Category Archives: Donald Trump

Cillizza: Polling suggests this is Macron's to lose. Is there any sense he might? And if he does, why is that?

Bell: A word on polls, first of all. The polling in France has proved much more accurate than the polling in either the British referendum or the US presidential election. French pollsters had explained to me in the run-up to the first round of voting that they did not believe they were likely to get caught out in the same way. They explained that France has long had a far right and a far left vote and that they are far more used to weighting their results than Anglo-Saxon pollsters.

The "vote that dare not speak its name" is something that they are better equipped to hear because they are more used to factoring it in. And so it proved. In the first round of voting on April 23, the pollsters were very close to the final result. There is no reason to think that this won't also be true in the second.

The concern has been that some external factor might come and disrupt the process ahead of the run-off. France's two-round system gives the French the luxury of voting with their hearts in the first round and their minds in the second. Or, as the French sometimes put it, of voting in favor of someone in the first and then against someone in the second. Which means that there has been little doubt in the minds of many people that even though Le Pen got through the first round, she would be less likely to get past the second.

France is taking the leaks very seriously, threatening legal action against any who might try to share the contents of the leaked documents. The blackout period in which we find ourselves means that the French will not know what is in the leaked documents and, therefore, whether they are merely embarrassing or more damaging than that. And so they will go to the polls with this confusion hanging over them. Having said that, I do not believe that this could in any way allow a Le Pen victory. It might cause her score to be slightly above what it might have been but probably marginally.

Cillizza: Le Pen was all the buzz in the first vote. But it feels like there has been less interest in her since. Why?

Bell: The "entre-deux-tours," which began on April 23 and ends tomorrow morning, really marked a new phase of the campaign. And one during which Le Pen was considered to have started strong. The first week following the first round really saw her dominate the headlines and the campaign. She made a number of television appearances in which she seemed more gracious and presidential than she had in the past. She seemed to have the upper hand and many people began to wonder if perhaps she had been underestimated.

But then the big "entre-deux-tours" debate put an end to that. Rather than continue what had appeared a winning strategy and looking to win the election rather than the debate, she went on the attack from the very first minute of the live broadcast, setting the tone for what became a brutal two-and-a-half-hour war of words between the two candidates. She came off far worse, weak on the economy and Europe, and generally out of her depth. From then on in, it all went downhill, with protesters turning up at her events and images of her fleeing dominating the headlines.

Cillizza: We hear a lot about terrorism and immigration as issues in the race. Are they the dominant ones French people are voting on? Or is there other stuff that we don't hear about in the states?

Bell: Immigration and terrorism have been put center stage by the far right and have, as result, been central. But Le Pen's message goes further than that; it is really that she wants to make France great again by making it French again. In a sense immigration and dealing with terrorism are just the first stage in what she seeks.

She has really ramped up the nationalist rhetoric of late. Shes also adopted an economic program that is very left wing. She wants to beef up Frances already-substantial welfare state, leave the European Union and introduce economically protectionist measures to help boost the economy. There is a lot of President Trump in what she sells. And she has regularly said that she believes that his victory merely foreshadowed her own.

Cillizza: If Macron wins, having started a totally new party, what does that tell us about the state of the French political system? What about if Le Pen wins?

Bell: It tells us several things. That the French were really ready for change because this is quite revolutionary. Macron wants to get rid of the party career politicians that have dominated French politics for decades and who tend to be recycled not for years but for decades. He wants to choose his ministers and the MPs that he will be putting forward in Junes parliamentary elections from civil society. He has already redrawn Frances political map by pushing out of the first round the two candidates of the parties that have shared power in France since 1958. In that perhaps France has managed where Britain and the US had failed: To find a progressive answer to the need for change and to stop the populist wave.

If Le Pen wins, it tells us that once again the anger of a part of the electorate that we have trouble hearing has proved far stronger than anyone had imagined. But this time with far more serious consequences since a French president has far more unchecked power in his (or her) hands on a national level than an American one. And the changes she is promising including the withdrawal from the Euro, could shake global markets for years to come.

Cillizza: Finish this sentence: "If Macron wins, his relationship with President Trump will be ________." Now, explain.

Bell: "Complicated." Emmanuel Macron represents all that Donald Trump is not. He represents the world order that Trump has kicked against: Consensus based on the idea of shared values rather than the single-minded pursuit of individual interests. He is pro-European and pro-globalization. He will represent a boost to the camp of world leaders who worry about populists and want them contained.

