Today’s edition of quick hits:
* The deadline is Monday morning: “House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., sent a final counteroffer Friday to Attorney General William Barr to obtain the full version of the special counsel’s report, along with an ultimatum: If the Justice Department doesn’t comply, the panel will initiate contempt proceedings.”
* We obviously need to hear from Mueller: “President Donald Trump on Friday said he wouldn’t prevent former special counsel Robert Mueller from testifying before Congress, telling reporters he would leave that decision up to Attorney General William Barr.”
* India’s cyclone: “Cyclone Fani, one of the strongest storms to batter the Indian subcontinent in decades, made landfall near Puri, India, on Friday morning, lashing the coast with winds gusting at more than 120 miles per hour.”
* South Dakota: “The largest tribe in South Dakota told the state’s governor on Thursday that she is ‘not welcome’ in its homelands, a sprawling reservation southwest of the capital city Pierre.”
* Hmm: “Carl Kline, the former director of the White House’s Personnel Security Office, told the House Oversight and Reform Committee this week that he had overruled the recommendations of his staff and approved security clearances for White House officials on his own authority, and denied that President Trump or anyone else had directed him to do it.”
* I think the senators are right about this: “A group of Democratic senators, including three 2020 presidential candidates, on Thursday called for the FBI to rescind a recent change to the way it classifies domestic terrorist incidents, arguing that the move plays down the threat of white supremacy.” * I’ll look forward to the confirmation hearings: “President Donald Trump on Thursday formally nominated U.S. Ambassador to Canada Kelly Craft to be his next United Nations ambassador, a job without a permanent owner since the end of last year.” * I found this piece from TPM’s Josh Marshall on the “dark soup” quite compelling: “Bill Barr is another Republican guy in his late 60s who’s been living, as Miller puts it, in that Fox News/GOP legal circles cocoon for two decades. Why would he be any different from your birther uncle you avoid at holiday dinners?” Anything to add? Consider this an open thread.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past." Recommended
