NATION
Friday, March 29, 2019
President Trump backs
off proposal to eliminate
Special Olympics funds
By COLLIN BINKLEY
and CATHERINE
LUCEY
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
President Donald Trump
announced Thursday that
he was backing off his
budget request to elimi-
nate funding for the Spe-
cial Olympics, revers-
ing course on a proposal
that was unlikely to be
approved by Congress
after days of bipartisan
criticism.
Speaking to reporters
as he left the White House
for a rally in Michigan,
Trump said he had autho-
rized funding for the orga-
nization. “I heard about
it this morning. I have
overridden my people.
We’re funding the Special
Olympics.”
Trump’s announcement
came after Education Sec-
retary Betsy DeVos spent
days defending the pro-
posal, which drew wide-
spread
condemnation
from lawmakers, as well
as advocates and celebri-
ties. The president’s sud-
den reversal reflected a
political desire to move
away from a plan that
was not expected to pass
Congress, but also under-
scored Trump’s comfort
with undercutting top
officials.
Said Trump: “I’ve been
to the Special Olympics. I
think it’s incredible.”
Walking back her
defense of the proposal,
DeVos issued a statement,
saying: “I am pleased and
grateful the President and I
see eye to eye on this issue
and that he has decided to
fund our Special Olympics
grant. This is funding I
have fought for behind the
scenes over the last several
years.”
The remarks were a
sharp contrast from her
comments to Senate Dem-
ocrats in a budget hearing
earlier in the day. DeVos
said her department had to
make “tough choices” on
the budget and insisted the
Special Olympics should
be supported through pri-
vate donations.
In a heated exchange
with Sen. Dick Durbin,
D-Ill., DeVos said she
“wasn’t
personally
involved” in pushing for
elimination of the fund-
ing, but she defended it as
her agency seeks to cut $7
billion for the 2020 bud-
get. “Let’s not use disabled
children in a twisted way
for your political narra-
tive,” she said.
The president’s shift
Thursday was not the first
time he has undermined
a top aide. He repeatedly
berated former Attor-
ney General Jeff Sessions
in public and private and
clashed openly with for-
mer Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson, ultimately firing
him in a tweet.
The Trump adminis-
tration’s education bud-
get proposal called for the
elimination of $17.6 mil-
lion in funding for the Spe-
cial Olympics, amount-
ing to roughly 10 percent
of the group’s overall rev-
enue. Most of its funding
comes from individual
and corporate contribu-
tions and other fundrais-
ing efforts.
The Special Olym-
pics is the largest sports
organization in the world
for people with intellec-
tual disabilities, with over
5 million athletes from
174 countries participat-
ing in competitions while
spreading a global mes-
sage of inclusion and
empowerment. The orga-
nization celebrated its 50th
anniversary last year.
East Oregonian
Dems mock ‘scaredy-cats’ GOP,
demand Mueller’s full 300 pages
By LISA MASCARO,
LAURIE KELLMAN
and MARY CLARE
JALONICK
Associated Press
WASHINGTON
—
Democrats intensified their
demands for the full Mueller
report Thursday after learn-
ing the special counsel’s find-
ings from his Trump-Rus-
sia investigation run to more
than 300 pages while Presi-
dent Donald Trump boasts
of total exoneration based on
a four-page summary by his
attorney general.
House Judiciary Chair-
man Jerrold Nadler said
Attorney General William
Barr told him he has no
intention of giving the con-
fidential report to Congress
immediately as he redacts
grand jury testimony and
other elements,
Democrats say they may
subpoena the report if it’s not
forthcoming by a Tuesday
deadline they have set.
Through the day, tempers
were rising on Capitol Hill.
Shaking her fist for
emphasis, House Speaker
Nancy Pelosi said Barr’s
summary, which cleared
Trump of campaign collu-
sion with Russia and crimi-
nal obstruction of Mueller’s
federal probe, was “conde-
scending” and “arrogant.”
“Mr. Attorney General,”
she said, “show us the report
and we’ll come to our own
conclusions.” She asked what
Trump and the Republicans
were afraid of and mocked
them as “scaredy-cats.”
Trump himself headed
to Grand Rapids, Michi-
gan, for a campaign rally
where he was sure to lam-
baste the Democrats again
for the investigation that he
has repeatedly dismissed as
a “witch hunt.”
The length of Muel-
ler’s still-confidential report
makes clear that there are
AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi heaps scorn on Attorney Gener-
al William Barr, saying his letter about special counsel Robert
Mueller’s report was “condescending,” after Barr concluded
there was no evidence that President Donald Trump’s cam-
paign “conspired or coordinated” with the Russian govern-
ment to influence the 2016 election, during a news confer-
ence on Capitol Hill in Washington on Thursday.
substantially more details
that he and his team have
documented in their inves-
tigation than Barr disclosed
to Congress and the public.
The volume of pages was
described on Thursday by a
Justice Department official
and another person familiar
with the document.
The Justice Department
official said Barr discussed
the length of the report
during a phone call Wednes-
day with Nadler, who would
only indicate it was less than
1,000 pages.
Barr would not commit
to providing the full report
with its underlying evidence,
Nadler said.
Both the department
official and the other per-
son spoke on condition of
anonymity to discuss the
document.
The attorney general
has been going through the
report amid Democratic con-
cerns that what has been
made public so far was
tilted in Trump’s favor. It’s
unclear whether whatever
Barr might release next will
be Mueller’s own words or
another summary. Nadler
offered to join Barr to seek
a judge’s approval to unseal
grand jury testimony, an aide
said.
Barr has said he’ll provide
Congress with at least a par-
tial version in April and also
told Nadler he would agree to
testify before his committee.
As that battle brews,
House Democrats bar-
reled ahead with their own
investigation of the Trump
administration, and Trump
resumed his attack on Rep.
Adam Schiff, D-Calif., just
as the chairman of the intel-
ligence committee was
about to gavel his panel into
session.
“Congressman
Adam
Schiff, who spent two years
knowingly and unlawfully
lying and leaking, should be
forced to resign from Con-
gress!” Trump tweeted early
Thursday.
Republicans picking up
on Trump’s complaints for-
malized their demand that
Schiff resign as chairman of
the intelligence panel over
his comments that there was
significant evidence the pres-
ident and his associates con-
spired with Russia.
“We have no faith in your
ability to discharge your
responsibilities” in line with
the Constitution, the Repub-
licans wrote to Schiff in a
missive they read aloud at
the hearing.
Republicans pointed to
Barr’s synopsis, released
Sunday, that said Muel-
ler’s probe didn’t find that
Trump’s campaign “con-
spired or coordinated” with
the Russian government to
influence the 2016 presiden-
tial election.
Schiff stood by his
remarks, listing the meet-
ings that people in Trump’s
circle had with Russians. He
noted Trump’s pursuit of a
deal to build a Trump Tower
in Moscow.
“There is a different word
for that than collusion, and
it’s called compromise,”
Schiff said, as he opened
the session. The hearing was
called to provide an overview
on how Russia in the past has
blackmailed Americans.
Since Barr’s findings
were released, Schiff this
week has repeated his asser-
tion that evidence of collu-
sion is in “plain sight.” He
says Mueller’s failure to find
a criminal conspiracy with
Russia does not absolve the
Trump campaign.
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