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Why Emmanuel Macron is the anti-Donald Trump - CNN

President Donald Trumps first 100 days were devoid of any promised dealmaking triumphs, and was followed by a budget deal in which Democrats won almost everything they wanted, and Trump got nothing but a tiny fig-leaf hologram funding for border security that he tried in vain to pretend was initial funding for his wall.Trumps initial record of non-accomplishment was striking enough to start raising questions about his self-branding as a consummate dealmaker.

Which is why getting Obamacare repeal through the House was a very big deal even though it may well put the GOP House majority at risk, despite epic levels of gerrymandering.

Cook Political Report immediately shifted its ratings of 20 GOP seats the day after the vote, saying, House Republicans willingness to spend political capital on a proposal that garnered the support of just 17 percent of the public in a March Quinnipiac poll is consistent with past scenarios that have generated a midterm wave.

Details like that are not Trumps problem, however. They never are in the deals he cuts. He needed the House repeal vote to restore his get-things-done image. He needed a big win, and the fake news media he loves to hate has already helped him on that score. But thats not what comes out of a closer side-by-side look at his budget-deal failure and the Trumpcare success.

In big-picture terms, the budget bill contained no funding of the border wall; no defunding of sanctuary cities, Obamacare subsidies or Planned Parenthood; no drastic cuts to the EPA; and a $2 billion increase for the National Institutes of Health, in place the $1.2 billion cut sought by Trump. Obamacare repeal even more blatantly doesnt deliver what Trump promised. It will cut roughly 24 million people off of Medicaid, as the CBO score of the last bill showed, while Trump promised to protect Medicaid. It will reduce Medicare benefits, which Trump also promised to protect, and it will gut coverage for pre-existing conditions.

In short, Trumps success in repealing and replacing is a much worse deal than failure would have been. It even makes his budget failure look like a sparkling success. To see things any other way as Trump and the GOP so desperately want you to do you not only have to ignore the facts, but an almost unprecedented chorus of voices from civil society as well: the American Medical Association, AARP, the March of Dimes, etc.

Its still possible that Trump could pull this deal off more possible than most people realize. The Senate could pass a significantly less draconian health care bill, and the House could approve it or a compromise bill worked out in a conference committee thereby providing survival ammunition for House members who just cast seemingly suicidal votes. Maybe only 14 million people would lose coverage. Maybe pre-existing condition protections would be significantly spared. Trump would win. He wouldnt have delivered what he promised, but the political damage would be sustainable perhaps. Such an outcome could easily help build GOP support for him, which in turn might make it possible for him to accomplish other things as well. So from Trumps point of view, its worth the risk that other people alone will carry.

This is the real meaning of the Art of the Deal for Trump: Its not the actual content of the deal that matters, its how youre able to portray it to the world, and use it as a stepping-stone to the next deal, and the one after that.

But what does Trumps actual record as a dealmaker look like? The Art of the Deal was ghostwritten for Trump by Tony Schwartz in the mid-1980s and published in 1987, just two years after Trump destroyed the USFL, with his suicidal effort to go head to head against the NFL, a truly artful deal if ever there was one. As Schwartz told Jane Mayer last July, he now regrets his role in helping create Trumps image. If he were writing it today, Schwartz said, it would be a very different book with a very different title. Asked what he would call it, he answered, The Sociopath. As a magazine writer, he had previously painted a very different picture of Trump, Mayer recalled:

In 1985, hed published a piece inNew Yorkcalled A Different Kind of Donald Trump Story, which portrayed him not as a brilliant mogul but as a ham-fisted thug who had unsuccessfully tried to evict rent-controlled and rent-stabilized tenants from a building that he had bought on Central Park South. Trumps efforts which included a plan to house homeless people in the building in order to harass the tenants became what Schwartz described as a fugue of failure, a farce of fumbling and bumbling.

Thats a far more representative picture of what Trumps deal-making is all about. He frequently pays too much or otherwise invests foolishly, counting on his ability to squeeze the life out of others down the line, as hes done in numerous lawsuits over the years. Altogether, USA Today counted more than 3,500 lawsuitsin which Trump has been involved. Its reporters compared Trumps litigation record to five other top real-estate figures, and found that Trump has been involved in more legal skirmishes than all five of the others combined.

This record alone shows that Trumps not a good dealmaker. A good deal is one that leaves everybody happy. Trump points out that he won most of the suits hes involved in, but thats largely because he was usually matched against people with far fewer resources who simply couldnt spend enough to have a chance. The main point, however, is that a good dealmaker would never have been involved in so many lawsuits to begin with.

