Former FBI director James Comey will testify before Congress in private this week after reaching a deal with Republicans and dropping his challenge to a House subpoena.
His lawyer, David Kelly, confirmed to The Hill that Comey had reached an agreement to testify on Friday.
Comey tweeted earlier Sunday that he had reached a deal with Republican lawmakers regarding his testimony, which he wanted to give in a public hearing.
Former FBI Director James Comey is challenging a subpoena from House Republicans for his closed-door testimony in federal court, citing the “corrosive narrative” created by selective leaking by lawmakers.
Court records show that Comey filed a motion in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday to quash a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee for testimony on Dec. 3.
Comey’s lawyers argued in a filing that the subpoena “exceeds a proper legislative purpose, is issued in violation of House rules, and unduly prejudices and harasses the witness. This motion is accompanied by a related motion to stay any proceedings thereunder until this motion may be heard.”
Many families and individuals in Woonsocket, R.I. take part in the SNAP (food stamps) program. Credit: Michael S. Williamson, The Washington Post
Lawmakers have struck a final farm bill deal that scraps a plan backed by House Republicans and President Trump to add new work requirements for recipients of food stamps.
The House and Senate have been deadlocked over multiple issues in the bill, including provisions in the House bill that would add new work requirements for older food stamp recipients and for parents of children age 6 and older.
But those provisions have been stripped in the compromise package, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, confirmed Thursday.
Former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch and former FBI Director James B. Comey. Credit: Associated Press
The House Judiciary Committee has issued subpoenas for former FBI Director James B. Comey and former Atty. Gen. Loretta Lynch to appear for closed-door interviews in a probe of how federal law enforcement officials handled investigations of Hillary Clinton’s emails and the Trump campaign’s alleged Russia ties.
The orders direct Comey to appear Dec. 3, while Lynch is to appear Dec. 4, to speak with members of the House Judiciary, and Oversight and Government Reform Committees. Both have already spoken with other congressional panels looking into matters related to Russian interference in the 2016 election, and have indicated they are willing to speak to the joint inquiry as well.
But Comey has already objected to the format of the interview, hinting that he may not show if the session remains closed.
Americans took to the polls in record numbers in the 2018 midterms, shifting party control of the House of Representatives and sending a clear message of disapproval to President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. Although the president and his party gained ground in the U.S. Senate, primarily in states Trump won handily, they failed to capitalize on the low unemployment rate or overall positive sentiments about the economy. The signature GOP legislative achievement of the first two years—the $1.5 trillion tax cut that passed last year —failed to boost Republicans’ chances overall and hurt candidates in several seats. Subsequently, they lost in major suburban and urban districts across the country and also lost ground in some rural areas. The president’s gamble of nationalizing the election around his personality and his administration’s harsh immigration policies ultimately cost Republicans their House majority and failed to persuade voters outside of already conservative or rural counties and states to stick with the GOP. Likewise, health care dominated voters’ minds this year according to both pre-election and Election Day polls, with Democrats benefitting from their commitment to protect and expand Americans’ health care and House Republicans suffering for their repeated attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
Democrats are on pace for around a 34-seat gain in the House (outstanding races are still to be called in a few places), with a record number of women candidates winning overall. This is slightly above historical average gains for opposition parties in midterm elections but below the massive 2010 shift of 63 seats during the Obama presidency. Democrats gained seven governors’ seats, including in important presidential battleground states such as Michigan and Wisconsin and flipped six state legislative bodies, with about 330 state legislative seats gained across the country. Ballot initiatives to expand Medicaid won in three red states, while several measures to increase the minimum wage, legalize marijuana, and expand voting rights also emerged victorious. And, although definitive turnout data will not be available for a while, preliminary estimates suggest a massive increase in voter participation, with likely more than 110 million votes cast for the House—far above 2014 levels.
Midterm elections typically unfold on fleeting political terms and local issues that cannot be applied easily to future elections. But, given the highly polarized nature of U.S. politics under President Trump and the partisan divisions in control of the House and Senate and in key states, a few trends should be noted. The first two favor Democrats going into 2020, and the second two favor Republicans.
Today is the beginning of the Affordable Care Act’s open enrollment period. Open enrollment runs through December 15 and you can sign up at www.healthcare.gov.
Democrats want everyone to know about open enrollment so all Americans know they have the opportunity to buy insurance and remain insured. Trump doesn’t want anyone to find out about open enrollment, because he doesn’t want the ACA to succeed.
