Prior to his meeting with Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Chuck Schumer, President Trump brought reporters into the Oval Office and — in an extended, heated exchange before the cameras — clashed with the two Democratic leaders over congressional support for funding for his border wall, declaring that he is “proud to shut down the government for border security,” Axios reports.
The Washington Post called it “an explosive and acrimonious Oval Office encounter played out live with cameras rolling.”
President Trump suggested the U.S. military would construct a wall at the U.S. border with Mexico if Democrats refused to agree to provide funding for one, hours ahead of a critical meeting at the White House with Democratic leaders to negotiate a year-end spending bill, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Said Trump on Twitter: “I look forward to my meeting with Chuck Schumer & Nancy Pelosi. In 2006, Democrats voted for a Wall, and they were right to do so. Today, they no longer want Border Security. They will fight it at all cost, and Nancy must get votes for Speaker. But the Wall will get built.”
“Jesus loves Michael Cohen, but everybody else thinks he’s an idiot. He’s obviously a sleaze-oid grifter. And if I were a prosecutor, I wouldn’t base a prosecution on evidence given to me by Mr. Cohen.”
— Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA), quoted by CNN.
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An early straw poll of members of the progressive group MoveOn.org shows a wide-open competition for liberal voters in the forthcoming 2020 Democratic presidential contest, with Beto O’Rourke narrowly beating out Joe Biden, NBC News reports.
The most popular potential candidate was O’Rourke at 15.6%, followed by Biden at 14.9%, and then Sen. Bernie Sanders with 13.1%.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that the Senate will vote this month on a sweeping overhaul of the criminal justice system that has proven deeply controversial within the Senate Republican ranks, the Washington Post reports.
McConnell said the decision to put the bill — which eases some mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent offenders while implementing initiatives aimed at lowering recidivism rates — comes “at the request of the president and following improvements to the legislation” secured by several senators.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) warned that the Senate will be in session between Christmas and New Years to finish their work for the year unless senators agree to fast-track some items on their to-do list, The Hill reports.
“President Trump insisted on Tuesday that he’s having no trouble finding a new chief of staff, despite having already burned through two such top aides and being turned down by his reported first choice,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Fake News has it purposely wrong. Many, over ten, are vying for and wanting the White House Chief of Staff position. Why wouldn’t someone want one of the truly great and meaningful jobs in Washington. Please report news correctly. Thank you!”
Washington Post: “Mindy Myers, who was one of the primary architects of Warren’s political rise and has remained one of her close advisers, had been expected to play a senior role in the senator’s campaign. But she has been in talks with several rival campaigns and is planning to meet soon with Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-TX), who is considering a presidential run.”
“Myers ran Warren’s 2012 U.S. Senate campaign and then served as her senate chief of staff, giving her a deep understanding of Warren’s strengths and weaknesses.”
First Read: “So yeah, Beto is starting to look very real for 2020. And maybe more than that, whether he runs or not appears to have frozen the Dem field. Think about that: His decision might be the biggest shoe to drop in the 2020 Democratic race.”
CNN: “He toyed with, but wouldn’t commit to, ‘full cooperation’ with prosecutors, according to court filings. He refused to tell them about crimes for which he hadn’t been charged. He wouldn’t meet with them about ‘other areas of investigative interest.’ With officials in the state attorney general’s office, he provided only corroboration for what they already knew, and with the state tax department, only what investigators could have obtained with a subpoena or two.”
“But there is one probe in the Manhattan US Attorney’s office for which President Trump’s former personal attorney has proved helpful, according to court filings and people familiar with the matter: The investigation of the Trump Organization. That probe, and Cohen’s participation in it, poses one of the most significant threats to the President’s family business.”
ProPublica: “Had the billions in budget reductions occurred all at once, with tens of thousands of auditors, collectors and customer service representatives streaming out of government buildings in a single day, the collapse of the IRS might have gotten more attention. But there have been no mass layoffs or dramatic announcements. Instead, it’s taken eight years to bring the agency that funds the government this low. Over time, the IRS has slowly transformed, one employee departure at a time.”
“The result is a bureaucracy on life support and tens of billions in lost government revenue. ProPublica estimates a toll of at least $18 billion every year, but the true cost could easily run tens of billions of dollars higher.”
