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Pompeo Considered as Replacement for Tillerson

October 6, 2017 at 7:42 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Mike Allen: “Trump advisers and allies are floating the idea of replacing Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with CIA Director Mike Pompeo, age 53 — someone who’s already around the table in the Situation Room, and could make the switch without chaos.”

“We’re told that Trump is quite comfortable with Pompeo, asking his advice on topics from immigration to the inner workings of Congress. Pompeo personally delivers the President’s Daily Brief, making him one of the few people Trump spends a great deal of time with on a daily basis.”

“Sources tell us Trump recognizes that a Cabinet shuffle would bring bad press. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly wants stability, and so is discouraging high-level departures before next year. And yet, insiders say Trump’s relationship with Tillerson is broken beyond repair.”

The Democratic Obsession with Gerrymandering

October 6, 2017 at 7:40 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Jeff Greenfield: “It’s an attractive conclusion; and Lord knows the possibility of ending the steadily more outrageous phenomenon of partisan gerrymandering is a worthy goal in itself.”

“But if Democrats think this is the key to their political woes, they are kidding themselves. What ails the party—at every level—goes far beyond alleged Republican skullduggery. And a diagnosis of those ills requires an understanding of what the last decade has wrought.”

There’s Always Baseball

October 6, 2017 at 7:39 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

James Hohmann: “With so many reasons to worry that the center may not hold in American life, baseball steps into the breach. If you’re ever losing faith in this country, go to a game. It may cure you. The national pastime reminds us that there’s nothing wrong with America that can’t be fixed by what’s right about America. Our persistence. Our diversity. Our ability to deliver in the clutch. ‘Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules, and reality of the game,’ the French cultural historian Jacques Barzun said in 1954.”

Courts Thwart Trump Effort to Rescind Regulations

October 6, 2017 at 6:55 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “The rapid-fire push by the Trump administration to wipe out significant chunks of the Obama environmental legacy is running into a not-so-minor complication: Judges keep ruling that the Trump team is violating federal law.”

“The legal reversals reflect how aggressively Mr. Trump’s critics are challenging the administration’s efforts to rescind regulations enacted during the Obama administration, not only related to the environment, but to immigration, to consumer protection and to other areas.”

Democrats Look to Wreak Havoc In GOP Primaries

October 6, 2017 at 6:43 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “With Republican Senate primaries from West Virginia to Montana promising to pit Trump-inspired insurgents against more mainstream candidates, Democrats are considering ways to step in and wreak some havoc. The idea: Elevate the GOP’s most extreme option in each race, easing Democrats’ path to victory in a range of states tilted against them.”

“At its most aggressive, the tactic could be a sequel to Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill’s 2012 campaign against then-GOP Rep. Akin in Missouri. She actively intevened in the Republican primary with ads designed to boost the conservative Akin to the front of the pack. Once he became the nominee, a series of gaffes — led by his ‘legitimate rape’ comment — and hard-line positions unraveled his campaign.”

Small Donors Help Fill the GOP Coffers

October 6, 2017 at 6:32 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Washington Post: “In giving to support Trump, his backers are pouring tens of millions of dollars into the coffers of the Republican National Committee, which has raised more from small-dollar contributions at this point in the election cycle than the national party has collected in more than a decade.”

“The low-dollar donations are helping fuel a massive fundraising advantage for the RNC, which has pulled in nearly twice as much as its Democratic counterpart this year.”

“The GOP’s success with small donors illustrates how the Republican Party, long a center of the political establishment, has managed to turn Trump’s anti-Washington message to its advantage.”

Inside Tim Murphy’s Demise

October 6, 2017 at 6:27 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Politico: “Multiple top House Republicans during the past 24 hours pressured Murphy to resign once it became clear that the House Ethics Committee might have to investigate allegations tied to his reported mistreatment of staffers. Numerous GOP sources were aware of systemic problems in Murphy’s office, including high staff turnover, which had been the topic of gossip and speculation for years.”

“According to these aides, chief of staff Susan Mosychuk regularly engaged in brutal verbal abuse of lower-ranking aides, from calling aides ‘worthless’ and their work ‘garbage’ to asking derisively, ‘Do you or do you not have a fucking college degree?’”

Partisan Divides Over Political Values Widen

October 6, 2017 at 5:44 am EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Across 10 measures that Pew Research Center has tracked on t he same surveys since 1994, the average partisan gap has increased from 15 percentage points to 36 points.”

“Two decades ago, the average partisan differences on these items were only somewhat wider than differences by religious attendance or educational attainment and about as wide as the differences between blacks and whites (14 points, on average). Today, the party divide is much wider than any of these demographic differences.”

Trump Nominates Coal Lobbyist to Be No. 2 at EPA

October 5, 2017 at 9:33 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“President Trump nominated Andrew Wheeler, a coal lobbyist with links to outspoken deniers of established science on climate change, to help lead the Environmental Protection Agency,” the New York Times reports.

