April 3, 2019

Democratic candidates speak at Al Sharpton's National Action Network convention

BY GRACE SEGERS

APRIL 3, 2019 / 10:18 AM / CBS NEWS

A number of 2020 Democratic presidential candidates are set to speak at Rev. Al Sharpton's National Action Network convention as they compete to reach black voters, a critical demographic in the upcoming primary elections. Sharpton's convention has garnered prominent guests in the past, such as President Barack Obama, Sen. Bernie Sanders and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Presidential candidates speaking at the National Action Network convention on Wednesday include former Texas Rep. Beto O'Rourke, businessman Andrew Yang and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro.

Stacey Abrams, who narrowly lost the gubernatorial race in Georgia last year and is currently mulling a presidential bid, is also speaking Wednesday afternoon. On Thursday, Rep. John Delaney and South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg are speaking at the convention.

Friday will see the greatest concentration of 2020 candidates speaking at the event: Gov. John Hickenlooper and Sens. Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Cory Booker will be making remarks. Potential presidential contender Rep. Eric Swalwell will also be speaking on Friday.

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https://www.cbsnews.com/news/democratic-candidates-speak-at-al-sharptons-national-action-network-convention/

April 3, 2019

On Middle East Peace, the White House Turns to... Alan Dershowitz

President Trump isn’t the first Oval Office denizen to ask for the celebrity lawyer’s thoughts on Israel.

Betsy Woodruff, Asawin Suebsaeng 04.03.19 4:58 AM ET

Alan Dershowitz, the celebrity lawyer famous in the Trump era for criticizing the president’s legal antagonists on Fox News, has consulted with senior White House officials on efforts to negotiate a peace deal between the Israelis and Palestinians, The Daily Beast has learned.

“I’ve consulted with them about it,” Dershowitz told The Daily Beast on Tuesday. He said he has discussed the issue with Jared Kushner, special envoy Jason Greenblatt, Ambassador David Friedman, and President Trump himself.

While not a career diplomat, Dershowitz has written multiple books about Israel, and is working on a forthcoming one to be titled Defending Israel: The Story of My Relationship with My Most Challenging Client. He said he also discussed the Israeli/Palestinian peace process with members of the Obama administration. And over his years in public life, he’s built relationships with a number of powerful Israeli politicians.

Dershowitz said he has discussed relations between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority with the president’s team. And he said he spoke with White House advisers before they rolled out some of their biggest decisions on the issue, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing the Golan Heights as part of Israel.

“I compared the Golan Heights to a captured battleship,” he said. “I said, ‘You don’t give back a battleship you’ve captured in a defensive war.”

more
https://www.thedailybeast.com/alan-dershowitz-says-hes-advising-trump-and-jared-kushner-on-middle-east-peace

April 3, 2019

8 Shocking Revelations from the NYT Investigation Into Fox News and Rupert Murdoch's Media Empire

8 Shocking Revelations from the NY Times Investigation Into Fox News and Rupert Murdoch’s Media Empire

by Mediaite Staff | Apr 3rd, 2019, 9:15 am

The New York Times just published a massive investigation into Rupert Murdoch‘s empire, their control over Fox News, and the future of his family in the aftermath of their sale of 21st Century Fox to Disney.

The story, penned by Jonathan Mahler and Jim Rutenberg, is fascinating and packed with new reporting on Fox News as well as the Murdochs, who now run Fox Corporation — the slimmer company left behind after the sale that includes Fox News as its most profitable entity.

As the Times puts it:

A six-month investigation by The New York Times covering three continents and including more than 150 interviews has described how Mr. Murdoch and his feuding sons turned their media outlets into right-wing political influence machines that have destabilized democracy in North America, Europe and Australia.

Lachlan Murdoch, Rupert’s eldest son, is running Fox Corporation. James Murdoch, who is more liberal than both his brother and father, is heading up a family office to manage the Murdochs’ ballooning fortune (the 21st Century Fox sale made Murdoch’s sons billionaires.) Rupert is overseeing the pair — for now.

