Nancy says “bring it”
by digby
This House of Representatives is not intimidated:
A defiant Speaker Nancy Pelosi declared on Wednesday that House Democrats would not be cowed by President Trump’s “all-out threat” during his State of the Union address to drop their investigations of his administration, as fellow Democrats pushed ahead with a bevy of sensitive inquiries.
“It was a threat; it was an all-out threat,” Ms. Pelosi told reporters just hours after Mr. Trump’s address and on the eve of a hearing that will launch Democratic efforts to secure his long-suppressed tax returns — one of the inquiries likely to pique the president.
“It’s our congressional responsibility, and if we didn’t do it, we would be delinquent in that,” she said.
All across the House on Wednesday, the gears of congressional oversight — which were mostly still during Mr. Trump’s first two years in office — began to pick up steam.
The Intelligence Committee held its first formal meeting of the year and promptly voted to share with the special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III, transcripts of witness interviews that it conducted related to Russian election interference. Mr. Mueller has already used two such transcripts to charge associates of the president with lying to Congress, and Democrats believe others could have intentionally misled the committee.
The committee’s chairman, Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, also unveiled the parameters of a new investigation, to be pursued in collaboration with the Financial Services Committee and others, of “any credible allegations of leverage by the Russians, the Saudis, or anyone else” over Mr. Trump or his administration.
“Our job involves making sure the policy of the United States is being driven by the national interest, not by any financial entanglement, financial leverage or other form of compromise,” Mr. Schiff said.
The Judiciary Committee had called a meeting on Thursday to vote on a subpoena to compel testimony from Mr. Trump’s acting attorney general, Matthew G. Whitaker, if needed. Mr. Whitaker, a loyalist of the president’s who is currently overseeing Mr. Mueller’s work, is scheduled to testify voluntarily on Friday, but Democrats have concerns that he may try to back out or dodge questions.
[…]
Earlier, in a closed-door meeting with House Democrats, Ms. Pelosi had privately lambasted the president.“He was a guest in our House chamber, and we treated him with more respect than he treated us,” she said, according to a Democratic aide in the room who was not authorized to discuss the private session publicly.
Ms. Pelosi also took a dig at Mr. Trump’s plan, detailed on Tuesday, to invest $500 million over ten years to developing new cures for childhood cancer, characterizing it as paltry.
“Five hundred million dollars over 10 years — are you kidding me?” she said, according to the aide. “Who gave him that figure? It’s like the cost of his protection of his Mar-a-Lago or something.”
Lol…
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