“Former White House political strategist Karl Rove warned Senate Republicans in a meeting this week not to become overly reliant on their conservative base as they head into what could be a tough 2020 presidential election,” The Hill reports.
Archives for 2019
Pelosi Rejects Trump’s Shutdown Proposal
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called reports of a deal to be proposed by President Trump to end a record-long partial government shutdown a “non-starter,” The Hill reports.
Said Pelosi: lDemocrats were hopeful that the President was finally willing to re-open government… Unfortunately, initial reports make clear that his proposal is a compilation of several previously rejected initiatives, each of which is unacceptable and in total, do not represent a good faith effort to restore certainty to people’s lives.”
She added: “It is unlikely that any one of these provisions alone would pass the House, and taken together, they are a non-starter.”
BuzzFeed Doubles Down on Report
BuzzFeed News “has doubled down on their bombshell report” on President Trump purportedly directing Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, according to Mediaite.
From a statement: “As we’ve re-confirmed our reporting, we’ve seen no indication that any specific aspect of our story is inaccurate. We remain confident in what we’ve reported, and will share more as we are able.”
Democrats Dismiss Trump Shutdown Offer
Even before President Trump’s shutdown remarks on Saturday, Democratic aides on the Hill were dismissing his planned shutdown compromise offer as inadequate, Axios reports.
Said one Democratic aide: “Dems were not consulted on this and have rejected similar overtures previously.”
Said another: “Similar inadequate offers from the Administration were already rejected by Democrats.”
New York Times: “Lawmakers also said Ms. Pelosi was livid about being forced to cancel a trip to Afghanistan and Brussels after the president denied her use of a military plane and then scuttled her attempt to fly commercially by publicly revealing her travel plans.”
Why Trump Is Ready to Compromise to End Shutdown
A source close to the negotiations told Jonathan Swan “the inflection point for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was the letter from Nancy Pelosi telling Trump not to deliver the State of the Union. McConnell had been saying all along that Pelosi and Trump needed to negotiate because one needed to put a bill on the House floor and one needed to sign it — two people with singular power.”
But after Pelosi’s letter, it became clear to McConnell she was “never going to get off her position and some other spark needed to happen.”
“McConnell told the president that it was his view that Pelosi was never going to move. She would and could not negotiate on border funding because her caucus, and Trump needed to be the one to put something forward he would sign so that McConnell would have the presidential backing to bring it to the floor.”
Trump Says He’s Grateful for Mueller Statement
President Trump said he was grateful to special counsel Robert Mueller for a statement disputing a BuzzFeed News report that Trump directed his former lawyer to lie to Congress about a Moscow real estate deal, Reuters reports.
Said Trump: “I appreciate the special counsel coming out with a statement last night. I think it was very appropriate that they did so. I think that the BuzzFeed piece was a disgrace to our country. It was a disgrace to journalism.”
Will Trump Go Big on Immigration to End Shutdown?
Playbook: “Things are always changing at the White House. But Hill sources and people close to the president expect — and, frankly, hope — the president will announce he is trading immigration policies Democrats and some Republicans have longed for — think DACA, temporary protective status for refugees — for a border security package. The White House has said publicly for a while that it wants to find a way to restart negotiations with Democrats.”
“If the president actually goes this route — and, again, many Dems and Republicans truly hope he does — it could be a big move, and may go some distance to breaking the nearly month-long gridlock of this shutdown.”
“To the extent there are any good moves on Day 29 of a shutdown, this would be it. This could put pressure on Democrats to come to the table and talk. Fixing issues like DACA and TPS are big-time policy wins for Democrats and many Republicans. The question we have is what could they offer Republicans on a border security package?”
Jonathan Swan: “The offer is expected to include Trump’s $5.7 billion demand for wall money in exchange for the BRIDGE Act — which would extend protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) — and also legislation to extend the legal status of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) holders, according to a source with direct knowledge.”
Gillibrand Defends Calling on Franken to Resign
Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) “defended her decision to call on former Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) to resign after allegations of unwanted touching and kissing were made against him,” CNN reports.
Gillibrand said that she made the decision to help push him out because “my silence meant I was defending him and carrying his water, which I was unwilling to do.”
She added: “Enough was enough. Al Franken is entitled to whatever process wanted, if he wanted to say and wait six months for his ethics hearing. His decision was to resign. My decision was not to remain silent.”
Will Larry Hogan Challenge Trump In a Primary?
Bret Stephens: “Hogan is attracting notice partly because he just romped to re-election over the progressive Democrat Ben Jealous — becoming the first G.O.P. governor to win re-election in Maryland since 1954 — and partly because he’s one of only three Republican governors in deep-blue states (Massachusetts’s Charlie Baker and Vermont’s Phil Scott are the other two). His approval rating is 68 percent in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans 2 to 1.”
“But mostly Hogan makes no secret of his disdain for the president, though he goes out of his way to avoid mentioning his name.”
Trump Will Make Offer to End Shutdown
“President Trump plans to offer Democrats another proposal to end the shutdown when he addresses the nation from the White House on Saturday afternoon,” CNN reports.
