Trump-free Friday politics roundup: July 14

Health care bills arise, FBI nominee confirmations go surprisingly well, and maybe we should just give up email thanks to this week’s politics roundup.

Trump Jr. is a case study in collusion and foolishness

After this week, I might just give up emails entirely. Send me texts. Letters. Carrier pigeons. Even semaphore must be better than this demon mode of 21st century communication. At the very least, if someone now utters the word “email”  in association with politics in my presence, I can immediately feel a scream building in my throat.

But, as painful as it may be for me to discuss it, there’s no denying the endless wheel of email scandals that has entered the political realm. On the bright side, this time it only tangentially involves Hillary Clinton. On the unsurprising and now-familiar dark side, it is absolutely steeped in Russian affairs and the Trump family.

Again, I’m breaching the Trump embargo because this is such an important and confounding story. However, it does not just concern the 45th President of the United States. This turn of the wheel also centers on his son, Donald Trump Jr.

On June 3, 2016, Donald Trump Jr. received an email. It claimed that one of his father’s former business associates had been contacted by a Russian official. Said business associate, also Russian, was offering to provide the Trump campaign with information on Hillary Clinton. Documentation would “incriminate Hillary and hear dealings with Russia and would be very useful to your father,” according to the email.

Trump Jr. responded that he was interested and later met with a Russian lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya, on June 9 in Trump Tower. Trump Jr. had previously indicated that campaign manager Paul Manafort and brother-in-law Jared Kushner (now a White House adviser) would also attend.

The meeting itself

Instead of handing over dirt on Clinton, Veselnitskaya (according to Trump Jr.) preferred to focus on the Magnitsky Act. This 2012 law allows U.S. officials to bar Russian human rights violators from entering the country; it also allows for seizure of designated violators’ assets.

Russian President Vladimir Putin was so angered by the Magnitsky Act that he froze American adoptions of Russian children. Rob Goldstone, a Trump intermediary who was also at the meeting, claimed that Veselnitskaya’s discussion of the Magnisky Act “was the most inane nonsense I’ve ever heard”.

When it became clear that The New York Times was getting closer to revealing this meeting, Trump Jr. released the emails and a statement via Twitter. In his statement, Trump Jr. said that “this occurred before the current Russian fever was in vogue”.

Trump Sr. has claimed that he was unaware of this meeting until only a few days ago. However, the timing of the offer and Trump Sr.’s rising political fortunes has raised considerable, if circumstantial, suspicion. Furthermore, this meeting directly contradicts multiple claims from multiple Trump-associated parties that there was no meaningful contact with Russian officials during the campaign or after the election.

No, this doesn’t mean that the president will finally be impeached. It’s far better to be realistic about the limitations of our government and the politicians who are, to some extent, beholden to their constituency’s desires. For now, we’re almost certainly stuck with this mess. At least we can kind of enjoy some schadenfreude generated from all of the supposed leaks coming out of the White House.

Health care bill revised, still awful

The Senate health care bill, previously on shaky ground, debuted a revised version this Thursday. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had previously hoped to push a vote on the earlier iteration of the bill before July 4. However, weak support amongst Republican senators caused him to delay voting.

The new bill will still do away with both individual and employers mandates, as well as significant cuts to Medicaid. Meanwhile, as in the old bill, states will still have the option to back out of Obamacare mandates, such as essential health benefits.

An amendment to the revised bill will allow insurers to effectively deny coverage based on pre-existing conditions. At the very least, those unfortunate people with any number of pre-existing conditions could face steep increases in premiums and less comprehensive coverage. Moreover, they would potentially be forced into a “high-risk” insurance pool. State-level exemptions in particular could create devastating situations for individuals with pre-existing conditions and their families.

The new version also sets aside more money to combat the abuse of opioid drugs. It now adds $4.5 billion for 2018, compared to a previous budget of $2 billion. It retains some Obama-era taxes, including some taxes that affected high-income citizens the most. Money set aside for high-risk plans also increased in this version. Originally, the bill allowed for $112 billion to go to states in order to help high-risk individuals. The revised bill sets aside $182 million for the same purpose.

FBI nominee hearing wasn’t as bad as feared

Can you believe it’s already been two months since FBI director James Comey was fired? Only now has Congress been able to consider his replacement, Christopher A. Wray, a former official within the Department of Justice.

Many, including members of the Senate, were wary of the president’s nominee. After all, the White House has an embattled relationship with the intelligence agency. Could Wray really be impartial enough to properly oversee all FBI investigations, including the possible conflicts of interest within the Executive Branch?

This question was foremost in many minds on Wednesday, when the Senate Judiciary Committee held Wray’s confirmation hearing. The Judiciary Committee will soon vote on whether or not to send Wray’s nomination to the Senate for final approval.

Wray argued that he would not agree to any sort of loyalty pledge. Furthermore, he said that he would rather resign than do anything “illegal, unconstitutional or even morally repugnant” requested by the current president.

He also supported the current investigation into Russian interference, headed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller. Wray stated that he “would consider an effort to tamper with Director Mueller’s investigation unacceptable and inappropriate and would need to be dealt with very sternly indeed”.

Russia didn’t have anything to do with the 2016 election, says Putin

If Vladimir Putin, president of Russia and former KGB official, says he didn’t screw with the U.S. election, you believe him. Right? Especially if you’re an embattled head of state that would benefit from the disappearance of this whole “treason” thing.

Anyway, the president directly asked him and Putin said that he had nothing to do with it. Nevermind the mounds of information pointing to the opposite conclusion. The near consensus within the intelligence community has no bearing either. If he says no, then it must be true.

Well, glad that’s all over.

And, finally, your palate cleanser

Take a moment to focus in on Representative Maxine Waters. In a recent profile in The New York Times, she said that the recent presidential election inspired her more outspoken resistance after more than 25 years in Congress. “I was going to not only challenge [the president] but encourage other to see him for what he is: basically a bully, an egotistical maniac, a liar and someone who did not need to be president”.

I don’t mean to make this entirely laudatory. Waters, like many other politicians, has encountered political scandal. In 2008, she attempted to set up a meeting between OneUnited Bank executives and officials from the Treasury Department. The catch? Her husband owned stock in that same bank.

An investigation cleared her. However, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington labelled her “one of the most corrupt members of Congress.” Waters, who served on the House Financial Services Committee, has called bankers “gangsters.” Yet she has also softened her stance on banking in recent years.

Next: Trump-free Friday politics roundup: July 7

Whether or not you think Representative Waters is standing up to bullies or simply showboating for votes, her career is worthy of study. It also brings to mind the stories of other women of color in Congress. These include Shirley Chisholm, a New York Representative who once ran for the presidency.

Patsy Mink, elected in 1964, was the first woman of color ever elected to Congress. According to the History, Art & Archives of the House of Representatives, 67 women of color have served in both the Senate and House since 1964.