Only 8 of the 81 individuals and entities contacted by the House Judiciary Committee have submitted documents as part of their investigation into President Trump and his inner circle, Politico reported on Tuesday.
Details: The deadline to submit documents was March 18. Even though a small group of people submitted documents, committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said they are expecting more to cooperate.
Sen. Ted Cruz will hold a Commerce subcommittee hearing next Wednesday examining the U.S. government's oversight of the Boeing 737 MAX, which has suffered two fatal crashes since October, leading to the grounding of the global fleet.
Between the lines: Cruz, who chairs the subcommittee on aviation and space, is seeking information on what various agencies knew about the plane's safety and where oversight processes may have gone wrong. Top officials from the FAA, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Department of Transportation will testify. Topics will include similarities between the two crashes, one in Indonesia in October and the other last week in Ethiopia.
Former Tallahassee Democratic Mayor Andrew Gillum — who narrowly lost his bid for Florida governor to Republican Ron DeSantis in November — formally launched a voter registration group on Wednesday in Miami Gardens to help defeat President Trump’s re-election campaign in 2020.
Why it matters: Florida is the nation’s largest swing state where razor-thin margins often play a critical role in presidential elections as well as statewide races. The voter registration network, Bring It Home Florida, is named after Gillum's signature campaign phrase and seeks to mobilize voters and help the Democratic nominee secure the state's 29 electoral college votes.
The last ISIS-held territory in the Middle East — Baghouz, Syria — was seized by the U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Wednesday, reports CBS.
The big picture: CBS says, "the U.S. military estimates an underground network of hundreds of thousands of ISIS supporters remain a threat." Also on Wednesday, President Trump said that ISIS will be "gone by tonight," per Politico.
Jerome Powell is a new kind of Fed chairman for a new time in American history. As President Trump has bulldozed norms of presidential behavior, Powell has gone about changing the nature of the Fed's relationship with Wall Street, Congress and Main Street.
What it means: Powell has clearly set his sights on changing the public's perception of the Fed from a faceless private bank that upholds the interests of corporate America to a source of economic growth that supports job creation.
Sen. Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.) has plans to speak on Wednesday about President Trump's comments regarding the late Sen. John McCain, reports The Bulwark.
"I just want to lay it on the line, that the country deserves better, the McCain family deserves better, I don't care if he's president of United States, owns all the real estate in New York, or is building the greatest immigration system in the world. Nothing is more important than the integrity of the country and those who fought and risked their lives for all of us."
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which works to elect Democrats to the House, announced it raised a record-breaking $11.6 million in February. The Republican National Committee, meanwhile, raised $14.6 million, a record high for the month of February in a non-election year, per the Daily Caller.
Why it matters: With just under 600 days until the 2020 election, Americans on both sides of the aisle appear to be more politically engaged than ever.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro won with a pro-American campaign that emulated President Trump, and the bromance was consummated yesterday with a White House visit that included a joint news conference.
The big picture: Top administration officials contend the rush to embrace Bolsonaro isn’t all about matching personalities. They say it’s about increasing trade — ideally at China’s expense — and confronting adversaries like Cuba and Venezuela.
Beto O’Rourke has projected a mostly blank canvas during the first week of his 2020 presidential campaign — often asking voters for solutions rather than outlining policy specifics himself.
Why it matters: Most of the 2020 Dems don't have huge differences in their policy visions. So personality becomes paramount in these early days.
President Trump on Tuesday night defended electoral college after Democratic calls for reform intensified this week, saying popular vote campaigns were much easier.
What he's saying: "The brilliance of the Electoral College is that you must go to many States to win," Trump said in a tweet. "With the Popular Vote, you go to just the large States - the Cities would end up running the Country. Smaller States & the entire Midwest would end up losing all power — & we can’t let that happen. "
Under a new policy going into effect this week, the Trump administration plans to stop detaining some some migrant families that crossed the border illegally in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, according to a Wall Street Journal report late Tuesday.
Details: Citing crowding and safety concerns, government officials allegedly said that some migrant families will be processed by Border Patrol agents rather than being shuffled to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to face possible lengthy detentions. They would then be released and required to make appearances for deportation or asylum cases. As the WSJ notes, "The policy change runs counter to President Trump’s repeated pledge to end what he called 'catch-and-release' at the border in favor of 'catch-and-detain.'"
