| | | | Conservatives tire of waiting for Obamacare repeal | | Per CNN's MJ Lee: Donald Trump vowed as a candidate to kill Obamacare in short order. But more than two weeks into his presidency, some Republicans are starting to ask: What happened to repealing the law quickly?
Talk of "repairing" the law -- and Trump's pronouncement to Fox News' Bill O'Reilly that his replacement could come in 2018, rather than this year -- has irked many on the right. "For goodness sake, we should be able to put something on President Trump's desk that's at least as good as what we put on President Obama's desk. Not something watered down," Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told CNN's MJ Lee. "Let's repeal it. Let's do what the voters sent us here to do."
Tomorrow night: Sens. Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz will debate health care in a live town hall at 9 p.m. ET on CNN.
On the calendar for Wednesday: A Heritage Foundation breakfast where Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, House Freedom Caucus Chairman Mark Meadows, R-North Carolina, and Jordan will call for the immediate repeal of the Affordable Care Act. The timing seems to be a response to Trump's suggestion the time frame could slip into 2018.
On the other side of the Capitol...
What Democrats are doing: Holding the Senate floor all night to rail against Trump's pick for education secretary, Betsy DeVos. Their hope: One more Republican will join Sens. Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski and vote to block DeVos' confirmation tomorrow. As it stands, Vice President Mike Pence is set to make history by becoming the first vice president to break a 50-50 tie on a vote to confirm a Cabinet nominee.
The story we're watching tomorrow:
Trump travel ban arguments: The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled oral arguments for Tuesday evening. The hourlong hearing, conducted by telephone among three West Coast judges at 6 p.m. ET, will determine the immediate fate of the nationwide temporary restraining order against Trump's travel ban.
Trump's Twitter attacks on the judge in the case are worrying the legal community, writes CNN's Ariane de Vogue ... but Republicans on Capitol Hill are giving him a pass, Politico's Burgess Everett, Rachael Bade and Kyle Cheney report.
| | President Donald Trump seemed to be watching CNN's "New Day" this morning: His attack on polls -- well, the polls that look bad for him, that is -- came 30 minutes after David Chalian revealed Trump's latest approval rating on air, CNN's eagle-eyed "Reliable Sources" newsletter author Brian Stelter writes.
Nightcap notes: Here are a couple of things you need to know about polling: 1) No, the national polls were not far off -- most had Hillary Clinton narrowly winning the popular vote and, well, she did. 2) What makes polling hard during election seasons is that pollsters have to figure out who's a "likely voter" -- and getting that right is key to producing an accurate sample. Not so now. This was a poll of all Americans -- representing the public at large's view of Trump.
The zeitgeist: Trump's "fake news" and adviser Kellyanne Conway's "alternative facts" are being skewered by more than "Saturday Night Live." Here's actor Seth Rogen: | | | A more serious take from activist Deray McKesson: | | | And Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-Texas: | | Trump, the press and ... bathrobes? | | | The New York Times' Glenn Thrush and Maggie Haberman dropped a blockbuster last night -- featuring scenes from the White House at night as they explored President Donald Trump's administration's efforts to retool after a rocky first two weeks. Trump didn't like it at all, tweeting in the noon hour today: | | Press secretary Sean Spicer lashed out over the story, too. "That story was so riddled with inaccuracies and lies that they owe the President an apology for the way that thing was written," he told reporters aboard Air Force One. "There were literally blatant factual errors, and it's unacceptable to see that kind of reporting."
Then there was this: Spicer made a claim -- "I don't think the President owns a bathrobe. He definitely doesn't wear one" -- that Twitter very quickly disproved: | | | Another White House vs. press dust-up -- this one featuring Kellyanne Conway, who CNN declined to interview on Jake Tapper's "State of the Union" with Vice President Mike Pence doing four of the other five morning shows: | | "The elitist, liberal, progressives have a plantation mentality that they don't think African-Americans should be out of government control." -- White House chief strategist Steve Bannon in a 2010 webinar for tea party activists, dug up by CNN's KFile. | | | 3 things you might have missed today | | | 1. A Democrat talks "impeachment." Rep. Maxine Waters said President Donald Trump's actions are "leading himself" to possible impeachment. "I have not called for the impeachment yet. He's doing it himself," Waters said. More from Daniella. 2. Pro-Trump group gets hacked: A prolific Republican super PAC pushing Trump's Cabinet took down its website temporarily on Monday after hackers got in and retitled sections "Make America S****y Again" and scrawled "Black Lives Matter" across the video section. More from CNN's Tom LoBianco.
3. Scott Pruitt made a false statement under oath? Per Fusion's Daniel Rivero: "President Donald Trump's nominee for administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency appears to have made a false statement under oath in his Senate confirmation hearing about his actions in a pending industrial waste case filed by the state of Oklahoma, a Fusion review of public records has found." | | | Kanye West deleted all his tweets defending his meeting in December with President Donald Trump. ... The organizers of last month's Women's March announced their intention to hold a general strike -- one where women everywhere would take the day off -- at a date to be determined. ... Trump lashed out at the nation's largest state, California. | | | 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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