10 things you need to know today: March 4, 2019

Severe storms left more than 20 people dead across the South.

(Image credit: The Associated Press)

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1. Paul becomes 4th Republican senator to oppose Trump emergency declaration
2. Alabama tornadoes kill at least 23 people
3. House judiciary chair says committee wants documents in obstruction inquiry
4. Trump says Cohen hearing possibly hurt North Korea summit
5. Hickenlooper announces presidential bid
6. Democratic presidential hopefuls join Bloody Sunday commemoration
7. Trump defends ending major joint military drills with South Korea
8. Stone suggests Mueller 'framed' him
9. U.S. shutters Jerusalem consulate, downgrading Palestinian mission
10. Generic Democrat leads Trump in new poll

published 4 March 2019

1. Paul becomes 4th Republican senator to oppose Trump emergency declaration

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) over the weekend became the fourth Republican to say he would vote to disapprove of President Trump's declaration of a national emergency on the U.S.-Mexico border. Paul's vote appeared to clinch enough votes to pass the Democrats' disapproval resolution, which already cleared the House, although it is still not enough to override Trump's promised veto. Trump declared the emergency to get access to several billion dollars to help build his promised border wall. "We may want more money for border security, but Congress didn't authorize it," Paul said at an event in Kentucky on Saturday, according to the Bowling Green Daily News. "If we take away those checks and balances, it's a dangerous thing."

Two tornadoes swept through Lee County, Alabama, on Sunday, killing at least 23 people in the deadliest U.S. tornado event in nearly five years. Dozens more were injured. One of the tornadoes left a trail of damage several miles long and a quarter-mile wide. "We've still got people being pulled out of rubble," Lee County Coroner Bill Harris told AL.com Sunday night. "We're going to be here all night." The tornadoes were part of a storm system that spawned tornadoes across the South, causing damage in other parts of Alabama, as well as in Georgia, the Florida Panhandle, and parts of South Carolina. More than 42,000 homes and businesses lost power in Georgia and Alabama.

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House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Sunday it was "very clear" that President Trump obstructed justice by trying to thwart the investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion by Trump associates. Nadler said his committee was requesting documents from more than 60 people in the Trump administration, family, and business in a broadening investigation. Nadler said the committee wants to see documents from the Justice Department, Donald Trump Jr., and Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, among other people. Trump tweeted Sunday that he was "an innocent man being persecuted by some very bad, conflicted & corrupt people in a Witch Hunt that is illegal & should never have been allowed to start."

President Trump on Sunday night criticized House Democrats for questioning his former lawyer, Michael Cohen, while he was holding his second denuclearization summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, saying the high-profile hearing may have hurt the talks. Cohen harshly criticized Trump in a public hearing before the House Oversight and Reform Committee while the president was in Hanoi, Vietnam, for the summit, which ended abruptly with no deal. "For the Democrats to interview in open hearings a convicted liar & fraudster, at the same time as the very important Nuclear Summit with North Korea, is perhaps a new low in American politics and may have contributed to the 'walk,'" he tweeted Sunday. "Never done when a president is overseas. Shame!"

Former Colorado governor John Hickenlooper on Monday announced that he is running for president, joining a crowded field for the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump in 2020. Hickenlooper, a former brewpub owner and Denver mayor, is positioning himself as a proven leader who gets things done. In his two terms, he worked with Republicans to boost natural gas exploration, and with Democrats to legalize civil unions. He presided over an improving state economy and the legalization of marijuana, and teamed with Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) to lead a bipartisan group of governors in opposition to Republican efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act. "I've proven again and again," he said, "I can bring people together to produce the progressive change Washington has failed to deliver."

Several Democratic presidential hopefuls joined activists Sunday for events marking the anniversary of the 1965 "Bloody Sunday" civil rights march across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where police viciously attacked marchers. The 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, Hillary Clinton, received an award at a "unity breakfast," and said, "we are living through a full-fledged crisis in our democracy," and "racist and white supremacist views are lifted up" in the White House. Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.), who have announced their campaigns for the 2020 Democratic nomination, and Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio, who is considering a bid, also showed up for the events in Selma. "The dream is under attack. The dreamers are in danger," Booker said.

President Trump on Sunday defended the decision to end large-scale joint U.S.-South Korea military exercises in the wake of his second summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, which was cut short over what Trump said was Kim's insistence that the U.S. lift all economic sanctions before his country gives up its nuclear arsenal. "The reason I do not want military drills with South Korea is to save hundreds of millions of dollars for the U.S. for which we are not reimbursed," Trump tweeted. "That was my position long before I became President. Also, reducing tensions with North Korea at this time is a good thing!" Trump said after his first summit with Kim that the major joint drills would end "unless and until" negotiations with Pyongyang broke down.

Roger Stone on Sunday suggested in an Instagram post that Special Counsel Robert Mueller had "framed" him. Stone later deleted an image in the post that included the words, "Who framed Roger Stone." The post came just over a week after a judge issued a gag order barring Stone from commenting on his case or publicly criticizing Mueller's investigation or Stone's case. The judge, Amy Berman Jackson, imposed the gag order after Stone posted an image showing her face next to crosshairs. If Judge Jackson finds Stone's latest post in violation of her order, she could order him jailed without bail until his trial. Jackson also ordered Stone's lawyers to explain two days ago why they hadn't told her earlier about the planned publication of a book by Stone.

The U.S. has closed its Jerusalem consulate, downgrading what had been its de facto embassy to the Palestinians by folding it into the U.S. Embassy to Israel. Now outreach will be conducted through a Palestinian affairs unit at the embassy, which was relocated to Jerusalem last year. U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is a critic of Palestinian leadership and supports Israeli settlements in the West Bank. In a statement to The Associated Press, State Department spokesman Robert Palladino said the decision "was driven by our global efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our diplomatic engagements and operations. It does not signal a change of U.S. policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip."

President Trump trails a generic Democratic rival in his 2020 re-election campaign, with 48 percent of respondents in a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll planning to vote for the Democrat and 41 percent backing Trump. Even though the new poll, released Sunday, showed Trump as the underdog, it gave him a better chance than similar NBC/WSJ polls in December 2017 and 2018, when the Trump trailed the Democrat by double digits. At similar points in their presidencies, George W. Bush and Barack Obama led generic rivals. Bill Clinton trailed, but by a slightly smaller margin than Trump.

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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.