Month: April 2020
Pelosi taps 7 lawmakers to select coronavirus committee
Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday appointed seven Democratic members to a newly created House panel meant to police the Trump administration’s coronavirus response efforts.
The appointments are expected to ignite a wave of congressional action to spotlight President Donald Trump’s handling of the multitrillion-dollar pandemic relief packages meant to confront the illness’ devastating toll on American life.
"We must make sure that the historic investment of taxpayer dollars made in the CARES Act is being used wisely and efficiently to help those in need, not be exploited by profiteers and price-gougers," Pelosi said in a "Dear Colleague" letter.
Pelosi had already announced that she intended to name the House’s third-ranking Democrat, Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), to lead the committee. On Wednesday, she selected six additional members, a mix of trusted lieutenants, veteran policy-writers and a vulnerable freshman to fill the high-profile positions.
The panel will include three chairs of existing House committees: Oversight Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.), Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Small Business Committee Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.). Pelosi also named Reps. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Bill Foster (D-Ill.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.), a freshman from a competitive district.
It’s unclear whether Republicans will participate in the panel’s work. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) may name up to five additional panelists, though some of his allies have encouraged him to boycott the committee altogether, blasting it as a political exercise. Republicans have indicated their decision may rest on the makeup of the Democratic roster.
But Pelosi has dismissed their concerns and insisted that the new oversight panel will eschew partisan politics and instead focus on realtime accountability for problems that arise amid the crisis response — from testing shortages to helping hospitals access lifesaving medical equipment.
Clyburn has not said yet how the panel — which will function as part of the House Oversight Committee — plans to operate, or what its specific focus will be, though the new members skew heavily toward financial services and small business expertise.
Democratic leadership and House committee leaders are just beginning to figure out how to conduct remote work, debating ways to hold virtual hearings at a time when lawmakers remain homebound.
At least one panel, the House Appropriations Committee, will hold an in-person hearing next week. That subcommittee, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), has not yet announced witnesses but has privately signaled that it intends to bring in top officials in the federal response, starting with Dr. Anthony Fauci.
The new oversight panel, though, will immediately become a focal point of Congress’ action amid the ongoing crisis, with Democrats eager to shed light on the administration’s missteps in handling the pandemic, which they’ve already labeled a key contributor to the severe outbreak that has ground the country to a halt.
And despite Pelosi’s assurances, the committee’s work is destined to become heavily politicized. Waters, for example, has long been seen by Trump allies as an archnemesis of the president, agitating for his impeachment and removal months before most of her colleagues were prepared to join her. And other Republicans have argued that the committee’s only purpose can be to run interference for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as the calendar inches toward Election Day.
Democrats have countered that Republicans’ complaints ring hollow, given the heavily politicized Benghazi Committee that dogged Hillary Clinton’s run in 2016, despite admissions from some Republicans that the panel, at least in part, had a political purpose.
In addition to the fire it has taken from Republicans, the panel has drawn head-scratching from some Democrats who already serve on the House’s many oversight committees. Some have privately wondered how the new panel will interact with existing investigative committees, a slew of which have already signaled that they plan to probe the White House’s response to the outbreak.
Congress already established a new commission of lawmakers and aides to oversee the largest component of the coronavirus relief effort: a $500 billion U.S. treasury fund to rescue struggling industries and companies. Pelosi recently named Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) as one of the panel’s five members, joining McCarthy’s pick Rep. French Hill, Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) and former Elizabeth Warren aide Bharat Ramamurti.
Pelosi’s choice of Shalala, a former Health and Human Services secretary who hails from a competitive congressional district, disappointed some on the party’s left flank who had hoped she would pick Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.), who had openly lobbied for the post.
Porter was also left of Clyburn’s panel, further irritating progressives in the House and nationally who have pushed for her to have a spot.
Some Democrats, too, have privately worried that the panel would wind up simply becoming a political bludgeon against Trump, just months until the November elections — potentially undermining the panel’s actual oversight findings.
Liberal Media Smears Keep Coming – President Trump Keeps Honoring His Oath
No politician in America has faced more unjustified criticism from the liberal-dominated “mainstream” media than President Donald Trump. But despite enduring a constant barrage of smears, baseless attacks, and blatant lies from the moment he entered the political arena, our president has never wavered.
According to the newly-disclosed footnotes from the Justice Department’s report on the FBI surveillance of the Trump campaign in 2016, the infamous Steele dossier —a document that was at the heart of the manufactured Russia collusion narrative— contained…Russian disinformation. To make matters worse, some FBI officials were concerned about the author’s ties to Russian oligarchs, but those concerns were never shared with the unit that was assigned to investigate Donald Trump’s associates.
It turns out that President Trump was right all along—there was a “witch hunt” conducted against him, both before and after the 2016 election. But you will never hear an apology from the liberal media who treated the Steele Dossier as the sacred scripture of the anti-Trump #resistance. And worse, we now know, because of the #resistance and their push of the false narratives, there is danger of permanent erosion of civil liberties and due process for all Americans.
What is truly remarkable is that President Trump never allowed the mainstream media to distract him from accomplishing his policy objectives, no matter how preposterous their smears became over time.
During his first year in office, the president passed historic tax cuts, saving American workers an average of $1,400 on their annual federal income taxes. The following year, he signed the most extensive bipartisan prison reform legislation in U.S. history, the FIRST STEP Act. Even the hyper-partisan Democrat impeachment campaign didn’t stop the president from fighting for American workers—Donald Trump whipped up bipartisan support for his groundbreaking United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement so effectively that it passed with negligible opposition just one day after the House of Representatives approved articles of impeachment without a single Republican vote.
That’s not even close to being an exhaustive list of this president’s extensive record of promises kept—his administration has also secured the border, deregulated the economy, fixed the VA, appointed reliably conservative justices to the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary, and much more. Throughout it all, he has had to aggressively defend his integrity in the public square, relentlessly pushing back against the fake news media’s assault on the truth.
