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Trump Questions His Venezuela Strategy

May 8, 2019 at 8:14 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump is questioning his administration’s aggressive strategy in Venezuela following the failure of a U.S.-backed effort to oust President Nicolás Maduro, complaining he was misled about how easy it would be to replace the socialist strongman with a young opposition figure,” the Washington Post reports.

“The president’s dissatisfaction has crystallized around national security adviser John Bolton and what Trump has groused is an interventionist stance at odds with his view that the United States should stay out of foreign quagmires.”

Why China Decided to Play Hardball in Trade Talks

May 8, 2019 at 8:11 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The new hard line taken by China in trade talks—surprising the White House and threatening to derail negotiations—came after Beijing interpreted recent statements and actions by President Trump as a sign the U.S. was ready to make concessions, said people familiar with the thinking of the Chinese side,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

“High-level negotiations are scheduled to resume Thursday in Washington, but the expectations and the stakes have changed significantly. A week ago, the assumption was that negotiators would be closing the deal. Now, they are trying to keep it from collapsing.”

Ghostwriter Says ‘Art of the Deal’ Should Be Fiction

May 8, 2019 at 7:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Tony Schwartz, the ghostwriter for Donald Trump’s bestselling book, The Art of the Deal, tweeted that he would be fine if the book was “taken out of print” or “recategorized as fiction” after the New York Times detailed Trump’s $1.2 billion in business losses from 1985 to 1994.

Filmmaker Seeks to Disrupt Democratic Debates

May 8, 2019 at 5:29 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Conservative filmmaker Ami Horowitz announced that he is running for president as a Democrat in an attempt to disrupt the party’s nominating process.

He’s seeking 65,000 donors, even at $1 apiece, so that he can be onstage at next month’s first Democratic debate.

House Judiciary Votes to Hold Barr In Contempt

May 8, 2019 at 4:35 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The House Judiciary Committee voted to recommend the House hold Attorney General William Barr in contempt of Congress for failing to turn over Robert Mueller’s unredacted report, hours after President Trump asserted executive privilege to shield the full report and underlying evidence from public view,” the New York Times reports.

“The committee’s 24-16 contempt vote, taken after hours of debate that featured apocalyptic language about the future of American democracy, marked the first time that the House has taken official action to punish a government official or witness amid a standoff between the legislative and executive branch.”

Washington Post: “The White House’s use of the rare presidential secrecy prerogative stood in stark contrast to Trump and his allies’ frequent boast of’ ‘total exoneration’ for the president from the Mueller report.”

Wall Street Journal: “The fight is now expected to head to federal court and a legal battle with few precedents.”

McConnell Embraces ‘Cocaine Mitch’ Nickname

May 8, 2019 at 4:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is selling T-shirts branding him “Cocaine Mitch” as a fundraiser for his 2020 re-election campaign, Think Progress reports.

During his failed Senate campaign in West Virginia last year, Don Blankenship (R) attempted to tie McConnell — without any evidence — to a drug smuggling operation involving a company cargo ship owned by his wife’s family.

Senate Intelligence Subpoenas Donald Trump Jr.

May 8, 2019 at 4:10 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed Donald Trump Jr. to answer questions about his previous testimony before Senate investigators in relation to the Russia investigation,” Axios reports.

“It’s the first congressional subpoena — that we know about — of one of President Trump’s children. The subpoena sets up a fight that’s unprecedented in the Trump era: A Republican committee chair pit against the Republican president’s eldest son.”

Key detail: “The fact that they’re subpoenaing Trump Jr. is a strong signal that he declined a request to appear before the committee again.”

The Washington Post reports Trump Jr. is said to be “exasperated” with the summons.

CNN: “One option Trump Jr. is considering in response to the subpoena is to invoke his Fifth Amendment rights, and another is just to not appear at all, according to one source.”

GOP Lawmaker Accuses Vaccine Scientist of ‘Sorcery’

May 8, 2019 at 4:02 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Texas state Rep. Jonathan Stickland (R) responded to a top vaccine scientist’s tweets about vaccination exemptions by accusing him of ‘sorcery,'” The Hill reports.

Said Strickland: “Parental rights mean more to us than your self enriching ‘science.’”

He continued: “Make the case for your sorcery to consumers on your own dime. Like every other business. Quit using the heavy hand of government to make your business profitable through mandates and immunity. It’s disgusting.”

Florida Will Make It More Difficult for Ex-Felons to Vote

May 8, 2019 at 3:13 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “said he will sign a bill that would require ex-felons in the state, who were granted the right to vote in a referendum last fall, to pay all financial obligations before they can head to the polls,” CNN reports.

Falwell Denies Hiring Cohen to Deal with Racy Photos

May 8, 2019 at 3:07 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. denied to Fox Radio asking Michael Cohen to intervene in a case where someone reportedly claimed to possess racy “personal” photos that were potentially embarrassing to Falwell and his wife.

