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Updated 1:22 p.m.|President Donald Trump on Wednesday accused Democrats of resisting testimony from Carter Page, his former campaign adviser, because he blows away allegations they have made.

Page told the top Republican and Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee last Tuesday that he would testify as part of their probe into alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. But Trump now saysthe minority party has changed its mind about hearing from Page.

Trump alluded to uncited reports in tweeting that the Democrats, who have excoriated Carter Page about Russia, dont want him to testify.

The top Democrat on theHouse Intelligence Committee, California Rep.Adam B. Schiffsaid Wednesday that he and Texas Rep. K. Michael Conway, the investigations top Republican,have agreed to review relevant documents before interviewing witnesses, as you would expect in a comprehensive investigation. And while we anticipate interviews to begin shortly, we have agreed that the pace of those interviews will be dictated by the needs of the investigation and not the preferences of outside parties.

On Tuesday, Page said he learned from the Intelligence panelthat he might not be immediately afforded the opportunity to address the committee.

In two tweets, the president went on to say that this alleged change of heart by Democratic members comes because they have concluded Page blows away their ... case against him.

Trump, referring to the FBI director he fired and the Obama administrations last CIA director, wrote that his former adviser wants to clear his name by showing the false or misleading testimony by James Comey, John Brennan...

He ended his second tweeton the matter by again referring to several congressional investigations and the FBIs probe into Russia as a collective Witch Hunt!

Trumps latest tweetstorm came a day after his press secretary, Sean Spicer, refused to answer questions about whether then-candidate and President-elect Trump knew about back channel communications his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner reportedly wanted to establish with Moscow before they enteredthe White House.

[Trumps Total Authorization to Military Gives Some Deep Concerns]

Notably, Spicer would neither confirm nor deny that Kushner attempted to go around the outgoing Obama administration.

Trumps tweets came just minutes before a new poll was released showing growing support among American voters for the House to start impeachment proceedings.

Forty-three percent of those surveyed by Morning Consult and Politico said they want the impeachment process against Trump to begin. Thats up from the previousversion of the same poll, which had the figure at 38 percent. Notably, however, most voters (45 percent) do not want impeachment proceedings.

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Trump Says Democrats No Longer Want Carter Page's Testimony - Roll Call

There are lots of reasons Hillary Clinton didnt win last years presidential election.

One of the big ones, in her opinion (and the opinions of many others), is tied to media, specifically the medias obsession with Clintons private email server, and disinformation spread on Facebook by malicious actors in Russia.

The Democrats did a poor job controlling the narrative and telling their own story, Clinton said, which will be important as the party tries to take back control of Congress.

We [the Democratic party] are not good historically at building institutions and weve got to get a lot better, and that includes content, Clinton said Wednesday from Recodes annual Code Conference. We have a great story to tell. I found when I started the campaign that I had to say in practically every one of my speeches, Barack Obama saved the economy and he doesnt get the credit he deserves. I had to say that because people had been told differently.

You can watch Clintons entire conversation with Recodes Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg here.

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Hillary Clinton says Democrats need to create more content to help win back the House - Recode

New York Times

Trump Lashes Out at Kathy Griffin and Democrats New York Times WASHINGTON President Trump assailed Democrats and a television comedian on Wednesday in his latest Twitter blasts since returning from an overseas trip in which he had largely abstained from the sort of combative social media postings that helped ... site rencontre taille - T.coT.co Kathy Griffin Beheads Donald Trump in Shocking Photo ShootTMZ.com Kathy Griffin on Twitter: "I am sorry. I went too far. I was wrong. https://t.co/LBKvqf9xFB"Twitter all 1,233 news articles »

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Trump Lashes Out at Kathy Griffin and Democrats - New York Times

CARSON CITY Democrats could put Uber out of business in Nevada without recording a vote on the final legislation.

Welcome to the last 128 hours of the 2017 Nevada Legislature.

The Review-Journal this week reported that regulations taxi companies want imposed on transportation network companies could drive Uber and Lyft from Nevada. Democratic leaders in the Assembly, who received hefty campaign contributions from taxi companies in 2016, kept the proposal alive late last week after it appeared to have died.

Senate Bill 226 is in the Assembly Ways and Means committee. On Monday, chair Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, held a hearing on the fiscal impact of an Assembly floor amendment. This late in the session, if a bill gets a hearing, its a worrisome sign for its opponents.

I wanted to find out from Carlton whether she plans to move SB226, but when I asked for a comment, she said, Nope.

Its unlikely that the amended version of SB226 has enough support among Democrats to pass either house, which is why trickery fueled by taxi-industry influence might be its only path to passage. In April, SB226 passed the Senate 17-4 as a compromise aimed at ensuring that transportation network company drivers have business licenses.

Heres how the shenanigans could work:

Democrats adopt an amendment in Ways and Means thats acceptable to Uber and Lyft, but different from the Senates bill. The now-uncontroversial bill passes committee and the Assembly, possibly by a margin as wide as the Senates.

The amended version goes to the Senate for a concurrence, but the Senate doesnt concur with the amendment, and the Assembly doesnt recede it. Then the Senate and Assembly appoint a conference committee to meet and come up with language thats acceptable to both sides.

This is where the games begin. The members of the conference committee would have a little-noticed meeting where, as one insider put it, They can do anything they want.

