Top-ranking House Democrat favors Trump impeachment inquiry – live | US news

A poll out from NBC / WSJ says half of Americans approve of Trump’s handling of the economy – note that that is better than his low-40s approval rating in general – but support for free trade has spiked to 64%, in a rebuke of Trump’s tariffs.

The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent points out another poll finding: huge support for a generic Democrat over Trump, among those voters who think the economy is the only thing Trump is doing right:

Here’s the lineup for this afternoon’s press conference with Representatives Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, who were denied entry by Israel to the Occupied Territories:

Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI)
Rosa Druker, IfNotNow Twin Cities Member
Lana Barkawi, Palestinian-American and Minnesota Resident
Amber Harris, Jewish-American and Minnesota Resident

The US has made secret contact with Venezuela’s socialist party boss as close allies of President Nicolás Maduro’s inner circle seek guarantees they won’t face prosecution for alleged abuses and crimes if they cede to growing demands to remove him, according to a senior Trump administration official, the AP reports:

Diosdado Cabello, who is considered the most-powerful man in Venezuela after Maduro, met last month in Caracas with someone who is in close contact with the Trump administration, the official told The Associated Press. A second meeting is in the works but has not yet taken place.

The AP is withholding the intermediary’s name and details of the encounter with Cabello out of concern the person could suffer reprisals. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because they aren’t authorized to discuss the talks, which are still preliminary. It’s not clear whether the talks have Maduro’s approval or not.

Cabello, 56, is a major power broker inside Venezuela, who has seen his influence in the government and security forces expand as Maduro’s grip on power has weakened. But he’s also been accused by US officials of being behind massive corruption, drug trafficking and even death threats against a sitting US senator.

Read further.

Representative Ben Ray Luján, the assistant House speaker, has endorsed opening an impeachment inquiry against Donald Trump, Politico reports:

Luján, a close ally of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, is the highest-ranking House Democrat to support an impeachment investigation.

The New Mexico Democrat, who serves as assistant House speaker, is running for Senate in his home state. He is the 127^th House Democrat to back impeachment proceedings.

Read further.

The acting director of the federal Bureau of Prisons has been removed from his position more than a week after millionaire financier Jeffrey Epstein took his own life while in federal custody, the AP reports:

William Barr announced Hugh Hurwitz’s reassignment Monday. Hurwitz had served as the agency’s acting director since May 2018.

The attorney general gave no reason was given for Hurwitz’s reassignment, but the move comes as the bureau faces increased scrutiny after Epstein’s suicide on 10 August at a New York jail.

The FBI and justice Department’s inspector general are investigating.

Barr has named Kathleen Hawk Sawyer to succeed Hurwitz. She was the agency’s director from 1992 until 2003.

Hurwitz also led the agency when Boston mobster James “Whitey” Bulger was killed in a federal prison in West Virginia in October.

“Newt Gingrich and an eclectic band of NASA skeptics are trying sell President Donald Trump on a reality show-style plan to jump-start the return of humans to the moon — at a fraction of the space agency’s estimated price tag,” Politico reports:

The proposal, whose other proponents range from a three-star Air Force general to the former publicist for pop stars Michael Jackson and Prince, envisions creating a $2 billion sweepstakes pitting
billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and other space pioneers to see who can establish and run
the first lunar base, according to a summary of the plan shared with POLITICO.

Sounds like it should work. “Trump has yet to weigh in on the idea, at least publicly,” Politico notes. Also there’s no buy in from the billionaires. Gingrich has been into – visionary? – space travel schemes for a long time.

Trump launched his new baseless attack on the integrity of US elections on Monday just hours after the chair of the Federal Elections Commission took Trump and Republicans to task for recklessly spreading baseless claims of voter fraud:

Thinking aloud here, one seeming benefit, for the would-be despot, not naming names, of destroying faith in the integrity of elections would be, then you wouldn’t have to win them, elections, in order to stay in power? Hang on

Representative Steve King, the Iowa Republican whose own party has turned on him for his bigoted and controversial speech, has demanded an apology from the media and Republican party leaders after he questioned whether, without the historical persistence of rape and incest, “would there be any population of the world left?”

After the media reported the quote, which as demonstrated by video is accurate, Republican leaders renewed their calls for King to find another line of work.

“And so,” King said Monday, “when we have a national, viral attack that comes out on a misquote, and it’s absolutely proven, all the folks that did that attack, I think they owe me an apology, including my own leadership.”

As for King’s claim to have been misquoted:

Trump appears to be picking up, in his latest attack on the integrity of US elections, on a psychologist’s speculation that big tech companies have the power to shape public perceptions of US politics and candidates, which is not the same as demonstrating that something actually, you know, happened.

Wow, Tweet Just Out! The president is claiming that a big tech company manipulated millions of votes in the last presidential election! That would seem to be extraordinarily reckless on the part of the president, in terms of the potential damage it could wreak to the public faith in free and fair elections, ie American democracy itself, if there were any chance that the story was maybe just another wild conspiracy theory advanced by Judicial Watch, the extreme-right propaganda outlet still devoted in August 2019 to a pretty much uninterrupted stream of Hillary Clinton conspiracy theories which the president retweets frequently especially when he seems especially upset.

We can’t locate at the moment the “Report Just Out!” that the president refers to here because we have allowed our subscription to Bananas Politics Conspiracy Theories to lapse. Developing…

Here’s video of the Warren “I’m sorry” moment:

Warren speaks out forcefully for systemic federal reporting on violence against indigenous women.

“Over and over I’m struck by women who go missing and it doesn’t make a headline… Native women, and it never makes a headline,” Warren says.

“A problem that is not seen is a problem that is not fixed.”

Warren says the federal government “needs to get serious” about collecting data and making sure the problem is known. She is applauded.

Warren is earning applause at the Native American forum with a call for the United States to honor treaty obligations and to respect the sovereignty of tribal nations. Now she’s making a call for steps to prevent violence against indigenous women and children, and for better federal reporting on missing and murdered indigenous women.

Senator Elizabeth Warren is among the presidential candidates speaking today at a forum on Native American issues.

She has admitted “mistakes” and said: “I am sorry for harm I have caused.”

Trump has just attacked (again) his own handpicked chairman of the federal reserve, and the Democrats, who he says are trying to tank the economy to prevent his reelection. Then he extends some free monetary policy advice. But also asserts that the economy is very strong.

Larry Kudlow, director of the US national economic council, will hold a briefing call tomorrow to rebut reports of a recession on the horizon.

Before joining the Trump administration Kudlow was a cable TV talking head with a crystal ball capable of some real doozies…