He hardly did.
Tuesday, September 12, 2017
Legal groups move to challenge Trump's Arpaio pardon
By MADELINE CONWAY
Two advocacy groups moved on Monday to challenge Donald Trump’s pardon of controversial former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, alleging that the president's move was unconstitutional because it undermined the power of the federal judiciary.
A public interest law firm, the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, sought to file an amicus brief in an Arizona district court, where Arpaio is seeking to vacate a conviction after Trump granted him a pardon last month. The brief was initially turned down by a judge on procedural grounds.
A second group, the Protect Democracy Project, also filed an amicus
brief on Monday arguing that the pardon is unconstitutional.
Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, has been repeatedly accused of employing racist law enforcement tactics and mistreating inmates. A Justice Department civil rights investigation concluded that his department racially profiled Latinos, and Arpaio in 2016 lost a bid for re-election.
In July, he was convicted of criminal contempt of court because he had continued to detain immigrants without sufficient reason after a federal court order told him to stop. Trump pardoned Arpaio in August, pointing to his "selfless public service."
The MacArthur Justice Center moved to file in the case on Monday but was warned by Judge Susan Bolton that the motion would be denied in three days if it is not edited to adhere to court procedure.
The brief contends that Trump’s pardon of Arpaio violated the Constitution because “it has the purpose and effect of eviscerating the judicial power to enforce constitutional rights.” The MacArthur Justice Center lawyers argue that, while broad, presidential pardon power can not be used to undermine the judiciary’s ability to enforce the Bill of Rights or the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Arpaio pardon, the lawyers argue, “eviscerates this Court’s enforcement power...by endorsing Arpaio’s refusal to comply with federal court orders.”
The brief also takes issue with the breadth of Trump’s pardon, noting that the “text of the pardon is so broad that it purports to allow Arpaio to run for Sheriff again...and escape criminal liability for future contempt.”
Protect Democracy’s lawyers similarly contend that the pardon violates the separation of powers “because it unconstitutionally interferes with the inherent powers of the Judicial Branch.”
They also argue that the pardon goes beyond the president’s power — “We are aware of no case in this Court, the Ninth Circuit or the Supreme Court that has upheld a pardon matching the extraordinary circumstances here, where the contempt is used to enforce court orders protecting the rights of private litigants,” the lawyers write — and violates due process.
Two advocacy groups moved on Monday to challenge Donald Trump’s pardon of controversial former Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio, alleging that the president's move was unconstitutional because it undermined the power of the federal judiciary.
A public interest law firm, the Roderick and Solange MacArthur Justice Center, sought to file an amicus brief in an Arizona district court, where Arpaio is seeking to vacate a conviction after Trump granted him a pardon last month. The brief was initially turned down by a judge on procedural grounds.
Arpaio, the former sheriff of Maricopa County, has been repeatedly accused of employing racist law enforcement tactics and mistreating inmates. A Justice Department civil rights investigation concluded that his department racially profiled Latinos, and Arpaio in 2016 lost a bid for re-election.
In July, he was convicted of criminal contempt of court because he had continued to detain immigrants without sufficient reason after a federal court order told him to stop. Trump pardoned Arpaio in August, pointing to his "selfless public service."
The MacArthur Justice Center moved to file in the case on Monday but was warned by Judge Susan Bolton that the motion would be denied in three days if it is not edited to adhere to court procedure.
The brief contends that Trump’s pardon of Arpaio violated the Constitution because “it has the purpose and effect of eviscerating the judicial power to enforce constitutional rights.” The MacArthur Justice Center lawyers argue that, while broad, presidential pardon power can not be used to undermine the judiciary’s ability to enforce the Bill of Rights or the Fourteenth Amendment.
The Arpaio pardon, the lawyers argue, “eviscerates this Court’s enforcement power...by endorsing Arpaio’s refusal to comply with federal court orders.”
The brief also takes issue with the breadth of Trump’s pardon, noting that the “text of the pardon is so broad that it purports to allow Arpaio to run for Sheriff again...and escape criminal liability for future contempt.”
Protect Democracy’s lawyers similarly contend that the pardon violates the separation of powers “because it unconstitutionally interferes with the inherent powers of the Judicial Branch.”
