November 28, 2018 11:33 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Wednesday (November 28)

• 6 Comments
• by: Colorado Pols

There are still plenty of shopping days left until Christmas. It’s time to Get More Smarter. If you think we missed something important, please include the link in the comments below (here’s a good example). If you are more of a visual learner, check out The Get More Smarter Show.

TOP OF MIND TODAY…

► House Democrats are meeting today to select their new caucus leaders, and it appears that Rep. Nancy Pelosi is well on her way to retaking the gavel as Speaker of the House. As the Washington Post reports:

The gathering provides a key test of strength for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), who is unopposed in her bid to become speaker again but faces opposition from nearly two dozen Democrats who argue the party needs fresh leadership.

The full House, including Republican members, will choose a speaker on Jan. 3. If Democrats win two uncalled races where their candidates are leading, they will have won 235 seats, meaning Pelosi can weather as many as 17 defections.

In their first action Wednesday, House Democrats picked Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) as their new caucus chair.

Opposition to Pelosi from within the Democratic caucus appears to have fizzled over a lack of direction and no specific candidate to challenge the current House Minority Leader. Jefferson County Rep. Ed Perlmutter and Rep-elect Jason Crow are among the Democrats who have publicly called for new leadership.

As Politico reports, the top potential challengers to Pelosi sat down for a meeting with the likely Speaker on Wednesday.

► Senate Republicans are doing what they can to protect President Trump as rumors swirl that special investigator Robert Mueller may be getting close to announcing his findings regarding potential collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in 2016. From Politico:

Senate Republicans blocked a bipartisan push to vote on legislation protecting special counsel Robert Mueller on Wednesday.

After Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.), Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Cory Booker (D-N.J.) sought to bring the bill to the floor, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) objected to the request and argued the bill was unconstitutional…

…His remarks echo those of Senate GOP leaders, who have consistently rebuffed calls to consider the measure. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said the bill was “a solution in search of a problem.”

Earlier Wednesday, Coons accused McConnell of protecting the president by blockinga vote on the bill.

Meanwhile, CNN is reporting on some apparent Trump answers to key questions about the investigation:

President Donald Trump told special counsel Robert Mueller in writing that Roger Stone did not tell him about WikiLeaks, nor was he told about the 2016 Trump Tower meeting between his son, campaign officials and a Russian lawyer promising dirt on Hillary Clinton, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

► Harry Enten of CNN runs down some of the key takeaways from Tuesday’s runoff election in Mississippi for a U.S. Senate seat. As expected, Republican Cindy Hyde-Smith defeated Democrat Mike Espy for the right to finish the final two years of Zombie Thad Cochran’s term. 

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► Democratic activist Lorena Garcia announced her intentions to run for U.S. Senate in 2020. Garcia may be the first Democrat to formally declare for the 2020 Senate race (someone named Trish Zornio has basically been running since 2017), but she certainly won’t be the last. Neither Garcia nor Zornio have any realistic chance of securing the Democratic nomination.

► President Trump is again threatening a government shutdown if he doesn’t get the money he wants to build a wall along the Mexico border.

► President Trump is blaming Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell for several recent negative economic shifts. From the Washington Post:

President Trump placed responsibility for recent stock market declines and this week’s announcement of General Motors plant closures and layoffs on the Federal Reserve during an interview Tuesday, shirking any personal blame for cracks in the economy and declaring that he is “not even a little bit happy” with his hand-selected central bank chairman.

In a wide-ranging and sometimes discordant 20-minute interview with The Washington Post, Trump complained at length about Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. “Jay” Powell, whom he nominated last year. When asked about declines on Wall Street and GM’s announcement that it was laying off 15 percent of its workforce, Trump responded by criticizing higher interest rates and other Fed policies, though he insisted that he is not worried about a recession.

“I’m doing deals, and I’m not being accommodated by the Fed,” Trump said. “They’re making a mistake because I have a gut, and my gut tells me more sometimes than anybody else’s brain can ever tell me.”

So many deals!

► First Daughter Ivanka Trump has her head fully buried in the sand when it comes to responding to concerns about her use of a private email account to conduct government business. As the Huffington Post reports:

The report casts the president and his family in a hypocritical light, as he made 2016 Democratic opponent Clinton’s misuse of a private email server a constant line of attack. Trump supporters still regularly chant “Lock her up!” at rallies ― a call to send Clinton to prison over the emails.

But Ivanka Trump denied that the idea of “lock her up” applies to her situation.

“People who want to see it as the same, see it as the same,” Trump told ABC. “In my case, all of my emails are on the White House server. There’s no intent to circumvent.”

In the case of Clinton, she claimed, “there were mass deletions after a subpoena was issued.”

“My emails have not been deleted, nor was there anything of substance ― nothing confidential that was within them,” she said.

As Chris Cillizza notes for CNN, Ivanka is full of shit:

How, after that campaign, can Ivanka Trump make a straight-faced argument that she didn’t know what the rules were governing the use of a personal email account when conducting government business? The answer, of course, is that she can’t. It is simply impossible to believe someone as involved in her father’s presidential campaign would be totally ignorant of the fact that it might be problematic to use a private email to conduct business when she was in the White House.

The truth here is that Ivanka Trump is guilty of the same entitlement mentality that her father and his surrogates accused Clinton of: Seeing the rules of the road as something for other people to follow. Sure, that whole email thing was a problem for Hillary Clinton, but I’m Ivanka Trump! I’m different.

► A massive new planned development in Aurora has city officials confused about how to pay for significant increases in firefighting services.

► Here’s a look at the potential number of special elections for Congressional seats in the next two years.

► Several close 2018 races have tilted toward Democrats in late ballot counts.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► President Trump does not agree with a new government report warning of dire consequences if measures are not taken to deal with Climate Change. Of course, Trump can’t articulate why he doesn’t agree with the assessment — he just doesn’t.

► Former Republican gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton has a new beard.

ICYMI

► Colorado Republicans are crying about legislative “overreach” because it’s the only thing they can say after being royally trounced in the 2018 election. There can be no “overreach” when the overwhelming majority of voters give one party such a massive mandate.

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