March 05, 2019 10:27 AM UTC

Get More Smarter on Tuesday (March 5)

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• by: Colorado Pols

Pro tip from Colorado Pols: If you set your clock ahead 10 minutes every day this week, you won’t have to make the full one-hour Daylight Saving adjustment on Sunday. 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…

► When Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul announced that he will support a measure — already passed by the House — that would reject President Trump’s “emergency declaration” for big ol’ wall building, he did what Colorado Sen. Cory Gardner should have done. Paul believes there could be as many as 10 Republican Senators who will ultimately defy Trump on this upcoming vote. As the Washington Post reports, the White House is scrambling to keep more Republican Senators from voting “YES”:

The White House told Senate Republicans on Monday to “keep their powder dry” ahead of a vote to nullify President Trump’s declaration of a national emergency at the U.S.-Mexico border as the administration worked to limit defections on a measure rebuking the president.

The message was delivered by Zach Parkinson, White House deputy director of government communications, in a meeting Monday morning with Senate Republican communications staffers, according to two people who attended the meeting…

…At Monday’s meeting, Parkinson cautioned GOP Senate communications aides against public criticism from their bosses over the emergency declaration, saying that if senators are planning to vote to overturn it, they should contact the White House to get further information on Trump’s rationale, according to the two people.

What are the odds that Sen. Gardner has already called the President to ask him what to do? Definitely better than 50-50.

► The oil and gas industry in Colorado is panicking about a new regulatory bill that will begin moving through the state legislature today. Industry leaders are warning Democratic lawmakers that Senate Bill 181 will turn Colorado into a “Mad Max” movie.

► State Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg (R-Sterling) is openly inciting violence. Sonnenberg fired off a bizarre email recently that calls the legislature “evil” and includes an almost-obligatory Nazi reference.

► Did you know that Senator Cory Gardner (R-Yuma) is the most vulnerable Republican incumbent in 2020? You’re going to hear this a lot before the 2020 election. Here’s Stuart Rothenberg for Roll Call:

Trump will be a significant liability for Gardner, since a vote for the incumbent is one for continued GOP control of the Senate and inevitably a vote in support of the president.

Gardner, after all, chaired the National Republican Senatorial Committee last cycle (making him a member of the party’s Senate leadership), and he generally has been a loyal soldier in Trump’s Senate army. [Pols emphasis]

Get even more smarter after the jump…

IN CASE YOU ARE STANDING NEAR A WATER COOLER…

► There appears to be a growing bipartisan sentiment in Congress that is anti- anti-vaxxer. From the Washington Post:

The resurgence of measles across the United States is generating growing bipartisan alarm on Capitol Hill, where the Senate is holding a hearing today about how the government can better combat anti-vaccination conspiracy theories that are putting lives at risk.

It’s an especially important topic for Sen. Patty Murray, the top Democrat on the health committee. Her home state of Washington has had 71 confirmed cases of measles since the start of the year. “Diseases aren’t stopped by borders, or walls or bans,” she said in her opening statement. “They are stopped by doctors and nurses — by vaccines and public health awareness.”

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), the chairman of the committee, also stressed the importance of aggressively promoting vaccinations. “There is a lot of misleading and incorrect information about vaccines that circulates online, including through social media,” he said in his opening statement. “Here is what I want parents … to know: Vaccines are approved by the FDA and meet the FDA’s gold standard of safety. … Vaccines save lives — the lives of those who receive vaccines and the lives of those who are too young or vulnerable to be immunized.”

Colorado is one of 11 states with at least one confirmed case of measles. As the Post notes, “late winter and early spring are prime time for transmission, so public health experts are on edge about the possibility of a major national outbreak in the coming weeks.”

► As Roll Call reports, a teenager who defied his anti-vaxxer parents because he didn’t want to end up sick from a preventable disease or illness will testify today in Congress about the importance of vaccinations:

Ethan Lindenberger decided at the age of 18 to vaccinate himself despite his parent’s disapproval. On Tuesday, he will testify in front of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions at a hearing concerning the value of vaccines.

The Ohio resident garnered a great deal of media attention in recent months after he posted on Reddit asking how he could get the vaccines that usually are given during childhood.  Lindenberger’s parents refused to vaccinate him, because his mother believes in a now-debunked conspiracy theory that suggests the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine causes autism in children…

…The testimony comes amid a measles outbreak along the west coast, impacting the state of Washington and Oregon. So far, there have been 71 confirmed cases of measles in Washington, and six confirmed cases in Oregon.

► The number of detainees at an ICE facility in Aurora has jumped 60 percent in the last three months. As Fox 31 Denver reports, that population increase is also behind a concerning rise in viral outbreaks.

► El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder is calling out three Republican lawmakers who are encouraging local law enforcement officials to basically ignore any gun control measures that might be passed by the Colorado legislature.

► House Democrats are seeking President Trump’s tax returns for the last 10 years…assuming he actually paid taxes at some point.

► Former White House lawyer Ty Cobb is defending special investigator Robert Mueller.  As Politico reports:

One of President Donald Trump’s former White House lawyers said this week that special counsel Robert Mueller is an “American hero” and that the probe he is leading is not a “witch hunt,” rejecting the president’s repeated characterizations of the Russia investigation and the man leading it.

In an interview on ABC News’ “The Investigation” podcast published Tuesday, Ty Cobb disputed many of the president’s complaints about Mueller and his team, chiefly that Mueller’s examination of the 2016 presidential election and Trump’s possible obstruction of justice was a “witch hunt.”

“I don’t feel the investigation is a witch hunt,” Cobb said, adding he wished the investigation “had happened on a quicker time frame,” while acknowledging the pace was not Mueller’s fault.

President Trump will be rage-Tweeting at Cobb in 3…2…1…

► Colorado is joining 19 states in a lawsuit opposing a Trump administration “gag rule” on abortion. From the Denver Post:

The lawsuit, which is being led by Oregon, is expected to be filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Eugene, Ore., according to a news release from Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. A spokesperson for the Colorado Attorney General’s Office confirmed the state will join the suit.

The legal action seeks to stop rule changes being made to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’s Title X family planning program, which are expected to go into effect in 60 days.

Opponents are calling the changes a “gag rule” because health providers that receive Title X funding will no longer be able to refer patients for abortion services. The new policy also prohibits family planning services funded by the program from being housed in the same physical location as abortion providers.

► Put the icing down and back away from the cake with your hands up.

► Colorado’s two freshman Members of Congress — Rep. Joe Neguse (D-Boulderish) and Rep. Jason Crow (D-Aurora) — are teaming up with other first-year lawmakers.

► So-called “red flag” legislation on gun safety has made it through the Colorado House of Representatives.

► A prominent Colorado political consultant died in a helicopter crash in Africa. Please send good thoughts and prayers to the family of Kyle Forti.

Your Daily Dose Of ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 

► If you want to gain favor with President Trump, go ahead and spend a couple hundred thousand dollars at Trump’s Washington D.C. hotel. If this was any shadier, it would be nighttime.

► Roger Stone just can’t help himself, apparently.

ICYMI

► Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper is officially running for President.

► If you are a Coloradan who wants to talk with Sen. Cory Gardner, your only real option is to try to catch him in a hallway leaving an event that you weren’t supposed to know about. This one sentence from the Colorado Independent speaks volumes:

The Republican from Yuma, who rarely makes himself available to the public, was speaking to the campus student GOP group, which chose not to advertise the event.

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