Day 718 of NO EVIDENCE produced by Trump that his phones were tapped by Obama.
The FISA warrant Trump referenced targeted Carter Page. #TrumpLies
Day 506 since the deadliest mass shooting on U.S soil in Las Vegas that killed 58, injuring 546.
Although a bump stock ban takes effect in 26 days, Congress must take action to prevent future mass shootings. #NeverForget #NeverAgain #EnoughIsEnough
Real-time American gun violence numbers for 2019:
•1,951 gun deaths
•3,369 gun injuries
•72 children shot
•313 teenagers shot
•273 armed home invasions
•176 defensive gun use incidents
•213 unintentional shootings
•43 mass shootings
#NationalEmergency
The U.S. reached 7,000+ incidents of gun violence/gun crime in the new year.
At least 385 kids under 18 have been shot in the U.S. so far this year: @GunDeaths
#NationalEmergency
Man with a Glock 19 shouted anti-Muslim slurs before the shooting death of @IndianaUniv grad Mustafa Ayoubi. Witnesses say that before the killing, the gunman also told Ayoubi, an Indiana native, to "go back to his country." indystar.com/story/news/201…
Laws that help keep guns out of the hands of domestic abusers save lives. buff.ly/2NhV6N0
U.S. to leave 200 American peacekeepers in Syria after pullout reut.rs/2Nl77Bs
FYI: The Trump admin has quietly resumed separating immigrant families at the border.
At one agency, the children were put into temporary foster care and shelters with little or no indication that they arrived at the border with their parents: propub.li/2QcsPvY
Reminder: The Trump administration is systematically locking up thousands of children at unheard of rates - now almost 15,000 are in U.S. custody.
The government classifies these children as "unaccompanied"
n.pr/2BdhcL8
Thousands more kids may have been separated from their parents at the border under the Trump administration than was previously thought, according to an internal government report.
abcn.ws/2DmTr5t
Migrant families are still being separated by the Trump admin, sometimes over "uncorroborated allegations" of crimes, according to a report published by a Texas civil rights group. nbcnews.com/news/latino/mi…
On February 26, 2019 at 10:00 a.m., the House Judiciary Committee will hold a full committee hearing to conduct oversight of the Trump Administration's family separation policy, "finally holding the Administration accountable for the inhumane and callous policy."
"North Korea continues to nuclearize" despite Trump-Kim summit, former CIA agent warns
trib.al/N0HsDrc
Just a week before Trump is set to meet with Kim Jong Un, key Democratic House chairmen accused Trump of withholding information about his administration’s negotiations with North Korea
politi.co/2SQfnPP
North Korea won't give up its nukes, says Pyongyang’s most prominent defector, Thae Yong Ho. And if Trump doesn’t watch out, Thae predicts, he will slip into a deal that will lead “inevitably” to withdrawal of America’s troops from South Korea
trib.al/uEP1QHp
Michael Cohen’s congressional committee lineup for next week:
Feb. 26: Senate Intelligence (private)
Feb. 27: House Oversight (public)
Feb. 28: House Intelligence (private)
He reports to prison for three years May 6.
Top officials on Trump’s inaugural fund repeatedly sounded alarms about budgets submitted by vendors, per records reviewed by @wsj.
Prosecutors are probing the fund’s dealings with vendors, including whether any were paid off the books.
wsj.com/articles/trump…
Inaugural officials questioned payments to co's tied to Trump. When the Trump Hotel in DC sought $3.6M for eight days of space and food, an organizer forwarded the note and wrote: “Ummm…” The committee ultimately paid $1.5M from Dec. 1-Jan. 20.
wsj.com/articles/trump…
Day 7 since Trump declared a national emergency in response to a manufactured crisis to seize power and subvert the Constitution.
"I didn't need to do this"
Today, the County of El Paso, Texas and the Border Network for Human Rights filed a lawsuit against Donald J. Trump in response to his declaration of national emergency to circumvent Congress to fund his border wall.
Pentagon asks Homeland Security to justify using military funds for Trump's border wall hill.cm/y6uZG0M
NYT Fact Check: Trump claims his wall is being built. It's just a replacement of old barriers.
#TrumpLies
nytimes.com/2019/02/21/us/…
@GlennKesslerWP debunking one of Stephen Miller's biggest lies -- that "thousands of Americans die year after year because of threats crossing our southern border":
washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/…
Why have 6G when you could have 7G? Hell, why not 11G?
Senior admin official on North Korea background call with reporters: "[Trump] is doing everything necessary to be well prepared for this summit."
Five minutes later:
Trump remains silent about the U.S. Coast Guard lieutenant and self-identified white nationalist arrested with a cache of weapons and ammunition stockpiled to target politicians and journalists in a terror attack.
Only days before, Trump had demanded "retribution" against those in the media who criticized him.
Last October, another would-be killer sent pipe bombs to a dozen other targets of Trump's incitements. Fortunately, nobody was hurt. Trump's reaction? He doubled down on *more* incitement, blaming the targets for the bombs.
Isn't it odd that DOJ didn't publicize that they had made this arrest?
