AHH, HERE’S THE DRAMA! …
-- SABRINA RODRÍGUEZ: “Mexico fumes over labor enforcement details in trade bill”: “Mexico's prime commerce negotiator plans to return to Washington on Sunday to precise his outrage over language in the U.S. invoice to implement the brand new North American commerce agreement, probably complicating the House's plans to cross the USMCA this week.
“Mexico was blindsided by the inclusion of language within the implementing bill that might permit the Trump administration to deploy full-time diplomats to Mexico to ensure the nation is upholding labor standards, Jesús Seade, Mexico’s undersecretary for North America, stated Saturday.
“Seade stated he will return to Washington on Sunday to satisfy with U.S. Commerce Consultant Robert Lighthizer. Those provisions within the U.S. bill for the brand new North American trade pact are ‘unnecessary and redundant,’ Seade stated at a press convention in Mexico City.
Seade’s office confirmed to POLITICO that he's scheduled to meet Lighthizer on Monday. He may also meet with Democratic lawmakers to discuss the difficulty.
“‘For apparent causes, Mexico was not consulted on this. We aren't in settlement,’ Seade stated on the press conference. ‘This isn't the fruit of our bilateral negotiation.’’ ‘This has effects within our country and we should have been consulted,’ Seade stated, adding that it's commonplace for a overseas nation to be made aware of plans to deploy diplomats to its nation.”
-- ALSO: GOVERNMENT FUNDING IN TROUBLE? We hear that the accomplished government funding deal is, nicely, not completed. There’s emergency money in the settlement, after the White Home stated that the pre-agreed-to spending caps have been the top degree of spending. Plus, there’s disagreement on riders and different lingering points. We’re informed to not anticipate the deal to be made public in the present day -- despite the fact that the vote is supposed to be early this week.
FIVE DAYS UNTIL SHUTDOWN, and until the top of the session.
SUNDAY BEST ... CHRIS WALLACE interviewed Home Intel Chairman ADAM SCHIFF and former FBI Director JAMES COMEY on FOX NEWS’ “FOX NEWS SUNDAY.”
-- ON TRUMP’S DESIRE TO HAVE HIM TESTIFY: SCHIFF: “I’m not a reality witness in anyway, Chris, the president knows that. He also needs to name the speaker as a witness. Uh, that is merely his widespread tactic and that's: he can’t defend his gross misconduct. He can’t defend his abuse of energy … The truth that the whistleblower did have contact with my employees. But nonetheless, nor does it make the speaker a reality witness. This isn’t about reality witness.
“There are, the truth is, members of congress who are witnesses. Uh, Senator Johnson had a dialogue with the president. Senator Graham had discussions with the president about the withholding of assist. They could be reality witnesses. We didn’t seek to call them. We’re not in search of to make a circus out of this. But the president is.”
-- SCHIFF was additionally on ABC’S “THIS WEEK” … GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: “If President Trump is overwhelmingly acquitted in the Senate, is that a failure?” SCHIFF: “No, it isn't a failure. No less than, it isn't a failure within the sense of our constitutional obligation within the House.”
ON THE SENATE TRIAL: SCHIFF: “I feel there are any number of witnesses that ought to be referred to as in a Senate trial, and many witnesses the American individuals like to hear from that the administration has refused to make out there. And maybe of equal if not higher significance are the hundreds and hundreds of paperwork that the administration refuses to turn over.”
SCHIFF also sat down with WORDS MATTERS’ Katie Barlow and Joe Lockhart the place he turned his give attention to VP Mike Pence. “[T]listed here are any variety of questions that remain unanswered, even although the proof of the president's abuse of energy is overwhelming. We nonetheless have questions about how much the Vice President might have been involved,” Schiff stated. The three also discussed the trouble to declassify Jennifer Williams’ testimony and the upcoming Senate impeachment trial. The podcast
-- WALLACE also spoke with COMEY on the FBI Inspector Common’s report. COMEY on the findings: “What I mean is the FBI was accused of treason, illegal spying, tapping Mr. Trump’s wires illegally, of opening an investigation with out justification of being a felony conspiracy to defeat and unseat a president -- all of that was nonsense and I feel it is actually necessary that the IG looked at that the American individuals, your viewers and different viewers perceive that's true however he also found things we have been by no means accused of, actual sloppiness.”
