Sep 11, 2017

John Kelly: Congress did "nothing" to help Dreamers

Axios

Alex Brandon / AP

Days after Illinois Rep. Luis Gutierrez called him a "disgrace to the uniform" for his part in President Trump's decision to end DACA, White House Chief of Staff John Kelly told Fox News' Christopher Wallace that Congress did "nothing" to help the Dreamers.

  • To Gutierrez and "irresponsible" members of Congress: "They have the luxury of saying what they want as they do nothing and have almost no responsibility... They can call people liars but it would be inappropriate for me to say the same thing back at them. As my blessed mother used to say ' empty barrels make the most noise.'"
  • "Trump didn't end DACA, the law did. That said, I worked and succeeded to give the Congress another six months to do something. I am not confident."
  • Shifting the blame: "My [message] always was 'I have bought you time to do something on DACA.' I begged and pleaded with them. They did exactly nothing."

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Axios

Coronavirus cases rise, as more Americans on cruise confirmed ill

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC, and China's NHC; Note: China refers to mainland China and the Diamond Princess is the cruise ship offshore Yokohama, Japan. Map: Danielle Alberti/Axios

A U.S. public health official confirms more than 40 Americans on the Diamond Princess cruise ship off Japan have coronavirus, while the remaining U.S. citizens without symptoms are being evacuated.

The big picture: COVID-19 has now killed at least 1,770 people and infected almost 70,000 others. Most cases and all but five of the deaths have occurred in mainland China. Taiwan confirmed its first death on Sunday, per multiple reports, in a 61-year-old man with underlying health conditions. Health officials were investigating how he became ill.

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Sara Fischer, Jonathan Swan

Scoop: Inside the Trump campaign's big hedge on Facebook

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

The Trump campaign has invested most of its advertising budget to date on Facebook, testing thousands of versions of ads per day to maximize its spending.

But behind the scenes, a source familiar with the campaign tells Axios, the thinking has shifted: "As everyone can see, we still have strong spending on Facebook, but the percentage of our total media budget [on Facebook] is shrinking."

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Alayna Treene

Trump's revenge tour has the House in its sights

Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios. Photo: Saul Loeb/Getty Contributor

In the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections — buoyed by Republican control of both chambers — President Trump viewed campaigning for the House as a lower-tier priority and instead poured his energy into rallying for the Senate.

But after the GOP reckoning in 2018, and experiencing firsthand how damaging a Democratic-led House has been to him, Trump is now personally invested in helping Republicans regain the majority in November, several people familiar with his thinking tell Axios.

Go deeperArrow4 hours ago - Politics & Policy