“Senior staffers on the House Judiciary Committee helped Donald Trump’s top aides draft the executive order curbing immigration from seven Muslim-majority nations, but the Republican committee chairman and party leadership were not informed,” Politico reports.
Archives for January 2017
Trump Faces Backlash from Own Appointees
Associated Press: “At least three top national security officials — Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly and Rex Tillerson, who is awaiting confirmation to lead the State Department — have told associates they were not aware of details of directive until around the time Trump signed it. Leading intelligence officials were also left largely in the dark.”
“The blowback underscored Trump’s tenuous relationship with his own national security advisers, many of whom he met for the first time during the transition… Mattis, who stood next to Trump during Friday’s signing ceremony, is said to be particularly incensed… Tillerson has told the president’s political advisers that he was baffled over not being consulted on the substance of the order.”
Acting Attorney General Defies Trump
“Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, a holdover from the Obama administration, ordered the Justice Department on Monday not to defend President Trump’s executive order on immigration in court,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump has the authority to fire Ms. Yates, but as the top Senate-confirmed official at the Justice Department, she is the only one authorized to sign foreign surveillance warrants, an essential function at the department.”
Washington Post: “Yates’s view is perhaps unsurprising; she was second-in-command at the Justice Department under President Obama, held over until a new attorney general can be confirmed. Still, her announcement is remarkable for its defiance. It was not immediately clear who would defend the president’s order in the Justice Department’s place.”
Did Trump Kickstart a Political Re-Alignment?
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Trump’s Voter Fraud Expert is Registered In 3 States
“A man who President Donald Trump has promoted as an authority on voter fraud was registered to vote in multiple states during the 2016 presidential election,” the Associated Press reports.
“Gregg Phillips, whose unsubstantiated claim that the election was marred by 3 million illegal votes was tweeted by the president, was listed on the rolls in Alabama, Texas and Mississippi, according to voting records and election officials in those states. He voted only in Alabama in November, records show.”
Price Got ‘Privileged’ Offer for Stock in Company
Rep. Tom Price (R-GA) “got a privileged offer to buy a biomedical stock at a discount, the company’s officials said, contrary to his congressional testimony this month,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The shares were discounted 12% off the traded price in mid-June only for investors who participated in a private placement arranged to raise money to complete a clinical trial. The company’s shares have tripled since the offering.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“To the best of my knowledge, both Nicolae Ceaușescu and Robert Mugabe have been entertained by Her Majesty the Queen, and I think most Members would concede that it is our duty and the right thing to do to make preparations now for receiving our friend, our partner, the leader of a long-established great democracy and our most important ally.”
— British Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, quoted by the Press Association, defending the invitation to President Trump to speak to the House of Commons.
Obama Says He Supports Protests
In his first statement since leaving office, former President Obama said he supported the protests going on around the country over President Trump’s refugee ban, Politico reports.
Said Obama: “Citizens exercising their Constitutional right to assemble, organize and have their voices heard by their elected officials is exactly what we expect to see when American values are at stake.”
Trump Says Schumer Had ‘Fake Tears’
President Donald Trump accused Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) of crying “fake tears” at a news conference criticizing his controversial executive order on refugees and travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations, Politico reports.
Said Trump: “I noticed Chuck Schumer yesterday with fake tears. I’m going to ask him who is his acting coach.”
CNN has the video of Schumer at an emotional press conference.
How Social Media Quickly Generated Mass Protests
New York Times: “In a matter of hours on Saturday, thousands rushed to the nation’s airports, beckoned by tweets. The flash protests in response to Mr. Trump’s immigration ban, which continued to grow in many cities on Sunday, were as organized as they were instantaneous. Dispatched online, the protesters knew where to go, and they knew what to do once they arrived: to command the story by making a scene.”
“Mr. Trump feeds off media attention. Throughout the campaign, the bigger a spectacle he created, the larger he loomed in the public consciousness. What has been remarkable during the last two weekends is how thoroughly Mr. Trump’s own media personage was blotted out by scenes of protesters.”
Sessions Plays a Big Role for Trump
Washington Post: “The directives bore Trump’s name, but another man’s fingerprints were also on nearly all of them: Jeff Sessions.”
“The early days of the Trump presidency has rushed a nationalist agenda long on the fringes of American life into action — and Sessions, the quiet Alabaman who long cultivated these ideas as a Senate back-bencher, has become a singular power in this new Washington.”
“Sessions’ nomination as Trump’s attorney general is scheduled to be considered Tuesday by the Senate Judiciary Committee, yet his influence in the administration extends far beyond the Justice Department. From immigration and health care to national security and trade, Sessions is the intellectual godfather of the president’s policies. Sessions’ reach extends throughout the White House, with his aides and allies accelerating the president’s most dramatic moves, including the ban on refugees and migrants from seven mostly Muslim nations that has triggered fear around the globe.”
Democrats Will Filibuster Any Trump Nominee to Court
“Senate Democrats are going to try to bring down Donald Trump’s Supreme Court pick no matter who the president chooses to fill the current vacancy,” Politico reports.
Said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR): “This is a stolen seat. This is the first time a Senate majority has stolen a seat. We will use every lever in our power to stop this.”
Trump Will Probably Put the House In Play
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Trump Signs Order Limiting New Regulations
President Donald Trump “signed an executive order requiring that for every new federal regulation implemented, two must be rescinded,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “This will be the biggest such act that our country has ever seen. There will be regulation, there will be control, but it will be a normalized control where you can open your business and expand your business very easily. And that’s what our country has been all about.”
Diplomats Consider Dissent Over Immigration Ban
“Dozens of foreign service officers and other career diplomats stationed around the world are so concerned about President Donald Trump’s new executive order restricting Syrian refugees and other immigrants from entering the United States that they are contemplating taking the rare step of sending a formal objection to senior State Department officials in Washington,” ABC News reports.
“In recent days, drafts of a dissent memo have been circulating among diplomats and associates abroad expressing concern that the new restrictions — which Trump said would help ‘keep America safe’ — are un-American and will actually paralyze efforts to stop terrorist attacks in the U.S.”
Lawfare: “Consider this a major bureaucratic uprising on the part of career foreign service officers against the President on his executive order on refugees.”
Quote of the Day
“Much of media is distorted and fake. Knowingly false. We don’t have truthful media. I actually think they’re sick people.”
— President Trump, in an interview with CBN.
Officials Worry Terrorism Defenses Are Being Weakened
“Though cast as measures meant to make the country safe, the Trump administration’s moves during its first week in office are more likely to weaken the counterterrorism defenses the United States has erected over the past 16 years, several current and former U.S. officials said,” the Washington Post reports.
“Through inflammatory rhetoric and hastily drawn executive orders, the administration has alienated allies, including Iraq, provided propaganda fodder to terrorist networks that frequently portray U.S. involvement in the Middle East as a religious crusade, and endangered critical cooperation from often-hidden U.S. partners — whether the leader of a mosque in an American suburb or the head of a Middle East intelligence service.”
Meanwhile, another Washington Post piece notes that Trump and his aides “keep justifying the entry ban by citing attacks it couldn’t have prevented.”
Either Way Trump Will Be Roasted
No one is sure if the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner will go on as planned this year, but Samantha Bee is organizing a counter-event that will take place in Washington on April 29, the same night as the more famous dinner, the New York Times reports.
“This alternative gala, which is being called ‘Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner’ and is expected to be announced officially on Monday, will be at the Willard Hotel. Ms. Bee said that it was not an attempt to comment on or compete with that other, better-known banquet, but a night to include jokes about Mr. Trump that she and like-minded comedians want to make.”
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