“It means calling out actual ‘fake news’ when we see it, and supporting brave journalists and their reporting, maybe even by subscribing to a newspaper.”
— Hillary Clinton, speaking about “democratic resilience” at Yale’s Class Day over the weekend.
Blankenship to Wage Third Party Bid
“West Virginia coal baron and former prisoner Don Blankenship announced on Monday that he plans to launch a long-shot third-party Senate bid after finishing a distant third in this month’s Republican primary,” Politico reports.
“Blankenship said he would run in the general election as the Constitution Party nominee. But he would need to overcome a ‘sore loser’ law in West Virginia that prevents failed candidates in a main-party primary from refiling to run in the general election under another party’s banner.”
“Blankenship said he’s prepared to challenge that law in court if needed.”
Flynn Allies Try to Exonerate Him Despite Guilty Plea
“Friends and family of former national security adviser Michael Flynn are waging a campaign to try to exonerate the retired lieutenant general — and, possibly, land him a presidential pardon,” the Washington Post reports.
“But the largely social-media-based effort has, at times, put Flynn’s advocates, and occasionally Flynn, at odds with his own legal team, which believes that any public attention to Flynn’s case is not helpful as he awaits sentencing and has counseled that he and his family to remain quiet.”
Kennedy Retirement Rumors Swirl Once Again
The Hill: “All eyes are on Justice Anthony Kennedy, 81, who reportedly considered calling it quits last spring. As the court’s current term winds to a close, speculation about his plans has again swept the capital, with court watchers searching for clues.”
“Those who say Kennedy is here to stay — at least for now — point to the fact that he’s already hired his law clerks for the next term, as Above the Law reported.”
Impeachment Push Could Backfire on Democrats
Jeffrey Toobin: “According to Quinnipiac, seventy-one per cent of Democrats already favor impeachment. To proponents, a nearly fifty-fifty split among the voting public at this early date, before Mueller has reported his findings, is significant. In primaries for the 2018 elections, some prominent Democrats, such as Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California, who is running for governor, made support for impeachment a major part of their platforms. Tom Steyer, a San Francisco billionaire, has since last year been running television advertisements supporting impeachment, and has generated a mailing list of more than 5.2 million people. Steyer is now on a thirty-city speaking tour.”
“For the moment, he and his followers are outcasts from the Washington consensus. But their passion, and the mounting evidence against the President, raises the question of whether the drive for impeachment is more likely to result in Trump’s removal from office or in a Democratic civil war.”
Top Republicans Consider Pushing Ryan Out
“Top Republicans in Congress and the White House have in recent days entertained a plan to push House Speaker Paul Ryan out of his post over the summer, in an effort to clear the way for his presumed successor, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, to assume the speakership,” the Weekly Standard reports.
“A source involved in the conversations and who has discussed the idea with President Trump told The Weekly Standard that Trump believes there is merit to the plan, but has not formed a final position. McCarthy has been weighing the effort alongside a small group of trusted advisers, considering the pros and cons of forcing Ryan’s hand, and debating the best time to launch the effort. As of last week he had not spoken to Ryan about the idea.”
Bernie’s Army In Disarray
“Bernie Sanders’ top operatives formed ‘Our Revolution’ after he lost the 2016 primaries to keep his army organized and motivated — and potentially prepare for another presidential run in 2020,” Politico reports.
“But an extensive review of the Sanders-inspired group depicts an organization in disarray — operating primarily as a promotional vehicle for its leader and sometimes even snubbing candidates aligned with Sanders. Our Revolution has shown no ability to tip a major Democratic election in its favor — despite possessing Sanders’ email list, the envy of the Democratic Party — and can claim no major wins in 2018 as its own.”
Trump Invites Hundreds of Local Officials to White House
President Trump “is amassing an army of political insiders for 2020 — all without leaving the White House. The Trump administration has hosted 14 ‘state days’ over the past few months, inviting county commissioners of both parties to come through for tours and meet senior administration officials, including Vice President Mike Pence,” Politico reports.
“While the daylong events are formally billed as a way to establish a relationship between behemoth federal agencies and their local counterparts, they also are designed to engender new loyalty to a president some Republicans refused to support in 2016 as he begins to look ahead to his reelection campaign.”
Can Paul Ryan Quell a Rebellion In the House?
Playbook: “The discharge petition to force a series of immigration votes on the House floor is 22 lawmakers short of 218 — a huge number of Democrats signed in the last few days. Speaker Paul Ryan is hoping that he can keep Republicans from signing onto the petition, instead opting for a tightly controlled series of Republican-leaning votes in June.”
“If Republicans sign on this week — the last week before a weeklong Memorial Day recess — Ryan’s plan could be foiled, which would be seen internally as another blow to the speaker. If the discharge petition reaches 218, Ryan would need those Republicans to essentially abandon the petition by voting to turn it off in order to proceed to his vote plan. The leadership feels like it’s stopped the rush to sign the petition by convincing lawmakers the controlled series of votes is a better option. We’ll see if that holds this week.”
