-Fails 2 Reach Agreement with NoKo
-Defends KJU Over Warmbier's Death
-Thanked Gaetz 4 Threatening Cohen
-Ordered CoS 2 Give Jared Clearance
-Economic Growth Slowed to 2.6%
-Coal Lobbyist Confirmed 2 Lead EPA
-Melania Plans 3-State #BeBest Tour
Day 725 of NO EVIDENCE produced by Trump that his phones were tapped by Obama.
The FISA warrant Trump referenced targeted Carter Page. #TrumpLies
Day 513 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 19 days, Congress must take action to prevent future mass shootings. #NeverForget #NeverAgain #EnoughIsEnough
Real-time U.S. gun violence data for 2019, as of February 28th:
•2,218 gun deaths
•3,800 gun injuries
•85 kids shot
•353 teens shot
•307 armed home invasions
•195 incidents of defensive gun use
•236 unintentional shootings
•47 mass shootings
#NationalEmergency
As of yesterday, there have been 6,000+ combined gun deaths and gun injuries in America in the new year.
Visit @GunDeaths for up-to-date statistics and information.
#NationalEmergency
For the second day in a row, the House passed legislation related to gun control. The "Charleston loophole" bill is aimed at closing a gap in the background check system that allowed a man to purchase a gun and kill nine members of a church.
cnn.it/2TlkMOb
A jury will decide whether Academy Sports + Outdoors will be forced to follow existing gun laws & end the practice of selling high capacity assault rifles to visitors from states that ban them, as well as whether Academy is responsible for damages. kxan.com/news/texas/56-…
Two U.S. Army soldiers allegedly tried to sell stolen weapons and explosives to Mexican drug cartel.
trib.al/3vJauph
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
Disturbing. Thousands of migrant youth allegedly suffered sexual abuse in U.S. custody. Allegations against staff members reported to the DOJ included everything from showing pornographic videos to minors to forcibly touching minors’ genitals. axios.com/immigration-un…
ICE says an infant who died when a detained immigrant went into early labor doesn’t really count as a death alternet.org/2019/02/ice-sa…
House Oversight Committee votes to issue subpoenas to force DOJ, DHS and HHS to produce docs on family separations at border. The vote was bipartisan with Republicans Justin Amash of Michigan and Chip Roy of Texas voting with the Democrats, per @FoxReports
NYT has an infographic depicting the experienced North Korean negotiating team, compared to the U.S. team, which includes Mick Mulvaney: "[Trump's] closest adviser is a former congressman with little foreign policy experience." nytimes.com/interactive/20…
Trump, North Korea’s Kim end nuclear summit 2.0 without agreement.
Who didn't see this coming?
wsj.com/articles/trump…
Trump-Kim Summit Updates: ‘Sometimes You Have to Walk,’ Trump Says as Talks Collapse - The New York Times
nytimes.com/2019/02/27/wor…
North Korea says they will never engage in economic trade with the U.S. in exchange for giving up its nuclear program - KCNA.
reut.rs/2L2w2YU
Asked about having halted joint US-South Korea military exercises during North Korea negotiations, and if they would now continue, Trump re-ups complaints about the costs of the exercises and questions whether South Korea should be paying more to support them.
@MaddowBlog: Trump's rhetoric on military exercises gets more embarrassing.
on.msnbc.com/2Em1Buk
Trump says he has not committed to holding a 3rd Trump-Kim summit, and declines to answer when asked if he now accepts North Korea as a nuclear power.
Trump defended Kim Jong Un on the case of Otto Warmbier, the American student who died last year after being imprisoned in North Korea.
"He tells me that he didn't know about it, and I will take him at his word." Via ABC
Trump took Vladimir Putin at his word on Russian election interference.
He took MBS at his word over the brutal murder of Jamal Khashoggi.
And today in Hanoi he took Kim Jong Un at his word over the death of Otto Warmbier. wapo.st/2TlLYMJ?tid=ss…
Nancy Pelosi on Trump believing Kim Jong Un not knowing anything about Otto Warmbier's death: "It's strange. I don't know. There is something wrong with Putin, Kim Jong Un — in my view, thugs — that [Trump] chooses to believe." Via CBS
Adam Schiff: "Trump's credulous acceptance of Kim's denial of any involvement in the death of Otto Warmbier is detestable and harkens back to Trump's acceptances of other equally implausible denials from other dictators."
Former UN Amb. Haley: "Americans know the cruelty that was placed on Otto Warmbier by the North Korean regime. Our hearts are with the Warmbier family for their strength and courage. We will never forget Otto."
Trump called @mattgaetz from Hanoi to talk about the Cohen testimony and the threats (since rescinded) Gaetz made about Cohen.
"I was happy to do it for you. You just keep killing it," Gaetz was heard telling him.
"Even knowing that this was coming, it was mind-blowing hearing Michael Cohen saying this in public," @maggieNYT said.
nyti.ms/2Tioicq
Trump, at the exact same time, tries to slam Michael Cohen for being a liar and praise him for saying he has no proof of Russian collusion.
"He lied a lot, but it was very interesting, because he didn’t lie about one thing: He said no collusion."
Schiff told CNN the Intel Committee will "drill down" on topics that came up during Cohen's Oversight hearing, including whether Trump was involved in any other false statements from Cohen. Schiff says he wants to "walk through each of the Russia-related allegations."
David Cicilline on the Cohen hearing on CNN: "It does appear, in fact, that [Trump] engaged in crimes while in office.
