified portion of the Obama administration's review of Russian interference in the election and told the senators he would seek Schiff's permission for a new look at the 2018 GOP report.
"To ensure that the IC does not encroach on Congressional prerogatives, I have requested that the Chairman of HPSCI share a copy of the report with me so that the IC can conduct a classification review," Ratcliffe wrote in the June 10 letter.
Ratcliffe, a former GOP congressman who was confirmed last month as the director of national intelligence, was in his first term on the House Intelligence Committee when Trump nominated him to the post. He didn't play a role in the panel's crafting of the 2018 report, but he emerged as a sharp critic of the Mueller investigation from his perch on the panel, as well as on the House Judiciary Committee.
The office of the DNI did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Schiff's reply.
Prospects for Senate Republicans in November just keep getting worse, worse, and worse
Senate Republicans just can't put out the fires Donald Trump keeps setting fast enough. At first, their effort to maintain their majority in November centered around defending four main seats in Maine, Arizona, Colorado, and North Carolina while hoping for a pickup of Sen. Doug Jones' seat in Alabama.
But Trump's cratering approvals and his spectacularly horrible leadership skills in a crisis just keep sucking more states into play.
For starters, Trump's approvals keep sinking. Gallup just put him at 39% in a poll taken from May 28 to June 4, slipping 10 points from 49% in late March. Notably, only 47% of Americans approve of Trump's handling of the economy according to Gallup's latest survey, which is a steep tumble from 63% approval in January. The economy has always been Trump's strongest issue area.
Bloomberg News reports that Trump huddled with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Wednesday, the same day Gallup's new poll was released. Neither one of them disclosed their private conversation, but it hardly matters—Republicans are irrevocably tied to Trump at this point. Not only have they simply surrendered like a bunch of lemmings, they built him into the lawless monster he's become and then voted to save his presidency without even fielding a proper impeachment trial.
What that means is that Democrats' pickup opportunities in the Senate just keep expanding beyond those seats held by Sens. Susan Collins, Cory Gardner, Martha McSally, and Thom Tillis. Overall, Republicans are defending 23 Senate seats to just 12 for Democrats. The new states that Democrats are eyeing include Iowa, Montana, and Georgia. Here are some basic data points for each:
Iowa: The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee put $7.3 million into TV/digital ads targeting Sen. Joni Ernst's seat, with two recent polls showing Ernst's Democratic challenger, Theresa Greenfield, up by several points.
Montana: The DSCC also directed $5.2 million to Montana to help Democrat Steve Bullock, the state's current governor, topple incumbent GOP Sen. Steve Daines.
Georgia: No DSCC action here yet, but Cook Political Report recently re-rated incumbent Sen. David Perdue's seat to "Lean R," making it more competitive. Ernst's and Daines' seats are also in the Lean Republican category, as is the seat of the other Georgia GOP senator, Kelly Loeffler.
Other possibilities remain, such as in Kansas, where GOP right-winger Kris Kobach—who lost his 2018 gubernatorial bid—could become the Republican nominee to replace retiring Sen. Pat Roberts.
Republicans are also putting money into defending states beyond the original four. The Senate Leadership Fund, a McConnell-aligned super PAC, reserved $10.1 million in radio/TV space this month in Montana, and Iowa was part of the PAC's $67.1 million ad buy in March. That buy also included Arizona, Colorado, Maine, North Carolina, and Kentucky (McConnell's seat!).
A spokesperson for the National Republican Senatorial Committee made the laughable argument that once more money was spent defining these Democratic challengers, they wouldn't look so hot.
“A lot of these Democrats haven’t had much money spent against them yet and once their records are litigated voter opinion will turn against them,” Jesse Hunt told Bloomberg.
The idea that any of these Democrats' records could be worse than voting to save Trump's presidency just in time for him to screw up a pandemic response and a national reckoning on race is sheer folly. Senate Republicans can spend all the money they want—they will rise and fall with Donald Trump. He is their fate.
