| | | | Trump's pick cool on $1 trillion stimulus as House warms? | | President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the Department of Transportation doesn't seem enthusiastic about Trump's idea of a massive infrastructure investment. Either that, or Elaine Chao is just being cautious, writes CNN's Jeremy Diamond. In a questionnaire for the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, Chao said a "culture of good stewardship on behalf of the American people" must be "a top priority" for the transportation agency, but she did not mention the need for a cash infusion to improve the nation's ailing infrastructure -- as her would-be boss repeatedly stressed on the campaign trail.
The story you absolutely have to read today is the National Review's Tim Alberta's take on the future of conservatism in the age of Trump. He gets into Trump's calls for a $1 trillion infrastructure package, writing: "According to several members, there has been informal talk of accepting a bill that's only 50% paid for, with the rest of the borrowing being offset down the road by 'economic growth.' It's an arrangement Republicans would never have endorsed under a President Hillary Clinton, and a slippery slope to go down with Trump."
Democrats want Tillerson's tax returns: Democrats are accusing Rex Tillerson, Trump's pick to become secretary of state, of reneging on a pledge to hand over three years worth of tax returns, CNN's Elise Labott and Manu Raju report. | | "If something happens to him, then it happens to him." -- Donald Trump's doctor, Harold Bornstein, to STAT's Ike Swetlitz on Trump's health. "It's like all the rest of us, no?" Bornstein said. "That's why we have a vice president and a speaker of the House and a whole line of people. They can just keep dying." | | | | President-elect Donald Trump was on a tirade this morning about the reality that he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by more than 2% nationwide. | | Trump's supporters, meanwhile, are pushing a weird statistic: Trump would have won the popular vote if California and New York were excluded.
There's no logical reason to exclude two of the nation's largest states because they voted Democratic. Yet here was Drudge today, nonetheless: | | | Don't miss this piece by CNN's Gregory Krieg on Trump's Twitter habits. | | 'Drain the swamp' becomes 'hang a shingle' | | Corey Lewandowski, the bombastic former Donald Trump campaign manager who was fired by Trump in June but remained close to the President-elect, and former Ben Carson campaign manager Barry Bennett are launching what Bennett told CNN is "a full-service government affairs and political consulting shop to, from the outside, help pursue the Trump agenda." Its name: Avenue Strategies. Its location: just blocks from the White House.
The end of "drain the swamp": Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump ally, says Trump is done with the phrase he used successfully in the closing days of the campaign. "I'm told he now just disclaims that," Gingrich said on NPR's "Morning Edition," per The Washington Post's Aaron Blake. "He now says it was cute, but he doesn't want to use it anymore." | | Trump appears to double down on Muslim ban | | Donald Trump's aides have long sought to distance the President-elect from his proposal a year ago to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. But today, when a reporter asked Trump about the most recent terror attacks in Europe, Trump seemed to embrace the Muslim ban again. Decide for yourself what to read into this short exchange from this afternoon:
Reporter: Has it caused you to rethink or re-evaluate a Muslim registry or ban Muslim immigration to the United States?
Trump: "Hey, you know my plans all along, and it's -- I've been proven to be right, 100% correct. What's happening is disgraceful." | | | Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison -- the choice of Bernie Sanders and other leading progressives for DNC chairman -- urged his supporters not to bug DNC members about the upcoming race today: | | | Out of the DNC race: Ilyse Hogue, the head of NARAL Pro-Choice America, has decided not to run for DNC chairwoman. That leaves the contest between Ellison, Labor Secretary Tom Perez, New Hampshire chairman Ray Buckley, South Carolina chairman Jaime Harrison and Idaho Democratic Party executive director Sally Boynton Brown. | | Democrats' 2020 favorite: 'Someone entirely new' | | When USA Today and Suffolk University polled Democrats on their preference for a 2020 presidential candidate, the best-performing option was -- the option "someone entirely new." Writes USA Today's Susan Page: "When that description was included on a list of possible contenders, 66% of Democrats and independents said they would be "excited" to see such a person jump in the race; just 9% thought he or she shouldn't run. That's an overwhelming yes-please-run score of 57 percentage points for, you know, whomever."
The top-performing real person was Vice President Joe Biden, with 43% of Democrats polled saying they'd be excited if he ran in 2020 at the age of 78, compared with 31% saying they would prefer he not run, giving him a net positive of 12 points.
Here are where other big names stacked up:
Hillary Clinton: 23% excited; 62% not.
Bernie Sanders: 44% excited; 38% not.
Elizabeth Warren: 34% excited; 27% not.
Deval Patrick: 10% excited; 15% not. | | | North Carolina lawmakers are hitting stumbling blocks in their effort to repeal the state's "bathroom bill" today. ... Controversial (and suspended) Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore is on the list of candidates Gov. Robert Bentley's office is interviewing for the Senate seat of Jeff Sessions, who is President-elect Donald Trump's pick for attorney general. | | | We'd love to share our other newsletters with you. Check out Five Things for Your New Day, CNN's morning newsletter. Give us five minutes, and we'll brief you on all the news and buzz people will be talking about. | | | Get the Nightcap, a comprehensive summary of the most important political news, delivered to your inbox daily. | | | | | |
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