U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer agreed to modify the terminology he uses about a trade agreement with China after President Trump contradicted him in an Oval Office meeting.
The video of the exchange is quite amazing.
Quote of the Day
“The same congressional Republicans who joined me in blasting President Obama’s executive overreach now cry out for a king to usurp legislative powers. If your faithfulness to the Constitution depends on which party controls the White House, then you are not faithful to it.”
— Rep. Justin Amash (R-MI), on Twitter.
Mueller Files Lengthy Sentencing Memo for Manafort
Special counsel Robert Mueller has filed a 880+ page sentencing memo for President Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort, Axios reports.
“Mueller does not take a position on how much time in prison Manafort should serve, but accuses him of ‘repeatedly and brazenly’ breaking the law for over a decade, even after he was indicted.”
CNN: “The prosecutors specifically note that they don’t believe Manafort accepted responsibility for his crimes, and there’s no reason his agreement to plead guilty and cooperate should help him at sentencing.”
Warren Opens Door to Native American Reparations
“Sen. Elizabeth Warren said Friday evening that Native Americans should be ‘part of the conversation’ on reparations, showing a willingness to expand the debate over whether minority groups that have faced discrimination should be financially compensated by the federal government,” the Washington Post reports.
“Warren is one of four Democratic presidential hopefuls who have said in recent days that they’re open to providing some type of reparations to African Americans who are descendants of people who were enslaved in the United States, although they’ve offered varying levels of details about how the goal would be achieved.”
House Preps Subpoena on Family Separation Docs
“House Democrats are laying the groundwork to subpoena the Trump administration for a trove of documents relating to its controversial migrant family separation policy at the border,” Politico reports.
“The House Oversight Committee will vote next Tuesday to authorize three subpoenas for the departments of Homeland Security, Justice, and Health and Human Services, teeing up the first subpoena of the panel’s new Democratic majority.”
Republican Silent on Voter Fraud Scheme Tied to Party
“Republican politicians across the country have for years railed against the threat of voter fraud. Some have made unproven claims about how rampant it has become in order to pass voter ID laws and open sweeping investigations. The sanctity of the vote, they have said, must be protected at all costs,” the New York Times reports.
“But when a hard-fought congressional election in North Carolina — in which a Republican candidate appeared to narrowly beat his Democratic opponent — was overturned this week because of election fraud by a Republican political operative, the party was measured, and largely muted, in its response.”
Feinstein Lectures Children on Green New Deal
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) “isn’t backing the Green New Deal, and she wasn’t shy about letting a group who does support it know it — even if they are children,” NBC News reports.
“A group of schoolchildren visited the senator at her San Francisco office Friday and urged her to get on board with the renewable energy legislation. But the conversation quickly turned into somewhat of a confrontation, and Feinstein has been criticized online for the tone she took. Edited video of the 85-year-old lecturing more than a dozen kids went viral Friday.”
“Her supporters said a longer video of the confrontation depicts Feinstein in a kinder light.”
What Will Beto O’Rourke Run On?
Aaron Blake: “O’Rourke’s decision on whether to run is due in the coming days, and it looks as though he’s in. But what exactly will he run on? We tend to judge candidates like O’Rourke relative to whom they’re running against — in O’Rourke’s case in 2018, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX). But is he really the liberal hero Democrats are looking for, or just the guy they really wanted to unseat Cruz?”
“O’Rourke didn’t exactly run on a hugely liberal platform, and there will be pressure to define himself almost immediately if he gets in.”
Average Tax Refunds Down Double-Digits
“Average tax refund amounts are down double-digits compared to last year, according to the latest batch of weekly IRS data about the 2019 tax-filing season released late Friday,” The Hill reports.
“The average refund through Feb. 15 was $2,640, which is 16.7 percent smaller than the average refund through Feb. 16, 2018, according to the IRS data.”
Murkowski Will Oppose Trump Emergency Order
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said she is likely to support a resolution of disapproval over President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to secure more money for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Anchorage Daily News reports.
Manafort Filing Still Not Public
“The public will have to wait a little longer to read Paul Manafort’s sentencing memo from special counsel Robert Mueller,” CNN reports.
“The critical filing had a midnight Friday deadline set by the federal court, but the report was not publicly released.”