Prior to The Art of the Deal, Trumps initial success owed far more to his father than he ever admits thanks to a million-dollar loan and was matched by an ongoing string of failures as well. Afterward, he bankrupted himself in the casino business, a truly remarkable feat. He then recovered with substantial help from shadowy international partnerships. Indeed, it could be argued that a major reason he keeps his taxes hidden is to keep the world from knowing exactly how the image of his economic recovery was fabricated.

Many of the sordid highlights were captured by Kurt Eichenwald last August, in a story simply titled, Donald Trumps Many Business Failures, Explained. Summing up his account of Trumps early record, Eichenwald wrote:

Trump is rich because he was born rich and without his father repeatedly bailing him out, he would have likely filed for personal bankruptcy before he was 35. His casino failures had multiple causes, including his own indisciplined management style. Another key problem was his shaky financing. He promised the Casino Control Commission that banks would be practically throwing money at him, and at prime rates, unlike other developers dependent on high-interest junk bonds which he ended up using himself, after all the banks turned him down. But the most glaring cause of Trumps casino failures was his impulsive investment in three competing casinos, pitting them against one another a truly delusional alt-business plan.

But its Trumps recovery after his casino disasters on which he built his current reputation. One aspect of this fraud is clearly visible, Eichenwald notes. Trump falsely claimed in two of his books that he owed $9.2 billion, rather than the actual number, $3.4 billion, making his recovery seem far more impressive. How much he actually repaid, how much he wriggled out of, how much was paid by taxpayers as he deducted it from his taxes going forward we cant know any of this for certain, because he wont release his taxes. But it seems probable that Trump only recovered from bankruptcy through four main avenues, in which he made money in various ways, regardless of how well the deals involved turned out.

First, Trump cashed in on reality TV with The Apprentice, a show that made the top 10 only in its first season, and never made the top 40 in its Celebrity reboot. The illusion of his success with this show was bolstered by NBCs prolonged ratings struggles over the same time, making Trump a big fish in a shrinking small pond.

Second, Trump used the illusion of this success to open a variety of other doors, especially naming-rights deals some in construction, and others in a wide range of businesses he knew little about and never really took seriously. Many of these have failed. Rolling Stone chronicled some of them in Donald Trumps 13 Biggest Business Failures: Trump magazine, Trump Mortgage, Trump Steaks, Trump Vodka and of course Trump University.

Third, Trump engaged in wide-ranging deals with Russian and other kleptocratic actors willing to lose large sums in order to launder the rest, as I described here in January, drawing largely on The Curious World of Donald Trumps Private Russian Connections by investigative economist and journalist Jim Henry. As I noted then:

Trumps various unsavory Russia connections arent one-offs, Henry argues. He proceeds to document a much broader pattern, showing that whatever the nature of President-elect Donald Trumps relationship with President Putin, he has certainly managed to accumulate direct and indirect connections with a far-flungprivateRussian/FSU network of outright mobsters, oligarchs, fraudsters, and kleptocrats.

Trump has engaged in deals with similarly suspect actors all across the globe, including figures associated with authoritarian leaders he has recently praised, such as Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Turkey and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines. Russia isnt alone, but its emblematic of the kind of dark dealmaking on which Trumps post-casino bankruptcy reputation was built.

None of these deal models are generally viable. Theyrepresent niche and/or quasi-criminal exploits that are commonly shunned by those with actual top-notchdealmaking abilities. Working so long in such sub-prime situations, Trump has lost whatever real first-classdealmaking acumen he might once have had and Eichenwalds reporting casts considerable doubt on how much acumen he ever had. So its really no surprise weve seen Trump floundering so far, and we should only expect more of the same.

The House repeal of Obamacare is being touted as a counternarrative: See, Trump can get things done after all. But a White House celebration after passing a bill through the House is more a sign of weakness than of strength. No one seems to remember any previous president ever doing such a thing. It reads less as confidence than as desperation, unless the president can fool folks into believing otherwise. And fooling people unlike dealmaking is something that Trump actually excels at.

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Donald Trump finally gets a bill passed but his history of dealmaking is still full of failure - Salon

EXCLUSIVE

Donald Trump's star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame is now the gold standard for vandalism -- it got hit again ... this time with a toilet.

A golden toilet was placed right next to Trump's star at some point between Saturday and Sunday, which was filled with ... something wet and gross. It also looks like someone broke the toilet tank, which originally read "Take A Trump."

