Tag: Mick Mulvaney

Mulvaney says U.S. is ‘desperate’ for more legal immigrants

Washington Post logoActing White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney told a crowd at a private gathering in England on Wednesday night that the Trump administration “needs more immigrants” for the U.S. economy to continue growing, according to an audio recording of his remarks obtained by The Washington Post.

“We are desperate — desperate — for more people,” Mulvaney said. “We are running out of people to fuel the economic growth that we’ve had in our nation over the last four years. We need more immigrants.”

The Trump administration wants those immigrants to come in a “legal fashion,” Mulvaney said, according to the recording.

Mick Mulvaney: Republicans don’t really care about deficits

AlterNet logoActing White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, last prominently seen confessing to Donald Trump’s quid pro quo attempt with Ukraine on national television, with the now infamous “get over it,” has done it again. This time he made his confession overseas in a U.K. visit, so maybe he thought nobody would notice. It didn’t work.

The Washington Post obtained a recording of Mulvaney at the Oxford Union, sounding an awful lot like a Daily Kos blogger. “My party is very interested in deficits when there is a Democrat in the White House,” he said. “The worst thing in the whole world is deficits when Barack Obama was the president. Then Donald Trump became president, and we’re a lot less interested as a party.” Until it comes time to wield the deficit as a weapon to cut the safety net, of course.

He left that part out, but made another admission about why Republicans refuse to do anything about climate change, which he implicitly acknowledged as a real thing. “We take the position in my party that asking people to change their lifestyle dramatically, including by paying more taxes, is simply not something we are interested in doing.” That answer got laughs in the student audience, The Post reports. One can only assume those laughs were derisive. Continue reading.

Senate rejects subpoenaing Mulvaney to testify in impeachment trial

The Hill logoSenate Republicans rejected an effort by Democrats to call White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to testify at the outset of the impeachment trial.

Democrats forced a vote to get language included in the resolution on the trial rules that would subpoena Mulvaney, who previously defied a subpoena to appear as part of the House impeachment inquiry.

But senators voted 53-47 along party lines to table the amendment, effectively killing it. Democrats needed four Republican senators to support their efforts to get a deal on calling Mulvaney to testify as part of the rules resolution.  Continue reading.

Lawmakers bypass embattled Mulvaney in spending talks

The Hill logoAs lawmakers negotiate the fiscal 2020 funding bills, one official is notably missing from the talks: acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. 

The former House member has flown under the radar during the recent spending talks, a shift from the budget and debt ceiling negotiations earlier this year where he emerged as a gadfly for lawmakers.

Two congressional sources, as well as key lawmakers, say they’ve had little to no contact with Mulvaney as part of the fiscal 2020 talks.

View the complete November 29 article by Jordain Carney on The Hill website here.

White House review turns up emails showing extensive effort to justify Trump’s decision to block Ukraine military aid

Washington Post logoA confidential White House review of President Trump’s decision to place a hold on military aid to Ukraine has turned up hundreds of documents that reveal extensive efforts to generate an after-the-fact justification for the decision and a debate over whether the delay was legal, according to three people familiar with the records.

The research by the White House Counsel’s Office, which was triggered by a congressional impeachment inquiry announced in September, includes early August email exchanges between acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney and White House budget officials seeking to provide an explanation for withholding the funds after the president had already ordered a hold in mid-July on the nearly $400 million in security assistance, according to the three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal White House deliberations.

One person briefed on the records examination said White House lawyers are expressing concern that the review has turned up some unflattering exchanges and facts that could at a minimum embarrass the president. It’s unclear whether the Mulvaney discussions or other records pose any legal problems for Trump in the impeachment inquiry, but some fear they could pose political problems if revealed publicly.

View the complete November 24 article by Josh Dawsey, Carol D. Leonnig and Tom Hamburger on The Washington Post website here.

Trump opens up Camp David as an ‘adult playground’ to woo GOP lawmakers during impeachment

Washington Post logoPresident Trump, partial to gold and marble elegance, never took a shine to rustic Camp David. So acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney pitched to him an unusual idea at the start of the House impeachment inquiry: Use the secluded mountainous presidential retreat to woo House Republicans.

Since then, Mulvaney and top White House officials have hosted weekend getaways for Republicans at the historic lodge, seeking to butter up Republicans before the big impeachment vote. The casual itinerary includes making s’mores over the campfire, going hiking, shooting clay pigeons and schmoozing with Trump officials, some of whom stay overnight with lawmakers.

During dinners, Trump has called in to compliment members personally.

View the complete November 22 article by Seung Min Kim, Rachael Bade and Josh Dawsey on The Washington Post website here.

Mulvaney drops plans to file lawsuit on impeachment testimony

The Hill logoActing White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday reversed plans to file a lawsuit regarding his compliance with a subpoena for congressional testimony in the House impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

His attorneys notified a federal court that Mulvaney, after further consideration, “does not intend to pursue litigation regarding the deposition subpoena issued to him by the U.S. House of Representatives” and will instead obey directions from Trump to ignore the subpoena altogether.

The filing came hours after Mulvaney’s lawyers said he planned to file his own suit after encountering opposition to joining a similar one filed by former White House official Charles Kupperman.

View the complete November 12 article by Morgan Chalfant on The Hill website here.

White House infighting flares amid impeachment inquiry

Washington Post logoA dispute erupts between the Mulvaney and Cipollone camps over how to counter House Democrats’ impeachment push

The White House’s bifurcated and disjointed response to Democrats’ impeachment inquiry has been fueled by a fierce West Wing battle between two of President Trump’s top advisers, and the outcome of the messy skirmish could be on full display this week, according to White House and congressional officials.

Acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney has urged aides not to comply with the inquiry and blocked any cooperation with congressional Democrats. Top political aides at the Office of Management and Budget, which Mulvaney once led, have fallen in line with his defiant stance, the officials said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to talk freely about the behind-the-scenes developments.

Mulvaney’s office blames White House counsel Pat Cipollone for not doing more to stop other government officials from participating in the impeachment inquiry, as a number of State Department officials, diplomats and an aide to Vice President Pence have given sworn testimony to Congress.

View the complete November 11 article by Erica Werner, Josh Dawsey, Carol D. Leonnig and Rachel Bade on The Washington Post website here.

House Democrats, ex-Bolton aide ask judge to block Mulvaney from joining lawsuit

The Hill logoHouse Democrats and former deputy national security adviser Charles Kupperman separately asked a federal judge on Monday to block President Trump‘s acting chief of staff from intervening in a lawsuit over subpoenas related to the House’s impeachment inquiry.

Trump’s top aide, Mick Mulvaney, had filed a motion in D.C. District Court on Friday seeking to join Kupperman’s lawsuit over a subpoena in order to fight the House Intelligence Committee’s efforts to compel his own testimony.

But Democrats argued that the original lawsuit is moot since they withdrew the subpoena directing Kupperman to testify.

View the complete November 11 article by Harper Neidig on The Hill website here.

Mulvaney asks to join lawsuit over conflicting demands for impeachment testimony

Washington Post logoActing White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Friday asked to join a federal lawsuit seeking a judicial ruling on whether Congress can compel President Trump’s senior advisers to testify in the impeachment inquiry.

The lawsuit was originally filed late last month by Charles Kupperman, a former top national security aide to Trump, who said he faced conflicting orders from House Democrats and the White House over whether he must participate in the investigation and needed the court to tell him what his constitutional duty was.

Attorneys for Mulvaney said the acting chief of staff was facing the same dilemma.

View the complete November 9 article by Derek Hawkins on The Washington Post website here.