| | | | Trump's talk puts GOP in a jam | | President Donald Trump is making Capitol Hill Republicans nervous. As the party's House and Senate members huddle in Philadelphia during their annual retreat, Trump is leaving them with lots of hard questions to answer: How will they fund his border wall? How can they get Trump to stop revisiting torture and CIA black sites? And why won't he stop causing distractions with topics like voter fraud? CNN's Manu Raju, Deirdre Walsh and Ted Barrett look at these questions.
Trump had a busy Wednesday -- taking executive action to advance his border wall, speed up deportations and end federal grant funding for "sanctuary cities."
"That left Republicans scrambling with few details and fewer answers at a moment when they had intended to secure the opposite," write The Washington Post's Mike DeBonis, Kelsey Snell and Ed O'Keefe.
The main attraction in Philadelphia tomorrow: Trump will take his first trip on Air Force One to speak to Republicans at noon. Then Vice President Mike Pence will speak (translate?) at 2 p.m. ET. | | "Better to get your news directly from the President." -- Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, casting doubt on news media on the House floor last night. | | | Trump's voter fraud views come from ... a German golfer? | | Where did Trump get the idea that there's rampant voter fraud? From the German golfer Bernhard Langer, who isn't even eligible to vote in the United States -- or maybe one of Langer's friends -- per this illuminating story from The New York Times' Glenn Thrush.
An absolutely stunning paragraph from Thrush: "Ahead of and behind Mr. Langer were voters who did not look as if they should be allowed to vote, Mr. Trump said, according to the staff members -- but they were nonetheless permitted to cast provisional ballots. The president threw out the names of Latin American countries that the voters might have come from."
The topic was still on Trump's mind this morning: | | As we covered yesterday -- there is absolutely zero evidence to support Trump's claim that 3 to 5 million people illegally voted in the 2016 election. It's flat-out false. And though the White House insists it's launching an investigation, it is at this point a taxpayer-funded flight of political fancy -- or, as Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren put it tonight, a "pet political project."
Trump's definition of voter fraud seems to include his daughter and two top members of his administration. Note his mention of people being registered to vote in two states. Exhibit A: Trump's treasury secretary nominee Steven Mnuchin, who CNN's KFILE scoops is currently registered to vote in both California and New York. Exhibits B and C: Daughter Tiffany Trump and chief strategist Steve Bannon, per The Washington Post.
Listen, this is not a big deal. People die. People move. It's not unusual for it to take a while to delete their old voter registrations. But it's worth pointing out, since Trump seems to consider that situation "voter fraud" -- even though it's not, by any legal definition.
ABC's David Muir had a chance to press Trump on his claims in an interview airing today ... but didn't pin Trump down, getting nothing new.
An investigation is coming, nonetheless: | | Hill Republicans don't want to talk about this -- at all. House Oversight Committee Chairman Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, said tonight Trump's on his own if he wants an investigation. "If he wants to have an investigation, have at it. I just don't see any evidence of it," he said at the GOP retreat in Philadelphia.
Democrats are pushing back. They expect Republicans state lawmakers to follow Trump's "voter fraud" talk with more restrictive election laws. So Priorities USA is aiming to turn its nonprofit arm into the party's major hub to fight for voting access. Marc Elias, who was the Hillary Clinton campaign's attorney, is joining the Priorities USA board of directors and the organization is absorbing Every Citizen Counts, which spent $17 million in 2016 on Elias-led legal challenges last year. In addition to backing Elias' efforts, Priorities USA is also building a national database that's intended to serve as a one-stop inventory of restrictive voting measures that will be shared with other progressive organizations. And it plans to launch social advocacy campaigns around its efforts to fight those measures. The group soon plans to bring on more staff to support the effort. Here's my story. | | | That chyron though: Last summer, Democratic Texas Rep. Filemon Vela wrote an open letter to then-presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump writing, "Mr. Trump, you're a racist and you can take your border wall and shove it up your a--." He was on CNN today slamming Trump's border wall, saying the United States should see Mexico as an ally and not an enemy. "I call this the great big lie because there is no way Mexico is going to pay for this wall and this cost, which is a ridiculous cost to begin with, is going to be passed on to the American taxpayer," he said. | | Waterboarding: Good or bad? | | President Donald Trump said in an interview with ABC News that he wants to "fight fire with fire" when it comes to stopping terrorism, suggesting he could be open to bringing back torture because he "absolutely" believes it works, CNN's Dan Merica writes.
But he would be going against the views of his Defense Secretary James Mattis, who opposes waterboarding as a form of torture. CIA Director Mike Pompeo told senators earlier this month that he wouldn't sanction the use of torture, though he later said he would consider bringing back waterboarding and other "enhanced interrogation" measures under certain circumstances. The two were "blindsided" by reports that Trump wants to bring back such measures, per Politico's Austin Wright.
Arizona Sen. John McCain's take: Trump can't bring back torture. "The President can sign whatever executive orders he likes. But the law is the law. We are not bringing back torture in the United States of America," he said. | | | President Donald Trump's company has hired longtime Republican lawyer Bobby Burchfield as part of its plan to address the president's potential conflicts of interest. ... Trump said the White House has "beautiful phones." ... Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard met with President Bashar al-Assad during a secret, four-day trip to Syria. | | | 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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