Law enforcement sources tell us no one has reported the vandalism, and they're not yet investigating the toilet prank. We've reached out to the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce as well, which oversees the stars' maintenance ... so far, no word back.

This is the latest attempt to deface Trump's star on Hollywood Blvd., and they don't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. Someone scribbled "F*** Trump" on his star just last month ... and, of course, James Otis took a pick ax to the thing in October.

It's clean up duty again for someone.

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Donald Trump's Star Gets the Toilet Treatment ... Wanna 'Take a Trump?' - TMZ.com

Picture: Facebook / Flying Pigs on Parade

Sometimes it's had to block out hearing or seeing Donald Trump's name, with him being the president of the US and all.

But how about with gold helium balloon pigs? Four of them will soon be floating outside Trumps tower in Chicago, right over that smug logo.

Flying Pigs on Parade calls itself a visual representation of animal farm, to provide visual relief to the citizens of Chicago by interrupting the view of the ostentatious Trump Tower Chicago sign.

The website states:

The project is a bold visual response to the loud, illogical and frequently hateful expressions that engulfed the elections and now define the activities of U.S. leadership. We see this folly as a gesture in support of those of more rational, optimistic and inclusive minds. We are proud and rational Americans.

The scheme is currently raising money, because the cost of the instillation, which will only be up for one day, will be around $100,000. No one said art was cheap.

A 30-foot inflatable pig was held above Battersea Power Station in a recreation of Pink Floyd's 'Animals' album cover on September 26, 2011 in London, England. The original balloon 'Algie' went up in 1977 for the album cover, but broke free on the second day of the photo shoot. (Picture: Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

Many believed Donald Trump had little chance from winning the US presidency.

The expression "When pigs fly" comes to mind...

More: This rape survivor has an important message for Donald Trump

More: Donald Trump's Rupert Murdoch revelations are utterly terrifying

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Outside Donald Trump's offices, pigs will fly - The indy100 (satire)

Donald Trump promised to shake up Washington and in many ways, he's lived up to his promise. From his Day One battle over inaugural crowd size to claims of wiretapping by his predecessor, AP looks at some key moments of Trump's first 100 days. (April 27) AP

In this March 20 photo, President Trump arrives to speak at a rally at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville.(Photo: Andrew Harnik, AP)

WASHINGTON President Trump has headlined four big rallies in the first months of his presidency to tout his agenda and savage his foes. A new$1.5 million television ad campaign promotes his accomplishments and attacks the media.

The flurry of activity to build support for Trumps policies isnt organized by the White House but springs from his re-election campaign, which filed paperwork allowing him to begin raising and spending money on Jan. 20 the same day he took the oath of office. By contrast, both President Obama and President George W. Bush had been in office for more than two years before they filed for re-election.

Traditionally, presidents use federal money to push their policies and refrain from overtly political activity until later in their terms. But Trumps unorthodox move to immediately start fundraisingallows him to capitalize on federal election laws to push his agenda in new ways. He can rally his supporters, openly denounce his political enemies and pressure recalcitrant lawmakers in Congress all without running afoul of rules that bar using taxpayer money for politics.

Trump's perpetual campaign operation isanother sign of the ways the billionaire president isupendingpolitical norms.

"I don't think it should surprise anyone that he's continuing to break the mold and come up with new and innovative ways to exercise the power of the presidency and run for re-election," said Michael Glassner, a longtime campaign aide whom Trump tapped to serve as executive director of the re-election effort."It's a continuation of his reinvention of the American political system."

Campaign finance experts say operating as a candidategives Trumpthe legal freedom to act in ways that he can't as president.

At a taxpayer-funded rally, for instance, it might be harder for Trumptotoss out protesters.At campaign events, Trump can and does. At a recent Harrisburg, Pa., rally to mark his 100th day in office, the president yelled get him out of here as police removed a protester, who had waved a Russian flag and called Trump a traitor.

Trumps strategy helps him make sure the audience is friendly, and it frees him up to say what he wants, said Larry Noble, a former Federal Election Commission official who works for the Campaign Legal Center watchdog group.

But by legally declaring his candidacy on his first day in office, he made it very partisan immediately, Noble added. We didnt have any period when we could look at the president as the president of the whole country.

Glassner said the campaign doesn't restrict attendanceat Trumpevents.

Participants needtickets to attend, however.That ticketing allows the campaign aides to growTrump's already massive database of supporters and their addresses another way to solicit campaign donations and to mobilize Trump-friendly votersfor policy battles he' s wagingin Washington.

