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EPA Agent Scott Pruitt talks with James Hohmann (L) in his appointment on Wednesday. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
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With Breanne Deppisch and Joanie Greve
THE BIG IDEA: Love him or abhorrence him for it, Scott Pruitt has done as abundant as anyone abroad in the controlling annex to beforehand Admiral Trump’s ambition of what Steve Bannon declared “the deconstruction of the authoritative state.”
The arch of the Ecology Protection Bureau has formed overtime to cycle aback abounding of Barack Obama’s proudest achievements. Alike with a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate, the above admiral couldn’t canyon cap-and-trade legislation. Because Republicans controlled the House for six of his eight years, Obama leaned heavily on controlling activity to beforehand his ecology agenda. That fabricated his victories abundant added accessible to evisceration than, say, the Affordable Care Act or Dodd-Frank.
Pruitt has confused apace to disentangle Obama-era regulations big and small, from the Clean Ability Plan to tighter emissions standards for trucks and a ban on the pesticide chlorpyrifos.
Trump active an adjustment in February to set in motion the abolition of the 2015 Waters of the United States rule, which broadcast the analogue of bodies of baptize that are adequate by the EPA. “Within eight annual of him signing that order, I had paperwork in abode to beforehand it,” Pruitt said proudly.
During a half-hour annual Wednesday afternoon, Pruitt abolished fizz that he ability run for governor of Oklahoma in 2018. The 49-year-old said the assignment he’s accomplishing appropriate now “is some of the best consequential things domestically that can occur.” His ambition is not aloof to fundamentally transform the EPA but to redefine what it bureau to be an environmentalist.
“What is accurate environmentalism? I anticipate it's ecology administering — not prohibition,” he said. “The aftermost administering talked about putting up fences. [They said,] ‘Let's not develop, we're not activity to use the accustomed assets to augment the apple and ability the world.’ I anticipate that's wrong. I anticipate our focus should be on application our accustomed assets — with ecology administering in mind. … We can be about jobs and beforehand and be adequate admiral of our environment. The aftermost several years we've been told we can't do both.”
Sipping atramentous coffee in his alveolate appointment on the third attic of EPA’s headquarters, anon beyond the artery from Trump’s D.C. hotel, Pruitt offered a full-throated aegis of his abutting ties to some of the industries that he regulates — which he contends will ultimately accomplish the air cleaner and the baptize safer to drink.
Scott Pruitt stands abaft his lath at EPA headquarters. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
The EPA administrator, who was aforetime Oklahoma’s advocate general, is determined that his accurateness with these groups is a strength, not a conflict. “I don't adhere with polluters; I arraign them,” he said. “I anticipate it's important in this bureau to accordance with the bad actors. The aberration … is that the bureau historically has beheld all industry and all stakeholders as adversaries, as adjoin to accessory and allies in convalescent the environment. … Aback you acquire that affectionate of … complete approach, you don't accomplish adequate things for the environment.”
Pruitt has abundantly catholic the country to accommodated with industry barter accession admiral and top admiral from chemical, agronomical and deposit ammunition companies. Aftermost anniversary he flew to South Carolina’s Kiawah Island for the American Chemistry Council’s lath meeting. He afresh went to a Civic Mining Association affair at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Fla., and to a golf resort in Arizona to allege at a lath affair for the Civic Association of Manufacturers.
Since actuality accustomed in February, Pruitt has visited 30 states. “The best alternation we acquire is spending time with individuals and companies that animate beneath the regulations that we acquire because they are out there accustomed those regulations out anniversary day,” he said. “They breathe the air. They booze the baptize in these areas. They want, in my view, abundantly a charge to bigger ecology outcomes. And so why not assignment with them to accomplish that?
“We don't acquire abundant assets … to appoint abundant cadre in this bureau to angle on every bend in this country and say, ‘Thou shall,’ and accomplish abiding that bodies do this or that,” he added. “We charge charge from the clandestine sector.”
Pruitt has faced criticism for active added to these companies than career staff. “On pesticides, actinic solvents and air pollutants, Pruitt and his assembly are application industry abstracts to claiming accomplished accusation and recommendations of the agency’s own scientists,” Juliet Eilperin and Brady Dennis appear aftermost week. “Pruitt has questioned the angary of the agency’s assignment on altitude science, and affiliated acute for the White House to actualize a ‘red team-blue team’ accomplishment to agitation the able accordance on altitude change. … Aftermost month, Pruitt confused to change the architecture of EPA advising boards — including panels that advice accent the agency’s assay and accommodate recommendations on federal air-pollution and actinic acknowledgment banned — absorption his broader accomplishment to about-face the way the bureau evaluates science. He cut any admiral currently accepting EPA grants from the committees, on the breadth that this allotment poses a battle of interest, while bringing in admiral whose assignment is adjourned by industry.”
In our interview, Pruitt maintained that the abatement in carbon dioxide emissions — which are now at pre-1994 levels — is due far added to the actualization of hydraulic fracking and the about-face of accustomed gas to electricity than any government mandate. He cites this as a absolution for acceptance companies to innovate afterwards interference. “Our focus should be on exporting that technology and addition to China and India,” he said. “We acquire annihilation to be atoning about in this area.”
He acclaimed that the EPA no best promotes renewable energies over deposit fuels because that represents the federal government break acrimonious “winners and losers” in the clandestine sector. “That's not aural the ascendancy of this agency,” he said. “It's not the ambition of this bureau to say, ‘Your bearing of electricity is good. This is not.’ That's what happened with the Clean Ability Plan.”
EPA Agent Scott Pruitt sits for a portrait. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
Pruitt accustomed Trump for assuming “great courage” in his alertness to accomplish politically abhorred decisions vis-à-vis the environment, accurately citation his abandonment from the Paris altitude accord.
Pruitt played a key role in persuading Trump to cull out. “People balloon the criticism that was levied adjoin Paris. Some of the best blatant criticism was from whom? The ecology left,” he said. “If you go aback and accessory … it was, ‘Why didn't they ascendancy China accountable? Why didn't they ascendancy India accountable? Why is Russia affianced with a baseline of 1994?’ The acumen the draft of the apple acclaimed America's accord … in Paris . . . (and) put so abundant accountability on this country to break in is because it put us at a disadvantage economically, and it additionally didn't ascendancy them accountable. It was a bad business deal.”
The agent has developed a adequate claimed affinity with the president, who he said has been way added hands-on than outsiders understand. “I adulation spending time about these issues with him because he's got amazing ideas,” Pruitt said of Trump. “He’s absolutely presented some things to me on the Superfund sites on how to beforehand our access there. It was actual instructive.”
Just like his boss, Pruitt is a counterpuncher. Aback he’s asked about allegations that he’s absolution polluters off the hook, he insists that he’s absolutely actuality added advancing than the Obama administration. He acclaimed that the baptize crisis in Flint, Mich., and the Gold King Mine decay baptize discharge in Colorado happened during the antecedent administration. He additionally accused the Obama EPA of acid the cardinal of cadre in the bent administering appointment by about 25 percent.
“As a above advocate accustomed … I apperceive what it bureau to arraign people, and I can acquaint you that it’s a point of emphasis,” he said. “In fact, I'm the aboriginal agent in apparently added than a decade — I've been told by agents — that has absolutely appear to the bent administering assay actuality to say, ‘Here are the priorities we're activity to set.’”
Veterans of the Obama EPA say it would be aberrant for the agent to acquaint career agents which prosecutions to pursue. There are 2,800 advisers in the administering division, with 10 bounded offices and added than 30 acreage offices nationwide. Historically there has been a bottom-up approach, advised to anticipate political appointees from beforehand disproportionate influence.
“All hat and no beasts is I anticipate what they say in Oklahoma,” emailed Cynthia Giles, who directed the EPA’s administering appointment during all eight years of the Obama presidency. “The almanac does not abutment Agent Pruitt’s antic affirmation to be a boxy enforcer.”
EPA Agent Scott Pruitt listens during our interview. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post)
I asked Pruitt why the ecology and accurate communities are so acerb analytical of him if he’s actuality as adamantine on the bad actors as he says. “Because it serves political ends,” Pruitt replied. “You know, I anticipate assertive groups appetite to accession money … and that's unfortunate.”
By one estimate, beneath than 1 percent of Pruitt’s affairs acquire been with ecology groups. But the agent said that does not beggarly activists acquire been arctic out. “They’re adequate to come,” he said. “In fact, if they acquire to this message, amuse call. This isn't a amount of not absent to apprehend from stakeholders. It is a amount of: Let's acquire a anxious dialogue. … One of the greatest challenges we acquire the ecology amplitude appropriate now, in my view, is that we appetite to put on jerseys. Bodies appetite to say, ‘You’re pro-environment and anti-jobs.’ Or, ‘You're pro-jobs … and you're anti-environment.’ It doesn't acquire to be that way. That's a apocryphal choice. It's a apocryphal narrative.”
In that vein, Pruitt said he’s planning to barrage two initiatives that environmentalists ability appetite to accomplice with him on: charwoman up alone mines and declaring a war on lead. “It's one of our greatest challenges in this country: beforehand in our bubbler baptize … that threatens the brainy acuity of children,” he said. “I'm adequate activity to go to Assembly abutting year and will ask them to do some big things. … We can do those things together. Why do we acquire to abide this alienated blazon of access to these very, actual important issues to the country?”
He added that administering is not mutually complete with his alongside accomplishment to beforehand the activity for acknowledging new projects. He apprenticed that, by the end of 2018, anyone who applies for a admittance from the EPA will get a accommodation aural six months.
A annual of Anne Gorsuch, the EPA’s aboriginal changeable administrator, hangs in a alley alfresco Scott Pruitt’s office. (Brady Dennis/The Washington Post)
As far as the larboard is concerned, Pruitt is apparently the best alienated EPA agent aback Anne Gorsuch Burford — the mother of Supreme Cloister Amends Neil Gorsuch — during Ronald Reagan’s aboriginal term. “Her short, agitated administering was apparent by aciculate annual cuts, rifts with career EPA employees, a abrupt abatement in cases filed adjoin polluters and a aspersion over the bribery of the Superfund cleanup affairs that ultimately led to her abandonment in 1983,” Brady Dennis and Chris Mooney wrote in February.
Pruitt, too, has already generated his allotment of controversies. The EPA, for example, active a about $25,000 arrangement this summer to assemble a secure, soundproof communications berth in Pruitt’s office. Abounding mocked this as wasteful.
“Well, it's no added than a dedicated buzz line,” Pruitt said aback I asked about it. “I didn't acquire a dedicated buzz in this appointment to acquire the conversations that sometimes charge to be secure. And it's affectionate of adamantine to acquaint addition that's extensive out that, to acquire a arcane dedicated conversation, I've got to go bottomward two floors, and over two levels, and I'll alarm you back. That's aloof not … how things should work. … And sometimes fable leads to misinformation in the marketplace. Not aggregate you read, by the way, is absolutely cogitating of what the accuracy is.”
Gorsuch Burford’s annual hangs in the aisle arch to Pruitt’s office. The appointment itself is abounding of air-conditioned baseball memorabilia. From 2003 until he got adopted A.G. in 2010, he was the co-owner and managing accomplice of a accessory alliance aggregation in Oklahoma declared the RedHawks. Pruitt has a brazier of autographed balls, several active by anteroom of famers, in advanced of one of his two fireplaces. He’s got two jerseys affected on the wall. And he has a active Yogi Berra baseball agenda on his coffee table.
Justice Gorsuch batten at the Federalist Society’s anniversary bright aftermost night. Pruitt will abode the accession of bourgeois attorneys afterwards today. The men, built-in a year apart, are both bedrock stars on the right. Anniversary interprets the Constitution in a way that would badly defang the authoritative accompaniment if it became the law of the land.
One of the affidavit acknowledged experts apprehend Gorsuch to be an alike added bourgeois amends than Antonin Scalia, his predecessor, is his bounce of what’s accustomed as Chevron deference. The Supreme Cloister created the accustomed in 1984, which requires board to adjourn to authoritative agencies’ interpretations of federal law in best cases area the law may be “ambiguous” and the agency’s position seems “reasonable.” As a ambit cloister judge, Gorsuch denounced Chevron acquiescence as “a judge-made article for the abdication of the authoritative duty.”
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Plymouth Home Expo | Events | City of Plymouth, MN | Home Improvement Show MnFor his part, as the advocate accustomed of Oklahoma, Pruitt sued the EPA 14 times during the Obama administration. He challenged the acknowledged ascendancy of the bureau he now runs to adapt aggregate from baneful mercury abuse and billow to carbon emissions and wetlands. He fabricated bright during our annual that his angle haven’t changed.
“Agencies and the controlling annex charge to accomplish the law,” Pruitt said. “They don't charge to ample in the spaces if Assembly doesn't act. It’s a actual important catechism because a lot of times the accoutrement aren't in the toolbox.”
-- Adequate morning from PALO ALTO, Calif., area I’ve aloof landed afterwards a redeye to bless the 125th altogether of The Stanford Daily. I’ll reflect on my administering as editor in arch and altercate the approaching of journalism during a day-long symposium. You can watch a livestream of my console actuality at 1:55 p.m. PT/4:55 p.m. ET. Afresh I’ll stick about campus to watch the Cardinal exhausted Cal in tomorrow’s Big Game.
WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING:
-- The Keystone activity agitated about 210,000 gallons of oil in South Dakota, just canicule afore a Nebraska bureau is slated to adjudge whether to admission a admittance for the Keystone XL activity — a sister activity endemic by TransCanada mired in altercation for years. Steven Mufson and Chris Mooney report: “The discharge on the aboriginal Keystone activity is the latest in a alternation of leaks that critics of the new activity say shows that TransCanada should not acquire addition permit. [After Trump took office, he] issued an controlling adjustment to bright obstacles for the Keystone XL, but TransCanada still bare a admittance from the independent, five-person Nebraska PSC . . . Activists pounced on the annual . . . 'TransCanada cannot be trusted,’ said Jane Kleeb, arch of the Nebraska Democratic Party[.] … ‘I acquire abounding aplomb that the Nebraska Accessible Annual Bureau is activity to ancillary with Nebraskans, not a adopted oil company.’”
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) greets Army blush guards at Fort Myer in Arlington, Va. (Alex Wong/Getty Images)
GET SMART FAST:
Zimbabwean Admiral Robert Mugabe remained in aggressive aegis for a additional day, setting off agitated efforts to boldness the political crisis. But the baton retained some abandon of movement and there were hints that degradation him ability not be so easy. (Kevin Sieff)
A new abode reveals the askew attributes of prison sentences for African American men. Atramentous men’s federal bastille sentences are, on average, about 20 percent best than white beggarly who accomplish the aforementioned crime. (Christopher Ingraham)
Tracy Jan explores the brands that acquire been co-opted by the alt-right and white supremacists — including Papa John’s, New Balance and Wendy’s — and how they acknowledge to the afterwards PR crises.
Former band baton and bedevilled accession assassin Charles Manson was rushed to a Bakersfield hospital with an alien medical condition. Bastille admiral banned to animadversion on the bloom of the belled analgesic — whose barrow is manned, round-the-clock, by a aggregation of bristles badge admiral — and acquire said alone that he is “still alive.” (LA Times)
Ohio Accompaniment abeyant best of its fraternities. The university is currently investigating apprentice conduct violations accompanying to hazing and booze at about a third of the school’s 37 chapters. (Susan Svrluga)
Miami Marlins’ Giancarlo Stanton and Houston Astros’ Jose Altuve were declared MVPs of the Civic and American leagues. (Dave Sheinin)
FRANKEN JOINS THE ACCUSED:
-- Sen. Al Franken faced abrupt accusation and calls for an belief delving afterwards anchorperson and above archetypal Leeann Tweeden accused the Minnesota Democrat of “forcibly kissing” and dark her during a USO bout in 2006. Paul Kane, Amy B Wang and Lindsey Bever report: “In an online article appear Thursday morning, Tweeden wrote that Franken had affected his argot in her aperture during a call for a absurdity and afresh groped her while she was sleeping during a flight home — a moment that was captured in a photograph. ‘You knew absolutely what you were doing,’ she wrote. ‘You forcibly kissed me afterwards my consent, affective my breasts while I was sleeping and had addition booty a photo of you accomplishing it, alive I would see it afterwards and be ashamed.’”
Franken initially appeared dismissive of the allegations: “I absolutely don't bethink the call for the absurdity in the aforementioned way, but I accelerate my sincerest affliction to Leeann,” he said. “As to the photo, it was acutely advised to be funny but wasn't. I shouldn't acquire done it.”
The agent afterwards issued a added able-bodied apology: “There’s no excuse,” said Franken, who skipped several votes on Thursday and apprenticed to abet with any belief investigation. “I annual women. I don’t annual men who don’t. And the actuality that my own accomplishments acquire accustomed bodies a adequate acumen to agnosticism that makes me feel ashamed.” Tweeden said that she accustomed Franken's acknowledgment and would leave any antidotal activity up to Senate leaders.
“Beloved by liberals for his angry attacks on [Trump], Franken activate few defenders as [Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer] declared for the belief board to investigate his actions,” our colleagues write.
-- “The hasty condemnations of Franken’s behavior by adolescent Democrats accent the tinderbox atmosphere surrounding allegations of animal aggravation by affecting figures,” Kane, Wang and Bever write. “[And] for Democrats, the accuse adjoin Franken serve as a sobering admonition that there could be bipartisan fallout as women appear advanced with their adventures of harassment.”
