The Commentariat -- September 7, 2017
Thomas Kaplan of the New York Times: "President Trump and congressional leaders agreed on Wednesday to increase the debt limit and fund the government until mid-December, after the president sided with Democratic leaders over reluctant Republicans on a deal that would set up a fiscal showdown for year's end. Democrats announced the agreement moments after the House passed a first installment of relief after Hurricane Harvey. Mr. Trump confirmed it aboard Air Force One on the way to a tax event in North Dakota. 'We essentially came to a deal, and I think the deal will be very good,' he told reporters. 'We had a very, very cordial and professional meeting.' The agreement came after the House overwhelmingly approved nearly $8 billion in disaster aid in response to Harvey.... The aid measure passed 419 to 3. The 'no' votes were Republican." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mike DeBonis, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump confounded leaders from his own party on Wednesday by siding with Democrats on plans to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling, upending negotiations on a variety of crucial policy areas this fall and further damaging relationships with Republicans on Capitol Hill. Trump made his position clear at a White House meeting with congressional leaders, agreeing with Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) by voicing support for a three-month bill to fund the government and raise the debt ceiling for the same amount of time.... Democrats believe kicking the debt limit debate into December would increase their leverage on Republicans to secure stabilization funds for health-care markets and resolve the legal status of undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.... Trump has threatened he would shut down the government if Congress doesn't agree to fund the wall construction, and he would be in a better position to leverage that threat in December than in September, when Congress had numerous bills lawmakers felt needed to be passed.... The president's decision came barely an hour after House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) panned the idea of a brief debt hike, accusing Democrats of 'playing politics' with much needed aid for Hurricane Harvey victims by trying to create pressure for their agenda." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's a funny bit from the WashPo report: "... Trump overruled his own treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, who was in the middle of an explanation backing a longer-term increase when the president interrupted him and disagreed, according to a person briefed on the meeting.... Trump was 'in deal-cutting mode,' the person said." ...
... "Chuck & Nancy" Roll Donald. Ryan Lizza of the New Yorker: "... when conservative Republicans came out vocally against [Mitch] McConnell and [Paul] Ryan's plan [to roll the debt ceiling hike into a Hurricane Harvey relief bill], [Chuck] Schumer and Nancy Pelosi ... saw an opening. They called for the three-month debt-ceiling deal, which would kick the issue into mid-December, allowing them to maintain their leverage as Congress worked out agreements on other agenda items. At his morning press conference, Ryan had been withering about this idea.... An hour later, in the Oval Office, Ryan, McConnell, Schumer, and Pelosi sat down with Trump and Steve Mnuchin, the Treasury Secretary, to negotiate. The Republican leaders -- at first -- stuck to their demand for an eighteen-month debt-ceiling increase. But the Democrats held fast as the Republicans dropped their request to twelve months and then to six months. Mnuchin argued that the financial markets needed a long-term deal. Trump cut him off and abruptly sided with Schumer and Pelosi on their three-month request.... When I called around to Democratic offices on Wednesday afternoon, several aides were careful not to gloat about what they had accomplished, lest Trump realize how much he had given away to 'Chuck and Nancy,' as Trump called the Democratic leaders several times in his gaggle with reporters." ...
... Charles Pierce: "There was a reason why conservative media outlets were stoking the rebellion against [Nancy Pelosi] in the wake of last November's election. Put simply, she's still light-years ahead of anyone the Republicans have in the Congress and, as is now plain, she can play the president* like a tin fiddle as well. (Yes, Chuck Schumer gets equal props here, too.) She rolled into his home field and helped kick some serious ass around the block." ...
... Burgess Everett, et al., of Politico: "... Republicans seethed privately and distanced themselves publicly from [Trump's debt limit/funding] deal.... Republican lawmakers on both sides of the Capitol complained Wednesday that Trump probably just undercut [Congressional] leadership in ... future negotiations [with Democrats], making it even harder for them to secure legislative wins.... Just the night before [Trump sided with Democrats], Ryan and his leadership team were told by White House officials that Trump would publicly endorse their plan to pair Harvey emergency funding bill with an 18-month debt ceiling hike. They were optimistic his support would help secure more Republican votes. Only, Trump went rogue. White House officials apologized to congressional leaders after the meeting, according to a GOP source on Capitol Hill. But the damage was done." ...
