Daily Archives
19 posts · Sunday
The Senate has adjourned for the night without a deal to end the government shutdown.
Politico: “The Senate will vote at noon Monday on a bill to reopen the government through Feb. 8, though passage is not assured. Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer are continuing to negotiate on a deal to reopen the government and begin legislative work on protecting some young immigrants, but Schumer said ‘we have yet to reach a path forward.’”
“Thirteen years into the job, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. remains a conservative — but he has shifted to a more moderate position among the conservative justices on the court, a small change with potentially dramatic consequences,” BuzzFeed News reports.
“Among the justices appointed by Republican presidents, Roberts agreed least with Justice Anthony Kennedy in Roberts’ first two terms leading the court — and the most with Kennedy in the two most recently completed terms.”
“That kind of shift could have significant effects on how the current court decides major issues and — if it represents a permanent change — on how Roberts leads the court into the next decade.”
Jonathan Swan: “Two weeks ago, Zinke made an announcement that surprised the White House (and over Twitter, no less, after telling reporters at the Tallahassee airport): the waters around Florida would be exempt from his agency’s offshore oil and gas leasing program. Zinke’s announcement came shortly after he met with the state’s Republican governor, Rick Scott.”
“Trump has made clear to Zinke that he’s angry about this move… Zinke’s decision is both legally and politically dangerous for the Trump administration. Zinke did not coordinate with anybody, and gave the White House no forewarning of his controversial action.”
“Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team has been talking with George Nader, a little-known Bannon associate who boasts of his well-placed connections in the Middle East,” Axios reports.
“Nader has spoken with Mueller’s team at least twice, according to a source briefed on the investigation. A second source briefed on the investigation confirmed that Mueller’s team has brought Nader in for questioning in the past week.”
“Nader visited the White House frequently during the early months of the Trump administration. He became friendly with former chief strategist Steve Bannon, visiting his office regularly. A source familiar with the White House meetings said Jared Kushner also met Nader. After asking around about Nader, Kushner decided not to continue meeting with him.”
Jonathan Swan: “In a series of Oval Office meetings about six months into his presidency, Trump eviscerated Ross, telling him he’d screwed up, and badly.”
“Trump told Ross he didn’t trust him to negotiate anymore. Ross had tried in the early months of the administration, before Robert Lighthizer was confirmed as the U.S. Trade Representative, to take the lead on several crucial trade conversations. Once Lighthizer arrived there was a tussle for control over several issues. But after Ross botched — in Trump’s eyes — his dealings with China, he decided Lighthizer would be the lead negotiator on all trade issues.”
“During this period, Trump humiliated Ross in front of his colleagues, per three sources, and questioned his intelligence and competence.”
“A bipartisan group of roughly 20 senators are signaling they are nearing an agreement to reopen the government,” The Hill reports.
“The bipartisan group isn’t crafting separate legislation. Senators say the bulk of their talks were about how to get 60 votes for the bill to fund the government through Feb. 8 paired with a commitment that will satisfy Democrats on bringing up an immigration bill.”
“Senators predicted that Schumer and McConnell, who did not speak on Saturday, would be meeting shortly.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) warned that the White House staff is undercutting President Trump and Congress’s ability to get a deal on immigration, The Hill reports.
Said Graham: “Every time we have a proposal it is only yanked back by staff members. As long as Stephen Miller is in charge of negotiating immigration, we’re going nowhere.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), who lost both of her legs during an explosion in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Army, blasted President Trump as a “five-deferment draft dodger” during her remarks on the Senate floor, WTVR reports.
Said Duckworth: “I spent my entire adult life looking out for the well-being, the training, the equipping of the troops for whom I was responsible. I will not be lectured about what our military needs by a five-deferment draft dodger.”
She added: “I have a message for Cadet Bone Spurs: If you cared about our military, you’d stop baiting Kim Jong-un into a war that could put 85,000 American troops — and millions of innocent civilians — in danger.”
“You gotta understand, the guy didn’t leave me a trail of breadcrumbs. He left me full loaves.”
New York Times: “Inside the White House, Mr. Trump, the neophyte president who has styled himself the ultimate dealmaker, remained remarkably disengaged from the complex process of hammering out a politically palatable deal that could provide a way out of the morass.”
“Senior advisers counseled him to do less, not more, negotiating, arguing that the shutdown was a political problem that Democrats had created for themselves, and had to find their own way to resolve. But Mr. Trump, a highly reactive personality who detests headlines questioning his leadership — like those that dominated cable TV throughout Saturday, during coverage of the shutdown and women’s marches throughout the country denouncing his presidency — felt stymied and wanted somehow to intervene.”
“Irritated to have missed his big event in Florida, Mr. Trump spent much of his day watching old TV clips of him berating President Barack Obama for a lack of leadership during the 2013 government shutdown, a White House aide said, seeming content to sit back and watch the show.”
Jared Kushner was granted access to classified intelligence reports despite not having a security clearance, the New Yorker reports.
Kushner was added to a list of recipients for the President’s Daily Brief, which contains some of the federal government’s most highly classified intelligence reports.
“By the end of the Obama Administration, seven White House officials were authorized to receive the same version of the P.D.B. that appeared on the President’s iPad. The Trump Administration expanded the number to as many as fourteen people.”
“A former Trump campaign worker appointed at age 23 to a top position in the White House’s drug policy office had been let go from a job at a law firm because he repeatedly missed work,” the Washington Post reports.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has called for a vote to end the government shutdown at 1 a.m. on Monday, the Washington Post reports.
McConnell’s plan would keep the government open through February 8 but is unlikely to include any of the concessions Democrats are seeking on immigration.
Politico: “Both sides dug in on Saturday, signaling they were prepared for a longer impasse. Both sides tried to hammer each other on their political messaging. And it was clear that the respective party leaders believed the other had badly misjudged the mood of the country.”
Eric Trump told Fox News that he doesn’t believe the government shutdown is all that bad.
Said Trump: “Honestly, I think it’s a good thing for us, because people see through it.”
He added: “I mean, people have seen a year that’s incredible. It’s been filled with nothing but the best for our country, ‘America First’ policies, and they’re happy with where we are as a nation … It has the Democrats worried.”
President Trump called for Senate Republicans to trigger the so-called “nuclear option” if the government shutdown continues and pass a long-term budget with 51 votes, The Hill reports.
“The nuclear option would involve changing Senate rules to allow legislation to pass with a simple majority instead of 60 votes.”
Washington Post: “As the blame game launched following the shutdown of the U.S. government at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, it quickly and ferociously began playing out on perhaps the most contentious battlefield of the 2018 midterms: the Senate races where Democrats are seeking reelection in states that Trump won.”
“Six such Democrats voted against the spending bill in the Senate late Friday. But the vote divided the party, with five Senate Democrats, all from Trump states, voting to avoid a government shutdown — and setting up a fight over what Republicans have tried to brand “the Schumer Shutdown,” after Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY).”
“Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer were supposed to bring a new, more productive relationship to the Senate after years of bitterness and dysfunction at the helm of the chamber,” Politico reports.
“Instead, it’s been a year of slights and one-upmanship between the two men. While there may not be the level of vitriol that marked McConnell’s dealings with former Democratic leader Harry Reid, a new era of bipartisan comity this is not.”
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.
Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.