Glassner estimates that roughly55,000 people have attended Trump's rallies so far this year.

Lew Oliver, chairman of the Orange County Republican Party in central Florida, said Trump seems to draw energy from the rallies. They also have the added benefit of reminding the federal lawmakersup for re-election in 2018 of the support he enjoys among Republican voters outside Washington. Two of Trumps recent rallies in Melbourne, Fla., and Harrisburg underscore his victories in those crucial swing states.

Keeping constituents in campaign mode is a way of keeping the base energized to put pressure on Republicans in Congress, Oliver said.

"I think everything he does projects the power and authority of the presidency, and this is part of that," Glassner said of the rallies."It is a way to exhibit to Democrats and Republicans that he is a force to be reckoned with and that the enthusiasm for him outside the Beltway has not diminished."

Because television networks carry the events live "it's really an uncensored, unfiltered way for him to communicate with Americans," Glassner added.

The campaign also communicates with more than 22million supporters via Facebook. Onepostcelebrated Friday'sHouse passage of a health-care bill to repeal and replace Obamacare. Another accuses television networks of censoring Trump. Several networks, including CNN, declinedto run the campaign's 100-day ad because it attacks the media as "fake news."

Trump in Nashville: 'Time for us to embrace our glorious national destiny'

Read more:

In major victory for Republicans, House passes Obamacare repeal

Trump campaign blasts CNN for not airing 100 days ad

The early activity already appears to be paying off financially for Trumps campaign and the Republican Party.

Donald J. Trump for President Inc.raised $7.1million in the first three months of the year, far surpassing the $1.15 million that Obama's campaign committee brought in during the first quarter of his presidency. Altogether, the Republican National Committee, Trump and theirjoint fundraising committeestopped $53 million during the first quarter of 2017, much of it fueled by the same kind of small-dollar donors who flocked to Trump's 2016 campaign.

If Team Trump maintains that pace, fundraising could surpass $400 million by the end of 2018, shooting pastthe $343 million the RNC took in during the 2016 presidential election cycle.

Glassner would not discuss the campaign's fundraising goals, but said it's not too soon to prepare for the "tremendous monetary costs" ahead.

Trumps go-early approach could fundamentally alter how campaigns are financed for years to come, said Michael Toner, a Republican election lawyer and former Federal Election Commission chairman.

Trump's move to raise money from Day One on the job could emerge as the new blueprint for presidents, Toner said. And you have to wonder: Does this accelerate the decision-making for the people who are thinking about challenging him?

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President Trump seizes on election rules to push his agenda in new ways - USA TODAY

Its not every day that, while taking a photo of two celebrities, another sneaks their way into it. While attending Andres Serranos show at Frieze New York, a guest was about to snap a photo of portraits of Donald Trump and Snoop Dogg hanging side-by-side when who should show up but Martha Stewart, armed with the bird in one hand and a peace sign in the other.

The photo, first spotted by The Cut, quickly went viral, with more than 3,000 likes on the original photo at time of writing.

Neither Stewart nor Snoop is a big fan of Trump, the former voicing her support for Hillary Clinton throughout last years campaign, and the latter having just released a music video featuring himself shooting a clown dressed as Trump.

Stewart shared a more safe-for-work version of the photo on her own Instagram accountas well as an announcement about her show with Snoop on VH1:

So, thats twenty more episodes of Martha and Snoops Potluck Dinner Party, plus the two will be appearing at Sundays 2017 MTV Movie & TV Awards. And what better way to advertise it than by crashing an art show and flipping the bird at the president? If Snoops not around, at least Stewart had a convenient portrait to stand in for him.

More:

Martha Stewart Appears to Give Donald Trump the Middle Finger - Vanity Fair

Variety

All Major TV Networks Block Trump's 'Fake News' Ad Variety The major television networks have all decided not to run Donald Trump's so-called fake news ad, according to a statement released by his daughter-in-law Lara Trump. Lara, an adviser on Trump's 2020 campaign, called the rejection a chilling ... Watch The Donald Trump Ad The Mainstream Media Don't Want You To SeeThe Federalist all 37 news articles »

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All Major TV Networks Block Trump's 'Fake News' Ad - Variety

It's been another doozy of a week in Washington, D.C. Sometimes, its almost impossible to keep up with it all, from the Senate Judiciary Committee hearingon Russian interference in the 2016 election, to a slew of executive orders being delivered from the new White House administration, to the new health care bill. Even reporters covering the ongoings of the capital are finding it difficult to follow all of the developments.

