Ezra Klein: ‘The Democratic Party has lots of policy ideas. But policymaking is downstream from power. The kinds of policies that get crafted, considered, and passed, reflect the balance of power in society. And for all the clarity and rigor Democrats bring to the policy debate, they don’t have a clear theory of power — who they think holds it, and what, if anything, they want to do about it.”
North Korean Missiles Look Russian
NBC News: “The three new missiles North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has tested over the past week are eerily familiar to military experts: They look just like a controversial and widely copied missile the Russian military has deployed to Syria and has been actively trying to sell abroad for years.”
Mulvaney Says Congress Will Never See Trump Taxes
Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney told CBS News that Congress will never get to see President Trump’s tax returns, despite efforts by House Democrats to subpoena the information.
Said Mulvaney: “They’re not entitled to see them by law.”
Mulvaney called efforts to obtain the tax returns “a pure show pony-type of situation,” and said that House Democrats were just trying to “embarrass” the president.
Beto’s Long History of Failing Upward
Politico: “Celebrating defeat is unusual for a politician, and doing so makes O’Rourke notably different from the rest of the unwieldy field of Democrats running for president. … O’Rourke instead presents his loss to Cruz as a prominent selling point.”
“For O’Rourke, the phenomenon on display in that race—failure without negative effects, and with perhaps even some kind of personal boost—is a feature of his life and career. That biography is marked as much by meandering, missteps and moments of melancholic searching as by résumé-boosting victories and honors.”
How One Senator Handles Trump
Sen. Roy Blunt (R-MO) told the St. Louis Post Dispatch that he determined very early it was futile to try to alter the way President Trump operates.
Said Blunt: “You can get a whole lot done if you minimize wasting time on things you can’t do anything about.”
He added: “I have been less concerned by that than many of my colleagues have. One, I have never thought from day one that you are going to dramatically change him as a person or the way he communicated through the entire campaign. And I believe there haven’t been very many instances where I have given him advice on this topic — publicly, or any other way. And in spite of all of the complaints he has heard from all kinds of people … about how we wish he’d quit doing that, I think that is a waste of time.”
Democrats Weigh New Impeachment Rationale
Politico: “Democrats know that impeachment is a losing proposition against President Donald Trump right now. But there’s another rationale for launching impeachment that has some Democrats reconsidering the idea — getting access to the sensitive documents and testimony that Trump’s team is withholding.”
“Judges have repeatedly ruled that Congress has a greater claim to sensitive government documents and personal information when it can point to an ongoing legal matter, instead of just a congressional investigation or legislative debate. And impeachment would give lawmakers that legal matter — the process is essentially a court procedure run by Congress where the House brings charges and the Senate holds the trial.”
Trump Orders Bombers to Persian Gulf
Associated Press: “B-52 bombers ordered by the White House to deploy to the Persian Gulf to counter unspecified threats from Iran have arrived at a major American air base in Qatar, the U.S. Air Force acknowledged Friday.”
Trump Can’t Quit Mueller
Playbook: “In one news conference Thursday, he said the Mueller report was ‘the Bible,’ and he called it ‘beautiful’ and ‘perfect.’ He regularly tweets about the special counsel and, when it’s convenient, seems to take his report as the last word on the 2016 election.”
“It’s almost as if Trump feels like the report represents a victory in his long-running war against elites. And it’s almost — almost — like he misses the ‘witch hunt’ he railed against for 22 months.”
Trump Hikes Tariffs on Chinese Goods
“President Trump escalated his trade war with China on Friday morning, raising tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods and taking steps to tax nearly all of China’s imports as punishment for what he said was Beijing’s attempt to ‘renegotiate’ a trade deal,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump’s decision to proceed with the tariff increase came after a pivotal round of trade talks in Washington on Thursday night failed to produce an agreement to forestall the higher levies. The White House said talks would resume again on Friday but it remains uncertain whether the two sides can bridge the differences that have arisen over the past week. … In a statement on Friday, China’s Ministry of Commerce said that the government ‘deeply regrets that it will have to take necessary countermeasures.’ It didn’t specify what those countermeasures might be.”
Giuliani Urges Ukraine to Push Inquiries for Trump
Rudy Giuliani “is encouraging Ukraine to wade further into sensitive political issues in the United States, seeking to push the incoming government in Kiev to press ahead with investigations that he hopes will benefit Mr. Trump,” the New York Times reports.