“The nomination comes at a critical moment for the E.P.A. as the agency prepares to repeal a sweeping climate change regulation known as the Clean Power Plan.”

Trump Set to Roll Back Birth Control Mandate

October 5, 2017 at 8:44 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“The Trump administration is poised to roll back the federal requirement for employers to include birth control coverage in their health insurance plans, vastly expanding exemptions for those that cite moral or religious objections,” the New York Times reports.

“More than 55 million women have access to birth control without co-payments because of the contraceptive coverage mandate, according to a study commissioned by the Obama administration. Under the new regulations, hundreds of thousands of women could lose birth control benefits they now receive at no cost under the Affordable Care Act.”

Exchange of the Day

October 5, 2017 at 7:50 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump issued a warning after having dinner with generals at the White House, according to CNN:

TRUMP: You guys know what this represents, could be called the calm before the storm.

REPORTER: What storm?

TRUMP: We have the world’s greatest military people in this room.

REPORTER: What storm, Mr. President?

TRUMP: You’ll see.

Trump ‘Furious’ at Tillerson Comments

October 5, 2017 at 7:20 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

President Trump was “furious” after hearing the report that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called him a “moron” and fumed for two hours, NBC News reports.

Tillerson’s refusal to deny that he had called the president a “moron” in his statement to reporters further “stoked Trump’s anger and widened the rift between the two men.”

White House chief of staff John Kelly abandoned plans to travel with him to Las Vegas in order to “manage the fallout.” He summoned Tillerson, and their ally Defense Secretary James Mattis, to the White House, “where the three of them huddled to discuss a path forward.”

Mnuchin Took 7 Flights that Cost $800K

October 5, 2017 at 7:18 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “has flown on military aircraft seven times since March at a cost of more than $800,000, including a $15,000 round-trip flight to New York to meet with President Trump at Trump Tower,” the New York Times reports.

Republicans Are Getting Worried

October 5, 2017 at 7:17 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

New York Times: “Republican leaders on Capitol Hill are making no attempt to mask their fear, predicting that failure to pass a tax overhaul in the coming months will lead to a wipeout in next year’s midterm elections. For the first time, some senators are contemplating whether their longstanding advantages could crumble amid a wave of primary challenges and other departures, putting their two-seat majority in jeopardy next year.”

“Particularly in the Senate, Republicans are increasingly mystified by their own grass roots, an electorate they thought they knew, and distressed that a wave of turnover in their ranks could fundamentally change the character of Congress. They fear that the inchoate populism that Mr. Trump personifies, and which Mr. Bannon is attempting to weaponize against incumbents, is on the march.”

Documents Prove Bannon Courted Alt-Right

October 5, 2017 at 7:08 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

An explosive cache of documents obtained by BuzzFeed News proves that Stephen Bannon sought to make Breitbart a platform for white nationalists, despite his comments last month that “there’s no room in American society” for neo-Nazis, neo-Confederates, and the KKK.

“During the 2016 presidential campaign, under Bannon’s leadership, Breitbart courted the alt-right — the insurgent, racist right-wing movement that helped sweep Donald Trump to power. The former White House chief strategist famously remarked that he wanted Breitbart to be ‘the platform for the alt-right.'”

Mueller’s Team Met with Dossier Author

October 5, 2017 at 6:57 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigators met this past summer with the former British spy whose dossier on alleged Russian efforts to aid the Trump campaign spawned months of investigations that have hobbled the Trump administration,” CNN reports.

“Information from Christopher Steele, a former MI-6 officer, could help investigators determine whether contacts between people associated with the Trump campaign and suspected Russian operatives broke any laws.”

Kelly’s Personal Cell Phone Was Compromised

October 5, 2017 at 5:54 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

“White House officials believe that chief of staff John Kelly’s personal cell phone was compromised, potentially as long ago as December,” Politico reports.

“The discovery raises concerns that hackers or foreign governments may have had access to data on Kelly’s phone while he was secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and after he joined the West Wing.”

Murphy Resigns Following Abortion Scandal

October 5, 2017 at 4:06 pm EDT By Taegan Goddard Leave a Comment

Rep. Tim Murphy (R-PA) has resigned effective October 21, according to a statement from Speaker Paul Ryan.

Politico: “Republican sources familiar with Murphy’s thinking said the married father of one child initially believed he could weather a Pittsburgh Post-Gazette story revealing he had sent a series of text messages to his girlfriend — a psychologist half his age — encouraging her to have an abortion. Murphy had been a strongly anti-abortion lawmaker during his 15 years in Congress.”

Cook Political Report: “This is very tough territory for Democrats. But it’s not impossible, and the combination of a pro-Democratic national climate and the fallout from Murphy’s ignominious personal behavior makes this special election potentially competitive.”