Michael Bloomberg will not run for president in 2020, the former New York City mayor announced in a column on his namesake website.
Details: Bloomberg acknowledged "the difficulty of winning the Democratic nomination in such a crowded field," and said that the best way for him to help the country would be to double down on his efforts to combat climate change and gun violence. He also cautioned that allowing the Democratic primary process to "drag the party to an extreme" could help Trump win re-election, echoing a sentiment expressed by fellow billionaire centrist Howard Schultz.
Last month, U.S. border patrol agents arrested or turned away 76,325 immigrants at the southern border, according to new DHS data — reaching the highest monthly number of arrests in a decade.
Why it matters: The majority of these immigrants are families or unaccompanied minors, many of whom are seeking asylum. While border apprehensions had been near all-time lows, the most recent month matches levels from the George W. Bush administration. The Trump administration is likely to use the high border numbers to bolster its claim of a national emergency.
The Treasury Department said the U.S. deficit grew 77% in the first 4 months of the 2019 fiscal year (beginning Oct. 1), driven by sweeping tax cuts passed at the end of 2017 and increased federal spending, reports the Washington Post.
The big picture: The department said the deficit for the 4 months amounted to $310 billion — up from $176 billion recorded in the same period during the last fiscal year. Meanwhile, tax revenue from October 2018 through January 2019 dropped $19 billion, per the Post. Corporate tax payments fell approximately 25%, and there was a 9% increase in federal spending.
64% of American voters believe President Trump committed crimes before he became president, while just 24% believe he did not, according to a Quinnipiac poll released Tuesday.
Details: Voters are more divided on the question of whether or not Trump committed crimes during his presidency, with 45% responding yes and 43% no. Of those surveyed, 50% said they believe Michael Cohen — who detailed alleged crimes committed by Trump during his testimony last week — more than they believe the president. As he enters the third year of his presidency, 65% of Americans say Trump is not honest, including 25% of Republicans — "his worst grade ever on that character trait," according to Quinnipiac.
President Trump will sign an executive order on Tuesday to create a Cabinet-level task force to prevent veteran suicide.
The big picture: The initiative follows a Government Accountability Office report released in December that found Veteran Affairs suicide prevention outreach “dropped off” after Trump took office, per USA Today. The "President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide," or PREVENTS Initiative, will be led by VA Secretary Robert Wilkie and aims to create a national plan to lower the number of veteran suicides.
House Intelligence chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) has hired Daniel Goldman, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York, to lead the committee's revitalized investigation into the Trump campaign's ties to Russia.
Why it matters: According to his biography, Goldman served as the district's deputy chief of the organized crime unit and oversaw prosecutions into traditional organized crime, international organized crime and white collar crime. He also oversaw "a significant international Russian Organized Crime prosecution against more than 30 defendants for racketeering, gambling, and money laundering."
Just days after AT&T finally defeated the government's months-long effort to thwart its merger with Time Warner, the Texas-based phone company announced plans on Monday to restructure its newly acquired media assets to make it more competitive in today's tech-driven media environment.
The big picture: It comes as a New Yorker report alleges President Trump abused his power by ordering his then-chief of staff John Kelly and then-chief economic adviser Gary Cohn to ensure that the DOJ sued to block the AT&T-Time Warner deal. (Democratic lawmakers are now crying foul.)
Ty Cobb, one of the lawyers who has represented the Trump White House in the Mueller investigation, told ABC News he doesn't think the Mueller probe is a witch hunt, believing it has already detailed most of its findings in the open via indictments and sentencing memos.
Between the lines: ButCobb said Democratic investigations into Trump will continue indefinitely. “[I]t's never going to be over. ... I mean, this is going to go through 2020. And if the president is reelected, it'll go beyond that.”
More than half of the allegations of sexual abuse of unaccompanied migrant minors by adult staffoccurred in shelters run by just three contractors — nonprofits that received federal grants totaling more than $2.5 billion over the past four years, according to USAspending.gov.
Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton on Monday ruled herself out of running in the 2020 presidential election, in an interview with News 12.
I'm not running, but I'm going to keep on working and speaking and standing up for what I believe
Attorney General William Barr will not recuse himself from overseeing special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation, according to a statement Monday from Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec.
"Following General Barr’s confirmation, senior career ethics officials advised that General Barr should not recuse himself from the special counsel’s investigation. Consistent with that advice, General Barr has decided not to recuse."
Why it matters: Barr came under scrutiny when he was first nominated by President Trump when it was revealed he wrote an unsolicited memo to Justice Department officials criticizing the premise of Mueller’s investigation into obstruction of justice. He told lawmakers during his Senate confirmation hearing last month that he would make the final decision on whether to recuse himself from the investigation, but pledged to follow DOJ guidelines and make public as much information from the final Mueller report as legally possible.
