The Anchorage Daily News reports it was Sarah Palin who called 911 over the weekend to say her son, Track, was “freaking out and was on some type of medication.”
The younger Palin was arrested on assault and burglary charges after he repeatedly hit his father, Todd Palin, at the family home.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) told WWL-TV that President Trump called him over the weekend and told him to keep doing his job when White House staff send over an unqualified nominee.
Kennedy recently grilled one of Trump’s U.S. District Judge nominees on basic questions of law and he couldn’t answer a single one.
Recalled Kennedy: “The president and I get along fine, and he has told me, he said, ‘Kennedy, when some of my guys send somebody over who’s not qualified, you do your job.'”
In the weeks after he became the Republican nominee, Donald Trump was warned that foreign adversaries, including Russia, would likely try to spy on and infiltrate his campaign, NBC News reports.
“The warning came in the form of a high-level counterintelligence briefing by senior FBI officials, the officials said. A similar briefing was given to Hillary Clinton, they added. They said the briefings, which are commonly provided to presidential nominees, were designed to educate the candidates and their top aides about potential threats from foreign spies.”
“The candidates were urged to alert the FBI about any suspicious overtures to their campaigns.”
The House of Representatives is expected to vote on sweeping tax legislation at 1:30pm ET on Tuesday, Reuters reports.
“The Senate is expected to vote on the bill as early as Tuesday but must complete 10 hours of debate before acting. It was not clear when debate would begin.”
David Wasserman points out that in the six congressional special elections this year, Democrats have been outperforming their Cook Political Report PVI-suggested share of the vote by an average of 9%.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson “let slip last week a few tantalizing details about one of the nation’s most secret military contingency plans: how the United States would try to race inside North Korea to seize its nuclear weapons if it ever saw evidence that Kim Jong-un’s government was collapsing,” the Washington Post reports.
“For years, American diplomats have been trying to engage their Chinese counterparts in a discussion of this scenario… And for years the Chinese have resisted the conversation… The Chinese feared that if news of a conversation leaked, Beijing would be seen as conspiring with the United States over plans for an eventual North Korean collapse, eroding any leverage that Beijing still held over Mr. Kim.”
A new Monmouth poll finds Americans disapprove of the tax reform plan currently making its way through Congress by a nearly 2-to-1 margin, 47% to 26%.
It is also worth noting that strong disapproval (35%) of the proposal far outweighs strong approval (13%).
Key finding: “Half the public believe their own taxes would go up under this plan and a plurality would like to see Congress scrap the current effort and start fresh in 2018.”
Washington Post: “Back in 1980, the bottom 50% of wage-earners in the United States earned about 21% of all income in the country — nearly twice as much as the share of income (11%) earned by the top 1 percent of Americans.”
“But today, according to a massive new study on global inequality, those numbers have nearly reversed: The bottom 50% take in only 13% of the income pie, while the top 1% grab over 20% of the country’s income.”
“Since 1980, in other words, the U.S. economy has transferred eight points of national income from the bottom 50% to the top 1%.”
Dylan Scott: “Health care lobbyists are flatly dismissing the idea that Congress could actually revisit Obamacare repeal next year. Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) remain opposed to taking up repeal efforts. The party’s long-sought talking point of repealing Obamacare root and branch is probably actually, finally dead.”
“Repealing the individual mandate is a legitimate blow to the Obamacare marketplaces, but doing so won’t unravel the markets entirely. They will function worse than they did before, and premiums will rise. But millions of people who receive generous tax subsidies to buy coverage will not feel the brunt of those cost increases. The law’s rules prohibiting health insurers from discriminating against preexisting conditions remain on the books. Finally, and most importantly, Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion, which covered upward of 15 million people, remains untouched.”
“Senior Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee tell NBC News that they hope and expect to draw their year-long investigation to an end in the coming weeks, saying they have largely completed all interviews relevant to the narrow scope of inquiry Democrats had agreed to last spring.”
“Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC), one of the GOP leaders of the committee’s Russia probe, said that it is in the public’s interest to finish as quickly as possible so that they can issue a final report.”
“The word is John will come back if we need his vote. He’s going through a very tough time, there’s no question about it. But he will come back if we need his vote.”
— President Trump, quoted by the Washington Post, on Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) returning to Arizona ahead of the tax bill vote.
Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) is still reviewing the tax bill, her spokeswoman said, suggesting she hasn’t yet reached a decision on how to vote, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“She has come under pressure from some groups in Maine to vote against the tax bill, in part because it repeals a mandate that most Americans buy health insurance or pay a penalty, a key pillar of the Affordable Care Act.”
James Hohmann: “The health insurance market is almost certain to implode next year, and rates are likely to skyrocket for many, because of the repeal of the individual mandate. By getting rid of the linchpin of the Affordable Care Act in this bill, Republicans are giving up any standing they had to blame Barack Obama for the health-care mess. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that this change alone will lead to 13 million more uninsured Americans a decade from now.”
Alex Kozinski, a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit who is known for his colorful written opinions, announced his retirement after being accused “by 15 women of subjecting them to inappropriate behavior, including having clerks watch porn in his chambers,” the Washington Post reports.
“Track Palin, the eldest son of former Alaska governor Sarah Palin (R), was in jail on Sunday facing assault and burglary charges,” the Alaska Dispatch News reports.
“Track Palin appeared in state court in Palmer earlier in the day on a felony burglary charge and misdemeanor assault and criminal mischief charges, court records showed. The records indicated all the charges involved domestic violence.”
“His legal troubles have prompted his mother in the past to question the support available for military veterans like him who may be suffering from post-traumatic stress.”
Washington Post: “Advisers who have spoken recently with Trump about the Russia investigation said the president was sharply critical of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, as well as Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who oversees the Mueller operation — but did not broach the idea of firing Mueller… Rather, Trump appeared to be contemplating changes in the Justice Department’s leadership. In recent discussions, two advisers said, Trump has called the attorney general ‘weak,’ and complained that Rosenstein has shown insufficient accountability on the special counsel’s work.”
“A senior official said Trump mocked Rosenstein’s recent testimony on Capitol Hill, saying he looked weak and unable to answer questions. Trump has ranted about Rosenstein as ‘a Democrat,’ one of these advisers said, and characterized him as a threat to his presidency. In fact, Rosenstein is a Republican.”
Bloomberg: “Lawmakers scrambling to lock up Republican support for the tax reform bill added a complicated provision late in the process — one that would provide a multimillion-dollar windfall to real estate investors such as President Trump. The change, which would allow real estate businesses to take advantage of a new tax break that’s planned for partnerships, limited liability companies and other so-called ‘pass-through’ businesses, combined elements of House and Senate legislation in a new way.”
“Its beneficiaries are clear, tax experts say, and they include a president who’s said that the tax legislation wouldn’t help him financially…. The revision might also bring tax benefits to several members of Congress, according to financial disclosures they’ve filed that reflect ownership of pass-through firms with real estate holdings. One such lawmaker, Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee, who’d voted against an earlier version of the legislation, said on Friday that he would support the revised legislation.”
The Tennessean reports Corker asked Senate Finance Committe Chairman Orrin Hatch (R-UT) to explain how the provision “ended up in the final version of the tax reform package that Congress is expected to approve this week.”
“While Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) says it would take a miracle to get a deal done before lawmakers leave for the holidays later this week, immigration advocates are holding out hope that an agreement can be reached in the Senate by tying the fix to the must-pass budget bill, which could force action in the House,” the Houston Chronicle reports.
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.