Trump Grappling With Risks of North Korea Meeting
“President Trump, increasingly concerned that his summit meeting in Singapore next month with North Korea’s leader could turn into a political embarrassment, has begun pressing his aides and allies about whether he should take the risk of proceeding with a historic meeting that he had leapt into accepting,” the New York Times reports.
“Mr. Trump was both surprised and angered by a statement issued on Wednesday by the North’s chief nuclear negotiator, who declared that the country would never trade away its nuclear weapons capability in exchange for economic aid.”
“Mr. Trump’s aides have grown concerned that the president has signaled that he wants the summit meeting too much… The aides are also concerned about what kind of grasp Mr. Trump has on the details of the North Korea program, and what he must insist upon as the key components of denuclearization.”
RNC Apparently Paying Legal Bills for Hope Hicks
“The RNC paid nearly half a million dollars to a law firm that represents former White House communications director Hope Hicks and others in the Russia investigations,” the Washington Post reports.
“Last year, the RNC began tapping a pool of money stockpiled for election recounts and other legal matters to pay the ballooning legal fees of Trump and his associates drawn into the Russia investigations.”
Rosenstein Tries to Buy Time In Face of Trump Demands
In response to President Trump demanding an investigation into whether the FBI “infiltrated” his presidential campaign, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein “asked its internal watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General, to expand its current inquiry into the surveillance of a former Trump campaign official to include the questions raised by the president,” the New York Times reports.
Said Rosenstein: “If anyone did infiltrate or surveil participants in a presidential campaign for inappropriate purposes, we need to know about it and take appropriate action.”
“By handing the question to the inspector general, Mr. Rosenstein appeared to be trying to thread the needle, giving the president what he said he wanted without fully bowing to his demands. But it was not clear whether that would satisfy Mr. Trump, who in February complained that it was ‘disgraceful’ for the Justice Department to hand over the surveillance investigation to an inspector general who lacks prosecutorial power, saying it would ‘take forever’ and suggesting that he was ‘an Obama guy.'”
Paul Ryan’s House Is Collapsing
Jonathan Swan: “Paul Ryan’s House is collapsing, and if the chaos keeps accelerating it could force him out of the speakership before his planned graceful exit at the end of the year.”
“A group of about 20 moderate Republicans are threatening to help Democrats force a vote on a DACA bill. If this works, it could trigger a larger rebellion — likely driven by the Freedom Caucus — similar to the revolt that brought down Ryan’s predecessor John Boehner.”
“On Friday, House Republicans failed to pass the farm bill — one of Congress’s few remaining must-pass projects. Ryan, a lame duck Speaker, has little power over his members. He can’t convincingly threaten them. And nor can he cajole them or make any promises to help members in the future. He’s stuck.”
“The Republican House is careening into chaos at the moment its members most need to rally together. We’re less than six months away from the midterms, and the House is on the line. Hill Republicans are anxious and effectively leaderless. Nobody fears repercussions from a lame duck Speaker. So even the usually well-behaved moderate members are wreaking havoc.”
Trump May Force a Major Crisis This Week
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Giuliani Says Mueller Plans to Wrap Up Obstruction Probe
Rudy Giuliani told the New York Times that special counsel Robert Mueller plans to finish by September 1 its investigation into whether President Trump obstructed the Russia inquiry, the New York Times reports.
He said that “waiting any longer would risk improperly influencing voters in the midterm elections in November.”
“Mr. Giuliani’s comments were an apparent attempt to publicly pressure Mr. Mueller amid their interview negotiations. He urged that the investigation be wrapped up as soon as possible, pointing as a cautionary tale to the revelation by the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey in the last days of the 2016 presidential race that he was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server. Mr. Comey’s announcement is widely blamed by Democrats for costing her the election. The F.B.I. found no wrongdoing.”
Trump Says He’ll Demand Justice Department Probe
President Trump said that he would “demand” the Justice Department explore whether it or the FBI “infiltrated or surveilled the Trump Campaign for Political Purposes” — perhaps signaling the start of a showdown between the nation’s chief executive and its federal law enforcement apparatus, the Washington Post reports.
His comment followed a six-part morning tweetstorm in which he lashed out at “the World’s most expensive Witch Hunt.”
Trump Says Mueller Wants to Hurt GOP In Midterms
President Trump “raged anew on Sunday about the special counsel investigation, charging that it had turned up no evidence of collusion with Russia and was now casting a worldwide net so that it could stay active until the midterm elections and harm Republicans’ chances,” the New York Times reports.
Said Trump: “Republicans and real Americans should start getting tough on this Scam.”
Mnuchin Says Trade War Is ‘On Hold’
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said that the United States and China are stepping back from a possible trade war after two days of talks that produced “meaningful progress,” the Washington Post reports.
“Despite not getting China to agree to trim its overall trade surplus with America by a specific amount, Mnuchin said the U.S. team did get a number of commitments on a framework for reducing the deficit over time, including big increases in purchases of farm products and a doubling of purchases of U.S. energy products.”
Said Mnuchin: “We are putting the trade war on hold.”
