Week In The News: Trump Fights Subpoenas, Biden And 2020, Sri Lanka Bombings

With David Folkenflik

Sri Lanka bombings. Biden plunges in. Trump sues Democrats. Jared Kushner plays down Russian election interference. The roundtable is here.

Darlene Superville, White House reporter, Associated Press. (@dsupervilleap)

Colleen Nelson, McClatchy opinion editor, and vice president and editorial page editor for the Kansas City Star. (@ColleenMNelson)

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst. (@JackBeattyNPR)

Associated Press: "After Mueller, Trump says he'll fight Dems on all fronts" — "President Donald Trump declared Wednesday that he and his administration will battle House Democrats on all legal fronts after the special counsel’s Russia report, refusing to cooperate with subpoenas and appealing to the Supreme Court if Congress tries to impeach him.

"Trump, seething as Democrats ramp up their probes after Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, said he 'thought after two years we’d be finished with it.' "

"'I say it’s enough,' Trump told reporters on the White House’s lawn as he left for an event in Atlanta, accusing the Democrats of using investigations for their electoral advantage in 2020."

CNN: "Sri Lanka suicide bomber was previously arrested and then released" — "One of the Sri Lanka suicide bombers was previously arrested by police and then released, a senior government official told CNN Thursday.

"Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim — one of two sons of a spice tycoon who blew themselves up in Sunday's attacks — detonated a device at the Cinnamon Grand hotel in Colombo, the official told CNN.

"'It was the suicide bomber of the Cinnamon Grand bomb attack who was released earlier,' the official said.

"Ilham Ahmed Ibrahim and his brother Imsath Ahmed Ibrahim were previously identified as two of the suicide bombers in Sunday's attacks, which left at least 359 people dead across the country."

New York Times: "Joe Biden Announces 2020 Run for President" — "Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced Thursday that he would seek the Democratic nomination to challenge President Trump in 2020, marshaling his experience and global stature in a bid to lead a party increasingly defined by a younger generation that might be skeptical of his age and ideological moderation.

"Mr. Biden, 76, is set to offer himself as a levelheaded leader for a country wracked by political conflict, a rationale he believes could attract a broad cross-section of voters who want to move on from Mr. Trump.

"In a three-and-a-half minute video laying out his reasons for running, Mr. Biden chose not to talk about policy issues or his biography but instead began by recalling the white supremacist march through Charlottesville, Va., in 2017 and a counterprotest, and Mr. Trump’s comment that there were 'very fine people on both sides.' In that moment, Mr. Biden said, 'I knew the threat to our nation was unlike any I’d ever seen in my lifetime.' "

Allison Pohle produced this show for broadcast.