They also argue that the pardon goes beyond the president’s power — “We are aware of no case in this Court, the Ninth Circuit or the Supreme Court that has upheld a pardon matching the extraordinary circumstances here, where the contempt is used to enforce court orders protecting the rights of private litigants,” the lawyers write — and violates due process.
Monday, September 11, 2017
WE GET IT, GOP
By NanceGreggs
There’s only one reason – and one reason only – why you are doing nothing to rid us of the incompetent madman you’ve put in the Oval Office: You don’t give a flyin’ fuck.
You don’t give a fuck if he ruins American lives, puts our national security at risk, distances us from our allies, or lowers our standing and influence in the global community.
You don’t give a fuck if he lies, makes decisions based on passing whims, or tries to bait North Korea into war just because he fuckin’ well feels like it.
You don’t give a fuck if Americans die as a consequence of his actions, or if global conflict is triggered by his statements - nor do you care if he consistently and repeatedly demonstrates his obvious mental instability.
You don’t give a fuck that he praises our enemies, colluded with them, and personally gave them highly classified information at his first opportunity to do so.
You don’t give a fuck that the presidency of the United States is now being degraded, disrespected, and shit upon every day by the current holder of that office.
You don’t give a fuck about ANY of that. You don’t give a fuck about the well-being of your fellow citizens, the well-being of our country, or the very survival of our democracy.
YOU. JUST. DON’T. GIVE. A. FUCK.
There is NO other explanation.
There’s only one reason – and one reason only – why you are doing nothing to rid us of the incompetent madman you’ve put in the Oval Office: You don’t give a flyin’ fuck.
You don’t give a fuck if he ruins American lives, puts our national security at risk, distances us from our allies, or lowers our standing and influence in the global community.
You don’t give a fuck if he lies, makes decisions based on passing whims, or tries to bait North Korea into war just because he fuckin’ well feels like it.
You don’t give a fuck if Americans die as a consequence of his actions, or if global conflict is triggered by his statements - nor do you care if he consistently and repeatedly demonstrates his obvious mental instability.
You don’t give a fuck that he praises our enemies, colluded with them, and personally gave them highly classified information at his first opportunity to do so.
You don’t give a fuck that the presidency of the United States is now being degraded, disrespected, and shit upon every day by the current holder of that office.
You don’t give a fuck about ANY of that. You don’t give a fuck about the well-being of your fellow citizens, the well-being of our country, or the very survival of our democracy.
YOU. JUST. DON’T. GIVE. A. FUCK.
There is NO other explanation.
Sunday, September 10, 2017
Congressional Black Caucus Ready For Impeachment Talk
Posted with permission from Newsweek
The Congressional Black Caucus will hold a meeting next week to discuss whether to call for the impeachment of Donald Trump. Following Trump’s response to deadly violence at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, last month, the CBC chairman, Representative Cedric Richmond of Louisiana, said the 49 member caucus would have a discussion on Trump’s possible impeachment when Congress reconvened after the August recess.
Those talks will take place next Wednesday, a CBC staffer confirmed to Newsweek on Thursday. While it was initially anticipated that the discussions would happen at this week’s meeting, relief efforts following Hurricane Harvey and in anticipation of Hurricane Irma took priority. Still, members were given background information on the impeachment process and the details on all the federal officials who have previously been subject to impeachment.
The CBC was among the first parties in Congress to call for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon, when it filed a resolution in the House of Representatives in 1973. The following year, Nixon resigned with his impeachment considered a virtual certainty.
Representative Al Green of Texas became the first Democrat to call for Trump’s removal from office, in May. He later supported California Representative Brad Sherman when he introduced articles of impeachment against the president the following month, alleging obstruction of justice over the firing of FBI Director James Comey.
Representative Maxine Waters, one of Trump’s fiercest critics, has also called to impeach Trump, and Representative Gwen Moore became the most recent member to do so, following Trump’s blaming of “both sides” for the violence in Charlottesville.
“For the sake of the soul of our country, we must come together to restore our national dignity that has been robbed by Donald Trump’s presence in the White House,” Moore, a Democrat from Wisconsin, said last month. “My Republican friends, I implore you to work with us within our capacity as elected officials to remove this man as our commander-in-chief and help us move forward from this dark period in our nation’s history.”
