GOP Senator's Message to Trump: 'No One Is Above the Law'
The legal nuances of the President of the United States pardoning himself don't seem to rankle Republican Senator James Lankford as much as the fact that the administration is talking about it at all.
"It's really an odd conversation, quite frankly, out of the White House, to be talking about presidential pardons when the whole time you're saying 'I didn't do anything,'" Lankford, Oklahoma's junior senator, told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin on Tuesday.
In [a tweet](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1003616210922147841) the day before, President Trump said, "I have the absolute right to pardon myself, but why would I do that when I have done nothing wrong?"
The statement touched off a constitutional debate over presidential powers.
"It seems weird to suddenly have this switch-up message coming from the White House," Lankford said, adding: "I think the White House should be focused on getting information out."
As a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Lankford said that information should be included in a bipartisan report on exactly what happened during the 2016 presidential campaign, and put an end to the speculation over Russian involvement in the election. That includes concluding the work of the special counsel, Robert Mueller.
"At the end of the day, let's get the facts out there, because the nation has to move on," Lankford said.
For more, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/republican-senators-frustrated-by-budget-appropriations-process).
Rebecca Walser, President of Walser Wealth Management, joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell, where she discusses the factors behind Monday's surge on Wall Street and explains why investors will likely experience volatility in the market throughout the month of December.
Cheddar's Chloe Aiello joined "Closing Bell" to break down the progress of the SAFE Banking Act in Congress as cannabis businesses operators struggle to find financial institutions that will service them. Banks face steep federal penalties, including the risk of losing a bank charter, if found to be servicing marijuana businesses even if their state has legalized operations. Aiello reported that while there was some bipartisan support for the measure in the Senate, the bill faces some opposition from conservatives with "longstanding concerns" about cannabis and progressives who prefer a more comprehensive approach to reform.
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri is slated to testify this week in front of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee after a Wall Street Journal report that found the Meta-owned social media platform is negatively impacting the mental wellness of teen girls.
Chinese regulators are reportedly behind China-based ride-hailing company DiDi exiting from the New York Stock Exchange, just days after listing earlier this year. The regulators stated prior that DiDi had not received the necessary clearances to list in the states. Gordon Chang, Asian affairs expert, joined Cheddar to break down what the delisting says about the relationship between nations. "This really strikes me as an attempt to really to force a decoupling of China and the U.S. in the financial markets," Chang said.
U.S. Futures were pointing to a higher open to round out the week despite a miss on the November Jobs Report, which showed slower job growth than expected-- and as the omicron variant continues to spread across the country. Patrick Healey, Founder & President at Caliber Financial Partners joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
Just days after the detection of the Omicron variant, the World Health Organization has agreed to start the process of establishing a global pandemic treaty or accord. Amy Maxmen, senior reporter for Nature, and Dr. Samuel Scarpino, managing director for the Rockefeller Foundation's Pandemic Prevention Institute, joined Cheddar to discuss this effort and what lessons can be learned from the many COVID-19 failures as the world prepares for future pandemics.
It's a mixed bag for the November jobs report. Hiring slowed last month as employers only added 210,000 jobs, massively missing the estimate of 550,000. But there was one bright spot: the unemployment rate fell to 4.2%, with the number of unemployed people dropping to 6.9 million. Both of those numbers are considerably down from their highs at the end of the 2020 recession. Heather Boushey, a member of President Biden's Council of Economic Advisers, joined Cheddar to discuss the report and the state of the country's ongoing economic recovery.