And yet, President Donald Trump, the man who has managed to turn the "politics as usual"sentiment upside-down, continues to find time to write his supporters, critics and 28 million Twitter followers a quick guide to his days in the Oval Office and beyondwhether theyre asking for it or not.

Related: New site lets you donate to causes Trump hates every time he tweets

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Trump's tweets provide more than just a SparkNotes-stylebreakdown of the week, however: Theyre the best glimpse the American public has inside the presidents headspace, as he maintains his tendency to shoot from the hip after 100 days in office. His Twitter account also serves as a catalogof what the leader of the free world was focused on during global crisesand crucial moments in his own presidency.

An anti-Trump demonstrator interacts with Trump supporters in New York City on May 4. Reuters

Lets walk through the presidents thoughts and activities this week via his personal Twitter account:

The president spoke of North Korea only once this week on hisTwitter account, when he blasted the oppressive regime for its failed weekend missile test launch. Trump also managed to praise Chinese President Xi Jinping within the same 140 characters, saying the nation "disrespected the wishes of China [and]its highly respected president."

Trump (once again) targeted the "mainstream (FAKE) media"for its coverage of his first 100 days in office, claiming most news networks were refusing to acknowledge the bevy of executive orders he had signed in histenure as president. The president retweeted a hot take from Foxs Tucker Carlson, posted to the Fox Nation Twitter account, claiming the Democrats are using the Russian cyberattacks on the election as a political tool to make the president less popular.

The president wants you to know he beat former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. He won. Bigly. Got it?

Trump celebrated a "big win"for the Republican Party after a repeal-and-replacebill to begin the process of overturning former President Barack Obamas landmark legislation, the Affordable Care Act, barely scraped through the House.

The Senate won't vote on the congressional billsenators plan on making their own version instead. But Trumps Twitter was still ablaze with victory tweets. (Oh yeah, and Obamacare still sucks, according to Trump.)

Trump signed acontroversial religious liberty orderthis week with little support from either party, but a whole lot of love from his baseand the man who hasbeen by his side through it all: Vice President Mike Pence. The VP has reportedly been pushing for this order to be signed into law ever since the pair took office. It aims to provide legal protectionfor religious groups claiming exceptions to Obamacare mandatesand undermines enforcement of legislation that prevents nonprofits from explicitpolitical activity.

Notice the #ICYMI hashtag Trump expertly used to remind his followers he's workingor at least signing off on ordersthroughout the weekend.

You'd think a president wouldn't have enough time to compose snarky, shady tweets toward his critics in a day filled with controversy, big meetings, executive order signings, photo opportunities and negotiations on crucial legislation. You'd be wrong.

Trump managed to shade the Democrats nearly every single day of the week in some fashion. Trump seems to have no plans to tone down his public persona, for better or worse, with his lowapproval ratings largely unchanged after his busy week.

(Oh yeah, and Andrew Jackson is his new favorite president, since Trump says Jackson could have stopped the American civil war. See you next week.)

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Donald Trump's Tweets of the Week: Blasting North Korea, Shading the Democrats, Winning Bigly - Newsweek

Variety

FCC to Investigate Stephen Colbert Over Controversial Donald Trump Joke Variety Colbert faced backlash following the Monday night airing of The Late Show, during which he made numerous jokes about Trump during his opening monologue. Among them, he said, The only thing [Trump's] mouth is good for is being Vladimir Putin's ck ... Ajit Pai: FCC looking into Colbert's Trump jokeUSA TODAY FCC to investigate Stephen Colbert over Donald Trump jokeNew York Daily News Stephen Colbert's crude joke about Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin to be investigated by FCCTelegraph.co.uk all 128 news articles »

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FCC to Investigate Stephen Colbert Over Controversial Donald Trump Joke - Variety

"Let's get this f***ing thing done!" former combat fighter pilot, Air Force Colonel and Arizona Rep. Martha McSally exhorted her colleagues in a private pre-vote pep rally on Capitol Hill, as House Republicans entrusted their futures to fate and agreed to vote to repeal Obamacare.

Nearby, House Speaker Paul Ryan was "giddy," said one colleague, sensing the narrowest of reputation-saving wins after a trial by political fire. Down Pennsylvania Avenue, as Thursday's vote neared, President Donald Trump settled in front of a TV, his Twitter account poised, but slipping into the unusual state of calm that aides say envelops the hyperactive commander-in-chief when moments of history beckon.

