FBI Director James Comey held a secret Oval Office meeting with President Barack Obama two weeks before Trump’s inauguration and may have deliberately misled Congress about it, according to an email sent by National Security Advisor Susan Rice that GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley and Lindsey Graham partially unclassified.
The meeting — which Comey never previously disclosed to Congress — occurred in the White House on Jan. 5, 2017. It included Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Rice deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, and Comey. The topic of the meeting was potential Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
By failing to inform the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence about the meeting in his June 8, 2017, testimony, Comey may have deliberately and intentionally misled Congress about his interactions with the former president, especially a meeting so close to Trump entering the White House.
“President Obama had a brief follow-on conversation with FBI Director Comey and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates in the Oval Office,” Rice wrote in an email written the day before the inauguration.
The National Archives gave Grassley and Graham “classified and unclassified emails” about the meeting.
Previously, Comey contended he only met with the Obama twice, once in 2015 and another “to say goodbye in late 2016,” according the former FBI director’s June 8, 2017, testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.
“I spoke alone with President Obama twice in person (and never on the phone) – once in 2015 to discuss law enforcement policy issues and a second time, briefly, for him to say goodbye in late 2016,” Comey’s opening statement read.
Grassley and Graham stated on their websites they “were struck by the context and timing of this email, and sent a follow up letter to Ambassador Rice.”
“It strikes us as odd that, among your activities in the final moments on the final day of the Obama administration, you would feel the need to send yourself such an unusual email purporting to document a conversation involving President Obama and his interactions with the FBI regarding the Trump/Russia investigation,” the two senators told Rice.
“In addition, despite your claim that President Obama repeatedly told Mr. Comey to proceed ‘by the book,’ substantial questions have arisen about whether officials at the FBI, as well as at the Justice Department and the State Department, actually did proceed ‘by the book,’” they continued.
Rice is scheduled to testify before the Senate Committee on the Judiciary on Feb. 22.
Grassley co-authored the letter to Rice as chairman of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary and Graham as chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism.
The House of Representatives voted Friday to approve Senate Concurrent Resolution 3, which sets in motion the repeal of President Barack Obama’s healthcare reform legislation, Obamacare, by a vote of 227-to-198, with nine Republicans voting against the repeal bill.
“This provided Congress with the legislative tools that we need to repeal and replace Obamacare,” said Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R.-Wis.), who spoke on the House floor before the vote. “This is the critical first step toward delivering relief to Americans who are struggling under this law.”
It is very rare for a speaker to take to the House floor and comment on a bill, so Ryan’s remarks signal the importance of the vote.
“The law is collapsing, the insurers are pulling out, and people can’t afford it,” he said.
“The deductibles are so high, it doesn’t even feel like you have insurance in the first place,” Ryan said. “This is a rescue mission. This is a necessary move and I urge all of my colleagues to do what is right.”
Nine Republicans voted with Democrats against the bill and no Democrats voted for the bill.
After Ryan was done, he shook hands with other Republicans and walked off the floor.
Although it is the custom for the speaker not to vote, Ryan did join the rest of his conference to support passage of the bill that does not truly repeal the 2010 Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Rather, because it is a bill using the track set up to pass the federal budget, it only addresses the financial underpinnings of Obamacare, such as the fees, taxes and, subsidies. Future legislation would have to address the rules and regulations.
Republican leaders chose the budget reconciliation process because Senate Republicans do not have the 60 votes required to end debate and proceed to a vote. A budget bill, however, has a fixed 50 hours of debate and then proceeds directly to a vote.
The incomplete repeal and the failure by Republicans to have a companion replacement bill that would cement the parts of Obama’s healthcare reforms that have consensus support—such as protections for people with pre-existing conditions or the ability to keep children on a parent’s plan until age 26—has raised concerns.
Following the speaker at the rostrum, the Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) approached to be recognized.