We’ve have never seen a man who is as patient, determined, and focused under fire as President Trump—and that is exactly the kind of leadership that our country needs more than ever right now.
The sad thing is, our president probably could have achieved even greater things for the country if he didn’t have to deal with the slings and arrows of partisan media outlets. Liberal journalists have launched brand new attacks, often using Orwellian doublespeak, against the White House in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic, treating this once-in-a-lifetime public health crisis as just another opportunity to advance their biased narrative in preparation for the November elections.
Their fabricated storyline is predictable and unimaginative, baselessly claiming the White House botched its response to the coronavirus outbreak, and the Trump administration is still not doing enough to curb the spread of the deadly disease.
The facts are clear and immutable. The White House acted swiftly and responsibly.
No matter how hard the media try, they will never be able to change history. The United States was one of the first countries in the world to implement robust international travel restrictions on coronavirus hot spots—something liberals excoriated President Trump for doing at the time.
While House Speaker Nancy Pelosi contemplated legislation called the “NO BAN” Act to keep borders open as vectors of infection, the president acted to protect the American people by shutting down travel from China and eventually with the EU, Africa, the Middle East and the United Kingdom.
While the Democrats paraded the ever more troubling incompetence of their presidential candidates during their January 29, February 7 and February 19 debates — where there was not a single mention of the Wuhan Coronavirus — the White House was establishing and coordinating a whole-of-government response integrating critical private/industrial sector support, moving material and personnel to meet the challenge head on.
Most significant, contrary to initial projections, our country has avoided a shortage of life-saving ventilators thanks to the president’s effective collaboration with the private sector, and the number of COVID-19 deaths is now expected to be much lower than public health experts first anticipated. And through it all, the Trump administration has made it a priority to support the millions of working families who have been impacted by the current economic lockdown.
Further, the president’s fundamental belief that America must increase manufacturing and self-reliance (especially in critical national security and medical sectors) to preclude foreign reliance during a national crisis has been proven correct, and must be a priority going forward into 2021.
The liberal media have thrown everything in their arsenal at Donald Trump, but they’ve never been able to distract him from fulfilling his obligation to the American people before. The president certainly isn’t going to flinch now as they try to distract him from the most important work of his entire presidency.
Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer is a retired senior intelligence operations officer and President of the London Center for Policy Research.
This piece was written by Lt Col Tony Shaffer on April 29, 2020. It originally appeared in LifeZette and is used by permission.
Read more at LifeZette:
Former state attorney general calls out Michigan Democrat governor on blatant conflict of interest
Recharged Trump holds press conference
Howard Stern calls for Trump to resign, says his supporters should take disinfectant and ‘drop dead’
The post Liberal Media Smears Keep Coming – President Trump Keeps Honoring His Oath appeared first on The Political Insider.
Trump says he might use pandemic relief funding to extort so-called sanctuary cities
Oh, not this shit again. Impeached president Donald Trump on Tuesday returned to attacking so-called sanctuary cities, but with a pandemic quid pro quo twist (I guess he really learned that lesson, right Susan Collins?): now he’s threatening to condition relief funding on local policies limiting cooperation with federal deportation agents. “Now, if it's COVID-related, I guess we can talk about it, but we'd want certain things also, including sanctuary city adjustments because we have so many people in sanctuary cities,” Trump claimed.
“Adjustments” probably means “rescinding,” because the man can’t stand anything that remotely humanizes brown people. But can he do that? No, tweeted immigration policy expert Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “To be clear, as multiple federal courts have already ruled, Congress has to specifically give the president the authority to condition grants on sanctuary city status in order to do this—and since they haven't, he can't.” But will he try? That’s another story.
Trump also maybe confused his own very clear contempt for U.S. sanctuary cities with the reality around these policies, falsely claiming he didn’t think they’re popular, “even by radical-left folks. Because what's happening is people are being protected that shouldn't be protected and a lot of bad things are happening with sanctuary cities.”
Immigrant rights advocacy group America’s Voice pointed out in 2017 that these policies are actually pretty popular among police departments. “In order for the police to be most effective at their jobs, they need to be able to work with immigrants who report crimes, give tips, or testify as witnesses,” the group said. “In order for immigrants to trust the police, they need to know that an interaction with law enforcement won’t lead to their deportation.”
And that makes communities safer for all. “Research backs this up; one analysis has shown that sanctuary cities see 15% less crime than non-sanctuary cities,” the group continued. “Another found that two-thirds of the cities that had the highest jumps in murder rates in 2016 were not sanctuary cities—in fact, they are the opposite, generally eager to hold immigrants for ICE pick-up and detention.”
But, again, just because Trump can’t do something doesn’t mean he and henchman Stephen Miller won’t try. They’ve already exploited a pandemic that has killed nearly 60,000 Americans to, in just a just a couple of examples, deport children who are supposed to be protected by U.S. law, and implement draconian immigration changes that have been the stuff of anti-immigrant leaders’ dreams.
“We cannot allow the Trump administration to exploit a public health crisis to further their anti-immigrant agenda,” the American Civil Liberties Union tweeted in response to Trump threatening to hold funding hostage. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, House Oversight Committee chair, tweeted a simple and concise “no.” No word on this extortion threat from Sen. Collins, however.
Democrats seek to curb White House spending powers after Ukraine, border wall disputes
Top House Democrats unveiled a bill Wednesday that would rein in what they see as the Trump administration’s abuse of congressional spending powers in its Ukraine aid freeze and diversion of federal cash to the border wall.
The Congressional Power of the Purse Act would bolster transparency requirements around the executive branch‘s use of federal funding and increase penalties for violations of budget law, which already curbs the administration’s authority to alter congressionally appropriated funds.
Budget Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), Appropriations Chairwoman Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.) and Oversight Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) introduced the bill. Senate Appropriations ranking member Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) plans to introduce companion legislation in the upper chamber.
Democrats say the measure, which has been in the works for months, follows what they view as a series of abuses by the administration to withhold or redirect appropriated money to further the president’s personal interests and policy goals.
