March 27, 2017

Dems delay Senate panel vote on Supreme Court nominee

Source: The Hill



BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 03/27/17 12:17 PM EDT

Democrats are delaying for one week an initial committee vote on Neil Gorsuch, President Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the committee, said Democrats had requested that the committee's vote on Gorsuch be punted to next week. "I understand that the minority would like to hold him over," Grassley said during the Judiciary Committee's meeting on Monday.

Under committee rules any one member can request that a nomination be held the first time it appears on the agenda. Democrats were widely expected to delay the committee's vote until next week.

The delay means the committee vote will likely take place on April 3, giving Republicans days to meet their goal of winning Gorsuch's confirmation by the full Senate by the end of that week.

Read more: http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/325923-dems-delay-senate-panel-vote-on-supreme-court-nominee

March 27, 2017

After healthcare loss, investor faith wavers as Trump turns to taxes

Source: Reuters



Mon Mar 27, 2017 | 12:12pm EDT

By Megan Davies and Chuck Mikolajczak

U.S. stocks slid on Monday amid concerns that Republican President Donald Trump may struggle to push a sweeping overhaul of the tax code through Congress in the wake of his party's failure last week to pass broad healthcare legislation.

Trump's pledge to cut taxes, including a lowering of the rates paid by corporations, was a pillar of his 2016 presidential campaign and provided much of the fuel for the heady stock market rally that followed his Nov. 8 victory.

The White House has sought to refocus attention on that part of Trump's agenda since the collapse on Friday of a Republican bill to reshape the U.S. healthcare system largely by gutting Democratic former President Barack Obama's 2010 healthcare law. "The markets aren't really concerned about healthcare," said Randy Frederick, managing director of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas. "What the markets are concerned about is tax policy. So now the more important issue has come to the forefront. The question is, will they be able to get that done? I don't know."

The major U.S. stock indexes were down, with the S&P 500 0.3 percent lower, while benchmark 10-year Treasury notes were up 11/32 in price for a yield of 2.36 percent after hitting a one-month low in yield earlier.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-tax-idUSKBN16Y1YK

March 27, 2017

Trump supporters call for Kaine's son and other protesters to be prosecuted

Source: The Hill


BY OLIVIA BEAVERS - 03/27/17 12:07 PM EDT

Supporters of President Trump called for local officials in Minnesota to prosecute protesters who disrupted a Trump rally earlier this month, including the son of Hillary Clinton's 2016 running mate, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), according to the Twin Cities Pioneer Press.

Protesters interrupted the March 4 rally in St. Paul, blowing air horns, tossing smoke bombs into the crowd and clashing with attendees and security. Five of the protestors were arrested, including Linwood “Woody” Kaine, 24. The sixth protestor received a citation for disorderly conduct, the newspaper reports.

John Choi, Ramsay County attorney, decided there was not sufficient evidence to prosecute the five protestors, but says the investigation is still “active,” according to a statement to the Press. Choi also told the newspaper that he was unaware of Linwood Kaine’s relationship to Tim Kaine when he made the decision not to prosecute.

On Saturday, Trump supporters disgruntled by the lack of charges organized a rally billed as "Protecting Civil Discourse."

Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/325921-trump-supporters-call-for-kaines-son-and-other-protesters-to-be

March 27, 2017

Grassley wants details on firm tied to controversial Trump dossier

Source: The Hill



BY JORDAIN CARNEY - 03/27/17 11:55 AM EDT

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is demanding details on the funding of a controversial opposition research dossier on President Trump during the 2016 election.

The chairman of the Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Fusion GPS—a firm that reportedly hired former British spy Christopher Steele to investigate the then-GOP candidate—asking for details on Steele, who hired the firm, and if they shared the document with the FBI.

"When political opposition research becomes the basis for law enforcement or intelligence efforts, it raises substantial questions about the independence of law enforcement and intelligence from politics," Grassley wrote. He added that the Judiciary Committee "requires additional information to evaluate this situation."

Grassley is digging into Steele over the controversial dossier, which alleges that the Russians had compromising information on the president. Grassley wants to know who first hired Fusion GPS to do opposition research against Trump, the details of the contract and copies of the contract, as well as information on any additional clients who hired the firm to research Trump.



Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/325917-grassley-wants-details-on-firm-tied-to-controversial-trump-dossier

March 27, 2017

Mexicans who help build Trump wall 'traitors,' top Archdiocese says

Source: Reuters



Mon Mar 27, 2017 | 9:30am EDT

Mexicans who help build U.S. President Donald Trump's planned border wall would be acting immorally and should be deemed traitors, the Catholic Archdiocese of Mexico said on Sunday, turning up the heat on a simmering dispute over the project.

In a provocative editorial, the country's biggest Archdiocese sought to increase pressure on the government to take a tougher line on companies aiming to profit from the wall, which has strained relations between Trump and the Mexican government. "Any company intending to invest in the wall of the fanatic Trump would be immoral, but above all, its shareholders and owners should be considered traitors to the homeland," said the editorial in Desde la fe, the Archdiocese's weekly publication.