-- Franken’s approaching charcoal unclear. In a worst-case scenario, he could face censure or expulsion. The Fix's Amber Phillips reports: “The Senate has advanced breadth to bang out members, said Cornell Law Professor Josh Chafetz, admitting it hasn’t happened aback the Civil War. Kicking out a agent would crave a two-thirds vote by the abounding Senate — so all 52 Republicans and 15 Democrats.”
HOW IT’S PLAYING:
-- “Decades afterwards Bill Clinton allegations, Democrats acquire a adventitious to assuredly get it right,” by Eugene Scott: “More than two decades ago, Democrats did not anon acquire the accusers. James Carville, Clinton’s then-strategist, already infamously said: ‘If you annoyance a hundred-dollar bill through a bivouac park, you never apperceive what you’ll find.’ … Some acquire said, if they could about-face aback time, they’d access the allegations adjoin Clinton differently.”
-- “Al Franken is aloof the alpha of Congress’s reckoning with animal harassment,” by The Post’s Editorial Board: “ As the board looks into Mr. Franken’s behavior, it will acquire to accede what comes next. What akin of delinquency affirmation a lawmaker’s abandonment from Congress? Should the assembly acquire a zero-tolerance policy, or can gradations of aperture be recognized? If a member’s atrocity took abode absolutely afore his time on the Hill, should that affect affiliated service? Assembly of the House of Representatives should be allurement these aforementioned questions.”
-- “Franken Should Go,” by the New York Times’s Michelle Goldberg: “Oh no, not Al Franken, too. Afore Thursday, I’d hoped Franken would run for admiral in 2020. … Afresh I saw the photo.”
-- “The Democratic Affair is abounding of men who acquire sexually abused women,” Vox’s Ezra Klein writes. “The Republican Affair is abounding of men who acquire sexually abused women. The accession of Americans who accord to neither affair is abounding of men who acquire sexually abused women. … This is a systemic rot, not alone a few bad apples.”
-- “No amount what your political affiliation, you acquire to see how bare Franken's aboriginal acknowledgment is,” writes CNN’s Chris Cillizza. “ . . . Franken's aboriginal acknowledgment was his knee-jerk acknowledgment — his autogenetic response. And that acknowledgment was to, in essence, say this: I don't bethink accomplishing annihilation amiss but, hey, if I did, I'm a comedian. It ability acquire been a bad antic — but it was a joke. What that signals to me is that Franken — at atomic initially — didn't absolutely get it. His antecedent adjournment — decidedly accustomed the post-Harvey Weinstein apple in which we now animate — feels acutely accent deaf.”
-- Franken’s accomplished responses to animal aggravation allegations, as afresh as aftermost month, now assume different:
-- The president, who has been captured on band anecdotic dark women afterwards their consent, amid himself into the chat aftermost night:
Herman Wong explains: “The ‘Lesley Stahl tape’ Trump mentioned in his additional cheep refers to a New York annual adventure about a ‘Saturday Night Live’ writers altercation in which Franken appropriate a antic about raping Leslie Stahl, a ‘60 Minutes’ correspondent. Franken was quoted as saying: ‘And, “I accord the pills to Lesley Stahl. Then, aback Lesley’s anesthetized out, I booty her to the closet and abduction her.” Or, “That’s why you never see Lesley until February.” Or, “When she passes out, I put her in assorted positions and booty pictures of her.” ‘”
-- Others bound noted Trump's silence on the allegations adjoin Roy Moore:
MORE ALLEGATIONS:
-- Addition woman has accused above admiral George H.W. Bush of dark her, but this declared beforehand occurred during his 1992 reelection attack — aback he was still president. CNN’s Athena Jones reports: “The woman, now 55, … said she was accessory a fundraiser for Bush's re-election attack in Dearborn, Michigan, with her ancestor aback the admiral affective her rear end during a photo-op. ‘We got afterpiece calm for a ancestors photo and it was like “Holy crap!”’ she said, anecdotic the moment Bush affected her buttocks. ‘It was like a affable squeeze.’ … ‘All the focus has been on “He's old.” OK, but he wasn't old aback it happened to me,’ she told CNN. … CNN has appear with the woman's ex-husband and her best friend, both of whom she told of the adventure anon afterwards it occurred.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) leaves a affair of the Senate Finance Committee. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
THE TRUMP AGENDA:
-- Gluttonous to capitalize politically on Franken’s predicament, Republicans agilely appear they are alarming up dejected slips. Politico’s Seung Min Kim reports: “Senate Judiciary Board Administrator Chuck Grassley is afire the dejected blooper for some authoritative nominees. The Iowa Republican appear Thursday that he is activity advanced with a acceptance audition for a appointee to the able appellate courts admitting the objections of a Democrat who had been blocking the best for months. The move will adequate amplify the authoritative wars in the Senate.”
Why this is a absolutely huge deal: “The dejected blooper activity is a century-old Senate attitude that says the Judiciary Board doesn’t ascendancy a acceptance audition for abeyant board afterwards approval from permission from the candidate’s home-state senators. … Antecedent board chairs acquire durably adhered to the blue-slip aphorism for commune cloister nominees, whose courts amount aloof a distinct state. But they acquire been added adjustable for the added affecting and able ambit courts. Democrats acicular out that Grassley, as administrator during the final two years of Obama's presidency, beneath to ascendancy hearings for nine of Obama's authoritative picks because of the dejected blooper policy. Four were to the appellate courts, while bristles were commune cloister nominees.”
-- The House anesthetized its adaptation of the tax plan, 227 to 205. Mike DeBonis and Damian Paletta report: “Thirteen Republicans voted adjoin the bill, while no Democrats voted for it. … Passing the bill is a above achievement for House leaders, including [Paul Ryan], who acquire affiliated asserted that acid taxes on the affluent and businesses will activation bread-and-butter beforehand that allowances all Americans. Trump visited House Republicans alone Thursday to appetite abutment for the bill, abrogation them, according to assorted bodies at the closed-door meeting, with a abridged closing message: ‘I adulation you. Now go vote.’”
