Trump's Supreme Court nominee, Neil Gorsuch, just got the last "no" it needed so the Democrats can meet the vote threshold to filibuster his nomination. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) wrote a Medium post about her decision today:
I remain very worried about our polarized politics and what the future will bring, since I'm certain we will have a Senate rule change that will usher in more extreme judges in the future.
Why it matters: Republicans will now have to get rid of the 60-vote filibuster threshold for judges, or allow Gorsuch's nomination to fail.
Magazine illustrators have had a heyday with President Trump. When it comes to fashioning iconic magazine covers, there are 5 great techniques: The golf treatment, destruction of American iconography, the Donald Washington, put'm with Putin and the supernatural face manipulation.
Sean Spicer just finished today's White House press briefing, raising eyebrows on topics from those wiretapping claims, Mike Flynn seeking immunity, sanctuary cities, questions on Russia, tax returns, and the failure of Trumpcare. Highlights below:
Hillary Clinton took aim at the Trump administration Friday while giving a speech on the importance of women in politics at Georgetown University. The crowd ate it up, standing and chanting "HILLARY!" "HILLARY!" when she stepped onto the stage. "Wow, Let's do that again!" she joked:
Trump's budget proposal: "We are seeing signals of a shift that should alarm us all. This administration's proposed cuts to international health, development and diplomacy would be a blow to women and children and a grave mistake for our country... turning our backs on diplomacy won't make our country safer."
Trump's relationship with truth: "Studies show — here I go again talking about research, evidence and facts," she laughed, and the crowd roared with cheers in response. "When women are included in peace negotiations, agreements are less likely to fail and more likely to last."
Rep. Jason Chaffetz to Fox News earlier today on Michael Flynn seeking immunity:
I don't think Congress should give him immunity. If there's an open investigation by the FBI, that should not happen… I mean, immunity from what? We don't know what that is.
Chaffetz added, "No, I don't think it's a witch hunt." He added that Trump shouldn't have commented on whether Mike Flynn was right to request immunity, since it wouldn't be his place to prosecute Flynn.
Context: Mike Flynn's lawyer reached out to lawmakers yesterday to say Flynn would interview for their probe — but only if granted immunity — and added that anyone would do the same since the whole thing was a "witch hunt."
House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi appeared on NBC News' TODAY this morning where she talked Nunes and Russia. She stated that the Trump administration "certainly was" aware of Nunes' White House sourcing, branding it "very bizarre." And she had some harsh questions for President Trump himself:
"I just wonder what the Russians have politically, personally or financially on President Trump because this is about a national security issue. Why would the President of the United States just come in and start to flirt with the idea of lifting sanctions on Russia — why would the President of the United States put Putin on a pedestal and diminish the greatness of America? There's something wrong with this picture."
President Trump brought his chaos-and-loyalty theory of management into the White House, relying on competing factions, balanced by trusted family members, with himself perched atop as the gut-instinct decider. He now realizes this approach has flopped, and feels baffled and paralyzed by how to fix it, numerous friends and advisers tell us.
"Trump is thinking through his frustrations," said one Washington wise man close to the West Wing. "The team didn't put the windows in right."
On Thursday evening, the President's top trade officials previewed two executive actions that are coming Friday and intended to signal to foreign countries that Trump intends to follow through on his nationalist campaign rhetoric:
Investigation into causes of America's trade deficits: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross and the US Trade Representative are initiating a comprehensive study of the ways foreign countries are fleecing America on trade. They'll report back to the President in 90 days with findings on everything from unbalanced free trade deals to lax enforcement to unfair WTO constraints. Ross said no country in particular is being targeted — and he emphasized not all trade deficits are evidence of evil-doing — but he listed China, Japan and Germany as countries with the biggest trade advantages over the US.
Anti-dumping order: Peter Navarro, the director of Trump's National Trade Council, said too many countries are getting away with dumping artificially cheap goods into U.S. markets. The executive order directs the Homeland Security Secretary, in consultation with the Treasury Secretary, the Commerce Secretary, and the Trade Rep to write a plan to ensure these countries play by the rules.
Why this matters: These orders are directions to write a study and a plan, so critics could safely describe them as toothless. But our sources have been telling us for weeks that Trump is ready to exorcise his trade demons, so expect these plans to give birth to hardline policies. Ross said the administration wouldn't necessarily wait for these reports to come out before taking action against trade abusers, and there'll very likely be some "interim" activity during the 90 days.
The giant panda in the room: Navarro said tonight's announcement isn't about China ― but it kinda is. The example of unfair trade practice that Ross highlighted was the dumping of artificially cheap, state-subsidized steel into the American market. And which country might be doing that? Hmmm... Trump could have a rather contentious meeting next week at Mar-a-Lago with President Xi.
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley said the U.S. is no longer focused on getting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad out of power, per Reuters.
Our priority is no longer to sit there and focus on getting Assad out.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signaled the same while on a visit to Turkey, according to CBS: "I think the status in the longer term…of President Assad will be decided by the Syrian people."
Why it matters: This is a departure from a long-held U.S. policy, and constitutes a break from some coalition allies. Trump has said fighting ISIS will be a higher priority than ousting Assad and that he's willing to work with Russia, which supports Assad.