... Jeremy Peters & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "It is the scenario that President Trump’s most conservative followers considered their worst nightmare, and on Wednesday it seemed to come true: The dealmaking political novice, whose ideology and loyalty were always fungible, cut a deal with Democrats. If Mr. Trump's agreement with the two Democratic leaders, Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi, to increase the debt limit and finance the government for three months did not yet represent the breaking point between the president and his core, hard-right base of support, it certainly put him closer than he has ever been to tipping his fragile political coalition into open revolt.... On Wednesday, prominent conservatives scoffed at the deal that Mr. Trump signed onto -- announced first, no less, by congressional Democrats -- as something straight from the swamp.... Stephen K. Bannon ... has been using a simple Twitter hashtag to sum up to allies and friends his frame of mind about the recent turn of events: #War." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: Cheer up, Republicans. Your president* probably had no idea what he was doing. He likely agreed to the Democrats' plan only because Trump was tired of hearing about debt & spending & all & Schumer was the last one to speak. Update: Looks as if Mnuchin was the last to speak, & Trump cut him off. Nice way to treat the help. Plus it couldn't happen to a nicer guy. I hope Steve-o's lovely new bride donned her bling & little else to make him feel all better. ...
... David Graham of the Atlantic: "Trump ... displayed little hesitation in bucking his own party's leaders in Congress. This is, in a way, a another example of Trump's shallow, weak fidelity to the institution and platform of the GOP, but it has deeper roots in the president's temperament.... The president's bias is often toward action, not about the details of the deal that emerges.... [He has] an indifference to the substance of any deal, so long as it's struck. Over the last few months, Congress has gotten next to nothing done. That's both a product of Trump's inattention and mercurial moods, but also a source of them: He has repeatedly lashed out at GOP members of Congress, and in particular Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, for their failure to, among other things, repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The president has been notably unhelpful in the process: Not only has he been unable to use his persuasive powers to great effect on members, he keeps changing what he wants out of a bill.... 'Chuck and Nancy would like to see something happen, and so do I,' he said on Air Force One Wednesday afternoon, chummily first-naming his new pals. He didn't bother to mention Ryan and McConnell."
... Dana Milbank: "Such chaos and confusion at the highest level of American government hadn't been seen since, well, the day before. On Tuesday, even as the administration announced that it was ending protection from deportation for the 800,000 'dreamers' -- mostly young people who know no country but America -- there were signs that Trump had no idea what he was doing.... The unreliability of Trump has put an unusual burden on Congress, which is ill equipped to bear it.... [Paul] Ryan put the responsibility right back on Trump for the DACA ... legislation. 'We will not be advancing legislation that does not have the support of President Trump, because we're going to work with the president on how to do this legislation,; he said.... But what does Trump support?... Nobody knows -- not his advisers, not his fellow Republicans in Congress, and probably not Trump himself." ...
... Crazy, Mixed-up POTUS* Suggests a Do-Over. Peter Baker of the New York Times: On Tuesday, Trump scrapped DACA "on the grounds that a president does not have the power to take such action by himself. He then put the onus on Congress by giving it a six-month deadline to 'fix' the program before it would expire. Then, barely eight hours after his decision was announced, the president went on Twitter with a message that completely undercut both positions in just under 140 characters. 'Congress now has 6 months to legalize DACA (something the Obama Administration was unable to do),' he wrote, using the initials for the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. 'If they can't, I will revisit this issue!'... But by his own argument earlier in the day, he does not have the power to do that.... Republican congressional aides said that it was not helpful because it undercut the incentive for Congress to act while also putting Mr. Trump at odds with many lawmakers from his own party, including House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, who have said the president does not have authority to revisit it." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: A good deal of criticism of Trump's cruel DACA decision centered on his lack of leadership, cowardice & nonexistent "good heart." This is Authoritarian Trump scrapping his fake "Constitutional principles" to assert that "if the president does it, that means it is not illegal." So "I'm the president & you're not. Screw you, Congress; to hell with you, Jeff Sessions." ...