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https://www.mediaite.com/tv/8-shocking-revelations-from-the-ny-times-investigation-into-fox-news-and-rupert-murdochs-media-empire/

April 3, 2019

Gingrich Strongly Urges Trump to Not Close U.S.-Mexico Border: Consequences Would be 'Absurd'

Newt Gingrich Strongly Urges Trump to Not Close U.S.-Mexico Border: Consequences Would be ‘Absurd’

by Ken Meyer | Apr 3rd, 2019, 8:02 am

It seems former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is not enthused with President Donald Trump‘s recent promise to close the U.S.-Mexico border.

In an interview on Wednesday with Fox & Friends, Gingrich was asked if he’s behind Trump’s border shutdown threats, even as critics argue that the move would have a major impact on trade and international economics. Gingrich gushed over Trump’s economic policy earlier in the interview, and he warned that following through and shutting down the border would endanger the economic gains the president is riding on.



Video, via Fox News.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/newt-gingrich-strongly-urges-trump-to-not-close-u-s-mexico-border-consequences-would-be-absurd/

April 3, 2019

Trump's Takeover of the GOP Is Nearly Complete

April 3, 2019 at 7:03 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

New York Times: “As Mr. Trump has prepared to embark on a difficult fight for re-election, a small but ferocious operation within his campaign has helped install loyal allies atop the most significant state parties and urged them to speak up loudly to discourage conservative criticism of Mr. Trump. The campaign has dispatched aides to state party conclaves, Republican executive committee meetings and fund-raising dinners, all with the aim of ensuring the delegates at next year’s convention in Charlotte, N.C., are utterly committed to Mr. Trump.”

“For Mr. Trump, who prevailed in 2016 as an outsider with little connection to his party’s electoral apparatus, the ability to control the levers of Republican politics at the state level could make the difference in a close election or a contested primary. It also leaves other Republicans with precious little room to oppose Mr. Trump on his policy preferences or administrative whims — on matters from health care to the Mexican border — for fear of retribution from within the party.”

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https://politicalwire.com/2019/04/03/trumps-takeover-of-the-gop-is-nearly-complete/

April 3, 2019

Lujan's move opens up Jeffries' path to speaker's chair

With the New Mexico congressman announcing that he’s running for Senate, House Democrats are avoiding a ‘knife fight’ over future leadership battles.

By HEATHER CAYGLE and JOHN BRESNAHAN 04/03/2019 05:07 AM EDT

Ben Ray Luján just gave Hakeem Jeffries a big gift: A clearer path to the speaker’s chair.

Luján’s decision to jump into the New Mexico Senate race — waiving the chance to move up in House leadership — removes a potential rival for Jeffries (D-N.Y.), according to more than a dozen Democratic lawmakers and aides.

Luján, Jeffries and Rep. Cheri Bustos (D-Ill.) are widely considered the leaders of the next generation of House Democrats. They’re the ones who will pick up the mantle from Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) and Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) when the septuagenarian triumvirate eventually moves on.

But Luján’s decision leaves Jeffries and Bustos, chairwoman of House Democrats’ campaign arm, on that tier alone. Other members are also in the mix — including Massachusetts Rep. Katherine Clark, vice chair of the caucus, and Reps. Cedric Richmond of Louisiana and Pete Aguilar of California, both senior whips under Clyburn. Yet out of all of them, Jeffries may have the inside track on becoming the next top House Democrat.

“It does give a clearer path,” Rep. John Larson (D-Conn.) said in an interview. “Hakeem and Cheri and Katherine and others who might be interested, Ben Ray certainly would’ve been in that mix but now he’s running for the Senate.”

The decision by Luján to run for Senate could head off what was expected to be a messy battle — a “knife fight” as one Democrat described it — for the speaker’s gavel after nearly two decades under Pelosi’s reign.

more
https://www.politico.com/story/2019/04/03/ben-ray-lujan-hakeem-jeffries-speakers-chair-1250689

April 3, 2019

Trump Calls GOP 'The Party of Health Care,' but Voters Beg to Differ

Democrats more trusted than Republicans to protect health system, people with pre-existing conditions

BY YUSRA MURAD
April 3, 2019 at 12:01 am

As President Donald Trump called on a court to dismantle the Affordable Care Act, reassured Americans that congressional Republicans would quickly reassemble a plan to replace it and subsequently punted plans for health reform until after the 2020 election all within one week, a new Morning Consult/Politico poll finds most voters are bearish on the party’s ability to deliver on health care.

