We’ve survived another crazy week! As if that in itself weren’t good news enough, there’s a lot more good news to go around. I usually devote at least two hours to this, and I’m already coming up on publication time, so there you are. This amount of good news will have to suffice until tomorrow!
Russia
Has Trump gone too far?
Some Republicans want the secretary of state [sic] and maybe even the president's [sic] interpreter to testify next week to provide details about the meeting with Putin. Support is growing for a bill giving Congress the power to impose new sanctions on Russia if it interferes in the midterm elections.
Americans not so keen on Russia:
A majority of Americans, 68 percent, consider Russia either unfriendly or an enemy of the United States, according to a new NBC News/SurveyMonkey poll.
That's a 9 percent increase from one year ago, when 59 percent of Americans said they considered Russia either unfriendly or an enemy, signaling that attitudes toward Russia have worsened amid President Donald Trump's administration and the federal probe into Moscow's interference in the 2016 election.
Mueller seeks immunity for 5 witnesses:
The special counsel in the Russia investigation is seeking immunity for five potential witnesses in the upcoming trial of President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort.
The five individuals have indicated that they won't testify or provide other information "on the basis of their privilege against self-incrimination," special counsel Robert Mueller's office told a federal judge in Virginia in a court filing Tuesday.
As a result, prosecutors are asking a judge to compel their testimony, under a condition of immunity, at Manafort's upcoming bank and tax fraud trial. They are requesting what is known as "use immunity," which would mean prosecutors could not use the witnesses' testimony against them unless they were to make false statements.
Rubio seeks sanctions:
Conservatives are lining up behind Marco Rubio’s plan to automatically sanction Russia for any future election meddling a day after President Donald Trump’s meeting in Helsinki with Russian President Vladimir Putin drew widespread derision from the entire political spectrum.
Trump supporters like Fox News host Laura Ingraham, moderates like Miami Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Senate leaders like Mitch McConnell have all expressed support for Rubio’s bill, signaling that Congress could pass substantive legislation that would swiftly punish Moscow if U.S. intelligence determines that the Kremlin tries to meddle in future U.S. elections.
“There are some possibilities, Senator Rubio, for example, has got a bill that targets the 2018 election cycle we’re right in now which is, as I understand it, is potential penalties if the Russians do it again,” McConnell, who controls the U.S. Senate, said on Tuesday. “So yeah, there’s a possibility that we may well take up legislation related to this.”
The former CIA chief [Brennan] said Trump’s interactions with Putin might give his briefers reason to withhold some classified intelligence from the president out of fear that he would share it with his Russian counterpart.
Trump
What a deal!
Documents filed with the official database of federal spending show that the State Department awarded the Maryland-based company Desbuild Limak D&K a contract for $21.2 million to design and build an “addition and compound security upgrades” at the embassy. These updates will be made to the former consular building in Jerusalem -- the embassy’s temporary location.
“We’re going to have it built very quickly and very inexpensively,” President Trump said of the embassy back in March, while sitting beside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the Oval Office. “They put an order in front of my desk last week for a billion dollars. I said, ‘A billion? What’s that for?’”
“We’re actually doing it for about $250,000,” the president said.
Politics
Dems hit Trump country:
In moves that will undoubtedly stoke speculation about his own political future, [Boston] Mayor Martin J. Walsh will kick off a tour of Midwest states that figured prominently in Donald Trump’s 2016 victory to stump for like-minded Democrats and rally local laborers this week.
The second-term mayor is scheduled to fly to Ohio Thursday before visiting Indiana for a two-day trip through Republican-leaning districts where Democrats are vying for open congressional seats or mounting challenges to longtime incumbents.
In the weeks ahead, Walsh said, he is also planning a similar trip through Iowa and Wisconsin — two states that, like Walsh’s destinations this week, voted for President Trump.
Lamenting that he didn’t do more campaigning to help Hillary Clinton, Walsh said the trips are part of him taking a “very active” role through the 2020 presidential election. His hope, he said, is to use his personal story and labor roots to help connect the Democratic Party with middle-class voters it may have lost to Trump’s populist message in 2016.
Senators block judicial nomination:
Oregon's two U.S. senators, along with members of the Senate's Democratic Caucus, held the Senate floor Tuesday night for hours in protest of Oregon prosecutor Ryan W. Bounds' nomination to fill a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacancy.
Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley refused to return the traditional blue slips to the Senate Judiciary Committee in support of Bounds' nomination after learning Bounds withheld information from Oregon's judicial selection committee. Bounds hadn't disclosed inflammatory college writings about sexual assault, the rights of workers, people of color and the LGBTQ community to the committee.
When you’re in a hole, stop digging:
Trump sat down at the White House with Kevin Brady, chairman of the House of Representatives tax-writing committee, and a handful of other Republicans from the panel to plot a path forward on further tax cuts that would appeal to their conservative political base ahead of the Nov. 6 elections.
The tax cut is already unpopular and not showing signs of becoming popular anytime soon, so this is a boon for Democrats!
Comey says, Vote D!
In a tweet Tuesday night, Comey – a longtime Republican who distanced himself from the party in April – slammed the GOP for not standing up to President Trump.
“This Republican Congress has proven incapable of fulfilling the Founders’ design that ‘Ambition must ... counteract ambition,’” he tweeted. “All who believe in this country’s values must vote for Democrats this fall.”
“Policy differences don’t matter right now,” he added. “History has its eyes on us."
Immigrants are running for office:
Latinos and Asian-Americans comprise over 22 percent of the population in the U.S. but hold fewer than 2 percent of more than 500,000 elected positions, from county commissioners to school board members, mayors and Congress, according to a report by New American Leaders, a group that encourages immigrants to run for office.
[…]
New American Leaders has helped 38 immigrants win election to state and local office. Among the immigrants who hope to win election this year are some who were formerly undocumented.
Folks, electing immigrants to office is one of the best ways to make sure that immigrants to the US are treated fairly. The article highlights several immigrants running for office—go read it!
Texas D Agricultural Commissioner Candidate Outraises R:
Not only did Democrat Kim Olson raise more than twice as much money as Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller in her general election bid for that office, but the political newcomer is sitting on a bigger mound of campaign cash and has less debt.
Olson, a retired Air Force colonel, reported having more than $171,000 to spend on her election campaign at the end of June, according to records filed with the Texas Ethics Commission. That’s more than the roughly $138,000 former rodeo cowboy Miller has to spend on his campaign to keep his job running the Texas Department of Agriculture.
[…]
Voters decide every four years who to hire to run the Department of Agriculture, an agency that manages the free school lunch program and oversee [sic] the state’s agricultural industries. Miller is beloved by the tea party and enjoys a large social media following, but has caught flak in a series of controversies, including how he fines barbecue restaurants and for collecting more in fees than the agency spent.
Comments are closed on this story.