dChan
Anonymous ID: 1d97b7 Jan. 16, 2019, 8:44 a.m. No.4778346   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8440

Hoping to keep his seat and wary of angering the base, McConnell defers to Trump on the shutdown

 

During former President Barack Obama’s tenure, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., first as the Senate minority leader and later majority leader, assumed the mantle of lead policy maker and negotiator for his party. But with President Trump in the White House and his agenda enjoying the broad support of GOP primary voters, especially on the border wall, McConnell views the political terrain and his leadership differently, say knowledgeable Republicans. That has led to deferring to the president on policy and strategy during the 26-day-old government shutdown when in the past he might have taken the reigns and killed it. McConnell’s overriding interest is avoiding the sort of public warfare with Trump that threatened to decapitate his majority early in 2018, before he reached a detente with the president, and put his conference in the best position to emerge from the 2020 primaries unscathed. The majority leader is among the Republicans up for re-election next year.

 

“The solution to the problem is for the president of the United States, the only person of the 330 million or so of us who can sign something into law, [to reach] an agreement with the Democratic majority in the House and enough Democrats in the Senate,” McConnell told reporters during his weekly news conference. “There's no way around that.” Asked if he would entertain legislation opening the government that could withstand a presidential veto, McConnell responded: “Of course not.” But some GOP operatives believe that McConnell, politically pragmatic, would pivot if the shutdown runs long and his members’ re-elections were imperiled.

 

For now, Republicans are giving McConnell a free hand, relieving internal pressure on the Kentuckian to break with President Trump and force an end to the historic closure. About a quarter of federal government operations shuttered in late December after Trump and Democrats in Congress failed to agree on funding for a construction of a wall along the Mexican border. McConnell has declined to play an active role in talks to reopen the government, insisting the onus is on the Democrats to work with Trump to resolve differences over immigration policy that spawned the shutdown. It’s an unusually detached approach for McConnell, often at the center of major negotiations in Washington. But it is a critical element of his strategy to keep Senate Republicans unified and forestall a debilitating civil war with Trump ahead of 2020.

 

“The leader understands that everybody has different political needs and demands in their states. But I think he believes that it’s important that we not split our conference by forcing a vote on something that the president will veto,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, who spent the last six years as McConnell’s deputy, said Tuesday in an interview with the Washington Examiner. Privately, many GOP insiders are wary of waging a protracted shutdown. Over the years, the tactic has proven woefully ineffective, and a fresh batch of public opinion polls revealed that voters are blaming Trump and Republicans for this latest showdown, rejecting arguments that recalcitrant Democrats are responsible. McConnell is probably among the skeptics.

 

In the past, McConnell killed efforts to shut down the government when he could and rushed to negotiate a way out when he couldn’t. To the surprise of some Democrats, the majority leader has not reprised his usual role. “I’m disappointed that he’s absent because Leader McConnell [was] such an important player in resolving shutdowns in the past,” Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., said. “He’s made repeated public statements that he thinks shutdowns are bad for his caucus, bad for the Senate, bad for the country.”

 

There’s another nagging issue that has stopped McConnell from getting too involved in the shutdown talks. He doesn’t trust Trump. In late December, before he essentially removed himself and passed the baton to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., McConnell thought he had Trump’s approval for a bill that would keep the government open until early February in exchange for $1.6 billion in border security funding. After the Senate voice-voted the bill — meaning every single Republican supported it, Trump changed his mind and opposed it.

 

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/hoping-to-keep-his-seat-and-wary-of-angering-the-base-mcconnell-defers-to-trump-on-the-shutdown

Anonymous ID: 1d97b7 Jan. 16, 2019, 8:50 a.m. No.4778383   🗄️.is 🔗kun   >>8430 >>8464

EXCLUSIVE — Don Jr.: Pelosi ‘Terrified’ To Let American People Hear Trump ‘Unfiltered’

 

Donald Trump, Jr. slammed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for trying to get President Donald Trump to delay his State of the Union address as the government shutdown continues, in an exclusive statement to The Daily Caller. “Speaker Pelosi is clearly attempting to block my father from giving his State of the Union speech, not because 20 percent of the government is shut down, but because she is terrified of him having another opportunity to speak directly to the American people about her party’s obstruction, unfiltered and without her friends in the media running interference for her,” Trump, Jr. said. “Pelosi correctly recognizes that the more President Trump shines a spotlight on the very real human tragedies that occur because of her and her party’s open border policies, the more of a political loser it becomes for them,” Trump continued.

 

Pelosi wrote to Trump in a Wednesday morning letter that the “State of the Union address has never been delivered during a government shutdown,” adding, “Given the security concerns and unless government re-opens this week, I suggest that we work together to determine another suitable date after government has re-opened for this address or for you to consider delivering your State of the Union address in writing to the Congress on January 29th.” Pelosi referenced the lack of pay to the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security employees, and the possible effect on security surrounding the annual landmark event.

 

Trump was expected to discuss the shutdown in the State of the Union address and make a further pitch to the American people on the need for a border wall. Democrats and the White House are engaged in a high-stakes fight over border wall funding, with Democratic leaders saying they’ll only offer $1.6 billion, and Trump demanding $5.7 billion.

 

Trump Jr. has excoriated Pelosi in recent days for downplaying the threat of illegal immigration, urging the speaker to meet with mothers of children killed by illegal immigrants.

 

https://www.dailycaller.com/2019/01/16/exclusive-don-jr-pelosi-terrified-trump-unfiltered/