Despite the Trump and GOP victory rally at the White House, the past few months are just an appetizer as the bill goes to the Senate and members head home to their constituents. There will be more rounds of Republican strife and debates over arcane parliamentary procedure with a new cast of lawmakers. Vice President Mike Pence -- who keeps Capitol Police officers busy with his frequent visits -- will spend more time in his Hill office. We'll see a new report of how the bill will impact Americans. The tweets will undoubtedly continue.

This article relates behind-the-scenes negotiations and the emotional and political storm that raged on Capitol Hill as the House GOP belatedly, but triumphantly, honored a promise to its voters that it first made seven years ago and has renewed many times since.

Based on dozens of conversations with Republican and Democratic leaders, lawmakers and political aides by CNN's teams on Capitol Hill and in the White House, it reveals how House GOP members finally steeled themselves to overcome the infighting and inaction that tarnished Trump's First 100 Days.

It is also the story of how the GOP decided that the price of inaction now was greater than the risk of passing a bill that even many Senate Republicans believe is deeply flawed.

"I think people in the House just simply wanted to get a bill out of the House and hoped that the Senate did something with it," said Rep. Charlie Dent, one of 20 Republicans who voted no.

But for those on the other side, victory tastes sweet.

"This is a great plan," Trump said at the White House, seemingly looking forward to the next round. "I actually think it will get even better. This is a repeal and replace of Obamacare. Make no mistake about it."

Flash back six weeks and it was all so different. After pulling an earlier version of the bill, a defeated Ryan admitted that Obamacare was "the law of the land," and that the GOP, for now, had missed its moment.

But health care reform still had a faint pulse.

A former opponent of the House bill, Sen. Rand Paul, wearing a Duke baseball cap from his alma mater, surprised the White House press pool after returning from golf with Trump on April 2, saying a deal was getting closer.

The President tweeted that "talks on Repealing and Replacing ObamaCare are, and have been, going on, and will continue until such time as a deal is hopefully struck."

It seemed like Trumpian bluster.

Ryan was also quietly regrouping. He let the dust settle amid humiliating questions about his leadership. Critics highlighted his apparently misfiring relationship with Trump.

In reality, that impression was premature. The two men -- opposites in temperament and style -- grew increasingly close in the foxhole in the weeks to come.

Even so, there was no immediate sense among GOP leaders that health care's time had come again. Committee chairs were gung ho to take on tax reform.

But Ryan did encourage members to keep talking about health care. Though optimism had been shattered, a more bottom-up approach was worth a shot. The Wisconsin Republican reasoned that time and rising political pressure on his members were needed to knit party splits before he could try again.

Throughout April they swapped legislative language, finally agreeing on a deal to allow states to seek waivers to weaken several key Obamacare reforms that protect those with pre-existing conditions. But in a concession to moderates, the provision would not apply to those who maintained continuous coverage.

Once what became known as the MacArthur amendment was codified, whip teams set about testing its support in the Republican conference and solidifying the votes of Freedom Caucus members, the senior GOP source said.

The White House was agitating for a vote as a capstone to a barren First 100 Days. A week ago, House leaders decided not to try to ram the bill through just to meet the arbitrary deadline. But despite another perceived failure, the process was "100 percent still alive," one senior GOP aide said.

Questions still lingered about pre-existing conditions -- resulting in Rep. Fred Upton's bombshell announcement that he would vote no, a brick wall that could have again blocked the GOP's efforts.

But after a meeting with the President alongside his colleague Billy Long of Missouri and a guarantee that funding for high risk pools would rise from $5 billion to $8 billion, Upton came on board. Though Democrats and many policy experts say $8 billion is a drop in the bucket of the cash needed to fund high risk pools, Upton's decision was crucial.

"It gave our guys a clear-cut reason to get to yes," one senior GOP aide said.

By Wednesday night, less than 12 hours after the full details emerged of the latest change to a seemingly ever evolving, always-rejected piece of legislation, Republican leaders met in Ryan's office. They didn't have a solid 216 yes votes, aides say. But they were close. Close enough to force the issue.

"It was time -- we felt it was moving in the right direction, but we also knew we'd hit a point of no return," one person directly involved in the process said.

Thursday, it was clear the play had paid off. They were locking in votes. Pledges from the Department of Health and Human Services helped flip two members. Leadership guarantees of future legislation brought along another. Ryan, who generally eschews the hard, one-on-one sell with wavering members, did just that, several times, one source said.

Implicit in all of it was protection --- in the form of supportive GOP groups come campaign time --- that would be there in spades for endangered members who went along, several sources said.

