Calling Randy Newman

Politics and Policy:  Despite all of his scandals, one thing that Trump has going for him is the relative strength of the economy but even there he can’t stop himself from impulsively acting against interest.  First, he raised tariffs, hurting his farmer base; then he closed the government, lowering first quarter growth; and now he appears to really be serious about closing parts or all of the border with Mexico, because who doesn’t think that  killing trade with the country’s third highest trading partner is a good idea?  A number of border state Republicans, including Texas Senator John Cornyn, who is up for reelection in 2020 are somewhere between perplexed and alarmed about Trump’s border closing plans.  Cornyn says that he gets that Trump is frustrated about the so called “hordes” at the border but says that “the unintended consequences of that, I think, would be bad for everybody," kind of a bit of an understatement.  Anyway, Trump who is also considering appointing an immigration czar plans to visit the border this week where he is likely to announce something bigly or at the very least yell loudly and insult all “three” of the countries that Fox News calls Mexico.  As to Trump’s other impulsive announcement, his insistence that Republicans are the party of health care, late last night he admitted that the party doesn’t have a plan and won’t have one for a while if ever by tweeting that he has no plans to put a replacement plan up for a congressional vote until after the 2020 election instead he’ll just brag about one that he doesn’t have.   Getting disaster relief legislation passed is another administration and congressional priority, but Trump’s comments and apparent hate for Puerto Rico has thrown a wrench into those plans too.  Yesterday the Senate voted down two competing plans to provide disaster relief to all the regions of the country that have suffered extreme hurricane, flood and/or fire damage.  Senators voted 44-49 in rejecting the Republican proposal and 46-48 in shooting down the version the Democratic-led House passed in January.  Democrats assert that the Republican proposal short changes Puerto Rico, largely because at Trump’s direction it does, and Republicans rejected the Democratic proposal for having too much money for Puerto Rico while short changing the regions of the country that have experienced storm damage since January.  That last problem could be easily fixed with an amendment but the difference of opinion on Puerto Rico is likely to more difficult to resolve given Trump’s anti Puerto Rico sentiment.  

Whistleblowing:  We’ve suspected for some time that the Trump White House’s security review processes are unusual to say the least.  Now we know that our suspicions were spot on.  Tricia Newbold, a two decade long employee responsible for adjudicating security clearances,  has told the House Oversight Committee that dozens of White House security clearance applications rejected by the Personnel Security Office for "serious disqualifying issues" were later overturned without adequate explanation.  She asserts that decisions on clearance applications for White House officials weren't always made in the "best interest of national security” and that twenty-five individuals, including "two current senior White House officials" who "had a wide range of serious disqualifying issues involving foreign influence, conflicts of interest, concerning personal conduct, financial problems, drug use, and criminal conduct" received clearances when they really shouldn’t have.  Those two current officials are likely named Jared and Ivanka, and one of the others is thought to be national security advisor John Bolton.  Newbold points the finger at former White House Security Personnel Chief Kline who was brought in to specifically overrule the long term professional staff responsible for making clearance decisions.  Additionally, Newbold, who has a form of dwarfism, reports that she was punished for doing her job and for not following Kline’s instructions to “overlook” the problems on many of the questionable security clearance forms.  Apparently, Kline, one of those really fine people that Trump likes to surround himself with, actually subjected Newbold to ridicule, going so far as to move crucial files into places that Newbold couldn’t reach to make her job more physically challenging. Although she previously had an impeccable employment record she was suspended without pay for two weeks for failing to follow appropriate PDF scanning procedures, a punishment that she believes was retaliation for speaking out and refusing to change her recommendations.  Newbold continues to work in the office but is no longer allowed to adjudicate anything and, not surprisingly, fears that she will soon find herself out of a job but still felt it was important to testify to Congress because of the importance of bringing the security review problem to light.  Last night Jared Kushner laughed off a question from Fox News host Laura Ingraham over concerns about his White House security clearance. When Ingraham asked him if he posed “a grave national security concern to the country,” Kushner responded “Look, I can say in the White House I work with some phenomenal people, because of the president’s leadership the world is safer today.”  He might be laughing but Kline, not so much, he is in for some grilling.  Oversight Committee Chairman Cummings plans to call him in to testify in front of his committee ASAP. Chairman Nadler is also busy right now, apparently he intends to authorize subpoenas Wednesday morning for the full Mueller report and its underlying evidence, an escalation of a fight with the Justice Department.  Nadler is taking action out of concern that the version of the report that Attorney General Barr promised to deliver by mid-month will be so redacted as to render it useless.                 

Democrats:  For much of the day focus remained on former VP Joe Biden and his touchy feely  problem.  Another woman came forward to say that he once rubbed noses with her at a Greenwich Connecticut fund raiser, something that made her feel uncomfortable and icky because who over five doesn’t find Eskimo kisses icky.  So far neither of the two victims of Biden’s over the top touchiness say that their interactions with “Uncle Joe” fall into the category of sexual harassment.  Separately, a significant number of people, including  Fred Guttenberg, one of the Parkland fathers, have come forward recounting stories about how Biden reached out to them privately to comfort them.  By the way, Biden hugged Guttenberg’s family too, but they have no complaints about it. In the event that Biden decides not to run, Axios reports that Mike Bloomberg, who previously said that he won’t run, might jump back in the race.  On the fundraising side, first quarter results are starting to trickle in.  Mayor Pete Buttigieg, who few outside of South Bend, Indiana had even heard of until recently has raised a relatively impressive $7 million, giving him the money he needs to actually set up campaign operations in Iowa and New Hampshire.  Not surprisingly Senator Kamala Harris’ take was an impressive $12 million.  So far neither of the fundraising behemoths, Beto O’Rourke or Senator Bernie Sanders, have announced how much they’ve raised but expectations are that their numbers will be bigger.   Elizabeth Warren has not announced her take yet either but it’s likely that due in part to her self-imposed rules, she refuses to accept money from corporate PACs and will not participate in high dollar fundraisers or take calls with wealthy donors, her numbers will be anemic.  With his hands tied, her fundraiser has resigned. Money matters more than ever right now, first because money always matters and second because the Democratic National Committee has announced that it will limit the number of candidates who can participate in the first rounds of debates to twenty; to qualify for participation a candidate will need to reach one percent support in three separate polls or meet a grass-roots fundraising threshold. For the first debate, a candidate seeking to qualify through the fundraising method must receive donations from 65,000 people in at least 20 different states.  That debate is scheduled to take place in June and will be broadcast on MSNBC and Telemundo.