Voting on the final Republican tax bill begins Tuesday, and a pledge Monday afternoon from Maine senator Susan Collins that she would support it all but sealed the deal—she’s the 50th vote in the Senate, and Vice President Mike Pence, if needed, can provide vote number 51.
After nearly a year in office, Donald Trump appears to have his first major legislative victory in sight. How did he do it? Mostly by staying out of the way. Trump was publicly angry with Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in August, after the Kentucky Republican gently criticized the president’s “excessive expectations” for Obamacare repeal. McConnell also blasted the White House’s “artificial deadlines” that interfered with Hill leadership’s efforts to forge consensus. But Trump’s anger subsided and he seems to have received the message.
The result was that while Trump himself engaged in public efforts to sell the broad goals of Republican tax cuts and woo red-state Democratic senators to support it (unsuccessfully, it turns out), his White House team quietly negotiated and consulted with the House and Senate tax writers and leadership. Trump’s role was to cheerlead by encouraging party unity. His forays into the debate were mostly counterproductive. The tax cut effort was better off when he simply assured the country “there will be no veto” to whatever Congress sent him.
The tax bill could still fail, even though Republicans in Washington are as optimistic as ever. Of course, passing taxes before Christmas doesn’t mean Congress and the president are done for the year—there’s still a government shutdown to avoid.
One More Thing—President Trump’s daughter and senior adviser Ivanka Trump appeared on Fox & Friends Monday morning for a last-minute promotion of the tax package.
“We’re going to deliver historic tax reforms and it’s going to happen before Christmas,” Trump said. “It’s going to be the fulfillment of an enormous campaign promise, and something that’s just tremendously important for the American people.”
Photo of the Day
Donald Trump takes a sip of water while speaking on his national security strategy at the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, DC on December 18, 2017. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP/Getty Images)
Mueller Watch—The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the FBI agent leading the investigation into Hillary Clinton’s private email server was referring to a potential investigation into Russian connections with the Trump campaign as an “insurance policy” in text messages with another FBI agent.
“I want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in Andy’s office—that there’s no way he gets elected—but I’m afraid we can’t take that risk,” Peter Strzok texted another FBI employee, Lisa Page, in August 2016. “It’s like an insurance policy in the unlikely event you die before you’re 40.”
A month before, days after WikiLeaks released a trove of emails apparently stolen from the Democratic National Committee by Russian hackers, Trump had called on the Kremlin (jokingly, he later insisted) to hack into Hillary Clinton’s email server to find emails she had allegedly deleted.
According to the Journal’s report, Strzok’s text referred to a meeting with FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe at which they had discussed options for how to investigate the alleged collusion. Page had advocated for taking their time with the investigation, given that Clinton would almost certainly win.
Strzok’s text “was meant to convey his believe that the investigation couldn’t afford to take a more measured approach because Mr. Trump could very well win the election,” the Journal reported. “It would be better to be aggressive and gather evidence quickly, he believed, because some of Mr. Trump’s associates could land administration jobs and it was important to know if they had colluded with Russia.”
It was twenty years ago when comedian Chris Farley died of a drug overdose. I enjoyed this piece from his hometown paper in Madison, Wisconsin, which includes an extensive interview with the namesake of one of Farley’s most memorable Saturday Night Live characters. Give it a read.
Trump Tweets of the Day
The train accident that just occurred in DuPont, WA shows more than ever why our soon to be submitted infrastructure plan must be approved quickly. Seven trillion dollars spent in the Middle East while our roads, bridges, tunnels, railways (and more) crumble! Not for long!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2017
My thoughts and prayers are with everyone involved in the train accident in DuPont, Washington. Thank you to all of our wonderful First Responders who are on the scene. We are currently monitoring here at the White House.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 18, 2017
Must-Read of the Day—A heartbreaking exposé from the New York Times on the starvation and malnutrition happening on a massive and horrific scale in Venezuela. Some of the photos are difficult to see.
Franken Watch—Say, when is Minnesota’s junior senator Al Franken going to resign? The Democrat and Saturday Night Live alum announced earlier this month he would leave the Senate “in the coming weeks” after multiple women accused Franken of touching them or speaking with them inappropriately. But he has still not mentioned when he will leave, even as Minnesota’s Democratic governor Mark Dayton has named a replacement, lieutenant governor Tina Smith.
Meanwhile Smith, CNN’s Manu Raju reports, met with Chuck Schumer in the Capitol on Monday.
My colleague Alice Lloyd takes a look at a new Pew poll on the so-called war on Christmas and happily finds most Americans just don’t care. Here’s an excerpt:
Song of the Day—“Inaudible Melodies” by Jack Johnson