ON THE FISA PROCESS: COMEY: “He’s proper I used to be fallacious. I was overconfident in the procedures that the FBI and justice had built over 20 years—I assumed they have been strong enough. It is incredibly arduous to get a FISA and I used to be overconfident in those he’s proper there was real sloppiness, 17 issues that ought to have been within the software or discussed and characterized in another way. It was not acceptable so he's proper.” The interview
IMPEACHMENT WATCH -- NEW: “CBS News ballot: People stay divided on impeachment,” by CBS’ Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, Kabir Khanna and Anthony Salvanto: “Hours of public hearings have achieved little to sway public opinion on impeachment. The general public stays equally divided on the matter, because it was a month in the past, but more say the president deserves to be impeached than say he does not over his dealing with of issues relating to Ukraine. Nevertheless, congressional Democrats have yet to persuade those past their own base of their arguments for impeaching President Trump.
“If the president is impeached and the matter heads to the Senate, the general public splits on what it thinks ought to occur: 42% assume he must be convicted and removed, whereas the same proportion say the Senate shouldn't convict him or not maintain a trial at all.” CBS
-- “Lindsey Graham invitations Rudy Giuliani to Judiciary panel to debate current Ukraine visit,” by Burgess Everett: “Sen. Lindsey Graham is inviting Rudy Giuliani to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about his current trip to Ukraine. In an interview airing on “Face the Nation” Sunday, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman stated that Giuliani, who's serving as the president’s personal lawyer, might appear earlier than his committee individually from the approaching Senate impeachment trial.
“‘Rudy, if you want to come and tell us what you found, I will be glad to talk to you,’ Graham stated. ‘We will take a look at what Rudy's acquired and Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and anything else you need to take a look at after impeachment. But if Rudy needs to come to the Judiciary Committee and testify about what he found, he's welcome to do so.’” POLITICO
-- “Conservative groups goal their impeachment ‘Dirty 30’” by Anita Kumar: “Residents in 31 congressional districts are about to be inundated with hundreds of thousands of dollars’ value of TV spots, Fb advertisements, texts and tweets blaring that the “radical left” is making an attempt to remove the president after a “witch hunt” — and that their Democratic consultant is complicit.
“Conservative organizations are blanketing those districts — which one group dubbed the ‘Dirty 30’ — as a result of every one voted for Trump in 2016, but later elected a Democrat in 2018. They’re convinced that impeachment has handed them a golden opportunity to flip these Home seats in 2020, part of a long-shot bid to win back a Republican majority come November.” POLITICO
THE STEPBACK -- NYT’S PETER BAKER: “Clinton’s Impeachment Was Suspenseful. Trump’s Grip on G.O.P. Means His Gained’t Be”: “But as much as the impeachment battle over President Trump echoes that of Mr. Clinton, it's also hanging how much is totally different. Again in 1998, the impeachment battle felt like the last word drama, so intense that the rest of the world seemed to have stopped spinning on its axis, but so fluid and suspenseful that it was by no means solely certain how it might play out.
“This time it looks like yet one more chapter in an all-out conflict that has been fought for three years, massively consequential yet of a bit with all the things that has come earlier than, with much less suspense and an consequence seemingly foreordained.
