Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross has announced that the Commerce Department today "self-initiated" antidumping and countervailing duty investigations of aluminum imports from China, which Ross claims have been dumped and subsidized to the detriment of U.S. manufacturers, CNBC reported.
Why it matters: China and some US free traders will scream "trade war," but self-initiated AD/CVD cases, while rare, are still permitted (and governed) by World Trade Organization rules, and Ross promised them back in his confirmation hearings. So this move is far less controversial than the investigations into steel and aluminum imports earlier this year which were initiated on national security grounds. The Trump administration will nevertheless hold these investigations up as a fulfillment of Trump's "America First" promises to crack down on unfair trade, and China's complaints will probably help their public case.
Senate GOP leadership — along with President Trump — is scrambling to get the support of holdout senators for the tax bill when it reaches the Senate floor. Talks seemed to be going well on Tuesday, although no concrete commitments seem to have been made, and many members aren't showing their cards yet.
Be smart: Holdout members are being given hope for candy without vegetables. Everything they want — and seem to be potentially getting — costs money that Republicans really don't have to spend. Paying for it could end up being painful.
Mitch McConnell told reporters that Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer's decision not to attend today's bipartisan meeting with President Trump "shows a lack of seriousness."
Key quote: "I never refused to go to a meeting that President Obama called ... it never occurred to me to just not show up," he said.
The investigation into how Russian ads and content spread on Google, Twitter and Facebook was just the beginning of Congress digging into how tech does business.
What's happening now: Lawmakers want to know everything from how algorithms filter and distribute information behind the scenes to how platforms handle consumer data to the ways extremist content spreads over social media.
Republican senators James Lankford (Okla.), Bob Corker (Tenn.) and Jeff Flake (Ariz.) want a tweak to the tax bill which would allow changes to be made if in 5 years the plan doesn't produce the economic growth Republicans are banking on, Lankford told Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday. He said that if their proposal is added, the three would most likely vote yes on the bill, although he didn't want to speak for Flake and Corker.
Why it matters: Flake and Corker have become wild cards since announcing they won't run for re-election, and both have expressed reservations about the GOP tax bill. But the "changes" in 5 years would most likely include tax hikes, which could be unpopular with the public and President Trump who has always touted across-the-board tax cuts.
Deanna Maher, a former deputy chief of staff for Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), has accused the congressman of making unwanted sexual advances toward her, including inappropriate touching, per The Detroit News.
Her allegations are the latest in a string of accusations made by multiple women this month — including another former staffer — and have prompted the now 88-year-old Conyers to step aside from his role as the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee while a congressional ethics committee investigates his conduct.
Members of Congress are granted policies, benefits and perks that grant them privileges denied in most other workplaces. In yesterday's lead item in Axios AM, Mike Allen touched on John Boehner's in-office smoking as an example — allowed, according to the N.Y. Times, thanks to Congress' supremacy over District of Columbia law.
Why it matters: With prior sexual misconduct on the Hill slowly coming to light, legislators are likely to face a reckoning from their constituents on the "old way" of doing things that allowed cultural rot and excess to be swept under the rug for so many years.
White House budget director Mick Mulvaney, who Trump recently named as acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, said Monday that he's implementing a 30-day freeze on hiring and rule-making following his arrival at the watchdog agency.
Mulvaney also continued his feud with Leandra English, former director Richard Cordray's pick to run the bureau, who met with Democratic senators on the Hill today. "[I] haven't met her. In the ordinary world, if you don't call, you don't show, you don't have a job the next day," he said. "But I'm not sure how it works here." Earlier today, he told staff to "disregard any instructions from Ms. English." She has filed a lawsuit claiming the post is legally hers.
President Trump brought back his derogatory nickname for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) today, this time during a ceremony honoring Native American war heroes: "You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas," he said.
Why it matters: Trump cooked up several demeaning nicknames for his opponents and critics during the campaign, from "Lyin' Ted" Cruz and "Lil' Marco" Rubio to "Crooked Hillary" Clinton. But as Warren pointed out, using "Pocahontas" in such a context is considered by some Native Americans to be an ethnic slur.