That includes President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency last year to free up billions of dollars for a border wall, his freeze on hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine last summer and efforts to scrap billions of dollars in foreign aid, among other actions.
“Over the past year and a half, the House Budget Committee has worked to hold this administration accountable for its systemic abuse of budget and appropriations law and degradation of our democratic principles,” Yarmuth said in a statement. “This legislation will add teeth to budget law and further empower Congress to take a stand against Administrations that disregard our Constitution.”
In January, the Government Accountability Office determined the administration broke the law by withholding hundreds of millions of dollars to Ukraine last summer — a move that prompted House Democrats' impeachment inquiry into whether Trump leveraged the aid for political favors. The Office of Management and Budget disagreed with GAO's ruling.
OMB officials did not respond to a request for comment on the legislation. The Trump administration has so far rejected any congressional attempts to curtail its decisions around federal money.
The new legislation would expedite the GAO‘s ability to obtain information during investigations of federal budget law violations. It would also allow GAO to sue more quickly if funds are improperly withheld. Federal officials found in violation of the law could be fired or suspended without pay.
The bill would place an “expiration date” on any national emergency declarations, and the administration wouldn’t be able to rescind federal funding without congressional approval. And OMB would have to make public any decisions to slow or withhold federal funds.
Abbreviated Pundit Round-up: Where we are now in the new normal
Polling seems pretty clear: an articulated stay at home strategy has salience with the public, along with a plan to reopen under explainable circumstances.
That is not what we are getting from many states, and the risk of blowback should we get another spike is enormous.
Politicians want to tell the public "not to panic" and then they want to say "it's over". That is their driving need.
And it is exactly why you need Fauci (or Nancy Messonnier form CDC) and not Trump out in front as a messenger, and a truth teller. Deborah Birx, alas, disqualified herself.
Those simple truths are why this article (Seattle’s Leaders Let Scientists Take the Lead. New York’s Did Not, New Yorker) was so powerfully excellent by Charles Duhigg, one of the single best pieces I've read this entire pandemic . Cannot recommend it enough.
You have to tell the truth and persuade the public. You cannot persuade the public by not telling the truth. That's my beef with Birx. Might save her job, but look at the cost, to her job as spokesperson, to the country.
Trump is a lost cause, sure, her boss, but that is a given . This piece (Dying for cute toes? I hate to say it, Georgia, but on this one, we're as dumb as we look, USA Today) is on point about doing it right and what the public will tolerate, and reminds me of a story.
c. 2007-8 I was at a CDC tabletop, there to be a gadfly and criticize (by invitation). It was day 2 or 3 of a simulated flu pandemic, and the CDC head Julie Gerberding was having the morning division meeting in the situation room. She wanted to know if the GA schools had closed.
She called the GA emergency manager to find out but they didn't know yet. GA was a home rule state and the schools were not closed centrally. Gerberding simply wanted to know if her staff could report in on time (everyone gets that now re child care, but not then). The GA EM said we will know by 11.
I said to Dr Gerberding 'wanna know now?' She said how? I said 'call your hairdresser, they know everything happening locally.' (If it were evening, same with bartenders).
I wasn't kidding, I was trying to get her to appreciate social networks. Works the other way, too. Persuade the salons and bars and restaurants and you win the public.
And it can be done. if you tell the truth, if you articulate the reason.
Hard to do when you have to fight the WH, and without CDC, who has been muted.
And here we are.
Americans appear to be losing faith in what President Donald Trump says about the coronavirus pandemic, with almost everyone rejecting Trump's remark that COVID-19 may be treated by injecting infected people with bleach or other disinfectants, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released on Tuesday.The April 27-28 public opinion poll found that fewer than half of all adults in the U.S. - 47% - said they were "very" or "somewhat" likely to follow recommendations Trump makes about the virus. That is 15 percentage points lower than the number who said they would follow Trump's advice in a survey that ran at the end of March.And 98% of Americans said they would not try to inject themselves with bleach or other disinfectants if they got the coronavirus, including 98% of Democrats and 98% of Republicans. That is a near-unanimous rejection of an idea that Trump floated at a time of widespread anxiety about the virus….
Overall, Trump's overall popularity has not changed much over the past week. Forty-three percent of Americans said they approve of his overall job performance, and the same number also approve of his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among registered voters, 44% said they would vote for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, while 40% said they would back Trump if the election were held today.
Margaret Sullivan/WaPo:
Trump has played the media like a puppet. We’re getting better — but history will not judge us kindly.
Traditional journalism is under siege, NBC News chief Andy Lack wrote this week: President Trump continues to “put the bully in bully pulpit,” and the coronavirus crisis has taken a toll.
“But we’re winning,” proclaimed the headline of Lack’s piece published on NBCNews.com, which argues that news organizations, because they are still able to tell citizens the truth of what’s going on in the country, are victorious.
I wish I could agree.
Even if you get past the objectionable notions of “winning” and “losing,” I very much doubt that history will judge mainstream journalism to have done a terrific job covering this president — including in this difficult moment.
On the contrary, the coverage, overall, has been deeply flawed.
Older voters, eh?
Ronald Brownstein/CNN:
Older voters could offer Biden a new path to the White House
The dominant assumption among Democrats for years has been that the best way to expand the Electoral College map is to expand the electorate by turning out millions of additional young people and minorities. But Joe Biden's campaign may be pointing Democrats toward a different path to widening the presidential battlefield.
The former vice president's surprising strength among older voters in polls could offer him an unexpected opportunity to broaden the electoral map, even if he struggles to mobilize large numbers of new voters.People older than 45 composed a larger share of voters than the national average in 2016 in all six states that both sides consider the most likely to pick the next president, especially Arizona, Michigan and, above all, Florida, according to census figures. Improving on the Democratic performance among those seniors offers Biden an alternative route to tipping the six key swing states -- which also include North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin -- than by exciting more young people to vote, which could prove a difficult challenge for him."If there are significant shifts in support demographically then you don't necessarily need to boost turnout," says Democratic consultant Michael Halle, who directed Hillary Clinton's battleground state strategy in 2016.