“The notion that Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, might strike a cope with Democrats to go off impeachment in the present day, that he or somebody like him would even attempt, appears virtually unthinkable. The young congressman who was open to a bipartisan decision then is now a seasoned senator and relentless warrior on behalf of his president. The Clinton impeachment felt like probably the most divisive second in a era. Because it seems, it doesn't maintain a candle to at this time’s factionalized politics.” NYT
BEHIND THE SCENES: WAPO’S ASHLEY PARKER and JOSH DAWSEY: “‘The grand finale’: Inside Trump’s push to rack up political victories as impeachment looms”
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- THE PRESIDENT’S WEEK AHEAD: MONDAY: The president may have lunch with VP Mike Pence. He will participate in a roundtable discussion on regulatory innovation with governors. TUESDAY: Trump and First Woman Melania Trump will take part in the arrival of Guatemalan President Jimmy Morales and Guatemalan First Woman Patricia Marroquín. Trump and Morales will take part in an expanded bilateral meeting.
WEDNESDAY: Trump will converse at a marketing campaign rally in Battle Creek, Mich. FRIDAY: The president could have lunch with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Good Sunday morning. SPOTTED on the Military-Navy recreation Saturday in Philadelphia (Navy gained 31-7) -- in David City’s box: President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike and Susan Pompeo, Protection Secretary Mark and Leah Esper, Urban Meyer, Kelly City, Sean and Rebecca Spicer, Jim Nicholson, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) and Stephanie Grisham …
… in Dina Powell McCormick and Dave McCormick’s box (which Trump also visited): national safety adviser Robert O’Brien, Nikki and Michael Haley, H.R. and Katie McMaster, Sens. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Ray Dalio, Virginia Boney, SOCOM Commander Gen. Richard Clarke, Dan Senor and Campbell Brown, Bobby Kotick, Susan McCaw, Hank and Marit Babin Stout, Brian and Amy Thomas, Alex Gorsky, John Molner, and Doug and Michelle McCormick.
-- WSJ: “West Point, Annapolis Officials Investigating Possible ‘White Power’ Hand Sign”
MORE SUNDAY BEST … GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS spoke with Judiciary Chairman JERRY NADLER (D-N.Y.) on ABC’S “THIS WEEK” by way of David Cohen: “‘This can be a persevering with menace to the integrity of our elections,’ House Judiciary Chair Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) stated Sunday on ABC’s ‘This Week’ in explaining why he's pushing for President Donald Trump’s impeachment regardless of almost-universal Republican resistance. ‘This shouldn't be a one-off,’ Nadler stated, saying that Trump ‘is brazenly looking for overseas interference within the 2020 elections.’
“‘We can't permit that to continue,’ he stated, later referring to what he referred to as ‘a subversion of the constitutional order.’ The Home Judiciary Committee on Friday accepted two articles of impeachment towards Trump. “At present is a solemn and unhappy day,” Nadler stated on the time. The vote was 23-17 along get together strains. ‘This can be a crime in progress,’ Nadler stated Sunday to host George Stephanopoulos, adding: ‘It goes to the heart of our democracy.’” POLITICO
-- CHUCK TODD interviewed Sen. CHRIS COONS (D-Del.) on NBC’S “MEET THE PRESS”: TODD: “Let me ask you this, Kyle Cheney at POLITICO wrote the next and I’d like you, to get you to respond. ‘What happens when a remorseless president commits the identical conduct that acquired him impeached within the first place – solely this time after the House has already deployed probably the most potent weapon in its arsenal?’”
COONS: “That’s certainly one of my actual considerations, Chuck. … If he's finally exonerated in the Senate, if the Senate Republican majority refuses to discipline him by means of impeachment, he shall be unbounded. And I’m gravely involved about what else he may do between now and the 2020 election, when there are not any restrictions on his conduct.”