Seems like quite an achievement for them to break up this sort of terrorist plot, and we didn't hear about it until a reporter stumbled across the court filing.
"Trump is encouraging" domestic terrorists, Joe Scarborough says after landing on media hit list
wapo.st/2SQdti1
Trump introduced potential Qatari investor to a Trump friend and donor pursuing nuclear power project
almon.co/36ao
“He’s kept his agency’s head down and vanished like a stick insect”: Dan Coats struggles to protect an intelligence community under attack from the man who appointed him. theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
The White House is poised to end a program that grants work permits to spouses of H-1B workers who've been approved for a green card and are waiting in line. (For some, that line can be many years long.)
news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-re…
Another NYC building named after Trump has voted to take his name down.
The "Trump Place" building at 120 Riverside Blvd will be the 6th NYC building to remove Trump's name since 2016. washingtonpost.com/politics/resid…
Per Daily Beast: Trump White House Is Forcing Interns to Sign NDAs and Threatening Them With Financial Ruin thedailybeast.com/trump-white-ho…
Democrats in Congress may seek to subpoena Robert Mueller or the results of his Russia probe if the results aren't publicly released, Bloomberg reports.
"The public will feel rightly that there is a coverup." bloom.bg/2E0uhJ2
Paul Manafort will be sentenced on Friday, March 8 at 9am in his Eastern District of Virginia Case, according to Judge Ellis's order. —@NBCNews
Reuters: Judge imposes sweeping media gag order on Roger Stone.
Judge orders Stone not to speak publicly about the case, address it on social media or comment indirectly via surrogates.
"I'm not giving you another chance," Judge Jackson told Roger Stone. "I have serious doubts whether you’ve learned any lesson"
"The apology rings quite hollow," she said, "I don't find any of the evolving and contradictory explanations credible." washingtonpost.com/local/legal-is…
The gag order on Stone bars Stone from talking about his case and Mueller's probe and prohibits him from indirectly commenting by having "surrogates, family members, spokespersons, representatives, or volunteers" speak on his behalf.
buzzfeednews.com/article/zoetil…
Senate Intel investigators want to question David Geovanis, a Moscow-based American businessman with long ties to Trump, after witnesses told them he could shed light on Trump's commercial and personal activities in Russia dating back to the 1990s. cnn.com/2019/02/21/pol…
SWAMP UPDATE: A Russian-backed energy company is trying to win regulatory approval for a deal it signed with a Chinese aluminum company, so it hired a lobbying firm linked to noted trade & energy expert ... COREY LEWANDOWSKI.
cnbc.com/2019/02/21/rus…
SWAMP UPDATE: Bill Wehrum’s lobbying firm was paid millions by coal-burning power cos. to fight environmental rules.
Now Wehrum is undoing those rules as an assistant @EPA administrator in charge of climate change & power plant pollution. politico.com/story/2019/02/…
Trump said he ordered his admin to withhold wildfire aid to California. FEMA says he never did. BuzzFeed News reports that no record of such an order exists.
buzzfeednews.com/article/briann…
Talks between California & Trump administration officials over easing Obama-era vehicle emissions and fuel economy standards have broken down without a deal (and no prospect for one). bloom.bg/2Ip5VOL
R's say D's want to turn America into California.
But California is thriving. politi.co/2T2WRTK
US banks made $28 billion in extra profits thanks to GOP tax bill
But, sure, it's the people who want to expand health care coverage, or child care, who are for "giving too much stuff away." hill.cm/xCRT31K
Trump who ran for office complaining that the system is rigged has a Cabinet secretary who as a prosecutor rigged the system in favor of a sex offender.
thedailybeast.com/alexander-acos…
Miami Herald: A judge ruled Thursday that federal prosecutors — among them, U.S. Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta — broke federal law when they signed a plea agreement with Jeffery Epstein and concealed it from more than 30 of his underage victims. miamiherald.com/news/state/flo…
The question now is if a man who broke federal law to protect a wealthy sex trafficker -- "Epstein’s victims...were mostly 13 to 16 years old at the time of the abuse" -- is allowed to remain part of Trump's Cabinet. miamiherald.com/news/state/flo…
Obama's presidential library will not be a library at all; but rather a privately-funded museum & "center for citizenship." His papers will instead be digitized and there will be no archivists on site to help professional researchers & historians.
nytimes.com/2019/02/20/art…
Every 2020 candidate but Trump promises: No stolen data. @SamStein, @JFKucinich, and @ScottBix report: trib.al/5VchTHr
New Jersey Senate passes bill that would keep Trump off 2020 ballot unless he releases tax returns hill.cm/D2r7bqS
In case you missed yesterday's thread:
UPDATED: 12 shot in Baltimore on Thursday, five in single West Baltimore incident, police say. Four dead (w/ @xtinatkacik): baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/…
Schumer on the resolution to terminate the emergency declaration: "I urge all senators—Democrats & Republicans—to support this resolution ... when it comes up for a vote.
Identical companion legislation to the House resolution will soon be introduced in the Senate."