Rudy Giuliani says Trump won’t sit down with Robert Mueller:
Rudy Giuliani told ABC that President Trump is not going to sit down with special counsel Robert Mueller because former FBI director Comey could be lying. "People do things like lie. People lie. Could Comey be lying? You're damn right he could be lying, George. And we're going to walk ourselves into a trap like that?" For it to be fair to Trump, "The special counsel has to be open to believing" Comey could lie, Giuliani said. "The special counsel so far seems to think that Comey is Moses. And I happen to think Comey is Judas." He also said that Trump might assert his Fifth Amendment rights if he were placed under oath.
Giuliani offers new explanation of why Trump fired Comey:
Rudy Giuliani, Trump’s new attorney, said in an interview on Fox News that President Trump fired James Comey last year because James Comey would not state “that he wasn’t a target” of the special counsel’s Russia investigation.
“He fired Comey because Comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn’t a target of the investigation,” Giuliani said. “He’s entitled to that. Hillary Clinton got that. Actually, he couldn’t get that.”
In announcing the firing, the White House initially cited the FBI director’s handling of the investigation into Clinton’s emails. Trump later told NBC’s Lester Holt that he was thinking of “this Russia thing” when he made the move.
On Fox News Wednesday night, Giuliani said Trump did the Lester Holt interview “to explain to the American people the president was not the target of the investigation.”
DOJ inspector general's testimony postponed amid new leads in Clinton case review
Inspector General Michael Horowitz’s widely anticipated testimony this week before the House Oversight Committee has been postponed, as the Justice Department IG has pursued new leads in his review of the Hillary Clinton email investigation, according to a congressional letter and sources familiar with the matter.
Horowitz was scheduled to appear before the committee on May 8. But Gowdy told Horowitz “as close to the day the report is finalized as is practicable.”
Horowitz is still working to complete his review of the FBI and DOJ's handling of the Clinton case. Sources familiar with the review have told Fox News that Horowitz has continued to pursue new leads and witnesses in recent weeks.
During a speech Friday, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein said he expects Horowitz’s review will be finalized soon. “Within the next few weeks, I anticipate that our inspector general will complete a comprehensive, fair and nonpartisan report that answers many questions about how the Department of Justice handled a high-profile investigation during the last presidential campaign,” Rosenstein said. “We will learn from it, and our Department will do better in the future.”
Iran Deal Updates:
The May 12th deadlinefor President Trump to decide whether to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal is approaching quickly. As the deadline approaches the leaders of Iran and Israel have weighed in.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel repeated his call for the agreement to be “fully fixed or fully nixed”, arguing that while it may have delayed the acquisition of Iran’s first bomb, it paves the way for the country to build an entire nuclear arsenal soon after the deal expires.
“The last thing you can say about it is that it blocks all of Iran’s paths to the bomb. In fact, it does the very opposite,” Mr. Netanyahu said. “If you do nothing to this deal, if you keep it as is, you will end up with Iran with a nuclear arsenal in a very short time.”
Mr. Netanyahu has staked his political career on blocking Iran and its nuclear ambitions, which pose a potential existential threat to Israel, but there is no sign so far that his campaign has shifted European leaders who have lobbied Mr. Trump not to scuttle the deal.
Many experts, including former Israeli security officials, have said that while the deal may be flawed, it is better than having no deal. The Israeli government argues for the re-imposition of economic sanctions on Tehran, which it says would serve to curb not only Iran’s nuclear ambitions, but also its power in the Middle East.
Attempted Border Entries Continue to Rise:
The Customs and Border Protection Agency new FY2018 data, shows that in April of 2018, more than 50,000 individuals tried to cross the southwestern border. This is the second month in a row that many people have attempted the crossing.
The report revealed that there was not much of an increase in people attempting to come into the U.S. from March 2018 to April 2018, but it is 3 times higher than April of 2017. In addition, 12,00 individuals attempted to cross but were found inadmissible bringing the FY 2018 total to 63,000, and 38,000 were apprehended attempting to cross between ports of entry, bringing the FY 2018 total to more than 200,000. Among the group apprehended, there were around 4,000 unaccompanied minors and just under 10,000 family units.
Both unaccompanied minors and family units, under policy, are only detained briefly before being released into the interior pending further deportation proceedings. Estimates from the Center for Immigration Studies indicate that only half of all of those individuals released pending further hearings, actually show up for their subsequent trial.
John McCain doesn’t want Trump at his funeral
According a New York Times report that Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) doesn’t want President Trump at his funeral, calling it a “real moment for the country.”
“This is a real moment for the country where an American hero, somebody who is beloved in many, many ways is saying, ‘I don’t want this guy at my funeral,’” Tapper said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union."
The Times reported Saturday that McCain's inner circle has communicated to the White House that the senator would like Vice President Mike Pence to attend his eventual funeral at the Washington National Cathedral, but not Trump. McCain was diagnosed with brain cancer last year and is undergoing treatment.
McCain/Coons immigration bill sparks Trump backlash
A bill aimed at resetting immigration negotiations in the Senate is running into early backlash from President Trump. The bill from Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Christopher Coons (D-Del.), introduced in February, pairs a path to citizenship for “dreamers” with border security measures — but does not include funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The two senators believe their bill could be a base for negotiators among a wider group of senators, but Trump took a shot at the measure before it was even formally introduced.
The president said it was a non-starter to offer a fix for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which protects many immigrants who entered the United States illegally as children, without funding for the wall.
How Politically Biased Are Colleges? New Study Finds It's Far Worse Than Anybody Thought
An extensive study of 8,688 tenure-track professors at 51 of the 66 top-ranked liberal arts colleges in the U.S. published by the National Association of Scholars found that the ratio of faculty members registered as Democrats compared to those registered Republican is now 10.4 to 1.
The researcher, Mitchell Langbert, Associate Professor of Business at Brooklyn College, found that nearly 40% of the colleges in the study had zero faculty members who were registered Republican.
Nearly 80% of the 51 colleges had so few Republican faculty members that they were statistically insignificant.
Mail Time!
- "Great podcast for Thursday, Bill both Wednesday and Thursday you stated that you felt Mueller has to come up with something, would Mueller himself be in legal hot water if he came up with a charge that doesn't have merit?"
- "One thing I don't understand is, Stormy Daniels took money from Cohen signed a document to keep quiet, how can she be all over the media telling her stories?"
- "Bill, please share your thoughts, to fair minded people who see the culture changing into something they never thought would happen. How do we stop and reverse the madness that is now affecting our schools, communities and homes. Middle America is ready to stand up and take our country back."
Word of the Day: Noddy |