We saw evidence, really, of a crime spree that began before he was elected and continued into the White House."
Elijah Cummings says that House Oversight will pursue interviews with some of Trump's children (Don Jr., Ivanka) and closest allies (Weisselberg) who Michael Cohen implicated in his testimony.
"All you have to do is follow the transcript." politico.com/story/2019/02/…
NBC News confirms The Daily Beast: The House Intelligence Committee intends to call Allen Weisselberg, chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, to testify.
nbcnews.com/politics/justi…
The House Oversight Committee wants to depose Trump's long-time tax lawyer Sheri Dillon, as well as Stefan Passantino, ex-deputy WH Counsel in charge of compliance & ethics, according to letters seen by Reuters. reuters.com/article/us-usa…
Schiff says on March 14 the House Intelligence Committee will hold a public hearing with Felix Sater, a former business associate of Donald Trump who worked to develop a Trump Tower in Moscow
Michael Cohen, leaving his closed door session with the House Intelligence Committee, said it was "very productive" and just told reporters that he would "be back on March 6th."
No details on what that means.
WSJ confirms NYT: The District of Columbia AG's office has subpoenaed Trump's inaugural committee for documents related to an investigation into whether the fund's spending was "wasteful, mismanaged" or "improperly provided private benefit."
wsj.com/articles/trump…
As Michael Cohen rivets Washington, White House announces Jared Kushner met with Saudi crown prince cnn.it/2EfTsaK
Senate Foreign Relations will receive a closed door briefing *Monday* on the status of the Magnitsky investigation on Khashoggi
Day 14 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"
Senate Republicans are offering a choice to Trump: Withdraw your national emergency declaration at the border or face a potential rebellion from the GOP. The message was delivered clearly by Sen. Lamar Alexander. politico.com/story/2019/02/…
Trump's border wall prototypes are being reduced to rubble. Via AP
Economic growth slowed to 2.6 percent rate in fourth quarter, slowest since beginning of 2018 as various factors including the government shutdown took a toll on growth. apne.ws/pSsoSHs
House Democrats are opening an investigation into what they say are abuses of power by Trump through his attacks on the courts, the Justice Department, the FBI and the media, a House official familiar with the plans tells Bloomberg.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Judge Amy Berman Jackson has rejected Roger Stone's motion claiming that Mueller's team tipped off CNN before his Jan. 25 arrest.
Exhibits Stone provided "supplied no reason to believe that any contempt of court had occurred," Berman Jackson wrote. talkingpointsmemo.com/muckraker/judg…
Swedish authorities have arrested a person on suspicion of being a Russian agent.
The individual was allegedly passing info to Russia since 2017 & working "on tasks known by our Service to be the type of intelligence sought after by foreign power."
npr.org/2019/02/28/698…
Russia, China veto US resolution pushing for democratic elections in Venezuela hill.cm/sKb4o8s
Trump ordered John Kelly to grant Jared Kushner top-secret security clearance last year, overruling concerns flagged by officials.
Trump's decision so troubled officials that Kelly wrote a contemporaneous memo about how he had been "ordered." nytimes.com/2019/02/28/us/…
Flashback: Ivanka Trump says she and her husband Jared Kushner received no special treatment from her father when obtaining their top security clearances.
Reminder: House Democrats are in the early stages of an investigation into how several Trump admin officials obtained clearances, including Jared Kushner.
Schiff on the NYT Kushner report: "The revelation ... is the latest indicator of [Trump's] utter disregard for our national security and for the men and women who sacrifice so much every day to keep us safe. There is no nepotism exception for background investigations."
Eric Swalwell on the NYT Kushner report: "I’m concerned [Trump] has jeopardized our national security by putting clearances in the hands of unscrupulous people ... We will work to ensure clearances are granted based on trust, not by blood or bond."
Senate confirms ex-coal lobbyist Andrew Wheeler to run Environmental Protection Agency, in vote largely along party lines
wapo.st/2NxtlAa
Every Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee just voted to advance a nominee to be a lifetime federal judge who has blamed women for date rape + warned that "dangerous feminist idealism" teaches women that they are equal to men.
huffingtonpost.com/entry/neomi-ra…
Benjamin Netanyahu is charged with criminal wrongdoing on three counts including bribery and fraud. This is the first time in Israel's history that a Prime Minister has been indicted.
Your move, America!
timesofisrael.com/netanyahu-to-s…
Trump to hold first major campaign fundraiser of 2019 at Mar-a-Lago.
Reminder that Trump is using campaign donations to fund his legal defense against 18 investigations.
hill.cm/0QwQaxj
Melania Trump will travel to OK, WA & NV next week to promote her initiative #BeBest.
Shouldn't she get her own house in order, first?
NEW POLL: Trump in statistical tie with Biden, Sanders and O'Rourke in Texas hill.cm/r4lD7dT
In Scotland, Trump fought the Scottish government over a windfarm that would alter the view from his golf course. He lost.
Now, a court says he's also got to pay his opponents' legal fees. bbc.com/news/uk-scotla…
Every president since Nixon has voluntarily given their tax returns. Trump hasn’t.
There’s a reason for that, he has a lot to hide.
In case you missed the last posted thread:
To remind: Here's why Jared Kushner was never supposed to get a clearance
"Officials in at least 4 countries privately discussed ways they can manipulate Jared Kushner..using his financial difficulties and lack of experience."
washingtonpost.com/world/national…