Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) is planning to force a vote on the first subpoena related to his probe involving Burisma and former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden.

Johnson sent a letter to members of his committee on Sunday saying that it is his "intention to schedule a business meeting to consider a committee subpoena" to a former consultant for Blue Star Strategies, which Johnson noted worked as a U.S. representative for Ukraine gas company Burisma Holdings.

"As part of the committee's ongoing investigation, it has received U.S. government records indicating that Blue Star sought to leverage Hunter Biden's role as a board member of Burisma to gain access to, and potentially influence matters at, the State Department," Johnson wrote in the letter to committee members.

Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), the top Democrat on the committee, has notified Johnson that he objects to issuing the subpoena over concerns that it could bolster Russian disinformation efforts. Without Peters's support, Johnson will need a simple majority of the GOP-controlled panel to vote to issue the subpoena.

https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/485469-gop-chairman-plans-first-subpoena-in-burisma-biden-probe

Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, on Friday blamed the media for exaggerating the seriousness of coronavirus because “they think this will bring down the president, that’s what this is all about.”

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an annual gathering of conservative activists, Mr. Mulvaney played down concerns about the virus that is spreading around the globe and panicking investors.

Mr. Mulvaney said the administration took “extraordinary steps four or five weeks ago,” to prevent the spread of the virus when it declared a rare public health emergency and barred entry by most foreign nationals who had recently visited China.

“Why didn’t you hear about it?” Mr. Mulvaney said of travel restrictions that were widely covered in the news media. “What was still going on four or five weeks ago? Impeachment, that’s all the press wanted to talk about.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/28/us/politics/cpac-coronavirus.html?referringSource=articleShare