Trump World quickly abandons its obsession with email servers

As regular readers know, officials in Donald Trump’s White House cannot credibly claim ignorance when it comes to proper email protocols. Trump World was told not to use private email accounts to conduct official business. The National Security Agency also warned White House officials that use of private email accounts created a security threat.

What’s more, Trump’s entire political operation had just spent two years telling the public that Hillary Clinton should be incarcerated for having used a private email account.

And yet, several top members of the president's team ignored the rules and the warnings, and used private email accounts anyway. This has generated some interest on Capitol Hill, but as Politico reported, the White House has decided not to care.

The White House brushed off a bipartisan request from House investigators for details of senior administration officials' use of private email and encrypted messaging apps for government work, including possible violations of federal record-keeping laws, a letter obtained by POLITICO shows.

In a terse letter to Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) -- leaders of the House oversight committee -- President Donald Trump's congressional liaison Marc Short declined to indicate whether any administration officials had used personal email accounts or messaging services, despite reports suggesting such communications were common in the West Wing.

Gowdy and Cummings requested the "the individual, cellular number and account used" by any White House officials who communicated using "text-messages, phone-based message applications, or encryption software to conduct official business."

Short responded that White House officials "endeavor to comply" with the relevant laws -- which isn't the same thing as actually following the law -- before declining to provide lawmakers with any additional details.

Traditionally, when lawmakers engaged in administrative oversight request information, and the White House blows them off, Congress takes the slights quite seriously. That said, it's a Republican-led Congress and a Republican White House, so it's possible GOP members will simply shrug their shoulders. The decision is largely in the hands of Trey Gowdy, who's generally been an ally of this White House.

While we wait for this to play out, however, let's not miss the forest for the trees.

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After Trump's warning, McCain says, 'I have faced tougher adversaries'

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was awarded the Liberty Medal by the National Constitution Center on Monday night, and delivered remarks that sounded like a not-so-subtle shot at Donald Trump. The veteran senator said that "some half-baked, spurious nationalism" should be considered "as unpatriotic as an attachment to any other tired dogma of the past that Americans consigned to the ash heap of history."

Asked yesterday whether this was a rebuke of his party's president, McCain added that he was really referring to "America Firsters" -- which only reinforced impressions that Trump and his followers were his intended targets.

As the Washington Post reported, the president was asked about this during a radio interview yesterday.

"People have to be careful because at some point, I fight back," Trump said in an interview Tuesday with WMAL, a D.C. radio station.

"I'm being very nice. I'm being very, very nice. But at some point, I fight back, and it won't be pretty," Trump said.

Soon after, McCain didn't sound overly concerned about the president's warnings. "I have faced tougher adversaries," he said of Trump.

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Trump's confusion puts bipartisan health care compromise at risk

Bipartisan compromises on Capitol Hill aren't especially common, so the news out of D.C. yesterday afternoon understandably caused a stir. The top two lawmakers on the Senate committee that oversees health care policy -- Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Patty Murray (D-Wash.) announced the outline of an important agreement that would undo some of the systemic damage done by Donald Trump.

The basic contours of the Alexander/Murray deal are pretty straightforward: Democrats would get funding for cost-sharing-reduction (CSR) payments through 2019 and renewed investments in ACA outreach programs, while Republicans would get expanded state flexibility and lower eligibility standards for catastrophic plans. Essential health benefits under the existing law would remain unchanged.

While there are still some details to be worked out, all things considered, it's a good, bipartisan package. The plan is probably too late to help consumers in the short term who've already been hurt by Trump's antics, but it would it nevertheless help bring some stability to markets that need it.

The question, however, is whether it can pass. The answer may depend on the wishes of the president who created the mess Alexander and Murray are trying to clean up.

So, what does Donald Trump think of the compromise? It depends on the day and time you ask him -- because at this point, he's starting to sound a bit like Gollum from Lord of the Rings.

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Statement on DHS nominee Kirstjen Nielsen

Statement to The Rachel Maddow Show from Blain Rethmeier, who is assisting Secretary of Homeland Security nominee Kirstjen Nielsen in her confirmation process:

“Ms. Nielsen’s role in the response to Katrina has been vastly overstated by the media.  As a policy director, she was responsible for coordinating policy and information flow. After she left the White House, she took the lessons of Katrina and put them to good use.  First she worked with Fran Townsend to draft the Katrina Lessons Learned Review that objectively looked at many of the flaws in the state, local and federal response. Second, she worked with members on the Hill to draft the Post Katrina Emergency Management Reform Act that radically improved the way the Federal Government is structured to respond to major disasters. And finally, she worked to develop the National Response Framework, from which all major disasters are addressed.”  

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Tuesday's Mini-Report, 10.17.17

Today's edition of quick hits:

* Another legal setback for Team Trump: "Hours before it was to take effect, a federal judge in Hawaii issued a nationwide order on Tuesday blocking, for now, President Trump's third attempt at a travel ban. It would have indefinitely stopped almost all travel to the United States from seven countries, including most of the Muslim-majority nations included in his original travel ban."

* Staggering death toll keeps rising in Somalia: "More than 300 people were killed by twin bomb explosions in Mogadishu, an official said on Monday, as locals packed hospitals in search of friends and relatives caught by Somalia's deadliest attack in a decade."

* Trump-Russia scandal: "The Senate Intelligence Committee has requested documents and testimony from Michael G. Flynn, the son of former national security adviser Michael Flynn, but has not received a response, three sources familiar with the matter told NBC News."

* Puerto Rico: "President Donald Trump said military personnel assisting in Hurricane Maria recovery efforts 'shouldn't have to be' distributing food in Puerto Rico, again casting the U.S. territory's challenges as partially self-inflicted during a Monday press conference."

* Brexit was a spectacularly bad idea: "Brexit threatens to reopen wounds in Northern Ireland, where the physical border was a flashpoint during the 30-year conflict known as 'the Troubles.'"

* Once again, you don't need military commissions to try suspected terrorists: "A Manhattan jury needed less than four hours to find terror bomber Ahmad Rahimi guilty of detonating a shrapnel-packed bomb that injured 30 people last year on a terrifying night in Chelsea."

* More on this tomorrow: "An emotional Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) launched a thinly veiled critique of President Trump's global stewardship Monday night, using a notable award ceremony to condemn 'people who would rather find scapegoats than solve problems.'"

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