Daily Archives

January 11, 2018

31 posts · Thursday

New Data Shows Fault Lines In Trump’s Support

January 11, 2018 at 9:50 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Ron Brownstein: “Previously unpublished results from the nonpartisan online-polling firm SurveyMonkey show Trump losing ground over his tumultuous first year not only with the younger voters and white-collar whites who have always been skeptical of him, but also with the blue-collar whites central to his coalition.”

“Trump retains important pillars of support. Given that he started in such a strong position with those blue-collar whites, even after that decline he still holds a formidable level of loyalty among them—particularly men and those over 50 years old. What’s more, he has established a modest but durable beachhead among African American and Hispanic men, even while confronting overwhelming opposition from women in those demographic groups.”

“Together, the results crystallize the bet Trump is making for his own reelection in 2020, and for his party’s chances in November’s election: that he can mobilize enough support among older and blue-collar (as well as rural and evangelical) whites to offset the intense resistance he’s provoked from groups that are all growing in the electorate: Millennials, minorities, and college-educated whites—particularly the women among them.”

Many Unconfirmed Nominees Are Still In Government

January 11, 2018 at 9:33 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

James Hohmann details multiple Trump nominees for positions “who couldn’t pass muster with a GOP-controlled Senate yet continues to wield immense authority inside the government.”

“It’s possible that there are additional people who couldn’t get confirmed by the Senate that are now working under the radar inside the executive branch. Every president gets to bring on about 4,000 political appointees, but only around 1,200 of those need to be confirmed by the Senate. It’s hard to find out the identities of the other 2,800.”

It’s Joe Arpaio’s Party Now

January 11, 2018 at 8:30 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

McKay Coppins: “Former Arizona sheriff Joe Arpaio has the kind of résumé that in some other, hard-to-remember era would have consigned him to the fringes of American politics.”

“Now, he wants to be the a United States senator—and he believes the political climate has never been better for a candidate like him.”

“In a phone interview Wednesday, Arpaio told me the national GOP had moved sharply in his direction in recent years. All that gauzy post-2012 talk of Republicans reaching out to Latino voters and championing ‘compassionate’ immigration reform seems like a distant memory now—replaced by a climate in which the godfather of the birther movement can become president by promising to keep Mexican rapists out of the country with a massive border wall.”

Republicans Press Trump to Stay In NAFTA

January 11, 2018 at 8:26 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Senate Republicans have strategically revved up their attempt to convince President Trump to not withdraw from NAFTA. Some senators and aides say he may not have understood how popular it was with the caucus until recently, and are encouraging him to focus instead on improving it,” Axios reports.

“This is Congress’s clearest shot at saving the trade agreement. If Trump decides to withdraw, Congress probably couldn’t stop him, and both the legal and economic consequences are extremely unclear.”

Sessions Fails to Impress Trump

January 11, 2018 at 7:55 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “For months, Sessions has asked senior White House aides to make sure the president knows what he is doing at the Justice Department, two White House advisers said, and has told allies he hopes policy decisions that garner news coverage will please Trump.”

“But Sessions, who was one of Trump’s earliest backers and gave up a safe Senate seat to join the administration, has, by all accounts, been unable to repair his relationship with the president. Trump has dismissed praise of Sessions… as he continues to rage about the Russia investigation and Sessions’s decision to recuse himself from the probe into Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 election and whether there was any coordination with the Trump’s campaign.”

Wolff’s Book Has Just Lowered Expectations for Trump

January 11, 2018 at 7:45 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Bret Stephens: “Guess what? Donald Trump is a raving idiot. Every sentient person knows this, and if Michael Wolff is to be believed, so does most everyone in the White House. So why are we talking about Wolff’s book Fire and Fury as if it’s the news sensation of the decade?”

“The answer lies in that timeless definition of the word ‘gossip’: Hearing something you like about someone you don’t. Fire and Fury is catnip for everyone who detests this president… But gossip isn’t journalism. And Wolff’s book is Exhibit A in how not to damage Trump’s presidency, much less his chances of re-election.”

“The net result is that Fire and Fury has so thoroughly succeeded in lowering public expectations for Trump that it makes it that much easier for him to exceed them.”

The Wall Street Journal reports Wolff sold one million copies of his book in four days.

Missouri Governor Admits Affair, Denies Blackmail

January 11, 2018 at 7:18 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens (R) and his wife, Sheena Greitens, issued an extraordinary statement late Wednesday acknowledging that he had an extramarital affair in the past and that the couple ‘has dealt with this together honestly and privately,'” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reports.

“The statement came as a St. Louis television station aired a segment alleging that, during that affair, Greitens took a compromising photograph of the woman and threatened to publicize it if she exposed him.”