“One is the origin of the special counsel’s investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. The other is the involvement of former Vice President Joseph Biden’s son in a gas company owned by a Ukrainian oligarch.”
“Mr. Giuliani’s plans create the remarkable scene of a lawyer for the president of the United States pressing a foreign government to pursue investigations that Mr. Trump’s allies hope could help him in his re-election campaign.”
Subpoena of Trump Jr. Splits Republicans
“The Senate Intelligence Committee’s decision to subpoena Donald Trump Jr. opened up a rift among Republicans, as some questioned the necessity of the GOP chairman’s request and others called for the investigation to continue unimpeded,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Scrutiny settled Thursday on committee chairman Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC), who often has taken a more bipartisan approach toward probing President Trump than some of his fellow Republicans.”
Washington Post: “The sudden infighting threatened to undermine support for the Senate’s Russia investigation, which is the sole bipartisan probe in Congress into Russian interference in the 2016 election and has been widely praised as operating with little public drama.”
Trump Dares Democrats to Impeach
“As the White House and Congress escalate their constitutional showdown, President Trump and his team are essentially trying to call what they see as the Democrats’ bluff. The message: Put up or shut up. Impeach or move on,” the New York Times reports.
“Confident that there are not enough votes to remove him from office through an impeachment trial in the Senate, Mr. Trump and his advisers have chosen the path of maximum resistance, calculating that they can put the Democrats on the defensive in a fight that is politically useful for the president.”
“The decision to assert executive privilege and defy subpoenas across the board suits Mr. Trump’s natural combative instincts and fits the grievance narrative he has adopted by arguing that the establishment is out to get him.”
DNC Sets Tiebreakers for Debates
“The Democratic National Committee set a June 12 deadline for qualifying for the first presidential primary debates and outlined a tiebreaking system in case more than 20 candidates qualify for the two-night event,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“The DNC, which is running the debates, has said that to qualify for the June 26-27 debates in Miami, candidates must either raise money from at least 65,000 donors, including a minimum of 200 each in 20 states, or achieve at least 1% in three national or early primary-state polls.”
“If more than 20 candidates qualify for the debate, the party said candidates who meet both criteria will be given priority on the debate stages. If more than 20 candidates qualify using both methods, those candidates with the highest polling averages will be given preference.”
Trumpworld’s Plan to Re-Elect the President
David Weigel: “The president’s Wednesday night rally in the Florida Panhandle ended without much of a theme. He took shots at Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Beto O’Rourke. He attacked China for its aggressive turn in trade negotiations, then shrugged that “It’ll work out.” And he appeared to laugh when a crowd member yelled about shooting undocumented immigrants.”
“What made less news but mattered much more for the president’s reelection hopes was a pledge to redirect nearly half a billion more dollars toward hurricane recovery — and a promise to rebuild Tyndall Air Force Base, damaged by last year’s storms. That was exactly what the coalition working to reelect Trump wanted to hear: Every visit to a swing state, every offer of help from the government, could help them get reluctant voters excited about 2020. And Trump campaign representatives were working the rally, collecting data from attendees who might want to reelect the president.”
Trump Super PAC Will Spend $250 Million In 6 States
America First Action, an outside group supporting President Trump, intends to spend $250 million in six battleground states as part of a major effort to boost his chances of being reelected in 2020, The Hill reports.
The states identified by America First are Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, North Carolina and Georgia.
Why Democrats Are Passing on Red State Senate Races
Geoffrey Skelley: “Stacey Abrams. Joaquin Castro. Steve Bullock. Some potentially strong Democratic candidates have passed on runs for the Senate, dashing Democratic hopes in several GOP-leaning states, including Georgia, Texas and Montana.”
“However, it’s not that surprising that they and other Democrats don’t want to wage Senate campaigns in red states. And that’s because there’s a really good chance they might lose.”
“Remember that in 2016, for the first time, every Senate race was won by the same party that won the presidential vote in that state. In a polarized era full of straight-ticket voters, this is no doubt a prime consideration when potential candidates are deciding whether to run.”
Support for Impeaching Trump Ticks Up
A new Reuters/Ipsos poll finds the number of Americans who said President Trump should be impeached rose 5 percentage points to 45% since mid-April.
Trump Picks Shanahan as Defense Secretary
President Trump intends to nominate Pat Shanahan to become his next secretary of defense, moving to formally fill the post that Mr. Shanahan has held in an acting capacity since January, the Wall Street Journal reports.