Week three of the official impeachment inquiry into President Trump's dealing with Ukraine got off to a rocky start for House Democrats with the State Department ordering U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland to skip a closed-door deposition on Capitol Hill Tuesday, just hours before it was scheduled to begin.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) quickly responded to the cancellation by accusing the administration of obstruction. "The failure to produce these documents we consider yet additional strong evidence of obstruction of the constitutional functions of Congress, a coequal branch of government."
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-N.Y.) echoed the obstruction claim in an interview with Cheddar on Tuesday, saying, "If the administration continues to not have it's administration officials come forward, that will indicate obstruction."
"Obstruction is a high crime and misdemeanor," she added.
While Democrats try to use the public forum to pressure the White House to provide information related to the impeachment inquiry, some Republican lawmakers are publicly supporting the decision to withhold Sondland. Ranking Member of the House Oversight Committee, Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) told reporters, "We wish [Sondland] would have been able to testify too, but we fully understand why the administration made the decision they did."
The ambassador's failure to appear before the House committees marks the first time an official has refused to come forward in regard to the inquiry. However, last week Secretary of State Mike Pompeo failed to turn over subpoenaed documents by the Friday deadline.
Schiff, along with House Foreign Affairs Chair Eliot Engel and Oversight and Reform Chair Elijah Cummings ultimately subpoenaed Sondland for failing to appear Tuesday before the committees.
Text messages released by the committees last week revealed that Sondland was among the U.S. diplomats involved in conversations with then-State Department special envoy for Ukraine Kurt Volker, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine Bill Taylor, and President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani .
Clarke began calling for the impeachment of Trump long before the Ukraine whistleblower. This latest development, she said, is "a pattern of corruption. We've seen this since 2017."
"People are recognizing the existential threat that Donald Trump is to our lives," the congresswoman added.
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to block states from regulating artificial intelligence. He argues that heavy regulations could stifle the industry, especially given competition from China. Trump says the U.S. needs a unified approach to AI regulation to avoid complications from state-by-state rules. The order directs the administration to draw up a list of problematic regulations for the Attorney General to challenge. States with laws could lose access to broadband funding, according to the text of the order. Some states have already passed AI laws focusing on transparency and limiting data collection.
The New York Times and President Donald Trump are fighting again. The news outlet said Wednesday it won't be deterred by Trump's “false and inflammatory language” from writing about the 79-year-old president's health. The Times has done a handful of stories on that topic recently, including an opinion column that said Trump is “starting to give President Joe Biden vibes.” In a Truth Social post, Trump said it might be treasonous for outlets like the Times to do “FAKE” reports about his health and "we should do something about it.” The Republican president already has a pending lawsuit against the newspaper for its past reports on his finances.
President Donald Trump says he will allow Nvidia to sell its H200 computer chip used in the development of artificial intelligence to “approved customers” in China. Trump said Monday on his social media site that he had informed China’s leader Xi Jinping and “President Xi responded positively!” There had been concerns about allowing advanced computer chips into China as it could help them to compete against the U.S. in building out AI capabilities. But there has also been a desire to develop the AI ecosystem with American companies such as chipmaker Nvidia.
House Republicans in key battleground districts are working to contain the political fallout expected when thousands of their constituents face higher bills for health insurance coverage obtained through the Affordable Care Act. For a critical sliver of the GOP majority, the impending expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits after Dec. 31 could be a major political liability as they potentially face midterm headwinds in a 2026 election critical to President Donald Trump’s agenda. For Democrats, the party’s strategy for capturing the House majority revolves around pinning higher bills for groceries, health insurance and utilities on Republicans.
President Donald Trump says a deal struck by Netflix last week to buy Warner Bros. Discovery “could be a problem” because of the size of the combined market share. The Republican president says he will be involved in the decision about whether federal regulators should approve the deal. Trump commented Sunday when he was asked about the deal as he walked the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. The $72 billion deal would bring together two of the biggest players in television and film and potentially reshape the entertainment industry.
The two-sentence footnote raised serious concerns about accuracy and credibility.
