An Inflection Point at the White House?
Mike Allen: “Top Republicans tell us that yesterday may have been an inflection point in the West Wing meltdown — that if behavior like this continues, apparently sanctioned by the President, people will finally leave.”
“The story that they’ve been telling themselves and others, about the President growing in office, looks more and more like a fable. Instead, insiders feel the situation is getting worse.”
Quote of the Day
“It’s time to move on.”
— Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), quoted by the Washington Post, after his efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act collapsed.
Senate Rejects ‘Skinny Repeal’ Bill as McCain Votes No
The Senate “rejected a new, scaled-down Republican plan to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, derailing the Republicans’ seven-year campaign to dismantle President Obama’s signature health care law and dealing a huge political setback to President Trump,” the New York Times reports.
“Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who just this week returned to the Senate after receiving a diagnosis of brain cancer, cast the decisive vote to defeat the proposal, joining two other Republicans, Susan Collins (R-ME) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), in opposing it.”
“The 49-to-51 vote was also a humiliating setback for the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who has nurtured his reputation as a master tactician and spent the last three months trying to devise a repeal bill that could win support from members of his caucus.”
Politico: “It was a shocking — yet fitting — coda for the Senate’s health care battle, starring the veteran senator with a well-polished maverick streak who within days went from Obamacare repeal’s savior to its executioner.”
Earlier for members: Why McCain May Ultimately Kill the GOP Health Bill
Senate Republicans Release Their ‘Skinny Repeal’ Bill
Senate Republicans have finally released their “skinny” repeal bill which would eliminate some provisions of the Affordable Care Act without trying to replace any of them.
A new CBO report says bill would cause 15 million people to lose their health insurance by next year.
Here’s what happens next:
- There’s vote around midnight to replace the original House bill with his new “skinny repeal” bill.
- The Senate will hold a “vote-a-rama” on the bill which will likely last well into Friday morning.
- The vote for final passage will take place after all amendments have been considered.
Please leave your thoughts and observations in the comments.
How the ‘Skinny Repeal’ Bill Becomes Law
Nate Silver: “There’s not much reason to doubt that Ryan will go to conference. While there are no legal assurances of this, to fail to do so would be extremely damaging to House-Senate relations. The GOP still has a lot of legislative business later this year for which it will need the House and Senate to cooperate.”
“The question is what happens if that conference fails — which seems fairly likely given that the Senate has had so much trouble passing a more comprehensive bill. At that point, the House could still just pass the Health Care Freedom Act, and it would go to Trump’s desk. The extra items that Republicans added to the bill, such as the provision to defund Planned Parenthood, seem designed to help increase the likelihood of House approval.”
Caitlin Owens: “Despite GOP senators’ adamant declarations that they don’t want their ‘skinny repeal’ bill to become law if they pass it, there’s at least a decent chance that’s exactly what happens, some staffers openly say.”
For members: How the GOP Health Care Push Ends
Ryan Won’t Promise Not to Pass ‘Skinny Repeal’ Bill
Caitlin Owens: “House Speaker Paul Ryan said Thursday evening that the House would be ‘willing’ to go to conference committee with the Senate if that’s what it takes to move the GOP’s health care legislation forward.”
“What he didn’t do, however, was rule out eventually passing a ‘skinny repeal’ bill if the conference committee fails to produce anything that can pass the Senate.”
“Three GOP senators — John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Ron Johnson — said shortly before Ryan issued the statement that they’ll only vote for skinny repeal if the House assured them it would go to conference and the skinny bill wouldn’t become law.”
White House Survivor
An early look at the cover of tomorrow’s New York Post:
Trump Advisers Eyeing Priebus Replacements
Reince Priebus is still the White House chief of staff and he told ABC News he intends to remain in the position, but people close to President Trump say he is increasingly frustrated with the management of the West Wing and the president’s most trusted advisers are already making suggestions about who could be the next chief of staff.
Here is a list of possible Priebus replacements being talked about:
- White House Counselor Kellyanne Conway
- Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg
- Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney
- Retired Gen. John Kelly
- Former Speaker Newt Gingrich
Other possibilities being bandied about include Tom Barrack, Corey Lewandowski, Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC) and Gary Cohn.
Why Trump’s Mole Hunt Is Doomed
Alex Conant: “In some leaky organizations, people leak to advance agendas or undermine opponents. Some leakers seek to enhance their egos or curry favor with reporters. Sometimes people leak without even realizing it, speaking carelessly to journalists or lobbyists, who then repeat the story to others. The common thread is that unauthorized leaks are a symptom of political organizations that have a broken culture: They lack unity, trust and self-discipline.”
“This is not to excuse leaks or leakers. The improper sharing of information outside an organization inevitably paralyzes it, which leads to more dysfunction and failure. President Trump is completely justified to be outraged about the leaks in his White House. But mole hunts inevitably lead only to more moles, and more leaks.”
