Senate Republican rejects Trump's 'blackmail' on NAFTA

Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., is warning President Trump that he and other Republicans won't be bullied into abandoning NAFTA, and said Trump has no power to unilaterally withdraw from the agreement.

"To pressure us into voting for an agreement that diminishes free trade, some in the administration suggest offering a grim choice: either approve a diminished NAFTA, or the president will unilaterally withdraw the U.S. from the existing NAFTA, leaving no NAFTA at all," Toomey wrote in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.

"If presented with this ultimatum, I will vote 'no,' urge my colleagues to do likewise, and oppose any effort by the administration to withdraw unilaterally," he added in his op-ed, titled "Don't Try to Blackmail Us on NAFTA, Mr. President."

Trump has been pushing to renegotiate NAFTA to improve the deal for U.S. manufacturers and help bring jobs back to the U.S. But it's not clear Canada and Mexico will agree to a new deal, which has left Trump warning that he would move to exit the deal completely.

But Toomey's op-ed reminded Trump that Congress controls trade policy, and that there's no mechanism in the law for any president to withdraw.

"A president can no more repeal NAFTA than he can repeal ObamaCare or create a new NAFTA without Congress’s approval," he wrote.

Instead, Toomey said Trump should take on advice from lawmakers about how to update NAFTA. That includes looking for ways to get Canada to lower its barriers to dairy products, and get Mexico to open its energy market, he said.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate-republican-rejects-trumps-blackmail-on-nafta

>>1370789

>>1370884

I agree, was a bad deal from the start. Thinking we will see something on this front soon.

Mark Meadows to seek GAO audit of Mueller investigation

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., will seek a financial audit of special counsel Robert Muller’s investigation into whether President Trump colluded with the Russians ahead of the 2016 election.

Meadows, who sits on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said in an interview for C-SPAN's Newsmakers airing Sunday that the audit is needed to ensure the Mueller team is properly spending the millions of dollars allocated so far to the Russia collusion probe. The audit would also provide information about the scope of the investigation, which the Mueller team has resisted providing to Congress.

Meadows said he would ask next week to have the Government Accountability Office conduct the audit, although it's not clear if Mueller would be compelled to turn over the information.

"There will be a request from us to audit the financial resources of this investigation," Meadows said. "It is certainly within the parameters. It is appropriated funding from Congress."

Republican lawmakers have been at odds with the Department of Justice over a memo Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein wrote to Mueller last summer that provided the parameters of the Trump-Russia probe. The department has refused requests to turn over the memo, arguing earlier this month that doing so would “threaten the integrity,” of the investigation.

The Justice Department reported in December that Mueller had spent nearly $7 million on the first four months of the investigation.

https:// www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/congress/mark-meadows-to-seek-gao-audit-of-mueller-investigation

>>1371009

Thank you for the explanation, I did understand Mirror effect, which was why I posted this to begin with. I think it's important for posterity to have documentation of what is really happening since we have it all.