Associated Press: “Mueller’s team was to have weighed in by the end of the day Friday on Manafort’s punishment in one of his two criminal cases. But the memo was not publicly filed by midnight Friday, an indication that the document includes sensitive information and that prosecutors are seeking a judge’s approval to redact, or black out, that material.”
Biden Sees Opening In Democratic Field on Foreign Policy
ABC News: “In speeches over the past month, Biden sought to position himself as an authoritative counterweight to President Trump’s isolationist and nationalistic impulses.”
“The moves reflect the vulnerabilities the 76-year-old Biden could face in a crowded primary with rivals who are decades younger and looking to appeal to the party’s liberal base. In that kind of race, Biden could carve out space as a battle-tested statesman with the experience to stabilize America’s role in the world.”
Some Democrats Worried About Party’s Drift to the Left
Reuters: “Party activists have been energized as Cory Booker, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and other candidates endorsed plans to provide Medicare coverage to every American, some form of tuition-free college, a national $15 minimum wage and the so-called ‘Green New Deal’ advocated by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.”
“But Trump and his allies in the Republican Party have seized on those stances to attack the Democratic 2020 field as outside the American political mainstream — a claim the president plans to make throughout his re-election campaign, according to sources with knowledge of his strategy.”
“Some Democrats fear the argument has potency. They worry the primary may produce a nominee who will not appeal to centrist working and middle-class voters who voted for Trump in 2016 but whom Democrats believe they can win back.”
Politico: 2020 Democrats’ progressive gamble about to get real.
The 6 Essential Cons that Define Trump’s Success
Jonathan Greenberg: “Nearly four decades ago, Donald Trump deceived me into including him on the first Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans. He claimed a net worth of $100 million but was actually worth less than a tenth of that. Last week, President Trump declared a national state of emergency to bypass the constitutional budgeting powers of Congress and divert money to build a wall on the border with Mexico. What do these acts have in common? Only that they are the first and latest entries on the continuum of cons that have defined Trump’s success.”
“A real estate insider told me back in the 1980s that Trump’s win-at-all-costs father, Fred, ‘loves a crook and he loves a showman.’ Donald Trump has built his extraordinary career by exhibiting the characteristics of both. He is a self-promoter willing to lie, swindle and destroy to advance his insatiable self-interest. I am not the first journalist to observe that for Trump, the ‘Art of the Deal’ has been the art of the con. But as the first journalist to enable the consummate con man’s career-boosting deceptions, I have a completist’s view of the pernicious racket that is his playbook. Here, in roughly chronological order, are the six essential cons around which Trump has built and sustained his success.”
Trump Nominates Kelly Craft as U.N. Ambassador
Washington Post: “Kelly Craft, the U.S. ambassador to Canada, would succeed Nikki Haley, who left her post at the United Nations at the end of last year.”
“President Trump originally said he would nominate Heather Nauert to be his next U.N. ambassador, but she withdrew from consideration earlier this month.”
Cohen Gave Prosecutors New Info on Trump Business
Michael Cohen “met last month with federal prosecutors in Manhattan, offering information about possible irregularities within the president’s family business and about a donor to the inaugural committee,” the New York Times reports.
“While it was not clear whether the prosecutors found Mr. Cohen’s information credible and whether they intended to pursue it, the meeting suggests that they are interested in broader aspects of the Trump Organization, beyond their investigation into the company’s role in the hush money payments made before the 2016 election to women claiming to have had affairs with Mr. Trump. Mr. Cohen pleaded guilty last summer to arranging those payments.”
“If prosecutors concluded that Mr. Cohen’s information was truthful and valuable, they could ask the judge who sentenced him to reduce his prison term.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“Look, you could be a senior senator and have never managed more than a hundred people in your life. I not only have more years of government experience than the president of the United States, but I have more years of executive experience than the vice president of the United States, and more wartime experience than anybody who arrived in the office since George H.W. Bush.”
— South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg, quoted by the Washington Post, on his experience to be president despite being 37 years old.
Grand Jury Examining Whether Zinke Lied
“Prosecutors have begun presenting evidence to a grand jury in Washington in their probe of whether former interior Secretary Ryan Zinke lied to federal investigators,” the Washington Post reports.
“The closed-door deliberations are focused on Zinke’s decision not to grant a petition by two Indian tribes to operate a commercial casino in Connecticut… Witnesses before the grand jury have been asked whether anyone influenced Zinke’s decision to rebuff the tribes’ casino petition.”
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