“The woman claims in the audio that they went into Greitens’ basement, where he bound her to a piece of exercise equipment with some kind of tape, put a blindfold on her and began partly undressing her and touching her. That part of the encounter was consensual, she indicates in the audio, but the alleged taking of the photograph wasn’t. She said in the audio that she wasn’t aware he was doing it until she saw a flash of light through the blindfold, followed by his alleged verbal threat.”

[alert type=”general” dismiss=”no”]Prior to this report, Greitens, a 43-year-old former Navy SEAL and Rhodes Scholar, had been seen by many Republicans as an aspiring presidential candidate.[/alert]

Rash of Retirements Suggests a Wave Is Coming

January 11, 2018 at 7:16 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “The number of House Republicans planning to forgo reelection bids this year is on track to outpace majority-party retirements in any recent election where control of the chamber flipped — an ominous sign fueling GOP fears of a political wave that could shift power to Democrats in November’s midterm elections.”

Politico: “The 44 House members not seeking reelection this year — 29 in Republican-held seats and 15 in Democratic-held seats — puts 2018 in the company of past wave-year elections when control of the House changed hands.”

“In 1994, 49 House members retired and Republicans netted 54 seats, according to Brookings Institution’s Vital Statistics on Congress. In 2006, 28 lawmakers retired and Democrats picked up 30 seats. And in 2010, 32 members retired and Republicans won 63 seats.”

David Wasserman: “I don’t think people have fully priced in how much worse things could get for House Republicans in the next 300 days.”

Resignations Over Bad Behavior Hit State Legislatures

January 11, 2018 at 7:15 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Associated Press: “In the past year, at least 14 legislators in 10 states have resigned from office following accusations of sexual harassment or misconduct, according to the AP’s review. At least 16 others in more than a dozen states have faced other repercussions, such as the voluntary or forced removal from legislative leadership positions. Some others remain defiant in the face of ongoing investigations into sexual harassment complaints.”

Mike Allen: “Early in my career, I covered state legislatures in Richmond and Hartford. All winter, up-and-coming lawmakers are thrown together with young staff and ambitious lobbyists for weeks at time of boozy nights far from home. That’s a lot of bad behavior.”

Trump Will Allow Work Requirements for Medicaid

January 11, 2018 at 7:10 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Trump administration issued guidance to states early Thursday that will allow them to compel people to work or prepare for jobs in order to receive Medicaid for the first time in the half-century history of this pillar of the nation’s social safety net,” the Washington Post reports.

“The new rules come as 10 states are already lined up, waiting for federal permission to impose work requirements on able-bodied adults in the program. Three other states are contemplating them. Health officials could approve the first waiver — probably for Kentucky — as soon as Friday, according to two people with knowledge of the process.”

House Republicans Propose Hard-Line Immigration Plan

January 11, 2018 at 7:08 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Prominent House Republicans stepped forward with a vision of immigration policy that clashed fiercely with President Trump’s recent overtures of bipartisanship and highlighted how difficult it will be for Congress and the president to reach accord in the coming weeks,” the New York Times reports.

“The proposal, championed by the chairmen of the House Judiciary and Homeland Security Committees, would crack down on illegal immigration and sharply reduce the number of legal immigrants to the United States. Coming one day after Mr. Trump held an extraordinary meeting in which he laid out the parameters for a bipartisan immigration deal, the House proposal highlighted the uncertainty surrounding negotiations that are supposed to coalesce before the government runs out of money on Jan. 19.”

Trump Secret Plan to Scrap Obamacare

January 11, 2018 at 7:06 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Early last year as an Obamacare repeal bill was flailing in the House, top Trump administration officials showed select House conservatives a secret road map of how they planned to gut the health law using executive authority. The March 23 document, which had not been public until now, reveals that while the effort to scrap Obamacare often looked chaotic, top officials had actually developed an elaborate plan to undermine the law — regardless of whether Congress repealed it.”

““The blueprint, built off the executive order to minimize Obamacare’s ‘economic burden,’ that Trump signed just hours after taking the oath of office, shows just how advanced the administration’s plans were to unwind the law — plans that would become far more important after the legislative efforts to repeal Obamacare failed.”

Democratic Leaders Face Internal Mutiny Over Dreamers

January 11, 2018 at 7:00 am EST By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Democratic leaders are facing a potential revolt within their ranks as they edge toward a deal with Republicans that would protect Dreamers from deportation but also include concessions to conservatives that many Democratic lawmakers say are unacceptable,” Politico reports.

“Many Democrats, particularly in the House, are horrified that their leaders would even agree to discuss issues beyond legal status for Dreamers and limited measures to curb illegal immigration. The concerns span multiple factions of the Democratic conference, and, combined with opposition from Republican immigration hard-liners, they could put passage of a DACA deal at risk.”