“As unfortunate as it is, I understand the quagmire. You do a good thing that backfires.”
— Eric Trump, quoted by the New York Times, after saying he will no longer raise money for his charitable foundation.
North Carolina GOP Fails to Repeal Bathroom Law
“After more than nine hours of closed-door meetings, jawboning and complicated legislative stratagems, North Carolina legislators went home in frustration Wednesday after failing to repeal the state law that has prompted economic boycotts, lawsuits, political acrimony and contributed to the defeat of the Republican governor,” the New York Times reports.
“Republicans, who control both houses of the legislature, could not agree on a way to repeal the law, commonly known as House Bill 2. The legislation curbs legal protections for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, and requires transgender people in public buildings to use the bathroom that corresponds with the gender on their birth certificate.”
“The failure to reach a deal in a one-day special session, even after Charlotte, the state’s largest city, fully repealed the ordinance that set the law in motion, was yet another moment of political dysfunction in a state that has become accustomed to it. The session comes just days after Republicans stripped significant powers from Governor-elect Roy Cooper, a Democrat, who is to be sworn in on New Year’s Day.”
Clinton Aides Kept Tabs on Faithless Elector Gambit
“Hillary Clinton’s top advisers never publicly backed an effort by Democrats on the Electoral College to block Donald Trump’s election. When it failed on Monday, one aide mocked it as an unserious ‘coup’ attempt. But a batch of correspondence obtained by Politico shows members of Clinton’s inner circle — including senior aides Jake Sullivan and Jennifer Palmieri — were in touch for weeks with one of the effort’s organizers as they mounted their ill-fated strategy. And despite repeated requests for guidance, Clinton’s team did not wave them off. Call logs, emails and text messages reveal a Clinton campaign walking a tightrope — never fully endorsing the effort, but intentionally declining to stamp it out.
Quote of the Day
“Did we think this clown, this buffoon with the funny hair, would ever become a world leader? Not once. Ever.”
— Former Apprentice producer Bill Pruitt, in an email published by Vanity Fair.
‘Death by China’ Author to Lead Trump Trade Office
“Donald Trump plans to create a National Trade Council inside the White House to oversee industrial policy and is appointing a China hawk and one of the architects of the populist economic message to run the new group,” the Financial Times reports.
“Mr Trump has chosen Peter Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist, to head the NTC… The author of books such as Death by China and Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World has for years warned that the US is engaged in an economic war with China and should adopt a more aggressive stance.”
Ryan’s Fundraising to Be Used to Push GOP Agenda
“The political team that powered House Speaker Paul Ryan’s fundraising machine this year is turning its sights in 2017 to defending the GOP legislative agenda,” Wall Street Journal reports.
“Defending the expected GOP effort to repeal and replace the 2010 health-care law, for example, is going to be far tougher than Mr. Ryan’s go-to move this year: flourishing a pamphlet outlining the House GOP policy agenda, known as ‘A Better Way.'”
Icahn Will Lead Regulatory Overhaul
Billionaire investor Carl Icahn is expected to be named special adviser to the president on overhauling federal regulations, the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Icahn, who has spent the past four decades battling big companies as an activist investor, already has been wielding influence in President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team. He is playing a central role in selecting the next chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission… Interested candidates have reached out to him, and he is interviewing others at the request of Mr. Trump.”
Most Democrats Don’t Want Clinton to Run Again
A new USA Today/Suffolk poll finds that 62% of Democrats and independents surveyed said Hillary Clinton shouldn’t mount another presidential campaign in 2020, and only 23% would be excited if she did.
Kushner Trying to Sell His Newspaper
“Jared Kushner appears to be ready to pick up sticks and move to Washington, D.C., with his wife Ivanka Trump to become an adviser (either officially or unofficially) to his father-in-law, President-elect Donald Trump, and there’s at least one piece of Manhattan he wants to shed before he goes: The New York Observer,” according to WWD.
“According to people familiar with the matter, Kushner has been quietly shopping the storied paper to potential buyers.”
Voters Expect Trump to Upend Obama Accomplishments
While President Obama will leave office with high favorability and job approval ratings, a new USA Today/Suffolk poll finds 59% of voters expect that President-elect Donald Trump will dismantle Obama’s legacy, and many don’t seem to mind.
Key finding: Obama’s job approval rate was 54%, and yet 45% of those polled said that reversing his accomplishments would be a good thing, while 43% would disapprove.
