The Hill’s Morning Report – Barr stiff-arms House following Senate grilling

 

 

 

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Attorney General William Barr sparred with Democratic senators on Wednesday while explaining his defenses of President Trump, his misleading earlier testimony to Congress and his handling of a report by special counsel Robert Mueller.

 

Hours later, the Justice Department pulled the plug on the attorney general’s scheduled appearance today before a key House panel.

 

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Barr could be subject to a future subpoena to testify — a move that would further complicate an acrimonious duel between two branches of government, egged on by an aggrieved president.

 

Meanwhile, a handful of Democratic lawmakers called on Barr to resign or recuse himself from ongoing Justice Department investigations tied to Trump.

 

On the sidelines stands Mueller, who has for much of a two-year investigation said little, and whose testimony before Congress — if the Justice Department clears it — could potentially clarify a four-page letter Barr wrote to Congress in March, one tart letter Mueller wrote to Barr in reply, and one exhaustively detailed 448-page report the special counsel and his team desperately want the public to study and comprehend without spin or blatant inaccuracies.

 

Nadler says he would like to see Mueller testify on May 15.

 

Bloomberg: Barr says Trump’s order to fire Mueller was not proved to be “corrupt.”

 

The Hill: Barr defends his handling of the Mueller report.

 

The Associated Press: “It was my baby,” Barr told senators about his say-so after receiving the special counsel’s report. “It was my decision how and when to make it public. Not Bob Mueller’s.”

 

The Hill: The attorney general explained his telephone conversation with Mueller after receiving the special counsel’s letter expressing frustration about Barr’s four-page characterization of the investigation.

 

Niall Stanage took in Wednesday’s testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee and notes it revealed how much Barr’s credibility as the nation’s top law enforcement officer has plummeted in a matter of months. The back-and-forth in the committee also illuminated how much Republican senators are stampeding away from the Mueller probe and its findings that Trump and his associates did not conspire with Russia but were not exonerated when it comes to evidence of obstructive behavior. Barr decided there was no crime of obstruction, and the attorney general says it is his belief that Trump’s behavior reflected frustration, not criminal intent.

 

The Hill: Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said he will not call Mueller to testify. “It’s over,” he said.

 

The president said he was pleased with the attorney general’s presentation and approved of Barr’s decision not to appear before the House committee under questioning by committee counsel. “He did a fantastic job today, I’m told. I got to see some of it. He did a fantastic job,” Trump told Fox Business Network’s Trish Regan during a phone interview on Wednesday.

 

Democratic lawmakers, some of whom are running for president, howled about what they see as Barr’s bias in favor of Trump, just as another battle emerged over whether former White House counsel Don McGahn should appear as a witness during a House hearing. Some lawmakers also want to learn more about the 14 criminal referrals made by Mueller to other jurisdictions, 12 of which were referenced by Mueller but redacted in the publicly released report (The Hill).

 

The Hill: 2020 Dems call on Barr to step down.

 

Perspectives and Analysis:

 

The New York Times editorial board: Bob Mueller’s extraordinary letter to Bill Barr.

E.J. Dionne Jr.: Barr has shamelessly corrupted the debate over the Mueller report.

James Comey: How Trump co-opts leaders like Bill Barr.

David A. Graham: Barr misled the public, and it worked.

Hillary Clinton, interviewed by Rachel Maddow Wednesday on MSNBC: “[Barr] is the president’s defense lawyer. He is not the attorney general of the United States in the way that he has conducted himself.”

 

 

 

LEADING THE DAY

POLITICS & CAMPAIGNS: Perhaps no one made more of a mark on Barr’s testimony Wednesday than the trio of 2020 Democrats on the Judiciary Committee: Sens. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.).

 

Barr tripped up on multiple questions from the presidential candidates, all of whom are lawyers. He admitted in response to questions from Harris that he did not review Mueller’s underlying evidence before concluding that the president did not obstruct investigations into Russia’s meddling (The Hill).

 

Harris and Booker capitalized on their public questioning immediately and their campaigns sent fundraising appeals to supporters. Harris sent out a note calling for Barr’s resignation and pointed to her questioning of Barr. Booker followed about 30 minutes later with a news release of his own calling for Barr to step down from the Justice Department.

 

The fundraising appeals weren’t limited to the Democratic side of the aisle. The Trump campaign fired off an appeal calling for “Patriotic Americans” not to “sit by and watch Democrats attack Attorney General Barr for doing his job.”

 

Along with Harris and Booker, those who have also called for Barr to step down in the 2020 race are former Vice President Joe Biden, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y) and former Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro (Politico).