Anything includes putting regulations back into the bill even outlawing transportation network companies entirely. If the amendment goes back to the Senate and Assembly floors late Monday evening, lawmakers will be swamped by an avalanche of amendments and rushed by a ticking clock remember, the Nevada Constitution requires lawmakers to adjourn after 120 days. Its impossible to keep up with everything near adjournment. Lawmakers have to trust their leadership.

Because SB226 had passed both houses, the Senate and Assembly would only need to concur with the SB226 amendment via voice vote. This means the Legislature could outlaw Uber and Lyft without one lawmaker having to put their name on the record as voting for it.

Its not likely because alert Republicans could force a roll call vote. Sen. Kelvin Atkinson, D-North Las Vegas, has expressed opposition to the regulations, but resurrecting SB226 from the dead early Saturday morning didnt seem likely either.

This threat to Uber and Lyft isnt dead until sine die.

Contact Victor Joecks at vjoecks@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4698. Follow @victorjoecks on Twitter.

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How Democrats could force Uber out of Nevada without a recorded vote - Las Vegas Review-Journal

Privately, though, Democratic leaders had long known their internal polling showed Republican Greg Gianforte on track to defeat their candidate, Rob Quist. The party had spent a modest $500,000 on the race -- paltry, compared to the $2 million more the DCCC's chairman had announced just a day earlier it would spend on a race in Georgia.

It has in some ways exposed rifts over the party's approach that are still lingering from the Sanders vs. Clinton contest, particularly after Sanders spent the weekend before the Montana contest campaigning alongside Quist.

"You have to ask yourself, could this have been different had we actually invested more resources in that race?" said Lucy Flores, a former Nevada assemblywoman and board member of the Sanders-aligned Our Revolution.

"We are dealing with the most disappointing and concerning government we've seen in my adult life -- and that results in a lot of pressure to win in races that are a stretch," said Tom Lopach, a Democratic operative who led the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 2016.

Markos Moulitsas, the founder of the liberal blog Daily Kos, said he is hesitant to criticize the DCCC because its job is to win back the House -- and that means tough decisions about where to spend limited resources.

"But I will say this: Part of winning next year will depend on an energized liberal base," Moulitsas said.

If Democrats can continue to narrow major gaps in the size of Trump's win compared to GOP congressional candidates' victories next year, he said, "a heck of a lot of Republicans are in serious trouble."

"And guess what? Showing you won't back down from a tough fight breeds loyalty and support," Moulitsas said. "Our readers and donors knew exactly what they were doing when they donated money for those long-shot races. And they didn't care, because we're putting serious pressure on the GOP, and they won't be able to outspend us 6-to-1 on every race next year."

New Mexico Rep. Ben Ray Lujn, the DCCC chairman, argued that Democrats are making "smart investments, specific to those districts."

Meanwhile, the Republican super PAC Congressional Leadership Fund pumped millions of dollars into the Montana race, easily outspending the left.

"Republicans should be worried that they've had to dump so many dollars in to try to defend a district that they shouldn't have had to spend a penny in," Lujn told reporters.

For the Democratic establishment, part of the struggle is that -- with progressives' eyes on a quartet of House special elections in traditionally Republican districts -- its investments are being closely watched, especially with what's expected to be a much broader than usual battlefield in the 2018 midterm elections.

Many Democrats see in 2018 a potential wave election similar to 2006, when then-President George W. Bush's declining popularity allowed the party to sweep into power in the House.

But in 2006, the Howard Dean-led Democratic National Committee had launched a "50-state strategy." New DNC Chairman Tom Perez has promised a return to that 50-state approach -- but he is in the early stages of rebuilding the DNC from the ground up.

That means the national party isn't well positioned to play a supporting role in the House special elections.

"The easiest decision to make in politics is to spend more money. The hardest decision in politics is where to cut it from," said Jesse Ferguson, a Democratic operative who led the DCCC's independent expenditure arm in the 2014 election cycle.

"It's a gut-wrenching decision to pull money away from a candidate who might win in favor of a candidate who has a better shot at winning. But that's what we have to do in order to end Trump and Paul Ryan's rule of Congress," Ferguson said.

Montana GOP candidate on why he's running 01:26

On the Senate side, Democratic incumbents in states Trump carried -- including Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill, Montana Sen. Jon Tester and North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp -- have already made a point locally of broadening their outreach as Trump's White House moves to appease the President's base, Lopach said.

"We as a party have got to get back to economic, pocketbook, kitchen-table issues -- because an economic issue affects you if you are a black voter, brown voter, white voter, if you're a woman voter, LGBTQ voter," Lopach said. "I think we've lost sight of the fact that economic issues are overarching."

The DCCC has invested much more heavily than in Montana in the June 20 runoff in Georgia, where Jon Ossoff will attempt to claim the seat in the northern Atlanta suburbs previously represented by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and current Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, both Republicans.

And the party has identified some rural districts, and others in the industrial Midwest, as top targets for next year.

But Democrats are wise to closely guard their resources with so many potentially competitive Republican seats on the map in 2018, Ferguson said.

"No one wants to be in a position in the fall of telling a promising candidate in a competitive district that the resources aren't there because they were spent 18 months earlier as part of a Pyrrhic victory," Ferguson said. "Pyrrhic victories don't get a vote for House speaker."

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Liberals say Democratic establishment needs to fight harder - CNN