“The cuts are depleting the staff members who help ensure that taxpayers pay what they owe. As of last year, the IRS had 9,510 auditors. That’s down a third from 2010. The last time the IRS had fewer than 10,000 revenue agents was 1953, when the economy was a seventh of its current size. And the IRS is still shrinking. Almost a third of its remaining employees will be eligible to retire in the next year, and with morale plummeting, many of them will.”
Michelle Obama is continuing her book tour and adding new cities to the lineup, People magazine reports.
Said Obama: “I’ve been so humbled by the response to the tour thus far and the overwhelming interest we’ve received from so many communities we weren’t able to visit this year. That’s why I’m thrilled that we’re able to expand our conversations to these new settings and wider audiences. I can’t wait to continue the discussions that have been so meaningful for me and, I hope, for so many others.”
A new CNN poll finds President Trump’s approval rating for handling the Russia investigation dips to 29%, matching a low previously hit in June of this year.
“But Robert Mueller’s approval rating is also down in the poll: 43% approve and 40% disapprove. That compares to a 48% approve to 36% disapprove split in early October. The dip in Mueller’s numbers comes almost entirely among independents, among whom approval has fallen 10 points to 36%.”
“Trump’s approval rating drop, however, comes among his own partisans as well as among independents. Among Republicans, 51% approve of Trump’s handling of the investigation, a new low by one point, while among independents, 26% approve, also a new low.”
President Trump’s “intensifying legal troubles are unnerving some of his fellow Republicans. Despite his brash stance, they believe the turmoil has left him increasingly vulnerable as he gears up for what is sure to be a nasty fight for re-election,” the AP reports.
“Trump, ever confident of his ability to bend story lines to his will, mocks the investigations into his conduct as candidate and president as a ‘witch hunt’ and insists he will survive the threats.”
“But a shift began to unfold over the weekend after prosecutors in New York for the first time linked Trump to a federal crime of illegal hush payments. That left some of his associates fearful that his customary bravado is unwarranted. For some Republicans, the implication that the president may have directed a campaign finance violation, which would be a felony, could foreshadow a true turning point in the Republican relationship with him when special counsel Robert Mueller releases his report on the Russia investigation.”
Mike Allen: “Last week’s stunning court filings detonated what one official calls a ‘reality tremor’ that has White House officials and key allies increasingly aware of President Trump’s rising legal and political vulnerability.”
“Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and a group of House Democratic rebels are discussing a proposal to cap her time as speaker to four years, a move that could clear the way for the California Democrat to clinch the gavel,” Politico reports.
“The plan would be a dramatic shift for the longtime Democratic leader. Pelosi has refused to put an end date on her tenure as she tries to reclaim the speakership ahead of a Jan. 3 floor vote.”
New York Times: “A shortlist of last-ditch possibilities has emerged, including family-vetted officials like Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, and Robert Lighthizer, the United States trade representative, but only one possibility — Representative Mark Meadows, the hard-right Republican congressman from North Carolina who is so far not quite inside the Trump children’s circle of trust — has voiced interest.”
“Other options range from the possible — including Mick Mulvaney, the director of the Office of Management and Budget — to the unlikely, including Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor and head of the Trump transition team, who angered Mr. Kushner for sending his father to jail while he was a federal prosecutor.”
USA Today says other candidates include Matthew Whitaker, the acting attorney general, and David Bossie, a deputy campaign manager for Trump’s 2016 campaign.
Rahm Emanuel: “Someone needs to get the White House under control—but the president won’t let it happen.”
A new NPR/PBS/Marist poll finds that 57% of Americans think President Trump should compromise on his border wall to prevent a government shutdown.
Furthermore, nearly 69% of Americans do not consider building a border wall between the United States and Mexico to be an immediate priority for the next Congress.
Retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) defended President Trump on Monday, saying he doesn’t believe he committed any crimes, the Deseret News reports.
Said Hatch: “No because I don’t think he was involved in crimes but even then, you know, you can make anything a crime under the current laws; if you want to you can blow it way out of proportion you can do a lot of things.”
When told the federal prosecutors were making the allegations, Hatch said: “OK but I don’t care; all I can say is he’s doing a good job as president.”
Forty-four former U.S. Senators write an open letter to current senators in the Washington Post:
We are on the eve of the conclusion of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation and the House’s commencement of investigations of the president and his administration. The likely convergence of these two events will occur at a time when simmering regional conflicts and global power confrontations continue to threaten our security, economy and geopolitical stability.
It is a time, like other critical junctures in our history, when our nation must engage at every level with strategic precision and the hand of both the president and the Senate.
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.
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