“I’m so sorry that the speaker left the floor, because I have some very good news for him,” she said.
“Clearly, he does not understand what the Affordable Care Act has brought to our country in terms of expanding access to many more people and to the promise of our Founding Fathers of Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” she said.
The chairman of the House Freedom Caucus—the conservative bloc inside the House Republican Conference—Rep. Mark R. Meadows (R.-N.C.), voted for the partial repeal but has voiced his concerns about not having the replacement to Obamacare ready-to-go.
“This has been a top priority of mine and the Freedom Caucus, as I believe it is critical that we give the American people a clear direction and assurance of a smooth transition toward a sound, high quality, and affordable healthcare market—especially so the most vulnerable can get the coverage they need,” Meadows said.
“Going forward, I strongly believe and will continue to express that a full repeal of Obamacare should take effect within two years during the 115th Congress,” he said. “That is what we promised the voters we would do. That is our job–and it’s high time we accomplish it.”
Now that the bill has passed, House and Senate committees must come up with specific proposals for the transition to the post-Obamacare world. The committees are allowed to submit their proposals beginning Jan. 27 in order to be incorporated in a final “budget” bill.
The congressman Meadows whom succeeded as leader of the House Freedom Caucus, Rep. James D. Jordan (R.-Ohio), said he voted for the bill because he wanted to get the process going.
“This is step one in the process to repeal Obamacare, a law that has driven up prices and hurt care. There are several steps to come but the goal is very clear: repeal it all – every regulation, every tax, every mandate – and do it this Congress,” Jordan said.
“All the talk of a three to four year phase out is not what we told the voters we would do. I will work to repeal it all as fast as we can,” he said.
Rep. Allen West (R-FL) has made headlines for criticizing Democratic leaders including President Barack Obama, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.
“This is a battlefield that we must stand upon. And we need to let President Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and my dear friend, chairman of the Democrat National Committee, we need to let them know that Florida ain’t on the table,” West said last Saturday at a Lincoln Day Dinner in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Rep. West went on to say that Democratic leaders should take their message of “economic dependency” and “get the hell out of the United States of America.”
Apparently, his comments proved too much for The Five’s co-host Bob Beckel.
“I’m going to try to be as calm here as I possibly can here in deference to my friends here at this table,” Beckel said.
“In my 30 years of politics, I have never heard anything more disgraceful in my life. I think that Allen West owes an apology to a lot of people. He’s lucky to have that seat in the first place. I’ll tell you this, Mr. West; When you start shooting your mouth off like that – and I admire the fact that you were in the military and you served your country. I understand that,” Beckel said.
“But before you start saying that, at the end of it, you said ‘Get the hell out of the United States,’ then you didn’t say the policies. Now, there’s 20 percent of us or 22 percent of us that happen to be Progressives, who believe in what Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi say. You go on to say 100 percent of America. We’re 20 percent of America and we’re not going anywhere whether you like it or not,” Beckel added.
“And you better be careful, my friend, because you’re getting on the edge there and you’re taking that Tea Party crowd with you,” Beckel added, wagging his finger at an imaginary Rep. West (isn’t that supposed to be the “ultimate insult”?).
Co-host Greg Gutfeld argued that Beckel’s righteous indignation was misplaced.
“During the break, I made a list of outspoken black liberals,” Greg Gutfeld said, “Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan, Black Panthers. . .Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis, Cornel West, Public Enemy, Eric Dyson!”
“In our culture,” Gutfeld continued, “We celebrate outspoken black leftists. So, now you have one, provocative, American, black conservative, and you liberals whine? I wanna’ see more Allen West. He’s not the first one, but he’s the beginning. And it’s refreshing–”
“You wanna’ see more of that hatred? You wanna’ see that kind of hatred in America?” Beckel interrupted.
“That’s not hatred,” Gutfeld shot back.