... Aaron Blake of the Washington Post provides "a recap of all the conflicting signals on DACA from the administration on and Trump himself through the years." Mrs. McC: There's nothing wrong with changing your mind about an issue: maybe circumstances change, maybe you get new information, maybe you just conclude your first take was wrong. But Trump changes his mind almost hourly, and that's no way to treat the country. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Charles Blow of the New York Times has the guts to call a racist a racist: "Sometimes you simply have to call a thing a thing, and the thing here is that Trump's inner racist is being revealed, and America's not-so-silent racists are rising in applause." Mrs. McC: The worst things of course are not that Trump himself is a racist but that he is (1) effecting racist policies; (2) supplying fake non-racist rationales -- Constitutional principles! Crime! Beautiful statues! -- for those racist policies; & (3) conferring upon the racists among us a sort of top-down "respectability."
... Former AG Eric Holder, in a Washington Post op-ed, tries to explain DACA to current AG Jeff Sessions. Mrs. McC: Of course Sessions already knows all those things, but the Racist Elf would rather lie about DACA than allow a single immigrant into the country to darken our sickly pallor. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mike DeBonis: "House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Wednesday that the 800,000 young immigrants who have been protected from deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program can 'rest easy' knowing that Congress will take action to allow them to stay in the United States." Mrs. McC: Yeah, DREAMers have heard that before, Pauly. And look where they are now. I hope you're right, but DREAMers are pretty smart, & anybody who believes you or relies on Congress to get things done is a fool. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Senate Democratic Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said on Wednesday that if Republicans do not bring to the floor a bill to protect an estimated 800,000 immigrants brought to the country illegally as children from deportation, Democrats will try to attach it to any must-pass legislation that moves this fall.... Democrats will have multiple opportunities to tack the bill onto must-pass legislation." ...
... ** Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "A group of attorneys general from 15 states and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop the administration from winding down the DACA program, which granted a reprieve from deportation to undocumented immigrants who came to the United States as children. The suit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of New York, alleges that rescinding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program was a 'culmination' of President Trump's 'oft-stated commitments -- whether personally held, stated to appease some portion of his constituency, or some combination thereof -- to punish and disparage people with Mexican roots.' The suit says that unwinding the program would damage states because DACA beneficiaries pay taxes, go to state universities and contribute in other ways, and that phasing out the program would jeopardize their ability to do those things.... The states listed as plaintiffs in the lawsuit are New York, Massachusetts, Washington, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Virginia, along with the District of Columbia.
Charles Bagli of the New York Times: "The longtime owners of Starrett City, the sprawling Brooklyn housing complex overlooking Jamaica Bay, are selling the development for more than $850 million, and among those who stand to benefit is President Trump, a partial owner. Starrett City is the largest federally subsidized housing development in the country, and the sale will require the approval of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and state housing officials, raising potential conflicts of interest for Mr. Trump and his family. Mr. Trump owns a 4 percent stake in the complex, according to his federal financial disclosure forms; other members of the Trump family also own stakes in the partnership.... Mr. Trump's share of the proceeds ... could be about $14 million.... Representatives Hakeem Jeffries, whose district includes Starrett City, and Elijah E. Cummings, a member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, highlighted the potential conflict of interest in July when rumors circulated in New York that Starrett City would be refinanced. 'The president is on both sides of the negotiation -- he oversees the government entity providing taxpayer funds and he pockets some of that money himself,' they wrote in a July 7 letter to the Donald J. Trump Trust, which holds the president's business interests, and Ben Carson, secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development."
Vindu Goel & Scott Shane of the New York Times: "Providing new evidence of Russian interference in the 2016 election, Facebook disclosed on Wednesday that it had identified more than $100,000 worth of divisive ads on hot-button issues purchased by a shadowy Russian company linked to the Kremlin. Most of the 3,000 ads did not refer to particular candidates but instead focused on divisive social issues such as race, gay rights, gun control and immigration, according to a post on Facebook by Alex Stamos, that company's chief security officer. The ads, which ran between June 2015 and May 2017, were linked to some 470 fake accounts and pages the company said it had shut down. Facebook officials said the fake accounts were created by a Russian company called the Internet Research Agency, which is known for using 'troll' accounts to post on social media and comment on news websites.... Facebook staff members on Wednesday briefed the Senate and House intelligence committees.... A Facebook official declined to say whether the company had been in contact with investigators for Robert S. Mueller III.... Facebook did not make public any of the ads, but Mr. Trump regularly offered outspoken comments on those issues during the campaign, denouncing 'political correctness' and rallying his supporters on the right. [A January 2017 intelligence report by the FBI, CIA & NSA] said the 'likely financier' of the Internet Research Agency was 'a close Putin ally with ties to Russian intelligence.'... Under federal law, foreign governments, companies and citizens are prohibited from spending money to influence American elections." ...