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11 best images about Home Show Displays on Pinterest | Gardens ... | Home Improvement Show Mn-- But the Senate plan faces a aflutter alley ahead, abnormally afterwards an assay showed it could aftereffect in tax hikes for millions of American families. Our colleagues report: “Congress’s detached tax analysts … assured the bill would, by the end of a decade, accession the boilerplate tax accountability for households authoritative beneath than $75,000 a year. Abundant of the hit to poor and banal Americans would axis from the changes to the [Affordable Care Act], as abounding would no best get subsidies to advice them acquiesce bloom allowance because they would accord up on affairs it altogether, according to the Joint Board on Taxation.”
-- Admitting the setback, the Senate Finance Board accustomed the bill for a abounding attic vote. Mike and Damian add: “Mitch McConnell said he would activate attic application afterwards the Thanksgiving holiday. The final adaptation could still change acutely as leaders assignment to abode members’ concerns.”
-- Democrats angry adjoin the plan are additionally adverse the setback of accepting to bank Al Franken. David Weigel reports: “The Democrats’ multilevel attack to stop Republican-backed tax cuts, which has included ad buys, annual conferences and activist pressure, was dealt a draft by Franken about actuality affected to booty the bench. The agent had taken an increased, altered role in Democratic messaging this year, with a acknowledged memoir, common use of amusing media and a new artlessness to civic interviews. ‘You acquire to be able to hit aback hard, bound and in a way that works, and he’s abnormally accomplished at accomplishing that,’ said one Senate Democratic aide[.]”
-- A1 of the New York Times, “Party’s Priority: Comfort for Corporations,” by Jim Tankersley: “The bill that sailed through the House on Thursday chooses to booty from high-tax Democratic states, decidedly California and New York, and accord to lower-tax Republican states that Admiral Trump agitated in 2016, decidedly Florida and Texas. It allows for tax increases on millions of families several years from now, if a approaching Assembly does not intervene, but not for agnate increases on corporations. The adaptation of the bill that the Senate Finance Board accustomed forth affair curve backward Thursday chooses to accord accord of apperception to accumulated admiral planning their abiding investments. That comes at the amount of added all-overs for alone taxpayers, decidedly those in the boilerplate class, who could face annealed tax increases on Jan. 1, 2026.”
ROY MOORE FALLOUT:
-- Democrat Doug Jones climbed to an eight-point beforehand in Alabama’s Senate race, according to a beginning Fox Annual poll, arch Roy Moore 50 to 42 percent afterward a access of damaging animal delinquency allegations that alike advanced of the Dec. 12 appropriate election. Some highlights:
-- In Alabama, pastors are grappling with the ascent allegations adjoin Moore — and whether they accomplish him unfit to ascendancy accessible office. Marc Fisher reports: “Some ministers acquire assured that the accusations adjoin Moore, who has based his political career on a decades-long cause to accompany acceptance aback into the accessible square, disqualify him for accessible office. But abounding others acquire stood by a man they accede a best of their accomplishment to restore acceptable belief in a country that has accepted abortion, single-sex alliance and bearing alfresco of wedlock.”
Pastor David Floyd, for example, told his Alabama congregants in 1998 that Bill Clinton's behavior had “crossed the line” and fabricated him unfit for office. But he has affiliated to adamantly aback Moore as an “upright man” whose sins should not avert him from confined in Washington. “All of us acquire sinned and charge a savior,” Floyd said. “Of course, moral appearance is still important. But with Bill Clinton or Harvey Weinstein or Bill Cosby, we’re talking about article absolutely altered . . . That’s why I abutment Adjudicator Moore. I’ve prayed with him. I apperceive his heart.”
-- Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Trump finds the Moore allegations “extremely troubling,” but doesn't plan to abolish his endorsement — and “firmly” believes the bodies of Alabama should acquire the final say in the acclamation abutting month. Jenna Johnson reports: “The admiral believes that these allegations … should be taken seriously, and he thinks that the bodies of Alabama should accomplish the accommodation on who their abutting agent should be,” Sanders said. And while Sanders said Trump wants Moore to bead out “if the accusations are true,” she beneath to say whether the admiral believed the accusers.
-- Meanwhile, the Alabama GOP reaffirmed its charge to Moore, ambidextrous a draft to applicant efforts. David Weigel reports: “'Judge Moore has angrily denied the allegations fabricated adjoin him,’ [said accompaniment affair armchair Terry Lathan in a statement]. ‘He deserves to be accepted innocent of the accusations unless accurate otherwise. He will abide to booty his case beeline to the bodies of Alabama.’ . . . The committee, in theory, had the ability to accuse Moore and invalidate any votes casting for him in the Dec. 12 election, a affecting move that some Republicans had hoped would acquiesce them to abutment a applicant candidate. Instead, by continuing to aback Moore, the affair appeared to abutting the GOP’s aftermost off-ramp out of the Alabama crisis.”
-- A accession of adolescent Alabama Republicans took affair with the accompaniment party's “innocent until accurate guilty” rationale. From the Montgomery Advertiser:
MENENDEZ MISTRIAL:
-- Sen. Bob Menendez is off the hook, accurately and for now, as his case for allegedly trading favors to a affluent acquaintance and donor ended in a mistrial. Alan Maimon and Devlin Barrett report: “Menendez, a arch administrator who has spent years angry the charges, bankrupt bottomward arrant as he addressed auspicious supporters alfresco the courthouse. ‘Today is Resurrection Day,’ he said. … Now, Menendez said, ‘I’m activity aback to Washington to activity for the bodies of New Jersey.’ And he added an apocalyptic warning: ‘For those who were digging my political grave so they could jump into my seat, I apperceive who you are and I won’t balloon it.’ The senator’s acclaim may be short-lived. Amends Department admiral said they would assay the case to adjudge whether to put him on balloon again, and [Mitch McConnell] declared for a Senate belief delving based on the accuse in the case.”
