Iowa's longest-serving Republican legislator leaves party because of Trump
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The Trump administration is being accused of “stonewalling” Congress by ignoring a deadline for the Treasury to hand over Donald Trump's tax returns and defying a subpoena requesting ex-personal security director Carl Kline appear before a House investigative committee.
“It appears that the president believes that the Constitution does not apply to his White House, that he may order officials at will to violate their legal obligations, and that he may obstruct attempts by Congress to conduct oversight,” said Elijah Cummings, chairman of the House Oversight Committee.
President Trump made his feelings on Democrat-led investigations in the wake of the Mueller report perfectly clear in an interview on Tuesday, stating: “There is no reason to go any further, and especially in Congress where it’s very partisan - obviously very partisan. I don’t want people testifying to a party, because that is what they’re doing if they do this.”
He continued to attack the special counsel and ongoing congressional investigations Wednesday, telling reporters before departing the White House his administration is "fighting all the subpoenas."
“We have been – I have been – the most transparent president and administration in the history of our country by far,” Mr Trump said.
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“We’re fighting all the subpoenas. These aren’t, like, impartial people. The Democrats are trying to win 2020," he added.
He added that he “thought after two years we’d be finished with it," referring to the investigations surrounding his campaign.
Meanwhile, Democrats have stepped up their enquiries in the aftermath of the special counsel's investigation into Russian interference.
One congressional subpoena the administration is expected to challenge has gone out to Don McGahn, former White House counsel who cooperated with Mr Mueller.
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And the White House is pushing back on other fronts, including House Democratic efforts to obtain Mr Trump’s tax returns and his business’ financial records.
Additional reporting by AP. Check out The Independent's live coverage from Washington below.
Democrats, who control the House and could launch impeachment procedures, remain divided over the issue.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders have remained cautious over impeaching Mr Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential election while others in the party's more liberal wing have demanded such proceedings begin.
President Trump has also made a new threat to send armed soldiers to the US-Mexico border - although images of tear gas by officials and fences barriers being erected on the border did not go down well last year.
Mr Trump tweeted that "Mexico's Soldiers recently pulled guns on our National Guard Soldiers, probably as a diversionary tactic for drug smugglers on the Border," but he didn't support the drug-smuggling claim.
Mr Trump's latest tweet is related to one of his favourite topics - immigration at the border. The president's hardline rhetoric on the issue is seen by many as divisive.
It comes as border patrol agents try to find the parents of a three-year-old child found abandoned at the border.
Mr Trump is now back to the Mueller report - blaming Democrats for "wanting more" in asking for further testimony from White House and administration officials.
Donald Trump is now tweeting about Washington Post journalist Bob Costa, seemingly disputing the notion he called the reporter in a recently published story. The president says Mr Costa instead called him.
An explosive new report says Donald Trump’s acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney urged former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen to refrain from mentioning future Russian election meddling when speaking with the president.
It should be noted that Washington Post’s Robert Costa previously confirmed he called Donald Trump with a question before the president returned his call. “President Trump called me this evening, in response to my request for comment,” the journalist wrote on Twitter.
The president wrote this morning: “I didn’t call Bob Costa of the Washington Post, he called me (Returned his call)!”
So basically, Mr Trump confirmed the reporting was not, in fact, “more Fake News.”
More from Donald Trump’s comments to reporters from earlier today: he claimed to be the “most transparent president and administration in the history of our country by far” while departing the White House.
“The Democrats are trying to win 2020. They're not going to win with the people I see, and they're not going to win against me,” he said.
The president added: “The only way they can luck out is by constantly going after me on nonsense.”
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