“Trump’s idea is to put something on the table to get Democrats to engage with negotiations. Trump is not expected to back down from his demand for a border wall, but the plan will seek to entice Democrats by offering other concessions.”
“However, this plan is not based on negotiations with Democrats and White House officials are pessimistic that it will change much in stalled talks, because Democrats have previously refused to counter the White House’s proposal.”
O’Rourke’s Road Trip Drives Home His Message
“Beto O’Rourke is five states into his stream-of-consciousness road trip across the American Southwest, unaccompanied as he drops into a small-town diner for cobbler, washes his face in a lake and journals about the need to ‘clear my head,'” Politico reports.
“All of which is unfolding as the rest of the Democratic presidential field has broken into a sprint — Elizabeth Warren to New Hampshire, Kirsten Gillibrand to Iowa, and Bernie Sanders and Cory Booker to South Carolina… His absence from the fray has been noted — and his introspective writing style has been mocked. But amid much snickering, there is also evidence to suggest that if he does run for president, it could help him politically, advancing his off-beat brand.”
“With his online following, O’Rourke remains close to the 2020 conversation regardless of his location. And in the span of several days, he has generated a torrent of media coverage that — unlike Democrats in more public settings — he alone can control.”
Georgia Lawmaker Who Defended KKK Named to Key Post
Georgia House Speaker David Ralston (R) named as one of his committee chairs a state representative who opposed the erection of a statue to the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. on the grounds of the State Capitol and said the Ku Klux Klan made “people straighten up,” the Atlanta Journal Constitution reports.
Rep. Tommy Benton (R) will chair the House Retirement Committee, which oversees the retirement funds for Georgia teachers and state employees.
Harris Was Early ‘No’ Vote on Border Wall
“A little-noticed vote cast last year by Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) angered her fellow Democrats, but it also gave her a way to stand out from the crowd on the key issue of immigration if, as expected, she seeks the party’s presidential nomination in 2020,” Bloomberg reports.
“Defying President Trump’s demand for $5.7 billion in wall funding is a unifying message for Democrats with the 2020 campaign already under way. But in February 2018, Democrats were willing to grant Trump $25 billion to build a barrier on the U.S.-Mexico border in exchange for giving young undocumented ‘Dreamers’ a path to citizenship.”
“Harris was one of just three Senate Democrats to reject that deal, provoking the anger of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, colleagues and some immigration activists… Some of them suggested that Harris already had 2020 in mind.”
Democrats Propose to Add $1 Billion in Border Spending
“House Democrats have added more than $1 billion in border-related spending to a package of funding bills that would reopen most of the government, even as President Trump said he would have a ‘major announcement’ on Saturday about the border and the shutdown stalemate,” the New York Times reports.
“Both sides’ actions were the first indications of possible movement over the shutdown after a week of inertia and harsh words between Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Mr. Trump.”
“The proposal to include more spending on border measures is scheduled for a vote next week… The plan reflects a shift in strategy by congressional Democrats, who have maintained that they would not give the president a counterproposal until he drops his insistence on a wall and signs legislation to reopen the government.”
Why Trump Can’t Make Deals
Los Angeles Times: “As Trump reaches the halfway mark of his term on Sunday, he has left a trail of negotiating partners from both chambers of Congress, both political parties and countries around the world feeling double-crossed and even lied to.”
“The result is that the president who campaigned as the world’s best deal-maker, vowing that he alone could fix Washington’s dysfunction, has been stymied as he looks for achievements before facing the voters again. Two years in, the man who built a political reputation as a guy who tells it like it is has lost the essential ingredients to closing deals: credibility and trust.”
Surveys Show Shutdown Eroding Faith In Economy
New York Times: “On Friday, the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index fell to the lowest point of the Trump presidency, well below forecasters’ expectations. Analysts attributed the drop largely to the partial government shutdown, which has entered its fifth week.”
“Economic confidence also fell, across nearly all demographic groups, in a poll conducted this month for The New York Times by the online research firm SurveyMonkey.”
2020 Democrats Ignore Trump
Washington Post: “Trump, who recently pined about being lonely in the White House, is lately finding himself in a position he’s rarely been in over the past few years: Ignored.”
“His political cachet has been driven by an unerring ability to goad other people into fights that benefit him. The metric he cares about is owning the television ratings and national attention, more than polling or anything else.”
“So what happens when, instead, he is met with something of a shrug?”
“The new silent treatment limits Trump’s ability to dictate national coverage and frame the day’s debate. And it’s providing an early template for how Democratic presidential candidates may attempt to deal with him in 2020, essentially forcing him out of a conversation they want to have with voters.”
Schultz Mulling Independent Bid for President
“Advisers to former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz have been exploring the possibility of launching an independent bid for the White House in 2020,” the Washington Post reports.
“The entry of a high-profile billionaire Democrat outside the traditional party structure would add an unpredictable dynamic to the increasingly sprawling campaign to deny President Trump a second term.”
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