“Trump’s White House is not leaky because of a few bad apples. The No. 1 reason why it leaks is because his team lacks unity. It’s not without irony that many of the leaks are about the very staff infighting that is causing the leaks.”
A Phone Call with ‘The Mooch’
Ryan Lizza details his conversation with White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci last night:
I got the sense that Scaramucci’s campaign against leakers flows from his intense loyalty to Trump. Unlike other Trump advisers, I’ve never heard him say a bad word about the President. “What I want to do is I want to fucking kill all the leakers and I want to get the President’s agenda on track so we can succeed for the American people,” he told me.
He cryptically suggested that he had more information about White House aides. “O.K., the Mooch showed up a week ago,” he said. “This is going to get cleaned up very shortly, O.K.? Because I nailed these guys. I’ve got digital fingerprints on everything they’ve done through the F.B.I. and the fucking Department of Justice.”
“What?” I interjected.
You have to read the whole thing.
Headline of the Day
Politico: “Mitch McConnell is making one last frantic plea to his Senate Republican members to advance the party’s scaled-back Obamacare repeal, assuring them at a private lunch that the vote is merely aimed at getting to conference with the House rather than immediately becoming law.
“Rank-and-file members struggled to explain if there is a guarantee that the bill they are set to vote on within hours would not actually become law. There is some concern the House would adopt a ‘martial law’ procedure that would allow them to quickly take up and pass the health care bill.”
Trump Authorized Scaramucci Attacks on Priebus
Daily Beast: “White House officials and outside allies say the president is revelling in Scaramucci’s campaign against Priebus—undertaken through cable news appearances and a billow of tweets, some of which were subsequently deleted—and is thrilled to see a top staffer placing a publicly bombastic emphasis on White House leaks to the press, which consistently infuriate the president.”
Said one White House adviser: “The president specifically gave him the green light to go after Reince.”
BuzzFeed: “Privately, Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president, has told people that Priebus is ‘gone’ and that he is trying to figure out his next steps… Her message is that White House staffers who had come from the Republican National Committee, which Preibus ran before being named chief of staff, are out and the administration is ‘going back to Trump loyalists.'”
Delaney May Skip Re-Election and Run for President
Rep. John Delaney (D-MD) “plans on bypassing runs for governor and reelection and has told associates he is seriously considering a bid for president in 2020,” Politico reports.
“Delaney, a political moderate and former banker, gave serious thought to running for governor… A presidential bid would seem quixotic: Delaney is little-known even among Democratic operatives, and his moderate stances and background in finance don’t match a left-leaning Democratic primary electorate.”
The Least Powerful Adviser in the White House
Vogue: “It was Groundhog Day, dystopia edition, yesterday morning when the president banned all transgender servicepeople from the U.S. military, unfurling yet another reversal of an historic Obama-era policy. It was another sweeping and instantly-controversial ban, and, as it’s being widely noted today, another big, fat failure for Ivanka Trump.”
“By now, though, empty words from Ivanka Trump are no longer noteworthy; they are the norm—as routine as the president’s cyberbullying (any day now with your First Lady initiative, Melania) and schmoozing from Anthony ‘The Mooch’ Scaramucci. While Ivanka is repeatedly credited as ‘having her father’s ear,’ the trans ban is just the latest in a string of defeats on what are believed to be Ivanka’s stated causes.”
Spicer Could Get Big Money After White House
A talent agent at a major agency tells Jonathan Swan that “there’s a big deal in” Sean Spicer after he exits the White House, with between $250-400k as a network contributor and the possibility of seven figures for a book if he’s “willing to reveal things.”
Bannon’s Shadow Press Office May Violate Law
Center for Public Integrity: “In an arrangement prominent ethics experts say is without precedent and potentially illegal, the White House is referring questions for senior presidential adviser Stephen Bannon to an outside public relations agent whose firm says she is working for free.”
“The unorthodox setup means Bannon, Trump’s chief strategist, is potentially violating the Antideficiency Act, which provides that federal employees “may not accept voluntary services for [the] government or employ personal services exceeding that authorized by law.'”
Gingrich Torches Scaramucci
Newt Gingrich harshly criticized White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci in a radio interview with Laura Ingraham, calling his recent actions “divisive” and “unhelpful.”
Said Gingrich: “I think that Scaramucci had better be a lot more careful than he has been. He obviously likes the limelight. He obviously likes being in the media. I would say right now that he’s being more pugnacious than effective. I think he ought to slow down a little bit and learn what he’s doing… If he’s gonna be that divisive, I’m not sure he’s gonna be very useful to the President.”
He added: “I think Scaramucci’s full of himself.”