... Carol Leonnig, et al., of the Washington Post: "Facebook officials reported that they traced the ad sales, totaling $100,000, to a Russian 'troll farm' with a history of pushing pro-Kremlin propaganda, these people said. A small portion of the ads, which began in the summer of 2015, directly named Republican nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton, the people said, although they declined to say which candidate the ads favored.... The report from Facebook that a Russian firm was able to target political messages is likely to fuel pointed questions from investigators about whether the Russians received guidance from people in the United States -- a question some Democrats have been asking for months." ...
... Rachel Maddow, in a long-winded segment, puts the Facebook admission in context:
Matea Gold of the Washington Post: "A ferocious Hurricane Irma barreled early Wednesday morning across the Caribbean island of St. Martin, where President Trump owns a lavish waterfront estate, wrecking buildings, overturning cars and uprooting trees with punishing winds. The status of Trump's 11-bedroom gated compound on Plum Bay, which is on the market, was not immediately known. But officials with the French government, which controls the side of the island where his beachfront property is located, said the territory suffered serious damage.... The trust that oversees his holdings recently slashed the asking price from $28 million to $16.9 million.... After barreling across the Caribbean, Hurricane Irma is headed for South Florida, potentially threatening Trump's signature Mar-A-Lago club and three golf courses he owns in Doral, West Palm Beach and Jupiter." ...
... Mrs. McCrabbie: You should see the curtains! There's enough shiny gold sateen (or whatever) there to dress the entire cast -- slave ladies included, of course -- of "Gone with the Wind." It would be like Scarlett O'Hara going all populist.
Cristina Marcos of the Hill: "The House rejected a conservative proposal late Wednesday night to eliminate $1.1 billion in federal subsidies for Amtrak. An amendment offered by Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) to a government spending package for the next fiscal year failed on a 128-293 vote with a bipartisan coalition uniting in opposition."
Mrs. McCrabbie: Gail Collins is running a Trump quiz today. I got 'em all right, but even if you haven't kept up, the best way to do well is to pick the most ridiculous answer.
Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "Breaking ranks with many of their fellow Republicans, a group of prominent politicians filed briefs on Tuesday urging the Supreme Court to rule that extreme political gerrymandering -- the drawing of voting districts to give lopsided advantages to the party in power -- violates the Constitution. The briefs were signed by Republicans including Senator John McCain of Arizona; Gov. John R. Kasich of Ohio; Bob Dole, the former Republican Senate leader from Kansas and the party's 1996 presidential nominee; the former senators John C. Danforth of Missouri, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana and Alan K. Simpson of Wyoming; and Arnold Schwarzenegger, a former governor of California. 'Partisan gerrymandering has become a tool for powerful interests to distort the democratic process,' reads a brief filed by Mr. McCain and Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case, Gill v. Whitford, No. 16-1161, on Oct. 3. The Republican National Committee, the National Republican Congressional Committee and the Republican State Leadership Committee all filed briefs on the other side. They urged the Supreme Court to reject a challenge to State Assembly districts in Wisconsin that, by some measures, gave Republicans outsize political power unjustified by the overall vote."
... Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "Hillary Clinton is settling old scores in a campaign tell-all book -- and angering some Democrats in the process. Excerpts from 'What Happened,' the Clinton campaign memoir scheduled to be released next week, find her letting loose on the Democratic Party's most popular figures and venting frustration with a process that culminated in her shocking election defeat by Donald Trump. In the book, Clinton says she was put in a 'straightjacket' during the primary by former President Obama, who she writes advised her not to attack Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) ... out of fear it would divide the party ahead of the general election. Clinton writes that she bristled at former Vice President Joe Biden's suggestion that she failed to adequately convey the Democratic Party's commitment to helping the middle class. And Clinton unloads on Sanders... Sanders brushed off Clinton's criticism in a Wednesday interview with The Hill, saying it's time for Democrats to 'look forward, not backward.' Not everyone was so charitable. Even some of Clinton's allies have grown weary of her insistence on re-litigating the 2016 campaign.... 'The best thing she could do is disappear,' said one former Clinton fundraiser and surrogate who played an active role at the convention. 'She's doing harm to all of us because of her own selfishness. Honestly, I wish she'd just shut the f[uck] up and go away.'" Mrs. McC: I'd guess this "supporter" is a man. ...
