Today, the House Intelligence Committee voted to conclude their investigation into alleged collusion between Trump’s 2016 campaign and the Russians. Here is what the committee is choosing to ignore:
- at least 70 known contacts between Trump’s team and Russia-linked operatives during the campaign and transition;
- at least 22 of these known contacts were meetings;
- at least 12 members of the Trump team had contacts;
- at least another 10 people knew about these contacts; and
- 81 percent of the 70 known contacts received little or no scrutiny from the committee.
It is clear the committee, led by Trump transition team official Rep. Devin Nunes, had one objective—cover up these troubling revelations. For a complete chronological list of these contacts discovered to date and the lies Trump’s campaign, transition team, and White House told to hide them, read the Center for American Progress Action Fund’s Moscow Project report.
ACTION OF THE DAY
March For Our Lives. The March For Our Lives, organized by the survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting last month, is this Saturday, March 24th. Find an event near you from one of the 800+ worldwide events, or join us for the national march in D.C. on Saturday as we fight for commonsense gun safety laws.
WHAT’S TRENDING
Riding the Omnibus. Last night, House majority leaders unveiled a $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill in hopes of keeping the government open past the March 23rd funding deadline. While this bill contains funding for several progressive priorities and excludes several hateful proposals from the Trump administration, it does nothing for for Dreamers, many of whom are still at risk of deportation. This bill includes no fix for DACA, which Trump ended nearly 7 months ago and has continued to sabotage by rejecting multiple popular bipartisan solutions.
Facebook Feeling the Heat. It was recently discovered that Cambridge Analytica, a British political analysis firm with ties to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, collected data from 50 million Facebook users without their consent. The campaign then used this data to target users with ads and articles, a great number of which contained fake news. While it is unclear how early Facebook was aware of this data breach or to what extent they were informed, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to users and assured them that steps were being taken to prevent any future lapses in security. But some Democratic Senators say that this is not enough, and Zuckerberg should testify under oath before a Senate committee to get to the bottom of Facebook’s role in the hacking of the 2016 elections.
Too Much or Not Enough Change. A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) indicates that global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions increased by 1.4% in 2017–hitting a record high. Carbon dioxide emissions are “the primary cause of global temperature rise.” According to the IEA, this increase “is a strong warning for global efforts to combat climate change.” Despite strong growth in renewable energy, change is happening far too slowly to avoid the dire impacts of a changing climate. Yet, Donald Trump and his cabinet of climate deniers are continuing their attacks on science and environmental protections, ignoring these dire warnings and actively harming global efforts.
UNDER THE RADAR
More Attacks on Women. A group of Republicans in the Ohio State Legislature introduced a bill on Monday that would ban all abortions in the state. The bill prohibits abortions under all circumstances and allows no exceptions for rape, incest, or danger to the woman’s health. The bill “would characterize an “unborn human” as a person under Ohio’s criminal code regarding homicide,” meaning women seeking abortions and doctors performing them could be punished with criminal charges. Though “a blanket ban on abortions would almost certainly not hold up in court,” this makes the bill no less disturbing. This is yet another blatant attack on women’s rights to choice and reproductive freedom in the U.S. For more information on how abortion bans hurt women, see this fact sheet from the Center for American Progress Women’s Initiative team.