BY BRIAN BEUTLER, PRIYANKA ARIBINDI

& CROOKED MEDIA

Monday, May 6, 2019

—The president on horsies

UP AGAINST THE STONEWALL

President Trump continues stonewall House Democrats’ efforts to conduct legitimate oversight of the executive branch, and he may do so until they decide to impeach him.  

Despite claiming that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report totally exonerates him, Trump has announced that he thinks Mueller should not testify under oath before Congress about his investigation.

Before this weekend, Trump insisted he’d defer to Attorney General William Barr, who has stated under oath that he has no objection to Mueller testifying. It’s unclear whether Trump has instructed the Justice Department to stop Mueller.

As a practical matter, Trump and Barr will have a difficult time silencing Mueller, if Mueller is determined to be heard. Mueller is still technically a Justice Department employee, but he can resign at any time, and even if he doesn’t, his public service is reportedly going to run its course very shortly. Once he becomes a private citizen again, the administration probably can not block him from testifying.

But that doesn’t mean Trump and Barr won’t try. They are doing everything else in their power to stymie legitimate congressional oversight.

Barr has ignored a congressional subpoena for an unredacted copy of the Mueller report, and refused to testify before the House Judiciary Committee, which will move to hold him in contempt on Wednesday. He testified under oath, as if he were Trump’s lawyer, that “we haven’t waived executive privilege,” meaning he will have Trump’s back when Trump instructs former White House Counsel Don McGahn and other Mueller witnesses that they must ignore subpoenas.

Barr’s Justice Department has also provided cover to the Treasury Department to violate the law requiring the IRS to transmit Trump’s tax returns to the House Ways and Means Committee. And Trump has famously announced that his administration will be ignoring all congressional subpoenas related to the Russia investigation.

Trump has effectively ground oversight to a halt. We are now accelerating full-throttle toward politically-motivated investigations of the investigators and his opponents, and Trump has taken to arguing that he must be re-elected because Democrats and the deep state “stole” two years of his presidency. If amid all this he figures out a way to stop Mueller from testifying, Democrats may be left no choice but to proceed to impeachment.

One million plant and animal species face extinction—many within decades—because of humans, and our “unprecedented” effect on accelerating climate change and habitat loss! For reference: There are an estimated 8,000,000 total species of plants and animals on this planet. Congrats everyone, we suck.

A mix of factors including climate change, agriculture, expanding cities, pollution, and poaching have contributed to this crisis, according to the report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services. If you’re interested in reducing your own environmental impact, there are some easy ways to get started →

Over 450 former federal prosecutors of both parties have signed a statement declaring that President Trump would be charged with obstruction of justice based on Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s findings were he not the sitting president.

Trump has nominated former Border Patrol chief Mark Morgan to be the director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Morgan served under President Obama and was removed from his position when Trump became president, but his views on immigrants and immigration align closely with Trump’s, so don’t expect anything special.

Israelis and Palestinians reached a cease-fire after the deaths of four Israelis and 22 Palestinians this weekend in the worst outbreak of violence between the two in five years.

Trump threatened to increase tariffs on Chinese imports yet again on Sunday, in a surprise announcement just days before top Chinese officials are scheduled to conduct trade negotiations with their counterparts in Washington, DC.

Michael Cohen reported to a white-collar prison in Otisville, NY on Monday to begin his three-year sentence alongside Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino of Jersey Shore and Billy McFarland of Fyre Fest. Cohen reportedly stocked up on Ed Hardy shirts in preparation.

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry welcomed their yet-to-be-named baby boy into the world on Monday morning. He is seventh in line to the throne behind Prince Charles, Prince William, William and Kate’s three kids, and his dad. Oh, and King Joffrey.

Hours after E! cancelled actress Busy Philipps’s nightly talk show Busy Tonight, Philipps was nominated for “Best Host” in the Critic’s Choice Awards. The cancellation leaves Samantha Bee as the only female late-night TV show host.

There was a to-go Starbucks cup in last night’s Game of Thrones and no one will stop tweeting about it.

The White House has sent Air Force bombers and an aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian Gulf, citing “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings” related to Iran. Earlier this month, the U.S. ended waivers that allowed some countries to purchase oil from Iran while avoiding U.S. sanctions, and designated Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist group. We obviously aren’t privy to whatever new intelligence the administration has, and Iran has a long, awful history of providing support to militia groups targeting U.S. forces in Iraq, but Trump’s Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton have advocated war with Iran for years. Tensions in the region are escalating rapidly, and it’s worrisome that there’s no visible diplomatic effort underway to keep things from getting worse.

Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has unveiled a 14-part plan to fight gun violence centered around a federal gun licensing program that would require all gun owners to have licenses. To get a license, gun owners would need to clear an FBI background check and successfully complete a gun safety course, and they would have to renew the license every five years. Nine states including Booker’s home state of New Jersey currently require licenses or permits for certain guns.

It would also ban assault weapons, bump stocks and high-capacity magazines, place limits on bulk gun purchases and gun purchases per month, and lift the ban on federal funding for gun violence research.

Gun control won’t be implemented if Democrats don’t win back the Senate, but this is the most ambitious plan of its kind from a 2020 candidate, which places the issue at the center of the presidential primary debate, and sets the bar high for the rest of the pack.

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