Senate Majority Leader McConnell vows to press ahead after July 4 recess

Developments on Day 159 of the Trump Administration:

Vote Delayed on Senate Healthcare Bill

Facing defeat, the Republican leadership delays the vote on its version of the bill to repeal and replace ObamaCare.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced the delay on Tuesday, postponing the vote beyond the end of the week and the July 4 recess.

McConnell had tried to push through the bill with no public hearings and secret bill-drafting sessions, revealing the legislation last week. However, he soon faced resistance from both conservative and moderate GOP senators and then — as the Congressional Budget Office estimated that 22 million Americans would lose coverage, the level of provision for medical conditions would be reduced, and premiums would rise — from others as well. By Tuesday, it was doubtful that there were even enough votes to begin debate, with no prospect of Republicans maintaining their 52-48 majority through a final vote.

“We will not be on the bill this week, but we’re still working toward getting at least 50 people in a comfortable place,” declared McConnell.

Pressing their advantage, opponents of the bill, including patient advocacy groups and medical organizations, plan to lobby senators in their home states next week. Some Republican senators have suggested that their votes for the legislation will be difficult to win.

After seeing Donald Trump at the White House, McConnell vowed to proceed after the recess:

The status quo is simply unsustainable. It’ll be dealt with in one of two ways: Either Republicans will agree and change the status quo, or the markets will continue to collapse, and we’ll have to sit down with Senator [Democratic Minority Leader Charles] Schumer. And my suspicion is that any negotiation with the Democrats would include none of the reforms that we would like to make.

Trump insisted in a camera opportunity with GOP senators, “We are getting very close. This will be great if we get it done.”

But one of the moderates, Susan Collins of Maine, responded, “It’s difficult for me to see how any tinkering is going to satisfy my fundamental and deep concerns about the impact of the bill.”

Three others — Jerry Moran of Kansas, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, and Rob Portman of Ohio — said they would oppose the legislation without amendments.

Dean Heller of Nevada started the public rebellion from within the GOP last Friday when he said that he could not vote for the bill as it stood. From the conservative wing of the GOP, Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, and Ron Johnson objected to the legislation as “ObamaCare Lite”.

Ex-Campaign Manager Manafort Belatedly Registers Payments from Pro-Russian Ukrainians

A consulting firm led by Paul Manafort, Donald Trump’s campaign manager for much fo 2016, belatedly files forms registering the receipt of $17.1 million over two years from a pro-Russian political party in Ukraine.

Manafort disclosed the total payments his firm received between 2012 and 2014 in a Foreign Agents Registration Act late Tuesday. The work apparently ended with the overthrow of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in Kiev in early 2014.

The former campaign manager is being investigated by Special Counsel Robert Mueller over Russian interference in the 2016 election and links between Trump associates and Russian officials.

In March former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn filed a late disclosure over receipt of almost $600,000 from Russian interests and a Turkish businessman linked to the Kremlin.

Tillerson Associate Lashes Out at “2nd Foreign Policy” from Kushner in White House

A “close associate” of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson criticizes Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner for running a “second foreign policy” from the White House.

The asssociate described the confusion over the US position on the break of relations by Saudi Arabia and the UAE with Qatar, where Tillerson and Defense Secretary James Mattis called for moderation and dialogue but were undercut by Trump’s criticism of Doha for supporting “terrorists” and “extremists”.

Tillerson’s aides believe that the author of Trump’s statements was the Ambassador of the UAE, Yousef al-Otaiba, a close friend of Kushner. The close associate says:

Rex put two-and-two together and concluded that this absolutely vacuous kid was running a second foreign policy out of the White House family quarters. Otaiba weighed in with Jared and Jared weighed in with Trump. What a mess….

Rex is just exhausted. He can’t get any of his appointments approved and is running around the world cleaning up after a President whose primary foreign policy adviser is a 31-year-old amateur.

The Secretary of State was also angered by the statement of a White House official: “Tillerson may initially have had a view, then the President has his view, and obviously the President’s view prevails.”

Earlier this week White House officials were quoted in a New York Times article depicting Tillerson’s lack of diplomatic experience and failure to fill vacancies, including at high levels, in the State Department.

Time to Trump: Take Down Fake Magazine Covers from Your Golf Resorts

Time magazine has asked the Trump Organisation to remove fake covers with Donald Trump’s image, exalting him as a reality TV star, from his golf resorts.

Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, where he spent most weekends in the three months after his January inauguration, has a framed Time cover featuring Trump’s portrait with the headline “Donald Trump: The ‘Apprentice’ is a television smash!” and the topline, “TRUMP IS HITTING ON ALL FRONTS … EVEN TV!”

TRUMP FAKE TIME COVER

The cover was also on display at four other Trump golf clubs.

Ironically, the faked cover also features the headline — lifted from a real Time issue — “Global Warming: A New Age of Extinction”.

Trump has said that climate change is a “Chinese hoax”.

White House Lectures Journalists on “Fake News”, Then Promotes Maker of Deceptive Videos

White House Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders has lectured journalits on “fake news” and then immediately promoted the work of James O’Keefe, accused of deception and misleading editing in his work.

Sanders was pushed into the curious but telling juxtaposition by questioning from a correspondent who works for Playboy:

Sanders insisted:

I think it’s the constant barrage of fake news that is directed at this president, probably, that has garnered a lot of his frustration. You point to that report; there are multiple other instances where that outlet that you referenced has been repeatedly wrong and had to point that out or had to correct it. There’s a video circulating now — whether it’s accurate or not, I don’t know — but I would encourage everyone in this room and, frankly, everybody across the country to take a look at it. I think if it is accurate, I think it’s a disgrace to all of media, to all of journalism.

O’Keefe’s latest video shows a CNN health and medical producer supposedly complaining about the cable channel’s coverage of the Trump-Russia investigation. But his films have repeatedly been questioned over the misrepresentation of of O’Keefe and his associates and the editing of footage to distort quotes by taking them out of context.