One member in the conference meeting, where colleagues were greeted by the theme tune from "Rocky" and snapshots of General George S. Patton, as well as McSally's rallying call, said the tone of Ryan's message to his troops was simple: "It's time to roll."

Trump waited for the vote in typical style: by tweeting.

"If victorious, Republicans will be having a big press conference at the beautiful Rose Garden of the White House immediately after vote!" he wrote Thursday afternoon.

And after weeks of misfires that exposed his inexperience in wooing Congress, he got his win.

"Coming from a different world, and only being a politician for a short period of time, how am I doing? Am I doing OK? I'm President. Hey, I'm President, do you believe it, right?" he crowed in the Rose Garden.

Months ago many of those beaming Republican leaders behind Trump had not believed it or in him. There had been whispers that Trump's loose tongue revealed his ignorance about what was in the bill and made compromise harder.

But by Thursday afternoon, Trump was pouring praise on Ryan and his crew, and it did seem that, in the President's words, the party had "developed a bond."

A White House official told CNN that Trump had kept up an intense push behind the scenes, ensuring that aides supported MacArthur and Meadows as they sought common ground and tasking HHS Secretary Tom Price with briefing wavering members on Medicaid funding.

He and Ryan swapped notes in multiple late night phone calls.

"The President's been incredibly engaged in this process, particularly over the last several days," deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders said.

For all his ham-fisted interventions, Trump has evolved through the health care process, aides believe. He now knows artificial deadlines cut no ice in Congress.

He's also learned the legislative process is more complex than the business world after running for office proclaiming his deal-making skills would take Washington by storm.

"It's not so cut and dry here," one aide said, explaining Trump's thinking. "There's so many more players involved and everybody has something that they want."

Still, you can't take the businessman out of the President -- he still prizes the personal touch, the person said.

Trump's flexibility likely helped too.

"This president probably has more philosophic dexterity than most of the presidents I've dealt with in the past," said South Carolina Rep. Mark Sanford, who voted for the bill. "That makes it a little bit different because typically there is sort of a fixed starting point or a fixed ending point on where an administration might be."

As the votes rolled in, Trump's coterie gathered in the dining room off the Oval Office, among them, Pence, Price, Trump's daughter Ivanka, son-in-law Jared Kushner, top Economic Adviser Gary Cohn, adviser Steve Bannon, counselor Kellyanne Conway, press aide Hope Hicks, political aide Dan Scavino and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Seema Verma.

It felt like election night all over again. "We were all overjoyed and he was very docile, frankly. Very hopeful but not prematurely celebrating. We saw the same thing today," one official said.

While Trump took the plaudits, many players in the drama spoke approvingly of Pence.

Even Dent, who voted against the bill, praised the Vice President's soft sell technique.

"He wanted to work with me. Very civil, very constructive meeting as you would expect from Mike Pence," Dent recalled. "I always get the sense that Mike Pence is the velvet glove, the soft touch. The good cop."

"He knows how to talk to people," he added.

Pence threw himself into the renewed push to pass health care soon after returning from a marathon trip to Asia. He was all over Capitol Hill over the last few days, forming a partnership with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, who roamed the House floor as the vote went ahead.

Pence's ubiquity did not go unnoticed.

A Capitol Police officer was overheard telling a colleague how he doesn't like the days when Pence is on the Hill because he likes to mingle so many members, the responsibility of protecting him becomes even more intense.

In 2010, then-Vice President Joe Biden called Obamacare a "big f***ing deal. His sentiments were similar, for other reasons, on Thursday.

"Day of shame in Congress. Protections for pre-existing conditions, mental health, maternity care, addiction services -- all gone," Biden tweeted.

Cries of "shame, shame, shame," greeted GOP lawmakers as they walked down the ornate steps on the East Front of the Capitol.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi warned the GOP: "You have every provision of this bill tattooed on your forehead. You will glow in the dark on this one."

But all may not be lost yet for the Democrats. The bill must go now to the Senate, and it emerged Thursday that the chamber will only use the House bill as a skeleton before writing its own legislation.

Now, House members are going home, where protesters and raucous town halls certainly await.

There is a feeling of accomplishment, several members acknowledged, that so far is a novelty in the new Republican era. They know what is ahead, and are ready.

"We know the fight that's coming," one senior GOP aide said. "We want that fight."

CNN's Dana Bash, Jeff Zeleny, Jim Acosta, MJ Lee and Athena Jones contributed to this report.

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How Trump won another unlikely victory - CNN