Archives for August 2017

GOP Chairman Launches Effort to Shore Up Obamacare

August 1, 2017 at 8:43 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Republicans on both sides of the Capitol scrambled Tuesday to defuse President Trump’s threat to cut off critical health insurance payments, moving around the president toward bipartisan legislation to shore up the Affordable Care Act,” the New York Times reports.

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN), the influential chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, announced on Tuesday that his panel will begin work in early September on legislation to “stabilize and strengthen the individual health insurance market” for 2018.

Caitlin Owens: What could be in a bipartisan health care package.

Flake Makes Waves with Trump Takedown

August 1, 2017 at 8:39 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Jeff Flake’s scathing critique of Donald Trump roiled the Capitol – and potentially his own reelection bid — on Tuesday as the first-term senator pressed his case that the GOP aided and abetted the president’s rise,” Politico reports.

“Flake’s fellow GOP senators applauded him for writing his new book on conservatism, yet few were willing to endorse his central message: Their party has done little to push back against Trump… Even the most ardent Trump critics on Capitol Hill distanced themselves from Flake’s blistering critique, laid out in his newly-released book.”

Coast Guard Chief Bucks Trump on Transgender Troops

August 1, 2017 at 8:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

U.S. Coast Guard Commandant Paul Zukunft is pledging he “will not break faith” with transgender personnel, “marking the strongest rebuttal yet by a leader of the armed forces to President Trump’s declaration that he wants to ban all transgender troops,” Politico reports.

Said Zukunft: “We have made an investment in you and you have made an investment in the Coast Guard, and I will not break faith.”

The Stories Missing From Your Feed

You already know the problem: the same story can look completely different depending on where you read it — and some barely show up at all because algorithms decide what you see.

My goal for Political Wire is to help you get outside those filters — to understand not just what happened, but how it’s being covered and who might be missing it. That’s why I use and recommend Ground News.

It’s an app and website that brings together global news from across the political spectrum, showing each source’s bias, factuality, and ownership.

What I find especially useful is the Blindspot Feed. It highlights stories getting heavy coverage on one side but little on the other — a quick way to see what your usual news diet may be missing.

For a limited time, get 40% off a Ground News Vantage subscription at www.groundnews.com/political.

Trump Will Investigate Affirmative Action in Colleges

August 1, 2017 at 8:16 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Trump administration is preparing to redirect resources of the Justice Department’s civil rights division toward investigating and suing universities over affirmative action admissions policies deemed to discriminate against white applicants,” according to a document obtained by the New York Times.

The document seeks current lawyers interested in working for a new project on “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.”

Sasse Declines Heritage Foundation Top Job

August 1, 2017 at 7:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Heritage Foundation has approached one of the Senate’s leading anti-Trump Republicans, Ben Sasse, to gauge his interest in serving as president — an indication the influential conservative think tank may turn away from its supportive posture toward the president,” Politico reports.

“Sasse, who was elected to his first term in the Senate in 2014, has swatted down the overtures from Heritage’s board of trustees.”

Student Discounts Are Back!

August 1, 2017 at 5:51 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Two generous readers have made donations so that I could offer discounted memberships for college students. I’m matching the donation.

The first 20 students who send an email from their college email address, will get a coupon code for 50% off the annual membership.

It’s just more proof that we have an amazing community here.

Wray Confirmed as FBI Director

August 1, 2017 at 5:16 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Senate confirmed Christopher Wray as the next FBI director on Tuesday to steer the United States’ premier law enforcement agency through a politically fraught period as it investigates whether any of President Trump’s associates colluded with the Russian government during last year’s election,” the New York Times reports.

“The confirmation of Mr. Wray, a former federal prosecutor, is likely to be a relief to many agents at the FBI who want a strong director to stave off any attempts by the White House to meddle in its investigations.”

Extra Bonus Quote of the Day

August 1, 2017 at 5:14 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“I deal with foreign countries, and despite what you may read I have unbelievable relationships with all of the foreign leaders. They like me. I like them. You know, it’s amazing.”

— President Trump, in a leaked transcript of an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

Scaramucci Will Pay Taxes on Sale of His Company

August 1, 2017 at 5:02 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Anthony Scaramucci lost more than a job at the White House: He lost the chance to delay paying millions of dollars in taxes,” CNN reports.

“Scaramucci’s lawyer said Tuesday that he will pay capital gains tax when he completes the sale of his investment company, SkyBridge Capital. Government employees can seek permission to defer that tax when they sell investments to avoid conflicts of interest.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

August 1, 2017 at 4:41 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“It’s pretty obvious that our problem on health care was not the Democrats. We didn’t have 50 Republicans.”

— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by TPM, adding that “there are not the votes” to end the legislative filibuster.

