Welcome back, Power People. Tips, comments, recipes? Anything we can be doing better? We want to hear from you -- really! Reach out and sign up
And thanks for waking up with us. FIGHT OR FLIGHT: Two of the biggest battles of Donald Trump's presidency — building his border wall and defending himself from a legal probe he has consistently slammed as a "witch hunt" — are reaching a boiling point
Whether the president chooses to fight or fold in both cases could shape the next two years of his presidency and dictate the terms of a 2020 reelection battle
After a quiet stretch leading into the midterms, there have been several key developments just this week in Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election, and whether Trump campaign aides had improper links to the Kremlin
And the president must decide whether to take a dramatic stand to secure $5 billion in funding for the border wall before Democrats take control of the House, perhaps shutting down the government in the process
Trump seems determined to fight these two wars — at least for the time being: Trump has been threatening not to sign a spending bill by Dec
7 that doesn't continue the $5 billion he wants for the barrier between the United States and Mexico
But he needs Senate Democrats (and 60 Senate votes) to sign on for that to happen — and the minority party has only agreed to $1
6 billion in funding. And it is far from clear that congressional Republicans — many of whom are on the way out after a bruising election — have the stomach for a shutdown fight
As for Schumer, he made it clear during a news conference on Tuesday that Democrats will stick to the $1
6 billion they've agreed to. "We believe it is the right way to go . . . if there's any shutdown, it's on President Trump's back," he said
It's not just Schumer and Democrats: Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters she hadn't seen justification for the $5 billion figure and believes that current funds dedicated to the border "addresses so many of the issues that we have with border security
" Unpredictability: Trump said two different things on the wall in a pair of interviews with The Post and Politico on Tuesday: to my colleagues he suggested he was open to Plan B if Congress rejects the $5 billion figure; and after that to Politico, the president vowed he was "firm" and "totally willing" to shut the government down in the fight
Mueller Mania: There has been a lot of news (leaks) out of the Mueller probe — and its participants — this week that could be quite significant
Trump is preparing for battle, judging from the stepped-up vitriol against Mueller and the probe coming from his Twitter feed over the past few days
"So much happening with the now discredited Witch Hunt. This total Hoax will be studied for years!" Trump tweeted late last night
The key developments from this week that have Trump fuming — publicly and privately: Pardoning Manafort, who has been convicted by a jury on eight counts of tax and bank fraud, seems like a bad idea, according to the president's own allies
Some aggressive self-expression: The president retweeted yesterday meme of various public figures including Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein behind prison bars
He told the New York Post, "He should have never picked a Special Counsel." He also tweeted yesterday comparing the Mueller prosecutions to the "Joseph McCarthy Era!," The Post's John Wagner writes
In the more problems for Trump category, the Senate "delivered a historic rebuke of the fallout over Post contributor Jamal Khashoggi's killing last month, as a decisive majority voted to advance a measure to end U
S. military support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen," reported The Post's Karoun Demirjian, Carol Morello and John Hudson
More from their story: PELOSI PREVAILS — FOR NOW: House Democrats nominated a trio of old guard, veteran leaders — all in their 70s — to lead them come January
Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) was unopposed in her bid for the speakership, while Reps. Steny Hoyer (Md
) and James E. Clyburn (S.C.) were elected majority leader and whip, respectively
BACK TO THE BORDER — A DISPATCH: Amid fresh conflict along the southern border and a deal the Trump administration struck with the new Mexican government that allows those seeking asylum in the to wait in Mexico while U
S. officials process their claims, Power Up touched base with Joshua Partlow, The Post's Mexico City bureau chief
Here's Josh from Mexico City and Tijuana:
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét