Politico: “When President Donald Trump floats wild and evidence-free conspiracy theories — of massive voter fraud and illegal wire taps ordered by his predecessor — he typically does so from the relative safety of his phone’s keypad, sometimes while weekending at his seaside Mar-a-Lago resort. It is his beleaguered White House advisers who are then forced into the bright media spotlight to defend him, however tenuously connected Trump’s beliefs are to the truth, leaving them often twisted into rhetorical pretzels or twisting in the wind.”
LePage Slams GOP Health Care Bill
Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) said that he is “very, very discouraged and disappointed” with the House Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, CNN reports.
Said LePage: “Right now, I am very, very discouraged and disappointed with what the House Republicans are introducing. Basically it’s not much better than—in fact, I don’t know, they haven’t scored it yet, so we don’t know what the cost is. But based on what I see and I’m reading and what has happened here in Maine over the last 15 years, I don’t think it’s an improvement.”
Trump Has Positive Approval In Georgia’s 6th
A new Trafalgar Group poll in Georgia’s 6th congressional district finds Jon Ossoff (D) and Karen Handel (R) leading the special election field at 18%. They are followed by Bob Gray (R) at 13%, Judson Hill (R) at 8%, Amy Kremer (R) at 3% and Ron Slotkin (D) at 2%.
The survey finds President Trump with a 51% to 41% approval rating in the district.
Said pollster Robert Cahaly: “President Trump’s approval numbers, the high Republican propensity of this district, and the coalescing of Democrat support behind Ossoff, create dual scenarios heading into the April 11th jungle primary. Either the Republican-Trump supporters, energized by his victory and presidency dominate turnout, creating and all GOP runoff, or the Democrats organize and motivate their small base and take advantage of the competitiveness among the top few Republicans (most specifically Handel and Gray) to create a D vs. R runoff election on June 20th.”
WikiLeaks Now Targets the CIA
WikiLeaks has releaseded a new series of leaks from the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency code-named “Vault 7.”
New York Times: “If the documents are authentic, as appeared likely at first review, the release would be the latest coup for the anti-secrecy organization and a serious blow to the C.I.A., which maintains its own hacking capabilities to be used for espionage.”
“Among other disclosures that, if confirmed, will rock the tech world, the WikiLeaks release said that the C.I.A. and allied intelligence services had managed to bypass encryption on popular phone and messaging services such as Signal, WhatsApp and Telegram. According to the statement from WikiLeaks, government hackers can penetrate Android phones and collect “audio and message traffic before encryption is applied.'”
The GOP’s Last Chance to Repeal Obamacare
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Trump Live Tweets Fox News Again
“Former Gitmo detainee killed by a U.S. airstrike in Yemen; at least 122 former Gitmo detainees have re-engaged in terrorism.”
— Fox & Friends, 6:33 a.m.
“122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from Gitmo, have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!”
— President Trump, 7:04 a.m.
How GOP Leaders Are Defending Their Health Care Bill
Playbook: “They want conservatives to relax. They say this repeal and replace bill — which, by the way, wasn’t easy to cobble together — repeals taxes, spending and mandates, reforms entitlements, strips funding from Planned Parenthood and kicks Medicaid control to the states. In other words, this is what Republicans have been asking for! The bill was penned by the committees of jurisdiction, not in the speaker’s office, which is what many conservatives have been clamoring for. Supporters believe the White House wants this bill to pass — but we’ll see how much the president leans in. From the proponents’ point of view the stakes are just too high for the GOP. Failure, they say, is simply not an option after more than a half-dozen years of promising action.”
“If Republicans can’t pass a bill, the familiar blame game will ensue. Was it because the committees and leadership were timid, as conservatives are sure to say? Or will the narrative take hold that, in the quest for the perfect, the conservatives blew up a good bill? If nothing else, Republicans will blame Democrats for not working with them.”
The Book to Understand Steve Bannon
Conservatives Slam House Obamacare Replacement
“A handful of House conservatives on Monday evening criticized GOP leaderships’ newly released Obamacare replacement bill, foreshadowing trouble for the repeal effort even after leaders tried to assuage the far-right,” Politico reports.
Said former Freedom Caucus chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH): “This is Obamacare by a different form. They’re still keeping the taxes in place and Medicaid expansion, and they’re starting a new entitlement.”
Playbook: “Does the this-is-Obamacare-lite narrative stick? Or could supporters beat back on the Freedom Caucus and Paul? That’s what to watch over the next few days. Hugh Hewitt, the popular conservative morning radio show host, said he was not offered anyone to talk about the bill on his show.”
Washington Post: House leaders brace for the task ahead: selling ‘Obamacare lite.’
McCain Demands White House Release Evidence
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) demanded the release of any evidence backing up President Trump’s claim that President Obama wiretapped Trump Tower in the run-up to the presidential election, “blasting the White House’s refusal to answer additional questions about the matter,” Politico reports.
Said McCain: “I haven’t seen anything like this… This is unprecedented. I have never heard of a president of the United States accusing his predecessor or any other president of the United States of violating the law.”