 

 

 

 

The New York Times: Questioning Barr, 2020 presidential hopefuls try to hone their brands:

 

“Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing offered Democrats on Capitol Hill their first chance to grill Mr. Barr about his handling of the special counsel’s report and decision not to pursue an obstruction of justice case against President Trump. And the three committee Democrats running for president — Ms. Klobuchar, Ms. Harris and Mr. Booker — were not about to let a prime branding opportunity go to waste.  

 

Each sought to use the hearing to distinguish him- or herself from the others — a necessary task in a field so crowded that voters can barely remember some Democratic contenders’ names, and in a week when former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. declared his candidacy and instantly catapulted to the front of the Democratic pack.”

 

> While 2020 Senate Democrats made their presence felt on Capitol Hill, Biden, barely a week into his campaign, stumped in Iowa.

 

Before Biden made his initial stop in Iowa City, he was in Trump’s crosshairs. The president spent the early morning tweeting angrily after the International Association of Fire Fighters threw its weight behind the former vice president,

 

“I’ve done more for Firefighters than this dues sucking union will ever do, and I get paid ZERO!” Trump tweeted before the clock even struck 6 a.m. ET. He followed with a storm of retweeting — more than 50 messages from supporters backing him over the former vice president.

 

By the time Biden’s first event started, he jokingly wondered why he was on the receiving end of all the presidential attention.

 

“I understand the president’s been tweeting a lot about me this morning … I wonder why the hell he’s doing that,” Biden said, according to USA Today. “I’m going to be the object of his attention for a while.”

 

While the president paid attention to Biden for his Iowa swing, other Republicans dinged him after the former vice president said that China is “not competition” for the U.S.  Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) tweeted shortly after that the remark “will not age well” (The Washington Post).

 

Politico: Trump’s Biden-bashing splits his advisers.

 

The New York Times: Biden faces conflict of interest questions that are being promoted by Trump and allies.

 

The New York Times: As Biden woos labor, Trump uses a Twitter barrage to stake his own claim.

 

The Wall Street Journal: Joe Biden faces early heat from the left.

 

The Washington Post: Joe Biden’s message to Donald Trump: I’m no socialist.

 

Politico: How Joe Biden went from flop to front-runner in Iowa.

 

Elsewhere on the political scene … Rep. Joaquín Castro (D-Texas) announced he will not run for the Democratic nod to take on Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) in 2020 (The Dallas Morning News) … Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) announced Wednesday that he signed the “No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge” as part of his recent push to combat climate change, and has returned all donations that do not meet the pledge’s requirement (The Associated Press).

IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES

CONGRESS: Could a change be made to the GOP’s 2017 tax law? If restaurants and retailers have their way, it will be.

 

As Naomi Jagoda reports, the two groups are amplifying their push for Congress to fix a provision in the law they say is hurting their businesses. Because of an apparent drafting error, retail stores and restaurants are forced to write off the costs of their renovations over 39 years instead of being able to write off costs immediately, which Congress intended.

 

Lawmakers in the House and Senate on both sides of the aisle have introduced legislation to fix the so-called “retail glitch,” but action on making corrections to the 2017 tax law doesn’t appear imminent. Business groups are hoping to increase the pressure on lawmakers to act quickly.

 

> The Senate Commerce Committee will hear from consumer privacy advocates Thursday at the latest hearing on lawmakers’ efforts to come up with the nation’s first comprehensive privacy law.

 

According to Harper Neidig, Congress has remained tight-lipped about the negotiations over the legislation, and the hearing may offer a glimpse at lawmakers’ priorities in the talks.

 

> With infrastructure week in full bloom and the White House in talks with Democrats about how to pay for a proposed $2 trillion package, a Republican has come forward to suggest raising the gas tax.

 

As Scott Wong reports, Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) has called for the federal gas tax and airline fees to be doubled in order to fund the proposed package. The 18.4-cents-per-gallon gas tax has not been raised in more than a quarter century, and raising it is expected to be contested within the GOP ranks. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has already come out against raising the tax after opposing raising a similar tax in California at the ballot box in 2018.

 

Collins will not be able to have any say at the committee level though as he was stripped of his spot on the Energy and Commerce Committee last year after the Department of Justice indicted him on insider trading charges, which Collins denies.

 

He will go to trial in 2020.

 

Reuters: Official says White House never told him to change a security clearance decision.

 

 

 

The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@digital-stage.thehill.com and aweaver@digital-stage.thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE!