Here are 6 of the worst ways Trump has worked to sabotage ACA open enrollment
The Trump administration again scheduled downtime for the healthcare.gov website weekly throughout the open enrollment period.
The open enrollment period is now half as long as it used to be before the Trump administration’s sabotage.
The Trump administration is promoting junk insurance plans that undermine the ACA marketplace and may not provide the level of coverage people need.
The Trump administration slashed millions of dollars from outreach programs and advertising aimed at enrolling people in Obamacare plans.
The Trump administration limited and even abandoned state and community partnerships that have played a key role in enrolling harder-to-reach demographics.
Trump’s HHS spent taxpayer resources to produce anti-ACA videos and scrubbed its website of useful consumer guidance on the ACA.
The Trump tax law is not doing what Trump said it would. Trump and his White House said it would increase business investment and spending, but new data shows that’s not the case. They also said it would raise wages, but most Americans have not seen an increase in take-home pay. The only ones benefiting are the rich and big corporations.
WHITE HOUSE: The White House cited business investment and spending on factories as evidence their tax cut was working.
Hassett: “Because what’s happened is that the capital spending boom that we promised would happen if we passed the tax cuts is underway.”
REALITY: Business investment and spending on factories was extremely weak in the third quarter of 2018.
Wall Street Journal: “Investment by companies was weak. Nonresidential fixed investment-reflecting spending on commercial construction, equipment and intellectual property products such as software-rose only 0.8% in the third quarter after rising at a 8.7% rate in the second quarter and 11.5% in the first. The third-quarter rate of business investment was the weakest since the fourth quarter of 2016. Spending on structures fell at a 7.9% rate in the third quarter.” Continue reading “Trump Tax Law Has Not Benefited Workers And Business Investment Is Slowing”
Trump and Republicans are lying to voters about their health care sabotage. According to a new analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation, their sabotage of the Affordable Care Act has caused health care premiums for silver benchmark marketplace plans to be 16 percent higher than they would be otherwise.
Health care premiums for silver benchmark marketplace plans are 16% higher than they would have been without Trump and Republicans’ health care sabotage.
Kaiser Family Foundation: “Combined with estimates from the Congressional Budget Office, our analysis suggests the elimination of the cost-sharing subsidy and individual mandate penalty, as well as expansion of more loosely regulated plans, has caused on-exchange silver premiums to be 16% higher than would otherwise be the case.”
As many as 130 million Americans have a pre-existing condition and could lose their coverage if Trump and Republicans end the ACA’s protections.
Devin Nunes blocked investigations into ‘worrisome contacts between the Russians and candidate Trump, his family, his businesses, and his campaign,’ according to a member of his committee.
Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Credit: Carlos Barria, Reuters
A top member of the House Intelligence Committee has revealed shocking details about how Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) abused his position as committee chairman to obstruct the Mueller investigation and shield Trump from accountability.
In a blistering op-ed for Nunes’ hometown Fresno Bee, Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA), said that Nunes blocked committee Democrats from following up on leads about “worrisome contacts between the Russians and candidate Trump, his family, his businesses, and his campaign.”
What’s more, Swalwell said, Nunes blocked special counsel Robert Mueller from seeing evidence that “many witnesses committed perjury or offered information relevant to the special counsel’s work” when they testified before the committee.
Republicans are playing whack-a-mole in their struggle to keep the chamber.
Paul Ryan at the Capitol on September 13, 2018. Credit: Astrid Riecken, Getty Images
Three weeks before the 2018 midterms, more than a dozen Republican-held House seats appear to have tipped toward Democrats — and dozens more are in play too, according to polls and expert race ratings. Meanwhile, only a handful of Democrat-held seats appear to be in danger of flipping to the GOP.
The magic number for Democrats is 24: that is, they need to pick up, on net, 24 seats from Republicans to cement a House majority.
Currently, there are not yet that many individual contests in which Democrats are believed to have a solid advantage over GOP candidates. If we exclude toss-up contests and look only at how many races are at least leaning toward flipping, the Cook Political Report currently has Democrats favored to gain 15 seats on net. FiveThirtyEight has them clearly favored to net around 22, which would be agonizingly close.
Yet here’s the thing: There are many more remaining toss-up and other competitive contests — and they’re overwhelmingly in Republican-held districts.
