US Secretary of State Tillerson: “How do we move forward from here?”


Developments on Day 176 of the Trump Administration:

See also Podcast: Mr Trump and Mr Putin Make An Election Deal

Russia: Trump Accepts Putin Declaration of “We Didn’t Interfere” in 2016 Election

Meeting President Vladimir Putin for the first time, Donald Trump says that everyone should move beyond any Russian interference in the 2016 US Presidential election.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was in the meeting, said Trump began by “raising the concerns of the American people regarding Russian interference”. As Putin asked for “proof and evidence”, there was “a very robust and lengthy exchange on the subject” with the Russian President denying any involvement.

But Tillerson indicated that, with the matter having been raised — “more work to be done on that regard [on cyber threats and interference]” — any consideration of Russian operations could now be set aside: “I think what the two presidents, I think rightly, focused on is how do we move forward. How do we move forward from here?”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went even farther, saying that Trump agreed with Putin’s insistence of no Russian influence operations against Trump’s opponent Hillary Clinton: “President Trump said he’s heard Putin’s very clear statements that this is not true and that the Russian government didn’t interfere in the elections and that he accepts these statements.”

A “senior Trump administration official” immediately denied the claim.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia carried out widespread operations during the election, including the hacking of computers, dissemination of the stolen information, and State-directed propaganda. The FBI and Congressional committees are investigating the possibility of the Trump campaign’s coordination with the Russian efforts.

Trump has maintained, despite published intelligence reports and the consensus of former and current US officials, that there is no proof of Moscow’s operations. He said on Thursday that “no one knows”: “I think it very well could be Russia, but I think it could very well have been other countries.”

Tillerson said on Friday that Trump and Putin discussed how to “secure a commitment that the Russian government has no intention” of interfering in future elections and “agreed to explore creating a framework around which the two countries can work together to better understand how to deal with these cyber threats”: “How do we have a framework where we have capability to judge what is happening in the cyberworld?”

Representative Adam Schiff, the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee — which is investigating the Trump-Russia links — responded that working with Russia on cyber-interference is like “inviting the North Koreans to participate in a commission on nonproliferation”.

Russian Communications Minister Nikolai Nikiforov welcomed the “very positive” news of a joint working group while saying, “Let us wait to [see] detailed solutions, at what level they are prepared to organize it.”

He then used the development to press for the lifting of US sanctions over Russia’s election interference, imposed by Barack Obama last December 29.

Lately, in the context of the geopolitical situation this cooperation was lost, and this is bad, as only by joint efforts of many countries we can fight cybercrime and defeat realistic threats in information security….

We hope for good cooperation in this sphere, and we think this is not the topic to use the language of unilateral sanctions.

Putin to Trump: “Are These The People Who Insulted You?”

At their photo opportunity, Putin has a laugh about Trump’s war on the media, pointing at journalists and asking, “Are these the people who insulted you?”

During Putin’s leadership of Russia since 2000, numerous Russian journalists have been killed, harassed, and fired.


White House & GOP Leadership Try to Flip Key Senators on ObamaCare Repeal

The White House and Senate GOP leaders plan a final emergency blitz to persuade holdout Republican Senators to back the repeal and replacement of ObamaCare. pressure reluctant GOP senators to pass an overhaul of the Affordable Care Act before their month-long August recess.

A “White House official familiar with the strategy” said, upon return from Europe, Donald Trump will counter the Congressional Budget Office analysis which shows that 22 million fewer people will have insurance coverage by 2026, that fewer conditions will be covered, and that premiums will increase — especially for lower-income and older people.

Trump will use figures and analyses from conservative groups and Republicans that supposedly show more benefits and less disruption.

Pence will work on skeptical GOP moderates, some of whom were bolstered in opposition by the CBO report. The Vice President has already contacted Dean Heller of Nevada, the first Senator to come out publicly against the GOP bill.

McConnell will work with conservative Ted Cruz to pitch an amendment allowing insurers to offer plans that do not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act — provided they also offer some that do.

However, the Senate Majority Leader also reportedly has an alternative strategy of working with Democrats to stabilize the insurance markets.

One of the moderate holdouts, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, expressed skepticism of the latest efforts: “It may be that there is another discussion draft. If there is, I can’t tell you what’s in it. That’s what happens when you don’t have an open process.”

McConnell did not permit public hearings or bill-drafting sessions in an attempt to ram through the Senate version of the American Health Care Act before the July 4 recess, but his effort collapsed when some Senators from both the moderate and conservative wings of the GOP refused to accede. The vote was postponed just before the final Senate session on June 30.

The scale of the White House and GOP leadership’s task, with only a 52-48 majority in the upper chamber, grew this week when John Hoeven of North Dakota became the 10th GOP senator to say he would not vote for the bill as written.

Three other Republican senators, Bob Corker of Tennessee, Charles Grassley of Iowa, and John Boozman of Arkansas, have withheld their support but have not yet declared their opposition.


Financial Disclosures of 480+ Trump Administration Officials

ProPublica has posted the financial disclosure forms of more than 480 officials in the Trump Administration.

One discovery from the forms:

The financial disclosures of Acting Under Secretary of Education James Manning show he previously consulted for USA Funds, an organization that was once the nation’s largest student loan guarantor.

In 2015, USA Funds sued the Education Department after the government instituted a rule limiting some fees guaranty agencies charge struggling borrowers. In March, two months after Manning joined the administration, the department rescinded the rule. USA Funds, which recently changed its name to Strada Education Network, dropped the case less than a week later….

A department spokeswoman told ProPublica that Manning had recused himself from all matters involving his old employer.