David M Drucker/ Wash Examiner:
Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan's message machine counters Trump with daily media offensive
Some Republican insiders see ulterior motives. Hogan has often questioned Trump’s agenda, rhetoric, and conduct, and in 2019, he was the leading choice of Never Trump Republicans as they sought a GOP challenger to the president. Other Republicans say the governor’s actions are less political and only appear so because, however typical they are for crisis leadership, they stand in stark relief to Trump’s grandiose approach.
“He’s trying to fill a void left by Trump,” said Terry Sullivan, a veteran Republican strategist. “He’s serving as a calm, sensible leader who’s providing real information the public needs to hear.”
The White House rejects this assessment of Trump’s leadership.
Trump's poor poll numbers trigger GOP alarms over November
Pump up Trump or go after Biden? Top Republicans are advocating different strategies for a struggling president to win reelection.
There are indications that Trump’s response to the crisis is taking a toll. His campaign’s internal polling shows that the president’s initial bump in managing the virus has dissipated, according to a person familiar with the results. An NBC/Wall Street Journal poll released over the weekend revealed that voters thought Biden would do a better job than Trump in managing the virus by a 9-point margin, and new surveys show Trump trailing Biden in Florida, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Alarm about Trump’s standing is trickling to down-ballot races. A Fox News poll released earlier this week showed the GOP candidate trailing 10 percentage points in the Michigan Senate race, a contest the party has been targeting aggressively.
Rachel Bitecofer/ Niskanen Center:
Negative Partisanship and the 2020 Congressional Elections
The image of a disaffected Republican Party, embarrassed by their “chaos” president, so far runs into an irrefutable data-reality that Republican voter turnout, even in the 40 suburban districts Democrats flipped, was robust — and it did not break in favor of Democrats in rates any higher than normal for the polarized era. Instead, the blue wave that washed through America’s suburbs in 2018 was powered by a massive turnout of Democrats and independents, who showed up in droves to toss Republican House incumbents out of office and send a message to Donald Trump.
As the GOP struggles to defend itself from a second cycle powered by Trump backlash, I expect it may resist any efforts to expand voting access even in states where it has the power to do so. That said, although the top-line turnout number is important, at the end of the day (and as Wisconsin shows) suppression can only take you so far in the face of a riled-up opposition. Far more important than the overall turnout is who is voting. As my colleague, Niskanen Center President Jerry Taylor, eloquently put it after the negative partisanship model delivered him a successful election prediction: Right now, Wisconsin voters “would drink bleach for hours in those lines to kill the GOP,” an oddly prophetic claim given that the president suggested bleach as a potential cure for coronavirus at his press conference on April 23.
How a Digital Ad Strategy That Helped Trump Is Being Used Against Him
A former Facebook employee is using a tool he employed to help President Trump win to conduct tests for a progressive group, Acronym, dedicated to ousting Mr. Trump from office.
Nearly all messaging about impeachment was received poorly, and low-information and swing voters tended to side with the president. Pacronym quickly dialed back some of its impeachment advertising.
The most consequential test, however, was over the killing of Mr. Suleimani. Though responses mostly hewed to partisan lines, the team saw significant movement among Trump-leaning voters away from the president when presented with critical commentary from a conservative messenger. It is a tactic known as “boosted news,” or the practice of paying to place news articles in the newsfeed of users.
For those of you who complain when I post conservative outlet pieces, read the above carefully. Turns out good practice (reading widely) is good politics.
Pseudoscience and COVID-19 — we’ve had enough already
The scientific community must take up cudgels in the battle against bunk.
Cow urine, bleach and cocaine have all been recommended as COVID-19 cures — all guff. The pandemic has been cast as a leaked bioweapon, a byproduct of 5G wireless technology and a political hoax — all poppycock. And countless wellness gurus and alternative-medicine practitioners have pushed unproven potions, pills and practices as ways to ‘boost’ the immune system.
Thankfully, this explosion of misinformation — or, as the World Health Organization has called it, the “infodemic” — has triggered an army of fact-checkers and debunkers. Regulators have taken aggressive steps to hold marketers of unproven therapies to account. Funders are supporting researchers (myself included) to explore how best to counter the spread of COVID-19 claptrap.
On the Tara Reade accusation:
Another Senate model:
Trump’s allies sound alarm over his attacks on independent watchdogs
President Donald Trump’s recent hostility toward independent federal watchdogs has jolted the very Senate Republicans who are among his most outspoken defenders.
Two months after acquitting Trump on charges of obstructing Congress, GOP senators are sounding subtle but unmistakable alarms about Trump’s efforts to brush back lawmakers’ oversight of the government’s behemoth, $3 trillion response to the coronavirus pandemic. And their warnings have grown more urgent as Trump mounts a concerted campaign against inspectors general, one of the last functional checks on his administration’s performance.
“We need to empower inspectors general to be able to do their work — especially when you’re dealing with trillions of dollars, you’ve got to have good, reasonable oversight over those things,” Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), who penned a letter to Trump last week on the topic, said in an interview.
That Lankford and other GOP senators like Chuck Grassley of Iowa have felt compelled to speak out publicly underscores the degree to which Trump has undermined routine congressional oversight — including the very mechanisms that Republicans themselves have crafted to rein in a rogue executive.
The public disapproval come as Trump faces criticism over his abrupt removal of the intelligence community’s inspector general, Michael Atkinson, and his refusal to provide Congress with an adequate explanation, as required by law.
And without responses from the White House, GOP senators have stepped up their public rebukes of the president as they try to convince him that independent government watchdogs are his friend, not his enemy. Lankford and Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) in their letter to Trump last week outlined why they believe it’s in the president’s best interest to “work with IGs, not against them.”
