Trump news – live: Jan 6 committee finds gaps in White House call logs as president denies destroying records
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It has emerged that the committee investigating the 6 January insurrection at the US Capitol has identified gaps in the White House call logs from the day of the riot, posing another obstacle to establishing what Mr Trump said and did in the hours before and during the event. According to the New York Times, there is no evidence the records were deliberately deleted, but it is well known that Mr Trump frequently used his own and others’ cellphones to talk to his allies while in office.
Meanwhile, as the saga of the Trump administration documents wrongly taken to Mar-a-Lago continues to deepen, an new book has reported that Donald Trump himself clogged a White House toilet with torn-up documents that should have been preserved.
The story is featured in Confidence Man, a soon-to-be-released account of the president’s White House years written by New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman. Mr Trump has called the story “fake news” and accused Ms Haberman – whose work he follows closely – of making it up for publicity.
National Archives requests investigation of Trump docs
The National Archives on Wednesday issued a statemen concurring with Washington ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and called for a federal investigation of President Donald Trump’s team for the pace of document turnovers to the agency.
The Washington Post reported the news first, which has not been confirmed yet by the Archives.
The move came after several days of debate over whether Mr Trump’s team was knowingly violating the law when documents from his White House term were kept at Mar-a-Lago months after he left office.
Mr Trump on Wednesday complained that the media was distorting the story even after his own team admitted that it was “improper” for such records to still be awaiting return to the Archives after more than a year of the president being out of office.
“Much of this material will someday be displayed in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library for the public to view my Administration’s incredible accomplishments for the American People,” he said.
His statement did not address claims that he had ripped up numerous documents that were expected to be returned, and that his own aides were forced to piece the pages back together.
Jan 6 committee subpoenas Navarro
Peter Navarro, the ex-White House trade adviser, is the latest member of the Trump administration to receive a subpoena for documents and testimony to the January 6 committee.
Mr Navarro was subpoenaed on Wednesday as the committee continues its investigation of members of Mr Trump’s inner circle who planned at a Washington DC-area hotel near the White House to overturn the election. Along with Steve Bannon and Rudy Giuliani, Mr Navarro was reportedly involved in the effort to convince then-Vice President Mike Pence that he should interfere in the Electoral College count process.
Mr Pence did not relent under the pressure, and Wednesday’s subpoena comes just a day after Mr Navarro went on Mr Bannon’s War Room podcast to declare Mr Pence’s political career dead in the water.
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Biden mocks Trump claim that wind turbines ‘cause cancer'
President Joe Biden took aim at Donald Trump on Wednesday over a 2019 remark that played into conspiracy theories Republicans have used to oppose the expansion of green energy sources.
Misinformation about climate change is no rarity on the right, and Mr Biden took clear aim at the GOP on Wednesday when he asked utility CEOs if they were facing “resistance” to the expansion of wind power.
“Are you still getting resistance? I know they cause cancer,” he cracked to the assembled CEOs, according to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.
At the Republican Congressional Committee’s spring meeting in 2019, then-President Donald Trump made a bizarre claim about wind power while also (correctly) noting that collisions with wind turbines sometimes lead to bird deaths.
“If you have a windmill anywhere near your house, congratulations, your house just went down 75 percent in value. And they say the noise causes cancer,” Mr Trump said at the time.
There isn’t a shred of scientific evidence to back up such a claim.
"The available Australian and international evidence does not support the view that the infrasound or low frequency sound generated by wind farms, as they are currently regulated in Australia, causes adverse health effects on populations residing in their vicinity,” said the American Medical Association in 2014.
Trump Jr complains about Democrats taking credit for reversing mask mandates
Donald Trump Jr attacked Democratic leaders around the US such as New York’s Gov Kathy Hochul on Wednesday as several states announced plans to end mandates on mask-wearing to slow the spread of Covid-19.
