Russia Investigation
With Mueller set to testify on Wednesday, veteran Mueller watchers are publishing their advice on what questions Congress should ask him. First up is Wittes, who would get him to admit that he intended Congress to make a judgement on impeachable offenses; that there is the possibility for criminal liability after Trump leave office: “So, to summarize, I take your report to state that you found substantial evidence of presidential obstruction of justice, which you chose not to analyze, because you were deferring to Congress on questions of impeachment and to federal prosecutors after President Trump leaves office on questions of criminality. Is that a fair reading?”
Quinta Jurecic: Congress will be performing a valuable service if it can simply highlight the report’s findings to a public that has not had the opportunity to fully grapple with the contents of a 448-page document—whether by walking Mueller through a careful line of questioning, or by simply asking him to read through sections of the report out loud…. use the hearings to begin the process of forming opinions and judgments about what to do with the material Mueller has provided.
Mueller testified on Wednesday for five hours before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees. “Here is a pretty comprehensive summary from Lawfare. Which ends with this: Schiff’s remarks were a kind of mustering call for the House, an acknowledgement to Mueller that the former special counsel’s role was over and that he had successfully passed the baton to the legislative branch…. Schiff did not stake out specific next steps, but there is an obvious follow-up move for Congress in the wake of the Mueller hearings: calling fact witnesses and hearing from them directly.”
Pelosi is still against impeachment: “My position has always been whatever decision we make in that regard would have to be done with our strongest possible hand, and we still have some outstanding matters in the courts,” Ms. Pelosi said after the back-to-back hearings. “It’s about the Congress, the Constitution and the courts. And we are fighting the president in the courts.”
The Senate released its first volume on Russian election interference, showing that all 50 states’ election systems were hacked.
Immigration News
The recent immigration raid targeted 2000 people but only 35 were arrested.
Also: “on Monday the Trump administration said that it would accelerate the deportation of undocumented immigrants who cannot prove they have been in the United States for more than two years, enabling federal agents to arrest and deport people without a hearing before a judge.”
News reports of an autopsy done on a boy who died in a border patrol facility in May show that he died of the flu alone in a toilet stall.
Border Patrol detained an 18 year old American citizen for over a month because they believed he was an undocumented immigrant, despite the fact that he had “a wallet-sized Texas birth certificate, a Texas ID card and Social Security card.”
Here is a report about terrible conditions in a facility for children. A boy described his stay: “He describes them as filled with hunger and thirst, extreme temperatures and fear of the guards manning the facility. They refused to give him food when he asked, mocked him if he asked what time it was, and, on one occasion, punched another boy in the stomach, Abner said.”
Trump administration and Pelosi agreed to a budget deal to avoid hitting the debt limit.
On Saturday Trump advanced his racial political appeal by tweeting about Elijah Cummings: Rep, Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, shouting and screaming at the great men & women of Border Patrol about conditions at the Southern Border, when actually his Baltimore district is FAR WORSE and more dangerous. His district is considered the Worst in the USA…… ….As proven last week during a Congressional tour, the Border is clean, efficient & well run, just very crowded. Cumming District is a disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess. If he spent more time in Baltimore, maybe he could help clean up this very dangerous & filthy place.
Why is so much money sent to the Elijah Cummings district when it is considered the worst run and most dangerous anywhere in the United States. No human being would want to live there. Where is all this money going? How much is stolen? Investigate this corrupt mess immediately!
According to the Washington Post: Trump’s advisers had concluded after the previous tweets that the overall message sent by such attacks is good for the president among his political base — resonating strongly with the white working-class voters he needs to win reelection in 2020. This has prompted them to find ways to fuse Trump’s nativist rhetoric with a love-it-or-leave-it appeal to patriotism ahead of the 2020 election, while seeking to avoid the overtly racist language the president used in his tweets about the four congresswomen…. The attack on Cummings underscores Trump’s penchant for undermining any attempts by other Republicans to steer clear of overtly racial attacks
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Trump’s Job Approval: 42.5%
NOTE: Trump’s job approval reached 43% for one day on July 22, the highest since October 2018.