Shortly after World War II, Donald Trump's father Fred falsely claimed their family was Swedish, hiding their German heritage to avoid any problems selling apartments to Jewish customers, the Boston Globe reported last year. Donald Trump was still claiming Swedish heritage as late as his 1987 book "Art of the Deal," in which he writes that his grandfather came to the U.S. from Sweden.
Why it matters: After President Trump called Sen. Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas" at an event honoring Navajo Code Talkers, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders defended him saying, ""I think what most people find offensive is Elizabeth Warren lying about her heritage to advance her career."
Correction: This story initially misidentified Fred as Trump's brother, rather than his father.
Press Secretary Sarah Sanders addressed the controversy that ensued after President Trump called Elizabeth Warren"Pocahontas" during an event to honor Native American war heroes, saying, "I think what most people find offensive is Elizabeth Warren lying about her heritage to advance her career." She called Warren's description of those comments as a racial slur a "ridiculous response."
It is not "appropriate" for the president to use a racial slur. "That was certainly not [his] intent," she added.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren responded to President Trump's reference to her as "Pocahontas" during an event to honor Navajo code talkers at the White House, saying it was "deeply unfortunate that the President of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur."
At an event honoring Navajo Code Talkers — Native Americans who served in World War II — President Trump said, "You were here long before any of us were here. Although we have a representative in Congress who they say was here a long time ago. They call her Pocahontas," referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren.
Warren responded, saying it was "deeply unfortunate that the President of the United States cannot even make it through a ceremony honoring these heroes without having to throw out a racial slur."
Roy Moore's campaign released a new TV ad today touting his "40 years of honorable service" with "not a hint of scandal" before suggesting that the allegations of sexual misconduct against him are the work of the "liberal elite" and "Republican establishment." Check it out:
Worth noting: Moore has twice left his position as the Chief Justice of Alabama's Supreme Court — once by removal and once by resignation following a suspension — for his refusal to adhere to federal law.
The Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the Senate GOP tax plan shows it would hurt Americans earning less than $30,000, The Washington Post reports, and it would hurt them more than originally thought. Republicans like Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch say the bill helps everyone, regardless of income.
The cause: Those earners would be getting less government aid for health care since the bill would get rid of the individual mandate from the Affordable Care Act, per the CBO.
Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley recently announced an investigation into Google's practices around customer data and competition, a major step for a state law enforcement agency interested in Google's vast trove of personal user information.
Up-and-comer: Hawley, who is running to challenge Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill in 2018, said his probe was sparked in part by the Equifax data breach, which underscored the amount of personal information consumers have to give up if they want to use platforms like Facebook and Google. He added that his thinking on the issue hasn't been influenced by Peter Thiel, a Facebook board member and advisor to President Trump, who donated $300,000 to Hawley's 2016 AG race.
Deputy Consumer Financial Protection Bureau director Leandra English has sued the Trump administration over the appointment of Mick Mulvaney to take charge of the bureau. While serving in Congress, Mulvaney voted to get rid of the bureau, which was created in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis to protect consumers against missteps on Wall Street.
The controversy: The Dodd-Frank Act says the deputy director serves as acting director when the director role is open. According to English's lawyer, Deepak Gupta, the Senate must confirm a new director first. The CFPB's top lawyer wrote in a memo that she thinks Mulvaney is now the acting director.
Esquire posts a big interview of Sen. John McCain by David Usborne: "[A]fter the senator was diagnosed with brain cancer in July, his contrarian resolve revealed itself in unexpected ways that may shape his legacy — and our future."
McCain says he resisted the temptation to immediately set the record straight with his own lengthy account, as Hillary Clinton did recently in What Happened. "You've got to understand that you can't rewrite history," he told me. "One of the almost irresistible impulses you have when you lose is to somehow justify why you lost and how you were mistreated: 'I did the right thing! I did!' The hardest thing to do is to just shut up."
President Trump may see an impersonator on "Fox & Friends." A progressive coalition, Not One Penny, tomorrow will begin a "six-figure" TV buy (mostly on Fox News, and including "Fox & Friends") for this 30-second ad hitting the Republican tax plans.
