Top Stories Today – April 2, 2019
Top Stories Today – April 2, 2019
GOP healthcare proposal won’t come until 2020
President Donald Trump said late Monday night that Republicans are working on a new health care plan but won’t introduce it until after the 2020 election. Trump’s statements come a week after his administration announced that it now agreed with a judge’s ruling that the entire Affordable Care Act should be scrapped.
The opinion was a dramatic reversal from the administration’s previous stance that only portions of the act could not be defended. Trump’s latest move allows him to wait on the issue as legal challenges against the health care law, also known as Obamacare, make their way through the federal court system. CNN
No deal Brexit now more likely
A no-deal Brexit is now more likely but can still be avoided, the EU’s chief negotiator has said. Michel Barnier said a long extension to the UK’s 12 April exit date had “significant risks for the EU” and a “strong justification would be needed”.
Meanwhile, the BBC’s John Pienaar said Theresa May’s cabinet has considered plans to “ramp up” preparations for a no-deal Brexit. A snap general election was also discussed in the meeting, he said. A second two-hour regular cabinet meeting will be held later, with the issues likely to be discussed again. It comes after MPs voted on four alternatives to the PM’s withdrawal deal, but none gained a majority. BBC
2nd woman accuses Biden of misconduct
A second woman has accused former US Vice-President Joe Biden of inappropriate touching, as the leading Democrat mulls a White House bid. Amy Lappos said Biden had touched her face with both hands and rubbed noses with her a decade ago.
The allegation comes after another women, Lucy Flores, said Biden kissed her on the back of her head at a campaign event. Biden has said he did not believe he has ever acted inappropriately. The former Delaware senator, who served as Barack Obama’s vice-president in 2009-17, is seen as a possible frontrunner in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination. BBC
US House move to subpoena Mueller report
The majority Democrats on a House of Representatives committee are moving this week to subpoena the full report from special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and five former White House officials.
The House Judiciary Committee had called for full disclosure by Tuesday of the nearly 400-page report and its underlying evidence. Attorney General William Barr said last week that he would release the report by mid-April, “if not sooner,” after confidential material had been redacted. With its Tuesday deadline unlikely to be met, the House panel plans to vote to authorize the subpoenas on Wednesday, allowing the committee’s chairman, Congressman Jerrold Nadler, to actually issue them as he sees fit. The Voice of America
US House consider subpoenas census question
A US House of Representatives committee is set to consider Tuesday whether to issue subpoenas to Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross seeking documents related to the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question to the country’s 2020 census.
Ross said last year he made the decision based on a request from the Justice Department to better enforce the Voting Rights Act. But states and rights groups have challenged the move, arguing it would discourage immigrants from participating, and thus result in undercounting how many people live in certain parts of the country. The census is meant to include every person in the United States at the time, no matter their citizenship or immigration status. The Voice of America
WH security clearance issues
A whistle-blower working inside the White House has told a House committee that senior Trump administration officials granted security clearances to at least 25 individuals whose applications had been denied by career employees for “disqualifying issues” that could put national security at risk, the committee’s Democratic staff said Monday.
The whistle-blower, Tricia Newbold, a manager in the White House’s Personnel Security Office, told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform in a private interview last month that the 25 applicants included two current senior White House officials, in addition to contractors and other employees working for the office of the president, the staff said in a memo it released publicly. The New York Times
Baltimore mayor’s book scandal intensifies
Baltimore’s embattled mayor announced Monday that she is taking an indefinite leave of absence, just as a political scandal intensifies over what critics call a “self-dealing” book-sales arrangement that threatens her political career. Mayor Catherine Pugh’s office says she feels unable to fulfill her obligations as mayor due to deteriorating health brought on by a recent bout of pneumonia. “She’s been advised by her physicians that she needs to take time to recover,” her office’s statement said, adding that the City Council president will take over the Democratic mayor’s day-to-day responsibilities.
The first-term mayor’s abrupt decision to go on leave indefinitely came the same day that Maryland’s Republican governor asked the state prosecutor to investigate corruption accusations against the leader of Maryland’s biggest city and the state’s comptroller, a Democrat, urged Pugh to resign immediately. The Associated Press