Page 6 - Florida Sentinel 3-5-19

White House And Political News
Trump HUD Official Lynne Patton Fires Back At Rep. Rashida Tlaib: I'm Not 'A Prop'
US To Demolish Trump’s Border Wall Prototypes In San Diego
Housing and Urban Devel- opment official Lynne Pat- ton fired back at Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib, who suggested that Ms. Patton, who is black, was Republican Rep. Mark Meadow’s “prop” during the Michael Cohen hearing on last Wednesday.
Ms. Patton, a Republican with ties to the Trump family for more than a decade, sat be- hind Mr. Meadows during the hearing and was intro- duced by the congressman during a line of questions over Mr. Cohen’s claim that President Trump is racist.
“She says as a daughter of
a man born in Birmingham, Alabama, that there is no way that she would work for an individual who was a racist,” Mr. Meadows told the House Oversight Com- mittee.
The government is demol- ishing eight prototypes of Donald Trump’s prized border wall that instantly be- came powerful symbols of his presidency when they were built nine months after he took office.
The Trump administra- tion says elements of the pro- totypes have been melded into current border fence de- signs and they have served their purpose.
The four concrete and four steel panels, spaced closely together steps from an exist- ing barrier separating San Diego and Tijuana, Mexico, were one of Trump’s top pri- orities, and he visited the lo- cation a year ago to see the installations firsthand.
For Trump’s allies, the towering models were a show of his commitment to border security and fulfilling a core campaign promise. For de- tractors, they were monu- ments to wasted taxpayer dollars and a misguided dis- play of aggression toward Mexico and immigrants seek- ing a new home in the United States.
In this July 20, 2016, file photo, Lynne Patton of the Eric Trump Foundation waves during her speech at the Re- publican National Convention in Cleveland.
Ms. Tlaib, Michigan De- mocrat, took issue with Mr. Meadow’s gesture, saying, “The fact that someone would actually use a prop, a black woman in this cham- ber, in this committee, is alone racist in itself.”
PRESIDENT TRUMP
Less than two hours after crews began Wednesday, seven of the barriers were de- stroyed. A large hydraulic jackhammer attached to an excavator pounded the walls repeatedly as slabs fell into small clouds of dust. A panel made of steel poles was also dismantled.
Public access to the proto- types was blocked from the San Diego side, turning an impoverished Tijuana neigh- borhood into a popular spot for journalists, demonstra- tors and curious observers. Artists displayed light shows on the walls with messages such as “Refugees Welcome Here” next to an image of the Statue of Liberty.
Ms. Tlaib later clarified that she was not calling Mr. Meadows racist but that bringing in Ms. Patton was a “racist act.”
Democrats Eye New Inquiries, Witnesses After Cohen Testimony
After three days of grilling Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Democrats are quickly using his words as a roadmap to open new lines of investigation into the president’s ties to Rus- sia and summon additional wit- nesses.
Cohen completed a third day of testimony on Capitol Hill Thursday, one day after publicly branding his former boss a racist and a con man who lied about business dealings in Russia and directed him to conceal extra- marital relationships. He was in- terviewed behind closed doors by the House Intelligence Com- mittee for more than eight hours.
As he left the House intelli- gence interview, Cohen said he would be returning to Capitol Hill on March 6 for another round of questioning with that panel.
The weeklong gauntlet of in- terviews with Cohen launched what is expected to be months of investigations of Trump and those connected to him. Multi- ple Democrat-led House com- mittees are pledging to investigate not only Trump’s campaign’s ties to Russia, which are also the subject of special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, but presidential conflicts of interest, possible money laun- dering and other oversight mat- ters that Democrats say were ignored under GOP control.
House Intelligence Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff called the closed-door session with Cohen productive and said lawmakers were able to “drill down in great detail” on issues they are inves- tigating. Another Democratic committee member, California Rep. Eric Swalwell, said Cohen “has been asked, based on a lot of new evidence we learned today, to bring corrobo- rating materials that he believes he has.”
Based on who was mentioned in the hearing, possible wit- nesses could include Weissel- berg and two of the president’s children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump. Daniels was also mentioned frequently.
Cohen, who pleaded guilty last year to lying to Congress about the Moscow real estate project and reports to prison in May for a three-year sentence, gave harsh testimony about Trump on several fronts Wednesday. He said Trump knew in advance that damaging emails about Democrat Hillary Clinton would be released dur- ing the 2016 campaign — a claim the president has denied — and accused Trump of lying during the 2016 campaign about the Moscow deal.
Cohen also said Trump di- rected him to arrange the hush money payment to Daniels. He said the president arranged to reimburse Cohen, and Cohen brought to the hearing a check that he said was proof of the transaction.
He said prosecutors in New York were investigating conver- sations Trump or his advisers had with him after his office and hotel room were raided by the FBI last April. Cohen said he could not discuss that conversa- tion, the last contact he said he has had with the president or anyone acting on his behalf, be- cause it remains under investi- gation.
Two of Trump’s most vocal defenders, GOP Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Mark Meadows of North Carolina, sent a referral to the Justice De- partment alleging Cohen lied in his testimony. Their letter to At- torney General William Barr details several Cohen state- ments they said were false, in- cluding claims that he “never defrauded any bank” and did not want a job in Trump’s White House.
Trump On Brink Of GOP Rebellion Over Emergency Declaration
MICHAEL COHEN
Schiff said the committee will hear from Felix Sater, a Russia-born executive who worked with Cohen on an ulti- mately unsuccessful deal to build a Trump Tower in Moscow, in an open hearing March 14.
In addition, a committee aide said the panel also anticipates inviting Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to testify. Cohen mentioned the Trump Organiza- tion chief financial officer sev- eral times in his public House Oversight testimony, linking him to hush money payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels, who alleged she had an affair with Donald Trump. Trump denies the affair.
The Oversight Committee is also planning on calling addi- tional witnesses after Cohen’s testimony. The committee’s chairman, Maryland Rep. Eli- jah Cummings, indicated the panel could bring in a broad swath of people that Cohen mentioned in Wednesday’s hearing. He told reporters that his panel is poring over the tran- script and anyone mentioned multiple times has a chance of hearing from them.
President Trump is fac- ing a potential revolt among Senate Republicans over his decision to declare a national emergency to construct the U. S.-Mexico border wall.
Sen. Rand Paul’s (R- Ky.) public announcement over the weekend that he will oppose Trump’s declaration ensures a resolution blocking it will be approved by the Senate after already passing the House — unless Senate Republicans can find some kind of last-minute way out of the showdown.
Republicans have been hunting for a way out of a fight over the declaration that has badly fractured the cau- cus, but Paul’s decision un- derscores the difficulty leadership faces in finding a successful exit strategy.
Sen. John Kennedy (R- La.), who is expected to op- pose a resolution of disapproval, floated that Trump could be rethinking his decision given the likeli- hood that he’ll have to use his first veto.
“I do think he is probably rethinking the situation,”
PRESIDENT TRUMP
Kennedy told CNN’s "State of the Union." “I don't think the president has the votes on a straight-up vote to sustain his position. Now, if the Sen- ate says, 'Mr. President, you don't have the authority,' as the House did, I expect the president to veto it, and we will be right back to where we are now.”
Sen. Lamar Alexander
(R-Tenn.) took the unusual step last week of publicly urg- ing Trump to back down. He called on the president to re- verse the emergency declara- tion and instead use transfer authorities that are already granted to him to find money for the wall.
PAGE 6 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019