19 Mar
2018
As a possible government shutdown looms (yawn!), President Trump Takes Aim at Robert Mueller
- Good morning! We’ve written about pending government shutdowns so often that it would seem more of a surprise if Congress went a month without a threatened closure. But here we are again: The government will shut down Friday without a budget resolution. Neither the House nor the Senate has passed a bill to fund the government. And President Trump has said he will veto anything that contains money for a new tunnel between NY and NJ.
- Since he subpoenaed business records from the Trump Organization, Special Counsel Robert Mueller has been under renewed fire from the White House, with President Trump over the weekend abandoning the advice of his lawyers to avoid directly attacking Mueller. The president used Mueller’s name on Twitter for the first time, raising questions about whether Trump might again be laying the groundwork to try to get Mueller fired.
- President Trump further charged that former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe had constructed “Fake Memos” of his conversations with the president and lashed out yet again at former FBI director James Comey and the entire Mueller investigation. Republicans Trey Gowdy and Lindsay Graham voiced sharp warnings to President Trump against trying to fire Mueller, which the president doesn’t have the power to do directly.
- The president has yet to tweet his congratulations after Russian President Vladimir Putin garnered 75 percent of the vote in cruising to reelection Sunday. The victory, of course, was too predictable – meaning it was buried well off the front page in most papers. But what does the reelection mean? On Monday the Atlantic Council will probe the issue by “Looking Ahead at the Next Presidential Term in Russia.” And on Tuesday the Wilson Center asks, “Putin’s Fourth Term: What’s Next?”
- Putin’s name is likely to come up in another context on Wednesday when the Senate Intelligence Committee, in a rare open hearing, continues its work on election security. Having missed its first deadline of the Texas primary, it is likely to miss another with the Illinois primary on Tuesday. But with no more state primaries until May, the committee hopes to get its recommendations declassified and out to the states.
- The long-awaited but unsurprising report from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence about Russian meddling (or lack thereof) in the 2016 presidential election is expected to be adopted Thursday in committee business meeting. Committee Chairman Devin Nunes said “we hope our findings and recommendations will be useful for improving security and integrity for the 2018 midterm elections.”
- President Trump will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Tuesday before the crown price embarks on a two-week coast-to-coast tour meant to strengthen business ties between the two countries, even as members of Congress are trying to cut off American military support for a Saudi-led bombing campaign in Yemen. On Monday, the Wilson Center holds a teleconference on “Where is the U.S.-Saudi Relationship Headed?”, while on Wednesday a House Foreign Affairs panel looks at the “Implications of a U.S.-Saudi Arabia Nuclear Cooperation Agreement for the Middle East.”
- You like budget hearings? We got ‘em. On Tuesday, House Appropriations subcommittees will hear from Ben Carson of HUD, Wilbur Ross of Commerce, and Betsy DeVos of Education, while Senate Energy hears from Rick Perry and House Armed Services hears from the Army, Navy and Air Force Secretaries. On Wednesday,Secretary Sonny Perdue visits the Agriculture subcommittee, and Senate Veterans Affairs committee considers fiscal 2020 requests. On Thursday, Ways and Means sits down with Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, while Senate Banking plans an oversight visit with Ben Carson.
- Kevin Hassett, Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, will travel to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to deliver the Economic Report of the President to theSenate Budget Committee. Nothing in the report, alas, about America’s trade deficit with Canada, which President Trump boasted last week that he made up while talking with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
- Trade policy will be on the agenda on Capitol Hill this week as well, with the House Ways and Means Committee convening a hearing on Wednesday on the U.S. Trade Policy Agenda. And on Thursday, U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will dash up the Hill to brief the Senate Finance Committee on “The President’s 2018 Trade Policy Agenda.” Presumably he won’t be making it up.