While Charlottesville may have been the tipping point, the CBC will look at a variety of issues that could be grounds for impeachment, including alleged violations of the emoluments cause and Trump’s fitness to serve. The case against Nixon will be studied closely as a guiding comparison.
Despite three members going on record urging Trump’s removal, a CBC staffer said “we have not made a decision yet” over whether the group would take the step of formally calling for the president’s impeachment. No preliminary discussions have yet taken place.
If there is a sense that the members are moving in the direction of impeachment, a vote could be called for. General policy is that a majority vote is required for a motion to pass, although because of the seriousness of this issue more than a simple majority may be deemed necessary.
For the Congressional Black Caucus, which encompasses 47 members in the House of Representatives and two in the Senate, calling for the removal of the Trump would undeniably be a powerful statement. However, there is little chance that it would bring about Trump’s exit any time soon. A majority vote in the House is required to impeach a president, followed by a two-thirds majority in the Senate in order to convict.
Republicans currently control both chambers and there have only been limited signs thus far of the party publicly abandoning their president. Also, Trump in recent days has reached out to leading Democrats over increasing the debt ceiling, a move that could win him some support.
Saturday, September 9, 2017
Eric Bolling’s Son Found Dead
Eric Chase Bolling died hours after Fox News announced his father’s departure from the network.
Eric Chase Bolling, the 19 year old son of former Fox News host Eric Bolling, was found dead Friday.
The cause of death remains unknown as of Saturday evening.
The younger Bolling died hours after Fox News announced it was parting ways “amicably” with his father. The Fox personality came under fire after HuffPost published a report in August revealing that he had sent inappropriate text messages to current and former female colleagues.
Friday, September 8, 2017
Paul Ryan Struggles To Explain Trump's Deal With Democrats
Paul Ryan is a practiced liar, but when he knows he’s about to say the
exact opposite of what he said one day prior, even he squirms a bit.
Cenk Uygur, host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.
"Republican resistance to a deal to raise the national borrowing limit — struck by President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders — is straining GOP unity just as Congress enters the most politically treacherous stretch of the legislative calendar. The leaders of the Republican Study Committee, an alliance of more than 150 conservative House members, panned the deal Thursday, even as Speaker Paul Ryan — who initially opposed it as well — praised Trump for seeking a bipartisan approach. The measure is expected to be attached to a bill that would send billions of dollars worth of disaster aid to Texas for its recovery from Hurricane Harvey.”
Read more here: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/07/key-conservatives-oppose-trump-debt-ceiling-deal-242445
"Republican resistance to a deal to raise the national borrowing limit — struck by President Donald Trump and Democratic congressional leaders — is straining GOP unity just as Congress enters the most politically treacherous stretch of the legislative calendar. The leaders of the Republican Study Committee, an alliance of more than 150 conservative House members, panned the deal Thursday, even as Speaker Paul Ryan — who initially opposed it as well — praised Trump for seeking a bipartisan approach. The measure is expected to be attached to a bill that would send billions of dollars worth of disaster aid to Texas for its recovery from Hurricane Harvey.”
Read more here: http://www.politico.com/story/2017/09/07/key-conservatives-oppose-trump-debt-ceiling-deal-242445
Trump Makes A Deal With The Democrats
Trump Deals finally made a deal and heads are exploding. Cenk Uygur,
host of The Young Turks, breaks it down.
"President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he is open to getting rid of the nation's debt ceiling altogether. "It could be discussed," Trump told reporters Thursday. "There are a lot of good reasons to do that."
A day after Trump agreed with Democrat to suspend the debt ceiling for three months, a shorter time period than Republican leaders wanted, reports said Trump also told Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi that he was willing to work with them on legislation to eliminate the ceiling permanently.”
Read more here: http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-debt-ceiling-schumer-pelosi-deal-2017-9
Host: Cenk Uygur
Cast: Cenk Uygur
"President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested he is open to getting rid of the nation's debt ceiling altogether. "It could be discussed," Trump told reporters Thursday. "There are a lot of good reasons to do that."
A day after Trump agreed with Democrat to suspend the debt ceiling for three months, a shorter time period than Republican leaders wanted, reports said Trump also told Democratic leaders Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi that he was willing to work with them on legislation to eliminate the ceiling permanently.”