Biden Predicts Military Will Escort President Trump Out Of Office If He Refuses To Leave
Joe Biden suggested the military will intervene should President Trump lose to him in the 2020 election and refuse to leave office.
Biden was asked by Comedy Central’s Trevor Noah whether the thought of Trump refusing to exit the White House had ever entered his mind.
Surprisingly, the former Vice President replied, “Yes, I have.”
He then discussed former military officials who have spoken out against the President’s desire to use the military to help quell riots in Democrat-ravaged cities.
In demonstrating that he has, in fact, been thinking about what to do if Trump refuses to accept the election results, the Democrat nominee somehow linked the two.
“I promise, I am absolutely convinced they [the military] will escort him from the White House with great dispatch,” said Biden.
Joe Biden says that his greatest concern that is that President Trump is going to try to “steal this election” and the military will have to escort him from the White House.
“I promise you I’m absolutely convinced they will escort him from the White House with great dispatch.” pic.twitter.com/MLPhMy2EdW
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) June 11, 2020
RELATED: Watch: AOC Stumbles Over Her Words When Told More Police Means Less Crime
Afraid He’ll ‘Steal’ the Election
At another point during the interview, Biden – whose party refused to accept the 2016 election results, tried to remove the President through impeachment, and is currently trying to steal the 2020 election through vote-by-mail – said his biggest worry is that Trump is actually the one who will cheat.
“It’s my greatest concern. My single greatest concern,” Biden said. “This president is going to try to steal this election. This is a guy who said that all mail-in ballots are fraudulent.”
Of course, he never said “all” mail-in voting is fraudulent, only that it is ripe for such activity, which is verifiably true.
Democratic Rep. Cedric Richmond says he agrees with Joe Biden’s claim that the military will escort President Trump out of the White House if he loses the election and refuses his loss: “I do want to be on the escort committee to make sure that (Trump) leaves the White House” pic.twitter.com/gX0C9wVIlM
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) June 11, 2020
RELATED: NBA Legend Charles Barkley Is Not Down With Defunding Police – ‘Most Cops Do A Fantastic Job’
McEnany Slaps Biden Back to Reality
Four years we’ve spent listening to Democrats refuse to accept the election results. And now we have to sit here and listen to them yet again say they’re worried Trump won’t accept them?
Pot, meet kettle.
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany slammed Biden for his off-the-wall comments.
“Leave it to Democrats to go out there and grandstand and level these conspiracy theories,” McEnany told Fox News, adding that it was “a ridiculous proposition.”
Democrats have spent a good portion of Trump’s first term in office pretending Hillary was the truly legitimate President, so peddling in the ‘ridiculous’ is what they do.
The post Biden Predicts Military Will Escort President Trump Out Of Office If He Refuses To Leave appeared first on The Political Insider.
Lindsey Graham’s next big round of sucking up to Trump is coming in new Russia probe
Lindsey Graham, one of Donald Trump’s chief lapdogs in the Senate, will have sweeping subpoena power to try to belatedly exonerate Trump and incriminate the Obama administration in the investigation into Russian election interference in 2016. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted along partisan lines to give Graham, who is the committee chair, that subpoena power while rejecting—also along partisan lines—Democrats’ efforts to get subpoena power as well.
Graham plans to subpoena Obama administration officials including former CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former FBI Director James Comey. All part of the plan to delegitimize the investigation into what Russia did to help Trump win rather than investigating … what Russia did to help Trump win.
“I am very intent in making sure this never happens again,” Graham said. “This” is the investigation into Russian election interference, not the Russian election interference itself.
It’s not just Graham and the Judiciary Committee, either. The Senate Homeland Security Committee, chaired by Ron Johnson, will also be investigating the Russia investigation, and, as an extra-partisan bonus, he’s investigating Hunter Biden, too. Because nothing says “this investigation is aimed at uncovering the truth about a very important issue, not attacking my political opponents” like waiting until years after the fact during an election year and following the lead of a president who was impeached for abusing power to create a scandal around the same figure you’re now “investigating.”