Falwell insisted that “no compromising or embarrassing photos” of himself existed.

He added: “While we have a long-standing friendship with Michael Cohen, we never engaged or paid Cohen to represent us in any legal or other professional capacity, and Cohen did not ever resolve any legal matter on our behalf.”

What Can Congress Get Done?

May 8, 2019 at 3:01 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Playbook: “Consider what’s going on in the oversight realm — the back and forth between the administration and Congress, lawsuits in the offing and impeachment looking incrementally more likely — and ask yourself this question: What can Congress possibly get done?”

“Here’s what needs to be acccomplished in the coming months: finalizing a disaster aid package, lifting the debt limit and, in less than five months, passing a government funding bill. Will the oversight wars affect Democrats’ ability to do basic business with the president? We suspect they will.”

“Remember what people want to accomplish: Infrastructure — but that seems unlikely, two weeks before the president is meant to lay out how he plans to pay for the $2 trillion plan. President Trump wants a drug pricing reform bill. And the White House still has designs on replacing NAFTA with the USMCA. The mood and the vibe on the Hill is as bad as it has been in some time.”

Feinstein Backs Biden Over Harris

May 8, 2019 at 12:33 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) broke the “home state rule” and endorsed Joe Biden over fellow Californian, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA), the Washington Examiner reports.

Said Feinstein: “I’ve known Joe Biden for 20 years. When he was chairman of the Judiciary Committee, he made me the first woman. We have a longstanding relationship that dates way back. I love Kamala, I appreciate her, but she has known about this for some time. But that’s what I’m going to do. I feel very loyal to him.”

Many Republicans Don’t Like Hearing Foreign Languages

May 8, 2019 at 12:25 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

A new Pew Research survey finds that 47% of white Republicans say it would bother them “some” or “a lot” to “hear people speak a language other than English in a public place.”

Just 18% of white Democrats said they would be similarly bothered.

The Electability Trap

May 8, 2019 at 12:22 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Amy Walter: “While political pros and cable TV talkers are debating the ‘electability’ game, they are mostly making it more than it really is. The debate over ‘electability’ at this stage of the game is still based on what happened in the last one. A lot of Democrats look at Biden and think he would’ve won in 2016 and as such see him as the safest choice for 2020. If however, Biden starts to look like a risky bet (he stumbles in a debate, bumbles on the trail, etc) the rationale on which is campaign is based collapses.”

“The winner of the 2020 primary will be the candidate who can prove he/she is best suited for the unique challenges of the upcoming campaign, not the one who is still fighting over what they should do the same/differently from 2016.”

Judge Confirmed Despite No Blue Slip

May 8, 2019 at 11:53 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Senate on Wednesday confirmed President Trump’s pick for an influential circuit court despite neither home-state senator returning a blue slip,” The Hill reports.

“The confirmation of Joseph Bianco marks the third circuit court judge to ever be confirmed without a blue slip, a sheet of paper that indicates if a home-state senator supports a nominee… The blue-slip rule — a precedent upheld by Senate tradition — has historically allowed a home-state senator to stop a lower-court nominee by refusing to return the blue slip to the Judiciary Committee.”

How Fox & Friends Spun Trump’s Massive Losses

May 8, 2019 at 11:49 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt said on Fox & Friends that the New York Times report showing President Trump losing $1.2 billion over ten years was “pretty impressive” and showed how much he had accomplished.

Said Earhardt: “If anything, you read this and you’re like, wow, it’s pretty impressive, all the things that he’s done in his life. It’s beyond what most of us could ever achieve.”

Added co-host Brian Kilmeade: “I can’t imagine having that much money and spending that much money and being in debt. For him, it makes sense, he’s buying now, building it up because he had confidence… That’s what he has done through his entire life.”

Related for members: Fox News Has Saved Donald Trump

Harris Resets Campaign By Taking on Trump

May 8, 2019 at 11:48 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) “structures her stump speech around two themes — truth and justice — meant to evoke her career as a barrier-breaking prosecutor and cultivate a reputation as a fearless public advocate,” the New York Times reports.

“But when Ms. Harris swept into Detroit to address an NAACP banquet on Sunday night, she added something new… she replaced her usual recitation of Democratic policies with an attack on President Trump, accusing him of enabling bigotry and divisiveness.”

“With that, Ms. Harris was nodding to a political truth: She is attempting to reset her campaign after stagnating in Democratic primary polls, using her strengths as a prosecutor — which were on display during a recent face-off with Attorney General William Barr — to mount a sharp indictment of Mr. Trump.”

Trump Campaign Won’t Say No to Using Hacked Info

May 8, 2019 at 11:30 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump’s campaign won’t respond “to numerous inquiries about whether it has implemented a policy about foreign interference — including the use of information stolen or hacked by a foreign power and whether aides must formally report outreach from foreigners,” Politico reports.