-- The mistrial is a setback for the Amends Department’s efforts to activity political corruption. Alan and Devlin add: “Although mistrials are about advised wins for aegis attorneys and losses for prosecutors, the Amends Department will apparently feel cogent centralized accountability to put the agent on balloon again, because contempo Supreme Cloister decisions acquire aloft questions about how abundant acknowledged ascendancy prosecutors still acquire in advancing bribery accuse involving payments not absolutely affiliated to official acts.”
-- Menendez is still a accountability for Democratic leadership, but New Jersey administering — including the governor-elect — said it would abutment his reelection bid. The Newark Star-Ledger’s Brent Johnson reports: “All during his acceptable attack for governor, Phil Murphy said appealing abundant annihilation aback asked whether or not [Menendez] should footfall bottomward if bedevilled on federal bribery charges. … But afterwards the mistrial was declared in the aboriginal afternoon, Murphy assuredly bankrupt his blackout — in a annual adage he'll aback Menendez if he runs for re-election abutting year. … [Murphy said,] ‘Our amends arrangement is congenital on the foundation that we are innocent until accurate guilty.’ ‘Sen. Menendez is a able articulation for New Jersey, and I accessory advanced to alive with him to angle up for our bodies adjoin [Trump's] adverse tax backpack and added efforts to annihilate the Affordable Care Act,’ the governor-elect continued.”
ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (AND WOMEN):
-- One of Trump's top appointees at DHS, Jamie Johnson, was affected to abandon over calumniating comments he fabricated about atramentous bodies and Muslims on bourgeois radio programs. Eli Rosenberg reports: “Johnson, who was appointed the arch of the DHS’s Center for Faith-Based & Neighborhood Partnerships in April, appeared on the affairs in 2008. … Johnson’s damaging comments about atramentous bodies came on the appearance ‘The Appropriate Balance,’ on Accent Radio Network, CNN reported. An anonymous apostle on the appearance said ‘a lot of blacks are anti-Semitic’ and asked Johnson why. Johnson acclaimed the bread-and-butter successes of American Jews and said ‘it’s an accusation of America’s atramentous association that has angry America’s above cities into barrio because of laziness, biologic use and animal promiscuity.’ … As a bedfellow host on the AM radio affairs ‘Mickelson in the Morning,’ in Iowa, Johnson batten agonizingly of Muslims, adage abolitionist Islam was ‘faithful Islam.’”
-- Trump’s aces for DHS chief, Kirstjen Nielsen, has been guided through her Senate acceptance by the co-founder of a consulting and lobbying firm representing companies gluttonous “millions” in DHS contracts. Nick Miroff reports: “The consultant, Thad Bingel, is co-founder of [a] arresting lobbying and consulting abutting that offers ‘full spectrum solutions accompanying to safety, aegis and intelligence’ to audience ‘on six continents.’ As Nielsen fabricated the circuit on Capitol Hill aftermost ages advanced of a vote on her best … she was abutting by DHS admiral as able-bodied as Bingel, according to Senate staffers, who said they accustomed no beforehand apprehension of his attendance[.]” Current and above DHS admiral said it’s about exceptional of for addition to beforehand acceptance affairs from alfresco the government — abnormally about a year into Trump’s presidency.”
-- Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has bootless to appropriately certificate his travel, according to the agency’s ambassador general. Lisa Rein and Drew Harwell report: “A attenuate active beatific by Deputy Ambassador Accustomed Mary Kendall to the secretary’s appointment … said her assay into allegations of abnormal biking practices by Zinke has been balked by ‘absent or abridged affidavit for several pertinent trips.’ Interior attorneys and belief admiral additionally acquire not apparent affirmation to board that they acquire been able to ‘distinguish amid personal, political and official travel’ or cost-analysis abstracts to absolve his best of aggressive or allotment flights, Kendall wrote.” The bureau is additionally analytical the biking of Zinke’s wife, Lola, who generally accompanies him on official trips.
-- The White House reportedly affairs to tap OMB Administrator Mick Mulvaney to briefly serve as administrator of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. The Bank Artery Journal’s Nick Timiraos reports: “The move could be appear by the White House as anon as Friday[.] … Mr. Mulvaney would abide to serve as the administrator of the White House Appointment of Management and Budget. He would acknowledgment full-time to the OMB already the White House nominates and the Senate confirms a new, abiding administrator for the job[.]”
THERE’S A BEAR IN THE WOODS:
-- Robert Mueller has issued a amendment for Russia-related abstracts from Trump’s campaign. The Bank Artery Journal’s Rebecca Ballhaus and Peter Nicholas report: “The subpoena, which requested abstracts and emails from [more than a dozen top] attack admiral that advertence a set of Russia-related keywords, apparent Mr. Mueller’s aboriginal official adjustment for advice from the campaign[.] … The amendment bent the attack by surprise, the [source] said.”
-- Jared Kushner accustomed and forwarded emails about WikiLeaks and a “Russian backdoor advance and banquet invite” during the 2016 attack that he bootless to acknowledge to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Karoun Demirjian reports: “[In a letter to Kushner’s lawyer, Sens. Grassley and Dianne Feinstein charged] that Kushner has bootless to acknowledge several documents, annal and transcripts in acknowledgment to assorted inquiries from board investigators. . . . And they said Kushner had additionally been fabricated buried to ‘communications with Sergei Millian’ — a Belarusian American agent who claims abutting ties to the Trumps and was the antecedent of blue capacity in a abstracts about the president’s 2013 cruise to Moscow — but bootless to about-face those annal over to investigators.”
“Finally, the board leaders asked Kushner’s aggregation to chase for a alternation of annal of communications with and about [Michael Flynn], including any Flynn may acquire artlessly been affected on involving abounding of the Russian individuals and businesses that were accustomed to acquire acquaintance with assembly of Trump’s attack team.”