Read more here: http://www.businessinsider.com/trump-debt-ceiling-schumer-pelosi-deal-2017-9
Host: Cenk Uygur
Cast: Cenk Uygur
Trump’s betrayal of the Republican leaders should surprise no one
Chuck
and Nancy and Donald and Ivanka seemed to thoroughly enjoy their
meeting at the White House the other day. Mitch and Paul, not so much.
One thing that should be blindingly obvious by now is that political loyalty, for the president, is a one-way street. Yes, McConnell and Ryan embarrassed themselves and squandered precious political capital in a long, fruitless attempt to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. Yes, the Republican leaders have held their tongues time and again when Trump has manifested his unfitness for office. Yes, they have pretended not to notice the glaring conflicts of interest between Trump’s private business affairs and his public responsibilities.
Still, there was something brazen about the way events unfolded Wednesday. First, Ryan tells reporters that a short-term, three-month extension on the debt ceiling, tied to relief funds for Hurricane Harvey — an idea supported by Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) — was “ridiculous and disgraceful.” Then, in the Oval Office meeting, Trump stuns everyone by endorsing the Schumer-Pelosi plan — and agrees to work with the Democrats on repealing the debt ceiling altogether, according to The Post. Later, on Air Force One, Trump goes on about what a productive meeting he had with “Chuck and Nancy,” not bothering to mention the GOP congressional leaders by name. Ouch.
Some shell-shocked attendees said they believed the meeting went off the rails when the president’s daughter Ivanka, who has an office in the West Wing, cheerily dropped in and disrupted the conversation’s focus. But this sounds to me like nothing more than a search for a scapegoat. Ryan and McConnell have no one to blame but themselves.
Trump is many things, but he is not, nor has he ever been, a committed Republican. He seized control of the party in a hostile takeover. His campaign positions on trade, health care, entitlements and other issues bore no resemblance to GOP orthodoxy. He has instincts — some of them odious, from what we can intuit about his views on race and culture — but his worldview is transactional and situational, not ideological.
Ryan, McConnell and many of their Republican colleagues in Congress convinced themselves that Trump could be a useful instrument — that he would sign whatever legislation they sent him, and therefore they would be able to enact a conventional GOP agenda of tax and entitlement cuts.
Trump might have gone along with this scenario, at least for a while. But Ryan and McConnell utterly failed to hold up their end of the bargain.
Look at the health-care fiasco from Trump’s point of view. His campaign position was that Obamacare had to be repealed, but that the replacement should be a system offering health care for “everyone.” What Ryan and the House delivered, however, was a plan that would make 23 million people lose health insurance and cut nearly $800 billion from Medicaid.
Trump called that legislation “mean” but was so desperate for a big win that he backed it anyway. In the Senate, however, McConnell wasn’t able to deliver anything at all — not even a stripped-down measure to repeal the ACA now and replace it later. Trump was humiliated and angry. “Mitch M” and “Paul R” became frequent targets of his barbed tweets.
So on Wednesday, Trump dished out a little humiliation of his own. At the White House meeting, the president reportedly cut off Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin — who supported the Ryan-McConnell approach to raising the debt ceiling — in mid-sentence to announce that he was siding with Schumer and Pelosi.
The stunning slap down almost overshadowed a surprise that Trump had delivered Tuesday evening: After sending Attorney General Jeff Sessions out to announce the end of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, Trump tweeted that if Congress did not act within six months, he would “revisit” the question.
What Trump clearly has already revisited is his belief in the ability of the conservative GOP congressional majorities to get anything meaningful done. He seems to be at least flirting with the idea of working instead with Democrats and GOP moderates — working not with but around the House and Senate leadership.
I just hope Schumer and Pelosi know not to trust him the way Ryan and McConnell did.
Read more from Eugene Robinson’s archive, follow him on Twitter or subscribe to his updates on Facebook. You can also join him Tuesdays at 1 p.m. for a live Q&A.
Donald Trump Jr.'s Closed Door Senate Statement Is Going To Cause Him A Lot Of Problems
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse Dollemore addresses Donald Trump Jr.'s prepared
statement in front of Senate Intelligence Committee staffers and
investigators.
Thursday, September 7, 2017
Republicans Left Reeling After Deal Between Trump And Democrats
WASHINGTON — Republicans were left fuming at a deal struck Wednesday
between President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders that combines
disaster aid for Hurricane Harvey victims with measures to keep the
government open and extend the debt ceiling for three more months.
