A spokesman for U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May condemned President Trump's decision Wednesday to retweet anti-Muslim hate videos from British far-right leader Jayda Fransen, stating that U.K. citizens "overwhelmingly reject" the prejudiced rhetoric of the far-right.
It is wrong for the president to have done this.— Office of the U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May
Republicans are starting to argue against the fiscal trigger being added to the Senate GOP tax plan to appease concerns from members — including Sens. Bob Corker, James Lankford and Todd Young — who don't want to blow up the deficit as a result of overhauling America's tax code.
Why it matters: An effort to win over some holdouts on the tax plan is alienating other lawmakers on both the House and Senate side, potentially jeopardizing plans for a vote tomorrow in the upper chamber. The GOP can only afford to lose two votes, but it's still unclear whether concerned members would actually vote against a bill that includes the trigger.
Amid swirling allegations of sexual misconduct against Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the Congressional Black Caucus' members and staffers are scrambling over how to have him exit without disregarding his legacy, BuzzFeed News reports. Conyers, 88, has denied all the allegations.
Why it matters: Conyers is a veteran, a leading figure in the civil rights movement and the House's longest-serving member. He is well regarded in the black community and a founding member of the CBC, which advocates for black causes.
Former energy executive Don Blankenship, who recently spent a year in California prison for "conspiring to willfully violate mine safety standards," will run for West Virginia's U.S. Senate seat as a Republican, per the local ABC affiliate in Charleston, West Virginia.
The intrigue: Blankenship was released from prison just six months ago, and according to USA Today investigative reporter Brad Heath, isn't allowed to leave Nevada without permission from a judge or probate officer until May because he's on federal supervision.
House Speaker Paul Ryan addressed the series of sexual harassment allegations that have been plaguing Congress, and announced that the House will hold a hearing on the (taxpayer-funded) harassment settlements next week. Congress is introducing legislation this week to mandate sexual harassment training.
Key quote: "Sexual harassment has no place in any workforce, let alone in Congress," said Ryan. "We cannot and we will not tolerate that kind of behavior."
U.S. GDP expanded at a 3.3% annual rate in its third quarter — the fastest rate since 2014, outpacing the expected 3.2% rate.
Why it matters: This growth was mostly due to more business investment in inventories, not consumer spending. Some economists give partial credit to President Trump's tax reform plan, according to CNBC, which calls for a lower corporate rate of 20%.
Alex Azar heads to the Senate HELP Committee today for the first hearing on his way to confirmation as the next secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. HELP won't formally report his nomination to the full Senate, but he's sure to face aggressive questioning today from Democrats.
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.
