Wake Up To Politics - April 5, 2019
I'm Gabe Fleisher, reporting live from WUTP World HQ in my bedroom. It’s Friday, April 5, 2019. 304 days until the 2020 Iowa caucuses. 578 days until Election Day 2020. Have comments, questions, suggestions, or tips? Email me at gabe@wakeuptopolitics.com.
Friday Roundup
The Investigations: Pressure is building for Attorney General William Barr to release special counsel Robert Mueller's report, amid reports from the Washington Post and the New York Times that some members of Mueller's team have told associates that they are frustrated with the limited information from their probe that Barr has released. House Judiciary Committee chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) seized on the "troubling press reports" on Thursday to call for Barr to publicly release "any 'summaries' contained in the report that may have been prepared by the special counsel" and "all communications between the special counsel's office and the [Justice] Department regarding the report."
--- According to the New York Times, President Trump asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) earlier this year to prioritize a confirmation vote for his nominee to be the chief counsel of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). House Democrats on Wednesday formally asked the IRS to turn over six years of Trump's tax returns, which could explain Trump's focus on the position.
--- President Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen is set to go to prison next month, but he's making one final bid to avoid jail time. Cohen's lawyers wrote a letter to Democratic lawmakers on Thursday offering new documents to aid their Trump investigations, saying Cohen would need to remain out of prison in order to be "readily available to Congress and to prosecutors conducting these investigations."
--- "House Democrats are telling Capital One bank to turn over a host of financial records about President Donald Trump and the Trump International Hotel, as part of a wide-ranging investigation into Trump's potential financial conflicts of interest and whether he's in compliance with the Constitution's clause ensuring he doesn't receive gifts from foreign governments." (CNN)
--- "‘Dozens’ of Whistle-Blowers Are Secretly Cooperating With House Democrats" (The Atlantic)
The Trump Administration: "Facing widespread opposition, President Trump backed down Thursday from his threat to close the southern border, instead giving Mexico a 'one-year warning,' but also leaving his administration with no clear path to deal with a record surge of migrant families." (Washington Post)
--- President Trump told reporters on Thursday that he plans to nominate former Godfather's Pizza CEO and 2012 Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board. Cain would be the second partisan pick Trump plans to make to the traditionally-independent Fed board, after conservative economist Stephen Moore. Cain's 2012 presidential bid briefly caught momentum but floundered after multiple women came forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct.
Congress: "Rejecting a plank of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy, the House on Thursday invoked never-before-used powers to demand that his administration withdraw support from the Saudi-led war in Yemen. The Senate passed the same resolution in March with bipartisan support."
"Trump is expected to issue a veto of the measure, his second as president, and Congress does not have the votes to override him. But the action was nonetheless a milestone for lawmakers, who have shown a renewed willingness to assert their war-making powers after letting them atrophy for decades under presidents from both parties." (Associated Press)
2020 Central: Rep. Tim Ryan (D-OH) became the latest Democrat to announce a 2020 White House bid on Thursday. Launching his candidacy on ABC's "The View," Ryan positioned himself as a "progressive who knows how to talk to working-class people" and could win back the Rust Belt states that Trump swept in 2016. Ryan has served in Congress since 2003; he is known for his more moderate positions and his failed 2016 challenge to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). With Ryan's entry, the Democratic presidential field now includes 17 contenders.
--- President Trump tweeted a doctored video mocking former Vice President Joe Biden on Thursday, joining the debate over claims of unwanted physical contact that have been leveled against Biden despite his own history of bragging about sexual misconduct. "WELCOME BACK JOE!" Trump said in the tweet, which is now pinned to his Twitter profile. "I see that you are on the job and presidential, as always," Biden shot back in response.
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White House schedule
--- President Trump travels to Calexico, California today. He will participate in an immigration and border security roundtable at the U.S. Border Patrol station there, before visiting a recently-installed section of border fencing that the White House is calling the first section of Trump's border wall. Later today in two fundraisers in Beverly Hills.
--- Vice President Mike Pence travels to Houston, Texas today. He will visit a Homeland Security Investigations facility to receive a briefing from DHS and ICE agents on border security, before delivering remarks to the agents. Pence will then speak at Rice University's Baker Institute about the crisis in Venezuela, before traveling to College Station, Texas to participate in a program honoring the late President George H.W. Bush at the Bush presidential library.
Congress schedule
--- Neither chamber of Congress is in session today.
Supreme Court schedule
--- The justices have no oral arguments or conferences scheduled for today.
*All times Eastern