The agreement occurred during a late-morning Oval Office meeting between Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. During the meeting, Trump sided with the Democrats, agreeing to their demands for a short-term extension of government funding and the debt limit and rejecting Republicans’ efforts to seek a longer-term debt ceiling hike.
It was a blow to GOP plans to avoid a series of politically treacherous votes for their members, or at least provide cover for them by attaching it to the disaster relief bill.
By agreeing to the three-month extensions, the GOP-controlled Congress would be forced to revisit both the debt ceiling and government spending extensions in December. And it increases the pressure on Republicans to pass yet more extensions to both, or face the prospect of the U.S. defaulting on its bills or a government shutdown just weeks before Christmas.
Democrats praised the deal, which was reached just before the House overwhelmingly passed $7.85 billion in disaster relief with nothing else attached.
“It was a really good moment of some bipartisanship and getting things done,” Schumer told reporters.
But it leaves rank-and-file Republicans befuddled and with few good choices. Opposition to increasing the nation's debt ceiling has become a matter of principle for many conservatives who say that this deal is worse than any they could have imagined because it forces them to vote on it twice in three months.
“The Pelosi-Schumer-Trump deal is bad,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in a short, terse statement.
McConnell told reporters it was the president’s decision and that GOP leadership will move forward with it.
“The President can speak for himself, but his feeling was that we needed to come together to not create a picture of divisiveness at a time of genuine national crisis and that was the rationale,” McConnell told reporters.
Still, it was a stunning turn of events.
Wednesday morning began with Pelosi and Schumer issuing their demand that the debt limit be increased for just three months as part of the hurricane relief bill. Ryan called the idea “ridiculous and disgraceful,” adding that Democrats “want to play politics with the debt ceiling.”
An hour later, the four leaders met with Trump. Republicans entered the meeting proposing an 18 month increase to the debt limit, which would put the issue aside until after the midterm elections.
Trump rejected that and so Republicans floated six months. But Pelosi and Schumer stuck to their three month demand.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who was also present, argued in favor of a longer-term debt limit extension, but the president cut him off and sided with the Democrats, multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting said.
In an unexpected turn of events, Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and adviser, came into the room to say hello toward the end of the meeting, which derailed the conversation and left the Republicans visibly annoyed, a Democratic aide briefed on the meeting said.
AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, called that characterization of Republican reaction "false."
And a White House aide said that Trump invited his daughter in to talk about her child-tax credit proposal, that she stayed on-topic and that it was “not an issue.”
Back on Capitol Hill, there was a mixture of resignation and outrage.
At the weekly lunch for Senate Republicans, McConnell, joined by White House budget director Mick Mulvaney and Vice President Mike Pence, laid out the deal reached with Democratic leaders.
When asked if they were surprised at the deal that was made, some senators appeared unfazed.
“Nothing shocks me around here,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
“Am I surprised? Not really,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
Still, senators were left unsure of how they’d vote on the deal, even though it includes nearly $8 billion in immediate relief for Harvey victims.
“We are literally funding this government on 90 day notes. That is not the way to fund the largest, most relevant entity in the world,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
He said that he’s likely to vote for it because of the desperate need of people in Texas, adding, “patience is wearing thin on short-term funding of this government.”
Some Republicans, however, fumed. During a lunch of the conservative Republican Study Committee, members unanimously voiced their opposition to the deal, an aide said.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said Republican leaders didn’t go into the talks with a good enough proposal.
“You've got to give the president conservative options," Meadows said. "There was not a conservative option on the table. It was either a clean debt ceiling or this deal. And when we look at that you can’t criticize somebody when there’s not a conservative proposal that’s put forth."
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said Mnuchin and Republican leaders have been pushing for a way to find the easiest path to pass a debt ceiling with no reforms attached.
“They’ve been trolling along looking for something to attach it to,” Walker said of Republican leaders. “To use the pain and suffering of the people of Texas to me is offensive."
Trump praised the deal aboard Air Force One on his way to North Dakota for a speech on tax reform. But he said he had a very good meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, and didn’t even mention the leaders of his party — McConnell and Ryan.
He also said that the debt ceiling must always be lifted without question, a position not held by most Republicans, who in recent years have turned it into a lever to achieve their policy goals of budget cuts.