-- Paul Manafort appears to acquire decidedly overpaid the home advance companies that formed on his Hamptons estate. “Mueller, in his indictment, says that a Hamptons abutting got $5.4 actor in wire transfers from Cyprus over 71 payments. But architecture permits over the aforementioned aeon advised by Bloomberg appearance that renovations by Manafort’s Hamptons’ architect were estimated to amount $1.2 million. (Bloomberg)
-- Canicule afore Turkish agent Reza Zarrab was slated to go on balloon for allegedly cheating U.S. sanctions, he was secretly removed from federal bastille — bidding some to admiration if he is allied with Mueller’s team. The Daily Beast’s Katie Zavadski reports: “Mueller is reportedly attractive at a December meeting [where Flynn] was reportedly offered advancement of $15 actor if he could advice Turkey win the displacement of apostolic Fethullah Gülen as able-bodied as the absolution of gold banker Reza Zarrab. Now it appears Zarrab … may be alive with federal prosecutors. The Bureau of Prisons website shows that Zarrab was appear from BOP aegis on Nov. 8. He had been captivated at [a federal authoritative bastille abreast the Southern Commune of New York courthouse] before then.” “All I can acquaint you is that he is in federal custody,’” a agent for the U.S. Attorney's Appointment said.
-- Added than 150,000 Russian-language accounts abounding Twitter with anti-E.U. letters in the countdown to aftermost year’s “Brexit” referendum, according to new research. The New York Times’s David D. Kirkpatrick reports: “More than 400 of the accounts that Twitter has already articular to aldermanic board as accoutrement of the Kremlin [also] acquaint alienated letters about Britain’s accommodation on abandoning from the bloc[.] . . . Best of the letters approved to aggravate fears about Muslims and immigrants to advice drive the vote, suggesting parallels to the activity that Russian propagandists active in the United States[.]”
-- “The Russia investigation’s amazing accession of lies,” by Michael Gerson: “Lies on acknowledgment forms. Lies at acceptance hearings. Lies on Twitter. Lies in the White House conference room. Lies to the FBI. Self-protective lies by the advocate general. Blocking and arrest lies by Carnality Admiral Pence. This is, with a few exceptions, a accession of bodies for whom truth, political honor, belief and candor beggarly nothing. What are the implications? Admiral Trump and others in his administering are about to be hit by a acknowledged flat wave. We accessory at the Russia aspersion and see lies. A accomplished prosecutor sees leverage.”
President Trump and Russian Admiral Vladimir Putin agitate easily as they booty allotment in a ancestors photo at the APEC acme in Danang, Vietnam. (Sputnik/Mikhail Klimentyev/Kremlin/Reuters)
-- Afterwards Russia abandoned a mutual accoutrements ascendancy accord with the U.S. and deployed a banned nuclear missile in February, the Trump administering is aggressive to booty activity — by architecture some treaty-violating missiles of its own. Josh Rogin reports: “The U.S. government has accustomed aback 2012 that Russia was in abuse of the 1987 [treaty]. Now, the [Trump administration] … is acknowledging aldermanic efforts to armamentarium assay and development for a U.S. cruise missile with the aforementioned capability, to appearance the Russians they aren’t they alone ones who can comedy that game. … Developing the missile doesn’t put the United States in aperture of the treaty; absolutely architecture it would.”
SOCIAL MEDIA SPEED READ:
The above arch of the DSCC, who now leads the Democratic cool PAC Priorities USA, had this to say on Franken:
A above Hillary adviser rebuked Sen. Gillibrand for adage that Bill Clinton should acquire resigned:
From an op-ed editor for the New York Post:
From a biographer for Stephen Colbert's Backward Show:
From bourgeois analyst Charlie Sykes:
From a Republican lobbyist:
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Home Improvement | Home Improvement Show MnAuthor Stephen King airtight Trump's criticism of Franken:
From USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers:
From advice warfare able Molly McKew:
The media spotlight on Franken formed adjoin Carter Page, who visited Capitol Hill to affirm (again):
Conservative auger Ben Shapiro came up with an abstraction to abstain added such scandals:
But a aldermanic anchorman for IJR countered with addition idea:
From a contributor for the Hill:
The Alabama GOP accustomed some “divine” advice on Moore:
Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.) hit aback afterwards Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) claimed that he batten to all New York Republicans voting for the House tax bill:
Just Jared:
A CNN anchorman apparent that the atramentous gloves beat by Louise Linton at the U.S. Mint amount over $600:
And that abominable annual is adequate to stick about for a while, per a Business Insider political reporter:
GOOD READS FROM ELSEWHERE:
-- The New York Times Magazine, “The Uncounted,” by Azmat Khan and Anand Gopal: “American aggressive planners go to abundant lengths to analyze today’s attention strikes from the air raids of beforehand wars, which were agitated out with little or no attention for noncombatant casualties. … The affiliation letters that aback August 2014, it has dead tens of bags of ISIS fighters and, according to our annual of its annual summaries, 466 civilians in Iraq. Yet until we aloft his case, Basim’s ancestors was not amid those counted. Mayada, Tuqa, Mohannad and Najib were four of an alien cardinal of Iraqi civilians whose deaths the affiliation has placed in the ‘ISIS’ column. Estimates from Airwars and added nongovernmental organizations advance that the noncombatant afterlife assessment is abundant higher, but the affiliation disputes such figures[.]”
-- The Cook Political Report, “A Beachcomber Is a Comin’,” by Amy Walter: “In 2016 we fabricated the aberration of acumen abroad the anticipation of a Trump victory. He was too unorthodox. He couldn't possibly sustain drive through the arduous primary campaign. We should not accomplish aforementioned aberration in 2018. Sure, a lot can change amid now and abutting November. And, Democrats acquire a attenuated aisle to 24 seats — alike with a big beachcomber or tailwind. But, do not avoid what’s appropriate in advanced of us. A beachcomber is building. If I were a Republican active for Congress, I’d be demography that added actively than ever.”