Asked how much trust they placed in Trump or congressional Republicans to protect or improve the health care system, nearly 3 in 5 voters said “not much” or “none at all,” according to the latest March 29-April 1 survey. By contrast, a 53 percent majority of the electorate said they had “a lot” or “some” trust in Democrats on the same question.

The poll, which surveyed 1,945 registered voters and has a margin of error of 2 percentage points, was conducted in the immediate aftermath of the Justice Department’s decision to support a federal judge’s ruling in a Texas-led lawsuit that calls for dismantling the entirety of the ACA — including its popular protections for people with pre-existing conditions.

“Every smart House and Senate Republican has got to be horrified at this turn of events,” said Jim Manley, a Democratic strategist and former aide to former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. “The president had a good week last week, and now he’s gone ahead and blown any momentum he had by re-engaging in a health care debate, which is an absolute disaster for this party.”

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https://morningconsult.com/2019/04/03/trump-calls-gop-the-party-of-health-care-but-voters-beg-to-differ/

April 3, 2019

Mueller Testimony Before Congress 'Inevitable,' Schiff Says

By Terrence Dopp
April 3, 2019, 8:09 AM EDT

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said he sees it as a foregone conclusion that Special Counsel Robert Mueller will face questioning by Congress following the release of his report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

“I think it’s inevitable that Bob Mueller is going to have to testify before Congress,” Schiff said Wednesday on MSNBC. The committee has “a statutory requirement that the Intelligence Community, FBI, brief us on any significant counterintelligence or intelligence activity. And it’s hard to imagine something that rises more to that level than this investigation.”

Schiff’s comments came hours before a scheduled vote in the House Judiciary Committee to authorize a subpoena to obtain Mueller’s full report on his investigation into Russian meddling into the election and whether now-President Donald Trump’s campaign had any involvement.

Attorney General William Barr released a summary of that report last month that said Mueller didn’t establish that Trump or anyone associated with his campaign conspired or coordinated with Russia.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-03/mueller-testimony-before-congress-inevitable-schiff-says

April 3, 2019

Panama Papers investigation helps recover more than $1.2 billion around the world

BY DOUGLAS DALBY AND AMY WILSON-CHAPMAN
APRIL 03, 2019 07:35 AM

First-time gains in Panama, France and Iceland have pushed above $1.16 billion the global tally of fines and back taxes resulting from the Panama Papers investigation’s exposure of the offshore finance industry.

On the third anniversary of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists-led investigation, which included the Miami Herald and McClatchy’s Washington Bureau, the fallout from it is gathering pace through hundreds of separate investigations into undisclosed wealth across scores of nations.

Since June 2018, the United Kingdom alone has added $119 million, to bring its total to more than $252 million; Australia has collected another $43 million to eclipse $92 million; and Belgium has added an extra $6.5 million to its government coffers to surpass $18 million. French tax authorities have confirmed nearly $136 million has now been recovered — and that figure is expected to rise. They have carried out more than 500 inspections since April 2016.

Canada’s Revenue Agency, which also raided two properties last week in connection to the investigation, has revealed it had recouped nearly $6.8 million in federal taxes and fines from 66 audits. The agency said it planned to audit about 234 more taxpayers linked to the probe. Fewer than 10 criminal investigations are ongoing.

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https://www.mcclatchydc.com/article228762754.html

April 3, 2019

Trump pulls back from border closure threats, saying Mexico is cooperating

Source: The Hill



BY MICHAEL BURKE - 04/03/19 07:42 AM EDT

President Trump on Tuesday evening pulled back from his threats to close the southern border, claiming that Mexico is now cooperating in apprehending migrants.

For the "first time in decades," Trump said, Mexico had "apprehended over a thousand people" at its southern border and returned them to their home countries.

“I really wanted to close it. But now Mexico is saying, ‘No, no, no.’ First time in decades. ‘We will not let anybody get through.’ And they’ve apprehended over a thousand people at the southern border, their southern border. And they’re bringing them back to their countries," Trump said during remarks at the National Republican Congressional Committee's annual spring dinner.

https://twitter.com/GMA/status/1113397923000111104

Trump earlier in the day shifted away from his threats to close the border this week, saying he would "100 percent" close the border or "close large sections of the border" if Congress didn't pass stricter immigration laws.



Read more: https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/437089-trump-pulls-back-from-border-closure-threats-saying-mexico-is