Did John McCain ever get around to answering her questions?
Trump confirms his SOTU comment about needing more legal immigrants (as Miller and Cotton’s heads explode) because of low unemployment.
I guess Eric is having a hard time hiring replacement staff to replace all the undocumented workers at the golf resorts…
Trump Accidentally Praises the ‘Abolition of Civil Rights’ [emphasis mine]:
Accidentally? No he just skipped a few chapters in his playbook. That’s not supposed to happen until year 3.
Matt Whitaker says he won’t testify before Congress unless they guarantee they won’t subpoena him.
Matt Whitaker, acting attorney general, to testify at House hearing Friday - CNNPolitics?
It’s my hope that Chairman Nadler just goes ahead and issues the subpoena to Whitaker with a sticky note saying, “Now what are you going to do?”
Can the acting AG just say “no” ? (serious question)
California National Guard says it will ignore Individual 1’s order to discharge trans soldiers.
And a good question it is, as the stuff I’ve read has been pretty vague on that point. If Whitaker refuses the subpoena, he can be charged with Contempt of Congress, but I’m uncertain what the practical consequences of that are.
New Mexico pulls its National Guard troops from the border , orders others to return home
I assume that Congress could issue a command to these guys if the DOJ refused to execute the subpoena:
I don’t know that to be the case though. It might just go to the courts. Of course, then, if the DOJ refuses to act on the court’s orders, then it again could come back to the US Capitol Police or (more likely) the House would issue impeachment proceedings or something against Whitaker.
This is where we’re getting into the realm of “how much is this administration going to destroy the rule of law?”
Because even if the House impeaches, we all know damn well that isn’t going anywhere in the Senate.
And the governor of New Mexio pulled National Guard personnel away from the border, saying her state will not take part in, as she called it, Donald Trump’s “charade of border fearmongering by misusing our diligent National Guard troops.”
In other news, Whitaker missed the deadline to file any “executive privilege”, and is cruising to face subpoenas and possible contempt.
Do they need to impeach? From my very quick ‘n’ dirty non-lawyerly reading can’t the House despatch the Sergeant-at-Arms to bring the gentleman to the House floor, find him guilty of contempt (without referring to another body) and sling him in the pokey for coercive punishment? I.e. until he agrees to testify.
How the hell are they supposed to run a conspiracy if the Democrats keep up with this “unfair” oversight?
They can simply charge him with contempt. Immediately when he refuses to appear or answer questions.
He had ample notification, they gave him an advance copy of the questions, they gave him enough time to file any claims of “executive privilege”.
He at this point has no excuse.
Nadler:
“For the first two years of the Trump Administration, Congress allowed government witnesses to dodge uncomfortable questions. That era is over. In an abundance of caution—to ensure that Mr. Whitaker both appears in the hearing room on Friday morning and answers our questions cleanly—I have asked the Committee to authorize me to issue a subpoena to compel his testimony.
To be clear, I hope never to use this subpoena. Weeks ago, we gave Mr. Whitaker a list of questions we hope to ask him about his communications with the White House and his refusal to recuse himself from oversight of the Special Counsel’s investigation. If he appears on time and ready to answer those questions, the subpoena will be entirely unnecessary.
I intend to be fully transparent about this process. I shared my plans with Ranking Member Collins last week and, when he expressed reservations, we scheduled this authorizing resolution for a markup. There need not be surprises here. We have been quite public about our intention to obtain this information from Mr. Whitaker.”
And again, Nadler:
“You have now had more than two weeks to engage in any necessary consultations with the White House Counsel and the President. Because you have not provided any notification to the Committee regarding executive privilege—or, indeed, any communication in response to the January 22 letter—my understanding is that you will provide full and complete answers to these questions when they are asked at your hearing this Friday.”
Looks like play time is finally over.
That started eighteen days ago. Try to keep up.
What a clusterfuck that would be; I’m imagining a Public Enemy-type standoff, with the Capitol Police shouting through a megaphone “We’ve got you surrounded!” and Whittaker screaming “You’ll never take me alive, coppers!”
I’d pay a dollar to watch a live stream of that.