Trump had Park Police and National Guard troops violently clear a peaceful protest so he could get a photo op. His attorney general has lied about it and the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has apologized for being party to it. But Senate Republicans—the same Senate Republicans who protected him during the impeachment trial—couldn’t care less. Neither do they care that a foreign nation attacked U.S. democracy four years ago. They just want to keep the truth from getting out and do whatever it takes to protect Trump from ever facing a consequence for anything.
There’s a nationwide movement against police brutality and a global pandemic that’s killed more than 100,000 Americans, in large part because of Donald Trump’s refusal to admit it might be a problem. And Senate Republicans don’t care about anything but keeping Trump in power.
Senate Republicans authorize subpoenas in probe targeting Trump enemies
Senate Republicans are ramping up their investigations into President Donald Trump’s foes.
In a party-line vote Thursday, the Senate Judiciary Committee authorized Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) to issue a broad range of subpoenas to a slew of former Obama administration officials who opened or were involved in the counterintelligence investigation into possible ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.
It’s part of a GOP-led investigation into the genesis of the Russia probe and former special counsel Robert Mueller’s appointment — a probe that that President Donald Trump has long sought, particularly as he seeks retribution after his acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial.
The subpoenas target former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan, and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, among others. Graham has said he plans to seek testimony from Mueller himself, “or an appropriate designee.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is also conducting a similar investigation that ensnares former Obama administration officials, with a focus on the presidential transition period in late 2016 and early 2017 and the “unmasking” of the name of incoming national security adviser Michael Flynn from intelligence intercepts. The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Johnson chairs, approved a similar subpoena authorization last week. The committee has also launched a probe targeting Hunter Biden, the son of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Democrats have charged that the investigations are baseless and intended to boost Trump’s re-election prospects. Republicans reject that charge, alleging that the president and his associates were unfairly targeted by the outgoing Obama administration.
Graham’s investigation is also expected to focus on alleged abuses of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act, which were documented in a scathing Justice Department inspector general report that examined the surveillance warrants for former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. That report also found that there was a proper foundation for the Russia investigation and that political bias did not play a role.
The list of subpoena targets also includes officials who were involved in the initial investigation of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI. The Justice Department recently moved to drop the criminal case against Flynn, though the judge overseeing the case is seeking further judicial guidance.
“We need to look long and hard at how the Mueller investigation got off the rails,” Graham said, hammering the FBI over its reliance on an unverified dossier of claims about Trump that was compiled by a former British intelligence officer. “We’re going to get to why everybody ran stop signs all the time.”
Graham has resisted Trump’s calls to seek the testimony of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama, as part of the investigation. Trump has accused Obama of trying to illegally sabotage him, though there is little evidence to support the claim and the president has not clearly stated what he is accusing Obama of doing.
“This is really unprecedented, at least in my 26 years,” said California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, the Judiciary Committee’s top Democrat, arguing that the committee should vote on each subpoena rather than one broad authorization. “This ties the hands of the minority in any serious investigation.”
Democrats tried to amend the subpoena authorization on Thursday, including efforts to add Flynn, Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and the president’s former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen to the list of subpoena targets. All of the Democratic amendments were rejected on party lines.
“I don’t understand how we can do an investigation if you’re not going to be able to get all the evidence,” Feinstein said as the amendments were rejected one-by-one.
Graham, once a Trump foe himself, has embraced the president’s calls for an investigation after initially supporting the appointment of Mueller and even crafting legislation to shield the special counsel from potential termination by the president.
But Graham has soured on the investigation after learning new details about the genesis of the Mueller probe, saying the process was “corrupted” by forces within the government who wanted to take down Trump. He is also facing his own re-election fight in November and, like most Senate Republicans, is eager to stick close to the president.
The committee held its first major hearing as part of the investigation last week when former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein took questions from senators.
Rosenstein defended his decision to appoint Mueller as special counsel and largely blamed the FBI for the inaccuracies and omissions in the surveillance applications, including one that Rosenstein himself approved.