... Edward-Isaac Dovere & Gabriel Debenedetti of Politico: "Democratic operatives can't stand the thought of [Hillary Clinton's] picking the scabs of 2016, again -- the Bernie Sanders divide, the Jim Comey complaints, the casting blame on Barack Obama for not speaking out more on Russia. Alums of her Brooklyn headquarters who were miserable even when they thought she was winning tend to greet the topic with, 'Oh, God,' I can’t handle it,' and 'the final torture.' But with a new NBC News poll showing her approval rating at 30 percent, the lowest recorded for her, Clinton kicks it off on Tuesday with a signing at the Union Square Barnes & Noble in New York. She'll keep it going all the way through December, all across the country. 'Maybe at the worst possible time, as we are fighting some of the most high-stakes policy and institutional battles we may ever see, at a time when we're trying to move the party together so we can all move the party forward -- stronger, stronger together,' said Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat who represents a Northern California district.... Many GOP pros are relishing the book tour, eager to tie Democratic candidates to their unpopular former nominee and take the focus off their own president and party rifts." Mrs. McC: Uh, thanks, Hillary. ...
... Gideon Resnick of the Daily Beast: "... FBI Director James Comey said on July 5, 2016, that 'no reasonable prosecutor' would bring a criminal case against Hillary Clinton for her use of a private email server but that her behavior was 'extremely careless.'.... 'My first instinct was that my campaign should hit back hard and explain to the public that Comey had badly overstepped his bounds -- the same argument [Deputy Attorney General] Rod Rosenstein would make months after the election,' Clinton writes in her forthcoming book, What Happened.... When Clinton describes Comey's last-minute announcement in October about the discovery of what appeared to be additional emails in the final days of the campaign, she writes about him with even more malice." Mrs. McC: Well, she would, wouldn't she? We all did. Comey went wa-a-a-y over the line.
Michelle Boorstein of the Washington Post: "Leaders at Washington National Cathedral, the closest thing in the country's capital to an official church, have decided after two years of study and debate to remove two stained-glass windows honoring Confederate figures Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Saying the stories told in the two 4-by-6-foot windows were painful, distracting and one-sided, a majority of the Cathedral's governing body voted to remove the windows Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, stone masons were at work putting up scaffolding to begin taking out the art that was installed 64 years ago." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ...
... Mrs. McC: So while Brown v. Board of Education was wending its way through the courts -- the Supemes decided it in 1954 -- the Episcopal Church concluded windows picturing Lee & Jackson as saints would make nice additions to the cathedral. "They were uncontroversial at the time of their installation, [a cathedral spokesman] said." Really? Did they ask any descendants of the slaves who built the White House about that?
News Ledes
Washington Post: "Hurricanes have lashed South Florida many times, but officials ... at the National Hurricane Center said this is shaping up as a once-in-a-generation storm. Forecasters adjusted their advisory late Thursday, projecting Irma to hit the tip of the peninsula, slamming the population centers of South Florida before grinding northward."
CNN: "Floridians began a mass exodus on Thursday as Hurricane Irma, the powerful Category 5 storm, plowed through the Caribbean toward the Sunshine State. Thousands of cars headed north, causing interstate backups and slowdowns. Drivers waited for hours at gas stations, some of which ran out of fuel. Travelers stood in line for hours at airports.Based on Irma's projected path, which includes Florida's heavily populated eastern coast, the enormous storm could create one of the largest mass evacuations in US history, CNN senior meteorologist Dave Hennen said. Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties combined have about 6 million people." ...
... New York Times: "Hurricane Irma struck the northeast Caribbean with terrifying force Wednesday, its battering rain and winds of up to 185 miles per hour leaving a trail of chaos, wreckage and flooding from Barbuda to Puerto Rico, before taking aim at islands farther west and, beyond them, Florida. Already one of the most powerful storms ever recorded, Irma could become one of the most destructive as well, depending on its path, and officials from Turks and Caicos to Florida pleaded with people to heed advisories to evacuate to shelters and higher ground. The National Hurricane Center described the hurricane as 'potentially catastrophic.'" ...
... The New York Times has live updates here.
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