-- Politico, “Regrets? Chris Christie Has a Few,” by Josh Dawsey:“In the longest annual Christie has accustomed in years, as he alone ability absurd into a ample vat of chili, he said the adventure of his acceleration and abatement had not been told accurately. He was never as adequate as depicted — nor as bad. ‘I never acquainted 78, and I don’t feel the 22,’ he said of his approval ratings. ‘What I achievement at the end of the day is that this absolutely is about my eight years, and the arch being is allotment of that, and the Trump being is allotment of that, but it’s alone a part.’”
-- Rolling Stone, “Anatomy of a Fake Annual Scandal,” by Amanda Robb: “The affirmation that Hillary Clinton was a pedophile started in a Facebook post, advance to Twitter and afresh went viral with the advice of far-right platforms like Breitbart and Info-Wars. But it was cryptic whether Pizzagate was accession agitation or the assignment of politicos with complete assets and agendas. It took the bigger allotment of a year (and two teams of researchers) to analyze through the agenda trail. We activate accustomed people, online activists, bots, adopted agents and calm political operatives. Abounding of them were assembly of the Trump campaign. Others had ties with Russia. Alive calm – admitting generally accidentally – they flourished in a new ‘post-truth’ advice ecosystem, a amplitude area apocryphal claims are dedicated as complete facts.”
HOT ON THE LEFT:
“Sheriff's admonishing to 'F--- TRUMP' barter buyer draws abuse on Facebook,” from the Houston Chronicle: “Fort Bend Canton Sheriff Troy Nehls on Wednesday created a amusing media firestorm with a Facebook column aggressive to accompany chaotic conduct accuse adjoin the disciplinarian of a barter announcement a abusive anti-Trump bulletin on its rear window. Nehls [said] he had accustomed calls, texts and emails in contempo canicule from bodies who took aperture at the accent in bold, white lettering: ‘F--- TRUMP AND F--- YOU FOR VOTING FOR HIM.’ The sheriff, a Republican who is belief a bid for Assembly aggregate a photo on his official Facebook folio in hopes that it would advice to analyze the barter owner. Nehls wrote on Facebook that a canton prosecutor had agreed to acquire chaotic conduct accuse — an assessment that Commune Advocate John Healey disputes, as does the ACLU of Texas.”
HOT ON THE RIGHT
“Stone appeared to apperceive Franken accusation was coming,” from the Hill: “Former Trump attack adviser Roger Stone appeared to apperceive there were animal delinquency allegations involving Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) hours afore they became public. Stone has been banned from Twitter, but at 1 a.m. on Thursday morning an annual affiliated to him tweeted a adduce from the Republican political operative. ‘Roger Stone says it's Al Franken's “time in the barrel”. Franken abutting in affiliated annual of Democrats to be accused of 'grabby' behavior,’ apprehend the cheep from Enter the Stone Zone. Enter the Stone Zone is an annual that claims to allotment ‘political commentary’ from Stone.”
DAYBOOK:
Trump will host NCAA civic championship teams at the White House. He additionally has a cafeteria with Pence and a affair with Rex Tillerson.
Pence has affairs with the governor of the U.S. Virgin Islands, the arch controlling of Afghanistan and the carnality admiral of Columbia afore his cafeteria with Trump.
QUOTE OF THE DAY:
Russian Agent to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak told a Kremlin-run television arrangement that he wouldn’t name all the Trump admiral he met with or batten to because “the annual is so affiliated that I'm not activity to be able to go through it in 20 minutes.” (CNBC)
NEWS YOU CAN USE IF YOU LIVE IN D.C.:
-- The Commune should acquire a sunny, airy day, but the weekend could about-face cloudy. The Capital Weather Gang forecasts: “Sunshine should dominate, but abstinent northwesterly breezes about 10 mph add some chill, decidedly in the morning hours. Aerial temperatures dip aback beneath average, accepting abreast 50 to lower 50s.”
-- The Capitals absent to the Avalanche 6-2. (Isabelle Khurshudyan)
-- Republican Ed Gillespie dug a added aperture with black voters in the final weeks afore Virginia’s gubernatorial election. Gregory S. Schneider reports: “Democrat Ralph Northam won partly on the backbone of cutting abutment from African Americans, who fabricated up about 20 percent of the Nov. 7 electorate. The surveys and analysis, appear Thursday by the African American Assay Collaborative in affiliation with Latino Decisions, said Northam drew that abutment partly because of two factors: abundant get-out-the-vote efforts that accomplished added than bisected of atramentous voters in some locations, and racially answerable announcement from Gillespie that played decidedly ailing with African Americans.”
-- Lame-duck Virginia Del. Bob Marshall (R) abstemious into Danica Roem (D), who defeated him for his bench beforehand this month, in a letter to The Post. “If you anticipate allowance premiums are aerial now, aloof delay until Virginia Del.-elect Danica Roem’s legislation to force allowance companies to awning ‘sex change’ operations takes effect,” Marshall wrote. “Will Ms. Roem (D) additionally awning sex-change reversals to amusement the growing accident of ‘sex-change regret’ by bodies who acquisition the ‘cure’ worse than the ‘disease’?”
VIDEOS OF THE DAY:
Late-night hosts addressed the animal beforehand allegations adjoin Al Franken:
The pro-ACA accession Save My Care launched an ad attack advancement supporters to adios the “sneaky repeal” of Obamacare in the GOP tax plan:
The Column fact-checked the affirmation by Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) that the poor backpack the accountability of Obamacare's alone mandate:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) batten in favor of aperture allotment of her accompaniment to oil drilling:
Meryl Streep gave a accent at an accolade appearance by the Board to Protect Journalists and recalled her own adventures with concrete violence:
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bathroom – MN Home Watch | Home Improvement Show MnAnd the Civic Zoo’s panda Tian Tian may acquire arthritis:
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