“We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer," Trump said. "We agreed to a three-month extension on debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred — very important — always we’ll agree on debt ceiling automatically because of the importance of it."
The deal, however, just pushes the threat of a government shutdown to December.
“Merry Christmas,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
The agreement occurred during a late-morning Oval Office meeting between Trump, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi. During the meeting, Trump sided with the Democrats, agreeing to their demands for a short-term extension of government funding and the debt limit and rejecting Republicans’ efforts to seek a longer-term debt ceiling hike.
It was a blow to GOP plans to avoid a series of politically treacherous votes for their members, or at least provide cover for them by attaching it to the disaster relief bill.
By agreeing to the three-month extensions, the GOP-controlled Congress would be forced to revisit both the debt ceiling and government spending extensions in December. And it increases the pressure on Republicans to pass yet more extensions to both, or face the prospect of the U.S. defaulting on its bills or a government shutdown just weeks before Christmas.
Democrats praised the deal, which was reached just before the House overwhelmingly passed $7.85 billion in disaster relief with nothing else attached.
“It was a really good moment of some bipartisanship and getting things done,” Schumer told reporters.
But it leaves rank-and-file Republicans befuddled and with few good choices. Opposition to increasing the nation's debt ceiling has become a matter of principle for many conservatives who say that this deal is worse than any they could have imagined because it forces them to vote on it twice in three months.
“The Pelosi-Schumer-Trump deal is bad,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., in a short, terse statement.
McConnell told reporters it was the president’s decision and that GOP leadership will move forward with it.
“The President can speak for himself, but his feeling was that we needed to come together to not create a picture of divisiveness at a time of genuine national crisis and that was the rationale,” McConnell told reporters.
Still, it was a stunning turn of events.
Wednesday morning began with Pelosi and Schumer issuing their demand that the debt limit be increased for just three months as part of the hurricane relief bill. Ryan called the idea “ridiculous and disgraceful,” adding that Democrats “want to play politics with the debt ceiling.”
An hour later, the four leaders met with Trump. Republicans entered the meeting proposing an 18 month increase to the debt limit, which would put the issue aside until after the midterm elections.
Trump rejected that and so Republicans floated six months. But Pelosi and Schumer stuck to their three month demand.
Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who was also present, argued in favor of a longer-term debt limit extension, but the president cut him off and sided with the Democrats, multiple sources with knowledge of the meeting said.
In an unexpected turn of events, Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter and adviser, came into the room to say hello toward the end of the meeting, which derailed the conversation and left the Republicans visibly annoyed, a Democratic aide briefed on the meeting said.
AshLee Strong, a spokeswoman for Ryan, called that characterization of Republican reaction "false."
And a White House aide said that Trump invited his daughter in to talk about her child-tax credit proposal, that she stayed on-topic and that it was “not an issue.”
Back on Capitol Hill, there was a mixture of resignation and outrage.
At the weekly lunch for Senate Republicans, McConnell, joined by White House budget director Mick Mulvaney and Vice President Mike Pence, laid out the deal reached with Democratic leaders.
When asked if they were surprised at the deal that was made, some senators appeared unfazed.
“Nothing shocks me around here,” said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.
“Am I surprised? Not really,” said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.
Still, senators were left unsure of how they’d vote on the deal, even though it includes nearly $8 billion in immediate relief for Harvey victims.
“We are literally funding this government on 90 day notes. That is not the way to fund the largest, most relevant entity in the world,” said Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska.
He said that he’s likely to vote for it because of the desperate need of people in Texas, adding, “patience is wearing thin on short-term funding of this government.”
Some Republicans, however, fumed. During a lunch of the conservative Republican Study Committee, members unanimously voiced their opposition to the deal, an aide said.
Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said Republican leaders didn’t go into the talks with a good enough proposal.
“You've got to give the president conservative options," Meadows said. "There was not a conservative option on the table. It was either a clean debt ceiling or this deal. And when we look at that you can’t criticize somebody when there’s not a conservative proposal that’s put forth."
Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said Mnuchin and Republican leaders have been pushing for a way to find the easiest path to pass a debt ceiling with no reforms attached.
“They’ve been trolling along looking for something to attach it to,” Walker said of Republican leaders. “To use the pain and suffering of the people of Texas to me is offensive."