North Korea Says It Was Practicing to Hit U.S. Bases
“North Korea was practicing to strike United States military bases in Japan with its latest barrage of missiles, state media in Pyongyang reported Tuesday, and it appears to be trying to outsmart a new American antimissile battery being deployed to South Korea by firing multiple rockets at once,” the Washington Post reports.
Kim Jong Un presided over Monday’s launch of the four missiles, “feasting his eyes on the trails of ballistic rockets,” the Korean Central News Agency reported in a statement that analysts called a “brazen declaration” of the country’s intent to strike enemies with a nuclear weapon if it came under attack.
Rick Klein: “Forget Iran or ISIS, or Iraq or Afghanistan, and move over Russia, even. The first national-security crisis of the Trump era is looking like it’s coming from North Korea, which has a history of provoking American administrations at times of perceived advantage. With missile tests moving beyond saber-rattling, the Trump team is deploying a defensive missile system to South Korea (with ramifications in China), and figuring out details of the inherited cyberwar plan revealed this week by the New York Times. This is the kind of moment where a fully operational national-security apparatus is of vital importance. There will hints and signals and hard-to-interpret maneuvers emanating from multiple directions in the coming days. The outside world, so quiet for this first half of Trump’s first 100 days, is waking up.”
New York Times: U.S. missile defense system deployed to North Korea.
How Many Will Be Covered By Trumpcare?
David Nather: “Normally, the Congressional Budget Office would tell them that. But not this time — because the committees are plowing ahead without waiting for the cost and coverage estimates.”
Deputy Attorney General Nominee Faces Heat
Politico: “Senate Democrats, intent on keeping questions about the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia front and center, are turning to their next target: Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ top deputy. Rod Rosenstein, a veteran U.S. attorney whom President Donald Trump has nominated to become the Justice Department’s No. 2, heads into his confirmation hearing Tuesday squarely in the eye of the firestorm over the Russia controversy that has engulfed the Trump presidency for weeks.”
“The weight of the Russia investigation would fall on Rosenstein if he’s confirmed. Democrats are using what would usually be a noncontroversial nomination to extract as many concessions from Rosenstein as possible.”
Trump Walks the Political High Wire
Charlie Cook: “It’s hard to look at Donald Trump and his presidency through any conventional lens or apply any normal yardsticks to him. Whether part of a grand plan or improvisation, statements and behavior that would have ended the careers of other politicians have made it possible for him to prosper. Trump’s strange political alchemy works despite the fact that it seems to defy logic and political gravity. Walking on a high wire may seem crazy to the rest of us, but it’s just a day at the office for the Flying Wallendas, and for them, things have worked out pretty well. (I know one member of the Wallenda family, and she’s bright, impressive, and perfectly normal.) Trump, like the Wallendas, thrives on the oohs and aahs of his audience.”
“So while many of us can watch things that Trump does with shock and even horror, we need to keep an open mind about the outcome. As he showed during the presidential campaign, he can be crazy like a fox. But for any other politician contemplating a Trump-style campaign, I advise extreme caution. He’s a political daredevil like no other, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll turn out like Evel Knievel. In other words: Kids, don’t try this at home. It may or may not work for him, but it surely won’t work for anyone else.”
House GOP Unveils Plan to Replace Obamacare
House Republicans “unveiled their long-awaited plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, scrapping the mandate that nearly all Americans have health insurance and replacing it with a system of tax credits aimed at enticing Americans to purchase health care on the open market,” the New York Times reports.
“The bill’s unveiling set the stage for a bitter and consequential debate over the possible dismantling of the most significant health care law in a half-century. Republicans hope to undo major parts of President Barack Obama’s signature domestic achievement, including income-based tax credits that help millions of Americans afford insurance, taxes on people with high incomes and the penalty for people who do not buy health coverage.”
Politico: “But there were warning signs even hours before GOP leaders unveiled the proposal. Four key Senate Republicans in a Monday letter balked at the House plan to repeal the Medicaid expansion after 2020, underscoring how sharply divided the party still remains over how to transform the health care system and accomplish a core campaign promise.”
“House conservatives, meanwhile, had yet to commit to backing the proposal.”
Spicer Pulls Out of the Spotlight
“After two flayings on Saturday Night Live, sustained mockings on late-night shows, and a series of televised confrontations with reporters, White House press secretary Sean Spicer is retreating from the harsh glare of the daily televised briefing,” Politico reports.
“The White House has not held a televised briefing in seven days… There is a concern in the White House that a combative briefing can take away from the administration’s attempt at orchestrated news, and the president prefers controlling the message himself.”
Researchers Find It’s Not Liberals Who Are In a Bubble
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Planned Parenthood Offered Funding If Abortion Goes
“The White House, concerned about the possible political repercussions of the Republican effort to defund Planned Parenthood, has proposed preserving federal payments to the group if it discontinues providing abortions,” the New York Times reports.
“The proposal, which was never made formally, has been rejected as an impossibility by officials at Planned Parenthood, which receives about $500 million annually in federal funding. That money helps pay for women’s health services the organization provides, not for abortion services.”
