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Day 816: Hateful and inflammatory.
Today in one sentence: A redacted version of Mueller's report will be released to both Congress and the public on Thursday; the House intelligence committee demand that Mueller "must" brief them; Trump's attorneys threatened legal action if an accounting firm complied with a subpoena to turn over 10 years of Trump's financial records; Sarah Sanders claimed that members of Congress aren't "smart enough" to understand Trump's tax returns; and Trump reportedly revived the rejected proposal to send undocumented immigrants into "sanctuary cities" in order to distract from the Mueller report.
1/ Attorney General William Barr will release a redacted version of Robert Mueller’s report to both Congress and the public on Thursday morning. The redactions will cover four categories: secret grand jury details, classified national security and intelligence specifics, material related to ongoing investigations and sections that could defame “peripheral” third parties wrapped up in Mueller’s probe. The release comes days after Barr told Congress he believed “spying” on the Trump campaign occurred during the 2016 election. Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have already authorized the use of a subpoena to compel the Justice Department for the full report without redactions if they do not receive it this week. (New York Times / Washington Post / CNN / Politico / NBC News)
- An insiders’ guide to the Mueller Report: How experts and political operatives will read the report. (Politico)
2/ The House intelligence committee demanded that Mueller “must” brief them and provide “all materials, regardless of form and classification, obtained or produced” during his 2-year investigation. Chairman Adam Schiff and Ranking Member Devin Nunes requested that Mueller and other senior members of his team brief the committee, in a letter sent March 27th to Barr, FBI Director Chris Wray, and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Nunes has previously dismissed the Mueller report as a “partisan document” that he has no interest in reading. (Daily Beast / Axios / Politico)
3/ Trump’s attorneys threatened legal action if an accounting firm complied with a subpoena from the House Oversight and Reform Committee to turn over 10 years of Trump’s financial records. Last month, the committee requested that Mazars USA turn over Trump’s personal and business finances. In response, Mazars asked for a subpoena before they would comply. (Politico)
4/ Sarah Sanders claimed that members of Congress aren’t “smart enough” to understand Trump’s tax returns. Earlier this month, the House Ways and Means Committee formally requested Trump’s tax returns from the IRS, setting a hard deadline of April 23 to comply. (CNN / Washington Post)
- There are 10 accountants in this Congress, including two senators and eight House members. Three Democratic members of Congress are also trained as certified public accountants. (CNN)
5/ The White House is considering travel restrictions for nationals of countries with high rates of overstaying visas as part of a broader push to curb immigration. The effort would target nationals primarily from the African nations of Nigeria, Chad, Eritrea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, telling the countries’ governments that if overstay rates don’t reverse, then future visas could be shorter or harder to get. (Wall Street Journal / Politico)
6/ Trump reportedly revived the rejected proposal to send undocumented immigrants into “sanctuary cities” in order to distract from the Mueller report, according to people close to him. After members of his administration dismissed the idea of sending migrants to sanctuary cities, Trump tweeted that he was still considering the plan. Further, Trump has reportedly been “purposefully escalating his language” to rile up his base of supporters and anger political rivals, despite previously claiming that Barr’s four-page summary of the Mueller report proved there was “No Collusion, No Obstruction, Complete and Total EXONERATION.” (New York Times)
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Three Democratic House committee chairmen: The Trump administration lacks the legal authority to send undocumented migrants to sanctuary cities. They’re calling for documents related to the plan’s consideration by early May. (NBC News)
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Trump appeared to confirm that a proposal to send immigrants to “Sanctuary Cities and States” was in the works, “subject” to the Department of Homeland Security. (Politico)
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House Democrats want Stephen Miller to testify about his role in the plan to release undocumented immigrants into “sanctuary cities,” because he “seems to be the boss of everybody on immigration” (Washington Post)