On Tuesday, Economy Minister Ildefonso Guajardo warned firms it would not be in their "interests" to participate in the wall. But the editorial accused the government of responding "tepidly" to those eyeing the project for business.

A spokesman for the Archdiocese, which centers on Mexico City and is presided over by the country's foremost Roman Catholic cleric, Cardinal Norberto Rivera, said the editorial represented the views of the diocese.


Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/usa-mexico-wall-idUSKBN16Y0AX

March 27, 2017

Israel's Netanyahu pledges to work with Trump on peace efforts

Source: Reuters



Mon Mar 27, 2017 | 11:26am EDT

By Matt Spetalnick | WASHINGTON

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday he was committed to working with U.S. President Donald Trump to advance peace efforts with the Palestinians and with the broader Arab world.

Netanyahu made the pledge in a speech to the largest U.S. pro-Israel lobbying group at a time when the Trump administration is seeking agreement with his right-wing government on limiting settlement construction on land the Palestinians want for a state, part of a U.S. bid to resume long-stalled peace negotiations.

But Netanyahu, speaking via satellite link from Jerusalem, avoided any mention of the delicate discussions, and stopped short of reiterating a commitment to a two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“Israel's hand and my hand is extended to all of our neighbors in peace,” Netanyahu told the annual convention of American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC. “Israel is committed to working with President Trump to advance peace with the Palestinians and with all our neighbors.” But he repeated his demand that the Palestinians recognize Israel as a Jewish state, something they have refused to do.



Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-israel-aipac-idUSKBN16Y1WR

March 27, 2017

Trumpflation setback sparks rush back into euro zone bonds

Source: Reuters



Mon Mar 27, 2017 | 11:38am EDT

By Dhara Ranasinghe | LONDON

Borrowing costs across the euro zone touched multi-week lows on Monday, as a legislative defeat for U.S. President Donald Trump on healthcare reforms raised questions about his ability to push through tax cuts and fiscal spending to boost the economy.

As investors reassessed the outlook for growth and inflation, analysts said bets that the European Central Bank could look to tighten monetary policy sooner rather than later were also being scaled back. Bond yields in Germany and France fell to their lowest levels in around three weeks, while U.S. 10-year Treasury yields tumbled to one-month lows.

Since November's U.S. election, expectations that large fiscal stimulus under a Trump administration would help push up economic growth and inflation have boosted risk assets and dented safe-haven bonds in the U.S. and Europe. But the healthcare bill was pulled from the floor of the House of Representatives on Friday because it failed to draw enough support from within Trump's Republican Party - throwing so-called "Trump reflation" bets into reverse.

Stock markets tumbled and the dollar slid to its lowest since November against a basket of currencies .DXY.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-eurozone-bonds-idUSKBN16Y1XQ?il=0

March 27, 2017

'We set a low bar - and he rammed his head into it': Economist rips Trump on CNN

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/03/we-set-a-low-bar-he-rammed-his-head-on-it-liberal-economist-says-trump-worse-than-expected/

March 27, 2017

Ann Romney says Mitt would've accepted State position if Trump had asked

BY REBECCA SAVRANSKY - 03/27/17 11:31 AM EDT

Ann Romney said Mitt Romney would have accepted the role of secretary of State had he been offered it.

"I thought Mitt would have been terrific and we were very seriously considering it," she said during an interview on NBC's "Today."

"I think he was very seriously being considered. And so for Mitt to have been able to shape foreign affairs I think would have been a very significant role for him and I know he would have accepted it if he had been asked."

Mitt Romney, the 2012 GOP nominee, was under consideration to serve as secretary of State before he was ultimately passed over for the position, which went to Rex Tillerson. During Trump's presidential campaign, Romney was a strong critic of Trump. He called Trump a "con man, a phony and a fraud." After he was passed over the position, Romney said it was an "honor to have been considered" for the role.

more
http://thehill.com/homenews/325900-ann-romney-says-mitt-wouldve-accepted-state-position-if-trump-had-asked

March 27, 2017

Juan Williams: If Obama had acted like Trump...

BY JUAN WILLIAMS - 03/27/17 06:00 AM EDT

Right-wing media to President Obama: We are so very sorry. That’s the message I got last week from the conservative Wall Street Journal editorial page.

The Journal abandoned efforts to make sense of President Trump’s outright fiction that Obama wiretapped him. Its editorial page — never a friend to Obama — wrote this last week about Trump:

“(He) clings to his assertion like a drunk to an empty gin bottle, rolling out his press spokesman to make more dubious claims.”

Wow. The Journal was sharply critical of Obama but never said he had the credibility of a drunkard.

They are not yet saying “Thanks, Obama,” but their words do stir new appreciation for the good old days under the previous president.

more
http://thehill.com/opinion/juan-williams/325859-juan-williams-if-obama-had-acted-like-trump