Grassley in particular has spent his career building up the watchdog community, and he led a similar crusade against President Barack Obama when he fired an inspector general without proper congressional notification. And now, as Trump takes actions that threaten the protections he perhaps cares about the most, Grassley is sending a mild-mannered but unambiguous plea to get the president to back off.
“Sen. Grassley has been a pain in the side of every president since he stepped foot in Congress back in 1975,” said Michael Davis, who served as the chief nominations counsel for the Senate Judiciary Committee under Grassley’s chairmanship.
But despite Grassley’s uncharacteristically outspoken criticism of the president, he has yet to threaten to issue subpoenas or place holds on Trump’s prized nominations in order to secure the information he is seeking. It’s unclear how Grassley would proceed if his demands continue to go unanswered and unfulfilled.
Democrats say they’ll take what they can get from a Republican party that has been reticent to scrutinize the president.
“While I appreciate the steps Chairman Grassley has taken to request oversight of this administration, it is not enough to defend taxpayer funds and other government resources against abuse,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Grassley’s counterpart atop the Finance Committee.
Defending his direct pleas to Trump, Lankford specifically cited “some of the statements the president has made about inspectors general” which present a “growing challenge” for Congress’ ability to safeguard independent watchdogs from the political whims of a president, regardless of party.
Lankford is one of a handful of Republican senators who has, in recent weeks, appealed directly to Trump urging him to support the inspector general community and send qualified, permanent nominees to the Senate for consideration instead of relying on “acting” watchdogs.
But beyond their concerns about having Senate-confirmed personnel in place across the government, these lawmakers — many of them loyal allies of the president — are tacitly arguing that Trump is undermining watchdogs’ ability to do their job independent of the political winds and, in turn, shivving Congress’ built-in mechanisms to ensure their independence.
“I do want inspectors general to have the freedom to be able to make decisions and to not fear that they’re going to be released from their jobs at any point,” Lankford added, referring to Trump’s decision to fire Atkinson. “But I think there’s a better way to be able to handle it other than just saying, ‘I’m firing [you] because we disagree on some things.’ The president’s team has to be able to give all their reasons for that, just like the Obama team did as well.”
The spread of the coronavirus has brought with it an onslaught of new congressional demands for information and lawmaker-led pressure campaigns, and the price tags of the relief packages present lawmakers with challenges to rein in the waste, fraud and abuse that is likely to accompany the process.
But less than three months after avoiding removal from office on charges of stonewalling Congress, Trump is doubling down on his hostility toward the legislative branch’s oversight requests — including and especially ones coming from his fellow Republicans.
In response to their overtures, Trump has deployed a more expansive view than ever before on his ability to quash lawmakers’ oversight demands.
The most recent spate began when Trump stated his intention to chip away at key oversight mechanisms built into the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, including on requiring congressional notification if the newly-created inspector general is “unreasonably refused or not provided with” any information. Trump later removed the inspector general charged with overseeing the pandemic response, Glenn Fine, and he blasted the Health and Human Services Department’s watchdog over a report detailing widespread failures to provide adequate coronavirus testing at hospitals.
Trump’s recent confrontations with the inspectors general community haven’t been limited to the congressional response to the ongoing pandemic; Republicans and Democrats alike were roundly critical of his decision to sack Atkinson — a move which prompted Grassley to seek an explanation for the firing and to question whether the president sought to circumvent Congress’ authority.
Trump has yet to respond to Grassley’s bipartisan letter demanding a fuller explanation for the termination of Atkinson, who provoked Trump’s ire when he transferred a whistleblower complaint to Congress that jump-started the House’s impeachment inquiry last year. Trump was due to respond to the lawmakers by April 13.
“That’s not really giving Congress the ability to understand the reason,” Lankford said of Trump’s non-response to the Atkinson inquiry. “When the Obama administration did that, they followed back up and said, ‘here’s why, here’s what.’ We expect the Trump administration to be able to do the same.”
Grassley is unique in his crusade. No GOP lawmaker has perhaps been more outspoken about Trump’s hostility toward inspectors general, and the seven-term senator brings with him a resume that includes authoring several laws on whistleblower protections and the independence of the federal government’s watchdogs. In his letters to Trump, he often notes his previous efforts to hold the Obama administration accountable for similar erosions of congressional authority.
“IGs can help drain the swamp,” Grassley wrote in an April 21 letter to Trump, his second direct plea to the president on the issue of inspectors general in recent weeks. “They find the waste, fraud, and abuse in government programs and they find ways to save taxpayer money.”
Grassley, who now chairs the Senate Finance Committee, has found that his legacy is on the line when it comes to inspectors general. His criticisms of Trump — in the careful way that defines this political era — are getting noticed; but Trump has shown no signs of letting up.
Grassley, though, has leverage — and lots of it. The Iowa Republican has been instrumental in helping Trump secure some of the most significant wins of his presidency, including tax cuts, criminal justice reform and the successful Senate confirmations of two Supreme Court justices. At the same time, Grassley has sent a handful of judicial nominees packing after they couldn’t answer basic questions in committee hearings or were unqualified to sit on the federal bench. Trump needs Grassley more than Grassley needs Trump, his allies say, giving serious heft to the 86-year-old’s efforts.
“He’s not a rubber stamp,” Davis argued. “He’s a team player, but when he feels strongly about things, he has no problem voicing his disagreements.”
Wyden has joined at least one of Grassley’s efforts on inspectors general. The pair wrote a letter last week to Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general who also serves as chairman of the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, demanding information about the vetting process for IG nominees.
Grassley has also written to top health officials to inquire about how they are handling coronavirus outbreaks at nursing homes; and he most recently joined forces with Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) to seek a review of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons’ compliance with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control in order to ensure the safety of inmates and employees.
Democrats continue to argue, though, that simply writing letters isn’t enough unless they are backed up with concrete action.
“The sad fact is, the Republican caucus has by and large been willing to let Donald Trump use the federal government like a personal piggy bank for his donors and political allies, and to retaliate against those who stand up to him,” Wyden said.
