“Some Democratic House members are planning to invite victims of sexual assault to President Trump’s State of the Union address later this month to highlight the issue,” NBC News reports.
Daily Archives
January 10, 2018
39 posts · Wednesday
Republicans May Skip Budget
“Republican leaders are considering skipping passage of a GOP budget this year — a blow to the party’s weakened fiscal hawks that would squash all 2018 efforts to revamp entitlements or repeal Obamacare,” Politico reports.
“White House and Hill GOP leaders discussed the possibility of forgoing the painful budget process during last weekend’s Camp David legislative summit… Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has argued that he cannot pass controversial deficit-reduction legislation using powerful budget procedures with his new 51-vote majority — and wasn’t even sure he could find the votes for a fiscal blueprint in the first place.”
“But more importantly, it would mean the GOP’s 2018 agenda would be sharply limited: Only with passage of a joint House-Senate budget can Republicans deploy reconciliation tools, which allow them to circumvent the Senate filibuster and bypass Democrats, as they did on last year’s successful tax bill and failed Obamacare repeal push.”
Extra Bonus Quote of the Day
“There was genius displayed yesterday in the meeting. It’s sort of a rare genius up here — it was actually listening and being flexible.”
— Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), quoted by ABC News, on President Trump’s immigration meeting at the White House yesterday.
GOP Has Four Convicted Criminals Running for Congress
Republicans have four convicted criminals running for Congress, the HuffPost reports.
They are: Joe Arpaio, Don Blankenship, Michael Grimm and Greg Gianforte.
“Three of these men — Arpaio, Blankenship, and Grimm — have suggested that their convictions show they were persecuted by the Obama administration for their political beliefs. The actual evidence suggests otherwise.”
Kelly Expands White House Ban on Cell Phones
White House chief of staff John Kelly issued a memo to staff outlining the administration’s new ban on personal cell phones within the West Wing complex of the White House, ABC News reports.
The policy goes further than originally expected and is not just limited to personal cell phones. It also includes laptops, smartwatches and “devices with WiFi, Bluetooth, radio, or cellular capabilities” and “any portable device that emits an electric signal and was not issued by the White House Communications Agency.”
Bonus Quote of the Day
“I would also say this, it smacks of what we never want to see in politics which is: Is it self-serving? I mean you can’t say, ‘I don’t want to see an oil rig from Mar-A-Lago’ as you look out from the waters of Palm Beach, but it’s okay to look at an oil rig out from Hilton Head or Charleston, South Carolina.”
— Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC), quoted by Business Insider, on President Trump’s decision to exempt Florida from expanded coastal oil drilling.
Trump Won’t Say If He’ll Agree to Mueller Interview
President Trump declined to say whether he would grant an interview to special counsel Robert Mueller and his team, deflecting repeated questions on the topic by saying there had been “no collusion” with the Russians during the 2016 presidential campaign and attacking his former opponent Hillary Clinton, the Washington Post reports.
Said Trump: “We’ll see what happens.”
Trump then questioned why he would be interviewed, arguing again there had been “no collusion” between his campaign and Russia: “It seems unlikely you’d even have an interview.”
Fox Anchor Says Minimum Wage Will Make Him Tip Less
Fox Business anchor Stuart Varney told viewers that he isn’t convinced that restaurant workers making a higher $15 minimum wage still deserve the standard 15% to 20% tip for their services.
Said Varney: “If I walk into a restaurant and I know the waiter or waitress is making $15 an hour, way more than they used to make the previous year, I am going to say, ‘wait a minute am I going to give you 20%, 15% or whatever?'”
Confused Readers Are Buying Wrong ‘Fire and Fury’
New York Post: “Confused readers are buying a military book in droves all because it has a title similar to Michael Wolff’s bombshell Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, according to a new report.”
Said Randall Hanson, the author of Fire and Fury: The Allied Bombing of Germany, 1942-1945: “It amused me and part of me thought, can people really be that dumb to be confusing these books?”
“The Canadian political science professor at the University of Toronto never imagined his book — exploring civilian perspectives on the Allied bombing of Germany during WWII — would make it to Amazon’s bestseller list ten years after he wrote it.”
Mueller Adds Cyber Prosecutor to Team
Special counsel Robert Mueller “has added a veteran cyber prosecutor to his team, filling what has long been a gap in expertise and potentially signaling a recent focus on computer crimes,” the Washington Post reports.
“Legal analysts have said that one charge Mueller might pursue would be a conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, if he can demonstrate that members of Trump’s team conspired in Russia’s hacking effort to influence the election.”
Canada Expects Trump to Pull Out of NAFTA
Canada is increasingly convinced that President Trump will soon announce that the United States intends to pull out of the North American Free Trade Agreement, Reuters reports.
“The sources said they expected Trump would make his move at about the same time that negotiators from the United States, Canada and Mexico meet in late January for the sixth and penultimate round of talks to modernize the treaty.”
Abedin and Weiner Withdraw Their Divorce
“Huma Abedin and convicted perv Anthony Weiner agreed Wednesday to finalize their divorce out of court, seeking to protect their 6-year-old son from an embarrassing public separation,” the New York Daily News reports.
From a statement by Abedin’s attorney: “In order to reduce any impact of these proceedings on their child, the parties have decided to reach a settlement swiftly and privately.”
How Democracies Die
Out next week: How Democracies Die by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt.
“Democracy no longer ends with a bang—in a revolution or military coup—but with a whimper: the slow, steady weakening of critical institutions, such as the judiciary and the press, and the gradual erosion of long-standing political norms. The good news is that there are several exit ramps on the road to authoritarianism. The bad news is that, by electing Trump, we have already passed the first one.”
Most Americans Say Trump Not Fit to Be President
A new Quinnipiac poll finds that American voters say President Trump is intelligent by a 53% to 44% margin, but they also say 69% to 28% that he is not level-headed and by 57% to 40% that he is not fit to serve as president.
Grading President Trump’s first year in office, 39% of voters give him an “F,” while 17% give him a “D.”
Trump’s job approval is a dismal 36% to 59%.
Quote of the Day
“My performance — some people called it my performance, I consider it work — got great reviews by everybody except two networks… Some said it was one of the greatest meetings they’ve ever seen.”
— President Trump, quoted by Axios, boasting about his handling of yesterday’s bipartisan meeting on immigration.
Washington Renames Street In Front of Russian Embassy
“The local government in Washington, D.C., has approved a measure to rename the street in front of Russia’s embassy after slain Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov,” according to Radio Free Europe.
Two Florida Lawmakers Admit Extramarital Affair
Two South Florida state senators went public to acknowledge their extramarital affair “as the Florida Legislature convened under a cloud of sexual impropriety that has distracted lawmakers for months,” the Sun Sentinel reports.
Their statement came after a website posted hidden camera video purporting to show state Sen. Anitere Flores (R) entering and leaving an apartment rented by Senate Minority Leader Oscar Braynon (D) on four consecutive nights.
Both Braynon and Flores are married.
Issa Will Retire from Congress
Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) will not seek reelection this year, increasing Democrats’ chances of flipping his swing district in their favor, NBC News reports.
Issa barely won reelection last year while Hillary Clinton carried the district by 7 percentage points.
The Cook Political Report moves the race from Toss Up to Lean Democratic.
