Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are being restricted by the White House and the Pentagon from visiting Puerto Rico or the U.S. Virgin Islands, which have been devastated by Hurricane Maria, on military aircraft, the Washington Post reported.
This is to keep full focus and resources on recovery efforts there. At least 10 Senators and House members were planning to travel there this weekend, and two have already made visits. President Trump plans to visit Puerto Rico himself on Tuesday, and says he's waiting until then to keep the focus on recovery efforts.
President Trump told reporters on the White House South Lawn Wednesday that he's "not happy" with Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price after learning that he's racked up more than $400,000 by using a taxpayer-funded private jet for his travels.
When asked whether he'd fire Price: Trump said "we'll see," adding that he's looking at the issue "very closely."
Senate Democratic leaders condemned Wednesday the Senate's impending vote on forced arbitration (when corporations require consumers to waive their right to sue), pointing to the fallout from recent scandals surrounding Equifax's security breach and Wells Fargo's fake-account scam as evidence of how the clause hurts people.
What they're protesting: Republican leaders have been working to secure votes to overturn a July Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) rule that protects consumers from being denied their day in court, which Schumer described as "making no sense."
This morning on Twitter, President Trump accused Facebook of "always" being "anti-Trump," adding, "The Networks were always anti-Trump hence,Fake News, @nytimes(apologized) & @wapo were anti-Trump. Collusion?"
Why it matters: While Trump often attacks media companies for spreading "fake news," he has only once specifically called out the social media platform in his tweets. Last October, he accused "Twitter, Google and Facebook" of "burying" the FBI investigation into Hillary Clinton.
Defense Secretary James Mattis is the most popular Trump cabinet member with a 20% net favorability rating, according to the latest Morning Consult/Politico survey, with Education Secretary Betsy Devos receiving the highest unfavorable rating.
Why it matters: Not a single cabinet member received more than 50% favorability, with Ben Carson receiving the highest favorability score of 42%, however he had more haters than both John Kelly and James Mattis, which put him in third place for net favorability.
The big takeaway: DACA seems to be one of the rare issues that manages to transcend party lines in today's polarized political system with support from three-quarters of Republicans and 97% of Democrats. Conversely, with a general question about Trump's handling of immigration, the poll's numbers take on a more-expected partisan split — with support from 75% of Republicans and just 10% of Democrats.
The Department of Homeland Security told the state of Wisconsin that Russian actors did not target Wisconsin's election systems in 2016, as DHS had originally announced Friday, according to a Wisconsin State Journal report. At the time, DHS had said the actors had not had any impact on the outcome of the election. Big picture, this brings the reportedly targeted states down from 21 to 20.
The mistake: A targeted IP address was linked to Wisconsin's Department of Workforce Development, not the state's voter registration systems, the latter of which was originally reported, according to Juan Figueroa, with Homeland Security's Office of Infrastructure Protection. It was not immediately clear why the mistake was made, raising questions of whether the mistake was made in assessments of other states as well.
Trump was updated on the latest recovery and relief efforts in Puerto Rico Tuesday in the Situation Room at the White House. Trump announced Tuesday he will visit Puerto Rico next week. There is still no power in Puerto Rico, limited food supplies, and what looks like a lot of devastation to come, per CNN.
Who joined him in the room: Vice President Mike Pence, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Elaine Duke, FEMA Administrator Brock Long, Secretary of Health and Human Resources Tom Price, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt, and senior White House advisers.
The Drug Enforcement Agency's acting head, Chuck Rosenberg, told staffers Tuesday he would be stepping down October 1, The Washington Post reports.
After Trump suggested police treat suspects harshly while seating them in police cars, Rosenberg emailed DEA personnel rejecting Trump's stance, noting "We have an obligation to speak out when something is wrong."
He's an Obama holdover and reportedly a "close ally" of James Comey, Trump's fired FBI Director.
The IRS is now reportedly cooperating with the Mueller investigation after the two clashed earlier this year regarding the scope of Mueller's requests, which the IRS believed were too broad, according to CNN. The report specifically singles out Paul Manafort and Michael Flynn as Trump associates whose information is now being shared.
Context: The IRS had been working with the FBI on a separate Manafort probe that began before the election. The early-morning raid on Manafort's home back in July did not include IRS agents because the agency worried about compromising its own investigation.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is going to China Sept. 28-30 in advance of Trump's visit in November, State Department Press Secretary Heather Nauert told reporters today. Tillerson will discuss denuclearization of the Korean peninsula as well as trade.
Sean Spicer has hired criminal defense attorney Chris Mead to represent him in Robert Mueller's Russia probe, the Daily Beast reports. Mead specializes in white collar criminal defense, Congressional investigations and cases regarding the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which prevents bribing foreign government officials.
Senate GOP leaders announced Tuesday that they will not hold a vote on the Graham-Cassidy health bill before the Saturday deadline, with Sen. Bill Cassidy conceding, "we don't have the votes." Mitch McConnell said the Senate will now focus its energy on "our next priority," tax reform, and added that they will return to health care once that's dealt with.
President Trump said he was not preoccupied with the NFL's national anthem protests over the weekend while Puerto Rico is still reeling from Hurricane Maria, calling his anthem tweets "an important function of working." He was asked about his focus on both issues during a joint press conference with Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy today.