Kyle Cheney contributed to this report.
Morning Digest: After abrupt postponement of March’s election, Ohio’s primary is finally here
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Carolyn Fiddler, and Matt Booker, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, Daniel Donner, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
Leading Off
• Primary Night: The Buckeye stops here: Ohio goes to the polls Tuesday for its presidential and downballot primaries … finally. The election was originally scheduled for March 17, but GOP Gov. Mike DeWine, citing the coronavirus pandemic, haphazardly canceled it hours before it was to begin. DeWine eventually signed a bill into law that moved the election to April 28 and all but eliminated in-person voting.
We've put together our preview of the downballot contests to watch. The biggest race will be the Democratic contest to take on GOP Rep. Steve Chabot in the 1st Congressional District, a Cincinnati-area seat that Donald Trump carried 51-45. We'll also be watching the safely blue 3rd District in Columbus, where Democratic Rep. Joyce Beatty faces a challenge from former Consumer Financial Protection Bureau advisor Morgan Harper.
Our live coverage will begin at 7:30 PM ET at Daily Kos Elections. You can also follow us on Twitter for blow-by-blow updates. And you'll want to bookmark our primary calendar, which includes the dates of the presidential and downballot primaries in all 50 states, as well as our separate calendar tracking key contests further down the ballot taking place nationwide this year.
Election Changes
Please bookmark our statewide 2020 primary calendar and our calendar of key downballot races, both of which we're updating continually as changes are finalized.
• Connecticut: Democratic Secretary of State Denise Merrill says she's considering sending absentee ballot applications to all registered Democrats and Republicans ahead of Connecticut's Aug. 11 primaries (the state only allows party members to vote in primaries). Merrill had previously planned to send ballot applications to voters for the state's presidential primary, but that election was postponed from June 2 to Aug. 11 and consolidated with Connecticut's downballot primaries.
Because the state currently requires voters to present an excuse to request an absentee ballot, Merrill has encouraged Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont to issue an executive order allowing all voters to cite the coronavirus pandemic as an acceptable excuse. On Friday, Lamont refused to say whether he would sign such an order, saying only, "We’re working on that right now as we speak." Three weeks ago, Lamont's top counsel said the governor's office was researching whether the excuse requirement could be relaxed.
• Missouri: Republican State House Speaker Elijah Haahr says he supports relaxing Missouri's excuse requirement to vote absentee and says that the legislature will hold a hearing on election-related issues sometime during its session over the next three weeks. Many county clerks have advocated for waiving the requirement, but Republican Gov. Mike Parson has opposed the idea. A lawsuit seeking to allow voters to cite the coronavirus pandemic as a valid excuse is pending in state court.
• New Jersey: Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy says he still has not made a decision about whether to conduct New Jersey's July 7 primaries by mail. Three weeks ago, the last time Murphy addressed the matter, the governor said the state would have to decide in "a number of weeks."
• New York: New York's Board of Elections, a bipartisan panel whose members are all appointed by Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, has canceled the state's June 23 presidential primary. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders had asked that the Democratic primary go forward, but a Democratic board member, Douglas Kellner, said, "What the Sanders campaign wanted is essentially a beauty contest that, given the situation with the public health emergency, seems to be unnecessary and, indeed, frivolous."
However, the state's downballot primaries, which are taking place the same day, will proceed as planned, meaning the only way public safety might be enhanced is if turnout is lower as a result. According to the New York Times, about one third of New York counties have no other races on the ballot and therefore will not hold an election. However, it is not clear what proportion of the state's actual electorate would be affected.
Separately, Cuomo canceled the June 23 special election for Queens Borough President, an all-party race that would have allowed the winner to serve out the current calendar year. However, a second, separate special election for the final year of now-Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz's term will still go forward. This will be a traditional race, with party primaries on June 23 and a general election in November. There will then be still another election next year for the borough presidency's regular four-year term.
Cuomo also canceled several state legislative special elections, instead leaving those seats vacant until the November general election. The special election for New York's 27th Congressional District in the Buffalo suburbs will still proceed on June 23.
• Virginia: Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam has postponed Virginia's May 5 local elections to May 19, the longest delay he is permitted to unilaterally impose under state law. Last week, the Democratic-run legislature rejected Northam's proposal to consolidate local races with the November general election.
Senate
• AZ-Sen: Democrat Mark Kelly has debuted two new TV ads that showcase the candidate talking directly to viewers. The first spot highlights his background as a former Navy pilot and touts his political independence, while the second one focuses on the coronavirus pandemic and the need to both provide healthcare workers with the resources they require and to ensure everyone can access life-saving care without going bankrupt.
• CO-Sen: Democratic Secretary of State Jena Griswold announced Friday that she would appeal a state judge's decision to place businesswoman Michelle Ferrigno Warren on the June Democratic primary ballot.
Judge Christopher Baumann wrote that, while Ferrigno Warren had only submitted about half of the 10,500 petitions needed, she "had to collect petition signatures in the shadow of a global pandemic and looming public health emergency." Baumann also said that the candidate's ability to collect about 5,400 petitions "suggests Ms. Ferrigno Warren has a 'significant modicum' of support for her candidacy." Griswold's team, though, argued that the decision was unfair to the contenders who had met the requirements as well as to candidates who had fallen short but hadn't sued to get on the ballot.
Gubernatorial
• Utah: Both parties held their conventions on Saturday as virtual events, and the lineup for Utah's June 30 primaries is now set.
As we've written before, Utah allows candidates to reach the primary ballot either by turning in the requisite number of signatures or by competing at their party conventions, though contenders had the option to try both methods. Any candidate who handed in enough petitions was guaranteed a spot in the primary no matter how well or poorly they did at their convention on Saturday.
Both Republicans and Democrats used ranked-choice ballots at this year's conventions in contests with more than two candidates. If one contender took more than 60% of the delegate vote, they would be the only candidate to advance to the primary ballot. If, however, no one hit this threshold, then the two competitors left standing would make it to the primary.
