Saturday's politics & policy stories

Knives out for Reince
From the NYT's Maggie Haberman and Glenn Thrush:
On Friday evening, a somewhat shellshocked president retreated to the White House residence to grieve and assign blame. He asked his advisers repeatedly: Whose fault was this? ... Increasingly, that blame has fallen on Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff, who coordinated the initial legislative strategy on the health care repeal with Speaker Paul D. Ryan, his close friend and a fellow Wisconsin native, according to three people briefed on the president's recent discussions.
And from Politico's Tara Palmeri:
Counterpoint from BuzzFeed's Adrian Carrasquillo:
Why it matters: There's been an ongoing campaign from people outside the Trump administration — including people who regularly have the president's ear — to get rid of Priebus.

Breitbart saying WH and GOP lawmakers talking about replacing Paul Ryan
The failed healthcare bill could be Speaker Paul Ryan's death knell, Breitbart reports:
Republican officials in Congress and the White House are now openly discussing finding a GOP replacement to Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as Speaker of the House, after Ryan failed to pass the American Health Care Act…
Some of the complaints against him are that he misled the public and Donald Trump when he promised the bill would pass; and that he is a weak Speaker.
Some alternative names floated: Mark Meadows, Jim Jordan, Kevin McCarthy, Darrell Issa, Marsha Blackburn

Trump is still keeping tabs on the Trump business
President Trump's son Eric Trump said that he will continue to send financial reports regarding the Trump Organization to his father, per Forbes, despite the president's insistence that he would not be involved in the business during his presidency to avoid conflicts of interest. The reports will probably be quarterly.
Bottom line, profitability reports and stuff like that, but you know, that's about it.— Eric Trump
Forbes noted that the apparent contradiction is troubling to ethics experts, including George W. Bush's former chief ethics lawyer, Richard Painter: "It just means that a lot of what they say is malarkey because the president isn't distancing himself from the business," he said.

White House: Trump "drew a line" on health care
Spicer said the AHCA vote is scheduled for 3:30p.m. He repeatedly stated that he believes the White House has done everything it can, and that the fate of the bill is now up to members of the House: "They'll be the ones who have to go back and explain to their constituents" why they didn't follow through on their pledge, said Spicer.

Trump orders tougher visa screenings
President Trump is ordering tougher screenings for vsa applicants as part of his "extreme vetting" policy. Last week Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent four cables to U.S. embassies and consular officials demanding scrutiny be tightened up, as originally reported by Reuters.
The new rules don't apply to 38 countries who can be admitted using the visa waiver program, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, and most of Europe.
Profiling and delays: This will include "mandatory social media check" if an applicant has been in a territory controlled by ISIS. Such checks are rarely done at present, former officials told Reuters. Consular officials and immigration experts told the NYT this will make it much more common to be denied a Visa to the U.S. and they fear this might lead to profiling based on nationality. It will likely also extend Visa review times.
Context:
The cables were issued to complement the travel ban that was upended by a court in Hawaii, but some provisions were remedied to abide by the temporary restraining order. Namely, questions specifically aimed at applicants from the six countries listed in the ban were rescinded.