The full quote: "I wasn't preoccupied with the NFL, I was ashamed with what was taking place, I think it was a very important moment…I have plenty of time on my hands, all I do is work. To be honest with you, that's an important function of working. It's called respect for our country…We are totally focused on [Puerto Rico] but at the same time it doesn't take me a long time to put out a 'wrong.'"
The U.S. issued sanctions against 8 North Korean banks Tuesday, ramping up the pressure on Kim Jong-un's regime to roll back its nuclear program, per CNN. The Trump administration also slapped sanctions on more than two dozen people linked to North Korea's financial network, operating in China, Russia, Libya, and the UAE.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said, "This further advances our strategy to fully isolate North Korea in order to achieve our broader objectives of a peaceful and denuclearized Korean peninsula."
Hillary Clinton spoke with SiriusXM's Zerlina Maxwell about the news that several Trump campaign officials, including Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, had used personal emails for official business. "It's just the height of hypocrisy," she said, calling her own personal email scandal "a dumb mistake but a dumber scandal."
On Republicans' attacks on her use of a private email: "They didn't mean any of it. If they were sincere about it, I think you'd have Republican members of Congress calling for an investigation. I haven't heard that yet."
Why it matters: Trump often led his rally crowds in chants of "lock her up" during the campaign, pointing to her misuse of a private email server while Secretary of State. Hillary has blamed the investigation and former FBI Director James Comey's handling of it for her election loss.
The U.S. military's highest ranking General, Joseph Dunford, said Tuesday that despite North Korea's recent threats that they will attack the U.S. with nuclear weapons, there has been no evidence of Pyongyang taking any military action to do so, per the Washington Post. Dunford said that North Korea poses the most immediate threat, while Russia is the most sophisticated and long-term problem.
Why this matters: Dunford's statement follows a week of heightened tensions between the U.S. and North Korea, culminating in North Korea's foreign minister Ri Yong-ho claiming Trump had declared war on his country.
President Trump and Spanish President Mariano Rajoy shook hands ahead of their bilateral Oval Office meeting today. Trump praised Rajoy and his leadership, and Rajoy said he plans to discuss trade, economic growth, the NATO alliance and the fight against terrorism with Trump, per White House pool reports.
Trump did not respond to reporters' shouted questions about Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones and the NFL protests, but said the two leaders will take questions at their joint press conference later this afternoon.
Editor's Note: This post was corrected to note that Rajoy is the prime minister, not the president, of Spain.
The Internet Association announced Tuesday that its member companies, including Google, Facebook and Amazon, will contribute a combined total of more than $300 million to support the Trump administration's new initiative, announced yesterday, aimed at expanding access to STEM and computer science education. Lockheed Martin and Salesforce, which are also contributing, have sent their top executives to Detroit to make the formal announcement with Ivanka Trump today.
Why it matters: Despite the tense relationship between the tech industry and the Trump administration, major tech firms are financially supporting this effort because it's of vital business importance to them.
Football season is now at the center of a heated political debate over whether or not players should be allowed to sit or kneel during the national anthem. Some agree with President Trump and find the move offensive, claiming it is disrespectful to those who serve in the U.S. military; others argue that the protest is a form of patriotism, and the U.S. guarantees the right of players to protest however they choose.
Why it matters: While patriotism should not be conflated only with the military, the history of playing the national anthem before sports games does have strong ties with honoring the armed forces.
President Trump was in an unapologetic mood last night, dining on beef Wellington with conservative grassroots leaders in the Blue Room, joined by EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and White House aides Marc Short, Kellyanne Conway and Nick Ayers.
A source in the room told all-terrain Jonathan Swan: "He was very juiced up about tax cuts... very bullish on passing tax reform, and he was specifically calling it a tax cut."
WashPost Style front by the great Ben Terris: "These are boom times for the anti-Trump industrial complex... Fundraising is through the roof for lefty organizations that hadn't been relevant since the Clinton era; the grass roots have never been greener for new activist groups; and political hacks may be sexier than ever."
The evidence: "A clique of former Obama speechwriters with a sideline in #Resistance podcasting [Pod Save America] is selling out 6,000-person concert halls; Rob Reiner, the director of 'Spinal Tap,' has teamed up with James R. Clapper Jr., the former director of national intelligence, to found the Committee to Investigate Russia; and liberal activists recently surpassed the Guinness world record for the most people on, yes, a conference call."
"Trump's instinct to provoke may now be tripping him up," by WashPost's Michael Scherer: "While it's not clear what the ultimate effect of sticking to old habits will be for his presidency, his rejection of the unifying traditions of the White House has already had a clearly negative effect on his political support."
The evidence: "A recent Washington Post-ABC News poll found that 66 percent of Americans say Trump has done more to divide the country than unite it, up from 49 percent in the same poll shortly after the election in November."
Several current and former senior Trump administration officials occasionally used private email to conduct government business, the NY Times reports. The officials named: Steve Bannon, Reince Priebus, Ivanka Trump, Gary Cohn, Stephen Miller and Jared Kushner (Politico had previously reported Kushner sent or received about 100 emails about White House matters using his private address).
Why it matters: Trump railed against Hillary Clinton incessantly during the campaign for her use of private email as Secretary of State. Government officials are supposed to use their government accounts so their communications will be stored, and failing to do so can cause security risks.
