The House Intelligence Committee has voted unanimously to release the Democratic response to a contentious Republican memo, which alleged FBI bias against President Trump and abuse of government surveillance powers, per Reuters. The committee previously voted not to release the Dems' memo.
What’s next: The White House will have five days to decide whether the document should be released, with Trump's decision potentially further inflaming partisan tensions over the FISA memo and the Russia probe.
If President Trump walks away from the Iran nuclear deal, after again calling on Congress to unilaterally "correct" it during his State of the Union address, it would be the third major international agreement he has ditched.
With Europe, Russia, China and Iran unwilling to renegotiate, such a move would set the stage for withdrawal. But unlike the Trans Pacific Partnership and Paris Climate Agreement, where other parties moved on without the U.S., blowing up the Iran deal would have serious repercussions.
President Trump claimed at a rally in Cincinnati on Monday that it was "un-American" that Democrats looked so unhappy during his State of the Union Address last month:
"Even on positive news, really positive news...they were like death. And un-American, un-American. Somebody said treasonous...can we call that treason? Why not...They certainly didn't seem to love our country very much."
Trump gave a highly partisan speech touting his tax law, and attacked Democrats like Sen. Sherrod Brown who voted against it: "Just remember that, he voted against you."
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt doled out harsh criticism against then-candidate Trump during a February 2016 radio interview with Exploring Energy, CNN reports.
I think he's an empty vessel when it comes to things like the Constitution and rule of law. "I'm very concerned that perhaps if he's in the White House, that there may be a very blunt instrument as the voice of the Constitution.
This comes after Pruitt made headlines last week for saying in a separate 2016 radio hit that he thought then-candidate Trump would be "more abusive to the Constitution than Barack Obama, and that’s saying a lot.”
Rachel Crooks, who accused President Trump during the 2016 election of forcibly kissing her, is launching a bid for the Ohio state legislature, Cosmopolitan reports. "I think my voice should have been heard then, and I'll still fight for it to be heard now," she said.
Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) unveiled a bipartisan immigration bill today, the companion to bipartisan House legislation, which gives permanent legal status to Dreamers who have been in the U.S. since 2013 and ramps up security on the southern border. The bill does not immediately include funding for Trump's wall, the Washington Post reports.
Why it matters: Trump tweeted Monday morning that any DACA deal that doesn't include "the desperately needed WALL is a total waste of time." The bill also does not address family-based (or "chain") migration or the diversity lottery, which have been top White House priorities.
The Pentagon’s Defense Logistics Agency hasn’t been accounting for hundreds of millions of dollars worth of taxpayer’s money, according to a review conducted by Ernst & Young, Politico reported Monday. The report includes the fiscal year ending September of 2016.
Why it matters: This is the first agency “of its size and complexity” that has been audited at the Pentagon, as the agency put it, and it won’t be the last. It comes after The Washington Post and the GAO reported in the last two years of “administrative waste” and “financial management problems” at the Department of Defense.
President Trump expressed admiration for House Intelligence Chair Devin Nunes in a morning tweet, branding him "a man of tremendous courage and grit" who should be known as "a Great American Hero."
Rep. Adam Schiff is the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee:
The backdrop: Trump has been demanding more “Executive Time" in his daily schedule, which almost always means TV and Twitter time alone in the residence, Axios' Jonathan Swan reported in January.
Jeremy Hunt, the U.K.'s health secretary, struck back after President Trump's Twitter attack on universal care and Britain’s National Health Service, where funding shortfalls have led to such long delays that some patients are being turned away from hospitals.
"Not ONE" of the people marching in protest to the U.K.'s system "wants to live in a system where 28 [million] people have no cover," Hunt wrote, referencing the U.S.
President Trump blasted Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, in a morning tweet for leaking "confidential information." Schiff vehemently opposed the release of the Nunes memo and said on ABC's This Week Sunday that Trump's decision to allow its release "could be evidence of his intent to interfere with the [Russia] investigation."
Worth noting: The Intel Committee is "very likely to approve release of Schiff’s memo, [the Democrats' answer to the Nunes memo] today. At that point, Trump will have five days to object to or allow its release. Dems may not be too optimistic after this tweet," per CNN's Manu Raju.
Rarely has a president changed his party as fast and profoundly as Donald J. Trump. Love him or hate him, you can no longer argue his ability to bend an entire party to his will.
In the two and a half years since he announced his candidacy, he has moved the party away from decades of orthodoxy on trade, Russia, deficits and more — and has helped make the law-and-order party skeptical of FBI leadership.
The Trump administration last Friday released its Nuclear Posture Review, the first since President Obama's in 2010, raising three big questions.
Why it matters: The chances of nuclear weapons being used are the highest they've been since the Cuban missile crisis. Now is the time for a serious public debate before Congress and the Trump administration decide on a new policy.
President Donald Trump said suggested that the Nunes memo “totally vindicates ‘Trump’" and shows the Russia probe is a "witch hunt." But at least three Republicans pushed back against that assertion on Sunday, including Rep. Trey Gowdy, who was actively involved with the drafting of the controversial memo that alleged abuse of government surveillance powers.
Why it matters: The three Republicans, all members of the House Intelligence Committee, voted for the released the memo on Friday. They all said the memo should not impact Robert Mueller’s investigation.