THE REPUBLICAN PUSHBACK -- JAKE TAPPER interviewed Sen. RAND PAUL (R-Ky.) on CNN’S “STATE OF THE UNION by way of Aubree Eliza Weaver: “Democrats’ efforts to question President Donald Trump are little more than a ‘partisan thing,’ Sen. Rand Paul stated on CNN’s ‘State of the Union’ Sunday morning. The Kentucky Republican went on to say that he doesn’t anticipate any Republicans within the Home to vote in favor of impeachment, and that he expects a ‘handful of Democrats’ to vote towards impeachment efforts. When it comes to the Senate, he stated he believes all Republicans will vote towards convicting Trump, and that they’ll doubtless be joined by two Democrats.
“‘I feel what we’re seeing is this can be a very partisan thing,’ Paul advised CNN’s Jake Tapper. ‘This can be a disagreement. Individuals on the Democrats’ aspect don’t like President Trump. They don’t like his demeanor, and they also’ve kind of determined to criminalize politics.’” POLITICO
-- TAPPER additionally spoke with Rep. WILL HURD (R-Texas). HURD: “You possibly can vote towards impeachment but still disagree with a number of the insurance policies and a number of the conduct.”
-- “Ted Cruz unimpressed by House Democrats’ case towards Trump,” by David Cohen: “Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) stated he’s seen what House Democrats have to supply in help of impeachment, and he’s not impressed. ‘I feel this is the starting of the top for this show trial,’ he advised host George Stephanopoulos on ABC’s ‘This Week,’ using the phrase ‘zero proof’ to explain his view of the Democrats’ case towards President Donald Trump.” POLITICO
-- WALLACE also spoke with White House special advisor PAM BONDI about working with Senate Republicans: BONDI: “So we weren’t given a good trial in the Home at all. Now it goes to the Senate and these Senators—the President deserves to be heard. We ought to be working hand in hand with them. The principles of proof will apply. These are the Senators who will determine if our President is impeached, which won't happen. We ought to and can work hand in hand with them.”
KNOWING JEFF VAN DREW -- “Jeff Van Drew celebration change got here as Democrats abandoned him,” by Matt Friedman in Philadelphia: “Rep. Jeff Van Drew, the conservative New Jersey Democrat who is predicted to soon grow to be a Republican, discovered himself in an unfamiliar and troubling place in current weeks: Watching help drop off from Democratic leaders within the state who had long tolerated his base-angering votes in the identify of political expediency. ...
“But cracks in that help started to appear when Van Drew’s stance towards impeaching President Donald Trump started affecting native elections in New Jersey and tanked his Democratic help in his district, which encompasses the southern tip of the state together with Atlantic City. Van Drew made the nationwide media rounds, even getting a supportive tweet from Trump after an look on Fox & Associates.” POLITICO
2020 WATCH …
-- “Why White Iowans Need a Nominee Who Can Attraction to Nonwhite Voters,” by NYT’s Sydney Ember: “They share awkward glances at occasions the place almost everybody seems like them. They take comfort in reminding one another that they propelled Barack Obama to the White House. They swear that their values and priorities are representative of more than a Corn Belt farm state.
“With less than two months until the Iowa caucuses start the presidential nominating process, the sense of obligation amongst white Iowans has by no means been larger — or extra complicated. Already confronting questions on whether or not their overwhelmingly white state ought to retain its pre-eminent position in the main process, many Iowa Democrats are consumed by a want to pick a coalition-building Democrat who can beat President Trump. In order that they are fixated more than ever on backing a candidate they consider can win in additional numerous states than their very own.” NYT
-- “A decide ordered up to 234,000 individuals to be tossed from the registered voter listing in a swing state,” by WaPo’s Marisa Iati: “A Wisconsin decide ordered the state to take as many as 234,000 individuals off its registered-voter record Friday as a result of they might have moved — a choice that would impede residents of this swing state from voting in next yr’s presidential election.” WaPo
-- “DNC balks at effort to alter debate qualifications,” by Alex Thompson and Elena Schneider
-- “Mayor Pete’s bestie is also helping craft the Warren agenda,” by Alex Thompson and Elena Schneider
TRUMP’S SUNDAY -- The president has nothing on his public schedule.