Trump Disapproval Reaches New High

August 1, 2017 at 4:29 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

The major polling aggregators all find President Trump registering his highest disapproval numbers yet.

Vladimir Putin and Political Murder

August 1, 2017 at 1:51 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

This looks very good: Orders to Kill: The Putin Regime and Political Murder by Amy Knight.

DEA Chief Rebuts Trump’s Remarks on Police Force

August 1, 2017 at 1:47 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The nation’s top narcotics officer repudiated President Trump’s remarks about police use of force, issuing a memo saying Drug Enforcement Administration agents must “always act honorably” by maintaining ‘the very highest standards’ in the treatment of criminal suspects,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“Chuck Rosenberg, who as acting DEA chief works for the president, told agency personnel world-wide in a Saturday memo to disregard any suggestion that roughing up suspects would be tolerated.”

Mnuchin Wants ‘Clean’ Debt Ceiling Hike

August 1, 2017 at 1:40 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin “has begun lobbying congressional leaders for a ‘clean’ debt ceiling increase, according to Capitol Hill sources. But that debt increase — needed sometime this fall — will prove a tough vote for both parties, and neither GOP nor Democratic leaders have signed yet off on the Trump administration’s plan to raise the debt limit without attaching other policy sweeteners,” Politico reports.

Washington Post: “Talks between the White House and the Senate’s top Republican and Democrat broke up Tuesday with no progress on raising the country’s debt ceiling, an impasse that threatens a financial crisis if left unresolved.”

Playbook: “This fight is going to take up a lot of oxygen on Capitol Hill over the next several weeks. Republican aides for weeks have said they expect the Senate to pass a clean debt ceiling bill, and send it to the House, where it would be passed with a small number of House Republicans and a majority of House Democrats. This will inflame conservative Republicans, who want to extract something before the Congress raises the country’s borrowing limit.”

Ex-Fox News Executive Considered for White House Role

August 1, 2017 at 12:46 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Bill Shine, a former co-president of Fox News and top lieutenant to the network’s founder, Roger Ailes, has spoken with White House officials about taking a position on President Trump’s communications team,” the New York Times reports.

“Mr. Shine has no political experience outside of producing cable news, and he was forced out of Fox News in May after his name surfaced in lawsuits that accused him of abetting Mr. Ailes’s harassing behavior toward women.”

Flake Goes ‘Bulworth’ on Us

August 1, 2017 at 10:13 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “It seems safe to say that Senator Jeff Flake’s new anti-Trump book is politically contraindicated. His approval ratings in his home state, Arizona, are so low they are somewhere down in a missile silo; according to Politico, the president has privately said he would spend $10 million in the Republican primary to whisk Flake out of the Senate with a broom.”

“Then again, maybe this is what a man who’s facing political expiration does: speaks his mind, goes for broke. Or perhaps he’s simply fed up. Flake was one of the few Never Trumpers in Congress to remain so right through Election Day.”

“Whatever his reasons, Flake has gone ‘Bulworth‘ on us, emulating that movie’s devil-may-care, truth-telling politician, in Conscience of a Conservative: A Rejection of Destructive Politics and a Return to Principle. It’s striking how many influential figures in this slim volume he manages to impale with a stick and then lightly spit-roast.”

Feeling Sorry for the Mooch

August 1, 2017 at 10:01 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

William Cohan: “Yes, mistakes were made. Trusting Trump to stand by him, though, was probably his biggest mistake. Trump is loyal to no one but himself. The tragedy here is that Anthony, who wended his way to the president after turns supporting Scott Walker and Jeb Bush, should never have signed up for the Trump show in the first place. He should never have believed that Trump would somehow treat him differently than he has treated so many others.”

“Anthony had his shot. He blew it. He probably knows it. He is no doubt feeling humiliated. There are probably few people who feel even the slightest bit sorry for him. But I happen to be one of them. I know he knew better than to get involved with Trump, but he could not resist.”

Daily Beast politics editor Sam Stein tweeted: “In all seriousness, this is a sad story. Guy sold his company, divorced his wife, didn’t see his kid’s birth, for . . . this.”

New York Magazine: The Mooch’s 11-day wild ride through Trump’s White House.

Kelly Already Reaching Out to Democrats

August 1, 2017 at 9:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Daily Beast: “Even before he formally started the job, Kelly was reaching out to top Capitol Hill Democrats in hopes of regaining political capital ahead of what is expected to be a bruising fight over tax reform and other administration priorities.”

Said one White House official: “Tax reform is gonna be a heavy lift. No reason to write off/alienate Democrats any more than we already have.”

“A spokeswoman for Nancy Pelosi said that Kelly reached out her over the weekend with the two holding a phone conversation on Sunday. A spokesman for Chuck Schumer… confirmed that Kelly reached out to him as well.”