The former president’s eldest son wrote that governors like Ms Hochul were playing the “campions of the reversal” (misspelling the word “champions,”) and claimed that “anyone with a brain” knew that mask mandates were wrong. In actuality, masks, including cloth masks, are proven to offer varying degrees of protection against Covid-19 transmission for varying amounts of time depending on the circumstances.
18 months after everyone with a brain was against mask mandates and smothering our children and our freedoms Democrats are pretending to be campions of the reversal of their draconian Policies BS as though it never happened because SCIENCE… (polling)
— Donald Trump Jr. (@DonaldJTrumpJr) February 9, 2022
Democratic leaders signal support for stock trading ban in Congress
Leaders of the Democrats in the House and Senate came out in support of a ban on congressional stock trading on Wednesday after Speaker Nancy Pelosi in particular had expressed opposition in the past to such an effort.
“I believe in it. I have asked our members to get together to try to come up with one bill. I would like to see it done,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
Ms Pelosi agreed, but called for the ban to extend to the judiciary, including the Supreme Court, which could potentially hamper negotiations.
“The judiciary has no reporting. The Supreme Court has no disclosure. It has no reporting of stock transactions, and it makes important decisions every day,” she said at a press conference.
Marjorie Taylor Greene blasts Pelosi’s ‘gazpacho police'
In one of her typical statements likening Speaker Nancy Pelosi to the Nazis on Wednesday, controversial congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene made an amusing verbal slip up while attacking the January 6 select committee.
While apparently attempting to liken the panel to the Nazi-era Gestapo secret police, Ms Greene inadvertently criticised “Nancy Pelosi’s gazpacho police” in a video message.
Gazpacho is a type of soup popular in Spain, Portugal and other countries.
Biden applauds effort to reauthorize Violence Against Women Act
President Joe Biden applauded a bipartisan group of senators on Wednesday as they reintroduced the Violence Against Women Act, a major piece of anti-domestic violence legislation that laxed in 2018.
The act is seeing action in the Senate and may pass the evenly-divided chamber; it would need 60 votes to do so.
“I am especially grateful to Senators [Dianne] Feinstein, [Joni] Ernst, [Dick] Durbin, and [Lisa] Murkowski for their ongoing leadership and commitment,” said Mr Biden on Wednesday.
Trump claims relationship with National Archives is ‘respectful'
Former President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday in a statement that he maintains a “respectful” relationship with the National Archives despite turning over documents owed to the agency more than a year late and in some cases reassembled after being torn up.
Mr Trump said that his team had arranged for the “transport of boxes that contained Presidential Records in compliance with the Presidential Records Act,” which is false and comes despite the agency asking the Justice Department on Wednesday to launch an investigation into the matter.
“Much of this material will someday be displayed in the Donald J. Trump Presidential Library for the public to view my Administration’s incredible accomplishments for the American People,” he added.
Kevin McCarthy sides with McConnell, breaks with RNC on January 6 resolution
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy relented and answered questions regarding the Republican National Committee’s resolution condemning two GOP lawmakers on the January 6 select committee on Wednesday.
Speaking with reporters, he said that he disagreed with the resolution’s assertion that much of what occurred on January 6 was “legitimate political discourse”, but criticised the committee for seeking information and interviews from those who were not present that day.
“I think anybody, we all know this, that entered this building, that rioted, is not legitimate discourse,” said the House GOP leader.
Tom Cotton joins GOP attacks on Democrats’ mask mandate decisions
Tom Cotton, a far-right member of the Senate, unloaded on Democratic leaders on Wednesday as some states announced ends to mask mandates amid falling Covid-19 case numbers.
Several Republicans reacted to a rapid-fire set of announcements from state leaders including New York’s Kathy Hochul this week by claiming that the decisions were a result of the upcoming midterm elections.
"The science hasn't changed. What's changed is that there is an election coming, and Democrats have seen the polling on this question. Now they're running scared, and they want to pretend they didn't force your kid to wear a mask for two years,” said Mr Cotton in a Senate floor speech.
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