Daily Archives

September 14, 2017

26 posts · Thursday

GOP Feels Betrayed By Trump

September 14, 2017 at 10:05 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “While GOP leaders were able to brush off the debt pact as no big deal, after Thursday they were reminding the president that they — not the Democrats — run Congress. Though they differed on whether to bill it as a deal, Trump and Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi agreed in some fashion that they want to shield so-called Dreamers from deportation and beef up border security, leaving the fight over the border wall for later.”

“That left Republicans grappling with a frightening new potential reality: that Trump will cut controversial deals with Democrats and leave them to pick up the pieces.”

Trump Just Prefers Talking to Democrats

September 14, 2017 at 10:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “In recent weeks, Trump has complained in private that it’s difficult to have any sort of relationship — or even make small talk — with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. He’s told staff that he finds Speaker Paul Ryan, whom he’s dubbed a ‘boy scout,’ dry as well, but the two have some rapport.”

“By contrast, Trump can relate to Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, who talk more in non-Washington terms that he understands, according to people familiar with their meetings. Trump wants to keep meeting with them.”

The Empty Shell of America’s Two Party System

September 14, 2017 at 6:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Edward Luce: “There was a time when the US had two functioning parties. That is no longer the case. I can now count four. Since Mr Trump has no fixed membership, the tally has risen temporarily to five. In last year’s primaries, the right populist and left populist candidates, Mr Trump and Mr Sanders, took more than half of the votes between them. If that were translated into seats, America’s traditional two parties would be in a minority. The picture would be closer to Emmanuel Macron’s France, where the Gaullists and Socialists are on the sidelines.”

“But American politics is doomed to limp on with the shell of two parties. Their contempt for each other is exceeded only by their antagonisms within. Neither of each party’s warring factions is strong enough to claim the whole. But they have enough clout to stop their rivals from doing so.”

“If Mr Trump were another person, he could orchestrate this chaos to his ends. No president has inherited better conditions to realign US politics. But Mr Trump has the attention span of a goldfish.”

Bonus Quote of the Day

September 14, 2017 at 5:33 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“He is who he has been and I didn’t go in there to change who he was, I wanted to inform and educate a different perspective. I think we accomplished that. To assume that immediately thereafter he’s going to have an epiphany is just unrealistic.”

— Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), quoted by BuzzFeed, when asked if it was frustrating talking to President Trump about his defense of white supremacists who marched on Charlottesville.

Trump Says He Was Right About ‘Both Sides’

September 14, 2017 at 5:12 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump thrust himself back into the racial storms of Charlottesville, repeating his charge that those resisting the neo-Nazis and white supremacists were as much to blame as the alt-right crowds who marched on the Virginia college town last month,” the New York Times reports.

Said Trump: “You have some pretty bad dudes on the other side also, and essentially that’s what I said. Now because of what’s happened since then with Antifa, when you look at really what’s happened since Charlottesville, a lot of people are saying, and people have actually written, ‘Gee, Trump may have a point.’ I said there’s some very bad people on the other side also.”

The Washington Post reports that Trump also “alluded to the Obama administration allegedly spying on his campaign, and — after repeatedly pointing to the unprecedented nature of the latest hurricanes in recent weeks — downplayed their size when asked whether climate change was to blame.”

Facebook Enabled Ads Targeted to ‘Jew Haters’

September 14, 2017 at 4:30 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Want to market Nazi memorabilia, or recruit marchers for a far-right rally? Facebook’s self-service ad-buying platform had the right audience for you,” ProPublica reports.

“Until this week, when we asked Facebook about it, the world’s largest social network enabled advertisers to direct their pitches to the news feeds of almost 2,300 people who expressed interest in the topics of ‘Jew hater,’ ‘How to burn jews,’ or, ‘History of why jews ruin the world.’”

Trump Humiliated Sessions After Mueller Appointment

September 14, 2017 at 3:47 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Shortly after learning in May that a special counsel had been appointed to investigate links between his campaign associates and Russia, President Trump berated Attorney General Jeff Sessions in an Oval Office meeting and said the attorney general should resign,” the New York Times reports.

“Accusing Mr. Sessions of ‘disloyalty,’ Mr. Trump unleashed a string of insults on his attorney general. Ashen and emotional, Mr. Sessions told the president he would quit and sent a resignation letter to the White House… Mr. Sessions would later tell associates that the demeaning way the president addressed him was the most humiliating experience in decades of public life.”

“The Oval Office meeting, details of which have not previously been reported, shows the intensity of Mr. Trump’s emotions as the Russia investigation gained steam and how he appeared to immediately see Mr. Mueller’s appointment as a looming problem for his administration. It also illustrates the depth of antipathy Mr. Trump has had for Mr. Sessions — one of his earliest campaign supporters — and how the president interprets ‘disloyalty’ within his circle of advisers.”

“Mr. Trump ended up rejecting Mr. Sessions’s May resignation letter after senior members of his administration argued that dismissing the attorney general would only create more problems for a president who had already fired an F.B.I. director and a national security adviser.”

Facebook Doesn’t Know Extent of Russian Ad Buys

September 14, 2017 at 3:32 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

CNN: “One week after it told the country that it had sold $100,000 worth of ads to a Russian troll farm during the 2016 election, Facebook is still not sure whether pro-Kremlin groups may have made other ad buys intended to influence American politics that it simply hasn’t discovered yet.”

“These sources said it is entirely possible that unidentified ad buys may still exist on the social media network today. One issue preventing Facebook from making a full accounting of the problem is that ads are purchased through the company’s self-service tool, which allows buyers to independently purchase and target ads, often without human interaction on Facebook’s side of the transaction.”

