Roadkill and Spies 

Trumpcare’s First Victim:  The Trumpcare battle is on.  Despite his pledge to never touch any of the social safety net programs and his promise to provide a really, really good health plan with lots of heart, Trump has thrown his full support behind the Obamacare repeal/replace bill.  He doesn’t know what’s in it, but then again he’s not into details and as long as it eases the path to further tax cuts for the very wealthy he really doesn’t care. Trump is open to negotiation and is sure that he will be able to get his “good friends” Senators Cruz, Lee, Johnson and Paul, the conservative hold outs, back on board and, with the possible exception of Senator Paul, he is probably right. While Trump was tweeting,  Nevada Senator Dean Heller, with his state’s Governor by his side, became the first of the more centrist Senators to announce that he cannot vote for Trumpcare in its current form because of the impact Medicaid cuts would have on “hundreds of thousands of Nevadans.”  Immediately following his announcement a Republican super PAC run by Katie Walsh, Trump’s former deputy chief of staff, announced that it will fund a “seven figure” negative ad campaign targeting Heller.  However he votes, Heller is roadkill, he is likely to be Trumpcare’s first victim.  Senators Portman and Collins have also publicly indicated that they have serious reservations about the bill. Together with Senator Murkowski, who has expressed her “grave concerns,” they are the most likely naysayers and, given their more secure seats, will not be deterred by the threat of super PAC slams. However, Trumpcare is not dead yet, it’s too early to count Majority Leader McConnell out. If anyone can save this dog from joining hapless Heller on the road, it’s him. Tune in next week.

The Spy Game: On Friday, in a stunning front page story that reads like a John Le Carre spy thriller, the Washington Post detailed Putin’s efforts to influence the 2016 election, revealing what and when the Obama administration knew about the cyberattack.  In August the CIA provided Obama with an eyes only report based on intelligence provided by an asset deep within the Kremlin. The report revealed that Putin was directing an effort to damage Hillary and help Trump. No drama Obama took the report seriously but acted methodically and delayed going public with the information because by the time he was confident that the intelligence was accurate Trump was out espousing his theory that the elections were rigged. Obama was concerned that if he spoke out he would be accused of election interference and, since he assumed Hillary would win, he didn’t think he should risk jeopardizing confidence in the election process. Obama’s team did reach out to state officials in an effort to protect voting systems. Ultimately the Congressional “Gang of Eight” were told about the Russians’ activities, but Republican leadership, particularly Senate Majority Leader McConnell was skeptical and dismissed the allegations as a drummed up fantasy.  Still concerned about being accused of getting in the middle of the election process, Obama and the FBI remained quiet but the other US intelligence agencies finally went public about the Russian meddling in early October.  Minutes after they released their statement, in a series of coincidences that look odder and odder, the Access Hollywood tape was released and, later the same day, WikiLeaks released the Podesta emails.  Attention moved to Trump’s crass behavior and Podesta’s internal communications; few Americans focused on the alarming Russian interference.  After the election, Obama imposed sanctions on the Russians, took over two Russian compounds and expelled thirty-five Russian diplomats.  He also initiated the installation of stealth cyber “weapons” into Russia’s technology infrastructure but handed plans for additional actions to the incoming Trump administration.  While Obama was taking these last steps, Trump’s national security adviser Mike Flynn was already talking with Russian Ambassador Kislyak about sanctions relief which may explain why Putin confounded Obama by not responding to the expulsion of the Russian diplomats by expelling any US diplomats from Russia. Last night in an interview with Fox News, Trump, who is on record trying to return the two compounds to the Russians, disingenuously claimed that he just learned about this timeline of events for the first time.  He then went on to tweet smack Obama for not doing a better job.  Trump has done nothing about the Russian meddling since taking office despite indications that the Russians will interfere again.  However, the US cyber weapon strategy initiated under Obama is proceeding, assuming the newly “aware” Trump hasn’t done something to unravel it.        

Those Comey Tapes:  Trump is still talking about his phantom tapes.  In a Fox and Friends interview a loquacious Trump went off on a tirade, bragging about his smart tape strategy.  He said that he brought up the possibility of having tapes just to influence Comey’s testimony, forcing him tell the truth.  In other words he was trying to intimidate a witness, engaging in another possible obstruction of justice.  He is also back to attacking Special Counsel Mueller saying that though Mueller is a very honorable man he is also a “very, very good friend of Comey’s.”  He further knocked Mueller for staffing his investigative team with lawyers who contributed to Democrats including Hillary. Trump, who is still trying to figure out how he can get away with firing Mueller, has conveniently forgotten that before running for president he donated more money to Democrats and Hillary than Mueller’s entire team combined. Last month the House Intelligence Committee had demanded that Trump provide his phantom tapes or a formal statement that there were no tapes by Friday and refused to consider Trump’s Thursday tweet admission that he had no tapes as an adequate response. Late Friday White House lawyers pasted Trump’s tweet onto White House stationary and provided it to the House Committee as the official statement that there are no tapes.    

Jared’s Security Clearance:  Yesterday, In a rare bipartisan effort, Senators Grassley and Feinstein, the leaders of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Senators Graham and Whitehouse, the leaders of the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism sent a letter to the White House formally requesting additional information about Jared Kushner’s security clearance. The lawyer that advised Kushner when he completed his security forms is Jamie Gorelick, like many on Mueller’s team she is a card carrying Democrat as well as a former Clinton appointee.

Prodding Pelosi: House Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi also had an interesting week.  Seeking to assign blame for Ossoff’s special election loss, a number of Democrats publicly questioned whether she should continue in her leadership role.  Representative Tim Ryan, who ran against her for the leadership spot, called her more toxic than Trump.  Trump tweeted in, encouraging the Democrats to keep her because, if she is toxic, he wants her around.  Pelosi shook off the criticism, saying that attacks go with the job, just ask House Majority Leader Ryan.  She then added that she is a master negotiator and is worth the trouble. She isn’t going anywhere, at least for now.