Trump praised the deal aboard Air Force One on his way to North Dakota for a speech on tax reform. But he said he had a very good meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, and didn’t even mention the leaders of his party — McConnell and Ryan.
He also said that the debt ceiling must always be lifted without question, a position not held by most Republicans, who in recent years have turned it into a lever to achieve their policy goals of budget cuts.
“We had a very good meeting with Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer," Trump said. "We agreed to a three-month extension on debt ceiling, which they consider to be sacred — very important — always we’ll agree on debt ceiling automatically because of the importance of it."
The deal, however, just pushes the threat of a government shutdown to December.
“Merry Christmas,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D.
Alex Moe, Garrett Haake, Frank Thorp V and Hallie Jackson
Wednesday, September 6, 2017
Donald Trump Rescinds DACA - Stands With White Supremacists Against A Million Dreamers
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse Dollemore addresses Donald Trump's decision to rescind DACA.
Trump's DACA Decision Is A Grim Turning Point
The opportunists in the GOP who enable these racist moves will face a reckoning.
Monday, September 4, 2017
Thursday, August 31, 2017
Is Joel Osteen A Bad Guy For Reasons Beyond Failing To Act During Hurricane Harvey?
In this episode of "The Conversation", Jesse Dollemore discusses Joel Osteen and
his bizarre Americanized version of Jesus' Gospel message.
His inaction in the face of the suffering caused by Hurricane Harvey was bad, but are there more reasons his actions should be questioned and scrutinized?
His inaction in the face of the suffering caused by Hurricane Harvey was bad, but are there more reasons his actions should be questioned and scrutinized?
Will Trump's Republican lackeys in Congress reverse course on disaster response cuts?
The pending reduction to the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief account is part of a spending bill that the House is scheduled to consider next week when Congress returns from its August recess. The $876 million cut, part of the 1,305 page measure’s homeland security section, pays for roughly half the cost of Trump’s down payment on a U.S.-Mexico border wall.
It seems sure that GOP leaders will move to reverse the disaster aid cut next week. The optics are politically bad and there’s only $2.3 billion remaining in disaster coffers.One would like to think that they'd reverse those cuts. But don't forget the request they're working with from the White House.
The proposal, drawn up by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), also would slash the budget of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which provides disaster relief after hurricanes, tornadoes and other natural disasters. The Coast Guard’s $9.1 billion budget in 2017 would be cut 14 percent to about $7.8 billion, while the TSA and FEMA budgets would be reduced about 11 percent each to $4.5 billion and $3.6 billion, respectively.All so Trump can hire more border agents, build his wall, and more effectively terrorize people of color. Given the disproportionate hit people of color are taking from this natural disaster, don't bet on Trump changing his mind about pushing for these cuts.
Donald Trump Lied About Avoiding Flood Victims In Flooded Areas
In this ‘Dollemore Daily’ Jesse Dollemore addresses the reporting from journalists
with Donald Trump which refutes his claims of witnessing the 'horror'
and 'devastation' caused by Hurricane Harvey in Houston, Texas.
Wednesday, August 30, 2017
Trump's Hurricane Speech Turns Into Campaign Rally
Recently Donald Trump visited Texas and the survivors of Hurricane Harvey and couldn't resist talking about his crowd sizes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/even-in-visiting-hurricane-ravaged-texas-trump-keeps-the-focus-on-himself/2017/08/29/3037a4a6-8cc3-11e7-84c0-02cc069f2c37_story.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/even-in-visiting-hurricane-ravaged-texas-trump-keeps-the-focus-on-himself/2017/08/29/3037a4a6-8cc3-11e7-84c0-02cc069f2c37_story.html
Trump Visits Texas: Ignores Victims And Damage, Brags About Crowd Size
Donald Trump finally made his way to Texas on Tuesday, but instead of
touring the areas that are being ravaged by floods, he stayed completely
dry, didn’t meet with a single victim, and bragged about the size of
the crowd that showed up to hear him speak.
This man is not a leader, and his callous response to Hurricane Harvey is just another reason why he shouldn’t beresident. Ring of Fire’s Farron Cousins discusses this.
This man is not a leader, and his callous response to Hurricane Harvey is just another reason why he shouldn’t be
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)