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A4 U.S. NEWS
Saturday 13 May 2017
Hinting at secret tapes, Trump warns ousted FBI director

By JONATHAN LEMIRE Trump presidential cam-
JAKE PEARSON paign last year.
JULIE PACE It also escalated a poten-
Associated Press tially damaging standoff
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rag- between a fuming, undis-
ing against a political fire- ciplined president and the
storm, President Donald unorthodox lawman he dis-
Trump on Friday shot a missed three days earlier.
sharp warning at his ousted Not to mention Congress,
FBI director about possible which has its own investiga-
“tapes” of their disputed tions underway.
private conversations, rais- Democrats quickly seized
ing the provocative pos- on the dispute, demanding
sibility that recording de- the White House turn over
vices have been installed any tapes that might exist
in the White House. of the president’s conver-
Trump’s top spokesman sations with Comey.
refused to comment on Trump’s behavior raises
whether listening devices “the specter of possible
are active in the Oval Of- intimidation and obstruc-
fice or elsewhere, a non- tion of justice,” wrote
denial that recalled the Reps. John Conyers and
President Donald Trump speaks to military mothers in the East Room of the White House, Friday,
May 12, 2017, during Mother’s Day celebration. secretly taped conver- Elijah Cummings, ranking
(AP Photo/Susan Walsh) sations and telephone Democrats on the House
calls that ultimately led to Judiciary and Oversight
President Richard Nixon’s committees, in a letter to
downfall in the Watergate White House Counsel Don
scandal. Trump’s warning McGahn. “The president’s
to fired FBI Director James actions also risk undermin-
Comey prompted new ac- ing the ongoing criminal
cusations of interference and counterintelligence in-
in an investigation into al- vestigations and the inde-
legations of collaboration pendence of federal law
between Russia and the enforcement agencies.”q

GOP lawmaker cautions health
care bill is Obamacare ‘tweak’

By THOMAS BEAUMONT year.
Associated Press “We did not repeal,” Blum
MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) told about 200 people at
— After campaigning on a community college in
repealing the health care central Iowa on Thursday.
law and voting to gut it, an “Only about 10 percent of
Iowa Republican is cau- Obamacare was changed
tioning constituents fearful with this bill that we passed
of losing coverage that the in the House, only 10 per-
House GOP replacement cent.”
is just “a tweak of Obam- A week ago, the House
acare” that would have narrowly approved a bill
gone further had he had that would gut major por-
his way. tions of the Obama law by
Two-term Rep. Rod Blum, overhauling government
who represents a swing subsidies for private health
district that includes insurance and winding
Dubuque and Cedar Rap- down Obama’s expansion
ids, is among the conser- of the Medicaid health
vative House Republicans care program for the poor,
who campaigned angrily while also rolling back
against then-President funding for traditional Med-
Barack Obama’s signature icaid and cutting taxes on
health law for two years, upper-income people that
only to accept a bill they Democrats used to finance
say did not undo enough the Affordable Care Act’s
of the 2010 law. And in so coverage expansion.
doing, Blum and others are Congressional analysts es-
understating the impact timate that 24 million more
of the bill that, if enacted, Americans would be unin-
could drop millions from sured by 2026, including 14
their insurance by next million by next year.q