OPINION

Poof! There goes another Infrastructure Week, by Dana Milbank, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/2VzQxV5

 

Sorry, Bernie Sanders, but Disney doesn’t have to apologize for making $1.3 billion with Avengers: Endgame, by editor-at-large Nick Gillespie, Reason. https://bit.ly/2GT4wMj

WHERE AND WHEN

Hill.TV’s “Rising” program, starting at 8 a.m., features Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Mark Green (R-Tenn.) in a discussion about Barr’s testimony on Wednesday as well as other investigative news. And Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) drops in to talk about candidate Pete Buttigieg, whom he endorsed for president. http://digital-stage.thehill.com/hilltv.

 

The House convenes at 9 a.m. to consider the Climate Action Now Act.

 

The Senate meets at 10 a.m. and is expected to take up Trump’s veto message to a joint war powers resolution ending U.S. military support to the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

 

The president and first lady Melania Trump attend a National Day of Prayer Service at 11 a.m. in the Rose Garden. Trump will meet with Senate Finance Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) about Grassley’s objection to the administration’s tariffs and the president’s push to ratify the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (Politico). The president will meet with GOP senators at 2:30 p.m.

 

Vice President Pence participates in the National Day of Prayer Service and joins Trump to meet with Republicans senators. At 5 p.m., he attends an event with representatives of the Young America Foundation,

 

White House senior adviser Jared Kushner speaks at 6:50 p.m. at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy about his efforts to broker peace between Israel and the Palestinians and the status of a peace plan he has said could be released in June.

 

Washington Post Live interviews House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) from 9 to 10 a.m. today with reporter Robert Costa. Information and live stream HERE.

 

The White House Historical Association is celebrating the White House in bloom with a day-long symposium hosted today with the Oak Spring Garden Foundation at the association’s Decatur House headquarters in Washington from 8:30 a.m. until 5 p.m. Panelists and presenters include writers, editors, academics and expert gardeners. Info HERE to get inspired today for your own garden. Tickets are $75.

ELSEWHERE

➔ Venezuela: Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Caracas on Wednesday, responding to a call by opposition leader Juan Guaidó to continue trying to oust the authoritarian government of Nicolás Maduro following Guaidó’s unsuccessful bid on Tuesday to incite a military uprising (The Washington Post). … Trump’s hopes in Latin America are on the line after the United States invested political and diplomatic capital in building a motley coalition behind Guaidó. At home, administration officials are linking Venezuelan and Cuban policy, giving the South American dispute a domestic political angle that could resonate during the 2020 U.S. presidential elections (The Hill).

 

➔ Julian Assange: A judge in the United Kingdom on Wednesday sentenced the Australian WikiLeaks founder to nearly a year in prison for skipping bail in 2012 in England. The jail sentence of 50 weeks is separate from Assange’s legal battle challenging extradition to the United States to face charges he conspired to hack into secret computer files (NBC News).

 

➔ Travelers’ privacy: U.S. government searches of travelers’ cellphones and laptops at airports and border crossings nearly quadrupled since 2015 and were carried out for reasons beyond customs and immigration enforcement, according to papers filed this week in a federal lawsuit that claims scouring the electronic devices without a warrant is unconstitutional (The Associated Press).

THE CLOSER

And finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, we’re eager for some smart guesses about horses and horse racing.

 

Email your responses to asimendinger@digital-stage.thehill.com and/or aweaver@digital-stage.thehill.com, and please add “Quiz” to subject lines. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday.

 

Which of these phrases is NOT commonly used to describe the Kentucky Derby?

 

1. “Longest-running sports event in the United States”
2. “Run for the Roses”
3. “Greatest two minutes in sports”
4. “Distilled heartbreak”

 

Kentucky Derby race horses run what distance?

 

1. 1 mile
2. 1 -1/4 miles
3. 1 -1/2 miles
4. 2 miles

 

What do Secretariat, Seattle Slew, Affirmed, American Pharoah and Justify have in common?

 

1. Shared the same owner
2. Shared the same jockey while winning the Kentucky Derby
3. Won the coveted Triple Crown of Thoroughbred Racing with victories in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes
4. Won the Grand Slam of Thoroughbred Racing, which includes the Triple Crown races and the Breeders’ Cup Classic

 

The total Derby purse this year is the richest in history. How much prize money goes to the winner of Saturday’s race?

 

1. $1 million
2. $1.86 million
3. $2 million
4. $3 million

 

Which 3-year-old competitor was scratched from the race on Wednesday with a respiratory problem after being an early 4-1 favorite to win on Saturday?

 

1. Omaha Beach
2. Game Winner
3. War of Will
4. Maximum Security