“It’s is hatred,” Beckel interrupted again, “It’s the worst most disgraceful, despicable, disgusting—“
“I just listed for you a dozen, black liberals who spoke in very extreme language in the last 20, 30 years,” Gutfeld said, putting an abrupt end to Beckel’s brief experiment with alliteration.
Later in the segment, as Beckel was trying to explain that Rep. West represents an extreme element in the Republican party, it was co-host Eric Bolling’s turn to interrupt.
“Let me just point something out,” Bolling said, “You’re calling him ‘Allen West.’ Either call him Representative West—“
“I’m not going to call him Representative anything!” Beckel responded indignantly, demonstrating that it’s perfectly acceptable for a TV personality to disregard “civility” when criticizing an elected official and war veteran, but that it is wholly unacceptable – indeed, “disgusting” and “despicable” — if that elected official and war veteran is not “civil” enough when criticizing Democratic leadership.
“–or call him Lieutenant Colonel West,” Bolling added.
“I’m not going to call him that either,” Beckel said, almost surprised that Bolling would suggest such a thing.
Despite repeated attempts to convince Beckel that Rep. West was not indeed a “hater,” as Beckel so eloquently put it, their efforts went unrewarded and the segment ended on this note:
KTRH – Houston) — Cy-Fair school officials have pulled what some consider a pro-Obama poem from next week’s Black History Month program at Tipps Elementary. This after a parent complained it was too political for his daughter’s kindergarten class.
Along with the poem mailed home to parents was an internal memo which read:
“Attached is a chant about President Barack Obama. All Kindergarteners will be required to learn the chant for the Black History program.”
Parent Joseph Beaver tells KTRH News he doesn’t believe the poem provides any educational value to students.
“You’re not learning anything from it,” he says. “I can’t sit there and say in 20 years I’m going to need to know his favorite baseball team was this. That’s just useless information.”
However, Sylvester Brown at Houston’s Black Heritage Society believes the whole thing is being taken out of context.
“Is the teacher using it to express her views?” asks Brown. “I don’t think you can look at it from that side unless you’re specifically looking for something to complain about.”
Brown points out it this is Black History Month and Presidents’ Day just passed, and Obama is our first black president.
“If they just sung a song about George Washington in class, would they say the same thing that’s political?” he asks. “I mean, where’s the contrast?”
Beaver still disagrees.
“The ‘cherry tree,’ that teaches morals about trying to tell the truth,” he says. “This poem didn’t teach anything. As a public school system you need to educate people, not teach them little chants and stuff.”
Beaver first voiced his concerns to radio host Joe Pagliarulo on KTRH sister station KPRC. And Gayle Fallon, president of Houston’s teachers union says he was right to do so.
“Just like you couldn’t put something out advocating a specific religion, you can’t with politics either,” she says.
The Cy-Fair teachers union wouldn’t comment, but Fallon says the poem and attached memo never should have been mailed to parents, somebody in the school’s administration missed it.
“If the poem is overtly partisan political which it sounds like, they have a problem,” he says. “If it was just saying we’re having a black history program, it probably would not be a problem.”
Cy-Fair ISD officials admit the poem was sent to parents without administrative approval, and the teacher has since apologized.
Assistant Superintendent Kelli Durham issued KTRH News a statement saying:
“There has been a misunderstanding circulating about kindergarten teachers requiring students to recite a chant at Tipps. This resulted when a teacher inadvertently attached a note, intended for other teachers, to a parent communication that was sent home. A teacher reading the note would understand the inference: only kindergarten students whose parents wanted them to participate were “required” to learn a chant.
However, the chant selected by the kindergarten team of teachers was sent home prior to receiving principal approval. Seeking approval is a school practice for school programs and events. After the principal reviewed the poem, along with the selections that would be performed by students at other grade levels, she selected another activity recognizing President Obama –kindergarten’s historical figure to recognize.
Last week, the count for participants was less than 150 students compared to school wide enrollment of more than 1,000 students, and of those 25 were kindergarten students.”