Said pollster David Paleologos: “A majority of voters said that history will assess Barack Obama as a great or good president. And yet, there appears to be a disconnect, as so many voters are unconcerned that the job he did could be undone.”
Trump Says He Could Have Won the Popular Vote
“Even after officially winning the Electoral College vote this week, Donald Trump is still litigating his presidential victory, firing off a fresh set of tweets on Wednesday claiming he could have also won the popular vote if he had wanted to,” Politico reports.
Said Trump: “Campaigning to win the Electoral College is much more difficult and sophisticated than the popular vote. Hillary focused on the wrong states!”
He added: “I would have done even better in the election, if that is possible, if the winner was based on popular vote — but would campaign differently.”
Red State Democrats Targeted by Conservatives
“The prospect of brutal confirmation hearings has Republicans targeting red-state Democrats in hopes of softening opposition to some of Donald Trump’s most conservative Cabinet nominees — from Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt to Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions,” Politico reports.
“It’s an effort at early damage control, with Republicans aiming to protect their own from a Democratic onslaught that could cause lasting damage both to Trump administration officials and to the president-elect’s ability to push his ambitious legislative agenda through Congress.”
Lewandowski to Set Up Consulting Firm
Close confidants of President-elect Trump are establishing a new government relations and political consulting firm in Washington, D.C., the Washington Examiner has learned.
“Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s first campaign manager, who remains closely connected to the president-elect, and Barry Bennett, who advised Trump’s campaign early on after leaving Ben Carson’s 2016 operation, are advertised on the website as the principals behind ‘Avenue Strategies.’ Sources tell the Examiner that Lewandowski and Bennett have been making the rounds in Washington to drum up business for a new firm by that name.”
How 2016 Turned Us Against Each Other
The latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds 48% of Americans said a family member shared with them a false story that they believed to be true; 32% said they avoided talking politics with family because they supported a different candidate; 31% said they got into a heated argument with family or friends for supporting a different candidate; 22% reported being harassed for their political beliefs; and 17% said they blocked or unfriended someone on Facebook or another social-media platform because of the presidential election.
Trump for Sale
Rick Klein: “Twice in the last week, access to Donald Trump’s children has literally been put up for sale. Both times, those sales were canceled, or at least scaled back, following public scrutiny. But the process that allowed those offerings to go forward at all – an auction for coffee with Ivanka, and a hunting trip with the two eldest Trump sons for big inauguration donors – suggests something in the territory of chaos and/or indifference inside the president-elect’s inaugural planning.”
“These are the sorts of arrangements that should set off bright red flags – particularly after a campaign where the Clintons were accused of all manner of pay-for-play arrangements. The Trump operation has done virtually nothing to specify its safeguards, even while new arrangements testing any planned boundaries pop up. One good way to ensure that individuals and companies don’t try to buy access and influence? Don’t offer it to them.”
Insane Clown President
Out soon: Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Circus by Matt Taibbi.
Liberals Consumed with Unprecedented Dread
David Horsey: “Back in 1980, there was disappointment among Democrats when Ronald Reagan won. In 2000, after the long Florida recount and the intrusion of the Supreme Court into the decision, there were plenty of upset people who thought Al Gore, not George W. Bush, deserved to be president. But the losing voters in those elections were not despondent. They were not breaking out in tears weeks later. They were not waking up each morning with feelings of dread about what was to come.”
“This time it is different and, in my experience, unique. This is not simply a case of Hillary Clinton supporters being bad losers. For most of those who feel traumatized by what happened on Nov. 8, this is not about the candidate who won the popular vote, yet lost the election. It is about the candidate who was picked as president by the electoral college on Monday. People are mourning because the fate of their country will now be in the hands of an intellectually disinterested, reckless, mendacious narcissist.”
‘Hillbilly Elegy’ Author May Run for Office
J.D. Vance, the author of the bestselling Hillbilly Elegy, is returning home to Ohio to possibly run for office, the Washington Post reports.
Said Vance: “The book has given me a platform I frankly didn’t expect to have. The plan is to go all-in on Ohio. One of the things that concerns me is that so few people who go and get an education elsewhere … feel any real … pull for returning home.”
“He explains that the book mostly diagnosed the problem, and now he wants to pivot toward finding solutions. His initial emphasis will be on two broad issues: managing the opioid crisis and improving vocational education.”