• UT-Gov: The GOP field to succeed retiring Republican Gov. Gary Herbert went from seven candidates to just four after Saturday's convention.
While Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox had already turned in enough signatures to advance to the primary, he still took the top spot at the party gathering by winning 53% of the delegates. Former state House Speaker Greg Hughes, who was only pursuing the convention route, grabbed the second spot with 43%. Saturday was game over, though, for wealthy businessman Jeff Burningham, Salt Lake County Council chair Aimee Winder Newton, and perennial candidate Jason Christensen.
Former Ambassador to Russia Jon Huntsman, who preceded Herbert as governor, and former state party chair Thomas Wright each had already earned a spot on the the primary ballot by turning in enough signatures. Early polls show Huntsman and Cox, who has Herbert's support, far ahead of the other candidates, but that could change now that the field has been reduced to four contenders. Cox, however, does begin the contest with a big financial advantage: The lieutenant governor led Huntsman in cash-on-hand $703,000 to $336,000 on April 15, while Wright and Hughes had $222,000 and $164,000 to spend, respectively.
The Democrats, by contrast, avoided a primary altogether. All six of Team Blue's candidates ended up pursuing only the convention route, and University of Utah law professor Chris Peterson won the event with 88% of the vote. Democrats haven't won a statewide race in Utah since Jan Graham was re-elected as attorney general back in 1996, and we rate the gubernatorial contest as Safe Republican.
House
• Florida: Filing closed Friday for congressional candidates running in Florida’s Aug. 18 primaries, and the state has a list of contenders available here. The deadline for candidates for the state legislature is not until June 19, even though the primary is the same date.
• FL-03: Far-right Rep. Ted Yoho is retiring, and 10 fellow Republicans are running to succeed him. This north-central Florida seat, which includes Gainesville and Ocala, backed Donald Trump 56-40, and the GOP nominee should have no trouble holding it.
Physician James St. George, who has self-funded about half of his campaign, led the field with $336,000 in the bank on March 31. Just behind was another self-funder, 2018 candidate Judson Sapp, who had $310,000 available. Sapp lost to Yoho 76-24 last cycle in a campaign that attracted very little attention, but this time, Sapp has the support of neighboring Rep. John Rutherford.
Another candidate to watch is Kat Cammack, who served as Yoho’s campaign manager during his upset 2012 win and later worked in his congressional office. Cammack ended March with $166,000 in the bank, which was a little more than the $137,000 that former Gainesville City Commissioner Todd Chase had available. Two other contenders, businessman Ryan Chamberlin and Clay County Commissioner Gavin Rollins, had $97,000 on-hand, while none of the other candidates had more than $25,000 to spend.
• FL-05: While Democratic Rep. Al Lawson’s weak fundraising early last year had us wondering if he’d retire, the two-term congressman filed to run again. Lawson doesn’t face any serious intra-party opposition for this safely blue seat in the northern part of the state.
• FL-07: Democratic Rep. Stephanie Murphy is defending a seat in the northern Orlando suburbs that backed Hillary Clinton 51-44 four years after Barack Obama won it by an extremely narrow margin, and it doesn’t look like she’ll be a major GOP target this year.
While a number of Republicans launched bids here, the only two who ended up filing were physician Leo Valentin and mortgage broker Richard Goble. Valentin, who has self-funded a portion of his campaign, had $276,000 to spend at the end of March, while Goble had only $13,000 on-hand. Murphy, who turned back a touted opponent 58-42 last cycle, had $1.32 million in the bank.
• FL-13: Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist, who served as Florida’s Republican governor from 2007 to 2011, is seeking a third term in a St. Petersburg seat that moved from 55-44 Obama to 50-46 Clinton. Crist had a hefty $2.94 million in the bank at the end of March, and it remains to be seen if national Republicans will target his seat after ignoring it last cycle.
Five Republicans filed to challenge Crist, and attorney Amanda Makki looks like the frontrunner. Makki, who has the support of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, ended March with $613,000 on-hand, while Air Force veteran Anna Paulina Luna was a distant second with $147,000 in the bank. 2018 nominee George Buck, who lost to Crist 58-42 last time, had just $59,000 available; the NRCC also cut ties with Buck last year after he sent out a fundraising email calling for Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar to be hanged for "treason." The other two Republicans had less than $7,000 to spend.
• FL-15: Freshman GOP Rep. Ross Spano is under federal investigation for allegedly violating campaign finance laws during his successful 2018 bid, and he faces notable primary and general opposition. This seat, which includes Lakeland and the exurbs of Tampa and Orlando, went from 52-47 Romney to 53-43 Trump, but Spano won it by a modest 53-47 before his scandal fully came out.
Lakeland City Commissioner Scott Franklin announced last month that he’d challenge Spano for the GOP nod, and he quickly raised $107,000 and self-funded an additional $160,000. Spano took in $229,000 during this time, but he held only a $293,000 to $266,000 cash-on-hand lead over Franklin at the end of March.
Three Democrats are also competing here. State Rep. Adam Hattersley ended last month with a $231,000 to $90,000 cash-on-hand lead over Alan Cohn, a former local TV news anchor who lost a 2014 primary for a previous version of this seat. The third candidate, Iraq War veteran Jesse Philippe, has not reported raising any money yet.
• FL-16: GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan turned back a credible Democratic foe 55-45 last cycle, and he faces another expensive race.
State Rep. Margaret Good, who won her seat in a 2018 special by defeating the congressman’s son, faces no opposition in the Democratic primary. Good has been a strong fundraiser, though the wealthy and well-connected Buchanan ended March with a $1.18 million to $737,000 cash-on-hand lead. This Sarasota-area seat went from 54-45 Romney to 54-43 Trump.
• FL-18: GOP Rep. Brian Mast won re-election 54-46 against a well-funded opponent, and Democrats don’t seem to be making a play for this seat this time.