CLIMATE WATCH -- “Longest UN local weather talks finish with no deal on carbon markets,” by AP’s Frank Jordans and Aritz Parra in Madrid: “Marathon international climate talks ended Sunday with negotiators suspending until next yr a key determination on how to manage international carbon markets.
“After two weeks of negotiations in Madrid on tackling international warming, delegates from virtually 200 nations handed declarations calling for higher ambition in slicing planet-heating greenhouse gases and in serving to poor nations which might be struggling the consequences of local weather change. However despite holding the longest local weather talks ever in 25 almost annual editions they left one in every of the thorniest points for the subsequent summit in Glasgow, in a yr’s time.” AP … More from Zack Coleman and Kalina Oroschakoff in Madrid
ACROSS THE POND -- “Jeremy Corbyn: ‘I take my duty’ for defeat,” by Politico Europe’s Paul Dallison: “Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn stated the U.Okay. election outcome was “desperately disappointing” however defended his document and the social gathering's manifesto. Writing in the Observer, Corbyn, who has stated he will stand down in the new yr, stated: ‘We've got suffered a heavy defeat, and I take my duty for it.’
“Labour suffered a crushing defeat in the election, with the Conservatives ending up with a majority of 80 and Corbyn's get together dropping conventional seats across the Midlands and the north of England. He stated that ‘regardless of our greatest efforts, and our makes an attempt to clarify this may be a turning point for the whole course of our nation, the election turned mainly about Brexit.’” Politico EU
WOWZER … “Sackler-owned opioid maker goes international with OD remedy,” by AP’s Claire Galofaro and Kristen Gelineau: “As Purdue Pharma buckles beneath a mountain of litigation and public protest in the USA, its overseas affiliate, Mundipharma, has expanded overseas, utilizing a number of the similar techniques to sell the addictive opioids that made its house owners, the Sackler family, among the richest on the planet. Mundipharma can also be pushing one other technique globally: From Europe to Australia, it is working to dominate the market for opioid overdose remedy.” AP
HMM -- “Ivanka Trump Answered Questions From Her Own Spokesperson In An Interview In The Middle East,” by Every day Beast’s Ottilia Steadman
WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE -- “Ex-Trump Aide Is Expected to Return to White House,” by NYT’s Maggie Haberman: “John McEntee, who shadowed Mr. Trump as his physique man, is slated to return back in an identical position … His return will imply a acquainted presence with whom Mr. Trump is snug as he heads into the 2020 re-election campaign, and he's more likely to divide duties with one in every of his successors, Nick Luna.” NYT
MEDIAWATCH: FIRST IN PLAYBOOK -- Steven Nelson has been employed as Washington reporter for the New York Publish. He most just lately was White House reporter for the Washington Examiner.
Miranda Green has left The Hill, the place she was an power and setting reporter. Inexperienced, a CNN and Day by day Beast alum, is shifting to California to cover local weather and setting issues as a freelance writer.
BONUS GREAT WEEKEND READS, curated by Daniel Lippman (@dlippman):
-- “‘First, You Need to Do These Issues I Say’: Inside Roger Ailes’s Twisted Recreation of Thoughts Control,” by Alisyn Camerota in Vainness Truthful: “Throughout my time at Fox Information, Ailes bent reality to suit his own needs. However his racist rants and warped demands—‘all you must do is kill Gretchen’—finally allowed the ladies of Fox to convey him down.” VF
-- “The Age of Instagram Face,” by The New Yorker’s Jia Tolentino: “How social media, FaceTune, and cosmetic surgery created a single, cyborgian look.” New Yorker
-- “The Ballad of Kathy Scruggs,” by the Atlanta Journal-Structure’s Jennifer Brett: “The AJC reporter depicted in ‘Richard Jewell’ isn’t alive to defend herself towards ‘floozy’ portrayal.”
Src: POLITICO Playbook: Drama on trade, government funding resumes
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