Partisans Stay Locked In

September 14, 2017 at 2:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

CBS News Nation Tracker: “This study shows party attachments have remained very stable in 2017, with neither Republicans nor Democrats able to draw many independents over to their side so far. Democrats aren’t becoming Republicans en masse, nor are Republicans becoming Democrats, and the few who have vacillated between parties aren’t as likely to vote in the first place — which sheds light on why today’s politics often seems dominated by partisans.”

“Overall, 91% of respondents identified with the same party in their most recent interview as they did the first time we talked to them this winter.”

Taking Another Look at the Electoral Math

September 14, 2017 at 1:55 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

John Judis: “On one level, there’s no arguing with the math. If you take the percentage of Americans that the U.S. census defines as ‘minorities’ and project their past voting habits into the next decade and beyond, you’ll come up with a very sunny version of the Democrats’ prospects.”

“There are only two problems with this line of thinking, but they’re pretty big ones. For starters, the census prediction of a ‘majority-minority’ America — slated to arrive in 2044 — is deeply flawed. And so is the notion that ethnic minorities will always and forever continue to back Democrats in Obama-like numbers.”

Trump In Talks for Interview on 60 Minutes

September 14, 2017 at 12:45 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“CBS is in talks with the Trump administration for an interview with the president on 60 Minutes,” BuzzFeed reports.

“The network is hoping to land Trump for the Sept. 24 premiere of its flagship Sunday night news program, but that timing is unlikely… Trump is more likely to sit down with 60 Minutes later this fall, in the hope that he can get into more detail about tax overhaul.”

Vice Pitches a Political Reality Show

September 14, 2017 at 12:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Hollywood Reporter: “Politics can be boring. Vice, which has some experience in making boring topics fun, is in the very early stages of developing a reality show that will have people of all political stripes living in a group house in Washington, D.C.”

“The show, if made, will be set in Washington, D.C., and will be shot next spring.”

Is Sexism What Happened to Hillary?

September 14, 2017 at 12:04 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Matt Bai: “Clinton can — and does — point to plenty of evidence to suggest that attitudes toward women skewed the election against her… According to data from Pew Research, Trump bested Clinton by 12 points among men, which was among the largest margins in the last 50 years. Among white voters without a college degree, Clinton lost by an astounding 39 points… And as Clinton herself notes, she also lost among white women, which at least complicates the gender argument.”

“The relevant issue isn’t really whether gender matters in politics or in the society generally (it clearly does), but rather whether it’s the thing that matters most… Gender, while always an added challenge, never defined Clinton’s candidacy. And on the list of challenges that made Clinton a less than ideal candidate — her age, her perceived entitlement, her family history of scandal, her limited skill as a persuader — the fact that she was a woman probably hovered somewhere near the bottom.”

Quote of the Day

September 14, 2017 at 10:58 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“At this point, who doesn’t want Trump impeached?”

— Ann Coulter, on Twitter, in response to Trump saying he wants to work with Democrats to protect DREAMers.

Trump’s FEC Pick Under Fire

September 14, 2017 at 10:53 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

No more than a day since President Trump announced he would nominate James “Trey” Trainor III as a commissioner on the Federal Election Commission, the former election lawyer for the Trump presidential campaign is already under fire on multiple fronts, the National Law Journal reports.

“Perhaps to be expected, the nomination of Trainor was almost immediately opposed by advocacy groups such as Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington — a nonprofit headed by former ethics czars in the Bush and Obama administrations — who said that Trainor stood for ‘exactly the opposite’ of what the FEC does: Police money in politics.”

“Perhaps less expected, Trainor’s Twitter feed came under the spotlight after users found that he had retweeted posts expressing what appeared to be anti-Protestant views.”

‘The Wall Will Come Later’

September 14, 2017 at 9:03 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Leaving the White House for Florida this morning, President Trump told pool reporters that “the wall will come later,” adding that a deal is “fairly close” with Paul Ryan and Mitch McConnell both on board, but both sides have to “get past the border security,” Axios reports.

Said Trump: “We’re working on a plan — subject to getting massive border controls. We’re working on a plan for DACA. People want to see that happen. You have 800,000 young people, brought here, no fault of their own. So we’re working on a plan, we’ll see how it works out. We’re going to get massive border security as part of that. And I think something can happen, we’ll see what happens, but something will happen.”

He added: “Mitch is on board, Paul Ryan’s on board. We all feel — look, 92% of the people agree on DACA — but what we want is very, very powerful border security, okay?”

Can Democrats Count on Young Voters?

September 14, 2017 at 8:37 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Young Americans have been moving left and leaving the G.O.P. in recent years, but a successful Democratic coalition built on the backs of liberal youth is far from a sure thing, especially in the short term,” the New York Times reports.

“The party’s problem is straightforward: getting them to actually go to the polls. Politicians know which part of the electorate still butters their bread — and there’s no avocado on it. Those aged 18 to 29 vote at far lower rates than older groups, decreasing their electoral power. But there are at least some signs that their participation levels will improve. And if an increasingly left-leaning voting bloc does become more politically active, there are huge potential gains for the Democratic Party.”

Russia Removes Parking Spaces for U.S. Diplomats

September 14, 2017 at 8:31 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Russia has withdrawn parking privileges for U.S. diplomats, an apparent continuation of a diplomatic tit-for-tat between Washington and Moscow,” the AP reports.

“State-owned television channel Rossiya 24 reported on Wednesday that parking spaces outside the U.S. consulate in St. Petersburg had been painted over with a pedestrian crossing, and special parking signs had been removed outside the U.S. consulate in Yekaterinburg, near the Ural Mountains.”