7/ Trump tweeted a video of the World Trade Center towers burning interspersed with remarks Rep. Ilhan Omar made about civil rights and Muslims in America. “WE WILL NEVER FORGET!” Trump captioned the video. During a speech at an event hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, Omar said Muslims have “lived with the discomfort of being a second-class citizen” since the Sept. 11 attacks, because “some people did something and that all of us were starting to lose access to our civil liberties.” The Minnesota Democrat is one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress. (New York Times / Washington Post)
8/ Omar said she’s “experienced an increase in direct threats on my life” since Trump tweeted footage of Sept. 11 accusing her of downplaying the terror attacks. “This is endangering lives,” Omar said, charging Trump with encouraging right-wing extremism. “It has to stop.” Sarah Sanders, meanwhile, said “it’s a good thing the president is calling her out” for her “absolutely abhorrent” comments she made at the event. (CNN / The Guardian / Washington Post / CBS News / ABC News)
9/ Nancy Pelosi demanded that Trump delete “his disrespectful and dangerous video” of Omar, claiming his “hateful and inflammatory rhetoric creates real danger.” Pelosi added that the U.S. Capitol Police and the House sergeant-at-arms “are conducting a security assessment to safeguard” Omar. “They will continue to monitor and address the threats she faces.” (New York Times / Politico / Axios)
10/ Trump continued his attacks on Omar on Monday, baselessly claiming that she was “out of control” when she made her alleged “antisemitic, anti-Israel and ungrateful US HATE statements.” Trump also criticized Pelosi for coming to Omar’s defense, saying she has “lost all control of Congress.” Trump flew to Minneapolis to attend an event bordering Omar’s congressional district. (Politico / The Guardian)
poll/ 17% of Americans believed their taxes would go down as a result of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. 40% said they saw no change from the tax bill, while 32% said the bill drove their taxes up. (Politico)
Notables.
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The Interior Department’s inspector general opened an investigation into ethics complaints against the agency’s new secretary. David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and agribusiness industries, has faced multiple allegations of ethics violations since joining the Trump administration as the Interior Department’s deputy secretary in 2017. (New York Times)
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Trump’s reelection campaign raised more than $30 million in the first quarter of 2019, bringing Trump’s total war chest to just over $40.8 million. The amount is unprecedented for an incumbent president this early into the campaign, and edges out the two top Democratic challengers. The GOP, meanwhile, matched Trump’s fundraising abilities by bringing in $45.8 million in the first quarter, the party’s best non-election year total. Trump’s reelection campaign has set a total fundraising goal of $1 billion for 2020. (Associated Press / NBC News / New York Times / CNN / Axios)
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Former Massachusetts governor Bill Weld announced that he will challenge Trump for the 2020 Republican presidential nomination. Weld said he will not run as an Independent if he does not win the Republican nomination. (CNN / Washington Post)
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Pete Buttigieg announced his presidential bid. If elected, Buttigieg, a 37-year-old Rhodes scholar and veteran of the war in Afghanistan, would be the youngest president ever and the first who is openly gay. “It’s time to walk away from the politics of the past and toward something totally different,” Buttigieg told a crowd at a rally, adding: “Change is coming, ready or not.” (New York Times / Washington Post)
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Trump will award Tiger Woods the Presidential Medal of Freedom, tweeting that he’s awarding Woods the honor “because of his incredible Success and Comeback in Sports (Golf) and, more importantly, LIFE.” Since 2019, a series of women have said they had affairs with Woods while he was married. (People / Bloomberg / CNN / NBC News)
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Sarah Huckabee Sanders claimed Trump was joking during the 2016 campaign when he said he loved WikiLeaks. “Look, clearly the president was making a joke during the 2016 campaign,” Sanders told Fox News. “Certainly we take this serious.” After Julian Assange was arrested last week, Trump claimed that “I know nothing about WikiLeaks,” despite mentioning WikiLeaks multiple times on the campaign trail and once exclaiming, “I love WikiLeaks” at a campaign event in October 2016. (NBC News)
A political newsletter for normal people
WTF Just Happened Today? is a sane, once-a-day newsletter helping normal people make sense of the news. Curated daily and delivered to 200,000+ people every afternoon around 3 pm Pacific.
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