Mast ended March with a huge $1.52 million to $98,000 cash-on-hand lead over Oz Vazquez, a former state deputy solicitor general. Pam Keith, who lost the 2018 primary 60-40, also recently entered the Democratic primary. This seat, which includes the Palm Beach area and the Treasure Coast to the north, moved from 51-48 Romney to 53-44 Trump.
• FL-19: GOP Rep. Francis Rooney is retiring from this safely red district in the Cape Coral and Fort Myers area after only two terms, which means that we have our fourth open seat contest here in just 8 years. Ten Republicans are running here, and it’s already turning into an expensive fight.
Wealthy businessman Casey Askar, who only entered the race last month, quickly raised $506,000 and self-funded $3 million, which left him with a massive $3.48 million war chest. Urologist William Figlesthaler, who has also been doing some heavy self-funding, had a significant $1 million to spend as well.
Three state representatives are also in. Dane Eagle, who serves as majority leader, held a $334,000 to $221,000 cash-on-hand lead over Byron Donalds, while Heather Fitzenhagen was far behind with $90,000. Fort Myers Mayor Randy Henderson and former Minnesota state Rep. Dan Severson had $69,000 and $62,000 to spend, respectively, while the rest of the field was even further behind.
• FL-26: Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell won this district 51-49 in a very expensive 2018 race, and the new incumbent will be a top GOP target this cycle. This seat, which includes the southwestern Miami area and the Florida Keys, went from 55-44 Obama to 57-41 Clinton, but Republicans still do well downballot here.
National Republicans, including Donald Trump, are supporting Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Giménez, and he starts with a strong geographic base. About 90% of this seat is located in Miami-Dade County (the balance is in neighboring Monroe County), and Giménez has consistently been in the news during the coronavirus pandemic. Mucarsel-Powell, though, ended March with a strong $2.2 million to $405,000 cash-on-hand edge over Giménez, who entered the race in late January. The only other Republican, firefighter Omar Blanco, had just $59,000 in the bank.
• FL-27: Democrat Donna Shalala won an open seat race last cycle 52-46 against former Spanish-language TV journalist Maria Elvira Salazar, and the Republican is back for a rematch. This seat, which includes the southern Miami area and Coral Gables, went from 53-46 Obama all the way to 59-39 Clinton, though this is another district where the GOP does better downballot. Shalala ended March with a $1.45 million to $895,000 cash-on-hand lead.
• NM-02: Oil businesswoman Claire Chase has launched a Republican primary ad accusing 2018 GOP nominee Yvette Herrell of having "undermined Trump's campaign" and breaking a promise not to vote to raise taxes. The spot repeatedly labels Chase as the "pro-Trump" conservative instead.
Meanwhile, Herrell has launched a TV spot of her own attacking Chase over the latter's old anti-Trump Facebook posts. As a cutout of Chase appears on screen, speech bubbles pop up with posts such as "(Donald Trump)'s an a**hole unworthy of the office... of the President." Lastly, Herrell is airing another spot that features Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan, who previously led the House's far-right Freedom Caucus, praising her candidacy.
• UT-01: The Republican field to succeed retiring Rep. Rob Bishop, who is running for lieutenant governor on former state GOP chair Thomas Wright's ticket, was dramatically cut from 12 to four after Saturday's convention. This seat, which includes Ogden and northern Utah, is safely red turf, and whoever emerges with the GOP nod on June 30 should have no trouble holding it.
Former Utah Commissioner of Agriculture Kerry Gibson took first place at the convention with 53%, while former U.S. Foreign Service officer Blake Moore grabbed second with 40%. Two other contenders, Davis County Commissioner Bob Stevenson and Kaysville Mayor Katie Witt, had already made the primary ballot by turning in signatures. It's game over, though, for Morgan County Councilor Tina Cannon, Clearfield Mayor Mark Shepherd, and six other contenders.
There's no obvious frontrunner here, and none of the candidates had a large amount of money to spend on April 5. (Because the party convention came so close to the April 15 quarterly reporting deadline, Utah congressional candidates' reports cover the period of Jan. 1 through April 5.) Gibson led Moore in cash-on-hand $102,000 to $84,000, while Stevenson had $65,000 in the bank. Witt, though, was far behind with just $9,000 to spend.
• UT-04: The GOP field to take on freshman Democratic Rep. Ben McAdams was reduced from seven to four at the weekend's convention. State Rep. Kim Coleman secured a spot in the primary by taking 54% of the delegates, while former NFL player Burgess Owens, who had already successfully petitioned his way onto the ballot, took 45%.
Coleman and Owens will also face former radio host Jay Mcfarland and Trent Christensen, who served as a regional finance director for Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign, on June 30. However, party activist Kathleen Anderson, nurse practitioner Chris Biesinger, and businesswoman Cindy Thompson all failed to make the ballot.
This suburban Salt Lake City-area seat is likely to be a top GOP target, but none of the Republicans had much money on April 5. Coleman led Owens $115,000 to $93,000 in cash-on-hand, while Mcfarland had $33,000. Christensen, who only entered the race in mid-March, had a mere $4,000 in the bank, though he may have the connections to haul in more. McAdams, who has no intra-party opposition, had a hefty $2.2 million to spend.
Other Races
• UT-AG: GOP incumbent Sean Reyes, who picked up an endorsement from Donald Trump on Thursday evening, will face Utah County Attorney David Leavitt in the June 30 primary. Reyes outpaced Leavitt 56-42 at Saturday's convention after the third candidate, former Attorney General John Swallow, was eliminated from contention in the first round of balloting. The Democrats are fielding defense attorney Greg Skordas, who lost the 2004 general election 68-28.
Leavitt, who is the the brother of former Gov. Mike Leavitt, has pitched himself as a reformer and focused his campaign on lowering the state's incarceration rate. Leavitt has also argued that Reyes is "shameless" for keeping large donations from an energy company whose leaders were convicted of fraud in federal court. Reyes, who is running as an ardent Trump ally, held a $128,000 to $23,000 cash-on-hand lead in mid-April.
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