A canovaccio of Washington drama has enfolded in the past 18 hours.
Let's see if I can nail this all down...
- Last night, President Trump hosted Sen. Chuck Schumer and Rep. Nancy Pelosi for a dinner of Chinese food and chocolate cake in the Blue Room of the White House, where they reportedly discussed a variety of issues including trade and immigration policy.
- Shortly after that, according to Politico, "behind the scenes, Washington started to explode. The White House legislative affairs team was sending text messages and emails to Republican Hill staff, saying the president had only agreed to work on fixing DACA soon. He didn't give up on the wall funding, but the White House conceded he said he wouldn't insist it be part of this package."
So that's where we're at.
Meanwhile, in other news...
The Enduring Promise of Tax Reform:
Yesterday, whilst meeting with a bipartisan group of lawmakers at the White House, President Trump affirmed that his administration is committed to a tax-cut package aimed at exclusively helping the middle class, telling reporters that "The rich will not be gaining at all with this plan. We are looking for the middle class and we are looking for jobs - jobs being the economy." However, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has already thrown a bit of cold water on the president's stated ambition to simultaneously slash the corporate tax rate to 15% (from its current rate of 35%), releasing a damning report yesterday afternoon that concludes the government would have to severely expand the federal budget deficit to make that pipe dream a reality.
* An expert opinion, courtesy of Jonathan Swan: "The White House has discussed tax reform with a number of Democrats, but Trump officials are working under the assumption that they'll be doing very well if they can convince three Democratic senators to support the tax bill. The bottom line: The White House did learn one lesson from the health care failure: It's a mistake to rely on Republican votes alone. But the administration's solution for tax reform is to give itself a little breathing room — not open the door to a broader bipartisan effort that would compromise what it wants to do.
The Russia Investigation:
The same day the Department of Homeland Security issued a directive to federal agencies to remove Kaspersky Lab products from their networks due to concerns the Moscow-based cyber security firm was vulnerable to Kremlin influence and that using its anti-virus software could jeopardize national security, and as Russia begins its "six-day joint military exercise that is expected to be the biggest display of Russian military power since the end of the Cold War a quarter-century ago," Chris Strohm over at Bloomberg reported that "Russia’s effort to influence U.S. voters through Facebook and other social media is a 'red-hot' focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation," giving more and more credence to the prophetic warning by Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr that we've only reached "the tip of the iceberg" when it comes to determining how Russia meddled in the 2016 election.
In related (yet wildly underreported) news, former national security adviser Susan Rice privately revealed to the House Intelligence Committee yesterday that she had unmasked the identities of senior Trump officials to understand why the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates was in New York late last year, as his undisclosed trip (which turned out to be "a meeting with several top Trump officials, including Michael Flynn, the president's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his top strategist Steve Bannon") conspicuously preceded a separate effort by the United Arab Emirates (i.e. the now-infamous Seychelles meeting) to facilitate a back-channel communication between Russia and the incoming Trump White House.
* An expert opinion, courtesy of Manu Raju: "Her explanation appears to have satisfied some influential Republicans on the committee, undercutting both Nunes and Trump and raising new questions about whether any Trump associates tried to arrange back-channel discussions with the Russians. 'I didn't hear anything to believe that she did anything illegal,' Florida Rep. Tom Rooney, a Republican helping to lead the panel's Russia invesigation, told CNN of Rice's testimony."
Oh, and:
- "South Korean President Moon Jae-in said on Thursday he was against bringing nuclear weapons into his country despite North Korea’s nuclear threats. Introducing nuclear weapons in South Korea would make it impossible for the two Koreas to establish peace and could fuel an nuclear arms race in Northeast Asia, Moon said in an interview with CNN."
- "U.S. President Donald Trump blocked a Chinese-backed private equity firm from buying a U.S.-based chipmaker on Wednesday, sending a clear signal to Beijing that Washington will oppose takeover deals that involve technologies with potential military applications. Canyon Bridge Capital Partners’ planned $1.3 billion acquisition of Lattice Semiconductor Corp was one of the largest attempted by a Chinese-backed firm in the U.S. microchip sector and was the first announced deal for the buyout fund, which launched last year with a focus on technology investment ... U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement following the decision that 'CFIUS and the president assess that the transaction poses a risk to the national security of the United States that cannot be resolved through mitigation.'"
- "A federal judge on Wednesday revoked the $5 million bail of Martin Shkreli, the infamous former hedge fund manager convicted of defrauding investors, after prosecutors complained that his out-of-court antics posed a danger to the community. While awaiting sentencing, Shkreli has harassed women online, prosecutors argued, and even offered his Facebook followers $5,000 to grab a strand of Hillary Clinton’s hair during her book tour. Shkreli, who faces up to 20 years in prison for securities fraud, apologized in writing, saying that he did not expect anyone to take his online comments seriously, and his attorneys pleaded with the judge Wednesday to give him another chance."
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